Updated chapter 17! Hope you enjoy!
"Don't take Barton's grumpiness personally." –Natasha tells her, casually leaning against an unused locker as Kara puts on her boots inside the training grounds' locker room. "Recent events haven't been very kind to him."
Kara purses her lips. "I didn't really notice."
"You're a terrible liar." –the redhead says, dryly. "You deflated like a sad bouncy house the minute he didn't so much as say 'hi' back."
Kara pouts slightly. "Ugh, fine. I thought I made a bad impression, somehow."
"Well, it's definitely not something you did." –she shrugs. "You've gotta understand, this is all new to us; we've dealt with our fair share of Enhanced over the years – and they haven't been easy marks, either – but ever since Tony, and Thor, and Banner all made a splash, the threat level's spiked exponentially."
"And me." –Kara concludes.
"Like I said, it's not personal. Clint was...compromised, by Loki. Put under his spell, made to fight his own people – forced to fight us. He's the one who led the mission to free Loki and take down the Helicarrier."
Kara knows about the damaged mobile base, of course, but the name 'Loki' eludes her. "Who's Loki?"
"Thor's brother. Adopted, or so he says." –she says, smirking at some joke only she knows. "He initially stole the Tesseract and possessed a couple dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the process. We captured him in Germany, but his minions bust him out, and he then used the Tesseract to open the portal that the Chitauri used to invade."
The blonde narrows her eyes – she does, in fact, remember catching wind of some kind of high profile public arrest in Germany a few days before the invasion. "What happened with him? Did you...y'know...?" –she asks, drawing a line across her neck.
Natasha snorts. "No, unfortunately. The Hulk beat the shit out of him, and he surrendered. Thor took him back to Asgard to face whatever their particular brand of punishment is."
Kara hums. "I see."
The redhead shrugs. "So you can see why Clint might have a hard time trusting you. Especially considering you're someone who isn't afraid to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. It's hard, knowing there's someone out there you couldn't beat if your life depended on it." –she confesses.
"Is there anything I can do to change that? I don't wanna be on bad terms with anyone on the team if I can help it."
"Well, there's your first mistake." –she says. "Trust me, Kara, there's a reason the Avengers Initiative was thought out to be a 'sometimes' kind of affair – there's a lot of clashing personalities in the team, and you can bet they'll clash, once the novelty wears off. Respect and trust are important in teamwork, sure, but friendship is hardly necessary for us to be effective."
Kara adjusts her skirt, snapping the belt in place. "That's kind of...pessimistic, don't you think?"
"Maybe." –Romanoff shrugs. "Maybe you're a little too optimistic yourself." –she says. She tests her gauntlets, making sparks and pops fill the air, causing Kara to wince – invulnerable or not, electrocution hurts like a bitch. "You saw it yourself the other day, on the highway; five minutes alone, and Stark and Rogers were already at each other's throats. And you can't tell me you haven't noticed how uncomfortable Banner is with keeping the would-be robbers in the Tower."
"We asked them to stay." –Kara reminds her.
"...and then put them in quarantine. Call it what you will, but they aren't exactly honored guests."
Kara sighs. "Why are you telling me this?"
Natasha chuckles. "Partly to push your buttons. But it's also because you have this way of drawing people together. Maybe it's because people will listen to the strongest being on the planet. Maybe it's just 'cause you're really that nice. Whatever it is, you need to realize just what you're taking on, being a part of the Avengers – besides the supervillains and alien armies, that is."
"Which would be...?"
The spy looks away. "We're all broken people. Duct-taped back together, sure, but we're always just a stressful moment away from snapping again. It's a lot to handle on the best of days, but now? Now the whole world is expecting us to solve everyone's problem. We are going to break again, and someone's gonna have to pick up the pieces."
"That's what we're here for, though – why we're meant to be a team. Sure, we might get knocked down, but there should always be someone around to help us back on our feet."
Natasha shoots her an appraising look. "...I hope you're right."
"Stop fussing already, you two." –Tony says, over the intercom. "I designed your suits, so I already know you look great."
Kara raises an annoyed eyebrow. "...were you spying on us, you creep?"
"No, but my sexless, omnipresent AI was. Now come on, Bruce is ready to throw down."
