Clouds Forest near Khar Turan National Park, Iran… May 5, 2016
Bruce opens his eyes and blinks against the harsh glare of the midday sun beating down on him through the broken gap in the tree canopy above. He looks around him at the blur of green and quickly finds a silver case nearby… Bruce sighs in relief and opens it. Inside he finds two changes of clothes plus a pair of sneakers, a new pair of glasses, three bottles of water, and a big bag of trail mix as well as some beef jerky. There's some US, EU, and Chinese currency inside three side pockets respectively.
Bruce dresses quickly, pockets all the cash, puts the glasses on, then downs half of one bottle before he starts working on the trail mix. He remembers what he did as the Hulk in the fight against Ultron just an hour or so ago… the capital of Sokovia was literally ripped out of the ground and taken up into the air via a rather beautiful blend of anti-grav engines and Tony's very own repulsor technology.
He remembers Natasha trying to talk him back to the Helicarrier… but Bruce and Hulk had made a joint decision NOT to go back… especially not after what happened in South Africa. Bruce shakes his head at the memory of what Hulk had seen under the Scarlet Witch's reality warping spell.
He had seen a swarm of wasps… felt their sharp stings on his verdant skin and howled in pain. Hulk had raced away from the flying menace only to wind up surrounded by the US Army… tanks everywhere, machine guns peppering his bulletproof skin, stinging him almost as badly as the wasps. His rage was complete and blinding. He swatted at the pesky buzzing insects and slammed his fists into the tanks… ripping the metal war machines apart… throwing them from his massive form… only to be hounded mercilessly by the stinging insects constantly buzzing about his head and shoulders. All the while it had really been civilian vehicles and police personal he had been attacking.
Bruce releases a shuddering breath as he returns to the present. He looks at the compass from the emergency gear in the case and sets a course North which will take him out of the mountainous area and hopefully more towards signs of civilization. As he goes, Bruce can't help but think of all that he has just walked away from… friends, a dream job doing work that will actually help save the planet from Humanity itself…
Tony…
Natasha…
Steve…
Clint…
Thor…
Sam…
Even Doctors Selvig and Foster…
Helen Cho…
Oh, Helen… how he'll miss her most of all. They had been dating since late 2014. Bruce had even had plans to pop 'the question' to her in a month's time from now… but those plans are gone now. And he must put the past behind him.
He knows out of everyone else… he'll miss Tony just as much as Helen. Tony was the one person who didn't look at him with disdain, veiled anger, or outright fear. Tony had become his best friend and a dear confidant… even though Tony could be overbearing from time to time in his constant research about how exactly Bruce goes green.
Bruce sighs and finds himself remembering a random day with Tony in the lab before he and Helen had gotten together… it would've been like any other save for Tony wanting to talk about the Other Guy.
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Stark's personal lab, Avengers Tower… Summer of 2014
"Ya know… I never got the chance to properly thank you for saving my life." Tony said randomly one day as he and Bruce tinker together on a new project… It had been about a week since the 'therapy session' where Tony tried to vent his story of self-discovery while dealing with the terrorist known simply as 'The Mandarin'. Tony was working hard now to 'nano-ize' invisa-shielding like what S.H.I.E.L.D. has on their Helicarrier.
"Uhh… yeah, you did." Bruce said as he looks at the data readouts on his StarkSlate. "You hired me to your R&D department, remember? Or have you been smoking your funny cigarettes again?" Bruce added with a chuckle and a lopsided smile then gave Tony a pointed look from over his glasses.
"You know I have a prescription, Doctor…" Tony had deflected in a deadpan tone. Odd. Curious. And, yes, alarming. Then he added… "You should let the Other Guy out."
Tony said quickly diverting the conversation back on course. Bruce sighed and looked at Tony hard… his employer just stood there, stock still, with his back to him. They've had this conversation before… and they are likely to have it again and again and again… that doesn't mean it is any less aggravating to hear.
"You know why that is unthinkable right here, right now." Bruce said swallowing to tamp down his rising anger. Breathing deep and even through his nose to calm his racing heart. "If I let… him out… the entire city is at risk." Bruce said reminding Tony of the dangers. 'Then I'll have to run again… and this time… I won't be able to stop.'Bruce had thought frowning in the moment. Tony can be such a pain in the ass sometimes… constantly poking, prodding, and startling him to provoke a 'reaction'. Bruce had gotten used to it by then… but it is taxing. He knows Tony is just fascinated and curious… but then so was that darn cat… and look what happened to him.
