Control. For Bruce Banner, that was a rare word for him to use about himself. He had gotten used to living life with the other guy (who he felt could come out at any moment), yet he still missed having a sense of control. At least now that he was an Avenger he wasn't being hunted by the military. Still-

"One black coffee sir, your food will be here in just a few minutes."

Bruce got his head out of the clouds. He saw a blonde waitress standing over him with his coffee.

" Oh, right. Thank you."

She nodded and walked to the counter of the old diner he was in. How long had he been thinking? He made a mental note to himself to stay focused. Lately, thinking about his past was causing his heartbeat to quicken. As a matter of fact, everything was causing his heartbeat to quicken. An incident hadn't occured with the uncontrollable other guy ever since the Avengers were assembled. That was about eight months ago, and it felt like the hulk was trying desperately to get out. He definitely didn't want that.

Bruce sighed and looked around the diner. It was a nice place, brightly lit thanks to a wall of windows. The other walls were painted a fading yellow colour, which Bruce didn't like as much as the windows. He looked to the counter which a silver color and had red stools. It reminded him of the fifties, which got him to think about Steve.

He hadn't seen Steve Rogers since August, or any of the other Avengers. Nick Fury gave all of them a leave of absence after defeating the Chitauri in May. It was nice to not have to deal with SHIELD and to do some experiments with Tony Stark. They didn't hear from SHIELD until August, where they assembled once again. Fury had told them that once a month they needed to regroup at the hellicarrier. For safety, Bruce had told Fury he wouldn't come to the hellicarrier unless it was necessary. After what the other guy did to the hellicarrier in the spring, Fury agreed.

Bruce hadn't seen Tony since the first meeting at SHIELD, and after what happened in the lab with the other guy, he figured Tony wouldn't want to. The accident had certainly changed things between them, and he wasn't sure if there was any going back to the way things were.

" Focus, Bruce." he thought to himself.

On the Saturday afternoon, the diner wasn't full. There were only a few couples and a family or two. The less crowded a place was, the better. He didn't really expect to see many people. This town only had about 2000 residents.

Wait, what was the name of this town? Carmington? Clarington? Oh well, it was some small town in North (or maybe it was South) Dakota.

Bruce looked down at his coffee. He felt the side of the cup with his hand, then quickly pulled it away. It was nice and hot, just the way he liked it. He took a sip. It tasted really good. He hadn't had a cup of coffee in a long time. He tried avoiding for fear of the other guy coming out, so he ordered decaf. He figured that would help.

Bruce took another sip of his coffee and stared out the window. Just then, a black SUV drove past the diner. It was going extremely fast, so fast that Bruce thought he could actually see the vibrations in his coffee cup. He shook his head and wondered how people who drive like that don't kill anyone. At that, Bruce finished the rest of his coffee.

A few minutes later, Bruce became aware of someone tapping their fingers on a table. It wasn't even very loud, but Bruce could hear it and it annoyed him. A lot. He could feel the anger inside of him rising up. He didn't want it to bubble to the surface. The other guy flashed his green eyes over Bruce's brown ones for a moment. He thankfully was able to calm himself down before anything could happen in the diner.

" What was that?" he thought to himself. He didn't think someone tapping their fingers could nearly unleash the Hulk.

Bruce brought his fingers to his neck. His pulse was going at a rapid pace. What was causing this? He was starting to panic, even though that wasn't exactly helping the heart-rate problem.

Then, the blonde waitress showed up again with his meal and placed it in front of him. She noticed his empty cup. " Would you like some more espresso sir?"

" Espresso!?" Bruce uttered, shocked and terrified. He realized that the caffeine in the coffee was bringing his heart-rate up. " I ordered decaf!" he shouted.

" I'm sorry sir. I'll get you a cup of decaf, on the house." the waitress said carefully, trying not to anger him. She didn't realize how her little mistake could be potentially fatal.

" I- I have to go." Bruce said, throwing on his tan leather coat and rushing for the door.

" Wait!" the waitress called and ran after him. " You forgot to pay for your lunch!"

Bruce dug into his pocket and grabbed a handful of bills. " Here!" he said, thrusting them into the girl's hands, hoping for the right amount, before running out the door into the cold winter air.

He started running down the street, towards a field he saw at the edge of town. If the other guy was going to come out, he wanted to get as far away from any people or buildings as he could. He kept sprinting away, not caring about his pulse, saying a silent thanks that the frigid wind was pushing him forward.

It didn't take him long to reach the field, but even when he got to the edge he kept running. A few feet into the field his knees fell to the snow. He could feel his clothes start to get tighter as the other guy's body pushed his way out. Bruce had to fight it, just for a bit longer. He stood up and staggered farther as some sort of half hulk, so determined to get away.

Finally, Bruce couldn't hold it in anymore. He was pretty far from the town and there weren't any buildings close by. Some people would consider that far enough, but he didn't.

Just then, he saw something in a low point of the field. It was the black SUV he saw speeding past the diner. There was a group of six men standing in a circle around... something. All of them were staring at him, it looked like they were trying to appear intimidating. In reality, they all looked like deer caught in the headlights.

" Oh-no," he thought.

The Hulk was finally out, released in his full fury. He tilted his head back and let out a roar which made the earth shake. The roar broke the men out of their trance. They started sprinting away, leaving behind some lump, which was what they were standing around before.

The Hulk didn't like this. He reached over and picked up the SUV like it weighed nothing. He let out another roar, then threw the SUV at the men. It landed on top of them with a sickening crack.

You would think that at that sound, the other guy would stop. Bruce wished that he could, but the Hulk didn't agree. He had one thing and one thing only on his mind: Smash.

The Hulk bounded over to the SUV and the injured men. The next thing he did... well, some things are better left unsaid. It was basically a blur of anger and destruction before the other guy was breathing heavily, surrounded by bodies and chunks of the leftover SUV.

At that moment, Bruce could really see and understand what the other guy had done. He felt stunned and started to get angry with himself.

" Enough with angst, Bruce!" He thought to himself, as the other guy started to fade away. Bruce knew that after this hulk out, SHIELD would be coming. He'd probably get a dirty look from that one ginger agent who seemed to think that keeping the hulk inside was as easy as remembering to breathe. God, he hated that guy.

Bruce had fully shrunk down, then realized that it was winter and he was naked.

Great.

He looked around and picked up some tattered suits that the men were wearing before his outburst. They were pretty dirty and torn, but they would do for now. As he put them on he noticed a crowd of people at the edge of the field staring at him. Some were frozen still, others held up their phones; they probably recorded videos of this mess.

Even better.

He guessed that SHIELD would be there in a few minutes, so in the mean time he decided to hide out in the low point of the field to where the SUV used be parked. When he took a step towards the low point, he saw most of the crowd of people run for safety. Bruce felt bad that he scared them away, but at least now there were fewer people to gawk at him like some zoo animal.

As Bruce came closer to his intended hiding spot, he noticed the pile that the men were standing around before. It took a second for him to register what the lump was, but once he did he felt an overwhelmingly awful feeling.

The men were standing around the body of a teenage girl.

Hey there everybody! I want to thank you so much for reading the first chapter of my very first fanfic! I'll try to update as often as I can. If you could leave a review that would be awesome so please do so! Thanks again, bye!

- The Nomad34