marvel one-shots

15. hulk ; pain

Whitehall's going to be the villain even though he's technically dead, but he's a cool villain so yeah XD

I woke with a jolt and realized my arms were tied behind a wooden beam. My ankles were tied as well. What fun, I thought sarcastically. It was in some sort of barn, empty of course. The door on the far side opened and a man came in. He smiled at your displeasure.

"Hello Grace." He greeted maniacally. He had a very heavy German accent and small, round glasses. He was Daniel Whitehall, the infamous HYDRA leader.

"Whitehall." I clenched my jaw and worked on rubbing the rope on the back of the beam.

"Quit fidgeting, you'll just give yourself false hope." He said. He took a kitchen match out of his pocket and walked over to me. He took the match and held it close to my face. It was then that I realized the odor of gas in the barn.

"They'll find you and they'll kill you." I spoke tightly, I gave up on the rope. It wasn't going to loosen.

"Who? SHIELD? Ha. They haven't yet, nor will they ever-"

"The Avengers. They will find you." I interrupted him. He ran the red tip of the match down my cheek quickly and it hurt. But the match caught fire and he held it close to my cheek.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's rude to interrupt people? It burns them, like a match." He smiled. I contorted my mouth and blew it out. He lit another on my cheek and backed up before I could extinguish it.

"Not as rude as tying an innocent up." I snort.

"You're not an innocent. Don't think I don't know that. Whether you're still an agent or not, you helped SHIELD. And I do not tolerate enemies. Especially the lying ones." He paused and smiled. "Have fun burning for your sins!" He dropped the match on the hay and it smoked.

"I won't burn nearly as long as you will!" I screamed as he left. I sweat and scream and try to escape my death. The fire carried and began to encroach on me, the smoke filled my nostrils and all I could think was: I'm going to die here, alone, and no one will know.

•••

I woke up in a laboratory. There were two men on the other side, turned away from me. I went to move and inadvertently whined in pain. They turned. One i recognized as the famous billionaire, Tony Stark.

"Hello, Grace." The billionaire said.

"That's my name." I said through the pain, still trying to sit up.

"What were you doing going and burning in a barn?" The other asked. "How foolish." He chuckled.

"Bruce, come on." Tony laughed, now the other man had a name. "But seriously, why were you there?"

"You know that guy Daniel Whitehall? The whole Hail Hydra thing? Yeah, that's why." I pause and lean onto my knees. "Retired SHIELD agent here. He wanted me to 'burn for my sins.'"

"Hm." Bruce mulled it over and Tony turned back to the other table. "Do you know where Whitehall is?" I shake my head. He frowns.

"I'm sorry." I said, disappointed too that I couldn't help locate the man that tried to kill me. "Can I ask some questions, myself?" Bruce shrugged.

"So I know Mr Stark is the famous Iron Man," I projected my hands, small so the burns wouldn't hurt, "But who're you supposed to be? Is it just Bruce?" I ask, sitting up.

"He's Hulk." Tony answered for him, over his shoulder. "The big green guy."

"That's pretty awesome." I admit. Bruce smiles, you could tell he didn't quite feel the same way. But I didn't ask, afraid to over step my bounds. "And where am I?"

"The Quinjet. We heard that there was a large building that was burning, arson or something, so we wanted to see what was up. The HYDRA symbol was burned into the outside so we went in to see-"

"You went in, Bruce, not we." Tony interrupts, finally turning to us. He leans against the table.

"-Right, I went in to see. You were the only hostage and we took you in. Now we're flying you to a hospital, we'll call your family and send you home." Bruce said, taking the tubing out of my arms.

"And if you say anything about this to anyone, we'd have to take care of that."

"Geez. Weren't you all: 'No torture, chose life, never kill anyone' in that big war?" I question. Tony glares at me.

"Only because SHIELD can't have a bad rep. And we don't want anyone to think we did this to you." Tony said.

"I think I could be of use to you. Do you want to know why I left SHIELD?" I cock an eyebrow, it catches their attention and they both look at me. "Well, let's just say that pain only hurts if you let it." I hold a burned arm out to them and the destroyed tissue closed and returned to normal.

I held out the other and it did the same, soon my face, back, legs, and neck all returned to normal and the stinging pain left.

"Why'd that make you leave SHIELD?" Bruce asks.

"I didn't want them to control me, like they do to you two." I say, looking between them.

"Hm." Tony looked bewildered and left.

"They don't control us." Bruce said indifferently, cleaning up the mess of tools.

"No?"

"Nope. It's like how you said 'pain only hurts if you let it,' they only control you if you let them." He looked at me.

"I'm impressed. Not too many people can adequately use my words against me." I hop off the bed and walk over to him. He looks at me, his eyebrows raised. "So, you saved me?" He smiles.

"Yeah." He looks down at me, being that I'm shorter than him.

"Well thank you, Bruce." I kiss his cheek and walk out of the door, knowing he watched me...