"More like my Tower and Midtown… but I'd just lead you away… or blast ya out into the Atlantic… either way… damage will be minimal." Tony had rattled off thinking of the simple logistics of such a catastrophic event. "Besides… it would be smarter to go out to the middle of nowhere… but still that's not my point."
"What is your point, Tony?" Bruce asked then tapping the StarkSlate's stylus to his chin after crossing his arms. "Know what… never mind… I need a break right now." Bruce quickly said uncrossing his arms and turned away.
"Wait, Bruce… please. Hear me out." Tony pleaded. Bruce, against his better judgment, stopped and turned around to look at the second craziest, yet one of the smartest men on the planet… in engineering that is… and gave him his undivided attention.
"I get it… you're not into the 'destruction of all property within reach' thing that tends to happen… it's a given… but have you tried to control the Hulk?" Tony asked and his voice had sounded somewhat melancholy at having spoken those words. Bruce felt a headache coming on in that moment… he had been getting them regularly since his 'accident' a decade ago. They had become more frequent since Loki's stay on the Helicarrier. He had removed his glasses at the time to alleviate the pressure by pinching the bridge of his nose and rubbing the corners of his eyes.
"How can you control a Force of Nature?" Bruce had asked a bit too irritably. "Short answer: You CAN'T. You get the hell outta the way and hope you don't choose the wrong direction."
"Not necessarily true. I've got one word for ya… Thor." Tony had come back with, cocky smile on his face and gave a waggle of his brows.
"He doesn't count." Bruce sighed.
"Does too… he calls the lightning and discharges it with his glorified lightning rod… that apparently only he can lift… convenient." Tony said in his usual blasé way even rolling his eyes at the last. "Anywhoo… my point is this… you've got all that power locked up inside of you… use it. Plus, stretching those green muscles of yours in a few practice runs could prove beneficial when you do find yourself out on an 'Avenger Mission' doing, ya know, save-the-world type stuff." Tony had said so casually then sipped at his fruit smoothie. Bruce had thought on Tony's words for a moment as silence fell between them… he has been thinking of them since that day…
It wasn't long after that that Bruce had met Betsy Braddock aka Psylocke… and the beautiful woman with the purple-streaked hair from London had caught his attention… as well as Hulk's. In fact, Hulk liked her more than Bruce did. Sure, Bruce found her to be quite lovely and witty… and she certainly helped him rediscover intimacy… *cough cough*… But she was just too far away living in London, working for the Brit's version of S.H.I.E.L.D… S.W.O.R.D. they called it… complete with their own team of super powered individuals known as Team Excalibur.
Yeah, she didn't have time for him… and Bruce moved on… just like he did with Betty… but it still hurt all the same. And what's worse, Hulk had grown very attached to Psylocke as well. In the end, Bruce had convinced his alter ego to let go as well… a daunting task indeed. Which wasn't very successful until Doctor Helen Cho waltzed into his life… and Bruce found himself swept off his feet by her brilliant intellect and shy charm. Hulk begrudgingly came around to liking her too… especially after saving her from the incident last year when Brock Rumlow aka Crossbones tried to kidnap her for Hydra. Hulk had ambushed Hydra's extraction point and made certain Helen wasn't taken… and she then had a moment to bond with the green giant. Rumlow had gotten away though… it would only be a matter of time before he struck again.
Bruce then finds himself pushing further back into his memories… all the way back to his childhood. He remembers how his dad was always loud and abusive to him and his mother when he drank… and he drank a lot. Flashes of a long ago night fill his mind like the flickering images in a horror film, dark and gritty, in full detail and in slow motion at the terrifying parts…
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Banner Household… Fall of 1980
A ten year old Bruce plays quietly on the floor with the chemistry set his Uncle Jon and Aunt Debbie had gotten him recently for his birthday. He has litmus paper to test acidity in solutions in his small hands. Bruce then slowly sneaks over behind his father's recliner. His father was fully engrossed with the game playing on the box television to pay any real notice to the small arm reaching up to dip a strip of paper into his glass of beer. The whole operation went smoothly until…
"That call was bullshit!" Bruce's father yelled out startling Bruce… who yanked his hand away only to knock the glass over and spill the golden liquid on the end table and floor. "What the hell?" His father said heatedly looking down upon the mess and spotted Bruce dart away. "Dammit! You little bastard! I told you NOT to mess with my things!"
