fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

It was a good idea. And it would completely destroy the armor. Tony wasn't really prepared for that. So instead, he spoke into his watch (very Double-O) and asked Loki if she knew of any places, preferably tropical, that they could teleport Banner to and drop him off for a mini vacation. If not, then it was back to scooping Banner up and flying him to the other side of the small planet as quick as possible until the Hulk destroyed it but hopefully got himself busy with King Konging long abandoned buildings.

Having Loki work her magic might be the quickest way around this but that didn't mean that he was stupid enough not to have his backups.

The Hulk was frighteningly clever. Rage monster or not, he had more wit than most normal people.

Bruce didn't really want to involve anyone else in this, but he didn't have a chance to say no before Loki was appearing and putting her hand on his arm in order to do as Tony said and teleport him. But she couldn't, she didn't get a chance. The feel of something alien, something powerful, touching him was the last push that the Hulk needed.

"RUN!"

It was the last word out of Bruce's mouth before any words became a roar as his body began to change rapidly, growing and changing hue right in front of Loki's astonished eyes. She was so surprised and so intrigued that she didn't even move from where she was still stood with her hand on his ever-growing arm.

Running from the Hulk was about as good as not running from the Hulk. The options were exactly none. But FRIDAY had been calibrated for this scenario and the armor shot out of nowhere, heading towards Tony.

"Get Loki out of here," he commanded the armor and hit the dirt as it swooped overhead to almost tackle Loki and envelop the girl in metal. If she was already stuck, wide eyed, watching Banner transform, Tony didn't trust her to do much else right now.

Suit and princess took off, leaving him there to wait for the second armor to arrive. It wasn't too far, but all the Hulk had to do was pick him up and throw him and he'd be dead. Tony knew the risks as he sat back on his heels and just watched the Hulk angrily rip at trees and grass. Banner had fought too hard to keep him in this time and the adrenaline fueled his anger more than anything else could.

Maybe that would distract him from Tony?

The Hulk bellowed his rage out to the sky, a bestial cry that could be heard for miles and made every other creature, no matter how much of a predator it usually was, hunker down in its den with fear. There was nothing on any world that could properly stand up to the Hulk, not in full flow, and being kept contained for so long really did have him in full flow.

He snatched at the armour as it flew off with Loki, like a man swatting a persistent fly, but only just managed to clip one leg. Then intelligent eyes zeroed in on Tony and the Hulk began a lumbering pace towards him, not the rapid and terrifying charge he could do, but more the casual enjoyment of someone who knew there was no escape for his prey.

He wanted to smash.

Tony sighed.

“You know, I probably deserve this. How Tony Got His Groove Back was probably a hundred times in the wrong. Now, here’s where I would normally blame Banner for pushing me away, but, and don’t take this as some sort of self revelation, but maybe I’ve grown a little. So I’m going to just fully accept my role in this. The only real thing that I regret is that he’s going to beat himself up over this. Thankfully, he’s the sort that just keeps going on going. Not that he’d got a choice, right? That’s where you come in, big guy. Man. I’ve been wanting to meet you for so long. I’ve seen all of your YouTube videos. Totally a subscriber. I’d follow you on Twitter if you tweeted. Guess I’d have to make you a larger phone. Big thumbs, small screens? Not an ideal combination.”

He did get himself to his feet though. Slowly. He didn’t want to provoke the Hulk in any way. For a guy who really should be terrified of what was coming, Tony might as well be the exact opposite. His eyes were clear as he watched the beast approach.

“So just one question before you smash me? Did you call yourself the Hulk or did someone name you that? Love the branding either way.”

The Hulk was used to people screaming and running when he approached, or if they had guns, then firing on him as if that would ever do any good. He had never before had someone just stand there and talk to him as if they were friends. He wasn't stupid, contrary to popular belief, he was just-- very angry.

He stopped about two feet from Tony, literally dwarfing him in every respect. Videos could never do justice to the sheer size and power of the Hulk, but he still didn't attack even though one blow would quite easily kill the puny little human in front of him.

A low snort followed by a curious expression were what did happen.

"Hulk is hulk."

He just was. Rare words spoken, usually he didn't bother.

