Aboard a SHIELD Helocarrier - 1900

Captain Steve Rogers, known more commonly as Captain America, leaned back and looked at the tablet in his hand, studying the intelligence report on an underground technology and arms dealer. Well, it would be far more accurate to say the lack of intelligence considering all it was reporting was that they couldn't be found. "Damn, these people are like ghosts!"

"Yeah they are, Steve;" said Natasha Romanoff, publicly known as the Black Widow, as she slid him a cup of coffee. "I've never seen anything like these guys. No one has ever been able to stay under SHIELD's radar like that."

Steve took a sip of the coffee and sighed with satisfaction, glanced back at the tablet and then tossed it onto the table. "Well that's no help whatsoever. How about you? You're a super spy. Can you read anything from that?"

Natasha chuckled and shook her head. "Nothing to read; we have no information to read. We have no information at all."

Steve put his head and his hands and said, "I don't like chasing ghosts. Is there anything going on that we can do something about?"

Natasha chuckled and sipped her own coffee. "Nick will let us know - if the World Security Council is on board that is."

"And of course we can't help Peter with the local crime problems - because we weren't invited. Sometimes I wonder if going public was a good idea."

Natasha chuckled and said, "Steve, you came out of the ice in public. As soon as you were fully recovered, you were public knowledge. You're Captain A-freakin-merica! If you want to go help, you probably could just not with the rest of the Avengers. Come on. Let's find something to take your mind off things. I'm sure Nick will have something for you soon."

Steve stood to his feet. "Yeah? Any idea how we can do that?"

A wicked gleam entered her eyes and she said, "A few; you want combat training, intel training or miscellaneous training?"

Captain America cocked an eyebrow and asked, "Miscellaneous training? What's that?"

The wicked gleam turned into a wicked grin. "It's a private session - one on one. We work on whatever you want to work on."

The naive and old fashioned Steve didn't understand for several seconds and when he did, he blushed and said, "Oh, well now that you mention it, a one on one session sounds good to me - if you have the time."

They were about to head off when Bruce Banner walked into the office with a young, professionally dressed woman with glasses and a briefcase. "Hey Steve, where is everybody?"

"They're around, Doctor. Do we need to gather for something?"

The scientist chuckled and said, "It's no emergency. I just want them to meet someone. This is my cousin Jennifer Walters."

Natasha chuckled and said, "I've heard of you. Does Tony need legal help again?"

Jennifer Walters chuckled and said, "No; at least not to my knowledge."

Steve called everyone he could and waited. When everyone was there, Tony Stark, James Rhodes, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Clint Barton and Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner said, "Everyone, this is my cousin Jennifer Walters. She's a lawyer."

Tony Stark nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, Miss Walters. How can we help you today?"

"Actually, Mister Stark, it's more how I can help you;" she replied, setting her briefcase to the side and pulling her jacket off. When she went for her skirt, Steve went, "Woah now, what are you doing?"

Jennifer just chuckled and said, "It's not what you think, Captain. Just wait a second."

As she removed her skirt and shirt and kicked off her heals, Jennifer revealed that she was wearing skintight outfit beneath. Closing her eyes and screwing up her face, Jennifer suddenly groaned and fell to her knees before her skin turned green and she grew larger. When she straightened, she was as tall as Steve was, at least six-foot, seven inches and she grinned broadly. Tony's eyes were wide and said, "Another Hulk?"

"That's right, Mister Stark."

"How'd that happen?" asked Steve before blushing and saying, "I'm sorry. That was rude."

"Don't worry about it, Captain. It happened after I received a gunshot wound from a gangster in Los Vegas. Bruce came by and, after the doctor said that I was going to die, he took me out of the hospital and gave me a highly illegal but at least sanitary blood transfusion and the rest, as they say, is history. Now, I can lift impossible weights and am practically bullet proof so..." and she shrugged and trailed off. Bruce chuckled and said, "She was wondering if she could sign up with the Avengers - even if it would be mostly to help Tony with his many legal issues."

