Chapter 6
Parker's never been to New York, so she can't help but stare at the Statue of Liberty, so tiny and vividly green against the murky water down below, as the jet flies overhead. The skyline is beautiful, with lights that seem to glitter as the sun goes down and night falls over the city. She's not sure what exactly she expects to see - a plume of smoke, an explosion, something that can give her a clue as to what exactly she's supposed to be facing - but whatever it is, she doesn't see it.
The jet lands on a runway, where they quickly switch to a helicopter, which takes off almost as soon as Parker buckles her restraints. The helicopter is small enough to land on a rooftop in Harlem almost soundlessly, much to her surprise, and Ross unbuckles his harness and stands once the engine turns off. Parker makes to undo her own restraints, but he waves her down.
"You're last-resort support, kid. Stay put until you're called in. Hopefully we won't need you at all and this guy will come quietly."
"And if he doesn't?" she says warily and he doesn't answer as he leaves the helicopter. Swallowing, she settles back into her seat, fiddling with her thumbs anxiously. She doesn't have to wait long before the ramp door at the back of the helicopter is yanked opened and two people are being led in. The man with curly salt-and-pepper hair looks exhausted and dazed with handcuffs on his wrists while the woman with long brown hair looks angry as she yanks her arm out of Ross's hold and drops into a seat near Parker.
"And you've brought a kid into this, too?" she snaps at Ross, who scowls back at her.
"That kid is the Avatar." This seems to perk up the tired man slightly as he peers curiously at Parker, taking the seat opposite her. She shuffles self-consciously under the scrutiny and he immediately drops his gaze away from her again, as if sensing her discomfort. "She's the only one I could think of to be able to handle him." Ross nods to the tired man and Parker glances back up at Ross, bewildered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks even as Ross gestures for the pilot to get the helicopter into the air. "He doesn't even look like he can hurt a fly, much less whatever you brought me in for." At that, the other man barely stifles a wry chuckle, but falls silent again when Ross glowers at him before turning to watch over the pilot's shoulder. "No, but seriously, though," Parker insists in an attempt to get some kind of explanation.
"Anyone ever tell you appearances can be deceiving?" the man finally speaks up. Even his voice is quiet and shy and she has trouble wrapping her head around the fact that he's supposed to be dangerous somehow. The woman beside Parker looks upset and opens her mouth in an apparent protest, but the man cautions quietly, "Betty." She shuts her mouth again, choosing to glare mutinously at Ross's turned back.
Parker chews her lip, debating whether to push her luck, before tentatively sticking her hand out to the man, offering, "Hi. I'm Parker."
The man looks vaguely amused as he reaches out to shake her hand awkwardly, since his hands are cuffed together. "Bruce. Hi."
"Word of advice, Miss Stark, don't introduce yourself to criminals," Ross snaps over his shoulder and Parker purses her lips, increasingly less sure that Ross is making the right decision, before making a point to also hold her hand out to Betty, who reluctantly smiles as they shake hands.
As the helicopter takes off, Betty reaches out and grasps Bruce's hands tightly in her own, the two of them sharing some kind of unspoken communication and glancing uneasily at Parker once in a while. She drops her gaze to give them some privacy, thinking that's the issue, but keeps peeking at them out of the corner of her eye only to find that they're still looking her way now and then before looking back at each other. Finally, Bruce shakes his head silently and Betty bites her lip hard, but doesn't pursue their silent conversation. Parker's not entirely sure what's going on, but whatever it is, it's clear she's ended up on the wrong side of this mess.
The radio crackles suddenly, turning her attention to the front of the helicopter. "Delta 4 to Leader, something big just went off down here!"
Ross raises an eyebrow and picks up the receiver to answer. "This is Ross, what went off?"
"The whole floor just blew out! Blonsky, Stoller, Robertson, and the Major, they were all still up there!"
Ross looks somewhat unnerved as he answers, "Get our teams moving back there and get PD Special Units out." He taps the pilot's shoulder. "Turn us around." The helicopter banks sharply as they turn around and Parker glances at Bruce and Betty to find that they both look just as bewildered as she feels.
"We're going back?" Bruce asks quietly to avoid getting Ross's attention and Parker just shrugs helplessly back at him.
