The city is gone, replaced by chunks of debris and a massive cloud of dust and rubble. The big ships are slowly steering away from the destruction, but his eyes are locked on one of them. He'd made sure to drop her as gently as possible before following the robot, and after a few more seconds, he finally manages to tap the button behind him and watch the door close.
Almost immediately, he hears somebody call out to him from the front. "Hey, big guy."
It's her.
He turns and carefully makes his way to the cockpit while she talks, keeping his eyes on her the entire time.
Hulk likes her voice. It's nice, and she's never mean to him like everyone else. He knows what she wants; the Quinjet is going away from everybody else, and she wants him to turn around and come back. He wants to listen very badly, but going back means going back to all the scared, angry people running away and screaming, and he can't, won't go back to being locked away by Banner. Not even for her.
"So help me out. I need y-"
He taps the button as gently as he can, and her face is replaced by an endless vista of blues and greys.
He has to take special care not to push too hard, otherwise, the puny buttons would break under his fingers when he tries to use them. That's something he's always hated; no matter where he goes or what he does, everything breaks unless he makes sure to be gentle.
Hulk's never liked being gentle. It's too hard. He always feels like he's gonna mess up and break something, and then bad things will happen and he'll have to run away because people will get angry. Banner always hates when that happens, and he hates it too.
He hates it when he agrees with Banner. The scientist is everything Hulk isn't. Puny, weak, smart, and afraid. He always tries to keep Hulk down, to hide him from the rest of the world because he's afraid of what's going to happen when he gets out.
Hulk doesn't like Banner. He wishes that he could escape from Banner forever, so Banner could be with his friends and do all the science things he wanted while he could run and smash whenever he felt like it. Then he would finally be free.
It's quiet in the Quinjet.
Despite what the people think about him, he's always liked his little moments of quiet. Banner never really understood what that was like, which is funny since he'd always tried his hardest to distance himself from Hulk. No, Banner always had to be doing something, whether it was making people feel better, working on science stuff, or on his computers. He's like a rat, always scurrying from one thing to another, always nervous about the next time Hulk is going to break free.
He's never learned to appreciate the quiet moments when they come, not like Hulk does.
The only sound that makes it through is the dull roar of the wind outside as the Quinjet cuts through the air. The clouds aren't as big up here compared to when he was on the floating city. Below they were huge and round and soft-looking, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd wanted to jump through them until he'd gotten distracted by all the robots he could smash with his friends.
He likes clouds. He likes how they look, and the way they don't scream or cry whenever he jumps through them. They're not like people. They don't confuse him or yell at him whenever they see him. Clouds have never called him names or tried to hurt him. Clouds are just there no matter what happens, and he likes that about him.
People.
He squeezes his knee as the familiar heat rushes through him. The anger is always there, but people always manage to bring everything roaring back to the surface. The puny guns they use to try and hurt him. The mean words they yell when they think he can't hear them. He hates them, it reminds him of the old man who followed Banner around. Whenever he found Banner, the little green and brown men would come, and Hulk would be free to fight and smash until they got scared and ran away.
Banner never thanked him for that. He never said anything nice or even appreciated what Hulk did. He just ran away and tried to lock Hulk inside like a kid. He's always hated that.
Even now he can feel Banner trying to wake up, but he's too weak this time. It's almost too easy to shove him down until Banner goes back to sleep inside. Satisfaction rushes through his veins. For the first time ever, he actually feels like he's in control, and he likes it. Banner always had it easy. He has a place to live, friends who appreciate him, and people actually like him.
Nobody likes Hulk. They need him to smash bad guys, but once he's done its Banner who they want.
The Quinjet keeps rising higher and higher, propelling him up into the blackness, and for a moment he's scared. He's pretty sure Banner knows about this stuff, but Banner's tucked away deep inside, and Hulk doesn't know anything about the black. He sniffs a few times, trying to keep from getting nervous, and he inadvertently picks up a familiar smell.
It's light, and almost buttery, with an intense metallic undertone that he knows is blood. As if on cue, his muscles relax from their rigid clenched poses, and something like a groan starts in his chest. That smell has always been one of the things he likes. A whiff of that scent had helped to calm him down whenever he started getting too angry on a mission.
He remembers her face on the screen. The way her eyes were so bright like she was actually happy to see him. Hulk doesn't have any friends, but she's special. She's like Betty that way.
Betty. That name sends a pang of something through his chest. It's been too long, too much has happened for him to remember anything besides hazy pictures of blue eyes, and a faint memory of a soft, comforting voice talking to him.
Outside, the sky is gone, swallowed up by the black everywhere he can see. The emptiness stirs something inside him, and Hulk closes his eyes, trying to keep Banner from resurfacing even though the puny scientist is still asleep inside.
At least this way, the black is only inside his head.
It's lonely, but things are always better that way. Hulk's always been alone.