The Weakness

25

"Well. That certainly was interesting." Stark said as he caught sight of Erin. He stood.

"Tony Stark." He said, extending a hand to Erin, who shook it warily.

"Erin." She said as they shook. Their hands dropped and a screen beeped. Tony focused on the screen and tapped a few places.

"So. You are the one called 'lron Man'?" Erin asked, watching Stark.

"Yes." He glanced at her. Dr. Banner watched Erin's movements as she walked around, observing the screens.

"Your calculations are off." She said as she looked up at the screen locating the Tesseract. Bruce and Tony looked at her, shocked.

"Ah, excuse me?" Tony asked raising his eyebrows. "Since when do you know-"

"I have been here for two years, Stark, and I am 1047 years old. I've known the tesseract was here since Coulson first brought me to SHIELD. I think it'd be a wise decision to learn about the way Midguard affects the cube." Erin said, not moving her eyes from the screen. Banner's jaw dropped open at her age.

"Now, you have the tesseract's Gamma signature set at 285.58, but you did not calculate in the layers protecting the cube giving off a signature. The power source itself is made of an indestructible substance that is called Notraxcide. It is known to you as simply 'clean energy', or pure lithium monoxide. When tampered with, the stability will drastically change. The internal temperature is at 162 Kelvin when stable, and can range from 3 to 9,000 when unstable.

"The signature emitting from the cube would then be 376.37. Feel free to question it." Erin finished, crossing her arms.

"How could you know so much about Gamma radiation?" Bruce asked. Erin gave him a hard look.

"Gamma radiation is one of the most dangerous categories of radiation. That's also how SHIELD got me to work for them. It was one of the first things I found out about." Erin went back to the screen, typing in a series of complicated equations and estimates. Bruce watched her with sad eyes. He understood what she meant. SHIELD must have tortured her with Gamma Radiation. He felt a surge of anger that a girl like Erin was harmed for SHIELD's gain. He also wondered how she could be so calm after a scene like that with Loki so close.

Tony turned back to his screen, watching a model of something build itself.

"What are you doing Mr. Stark?" Fury said, walking into the room. He avoided eye contact with Erin.

"Kind of been wondering the same thing about you." Tony said.

"Shouldn't you be locating the tesseract?" Fury asked. Banner pointed at the screen.

"We are. We have the model locked and we're sweeping for the signal now. As soon as we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." He said.

"Yeah. You'll get the cube back. No muss. No fuss." Tony looked at the screen he was sitting near. "What IS Phase 2 anyway?" Steve came in and slammed a gun on the table.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me." He said.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the tesseract." Fury said, moving towards Steve. "That does not mean that-"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony interrupted. "What were you lying?" He turned his screen so everyone could see a diagram of the weapon Steve had put on the table.

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve said. Thor and Natasha walked in.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" She asked. Bruce laughed.

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

"Loki is manipulating you." Natasha stepped towards Bruce.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" He asked.

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

"Yes and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce pointed at the screen. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction."

Fury looked at Bruce. "Because of them." He pointed at Thor and Erin, who crinkled their eyebrows.

"Us?" They said in unison. Erin turned away from the calculations she was imputing.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town." Thor grimaced. "A few weeks later, there was a second visitor who killed 100 agents in a day because she had a tantrum." Erin scratched the back of her head. Steve's eyes widened at this information. Fury continued.

"We learned that not only are we not alone, we are hopelessly-hilariously-out gunned." He said.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor said.

"But you aren't the only people out there are you?" Fury spat. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people that can't be matched. They can't be controlled." Erin clenched her fists.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve said.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it. And his allies." She growled. "It is a signal to all the realms the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asked. Fury ignored him.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-"

"A nuclear return because that always calms everything right down." Stark said.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury said. Steve interrupted.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-"

"Wait wait, hold on. How is this about me now?" Tony asked.

"Isn't everything?" Steve snapped.

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

"Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury snapped.

"You treat your champions with such respect?" Thor said.

"You're not my champion." Fury said.

"Are you boys really that naïve? SHIELD monitors those who are a potential threat." Natasha said over Fury.

"Captain America is on a threat watch?" Bruce asked.

"We all are." Natasha said.

The noise level grew and Erin's eyes fell to Loki's scepter, laying on a table. The blue energy was sparking and emitting energy bursts.

Erin shook her head and left the room.

'What are they? Two?'

She walked down the path to Loki's cell.