"Tony, could you straighten the laser level. It seems to be a few centimeters off."
"I set it myself; it will never be a few centimeters off unless you bumped it."
"I don't bump things…the other guy might though. If you keep being like this then the other guy will bump the laser level."
Tony looked at Bruce. He noticed that Bruce had bags under his eyes and was blinking rapidly. He was sighing almost more than he was yawning. He also realized it had been over ninety hours since they last slept.
"We should take a break. I can see you're a little on edge."
"A little on edge? I've been trying to recalibrate the gamma ray synthesizers to the exact data SHIELD somehow managed to wring from General Ross' grasp. We are on the brink of finding a way to separate myself from the other guy. That was the promise I made with Fury so that I could be free of the other guy while not killing him. So, I don't want to take a nap and I don't want to stop! I am a little on edge because I am this close to finding a way to not have to worry-"
Tony fell backwards as Bruce melted away and turned into the Hulk. Hulk started yelling and trying to smash all the work Bruce had been working on. Tony immediately jumped in front of Hulk.
"HULK! HULK, stop!"
"HULK MAD!"
"I know, but smashing things isn't going to help!"
"BANNER TIRED! HULK HUNGRY! HULK MAD!"
"Well, how about this, we go out for something and then blow off some steam."
"HULK EAT NOW!"
"To eat, you have to let Bruce out."
"BANNER NO FUN!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know he can be a drag sometimes, but I don't think restaurants have made their seats Hulk-friendly. Besides, the food all goes to the same stomach."
"BANNER STOMACH TINY!"
"We'll get some for later and I'll make sure Bruce lets you out."
"HULK AGREE!"
Hulk shrunk into a regular sized, naked Bruce. He rubbed his eyes and noticed he was naked. He covered himself as Tony chuckled.
"Hulk almost broke all your equipment. You should be thanking me."
"I'll thank you when I get some pants on."
"After you get your clothes, we're going out for something to eat."
"I can't stop now."
"If you don't then Hulk will visit and smash me for not getting him something to eat. Come on, we can hang with the rest of the team and go for pizza or something."
"Pizza sounds good." Bruce said remorsefully as he held his growling stomach.
"All right, pizza it is. I'll tell Pepper to get a car ready for us."
Tony ran up the stairs to find the rest of the Avengers lounging in the living room. Steve was changing the channels on the television like a five-year-old would. Clint and Natasha were snuggled together on the couch while cleaning their weapons. Thor was arguing with Jarvis about something to do with the computer's inability to show himself as a person.
"Who wants to eat something? Bruce was thinking pizza."
"Pizza for breakfast? Not the healthiest choice, Tony." Clint said as he looked up from his bow.
"Breakfast? What time is it?"
"Seven in the morning. Steve here was the first and loudest one up."
Steve said nothing, but continued to flip through the channels even faster. He got a confused look on his face as he found the button that changed the input.
"Well, Bruce wants pizza. I figured he needed to be around the rest of the team. No sense in me hogging him all the time."
"Did he have an incident? I heard something downstairs just a while ago." Natasha said as she started to stand up.
"Stark, order your servant to reveal himself!"
"Thor, I have told you a thousand times that Jarvis is a computer and therefore cannot show himself."
"Does he do as you command?"
"Yes."
"And he never questions you?"
"No, not really."
"Then he is a servant. I have never heard of a servant with no body or face."
"You know what, I'll give Jarvis a projection program so he can make a holographic version of himself appear anywhere in the house. Does that sound fine?"
Thor smiled and seemed pleased by the idea. Tony returned to getting the team to join Bruce and him in pizza. They eventually agreed and piled into the car Pepper had gotten.
"Man of iron, will you provide entertainment from the device you call the radio?"
"Fine." Tony said as he turned on the radio.
It opened with an old classic rock of Journey. Clint began to sing along, but entirely off key.
"That's enough of that." Tony said as he quickly turned off the radio.
Five minutes later, the team was quarreling over which kind of pizza they wanted. They decided it best to order three large pizzas and have a little of everything on each. Clint and Natasha shared the supreme and Natasha picked off most of her bread. Steve, Tony, and Bruce all dug into the meat pizza and devoured every slice.
"Do you guys just go until Bruce Hulks out?" Clint asked between bites.
"Sometimes I take a nap at my station," Bruce answered. "But I was close to something around the time I usually collapse so I was a little short."
"A little short? How about angry and ranting? You seriously had me wondering if I should knock you out or something."
"Sorry, Tony. I didn't mean to-"
"I'm only joking, Bruce." Tony said as he pulled a long strand of melted cheese from his pizza.