Man, I could make excuses. But, whatever. It's not like anyone reads these authors notes anyway. Regardless, don't forget to leave a review saying what you hated about it!

Chapter Eleven:

Honestly Steve had never expected to find himself bushwhacking through the 1600's but this was a particularly special case, and he was willing to let himself stop over thinking it in return for Bruce's safe return.

They'd gotten some rumours off of a man in the village, and were now heading to what they seriously hoped was a small farming community in this patch of woods.

"Do you you think we'll find him?" Steve asked eventually, pushing himself up a small riverbank ledge and hating the feeling of his wet pants sticking to his legs. The fact that they had to go through the river was bad enough without the river coming with them.

"Oh, yeah." Jack said easily, kicking himself up after Steve. "I've done so many harder and weirder missions than this. And so have you, for that matter."

Steve nodded and took a deep breath, starting off north-west in hopes of finding their lost friend. He knew he should be trusting Jack, but nothing in his memory could tell him why-apart from orders given, he didn't even have a reason to be here. Until Bruce was lost.

"So you dabble in time travel often?" Steve asked, turning to look at Jack who had wandered a few feet to his left to avoid a thorn bush.

"Oh, yeah. Me being here is time travel, even." Jack muttered, glancing behind him with a sort of confused expression.

"Really?" Steve said, intrigue pricking at the back of his mind. Jack didn't reply, instead turning around fully to peer into the trees they'd left behind. "Is there something wrong?"

"Can you feel that?" Jack said quietly. Steve raised an eye but stayed silent, scanning the forest and trying to feel whatever Jack was feeling.

"I don't…"

"That's the void, can't you feel it?" Jack insisted, tilting his head.

"What void, I can't feel anything!"

"It must be because I've been-"

An ear-splitting roar broke the conversation, shattering the air around them and sending both boys stumbling back in shock.

"Now that's the Hulk." Steve stammered, picking himself up. He was heartbeats away from taking off after the sound, but Jack's panicked voice stopped him.

"There is void energy everywhere Rogers, this isn't just… This isn't just the Hulk we're dealing with now." Jack said, standing up and jogging over to stand beside Steve.

"Well, what do we do?" Steve asked. "We can't leave him, we're so, so, close."

"I know. Come on." Jack said, using his head to beckon into the woods. "We just need to be careful. We might have the advantage right now."

Steve scowled, resisting the urge to just run into the fray and followed Jack through the woods, in an almost crouch.

The ground was vibrating. As they got closer, vibrant green was visible through the dark forest trees, conifers mostly, some distant part of Jack's mind told him.

The green turned, his massive fist demolishing a tree that was sent flying into others, which splintered in their own turn. It roared again, and both Captains winced.

Suddenly, the Hulk roared and shrieked again, jittering about and flailing and screaming like a banshee and making the two men close their eyes and ears and will it to stop. When they looked back, the Hulk was gone, and in it's place, naturally, was Dr. Bruce Banner, laying naked and covered in dried blood and cuts and purple, brown, black bruises of every shade. He lay immobile, and Steve felt a nauseating feeling grow in the pit of his stomach as he thought his friend was dead.

Then Bruce twitched, a whimpering groan of a beg reached his ears that pierced through his heart and made him want to cry. "Please…"

Steve leapt then and there, but Jack once again grabbed his arm and yanked him to the ground.

"Look!"

Steve complied, feeling rage boil in his stomach at Jack, but more at whatever was torturing Bruce.

A black shadow moved above the Hulk. It was at least seven feet tall, Steve's eyes told him. With a black cloak that swooped around it and seemed to melt into the earth, yet never lost size or shape. His eyes were obstructed by a massive, black mask that covered his entire face. The mask was hard to see. It's like… Steve knew it was a mask, but he could seem to place why he knew it was a mask.

Large, bone-white antlers grew out of the black mass's head. They intertwined and twisted above him in a massive, demonic crowned, and seemed to drip in thick black ink.

It was a thing of nightmares.

It looked up and made eye contact with Steve. Jack was frozen to the spot, but Steve knew, he just… He knew that the monster was looking at him. It was seeing everything, and it had seen them. It looked away slowly, looking down at Bruce briefly before looking out across the forest, giving them a view from the side-an impossibly thin body.

It flickered out of existence.

Steve jumped to his feet, running over to Bruce and closely followed by Jack. He felt numb all over, like someone had ripped out his insides, then replaced them in the wrong order. Everything was wrong. This was wrong. Here was wrong.

Bruce was unconscious, and as Steve tried to help Jack get the poor, tortured man into a position they could jump with, he realized that he had been crying.