Bruce comes to in absolute darkness. There's emotional residue still gummy in his mind from the other guy, a blend of caution and concern. It's about as far from the usual dregs the Hulk leaves behind as it can be, and it makes Bruce even more nervous than usual post-transformation.
He's so internally-focused that it takes him a minute to notice that he's not alone. The staccato of someone breathing far, far too quickly is unmistakable in the otherwise silent room.
"Hello?" Bruce whispers in the darkness.
"Bruce?" The voice is feminine and familiar, but Bruce can't quite place it.
"Yes?"
"Are you okay?" The words wobble, but they're enough that Bruce is able to pick Jane out through them.
"I think so. I don't usually remember much from the other guy's experiences. What did I miss?"
He sits up and starts to feel around. The floor under him is carpeted—push and expensive—and he can stretch his arms out in any direction without hitting anything. Jane, judging by the sound of her breath, is ten feet or so off to his right.
"The power went out, and then those things started attacking. I tried to find Tony and Natasha, but I couldn't get to either of them, and then the creatures got inside the tower. I don't know what they're looking for, but they've been ripping things apart floor by floor for the past hour, maybe. Sometimes you can hear screaming. I've been hiding since that started, and then I heard something rip the door open. I was sure it was those things, and kind of freaked out, but it was the Hulk, which didn't exactly make the freaking out better. He tried to grab me and I kind of lost it and I think that made him back off a little. Then he flopped down on the floor, I guess, and now you're here."
"That's...unexpected," Bruce says, processing. "How are you doing?"
The laugh that bubbles up from Jane's side of the room is anything but amused. "Not so good. I thought I'd totally be fine living here, but I guess whenever I pictured New York being attacked by something, I was always back behind you guys and not so much in harm's way." She sucks in a deep breath. "I think I did a lot better in New Mexico."
Bruce checks himself over, making sure his pants survived the switch to the Hulk and back, before sliding toward the sound of Jane's voice. "Hey," he says, when he's pretty sure he's within arm's length of her. "It's okay; you're allowed to not be prepared to deal with this sort of situation. None of us are, with the probable exception of Clint and Natasha—we just have more experience rolling with the punches. Do you happen to know where we are in the tower?"
"Forty-second floor, one of the wings near the center of the tower that Stark hasn't turned into anything yet. I figured if they were looking for something specific, they probably wouldn't waste time combing through here. Bruce, no offense, but how did you get out?"
"It turns out they'll call anyone in if the situation gets bad enough, and right now I'm supposed to be causing a distraction. We should try to get you to Thor, or at least to Clint or Steve—they're in charge of evacuating the area. You up to move?"
Jane shifts in the darkness, drawing in a deep breath. "Yeah," she says, voice stabilizing. "Where do we go?"
"I don't know the layout of this floor at all; if you could get us to a window or something so I could get my bearings, that would be helpful."
"Got it." A hand lands on Bruce's upper chest and fumbles its way down to catch one of his own. Jane pulls him to his feet and leads haltingly. "You're going to warn me before you change again, right?"
"I'll try."
"Good. My brain is programed to respond to only one crisis at a time, and if you try to add to that I'll be screwed."
There's a faint thud, and then Bruce walks into Jane's side before backing up and breathing an apology. He counts his breaths as she changes their direction, and one misplaced step bounces him off the wall she must have found first.
"Here we go," she whispers, pulling open a door and guiding him through.
The floor out here is hard—wood or tile, maybe—and they walk in a slow, straight line for long minutes, before taking a left turn. Bruce can see the faintest of grays ahead to their right. Jane picks up their pace, confident enough to drop the hand she had been trailing against the wall, and the fact that Bruce can see the gesture is unreasonably exciting. They follow the light to the crack between a door and its threshold.
"It's going to be bright," Jane warns as she opens the door and daylight floods the hallway.
Bruce drops her hand and screws up his eyes against the intrusion, waiting for them to adjust before walking to the wall of windows on the far side of the room. They offer a panorama of the surrounding skyscrapers and the creatures that are, apparently, still intent on conquering them. There are fewer of the animals now, or at least, fewer on this side of the tower, and Bruce hopes the Hulk had a hand in that.
"What are we looking for?" Jane asks as she joins him.
"I was kind of hoping we'd spot Thor doing a fly by, but at least we can get a taste of how things are going."
