Jennifer Walters makes her way from the car with a bag under her arm and her phone on her shoulder. She needs her husband to have done the laundry and her daughter to be at a friend's so she can down a glass of wine- not that it would help all that much.
She loses the grip on her grocery bag over the sound of Aerosmith coming from the basement. She heads for the staircase.
"Jen. We have a guest," her husband kisses her cheek, all smiles.
"John,' she forces her grin, 'How green am I going to be if I go into our basement?"
"I'm surprised you're not green already. Tony Stark is down there. Says it's an emergency."
She grumbles under her breath and heads down the staircase. Over in the finished area, her daughter is enjoying wrapping up a level of garageband with their unexpected guest.
Tony is high-fiving, and she's still holding her game guitar.
Jennifer clears her throat. Tony rotates away from the drum set;
"Hey! It's the imbecile parent."
Jennifer taps her nails against a nearby wall, "Hey, it's Iron Ass. Lucy sweetheart, why don't you run upstairs and ask daddy to get me a coffee, huh? I need to evict to Mr. Stark."
"Mom,' she sighs, 'he's cool."
"Upstairs. Now," Jen brushes her daughter's shoulder, "I love you."
"She's cute," Tony stands in front of Jen with a smile.
Walters tilts her head, "How are you?"
"Well,' he reaches to take a stool and sit in front of her, 'My wife is home with the baby and the rest of the crew are all in Russia."
She lifts a hand, "I'm sorry I asked. Why are you in my house?"
Tony continues, "You remember Izabella? The little kid at Banner's wedding? She's an AB blood type with abilities."
Jen's brows furrow when she whispers, "You're joking."
"The kid and her aunt are on the run. SHIELD's involved. Natasha's old organizations- oh her ex is alive. He's a bit of a nut job."
"Let me guess, Fury sent you here to pick me up."
"We have a winner!"
"Yeah,' she chuckles and stands at the bottom stair as if she is asking him to follow, 'No thank you."
"Bruce needs you," Tony stands, a bit more seriously.
She shakes her head and adjusts her wavy hair, "I can't fight his battles and he doesn't want me to."
"The kid needs you."
"I have my own kid-."
"Come on Jennifer! I get it,' he snaps, losing some of his sarcasm, 'I just left my 3 month old for this. There are people out there who need you! You're turning your back on them."
"If Bruce needed me, he would've called."
"This is big-."
"I don't! Want to know. I'm sorry. I can't help you. My child and my husband come first. Go back to Fury and tell him to go find someone else."
Tony takes an inhale. "Blonsky is involved."
Jennifer swallows and crosses her arms, "…That's even more reason for me to remain neutral."
"We need another hulk to help take down this creep who you know."
Jen looks up toward the crack in the ceiling, listening to her own heart pounding in her chest;
"Suddenly I'm missing the days of Betty and the General-."
"Unless you want your cousin to meet their fate, I need you to come with me."
She releases a heavy exhale, rolling her tongue over her cheek and bites at her lip, "Russia?"
He pauses over her question, halfway up the stairs, "Russia."
Natasha barges through the front door, her pistol aiming high. She's now covered in more debris and ash from the home's explosion and the more recent battle.
Romanoff calls through a dark and deserted space, "Riley? Violet?…Linda."
She circles the area, the rooms dark and empty as she paces the home. Bruce heads in the other direction.
Upon reaching the office she lowers her weapon and circles back to the room she's called hers for the past long weeks. The mess over the floor tells her there was a fight, a stray bullet found against the wall with a few drops of blood.
The vision catches Natasha off guard, holding her forehead as she spots her luggage that has been dug through.
Reaching a hand in the front pocket, lifts the page Blonsky left in her possession that night of Ivan's business dinner. She rotates the page to view a makeshift military grid.
Her jaw falls open, clutching her com, "Fury? The girls aren't here. The house is...empty. But I know where to find Emil Blonsky."
"The vents are open but there's..." Bruce meets up with her in the office.
She looks over her shoulder, "…Nothing?"
Bruce shakes his head, afraid to tell her.
Natasha lifts the page to share the coordinates with him, "He gave me this the night we met. Pretended to care, to be a friend."
Banner shares the page, far too numb in his emotions to ask any further questions on when the two would have met. He looks up, "You think he has the girls?"
She shakes her head, less than an inch from Bruce, "I don't know. I have no idea what's going on. Ivan and Alexei both threatened-…There's only one way to find out."
He twists his jaw, looking into her hazel green eyes, "I should be, handling Blonsky, by myself-."
Natasha touches his cheek, "Vrach, we've been through worse. And you're not alone this time."
"I can't lose you," he admits with a choke.
She tilts her head, leaning in to kiss him passionately, "You won't, I swear."
He accepts her remark and takes her hand to lead them out, "We should go."
