Like Fire and Ice

Later, once I had calmed down, I went back to the lab and sat down next to Bruce, leaning my head against his arm. I opened my Harry Potter book and read it, ignoring Tony's soft glances.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury interrogated storming into the lab.

"Uh. I've been kind of wondering the same thing about you," Tony shot back.

"You're suppose to be locating the Tesseract," Fury growled as I closed my book and set it on the table.

"We are," Bruce concluded. "The models locked and we're locating the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location in a half mile."

"And we'll get the cube back no must, no fuss," Tony looked at the computer. "What is phase two?"

Steve stepped into the room and set a large weapon on the table. "Phase two is S.H.E.I.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons." Steve looked at Tony, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean-"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony said turning his computer screen to Fury. "What were you lying?"

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

I looked to the door as Tasha and Thor came barging through.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce narrowed his eyes at Tasha.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor," she asked stiffly.

"No, I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," Bruce shot back.

"Loki's manipulating you," she warned.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Bruce shot back. I gently touched his arm and he shrugged him off.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Tasha reasoned.

"I'm not leaving because you get a little twitchy." Bruce pointed to the computer. "I would like to know why S.H.E.I.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury stated pointing at Thor.

Thor looked surprised, "Me?"

Fury crossed his arms, "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out gunned."

"My people are nothing but peace with your planet," Thor argued.

"But you're not the only people out there are you," Fury shouted back. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. They can't be controlled."

"Like you can control the cube?" snapped Steve.

"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it And his allies," Thor boomed. "It's the signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve asked nervously.

"You forced our hands. We had to come up with something," Fury argued.

"A nuclear deterrence. 'Cause that always calms everything right down," Tony said sarcastically.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," growled Fury.

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

"Wait a minute, hold on. How did this now about me?" Tony asked.

Steve gave him a stern look, "I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Tony and Steve then began to bicker.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor growled.

"Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury shouted back at Thor. Thor and Fury then began to get into it with Tasha joining in. Bruce scoffed and joined in as well. I swallowed and watched as they all began to bicker with themselves. I tried to pull Bruce aside but he pushed me away. I fell back onto the tile and watched as they all were fighting. I looked up at the scepter that was now growling brighter than before.

I tugged on Tony's arm but he pushed me back as well, continuing his fight with Steve. "Antony," I hissed. He pushed me again. I bit my lip staring at the scepter and looking around at the computers.

"You speak of control, yet you cause chaos," Thor boomed over everyone.

"It's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce shot back. "I mean, what are we? A team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're-we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury said forcefully.

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

"You know damn well why'!" Steve snapped. "Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony growled.

"Yeah," Steve smirked. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony replied.

Steve shook his head, "I know guys with none of that, worth ten of you. 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 the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony amended.

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

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

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

Thor's laugh brought my gaze over to him. "You people are so petty. And tiny."

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

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Knight, would you please escort Dr. Banner back to his-" Fury began.

"Where?" snapped Bruce. "You're renting my room."

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me," Bruce finished. "But you can't, I know, I tried."

I gasped, clapping my hands over my mouth, "Bruce, you didn't." Bruce didn't look at me.

"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 growled. "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 at risk!" I backed up as I saw Bruce grab a hold of the scepter. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Dr. Banner," Steve said calmly. "Put down the scepter."

Bruce looked down the scepter, his eyebrows pulling together. I bit my lip as he set it back down, not seeming to understand how it got in his hand. Then the computers began to beep.

"Got it," Stark remarked.

"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce said walking over to the computer.

"You've located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I can get there faster," Tony stated.

"The Tesseract belongs to Asgard," Thor argued. "No human's a match for it."

Steve grabbed Tony's arm, "You're not going alone."

Tony smacked his hand, "You gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit. Let's find out," Steve hissed.

"I'm not afraid of you, Rogers," Tony hissed back.

"Put on the suit," Steve continued.

"Stop," I pleaded trying to get between the two men.

"Oh, my God," Bruce breathed.

The room then exploded. I fell to the ground, glass falling around me. I felt a hand on my arm and I looked up to see Tony looming over me. I saw his lips moving but there was only the sound of ringing.

"Fay!" I heard him call faintly. "Fay are you okay?" I nodded sitting up with Steve and Tony.

"Put on the suit," Steve said quickly.

