Chapter 9
*Bruce Banner*
I followed Steve down to one of the more secure medical rooms, the ones meant for injured enemies. We seemed to be going slow on purpose, so I let Steve keep me behind while the others surpassed us and kept on following Fury. I was nervous about what I would find during this physical. The way Percy’s eyes seemed to get more fogged and dull each time his full name was said was a clear sign of PTSD and very painful experiences having to deal with his full name being said. The way he flinched back, the way he seemed to go off in la-la land when he said that he was pretending to be dead so no one would get hurt because someone found out he was alive, this and more pointed to severe PTSD.
Once everyone was out of earshot-and out of sight-Steve cleared his throat. “Um… Bruce he has, um, flashbacks, like I do, but they seem a lot worse.”
I looked at Steve with concern, it had taken a lot of courage for him to talk about his flashbacks. I was honored he trusted me enough to tell me about it, and I had kept my promise about not telling anyone about it, because he asked me to. I did, however, often hint at him that he could tell the others, that they wouldn’t treat him any different.
Being the stubborn man he is, Steve insisted that letting one person know was enough, and that if the whole team knew he had flashbacks, then they wouldn’t perform as well because they would see that their leader was weak, and that that would make them think they were even weaker than he was. It was stupid, cliché leader thinking. They would pull all the stress onto themselves and convince themselves that they had to be strong for everyone, so that everyone in turn could be strong. It was a stupid logic to me, because I knew from experience that sharing your troubles and your weaknesses and faults with others made you-and them-stronger, not weaker. No matter how many times I told Steve this, he just shook it off, and kept the weight of the world on his shoulders, and kept his pain to himself.
Well, he did, until he told me about his flashbacks. His insecurities. He pretty much spilled to me everything bad that he had ever done and everything bad that had happened to him, every blame he had pinned on himself. He basically gave me his soul. I still have no idea why he told me all of that. Why he chose to bear his soul to me of all people, it didn’t make sense, but I was glad that he had finally laid his burdens on someone else.
When we reached the exam room the others were standing outside of, they left to go back to a meeting room nearby to wait for the results of Percy’s exam. Steve laid Percy down carefully on the exam table, then strapped him down. I went over to the control panel and turned on the thing that sapped his magical abilities, hopefully making it to where he couldn’t use his powers. There was still no official name for the device, since it was recently made by Tony with help from the very unwilling lab rat known as Loki. Tony had a bunch of stupid names for the device, such as The Sappinator, or The No-Magic Machine, and other names like that. I was a scientist, I was not going to call a machine that held that kind of power something as very unprofessional as that, it seemed to demean the machine and capabilities.
I went to Percy’s shoulder, remembering how he had hissed in pain when he had pulled the bag onto his shoulder, I was surprised he wasn’t bleeding out the entire time we were talking to him. The doctor in me wanted to instantly sweep in with gauze and disinfectant to treat the wound, but the newly formed agent in me knew that Percy could be a threat and could use the fact that I wanted to help him against me, so I stayed put while I silently tortured and berated myself.
I looked at the place where Clint shot him, and was surprised to find that there wasn’t blood on his ‘shirt’. Because really, his shirt had so many holes and tears and rips, it was basically hanging together by threads, literally, the only thing that seemed unaffected about his shirt was the middle front of it, and even that didn’t look too good. It clearly had had words on it once, but was so faded and old, you couldn’t make out anything, there were still a few rips and burn marks, but not as many. The entire bottom of his shirt and the bottom of both of his sleeves were singed and so mangled, that it looked like the fabric had pulled apart, to where the threads hung by themselves.
I pulled back the fabric from his shoulder, and I blinked in surprise. Where there should have been a humongous hole with blood pouring out, there was a big, inflamed scar that was on either side of his shoulder. I felt my mouth fall open a smidge. It was impossible for anyone to be able to heal that fast from something like that. Even Steve, the super soldier with the super healing couldn’t heal that fast from something like that. It was like all the stuff that was inside his body had magically restored itself to its former condition seamlessly, in a very short amount of time. It seemed that at the rate Percy healed, in the next twenty minutes or so, what should’ve been a gaping, serious wound, would be a simple scar.
I rubbed at my face, before this, I expected whatever life threw at me next wasn’t going to surprise me at all. It now seemed as if there were going to be a lot more surprises and shocks coming my way with this new addition to the team. Fury, apparently, wanted to add Percy as a new member to the Avengers. Though that wasn’t said specifically in the file, it did say, and I quote, ‘the target will be contained then questioned, if seen as a threat and essentially evil, rehabilitation will be put in effect. If target seems willing and not essentially bad, we feel that he could be helpful if the target was put on the team.’ Though the file didn’t say what team Percy could be helpful to, it made it pretty obvious with the fact it said ‘the team’ not ‘a team’.
I sighed and rubbed at my face wearily again, then pulled his sleeve back up. The only other evidence that he could’ve been shot in the shoulder - besides the scar - were the holes on either side of his arm where the arrow went through his ‘shirt’.
Steve looked at me questioningly, “What?”
