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Hunter enters the lab to find Bruce, Nick, Steve, and Tony in a heavy discussion.
"I was wrong, Director," Steve tells, "the world hasn't changed a bit." All eyes turn towards the door as Hunter is being joined by Natasha and Thor.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce questions, pointing at the computer screen. Hunter looks as blueprints of weapons are being displayed, then glances at Nick in suspicion.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asks intensely.
"I was in Calcutta," Bruce chuckles, "I was pretty well removed."
"Loki is manipulating you," she explains, stepping closer to the Doctor.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha points out.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," he tells her, "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." Nick stares at him before answering.
"Because of him," the Director reveals, pointing at the blond god left from him.
"Me?" Thor asks in surprise.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," he sums up, "we learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet!"
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Nick questions, turning towards him. "And you are not the only threat," he tells, "the world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled..."
"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve claims.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor points out, "it is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?" the captain asks.
"You forced our hand," Nick calls out, "we had to come up with something."
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony specifies, "because that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep..." Steve begins, but he gets interrupted by Tony. Hunter just watches from afar, slightly amused.
"Hold on," Tony responds, "how is this now about me?"
"I'm sorry," Steve says, "isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor claims.
"Excuse me," Nick exclaims, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"You treat your champions with such mistrust," the god answers.
"Are you boys really that naive?" Natasha questions, "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."
"No, no," Hunter interferes, "he's right."
"Not you too," Nick groans.
"How long?" he demands to know, "how long are you preparing for these 'potential threats'?"
"And Captain America's on the threat list?" Bruce asks in surprise.
"We all are!" Natasha declares. The blue stone on Loki's scepter starts glowing faintly, yet everyone's too distracted to notice.
"You speak of control," Thor tells, "yet you court chaos."
"That's his M.O, isn't it?" Bruce guesses, "I mean, what are we? A team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."
"You need to step away," Nick commands.
"Maybe you need to step away," Hunter advises, "he is the one that's right here."
"Besides," Tony continues, "why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" He places his hand on Steve's right shoulder, who pushes his hand away.
"You know damn well why," Steve growls, "back off!"
"I'm starting to want you to make me."
"Yeah," Steve smiles, "big man in a suit of armor... Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist..." Tony lists.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve tells, "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really 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."
"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony responds casually. Steve chuckles, glancing around before turning his head back to Tony.
"Always a way out," he grins, "you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero, like you?" the billionaire inquires, "you're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
"Put on the suit," Steve snaps, "let's go a few rounds." Thor starts laughing and all heads turn towards him.
"You people are so petty and tiny," he beams.
"Yeah, this is a team..." Bruce mocks.
"Agent Romanoff," Nick starts his command, "would you escort Dr. Banner back to his..."
"What?" Hunter scoffs, "now you're just sending everyone away because you can't handle the situation?"
"Back to where?" Bruce demands, "you rented my room."
"The cell was just in case," Director Fury tries to explain, but the doctor interrupts him.
"In case you needed to kill me," Bruce intrudes, "but you can't. I know, I tried!" They all stare at the doctor as he explains. "I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people, I was good." He unconsciously grabs something from the table behind him as he ends his story: "until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." As he gets more and more upset, Natasha gets unnerved, making him look back at her. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff?" he asks, "you want to know how I stay calm?" As Bruce turns away from the table, the atmosphere in the room tenses up. Both Nick, Natasha, and Hunter reach for their guns.
"Dr. Banner..." Nick says calmly, "put down the scepter." The doctor looks from Nick to his hand, noticing that he is indeed holding the scepter. He gently puts the scepter back on the table as one of the computers starts beeping.
"Got it," he changes the subject. He walks up towards the computer, the others unintentionally stepping away as he passes. "Sorry kids," he mutters, "you don't get to see my party trick after all."
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asks.
"I could get there fastest," Tony claims.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor tells him, "no human is a match for it."
"You're not going alone," Steve informs, grabbing the billionaire's arm.
"You're gonna stop me?" he questions, slapping his hand away.
"Put on the suit, let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony warns.
"Put on the suit," Steve demands.
"Oh my God," Bruce mumbles and Hunter looks up to him.
He's about to ask about the surprised look on his face when the floor below them suddenly explodes, throwing each and every one of them across the room.
