EXT. HELICARRIER LANDING STRIP DAY
The deck of the floating carrier was a whirlwind of activity as Natasha and Aj waited for the quinjet. Everywhere AJ looked, SHIELD agents were working on something or other. Though some agents paused to look at Aj's outfit, which consisted of black booty shorts, a black cropped t-shirt with a scarlet 'A' on the chest, mid calf black converse with red laces, black and white kneesocks, black elbow/knee pads, and taped up hands.
"So~~~ What are we doing here again?" Aj asked as she nuzzled Nat's neck with her head.
"We're here to greet Steve Rog-..." Nat replied until she saw the 'who-is-that' look on Aj's face. "...Captain America."
"OHHHHHHHH! Is he cute? I bet he's cute! Do you think he's tall or short? Is he blonde, brunette, or a redhead? Is big or scrawny or-" Aj was cut off by Nat's hand over her mouth.
"I will take my hand off only if you promise to behave and licking my hand won't help."
Aj nodded her head and Nat removed her now wet hand. Then the quinjet's ramp began to open. Aj straightened up to match Natasha's posture and stance only she had a huge grin on her face.
At the bottom of the quinjet's ramp stood the most beautiful red heads Roger's had ever seen. They both looked like polar opposites to the super soldier. One smiling and hyperly waving at him, the other calm and collected waiting with crossed arms. But he knew there was also something more to the women than just their beauty. He had a feeling that the red heads were far more dangerous then how they seemed.
"Colsy!" Aj yelled before running and jumping on Coulson's back, clinging to him like a koala. "I've missed you! Everyone her is all 'don't this', 'don't that' and blah blah blaaaaaaaaaah."
"Aj"
"Yes Coulsy?"
"Of course, if you promise to let me drive the quinjet some-" Nat had pulled Aj off before she could finish.
"Agent Romanoff, Agent Aj" Coulson presented after having Aj finally get off his back, "Captain Rogers."
"Ma'ams." Steve nodded respectfully.
Agent Romanoff sized him up, assessing him with a discerning eye. While Agent Aj was crawilng over him and seemed to be checking for hidden objects.
When Romanoff and Aj seemed to have found what they was looking for, Natasha responded coolly, "Hi."
"Hi my name is Aj but you can call me anytime you want, super hunk?" Aj said from her place on Steve's shoulders. Only to be pulled off the blushing soldier by Natasha, who wasn't affected by Aj's outburst.
Turning to Agent Coulson, "They need you on the bridge."
With a "see you there", Agent Coulson left Rogers with one of the most deadly assassins on SHIELD's payroll and the one of the most wanted thiefs in the world.
"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha began conversationally as the two strolled over the deck. "I thought Coulson was going to swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
Steve looked at her askance, "Trading cards?"
"They're like super super super old and rare," Aj confirmed. "He's very proud."
From across the way, they noticed a man apart from all the uniformed SHIELD personnel. He wore a crumpled gray suit with a wrinkled purple button down shirt. His disheveled mop of dark brown hair was peppered with premature gray and his face was lined with care lines. Everywhere the man turned, he seemed to run into someone. He looked and acted like a mouse surrounded by cats. And all of a sudden, Rogers realized who he was.
"Dr. Banner/Dr.B," Steve and Aj called out as they walked over and offered his hand to the skittish man.
Dr. Banner gave the proffered hand a wary look before finally deciding to accept it, "Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming."
"Word is you can help find the cube."
"Is that the only word on me?" Banner asked uncomfortably.
"Only word I care about," Steve confirmed.
"Must be strange for you, all of this." Bruce replied as he took in the sentiment from the previous statemnet.
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar."
From behind them, Agent Romanoff cleared her throat. Aj had mischievous glint in her eye, she addressed the group of uncanny individuals, "You all may want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little harder to breath."
A low rumble began to shake the deck of the carrier. The exterior of the ship became a whirlwind of activity as many SHIELD agents frantically finished their tasks before making their way into the bowels of the structure while others donned strange breathing masks. From the side of the ship an odd whrrring sound could be heard.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked, amazed.
"Really?" Bruce asked skeptically. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized container?"
Aj quickly ran toward the edge of the carrier and smiled back at the group. "You guys may want to see this," she said, motioning at the men to join her.
Together, they peered over the edge and into the water. Far below them a large turbine was churning the water, creating a deafening noise as it whipped the wind around their faces. Slowly, the propeller lifted itself out of the water, taking the carrier with it.
