Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes | Every Thirty Days | Chapter Six
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Chapter Six
Hulk
“Hulk!” Cap shouted. He pointed to the five massive roboids marching down 68th Street, away from the Research Center at Rockerfeller University. “Take them down!”
Hulk jumped, landed on one of the roboids, and started pummeling it with his fists. Thor's hammer whizzed past him to strike another one of the giant robots, sending it flying into a tall building and destroying half the multi-colored bricks as it slid slowly to the ground.
Hulk tore off the head of his roboid, taking satisfaction in the slowly dying whirring noises the monster robot made as it fell over, dead. He flung himself towards the one Thor had knocked down, landing on it with both feet, feeling the metal dent as he landed. He stomped it again for good measure a few times, until it had stilled and parts from its chest were scattered and flattened around the huge body.
A red and gold streak reversed itself to hover in front of Hulk. Iron Man. Thor flew up next to him and hung in the air, but Hulk could tell he was impatient to take his hammer to the other roboids.
“Hulk! Thor! Cap needs Thor; we're going after the Controller where he's holed up in the Research Center. Got this, Big Guy?”
Hulk grinned, pleased that he would get the fun of smashing the rest of the giant robots, who had picked up speed, their long thick metal legs taking them rapidly down the street. They weren't destroying anything other than the cars in their way.
“They're easy to smash.”
Thor saluted Hulk with his hammer. “Good hunting, friend. Be wary, it is odd that these metal monsters have not fired any weapons at us.”
Iron Man said, “Keep an eye on the perimeter. This does seem too easy; the Controller might have something else planned to take us out.”
Iron Man and Thor hurtled through the air towards the edge of campus, where the Controller had been located by S.H.I.E.L.D. Hulk knew that Fury's second in command, Maria Hill, was there, directing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to search the buildings, working with the police and campus security to clear out civilians.
Hulk bent his legs and jumped after the disappearing roboids, thinking about Maria Hill's talk with Bruce after his coma. She'd told Bruce that she'd look into his allegations that he had been tortured by the Army and S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce was sure the proof was there on film somewhere within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records. He'd said that the people who'd hurt him considered themselves researchers, and that they wouldn't get rid of their data.
In return, Bruce had agreed to talk to Hulk about registering as a superhero with S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce had done so, saying that it was up to Hulk to make the decision, since he was the one with the superhuman abilities. Bruce played professor, though, covering the possible advantages and disadvantages for the people S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to control and for society.
He used a Starktablet to show instances in history in which groups of people were required to register with a government. He let Hulk read about it on his own, saying that he had his own opinion and he didn't want to influence Hulk. Hulk read about the camps during WWII where Japanese-Americans had been sent. Germany, under Hitler's regime, had made it the law that some people- Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, among others- had to be registered. And how some special populations were treated: discrimination. Extermination.
When Hulk asked Bruce more about what he was learning, Bruce told him it was estimated that there was a sizable mutant population that were basically hiding their abilities, afraid to be seen as different. The mutants who had banded together for protection were uneasy about any proposed laws. The Fantastic Four against regulation, from what Bruce had learned.
People born with special powers, people like Tony Stark, who'd used technology to make themselves superheroes, and people like Bruce, who'd had some sort of accident or changed themselves on purpose, all of them would come under the registration proposed by S.H.I.E.L.D. If they weren't registered and they fought to protect other people, then they would be seen as dangerous vigilantes, with the potential to cause great harm.
The Avengers had been called vigilantes before by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Deciding that he would think some more about all of this before he figured out what was right to do, Hulk focused on his current task. Two jumps brought him to the nearest roboid. He grabbed it and jumped high into the air, and then, with a look to make sure no people were in the way, he hurled it back down. Watching as it fell apart, he leapt towards the next metal monster.
Maybe after the Controller was back in custody, and the last two roboids a pile of screws and bolts and dented metal, he'd give Assistant Director Maria Hill her answer.
* * *
Clint
Clint let the sky scooter hover a few feet above the sidewalk and waved at Bobbi Morse, who had just ushered two scared looking college kids out of the Greenberg Building and turned them over to waiting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Clint said, “Okay, I think we've cleared this building of students and staff. I've swept through the upper floors and they're empty now.”
“Bottom two floors and the basement are cleared, too. Any word yet on where the Controller's holed up?” Bobbi pulled her mask off her face and looked inquiringly at Clint.
“He's in the building next door. He made the students and teachers assemble those robots in that other building the school is remodeling. The roboids took a hike through the walls, but Hulk will take care of them.”
Bobbi stepped closer, putting one hand on the scooter. Like this, Clint was at eye level and she looked at him speculatively. “Speaking of Hulk, I was talking to Jan and she passed along some interesting news.”
“Janet always does. What'd she lay on you?”
“Are you really seeing Bruce Banner now?”
Clint made a production of looking at his watch. “Well, that didn't take long to get out. First kiss and first... everything, was last night.”
“'Cause I have to say, I didn't see that one coming,” Bobbi said.
“Why not? Have you seen Bruce? He's a cutie-pie. Got freckles, and you know I like those.” Clint grinned at her. He'd teased her enough times about hers. “He's a doc, too, Doctor Morse.”
“Because I know you, Hawkeye.”
“Maybe I'm ready to reform.”
“You? You've flirted with me since I used to pilot your ship.”
“Those were the days.”
“Back then, I wasn't ready to date anybody. I'd give it a shot now, though.” Her eyes swept his body, from his boots to his hood. “I was hoping you and I could spend some time together after this party is over. Have our own private party, you get me?”
He looked at her pretty face, the cute freckles, her lovely figure that her costume accented. Bobbi's philosophy was that it never hurt to distract the villains with a few curves. He wasn't even tempted, that was how bad he had it for one shy scientist.
“Yeaah. Bobbi, if you'd made that offer back then, I'd have gone for it.”
“But not now. Because of Bruce Banner.”
“We've got something going and it's good. I'm not gonna go off the reservation and mess it up.” Clint smiled at her. “No hard feelings. Friends?”
“Raincheck. Call me if it doesn't work out with him.” Bobbi winked at him.
Clint said, slowly, “Hey. A favor. Don't screw with him, okay? Can the flirting from now on with me.”
Bobbi said, “Excuse me? I don't see a ring on your finger.” He could hear the laugh in her voice.
“Yeah, funny. But I'm being serious. You owe him, remember? He, the Hulk, kept our jet from crashing; he saved your life and he paid for that.”
“I remember you going to the Cube to check him out. Guess you did. But yeah, I do owe him. I won't poach on his territory.”
Clint said, “It's just that he has a hard time believing that good things can happen to him. He's a keeper. I'm not throwing him back.”
“Hmm. Clint Barton being all protective. Maybe he's the one to make an honest man out of you,” Bobbi said.
“Maybe.”
“Actually, getting to that level with you is more of a challenge than I want to take on. So, Mazel Tov, congrats, good luck and all that.”
“I'll tell him you gave us your blessing.” Clint smiled, picturing Bruce's bewildered face.
“Oh my God. You've got it bad.”
Cap's voice broke into their conversation. “Cut the chatter, Hawkeye and Mockingbird.”
Jan flew up next to them, pixie-sized. “Hawkeye, your comm line is open. We all heard you two.”
Hawkeye tapped his comm, and set it back to listening mode. “Oops.”
He wasn't sorry. He'd tell Bruce about this later. Bruce's face would heat up with embarrassment, which Clint wouldn't mind, not one little bit. He could admit that he might have developed a kink about seeing Bruce blush, and Bruce would be pleased that Clint had fielded Bobbi's pass. And he could totally get oh, Jan, or Tony, to back him up on that.
Jan poked Bobbi on the shoulder. “Told you.” She flew back towards Cap and T'Challa, who had also been clearing the area of civilians.
“Mockingbird, report to Hill immediately.” The order was loud enough that Clint heard it easily from the communication device on Bobbi's shoulder.
“This is Mockingbird, on my way.” Bobbi replaced her mask and looked at him. “Give me a lift?”
“Sure.” He tapped his own shoulder and informed Cap what he was doing. Bobbi climbed on behind him and he flew the scooter ten feet up in the air, letting it hover again.
Bobbi pointed to the building across from the Research Center. “Hill set up a command center at Founders Hall. Hang around, okay? We might as well work together, friend.”
* * *
Clint used the time while Bobbi met with Hill to check back in with Cap. The sensors in Iron Man's suit had broken through the protective energy shield the Controller had used to keep his location secret, and they were getting into position before they made an all out assault on the jerk. Cap told Clint to work with Bobbi on what Hill wanted done, and then to join their assault.
Clint was checking over his arrows when Bobbi returned. He quickly refilled his quiver and slung it on his back. She didn't say anything to him, just slid onto the scooter behind him.
“Okay, what're our orders?” He revved up the scooter's engines, waiting to be told what direction to go.
Instead, he felt Bobbi moving closer to him. She pulled his hood down, and her cool fingers touched the back of his neck, her mouth so close to his ear that he felt her breath, warm and just a bit arousing. He sighed. Bobbi sometimes didn't know when to just back off, whether it was from a fight or from angling for a date.
“Ah, Bobbi? This is supposed to be a no-flirting zone, remember?”
He stiffened then, as metal, oddly warm, was slapped against the skin at the back of his neck, and brief pain bloomed. He couldn't move to grab whatever she'd stuck on him, though. Bobbi's voice in his ear was hers, but the words weren't.
“My Hawk, I've slipped the jesses on you. Hill and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are under my control now. You and Mockingbird will take down Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers. Except for Hulk. His thick skin won't allow my control disks to work as they should. That's all right. I have someone else in mind to break him.”
There was a sizzle of pain, much stronger than the first time the control disk had zapped him. It ran throughout his body, setting his nerves on fire, but he couldn't scream out loud. The Controller's words, smooth, so powerful, filled his brain and a part of him sat back and watched in dismay as the Controller told him, mind to mind, exactly how to turn the rest of the team into the Controller's mindless slaves.
Bobbi reached around and handed him a small pouch. He opened it to see a handful of disks.
He slung his quiver off his back and began his task of destroying the Avengers.
