Natasha is in the central hub, busy in a deep conversation with herself, half English, half Russian in her mumbling.
Barton covers the mic on his phone when she slams a hand against the table. He jumps over the interruption, mid conversation with Laura.
He shakes his head and taps his lips, "Nat? Do you mind?"
Romanoff lingers long enough to get her print out and abruptly pivots on the heel of her boot. She seems to be on a mission so Rogers follows her curiously;
"Agent Romanoff-Banner, sorry I still don't know what you prefer...?"
"What's on your mind Captain," she asks with her mind elsewhere.
He's struggling to admit his snooping, "I might have been interrupting you as you were- searching the internet."
"I wasn't on the internet, I was in the database."
"Right,' he tolerates her remark like he does everyone's, with nothing but tact and patience, 'I noticed you researching an incident from about nine years ago. What was that about?"
She tucks her head, "Do I bother you when you research a certain someone from the 40's?"
"Natasha," he tucks his head as if she's just shot him in the gut.
"Sorry," she forces it.
"Please? I want to help."
She nods and skims her papers, "Well…"
Rogers takes the page she offers and gives it an elongated glance, "Any idea why we never heard about this?"
She shrugs, "Honestly? When Ivan told me I had hoped it was a lie."
"That's a, whole community supposedly displaced if we're assuming they're still alive."
"Do you think it was Izabella?"
"There's not a whole lot of information here."
"I know,' she sighs, 'I can't ask Izabella. She would've been what, a year old? That would've been quite a tantrum. Too bad her mother is deceased and Svetlana knows nothing about it. I just want to know if Izabella was born this way or if she was experimented on further."
"Maybe we should check the city's records-."
"I did. All I found was information on the community. These people existed. They're on record as being deceased at this point."
"And the cause?"
She shrugs, her hands dropping disappointedly as she quotes from her translated article, "A puff of green energy."
Steve nods, sensing the disappointment in her tone, "We'll figure this out."
She extends a paper in his direction, "Do you want to handle this? Tell me if you find a connection, anything on a secondary serum or if there's someone else present in this same city nine years ago with powers."
"I'd be happy to."
"Knock, knock?" Elizabeth steps timidly into her main room, a hand caught up in her dark hair.
Bruce offers a brief smile before and lifts the 8 inch white pad he found in her kitchen hours earlier, "I kind of, invited myself to your paper? Hope you don't mind."
She shakes her head, "You could've asked me; I have a laser pad you could have borrowed. Saved some trees."
"You certainly know your way to my heart."
The woman gives up and settles on the sofa beside him, "I'm getting the sense that we are a bit ahead of where you come from technology wise?"
He shrugs, "Sometimes I like paper."
She tucks her head with a smile, her thoughts on the night prior, "So, I woke up in bed. But the last thing I remember is picking you up at the lab. Wanna fill me in?"
He tenses over the nudging of her shoulder and shakes his head with a laugh, "I asked you what your name was and you couldn't give me an answer. Then! I asked you to walk in a straight line and you couldn't do it."
"Oh? I must've drank a bit more. I don't usually do that, just for the record. I haven't gone out in over a year."
He laughs a little harder, "Now wait a minute, because that's not even the best part; I asked you-."
"To count down," she blushes and hides her face.
"Worse! I asked you, Miss Cellular Biologist, what makes up a cell."
"Oh no,' she laughs and continues to hide in her hands, 'What did I say?"
"Criminals."
"Oh my gosh."
Bruce just shakes his head, "You thought it was beyond hilarious."
"So, you tucked a blanket around me and ran away?"
"I,' he lifts a finger to correct her, 'very carefully, walked you upstairs and laid a nearby blanket over you."
"With my jacket and boots on? That's very chivalrous of you-."
"You're clearly a lightweight, Betty- Elizabeth," his laugh pauses and drops.
Bruce takes a deep inhale. It's more than a slipping up of her name but rather sincerely forgetting that this woman was not her.
He lowers his head with an embarrassed swallow, "Sorry."
She crosses a knee, "No one else has ever called me 'Betty'."
"Sorry."
"That's not the first time you've said it."
He nods guiltily.
Ross wraps her arms around herself, leaning slightly to watch him quickly put up an emotional wall with his head turned away.