Natasha follows, her hand in his as they dash quickly through the hall and down the steps. Bruce is quiet but she knows he's silently taking it all in.
Romanoff puts her brakes on upon reaching the lobby. Her mind blank as she pauses in the middle of the room.
Unsure of what to think or what she's feeling, he doesn't speak. He lets her have a moment and looks on.
Natasha's eyes have gone vacant, conscious only of her feet on the tiled ground. She circles back for a minute, looking up toward the rooms. She gives the 'ghosts' of her past their due, sparing a second for each. They are present in every piece. If she believed in ghosts, maybe her 'sisters' would have something to offer.
Bruce finally checks in when her hand squeezes his, "What do you need?"
She shakes her head, "I need to find the girls."
Izabella blinks, allowing her eyes to adjust in the dark room, half abandoned laboratory. She abruptly sits up to watch her captor pace.
"Who...," Izabella questions with a shaky voice.
"Don't be frightened, love. You're not in any trouble."
Izabella swallows, rubbing at a sore spot over her arm to find a bandage, "What you do?"
The man pivots, hardly acknowledging her, "I drew some blood. Nothing too painful I hope."
"Why…"
He crouches at her cell with a deceptive smile, "You have something I want, dear. And you're going to give it to me. You're a key figure in this little game... My little weapon. Take a look at your army, go on look. They have all been injected with my compound to make them stronger-Don't worry, it's all for the greater good."
Izabella turns over her shoulder to see the mob of children behind her all around her same age. Her voice fails her and she breathes heavily;
"How...vye…"
The man shoves her into the same large cell that extends backward, securing the lock before disappearing.
Izabella panics, ready to swat and secure her space is respected.
A small boy moves to sit beside her, a clamp over his wrist, "Hey."
His older companion speaks softly with his own question, "We saw you come in. What's your name?"
The girl swallows hard, "Izabella."
"I'm Garrett. That's Brody,' he points to himself first and his friend next, ''They just got here too; Riley, Violet, and Linda. The guy shot us all up with something that had your blood in it. We don't know what's going on or why we're here. He's been looking for a 'monster', some anomaly who was born with magic. He wants us to fight and do his bidding… I think. That's what Riley thinks anyways. I just want to go back to Boston."
The presumed Riley tilts her head back with a hacking cough. She leans forward, pin in her mouth, "Vi?! Grab it."
The smaller girl reaches for the hairpin, "What are you doing?!"
Riley laughs, "Breaking us out?! Duh?!"
Linda laughs, "That's funny. I tried that lock twice and if I can't do it, nobody can."
Izabella tucks her knees, still dressed in her dark green sweater and black skirt for Christmas, "So many…"
Garrett nods, "Yep. There's, probably 20 of us here. Around the same age, I'm the oldest…"
"Why...u tebya yest' polnomochiya."
Brody holds his head, "What she say?"
"Powers! She's asking about powers," a voice yells from the back.
It's Riley, fluent in Russian and Czech due to her kidnapping and odd foster situation.
Riley laughs so hard her volume raises, squinting as she tugs her cheeks.
Izabella doesn't find the humor in her question and leans forward, "What funny,"
"You,' Riley moves to stand with her safety pin in hand, 'You're asking if we have powers like we can escape or something. I wanna get away from the prime minister too. Because we hear he's some creepy rhino when it gets dark."
Izabella looks up toward Riley, "So, you not have...how you say, powers?"
"No. We are just a bunch of kids no one wants. So he's probably going to kill us or like Garrett said, treat us like his disposable army now that he's got you. What's with your hands anyways? He kept mumbling about them," she huffs.
Izabella lifts her palm to try and call on her green energy, watching it swirl into a steady circle, "I have this...always, I think. It...make things, go away."
Linda mumbles sarcastically, focusing on the ceiling when a lightbulb bursts, "Ooh! Use it on the rhino gorilla!"
"Small things."
Garrett studies Izabella, "So you can't help us?"
Izabella breathes heavily, studying her palms, "I...I'm sorry. I not know."
Riley rolls her eyes over the 'new girl's' reaction, "Ugh! Why are you crying? Are you crying?! There's no time for crying."
"I fine,' Izabella breathes, controlling herself, 'Think calm. Be calm…"
"Yeah! Can you do that?!"
"Wait!" The girl reaches for Riley beside her, pulling her away from electrocuting herself at the lock.
"Ugh! Thanks,' Riley manages before returning to her feet and brushing back her hair, 'Don't think that just because you protected me once, we're friends. We aren't friends. We will never be friends."
The Russian analyzes the lock, dropping her palm underneath. Her fingers spread with pure focus as she tests a green spark.
"Now what are you doing-?"
Brody shushes the taller girl, supervising Izabella, "Be quiet! She's trying to concentrate! Maybe she can break the lock and make it disappear with her magic!"