The next day Ace ended up at Culver University and kept her eyes open for Dr. Banner, giving a little smile when she spotted him hiding behind a tree watching a young woman. She kept her distance watching him, making sure not to draw any attention to herself. After watching her for only a few minutes he turned and walked away, Ace counted to 10 before getting up and following him. He went to a small, pizza place and she entered an art store, directly across the street, keeping her eyes peeled on the front door of the pizza shop.

"Update." Fury called in her ear.

"Dr. Banner entered a pizza place, I'm keeping an eye out but I think he found a hole." She returned. The art shop was, closing soon and unless he went out the back Dr. Banner hadn't come out in hours. Not long after thinking that she spotted him wearing a hat, sport jacket and carrying a pizza bag, heading to the delivery car. "Got him." She informed, then left the art store where she was being reminded again of Pitor. "A car of my own would be nice." She told Fury, hot wiring an old Toyota and following after him

"We'll put it on the requisitions list." Fury replied. They returned to the university and she sat in the car, which smelled an awful lot like bad cheese and made her want to be sick to her stomach, for about an hour before Banner came back out and returned to the pizza shop. This was going to be a long night. A few minutes later Banner came running out from the back of the store and started walking down the road. Ace climbed out of the car and followed after him on foot, wanting to tie the doctor up just to make sure he'd stay in one place. Tony Stark was a socialite and he didn't move around this much.

"Fury, will you tell Hawkeye, I'll switch back?"

"You asked for Banner, you got him." Fury replied, and she swore she could hear the smirk in his voice.

"I miss my lab." She confessed, especially when it started to down pour. And then when Dr. Banner got into a car and drove off. Scowling Ace pulled out her handheld and quickly looked up information on the license plate, and then on Elizabeth 'Betty' Ross. "I need transport." She informed. Thankfully she didn't have to wait long before one of their black cars pulled up and she climbed in soaked to the bone. "Go to this address." She informed the driver turning the heat up full blast. They arrived and waited.

If only Ace had known the nightmare that the next day would bring, she wouldn't have complained so much about the rain or Dr. Banner not staying still.

She wasn't entirely sure what happened, they had gone to the university again - Ace was getting real tired of the campus- and then all of a sudden all hell broke loose, the Army was there attacking Dr. Banner who had turned into this huge green creature, and had quickly turned the campus into a battle zone. They had almost had him beat when they turned on some sort of machine that was emitting enough noise she could actually see it pushing him back, and then he destroyed those with doors from one of the vehicles that he'd destroyed, there was an explosion or something, and then he was gone. Ace pulled up her scanner and was able to keep track of him, and where he came to a stop in the mountains, she let Fury know where he was, and the director told her to take the rest of the day off and get some rest. Sighing heavily she made her way to Winchester and decided to stop by home, hoping to get a certain mutant out of her mind if she did.

"Any one home?" She called and blushed a bit when Pete was the one who stepped out of the living room to greet her.

"I'm babysitting while the others are on a mission." He informed.

"Pete, it's good to see you." She said. The two stood there a bit awkwardly, as a couple kids ran by. "How's everything going?"

"Good, everyone misses you." He replied and they started walking down the hall toward the back yard.

"I doubt everyone misses me. I can still see a few of them think I shouldn't be here." She said noticing a couple students watching her warily.

"Ok, maybe not everyone but a bunch of us." Ace blushed at his usage of the term 'us'. "Your birthday was the other night right?"

"Did everyone remember except for me?" She threw in, surprised that he knew.

"I have something for you." He continued, and grabbed his sketch book from off the kitchen table and went through it, finally handing her a drawing of the mansion with her family standing in front of it.

"Wow, thanks." Ace said studying the picture.

"I was originally going to put everyone in there but there wasn't enough room."

"It's wonderful." She looked up at him not realizing how close he'd gotten while they looked at the picture together. Slowly she leaned forward and kissed him, softly, and was surprised when he kissed her back. They pulled apart and Ace bit her lip, wondering what would happen next.

"I shouldn't have done that." Pete said, glumly. That was not what she wanted to happen.

"What?"

"You're normal, Ace, you have a chance at a normal life."

"Normal?! Pitor I graduated high school at 15, I have been declared a genius, I'm eighteen and work for a government agency. I don't think that's exactly normal." She shouted. "Thank you though for showing me where you draw a line." She snapped then started marching away.

"Wait, Ace. Please, I didn't mean for it to come out like that." Pete said grabbing her arm.

"Pete, at this point I'm not sure you can say anything that will make up for that."

"Ace, I like you, a lot ever since my first day here when you slammed into me chasing after Wild Card. You've tried to kill me a few times in the danger room just to see how far I could be pushed. You're brilliant, and beautiful, but I'm afraid that a relationship between us wouldn't work." He told her, slowly choosing his words so he didn't make the same kind of blunder as before. "It has nothing to do with whether or not you're a mutant, but more of like you said, you've been declared a genius and work for a government agency, I'm afraid that we would never get to see each other and when we did I would be afraid that you'd get bored with me."

"Colossus, let me worry about my mental stimulation, and as far as us never seeing each other . . .it would be hard, but I'm willing to try if you are." The mutant stood there for a moment searching her eyes then slowly nodded, and kissed her again.

Ace spent the night at the mansion, spending most of her time talking with Pete, until the others came back and then she got swept away in current happenings, and a never ending flow of conversation from her old friends.