ACT I | Avengers
chapter seven. Searching and Finding

His secrets have secrets

    TO A NORMAL PERSON, HAVING THE BRUCE BANNER AND TONY STARK IN THE SAME ROOM WOULD BE EXCITING. To Anne? Not so much. Bruce Banner was her hero. Tony Stark? He makes her want to vomit. And it doesn't help with his, let's say exciting personality. It doesn't make it better. Especially when he knows he is very smart, yet his ego takes it to the next level. And it tickled Anne even more to know that Nick Fury put him on the job knowing full well that she was already searching with Banner and how much she hated Stark.

She tried to not dwell on that matter much. She had a job to do: find the tesseract. The blue cube that everyone was obsessed with all because everyone thinks they are gods. Anne wanted it for a different reason though, to help mankind. And thankfully, no one knew of her plans just yet.

"The Gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process." The Doctor Banner scanned the scepter laid out in front of him.

Meanwhile, Tony was in another corner tapping away on another screen. All of them were concentrating on the task on hand. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops." He grumbled.

The doctor chuckled aloud. "All I packed was a toothbrush." Banner joked.

Anne watched as Stark made his way over to the other doctor. She still stood frozen by her part of lab by most of the screens. Her job? Was to continue tracking for gamma radiations that the tesseract emitted. Not the most exciting job- like one that Banner or Stark had- but it was still something to keep her busy until they did find the tesseract. At least it was an easy task. All she had to do was keep her eyes on the screen and occasionally tap it. Not to demanding.

Tony looked over to Anne with a smug smile. She grimaced at the man, her eyes gazing dead straight at the man. "You know," He turned to Banner. "you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top ten floors-all R and D. You'd love it, it's a candy land."

"Thanks." Banner grumbled as he glanced down to the scepter and then to the screen over and over again. "But last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem."

Tony made his way over to the other side of Banner. Anne didn't think anything of it until he winked obnoxiously. She kept her eyes glued on the man, knowing that something was about to happen whether it was good or not. "Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises."

"Ow!"

"Tony!" Anne yelled aloud. She stepped out of her little corner to get closer to the doctor. "Are you kidding me?"

Tony put up his hands by his ears to show the little pencil in his hands that occasionally let out sparks. "Oh come on, Monkey, light up." He joked around. Banner was just staring at Tony. It was as if he finally understood the great Stark for the first time.

"Hey!" A voice echoed into the room.

    All heads turned around towards the entrance to find the one and only Captain America. He looked quite dashing in his red, white, and blue classic outfit. His stoic expression never ceased to drop. Maybe it was a trade off since he was a soldier. Happiness for seriousness. It was still a little shocking to Anne to see this man. Of course everyone in America- and perhaps the whole world- had heard and learned about the World War Two hero. How he was apart of the Howling Commandos. How he sacrificed his life to help end the war, to defeat HYDRA and the Nazis. He was a great hero. And to see this man right in front of Anne always amazed her. The only thing she wished for, was that they met under different circumstances.

    "Nothing?" Tony perked up his eyebrows.

    The Captain treaded over. "Are you nuts?" He exclaimed.

    "Jury's out!" The billionaire smirked. He turned his way over to the other scientist. His eyes stared wonderfully and curiously at Banner as if he was studying a subject. "You really got a lid on it. Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

    Anne had no idea what he was talking about. She was still clueless on the fact on Doctor Banner or why the fact everyone treaded so carefully around him, how they treated him differently. Of course they would treat him differently because he was a world renowned scientist, but they treated him something more than that. "Tony," Anne threatened.

    "Is everything a joke to you?" Steve fussed.

    "Funny things are." Tony deadpanned into the soldier.

    Anne couldn't help chuckle along with the doctor. As much as she loathed the billionaire, she knew that he always had a way with a sense of humor and his famous, witty comebacks. But- obviously- Captain America didn't think it was humorous.

    Steve glanced over to Anne, his eyes staring daringly at her as if he was threatening her to stay silent. "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." He paused, glancing over to the doctor as if he suddenly remembered something. "No offense, Doc." He waved his hand at him.

    "No it's alright." He spoke. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

    "I'm sorry-" Anne quickly intruded into the three's conversation. They all turned their heads over to her. "I know, I exist. What do you mean Doctor Banner? What is going on?"

    Instead of answering her question like she so desperately wanted them to, they stayed silent and went back to their conversation at hand. "You're tip-toeing, big man." Stark strides backwards. "You need to strut." He directed his words towards Banner.

