AN: I was actually really unsure with this chapter. Because I mean. I've known the direction this was going to take for a while, but... I don't know. People are probably going to be upset and go "UGH this is such BULLSHIT" but hey. Whatever, man. Whatever. -E
The team made their way down the dimly lit hallway as silently as possible. Stopping only when they got to a corner. Peering cautiously around the it, Steve squinted slightly at the pitch black hallway in front of him.
"What do you see? Do you see it?" Bruce asked nervously.
"No," Steve whispered back. "I don't see anything. It's completely black."
"Oh. Oh great. I'm so glad we went with this. This was such a great idea," Tony muttered under his breath, earning a glare from Tasha.
"Look," she whispered harshly. "We aren't going to just sit in there and wait for it to kill us."
"Yeah," Thor added. "If it's going to kill us, we're at least going to give it a hard time." Tony merely crossed his arms and looked back at Steve, who was inching his way around the corner, still trying to see.
"You know, if it's down the hall, it's going to be able to see you," he pointed out bitterly. Sighing heavily, Steve gave up his 'sneaking' and just walked around the corner.
"Fine," he glanced back at the team for a moment before turning his attention to the hall. "Anyone got a light?" They all looked amongst themselves, hoping that someone would have something to light the way. "...Great."
"Guess this wasn't such a bright idea after all, huh?" Clint asked, only to get looks from the rest of them. He held his hands up in defense as they all joined Steve into the new hallway. "Just trying to lighten the mood…"
"Anyway." Tony shook his head and the group made their way slowly and cautiously down the hallway. After a few moments, Steve stumbled forwards, landing on a flight of stairs.
"Ooof!"
"I think you found the stairs," Bruce offered quietly, glancing behind them.
"You mean the ones that didn't exist earlier?" Clint huffed, irritated that they had been unable to find the stairs earlier and were able to find them so easily now.
"Probably," Tony nodded.
"Would've saved us a world of trouble if we could've found them earlier," Bruce sighed.
"What're you talking about?" Tasha looked at them, barely able to make out their outlines.
"The stairs," Clint looked at her. "That lead down here? We couldn't find them."
"What do you mean you couldn't find them? They're in the same stairwell as the rest of the stairs…" Thor explained, his brow furrowing slowly, taking a glance at Tasha.
"Well, they weren't fucking there earlier, alright?" Clint snapped back.
"Can we just go up them instead of talking about them?" Steve asked quickly, not wanting to stay in the area a second longer than they had to in case the creature found them unprepared.
"A good idea," Thor nodded, beginning to go up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
"Alright. We've got to find it. Draw it out," Steve said quickly once they'd reached the landing at the top of the stairs. They were back on the ground floor, exactly where there had been no more stairs going down earlier.
"And… How do you expect we do that?" Tony panted. Making sure the area was secure, the group huddled up into a circle, keeping a close eye on both stair cases and the door.
Steve glanced around the circle.
"Well, for starters… Someone's going to have to be 'bait.'" Everyone slowly looked at one another, all of their eyes eventually falling on Clint.
"...Really," Clint sighed heavily while running a hand through his hair.
"Tony and Bruce will be down one of the hallways you'll take to try and trap the thing," Steve continued, glancing at the pair of them. Bruce looked nervous as Tony nodded his head in agreement. Looking over at Bruce, Tony smiled slightly.
"Hey. We're geniuses, remember? We can trap a stupid monster." Bruce gave him a small smile and Steve went on.
"Once it's trapped, Thor, Natasha and I will take it down."
"Alright… So what does being 'bait' entail exactly?" Clint asked suspiciously.
"You just have to draw the beast out of hiding and down the hall where Steven and I will attack it," Thor nodded at him, placing a hand on Clint's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. We'll get to it before it gets to you."
"Yeah," he scoffed under his breath. "What could possibly go wrong?"
"Shit shit shit shit shit shit, run run run run run run," Clint zoomed past the pair, his eyes wide. Behind him, they could just make out the shape of the creature following Clint, hearing its heavy footsteps coming down the hall quickly. Bruce looked at Tony, frozen for a second before scrambling to his feet. Almost immeditaely, Tony took off running, Bruce following him at his heels.
