Agent Sakuara

RUSSIA - SOLENSKI PLAZA, 3RD FLOOR. NIGHT.

Out in the outskirts, near a railroad, a still in construction building is being occupied by Georgi Luchkov, a Russian General, along with two of his underlings. One of them is in the middle of a brutal beating on Natasha Romanoff. He backhands her face. Natasha feels the pain, but does not breakdown.

Luchkov, smiling, walks up to her.

(Quick note: If you see this symbol "*" in the beginning of the lines it means they were said in Russian originally.)

*"This is not how I wanted the evening to go." Luchkov simply said.

*"I know how you wanted this evening to go. Believe me, this is better." Natasha sarcastically commented.

*"I'd like to know why they sent you to carry out a carrier, a stained glass and other random items." Luchkov started interrogating her.

The man who backhanded her earlier rocks her chair back, balancing her off the edge of an open floor. Natasha was scared for a second.

*"I thought General Soholob was in charge of the export business." Natasha continued to act.

*"Soholob? Your reputation is quite a progression. The famous Black Widow. Nothing but a pretty face." Luchkov mocked.

*"You really think I'm pretty?" Natasha sarcastically asked.

Luchkov slowly walks over to a table filled with tools. He picks up a pair of pliers while his underling opens up her mouth wide open.

*"We do not need the Lermontov to transfer the tanks. Tell him, well..." He paused for a moment then continued in English. "You may have to write it down."

Suddenly, the other underling's cellphone rings. Confused, he answers. *"Ya?" After a second he looks at Luchkov and informed *"It's for her."

Luchkov takes the phone, pissed. *"Who the hell is..." He started saying but he was cut offed by the person on the other line.

"You're at 114 Solenski Plaza, 3rd floor. We have an F22 exactly 8 miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby." Agent Coulson nonchalantly said.

Luchkov paused for a minute, contemplating. Then he places the cell phone against Natasha's ear seeing how she's tied to a chair with her hands tied behind her back.

"We need you to come in." Agent Coulson instructed.

"Are you kidding? I'm working!" Natasha replied, irritated.

"This takes precedence." Agent Coulson countered.

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation and this moron is giving me everything." Natasha tried to reason.

"I don't give everything." Luchkov defended which made Natasha give him a look.

"Look, you can't pull me out of this right now." Natasha reasoned again.

"Natasha. Barton's been compromised." Agent Coulson shared the grave news.

Natasha froze hearing that. Then replied after composing herself. "Let me put you on hold." She nods to Luchkov but as he comes to take the phone off her, she kicked him in the leg and headbutted him.

Natasha stands up and kicked the man with phone earlier in his abdomen before evading the punch of the other underling and hitting him on the back with the chair she's tied to.

Still tied, Natasha rolls over the other underling. She stab his right feet with the leg of the chair and headbutted him. She tripped him before kicking the right knee of the other man coming at her. During all this Agent Coulson waited patiently on the other line.

Natasha then flips over and falls down hard on the man she tripped, breaking the chair and freeing herself.

She sees the other underling stand. Giving herself momentum, she runs at him and drop kicked him. Natasha falls down but flips right back up. She jumped at him again, wrapping her legs around his neck while flipping, knocking him out cold.

Natasha grabs a chain then walked to Luchkov. She grabbed one of his legs and wraps the chain around it before pushing him down the open floor, dangling.

She picks up the phone and her heels then questioned Agent Coulson. "Where's Barton now?"

"We don't know." Agent Coulson honestly answered.

"But he's alive." Natasha tried to confirm.

"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy." Agent Coulson relayed the order.

Natasha smirked. "Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me."

"No, I've got Stark. You get the big guy." Agent Coulson slowly explained.

Natasha froze, scared. "Oh my God..." she weakly said.

INDIAN SLUM. NIGHT.

A little girl runs through the crowd, trying to force her way through. Then she runs up the steps of a little shack, only to be stopped by an attending woman. But the little girl already spotted him. Bruce Banner, their local doctor.

(Quick note: If you see this symbol "^" in the beginning of the lines it means they were said in Indian originally.)

The attending woman reprimanded the little girl. ^"What are doing here?! Get out! You shouldn't be here!"

^"I have to see the doctor! It's my father!" the little girl replied.

^"Calm down. What's wrong?" Bruce asked the little girl.

"My father..." the little girl started saying but trailed off.

Bruce looks behind him seeing how the girl is staring at the people lying on the beds, looking very sick. ^"Is he like them?" He asked.

The little girl holds out the money she has and said "Please."

