After Stark and Banner's departure, everyone scattered.
Fury returned to the command center, Natasha went off to who knows where and Steve looked like he wanted to explore the Helicarrier.
And Keira knew she couldn't do anything at the moment. The facial scans were running for Barton, so nothing she could do there, nor could she be of any assistance to Stark and Banner.
So instead, she reached up into her hair and pulled the high ponytail free. Her hair fell down over her shoulders, a small curve where the hair tie had scrunched the hair. She combed through it with her fingers, trying to untie the knots that had formed.
Her hair had this amazing ability to form knots even though she wasn't doing anything, and it annoyed her greatly. Or maybe that was simply because her hair was damaged and brittle in the ends.
After being somewhat happy with her hair, she stood up and made her way over to the kitchen. If there was nothing to do, at least she could snack on something.
Opening the fridge, she saw a few leftover boxes of Chinese food, along with a few cakes and muffins. "It's amazing how these so-called superheroes are so unhealthy." She muttered to herself while eyeing a muffin that was screaming her name. She wasn't one to talk, however, as she loved junk food, so no complaints from her side about the contents of the fridge.
"Look who's talking."
Natasha's low voice made her jump in fright, and she turned around quickly with her fists raised. Her focus had been sorely on the pastry, so she hadn't even heard the spy sneaking up on her. "Oh, my bloody heart, Tasha. Don't do that!" She exclaimed, clutching a hand over her racing heart. "Or do you wish to kill me?"
Natasha stepped into the dimly lit kitchen, a half-smirk on her face. She always found great pleasure in being able to scare the blonde, considering her enhanced hearing and such. "Well..." She pondered, a hand under her chin. "I mean, there's a war coming up, and I think you could be pretty useful in it. But after that... It's definitely up for discussion."
Keira rolled her eyes and turned back to the fridge to snatch up the chocolate muffin. "Auch, you wound me, Tasha. Truly. Did you hear that?" She paused her movements, holding up a finger and pretending to listen for something else than the low hum of the fridge. "That was my heart breaking into a million pieces." She continued as she peeled off the paper from the muffin before taking a big bite. It wouldn't satisfy her hunger much, but it tasted good, and that was the most important thing.
A good snack could save the day.
"Aw, I'm sorry. Should I pick up the pieces and glue them together again?" Natasha pouted, folding her arms over her chest loosely, leaning against the counter as she watched the blonde with twinkling eyes. It had been a long time since she had been able to tease the blonde, and god, she had missed it.
"Oh, no. I fear it's too late. I feel our friendship breaking apart." Keira gasped, putting her free hand on her forehead as if she were to faint.
Was she being dramatic? Maybe a little bit, but she couldn't help herself. Just as much as Natasha enjoyed teasing her, Keira enjoyed teasing the redhead the same.
Natasha shook her head in response and pushed herself from the counter. She closed the distance between her and Keira and embraced the blonde. "Is this saving it?" She murmured, still parading the half-smirk, but it was hidden in Keira's mess of blonde hair. She wasn't really big on hugs normally, but she knew it was Keira's weakness and didn't hesitate to use it against her.
For a few seconds, Keira just stood still, not returning the hug because she wanted to torture the redhead a little. But just as Natasha had predicted, she melted soon enough and returned the hug. "You're on the right path, young padawan." She mumbled, smiling to herself before releasing the redhead. "You know what? You're a just big softie in reality, Tasha." She said, the smile turning into a smirk, and seeing Natasha's face turn into a frown.
Natasha slapped Keira's shoulder lightly. "First of all, I am older than you, so technically you should be my young padawan. And secondly, I am not soft. Don't you dare tell anyone that or it'll damage my reputation." She said, throwing a glare at the blonde, who raised her hands in surrender.
