A/N: Okay, so this is going to be my first multi-chapter story, and one of the first stories I've ever written. I'm not a very good writer, so bear with me! But I had a plot bunny in my head (and I can't believe I haven't seen a story like this yet!) and, well, I kinda fell in love with Mark Ruffalo/Bruce Banner, so…. This story had to be written! By the way, I can't promise that there will be regular updates, but I will try my hardest to write this story as quickly as possible!
Background Information: This village is going to be a mixture of the past and present. That is to say, don't question it too much if there are no cars, but Tony Starks has cameras set up around the village and an iron man suit. This is set in a small-ish village somewhere in some random country. Bruce still got into an accident that turned him into the Hulk, but instead of gamma radiation I decided it would be more of a Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde kinda thing, wherein Bruce drank a potion that turns him into the Hulk. Also, he's a medical doctor for the village, along with a chemist and physicist. And for those of you who haven't seen The Incredible Hulk or read the comic books, General Ross and Betty are not OCs, but I decided to make Betty a 12 year old instead of a previous love interest.
Doctor Bruce Banner was not having a good day.
The day started out like any other. It had been a calm, early morning in which the good doctor sat on the back steps of his broken down house, drinking an herbal tea and meditating. He was almost completely calm; the Hulk was so far back in his mind that it was almost nonexistent. His peace was soon broken by an impatient cough. Snapping out of his reverie, the doctor looked up to see General Ross standing next to his daughter, Miss Betty.
"How may I help you, General?" Bruce asked with a pleasant smile on his face. The General glared down distrustfully at Bruce, shifting as if to cover his daughter from the doctor's view. "My daughter is getting those headaches again. I thought you cured them when we were here a few months ago?" General Ross asked, as hostilely as a person could whilst asking for help.
"Ahh. That's the thing with medical problems. They don't always have a quick fix." Bruce smiled bitterly. "Well, come in Miss Ross, let's see if we can fix you up." Bruce said, turning and beckoning the two into his house. They all stepped in, Betty walking as quickly and quietly as she could. Bruce led them down a dank hallway, past a kitchen and towards an examination room. General Ross looked around the desolate place with as much disgust as he could muster. "Haven't you ever cleaned this place?" He asked, staring at the shattered glass that covered a table in the corner of the living room that they passed. "I've found that cleaning is useless. The Other Guy seems to prefer a messy room to a neat one." Doctor Banner said whilst digging through a cabinet full of bottles and prescriptions.
"Alright, Miss Ross! Would you be so kind as to take a seat on the chair? And General," Doctor Banner paused, "If you would, could you please leave the room? As a matter of doctor confidentiality of course." General Ross looked as though he would argue, but a pleading look from his daughter had him shutting his mouth and nodding tersely, leaving the house to wait outside for Betty to be done.
Bruce started rummaging through more cabinets, looking for a stethoscope and a penlight. "I'm sorry about my father." Betty said, looking down at her hands. "He just…" "It's alright," Bruce smiled "I understand his concern." With a smart snap, he pulled on his rubber gloves and walked over to Betty. "So now, what seems to be the problem?" Betty gave him a run down of her symptoms, complaining of frequent headaches in the mid-afternoon, dizziness, and constant fatigue. Bruce checked her eyes with the penlight and lungs with the stethoscope. He started mumbling to himself while checking her reflexes, took her blood pressure, and listened to her heartbeat.
After what seemed like an eternity to Betty, Doctor Banner finally seemed satisfied. "It would seem, Miss Ross, that everything is in perfect working order. It looks like you just have headaches caused by dehydration. I'd recommend that you drink at least a cup of water every waking hour for the next week. If the headaches don't stop by next week then come in again and we'll check to see if there are any deeper problems. Does that sound alright?" Bruce said, maintaining his peaceful smile. "Yes! Thank you Doctor Banner!" Betty answered, smiling lightly. "I don't understand why everyone here is afraid of you. You've never been anything but kind to me." Bruce stopped, his smile slipping off his face. "You know why, Betty. Now you'd best run along to your father before he gets too worried." Sensing the trouble she caused, Betty nodded meekly and slipped out of the room quickly, looking back before she left the room to give the doctor another small, sad smile.
Once outside, Betty scolded her father. "You can't just do that, dad! All he's ever done is tried to help. He can't help his… problem. But you shouldn't hold it against the doctor, especially when he's treating me!" General Ross just gave his daughter a challenging look, and answered. "At least I've never destroyed a village. I'll never trust a man that turns into a monster. The only reason I allow you to be treated by him is because he's one of the only doctors in this god forsaken village, and the only competent one at that." With that said, he grabbed his daughter by her arm and roughly led her away from the broken house on the outskirts of the village. Betty looked down at her shoes, indignant, but said nothing to argue.
Bruce sat in his office, trying to control his emotions. It was just so hard, so very hard, to keep the beast inside him below the surface. The Hulk growled within him, trying to break free of his human constraint, but Bruce held the proverbial gates valiantly. Maybe, Bruce thought to himself, maybe a walk would do me some good right now.
