Chapter 70: The Cube Prison
"Where is this?"
"This is the Cube Prison, Bruce."
"I've never heard of it."
"But you're now one of this prison's inmates."
Wyoming, America. Known to the world for the famous Yellowstone National Park.
But in the northern desert, a prison existing only in codenames—cut off from any network, power grid, or water supply connections to the outside world, composed of several cubic structures—was known only to a select few.
This prison's existence was the world's highest secret. It used only an internal network, sent no signals to the outside world, and received none, physically eliminating any possibility of discovery by rampant hackers.
Even within SHIELD, no files existed about this prison. Even knowing the codename couldn't retrieve any information about it.
Dr. Bruce Banner was now imprisoned in one of its cells, suspended in the air by four massive alloy shackles. Surrounded by impossibly hard alloy walls.
Stripped down to only oversized purple shorts, Dr. Banner had no ability to resist as the man before him inserted a needle into his vein and drew a vial of blood.
"We need Banner, but you could transform into the Hulk at any moment. We must have countermeasures first before we can establish cooperation with you, Dr. Banner."
Blood slowly filled the syringe. The man drawing blood answered.
Dr. Banner said nothing more, silently watching the man place the blood-filled syringe into a briefcase, turn, and leave the cell. A heavy alloy door slowly closed.
"Actually, I could have transformed into the Hulk the moment that arrow hit me. Do you know why I didn't?"
Dr. Banner addressed the sealed heavy door, as though speaking to himself.
"Why?"
Banner's low murmur fell. In the cell that should have been empty except for him, Hawkeye—wearing a sleeveless dark purple tactical suit—slowly emerged from concealment and asked, "Can you fully control the Hulk state now?"
"I've been trying to accept the Hulk, no longer viewing him as a disease but as an ability fate has given me." Dr. Banner seemed entirely unsurprised by Hawkeye's appearance. "I heard Natasha mention the Tesseract releasing gamma radiation outward."
Hawkeye crossed his arms over his chest, standing beside Dr. Banner without speaking.
"The Hulk was born from gamma radiation. I didn't want to get involved, but my human conscience made me hope I could use my expertise in gamma radiation to solve the Tesseract problem."
Dr. Banner's tone was extremely calm, as though the person bound by alloy chains nearly as thick as his body wasn't himself. "But I wasn't sent to SHIELD. Instead, I came to this prison. They drew my blood. Do you think they really want to cure me?"
"No. They want to create several more of me."
Hawkeye still stood beside Dr. Banner, staring at him. "Why didn't you just transform into the Hulk and smash everything here to pieces?"
A smile appeared at the corner of Dr. Banner's mouth. In this moment, he seemed not the ordinary human-bodied Banner but the Hulk possessing infinite strength and confidence. "I want to expose the mastermind behind this. That vial of blood is bait."
"The mastermind..." Hawkeye repeated the word quietly, then said, "Natasha and I were indeed executing a mission to deliver you to SHIELD."
Now Dr. Banner fell silent, looking at Hawkeye with some confusion.
"But during our return flight, we received a codename. That codename's meaning was to deliver you to this Cube Prison instead." Hawkeye said.
Dr. Banner couldn't help laughing, as though the person suspended in the air wasn't him. "You didn't even verify with SHIELD's director?"
Hawkeye shook his head. "No. The other party's clearance level is far above Director Fury. He can only follow orders too. You must know SHIELD reports to the World Security Council. The codename directive came from there."
"Hmph." Dr. Banner snorted through his nose, smiling without mirth.
Hawkeye said no more, turning toward the heavy alloy cell door. After identity verification, the cell opened. As Hawkeye exited, it slowly closed again.
Now Dr. Banner was truly alone in the cell.
"SHIELD, General Ross, the mastermind..." Dr. Banner repeated these three terms quietly, showing no concern about his blood being drawn.
For three years, Dr. Banner had injected himself daily with special inhibitors, waiting for this day.
Even if blood was drawn or body tissue removed, the gamma radiation properties would automatically degrade within hours, becoming ordinary samples with no research value.
He'd planned everything long ago. If SHIELD's true purpose in finding him was researching the Tesseract, Dr. Banner didn't mind displaying the wisdom of his seven doctoral degrees.
If other situations occurred—like the current blood draw—Dr. Banner would play along, using his cells' automatic gamma radiation degradation after leaving his body to force them to transport Banner himself to the experimental site.
Then it would be time for the Hulk to come out for some air.
Meanwhile, Hawkeye's expression remained uncertain after leaving Dr. Banner's cell.
He knew where the blood drawn from Dr. Banner was. He decided to guard the area until his departure.
When they'd received the codename during their return flight in the SHIELD aircraft, Hawkeye had sensed something wrong. He had to ensure this blood vial would truly be used to treat the Hulk, not for other purposes.
One hour, two hours.
Hawkeye seemed tireless, crouching in concealment, his gaze fixed like a hawk's on the room storing Dr. Banner's blood from beginning to end.
Tap-tap-tap.
Faint footsteps approached from the distance. Hawkeye couldn't be more familiar with them.
Those were the footsteps of his colleague of nearly ten years at SHIELD—SHIELD agent Black Widow Natasha.
Natasha passed identity verification and entered the room. Less than a minute later, she quietly emerged, footsteps rapidly retreating.
Hawkeye sighed in the shadows, following closely into the room, confirming that the vial of Dr. Banner's blood had been taken.
"What are you doing, Natasha?" Hawkeye asked silently in his heart, then quickly grabbed his bow and arrows and pursued.
....
"What are you doing here, Mr. Clark?"
At Oscorp's shattered glass main entrance, having passed through layers of reporters and media, Batman was about to enter when a soldier stopped him.
Batman produced the employee badge Harry Osborn had given him, clearly displaying this identity's information.
Clark, a low-level Oscorp research staff member, employed for five years but never achieving any results.
Oscorp badges contained chips. When the soldier swiped it at the terminal by the entrance and found the information correct, he returned the badge to Batman.
"Work," Batman answered. "I need this job."
The soldier nodded, not making things difficult for Batman, waving him through.
When Batman had completely erased all super-soldier serum-related data from Oscorp last night, he'd been to Professor Connors's laboratory. He knew it was on the twentieth floor.
But Batman wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he remained inconspicuous, pretending to be busy as an ordinary Oscorp research staff member, using this to gather all intelligence here.
Every floor had soldiers standing guard with strict supervision. This wasn't a company—it was a prison.
The heavily armed soldiers created tremendous pressure for research staff. Almost no one spoke loudly. Everyone silently conducted their work.
Using his own knowledge, Batman flawlessly played this research staff member named Clark, finding appropriate reasons to reach the twentieth floor—Professor Curt Connors's laboratory.