* * *
Bruce
Hulk had no problem dispatching the fourth roboid. He stomped his feet hard and the pavement buckled under the giant robot, causing it to wobble dangerously. Hulk jumped up and flung himself at it, hitting it with both of his hands clubbed together. It fell over and he followed it down to the road, and kicked its head off.
He was a little disgruntled that the roboids hadn't been more of a challenge. They hadn't attempted to actually fight him; they'd scuttled away as fast as they could. The last one had just crossed Third Avenue, which was a few blocks from the mansion. Hulk bounded after it, ready to be done with this task and return to Rockerfeller University to help the rest of the team take down the Controller.
Mockingbird had briefed them on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s latest intelligence on the Controller. Unlike Iron Man's armor, the Controller could drain energy from the victims he enslaved with his mind control disks to help power his exo-skeleton. He could shoot out bolts of energy, make stun mist too.
The Controller was a powerful enemy, but Hulk knew that Tony would not think much of his roboids. If Antman were still an Avenger, he wouldn't either. Neither would Vision. Hulk would tell Vision just how easy it had been to destroy these roboids, when Vision returned from his own solo mission.
He jumped to catch up to the last roboid, and it turned and faced him. A panel slid open on its chest, and he saw a red-headed woman, arms spread wide, holding onto the inside of the machine. She wore a tight green and yellow costume with a black and white cape.
Hulk was startled and decided he needed to remove the woman first, so she wouldn't get hurt when he destroyed the roboid.
He let himself land in front of the enormous golden machine, and prepared to jump up to grab her gently from the chest piece, not sure if she was a hostage or an accomplice.
The woman opened her mouth, and a wordless song filled the air. It was so beautiful, so lovely, and he stood transfixed. He couldn't move a muscle, couldn't say anything.
Soothed, he felt calmness overtaking him. He couldn't stop it. He felt himself shrinking down, and then it was Bruce who was on the outside, and he was inside, and cocooned in warmth and acceptance. As he fell into a trance, he lowered the wall. With a last effort, he pushed his knowledge of everything that had happened to Bruce.
This woman had stopped the Hulk. It was up to Bruce now to help the Avengers.
* * *
Bruce
Bruce slumped down on his knees, confused as he sorted out what Hulk had tried to tell him. Someone, this red-headed woman probably, was trying to manipulate them, because neither he nor Hulk had triggered the transformation.
That couldn't be good. She must be working with the Controller. Her song was becoming stronger, closer, and for the life of him, Bruce couldn't move. It was like he felt sometimes when he was on the verge of falling asleep, when his muscles were pleasantly paralyzed.
She floated down, a vision of loveliness, holding his damnation in her hands.
A gamma dampener collar.
Still helpless, in thrall to the music pouring from her throat, his heartbeat slow and steady, mired in calm, he couldn't even lift his hands to block her slender arms from bending down and placing the collar around his neck.
It locked and a painful shock traveled through his body, causing him to spasm briefly.
He found that he could make sounds again, though, and he couldn't stop the low guttural groan from escaping.
The woman's singing had dropped to almost a whisper. He looked up at her, dismayed at the power she'd had over Hulk. She produced a pair of ordinary looking handcuffs and stepped behind him. He tried to get to his feet and run away from her, but she just increased the volume a little more and he collapsed on the ground. He heard the snick of the handcuffs locking around his wrists.
There was silence then, and Bruce struggled back to his knees. The woman was still behind him. She knelt and put her arms around him, drawing him back against her.
She put her lips on his ear, and he had a flash of memory of Clint's lips against the edge of his ear, the sensual feel of his tongue as he had unerringly found the place that made Bruce want to just spread his legs as wide as he could and beg Clint to fuck him.
This woman made no attempt to seduce him like that, though. Instead, she began to talk in a conversational tone of voice.
“Doctor Banner. I thought you'd be bigger.”
Bruce rolled his eyes. He knew that Clint would have taken an opening like that and run with it, but he didn't like to make sexually suggestive jokes. Well, maybe sometime he would with Clint. After the Avengers showed up and freed him.
He coughed a little. “Well, that was... unoriginal. Everyone always expects me to be bigger. Who are you and what do you want?”
The woman spoke again in a low, lilting voice. “Basil Sandhurst. Your new employer. I'm afraid that I don't have time today to explain your new schedule for lab work to you. And now that my Siryn has rendered the Hulk impotent, I'll have to decide what to do about you. Hmm. I hate to squander one of my disks upon a foe who is quite harmless without it. After Tony Stark begins mass producing my disks, of course I'll spare one for you then. But for now, I really must use my resources wisely. Well. I shall let the Avengers decide for me. Until then, Siryn will keep an eye upon you.”
The red-headed woman, Siryn apparently, let go of him then, and stood up. Bruce tried to get to his feet, but she hummed that sweet song again and he slumped down, his muscles barely keeping him from collapsing on the road.
Basil Sandhurst was the Controller. Either Siryn was being mind-controlled with one of his disks, or she was an accomplice. Since the Controller had used her to talk to Bruce, he was betting she had a disk implanted on her skull somewhere. Maybe under that beautiful fall of hair. The huge roboid was only a few feet away from him, but not moving anymore. A crowd was starting to gather and he heard sirens coming closer. The Controller wouldn't want to leave them here, within walking distance of Hunter College.
Altering her song to sweet sounds that made Bruce think of Betty and the head over heels feeling he'd had of falling in love with her, Siryn projected it to the curious crowd.
The crowd dispersed, smiles on their faces. When the police cars hurtled to a fast stop a bit down the street, Siryn merely directed the song their way and in a few minutes the cops were returning to their cars, soft smiles on their faces, pulling sedately away.
Bruce was lost in memories. He was aware of what Siryn was doing, that his feelings were being manipulated, but it didn't stop him from reliving emotions he'd felt with Betty. And he knew when Siryn stopped singing that he was going to be left heartbroken once again.
Clint, what had happened with Clint was too new, too uncertain, for feelings of love for Clint to be drawn from him.
Bruce wasn't sure how long he waited in that excruciating state of limbo, but the sound of the sky scooter made him look up. Siryn rose up in the air, a different melody powering her gentle movement back up and into the roboid.
The scooter dropped to about six feet from the ground and Clint looked down at him, a blank look on his face. His eyes held no expression.
“Banner. You don't look dangerous to me.” He parked the scooter next to Bruce and climbed off. He pulled Bruce to his feet and spun him around, held him against Clint's chest in an awful parody of an embrace. Bruce felt Clint's hand in his pocket, and he brought out Bruce's Avengers card, his stingers and the tech shield bracelet. He let Bruce go and carelessly tossed them up and down in the air.
“Controller? He's as harmless as a puppy. I took away his toys, not that he could have done real damage with them, since he's not an Avenger. Hulk is, but that collar will keep him from showing up. What do you want me to do with Banner?”
Bruce watched as Clint nodded at what the Controller told him. He dropped the card, shield bracelet, and stingers into a pocket in his uniform. Clint waved at Siryn, who closed the hatch on the roboid -- Bruce had started thinking of it as a two-legged Trojan Horse - and it bounded away, down Third Avenue, to wreak more havoc.
Clint looked at Bruce with mild indifference, poles apart from the look given to him when they'd woken up this morning, Bruce warm in Clint's arms. Bruce felt as awful as he'd expected. He'd lost Betty so long ago, and all the old pain had returned. And now he'd lost Clint, too. This version of Clint didn't care about him.
“C'mon, Banner. Let's go stash you at the mansion. The Controller plans on being there later, after he takes over Stark Industries. Everything that belongs to Tony Stark will belong to the Controller now. He's going to take the disk off Tony long enough for Tony to really feel how the Controller has bested him, and then Stark will go back to being the Controller's pet monkey. You, too. Controller wants you working in his labs.”
He pulled Bruce over to the scooter and made him sit in front of him. Bruce's balance was shaky, with his hands secured behind his back, and Clint snaked an arm around his waist and held him securely against his chest. Another sham embrace, and Bruce hated every second of it.
They were only a few city blocks from Avengers Mansion, so the ride was mercifully short. Clint hustled Bruce inside, using his Avengers card to gain access. JARVIS didn't greet them and Bruce supposed that the Controller had ordered Tony to turn him off.
Clint didn't say anything to him. Or rather, the Controller didn't have anything to say to him. Bruce just kept his head down, concentrating on seeming harmless. Helpless. Clint had encouraged him to learn to use the tech shield and stingers, but deep down, he still didn't think Bruce would be any good at using them to save himself or anyone else. His comments to the Controller showed his true feelings.
Well, let him underestimate Bruce. Clint was leaving him alone in a house equipped with labs and weapons. He'd be damned if he'd just sit quietly while the team was in danger.
If Clint and Hulk and Tony had been compromised, Bruce was very afraid that T'Challa, Jan, Cap, and Thor had been also.
He was surprised that he ended up in Clint's bedroom, but Clint just pushed him down on the bed and undid one of the cuffs, and then snapped the loose end around a brass headboard spindle. Clint brought him a glass of water and set it down on the bedside table, stashed a wastebasket next to the bed.
“Get some sleep. The Controller will want you well rested when he puts you to work. I told him that you're often tired after changing back from Hulk.” Clint gave him a shove, not hard, impersonal. Bruce lay down, and Clint pulled a blanket up over him.
It should have been a sweet gesture, something a lover would do for his partner, but from Clint's expression it had been just another chore.
Clint turned off the lights, closed and locked the door. Bruce waited, listening, but he didn't hear any movements. Then he sat back up and tugged at his left wrist. There was a little play in the cuff, because he had managed to tighten his fists when Siryn had cuffed him. He opened the bedside table, looking for something to use to pick the cuff's lock, but there was nothing obvious. Clint wouldn't be that sloppy, anyway. Unless he was fighting the mind control, but as far as Bruce could tell Clint was well and truly trapped in the Controller's snare.
Bruce rubbed his right hand over his face. He checked his pockets, in case Hulk had put something in them that he could use, but the only thing there was a gum wrapper. Cinnamon gum was Hulk's favorite and Jan kept him well supplied. And that wasn't going to do a thing to help him escape.
