2493/The Search for Hulk: Part 2

The Search for Hulk: Part 2
Date of Scene:	17 July 2020
Location:	Green Mountain National Forest - Vermont
Synopsis:	SHIELD learns something new about the Hulk, and know Banner is now on foot instead of bounding across the country side. Power Girl has questions.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Natasha Romanoff, Daisy Johnson, Jennifer Walters, Leopold Fitz, Karen Starr

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
The quinjet has circled the national park twice now. There's quite a few campsites, both active and inactive - but none quite like this. Three craters, numerous felled trees and rock debris everywhere. Situated just east of Mount Tabor. The area of devastation is easily one football field length.

"I trust you all read the mission briefing. Dr. Banner aka The Hulk went missing after the fight with Brainiac. We found trace of him at Martha's Vineyard and recently we heard from campers out here of a great 'monster' wailing. We'll have satellite footage of the area from a few days ago sent to us soon, I am told," Bobbi says over the comms from the pilots seat.

Bobbi brings the quinjet down for an awkward landing on the rough terrain, a bit of a bump. She starts going through post-flight and lowers the back ramp. There's a sudden rush of warm air in to the cabin. The horizon of lush green forest and the tall mountain to the west set the atmosphere. The ground ahead looks as though it's been a warzone with mounds where trees and rocks had been uprooted and thrown around.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha Romanoff isn't known for being the most emotive person on the planet - at least not outside of certain rare company - but she does give off the distinct impression of a certain uncommon moodyness. Not unreasonably so, there's a walking WMD on the loose; one which it is specifically in her job description to keep track of. It may be a career sore spot for her.
    Maybe.
    She has her hand on the stabilizer bar above when they land, and internally winces at the unpleasant rush of hot air - you can take the girl out of Russia, etc - before stepping outide and furrowing her brow faintly at the sight before them.
    "... Looks about right, on paper." She says, craning her neck a bit to look behind her. "... Did we get any reports of anyone out here *with* him?" She asks softly. "... I don't know that he makes this kind of mess all on his own."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The Hulk's disappearance had been a troubling occurrence. Where was he? Quake had been scouring footage from Martha's vineyard, seeking any clues but all that was known is he had left. And now the debris.

"We will have to get one step ahead of him. Figure out where he may be heading." She says, not hiding some frustration. For how did one divine the intentions of the big green? Certainly not her who had very little contact with the man. But she was still here to help.

She was dressed in her standard SHIELD uniform, quake gloves on, a tablet in her hands while she went through the footage of those three craters. Interesting.

"Not much satellite cover here. And civilization, very little.--" a pause a the rough landing and she almost lets the tablet fall. A grumble. "Yes, definitely no civilization here."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer was set and determined to accompany SHIELD on this particular mission. After all, The Hulk *is* her cousin. When she sees all the destruction she just looks... sad. "Oh, Bruce," she breathes.

She steps outside into the oppressive heat, and looks around at the destruction. "It looks like something set him off, here," she says. "He wouldn't throw this kind of tantrum if he was left in peace." She walks over to one of the felled trees, placing a hand on the splintered stump in contemplation. "And this is the exact kind of place he'd go to in order to cool off some."

Leopold Fitz has posed:
Hey, he wanted more time in the field. Kinda. Or at least that's what he keeps saying at any rate. For his part Fitz remains quiet throughout the flight, studiously going over all his gear, loading the hi-res maps into his computer and waiting with just a little impatience for the satellite imagery so that he can map out optimum search patterns and start plugging them into his drones. Out of his element in the lab such impatience merely manifests itself as restless tapping of one foot, over and over again. Perkins must be on this particular assignment. It's always Perkins fault. No matter what the issue. Always.

As soon as the Quinjet is down groundside Fitz is moving towards the lowering ramp, a backpack slung over one shoulder and a heavy looking duffle draped over the other. He definitely doesn't look like he's going to cover a lot of ground like that. But then he wasn't brought alone for that. Not his skill set. Instead no sooner is he down that ramp and just off to the side then he is crouching down, drawing out a series of mini-drones and laying them out carefully. A somewhat portable control unit follows and within moments there is a soft sound of whirling engines as the small flight of drones begins to come up. "Aerial coverage will be available shortly. The sooner we have the satellite imagery though the better I can focus the search parameters," he chimes up without glancing away from his work.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl hadn't been on the quinjet. She had said that she'd meet them there- even though cooperation with SHIELD is rare for her simply because she doesn't really work with much of anyone outside the Avengers and the League, it's not as if she wasn't going to help, and it probably wasn't high on SHIELD's list to refuse.

