Awakening

If I owned a thing, I wouldn't be here. I would be writing books and signing movie contracts.

I leaned back against the cool metal wall of the Bridge and pulled myself out of my thoughts. Sure, Loki was a problem, but right now I needed to pay attention to what was going on here and now.

Dad had already explained what the Iridium meant to the completeness and stabilization of the portal, and had also waved off Thor's apology.

"It also means," Dad continued wandering around the table, inspecting all of the aspects of the Bridge, "that the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as he wants..."

Done with his basic inspection, Dad walked over to the screens in the middle of the Bridge that Fury obviously used. He glanced over them in an instant and shook his head.

"How on earth do you guys work with these?" Dad scoffed and rolled his eyes at the level of the technology. Sighing he retrieved four small black cubes from his jean's pocket.

"Good thing I'm always prepared!" Dad exclaimed with a jolly smile, causing Thor to tilt his head in question.

Romanoff rolled her eyes at her statement, and I could tell that she didn't believe that at all. Standing up I walked over to Dad to help him, it was my invention after all.

With my invisible help, Dad connected two of the cubes into the glass monitors on the left while I connected the other two to the right hand screens. He made a show of going over to the screens, but actually did nothing.

"There we go!" Tony exclaimed in glee as he back up. Romanoff and Hill had both moved towards Tony, worried that he was going to blow something up.

Their worry wasn't needed because Tony simply clapped his hands. Fury's screens instantly died, causing Hill to growl in rage, and Romanoff gasped as glowing holograms filled the air.

Bruce whistled his appreciation, while Rogers and Thor looked extremely surprised. I even saw some random agents giving my father awed looks.

Sadly, Hill and Romanoff didn't feel the same way.

"STARK!" Both of them yelled as they glared at my father.

"We told you not to touch our systems!" Hill was practically growling as my father rolled his eyes.

I laughed silently to myself as I leaned back against the wall. Oh, this was amazing.

"You said not to touch your computer systems. You didn't specify exactly what not to touch. Besides, I didn't touch your systems. I just commandeered your monitors. There's a big difference."

Bruce and I both chucked. Tony's voice was filled with mirth and sarcasm and it was obvious that he was doing this purely to mess with them.

"Moving on now. Are you going to open up the files I want or do you want me to find them?" Dad asked with an evil smirk that had Hill and Romanoff paling in worry.

"She isn't your Secretary." Rogers stated giving Tony a disapproving look, totally misunderstanding the situation.

I scoffed as Dad rolled his eyes.

"I know that!" Dad scoffed, "SHIELD, apparently, isn't overly fond of my playing hide and seek in their databanks and servers. They've given me strict instructions not to mess with their systems. So, Hill I ask again. Do you want me to find them, or will you pull them up?"

Rogers and Romanoff looked at my father like he was insane, while Hill looked downright pissed. I noticed that Bruce looked more interested than anything else, and he was shaking with silent laughter.

I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched everyone's reactions. Thor looked mildly confused, before dismissing whatever his thought was with a shake of his head.

"Only you Dad," I whispered into the com with a shake of my head. Personally, I had found the fact that SHIELD hadn't noticed the com on my father or the com's frequency presence yet hilarious. Though I wasn't really surprised, SHIELD didn't have the best rep when Starks were involved after all.

"You're following that now!" Hill screeched causing Thor, Bruce and I to cover our more sensitive years. "We told you that over two months ago when you started hacking into our servers! Which you shouldn't have done that in the first place!"

Dad just stared at her with a raised eyebrow and an expression of disbelief on her face. "You seriously want to have this conversation now? I thought I already explained it to Fury. You gave up all immunity concerning my research when you withheld information that was vital to my survival!"

We all winced at Dad's hissed words, though Thor and Rogers both looked confused. Bruce wasn't because he had heard the edited version of the story from me after the fact. Also, to be honest we didn't start hacking SHIELD after the whole Palladium incident...that was just when we stopped covering our tracks.

"Irrelevant!" Hill dismissed his whole statement causing my eyes to narrow and a growl to rip at my throat. "You shouldn't be messing with SHIELD systems period!"

Dad just scoffed again causing Rogers to stare at him in horror.

Hill glared at Tony and put her hands on her hips. She was trying, and failing, to imitate Pepper.

It didn't work.

"Do you want me to start bringing up all of your dirty laundry again?" Dad asked before an evil grin appeared on his face and he added. "Or how about all of the blackmail catches I found in your system? It had me laughing for hours...who knew that high and mighty SHIELD agents had a thing for blackmail and pranks?"

At Dad's words all of the SHIELD agents in the room paled drastically and looked faint.

"H...how did you find those?!" One random agent squeaked, before she blushed as everyone turned to stare at her.

Tony simply laughed and said with a large, boastful grin, "Honey, there isn't a computer system in the world that would keep me out. Those catches of blackmail stored on private servers off of the SHIELD server? Easy as pie to get into; the firewalls shouldn't even be called firewalls. And what's even better, I now have copies!"

At this announcement, another random SHIELD agent did faint, and a few more looked very queasy.

