ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ˢⁱˣ | ᵗʰᵉ ˢᶜⁱᵉⁿᵗⁱˢᵗˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ˢᶜʰᵒᵒˡ

"Who votes to throw Stark off of this helicarrier?"

    "It's a stabilizing agent."  

    Then another voice popped into the conversation. One that made Anne shiver in anger. It was so recognizable. So irritable. It was the type of voice that made anyone want to punch the person even if you hadn't seen their face yet. Anne had to hold herself back from gagging at this point. The name was far to unbearable for her to say. Tony Stark. The billionaire and inventor. The way he buttoned his suits or thinks he is better than everyone. Ugh.

    When the Stark entered the platform, it was seen that he was walking with Phil Coulson. The two talked to each other as if they had been friends for years. "I'm saying: take the weekend, I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive." Tony looked like he was having the time of his life while Phil looked like he was desperate to get away from the conversation.

    Then Tony turned to the odd group. One hand was in his pocket while the other was out, motioning to things as he pleased. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHEILD." As Tony was walking towards the control panel and Maria Hill, he turned to Thor and patted his muscular arm. "No hard feelings point-break, you had a mean swing."

    Thor gave a weird look to him. And everyone else just watched in wonder. Well, expect for Anne and Natasha who both have seen him in action a million times before. Stark continued as he stood in the control panel. "It also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

    He started to turn around and barking out orders to SHEILD personnel without batting an eyes. They all proceeded to give him a weird look as he did so. "Ah! Raise the mizzen mass, ship the topsails." He pointed to the right. "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Tony now covered one of his eyes, peering over to screens. He turns over to Maria and points to the ministers. "How does Fury even see these?"

    Maria, who seemed unbothered, said in a monotone voice: "He turns." Her arms laced over each other as they rested on her chest. Her feet were planted steadily on the ground.

    "Sounds exhausting." Tony sighed. He began to touch the screens laid out in front of him, continuing to talk mindlessly. Meanwhile, Maria was watching him and his movements very carefully. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on easily. The only major component he needs is a power source. A high energy density. Something to- kick start the cube."

     "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked, her eyes staring sternly at the scientist.

    Tony puckered a lip. "Last night. The packet. Selvig's notes. The extraction papers- am I the only one who did the homework?"

    Steve Rogers kept a straight face. Unfazed by this whole thing. He was the complete opposite of Tony's playful and tiring mood. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" He interrupted the scientist.

    Bruce, who was pacing back and forth, thinking all the things happening right now, spoke up. "He's have to heat the cube to 130 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb Barrier." He paused, looking at Anne to make sure he was right.

    "120 million Kelvin. 130 would be too much. The cube would simply be a nuke." Anne gazed at the doctor.

    Tony looked around the odd crowd, a knowing smile prancing across his lips. His hands raised in a sort of manner that said 'Look at this'. He seemed proud of Bruce Banner it seemed like. "Unless, Selvig figured out hot to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

    With the Stark slowly creeping up to both scientists Bruce and Anne, they all kept talking to each other. Anne whoever looked out her fingers, her eyebrows furrowed at just the thought of quantum tunneling effect. "It would be very easy to convert the two protons into a deuterium nucleus. Ever main sequence star in ever galaxy in this region does this with vast quantities of hydrogen constantly. Assuming the tesseract is from outer space and another planet," Anne looked over to the god: Point Break and he nodded. "It could be easy to do so."

    Tony turned to the girl, pointing his finger at her as he nodded his head. Bruce turned to Anne, handing her his pencil. "Yes of course. If he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." He finished off.

    Tony pointed to Bruce and Anne with a smirk. With one pocket in his hand, and the other reaching out in front of Bruce, he shook his hand. "Finally." He sighed. "People who speak my language."

    "Is that what happened?"

    With Tony barely a foot away from her, Anne couldn't help but roll her eyes at just the meet presence of him. Just the way he thinks he is the most important person in the world and his large ego makes her skin crawl. One of things her dad always taught her was to never change herself in front of people she hated. This was different. With a scowl planted on her lips, and her eyes rolling every second, she turned her head upwards to look at the scientist. "Stark."

    Tony withdrew his hand from the other scientist's one. "Robinson. I assume your still building your little gizmo?" He asked with a head tilt.

    "Oh. That's how it is? We both know it isn't just a little gizmo. You are just jealous that I came up with it first and that big brain of yours couldn't." Anne sat straight in her chair. Her doe eyes avoiding his.

    "Ouch." The Stark placed a hand over his heart. His lip puckered out as he wiped away some fake tears strolling down his cheeks. "Darling, I'm so hurt. And Doctor banner, your work on antieltron is unparalleled. And I am a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

    At the sound of it: green rage monster, The doctor looked down to the ground. His lips pursed at the thought of someone bringing it up. It was like the world was taunting him. Like they were begging him to always be reminded of that thing. "Thanks." Is all he could say as a response. It was awkward and Tony couldn't see that.

    "Doctor Banner and Doctor Robinson are only here to track the cube." A new, yet familiar, voice came in. Everyone looked up to find the one and only Nick Fury marching in with his now iconic black trench coat and black eyepatch. The man ignored everyone's attention but Stark's. His gaze fell on him. "I was hoping you would help them."

    "Doctor Robinson? You are in this little project of the Chancellor Palpatine's here?" Tony leaned against the table, his eyes fluttering in a little school kid's manner.

   "Who votes to throw Stark off of this helicarrier?" Anne raised her hand. Her eyes peered around to everyone else to find them watching the two converse with each other in wonder. "Please? Come on, you will tha-"

    "Nope!" Stark yelled. "Can't change your mind. I'm already in this project of yours. Let's find the cube."

