Chapter 5
"I need you to kick me in the balls."
"Oh, no. There's no reality in existence where I think that's a good idea. Think of something else."
"I tried and I keep coming back to it."
"NO! I'm not kicking you in the, in your privates. Nope. Not happening." She would have flounced away if she hadn't been chained to the wall. Instead she slowly turned her head and avoided looking at him.
"Look," he said, "this inhibitor only keeps me from getting mad. It doesn't keep me from feeling pain. Pain might be able to override whatever signal it puts out and trigger my anger."
"Are you listening to yourself? You said you think it inhibits your anger. You think pain might override it. You're just guessing."
"Ruby, look at me," he coaxed. "Come on. Look at me."
She turned slowly and met his gaze. "I'm scared," she admitted, tears welling in her eyes.
"Me too," he told her softly, "but we have to try something, don't we?"
She nodded reluctantly. "What if it doesn't work? What if I kick you and hurt you for no reason?"
He chuckled, "I think a pair of sore balls are going to be the least of my worries if Hydra gets us to wherever we are going, don't you?"
"You're right, I guess. So how do we do this?"
"I'm going to shift my position so you can have a better angle and you need to turn on your hips to get a good swing in with your left leg. You're going to have to get over your embarrassment about my privates showing, though. There's nothing I can do to prevent that, and you need to look to aim, okay?"
She chewed on her lip and nodded her understanding. Together, they shifted until they were both in position. He was right, his shorts had worked their way completely down and there he was in all his glory. She tried not to be embarrassed, but it was a losing battle.
"Ready," he asked.
"Are you?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. Just think of it this way. You'll be able to tell your grandkids that you kick-started the Hulk."
Ruby giggled at his bad joke, then kicked out with her foot as hard as she could, squeezing her eyes shut just before she made contact. Her foot jolted with the impact and she heard the whoosh of breath as it left him. Peeking out, she saw that he had tried to curl his body up around his injured parts.
At her gasp, he looked up and his eyes had that peculiar gleam to them that she had seen earlier.
"Again," he ground out through his teeth.
"What?"
"Do. It. Again."
He forcefully un-curled his body to present her target.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she chanted as she kicked again.
"Fuck!" he yelled this time when her foot connected.
"Hey! What's going on back there?" a voice called out from the front of the jet.
"Again!" Dr. Banner yelled as someone made their way towards them.
She kicked again.
"What the fuck are you doing?" A rough hand grabbed her by the hair and pulled her hair hard, bringing more tears of pain to her eyes.
Blindly, she kicked he companion again, this time missing and catching him in the chin, snapping his head back.
The man shook her head by the fistful of hair he had and slapped her. Panicked, she kicked again, only to have a large hand grab her around the calf to stop the movement fling it away, almost dislocating her hip.
Her scream of pain mingled with a roar of anger.
"Fuck! Radio command that we have a problem! Their collar didn't…," his yell was cut off and Ruby heard the sickening thud of his body against the inside of the jet.
The jet listed wildly towards the side where she was chained, and a heavy weight slammed into her. Her body couldn't take much more punishment, she thought. Her hip was a screaming knot of pain and her wrists felt like they were being sawed through with a dull knife. The upside was that her pounding headache didn't seem quite so bad in comparison.
Hot breath blew across her face and she looked up into glowing green eyes set deep into a face that was almost twice the size of hers. When her eyes met his, he snarled and pulled back.
"Um, I'm really sorry about kicking you in your family jewels," she cringed back against the wall, pulling on her restraints. "But it worked, so, um, you're welcome, I guess."
Warning lights and alarms sounded in the jet as the weight of the unpredictable Avenger unbalanced the craft. A shot came from the cockpit and a bullet clipped the wall just over Ruby's head and showered her with metal chunks.
"What is it with these guys and guns?" Ruby rolled her eyes.
The Hulk growled, "Hulk smash," then turned, and, moving more nimbly than something that big should be able, approached the narrow entrance to the cockpit. Two more shots rang out, then he grabbed either side of the dividing wall and ripped them free with no effort. Flinging them down, he reached through and grabbed the man that had been shooting at him and flung him through the window of the cockpit.
Unfortunately, that man had also been the pilot of the jet. With no one to hold the craft steady with a one-ton creature moving about, it tipped and careened out of control. Of course, it tipped away from the wall to which Ruby was attached, leaving her dangling in the air by her wrists, her feet scrambling for purchase on the floor that was now vertical.
Her scream drew his attention back to her. Easily finding purchase by punching holes in the craft, he came back to her.
