Issue #3: Day 3
Bruce
The world was red, Anger flowed through his veins and the sound of a voice telling him to stop echoed around him, The world seemed smaller then usual but he himself felt at peace, Everyone that he ripped in half brought about a strange cathartic calm over his body, The blood covered his hands and arms and it was beautiful.
"Stop this, Please just stop this" Bruce screamed at The hulk but nothing he did could stop him from killing, to just revel in his own destruction was all he wanted to do.
Whenever he was in this form the Hulk never answered Bruce's pleads and this time was no exception.
It had been a while since he became the other guy, when she appeared, Her red hair flowed down to her back and the look of fear on her face was one he recognized from Calcutta, Screaming at the top of his lungs caused her to fall backwards and hit her head on a rock, Bruce wanted to help her but he was just as trapped as she was.
Lifting her limp body, With one fowl move he tore her...
Bruce sat up panting, His heart rate was beyond dangerous and the fear that, That nightmare might become true caused his entire body to shake.
It was typical of his situation that he finally get some sleep after being awake for three days straight, only to be woken by a Nightmare about the other guy, Going to his bag Bruce opened it to retrieve one of his potions when he noticed one was missing, Downing the vile in his hand, His anger immediately subsided but his fear was abundant, Who would steal a potion only he knew about, Her face swam in front of his vision again and his anger began to peak.
Returning to his lab to continue his work, His anger would fluctuate between his counts of ten to one.
An hour had passed when he was interrupted by the sight of Loki in Handcuffs being walked down the hall, The look he gave Bruce sent shivers down his spine, It was akin to the Smirk Natasha would use when she knew something you didn't and that was always dangerous.
When Loki was gone Natasha and Maria came into his office, Hill was the first to speak.
"Any news on the whereabouts of the tesseract Doctor" Bruce shook his head no and asked a question of his own directed at both Hill and Natasha.
"Where you able to get Barton back" The reaction of agent hill was all he needed for an answer, She turned and made her way out of the lab, Natasha was also about to leave when Bruce held up a vile of His Yellow potion.
"I don't think I need to tell you why I'm holding this do I" he watched as Natasha swallowed and calmed herself before she answered.
Natasha
'Shit, Shit, Shit' Natasha swore at herself, Getting caught wasn't something that she was used to.
"If you had just told me what was in the vile I wouldn't of had to steal one..." Bruce interrupted her by slamming his fist on the table.
"You seriously want to blame this on me, You where the one that stole and what for, Curiosity, Trust me when I say that this potion is the one thing keeping you alive right now"
Natasha was now pissed "Why, Can you please just answer me that, Why is that the thing keeping me alive, Because right now it feels like your one step away from turning, so obviously its not working to well"
Bruce stood up to full height and wiped his mouth with his right hand.
"The potion doesn't stop me from turning, it stops me from poisoning"
Natasha scrunched her eyebrows together "What do you mean it keeps you from poisoning"
Bruce looked out the window as if to make sure that no one was in sight, he moved closer to her and grabbed her by the arm, Dragging her into his room, he slammed the door shut and threw her onto the bed, He stood looking at her with a incredulous look.
"I need you to swear to me you wont tell anyone" Natasha contemplated this request for a moment but agreed.
"The Potion helps to keep my Gamma radiation levels down, without this everyone else around me would get Gamma poisoning, the level of radiation in my system is always spiking and rising to dangerous levels therefore it would either turn people into something like me or do what I should have done, Die"
The last word caused Natasha to stand and slap him Hard across the face "Don't you dare say you deserved to die Doctor, I wont tell anyone anything as long as you promise to find the tesseract and prove you are the hero Fury believes you to be" With that she left.
Placing a hand on her chest, Natasha could feel her heart beating out of her chest, She just slapped Bruce, She knew she was lucky nothing else had happened.
Bruce
The team observed as Loki walked into his cell, Bruce noted for the first time an annoyed look on Fury's face.
"In Case it's unclear, You try to escape, You so much as scratch that glass..." Fury pressed a few buttons and the floor of the cell opened up, All of the air rushing out.
"...Thirty Thousand feet, Straight down in a steel trap, You get how that works" Fury closed the trap and turned back to Loki.
"Ant" He points at Loki then at the control panel "Boot" Bruce didn't understand the analogy but could guess it had to do with something Loki had said to Fury.
Loki Began to laugh at that, Unnerving Bruce to no end, That and the fact that he felt like that cage was meant for him.
"Its an impressive cage" Loki finally spoke raising his arms to the side as if to surrender.
"Not built I think, for me" Seemed like Loki felt the same way Bruce did.
"Built for something a lot stronger then you"
"Oh Ive heard" Loki spoke while turning to look directly into the Camera, The look that Natasha gave him seemed like an apology for not telling him that they had a contingency plan just in case the other guy showed up, Though he knew that it wouldn't stop him.
"A mindless beast, Makes play hes still a man"Loki spoke, Bruce nodded at Natasha to accept her apology.
