Girl from the stars

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 9

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"𝙰𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎"

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Athena walked in to see Tony shock Banner with something.

"Hey are you nuts" Steve shouted. Tony ignored him and asked about Banner's secret to keeping his anger down Steve rolled his eyes at him. "Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked.

Tony smiled slightly "Funny things are" 

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny no offense Doc" 

Athena nodded "Dr. Banner please don't mind him he likes to get on everyone's nerves" 

Banner smiled at her "Don't worry Miss Stark I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could handle a few pointy sticks" 

She groaned at the name "Please just call me Athena" He nodded.

Tony walk over to Athena and gave her a side hug. He then pointed at Banner "You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut" 

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

Tony continued walking around "Do you think I'm not. Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us"   

Athena shrugged her shoulders "I mean sure I've worked with S.H.I.E.L.D a good few times but I was still none the wiser"

Tony continued "I can't do the equations unless I have all the variables" 

Steve raised his eyebrow "You think Fury's hiding something" 

Athena nodded slightly. "Furry is a spy. I mean he is the spy his secrets have secrets" 

Tony nodded "Yeah it's bugging him too. Isn't it" 

"Uh... I just want to finish my work here and.." Banner muttered.

Athena let out a heavy sigh "Doctor be honest"

"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube" Banner recalled.

Steve nodded "I heard it"  

"Well, I think that was meant for you two" He pointed at Tony and Athena. Tony just offered Banner some berries. Banner continued "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower it was still all over the news" 

Steve looked at Banner "The Stark tower? That big ugly building in New York" 

Tony turned to look at him while Athena gave him a playful slap to the chest. "It actually looks really nice on the inside" Tony nodded in agreement with her.

Banner continued again "It's powered by an arc reactor a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" 

Tony shrugged "It's just the prototype. We are kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at" 

"So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D bring them in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I wish I could tell you doctor but I don't know myself. All the time I have worked with S.H.I.E.L.D they never showed any interest in the energy business. I didn't even know about the Tesseract project" Athena told them.

Tony looked at her "I should probably look into that. Once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.S secure files"

"I'm sorry did you just say..." 

Steve was cut off by Tony "Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide. Blueberry" He held them out to the two. Athena took some while Steve didn't.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around" Steve responded.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence historically not awesome. Right, Athena" Tony spoke. Athena just nodded while eating the berries. 

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them" Steve told them.