In over his head sort of literally, Tony’s eyes lifted until he had to actually tilted his head back to keep looking at the beast looming over him. He could just react out and touch him, he was so close, but that would be certain death. This wasn’t the time to fanboy something, but Jesus, Tony was fanboying the heck out of the guy right now. The Hulk was magnificent. No one else might share that assessment, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t true. The Hulk was potentially the most impressive scientific incident to have ever been created in their lifetimes.

And Banner just did not appreciate it! Okay, understandably so, but c’mon. He had to respect his own genius.

“So what you’re saying is that the whole What Came First, Egg or Chicken thing doesn’t really matter? Huh.” He ran his tongue across his upper teeth in thought. “I guess that’s true. You are who you are. No one else can claim that the same way you can. I’m a little jealous. So what’re your plans for the day?”

Tony was pretty sure he knew the answer, but hey, who had conversations with the Hulk? No one!

Was he being mocked?

The Hulk didn't really do conversation, his was more the intelligence of cunning, not a wordsmith. Tony spoke a lot of words very quickly and not all of them made a lot of sense, but that last question had his brow furrowing in annoyance once more. Why would he be asked that question.

"Smash."

It was what he did. Smashing the world to make it as broken and destroyed as he was, a way to draw out the anger that always boiled inside him and threatened to consume him if he didn't let it out to lash out at others.

"Sir," that would be FRIDAY in his ear. "Please brace for impact, your secondary armour will be arriving in approximately seventeen seconds."

Seventeen seconds was a long time. Too long. All the Hulk had to do was lean forward, an act that would take one second, and he’d be dead. Tony exhaled through his nose and tried arching his eyebrows at the beast. “Can I help?”

Three words. Simple. And with a simple meaning too. All he needed to do was reach through this all and pray that he lived for the armor to arrive…and that the Hulk wasn’t suddenly distracted or angered by the armor once it did. He couldn’t tell FRIDAY to hold off, not yet. And he was pretty sure the whole thing was just a lost cause anyway. He was equally afraid that Rogers and Co would be here any time now too. That would be just as bad.

Can he help smash?

This little human was the most confusing thing that the Hulk had ever met. He thought for a long time, the seconds stretching on, and when he did eventually open his mouth it was just in time for the armour to appear. He roared in sudden surprise and anger, the human had tricked him.

Now it was personal.

What had been a beast at rest now became a predator on the charge, and the Hulk was extraordinarily fast for his size. He snatched out at the red and gold to try and grab him from the air like a little tin doll.

Yeah. Great timing. They were having a report there! Tony twisted in the air and directed his beams towards the rubble ahead of him, blasting it and a lot of dirt out of the ground with it. "How else am I supposed to smash?" Tony called, the face plate flipping up. "I'm just a puny human!"

To show his commitment to the cause, he blasted a tree right in two and swooped down close to the Hulk.

"So what do you say? Can I smash with you?"

Unfortunately for Tony, the Hulk was now far too enraged to listen to conversation or logic. Snarling loudly, he leaped a good twenty feet up and forward to make another grab for the armour. He wanted to pull it apart piece by piece and then smash the little man inside onto the ground until he was nothing more than a paste.

It was like someone trying to snatch a particularly annoying gnat out of the air. He was fast, but so was Tony, so it might just be sheer luck as to which one of them prevailed at this point.

But at least he was coming mainly for Tony and not setting his sights on the village again?

Damn. And he'd almost made a new friend!

Tony was better than fast, he was strategic. When it became obvious that the Hulk was no longer interested in friendly conversation, Tony jetted up and down, left and right, and pretty much slowly led him away from the city. He needed to tire him out, and he could that by giving him a lot to smash while attempting to smash him.

The buildings were great for this and Tony banked and weaved between the remains of houses, all covered in plants or ash from the Asgardian carnage centuries before.

"Boss, this is a bad idea," FRIDAY said calmly, leaving Tony to roll his eyes.

"No, sending the armor was a bad idea but it's done now so all we can do is make--" He had to dodge a hand. "The most of it."

Thankfully, FRIDAY's ability to predict the Hulk's movements came in handy and she flashed likely scenarios across his HUD, keeping Tony one step ahead.

It was a good strategy for keeping the Hulk away from the main bulk of the village, but it wasn't foolproof and the Hulk was smart. He could see after a while when his attacks were being too easily dodged, he had the cunning intelligence to know to switch up his movements to avoid being predicted.