"How desperate are you, To call on such desperate creatures to defend you"
"How desperate am I, You threaten my world with war, You steal a force you can't hope to control, You talk about peace and you kill cause its fun, You have made me very desperate, You might not be glad that you did" Loki reveled in making Fury so desperate
"Ooh, It burns you to have come so close, To have the tesseract, to have power, Unlimited power, And for what a warm light for all mankind to share, And then to be reminded what real power is"
Fury smirked and turned away "Well let me know if real power wants a magazine of something"with that he was gone from the room.
"He really grows on you doesn't he"Bruce was the first to speak and the only person that seemed to appreciate his quip was Natasha.
"Loki's gonna drag this out, So" Steve stopped and looked up to where the capped demi god was standing "Thor, Whats his play"
"He has an army called the chitari, They're not of Asgard or any world known, He means to lead them against your people, They will win him the earth, In return I suspect for the Tesseract"
"An Army, From outer space" Rogers simplified what Thor had said, Bruce summarized mostly for himself
"So he's building another portal, That's what he needs Erik Selvig for"
"Selvig" the confusion in Thor's voice dripped through
"Hes an astrophysicist" Bruce answered "Hes a friend" Thor replied
Natasha was the next to speak the annoyance of the entire situation seemed to weigh heavy on her "Loki has him under some kind of spell, Along with one of ours"
"And Loki let us take him" Rogers seemed skeptical of the entire situation "He's not leading an army from here"
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki, That guys brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him"
Bruce
The liquid was thicker then he had intended it to be, For some reason his last attempts at re-creating more of his potion were failures.
It wasn't long before Bruce realized that he had to take into account the difference in altitude from Calcutta, Therefore the next batch was made in half the time, he began to pour it into the flask when Tony made his way into the lab.
"If that's any form of alcohol than I'm in, What are we having" Bruce slapped Tony's hand away when he reached for the first vile.
"Trust me you drink this and well, There will be no alcohol for you in the future"
Tony smirked and moved his way over to the monitor where Bruce had just calibrated the correct heat signature into the algorithm.
The door of the lab opened again and Natasha walked in with a handful of papers
"Why is it every time someone visits me here its cause they want to hand me files"
Natasha smirked at this and rested her hand on the table,
"Aw is Brucey lonely, you know we could go into your bedroom again if that's what you want"
The sound of several metallic objects falling to the ground behind the Largest monitor alerted Natasha to Tony's presence, Schooling herself she left the room without an explanation for the flirty joke, Bruce caught that Natasha was in fact Blushing.
"Did you have sex with Natasha" Tony asked in a blunt, surprised tone.
Bruce turned around to where tony was and stared at him with an incredulous look on his face.
"No she was talking about when she came to get me, She surprised me in my bedroom the conversation after that revolved around a mad man wanting to destroy the world, So trust me no sex" Bruce lied to Tony.
Thankfully Tony seemed to buy it and continued on with his work, Bruce let out a soft sigh in relief and returned to his work, grateful that Tony was so shocked at what she said that she didn't reveal that he was a danger to everyone even in this form.
Natasha
Natasha felt like slapping herself, In fact that's exactly what she did, Albeit softly and on the leg, The first thing she learned when becoming a spy was know your surroundings.
If she had known Tony was there she would never have joked with Bruce like that, She would have just handed him the files and left.
Hopefully Bruce understood that she was in many ways apologizing to him for what she did to him earlier and saying that she forgave him for what he did to her, Saying sorry at this point would feel like going around a revolving door with Bruce.
Walking down the corridor she swore at herself again, The main reason she was sent to hand the files to Bruce was to get an update on their findings, Turning around she steeled herself and entered the lab once again.
She noticed Tony was the first to look up at her, A smile lit up his face.
"Oh Natasha if you want to go to my room all you have to do is ask" Natasha felt weird ed out, Looking up and down tony, She sucked in a deep breath and spoke.
"Trust me Stark, only in your dirtiest fantasies and also, there are only two things I'm afraid of in this world one of them is in this room and the other is Pepper" Turning away from tony she looked at Bruce who was staring at her with a smile of his own.
"I scare you huh" he asked looking down to the ground in a that familiar child like manner.
Natasha shook her head "I wasn't talking about you Bruce in fact I was talking about the thought of ever sleeping with tony" Tony's face contorted into a hurt expression.
"Well trust me, you're not all that sweetheart,actually I think I would rather sleep with the Hulk then you" Walking away tony returned to his work, Natasha stepped closer to Bruce and Asked about the progress, Bruce's answer was long and very scientific causing Natasha to phase out, When Bruce finally stopped Natasha noticed that both tony and Bruce where laughing at her.
"What"
"oh its nothing it's just we where worried that if I continued on with all that crap, then you might have started to drool or something, Look were close to finding where the tesseract is, go tell fury that"
Annoyed Natasha once again left Bruce and Tony's lab.
Bruce
Bruce was washing his hands when the pain struck him, His head felt like a knife was being pierced through it, His heart rate immediately spiked and his hands crushed the basin in front of him into ruble.
Falling from the sink Bruce landed on his side, Curling up he tried to overcome the incredible anger that was washing over him, he could feel the other guy wanting to come out of him but he gave it everything he had to keep that from happening.
