AN: Thanks to those of you that reviewed, because you guys make me happy. To clear some stuff up, Adam and Nat will have a fling, but it won't really be a relationship. Bruce and Adam have a bromance but-no-slash *swanky thumbs up*. There might be some subtle Bruce/Nat if you look, but i'm not entirely sure at this point. Also, in case anyone is interested, i have a facial reference sheet up for Adam on my tumblr.
Enjoy the chapter!
Adam had been on board the helicarrier for maybe an hour and a half and he already wanted to walk out onto the deck and throw himself the thousands of feet into the ocean.
He follows closely behind Coulson—who's only slightly unhinged after the explosion—and pretends he's not in the least bit upset or unnerved. If you could see how tightly his fists are clenched together, however, you could clearly count the steps until he snaps.
"What's happening?" Coulson interrogates a passing agent.
"The ship is under attack," the agent pauses for a moment to reply, catching a breath only to continue sprinting down the hall.
"Great," Adam spits as he and Coulson return to the main room with the giant window-wall.
"Where's Fury?" Coulson asks the nearest agent; a woman dressed much like the other agents only instead of the navy skirt like most other female agents, she wore pants.
"He was in the lab when one of the engines exploded," she replies sternly with a barely audible nervous undertone.
"Loki…" Coulson mumbles.
"What?" Adam interjects. "Ah hell no! I came on this ship to fix the cooling agent, not fight one of your renegade villains."
"Hill, bring Adam up to speed. I've got something I need to take care of," Coulson says, a certain determination in his voice; turning and moving out of the room.
"Adam, I assume," Agent hill continues, grabbing Adam's arm and pulling him out of the way. "Let's keep it short and sweet; Loki is a demi-god who plans to rule the earth with a power known as the Tesseract."
"The Tesser—"
"The Tesseract, if harnessed, hold the key to unlimited power. After he obtained the cube, we discovered his plans to unleash and army on earth. We apprehended Loki hours ago, but it looks as if he's got people on the outside…."
"I can't," Adam throws his hands up. "I can't get involved in this superhero business! I just fix things—"
In the distance, another loud burst sounds, followed by a deep roar.
"The hell was that? You heard that ri—" Adam starts, turning away from agent Hill for only a moment. When he turns back to her, she's across the room looking at Fury's monitors.
"This is not good…" She whispers, a slight tinge of horror in her previously tough voice.
"What's not good?" Adam approaches, trying to sneak a peek at the monitors.
"Fury, Fury do you copy?" she radios in, ignoring Adam's question once more.
"I'm here, Hill," Fury returns; striding into the room with his pistol wrapped tightly in his palm. He has remnants of dust on his trench coat.
"Black Widow and the Hulk are on the move," Hill states immediately after he stops talking, urgency in her voice. "Sir, he'll kill her."
Adam remembers hearing about the Hulk on the news. He'd been at home and, day after day, new strings of reports about some out of control monster ran on the television. People looked at the green beast with horror; even Adam had tilted his nose up in disgust at the wreckage this thing had caused. At the same time, however, he felt a twang of pity for the creature, though he'd never admit such. The pity was mostly washed out with anger anyway.
"Adam," Fury takes Hill's words into account and then faces the very confused engineer. "All members of the Avengers available are already preoccupied. Find Black Widow and help her."
Adam stares at Fury blankly. "I'm not a part of your team."
Fury shifts his stance and puts his hands on his hips. "I'm gonna pretend those words didn't just come out of your mouth and remind you that someone's life is in danger."
"A lot of people's lives are in danger, Fury. I'd be much more suited to fixing the engine—"
"I don't think you understand," Fury squints his eye. "You can blame whatever happened in the past on me if you want, but while you're on this ship, you'll follow my commands. Now, you're the only person in the near vicinity that has the ability to rescue agent Romanoff."
"That's not true," he replies bitterly.
"It's not, but you're the only one in the near vicinity that I can yell at to hurry his ass up."
Adam glares at Fury, but Fury had always been better at stare-downs.
"Fine," Adam gives up. "But this doesn't make me a part of your team."
Turning away from the control center and the big window, Adam begins to jog out of the room. After he's a decent ways out, he picks up speed as he searches for the one agent Romanoff.
Agent Hill had not clarified exactly where Romanoff and the Hulk were currently moving, so it was mostly just a guessing game on his part; asking the random agent where the wreckage was occurring. After some time, he could tell he was getting close by the dull roar growing louder and louder.
Though he was not particularly enthused about having to return to fighting, there was a tight knot forming in his chest regarding the fate of agent Romanoff. The way he'd seen her in the hall… she'd had a look of bitter determination in her eyes. There was something else as well, though he guessed he'd have to see her again to find out what it was.
That was something else that tugs at his heart. Though he'd nearly refused to cooperate when Fury had asked for his help, Adam by no means wants the Widow to get killed or hurt.
