Later that night in the Wishbone Lab, Acworth, Banner and Stark were working on tracking the Cube. Banner was scanning the scepter with a device.
"The Gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But, its gonna take weeks to process." Banner informed the pair.
Stark and Elise worked on a screen and surprisingly they worked pretty well together with very few disagreements. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Elise explained.
"All I packed was a toothbrush." Banner said sheepishly.
"Cute." Elise joked.
Tony giggled a bit. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top ten floors- all R and D. You'd love it, its a candy land."
"Thanks but...last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem."
"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." He zapped Banner in the side.
"Ow!"
"Hey!" Steve entered the room.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Elise asked, stepping away from Banner as if the green monster was about to be release at any moment.
"Nothing?" Tony responded almost too quickly.
Steve approached him. "Are you nuts?"
"He is." Elise replied for Stark while looking his way.
"Jury's out!" He exclaimed before turning his attention to Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"
Elise sighed heavily while rolling her eyes before going back to the screen while the men continue their conversation. "Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked him.
"Funny things are."
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." He scolded before quickly gesturing to Banner. "No offense, Doc."
Banner waved him off. "No, its alright. I wouldn't have come abroad if I couldn't handle pointy things."
"And, we're glad you did." Elise looked back at him and gave him a small smile which he returned an awkward one.
"You're tip-toeing, Big Man. You need to strut." Tony told him.
"And, you need to focus on the problem at hand, Stark." Elise rebuttal.
He turned his attention to her as she stopped what she was doing and turned his way before folding her arms against her chest. "You think I'm not?"
"No." She responded. "I think you're playing games."
"Why do you think Fury called us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us?"
Elise looked away at the question while slowly walking towards Banner. "I can't tell the ins and outs of my father. He's a mystery to me, as well."
"I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
Steve chimed in. "You think Fury's hiding something?"
"Fury's a lot of things; but a liar isn't one of them. Well, to me, at least." Elise informed them as she leaned against the white table with folded arms. "If anything, he's probably withholding something for our safety."
Tony scoffed. "He's a spy, Elise, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." She looked down at the ground before clearing her throat as Steve watched her mannerisms. Tony motioned to Banner. "Its bugging him to, isn't it?"
He uncomfortably glanced up at them. "Uh, aah, I just wanna finish my work here and---"
"Doctor?" Steve pressed.
"A warm light for all mankind..." He started. "Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."
"I heard it."
"Well, I think it was meant for you." He gestured to Tony---who offered him a blueberry. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark Tower? The big, ugly---" Stark gave him a look. "Building in New York?"
"Its powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Elise added.
"Its just a prototype." Tony said before telling Rogers, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now, that's what she's getting at."
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Banner asked. "What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?"
"Agent Acworth, do you know?" Steve asked Elise.
Her eyebrows clenched at the formal title but still shrugged her shoulders and answered the question. "I've been with SHIELD for about four years now. Within that time, I've been sent on countless of missions and within those missions I've found out many secrets of SHIELD." She explained then shook her head. "But, I remember hearing from Coulson one day about this particular energy dropping down from a different realm. Awhile later, Thor shows up." Steve's head turned slightly intrigued for what she would say. "SHIELD had been searching for this self-sustaining energy since 2008 or 9---if I have my times correct."
"What do they want with it?"
She shrugged her shoulders again. "Well, up until the past week, anything that revolved around Fury, SHIELD, and forming groups I've tried my best to avoid." She looked around at the men. "SHIELD's secrets are very encrypted. Hard to break in and find out."
"Being Fury's daughter doesn't give you the pass away to get their secrets?" Banner asked.
"First off, don't refer me as his daughter."
"Sorry."
"And, secondly, I'm not a hacker. I may be one of the best agents they have but, like I said, anything that involves Director Fury I try my best to stay away from... Unless its unavoidable."
"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony said which made everyone look his way.
"I'm sorry did you say---" He cut Steve off.
"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty little secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?"
"Every secret?" Elise asked with a surprised tone.
"Every last one."
"And yet, you're confused about we didn't want you around."
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."
"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 him.
Tony sucked his teeth. "Following's really not my style."
"We know." Elise muttered.
"And, you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked him.
"Out of all of the people in this room, which one is "A" wearing a spangly, "B" not of use and "C" bat-shit crazy?" Tony asked.
"Steve, tell me none if this smells a little funky to you?" Banner said.
Before Steve could answer, Elise heard a voice on the earpiece intercom. "Agent Acworth, we need you in the bridge." Fury told her.
She pressed the button on the earpiece and replied, "On my way." Before releasing it. Standing straight up, she said. "Well, I'm needed in the bridge."
"I'll come with you." Steve said while they both way their way to the door. "Just find the Cube." He ordered the pair behind them. The two exited the lab. Steve paused and turned, walking into another direction, following after Elise---who seemed to know her way around perfectly. "You sure know your way around." He commented to her.
For a moment, he believed she wouldn't respond for how long it took her but when her mouth began to open, it took him by surprise. "Long before SHIELD's headquarters were compromised and destroyed, Fury had tasked me with the blue prints of this ship."
"You created this?"
"Not by myself, unfortunately." She answered. "But, yes, I helped create this ship. Mainly, the bridge, the lab---going invisible was my idea--- and the cage where Loki is currently being held---which wasn't by choice."
"What do you mean by that?" She stopped walking and turned to Steve as he followed after and stopped walking, as well. "I apologize, Ma'am, if I overstepped my boundaries."
Her eyes squinted for a bit as if reading him. "You did." She said shortly. "Lets just say.... Cages aren't particularly my favorite place." She balled her lips together for a moment. "Holds too many...haunting memories."
"Were you held in a cage before?"
She looked up into his eyes and saw that he was purely curious of her past and why she was the way she was. But, she didn't trust easily. Biting her lip, she looked away before starting to walk again, in the direction of the bridge. He started walking too. "Yes." She said as she blinked away the nightmares. "For almost a year and a half....maybe two...after my accident. I'm not exactly sure....days were a bit harder to decipher then." Steve glanced over to her. Her face was blank and her voice was emotionless but her eyes were troubled. She reminded him of his old friend, Bucky. Unfortunately, Bucky was long gone...from his understanding. He watched him die.
"I'm sorry."
She scoffed. "It was nearly five years ago. I've moved on." She sniffed while glancing at the floor for a moment.
After awhile of silence, Steve asked the impending question. "Who put you in the cage?"
Just as they made it to the bridge, Elise walked ahead of him before looking back. "Boundaries." Was all she said before leaving him to walk into the bridge. She headed over to Director Fury, Agent Hill and Agent Coulson as he watched her with interest.