Saving Grace

Twenty One

He fought Thor. The literal Thor. And, considering the circumstances, he wasn't doing that bad. Then, Cap showed up and tried to play middle man. Thor ended up slamming his hammer into Cap's shield, and a whole explosion happened. Tony was fine. The forest was not. It ended the fight, though, and they grabbed Loki and all got back on the Quinjet, once again heading to the Helicarrier.

Once there, Natasha, Thor, Cap, and Dr. Bruce Banner watched Fury interrogate Loki on a monitor. As they were discussing Loki — Thor's adopted brother, who killed eighty people and mind-controlled not only Agent Barton but also Dr. Eric Selvig, an astrophysicist — Tony walked in with Coulson, discussing the portal Loki wants to open.

Tony cracked jokes, distracting everyone as he put a hacking implant under Fury's desk. He didn't trust him; there were definitely things he was keeping from them all.

He explains to them that Loki needs a power source to open the portal, and he thought he was using Dr. Selvig to figure it out. Dr. Banner understood.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," he'd said.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony replied.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

Tony smiled. "Finally, someone who speaks English." He shook Dr. Banner's hand.

"Is that what just happened?" Cap joked.

Tony ignored him. "It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. Also, I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Thanks," Dr. Banner replied.

Then, Fury walked in, and they all talked. Cap understood a reference to The Wizard of Oz, and he seemed very proud of himself. Then, Tony joined Dr. Banner in the lab, going to help him track the Tesseract.

And now, finally, they're here, using gamma radiation and the scepter they found with Loki to do it.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract," Dr. Banner says. "But it's gonna take weeks to process."

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops," Tony replies.

"And all I packed was a tooth brush."

Tony smiles, chuckling. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises." Just then, he pokes Dr. Banner with a small electrical prod, wanting to see if it would bring out the Hulk.

"Ow!" Dr. Banner shouts.

"Nothing?" Tony asks when he doesn't turn into an enormous green rage monster.

At that moment, Cap just has to walk in. "Hey!" he shouts. "Are you nuts?"

"Jury's out," Tony replies. He looks back at Dr. Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Meditation?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Cap asks.

"Funny things are."