    "Let's start with that stick of his." Steve's eyes glanced over to the three scientists all huddled close together. They all intently watched him and listened closely as to what he was saying. "It may be maniacal but it looks an awful a lot like a HYDRA weapon."

    "I don't know about that." Nicks voice filled with criticism said. He looked almost offended by what Captain America had said to everyone. "But it is powered by the cube. And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of my sharpest men I know into personal flying monkeys."

    "Monkeys?" Thor said. His uncrossed arms went back to his sides, his eyebrow cocked up in confusion. Sometimes, Anne forgot he was not of this world. Therefore he did not get to watch the same tv shows that she got to watch growing up. "I don't understa-"

    "I do!"

    Tony rolled his eyes. Steve looked over to Anne and Natasha with a beaming smile. He was glad he finally figured out something about this new century he was thrown into. "I understood that reference."

    "Shall we play doctors?" The Stark motioned to the door closed to them.

    Bruce followed the Stark almost immediately. Meanwhile, Anne was still seated at her chair. Her eyebrows furrowed at just the thought of that retched scientist. With a roll of her eyes- as if she hadn't done that over a million times before- she got up from her seat and followed the other two scientists. The people behind her were watching her every movements with curiosity, but, Anne ignored them.

    Clicking the pencil on her finger nails, she trailed closely behind Banner and Stark who were walking side by side with each other. Agents kept passing the three, walking as fast as they could with business on their mind. Everyone here had a mission. They had an objective. This was one of those times where Anne had to focus. Listening closely to the two scientists ahead of her, she started to speed walk to catch up to them.

   "Have they been treating you fair? Giving you coffee? Cheeseburgers?" Tony started to talk. His eyebrows raised as his body turned to face towards Bruce who shrugged.

    The doctor smiled awkwardly. Stutters started to come out of his mouth when he couldn't find the right answer. He peered back to Anne as if he was silently pleading for help. Then he gazed back down to his hands that were wringing each other. "I mean, they personalized my own special room. I haven't been in it yet. But just in case I stay longer." Bruce explained.

    Anne perked up at this. A lightbulb went off and she just remembered her question she had been holding in for the last day to herself. "Doctor Banner," She inquired. "I have a question for you." Anne muttered. Quickly picking up her feet, she wedged herself in between Tony and Bruce. Tony sighed with a roll of his eyes and made his movements big as he stepped drastically to the left.

    "Uh- go for it, kid." Bruce muttered. He looked over to the young girl then back to his wringing hands. Tony fixed his gaze on Anne, curiosity filling him with the question of what she was going to ask lingering his mind.

    "What did Stark mean by a big, green, raging monster. Earlier today you brought up the other guy. I'm just curious. Is it you friend or something? Or is it an Alien? I don't quite understand." Anne trailed off. Her lips were pressed into a tight thin line as she studied the doctor's puzzled face. She even glanced over to the Stark who's nose was crinkled. His brown eyes widen at the question and he had that silly smirk that was on his lips. Laughing filled the air. And it came from Tony. "What?"

    "You seriously don't know about him?" Tony laughed. The trio paused in the middle of the walkway. Anne and Bruce both deadpanned on him, they waited for him to stop it. It was very embarrassing on his side. A lot of the agents started to stare at him too with eyebrows raised and eyes looking at him like he was crazy. "The Anne Morgan Robinson doesn't know about the other guy? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just forget you are such a sheltered kid."

    "Like you didn't have the worst dad in the world." Anne brought her finger and tapped it on her chin. A mischievous smirk pranced across her lips as her eyes looked up to the ceiling to avoid the look of shock going through Tony's face.

    "You really are cold, huh. At least my dad actually did something in his life. What did your dad do exactly?" Tony replicated the woman's exact smirk.

    "He did plenty of things. But your big fat ego was in the way of seeing it. Just like your big fat ego is in the way of seeing that, yes, I am a smart woman who created something you could never." Anne placed her hands on her hips. She leaned forward but ended up backing up when a group of agents made their way in between them. Their eyebrows raised and their lips pursed as they felt the pure awkwardness coming from the stares of the scientists.

    "Every heard of a man who created an artificial intelligence and a powered exoskeleton suit? He attended MIT at age fourteen and graduated summa cum laude at seventeen. He's pretty awesome. I can't remember his name. It's on the tip of my tongue." Tony paused. He looked around before pointing to himself dramatically. "Oh! Me. Tony Stark. All you did was was go to Harvard- disgusting by the way- and get your puny degrees."

    "Is it just your life goal to argue with some one smarter, younger, and more beautiful than you?" Anne stared into Tony's eyes.

    "Banner is a beautiful person. Isn't he?"

    "I don't want to be in this."

    "You know what?" Anne huffed. Her fists balled up and they floated in the air with her closed eyes. Her chest moved up and down rapidly. "I had about with you. This is the reason why I didn't like you as a kid. Okay? So why don't we stop this, get to work, and go back to never seeing each other again. Alright? Cool." Anne didn't wait for an answer and made her way down the hall without the scientists following her.

    Tony cupped his lips and yelled out loudly. "You just didn't have a better comeback!"

    "How do you two know each other again?" Bruce looked at the Stark then back at Anne with raised eyebrows. Curiosity filled him. The whole time he was just watching the two banter with each other. Going back and forth until they stopped. It's like they completely forgot the task at hand once they started to talk to each other.

    "Oh." Tony dragged his hand down his face. The two scientist started to walk again, following behind Anne but far away so she couldn't hear their conversation. "She was always with her grandpa. She was like a little minion. Her grandpa worked with my dad and a dude named Hunter? Hudson? Hank? I honestly don't know. Anyways, her father also worked with them. Sometimes he would drop her off with me. The little Matilda would correct me over everything. God. So annoying."

    Bruce just nodded. "Sounds fun." He awkwardly muttered.