Tony flies the jet back, and just above his chair there's a glimpse of sky through the windshield. The other chairs and people block Kate's view, so she gets only some light blue and a bit of wispy cloud. She's just glad she doesn't have to jump out this time.

Steve and Thor talk lowly to Clint. Nat gets out of her chair and checks on him, then walks back to where Bruce and Kate are sitting in silence. Bruce takes off his headphones, opera music leaking out as he looks up at Nat.

"Hey, the lullaby worked better than ever," she says, using a tone Kate recognizes instantly. Sometimes Clint uses it, too, but his words are way less discreet. He has all the intent and almost none of the tact.

Bruce shakes his head. "Just wasn't expecting the Code Green."

"If you hadn't been there, there would've been double the casualties," Nat points out. "One of my best friends would've been a treasured memory." She gestures to Clint, and Kate nods in agreement. If Hulk hadn't shown up, things could've gone way different. Still, it's hard on Bruce to go back and forth like that, to turn into something he's not. What he does as the Hulk really gets to him; when they were perfecting the lullaby, when the Hulk hurt Kate once, he couldn't look at her for a week afterwards.

"You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear," he says.

"How long before you trust us?"

"It's not you guys I don't trust."

"Thor, report on the Hulk?"

Thor turns to them, answering in his booming voice. "The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims."

"Dude!" Kate scolds as Bruce puts his head in his hands.

"Uh, but not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no, uh... wounded screams, mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and- and uh... and gout."

"Nice save, sparky."

Tony speaks up from the cockpit. "Hey Banner, Kate, Dr. Cho's on her way in from Seoul — is it okay if she sets up in the lab?"

"Fine by me."

"Yeah, she knows her way around," Bruce adds.

"Thanks," Tony says, dropping his voice afterwards. JARVIS responds to him, but not loud enough for Kate to make out what they're saying. Tony soon gets up, walking back to Steve and Thor as they stand around the scepter. "It feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..."

"No, but this... this brings it to a close," Thor replies.

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for," Steve adds. "I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?"

Kate snorts lightly. "I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out. And maybe punch that kid in his annoying, little face."

"Banner, Kate, and I'll give it the once over before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?" Tony asks. Thor nods, and Kate grins.

"Awesome."

"I mean, just a few days until the farewell party. You're staying, right?

"Yes, yes, of course," Thor replies with a smile. "A victory should be honored with revels."

"Yeah. Who doesn't love revels? Captain?"

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA, so... yes, revels," Steve answers.

Kate groans. "Ugh, revels."

"You're coming," Nat says instantly.

Kate turns to Tony. "There's gonna be alcohol, right?"

"Duh," he replies.

"And I'm invited?"

Nat nudges her. "It'll be fine. Just don't get too close to the bar."

"Fine, I guess I'll be there. Nobody upset me." She eyes them with a warning look.

Tony chuckles. "I'll properly warn the masses."

~_~_~_~_~

After JARVIS lands the jet, two of Cho's people quickly put Clint on a stretcher and wheel him off. Cho, waiting at the landing site with Hill, follows, giving orders Kate doesn't understand. Thor grabs the scepter and heads out. As everyone else leaves the jet, Hill meets them halfway. "Lab's all set up, boss."

"Uh, actually, he's the boss," Tony replies, pointing to Steve. "I just pay for everything, and design everything, and make everyone look cooler. Speaking of, metal plating?" He turns to Kate.

"Saved her shoulder," Nat remarks dryly.

"And I looked cool in the process," Kate adds.

Tony grins. "That's the goal."

"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asks Hill. Kate falls behind with them as Nat and the others walk ahead, some following Clint, others going different ways.

"NATO's got him," Hill answers.

"And the two enhanced?"

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins." She passes Steve her tablet, playing a video of the two shouting at some protest. The boy's hair is completely brown, matching his sister's. "Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special, but it's on the way to everywhere special."

"Their abilities?" Kate asks.

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, and mental manipulation."

"No kidding?" Kate says. Steve looks between them, confused, so she elaborates. "He's fast and she's... weird."

Steve sighs. "Well, they're going to show up again."

"Agreed," Hill replies. "File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments."

