Umbra

Chapter Ten

Crackling to life inside her ear, Grey heard Natasha's voice, sounding slightly shaken yet still firm. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. All Avengers, head to the labs."

Grey felt her body go cold, and she glanced up at Steve. He hadn't said a word since they'd found the H.Y.D.R.A. weapons in one of the cases, and Grey gulped slightly. Being in the company of an angry super soldier was not one of her favourite things.

"Steve, did you...?"

"I heard."

She nodded, looking down at her feet. "I'm sorry I followed you."

"Mhm."

"And I'm sorry I knocked out that agent."

Steve smiled slightly, and Grey felt some of her dread lift when she sneaked a peek back up at him. The quiet which surrounded them this time was comfortable. They returned back to the door of the laboratory, and they could hear the raised voices coming from inside.

"Let's listen and make an entrance." Grey said, shooting a smirk up at Steve. He nodded.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." The two heard Fury's distinctive voice from inside the room.

"We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." 'Not bad', Grey thought, as she listened to Bruce.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Tony said, and a pause followed him "What is PHASE 2?"

"Now!" Grey whispered. Steve opened the door suddenly, his presence shocking the group of people in the room. He loudly dropped the H.Y.D.R.A. assault rifle he'd been holding onto the table, causing Fury, Bruce and Tony to stare at it. Grey moved to stand next to Steve, her arms crossed and a furious look on her face.

"Computer was running a little slow for us." She said.

They were both pissed off.

"We gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..." Fury tried to explain himself, but Grey knew he was lying. She could see it in his eye. Once again, she started to flicker.

"I'm sorry Nick," she watched as Tony moved his computer screen to show plans of the numerous weapons which were going to be made in PHASE 2. "What were you lying?"

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

Suddenly, the doors to the lab opened and Natasha and Thor walked in. Grey saw Thor's eyes shoot to her, and Natasha's stayed on Bruce.

"Did you know about this?" He asked, obviously irritated. Grey felt uneasy.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha asked, remaining calm. Thor slowly inched towards Grey.

Bruce looked at her incredulously. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"You should also retreat, Lady Grey. You are getting angry." He said, his eyes showing concern. Grey took a step back, shaking her head.

"You don't come near me." She saw Steve move slightly in front of her, his body separating her and Thor.

Natasha looked back at her, and frowned. "Loki is manipulating both of you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha shot back, glaring at Bruce. Grey pushed past Steve, her anger rising. "And he's not leaving just because suddenly you get a little twitchy.