Issue #5: Day 38
Bruce
He screamed as loud as he could at the wall that encircled him, With everything he had he smashed his fist into the target, Cracks started to form from the center where his fist had just hit, Calming himself Bruce returned from being the Hulk to inspect the damage he caused.
Annoyed at the fact that the wall still wasn't strong enough he returned to his desk in order to calculate what went wrong, He was thankful that tony had invented pants that stayed on while he was both himself and The Hulk.
Reading over the data he had just collected he was surprised to see that the punch was double the strength of the previous ones he had collected, The hulk was getting stronger ever since he learned how to control him.
He was getting ready to return to being the hulk when Tony ran through the door holding up a piece of paper "I did it, ha, i know when her birthday is" Bruce had no idea what he was talking about so he followed him as to find out what the hell was going on.
Bruce had just entered the sitting area of Stark Tower when Maria grabbed him by the hand and threw him behind a couch.
"What the hell is going on" he asked agitated by there behavior, looking around he noticed that Barton, Thor, Rogers, Pepper and Fury where also hiding
"Its Natasha's birthday today which we only just found out about, so we invited her over for a surprise party"
Bruce knew how close to the chest Natasha kept her personal information so finding out when her birthday is was a big step forward in getting her to become more of person then a soldier.
Natasha
She was worried about today, she hadn't spoken to any of the team since new york so it surprised her when she received a call from maria to just Catch up, Especially considering what today was, Her dread of what was to come rose the closer she got to the towers base, Whatever they had planned she knew that Stark would have a big hand in it and that made what she was fearing even more frightening.
Reaching the front entrance door, she stopped to take a breathe in order to calm herself.
The elevator ride was longer then she had expected and the music playing in it was grating her nerves.
Opening the door to the seating area she was greeted with what she feared the most,
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" A group of people screamed at her as they jumped up from there hiding places, In any other circumstance Natasha would have removed her gun and shot all of them, the first person she noticed was Bruce, For the simple fact that he was shirtless.
"Thanks for dressing up Bruce" She was glad to see that he wasn't embarrassed by his state of undress.
"You've seen worse" he replied making his way to her with his hand outstretched, She took it and shook "Happy birthday, Nat" he said, Natasha had never been called Nat before and was glad that it didn't annoy her.
Bruce moved away and allowed for everyone else to greet her and wish her a Happy birthday.
The party had been going on for an hour when Natasha finally relaxed and started to enjoy herself, She had found out that stark had discovered her birthday that morning and that was the reason she received no gifts, Luckily for them she had never received gifts for her birthday before so her disappointment was non existent.
Walking over to the food table Natasha noted that Bruce was nowhere to be seen, thinking back over the entire party Natasha realized that she had only seen Bruce twice the whole time, Sneaking from the party she made her way down the hall to where Bruce's quarters where, Knocking on his door his voice came through.
"Come In" Entering the room she spotted the first aid kit open on his table and a blood covered bandage on the floor
"Are you OK" worry evident in her voice, Finally finished with the new bandage Bruce placed a glove over his hand and turned to her.
"Its the cut from the hellicarrier, For some reason it wont heal, me and Tony have no idea why, so for now all i can do is Bandage it and do this" He lifted his injured hand and ran two finger from the other over the back of it causing the glove to perfectly blend in with his skin.
"Well next time tell me so i don't think you hate me by leaving me on my birthday, yeah" he smiled and exited the room with Natasha to return to the party.
Bruce
The party was finally over, Tony and Pepper where the first to leave so they could make it back to Miami before tomorrow came, Hill and Barton where next leaving Fury to take The captain home.
The pain came suddenly, His head feeling as though it was splitting in two, the world around him blurred and his anger engulfing him, Bruce could see Natasha making her way towards him and within a split second she was thrown from one end of the room to the other, her head hitting the wall hard.
