Over the last two years, Bruce and Mary left Serbia and now they're in an Indian slum together. She's been sticking by him. He might have discovered that she's both a banshee and a siren combined, he's still working with her on her power. All Bruce knows right now is that she is powerful. Very much so. Bruce has also made Mary one of his nurses here.
"What are you doing here?!" An attending woman exclaims in question toward a little girl. "Get out! You shouldn't be here!"
"I have to se r the doctor! It's my father!" The girl exclaims.
"Calm down," Bruce urges as he and Mary go to her.
"What's wrong?" Mary asks.
"My father..." The little girl, Imogene, shafts.
Bruce turns and he looks behind him, Mary does, too, and they see that Imogene is staring at a few people, very sick people, who are laying down in cots.
"Is he like them?" Mary asks.
Imogene extends her hand and it's holding money, the only money she has. "Please?"
"Come on," he says to Mary.
Bruce, Mary, and Imogene start running hastily to the edge of the town they're in. Imogene gets ahead of herself. Bruce turns and pulls Mary around when he sees a government car, blocking any view of the two. They quickly follow the little girl into her house once the car has passed by them.
Once Bruce and Mary are inside, the little girl escapes through the window.
"I swear, kids," the strawberry blonde woman huffs. "And he always wondered why I didn't want any."
Bruce smiles a little at her. "Well Barnes, this is why we should have got paid up front."
Mary chuckles and the curtain opens. The Black Widow, Natasha, appears. Bruce turns slowly and he pulls Mary to him protectively. Nat is almost offended, she won't hurt Clint's ex-wife he's still hung up on, the ex-wife he was so hung up on he divorced Laura to look for her... well, that last part, not the whole truth. Laura cheated on Clint and after the divorce, he did look for Mary... until he fell radio silent.
"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle," Natasha claims.
"Avoiding stress isn't the secret," Bruce says.
The only people who do know the secret to keeping the green man at bay are him and Mary.
"Then what is it? Yoga?"
"Yoga's fun but it can be stressful," Mary says. She winces. "I did it once after the divorce. I almost broke my neck."
"Glad you didn't," Natasha replies and Mary smiles at Nat; the two were always kind of friends.
"You brought me to the edge of the city," Bruce comments, bringing the topic back to Natasha being here, "smart. I, uh... I assume the whole place is surrounded?"
"Just the three of us," Natasha replies.
The team had heard about Mary being abducted by HYDRA and escaping. They know she has powers of some sort and Nat agrees now that she's found her with Bruce, of all people. So Nick Fury wants Mary brought in, too. They also found out that Mary had settled with Bruce when she escaped HYDRA two years ago.
"And your actress buddy, is she a spy, too?" Bruce asks. "Do they start that young?"
"I did," Natasha replies simply.
"Who are you?" Bruce asks.
"She's Natasha Romanoff," Mary says and Bruce looks at her. "I know her."
Bruce turns back to Nat. "Are you here to kill us, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."
"No. No. Of course not," Natasha replies. "I'm here on behalf of SHIELD."
"SHIELD?" Bruce frowns. "How did they find me?"
"We never lost you, Doctor, and that's how we found Mary after she escaped HYDRA," Natasha replies. "We've kept our distance, even helped keep some interested parties off your scent."
Bruce frowns, suspicious. "Why?" He asks.
"Nick Fury seems to rust you," Nat says. "But now I need you to come in. Both of you."
"What if I said no?" Bruce asks; he knows Mary will say yes, she has been wanting to help people since she discovered that she's been enhanced and given powers with those serums.
"I'll persuade you," Natasha replies.
"And what if the... other guy says no?"
"You've been more than a year without an incident," Natasha reminds the doctor. "I don't think you wanna break that streak."
He did become green man to see if Mary could change him. If she concentrates on but her siren and banshee scream, she can put the green man back. That was a year and a half ago when they made this discovery. That's one of the reasons Fury wants Mary there, she can help with Bruce, that and for Clint.
"I don't always get what I want," Bruce replies. "Dr. Barnes, I know you're eager. Go back to your tent and pack up."
"Of course, Dr. Banner," Mary replies. "It's good to see you, Natasha."
"You too, Mary," Nat replies genuinely and Mary leaves. Natasha then turns back to Bruce. "Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe."
"Well, those I actively try to avoid," Bruce confesses. "Let's wait for Mary to return," he adds when he sees Natasha pulling out her cellphone. "She'll want to know what she's walking into."
Natasha nods. They wait for about fifteen minutes and Mary comes back with a brown bag of clothes. She lays them down as Natasha waves her over.
"This is the Tesseract," Nat says as she shows them a picture. "It had the potential energy to wipe out the planet."
"What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?" Bruce asks.
"He wants you to find it," Nat replies. "It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do, if there was, that's where I'd be after I picked up Mary."
"So Fury isn't after the monster?" Bruce asks cautiously
"Not that he's told me," Nat admits.
"And he tells you everything?"
"Talk to Fury," Natasha says, "he needs you on this."
"He needs me in a cage?"
"No one's gonna out your in a..."
"STOP LYING TO ME!!!" Bruce yells in a thunderous tone.
Mary quickly swoops in and she focuses on one serum and she sends a calming whistle tune to him. Natasha watches as Bruce closes his eyes. He opens his eyes and he smiles.
"I'm sorry, that was mean," Bruce says to Natasha. "I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy won't make a mess? So we don't have to overwork Mary before she's fully in complete control of her lower! Okay? Natasha.,,"
Natasha is still wary and she doesn't lower gun fun. She does after a moment and she speaks into her earpiece.
"Thank you," Bruce whispers to Mary, he felt the green man peaking through.
"You're welcome," she whispers back.
Bruce looks at Natasha with a charming smile after she tells the SHIELD agents outside to stand down. "Just the three of us?" He mocks.
Natasha fidgets, she's just exposed. Her guard down. Bruce looks at Mary and she looks at him.
