A/N: Can't be an experimentalist without a little explosions is the full title but fanfic wouldn't let me. Fun fact, that title comes from my experimental physics professor. Thank you once again Emerald2211 and BlueOwl for helping me edit this chapter.
Bruce was about two seconds from getting the hell out of dodge. He's turned into the other guy more times this week than in the past three years and things weren't getting better.
Sure, he figured Shield was fishy when Steve Roger found some old Nazi weapons they were using, but to find out that, best case scenario, some of the top members of Shield and the director before Fury were active members was a whole nother ball park. Bruce only agreed to track down the gamma signature on the tesseract. The superhero thing was equal parts guilt of the messes he made in the past and the thought that maybe he could help as the other guy for once. That maybe, just maybe, he wasn't always one slip up from hurting people.
Now there was an amnesic international assassin and his daughter (Bruce was pretty sure they weren't blood related, but that wasn't the issue here) and Bruce really shouldn't be around children right now. He should be meditating in the hulk cage, but instead he's in the lab that Tony said he could use last night.
They had the scepter contained so that no energy signals could be detected outside of this lab. Bruce and Tony tested it thoroughly that first night, and in the almost 20 hours that has passed since then, it hasn't changed. Thor did tell them before leaving that he doesn't know where Loki got the specter, but that it seemed connected to the tesseract in some way. Bruce would have prefered if Thor could have just taken both alien artifacts, but no one wanted Loki on the same planet as the scepter again.
Compared to the reading they had on the helicarrier, the scepter was putting off a few orders of magnitude less gamma rays. Something closer to the scale the joint dark energy mission facility was measuring for the tesseract before Loki got involved. That at least agrees with Thor's theory that the tesseract and scepter are connected, or at the very least able to increase the power output when nearby.
Bruce still didn't know why that would happen. You can't just create energy. It has to come from somewhere. There has to be some kind of resonance that improves the power usage or something.
Not that Bruce can really test that hypothesis since that would require having both the tesseract and scepter, which is just a terrible idea. Right now the best they can do is study the scepter while also making sure science nazi's straight out of the history books don't try to get it. Or any other group that might think mind control is a good idea.
"Bruce! How is my favorite green giant doing!" was the only warning he got before Tony Stark stormed into the lab.
A look to the clock on the monitor showed not even a full hour had passed since their meeting. A meeting that was getting close to helicopter levels of tension, and that was when there was an uncontained alien artifact influencing their minds with magic.
"Is everything alright?" He had to ask because Tony could be here for a number of different reasons.
"Everything is just fine. Itty bitty Spider and Katniss are off on their treasure hunt, and I needed a science break from all the Hydra horror files," Tony said in a way that made it pretty clear that things were not okay, but Bruce isn't sure they're close enough that if he was to ask Tony would even answer honestly.
Nor does Bruce want to deal with that right now. There is a lot going on and if Tony wants to do some science then that is fine.
"It hasn't done much since Thor went home," Bruce explained even as Tony took a look at some of the past and present readings.
"So are we thinking this is the baseline?"
Tony was pointing at, or through since at some point he transferred the graphs to a holograph that apparently are in all his lab tables. It was just the keV vs seconds graph for the last ten minutes, or more like last 8 minutes since it was still collecting data.
"From the other runs I've done, it's looking like it. Though I don't think the other trials were quite this scattered," Bruce said as he took a closer look at the new set.
Scattered wasn't the right word. The reading naturally fluctuated, but the peaks happening were new.
"Jarvis, you noticed anything like this happening before?"
"A few cases from yesterday, sir," Tony's artificial assistant said while the data set in question was shown.
Sure enough, same high peaks even though the baseline was higher.
"Might be an equipment issue? A voltage surge perhaps?" Bruce suggested because that was starting to look like a pattern.
"No, it's not any issue with the equipment. Pull up the video logs for the corresponding timestamps for these spikes, J."