"Do you guys have any idea what those things are looking for? I mean, they're kind of all over the place, but only for a block or so; after that they taper off for the most part." Jane points down toward one of the streets that lines up with their view. "See?"
Bruce does see. For someone who sounded to be working her way through a panic attack less than fifteen minutes ago, Jane has done a phenomenal job of pulling herself together, or at least of compartmentalizing.
"Thor said they seemed to be mainly sticking close to the tower earlier when he flew over," Bruce notes, "and it doesn't look like that's changed much."
"So what does Stark Tower have that they would need to kill power for who knows how far out just to get to?"
"It's all of Manhattan," Bruce supplies. "The whole island is blacked out."
"So maybe they're not searching so much as invading. Do you think it's some kind of power play? Like, they're proving they can shut down Avengers' Headquarters or something?"
Bruce shakes his head. "They look like minions, and if it was a power play, whoever's in charge would be front and center bragging about it."
From far below them comes the sound of a faint crash, and the glass shivers. Bruce holds his breath and glances sideways to find Jane doing the same, her eyes shut tight. When they open again, though, Bruce can see fire in them.
"What does the tower have that no one else does?" she demands. "JARVIS has got to be backed up on a hundred different servers across the globe, right? Along with basically every blueprint Tony's ever bothered to jot down. And if they were trying to capture you guys, this would be one of the stupidest ways to do it ever, so that's out, too, same with trying to take down Stark Industries. What else is there?"
And Bruce remembers. The third night he'd spent in the tower, the first one where Tony had convinced him to come down to the lab so he could show off for a biological audience, Tony held a sloshing tumbler of scotch in one hand while the other had waved manically, pulling up schematic after schematic, interspersed with progress photos and test results. And the peak of the night, the moment when one of Tony's bots had rolled to his side and snatched away his drink to keep it from soaking the touchscreen tabletop that Tony kept swinging it over-only to drop and shatter the glass halfway back to the bar—was the arc reactor powering the tower.
Bruce sucks in several deep breaths through clenched teeth and tries to clear the dread that's swinging jackhammers against his composure, because this? Bruce piecing it together after maybe twenty minutes of being awake? Means Tony solved the puzzle in less than five and he's already doing his damnedest, without his AI or his tech, to protect his invention.
"Bruce?" Jane's voice is small again. "You're kind of freaking me out here."
"We have to go find Tony." No. Wrong. "I have to go find Tony," he corrects. "Go back to where you were; I think they're looking for the arc reactor that's powering the tower, which means they shouldn't bother coming up to these floors. If I see Thor or one of the others, I'll send them to come find you."
Jane doesn't back away. "I'm not so good at hiding and waiting for things to come find me. Plus, you know, the whole "don't split up, what the hell are you thinking?!" logic from watching horror movies is kind of kicking in. Do you mind?"
Bruce should probably be saying something about how he does mind, how movies also teach you to avoid sticking with the guy who turns out to be the serial killer later in the storyline, but they let him out to be some crude approximation of a hero, and he might as well keep trying for that. His emotions are still locked up tight; as long as nothing too horrifyingly stupid happens in the next few hours—and, yes, Bruce knows just how big of a uncertainty that is—Jane should be about as safe with him as she would be alone with those creatures prowling around. "I could use the company," he says.
Jane smiles at that, reaching for his hand again. "Tony's lab first? I was thinking about it; I don't even know if there's a way in without power. Normal people have back up plans for that, but not the guy with the electromagnet in his…" her voice fades along with the color in her face, and Bruce can't believe he didn't make the connection before now.
"Shit." Jane covers her mouth with her free hand. "Shit, shit, shit. I mean, if they're going after the arc reactor powering the building, they might as well take out the main source of future competition while they're at it. Do you know…? I've heard the basic story of what happened to him, but I'm not a cardiologist or anything, and it's not like he talks about it. Not to me, anyway."
"I probably know as much as you," Bruce says, trying to keep his tone even as he reinforces the blocks in his mind that are threatening to crumble. "Maybe things have changed since he first had to implant the reactor, but we should probably try to find him sooner rather than later."
Jane tightens her grip on his hand and leads the way back into the darkness. Despite the lack of sight, she picks her stride with confidence, fingers whispering against the wall to keep them on track.
