- Spiderman POV -
I know that people need me, that every minute somebody was dying because I refused to put the suit on. But I couldn't put it on again, it was the reason Aunt May was gone, the reason she wasn't here with me.
It had been a quick way to go at least, that was the only way she deserved to go when the time came. But that time had come much too fast, she wasn't even meant to be there, in my fight.
It was because of me she was gone, I was the reason the world would never see her smile, or hear her laugh again.
So I deserved every minute of living in the alleys, begging for food and change. When aunt may had died I had been sent to an orphanage of course, but escaped quickly once I began making friends, afraid to hurt them or let them down in some horrible way.
But I forced myself to keep moving, Aunt May wouldn't want me dead, even if I wanted to give up I had to live for her. Even if I wasn't happy about it.
But that was in the past now, I told myself firmly as I rounded the corner of another dark alley. I was on my way to the shelter to get a jacket, even if I used to be Spider-Man I still got col-...
My thoughts were abruptly cut off as I slammed into a stiff green wall, earning a startled grunt from it. That was too bad for the wall as I really didn't car-...
...Walls weren't supposed to grunt, were they? Or be green and startled...Oh great.
"HULK SMASH TINY THREAT!" The wall- err... Hulk, seemed pretty mad. That is, until frantic voices began shouting, but the damage had already been done as Hulk swung a large green fist toward me and I braced for impact.
Only, it never came. Instead, Hulk was.. smelling me? He looked confused, but at least he wasn't angry any more. Maybe I could just-
"Bug-man?" Hulk asked, a curious gleam in his eye as studied me.
OKAY! Well, I just understood how parker luck works, as black clouded my vision and the pain in my calf intensified-
Wait, when did my leg start hurting? I looked down, only to find an arrow sticking out of my calf as I stumbled and fell. I could hear angry voices in the background as Hulk leaned closer, clearly worried.
"Bug-man? Where did your color go?" He asked, acting like a curious puppy more than an angry Hulk.
Speaking of angry, the voices were getting closer and rising in volume. But I couldn't really care as black took my vision and I fell into an unwanted sleep.
The last thing I saw as I lost consciousness was various colored blurs yelling at a purple and black blur, as the Hulk (I was assuming the large green blur was him) stalked over to them, joining the yelling.
It was going to be so fun when I woke up.
2 hours earlier
- Steve Rodgers POV -
I drank my coffee, frowning into the cup. Some people would say it's paranoia, but I had a gut feeling something bad was going to happen. But, I still didn't know why.
Bruce and tony were in the lab, studying a fragment of alien tech, Clint was at the shooting range, Natasha having volunteered to be a moving target for him, and Sam was flying around the city.
But we did this kind of stuff all the time, and nothing anybody was doing posed a real threat to them or others.
So why did I have this feeling was horribly wrong. I sighed, placing the cup on the counter. I have had this feeling many times before, but I had been thinking of this for almost half an hour.
Maybe if I just lied down and took a nap the feeling would leave. I hummed to myself, walking to the elevator so I could go to my floor. That was all I needed, a quick nap and it would-
"ROOOOOOOOAR! HULK SMASH"
Well, apparently that feeling was never wrong. Now we had to deal with a hulk out, why did banner transform when he knew the Hulk was unstable? maybe something happened and he-
No, no time to think like this. I grabbed my shield and raced down the hallway towards the elevator, hitting the button that would bring me to the lab.
"Jarvis!?" I called, shifting into a fighting stance, ready for anything those doors would open to.
"Yes, Mr. Rodgers?" Jarvis replied after a minute, scaring the hell out of me. Even after all the time I had spent living in the tower, Jarvis speaking out of nowhere still startled me at times.
"Tell me what's going on in the lab!" I ordered, calming my heart as I neared the lab's floor.
" It appears a piece of the alien tech and were studying attempted to attach itself to , causing the Hulk to immerge as to remove the alien threat." Jarvis replied.
"Thank you Jarvis, keep a tab on the Hulk so we don't lose him." The last thing we needed was hulk hiding away in the city while we couldn't find him.
"Will do, Mr. Rodgers." Replied Jarvis, as the door pinged open to reveal the lab.
Or what was left of it, at the very least. The lab was destroyed, beakers flown everywhere while blue chemicals dripped off the walls. To say it was catastrophic was an understatement.
In the center of it stood the Hulk and Tony, Hulk smashing his fist through a large octopi-like creature made of metal and pulling out the wires.
"HULK SMASH PUNY ROBOT!" Roared Hulk, obviously angry at the robot that now lay still on the floor, obviously offline.
Great now they just needed to calm down the Hulk and-
The Hulk roared as he leapt through a window, the rest of the avengers running into the room as the glass shattered.
