Invisible To You (A Bruce Banner Love Story)

Chapter Thirty Nine - Mission Prep

"But why didn't you talk to me before you agreed to this?" Tony asks from the pilot's chair of the quin-jet. I groan and walk up to him, squeezing Bruce's hand before leaving him to listen to his music. Nat had been ordered to go straight from the forest to pick the others up at the tower and go to the Helicarrier.

"Two reasons. One, I was asked to make the decision on the spot, and two, it's my life, and I thought that this might be my chance to let my powers out for a helpful reason." I say, leaning on the back of the chair. 

"You could get hurt." He points out, putting the jet on auto-pilot and turning in the chair.

"So could you." I point out. "Or anyone else on this plane. Not your best argument Tony."

"I have my suit." He says. "Capsicle has his speedy healing serum, Bruce is well... Bruce."

"What about Nat and Clint?" I ask, motioning to the two assassins.

"They have their.... assassin-y stuff." He says with a dismissive wave. "They've been doing this for years. They know what to do. You on the other hand, haven't ever done anything like this."

"Well, I have to start somewhere." I say, shrugging. "Why not now?"

"Because...." Tony trails off. "Because reasons. You just shouldn't." I roll my eyes.

"You can't even come up with a reason. Just cool down until we get there, okay?"I say. He sighs and walks back to the pilot's chair. I shake my head and walk back over to where Bruce was sitting. He hangs his headphones around his neck, and I can hear the faint sounds of opera coming out. Strange, but if it helped him, let him listen.

"You okay?" He asks.

"He treats me like I'm a kid who doesn't know what I'm doing. As if I can't see the risks involved." I say, running a hand through my hair. I begin to absentmindedly braid it in one long braid running over my shoulder.

"You two are so alike." Bruce chuckles, making me look at him with a raised eyebrow. "You really are. He's a big brother who worries." I purse my lips and nod.

"He's not exactly wrong to worry." I say. "I mean, have you seen the guy I love? Pretty dangerous...." I joke. He shakes his head with a smile.

"I'll have to agree with that." He says, a soft smile dancing across his lips. "But I can definitely tell that you're changing him for the better." I smile, leaning over and pecking him on the cheek. 

Most of the flight is spent in a comfortable silence until we dock on the Helicarrier, the jolt making all of us complain at Tony.

The others guide me through the large ship since I've only been on it once before, and that was when Fury had interrogated me. The whole thing was like a giant maze, and I really couldn't understand how anyone knew where to go on here. After a long while of walking, we get to a large conference room, the SHIELD bird emblem in the middle of the large table. I ended up sitting between Bruce and Tony, to absolutely no one's surprise. "So, do we just sit around here until Eye-patch shows up?" I ask.

"You won't have to wait long Miss Saunders." A deep voice says from behind me, and I wince, knowing he heard what I had called him. He walks around the table to where all of us can see him, and he stares at me.

"In my defense, Tony's called you worse." I say, pointing to my left. He just narrows his eye at me before finally looking at everyone else. Tony flicks me in the ear the second Fury turns away, and I punch his shoulder right back.

"I called you all here because something big is happening." He says, walking around the table. Hill handed us each a file. I open the file to see a picture of a large mansion and a picture of a clearly high end couple. A high end couple that I knew. "Nuclear big." My eyes scan the pages in front of me. "In Russia, this couple, the-"

"Kristoffs." Tony and I finish together. Everyone in the room looks at us with confusion. "I didn't think they seemed like the nuclear bomb type." I say, turning to Tony. He nods.

"I always thought they were more of the heat seeking missile or those smoke grenades." He says.

"That makes more sense for them." I agree. I turn to the others. "The Kristoffs were the host's to a lot of parties in Russia that Tony dragged me too. Though, now that I think about it, they did ask more questions about your weapons than most people." Tony shrugs, and I roll my eyes. "But you'd be too drunk to remember that."

"You know them personally?" Fury asks. I nod.

"They didn't like me much. They were always more into Tony." I say. Fury nods, thinking.
"This changes things." He murmurs. "Anyway, they have been developing two nuclear bombs. We've gotten intel that they plan to use them against the US within the week." He says louder. "We've only got one chance to stop that from happening."

I lift up an invitation out of the file. "They're having a party." I say, raising my eyebrows. Fury nods.

"We need to use you're telepathy to get the nuclear codes." He says. "You and Dr. Banner will be going to the party as a couple, and I have been told that won't be a problem." I feel myself blush, and out of the corner of my eye I see a light pink in Bruce's cheeks. "Though now that I know they know you personally, I'll have to change it to your actual name." He turns. "The rest of you will be traveling to the location of the weapons in question. Once Miss Saunders gets these codes, you'll input them and rig them to explode where they are."

"This party is in two days." Nat says. Fury nods.

"That's how long you have to plan for it. I'm having a pilot take Banner and Saunders back to Stark tower to shop for outfits for the party. The rest of you will stay on the Helicarrier to go over the layout of the land and the blueprints of both the mansion and the warehouse housing the Nuclear bombs." The others nod. "Good. Dismissed." Fury finishes, walking out. Hill walks over to Bruce and me.

"I'll take you to your plane." She says, motioning. We follow her out, and I glance back at the others as I walk out the door. Nat and Clint had already pulled out the maps, and they were planning.

The jet back was silent as I looked over the file of the mission. Bruce was doing the same, but he hadn't noticed something I had. I go over the math in my head, double check the maps and blueprints. This.... This couldn't be right, could it? Fury wouldn't..... No. I wasn't wrong.

We touch down, and as soon as we're off the ramp, the pilot takes off back to SHIELD. We walk into the main floor of Stark Tower. "Bruce...." I trail off, grabbing his attention. He frowns when he sees the look on my face.

"What's wrong?" He asks, walking over. I point at what had caught my attention in the file.

"There's no extraction plan." I say. He shakes his head.

"There never is for us." He says, obviously not worried.

"No, look." I bring him over to the couch, setting the file down on the coffee table in front of me. 

"The bombs detonate five minutes after the codes are put in, right?" I ask, and he nods, confirming what I had read. "Well, these two bombs going off together, the blast will destroy the mansion." Bruce stays silent. "The others will have the jet on them, but there isn't enough time for them to get out of the warehouse and come for us, or even get far enough away if they don't fly straight up, and knowing them they won't, they'll come for us." I slowly look over at Bruce. 

"This mission..... It's a suicide mission." I say quietly.

In three days..... We'll all be dead.