Chapter 5

Hulk Travel

Hulk eventually came to stop in New Mexico at what seemed to be some sort of desert base. He set Natasha down and shouldn't help but feel weak in the knees from the sudden stop and the way they had traveled. She took a moment to regain herself and understand where she was. Hulk had made sure she was safe during the trip but that didn't exactly help with how she felt. She looked around realizing they were at a military base, one that hadn't been used in a long time by the looks. She moved slowly along the cabins while Hulk stood where he had landed, "Hulk home."

"This… This is the bomb site," Natasha commented, "This is-"

"Where Hulk born," Hulk replied with a nod and stated again, "Hulk home."

"Guess it was abandoned after everything that happened," Natasha replied as she looked at the destroyed cabins that once was home to the scientists and family members of the personnel who worked there. She was careful about how she moved expecting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents or Ross to be hiding around any corner waiting for them. They must have had this place watched since they knew Hulk tended to travel around this area. She walked through some of the holes in the walls of the cabins that had been emptied, each one adding a new reality to the story she had heard so often. A man left the safety of a bunk during a bomb test to save a boy he didn't know, a Russian spy tried to kill the man by letting the bomb go off. The man still saved the boy but became a monster for this, and in many ways ruined his life. That monster had destroyed the base during a fight with the military in an attempt to see someone he cared about. Now that so called monster had returned willingly to this place as he so often did because he had nowhere else to go, this destruction was all he knew.

Natasha walked back outside taking each sight in carefully, still unsure. She was aware of Hulk slowly following her as she explored. She walked up to another cabin and wiped the dust away from the name plate to see Bruce's name. She entered it if only to see if there was anything left. There was a missing wall and destroyed science equipment everywhere, she had heard once that the Russian spy who helped caused this tried to rob Bruce but was found by Hulk who tore open the cabin. She moved through the building, and heard some glass under her feet as she moved into the living area. She looked down seeing a picture frame and couldn't help but pick it up. She found the picture of a woman inside, old and worn from being left here for so long. She looked at the woman with interest, unsure who she was though she did look like Betty Ross it was clear it wasn't her. She turned to Hulk and help out the picture to him, "Hulk, you wouldn't happen to know who this is would you?"

Hulk looked at the picture gently taking it from Natasha. He stood there looking at it for a moment and frowned with a nod. "…Mother," With that simple word Natasha remembered that while Hulk was large, destructive and had a brilliant scientist inside him he was little more than a very young child. Bruce's childhood trauma and anger made into flesh but also that wish to protect his family. Hulk stared at the picture for a long time then held it out to Natasha to take away. As soon as it was out of his hand Hulk turned and punched the wall. Natasha jumped back, she should have known better than to bring up old memories with Hulk. Hulk didn't turn on Natasha though, he didn't even keep punching. He stood there with his hand in the wall breathing heavily at his memories and slowly he pulled his hand out. He walked outside the cabin to wait for Natasha to finish, sitting down. Natasha pocketed the picture, she wasn't sure what urged her to do that but Bruce had brought it with him here all those years ago, even back then the memory must have been painful but she knew he did it so he never forgot. She certainly wasn't going to leave it on the ground to be treated like trash.

Natasha continued walking through Bruce's old cabin; she wasn't sure what else to do until Bruce took over again. She found old research papers and other pictures many of him and Betty together on the base. She came across an old doll of some sort in a cardboard box, humanoid in appearance but not human closer to that of an elf or some sort of anthropomorphic horse maybe? She wasn't really sure. It was old though and an arm had been carelessly torn off of it. She was rather certain it wasn't Bruce who tore the arm off but could probably believe one of the military personnel, most likely Ross, had done it and annoyed Bruce. She smiled a bit as she looked at it.

