The image that Fury had displayed on the holographic screen earlier once again hovered over the tabletop, still as non-revealing as before.

"We have to go in quiet, we make too much noise, they'll sound the alarm and it'll be almost impossible to get to the scepter." Natasha said, arms folded over her chest and brow furrowed in thought.

Before he had joined SHIELD, Steve hadn't done a whole lot of stealth. Except for his first time out as Captain America, when he had gone in to that HYDRA base alone. Other than that, most of his time spent fighting in the war had been pretty straightforward, they were soldiers, not spies after all. However, after joining SHIELD Steve had been given some stealth training and done a couple of mission in which he had had to use such training. Under no circumstances was he an expert in stealth like Black Widow, but he could handle himself in a situation that required it.

"And this is the best look we've got?" Bruce asked, gesturing to the image on the screen.

"Unfortunately yes. The tree cover makes it impossible to get a good look at the ground, though I doubt it would be much help even if we could. The energy signature is fairly faint, meaning it and the HYDRA base must be underground. According to Fury, SHIELD has searched all over the internet for pictures of this area, but it would seem that none exist." Natasha answered.

"What about Fury's spy in Russia, she gonna send us pics?" Tony asked.

"She's been sent to scope out the area around the base, but we don't expect her to be able to get very close, HYDRA will have some way of keeping people out." Natasha told him.

"So basically what you're saying is we're going to be going into this blind." Tony said with an eye roll.

"We won't be completely blind. Fury wants us to flush out the base, but our main goal is to get the scepter. The energy signature from the scepter will lead us to it, after it's secured we can break stealth and tear the base apart from the inside out." Natasha explained.

Apparently Natasha would be taking over Steve's spot as the team leader during this mission, seeing as Steve couldn't even go on the mission. Steve tried not to be too broken up about, it wasn't a big deal at all, but it did succeed in making him feel more useless.

"So I'm guessing going in I'm going to have to keep the...Other Guy...put away." Bruce said awkwardly.

Steve was a little surprised that Fury had called Bruce in for this, and not just for his scientific expertise. Steve felt Bruce, or rather the Hulk, had proven himself during the battle of New York. The Hulk had fought alongside the Avengers and helped save the world from the invasion, but Steve wasn't sure whether or not that meant Bruce had complete control over the Hulk. And Steve figured that if he was uncertain about it, Fury was definitely uncertain about it. But then again, Steve really didn't know Fury that well, no one knew Fury that well.

"I think keeping Bruce outside until the scepter is secure is the best plan of action." Steve put in.

Natasha nodded in agreement. "Once we have the scepter, we'll call you up and you can let out all of your...pent up anger on HYDRA." She said with a small grin at the end.

"And Stark," Natasha said, turning her attention to Tony,"Red and gold is a little too flashy, you're going to need something a bit more low key."

"Well I did blow up my old stealth suit, but I think I can whip up something that'll work." Tony said.

Steve had heard all about Tony blowing up all of his suits and getting his arc reactor removed after the whole AIM incident. Not only had it been all over the news, but SHIELD had been buzzing about it, people speculating about whether Tony had really given it all up. Apparently he hadn't, he'd only given some of it up.

"Unless any new revelations come in from the agent in Russia, we'll be taking a quinjet in as close as we can without being detected by HYDRA. From there we'll have to walk. No doubt there will be guards or some sort of security around the entrance to this underground base, we'll have to take it out quietly." Natasha told them.

"Define quietly." Tony said which Natasha ignored.

"All guns used when going in will have to have silencers, but attacks without guns are better."

"You know you're only talking to Tony right? I already know how to do this, Banner isn't doing the sneaking part and Rogers isn't even going." Clint pointed out.

Natasha gave Clint a sly look. "You have plenty to learn Clint." She said.

Clint opened his mouth to dispute this statement but Natasha was already moving on. "A lot of this is going to have to be improvisation since we really don't know what we're going up against, but if we keep quiet and nobody does anything stupid then we just might not die." She said with a grim smirk.

"Well great, we've got an absolutely fantastic plan, so can I go now?" Tony asked, looking bored of the whole situation.

Natasha gave Tony a cold look before saying in the perfectly polite voice of an assistant, "That will be all Mr. Stark."

Tony gave Natasha a look that seemed to say that he was not amused. Steve wasn't exactly sure what that was about, maybe Natasha and Tony had more of a history than Steve knew.

Steve got out of his seat to follow Tony, Bruce and Clint out the door but was stopped by a firm hand on his arm. Steve turned around to see Natasha gripping his arm, a serious look on her face.

"Steve-just be careful, okay?" She said to Steve's surprise.

"I'm not going on the mission, I'll be plenty safe here." Steve said, trying not to sound bitter.

"I know. Just don't do anything stupid." She told him.

Steve raised a questioning eyebrow and opened his mouth to ask what she meant but the super spy was gone before he could say a word, slipped out through the door and down the hall.