Jennifer laughed and Tony said, "Let me ask you something, Miss Walters; do you have a lot of crime fighting or world saving experience?"

She looked to the side a little uncomfortably. "A little - nothing like the rest of you though. I tossed around a group of thugs in Vegas but..."

"That's alright;" said Steve with a grin. "I'm sure that Director Fury will help us find a mission to go on that will help us see what you can do."

"He will help;" came an amused voice from one of the room's entrances. They all turned to see Nick fury striding in. "We have word that Crossbones is mucking around in Pittsburgh. What exactly he's up to, I'm not sure but it's never good when he and his mercs go to a populated city and things start blowing up. I'm having four of you go with a team of tactical SHIELD agents to bring him in."

Steve lifted a hand and said, "I'll go."

"Of course;" muttered Tony. Nick gave a very small, wry smile, "Yes, you'll be in charge. Miss Walters, you'll be going too. Wilson, Barton, you'll be going too. A quinjet is being prepared now and so are twelve agents. Be ready in twenty. Any questions, I'll be on the bridge;"

Tony and Rhodey looked at each other and left the room. "What, are they a couple or something?" asked Jen, causing a low chorus of chuckles. Steve just sighed, "No. They seem to think that one of them should be on every mission to make sure the jobs get done right. You have a narcissistic billionaire genius and an Air Force Colonel who's used to being in control of an operation. Right, Miss Walters-"

"Captain, you don't have to call me that. I prefer Jen and hate this 'Miss Walters' stuff outside of the court room."

Steve chuckled and said, "Alright, Jen. Meet us on the launch deck in fifteen minutes. Do you have any other gear you want to put together?"

Jen shook her head and Clint Barton and Sam Wilson hustled out of the room. Natasha looked at Steve and said, "Careful, Cap. I won't be there to watch your ass this time."

Steve chuckled before heading to the armory to collect his own gear.

Jen was pacing on the flight deck of the Helocarrier when Captain America, Hawkeye and Falcon came out. She had to say that she liked what she saw. Cap was wearing a rather tight fitting combat suit and had his trademark shield on his back. He looked good in red, white and blue. Hawkeye was in dark blue and had his trademark bow on his back and Falcon was in a tech suit with the high tech metal wings and weapons. "Ready to go, Jen?" asked Cap. Jen nodded and said, "Let's do this."

The twelve tactical agents were seated and buckled in. They all stared briefly at the jade giantess before bringing their eyes front. Among them was Agent Sharon Carter, a quite young agent but talented and vigorous in her work. "Captain Rogers, we just received word that Crossbones and his mercs are holding the Pittsburgh Airport. We aren't sure what they're doing there because Crossbones hasn't issued demands of any kind."

Cap nodded and strapped in as the quinjet took off. It wasn't a long flight to Pittsburgh - only about thirty-five minutes at the speed that the quinjet could fly. On the flight, Jen asked, "So, what's the play, Captain?"

"It's going to be dark by the time we get there. If I know Crossbones, he's going to have grounded all flights so getting in close isn't going to be hard. Unless I'm wrong, flights going in to Pittsburgh are going to have been diverted to other airports so getting this baby in under the radar is going to be hard. The good news is that power has been cut to the airport so they won't have the entire facility's surveillance up. However, that doesn't mean they won't have set up their own."

Agent Carter chuckled and said, "Landing isn't going to be the problem. This baby has a stealth capability that makes it pretty much invisible to the naked eye. Not only that but we have a Electromagnet Pulse emitter that can fry any of their own equipment."

Cap looked at her with a little surprise. "Are those common features for all quinjets? And won't it fry out comms and this jet?"

Hawkeye laughed and said, "No it's not. This one's the only one the carrier. It's specifically for insertions like this and no, we don't need to worry about our comms or the jet. It was specially made to guard against stuff life this using special alloys and such."

A call from cockpit came. "Insertion in sixty seconds. Get ready, Captain."

They all stood and Captain America said, "Listen up; we'll be going in at two points. Falcon, I need you to keep an eye from outside. Hawk, you're going to be taken Agent Carter and five more agents and entering in through the roof. The rest of us are going to repel and go in from the parking garage."

