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TIME passed on by either slowly or rapidly when you have nothing to do, and that was certainly the case for (Y/N). After the small talk, everyone went their separate ways — even though they were all still on the flying helicarrier — and (Y/N) stayed behind in the control room trying to find a way to distract herself.
She could see from the corner of her eye how Maria's eyebrows furrowed in an expression of confusion after one employee called on her to check something in his screens. From where (Y/N) was standing, she could read the alert from the monitor that said 'Virus Detected'. This caught Fury's attention too, and he looked down from the higher point in the control room.
"Vaughn," Fury caught her attention by calling her last name, and she snapped her head in his direction. He seemed to gesture her over. "Come with me."
If the look in Fury's eyes weren't serious, she would've said something about how she noticed the pattern of her trailing behind him like a stray puppy, and she found it amusing. Back when they had first met, it was the other way around.
She and Fury entered the lab where Tony and Bruce were working in, a white colored room with different gadgets and tables for them to work on. The sunlight came through by the four identical windows behind the two men, and (Y/N) could immediately tell whatever her and Fury were doing in there wasn't good at all.
"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?"
Tony sat in the table with one leg crossed over. "Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you."
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."
"We are," Bruce stepped up in a calm voice. "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."
(Y/N) saw the screen that Bruce gestured behind her shoulder and it had the image of a globe, indicating that it was searching all over it for any sort of gamma signature location.
"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss," Tony said before his eyes fell on the screen in front of him and he perked up in interest just like a little kid. "What is 'Phase 2'?"
A thud rang through (Y/N)'s ears, and she whirled on her heel to see how Steve dropped a weapon into the table with a loud clatter.
"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons," Steve explained in an angry tone and his face stoic. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."
Fury jumped to his own defense. "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making — "
"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony cut him off, turning the screen over for him to see. "What were you lying?"
(Y/N) crossed her arms uncomfortably while Steve was glaring down at Fury like he might actually cause some damage if he stared for too long; his hands were placed on the belt of his new suit.
"I was wrong, Director," he spat. "The world hasn't changed a bit."
At that very moment, Thor and Natasha entered into the lab with equally quizzed expressions, one trying to figure out what was going on and the other with a objective to calm the situation down.
"Did you know about this?" (Y/N) looked behind to see Tony looking at her for an explanation.
"I didn't agree with it," (Y/N) defended.
It seemed like her words entered through one ear and left through the other. "This is low, even for you."
She scoffed. "Look who's talking."
"Did you know too?" This time, the question was directed at Natasha, and Bruce was the one asking it.
Natasha remained reserved and took a step forward. "You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"
Bruce let out a dry laugh. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."
"Loki is manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," he replied, before he reached out to grab the screen. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Fury took a second to respond. "Because of them."
He pointed his finger to the side, in the exact direction where Thor and (Y/N) were standing close to one another. This made them look at each other and frown at the accusation.
"Us?"
From a few feet away, Tony couldn't mask the curiosity and confusion that overcame his features after what Fury just said. The others were equally puzzled, others more than normal.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury began. "In 1995, two women dressed for laser tag crash into a Blockbuster and claim to be here to fight an infiltrating alien species."
(Y/N) gulped down the lump in her throat after sensing the pairs of eyes that fell on her form after what Fury had said, and she tried to ignore the way Thor was eyeing her, trying to figure out where she came from.
"We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
(Y/N) decided to speak up. "We managed that situation, did we not?"
Thor followed for his own defense. "My people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury retorted. "And you're not the only threats. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."
Steve frowned. "Like you controlled the Cube?"
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor argued, taking a step closer. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?"
"You forced our hand," Fury defended. "We had to come up with something."
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony spoke up from the side. "Because that always calms everything right down."
Fury raised a questioning eyebrow. "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep — "
"Hold on," Tony cut Steve off. "How is this is now about me?"
"I'm sorry. Isn't everything?"
Thor's eyes flickered to the two men before his gaze returned to the director. "I thought humans were more evolved than this."
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked with a hint of anger.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust."
"Are you boys really that naive?" Natasha's voice cut through the argument. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."
Bruce didn't believe what she was saying. "Captain America's on threat watch?"
"We all are."
"Wait, you're on that list?" Tony scoffed, pointing at (Y/N), who nodded at his question. "Are you above or below angry bees?"
Steve was on the verge of snapping. "Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack — "
"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened."
"Show some respect."
"Respect what?"
The arguments got mixed together into a loud orchestra, and no one was in the right state of mind to even flicker their eyes towards the scepter, which started to emit a faint blue light from it. Everyone was either fighting back a retort or saying something that added fuel to the fire.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor pointed out.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce caught everyone's attention. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."
"You need to step away," Fury warned.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony questioned casually.
Steve knocked the hand that Tony had placed on his shoulder. "You know damn well why. Back off!"
"I'm starting to want you to make me."
"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor," Steve moved to stand right in front of Tony. "Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
(Y/N) scoffed and she could see how Natasha shook her head to the side like she was agreeing with his point.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve spat angrily. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony told him.
"Always a way out," Steve smiled, but it was filled with pure annoyance. "You may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you?" Tony almost scoffed. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."
Thor's loud laugh broke them both apart. "You people are so petty, and tiny."
"Yeah, this is a team," Bruce's sarcastic remark was barely heard.
Fury faced the redhead. "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his — "
"Where? You rented my room."
"The cell was just in case — "
"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I've tried," Bruce confessed, and (Y/N)'a heart dropped at this. "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show sand put everyone here at risk."
Fury and Natasha both discretely removed the strap that secured the guns to their holsters and held onto them, just as Bruce kept talking.
"You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"
"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter," Steve calmly caught his attention, way different from the tone he was using before.
Bruce's eyes fell back down at his hands and saw how the scepter was now in his grip instead of the table, and he cautiously lowered down. The computer began to let out a loud beeping noise, one that caught everyone off guard besides Tony and Bruce, who knew what that meant.
"Got it."
"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce moved from his spot to the computer.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor questioned.
Tony was already making his way to the door. "I could get there the fastest."
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor argued. "No human is a match for it."
(Y/N) almost laughed but hid it well, her eyes now settling on the way Tony and Steve were falling into round two of their bickering.
"You're not going alone," Steve called to him.
This time, it was Tony who dropped Steve's hand. "You're gonna stop me?"
"Put on the suit, let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
The computer kept beeping and Bruce was the only one who could see the location of the Tesseract, and his eyes widened in surprise when he did. "Oh, my God."
Catching everybody off guard, an explosion rigged through the entire room in a matter of seconds, causing damages almost instantly. The enormous blow knocked everyone off their feet, also making half of the floor below them to collapse and drag Natasha and Bruce with it.
(Y/N) was thrown back into the nearest wall behind her, getting the wind knocked out of her for a few seconds before she regained her footing and tried to find out what this meant.