CHAPTER EIGHTEEN —
( Fight! Fight! Fight! )

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        "Got it," Eliza said out of nowhere. Evelyn looked up from her computer.

"You found it?" She asked.

"Well, no, but I'm locating it now, and when it does, it will pop up on my screen, and we'll know exactly where it is," Eliza smiled and clapped her hands together. "So, I win. Give me your money now."

The three sighed and then handed her fifty dollar notes each.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way. Send Thor as well," Natasha said over the earpiece.

Evelyn put her finger on it. "Will do, Nat." She turned to the group. "Expect company, everyone," she told them. She leaned against a bench and then turned to Eliza, who was happily smoking in the corner. "Are you seriously smoking weed right now?

"Oh, you got me. Somebody call the police!" She sarcastically said and waved her hands in surrender. Evelyn tiredly stared at her.

Fury walked in with a pissed-off expression. "What are you doing, Mr Stark?" He asked. "And why do I smell weed?"

"Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony replied.

"And that smell's coming from Eliza," Evelyn said.

Eliza sighed in defeat as Fury glared at her. "God dammit."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract, not having fun," Fury said.

"We are," Evelyn said. "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."

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Tony said. His monitor then popped up with a collection of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret files. "What is Phase 2?"

Steve suddenly dropped a gun onto the table, causing Fury, Bruce, Tony, Eliza and Evelyn to turn around. He looked pissed. "Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons." He then turned to Tony, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're—" Tony cut Fury off.

"I'm sorry, Nick," He moved his computer screen towards Fury that showed plans for the weapons. "What were you lying?"

"I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Steve said.

Evelyn frowned. "I feel betrayed."

Thor and Natasha then walked in with Natasha's eyes, never leaving Bruce. "Did you know about this?" Bruce asked her.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha asked.

"I was in Calcutta; I was pretty well removed," Bruce told her.

"Loki's manipulating you," she said.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce asked.

"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," Bruce told her. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of them," Fury pointed at Thor and Evelyn.

"Us?" They both asked at the same time.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town," Fury said. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"Yeah, but that was Loki's doing," Evelyn told him.

"And my people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat," Fury said. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched and controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Evelyn asked with a chuckle.

"Your work with the Tesseract drew Loki and his allies to it. It is a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor said.

"A higher form?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something," Fury said.

"Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down," Tony said.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury asked.

"Like father like son," Eliza said.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep..." Steve said.

"Wait, wait, hold on. How is this about me?" Tony said.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked.

"Hey, it's not his fault his father banished him down to Earth," Evelyn defended Thor.

"Excuse me?" Fury looked at her.

"Do you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor asked Fury.

"Are you really that naive? S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats," Natasha told Thor.

"Captain America's on threat policy?" Bruce asked.

"We all are," Evelyn said.

"I am?" Eliza asked with a frown.

"You speak of control, yet cause chaos," Thor said.

"It's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're...we're a time bomb," Bruce said.

"You need to step away," Fury told him.

Tony put his arm around Steve, "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"

Steve pushed Tony off. "You know damn well why! Back off!"

Tony turned around and came face-to-face with Steve. "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Steve asked.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony answered. Evelyn nodded along, remembering the review Natasha and her had done on him the previous year that used those words.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself," Steve told him. "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 said.

Steve smiled at him, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"Oh, god," Evelyn mumbled.

"A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle," Tony said.

Steve puffed up his chest at Tony, who stood there, unmoved by the action. "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughed. "You people are so petty...and tiny."

Tony rubbed his head and moved away from Steve. "Yeah, this is a team," Bruce mumbled.

"Agent Parrish, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his—"

"Where? You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case—" Fury started.

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" Evelyn felt her heart break slightly as she looked at Bruce, who looked around nervously at everyone. Evelyn walked up to Bruce and held his hand in comfort. "I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spat it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!"

He started squeezing Evelyn's hand quite firmly. Evelyn looked down and saw that her hand was beginning to turn purple. He was changing. Evelyn looked up at him and saw a flash of green in his eyes. She raised her other hand and placed it over their hands, rubbing her thumb over them. His hold lessened. Bruce turned to Natasha.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" Bruce picked up the sceptre with the hand that wasn't holding onto Evelyn's.

Natasha and Fury put their hands down to grab their guns, "Doctor Banner...release Evelyn's hand and put down the sceptre." Bruce looked down and a look of shock masked his face as he realised he was holding the sceptre.

The computer beeped, and everyone turned to it. "Got it," Eliza said.

Bruce put down the sceptre and released Evelyn's hand before walking to the computer. Evelyn clenched her hands together, and you could hear multiple loud cracking. "That's better," she shook her hands.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all." Evelyn walked over to Bruce and had a look at the screen.

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I can get there faster," Tony said.

"Look, all of us—" Thor cut Steve off.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor told them.

Bruce tapped a few spots, and the Earth's map began to zoom into a location. "You're not going alone," Steve told Tony.

"You gonna stop me?" Tony asked.

"Put on the suit. Let's find out," Steve said.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony told him.

"Put on the suit," Steve said.

"Fight, fight, fight," Eliza softly chanted.

The zooming-in stopped and showed a location. "Oh shit," Evelyn cursed before an explosion went off, knocking everyone around.