"I'm 99% sure I pegged Romanoff-,' Clint moves to check his map, 'She's at the mansion."

Maria leans over to see his work, "Give her code 97918 and see if she responds."

Barton huffs, "You're still bossing me around."

She glares, "You're still not listening."

"Huh?"

"Exactly."

"Maybe if you didn't yell so much-."

"I never yell! How long have we known each other?! Please!"

Jane darts between the garage and the kitchen, stacking her drinking glasses.

Maria looks over the ledge that separates them, "We could just go to the lab at headquarters-!"

"No!" Bruce retorts and heads back to the garage with a new stack of items.

Tony is yelling on his video screen in the corner, propped up to aid Jane and Bruce in their emergency endeavor. Izabella needs an immediate solution before she randomly starts sending anything she touches away.

'Turn the screen around I want to see the kid!- Hey kid! It's your favorite Uncle Tony, what's going on? Vrach's making you do science projects outside of homework hours?'

"Man of metal!' Thor dips his face in front of the screen, eager to spot Antonia, 'Is that your offspring? She is quite small!"

Tony mumbles, 'Will someone please get Hercules off my screen?! He's scaring the baby. Now Alex is eating my shoe-You're making the dog anxious! Jane! You look less angry.'

Foster glances between the screen and Thor, a hand over her stomach, "We worked it out."

Bruce takes up the device, sitting beside Izabella, "Here's where we're at; she's evaporating anything and everything that pops into her palm. That same green energy I was telling you about? Well. That. Thor said something about realms-."

'Do tell. Because that sounds extremely relevant to the current situation, I'm dying to know.'

"What if he's right."

Tony twitches on his end, shifting Antonia to the other arm, 'I don't get it. Where did your brain just go-Time jumping?'

"Pockets of alternate timelines that don't bend the rules of it."

'Alternate dimensions…'

"Far-fetched but! Lucky for you,' Jane puffs her chest a bit, 'This is my specialty. Izabella says she's seeing threads, colorful threads, is that right?"

Bruce looks at Izabella for clarification; she quickly provides, "Nit', yes."

Bruce turns back for Tony, "Experiment one; is trying to have her think up these, specific 'threads' and call back various items she's, supposedly, evaporated."

'...you morons set that up quick- not you Bruce I'm talking to the idiots in the back- and what's the backup plan if it all explodes?'

The physicist shrugs, "Either we help her to figure this out, to control it, or SHIELD takes her. And it sounds like they're not the only interested party."

'Fascinating.'

Maria calls back from up the stairs and in the kitchen, "SHIELD isn't evil, just want to clarify."

Bruce looks over his shoulder, casual in his remark and slightly calmer than an hour prior, "Did you find Nat?"

"We found her com."

"I asked about Natasha, not her phone," Bruce twitches as he looks back at the camera, a flicker of green in his iris.

Tony gestures, 'There's a whole lotta green about to be happening over there…'

"You have no idea.."

Izabella reaches a tentative hand, patting his shoulder, "It okay."

Tony laughs, 'Did the kid just give you a pity pat?!'

Natasha is upside down and back on the ceiling as she grits her teeth, trying to once again locate the correct vent. She groans through a scream and falls back to the ground on her feet. Her head pounds from the drugs shoved into her face, ready for an escape from her current hell.

The walls are barely visible under the lack of light. She deduces she's now in the attic as a dark memory moving to the forefront of her mind. Her foot finds its way into the wall and leaves a mark in a frustrated kick.

"Miss Natasha?"

Her youngest friend has the sweetest voice, "Oh my gosh, Violet?!"

"And Riley!"

Natasha moves closer to the door, searching for some sort of hole to peek through, "What are you doing-!"

"We're breaking you out," Riley says matter of factly.

"How?!"

"Look up," Riley waves through the top vent, Linda behind her.

Natasha looks up, " Bozhe moi… it's sealed."

"No. You just have to know where it locks. I've gotten out of the attic a ton of times," Riley mutters ambitiously.

"It's really tight in here," Linda groans.

Violet calls the loudest, "We're saving you! We use our wit!"

"And it turns out our new 'sister' Linda is great at picking pockets," Riley chimes in.

Romanoff shuts her eyes, "You girls are brave."

A click accompanies the vent dropping open. Violet drops in first and expects a hug as she leaps into Natasha's arms.

She directs her question toward Riley, "Does this mean you trust me now?"

"Maybe," Riley shrugs.

Romanoff moves quickly with the girls following behind.

She navigates them to the back, heading for the porch;

"I need you all to stay hidden. Lay low, stay off Alexei and Ivan's radar until I get back."

Riley fixates on Natasha, "You can't just leave us!"

Violet hugs her tighter, "No!"

