Chapter Five
Sometimes I don't know how I end up in these situations. I know I work at S.H.I.E.L.D., but still. We're on our way to the helicarrier, and we're with Captain Rogers. I don't know how Agent Coulson is acting so calm. Whenever Agent Coulson and I are traveling somewhere, he's always going on about "Captain America this" or "Captain America that." Unless he's giving me any information about the mission.
"We're about 40 minutes out from home base, sir, madam."
Agent Coulson and I take off our headphones and stand up. As we're turning to face Captain Rogers, he asks us a question.
"So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?"
"A lot of people were," Agent Coulson informed him. "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."
"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Captain Rogers asked, not taking his eyes off the screen with the Hulk.
"Not so much. When he's not that thing, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking."
When Captain Rogers looked up at Agent Coulson with a confused look on his face, I stepped in.
"He's a smart person," I informed him.
Captain Rogers looked me, nodded, then looked back down to the screen he was watching.
"I gotta say," Agent Coulson started.
"Oh, boy," I said to myself under my breath.
Agent Coulson gave me a sideways glance before continuing to talk. "It's an honor to meet you officially. I've sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."
"Not creepy at all," I murmured to Agent Coulson while rolling my eyes at him.
I could tell that Captain Rogers felt strange about it as well, as he stopped making eye contact with Agent Coulson, instead looking at the ground. When Agent Coulson started talking again, he got up and walked past me to the cockpit.
"I mean, I was present while you were unconscious from the ice."
"You know," I cut in to stop Agent Coulson from talking about weirding Captain Rogers out. "It's a huge honor to work with you and have you on board this."
"I hope I'm the man for the job," Captain Rogers replied, looking out at the water.
"Oh, you are. Absolutely," Agent Coulson said to him.
"We made some modifications to the uniform," I told Captain Rogers, trying to get somewhat back on task.
"I had a little design input," Agent Coulson cut in.
Captain Rogers looked up and looked between Agent Coulson and I.
"The uniform?" he asked. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little old-fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening and the things that about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned," Agent Coulson told Captain Rogers before looking out to the water.
Captain Rogers looked at him and then looked at me before turning to look out at the water.
A little bit later, I saw the helicarrier come into view. We landed, and all three of us walked out.
"Stow the captains gear," Agent Coulson told one the workers.
"Yes sir," he replied.
We took a couple more steps before I saw Agent Romanoff walking up to us.
"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Agent Coulson said to her.
"Ma'am," Captain Rogers said to her.
"Hi," Agent Romanoff acknowledged him before turning to Agent Coulson and I. "They need the two of you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."
"See you there," I said to her before walking off with Agent Coulson.
A few minutes later we saw Agent Romanoff lead Dr. Banner and Captain Rogers onto the bridge.
"Hover power check complete. Position cyclic. Increase collective to 8.0%."
Captain Rogers was looking walking around taking everything in. But when I turned to see what Dr. Banner was doing, he was at the back looking at the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and the guards there before turning around.
"Preparing for maximum performance takeoff. Increase output to capacity."
"Power plant performing at capacity. We are clear."
"All engines operating," Agent Hill stated. "S.H.I.E.L.D. Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect."
"We are at level sir, sir," one of the engine operators told to Director Fury.
"Good," he replied. "Let's vanish."
"Engage retro-reflection panels," Agent Hill told one of the operators.
They switched on the button to engage the panels, and we disappeared in the clouds.
"Reflection panels engaged," one of the operators told Director Fury, who turned around to face Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner.
"Gentlemen," he said to the two of them.
Director Fury and Captain Rogers were walking towards each other, and I noticed Captain Rogers pull some money out of his pocket and give it to Director Fury. Captain Rogers went closer towards our glass wall, but Director Fury kept walking. He went right up to Dr. Banner.
"Doctor, thank you for coming," he told Dr. Banner.
Director Fury held out his hand, and Dr. Banner took it, shaking hands in greeting.
"Thanks for asking nicely," he replied. "So, how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind."
"Where are you with that?"
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Agent Coulson told Dr. Banner.
"If there's anything on cellphones, laptops, or anything connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us," I included.
"That's still not gonna find them in time," I heard Agent Romanoff say. When I looked over to her, she was crouching down next to a monitor with information on Agent Barton on the screen.
"You have to narrow your field," Dr. Banner said. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are there?" Director Fury asked him.
"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays." Dr. Banner paused to take of his jacket.
"I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
Director Fury turned to look over at Agent Romanoff.
"Agent Romanoff, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?"
She nodded and started walking by the both of them. As she passed by Dr. Banner, she started talking to him about his lab.
"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."
As I stood by Agent Coulson, I couldn't help but shake my head at him.
"I mean, if it's not too much trouble."
Captain Rogers looked at him before answering. "No, no. It's fine."
"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges, but…"
Suddenly we heard some beeping coming from one of the computers.
"What was that?" I asked, walking to where I heard it coming from.
"We got a hit. A 67% match," the agent told me.
I pointed at the screen.
"Wait, look. Crossmatch, ."
Agent Coulson came over to the computer as well.
"Location?" he asked.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Kӧnigstrasse," I told him.
"He's not exactly hiding," the agent stated.
"Captain," I heard Director Fury say, "you're up."