I burst out laughing and literally fell to the floor clutching my stomach, because it was true. Not only did their security suck, but we now had copies of all of their blackmail material! It was absolutely bloody amazing!

Romanoff cursed loudly in Russian as she collapsed into a chair, frankly looking terrified for her life...or perhaps it was her sanity.

Bruce's lips were twitching and he was shaking even harder now in the attempt not to laugh. Rogers was still just staring at my father in gobsmacked horror, and Thor was chuckling. He may not have understood everything but he knew what blackmail was.

"Hey, Dad," I managed to choke out between laughs, "I think we broke Rogers."

A smirk stretched across Tony's face as he looked around at all of the chaos he had caused in the few minutes that he had been on the Bridge. But the mission was successful, no SHIELD agent would dare piss him off, and I had a feeling that that was exactly what Dad had been aiming for.

"Mr. Stark!" Hill exclaimed, and I could practically see steam coming out of her ears. "That is enough! There are no files that you need to be accessing at this time so please remove your technology from ours, take your seat, and God, if you must talk stay on subject!"

Dad stared at Hill for a moment before shrugging. "Whatever you say." Dad smirked once last time before unplugging the holographic converters and plopping into a chair across from Bruce.

Once Hill looked away Dad and I rolled our eyes. SHIELD was no fun at all.

"Happy now?" Dad drawled as he spun his chair around and glared at Hill who had moved over to the screens to double check that Dad hadn't done anything else to them.

He hadn't, at least I didn't think he did. As far as I was aware they were back to their normal, boring selves.

Hill narrowed her eyes at my father but before she could reply Bruce stepped in.

"How about we get back on topic here?" He suggested and I grinned, wanting to hug him and praise his observation skills.

Hill and Tony totally despised each other. They had only met two other times, one over a consulting call and the other in person. They could fight like cats and dogs on steroids for hours, while it was hilarious; I was glad that he had stepped in. Because it really was best if we got back on topic.

"Right then!" Dad exclaimed becoming slightly more serious as he spun around in the chair away from Hill. "Basically, Barton can get his hands on any other raw materials needed pretty easily. The only thing that he really needs is a high-energy density power source to kick-start the Cube… give it the boost it needs to really get going."

Done with the last bit of the explanation Dad became bored and pulled out the latest version of the Stark Phone, this one now holographic.

"And when did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill drawled sarcastically with narrowed eyes at my father, she was still pretty pissed.

With a groan I pulled myself off of the hard floor and flung myself into an empty chair away from the others. Seriously, Mortals could be idiots sometimes.

"But then...so can Immortals." I argued with myself, Fati coming to mind.

"This morning." Dad replied instantly, not looking up from his phone, "I mean I've known a bit about it for a while now since the strange, unexplained, and so called 'shady' sides of science have been a hobby of mine in the past year or so. But Selvig's recent stuff really iced the cake…did no one else get the packet?"

Dad looked up from his phone in surprise and I raised an eyebrow and looked around at everyone in disbelief.

"What packet?" Romanoff asked with a sigh, wondering what he was going on about now.

"Seriously? Selvig's notes the theory papers, all of his data….was I the only one who got that mountainous pile of papers? I mean, how are we supposed to deal with the issue if I'm the only one who understands the science?! Normally this wouldn't be an issue but since SHIELD would rather have nothing to do with me…" Dad trailed off, hoping to get a reaction out of someone.

"I didn't, but if you have a copy I would love to see them." Bruce said with a smile, sticking up for my father in a roundabout way.

Dad nodded towards Bruce, "I'll get 'em to you once this joke of a meeting is over."

Hill's eyebrow twitched but she remained silent. Everyone else, besides Thor who was watching with amusement, had decided to ignore my father.

After a moment of silence Dad shook his head went back to work on his phone.

"Tough crowd, huh?" I stated quietly into the com. as I watched as everyone but Thor and Bruce glared at my father.

"Mhm," I could barely hear his response even with the com. One look at the mask Dad had drawn up showed that he was feeling used and underappreciated by the group. I scowled and glared at Hill, stupid SHIELD.

Finally, Rogers was the one to break the silence. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" He asked with slight hesitation, as if afraid what was going to come out of my father's mouth.

However, Dad was in a funk and didn't bother the man with an answer. After an awkward pause Bruce came to the rescue, though he didn't look very pleased about it.

"The Cube would have to be heated to 120-million Kelvin just to break past the Coulomb barrier." Bruce stated with a shrug, and his statement seemed to have broken the spell on Tony.

"Finally!" He exclaimed as he tossed his phone down and his hands up into the air. "Now, that's only unless Selvig's figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he has the ability to do that then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at practically any reactor on the planet." Bruce said giving Tony a small smile and a nod.

I smiled at the two men's bonding; I always knew that they would get along.

"Yes, finally! Someone who actually can speak English! You know, after Piper left I found that intellectual conversations really dropped. I was starting to think that everyone had just lost the ability to speak!" Dad exclaimed with a happy grin as he spun around a few times in the chair. I raised my eyebrow at him, had someone gave him sugar?

