Hey guys! This chapter is a little shorter than my other ones at about 5,000 word instead of 6,000-7,000, but I wanted to keep the entire Hulk experience together. This whole incident would have felt weird combined with the next chapter, but it's still awesome. I hope you guys like it :)
Z0mbieMart: Thank you! I'm excited for the Hulk too :D
She was jerked from her sleep when Marsha's hand fell on her face. She was then fully awake when she realized she was on the inflatable mattress —donated by Pepper— on the other side of her room.
Marsha's and her body were smooshed together at an awkward angle. Her sister's elbow was poking her stomach and Saniya's armpit was in Marsha's face. Sometime during the night, she must've sleepwalked over there. Weird. She never got into other people's beds at night. Except for the one time she did so in Clint and Natasha's, but that didn't count.
Without shaking the mattress, she unwove herself from the blankets. Marsha whimpered, wrapping her arms around her pillow.
Saniya glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning, yet she knew she could not fall back asleep. At least, not right away. She needed time to grow tired again.
The application in the trashcan rose to the front of her mind. She hadn't even started it and Director Fury was expecting it in the morning. As much as she wanted to rebel and not give it to him till later on, Saniya didn't want to push her luck. She scooped the application out of the can and wiped off some pop tart crumbs Thor had last night.
She glanced back at Marsha before opening the door. Marsha was sprawled across the bed, fidgeting every so often. Under her breath, she was mumbling something. It was too faint for Saniya to hear. A bad night's sleep must run in the family.
Saniya cracked the door open enough to slip through. The lights in the hallway turned on automatically, courtesy of Jarvis. The AI was really starting to grow on her. If only he was human... they would be the best of friends.
"Jarvis?" she whispered to the ceiling. "Do you know where I can find a pen?"
"Captain Rogers keeps a pen on the coffee table for his crossword puzzles. I do recommend you return it after you are done, though."
"Thanks. Love you."
"I appreciate your affections. Unfortunately, as an AI, I have no capability for love and cannot return the feelings." said Jarvis, charming as usual.
The lights in the living area flipped on as she stepped into the room. It was odd being in there this late at night. Everything was so lifeless without the Avengers to fill the space.
Just as Jarvis said, there was a pen on the coffee table tucked underneath several crossword books titled 'Pop Culture' and 'The 21st Century'. For a moment, she considered going through and completing the puzzles just to see how the Captain would react. But then she remembered the effort he was making to be not horrible to her and thought otherwise.
He respected her space. The least she could do was respect his.
She fell on the couch and wrote her full name in the first space of the application.
Saniya A Ramakrishna
Age
27
Social Security Number.
She stopped. Nope. She was skipping that. If SHIELD didn't already know her SSN, there was no way she would tell them. That was private information, and she wanted to keep it as such.
Saniya continued filling out mundane information about her life, such as her current residence, last employment, stuff like that. It wasn't until she was further into the application that she felt uneasy.
Do you have any confirmed assassinations or experience in this area (organized or freelance)? If so, please explain.
No.
Have you ever been associated with anarchist or neo-nazi organizations? If so, please specify.
No.
In numbers current to when the application was completed, what is your net worth (include accounts under aliases and cash)?
Saniya chewed on the end of the pen. None of your business. She huffed and tossed the application on the floor. Why would they even want to know that? It wasn't necessary for them to know how broke she was. Who did they think they were?
She turned her head and stared at the papers. One thought kept smashing around in her head: what if SHIELD already knew all this? Her social security number, her net worth, whether she killed anyone or not... they already knew all of this and were just testing her. Testing to see if she would lie.
If they already knew everything, was there any point in being truthful?
Okay, she thought, don't overcompensate.
Saniya went back to her social security number and wrote random digits. Then, she wrote a realistic, yet unrealistic for her, amount of money under her net worth. Slowly, she went through filling in all the wrong information.
Her hand stilled. Saniya's file was extensive (as people kept on telling her), and she was nobody important. How much would someone who was someone have in their file?
Or, a better question: how much would Christopher have in his file?
The plan was to have Marsha tell her about him. That failed, obviously. But that was because the information wasn't guaranteed. SHIELD was bound to have a file on him. All she had to do was find it.
"Jarvis? Is there any way I can, say, I don't know, find someone's SHIELD file?"
The AI, who dutifully answered her every question, did not let her down. "You can petition to Director Fury and he will allow you to view certain files. Would you like for me to email him?"
She tapped her foot. "What about something closer to the tower? Can I view the files in the tower?"
There was a short pause. "Dr. Banner has temporary access to the database. No other resident has legal access to the files."
