February 28, 2009 – New York City, New York

We had returned to the sitting room, mimicking our earlier positions as if that entire ordeal hadn't just occurred. Betty ran her hands comfortingly through Bruce's hair on the couch to my left as Sterns paced back and forth, weaving among the scattered textbooks as he muttered scientific jargon to himself. I tried to keep my staring to a minimum, but of course Bruce noticed it anyway. He always was observant.

"You don't have to stay," he said quietly, so that only Betty and I could hear him. "I know that what just happened… that thing you just saw… I know it can be a lot, and you've already done more than enough for me. If you're not comfortable here, you don't have to stay."

I had considered leaving, of course. Hell, every instinct in my body had screamed at me to run as fast as I could and never look back the second I saw Bruce turn green. But then I thought about his and Betty's faces when they saw me, after twenty years, in prime condition. The confusion mixed with the fear of the unknown. I'm sure it had closely mirrored my own when I first saw Bruce's transformation.

Still, it was no secret that they were much better people than I was. I had come to accept the fact that I would always be selfish, and I would always be afraid. A fact that strongly held true right now.

And yet… "You think I can't handle a little green in my day?" I joked, smirking when Bruce's shoulder released just the smallest amount of tension. He had been worried I would leave, even if he would try to hide it. "Trust me, Banner. I've seen a hell of a lot weirder than you in my time. You'll have to try just a little harder than that to scare me off."

Betty smiled thankfully as she reached across the small gap between their couch and my chair to squeeze my hand, sending her appreciation through her expression. It was clear that she was going to support Bruce through anything that came their way- be it hell or high water. It was also clear that she was glad she wasn't going to have to take on that task alone.

"That was the most extraordinary thing I have seen in my life!"

We all jumped when Sterns slammed his hands down on the coffee table that separated us, the pound sounding as the punctuation in his exclamation. Betty recovered first, leaning forward and putting on her serious face. "We need to talk about what just happened in there."

"Oh, absolutely! Okay," Sterns said, shaking his hands out to calm himself down before standing upright and delving into his explanation. "The gamma pulse came from the amygdala. I think Dr. Ross' primer lets the cells absorb the energy temporarily, and then it abates. That's why you didn't die of radiation sickness years ago!

"Now, maybe we've neutralized those cells permanently, or maybe we just suppressed that event. I'm inclined to think the latter, but it's hard to know because none of our test subjects ever survived. Of course, they weren't getting the primer-"

A million red flags shot up, along with Bruce, Betty and I straightening our backs in our seats. "Wait, what did you just say?" Bruce asked.

"They weren't getting the myostatin primer-"

"No, no, no. Test subjects. What test subjects?"

Sterns' smile grew wider as he began to back up towards a door we hadn't been through yet, his finger curling to indicate we should follow. "Come with me."

We sent each other worrying looks before standing to trail after him, our guards up to the brim. I allowed Bruce and Betty to enter before me so that I could lift my hand up to my waist without being seen, subtly tensing my fingers in an attempt to pause time.

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

Frustrated, though not surprised, I balled my hand into a fist and listened to Sterns ramble about his experiments. "We started on rats and mice, but they were almost instantly fried so we had to go bigger. And we still don't know which is more toxic, the gamma or your blood."

"What do you mean my blood?" Bruce asked just as we went through a second set of doors, leading us into a startlingly white room filled with neat rows of glass containers, each holding dangling blood bags that had been labeled in assorted colors.

Sterns chuckled as he twisted and turned through the containers, holding his arms out by his sides. "Bruce, this is all you! You didn't send me much to work with, so I had to concentrate it and make more. With a little more trial and error, there's no end to what we could do! This is potentially Olympian! This gamma technology had limitless applications. We'll unlock hundreds of cures. We will make humans impervious-"

In a gut reaction, I latched onto the back of Sterns' shirt and pulled him back, only to slam him against the wall of the container to my right. If he was surprised by my action, it didn't show in his endlessly excited expression- not when my nose was practically touching his, and not when I lowered my voice into a furious whisper. "Get rid of it."

What Sterns was doing to Bruce was my worst nightmare. Being used by someone who had no idea what they were up against, being treated as a lab rat instead of a human being. My abilities that I never asked for, never wanted, becoming weaponized by an imbecile.

That was not how he saw it, apparently.

