I'm not completely happy with this one. Tell me what you think.

Chapter Three

Dr. Banner fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding arm protectively, and Willa was by his side in an instant.

"Dr. Banner? That… That's a lot of blood…"

He looked up at her, eyes flashing from brown to green and back again as he tried to fight it off.

"Will…" he said weakly and trembled, skin going green. "Run… Go…"

She did no such thing. She backed away a few paces, and, through the comm, she demanded who shot.

"It was an accident. One of the newer recruits," Agent Garcia said. "We're going in."

"No. You've had your chance. Go set up a perimeter or something."

In front of her, Dr. Banner's feeble grip over himself was lost and his transformation completed. He towered over Willa, head touching the ceiling, and his shoulders seemed as broad as she was tall.

She was absolutely frozen with fear, eyes wide.

He can't hurt you, she reminded herself. You are invincible. Literally. Calm yourself.

It didn't help much. (He was just so gosh-darn big…) But she got a bit of a grip on herself and checked her shields. They were up and powerful as ever.

You're shields will hold, she reminded herself, They protected you from a 50 story drop. They can handle a little bit of roughhousing.

She tried for placating. "D-D-Dr. B-Banner - "

She was cut off when he brought his two huge fists up and then brought them down on either side of her. The floor under her broke, and she fell on her knees.

"Okay," she muttered. "So you don't like that name. That's fine." She spoke up. "Is it Hulk then? Is that your name?"

He ignored her, like he thought the small person knocked on the ground was no threat, and started destroying the place, roaring savagely all the while.

While he was otherwise occupied, she got on the comms, eyes never leaving him. "You guys better be far from here. He is not happy."

"We have our orders. We have to fight him."

"No," she said. "Do not engage. Don't you dare. You got him into this mess. You will not hurt him for it."

"It's a monster!"

"Shut the hell up and do as I say. You can't fight him like I can. Stay out of the way."

"Hey, Hulk?!" she shouted. "Hey, can I talk to Banner? I need his help with something!"

He continued to demolish the place (at a much slower pace than Harlem), not listening to her at all.

"HEY, HULK! I NEED BANNER'S HELP WITH SOMETHING!"

Okay, so that probably wasn't her best idea. He halted his destructive fun and looked at her. Taking him in, Willa wished she had kept her trap shut.

In a single stride, he was directly in front of her. Then, he sucked in a breath and roared. Her ears ached with the noise and her hair ruffled and her eyes watered from the wind and - ew, gross - spittle splattered on her cheek.

She inhaled slowly - not unlike a mother trying to find patience when her toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of the supermarket - and let her breath out, swiping the spit off her face.

Then she did something rather foolish. No, not foolish. Worse than that. Insane. Mad. Crazy. Stupid. Something absolutely mental.

She roared back.

It wasn't very impressive. It had more likeness to a infuriated cub than an dangerous tiger. Especially since her throat was so tight - you know, terror and all that.

Hulk and Willa stood frozen for a moment, both equally surprised at her gall and idiocy. Then a huge booming sound burst from his mouth, and after a moment, Willa realized he was laughing.

Relief filled her. So he wasn't a mindless beast at all.

"Tiny girl," Hulk growled out. "Stupid brave."

"You can talk?"

In answer, he swung at her. She clenched her fists and resisted the urge to duck as a show of strength. In the split second before contact, her confidence in her shields wavered, and a sense of relief and calm overtook her. She was going to die. Not slowly, of a sickness eating her from the inside, but quickly, on impact - like ripping off a bandage. But when the fist collided with her face, it was just a tap on her shields. Momentarily, she was disappointed, but she waved the feeling away. I'm not supposed to think that.

He roared in pain then stared at his hand with a dumbfounded expression.

"Uh… sorry?"

"HULK SMASH!"

He continued to hit her. Each hit got a little stronger, as his frustration grew, and in turn the pressure increased. On the seventh try - which felt like a friendly punch on the arm - she had enough.

"Good try, really. 'A' for effort!" she yelled. "But you can't hurt me so can you just save us both the trouble -"

A right hook strong enough to crush a car momentarily interrupted.

"- and CUT IT OUT!"

He roared in her face again, and again, she roared back, this time with a lot more force behind it.

"Hurt Banner," he said.

"It wasn't me! It was someone else!"

He huffed. "Hulk know that." And he turned around - just ignored her, the nerve of him - and started for the east wall, where the bullet originated from.

"Wait! No!" She sprinted in front of him and stood in his path. "It wasn't his fault! It was an accident!" She prayed what she said was true. If Fury had done that on purpose, she'd punch him again.

He growled at her in warning.

"I'll take care of it," she promised. "I'll make sure Banner isn't hurt again. You know you can't touch me? I'll make Banner the same way. No one will hurt him."

"Hulk smash who hurt Banner!"

"No, please, don't do that! I'll smash him for you. That's what friends do, right? Smash their friends' hurt-ers? Hurt-causers? Whatever. I'll smash him."

"Hulk friend?"

"Absolutely," she answered with confidence. "And if it's too much for me to smash. I'll get Banner to let you out again. Deal?"

Hulk grunted. "Prove."

"Prove it. Yeah, I can do that." She paused. "What am I proving?"

"Smash."

"You want me to smash?" She grinned and gleefully bounced over to the wall. "No one ever lets me do that! SHIELD's all about control. No fun."

Her shields (or force-fields, as SHIELD refers to them) cover every square inch of her, completely invisible to the naked eye, but she visualized them with a bluish tint, like Violet's on " The Incredibles." She morphed the part covering her fists so it looked like she had a Captain America shield connected to each hand. Then, with her mind, she sent the shield crashing into the wall with the force of a semi, and it took her arm along with it so it looked like a powerful punch.

The wall collapsed. Willa nodded to herself, as if to say "yep, that's that" but then the roof started to cave.

Oops.