Jane Foster is nerding over how Izabella describes her sparks, wanting so badly to study them further when she prods Svetlana with the same questions Bruce has. It's news to her after being out with Thor for a few weeks, getting their own space in the area.
Clint is bored, tapping Izabella's wrist at their kitchen table over dinner;
"Give me your hair tie."
Izabella consents curiously, remaining as quiet as possible. Barton takes his aim and successfully rings a small figurine set up in the window.
Izabella's jaw drops with a wide smile, "Woah."
"Next!"
She removes the one from her hair, keeping quiet should her aunt catch her goofing off.
He successfully rings the second. Clint checks his pocket next, handing Izabella a rubber band to try herself.
Her smaller fingers pull it back and line it up. Poorly enough for Clint's eyes to widen;
"Don't!"
She giggles when it snaps backwards and into her face, covering her eye post sting. Thor and Jane turn to check on the noise, Svetlana leans with a firm Russian scolding.
Izabella holds her breath in an attempt to stop giggling.
Barton shakes his head, "You're a terrible shot. You're a nerd, straight A student."
Jane pauses her in conversation to glare.
Barton backpedals, "It's not a bad thing!"
She lines up her rubber band once again with his aid. Izabella takes her aim, somehow snapping the band back into her eye.
She doubles over chuckling while Clint snorts playfully;
"You're hopeless."
Izabella freezes over the item's sudden disappearance only she witnesses, startled over the quick green over her palm that seemingly evaporates the band.
Barton checks in moments later, "What's the matter now? Why do you look like a deer caught in headlights?"
Her breath quickens, frantically searching for another item. Izabella finds her fork, trying to get Barton's attention.
"What?" He asks when nothing happens
She grumbles, clearly trying to stay secretive and keep it between them.
He glares, "Now you're just being weird. No wonder you're friends with the doc."
She huffs, "No! This weird!"
"It's a fork."
With a calming breath she causes the evaporating incident to repeat, the green sparks come from her palm and circle the utensil. She looks up with fear once the item vanishes completely.
His jaw drops, "...What the fu-."
"Faraday constant!" Jane interjects, equally amazed.
"Miss Natasha," Violet is chasing her down, locating Natasha in the library.
Romanoff has only started her search, pausing to address the young girl who trips on her way in;
"Hi Vi. Are you alright? Is the house on fire?"
She half hopes for the latter.
Violet pants to catch her breath and comments excitedly, "There's a new kid!"
"What do you mean, honey," she frowns.
"Her name is Linda," Riley fills in the blanks, coming in with a tall lanky blonde trailing behind.
Violet is grinning, "We told her she had to meet you!"
"Hi, it's lovely to meet you," Natasha remarks sweetly.
Linda shrugs, giving Natasha time to note a bandaid on her finger.
"What happened?" Natasha asks gently, hugging Violet when she wraps her arms around Romanoff's leg.
Linda is clearly American, clearly fierce and has attached herself to Riley, "Nothing."
"Olga did it," Violet offers, pushing herself onto a chair next.
Linda barely offers, "The weird lady downstairs told me to tell anyone who asks that I have diabetes."
Natasha looks mortified, "So you're not sick then."
"No."
"Why would she do that."
Riley crosses her arms, "To test her blood, duh."
"What do you mean 'test her blood'?"
Riley huffs, "We all got our blood tested. More than once. Olga swears us to secrecy so you don't find out."
Natasha suddenly is restraining the urge to kill, "What else does she do to you…"
Violet frowns, "We take a lot of tests."
Riley settles, taking the chair from Violet, "Yeah, and if we don't pass? We have to take them again. That's why I'm good at math. It's not because I like numbers."
"You're not from Russia," Natasha asks Linda.
"Uh,' the tall girl shrugs, 'No? New Mexico."
"You wouldn't happen to know your blood type…?"
Linda smirks excitedly, "I just learned it actually. I'm AB."
Romanoff feels her blood run colder, politely excusing herself from the girls;
"I need to go talk to Ivan."
In a frantic dash Natasha bolts back up the stairs, cautious over the sound of her footsteps as she runs down the hallway.
Natasha latches her hand on the knob of Ivan's office, giving it a firm twist to break the lock and invite herself inside;
" Mozhesh' vse mne rasskazat. "
"Natalia!" Ivan stands and comes around from behind his desk, "I told you-!"
She retorts abruptly with a threatening stare, "Why is there a third child of about eleven downstairs."
The moments pass slowly as he closes the door behind her;
"You saw the girl."
"If you blame Olga one more time!"
He circles her, "I wanted to keep you out of this."
"Well you can't."
Ivan urges Natasha to take a seat as he breathes for a moment in the silence. Her eyes never leave him as she does.
Petrovich sighs, "Alexei wanted to tell you. He thought you would be onboard."
"That I'd be fine with child trafficking-."
"No. In helping find criminal."