However, in a matter of seconds, Bruce felt himself being yanked back by his shirt collar, a short choking noise escaping from his throat. Skidding to a halt, Tony turned around and gasped.
"Bruce!" He gaped in horror as he watched Bruce - his best friend - lifted up by his both of his arms by the creature. Without thinking, he charged at it. "BRUUUUUUCE!" But before he got even 5ft in their direction, the creature yanked Bruce's arms outwards, pulling both of them out of their sockets. Crying out in pain, Bruce shut his eyes tightly as Tony froze in his place.
"T-Tony!"
"You thought… You could trick me?" A dark chuckle came from the monster as it yanked Bruce's arms again, this time ripping them both off completely. Falling to the ground with a loud thud, Bruce screamed as he rolled on the floor in front of the creature, blood quickly puddling beneath him. Slowly walking backwards into the darkness, the creature disappeared again.
Immediately falling to his knees upon seeing Bruce's armless body, Tony puked all over the floor in front of him. His arms shaking, he quickly forced himself to crawl towards Bruce, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
"B-Bruce," Tony knelt in front of Bruce, not having any idea what to do. Bruce had rolled to his back, his skin getting more and more pale by the second, his breath fast and harsh. "It's-" Tony suppressed a gag, trying not to puke again at the sight. "It's going to be… It's… Gonna be…"
"Tony," Bruce started coughing, a small bead of blood dribbling down the side of his cheek, his entire body trembling uncontrollably. He was going to bleed out within a matter of moments. Tony knew it. They both knew it. "Tony…."
"No, Br-Bruce, don't-"
"Don't…" Bruce interrupted, coughing more. "Don't… Get drunk at the… At the zoo…" His breaths quickly turned into short and shallow gasps and Tony pushed some hair gently from his face.
"I… I won't, Brucie," Tony could feel tears already stinging his eyes.
"And stop… Trying to… To steal the p… The pen….. The pen...guins…." With the final word, Bruce coughed one last time before letting his head fall back onto the floor, his eyes closing. Tony stared at him, holding his breath as if waiting for Bruce to keep talking to him.
"B… Bruce? Brucie?" he choked out, tears starting to fall quickly. Gently placing a hand on Bruce's cheek, he continued calling his name. "Brucie?! Brucie, no. No! You can't do this to me! Bruce!"
"Congratulations, Doctor Banner," Nick Fury's voice sounded from somewhere next to Bruce. "You were the first one to die."
"I'm… I'm dead?" Bruce asked groggily, not daring to open his eyes.
"Technically, no. But for our simulation, yes." Bruce's eyes flew open.
"Simulation?" Sitting up quickly, his head was immediately spinning, forcing him to lay down and tightly shut his eyes again. Rubbing his temples slowly, he opened his eyes again, taking a look around the room.
The room was long and rectangular, six large pod-looking things evenly lined up against one wall. Behind the pods was a large one-way window, and directly across from each pod was what looked like a tv screen. Sitting up- much slower this time- Bruce noticed that each member of the team was in a pod: and each member of the team had their own screen across from their pod. The screens showed whoever was in the pod across from it. They were all in the hallway that Bruce had just been in himself. Looking down, he realised that he had been laying in one of the pods himself, the top of it slid off to the side, the screen across from his pod off.
"It's a training exercise," Fury explained to him.
"Training exercise," Bruce repeated, still trying to wrap his head around what was happening. "So you're telling me that none of that was real?"
"None of it."
"And the creature…?"
"Was made up by one of your imaginations."
"So really, what you're saying is… Is that you put us all in this simulation... Without telling us… And let us think it was real to-"
"It wouldn't be as effective if you didn't think it was real, Bruce," Fury raised a brow at him as Bruce let out a high laugh.
"You made us believe. That this was all real. And you just… You think that's okay?!" Bruce glared and Fury glanced at the one-way window, nodding slightly.
"Bruce," Fury said calmly, watching him closely, only managing to irritate him further. Somewhere behind him, Bruce heard a rapid beeping as he felt his heart rate begin to climb. "I'm going to have to ask you to calm down."