"I doubt there's an age restriction on being a padawan, or maybe not. I haven't watched the movies closely enough for that." Keira shrugged before continuing, "But you are soft. But also, kind of a badass." She laughed at the indignant look on Natasha's face. "So, I can settle for a soft badass." She concluded as she finished her muffin in one big gulp. Meeting Natasha's gaze once she had chewed down the muffin, she saw something else flashing behind the green orbs, and her laughter faltered. "You're off to interrogate Loki?"
The smile that had crept upon Natasha's face when Keira had surrendered vanished at once, and her gaze averted to the floor. "Yeah. Fury needs some answers. We need some answers." She paused and bit her lip. "I need to find out what he's done to Clint."
Keira nodded and gently put a hand under Natasha's chin, tilting her head up so their eyes met. "We're gonna find him. And we will rescue him from whatever magic trick Loki put on him. If anyone can get the God of Mischief to admit his plans, it's you." She whispered softly, leaning her forehead against Natasha's. Both of them closed their eyes, savoring the momentary peace.
Moments like these were necessary. They made you feel human again, it let the stress melt away temporarily and block out the outside world.
Natasha nodded, still with her eyes closed. "We will rescue him..." She murmured quietly, more to herself than anybody else. "Yeah, you're right." She opened her eyes and broke the skin contact, shrugging her shoulders. "So, what are you gonna do, watch the show or?"
Keira gave the redhead a sad smile but shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. I have no doubt in my mind that you'll be able to get some answers out of him, but I'm gonna find the Captain. Need to make sure he doesn't try to strangle Stark. I have a feeling he's up to something." She chuckled, referring to the small disk she had seen Stark place on the bridge.
Natasha only nodded in answer, silently agreeing to the statement that Stark and Rogers were a disaster waiting to happen. As the redhead made no further comment, Keira assumed that she hadn't seen Stark's suspicious movement back at the bridge.
"Be careful with Loki, alright? He might be in a cage, but I don't trust him." Keira quickly embraced Natasha again, who nodded in answer, before stalking off to the lab.
Even through the closed lab doors, Keira could hear the voices of Stark and Rogers. And just like she had expected, they didn't sound happy with each other. As she slipped through the door, neither the soldier nor the billionaire didn't pay her any attention, but Banner gave her a short nod of greeting, which she returned.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve sounded annoyed, his posture stiff and clearly not amused by whatever the eccentric billionaire had said or done, who was fiddling with some sort of screwdriver.
"Do you think I'm not?" Stark retorted, putting down the tool and instead picking up a small plastic bag. "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."
Walking up to the men, she saw the Captain's face falter for just a second. It seemed like the billionaire's words had created some doubt in him. "You think Fury's hiding something?"
"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Throwing a couple of blueberries into his mouth, Stark pointed towards Banner. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"
Banner looked uncomfortable at being asked to give his opinion on the matter. "Uh... I- I just wanna finish my work here and..." He muttered, stumbling over the words slightly as he avoided eye contact with any of them.
"Doc?" Keira pressed lightly, watching the scientist intently.
It was clear that this wasn't just Stark talking, Banner had an opinion on the matter as well, even if he felt uncomfortable sharing it. After a few seconds of fiddling, the doctor looked up. "'A warm light for all mankind'. Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube." He began.
"We heard it."
"Well, I think that was meant for you." Banner continued as he pointed toward Tony. Tony, in return held out the bag of blueberries to the scientist, who accepted the offer and tried to fish up a couple of berries from the bag. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly-" Steve began with a smirk, but stopped when Tony shot him a look. "-Building in New York?" He finished, the two men staring at each other in silence.
Keira bit her lip in an attempt to stifle her laughter at this. Yup, it would definitely be interesting to see how Stark and Rogers would be able to cooperate as a team.
"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Banner questioned, looking at Tony while fiddling with his watch. It was a habit of his, Keira noticed.
The man seemed to be nervous quite often and always needed to fiddle with something. She couldn't blame him though, as she was the same, usually fiddling with her rings, her leg bouncing constantly every time she sat down.
"It's just a prototype." The man began. If he would've stopped there, the statement would've sounded humble. But he wouldn't be Tony Stark without a bit of bragging. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."