But it would be almost an hour later, when the Hulk was beginning to tire, that Tony would just make the wrong movement and find his leg snatched by huge green fingers that pulled him fiercely down and smashed him into the ground. Probably only the armour kept him from being instantly killed, but that had to break at least one bone.

"The situation has moved to critical, boss." FRIDAY oh so helpfully informed him.

“Yep. Thanks.”

The pain in his leg was intense before FRIDAY activated the numbing spray and applied pressure to the wrenched limb. He knew he was bleeding, though. He could feet the moisture around his toes and that was never good.

“Cap standing by?” Tony grunted because he would not have been the only one to have gotten the Code Green and even if he had, after an hour of this, Loki would have gotten free of the armor and gone to get her brother and alerted the others.

FRIDAY hadn’t alerted him to anyone else even monitoring the situation, though, and Tony felt so alone. He lifted his arms over his faceplate, blasting up at the Hulk’s face with the reactor. It took most of the power but he was likely dead anyway.. He just wanted to distract the beast for a moment to get airborne again.

Actually, none of the others were standing by.

FRIDAY's communication systems with the main village had gone down thanks to the Hulk's attacks, and the other armour had malfunctioned and trapped Loki inside. Every time she attempted to use her magic to either transform or teleport, the damn thing zapped her with electricity and halted what she was doing before it could begin.

The reactor, though, was the last straw in the Hulk's strength and stamina.

Tony could proudly say after this that he was the only person to have ever faced the Hulk one-on-one and survived. Though he might not be able to enjoy that victory, as with the last of his strength the Hulk catapulted the armour away from him and into some ruins, which might just hurt a bit.

Before he just keeled over.

“Sorry, Boss, communication is still down,” FRIDAY told the barely conscious Tony as he laid on the fourth floor of a building whose internal stairs had crumpled long ago. He was barely breathing with his ribs cracked, making every breath he did take like inhaling glass. And he tasted blood now too. Not great. Not great at all. “You failed to reconnect me to the rest of the grid. The Code Green only alerted you in the lab and the Capitol Building. I don’t believe anyone was currently in there.”

Great. Tony laughed, which was a Bad Idea. “Patch me…to Loki…?”

Talking was also a bad idea.

“Sorry, Boss, I’ve lost communication with the other armour as well. You’ve really fallen down on the job here.” FRIDAY was programmed to be a tart. Tony was responsible for that little issue, not that he felt much like apologizing for it at the moment. It hurt too much to talk. And he liked it when FRIDAY nagged and backtalked him. At least someone did it. He let his eyes close, only to feel a jolt to his system. “Bad idea to fall asleep,” the AI reminded him.

But what did it matter when no one knew to come and find him?

It was actually Bruce who would be the salvation of Tony.

After the Hulk keeled over, Bruce once more retook control and ended up a naked and shivering mess on the jungle floor. He had no real memory of what had happened, he never really did except for knowing that he had probably hurt a lot of people, and he pushed himself up as soon as possible to look around.

The sight of the battered and sparking armour on the ground made his stomach sink and he stumbled over to it as fast as he could. It ended with him tugging the faceplate off as best he could and desperately hoping for a pulse.

"Tony? Tony, can you hear me? FRIDAY? If either of you can hear me, release the suit."

"This is not advised, Doctor Banner. The pressure on Mr. Stark's extremities are vital for his survival."

Tony wasn't awake for this. He might have wondered how Bruce had managed to find him stuck up in that building, or how he was going to drag him back down when it was half crumbled. He might also have been pleased to see him, though, but all that there was now was blackness and pain.

"My communication systems are down. I can not ping radios at a distance and we are quite far from the city. I can reach your radio, however. It is intact with your belongings." Not that his clothes would be anything but shreds right now.

At least he could try to reach some people for help unless he wanted to kick Tony down the inner shaft of the building back to the ground.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

He felt a sinking sense of guilt and sorrow create a pit in his stomach, a knowledge that he had most likely killed one of his only friends. This is why it was better for everyone if he remained isolated and alone, somewhere where he could regulate himself and make sure that there were no more incidents.

"Fine. Turn on the radio, broadcast as loud as you can."

