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Heart of Ice

Team.

Gwen was startled awake when she heard the door opening. Rogers walked in, and started talking to Stark and Banner. The blond rubbed tiredly at her eyes, and she was glad that all of the make-up she was wearing earlier was gone.

Her attention was adverted over to Stark and Banner when she heard the soft-spoken scientist yell. Stark was in his face, eyes narrowed. “Hmm, nothing.” He put down whatever was in his hand.


“Are you insane, Stark?” Rogers asked.


“Jury’s out.” Gwen let out a soft chuckle at that. “You really have a lid on it, haven’t you?” Stark asked, looking closely at Banner. “What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?”


“Is everything a joke to you?” Rogers asked incredulously.


“Funny things are,” was Tony’s retort.


“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, Doc,” Rogers added at the end to Banner.


“It’s alright,” Banner muttered. “I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things.” Gwen noticed that he tossed Stark a look when he said that part.


“You’re tip-toeing, Big Man. You need to strut,” Stark commented.


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


“Do you think I’m not?” Stark asked, his voice showing that he obviously wasn’t happy with what Rogers was insinuating. “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.” Rogers looked over at Gwen and Banner, attempting to judge their reactions of what Stark just asked. Gwen completely agreed with Stark. Fury was up to something.


“You think Fury’s hiding something?” Rogers asked.


“He’s a spy. Captain, he’s the spy. His secrets have secrets.” Stark pulled out a bag of blueberries from seemingly nowhere. “It’s bugging them, too, isn’t it?” He motioned to Banner and Gwen.


“Uh,” Banner hesitated for a second. “I just want to finish my work here, and…”


“Doctor?” Rogers inquired. Banner gave Gwen a look and then gave Stark a nervous glance before removing his glasses with a sigh.


“’A warm light for all mankind,’” he quoted from earlier. “Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube.”


“I heard it,” Steve said.


“Well, I think that was meant for you,” Banner said, looking at Stark who offered him a blueberry. Bruce took one. “Even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.”


“The Stark Tower? That big ugly-” Rogers paused when he saw the glare Stark was giving him. “Building in New York,” he finished, making Gwen chuckle.


“It’s powered by an arc reactor; a self-sustaining energy source,” Banner informed Rogers. Gwen already knew about it from watching it on the news earlier that week. “That building will run itself for, what, a year?”


“It’s just the prototype. I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That’s what he’s getting at.” That last part was aimed at Rogers.


“So,” Banner continued, “why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”


“I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files,” Stark said, walking around the lab bench and pulling out a miniature computer screen from somewhere on his person. Where the hell did he hide this shit? Gwen asked herself while keeping quiet and just watched the rest of the exchange.


“I’m sorry, did you say…?” Rogers asked, taken aback by the change in direction the conversation was taking.


“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge,” Stark interrupted. ‘JARVIS?’ Gwen mouthed to Banner in question. The doctor just shrugged. “In a few hours I’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?”


“Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around?” Rogers asked pointedly, ignoring the offer.


“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome,” Stark pointed out.


“I think Loki’s trying to wind us up,” Rogers retorted. “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.” Gwen made a face. Following wasn’t her style.


“Following’s not really my style,” Stark said literally a second after Gwen thought it. Mind reader?


“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?” Rogers jibed. Gwen saw something spark in Stark’s dark eyes.


“Uh oh,” she muttered, taking a step back and standing next to Banner.


“Of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit, and B) not of use?” Stark bit back.


“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you,” Banner intervened.


“Just find the Cube,” Rogers ordered as he walked out.


“That’s the guy my dad never shut up about?” Stark muttered bitterly to Gwen and Banner. “I’m wondering if they shouldn’t have kept him on ice.”


“The guy’s not wrong about Loki,” Banner acknowledged, getting back to work. Gwen peeked over his shoulder. “He does have the jump on us.”


“What he’s got is an Acme dynamite kit. It’s going to blow up in his face,” Stark said. “And I’m going to be there when it does.”


“Yeah. I’ll read all about it,” Banner said, adding some information across to Stark’s screen so he could look it over.


“Uh-huh. Or you’ll be suiting up with rest of us.” Banner chuckled nervously.


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


“You know,” Stark said lightly, looking over at Banner and Gwen. “I’ve got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This-,” he tapped the arc reactor in his chest and made his way over to them. “-stops it. This little circle of light, it’s part of me now, not just armor.” He stood directly opposite of Banner on the other side of the screen. “It’s a terrible privilege.”


“But you can control it,” Banner pointed out.


“Because I learned how,” Stark retorted.


“It’s different,” Banner muttered, trying to go back to working on the computer. Stark was obviously having none of it. He cleared the data from the screen so Banner had to look direct at him.


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


“So you’re saying the Hulk-” Banner paused. “The other guy, saved my life? That’s nice. It’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?”


