Chapter 5: Friends Call Me Kat

As Kat sat in the brightly lit bathroom, curled up against the wall, a female voice came through her earpiece.

"Kat, we need you on deck." Natasha ordered.

"Roger that, on my way." Kat shakily replied, confident that she had successfully hidden it from her friend when no other voices came through.

Carefully, she gathered her legs underneath her, struggling to stand up. Her hands grasped the wall and sink for support. She took a step forward, her head swirling before she quickly darted to the toilet, bile rising in her throat and her breakfast ultimately leaving her stomach. 

Once her body calmed down, she shakily rose again, trembling as she rinsed the acidic taste from her mouth, quickly brushing her teeth before rushing off to the deck.

~

Jogging onto the deck, completely recovered from her episode, the familiar redhead walked towards a quinjet that had just landed. She pumped her legs, finally catching up with the woman, walking beside her eyes straight ahead.

The strong gusts of wind blew her hair back and left a welcomed coolness on her skin as the engines powered down. Eventually the ramp lowered as two men marched down to greet them.

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Hart--Captain Rogers." One of the two, Agent Coulson, said introducing the strangers.

"Ma'am...ma'am." The captain greeted, nodding to each of the female agents, a bit unsure how to refer to the young girl. He was clearly shocked someone of her age was actually onboard.

"Hi." They chorus before Nat continued, this time only to the agent across from them. "They need you on the bridge; they're starting the face trace."

"See you there." Coulson said as he walked off, leaving the man, woman, and teen alone.

The three began strolling in silence before Natasha makes friendly conversation.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. Thought Coulson was going to swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America taking card yet?"

"Trading cards?"

"They're vintage. He's very proud." Kat added, playfully smirking.

The older man looked down at the girl, still slightly confused.

Another man, stumbling and clumsily bumping in S.H.I.E.L.D agents, caught their attention.

"Doctor Banner." Captain Rogers called, his voice cutting through the engines and chaos.

"Oh, yeah, hi." The doctor awkwardly replied, "They told me you'd be coming."

Cap nodded, "Word is you can find the Cube."

"Is that the only word on me?" The Doctor inquired, suspicious of the rumors about him.

"Only word I care about."

The two men then shared a look, their eyes showing mutual respect for one another.

"Must be strange for you... all of this." Doctor Banner added after the small moment of silence, gesturing to the technology around them.

Cap watched a group of soldiers jogged past, "Well, this is actually kind of familiar."

Behind them, quietly observing the men's interaction, were the two female agents. Suddenly a familiar whirring of the engines reached their ears.

With a small bounce in her step and a knowing smirk on her lips, Agent Hart confidently sauntered up to the men before her. "Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe."

The Captain and the Doctor stare down at the young agent, bewilderment flashing in their eyes. Not only was the wonder of what she could be talking about, but why someone her age was even there. Not in a disrespectful way, but more of a curious way. They could tell she was experienced just from her body language and tone of voice as well as the basic energy she gave off. Her eyes and behavior gave the impression of someone older.

Finally, sharing another look, Rogers and Banner made their way over to the edge of the deck, seeing the massive engines agitate the water below.

"Is this a submarine?" Rogers wondered aloud, looking to Bruce.

"Really, they want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?"

More whirring and clanging could be heard as the gigantic structure began to lift out of the water.

"Oh no, this is much worse." Banner plainly added, shaking his head, finally realizing the big metal trap he had walked onto. Katrina watched on, a fond expression on her face, not only from the two's reactions, but also because of the technology that Shield had even after so many years of working with them. It would honestly never cease to amaze her.

~

As the helicarrier continued to ascend higher into the calm, baby blue skies, the two agents guide the newest recruits through the dull gray maze towards the bridge.

Continuing their trek, Doctor Banner's voice cuts through the air. "Hey, I never caught your name." He said, looking at the younger agent.

She already had a feeling that he was referring to her but glanced over her shoulder to see him gazing down at her.

"Agent Katrina Hart, at your service." She playfully stated with a gently smile, her hand outstretched to the man. "But my friends call me Kat."

The awkward man shook her hand, surprised by the firm but soft grip, and couldn't help but share the smile. "Doctor Bruce Banner, but I'm sure you already knew that." He chuckled. Hesitating for a brief second, he continues, "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

"I was wondering this myself." Captain Rogers added, curiously looking at Kat.

She chuckled slightly with the attitude of a full-grown adult, "Well, you boys caught me on a good year. I'm turning thirteen in a few days. Usually, my age doesn't match up. But that's a long story for another time.

"Yeah, because that's not confusing." Natasha quipped, rolling her eyes at the girl's explanation.

Seeing that the two men were as clueless as they were before, Kat attempted to explain further.

"Let's just say, anatomically, I'm thirteen, but typically my physical and mental age doesn't match up with how long I've actually been alive. Does that make sense?"

"So, you have a type of altered aging? Why?"

"That's the long part." Kat finished with a mischievous smile as she limped onto the bridge, leaving many of the men's questions unanswered.

On the bridge, agents bustle around, shouting out orders and updates, all of their energies soaking into Kat's skin, making her jittery. She began to wring her hands, in order to keep them from shaking, but she knew it was no use.

After the retro-reflection panels were engaged, Fury, who had previously been commandeering the ship, turned to greet the Captain and Doctor, both of them gazing around the large room in awe.

"Gentlemen." Fury reached out to shake the super-soldier's hand before turning to Banner. "Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, um, how long am I staying?" Banner stuttered, shaking the man's hand.

"Once we get hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Furry replied, easing the Doctor's worries.

"Well, where are you with that?"

"We're sweeping every wireless accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops... if it's connected to a satellite, its eyes and ears for us." Coulson interrupted as he oversaw the Face Trace project.

Kat gazed over at the monitor alongside Nat that displayed the progress on finding Clint. Suddenly her back started to tingle, sensing a presence behind her. She then glanced over her shoulder to see Steve Rogers utterly confused as to what was going on.

An amused smile spread on her face as she shook her head before turning back to the monitor to analyze the data before her eyes as Nat spoke.

"It's still not going to find them in time."

"You have to narrow your field. How many Spectrometers do you have access to?" Banner asks.

"How many are there?" Kat chuckled; her question clearly rhetorical.

"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?"

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

"You're going to love it, Doc. We got all the toys." She nodded as Bruce follows after her, trying to keep up with her fast pace.

"Really? Do you have the com-meter sixty-four?" He asked.

"I'm not sure—"

"Oh, you're very young!" Bruce teased

The young girlwatched in her periphery as the pair headed down a hallway. She laughed at theirbanter, having a feeling they would get along just fine.

Author's Note: Hi Everyone, thank you for reading. I know that this might be going a bit slow right now, I promise it will pick up soon. I might post the next chapter a bit earlier in the week than normal because Chapter 6 is kind of short, but the chapter after that is a bit longer and less of a filler. 

That was the hardest part about writing this book. It is an introduction to the characters and more character-driven in that sense, so the chapters with the action are a bit spaced out. But I promise the ending of the book is the best part and will lead into the other movies and set things up for them.

I'm considering posting more often, but I'm afraid I'll run out of chapters before I can finish writing the next book. But, if you guys want more chapters more frequently, let me know. :)

-Mo