Jen looked a little troubled. "Won't they see us coming?"

Captain America gave a grin. "They'll see us coming, yes. They won't see the others coming. If we can keep them focused on us, Hawk and Carter can take whatever command center they have. Sam, use that drone of yours to get us a good scan of the buildings to see if we can figure the concentration of the people inside."

"You got it, Cap."

The jet lowered and Cap grabbed a line to descent from before looking at the rest of them. "I'm banking on the fact that Crossbones jumps at the opportunity to want to try and prove that he's better than me and to take me on one at a time. Assuming that's correct, Jen, you're going to go with the second team to help secure Crossbones' men and any hostages. Questions?"

Falcon looked a little hesitant and asked, "Steve, are you sure that you can afford to take on Crossbones? Last time you won but he beat you up pretty good."

Captain America shrugged. "And I was on the mats rolling with Black Widow the day after that. I'll be fine. As soon as that EMP goes off, Sam and the first insertion group deploys."

Their was an odd noise and the communications crackle and squeaked. "That was the EMP. Rear door opening."

As soon as the deployment door was opening, Falcon zipped out and into the night air. "Launching drone;" said Falcon and one of the agents pulled a tablet that showed the feed. "Switching to infrared vision. Doesn't look like there are any mercs on the roof. We're clear as far as that goes."

Cap nodded and asked, "I don't suppose you have some sort of fancy X-ray vision on that thing, do you, Sam?"

"Of course not! This isn't sci-fi, Cap! However, I can send a subsonic pulse through the building and use it like sonar."

Captain Rogers laughed. "Oh, my mistake."

From the cockpit came, "We're coming up on the parking garage - going to put you on an open top section. Get ready, back there."

The first team led by Cap and Jen dropped to the deck and immediately began moving tactically through the parking garage. Whenever they came on a mercenary, it was a simple matter of taking them out. They had barely made it into the main area before they were met by a large group of mercenaries who were ready for them. "Cap, you want a firearm?" asked one of the agents. After just a moment of hesitation, Captain America nodded and took the man's side arm. "Do I get one of those?" asked Jen as she stood behind a pillar. They all looked at her before one of them asked, "Do you know how to use one?"

"How hard can it be?" she asked with a shrug. The other agents looked at each other and returned fire - without giving her a gun. "Fine;" she said and a savage grin covered her face. "Cover me, boys;" and she leaped out. "Woah now, Jen!" called Cap but it was a little late. Much like her cousin, the Incredible Hulk, Jen was practically bullet proof as she barreled into the group of mercs, sweeping two of them to the side with one swing of her arms. Cap jumped out and flung his shield at another. No one really know how the thing worked but the way Stark and Pym explain it is that the vibranium allowed it to ricochet until it found a soft surface to stick in or it was caught - or just ran out of momentum. The shield bounced around until Jen saw it and snatched it out of the air, using it to smack another merc to the side before tossing it back to Cap who then used it bash another merc to the side. Within a minute, they were flattened and the SHIELD team was moving again. Jen was still grinning. Cap said, "Nice work. Next time, they'll expect that and will try to set a trap and Crossbones has methods of trapping the Hulk that I'm sure you'd be susceptible to. Keep it tight."

She nodded, still grinning widely. Captain Rogers chuckled. "You really are related to Bruce, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I'm undeniably better looking."

Cap chuckled as they hurried on. They came to one of the gates and there were several mercs and dozens of hostages. It was a standoff. The mercs were using some of the hostages as human shields. "Everyone stay calm;" Cap said to his team. A laugh came from the other direction and there was Crossbones in his regular black and white painted uniform and mask. "Hello, Captain America. I was wondering when SHIELD was going to show up with their favorite spangly super hero. Drop your weapons and only you'll die and these folks can go on with their lives when we leave."

"Why should we believe that?" asked Captain Rogers. Crossbones crossed his arms and said, "Simple, really. I have no need or use for massacring an airport full of people. Drop them."

