When Hulk woke up, he was rather confused.
He had come out in the middle of a large space with a high roof and concrete floors. Hulk was restrained with heavy metal shackles on his wrists and ankles that had short, thick chains that attached his feet to the ground and his hands to two metal poles on either side of him. Hulk tried to break out of the chains, but found they were too strong, like those magic chains that had once caught him. The centre of the area, where he was standing, was raised above the rest of the room, except for a platform straight in front of him that contained lots of computers and science-machines. Slightly in front of all of that, there was a shiny, silver cylinder, that looked both similar to things he had seen in Banner's science room and to the big guns - cannons - that enemies had used on him before. The whole situation was unexpected, but none of that was the real reason Hulk was confused.
It was the silence. It was never silent when Hulk came out and Banner went away inside. There was always the sound of weapons firing, people screaming, enemies shouting. Hulk only came out because of fear - because Banner felt fear, or because people felt fear - and that meant that there was always the sound of fear - whether it was cowering-fear, paralysing-fear, wary-fear, polite-fear or angry-fear. People were always afraid whenever Hulk came out, whether they were afraid of him or afraid of whatever he had woken up to fight... Except...
Except for Tony (Metal-Man, Tin-Man, Shellhead, friend). Tony was never afraid of Hulk. Tony never overlooked him, either. Tony never forgot that he was real person, too. He never lied to him. He understood that he was not Banner. He knew that he was more than just a strong fighter. He always listened to him, and took his opinions and ideas into account.
Hulk had once woke up in his team's glass tower home. He had been very confused then, too, because he had been slumbering inside and he'd had no idea why he had suddenly come out feeling angry-paralysing-fear - why he'd felt the need to run and fight (and run and defend and run and leave and run) until he was safe. He had come out in a messy, colourful, shiny science room. Hulk couldn't see the danger that had brought him out, which had made him feel a lot more angry-fear. He had looked around the room rapidly, sniffing the air to try and catch the scent of the threat. He had growled aggressively when he couldn't find what had caused him to come out.
"Hey, Bruce! I heard a crash, are you-" Hulk had spun around, snarling and body poised, ready to attack, at the sound of a voice. A person had been standing in a doorway - not one of the dangerous people who wore dark uniforms and carried weapons and who were always attacking him with angry-fear, or watching him and waiting with wary-fear. He had been wearing random-comfortable-different-clothes, like what the people that Hulk and his team always saved wore. The ones that always screamed. But the person didn't scream, and Hulk had soon recognised the person to be Tin-Man, but the vulnerable side of the man that only Banner got to see. Hulk had immediately relaxed upon seeing him, because he knew he could trust him. He remained on guard, though, so that if whatever had brought him out showed itself, he would be able to defend himself and his teammate.
Hulk had expected to smell paralysing-polite-fear from Tony, like he always did on the others. He had thought that the small man would be wary (angle his body so he could watch him out of the corner of his eye, voice take on a soothing tone and slow pace, back away slightly and put down what he was holding so his hands would be free for action). But when Hulk had glanced back at Tony again, he had seen nothing more than surprise. No fear - of any kind. No eneasiness. Just simple, honest surprise at seeing him there, like he was a friend he had thought was out of town and who had ended up in his home. Hulk had been stunned for a moment at interpretting that, but he had soon recovered and began glaring around the science room, searchin for the threat.
"Enemy around here. Banner feels fear," he had rumbled in explanation for his presence.
Tony had looked alert and had warily gazed around the room in response. There was silence as the two teammates looked to find what had scared Banner, before Tony had released an "Oh" that was heavy with an emotion that Hulk had yet to identify. Hulk's eyes sped to where Tony had been looking, and he stared in confusion at a smashed soft chair near where Hulk had woke, that had blankets scattered around the floor near it.
"What?" he had asked in confusion.
Tony had looked at him before replying, "I think Bruce had a nightmare."
Hulk had been able to figure out what Tony meant from there by himself, but he had still been surprised when the other man hadn't explained further. People often explained things in a lot of detail to him when they wanted him to understand something, but Tony knew he was smart enough to figure this bit out by himself. Hulk had had nightmares before, sometimes he shared ones with Banner, but sometimes they were his and he saw them alone.
Once Hulk had realised that there was no danger, and that it would be safe for Banner to come out when he woke, he had simply huffed and sat down heavily. Hulk had been used to Tony as Metal-Man treating him without any fear and like an equal, but he had still been surprised when Tony, as just a person, hadn't flinched and backed away at his sudden movement. Even the people that liked Hulk - even Betty, who had only ever felt polite-fear around him - would have reacted in alarm.
"You ok?" Tony had asked then. Hulk just snorted and nodded.
