Avengers

Iron Man Returns

"I've got him!" Thor shouted. Rose grabbed the limp body, and hauled it onto the ship. She gave desperate chest compressions - but before she could give rescue breaths he coughed water onto her face. He sat up sharply, and Rose reeled backwards as their foreheads connected with a crack.

    "Ouch!' she said, surprised. Everyone laughed at the comical scene unfolding before them, except Bruce Banner. Banner clutched his head, and emitted a groan which was drowned in the laughter surrounding him. He staggered into his room, and collapsed onto the bed. Alone. That's what he was. The only real freak out the ones recruited. A big, green freak. And the iPod wasn't helping, playing Run, by Snow Patrol. He uncomfortably rolled over, but the iPod glitched. The music kept playing.

    He sighed, and sat up. The suitcases were all packed, waiting at the bottom of his bed. Picking them up, his head twinged again. Someone was trying to get through, to tell him not to do this. But it wasn't the Hulk. It was an image of the fact that he had discovered others, like him, who accepted him …

    "No!" Natasha gasped. She saw a pod shoot down to earth from the ship. All the Avengers gathered; they saw the pod speeding closer and closer to land until it connected. An explosion and a vibration rocked the ship, unbalancing them all. Who? was the question on all their minds.

    "Banner! He's not here!" Rose cried. Thor dashed over to double check. He found the iPod: besides the small item, no other trace of Banner could be found. He was gone. Rose collapsed in shock. The man had seemed normal. She had had to idea the inside torment he was going through.

    The pod shot towards the ground. Banner braced himself. This was his last moments as an unwanted radioactive gamma-freak. It hit the ground, and he was thrown away. A limb tore off; he couldn't see. Dust coated him; sticky, thick, liquid poured from his shoulder stump. He gulped, stifling a sob. He hadn't been killed. He had lost an arm, gone blind, but not died. He cursed himself. Time to end this struggle with his lifetime. He tottered unsteadily towards the water's edge. Crouching, he dove beneath the waves with the chain he had grabbed. As he swam, bubbles of air rippled.

    He tangled the chain around his neck; Hulk couldn't come without being strangled. Next, he searched for a large rock. He attached the chain to a huge boulder, then buried it under the sand. With his remaining ounces of air, Banner ripped savagely at the wound to make more blood surge out. He was getting dizzy; his oxygen deprived lungs heaved. Water flooded in; he choked. Whether the chain, a shark, or lack of oxygen killed him, he didn't care. Hulk strained to be able to transform Banner, but Banner fought it. Hulk gave up, dying alongside his companion. No bubbles came to the surface. Banner was dead. Hulk was dead. The body hovered under the waves, lost forever.

    "There's the wreckage! But … where's Banner?" Rose cried. The ship circled the beach, but there was no sign for Banner. Until Barton spotted a trail of blood. He pointed frantically: the trail of blood followed alongside a line of scuffed footprints. Banner had been badly hurt - now he had tried to drown himself. Stark went pale; Natasha stared with blank eyes, unable to believe what was unfolding; Rogers was blinking in hope of this to be a dream; Barton sank onto the floor in worry; and Nick Fury was pacing furiously, Maria thinking desperately for a chance.

    Stark glanced up, as if to say some words of hope, but when he saw other hopeful faces staring at him, he dropped his gaze back to the floor in sorrow. Abruptly, Barton jumped up. He hooked a jet pack onto his back, and jumped from the window with a smash. Swooping down to the beach, he took it off so it wouldn't get splashed by water. Now, he had to search for Banner.

    Beneath the churning waves, he swam deeper. The water shimmered with darts of fish, and he caught glimpses of sharks. Unnerved by the fact that they got bigger every time he saw them, Barton swam further down. he spotted a body, anchored to the seabed by a rusty chain. The skin was tinged  green, but there was no mistaking the fact that it wasn't the Hulk approaching. The swirl of the sea cast strange lights onto Banner's ace, making it green.