Kara gasps as she steps out onto the training field proper. "What the heck happened here?"
The grounds are huge – about ten acres of land, roughly equivalent to eight football fields of sunken rocky terrain surrounded by thirty foot tall walls, in turn encircled by a forested area just about half a mile south of the former Stark Industries warehouse complex that makes up the – still under construction – new Avengers base. What Kara means, though, is that the grounds are also blasted to hell, the acrid smell of soot and gunpowder assaulting Kara's sensitive nose.
War Machine lands with a heavy thud – betraying the added weight of the veritable arsenal grafted onto the much bulkier, gray-black variant Iron Man suit he wears – beside her. "Tony had me test the new armor yesterday, before I came in." –he says, then the silver and crimson-eyed faceplate lifts. "I'd apologize about the mess, but...well, it wasn't all that much prettier before I started shooting."
Stark speaks into their comm-links as he flies over, Rogers and Romanoff jogging towards them from behind. "This place is an abandoned limestone quarry for the nearby towns before Dad bought the land and turned it into a storage complex. The idea is to build a modular training area here that can realistically simulate battlefields, rescue attempts, Asgardian grudge matches, and so on. The tech is still a work in progress, but this should be enough for today."
Kara nods. "Alright. So, what are the rules?"
"We've set things up kind of like a rodeo, at Bruce's insistence, cameras and sensor equipment all around. He goes green, you two tussle – strictly within the boundaries of this place, please – until one of you yields. The rest of us are fancy rodeo clowns; mostly here to brighten up the place, but if the Hulk goes a little off-script, we'll distract and tire him out. JARVIS runs point on the data gathering."
"Are you guys sure about staying? Things might get a little too hectic." –she asks, worried.
"We'll be fine." –Rogers reassures her. "Just do your thing."
"And have fun, yeah?" –Romanoff adds with a smirk.
Kara smiles at them, ever so slightly nervous, then flies towards the middle of the field, where both Banner and Stark are waiting.
"Are we really doing this?" –Bruce asks meekly.
"It'll be fine, Brucey. Kara's game, and so are we." –Stark says.
"It's just...I've never turned into the Hulk for leisure before."
"Think of it as more of an experiment, then."
Banner shoots him a withering look. "I mean there aren't people shooting at me, for once."
Stark chuckles as the repulsors on his palms glow brighter and whine with power. "Just say the word, buddy."
"Come on, Tony, there's no need to pressure him." –she says, landing softly. "Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this, Doctor?"
"Please, it's Bruce." –he says. "And...yes, I am. Nervous as all hell, but the Hulkbuster needs to exist."
Kara nods. "Tell me what you need, then."
"To relax, mostly. And, uh...maybe convince the Hulk you're a threat."
"Wait, what? I'm plenty threatening, aren't I?" –she asks, indignant.
Tony gives her a so-so wave of his gauntlet. Bruce rubs the back of his head. "I don't think the Hulk can fathom it. He thinks you're...well, puny."
"Well, ow. But you know I'm not, right?"
Bruce nods quickly. "I do. I just...worry, y'know? I know you're plenty strong, I just don't want him to hurt you."
"So, don't let him. It's not just his hands on the wheel, right? You told me he's always there, ready to jump in whenever you get hurt. But you're also around when he's out. I know you and the Hulk don't see eye to eye much, but I doubt he wants me hurt, either."
He purses his lips. "You kinda overestimate how much he listens to me. What if he loses control? What if I can't get through to him in time?"
Tony's faceplate lifts. "Bruce, buddy, you gotta give your selves a bit more credit. The Hulk was amazing in New York; he took out even more bad guys than I did – and, lest you forget, he saved my life."
Bruce looks at his hands. "It's just...he's so destructive. Half of Midtown was wrecked because he doesn't know his own strength."
"Well, that's what we're here to figure out, isn't it? We'll start slow and figure things out from there." –Kara promises.
The eternally tired-looking man stares at her. She can see the profound fear in his eyes plainly, but something else sparks within. Something like determination. "Okay." –he says, then starts to unbutton his shirt. "I'll try my best. Just promise me you'll throw us both into the sun if he goes nuts."
