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"SON DIE, YOU DIE!" the Hulk threatened, poking Tony in the chest and sending him stumbling backwards. The beast let out another roar, before he began to decrease in size to a panicked, stressed, and exhausted Banner. Banner stared at Tony for a moment, about to say something before he took off at a run down the hall, going to where Lance was. He shoved the doctors aside, not even stopping to explain himself as he got to work. It didn't take him very long to realize how lucky Lance was. That much radiation would have killed an ordinary person.

He gave a silent word of thanks to the Hulk, pretty certain that the genetics he provided were the only reason Lance had survived that. Eventually, after a grueling half hour, Banner stepped away from Lance, wiping the sweat off of his brow. He was stable and should be feeling much better. "...Buddy?"

"...Dad, is Lance going to be okay?" Guin asked quietly in her room, coughing but no more blood was coming off.

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"I'm sure he'll be fine Guin, don't worry. I seriously doubt Banner is going to let anything bad happen to him... Otherwise I'd be more concerned about what Banner would try to do than what the Hulk says he'll do... Still, Banner really needs to try and sort out the issues between him and Lance, otherwise who knows what else could happen... Not to mention that Sterns is still out there since based on the timeline, the Hulk didn't have enough time to kill the guy, so that is our next job... I'm sure Lance will be just fine though Guin."

Lance started to stir slightly, still feeling like he was going to be sick or something. After a few moments, he slowly opened his eyes, still feeling horrible, but he definitely felt better than he had before. "...Dad?" he mumbled, turning his head to look at Banner, "Where are we? What happened?" He was so confused about what had happened, or anything. The last thing he really remembered was him calling out to the Hulk, and Sterns leaving the room again.

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Banner let out a sigh of relief, seeing Lance wake up. He couldn't help but smile softly at his son, giving him a quick hug and kissing his forehead. "Yeah, buddy, it's me...We're at a hospital," he explained quietly. "Sterns hit you with a massive dose of radiation, you're...you're lucky to be alive..." he then added, his voice breaking. There were tears in Banner's eyes just thinking about that. And even though Lance was safe, he was still determined to kill Sterns. It was just a matter of when.

"Our next job?" Guin asked, raising an eyebrow. She tried to push herself up into a seated position, only for it to aggravate her injury and she whimpered, abandoning the effort. As much as she wanted to tease her dad about his choice of words and use it as further evidence that she was indeed the youngest and newest member of the Avengers, she didn't quite have the energy to do that. Her wound had required stitches and they had given her some pretty decent painkillers. She was still worried it'd mess with her sobriety, despite her father's reassurances. "...Dad, wait, you're going to kill Sterns?" she then asked quietly. "That's dark...I thought superheroes had a no kill policy...though you technically killed Uncle Obadiah..."

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"Oh... okay..." he muttered, closing his eyes again. He still felt really tired, unsure of really what to do. Lance figured that he probably needed to sleep, he was having enough trouble just keeping his eyes open, but he wanted to know what had happened with Sterns The guy who had caused all of the problems, and nearly killed him. The fact that he had been hit by so much radiation made him wonder though. Why would he be resistant to radiation like that when his mutation revolved around light? There was too much to think about, and all of it just kept making his head spin.

"I'm not talking about you Guin... Cap, Thor and Natasha are on their way here, and we will be dealing with Sterns, you two have already had enough problems and stuff to deal with, you two are going to the Malibu house once you get out of the hospital, and you are going to stay there. You two are going to stay as far away from this as possible, alright?" Tony said, and he meant it. He still blamed himself for everything that had happened to the kids, and he wanted to keep them out of harms way. "As for killing, pretty sure Banner and the Hulk want to do that, I don't really..."

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"Yeah...Get some rest, okay buddy? Once you and Guin are discharged, we'll see about getting you someplace a little less...public..." Banner mumbled. He was thankful that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were managing to keep any unwanted visitors from coming into the room. He knew Tony loved the attention - and that apparently, he had been eating it up when Sterns spotted Lance in the first place - but Banner preferred to stick to his corner and sit it out. The less people knew about him and Lance, the better.

