The Chronicles of Captain Carter - The First Avenger

9.

***************************************************************************************

Chapter Nine - Is it a boat, a submarine, a plane?

***************************************************************************************

The jet landed and Peggy and Coulson walked down the ramp to be met by a red-headed lady in a leather jumpsuit. "Agent Romanoff, Captain Peggy Carter." Coulson introduced the two women who smiled at each other.

 "Pleasure to meet you." 

"Pleasure's all mine. Phil, they need you on the bridge. They're starting the face trace." 

Coulson left, leaving Peggy and Agent Romanoff alone. They began to walk together. After exchanging pleasantries, Natasha chuckled. "It was quite the buzz around here, you coming out of that portal. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain Carter trading cards yet?" 

Peggy laughed under her breath. "They still make those?" 

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

They spotted a man who stood out from the standardized blackm uniforms of SHIELD, him being dressed in a purple t-shirt and khaki coloured trousers. He stumbled in and out of people's way, looking completely and utterly lost. 

"Doctor Banner." Peggy called, getting his attention. He walked quickly towards them, smiling slightly as he saw the two women. She held her hand out. "Yeah, hi. They told me you would be coming." He shook her hand.

 "I hear you might be able to locate the Tesseract." She stated. He looked at her nervously. "Is that... the only word on me?" He asked. She smiled at him softly. "It's the only word I care about." He smiled back in gratitude. "It must be strange for you, all of this?" He gestured around. Peggy glanced around the deck of the - ship? She looked around a moment. "Well, actually this is kind of familiar."

"Captain, Doctor, you may want to step inside a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe." Nat announced, smirking. They looked at her confused, but their attention was quickly diverted to the sound of engines starting. They walked curiously to the edge. "Is this a submarine? Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?" Banner asked, looking worried. That theory was soon proved incorrect as turbines began to rotate, causing the 'ship' to elevate. Banner chuckled humourlessly. 

"Oh no, this is much worse."

***************************************************************************************

Natasha led them through several identical hallways, arriving at the bridge. She walked over to an agent on a computer, leaving the pair to admire the technological marvel. Peggy heard a familiar voice call out an order. "Engage retro-reflective panels."

The helicarrier began to mirror the sky, making it invisible to the civillians below. Peggy's eyes widened even more, if that was even possible at this point. Fury strolled over to where Banner and Peggy were gawping. Wordlessly, Peggy slipped Fury $10, admitting defeat to the bet they had made. The Director smirked before turning to Bruce. "Dr Banner, thank you for coming." Fury greeted. 

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, how long am I staying?" Bruce asked. 

"Once we've located the Tesseract, you're in the wind."

"Where are you with that?" 

In response, Fury pointed to Coulson, who started speaking. "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."

"That's still not going to find them in time." Natasha pointed out, crouched next to an agent's computer, who displayed a picture of a dirty blonde man. Peggy recognised him as Agent Barton. She could only hope he was alright. He seemed a good man. He was obviously close to Natasha as the agent's eyes softened when she looked at the image, before swiping it away and standing up.

"You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Banner asked, taking his jacket off. 

"How many are there?" Fury asked, raising an eyebrow.

"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, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" Bruce finished, looking expectantly at Fury, who turned to Natasha.

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory please?" 

"You're gonna love it doc, we got all the toys." She said, leading him elsewhere.

***************************************************************************************

Agents bustled past, working against the clock to find Loki and the Tesseract. Coulson and Peggy stood on a platform overlooking the agents.

"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." 

"Not at all, Agent." She smiled politely. She genuinely did enjoy Phil's company, and was more than happy to sign his cards, but her mind, as it usually was these days, on other things. Coulson rambled on about the quality of the cards but was interrupted when a screen started to bleep.

 "We got a hit. 67% match." A bald, spectacled agent called. "Wait, cross match, 79%." 

Coulson walked over. "Location?" He asked. 

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

"Captain." Fury called. Peggy turned, waiting for her orders. "You're up."

She walked into a room, where her new and improved uniform was in a cabinet on display. Beside it, the shield that held so much symbolism and hope stood proud, shining as the newly polished metal reflected the fluorescent light. Peggy smirked at the sight. 

It was mission time.