.
Kai and Bruce stepped out of the quin-jet and onto the heli-carrier. Men were rushing around, doing their various assigned duties. Steve and Clint walked over to them.
"Ah, my boys!" Kai smiled at them.
"Dr. Banner." Steve greeted him.
"Ah, hi. They told me you'd be here too."
"Word is you can find the cube."
"Is that the only word on me?"
"The only word I care about."
"Any word on Little Red?" Kai asked Clint. He didn't seem fazed by her new nickname for Natasha.
"Not yet."
"She'll turn up. I'll knock her back into her senses. You two can ride off into the sunset togeth- Ow!" Clint smacked her on her arm.
"That didn't hurt." He protested.
"How would you know?" She smacked him in the arm in return as he listened to something on his radio.
"Must be strange for you… all of this." Bruce said to Steve, motioning around the deck. Steve shrugged.
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar."
"Bunch of monkeys running around, taking orders. Bet it is." Kai muttered.
"Yeah, I know. You don't do orders." Steve told her, sticking his hands into the pockets of his pants.
"I used to. That was my problem. I got over it."
"You guys might want to step inside. It's going to get a little hard to breath." Clint warned.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.
"Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?" Bruce asked sarcastically.
"No, this is the opposite." Clint corrected them. Steve, Bruce and Kai went to look over the side. Turbines were spinning below them and the entire carrier started to lift off from the surface of the water.
"So this is how I die… Surrounded by men way too old for me to date and people who would just love to kick me off the side…" Kai said under her breath. Then she spoke louder:
"Let's go inside now."
Clint led them onto the bridge of the ship. Agent Hill turned around as they walked in and Kai grimaced. Today is just getting better and better! She thought sarcastically.
"Miss Grace." Agent Hill greeted her curtly.
"Miss me?" Kai asked, forcing a smirk onto her face. Agent Hill turned to talk to another agent instead. Kai looked at Clint.
"I don't think she missed me…"
"I don't either." He whispered back, smiling slightly.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessibly camera on the planet. Phones, laptops… If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Coulson explained and everyone turned their attention to him.
"That's still not going to find them in time." Clint pointed out.
"You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked. Fury just looked at him.
"How many are there?"
"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough a tracking algorithm for basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Barton. Show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please." Clint nodded and started to lead Bruce away.
"Agent Barton." He stopped and turned back towards Fury.
"Take Miss Grace with you."
"You don't trust me? I'm hurt." Kai said with a roll of her eyes, going to follow Clint and Bruce.
"I'd just feel better if Big Brother is watching you while you're on my ship." He told her. She gave him a fake smile.
"Well, I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable, Director…"
Kai sat on the floor outside of Bruce's laboratory, feeling oddly like the little kid that was sent out of the class for disrupting it. Agent Hill walked over to her and Kai looked up.
"Agent Hill."
"Miss Grace. We've located Loki. Director Fury wants you on the scene with Captain Rogers and Agent Barton."
"As what? The girl that dies first?"
"Not my call." Agent Hill said with a shrug. She started to walk away but Kai scrambled to her feet and stepped in front of her.
"I know that I'm not your favorite person in the world right now, but cut me some slack. I could have caused a lot more trouble than I did."
"Is that your defense? You could have been a worse agent than you were?" Agent Hill gave a short laugh and went to walk away again. Kai side-stepped in her way and Agent Hill looked ready to hit her.
"I'm part of SHIELD again. Maybe not as an agent, but Fury wanted me in the Avengers Initiative." Kai pointed out.
"Again, not my call. He thinks you can be useful. I think you're a girl that's just going to turn you back again, disobey orders because you feel like it. Going rogue is kind of your style, isn't it, Miss Grace?"
"Going rogue?"
"It means-."
"I know what 'going rogue' means! I didn't go to school, but I know how to use the internet! That's a bit dramatic don't you think?"
"Get ready to be dropped in Germany, Miss Grace." Agent Hill walked quickly away before Kai could get another word in.