Masking My Life

Chapter Twenty Three~Waving Through A Window

I look over to see Bruce continuously scans with a gamma ray detection scanner on the scepter for radiation. Tony looks at his monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations.

I sigh taping away making a code to scan the as Tony calls it Glow Stick of Destiny. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the           Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." says Bruce.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster....." Tony starts he looks to me with a smirk, Bruce looked between us confused as was I, then it hit me "Quiz week?" I ask.

"Yup." says Tony popping the P.

I think for a minute "If you say it's gonna take weeks.....then......we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." I state, Tony nods I internally cheer. "All I packed was a tooth brush." says Bruce. Tony smiles "You know, you should come by Stark Towers 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." says Bruce, I smile "Yeah I've been there." I say, the two look at me surprised "Not New York, just Harper Ferry, don't worry it's a lot smaller then Harlem." they nod.

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises." Suddenly, Tony pokes Bruce with a miniature electrical pod. I look at Tony "What the heck man."

Steve walks in on us, his face said he was pissed at Tony. Tony looks at Bruce closely. "Hey! Are you nuts?" ask Steve "You really have got a lid on it,           haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" ask Tony.

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." says Bruce.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." starts Tony.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." starts Steve.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy. Steve, he's the spy." starts Bruce.

"His secrets have secrets. It's bugging her too, isn't it?" says Tony, I look up from my station, me? I mean Loki did blab about the Tower "Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..."

"Illisha?" ask Steve, I look at them all "'A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." I start.

"I heard it." says Steve.

"Well, I think that was meant for us." I say looking at Tony then back to the others "Even if Clint didn't post that all over the news." I finishes.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly...building in New York?" ask Steve, I look at him "I work hard on that layout man." I say "It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" ask Bruce, I nod "It's just a prototype." I say. "We're kind of the only name in clean energy right now." says Tony.

"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring you guys in on          the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" ask Bruce "Tony should probably look into that once          his decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files!" I say.