Clint had done him an unwitting favor by leaving one hand free. He looked into the trashcan, hoping for something he could bend into a handcuff key, but it was empty. There were no pens or bobby pins or paperclips within grabbing distance, either.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd dislocated his thumb to escape handcuffs. Of course, it was much easier to let Hulk break them out, but sometimes he'd wanted to be quiet about leaving. Hulk was a great guy, loyal, protective, but quiet he was not.
He drank all the water in the glass, then shattered it and cut several small gashes into the meaty base of his handcuffed hand. The blood would make it easier to slip the cuffs off, once he'd dislocated his thumb.
He did it quickly, swearing from the pain, and tugged against the metal, making his hand as small and as slippery as he could.
He'd have to come back later with a hazmat kit to clean up the blood splattered sheets. It was the least of his worries, though.
It didn't happen very fast, but at last he was free and he gritted his teeth as he fixed his thumb.
He went into the bathroom and bandaged his hand. He swallowed a couple of aspirin, too, hoping it would dull the pain from the cuts and the contortion he'd had to do.
The next step was getting out of this room and then re-booting JARVIS. Once he'd done that, he could notify S.H.I.E.L.D. - No, he couldn't. Some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents must be compromised. The gamma dampener collars were S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and controlled by them. Even Ross had been forced to go through S.H.I.E.L.D. to get his hands on them. Bruce didn't know whom he could trust.
He was afraid to contact the Army. If they knew he was here, alone, with Hulk unable to come out, they might do a snatch and grab on him, pardon be damned. Ross was in custody, but Major Talbot would gladly take his place. He'd always been jealous of Betty's love for him, and he'd be thrilled to turn Bruce into a version of the Man in the Mask in some forsaken hidden facility.
The X-men, the Fantastic Four- they might well be compromised by now.
Bruce made up the bed with pillows to look like he was under the covers. Once JARVIS was back up, they'd make a false vid of him sleeping and set it on looping, in case anyone checked on him with the security monitors. JARVIS could unlock any door in the mansion.
He was going to have to cut the head off the snake. He had no illusions about going one on one with the other Avengers with the idea of taking them down and removing their disks. Any one of them would take him out instead. But, if he could disable the Controller's armor, then everyone under mind control would be freed.
Siryn was going to be a problem. Ear plugs seemed like an easy solution, but it was probably more complicated than that. He needed to do what he did best. Research. Hiding. And to do that he needed out of this room.
He left the door alone. He didn't want to leave any signs of tampering that the others would notice.
He went to the window and opened it. Clint's bedroom was on the top floor, and there was no ledge outside to stand on. Probably Clint had considered the window as an escape route, and thought that the height would discourage Bruce from trying to climb out.
It wasn't something he was looking forward to doing, true, but he could manage it. He looked around the room. He could make a rope out of sheets, but he didn't think there was enough material to get him down to the ground. And it would leave a very visible sign that he had escaped if the Controller came back with his entourage before Bruce could get back in Clint's room to get rid of the evidence.
So he would go up instead.
Clint
The Controller stood on the steps of Avengers Mansion and waved for the crowd that had accompanied him there to move closer. Once his minions had crowded the front lawn, he had made the sort of self-congratulatory speech - praising his own genius - that was guaranteed to elicit snark of the very highest quality from Clint.
Except it wasn't like he could actually talk for himself right now.
Bruce had described to Clint and Tony once how he had seen himself, imprisoned in Hulk's mind by Amora. The real Banner had chains wrapped all around his body, keeping him from being able to talk to Hulk, while the false Banner, Amora's magical dupe, had done his best to enrage Hulk by telling him the Avengers didn't trust him and considered him a monster.
Clint had a new respect for Bruce because somehow, through sheer willpower, Bruce had managed to break Amora's control, seeing himself as shattering the chains in time to stop Hulk from smashing Jan to pieces.
Clint, though, Clint hadn't been able to to do anything to break the hold the Controller had over him. He didn't see himself wrapped up in chains, like Bruce. Instead, he was in a thick, clear bubble, where he could see and hear everything that the Controller made him do, but hitting the bubble or kicking it did nothing to pop it.
He'd shot Cap, Thor, and T'Challa, the disks embedding themselves and taking them over. Tony's armor had been hit with a special device that the Controller had just for him. Tony was just as compromised as the rest of them because of it. Bobbi had taken care of Jan, drawing her away on some pretext which required her to be full size before Client had gone to town on the others. Clint couldn't hit her with an arrow when she was teeny-tiny without killing her, and the Controller didn't want the Avengers dead. He wanted them to be his own personal lap dogs, especially Tony.
The Controller had left the campus with them as his escort, as well as Maria Hill and the other compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They'd had their own parade down to Stark Tower, and only in New York could an outlandish mob like them barely even get fingers pointed at them as they marched, or in the Controller's, Tony's and Thor's cases, flew, down the city blocks.
The one roboid that Hulk hadn't smashed had come along for the fun, too. And the red-headed babe inside of it had taken care of any opposition. She'd just sung them into compliance, including the top staff at Stark Industries and Pepper Potts. They adored the red-head, and no one had objected to being outfitted with their own mind control jewelry. The Controller had been insufferable about how Tony's company, labs, staff, robots, blah, blah, blah were all his now.
They would have more mind disks in a few hours, Tony's labs and factories being put to good use by the Controller. The Controller had decided it would be a gas to do the whole “Lord of the Manor,” thing at the mansion, so they'd all trooped back up Fifth Avenue. They'd even gotten a police escort, once the red-head with the vocal power had sung to them.
The Controller had ordered the minions to wait in the lobby, in the middle of the huge “A” on the black and white tiled floor, and he'd slowly walked around the perimeter of the room, stopping now and then to pick up an expensive vase and eye it or run a hand down the side of one of the marble pillars.
He ordered Tony to take off his armor, Thor and T'Challa holding onto Tony's arms as he was freed from it, and presumably, the mind control as well.
Tony glared at him, his hair in disarray, struggling against the hold of his teammates.
“Anthony. Perhaps you'll recognize this quote. 'Revenge should have no bounds.'
“Oh, God, spare me the melodrama,” Tony shot at the Controller.
“I'm going to appropriate everything you've ever had and occasionally, like now, I'll remove the disk and enjoy the look on your face as you realize that I've made you my slave.”
Narrowing his eyes, Tony gritted out, “You're going to go down hard, Basil. Just like last time.”
The Controller flicked a finger towards Tony and Cap stepped next to him.
“Do the honors, Captain America.” Steve placed a disk on Tony's neck and Tony stopped struggling, looking towards the Controller for instructions.
The Controller announced that he wanted a tour. Also, food. He sent Jan and Bobbi and the red-head to the kitchen to fix him a meal. Clint noticed he didn't specify that the rest of them were to be given anything to eat. He just bet that Jan and Bobbi, stuck in their own bubbles, were fuming.
It would backfire on the asshole, though, unless the red-head had some talent at cooking, because he knew that Bobbi and Jan were fairly hopeless at doing anything much in a kitchen besides working a microwave. And the Controller had ordered them to prepare his favorite foods, and it wasn't frozen pizza or Spagetti-O's. Hell, Clint was a pretty decent cook, and so was Bruce. If the Controller had asked them who could cook and who couldn't, probably it would be them in the kitchen instead. The Controller had made an assumption based on traditional gender roles - Clint could so thank those mandatory trainings when he'd been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for the terminology -- so maybe the Controller would be just as sloppy about other assumptions. It... might be a small chink in his armor.
He wanted to go and see Bruce, make sure he was all right, but the Controller didn't order it, and hadn't given Clint leeway in his orders to make his own plans, as long as they fit in with the Controller's agenda.
Clint had acted like such a bastard to Bruce- cold, indifferent, and the worse part was that the Controller had just capitalized upon something Clint wasn't proud of at all. It was pretty clear to Clint that while he really liked Bruce, he still had a ways to go about believing Bruce would be an effective fighter. Hiding, yes. Bruce had evaded capture for long intervals between his past incarcerations. Being a genius scientist, hell, yes.
Maybe, though, that was the chink Clint was looking for, the assumption that could trip up the Controller. After all, the Controller had accepted Clint's assessment that Bruce as Bruce wasn't dangerous. And maybe, just maybe, Bruce Banner, non-Avenger, would exceed Clint's expectations.
Bruce
Breathe, Bruce told himself silently, although there was no chance that Hulk would be coming out. Or even be able to give him any advice. Hulk had been sung to sleep and all of Bruce's shouting at him hadn't gotten him to even twitch.
Bruce's heart was still beating too fast, though, so yeah, breathe. He was in a lot of trouble here, hiding in the maintenance access tunnels for the training room. After re-entering the mansion from one of the rooftop access points he'd discovered while playing hide and seek with Clint, he'd rebooted JARVIS, and boy, Tony was not going to be happy to know that Bruce was more than capable of that level of hacking.
Well, Tony could have a fit about it later, after he was himself again and not a mind-controlled puppet.
Bruce had a laptop with him, and was in communication with JARVIS, although JARVIS would not appear to be active. Bruce and JARVIS had worked to block communication with Tony's armor, and hadn't that been a trick to pull off. On the Controller's orders, Tony had only basically flicked on the lights for the mansion. Not even voice communication with JARVIS had been approved.
JARVIS and Bruce were working behind a smoke screen, and Bruce needed more time before he was ready to make a move. He'd had to go to ground when the mob had showed up. He'd been counting on it taking a lot longer to take over Stark Industries, and now he was going to have to play mouse and cats to get what he needed.
Hopefully, nobody would know the mouse was out of his cage. JARVIS was prepared to run a continuous loop of him asleep in Clint's bed, if video surveillance was turned on to check on him. It had been the second thing he'd accomplished once JARVIS was operational, going back to Clint's room and faking that scene.
The first thing he'd done, though, was send a message out to Vision. He was the only Avenger that Bruce was sure hadn't been compromised. Even the reserve Avengers, like Luke Cage and Spiderman, might have been snared by now.
Vision, though, wasn't even on the planet. He'd gone out to the Negative Zone, both to do some exploring and to check that Galactus was still happily occupied with munching down infinite amounts of anti-matter for his meals instead of planets.
It was too risky to use the portal in the Baxter Building to find Vision, in case the Fantastic Four had also been caught by the Controller.
