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The remaining Avengers walked to the lab in silence, leading the way was Tony, leaving Penny behind with Thor and Bruce. She couldn't help but feel guilty for thinking about anything but the task at hand. She should be concentrating on Loki, on how he's planning to take over the world for some glowing energy source called the Tesseract. But all she could think about was two things; one, how Loki was planning to use the Hulk in his plan of world domination. And two, how the whole of the Helicarrier was covered in grey steel. Grey.

She felt a poke in her side, "Are you alright Lady Penelope?" Thor spoke softly though his voice still boomed; he had bent down slightly as they walked so he was nearer to her height. Penny smiled up at the God, "Yeah I'm okay, just worried about this whole situation is all. But then again, who isn't?" Smiling sadly she looked to her fidgeting hands and back up to Thor.

He was smiling sadly also, "I understand, my Jane is here on Earth. I worry for her safety, though Son of Coul assures me she has been moved to a safer location. One can't help but worry." His shining blue eyes smiled when he spoke of Jane, Penny smiled sweetly and nodded in understanding. I wonder if his Jane is the astrophysicist that worked with Eric Selvig? He did say he was friends with them… They carried on in silence.

Penny felt a tug on her forearm as she was pulled to a stop at the end of the corridor that held the lab. Turning around, she saw Bruce holding her arm. Retracting his hand quickly, he nodded to Tony signalling that he'd be in in a second.

He turned his gaze back to Penny, "Are you, uh, okay? You said you were worried about the situation…Not that I was listening to your conversation or anything!" He quickly corrected as he felt a blush creep upon his cheeks, smiling shyly over his glasses at Penny. She smiled quickly up at Bruce, "I'm fine, seriously. Just not knowing why I'm here and…my closest friend got kidnapped and killed for something I did! That's my fault, it's my fault that he's dead Bruce." She looked up at him, meeting his deep brown eyes before continuing. "And – And then I get tossed into this, this, mess! With a mad man from outer space, and aliens and superheroes!" She started breathing heavily and could feel tears welling in her eyes; she blinked faster to push them away.

She was panicking. Why had she been taken by S.H.I.E.L.D? With the world domination going on she doubted she'd find out any time soon, and once this mess was sorted out, the Avengers would go back to living their normal lives. And she would be left on a floating grey fortress alone with no one for company but Patch and Happy Anderson that was Natasha. Penny hated to admit it, but she liked being here, spending the days with Bruce and Tony. Talking about Asgard with Thor and about days gone past with Steve; she didn't know if she could deal with having her life turned on its head again alone.

"Hey," Bruce quickly placed a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her, admittedly, he started to panic too. He had no idea how to deal with women anymore, let alone a crying woman who was clearly stressed. He'd actively avoided stress for the past 3 years."It's going to be fine; no one is going to get you. Okay? I won't –"He gulped, "we won't let anything happen to you. What happened with Henson, it doesn't matter? It's in the past, just –"

"But-when-this-is-all-over-you're-all-going-to-go-home…" Penny sniffed, admittedly she hated crying in front of people, but she couldn't help it. Things got on top of her and she got stressed, quite quickly. And the sleep deprivation probably wasn't helping her either.

What could he say? He didn't know what S.H.I.E.L.D wanted with her, he didn't even know what was going to happen in the lab let alone what was going to happen once all this was over.

He pulled her chin up with a finger, "I promise that we, especially me and Tony, won't leave you here alone. And after that, he'll probably try and drag you to Stark tower." He smiled as Penny giggled, wiping her stray tears away. Nodding, she pulled his wrist towards the door to the lab.

"Wait!" She whispered, Bruce turned around to find her stood still and looked at her questioningly. "Do I look like I've been crying?" She half laughed while Bruce studied her face quickly; her cheeks were slightly pink and tears still clung to her eyelashes, but otherwise, he couldn't help but think she looked perfect. Shaking his head she brightened and skipped into the room ahead of him; "You look perfect." He mumbled to himself before heading in with a slight shake of his head.