I sighed, then rubbed my temples at the growing migraine that had appeared. “Well, it seems that Percy here has faster healing abilities than even you do.” Steve opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted with, “And no, I do not know how, or why, or what could’ve happened. I have no idea. It should be impossible, but considering the world we’re in, it’s safe to say that now, nothing is impossible. Just highly improbable.”
Steve blinked at me in surprise, like he couldn’t believe that I knew not that much more than he did. I stood up and walked over to the surgery tools, and picked up a pair of scissors. I went back to the unconscious body of Percy and pulled at his shirt so I could cut it away and see if he had any more injuries that I might actually be able to treat, but with how fast he healed, I highly doubted he had anything besides scars. Percy’s eyes snapped open, and he jerked his body away from me as far as the restraints would let him when he saw the scissors in my hand getting ready to cut off his shirt. I blinked in surprise, I hadn’t expected him to be conscious this soon. Steve stiffened in surprise next to me.
“What are you doing?” Percy asked cautiously.
“I was assigned to give you an exam, I was about to cut off your shirt to see if you had any other severe injuries, like broken bones in your torso or other wounds that need to be treated.” I answered truthfully.
“I don’t have any.” Percy answered immediately.
“Even if that was true, I still need to look at your torso so I can check your health, it would be easier for me to measure your heart rate and to get proper readings for other various medical tests. Then I would need to check your reflexes, do you want me to check your reflexes first instead? Until I say I need to, I won’t touch your torso or look underneath your clothes.” I told him, he seemed reluctant to let me examine him for any injuries around his torso.
Percy nodded hesitantly, I looked at Steve expectantly, he took the hint and left the exam room. “Okay then, I’m going to have to put two bracelets on you, then we can take of the straps binding you down. We merely strapped you down in the first place so you wouldn’t move around while unconscious.” I said, the bracelets I was going to put on him were connected to the machine that was supposed to sap his powers, this would allow free movement while still containing him within the base.
The bracelets were a shiny silver color that shined and emitted light, I snapped them on his wrists, then started undoing the straps binding him down. Once I was done, Percy sat up and started tapping his fingers against his thigh in an indescribable rhythm, his eyes darted around the room, pausing on the door and the various furnishings around the room. It was like he was scanning the room for any advantages or disadvantages that it held for him, and taking stock of possible escape routes. That definitely stuck out as a foreboding of how bad his past really was.
I did basic reflex tests on his legs and arms by messing with his knee and elbow. I then did a focus test to see how well he focused on certain things, this would tell me more about his personality, but basically did nothing else for any benefit of how well he was physically. Next, I checked all of his nerves and made sure that they were working correctly by mini shocks on different parts of his arms, face, and legs, I stayed true to my word and didn’t touch his torso, or moved his clothes without first asking.
I noticed before that all of his clothes had rips and tears, and burn marks all around, his shirt being the worst, his shoes coming in at a close second, with his jeans being the piece of clothing that was relatively good, and even they were in bad shape. The bottoms were in tatters, barely hanging on to the top of his jeans, the rips stopped around his thighs, I had no doubt that if he kept on going as he was, he would soon be wearing shorts instead of pants.
I took out a clipboard with some blank pieces of paper on it, and got ready to write. “Okay, now that we’re done with that, do you have any diseases, diagnoses that we need to know about? What’s the last time you had a physical or checkup or anything remotely related to that kind of thing? We also need basic information about your guardians and possible past guardians.” I told him, Percy nodded.
“I don’t have any diseases, I think. I’m diagnosed with ADHD, Dyslexia, and…um…nothing else.” Percy’s eyes darted to the floor and he chewed his lip, he was hiding a diagnosis, but I wasn’t going to pressure him into telling me it. It wasn’t my place to pry, and I wasn’t going to do it no matter what Fury said. “The last time I had anything remotely similar to this was about three to five years ago…I’m not exactly sure. My mother is Sally Jackson, but she recently remarried and is now known as Sally Blofis-it’s not Blowfish but Blofis. My first stepfather was Gabe Ugliano,” At this name Percy flinched-it was barely noticeable-but it was enough to catch my attention, he had had bad experiences with his first stepfather. “but my mother decided to keep her maiden name, he disappeared without a trace when I was twelve. He hasn’t been found, so my mother legally divorced him, then married my new stepfather Paul Blofis about um…four or three years after she legally divorced Gabe when I was twelve, five months after Gabe disappeared. My father is Adrian Black*,” At this he smirked, but I didn’t have the faintest idea why. (A/N:*I made it to where Poseidon’s false name was related to the sea. His false name is after the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea, both of which are in Europe/Asia, which makes them both relatively close to Greece*) “As you already know, he and my mother were never legally married, he went off on a ship into ocean for his job, but he didn’t come back, so he missed my birth, my mom didn’t give up hope that he was alive, she constantly told me growing up that he wasn’t dead, just lost at sea. He finally was able to come back when I was twelve, and it was the first time I officially met my dad. We’ve only seen each other a handful of times since. As you also know, they think that I’m dead along with the rest of world, except-miraculously-you guys! Isn’t that wonderful.” Percy said, his voice dripping with sarcasm at the end. I struggled to keep up with him as I wrote the information down on the clipboard.
