Academy of Sciences?

Rio Verde, Brazil's slums.

Natasha wore a black off-the-shoulder gown that looked like an evening dress, a mink stole draped over her shoulders, strolling through a nearly deserted corner of the slums as if no one else existed.

She walked like she was on a runway while speaking to the air.

"Sri Lanka, Sambava, Cape Town, and now it's Rio Verde?"

After speaking, she listened carefully to the voice coming through her earpiece.

"Natasha, that giant has already learned highly proficient counter-tracking techniques through his constant entanglements with the military.

No one could have imagined that he jumped into the sea from Sri Lanka and swam all the way to South America before coming ashore!"

"What a surprise. Besides Brazil, I still have at least six suspected locations to investigate. I'm truly grateful for the Intelligence Department's hard work!"

Natasha sneered in irritation, then found a sufficiently secluded little house.

After giving the owner an appropriate amount of money, Natasha casually showed him the gun strapped to the outside of her thigh.

The owner immediately gave up on the idea of robbing her and then taking advantage of her, taking his daughter with him as he prepared to leave.

But for some reason, when Natasha saw the pitiful little girl the owner was leading by the hand, she seemed to see her younger self.

"Wait!"

She could not help waving them down, stopping the father and daughter.

"Let your daughter work for me. I'll give you enough money, but my only condition is that you never appear before your daughter again. How about it?"

After saying that, Natasha looked at the girl's face, where faint bruises remained.

The girl froze in shock, then lowered her head deeply. Her thin chin nearly poked into her equally thin chest, wasted away from malnutrition.

"Damn American, she's my daughter! Not everything can be measured in money!"

The owner snarled at Natasha, but after Natasha smiled disdainfully, she extended her other leg from beneath her dress for him to see.

Strapped deep inside that thigh were a miniature submachine gun and a dagger.

A moment later, the owner simply grinned, revealing his filthy teeth as he held out his right hand and spread five fingers.

"It'll cost more!"

"Deal!"

And just like that, Natasha gained a hardworking little maid in her temporary residence in Brazil.

Three full days passed...

Natasha visited every place where the Hulk was suspected to have appeared, and S.H.I.E.L.D. finally confirmed the Hulk's true location.

It was in the Montevideo settlement, roughly eighty kilometers from the Rio Verde slums.

He had disguised himself as a doctor, or rather, he was working as one.

And soon, he would leave Montevideo and come to Rio Verde for a consultation.

So Natasha waited there.

During the wait, Natasha had a good talk with her little maid, or rather, the current S.H.I.E.L.D. reserve agent.

More than once, Natasha's heart was brutally pierced by the girl's painfully real words.

"Why did you buy me? I'm not a virgin. Dad sold my first time to the neighbor two years ago."

"I don't know what I can do. Does crying count? I always like hiding somewhere to cry. That's what I'm best at."

"You said I'm an agent now, a reserve agent. So what am I supposed to do? Is it all right if I just live like this? This is too happy."

And when faced with such a girl, Natasha could only hug her and tell her.

"You don't need to know how to do anything, because even the most terrifying monster can't resist that slightly sad look on your face!

So you only need to be yourself!"

And tonight was the day the little girl got to be herself.

Bruce Banner never denied that he was lucky.

Of all those who had been irradiated by Gamma Rays like him, he was the only one still alive.

But he never denied that he was unfortunate, either.

Though alive, he could only eke out an existence.

Incomparably powerful, yet unable to restrain himself.

To fight meant losing himself.

If he wanted to retreat, it was not up to him!

The achievement he had once been proudest of was his research into Gamma Rays.

That was the key that opened the door to his current nightmare of a life.

He built his own Pandora's Box, then opened it himself.

Even his hatred seemed to have lost its target.

Because the person he hated most had given birth to the person he loved most.

Wearing a tattered shirt and jacket, stepping through filthy, damp mud.

He carried a medicine case that was nearly falling apart, walking listlessly through the crowded, chaotic slums.

He had caused destruction too many times.

Even if it had never been what he wanted, he had ultimately brought about far too much ruin.

And now, it seemed only saving people could offer him any comfort.

He entered the room. The patient lay on a broken straw mat.

She was a middle-aged woman, her face covered in red lesions that resembled frostbite.

"It's Lupus Erythematosus!"

He reached his conclusion in an instant.

Yes, he was practicing medicine. He had hoped that saving others would help him recover his nearly numb heart.

But it was useless.

Because there were too many diseases in this world he could not cure, and too many people he could not save.

Like the woman before him with Lupus Erythematosus. She was too poor, her environment too terrible, and the facilities too inadequate. She could only wait for death.

Bruce Banner looked helplessly at the ceiling, his beard like weeds obscuring his cheeks.

What else could he do?

Of course, visit the next patient.

"Hello, I... my mom... she's sick. She's thrown up so many times and hasn't eaten anything all day..."

It sounded like a little girl, her voice carrying a trace of sobbing, so Banner turned toward the sound.

It was a child, petite and thin. Her slightly swollen abdomen indicated indigestion, her turmeric-yellow skin showed poor liver function, and her dull eyes and hair full of flakes showed that the girl had suffered from malnutrition for far too long.

Yet she still held out a small handful of the lowest-denomination coins to him.

"Please, this is all the money I have. Please!"

The girl's pleas echoed endlessly as she shook the nearly rotten bills in her hand.

She should not have been clutching that ruined money, shaking it around in this disgusting place.

She should have been holding flowers, waving at the boy she admired on a sports field or basketball court.

Thinking that, Bruce felt a touch of pity.

After pondering for a moment, he said.

"This isn't about money!"

Yes, this truly was not about money. Who could bear to take the last of this girl's money?

