Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Marvel (and Norse mythology :D). I am very sad about this, but I have borrowed them to write my own story.
AN: It appears my day off shall be filled with wind and rain. Why does it do this to me when my days in work have been filled with warmth and sunshine? BAH!
Quote of the day:
Abraham Erskine: "Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man"
Song of the Day: 'My Immortal' by Evanesence.
LovesDragons: yes it would still be worth a shot. Yeah he is smart, just a bit muddled at the moment. I cannot see why Clint would have that information, after all it was Romanoff who did the work on Tony.
Chapter Nine-Bitter Sweet.
Apparently Coulson had been sent to Tony and had for once in his life gotten distracted. Tony allowed the agent the small moment as he believed the man's life to be his work, he didn't even raise a fuss when the agent paused in asking about a small bit of tech and went red. Merely nodding and placing his suit into the storage provided. He'd give the guy a break this time for Pepper.
As it was they appeared just outside the doors to the control centre as a conversation was starting up. Tony glanced at Coulson who smiled mischievously and hit the intercom button. One that would let them hear without being sensed. Tony felt his lips twitch as he realised there was a lot more to Agent Coulson that he had originally thought, apparently enough that he was no longer annoyed at Pepper calling the other male by his first name.
Banner's voice reached them first. "He really grows on you doesn't he?" Tony blinked as it registered that the guy who turned into the Hulk actually had a sense of humour.
Thoughts were pushed from his head as the Captain's voice sounded, "Loki's going to drag this out…" Tony couldn't argue with that and shooting another glance at a smirking Coulson he leant against the wall to listen, "So, Thor what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri," Well that confirmed that the brunette Asgardrian had given up too quickly, but how the hell did blondie know that? Thor's voice continued drawing him out of his thoughts, "They are not of Asgard, nor of any world known."
Form the silence of the others in that room Tony assumed they hadn't expected that. Thor's footsteps sounded loud and Tony could imagine him pacing, "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I expect, for the Tesseract."
Tony felt for the blonde guy he really did. Exhaustion was clear in his voice and so the wince as the Captain's voice filled the air was completely natural, "An Army? From outer space!"
Again Tony couldn't blame the soldier for being rude here, the guy had fell asleep in the middle of World War two, only to awaken to find everything and one he had loved gone and the world changed. He was allowed to be disbelieving about aliens, but he would also have to get over that really quickly.
Banner seemed to be the only one thinking straight and his voice was full of worry, "So…he's building another portal? That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."
Tony's brain dragged up that both Banner and Thor knew this scientist even as the blonde Asgardrian's voice echoed again, "Selvig?"
Banner stuttered slightly as he answered, "He's an astrophysicist."
Thor seemed unimpressed, "He is a friend."
Tony groaned and held his head as Agent Romanoff's impersonal voice took up the conversation. "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."
"I want to know why Loki let us take him, he's not leading an army from here." Captain America brought up the question.
Banner dismissed it, "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." There was exhaustion and anger in the scientist's tone and Tony wondered just where he had met the Asgardrian. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."
Tony bit his lip at Banner's dig and stuffed his fist into his mouth at the exchange that followed.
"Have care how you speak," Thor rumbled, "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard and he is my brother."
Romanoff was pissed, "He killed eighty people in two days."
Thor tried covering his own ass, "He's adopted?"
Banner dragged the conversation back to what was important and Tony shot Coulson a look that screamed never, ever mention this, only to find the agent in the same position as himself. Tuning back into the conversation he listened carefully to Banner, "I think it is about the mechanics. Iridium! What do they need the iridium for?"
Tony exchanged eye rolls with Coulson and they entered the bridge together. "It's a stabilising agent." Tony saw realisation flash into Banner's brown eyes, even as the rest looked confused. He made a vague offer to Coulson while everyone else exchanged looks and smirked as the agent nodded before professionalism caught up with him.
Tony turned his eyes from Coulson's retreating back and focused on those gathered around a table. "It means the portal wont collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." he allowed his steps to take him passed a glowering Thor and patter him on the arm, "No hard feelings PointBreak. You've got a mean swing."
The blonde blinked and as he remained in place Tony took it as a win, "Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."