Somewhere ahead of him, the sound of metal being ripped from the wall sounds; easily audible. He sprints in that direction, bursting around a corner to find the Black Widow sitting on the ground with her knees clenched tightly to her body. Off to her side is a massive hole in the wall.
"Are you alright?" He approaches the quivering spy, making an effort to be sympathetic by kneeling down next to her.
"I'm… I'll be fine," she nods.
"You're not bleeding… what's wrong?"
"It's just a few ribs," she stares at him, breathing erratic but face completely stern.
He furrows his brow. He didn't like looking at this woman, this 'Black Widow.' She looks too much like her, and it may or may not have hurt Adam's heart to look at agent Romanoff.
"I'll be alright," she insists. "Go help Thor. He just tackled… he just tackled the Hulk through that hole in the wall."
"Thor?"
"A demi-god," she explains.
"Like Loki?"
"His brother, actually. He's the god of thunder… but even he might have some trouble with Br—I mean—the Hulk."
Adam turns his head, hearing the sound of crashing and bodies slamming against concrete and metal. He looks back to agent Romanoff for a moment and then nods, turning away quickly after.
Adam rises to his feet and takes a deep breath. Romanoff looks at him in confusion as he forces a rise in the level of carbon in his body, this time restricting the spread to just cover his arms. He cracks his knuckles as the dark shell stops expanding.
"I'm assuming you've got this under control then," Romanoff states. She must adjust to change very well.
Adam swallows hard at her remark, his hands shaking ever so slightly. He clenches his fists again to get it under control. Had the carbon shell not been as tough as diamonds, he would have pierced the skin off his palms with his claw-like nails.
He jumps through the hole prepared for a fight.
Several planes are scattered about, one in particular with a wing ripped from its side. Adam scans the room just as the green goliath and the one he assumes is Thor stumble into the middle of the floor. Thor has a hammer wrapped around the monsters neck.
For a second, Adam doesn't know what to do with himself. He'd fought robots and beasts just as big if not bigger before, but he hadn't done so in so long… he doesn't remember how he used to do it.
The Hulk grabs Thor's forearms, his thick musculature tensing as he wrenches Thor from his back and onto the floor. The blonde demi-god makes a weak swing with his hammer as the Hulk plows his face into the concrete. Thor's head is half a foot deep when Adam finally realizes he needs to step in.
The Hulk swings again as Thor tries to rise again and again. His next strike is cut short when Adam and his newfound determination step in. He catches the flying fist with all his strength and manages to hold up the Hulk's one arm with his two. With a grunt and the mass of his strength, he manages to hold the Hulks fist back with one hand long enough to adjust the level of carbon in his arms, force a blade to jettison from his forearm, and stab the hulk in the bicep. After that, he falls back to the ground.
Adam pants hard and realizes he just put in his best effort and the Hulk was still fine and kicking; only a shallow cut left on his arm. It gives Thor enough time to escape, however.
"You fight along side me!" Thor exclaims, taking Adam's side. "Like a native of Asgard!"
"Look…" Adam pants. "I'm not a hero… I just wanna go home…"
"We must contain the beast first," Thor continues, somehow not nearly as tired as Adam.
The Hulk turns to face the two of them after their brief moment to regain composure. Thor raises his hammer and Adam reluctantly bares the blades on his arms in preparation for another assault.
Thor attacks first; charging the Hulk head on while Adam opts to slide behind him, slashing as hard as he can into the Hulk's thick skin. It only leaves a small cut.
The constant attacks persist from Adam and Thor, and Adam begins to wonder how he'd ever fought this hard when he was still a part of the Titan's Initiative. He tries to shake off those thoughts and continues fighting, trying to keep pace with an ever-in-motion Thor.
Hulk swings backwards and knocks Adam off his feet, sending him around twenty feet backwards into a plane's windshield. It's there that he decides he never wants to be a superhero. Ever.
He slowly pries himself from the glass and winces as he hears the crash of rubble and the ceiling above him shaking. He scans the room for Thor and the Hulk, only to realize that they'd launched themselves upwards and into the room above the hangar.
"I'm not going up there," he mutters to himself, face distorting in pain as he tugs bits of glass and scrap metal from his back. The carbon shell had protected his arms, but he hadn't thought to protect his back, or the rest of his body for that matter, with the protective coating. Right about now he's wishing dearly that he had thought to do so; his back would be bloody and scraped for a while.
"He can handle himself…" he assures himself as he wanders back to the hole he'd entered the hangar through. "He is a god after all."
Practically falling through the hole, Adam realizes that agent Romanoff is no longer propped up against the wall, clenching her knees. Thinking about her hobbling away from where she had previously rested reminds Adam of his weariness, and he's a step away from collapsing when he reminds himself that even though he hates everything about this ship, he still needs to help the people on board.
Even if he hates them too.