"If a kid is the only one with a firecracker in the park, it doesn't make him an expert, it just makes him a kid with a fire cracker." Tony snorts derisively while rolling his eyes.

"And as a kid who's built his own firecrackers. I know there's a big difference between working with what you know and what you've been given. Especially considering that, Loki took Selvig, one of the few people on earth actually studying the tesseract to make him a better portal to bring his precious army, that he was also obviously given by the way. Proves my point."

Tony puts down his cup and immediately fidgets with his hands, as he tends to when trying to explain concepts to others. Hope's refusal to be apart of the conversation is currently not the issue, it's the fact that Tony now only hears Steve saying that he had no idea what he was doing.

"You might have seen that cube, seen how it works. But I had dad's notes on it, as well as my own readings from working with the spear. Believe me, at that point in time without Selvig on board, Bruce and I were equally the most qualified to deal with the shiny space weapons. Sure, we didn't realise it's antagonistic properties till you and the others showed up. But want to know something Rogers?"

Tony straightens up, clearly starting to gear towards a fight.

"We were next to that thing for hours without the slightest harsh word, before you. And everyone else, crashed our party."