The Avengers

Cages

Later that night in the Wishbone Lab, Acworth, Banner and Stark were working on tracking the Cube. Banner was scanning the scepter with a device.

"The Gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But, its gonna take weeks to process." Banner informed the pair.

Stark and Elise worked on a screen and surprisingly they worked pretty well together with very few disagreements. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this around six hundred teraflops." Elise explained.

"All I packed was a toothbrush." Banner said sheepishly.

"Cute." Elise joked.

Tony giggled a bit. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top ten floors- all R and D. You'd love it, its a candy land."

"Thanks but...last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." He zapped Banner in the side.

"Ow!"

"Hey!" Steve entered the room.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Elise asked, stepping away from Banner as if the green monster was about to be release at any moment.

"Nothing?" Tony responded almost too quickly.

Steve approached him. "Are you nuts?"

"He is." Elise replied for Stark while looking his way.

"Jury's out!" He exclaimed before turning his attention to Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

Elise sighed heavily while rolling her eyes before going back to the screen while the men continue their conversation. "Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked him.

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." He scolded before quickly gesturing to Banner. "No offense, Doc."

Banner waved him off. "No, its alright. I wouldn't have come abroad if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"And, we're glad you did." Elise looked back at him and gave him a small smile which he returned an awkward one.

"You're tip-toeing, Big Man. You need to strut." Tony told him.

"And, you need to focus on the problem at hand, Stark." Elise rebuttal.

He turned his attention to her as she stopped what she was doing and turned his way before folding her arms against her chest. "You think I'm not?"

"No." She responded. "I think you're playing games."

"Why do you think Fury called us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us?"

Elise looked away at the question while slowly walking towards Banner. "I can't tell the ins and outs of my father. He's a mystery to me, as well."