((Warning: Pain and injury ahead))

Chapter 9

The Incident: The Search

Natasha and Clint had gone to the rest of the Avnegers with what had happened while they chased King. They had told the story, the dart that hit Bruce, the order from Fury, the capture of King and the fact Bruce was missing when they returned with no trade. The entire group started to argue about what happened mainly between if they should have stayed behind with Bruce or not before the arguments became on if Bruce should have stayed behind or not. It took a while but the entire group calmed down and agree that the important thing was to find Bruce.

Everyone pulled in every resource they had to help with their search but there was no luck. Tony had poured his time into his tech to see if he could trade the gamma radiation Bruce had given off. Steve had gone through his ties to the government and gotten a chance to threaten General Ross who had no idea that Bruce was even missing. Thor had requested help from Odin and the other Asgardians but the location of Bruce didn't matter to them, so he was left to searching on his own. Natasha and Clint had used the resources S.H.I.E.L.D. had but also took to hitting the streets in the hopes of beating clues out of lower criminals who might have heard something, the beatings had just become good stress relief. Days turned into weeks and then weeks into months with no leads on where Bruce had been taken or who had taken him.

Most of the group were starting to give up hope and Fury was getting annoyed insisting S.H.I.E.L.D. would continue the search constantly but there were other matters that needed the Avengers. Reluctantly they did return to fighting off villains and threats though every chance each of them got they demanded information on where Bruce was however everyone seemed as clueless as they were on the first day. Clint had been sitting around the tower avoiding everyone after finishing an emergency call that ended up being a waste of his time, being extra muscle on a prisoner transport. He was more than a little surprised when Natasha burst into the room with a slight smile on her face, he hadn't seen that smile in a while, and to be honest the two had avoided each other for the most part unless they needed to talk about what happened just to relieve themselves of some of the guilt.

"We got a break," Natasha stated and within a second Clint was on his feet and grabbing his gear waving his hand for her to continue on with what she had found. "Someone is trying to sell off some blood on the black market, they claim it's Hulk blood. Seems a lot of people are interested in buying it, certainly a good way to make a profit. It's a long shot; this guy could be lying but…"

"It's better than what we've had so far," Clint replied, "Let's see how expensive information has gotten."

It didn't take long for the two to track down the man selling the blood off. They had followed him to an abandoned building which caused Clint to grumble about how typical it was for someone to do business in an abandoned building. The two snuck inside listening to the man talk to a few others about the price of the blood and them questioning if it was real or not. Clint moved to get ready but Natasha signaled for him to wait in order to see how the man would reply.

The man got out a Geiger counter running it over a contained of blood showing the spikes in the radiation that were coming off of it, "I was there when this sample was collected from the doctor himself. Satisfied? Of course if you still doubt me there are other buyers."

"Well I can say I'm satisfied," Clint announced his presence after that, since to him it confirmed what he needed to know. He let loose a net arrow to deal with the buyers and get them out of the way. When the man selling the blood tried to run Clint shot at him, purposely pretending to miss to force him to turn when he wanted and wear him out from running.

"What's wrong archer? Lost your aim?" The man teased but was quickly running out of breath. One last arrow caused the man to turn in a panic right into where Natasha was waiting. Within a second he was on the ground a bruise forming on his face from the impact of Natasha's fist.

Clint was slowly retrieving his arrows, his step feeling light from the hopefulness he had about this event. He walked over to where the man was laying, staring up in fear at Natasha who was making sure he didn't try to run again, fact was the man was too tired to try anything. "Nah, hit exactly where I was aiming every time. I just find integrations go faster when guys like you are tired and unable to fight back."

Natasha bent down reaching into the man's pocket to get out the blood samples he had, three in total. She looked at them then down at the man, "You have five seconds to tell us where you got these."

"I'm no snitch," The man shook his head, he saw something flash past him landing between his legs, a hair below his crotch.

"Four seconds," Clint commented, "Really not in the mood for games. Course if you still want to play them I can aim higher or you can see what she's able to do."

The man looked from the arrow to Clint then finally to Natasha and quickly started to explain. "My old boss, he fired me. I took the blood as uh compensation? It was easy they had tons from all the work they'd been doing. We were gathering the blood of Dr. Banner as well as other monsters and creatures."