As quickly as the pain had come it was gone and Bruce was left curled in a ball on the ground with no recollection of how he got there, standing he saw Natasha sprawled on the ground near the entrance, Blood pooling around her head, Running Bruce made his way to her falling next to her he tore off a sleeve from his Shirt and wrapped it around the gash on her head, Lifting her he ran to his room and placed her on the bed.
It was two hours later when she finally woke, Bruce was working in his lab drawing blood from his arm when she entered, removing the syringe he ran to her, grabbing her arm softly he looked into her eyes and spoke
"Are you OK, I'm doing tests now to see what happened to me in order to do that to you"
Natasha walked past him without saying a word and sat on the roller chair at his desk, Spinning around she faced him.
"Your eyes where purple, I'm not sure if that would help but its the last thing I remember" Bruce grabbed a second chair and sat in front of her.
"Do you want me to take you home" Natasha shook her head
"I want you to find out what the hell was wrong with you so we can stop it from happening again" Bruce lowered his head guilt covering his face, Natasha lifted his chin and looked at him concern in her eyes.
"it wasn't you Bruce OK, And i fear that whatever it was isn't gone so grow up and find out what it is" She finished, removing her hand from his chin, Standing he made his way back to the Syringe he was using, Placing a drop of blood on a slide he slid it under a microscope for inspection.
It looked normal and Bruce was lost, Turning on the Bunsen burner he put some of his blood in a beaker and heated it to the temperature his body becomes when he turned into the hulk.
It only took seconds for the blood to become the familiar shade of green, Inspecting the blood again Bruce was unable to find anything wrong with it, Natasha walked over to Bruce and stood next to him, One hand still clutching the bandage on her head.
"If we go to shield we can have a full team of experts look over your blood, Maybe they could find something you missed" Natasha spoke while pointing at the Vile of blood.
"Yeah Maybe, Thank you by the way for believing that i wouldn't do what i did to you on purpose" Natasha laughed and put a hand on Bruce's shoulder.
"Trust me, as someone who has had to run from The other guy i know when you are and when your not in control of it, Besides nothing triggered you, So whatever happened we will find a way to fix it OK" And with that she was gone.
Bruce turned to the Vile full of blood for one last examination, Opening a small bag on the side of the table Bruce removed a bottle of his yellow potion, Mixing the two liquids together he waited to see if there would be a reaction, Within a minute the blood turned from red to Purple, Bruce watched as the glass of the vile began to crack and suddenly it explode, Ducking under the table Bruce was able to avoid being struck by any glass.
Standing Bruce took in his surroundings, Glass was embedded deep in the walls, The explosion was strong enough to embed glass in concrete.
Natasha
She couldn't breath, the wait upon her chest was to much for her to bare, The ground was cracking around her and the fear of the world giving way form beneath her was high.
His Eyes where wrong, She knew they where cause she would never forget the way they normally looked when he was like this.
Slowly She woke, Natasha's breathing was oddly calm and her heart rate seemed normal, the dream was fake and she knew it was though that didn't stop it from creeping her out, Exiting the bed, slowly she made her way to the bathroom, a small line of sweat had formed on her upper lip, Wiping it away she went to the shower and turned on the cold water full blast.
Stripping of her clothes she moved her foot under the water, The cold sent a shock up her leg waking her up a little bit, Quickly she submerged her entire body underneath the water and allowed the shock to wake her completely.
Closing her eyes the sight of Bruce turning with purples eyes washed over her vision, Ten minutes had passed when Natasha finally felt awake, Turning off the water she stepped from the shower and dried herself off.
Opening the draw where she kept her underwear she was alarmed to see a not resting on her unmentionables, opening it she read,
To Whom it may concern
It has come to our attention that the spy Natasha Ramonoff is a Double Agent working for Hydra, A WWII organization that attempted to win the war for the Germans, The order is to kill on sight, She is armed and dangerous.
Shield
Dropping the letter Natasha quickly dressed and armed herself, About to leave her phone pinged alerting her to a Message, it read.
HAIL HYDRA.