Once outside, Bruce headed away from town. He slouched, his brown shoes scuffing the dirt road, ripped pants nearly tripping him, and purple threadbare shirt nearly falling off him because it was so old and stretched. Let it never be said that Bruce Banner cut an impressive figure during this time in his life. He was fine with that, though. He didn't want to stand out more than he already did due to his "unfortunate moments of uncontrolled temper." Bruce sighed lightly and walked further away from the village, walking toward the sparse fields and forest that lay outside the village. He was finally starting to calm down when he heard a large boom, followed by a crash and screaming.
Bruce sprinted back toward the village, weaving in and out of the crowds that were dashing out of the village square. As soon as he got there, he surveyed the scene that lay before him.
Rocks from the cliff wall, on the backside of the village center, started falling on the surrounding storefronts and homes. Massive boulders came crashing to the earth, miraculously missing the panicking citizens. Women and children ran screaming from inside the houses, flooding around Bruce. Unable to think clearly because of the screams, his heart started racing and, as the villagers so eloquently called it, he "Hulked out". Bruce fell to the ground, clutching his head as pain ripped through his body, transforming his bones and enlarging his muscles to the nth degree. His tattered clothes ripped to shreds off his body, and green skin battled his own naturally tan, before winning and covering the man like a shell.
The Hulk, leveling out his breathing after the transformation, started to stand up. Once fully awake and up, he roared as loudly as he could toward the heavens. The villagers stopped screaming in absolute shock before sprinting away as fast as their small bodies (in comparison to the Hulk's) could. That's when the first boulder hit the Hulk, knocking him to the ground.
Enraged, he looked up to see the cliff wall still falling around him. The Hulk, deeply angered by rocks, began pounding on the cliff walls, succeeding only in bringing more boulders down on the previously humanoid figure, infuriating him more. Sensing that knocking into the cliff wall wasn't going to make the boulders stop falling on him, the Hulk backed out into the now-empty village square. He was about to take a running start and hit the cliff even harder when he heard the faint sound of screaming. The Hulk, confused as to where the noise was coming from (because all the tiny loud things had already ran away) stopped his destruction and went to investigate (as best an enormous green rage monster could).
There, a few hundred meters away from him lay a small house with a boulder smashed through the top and front door. The Hulk deducted that the small loud things were trapped inside said house, and, in order to make the loudness stop, picked up the boulder to let out the screaming humans. Two of the larger ones ran away, having barely taken a look at the Hulk, but a small, surprisingly quiet, boy stayed behind, just staring at the Hulk. The Hulk stared back. The boy stared more. The Hulk narrowed his eyes in a challenge. The boy did as well.
And they just stared at each other.
One of the loud screaming things ran seemed to remember that yes, indeed, they did have a child, and quickly ran back for him. Seeing the Hulk and fearing the worst, the woman grabbed her child quickly by the arm and yanked him past the Hulk, half-dragging him for nearly a hundred meters before stopping momentarily to check for injuries and ask if he was alright. The boy, clearly annoyed by his mother's over-reaction to the Hulk, pulled away from her and went back to thank the Hulk.
The Hulk, however, was to busy throwing the falling boulders back at the cliff wall.
Seemingly out of nowhere a laser like shot flew past the Hulk's head, scorching the ground below him. The confused rage monster looked up to see a flying tin man with a light pointed at him.
"Hey buddy, I don't know if you've figured it out yet, but you're not helping much by throwing rocks at the wall." The tin man quipped. Suddenly the light from the tin man's arm grew brighter, emitting a small noise, before shooting at the Hulk and disintegrating the boulder in his hands. The Hulk, unhappy that his weapon was taken away, swatted at the tin man, causing him to fly through the air and landing with a very satisfying thump! The green man grinned, baring his teeth at the unconscious figure, before turning back to the problem at hand. Crumbling wall. Right.
The Hulk lumbered back over to the wall, looking up again, and this time noticed something strange. There, near the top of the cliff where the rocks were falling from, seemed to be a single point that jutted out at an odd angle. Bruce, ever the physicist, was unconsciously thinking through and running out long equations in his head on the speed velocity, angle, and potential energy of the rocks. The information flashed through the Hulk's decidedly less advanced brain, making only one thing clear: the Hulk must take off the point that was jutting out oddly on the top of the cliff.
He backed up, took a large step forward, before throwing his body weight down, then back up again, flying through the air and nearly half way up the cliff. Grabbing on to any hold he could, the Hulk began scurrying up the cliff as best he could. A few minutes later, he reached the top and ripped the jagged stone from the point that was causing the rocks to fall. Throwing the boulders behind him, the Hulk ripped out more and more chunks of the rock from in front and, eventually, underneath him until there was not enough ground to support his vast amount of weight. The Hulk fell from atop the cliff and crashed to the ground below, creating a large crater, where he then blacked out.
A few hours later, the villagers decided that it was safe to head back into the village where they promptly found an unconscious Bruce Banner and an equally unconscious Tony Stark. The people soon began cleaning up and rebuilding the houses. A few of the braver villagers went over to check on Tony and the Doctor, eventually waking them up and treating their injuries. When Bruce finally came to, he looked around him, seeing the destruction to the village and the damage on Tony Starks, the most well known and well liked person within a hundred miles, and only one thought crossed his mind.
"Oh Shit."
Well, that's a wrap! This took, oh, three days to write? And only a little over 2,000 words. Oh well. Anyway, please review! I'm always looking for constructive criticism, even flames, because they can only help me get better. Thanks for reading!