    Still, her arrival isn't exactly the most pleasant of things. In one moment, they're alone at the landing spot. Then, in the next, Power Girl is in the air above, descending quietly as if she had been there the entire time, despite the distant -pop- that echoes rather subtlely, a time or two.

    "Going to be hard." she states, in response to Quake. "He leaps." Power Girl leaves it to the others to work out whether or not they're comfortable with having been overheard through the walls of the quinjet by a person who may not have even been in the same state at the time. All she does is mime with two fingers on one hand someone making one hell of a long jump.

    Either way, as soon as the others are starting to take a look at the scene, so is she- and she's got some pretty crazy eyesight, all things considered.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi rounds the corner from the cockpit, pleased to see everyone already going about their deployment. She walks down the ramp of the quinjet and looks at the uneven ground remaining, "Well I'd say this is very Hulk-like. Let's get some gamma-radiation readings, put the drones up. Live Satellite will be up in one minute. Quinjet is starting to download footage from the last day. Hello Power Girl nice of you to join us," Bobbi says looking at the buxom blonde - she's never met her before, but her reputation proceeds her.

As the drones take flight, and as Power Girl starts to ~look~ it becomes clear that each crater has its own unique signature. One is definitely an impact crater where the Hulk landed, that one is unmistakable. Another seems to have been caused by the impact of several rocks and trees at just one spot in particular. The third however is deeper, more destructive than Hulk might usually do and it is laced with strange black crystaline particulates.

"Spread out, let's get an idea of what happened here."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha closes her eyes briefly when that distinct pop of air being more or less knocked out of place fills the air, and inclines her head to Karen as she touches down; greeting, simply, "Power Girl." as she moves to pick up some equipment needed for readings. She's not used to not knowing Avengers' names, so some distance is being maintained there. Not that she wouldn't be Ms. Paranoisa EITHER WAY, but, you know, every little bit helps.
    The second crater merits some concern and confusion - did someone *throw* a chunk of nature at the planet? Other than Bruce? - but the third...
    "That's... concerning." Natasha notes helpfully, keeping an eye on the read-outs of her device. "May have to get a hazmat crew in if we want samples of that, just to be safe."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"I know.., I meant it mostly as..." And Quake then taps on the side of her head while looking at PG. ".. Someone that would know him and figure out where he might be going. If he even has a plan." She has made her way down the deployment zone, nodding while Fitz goes about his drones, a faint smile given to the man. Not one of her broad ones, there had been too much loss as of late for her to be able to do so. But still, she was focused on the mission.

She begins making her way out with a piece of equipment of her own, studying the surroundings, attentive. If anything she could feel the vibrations around and she tried just that, attuning herself, looking for any different or strange sounds or vibrations, even if she imagined Hulk was long gone.

"Any idea on what that may be?" The question directed to everyone apparently when they aren't too far from the black crystaline things. Or well, she keeps her distance at least, near the others.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Any kind of gamma radiation readings is going to be thrown a bit off from Jennifer's presence. She is, after all, a Hulk herself. She makes her way around the craters, looking for clues as to what might have happened here. She gets to the ones where it's obvious that rocks and trees were thrown and nods to herself. "Yeah. He was definitely fighting something here."

She wanders into the middle of one of the craters where a boulder lie in the center and picks it up, like it was made of Styrofoam, tossing it to the side. She crouches down to see what lays underneath. Maybe one of these hit its target and left something behind.

Leopold Fitz has posed:
"Even jumping we can still track him," Fitz says quietly but confidently. Lab or not, this is his element. "It's all variables. Direction, the type of soil underfoot, how deep an indentation, wind at the particular time..." he continues to mutter quietly to himself, bringing that fleet of drones online, beginning to direct them skyward, most focused on the areas around the impact craters though a few straying further afield -- keeping an eye on for any anomalies. Anything that doesn't fit. Don't close done possibilities just because the answer seems obvious.

In moments that fleet of mini-drones is relaying all sorts of information back to the control panel that Fitz holds out in front of him. Regular camera images are next to infrared and ultraviolet feeds. A radiological scope looks to pick up trace readings of radiation -- gamma and otherwise. A dozen other readings of various sorts all feed back to Fitz in real time, eyes flickering over those displays, looking for any detail that stands out. "Moving Grumpy in closer to impact site three. I'll try to get a reading and a sample of those crystaline particulates," he says absently, tapping instructions into the panel. "Doc is zeroing in on impact site two for a closer look." It's like a finely honed ballet of little drones, whirling and zipping all over the area. He glances up briefly from his technological dance number, meets Daisy's gaze and tries to smile. Mainly he looks tense. It could just be the natural light though. Somehow he doesn't quite fit in the great outdoors.

