Once we reached our destination, my father grabbed my hand and led me onto a large ship that appeared to be some sort of aircraft carrier-- something I'd learned about from this game called Battleship my dad and I would play on rainy nights.
As we stepped on, a tall, slender, red-headed woman approached us, a comforting smile contrasting her posture. She looked both of us up and down as we approached her, before glancing at Agent Coulson.
"Store the captain and Elanor's gear," he ordered a member of the crew.
"Yes, sir."
"Agent Romanoff, Captain and Elanor Rogers," Coulson introduced.
"Ma'am."
"Hi." I cleared my throat at the sudden awkwardness. I sheepishly brought one hand up and waved. "They need you in the bridge," she informed Coulson. "They're starting the face-to-face."
"See you there." Agent Coulson left the three of us with each other, and we began to wander as my father took my hand.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon." I looked up to see a smirk on Agent Romanoff's face. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"Trading cards?"
"They're vintage. He's very proud."
We approached a nervous looking man, wringing his hands as he bounced around from technician to technician while they repaired the jets on board.
"Doctor Banner." He looked scared as my father called out to him for a moment, before reaching out to shake my father's hand.
"Yeah. Hi."
"They told me you would be coming." Doctor Banner looked my father up and down, as though confused he even existed.
"Word is, you can find the cube." My father's voice was calm and collected, contrasting Doctor Banner's awkward stuttering.
"Is that the only word on me?" he asked nervously.
"Only word I care about," my father assured. I glanced over at Agent Romanoff, which seemed to draw my father's attention down to me. "Uh, this is my daughter, Elanor." Doctor Banner hesitated before taking my hand to shake it, causing my confidence to waver. No doubt he'd heard about me and what I'd done.
"It must be strange for both of you, all of this."
"The first time I was alive, roads didn't even exist," I laughed. My father's gaze wandered to a group of soldiers running along the deck in formation.
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," he mused.
"Gentlemen, Elanor, you might want to step inside in a minute," Agent Romanoff suggested. "It's going to get a little hard to breathe."
The ship suddenly began to rumble, as the people around us began to scatter inside.
"Flight crew, secure the deck," a voice ordered. My head whipped around rapidly as I watched everyone fall into an organized routine. My father reached over and placed his hand on my head, getting me to stop looking around haphazardly.
"Is it a submarine?" my father asked.
"Really?" Doctor Banner scoffed. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?"
I followed the pair over to the edge of the ship to see some sort of large, strange propeller rising from beneath the churning water and spinning at an alarming pace. Rather than sinking into the water, the ship began to levitate, causing my jaw to drop. Boats could do that? Who knew?
"No, no, this is much worse." Doctor Banner's voice dripped with disdain. As the boat began to take off, I was ushered inside by my father, trailing behind Agent Romanoff as we marched beside Doctor Banner. The inside of the ship was sleek and technologically advanced. The cockpit had dozens of crew members sitting at computers, seemingly navigating the ship and keeping an eye on the surroundings.
I recognized the tall man in a dark trench coat overseeing everyone. The first time I'd seen him was when I'd woken up the first time, and then again when I went home with my dad for the first time. A smile spread onto my father's face as he looked around at the progress, while I gripped his hand tighter as we took steps deeper into the advancements. There were a lot of people around, and all the noise and the circumstance was starting to overwhelm me.
"Preparing for maximum performance takeoff," someone ordered. "Increase output capacity."
"Power plan performing at capacity."
"We are clear."
"All engines operating."
"S.H.I.E.L.D Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect."
"We are at level, sir."
"Excellent."
I took a deep breath as the voices continued to buzz around with people rushing around. I felt my father pull me into a hug as I watched everyone scatter around to their places and to check up on others. My father pulled me toward a long, glass table with several spinning chairs around it, where Doctor Banner stood as well. Director Fury turned around and approached us with a smile.
"Gentlemen, Miss Rogers." I flashed Director Fury a smile. My dad broke away from me for a moment, pulled out a ten dollar bill, and handed it to Director Fury. I raised an eyebrow at him as he began to wander, but he just shook his head with a smile. I plopped myself down in one of the chairs and began to spin in circles, amusing myself.
"Doctor, thank you for coming." Doctor Banner was hesitant to shake Director Fury's hand.
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Doctor Banner nodded.
"Where are you with that?"
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Agent Coulson informed him. "Cell phones, laptops... if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
"That's still not gonna find it in time," Agent Romanoff scoffed.
"You have to narrow your field. 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." Doctor Banner removed his jacket, seeming to indicate he was becoming more comfortable with his environment. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff? Could you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please?" She nodded and began to walk past him.
"You're gonna love it, doc. We got all the toys."
As the pair wandered away, my father made his way back to me, affectionately ruffling my hair and smiling down at me as I spun in another circle. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad here.
"Miss Rogers?" Director Fury smiled down at me as I stopped the chair so I could look at him. "We've got a mission for you and your father."
"I've been told that's why I'm here. What've you got?"
YOU ARE READING
Together We Stand...
Fanfiction*rewrites pending* After Loki gains control of an ancient artifact called the Tesseract, the worlds superheros must come together to stop him from complete universal domination. Fury calls upon the members of the superhero recruitment initiative- Ir...