"As much as I hate to be the damsel in distress, do you think you can help a girl out, Big Guy?" She tried to smile but it probably looked more like a grimace. She could feel blood dripping down both her arms from her abused wrists.
The Hulk cocked his head at her as if considering whether to leave her to her fate, then reached out and, with one finger, snapped the chain holding the cuffs to the wall. Ruby only dropped a couple of feet before he grabbed her around the waist, ripped a hole in the side (floor?) of the jet, and leaped out.
Bruce looked over at the woman passed out beside him and smiled. For as small as she was, she was a scrappy little thing. Despite being battered and bruised, she still had plenty of spunk up in the jet. It was a good thing all his injuries healed while he was transformed, because she packed a helluva kick. His balls hurt at just the thought.
She moaned and stirred.
"Am I dead? I feel dead," she said weakly.
"No, we are both alive, and I am pained to say that you may have a future playing soccer."
She groaned, "not funny, Dr. Banner."
"Bruce," he corrected. "I think you deserve to be able to call me Bruce at this point in our relationship."
She pushed herself into a sitting position. "You mean the relationship where you humiliated me, then threaten me, then I kick you in the family jewels, then you jump from a jet with me? That relationship?"
He reached over and pushed her heavy fall of hair out of her face. "Well, maybe we got off to a rocky start."
"How about you just buy me dinner and flowers next time, okay."
"Deal."
She looked around. "Where are we?"
"I think somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Maybe Colorado. I'm not sure. I didn't stop and ask for directions."
"Typical man, even when big and green," she chuckled, then groaned, holding a hand to her head. "Ouch."
"Yeah, you got quite a knot there, take it easy."
Her eyes fell on her wrist and she held both out in front of her. Bruce had wrapped them with the tattered remains of her tee-shirt, leaving her in just her bra and jeans. "What the?" She looked down, squeaked and crossed her arms over her chest.
"You were bleeding and that's all I had available," he defended his actions.
"Oh, my Gosh! I'm half naked!"
Then she looked at him and shrieked, "You're completely naked!"
"Very observant."
"I'm stuck in the cave with a naked man. What is this? Naked and Afraid?"
He grinned, "well, if it is, we're winning."
She picked up a stone from the floor and lobbed it at him, "you're not funny, Bruce."
Even angry, he liked the sound of his voice on her lips. And how her breasts swelled above the top of her bra. And how fiery her eyes where when she was irritated.
Oops, he thought, as other parts of his anatomy took notice of his interest, better go back to thinking about her kicking skills.
"So, what now?" she asked.
"Well, we have two choices. We can either stay here and hope my people find us before Hydra does, or we can strike out on our own and try to find civilization before Hydra catches us."
"Why do you think that was Hydra? And what would they be doing at the Center?"
"One of the reasons we were in Houston was to investigate recent Hydra activity in the area."
"In Houston? Really? I hadn't heard anything about it."
"It wasn't anything overt," he explained. "Corporate espionage, server tampering, attempts at blackmail, that kind of thing. But it was starting to escalate. Last week, there was an attempted kidnapping of a software developer."
"Oh, I heard about that. A lead programmer for HSH Cyber Security was attacked while she was jogging. But they didn't say anything about an attempted kidnapping," Ruby frowned and worried at her lip. "It sounds like they are going after data."
"That's what we thought, too. So, when a classified formula shows up on your board, you can understand why I reacted the way I did," he looked her in the eyes. "I'm sorry if I frightened you back there."
She waved away his apology, "I think we're even, now. But now that you brought it up, it's been bugging the heck out of me. What's wrong with that formula? It looks perfect, but I just can't quite figure it out."
He chuckled. "We transposed two of the signs on purpose."
Her brow furrowed and she chewed on her lip as she stared off into space. Then she nodded, "that makes sense. Why didn't I see it? I've been worrying over it for nearly a month trying unravel it." She looked back at him, "Why would you do that?"
He shrugged, "it was Stark's idea. It was sensitive data and he didn't want just anyone to be able to use it."
"So, Hydra was in Houston fishing around for data, classified files were stored in the center's server. Files that were immediately erased when we pulled them up. Then those armed men showed up and started shooting," she paused, thinking about the implications. "Oh, my. Hydra has infiltrated the center. It is the only thing that makes sense. We are involved in the current efforts to get humans into space and put us on level footing with everyone else out there."
She looked up, her eyes flashing with anger, "we have to get back and warn them."
Standing up, she dusted the dirt off her jeans, "come on, let's get out of here."
Bruce had to hand it to her, she was a determined little thing.
