It was finally dark enough to creep down from the perch the Hawk had chosen. We had spent the entire day on top of dirty metal building, moving with the shade, though that hadn't stopped the heat from staying with us. The tan sari that Clint has said would let me blend in better was tight around my legs, making it hard to follow the difficult path Clint was creating. I was completely out of shape and wasn't very sure that I would be much use if it came down to a fight. Why did I think that Bruce would want to fight us? But that wasn't why I felt like a fight was coming, and I knew that Clint could feel it too, but we wouldn't speak our worries out loud, it might jinx us. We reached the ground, mud stuck to my bare feet and I swear I could smell something other than the raw sewage that surrounded us. Orphaned children ran around us, there dirty faces not even pausing to see the white people that had invaded their home. I threw money on the ground hoping that someone who needed would find it.
It was probably unwise to not wear shoes around this place, but as we squeezed through the tiny ally like streets I could see the city better than I had before. It was full of so many people I felt trapped and I knew that Clint felt the same. In New York I always wore shoes; the buzzing of over eight million souls was a constant headache. These three million souls were hard for me to focus. How did Bruce feel cramped up with almost four million people rushing around him like bees constantly buzzing.
"Do you feel anything?" Clint asked stopping near the river. I glared at the boy wanted to smack him in the face. But, from what SHEILD could tell us, Bruce was close. Forcing him to confront me with all these people around was probably the worst idea that SHEILD had ever had. I felt sick running along the edge of the river, we finally spotted the house or what was considered a house in this part of the world. It was slightly distant from the rest of the slums, it sat at the other side of the river and was almost professionally constructed by someone who hadn't lived her there whole life. The river was clogged with trash and human waste, my humanitarian soul wanted to clear this river but there wasn't enough time. I quickly summoned the water to form an ice bridge that Clint and I skidded across reaching the other side before it started to melt away. I was not as strong as I used to be.
It started to rain immediately soaking my clothes to my skin. Clint led me with three feet of the house. He made a grand gesture with his arm, allowing me to go first. I rolled my eyes making my way slowly to his door. Or what I assumed was the door; I was a long piece of sheet metal that had a wooden handle like thing for the doorknob. I could hear Clint behind me doing a sweep of the area, it was now or never. I reached out and knocked. I heard shuffling around in the house, like he had been reading something almost half heartily, because he would have never gotten up that fast if it had been something that he really liked. I braced myself for the anger, the fear, the sadness, but nothing compared to what I saw on that man's face.
"Namaskāra, maiṁ kaisē madada kara sakatā hai?" He asked swinging open the door a slight smile on his calm face. Nothing had changed in the year that I had been gone, maybe the grey around his temples had spread a little farther back into his head, and maybe the wrinkles around his eyes were a little deeper, but he was still the man who I had loved me. I couldn't help but smile, and as I did this his face crumbled under a weight that seemed heavier than anything that he had ever carried.
"Hey, I only know how to say like three words in Hindi and none of that was it." I smirked pushing the wet piece of the sari out of my eyes. He rolled his eyes and scoffed his hand reaching for his hair, but he stopped mid reach bring his hand back fiercely to his side.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked not meeting my gaze. I looked down towards my feet hoping that I wasn't betraying how hurt he made me feel. I knew that I had caused so much more pain.
"I was sent to come get you." I answered back snapping my eyes back to him.
"How did they even find me?"
"Ask Clint, but we got to get going the plane leaves in like the next hour and we have to get to the other side of the city." I shrugged looking for the Hawk behind my shoulder. He was nowhere in sight.
"What if I don't go?" he asked crossing his arms.
I laughed out loud wiping an imaginary tear from my eye. "Do you think that I wanted to go with them when they picked me up? Sweetie they got ways and we are not leaving India without you."
"Speaking of leaving," Clint interrupted suddenly coming out of the dark. "We got company; we need to get out of here now."
I spun on my heel gazing across the river to be greeted with the sight of at least twenty men dressed in military gear. There wasn't a military base within a fifty mile radius, this was unexplained. An older gentleman with graying hair took three steps ahead of his little band of men.
"Give us Banner and we can leave without a fight." He said in a voice that seen battle before. It seemed as if he knew how to speak gently to us, as if he really didn't want to hurt us. Or he was just a really good actor.
