The Girl Who Can't Be Moved

Chapter Four

"You might feel a slight pinch," warned Bruce. Bridgette rolled her eyes at the overused line with a sigh.

"I highly doubt it, doc." He placed the needle against the proper spot and pressed. The tip met her skin but refused to go any further. Brow furrowing, Bruce applied a bit more force to encourage the tool to function. It still refused and more force only resulted in the needle shattering. Confused, but not discouraged, the doctor tried again. The same fate was quickly followed by two other SHIELD-level high tech needles. Banner looked at the girl, incredulous. She looked sheepish again, almost blushing.

"Told you so." Bruce readjusted his glasses and peered closely at the skin, thumb brushing over the spot that refused to be punctured.

"What is this?" The skin was of normal fair tone, plush and slightly malleable under pressure as he tested by pressing lightly. Yet a sharp needle couldn't penetrate it. How very strange.

"It's apart of my...condition," she half answered. There was a brief memory flash. The needle stabbed into her arm, the blue serum entering her body. The pain was immeasurable. She screamed for her dad, her mom, her brother, anybody who could possibly hear her...Squeezing her eyes shut, she quickly squished the memory. There was a beat of contemplating silence and Bridgette sighed.

"It's kind of like armor." The doctor raised a brow in interested response.

"Really, armor?" questioned Bruce, taking another look. She nodded with another exhale, trying to ignore the familiar feeling of being studied and how much she hated it. Like eyes were crawling all over her skin.

"Preeeetty much." Dr. Banner waited a moment before glancing back at her.

"Do you know how much of an armor? Clearly resistant to needles, making you a doctor's worst nightmare," he tried to joke. A smile pulled at her mouth. She appreciated the attempt. She looked thoughtful for a moment, chin resting against her hand again.

"Let's see, needles obviously. I haven't bruised in years. Bullets don't do anything, they just kind of bounce off." She ticked off the points with her fingers. "Oh! I fell off a building once, that's how I caught SHIELD's attention."

"You fell off a building?" repeated Banner, removing his glasses for the moment. Bridgette grinned in response. More like jumped off, but hey, technicalities...

"Like I said, doc, I'm pretty damn durable."

The door slid open again and Banner stood up fully and took a step back, busying himself with cleaning up the broken needles. Director Fury stood at attention, hands clasped behind his back as usual. His good eye regarded them sternly, taking everything in. Bruce's always cautious behavior and Bridgette's nonchalance.

"Do we have your full information, Miss Smith?" he asked. Bridgette held out her exposed and unpunctured arm and smiled at the Director.

"No sir. You still can't have that part of me yet," she answered honestly, though a teasing undertone could be heard. Fury looked over to Banner for a proper answer and the doctor shrugged.

"I'm afraid our equipment is no match, Director," he answered. The Director sighed.

There was a flash of silver and Bridgette caught it with outstandingly quick reflexes before the object could strike her head. Raising a brow, she examined the piece as she brought it to eye level. A silver bar, cylinder, maybe a foot in length, very dense, solid weight.

"What's this?" she asked, turning it over in her hand to gain a better understanding. As the bar rolled over, she couldn't help but think how good it felt in her hands.

"A weapon designed for you by SHIELD," he answered. "We thought you would be receptive to it well enough, seeing how your weapon of choice during our first encounter was a baseball bat." She smirked at the tone inflection, meaning that he remember the trouble she gave them during their first meeting.

If she remembered correctly, she shattered an agent's jaw and dealt several bruises and near breaks on those who dared to come close enough to her. The ghost of the emotion from the moment registered to her. She had been wide eyed and scared to death, her naturally amplified strength conductive through the baseball bat she had snatched on the run from the agents. That fear and panic had completely flooded her system. Fear that they were going to take her away and test her, make an experiment out of her. Put pieces of her under a microscope and examine her endlessly. Never leaving her alone again. Trying to kill her like the others had killed her father-

Her hand gripped the bar in order to pull away from the trip down memory lane, taking a deep breath. Fury tossed her the carrying case that went with the weapon. Bridgette hopped to her feet, slinging the strap across her body. It felt nice and comfortable. It didn't feel like it was constricting her or anything.

"Might want to get some practice. Break it in and all," Fury advised as he walked out of the lab.

The short haired girl looked over at the doctor to see him fiddling with his computer systems again. Well, that's what he was here to do. To use his skills in gamma radiation to locate the Tesseract that Loki, the Asgardian, stole from SHIELD and threatened the whole of humanity with as his prime weapon. Kind of an important job. No pressure. Huffing, she hopped back onto the table, legs crossed comfortably, examining the piece again.