The sudden voice from behind her made her jump a bit, "That was Guardian. My mother gave him to me when I was young and by that I mean it was the first gift she gave me when she brought me home. He was basically my only friend for the longest time, at least until I met Jen but we so rarely saw each other so all I really had was Guardian. I relied on him for everything back then. I remember asking him to warn me if my father woke up one Christmas morning. He fell over right as my father came downstairs and when I looked to see what had happened my father was yelling at me." Bruce walked up beside Natasha taking the doll from her, "it went downhill from there." He was shirtless and his pants were barely staying on but it was something she had seen many times before when Bruce was part of the team.

"Bruce… I'm sorry," Natasha said softly, "I was just looking around and came across it."

"It's alright, I had forgotten he- it was here." His eyes landed on the missing arm, "I remember when I came here and Ross tore off the arm after Betty found it. Yelled about how it wasn't important and how he wanted the bomb he was promised. He was right, I had to let go of such childish things and stuff like this. Keeping him won't bring anything back." Bruce let Guardian fall back into the box, "Come on we can't stay here, it's too dangerous."

"Where do you plan on going?" Natasha asked.

"There's a cave, it's fairly well hidden. Rick and I used to go there when I was working back when Hulk was more, let's say predictable. It has an old lab and has served me well in the past." Bruce started walking, it was clear the trip had drained him physically as he started to trip over his own feet. Natasha caught him before he fell ready to help him get to the cave he spoke of. "Thanks. There's some clothes in the lab there. It's right over there." He pointed to some rock formations in the distance.

"Alright," Natasha nodded, "Do you have a plan to break into the S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse?"

"Sort of," Bruce admitted, "I was thinking we Trojan Horse it. If we can get our hands on some of that heavy armor S.H.I.E.L.D. uses that hides the face then I can walk you right into the base."

"They'll have twenty guns aimed at me as soon as they see me," Natasha replied, "granted I've been through worse but these guys are ready for me."

"Are they ready for you to be handcuffed and drugged?" Bruce questioned.

"What are you planning?" Natasha raised an eyebrow not liking where this was going.

"Well you can slip out of handcuffs fairly easily last time I checked," Bruce replied, "I can make it seem like you're sedated without actually sedating you."

"I don't like where this plan is going," Natasha is replaced, "Handcuffed, drugged, what next? Black bagged? Are we able to come up with a worse idea?"

"Black bag might actually help," Bruce replied, "But it could be worse, we could have no idea. We'll get our hands on one of their outfits, we'll go in, they'll lower their guard if they think you're drugged."

"Only if they're newer recruits, one senior agent in there and the guards will be doubled," Natasha pointed out.

"Then it's a good thing our back up plan is that the guy standing beside you is the Hulk," Bruce shrugged with a smirk, "and they won't know that until it's too late. But let's avoid that option."

"They'll call Ross and instantly call the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. once I'm in there," Natasha replied.

"We'll sneak past as long as we can and we'll stop them from calling for back up," Bruce replied, "Just get me to that cave." Natasha dragged Bruce the rest of the way to the cave. He pointed at a wall inside and lifted up a stone to reveal a button causing the door to the hidden lab to open. Once inside he walked around on his own though still weak he was recovering. He went through the old boxes he had left behind looking for something pulling out a large metal device, "Communication jammer. It'll work over a short radius. It's only a prototype from years ago but it should work. Course it might short circuit, I don't know."

"This plan just gets better and better," Natasha replied sarcastically but they didn't have anything better and they were quickly running out of time. There was no telling what was happening to Clint not to mention whatever they would end up doing to Steve or Tony eventually. "If things turn bad your other half better show up and get us out."

"We'll leave in the morning," Bruce smirked, "there are some beds over here for the times when Rick and I crashed here." He waved for Natasha to follow him. Bruce removed a cover from the beds that protected them from the dust of the lab. "It'll get fairly cold here at night, so do be careful."

"Alright," Natasha nodded, "Bruce… Try to actually be here when I get up this time instead of chopping wood or calling in favors." Bruce let out a soft chuckle at that.

((The characters in this are once again not mine they are Marvel's.))