"What are you doing, Mr Stark?" Tony was stood by a hanging computer when Penny walked in, Bruce close behind her. Fury stormed over to stand on the far side of the room, a scowl on his face. "Uh, I've kind of been wondering the same thing about you." He replied cockily.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury walked to stand in front of Tony, leaning in slightly for emphasis. Penny shifted her feet and stood closest to Thor who smiled down at the small woman, she looked around for Steve but couldn't see him anywhere.

"We are," Bruce cut in as he leant up against the window behind Tony, he'd taken his glasses off and Penny couldn't help but think how handsome he looked when they were off. "The models locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." He pointed to a computer at the back.

"Then you'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss…" The computer in front of Tony beeped, "What is Phase 2?"

A slam was heard from behind, Penny swung around to see Steve with his hand on what looked to be a big gun. His face was set in stone, a hard line and to be blunt, he looked pissed. "Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D using the cube to make weapons." He walked forward and glanced at Tony, "Sorry but the computer was going a little slow for me."

Fury walked towards Steve, "Rogers we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that we-"

"I'm sorry," Tony interrupted as he swung the screen around, revealing the blueprints for the weapon, "Nick? What was that you were saying?" He smirked.

"I was wrong director," Steve mumbled as Natasha walked in to join us. "The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve frowned and crossed his arms, "Did you know about this?" Bruce used his glasses to point at Natasha and then at the screen.

She stared him down, "You want to think about removing yourself from this environment doctor?" She spoke. Penny rounded on her quickly and walked over to her, "I wouldn't talk about Bruce that was if I were you. Who's side are you on anyway?" Penny narrowed her eyes at the red headed assassin, before turning back to the discussion at hand.

Bruce shifted his gaze from Penny to the spy, he laughed dryly, "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed." He moved to the front of the desk and leaned on it with his arms folded across his chest. "Loki's manipulating you," She started, moving forward. "And you've been doing what, exactly?" He bit back as Penny smirked.

"You didn't come here because I batted my eyelashes at you,"

"Yes and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." He pulled the screen and looked at it for a moment before continuing. "I'd like to know, why S.H.I.E.L.D are using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!" He growled while the director sighed heavily.

"Because of him." He pointed at Thor, who looked beyond confused and pointed to himself. "Me?" Tony's face changed from smug to confused as he looked between the Norse God and the man in black.

"Last year the Earth had a visitor who had a grudge that managed to level a small town," He shifted from foot to foot, "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned." He looked around at everyone.

"Our people want nothing but peace with your plant." Thor uncrossed his arms and puffed out his chest. Penny moved closer towards Tony who noticed her movements out of the corner of his eye.

"But you're not the only people out there are you? And you're not the only threat! The world is filling up with people who can't be matched. Who can't be controlled." He added onto the end.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve shot at him, "Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it," Thor walked towards Fury but stopped slightly, thinking "And his allies! It is a signal to all the other realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form or war!"

"A higher form?" Penny asked, but her question got batted aside.

"You forced our hand, we had to come up with someth-"

"A nuclear deterrent. Cause that always calms everything right down." Tony droned condescendingly from beside her as she looked up to him, he had his hands behind his back before bringing them to the front again.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune Stark?" Fury spat back in reply, "I'm sure if Stark still made weapons he'd be neck deep in-"

"Woah, hold on here. How is this now about me?" Tony's hands came up in front of him as he defended himself, "I'm sorry isn't everything?" Steve shot back as Tony walked over to him.

Penny slid over to stand next to Bruce who looked down at her, her eyes were wide and she had her arms crossed in front of her in a defensive manner. "I thought humans were more evolved than this?" Thor boomed.

"Excuse me," Fury rounded on Thor, "Do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Everyone started talking at once and arguments began amongst everyone, Penny watched on as her friends fought it out amongst themselves.

