The Original Initiative: Project Greyhound
Chapter One
Bruce felt like he was intruding on the silence in the plane. Opposite him sat the two agents, more relaxed than he had ever seen them outside the tower. Natasha looked like she was meditating with her eyes open, staring blankly ahead and keeping as still as an ice sculpture. Next to her, Juliette was engrossed in Game of Thrones, frowning every so often at the page. Bruce wasn't quite sure what to make of the way she was half leaning her head on Natasha's shoulder, something he wouldn't have expected the redhead to ever allow.
He knew that his spot on the plane was thanks to Maria, and a gamble that paid off. Fury bent the rules, and Bruce would assume Coulson did as well, especially when it came to his agents, but he had run the risk of Maria being as by the book as her persona appeared.
"Good luck," she has told him quietly in the half a minute between her showing him the hanger and him having to be on the plane. Bruce looked at the two agents again, noting how even though they were still, their muscles weren't relaxed, and Juliette was making a lot slower progress through the book than she ought to. They had left the Hawk behind, but they were still watching him. That, he thought, was why Juliette hadn't let Natasha go in one way or another since they boarded. Black Widow was skittish around him, with good reason.
Bruce turned away awkwardly, reminding himself that although Natasha was right to be scared, he had a perfect lid on things and the plane was fine. It was an eerily quiet plane, SHIELD having the funding and tech to afford better than the uncomfortable army plane he had jumped out of over New York. Bruce shrugged that away, wishing he had had the foresight to bring a book as well.
They touched down in less time than he expected, his ideas of how far away places were had been formed on foot, air travel made the world smaller.
Bright Floridian sunlight hit them as the stepped out, Juliette automatically pulling on sunglasses. Bruce felt the heat immediately and began to roll up his shirt sleeves. He followed the girls as they walked off towards the exit to the airfield, Juliette carrying a tiny rucksack that made her look like a tourist, and Natasha sporting a camera. The moment they were out on one of Orlando's streets, the pair was indistinguishable. Bruce stuck his hands in his pockets casually and trailed along behind them. It amazed him how easily they slipped into their acts, not saying a word but pulling up a whole story for anyone people watching. Natasha led the way, although they did double back once, whether out of need or just habit. Bruce found himself sweating slightly, despite the sun being nothing compared to Calcutta. He would need all of Maria's luck to get the time he needed to get Greyhound out. Natasha had asked him nicely, but without giving him a real option of refusing. He just needed to give Davies a few more alternatives than he had been given.
"We're two streets away," Juliette told him as they stopped on a street corner. Somehow Maria had planted the idea in Coulson's mind to give Bruce the lead and letting him speak to Greyhound first. "You two go ahead." Juliette was their backup, Bruce eyed her backpack suspiciously. He doubted that it would have gotten through airport security if they had come in conventionally. There were rules about firearms on planes now.
Natasha kept a good two feet away from him as they walked up to the low white panelled house, identical to the ones either side of it in the newly built but already run down street. Davies didn't have a thing for gardening, apparently, although he kept his lawn neater than his neighbours did. She knocked once, and Bruce saw her force her shoulders back into a more relaxed pose. He had lost sight of Juliette, with no idea of where she had gone.
Project Greyhound had been more successful than Project Ion; the undisclosed side effects hadn't turned Davies into a monster worthy of being hunted. Bruce still hadn't gotten over spending every day around the man he had tried to emulate. Steve didn't mean to rub it in, being perfectly free from rage monsters and radioactive blood thanks to Erskine. Genetics had been the wrong way to go as well, Greyhound wasn't the super soldier Steve was. Still, he wasn't Bruce either.
It was only with Maria's help that Bruce had realised that he was currently standing next to the only person who was the successful result of an attempt to copy Steve. Natasha had reflexes beyond those of a normal human, a longer life span and enhanced immune system, thanks to Red Room. There was the wall Bruce always ran into whenever human enhancement came up. It was a name, nothing more, and rarely used. Red Room: the easiest way to silence anyone at SHIELD. So now Bruce was among the people he had failed to recreate. Captain America and Black Widow, the two successes who could walk away happy when he, and he assumed Greyhound, were suffering from the consequences of trying to be perfect.
On that gloomy note, he watched the door open.
"Mr Davies? My name's Natasha Romanoff, we have something urgent to speak to you about regarding your sister. May we come in?"