Agent Staves; Avengers Assemble [BOOK 1/?]

II - a file and a soldier

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"Holy shit. I hate to say it, but that's pretty badass." Regina muttered, watching the recovered footage of the Tesseract base.

"He's a murderer, Staves." Natasha corrected, walking up behind the younger agent.

Regina rolled her eyes. "We aren't the oens to judge him on that." She muttered, zooming in on the security footage to take a look at the scepter that Loki held. She hummed, standing up straight as she thought. "Strange thing he's got there, in the middle of it... some kind of magic or energy?" She asked, swiping the information away from the screen.

"You know as much as me." Natasha shrugged, leading the way out to the helipad.

Regina nodded as she followed at the womans side. "I figured. Any word on if Tonys coming or not?"

"Not. At least for now. Coulson went to talk to him, got turned away " Natasha said rather bluntly. "Can't quite say I'm surprised."

"Ah, well, you know how he is. He'll  join us as soon as he figures out his dramatic entrance." Regina said, smiling fondly. "Teri, skip." She added on briefly, the AI changing the song in an instant.

Natasha pushed her side slightly to guide her in the direction she was looking, at Steve Rogers speaking to Coulson.

Over the years since they'd met Regina, 13 years old and terrified out of her mind, she had grown some fondness for the girl. A lot of that may have come from Clint, who seemed intent on taking in as many strays as he physically could, and from Fury seeming to think they'd do well on missions together (he was right, of course, not that either of them would address it directly).

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Staves,. Captain Rogers." Coulson introduced when Natasha and Regina arrived. Regina shot Steve a bright smile, burying her hands in her jacket pocket. She looked wildly out of place at S.H.I.E.L.D, dressed like some terribly midguided kid bunking off of school rather than a high-ranking agent for an international intelligence organisation.

"Ma'am." Steve said to Natasha. "Miss." He added, looking at Regina.

"'Sup." Regina said, giving him a nod.

"Hey." Natasha said. She nodded to Coulson ."They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace." Coulson nodded, beginning to walk between Natasha and Regina. "See you there." He said, patting Reginas shoulder as he passed. Natasha looked Steve up and down before she spoke, starting to walk forward as a signal for him to follow. "It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice." She said.

"It was batshit crazy." Regina laughed. "Awesome as hell though, not gunna lie. The fact you lived through it and have no lasting effects at all is insane."

"How old are you?" Steve asked, an amused smile on his face. "You look a little young to be here."

"Maybe I'm sixteen, maybe i'm sixty. You'll never know, Cap." Regina laughed. "Been here since I was about thirteen, or something like it." She grinned. "Man, I thought Coulson was going to pass out when we found you." She said, quickly changing the subject. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" She asked, looking forward to where a slightly bewildered Bruce Banner was getting out of one of the planes.

"Trading cards?" Steve asked, a little proudly.

"They're vintage." Natasha said, also looking forward to Bruce. "He's very proud." Steve followed their gaze ahead to Bruce Banner as they approached.

Steve walked forward, holding his hand out ready for a handshake. "Dr. Banner." He greeted.

Bruce complied, still looking rather lost as he did so. "Yeah, hi." He said. "They told me you would be coming." Regina had, quite honestly, never seen someone look less like they wanted to be somewhere. Which is saying quite a lot considering the nature of her job.

"Word is you can find the cube?"

Bruce rung his hands together, looking at the agents around him. "Is that the only word on me?"

"Other than the green guy-" Regina muttered to herself, earning an elbow to the ribs from Natasha, who gave her a stern look when they met eyes. She complied to be quiet about it, despite the quite strong urge to be resistant to it, but she figured she would just be making Bruce uncomfortable if she spoke about the Hulk.

"Only word I care about." Steve said, neither man taking notice of the disapproving look Regina was getting. Natasha turned away from Regina, hand to her ear as she listened to whatever she was being told.

"Miss Staves, the ships going up soon. It is recommended that you go inside." Teri said, interrupting the music playing in Reginas ear.

"Thank you, T." Regina said so that the music would resume. She looked to Natasha, assuming she got the same memo. Bruce and Steve were talking about their surroundings when Natasha finally decided to step in, giving them a warning about what was going to happen. "Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. Staves, you go on ahead." She said, pushing Reginas shoulder to turn the girl around.

"Oh, thanks. I know when I'm not wanted." She scoffed jokingly,  but started on her way. "Used to be wanted intenationally, but now I'm not even wanted on a boat, I see, I see-" She muttered bitterly to herself as she got to the door.

"Miss Staves," Teri began. "Being an internationally hunted criminal is not often something to be proud about."

"Thanks, your input was not needed in the slightest."