At least 100 videos popped up on the screen and started playing, thankfully without the audio. Most of them were with Tony and Bruce from last night, but also from when Tony came into the lab and a few where Bruce was just muttering his thoughts out loud.
"Wait, is it reacting to us talking?" Tony seemed to realize at the same time Bruce did.
"Every peak of over 102 keV corresponds to someone talking out loud while in the lab," Jarvis told them, which just couldn't be correct.
"Every one?"
"That is correct, Dr. Banner."
"Great. So either it can gain power from soundwaves or it's responding to us talking somehow."
A short silence fell after that, as if they both decided to test this insane hypothesis. Sure enough, as soon as they stopped talking, the spikes from the current data set started to stop. It wasn't instantaneous, but there was a noticeable cut off.
"And we still don't know what the glowy bit is made out of?"
The spikes came back.
"My scans have been unable to analyze it properly, likely due to the alien nature."
"Think it would be a good idea to get a sample of it and stick it in a mass spectrometer?" Tony asked even though his eyes were still glued to the graph.
"I don't even know if we can cut it without having it explode."
"You can't be an experimentalist without some explosions. Come on, I'll even be quiet for the next twenty minutes," Tony said like his silence was a selling point and not something they needed to test.
"I'm not going to talk for twenty minutes straight."
"I can do that too. I'm a man of many talents."
"I'll need to check on Lani as well. I wasn't planning on spending the rest of the day in here," Bruce told Tony before they made any more plans.
"Right, you should check on the kid. She was... up and about right before the meeting, though I made sure a nurse got her IV back in."
"Please tell me she didn't do anything strenuous this time."
"No pole vaulting over beds," Tony said, though that tight look he was wearing before was back.
Obviously whatever happened was somewhat related to Lani, or related to why she was out of bed. Might be as simple as she tried leaving again and Tony got upset.
"I'm going to make sure she didn't pull out any stitches; don't blow anything up while I'm gone. Actually, maybe you should do all your exploding while I'm gone. I'm not..."
"Brucie, don't tell me you get a case of the greens around explosions," Tony said, looking gleeful at the idea.
If it wasn't for the fact Tony has been acting like this since literally the moment they met, Bruce would have been worried he got brain damage from his few moments in deep space.
"No, but I also don't like pushing my luck around sensitive lab equipment."
"That's fair. I'll have Jarvis get you if anything interesting happens."
Bruce left, hoping that nothing interesting happens. There has been more than enough "interesting" happening lately.
[Game saved]
[HP at 50]
[SP at max]
[Status condition: bullet wound (4/11)]
I woke up to the increasingly familiar sight of Bucky sitting in the chair next to me. There was no one else, which was a little strange considering there was still daylight outside, but everyone else is probably busy.
"What time is it?"
"The time is 3:12 pm. You were asleep for five hours and twenty nine minutes, Miss. Lani," Jarvis told me before Bucky could.
It seems to get a round of healing done, I need to sleep for more than four hours. Which is a little strange when I think about it since I need more then four hours of sleep a night to functionally as a normal human being, but sleeping more doesn't let my body heal any faster. If I want to heal more I have to wake up, and go back to sleep a few hours later.
Which is what I've been testing these past two days since no one is letting me leave the room. Okay, it was more like last night and this morning, but still it's been a full 48 hours and I've healed 4 out of 11 what I first assumed were days.
Which means I could easily heal 4 units a day if I set an alarm for four hours at a time, assuming I fall right to sleep which doesn't always happen.
Eh. That sounds way too structured for me.
"Please tell me you haven't just been watching me sleep for the past 5 hours."
"Steve was here for most of the time. He gave me this book to read," Bucky said, showing off the cover of 'The Martian' to me.
"Oh, that's a pretty good book, too many potatoes for me to get into it, but I heard it was good."
I heard the movie was good, but that wasn't out yet considering the book was released not too long ago. I probably need to be more worried about not accidentally telling future knowledge to people now that I'm around not just Bucky.