She scoffs, "A criminal…"
"Black Ops is looking for a child, as are many others coincidentally. She's an anomaly. Extraordinary. Her powers."
"Around eleven…"
"AB blood."
She laughs and leans forward, "So what, you'll kidnap any girls who are around that age and run some sort of test on them until you find who you're looking for."
He moves to take his seat across from her, "Let me show you something."
Natasha turns her head only slightly, suspicious over the files Ivan lays out before her, followed by a hologram;
"Serum was made using radiated blood, found in New Mexico."
Natasha swallows uncomfortably, a passing thought for her tortured husband potentially yet again at the General's hands, "And?"
"The serum, stolen, year later. It developed into something much worse combined with...the one used on the Black Widows."
"A bit of the superserum…"
"Yes. Mixture was injected into test subjects- pregnant mothers, young agents-."
"How many casualties?" Natasha asks, neck muscles tight.
"All but one, they say. All things mysteriously vanished when the test subjects escaped. 9 years ago an unexplained energy devastated a city. Leaving dust."
"I have never heard of it. Believe me, catastrophes find their way to my desk everyday."
He nods, "Radiation, superserum and this mystery compound were all found in debris."
Natasha releases a snort over Ivan's theory, "You're assuming some baby caused this much damage. A child with an AB blood type whose mother was experimented on…You're chasing a myth. SHIELD would've heard about it."
"Maybe Fury did."
"You can't kidnap every child with AB blood and test on them, ask them if they've had contact with Fury, are being hunted and-."
A chill rolls up her spine over a thought, suddenly rushed back to the memory of a children's hospital in New York. Half of the boxes match.
Ivan's smile causes Natasha to go uneasy.
She huffs and hides from his focus, "Even if you found them, they're still a child. What will you do with the others?"
"You are so weak, Natalia!" Ivan groans.
"You'll never find what you're looking for. And you won't get anything from me."
He swipes the hologram to show a small home. Natasha tries to breathe when she watches the presented footage and recognizes Izabella playing with Bruce outside just a few weeks prior. The green glow between them upon contact.
Romanoff goes numb, glaring protectively.
"I send my friend to watch your more foolish friends,' he explains weakly, 'We have what we need today when he show me this. Are you onboard Natalia?"
Her jaw tightens, "What will you do with her…"
"Black Operations would be interested in a purchase-."
"You'll have to get through me first," Natasha stands immediately and reaches for the closest 'weapon' she can find, lifting a letter opener to his throat. That's her 'daughter' on his hologram. And she'd kill before she'd let anyone touch Izabella.
A skilled bullet knocks the object from Natasha's hand upon Alexei's entrance.
Ivan shoves his hands into his pockets when Shostakov restrains Natasha;
"She is not with us, Alexei."
"Stop!" Natasha squirms in his hold.
Ivan lifts his glass, "She may change her mind. After we kill her friends."
Her boot reaches the wall, flipping herself up and over to free herself from Alexei's hold. She reaches for the decorative knife and holds her stance. Natasha aims it between the twosome, her heart pounding.
Ivan laughs and crosses his arms;
"Go ahead Malyshka . You can't do it."
Natasha grits her teeth, "I can and I will. Please don't make me."
Alexei moves forward emotionlessly, her eyes fixed on Ivan when a chloroform filled cloth wraps her mouth from behind. She gasps as the knife falls from her grasp, pinned by both Ivan and Alexei;
" Uspokoysya ."
In her hazy state she listens for clues.
Alexei mumbles;
"What should we do?"
"Lock her in the attic. Make the calls."
Bruce exhales heavily, comfortably sitting in the dark shack with the glow of the fire. He is on the ground post panic attack when the doorbell rings. It's his first in a long while, finally able to breathe.
He forces himself upright and moves to stand over the pestering, "Clint? Did you forget your key…"
Maria Hill plows inside with urgency, circling the room, "Where's Barton."
"Out," Banner's eyebrows lift over the surprise guest, moving to shut the door behind her.
"Have you heard from Romanoff?"
"No,' he scoffs, his sarcasm swiftly changing to worry, 'Wait, have you?"
"No! That's why I came over here. I figured Clint could- do his thing. Work some magic. It's been too long without a word."
Hill shoves a device into his chest and moves to pass by the fire, eager to upload her bag;
"I am going to try to hack her com,' she looks over her shoulder with a large tablet in hand, 'Fury are you there?"
Maria drops her phone over the sofa, still on speaker;
'Do not send the hulk. There are two children still in the home who need protecting.'
"Geez,' Bruce glares at the device, 'I can hear you."
"I can go in, stealth mode,' Maria fights, 'I want her out. It's been too long for Romanoff."
Bruce takes a breath and forces himself to sit. With his face in his hands and a knee bouncing nervously as he tries to dismiss the worst and prevent another attack. If Maria is panicking, certaining he has every reason to do the same.