"I know I'm not coming to help, Dad, I was joking..." Guin mumbled, trying to shift again only to whimper once more as she disturbed her injury slightly. However, she was trying not to let on that she was mildly freaked out at the thought of staying in the Malibu house by herself. She and Lance had been kidnapped when they were less than ten feet away from Tony. She didn't like to imagine how bold and reckless Sterns would be if he went to them at the house. Maybe he'd actually just kill her that time, in order to tie up loose ends. She nodded, trying to keep her brave face on. She didn't want to admit the mild anxiety disorder she had been developing, what with all of these constant abduction attempts. It was easier to just laugh in the face of danger than admit how much it terrified her.

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Lance thought to stop his dad from walking away, he was still freaked out a little. Some guy literally just tried to kill him, after running tests or experiments or whatever it was, just because he was related to the Hulk. He was scared, but he also knew that he shouldn't be trying to stay awake, and should be getting some sleep or something. "Alright dad..." he mumbled, before he started to drift off to sleep, he was exhausted.

"Sorry, I'm just a little on edge... I didn't mean for you two to get caught like that, and I probably will live with that for the rest of my life, knowing that you and Lance both could have gotten killed, because I couldn't stay close to you two... But it doesn't matter, you two are both safe now..." Tony said, giving her a smile, trying to keep her calm or something, but he didn't want to flat out lie to her or something about what was going through his head.

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Once Lance had fallen asleep, Banner pulled a small teddy bear out of his pocket and set it down on the bed with Lance. Back before their relationship had been soured, Lance had given it to Banner for his birthday. He cherished the little bear, sewing its ear back on after it had fallen off over the years. And now, now he felt that Lance needed it more than he did. He sat down next to Lance's bedside, taking in a deep breath as he pulled out his phone and began to read to his son. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort," Banner read quietly. "It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle..."

Guin just nodded at Tony, coughing as she moved again but she didn't care. She got closer to her father and reached out, taking his hand. "It's alright. I'll just hold this over your head next time you tell me no to something," she said with a straight face, before she couldn't help it and she broke out into laughter, coughing up a bit of blood. "But seriously, Dad, it's alright...We're fine."


"There's really nothing you can do, Nick?" Pepper scoffed, on the phone with the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. "I don't understand, I thought you were at least competent at your job. If you can't find a Hulk fanboy in California that's bursting with gamma radiation and has abducted two children, then maybe I should call an organization that can." She had half a mind to call the U.S. Postal Service, just to make a point. At this rate, she felt they'd have similar progress to S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Hey there, big guy," Natasha said with a smirk. "Oh, and little guy," she added as she saw Tony. Banner didn't say anything, just pacing back and forth angrily with his hands in his pockets. The Malibu house had been turned into a mini Avengers HQ, with J.A.R.V.I.S. running every algorithm he knew in an effort to find Sterns. There was a crash outside and Thor walked into the house.

"He has hidden himself from Heimdall - a feat that I did not know was possible for those of Midgard," Thor mused.

Guin was sitting on the couch, throwing a sharpie at Thor. "Hey Legend of Zelda, sign my cast?" she asked, before snickering. "And I think he just called you dumb, Dad." Thor looked at Guin with confusion, before he opened up the sharpie and wrote his name in giant letters on her cast, covering up where Tony had signed it, which caused Guin to laugh even more.

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Lance was standing in a corner of the room, away from everyone else. He had never been a big fan of crowds, and even just a few of the Avengers in the room added too many people in his opinion. Still, even three days later, he still didn't feel all that great from what was probably some sort of radiation poisoning. Things were getting to be way too chaotic for him, and there was no way to get around it, that much was obvious. Guin of course was loving all of the attention, but still, he kind of hated it as he just stood in the corner, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Good to see you too Natasha," Tony said, with a slight smirk of his own, before he looked over at the others, "So, we've got basically nothing when it comes to finding this guy? All he is is some weird scientist or whatever, he shouldn't be that hard to find."

"Honestly, anything is possible, this guy has basically disappeared without a trace, don't worry, we'll be able to find him, he can't exactly stay hidden forever," Steve said, glancing over at Banner, watching him pacing.