"Oh no," Bruce yelled sarcastically over the noise of the machine and forced a smile, "This is much worse!"
"I know, ain't it great!" Aj beamed.
As the group made their way across the deck of the Helicarrier, Rogers and Banner noticed how happy and energetic Aj was. He watched as the woman skipped along, finding it hard not look at her outfit and body that stretched as she moved.
The four entered the main control room.
"Gentlemen." Fury said to Bruce and Steve.
"Patchy!" Aj shouted as they reached the large glass table, and Fury turned from the monitors.
Steve slipped Fury 10 bucks, referring to his earlier statement about never being surprised again, before he continued walking past him a ways. Fury looked at Bruce. "Doctor, thank you for coming."
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh...how long am I staying?" Bruce asked.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."
"Where are you with that?" Bruce asked. Fury pointed to Phil to explain.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops." Steve looked utterly confused making Aj laugh. She knew the poor guy was out of his time and this one was extremely different. "If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Natasha moved over to a computer screen where Barton's face trace was in progress. She checked the stats.
"That's still not gonna find them in time." Natasha said.
"You have to narrow the field." Bruce said. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are there?" Fury asked.
"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays." Bruce said taking off his jacket and folding it under his arm. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Fury said.
"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys." Natasha said.
"Agent Aj, I believe your help is needed in the lab as well." Fury said. Natasha motioned for Aj to follow.
"Aye,aye, Captain One Eye" Aj said as she gave Fury a salute then left with Natasha.
The three entered the lab and Aj quickly made her way to the table where her desk and chair were. She hopped onto her chair.
Aj POV
As Bruce typed away almost mindlessly at his station in the back of the lab near the window, every once in a while furrowing his eyebrows or shaking his head. I sat at on the table across the room from him, swinging my legs and enjoying some chocolate that Nat gave me. Seriously, how do people go ten minutes without one of these delectable treats? Any hoodles I was getting bored so time do something.
"Are you almost done or something?" I asked, tilting my head.
His hand twitched slightly at the sudden noise, but other than that he didn't react much. "Might be a few hours."
"Then I say we play a game!" I shouted towards the ceiling.
"Why?"
"Because this is SO boring." After some nagging he finally agreed.
I grinned, thinking a moment before my next question. "Are you afraid of heights?"
My statement must have started him because then he asked "What do you mean?"
I shrugged and jumped from the table to walk closer to him. "You did't seem like you wanted to be one the Helicarrier. Only reason I could see why is that you do't like heights."
He scoffed at that, looking from the screen to me. "Its not heights, it's being trapped with other people and no where to go."
"Because of the whole little green monster problem."
"I think your the first person to call the other guy 'little'."
He seemed to chuckle a bit at that, and I smiled. "You have a nice laugh, very airy. It's cute." He stopped chuckling when I said that and cleared his throat, turning back to face the monitor. "Now I have to ask you question, right?"
"Yep." I said popping the 'P'.
"Ok, been wondering this for a while. What's with the outfit?"
"Don't it make me look perty." I said using my hillbilly accent.
"Extremely." He laughed again and ran his hands down his face. "Has anyone told you your something else?"
"Most people that have known for more than 5 minutes. I mean not many people would try to make me or get me to laugh. Probably too afraid that I would get angry."
I took a step forward and offered him some chocolate. "I don't care who you are when you're angry. Everybody is scarier when they're angry, you should see Natasha." I say as shiver runs up my spine. "But don't get me wrong, I usually make people REALLY angry."
He broke a piece of chocolate from the bar, and I shrugged as my arm fell to my side. "But I do love the turning green part. Gamma radiation, huh? Been there done that got the t-shirt."
When he was over his astonishment over my little comments he turned back to his screen. Seeing that my security and tracking programs were still running smoothly, I decided to check back in on the bridge.
Walking back down the hall, I heard Coulson say, "I mean, if it's not too much trouble."
"No, no it's fine." Entering the bridge, I saw that it was Steve who had answered him.
Coulson nodded before turning back to Steve. "It's a vintage set." I giggled, he was talking about his training cards. "It took me a couple of years to collect them all." He really needs to get laid. "Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but…"
'I rather have you sign my face, Mister.' I thought. I pretty sure I was snickering.
"We got a hit." Agent Sitwell said. "Sixty seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy nine percent."
"Location?" Phil asked.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
"Captain, you're up." Fury said. Steve nodded and left the room. "Agent Aj, you come too."
"Finally some action!" I fistpumped.