That was quite right actually, Keira thought. Why had SHIELD waited so long to call in Stark on this?
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Banner questioned, looking between the three of them.
"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Stark said absentmindedly, holding up a small screen in his hand that no doubt held the progress of said decryption program.
Steve looked affronted at this. "I'm sorry. Did you say-"
Stark interrupted him, however. "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?" He held out the bag towards the Captain, who didn't even glance down.
"Ah so, that was what you planted on the bridge." Keira commented and before the man had a chance to act, snatched the bag out of Tony's hands.
Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise, as did Banner. Steve, on the other hand, gave her a disapproving look. "You knew?" The soldier asked his facial expression wavering somewhat between disappointment and confusion.
"I was just about to ask the same thing. He beat me by one second." Stark interjected, pointing towards the soldier. He wasn't happy with being outmatched by Rogers.
Keira shrugged her shoulders casually. "Well, I saw you-" She nodded towards Tony. "-Placing something on one of the computers at the bridge when you were talking about some high-density power source." She finished off, throwing some blueberries in her mouth. Like she had expected, Stark didn't have an evil scheme, he simply wanted to know what SHIELD was hiding.
"High-energy density..." Banner mumbled under his breath, but she heard him, nevertheless.
"Eh, potato tomato. Same stuff, different order." She continued. Banner looked like he wanted to correct her, as there probably was a difference, but the science part of it all really didn't interest her that much. "But I was interested to see what your purpose was, Stark, so I chose not to tell."
Steve looked disapproving and shook his head slightly before turning towards Stark. "And yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around." He said flatly. As he liked Keira, it was more difficult to reprimand her, so that's why Stark became the victim instead.
But Tony didn't seem phased. "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome." He concluded.
Well, Keira had to admit that he wasn't wrong about that. Hadn't that been the very reasoning behind HYDRA back in the days?
"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." Steve looked to Banner for support, who stayed quiet. "We have orders. We should follow them." He finished, looking back at Stark.
Keira chucked a few more blueberries into her mouth, chewing on them thoughtfully before she crossed her arms in front of her chest. What Stark said made sense. He was the biggest name in the energy business, and yet, SHIELD hadn't asked for his help. They only wanted his help in the fighting department. That didn't really sit right with her.
"Following's not really my style." Stark concluded simply, snatching back the packet and throwing a few blueberries into his mouth. The tension between the two men was so apparent you could've cut it with a knife.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked the billionaire with a hint of sarcasm.
Tony gave a look of annoyance. "Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?" The outfit, Keira couldn't argue against, but saying that Rogers was of no use was a bit unkind.
Banner, just like Keira, could sense the conversation steering into dangerous territory and decided to interfere. "Steve and Keira, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."
Keira saw the cogs turning in Steve's head, and it looked like he landed on a conclusion he didn't like. "Just find the Cube." He ordered as he left.
As she watched the two men returning to their work with the scepter, she chewed her lip in thought. Something was off, but the question is, what? "Well, good luck, nerds. Have fun with the scepter. Anyway, better go after him and make sure he doesn't pop a hip." She waved in farewell and didn't miss the appreciative smirk that ghosted Stark's face at the little remark.
To her surprise, she laid eyes on the Captain rather more quickly than she had expected. The man was walking away, but he wasn't far off, so he must've paused for a while, or he would've been long gone.
"Hey, Steve! Wait up!" She called after him, and he turned around to face her as she jogged up to him. He seemed uneasy, his whole aura wavering slightly, like he had been thrown off balance. "You think there's something going on here that we don't know about?" She asked, looking up at him.
Steve pressed his lips together in thought before nodding slightly. "I don't know... Some things made sense. I just want to check it out for myself." Ah, so he had a plan then.
"Well, I'll help you then." Keira shone up at him. "Mainly because I have nothing else to do, but also because, like I said before, you need a partner in crime." She said, smirking at him and pushed him lightly to get him moving again.
