I'm Not A Weapon {Avengers}

Chapter Five

It's been hours, and we were still no closer to locating the cube. Bruce was continuously scanning the scepter with a gamma-ray detection scanner for its unique radiation signature, hoping it would lead us to the cube's signature. Dad was solving algorithms and equations on a monitor. Meanwhile, I was against the opposite wall, meditating and trying to pinpoint the cube's energy signature. I had never been in close contact with the cube, so I was using the scepter's signature, much like Banner. This would take me a while, but it was better than doing nothing and feeling useless. Besides, I wasn't about to interrupt the growing bromance.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract," Bruce explained, "But it's gonna take weeks to process."

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops," Dad stated.

"All I packed was a toothbrush," Banner joked. "What's she doing?"

Purposely ignoring his question, Dad smiled and said, "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke... Harlem."

Speaking up for the first time, I said, "That wasn't you. Bruce Banner and the Hulk have different agendas and mannerisms, some may argue different minds, therefore, you're different people. Kind of like a split personality."

"Have you been listening this whole time?" Bruce asked.

I sighed, keeping my eyes closed. "Believe it or not, meditating doesn't take away my hearing."

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment," Dad interjected, bringing the attention back to him- as usual. "No tension. No surprises."

Suddenly, I heard a distinct crackle before Bruce yelped in pain, and my eyes shot open. Dad was holding a mini electrical prod and staring at Bruce as if expecting to see green.

"Hey!" Steve yelled, charging in.

"Nothing?" Dad asked, disappointed that his little experiment didn't work.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked.

"Jury's out," Dad retorted before focusing on Bruce. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, his anger flaring. Especially since Dad wasn't taking this seriously.

"Funny things are," Dad replied.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve argued. "No, offense, Doctor."

I rose to my feet and stood beside Steve, my small stature barely reaching his shoulder. "And that's not fair to Bruce. He doesn't want the Hulk to emerge as much as the rest of us, maybe even more so. He's not some experiment, Dad."

"No, it's alright," Bruce defended. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Dad sauntered away from him and said, "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve argued.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," Dad said before pointing at Bruce. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"