Her voice stays soft, "Who am I in your world? What are we, Bruce?"
He huffs out a painful laugh and rubs at his cheek. His heart hurts over hearing her say his name.
Banner mumbles sadly, "A memory."
Elizabeth shifts uncomfortably. She nods towards the detailed notes currently taking over the table, "Do you want to show me what you've been working on? Dr. Romanoff?"
He takes a breath. It's a much easier topic as he goes off on his detailed explanation. Ross listens carefully with an understanding of most of what he's sharing, even if it sounds a little crazy.
Dimensions
Super serums
Radiation
She takes it all in with attentive eyes.
Time seems to fly by that morning as they work on his various ideas.
Elizabeth suggests they head out to the lab and Bruce agrees. She is attentive to his theories, sincerely listening. He appreciates that.
When they stand, his eyes shift elsewhere. The wide back door gives him a clear view of a dark figure standing off in the distance. The return in the man's stare makes Banner's heart pound. He swallows hard. There's a green that he can feel about to run up the back of his neck. He twists his jaw and decides to make the first move.
Elizabeth pulls him from the fixation, "Doctor?"
He mumbles and moves toward the back door;
"Just give me a minute? Can you do me a favor,' he's scrambling for a reason for her not to follow and to stay in, 'Can you grab my notes from the table?"
Bruce carefully crosses the street to meet Blonsky with caution, "Talk fast, I have someplace to be."
Emil chuckles, "It's a strange place we've found ourselves in. Hmm? It would seem you're doing better than I in finding our way home."
Bruce offers an uncharacteristically vicious stare down, "You're not getting back, not with me. Not after what I saw you doing with those kids."
He smirks, "Cold. Quite cold."
"What I was able to put together was- pretty bad. Not to mention the attempted attack on Natasha."
Emil snickers, "The only way to get a reaction from you, my passive friend, is to target those you are closest to."
"I still don't know why you do what you do. What do you get out of it?"
"An army doctor, think of the future. Think of the possibilities."
"So power. Yippee."
"You disagree with my methods."
"I disagree with everything that makes you, you."
"Oh doctor.."
Bruce feels a rage in his chest, "You took everything from me-! I could kill you for it."
"She was your everything…Does Romanoff know that?"
Banner grinds his teeth.
"You would leave me here, would you not?" Blonsky asks.
Bruce rolls his tongue over his inner cheek, trying to lay out his options.
Blonksy laughs coldly, "This will never end until one of us is dead."
"You won't turn yourself in."
"No. I'm a soldier. Soldiers don't surrender."
"You'd, rather just, die than make up for your mistakes…"
"Let's settle this. Tonight. Put an end to it all; nearly 15 years of feuding. If I win, if I beat the hulk, I get to go home thanks to your research and the efforts of your precious Elizabeth Ross."
Bruce crosses his arms suspiciously, "You act like I'm anywhere close to break through."
"You're a genius doctor. I might despise your very existence but even I cannot deny your intellect. And if you win tonight, well. Then I am no longer a thorn in your side. Midnight. Where we came in, outside the hospital."
"No. The park across from it. No one else needs to be involved. This is between us."
"If you don't show I will crush Miss Ross, one final time."
"You'd have to kill the hulk first," He snaps angrily.
"I shall enjoy that."
Bruce feels an immediate loss of control with green in his eyes and pooling through his veins.
He reaches to impulsively choke Emil's neck, instantly regretting it when the man doesn't fight back, "You bring out the worst in me!"
"You do that all on your own."
"Dr. Romanoff! Oh my gosh! Let him go,' Elizabeth interrupts with an intervention and a stern expression when she addresses Blonsky, 'I am so sorry! How can we help you sir?"
Bruce flushes, the color draining from his cheeks upon realizing she hasn't listened and has made her way in between them. He has a thought to transform immediately and squash Blonsky...Hulk seems to approve.
Subconsciously, Bruce takes Elizabeth's arm and urges her to his side with his brown eyes wide.
"'Dr. Romanoff'? Alright,' Emil just laughs and shakes his head, his arms crossed, 'No ma'am. But you should be careful of this one. He's got a bit of a temper."