And before Bruce could get away to safety, he is grabbed, hauled over his father's knee, and his little backside is smacked repeatedly by the large, strong hand. Bruce cried out in pain as his father utilizes his full strength into every blow.
"Will! Stop that!" Bruce's mom had chastised as she came into the living room from the kitchen.
"You stay outta this, you whore!" Bruce's father then yelled at his wife. She promptly slapped him across the face. A long, terrible silence seems to stretch between them after that.
Then his father went back on his rampage…
"Damned kid! Always getting your nose into something." The angry drunk ranted as he dragged his son down the hall to the small closet at its end.
"No, dad! Please, no!" Little Bruce had cried out repeatedly sobbing harder and harder the closer they get to the confining space…
Bruce snaps himself from the distant memory of his childhood. It wasn't long after that that his father's verbal and physical abuse of his son and wife escalated to a point that Bruce's mother pulled a knife on her husband and stabbed him. Bruce finds himself shambling into the nearest town in northwestern Iran as he recalls how his mother defended herself from her abusive husband.
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Banner Household… Spring of 1981
Bruce is seated quietly in the living room on the floor playing with some lego bricks. He does his best to ignore the heated words his parents are exchanging in the kitchen. It's the usual spiel… Bruce's dad drinks too much, doesn't work enough, etc etc… Then the slap resounds from the kitchen and Bruce's brown eyes snap up to look through the door way into the bright room hearing his mother's pained cry.
"Let that be a lesson in opening your smart mouth to me, woman!" His father had said in anger. Fist raised, ready to strike another blow. "Or do you need a refresher?" Bruce watched transfixed as his mother cowers.
"Thought so… even a stupid whore like you knows when you're beat." His dad said then turned around. "Just to be sure that you know never to challenge me again… I'm gonna give Bruce the same then put him in the closet for the rest of the afternoon." His dad threatens as he struts menacingly through the kitchen. And Bruce just sat there frozen. He didn't want to go back in the closet let alone be whipped. He hated it in there. He'd cry and cry and his father would call him a baby and say he wasn't his son… but rather his daughter. It was humiliating and hurtful to the young boy.
Bruce snapped out of it as his father took a rough, bruising hold upon his small arm…
"I'm gonna whip the girl right outta you." His father said gruffly as he loomed overhead menacingly. Bruce feared his father more than anything in the world at this moment… then the savage yell of his mother was heard followed by his father's pained cry and jerking reaction. When his father turned to look back at his wife, the young Bruce could see a large knife in his mother's hands… the shiny steel was nearly half covered in red… she had stabbed his abusive father in the back… and Bruce could see the welling dark red stain below the shoulder of his father's light blue shirt.
"You fucking bitch!" He then yells as he clutches at his side and slumps a bit… but his rage had overcome him and he managed to surge forward in an explosive display. He tackled his wife to the tiled kitchen floor and wrested the chopping knife from her slighter hands. He then proceed to stab his wife repeatedly in the chest and stomach… all in front of Bruce's watching eyes.
He was rooted to the spot, frozen to the thought of fleeing… transfixed at the horror playing out brutally before him. Then just as his mother's screams started to fade, instinct took over and young Bruce fled. He ran as fast as his scrawny legs could carry him down the street to the first house he saw with lights still on in the windows. He knocked frantically and plead with the woman who answered the door to call 911.
When the police and ambulance finally arrived ten minutes later, it was too late for his mother… and his father had chosen to use the revolver he kept in his night stand on himself rather than go to prison.
It had been the most traumatic thing to ever happen to him… until his Gamma experiment had gone horribly wrong… or just a year after that when he learnt about how dangerous his blood truly was… or just yesterday when…
Bruce breaks down and weeps at the unending string of traumas that is his life. His only regret is that he cannot end it, even now.