3. Avengers (3)

          After a bit of sitting around, I figured I could be of some use in the lab as an assistant. I walked into the lab to see Mr Stark and Dr Banner working. I politely asked,

"Would you gentlemen mind if I helped out in here? I don't usually get to do much, but I am a great helper."

Mr Stark looked over to Dr Banner, who shrugged. With confirmation, Mr Stark looked back to me,

"Sure thing, Munchkin. Just don't touch any important buttons."

I smiled thankfully,

"Yes, sir." I helped Dr Banner and Mr Stark by grabbing anything they needed and pointing them in any direction they needed. I didn't pay much attention to what they were doing as I knew I probably wouldn't understand it anyway. It wasn't until Mr Stark asked his question that I grew curious.

"Tell me, Katie, do you know who your parents are?"

"Um, no, sir. I was an experiment and born of a surrogate mother who died giving birth to me. Why do you ask?" I looked over at Mr Stark, who held a straight face,

"Just curious."

I didn't think that much of it. I brought over a few more things for the two gentlemen as they read something on one of the screens. Uncle Nick then walked in a few moments later,

"What are you doing, Mr Stark?"

I had then become very confused about what was happening.

"Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Mr Stark retorted.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"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," Dr Banner explained.

"Yeah, then you get your cube back. No muss, no fuss," continued Mr Stark, then the computer beeped, "What is phase 2?"

Phase 2? I thought to myself, trying to remember if I had been told about anything under that name. Steve then walked into the room and placed a gun on the counter behind me,

"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

I was shocked that I hadn't been told and that it was even happening. S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to protect people, not make weapons for war.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making-" Uncle Nick was then interrupted by Mr Stark,

"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?"

On the screen, all the information about the weapons that were to be made using the cube was displayed. "Do you lie about everything? What about the fact that Katie, here, is his daughter." Mr Stark gestured behind me, and I slowly turned to glance at the only person who could be standing there: Steve Rogers. I froze and turned to look at Uncle Nick,

"What?" My voice was shaky as I took a few steps back, and I could barely think clearly. "You lied to me?" I tried to stay calm and not be completely overwhelmed by my hurt and anger. Uncle Nick looked sternly at Mr Stark, I assumed, because he had just revealed the one thing that I had asked to know my entire life.

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

I didn't know how to feel about him anymore and felt uncomfortable not knowing what I was supposed to see him as. He didn't seem to have a reaction when Mr Stark said he was my father. What did that mean? Thor and Aunt Natasha then walked in.

"Did you know about this?" Dr Banner asked Aunt Nat, referring to the weapons on the screen.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she retorted.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?"

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

"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."

Uncle Nick pointed to Thor, keeping an eye on me, "Because of him."

"Me?" Thor asked.

"Last year, we had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Uncle Nick explained to everyone.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor stated.

"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. They can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve questioned sternly. Thor continued to speak his mind as well,

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

"A higher form?" Steve said. Uncle Nick spoke up,

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

"A nuclear deterrent," Mr Stark interrupted, "Because that always calms everything right down."

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

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" Steve started but was spoken over by Mr Stark,

"Wait, wait. Hold on. How is this now about me."

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

Thor began again,

"I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Uncle Nick inquired. Everyone then started to speak over one another. I remained silent. All I could think about was the fact that everyone I cared about had been lying to me my entire life about the one thing that ate me up inside. It hurt so much, and all this arguing about weapons, other planets, and war was making me dizzy. Everything was too much for my 11-year-old mind to handle.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor firmly stated. Dr Banner spoke,

"This is M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." At the moment, Dr Banner seemed right about that.

"You need to step away," Uncle Nick told Dr Banner.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Mr Stark asked, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You know damn well why. Back off!" Steve yelled, shoving his hand off, "Sorry, Katie."

I assumed he was referring to his use of the word "damn," and I quietly said it was fine.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Mr Stark warned.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off. What are you?" Steve started to walk around to the front of Mr Stark, and he followed, turning with Steve. Both of them still on my right.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"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 a wire, and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"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? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. The only thing special about you came out of a bottle."

That stung a little bit, even if it wasn't directed at me, I had been created as a lab experiment. Uncle Nick tried to put a hand on my shoulder from behind me, but I wouldn't let him. I was still too upset.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds," Steve threatened, and I grew panicked that he and Mr Stark were going to get into an actual fight. Thor then laughed,

"You people are so petty... and tiny."

"Yeah, this is a team," Dr Banner joked sarcastically. Uncle Nick then asked,

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr Banner back to his-"

"Where? You rented my room," Dr Banner was not pleased, and I turned my attention to him.

"The cell was just in case-"

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

Everyone went silent at that. "I got low. 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?" Dr Banner began to reach for the sceptre and held it in his grasp as he spoke. I created a small force field ball in each of my hands in case Dr Banner lost control.

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

Dr Banner realized what he was doing when an alarm went off, indicating the location of the Tesseract had been identified. We all turned toward the sound, and I got rid of the force fields.

"Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," Dr Banner walked over to the computer as Aunt Nat followed him. Everyone began arguing about who should get the Tesseract and where it belonged. It started to become a little too much again. Steve and Mr Stark were threatening each other for the second time.

"Gentlemen," I said with a shaken voice, trying to stop them from hurting each other. Dr Banner then said worriedly,

"Oh, my god."

Suddenly, an explosion went off, and fire and heat poured in from the vent in the floor. Uncle Nick grabbed me, and we both fell toward the table that had been across from us for the majority of the conversation.