Author Note
Thanks for your many favs and follows, reviews are appreciated. Here is another chapter to say thanks, enjoy.
Playing with fire
Chapter 3
It was only when he felt a searing, burning pain at the bottom of his throat that Bruce Banner realised that the bloody curdling scream echoing around in his ears was coming from his own throat. His eyes were closed tightly as he panted with unbearable pain and exhaustion.
He furrowed his brows in discomfort as he felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead, the doctor felt so hot. The heat radiating from inside of him was agonising, it felt like he was burning from the inside; like he had been shut inside an over and left to burn alive.
For the first time in his life he willed for the other guy to make an appearance. He'd do anything to make the pain stop.
He tugged at his restraints as he cried out in agony and frustration, he could feel the other guy pulling at the brink of his consciousness; pacing around inside his mind like a wild animal trapped in a cage, just waiting to get out. But before he could open the door and unleash him there was a sharp pull at the back of his mind as he was engulfed in heat once more.
The doctor could see a strange haze of red and green colours dancing in front of his closed eyelids. His limbs shook with painful exertion, they ached with the urge to expand and tint with green but the sensation was washed away like a powerful tsunami as more warmth flooded through his veins.
The scientist howled as his body throbbed agonizingly, his eyes flickered open drowsily as his muscles spasmed, he grit his teeth and glanced down through his blurred vision.
He could see a faint glow of red and orange out of the corner of his eye and there was an insufferable beeping sound, an echo of voices but he couldn't decipher them, it felt like his head had been filled with nails. The only thing he could concentrate on was the terrible temperature radiating from his arm.
His stomach churned as he caught sight of his arm, his eyes widened in panic. His skin was glowing a strange mix of flaming red and orange from the inside, it looked like he was on fire. There was another excruciating pulse from his body. The muscles in his right arm jerked and twitched uncontrollably, he looked on helplessly as he became tinged with green.
His arm jerked and he groaned In agony, watching powerlessly as his skin changed back and forth from green to red, the colours swirled together in a battle for dominance.
Whatever it was Killian had injected him with didn't agree with him at all.
His skin tingled again, but this time his whole body burned with it. A noise escaped Bruce's throat similar to that of a dying animal. As the heat consumed him his vision slowly turned black, as Bruce let himself fall deeper into the darkness there was only one thing on his mind.
Maybe this was the end.
He was so engulfed in the darkness that he didn't even hear the drama unfolding around him, he never even noticed when there was a loud rumble and the ceiling collapsed.
Tony Stark let out a huge sigh of relief as he took a long glance at the charred human remains that were scattered across the ground beneath his feet. He wrinkled his nose in disgust when he noticed that the ashes were still hot and smoking, but there was no doubt about it;
Aldrich Killian was dead.
When the billionaire finally embraced Pepper Potts in his arms he decided that he never wanted to let go. It had been too long since he'd been able to hold the CEO this close and now he was grateful that he was able to hold her.
From the moment he'd watched on helplessly as she slipped from his grasp and hurtled towards the ground at alarming speed he swore to himself that never again would he let her out of his sight.
Tony glanced over the strawberry blondes shoulder as the sound of small explosions woke him from his daze. His suits were detonating, the sound echoed loudly and flames and sparks lighted up the sky above them.
Everything had come to an end.
Subconsciously he squeezed Pepper tighter in his hold and buried his head into the crook of her neck.
Now Stark could finally begin piecing his life back together with the women in his arms, and he would begin by finding a way to cure extremis.
'Sir-'
His thoughts were interrupted when Jarvis's familiar British tone filtered through the remains of his battered earpiece, he sighed wistfully.
'Not now Jarvis, we're kind of having a moment here…'
'Are we having 12% of a moment?' Pepper asked, whispering teasingly; Tony could feeling her smiling against his neck, he smirked in amusement.
'Yeah something like that.'
The mechanic pressed a light kiss against her forehead in favour of ignoring the remaining chaos and battle aftermath surrounding them.
'My apologies sir, but I must inform you that there appears to be one remaining extremis heat signature within your proximity.'
There billionaire loosened his grasp on his girlfriend and took a weary look at Killian's still remains. It definitely wasn't him.
'Well, what are you waiting for J?' the playboy snapped, 'send out a suit and – ahh crap!' he huffed in frustration when he realised what he'd done, just typical.
The clean slate protocol hadn't been such a good idea after all.
'Where's Rhodey? Can't platypus deal with this?'
'I believe Colonel Rhodes is otherwise engaged with the president's presence sir,' the AI responded.
'If you want something doing, gotta do it yourself,' Tony rubbed his grimy forehead and growled in annoyance.
Reluctantly he released Pepper from his arms and picked up the remnants from one of his suits littered at his feet. The repulsor in his hands looked somewhat battered and worse for wear but he was fairly certain that is was partially functional. There was a small pistol lying on the ground a short distance away from him. He pocketed it without hesitation.
'Pep, I need you to stay here while I-'
'You have got to me be kidding me.' Pepper sent the man a look of disbelief.
'Pep you need to-'
'Need to what? Stay here and let you go off on your own? Look at you!'