"It's more like a club than a bat," she commented. Bruce glanced over and nodded in agreement, returning to his work. Squinting, she held it out at arm's length. Even if she was to strike an attacker, they would have to be too close to her for comfort in order to be hit. Slightly miffed, she swung it upward hard, as if to go in for a strike. The bar shifted, lengthening into a proper long distance weapon. Stunned by the morph along with the new distribution of weight, the girl was pulled backwards, tumbling off the back of the table.

"Ack!" she yelped, falling. She crashed to the floor ungracefully and loudly, enough to make Dr. Banner look away from his work.

"Bridgette?" he called. When she didn't answer he became slightly concerned. Cautiously, he approached the area where she fell. Did she hit her head?

"Are you all right?" He walked around the table to see the girl on her back, holding the bar up and glaring intensely at it.

"Okay, so maybe it's some type of Swiss Army SHIELD bat," she suggested. Bruce gave a breath of a laugh at the fallen girl. Blue eyes looked up at him, russet hair flopped back and away from her face which only made the freckles across her nose stand out further and she grinned, holding out her hand to him. Carefully, he accepted it and pulled her gently to her feet.

"Yeah, definitely going to have to fiddle with this."

After a few hours of quiet science work from Dr. Banner and mumbling practicing from Bridgette as she messed with the specially designed weapon, the Helicarrier became fully alert with activity. Agents could be seen dashing through the halls, shouting orders back and forth and rushing to finish preparations. Curious, Bridgette approached the door, peering through the glass.

"It'd be best to stay in here," advised Bruce, barely glancing up from the contraption he was working on. Bridgette held her spot, not advancing.

"Just looking, doc." An idea came to light. "Do you think they actually got him? That Loki guy?"

"Can't really say," he answered evenly. "But hopefully they have."

The next thing she saw was a group of highly armed security guard agents surrounding a single person. Wide blue eyes watched him intensely as they approached their door. He was tall with long black hair that was pushed back, dressed in some odd type of formal armor in her opinion. His hands were cuffed and he was heavily guarded, yet he wore this pleased look on his face, like everything was going the way he wanted it to. For some reason, it ticked the girl off, glaring as he passed their doorway.

He turned her way and smirked. The delicate hairs on her body stood up out of electricity and she gave him her most potent glare teamed with a scowl. Bastard. Turning about so not to look at him, she saw that Bruce had removed his glasses and was pinching the bridge of his nose, breaths deep and even. So he felt that wave of immediate dislike too, she concluded.

"Banner. Smith. Assemble," called Fury through the ear pieces he had delivered to them earlier. The two shared a look before heading out together.

There was a conference table assembled in the main communication center of the helicarrier. Back in the room with all of the technicians who were working diligently, though the girl could have sworn she saw one person playing Gallagher. But that couldn't be right since SHIELD probably couldn't define the word "fun". Captain America had taken a seat near the front of the table, expression serious as usual. He was dressed in his full uniform with the exception of his helmet and trademark shield. It was slightly modified from the images she remembered but it still looked good on him, not that she would ever doubt it. There was also another character, a tall man with long blonde hair and ridiculously muscular arms that stood at the head, looking about. It took a moment but Bridgette soon recalled his name from the files.

Thor. God of thunder, son of Odin and brother to Loki. Asgardian. She smirked in good humor. Well, of all the luck.

"Well how about that for a consolation prize?" she commented, breaking the stuffy silence. "Send out one, come back with the bad guy and a thunder god as a bonus!" The Captain and the god both looked her way while Banner hung back, opting to stand while Bridgette took the seat beside the first Avengers, adjusting her jacket and scarf that she had donned once more. Thor regarded her strangely and she gave a smile and a nod.

"Hi. Bridgette Smith," she introduced. Thor solidly approached her and proceeded to take her hand and place a kiss on her knuckles. Blue eyes were very wide as she stared at him, undecisive to whether she should thank him or knock him in the mouth.

"Umm...?" Instead, she went with a clearly eloquent answer. He raised his gaze from her hand to her eyes and he smiled kindly.

"I am Thor of Asgard," he introduced, returning to his full height that doubly towered over her as she was sitting down. She slowly nodded, still feeling incredibly awkward.

"Yeah. Hi there." Thor resumed his place at the front of the table and the girl leaned over to the Captain, whispering a plea.

"Please tell me he kissed you guys too?" Steve Rogers almost smiled at her question and shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, ma'am." She made a face as two more agents joined the table. The female SHIELD operatives Maria Hill and Natasha Romanov, both calm and collected, their faces betraying no emotion. Now that's a skill, noticed Bridgette. If only she could keep composure like that.

Captain Steve Rogers was the first to take the lead.

"So Thor, what's Loki's play?" he asked the god. Thor kept his massive arms crossed over his chest, in deep thought. His deep voice carried across the table with no difficulties.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," he explained, rather forward.

"An army. From outer space," repeated Steve slowly. Bridgette ruffled her hair with a sigh.

