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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ: ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ʟɪғᴇ

❝ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ ᴇɢᴏᴛɪsᴛɪᴄᴀʟ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅɪғғɪᴄᴜʟᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ᴏғ ᴀʟʟ. ❞

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"SO HOW'D IT GO WITH THE BIG GUY?"

Natasha drew in a deep breath at your question, shaking her head slightly.

"Great," she chirped, "The soldier?"

"Oh, just peachy."

The quinjet carrying Steve Rogers and Agent Coulson landed on the massive battleship known as the Helicarrier; it had two runways, one with direct access to a hangar at the rear aligned along the spine of the vessel. Coulson and Steve walked down the ramp of the quinjet, meeting up with you and Natasha at the end.

"Agent Romanoff. Captain Rogers," you acquainted the two.

"Ma'am," Steve nodded politely.

"Hi," Natasha responded, then looked to Coulson, "They need you on the bridge. Face time."

"See you there," Coulson said as he walked off, leaving the three of you to walk towards the railing of the ship.

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha told Steve, stuffing her hands in her jacket pockets, "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

Taken aback, Steve arched his brows and looked at Natasha in confusion. "Trading cards?"

"They're vintage," you added with a scrunch of your face, "He's very proud."

The three of you approached Doctor Bruce Banner, but he didn't notice, as he was nervous as all hell. He moved around unsurely as people kept walking in his way.

"Doctor Banner," Steve took the liberty of calling out, stepping forward and shaking the doctor's hand.

"Oh, yeah. Hi," Bruce responded, pointing at the soldier, "They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube."

Bruce laughed nervously and looked at his feet before meeting Steve's gaze. "Is that the only word on me?"

Steve replied without missing a beat. "Only word I care about."

Bruce appreciated the sentiment, and stayed quiet for a moment before piping up again. "Must be strange for you, all of this."

"Well," Steve looked around, catching glimpses of the various pieces of Stark Industries' equipment, "this is actually kind of familiar."

"Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute," Natasha warned, "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

Suddenly, the Helicarrier started to shake, as it prepared to fly 'sail'.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve questioned, looking around.

"Really?" Bruce scoffed in disbelief. "They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?"

Both men moved closer to the edge of the Helicarrier. Four huge lift fans mounted on the sides started to lift into the air in VTOL flight. Steve watched in awe, and Bruce smiled to himself.

"Oh, no, this is much worse," he remarked with a sarcastic smile.

~

Inside the bridge of the ship, there was a flurry of activity as dozens of agents sat in font of their view screens. Agent Hill shouted instructions before turning to Fury, who was at the command chair.

"We're at lock, sir."

"Good," Fury said, "Let's vanish."

The Helicarrier rose high into the heavens. In a flash, the entire ship was covered in reflecting mirrors, which then camouflaged in the sky.

Steve and Bruce walked through the glorious, gleaming bridge. Bruce took his position at the science console.

"Gentlemen," Fury greeted.

Steve gave Fury ten bucks, referring to his earlier statement about never being surprised again. The Director smirked in amusement, then walked over to Bruce and extended his hand. Bruce reluctantly shook it.

"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?" Bruce tilted his head and creased his brow.

The Director turned to Agent Coulson to explain, while you and Natasha eyed images of Aaron, Erik and Clint on one of the computer screens.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Coulson explained, "Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha shook her head, crossing her arms.

"You have to narrow the field," Bruce told them, stepping up to one of the screens, "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" you questioned.

"Call every lab you know, 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." Bruce looked to Fury, wringing his hands. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

Fury happily gestured to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please."

Natasha nodded and walked off, leading Bruce down the hall. "You're gonna love it, doc. We got all the toys."

With Steve preoccupied with conversing with Agent Coulson, The Director was forced to deal with the moment he had been dreading the most.

He looked at you with an expression you couldn't decipher, forcing you to ask instead.

"What?" you held your hands out in expectation.

Fury opened his mouth to speak, but decided against it, instead motioning for you to follow him as he exited the bridge and headed for the central part of the massive vessel.

You stopped in the middle of the large expanse, facing large metal double doors. There was silence for a while as you waited for your godfather to explain himself.

But he didn't, so you were yet again forced to initiate the conversation.

"Are you going to explain what the hell is going on?" you huffed impatiently, "Why are we standing here when we should be... I don't know, avenging?"

"We're waiting for someone."

"Another Avenger?"

"Yes," Fury confirmed, "The most egotistical and difficult one of all."

You frowned and cocked your head to the side. "I thought Coulson met with Stark already."

Fury looked at you. "He did."

In perfect harmony with The Director's words, the doors opened with a gust of air, capturing your attention.

The newest Avenger emerged from the shadows, and you felt a twist in your stomach. Your mind began working overtime, and your heart was beating so loudly you could hear it in your ears.

"Oh, my god..." you whispered.

A cold, hard voice replied to you, igniting a fiery blaze in your soul.

"What's the matter, sweetheart? You look like you've seen a ghost."

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