“Guess we’ll find out,” Stark said simply, walking back over to the other computer screen. Gwen yawned as she looked over all in the information. Shit like that made her tired.


“You may not enjoy that,” Banner warned, commenting on Stark’s last comment.


“And you just might,” Stark returned quickly, tapping away at the screen. Gwen yawned again, blushing when she realized how loud that one was. Banner looked over at her.


“Are you still tired? You can go back to sleep if you want,” he offered.


“I’m okay, Bruce. It is okay that I call you Bruce, right?” She asked, not wanting to offend him by calling him Bruce instead of Doctor Banner.


“Its fine,” he said, “as long as I’m allowed to call you Gwen.” The blond let out a soft chuckle.


“Of course, Bruce.”


“Why don’t you call me Tony?” Stark asked, looking at her. She leveled him with a stare.


“Stop calling me Ice Princess, and we’ll talk,” she tried.


“Is there another nickname you would rather be called?” He asked, picking something up and playing with it.


“Gwen is my nickname, Stark,” she laughed. Stark stared at her for a couple minutes before sighing.


“Fine, I concede. I’ll call you Gwen if you call me Tony.”


“Deal,” she said with a small smile.


“So, if Gwen is your nickname, what’s your real name? Gwyneth?” Tony tried. Gwen rolled her icy eyes.


“Gwendolyn, actually.”


“Hmm, old school.”


“So, Tony, what are you and Bruce working on?” She asked.


“Gamma radiations,” Bruce answered. Gwen just gave him a blank look. “Never mind.” Gwen smiled and continued to watch them work.


For the next two hours, Gwen just watched them, occasionally helping them with something if they needed it. As she was about to ask a question, Fury stormed into the lab. “What are you doing, Stark?” He fumed.


“Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you,” Tony retorted.


“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract,” Fury snapped.


“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 replied, indicating to a screen across the room that was clearly tracking something.


“Yeah,” Tony added. “Then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss.” The screen bleeped and Gwen leaned forward, almost leaning Tony’s shoulder to see what it said. “What is ‘Phase Two’?” Tony questioned. Gwen jumped when there was a loud bang as a gun was slammed down on a metal lab table.


“Phase Two is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons,” Rogers said angrily and then directed his next statement to Tony. “Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me.”


“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract,” Fury said, attempting to placate the Super Soldier. “This does not mean that we’re making-”


“I’m sorry, Nick,” Tony interrupted, spinning the screen around so everyone can see it. “What were you lying?”


“I was wrong, Director,” Rogers stated bitterly. “The world hasn’t changed a bit.” As he was saying that, Thor and Natasha both entered.


“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked Natasha.


“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?” Natasha asked coolly.


“I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed,” Bruce scoffed.


“Loki’s manipulating you,” Natasha warned, watching Bruce warily.


“And you’ve been doing what, exactly?” Bruce asked.


“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you,” Natasha pointed out.


“Yes, and I’m not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy,” Bruce retorted, walking towards the screen Tony had the weapon displayed on. “I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”


“Because of him,” Fury said, pointed at Thor.


“Me?” Thor questioned, pointing to himself sounding quite surprised.


“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.” Gwen rolled her eyes at him.


“From what I’ve heard, we weren’t the ones they were attacking,” Gwen pointed out, standing to Thor’s defense.


“My people want nothing but peace with your planet,” Thor added, backing up Gwen’s statement.


“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 retorted.


“Like you controlled the Cube?” Rogers asked.


“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies,” Thor said. “It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”


“A higher form?” Rogers questioned, but was ignored.


“You forced our hand. We had to come up with something.”


“A nuclear deterrent,” Tony snapped. “Because that always calms everything right down.”


“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury questioned.


“I’m sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep,” Rogers commented.


“Wait, wait! Hold on. How is this now about me?” Tony questioned.


“I’m sorry, isn’t everything?” Rogers jibed.


“I thought humans were more evolved than this,” Thor said.


“Excuse me,” Fury started, offended. “Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?”


“You treat your champions with such mistrust.” Gwen was trying to pay attention, but another argument was breaking out between everyone else.


“Are you boys really that naive?” Natasha asked. “SHIELD monitors potential threats.”


“Captain America’s on threat watch?” Bruce scoffed, clearly not believing that.


“We all are,” Natasha confirmed.


“Wait, you’re on that list?” Tony snarked. “Are you above or below angry bees?”


“Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack,” Rogers threatened.


“Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!” Gwen closed her eyes, and started rubbing her temples. This, these people, were expected to work together? She was getting a migraine.


“Show some respect,” Rogers snapped.


“Respect what?” Tony snapped back, every argument around them escalating.


“You speak of control, yet you court chaos,” Thor pointed out.


“That’s his M.O. isn’t it?” Bruce asked. “I mean, what are we, a team? No, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re…we’re a time bomb.”