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

    To Anne, the three men in front of her each had their role. Steve: the mother of the group. Tony: the weird uncle. Banner: the distant cousin. And Anne? The sibling that just disappeared whether they liked it or not.

    "You think I'm not?" This seemed to have lit a spark within Tony. His playful facade melted away into a serious one. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." Anne couldn't help but smile at his little metaphor. "You like that? Huh, that's what gets you, Annie."

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

    "He's a spy." Tony muttered . "Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." He gestures over to Banner who is seemingly minding his own business. "It's bugging him to, isn't it."

    "Uh, Aah-" The doctor gets caught off guard by the mention of him. "I just wanna finish my work here and-"

    It is bluntly obvious to everyone in the room that he has an opinion. Whether he wants to share or not is the question. And Steve wants to know everything. "Doctor?" He asks.

    Banner pauses. He lifts off his petite glasses off of his nose, folds them onto each other as he took a deep sigh. "'A warm light for all mankind'.
Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

    "I heard it." Steve nods.

    "Well, I think that was meant for you." Banner gazed over to the billionaire. In that moment, the latter stretched out his arm in front of him, holding a metallic bag. The doctor reached his hand in the bag and grabbed whatever was on the inside without knowing. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

    The Captain deadpanned on the Doctor. "The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" His insult is cut short by the look Stark gives him. His eyebrows furrowing into his dark eyes, wearing a knowing- yet playful- smirk. "-building in New York?"

    "It's powered by an arc reactor self/sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what- a year?" The doctor asked Stark.

    "It's just the prototype." He informed Banner. His eyes quickly glanced over to the captain, munching on whatever is in his mouth. "I'm kinda the only name in clean energy right now, that's what he's getting at."

    "So, why didn't SHIELD bring him into the tesseract project?" Banner questioned. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

    "What about you, Miss Robinson?"

    With her name suddenly floating in the conversation, Anne perked up to find the Captain staring right at her. With Tony beside him gazing questioningly at the both of them. She was so entranced in her work- with occasionally listening into their conversation because she was an eaves dropper- that she had missed the Captain asking for her opinion. Her opinion on everything. The tesseract project, Nick Fury, SHEILD- all of it.

    "I don't have an opinion." Anne avoided the stares, going back to her work on the screen.

    "Bull." Tony spoke. Anne glances back up at the sound of harsh words being spoke. "You're a scientist. Share your wisdom, Solomon."

    Anne rolled her doe eyes. "I mean-" She sighed. "It is a little suspicious once you think about it, Captain Rogers. There had been an alien invasion last year, yet he didn't call any of us. And yes, while that threat was minor compared to this, we didn't know that. SHIELD didn't know it." She paused, listening to the sound of silence occupying the room. Everyone was listening to her. Everyone. "It's just- Fury wouldn't call me in. Ever. And when I mean ever, I mean ever. If he calls in Iron Man and freaking Captain America. Something is up."

Steve sauntered over to the female. "What if he is just taking precautions?" He questions.

"We are dealing with the tesseract. An object that the gods had, that a god currently has on this planet. Somewhere. And he if he were truly worried for the sake of the world, to make sure it was found by anyone, he would've called Tony in. But he didn't. Instead Stark showed up at his front door." Anne stopped. Her eyes stared starlight it his blue-green eyes, studying every inch. Her hand placed lightly on top of his shoulders. "Like you said, cap, they should have left it in the bottom of the ocean."

"How do you kno-"

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program"

With those surprising words that came from the billionaire, the captain slowly- and begrudgingly- swiveled. His ears couldn't quite adjust to the man's words. The sound of betraying words. "I'm sorry did you say-"

Stark couldn't take the sound of Captain America's voice. "JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He held up the little ceramic bag to him. "Blueberry?"

"That's what you put on the moniters." Anne gasped in realization.

"Awe. Look at you. A little excited puppy." Tony patted Anne's neatly braided hair with a playful smirk. A smirk that made it extremely hard for both Steve and Anne not to wipe off. "Want a blueberry?" Anne shook her head no. She quickly swatted away the pesky hand levitating above her head.

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

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony glanced over to Anne, still maintaining his serious tone. "Historically, not awesome."