"Are you really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats!" She heard Natasha say, to whom though she wasn't sure. "And Captain America is on the threat list now?" Bruce nodded to Steve before turning back to Natasha. Penny turned around to look at what looked like a sceptre with a blue glowing circle, it was making a sound, like a ringing. She looked back to everyone else and saw they were arguing amongst themselves still and hadn't noticed.

She took one last glance at the sceptre and moved towards the back of the room while her friends argued it out.

"You speak of control yet you cause chaos!" Thor teased before laughing silently.

"This is MO isn't it? I mean, what are we? A team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos, we're – we're a time bomb." Fury turned around and walked towards Bruce.

"You need to step away," He threatened, raising his eyebrows.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked placing a hand on Steve's shoulder who immediately pushed him off. "You know damn well why! Back off!" He shouted glaring at Tony.

"Oh I'm starting to want you to make me." Stark squared up to him and Penny took a step closer to the two men, preparing herself for the two to start battling it out.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour, take that off what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." He smirked, Natasha quirked an eyebrow.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve whispered quietly, "And I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself; you're not the guy to make the sacrificed play. To lie down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Everyone had turned their attention to the two clashing men.

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony spat, Bruce had raised eyebrows as Steve smirked. "Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment Rogers, everything special about you came out of a bottle." Tony was in Steve's face, a grimace across each of their faces.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." Thor's laughed vibrated around the room as Penny looked at him in disbelief. "You people are so petty!" He looked to Natasha and me before turning back to the men, "And tiny…"

"Yeah this is a team…" Bruce sighed.

"Agent Romanoff, could you escort Dr Banner back to his-"

"Where? You rented me room." He gestured in the direction of Loki's cage while he placed his glasses down with his other hand.

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I know I tried!" Penny's eyes snapped over to Bruce's as everyone fell silent. He'd tried to kill himself? Why? Why would he do that? Everyone looked to him with sadness and the previous arguments seemed like they were a world away.

Bruce looked to her and then back to the floor and crossing his arms again, "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spat it out." Penny could feel her fingernails dig into her palms while Tony's fists tightened. "So I moved on. I focused on helping other people, I was good." He looked at Natasha with anger in his eyes, "Before you dragged me back into this freak show. I put everyone here at risk."

"You wanna know my secret Agent Romanoff?" He took a step towards her, "You wanna know how I stay calm?" He spoke through gritted teeth while his heart rate sped up.

Penny saw the director reach for his gun as she took a step forward, "Bruce," His eyes flickered over to her. Her expression was hard and defiant, no fear showed in her face; but worry was evident in her green eyes.

"Dr Banner," He looked to Steve, "Put down the sceptre." Bruce looked down at his hand in confusion; in his left hand he held the sceptre that had been making the noise. Bruce looked back up to Steve when Penny turned to the computer that beeped behind her.

"We got it." The director smiled as he put his gun back in its holster. Bruce placed the sceptre on the counter and walked to the computer by Penny. "Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." He smiled slightly when he passed Penny.

"You've located the Tesseract!" Natasha walked to stand beside her while everyone started to argue again.

"I can get there fastest." Interjected Tony.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor warned as Tony made for the door, Steve grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "You're not going alone!" He chided as Tony stood in front of him.

"You gonna stop me?" He slapped Steve's hand away, "Put on the suit, let's find out." They squared up to each other again; Steve's taller frame towered over Tony's.

"Will you two just knock it off already?" Penny shouted, though it fell on unhearing ears. She was tired of all this fighting and being ignored, and she could really do with a power nap.

"I'm not afraid of you old man." He spoke low. Steve gritted his teeth before replying "Put on the suit."

Penny watched Bruce remove his glasses, "Oh my god…" He mumbled as her eyebrows furrowed at his worried expression. "Bruce what's wrong?" He frowned as he walked around the table to stand next to her before looking over to Tony and Steve.