"Potatoes," Bucky repeated in the most deadpan voice ever, giving me his full attention and looking mildly confused.
"Yeah, I don't like potatoes. I don't care for the texture, and they can grow in a cabinet with no sunlight or soil. That's weird. They're probably aliens and I'm not putting that in my mouth."
Bucky just stared at me looking more confused, which isn't too surprising since we only talked about this once when Bucky wondered why I didn't want any fries at a burger joint. Potato chips were fine, but they just tasted like crispy and whatever seasoning covering them, so I don't think they count as potatoes. Me not liking french fries seems to shock more people since what kid doesn't like fries?
[James Barnes family partially found]
[relationship change]
[James Barnes minion 10 is now James Barnes Family 6]
[Level 6: He'll be able to put an REDACTED to shame with his worries about you.]
"Potatoes are good for you. It's important to eat your veggies, Lani," Bucky said, still looking mildly confused.
Fuck. I forgot about the whole minion thing. I was more worried about the trigger word and the fact that I used them too than the whole thing that Bucky was following my lead unwillingly. I was more worried that he didn't remember me then about that.
How much of me thinking Bucky was better was just because he was figuring out what I wanted him to act like because he thought I was a handler?
"Lani? It's fine you don't like potatoes, that was just something that... my mother used to tell me all the time," Bucky was right next to me, worry replacing that confusion that was just on his face.
"Your mother?" I asked while trying desperately to get a hold of myself.
The relationship just changed. So even if that was happening for the past few days, it's NOT happening now. Me feeling guilty about it isn't going to make anything better.
"I just remembered that. I didn't want to eat my carrots and..."
"You want to write this down right now?" I asked since that's how it would go up until last week.
But instead, Bucky gave me a look.
"Lani, we left all that back on the bike."
Oh.
"Well, maybe it's still there? I could take us there real quick and check."
"No."
"But..."
"No."
With that, I just silently stared at Bucky hoping that he'll cave. We parked the bike in an out of sight location. There was still a chance that no one came across it and striped the bike for parts while stealing our stuff. Maybe not a great chance, but I think we both are in need of some good luck.
Though I also couldn't feel too annoyed with Bucky. Him arguing with me like this just proves that the effect of the trigger word is only short term. We still need to make sure it doesn't happen again, but I'm not sure what to do about that besides get in contact with Wakanda. Which isn't something we can do right now.
The door opened and for a brief second, I thought it was Tony. I haven't seen him since the whole 'You murdered my parents' thing happened, and I get it. Having Tony and Bucky in the same room is just a bad idea, and I am really grateful that Tony is letting us stay in his tower. Would be better if I could tell him that in person instead of through Jarvis, but Bucky is with me most of the day. It makes sense that he won't want to see me and it's fine.
I haven't seen Natasha or Clint since the day after the battle of New York either. Though they are both looking for the book.
"Hey, how are you feeling, Lani? You just woke up from your nap?" Bruce asked with a small smile.
"Pretty good, and yes."
And I was feeling pretty good. First time I woke up with only a dull pain in my shoulder.
"How's the pain?"
"Okay, I mean, I can feel it but it's not that bad," I said which caused Bruce to give me a look I was starting to get familiar with.
It's the 'you are way too young to have such a high pain tolerance' look. Or at least that's what I'm assuming it means.
"You shouldn't be able to feel anything, but I think your shoulder is healed enough we can switch to oral painkillers."
Bruce took off the medical dressing, and it looked noticeably better than yesterday.
"This is healing up very nicely, Lani."
"Like how nicely?" I had to ask.
I knew that it will take me 11 rests to heal completely, but I don't really know how much a rest accelerates my healing. Just from how much the wound has healed I would say on somewhere week timeline.
"Look more like a two month old gunshot then three days, we should be good to start some physical therapy today. Though considering it hasn't been long enough for any muscle degradation, that will be on a shorter time scale as well as you being younger."
"So do you think it will leave a scar?"
