LIFE WAS BETTER OFF THE GRID || 1

Agent Welcome Back From The Dead, Agent Romanova

"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked as he looked at the tablet. "A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula." I look away as The Hulk roars with fury as he slams a jeep apart. I was at Culver University. I was in Harlem. I put Emil Blonsky in Cryostasis myself.

" Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve says. "Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Phil says. Steve looks confused. "He's like a smart person. I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially." Steve smiles at Coulson. "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." I cover my mouth to stop the laughing.

Steve looks down. He stands up, closes his laptop and walks to the side with Coulson following. "I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board." He amends. "Well, I hope I'm the man for the job." Steve says." Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input." I whisper to Phil, "I thought you weren't going to fangirl."

"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?" I tilt my head at Steve. "With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." I say. I then go to sit down. This was going to be fun day.

~

"Agent Hand. Captain Rogers." I introduce Victoria Hand and Steve. "Ma'am."

"Hi." She turns to Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. Face trace." Coulson starts walking in the other direction. "Welcome back from the dead Agent Romanova." She greets. I smile. "Good to see you to, Vic. If it were under better circumstances, I'd say it's good to be back. But, there's a chance my best friend might end up dead, so." I trail. She gives me a smile before going to God knows where.

"The dead?" I had forgotten Steve was beside me. "I got hurt. Severely. I left S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick brought me back." I say vaguely. I knew he wanted to hear more, but he didn't press. ""Dr. Banner." Steve walks up to Banner and shakes his hands. "Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming." Banner greets. "Word is you can find the cube." Steve says. "Is that the only word on me?" Banner asks. "Only word I care about." That's a nice sentiment.

"Hello, Bruce." I say. Banner looks very, very confused. "I thought you were dead." He shakes my hand. "A lot of people think I'm dead. The woman that brought you in," I say. "Yeah, Natasha, right?" He asks but I continue. "Well she put a bullet in my head five years ago. She doesn't know I'm alive."

"But we met four years ago when..." He trails off. I look at my watch. "Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath." They both look a little confused. Suddenly the Helicarrier starts shaking as it prepares to sail. "Is this is a submarine?" Steve asks going to the edge. "Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" But he joined Steve. Steve watches in AWE as Banner smiles. "Oh no, this is much worse."

The doors part and we enter the bridge, a flurry of activity ­ dozens of agents sit in front of their view screens. Agent Hill shouts her instructs to leave. She turns to Fury, who is at the command chair. "We're at lock, sir." She says. "Good. Let's vanish." I smile. God, I didn't know how much I missed this. "Gentlemen." Fury greets. Steve gives me 10 bucks, referring to his earlier statement about never being surprised again. Fury walks over Banner and extends his hand. Banner, reluctantly shakes it. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?" He asks. "Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"Where are you with that?"

Nick Fury turns to Agent Coulson to explain, while I kneel down, looking at an image of Clint Barton on a computer screen. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Phil says. "That's still not gonna find them in time." I add. "You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Asks Banner.

"How many are there?" Fury answers Banner's question with a question. "Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" "Agent Romanova, would you show Dr.Banner to his laboratory, please." I nod and walk off, leading Banner down the hall. "You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys."

~

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." Coulson adds quickly. "No, no. It's fine." Steve assures. " It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but..." Coulson trails off and I'm trying not to laugh. "We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy- nine percent." Yes! I knew Sitwell was of for something. "Location?" Phil asks. "Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." Sitwell answers. "Captain, you're up." Nick tells Steve. Steve nods and Leaves. I stand up to follow him but Nick blocks me with his arm.

"You're not going." Fury orders. "The hell Im not. I'm gonna catch the Asgardian bastard that mind controlled my best friend."

"Fine." Fury says. That was easy. Wait, there's a catch, there's always a catch. "What's the catch?" I ask, crossing my arms. Nick smirks. "Agent Spider goes with you." I freeze. "Yeah, I'll stay here." I say quickly. Phil sighs. "You know you're gonna have to talk to her soon, right?" I nod. "I know. I just want a very, very, dramatic entrance." Phil rolls his eyes. "You've been around Fury to long." All I do is grin.