Bruce and the little girl hastily run nearly to the edge of town. Bruce spots a local government car, he grabs the girl and turns around, blocking any view of his face.

When the car passed them, the little girl run again towards a shack. Bruce quickly follows the her inside the house. As he walks in the bedroom, he sees the little girl escapes through the window. Bruce was left standing there baffled.

"Should have got paid up front, Banner." Bruce chided himself.

Natasha then appears from behind the curtains. "You know..." Bruce turns around after hearing her voice. She continued "...for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle." Natasha voiced her concern.

"Avoiding stress isn't the secret." Bruce replied.

"Then, what is it? Yoga?" Natasha sarcastically asked.

Bruce ignored her question and asked cautiously "You brought me to the edge of the city, smart. I uh... assume the whole place is surrounded?"

"Just you and me." Natasha simply replied.

"And your actress buddy, is she a spy too? Do they start that young?" Bruce seriously asked.

"I did." Natasha honestly said.

"Who are you?" Bruce asked cautiously.

"Natasha Romanoff." She replied.

There was silence for a brief moment before Bruce broke it with a reminder. "Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not gonna work out for everyone."

"No. No. Of course not. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD." Natasha explained immediately.

"SHIELD. How did they find me?" Bruce curiously asked.

Natasha admitted the truth. "We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent."

"Why?" Bruce asked, skeptical.

"Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now I need you to come in." Natasha informed.

"What if I said no?" Bruce asked cautiously.

"I'll persuade you." Natasha answered confidently.

Bruce paused for a second and then slowly asked "And what if the... other guy says no?"

"You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you wanna break that streak." Natasha simply said.

"I don't always get what I want." Bruce reminded her.

"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe." Natasha started to explain.

Bruce laughed humourlessly and said "Well, those I actively try to avoid."

But Natasha continued. "This is the Tesseract." She shows him a photo of it on her cellphone. "It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."

Bruce takes a closer look and sarcastically asked "What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?"

"Well, he wants you to find it. It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be." Natasha explained further.

"So Fury isn't after the monster?" Bruce asked, still skeptical.

"Not that he's told me." Natasha honestly replied.

"And he tells you everything?" Bruce asked again.

Natasha paused for beat before saying "Talk to Fury, he needs you on this."

"He needs me in a cage?" Bruce sarcastically asked.

"No one's gonna put you in a..." Natasha started to say but was cut offed.

"STOP LYING TO ME!" Bruce shouted while slamming his hands on the table which made Natasha quickly grab her gun and point it at him.

Bruce slowly stands up straight, smiling. "I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay? Natasha..."

Natasha, still wary, doesn't lower her gun. She contemplated for a long minute before she decided to lower her gun and speak into her earpiece. "Stand down. We're good here." she instructed.

Outside, dozens of SHIELD agents are surrounding the shack.

Bruce looks at Natasha, smirking at her. "Just you and me?" He said, amused.

Natasha, still shaken, fidgets for a moment and stares at him nervously.

ATLANTIC OCEAN. NIGHT.

Out in the Atlantic Ocean, Tony Stark, in his Iron Man suit, is cutting a pipeline transport with a laser cutter coming from his hand. He then places a Stark energy reactor around it. After confirming that it's working, he rockets out of the water and flies towards Stark Tower.

Inside the suit, Pepper Potts appears on his hud monitor. "You're good on this end. The rest is up to you." Tony informed Pepper on the other line.

"You disconnected the transition lines? Are we off the grid?" Pepper confirmed.

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy." Tony replied smugly.

"Wow. So maybe our reactor takes over and it actually works?" Pepper asked again, confirming.

"I assume." Tony honestly answered. "Light her up." he ordered.

In the Stark Tower building, the power was switched on and the STARK sign lights up.

"How does it look?" Pepper excitedly asked.

"Like Christmas, but with more... me." Tony described.

"Gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I can do some more tomorrow. I'm working on the zoning for the next billboards." Pepper switching to work mode.

"Pepper, you're killing me. Remember? Enjoy the moment." Tony reminded.

"Then get in here and I will." Pepper seductively replied.

Tony arrives at his skyscr.a.p.er penthouse and is in the process of taking off his Iron Man suit through a circular-shaped metal with hi-tech small robotic arms that's following him as he walk the platform, when Jarvis informed him of a waiting call. "Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line."

"I'm not in. I'm actually out." Tony instructed Jarvis.

After a few seconds Agent Coulson calls again. "Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting." Jarvis said.