Barely a few seconds later, the radio crackles again, a panicked voice shouting over the static, "The Hulk is in the street! Repeat, the Hulk is in the street!"
Everyone else in the helicopter freezes up and Parker frowns. "Uh, did I miss something?"
Ross glances back at them - belatedly, Parker realizes he's staring specifically at Bruce - before grabbing the receiver to reply sharply, "That's impossible. Get me visuals." The only response that greets him over the radio is a cacophony of soldiers shouting orders towards each other and Ross repeats angrily, "Goddamnit, I said get me eyes on that thing!"
Bruce gets up abruptly to peer over Ross's shoulder and Parker undoes her restraints to do the same, wobbling just a little as the helicopter banks sharply again. Betty moves to stand behind her, steadying her with a hand on her shoulder.
"What's going on?" Parker demands as she peers at the camera wobbling all over the place, not focusing on anything in particular. She thinks she sees something large and gray crushing and throwing cars on a street through the shaky motion, ugly bony spikes lining his back, but he can't be real - monsters don't actually exist in real life.
The radio finally crackles with a clear response. "Sir, are you seeing this? Is it Banner?"
Ross glances at Bruce again, his face pale, before answering the radio, "No. Is it Sterns?"
A different voice, sounding shaken, replies, "General, it's Blonsky. Sterns is dead. It's Blonsky."
The name doesn't mean anything to Parker, but it clearly does to Bruce, who swallows and tightens his hold on the back of the pilot's chair as he stares at the monitor on the helicopter console, and Ross, who turns sheet-white as he begins barking orders over the radio. They watch on the monitor as the monster tears through the approaching tanks, grinning horribly when missiles are launched at him and explode harmlessly against his skin, which seems to be invulnerable.
"General, the NYPD wants to know what to use against it. What do you want me to tell them?" the soldier on the other end of the radio demands, but Ross doesn't answer. "Sir?" the soldier tries again.
Parker watches civilians fleeing and trying to find shelter under cars and behind buildings wherever they can and comes to her decision. "Where are the parachutes on this plane?"
Ross wheels around to face her, bewildered. "What?"
"This is what you brought me in for, right? Situations like this?" She gestures to the monitor just as the monster grabs the next missile launched at him and throws it directly at the camera, which grays out instantly.
"Well, not exactly like this-" Ross hedges, but she shakes her head to cut him off.
"I'm going down there. Get me a chute and a comms unit to keep in touch." He points under the helicopter seat and she retrieves a parachute, pulling the backpack on before accepting the tiny earpiece he holds out to shove it into her ear.
"You can't be serious," Betty protests, looking between them. "You're not really thinking of sending a twelve-year-old down there, are you?"
"Thirteen," Parker corrects mildly as she buckles the backpack securely around her waist, which doesn't seem to assuage Betty's concerns.
"She'll be killed!" Even Ross looks relatively uneasy, but Parker figures that he should have thought of that before bringing her into this mission.
Bruce's expression is grim when she looks up again. "I'm going in with her. She can't stop that thing alone."
"Forget it," Ross answers savagely, his expression morphing instantly into a glare. "If I put you down there, you won't fight, you'll run."
"We made that thing, you and I!" Bruce snaps back and Parker decides to ask questions later, even though her head is swirling with confusion. "We have to try something!" He turns to Betty, his expression softening. "I think you were right. It's still me. I heard you calling me on that table and I held on."
Betty bites her lip worriedly. "You think you can control it?"
"No. But maybe I can aim it." Bruce looks at the pilot. "Open the door." The pilot hits a button to lower the ramp. Wind whips around them and Parker cinches the last buckle on the parachute before making her way to the edge.
"Do I want to know what you're talking about?" she asks Bruce as she peers down over the city, swallowing. It's a long way down and she's a little relieved she isn't afraid of heights.
"You'll find out in a couple minutes. Hopefully," he answers dryly.
"Wait, what? Bruce, this is insane!" Betty grabs Bruce's hand. "You don't even know if you'll turn!"
"I have to try." Bruce gives her a small, sad smile. "I'm sorry." He kisses her briefly before pushing her back and falling out the door down towards the city.
