Chapter Three
Alice followed Natasha out of the jet with a hesitant Bruce behind them. Natasha turned to Alice for a minute and said something low before her gaze landed on the Doctor.
"If you could stay here, Doctor Banner. We'll be right with you." She turned on her heel and began walking away while Alice gave Bruce a look of sympathy.
"She's honestly a really nice person. She just doesn't like being taken off guard, kinda like how you did back in Calcutta." She said while looking at Bruce who was studying her with an intense gaze.
"How does it work?" He asked out of the silence. Alice gave him a confused look before comprehension crossed her face. She coughed awkwardly,
"Well-"
"Bianco! Coulson and Rogers are waiting." Natasha called out to the younger agent, waiting with a hand on her hip. Alice nodded her head in agreement and held up a finger.
"So, rain check on that 'How Do Your Powers Work' Date, alright? Can't keep Captain America waiting, can we?" Alice said with a smirk before waving her fingers at a blushing Bruce as she walked away with Natasha. "Bye, Doctor Banner!"
The red haired assassin rolled her eyes as she walked with her hands clasped behind her back. Alice watched and laughed at the action.
"You're playing with fire, Miss Bianco. Careful Alice, Wonderland doesn't have a fire department." Natasha chided with a smirk playing on her lips.
"Nat, you need to loosen up. It's fun to tease, I don't have anyone to mess with besides you and Clint but he's, well, you know..." Alice stopped talking and looked down as she knew she had said the wrong thing.
"Stay focused." Natasha said back in complete seriousness this time. Steve Rogers and Phil Coulson soon came into view, the two woman met with them as they stepped off the jet.
"Agent Romanoff and Agent Bianco, Captain Rogers." Phil introduced the Captain with awe in his voice. Steve nodded his head at the two other Agents,
"Ma'am, Ma'am." He acknowledged both women, Alice had found long ago that the Super Soldier serum blocked her abilities for hearing Steve's thoughts.
"Hi." Natasha said offhandedly looking over at Alice.
"Hey." Alice smiled and waved,
"Phil, they need you on the bridge they're starting the face trace." She continued facing Agent Coulson.
"See you there." Coulson nodded to the three of them before making his way across the landing strip.
"Captain." Alice said as she held her arm out in front of them.
"It was quite the buzz here when we found you in the ice." Natasha said smoothly, "Thought Coulson was gonna swoon." She looked over at him and raised here eyebrows. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?" Rogers looked surprised and Alice smiled at that.
"They're vintage, he's very proud." Agent Bianco continued then laughed at the sight of a flustered Doctor Banner stumbling around looking confused.
"Doctor Banner!" Steve called out catching the other man's attention. Bruce looked up and went to walk forward before two agents almost knocked him over. Natasha smirked as Alice let out another chuckle. Steve reached out to shake the Doctor's hand.
"Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you'd be coming." Bruce said as he looked the Captain over, feeling out of place. He looked over to Alice to find her smiling at him, he copied the gesture slightly.
"Word is you can find the cube."
"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce looked around nervously.
"Only word I care about." Steve replied easily. Bruce nodded before speaking,
"Must be strange for you all this." He commented looking at the training recruits and fighter jets. Steve smiled,
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar." Natasha and Alice shared looks after getting the same message through their earpiece. Natasha stepped forward,
"Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."
Alice looked over at the older woman and scoffed playfully, "Understatement much?" Natasha gave her a fake glare as the ship started to make mechanical noises.
"Flight Crew: Secure the deck." Was heard over an alarm as the two men made their way to the edge of the ship.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked in disbelief, Alice and Natasha gave each other knowing looks.
"Really. They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?" Bruce scoffed, when the ship's rotors came into view Bruce gave a small sarcastic smile.
"Oh no, this is much worse." He amended. He then looked back at Alice with his eyebrows raised, and she returned his look with a slight laugh and gesture towards indoors.
Natasha and Alice led the way through the metal hallways of the helicarrier to the Main Operations Room. Steve and Bruce exchanged weary glances before looking around in awe. The two women looked back at them and then smirked at one another.
They separated ways, Steve following Natasha to the front of the upper deck as Bruce followed Alice to the table near the back. She sat down in a chair and watched as Bruce avoided eye contact with the S.H.I.E.L.D guards. She gave a small laugh which caught Bruce's attention and he smiled slightly at her.
There were orders thrown out by too many people to count as agents rushed all over the room. The four newcomer's attention was soon caught by Director Fury as he turned to greet them.
"Gentlemen." He walked closer to the table as Steve handed him ten bucks causing Fury to smirk before stuffing it in his coat. Natasha and Alice exchanged glances before turning their attention back to Fury.
Steve continued forward to stare in awe at more of the ship as Fury's attention was focused on Bruce.
"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury reached his hand out to shake. Bruce was hesitant until he met Alice's gaze, who gave a slight reassuring nod before Bruce returned the hand shake.
"Thanks for asking nicely." The Doctor looked around uncomfortably, "So, uh, how long am I staying?" He asked quietly.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Nick replied, Bruce nodded in understanding.
"Where are you with that?" He looked around and found himself connecting with Alice's gaze once again. She quickly surfed the minds of everyone in the room to find the answer.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." She replied easily before receiving a glare from Phil.
'Let me do my job, you do yours.' He purposely thought for her. Alice smirked and mouthed, 'sorry.'
The little exchange did not go unnoticed by Bruce, however.
"Still not gonna find them in time." Natasha commented leaning down near a computer. Bruce nodded in agreement,
"You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked, he was now in his own ball field and didn't seem nervous about what he said or who was watching him. Alice smiled at that.
"How many are there?" Nick replied, crossing his arms over his chest and gesturing to Coulson. Bruce addressed the man and started to take his suit jacket off.
"Call every lab you know, tell them to put their spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition." Alice walked over to the group at the front of the deck and watched with curiosity as Bruce went on.
"At least we can rule out a few places." He finished with his jacket under his arm and looking at Fury who seemed impressed. "You got somewhere for me to work?" Bruce asked with a smile as he started rolling his shirt cuff sleeves up. Nick nodded before turning to Natasha.
"Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please." Natasha started walking over to Bruce and smiled at him,
"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys." She said before heading to the door.
'Don't worry, Alice. I'm sure your white rabbit will still be in the lab later.' Natasha thought with a smirk. Alice watched the pair walk out and disappear before turning to Director Fury who was looking on with an eyebrow raised.
"Agent Bianco, go to the laboratory and make sure whatever Doctor Banner needs is supplied for him." He said and looked back over to the screens.
"Right away, Sir." She said before walking out of the room, with a smile on her face.