Even with the pace Jane sets, it feels like an eternity before they find the lab, ears straining in the blackness for any sign of hope or danger. They've heard the distant sounds of destruction a few times on their way down, but it's been more or less quiet for two floors at least. Bruce knocks Tony's name in Morse code against the glass that separates them from the room, while Jane tries to wrench the door open.
"I'm surprised this is still intact," Bruce says, "I would have expected Thor to have made it here by now and hammered his way in; he was in charge of finding people."
"Maybe he found Tony somewhere else." Jane's attack on the door handle doesn't slow. "Or he could have got distracted; that doesn't"—her response breaks off as the whisper of a crash reverberates through the thick glass. "Tony?"
It's followed a few seconds later by another bang, harder, trembling the wall under Bruce's fingertips.
Bruce knows it's not exactly smart to be making too much noise right now, but that doesn't stop him from shouting Tony's name at the top of his lungs.
"Bruce?" Natasha's voice is barely distinguishable through the glass.
"And Jane," Bruce responds, making his voice boom as best he can. "Is Tony with you?"
"Yes, but he was unconscious when I found him; I had to drop in through the ventilation ducts because the door's locked and Stark wasn't responding. He's breathing, but his pulse is thready; whatever took out the electricity turned off the arc reactor, too."
"Shit," Jane breathes again as Bruce shouts, "It's island-wide. Can you guys hang in there for a few minutes? We need to go find Thor so he can get you out and get Tony to a hospital with power."
Jane's hand finds his arm. "You could do it."
Bruce edges away from the touch without allowing the idea to permeate his mind. "Natasha?"
"Let me check him again."
It's quiet on her side of the glass for a bit, before her voice comes back. "If he's getting worse, he's doing it slowly. You've probably got some time."
"I could go find Thor," Jane says, louder now. "Bruce could break the wall down in the meantime."
Natasha only hesitates for the fraction of a second before saying, "It's your call, Bruce," but the pause feels eternal coming from the assassin.
It's not a choice if there's only one viable option, but Bruce appreciates that; living back under SHIELD's control means his decision-making skills are rusty. "The Hulk is supposed to be outside causing a distraction. We'll go find Thor; Jane can bring him here and I'll get back to work."
Jane huffs, but doesn't counter.
"If you can't find him within half an hour, come back and we'll reassess," Natasha commands.
Bruce agrees and wishes her luck, hand fumbling in the dark for Jane's. "Mind leading the way? I think you've got the better sense of direction."
To her credit, Jane sets them on their way before offering the critique Bruce can practically feel radiating off of her. "The Hulk changed back, you know, when he saw I was scared. It makes sense why you're so careful—I can't even begin to guess what I'd do in your shoes—but it's not like you know him; you've never even seen him face to face. He could have helped back there."
"I appreciate your optimism, but I can't risk sharing it, and you've seen why. Thor will get Tony out of there; it will be fine."
If Jane has a response to that, she bites her tongue. The two of them make it down a dozen more stories before she asks quietly, "What happens to you after this is over?"
"I don't know for sure; I guess we'll see." It's close enough to the truth that Bruce doesn't feel bad about it.
"This should be it," Jane says as they conquer another flight of stairs. "If I counted right, this should be the ground floor."
The sounds of conflict have been getting louder the farther down they go, and Bruce has a tight feeling in his stomach that they're not going slip neatly out of the building. He reaches for the door handle, pulling Jane behind him. "Let me go out first. If things look okay, follow me, but don't get too close, just in case. If I change, get back to Tony and Natasha as quickly as you can; you'll be safer back up there. The others will check the lab eventually; you'll just have to wait it out. Okay?"
"Got it." Jane squeezes his hand before dropping it, and Bruce draws a breath before letting himself out of the stairwell.
It's blinding in every sense of the word; light and sound and motion with no barrier, and Bruce knows he needs to get his bearings, needs to figure out what the hell he's looking at, but the stairwell door opened directly across from the tower's south side, where the afternoon sunlight is bouncing off the surrounding skyscrapers and streaming in through the windows that reach up to the high ceiling way too far overhead. The sensation of being an insect under a spyglass is unavoidable, and the blurry, gargantuan creatures destroying the décor aren't helping. He tries to make himself focus on the goal, on finding Thor, or, barring that, any member of the team, shoving back against the panic that being exposed sets off inside him. It works until, out of the corner of his eye, Bruce catches sight of Jane sliding out into the open behind him, and of the creature headed straight for her.
Bruce explodes.