Bruce had come up with another plan, but it had been time consuming, since he couldn't leave a bread crumb trail back to the mansion. His message had been bounced all over the world before he'd sent it to its real destination.
By using the communication stations at the juncture of the two universes, unobtrusively hidden on the Earth side, Bruce hoped that the encrypted SOS he sent to Vision's ship explaining about the Controller's take-over would bring Vision back.
Bruce had no way of knowing if this Hail Mary pass would work, and if Vision did get the message, when he'd be able to come. He'd told Vision not to message him back, to increase the chances of not getting caught.
Silently, a line of type appeared on the laptop's screen. Doctor Banner, when you're ready?”
“Send me location updates, please,” he typed back. JARVIS obliged, and his laptop screen flashed with different videos. Jan and Mockingbird were in the kitchen, and Siryn was using a fire extinguisher on a blackened mess in the oven. Bruce had found her name in a S.H.I.E.L.D. database of superheros and supervillains that Tony had 'borrowed' from the helicarrier. And Siryn was listed as both. Apparently she'd first come under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eye as a teenaged criminal, but the X-men had straightened her out. Bruce still wasn't sure if she was mind-controlled or had slipped back to her earlier criminal ways. Still, he tended to take anything in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files with a big grain of salt. He'd been listed as a criminal in their files, after all.
He had a plan to make sure her sonic abilities couldn't influence him again, but to implement it he needed to get into Tony's lab. And right now, there were about twenty S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and superheroes between him and where he needed to be.
He picked up the last of the mini holo projectors he'd brought with him and used the tools he taken out of Tony's workshop to patch the projector into the system for the training room. He wasn't an engineer like Tony, but he'd had plenty of practice at fixing things when he'd been on the run. Nobody had needed a physicist's help, but a talented handyman could always find some sort of work.
He typed “Now, Jarvis,” closed the laptop, slid it into the pouch he'd grabbed from Clint's room, and waited at the access door to make his sprint for the lab.
Clint
The Controller wanted to see how the training rooms worked, and he'd picked T'Challa and Cap to show off Tony's ingenious testing facilities.
Watching from a viewing room, the Controller made lots of comments to Tony on how he found Tony's work to be inferior. Meanwhile, Cap used his shield to batter the fighting dummies, and T'Challa demonstrated his own brand of martial arts to take them out.
The rest of them had to just stand there, waiting on the Controller to order them to do something, anything. This gig as a mind-controlled slave was boring. It sucked hairy monkey balls, Clint thought moodily, encased in his bubble.
Suddenly, Vision appeared in the training room, and a red light beamed from his forehead, barely missing the Controller. He shot again, but the Controller dodged him.
“Avengers! Take down Vision,” bellowed the Controller. The part of Clint that was mind-controlled gladly followed the order, relieved to be doing something for his master again. Clint-in-a-bubble yelled in frustration, and kicked at the clear barrier, pounded it with his fists. He hated being made to hurt his teammates.
Vision changed density and floated right up through the ceiling. The mob of minions, Clint included, ran from the training area in hot pursuit of the last free Avenger.
Bruce
Bruce quietly opened the door to Tony's lab. His goal here was to get in, fabricate enough sonic wave absorbing material to make ear plugs, and get out. Right now the Controller was tracking down Vision, Hopefully, Vision's ability to float through walls and ceilings was going to keep Mr. Basil Sandhurst busy sending his press-ganged henchmen after Vision and far away from Bruce.
Bruce located the material he needed and double checked the settings on the machine. He had to adapt his project, transform the material so that besides the range of regular sound, Siryn's mind controlling sonic frequencies would be totally captured within the molecular structure of the fabric. Another tricky part would be that the material could only absorb so much energy before it would need to discharge it, altering from sound to light in a beautiful display of colors. If his ears started glowing with rainbow hues it would attract attention.
Bruce had worked on the concept after hearing Jan talk about attending one of Dazzler's concerts. The public thought the colorful light displays the singer used were because of ground breaking tech, but Dazzler could transform sound to color naturally, although that information wasn't common knowledge.
Bruce liked Jan a lot, and she'd been so kind to him when he'd been sick. Designing clothes was a hobby of hers, and he thought he could figure out the physics of the sound to color transformation and apply it to fabric. She could make some interesting outfits with it, he'd thought.
It had been a puzzle that had been mildly interesting and it had given him something to do when he'd been hiding from Clint. Working out the equations and structure needed to alter fabric that would imitate Dazzler's ability had been doable with just JARVIS and a laptop. To do his gamma research, he really needed access to his lab in the cabin, or to use Tony's equipment. Clint regularly checked Tony's labs and workshops to see if Bruce had stashed himself in there, so those places had been off-limits.
Bruce placed the small pieces of soft cloth within the chamber and turned on the machine. He would make several sets, but it was unlikely any of the others would be freed enough to use them.
His next step, after he'd used the cloth to protect his ears, was to go to the armory and get the weapons he was going to need to adapt in Tony's workshop. Luckily, both of his next stops were on the basement levels, too, and with everybody chasing Vision, he thought he actually had a shot at making this work.
* * *
Clint
Vision led them all on a merry chase around the mansion. An uncoordinated, tripping over each other chase, until the Controller wised up and ordered the rest of them to follow Captain America's orders.
Clint wondered if Cap was doing any better at resisting being mind-controlled than he was. Of all the Avengers, Cap probably had the best chance at it because Steven Rogers was the most principled man he'd ever met. Forcing Captain America to go against what he thought was right was bound to create a war in that star-spangled head of his.
Even under Cap's capable direction, they weren't able to pin down Vision. Clint, stuck as he was in that damn bubble, was rooting so hard for the guy to beat the Controller.
But after a while things started to fall into a pattern. Vision would be spotted somewhere in the mansion; Cap would send some of them this way and some of them that way to cut him off. Vision would fire at them, miss, and disappear again into the walls or ceiling.
After that first time, though, he had not been spotted back on the basement levels where the assembly room, the labs and workshops, and the armory were located.
Clint just hoped that the Controller hadn't caught on yet, or wanted to know his opinion of the situation, because he would spill the beans, he knew he would, if his master asked him the right question.
Clint had never seen Vision miss at what he aimed at before. So, okay, there was always a first time, and while the guy wasn't exactly human, he was capable of making mistakes as much as any flesh and blood person.
But not like this. Not every time. Vision was keeping them all occupied trying to stop him, while he wasn't even trying to hurt them. And, sure, he could appreciate Vision not frying his mind-controlled ass, but why not shoot at the Controller?
Clint had figured it out. Vision was working with somebody, keeping attention away from whatever was going on down in the basement levels. Whoever it was, Clint was cheering them on.
* * *
Unfortunately, the Controller, as Tony had told them, was intelligent. He, too, figured out that Vision was playing them, and ordered Maria Hill to take the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and do a sweep of the three basement levels.
The Controller steepled his fingers, relaxed in the large recliner. “There is one person not under my control in this cottage. Anthony, my lad, have your AI bring up video footage on Doctor Banner.”
Tony walked slowly to the wall interface with JARVIS and punched in his security code, and bent down for the retinal scan. Clint wondered if Tony was stalling, trying to fight against the Controller, but if so, Tony was still too much under his thumb. With a flick of his hands, he brought up the video of Clint's room. The video hung in the air, large enough for all of them to see.
Bruce was on his side, still asleep and breathing slowly, his free hand curled up by his face. The blanket had slid down, revealing one bare shoulder, and Clint saw that the hickey on his neck hadn't faded yet, as part of it was visible despite the gamma dampener collar.
Seeing Bruce still helplessly confined to Clint's bed, he kissed goodbye the irrational hope he'd had that Bruce would somehow have been able to give them a hand. It wasn't fair to expect that of him. He was a sweetheart and brilliant, but he wasn't going to be able to fight against the Controller.
The Controller said, “It's hard to believe that such a peaceful looking man harbors the Hulk. T'Challa and Thor, you both will remain here, and dispose of anyone foolish enough to attack me. Hawkeye and Captain America, do a search of the ground and upstairs floors and roof. Disable and bring me our mystery foe, if found. Oh, and bring Doctor Banner with you, when you report back to me. Anthony, kneel by my feet.”
Clint fell in behind Cap, and together they started to do a room to room search on the ground floor, with its large stained glass windows and ornate crown molding. If Clint dragged his feet, well, he was just following the pace Cap was setting.
Bruce
Bruce's laptop screen started flashing, JARVIS' way of getting his attention. He read the words and typed a message back to direct the hologram of Vision to show up on the basement levels as soon as Bruce had gone up to the roof. Aside from Tony, Bruce wasn't sure the other Avengers even knew about the behind-the-walls maintenance areas, but there would be more scrutiny now during the search for Vision's accomplice. Maria Hill would turn Tony's workshops, labs, and the armory upside down, looking for Vision's partner. She was Nick Fury's second-in-command and wouldn't take things at face value. She might discover the hidden parts of the basement levels.
The upper floors didn't have those hidden features as much, although there was a way to get up to the roof, a servant's small hidden stairwell. He'd used it lots of times over the last two months, slipping past Clint on one of his “find Banner and confuse him” kicks.
According to JARVIS, Bruce wouldn't be able to get into position to take down the Controller before he would be discovered missing from Clint's room.
He had to go back.
Betting that he didn't rate two Avengers escorting him to the Controller, he was going to have to adapt his crazy plan. The simulations he'd run on the tech he'd altered from Tony's designs and from the scans JARVIS had done of the mind control disks indicated a 97% percent chance of success.
At least they hadn't figured out yet that Vision wasn't actually Vision. When Bruce had explained what he needed, JARVIS had taken over writing the program that would allow a hologram of Vision, compiled from the archives, to be projected wherever Bruce could hide the holo-emitters. The hologram's imitation microwave beam from Vision's forehead couldn't be allowed to actually hit a target, or the deception would have been short-lived when nothing happened.
Well, the Controller hadn't caught on to the hologram part of the con job, but he had realized Vision was a distraction. Bruce cocked his head, hearing voices coming down the hallway. He hurriedly packed up everything he needed and made sure there was nothing out of place.
He went to the hidden control on a back wall, and quietly opened the access hatch. Time to cut and run, and hope that his luck would hold.
