Keep in mind that this story might be upwards of 40 chapters. It should have around 30 actual chapters and 8 Journal Entries. That means, that there aren't going to be anymore journal entries.

Chapter 17: The Helicarrier

The ride to the Helicarrier wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a lot of armed guards sitting there next to us because that's the way everybody's been acting for the past few days.

"So this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked, flipping through Bruce Banner's file.

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula." Phil said.

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" He asked.

"Not so much. When he's got that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Phil said. Steve just stared.

"He's like a very smart person." I said, "We really need to get you up to date on everything." He nodded.

"What else do I need to catch up on?" He asked.

"Every single pop culture reference from the past 70 years." I said seriously. "You're not going to understand half of what I say." Phil seemed to be ignoring us. After a few moments of awkward silence, mostly because of him, he spoke.

"I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." Phil said. Then he realized what he had just said. Steve just looked at him in amusement and I felt bad for him.

"I mean, I was...I was present while you were unconscious from the ice." He said, extremely flustered, "You know, it's really, it's just a...just a huge honor to have you on board." He said, quickly changing the subject.

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job." Steve said, going to stand by the doorframe between us and the cockpit.

"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh...we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input." He said.

"Phil, please stop talking." I said, trying to keep him from embarrassing himself.

"The uniform?" He asked, sounding a little shocked, "Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old fashioned?"

"Everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." Phil said.

"Not everybody's given up." I said. They turned to look at me.

"What do you mean by that?" Steve asked.

"Some people still have hope. Maybe, all of you together, will be what they need." I said, speaking for myself and for everybody I knew, "Just the thought that somebody out there is willing to defend us—"" I paused, nit sure what else I was going to say, "Maybe that'll be enough to give back some of the faith in humanity."

15 minutes later

I don't know whether I helped, or if I made it worse, but I think I did some good. Nobody spoke until we got onto the helicarrier, docked, and got off. Finally seeing it fully, I thought that it was one of the most amazing things I had seen. When I had gotten there, it had been pitch black and I was too nervous to really do anything. Agent Romanoff, who had finally arrived, walked over to us.

"They need you on the bridge." She said to Phil. He ran off, and she stuck with us. We started walking towards the bridge.

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon." She said, I tried not to snicker, "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" She asked.

"Trading cards?" Steve repeated, sounding confused.

"Trading cards?" I repeated, about to start laughing.

"They're vintage, he's very proud." She said seriously. I was laughing harder than I should have been. Steve just stared at me, not understanding why I found it hilarious.

"He's a fanboy." I said, still laughing. Agent Romanoff nodded.

"And you." She said, turning to me, "You freaked out a lot of people when you showed up." I wasn't that surprised, especially since everybody asked me the same story at least 500 times.

"Kinda freaked myself out. I thought I was going crazy." I responded, "This isn't exactly something you see every day."

"That's not surprising." She said.

Finally, we figured out where we were headed. About 20 feet from us was a nervous man pacing between the fighter jets and turning around every time an agent walked past.

"I'm guessing this is Dr. Banner." I said. She nodded.

"Dr. Banner." Steve said, walking up to shake his hand. They shook hands even thought Dr. Banner looked like he'd rather be doing anything else.

"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming." Dr. Banner said nervously.

"Word is you can find the cube." Steve said.

"Is that the only word on me?" Dr. Banner asked.

"Only word I care about." Steve said.

"Must be strange for you, all of this." Dr. Banner said, changing the subject.

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar." Steve said. Dr. Banner gestured to me.

"And you?" He asked.

"I like this better than being under a hundred feet of rock for 2 weeks." I said.

"Gentlemen," She said, walking towards them, "You may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath."

They had no idea what the Helicarrier really was. They looked startled when it started to shake. Agents began running around, tying down fighter jets and putting on air masks.

"Is this is a submarine?" Steve asked.

"Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Dr. Banner asked. We all moved closer to the edge. The propellers were rising from the water and it started to lift into the air. "Oh, no. This is much worse."

After that, we went inside. Once inside, they were even more impressed. It was wonderful. The area where all the agents computers were was shaped like the S.H.I.E.L.D logo, the computers were extremely high-tech.

"Gentlemen." Fury said, turning around. Steve walked towards him, still staring at everything. He handed him the $10.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury said, walking towards Dr. Banner who was still pacing nervously.

"Thanks for asking nicely." He said, "So, uh...how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear." Fury said.

"Where are you with that?" Dr. Banner asked. Fury pointed to us, telling one of us that we had to explain.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." I said, telling him the spiel I had been told.

"That's still not gonna find them in time." Agent Romanoff said. She had a point. We weren't close enough.

"In other words, we're not close." I said, "Even if we get every camera, phone, and laptop it's not going to be enough. We're not even sure what continent he's on."

"You have to narrow the field." He said moving towards us, "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." He said.

"You could rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition." I said, impressed. He looked surprised that I knew what he was talking about.

"At least we could rule out a few places." He said, "And I'm guessing she's the consultant." Fury nodded.

"We think she'd be of use." He said.

"I was stuck underground for 2 weeks helping them with the Tesseract Project." I said, "I know more about this than I really want to."

"Do you have somewhere for us to work?" He asked.

"I can help?" I asked. He nodded.

"Agent Romanoff, would you show them to the laboratory, please." Fury asked.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. You got all the toys."

Several hours (Wasn't keeping track) later

Making a tracking algorithm was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. With both me and Dr. Banner working on it, it didn't take as long as I thought it was going to. But then again, I was working with a genius and I was able to memorize his plans once he finished them. All we had to wait for was Agent Sitwell to find Loki with it.

Around that point, we were over Europe. Fury knew that he wasn't going to stick to America. We were all standing around waiting for him to show up. That meant that I got to hear a few interesting conversations. Like two S.H.I.E.L.D agents arguing about Galaga. Or the Trading Cards. The Trading Cards were my favorite.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." Phil said.

"No, no. It's fine." Steve said. It seemed like he just wanted to get out of that conversation.

"It's a vintage set." Phil said proudly, "It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but…" The beeping noise from the computer made him stop.

"We got a hit!" Agent Sitwell yelled, "Sixty seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy nine percent." Once we were finally able to see him, it was a 100% match. He was standing in front of a building I could remember from somewhere.

"Location?" Phil asked.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." Agent Sitwell said. From the look on my face, I think they knew what I was thinking.

"Have you been there?" Agent Sitwell asked.

"Once, a while ago." I said, "I think that was one of the only family trips I went on that didn't end in disaster."

"Do you think you could help us with this?" Fury asked.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, knowing that he wanted me to use my family's status.

"Can you find a way into that party, to keep an eye on Loki to find out what he's planning?" Fury asked.

"You want to find out what he wants before you capture him." I stated, finally understanding the plan.

"Exactly." Fury said, "Do you think you could find a way into that party?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I probably could."

"Then you're up." He said.

Please review.

I work very hard on this story, and I would like to get feedback to see what people think. I want to know what you like and what you don't like about this story, so either I can fix it, or use it for future reference. I know that nobody seems to read my author's notes, but please review if you see this one.