Maria toys with another screen, "Alright well what do you want to do with Izabella?"
"Excuse me!" Bruce glares, fingers over his pulse to check the immediately increasing heart rate.
The door swings open to reveal a wide-eyed Barton, Izabella, Jane, Svetlana and Thor behind him.
Jane is leading, almost giddy;
"Izabella has something to show you-."
He growls, "Not right now-."
"You must look at this,' Thor urges Izabella forward, handing her a book from off the nearby coffee table, 'Do your magic."
"I told you-," Bruce grumbles, his eyes widening over the green sparks coming from Izabella's fingers without aid. They quickly envelop the book and send it into thin air.
Izabella remains firm in her position, slightly confused as Banner stumbles backward with a, "How?"
"I not know," she looks up, frightened and eager for help.
"-gah! It's you," Clint cringes after spotting Maria, the twosome glaring toward one another.
"I need you to find Natasha-."
Clint scrambles in a panic, "-I'm on it."
Bruce pivots, standing in the middle of chaos. Svetlana taps his shoulder with worry in her eyes. She's going off in Russian, protectively laying a hand on Izabella's shoulder as she pleads with him for help.
Jane interjects, "We should run some experiments."
Bruce appreciates her help, "Izabella can you go, talk to Jane for a bit?"
The girl is worried, having overheard the agents, "Where Natasha?"
Maria looks over into the kitchen, "Did you hear that doc? Fury wants Izabella at the base 9am tomorrow."
"Over my dead body! Give me the phone,' Bruce reaches toward Hill, raising his voice to Fury, 'You've done a great job of losing my wife. This kid doesn't leave my sight!"
Jane returns with the water, reaching for Izabella's hand, "Okay! We are going to work on the sidelines for a bit here. Clint told me there's some space in the garage? We can test what else you can evaporate."
Izabella nods, hesitant to leave the room she's in so she immediately lifts poured water droplets. They hover an inch above her palm, falling once the girl starts to panic, "I, scared."
"It's okay! It's normal to be afraid of new things. And your 'magic' is so cool."
Thor crouches behind Jane, "Indeed! It is magic of an honorable kind."
"But I,' Izabella tugs at the ends of her hair, 'What if…"
A fist rams into the nearby table, an uncharacteristic shout and thrashing coming from the kitchen with the doctor still on the phone when he swears, "Damn it Fury!"
Maria jumps, swiftly moving further away, "Is he, gonna..?"
Clint shakes his head, "He's a little edgy lately, it's no big deal. But I'll grab my bow just in case."
"Shall I grab Mjolnir?" Thor asks calmly.
"Yeah, maybe, I don't know. Act normal and don't let him see it."
Izabella peers over her shoulder, bravely moving toward the kitchen to watch over her mentor. Svetlana begins to panic.
"Sketchy move kid, I wouldn't go in there," Clint mumbles to no avail.
"We should give him some space," Jane tries next.
Izabella leans against the door frame, eyes widen when she looks up at him. Bruce is contorting his hand to avoid the blood from spilling on his self-inflicted injury due to the tantrum he's just thrown.
He tosses the smashed phone next and reaches for the paper towels, "Sorry, Maria."
Hill focuses on her own project, still terrified to get too close to the doctor, "That conversation ended well."
Izabella tugs back at the ends of her hair as he paces to fix his simple injury, "I help?"
He shakes his head, trying and failing to calm his tone, "No. My blood's toxic."
"Same as me?"
"Yeah, but...well it's different. Anything with my blood on it in here needs to get burned so just don't-."
The girl clasps her hands, "Okay. You mad?"
He bites at his gash, "Yeah, I'm getting mad-!"
"-Teach me sutures? I help you."
He scoffs over her request, in no mood to entertain the child he's just shouted at Fury over, "Please, stop."
She tucks her hair behind her ear, "I, make things go away, hurt things, I need something good."
He sighs, "We don't know where you're sending things- I didn't even know you could do that but it's not automatically bad- why does everything have to be bad, why are you obsessed with being bad…! Gosh Nat-!"
She pulls away slightly, hoping to share her thoughts as she reaches for her pocket, "I write. I write everything. Like you ask. You will stop angry then?
Bruce swallows hard, settling in the chair behind him near the broken table. He's on the verge of a breakdown as his hands refuse to stop trembling.
In the background he listens for Clint and Maria as they scramble to try and reach Natasha.
Izabella is unrelenting and determined for answers. She's also kind and caring, laying a small hand on his shoulder;
"It okay."
Bruce covers his mouth and moves to rub at his cheek, cut hand wrapped in a paper towel.
Letting the hulk take the wheel feels like a risk. Letting himself continue to worry about Natasha feels useless if he can't control his emotions.
Bruce takes a breath, a second and a third to follow. He forces a gentler tone for the girl, "I'm sorry for snapping at you."