Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.
Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.
Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.
(This story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained.)
PART 2: Independence
Bruce Banner stretched, smiling down at his computer. He looked aside at his second screen, at the notes he had written while walking back to his dorms.
"Two more patents submissions. Then I need to find a place for a lab."
Living at Avengers headquarters was comfortable but, in all honesty, demeaning. He was one of the very few members who did. In return, however, he had managed to accumulate a good sum of money.
He spent the thirty minutes it took him to get back to the mansion taking quick notes on all the patents he could register for development. It was taking a lot longer to actually go through the process, though.
"Man, this is a pain. Maybe I should just focus on a small group?"
Shrugging, he continued. Bruce wasn't an experienced businessman but there was a lot about being an inventor that he did know. From observation, from listening, from his life before the gamma bomb. Because yes, there had been such a thing.
The plan was to register a bunch of patents: great, fantastic patents. By doing that, Bruce would gain the attention of investors before he even went looking for them. Plus, the whole process took around a year, so the sooner he got the paperwork done with, the better.
After he was satisfied with what he accomplished there, he sought to find a place he could buy outside Manhattan Island. He could only afford to rent if it was inside it. Still, he wanted to be close enough that he could drive in for meetings.
There would be a lot of meetings.
Bruce was excited about the prospect, with his only real doubt concerning which invention to first invest in.
"Equipment. I have to look at equipment, too." Bruce smiled widely. "Should I make the lab part of my home? I think that would be a bad idea."
A knock on the door. Part of him thought it would be Tony, but he knew that while the man was stubborn, he didn't have time to pursue that stubbornness through to the end. Despite all appearances to the contrary, he was a responsible man, and a mission was a mission. Hence, he had let Peter go. And he had also let Bruce go.
"Natasha?"
"Hey, Bruce." The Black Widow gave him a bit of a smirk as a greeting. "Heard you benched yourself."
Bruce rolled his eyes and walked back, allowing her space to come in after him. "He asked you to change my mind?"
"I don't really care what he wants," she said, looking aside and around at his room. It was notoriously rare for the Black Widow to ever rest her eyes on anything, and that was mainly because she was constantly scanning her environment for the purpose of situational awareness. It was a reflexive, deeply passive behavior. "I'm just wondering if you're okay."
"See?" Bruce chuckled. "The fact you think there's something wrong because I'm not doing what Tony tells me to do is a big part of it. Come here, look at this."
The Black Widow stepped forward, again scanning the gadgetry for signs of malfunction or dangerous modification. After dealing with mind controls a few times, the ultimate spy loses the ability to truly trust any situation.
She winced at the computer with displeasure. "Is that a government website?"
"Third party, but yes," Bruce said, a bit excited. "I'm submitting patent registrations for approval. This is what I've decided, you know? It's been a great many years letting the Hulk be all that he could be, and meanwhile, my aspirations are completely left by the wayside. Well," he shrugged. "The time's now. I'm going to have my own lab. Maybe eventually, I'll have my own crew. My own inventions, my own research."
"Hm," she glanced sideways at him, teasing him with another smirk. "And the big guy's happy with that?"
Bruce shrugged. "It can't be all about him. I need a life too. I want people to know who I am, in more than one way," he said, meaningfully. "I worked really hard for a really long time to become someone who could do that."
"Well, there's no doubt you did become that someone. I kind of envy you, to be honest, sitting a few of these out. This new approach to team rosters has put me pretty far away from the important missions."
"I thought you were with cap?" Bruce asked.
"What? No, that would be even worse, he's in the rooky squad. I'm in the PR squad," she said, glancing aside exasperated. "The team of X-Men and Avengers? Humans and mutants together. The squad's been put really…I don't know, I feel we're jack of all trades, master of none."
"Yeah, lot of people are around, now. Lots of teams. I didn't know half the people on mine," Bruce said, typing away at the forms in front of him. "Well, more than half. Still, it's funny to me how you pretend that it'll be boring. I give it two weeks before your team has the fate of the entire world on their shoulders."
Natasha chuckled and started walking off. "Well, now I know the big guy's on call in case that happens. I get first dibs at reinforcements, right?"
"Of course, Natasha," Bruce said, chasing after her in reflex, but staying in his seat. "Heading off, already? How many missions is Tony sending people on?"
"What do you think?" She asked, winking at him with a back glance. It was a good thing he was well practiced on keeping his eyes leveled and above - not that it was hard with how beautiful she was. "Not enough, as always. Be seeing you, Bruce."
Bruce shook his head. Maybe once he stabilized his life, he could finally invite Natasha out for a drink or something. Talk like normal humans.
He sensed mocking from inside, a playful suggestion that Bruce was hoping for much more than a drink.
Shut up, he thought, scoffing in amusement, and continued his online busywork.
Patents were registered, and three property viewings were scheduled. He also bookmarked webpages for a lot of lab equipment that he would need. Planning that alone was already providing a lot of stimuli to his brain, which was a familiar and heartily welcomed sensation. He couldn't wait to actually meet with the problems that his ideas would pose. For the struggle to overcome them.
Packing his laptop so he could work while commuting, Bruce walked out and got in the taxi. He hesitated, catching sight of the Avengers calling card. He considered leaving it behind, but something inside him tugged at him to take it with him, just in case.
Bruce shrugged and rolled his eyes amiably, figuring it was a nice enough compromise with the Hulk.
"Only if it's level orange or worse, though," Banner said to himself, and the one inside him. "Anything below that doesn't really need the world's strongest."
The Hulk agreed, Banner sensed.
While on the way to his first appointment, Bruce couldn't help but remark upon how much things had changed since the first time the bomb had gone off. Fear confused for rage, anger as uncontrolled as his understanding of himself. There was a time where the Hulk would be raging to come out, terrified of dying out forever. At the slightest change in moods, at the smallest opening created by Bruce's nervous system, the Hulk would come out with unmatched desperation.
And the Hulk knew what would happen if he calmed down, that he might die forever, so he went off. Looking to be mad and angry. It was an intellect without knowledge or wisdom, learning about the world like a baby would. Learning about people. Grasping for understanding in the only place it could - Banner's own mind - while being deathly afraid of looking too deeply and ceding control. Meanwhile, the Hulk's penchant for heroism and Bruce's own, he hoped, would continue to trump the fear and anger.
Then Sakaar had happened, and everything that it had entailed. Living on that planet, and everything they experienced there, changed the entire dynamic of the situation. Of their life together.
Bruce could now ride the Manhattan subway without fear. There had been a time when he had been convinced he would never be able to do that safely.
Well, safely for everyone else.
Most of his appointments did not go well. As the day continued to develop quite fruitlessly, tension began to mount, and his nerves to compound. He had forgotten that had been the real reason why he had given up on making a life for himself and accepted to live comfortably at the Avengers mansion.
Life was frustrating.
Still, Bruce found a flat he didn't really like but could live with, and the same could be said for a studio apartment he would be using as an office. By the time the Sun began to dawn, he didn't even want to think about how troublesome it would be to get most of the equipment he needed.
Permits were required for nearly all of it, and those would take days, perhaps weeks to approve. He was really craving for a problem he could just punch into nothingness.
"We really are the same person," Bruce said, shaking his head. Different personalities but the same individual. One mind, different manifestations. That was the key to what Bruce had to learn, and the Hulk as well.
"Well, tomorrow's another day. Let's get some research down, figure out some of the numbers. I don't need more than this laptop for that."
And so did Bruce type away the night.
Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time.
He's really committing to this normal life thing, but will others really allow him to do that? Next part, we introduce She-Hulk.