Bruce stopped looking at my shoulder to look at me head on.
"There is still a chance," He told me, taking a look to Bucky before looking back to me.
"Cool. That will be a fun conversation starter in the future."
Bruce gave me a quick smile before...
[Relationship up]
[Bruce Banner friendship 1]
[Bruce is no longer worried about making you cry]
[Relationship up]
[The Hulk ally 1]
[The Hulk will respond positively to your presence]
...finishing up redressing my shoulder.
Wait, was Bruce worried that I was going to burst into tears at the thought of having a scar or is he just one of those people who hates nothing more than a crying kid. Might be more that he's worried a crying kid might stress him out enough to hulk out if he was already having a bad day.
Also, I didn't realize that Bruce and Hulk would have separate relationships. I thought it was just some very stereotypical multiple personalities only with super powers tagged on. It might still be like that, but who knows. This is another universe after all.
"Now Lani, I want you to move your shoulder, very slowly, in a circle. If you feel any more pain, even a small amount, I want you to freeze. You got all of that?"
"Yep," I said, refocusing my thoughts on the present.
It felt weird but there was no pain, and Bruce seemed happy about that. Guess the bones are healing correctly.
"Okay, usually at this point of healing we would do another x-ray, but I want to wait a little longer since we don't know if you advance healing works with that type of cell damage. For now you should be good to get out of bed, but you have to keep your arm in the sling and only move it when I'm around to help you through the exercises."
"Does that mean I can finally leave this room without getting yelled at?"
"No one was yelling at you," Bucky had to chime in, which I'm glad he did because the man was near pouting.
"Okay, staring me down with the 'I'm very disappointed in you' looks. Seriously, you and Steve have an uncanny ability with that."
"Apologies for interrupting, but Sir wishes me to let Miss. Lani and Sergeant Barnes know that the 82nd floor is still open for their use," Jarvis announced to the room.
Was Jarvis just waiting for a relevant moment to tell us that, or was Tony watching us right now.
"Right, you should be okay to head up there. Still, make sure you rest," Bruce said, looking to Bucky at the last bit who in turn nodded.
"Jarvis, can you let Tony know we really appreciate all his help?" I asked even if Tony was being a creeper.
"Certainly."
There was a moment of silence before Bruce asked, "I'll step out so you can get dressed."
I blinked a few times before raising a brow.
"With what? Pretty sure my old clothes are bloody as hell and I only see hospital gowns here."
Okay, they weren't really hospital gowns, but more like long t-shirts, which was ridiculously large on me, but it was still not normal clothes. All the more reason why Bucky and I should just go check to see if our bags are still around. We had spare clothes in there.
"Sir has filled the room you sleep in last with clothes roughly your size."
"Tony bought me clothes?" I asked because, what?
Why would he do that?
"Miss Potts was the one who picked them out once Sir brought it to her attention," Jarvis explained, though that only explained parts of it.
"He didn't get you new clothes did he?" I asked Bucky because now that I noticed, he wasn't wearing the same clothes as yesterday.
Even had a sleeve half pinned up covering what remained of his metal arm.
"Steve gave me this."
Which still doesn't explain things since all of Steve's shirts are two sizes too small and he's close to the same size as bucky when you include the arm. Did Steve go shopping somewhere between yesterday and this morning or does he own normal sized shirts and elects not to wear them.
"Right. I wanted to get out of here, like yesterday, so let's go," I said, jumping out of the bed.
"You still need to take it easy, Lani," Bruce said as he looked from me to Bucky again.
Wait. I think this is the first time he gave me a check up without Steve with Bucky. Okay, now some of the looks he was giving Bucky makes a little more sense. Probably more than a little worried about being along with an infamous assassin who is just now starting to get his mind back.
Even if that wasn't what Bruce was thinking, the ride up was awkwardly quiet. At least it didn't take too long.
"I'll go figure out your new medication regimen while you go change. You should be good to take a shower as well, just make sure you don't get the bandages wet."
