Mischief's Shield

Chapter 11 - Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor's face was red with anger and he was shouting with thundering volume at Director Fury. Everyone had listened to me until Mr Thunder Mouth decided to ruin the moment.

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're– we're a time bomb." Banner crossed his arms over his chest, nodding in the direction of the blonde God in the room.

"He's right, we're no team. We're forced to work together and for what? For Loki's plan to succeed? No. The Avengers are meant to stop evil, not make them win by hating each other. This was never going to work out." I complained through gritted teeth. I couldn't take my eyes off of the God that I had already walked away from to stand next to Bruce.

"You two need to step away." Fury leaned towards us as he spoke, warning us that if we didn't co-operate there would be consequences. Somehow, Fury was still able to keep a neutral face throughout the whole argument; in fact, throughout the whole aliens coming to earth thing.

"Why shouldn't the guys let off a little steam?" Tony patted Steve's, who he was now standing next to, shoulder only to get the soldier to smack it off and turn to him.

"You know damn well why!" Cap's hands were still in his uniform belt as he spoke but I knew he really wanted to ball them up into fists and beat the hell out of Tony, "Now back off!"

"I'm starting to want you to make me." Stark turned to face the man out of time. It seemed me and Banner were the only ones effected by this since everyone else had hostile voices but normal faces. The only hint to them hating each other was how they were eyeing each other up as if to see how easily it would be to take them on in a fight.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Steve circled Tony slowly, mockingly stroking his shoulder as he got to the left side of him.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." The way Stark said his response was almost like he had rehearsed it for months.

"I know guys with none of that worth 10 of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Cap's metaphors were really effecting me. I had actually once sacrificed myself for my friends only to be betrayed afterwards. If I hadn't of had inhuman healing capabilities I wouldn't be here right now.

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds." Steve was threatening Tony again: the one thing that was proving my point about us not being a team.

"You people are so petty, and tiny." Thor's laugh boomed around the room but everyone ignored the rude disturbance; too intoxicated in the 1 V 1 of the Tin man VS the oldest virgin to ever live.

"Yeah, this is really a team." I roll my eyes sarcastically at everyone possible in the room. I don't know why but ever since Loki arrived on earth I've been feeling uneasy and I had a hard time controlling my anger: luckily it wasn't happening to Banner too or all hell would break loose.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Agent Strange to her–"

"WHERE? LOKI'S BORROWING NY ROOM!" Example A. In these situations I usually just close my eyes and focus on a windy meadow or flowery field but it seems Loki burnt down that field along with the SHIELD facility.

"The cell was just incase you–"

"INCASE YOU NEEDED TO KILL ME! YOU CAN'T! I SHOULD KNOW; I TRIED!" Everyone stared in my direction when I said that. I had never told anyone about it but I had tried to kill myself on many occasions, one of them quite recent: New Mexico. I was there.

"I got low. I didn't see an end to my life anytime soon so I sliced my throat and it healed right back up. I was fine for the next few years until New Mexico. I thought I was crazy so I drilled my skull and it didn't even leave a bruise." I was uncomfortable talking about my suicide attempts but it had to come out someday and today was as good as any day. For now, at least.

"Everything was fine until Thor and his little freak show dragged me back into everything and made me put the whole of SHIELD at risk. You want to know my secret, Director? You want to know how I keep calm?" My vision was getting blurry again but not because of my shift this time, it was tears. I didn't even realise I had started crying when I noticed Fury and Natasha reach in their pockets for their guns.

"Agent Strange, put down the sceptre." Captain Rogers took a shaky step towards me, trying to reach for the weapon. I hadn't even realised I had grabbed it until now.it was glowing blue and gold, like when it's power was being used.

A small bleeping noise interrupts my train of thoughts and I spot a computer in the corner of the room with a flashing red dot on it. I ran over to the stand the weapon belonged on and laid it back down before turning back to everyone, keeping my head down since I knew they were all staring at me.

"Got it!" The Director was looking over at the screen ahead of me to check what was happening. Banner reached the screen first and looked frozen in his place, covered in a mix of anger, frustration and relief.

"Sorry Jesus, you don't get to see my bread for 500 people after all." When I get to the screen I peek between Fury and Banner's shoulder to see they finally found the thing we have been searching for this entire time. It was like I was doing the Mannequin Challenge since now both me and Bruce were frozen.

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor made his way slowly over, stepping in front of Nick to get a look at the screen.
"I can get there faster." Tony leaned against the table the computer was on and looked at the reflection of the screen through his glasses.

"Look, all of us–" Steve was towering as it was so he stood back out of the way since he didn't have to get up close to see what it said on the screen: not that he would understand any of the complicated future stuff anyway.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor was still trying to work out what the screen said since he was used to Asgardian technology and not Earthly virtual intelligence. I was interested in his choice of words of humans but I didn't mention it, I'm sure it just slipped his mind that I'm not exactly human myself.

Tony turned to leave, he seemed to not care very much of what the God of Thunder thinks is right or wrong. He is stopped just before he reaches for the door though by Steve,
"You're not going alone!" He sounds strict and rather fed up with everyone's consistent wining.

Tony smacked his hand away and turned his back on the exit,
"You gonna stop me?" He tried his best to look intimidating but without the Iron Man armour and his short body compared to the super-soldier he was failing miserably; no one would be scared of that.

"Put on the suit, let's find out." Rogers yet again picked on Stark just because his powers come from armour. It isn't much different from Steve's himself since his powers came from a bottle and a few pieces of scrap metal.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony was really trying to hit Steve's weak spot. I had realised once before that Steve hated being called old: it reminded him that most of his friends - including James Buchanan Barnes - were all dead and have been for years now.

"Put on the suit."

"Oh- my- god." Banners voice was shaking and it sounded like he was on the verge of having a panic attack. He started tapping violently at the screen until he lost his grip and they slipped off the keyboard and forced his dead weight to drop to the floor just at the right time...

BOOM!