"Close the line Jarvis. I got a date." Tony instructed again.

Inside Tony's penthouse, Pepper stares up at the monitors of the reactor device.

"Levels are holding steady... I think." Pepper immediately informed Tony.

"Of course they are, I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?" Tony asked.

"Well, ha, I really wouldn't know now, would I?" Pepper replied sarcastically.

"What do you mean?" Tony asked, perplexed. "All this came from you."

"No. All this came from that." Pepper corrected, pointing to the energy core in his c.h.e.s.t plate.

"Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of the credit." Tony replied.

"Twelve percent?" Pepper asked, annoyed.

"An argument can be made for fifteen." Tony tried to appease her.

"Twelve percent? For my baby?" Pepper asked again incredulously.

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you." Tony tried to reason.

"Oooooh." Pepper sarcastically replied.

"My private elevator..." Tony started to say.

But Pepper corrected him. "You mean OUR elevator?"

"...was teeming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?" Tony argued.

Pepper pours herself and Tony a glass of champagne and sarcastically replied "Not gonna be that subtle."

"I'll tell you what. Next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower." Tony tried to appease her again.

"On the lease." Pepper replied.

Tony paused then said to her "...Call your mom, can you bunk over?"

But before Pepper could reply Jarvis interrupted their conversation. "Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten."

Tony picks up his phone and Agent Coulson immediately said "Stark, we need to talk."

Tony just looked at him and replied "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message."

"This is urgent." Agent Coulson exasperatedly said.

"Then leave it urgently." Tony replied sarcastically.

At that moment, the elevator door opens and Agent Coulson appears.

"Security breach." Tony said then he looked at Pepper. "That's on you."

"Mr. Stark." Agent Coulson greeted.

"Phil! Come in." Pepper smiled at him.

"Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent." Tony said sarcastically.

"Come on in, we're celebrating." Pepper invited Agent Coulson.

But Tony said otherwise. "Which is why he can't stay."

"We need you to look this over." Agent Coulson said to Tony, handing over a file to him. "As soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things." Tony tried saying any reason.

But Pepper helped Agent Coulson by saying "That's alright, `cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." She passes her glass of champagne to Agent Coulson and takes the file from him. Then takes Tony's champagne glass and passes the file over to him. "Thank you." Then she drinks from Tony's glass.

Tony sighs and said "Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday."

"This isn't a consultation." Agent Coulson said seriously.

"Is this about The Avengers?" Pepper asked but when Agent Coulson looked at her, she immediately backtracked. "Which I...I know nothing about."

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped. I thought. And I didn't even qualify." Tony said begrudgingly.

"I didn't know that either." Pepper immediately said to Agent Coulson.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others." Tony said, annoyed.

"That I did know." Pepper nodded.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Agent Coulson interrupted Tony.

"Whatever. Miss Potts, got a minute?" Tony asked nonchalantly. Pepper excused herself to Agent Coulson and walks over to Tony who places the files into his own database.

"You know, I thought we were having a moment." Tony opened up.

"I was having twelve percent of a moment." Pepper said jokingly to which Tony only looked at her, exasperated. "This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken." Pepper shared her observation.

"How did you notice? Why is he Phil?" Tony asked, skeptical and maybe a little jealous.

Pepper ignored him and intead asked "What is all of this?"

"This is, uh..." instead of explaining, Tony expands the information from the tablet to his screens wherein different profiles appear in front of him and Pepper. "This." He finished.

In the screens appear pieces of information about Captain America, the Hulk and Thor. It also shows the guys in action. And in another screen is Loki and the Tesseract, to which Tony and Pepper look in surprise.

"I'm going to take the jet to D.C. tonight." Pepper informed Tony after seeing all that.

But Tony tried to bargain. "Tomorrow."

"You've got homework." Pepper paused and looked at the screens again. "You've got a lot of homework." She reasoned.

"Well, what if I didn't?" Tony asked.

"If you didn't?" Pepper repeated, puzzled.

"Yeah." Tony replied.

"You mean if you finished?" Pepper finally getting what he said, tried to confirm. Tony nods his head as an answer.

"Well, um...then..." Pepper walks closer to Tony and whispers something seductively in his ear which made him gasps. Agent Coulson looks away immediately in embarrassment.

"Square deal. It's the last date." Tony immediately agreed.

Pepper kissed him and said "Work hard." as she walks away.

When Pepper looked back at Agent Coulson she asked him if she can hitch a ride with him to which he agrees. As they board the elevator, Tony grabs the Tesseract in holographic form, contemplating.