bruce banner, LIFELINE

the manipulation.

Since the incident all Bruce Banner did was work.

He ran himself into the ground with formulae and papers until he couldn't see straight and swear the ghost of Abraham Lincoln was following him then he had a cup of coffee and Abe disappeared for about twenty minutes.

He had his own agenda; to prove himself as Bruce Banner. Despite what Fury said he had to force himself to believe he is more than the Hulk. Finding the Tesseract was his only purpose.

"It feels as if nobody on this sky plane ever sleeps." Thor told the pair of scientists as they disregarded the comment. He picked up a thermometer and flicked it with his finger; it cracked.

"Sleeping is for the dead." Bruce replied solemnly as he plucked it out of the Gods hand.

"Which we will all be if your brother has a say in it." Tony Stark looked at Thor who disliked being reminded of his little brother's presence in the Helicarrier.

"Loki does not wish for any of you to be dead, he desires to see you all bow down before him." Thor corrected them and the thought sent shivers down his spines. He would never do that.

"I'd rather be dead." Bruce had taken to talking in short sentences. That way nobody wanted to talk to him in the first place.

"Both of those options sound bad to me," Tony tried to lighten the dark mood falling over the room, "Now what did you want Muscles?"

"I merely wanted to check how the search for the Tesseract was faring. I care as much about it as both of you." Thor justified his appearance but really he covered up the fact that even he couldn't rest. Loki being here neither comforted him or scared him; it only made him fearful of the mortal's life. He should have been scared of their mentality as well.

"Why don't you ask your brother-of-mine to tell us where he's hidden it then?" Bruce was sarcastic at times but never usually intentionally rude before this series of events. Rudeness had manifested itself as a coping mechanism and he didn't care who it hurt.

"I have tried that already," Thor answered, "Loki would not answer me."

"Did you try saying please?" Tony said dryly.

Thor did not respond, he could not get through to his brother no matter what he said or did. Somebody else was going to have to try, "One of you should talk to him."

Bruce stopped sending the instruments he was working on clattering on the tabletop, "No."

"Yeah I agree with alter-ego green guy here, not going to happen." Tony agreed.

"Loki is trapped and has a mind the size of the universe - surprisingly my half brother is called the clever one - and you could ask him anything you want. Don't you just want to at least try?" The Norse God was trying his hardest to make the prospect of possible mind control by Loki seem attractive. Thor figured the way to get through to the pair was through science. Unfortunately he knew nothing of science.

Bruce thought for a second, his sleep deprived brain trying to separate the sane from the, well, insane thoughts he was thinking. It wasn't going well. Suddenly the idea seemed like a good one; maybe Bruce Banner could outsmart the God of Mischief.

It was never meant to be, an ill decision but once he thought of it, he couldn't rid it from his mind. Loki could find Parker, wherever in the universe she may be, he could find her. Bruce was willing to risk anything the god could throw at him in order to know that information.

"Okay," Bruce looked up at the towering Norse god and immediately crossed his arms. He looked at the size of Thor - how he carried himself so righteously - and Bruce had never felt less like a man in his whole life. He put on a brave facade standing up straight and taking a deep breath, "I'll talk to him."