Chapter Six
The battle wasn't long, nor was it very brutal it seemed like the machines, which no one still had any information on, weren't prepared for a fight. All the machines stood there, attempting to fight at times with their own weak bullets from guns that didn't seem to have much point at all, Thor could walk through their gunfire with only scratches. Steve's thoughts were a flurry of activity as he groped for reasons that such weak creatures had been sent to New York or even if they were sent at all. He seated himself on a small pile of rubble, the only damage that these things actually caused, watching Natasha, Clint and Thor do the same.
"Any new information?" Clint questioned, not speaking to anyone on the coms directly but asking the question to everyone over all.
"JARVIS doesn't have anything yet," Tony announced, still following around a very large Hulk that hadn't been too satisfied with the weak and boring battle put up by his enemies, "Bruce and I will cut them up tomorrow, maybe Alex can figure out some of the computer coding while we check it out."
"Bored!" Hulk roared, turning on Tony quickly and moving back to the group, "Hulk bored!"
"Want to head back to the Green Room I made you? You can smash until you've had so much fun you could burst!" Tony shouted the idea, throwing up his arms in excitement.
"Hulk no want to burst! Hulk want smash!" he shouted back at him, turning to glare at the man as if he had just implied something horrible.
"No, no, it's a saying," Tony chuckled, flying down at patting the large green man's shoulder, "I'm saying you can go smash everything until you've had your fun and then Bruce can come out and have his."
Hulk looked at him blankly for a moment, before grunting affirmation. "Good," Tony grinned for a second, before looking around at the chunks of broken robots, "think you can grab some of these for me and Alex to take apart?"
"Hulk take," he agreed, grabbing a handful of the robots as gently as he could and watching Tony again, "Hulk take where?"
"Come on big guy," Tony motioned to follow as he flew back to the tower, "JARVIS, tell the team that Hulk and I are taking back some these useless things to the lab and I'll drop Hulk off at the green room and…yea, I won't be at the debriefing, tell them I'll be working."
"Tony, you can't miss another debriefing, you have paper work," Steve hissed into the intercom, making Tony roll his eyes.
"Sorry, Spangles, pretty sure figuring out if these things are alien tech might override old one-eyes need to know every time I ate a blueberry and stopped for coffee," Tony sassed back, landing on the balcony of the Avengers floor. His armor was immediately being taken off by the machines and placed in their rightful places in the armory. "JARVIS activate the lift and direct Hulk inside, I'll be down in ten!"
"Of course sir," JARVIS responded, "Are you looking for Miss Alexandria or Miss Potts, sir?"
"Alex will do now, JARV," Tony answered, shaking out his tee shirt and rubbing his face free of sweat before jogging into the common room.
"Miss Alexandria is in the lab sir," JARVIS supplied, "I have also already told the other ladies within the home that you are all safe."
"Thanks, JARVIS," Tony smiled to himself as he made his way into the elevator, "to the labs!"
Tony's mind was whirling with possibilities, this was of course going to be Alex's first Avengers mission! She would know that yet though of course, he had to make sure that she just thought this was a consolation from Tony himself. Maybe he could convince her that the world needed her, that she was an Avenger then she would stay…then again that hadn't worked with Bruce but it should be enough to get her to keep in contact.
"Labs sir," JARVIS interrupted his thought process, sounding as if he had been standing in the elevator for quite a while since he had actually stopped at the labs.
"Have you directed the Hulk to…"
"He is currently standing outside of the Green Room with the robots waiting for 'Tin Man'," JARVIS answered, his voice almost sounded amused, "I told him you would be down momentarily with Miss Alexandria."
"Good, he should be excited to see her," Tony nodded approvingly to himself as he moved quickly to Alex's lab and entered without knocking, though he knew this was nothing new. "So we need a mechanical genius on the lower decks so one should please stand up!"
His words were loud enough to echo back at him, cutting through any of the conversation that could have been happening. He watched as all of the women look up at him with dagger like glares as they (They being Jane, Darcy and Alexandria) sat down their tools/iPod. "What do you want, Tony?" Jane sighed, continuously thinking of the new equation for light emission that she needed to remember.
"Not from you Star-Lady, I need Shriek," Tony waved her question away and motioned for Alexandria to follow him, "I have some awesome alien tech that I want to work on with you."
"Alien tech? I don't exactly see any," she laughed, taking off her gloves to pull back her hair.
"That's because it's in the lower decks, all ready for ripping apart and studying," Tony's voice was sing-songy, taunting her with new information that he knew that any genius would need to know.
"Fine!" she snarled her answer, heaving a huge sigh before finally moving away from the others, "So to the lower decks or some nonsense?"
"Right!" Tony announced, pulling her out of the lab and slamming the door behind him.
One elevator ride later, filled with silence and awkward nudging on Tony's part they ended up on the green room floor. "So the big guy is taking care of the machines and by taking care I mean making sure that they don't try to come back to life and ruin the towers and all of that normal stuff."
"Oh yes, normal stuff that is," she agreed sarcastically, hands on hips, "So Bruce is watching the stuff."
"No, not Bruce, the other big guy," Tony waved off her comment leading her closer and closer to the Green Room.
"What other big guy?"
"You know the big guy!" Tony announced loudly, turning the corner quickly, dragging her along. "This guy, the Hulk!"
He watched as her eyes suddenly widen with confusion and realization as she stopped in front of the Hulk. Tony could see the fear that flashed through her eyes before it was hastily hidden under a smile as the Hulk moved closer to her. "Hello?" she whispered, waving her hand slightly, "How are you?"
