The House of Banner - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A/N: Here's the other half of what was once a whole chapter and I sincerely hope that it makes sense. My co-writer and I still don't own the Avengers, but we're working on it.

"We're getting an awful lot of strange looks, doesn't S.H.I.E.L.D. own any cars that are a bit more...subtle?"

" 'Fraid not, the Commander of transport is rather fond of large, bulletproof vehicles."

They began to ascend a hill shortly after leaving the heart of town, the sight that met Bruce at the top nearly took his breath away. Before him stood a four-storey house
surrounded by forest with a sheer cliff face at the back.
   "You've got to be kidding me..."
   "No, Doctor, we're not kidding you. Would you like a tour or shall we leave you to your own devices?"
   "I think a tour would be-"

"Agent Hadley! Director Fury is commanding us all back to the west coast base, something's happened. It's a code 5 incident."

"I'll be on my way in a minute. Doctor, it would appear that you will have to be on your own after all. Before you go in, I should tell you that there are three secret entrances to levels below the house. There's a book on a shelf about gamma radiation, a button behind a painting and the left eye of a bust of Einstein."

"...that is the most cliched thing I've ever heard."

"Yeah, we were running out of ideas. We'll also be leaving you a credit card with 200,000 dollars so you can redecorate if you so choose. It should be on your kitchen table."

"B-but that's taxpayer money! This is really too much-"

"Hadley! We need to go NOW!" yelled agent Edwards as a helicopter descended in front of the house.

"Alright, I'm coming! Goodbye, Dr. Banner, and I'm terribly sorry about this rush."

"Thanks for the house and...stuff."

Within two minutes, every trace of S.H.I.E.L.D. was gone and Bruce was left alone with the giant house. As he began to explore, he found it was furnished rather lavishly in the same way that Stark tower was. The 'Upper house' as it would be called, contained a kitchen, a formal dining room, a living room, an entertainment room, a study, a den, a library, a gym, six (empty) bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.

"Who needs ten goddamn bathrooms?" said Bruce, reverting to his 'alone' behavior. "And seriously, secret entrances? Why would I even need those?"

He approached the bookshelf in a hallway near the centre of the main floor. On the shelf stood 'The Universe in Gamma Rays' by Volker Schonfelder. When he tried to take it, the shelf swung open and there was a staircase down to a platform on the other side. The platform was inside an atrium, with the actual floor four flights of stairs below. This 'Lower house' contained one bedroom, one bathroom, a mini kitchen and a lab. As promised, the bedroom had within it a TARDIS model that opened into a room made to be a perfect replica of the TARDIS from the show. Bruce nearly pissed his pants from excitement. He spent at least ten minutes just standing in the room, imagining adventures through time and space. He probably would have stayed longer if the doorbell hadn't rung. After his brief quest back up the stairs, he opened the door to a little old lady.

"Excuse me, young man, you wouldn't happen to be the owner of this house would you?"

"Um, yes, I just moved in today and-"

"Well, I must tell you, there was quite a stir around town today when you arrived in that big black van, no one around here owns anything like that."

"Yes, well-"

"Oh, how silly of me, I'm Harriet Blanchard, your neighbour, but you can call me granny, everyone around here does. I live just a ways down the road."

"I see that's really-"

"You know, for a long time, this lot was empty, there used to be a park but it burned down in '87. I didn't think anything would ever get built there, but here you are."

"Yes, well-"

"Ah, right, I came here for a reason, you wouldn't happen to be able to spare a cup of sugar would you? I'm afraid I'm all out and it's getting too late to go to the store."

"Oh, sure let me just go get some..."

"I say, you really are quite the nice young man, aren't you?"

"Um...I guess? Look, I'll be right back..."

"Oh, yes. Yes of course."

Bruce, having finally escaped the verbal clutches of Ms. Blanchard, hastened over to his kitchen to find the aforementioned sugar. After searching through several cupboards, he found not just one, but many bags of sugar. He grabbed one and returned to the door.

"Is this enough?"

"Oh, that'll be plenty, thank you."

"Okay, well uh...goodbye, then."

For the following two weeks, Bruce ventured around town, meeting his fellow villagers and getting to know the area. The many trails around the town allowed him to research the local flora and fauna. Slowly but surely, Bruce developed a reputation as "that nice scientist guy" and he was relatively okay with that. He wasn't even bothered that people kept calling him Bob.

However, his interest in being social and interacting with his surroundings soon left and he became something of a hermit, not fully realizing that he was spending full days wearing his pajamas. In this time, S.H.E.I.L.D. decided to put the rest of Operation: 'Team Bonding' into motion.

A/N: Hey there again guys! I hope that y'all liked this chapter, I know it's much shorter than the last two, but if you didn't well...that's okay, I know I have to improve on a lot of things. Many thanks to my perfectly lovely assistant and those who proofread the prologue for me (Seriously guys, Gracias). Here's to me getting my act together and finishing the next chapter soon!