Once in the lab, after Kate gives Tony a small tour, Bruce begins scanning Loki's spear — the scepter. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with your and Selvig's reports on the Tesseract, Dr. Carson," he says. "But it's gonna take weeks to process."

Tony, meanwhile, has opened his own case, which displays a screen. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

"And all I packed was a toothbrush," Bruce chuckles.

But Kate stops, turning to Tony with a suspicious squint. "And whose mainframe are we are bypassing here?"

"Yours," he replies casually. "My, uh, technological buddy JARVIS is hacking into SHIELD's secure files."

"You're what?"

"He's kind of like a UI. We're pals."

Kate huffs. "No, not whoever JARVIS is, the hacking into SHIELD's files part!"

"Keep it down. You really want Fury to know?"

Kate goes to answer him, indignant, but then it occurs to her, what this all means. A thousand possibilities run through her head. She'd never seriously thought to do it before, seeing as she couldn't anyway. But SHIELD isn't Tony's entire life; he can afford to risk it. He can get her answers to all the questions that Fury's shut down.

"Well?" Tony asks.

Kate sighs. "If he asks, I can't promise he won't figure it out even if I try to lie. So your pal JARVIS better be quick."

"Oh, he will be," Tony replies. "You know, you guys should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

Bruce continues typing, only glancing at Tony as he walks over. "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem."

Kate shrugs, thinking of all the info Tony must have stored in his labs, the type of equipment he would have. "I'm down — as long you got plenty of fire extinguishers. And special sprinklers." They're a standard here at SHIELD, but Kate isn't sure if Tony has them installed or not.

He glances up, clearly just noticing the extra safety precautions. "Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises."

He then jabs Bruce in the side with something, causing the latter to exclaim, "Ow!"

"Hey!" Cap shouts, walking in and beating Kate to the punch.

Tony ignores him, still looking at Bruce. "Nothing?"

"Are you nuts?"

"Jury's out," Tony replies, turning back to a chuckling Bruce again. "You've really got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums?"

Cap glares. "Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Cap glances at Bruce. "No offense, Doc."

"I- It's alright; I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," Bruce replies.

Tony turns to him again. "You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Cap cuts in again.

Tony raises a brow, walking to a corner of the lab briefly, picking up a baggy. "Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

Kate sighs. "Welcome to my world."

Cap glances at her. "You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy, Cap," she replies. "He's the spy. His secrets have secrets. And those secrets have secrets."

Tony eats something out of the bag, gesturing to Bruce. "It's bugging him, too, isn't it?"

"Uh..." Bruce starts, looking up from some equipment. "I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Doctor?" Cap insists, while Kate raises a brow.

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

Cap nods. "I heard it."

"I thought it might've been for Dr. Carson at first, but... now I think that was meant for you," Bruce says to Tony, who holds the bag out to him. He takes out of it, continuing. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news."

Cap's brows furrow. "The Stark Tower? That big, ugly..." Tony looks at him, and he pauses before going on, likely changing his words "... building in New York?" Kate's eyes widen as she stifles laughter, though she doesn't exactly agree with the insult, and Bruce thankfully moves on.

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype," Tony replies, then turning back to Cap. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

Kate looks up at Tony, interested. "Do you have your notes on that?"

"Not with me now, but after this, I totally meant that invitation for the both of you."

"Awesome."

"So, Dr. Carson doesn't have anything on clean energy, but Stark does," Bruce observes. "Why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?"

"Could be security, wanting to keep it close..." Kate supplies. But she frowns, realizing that can't be right. "But Tony's an official consultant. The should make him as close to us as Selvig, if not more so."

"Did Fury ever tell you anything about the project? Why it... exists? I mean, what are you guys even doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I just study what I'm told to study, and I can't find out more than I'm allowed. Literally." She didn't fight it either, not wanting to risk getting kicked off the project — not that Fury's ever done that before. But better safe than sorry. Even if he didn't kick her off, he still wouldn't answer her.

"I should probably look into the energy thing once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony says, and Kate grimaces, as Cap now knows, too.

He doesn't like it. "I'm sorry, did you say-?"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony replies. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He holds the bag out to Kate. "Blueberry?"

She shakes her head. "I don't like them."

"And yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Cap says.

Tony eats another blueberry. "There's nothing wrong with not liking blueberries-"

"You, Stark."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" he replies, offering Steve the bag. "Historically, not possible."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. 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," Cap says, ignoring the offer.

Tony grimaces. "Following is not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Cap quips, causing Kate's eyes to widen.

"Of the people in this room, which one is A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?"

"Tony," Kate says. Just when they were becoming acquaintances and he was going to get her answers to everything... Well, a lot of things.

He looks at her. "Am I wrong?"

"About B." She turns to Cap. "The spangly outfit is perfectly fine. I like it."

Bruce sighs. "Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"

There's a pause, then Cap looks at Kate, "Do you agree with him doing this, Dr. Carson?"

"Well..." Kate starts, trying to word it so as not to upset him "...to a certain extent-"

"You gotta be kidding me," he cuts in, and Kate knows she's failed on that front.

She sighs. "Look, I've known Fury for years, and... so far, I've been able to trust him..." she thinks a moment, then adds "... for the most part. But this is different. We haven't seen anything like this since our pal Thor dropped in with his wonder hammer from space.

