Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man 2, Thor, or the Avengers, along with the characters, the quotes, and everything else associated with Marvel.
A/N: Final exams season. As much as I didn't want to I did end up deducting a lot of time studying, so for everyone that's keeping up with the rewrites, I only have one chapter rewritten this update.
Chapter 28
She sped through the hallways towards Banner's lab and ran into Thor at an intersection.
"Come with me. We're going to Banner's."
"I've heard," Thor said. "Fury called me. What is going on?"
"Your brother plans to poison this place from the inside out. We will not let that happen."
"What did Loki do?"
She didn't answer him. The way to the lab seemed forever. When they arrived a brawl had broken out.
"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Rogers was saying.
Banner's eyes locked onto Natasha the moment he saw her. "Did you know about this?" He pointed to a computer screen that Stark held up. Weapon plans blinked and rotated on its surface. Phase Two, most likely.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked.
Banner laughed. "Oh, I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."
"Loki is manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." He grabbed onto the screen and raised his voice. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Banner's stare whipped around to Fury. No one spoke. Then, with such reluctance and such a break from reluctance Fury pointed at Thor.
"Because of him."
"Me?" Thor asked.
Fury marched around the center of the room as he spoke. "Last month Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge mass that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury whirled around to Thor. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. They can't be controlled."
"Like you controlled the cube?" Rogers cut in.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it," Thor said. "And his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?"
"You forced our hand," Fury reasoned. "We had to come up with someth-"
"A nuclear deterrent," said Stark. "Guess that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"
"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck-deep," Rogers said.
"Wait, wait, hold on. How's this now about me?" Stark looked genuinely offended.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
They continued their fight, ignoring everyone else in the room.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.
"Excuse me, do we come your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury said.
"You treat your champions with such distrust!"
"They're not my champions!"
"Are you boys really that naive?" Natasha asked the collective group. "S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats."
"Captain America is on the threat watch list?" Banner asked.
"We all are." And it was true. Every one of them.
"You're on that list?" Stark seized the opportunity to hurl at Rogers. "Are you above or below angry bees?"
"Stark, I swear. One more time and I'll-"
"Global threat!" Stark pointed at Rogers. "I feel threatened!"
"Stark-"
"How many of you have treated me with respect? How many-"
"Respect what?" Rogers spat. "The decisions you've made? The-"
"What decisions? Saving you in Germany? Going after Loki in the Andes because you wimped? Working on getting the Tesseract back while you strut around this toy boat in your Spandex like you're a Victoria's Secret model? Fury rejected my services after sticking Romanoff under my roof like some dirty raccoon. Now I'm here. What respect do I get for getting tossed around, benefiting everyone else?"
"You just don't get it, do you?"
"No. You don't."
"I never said I reject his services..." Fury muttered.
"This is gonna blow." Banner rubbed his eyes.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor accused Fury, loud enough that momentarily everyone else quieted down.
"It's his M.O, isn't it?" Banner said. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos." His eyes darted around. "We're... we're a time bomb."
"You. Need to step away," Fury said.
"Why shouldn't a guy let off a little steam?" Stark purposely slapped a hand on Rogers' shoulder.
"You know damn well why. Back off." Rogers swatted his hand away.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."
Rogers nodded with a cold smile. "Yeah. Big man with a suit of armor." He circled Stark. "Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire."
Rogers snickered. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
"Put on a suit. Let's go a few rounds," Rogers challenged.
Thor broke out in laughter. "You people are so petty. And tiny."
"Yeah, this is a team," Banner added.
Fury called over Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-"
"Where?" Banner asked. "You rented my room." A wisp of an accent crept into his voice.
"The cell was just in case-"
"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know. I tried."
All eyes fixed on him.
"I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk."
Banner grabbed Loki's scepter off of its stand, his eyes bulging, fixed on Natasha. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"
She touched the gun holstered to her thigh.
"Dr. Banner," Rogers interrupted.
Nostrils flaring, Banner glared at him.
"Put down the scepter."
Banner looked at the weapon in his hand, breathing hard.
A monitor beeped from the other end of the room.
"Got it," Stark said.
Banner plunked the scepter back onto the table and walked towards the computer. "Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."
"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
"I can get there faster." Stark pointed at whatever the screen displayed.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it," Thor said.
Stark ignored him and turned to leave the group.
"You're not going alone." Rogers snatched his arm.
Stark smacked him away. "You gonna stop me?"
"Put on the suit. Let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
Fury rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips.
"...My God..." Banner muttered, still focused on the computer.
"Doctor?" Natasha approached him.
He looked up, eyes wide. "Guys...?" His gaze whipped around everyone. "We need—"
An explosion tore apart his warning. It blew through the center of room, its force blasting away the people it had narrowly missed. Glass smashed against Natasha's back. She fell.
There was no other room outside the one they were in.
She collided against metal. Lightless. Cold. Fire and burnt scraps filthed the air. A shock of pain in her ankle that made her gasp. A guttural groan beside her. Thor... must be Thor...
She fumbled the hair from her face and looked.
It wasn't Thor.
Banner laid flat on his stomach, fists clenched by his head. His breathing sounded like a leaking gas tank.
He wouldn't look at her.
Natasha wiped the sweat from above her lips.
She twisted around. A thick pipe trapped her ankle. Spots flared in her vision when she tried moving. Her heart threw itself against her chest.
"Romanoff?" Fury boomed into her comm.
"We're ok," she wheezed out. Then to herself, "We're ok, right?"