She rolls her eyes at the outlandish petition as he drops his pants, revealing a form-fitting pair of purple shorts, stamped with the newly minted Avengers logo – a stylized red 'A' within a circle, the crossed line at the middle of the letter forming an arrow shooting towards the right. Tony grabs the clothes, and blasts off towards the edge of the grounds.
"Ready?" –he asks.
She punches her palm, hard. "Born that way." –she says, then snort-laughs. "Get it? Because my species was genetically engineered to...?"
"Just get on with it already!" –Romanoff shouts in her ear.
Bruce spares a small smile for her terrible joke, then closes his eyes. Kara assumes a fighting stance as Banner grows – his bones, his muscles, and skin engorged and stretched well past the limitations of the human form and the Law of Conservation of Mass – grunting in obvious pain as the transformation turns him from brilliant scientist into raging green monster.
Only...there is no rage. The Hulk stands well over eight feet tall, a veritable mounting of muscles that might've given her pause, if not for the unmistakable, innocent curiosity twinkling in those distinctive, emerald eyes.
"Hi." –she waves, her pose relaxing somewhat. "I'm Supergirl."
The Hulk frowns. "No Supergirl. Kara!" –he states, his voice deep, the words clearly difficult to get out. Then, he punches his chest. "HULK!"
She smiles. "Got'cha." –she says, then offers her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, Hulk."
The jade giant gingerly takes her hand, as if afraid to crush it. The monstrous hand obviously dwarfs hers, but she manages to get a grip, and squeezes.
His expression turns first to one of clear surprise, and then wonder; he tries to match the mounting strength of her grip, and, for the first time since she was a regular child on Krypton, her knuckles pop.
"Holy shit. There's enough pascals in that handshake to make diamonds." –Stark breathes through the comm.
Kara giggles as they release each other's hands, unable to best the other. "You're pretty strong, big guy."
The Hulk gives her a huge, toothy grin. "Hulk is STRONGEST Avenger!" –he claims. "Stronger than THOR, stronger than KARA!"
She tilts her head teasingly. "You sure about that?"
"Hulk is SURE!"
Kara shrugs. "I feel like I could take you on, though. Maybe we should test that?"
The big guy frowns. "Test?"
"Bruce wants to know how strong you really are, yeah. I'm kinda curious, too."
Hulk growls. "Banner wants to BUST Hulk!" –he accuses.
"He does want the Hulkbuster armor built." –she admits. "But nobody here is trying to get rid of you. It's just a way to hold you back. Just in case, y'know? Sometimes, when we fight the bad guys, we get a little carried away. And when we're this strong, we can wreck too much – hurt innocent people, even though we don't want to." –she tries to explain.
The Hulk's massive fists open and close, apprehensively. "Hulk only SMASH bad punies. Hulk PROTECT good punies!"
Kara nods. "Believe me, I get it. But this strength of ours...sometimes it's a bit more like a curse. Sometimes we end up harming the people we're trying to protect." –she says, sadly. "How about this? Let's not think of this as a test, or an experiment. Let's try to see it as...training."
"Training?"
"Yeah! We're superheroes now, buddy! We have to train to get better at it!"
The Hulk seems to ponder this for a moment. "Hulk...protect punies better?"
"I promise, yes." –she says. "What do you say?"
He grins. "Hulk say...SMASH!"
Faster than she could even blink, the Hulk backhands her straight in the solar plexus, sending her careening several dozen feet, kicking up dirt and bits of stone as she turns head over heels over and over until she comes to a stop. Kara can hear the shocked gasps in her comm, but more importantly, she can feel a small, nearly forgotten ache on her chest.
The hit stung.
Kara rises, dusting herself off. The Hulk seems uncertain, afraid that he's gone too far, but roars in glee as she gives him a thumbs-up. Then, Kara charges, forward and upward.
The Hulk jumps up to meet her, but Kara has the clear advantage in the skies, grabbing the arm about to hammer her down and using the swing's momentum to turn to the ground and throw him towards it. The impact is massive – making the earth rumble and causing an upwards shower of rock fragments all around the newly formed crater – but it's not nearly as powerful as the diving punch she delivers, straight at the Hulk's gut.
