Iron Lady (an iron man au)

Chapter Nine: What Are You Doing

"What are you doing, Miss Stark?" Fury demanded as he walked into the lab.

"Uh, I was kinda wondering the same thing about you."

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

"We are," Bruce spoke up, "We're searching through every wireless network. When we get a hit, we'll have the position within a half-mile radius in just a minute."

"And," I added, "You'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss."

I turned to the computer screen and asked, "What is Phase 2?"

Steve barged in at that minute and slammed a huge gun down on the table.

"Phase 2 is when SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was running a little slow."

"Rogers," Nick defended, "We gathered everything that had to do with the cube. This does not mean-"

"I'm sorry, Nick," I interrupted, swinging the computer screen to them, showing the image of a missile on it, "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong," Steve said, "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Romanoff who had just walked in with Thor.

"You wanna think of removing yourself from environment?" she asked him, ignoring his question.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And what have you been doing exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I batted my eyelashes at you."

"Yes. And I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy. I would like to know," he said while pointing to the computer screen, "Why SHIELD is using the Tessaract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Fury sighed then pointed at Thor and said, "Because of him."

"Me?"

"Last year, Earth had a visitor who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. That let us know that we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."

"My people have no quarrel with you," Thor defended.

"But you're not the only people out there. And you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people that can't be matched. They can't be controlled."

"Like you control the cube?" Steve demanded.

"Your work with the Tessaract is what brought Loki to your world and his allies," Thor told him, "Your work is a signal that Earth is ready. Ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?"

"You forced our hand," Fury said, "We had to make a-"

"Nuclear deterant," I interrupted, "Because that always calms things right down."

"Tell me again how you made your profit, Stark?"

"I'm sure if Stark still did," Cap. began, "She'd be neck deep in-"

"How is this suddenly about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.

"Excuse me?" Fury demanded, "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Is this about me and Bruce?" I asked Steve, ignoring the other's argument.

"Maybe it is."

"Why? Why is it so important to you? If you must know, nothing happened!"

"Then why were you-"

"We explained it to you, old man! But can't seem to process it! So why are you mad?"

"You know why."

"Do I? In case you haven't noticed, I don't know everything, Cap."

"Stark, if you say one more thing, so help me-"

"Is that a threat? A verbal threat. I feel threatened!"

"You speak of peace," Thor boomed, "Yet you court chaos."

"It's an m.o. isn't it?" Bruce spoke up, "We're not a team. No, we're a mixture that creates chaos. We're-we're a time bomb."

"You," Fury instructed, "Need to step away."

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" I asked, putting my hand on Cap.'s shoulder.

"You know d*mn well why," he snapped, "Now back off!"

"I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah. Super girl in a suit of armor. Take that off and what are you."

"Stark naked."

Nobody laughed.

"Screw you all, I'm hilarious."

"I know guys who have nothing that you have and yet they are worth ten of you."

"I hope they don't have boobs."

"I've seen the footage. The only person you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I would just cut the wire."

"There's always a way out, isn't there. You're not a hero."

"Well, neither are you! You're a lab experiment, Rogers! Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Just then a hearty laughter was heard, and we all turned to Thor.

"You people are so petty, and tiny," he announced.

"Yeah we're-" Doctor Banner began to say but was cut off by Fury.

"Agent Romanoff, please escort Doctor Banner to-"

"To my room? Where? You rented mine out."

"The cell was just in case-"

"If you had to kill me. You can't. I know. I tried! 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 dedicated my life to helping people. I was good, I was calm. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone on this ship in danger! You wanna know how I stay calm? You wanna know my secret, Stark?"

Everyone and I braced ourselves for impact.

"Doctor Banner," Cap. spoke up, "Put down the scepter."