Golden Eyes

Banner was continuously scanning for any gamma rays detection on the scepter for radiation. Tony was staring at his monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations. Both men were in their own little worlds as they worked.

“The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process.” Banner said rubbing his face in exhaustion. He had taken a break from trying to come up with a solution to Vanessa’s problem but was getting nowhere so he thought it would be easier to do this but he was apparently wrong.

“If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops.” Stark commented but it sounded more like he was talking to himself.

“All I packed was a tooth brush.”

Tony smiled and changed the subject. He had had this on his mind for awhile. That and what he could possible do to help Agent Carson. “You know, you should come by STARK Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land.”

“Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem.” Banner flinched at the memory.

“Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises.” Suddenly, Tony poked Banner with a miniature electrical prod. Steve walked in on them, pissed at Tony.

“Ow!” Banner said touching where he was shocked as Tony looks at Banner closely.

“Nothing?” Tony was kind of impressed and slightly disappointed at the same time.

“Hey! Are you nuts?” Steve said as the rage was evident on his face. “There are innocent people on this thing!”

Tony completely ignored him and continued on “You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?”

“Is everything a joke to you?”

“Funny things are.” Tony replied finally looking at him. The tension between the two could have sliced with a knife.

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. Not to mention Vanessa doesn’t stand a chance in defending herself. Not at the moment anyways. No offense, doctor.”

“No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things. How is Agent Carson by the way? Still sleeping?”

Steve nodded and sighed. He was really worried about his friend who seemed to turn back into the defenseless girl he met back in the 1940s. He liked having her around because she made him feel like less of a freak. She may not have been frozen in ice for 70 years but she was just as baffled about the world today as he was. She was also the closest thing to a friend he had these days. “She’s still weak. She’s whimpering in her sleep like she’s in pain but she’s getting her color back. Her heart is also stabilized. Any luck with the medicine to help her?”

Banner shook his head. “I have an idea of how to help her but it won’t cure her. I also won’t know how she’ll react to it. I’ll keep working on it though.”

“I just wish I knew what they were doing to help her. They knew this was bound to happen so why did they wait so damn long?”

“You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut.” Tony said finally speaking up. He was worried about Agent Carson as well but they were never really close. She thought him a Playboy, arrogant, sarcastic, and quite annoying but at least she respected him for his work, brains, and sometimes even his quick witty comments on some things.

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark.”

“You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

“You think Fury's hiding something?” Steve couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets.” He points to Banner. “It's bugging him too, isn't it?”

Banner froze and started bobbling the words. “Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and...”

“Doctor?” Steve asked as Banner seemed to stop and after a beat it was like a light went off in his head.

“'A warm light for all mankind’, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube.”

“I heard it.” Steve said nodding slowly in agreement still lost.

Banner turns and points at Tony. “Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big ugly-.” Tony gives Steve a look. “...building in New York?”

“It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?” Banner asked.

“That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now.”

Banner started to ramble on referring to Tony. “So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

“I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files.”

Steve looked at Tony like he just insulted his own mother. “I'm sorry, did you say...?”

“Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.” He paused to pick something up and holds out a bag of blueberries. “Blueberry?”

“Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?”

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible.”

“I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.” Steve said sticking to his orders. He may have been a solider over 70 years ago but once and solider always a solider.

“Following is not really my style.” Tony said shrugging like it was no big deal.

“And you're all about style, aren't you?” Steve said smiling and anyone in the room could hear the jab at Tony.

It obviously worked because it looked like Steve had hit a nerve. “Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use? Agent Carson even saw what I was doing and said nothing.”

“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?” Steve takes in the possibility, but as an obedient soldier, shakes it off.

“Just find the cube.” Steve walks out of the lab. Still torn apart by the possibility, he walks away, towards the hull of the ship.

“That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice.” Tony said shaking his head in disbelief.

“The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us.”

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

“And I'll read all about it.” Banner replied trying to distance himself from the action.

“Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us. Along with Agent Carson.” At least he hoped.

“Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare.”

“You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart.” He points at the Mini-Arc reactor in his chest. “This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege.”

“But you can control it.” Banner said trying to prove his point.

“Because I learned how.”

“It's different.” Banner was getting uncomfortable so he tried to read the computer screen, but Tony slides the data aside with his finger so the two can see face-to-face.

“Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you.”

“So you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life?” Banner shook his head in an unbelievable way. “That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?”

“I guess we'll find out.” Banner and Stark get back to work at their respective computers.

“You might not like that.” Banner said warning him.

“You just might.” Tony replied back but with a smirk. “Now shut up. I’m trying to find a way to save Agent Carson.”