"I guess it has been a few days since I last bathed. Should I just remove them or just, stick my arm out of the stall?" I asked moments before Bruce handed a plastic sleeve.
"I was planning on doing this in the medical shower, but I feel like you would like the ones up here better," was Bruce's explanation.
"Oh, okay, thanks."
It was a little weird seeing the floor again, considering last time a good chunk of the Avengers were having breakfast before we left. Are they still rooming on this floor or was this just for guests?
Bucky didn't follow me as I went into the bedroom I slept in that one night. Opening the dresser that was empty now reveals some graphic-ts and pants. There were a few dresses as well, but I wasn't in the mood for that. Dresses are cute, but hard to move in.
Natasha could probably fight just as well in a dress, but that is a skill you learn through practice. Something I don't have nor that interested in putting effort into.
Well, I could use my runscript to practice, but still doesn't change the fact I don't want to. Also, I had enough on my mind right how without having to worry about acting normal with that in the background.
Showered and now with clean clothes on, I came back to the sight of Bruce talking to Bucky while pointing to an assortment of pill bottles.
"Do I really need all that?"
"There is still a high risk of infection, maybe not for you but that isn't something I want to risk."
I'm pretty sure if I got an infection it would heal within a rest or two, but I guess Bruce is right that I don't know that for sure. Still...
"Only for a few days," Bucky said, apparently now reading my thoughts.
Or I was just being very transparent on my face.
Probably that.
"Okay, you are the kinda-doctor here."
"I got a recommendation from licensed professionals for this. Make sure you don't do anything strenuous, and I'll check again tomorrow... or the next time you wake up."
I waved goodbye as Bruce got back into the elevator, leaving Bucky and myself alone.
"Want to see what other games are here?" I asked even as I headed to the case Tony showed off the other day.
"Holy shit, he has portal 2!"
A/N: I thought about writing about Lani and Bucky playing portal 2 (with later commentary from steve), but this chapter was getting long. If you guys want I can add it to the next chapter, or as a bonus next time I need to write about something soft.
Thank you to everyone who had favorited/followed this story. It has gotten to the point were numbers are meaningless besides "that is a lot of people". And special thanks to Nightbloodwolf, I'minpain, Eslynn, The guest named Ribbitfroggy (I still haven't figured out how much I want the x-men involved in this story. I like the idea of mutants but I haven't seen a lot of the movies. Most likely this is some AU where the x-men was a group in like the 80 but aren't around anymore for reason), PrincessMagic (times 2!), Amir-015, kittyrocute, The Guest Nkn who left a review on almost every chapter (omg thank you so much! I always mean to leave a review per chapter on active fics, but I have like a 40% success rate in doing that), Death Fury, Chubby-Queen-Bitch, the guest LuciferRedeemed, I.D's Fantasy, Drunken Hamster, Altiria-Aty, HuangBaiLian, Hearteyemf, Forestor, Omega-66, UltimateYaoiAddict, WhineyEmperor89, sguti392, Blueowl, Inu-Angel Z, Moonnightcat, AriettaRyuusaki, Rosiekay, The guest named Anon (thank you), KingCat48, Jdh2, KEZZ 1, bored411, Roxycall18, alfamega20000, and Tamakiiii for taking the time to leave a review.
Now I have a problem that is going to become an issue in the upcoming chapters. I keep flip flopping between keeping clint's mcu background and using a more comic verse back ground. I read in one of the comics clint bought an apartment building in Brooklyn and rents it out for free/dirty cheap to homeless teens and I just love that (and give me a reason to introduce kate bishop). Also comic clint had a dog named lucky and lani would be all over that dogo. Still figuring it out since I still find the secret family funny, but I'm also feeling bad keeping clint away from his family. Let me know if you have any thoughts about this. I'll probably do whatever is better story wise, but I like knowing what others think of the different versions of Clint.
Anyways, sorry for the long a/n, but I hope the chapter wasn't too bad and you all have a fantastic night/day!