"You know," Hulk looked to his friend when he began speaking again, "we don't really talk much outside of battles. I mean, I guess we do afterwards, but we've never just hung out before... So, do you wanna eat ice cream and watch Star Wars with me?"
That was one of Hulk's favourite memories of being out. That night, he had understood that Tony was not just Banner's friend, not just Hulk's teammate, but Hulk's friend as well.
Hulk was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of voices entering the space.
"-but if they-!" a panicked voice was saying, high pitched and sounding like he was feeling cowering-fear.
"They won't," a firm, deep, much more confident voice cut him off. "We just have to do it now instead. Go prep the equipment."
Hulk growled loudly in anger when the two owners of the voices walked past him. Both froze then, in shocked fear before staring at him.
"Oh God. It's awake," whimpered the first voice. He was wearing a white science-coat with black people-pants and shoes. He had light brown, straight hair and Hulk was able to smell the cowering-paralysing-fear coming from him.
"Don't worry," said the second voice, regaining some of his confidence, although he stilled looked and sounded like he felt wary-angry-fear. He had curly, black hair and wore black framed, square glasses. He was taller than the other man, and was wearing clothes like his, but his sleeves were rolled up. "If it was able to get out of those chains, we'd already be dead. We don't have time to put him back to sleep, so we'll just have to do it while he's awake. Go prep the equipment," the man ordered again.
They both made their way up to the platform, while Hulk snarled and strained against his chains again. The shorter man rushed over to the computers, rapidly typing and pressing buttons in a jittery manner that betrayed his fear, while the taller man walked around behind the cannon and did something that caused a few lights to flare up. Neither of them looked at Hulk, likely out of fear and an attempt to dehumanize him.
The shorter man spoke, sounding the most sure he had the entire time, but not by much, "One minute until we can do this."
The other man glanced at him and nodded. "Everyone else?"
"They're on their way, but..."
"-But the Avengers are on to us. We''ve got backup just outside, but it's smart not to have too many people. We don't need any attention right now. I have a feeling that the Avengers wont take too kindly to us killing their WMD."
"Yeah. Hey, when we-"
A sudden crash cut him off, and Hulk and the two men looked up in surprise and shock to where Iron Man had burst through the roof of the room.
"AHHH. No, NOPE, no, no, no!" Tony looked like he was having a hard time staying in the air as he flew jerkily. His chest plate, helmet and most of his arm guards were missing, and the red and gold plating that was left was scratched. The jets that let him fly in his boots and his hands weren't firing as smoothly as usual. Hulk was annoyed that he hadn't been able to help his friend in whatever battle he had just come from.
Tony eventually came to a stop in front of Hulk. "Hi, bud. You right?"
Hulk looked at him and rattled the chains pointedly, "What do you think?"
Tony nodded, "Good point. I don't have enough power to fry those right now, if they're strong enough to hold you back. Once we sort out this, though, I'll get you out." Tony then turned around to face the two men who had captured Hulk. "Ok, look... I don't even..." he shook his head in bewilderment, "What the hell are you even doing?"
The tall man recovered from his shock, "We, Stark, are doing what someone should have done years ago - what you should have done for the safety of the world. We're going to destroy the world's most volatile and powerful weapon of mass destruction. We're going to put the thing out of its misery, for its own good and the good of the world."
Hulk could feel sad-anger building inside of him, and he could see the same thing happening to Tony, "Weapon of mass destruction?!" Tony spoke slowly, angrily enunciating each word, "Thing?! You're talking about a person! It wouldn't even work, anyway! Haven't you seen how many times people have tried to kill him over the years? All you're gonna do is piss him, me and all our friends, off."
"Friends? Don't make me laugh," the man spoke cruelly, "You're not friends with that abomination. He's just a useful weapon - a tool - that you drop into cities to fight battles, with no regard for the people who live in them."
Hulk thought he would probably have said more, but the other man interjected, attracting everyone's attention with his hysterical, "It's ready!"
"Good."
"What's ready? What does the cannon do?" Tony asked then.
"This, Stark, is the cannon that is going to kill the Hulk," the taller man said with pleasure. "Now get out of the way."
"Like hell I will!" Tony moved so he was directly in between Hulk and the cannon.
"Don't worry, Stark, this won't hurt it for too long. Besides, if our calculations are correct, it will leave Dr Banner completely unharmed, and cured of the monstrosity. You see, this is an anti-gamma radiation cannon - the first of its kind. The AGR cannon was something we invented to save areas that were covered in nuclear fallout. We found that it removes gamma radiation from an area and can regress the damage done to the point that there ceases to be any. We can turn radioactive objects back to their previous state! It wasn't too hard to figure out how to alter it so it could completely destroy the Hulk instead."
"It'll completely wipe out Hulk and leave Bruce just as he was," Tony muttered in understanding.
