📍S.H.I.E.L.D. HELICARRIER
───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰ ───

AFTER visiting New York for a short time, Coulson decided to stay behind in the city for one extra day so he could be on the same jet as the famous Captain Steve Rogers, who had been found in the ice after being stuck there for almost 70 years. (Y/N) did not argue with Coulson's decision, since she could see the joy behind his eyes, and flew back to the helicarrier, where Fury and the rest of the organization was.

Her and Natasha were currently heading towards the landing zone of the helicarrier because Coulson's jet was arriving in any second, so the two women were planning to receive him and the Captain once they landed.

Since it was a long walk from the control room to the landing zone, Natasha had asked (Y/N) for details about what had happened back in the facility and how was Clint compromised, since the redhead held a strong relationship with the man and couldn't help but worry about his whereabouts. (Y/N) told her everything, from the portal opening to the explosion of the building.

After she finished retelling the situation, Natasha stayed silent for a moment and turned back to (Y/N). "You know, even after being here for a while, I've never seen you in action."

(Y/N) adjusted the cuffs of her aviator jacket and let out a sound that was a mix of a scoff and a laugh. "Really? That's all?"

"That's all I can say right now," Natasha defended, her red hair blowing from the strong wind. "It's just. . .I'm curious to see how it looks like."

"You're not going to see it anytime soon, trust me," (Y/N) told her with a confident tone, even though the words Fury had told her back in the facility still rang in her head.

Natasha smacked her lips like she thought otherwise, but she wasn't going to keep pressing onto the matter. The wind around them grew stronger and an engine roaring rang through her ears, indicating that a jet was approaching the zone. (Y/N) looked up just in time to see how the jet was beginning to lose speed and lower itself down onto the place where the aircraft signalmen were gesturing to.

The jet's engine began to shut down and the rear door opened, allowing Coulson and the alleged Captain America to step outside. The man was blond and tall, wearing a squared shirt with a jacket over it.

"Agent Romanoff and Lieutenant Vaughn, this is Captain Rogers," Coulson presented with a smile, looking back at the man beside him.

Steve Rogers smiled politely at the two women. "Ladies."

(Y/N) returned the smile to him. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Hi," Natasha greeted simply unlike her friend, before her gaze fell on Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."

Coulson walked away. "See you there."

Steve followed in between (Y/N) and Natasha as they walked through the outside of the helicarrier, agents, soldiers and other workers running to get to their duties and payed no attention to the three.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha began, her eyes set forward though her words were for Steve. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon."

"Please tell me if he already asked you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" (Y/N) asked with her hands stuffed inside her jacket.

"Trading cards?" Steve asked with an incredulous tone, though a smile was threatening to come out.

"They're vintage," Natasha replied. "He's very proud."

(Y/N) looked forward and she spotted a brunet man trying to avoid stepping in the way of the agents and workers around him, trying to stay under everyone's nose and keep his hands to himself. If (Y/N) guessed correctly, this man was probably —

"Dr. Banner," Steve caught the doctor's attention.

"Yeah, hi," Bruce Banner looked back and took Steve's hand for a handshake. "They told me you would be coming." His eyes set on (Y/N) and he squinted his eyes to rack his memory on what he read on the file. "Lieutenant, isn't it?"

(Y/N) nodded. "At your service, doctor."

Bruce seemed relaxed by that, and Steve decided to speak again, his eyes squinted from trying to block the sunlight.

"Word is you can find the Cube."

"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce awkwardly shifted on his feet, not meeting his eyes.

"Only word I care about."

Bruce pressed his hands together and took a quick look around before speaking. "It must be strange for you, all of this."

Steve's eyes fell on a group of men and women running in group, and a sense of remembrance flashed in his eyes. "Well, this is actually kind of familiar."

"Gentlemen, you might want to step inside for a minute," Natasha stepped into their conversation, hands clasped together. "It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

"Flight crew secure the deck."

Workers secured the jets and trucks on the area, and those that weren't placed in the right spot where moved by the other signalmen. People grabbed their clear masks and placed them on so they could be prepared, and the others began to rush inside.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked out loud as he and Bruce stepped closer to the edge and peeked down at the ocean a few feet below.

(Y/N) tried not to laugh loudly at his thought, her head coming up with a scenario of what it would be like if it was a submarine instead. For obvious reasons, (Y/N) was better off in the air than in the ocean.

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

The engine rose up and broke out from the tide, starting to power up and blow stronger wind out into the open as it began to separe the helicarrier from the ocean.

"No, no," Bruce shook his head. "This is much worse."

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰ ───

Since the helicarrier was already high up in the sky and the air was starting to become thin, Natasha and (Y/N) headed over to the control room with Steve and Bruce following right behind.

"Hover power check complete. Position cyclic. Increase collective to 8.0%."

"Prepare for maximum performance takeoff. Increase output to capacity."

"Power plant performing at capacity. We are clear."

"All engines operating. S.H.I.E.L.D. Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect," Maria had her hands on her hips as she whirled back to face Fury. "We are at level, sir."

"Good," Fury said from his respective spot on the control room. "Let's vanish."

"Engage retro-reflection panels."

"Gentlemen," Fury stepped back from his spot to greet the two men, extending his hand forward to greet them formally.

Both were standing behind the table in the back of the control room, awkwardly shifting on their feet and didn't try to disturb anyone. Bruce walked around and tried to avoid the guards that were standing by the wall, and Steve was eyeing every piece of technology in the room with a quizzing yet amusing look in his eyes.

He stepped forward and reached out for his pocket, then handed a ten dollar bill to Fury, which made the director smirk with triumph as he saved it in his clothes.

"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury faced Bruce.

"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce replied, shaking his hand. "So, how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind," he explained.

"Where are you with that?"

Fury gestured towards Coulson. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Natasha, who had knelt down to check a monitor with Clint's information on it, spoke up too. "That's still not gonna find them in time."

"You have to narrow your field," Bruce began. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?"

"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll touch out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could tule out a few places," he ordered, removing his jacket. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?" Fury glanced at the redhead who nodded without a word.

Natasha stood up from her position and began walking towards the exit, checking if Bruce was trailing behind her.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

A long period of time passed as they waited for any sort of news of the location of Loki and the Tesseract. (Y/N) sat back as she watched how Coulson was awkwardly trying to speak to Steve about his Captain America trading cards, but her mind still wondered back to her interaction with Tony back at the Tower. (Y/N) hadn't seen him that confused since she'd met him, and for some odd reason, she couldn't erase it from her head.

"We got a hit. A 67% match," Sitwell announced suddenly from his own seat and computer. "Wait. Cross match, 79%."

Coulson rushed to him. "Location?"

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

"Captain, you're up," Fury ordered, and Steve nodded without a word. "Lieutenant, tell Agent Romanoff to get suited, you're his ride."