Variant or Variants of the MCU?

Chapter 21: Tensions

Steve; hey!

Tony; nothing?

Steve: <walks in> are you nuts?

Hank: he is.

Tony: Jury's out. You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow Jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?

Steve: is everything a joke to you?

Tony; funny things are.

Steve: threatening the safety of everyone on this ship which includes your son isn't funny. No offense, Doc.

Bruce: it's all right, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things.

Tony: you're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut.

Steve: and you need to focus on the problem, Mr Stark. Your son is more serious about this than you are.

Tony: do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables. <opens the bag of blueberries>

Steve: you think Fury's hiding something?

Wade: he's a spy. Captain, he's "the" spy. His secrets have secrets which is why I don't trust SHIELD.

Hank: that's the only thing we have in common.

Tony: it's bugging him, too. Isn't it?

Bruce: uh... I just want to finish my work here, and...

Steve: Doctor?

Bruce: <takes his glasses off> "a warm light for all mankind." Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube.

Steve: I heard it.

Bruce: I think that was meant for you. <points at Tony>

Tony: <offers a blueberry>

Bruce: <takes one> even if Barton didn't tell Loki and Amora about the tower, it was still all over the news.

Steve: the Stark Tower? That big, ugly-

Tony and Wade look at him.

Steve: building in New York?

Bruce: it's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?

Wade: it's just the prototype. Stark Industries is the only name in clean energy right now. Roxxon just wants more money for less gasoline while Oscorp is more on scientific exploration and research. Not much on energy.

Tony; that's what he's getting at.

Bruce: so, why didn't SHIELD bring them in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?

Wade: I mean what will a spy agency be doing in the energy business at all?

Hank: they've got good points. SHIELD's agenda is never as clear as it seems.

Tony; I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files.

Steve: I'm sorry. Did you say...

Tony: Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours. I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?

Steve: yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around.

Tony: an intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome.

Steve: I think Loki and Amora are trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a man, bringing his child into it, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them.