Slowly a calm flowed over him and his breathing returned to normal, the headache was gone and Bruce was surprised.
"Why am I on the floor"
He asked himself as he made his way over to the sink fear rose in his chest as he noted tat the basin in front of him was destroyed.
Exiting the Bathroom he looked around him to see whether he had caused any more damage, With everything seemingly intact Bruce made his way to the bridge, the first person he walked into was Natasha.
"Oh sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going"
Natasha nodded "Yeah me either, Fury is making me talk to Loki which should be about as fun as..." Natasha stopped talking and looked down at Bruce's hand with a concerned look on her face.
"Doctor your bleeding" Natasha went to grab Bruce's hand causing him to pull away.
"Don't touch it" Looking down Bruce noticed a small line of blood following him from the bathroom.
"Before you do anything can you stand here and make sure no one touches the blood, it could be dangerous to them" Natasha nodded as Bruce made his way to where the cleaning equipment was, Setting up the barriers Bruce began to clean while Natasha stood watch.
"What happened" Natasha asked watching as Bruce scrubbed the door handle clean
"I was washing my hand and I slipped, I must have hit it on something cause I didn't realize it was bleeding until you pointed it out"
Bruce could tell that she didn't believe him but he was grateful for the fact that she didn't ask anymore questions, once he finished Natasha walked past him and handed him a first aid kit.
"Do you need me to help with that" Bruce shook his head.
"No I'm fine, it's not the first time Ive cut myself, I'm just glad I don't have to use super glue to patch it up" he answered her while lifting up the first aid kit and with that Natasha was off to Speak to Loki.
Natasha
The Cell bay was colder than any other room on the Helli carrier, The atmosphere was made even colder by the man Natasha was now staring at, As though sensing her Loki stopped in his tracks,
"You know Agent Hill already spoke with me, I doubt you would be any different"
He spoke with an easy calm in his voice.
"After the way she came at me, You would appear as a friend, As a balm, And i would cooperate"
"I want to know what you've done to agent Barton and Dr Selvig" She asked little patience in her voice
Loki simply smiled "I would say I have expanded their minds" The answer frustrated her to no end, Moving closer to the cell to show she wasn't afraid of him she spoke again,
"And once you've won, Once your King of the mountain, What happens to their minds"
She crossed her arms and awaited his answer, Loki seemed to contemplate this for a second,
"Is this Love agent Romanoff, Cause if it is does Agent Hill know how you feel for Agent Barton"
"Love is for children, He saved my life once, among other things so I owe him a debt"
Loki began to back away from the wall closest to Natasha and asked her to Continue with the story.
Natasha contemplated this, To tell him the truth could mean compromising herself, Yet he probably already knew everything from having one of Shields Highest ranked agents under his Wing, She decided to go for it and see where she could take him.
"Before i worked for shield, I, Well i made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who i used it for, Or on."
Now both of them where sitting and Natasha felt as though she had the upper hand.
"I got on shields Radar in a bad way, Barton was sent to kill me, It was hill that told him not to do it, He didn't have to listen to her but he did"
Loki laughed a short burst of a laugh and looked at Natasha mischief in his eyes,
"And what would you do if i chose to spare him, Agent hill has already offered to spare my life, You don't seem like that type of person"
"I wont let you out"
"Of course not but i like this, The world in the balance and you bargain for two men"
"Regimes fall everyday, I'm Russian so I tend not to weep over things like that, Well at least I was"
Loki seemed to absolutely revel in all of this "And what are you know" An air of cockiness lacing his voice.
"It's really not that complicated, I'm someone with a past who has red in their ledger, Frankly i would like to wipe it out and Barton is the one to do that for me"
She spoke as she stood, Trying to assert some form of dominance over Loki.
"Can He" that through her, "Can he really wipe out that much red, Dreykovs Daughter"
The mention of her father name surprised her, Only fury knew who her father was so how did Loki find that out.
"São Paulo, The hospital fire, Barton told me everything" Natasha was beginning to worry, if Barton knew all of this then who else did.
"Your ledger is dripping, its Gushing with red and you think that saving a man no more virtuous than yourself Will change anything, This is the Bassist sentimentality, This is a child at prayer, Pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers, You pretend to be separate to have your own code, Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you, And they will never go away"
Each word was affecting Natasha more and more, Slamming his fist onto the glass Natasha was visibly startled.
"I wont touch Barton not until i make him kill you, Slowly intimately, In every way he knows you fear, And then he will wake just long enough to see his good work, And when he screams I will split his skull"
Finally hearing enough Natasha turned away and wipe away the tears that where beginning to fall, Her heart was racing once again and her hatred for the man now behind her had risen tenfold.
"You're a monster" She whispered back at him just loud enough for him to hear after a moment he replied,
"Oh no, You brought the monster"
Schooling herself, her face now free of tears she turned back to him fully understanding his plan,
"So banner, That's your play"
"What?"
Turning away Natasha placed a Finger to her ear and began to talk,
"Loki means to Unleash the Hulk"