05 | I WOULD NEVER SAY THIS TO HER FACE, BUT SHE SCARES ME

THE JET LANDED on a ship large enough to have an entire fleet of jets land on it simultaneously and then still have space for more. Morana briefly wondered how many people were on the ship as the ramp of the jet they were still in lowered. Phil was behind them, watching the three of them stare at everything with amazement in their eyes. There were agents jogging around, other agents were running tests and making sure that the jets were securely strapped down.

    "Agent Romanoff," Phil called from behind Steve, Morana, and Marque, making them all snap back to reality and their eyes landed on a redheaded woman sauntering up to them. "This is Captain Rogers, Mr. and Miss Hightower."

    "Ah, yes. The siblings that I've heard so much about," said Agent Romanoff, eyeing the siblings up and down. "Sorry for the scare. We did know how else to get in contact with you."

    "Yeah..." Morana trailed off, feeling immensely intimidated by the woman standing in front of her.

    "Ma'am," Steve greeted.

    "Hi," Agent Romanoff said simply before looking back over at Phil. "They need you on the bridge."

    "See you there," Phil responded before moving past them.

    "It was quite the buzz around here—finding you in the ice," Agent Romanoff chimed as the four of them started to move away from the jet with Morana clinging onto the strap of her bag. "Thought Coulson was going to swoon."

    Morana smirked at her words though her humor wasn't making her more at ease with her which she hated. Her entire life, authoritative women had intimidated her. Maybe it was because Morana herself didn't feel as self-secure as them, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that being raised by her brother made her feel sheltered.

    "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

    Steve looked at her, bewildered.

    "Trading cards?"

    Agent Romanoff nodded as they began to approach another man. "They're vintage. He's very proud."

    The man was standing by one of the jets that had landed a few moments ago, looking very confused as he kept turning around on the spot—stumbling as agents bustled around him. He was dressed in a dark gray suit paired with a purple shirt, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and shiny shoes.

    "Doctor Banner," Steve greeted immediately, catching the confused man's attention.

    Morana mentally slapped herself at the fact that she hadn't recognized the man. Something told her that she had to start working on her memory a little bit. At least when it came to facial recognition. Though, the complete truth was that there weren't many pictures of Bruce himself. Instead, the Hulk was often shown more than the person behind the beast. She briefly wondered if that was because people only wanted the Hulk to be a part of the team. Still, she should've recognized the man from how often Marque spoke of the brilliant scientist.

    "Oh, yeah, hi," said Bruce, shaking Steve's hand. "They told me you'd be coming."

    "Word is you can find the cube," said Steve, letting go of the man. Although there would've been a very awkward atmosphere between them, since Bruce became that beast because of Steve in a way, Steve waved the atmosphere off by smiling friendly toward him.

    "Is that the only word of me?" Bruce asked, earning a nod from Steve.

    "The only word I care about," Steve replied, receiving a soft smile from Bruce before he turned his gaze over to Marque and Morana.

    "Mr. and Miss Hightower, I presume?"

    "Yes, that's us but please, call me Morana, and this my airhead of a brother—" Morana elbowed Marque, who was gawking at Bruce "—Marque. He's a really big fan of your work."

    "Nice meeting you two, I've heard a lot about the both of you," said Bruce, shaking their hands respectively. It felt oddly soft compared to what Morana had thought and it seemed as though he didn't really use all his strength in the handshake either, but it felt warm and kind.

    "You read our files, I suppose?" asked Marque.

    "Yes. But I also read the papers," said Bruce, taking off his glasses. "The mystery siblings who seem to be able to outsmart anyone and anything that comes after them. Not so mysterious to me anymore though."

    Morana smiled at him, thanking him silently for not caring about their past, not openly toward her anyway.

    "This must be strange for the three of you, all of this. Especially for you, Steve," Bruce said as Morana shrugged, looking over at Steve expectantly.

    "Actually," said Steve, his eyes wandering over at a line of trainees that were jogging past, their trainer running along with them. "This is kind of familiar."

    The four of them started to walk toward the edge of the ship while Natasha lagged behind them, talking into her ear piece.

    "Gentleman—lady—you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe," Natasha advised, earning confused looks from all of them.