Kara brushes dust and debris out of her hair as she floats out of reach of the dazed Avengers. "How are we doing, big guy?"
The Hulk responds by leaping feet-first towards her, making contact and taking her right back to the ground. "GOOD FIGHT! Kara not so puny!" –he compliments her.
She grins, pinned as she is by fifteen hundred pounds of muscle. "I can do way better than 'not so puny', pal." –she says, then grabs his massive ankle and switches places with him, slamming him once, thrice, five times into the stone around her. The Hulk guffaws, rising after being released, more than a little dizzy.
"I can't fucking believe it, you Loki'd the Hulk." –Stark cackles over the comm.
"I...what?" -she asks, confused.
"You seen that lovely portrait in black marble Stark keeps in the common room? It's a Hulk original, courtesy of Loki's body." –Romanoff explains, a smile in her voice.
Kara gasps. "Oh, Rao, I had no clue!"
"Just something to complement your Avengers lore. If you guys wanna stop, JARVIS has more than enough." –Tony says.
The Kryptonian shrugs. "Alright." –she says. "Tony says they have enough data, Hulk."
The green giant vehemently shakes his head. "Not experiment, TRAINING!" –he reminds her. "Fight, FIGHT!"
Oh-oh, Kara thinks to herself. "We'll pick it up next week, I promise!"
The Hulk scowls. "Fight NOW!" –he insists, taking a swing at her, which she barely evades, flying out of reach.
"Please, big guy, I swear we'll do this a bunch! There's no need to rush into it!" –she pleads, but the Hulk is having none of it. Indeed, he roars, and starts to charge, his enormous stride closing the distance in mere moments. Kara braces for impact, but the Hulk's arm is suddenly stopped mid-swing, by what she can only assume is the other guy with a hand on the wheel.
"NO BANNER!" –he snarls, punching his temples repeatedly. "NO BANNER, ONLY HULK!"
Kara gasps in fear – not for herself, but for Bruce. Banner must've tried to take control of his body back by force – and it's then she realizes that Hulk is just as afraid of Banner ripping control from his hands and keeping it as Bruce is of the reverse.
She tries to grab him. "Hulk, I promise I'll talk to him! We'll all work on this together, please!"
The Hulk swats her away in response, harden than ever. Finally, she can see the rage monster; logic has flown out the window, replaced instead by primal fear fueling a complete focus on survival – and the Hulk seems to have no such concept of a flight response.
No sooner has Kara risen than a van-sized block of cut limestone takes her off her feet again, crushing her under twelve tons of rock or so. She grunts in annoyance, pushing it away with ease.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the War Machine close in, priming his weapons. "Stop! I'm totally fine, don't get involved."
"But...!"
"Everyone stop. We'll go on your mark, Kara." –Rogers grimly orders the team.
The Hulk, meanwhile, has found another similarly sized block to throw at her; Kara has plenty of time to react, this time, and so her eyes light up, the pencil-thin, blue-white beams of her heat vision easily bisecting the stone in time for its two halves to fly neatly past her, tiny flecks of glowing, molten stone sticking to her increasingly torn-up new suit. She thanks Rao that her emblem and cape are completely unharmed – and that my underwear isn't showing yet, she thinks, amusedly – and blazes towards the confused creature ahead.
The Hulk bellows, clawing at his own face, but manages to put up a decent guard. It doesn't really matter, as Kara's punch proves strong enough to completely overcome his defense, sending him flying off towards the grounds' natural walls. Kara doesn't let up her assault for a second, slamming into and pinning him against the wall. Time seems to slow down, somehow, but Kara doesn't stop to consider it, focusing instead on delivering a series of withering jabs at his torso.
She's so focused that she doesn't even realize her brain has picked this moment to remember a conversation she had with Alex, years back.
"You know I don't need any of this, Alex." –she whines. "It's not like there's a single thing on this planet I can't one-hit KO."
Her older sister circles around her. "It pays to be prepared, Kara. Besides, I need to practice; if I wanna grab Deputy Director Hill's attention, I have to be able to take on anyone. If I knock a Kryptonian out, I bet she'll transfer me to her division first thing out of the Academy."