It all happened so fast. A loud rumble was heard before the centre of the room was engulfed by flames, Fury jumped through the window and onto the bridge. Penny fell through the floor and but landed on something soft.

She groaned and opened her eyes to find herself on top of Bruce, who had his arms around her waist. He must have pulled her on top of him so she wouldn't get hurt, Bruce stirred.

Penny heard movement to her right, "Natasha!" She scrambled off of Bruce and over to the agent. Her leg was trapped under a piece of heavy looking metal. Penny looked to her and moved to the metal, attempting to move it. "I can't do it! It's too heavy!" She heaved again but to no avail.

Bruce groaned, "We're okay." Natasha spoke quickly into her ear piece. Bruce groaned again and Penny rushed over to check he was okay, "We're okay right?" She heard her mumble.

"Bruce? Hey are you okay?" Bruce's hands flexed and he started to hunch over, Penny's eyes grew wide as she pushed her hair behind her ears. "Bruce. Listen to me! You've gotta fight it. We're gonna be okay." Penny spoke the words as calmly as she could, if she could get him to calm down then there was no need for the Hulk to make an appearance.

Penny sat on the balls of her feet as his purple shirt started to rip over his growing muscles, his skin had started to take on a green colour as the alarm bells started ringing. "Bruce, I swear on my life that you will get out of this and you will walk away and never have to-"

"You're Life!" He yelled, his voice had gotten deeper and huskier as she fell backwards at the movement onto her bum.

Bruce hunched again and stood up to his growing height. The shirt was ripped across the chest and he growled in pain before stumbling backwards off of the platform. Penny looked over to Natasha and quickly hurried to the trapped woman's side.

"We need to go!" Natasha whispered once she'd freed her leg, Penny nodded but crawled over to the edge and looked down at the Hulk. Bruce looked over his shoulder to see Penny leaning over the platform side, "Bruce," She mumbled, her voice breaking at the end. He hunched again, his muscles expanding still while the remains of his purple shirt fell to the floor.

Natasha pulled Penny up as he let out an ear splitting roar before the banging started and the lights cut out. She squeaked as she felt Natasha take her hand, she tugged on it and pulled her to the stairway. Stopping the looked up at the hulking creature before them, they noticed that it stopped and looked at them over its shoulder; it began to run towards them with pounding footsteps.

Natasha scrambled up the stairs and pulled Penny through the rails just before the stairway was ripped from beneath them. Hulk let out a frustrated cry while he slammed the staircase to the side. They crawled as silently as they could through the small spaces between the pipes, Natasha's grip on Penny's hand tightened when she heard a clang from behind her.

Penny looked down as her glasses slipped from her top and then up to a frightened Natasha, they braced themselves for a roar, or a bang. But nothing was heard, creeping as silently as they could they continued forward stopping every now and then to listen for the whereabouts of the Hulk.

They stood up from their position and walked a few paces from their hiding spot before a thundering cry was heard to their right, Penny screamed and fell backwards over her feet and hit the back of her head off of a pipe; knocking herself out in the process. Natasha fired a shot at a pipe above its head. "Run!" She shouted over her shoulder as the Hulk chased after her.

She made a sharp right and ducked behind a crate, she clasped a hand to her mouth to quieten her heavy breathing as the hulk searched for her. She could hear it moving things, searching for her. The hulk grunted and padded off in the direction it had come, once it was out of ear shot, she sighed and sat backwards. Pulling her legs to her chest she rocked, wondering which way the girl had run off in.

The hulk saw the young woman lying on the floor unconscious and slowly picked her up in his hand, he saw a flash of red on the back of her head and carefully rolled her over to look; her head was bleeding. Grunting, he poked her with his little finger in an attempt to wake her up. When she didn't stir, he scratched his head with his free hand.

"Pen-ny…"

So it's a bit longer than the other chapters, but I couldn't stop writing! Remember guys to click to blue button and REVIEW and let me know how I'm doing! :D

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