He gave her a short smile before the two of them speed-walked through the corridor. It actually felt good to walk beside someone else who had a bit of enhanced speed, not having to slow down her own steps in order for the other person to catch up. And she could imagine he felt the same. Walking slow sucked.
Keira suddenly put out a hand and grabbed Steve's arm, which caused him to stop. Glancing towards a door labeled 'Secure Storage, 10-C', she raised her eyebrows at him. "This seems interesting." She said, nodding towards the door.
He read the label and nodded. "It does. You have the code?" He asked, looking towards the small key panel.
"Eh... I doubt it. But I can try?" She put in the code, but as she had expected, the panel bleeped and the small screen shone red. "Nope, no success." She shrugged.
"Alright, move aside." Steve ordered her.
It took her so much by surprise that she obeyed, and the Captain began to try and fit his fingers in the small gap between door and frame. She turned around, keeping a lookout for anyone coming down the corridor, but luckily enough, it remained empty. After a few seconds, she heard a slight click and Steve pushed the door to the side.
"Not bad, Steve. Wouldn't have picked you as one for the destruction of property." She joked as she doubted the door would be functional after getting pushed aside by the supersoldier.
He didn't answer but instead walked inside with cautious steps. Destroying things wasn't something he liked, so being reminded of it didn't enhance his mood. "Stay here." He ordered over his shoulder.
She rolled her eyes and pushed past him as he threw a last glance backward, making sure nobody was following them. "Don't think so." She said simply. The room beyond was filled with silver crates, neatly stacked on top of each other. Steve gave her a disapproving look, but she just shrugged. "Why should you get all the fun?"
He was about to answer when the distant sound of voices reached their ears and they both stilled. She couldn't see anyone though, so she used one of the crates as a stepping-off point and jumped up to the railing above.
"Keira!" Steve whisper-yelled before jumping after her. "We don't know if there's any alarms or traps." He warned her, and she looked at him with her eyebrows raised.
"Steve. If there were any alarms or traps, we would've heard it the second I hit the wrong code and you broke the door. I think we're safe." She said rather quickly, not wanting to stay in this ominous place for longer than she had to. "Besides, we should split up. Cover more ground."
Splitting up was one thing you didn't want to do if you were trapped in a horror movie though.
Steve shook his head in exasperation at her dismissive behavior but walked off in another direction, nevertheless. At first glance, the room had looked pretty small but as she looked over the railing, she saw that the room was quite spacious. It was the shelves and rows of crates that made it feel cramped.
She opened a few crates that contained nothing interesting, so she shut them closed again. It was like a bloody maze in here, but she stopped mid-step as her eyes got stuck on a label. "Phase Two..." She read aloud and her heart skipped a beat.
So, these were the precious crates that Fury had been so intent on getting out of the PEGASUS facility. She didn't waste another second but threw open the lid of the silver crate. A small gasp of surprise left her lips as her eyes settled on the content of the crate.
A weapon. Marked with a HYDRA symbol, nevertheless.
Keira blinked, hard. This couldn't be. Why would SHIELD have these weapons? Surely, this must be a mistake. In an attempt to try and calm herself, she wandered over to the next crate and opened it, hoping it would dismiss her suspicions.
But it didn't.
Another weapon met her eyes, and she released a shaky sigh. "Steve. There's something you might wanna see here." She called out quietly, and the soldier joined her side quickly, almost as if he had been waiting for her to find something. The frown on his face deepened as his eyes landed on the gun in the crate.
"Looks like Stark was right, doesn't it?" Keira asked, still trying to wrap her head around this. Not only was SHIELD tampering with HYDRA weapons, but they also had the nerve to combine them with the powers of the Tesseract? That was just simple foolishness.
Steve's face hardened, and he picked up one of the guns. Just like her, he didn't want to believe it. They wished that this was just a big misunderstanding. Keira followed him as he stalked out of the storage unit and glanced up at him. "Time to get some answers?"
"You betcha."