sᴇʀᴇɴɪᴛʏ × ʙʀᴜᴄᴇ ʙᴀɴɴᴇʀ

chapter 2 // a council of war

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" I hear a man ask softly as I step in with Tony and Coulson.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony answers.

And then, he continues his conversation with Coulson, something about the woman he's seeing and sending him to go visit her in Portland.

When I realise nobody has said anything, waiting for him to explain further, I walk over to the table and speak up. The ideas me and Tony had bounced off each other on the way here. "Right, so the Iridium means that the portal won't collapse on itself, the way it did at SHIELD. Bringing the place down with it. Not exactly helpful."

"No hard feelings, Point Break." Tony greets Thor, the man we'd encountered earlier. "You've got a mean swing." He pats the Asgardian on the arm. Thor does not look appreciative of that.

"It also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants it to." Tony continues, looking around the place.

"And that, naturally, means bad news for us." I speak up again.

Thor. Long blond hair. Real life male Barbie. An alien, muscles larger than my body. And lightning, and a hammer. Okay.

Natasha... or Natalie. My friend. The Black Widow. The one who pulled me out.

Me, Tony,

Steve Rogers. Captain America. Huh... not a bad looking guy. Dad told us all about him. Not quite as spangly or huge as I thought he'd be. So this is the man me and Tony heard about for so many years. Dad's 'greatest creation.' Not like... us.

He's who Hydra wanted me to be like.

Not the time to think about that, though.

And... the Doctor. Robert Bruce Banner. Unnecessary amount of PhD's. One half of the giant green guy. Surprisingly handsome. He's the one who questioned the Iridium, I think.

What an interesting team. Wonder how this is gonna play out.

Tony turns to the crew. "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top-sails." He directs. A distraction, I think. Because I have no idea what the hell he's talking about.

"That man is playing Galaga!" Nobody says anything so he lowers his voice and turns around. "Thought we wouldn't notice... but we did."

I recognize the face of annoyance and perhaps confusion on some of the others.

The one that makes me chuckle, though, is Rogers. I can only imagine he's thinking to himself, 'what in the hell is Galaga?'

I watch as Tony covers his eye, looking around. "How does Fury even see these?" The female agent, Maria Hill, crosses her arms. Clearly unimpressed. "He turns." She answers him simply.

I walk over to the table and lean against it, peeling off my jacket and setting it in a chair. "Sounds exhausting." I sigh and crack my neck. He takes the opportunity of people watching me, to place a small implant under what I assume is Fury's desk.

"So, the Iridium isn't easy to come by.
But the rest of the raw materials? Agent Barton can get his hands on them pretty easily. It sounds like the only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." Tony walks around as he talks.

Hill seems surprised, but covers it up. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Are we the only ones who did the reading?" He questions, the tone in his voice somewhat like a scoff.