"So now we have a god of mischief on board and a potentially incoming alien army?" she stated. Glancing about the table, Natasha gave a slight nod to confirm her assumption. "Oh. Well. That's...exciting..."

Bruce spoke up from the back, tugging his glasses off again. "So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

Eric Selvig, one of the SHIELD members that were taken over by some type brainwash Loki performed during his opening act at the old SHIELD base. Apparently he had leveled the entire base, it was nothing but a humongous crater now.

Thor appeared concerned at Dr. Banner's statement. "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner defined with a nod. The thunder god's brow furrowed.

"He is a friend."

Natasha Romanov spoke up from her portion of the table. "Loki has them under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours." Bridgette looked over at the redhead, ears perking up at the bitter shade to her voice. One of theirs? A friend of hers personally, maybe?

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," said Steve. "He's not leading an army from here."

"Let you take him?" asked Bridgette. "He doesn't really strike me as the kind to volunteer to surrender. Intentionally, anyway."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," suggested Banner, arms crossed. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell the crazy on him." Bridgette couldn't help but smirk at his analogy since it was very much true. Thor took a warning step forward, gaze serious.

"Have a care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard," clarified Thor. "And he is my brother." The girl quirked her brow at his defense for his brother. Loki was obviously the bad guy.

"You just said so yourself that he's beyond reason, so who cares what his status is? A bad guy is a bad guy is a bad guy," stated Bridgette, folding her arms on the table. "And wanting to lead an alien army to take over the world? Falls into bad guy category."

"He killed eighty people in two days," stated Natasha, only adding to the girl's point.

Ouch.

"He's adopted."

Double ouch.

Bridgette glanced back at the doctor for her next question. The eye contact was fleeting. "But what about the Iridium he stole? How's that relevant? Can't say I've heard of it before."

There was the sliding of one of the side doors as two people entered the conference. One was Agent Coulson who Bridgette recognized easily enough, while the other man was a public figure so huge, you would have to be living under a rock to not know his name.

Tony Stark of Stark Industries and the world renown Iron Man.

"The Iridium is a stabilizing agent," answered Stark. "So that the portal doesn't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." He walked to the front, the subtle glow of the arch reactor showing through his shirt. He gave a pat to Thor's intimidating bicep as he passed.

"No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing."

Tony looked about at the screens, tapping away at a few. Suddenly he paused and covered his left eye, looking around. "How does Fury see these?"

Agent Hill spoke up, answering curtly. "He turns."

"Well that's exhausting," he remarked, turning back around to face the rest of the Avengers.

For the next quick moments Stark went into a rant, describing the properties and the purpose of the portal and the Tesseract. In short, Bridgette heard something about needing the element to stabilize and kick start the portal, but in between those two points there were a lot of really long and very scientific terms that were above her bachelor degree. And she was pretty decent at science.

Then Dr. Banner was able to finish whatever nonsense Tony was spouting and the Iron Man lifted his hands in praise. "Finally! Someone who speaks English!"

Steve turned to Bridgette, whispering. "Is that what just happened?" Bridgette shrugged.

"No idea. That stuff's above my pay grade." Again, he almost smiled.

Tony approached Bruce and held out his hand, giving a firm handshake. "Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I'm also a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Bridgette choked on a laugh, smiling.

"Um...thanks," answered Bruce tersely. "I think."

Then there was a pressure on the top of her chair and she looked up to the face of Tony Stark leaning against her seat. He quirked a brow at her, and she mirrored the look.

"Bridgette Smith," he stated.

"Tony Stark," she returned.

"You stopped the Hulk."

"And you're the Iron Man."

"How'd you do it?" he asked.

Bruce listened intently, almost dying of curiosity. He had to know how she conquered the other him, all without being killed. Sure her skin was armor like in its properties, but still, she shouldn't be so unscathed. Why didn't the Hulk crush her?

"Oh you know," she shrugged. "Just chatted over a cup of tea."

"Really now?" he tested. She nodded in agreement.

"Yep, had a nice chat. The china was lovely too. Had little pink flowers on it." Banner sighed. Again, she was dodging the truth. Was he never going to find out what happened?

"Well, I guess I'll just have to watch the video," challenged Stark.

"Wait-" started Bruce, holding out his hand to slow down their banter. "Wait, there's a video?"

"Of course. SHIELD keeps all records, especially of Avenger activity," answered Romanov.

Tony Stark gave a nonchalant shrug, ruffling Bridgette's already fluffy hair. "I like you, kid."

"I like me too," she laughed back, and fixing her mussed hair. Stark ignored Banner's contemplating expression and gestured to the doorway. To the lab.

"Shall we, doctor?"

There was a video. He could see what actually happened.

REVIEW! So there's proof of the Bridgette-Hulk encounter! Now to see if Bruce can get his hands on the footage?

Hope you enjoyed! Reviews are love!