"I'm pretty sure knocking me out is impossible on Earth, sis."
"Nothing is impossible for humanity. We can achieve anything we put our minds to...eventually, at any rate."
Kara snorts. "Sounds like a motivational Facebook post one of your aunts would tag us all in."
Alex grins. "It probably is. And I know I probably can't ever knock you out, no matter how hard I try. But still, the worst effort is one you never make. And hey, maybe Kryptonians are vulnerable to the 'button', too."
"What button?"
"This one!" –Alex shouts, punching just to the side of her chin. As expected, Kara barely flinches, more out of surprise than anything else.
Alex hisses in pain. "Son of a bitch! I forget it's like punching a wall."
"Come on, give me some credit. I could bring down a wall by sneezing on it." –she jokes. "You okay?"
"Oh, shut up and get your guard up. I may not be able to leave a scratch, but I can and will knock you on your ass."
Back in the present, Kara feels time start to settle back into its natural rhythm. Before the window of opportunity closes, she delivers the mother of all haymakers to the Hulk's jaw, sending him rolling sideways throughout the stone wall, finally ending up in a heap about fifty feet away.
Kara shakes her head, snapping out of the adrenaline fuelled frenzy. Her muscles feel oddly heavy, but she ignores the sensation in favor of floating towards the fallen Avenger, relieved to see he still breathes normally. She lands beside him, and Stark lands on the other side.
He touches his palm to the Hulk's neck. "Is he ok?" –she asks, a spike of fear going through her stomach.
The faceplate goes up. "Oh, just fine." –he says, nonchalant. "I'm just making sure you actually knocked out the fucking Hulk."
"...oh."
"He's out. How, I'm not sure, but holy shit, Kara."
The Hulk stirs beneath them, slowly sitting upright. Stark's helmet discreetly seals back up, but it doesn't seem to be necessary – the Hulk's body language is as passive as it was before the fight.
"Are you ok?" –Kara tentatively asks.
"Hulk...dizzy." –he mutters. "Kara smash good."
She smirks, relieved. "Told you so, buddy."
"Kara not puny...Kara STRONG, like HULK!" –he declares, rising to his feet, growing a huge smile. He delicately pats her head. "Hulk protect anyway."
"Aww...I really appreciate that, Hulk. You kinda spooked me there, for a bit."
He wrings his massive hands. "Hulk is...sorry. Hulk scared you only want Hulkbuster too."
Kara shakes her head. "The armor is a good back-up, but it's a better idea for us to just train. We could both benefit from learning how to fight, and what's more, fight together. As a team."
"Hulk train with Kara. Want to learn Kara's last punch." –he admits, excitedly.
"I'll teach you, promise. But you and Banner need to work together. You guys are, like, a mini-team within the team. And that means learning how to share." –she says, crossing her arms.
He pouts, glumly. "Banner NEVER shares..."
"I know. And that's not right, either, but think of why that is; he's scared that you'll take over for good. And yeah, he's still not quite sure what to expect whenever you come out, but he's willing to risk his life to protect people. You need to try and meet each other halfway."
The Hulk slumps. Kara grabs his hand. "Hey. I know you're not the rage monster people fear you are, Hulk. I know you get what I'm saying."
He looks guilty, but ultimately nods, gruffly. "Fight next week?"
She winks. "We'll work something out, bud."
Hulk closes his eyes, squeezing her hand. The wondrous process of growth starts to revert, making him shake and groan as he shrinks back into Bruce Banner's haggard form.
"Owww." –he whines, touching the spot on his jaw she punched his lights out on.
"Sorry." –Kara winces.
He gives her an exhausted smile. "It's ok. You handled the Hulk better than...well, almost anyone else, myself included. I'm impressed."
She shrugs. "You guys are two sides of the same coin, Bruce. It's time you both embraced that."
He sighs. "Tell you what: give me eight hours of sleep and one of your gross, diesel-flavored energy bars, and I'll get right on that."
As always, thank you for your attention! Make sure to comment or message me if you have any questions about this story. Look me up on Twitter as Darthkvzn or Tumblr as darthkvznblogs if you'd like - and on Ko-fi, as Darthkvzn, if you like what I do and have a buck to spare.
Until next time!