CHAPTER SEVENTEEN —
( I don't get a suit of armour. )

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Bruce continuously scanned with a gamma ray detection scanner on the sceptre for radiation. Eliza was busy spinning around in her chair while her laptop scanned every camera on the planet for the Tesseract. Tony and Evelyn looked at their monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations as possible.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's going to take weeks to process," Bruce said.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops," Evelyn pointed out.

"All I packed was a toothbrush," Bruce said, and Evelyn smiled.

"You know, you both should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it; it's candy land," Tony said.

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke...Harlem," Bruce said.

"I remember that day," Evelyn mumbled before looking up at Tony. "I'll think about it."

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises."

"Actually, Stark Towers is a maze," Eliza said. "The amount of times I've gotten lost in that tower is nuts."

"You've been visiting Stark Towers since the day it was built years ago," Tony said with an eyebrow raised. "You're just too busy daydreaming about random shit to notice the actual levels of the tower. That, and the fact that there's an A.I. that is always available who you can always ask for directions."

Eliza paused. "Oh yeah."

Tony suddenly poked Bruce with a miniature electrical rod, startling the man. Steve walked into the room at that moment, looking pissed at Tony.

"Nothing?" Tony asked.

"Hey, are you nuts?" Steve asked.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Tony asked Bruce, paying no attention to Steve. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

Eliza pointed at Bruce. "I have some weed if you need it."

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked him.

Tony turned to face Steve, "Funny things are." He then turned to Evelyn and zapped her.

Evelyn didn't flinch. "Watch it, Anthony," she warned with a glare.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said, then turned to Bruce. "No offence, doctor."

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," Bruce told him.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut," Tony said. He then zapped Eliza, who leapt out of her chair with a yelp and landed on the floor with a thud.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr Stark," Steve said.

"You think I'm not?" Tony countered. "Why did Fury call us, and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy," Tony said. "He's the top spy. His secrets have secrets, even ones kept from Evelyn." Tony pointed at Bruce, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..." Steve cut him off.

"Doctor?" Steve said.

Bruce looked at him and sighed. "'A warm light for all mankind,' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," Bruce said

"I heard it," Steve nodded.

Bruce pointed at Tony. "Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" Steve asked. "That big ugly..." Tony gave him a look, "...building in New York?"

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for around a year?" Bruce asked Tony.

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Tony said.

"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce wondered.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files," Tony said.

"I knew you couldn't help yourself," Evelyn mumbled.

"I'm sorry, did you say...?" Steve asked, taken aback.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide." Tony held out a bag of blueberries to Steve. "Blueberry?"

"Yes, please," Evelyn said, grabbing a handful from the bag.

"Dude, what the fuck?" Eliza exclaimed, glaring at Tony. "Why didn't you ask me to do it? I would've done it in a heartbeat!"

"Sorry, Liz. Didn't know how close you and S.H.I.E.L.D. were," Tony shrugged.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve said.

"An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence?" Tony asked as he popped another blueberry into his mouth.

"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 them.

"Following is not really my style," Tony said.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?"

"Of the people in this room, which one is A: wearing a spangly outfit, and B: not of use?" Tony asked.

"Eliza isn't of use at the moment," Evelyn pointed out.

Eliza glared. "So not true. I'm always of use." She then proceeded to spin around in her chair again.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells funky to you?" Bruce asked.

Steve paused and looked between the three and Eliza, knowing he wouldn't win the battle. "Just find the cube," Steve said and left the lab.

"Steve!" Evelyn called out as she jogged to catch up to him.

"Go save your lover boy, Evie," Tony said. Evelyn stuck her middle finger up before exiting the lab.

"Steve!" Evelyn called out as she ran up to him. Steve stopped and turned around. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just thinking over what you guys said and wondering if it's all true," Steve replied.

"Where you headed to?" Evelyn asked.

"I'm going back to my room," he lied. He was a pitiful liar.

"Do you want me to keep you company?" Evelyn went along with his lie, causing Steve's cheeks to tint a light pink. "And not like that," she chuckled.

"I just want to get some rest," He said. "I'll come find you later, Eve." He turned and walked away.

Evelyn walked back into the lab, sliding into the conversation the boys were having. "Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us," Tony said.

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare," Bruce said.

"The big green guy and Bruce are like two separate beings trapped in one body. So It's hard to control," Evelyn told Tony.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," Tony said and pointed at the arc reactor in his chest. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's a part of me now, not just armour. It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it," Bruce said.

"Because I learned how."

"It's different."

"Tony, you have technology to help you control your shrapnel. Bruce just has himself," Eliza said.

"But still." When Bruce tried to read the computer screen before him, Tony slid the data aside with his finger so the two could talk face-to-face. "Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"It's true, Bruce," Evelyn said, standing beside Tony.

"So, you're saying that the Hulk...the other guy saved my life?" Bruce asked. Evelyn raised her eyebrow at the possibility of that being true. "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

"To help out," Evelyn said.

Evelyn and Tony got back to work on their respective computers.

"You might not like his help," Bruce said.

"We might just need it."