* * *
Chapter Seven
Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Hulk
“Hulk!” Cap shouted. He pointed to the five massive roboids marching down 68th Street, away from the Research Center at Rockerfeller University. “Take them down!”
Hulk jumped, landed on one of the roboids, and started pummeling it with his fists. Thor's hammer whizzed past him to strike another one of the giant robots, sending it flying into a tall building and destroying half the multi-colored bricks as it slid slowly to the ground.
Hulk tore off the head of his roboid, taking satisfaction in the slowly dying whirring noises the monster robot made as it fell over, dead. He flung himself towards the one Thor had knocked down, landing on it with both feet, feeling the metal dent as he landed. He stomped it again for good measure a few times, until it had stilled and parts from its chest were scattered and flattened around the huge body.
A red and gold streak reversed itself to hover in front of Hulk. Iron Man. Thor flew up next to him and hung in the air, but Hulk could tell he was impatient to take his hammer to the other roboids.
“Hulk! Thor! Cap needs Thor; we're going after the Controller where he's holed up in the Research Center. Got this, Big Guy?”
Hulk grinned, pleased that he would get the fun of smashing the rest of the giant robots, who had picked up speed, their long thick metal legs taking them rapidly down the street. They weren't destroying anything other than the cars in their way.
“They're easy to smash.”
Thor saluted Hulk with his hammer. “Good hunting, friend. Be wary, it is odd that these metal monsters have not fired any weapons at us.”
Iron Man said, “Keep an eye on the perimeter. This does seem too easy; the Controller might have something else planned to take us out.”
Iron Man and Thor hurtled through the air towards the edge of campus, where the Controller had been located by S.H.I.E.L.D. Hulk knew that Fury's second in command, Maria Hill, was there, directing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to search the buildings, working with the police and campus security to clear out civilians.
Hulk bent his legs and jumped after the disappearing roboids, thinking about Maria Hill's talk with Bruce after his coma. She'd told Bruce that she'd look into his allegations that he had been tortured by the Army and S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce was sure the proof was there on film somewhere within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records. He'd said that the people who'd hurt him considered themselves researchers, and that they wouldn't get rid of their data.
In return, Bruce had agreed to talk to Hulk about registering as a superhero with S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce had done so, saying that it was up to Hulk to make the decision, since he was the one with the superhuman abilities. Bruce played professor, though, covering the possible advantages and disadvantages for the people S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to control and for society.
He used a Starktablet to show instances in history in which groups of people were required to register with a government. He let Hulk read about it on his own, saying that he had his own opinion and he didn't want to influence Hulk. Hulk read about the camps during WWII where Japanese-Americans had been sent. Germany, under Hitler's regime, had made it the law that some people- Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, among others- had to be registered. And how some special populations were treated: discrimination. Extermination.
When Hulk asked Bruce more about what he was learning, Bruce told him it was estimated that there was a sizable mutant population that were basically hiding their abilities, afraid to be seen as different. The mutants who had banded together for protection were uneasy about any proposed laws. The Fantastic Four against regulation, from what Bruce had learned.
People born with special powers, people like Tony Stark, who'd used technology to make themselves superheroes, and people like Bruce, who'd had some sort of accident or changed themselves on purpose, all of them would come under the registration proposed by S.H.I.E.L.D. If they weren't registered and they fought to protect other people, then they would be seen as dangerous vigilantes, with the potential to cause great harm.
The Avengers had been called vigilantes before by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Deciding that he would think some more about all of this before he figured out what was right to do, Hulk focused on his current task. Two jumps brought him to the nearest roboid. He grabbed it and jumped high into the air, and then, with a look to make sure no people were in the way, he hurled it back down. Watching as it fell apart, he leapt towards the next metal monster.
Maybe after the Controller was back in custody, and the last two roboids a pile of screws and bolts and dented metal, he'd give Assistant Director Maria Hill her answer.
* * *
Clint
Clint let the sky scooter hover a few feet above the sidewalk and waved at Bobbi Morse, who had just ushered two scared looking college kids out of the Greenberg Building and turned them over to waiting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Clint said, “Okay, I think we've cleared this building of students and staff. I've swept through the upper floors and they're empty now.”
“Bottom two floors and the basement are cleared, too. Any word yet on where the Controller's holed up?” Bobbi pulled her mask off her face and looked inquiringly at Clint.
“He's in the building next door. He made the students and teachers assemble those robots in that other building the school is remodeling. The roboids took a hike through the walls, but Hulk will take care of them.”
Bobbi stepped closer, putting one hand on the scooter. Like this, Clint was at eye level and she looked at him speculatively. “Speaking of Hulk, I was talking to Jan and she passed along some interesting news.”
“Janet always does. What'd she lay on you?”
“Are you really seeing Bruce Banner now?”
Clint made a production of looking at his watch. “Well, that didn't take long to get out. First kiss and first... everything, was last night.”
“'Cause I have to say, I didn't see that one coming,” Bobbi said.
“Why not? Have you seen Bruce? He's a cutie-pie. Got freckles, and you know I like those.” Clint grinned at her. He'd teased her enough times about hers. “He's a doc, too, Doctor Morse.”
“Because I know you, Hawkeye.”
“Maybe I'm ready to reform.”
“You? You've flirted with me since I used to pilot your ship.”
“Those were the days.”
“Back then, I wasn't ready to date anybody. I'd give it a shot now, though.” Her eyes swept his body, from his boots to his hood. “I was hoping you and I could spend some time together after this party is over. Have our own private party, you get me?”
He looked at her pretty face, the cute freckles, her lovely figure that her costume accented. Bobbi's philosophy was that it never hurt to distract the villains with a few curves. He wasn't even tempted, that was how bad he had it for one shy scientist.
“Yeaah. Bobbi, if you'd made that offer back then, I'd have gone for it.”
“But not now. Because of Bruce Banner.”
“We've got something going and it's good. I'm not gonna go off the reservation and mess it up.” Clint smiled at her. “No hard feelings. Friends?”
“Raincheck. Call me if it doesn't work out with him.” Bobbi winked at him.
Clint said, slowly, “Hey. A favor. Don't screw with him, okay? Can the flirting from now on with me.”
Bobbi said, “Excuse me? I don't see a ring on your finger.” He could hear the laugh in her voice.
“Yeah, funny. But I'm being serious. You owe him, remember? He, the Hulk, kept our jet from crashing; he saved your life and he paid for that.”
“I remember you going to the Cube to check him out. Guess you did. But yeah, I do owe him. I won't poach on his territory.”
Clint said, “It's just that he has a hard time believing that good things can happen to him. He's a keeper. I'm not throwing him back.”
“Hmm. Clint Barton being all protective. Maybe he's the one to make an honest man out of you,” Bobbi said.
“Maybe.”
“Actually, getting to that level with you is more of a challenge than I want to take on. So, Mazel Tov, congrats, good luck and all that.”
“I'll tell him you gave us your blessing.” Clint smiled, picturing Bruce's bewildered face.
“Oh my God. You've got it bad.”
Cap's voice broke into their conversation. “Cut the chatter, Hawkeye and Mockingbird.”
Jan flew up next to them, pixie-sized. “Hawkeye, your comm line is open. We all heard you two.”
Hawkeye tapped his comm, and set it back to listening mode. “Oops.”
He wasn't sorry. He'd tell Bruce about this later. Bruce's face would heat up with embarrassment, which Clint wouldn't mind, not one little bit. He could admit that he might have developed a kink about seeing Bruce blush, and Bruce would be pleased that Clint had fielded Bobbi's pass. And he could totally get oh, Jan, or Tony, to back him up on that.
Jan poked Bobbi on the shoulder. “Told you.” She flew back towards Cap and T'Challa, who had also been clearing the area of civilians.
“Mockingbird, report to Hill immediately.” The order was loud enough that Clint heard it easily from the communication device on Bobbi's shoulder.
“This is Mockingbird, on my way.” Bobbi replaced her mask and looked at him. “Give me a lift?”
“Sure.” He tapped his own shoulder and informed Cap what he was doing. Bobbi climbed on behind him and he flew the scooter ten feet up in the air, letting it hover again.
Bobbi pointed to the building across from the Research Center. “Hill set up a command center at Founders Hall. Hang around, okay? We might as well work together, friend.”
* * *
Clint used the time while Bobbi met with Hill to check back in with Cap. The sensors in Iron Man's suit had broken through the protective energy shield the Controller had used to keep his location secret, and they were getting into position before they made an all out assault on the jerk. Cap told Clint to work with Bobbi on what Hill wanted done, and then to join their assault.
Clint was checking over his arrows when Bobbi returned. He quickly refilled his quiver and slung it on his back. She didn't say anything to him, just slid onto the scooter behind him.
“Okay, what're our orders?” He revved up the scooter's engines, waiting to be told what direction to go.
Instead, he felt Bobbi moving closer to him. She pulled his hood down, and her cool fingers touched the back of his neck, her mouth so close to his ear that he felt her breath, warm and just a bit arousing. He sighed. Bobbi sometimes didn't know when to just back off, whether it was from a fight or from angling for a date.
“Ah, Bobbi? This is supposed to be a no-flirting zone, remember?”
He stiffened then, as metal, oddly warm, was slapped against the skin at the back of his neck, and brief pain bloomed. He couldn't move to grab whatever she'd stuck on him, though. Bobbi's voice in his ear was hers, but the words weren't.
“My Hawk, I've slipped the jesses on you. Hill and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are under my control now. You and Mockingbird will take down Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers. Except for Hulk. His thick skin won't allow my control disks to work as they should. That's all right. I have someone else in mind to break him.”
There was a sizzle of pain, much stronger than the first time the control disk had zapped him. It ran throughout his body, setting his nerves on fire, but he couldn't scream out loud. The Controller's words, smooth, so powerful, filled his brain and a part of him sat back and watched in dismay as the Controller told him, mind to mind, exactly how to turn the rest of the team into the Controller's mindless slaves.
Bobbi reached around and handed him a small pouch. He opened it to see a handful of disks.
He slung his quiver off his back and began his task of destroying the Avengers.
