"Where do I start?" Penny mumbled, her fingers lightly tapping her chin while her other arm rested across her body. "Okay, Dr Hensen hired me and we started working in the same lab, I started my project and he started his. Simple as that. Well, for a few years anyway." She sat back down in her seat and crossed her legs.

"I was working on reprogramming the repair system at the centre of the brain in a rented lab in Harlem, it wasn't much but it did its job. Until it got smashed to pieces that was…" She trailed off, remembering turning up to work to find the majority of the neighbourhood had been completely destroyed.

"Sorry about that." Bruce mumbled to her right, "Sorry?" She asked confused. "Why would you be sorry?"

Bruce peered at her from behind his glasses, she had no idea about the other guy. No idea that the other guy was a part of him. "I kind of – I mean, It was, um…" He glanced at Tony who nodded before scratching the back of his neck slyly. "I destroyed your lab." Bruce said plainly.

Penny's whole body swivelled towards the shy doctor as he prepared himself to cringe at the words that were about to fall from her lips. He wasn't however, expecting to hear the words that she spoke instead. "You don't have to be sorry Bruce, I know it was you. You're the guy that did the experiment on himself, I know. It's okay though, you kinda helped." She smiled while Bruce looked on in shock.

"Well, not that I suppose you had a pleasant night from the looks of it, but it helped. We got a new lab in central New York and better funding." She finished before turning back to the table, not seeing the hint of a smile on the two genius' lips.

"Right, so when we got transferred to the new lab in New York, Dr Henson and I decided to start a new project. This is where Steve here comes in." She grinned over at him, "Dr Henson had always known of Captain America and filled me in on the story of how he brought his grandson a Captain America outfit for his 8th birthday. Later on in the lab is when we came up with the idea of Extremis." The smile dropped from her face, if she hadn't started the project then he would still be here, alive. And she would be perfectly comfy at home eating mac 'n' cheese with her cat.

"So what is Extremis?" Asked Tony as he reclined back in his chair, hands folded behind his head. Penny focused on the mink nail varnish on her fingernails.

"My approach to the problem of the Super Soldier Serum was to exploit the genetic potential of man through nano-tech and in this vain I eventually developed Extremis. Extremis was meant to 'hack' into the body's repair centre and recode the human genes with a more advanced version, leaving the host with improved organs and super powers."

The majority of the men in the room were pleasantly surprised at the young woman before them. Steve couldn't help but think that she was a very clever woman, possible as clever as Stark or Banner. Not to mention how much her defiance to Fury reminded him of his Peggy. Thor however was slightly lost as to what she was talking about, he knew that she developed something to improve humans, but was otherwise lost as to what Extremis actually was.

Bruce listened attentively and found what she had accomplished to be astounding. She was fairly young, he observed, about 25. Her hair curled slightly as it reached her mid back and was coloured a ginger – auburn colour, freckles were sprinkled across her nose where her glasses sat at the end of it. Behind the glasses sat forest green, almond shaped eyes that were focused on a spot on the table.

"Go on," Fury encouraged, seeing that she was lost in days gone by.

"Sorry…Err, Extremis is a kind of techno organic virus that completely rewrites the body's genetic code. It replaces entire organs making them more efficient. The original extremis grants super human strength, speed, endurance…"

Steve's ears perked up as he began to understand what she was talking about, "This sounds an awful lot like what I was injected with. How did you manage to perfect it? Dr Erskine was the only one who knew the formula – It never got written down before he was killed." He rushed, as far as he was aware he was the only person that had successfully produced a Super Soldier. Did Hydra know the formula?

Penny smiled slightly as she pushed her glasses up her nose, "It is, and it took a lot of trial and error." Steve opened his mouth to speak but Penny quickly beat him to it, "And no, we didn't test it on people." She smiled at him.

Steve was confused that was for sure, "Then how…?" He trailed off, his hand scratching his head.

