The Girl Who Held the Universe in her Hands | marvel [1] ✔

FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE
' HUGE   BAG   OF 
WEED ? '

While Doctor Banner and Stark examined the sceptre, machines scanning for gamma radiation or anything else which could cause immediate harm, Ash sat in the corner in front of a desk. Banner didn't need any help as Stark took her place, and she didn't want to be a nuisance, so she worked on more equations with headphones on her head.

Her head nodded with the beat, and she absentmindedly tapped her pencil on the table. The numbers calculated in her head as she mumbled the words, and as she worked, the two men shifted to watch her with furrowed brows.

"I don't get it," Stark began. He looked over to Banner, who nodded in agreement. "I've never seen anyone like it. She's what, sixteen? And look at her. Solving some of the most complex equations like it's nothing while listening to Queen."

"I asked Fury earlier, but he dodged the question," Banner replied. "I've worked with doctors, professors but this intelligence... it's unique, inhuman."

"That and talking to herself," Stark added.

Banner hummed. "It's more like there's someone actually there. She makes eye contact, and from the bits I've heard, It's like a one-sided conversation."

Ash stood, and the two men instantly looked towards Loki's sceptre. "Do you mind?" she asked Stark, gesturing to a monitor.

He shook his head absentmindedly in reply, and she started solving the algorithms with her equations. Noah came to stand by her side, continuing to watch the men with narrowed eyes.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process," Banner stated.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops," Stark replied.

"All I packed was a toothbrush," Banner joked, causing Stark to smile.

He turned to face them. "You know, you should both come by stark towers sometimes. 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 shook his head, shifting on his feet. Ash turned on her heel and walked over to them.

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises," Stark reassured. He took out a miniature electrical prod and poked Banner in the side. The doctor let out a groan, hand grabbing his side. Ash's eyes widened but relaxed when Banner made no sign of shifting.

"Shit on a stick!" Ash shouted as the door slammed open, nearly hitting her. She glared at Rogers, but he seemed not to notice her.

Stark's eyes flickered over Banner. "Nothing?"

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Rogers shouted, but Stark ignored him.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret?" Stark questioned, ignoring the new man. "Mellow jazz?" he suggested. "Bongo drums?"

"Huge bag of weed?" Ash added, and Stark shot a finger gun at her.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Rogers scolded.

"Funny things are." Noah did not miss a beat as he replied, smirking at Stark, who spoke simultaneously. Ash jumped at his sudden appearance, glancing at him over her shoulder and shifting slightly to stand closer to him. 

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offence, doctor."

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

Stark turned to Rogers. "You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut."

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

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

Rogers furrowed his eyebrows. "You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a Nick Fury. He's the spy. He's so much of a spy he's Nick "The Spy" Fury. His secrets have secrets with secrets!" Ash exclaimed.

"It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Stark asked the doctor.

Banner went over their words and shook his head. "Uh... I just wanna finish my work here and..." he trailed off.

"Doctor?"

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

"I heard it."

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news," he finally replied, pointing at Stark.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Stark gave him a look which caused him to stop- "building in New York?"

Ash caught on and continued Banner's idea. "It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Stark added.

"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?" Banner asked, referring to Stark.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D's secure flies," Stark thought aloud in a sarcastic tone. 

Rogers' head snapped to glare at him again. "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 S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide." He held out a bag of blueberries. "Blueberry?" he offered.

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

"An intelligence organization fearing intelligence? Historically, not really very cool," Ash added from where she leaned against the table. Her eyes flickered away from the conversation as the stone in the sceptre began to throb. She slid across the table towards it, head falling into a tilt as the men's argument drifted off behind her.

"Ash," Noah warned lowly, hand coming to rest on the table beside her. She lifted her hand to touch the stone when a voice interrupted in her head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The voice came from inside her head, and she looked back at the men, but their backs faced her. Her eyes flickered back as the voice continued. "It's just us. Why would they want anything to do with you?"

"Well, I don't want anything to do with you, either-" The door banged again, breaking her concentration. She turned to watch Rogers storm out. "What is that asshole's problem with banging doors?"