"Who's with you?" Fury asked.
"Banner. Banner is."
"How's he looking?"
"Ok. For now."
Natasha pulled at her ankle again. No use. Banner pushed himself up to rest on his elbows. His grunts and snarled returned. Shadows outlined and contoured the contracting, bloating muscles on his arms.
"Doctor...?" She called. "...Bruce?"
Banner was on his hands now, his body lurching and pulsing with every breath, his hands clawing the grated floor. His black curls fell over and obscured his features.
"You gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants," she continued. Please, let him hear her...
"We're gonna be ok. Listen to me."
A couple of deck-hands loped towards her. "Are you hurt?" One shouted.
Natasha waved them away and turned back to Banner. "We're gonna be okay, alright? I swear on my life I will get you out of this. You will walk away and never-"
"Your life?" Banner roared. His hair swung back. His face had contorted; eyes narrowed and mouth leaked strands of saliva; a sickly green crawled out from under his jaw and inside his shirt. On his knees now. He threw his head back and howled; his shirt strained with his body's inflation. A crescendo of riiiiiips. Green lurked beneath abused purple fabric. He tried to stand up but staggered, falling down another eight feet from the suspended platform into the utility level below.
Natasha pulled at her ankle. Still no use. Banner shook, and each time he tried to stand up more of his clothes shredded.
Then he stared at her. On his mutated body his eyes had shrunk, but still she saw what he wanted her to see.
"Bruce," she whispered.
One final exertion and he was bare from the waist up. The noise drummed into her ears. Natasha squeezed her eyes shut, clamped her teeth together and jerked—this time the pipe gave.
She stumbled up with a cry and ran.
The stairs were so close. Ten feet. Five. The Hulk saw her and pounced.
Halfway up the stairs Natasha jumped for the railing above, hoisted herself up before where she had stood a moment ago was torn down. Then the platform under her ripped. She swung on and dodged metal bars, handles, pipes. The tangled space stretched on forever. Where to go? The monstrous growls behind her was her GPS. After more twists and turns the sounds dimmed. She slipped through a narrow gap between two sturdy, five-feet diameter steels rods and halted.
Silence.
This couldn't be right.
In light steps Natasha darted out of her hiding place. Her gun in hand, she peeked through the structures. A distant clang or two made more sense than this soundlessness did. She ventured farther.
Still nothing. No alarming noises, at least. From the floor above her throttled shouts and crashes. Gunfire. A flurry of frantic, human feet pounded somewhere to the left, the hangar bay of the Helicarrier. She veered in its direction, her footsteps rolling and quiet.
A muted thud, on her level. Natasha tensed. Another thud, its trailing hums drawing goosebumps from her body. A low, grinding creeeaaak, closer still. She picked up her pace. Where was he? His speed and strength didn't need a supplementary element of surprise. He could do whatever—
Splitting roars made her raise her gun to its source: on her left; above. Close. She fired and missed. The pipe inches above hissed and leaked liquid nitrogen. She fled. Each tripping step of her feet stomped her carefully mapped navigations to dust. Pipes. Beams. Boxes and boxes and boxes. Jump run duck turn run. Blue lights ahead. She rounded towards it and sprinted, yet still the booming behind her thundered closer. Onto a narrow, skeletal corridor now, naked with exposed wires. Big mistake. The Hulk tore through them like paper structures. So close. So close to the end of the walkway yet still he got her. A giant hand swatted into her back and sent her flying, and she crashed against the wall in a quavering mess. Fire along her spine. Spreading. Inflaming nearby bones and muscles and she savaged her trickling strength and sat up and gulped in air and the pain was too great and strangled, breathless sounds betrayed her and the Hulk was there. Eight feet away. Three. He prepared to strike her again. She couldn't move.
Flash to the right, ramming into the Hulk. Hole in the wall to her left. She blinked, wide-eyed, gasping into her lungs life that the attack had smacked out of her.
"We're not your enemies, Banner," came Thor's voice from the hole. "Try to think!"
Natasha drew her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The movement protested with the throb in her back and the shoulder she was thrown into the wall with, but she only hung on tighter, rocking herself with her mangled, wretched ankle. She should help Thor. Should at least notify Fury, aid where she's more capable...
Her eyes tingled and itched. She rubbed them with frantic claws, and when that resulted in sticky fingers she switched to the back of a wrist, smearing hard enough that she took off a few eyelashes along with the damp mess. Within a few more breaths her nose clogged up and leaked. She used her other wrist.
The noise Thor and the Hulk made dimmed. The war around her muted. She touched her earpiece for Coulson.
"Thor... Hulk... Lower hangar bay," she said with a gulp.
"I know," he said. "Get over here. We've got mercenaries gaining on the bridge."
"Right away."
She stayed where she was.
For ten minutes—fifteen, maybe—she stayed with her body tucked, clenching the shivers with futile results. Stayed though Thor returned, reached out and asked if she was ok, stayed despite Coulson's unsated calls to her. Eventually Thor left. The calls died. The hangar bay evacuated, its door locked. Still she stayed by her unconcealed concealment, where whoever that passed saw her but knew better than to do more.
Then everything began to tilt.
To her left. Tilting and tilting, vaguely dipping to the front. Then a violent jerk that slammed her skull against the wall, and she bit her tongue.
Somehow Fury overrode the hold command on her earpiece, and his voice invaded her trance:
"It's Barton. He took our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?"
"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."
And yes we are approaching a pivotal point in the story (that I've already written and is preening right now) and I can't wait to post it!