Natasha hugs her back, "I will be back for you, I promise. Right now I have to go do something that could be too dangerous for you to come along."

Linda crosses her arms, "More dangerous than stealing the key for your prison from the gorilla? Because I did that. Gorilla meaning the big tall guy..? Yeah. Him."

"When will you come back," Riley questions suspiciously.

Natasha shows the most sincerity she can muster, "As soon as I can. Keep eachother safe. Hide. Stay alert. I promise I will come back for you."

Riley sighs dramatically once Natasha slips out the back, "She's gone. She left us."

"No! She promised! She will come back!" Violet smashing her hand into the ground of the vent.

"She's not coming back Violet. She's an adult so she used us. They all do. Come on, I'll protect you because I actually care."

Violet sniffles, on the verge of tears until Riley offers a hug.

Linda sits back, "It's kind of cool up here. Someone could, in theory, set up a whole hideout."

Romanoff pulls up to a midsize home in one of Ivan's cars, quick to get out and scans the area in the middle of the night. She peers through the window and knocks at the door. With a heavier pounding she runs a hand through her hair;

"Svetlana? Eto ya , Natasha."

She crouches to peek underneath the door, assuming the worst when she manages to pick the lock and enter the home. She closes the door behind her, searching the ransacked home;

" Bozhe moi …."

Natasha searches for clues, lifting a fallen chair and sorting through the overturned desks.

She crouches over the papers and locates a half wrapped book. It's a poor job, one she's seen a few times before...a double folding though the title of the book inside solidifies her assumption;

"Vrach… "

Only Bruce would give a young child a textbook on Nuclear Physics for a Christmas present. And knowing Izabella, she was probably ecstatic over it.

Natasha freezes over a steady beeping, growing faster and faster. It's a familiar sound she's heard many times before.

The spy dives forward from the home and into the snow, holding her hair back to watch the small home engulfed immediately in flames.

"..My god!"

A cat purrs at her side, sitting and shivering in the snow. Natasha drops her hand as they share a glance, "I guess, you need a rescue now too?"

The cat meows and licks its lips, tail swaying slowly.

Izabella drops her palms, mid attempt at calling back her last object. She's getting frustrated, eyebrows lowering.

The girl narrows her focus immediately until Bruce distracts her;

"Hey, dyshat' , breathe. It's okay."

Banner's fear isn't Izabella's ability, but the emotion behind it. There is radiation in her veins though he's unsure of the details. Her eyes will glow when she's upset, her hands flicker green.

When she frustratedly snaps the pencil in half he stands with a similar emotion.

Jane taps Thor's shoulder, acknowledging Svetlana and urging them to leave the room;

"Let's give her a minute?"

Izabella looks up toward the physicist with a mumble once she's left alone, "Why they want me."

She's terrified.

Bruce crosses his arms and takes a breath. He speaks from experience with vacant stare on Clint and Maria working just a few feet away in the living space.

"People are afraid of what they don't understand. Sometimes, they look for a way to have some sort of control over you. If you are able to prove that you can control your abilities, maybe they back up and leave you alone."

Izabella blinks.

He sighs, "Other times people just want what you have and they'll hurt you to get it. That's why everything we are, and have been, working on is about being calm and about you being the one in control of the situation...Do you follow? Am I making sense?"

"I follow."

Jane pokes her head back inside of the garage with an offer;

"Hey Izabella. I think Thor has some cookies in the fridge for you. Do you want a short break?"

Izabella agrees and heads for Jane, "Yes. Spasibo ."

Bruce reaches for his device to message Tony;

'What am I missing?'

Stark responds immediately, 'That it's her Christmas and she wants to play. Not mess with glasses and pencils.'

'I can't let SHIELD get a hold of her'

'Then bring her to the tower'

'To NY?'

'Why not? We can keep an eye on her. I'll buy Svetlana her apartment and give her a job'

Bruce sighs, 'I'll ask'

Upon stepping into the living room, he eyes Maria.

Hill shrugs, knowing what he's about to ask, "We're trying."

"Okay,' Bruce reaches for his coat, 'Then I'm going over there."

"You can't."

"I can, I know where she is. I'm getting her out- hulk or not."

"I'm coming with you,' the archer already has a bow on his shoulder and a jacket in hand when he turns the doorknob to reveal the redhead, 'Nat!"

The two spies share a long embrace. Romanoff is covered in specs of ash from the explosion at Svetlana's home, freeing the cat into the shack.

She stares solemnly as her eyes fall on the distraught women in the back of the room as her head lifts;

"Svetlana. Ya bly tam. Mne tak zhal' ."

The woman breathes heavily. She is clearly distraught though trying hard to remain strong.

"Natasha," Bruce swoops in to hold her next.