“I’m going to have to ask you to take off your shirt now Percy.” I told Percy with a calm voice, but inside…I was freaking out, what was I going to find underneath his ratty t-shirt?
Percy glanced around nervously, then he seemed to concentrate on something. The bracelets on his wrists seemed to glow brighter, then they died down. Percy looked at them with hatred. “What are these things?”
He was trying to escape. “They dampen powers, we have only recently developed it into this form, before, the power was only limited to the table you're sitting on when it is plugged into the main machine. Thor found the metal, it’s from Asgard. Now, if you do not want to take your shirt off willingly so I can finish my exam, I’m afraid I’m going to have to force it off of you.” I informed Percy, and let my eyes flash green for a second when he looked me in the eyes. Percy didn’t really react that much, just blinked as if he wasn’t expecting it.
Percy’s eyes darted around the room again, I could practically hear the gears turning in his head, trying to figure out a way that he could get out of this. Then, he sighed and slumped-looking almost defeated-and nodded his head in a miniscule way, apparently he had resigned himself to the fact that he was not getting out of this.
Percy chewed on his bottom lip for a second, then slowly reached for the hem of his ‘shirt’. Once he had had gripped it in his hands firmly, he took a deep breath, then he suddenly whipped his ‘shirt’ off, then stared at the floor.
I stared, my brain couldn’t process what I was seeing, it was horrible, The Other Guy urged me to let him out, to let him smash whoever had done this to him. I saw my eyes flash green in the metal cabinet behind Percy, and I could see my skin take on a greenish tint. I almost gave in to the deep seated anger that was always there, but then I noticed Percy squirming with discomfort, I noticed his hands were shaking, and his eyes darted around with the look of a caged and wild animal. I forced myself to calm down, I could slowly feel the power from The Other Guy fade away, and my skin went back to normal.
“Percy…” I started, but I was unsure of how to continue. Percy looked up at me, and his eyes held fear, shame, anger, but most of all, they held sadness. “Who did this to you?”
Percy looked down again, “No one important.”
“Of course they are important, we need to know who did this so we can punish them for what they did, this,” I gestured to his torso. “this isn’t right, no one should get away free doing this to anyone. We can track whoever did this down.”
Percy chuckled, but it was void of any actual emotion. “I’m afraid you can’t do that.”
“And why not?”
“Because they are already dead.”
It was awkward after that. I nervously did regular tests, like measure his heartbeat, take his blood pressure, measure his size, and many other things. Throughout the entire ordeal, I had to keep The Other Guy in check, my anger was bursting out the seems, and it seemed like I would turn any minute, but I kept it together. Each time I did something, I saw a new scar, a new gash, a new mark of some kind that showed a horrible truth. Percy had either had a very abusive past, or he had been tortured. At the time, I wish I knew that it was both.
**depictions of scars after here**
The scars were everywhere, in every shape, size, and age. There was a scar on his back that was about two inches wide, and went from his right shoulder to below his hip on the left, it seemed fairly new, the area around it was still red, I was surprised that this wasn’t fully healed because of his healing speed. Older scars, along with newer ones, of little white marks that looked like whip lashes, small cuts here and there that looked to be made by an average knife. Words engraved into his back that differed in age. The oldest carvings held words like ‘freak’, ‘worthless’, ‘brain boy’, and ‘idiot’. The newer ones held words like ‘failure’, ‘weak’, ‘betrayed’, and ‘worthless’ was once again used. I was surprised to find that he didn’t have any broken bones. On his back, there were also one inch slashes that crisscrossed like the whip marks, they seemed to be made from a sword or something similar. There were burn marks of letters and sayings, like he was branded, these mostly spanned his shoulders and the area of his hips. A fancy ‘G’ was on the side of each shoulder. ‘All your fault’, and ‘You will never be forgiven’ spanned across his hips. That was just the beginning… his chest was just as bad.
There were slashes that looked to be very old, and looked to be made by a knife of some sort. There was yet another scar that was two inches thick, but it consisted of many cuts that melded together, it was right over the area of his heart. It looked like someone had slashed there, waited for the scar to heal, then slashed right next to it to make the scar bigger gradually. Whip marks were again shown, but there were more of them, and they seemed even more gruesome even though they were healed. The message ‘You failed us’ spanned all the way across his chest from his left shoulder to the bottom of his right hip, a reflection of the way the two inch scar on his back went. Long one inch slashes crisscrossed his sides, straying onto either the front or back of his torso. There were many more scars, so many more scars that I couldn’t even begin to describe, they were that horrible.
**depictions of scars stops here**
“Percy, I’m really sorry, but I think the others have to see this, so they know not to aggravate your scar tissue.” I said. “Before we do that, if you're up to it, of course, I need to let out the anger I’ve been keeping in. If you’ll excuse me for a moment.” I then went to the Hulk-proof room that was included in all medical rooms incase I had to calm down and release my anger. It seemed as if those rooms had been built for just this moment. The moment I was bursting at the seams with anger, the moment I could barely contain The Other Guy, a moment like this.
I went into the room, closed the door, locked it, then let it all loose.