Bruce had a laptop that he was always using. It must be on there.
It felt... filthy to invade his privacy, but she wanted answers. All she had to do was find the laptop, find the SHIELD files, then find Christopher's profile. It seemed like a lot to when she put it in a list, but she was confident that she would succeed.
Leaving her application and Steve's pen behind, she crept through the hallway towards Bruce's bedroom, being extra quiet when she passed Natasha and Clint's room. Thor was snoring so loudly that she heard it from the hallway. As she snuck by her own door, she heard a loud clang of a lamp falling off the bedside table.
Saniya cracked the door just enough to see Marsha wandering around the room at a sluggish pace. Her head was rolled back and she was mouthing words. She waved the lamp in the air like the monkey and Simba in The Lion King.
"Oh, she sleepwalks too," she whispered to herself. Knowing enough to let Marsha be and deal with the mess in the morning, she shut the door and continued with her 'mission'.
She came to Bruce's doorway. Saniya mentally prepared an excuse for sneaking around his room if she was caught. Don't overcompensate. After a couple moments of thought, she decided to stick with the simple 'I was looking for Bruce'.
The door opened, revealing a dusty room. Barely anything was touched and had a thin layer of dust. Bruce didn't live here. Nobody did.
She shut the door behind her.
"An authority has been notified of your trespass of Dr. Banner's room," Jarvis reported.
Saniya glared at the ceiling. "Traitor."
"I'm loyal only to my creator. My apologies."
She swept her eyes across the room. "So, Tony was notified then?"
"As I said, an authority—"
"He'll want to see this as much as I do!" She moved further into the room. "Tell him to just watch. I really don't care if he does. I need to find out some things."
Jarvis didn't reply for several seconds. "He has agreed to observe instead of intervening. He would also like you to know that he is 'very suspicious' and 'considering about pushing you off the tower in a Spartan kick style.'"
The last sentence broke her away from her search. Saniya grinned. "Really?" she exclaimed with excitement. That would be so much fun. She mentally added 'getting Spartan-kicked off a building' to her bucket list.
After several minutes of searching in dusty cubbyholes and musty drawers, she realized neither Bruce nor his laptop was there.
"Where's Bruce? Specifically his laptop?"
This time, instead of Jarvis answering, it was Tony.
"Whoa there, crazy pants. Why do you want Bruce's laptop?"
She held back a scream of frustration. "Oh my god, can you question me after I find what I need to find?"
There was a sharp click from the door. It was locked. "Whose tower is this?"
Her head fell forward. She should have just gone back to sleep.
"... It's mine. My tower. My rules. My safety. You should tell me what thing you're hatching before I ask Nat to find out for me."
"I'll tell you if you can keep it a secret," she pleaded. "From SHIELD."
"Wow, you really like keeping secrets from them. Lucky for you, so do I."
That was a good enough answer. "I want to see Christopher O'Neill's file. He was the man who tried to kidnap me," she explained.
"That's it?" Tony deadpanned. The door clicked unlocked. "That is much more boring than I thought it would be. Bruce, more specifically his laptop, are in the new lab upstairs. But do him a favor and use one of my monitors instead. I don't want you accidentally stumbling on his secret porn stash."
That was a fair request, so she kept that in mind as she crept back to the living room. The elevator dinged as it opened, and she listened for anybody waking up. No doors opened or voices, so they must not have heard. As soon as she got into the elevator, it began moving. Up this time.
"Be sure to compliment sir on his excellent renovations to the private lab," Jarvis said.
"Jarvis! Don't tell her to compliment me. Let it be free choice," Tony protested. "But seriously, compliment me on it."
After about ten seconds of an elevator ride, it slid open to reveal the newly renovated lab. A large window covered the entire far wall, overlooking New York. It reminded her how high up they were, and she bounced on her heels. See-through monitors hung from the ceiling above metal tables. Two desks were pushed against each other in the back. One was buried under schematics and the other neat with only a sole laptop and paintball gun.
But, when she took in the entire room, it didn't strike her as anything special. It was just... a lab.
"I'm waiting," he sung.
She bee-lined to one of the monitors. "Uh, it looks like you can do a lot of science in here."
"Hell yeah I can. FYI, you've got less than two minutes. Bruce is taking his nightly bowel movement."
She wrinkled her nose. Did he really have to tell her that?
She tapped the screen and it lit up with images. Whether it was Jarvis or Tony controlling the screen, it wasn't clear. A program popped up with the SHIELD logo then a search box appeared. Christopher's name was automatically typed.
