"Easy," Natasha said in a calm voice. "neither of us are here to harm you," She said to Banner. "We are both here on behalf of Shield." She said, Natasha and Grim watched as recognition hit Bruce.
"Shield," Bruce said quietly. "you don't look like a Shield agent." He said to Grim.
"He's not," Natasha said with a small shake of her head. "he does some work with Shield but he is not an agent."
"So the cloak and hood aren't the latest uniform?" Bruce said in a jokey tone before his voice got more serious. "how did they find me?"
"We never lost you doctor," Natasha smiled. "we even kept some other interested parties off your tail."
"Why?"
"Nick Fury seems to trust you." Natasha said with a small shrug. "But now we need you to come in."
"And what if I say no?" Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'll persuade you." Natasha said as Grim summoned his wand into his hand, the act covered by his cloak.
"And what if the other guy says no?" Bruce asked.
"Then it'll be my turn." Grim replied. "I spoke with Fury, his words were 'we need his help and would like it if he willingly helped us out'. We're not going to force you to come with us, and we won't take physical action against you as long as you don't take physical action against us. Besides, you've been keeping the 'other guy' locked away for a better half of a year, I doubt you'd want to let him out now."
"Hmm," Bruce hummed softly as his eyes looked around and stopped on a small cradle, he gently pushed it before speaking. "I don't every time get what I want." He said, what he was implying was not lost on Grim or Natasha.
"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe." Natasha said as she pulled her phone out and sat down.
"Oh those I actively try to avoid." Bruce joked with a small smile on his face. Grim was quite tempted to smirk at the joke but held himself back, even though nobody could see his face.
"This is the tesseract," Natasha said as she showed him a picture of the tesseract on her phone, she placed the phone down on a table and slid it ahead for Banner to pick up. Bruce placed his reading glasses on and picked up the phone to look at the picture. "it has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."
"What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?"
"He wants you to find it, it's been taken." Natasha replied. "It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace, there's nobody that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was then that's where I'd be."
"So Fury isn't after the monster?" Bruce asked in a skeptical voice.
"Not that he's told me."
"He tells you everything?"
"He doesn't," Grim said, drawing Bruce's attention. "Fury keeps secrets but he doesn't plan to harm you."
"And how do you know?"
"Because Fury knows that I won't like it and he knows that I am someone he doesn't want on his bad side." Grim replied as his green eyes locked onto Bruce's.
"And what happens if Fury's on your bad side?" Bruce raised an eyebrow, he looked down and shook his head before looking up. When he looked up he jumped back in surprise when he saw Grim was no longer standing there. Bruce took a step back only to feel his back press against someone, Bruce quickly turned around and nearly fell backwards in surprise and would have if not or Grim catching his arm.
"Nothing he'd like." Grim whispered.
....
Bruce Banner sat on a jet with Agent Romanoff as they flew to the Shield hellicarrier, the only other person inside the jet was the pilot. 'Grim', as he was apparently called, had told Agent Romanoff that he would be making his own way back. That had made Bruce a bit curious but he decided not to think too much about that as he was already focusing on other things.
For example the tesseract, he was reading the information that Agent Romanoff had given him about it, it looked really interesting and Bruce was in fact very tempted to ask Nick Fury if he could study it after they found it, but he knew that that was unlikely. Bruce was really hoping that Fury would keep his word and let him go, because he really did not want to see what would happen if Fury suddenly decided to change his mind about putting the Hulk in a cage. Though Grim said he wouldn't do that, but then that brought up the problem of how much he he would be willing to put his faith in the hands of a man who goes by 'Grim'.
"I'm sorry about him by the way." Natasha commented, earning Bruce's attention, he looked up from the information he was reading about the tesseract and looked at her.
"I beg your pardon?" Bruce gave her a questioning look.
"Grim," Natasha said. "I hope he didn't bother you too much. He didn't mean anything bad, he is… just not really good around new people."
"I think the other guy might have had an affect on him." Bruce said in a dry voice.
"Without a doubt," Natasha replied. not even bothering to deny that Harry was thinking about the Hulk. "Grim's an enhanced like you, but he is also a former soldier who had fought plenty of other enhanced individual. He was testing you."
"Testing me?" Bruce frowned. "You mean my self-control?" Bruce asked.
"Exactly," Natasha nodded. "it was a test. How you reacted would decide how he would react, if you were easily provoked then he would probably be keeping a closer eye on you, if it makes you feel better then it's not really a personal thing, plus I think you passed." She finished with a small smile.
"Joy," Bruce rolled his eyes. "how strong is this guy supposed to be? You said he is an enhanced, what are his powers?"
"You'll have to ask him that," Natasha said with an apologetic voice. "I'm not really permitted to tell you. However, if you want my honest opinion, then I think that he is a good man underneath all the shadows and threats. Fury won't do anything to you, especially not with Grim making sure you're treated right."
Bruce looked like he really did not believe her, even if it was clear that he wanted to.
.....
Natasha was on the hellicarrier, waiting for the second jet to arrive with Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and surprisingly Coulson was the one on the jet with him. Which to be honest wasn't that surprising since Coulson was a high level agent and a great friend of Nick Fury's, the question on most people's mind was did Fury place Coulson there for any reason beyond knowing that Coulson was a big Captain America fan? Natasha was brought out of her thoughts when the jet did finally arrive and Coulson exited along with Steve who was wearing some clothing that looked rather old fashioned clothing when compared to what most people that looked his age would wear.
"Agent Romanoff." Phil Coulson said in greeting upon seeing her. "Captain Rogers" He gestured with his head to Steve. "Captain Rogers, meet Agent Romanoff."
"Ma'am." Steve nodded to her.
"A pleasure." Natasha smiled at them both before turning to Coulson, she was about to speak when another voice suddenly spoke.
"They need you on the bridge," Harry said to Coulson as he walked up to the group. "they are about to start the face trace." Harry added in the form of an explanation.
"Fine, I will see you all there." Coulson said as he walked away.
"Harry." Steve nodded to Harry as he extended his hand.
"Steve." Harry nodded back as the two shook hands. "You look better."
"Feeling better," Steve replied. "still just trying to get used to everything."
"If I can I let you in on a secret, I am still trying to get used to everything.".
....
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