Parker feels her heart leap into her throat as she leans over the edge to watch him get smaller and smaller, wide-eyed. "He wasn't wearing a parachute!" she protests, glancing at Betty, who doesn't look too concerned, albeit a little teary-eyed.
"You'll see soon," she says simply and Parker bites her lip before taking a deep breath and jumping out of the plane.
While she's never been skydiving before, she's been trained through simulations at SHIELD for scenarios like using a parachute over the past few months. The rush of wind around her as she falls is exhilarating and she manages to remember to pull her parachute at the last second. She drifts to a stop on a rooftop and tugs off the backpack before hurrying to the edge to survey the carnage.
The gray monster she had seen on the monitor is still smashing cars and throwing them around, relishing in the screams from the surrounding civilians. She hopes she doesn't see Bruce dead on the street below, but instead, she only sees a giant crater where he must have landed. Swallowing, she pushes her way through the rooftop access door and practically leaps down the flights of stairs, cushioning each hard landing with a small burst of air. She runs all the way down to the street level and skids to a stop at the edge of the hole to peer into it.
Suddenly, a huge green hand grabs the concrete right in front of her, making her yelp as she jumps back. As a second monster hauls himself laboriously out of the crater, shaking his head in a daze, Parker gapes up at him, wondering whether to run or not. He's easily ten feet tall, towering over her, and his forearm is twice the size of her head.
"Um." The small sound escapes her unconsciously and the monster's head whips down in her direction as his eyes focus on her. They're bright green like the rest of him - although his hair is black - but there's still something about his face that's vaguely familiar. "Bruce?" she blurts out, stunned, and he bares his teeth at her in acknowledgment before turning to break into a run and tackle the gray monster at the other end of the street. Parker stares after him, eyes wide as she slowly presses her earpiece. "General, I have so many questions."
"Think they can wait?" Ross answers irritably.
"Well, sure, but I feel like I'm missing a lot of context here," she points out.
"Save it for later and take that abomination out. The Hulk's on our side for now." The connection drops out and she bites her lip hard before hurrying after the green behemoth that had formerly been Bruce, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened.
Both monsters are tearing into each other with a ferocity Parker's never seen outside of the National Geographic Channel, but the gray monster seems to be somewhat larger and spikier than the Hulk is, which makes it easier for him to gouge deep wounds into the Hulk's shoulders and chest. The Hulk roars in pain as another wound is torn open on his shoulder and Parker feels her fist clench instinctively in sympathy for him.
Before she knows it, the fire hydrant closest to her bursts and water gushes out onto the street. Relieved at an easy source of water, she draws it to her the way she's been practicing, letting it curl around her wrist like a snake before whipping it out hard enough to lash the Abomination across the face. He roars in anger, turning sharply to face her, and she quickly draws another whip of water to her before latching it around his spiny ankle to pull as hard as she can.
His foot pulls out from under him and he topples over with another frustrated roar, his clawed hands splashing at the water in an attempt to relinquish its hold on him. The Hulk takes his chance to throw himself onto the Abomination, pummeling him as hard as he can. Each punch landing on the Abomination's tough skin sounds like a thunderclap and Parker has to cover her ears to protect them, letting the water fall away from the Abomination's foot.
It turns out to be a mistake as the Abomination shoves the Hulk off him with effort, turning his head to focus on Parker and baring his teeth in a sickening grin. She swallows, realizing that he's changed targets, and takes a few steps back as she clenches her fists to take a fighting stance. Firebending doesn't come nearly as easily to her as waterbending does, but she hopes her meager ability so far can protect her.
As the Abomination launches to his feet and charges at her, she punches forward, a fireball escaping her fist and flying directly into the monster's face. He howls in pain, clawing at his face until the flames dissipate, and she takes the distraction as an opportunity to duck out of sight as the Hulk throws himself back at the Abomination again.
The earpiece in Parker's ear crackles. "Park?" It's not Ross this time, but a panicked-sounding Tony.
"Tony?" she says, bewildered, as she looks around for some sign of a red-and-gold suit, half-hoping he's arrived for some backup. "How're you talking to me? Where are you?"
"I hacked into your comms, I'm on my way to Harlem now. Saw you on the news." He sounds angry now. "What the hell was Coulson thinking sending you out like this? You're not supposed to be on missions."