One Moment Please - - - Retrieving Data
ERROR: AUTHORIZATION NOT RECOGNIZED
"Tony—"
"Calm down, yeesh! Just gotta do a little magic. Kids are so impatient these days."
Screens of code ran down the screen, numbers that had meanings she could not recognize. The green numbers flashed red then disappeared.
Request Authorized - - - Christopher O'Neill - - - Last updated at 23:15
Known Associates: Al Qaeda, Irish Provisional Army, Hydra — seen multiple times as an arms dealer for terrorist organizations, however, it is unknown if O'Neill contributes in any other way.
Known Safehouses: Utena, Lithuania; New York, New York; Mexico City, Mexico
WARNING: O'Neill has been seen entering the United States. Agents are on high alert, as he is armed and dangerous. The United States government has been notified.
UPDATE: O'Neill has been detained and passed away in custody from asphyxiation. Forensics teams searched his safehouse in New York and found several references in letters written in Hindi to a 'Saniya' and 'Aghamarshan'. Attached to the report is the file of Saniya Ramakrishna because of her accident with O'Neill, however, it is unconfirmed if he was referencing to her. Further investigation is in progress. Contact Judith Klemmer for details.
The rest was an information hurricane about his life and how he became an arms dealer —boring stuff. Saniya found what she needed to see. Christopher must had been looking for her. He had talked to her like he was, but maybe she was jumping to conclusions. There were more than one Saniya in the United States, after all.
So, she stuck to assuming that he had been looking for her for some reason. The questions of why, how he found her, and how he even knew about her still had to be answered. Those were the questions a SHIELD file couldn't easily answer.
Just as she was about to dive deeper into the file, the door to the bathroom, connected to the far end of the lab, swung open. Bruce rubbed his temples and walked towards his desk. Saniya could have sworn she heard Tony whisper that she was on her own.
To avoid the awkward 'catching someone in the act' situation, she spoke up. "Hey!"
He jumped, hand flying over his heart. His eyes widened. "You shouldn't startle me!"
She rocked on her heels. "I'll remember that. So, what are you doing up this late?"
Bruce blinked. "What are you doing up this late?"
Don't overcompensate. She wracked her brain for a lie. There wasn't much reason to lie to Bruce, but she felt more secure if she did. The fewer people who knew that she was meddling in SHIELD files, the better all this would turn out for her.
"Looking for you. Jarvis said that you were the only other person awake," she lied. Her foot tapped against the tile.
He rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. "Oh, I thought I set the room to the privacy setting. He should never have told anyone I was down here."
Her eyes shifted. "Weird. I know nothing about that. What are you doing?"
He seemed willing to show her what he was working on. Bruce walked over to his desk, Saniya hot on his heels. He picked up the paintball gun, pointing the barrel towards the ground. "Do you remember the paint bomb he almost threw at you?"
He actually threw it at me. "Yup."
"He wants to put them on the market and I'm supposed to test how safe it is. Including the special gun he designed for it." Bruce sighed. Something told her that it wasn't out of the blue for Tony to be designing random things for him to test. "It's too overpowered, so I've been trying to find a way so it won't shoot through someone's foot, but I have a feeling that's what he was going for."
She leaned her head down to get a closer look at the gun. It was an ordinary paintball gun that apparently packed a punch. "This thing can shoot through someone's foot? It just looks like a normal paintball gun."
"Potentially. And leave a large paint mess behind."
Saniya leaned against the messy desk. "That's actually pretty cool. I'd buy that—" The desk pushed back under her weight, sliding across the slippery floor. The piles of papers and schematics scattered on the floor. A jar of pens clattered and several pieces of metal cracked the tile.
"Crap!" She immediately bent over to pick up everything she managed to push off the desk.
Then, in a moment of deep shame that Tony would tease him about for the rest of his life, Bruce watched her behind as she bent over. If he had been paying intention, instead of ogling at Saniya's pajama shorts, he would have noticed his hand curling, inadvertently squeezing the trigger.
Shortly following Saniya's outburst was Bruce's as the 'paint bomb' tore through his shoe and embedded itself deep in his foot. Almost going straight through, but not quite. A spray of green paint stained the bottom of his pants, her ankles, and the surrounding floor.
She whipped her head around. "Did... did you just shoot yourself?" she asked, concerned about the growing green color on his body. His skin was beginning to match the paint.
His breathing became quicker. "You need to leave. Now!" he yelled. Bruce grabbed his foot. He clawed at his chest, trying to slow his heart down.
Saniya flinched. "I can pick everything up really quickly, I didn't—"
"Saniya!" Bruce sounded desperate now. "Go!" He moaned and fell down to his knees. Bruce gripped his hair with white knuckles.