Hulk moved forward slowly, placing the robot down on the ground gently next to Alexandria and moving one index finger to the center of her chest. "Voice girl," he said gruffly, shoving his finger into her chest hard enough to knock her on her butt.
"Voice girl?" she questioned, rubbing her chest, noting that there was going to be a bruise there tomorrow.
"You voice girl, me Hulk," Hulk announced proudly, offering her the finger again in what Alexandria assumed was a gesture of solidarity. She took a hold of it, using it as leverage to pull herself to her feet and rub at the would-be bruise again.
"My name is Alex, voice girl is close enough," she smiled at him in an unsure manner, "and you are the Hulk."
"You've never met him before? Banner really has him on lock then," Tony smiled in approval patting Hulk's large arm in approval, "I like you too Big Guy, just like you better when you aren't scared."
"What do you mean?" Alexandria looked over at Tony sharply.
"That Bruce really has a handle on the…" Tony stopped suddenly, his brain suddenly catching up with the situation and for once in his life he was fully regretting what he had just done. "I mean of course we came down here for the…"
"Tony? What do you mean?" she hissed, cutting off his rambling.
"He didn't tell you, did he?" Tony whispered, looking back and forth between Hulk and Alexandria herself.
"What didn't he tell me?"
"The reason why he was worried about the guns, the reason for all of the…precautions," Tony waved his hand absently.
"Because he was the Hulk? Like the big, green guy that saved New York?" Alexandria sounded choked, looking wide eyed at Hulk again, "You are Bruce…like the little scientist that I have curry with and read and…" Her breath was starting to come more quickly, as she processed the information.
Tony nodded his head thoughtfully, this explained why Bruce would never ask her on a date, well more so then the usual Brucey reasons. "What did you think Bruce was doing with the Avengers?" Tony asked gently.
"I don't know!" the words burst from her chest in a rush of air, "I don't know, that he was like the field scientist or something? Maybe you had another suit!? Not this! He would have told me…I thought he would have told me something like this!"
"Calm?" Hulk offered helpfully, looking at the girl with worry in his eyes. She needed little guy, needed doctor! He nodded to himself at the thought, before falling back into his mind and letting the puny man forward again.
Alexandria blinked slowly, watching as Hulk closed his eyes suddenly, his skin fading into Bruce's normal skin tone before shrinking down into the man himself. Her chest tightened suddenly as the realization hit her that Tony wasn't lying, that Bruce had…she drug her hands through her hair roughly. She watched as Bruce stumbled up to his feet, pulling up his pants to maintain some form of dignity before looking over at Tony in confusion. "What…"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Alexandria's voice was shrill as she shouted at him, her body moved forward of it's own accord, grabbing his face in her hands, "Why the hell didn't you say that you were the HULK?"
Bruce flinched at the look on her face, the fear and anger there touching a memory of Betty that was hidden in the back of his mind. He tried to look away, but her hands held his face firmly, making him look at her. Her fear was the reason that he hadn't told her, she would have ran away from him and he had enjoyed the comradery in his work. "I'm sorry," his voice was rough, he had to have been roaring a lot today.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she hissed the question, glaring at him.
"Because I didn't want you to be scared," he answered earnestly, pulling away from her hands and looking down, "I'm not exactly the ideal tentmate…"
"You lied to me," she hissed, "You didn't trust me with this!"
"I was trying to protect you."
"By lying to me."
"I didn't want you to…"
"To what? To be your friend? Because apparently everyone else here knew!"
"That's different!"
"How!?"
"Because they are different too!"
"So am I!"
"They are dangerous!'' he growled, confused slightly by the fact the Hulk hadn't once stirred during this confrontation when with anyone else he would have destroyed the room.
"And what do you think I am?"
"Someone that has had a lot of shit forced on her!"
"So you give me more!"
"I'm sorry!" Bruce shouted, moving closer to her, "I didn't want you to have to live in more fear from me, least of all from me!"
"I'm not scared! I'm angry!" Alexandria shoved the Doctor backwards, causing him to trip and land on the floor hard.
Bruce cursed under his breath, feeling the pain shoot up his back from his bottom. She had shocked him and shoved him, yet there was still no Hulk. The look on her face was nothing but pure fury and he just noticed that Tony had hastily made his escape, not that he could blame him. "I understand, I don't blame you for hating me…"
"I don't hate you, you idiot!" she shouted, her voice edging up another octave, making his ears ring. "I'm hurt and angry! What made you think that this would be okay to do! Why? I can't believe…"
"Alexandria," Steve's voice cut through the air firmly, making the pair jerk around to face the group of Avengers that had placed themselves in front of the door.
Alexandria's face dropped suddenly. She tightened her fists as she felt the rage rush through her again, the sudden pressure behind her eyes made her completely aware of her frustration. "Fine," she hissed, turning away from Bruce firmly, "I'm leaving."
"Al, you can't just decide this on a…" Tony started before he was cut off with a glare.
She moved forward, attempting to make her way through the dense group that refused to move, but she needed to escape…she needed… she took a breath, looking up at Captain America who was firmly blocking her way...she needed to get out, "Steve Rogers, get out of my way!" she hissed the order, watching as he moved without thought and the sudden fear that struck through him when he realized what she did.
A bitter smile crossed her face for a moment, "I'm leaving, don't worry it won't happen again," she laughed, shaking her head and making her quick escape, "Bye."
The group watched as the elevator closed firmly behind her, leaving them all behind and stunned.