"Yeah, I could've guessed that. The boy sounded pretty... loyal," Kate says. She wonders if she would've sounded that way when talking about SHIELD — and the answer is probably yes. Is it the same, though? Since she didn't know they were HYDRA?

Hill nods. "It's nuts."

"Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?" Steve replies.

"We're not at war, Captain."

"They are."

He splits off from the group and heads for the elevator. Kate chuckles. "Sometimes he can be so dramatic — but in a distinctly Captain America way, you know?"

"Yeah, you're totally right," Hill replies. "Hey, give me updates on Barton, okay?"

"You got it," Kate answers. Hill nods, walking off in another direction while Kate continues on. Nat is standing next to Clint as Cho and her people work on him in the connected room, while Tony messes around in the lab. Bruce arrives in a new shirt as soon as Kate gets there.

"How's he doing?" Bruce asks, beating Kate to the punch.

Tony walks over to them. "Unfortunately, he's still Barton."

"That's terrible," Kate replies, while Bruce just chuckles, heading into the room. Kate sends Hill a quick text, telling her Clint's doing okay.

"He's fine. He's thirsty." Tony continues into the main lab, where the scepter and blender are. He goes to the latter. "Alright. Look alive, JARVIS. It's playtime. We've only got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it. Update me on the structural and compositional analysis."

"The scepter is alien. There are elements I can't quantify," JARVIS replies.

Kate stands in front of the scepter, crossing her arms. "So, there's elements you can?"

"The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside — something powerful."

"Yeah, I've seen that thing in action up close. It's pretty powerful." She briefly wonders where Loki is right now, but Tony continues questioning and keeps that little green creep largely out of her mind.

"Like a reactor?"

"Like a computer," JARVIS corrects. "I believe I'm ciphering code."

Kate raises a brow. Why would an alien magic thing be like a computer? Or is that all their magic is? How would that all work? Why does Thor never have time to answer her questions? "Computer?"

"What, don't know how to use one?" Tony teases.

She roles her eyes. "I can use a computer. I'm good with my equipment. I know how to input data, make a spreadsheet, look up videos on YouTube." People will do the dumbest experiments without any of the protective clothing, but watching it keeps Kate from trying it herself and ruining Tony's lab. "But like... computer science? I've had a crash course at best. You'd be surprised how much chemistry SHIELD actually needed done."

"Alright, then, step up and learn from the master," Tony replies, cracking his knuckles.

"I will compile some notes for you, Doctor," JARVIS adds.

Kate smiles a bit. "Thanks, buddy."

"I call him buddy," Tony says, indignant.

"You call him everything under the sun. He's my buddy. Right, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Doctor. We are... buddies," JARVIS replies awkwardly.

Tony sighs. "I don't think I have ever felt more betrayed in my life. I guess I'll just have to take solace in the hesitation."

"I'll let you do that while I go see Clint," Kate replies, heading to the other room. Inside, Cho's ingenious contraption is over Clint, a sort of laser patching up his injury with synthetic tissue. "You sure he's going to be okay?" Kate asks. "Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together."

Cho looks up at her, chuckling. "There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacrum."

Nat glances between Kate and Bruce, the latter providing his amazed answer first. "She's creating tissue."

"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes." So could she do something more complicated? She hasn't exactly gone into detail with either Kate or Bruce about this stuff. What's the limit? Should there be a limit? Well, of course there should, but...

Tony walks in with six smoothies, divided into two carriers. "Oh, he's flatlining. Call it. Time?"

"No, no, no. I'm going to live forever," Clint refutes, laughing a bit. He must be on some pain meds or something with the way his words are slurring. "I'm gonna be made of plastic."

Tony hands him a smoothie. "Here's your beverage."

"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton," Cho says. "Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference."

Clint replies with a straw in his mouth. "Well, I don't have a girlfriend." Kate stifles laughter, while Nat kicks her foot subtly.

"That I can't fix." Cho turns to Tony as he hands her a smoothie. "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust."

He hands a smoothie to Bruce. "Well, that is exactly the plan. And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday."

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties." She looks down at a chart, pauses. "Will... Thor be there?"

Tony chuckles as Nat takes the last two smoothies. "He's ready to revel."

"That's the only question any of us should be asking, really," Kate says, grabbing the smoothie from Nat. "Solid query, Cho; I have another one, though."