Captain Rogers put his shield on his back and lifted his hands and the SHIELD Agents lowered their weapons, swinging them on their slings so that they were behind them. "Good, now call your other team off."

Cap hesitantly lifted his hand to his earpiece and was about to give a set of code words that let the other team know about the situation when the glass shattered and the three mercs who were holding guns to the heads of the civilians dropped. In threw the open window came Falcon and the SHIELD agents engaged more mercenaries who arrived. Jen ran to the civilians and put herself between them and the fire, shielding them with her body. Cap went straight for Crossbones, leading with his shield. Crossbones caught it on his gauntlets. "I've been waiting a long time for this, Cap."

Blades sprung from his gauntlets, which made the fight a whole lot more interesting. While this was happened, the SHIELD agents, Jen and Falcon were killing or subduing the mercenaries fairly quickly but they just kept coming. Seeing that everything was in hand, Jen ran towards Crossbones. Seeing her coming, Crossbones sidestepped and Jen collided with Cap, giving Crossbones the chance to kick the shield out of the way and driving his blades down towards him. Cap rolled to the side and came up with a hard knee to Crossbones' face mask, knocking him back hard. "What the hell is she, some kind of She-Hulk?"

Jen gave a feral smile and said, "I like that: She-Hulk."

"Stay back, Jen. You and the Agents need to secure the rest of this place. I got this joker;" said Captain America. She clearly wasn't happy about it. "Fine. you may want this."

She flung the shield, not at Cap but at Crossbones. Not expecting it, the Shield slammed into the mercenary leader and knocked him back into a pull. It went straight to Cap and, when he caught it, it jarred his arms and his feet skidded back almost a foot. "Damn, that smarted!"

Crossbones was up and after him again. "Let's dance, you son of a bitch!"

Hawkeye and Carter had managed to secure the terminal and several other areas, escorting the civilians out of the facility a few at a time. "I don't like this, Barton;" said Agent Carter, "clearly these hostages don't mean anything to Crossbones. He has a trick up his sleeves."

Hawkeye grunted and said, "He doesn't wear sleeves. But you're right; he probably has an agenda. Why the hell is he taking an airport anyway?"

That was the question. Suddenly, his ear piece chimed and one of the pilots of their quinjet said, "Sir, we just got word from the New York Field Office. Apparently a science lab in Pittsburgh was hit not a half hour ago. They stole a huge supply of a new experimental steroid."

"Are they still there?" asked Clint but he was sure of the answer already. "No. They were in and out in fifteen minutes. We don't know who they are and none of the known groups have taken credit for it."

Hawkeye sighed and said, "Well, we'll get his cleaned up and head over there next."

"Negative. Director Fury has ordered us home when we're done. He's sending Coulsin and his team to take care of the lab aboard a Globemaster."

Hawkeye was slightly relieved. He hated looking into scenes after it was already too late to do anything about it. It was boring and none of them were forensic experts. "Alright. Hey, do you still have that feed from the drone?" he asked one of the agents. The agent in question pulled out a tablet and checked it. "Yup. According to our subsonic pulse scan, they're all converging on Cap and Walter's location. Oh, Falcon's there too."

"Alright," said Hawk, "we're heading that way and helping any civilians we come across. Let's go."

Captain America was slowly but surely overpowering Crossbones. He had already broken the blades that came out of the mercenary's gauntlets and was now driving him back, blow for blow. After a massive kick that sent Crossbones back, he laughed and stood to his feet. "You're getting even better, then normal, Captain. Too bad it doesn't matter. You see, the reason we picked this airport is because it has a sizable population and we put a dirty bomb somewhere in the facility. So, if you want to stop me, that's fine but you and me, both our teams and a massive area of Pittsburgh to die. Or you let me escape and go find the bomb."

"You're full of it;" said Cap as he moved to engage. Crossbones laughed again and point to a nearby book store. "In there, Cap. I'll even show you."

