Together We Stand...

Chapter 5

Everyone dispersed from the conference room except for me. There was something odd about Loki at the moment. He had seemed so calm when Director Fury was talking to him, as though he had some sort of plan. After thinking things over for a few moments, I stood up and made my way down to Doctor Banner's lab, where he and Stark were hard at work. Doctor Banner looked at me, and his eyes flashed to Tony before I sat down on a stool and watched as Stark and Doctor Banner tried to figure out Loki's scepter.

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

        "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the H.O.M.E.R cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

        "All I packed was a toothbrush."

        "You know, you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors all R&D. You'd love it, it's a candy land."

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

        "Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises." Out of nowhere, Stark grabbed a little electrical prod and poked Doctor Banner in the back.

        "Stark!" I shot up out of my seat as my father entered the lab, a mix of terror and anger written all over his face.

        "Ow!" Stark looked over Doctor Banner's face carefully.

        "Nothing?"

        "Hey! Are you nuts?"

        "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?" The air was suddenly becoming very tense.

        "Funny things are."

        "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." I turned to look at Doctor Banner. "No offense, doctor."

        "No, it's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

        "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

"What?"

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

        "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."

        "The timing is a bit odd," I muttered. "I was thrust into that infiltration mission in Germany out of nowhere, with no explanation as to why. The only reason I knew Loki was going to be there was because my dad told me."

        "You think Fury's hiding something."

        "He's a spy, Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." He pointed to Doctor Banner. "It's bugging him, too, isn't it?"

        "Uh... I just wanna finish my work here and..."

        "Doctor?"

        "'A warm light for all mankind,' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

        "I heard it."

        "Well, I think that was meant for you." We all cast glances at Stark. "Even if Barton didn't post it all over the news."

        "Stark Tower? That big ugly..." Stark cast my father a look, "building in New York?"

        "Nice save," I deadpanned, shaking my head.