"Its General Ross," Bruce whispered a chill in his voice.
"You came with all that fire power and you don't want fight?" I smiled sweetly taking another step towards the river's edge. The rain was now a fine mist making it easier to see what we were really up against. Twenty two men stood in a solid line, three to four feet apart, each holding an AK-47 or high caliber weapon. I could swear I saw one holding a bazooka.
"I can take care of this," Bruce huffed about to move past me. I held up my arm to stop him, which he did without fussing.
"On three, run." I whispered as the earth trembled beneath our feet. "ONE"
"Now little lady we just want the good doctor, or were afraid that someone is going to get hurt." The General said a certain twitch in his face now.
"TWO!" I swirled the water in the river, ready to throw the entire river at them.
"MEN," the General shouted. "READY TO FIRE."
"THREE," I used all the force that I could muster in my not so prepared body. The river rose under my command, but instead of sweeping the unit away it froze mid wave creating a wall between us. The boys had taken off and I sped after them. I caught up with Bruce almost immediately, Clint was ahead barking in to a cell phone of sorts. Bruce was huffing and I felt almost the same way, I hadn't ran this fast in over a year. I heard an explosion behind us that made the ground shake the ground below our feet. I sent rock flying behind us hopefully taking out some of the men that were after us. The open ground melted back into a slum this one with closer buildings and stickier ground. I could feel the rumble of the men following us, the wall hadn't held them.
"We're somewhere in the Amberpet district," Bruce gasped clutching his side.
"Good we have to get to the highway that's where Agent Brown is completing the extraction." Clint snapped back loading his bow with another arrow. "Can you create some fog or something to hide us?"
"I could try, but the rain that little rain was soaked up by the ground." I clipped trying to keep close between the two men.
"I could just let the other guy out and destroy the son of bitch that dare threatened you…I mean us."
"Not a good idea; there are too many people around and when they start shooting how do we know they won't hit anybody." I shrugged smiling secretly to myself he still wanted to protect me. I heard something whistling above us, before I could warn anyone to what I was hearing fire burst from the building we were standing next to sending all of us flying. I quickly started throwing whatever I could in from the direction of the blast. It was probably the God-damned bazooka I could hear people crying out in craziness, but my boys were nowhere to be found. I jumped up pulling the fire away from around me sending it out of the building I had been thrown into.
"BRUCE? CLINT?" I shouted coughing up smoke and dust that accumulated in my lungs. Heavy boots pounded past me, no one bothering to look at me. I threw myself out of the building crashing into one of the soldiers, quickly knocking him unconscious with a swift kick to the head. I lifted the earth around me burying the other men in a pile of rock and dust. I sprinted down the alley, fire still whipped around the surrounding buildings and somewhere I could hear the zipping of arrows. Dirty faced children ran past me, crying for any parent that could hear them. Shots cracked down the street and I followed the sound tossing fire at the general direction of the sound. Before I could reach the gunfire someone crashed into me, throwing us both into the street.
"You must be that new girl," his snide voice slid into my ear. He had my arms pinned above my head and his knees digging into my thighs. "To pretty to be with a beast like Banner, my daughter had the same problem. Pulled in by the sweet outside, do you have any idea what a killer he is?"
I stared into the gray face of Thaddeus Ross, his blue eyes held a certain insanity in them. Chills ran up my spine as the fire that he had created rage around us. He was going to use me as bait to get to Bruce, not again. I spat in his face causing the minimal lifting of his knees from my legs that I needed to get the advantage. I kicked my knee up ramming him in the balls, using this force I flipped us over with the earth so I was now on top of him. His iron grip on my wrists quickly released as flames crept up my arms. He howled in pain pulling himself into a ball of agony. I sprinted from him blasting through whatever was in my way. Without looking I suddenly ran into something that was solid, but only human solid. Whoever they were hooked onto me causing us to tumble into the dirt. I started kicking wildly, I wasn't the weak girl who let Loki take her by force over a year ago, I was stronger and I wasn't going to let whoever this was take me.
"Liz, stop it's me!" the familiar rough voice huffed. It was Clint, he rolled off me gripping onto my arm tightly he pulled me into a standing position.
"Bruce?" I questioned searching his eyes.
"I left him on the highway about a mile south of here, SHEILD made the pickup and we have six minutes till the next one."
