The Redhead Assassin

---

"Where is Barton now?"

"We don't know."

"But he's alive?"

"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."

"Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me."

"Oh, I've got Stark. You get the big guy."

*Exclaims in Russian*

"Oh, and Natasha? Fury wants you to bring in the big guys brother. Apparently, they work well together."

---

In the middle of a busy, low income, city there was a small hospital, too small to help everyone but it did what it could do. Inside the hospital, doctors tried to help the men, women and children who had fallen ill to a virus that was been spreading throughout the city. Most of the doctors were inexperienced, expect for two men. They seemed out of place in the city, too intelligent, too pale compared to the people born there who had natural dark skin. However, no one questioned who they were, they didn't care, the men were helping the ill, that was good enough for them.

As the two men did check-ups on the sick, a small child ran into the badly made hospital.

"Who are you?" A doctor asked in Hindi, "Get out!" she exclaimed. One of the men watched this conversation in the reflection of the mirror as he washed his hands. "There is sickness here!"

However, the child refused to leave, "You're a doctor," She replied in English, but then continued to speak in Hindi, "My father's not waking up! He has a fever and he's moaning, but his eyes won't open!"

While she was talking, the man stepped forward and spoke in their language, "Slow down." He said in a comforting voice.

The child continued, "My father..." she glanced at the sick people behind the doctors.

The other man, seeing this conversation from afar, walked forward and kneeled down in front of the girl. He looked at her, although not in the eye, he then pointed behind him, "Like them?"

She nodded, raising her hand which had money in it, "Please?"

The first man smiled at her, the stood up and gathered everything he would need to take with him. He looked over at his brother, who had gone back to help the other sick people, "I need you to come with me."

---

The young girl led the two men to the outskirts of the city.

As they got closer, they noticed a military truck driving down the road, they quickly stopped the girl from walking forward and turned their backs to the truck and waited for it to pass by.

When it did, the child ran towards a house, leading the men inside. The two watched as the girl went through the house and jump out of the window at the back, they then stopped.

One of them let out a small laugh, "You should've got paid up front, Banner."

Before the other man could reply, a woman's voice started to speak, "You know," the doctors turned to the voice, "for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle." A beautiful redheaded woman walked out from behind a wall, looking around the empty house.

"Avoiding stress isn't the secret."

"Then what is it? Yoga?"

The older man started rubbing his hands together and walked around, "You brought me to the edge of the city. Smart. I assume the whole place is surrounded." He said, looking out of the window, trying to spot any men pointing their guns at the building.

"Just you, me and your brother." The woman replied, turning toward the man who hadn't moved an inch since she showed herself. His eyes, however, were following her every move. When he accidentally made eye contact with her, he flinched harshly and looked down.

"And your actress buddy?" The older man asked, pointing to the window that the girl crawled through, "Is she a spy, too? They start that young?"

"I did."

"Who are you?"

"Natasha Romanoff."

The man looked down at the ground, walked towards his brother, then back at Natasha, "Are you here to kill me, Ms. Romanoff?" He asked, but then he regretted it as he felt his brother flinch next to him. He reached down and wrapped his hand with his younger brothers to calm him. Natasha saw this and let a very small smile appear on her red lips, "Because that's not going to work out for everyone."

Natasha stepped forward, "No, of course not. I'm here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D." He said quietly, remembering them, "How did they find me?"

"We never lost you, Doctor. Nor you, Doctor," She said, glancing at the quiet man, "We've kept our distance. Even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."

"Why?"

"Nick Fury seems to trust you both. But now we need you two to come in."

"What if we say no?"

"I'll persuade you." Natasha smiles.

He nods, "And what if the...Other Guy says no?" He asks, feeling uncomfortable talking about Him.

"You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you want to break that streak." Romanoff then walks off to a table where her bag was.

"Well, I don't every time get what I want." He said walking towards a cradle, pushing it so it swings.

His brother walked up next to him and whispers, "What is that?"

"No idea."

Natasha comes back with a phone in her hand, "Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe." With her eyes on her mobile, she presses a few buttons.

The Doctor chuckles, "Well, those I actively try to avoid."

"This," she said, showing them a picture on her phone, "is the Tesseract." She slides the phone across the table and sits down. The brothers put their glasses on and take a look at the picture. It is of a blue cube that seems to emit a type of energy. Natasha continues, "It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."

For the first time, the younger male talks out loud, even though it's a quiet voice, Natasha hears him, "What does Fury want him to do, swallow it?"

This surprises the agent, she didn't expect him to say anything, let alone anything sarcastic.

She leans forward on the table, trying to make eye contact with him, which fails as he looks away, "He wants you two 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's knows Gamma Radiation like you do." She looked at the men, "If there was, that's where I'd be." She then leaned back in her chair.

"So, Fury isn't after the monster?" Bruce asked, taking his glasses off.

"Not that he's told me."

"And he tells you everything?"

"Talk to Fury. He needs you both on this."

"He needs me in a cage?" He questioned.

"No one's going to put you in a..." Natasha started, however she was cut off by him banging his hands on the table and yelling,

"Stop lying to me!"

Then both Natasha and the quiet man acted. He jumped at the loud sound but quickly put his hand in his brother's hair and the other on his back, rubbing it to calm him down, that always used to work when he had a nightmare. Natasha also jumped at the sound and reached under the table where a gun was taped, quickly she pulled it out, cocked it and pointed it at him.

The older brother looked to his brother and nodded, signalling him that everything was okay and that he won't go green, he then moved the younger man, so he was behind him, just in case. He then looked at Romanoff, "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 that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess. Okay?" He asked, "Natasha?"

After a few seconds, she lowered her gun and raised her hand to her ear and said, "Stand down. We're good here."

"'Just you, me and my brother'"

They stared at each other for a while, until Natasha spoke up, "Will you join us?"

"...Yes."

However, his brother made a noise and shook his head quickly, "No, no, no, I can't go back out there, Bruce, I can't!"

The man, Bruce, walked over to his brother and put a hand on his shoulder, "I know, Will, and I am sorry, but we need to go. We have to help, people could be in danger if we don't."

That seemed to have changed Will's mind, he always wanted to help people, "That may require me to be sociable."

Bruce chuckled, "That's okay, I will do the talking for you. Okay?"

Will hesitated, looking at his brother's shoulder unable to look anyone in the eye, but then he nodded.