"So the rest of them," Bruce spat out, becoming more angry as he spoke. "What do they do? Do they just… Keep going? Until they die? What kind of sick, twisted-" Immediately feeling a sharp pain in his arm, he felt dizzy. He hadn't even noticed the man in a long white coat walk over to him. He hadn't noticed the needle before it was stuck into his arm. Very quickly, his vision grew dark and he felt himself fall backwards, his head hitting a small pillow. Just before he went unconscious, he heard Fury once more time.
"It's just a training exercise, Doctor Banner."
Reviews:
myversionofevents: It's okay. I'm okay. Nobody's dead. I really need to get a grip now! You have no idea how happy I was when I saw you had another chapter up ;) I honestly have no idea where you're going with this, I thought I had it figured out but then this chapter screwed up all my theories! You're so very welcome for the last comment, and I'm glad it encouraged you to finish this one. Don't worry about the update gaps, genius takes time to write :)
...How's THAT for your theories?!
Aldaladiesluvleo: OH MY GOD IM SITTING IN MY ROOM IN THE BOARDING HOUSE AND MY FRIEND JUST STARTED CALLING MY NAME OUT FROM BEHIND THE DOOR AND IM FREAKING OUT SO MUCH...
You're such a good writer I just found your story and I've read this in like half an hour and I'll probably be scared of apartments with things in it forever now I read this and I seen the Doctor Who episode The God Complex...
I love this keep writing I'm off to find your other stories
Awww, thank you so much you're so sweet! And I don't remember if I've seen The God Complex- yet funny enough, two people in reviews for the last chapter referenced it? I'll have to look it up.
AvengerOfFiction: Is it wrong that I want something to happen to someone... Probably! OMG! I saw this update last night an I was like "YAY! Oh... Wait... Yeah, I'll wait til morning..." Lol!
Anyway, awesome so far! Really good! Bravo! Bravo! *claps* *claps*
Well, I guess you got what you wanted? And god, I'm the same way with like, any/all fics I've read. Like they'll all update in the middle of the night but if I start reading then, I'll never stop.
ilikehats2: Whoa... Wait... We know how the others got there, obviously jumped and knocked unconscious. But what about Natasha? How'd he snatch her?
But-I want more! I want more! I wanna see them fight the thing! I need to see it! I need to read it! I need this! THOR SUMMON THE HAMMER! Tony, use your phone to call JARVIS and send your armor over. Kill it! Kill it kill it kill it kill it!
Well, y'know. It just. It kinda. Ummm. She. I'll get to that. Probably. And ALL IN GOOD TIME, MY DARLING. ALL IN GOOD TIME.
doctorwhoepic: This is ... AMAZING. I have never read a horror/suspense story before and I'm not really into it but this is something else. I'm in love with the story line and your writing. You are incredible . KEEP THIS UP! ️
You're literally the cutest ahh thank you so much! 3
StarlitDreamer: This is possibly the most intense story I've ever read... ohmygoodness, I'm completely engrossed! Your plot is fascinating and you write so well! Also, you should know that I'm now nearly jumping at the shadows and wind in the trees outside my apartment and it's really difficult to make me skittish so congratulations! Oh, please update soon!
Yessssss. Like I've said before: it's always wonderful to terrify the masses. But no okay thank you so so much!
MaxIsMe: So, here I am, looking for Stony fics to read to get over a relationship that ended two months ago, and I somehow stumble upon this gem. I have every light on, music and my TV blasting, and this story is still literally terrifying me. I'm freakin' 19 years old, having to sleep with a stuffed bear because I'm terrified! Absolutely fucking perfect story writing! I love it! Update soon! I wanna scream from fear :)
Well hey! I've got plenty of stuffed animals still and I'm 19! (though I just moved I haven't the slightest clue where they are.) So there's no shame in that. But oh my god this review was wonderful I adore you.
randomblueboots: THIS IS AWESOME! My sister and I just read this chapter and she just thought, you know, if the shape-shifter meets up with them and happens to transform into one of them they should have a code word. So if there are two Steve's in the room Thor could yell "POPTART" or whatever word and whichever one yells poptart back is the real Steve. Just an idea. I don't know, you probably have plans. Anyways, my sis and I love this story! It's super great.
Thanks for writing! :D
-randomblueboots
This review was literally posted 21 minutes ago that's beautiful. Anyway, thank you so much for your kind words! And how funny would that be oh my god. Just randomly screaming out "POPTART" the creature would be so confused.