Tightrope

Science and Faith

It takes less than an hour in conversation with some of the community and Elizabeth's team for the digital pen to end up in Banner's hand. He outlines a plan with some calculated explanations of his own on the holographic white board.

A family insists they don't belong; a mother, father and son. In their broken communication they recognized Banner's SHIELD logo sketch and a bunch of other familiar events in time and history that Elizabeth and her team do not.

After years of being here, their son has adapted- or at least Bruce is receiving that impression.

When asked to describe exactly how they've arrived, 'a green energy' is all they can offer. It's simple enough so Bruce returns to his theory of an alternate dimension and sketches out his lines, circles and a brief calculation on the side.

"What if..."

Ross is already shaking her head, "You're talking about breaking the rule of time."

"...not quite. I'm talking about a parallel universe."

"How?"

"What if some sort of energy were strong enough to contract the billions of cells, the mass of a human being and re-emerge them into another world."

Elizabeth scoffs, "That's impossible."

"Is it?"

"We can't shrink and expand a being. The amount of power it would take- I can't shrink one human let alone transfer them- With their memories...I can't fathom."

Bruce twists his jaw in front of the scientists and the family, "I take it there's, no, 'hulk' in this world, is there? Pym Tech?"

The translator is on a delay as he addresses the nearby family who nod with recognition. The translator looks terrified as she explains;

"Yes, they know a hulk."

Banner puts an abrupt end to the translating and steps purposely in between the family to grab a purple inked digital marker, "Moving on!"

Elizabeth tugs at her white lab coat and scans over his numbers, "This energy, what is it? If we can't explain it we can't replicate it. If we can't replicate it, we can't do anything about it. I can't even shrink a cell- Ugh what are we supposed to do with this-?"

He smirks, "Oh, just wait."

Bruce is in his element as he flips the board and goes on an elongated rant, avoiding the fact of it being his own DNA and the way his body expands and shrinks with every action taken by his alter ego. It's detailed research that the infamous 'Betty' once sat in the lab and worked with him for months on. With every explanation he adds an additional theory. Immersed in his discussion of space, time, physics.

Much to his surprise, he is in heaven, not some sort of hell.

The sleeves of his borrowed sweatshirt are rolled up to his elbows by the end of the 8 hour discussion, Elizabeth's reading glasses on the tip of his nose.

Even Bruce doesn't remember how he managed to get those but they're currently on his face, sharing them with the biologist every few minutes.

He bites at the pen, now left alone with Ross and two other scientists as the hours pass.

Without completely dissecting the poor Izabella Mikhailov, he can only guess where half of her abilities would've come from. He avoids dropping a name or a person at all, referring to her power simply as an 'energy.'

Ross stands with a coy expression as she snatches her lenses back from off of his face to scan over the countless numbers, equations and theories he's scribbled on the board. She leans to examine a portion and reaches to take the pen in his hand. He complies.