Cat Got Your Tongue?

Chapter 6

After we collected Loki, we returned to the helicarrier to gather out senses. I distanced myself from the others and went to say hello to a few of my agent friends that I haven't seen in a while. Maria Hill was the last person to see me.

"Maria, hi." I said as she hugged me. She pulled away and held me at arms length to look at me. Maria was always like the mother I never had.

"Hey honey, are you alright, I haven't seen you in months." She clarified.

"I'm doing ok, do you have anymore news on agent Barton?" I asked getting straight to the point.

"No baby, but Phil is doing his best, he knows how much you and Natty miss him." She hugged me once more before Tony walked in with Phil by his side. Only then did we tune in to the conversation.

"Your brother," Natasha started. "He's...." She trailed of but Bruce finished for her.

"..Like a bag of cats, you can smell crazy on him." I smiled at his straight forward press but knew Thor's reaction wasn't going to be good.

"Have care how you speak. He may mean nothing but trouble to you but he is important, and he is my brother." He boomed his over dramatic voice.

"He killed eighty people in two days." I snorted.

"He's adopted." Thor excused and I, along with Bruce, sniggered under my breath.

Bruce changed the topic of conversation back to the point. "I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium. What do they need the iridium for?" He asked but Tony stepped in.

"It's a stableinsing agent." He then lowered his voice so only Phil could hear but I could too, with my heightened senses. "I'm just saying, take a weekend, I'll fly you to Florida. Just keep loving life." I gave him a quizzical look but his smile only grew."Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings point break, you've got a mean swing." He said patting Thor on the shoulder and walking away toward the controls.

"So he can open the portal for however long he wants." I said butting in. He grinned at me and I smiled back but only for a second. Tony then mumbles something that was slightly incoherent. He then points someone out.

"That man is playing Gallager. Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He paused and looks at fury's control pannels. Confused, he covers one eye with his hand. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Maria answers bluntly.

"Sounds exhausting." He complains. Tony pulls up the thuster ignition speed and maximises it on two of the four engines, he then levels out the oxygen levels in the lab for his own comfort. I walk over to the panel he's about to touch and prevent him from doing so by standing in front of it.

"Your not changing the AC in the storage unit just so your suit isn't too cold when you have to wear it again." I grumble to him. He smiles and turns round, continuing to talk to the team.

"The rest of the raw materials agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to.. Kick-start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked.

"Last night. Selvig's notes. The package that Fury sent. The extraction theory papers. Am I the only one that did the reading?" He asked but was ignored.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve questioned.

"He's need to heat the cube to 120 million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." I inputted.