* * *
Bruce
Hulk had no problem dispatching the fourth roboid. He stomped his feet hard and the pavement buckled under the giant robot, causing it to wobble dangerously. Hulk jumped up and flung himself at it, hitting it with both of his hands clubbed together. It fell over and he followed it down to the road, and kicked its head off.
He was a little disgruntled that the roboids hadn't been more of a challenge. They hadn't attempted to actually fight him; they'd scuttled away as fast as they could. The last one had just crossed Third Avenue, which was a few blocks from the mansion. Hulk bounded after it, ready to be done with this task and return to Rockerfeller University to help the rest of the team take down the Controller.
Mockingbird had briefed them on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s latest intelligence on the Controller. Unlike Iron Man's armor, the Controller could drain energy from the victims he enslaved with his mind control disks to help power his exo-skeleton. He could shoot out bolts of energy, make stun mist too.
The Controller was a powerful enemy, but Hulk knew that Tony would not think much of his roboids. If Antman were still an Avenger, he wouldn't either. Neither would Vision. Hulk would tell Vision just how easy it had been to destroy these roboids, when Vision returned from his own solo mission.
He jumped to catch up to the last roboid, and it turned and faced him. A panel slid open on its chest, and he saw a red-headed woman, arms spread wide, holding onto the inside of the machine. She wore a tight green and yellow costume with a black and white cape.
Hulk was startled and decided he needed to remove the woman first, so she wouldn't get hurt when he destroyed the roboid.
He let himself land in front of the enormous golden machine, and prepared to jump up to grab her gently from the chest piece, not sure if she was a hostage or an accomplice.
The woman opened her mouth, and a wordless song filled the air. It was so beautiful, so lovely, and he stood transfixed. He couldn't move a muscle, couldn't say anything.
Soothed, he felt calmness overtaking him. He couldn't stop it. He felt himself shrinking down, and then it was Bruce who was on the outside, and he was inside, and cocooned in warmth and acceptance. As he fell into a trance, he lowered the wall. With a last effort, he pushed his knowledge of everything that had happened to Bruce.
This woman had stopped the Hulk. It was up to Bruce now to help the Avengers.
* * *
Bruce
Bruce slumped down on his knees, confused as he sorted out what Hulk had tried to tell him. Someone, this red-headed woman probably, was trying to manipulate them, because neither he nor Hulk had triggered the transformation.
That couldn't be good. She must be working with the Controller. Her song was becoming stronger, closer, and for the life of him, Bruce couldn't move. It was like he felt sometimes when he was on the verge of falling asleep, when his muscles were pleasantly paralyzed.
She floated down, a vision of loveliness, holding his damnation in her hands.
A gamma dampener collar.
Still helpless, in thrall to the music pouring from her throat, his heartbeat slow and steady, mired in calm, he couldn't even lift his hands to block her slender arms from bending down and placing the collar around his neck.
It locked and a painful shock traveled through his body, causing him to spasm briefly.
He found that he could make sounds again, though, and he couldn't stop the low guttural groan from escaping.
The woman's singing had dropped to almost a whisper. He looked up at her, dismayed at the power she'd had over Hulk. She produced a pair of ordinary looking handcuffs and stepped behind him. He tried to get to his feet and run away from her, but she just increased the volume a little more and he collapsed on the ground. He heard the snick of the handcuffs locking around his wrists.
There was silence then, and Bruce struggled back to his knees. The woman was still behind him. She knelt and put her arms around him, drawing him back against her.
She put her lips on his ear, and he had a flash of memory of Clint's lips against the edge of his ear, the sensual feel of his tongue as he had unerringly found the place that made Bruce want to just spread his legs as wide as he could and beg Clint to fuck him.
This woman made no attempt to seduce him like that, though. Instead, she began to talk in a conversational tone of voice.
“Doctor Banner. I thought you'd be bigger.”
Bruce rolled his eyes. He knew that Clint would have taken an opening like that and run with it, but he didn't like to make sexually suggestive jokes. Well, maybe sometime he would with Clint. After the Avengers showed up and freed him.
He coughed a little. “Well, that was... unoriginal. Everyone always expects me to be bigger. Who are you and what do you want?”
The woman spoke again in a low, lilting voice. “Basil Sandhurst. Your new employer. I'm afraid that I don't have time today to explain your new schedule for lab work to you. And now that my Siryn has rendered the Hulk impotent, I'll have to decide what to do about you. Hmm. I hate to squander one of my disks upon a foe who is quite harmless without it. After Tony Stark begins mass producing my disks, of course I'll spare one for you then. But for now, I really must use my resources wisely. Well. I shall let the Avengers decide for me. Until then, Siryn will keep an eye upon you.”
The red-headed woman, Siryn apparently, let go of him then, and stood up. Bruce tried to get to his feet, but she hummed that sweet song again and he slumped down, his muscles barely keeping him from collapsing on the road.
Basil Sandhurst was the Controller. Either Siryn was being mind-controlled with one of his disks, or she was an accomplice. Since the Controller had used her to talk to Bruce, he was betting she had a disk implanted on her skull somewhere. Maybe under that beautiful fall of hair. The huge roboid was only a few feet away from him, but not moving anymore. A crowd was starting to gather and he heard sirens coming closer. The Controller wouldn't want to leave them here, within walking distance of Hunter College.
Altering her song to sweet sounds that made Bruce think of Betty and the head over heels feeling he'd had of falling in love with her, Siryn projected it to the curious crowd.
The crowd dispersed, smiles on their faces. When the police cars hurtled to a fast stop a bit down the street, Siryn merely directed the song their way and in a few minutes the cops were returning to their cars, soft smiles on their faces, pulling sedately away.
Bruce was lost in memories. He was aware of what Siryn was doing, that his feelings were being manipulated, but it didn't stop him from reliving emotions he'd felt with Betty. And he knew when Siryn stopped singing that he was going to be left heartbroken once again.
Clint, what had happened with Clint was too new, too uncertain, for feelings of love for Clint to be drawn from him.
Bruce wasn't sure how long he waited in that excruciating state of limbo, but the sound of the sky scooter made him look up. Siryn rose up in the air, a different melody powering her gentle movement back up and into the roboid.
The scooter dropped to about six feet from the ground and Clint looked down at him, a blank look on his face. His eyes held no expression.
“Banner. You don't look dangerous to me.” He parked the scooter next to Bruce and climbed off. He pulled Bruce to his feet and spun him around, held him against Clint's chest in an awful parody of an embrace. Bruce felt Clint's hand in his pocket, and he brought out Bruce's Avengers card, his stingers and the tech shield bracelet. He let Bruce go and carelessly tossed them up and down in the air.
“Controller? He's as harmless as a puppy. I took away his toys, not that he could have done real damage with them, since he's not an Avenger. Hulk is, but that collar will keep him from showing up. What do you want me to do with Banner?”
Bruce watched as Clint nodded at what the Controller told him. He dropped the card, shield bracelet, and stingers into a pocket in his uniform. Clint waved at Siryn, who closed the hatch on the roboid -- Bruce had started thinking of it as a two-legged Trojan Horse - and it bounded away, down Third Avenue, to wreak more havoc.
Clint looked at Bruce with mild indifference, poles apart from the look given to him when they'd woken up this morning, Bruce warm in Clint's arms. Bruce felt as awful as he'd expected. He'd lost Betty so long ago, and all the old pain had returned. And now he'd lost Clint, too. This version of Clint didn't care about him.
“C'mon, Banner. Let's go stash you at the mansion. The Controller plans on being there later, after he takes over Stark Industries. Everything that belongs to Tony Stark will belong to the Controller now. He's going to take the disk off Tony long enough for Tony to really feel how the Controller has bested him, and then Stark will go back to being the Controller's pet monkey. You, too. Controller wants you working in his labs.”
He pulled Bruce over to the scooter and made him sit in front of him. Bruce's balance was shaky, with his hands secured behind his back, and Clint snaked an arm around his waist and held him securely against his chest. Another sham embrace, and Bruce hated every second of it.
They were only a few city blocks from Avengers Mansion, so the ride was mercifully short. Clint hustled Bruce inside, using his Avengers card to gain access. JARVIS didn't greet them and Bruce supposed that the Controller had ordered Tony to turn him off.
Clint didn't say anything to him. Or rather, the Controller didn't have anything to say to him. Bruce just kept his head down, concentrating on seeming harmless. Helpless. Clint had encouraged him to learn to use the tech shield and stingers, but deep down, he still didn't think Bruce would be any good at using them to save himself or anyone else. His comments to the Controller showed his true feelings.
Well, let him underestimate Bruce. Clint was leaving him alone in a house equipped with labs and weapons. He'd be damned if he'd just sit quietly while the team was in danger.
If Clint and Hulk and Tony had been compromised, Bruce was very afraid that T'Challa, Jan, Cap, and Thor had been also.
He was surprised that he ended up in Clint's bedroom, but Clint just pushed him down on the bed and undid one of the cuffs, and then snapped the loose end around a brass headboard spindle. Clint brought him a glass of water and set it down on the bedside table, stashed a wastebasket next to the bed.
“Get some sleep. The Controller will want you well rested when he puts you to work. I told him that you're often tired after changing back from Hulk.” Clint gave him a shove, not hard, impersonal. Bruce lay down, and Clint pulled a blanket up over him.
It should have been a sweet gesture, something a lover would do for his partner, but from Clint's expression it had been just another chore.
Clint turned off the lights, closed and locked the door. Bruce waited, listening, but he didn't hear any movements. Then he sat back up and tugged at his left wrist. There was a little play in the cuff, because he had managed to tighten his fists when Siryn had cuffed him. He opened the bedside table, looking for something to use to pick the cuff's lock, but there was nothing obvious. Clint wouldn't be that sloppy, anyway. Unless he was fighting the mind control, but as far as Bruce could tell Clint was well and truly trapped in the Controller's snare.
Bruce rubbed his right hand over his face. He checked his pockets, in case Hulk had put something in them that he could use, but the only thing there was a gum wrapper. Cinnamon gum was Hulk's favorite and Jan kept him well supplied. And that wasn't going to do a thing to help him escape.
