"What are you doing, Mr Stark?" Nick Fury stormed in, scowling.

"Uhhh.... Kinda been wondering the same thing about you." Tony stated, immediately on guard.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury scowled.

"We are. 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 responded.

"Yeah, then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss. What is "Phase 2"?" Tony asked, looking at his screen.

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. Uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me." Steve slammed a missile onto the table. Nico's head shot up, and he glared at Fury.

"That's why you were so adamant to do the project?" Nico scowled.

"Nico, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making..." Fury was cut off by Tony showing the plans on a holographic computer.

"Sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve spat.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha, sounding slightly hurt.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" The Black Widow avoided the question.

Bruce laugh was humorless, "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you." The Black Widow told him sternly.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Black Widow frowned.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." Natasha said in warning.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce said harshly, "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 Nico.

"Us?" Thor asked, taken aback.

"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." Fury explained.

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

"And I'm not a threat to earth, because it's my home planet. I would never harm the place my friends died trying to protect." Nico almost rolled his eyes at Fury's surprised expression. Thor gave him a look, and Nico sighed, "It's a long story."

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled." Fury only furthered angered the others, except Nico who was slightly confused as to how people were getting so... hostile.

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve shot back.

"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 warned, just as Nico had before.

"A higher form?" Steve asked, horrified by the thought.

"I told you this." Nico frowned, "And I am angry, but can everyone calm down, please. We can talk this out, but we need to be cal..."

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Fury ignored Nico.

"A nuclear deterrent, because that always calms everything right down." There's the Tony Stark' infamous sarcasm.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." That was a low blow, Fury.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep..." Steve was cut off.

"Wait, wait. Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony held up his hands realizing what Fury was doing by changing the subject.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve scoffed.

Thor then added his two cents, getting agitated, "I thought humans were more evolved than this."

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

"You treat your champions with such mistrust." Thor mused bitterly.

"Aw, Thor," Nico groaned, "Not you too!"

"Are you all really that naive?" Black Widow scoffed, "S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threat potential threats?"

"Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce asked, surprised and showing how ridiculous that was.

"We all are." Black Widow explained.

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Tony asked. Nico nodded in agreement.

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

"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened." Tony shouted sarcastically.

"Show some respect." Steve said angrily.

"Respect what?" Tony asked innocently, but Nico could hear the warning in his voice.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor told Fury.

"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." Bruce snarled, eyes flashing green.

"You need to step back." Fury told Bruce sternly.

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

"You know very well why. Now back off." Steve balled his fists.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony said in a deadly calm voice, revealing a part of what he was truly feeling.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Steve got in Tony's face.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony listed off, and stood tall.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve started, "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 smirked.

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

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

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds." Something's not right; Steve Rogers doesn't pick fights.

Nico looked around the room for something to stop the fighting.

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

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce grumbled.

"Agent Di Angelo, would you escort Dr Banner back to his..." Fury paused, realizing with surprise that they were in the lab.

"Where? You rented my room." Bruce was getting too hostile.

"The cell was just in case..." Fury was cut off.

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried." Bruce paused, before crossing his arms, "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit 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." Bruce grabbed the scepter, setting everyone on edge, "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

"The scepter!" Nico said, snapping his fingers.

"Huh?" Bruce asked, confused.

"Dr Banner, put down the scepter." Captain America stated calmly.

Bruce's eyes widened, and he looked at what was in his hand before putting it down.

"It's contents seem to be similar to the Casket," Nico mused.

"What?" Thor asked, surprised.

"There's something of higher power than the Casket in the spear." Nico said, "It's been controlling your emotions though, instead of our actions, since it's in the spear, It has not directly affected you guys."

There was a surprised silence where each person reacted differently. Steve and Thor looked horrified at the realization of what he had said. Black Widow - Nico never did start calling her Natasha (she didn't ever give him a reason to) - raised her eyebrow at the confirmed fact that Nico had not been affected, but Thor had. Bruce's eyes widened, and he backed away from the table the scepter was on in slight fear. Fury glared at the ancient artifact, but there was a trace of regret in his eyes. Tony looked at it with contempt and curiosity. While Nico just stared at it grimly.

Then, there was a beeping sound, and the moment was over.