The jet had been in the air for a while before the pilot told Agent Coulson that they were forty minutes from the base. The way there so far had been fairly quiet, Steve and Beatrice trying to get caught up on what was going on. At the moment, the two new comers were learning about a man by the name of Doctor Bruce Banner. Beatrice had moved over a seat so she was now looking at the tablet in Steve's hands as they talked of Dr. Banner.
"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked, looking up at Agent Coulson as he came to stand near the two.
"A lot of people were; you were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's formula." Beatrice watched as the creature known as the Hulk went rampant on the screen of the tablet. She remembers when she heard what happened to Harlem when the Hulk was there. She and her grandparents took a small trip to DC for a ceremony dedicated to those who helped in the war. Her Pops was honored and so were many other men.
"Didn't really go his way, did it?"
"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Agent Coulson explained. Beatrice nodded, but Steve looked somewhat confused.
"He's like a big science genius guy." Beatrice explained. Steve turned to her and nodded before turning off the tablet.
Agent Coulson started to stutter at the super soldier, making Beatrice smile, "I gotta say; it is an honor to meet you, officially." Steve smiled at the agent as the man continued on, "I sorta met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."
Beatrice had to hold back a laugh as she saw Steve get uncomfortable with what Agent Coulson was saying. Steve got up and walked to the other side of the plane while Agent Coulson followed; trying to fix what he said.
"I-I mean I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, its really, it's just a-just a huge honor to have you on board."
"Well I hope I'm the man for the job."
"Oh you are! Absolutely, uh...we've made modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."
Uniform? Oh crap, am I going to have to where a uniform during this? Beatrice thought as Steve continued his talk with Agent Coulson, "The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little," he took a bit of a pause to look for the right word, "old fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." Steve seemed to take in what Agent Coulson said as they continued on. It was silent for a little bit before Steve turned to Beatrice who was still sitting in her seat, fiddling with one of her rings on her finger.
"If you don't mind me saying this, you don't quite look like you should be here." Steve said, making Beatrice's head shoot up at his words. Her eyebrows scrunched together and she grew a frown on her face.
"What do you mean?" She asked, a bit offended.
Steve caught onto her tone and quickly went to apologize, "I'm sorry! That came out worse than what I meant. What I mean is, you don't look like a soldier."
"That's because she's not." Agent Coulson said, turning to the two. "Miss. Babino has a very...unique set of skills that could help with the mission to secure the Tesseract."
"Does everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. know what I can do?" Beatrice asked, turning to the older agent. Agent Coulson shook his head before answering.
"No, the only people that know are the Director and Agent Hill. There is also the possibility that Mr. Stark knows as well."
"Stark? As in Tony Stark?"
"Yes. He was briefed on the mission as well, but it is still a bit unsure at this moment to know what he will do."
"Great." Beatrice huffed before turning back to Steve who seemed confused as to what was going on. "I have the ability to absorb metal by touch and use it to my advantage."
Steve still looked confused, so Beatrice sighed and stood up in front of the two men. She took off all her rings except the one on her left middle finger and put them in her jean pocket before taking off her jacket to reveal her loose fitting gray tank top. She lifted her left hand and watched along with the agent and Steve how the silver from her ring seemed to flow out from the ring and blend with her skin. The silver absorbed into Beatrice's skin until it got halfway up her upper arm, then it faded into her regular skin tone. Steve's eye's were wide as he watched; never seeing anything like it. But this new world he had come into had so much he didn't understand, this shouldn't have been that shocking.
"Wow, does it hurt?" Steve asked as the silver started to fade back into the ring. Beatrice shook her head and pulled her jacket back on.
"No, it's just kinda tingly."
"How did it happen?"
"Not sure," Beatrice was putting back on her other rings as she explained, "I was normal until I was ten, then one day I touched the chain of a swing set and my hand turned to a rusty metal hand. My Nana freaked out; brought me home and showed my Pops, but then it faded back to normal. Eventually I figured how to control it better; I'm not in full control. I can only make the metal go to certain places, and not all at once."
