"What are you two doing?" Miriam walked into the lab where Tony and Bruce had spent the entire night. She found both men consumed into one computer that was opening files at random and distributing them into different folders, tony had plucked a few away and both men were now staring intently at them.

She had a cup of coffee in her hand, leaning against the side wall while both men turned rather quickly in her direction. Tony was the first to speak, eyes settling on her changed demeanor from last night. After their conversation which led to some startling discoveries on her part he had spent most of the night milling over them inside his head, slowly finding himself further fascinated with her and he would be lying if he said he didn't want to look through more files to find her dead child's location. He smiled at her, walking over and plucking out the second mug of coffee she had in her hand, "we're breaking into SHIELDS hardrives, finding out all the dirty secrets."

Bruce's eyes directed his way, giving him a look that questioned why he had spilled everything to an agent but Miriam beat him. She nodded her head, "mind if I look?"

"You're fine with this?" Banner's head shot in her direction, eyebrows raised at her nonchalant she was being.

"Very," she nodded her head. From her back pocket she pulled a Capri Sun and threw it in the doctors direction. "Sorry Doc, didn't want to give you anything that might be too much so I went for something fruity and kid friendly."

Bruce shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to pop open the straw to the plastic drink. Tony watched this with amusement, walking back over to the computer as Miriam followed him, "what if we find something we're not supposed too? Are you gonna try and stop us?"

"Apparently I don't know a thing about this place and I've worked here practically my whole life so no, I wouldn't even know." She answered, sipping from the warm cup. "So what are you looking for exactly."

"What exactly Fury is looking to do with the Tessaract."

"Interesting topic, count me in, although they probably will find out about your breach soon." She retorted, looking over Tony's shoulder.

The man looked back briefly, finding her warm breath fanning his neck and the sweet smell of her caramel coffee hitting his nostrils for a moment. He swallowed thickly, finding that words were beginning to escape him until Banner spoke up, "so what is it exactly you want from this Miriam?"

"I had a child, it died and now I want to know where it's remains are or even what sex it is." She answered with a laid back manner, there was no sense in keeping secrets any longer because chances are Banner would find out soon enough. She gently nudged tony to get his attention, "by the way I thought you had already cracked this last night."

Bruce met Tony's eyes for a second, finding that the man didn't seem at all startled by her revelation. He grew suspicious the further they talked and then remembered the two hours Stark had gone missing. Tony looked away, pretending to be distracted as he answered her, "I did just not all of it. It's easier to look for specifics rather then a whole."

"I'm sorry Miriam." Bruce apologized.

She shrugged her shoulders, clamping down her hand on his own and speaking softly, "don't be, you're not at fault and it was a long time ago. I've made my peace with it." The sliding doors behind them opened, alerting the trio that someone was going to stumble upon what they were doing. Miriam turned first, finding none other then Nick Fury standing there. She whistled lowly, finding a frown falling onto her lips as she muttered, "busted y'all."

"What are you doing, Mr Stark?"

"Uhhh, Kind of been wondering the same thing about you." Tony turned on his heel, allowing them man to have full vision of what was occurring.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." He recounted, shooting his agent a look of displeasure. "Miriam, you should have stopped them or called it in."

"I'm sorry, I thought I was able to do things without your approval first." She countered, moving off to the side as she knew Tony and Bruce were about to make this argument even bigger.

"We are looking. 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." Bruce explained although his voice was a little angrier then normal.

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss. What is "Phase 2"?" Stark was quick to bring up the subject, pointing to the screen which was downloading everything related to Phase 2 while Miriam looked over.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. Uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me." Behind Fury, Steve walked in and announced the situation. He dropped a vintage looking gun onto the table in front of them, looking angrier then ever.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making..." Nick attempted to calm the situation although Miriam knew he was just lying because that's what he was good at.

"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony was having none of it.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve said with slight disappointment.

"Did you know about this?" Banner addressed the new arrivals, specifically the red head who was ahead.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" She diverted.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" He countered.

"Join the club," Miriam huffed earning herself a glare from the agents to which she roles her eyes.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha reminded him.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. Is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." He demanded.

Everyone stayed silent after that, simultaneously decided that agitating "the hulk" himself wasn't going to help in the slightest. Director Fury sighed, realizing that it was better to fess up now then to continue in this charade. He turned towards Thor, pointing his finger in the mans direction. "Because of him."

"Me?" The long haired blonde scoffed.

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

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."

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

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve scoffed to man and Miriam hummed in approval.

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

"A higher form?" Steve questioned.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Nick continued to argue with the Asgardian.

"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down." Tony added in his own sass.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Nick retorted towards him.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep..." Steve added on with sass.

"Wait, wait. Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony defended himself, walking towards the short haired blonde.

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

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor questioned, looking at Miriam.

"We're really not." She responded, keeping silent for the most part. She wasn't exactly in the mood to argue with anyone, besides, no one had brought her name into this mess.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury looked in both their direction when Morales chose not to argue on his behalf. His eyes flickered from the brunette to the blonde

"You treat your champions with such mistrust." Thor threw in his face and Miriam had to let out a small giggle because although the Asgardian didn't know much he had hit the nail on the head on that one.

