Chapter 2
Bucky waited at the top of the new tank. It was strange to have an underground hulk containment unit. He had once thought of accidentally breaking it so that Bruce couldn’t be forced down there. It was large enough that Hulk could lay down without hitting his head in any direction. For a siren much smaller than Hulk that made a lot of space. It didn’t change how uncomfortable it makes Bucky to even think about locking someone away down there. Now though he was glad that he hadn’t destroyed it as there wasn’t a better place to put the siren. It was full of water and fish. They had let the Avengers arrange the way that the tank looked before they filled it with water. They tried to make it as eco-friendly as posable. They had plants that were real and shrimp as cleaners. There were a few things that they did that wasn’t as natural. It had black sand with some glow in the dark rocks here and there. There wasn’t enough to see into the tank but it did make the surface of the water look like the night sky in cartoons. They had placed the Siren into the tank as soon as they could. However, they had yet to see or hear anything from the tank. It was worrying them a little.
Bucky was spending an unhealthy amount of time sitting near the tank. While they couldn’t see into the tank they knew that the siren hadn’t left. Bruce and Thor were the ones to visit him the most. Steve was always trying to drag him away from the tank. Sometimes he let himself be dragged off in acknowledgment of being friends with Steve. After all, he was just trying to look out for him. Coulson showed up again a week later with more fish to put into the tank.
“What’s with all the fish?” Clint asked looking at the large bags. It made sense to have fish but they had already put fish into the tank. Bucky knew that even with all there efforts the tank wasn’t the sirens home. So there was going to be major differences.
“We have been monitoring the fish for the last week. On the bright side, the siren has been eating a healthy amount but now the tank is almost empty. We will have to refill it for a few weeks before the siren stops eating as much as they can. We’ll be putting in an amount for one week and a little extra in case something happens.” Coulson said while flipping on the lights. The water was lit up for the first time since the siren arrived. It was strange to see the water now as it’s no longer as see-through as when they put the water into the tank. It wasn’t until Coulson took out a gun that they started to freak out.
“Brother Coulson, what are you doing?” Thor asked taking a step forward.
Coulson looked back over to them. “Have you never had a fish tank before? You have to change the water every once in a while. However, since there is a siren as well as fish guts in the water it should be done more often. I’m not stupid enough to get near a siren without a tranquilizer at the ready.” He said waiting a moment making sure that no one was going to charge him. Then he opened the glass door that was the secondary protection against Hulk. He walked carefully to the open water. He had the trank in his right hand while his left held a bucket. He reached the edge of the water and there was no movement. He went about his business and started to take a few buckets of water from the tank. Everything was going well until Bucky heard a hum. It was soft and unlike anything he had heard before.
“What’s happening?” He asked moving closer to the water. It was almost like there wasn’t a Hulk proof glass stoping him. He was next to the water before he realized it. Coulson noticed it and tackled Bucky before he could get into the water. There was a laugher that followed after Bucky hit the ground. After that, those with super hearing seemed to stumble a bit.
“What was that?” Steve asked rushing to Buckys side. He managed to pull Bucky up from the floor.
“That would be the siren luring Sargent Barnes to his almost death,” Coulson said pulling both men out of the room. He locked the door behind him and there was a splash of water soon after the doors closed. “There’s not much we know about Sirens. I can’t say if Sargent Barnes was in danger or if the siren was playing with him”
“We can’t let that stay here if it wants to kill us!” Steve shouted. He was being overprotective again.
“Steve we don’t know what it wants. We don’t even know what gender it is” Bruce said trying to calm him down. He didn’t like the idea of letting the siren disappear into shield.
“He’s a boy” Bucky and Thor said together. They looked at each other. There was something off about how both seemed to know this about the creature in the tank. It wasn’t as if either had spoken about seeing or hearing of sirens before.
“We can’t keep it. If it wants to hurt us. With that power to lure people to it,” Steve said ignoring that both Thor and Bucky seemed to have a connection to the siren. He didn’t want to lose his team to some fish creature. Bucky was already being dragged from his side to watch the water.
“Look Steve I get where you are coming from but we can’t just throw him out into the ocean without knowing that he can survive,” Bruce said trying to make it more about ‘saving’ the siren. Steve loved to save things as that’s what heroes and good men did. “We will be more careful now that we know how dangerous he is” Bruce continued looking to Bucky and Natasha to help him out.
“We can’t release it!! It could HURT someone” Steve said looking angrier that Bruce would even think of letting something like that into the world.
“Steve sirens are a myth that people tell stories about. Luring people into the water likely is a defense mechanism.” Bruce said getting angry that Steve wasn’t going to free the siren. That’s why they were doing this, to begin with. If they got more information about sirens in the process then all the better. This was going to be a long and painful fight between the two. While Steve didn’t want to have anyone hurt. Bruce just wanted to do the right thing.