Clint was ready to let another arrow fly at the man at that though Natasha simply stepped on his wrist and beat Clint to it, "Poor choice of words. That's our friend you're talking about, not a lab experiment and certainly not a monster. Now, where is he? And please tell me before I get bored."

The man yelled in pain when Natasha stepped on his wrist and his eyes went wide with terror as he spoke. "Allegheny Mountains they carved a base into it and reinforced it so your scans wouldn't get through. I don't know exactly where but I can point it out just don't kill me."

With that Natasha stepped off of the man and let Clint pull him up after retrieving his arrow. "Good news, you and I are going on a little trip before you find yourself in one S.H.I.E.L.D.s nice little housing units just for guys like you. If you're good on our trip I might just be nice and send you a magazine or some lube whichever you need more at the time."

The two dragged the man out following his directions to the mountains until they were outside of what was supposed to be the base he had told them about. The two called for the rest of the Avengers to show up and sent their informant off with a S.H.I.E.L.D. group to be dealt with. The group assessed the situation from outside staying out of sight.

"My scans can't get anything on this place and I need to get closer before Jarvis can hack it," Tony complained.

"Well according to my new friend," Clint replied pointing at the entrance, "Once that door opens security will show up and threaten just about anything and anyone until they show ID. Issue is we don't have ID. So we get close to it and security will start firing on us. Inside there should be some vents but to scout out where they connect out here would be next to impossible. I thought mountains were supposed to be snowy and rocky not… Green and thick with trees like this. I don't believe this place deserves to be called mountains."

"Complain about it later let's focus on getting inside," Steve replied, "We'll need to split into two teams a few of us will distract them and the others can sneak in and find Bruce."

"We'll sneak in and find Bruce," Natasha instantly volunteered herself and Clint, "This was our mess up, we'll fix it besides if these guys think they're getting attacked by the Avengers they'll be focusing on making sure the three of you are in sight anyways. If one of you went missing they could try to move Bruce out or worse."

Steve nodded, "Good point. Alright, wait for the battle to get heated then get yourselves inside and find him. We'll call in for Fury to send more agents in when you two secure Bruce."

"Deal," Clint nodded moving over to Natasha's side. The two waited and watched as the other three started their attack. Thor breaking open the door with his hammer and the security inside rushing out. Tony and Capt joined Thor and started to battle back the security that seemed to never end. Tony shooting down the automated security bots while Capt and Thor kept dealing with the armored men rushing out. When the battle seemed chaotic and out of control Natasha and Clint slipped by and inside the base. Clint kept his eyes open for vent entrances soon finding one and pulling himself in offering his hand to Natasha to help her up if only so the two wouldn't be in the path of any of the security heading to meet the others. The two moved silently through the vents finding ways down to the lower levels of the base. Clint kicked open one of the vents and dropped down into the hall, the smell of blood, disease and decay flooded his senses making him gag as Natasha jumped down to join him. "This has to be the place."

The two moved down the hall slowly, they could hear the screams of pain and people begging for death or some sort of mercy. Inhuman roars of distress came from several rooms but above all of the voices and yells they could hear one they recognized all too well and it caused each step to become heavier and more painful. They shot each other a look both wishing this was just a nightmare that they weren't hearing anything. Looking around the corner Clint saw two rather large guards, shooting them down neatly and quickly he nodded at Natasha to show the coast was clear. The voice they knew was yelling in pain but was also making threats that it seemed unable to back up. Promising to destroy everyone but unable to let Hulk out to prove his point or get anyone off of him. As they moved down the hall, alert for any more danger, they heard a sickening cry of pain and crack and the voice they had been following was now silent. They approached the clean, white door that seemed an insult to the yells and smell of the basement. Natasha had two handguns out and nodded at Clint who kicked open the door, and raised his bow, drawing the string back neatly. Natasha fired fist, two clean shots but after that she froze.

There were three men left in the room other than Bruce, two backed away in fear at the two people entering interrupting there work. The third stood behind Bruce with a knife to his throat. Bruce was strapped down to a chair, chemicals being pumped nonstop into his back to stop him from Hulking out while it seemed they were harvesting blood from his arms. Bruce's body was covered in gashes and bruises that matched tools on a table not far from him. "One move and I'll slit his throat."

Both were frozen watching the figure, Bruce completely limp but still breathing and awake. The man was clearly telling the truth about his willingness to kill. Then it got worse, Bruce decided to speak though his voice was impossibly weak from the last blow he had taken just moments before, "Let him do it. Please, let him end this."