    Quickly, Morana jogged over to the edge, double checking to make sure that this indeed was a ship as the sound of metal clanking was heard along with orders being barked all over to the agents about them having to secure the deck.

    Morana gasped as she saw the water beside the boat suddenly start to move.

    "Is this a submarine?" asked Steve as he, Bruce, and Marque walked over to stand next to Morana.

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

    "No, it's not a submarine," Marque said and pointed down toward the surface of the water where now two huge round propellers were being to emerge.

    When the "ship" started to lift up from the water, the ground beneath their feet shook and lurched, causing Morana to grab ahold of Steve's leather jacket absentmindedly as there was no railing to hold on to for support.

    "Oh no, this is much worse," Bruce mused sarcastically, wind starting to blow against their faces, causing them to slowly back away from the edge.

    "Shall we go inside then?" offered Natasha with a smirk playing on her lips before she turned around, walking toward the other side of the landing area.

    "What is this?" Morana asked, to no one in particular.

    Marque looked back of his shoulder. "It's a Helicarrier, Mo."

    "A Helicarrier? I didn't even know S.H.I.E.L.D. had these kind of things!"

    "I have a feeling there's a lot we don't know about S.H.I.E.L.D." said Bruce.

    Suddenly, Morana noticed her fingers were beginning to ache and quickly looked down only to find her fingers were still grasping Steve's leather jacket tightly. She immediately released her hold on him and blushed deeply, glancing up at Steve's face and seeing that he wasn't showing any kind of emotion against it. He didn't even look at her. Maybe he hadn't noticed or maybe, he didn't care. Either way, Morana cursed herself quietly for doing so.

    "So," Marque suddenly appeared beside her, causing her to flinch slightly. "What do you think of Miss Spy?" He asked as he eyed Natasha's swaying hips.

    "I would never say this to her face, but she kinda scares me."

The four of them soundlessly followed Natasha onto the bridge of the Helicarrier. It was almost as amazingly high-tech as the rest of the Helicarrier, and Morana couldn't help but look all around her with wide eyes.

    "We're at level, sir," a brunette agent said.

    "Good," a deep voice replied. "Let's vanish."

    Morana and Marque whirled around toward the sound and noticed a man standing in the center of the bridge. He was wearing a long black leather coat with an eye-patch covering one eye and Morana noticed that faint purple scars were barely concealed by the patch.

    The man then walked over to the siblings and surveyed them—almost seeming to analyze them—like he suddenly remembered everything he'd heard about them and was evaluating them. Once he was done taking them in, he met their eyes and nodded firmly once.

    "The Hightower siblings," he mused with a slight smirk, almost proud. "I'm Director Nick Fury. I've heard a lot about you."

    Morana nodded, "Yeah, that's what we keep hearing."

    Fury seemed to appreciate her sarcasm for a brief moment before he looked toward Marque's shoulder. "How are you feeling, Marque?"

    Marque rolled his shoulders with ease, a smug smirk gracing his lips. "Good as new, never been better."

    "Good, we're going to need your skills," Fury said moments before an agent's voice broke out.

    "Sir, we got a hit! 67 perfect match. Wait—cross match—79 percent."

    "Location?" asked Phil, walking over to the agent.

    "Stuttgart, Germany," he replied. "28th Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

    "Captain, Hightower," called Fury, making the three of them look back at the director. "You're up."

    Morana sighed quietly, her heart beating faster as she realized that their mission was beginning. They had to stop Loki and his mind-controlled followers before they did something. Quickly, they exited the bridge, walking with swift haste toward the corridor where their rooms were located.

    "You all right?" Steve asked as they walked together, quickly nearing Morana's room which was right between Steve and Marque's rooms.

    "Yes, why?" asked Morana, confused by his question.

    "You look worried."

    "It's nothing," Morana assured, smiling a warm smile at him and hoped that he'd let it go.

    "Don't worry about Mo too much, Captain," Marque piped in, typing in the code to unlock the door to his room. "She always has some weird look on her face before a mission. But, I assure you, her face doesn't always look like that."

    Morana rolled her eyes. "Shut up, doofus."

    Steve smiled at their interaction before nodding his head once and turning around and disappearing into his own room.

✦ ✧ ✦

not edited