Karen Starr has posed:
    There's kind of a small shrug as Karen floats over the scene. "Yeah, it was a uh- bit of comedy." she offered, nodding politely to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff." the response isn't exactly cold, but it returns that lack of familiarity that Natasha had given her.

    "No need, I've seen that molecular structure before." she states, looking from on high at the crater with the particles floating around within it. "That's some of what's left of the rock he ate. Looks like he pulled all of the radiation out of it, but I'm still not going down there. Honestly, you're going to want to rinse off your drone once it gets clear." There is, then, a pause.

    "If he fought someone, or some-thing- here, I'm not sure how we didn't hear more about it. Definitely wasn't a long fight, which is worrying in more than a couple ways."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
The drones pick up gamma radiation in low levels all over the area, it is clear he was here, apart from all the other evidence of trees and rocks being smashed and ripped up. The black crystaline particulates come back from the database as the rare mineral Kryptonite, of which there should be radiation too - however, none of the radiation is being picked up. It is inert, perfectly safe.

Video footage of the area starts to stream in to devices if people are waiting for it. The footage shows the Hulk landing with a dust cloud at crater 1... he starts moving around ripping up trees, throwing rocks. The footage is quite grainy from the low priority satellite that took it. It looks like the Hulk keeps doubling over though. He starts smashing more things in to one particular spot - crater 2... until eventually a small red and blue blur streaks across the video and hovers next to the Hulk. Proceeding this crater 3 is created followed by the smaller red and blue blur picking up a big rock and crushing crater 3 in to a big dust cloud.

Bobbi looks up and peers over to Power Girl, "Is this you in the footage?," she holds up her tablet for PG to look at the grainy low quality picture.

As expected from the video, crater 2 is ~layers~ of wood and stone. The final part of the video shows the Hulk laying on his back staring up at the sky and then finally transforming back in to Banner. The red and blue streak stands there next to Banner for a moment, then flies away in a streak across the footage.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha gives Jennifer a sidelong look as she speaks and wonders aloud, "Who do we know that would pick a fight with the Hulk and not tell us about it?"
    Her attentionn is drawn to the satellite footage, her brow gradually furrowing with muted alarm at what she sees. "What the... hell...?" She says softly, and turns to look at Power Girl expectantly when Bobbi addresses her.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy pauses to then give the footage a look, specially at the blurred images coming in. She cants her head to the side... That's a bit of a surprise. Her eyes also go to Power Girl, but then back to the craters... Curious? Very much so.

"Well, this explains a bit more on what went on here but ...." she trails off.., eyes then going to Fitz.

"Are your readings giving you anything about those black things?" She pointing with her hand towards that third crater.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer runs her hand through the layers of wood and stone that's littered at the epicenter of Crater 2. "These aren't random. He's hitting this spot precisely, probably to minimize collateral damage."

When the satellite video footage is found, she makes her way over to watch as well. Furrowing her brows, she asks, "What the hell is going on here." She leans in close when she sees The Hulk doubling over in pain. "Hold on..."

She makes her way back to Crater 3, and picks up one of the shards of spent kryptonite. She turns and addresses the senior members of SHIELD. "Didn't one of you mention that he ate something during the battle? If he ingested these rocks and they were full of radiation, it'd give him one hell of a bad case of heartburn. Plus he'd probably be absorbing the radiation as well."

Leopold Fitz has posed:
There are plenty of people here who know Doctor Banner. He's not really one of them, at least not beyond reputational and what he might find in readings. Fitz will let the rest of them worry about any strange behavior, or any ties that the floating woman might have with this case. He's here to deal with the scientific and technological logistics and darn it, that's just what he is going to do.

Fitz keeps his head down, eyes hardly lifting from any of the myriad of displays he has available to him, the panel flitting through the various images and readouts from the sensor suites. He gives a little frown when Power Girl mentions just how dangerous the particulates in impact site three might be, brow furrowing slightly as he gets none of the expected radiation spikes. "No radiation detected but I'll make sure the drone goes through decontamination protocols," he says, glancing up towards Daisy with a little nod, making a note for himself as well. "I'm having Grumpy gather a sample now to run a more indepth sweep and I can have the others scoop up additional samples before they come home too. I haven't seen anything quite like this before. Waiting for the full chemical analysis to be completed," he notes with a small frown.