Elizabeth speaks up firmly, tugging her arm away from Banner's grip and addresses Emil, "I'm aware now, thank you."
Bruce growls, not wanting to fight even if Hulk is begging to push through.
Emil salutes, giving Bruce a lingering stare, "I should be off. Good day to you both."
Ross turns to address the doctor behind her in no mood for excuses, "What was that about?"
"Nothing-."
"Nothing?! It looked like you two were ready to knock each other out! That doesn't seem like 'nothing'-."
"Forget it."
"I want to know what's going on- I deserve an answer, please."
He cringes and lowers his head, wringing at his fingers to channel nervous energy as the hulk subsides, "He's from my world and he's dangerous."
She crosses her arms, "That's funny. You were the one choking him. Not the other way around."
He nods quietly and continues to shred his hands, "...I know it looks bad-."
"Are you some, mentally unstable home wrecker or something?"
"...No. I- Well."
She lifts and holds her shoulder up, "I'm listening."
Elizabeth waits in silence. Upon realizing she won't get anything further she offers a stack of his notes from her bag without an expression;
"Let's just get to the lab."
"Elizabeth. He's just...not a good person-. He's hurt a lot of people, people I care about,' he swallows hard and releases his own fingers he's been tugging and takes the notepad. 'I need you to trust me on this and just stay away from him."
She widens her stare and digs for her keys, "I don't know why but I trust you even if it's against my better judgement."
Bruce takes a breath, hoping to collect himself enough to get through the day. His 4-7-8 isn't working. He tugs at his neck, tired of fighting with the Hulk who can't seem to relax.
"You can do it! I believe in you, I frickin believe in you-," Tony tugs at his hair, taking quick breaths when the girl rips the wire from her head.
Izabella grunts mid tantrum, throwing her hands into the table that she tries to flip, screaming in her own language.
Stark waits during her fit until he's about to start his own. The engineer sinks behind the desk instead and chooses to observe, "I don't get it kid, we've tried everything- you won't flip the table, you're not strong enough so just quit it."
"I can't," she screams, her face turning pink."
"Can't, or don't want to."
"I can't! I can't!"
"So you're giving up. I think you're tired. I think you should give up and go home," he's taking a page from Romanoff's book.
"No!"
"No? You don't care about us, helping anyone. You just want to destroy things-."
"Stop!"
"You just want to take us all away to god knows where. Did you kill him? Did you kill my buddy?" Tony hates himself for his words.
"Ahhh!"
When the lights flicker everyone but the girl is absolutely silent. Stark's eyes widen over the pure power in her rage, listening to the girl scream in all her fury over the frustrations of the past few days. He ducks when the lightbulb shatters, the power shortening abruptly.
The wires spark, holograms go out. Tony lifts his eyebrows and just watches as the green sparkles briefly reach her fingertips.
The chaos comes next with every agent shouting his name. Tony doesn't care, finally seeing a genuine fire in the girl the headquarters has started to call 'the bomb' despite other children being genuine explosives. For some reason she will always be more dangerous. Witnessing the lights flicker and the power shorten over a scream, Tony is slightly more convinced. He leans forward curiously, "Izzy?"
The girl has her head up, panting and out of breath from her tantrum. The green in her stare finally fades.
Her fists are clenched when she looks back at him with tears still in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, "What?"
She feels immediate regret for losing her temper. A fit that has caused her to focus more intently than she ever has. Her hand lifts, fingers unwrapping an object in her hand.
Tony points, "What's in your hand?"
She breathes. Lightheaded and dizzy, she looks at the light weighted object in her hand; a rubber band. More appropriately, Clint's rubber band.
She reveals it cautiously, her eyes soft, "It...it…"
"Did you- Was that in space?"
She shrugs, "I...no. Yes...yes?"
Tony claps, "Listen! You scream all you want, you genius you! You short circuit everything in this dump but my suit for all I care-! We're throwing a party over that shitty rubber band god damn it! Yes! Queen! Step one is done!"
"Step one?!" She panics, suddenly feeling dizzy.
Tony on the other hand can hardly control his excitement as he runs down the hall screaming, "Someone get my wife on the phone! RHODEY-! Get your ass in here I need to call Pepper!"
Clint yells, "And I need the electricity back! So get your ass up to the generator!"