stormbird. ( steve rogers, rewriting! )

fourteen.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." I hear Tony comment as I walk back in.

"Stop being a dick Tony." I say, walking back to my workbench.

"He's right though. Loki does have the jump on us."

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does." I scoff and roll my eyes, trying to concentrate on working. But I can't help think about what Bruce said earlier.

Why WAS I here?

"And I'll read all about it." Bruce said sarcastically.

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. Its a nightmare."

I looked up and met his eyes.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying each second to crawl its way into my heart. This stop it. This little circle of light. Its a part of me now, not just armor... Its a terrible privilege." Tony points to the arc reactor in his chest.

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how." Tony retorted quickly.

Bruce shrugged. "Its different."

"How?" I ask quietly. "How is it different?" Bruce looks at me, seemingly at a loss for words.

"Hey, I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you." Tony says, walking over to Bruce.

"So you're saying that the Hulk, the other guy, saved my life? That's nice. Its nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

"I guess we'll find out."

"You might not enjoy that." Bruce warned, looking back down at his work, trying to ignore Tony. That was pointless though. You can't ignore the man, I would know. I've tried and failed for the past hour.

"You just might."

I got another hour or so of work in before Fury barged in, looking pissed as hell. "What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"

"Uh... Kind of wondering the same thing about you." Tony retorts, tapping away on his screen.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." I say, watching Fury and Tony intently.

"And you'll have your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Tony turns the screen around to face Fury. "What is Phase 2?"

Before Fury can reply, Steve barges in, and slams a familiar looking weapon on the table. "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons."

He turns to Tony and says, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

Fury looks at me. "Shailene, it isn't what it looks like-"

But I don't listen to him. My eyes are still trained on the gun. "You lied." I say softly.

"You lied to me." I turn to look at him. Hurt, anger, sadness and guilt well up inside of me. "Why?" I ask, the desperation in my voice evident.

Fury looks at me worriedly. "Shailene, its not what it looks like, I promise."

"You promise?!" I yell, making everyone jump, even Fury. I guess they weren't expecting that. "Like how you promised me you'd leave me alone? How you promised you'd never use anything I built against my wishes?!" I pointed at the gun.