"Yep!" Tony said hopping up, pulling me up as well. Steve grabbed my other arm and pulled me with the two men. I tried to look inside to see if Bruce was alright but I couldn't see him.

"Bruce!" I shouted.

"Not, now," Steve hissed. "I'd hate to see what he looks like now." I frowned as we ran to the lower decks. "Get your uniform on."

"Engine three," Tony called to Steve. "I'll meet you there."

Steve jogged off and I went to the room that held my uniform and quickly changed. I emerged the same time that suited Tony did and I followed him out to the deck. We then both took off into the air and flew to the third engine.

"Stark! Stark, I'm here!" Steve shouted into our headsets.

"Good," Tony said flying down to part of the engine to assess the damage. I floated down, careful not to get my wings caught in the debris."Let's see what we got. I've gotta get this super conducting cooling system back on line before I can access the rotors. And work on dislodging the debris." He looked at Steve and I, "I need one of you to get to the engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."

"Need a lift?" I asked Steve as Tony broke off a part of the ship to go inside it.

"That'd be nice," he said with a smile. I grabbed his arms and hauled him up to where the panel was. He opened it up and frowned.

"What's it look like in there?" Tony asked over our ear pieces.

"It seems to run on some sort of electricity," he sighs.

I chuckled. "Well, you're not wrong," Tony said from the end. Tony then proceeded to talk with Steve on what to do.

"Okay, the relays are intact! What's our next move?" Steve asked closing the panel.

"Even if I clear the rotors this thing wont re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there an push."

"Tony, no," I said quickly, my breath catching in my throat.

"Nice to know you care, Fay," Tony chuckled.

"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded." Steve put in. Tony began to speak very high tech things and Steve and I looked at each other, hoping the other would know what he was talking about. "Speak English!" Steve finally cut him off.

Tony huffed, "See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get up. Stand by it, wait for my word."

"Tony, I don't like this," I said as Steve jumped over to where the red lever was.

"I'll be just fine, Fay," he said and I could almost hear his eyes rolling.

I flew up and watched him work on the engine, cutting away the debris in his way. I chewed on my lip and spun around when I heard an explosion. I saw Steve jump down and knock out one of three men dressed in black. I flew back down by Steve and knocked the second man out of the ship, his gun falling away. The third man shoots and misses Steve but hits my wing. Steve picks up a piece of debris and chucks it at him. The man ducks around the corner. I slip around the opposite corner and flex my wing as Steve jumps up and grabs the fallen gun before going up next to the lever.

"You okay, Fay?" He calls, watching the other guy carefully.

I hiss trying to flex my wing out, "They have Chitauri metal."

"Loki's men," Steve growled shooting towards the door.

Suddenly the ship jerked and it began to fall downwards.

"Stark, we're loosing altitude," Fury said, flipping onto our frequency.

"Yep. I've noticed," Tony grunts.

Bullets fly passed me and hit the metal around Steve, causing him to slip off the edge of the ship. "Steve!" I shout. He caught a hold of some free wires. "Hold on!" I jumped over the edge, my wing screaming in pain as I flew over to Steve.

"Cap, hit the lever," Tony said.

"We need a minute here!" Steve shouted as he grabbed a hold of my arms and I, with some difficultly, pulled him up to the platform.

"Lever. Now!" Tony said nervously.

I got Steve on the platform and he pulled the lever down. I screamed as another bullet hit the same injured wing my hands grabbed the railing of the platform as my wing fell limp. "Steve!" I shouted, my fingers slipping off the metal. "Steve," I breathed. "Steve!" I screamed his hands grabbed for mine but they slipped out of his. "Steve!" I began to free fall. I tried to flap my one wing to keep me up but it couldn't. "Tony! Tony, help!" I shouted, hoping he still had enough of his suit to get me. I closed my eyes and covered my head, waiting for the impact, but I was pleasantly surprised when I was caught. I opened my eyes and sighed seeing Tony's helmet. "You have no idea how badly I didn't feel like dying today," I sighed as he took us back up to the ship.

"You're welcome," Tony said as he set me down on the ship by Steve. Tony landed next to me and pulled off his helmet. "This needs some serious repairs."

I rolled my eyes, "That's nothing, pretty boy." I held out my injured wing. "Would you rather have to death with this bloody mess?"

"Agent Coulson is down," Fury said over the frequency. I straightened up frowning.

"A medical team is on it's way to your location," another Agent said.

"They're here," Fury paused. "They called it."