While Grumpy moves in to gather up an actual physical sample -- the drone almost immediately starting a full spectrum sweep of the particulates -- Fitz guides most of the rest of the drones to the same crater that showed Banner post transformation. "Sweeping the area for any signs of what might have happened to him from there."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl blinks a few times, floating down near Bobbi when her attention is brought to the footage. Her face twists in thought momentarily, and she shakes her head. "No, it's not me. Not the right palette. Not him either, I think I'd have heard already, and so would you. Might have been Supergirl, but the thing is, whoever this is- they're -helping- him, it looks like." There's a mild sigh, and she reaches up to rub at the back of her head.

    "Gotta be a reason whoever it was didn't try to bring him in. I'm going to have to ask some questions." A moment later, her attention is on Jen, and she cringes rather swiftly. "Yeah, yeah we said he ate that. I uh- We have no way of telling-" a pause, "I just don't know if I would have touched it even -if- there's no radiation."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi nods to Power Girl, "Not Superman, may be Supergirl. There aren't too many people who can fly like that and wear those colors." She taps on her comms and chats back to the Triskelion <<Is there any more footage after that, anything in the area at all?>> She lets out a sigh as she gets a <<Negative>> in response. "Well that's all we have. But now we have some kind of idea. Hulk eats radioactive stone, Hulk surfaces at Martha's Vineyard. Hulk jumps here, looks like he's in pain. Possibly Supergirl turns up and the now inert stone is pulverised. Hulk transforms back in to Banner.. and, now we have a man on foot with a days head start."

Bobbi zooms out the map and looks at his options, "Closest and best bet would be Manchester Center. Why he hasn't reached out to anyone he knows yet? Well, .. we'll ask him that when we catch up to him. Based on the time projections he could be any number of places in Vermont by now and may have crossed the border too. We'll have to find him the old fashioned way.."

Bobbi folds her arms, "Well. We'll get a team to gather up every last bit of that crystal stuff too. I was hoping I'd get to do the Fugitive speech.. you know, search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse... but it's just not fitting. Besides, Banner is our friend. Also I learnt today that the Hulk can remove radiation from a stone?", Bobbi looks over to Jennifer with the unasked question of -- can you do that too??!

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    "We're not feeding him radioactive stones." Natasha says very firmly without looking at Bobbi, with a tone that brooks no argument; whether she thought Bobbi was serious or not. One can almost read concern in the body language of the Avengers liason, who shakes her head. "Coom equipment could have been damaged in the crash. Hell, it usually doesn't survive the *transformation* half the time. Doesn't explain why he hasn't gotten word out since he changed back..."
    Natasha sighs very softly and says "We'll keep looking."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Concern is in Quake's expression too, first at the footage, then as they explain who it may be in there. "Well, at least he is getting -some- help. But he has to be brought in, he may be a danger to himself and others if those .., rocks disturbed him somehow." she will leave the technicalities to the experts like Fitz.

Yet as most of their work is done here she will help in packing up the gear, tapping on one of Fitz's shoulders. "So ..., what do you think about the outdoors? It's good to come out sometimes."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer shrugs at Bobbi's unspoken question. Honestly, she doesn't know either. "If he's going to contact anybody, it'll probably be me. I'll let you all know if he does." She scowls as she thinks about why he hasn't contacted anybody yet.

"He's afraid," she concludes. "Probably afraid that he might end up hurting more people. Who knows what kind of physiological changes may have happened through absorbing all that radiation." She rubs the bridge of her nose, following the trail of logic. "I'd look for any biomedical labs in the area. He might be headed towards those to get some answers."

She looks up, "Just... if you find him before I do be gentle, okay? I worry about him."

Leopold Fitz has posed:
While the others discuss the matter, Fitz continues to guide his drones through the aerial recon, scooping up every last bit of data that he can to try and help narrow the search from here on out. A number of the drones swoop down low, getting close up images of the ground to try and find any foot prints or scuff marks, anything that might indicate a direction that he headed while others take a higher vantage point, zooming in on some of the surrounding woods, looking for any signs of recent passage. Once that is done he sends the drones back to pick up more of the strage particulate in the impact crater.

While his drones are on the return flight he ventures back in the plane just long enough to haul out another heavy duffle bag, beginning to set up a little decontamination unit. He doesn't see anything to be worried about in the data gathered so far, but better safe then sorry, right? He only glances up again when Daisy ventures over. "The air smells funny," he says. Where's that recycled tinge he's so used to? Fresh air is clearly overrated. "And I'm perspiring. There is a droplet of perspiration running down my back. I miss my air conditioning," he adds, scrunching up his face just a bit. "But I guess it's nice for a change," he adds in apparent concession, sounding very much like a man trying to convince himself of that.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi waves to Power Girl, "Thank you for coming. Let us know what you find out when you go questioning people." Then, she heads back in to the quinjet and starts preflight checks. "In your own time, no rush," she says to the team and begins radioing back their findings to HQ.