Steve chewed his lip and cautiously followed the mercenary. In a storage closet was the bomb - and it was huge. "CS Gas; it's a little old fashioned, I grant you but the effect is still the same. It's a pretty simple system but I think it will take you some time."

Cap rushed him, smashed him with the shield and seemingly knocked him out before tapping into his comms. "Please tell me someone here can defuse a bomb."

"There's one in our group, Cap;" said Hawkeye. "We're coming to you."

"Right;" said Cap, "Everyone else, get to the quinjet and get out."

"No way!" said She-Hulk. "We're not leaving you behind!"

"Yes, you are; there is no need for all of us to die if this goes sideways."

Hawkeye and his team ran up and Cap ordered of them but the bomb tech away. "Wow, this is a pretty simple system. Give me a second, Captain."

The tech careful found the detonator and painstakingly opened it. "Oh please; Cap, you said it was a bomb, not a toy. Here;" and he snipped a couple wires with a tool and all lights on the detonator went out. "You'd think that someone with Crossbones's resources would be able to invest in a better device than this thing. Where is he anyway?"

Cap looked over to where he had laid out Crossbones and saw that he was gone. "Check the drone feed."

After a moment, the Agent said, "He's running for it - heading out onto the tarmac!"

Falcon yelled, "I got him!" and jumped out the window, his wings extending as he zipped off before anyone had the chance to stop him.

Falcon used his night vision goggles to spot Crossbones and dove after him. Feet first, he slammed into Crossbones, knocking him to the ground. "Stand down!" he demanded. Crossbones snorted and attacked. Sam Wilson, a former Air Force para-rescue man and talented in hand to hand combat, was quickly overpowered. Crossbones quickly beat down his offenses and, pulling a knife, plunged it into his side. "Give Captain America my regards;" muttered the mercenary before running. With the knife still in his side, Falcon took off and tumbled into the group of pursuing SHIELD agents led by Captain America. "Damn it, Sam!" Cap said in frustration. "Get me a medic here!"

The quinjet was on the way and the pilot hailed them. "Agent Carter and the bomb tech are staying here to keep an eye on the bomb until Coulsin and his team can pick it up on the way back from the lab."

"Get him on board. I'm going after Crossbones;" said Captain Rogers. "That's a negative, Sir. Director Fury wants you back at a Field Office."

It would have been easy for Captain America to just take off after Crossbones but he knew that Fury wouldn't tell him to end the pursuit unless it was very necessary. With a growl of frustration, Cap climbed on board. "We aren't going after him?" asked She-Hulk. "No. They want us back at him. We'll catch up with him another day."

The jet took off and the medic said, "Wilson is stable, sir. The knife got wedged between his third and fourth rib and stopped in before it could puncture his lungs."

Cap sighed with relief and pulled his helmet off and leaned back before glancing at Jen. She was still big and green. "So... you're the She-Hulk, huh?"

She smiled hugely and said, "Well it obviously fits, doesn't it? What else would I call myself?"

"I dunno - the Jade Giantess maybe?"

The She-Hulk laughed and shook her head. They were quiet for a bit before Cap said, "You know, if you're able, you can probably change back. Bruce usually does as quickly as possible after a mission."

"Bruce also wears a pair of giant purple pants usually. I'm wearing a skintight piece that would look comically large if I changed back to normal. No thanks."

Captain Rogers laughed and ceded the point. After a short pause, She-Hulk said casually, "So Cap I was wondering if you wanted to go out for drinks when we're done being debriefed and everything. We can talk about how well you think I did for my first mission and go from there."

Steve blushed and said, "I wouldn't mind talking about how you did but I'm gonna have say no to the drinks. Director Fury is going to want to get a personal briefing from me on this mission."

There was a bit of an awkward silence until Hawkeye said, "Hey Cap, why don't you go check on the pilots?"

Wordlessly, Cap went to the front. Quickly, Clint moved across to sit next to Jen and said, "Don't take it personal. He actually has a thing going on with Agent Romanoff right now. They're trying to keep it quiet but no one who's really close to them is being fooled."