"That's..." Steve couldn't finish his sentence merely because he couldn't think of a word to describe it.
"You can say it's weird, I find it weird and I've been dealing with it for 14 years."
"You two should sit down," Agent Coulson said, interrupting the conversation, "We will be arriving at the base shortly."
Steve and Beatrice nodded before taking their seats from before; one seat separating them. As Beatrice started playing with her rings again, Steve would steal glances at the girl sitting a little ways from him. Steve rubbed his neck as a sort of nervous tick before trying to start talking to Beatrice again. "So you live in Brooklyn?"
"Yeah. Grew up there."
"This is highly unlikely; but do you know if Gerald's Pizzeria on Manhattan Avenue is still in business?" Steve asked, watching as Beatrice's eyes widened and her face lite up like the 4th of July.
"Are you kidding? I practically live off their pizza!" Beatrice said excitedly, now fully facing Steve.
"They're still open?"
"And going strong." Steve smiled and looked down at his lap. He could tell him and Beatrice would get along fine throughout whatever this was.
About a half hour later, the jet landed on what Beatrice would call a battle ship; mainly because that's what it looked like from the air as they landed. Agent Coulson and Steve were having a conversation as Beatrice walked behind them, trying to get a glimpse of everything around her. One thing she did notice was a red headed woman walking their way. She was tall and dressed almost like Beatrice with her black leather jacket, a red under top, and jeans. "Agent Romanoff; Captain Rogers and Beatrice Babino." Agent Coulson introduced.
"Ma'am?"
"Hi." Agent Romanoff nodded at Steve before looking at Beatrice who gave a one wave of her hand.
"Sup?"
Agent Romanoff nodded at her too then turned back to Agent Coulson and said, "They need you on the bridge; face time." Agent Coulson nodded before turning back to the two "newbies".
"See you there." And he was gone, leaving Beatrice and Steve with the woman agent. The started to walk away from the jet, Beatrice on one side of Agent Romanoff while Steve took her other side.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was going to swoon." Beatrice laughed then smiled at the agent.
"He sorta fan girled on the jet." Beatrice explained.
"Did he ask him to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?" Steve asked, making the two woman look back to him.
"They're vintage; he's very proud."
As they kept walking, Beatrice's eyes caught sight of , who looked very nervous and tried to avoid the workers running around the deck. "Doctor Banner!" Steve called, also noticing him. The man in question caught eyes with Steve and walked over to the three of them, shaking Steve's hand.
"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you would be coming." He then looked over to Beatrice and squinted. "I don't think we've had the pleasure."
"Beatrice Babino. It's nice to meet you Doctor." Beatrice said stepping up and shaking hands with him as well.
"Word is you can find the cube." Steve said, not really asking but stating it as a fact.
"Is that the only word on me?"
"Only word I care about."
"Must be strange to you; all this." Doctor Banner said, motioning to everything around them. Beatrice was still looking all around as she walked next to Agent Romanoff.
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar." Steve said as he watched a group of agents jog by, remembering him of when he first joined up.
Agent Romanoff took this as her moment to butt in, "Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a bit hard to breathe." As she said that, mechanical noises started to go off as workers rushed to get to their posts. Beatrice watched as everyone hurried around the deck.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.
"Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Dr. Banner asked rhetorically as Steve, himself and Beatrice walked over to the edge of the ship. They watched as what looked to be turbines appeared from under the waves; Beatrice's face lighting up in shock.
"This has to be the coolest thing I've ever seen." Steve took a quick glance at her as his own look of shock mirrored hers.
The whole ship started to rumble as the turbines went into motion and the ship lifted from the ocean and into the air. Beatrice was jolted from her stance and quickly gripped Steve's jacket for support. Dr. Banner stepped back along with Steve and Beatrice; watching the turbines go.
"Oh, no. This is much worse."