Chapter Two
Natasha stepped in as Davies opened the door. He matched her in height, not quite reaching Banner's.
"My sister?" He didn't recognise her, obviously since she had simply walked past and checked his name and address before. Banner had the good sense to shut the door behind him.
"No, I'm sure she's fine. It's you we want to talk to, Mr Davies, concerning Greyhound." Natasha had managed to get past him and into his living room, liking the larger space more, even if it was badly decorated and had odd looking dents in the furniture at around about knee height. Davies paled, looking from her to Bruce as he fidgeted nervously.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he murmured. Natasha had to hide back a scoff; people could be so stupidly bad at lying sometimes.
"Mr Davies," Banner said quietly. "Would you believe us, if we said that we mean you no harm?" Phil had told her to let Banner deal with it, that he could talk to Davies on the same level; they had gone through the same things and all that. Still, she shifted her weight slightly so that she could feel the reassuring presence of her gun strapped under her arm.
"No. Get out, both of you." Davies would run, as Banner would have, the moment they left. "I have no idea who you are or what you want, but I'm warning you, get out."
"My name is Bruce Banner, and the lady is Natasha Romanoff." His name had had the desired effect on Davies, who half scrambled to the other side of the room, his eyes popping out of his head.
"Banner? You... You're Ion? You're Ross's project. The Hulk, that is. No, you're lying. Yates sent you, to come after me." Natasha now admired Banner's calm a bit more, he might have had the same thoughts running through his head but in Calcutta he had been more with it than Davies was.
"I would rather not prove my point," said Banner quietly, almost smiling. "We're here on behalf of SHIELD." Natasha caught the faint nod she was given, and slipped out so that they could talk. Davies wasn't her mark, he was Banner's.
"How's it going?" Juliette asked, sitting behind the bins with her rucksack on her lap.
"He's skittish, but he knew about Ross and Hulk. If he can trust Banner, then we have him.
"And Banner too," she muttered, batting a fly away. "Did I mention that I hate anything south of the Arctic Circle?"
"Once or twice. You don't think that it will isolate him from the others, do you? If Banner is with us, and he brings Davies in, Stark isn't going to like it." Natasha had watched Phil draw the different lines between the team, counting all the different ways it could split and fall apart.
"I'm not overly worried about Stark, it's the Captain who's going to be the most difficult one. We can almost bank on Stark taking the opposite line just to annoy him. Don't worry, Tasha, we get Davies, we keep Banner and that's all we need." Natasha shrugged, she didn't understand the way people stuck together when none of them particularly liked each other, and certainly didn't trust each other.
The two of them stayed out there for another twenty minutes, Juliette hidden and muttering the odd complaint about the heat. Finally the back door opened again, Davies coming out onto the tiny porch.
"I heard about the Avengers from the news," he said slowly, not looking at Natasha but rather out at his empty garden. "I ran when they closed Greyhound down, I didn't have some enemy like Bruce there did to fight. I don't know how you found me, but I don't need your SHIELD protection." Banner had failed, Natasha realised: Davies wouldn't come in. They had offered him SHIELD protection, and any help he might need, but General Yates, in charge of the Greyhound project as Ross had been in charge of Ion wasn't chasing his creation.
"I'll come with you," Davies said suddenly, turning to Natasha so that she had to school her expression of surprise back into neutral. "Bruce said that you can help me, you have people who can work to stabilise the Greyhound effects." Natasha had no idea what these effects were, except that Banner was taking liberties in promising that.
"We want you for your abilities," she answered. "SHIELD won't work towards a cure." Banner was probably still looking, but they were counting on Stark to hinder that.
"I don't want a cure," said Davies quickly. "I want to get rid of the side effects. I'll come in, as long as you keep your word." Natasha was irritated that Banner hadn't shared what he planned to offer to Davies beforehand. She had no choice now but to agree. "Well, I'll see about shutting up here." Davies went inside again, and Natasha turned to find Juliette standing at her elbow.
"That was too easy," she muttered to the British agent as Banner joined them.
"He asked for a moment." The two agents were back inside and Juliette at the front door in seconds. Davies was gone. Juliette sprinted out of the door to give chase, leaving Natasha to deal with Banner. "He said he wanted a moment to think, it seemed reasonable."
"He was lying, Doctor," she told him. Banner looked contrite now, realising his mistake as he stared at the ground. "Juliette will find him, we asked nicely, now maybe another route will work." That made him look even worse, Natasha knew he had come to avoid them forcing Davies to come in.
"That..." Juliette panted as she pulled herself up on the door frame a few minutes later. "Is not possible. You said genetic enhancements; I wasn't prepared for bloody Sonic the hedgehog."
"You lost him?" Natasha glared at her partner.
"Greyhounds, Tasha, they run fast." She pulled up her hand, dripping red all over the floor. "They also bite, and that hurts. He didn't turn into anything, he just turned around and suddenly he can bite and scratch like a rabid mutt, then run off faster than Usain Bolt. He's not friendly, and ran before I could knock him out." Natasha beat Banner to her, cradling Juliette's hand gently as she took in the tooth and claw marks. They didn't come from human teeth or nails, the canine dents were too big, and the slashes too deep.
"Let me see," Banner murmured and Natasha reluctantly gave the doctor space.
"He won't come back here," Natasha mused out loud. "We'll track him down again; he's not that good at hiding."
"When you can run like that, you don't need to be." Juliette was trying to shrug Banner off, to no avail. "At least we can tell Phil about exactly what they managed to do with him."
"Let's head back; there'll be a team in here to sort through his things for any leads, and a watch set up here." As she spoke, Natasha felt her cell vibrate in her pocket.
"Tasha." Phil spoke quietly, almost whispering down the line. "Do you have Greyhound?"
"No, he ran. He outran Juliette." The dark haired agent gave her a glare for spilling that.
"Never mind. You three have to go to ground. Stay in Orlando, away from SHIELD. Ross is here, he's coming after Banner. You two keep him safe, and keep Ross' men away from civilians." Natasha stared at Banner, then at the door. They couldn't stay in Davies' house, that was too obvious.
"Find something to patch her hand up with, we're leaving," she told Banner curtly.
"I'll call you when it's safe to pick you up." Phil hung up, leaving a silence in Natasha's ear.
"What's going on?" asked Banner, wrapping the bandage Juliette pulled out of her rucksack around her hand, with liberal splashes of antiseptic.
"We're going to ground. There's someone after you, Doctor." He paled, Juliette's hand forgotten.
"Ross."
