Valor ↠ Prequel [0] ✓

14 | Blueberries And Conspiracy Theories

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VALOR
xiv. BLUEBERRIES AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES

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   THE NIGHT SKY EMBRACED the Helicarrier with open arms, the clouds acting as a simple pillow and blanket. The night was young as the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers busied themselves. Dr. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark could be found continuing their ongoing search for the Tesseract with Agent O'Dair by their side. She had decided to honor her superior's wishes and remain alert for any signs of the Hulk.

   With steady hands and focused, but tired eyes, Dr. Banner worked hard. He was used to working late nights. He scanned Loki's scepter with a gamma-ray detection scanner before he announced, "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract, but it's gonna take weeks to process."

   Tony Stark just barely heard Bruce's words. He was like that - always getting lost in his own mind at work. He wasn't used to... partner work, but he made an exception for the doctor. While sifting through and solving algorithms like they were children's puzzles, Tony replied, "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

   The third member in the room remained silent as she sat in the middle of the room with her eyes shut. Her small body rested on a flattened forcefield, meditating peacefully. This was how she trained her powers at the end of the day. Nat always taught her to always stay sharp, to never let her guard down for a moment.

   "You know," Tony began, "you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it. It's Candyland."

   Eyes still shut, Riley agreed, "Uh-huh. It's Tony's way of kissing his own ass in front of all of New York."

   Tony and Bruce exchanged glances before the latter declared, "You corrupted the child."

   "Well, someone had to supervise her."

   "I think someone needed to supervise you," sassed Riley, causing Bruce to chuckle.

   Now that he had spent some time with Riley, both, on the plane and in the Helicarrier, he decided he liked the child. She was clever, intelligent, and knew a good joke or two. In return, Riley chose to trust Bruce (for the most part, at least), mostly because Tony had decided to trust him.

   Besides, Riley would've exposed her cover if she pretended to be a hardass agent with Tony in the room. Everyone and their mothers knew that when Riley and Tony were together, they were absolute children.

   "Well, about your offer," Bruce mentioned, "thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of... broke Harlem."

   Tony didn't seem to care. "Well, I promise a stress-free environment," he proclaimed. "No tension, no surprises." With that, Tony poked Bruce with a miniature electrical prod.