Vision was able to locate the church the young man had described to them with little trouble.
It was a dilapidated and pitiful excuse of a building, with a partial cave in of the roof on the west corner, boarded up doors and windows, and many warning signs about the dangers of entering the building, risk of cave in, ect. It was the perfect cover for anyone who did not want to be accidentally found by the public. Once Vision had confirmed it was the correct location, he doubled back to the others, to inform them he'd found it and how to get to it.
The spies carefully made their way through the chapel part of the building, watching each step as they navigated across the rotting wooden floor. In the back of the chapel was a room with more signs plastered all over the door, which Vision confirmed as the entrance by signing to Natasha and Clint. Natasha took her pistol from her holster and Clint readied an arrow, before gently opening the door. Vision, being bullet proof, went in first, giving the other two an additional cover.
The three moved in silence down an almost black-dark stairway. The stairs turned from old wood to concrete as they moved from the church building to the underground. Vision allowed the stone in his head to give a faint enough glow to light their path. It was at least ten flights of steps down before they came to flat ground, and a long, reinforced hallway. The hallway was dimly lit itself, and Vision let the light fade back to nothing.
"Well, this was... anticlimactic." Clint complained. Natasha shot him a look that told him he needed to drop the jokes, and he immediately reset his face to a more serious one.
"Vision, how far in did you make it?" Natasha ask, ignoring the archer for a moment.
"Just to here, before I came back for you." He confirmed. "But from what I can see, this tunnel goes roughly a quarter mile, then steel doors."
"Not bad." Natasha said, pushing past the men. She moved quickly, determined now, with her target in sight. Clint looked over at Vision with a worried look before following after his best friend, Vision bringing up the rear.
When they reached the doors, Natasha moved to barge on in, but Clint dove forward and grabbed her arm before she could get inside.
'What?' She signed, angrily.
'Let Vision go first.' Clint signed back.
'I am bullet proof' Vision signed, agreeing. Natasha scoffed at them both, but she allowed Clint to gently pull her back, and for Vision to go first. He opened the door by phasing through the handle and breaking the lock from the inside, and pulled it just open enough for the three of them slip through before letting it close softly behind them.
There were no shadows to hide in this time. The entire opening was concrete, a left over from the Cold War by the looks of it, an old safe hold, built under the church in the event of nuclear war. The room they found themselves in was well lit, in fact, and nearly empty, except at the very center.
"We've been expecting you." A man said, his voice distorted by some sort of mechanism in his mask, and by the echos off the wall. The man stood beside a large, metal table, which had Bruce strapped down to it. In his hand he held a large syringe, which was already pressed into Bruce's neck, the entirety of the needle buried in his skin. The syringe was filled with some sort of bright yellow liquid, and the man's thumb was on the top, poised to press the mystery chemical into Bruce's body at any given time.
Natasha and Clint immediately both took aim as they slowly walked forward.
"Let him go." Natasha growled through clinched teeth.
"Or what, Agent Romanoff?" He ask with a laugh.
"Why are you doing this?" Clint ask, "We did what you wanted."
"You did. But Doctor Banner... He is just... He is too valuable." The man replied, shaking his head.
"What do you want? Money? We can get you money." Vision added.
"No I know." The man laughed again. "I'd venture I could easily get a billion out of Stark for Banner if I ask. But I don't want money. I want equality. Freedom."
"Perhaps we can help with that too, there is no need to harm Doctor Banner." Vision said, holding his hand out to try and indicate an offering of peace.
"Ah, Doctor Banner, look how concerned your cybernetic son is, its touching." the man spat, and he kicked at one of the pedals on the table Bruce was strapped to, causing it to flip and Bruce to be facing his friends. He winced as it moved him, the needle digging painfully into his neck.
"You..." Bruce rasped, looking over to Natasha through his beaten and swollen eyes, "Shouldn't be here..."
"Let him go. Now. Final warning." Natasha yelled, flicking the laser sight on her pistol on, the dot coming to rest between the eyes on the mask. Clint fingered at his bow nervously.
"Nat..." He said, trying to remind her that Bruce was in some sort of unknown danger at the hands of this enemy.
"I believe I could have this plunged before that bullet put me down, Widow. Would you like to test the theory?" He demanded. Natasha cut her eyes at the man and flexed her trigger finger.
"I like my odds." She replied simply. "Take off the mask and face us."
"Why?" He ask, tilting his head. "I am one of many. Faceless. Nameless. Who I am beneath this makes no difference. There will be others."
"You HYDRA?" Clint ask, remembering the old saying about cutting one head off, and more growing back.
"No, Agent Barton. Just one of many who are tired." He replied. "You will see."
"What does that mean?" Clint ask, reaiming his arrow. "What's our end here? Tell us what we have to do for you to give us Bruce."
"Oh." The man chuckled, "Oh, that is simple. Lay down your weapons and come with me."
"Not happening. The only way anyone is leaving is Bruce with us." Natasha barked. "Let. Him. Go."
"Even if I did, there is no way he's walking out of here. Not without this." The man replied, wiggling the syringe and making Bruce wince in pain again.
"What is that?" Natasha said, take a few more careful, small steps toward them.
"I was wondering when you'd ask." He answered. "And I am so glad you did."
He began to push the plunger of the syringe down, and immediately Bruce began to scream in agony. Natasha fired but she was too late, and over half of the syringe had been emptied into Bruce's body before he man hit the floor, blood pooling under him where Natasha's bullet had landed in his forehead. All three of the other Avengers ran over to Bruce, Vision breaking the restraints on the table. Bruce fell to his hands and knees on the floor.