Bruce bent down and used every muscle he had to try and pull Tony in his full armour to a more stable bit where he could then work on rigging a pulley system to get him down. All the while he kept talking to be transmitted to the radio, repeating the same thing over and over.

"This is Bruce Banner, I'm east of the village, Tony is gravely injured and trapped in the armour, I cannot get him back alone. I need assistance. This is--"

Steve tended to keep his blue-tooth in whenever he was working out. Most people liked to have on music, but with FRIDAY being down and there being more important things to do than to fix her so she worked in the rest of the city, Steve couldn’t access her databanks remotely. So he listened to the radios instead, to people talking to other people over the single network that they had. Someone was asking for help here…but anyone else could assist with laundry and Steve had learned that he needed to restrict his desire to help everyone to what his skillset was.

He had another meeting with Helblindi later, with the whole council, and he was excited to move forward. Helblindi had even offered them assistance to transport everyone from the moon directly through the void so that they could all start fresh right away. The Asgardians wouldn’t be able to capture them that way. There would be a vote on that tonight but Steve was sure it would go his way.

He was just killing another bag of sand when Bruce’s distress call came in and Steve, panting, blinked at the downed bag before he jumped over it and up the stairs.

“BUCK! WE GOTTA GO NOW!”

Bruce wouldn't be alone with Stark for too long, not when two Super Soldiers jumped out of the brush a few minutes later.

Bucky was never far from Steve's side. Though they were married now, they still hadn't properly shared a bed or gone further than some heavy kissing, but he was obviously a better man now than he had been. He smiled more, muted and small and almost always in Steve's presence, but it was still there, and he regained some of his dry wit that had been stripped by the Soldier. Little by little he was getting himself back again.

But at moments like this where they were needed, where he had to be efficient and on the look out for danger, then he became dead eyed and merciless again. Which was why he was first to Stark's side and already lifting the armour by the time Steve got there to help him.

"It was me," Bruce muttered, obviously distressed. "It was-- Code Green. You need to get him to the medical wing, I have to operate, I think he has a ruptured spleen."

For a moment, all Steve could think was: People actually rupture spleens? It was insensitive and he immediately regretted thinking it, helping Buck with the heavy armor and the man inside. He let his husband do the heavy lifting and he apologized to Bruce before scooping him up to follow after. Two miles was a lot for a normal guy to handle walking and they needed to go. Quickly.

Armor and doctor were deposited in their hospital, which really could have used a lot more TLC than they had devoted to it, and Steve stepped back.

Unlike with Bucky, Tony didn’t have anyone to sit with him, or hold his hand. He didn’t have anyone to wait in the hallway or pray for him. They had been at odds, he and the dark haired inventor, but having found happiness himself, he couldn’t help but really pity the man being forcefully removed from his armor by Bruce and FRIDAY. “Can we help in any way, doctor?”

"You can make sure that nobody comes in here, I need complete silence to operate."

He knew it wasn't fair to ask them to stand on the door like common bodyguards, but all it would take would be one patient wandering in at the wrong moment, or someone coming to help, and his concentration would go. He was hanging on by a thread as it was, still shaking like a leaf because he hadn't managed to decompress since the Hulk had been put back under control.

But damn it, he would make himself capable of this.

He waited until the two were out of the room before he began, channelling his everything into finding all the internal injuries and patching them up. Until he had done all he could do and all there was left to do was wait. If Tony woke up, then odds were good he'd survive as long as he took it easy, but he could just as quickly fall into a coma he'd never wake up from.

With his back to the wall, Steve crossed his arms and stood looking down at his feet. He was that way for the entire operation, until Bruce, wearing a lab coat and a towel, pulled open the doors so that he could get some fresh air. Tony was still unconscious on the table, looking pale and terrible, more gray and ashy and made of wax instead of flesh.

Steve only glanced in before he turned his eyes back to the floor.

“What time is it?” he asked his stoic husband, and Steve frowned to hear that they were about to be late for their own meeting. He didn’t ask if Banner would be coming. And he knew Tony would not be. Being a leader was difficult, but Steve was almost glad to leave the medical wing, still smelling of sweat from his work out. He didn’t have time to change to meet the prince and princess of Jotunheim.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject