SHIELD

A full week passed before I heard from Phil again. He called me one morning to tell me that they were assembling the Avengers and that I could expect a car to be in front of my house waiting for me within the hour. I asked if there was anything I would need to bring with me, and it made me laugh when he paused before saying, "Bring your cards."

Just like Phil said, twenty minutes later there was a black SUV sitting in front of my door. I shoved my pack of cards into my back pocket before walking outside, locking the door behind myself and skipping over to the car. I pulled the door open and beamed at the man I didn't recognize sitting behind the wheel. "I'm assuming you're with Phil?"

"Agent Coulson sent me," he confirmed with a nod of his head. "Get in, please."

"Whatever you say, Jack." I lifted myself into the seat, swinging the door closed before patting a random rhythm on my thighs. "Can I call you Jack? Oh man, how awesome would it be if your name was Jack? Wait, don't tell me your name. I don't want to ruin the illusion. Hey Jack, wanna see a magic trick?"

After a short car ride, I was moved into something they called a quinjet that took off over the Atlantic. I was flipping my deck of cards between my hands as I looked around the jet, taking in all the advanced technology being used by the stoic co-pilots. "Why do all of you Strategic Homeland Blah Blah Blah people look so angry all the time?" I asked the both of them. "Is it part of your job description? If I make you smile do you get fired, or do I get a prize or something?"

"We'll be landing in five minutes," the pilot on the right replied, completely ignoring my rapid-fire questions. I was not so easily deterred, however.

"Ah, come on. Hey, look at this!" I set my cards down and hooked my fingers in the corners of my mouth, sticking my tongue out and crossing my eyes. My vision was too blurred to see if she looked, but I heard a soft chuckle from the pilot I had been making the face at. I dropped the silly face and smirked at the back of her head, laughing quietly while I picked my cards back up and resumed shuffling them. "So you do have a sense of humor. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Five minutes later, we landed on a large boat that had various other aircrafts dotted across the top of it. When the back of the jet I was on opened, I was escorted off by the pilot I had made the face at and lead through towers of crates and bustling agents that were preparing for something I was unaware of.

"You'll be meeting four other individuals," Wendy- as I had learned one of the co-pilots' name was after a lot of badgering- explained. "Only three of them are currently on board, but the other one will be arriving later today."

"Sounds like a party," I nodded, sidestepping to dodge a small-framed agent that sprinted past me before continuing my path behind Wendy.

"I'm not sure that's the word I'd use."

"Stop being so pessimistic, Wendy!" I caught up to the woman and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tugging her into my side with a cheeky smile. "I've never met another person like myself before. What's the worst thing that could happen?"

Instead of answering, Wendy shot me a withering look before stepping out of my grasp and pointing towards a fidgety brunette man in a tan suit that turned to look at us when she cleared her throat. "Alice, this is Dr. Banner, one of your colleagues. Dr. Banner, this is Alice Peterson."

"Nice to meet you," the man greeted with a reserved smile, holding his hand out for me to shake.

I took his hand in mine and shook it with a bright smile. "Nice to meet you too. They didn't tell me much about who I'm supposed to be working with."

He chuckled quietly, glancing at Wendy before rubbing the palms of his hands together nervously. "Yeah, SHIELD really isn't in the business of sharing information."

"SHIELD!" I exclaimed with a laugh, clapping my hands together. "Thank you! I thought I was going to have to call it Strategic Homeland Blah Blah Blah the whole time."

Just as I realized that he hadn't actually answered my question, I was interrupted before I could ask it again by somebody calling out Dr. Banner's name. The three of us turned to see a redheaded woman and a blond man that looked vaguely familiar walking towards us. "Well, here come the other two you're meeting. That's my cue," Wendy nodded, pivoting on her heel and marching off without a goodbye.

"Oh, yeah. Hi," Dr. Banner smiled in the same shy way at the blond man that he had at me, shaking his hand. "They told me you'd be coming."

The blond man that I was still trying to place turned to me and held his hand out. "You must be Alice. Steve Rogers."

My grip on his hand tightened as my eyebrows shot up to my hairline, his name clicking in the back of my head. "Oh! Wow," I laughed, shaking his hand. "Captain America. You're still around, huh? What are you, 100 years old?"

He chuckled shyly, glancing at the ground before returning his gaze to me and shoving his hands into his pockets. "Not quite. You know about me?"

"Well, I knew about the comics," I shrugged. "My granddad collected them and showed them to me when I was a kid. Very cool stories. Or reality. I never really understood where the line between truth and fiction stood on that subject."

He nodded while the redheaded woman took a small step forward and offered me her hand, which I also shook. "Natasha Romanoff."

"Alice."

After we had all introduced ourselves, Steve turned to Dr. Banner. "Word is you can find the cube."

"Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about."

"Only word I know about," I added with a shrug of my shoulders.

Dr. Banner nodded, clearly avoiding answering my implied question, before motioning towards all the hustle and bustle surrouding us. "Must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well," Steve nodded his head towards a group of men jogging past us. "This is actually kind of familiar."

"You all might want to step inside in a minute," Natasha warned, folding her hands together in front of herself. "It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

As if on cue, alarms started sounding overhead as a man's voice sounded over the intercoms, ordering the flight crew to secure the deck. Curious, I ventured closer towards the edge of the boat and looked over the edge while Steve asked from behind me if this was a submarine.

"Really?" Bruce asked with a chuckle. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?" The two men moved to stand on either side of me just as spinning turbines appeared out of the water, splashing the liquid frantically as they powered up and we began to lift into the air. "No, no this is much worse."

"That is one hell of a magic trick," I breathed with a large smile spreading over my face. I had never flown before, but how terrible could it be?