"Get rid of it?" He scoffed, shaking his head. "No, no! We can use it to make-"

I tightened my hold on his collar, shoving him harder against the glass. "We are not doing anything with it, and neither are you. We're getting rid of it, right now."

Sterns' face finally dropped, his grin turned to a frown as he looked towards Bruce and Betty who had been watching the exchange with unreadable expressions. "Bruce, tell her. You've felt the power, you know what it can do! This is what we've been working for, for years!"

Bruce shook his head, moving to stand closer by my side. "She's right. What you're doing is wrong, even if you don't know it. The government would-"

He didn't have the chance to finish when the sound of the window breaking behind him turned out to be a well-aimed tranquilizer embedding itself into his shoulder. I immediately dropped Sterns to turn and grab Bruce's shoulders, holding him upright as Betty rushed over to help support him.

Before any of us had the proper time to react to what had just happened, the doors we had come through were kicked open. When I saw an unknown man marching in dressed in full tactical gear, my only thought was that SHIELD had finally found us.

Bruce must have known who the man was, because he pushed weakly at Betty and I. "Get out," he commanded in a quiet voice, staring ahead at the man who continued to stalk ever closer to the three of us on the ground. In a moment of panic, I forgot my irritating lack of abilities and stood in front of Bruce and Betty, holding my arm out uselessly in an attempt to stop him from coming any closer.

It didn't work. He snatched my wrist and twisted it at an unnatural angle, causing me to shout in pain before I was thrown to the side, through a glass container and landing among scattered bags of blood. My vision was clouded with pain, but I still heard Betty's scream before her body thudded against a surface I couldn't see.

An irritating beeping sounded thrummed against my growing headache as the man growled, "Where is it? Come on, where is it? Show him to me!"

As my sight slowly returned to me, I saw the man holding Bruce upright as he slapped him repeatedly. Angry heat burned in my chest, fighting against the cold voice in my head instructing me to hide before more could show up and take me. Anger won out, forcing my hand out despite all knowledge that it wasn't going to work.

My fingers trembled, my hand shaking from the continuous waves of pain washing over me. The concentration I was putting into my effort made my head pound. My vision tunneled, all attention on the man attempting to beat Bruce into submission.

He paused with his hand pulled back, and for a moment I thought that I had finally done it. Then I heard the footsteps and the call for, "Blonsky!"

The man- Blonsky? – growled, dropping Bruce before kicking the side of his head and finally knocking him unconscious. I dropped my hand flat against the ground when he turned in a slow circle, observing the damage he had caused. When his eyes landed on me, I hoped beyond all hope that he wasn't working with SHIELD, that he didn't know who I was, and that he wouldn't turn his violence against me next.

I sighed in relief when he looked away, though my relief was short-lived as more agents stormed into the room and started shouting incoherently. My body ached from the harsh landing, so it was no help when one of them grabbed my arms and dragged me into a sitting position. He searched my face for a moment before grabbing the radio attached to his shoulder. "One unknown. Female, mid-twenties. Possible head injury." His eyes raked down my body then, stopping at the arm Blonsky had latched onto. "Possible injury to the left wrist and forearm."

I didn't hear the reply of whoever he had been talking to, but could only assume it was an order to bring me with them as he replied with a curt, "Yes, sir," before tucking his arms underneath my knees and the other firmly around my shoulders and lifting me into a bridal carry.

My clearing thoughts were buzzing with anxiety, and I knew that if this man brought me in to whatever authority he had, that I would be the loser of my little game of hide-and-seek with SHIELD. When I tried to push against the soldier, however, trying to roll out of his grasp and away from the danger, he only held me tighter to him. "Don't worry," he said in what I assumed was supposed to be a calming voice. "We're the good guys."

I might have laughed if the situation wasn't so dire.

As you may have seen in my recent poll, it has been decided that I Am Nobody will be updated the most frequently of my three current stories. This means that instead of switching between weeks for the stories as I've done in the past, I will try to update this story every week, along with one of my other stories every other week. Does that make sense? I hope so.

We are quickly coming to a close with the Incredible Hulk timeline, with only one chapter left- The Battle of Harlem.

Though I know where I'm taking Emma from here through the Avengers timeline, I'm open to any suggestions you may have as to what movies you'd like to see her in and what role you'd like her to play. Leave any suggestions you may have as a review, or send me a quick PM!

I'll see you all in the next update.