Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel comics or characters or movies, and am making no money off of this fic.
AN: Written for the October 24th Whumptober prompt: drowning.
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Pressure by luvsanime02
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They shove his head back under the water in the barrel, and Bruce Banner wants to struggle, but by this point, it's all that he can do to keep the air trapped inside his chest and breathe. After a minute that feels like an eternity, Bruce's body twitches and jerks. He needs more air. His lungs hurt so much. They burn.
After another few seconds, his hair is yanked and his head is brought back up out of the barrel, and Bruce takes in searing lungfuls of air, gulping it down and choking on the small bits of water pouring out of his mouth and nose. He can't even wipe it away with his hands tied behind his back.
He's choking, but that's so much better than drowning. Before this, Bruce would never have believed how much water could actually hurt, but it does. Or maybe that's just the severe strain that Bruce's body has been under for the last however-long.
"You can stop this at any time, Mr. Banner," the guy says, this man in charge of Bruce's 'treatments'. Bruce wants to correct this man, to tell him that he's Dr. Banner, but actually, Bruce couldn't give less of a fuck at this moment. He'll let this man say anything that he wants, as long as he continues to keep talking. If he's talking, then Bruce isn't drowning.
"All that we want is to see the transformation," the man continues, pitching his voice soft and low with false sympathy. "Just a small glimpse to further our research, and then you can go back home, Mr. Banner."
Right. Bruce doesn't believe him, but even if he did, he wouldn't change voluntarily. They can drown him all day, and probably will, and Bruce will never choose to transform.
In a way, he's almost grateful that they're trying to force him to change into the Hulk through this method. Nothing makes Bruce angry about drowning. Scared, yes, and he'll readily admit that. There's no shame in being scared. It's only when he turns angry that Bruce ever feels shame anymore.
But the point is that he doesn't believe them. Bruce doesn't know why these men want to see him transform, what methods they might have of restraining him in that state, or what kind of experiments that they're running, but Bruce knows a scam when he hears one, and he has no interest in being a part of this one.
"Fine," the man says, when Bruce doesn't reply. He waves a negligent hand, and Bruce takes a deep breath, and then the pain begins all over again. He's in so much pain, but he's not ever going to give into their demands. Bruce is no stranger to pain.
His body feels like it's on fire while he's drowning. Bruce doesn't know for how much longer that he can do this before he passes out from the sheer stress that his body is under, if nothing else, but anything is better than giving into them, to their demands, and most of all, to the monster within himself.