Happy Wednesday, my lovely readers!
Apologies for the rather late update, I've been a little busy! Big thank you to those who followed and favorited my story!
This chapter is back in Lowri's POV.
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters that may be used or any Marvel storylines or arcs.
Claimer: I only own the character Elizabeth Jones (Lowri Jones and any other names she uses) and her story past, present and future.
Recap
"Has anything blown up while I've been resting"? Lowri asked as she came to a stop beside him. She leant forward on the rails and looked over the lower bridge.
"Surprisingly not." Nick replied. He faced the lower bridge too and looked out. "I have a feeling that it might be your presence that makes things blow up, everything is fine when you're not here."
Lowri looked at him and pulled a face before smiling.
"Any luck on the search with the Tesseract?" Lowri asked.
"No. Stark and Banner are still looking for it." Nick said, "And Rogers is off somewhere. I'm not too sure where."
Lowri hm'd gently and and stepped back from the railing. "I think I'm going to go work my muscles. They feel a little tight." She added as she rubbed her bicep.
"Alright, just don't take out your earpiece out, Romanoff hates hunting you down." Nick replied, he pushed off from the rails and headed for the circle of monitors. Lowri grinned as she walked away.
"I lost it." She called out as she walked away.
"Then get another one!" Nick called back to her. On her way out, she picked up another ear piece and synced it to the chosen channel and then put it in her ear.
The gym was the one place where Lowri could excel in anything physical that didn't involve her fire. It was a place where she could focus her mind on something else and expand on her other skills.
She hopped onto one of the cross trainers as soon as she had tugged her jacket off and was only ten minutes into a vigorous exercise when her earpiece sprouted into action.
"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way." Nat's voice rang out in Lowri's ear and she paused on the cross trainer. "Send Thor."
Lowri jumped off the cross trainer and grabbed her jacket as a sense of urgency rushed through her. Adrenalin took its place and she buzzed with excitement.
She tugged the jacket on and zipped it up as she exited the gym, instead of turning for the elevator which would have taken Lowri to the wrong side of the helicarrier, Lowri took the never ending stairs. There were two whole flights of stairs separating her from the lab and she took the stairs two at a time. Lowri paced herself as she reached her desired level and headed for the lab. If Bruce Banner was close to turning into the Hulk then she would need to conserve her energy.
As soon as Lowri arrived outside the lab, she knew something was up. As she peered in through the glass windows as she headed for the door, she saw Bruce Banner, Thor, Nat, Nick and Steve were already inside the lab and it was very clear that the atmosphere was bad. Lowri felt reluctant to go in, but it was clear that they were arguing about something and that she had to get in there to try to defuse the tension.
Lowri pushed her way through the doors and straight away, Steve's eyes landed on hers.
Nick was stood just in front of a table and as Lowri approached, she saw the weapon lying on the table. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest and her step faltered as her eyes landed on the WW2 Hydra weapon. Surely all of these weapons were back in storage in the basement of the Triskelion or at least the Fridge? Why isn't it contained?
She shuddered as she walked past it and came to a stop beside Nick, glancing around the room. Steve's eyes seemed unforgiving of her, and it made her wonder if she had offended him when she went to rest. Did she say something to him? Lowri wracked her brain as she tried to remember what she had said to him.
Lowri turned from him, a feeling of hurt growing in her chest but she tried to squash it down. What had she done?
"Rogers," Nick said, grabbing Steve's attention from Lowri. "We gathered everything related to the Tesseract and put it into storage. This does not mean that we are making-" Nick began but Tony jumped off the table and swung the computer monitor around so the screen was visible to the rest of the group.
Phase 2.
"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony asked with a smug smile. Lowri's eyes locked onto the monitor and she picked up briefly what was said on the screen. Plans to use the Tesseract to create weapons once the Tesseract had been fully understood.
"I was wrong, Director." Steve said as he turned to face Nick and Lowri. "The world hasn't changed one bit."
She could only make out bits of information on the screen, but what she saw, she did not like. Her mouth dropped open and she felt like all of her colour had drained from her face.
Lowri strode to the monitor and took it in her two hands, she pulled it down to her level and read the screen eagerly, she scanned through the documents, horrified at what she saw.
"Did you know about this?" Banner asked as Lowri scanned the monitor. She shook her head and tore her eyes from the screen to look at him.
"No." She said, she turned around to look at Nick and her eyes caught onto Steve momentarily. "I had no idea."
"Lowri-" Nick began but Lowri cut him off.
"I gave the okay for the Tesseract to be brought out from storage to be monitored. That's what I gave the okay for, not for S. H. I. E. L. D. to make weapons that can wipe out anyone we choose!" Lowri snapped. She felt the heat rush to her hands and she clenched them to stop them from bursting into flames. "You know what these weapons can do."
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Nat asked, tearing her eyes from Lowri. She feared the worst. Nat had never been on the receiving end of Lowri's anger but she had seen what can happen.
"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed." Banner answered with a short laugh.
"Loki is manipulating you." Nat insisted.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Banner remarked.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Nat replied in a cool tone.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because you got a little twitchy." Banner replied, he turned back to the screen and gestured towards it, "I want to know why S. H. I. E. L. D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Lowri nodded her head quickly and she quickly turned to look at Nick with this strange commanding look about her.
"I agree. I would love to hear this story." Lowri added. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised both eyebrows challengingly at Nick. "Why wasn't I told about Phase 2, Nick?"
"You were already opposed to us monitoring the Tesseract." Nick said with a sigh. "The Council and I agreed not to involve you on this project until the last second.
"You went behind my back and involved the Council?" Lowri asked, she felt her fire flame up and she dropped her arms from her chest but she kept her cool.