Tony reached the control centre and glanced around the apparently busy agents. Something caught his attention and he huffed in disbelief. He mumbled something and got several glares from agents, giving up on tact he merely pointed "That man is playing Galegar. Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."
He winced as the screens Fury liked to use made his eyes twitch, "How does Fury even see these?"
"He turns." Agent Hill's voice made him half turn and shoot her a grin.
"Sounds exhausting." When Fury's second in command made no move to stop him he glanced over the information available, "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily…" They bought the act and he slid his second hand free to touch screens as well. "The only other major component he needs is a power source, Of high energy density…"
He allowed himself to trail off, slipped a bug Jarvis could use onto one of the panels and turned back to face them, "Something to kick start the cube."
Agent Hill was unimpressed, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"
Tony shot her a look, apparently she hadn't read his file, "Last night."
When she blinked he considered it a win and expanded, "The packet, Slevig's notes, the extraction theory papers." At the blank stares he huffed. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"
He decided there and then Captain America actually despised him, "Is Loki going to need any particular kind of power source?"
Tony hid a smile as the Captain's neck cricked as Banner answered. "He'd have to heat the cube to one hundred and twenty million kelvin, just to break through the cooling barrier."
Tony eyed the nervous twitch the doctor had concerning his glasses and sighed. Obviously these people really went out of their way to put the man at ease. Smiling widely he met the doctor's eyes, "Unless Selvig has figured out a way to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect."
Banner looked up, and Tony knew he was being judged so he kept the smile friendly and nodded as the doctor spoke, "Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."
Tony couldn't help himself and his grin grew wider as he strode towards the scientist. "Finally someone who speaks English."
He ignored the Captain's, "Is that what happened?" to shake hands with Doctor Banner.
"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony watched the younger man carefully and found shocked relief at his joking about the Hulk.
"Thanks," making a mental note to try and get Banner to relax he turned in time to see Fury enter.
"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Tony narrowed his eyes at Fury and saw the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. mentally regroup.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Before it could go further Captain America made a reasonable suggestion and Tony found himself impressed, even if he would never admit it aloud.
Fury narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly, "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
Tony winced as he remembered reading the files on Barton and Selvig, Thor happened to innocently break the tension. "Monkeys? I do not understand."
"I do!" In disbelief Tony turned to look at Captain America who was looking ridiculously proud of himself. Unable to bring himself to pop the guy's bubble of happiness Tony merely rolled his eyes as the super soldier happily exclaimed, "I understood that reference."
As he turned to converse with Doctor Banner and Fury he chuckled mentally at Captain America explaining the Wizard of Oz to a confused Thor. He supposed in this instance he had to give both of them a pass from his taunting. After all one had been in ice of seventy years and one was literally from another planet.
Tony snarled silently as Fury kept interrupting Doctor Banner. He shot the doctor a grin and silently hauled the director out of the room, ignoring Agent Romanoff's hands dropping to her weapons. "What the hell is your problem?" He snapped.
Fury raised an eyebrow, "Stark I…"
"No you listen and listen well you overstuffed puppet for the council, whoever they are. Doctor Banner is one of the, nay is the best mind in the scientific field, big green rage monster nor not. Currently he is a man slightly scared that someone is going to decide to fill him full of bullets, which means he will flip out and hurt someone. You dragged his ass here you can damn well start treating him as a human being." Tony went to stride away before a thought caught him, "If you don't I shall inform Captain America you are being a bully."
Without waiting for Fury to rely Tony strode back to Banner, nodding at Romanoff and Hill on his way. He ignored the fact his breathing was elevated and smiled at the scientist. "Show me the lab." His smile was all teeth and he ignored Banner's raised eye brow to beg slightly, "Please show me the lab, I want to see what tech S.H.I.E.L.D. has."
Banner finally let out a soft laugh. "Fair enough," he agreed, "Natasha I'm taking Stark down to the lab, can you try and get me that sceptre and I'll try and find Barton for you."
Tony raised his own eyebrow as the red-haired assassin nodded with a grin. Even as he let banner tow him from the room he called back, "Remember to make people who touch it wear gloves."
AN: Reviews are always welcome in my world.