Chapter 1
The mission had gone pretty smoothly. Clint just had a few scrapes and cuts, and one of Tony's suit repulsors blew out, but other than that, it had been pretty smooth sailing. The Hulk had wandered off after the last of the inventive-proclaimed, "boom-bots" (doom bot wannabes) had been crushed to a pulp. No one had been worried then. They figured Bruce would call to be picked up within a couple of hours.
No one had been worried.
Fifteen hours. That's the longest Bruce had ever stayed away before coming back after a mission. And that was because he had been meditating for twelve hours. He seemed happiest than he had been in the past month, so no one called him out on worrying them. Jarvis just relayed that they 'Please be notified should you feel the need to take an extended stay post-mission. As to not concern them,'
At the end of day one, they were all (mostly Steve) just pissed Bruce hadn't told then he was taking a little trip.
By the end of day two Tony was on full-throttle 'find Bruce' mode.
Clint had spent the entirety of day three practicing in the archery range.
On day four, Thor had gone and bought twenty boxes of pop tarts for, 'A feast to greet the good Doctor when he returns from his travels!'
On day five Tony had completed glasses for Clint he liked to call "Jarvis Vision"- a project he had started on day three.
By the end of day six, Natasha had finished organizing and sharpening her knives.
All throughout the days, Tony would call Bruce, on the off chance he would pick up. Evenings would end in them sitting in silence on the couches and chairs in the living room. In the end, JARVIS would be the one to break the tense silence with any sort of update on Bruce.
But tonight was different.
Sir, if I may interrupt your riveting conversation, an unauthorized military plane has just landed 76 miles from where you last had contact with Dr Banner.
"And where is that?"
Nowhere, since 2002. Military files I have gained access to record the nearby building having been torn down, Sir. The craft appears to have small signatures of gamma radiation. I believe this is something you would deem, "worth a shot",
" 'Gained access to?' " Steve questioned.
"Ignore him," Tony waved his hand. "Can you route the quinjet destination two miles west of there?"
"I'm afraid I won't be able to land, given the amount of foliage, Sir,"
"We won't need to land," Natasha said.
................................
An hour and a half later, JARVIS alerted them that they were one mile from the drop point. The "empty lot" in the northern Washington forest had supposedly been vacated by the military in 2002, and then in turn, torn down. Given the two counts of military air traffic it had the past hour, no one really believed that last bit.
"You have reached your destination."
"Your final destination," Clint mumbled in a deep voice, fixing his glasses on his face.
Natasha tossed a parachute to him, and slipped hers on, hooking the buckles into place.
"Alright," Steve clapped his hands together once. "When we hit the ground, Thor, you're on outdoor crowd control. No one gets in or out unless they're in handcuffs."
"-Or a body bag," Natasha interrupted.
"You and me," he pointed to the Widow, "are inside backup for Tony and Clint while they look for Banner."
"How do we even know he's here?" She shot back, raising an eyebrow at him.
Tony spun around from the screen on the wall. "Because, Thaddeus Ross is here." He blew the screen up with a flick of his wrist, pointing to a man in a green military uniform. The older man with the mustache appeared to be yelling at a group men in matching blue uniforms.
"Who?"
"You know, The Great General Ross" Tony answered angrily, waving his hands on the air, ."who "saved " America from the dangerous Hulk years ago. Tabloids forgot to mention the kidnapping and experimentation he did too. You really don't read SHIELD files, do you?"
"And this is a live feed?" Steve asked, ignoring the question.
"Yeah," he spat, as the quinjet garage door began to lower.
"Okay, so we get this general guy-"
"-Asshole" Tony cut in.
"-and get Bruce, and get out. Thor, mind giving us some cloud cover?"
The demigod picked up Mjolnir. "It would be my pleasure," he said before stepping off the edge of the door. Steve could feel his ears pop from the change in atmospheric pressure.
Steve's stomach began to turn. It wasn't due to the hundreds of feet he was about to drop with lack of a parachute- that he had done tons of times. No, he had read SHEILD's files on Bruce. He knew about the experiments and how Bruce was treated like a criminal. Thaddeus Ross was a new name to him though. And now that Ross was here, Steve felt like he could turn green himself. The anger and stomachache stayed with him as he followed his team and jumped out the quinjet door.