"In his defense, he didn't know until Ross had already taken me," Parker offers tentatively as she peeks over the car to find the Abomination throwing the Hulk straight through a building. "Um, this is kind of a bad time, can I call you back or something?"
Tony sighs heavily. "Just be safe," he mutters, sounding disgruntled, before the earpiece cuts out. Parker almost wishes she hadn't asked him to hang up, but then the Abomination begins stalking towards the car she's hiding behind, so she rolls out of the way just as he smashes his fist down into the car, drawing up a wall of concrete with a stamp on the ground to keep the pieces of metal shrapnel and glass away from her. She pushes the wall forward to knock the Abomination off-balance and away from her, which is when the gunfire begins.
The helicopter carrying Ross, Betty, and the pilot swoops down low, a machine gun on the bottom of the helicopter firing rapidly at the Abomination. Some of the bullets ricochet off his skin while others bury themselves deep into his gray skin, purplish blood welling where the bullets had made impact as he roars in pain. The helicopter soars back into the air as he launches himself at the side of a building - causing Parker to bring up another shield of concrete to keep the shards of glass from the broken windows from reaching her - to scale up to the rooftop. Parker runs into the building to reach the rooftop as well, bursting out through the roof access door just as the Abomination tears a satellite dish off the rooftop.
The Hulk scales the building and hops up onto the roof, tackling the Abomination just as he throws the satellite dish at the helicopter, making the dish only clip the tail of the helicopter rather than hit it directly. The helicopter spirals down, crashing into the rooftop even as the Hulk and the Abomination throw themselves through a water tower, which crashes down and douses the roof with so much water that Parker's standing ankle-deep in it.
Her shoes and socks quickly become soaked, but she's got bigger problems to worry about as the helicopter's tail begins to smolder and catch fire. She sees Betty and Ross, both covered in scratches and scrapes, pushing open the door to get out of the helicopter as the flames lick closer. The pilot is already dead from the crash, and it makes her throat tighten a little to see him slumped lifelessly over the console at the front of the helicopter.
The Abomination has his hands around the Hulk's throat, squeezing the life out of him, and Betty screams as she braces herself against the open helicopter door, "Bruce!"
The Hulk's eyes snap open at the sound of her voice, clearly recognizing it, and he roars as he grabs the Abomination's hands to wrench them away. Parker takes the opportunity to throw a wave of water over the helicopter, drenching it and extinguishing the fire so that Betty and Ross can climb out to safety. The Hulk roars again as he grabs a chain from where the water tower had collapsed, throwing it around the Abomination's neck and pulling as hard as he can to choke the gray monster.
"Don't!" Betty cries and the Hulk lifts his head to stare at her before slowly loosening his grip just enough that the chain isn't cutting into the Abomination's neck anymore. Slowly, the fight drains out of the gray monster as he goes limp, unconscious.
The Hulk drops him unceremoniously to the rooftop, heaving from the effort of the battle as he slowly approaches Parker first. He stares her down and she's briefly worried that he's decided to attack her, too, before he lifts his hand. She flinches, shutting her eyes tightly in preparation to be thrown halfway across the city, but feels only a light pressure on her head. She cracks her eyes open to find the Hulk patting her head gingerly.
"Tiny girl," he rumbles, his voice a deep bass that seems to resonate in her bones. She's taken aback, surprised he can even talk. "Smart. Strong. Good help."
She isn't sure how to react to the odd praise, but smiles tentatively at him all the same. "Um, anytime, big guy."
He grunts in response, moving past her to stop in front of Betty. "Betty," he says quietly and Parker wonders how someone so large and angry-looking can sound so tender.
Betty touches his hand delicately, barely brushing her fingertips over the green skin of his palm. "Shh. It's over." She smiles tremulously and Parker thinks she sees a hint of a smile on the Hulk's face as well, just for a moment, before another helicopter zooms into view over the buildings, a white spotlight illuminating his face. He squints at the light before turning and breaking into a run past Parker, leaping off the rooftop in a large bound and vanishing out of sight. When Parker looks back at Betty, the woman's expression is sad and resigned, as if she had expected him to run.