"How did we test it? We ran simulations in the computer to see what would happen if we did use it. As far as I know, no one's been injected with it yet." Her gaze flicked to Fury, "Of course, the enhanced formula had some modifications done to it. For one, the host would have the ability to project electricity and the ability to produce a kind of shield, like a force field. But that's only what we programmed it to do, if someone were to get their hands on it and figure out how it works, then they could programme it do affect the host in any way they want. They could make them grow three heads, breath fire and be fury if that's what they wanted." Penny finished, her voice turning slightly high pitched at the end.

"It could make someone into a fury, three headed, fire breathing being?" Stark concluded jokingly, Penny smiled at the man. "Not quite I don't think," She giggled slightly, "But you get the idea, right?" Tony nodded before sitting forward and tapping the table.

"I'm having a hard time following here," Natasha started, Steve and Thor nodding in agreement. Penny nodded and blushed, "I guess I haven't really explained it very well huh?"

"All in all Extremis is...Extremis is a super-soldier solution. It's a bio-electronics package, fitted into a few billion graphite nanotubes and suspended in a carrier fluid. A magic bullet, like the original super-soldier serum—all fitted into a single injection. It hacks the body's repair centre—the part of the brain that keeps a complete blue print of the human body. When we're injured, we refer to that area of the brain to heal properly. Extremis rewrites the repair centre. In the first stage, the body essentially becomes an open wound. The normal human blueprint is being replaced with the Extremis blueprint, you see? The brain is being told the body is wrong. Extremis protocol dictates that the subject be placed on life support and intravenously fed nutrients at this point. For the next two or three days, the patient remains unconscious within a cocoon of scabs. Extremis uses the nutrients and body mass to grow new organs. Better ones..."

"Thank you Miss Green," Fury stood up from his seat and placed his hands behind his back. "Now you all know the story. So let's get down to business here -"

"Director! We've got a 70% match on Loki! 83%, 94% director!" A man from the control room yelled, Penny sat up in her chair, as did everyone else. Fury and Hill strode over to the man and talked quietly and quickly before returning to the table.

"Miss Green I apologize but I'm afraid the answers as to why you're here will have to wait." Penny nodded and sunk backwards slightly, "As for the rest of you, I'm sure you heard that we have a match on Loki?" They nodded and said 'Yes, sir' in perfect unison.

Fury nodded once again, "Gentlemen, you're up."

Steve, Tony, Thor and Natasha had gone on the mission to Germany while Penny was tasked with helping Bruce in the lab. She was still unaware and confused as to what a 'Loki' was, and she certainly hadn't gotten the answers as to why she was there.

She looked over to the doctor, he was currently pottering about the lab, placing items here and there as he set up his work place. Penny hopped up on an empty work surface and pulled a blackberry lollypop from her jacket pocket.

"So what is a Loki?" She asked, studying the lollypop before looking over to Bruce. His head snapped up at the sound of her voice, since he was the only person in the room with her, so he assumed she was talking to him. This didn't, however, stop him from pointing lamely at himself and mouthing the word 'Me?'

This earned a lyrical giggled from Penny, "Who else would I be talking to?" Her eyes creased in the corners as she smiled over at him.

"Sorry," He began as he carried on setting up his work space, "Not use to having someone to talk to I guess." He studied her quietly while she ate her lollipop, he placed the screwdriver down on the surface and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Calcutta was pretty well removed…" He trailed off, looking at the screen to the left of him.

"So?" She prodded; Bruce placed his glasses back on his nose. "So…?" He repeated.

"What's a Loki?" She asked again, jumping down and throwing the lollipop stick in the bin. She missed and huffed before bending down and putting it in herself. Bruce pulled up the video he was shown when he first asked the same question.

"Here," He gestured to the screen, Penny walked over to stand beside Bruce as he clicked the play button on the film. It showed the footage from the New Mexico encounter and any known footage they had of him. Penny's hand flew up to her mouth when she saw the destruction he left on the tape, and seeing Thor in action with his hammer. She couldn't believe that it was Loki – Thors brother – that caused all that trouble she heard about on the news.

