The beginning (Original I know)
Blake liked the library. It was quiet, filled with books, and depending how nice the librarians were, they had no issue letting a homeless teen hangout in a corner reading and talking to themselves all day. That said, most people assumed Blake was a student. Probably from one of the many universities in the city. This was wrong. Blake wasn’t a student. They hadn’t been a student in a long time, seven years to be exact. However, that didn’t stop them from cracking open “Advanced Physics” and devouring it like candy.
“Newspaper?”
The voice came from the back of their head. It was tinged with green, it was always tinged with green.
Blake sighed and set the book down. They had promised The Big Guy when they came in to see if the library had the right newspaper. They looked at the folded newspaper on the table. It was from around a week ago. They wouldn't have to look hard for what they were looking for. It was front page news.
“Avengers Save New York”
Avengers was a stupid name, Blake didn’t know who came up with it, but they didn’t like it. They didn’t like this situation at all.
“Picture,” the voice said.
“Fine,” Blake muttered.
They picked up the newspaper and unfolded it. At the bottom was a large picture. The Avengers as the newspaper said. Tony Stark in a metal suit of armor, a man with a bow and arrow, a woman, Captain America, and in the middle of it all, a green giant.
“ Hulk Smash” rumbled the voice happily.
“Hulk huh? That’s what you wanna go with?”
“ HULK” The Big Guy said, with a level of determination, “ Star Man said”
“Alright, Alright, Hulk it is.”
Blake studied the photo. They’d never really seen The Big Guy, sorry Hulk, this clearly before. They had seen blurry images on the news but nothing so…. concrete. It was weird. When Hulk came out, Blake didn’t get to sit in the passenger seat like Hulk did, they just…. Passed out, until they inevitably woke up with significantly less clothing and green swirling in their vision.
“Smash,” Hulk said, content to study the photo of him and his new friends. Blake nodded.
“Yeah, you did a lot of smashing. I think there’s still holes in those building on 4th street”
With some prodding from Hulk, Blake shoved the newspaper in their duffel bag. It was a large old duffel bag, with everything that Blake and Hulk owned. When Hulk was out, he would carefully put the straps around one of his fingers and make sure nothing happened to it. As much destruction as he would do, Blake always found the items in the duffel in pretty good shape after his little escapades. Even when Hulk was out smashing aliens, it had remained relatively unscathed.
Blake had been in New York the day of the invasion. Looking for a place where they could just blend in and lay low for a while. Then all of a sudden a hole opened in the sky and a giant alien ship fell on top of them.
When they came too it had been nearly a full day later. Hulk had been excited and rambled about bad men, metal men, star men, and smashing, lots of smashing, but ‘good smashing’ as he called it. It wasn’t until Blake had been able to find an intact store with tvs in the windows showing the now infamous Battle Of New York on the news.
Blake felt a wave of smugness? coming from the Big Guy. He was proud of himself.
“Don’t get too cocky, ok? You drew a lot of attention to yourself. What if Ross had shown up? Heck he could still show up and then where would we be? I know you had fun, but I think it's time we leave.”
Blake felt a wave of sadness and annoyance from Hulk, He was throwing a tantrum.
“No Hulk stay, Hulk smash with friends”
Blake sighed. Hulk had said that the Avengers had invited him to come “smash again”. They wanted him to join the team and Hulk didn’t seem to grasp the dangers of that. The danger to them and everyone else.
“It’s not safe. Besides I don’t think New york can survive much more of your smashing”
Blake’s vision clouded with green, a small pain formed behind their eyes.
“ NO! Hulk Good Smash. Star Man said so. Hulk Smashing help!”
Blake looked at the photo. There next to Hulk was ‘Star Man’ or Captain America. Captain America had said that Hulk’s smashing was helping. Hulk never went out of his way to hurt anyone, but no one could deny his destructive nature. Blake felt something from Hulk they had never felt before. Hulk had been told that his smashing was good, that he could help. And now that was all he wanted.
The pain and green subsided as Hulk felt Blake give in before they even said anything. Blake sighed as Hulk turned gleeful.
“Ok… Ok you can stay and help, if there even is any more helping to do. But! We need rules, compromise”
Hulk subsided cautiously as Blake thought.
“Ok, One. If Ross shows up we leave, non negotiable. Two, we help people, we don't smash anything we don't have to. Three, don’t tell people where we’re from”
Hulk paused a moment as if contemplated then grumbled in agreement. He knew compromise was an important word. They had had to do so a lot since he first came out. But Blake could tell he wasn't happy about it.
Blake sighed “Look, I know this is important to you ok? But youre the most important thing to me. I don’t want anything happening to you out there, or to me. This is how we do that”
Hulk rumbled.
“Hulk keep Blake safe, Hulk promise”
Blake smiled fondly.
“I know, and I’ll keep you safe, promise”