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"...Perhaps he is a wizard," Thor suggested seriously. He didn't understand how Sterns was able to hide himself from Heimdall - it wasn't like he could think of anyone from Midgard who had managed to do that before. Of course, there were a few Asgardians who had done it. His own daughter, Klara, had convinced her cousin to help her hide from Heimdall once. Thor couldn't help but ponder telling Tony and Banner what Klara had done recently, in order to make them feel better about their own kids and struggles with parenting - but he then decided against it.

"...Wow, wizards are actually a thing?" Black Widow scoffed, shaking her head. "Don't tell eleven year old Guinnie that." Natasha had grabbed one of Tony's computers, surfing the deep web in an attempt to find some information on Sterns. She had reached out to her contacts as well, and hopefully, it would be only a matter of time before someone found something.

"....He can stay hidden forever," Banner mumbled, before his eyes widened. "DAMN IT!" he screamed, kicking the wall and resulting in a hole roughly the size of his foot. "He used Lance's blood in order to recreate the serum that made me into the Hulk - which basically means I'm going to outlive all of your assholes --"

"Not me," Thor interjected.

"Whatever -- anyways, so he could be anywhere and he's got all freaking eternity! He could just wait us out until you're all skeletons and not Avengers!"

Guin raised an eyebrow, before she went over to where Lance was in the corner. She didn't want to get yelled at by Banner again. The last time his temper had been raised around her, he ended up attacking her and resulting in her having a small meltdown. "So...This is super not fun..." Guin mumbled to Lance, before she offered him a sharpie with her good hand and showed him her cast. "Signature from my best friend?" she whispered.

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"Not right now Guin..." Lance muttered, looking over at his dad. It was obvious that his father was fighting to stay in control, since the Hulk was probably fighting to go off and search for Sterns the normal way of looking. At least they were trying to figure out what to do about him, or they could just stand around and do nothing. Trying was definitely better, though he didn't know how his dad really felt about reminding everyone he was going to outlive them, like that also meant he'd outlive Lance, which to him was a little weird to think about. "Though I do agree that this is kind of bad..."

"Banner, you need to calm down, don't worry, we'll find him. We've got access to just about everything we need in order to find him, all we have to do is wait until we get a hit. Or we could just go out and do it the old fashioned way of looking," Steve said, looking at Banner. The hole in the wall that he had caused proved that he needed to relax or something, instead of flipping out like this.

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"If he had found a way to conceal his presence, then there are those on Asgard that may be able to help us find him - ones skilled in the ways of the mystic," Thor mused. "It may be faster than waiting for your electronic letters to find their intended recipients on the great Net of Inter." Guin couldn't help but giggle slightly. She had convinced Thor that the Internet was properly referred to like that - and that it was actually a trans-dimensional world where owls would get letters made of electricity and run around until they found the person the letter was for. He had been incredibly impressed by that.

"I know I'm not an Avenger, but you are not bringing that crazy guy back here!" Pepper protested. "People are still finding pieces of alien guts in New York after what he did!" Black Widow shrugged slightly, indicating that she agreed with Pepper as she kept tapping away at Tony's laptop. Banner shot a glare at Thor. "If that crazy sack of cats comes around here, I'll kill him. Consider it a warm up for Sterns," he warned.

Thor held his hands up, just like Guin had taught him to. "Loki is in a cell on Asgard, fret not. But there are others who are advanced in their use of magic and trickery - ones who may be able to find Sterns. The All-Mother is attending to my father, whilst he recovers in the Odinsleep, but perhaps Klara or Runa would be willing to assist...Of course, I must say that Klara has more natural talent, but she is my daughter, so I am afraid that I may be biased..."

Guin's eyes widened and she looked at Lance, leaning slightly against him. "Woah...Thor has a daughter?" she whispered. "We can finally have a secretary or treasurer for our Avengers Kids Club...Though I think I should be President, but whatever, I'll take Vice President and just commit a mutiny against you later..."

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"...Thor has a kid? Did not know that... You can be President of that club Guin, I'm out of it," he said simply, looking back at the ground. He didn't like being the kid of an Avenger, unlike Guin, who loved all of the attention, that much was obvious. He didn't consider himself an Avenger kid, since he hadn't known that he was the son of the Hulk until after the Battle of New York, so he didn't consider himself that, but he doubted Guin would agree with him on that.

