Fury's voice came sharp over the comm.
"Natasha, as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I'm ordering you to stop using one particular skill immediately."
Natasha Romanoff raised an eyebrow. "What skill?"
"Seduction."
She blinked, caught off guard. Beauty was one of her most effective weapons—taking it off the table would cut her effectiveness in half. "Why?"
Fury let out a long sigh. "Your husband is at the door. If you don't cooperate, he says he'll dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Husband? Director, you know I've had more than a dozen fake husbands on missions."
Still, part of her heart tightened. Could it be him?
Natasha had been intrigued by Lock; otherwise, she never would've stayed with him an entire night after poisoning him. An extra minute in that situation was dangerous—night as a whole bordered on reckless. When she left the next day, she'd even torn up the marriage certificate and scrawled a few conflicted words on it. It was… uncharacteristic.
But no—Lock was just a florist, wasn't he? How could a man like that infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and force Fury to make such a promise?
"I'm sending you some intel," Fury said. Moments later, encrypted files arrived on her terminal: video from last night's battle, the clash with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents earlier, and a full dossier.
The file on Lock was barebones—raised in the so-called City of God, parents dead, ran a flower shop for years without incident. Strangely, every thug who had tried to hassle him had mysteriously disappeared. S.H.I.E.L.D. had once credited his safety to the local Drug lord … but after witnessing his combat power, that theory collapsed.
Dr. Samuel Stern, the only man who knew the source of Lock's strength, was now in his employ.
Natasha scrolled through the files, her eyes narrowing until she reached the battle footage. She froze. The man she'd married as part of an op was far more powerful than she'd ever guessed. And he'd approached S.H.I.E.L.D. mere days after she'd left, meaning he'd known who she was all along.
Anger flared. If he knew, then he'd been keeping the truth from her, watching her squirm. But then… those wedding vows. If he knew she was Black Widow, did that mean he'd meant them?
Did he want to be her husband?
For all her training, Natasha suddenly felt like an ordinary woman staring down something real and uncertain. If Lock had been a civilian, she would've walked away without hesitation. A spy's life didn't allow for a home, for family, not without putting loved ones in mortal danger.
But now she knew the truth: Lock wasn't defenseless. And despite the way their relationship began—lies, seduction, assassination right in front of him—she couldn't ignore the pull she felt.
"I… don't know how to handle this," she admitted at last.
Fury chuckled. "Natasha, you've called S.H.I.E.L.D. your home for years, but it's not a real home. This—" he paused "—this might be fate."
She glanced away. "And what do I do with fate?"
"That's not something I can teach you. This isn't a mission—it's your life. You decide."
After a moment, he added, "Take some days off. No assignments until you sort this out. And remember—no using seduction until this is resolved. S.H.I.E.L.D. can't afford to provoke a man stronger than the Hulk."
Lock, now flush with thirty million dollars, split his funds—half to Dr. Stern to build a lab, eight million on a villa in the suburbs with acres of land. It was only a short leap—literally—from S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
This would be his home in this world.
He tried calling Natasha several times, but each time she hung up. He only shrugged. She needed time.
While waiting, he focused on mastering his abilities. Brute force wasn't enough; he wasn't the Hulk—he needed skill.
He checked his system readout:
Restoration Potions: 173 bottles
Luck Share – Black Widow: 65%
Luck Share – Hulk: 30%
Natasha's trust had grown from 60% to 65% since his infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D.—progress. The Hulk's 30% reflected mutual respect after Lock saved Betty Ross.
The purpose of "luck" still eluded him, but one thing was certain: high luck meant survival. Even the MCU's "main characters" like Natasha, Vision, and Tony Stark had died without hope of resurrection.
Speaking of Tony…
By Lock's reckoning, the events of The Incredible Hulk coincided with Iron Man 1. Sure enough, headlines soon blared:
Tony Stark, genius heir to Stark Industries, is missing in the Middle East during a weapons demonstration.
Lock knew the story—Tony was captured by the Ten Rings and forced to build missiles. Right now, he was in a cave, his heart kept alive by a car battery.
Rescuing him would be simple… but this ordeal was the crucible that would forge Iron Man. If Lock interfered too soon, the future could unravel—and his prophetic advantage with it. But doing nothing meant missing the chance to share Tony's fate and gain his luck.
It was a dilemma.
Finally, Lock called Stern. "If I give you access to a surveillance network, can you hack it?"
"With my enhanced brainpower? Easy."
"Good. Wait for my signal."
Stern hesitated. "Boss… any more Restoration Potions? I'm out."
"So soon? It's been less than a month."
Stern flinched at the mild rebuke. Six bottles of something that could save lives—worth hundreds of millions—gone already.
"Boss, I haven't cracked the formula yet, but I've learned something," Stern said quickly. "It can only restore injuries that haven't fully healed. If a wound's scarred over, or an organ's been gone too long—it won't regrow."
Lock's expression hardened. "So, a man blind for twenty years stays blind? A woman who lost her uterus ten years ago remains infertile?"
"Exactly. Even if you injure the area again, it only heals into the current damaged state. No reset."
Lock's thoughts immediately went to two people—Fury, blinded decades ago by a Flerken, and Natasha, rendered infertile by the Red Room. He'd hoped the potion could restore both.
It couldn't. He'd need another way.
"I'll send you a few more bottles," Lock said grimly.
The next day, in the deserts near Albuquerque, Lock pinpointed a canyon swarming with armed militants—right where Tony Stark's fate was unfolding.
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A/N: New Fanfic Is Out "I'm A Bit Different Naruto"
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