Her fingers brushed gently against the large cut beneath his eye, he winced and recoiled as it began to sting unpleasantly, before he could retort their eyes met and she let out a loud sigh.
'Tony I survived a two hundred foot drop, I'm coming with you.'
The billionaire blinked owlishly at the fresh look of determination on her face, it was when his eyes lingered on the faint red glow colouring her skin that he realised in would be pointless to argue. For the first time in his life he backed down from an argument.
'… Point taken, Jarvis?'
'According to my readings sir the heat signature is 45 degrees to your left just below ground level.'
Starks gazed swept around the near demolished dockland until he spotted a smashed up building nearby, it was a miracle the place was still standing.
'Let's finish this and go home,' the playboy suggested as the pair began walking towards the unstable brickwork with uncertainty. Potts send him a look of disbelief, then he remembered; the mansion was gone.
He let out a sigh of frustration, what a mess.
'..Or maybe the tower, yeah tower sounds better; no drafts, much cleaner.'
The strawberry blond reached out and grabbed the metal door handle and pulled. She let out a gasp of surprise when it immediately fell forwards, hanging hazardously from its hinges. Tony whistled, clearly impressed with her new found strength, Pepper rolled her eyes.
'Shut up.'
The pair eyed the shaky, bent metal stair case in front of them unenthusiastically.
'Well, ladies first!' Tony grinned cheekily, resting a gentle hand on the small of his lovers back he urged her forward.
'You're such a jerk,' she muttered under her breath as she descended the stairs, gripping the metal pole in her hands tighter.
'You know when this is all over I thought we could stop for drive thru on the way home, I think I could murder for a cheese burger right now,' The genius found the silence unnerving so he began to babble, his voice resounded in the small space.
Pepper exhaled loudly, he could just picture the look of irritation on her face.
'Sir may I suggest you try not to be so distracted? '
Tony ignored his AI; instead he chose to focus all his attention on the attractive woman in front of him. He felt something stir inside of him as his eyes lingered on her swaying hips as she cautiously stepped forward, tip toing over fallen debris.
'I just wanna point out that the only reason I let you go first is so that I can admire your ars-'
'Tony!'
'- in those tight pants.'
'Focus!' the blonde hissed, whacking him in the leg lightly with the piping in her hand.
'Ow! Gee Pep, learn to take a compliment.' He pouted, rubbing his bruising leg with his free hand. He was relieved to see that the time Pepper had spent in Killian's company had done nothing to her fiery personality.
As they dropped further into the darkness Tony raised his gun cautiously and squinted in the bad light as they both reached ground level.
'I love what they've done with the place...'
There were broken shards of metal and glass everywhere, upturned tables and splinters of wood decorated the floor along with most of the celling. One of the walls was almost completely demolished, exposing sparking electrical wires. The only sound that could be heard was the buzzing and sparking of electricity as the lights above them flickered dangerously, as though they were about to cut out.
Seeing nothing of interest the pair moved out into the corridor, a loud groaning sound caused them both to startle.
'Tony...' The blonde whispered in uncertainty.
Gripping the pistol in his hand, Stark stepped into the next doorway and hesitantly inched forward into the dark room, shielding her from view.
'Show times over pal, might as well show yourself!' he called.
He turned sharply as his words were answered with a rustle of movement. In the far corner of the room beneath a caved in wall was a pile of rubble and twisted mangled metal, the whole room was cluttered with bricks and dust.
'Sir I –'
'Not now Jarvis I'm busy!'
There was another loud groan and the pile shifted unstably, causing more debris to fall to the floor. Despite the bad light Tony could make out a dark silhouette.
'Put your hands where I can see em or I'll put a bullet in your head.'
'Sir the heat source is showing some unusual readings.'
The billionaire didn't answer, instead he inched forward, his attention was focused on the shadowed body in front of him. As the lights flickered all he could see clearly was an exposed leg, torn pants were cut off at the ankle, exposing a bare foot covered in dust and bruises. There was another cry of pain as the figure struggled and twisted its body, wriggling and squirming like a trapped animal.
'Sir the subject is not pure extremis, I'm detecting an unfamiliar reading, I strongly advise you to-'
'Jarvis mute.'
'Tony I-'
'Stay back Pep, I got this.'
He growled in frustration and kicked the leg sharply.
'Alright pal, games ov-'
His words were cut short when the lights suddenly flickered, illuminating the figure in front of him. Stark let out a loud gasp as his eyes locked with the body of the writhing man on the floor.
'Holy shit' he breathed, the gun is his hands dropped to his feet when a familiar pair of brown eyes flickered open, unfocused in a pained daze of confusion.
The man shuddered for a moment as his trapped limbs spasmed uncontrollably; a cry escaped his throat as he tugged at them in desperation, his short curly brown hair stuck to his sweat ridden face as he panted in exhaustion.
'Tony?' Peppers whispered went unanswered as the genius fell to his knees.
Tony had to fight hard to repress the sick feeling in his stomach and creeping up his throat as his eyes took in the sight of limbs tinged with red and green.
The billionaire looked on, unmoving in a state of shock; barley unable to choke out the words the seemed to stick in his throat.
'B-bruce?'