A/N: There wasn't a lot of Betty and Bruce in the last chapter, but there's much more of them in this one. There's also a bit of meta-humor that I found highly amusing, not sure if you will. Thanks for reading!
"You don't see it, do you?"
"No, that's probably why Tony called you," Bruce replied. "Also, he wanted to screw with me."
Betty ignored his last comment and said, "You used to have a daring imagination, Bruce. You've gotten far too cautious."
"Ruining your life because of your own pride will do that for you," Bruce told her.
"I don't think you've ruined your life, Bruce," she replied kindly. "Not yet, anyway."
"Something to look forward to. What have you found?"
"The cellular structure keeps shifting randomly because there's no neurological commands going to the cells."
"Meaning?"
"They're shapeshifters," she replied simply. "For instance, your actual cellular structure changes when you transform, but it doesn't stay that way. Also, your transformation is more chemically based than being the result of electrical impulses."
"What's the difference?"
"Their transformation doesn't just have a trigger, it has a control mechanism with their neural network, making any transformation of theirs more stable."
"So...for all I know, you could be Skrull."
She glared at him and Bruce said, "Yeah, I didn't really think so. What can we do about it, though? Would a blood test or something prove that someone's a Skrull?"
"I'm not sure. I'm not familiar enough with their living biology to give you an answer. I'd need to do tests on a live Skrull."
"Well, Thor and the guys are out hunting for them, so maybe you'll get lucky and they won't actually have to kill them."
Betty nodded. "Is this Thor person really the Norse god of thunder?" Bruce shrugged.
"As far as we know."
The door slid open and Jane appeared with her arms full of yellowing blueprints and metal film reel canisters.
"What is all of that?" Bruce asked her.
"Well, we've been having a problem making sure the energy transfer is stable," she said, dropping the pile onto her workstation. "Then I remembered that the Cube had actually been used back in the forties to make weapons, and they must have run into the same problem. The SSR managed to recover a lot of data on it when they stormed Hydra's base back in the day and it's been sitting in SHIELD's hardcopy archives ever since. Thought they might provide some answers. Do we have a film projector anywhere?"
"That would be a Pepper question," Bruce replied.
"Alright. Thanks," Jane said, before rushing off back out the door.
"Does that make you feel really old?" Betty asked as Jane disappeared.
"Oh, you mean the fact that she was a little girl when we were in college? Yeah, it makes me feel like a senior citizen," he replied with a grin. "Shouldn't make you feel old, though. You're just as beautiful as you always were. Me, I look like a completely different person."
Betty just giggled and shook her head.
Then a bolt of lightning split the sky outside the window and the whole building shook as a rumbling shockwave from a dozen blocks away hit it.
"What the—there's not even a cloud in the sky. Where did the lightning come from?" Betty asked, looking out the window.
"Thor," Bruce breathed as the phone started ringing. "Yeah."
"There was an explosion and building collapse near Thor's team. We're going to investigate," Coulson's voice said on the other end. "Don't let Dr. Foster leave the penthouse."
The line clicked off and Bruce rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's going to happen," he muttered before jogging out the lab door. He was nearly bowled over by Jane running along the corridor with Darcy in tow.
"Come on, we have to go!"
"Jane, you're not thinking about this clearly," Darcy told her, still wearing her pajamas and looking extremely tired from her experience the day before.
"Hey!" Tony called down to them from where he'd suddenly appeared behind Bruce. "Happy's waiting for you at the door."
"Thank you," Jane said sincerely before dragging Darcy into the elevator. "You coming?" Tony asked Bruce.
"I-what-no. What could I do?"
"Fine, whatever. I'm suiting up," Tony said before jogging down the hall.
Bruce turned around to find Betty staring at him with her arms folded across her chest. "What?" he asked, walking past her into the lab.
"Why aren't you going with them?"
"Betty, I'm a scientist. A building collapsed. What am I supposed to do about it?"
"Bruce, I've seen you tear apart Abrams tanks, I'm pretty sure you could easily move a little building debris."
Bruce shook his head. "You said it yourself not ten minutes ago. My transformation is not that stable."
"But you can control it, Bruce, I've seen you do it."
Bruce shook his head. "No."
"Why do you think you're here, Bruce?"
"Well, they didn't exactly give me a choice at the time, and they—they needed my technical expertise."
"That's bull and you know it. They didn't bring you here because of what you can do. They brought you here because of who you are."
It was taking almost all of Bruce's self control to not get angry. "I am not the Hulk."
"I've looked into the Hulk's eyes and I have seen you there, Bruce. When you accept him as part of yourself, you can control him," she said, gently covering his hands with hers.
Bruce yanked his hands away from her and simply said, "No," before turning on his heel and walking away.