"...You have a kid? Why are we just now learning about this? Why have you not mentioned your daughter to us at all throughout all the years we've known you? I feel hurt Pointbreak, really." Tony said, shaking his head at that.

"Tony, I don't think that sort of information is all that important..." Steve said, shaking his head at Tony, who in his opinion was being a little ridiculous about this. Sure, Thor had a kid, but it wasn't really that important.

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Guin's face fell slightly, seeing Lance look at the ground. She knew she wasn't responsible for maintaining his emotional state, but she never liked seeing him sad. She would have put her arm around him if it wasn't in a cast - and he was standing on the wrong side of her for her to use her good arm. "Hey...What's the matter?" Guin asked quietly. As much as she was curious about Thor's secret kid, she was more focused on Lance at the moment. She'd have to ask her dad for the details later.

"We have not known each other very long, Man of Iron," Thor said, looking confused. To an Asgardian, the length of time they had been friends was practically nothing - just the blink of an eye. "But yes, I have three children - Klara, the oldest, is able to bend both love and water. Then there are my sons, Randulfr and Ari, who turned three hundred twenty six recently...I also have two nieces, one of whom tragically died recently, and one nephew."

"...So you want to ask your secret daughter to help us find Sterns?" Banner summarized.

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"Nothing is wrong Guin, I just kind of want to be left alone, in my little corner of the room, that isn't crowded with a bunch of people," he said simply, still looking at the ground. He did not like talking about his feelings, at all, and Guin asking him questions like that were not helping him. Feelings were probably the last thing he ever wanted to talk about, since usually it resulted in a laser light show, or him causing his father to Hulk out.

"Wait, let me get this straight, your oldest daughter Klara has powers over love and water? That is an interesting combination, but whatever. Think the water goddess or whatever can help us find Sterns? You mentioned that she knows magic, so I'm guessing that is how we'd find him with her help then..."

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"...Okay..." Guin said softly. She glanced at all of the adults, seeing that they were busy freaking out about Thor's secret family - as if Barton hadn't pulled the same exact stunt a few years back. And while she did enjoy attention, she had just wanted to talk with Lance. Hearing more about this guy that wanted to potentially kill her best friend wasn't exactly something she wanted to do. Without saying a word to anyone else, Guin left the main area and went to her room at the Malibu house, opening the door and heading inside. She locked the door behind her and glanced at the prescription painkillers on her nightstand, before she shook her head softly.

"No, Guin..." she whispered to herself, as she sat down on the bed and put her headphones in, listening to Push It by Salt-N-Pepa. She bobbed her head slightly to the beat, only to wince as it aggravated the wound on her midsection.

Meanwhile, Thor couldn't help but chuckle at Tony. "I would not call her a water goddess - she does not care for that term. But at any rate, either she or Runa should be able to get a location...I will return to Asgard and make my inquiries. Perhaps by the time I return, your methods will have given Sterns' location as well - but I do not know and I do not care to imagine this monster being at large much longer."

Banner looked at the ground once Thor referred to Sterns as a monster. Sterns was just trying to be like him - to become the Hulk. If Sterns was a monster, what did that make Banner? What did monsters aspire to become? There was only one answer that came to mind - something even more despicable than a monster - maybe the original evil.

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Lance said nothing when Guin walked away. He felt bad about the way he worded things to her, about just flat out saying he wanted to be alone. There probably was a nicer way he would have been able to go about saying it, but he really didn't feel like talking. He knew she was still sore from what had happened a few days before, he still felt ill himself. He knew that he should probably be sitting down, but that would require him to walk towards the group, and he didn't want to do that.

"Go ask then, probably wouldn't hurt to try it out, since clearly at the moment we aren't getting much of anywhere here, hopefully you come back with good news on whether or not you've located him..." Steve said, though he was still looking at Banner. Tony had started to look at Banner now too, since he hadn't said anything, it was starting to kind of make him wonder what was going through his head.

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Guin glanced over at her laptop, having heard it beep at her that the software needed to be updated. Her father must have been writing new upgrades for it during the night, likely as some sort of coping mechanism. She went over to the computer and grabbed it, taking it back with her onto the bed. No one seemed to have been following her to check on her or anything, so she figured the coast was clear. Clicking ignore on the update, Guin then pulled up a command prompt and continued to jam out to her music. It wasn't long before she had her password cracker working on Steve's laptop.