"Get civilians out of the way and calm him down before he does to much damage!" I called out to the others as they broke out of their daze. They all went their separate ways, switching on their comm. links as they did so.
I raced out of the building with Natasha and Clint right by me as Sam and Tony flew above, tracking the Hulk's signature.
"What the hell happened down there!" yelled Clint in between heavy breaths. He was obviously more winded than those of us who had the super power advantages.
"I'm not completely sure! But Jarvis told me the alien tech Bruce and Tony were working on tried to attach itself to Bruce's face and he Hulked out trying to remove it!" I called into my comm. link, getting my shield ready in my hand.
"CAP!" Yelled Tony through the link "We Found him, He's at west 57th and 3rd getting close to a homeless shelter!"
"Okay, do not engage without the entire team unless he threatens the safety of a civilian!" I called out to the team using my link, hoping they would listen. I was satisfied when they replied with many okays and will do's ringing in my ears.
As we neared the Hulk's location I could see him standing in an alley, obviously lost in the maze of New York. He was also very obviously angry. Well, add that to the pile of things that go wrong today. At least there were no-
Crap, never mind. A civilian walked around the corner of the alley with his head down and clearly very lost in thought. But that wasn't the problem, the problem was that he was heading strait for the Hulk.
"Clint, get an arrow ready incase something happens but do not risk it unless you have to, he is way too close to the Hulk and we can't take any chances." I ordered Clint, leaving the message of do not engage to the others.
I watched with growing unease as the Hulk faced us, ready to fight us, when we all heard a muffled grunt come from the Hulk. We watched us he turned around, showing the kid who had apparently walked into the hulk. And made him mad.
"HULK SMASH TINY THREAT" he roared obviously angered at the teen who seemed very confused, then tensed. Hulked reared back as we protested, tensing as he let the fist go and waiting for the pained scream of the child who was at the end of the Hulk's fist.
Only it never came. Instead, he had stopped his fist inches from the child's face, obviously confused but mostly curious. The child seemed to slowly untense, until Hulk said something to him which we could not hear that made him straighten up like a backboard out of nowhere.
Odd, what could probe such a reaction from a young child? Maybe he had-
My thoughts were cut short by angry voices, my own quickly joining the mix as I realized what was wrong. Clint had let the arrow fly, intending to knock the Hulk out before damage could be dealt to the child. But Sam had been startled when the Hulk shouted, and had fallen into Clint and making him miss.
But the real issue was that the arrow was now imbedded in the child's calf! There was enough tanquilizer in that dart to knock out the hulk in a few seconds! That had be a deadly-
But the child was still standing. Beginning to look woozy, but he was still standing and conscious. So how in the hellfire below was he still standing?! If that could knock out the hulk in seconds how was this possible!? He would have to be-
Once again my musings were cut short as the Hulk roared in our faces.
"SHUT UUUP!" He roared, shocking us all to our cores. Bruce had no control while he was the Hulk, if the Hulk wanted to shut us up he would have pummeled us or something. But not yelling, Hulk yelled plenty that was sure. But here and now, what shocked us was that he sounded... protective?
Then we noticed he was slowly shrinking, his skin taking more of a human tone. The Hulk was turning back into Bruce as he went into a calmer state.
"Uhhg, what happed?" He questioned us, memory clearly lost to him at the moment.
"Not much big guy, don't worry." I told him wrapping a supportive arm around his shoulders.
"If you call almost killing a civi- OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Clint exclaimed, rubbing the new shiner on his cheek as Natasha glared at him. It didn't take much time for me to figure out what had happened there.
We began walking out of the alley, glad that everything was alright when Bruce began to panic.
"STEVE WAIT! The kid! We forgot about the kid, those are Hulk-level tranquilizers!" I cursed myself for forgetting as the others eyes widened in horror.
I rushed to the kid, quickly searching for a pulse. I didn't find one. "NO PULSE!" I cried out, beginning chest compressions, as stark started up the defibulators in his gauntlets. The others could do nothing but watch in sick horror as we tried in vain to bring the child in front of us back to the land of the living.
Two minutes passed. Then five, When we hit ten we gave up. Bruce looked horrified at what had happened, while the others were sick. They had seen death many times before but never had anyone been killed in this way, by one of us.
Solem faced, we turned from they alley heading towards the tower.
Then I heard it, We all heard it. A pained gasp came from the alley we had abandoned. We all shared looks, thinking the same thing. There was no way, he had been legally dead for the last ten minutes. Science was thrown out the window as we heard more noise coming from the time a pained wheeze.
We rushed back into the alley, hope filling our hearts no matter what we knew was impossible. We ran up to the boy, stopping in our tracks several feet from the prone body lying on the ground.
He was breathing.