"Not my best move, obviously." Nick said, "It's not like we had a choice anyway. We went ahead on Phase 2 because of him." Nick added, pointing at Thor.
"Me?" Thor asked, a look of confusion came onto his face as he looked around the room.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outnumbered." Nick explained.
Lowri glared at him. Something as big as that did not mean that Phase 2 had to kept a secret from her. What else has Nick been hiding from her?
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor pointed out.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Nick asked. He looked at Thor, "And you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."
For a second, Lowri saw his eyes settle on her.
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asked sceptically.
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Nick replied.
Lowri kept her attention trained on the screen in front of her, whatever Nick was planning to do with the Tesseract, it was bad. When she had been interviewed for information on the Tesseract, she had told them everything about the weapons the Red Skull had made. But they still went ahead of it.
"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything down." Tony noted.
"Remind me again how you got your fortune, Stark?" Nick asked angrily.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Steve began but Tony cut him off.
"Wait a minute. Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony asked.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor said with a harsh laugh.
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Nick demanded.
Lowri couldn't stop the heated conversation from seeping in her ears but her mind was occupied with the information on the screen in front of her.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust! Lowri has done much for your world yet she is treated as though she cannot be trusted with the smallest of things!" Thor insisted.
"Are you boys really that naïve?" Nat asked, she looked at Thor and then at Banner. "S. H. I. E. L. D. monitors potential threats." Nat insisted.
"Captain America is on threat watch?" Banner laughed.
"We all are." Nat replied shortly.
"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wise-crack –" Steve began.
"Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threated." Tony yelled.
"Show some respect." Steve snapped.
"Respect what?" Tony asked.
Lowri turned from the monitor slowly, her mind reeling with new facts about her beloved organisation. The words began mashing together in Lowri's ears and she leant back on the table heavily. There was a sinking feeling her stomach and she really didn't know why. She didn't know why everyone in the room was arguing so aggressively either.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor claimed, making his voice soar above everyone else's.
"That That's his M. O., isn't it? I mean, what, are we a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're –we're a time bomb." Banner said.
"You need to step away." Nick said in a low tone aimed at Banner, warning him.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked.
"You know damn well why. Back off." Steve snapped Steve took a small step towards Tony and seemed to be mildly glad that he was just that little bit taller.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony replied.
"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off and what are you?" Steve asked, he looked Tony up and down as if he was scrutinising him.
"Genius. Billionaire. Play boy. Philanthropist." Tony answered smartly.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve said in a low and dangerous tone. "And I've seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Steve said, once again in that low and dangerous tone.
"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony replied smoothly.
"Always a way out." Steve said with a smile, he glanced around the room, barely looking at anyone before looking back at Tony. "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 from a bottle." Steve snapped.
This caught Lowri's attention.
"The serum didn't create anything new. It enhanced what was inside." She said quickly.
"And why should we take your word for it, oh the greatest lie keeper in the world?" Tony mocked. Lowri scowled at him but made no further remark, she shouldn't have opened her mouth about Steve just then, but she couldn't not say anything.
"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." Steve said through gritted teeth.
Thor laughed out loud.
"You people are so petty and tiny." Thor laughed once more and looked around the group.
"Yeah, this is a team." Banner said mockingly.
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-" Nick began.
"Where? You rented my room!" Banner said angrily.
"The cell was just in case." Nick replied.
"In case you needed to kill me?" Banner asked sharply. Silence fell on the group and all eyes went to Banner. "But you can't. I know, I tried. I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out." Banner said, he paused and saw that all eyes were still on him. "So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people, I was good. Until you dragged me back to this freak show and put everyone here at risk."
Lowri was moved by Banner's words. To live in a world where you can't die is a curse, not a blessing. To live longer than those you know, to watch them grow old and die? That's more painful than anything Lowri has ever known. At least Lowri had had the time to learn how to manage her funny little problem. Banner was still new to it compared to her.
"You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff?" Banner asked, turning his attention to her, "You want to know how I stay calm?" Banner walked around the table fast.
The atmosphere had definitely calmed down now. The tension hadn't disappeared, it had multiplied by the thousands and everyone was on watch.
Lowri gripped the table behind her and watched Banner stop just in front of her and the table with the sharp sceptre in his hand. Her heart began pounding fast and hard as she watched Banner. Would she be capable of moving fast enough to stop him from doing whatever he was going to do?
"Doctor Banner." Steve said slowly, his voice was tight and controlled, he was eyeing up Banner and he seemed to be aware of Lowri standing very close to Banner. "Put the sceptre down."
Banner looked at Steve strangely and then dropped his eyes to his hands and then his eyes widened.
The computer across the room from them all began beeping loudly and Banner looked relived. He placed the sceptre back onto the table and turned back to them.
"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." Banner said before he strode to the computer, pushing past Nick and Nat.
"You have located the Tesseract?" Thor asked eagerly.
"I could get there the fastest." Tony said quickly.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it." Thor put in.
"You're not going alone." Steve said, he grabbed Tony's arm as Tony hurried past him, both of them ignoring Thor's words.
"You gonna stop me?" Tony asked, wheeling around to face Steve.
"Put on the suit, let's find out." Steve answered.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony mocked.
Lowri breathed out and slumped against the table, why were they at each other's throats instead of working together to solve it? Her eyes settled on the metal vent in the middle of the floor.
"Put on the suit." Steve snapped.
"Oh, my God." Banner said, his words were barely heard over the racket the others were making but Lowri heard. She sensed something bad was about to happen and then she saw a gentle glow of red in the vent on the floor.
She leant forward to have a better look and the red grew brighter and brighter steadily. She leant back sharpish and opened her mouth.
"Guys-" Lowri began but then the entire room exploded upwards and outwards.
And there we have it, chapter 13!
Once again, thank you to all my readers, have a good week!
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