"My sensors are reading high amounts of stress in your body. Sir and Captain Rogers have been notified about a potential Code Green," Jarvis notified. "Miss Ramakrishna, I would advise you to make your way to the elevator."
She wrinkled her nose. "What? What is happening? Bruce, are you sick or something?"
"Go for fucks sake! Before it's too late!" His voice lowered to a deep growl.
Maybe it was her imagination, but his body was swelling. In a matter of seconds, his biceps had doubled in size, turning a distinct shade of green. Instead of running to the elevator, like she knew she should, she found herself frozen with fear and amazement.
Bruce wouldn't hurt her, so there was no real danger. Right?
He turned his head to look at her. His eyes were a bright green. The features of his face looked less and less like Bruce by the second. Scratches began to appear in the tile where his fingers were pawing at the floor. It wasn't until his shirt completely popped off his large body that she stumbled back, tripping over her own feet.
The timid scientist was there no longer. In his place was a large green... creature... towering over her. This was the Hulk, the one she saw in the on the internet before the videos were taken down. She had heard about him and his role in the battle, but she never expected the Hulk to be Bruce. No one had said anything. How was she supposed to make that connection?
The Hulk roared and crumbled the gun in his fists. It was nothing more than a tiny ball that he chucked at the wall. She screamed when he lifted the desk above his head and chucked it at the elevator. The metal door caved in on itself. There was no way out now.
His green eyes snapped on her small form. There was recognition in his eyes, but not the good kind. Bruce wouldn't hurt her, but this wasn't Bruce anymore. She should have taken the elevator while she had the chance.
Hulk snarled. Saniya took that as a sign to run. Where, she didn't know. There were no side rooms and the elevator was no useable. Maybe there was a fire escape...
One large hand grabbed her around the waist before she got too far. Her feet dangled several feet off the ground and her arms were pinned underneath his meaty digits. The grip tightened until she felt something pop.
"Let me go! I'm your friend!" she pleaded.
The Hulk lifted her closer to her face. "Sani not friend! Sani hurt Hulk!" Spit flew on her face and her hair flew backwards. His free hand rose in the same way a kid's would if they were about to pop a head off a Barbie doll.
"What?" she exclaimed, her fear growing. "I didn't."
"Sani knocked little man off stool!" the Hulk explained, wanting her to know why she deserved the punishment he was about to give her. "Hulk and Sani are enemies!"
Saniya shrieked as he placed his other hand over her head. The pressure was building as he began to twist. Tears ran down her face. "That was an accident!" she wept. She struggled to free her arms. "It was an accident! I was sleepwalking."
He stopped trying to remove her head, but his grip was the same. Her face was turned so that all she could see was the window. At least she'd see something pretty before she died. "Sleepwalking?" he asked, confused.
She sniffled. "Y-Yeah. I was asleep. I couldn't control what I was doing! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
His hand slowly moved from her head. The Hulk's eyebrows were drawn together in confusion. "Sani... sorry?"
"I'm so, so sorry."
The anger returned to face. "Sani tricking Hulk! Sani only sorry 'cause she doesn't want to be smashed!"
He raised her above his head and launched her towards the window. The glass shattered on impact, failing to stop her from plummeting to the city below. Even in the face of danger, she managed a small laugh at the thrill of the fall. The familiar butterflies in her stomach broke her out of her shock and she reversed time. She flew up in the air, the window rearranged itself from shards to a single pane of glass, then the Hulk was crushing her with his hand.
"Sani... sorry?"
She nodded. This time, she had to be more careful. "I didn't want to hurt you. C-Can I make it up to you?"
He looked at her like she grew a second head. His hand fell to his large side. "Hulk confused." The grip around her torso loosened a fraction.
"I'm your friend and I want to make it up to you," she said with her voice shaking. "How do I make it okay?"
A sort of understanding dawned on him. How she was able to reason with him, she didn't know. Especially when the anger on his face was so strong just moments ago. "Sani's Hulk's friend? Like tin man?"
"Tin man? You mean Tony?" Hulk grunted. "Yes! I'm your friend like Tony is."
There was a loud clang from the elevator. The metal started to push itself in the shape of a fist. It was slow progress, but the door was being torn through.
The anger returned. "Hulk likes Tony. Hulk hates Sani!" He lifted her above his head again, but this time she wrapped her arms around his fingers to stop from being thrown out the window. Her body still ached from the first time.
She held on to him with all her strength. "I want to be your friend!" she shrieked. "I want you to like me! Please don't throw me out the window again! Please, please, please!"
Hulk blinked. "No one wants to be Hulk's friend," he said.