In retrospect, asking Thor to unleash the full power of Mjolnir in an enclosed space under New York City had been a bad idea. Of course, Clint Barton didn't really appreciate that fact until he was buried under a pile of rocks and bricks. He wasn't really claustrophobic, but he imagined just about anyone would be in his position. It was pitch black and the air he was breathing was still full of dirt. He could still wiggle his toes in his boots, but he couldn't even bend his leg, so he assumed he was pinned. His skin had already started to crawl when his own voice started reverberating in his ears, crying out for help.
Something moved and the pressure lifted from his leg and a sideways shaft of light hit his face. "You okay?" a voice asked.
"I will be when you get me the hell out of here!" Hawkeye hollered back.
The mound of debris covering his torso lifted up and revealed James Barnes holding it up with his left hand while offering Hawkeyes his right. Despite the fact that Hawkeye no longer wanted to be trapped, or that he had no desire to die, he really did not want to take the hand of the man standing over him. He wanted to tell himself that it was the part of him that was raised in Reagan era anti-Communism that was hesitating. But that wasn't it at all. He'd seen the look on Natasha's face when she saw him. She looked at James Barnes in a way that she had never looked at him. And Clint Barton was extremely jealous of that fact.
"Come on! I can't hold this thing much longer."
Hawkeye grabbed his arm and allowed James to pull him up. Pain immediately shot up his leg and he had no choice but to allow James to drape his arm over his shoulders and help him hobble across the debris to the relative safety of the sidewalk. He took in the scene and shivered. It looked like an entire building had collapsed in on itself and fallen into a hole. He spotted Tony and Spiderman zipping around above their heads while policemen and firemen worked on the ground, presumably with Cap in the midst of them.
"What happened?"
"Not sure," James replied. "It looked like lightning hit the building and then it just imploded."
"What about civilians?" Hawkeye asked, a nauseating wave of guilt hitting his stomach. "Have any of them been hurt?"
"Don't know yet," Bucky replied shortly.
"Clint!"
He turned to see Natasha coming toward him from a black SUV. He stumbled slightly as he let go of James and caught Natasha around the waist as she hugged him. He held onto her tightly and looked over at James only to discover the other man had disappeared in an instant.
"What happened down there?" Natasha asked him.
"You know how we thought there might have been Skrull coming through that invisible wormhole?"
"Yes."
"We found them, all two hundred of them, at the bottom of that hole."
"What went wrong?"
"Someone fell down. Spiderman saved them, but we were spotted and they started coming after us. We were so outnumbered, I sort of thought Thor should do whatever the hell he does with that hammer, and then everything went sort of black," he explained, not meeting her eyes.
"Oh, Clint."
"Were there any people living in the building?"
"Squatters, mostly. The surrounding buildings took some damage and have been evacuated. The cover story right now is that a gas main exploded," she replied in a business-like tone.
"You'd think no one would have any faith in the gas companies as many times as we've used that cover story."
"Come on. We need to get you sitting down," she said, draping his arm over her shoulders and leading him to an ambulance.
"Have they found Thor yet?"
Natasha silently shook her head and Hawkeye felt such a tremendous force of guilt on his shoulders, he threw up on the sidewalk.
"Can't you drive any faster?"
"It's New York City, Dr. Foster. I can only go as fast as traffic will allow," Happy answered cooly.
"He did this on purpose," Jane muttered angrily.
"Tony or Thor or Happy?" Darcy asked.
"All of them," Jane answered quickly. "l'm not actually serious. But what would have possessed him to summon lightning in New York City's subway tunnels?"
"I don't know. It kind of sounds like the sort of cockamamie plan Hawkeye would have."
"I like the word cockamamie."
"It's a good one, isn't it?"
Jane squeezed Darcy's hand after a short silence. Darcy looked at the distant expression on Jane's face and said, "What's up with you?"
"Nothing."
"No, not nothing. I know the world has turned kind of upside-down in the last couple of weeks, but—"
"I'm late," she told her, cutting her off.
"Late for what?" Darcy asked with a raised eyebrow. When Jane gave her an annoyed expression, she jumped at the realization that just entered her sluggish brain. "Oh, you're late. How the hell did that happen?"
"Did no one have that conversation with you?"
"I'm serious, Jane."
"Well, I had to stop taking the pill after I was stabbed because it can cause blood clots, and then I forgot to start taking it again, and...we haven't exactly been careful," Jane explained sheepishly.
"No shit," Darcy said flatly. "And I somehow have the impression that Asgardian sperm is super-modal. Exactly how late are you?"
"Just a couple of days."
"Okay, that could just be your body adjusting to not taking the pill, or the massive amount of stress we've been living under, or anything," Darcy replied hopefully. "There's no need to panic yet."
"I know it's just a possibility, but what if he's ... "
"He's not, okay?" Darcy said, squeezing Jane's hand tightly. "It'll all work itself out. I promise."
