Disclaimer: still nothing belongs to me

The lab in the Helicarrier was pristine, and kitted out far more extensively than the one at Bart's. If things hadn't been so urgent, Sherlock might have actually commandeered his own workspace. As it was, once the 'Avengers' had dispersed, and Jack had been led away to talk to Fury, Sherlock had found himself joining Tony and Bruce flit between holographic screens (that he needed at home) as they ran about thirty different diagnostics through the system.

The science was easy to understand, although the premise was so far from Sherlock's view of the world that he had a hard time restraining his disbelief. While Bruce muttered under his breath about 'any abnormality', and 'any kind of reading not native to Earth', Tony sat on one of the desks, his legs swinging as every now and then he moved something across the screens.

"So what're you thinking?" Tony asked out of the blue, his gaze trained on Sherlock, who looked up immediately, but didn't answer straight away, "I mean, this is all new to you, but you must have some ideas."

Sherlock shrugged, and returned to peering at the data as it rippled and danced about the room.

"My areas are more restricted to chemistry, biology, and the science of deduction; although I understand completely what I'm seeing, I won't be able to offer any original ideas." Sherlock replied solemnly, noticing from the corner of his eye the new aerial image the Bruce pulled up, "One thing I can help with though is spotting a pattern."

"So you're a specialist! Me too, although as an inventor original ideas are rather my forte." Tony said confidently, striding across the room to sidle up beside Bruce, clapping Sherlock on the back as he passed, "On that note, I checked out your website, and you're hilarious."

Sherlock took a deep breath, his shoulders stiffening. Tony didn't seem to notice as he reached over Bruce's shoulder to move the images around, which then opened another page, this one overlaid with blue streaks.

"You don't believe that what I do is genuine?" Sherlock asked coldly; he had thought that he and Tony were getting on so well, but he was no stranger to the doubt that overshadowed his work.

Tony's head shot up in surprise, and he raised his hands minutely in a posture of sarcastic defence.

"Oh no, I think you're a full on genius; your science is inspired." He assured the detective, who relaxed almost imperceptibly, "I meant your sass. God knows if I made even a passing comment about killing anyone for a cigarette, the press would be all over it."

"Well it's not really proper form for a man with the ability to level a small town to joke about it," Bruce interjected, glancing at Sherlock with what he swore was a conspiratorial smirk (which was odd; only John shared jokes with Sherlock, and that was because friends did that kind of thing), "But honestly Sherlock, if you know what's good for you, don't touch the man's scotch."

Tony shook his head and gestured for Sherlock to join them. His coat swept around his ankles as he settled on Bruce's other side in front of a translucent world map, across which there were scattered at least twelve bright orange streaks.

"I don't know Dr Banner, I read your file, though I don't believe it." Sherlock jabbed under his breath; there was no harm getting into the camaraderie, it was obviously only to keep his mind from seething in worry. Tony let out a bark like laugh and Bruce glanced over his shoulder, a smile tugging at his lips.

"You can call me Bruce," he said quickly, "and you'll be lucky if you never get given reason to believe it."

"But if you really want to find out, we can shake him really hard." Tony offered, going so far as to grab Bruce by the waist, nudging him again when his hands were brushed off.

"I think I can cope not knowing." Sherlock assured him, narrowing his eyes at the seemingly random assortment of orange markers, and comparing them with the relevant data, "What are these? This data doesn't look like that of a signal or radiation."

Bruce perked up, pushing his glasses further onto his nose as he minimized the map and brought forward another one full of readings.

"They're not signals or radiation, they're just permanent structures." He explained, sighing when he saw Sherlock's raised eyebrow, "This is the deepest kind of quantum mechanics…if we imagine that the universe we see is the software that we interact with, these cracks are like tears in the fabric of the universe, and the data I'm getting from them is like the coding hardware. Look, there's one over the Bermuda Triangle area, one of the coast of China…one over Cardiff, that's just random to the extreme…"

"That is fascinating…" Tony was muttering under his breath. Sherlock let it just fly over his head; he couldn't deal with even more tilts of his world axis today.

"Does this have anything to do with helping me find John?" he demanded, pointing at the screen without touching it, for fear of wiping away anything important, "Because I can't see how it would."

"I'm getting to that," Bruce replied firmly, waving Sherlock's hand away, "There's a kind of energy surrounding these, I mean, there would be, but if you look at this map," he pulled up another aerial map which now had faint pink areas scattered across its width, "This energy also appears in a few locations that aren't over one of these rifts. See, there's a little residual stuff around London, and some more around New York, although that's fading. There's also some on the Western side of the Arctic Circle which looks newer, but it's only a small concentration."

Sherlock shook his head, moving away from the others so that he could pace back and forth, his hands clasping in front of his face.

"So what you're suggesting is that whoever took John and everybody else must be the same person who has managed to put that energy where it shouldn't be."

"Well they have the power to bring people back from the dead," Tony muttered, loud enough for the other two to hear, "It would be stupid not to check these places out, just in case our kidnappers are using this universe bending power."

At that moment Steve marched through the door and looked between the three scientists. Sherlock paid him no notice, refusing to halt his pace and only sparing a second to tell him that,

"You look ridiculous."

"Charming," Steve replied caustically, striding instead towards Tony and Bruce, "Fury wants us moving soon and Natasha's practically itching to start looking for Clint on his own."

Tony placed a hand on Steve's arm in an attempt to be comforting, but that had never really been his strong point.

"You're in luck Cap, Bruce thinks he's found us a handful of locations to check out," he offered, ignoring Sherlock's exclamation of 'useless', as he stopped pacing and slumped onto the nearest desk, "They might be duds, but it's a start."

"Okay, so we split up and get a feel of the areas before calling in the others if we find anything." Steve remarked, already slipping into the role of commander. Tony gave a little mock salute before Bruce interrupted.

"No, we don't need to split up." He insisted, which even gained Sherlock's attention, "These other energy readings are faint, and some are fading. But there is one that's bigger than the rest, and its actively pulsating…it's like a chemical reaction before the explosion."

"So they must be using some kind of machine, or generator…but that doesn't mean they're keeping the prisoners there." Sherlock reeled off under his breath, his eyes flickering across the room as he deduced. Steve gave him a curious glance, but Tony waved him away and pulled him closer by the arm, whispering for him to 'leave him to it'.

"So where's this reading coming from?" Steve asked, waiting for Bruce to answer before Tony could pull it up on his own screen.

Bruce checked the information in front of him again, just to make sure he got it right, and then replied with a flawless accent,

"It's in Norway, a place called Dårlig Ulv-Stranden. Or Bad Wolf Bay."

Viola!

This one is shorter as life is hectic at the moment, but hopefully it's a nice interlude, and has linked together a few things.

Watch this space, things are about to get even more confusing