Her eyes close in his safe embrace After months apart, Bruce doesn't want to let her go and neither does she if the mission weren't on her mind.

She breaks with a whisper, "We have to protect Izabella, she has a bunch of interested parties hot on her tail."

He nods, reaching to brush the debris from her cheek.

"Ahh!,' Izabella screams in pure excitement and makes a mad dash for the redhead. 'You here!"

"Yes ma'am! I wouldn't miss Christmas. I brought a friend of yours."

The cat purrs behind Natasha's heel, quickly snatched up by the girl.

Bruce catches Natasha's shoulder, softly brushing her hair back to see a row of dark bruises over her neck and cheek. His eyebrows lower angrily. She responds casually, aware of his concern;

"I can hardly feel them anymore,' she rotates her palm, 'And I lost my ring, I'm so sorry."

He's fixated on her bruises, "Who did this."

She steps forward, "We have bigger issues to worry about. Alexei is working with Black Ops and he's tipped them off about the shack. They're after you- all of you, so we need to move."

"Too late," Fury storms through the door with a small team and locks the door behind him, tossing a pistol in Natasha's direction, "I hope you all had a pleasant reunion because things are about to get interesting."

Romanoff catches the weapon, startled by his arrival so she urges Izabella and Svetlana to stay calm.

Barton laughs, "What? Ivan showed up? It's two guys. Let's just send the hulk out to beat the shit out of them."

"Hulk is genuinely interested in that offer...and you have my consent," Bruce pokes his head up.

Fury responds quickly, "It's gonna get ugly- we could use a hulk."

Thor reaches for his hammer to take a stance, protectively keeping Jane behind him, "This poorly made roof is about to rain dust upon us. Is it a storm?"

Clint presses his back up against the wall, peering through the blinds, "That ain't some storm…"

Before Natasha can respond her eyes are focused on the firing over the intrusion.

Banner feels time freeze as he focuses on changing his form. The screams go in one ear and out the other, intense flashes of green filling his fingertips, eyes and down the back of his neck.

Natasha picks up on the color, urging Maria to take Jane, Izabella, and Svetlana out the back.

A roaring hulk collides with a large group outside and goes for the vehicles in black.

Thor chooses to aid the hulk while Barton and Natasha move for the other incoming agents on the opposing force;

"Black Ops has tanks now?!"

Natasha glares, "I know more than I wish I did."

Fury moves for the strays, focusing on a woman dressed in black. He reaches for his com as the house continues to be destroyed;

"Hill! Get the kid out now! We'll hold them off."

Barton pauses over the sudden arrival of Alexei coming up from behind. He taps Natasha's shoulder;

"Don't look now."

"Shit,' she grumbles, 'Go find Ivan, I'll handle Alexei."

He compiles and runs off to locate his target while dodging the incoming fires.

Romanoff twirls her pistol, walking up to her angry ex husband, "Don't make me do this."

He snarls, "Don't take their side."

"You're not with them…"

"I'm here for kid; Izabella Mikhailov. Hand her over, both of you will come quietly and we won't have problem. I'll tell Ivan to stop."

Natasha holds her stance, "You'll have to go through me."

"Fine."

Alexei's headbutt temporarily knocks Natasha off her feet so she targets his ankles and moves to slash the right to pause his movement. The twosome wrestle their way back toward the home in a push and a pull...

Thor lands in an attempt at charging lightning toward Hulk, practically crushed in the middle of his rampage. He successfully kicks into another vehicle to cause a collision, dodging gun shots and blasts from the rifles. Being in the middle of nowhere suddenly has its perks.

A knife finds its way across Natasha's shoulder so she retaliates by giving Alexei a new scar across his cheek.

Her screams reach Hulk, he turns to try and find her, thrashing an enemy before trying to move on. Ivan fires a gun over Clint's dodging and hits the hulk instead. His roars echoing in the cold air. The hulk rotates over the bullet bouncing off his flesh and temporarily sets his targeted rage for Ivan.

Alexei moves to smash Natasha backwards against the sink, lining up his knife against her throat, "Natalia. I did love you-."

Romanoff coughs in a foggy haze, unable to free herself from his choke hold. A glass shatters over the man's head, causing him to fall. Natasha pants, grateful for Jane;

"What are you doing? I thought you were with Hill."

"I was,' she kicks Alexei to keep him down, 'And then I thought Thor might want a hand."

"That was a mean swing," Natasha grabs her pistol from the ground.

"Pregnancy hormones."

"Congrats."

"Thank you."

"Come on."

Jane holds back, "Wait! Shouldn't we tie him?"

Romanoff pauses, unable to make a call against Alexei, "He'll be fine."

The redhead dodges initially as she meets the team outside. She eyes the hulk and fights beside him, "Hey big guy."