He pulled up the first dead body of the evening. Coulson identified him as Agent Tapper, and Steve regretted never having met the man as his fellow agents carried him away.
"Brings back memories," Bucky commented quietly.
"Not good ones," Steve replied.
"Guys, there's someone over here!" Tony called over to them as he moved a chunk of twisted steel. Steve and Bucky rushed to his position and easily found a gloved hand flailing about. Steve grabbed the hand and loudly said, "It's okay, we've got you."
He pulled on the hand as Bucky moved around to the side and pulled up on the man's shoulder. The big man emerged coughing and sputtering, but able to stand on his own two feet. Steve and Bucky found themselves staring when the man brushed the dirt and debris from his face.
"Wow."
"That's interesting."
Dugan blinked a few times and then looked at Steve and said, "You're Captain America, aren't you?"
"Yes," Steve replied, still slightly dumbfounded.
"It's an honor, sir. My grandfather served with you," Dugan said, shaking Steve's hand.
"Well, that explains that," Bucky said with a smirk.
"Are you Sergeant Barnes?" Dugan asked, looking at him. "I had no idea you were back too."
"I-it's a recent development," Bucky told him as Dugan vigorously shook his hand.
Dugan's demeanor shifted as he looked around at the scene around them. "Have you found any other survivors?"
"Hawkeye, and Agent Casey, and a squatter from the building," Steve replied.
"Casualties?"
"Only Agent Tapper so far."
"Tapper's gone?"
Steve nodded solemnly.
"Agent Dugan, I need you to come with me, so we can check you out," Coulson said, making his way across the debris in his suit as if it weren't even a minor difficulty.
''I'm fine, sir. I want to help with the search."
"It's not an option, Dugan."
Dugan begrudgingly followed Coulson with more apparent difficulty than Coulson was having. Steve looked up at Tony's floating form and said, "Any more readings?"
"I'm getting a lot of interference from that area," Tony replied. "Thor might be under there with that hammer of his. I can't get a good read on it though, so I don't want to start moving stuff around in case I accidentally crush someone."
"We'll start small," Steve said. "Let's go."
They spent a few minutes moving bricks and small rocks until Bucky tapped Steve on the shoulder and said, "Hey, your girl's here."
Steve glared at Bucky, but looked toward the street where Jane and Darcy were emerging from the back of a Town Car. Jane was fully clothed, but Darcy appeared to still be in her pajamas. It was Darcy, despite her tired appearance, that was taking in the scene around her and rubbing Jane's arm comfortingly. Then the sound of cracking brick and mortar filled the air. The damage to one of the adjacent buildings was taking a toll, and unfortunately, Darcy and Jane were standing right underneath the crumbling wall.
"Darcy, look out!" Steve yelled.
Darcy looked up in time to see the pile of bricks about to fall on her head and shoved Jane clear. Steve watched helplessly from fifty yards away as a blue and red blur swept in and removed Darcy just as the wall hit the sidewalk.
"Ohmygod! Ohmygod!" Darcy yelled as she found herself safely deposited on the other side of the street. "That's like the worst amusement park ride ever!"
"Worse than the one where you get crushed by falling debris?"
She glared at Spiderman in response.
"Darcy!" Steve called, jogging across the field of debris and the deserted street.
"Oh. Is he ... ? It all makes sense now."
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing."
Darcy couldn't see his face, but she pictured one of Peter Parker's mischievous grins from Spiderman's tone of voice.
"Are you alright?"
Darcy looked up into Steve's pale blue eyes and felt the weight of his hand on her arm. It was all she could do to not to throw herself into his arms and tell him she was sorry, but she still had enough control over her faculties to simply say, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Well, I'm going to leave before this gets even more awkward," Spiderman said before slinging a web and flying across the street.
"I—" Steve and Darcy began simultaneously, only to stop just as quickly.
"Darcy, I'm sorry," Steve said after another moment.
She shook her head slightly. "No, I'm the one who should be apologizing," she told him. "I was being reckless, I guess, and—"
"You were doing what you thought was right," he cut her off, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and letting his hand linger on her face, "and I should have understood that."
She looked up into his eyes, but the sounds of shouting from across the street filled her ears. "You know, I'd really, really like to have this moment with you right now, but a building collapsed, and Thor's probably under it somewhere, and Jane's about to have a panic attack, so..."
Steve smiled slightly and squeezed her hands before he jogged back across the street. Darcy watched him go and muttered to herself, "God, I am such an idiot."
That had been a horrible idea. Thor determined that would be the first thing he would say to Hawkeye the moment he saw him. For the present, however, he was simply trying to determine whether he was just surrounded by darkness, or if he was still unconscious. Then a shaft of light hit his face and he heard his own voice yell, "I am down here," but he was not the one to speak. He looked across the space and saw a mirror image of himself smiling back wickedly as it reached for Mjolnir's handle.