Jen smiled at him and said, "Well that explains it. I thought it was something wrong with me - or maybe he batted for the other team."

Clint laughed and said, "No to both, She-Hulk. Hey, you mind if we call you Shulk?"

Jen cocked an eyebrow and didn't say anything but her displeasure was clear. "You got it. No Shulk;" said Clint. Cap came back and She-Hulk grinned at him. "So how did I do for my first mission?"

Captain America chuckled and said, "You did pretty good. In truth, it wasn't really an evaluation. I just wanted to be sure you wouldn't run or curl up and cry in the corner - not that I was really worried about that. I also wanted to see what you were capable of and I'm very impressed. I'll talk to the rest of the Avengers but I'm confident that you'll be accepted, but do you really want to get into this life? It's not easy. You could just be a brilliant lawyer and live a normal life."

Jen chuckled and said, "You could be an MMA fighter or some kind of sportsman or even just a spokesman for just about anybody. Hell, why not politics? Who wouldn't elect the famous Captain America and yet you jump into the fire on the front lines. Why is that?"

"Because I was made the way I am now to protect the freedom of the people of the United States of America. You became the way you are to save your life. I think you're making the right choice. As my favorite teenage webslinger says 'with great power comes great responsibility.'"

"Exactly. I learned the law of this country. I learned about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Before, I defended it in court and wanted to help those who needed representation. Now, I get to defend outside of the courtroom as well. I have to say that, at least when I'm hulked out, the latter is a lot more satisfying."

Steve laughed and said, "I like that. It might be a little premature but welcome aboard, Miss Walters."

"Oh I hate that crap."

The debriefing was pretty straight forward and quick and Steve was grateful for that. He was tired and sore. Despite the fact that he had overcome Crossbones, the mercenary had kicked the ever loving crap out of him. When all was said and done, Steve returned to his apartment in Brooklyn and got ready for day off - 'off' that he was on call for the next global or at least local catastrophe. He had forty-eight hours to himself providing nothing was going on.

With a sigh, Steve unlocked his door and went inside, putting his shield and a gym bag with his uniform in it beside the door. "Hello stranger;" came a sultry greeting from the couch. Turning around quickly, Steve saw Natasha was sitting there, wearing street clothes and reading a book, judging by the cover, was written in Russian. Steve sighed and went to sit next to her. "Well that was a hell of a day;" he said. Natasha put her book down and scooted closer, rubbing the front of his shoulder. "I wish I could have gone with you."

"I would have liked that too;" he replied. "Gotta say, though, Jen Walters would be a real asset to the team. Whenever Thor isn't here, which seems to be more often these days, and whenever we need a little extra muscle, having her around would be great. Not only that, having someone with legal knowledge would be pretty fantastic."

Natasha nodded. "Clint said she tried to invite you out for drinks."

Steve laughed tiredly and nodded. "And you said no;" said Natasha. It was a statement but it insinuated a question. Steve looked at her and said, "Of course. What, do you think I'm Tony Stark? I'm a one woman kinda guy."

She chuckled, "You're so old fashioned."

"I was born before WW2, Nat. By definition, I'm old."

Natasha laughed at that. "You sure don't act old. You know, I never said that we had to be exclusive, Steve. If you wanted to go out for drinks with Jen Walters and see where it went, I wouldn't have gotten mad."

"Yeah but it just wasn't how I was raised and most people I associated with had some pretty harsh words for players like that. You should have heard the things we said about Howard Stark behind his back. Look, Nat, whatever you decide to do, that's on you but while we're a, whatever we are, I'm not going to sleep with every woman in sight."

"Well that's very thoughtful and respectful of you;" she said before smiling and saying, "speaking of sleeping with people, maybe we should go take a nap. You did just get off a pretty intense mission after all."

"Am I actually going to be able to sleep?" asked Steve with a smile. Nat's eyes were gleaming as she hauled him to his feet. "Eventually;"

"Well go easy on me. Crossbones kicked the hell outta me."

"Awe, poor baby;" said Natasha with a wicked smile. "I'll make you feel all better."