stormbird. ( steve rogers, rewriting! )

seven.

Shailene 'Shay' Elrend

"Iridium. What does he need iridium for?" Bruce wonders aloud. I open my mouth to answer, when a voice ringed with confidence cuts me off. "Its a stabilizing agent."

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like at SHIELD." I answer quickly, glad to get a word out in the discussion before Tony takes all the opportunities for speech. Tony gives me a look before patting Thor on the shoulder.

"No hard feelings point break. You've got a mean swing."

"Also, it means the portal will stay open as wide and as long as Loki needs."

I spaced out again until I heard Tony shout, "That man is playing galaga! He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Steve looks confused, so I lean over and whisper, "Galaga is a video game, where you have to shoot down enemy ships with your one ship. Its played on the computer." I explain quickly. He looks at me thankfully. "Thanks."

I wave my hand, straightening. "No problem."

"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked snootily.

"Last night." He answers smartly. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one that did the reading last night?" I glance at Hill's stricken face and chuckle lightly. "Oh, we're going to get along just fine Mr. Stark." I say, arms crossed, my gaze flickering to Maria Hill's surprised expression.

"Shut up." she glares at me. I roll my eyes. "Make me." I answer back, irritated. She takes a step forward. "Why don't you get up and we'll see-"

"Woah, calm it Hill." Natasha says, clamping her hand on Hill's shoulder with her iron like grip. She gives me a disapproving look. "Sit your ass down Shay." Hill and I exchange a set of glares before I reluctantly sit down, and she shakes Nat's hand off her shoulder.

I can feel everyone's gaze on me, but I ignore them and cross my arms, huffing.

"Anyway, does Loki need any particular energy source?"

"He has to heat up the cube to about a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to even break through the Coulomb barrier." I answer.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony shoots back, looking directly at me.

We all turn to Bruce when he says, "Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any rector on the planet."

"Finally!" Tony exclaims, moving over to walk up to me. "People that speak English!" He shakes my hand briskly and moves on to Bruce.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asks. I giggle uncharacteristically, shrugging slightly as I do.

"Maybe you should read the packet, Selvig's notes, and the Extraction Theory papers." Tony says to me after a brief conversation with Bruce.

"I think you'd benefit from reading them." I smile. "Thanks, but I think I'm fine." I reply. Tony raises an eyebrow at me. "If you were a genius, like me," I roll my eyes at that and I hear Steve scoff beside me.

"Then I'd believe you when you say you're fine. I mean, how much can you know about thermonuclear astrophysics at your age anyway? How old are you, nine?"

"Stark," Nat warned as I glared at him. "Don't go there."

"If you must know, I'm 24, turning 25 next month." I huffed.

I smirked and stood, an idea popping into my head. I walked over to the screens and started tapping away. I pulled up some notes on thermonuclear astrophysics. I gestured Tony to come over, but everyone came over curiously, except for Nat, Agent Hill, and I. Nat was holding back a laugh, and Hill just rolled her eyes and huffed.

"These notes are amazing!" Bruce exclaimed after a few minutes. "They sound very professional." Steve put in.

"What are these?" Tony asked, a moment after the first two comments.

"Those are the notes Dr. Selvig studied and based his latest notes on, which are the ones you read, Tony." I said. "They sound very much like the Erik Selvig." Thor mused.

"Who wrote these?" Toy asked, turning back to me, his face a look of joy. "I want to meet 'em."

I smirked as Natasha replied, "You already have." Tony turned to Bruce. "Did you write that?" He asked. Bruce shook his head.

"Don't be stupid Stark." Natasha snapped. "Then who wrote the damn notes?" Tony yelled back at her.

"Uh, Tony?" Bruce said, taking his glasses off. "Come look at this."

Bruce had gone back to the top of the notes. He and Steve and Thor were staring at the screen, different varying looks of awe plastered on their faces.

Tony scanned the title and the author's name, face blanching white. "What...." He trailed off. They all turned to look back at me. Natasha came up beside me, and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Say hello to Ms. Shailene Elrend, gentlemen. Expert on thermonuclear astrophysics and Shield's top weapons expert and designer."

They all look at me, surprised, eyes wide, and jaws grazing the floor. Natasha and I burst out laughing at their expressions, and Agent Hill is doing a really bad job of maintaining her poker face. Suddenly, laughter explodes out of her mouth, catching both Natasha and I by surprise.

We glance at each other before bursting out laughing, our loud and booming laughter drawing the attention of several agents.

"Alright, settle down, settle down." Fury commands.

I struggle to stop laughing, giggles escaping every now and then. "Just don't look at Tony." I warned Natasha and Hill. "We'll all die of laughter." "Why?" Nat asks, turning to look at him.

"Nat. don't!" I cry out, averting my own gaze. For a second, silence. Then Natasha bursts out laughing again, drawing my and Hill's attention back to them.

Tony looks like he's seen a ghost. He looks absolutely confused and horrified and in awe, all at once as he stares at me. I can't help it. I burst out laughing.

"Let's start with that stick of his." Steve says, trying to get us back on track. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." I nodded, agreeing with Steve.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. What I want to know is how Loki used it to turn to of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asks, looking confused. "I do not understand-"

"I do!" Steve interjects excitedly. "I understood that reference." He says happily. I grin his direction. "Well done Cap." I say, smiling. He gives me a smile in return. When he turns away again, I shoot Tony an irritated glare. I saw him roll his eyes behind Steve.

"What?!" He asked, hands raised in mock surrender. I rolled my eyes at him and returned my attention back to the meeting.

"Agent Romanoff," Fury said. "Would you please take Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark to the lab please? Agent Elrend, I need you for a moment longer." He said.

Natasha and I both nodded as she turned to lead them to the lab. "Come on Doc," Natasha said, breezing past me. "You're gonna love it, you've got all the toys."