Bruce however was having another problem. Penny was stood extremely close to him; after all, it was only a small screen. He could feel his heart rate speed up at the closeness, could smell her perfume and hear her breathing lightly as she gasped when the giant metal warrior totalled a café.
He quickly turned away and busied himself at another work station, leaving her to watch the remainder of the film alone. He needed a moment of distance; he hadn't been that close to a woman that wasn't in need of treatment in years, hopefully it didn't show too much.

"So Loki is Thors adoptive brother," Bruce nodded, not knowing if she was looking at him or not. "And he's the one that the guys have gone out to collect?" He nodded again, spinning to face her.

She had one hand lightly resting on the table, "Why aren't you with them?" She asked suddenly, quickly covering her mouth as her eyes grew wide, Bruce laughed at her horrified expression. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound rude! I – I just meant…"Bruce shook his head as she covered her whole face with her hands.

"Don't worry about it," She peaked at him through her fingers, "It's fine really."

"I'm only here to locate the Tesseract. No suiting up for me." He walked over to stand next to her as she slowly removed her hands. "Tesseract…?"

Bruce smiled again; he was doing that a lot today he realised. "They really didn't give you any information did they?" She shook her head, a small smile creeping on both their faces. He nodded and looked at the clock before turning around to face Penny again. "I guess we'll just have to fill in the blank spots then," Penny smiled brightly. "First though, there's one thing I need to do." She nodded as he started up a laptop.

"This is really amazing stuff," Bruce mumbled, just loud enough for Penny to hear him. She looked over at him questioningly, "What is?" She jumped back up on the counter top.

Bruce looked up from the computer and over to Penny, "Your papers on Extremis," She blushed and looked at the clouds floating by outside the window. "Although, it says here that these papers were published by 'Dr John Hensen'. Your name isn't on here…How come?" He shut the lid to computer and wandered over to lean against the countertop opposite Penny's.

Penny knew if she told him why she didn't have her name on the papers she'd sound ridiculous and childish. She just shook her head and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear instead. "Oh come on, I bet the reason can't be that bad." She smiled up at him through her eyelashes before glancing around one last time before her green eyes settled on his brown ones.

"You have to promise you won't laugh. Deal?" She held her hand out; Bruce glanced at her hand before uncrossing his arms and nodding at her, "Deal." They shook hands as she grinned.

"Because science is a man's world isn't it? I mean, how many successful female scientists do you know?" He quirked an eyebrow, she had a point. "So I figured I'd write it and just put Johns name instead of mine, he was fine with it of course." She finished, as Bruce's hands fiddled with the skin around his thumbs.

"Yeah but why?" He prodded, uncrossing his arms he waved his hands about for emphasis. "Why? What you accomplished was amazing! You'd get recognition for it regardless of, well…You know."

She looked over at him, he genuinely wanted to know. Penny sighed, "Because they're never going to know me if they don't want to just shake my hand."

She looked down shyly at her hands in her lap when Bruce didn't give a reply. He knew she was right of course; a young attractive woman like Penny would always have it hard in the field; regardless of what she did.

Her eyebrows were creased in thought as she picked at the skin around her nails, something they both do Bruce noted. He pushed away from the countertop and stood in front of the pretty woman.

Penny looked up at Bruce, who was now stood in front of her. He held his hand out, which she looked at in confusion. "Bruce?"

"Congratulations Penny, on everything you've accomplished." She grinned and took his hand, he smiled. He wandered over to fiddle with something on a moveable screen before he found his gaze floating back over to Penny.

Thoughts? Like it? Hate it? Let me know!

Also I'd like to thank ThisLoveHasNoCeiling, sashaxh, Nausicaa of the Spirits and the anonymous reviewer for reviewing, subbing and favouriting! :)

-Readers Assemble!-