❝ 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘪 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶. ❞
in which a young scientist with a big secret has to decide if she's ready to face her destiny.
𝗹𝗼𝗸𝗶 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗳𝗲𝘆𝘀𝗼𝗻...
chapter four ( elara noxley and the realization ) ❝you fist-fought a god?❞
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━━━𝓔LARA sat at her desk, watching the screen in front of her. Bruce was scanning the scepter repeatedly with a gamma ray scanner, the results being sent directly to Elara's screen. Tony was sat next to her, solving equations one after the other, moving them around the screen to make sense of what he was looking at. "The gamma readings are consistent with what you and Selvig recorded on the Tesseract, Elara. It's gonna take weeks to process, though."
Elara slouched forward, resting her chin in her hand as she reviewed the gamma readings for what felt like the millionth time. Loki's words still rang through her head, making it impossible to focus on her work. She was certain there was something more to him, something he wasn't saying, something he was trying to say. "If we bypass the mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster we could get this done in six-hundred teraflops," Tony said with a smirk. Bruce shook his head with a smile.
"And all I packed was a toothbrush," Bruce replied, making his was over to look at Elara's screen.
"You know, you two should come by Stark Tower sometime. Ten floors, all R&D. You'd both love it — it's candy land," Tony grinned from ear to ear. Elara absently shook her head, only half paying attention.
"Thanks, but last time I was in New York I, uh, kinda broke ... Harlem." Bruce looked bashful as he scratched the back of his neck, continuing to read what was in front of him.
"Well," Tony began, "I promise a stress-free environment! No tension, no surprises." Just as Tony finished speaking, he pulled a small electrical prod out of nowhere and zapped Bruce.
"Ow!" Bruce exclaimed, looking over at Tony with a small, incredulous smile on his face. Elara was pulled out of her trance by their antics, and she let out a giggle at the boys. "Asshole," Bruce chuckled under his breath, making Tony smile even wider.
"Hey!" Steve barked from the doorway, striding into the room with his fists balled at his sides.
Tony ignored him. "Nothing?" Tony asked Bruce, who shrugged in response. Steve looked exasperated, gawking at Tony as if he pulled out a live explosive. Elara surveyed the room nervously, eyes darting between Tony and Steve.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve glared at Tony through furrowed eyebrows, and Elara was surprised that Tony didn't combust due to the sheer power in Steve's eyes.
"Funny things are," Tony asserted, sitting back in his chair with a smug grin. Elara held back a sigh — so, Tony was asking for a fight.
