Zoë Aetós: Starting & Ending Action

Chapter Two


Zoë trailed behind Bruce as the man tried to stay out of the way of workers on the Helicarrier. Her eyes were focused on the file in front of her, narrowly side-stepping many of the pilots who were latching down planes.

Her head shot up when someone called out to Bruce.
"Dr. Banner." Zoë smiled warmly seeing Natasha and the man out of time, Steven Rogers. Bruce held out his hand, shaking Steven's tightly.
"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming."
"Word is you can find the cube," Steven said.
"Is that the only word on me?"
"Only word I care about." Bruce shrugged lightly, quickly changing the conversation.
"Must be strange for you, all this."
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," Steven said, gesturing to a group of men in training.
"At least something is," Zoë said softly.

She held out her hand to Steven.
"Pleased to see you again, Captain Rogers." Steven shook her hand warmly, but lightly.
"Ma'am." Zoë shook her head at him.
"How many times do I have to ask for you to call me Zoë?" Steve flushed slightly.
"Just a few more times, Agent Aetos." Natasha cleared her throat, drawing the attention trio in front of her.
"Gentlemen, we might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

The ground below Zoë's feet began to shake and she headed inside as Bruce and Steve walked a bit closer to the side of the Helicarrier. She was almost immediately intercepted by Coulson when she stepped through the doors.
"Agent Aetos… we need to talk; do you have time?"

Even if Zoë was busy, she knew it wasn't a question.
"Of course, Coulson."
"Debrief in ten."
"Copy that." Coulson nodded, walking off. She smirked as he looked out the window at Steve and Bruce, focusing intently on Steve. "He's not going anywhere," she called to him. "I'm sure he'll sign your trading cards if you ask nice enough." She disappeared around a corner before he could talk back to her.

She found herself on the bridge, nodding to Fury and Hill as Bruce and Steve joined them. Bruce still refused to acknowledge her presence, even as she came to a standstill beside him.
"Ah, Agent Aetos, thank you for joining us."
"Can't wait to find out why I was pulled from Calcutta, sir," Zoë told him.
"In due time," Fury nodded, looking to Bruce. "Doctor, thank you for coming."
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh… how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."
"Where are you with that?"

Coulson stepped forward as Natasha hid a screen from Zoë's sight, much to the other agent's confusion.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a Satellite, its eyes, and ears for us."
"That's still not gonna find them in time," Zoë remarked.
"You'll have to narrow the field," Bruce told them. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
"How many are there?" Fury questioned.
"Cell every lab you know," Bruce ordered. "Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. 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?"

Fury looked over to Natasha.
"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?" Natasha nodded, leading Banner down the hall.
"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

Zoë's eyes followed Bruce all the way out of the lab, until Fury caught her attention.
"We need to talk, Agent Aetos."
"That's all anybody says," she told him. "I'm starting to think that you just want to say that and not talk about anything."

A familiar voice came from behind her.
"It's serious, Z." Zoë spun around, coming face to face with one of her closest friends. Sara Reyes-Fitz.
"Sara… what a surprise." Zoë glanced back at Fury. "Anyone else gonna appear out of thin air?"
"Unless another god drops out of the sky, doubtful."

She was ushered into a small private room by Sara, and she sat down behind a metal table. Natasha slipped inside just after the door closed and Zoë stared at her friends.
"What's going on?"
"Z… it's Barton."

The mention of Clint Barton made Zoë start to mess with the watch on her wrist. It wasn't standard issue, having been a gift for her 21st birthday.
"What about him?" She didn't mean for her voice to become so defensive. But the way Sara had said his name made Zoë think that something was wrong and that couldn't be true.

Sara started speaking, pushing a file in front of her. It had been a mission gone wrong with the Tesseract. A deity dropping from a vortex and taking control of Barton's mind. "He isn't himself," Sara finished, watching Zoë closely.

Her hands had curled into fists on top of the table, and she stared at him.
"I was sent to Calcutta under the assumption that Fury had the Tesseract under control."
"And he did—"
"And I come back to find out that my partner is-is-is under alien control? What the hell!"
"Z, we did have it under control," Sara tried to soothe her. "These things happen. You knew that when you joined and Barton sure as hell knew the risks."
"Can we reverse it?" Zoë asked quickly.

Natasha sat down in front of her.
"Zoë, there's no guarantee. But we can try. Maybe you can hit him upside the head for letting you leave? That might work."
"Tasha," Zoë's voice broke slightly before her shoulders straightened as a solider rushed into the room.
"Agent Aetos, Captain Rogers is asking for you." Zoë frowned, getting to her feet.
"Z, are you alright?" Sara asked. The agent didn't answer as she left the room.
Natasha rolled her eyes, "Seriously, Sara?"
"Eh, I've been stuck in Russia for the past several months," Sara muttered. "My only companions have been a furry dog, Ward, and a computer screen. What was I supposed to say?"


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