"Are you boys really so naive? SHIELD monitors the planet for threat watches." Nat got in.

Miriam seemed to snap then, turning her attention to a person she called her closest friend. "You're kidding me right? SHIELD keeps them on a leach like toddlers and then never lets go."

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce interjected.

"We all are." Both Nat and Miriam said at the same time although Miriam's was said with more conviction and hostility.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Nat finally seemed to finally start to crack at her composure.

Miriam stood straight up, sensing all the gates of fury opening up inside her. All she could envision was Fury last night, everything she'd found out and more, it was like a storm had come through to her. "Natasha, you know exactly what's wrong! All these years, lying to me and trying to be my friend for what? To keep tabs on me? None of you trusted me, no matter what I did I'm always going to be the girl who kills people!"

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Tony's voice was somewhere in the background, arguing away with Rogers although it was somewhere in the back of Miriam's head as she tried her best not to completely lose it.

"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack..."

"Miriam! You don't understand!" Nat began explaining.

"Morales, you knew exactly what you were getting into back in 93, don't act different now." Fury butt in. "You can't be death and a hero."

"But I can pretend to be a hero when you need me too right?" She scoffed, turning back so her attention could be on Tony and Steve. Arguing with them was

"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened." Tony went on.

"Show some respect."

"Respect for what?"

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor judged Fury's choice of warriors.

It seemed to spark something in Banner who stood. "That's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

Fury noticed this and warned him. "You need to step away."

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony responded.

"You know damn well why. Back off!" Steve answered, stepping forward. Miriam watched this, inching closer as she realized that this fight would be brutal and chance are it would take her and Thor to stop it.

"Alright boys, that's enough," she spoke, attempting to silence them with words but that seemed to do nothing.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony went on despite looking at Miriam for a moment, she was right by his side now.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Steve challenged, both practically nose to nose.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony counted off.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve sneered, jaw tightening as he restrained from hitting the man. "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 didn't seem at ease as the tempers continued to grow

"Always a way out. You know, You may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero." Steve responded.

"A hero? Like you?" Tony almost laughed. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"That was low." Miriam muttered, shaking her head

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." Steve offered.

"You people are so petty and tiny." Thor laughed at them both.

"Welcome to humanity, it's a shit place." Miriam hummed with him, knowing there was no sense in trying to stop an argument because chances were she would be getting in one herself.

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce went on.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr Banner back to his..." Fury attempted to level with the man although he barely managed to speak.

"Where? You rented my room." Banner cut in, implying that the room where Loki was being kept ha deben his all along. Although Miriam was growing concerned of the mans temper she wasn't startled by this revelation, in fact, she had a hunch the room might have been for her as well.

"The cell was just in case..."

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried. I got low. I didn't see an end so, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out." He revealed this deep hidden secret and suddenly everyone in the room looked down. They didn't mean to pity him, in fact they all struggled at some point or another. Miriam kept still, attempting not to give off too much pity although she could understand where he was coming from, she didn't like the other person in her either.

"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. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

He'd walked towards Loki's scepter, picking it up while speaking as it glowed brightly. Miriam felt her forearm bump in front of Tony and Steve, unknowingly having taken a stance in front of both men and closer towards Banner, she was preparing to either keep the two men safe or fight the monster. She swallowed thickly, awaiting his next move and feeling her muscles pump with adrenaline.

"Miriam move," Tony warned.

"No." She shot back, not taking her eyes off Banner.

Steve's hand suddenly wrapped around her elbow, as if to pull her to safety as well. "Dr Banner, put down the sceptre."

Bruce looked down and found he fist tightening over the long stick, blue glowing bright from the top as if it was coming to life and thriving. Miriam shook her head, attempting to rid her head of all the anger she'd felt before as the tension broke with loud beeps and alerts. Tony touched her waist, going around her after a second of making sure she was fine. "Got it."

"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce said, placing the scepter down and walking towards the computer.

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor questioned.

The screens answered his question as they all confirmed with their own eyes and Tony spoke. "I could get there fastest."

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it." Thor argued.

"I'll do it then." Miriam volunteered.

"You're not going alone." Steve argued with Tony once more, stepping in his way to stop the man.

"You're gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony fired back.

"Put on the suit." Steve continued and finally Miriam had had enough.

She stepped between them both, shoving them back and glaring at them both. "I'm through with this, both of you are coming and so am I because clearly you two need parental supervision."

"Oh, my God." Bruce yelled out and Miriam had enough time to just snap her head in the computers direction to note how close the source was. The laboratory they were in blew, the brunette pushing both Steve and Tony just out of harms way and into the nearest hallway while she took the brunt of the blow. Her ears rang, head knocking against the steel of the newly opened aircraft, the last thing her eyes managed to find before she succumbed to the land of unconscious was the Helicarrier slowly drifting fourth and further from her vision.