Unlikely To Be Forgotten - Book 1

Chapter 7: The Good & The Bad

May 2012

After we got a lock on the tesseract and the search continued, Bruce kept working, Tony went back to hacking, and I watched Natasha interrogate Loki on my monitor.

Loki was pacing the length of his cell when suddenly he stopped and as he turned he said, "You know, there aren't very many people who can sneak up on me."

"But, you figured I'd come." My aunt's voice was low and it sounded a bit raspy.

"After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

"I wanna know what you've done with Agent Barton." So this is what she was getting at, but I knew she was coxing something else out of him.

"I'd say I've expanded his mind." What the frick frack tickety tic tac snik snak does that mean?

"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" It used to be.

She scoffed, "Love is for children, I owe him a debt." I bit my lip and turned off my monitor, not wanting to hear the rest of this conversation.

For the next few minutes the three of us goofed around while we read through files and ran more tests on the scepter. But it wasn't until I heard Nat's voice in my ear that I realized what was going to happen, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk, keep Banner in the lab. Send Thor as well."

Seconds after her announcement Fury walked in, "What are you doing Mr. Stark?" I feel bad that Tony is the only one getting blamed.

"Uh... kinda been wondering the same thing about you." I swear to God, his snippy remarks are going to get him killed one day.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury is always one to change the subject, but I've got a good feeling that Bruce and Tony aren't going to let that last long.

"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." And Banner just proved my point.

I put on a sweet smile and turned to Nick, "And you'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss." I looked back at the monitor that continued to pull up the secret files, "What is phase 2?"

Suddenly a very pissed Steve dropped an assault rifle on one of our lab tables, causing the rest of us to turn and look at him. "Phase 2 is Shield uses the cube to make weapons." He then turned towards Tony and I, "Sorry the computer was moving a little slow for me."

Realization clicked in my head as the design file opened. I designed these weapons. This is my doing, but I had those thrown out. A year ago. "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..."

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony spun the monitor screen towards Fury showing my designs, "What? Were you lying?" I knew that everyone else in the room was pissed, but I was just sad and disappointed. This was my fault, I told Maria to throw those out. But, everyone knows that if you want something done you have to do it yourself.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve's jaw was set and it looked like he was going to spontaneously combust at any second.

At that moment Natasha and Thor walked into my lab, I turned to face her and I was pissed. "Did you know about this?" My voice broke and it took everything in me to not break down.

She ignored my question, which was the answer in itself, and instead turned towards a very angry Banner, "You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?"