When Hayne emerged with Scarlet, Blaine, and Hazel from Mr. Stark's lab, he was startled to see the others of JID and the Avengers gathered in a semicircle around the stairwell, weapons at the ready.
"What the heck?" he yelped, feeling his heart rate skyrocket.
"Really?" Blaine asked dryly, his gaze sweeping those gathered. "Get that stuff out of our faces!"
"Didn't somebody yell 'Hulk'?" Hawkeye asked carefully.
"Yes," Blaine said, completely unimpressed as he batter his father's bow and arrow out of his face. "And I took care of it, so we're good now. So stand down."
Knowing what Blaine meant, Ryan and Eif were quick to obey, and the Avengers soon followed suit. As the group drifted away into various parts of the house, Hayne put his palms on his knees, breathing deeply to keep his heart rate down.
Frack. He did not need this twice in one day!
Scarlet hovered behind him, putting a careful hand on his shoulder. "Hayne?"
It wasn't working! He'd come too close to hulking out down there in the lab, and then he'd come up to find Thor's hammer whirling near his head, and now…
He tried to rasp Blaine's name, but it wouldn't come. Growing desperate, he dug in his pockets for the emergency vial of tranquilizer that he had on him – normally. But, of course, with everything being thrown on its ear, he had forgotten to put one in his jeans' pocket this morning. He could only grunt as he shoved Scarlet away and ran for the stairwell, not daring to take the elevator, just hoping he could make it to the solitude of his room and that vial that would keep anything from happening.
He made it onto the second flights of stairs before he fell to his knees, practically dragging himself forward through another three flights before he collapsed. Still fighting a losing battle against the other guy's emergence, Hayne cried out as he slid down the steps that he had managed to climb of that fifth flight, landing in a rough, gasping heap on the landing between flights.
He thought he might've heard breathing that was not his own, but he tried to pay it no mind, tried to concentrate entirely upon keeping himself under control. Or at least on regaining control, backtracking from this horrible halfway point between the monster and the man. And after a few long, painful minutes curled up there on the out-of-the-way landing, he thought that maybe it was working. He might just manage to fight the other guy off on his own this time.
Apparently, the person who was a landing below him, watching him carefully, thought that it was even safe to approach, because she moved toward him, asking softly, "Hayne?"
Scarlet? Scarlet! She had followed him – stupid!
He moaned in agony as the familiar pain of the "other guy" demanding time at the fore ripped through him, then he growled and halfway sat up, ripping a bar off of the stair railing and throwing it towards her as a warning. Go away, Scar! Please! I don't want to hurt you!
But it was too late; with her emergence having startled him, he was too far gone. The monster that was inside of him took over, and his girlfriend was the nearest thing in sight.
Hayne came to himself suddenly, like someone emerging from a deep sleep by having a bucket of ice water dumped on them. Forgetful, animalistic blackness faded away to morph into equally brutal, humiliating reality, and he fell back onto the floor with a groan. He didn't recognize the room he was in, but that might just be because it was in an unrecognizable state anyway, judging by the condition of what he could see beyond the numerous people who were gathered around him. Dr. Banner and six of the JID kids, to be specific.
"Hayne? Are you okay, son?"
Hayne rolled his eyes and irritably ripped out of his neck the familiar needle that meant an administration of tranquilizer. "I'm fine."
"Here," Hazel said, handing him a stack of much-needed clothing.
He took them with a muttered "thanks" and disappeared behind the nearest closeable door to dress and try to gather together his scattered memories of what he – the other guy – had done.
He had made it all the way up four flights of stairs before losing it which meant – according to Andy's blueprints of this place – his rampage had started on Dr. Banner's level of the tower. That was probably a good thing, seeing as the doctor would most likely be the least surprised by any damage Hayne – the other guy – had done.
He had almost been back under control when something had kick started his "friend" again. What had it been?
Scarlet!
Hayne had only dressed from below the waist, but something as fickle as a shirt didn't matter in the least bit as a scattered memory floated in his mind of that horrible scream in the millisecond before he forgot everything following it – her scream that he had caused. And God knew if he had done anything else to her… Hayne ripped out of the room and in the direction he thought the stairwell might be in, somehow keeping control of his heart rate in the midst of panic so bad it nearly stole his ability to breathe.
"Hayne?" Ryan asked in concern as Hayne flew by, standing to his feet from where Hayne's entourage had apparently decided to wait for him.
Breathing raggedly, Hayne took a second when he reached the destroyed stairwell to stand still and regulate his breathing as his gaze darted desperately around the rubble. Was she even still here? Maybe she had run before he could hurt her. Please, please, let that be what had happened!
"Hayne!" Hazel gasped, skidding to a stop beside him, as green as she got and – lucky her – not caring a bit while the others gathered around them as well. "What the-"
"Where's Scarlet?" he demanded.
"I don't know," Hazel said in confusion. "I thought she just opted to stay out of your way once she realized what was going on."
The color drained from Blaine's face as he asked Hayne, "Why?"
"Because she followed me," Hayne choked out beyond his growing panic. "She didn't go get you like she's supposed to, she followed me instead, and then this happened!"