Clint had done him an unwitting favor by leaving one hand free. He looked into the trashcan, hoping for something he could bend into a handcuff key, but it was empty. There were no pens or bobby pins or paperclips within grabbing distance, either.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd dislocated his thumb to escape handcuffs. Of course, it was much easier to let Hulk break them out, but sometimes he'd wanted to be quiet about leaving. Hulk was a great guy, loyal, protective, but quiet he was not.
He drank all the water in the glass, then shattered it and cut several small gashes into the meaty base of his handcuffed hand. The blood would make it easier to slip the cuffs off, once he'd dislocated his thumb.
He did it quickly, swearing from the pain, and tugged against the metal, making his hand as small and as slippery as he could.
He'd have to come back later with a hazmat kit to clean up the blood splattered sheets. It was the least of his worries, though.
It didn't happen very fast, but at last he was free and he gritted his teeth as he fixed his thumb.
He went into the bathroom and bandaged his hand. He swallowed a couple of aspirin, too, hoping it would dull the pain from the cuts and the contortion he'd had to do.
The next step was getting out of this room and then re-booting JARVIS. Once he'd done that, he could notify S.H.I.E.L.D. - No, he couldn't. Some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents must be compromised. The gamma dampener collars were S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and controlled by them. Even Ross had been forced to go through S.H.I.E.L.D. to get his hands on them. Bruce didn't know whom he could trust.
He was afraid to contact the Army. If they knew he was here, alone, with Hulk unable to come out, they might do a snatch and grab on him, pardon be damned. Ross was in custody, but Major Talbot would gladly take his place. He'd always been jealous of Betty's love for him, and he'd be thrilled to turn Bruce into a version of the Man in the Mask in some forsaken hidden facility.
The X-men, the Fantastic Four- they might well be compromised by now.
Bruce made up the bed with pillows to look like he was under the covers. Once JARVIS was back up, they'd make a false vid of him sleeping and set it on looping, in case anyone checked on him with the security monitors. JARVIS could unlock any door in the mansion.
He was going to have to cut the head off the snake. He had no illusions about going one on one with the other Avengers with the idea of taking them down and removing their disks. Any one of them would take him out instead. But, if he could disable the Controller's armor, then everyone under mind control would be freed.
Siryn was going to be a problem. Ear plugs seemed like an easy solution, but it was probably more complicated than that. He needed to do what he did best. Research. Hiding. And to do that he needed out of this room.
He left the door alone. He didn't want to leave any signs of tampering that the others would notice.
He went to the window and opened it. Clint's bedroom was on the top floor, and there was no ledge outside to stand on. Probably Clint had considered the window as an escape route, and thought that the height would discourage Bruce from trying to climb out.
It wasn't something he was looking forward to doing, true, but he could manage it. He looked around the room. He could make a rope out of sheets, but he didn't think there was enough material to get him down to the ground. And it would leave a very visible sign that he had escaped if the Controller came back with his entourage before Bruce could get back in Clint's room to get rid of the evidence.
So he would go up instead.
Clint
The Controller stood on the steps of Avengers Mansion and waved for the crowd that had accompanied him there to move closer. Once his minions had crowded the front lawn, he had made the sort of self-congratulatory speech - praising his own genius - that was guaranteed to elicit snark of the very highest quality from Clint.
Except it wasn't like he could actually talk for himself right now.
Bruce had described to Clint and Tony once how he had seen himself, imprisoned in Hulk's mind by Amora. The real Banner had chains wrapped all around his body, keeping him from being able to talk to Hulk, while the false Banner, Amora's magical dupe, had done his best to enrage Hulk by telling him the Avengers didn't trust him and considered him a monster.
Clint had a new respect for Bruce because somehow, through sheer willpower, Bruce had managed to break Amora's control, seeing himself as shattering the chains in time to stop Hulk from smashing Jan to pieces.
Clint, though, Clint hadn't been able to to do anything to break the hold the Controller had over him. He didn't see himself wrapped up in chains, like Bruce. Instead, he was in a thick, clear bubble, where he could see and hear everything that the Controller made him do, but hitting the bubble or kicking it did nothing to pop it.
He'd shot Cap, Thor, and T'Challa, the disks embedding themselves and taking them over. Tony's armor had been hit with a special device that the Controller had just for him. Tony was just as compromised as the rest of them because of it. Bobbi had taken care of Jan, drawing her away on some pretext which required her to be full size before Client had gone to town on the others. Clint couldn't hit her with an arrow when she was teeny-tiny without killing her, and the Controller didn't want the Avengers dead. He wanted them to be his own personal lap dogs, especially Tony.
The Controller had left the campus with them as his escort, as well as Maria Hill and the other compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They'd had their own parade down to Stark Tower, and only in New York could an outlandish mob like them barely even get fingers pointed at them as they marched, or in the Controller's, Tony's and Thor's cases, flew, down the city blocks.
The one roboid that Hulk hadn't smashed had come along for the fun, too. And the red-headed babe inside of it had taken care of any opposition. She'd just sung them into compliance, including the top staff at Stark Industries and Pepper Potts. They adored the red-head, and no one had objected to being outfitted with their own mind control jewelry. The Controller had been insufferable about how Tony's company, labs, staff, robots, blah, blah, blah were all his now.
They would have more mind disks in a few hours, Tony's labs and factories being put to good use by the Controller. The Controller had decided it would be a gas to do the whole “Lord of the Manor,” thing at the mansion, so they'd all trooped back up Fifth Avenue. They'd even gotten a police escort, once the red-head with the vocal power had sung to them.
The Controller had ordered the minions to wait in the lobby, in the middle of the huge “A” on the black and white tiled floor, and he'd slowly walked around the perimeter of the room, stopping now and then to pick up an expensive vase and eye it or run a hand down the side of one of the marble pillars.
He ordered Tony to take off his armor, Thor and T'Challa holding onto Tony's arms as he was freed from it, and presumably, the mind control as well.
Tony glared at him, his hair in disarray, struggling against the hold of his teammates.
“Anthony. Perhaps you'll recognize this quote. 'Revenge should have no bounds.'
“Oh, God, spare me the melodrama,” Tony shot at the Controller.
“I'm going to appropriate everything you've ever had and occasionally, like now, I'll remove the disk and enjoy the look on your face as you realize that I've made you my slave.”
Narrowing his eyes, Tony gritted out, “You're going to go down hard, Basil. Just like last time.”
The Controller flicked a finger towards Tony and Cap stepped next to him.
“Do the honors, Captain America.” Steve placed a disk on Tony's neck and Tony stopped struggling, looking towards the Controller for instructions.
The Controller announced that he wanted a tour. Also, food. He sent Jan and Bobbi and the red-head to the kitchen to fix him a meal. Clint noticed he didn't specify that the rest of them were to be given anything to eat. He just bet that Jan and Bobbi, stuck in their own bubbles, were fuming.
It would backfire on the asshole, though, unless the red-head had some talent at cooking, because he knew that Bobbi and Jan were fairly hopeless at doing anything much in a kitchen besides working a microwave. And the Controller had ordered them to prepare his favorite foods, and it wasn't frozen pizza or Spagetti-O's. Hell, Clint was a pretty decent cook, and so was Bruce. If the Controller had asked them who could cook and who couldn't, probably it would be them in the kitchen instead. The Controller had made an assumption based on traditional gender roles - Clint could so thank those mandatory trainings when he'd been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for the terminology -- so maybe the Controller would be just as sloppy about other assumptions. It... might be a small chink in his armor.
He wanted to go and see Bruce, make sure he was all right, but the Controller didn't order it, and hadn't given Clint leeway in his orders to make his own plans, as long as they fit in with the Controller's agenda.
Clint had acted like such a bastard to Bruce- cold, indifferent, and the worse part was that the Controller had just capitalized upon something Clint wasn't proud of at all. It was pretty clear to Clint that while he really liked Bruce, he still had a ways to go about believing Bruce would be an effective fighter. Hiding, yes. Bruce had evaded capture for long intervals between his past incarcerations. Being a genius scientist, hell, yes.
Maybe, though, that was the chink Clint was looking for, the assumption that could trip up the Controller. After all, the Controller had accepted Clint's assessment that Bruce as Bruce wasn't dangerous. And maybe, just maybe, Bruce Banner, non-Avenger, would exceed Clint's expectations.
Bruce
Breathe, Bruce told himself silently, although there was no chance that Hulk would be coming out. Or even be able to give him any advice. Hulk had been sung to sleep and all of Bruce's shouting at him hadn't gotten him to even twitch.
Bruce's heart was still beating too fast, though, so yeah, breathe. He was in a lot of trouble here, hiding in the maintenance access tunnels for the training room. After re-entering the mansion from one of the rooftop access points he'd discovered while playing hide and seek with Clint, he'd rebooted JARVIS, and boy, Tony was not going to be happy to know that Bruce was more than capable of that level of hacking.
Well, Tony could have a fit about it later, after he was himself again and not a mind-controlled puppet.
Bruce had a laptop with him, and was in communication with JARVIS, although JARVIS would not appear to be active. Bruce and JARVIS had worked to block communication with Tony's armor, and hadn't that been a trick to pull off. On the Controller's orders, Tony had only basically flicked on the lights for the mansion. Not even voice communication with JARVIS had been approved.
JARVIS and Bruce were working behind a smoke screen, and Bruce needed more time before he was ready to make a move. He'd had to go to ground when the mob had showed up. He'd been counting on it taking a lot longer to take over Stark Industries, and now he was going to have to play mouse and cats to get what he needed.
Hopefully, nobody would know the mouse was out of his cage. JARVIS was prepared to run a continuous loop of him asleep in Clint's bed, if video surveillance was turned on to check on him. It had been the second thing he'd accomplished once JARVIS was operational, going back to Clint's room and faking that scene.
The first thing he'd done, though, was send a message out to Vision. He was the only Avenger that Bruce was sure hadn't been compromised. Even the reserve Avengers, like Luke Cage and Spiderman, might have been snared by now.
Vision, though, wasn't even on the planet. He'd gone out to the Negative Zone, both to do some exploring and to check that Galactus was still happily occupied with munching down infinite amounts of anti-matter for his meals instead of planets.
It was too risky to use the portal in the Baxter Building to find Vision, in case the Fantastic Four had also been caught by the Controller.
