Red. | marvel [1]

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"Elana," Natasha sighs, relief flooding her voice. Meeting up again so soon wasn't exactly on the cards for the two. Natasha had been pulled off for a different mission last minute and, until the attack, the search for Banner had been put on hold. Now, however, S.H.I.E.L.D. are going to move in on the newest location they had- and Elana and Natasha are planning to convince him to come home. They'd had to meet up in another S.H.I.E.L.D. location, which Elana assumes is in Mumbai.

"He should be just north of the city, he's treating people in the slums," Natasha says, leading Elana to a sleek, black car. "He won't see us coming, so low key isn't needed."
Elana just nods, still slightly overwhelmed by the situation from before. Aliens, Gods, enhanced beings- the whole world was still so new to her and she felt very out of her depth. But regardless, her adaptability keeps her moving. So here she is, riding in a car to the slums north of Mumbai to find a man whose experiments with gamma radiation and a form of Super Soldier Serum went desperately wrong. It's time to bring in the Hulk.

"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle," Natasha says, appearing out of the shadows and revealing herself to the slightly dishevelled (and definitely slightly embarrassed) Doctor Banner.
"Avoiding stress isn't the secret," the Doctor replies, eyeing up Elana as she follows Natasha's movements.
"Then, what is it? Yoga?" Natasha asks.
"You brought me to the edge of the city, smart. I uh... assume the whole place is surrounded?" the Doctor suggests.
"Just us three," Natasha replies.
"And your actress buddy, is she a spy too? Do they start that young?" Banner asks.
"I started at that age," Natasha nods.
"I started younger," Elana shrugs, her accent the thickest one there.
"Who are you two?" Banner asks.
"Natasha Romaoff."
"Elana Sokolov."
"Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Are you, Miss Sokolov? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."
"No, no. Of course not. We're here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Natasha says. Elana clears her throat.
"I'm here for personal investment," she says, raising her eyebrow.
"And what personal investments would those be?" Banner asks.
"I... I have some enhancements and I'd like to figure them out," Elana admits. "I trust you to do it. Nobody else."

Banner would never admit it, but at that moment he felt so appreciated. This girl, this young girl who had clearly been through a lot, wants his help. She's not here for the Other Guy. She's here for the doctor and that makes Bruce Banner feel a whole lot better about going with S.H.I.E.L.D., but that didn't mean he is going to make it easy.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.- how did they find me?" Banner asks.
"We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent," Natasha replies.
"Why?" Banner asks quickly, still looking around nervously.
"Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now I need you to come in," Natasha informs him.
"What if I said no?"
"We'll persuade you."
"And what if the... other guy says no?"
"You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you want to break that streak, Doctor Banner," Elana says softly.
"I don't always get what I want," he replies, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe," Natasha says imploringly.
"Well, those I actively try to avoid."
"This is the Tesseract," Natasha says, showing him the picture on her phone. "It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."
Banner comes closer to see the picture better.
"'What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?" he asks.
"Well, he wants you to find it. 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. If there was, that's where I'd be," Natasha tells him.
"So Fury isn't after the monster?" Bruce asks.
"Not that he's told me," Natasha nods.
"And he tells you everything?"
"Talk to Fury, he needs you on this."
"He needs me in a cage?"
"No one's going to put you in a-"
"Stop lying to me!" he roars, making Elana jump to get out a gun and point it at him, like Natasha had told her. Silence ensues, just the sound of the outdoors filtering in through the half-shack they'd found themselves in.

Suddenly, Banner stands up straight, smiling.
"I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use those and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay? Natasha... Elana..."
After a quick sweep of his body language and a check to make sure his skin is still the same colour with no green tints appearing, Elana lowers her gun with a curt nod. She puts it back in her belt next to her trusty batons. She knows that now, there are a couple dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents surrounding the shack, heavily armed and ready to shoot.
Natasha lowers her gun when she sees that Elana has put her weapon away.
"Stand down. We're good here," she says into her earpiece before putting her gun away.
Banner flashes the older spy a charming smile. "Just you two and me?"
Natasha fidgets slightly now that her guard is down.
"So, are you coming, Doctor Banner?" Elana asks, smiling down at him.
"Call me Bruce," he says before nodding in confirmation.

"So, it just happened? You're not sure when?" Banner asks.
"It started a couple of days before I left the Red Room," Elana says. "I think it might have been injections."
"Injections? You didn't tell us this," Natasha says from the pilot seat of the jet.
"I heard the leader talking to someone when I was leaving, I stopped to listen for a minute. She said something about being enhanced with six injections, and how nobody had ever survived the sixth one... but I guess I did," Elana admits, shrugging slightly.
"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Natasha asks.
"It wasn't important before," Elana says firmly. "What do you think, Bruce?"
"We'll need to wait until we get back, then I'll need some samples if that's okay. I'll need to test them, but I might be able to draw some conclusions," he says. "Can I see you do something?"
"I can... I can try. I don't really know what I'm doing," she sighs.
"Just try," Bruce encourages. She nods before closing her eyes.

She focuses on forming the tug in her stomach. She didn't quite know what she wants to do. She looks down to see her hands emitting the strange white mist again. She looks around the jet and sees random boxes stacked. One by one, she moves them from one side of the jet to the other and back again. As she replaces them, the tug suddenly gets stronger without Elana's permission. A shudder rips through the jet and Elana notices that the metal is beginning to crease slightly. She looks up at Bruce with fear and panic in her eyes. Suddenly it creases again, looking more and more like a tin can. Elana focuses on stopping the tug, and the jet stops shuddering.
"I didn't mean to do that," she says, forcing her face to become blank.
"It's okay," Bruce assures her. "You just need to learn what you can do. So you can move things, and apparently you can exert forces on things."
"That's all I've been able to do," she confirms.
"So far," Bruce adds.
"That's so cool," Natasha blurts out from the pilot's seat.

"You clearly have a lot of power stored inside of you. If we can figure out exactly what you can do we might be able to train you in the art of your power," Bruce explains.
"Right now, I just want to help recover the Tesseract. But if you get any ideas in the mean time, you'll probably know where to find me," Elana nods.