"Dr. Sterns, the supplies you requested are being unloaded." I announced upon entry of the lab.
"Very good. Thank you, Dawn." The blonde scientist turned away from his work to address me, my open sketch book in hand. "I wanted to talk to you about some of your more recent drawings actually. I'm a little concerned about the latest sketches. It's probably some time for a little up keeping, don't you think?"
A knot began to form in the pit of my stomach, but I wouldn't let it show, "Of course." I turned to follow Eric, my trainer, down the hall. "What did I do?" Once I was out of earshot, I voiced my thoughts. Dr. Sterns was my mentor, though sometimes I just didn't understand his motives. He was ranked highly here in Hydra. He was a busy man, but the lack of explanation was baffling at times.
Eric sighed, reaching up to fiddle with the holes in his ears, "You know he has your best interest in mind. Everyone here needs to be in top mental and physical shape if we are going to be successful in changing this world."
That wasn't really an answer to my question, but I accepted it as we neared the procedure room. I drew a shaky breath as I was ushered over towards the examination table, briefly glancing to the doctor preparing the equipment before looking away. I wouldn't remember the pain all that well when it was over, but the thought was of little comfort. It was always fuzzy afterwards, I'm certain there were some side effects, but I was doing this for the greater good. I was doing this to help save the world.
Bruce frowned at the screen before him, the results revealed another failure in his work. Over the past year he'd resumed the search for a cure for himself despite Tony's disapproval and was no closer to an answer. He decided to call it a night, dejectedly returning to his room among the upper floors of the building
The frame standing on the bedside table was still the same, the contents a picture he'd taken with Rachel almost two years ago. It would be a lie to say that her death wasn't the spark to reignite his will to be rid of the Hulk and for that reason Tony declared that he was on his own. The billionaire believed his outlook wasn't what should have been taken away from the situation, but how could he know? He'd claimed that Bruce's renewed interest was coming from a place of self loathing and maybe that was true, but was it really all that bad of a thing? He was going to find a solution one way or another.
AN: Sorry this is so short my brain wasn't working when I was trying to introduce this story. I guess this is more of a prologue than anything. My updates will hopefully be quick, but I still want to actually plan a little rather than write as I go like I did before. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. This is a sequel to Silver Lining, so if you haven't read it, please check it out. Obviously I don't own any of the Marvel characters or the movies/comics. This is just a fan fiction.