Chapter 6
“Zapp!”
“Ahh!” A twenty-four-year-old man was thrown across the lab.
“Tony!”
“Uhg! Ouch!” Tony groaned, clutching the arc reactor flashing in his chest as he crumpled to the floor, sliding down the wall he was just forced into at a blazing speed. “Bruce, calm down.” The arc’s light stopped flashing and went back to glowing a constant white light. He forced a cocky smile. “See? I’m fine.”
“You just got zapped with enough electricity to black out an entire portion of downtown, including this lab!” Bruce exclaimed gesturing to the dark, rain-covered city as he raced towards Tony, trying to take calming breaths to keep the green wisps flicking up his arms at bay. I am Bruce Banner. I am Bruce Banner. I am in control. I am Bruce Banner. His mantra played in his head as he knelt down in front of his friend and colleague, quite literally holding his life in his own hands. “Why aren’t the backup generators kicking on?”
“Heh. Don’t get mad.”
“Tony.” Bruce's voice was stern, the doctor in him on full display, despite his slight internal panic.
Tony shrugged. “I used 'em for extra power.” Once he was sure he wouldn’t shock him, Tony grasped onto Bruce’s shoulder. “Now, help me up would you, Doc?”
“You should not be moving.” He grasped his arm to check his pulse. “If you have internal injuries-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Tony waved off his concern. “I’m telling you I’m fine, but whatever. I’ll just wallow here in my misery staring at our mistake. Oh, correct that, our smoking mistake.” His arm slipped out of Bruce’s grasp as he gestured towards the smoldering machine.
Bruce glanced back at it. Smoke!? Oh no! He quickly ran to get a fire-extinguisher off the west wall. He dropped the pin and within seconds, the machine was covered in foam. He breathed a small sigh of momentary relief. I am in control. I am in control.
“It should've worked.” Tony muttered, staring down the machine like the answer was right there. “The equations say it should! What are we missing!? You calibrated the genome correctly, right?”
It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault. He’s just frustrated. Bruce forced a nod. “Maybe the initial scans were wrong. You did just find them hidden in that bunker.” He thought out loud, trying to sooth himself in the process. “Maybe they scrambled the signal of their dematerialization once they sensed someone had locked onto it.”
Tony pulled at his hair. “Uhg! How are we meant to protect people from teleporting aliens when we can’t even read their signal! They must be laughing at us right now trying to figure this out! It must be so simple to them! Why else would they risk detection to take a children’s book! I mean it’s a children’s book!”
“Tony.” Bruce warned, his vision blurring and a headache forming. I am Bruce Banner. I am in control.
“Were they mocking us all along!?”
Yes. Mocking you. Need protection. Think you not good enough. Not smart enough.
“Do they think the only book that represents our world and our society as a whole can be so simply summed up by a stupid fairytale! Are we that much of a joke to them!? We might as well be! Obviously! I nearly died!”
Death. Forever. Destruction. Fight back.
“Why wouldn’t they see us as fantasy seeking loons!?”
“Tony!” Too loud! Too loud! Bruce threw the empty fire-extinguisher into the window causing it to smash into a thousand pieces. “Shut up!” He covered his ears. Make it stop! Make it stop!
“Oh! Oh, sh*t!” Tony’s eyes went wide as his friend turned green before his eyes. In a way, it was a good thing their machine was already broken because their lab was done for, or it would’ve been had the first thing Hulk smashed not have been their supposedly ‘broken’ machine.
In the blink of an eye and the blast of blinding yellow light, Hulk was gone. Tony lay speechless and alone on the cold ground of their dark lab staring blankly at the space his friend turned monster had once been. His only company was now the cackle of thunder followed by a blaze of lightning across the storm-covered sky when he knew scientifically it was the other way around. “Sh*t!”