"Precisely! So we'd appreciate it if you could move out of the way, it is likely to have a fatal affect if it hits you as you are. One side affect of our alterations to the cannon is that it causes metals to heat up to extreme temperatures. We don't want to kill anyone, we just want to protect our world from the monster. The doctor will live and the creature will be wiped from the earth, like all such mistakes should be."
"Oh, fuck you!" Hulk heard Tony snarl in protect-anger, "Who the hell are you to decide whether Hulk lives or dies? He is just as much a person as you or I, and he's a better one than both of us combined. Hulk may have been an accident, but he sure as hell wasn't a mistake! And oh, yeah, he's my friend, so you're gonna have to fire that cannon at me, 'cause I sure as hell ain't moving. Plus, with the frankly appalling levels of power in here, you're only gonna have one shot before you need to recharge. And seeing as the model is based on Loschev's solar cannon, I'm going to guess that will take about three hours. Our team will be hear by then, and if I'm dead they are going to fuck. You. Up. So there!"
The taller man scoffed in anger, "You'd really risk your life for that weapon - that thing?"
"Pretty sure my speech expressed my standpoint on this whole situation pretty clearly, but if you didn't catch the message, it's fuck yeah, asshole!"
"Why?!"
"'Cause he's my friend." Hulk rumbled in light-happy at Tony's simple response. He appreciated that that was the only reason that Tony would need to protect him, but he was also feeling protect-fear-anger. Hulk did not want to die, but he did not want Tony to die more.
"Metal-Man move now," he said forcefully.
Tony didn't even look at him, "Nope."
"Move."
"No," this time he turned to face him, his feet-jets sparked, causing him to dip in the air for a moment. "I won't."
Hulk was annoyed, but before he could begin to insist again, Tony suddenly turned back to face the tall man who was now aiming the cannon directly at Hulk's chest. Tony moved quickly so his arms and legs were spread out and he was straight in the path of the cannon.
The man spoke again, his voice low and violent-angry, "Move now, Stark, or die."
"Bring it, bitch."
Hulk roared in desperation as the man muttered, "Very well," and strained against the chains in fear-anger so that his - HIS - friend wouldn't die.
Then Tony continued speaking, "But then you'll have to deal with Rhodey - who's right over there, by the way," Everyone looked to where Tony had gestured with his head to see a bigger, grey version of Tony's Iron Man, who had his hand's fire-circle and shoulder-guns all aimed at the man behind the cannon "- and he'll be pretty pissed off, I imagine, if you kill me. Like, seriously, he'll actually kill you. Where you stand. And it won't be quick. It'll also be really painful."
"Step away from the cannon, get on your knees and put your hands on your head," the grey Metal-Man spoke, his voice sounding weird like Tony's whenever he wore helmet.
The man by the computers did so immediately, reeking of cowering-fear. The tall man looked angry and didn't move for a moment, but when the grey Metal-Man shouted "Now!" he did so, too. Once Tony and the grey Metal-Man had made sure that the men couldn't move, they flew up to where Hulk was still stuck.
"But seriously, Tony, what the hell?! You do realise that you have no actual armour on, you're unarmed, and I know you have a concussion-" The grey Metal-Man's armour-face wasn't on, and the voice was no longer different. It was now protect-worry-angry.
"Honeybear, it's fine-"
"No it's bloody not! You were taunting the bad guy - who had a cannon that could have cooked you inside and outside and that had said cannonaimed directly at you! What were you thinking!? I swear, your sole purpose in life is to make me die of a heart attack!"
"Hey, no fair! I'm the one with the hear condition, remember?"
"Yes, I damn well remember! That's why you were in danger of being cooked from the inside out, if you remember! Why would you even do that!? Seriously, I can give you fifteen different reasons right now for why that was a stupid idea!"
Tony looked at Hulk, who had been watching the conversation between the two Metal-Men with amusement. "And I can give you one for why it wasn't that trumps them all. Rhodey, this is Hulk, my friend. Hulk, Rhodey, here, is my platypus."
'Rhodey', who had been looking at Hulk with interest and a small amount of polite-fear, looked shocked when Hulk laughed and said, "He looks more like a penguin than a platypus."
Tony exploded with laughter, which made Hulk feel proud-happy, before he turned back to Rhodey and said, "Hey p- oh my god, I can't even... Penguin! Hahaha! Could you use a laser on the cuffs? I'm kinda outta juice. Hahaha!... Penguin!..."
"Yeah, sure," Rhodey replied, still stunned before he got to work, leaving Hulk and Tony to have a much needed conversation about there friendship.
"You wanna go back to the tower with me and Rhodey? We can get hot dogs on the way?"
That said it all, really. So Hulk smiled.
