It had been a long hunt that finally seemed to have panned out. After three long months of searching and tracking, Tony finally felt that he might actually be able to catch his prey.
This one had been a difficult case. A massive being would show up out of nowhere, destroy a town, and then vanish as if nothing happened. The police and other authorities tried to pass it off as a tornado and an earthquake at the same time, but that was so fake even the general populous did not believe it. It had monster written all over it. Which one though was up for debate.
None of the lore Tony could find matched up with the story. Nothing could just destroy a whole town without leaving behind a few signs. Monsters usually liked to keep a low profile to avoid hunters. This one, though, was acting like a beacon. Tony was not sure what to think of it. Could it be something new?
It was another late night in the high-end hotel room, nice top shelf scotch in hand, when he began consolidating his evidence before the hunt began in the morning and he finally closed in on his mystery monster.
"JARVIS, run through the lore again. Make sure that this is a new thing before I go out and kill myself."
"Of course sir." His AI replied.
It was so much simpler and faster to use JARVIS over the old fashioned way of reading book after dusty book of legends. Sorting everything into a nice portable database was definitely the way to go; saved so much time.
"Confirmed. Data matches no known lore. Probability of it being an unidentified monster 85%. Suggested weapons: unknown. Known weaknesses: unknown."
"Any good news?" Tony sighed upon hearing the outcome.
"Known strengths: unknown."
"That's the spirit!" Tony agreed jokingly and guzzled down his drink.
"Suggested partner: -"
"I don't need a partner Jarv, we've been over this." Tony shook his head. "Just wake me up in the morning and we'll get this guy."
"Of course sir."
Bruce's eyes snapped open from his nightmare as he sat up straight in his make-shift bed. He looked wildly around at his surroundings and, when he found no one around, slumped his shoulders with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his messy hair and leaned against the wall of the abandoned house.
It had been one hell of three month so far. He found himself losing his memories every other day; waking up half-naked in a pit that looked like he was a meteor that crashed into the Earth, surrounded by rubble and silence. He could not even tell if this was real life anymore.
Bruce pulled his over-sized button-up shirt that he stole from around the last pit he woke up in over his skinny torso and pulled himself off of the wall. He noticed light streaming in through a broken window and realized that he had slept in far too late.
"Keep moving, Banner. Gotta keep moving," he muttered as he rubbed his eyes and headed for the exit.
Bruce grabbed the doorknob and threw open the door in his haste, nearly running into a man whose hand was raised to the knob's level on the other side.
Tony did what he always had done and took control of the situation quickly.
"Surprise, Bitch!" Tony smiled and threw a flask full of holy water into the man's face, making Bruce stumble back as he readied a knife.
Bruce fell backwards in surprise and landed on his bottom. He wiped the water out of his eyes and looked up at the stranger.
"What are you doing?!" He yelled at the stranger and paused when he saw the knife in the other's hands.
"Holy Water: No Effect." Tony kneeled down and pulled the man's arm forward and slid the knife against the tender flesh just enough to draw a thin line of blood. "Silver: No Effect."
Tony stood up and began pouring salt around the fallen man. "Camera Distortions?"
"None, sir." JARVIS replied through Tony's earpiece.
Once the salt circle was in place Tony went over to a boarded window and ripped off a rotten plank, letting the bright light of dawn stream onto the man. Bruce winced from the sudden action and the light change, but other than that, he did not seem to react.
"Cristo?" Tony sighed as a last resort. A mixture of a confused and terrified look, but nothing. "Well, shit..."
Tony began to pace around the man, looking him over. Either this guy was human, or maybe he was a witch? Maybe he was just a hobo, he looked like a hobo. No, the intel was solid. His algorithms were never this wrong. This was the guy; he just had to find out what he was.
Bruce had grabbed onto the cut on his arm and pushed himself back ruining the salt circle around him. The man huddled himself into a corner, his eyes growing wild. "What do you want with me?" He choked out, his body beginning to shudder.
Tony rolled his eyes at the huddled man on the floor. He pulled out a syringe and took off the cap. "If you have anything you want to tell me, now would be the time. I know what you've done." Tony leaned forward, readying the needle. "Did you really think no one would notice Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas?! I've been chasing you for months. Now tell me what you are, or we are taking a little trip and I'll just have to find out."
Tony looked down at the broken trail that Bruce left, looking for any sign of what he really was, when he noticed that where the other's blood fell on the salt, the salt was melted. He looked back up at the man to see his eyes glowing a bright green, his skin sweaty and tingeing a greenish color.
"Ah... Jarv? Intel! Do I have anything on this?" Tony whispered as he began backing away to get a better vantage point as he readied his shot gun.
"None, sir."
"Well, could he be a Shifter? What is the probability that this is an intimidation tactic?"
"Negative. Shifters have an aversion to Silver, sir. Percent of intimidation tactic: 45, 44, 43, 42 - "
"Right, decreasing, got it." Tony looked at the man as he began shuddering in the corner. "Suggested tactic?"
"A strategic retreat might be in order, sir."
