Meeting the Team
Lexi's POV
"We're about forty minutes out from base, ma'am," the Quinjet Pilot informed me. Ugh, as if Steve calling me ma'am wasn't bad enough...
I got up from my seat and walked over to Steve.
"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked me as I approached.
"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 told him.
"Didn't really go his way, did it?"
"Not so much. When he's not the Hulk though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking," I said, trying to defend the poor man.
Steve stared at me, confused.
"He's a smart guy," I explained trying to be as plain about it as I could. "I gotta, say, I have a friend who talks about you all the time. Has some sort of cards he keeps talking about getting you to sign for him. Think he's got a bit of a man-crush on you," I rambled. Steve stared at me blankly. "It's...nevermind," I said not wanting to try and explain the term.
"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job."
"Same here...I mean, not you, me. I hope I'm up to it as well," I commented.
"I'm sure you will be, Lexi. Can I ask you a personal question, though?"
"Of course," I replied.
"There's a file on every team member but you, why is that?"
"That's classified," I said, inwardly cursing myself for using the cliched response but also feeling a bit smug for finally getting a chance to use it. "It's nothing against you...it's just...very long and complicated and boring, all you really need to know is that I work for Shield and have powers that might come in handy," I added, feeling bad when I saw the look on Steve's face when I didn't answer him.
"Oh, Uh...I think someone said something about making some modifications to your uniform," I said as I remembered that tidbit of information in my attempt to change the subject.
"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old fashioned?"
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned. Besides, have you seen some of the things people wear these days?" I couldn't help thinking back to when I had first met Tony, Steve, Natasha, and Clint; I had become more accustomed to the suits; but they still took some getting used to.
The Quinjet finally landed on the Hellicarrier and I walked down the ramp with Steve, noticing Natasha standing not too far away. Shit, if anyone is going to realize it's me, it's Natasha...
"You must be Lexi," she greeted me. I nodded as Steve and Natasha greeted each other.
Natasha then lead us towards the railing of the ship where I noticed a nervous looking man that must be Bruce Banner; going by the picture I had seen in his file.
"Dr. Banner," Steve said as he strode over to the man and shook his hand.
"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming," Bruce replied hesitantly.
"Word is you can find the cube," said Steve.
"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce asked.
"Only word I care about," Steve stated.
I saw Bruce glancing over at me and figured it was my turn to introduce myself.
"I can't believe I'm finally meeting you, I have so many questions!" I blurted out before I could stop myself. "Whoops, sorry, I'm Lexi; Agent Alexa, but just call me Lexi. I'm a huge fan; of your work I mean not the Big Guy - not that he isn't equally fascinating! Um, wow, I'm rambling," I closed my mouth as I bit my lip and tried to remember that Lexi was not supposed to be as socially awkward as I was acting right now. I'd been doing so well so far, what had changed all of a sudden? I mean, yeah, I was a fan of Dr. Banner, but not to the point of being incapable of normal speech!
"I'll answer any question you ask of me, dear," he replied after a long pause. I frowned as I reached back to scratch one of my scars; wishing that my glamour could block the irritations they tended to cause me.
"I'd love to take you up on that, but maybe now isn't the best time," I replied, stepping back as I noticed how intensely Bruce was staring at me. It was making me nervous. Before anyone could say anything else, Natasha spoke up.
"You may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath."
Suddenly the Hellicarrier started shaking as the engines came to life.
"Is this is a submarine?" Steve inquired.
"Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" I glanced over at Bruce. It was clear he didn't trust himself which I could totally relate to.
I grinned as I watched the expression of awe on Steve's face as we started to lift off up into the air.
"Oh no, this is much worse," Bruce said.
As we made our way inside, I held my hand out palm up towards Steve, my brows raised as I smiled cheekily at him.
He rolled his eyes but placed a $10 bill in my hand all the same. I was still grinning like a fox as I tucked it into my back pocket. Maybe I should get him to sign it for Coulson - would make a much better gift than a bunch of cards.
I grabbed a pen and asked him to do just that. He looked at me bewildered but all the same, signed the bill with a flourish and I tucked it back in my pocket with a smile; hoping Coulson would like my present to him.
"Gentlemen, Lexi," Fury greeted us as we approached him. "Doctor, thank you for coming," he added as he shook Bruce's hand.
