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 3: The Copycat

Bruce hadn't planned to eat with his young cousin Jennifer. Well, young relative to his own age.

The lunch didn't go as well as a movie would have it go in the sense that they didn't suddenly spend the entire afternoon talking about their lives, their adventures, their thoughts, and getting closer. In actual fact, she couldn't wait to get back to work, and he felt the same way. Conversation grew stale fast, and while still amiable, they brought their time together to an end after only half an hour.

Leaving, Bruce went to make more calls and talk to more people who didn't like what they were doing and never felt like making it easier for others; people under contract with third-party companies to act middle-man between clients seeking services or resources and the actual people who offered said services and resources.

Being an adult was definitely more taxing than he remembered, which was probably why Tony just hired people to do everything for him, and why most of the Avengers used the third-party in-between people that Tony hired to deal with their own stuff.

But he couldn't go to Tony, now. Having to apologize for what happened every time the Hulk awakened had shredded his dignity, but ever since he came back to earth, that was no longer the case. Bruce Banner, the Hulk, neither of them felt any need to justify themselves to any of the heroes that had lied to them and sent them to their deaths. Giving them peace already gave Bruce the moral upper hand.

We're our own man, Bruce thought, immediately wincing. I'm. I'm my own…oh never mind.

However, he should have known better than to think he could really go for a normal adventure. The sort of adventure highly driven, highly capable people have the ability to undertake. As much he might have been all of that - that's what he wanted to figure out once and for all - he was also part of a very special group of people.

When he was grabbing an afternoon snack at a café, Bruce caught sight of a newspaper. It was reporting on some breaking news straight out of Vietnam, and that was already the weird part. An American newspaper reporting on Southeast Asia? But then, the news was of a Hulk sighting.

Scowling, Bruce glanced back in the direction of his hotel room. I'm going to go back and find the calling card's been beeping all day, aren't I?

Wincing, Bruce did some calculations and estimates. It was likely that S.H.I.E.L.D. was already looking for him. It upset him that that was the case. After all, how many times in the past had some pretender shown up? It was predictable how things would go, at this point.

Maybe they just want me to help, but even then, they'll be looking for me.

Just then, the sound of helicopter rotors crept into being, and Bruce could only shrug. He sensed the Hulk laughing, amused. Bruce stood up and went next to the person with the newspaper, figuring it would be better to go into that conversation with an idea of what was going on.

"Excuse me, may I look at this story for a minute?"

"Hm?" The woman looked over at him and smiled, clearly assuming he was making some kind of move on her. She seemed to appreciate it, so he didn't correct it. "Of course, hi, my name's Theresa."

"Bruce," he greeted, leaning in to see the picture and catch some key sentences, so he could piece together which of the copies was causing the commotion. Hopefully, it wasn't Abomination. He hated fighting the Abomination, and he would have to.

The Hulk felt otherwise, feeling as always that few others could match up to his strength. That said, Abomination was still a fun challenge. Bruce thought it put the surroundings in danger, but the Hulk disregarded that notion, confident that he had become practiced in taking fights to safe environments.

In any case, the helicopter was landing, and the picture did not look like any of the copies that they had dealt with in the past. In truth, it really did look very much like the Hulk. Down to the haircut, which was always the best way to tell the copies apart. It was definitely not the red hulk, not the grey, not the Abomination, not Hulkling, not any of them. Was it an alien trying to set him up? Why? Was it a new one? Had someone done a new one? Looking closer, there was actually a difference to the hair, in comparison to what it currently would be. A long time ago, though, Bruce had neglected to cut his hair short, letting it grow long and wild, and that was exactly what the picture was showing.

Bruce's brain was running fast, in a state of engagement that usually had the Hulk stepping back and out of the way. It was weird how Bruce had come to visualize all these subconscious interactions.

Then, the door finally opened. "Banner."

Theresa opened her eyes at him, surprised. "Bru…Bruce Banner. You're the-"

"Thank you, Theresa," Bruce said, standing up. "Have yourself a nice day."

The two agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were staring right at him. Their guns were down, but the safety was off, but the stun rounds were on. That's how most of his relationships went, really: very grey and full of pros and cons that all mingled with the inability to really trust that the Hulk wouldn't go crazy.

The Hulk, of course, protested at that. He had never gone crazy, from his point of view. Bruce left that without a response and showed his hands to the officers.

"I've been here all day today and yesterday. I got a bunch of call logs to confirm it, I assumed you people were keeping track?"

The girl soldier of the pair, looking unimpressed, spoke up first. "We're not the ones you talk to, Mr. Banner. Please come with us."

"Doctor," Bruce corrected, wincing apologetically. "Doctor Banner, please. I worked very hard to get that."

The short-haired girl lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. Bruce had the impression that he knew her, but couldn't put his finger on how. However, her demeanor and lack of a helmet indicated she had some kind of supernatural ability of her own. She wasn't as intimidated as her partner, who was looking around like someone who was planning on how to evacuate everyone should the Hulk wake up.

The Hulk, of course, protested at this. He had never hurt anyone innocent. Bruce left that without a reply as well. Their connection had greatly improved when compared to when the Hulk was first born, but the concept of empathy, considering other people's opinions, was still lost on him. He couldn't differentiate between Bruce's understanding of someone's opinion and his own.

"Sure," she said, "please come with us, Doctor Banner."

"Of course."

Bruce was already deciphering the many things that were going to happen next. Surely, it would be easy enough to prove that he wasn't responsible for whatever happened in Vietnam.

On the other hand, could he really say that about anything related to gamma radiation? The bomb was his invention. His creation. Everything related to it was his responsibility, as many people were keen to remind him.

The Hulk disagreed, and quiet honestly, so did Bruce. He had felt like that in the past, but time had changed his mind. A man fashions a knife, and yet he is not responsible if it is used to cut someone's throat. Even more so if he did not mean to fashion that knife in the first place.

Bruce sensed the Hulk objected to being regarded as a common weapon, and he could but shrug inside his mind. That was how everyone saw them, unfortunately.

Still, the fact remained that no, he had no responsibility for someone seeking out all his buried research and trying to replicate the process that was such a categorical and catastrophic mistake.

Even if it had one good outcome, Bruce added, for the sake of his other self. The Hulk had balanced out the scales, as far as Bruce could do the math. He had been more of a good thing than otherwise by a large margin.

"Doctor Banner," someone greeted, and the man snapped out of his thoughts and found himself in a room. Two women were in front of him, the one from before was holding her arms on her waist, with one of the hands resting on top of the pistol holster. The other was holding her arms crossed in front of her. That agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, he knew.

"Maria," Bruce greeted.

"Colonel Hill, please, Doctor Banner. I worked very hard to get that."

Bruce chuckled at that, nervously, and nodded. Maria Hill was like an airport officer, there was no being informal with her, let alone humorous.

"I apologize," he said simply.

"No, we haven't been tracking your calls. But I believe your account since you don't have a history of lying about your transformations."

Bruce smiled to try and appease the unappeasable. "As in I never did it?"

She squinted her eyes at the unnecessary comment, and he gulped, lifting his hands defensively. "Sorry," he said simply.


Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it.

Is Bruce in trouble? Does Hulk care? Find out in the next part when Hill tries to recruit Bruce, see how he gets out of it, and why.