Bruce had come up with another plan, but it had been time consuming, since he couldn't leave a bread crumb trail back to the mansion. His message had been bounced all over the world before he'd sent it to its real destination.
By using the communication stations at the juncture of the two universes, unobtrusively hidden on the Earth side, Bruce hoped that the encrypted SOS he sent to Vision's ship explaining about the Controller's take-over would bring Vision back.
Bruce had no way of knowing if this Hail Mary pass would work, and if Vision did get the message, when he'd be able to come. He'd told Vision not to message him back, to increase the chances of not getting caught.
Silently, a line of type appeared on the laptop's screen. Doctor Banner, when you're ready?”
“Send me location updates, please,” he typed back. JARVIS obliged, and his laptop screen flashed with different videos. Jan and Mockingbird were in the kitchen, and Siryn was using a fire extinguisher on a blackened mess in the oven. Bruce had found her name in a S.H.I.E.L.D. database of superheros and supervillains that Tony had 'borrowed' from the helicarrier. And Siryn was listed as both. Apparently she'd first come under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eye as a teenaged criminal, but the X-men had straightened her out. Bruce still wasn't sure if she was mind-controlled or had slipped back to her earlier criminal ways. Still, he tended to take anything in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files with a big grain of salt. He'd been listed as a criminal in their files, after all.
He had a plan to make sure her sonic abilities couldn't influence him again, but to implement it he needed to get into Tony's lab. And right now, there were about twenty S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and superheroes between him and where he needed to be.
He picked up the last of the mini holo projectors he'd brought with him and used the tools he taken out of Tony's workshop to patch the projector into the system for the training room. He wasn't an engineer like Tony, but he'd had plenty of practice at fixing things when he'd been on the run. Nobody had needed a physicist's help, but a talented handyman could always find some sort of work.
He typed “Now, Jarvis,” closed the laptop, slid it into the pouch he'd grabbed from Clint's room, and waited at the access door to make his sprint for the lab.
Clint
The Controller wanted to see how the training rooms worked, and he'd picked T'Challa and Cap to show off Tony's ingenious testing facilities.
Watching from a viewing room, the Controller made lots of comments to Tony on how he found Tony's work to be inferior. Meanwhile, Cap used his shield to batter the fighting dummies, and T'Challa demonstrated his own brand of martial arts to take them out.
The rest of them had to just stand there, waiting on the Controller to order them to do something, anything. This gig as a mind-controlled slave was boring. It sucked hairy monkey balls, Clint thought moodily, encased in his bubble.
Suddenly, Vision appeared in the training room, and a red light beamed from his forehead, barely missing the Controller. He shot again, but the Controller dodged him.
“Avengers! Take down Vision,” bellowed the Controller. The part of Clint that was mind-controlled gladly followed the order, relieved to be doing something for his master again. Clint-in-a-bubble yelled in frustration, and kicked at the clear barrier, pounded it with his fists. He hated being made to hurt his teammates.
Vision changed density and floated right up through the ceiling. The mob of minions, Clint included, ran from the training area in hot pursuit of the last free Avenger.
Bruce
Bruce quietly opened the door to Tony's lab. His goal here was to get in, fabricate enough sonic wave absorbing material to make ear plugs, and get out. Right now the Controller was tracking down Vision, Hopefully, Vision's ability to float through walls and ceilings was going to keep Mr. Basil Sandhurst busy sending his press-ganged henchmen after Vision and far away from Bruce.
Bruce located the material he needed and double checked the settings on the machine. He had to adapt his project, transform the material so that besides the range of regular sound, Siryn's mind controlling sonic frequencies would be totally captured within the molecular structure of the fabric. Another tricky part would be that the material could only absorb so much energy before it would need to discharge it, altering from sound to light in a beautiful display of colors. If his ears started glowing with rainbow hues it would attract attention.
Bruce had worked on the concept after hearing Jan talk about attending one of Dazzler's concerts. The public thought the colorful light displays the singer used were because of ground breaking tech, but Dazzler could transform sound to color naturally, although that information wasn't common knowledge.
Bruce liked Jan a lot, and she'd been so kind to him when he'd been sick. Designing clothes was a hobby of hers, and he thought he could figure out the physics of the sound to color transformation and apply it to fabric. She could make some interesting outfits with it, he'd thought.
It had been a puzzle that had been mildly interesting and it had given him something to do when he'd been hiding from Clint. Working out the equations and structure needed to alter fabric that would imitate Dazzler's ability had been doable with just JARVIS and a laptop. To do his gamma research, he really needed access to his lab in the cabin, or to use Tony's equipment. Clint regularly checked Tony's labs and workshops to see if Bruce had stashed himself in there, so those places had been off-limits.
Bruce placed the small pieces of soft cloth within the chamber and turned on the machine. He would make several sets, but it was unlikely any of the others would be freed enough to use them.
His next step, after he'd used the cloth to protect his ears, was to go to the armory and get the weapons he was going to need to adapt in Tony's workshop. Luckily, both of his next stops were on the basement levels, too, and with everybody chasing Vision, he thought he actually had a shot at making this work.
* * *
Clint
Vision led them all on a merry chase around the mansion. An uncoordinated, tripping over each other chase, until the Controller wised up and ordered the rest of them to follow Captain America's orders.
Clint wondered if Cap was doing any better at resisting being mind-controlled than he was. Of all the Avengers, Cap probably had the best chance at it because Steven Rogers was the most principled man he'd ever met. Forcing Captain America to go against what he thought was right was bound to create a war in that star-spangled head of his.
Even under Cap's capable direction, they weren't able to pin down Vision. Clint, stuck as he was in that damn bubble, was rooting so hard for the guy to beat the Controller.
But after a while things started to fall into a pattern. Vision would be spotted somewhere in the mansion; Cap would send some of them this way and some of them that way to cut him off. Vision would fire at them, miss, and disappear again into the walls or ceiling.
After that first time, though, he had not been spotted back on the basement levels where the assembly room, the labs and workshops, and the armory were located.
Clint just hoped that the Controller hadn't caught on yet, or wanted to know his opinion of the situation, because he would spill the beans, he knew he would, if his master asked him the right question.
Clint had never seen Vision miss at what he aimed at before. So, okay, there was always a first time, and while the guy wasn't exactly human, he was capable of making mistakes as much as any flesh and blood person.
But not like this. Not every time. Vision was keeping them all occupied trying to stop him, while he wasn't even trying to hurt them. And, sure, he could appreciate Vision not frying his mind-controlled ass, but why not shoot at the Controller?
Clint had figured it out. Vision was working with somebody, keeping attention away from whatever was going on down in the basement levels. Whoever it was, Clint was cheering them on.
* * *
Unfortunately, the Controller, as Tony had told them, was intelligent. He, too, figured out that Vision was playing them, and ordered Maria Hill to take the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and do a sweep of the three basement levels.
The Controller steepled his fingers, relaxed in the large recliner. “There is one person not under my control in this cottage. Anthony, my lad, have your AI bring up video footage on Doctor Banner.”
Tony walked slowly to the wall interface with JARVIS and punched in his security code, and bent down for the retinal scan. Clint wondered if Tony was stalling, trying to fight against the Controller, but if so, Tony was still too much under his thumb. With a flick of his hands, he brought up the video of Clint's room. The video hung in the air, large enough for all of them to see.
Bruce was on his side, still asleep and breathing slowly, his free hand curled up by his face. The blanket had slid down, revealing one bare shoulder, and Clint saw that the hickey on his neck hadn't faded yet, as part of it was visible despite the gamma dampener collar.
Seeing Bruce still helplessly confined to Clint's bed, he kissed goodbye the irrational hope he'd had that Bruce would somehow have been able to give them a hand. It wasn't fair to expect that of him. He was a sweetheart and brilliant, but he wasn't going to be able to fight against the Controller.
The Controller said, “It's hard to believe that such a peaceful looking man harbors the Hulk. T'Challa and Thor, you both will remain here, and dispose of anyone foolish enough to attack me. Hawkeye and Captain America, do a search of the ground and upstairs floors and roof. Disable and bring me our mystery foe, if found. Oh, and bring Doctor Banner with you, when you report back to me. Anthony, kneel by my feet.”
Clint fell in behind Cap, and together they started to do a room to room search on the ground floor, with its large stained glass windows and ornate crown molding. If Clint dragged his feet, well, he was just following the pace Cap was setting.
Bruce
Bruce's laptop screen started flashing, JARVIS' way of getting his attention. He read the words and typed a message back to direct the hologram of Vision to show up on the basement levels as soon as Bruce had gone up to the roof. Aside from Tony, Bruce wasn't sure the other Avengers even knew about the behind-the-walls maintenance areas, but there would be more scrutiny now during the search for Vision's accomplice. Maria Hill would turn Tony's workshops, labs, and the armory upside down, looking for Vision's partner. She was Nick Fury's second-in-command and wouldn't take things at face value. She might discover the hidden parts of the basement levels.
The upper floors didn't have those hidden features as much, although there was a way to get up to the roof, a servant's small hidden stairwell. He'd used it lots of times over the last two months, slipping past Clint on one of his “find Banner and confuse him” kicks.
According to JARVIS, Bruce wouldn't be able to get into position to take down the Controller before he would be discovered missing from Clint's room.
He had to go back.
Betting that he didn't rate two Avengers escorting him to the Controller, he was going to have to adapt his crazy plan. The simulations he'd run on the tech he'd altered from Tony's designs and from the scans JARVIS had done of the mind control disks indicated a 97% percent chance of success.
At least they hadn't figured out yet that Vision wasn't actually Vision. When Bruce had explained what he needed, JARVIS had taken over writing the program that would allow a hologram of Vision, compiled from the archives, to be projected wherever Bruce could hide the holo-emitters. The hologram's imitation microwave beam from Vision's forehead couldn't be allowed to actually hit a target, or the deception would have been short-lived when nothing happened.
Well, the Controller hadn't caught on to the hologram part of the con job, but he had realized Vision was a distraction. Bruce cocked his head, hearing voices coming down the hallway. He hurriedly packed up everything he needed and made sure there was nothing out of place.
He went to the hidden control on a back wall, and quietly opened the access hatch. Time to cut and run, and hope that his luck would hold.
* * *
Chapter Seven