CHAPTER THREE
Black Widow
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The quinjet landed down on a massive S.H.I.E.L.D. aerial carrier known as the Helicarrier. It had four huge engines that had the capability of vertical lift-off and landing. There were two runways, one with direct access to the hangar, and the other as a landing strip for incoming and departing aircrafts. Phil, Steve and Ana walked down the ramp, meeting up with Natasha who stood outside, hands clasped in front of her.
Ana hadn't seen the world-class spy for close to a month since Natasha had been assigned to a mission in Moscow. Phil had informed Ana that Nick wanted all hands on deck, and he was the one who called Natasha in on account of Clint's current situation. It was more than enough to get the Black Widow's interest piqued, and she was on the first flight out of Russia after dealing with her targets. Behind Steve, Ana lugged forward with a few duffle bags on her arms that Phil wanted to get inside.
"Welcome to the airstrip, Captain." Phil announced as they all stepped off the quinjet.
Ana smiled at the red head when Natasha tilted her head to the side to look at her over Steve's shoulder. She smiled and chuckled under her breath when Ana dropped the bags and approached her for a hug. "Hey, Nat. Thanks for coming."
Natasha nodded and looked at her with warm eyes. "I come back and Clint's been compromised."
Ana gave her an assuring look. "We'll get him back, I promise." She said strongly.
"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers." Phil introduced the two.
"Ma'am." Steve nodded at her respectfully.
"Hi." Natasha said dryly, and looked over at Phil. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face trace."
"See you there." Phil nodded at the agents before he walked away. Ana gave Steve an encouraging smile when she noticed how hesitant he was and followed Natasha down the airstrip.
"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon." Natasha commented, looking to Steve. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"
"He didn't have them on him." Ana whispered, glancing at her.
"Trading cards?" Steve asked, peering down at Ana when she stepped in line next to him.
"They're vintage." She shrugged, "He's very proud." She gave him a smile and he returned it.
The three of them stopped when they caught sight of a man wearing a grey suit and glasses, who seemed to be nervous from all the people walking around him. Ana instantly recognised him from all the classified S.H.I.E.L.D. documents Fury wouldn't give to her. He would instead leave them open on his desk while he looked out the window of his office, allowing her less than ten seconds to soak up all the information she can.
"Dr. Banner!" Steve called out to Bruce, offering his hand to shake.
"Oh, yeah. Hi." Bruce said, shaking Steve's hand. "They told me you'd be coming," He took a moment to get a quick look of the war hero in front of him. Steve smiled, and nodded his head towards Ana. "She told me you were coming."
Bruce looked over at Ana, who stepped up and shook his hand. "Agent Ana Michaels." She introduced. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor."
"Please, just Bruce is fine." He said with a small smile.
"Of course." Ana said, nodding her head. She stepped back, folding her hands in front of her like Natasha.
"Word is you can find the Cube." Steve said.
"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce asked, glancing around nervously as he clenched his hands together.
"Only word I care about." Steve nodded.
"Must be strange for you, all of this." Bruce said, spreading his arms around as he gestured to all the high-tech aircrafts.
"Well." Steve said, glancing at the men marching in order to their leader. "This is actually kind of familiar."
"Gentlemen, you might wanna step inside in a minute." Natasha said, walking in-between them. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."
Steve and Bruce watched at the sudden movement of the ship they were on, it started rumbling as it prepared to take-off. They walked closer to the edge, watching as the turbines spun. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked in awe as he looked at Ana. She just smiled secretly.
"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurised container?" Bruce asked, as the two men walked further towards the edge. The Helicarrier's engines powered up as they churned in the water, rising above sea level. It wasn't going down, it was going up. Ana looked around as the deck crew began locking all aircrafts onboard to prevent them from sliding off. She felt a nudge at her side, and faced Natasha who gave her a smirk, motioning to the two men still standing close to the edge.
"Remember your first time on this?" Natasha questioned. "Clint had to pull you away."
"That's because this is awesome, and it will never cease to amaze me." Ana replied, smiling.
"Oh, no. This is much worse." Bruce said.
- - -
"This way."
Natasha directed Steve and Bruce into the interior bridge with Ana by her side. As Ana spoke with the men on the basics of the Helicarrier's technology, Natasha pushed open the twin doors that lead to the command station. Dozens of agents sat in front of their assigned stations, calling out status' and numbers. Agent Maria Hill gave her orders to lift-off and turned to Director Fury, who was at the command stage, surrounded by monitors.
"We're at level, sir." Maria announced.
"Good." Fury said. "Let's vanish."
Ana walked down to the middle of the bridge where Maria stood, and gave her a small hug in greeting. Maria chuckled. "Hey." She welcomed. "You look fine, no bruises or cuts." She said, eyeing Ana up and down as she kept her hands on her shoulders. "There's a uniform waiting for you back in your room."
Ana looked down at her casual attire, and nodded at Maria. "Thank you, Commander." Ana said, grinning.
Maria smiled at the young agent, and handed her an earpiece. When Ana went to get it, Maria pulled back for a second, sending her a stern look. "Don't lose it this time." She said and Ana nodded sheepishly and took the earpiece, placing it in her right ear.
Ana glanced over at Steve and Director Fury when she noticed Steve handing the director a ten dollar bill. Fury smirked and pocketed the bill before he caught Ana's gaze and winked. She wasn't sure if he had just blinked, but the pleased look on his face told her otherwise. She laughed softly and joined Steve who had his eyes taking in all the enhanced equipment and technology around him.
"You okay there, Cap?" She asked softly, careful not to startle him and he snapped his head to her, a pink tint on his cheeks.
"Oh, yeah it's just everything is... it's new." He said in awe.
Ana chuckled lightly, and patted his shoulder. "You'll get used to it, trust me." She said and he smiled.
"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury said, shaking Bruce's hand.
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh..." Bruce glanced down at the floor cautiously before he looked up at him. "How long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury shrugged.
"Where are you with that?" Bruce asked.
Fury turned to point at Coulson as he joined them, crossing his arms over his chest. "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." He reported.
"That's still not going to find them in time." Natasha sighed.
Ana looked at her, eyebrows furrowed. "Isn't there a way to make the connection stronger?" Natasha shrugged at her question.
"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked Fury.
"How many are there?"
"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." Bruce told Fury as he took off his suit jacket, "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff?" Fury asked, and Natasha looked up at Fury. "Would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory please?"
"You're gonna love it, Doc." Natasha said, walking up the stairs to lead Bruce to the empty and awaiting lab. "We got all the toys." She said.
Ana turned to Steve and saw him looking into space, his lips mumbling with a confused look on his face. "Steve?" She called.
"I didn't understand what Dr. Banner was saying."
"Don't worry, me too."
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Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, what do you think about Ana and Steve's friendship? Natasha is like an older sister to Ana. Please comment and I'll see you soon!
Q- What are you looking forward to in Civil War?