Bruce Banner followed behind the girl all the way to her home.

As he walked, Banner's heart sank.

The place was too remote. No one would want to live there.

Especially not patients. Patients in the slums preferred lying in crowded places, hoping to earn the pity of some wealthy person and prolong their lives a little longer.

But this place... could it be as he feared?

The girl opened the door. It was dark inside.

Bruce had only just reached the bedroom doorway when he saw that the girl, who had entered before him, had already leaped out the window like a monkey and fled.

Banner turned around in understanding. A woman in a black evening gown, with a mink stole over her shoulders and smooth red hair, stood before him with a gentle smile.

The woman smiled, so Banner smiled too.

"If you aren't her mother, or even if you are, that means the mother she spoke of isn't sick, right?"

Banner asked, and Natasha nodded.

Seeing the woman's hair sway up and down, Banner let out a long breath.

"That's great. No one is sick. That's wonderful."

His smile was especially cheerful.

For some reason, Banner's momentary smile made Natasha feel deeply guilty.

But duty came first. Natasha ultimately hardened her heart.

"You don't need to be angry. We mean you no harm. Otherwise, I wouldn't be the one who came looking for you."

"So?" Banner sounded somewhat absentminded.

"Just the two of us, you and me. Can we talk?"

"Heh, perhaps. But don't do anything extreme. I don't want this land, already full of scars, to bear that guy's price again!"

"OK!"

Natasha agreed readily.

Banner assumed a posture of listening attentively.

"This time, no one wants to capture you. I'm not from the damn United States military. I belong to S.H.I.E.L.D.!

For the past seventy years, S.H.I.E.L.D. has secretly saved the world countless times. What we mainly deal with are disasters the real world cannot handle.

And now, we've encountered a problem that is almost impossible to deal with. We need your strength!"

"No, you only need his strength!"

Banner looked displeased. He loathed the power inside him. He hated and feared that monster.

Yet that monster was what people admired about him. That was not the admiration he wanted!

Few people in the world could compare to his talent. After all, he had once been the world's most renowned top professor of radiology!

But now, his savage, ugly image was about to bury his own worth. He would never accept that!

The veins on his neck gradually began turning green.

In the Avengers movie, the reason Banner agreed to Natasha's invitation was mainly because Natasha's grand excuse was that they needed his deep understanding of radiation science to track the Cosmic Cube Loki had taken.

That was recognition of Banner himself, not that monster!

He!

Bruce Banner!

Was not a monster!

Never was!!!

"Fuck, this is insane. Banner, calm down. At least look at the information I want to give you.

I understand your dissatisfaction right now, but we have to admit that what we're facing is an uncontrollable beast.

We need another beast to keep it in check, but aside from that, the beast in your heart has no value to us.

On the other hand, your mind might be able to find another solution for us!

I believe in you. Calm down. You haven't lost control for seven months and eighteen days. Just as you said, don't hurt this land. Please!"

Under Natasha's repeated persuasion, Banner barely managed to control his emotions.

Frowning deeply, he took Natasha's phone.

A moment later, he suddenly understood.

Numerous videos were playing on the phone.

Heisenberg descended from the sky. Heisenberg shot into the heavens. Heisenberg flew at high speed. His Heat Vision, Freeze Breath, and most importantly, that punch!

Of course, there was also the footage of him slapping Kingpin's head apart!

"He's different from you. Earth will always be your home, but he is only a passerby on Earth.

Super strength, super speed, supersonic flight, and his rays and breath. He is a true monster we cannot stop.

Even though he has a body much like ours, he is the real monster!

And as you can see, he is arrogant, spoiled, rude, and cruel!"

As Natasha spoke, she extended her seemingly delicate, powerless right hand toward the Hulk.

"We need you. Earth needs you, Banner!"

Meanwhile, Coulson was kicked out by Stark Industries' new manager, Pepper Potts, for the fourth time.

Tony Stark's palladium poisoning was clearly severe. He clearly needed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help. Coulson had clearly come to offer assistance.

But with none of that able to be made public, Tony's arrogance meant he would not meet Coulson at all!

Even though Tony had been forced to accept the role of S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant.

It seemed Tony did not take S.H.I.E.L.D. or his consultant status seriously at all!

As he walked out of Stark Industries in frustration, Coulson complained to himself.

He truly did not know who could drag Iron Man, hiding away to destroy himself, back out into the world!

At the same time, Miss Pepper Potts stormed into Stark's laboratory in dissatisfaction.

From far away, she shouted at Tony.

"More than twelve directors have submitted motions to impeach me. My proposals were clearly all your decisions, yet you haven't said a single fair word for me!

I know you're Iron Man, but you aren't only Iron Man. You shouldn't put all your energy into your armor. It will make you lose many things!"

"Including the fairy named Pepper by my side?"

"No, it was an invitation from an Academy of Sciences!"

"Oh?"

Hearing Pepper's explanation, Tony looked up with slight confusion.

"Wasn't Oxford Academy of Sciences' invitation for me scheduled for next month? Which Academy of Sciences was this?"

"I don't know, but it didn't seem like a joke. The New York Mayor delivered the invitation himself."

Upon hearing that, Tony took the invitation and gave it a look.

After only a moment, he looked up with great interest.

"I think this is a joke. The address on the invitation is actually in New York, at the top floor of the Brooklyn Golden Building. I've been to that damned place!"

Tony burst out laughing as he spoke.

Still laughing, he began tidying himself up.

"But even if it's a joke, I have to go see it for myself. What kind of genius would put an Academy of Sciences' invitation address in a nightclub?"

"So, you've been there again?!!"

Pepper Potts instantly realized something, and Tony's spine began to feel faintly chilled.