“You need to step away,” Fury said.


“Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” Tony asked, placing his hand on Rogers’ shoulder.


“You know damn well why,” Rogers snapped, knocking the hand away from his shoulder. “Back off.”


“I’m starting to want you to make me,” Tony snapped, his voice darkening.


“Yeah, big man in a suit of armor,” Rogers stated coldly. “Take that off, what are you?”


“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Tony quickly retorted. Gwen had to hold back a chuckle when Natasha gave a shrug of agreement.


“I know people 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 person to make the sacrifice play, to play down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”


“I think I’d just cut the wire,” Tony answered simply, seemingly knowing a way out of every situation. Rogers smiled sarcastically.


“Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”


“A hero? Like you?” Gwen saw Tony’s darken, his control obviously slipping. “You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.” Gwen flinched. They both seemed to have just struck each other in their most sensitive spots with those words.


“You people are so petty,” Thor announced, clearly amused. “And tiny.”


“Yeah, this is a team,” Bruce commented sarcastically, leaning against one of the lab tables next to Gwen.


“Agent Romanoff, Miss Falcon, would you both escort Doctor Banner back to his-” Fury started, but Bruce interrupted him.


“Where? You rented my room.”


“The cell was just in case-”


“In case you needed to kill me. But you can’t. I know, I tried.” Gwen looked over at the usually soft-spoken doctor with wide eyes.


“Bruce,” she whispered.


“I got low,” he continued in a softer tone. “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. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?” Gwen noticed that he subconsciously grabbed the scepter in his grasp, and she backed away slowly towards where Tony and Rogers were standing.


“Doctor Banner,” Fury interrupted, reaching for his gun. “Put down the scepter.” One of the monitors suddenly starting beeping and Bruce looked over at it.


“Sorry kids,” he said sarcastically, putting down the scepter and moving towards the monitor. “You don’t get to see my party trick after all.”


“You located the Tesseract?” Thor asked, making his way over, Natasha close behind.


“If you tell me where it is, I’ve got the fastest air speed,” Tony said logically, preparing to rush out of the lab.


“The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it!” Thor boomed.


“You’re not going alone,” Steve said, attempting to grab a hold of Tony’s arm to stop him. He slapped it away.


“You gonna stop me?” The dark eyed man questioned.


“Put on the suit, let’s fine out,” Rogers retorted.


“I’m not afraid to hit an old man.”


“Put on the suit,” Rogers insisted, moving closer.


“Jesus,” Gwen muttered, moving in between the two men. Rogers backed up immediately, not wanting to hurt the blond, but also not wanting to get close to her because of her icy hands. “Both of you, knock it off. You’re acting like children.”


“Oh my God,” Bruce said quietly. A second later, a large explosion rocked the room. Bruce and Natasha went flying through the window, shattering the glass. Fury and Thor landed near the lab equipment; Tony, Rogers, and Gwen landed near the door.


“Put on the suit,” Rogers urged, helping the billionaire up off the ground.


“Yeah,” Tony agreed quickly, both of them rushing out of the door. Gwen reached up, and turned on the communicator that was in her right ear, and listened to the chatter. From what she could figure out, Clint was behind the explosion, taking out one of the engines.


Stark, you copy that?” She heard Fury ask through the comm.


I’m on it,” Tony answered back. Gwen ignored the rest of the conversations through the comm to make her way over to the shattered window. She glanced down, grasping the window sill carefully to she didn’t cut herself.


“Bruce? Tasha?” She called down.


“We’re okay!” Natasha called back up. Gwen could tell they were talking and her eyes widened in alarm when she heard Bruce suddenly yell out, “YOU’RE LIFE?!” In a roar.


“Oh, fuck,” the blond muttered, moving back a little. She saw Bruce change from sweet, Doctor Banner, to an angry Hulk in a matter of seconds. Natasha finally got up, and took off running, Hulk following closely behind. Gwen turned around, trying to come up with a plan when she saw Thor still standing there, looking about as lost as she felt. “Thor, come on!” She said, grasping his forearm.


“Where are we going?” He asked.


“We have to stop the Hulk. Now let’s go!”

Notes

I am really sorry this took so long. I promise, it will not happen again. Comment? Message? Subscribe? Thanks.

Comments

Update!!!

@CupKTCakes

BlackestOfBirds BlackestOfBirds
2/18/14
I still find this story extremely interesting! I'd love to read more!
CupKTCakes CupKTCakes
10/10/13
continue! love it!
JenoWatina JenoWatina
9/7/13
I really enjoyed your story ans I crave more.
CupKTCakes CupKTCakes
6/1/13
So you're using the Avengers script for parts, eh? Pretty impressive! I'd love to see how else Gwen develops with the team!
thatsrealjazzy thatsrealjazzy
5/23/13