    Barton saw a coiling cloud of eerie red. Horrified, he followed the stream. What he saw made him shudder; almost retch. The arm had been forcefully torn off: where it was now was unknown. The shredded skin was disgusting - the bone was revealed, and the flesh smell was attracting hungry sharks from miles diameter.  Talk of the devil, Barton thought. A shark snapped at his feet; he kicked it on the snout. If sharks could yelp, it would have. Confused, Barton tugged on Banner's arm. A hammer broke the chain immediately, from the stone to Banner's throat. Thor smiled grimly.

    It's constricting his windpipe! Barton motioned, by pointing at the chain, and mock choking. Together, they pulled the unconscious Banner to the surface. As he reached the air, he twitched and convulsed in their grasp. Vomit polluted the sea - and Thor's hair. He shook his head in disgust.

    "Poor Thory-Wory. You'll need a bucket of TH'ORÉAL to cleanse that off now!" Stark remarked. He grinned as Thor dunked his head under the surface, vomit billowing off his head as he writhed violently underwater to get it off. Everyone laughed, but their smiles faded. Banner was thrashing around as he struggled to pull out of the others' grasp. He momentarily sank, but surfaced gasping.

    Natasha sat up, beads of sweat dotting her brow. Such a vivid dream! She panted, boiling hot under her burrow of sheets. She pulled them off, dumped them on the floor, and swung her legs out of bed. Her feet hit something soft; a muffled cry. Drawing her legs back with a small shriek, she peered over the bedside. Rogers was rubbing his face, grimacing. There was a prominent red mark from her foot whacking his face. He had been in the process of getting his shield from beneath her bunk when she'd woken, and tried to get out of bed. Natasha gave a small snort from behind her hand. Rogers had to agree; Barton was lucky to have such a pretty girl to like him.

    He frowned sadly, remembering Peggy Carter. Lucky … to have such a pretty woman. Once, a lover. Now, an old man: though he couldn't feel it, his bones were wearier than what they'd been when he'd been younger. Rogers gave up on searching for his shield. Clambering back to bed, he turned over and fell silent. Natasha shrugged at her loss of company.

    Resuming her exit, she checked for no more faces below. Satisfied, she walked from the room. Loki grabbed her throat. Terrified, Natasha couldn't even squeak. 

    "I know what you're thinking, Romanoff. No-one, not even precious little Cupid, can help!" Loki sneered. Dragging her from the ship, he threw her off the wing.

    You're falling, plummeting to your death. But strangely you aren't screaming for help. You can finally understand, release shock and care. Calm, you fall towards land. Not sea. Concrete; you see a city below. Your murderer aimed well. All your allies will find is a gory splat on the pavement. You suddenly feel pain, a pang of remorse. Dismay at the person you like not knowing. A single tear slides off your face. You watch it fly past your face. Awe of such a small thing, blossoming to a whole new item. LIke you. But not joining air. Joining death. The impact as you hit solid ground, your last memory of a life. Natasha shut her eyes, awaiting the death that soon came for her.

    Loki smiled. "Hello, brother." Thor stared back in horror at his reflection. Loki Laufeyson smiled back. Thor stammered, not managing to find words. He finally found his tongue.

    "I - you - where's N - Natasha?" he accused. "You did something to her, didn't you?" 

    Loki shook his head and, placing a hand on Thor's shoulder - Wait, Thor thought. You can't reach out of a mirror. He said the last few words, but gave a muffled yell as a hand clamped over his mouth. "Let's see how much Mjölnir can destroy," Loki grinned mischievously. Thor's eyes went a misty blue as the staff touched the armour at his chest. Grabbing Mjölnir, he flexed his grip menacingly. Loki nodded approvingly, glaring in a fierce, yet kind of affectionate way

    "Let us go, brother. Destroy these puny  people who think they have control. Let them find out what they gain from attempting to control two Asgardian gods!" he roared.