"Dad….are you drunk or on a sugar high?" I questioned with narrowed eyes but he didn't reply which just heightened my suspicions.

"Piper?" Rogers asked in confusion as Bruce looked thoughtful once again, I had told him that I went as Piper while with Tony, but that wouldn't have made him this thoughtful...oh well.

No one bothered answering him, so Rogers just sighed tiredly and continued, "Is that what just happened? Because that didn't sound like English to me."

I chuckled as everyone ignored Rogers again as Dad leaned forward across the table and reached out to shake Bruce's hand.

"It's both an honor and a pleasure to meet you Dr. Banner; I've heard great things about you." Tony said with a sincere smile. "I must say, your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled to anything else I've seen."

Bruce practically beamed as he shook Dad's hand; he needed a friend his own age.

My eyes widened and I almost fell out of my chair. I had sounded like a concerned parent right there...no! I froze for a second before shaking my head; I decided that now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

Smiling to myself I said, "Dad, Bruce and Hulk. Bruce, Hulk...Dad."

I chuckled to myself knowing that this was an amazing moment. Too bad only Dad could hear my commentary, it would be hilarious if Bruce knew that I was the daughter of Tony Stark.

"Not to mention I'm a huge fan of yourself and your big, green, alter-ego." Dad added on as an afterthought.

Once again, everyone looked at Dad like he was insane but Bruce only laughed, a strange glint in his eye.

"Thanks, and I have to say, out of everyone in this mess you're the only one I haven't met who isn't either overly cautious or watching me like a hawk waiting for me to break. Well you and the Thunder God, but hey, he's not human." Bruce said with a small smile on his face as he leaned back in his chair. "Not to mention you're also the only one who hasn't called Hulk a monster."

Tony smirked and seemed very happy at the fact that he made a friend. It was difficult for Dad to make friends because most of the time they ended up being put off by his attitude or his mind. It almost always ends in disaster.

Not to mention that because of Howard, Dad has major trust issues…Mom leaving didn't help that, nor did the whole incident with Stane.

"So, how'd you get roped into this?" Dad asked, continuing the conversation with Bruce. He was perfectly content with ignoring everyone else in the room.

Sadly, before Bruce could even open his mouth to reply, Fury walked in with a scowl on his face. I stuck my tongue out at him. Took him long enough to show up.

"Dr. Banner is only here to find the Cube." Fury stated giving Dad a dirty look.

Dad's eyes hardened but otherwise he didn't respond as his mask slipped back into place. My eyebrow twitched and my Sparks danced around my fingertips as I was seriously tempted to fry the Mortal. Not only was he irritating, but I had worked extremely hard to break that mask of Dad's and SHIELD kept ruining all of his progress!

Tony rolled his eyes at him, as Fury narrowed his own eye at my father. "And, I was hoping that you would join him."

Even though it was worded like a request everyone knew that it was everything else. Dad opened his mouth to reply with a sarcastic, biting remark but Rogers had to go and open his big mouth first.

"I would start with that sick of his." He said looking at Tony strangely, like he didn't know what to do with him. "It might be 'magical' but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

Dad's lips twitched and his eyes hardened but he didn't reply once again. However, I was able to respond and I sneered darkly at the man.

Rogers couldn't order my Dad around, neither could SHIELD for that matter but there wasn't much I could do about Fury.

"I don't know about that…" Fury said slowly drawing me out of my revenge filled thoughts. "But it is powered by the Cube; and I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor questioned, speaking for the first time in a while. Causing me to look at him in mild surprise, I had honestly forgotten that he was still there. "I do not understand, is it a gest?"

I briefly wondered if Thor was feeling left out, and instantly felt back for the Asgardian. I had a feeling that Earth was very different from his home world and he probably been lost on almost everything that they had been talking about.

Tony opened his mouth; probably about to say something involving Loki and the Wicked Witch if I knew my father, but once again Rogers cut him off.

"I do!" Rogers exclaimed happily causing Banner, Dad and I to roll our eyes, and my eyebrow to twitch again. "I understand that reference."

I literally smacked my forehead. Seriously…this guy was getting on my nerves, and I didn't know if I could resist pranking him for long.

"Good," Dad drawled standing up with a dark look in his eye directed at Rogers. "I couldn't care less if you didn't and I'm beyond caring if you do. It's all purposeless at this moment; we have much more concerning things on hand right now then memories of the Wicked Witch." Tony said causing many to look at him in shock.

I raised my eyebrows and I briefly wondered if Dad had ever had a conversation alone with Insania, because that sounded exactly like something my Sister would say.

"So, Doctor." Tony said, ignoring everyone else, and coming to stand next to Bruce with a smile on his face. "Ready to play?"

Bruce smirked at my father, stood, and also ignoring everyone he replied, "Always am, this way."

Bruce nodded towards the door to the hall and with quiet whispers the two left the large, agent filled hall.

Hey all, Lookie, another chapter! I had to cut this one short because it was getting way too long.

Hope you all are enjoying it!

Thanks,
Cp