"What? You found traces of DNA belonging to Ross's subordinates?" Bruce Banner's eyes widened, he frowned, and his face showed clear displeasure.
After Noah received the data from the search drones and ordered them to continue exploring the branched underground tunnels, he decided to visit Bruce on the island. The tunnels stretched far, and even for the drones he created, it took time to fully explore them.
When he arrived on the island, Banner was in his underground laboratory, trying to find a way to decontaminate the area affected by gamma radiation. He was doing this not for his own struggle with the Hulk, but to eliminate the radiation contamination left after the battle in the forest.
Noah immediately went to the laboratory and shared the information he had obtained with Bruce.
"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Banner replied after a short pause. "Ross has been hunting me for years. Why wouldn't he resort to this?"
Around him were numerous dirty plates with leftover food, indicating that he had probably spent all his time in the laboratory, even eating there. Perhaps, after so many years without scientific work, he didn't want to waste a single second.
A small Blitzcrank robot approached the table and deftly collected the dirty plates with its mechanical hands. On the island, both in the resort area and the underground laboratory, these small drones took care of all the daily necessities. Even Bruce's daily routines – food, clothing, and sleep – were under their control.
"Ross has always wanted to get his hands on the Hulk's power to use it to create weapons," Banner said, taking off his glasses and looking at Noah. "If he succeeds, the world will plunge into chaos. I can't let that happen, so I've been hiding from him all this time."
Noah stepped closer, glancing at the data on the computer screen next to Bruce.
"I don't think you should worry about Ross. Most likely, Samuel Sterns is simply using him to obtain the necessary resources. All we need to do is find Sterns," Noah remarked with a slight smirk.
Ross, although a general, didn't pose a serious threat to him. As an ordinary human, even one with authority, he was nothing compared to Noah's capabilities. He believed his power already surpassed any government. Even nuclear weapons wouldn't be a problem for him – he had numerous ways to deal with them.
"But Sterns is a different story. We need to hurry and find him," Noah shifted his gaze to the screen displaying the drone data. The video switched to a map of the tunnels discovered beneath Sterns's old base. A dot representing the base was visible in the center of the screen, with several tunnels branching out from it. Red dots marked potential exits on the map.
"It seems he escaped through these tunnels," Noah said, pointing at the central dot. "We can focus on these exits and narrow down the search area."
Banner's eyes lit up.
"Yes! If he hasn't gone too far, we can track him through the tunnels," he said, already lost in thought, tracing the lines on the map.
"Exactly. The drones will soon finish analyzing all the exits, and then, with the help of detectors, we can pinpoint his location," Noah confirmed. "But you need to speed up your work on the detectors, otherwise Sterns might escape far from this area."
The Leader was cunning and shrewd. Realizing the threat, he might try to hide, just like Banner had done, and then the search would become more complicated. Noah didn't want this mission to drag on for months. Although the task didn't have a strict deadline, its prolongation would irritate him.
"How's the work on the radiation cleanup devices coming along?" Noah approached the computer and glanced at the results of Bruce's night work. A cup of coffee stood next to the monitor, and the dark circles under the scientist's eyes indicated that he hadn't slept all night.
"Almost done," Banner's eyes lit up when the topic turned to his research.
"The data you brought on Samuel Sterns's experiments proved very useful. He used my materials to develop a serum that temporarily suppressed the Hulk," Banner paused for a second, recalling past events, and shook his head.
"After some modifications, I was able to adapt it to eliminate gamma radiation residue. We just spray this solution on the contaminated areas, and the problem will be solved."
He walked over to a laboratory cabinet, took out several vials with solutions, and began mixing them. Noah noticed that this cabinet wasn't there yesterday – most likely, Banner had just installed it.
"Here, we'll test this mixture now," Banner said, shaking a vial with a purple liquid slightly.
Then he took a test tube with a green liquid, and as he prepared to pour it onto the table, Noah asked:
"Is that your blood?"
"Yes," Banner replied. "I want to conduct the experiment on my own blood. If we can reduce the level of gamma radiation in it, then we can apply this method to decontaminate the affected areas."
Bruce poured the green blood onto the table and then added the purple liquid. The purple solution quickly mixed with the green mass, but after a few seconds, no changes occurred.
"What the..." he frowned, his gaze becoming thoughtful.
"Did it not work?" he said, puzzled. Bruce was confident in his calculations and theory, so he took out a small gamma scanner and pointed it at the sample.
Beep-beep-beep!
An alarm sounded, and his face was illuminated by a red light, but he paid no attention to it, focusing on the readings.
"Oh! It worked after all. It's just that the concentration of gamma radiation in the blood is too high to immediately notice any changes. But for cleaning up contaminated areas, this is quite sufficient."
Banner concluded with satisfaction. Although his blood hadn't changed outwardly, the scanner confirmed that the radiation was starting to decrease – albeit insignificantly, considering its high concentration in Bruce's body.
"We did it, Noah," Banner smiled, holding the vial with the solution. "As soon as we produce enough, the contaminated areas can be cleaned up."
The success of the experiment inspired him, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time.
"Excellent, let's speed up the process. It's a bit of a hassle to spray it on the contaminated land. It's crawling with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents right now."
"S.H.I.E.L.D.? What should we do?" Banner asked, not fully understanding what this organization was, but already realizing that the situation had become more complicated.
"Don't worry, it's not a problem for me."
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