He grunts, "Spider."

She grins, waiting to see if he will permit her over his back, "Spider could use a lift. I wouldn't mind a higher vantage point. I see two large birds, you take one and I'll take the other?"

Hulk obeys immediately, allowing the spy to climb up onto his shoulder and to leap onto a smaller helicopter to run it into the ground.

Clint is down when Ivan moves in for Romanoff, met by a firm swing from the hulk. He barely flinches over being shot at and swiftly moves to tear the weapon in half. The debris knocks into Fury's current nemesis to cause a retreat of Black Ops. Seeming to vanish, Natasha loses track of Ivan and helps Barton to his feet. As the opposing troops pull away Fury calls for a cease fire. Thor extends a hand toward Hulk to stop him from hunting down a vehicle as it drives off and moves to hug Jane close as she reconnects with the demigod.

The team tries to catch their breath in the sudden silence and watch their small rental shack fall apart at the seams. Fury moves forward and reaches for his com after a rapid headcount;

"Hill?"

Maria calls back frantically with a screaming Svetlana in the background, 'They took her! Someone got Izabella. Svetlana was shot, I need to get her to medical now!'

Hulk roars over the information and thrusts his fists into the dirt beneath him.

Natasha's jaw opens with half of Clint's weight over her shoulder due to his own injury, "I need to get back to the mansion, Riley and Violet could be in trouble- they have the same blood type- I'm so off my game..this is all my fault."

Barton holds his side as he mumbles breathlessly, "Alexei and Ivan?"

"And there's someone else…Fury, I need a car."

"It's yours. Take a com. I'll send you coordinates."

Barton objects, "You're not going alone."

Hulk protests as he sees her moving for the vehicle, his eyes wide as his large chest rises and falls. She turns compassionately, "I need you to look after Barton. Clint's hurt and Svetlana needs you-."

"Hulk. Not lose spider and small friend…"

"I know it's a lot, and you have to go after her,' she brushes his cheek, 'There's just one more thing I have to do."

She leans into his touch, the same way he does in his human form. She offers a painful grin as he groans, his voice much softer.

He takes her cues, calming over their contact.

Fury leads the team on his jet upon its arrival, tossing Banner a warmer change of clothes and Maria a med kit to aid Barton with the gash on his rib cage. Svetlana meets them in a wailing mess, refusing treatment for her own gunshot wound as she rambles on over Izabella's kidnapping.

Thor scans over the damages, his head low when he calls for his only newly transformed friend, "Banner? I must speak with you."

"One second Thor," Natasha helps Bruce into his SHIELD logo'd attire.

"I must return home with Jane. This has become far too dangerous and I fear her life and the life of our twins."

"I respect that,' Banner mumbles and addresses a nearby nurse who is looking after Svetlana, 'It looks like the bullet just grazed her arm. Couple of stitches should be enough."

Thor shakes his head, continuing to whisper with Bruce as the two stand together, "I regret not being able to stay and stand beside you-."

Jane snaps, "We're staying right here until Izabella is safe!"

"But Jane-."

"No! I'm not moving."

"Okay," Bruce offers consolingly and moves toward Fury, "My memories aren't coming back."

"I need to go after the girls," Natasha offers, hand over his shoulder first and then holding his face, "Are you okay? That was a rapid transformation and return."

"I'm coming with you."

"Bruce," Romanoff shakes her head, "I didn't want to tell you but Blonsky has a role in this..."

Clint cringes as a nurse stabs him with a needle, "That's- ow - the guy who-."

"Yes," Natasha cuts him off.

Blonsky...the name recalls the memories in Banner's mind. The nausea sets in and a scrambling to make a call;

"Tasha, I'm coming. End of conversation."

"I'm coming too," Clint stammers.

Maria reaches to pull him back down, "You're hurt so you can't, sit your ass down."

Bruce addresses the Director, "You know what he's capable of. I'm not going to put anyone else here at risk."

"The girls trust me, I have to get to them first. Bruce and I will go after Blonsky after."

"Natasha-!"

"We can fight about it later after we know the girls are safe."

"Go. Both of you. We'll move after Black Ops and find Izabella," Fury agrees, searching for some sort of communicator to send Bruce off with. He looks down, curious over Svetlana's cat purring at his heels.

The doctor scoffs and lifts the com he moves toward the exit, "I can't even keep my clothes on, you think hulk's going to let you track him?"

"Hold onto it. Maybe he'll be merciful if he knows it's for your sake,' Fury suggests, 'And Banner?"

He looks over his shoulder, "Yeah?"

"Keep a level head."

Fury waits for Bruce and Natasha to leave before continuing to give his orders, "Someone get Stark on the phone, ASAP. We need the lawyer."