New story, cause there isn't enough Banner love out there. Enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and Penny, all other rights go to their lucky rightful owner which is Marvel.
Penelope 'Penny' Green was not a happy worker. Her day hadn't been the best start to what was sure to be a hectic and stressful week aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier, her mission to find out why she had been taken aboard in the first place had failed; so far anyway. It'd been about 9 days since she had walked on solid land and to be honest, she really missed it.
"Miss Green!" She snapped out of her day dream and sat up straight in her swivel chair and peered at the angry agent over her glasses. "Yes?" She answered timidly, the light haired agent sighed and gave a small smile.
"Director Fury would like you to attend the meeting upstairs, and if I were you I'd head there now." His hands folded behind his back as he stared the small woman down. Penny quickly looked away as a grin spread across her face, "Why should I rush? He hasn't given me any of the answers I was promised, the most important being why I'm here and not at home with my big fat cat. So why should I continue doing what he wants me to do?" The agent opened his mouth to speak but soon shut it again as soon as it became apparent she wasn't finished. "Furthermore, Brian is probably sat at home all by herself sulking because nobody's given her any love for the past nine days."
When she didn't receive a reply she looked over at the agent, who seemed to be silently laughing at her rant. "Well Miss Green, if you were to hurry to the meeting then that might just be revealed…Hint, hint, wink, wink." He smiled, winking as he did so. Penny stood up from her slumped position and ran through the door, running back in she squinted at the agents name tag. "I knew there was a reason I liked you Fletcher!" He gave a deep laugh as she sped off down the corridor, her curly auburn hair flying out behind her.
"I'm here!" Penny shouted as she burst through the door, only to be greeted with seven amused stares. "And who, may I ask, is this lovely lady?" Tony Stark, the most famous and well known of the group asked as he walked over. "Miss Green," Fury started.
"Penelope Green, although almost everyone calls me Penny." She smiled warmly at him, her hand outstretched for a handshake. "Anthony Stark, although almost everyone calls me Tony." He smirked, copying her completely.
"Miss Green!" Penny snapped her head around to Fury as she pulled her hand back from Stark, "Uhh, Yes? Director?" She smiled shyly, her hand falling back into place at her side. "Miss Green, please take a seat." She nodded and sat down in a seat in-between Tony and a man with wire rimmed glasses and dark hair that was slightly speckled with grey around the edges.
"Good, now everyone's here we can start." His one good eye glanced over at a buff man with short, styled blonde hair and a tight navy blue tee shirt that stretched over his muscles.
"So Thor, what's his play?" The man started before folding his hands on the table in front of him attentively. Penny took in the people around her for the first time; she only knew three, technically four if you counted Stark. Director Fury stood at the front with Coulson and Maria Hill to either side, all three looked observant, like they were looking for something. Maria quickly turned to a worker who needed her attention.
Seated around the table was a variety of people. Agent Romanoff sat quietly with an empty seat next to her, and next to the empty seat sat a buff blonde guy in a navy tee, his attention still focused on the man at the front. The man at the front, who she guessed to be Thor, wore some kind of metal armour, his long blonde hair covered the majority of his face, but it was plain to see that he was a bit of a fitness freak; his arms looked like they were about to take on a life of their own and start talking for him.
Tony Stark had his trademark facial hair and his dark birds nest of a hairdo, he donned a Black Sabbath tee as he fiddled about with a pen on the table. The light, circular glow emitting from the centre of his chest gave absolute plausibility to the Iron Man alias that he had publically made. Sat on the other side of Penny was the man in the wire rimmed glasses, his short but slightly curly hair was speckled with grey. He wore a smart purple shirt that had been rolled up to his elbows, and had what looked to be a cross between a heart rate monitor and a watch strapped to his left wrist.
"He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thors deep voice boomed around the room as he turned around to face the blonde man.
He looked around at the people in the room, "An army. From outer space." His head swayed from side to side as he took the information in. Penny couldn't help but wonder if she was in the right meeting, surely none of this pertained to her?
The man sat next to Penny shuffled in his seat, "So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." His voice was surprisingly soft and gentle, he took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. Thor snapped around to face him. "Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist." He replied, replacing the glasses. "He's a friend." Came his worried reply, his hand flicked up to his bearded chin as he stroked it in thought.
"Excuse me?" Penny held her hand up, much like a child would do in school. "Did you just raise your hand?" Tony smirked at her, narrowing her eyes she playfully stuck her tongue out at him. "Miss Green if you could just listen first, answers will be given at the end." The director droned, she huffed as she sank back in her seat as she felt a slight blush creep up her neck.
Natasha glanced over at Penny before carrying on with the previous conversation, "Loki has them under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours." She trailed off, looking to the side sadly.