"And, anyway, if there's a secret to be kept, Fury will keep it. I wanna know what's going on. I wanna see those files. I mean, I've been asking that man since I got here about what happened to Amelia Earhart, and he won't tell me a thing — and I know he must know. Why would he trust me with something potentially way more serious?"

Tony's brows furrow. "Amelia Earhart?"

"That was your only takeaway from all of that?" Bruce questions.

Tony looks at Kate. "You know what, once we've got this, we'll look her up, too."

Cap shakes his head in disbelief. "Stark, you can't be serious."

"I'm totally serious," he replies, seeming offended by the idea that he wouldn't be. "Kate here wants to know about Amelia Earhart, we'll get her the info she needs, plain and simple."

"Just... find the cube," Cap snaps, storming out. Kate frowns at upsetting him, and then the guilt for going behind Fury's back starts to join, too.

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony says. "I'm wondering if they shouldn't've kept him on ice."

Kate bristles. "Are you kidding? He's awesome. What did your dad say about him, anyway?"

"Plenty of things," Tony mumbles, dashing Kate's hopes.

Bruce shrugs, going back to the equipment. "The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us."

"What he's got is an Acme dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does. Kate here can light the fuse."

Bruce chuckles before Kate can argue. "And I'll read all about it."

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us," Tony says.

"Ah, see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it." Tony taps the light under his shirt. "This little circle of light, it's part of me now, not just the armor. It's a... terrible privilege."

"I don't get armor either," Kate says to Bruce. "The fire wouldn't reach the enemy if I did, but... I never signed up to fight in the first place, anyway."

"Fire?" Bruce asks, and Kate realizes he's never seen her condition in action. She lights a small flame, makes it dance across her fingers. He almost seems to smile, but it's more sad than anything. "But you can control it."

"I learned how," Kate says. They helped her, here at SHIELD. It took a lot of work, a lot of precautions, but it's still not perfect. "Mostly."

Tony nods. "So did I."

But Bruce shakes his head. "It's different."

"Hey, I've read all about your accident," Tony says. "That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So you're saying that the Hulk- the other guy saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

Tony shrugs. "I guess we'll find out."

"You may not enjoy that."

"And you just might. Kate understands, right?"

Her head snaps to him, the explosion flashing red in her mind. "What?"

"You should've died, too."

Anger blossoms in her chest, her hands warm and getting warmer. "So by your logic I was saved by fire? Or my own chemical mixture?"

He nods. "You saved yourself."

"No, it doesn't usually work that way, I don't think," she shoots back, unable to stop herself.

"Either way, it was for a reason."

Kate shakes her head, laughing dryly. "What happened to me was..." She clenches her fists, has no choice but to let the anger out in her words instead. "It was my own recklessness, Stark. And now I'm stuck like this." She tried to reverse it for two years after she was finally able, in between assignments from Fury. Nothing's worked, and there's nothing else to try. And it seemed everyone else wanted her to give up trying, too.

"What you have..." Tony begins "... it-it's amazing. It's useful. Scientifically remarkable."

Her voice raises, and she fights to keep it down, to keep her cool. Her nails dig into her palms. "It's a curse."

"I never said it wasn't difficult. But it can't be all bad."

Her words come out in a rush, smarting as they leave. "Try having to fireproof everything you own because you could flare up at any time if you get too upset." She takes in a breath, hands shaking. "I can control this, but only to a certain extent. When I catch fire... anything and anyone around me could too if I'm not careful. And I'm the only one who can survive the flames."

"Same here," Bruce says quietly.

Kate turns to him, surprised. "What?"

"This was my fault, too. I screwed up, made a mistake in the lab." He shrugs. "Can't do anything about it now. And if I go green, I'm usually the only one around me who gets out."

Tony sighs. "My own bomb did this to me. I screwed up, too."

Kate chuckles with no mirth. "Well, looks like we're all horrible then, aren't we?" She looks at the screens, the anger turning to a weight in her chest. "I'm gonna go grab a snack." She doesn't wait for a response, walking out of the lab and stopping in the hall just where Bruce and Tony can't see her, breathing deeply for at least ten minutes to get rid of the weight.

Tony doesn't know what he's talking about. It's not quite his fault though — how could he know? He used some of the same words Fury, Coulson, Clint, and Nat do. Remarkable. Useful. Amazing. It was for a reason.

And Bruce, he didn't say much at all. At least, he didn't contradict her or argue with her. Maybe he just isn't argumentative. Or maybe he understands. Maybe both.

When the weight mostly dissipates, she starts to actually go grab that snack, but, to her surprise, Cap turns at the end of the hallway and starts walking toward her. With furrowed brows, she meets him in the middle.

"You know your way around here, right?" he asks.

She nods. "Of course I do. Why?"

He hesitates, then replies, "Stark's computer thing is taking too long. I want to find out for myself in a... much faster way."

Her brow raises. "And what happened to all the hubbub you brought up in the lab?"

"I was thinking about it, and I realized you guys were... probably right. I mean, you've known Fury a while, and you're leading the project, but he hasn't told you anything. It seems suspicious."

Kate starts to smile, realizing that he's asking her to help him. "You're darn right it does. Let's go look."