A/N: See, I promised it'd be up sooner rather than later! Though this is not me implicitly promising daily updates. Even I can't do that. But how about I post when I can, hmmm? Anyway, enjoy!


1: Playing Recruiter

"Mina, remind me again why I told Fury, oh, yes, I'll come work for SHIELD…"

I had to sidestep a scooter that nearly plowed into me, but as it was in Calcutta traffic stopped for no one, not even a SHIELD agent looking for a potentially-helpful but also potentially-dangerous scientist who for some reason decided Calcutta was a great place to hide out. I was prepared in case of that sort of trouble, Mark VI strapped to my back – the all-black paint job restored – and upgraded Bluetooth in my ear. When I say upgraded, I mean that not only did I have my earpiece, but I also had added in a retractable micro-screen that was currently deployed over my right eye. Through it, Mina was feeding me tracking data on a very particular source of gamma radiation, and, of course, she could still speak to me.

"First," Mina began, almost a little too smartly for my liking, "your basic scores in diplomacy, combat, and command all outrank Tony's."

"Like that one wasn't obvious," I muttered, dodging around a cluster of housewives yelling at each other in front of a market stall in Hindi. "Next justification?"

"Well, your father worked with SHIELD. And the SSR, too, just for future reference."

"That must've been what he was doing when he was Tony's age, instead of screwing around," I muttered, though inside I couldn't help but feel a little bit pleased. After having a fairly negative relationship with my dad, it had only been in the past couple of years I'd actually found out that, not only had he loved me and Tony in near-equal amounts, but he'd also laid a lot of groundwork that Tony and I now operated on. This includes the reactors, thanks to his work on the Tesseract, and our semi-relationship with SHIELD. Also knowing Dad wasn't a womanizing drunk at twenty-something was a huge relief.

"…and don't forget your mother was a SSR agent," Mina finished quietly, and that made me pause in my steps, nearly getting walked over by twenty other people.

I'd never known my mother, Maria Carbonell Stark, very well. All I did remember of her was her kindness, affection, and the fact that she had died when I was five years old. When Fury had recruited me, he'd revealed one of what I guessed was dozens of things she had never been able to tell me: that, during the Second World War, a little younger than my dad, she had been a member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, the organization that grew up to become SHIELD. She had known and fought alongside with Captain America – a little less known as Steve Rogers – and, for all I knew, had fallen in love with my father then, despite getting married in '62. And I hadn't known that until a year ago.

What other secrets did you never tell me, Mom?

"…that, too," I muttered weakly. I shifted the Mark VI around on my shoulders uncomfortably, but managed to pull myself out of my thoughts. I had a job to do, one that had to get done if SHIELD was going to find the Tesseract and get me another crack at Loki. "Better keep moving, before he startles and runs."

"That or completely unleashes hell on you again."

"Thanks, Mina, that's a really comforting thought," I retorted as I set off along the street again. I was able to focus a little better, trading my glances between the street and the tracking data until I found the house where my target, Bruce Banner, was apparently currently at. I tapped my earpiece to get the screen to retract, and I was very careful and quiet as I slipped into the house's tiny courtyard and ascended the stuccoed stairs.

I was soon in a small room, or just below one, near a bed filled with sick kids. The lady of the house noticed me fairly quickly – honestly, how often do you see an American just randomly sticking her head into people's houses in Calcutta? – and started snapping at me in Hindi. Obviously, I don't understand, much less speak, Hindi, so I raised my hands in a universal 'I surrender' gesture.

"I'm looking for the doctor," I said slowly and clearly. "Doctor Bruce Banner."

A figure behind the colorful sari moved, and I leaned back to see around her. Unlike when I'd met him in Canada, Banner had actually put on what looked like healthy muscle, his dark-but-slightly-graying hair curling lazily across his forehead. His eyes quickly fixed on me, and I kept my hands up. It wasn't like I carried a gun on me, but I knew that any sudden movement could get him turning big and green and I'd have to run pretty fast.

"…who's asking?" he asked me while drying off his hands. I didn't dare move up any higher from where I was, mostly to avoid catching germs but also to keep him from feeling threatened.

"I'd rather not say here," I answered. "There's a safehouse on the edge of the city, you can meet me there when you're ready."

"Still like to know how you found me," Banner insisted, and I swallowed a sigh.

"Some mutual friends never really lost you," I replied, and he seemed to get who I meant fairly quickly. Of course, I couldn't help but deadpan, "Also, gamma radiation on people is kinda rare."

"…wait downstairs," Banner ordered, and I complied. After all, this was his territory; I wasn't going to be an idiot like General Ross and force him to dance to my tune on his turf. That caused problems like Blonsky and Harlem getting nearly reduced to rubble.

"Say, what're the odds that he actually Hulks out and nearly kills me again?" I asked Mina while we waited for Banner to come down – or, if he wasn't going to cooperate, letting him get a move on before I went off to find him again.

"Well, you didn't really surprise him this time," Mina thought aloud, "and one sarcastic comment compared to three significantly improves those odds. I'd guess…five-to-one."

"Better than the one-to-one of last time?"

"…not much."

"…again, Mina, your confidence is so inspiring."

"So glad I can assist," Mina retorted crisply, and I was seriously thinking about scrubbing her code once I had some free time as Banner appeared down the stairs. All I gave him was a brief nod before motioning him to follow me.