Cho sighs. "Oh, boy-"

"If I..." Kate stops, biting her lip and gesturing, trying to figure out her wording "...cut off my hands-?"

"Kate, no-"

She holds up her hands. "Work with me here- if I cut off my hands, chop 'em off just like that-" she uses her free one to pretend to cut off the other, right below the wrist "-could you, like... make me new ones? Like fully functional hands?"

Cho pauses, but ultimately decides to indulge Kate. "Definitely not here. That would include bones, all those complex structures, not to mention the nerve and muscle attachments from your arm for movement. And I haven't actually tested making two whole hands on a human subject yet, so-"

"I'm in."

"I think you're much better off with what you have, Kate. It isn't worth the risk."

"What, you mean the risk of losing my powers?"

"No, you wouldn't lose those — ten to one you wouldn't," Bruce pipes up. "It's rooted itself into your very DNA, according to you."

Kate sips her smoothie, frowning. It's like a fungus or a parasite or... well, it's invasive. Bruce is right; it's rooted into her DNA, and it's in her chest, somewhere. That's where the fire really comes from, where she can feel it hottest at. But it's not her physical heart exactly. She can't just replace her entire chest and hope. That'd be basically impossible.

"I don't have anything to work with on that front, anyway," Cho says. "You destroyed the formula."

"Would you trust the world with this?" She lifts her scarred hands for emphasis.

"Point taken."

"You don't even trust you with it," Clint slurs.

"Drink your smoothie," Nat snaps before Kate can say anything.

"Nat, I can speak for myself," Kate says, then turning back to Clint. "Drink your smoothie." He shrugs, then does as asked.

"I thought you used it to fire proof all your stuff?" Tony asks. "And, you know, there was that whole thing on the news about you giving it to the companies who make firefighter uniforms, releasing it everywhere to prevent people from putting a price on it. And the Nobel Prize for it that you didn't show up for."

"It was also used on SHIELD uniforms," Nat adds, nudging Kate with a proud look on her face.

Kate drinks her smoothie again. "That's not the same compound. The one that made me like this didn't work, so I developed it until it was right, then destroyed it."

"Huh. Never knew that."

Clint sighs dramatically. "There's a lot of things people don't know about Kate-"

"Drink your smoothie," Nat snaps again.

"Anyway, the risk I mean is the risk of just cutting off your hands," Cho continues, thankfully glossing over Clint's comment. "This technology is meant to heal people from sicknesses and injuries."

"So, what you're saying is, if I accidentally got my hands cut off in the heat of battle-?"

"You are not letting your hands get cut off!" Tony, Nat, Bruce, and Cho shout simultaneously.

Kate shrinks a bit in her seat, raising said hands in surrender. "Guys, chill, it was a hypothetical."

Clint bursts into laughter.

~_~_~_~_~

While Kate stepped out to shower, change clothes, and answer a short check-in call from Jones, apparently something happened, because now Tony is calling her and Bruce into the lab. He arrives about when she does. "What's the rumpus?"

"Well, the scepter," Tony replies, leading them to it. "You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside." He grabs his card off the table, then taps it forward, pulling up JARVIS in hologram form. "You may recognize..."

"What's up, buddy?" Kate says.

"Doctors," JARVIS replies.

Tony goes on. "Started out, JARVIS was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper."

Bruce's brows raise. "Oh."

"Top of the line."

Kate nods. "For sure."

"I suspect not for long," JARVIS adds.

Tony scans the scepter with the card. "Meet the competition."

What appears is a large, blue, network of... pulses firing. Bigger than JARVIS, almost ceiling to floor. Living and breathing, unlike the robotic motions of JARVIS' code.

"Wow," Kate breathes out.

"It's beautiful," Bruce agrees.

Tony goes full teacher mode. "If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing?"

"Like it's thinking. I mean this could be a... it's not a human mind, it..."

"Mhmm."

"They're like neurons firing," Kate finishes, watching it happen. She took a few neuroscience-related courses in college, and she used the basics once or twice at SHIELD. It's almost like a brain scan the world has never seen. And Loki was the one with this tech? It's so unfair.

Tony goes on. "Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but... I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

"Artificial intelligence," Bruce replies.

"This could be it. This could be the key to creating Ultron."