Clint's eyes landed on Bruce recognizing how broken he was, he shot a glance at Natasha knowing neither one of them planned on letting Bruce die without a fight though hearing him say that still hurt. Natasha shook her head, "Let him go and I won't kill you."

"What's to stop you from putting a bullet in my head when I remove then knife?" The man asked, he pressed the knife closer to Bruce's throat; a simple twitch would break the skin along the blade.

"Nothing," Natasha admitted, "But I never said I was going to put a bullet in your head to kill you if you didn't let him go. If you let him go you get arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D., simple as that and we never need to run into each other again unless you cause a problem that I have to clean up. However if you choose to kill Bruce then you'll find yourself in a cold dark room for a very long time with only one visitor ever showing up, me. I will find out every single thing you have ever done to him, I will figure out every torture you used, every drug you put into him, every cut you made and I swear I will repay each one ten times over on you. I will keep cutting away for months just as you've done to him only far worse. I will not show you any mercy because you haven't shown him any mercy. I will cut and I will keep cutting until there is nothing left of you. I will keep this up for a very long time, much longer than you've had time to cut into him. After all of that I will let you die slowly, because a fast death would show mercy which I already promised I won't show you. It's your choice."

"You're bluffing," The man replied his hand shook after he listened to what Natasha said. He glanced from Clint who remained emotionless and then back at Natasha, "S.H.I.E.L.D. agents can't do that, they'd never allow you to."

"You really want to say I'm bluffing?" Natasha questioned, "I never said S.H.I.E.L.D. would know. They'd get down here and see the bodies of your friends and not find you anywhere. No one in this room would say that you were here. No one would know who you were or where you disappeared to. No one will repeat what I said to anyone. Even if someone higher up in S.H.I.E.L.D. found out, do you think they'd stop me as long as I kept it off the grid? Think the lower agents would have the guts to say anything against me? Clearly you have no clue who I am if you think that. Now then make your choice, drop the knife and step away from Dr. Banner or find exactly who the hell I am."

The man held Natasha's glare for a long time, longer than most people could. Slowly he lowered the knife away from Bruce and set it down on a table before taking a step back still watching Natasha, "Well played."

Natasha kept the gun aimed the man refusing to give him a chance to try anything, if he so much as glanced towards a weapon she'd kill him. Clint watched the other two guys who had backed away when they had entered the room making sure they didn't try. After a long moment of silence Natasha spoke up again, "All three of you out into the hallway, you're under arrest by order of S.H.I.E.L.D. you will be escorted out of this facility and taken into custody. Clint, grab Bruce let's get him home."

Clint nodded putting his bow away even though it made him slightly uneasy, he trusted Natasha to watch his back though and handle any trouble that showed up. He made his way over to the chair Bruce was strapped down to and started to undo the straps, and carefully removing the needles in his arms and along his back. Once Bruce was unstrapped his body leaned forward, completely limp. For a moment Clint's heart stopped thinking that Bruce's body couldn't handle the stress anymore and without Hulk everything failed. Clint carefully pressed two fingers to Bruce's neck checking for a pulse, relieved when he felt one, though it was weak. He soon saw slight movements showing Bruce was still breathing and let out a sigh of relief. With that he gently wrapped an arm around Bruce's waist, carefully avoiding the open wounds and bruises as best as he could. He pulled one of Bruce's arms over his shoulders and started to carry the other man out. Natasha had moved into the hall with the three men. She looked at Clint and Bruce once they were out before turning her attention back to the other three men. Ordering them forward she kept a close watch on all three remaining a few feet back to give her enough space to react if they tried anything. Clint trailed a short distance behind with Bruce. They could still hear the cries of others being tortured in the facility. "S.H.I.E.L.D. will be here soon to deal with them," Clint promised softly. The yells were painful and he'd like to have just gone and taken out everyone who caused them but getting Bruce out and to medical was more important.

They continued through the halls. "The others must have cleared a path, they tend to be good at that," Natasha commented shooting a glance over her shoulder at Clint and Bruce as well as to make sure they weren't followed.

Once they were near the exit Clint whispered softly, "Don't worry bud, we're not leaving you alone again." They made it outside and to a quinjet with the others leaving the clean-up to S.H.I.E.L.D..

((Disclaimer: Do not own characters))