"So what does SHIELD want with me? Or, should I ask, what do they want with…the other guy?" Banner asked once we were buried deep into the crowds. I figured he'd be wary that the safehouse was bugged – likely it was, I hadn't swept it – so of course he'd ask questions while he figured he was mostly safe. He didn't have to know about Mina listening in.

"You, Doc, not big-green-nasty," I replied over the constant rumble of people and traffic. "They've lost something, and they want your help finding it."

I managed to pull out my Stark Mobile – my personal iPhone competitor, though it was still in something like a test phase – and scrolled through my picture files. Tony's smirk, a shy one of Pepper, Hogan looking like Hogan, Rhodey grinning, Sam glaring up at the camera…there it was. I hit the photo of the glowing blue Tesseract, plugged into its idle mount in its storage case, with my thumb before passing the clear pane of fiber-optics-ridden screen material to him.

"It's called the Tesseract," I explained while he studied in, sometimes tugging him out of the way of one of those sorta-not-really trucks that was trying to blast down the street. "It's an energy source that could also wipe Earth off the face of the galaxy."

"So what's Fury want me to do, swallow it?"

"That would be if he wanted other-you," I informed him, taking back the Mobile while I was at it. "Since he wants you, I think he wants you to help find it."

"And why me?" Banner asked as we got to the edge of Calcutta and headed towards the dilapidated little house that put him on SHIELD territory. Him being who he is, I had to think about this.

My immediate thought for an answer was, well, because Fury was thinking about scouting you out for Avengers, hence me coming after you in Canada, but then it got scrapped so, y'know, maybe it's his way of getting back at the council. But that would've been too many parts to explain, and for all I knew he'd Hulk out if I divulged that we'd crossed paths before.

"You're the expert," I settled on instead. Maybe a bit of professional flattery would keep him contained. "If there was someone better, I wouldn't be here."

"Neither would I, I think," Banner agreed as we stepped inside. There was nothing fancy about the place; it was essentially a typical outskirts house that had seen better days. I settled into a rickety chair at an equally-rickety table, but he moved towards an interior well, a basket of some kind strapped over it. "So…we're on the outskirts. Smart of you."

"It's been about six months since your last…incident," I replied, though honestly the last public incident was a year back. Harlem. "I don't think you'd want to break that streak."

"…there's a lot of times I don't get what I want," Banner noted softly, and I watched him rock the basket, just a little. It hit me right about then that he wasn't much different from Tony and me: a smart guy who got on the bad side of some trouble and had initially come out the worse. But at least unlike Tony, he had a quality of…restraint. Control. He knew how to manage himself, and therefore, how to contain the monster inside. But what he wanted – hell, maybe that included a Nobel Prize and a family – had to get pushed aside because of the Hulk.

"…same here," I dared to reply, and that got him to look up at me suspiciously. "You think I wanted to be in this business? You think I wanted any of this? I didn't. But there's nothing to do but do the best we can."

"…so what if I say no?" Banner asked, moving away from the basket – maybe even a crib – to look at me.

"I'll have to persuade you somehow."

"And if the…other guy says no?"

"…then I'll have to run like hell, don't I?" I deadpanned, and that got him to smirk, if only a little. "Look, Bruce, trust me here. If you come with me, help SHIELD get the Cube back, we'll let you off the hook. No muss, no fuss."

I almost held my breath as he considered it. If he said yes, then we could just go and get to work. If not…well, then my day was officially ruined.

"How do I know Fury isn't going to put me in a cage?" Banner asked suddenly, and I stiffened slightly. Now warning flags of my own were going up. I knew he had every right to be suspicious of SHIELD, even I was and I worked for them. I also knew about the cage Fury had just in case the Hulk ended up being too volatile and had to be put down. I doubted anything could kill the Hulk, and therefore kill Banner.

"No one's going to put you in a cage –"

"Stop lying to me!" he yelled suddenly, and in a show of dexterity that could have put Natashalie to shame I backflipped off my chair and jumped back into a fighting stance, fists up and ready to have Mina deploy the Mark VI. But Banner backed off as soon as I had flipped back, smiling apologetically.

"…I'm sorry…that was mean…" Banner apologized, and I gave him a disbelieving look. "I just wanted to see what you'd do."

"…dude, that was not cool."

"Well, um, would it be better if I said yes, I'll go?"

"…really?" I asked, straightening up. That didn't seem kosher, but, hey, if he was coming, I wasn't going to complain. Still, it didn't drop all the warning flags in my head, and I wanted never being sure about anything. It comes from having Tony as your crazy semi-psychotic elder brother.

I escorted Banner out of the safehouse and to the SHIELD plane I was borrowing. To minimize people getting hurt, Mina had hijacked the controls, and therefore was flying us back to base. I got the Mark VI off me before sitting down, Banner across from me, and settled in for the ride. And, well, since I can fly in my suit and not on a plane, I was trying not to move, talk, or really even breathe. So, of course, Banner asked questions.

"Anything else I ought to know? Before, you know, I get pulled back into the freak show that so happens to be SHIELD."

"Not much else, Doc," I answered as quickly as I could. Couldn't think about the plane, wasn't going to think about the plane…. "Just SHIELD's ready to give you all kinds of fun toys to help find the Cube and, who knows, maybe we'll find the bad guy and other-you can stomp on him."

"…cute image."

"I try my best. Now, please, shut up…I hate planes…"

I'd swear I heard Banner chuckling at me, but, hey, at least it was the truth.