Gal Gadot as Loralie

"Come on Lee! Just let me put a little bit on, please!" Cassie laughed as she tried her hardest to put makeup on Loralie.

The girl shook her head. "Nope, in case you haven't noticed, I'm already quite a pretty girl. I don't need make up!" Loralie tried to convince her but it was no use so she just sighed. "Fine- but only a little bit."

Cassie squealed in excitement before applying some light make up. "Steve is going to lose his mind when he sees you," The vampire muttered to herself but Lee heard her.

"What?"

Cassie face went blank. "You haven't-" Cassie stopped half way through her sentence. "Never mind, you can figure it out yourself."

Cassie shook her head and snapped out of her daydream. 'We've met before' is what Loralie told her and now she could vaguely remember when: World War Two.

Cassie was currently sat in the lab with Tony and Bruce as she had nothing better to do.. Although, she was zoned out of their scientific conversation because a memory of her and 'Lee' came back and she had a feeling that something was wrong. It was a gut feeling, really, but there just wasn't something right about the whole situation.

"Hey Cassie, are you listening?" Tony asked, snapping her out of her daydream.

"No not really, why?" She asked, standing up and walking over to them. 

Tony rolled his eyes. "I was saying how Dr Banner should come to Stark Tower. Isn't it candy land?"

"Actually," Cassie sighed. "Bruce, it really is brilliant. Tony's right, you should visit."

"I'd rather not," He politely declined. "The last time I was in New York I kind of, broke Harlem."

Tony just shrugged. "Well I promised a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises," he trailed off. Tony then poked Bruce in the side with quite a sharp stick causing him call out in slight pain.

Cassie sat up quickly. "Tony!" She scolded him like a mother and he put his hands up in defence.

Steve shouted, "hey!" As he walked in. "Are you nuts?" He asked Tony.

Cassie rolled her eyes at Tony. "Jury's out on that one Steve." she told him and Tony smiled at her.

"Really? Nothing?" Tony continued to ask Bruce. "You really have got a lid on it havent you, what's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums?"

"Why are you so tempted to find out his secret Tony?" Cassie asked him in order to get the attention off of Bruce. 

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked.

"Only funny things are." Tony replied sarcastically.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve told him quite coldly before turning to Bruce. "No offense doctor."

"It's alright I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce told them.

Tony walked away slightly. "You're tip-toeing big man, you need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem Mr Stark." Steve snapped at him.

"Oh this is not going to end well," She muttered to herself and suddenly became very interested in the dirt under her nails. 

"I am," Tony shot back. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isnt he telling us?"

"Because he didn't need us before?" She thought out loud.

He clicked his fingers at her. "But we don't know that do we?" He said and she silently agreed. "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve wondered although it was more of a statement than a question.

Cassie realised, "He's a spy, he's the spy of spies. We lie, that's our main focus, our main cover," Cassie explained, Tony was just happy someone else had clicked on.

Tony opened his packet of blueberries and placed some in his mouth. "His secrets have secrets," Tony finished her sentence. He then gestured to Bruce, "it's bugging him too isnt it?"

"I just wanna finish my work here-," Bruce stopped talking when he saw the three others looking at him. He sighed and took his glasses off, "Uh, 'a warm light for all mankind'. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube. Well I think that was meant for you."

They all looked at Tony but Bruce continued, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly..." Tony looked at Steve, he had clearly taken offense, "building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Bruce continued.

Cassie sat on the desk and ate her apple. "Yeah but that building's only gonna run itself for what, a year?" She finished, assuming she was right.

Tony shrugged. "It's just the prototype. I'm kinda the only name in clean energy right now, that's what he's getting at."

Bruce nodded and continued again, "So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

Cassie was speechless, because he had actually made a good point. "I was going to say you should probably look into that but I have a feeling you already have," Cassie smirked at her godson who smiled back.

Tony began walking round to the other side of the desk as he spoke. "I will once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELDs secure files," he told them quite casually.

Both Steve and Cassie stood up quickly. "I'm sorry, did you just say-" Steve tried to speak but Tony ended up interrupting him. Again.

The two men were now stood quite closely looking at each other. "Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony interrupted and now it all made sense.

"That's why you walked right over to Fury's stand and touched the computer because you placed a bug on it," Cassie put the pieces together and Tony nodded.  "So in a few hours you'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide."

Steve crossed his arms, the frown still etched upon his face. "Yet you're still confused why no one wants you around," he said and declined the offer for a blueberry from Tony.

"An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence?" Tony asked but it was more of a rhetorical question. He shrugged his shoulders. "Historically, not awesome." 

The next thing Cassie knew, it was Loralie who decided to walk through the door. As soon as they caught eyes, Loralie knew Cassie remembered.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Both Loralie and Steve stated at the same time, they just looked at each other weirdly. "Loki means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. And I can't be the only person in this room that doesn't want that."

"She's right," Steve agreed with her. "We have orders, we should follow them."

Cassie and Tony looked at each other before both saying at the same time, "Following's not really our style." The two shrugged, not everyone was the exact replica of a soldier.

Even though they had both said the same thing, Steve only looked at Tony. "And you, Stark, are all about style aren't you?" Steve smirked, trying to catch him off guard.

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

"Steve," Cassie said softly. "This doesn't seem the littlest bit fishy to you?"

He looked at them all before storming out saying, "just find the cube."

Loralie looked at the remaining three. "What, did you take away his American hope?"

"Could you supervise him, please?" Cassie asked. "I'm busy supervising these two." Loralie huffed but reluctantly agreed so once again, it was just Cassie, Tony and Bruce in the lab.

Tony scoffed. "That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" he told them as they played about with the machines for a bit. "I'm wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice." 

Cassie just looked at him but luckily, he sent her an apologetic look which was a rare thing for Tony Stark.

Bruce ignored them both. "Guys not wrong about Loki though," he thought. "He does have the jump on us."

Cassie was lying down on the table. She was only there to make sure nothing blew up. "What he has, is an acme dynamite kit that's going to blow up in his face," Cassie corrected him. "And we're going to be there when it does."

"Nah, I'll read all about it," Bruce shook his head.

Tony wasn't really listening. "Uh-huh, or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us," Tony said and Cassie silently agreed.

"You see, I don't get a suit of armour," Bruce chuckled and shook his head. "I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl it's way into my heart," Tony explained and then he tapped his arc reactor, "this, stops it. This little circle of light, it's part of me now, not just armour. Its a terrible privilege."

Cassie shrugged. "Or you could just, you know, get surgery to get it out," She suggested. "I think what he's trying to say is that your...alter ego, is a part of you now."

"Yeah but he can control it-"

"Because I learned how."

"It's different."

Cassie decided to intervene again before it got worse. "Hey, I read about your little accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

Bruce licked his lips. "So you're saying that The Hulk...the other guy, saved my life?" He asked them. Tony and Cassie looked at each other and nodded. "That's nice. Its a nice sentiment, saved it for what?"

"I guess we'll find out," Tony finished and walked away.

"Don't find it without us," Cassie told him before she grabbed Tony's blueberries and left the room.

edited: 22.06.24

for new readers, Loralie is an eternal.