"I do!" she said in desperation.
He lowered her body until her face was at the same height as his. "Sani is little man's friend?" Little man had to mean Bruce.
She nodded. "Yes, I'm his friend."
"Sani want to be Hulk's friend instead?"
"Yes! You seem like a lot of fun."
That got the Hulk to smile a toothy grin.
She braced herself for another toss out the window, but it never came. Instead, he placed her feet on the ground. Once his hand was no longer around her, she crumpled to the floor. She drew her knees to her chest and watched the Hulk stare at her.
He was still. The only movement was his breathing. They stared at each other until a red suit burst through the metal door.
The Hulk tensed and stomped towards her. Saniya inched herself away, dragging herself across the floor. Tony, in his famous Iron Man suit, flew between her and Hulk, his palms up and glowing. A low hum was coming from the suit.
"Back off, buddy," Tony warned.
The Hulk growled in response, showing how fast he could flip from calm to furious.
"Cap's coming through the elevator shaft. I'll handle this guy while he gets you out of here."
She scurried to her feet. Her joints groaned at the movement, but she ran to the elevator shaft. There was a small human-sized hole, but the rest of the door was still bent inwards. There was no way an elevator would be able to come to this floor.
There was a grunt and suddenly Steve came into sight, curled around the elevator cable. He was in his pajamas with his iconic shield strapped to his back.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
She answered truthfully. "Yeah, but I think I'll be fine." She could still feel indents from his fingers and the shards of glass vibrating against her skin.
Steve held out his arms and kept his body up with his legs. His eyes examined what he could through the small hole, looking for blood or obvious injuries. "I'll carry you down."
Before she crawled through the hole, she turned back to the Hulk who was swatting at Tony. "It was nice meeting you, even if you did crush my internal organs!" She waved at him, who returned with a confused glare. Saniya pushed herself through the hole Tony made and tumbled into Steve's arms. She wrapped her body around his chest.
When he made sure she was hanging on tight, he began lowering them. "Pepper sent for a doctor to come up and check on you. SHIELD also faxed a form to assign you to a new doctor." Saniya held back a laugh. SHIELD still faxed stuff.
She tilted her head back to look far down the shaft. It was nothing but a black hole underneath them. "Why? I want Bruce to be my doctor."
Steve paused in his movements. He looked a lot like Hulk did when she asked to make up her mistake to him. "But... aren't you... you know... terrified of him?"
She loosened her grip of her arms, causing him to use one arm to hold her to him. Saniya winced as he brushed against one of the forming bruises. "No," she said slowly. "Why would I be?"
"Are you telling me that you aren't the slightest bit scared of him?" Steve shook his head with disbelief.
"I'm not scared of Bruce," she explained. "Sure, I'm now very scared of the Hulk, just not Bruce. You know, all this could have been avoided if someone had told me that he was the Hulk. Here I was assuming that the Hulk you've been telling me about was actually that size all the time and hanging out on a remote island or something. It would have been nice if I had known it was him." Saniya looked upwards. "Why didn't you just bring the elevator up to the floor above below us instead of climbing all the way back?"
Steve's jaw tensed. He continued to pull them down. "Stark's the one who suggested I climb all the way."
Both Steve and Saniya were relieved to see the open doors of their floor. The super soldier helped her out of the elevator shaft and hopped out after her. Marsha was sitting on the couch with her head in her hands, but nobody else was up. Jarvis really did only tell Tony and Steve.
"I'm going back to bed," he mumbled. Steve slipped off his shield and twirled it in his hand.
"Thank you for getting me out of there."
His eyebrows rose in surprise. "You're welcome, ma'am." He disappeared into the hallway.
Considering what just happened, maybe he should have paid more attention to her. She felt like it was irresponsible to leave an injured person alone.
Saniya turned to the still-sleeping Marsha. She was muttering something about how her side hurts. If anyone else had passed by, they would have thought she was awake, but her eyes were still closed. Her movements were sluggish. Marsha was definitely asleep.
She urged Marsha to her feet. Sleeping Marsha didn't protest and limply followed her requests. Jarvis lit the hallway as she zombie-walked behind Saniya. He electronically opened their door and shut it behind them. Saniya smiled up at the ceiling as her thanks.
Marsha didn't lie down in her bed, but at least she sat on it. Saniya laid in her own, laying on her back to avoid irritating the possible bruises on her sides.
She closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep. It was impossible with the adrenaline rushing through her veins and thoughts pounding against her skull. Too much happened in such a short time for her to be able to relax.
Saniya hoped talking to Bruce tomorrow would calm her down. For now, she'd have to settle with drowning in her own head.