Chapter 14 - Rachel Stark

As soon as I stumble back into the lab, I frantically look around, checking to make sure that Bruce was still here. To my surprise, he was still here. Tony and Bruce looked bored and they were just sitting around, tinkering with something on their screens. I take a deep breath to calm myself down, making sure I don't panic anyone. After learning a piece of Loki's plan has been about four feet away from me this whole day has been a little unnerving. 

"Um, guys? Don't we have a job to do?" I asked, smoothing the fabric of my catsuit down.

"Well yeah, but the program is running itself just fine. But JARVIS is having one hell of a time trying to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure network. Do you have any passwords I could try 140140?" Tony asks with a sarcastic gleam in his eye. 

"Tony, cut it out," I warn as someone walks in right behind me.

"What are you doing Mr. Stark?" Fury asks, clearly angry that his top two scientists are doing nothing productive.

"Uh... kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony says, sass turned up to ten.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury states bluntly, crossing his hand over themselves behind his back.

"We are," Bruce says, standing up and walking over to Tony. "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 says pointing towards the tracking device.

"And we'll have your cube back no muss no fuss," Tony says and then sits in front of the computer screen. "Hey by the way, what IS Phase 2?" he asks, turning the screen around for Fury and I to see properly.

Something drops onto the metal cart behind me. "Phase 2 is SH.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons." Steve says, pointing to the huge gun he dropped on the counter. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're...."

"I'm sorry Nick," Tony cuts Fury off, "What were you lying?" Tony turns the computer screen towards the rest of us. "Rach, did you know about this?" Tony asks, pointing to an animated model that was building weapons in front of my eyes.

"These are my designs, but I never had a source to power them. They must've been stored on the S.H.I.E.L.D. server." I say looking at Tony. I quickly turn to Fury. "You never informed me you were using my designs. I never authorized this. I deemed these too powerful if they were ever to have an energy source." I walk over to Tony and lean against the counter with him. He turns the screen back to face us and we study it quickly. "What are these for, Nick?" 

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve says. I can hear the disappointment in his voice. I bet he wants his ten bucks back. 

"These are pretty clever," Tony says to me in a whisper. I nod over to him. 

"Well, obviously. I wouldn't make something that was bad," I remark. He smiles and nudges me in the side with his elbow, bringing our attention back to the confrontation. 

"Did you know about this?" Bruce points to Natasha. Clearly, she did by that look on her face. I didn't even know about Phase 2 and I have the same clearance as Natasha. Does Clint know?

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha says, not bothering to respond to the question. 

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." He says, sarcasm seething from his voice.

"Loki's manipulating you," Nat says in a warning tone.

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha says. I look over to her and raise an eyebrow. She dismisses me quickly. 

"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." Bruce finishes. The room is silent. Finally, Fury speaks up.

"Because of him." He says pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Here we go with the blame game.

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

"So that's why you wanted my weapons designs. But why do you need the cube?" I ask. "Sure, it's an energy source, but these weapons could've been powered with something else." 

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor says, redirecting the tone of the conversation. Can I just get one word through to them?

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

I start to say something but Steve says it too fast, "Like you controlled the cube?" Ugh, literally one second.

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

"A higher form?" I repeat out loud instead of in my head.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Nick said. He looks mad! I say in my mind in a sing-song voice.

"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down." Tony says in an extremely sarcastic voice.

"Remind me how you made your fortune, Stark?" he says. Tony looks over at me and we shrugged. 

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep..." Steve starts. I stand up to start to defend Tony but he beats me to the punch. 

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this all of a sudden about me?" Tony says.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorts. I walk over to get behind Steve. I really don't want any of them to fight but if it helps, HAVE AT IT! I would love to take some digs at the group myself. 

"I thought humans were more evolved than this!" Thor's booming voice rang out above everyone else's.

"Excuse me, did WE come to YOUR planet and blow up stuff?"

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor spits back at Fury.

"Are you all really that naïve? S.H.I.E.L.D. monitor potential threats." Nat says to Bruce, turning my attention away from Thor and into an entirely different conversation.

"Captain America and Rachel Stark are on that list? She is one of the top agents." Bruce questions.

"We are all on the list." Natasha finishes. I turn my attention back to Steve and Tony.

"I swear to god Stark," Steve starts.

"You're on the list?" Tony says directing his question to Steve, "Are you above or below angry bees? Threatening!! I feel threatened!" Tony yells into Steve's face. This is just what Loki wants. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the scepter's gem start to glow brighter.

"Uh, guys?" I ask, but everyone is too busy fighting with each other. I step out from behind Steve and slowly make my way to the middle of the room. I start to get this feeling that something is not right. Especially since Loki is on board. White noise fills my ears, the overlapping arguments getting too confusing for my brain. My ears don't know who to listen to until I hear Bruce's voice rise.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" I reach down, to get a hold of my gun. 

"Dr. Banner... Put the scepter down." Steve says, letting pure sympathy seep into his voice. I back up towards Steve and Tony again as Bruce turns to put down the scepter. Just as he does, the computer beeps.

"Got it," Tony says. He and I spring into action. I head back over to my station to make sure that the radiation is consistent and that it is safe for us to go after. 

"Sorry kids. Looks like you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce says with his head down. They start to bicker again and then an explosion goes off. I get thrown into the wall of the lab while Nat is on the deck below with Bruce. 

"Steve?" I call out, hoping he can hear me through all of the commotion.

"Rach?" he calls back.

"In here," I say as casually as I can. My whole body aches. I check around for any blood but come up short. At least I won't have to worry about bleeding out. I see Steve's face through the rubble.

"Hey," he says, "You are going to come help Tony and me in Engine 3, okay?" he says. I nod and he helps me get back on my feet. We run down to Engine 3. Steve knocks on the door and three guards open up. Two are carrying out a wounded guard.

"Get him to the infirmary and clear out. Direct orders from Director Fury." I say, my natural agent persona kicking in.

"Stark, we're here!" Steve yells into his earpiece.

"Good, let's see what we got," Tony says, more to himself than Steve or me.

"I gotta get the superconducting cooling system online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris."

"I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." I take that as my cue to go over to the control panel.

"Steve, I got the control panel covered. Can you just guard the room? I don't want us to be sitting ducks up here if they decide to attack the engine room, got it?" I say. He smiles and gives me a little salute before standing guard. My insides flutter as I turn around and analyze the panel.