Mr Buff seemed to have recovered from his shock as his head snapped between the on – going conversation, " I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." There was that name again, 'Loki'.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." The dry humour could be heard in the voice of the man to right, Thor's head whipped around to face him, fury evident on his face.
"Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!" He shouted slightly before pointing his finger at the poor man, "He killed eighty people in two days." Penny quickly placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Thors face calmed as he lowered his finger and crossed his arms once again, "He's adopted." He admitted quietly.
"Aren't you going to play host Fury?" Stark quickly changed the subject, his gaze turning from Fury to Penny. "She has no clue what's going on does she? Does she even know who the people in this room are?" His arms were flailing about as Penny sunk lower into her seat, not liking the curious looks she was getting from the majority of the people in the room. "No Stark, she doesn't know." Fury's voice was filled with sadness as he stared at Penny thoughtfully.
"Introductions!" Tony beamed as he pushed his chair back and stood up, pulling Penny up by her arm gently. "Okay sweet cheeks, the dude at the front with the amazingly femininely coiffed hair is Point Break –" He grinned before correcting himself, "I mean Thor. You know God of Thunder, Norse mythology and all that jazz." Penny smiled as the Norse God took a step towards her, ignoring Tony completely.
"Lady Penelope," Thor pulled Penny's hand to his lips and placed a chaste kiss to her knuckles. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He released her hand as she blushed furiously, "It's nice to meet you too, Thor." He beamed and nodded, Tony turned her to face the red headed deadly spy.
"That obviously happy woman is Nata –"
"We already know each other Stark." She breathed before studying her cuticles. "Can you feel the love?" He whispered before turning to Mr Buff. "This annoyingly handsome gentleman is Steve Rogers, a.k.a, Captain America. He's probably about, what?" He glanced over at the embarrassed man before continuing, smirking as he did so. "I'd say he's probably about 90, and still a virgin. Although he was frozen as a Capsicle for nearly 70 years, so I guess he has an excuse." The blush on Penny's face almost matched Steve's; the key word being almost. Penny gave a small wave which he returned before sinking back into his seat slightly.
They spun to face the man who was sat at Penny's left, "And last but certainly not least, is Dr Bruce Banner." Tony spoke with slight pride as Bruce pushed his chair back and stood up to face them, holding his hand out, Penny took it and shook it gently. "Hi, it's nice to meet you Penelope –"
"Penny." She smiled as he released her hand. "Penny," he corrected, a smile creeping on his face that made his deep brown eyes wrinkle slightly. "So how did you get dragged into this? If you don't mind me asking that is…" He trailed off, a light blush creeping on his cheeks as everyone sat down once again.
Penny grinned, "Good question Doctor,"
"Bruce." He smiled down at his hands, a small smile appearing on Penny's face too. "Bruce." She corrected the smile clearly evident in her voice. "So director, why am I here? Because I for one have no idea. What's it been now, 9 days?" She glanced over at the tall man while she stood up and started pacing. "So why am I here? It's certainly not for the same reason as everyone else is, because I certainly don't have anything special about me. I mean –"
"But that's where you're wrong Miss Green." She snapped round to face the eye patched man, confusion written on her lightly freckled face. "Excuse me?"
"Why don't you take a seat Miss Green, and I'll be sure to give you the explanation you've been waiting for." Fury smiled but it didn't reach his eyes, as he gestured back to Penny's seat in-between Tony and Bruce. She nodded as she slowly sank back into the swivel chair.
"You are aware of the disappearance of Dr Henson, I assume?" She was, John Henson had disappeared only three days before Penny had been taken from her home by S.H.I.E.L.D, they had worked together on her first project since graduating from University. He had been her confidant, her friend; a father figure.
"Yes, it was a bit of a clue when he didn't turn up to the destroyed lab the next day." She replied sarcastically, Fury nodded. "I'm aware that the two of you were working on a project," Penny visibly stiffened; this didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the group, mostly Tony and Bruce who exchanged a quick glance. "A project that attempted to re-create the super soldier serum. Though, it didn't quite go your way, did it?" His gaze pierced into Penny as she visibly cringed.
"I was an assistant, Director, as you very well know. The project was entirely Dr Henso-"
"But it wasn't was it?" He slammed his fists down on the table as he shouted. "And now Dr Henson has been ki-"
"DON'T!" Penny shouted as she stood up, her palms down on the table as she visibly shook from the adrenaline pumping through her veins. "Don't…" She repeated quieter as she stood upright, blinking the tears away at the thought of her friend being killed because of her.
"Well, why don't you explain then Miss Green." Fury stated as he sat in the larger swivel chair at the front. Penny looked around before focusing in her clasped hands in front of her.
"Me and Dr Henson started a project. It was based off of the Super Soldier Serum that was used to create Captain America," She gestured to Steve and sighed before continuing, "we called it Extremis."
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