The helicopter that had triggered the Hulk's escape lands on the rooftop and to Parker's incredible relief, Phil climbs out, looking pale. She breaks into a run across the rooftop and throws herself into his arms as he catches her in a tight embrace.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He pulls her back to examine her worriedly and she shakes her head.
"I'm fine, Phil." He runs a hand through her hair and she finally feels the weight of what had just happened sink in as she leans heavily back into him, trembling a little as she shuts her eyes tightly. "I just wanna go home," she confesses quietly.
"Stark's coming to pick you up. And after that..." Phil's voice turns just a little hard and she peeks up at him to find him staring Ross down. "General Ross and I will need to have a talk about using certain SHIELD resources unnecessarily." Ross looks both shaken and abashed, and while Parker doesn't feel particularly pleased at being described as a SHIELD resource, she's still a little glad that Ross isn't going to get off scot-free.
Betty and Parker are both given shock blankets as they're ushered to a waiting ambulance once they get back down to the street, Ross refusing one as he joins Phil in the back of a sleek black car with the SHIELD insignia on the door. The Abomination, still unconscious, is loaded into a waiting van and locked up tightly. Parker doesn't even notice the thick orange blanket slipping off her shoulders until Betty moves forward to pull it back up for her, tucking it in firmly around her.
"Thanks," she says quietly and Betty gives her a tiny smile in return.
"I should be the one thanking you. You saved his life."
Parker shrugs mildly. "I figured he was on our side. I'm glad I was right."
Betty bites her lip before opening her mouth, preparing to say something else, but they're interrupted by paramedics checking them over for injuries. Just as the paramedics determine that Parker's healthy apart from a few scrapes and scratches, Tony arrives in another black car, looking more frazzled than she's ever seen him in a rumpled old band T-shirt and jeans.
"Tony!" Parker throws off the shock blanket and gets to her feet, ignoring the paramedics' protests as she closes the gap between herself and Tony. He wraps his arms around her in a tight embrace, pressing his face against the top of her head.
"Jesus Christ, kid, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days," he mutters into her hair. "You have any idea how scared I was seeing you on the news?"
"I'm okay," she reassures him as she pulls back, giving him a small, tired smile. "I just wanna go home. And maybe sleep forever."
He huffs a chuckle, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to usher her to the car. "We can do that, sure."
She hesitates, glancing over her shoulder at Betty sitting on the edge of the ambulance, before grabbing Tony's hand briefly to stop him. "Wait, just a second." He obediently lets go of her and she hurries back to the ambulance as Betty looks up again, a little surprised that Parker's returned. "Are you gonna be okay?" she offers tentatively and Betty smiles tiredly back at her.
"I'll be okay, don't worry. You should go home, it's been a long night." She bites her lip, clearly wanting to say something, but instead just says, "Be careful taking missions like this now on."
Parker cracks a grin. "Yes, ma'am." She returns to Tony's side, letting him usher her into the car, which takes them to the airport where Tony's private jet is waiting to return them to Malibu.
Once the jet is in the air, a cup of coffee in Tony's hands and hot chocolate in Parker's, he turns to her. "Okay, but I have to say, I was watching your bending on the way here." He nods to the television across from the couch they're sitting on.
She braces herself for some kind of criticism that she shouldn't have been bending when she was so inexperienced. "And?"
"It was pretty damn amazing." She looks up at him, bewildered, only to find him grinning broadly at her. "You really held your own out there. It's good to see that you're doing so well when you only just started training." He sobers again quickly. "But don't take that to mean you should be taking more missions anytime soon."
"Don't worry," she reassures him, relaxing against his side and taking a sip of hot chocolate. "I don't plan to. I've had enough adventure for a good long time."
Tony nods approvingly, slinging one arm loosely around her shoulders. "That's what I like to hear," he jokes and she elbows him back with a grin.
Oh, naïve innocent Parker, the adventures you will have, LOL. I enjoy writing a character who just doesn't want adventure for once, like Parker would just rather be home curled up with a mug of cocoa all the time if she had her say (to be fair, though, same).
I'm so glad I got this chapter out of the way, because it's been really driving me nuts for weeks now. But that's The Incredible Hulk storyline, yay! :D We're really getting into the Marvel universe now, so hopefully the next chapters will start flowing more easily now.
Hope you enjoyed it!