Tony took one more look at the man then back at the shot gun in his hands. It was filled with salt rounds, and lucky him, salt was ineffective.
"Agreed." Tony shouted and quickly left the building.
Tony heard the man groan and shout for a minute and he paused outside of the building. He turned around at the sound of a crash. The building rumbled and then the air around him fell silent. A large roar ripped through the building as it started to crumble around the monster.
The monster was huge, at least eight feet, likely still growing. Solid green and muscle stood very angrily before him. Tony was in sheer awe and panic for a moment, but only a moment. Soon he had his shotgun trained on the monster. Salt or no salt aversion, a bullet to the chest is still a bullet to the chest.
"Okay, I might be a bit over my head, but you don't know who you are dealing with. Come at me!"
The monster glared down at him and shook in anger. He let out a roar and charged at Tony, fists bigger than trash can lids ready to slam down on him.
Tony managed a sloppy roll out of the way. Fighting was never his strong suit. His style was more get in-get out before the monsters even knew what hit them. He had to find a way out of this. He had to re-establish his advantage.
"Have you read David and Goliath, big guy?" Tony taunted as he picked a rock up from the ground. The monster roared in response and tried to crush Tony again. "Yeah, I haven't either. But I have the gist of it. Apparently, it went like this!" Tony hurled the rock at the monster's head. The monster just blinked when the rock snapped into pieces on contact, leaving a small smudge behind. Tony just shook his head. "So much for that. How about some lightening?" Tony pushed a button on his watch and suddenly a bolt of electricity jumped from the watch to the smudge.
The monster fell to the ground.
"Ha! That, my friend, is some super conductive goop I've invented. Conducts electricity like crazy! You doin' okay big fella?"
The monster let out a groan and started to shrink in size, leaving a much smaller man behind in the crevice it made. The man raised his head slightly from the ground and opened his glazed-over eyes. He let out one last moan as his eyes closed and his face fell into the dirt, the dust subsiding from the effort.
"So he is some new kind of shape-shifter." Tony mused as he readied another syringe full of a sedative and injected the man. "He obviously does change shape. But I've never seen one immune to silver... Are you new?" Tony lifted the guy up and put him in his car. "Well this will be fun, huh, Jarv? I get to claim my own monster."
"I'll begin work on an appropriate name then, shall I? Perhaps something with 'Stark' in it?"
"Very funny, JARVIS. Very, very funny."
Bruce woke up, his head heavy and his vision blurred. He shook his head slowly and tried to raise a hand only to find his arms tied down to a chair. He started to pull at the restraints in a panic and found himself stuck. He tried to get a look at his surroundings, only to find himself in absolute darkness.
Bruce felt like he had jumped out of his skin when a door suddenly slammed open. A stream of light poured in from the doorway with a shadowy figure in the center.
"Oh, good, you're awake," the figure said nonchalantly as he kicked the door closed with a low sweep of his leg. They were once again in darkness, the only sounds being Bruce's breathing and the stranger's steps. Bruce heard a click and he flinched at the sudden light that came from a lamp next to him. He opened his eyes and saw the man who attacked him before standing over him.
"How ya doin'?" The man said with a smile, squatting a little to be at eye level. "Feel like talking? Cause I've got soooo many questions for you."
Bruce looked around the room with glazed eyes until he met the other's eyes. His eyes suddenly refocused and he jumped back, the chair shuffling against the floor with him. He looked down at his lap and took noticeably deeper breaths.
"Let's start with your name," Tony said standing up, turning a monitor on and filling the room with a weak blue light. "I've been calling you 'Spanky' but I don't think your parents were that mean to you."
When Bruce had calmed himself down, he looked up at the other man. "What are you going to do to me?"
"Well, that all depends on you, Spanky." Tony smiled and looked around the room for something. "First, I'm going to find out what you are. Then, I'll find out if you're dangerous. Kinda have a good idea on that, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that I was kinda-sorta threatening you. Finally, if you turn out to be a good boy, I might just let you go, if not, well..." Tony flashed another smile. "I'll have to kill you."
Bruce gulped and looked back down at his lap. "I...I don't know w-what I am," he muttered, almost to himself.
Tony pulled a clear glass monitor in front of Bruce and began tapping it in random places, making those places glow. "That's what I thought, Spanky. Most monsters are made by accident, but sometimes it is hereditary. So, did your parent's show any signs of shape-shifting?"
Bruce looked up at the monitor as the other worked on it, peering over the man's shoulders to get a peek. "N-no. No. At least, I don't think so..."
"Hm... Been bit by anything? Dogs, Hobos...?"
"I can't remember."
"Darn. That means we can't rule-out shifter. . ." Tony flipped something in his hand. "Allergic to anything?"
Bruce narrowed his eyes at the object hidden in Tony's hand. "Why, so you can kill me?"
"No, just trying to determine what you are. Most monsters have an adverse reaction to some things. Mostly silver, salt, and holy water; covers all the bases. But you passed all the tests with nothing. Just wanted to make sure you weren't something standard. You might be pagan... How old are you Spanky?"