Steve couldn't take it anymore. With three scientists thinking otherwise, he felt like were ignorant people. "I think Loki's trying to wind us up." You could almost hear the visible disappointment coming from Tony. "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." He said. His true soldier spirit was shining through. His words cut sharp like a knife. It intimidated even the brightest scientists in the room. Well- expect for Tony. Because Tony is just- Tony.

"Following's not really my style." The billionaire defied.

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

"Out of the people in this room, which on is 'A' wearing a spangly outfit and 'B' not of use." The other asked.

"Steve," Banner's desperate voice was heard. "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

The soldier looked intimidatingly at the two male scientists. The whole room was paused. He looked like he was trying to figure out what was right or wrong, if what he knew was right or if all the scientists in the room were indeed correct. He gave up. "Just find the cube." The soldier commanded. He soon darted out of the door seemingly on a mission.

    "That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony rolled his eyes. "Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice."

    "Well, it would explain why he's so cold." Anne smiled. Her eyes darted back over to both of the men to get their reaction out of them. "Eh? Eh?" Tony- being Tony- dramatically rolled. He was not amused at all. Meanwhile, the doctor found it very chuckle some.

     "But, guy's not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us." Banner reasoned.

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit." Tony sighed. "It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does.

"I'll read all about it." Doctor Banner shrugged his shoulders.

"Mhm, or, you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." The billionaire perked up his eyebrows at the mention of this. He then turned over to Anne with a mischievous smile. "How about you, Darling? You want to suit up?"

Anne couldn't help but laugh out loud. "No. No. Never. I'm not that type of person." She mindfully spoke.

"I wish I was." Banner timid voice implored through the conversation. Anne couldn't help but feel somber for the man even if she had no idea what everyone was so focused about. "Now, you see I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve, it's a nightmare."

Tony shook his head disappointingly. "You know, I've got a cluster shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it-" He taps the middle of his chest where a small circle illuminated his shirt. Yes. The reactor. The famous device that saved Tony Stark back in 2008 when he had gotten into the fatal accident. He created it with just pieces of scraps in a lonesome cave. "It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."

Bruce dismissively chuckled. "But you can control it."

"Because I learned how."

No matter what the great Stark could say, he could not change his mind nor his perspective. Just like how he couldn't change the soldier's mind. "It's different." The doctor sputtered.

"Hey," Tony declared. "I read all about your accident. That much gamma radiation should have killed you."

"So you're saying-" Bruce leaned in, imploring the conversation. "that The Hulk- the other guy- saved my life? That's nice. That's nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

"I guess we'll find out." Tony's giddy voice raved.

"You may not enjoy that."

"And you just might."

"Wait." A female voice queried. "Your the Hulk? Like, the Hulk? That's what everyone has been talking about?"

Tony just simply rolled his eyes. "Oh my god. Finally. I was wondering if you could keep up. You finally did. High five!" He lifted up his palm in the direction of Anne.

She ignored the action, resisting the urge to punch him in the face. His satirical comments sometimes gotten the best of her if you hadn't notice. It did draw her away from the conversation at hand: The Hulk or now known as Doctor Banner. She could hardly imagine a scientist of his wisdom and kindness be a monster everyone knew and fear. Everyone could be lying just to scare her. But by the look of the doctor she had known to look up to, she knew that it was true.

"The room you mentioned earlier, the one Loki is kept in, it yours." Anne shamefully muttered. "That doesn't make sense though." With this new inquiry brought up, it had caught the attention of both of the scientists. "Why invite him on board and make a cage for him?"

"Excellent observation, Darling." Tony leaned his body against the table near Anne. His chin resting in the palm of his hands, his eyelashes fluttering in a playful manner. Nearby you could hear a loud beeping and a red button flashing through the clear computer monitors. "Would anyone like to find out?" He turned over to the doctor behind him. "Doctor number two? Doctor number three? And I of course am Doctor number one."

    Without another word, all three scientists gathered around a screen. They all watched as new information kept popping up along with loud beeps. It never stopped. More things kept lighting up and it kept going. Some talked about everyday missions. Other talked about heroes in hiding. Some talked about threats they needed to watch such as Michael Abott or Amaliya Vorobeva or Lia John. Then, others, talked about secrets.

Lies.

For once, Tony was right. Fury's secrets have secrets.

A/N

SO, ANNE HATES THE PEOPLE STEALING THE TESSERACT BECAUSE THYE THINK THEH ARE GODS. But she too is trying to steal the tesseract and is trying to ignore the fact that she is like everyone else in the world. That's what I see anyways.