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?" My thoughts exactly.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear," Fury answered. Wish the same applied to me...
"Where are you with that?" asked Bruce. I looked up to see Fury turning to face me with a pointed look. Shit, I thought, panicking. I forgot that I was expected to play the roll of Coulson in all of this.
Coulson! What do I say! Bruce wants to know where we are on locating the Tesseract! I sent a mental cry for help; having updated Coulson on that ability before leaving to hop on the Quinjet with Steve.
"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," I replied, repeating the information Coulson was relaying to me.
"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha pointed out.
"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked; still glancing at me every so often.
“How many are there?” Fury asked.
“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 Romanoff, would you show Dr.Banner to his laboratory, please.”
Natasha nodded and walked off, leading Banner down the hall.
“You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys,” I heard her tell him with my enhanced hearing.
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“What’s wrong with my outfit?” I said stubbornly half an hour later. Natasha had rejoined the rest of us; requesting that I go with her so she could help me pick out something better.
“Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Steve commented with a blush. I looked down and smiled, trying to hide the fact that I was blushing now too.
Before anyone could say or do anything else, Natasha had grabbed my arm and was dragging me off towards her bunk. She riffled through her duffle bag, pulling out clothes one by one until she finally seemed to make up her mind and shoved some clothes into my hands and told me to change.
She stood there with folded arms as I blinked up at her. Is she not going to leave?! I started to panic slightly, my natural instincts telling me to get the hell out of the room. I paused and straightened my back; reminding myself that Lexi didn’t have scars to be embarrassed about and that if I didn’t want Natasha to get suspicious, then it was necessary. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I bent down and took off my boots so I could slide my pants down.
I felt her watching me the entire time as I lifted my arms and pulled my top off. My body heated up as my scars started to burn and I did my best not to scratch them since they didn’t “exist” at the moment.
I finished getting dressed as quickly as possible and turned towards the tiny mirror that hung on the wall. My eyes widened in surprise.
“Natasha!” I squealed as I stared at myself and resisted the urge to cover myself up. The outfit showed off far too much skin. If it wasn’t for my glamour, almost all of my scars would have been on display...
Natasha just looked at me with a smirk and I was suddenly being dragged back down the hall once more and back to where the others were hanging out as they waited for Loki’s location from the satellite facial recognition.
“Natasha!” I pulled back on her arm as we neared the others, my nerves getting the better of me.
“I can’t let anyone see me like this! I look ridiculous!” I exclaimed.
“Oh, please, you look hot, embrace it!” Natasha retorted as she yanked me out into the open.
“Damn!” I heard Tony say as he whistled and stalked over to me. I raised my arms up and crossed them over my chest, trying to cover up as much as possible.
“Hey, now! Don’t be shy, gorgeous, I think you look sinfully delicious,” Tony said as he stepped even closer and pulled my arms away and spun me around for everyone to see. I shivered as my face turned even redder as my scars continued to burn. I glanced over at Steve who was blushing as well; but staring all the same.
“We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent.” I looked over towards the door, happy for a distraction. I hid a grin as I recognized the agent as the one Jemma had stunned with her night-night gun when we were at the Hub.
“Location?” I asked.
“Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding.”
“Captain, Lexi, you two are up,” Fury said as he strode into the room.
Steve nodded as he turned his gaze away from me and left the room. I shifted on my feet as I turned to follow; grateful for the excuse to gear up and get away from the spotlight of Tony’s stare.
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In-Line Comments
- Hope you enjoyed this latest chapter!
- Just to make it clear, her soulmates aren’t tryna “cheat” on her or anything since they’ve met their soulmate now and wouldn’t do that its just ya know it’s still her so they still feel overwhelmingly attracted to her but can’t tell why so they are extra confused/guilty about that and fighting against it.
- Haven’t decided if Loki/Thor are going to make it known to everyone that she’s their soulmate or if they’ll keep it to themselves until the battle is over/and or when lucifer shows up and then if i make her stay Lexi until she meets peter then it’ll give me more time to write in scenes and stuff before everyone realizes that their soulmate is the same and everything lol let me know if anyone has any preference! I usually just go with whatever seems appropriate as i get to actually writing the scenes themselves