"Stop calling me that. I'm 34," Bruce answered as Tony turned back to the monitor.
"Gotta call you something. You won't tell me your name." Tony pushed a few more buttons. "Hrm... Too young to be something pagan…"
"Why do you even care about finding out what I am? You didn't seem too keen on asking questions earlier."
"I care because if what you are is contagious I won't be able to let you go in good faith that you won't cause more monsters." He pushed some more buttons. "I'm sorry about earlier; it's routine. I didn't do anything that would have really hurt a human; just enough for it to seem super random and a bit scary. I deal with things that should not be allowed to see the light of day. That hurt people. I have to make sure you won't hurt people."
Bruce gaped at him. "What do you mean, contagious? What do you mean, 'cause more monsters'? How was that considered a 'routine' practice?! How is any of this normal?!" Bruce scoffed and shook his head. "This is insane," he muttered as he looked up at the ceiling. "And what in the world is that carved into the ceiling?!"
"It's a devil's trap." Tony said automatically.
"Look, I'm just a normal guy, alright? I had a job like a normal guy, I had a home like a normal guy, and then I wake up three months ago in a crater, parts of people and buildings all around me! Do you still want to continue to go on and talk to me about how this is just a routine for you?!" He snarled.
Tony sighed and walked over to Bruce, and then proceeding to sit on a rolly chair he pulled from the darkness. "Look, I know this is confusing. Hell, I was thrust into this mess just like you were." Tony ran a hand across his face and tried to compose his thoughts. "There are things out there. Scary things. Horror movie things. Every classic monster you have ever heard of, and some you haven't even dreamed of, is real. All of it. Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, you name it, I've probably killed it. Most of the time these guys live just under the radar. They try really, really hard not to get noticed and cover up their tracks under an unsolved death or two. But I can't stand by and let monsters go around killing people. There are innocent people like you who should never have to know that Dracula and the Wolfman are right next door getting ready to eat them. I try to remove these nightmares from the world. Now, if I can figure out what you are, I may be able to cure you. There are lots of monsters that come about from curses; maybe you pissed off a witch or something. I don't know... If I can't completely cure you, I can at least get you to a point where you won't hurt anyone."
Bruce gripped the arm of his chair in a fist and started to shake, rattling the chair along with him. "You think that you can 'cure me' or at least 'get me to a point where I won't hurt anyone'?" he growled through gritted teeth. "Getting me to the point where I won't hurt anyone would only mean my death, which is impossible! You don't think I've already tried?! I've tried everything just to die! And each time I kept waking up with more death around me in a whole new location!"
Bruce paused, wide-eyed at how he had gotten to such an angered state. He took a few breaths and looked away. "I... I can't stop getting angry all of the time. I-if you really think that you can kill me, go ahead and try. I promise that you won't like the results."
Tony paused and looked around the room. "Well, I tried killing you; not gonna do that again until I know what will work. JARVIS, note that Spanky gets angry quickly and often. See if anything matches that. And I mean anything. Mind sharing any other bits of information? I mean, you seem to have exhausted science, so why not try some magic? Or counter-spells at least. You're blood is mildly corrosive, so it's difficult to study it."
Tony leaned closer to Bruce, a hand hovering over his arm in attempted comfort. "Come on, help me get you stable. Honestly, you're lucky I found you first. Other hunters would take your head off before you had a chance blink."
"Calling me Spanky isn't helping the situation," Bruce muttered. "My name is Robert Banner. Call me Bruce. And magic? I don't know any of that. I...I'm a gamma physicist. I only know science."
"Well, Bruce," Tony rubbed his hands together. "Like I said, there is more to the world than what the common man knows. Lots of scary things, but a few cool things too. Now I'm not a witch, 'cause I kill those, but I know my way around a summoning spell, or a counter spell. If you were cursed to be in this state, then I can find a spell to break the curse. So if you're cursed... Ate anything odd? Oo, maybe you pissed off a god... that never ends well. Maybe a trickster? How were you before this? Were you angry? Did people want you to be more assertive? Did you wish to be stronger? Take some bad steroids at the gym? I can go on."
"Do you ever stop?" Bruce leaned his head back and groaned. He looked back at him. "Look, like I said: I only know science. I don't know any tricksters; I don't know anything about spells, or curses, or anything! I don't know what else I can say." He frowned and looked down at his restraints. "Will you let me out of this already? It's starting to cut into my skin."
"Only if you promise not to transform into a giant again and crush me." Tony offered. "As a sign of good faith?"
Bruce looked him dead in the eyes. "I can't control it, remember?"
"Sure you can." Tony said, hand hovering over the glowing panel. "You're not a monster right now, are you? You've got this. First step is to try right?"
Bruce let out a snort. "I'm not sure if you are just that trustworthy of a guy, or if you are incredibly stupid. I promise that I won't try to kill you if I can control it."
"Good, good, 'cause there is a list a mile long for my head and I know quite a few people who would be very angry at you for cutting in line." Tony said and pushed a button on the panel. Suddenly the clamps slid away and Bruce was free. "Name's Tony. Welcome to the powder keg."