Mischief's Shield

Chapter 4 - New Visitors

I was awoken by the regular loud alarm that echoes throughout all the sleeping quarters at 6:05am, letting all the S.H.I.E.L.D workers know that it is either time for you to get up or go to sleep, depending on if you do night shifts or not. I waited until the ringing stopped before dragging myself out of the warmth of my bed and towards my changing area to put on my usual plain black uniform with the obvious S.H.I.E.L.D logo on the right side.

Willock was ready first and I followed second, we had to meet up with Hill and Mann to help on the search for Loki. Rumours were spread that the Director was bringing back the Avengers initiative and this time would be made up of: Iron Man - also known as Tony Stark, Captain America - Steve Rogers, The Hulk - Bruce Banner, Black Widow - Agent Natasha Romanoff, and the Hawk himself. If these rumours were true than 2 of our own Agents would be part of the Avengers. Lucky.

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my head when I heard Fury's voice talk to me through my ear piece,
"Hill, meet Coulson and Captain Rogers. Strange, go get Romanoff and Doctor Banner." I didn't bother with saying bye to Agents Willock or Mann, it's not like I was never going to see them again. Maria and I made our way to where our Director told us to find our new visitors, we didn't talk on the way there or even glance at each other: I just assumed that Maria was still surprised by my lack of self control on the Quinjet the night before since I usually can control my anger pretty well, the only part I needed to practice was actually remembering what happens when I wolf-out.

"Change of plan, I need you back at the bridge Hill. Romanoff will be helping Strange in replacement, don't waste any time now." Nick Fury's voice broke the silence between the two of us. Strangely, I was happy that I didn't have to stay with Maria any longer in an awkward silence, I hated silence. As soon as Fury's voice could no longer be heard Hill turned quickly around and headed back down the hall we had just walked past before going up some metal stairs that lead outside.

Pushing the single door out of my way, I instantly saw people running around strapping jets down and containers too, I missed this chaos... A small jet starts to come down, ready to land beside another one identical to itself except a nervous looking Bruce Banner was coming out of the other with a neutral Natasha Romanoff following behind him down the small ramp and onto the Helicarrier completely. I assumed that Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers were in the new jet since no one else was expected yet: Tony Stark wouldn't co-operate in our plans, which only made saving the world 10x harder.

Natasha and Bruce soon grouped up with Phil and Steve and I decided that since I was called to, I might aswell do my duty - good I know the ins and outs of most of Director Fury's plans.
"Agent Romanoff - Captain Rogers." Agent Coulson began, clearly not noticing my presence since he was standing next to one of his favourite elderly men who should be dead by now but somehow aren't.
"Ma'am." Steve kindly shook her hand and smiled at me as if to say 'Don't worry, I noticed you.'
"Hi," Nat wasn't the best person at introducing herself but most people forgave her anyway. She then turned to Coulson and her face was back to having no emotion just like Fury, "They need you on the bridge; they're starting the face trace."
"See you there." He jogged off towards the metal door I had came through only minutes ago, the 3 of us walked off in the opposite direction towards Doctor Banner who had decided to walk off during our previous conversation.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. Though Coulson was gonna explode. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" I looked up at the tall blonde to my right, he seemed confused when I mentioned the Agent's little secret collection.
"Trading cards?" Was all he asked in response.
"They're vintage, he's very proud of them." Natasha picked up on his confusion quite quickly.

We spotted Banner once again - he keeps disappearing to try and observe the tech - he was bumping into people, trying to make his way towards the nearest jet to see what it was made of.
"Doctor Banner." Steve called the scientist over before he caused more trouble.
"Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you'd be coming." He shook the former soldier's hand for a bit too long. I couldn't help put notice the size difference between to two men: Captain Rogers was massive compared to him.
"Word is you can find the cube." I smiled at Roger's words, he obviously knew what it was called but preferred to refer to is as 'The Cube'.
"Is that the only word on me?"
"Only word I care about."
"Must be strange for you, all of this." Banner kept eye contact with Steve, unaware of the irony in his word choices.
"Well, this is actually kind of familiar." He sighed, loosening his hand from the scientist's grip, immediately stopping him from continuing to shake his hand for any longer.

"Gentlemen, you might wanna step inside." Natasha crossed her arms over her chest as she smiled at the two boys in front of her who looked like kids trying work out a University maths question as soon as they heard a whirring and clunking noise beginning to come from all around them.
"It's gonna get a little hard to breath." I finished for her and copied her exact actions.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve looked around, shocked even by his own words, I personally just found them funny.
"Really, they want me in a submerged pressurised metal container?" The doctor sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to handle staying underwater until the world ended or was saved. I let myself laugh quietly when large propellers unfold from the side of the Helicarrier and spin, slowly lifting us into the air and away from the watery earth that was holding us up before, "Oh no, this is much worse."

~~~~~

A walked back towards the bridge where I was meant to meet Director Fury. Dr Banner walked along next to me and Steve was with Natasha in front of us, taking the next left turn and seeing the doors that lead to the main room straight ahead of them.

When we walked through the doors Director Fury was right ahead of us and Natasha peeled away quickly to talk to one of the people on a computer, looking through people's records. I could hear 10's of people talking all at the same time about how they can't seem to find Loki anywhere.
"All engines operating. S.H.I.E.L.D emergency protocol one nine three point six in effect." Agent Hill came over to us, she was telling Fury all the important information about our lift-off, "We're at level, sir."
"Good! Let's vanish." Nick commanded plainly in return.

Maria held her finger to her ear and spoke clearly into her ear piece,
"Engage retro reflection panels."
I knew exactly what that meant, we were going to be travelling far and needed to be hidden and that's exactly what was gonna happen - the Helicarrier was going to be invisible.
"Reflection panels engaged." Agent Mann informed Nick proudly, confirming my suspicions. No one can see us...