Umbra

Chapter Nine

Tony watched as Grey left, swallowing slightly. Bruce, watched his reaction, before raising an eyebrow. "You know, maybe you should stop throwing blueberries at her." Tony shot him a look before he headed back to his desk to continue scratching out algorithms and equations, trying to not think about Grey and Steve together.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" He mumbled grouchily. "Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

"The guy's not wrong about Loki - he does have the jump on us. Besides," Bruce peeked over his glasses at Tony to judge his reaction. "Grey likes him. I can tell."

Bruce saw Tony's fist clench, and the roll of his shoulders as he tried to calm down. Despite only knowing him for a couple of hours, Bruce could already read him like a book.

Clearing his throat, Tony ignored Bruce's comment. "What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit." Continuing to swipe over algorithms on the screens, Tony had a determined expression etched on his face. "It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

Bruce smiled slightly, looking back down at his work. "And I'll read all about it."

"Uh huh." Tony glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow, "or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us." The other man shook his head, sighing slightly and taking off his glasses, rubbing his eyes slightly.

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

Tony moved to stand next to him, fixing Bruce with an understanding air about them. "You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying ever second to crawl its way into my heart." He pointed to the mini arc reactor which sat snugly in his chest. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armour. It's a... terrible privilege."

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how."

"It's different."

Bruce shifted uncomfortably as he tried to focus back onto the computer screen, but Tony slid the data aside with one finger as he stared Bruce in the face. "Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So, you're saying that the Hulk – the other guy – saved my life?" He let out a dry chuckle as he shook his head. "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

"I guess we'll find out." Tony said in a beat, his cheeky smile returning as they both turned to work on their computers.

"You might not like that."

"You just might." Even though his smile was plastered on his face, inside Tony felt rotten, his mind captivated by the idea of Grey and Steve together.

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As Steve stealthily crept through the hull hanger towards the secure storage rooms, Grey padded silently behind him. She'd been invisible since she'd started following him, worried he would snap at her again, but she wanted to know what S.H.I.E.L.D. had been hiding from them all. Grey knew Tony was right, as annoying as it was.

Steve slid the heavy iron door leading to storage 10-C open, grunting quietly when it budged. Grey followed him in, her eyes widening as she took in the large warehouse. Metal crates were stacked up around the space, each labelled with types of weaponry. Grey gulped, dread sinking into her bones as she knew this was going to blow up the team. She watched as Steve leapt up onto the catwalk railing above them.

"Psst. Steve!"

He looked back down at the floor, frowning when he couldn't see anything. "Grey?"

"Bend down, hold out your arm and pull me up."

Steve did as she asked, a strange feeling coming over him as he pulled up seemingly nothing. As he tugged Grey up, she let her invisibility fall and she gave Steve a sheepish smile. "You're pretty strong."

He raised his eyebrows as he placed her on the railing. "Why were you following me?" he hissed.

"I wanted to find out what Fury was hiding." Grey frowned, staring defiantly up at him. "I'm part of this team too, Rogers, and you can't stop me from figuring this shit out as well. I just needed you to open that door." She pointed her finger at the one Steve had shifted out the way.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing deeply before he nodded. "Fine. Come on then." They both continued to walk down the railing quietly, surrounded by box after box of weaponry. They walked past one box which had a label, one which Grey recognised.

"Holy shit," she whispered, stopping in her tracks. She immediately went to it, rubbing the label as if the words would change with a scrub of her fingers.

"What?" Steve stopped, rounding back to look at it. "What's 'Medinilla Waterhousei'? Why is it here?"

Grey gulped, anger already growing inside of her, and she shook her head. "I'll tell you later." She said in a clipped tone.

Steve looked at her worriedly, before they continued to search for the weaponry Steve was trying to find. "I suspect S.H.I.E.L.D. have been recreating Hydra guns," he said as they walked. "They're using the Tesseract to power them."

"It's awful." Grey sighed. "I thought this organisation was better than this."

"Me too, kid."

They continued walking, the only sound coming from the light thud of their footsteps against the metal cat walk. Before long, Grey thought she heard a third pair. She frowned, pausing to listen hard.

"What now-?" Steve turned with a raised eyebrow, but Grey hurriedly pressed her finger to her lips, silently telling him to be quiet. She knew there was someone else in there with them. In a state of panic, she quickly tugged Steve to crouch behind a pile of boxes nearby them, and she whispered to him.

"I'm gonna find out who's there and turn them back around. You stay here." She hissed, and Steve frowned.

"You're not doing that alone!"

"Whoever it is, I'm pretty sure they'll see you Steve! You're not hard to miss, especially not in that outfit."

That shut Steve up, and Grey smirked slightly before vanishing and creeping out from behind their hiding place. Slinking down the walkway, Grey kept her ears pricked, and she knew whoever it was in there was close to them. She tensed up, breathing out slightly as she readied herself for whatever was rounding the corner in front of her.

An agent appeared in front of her, talking into his earpiece and holding a few files in the other. "Jim's in that meeting with the Director. I know. Fury's tracking everyone's internet history after Stark called him out for playing Galaga. Stupid, I get it..."

Grey panicked, every cell in her body fizzing as she tried to figure out how to stop him from walking any further and figuring out that Steve was snooping. In her frazzled state, she did the first thing that came into her head.

She punched the agent in the face.

The punch landed with a smack, and the agent fell to the floor with a clatter, evidently unconscious. Grey heard a voice coming from his ear piece. "Andy, Andy! Are you there?" She squeaked, turning visible, and quickly switched it off. Having heard the crash, Steve had come running to join her.

"What have you done?" He asked, a disbelieving look on his face as he shook his head, taking in the sight of Grey kneeling over the body of an agent. She looked up at him, and rolled her eyes.

"He's not dead, Steve. Fucks sake, I'm not that incompetent." She paused slightly. "I just freaked out and knocked him unconscious."

"Oh." Steve said weakly, rubbing his head.

"Come on, we don't have a lot of time. He was talkingto someone so they're bound to come look for him soon." Together, they movedthe agent so he was sitting upright againstthe rail, and quickly continued with their search.