"Let's get the fuck out of here."
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"The slum is completely destroyed," one of the many Agents I had met in the last twenty four hours told us with a grim face. She wasn't used to getting bad news. "The death count is unattainable yet for the fire is still uncontained. General Ross and most of his men are considered missing in action; the others are in our custody undergoing questioning."
I curled further up in my seat. I was the guilty party in starting the fire. I used it to try to kill the people who attacked us. I should have picked a different element. I wasn't thinking and the blood of those who suffered was on my hands. Bruce was still refusing to speak to anyone. He sat blank faced in the back of the plane, he didn't sleep, he didn't eat, and he was a ghost of the man that I once knew. Clint was passed out in the set of chairs across from mine. The blonde agent rolled her eyes and walked down the length of the plane slamming the door to the meeting room behind her.
"Hey Clint," I whipped air on his face. He jumped up in a fighting position but quickly realized it was just me trying to get his attention. "You pissed of the blonde agent, but basically I messed up again, just more innocent blood on my hands."
"Slow down, kid. You didn't fire the bazooka." Clint answered slumping back into his seat. "You just used what you could to save your friends."
I tried to answer him with how wrong he was, but he was right, I couldn't control other people and their reactions. I was not at fault for starting the fire, just not ending it. Clint stood up suddenly winking at me as he passed to go to the back of the plane. I sipped from my water, not remembering ordering sparkling.
"Bruce!" he exclaimed. "How the hell are you?"
That was the last that I heard of the conversation, because at that very moment I felt very sleepy and in the last few seconds before the darkness surrounded me I cursed Clint to the deepest pits of hell of drugging me while I was distracted.
/*/*/*/*/*****************/*/*/********************/**/*****************/*/**/*/*/*/
(BRUCE POV)
I eyed Clint trying my best to keep the other guy from jumping up and throwing the bird man out of the plane. I was upset, I was taken from my safe heaven forced to deal not only with the one girl I didn't want to see, but also with the one person who had wanted to kill me for as long as he had known me. He sat down across from me a soft smile on his lips. What could he be so happy about?
"Don't worry she won't hear us talking; I slipped something into her drink she will be out for a couple hours." He answered my unasked question a trickster like glint in his eyes. I rolled my eyes throwing what was left of my vodka tonic in the trash. Over the last year I had gotten very good at controlling my other side while extremely drunk. He didn't care as much to come out when our shared brain was inebriated. "Dude, I wouldn't drug you, we got to talk."
"What could we possibly talk about that won't be talked about the moment we land in New York?" I asked sighing at the bird man.
"Everyone is going to ask you the obvious question, but no one is really going to care except for me and the rest of the team about how exactly you plan on winning her back."
"I have to win her back?" I almost shouted outraged at his logic, she had some serious explaining to do. There was no telling what had happened in the year that she was missing for I knew she could have/should of fell in love with someone else. "She is the one who left me or did you forget that part?"
"I know she did Bruce, and that isn't the point. She was living with some other boy in a one room apartment when Nat and I found her."
I gripped the seat harder hearing a slight rip coming from the leather. Clint eyed me with a guilty look on his face. What exactly was his plane if I hulked out ten thousand feet above the Sahara desert?
"Did I really need to know that?" I sneered, my pulse rising. I just needed to know his name and I could end his life from here.
"Like she doesn't need to know about Betty?" Clint glared back at me. I froze; there was no way he should know that. I had told her to keep her mouth shut about us. I was desperate; I needed release from all the pain that I was in. I called the one person that would hurt Liz the most if I ever got the chance to tell her what I had done. Hulk roared inside of me, he roared with anger, hurt and exhaustion. He wanted to wrap Liz up in his arms, hold her close and somehow explain how much of a fool I had been. He knew I was fool and what the fuck was wrong with me if the monster inside of me was telling me what a horrid person I was.
"How did you know?" I questioned to afraid to meet his eyes.
"Mmmmhhhh, could it have been when her father tried to kill us? I wonder." He faked pondering scratching his stupid head. "One and one usually equals two, doc."
"Great, does she know?"
"Unsure, but when she does hell hath no fury. Don't get me wrong she has some stuff to explain too, but I would probably open with your baggage first. Women like to know that there not the only ones who screwed up."
"I need a plan."