"Really? BuckyLuv48, Steve?" Guin muttered, copying all of his files over to her computer before opening them up. She hadn't been allowed to look at the information they had gathered on Sterns. The information was rather limited, though she saw security footage from Sterns' initial abduction attempt of them, as well as her and Lance's medical records. She hesitated for a moment before she opened up Lance's, seeing that Dr. Banner had attached a file on some additional blood work. She was about to open it when -

"Guin?" Pepper called on the other side of the door. "It's time for you to take another dose of your meds, okay sweetie?" Pepper waited for a moment, before she walked back to the room with the others, noticing that Thor was making preparations to leave already. And by preparations, he was arguing with Tony that it would be perfectly fine for him to open up the Bifrost indoors.

"I will return as soon as I have word," Thor promised, holding his hammer and moving to head outside. "And Stark - my daughter is better," he said with a grin, as he went outside and held his Hammer up, disappearing in a beam of rainbow light. Banner was trying to ignore the fact that everyone was staring at him, keeping his hands in his pockets and his eyes aimed towards the ground.

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Lance looked over at the discussion that was going on. He noticed that Pepper had wandered off, probably to go bug Guin or something, but it didn't really matter to him. They just had to find Sterns, before he did something else. The fact that this guy probably had some sort of abilities or something similar to the Hulk and that meant that he could cause a lot of damage if they didn't find him. It still bugged him though, that Sterns could just hide out, doing nothing for years on end. Once just about all of the Avengers, aside from Thor and his dad, were old, then he could do whatever the hell he wanted without having to worry too much about being stopped.

"Hey! Guin is better! Even though I haven't met your kid! Seriously, the guy is just being biased..."

"Tony, now is really not the time to be arguing about whose kid is better, we've got a bigger issue to deal with still... Let's hope that if we don't find Sterns the normal way of using computers or whatever, that Thor's daughter is able to find him for us, then we can go after him," Steve said, though he still glanced slightly towards Banner, he was wondering what was going through his head, but he doubted that Banner would actually tell them what he was thinking.

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With Pepper gone, Guin was able to open the file that Dr. Banner had made in peace. Her eyes scanned over it and something stood out to her - she did a quick search online and only had her suspicions confirmed. That much radiation - it should have killed Lance. And if it didn't kill him, he would have mutated or developed cancer or something. Instead, Dr. Banner's meticulous work noted that Lance's cells seemed to have a natural adaptation to allow the radiation to be relatively harmless. She then opened up another file, opening up a video log that Banner had made. He had taken some of Lance's blood and exposed it to gamma radiation.

"There's....oh thank god, there's no change..."

Guin pulled out her phone, thinking about sending a text off to Lance, to let him know that his father had checked his blood to see if Lance could ever turn into the Hulk. She doubted that Banner had told him. She thought about it for another moment before she sent off a text - So I read your medical files. Apparently you're almost immune to radiation. And don't worry, Banner apparently tested to see if you'd turn into the Hulk one day - you won't.

Back in the main room, Banner glanced up for a moment, looking at Steve and Tony. "Lance is better than Guin anyways, Tony." He then smirked ever so slightly and Pepper sighed.

"...I'm surrounded by morons..." Natasha muttered.

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Lance pulled out his phone when he heard it go off because of Guin's message, and he froze as he read the words. His dad had ran tests on his blood, and didn't tell him that? Why? Well, at least he wasn't going to become the Hulk, but he had a pretty strong natural immunity to radiation without even trying. The fact that his dad hadn't told him is what bugged him the most, and his hands started glowing ever so slightly, despite him trying to calm himself down. Thanks for telling me, doubt he ever was going to... Lance responded to Guin, his hands still had a slight glow, but he didn't care.

"Are we really going to have this conversation and or argument again Banner?" Tony said, shaking his head at him, "I think Guin is still better, but that's my opinion." Lance heard their comments, and glanced over, but his eyes did flash slightly with anger at his dad, his hands still glowing as he went back to looking out the window. He wasn't too happy with Banner right then, he doubted they'd ever have a non-yelling conversation or something again.