"You need to get out. Now." Bruce commanded, his voice deep and broken. Natasha shook her head, her hands over Bruce's.
"No. Why? No. We aren't leaving you." She refused.
"GO!" Bruce bellowed, looking up; His eyes were turning the same yellow as the liquid in the vile. The veins in his neck, which normally stood out green when he was starting to turn, were a mix of yellow and green, muddying in the middle where it was meeting. "I can't hold back for long. GO!" He shouted again. Clint grabbed at Natasha.
"Nat." Clint begged, tugging on his friend.
Bruce's body began to twist and break, and his shrieks echoed off the walls. He tore at his hair and skin as his body deformed and grew. His skin turned, not his normal green, but a blotchy brown-green.
"Natasha." Clint shouted, but the redhead did not even look his way. She kept her eyes on the Hulk before her.
"Natasha, he is not in his right state." Vision said, coming forward slowly to help Clint. "We can come back for him. Right now it is not safe for either of you."
"Nat we have to go. Bruce is holding back hard. He's losing, but he wants you to be safe. Come on." Clint pleaded.
"I can't leave him." Natasha said through tears. "I can't."
"Take her and go. I can stay with him. I can keep away, and even if he catches me, it'll hurt but it won't kill me." Vision said, nodding to Natasha. All three of them looked over to the Hulk, fighting himself on the floor. Suddenly, his head snapped up to face them. His eyes were the same bizarre gold, and he bellowed at them hard, spit flying from his mouth. He made a clumsy attempt to stand, and Clint dove forward, scooping Natasha up in his arms and running for the door. Vision flew over the Hulk's head and grabbed the syringe, and flew it to Clint, avoiding the Hulk's fumbling hands as he flew by with ease. It was clear whatever they'd given Bruce caused him to transform but did not give him much motor control, at least not yet.
"Tony will know how to reverse this." Vision said. "Go." He flew toward the Hulk to distract him again, and Hulk swatted at him once more, like a house cat at a fly. Clint ran out and put Natasha down in the tunnel where she slumped to the floor.
"Clint." She sobbed, looking at her friend. The sight broke his heart.
"I know." He said. "We will fix it. We will. But we have to keep going. Tony and Steve are on their way, and the only way we can help is if we get this to Tony for him to reverse engineer it. Make an antidote. Whatever. We gotta go."
"I can't..." Natasha sobbed, looking at the door. "Please. I can do the lullaby..."
"No, Nat. I'll drag you if I have to, but if you go back in there, he will kill you. And that will kill him. You know that. They did something to him. He's... He's like rabid or something. You want your boyfriend back? Let's get this to Tony!" Clint's voice was firm, and he knelt down before her, waiting. Finally, she nodded and took the hand he offered to help her up.
Tony had the chemicals in the vile figured out in less than an hour. The jet had an onboard lab, and he wasted no time in analysis and reversal.
"Its a de-moralizer agent. I guess I don't have to tell you two what those are, working for SHIELD..." Tony said, holding the results up on his StarkPad. The agents look at each other, then back to Tony.
"Well, tell me about it." Steve said. "Because I have no idea."
"Well, in the years since you enlisted, war has become more advanced- and less moral." Tony explained. "Chemical warfare has taken over a lot of the need for fire power. Things like this- They attack the nervous systems of the people they're given to. Sometimes it makes them sick, but other times it makes them go crazy. Act like animals."
"How long before it wears off?" Clint ask.
"In a normal person? Ten, maybe twelve hours. Half of a damn turkey baster sized dose on a Hulk..." Tony shrugged. "I have no idea."
"Has anyone been able to get audio contact with Vision?" Steve ask.
"No. They're behind several feet of concrete." Clint shook his head. "There is no way to get any coms in or out."
"Well. Fuck." Tony snorted. "I don't have the equipment to make the antidote here, though I do have it formulated. I can make a couple calls and see if the University in-"
"Do it." Natasha interrupted. "Whatever it is, just do it."
"Even if you do get it made, Tony, how are we going to get it to him?" Steve ask, sitting down beside Natasha.
"One of us will have to dart him. I did bring his needles." Tony said, gesturing over his shoulder at the needles they had made to pierce Bruce's skin without resistance from the Hulk. "I'm curious how whoever these folks are, how they knew how to make needles that would work on him."
"Whoever they are, they know us." Clint said. "All of us."
"Well. That sucks." Tony agreed. "But let's get moving. See if we can't get this going, and go get him. He's going to need an ICU for a while, but I think I can fix him."
"I hope you can, Tones." Steve said, laying a hand on Tony's shoulder.
The two men looked over to where Clint had Natasha curled up. She looked pale and almost in shock, and the archer was trying his best to offer her comfort as much as he could. Tony gestured to Steve, and the two walked out of earshot of the others.
"Look- I can reverse this so it would work on a normal man, but I have no clue if it'll work on Hulk. But Bruce- and Natasha does not know about all of this," Tony closed his eyes tight and sighed heavily, "Bruce has tried a couple different ways to kill himself, and Hulk always wins out. Overdose, being one of them. He drank just... a lot of toxic things. Hulk vomited them back up, the rest of them just had to get out of his system. It may be a waiting game."
"He did?" Steve said, his eyes soft with hurt for his friend. Tony nodded.
"Yeah. He's better these days. But... I just wanted someone else to know that at the very least, if I can't pull this off, at least there is that to fall back on." Tony sighed.
"I have faith in you, Tones." Steve said with a small smile. "I have the upmost faith in you."
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