Now You Don't

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Bruce sat down in his seat between Tony and Natasha. The lights went low and the show began.

Bruce watched as Daniel, Henley, Merritt and Jack performed all of the usual tricks with a little bit of flair - the hypnotism, the rabbit in a box, the card tricks - then a huge tank filled with water was brought out.

"Tonight," said Daniel. "Henley is going to do a special trick."

"A friend of ours," said Merritt. "His father was killed when trying to do this trick."

Bruce's breath caught.

"We haven't seen him in a few years," said Jack. "And if it weren't for him, we wouldn't be standing before you today."

"We would probably be in a jail cell," Daniel chuckled.

"So tonight," said Henley. "I am going to be locked in a safe, which is then going to be dropped into this tank of water. Daniel is going to time me, I'm going to have 300 seconds to get out."

"Now," said Jack. "A lot of you people have probably seen the videos of Henley's escape tricks from before we became the Horsemen."

"Yes," said Daniel. "She was a bit of a sadist and liked to make people think she died in the tank."

"But for this trick," said Merritt. "She's going to do the classic, escape the box trick. No piranhas, no pretend dying. That's it."

Bruce gripped the arm rests of his chair. He watched as Henley climbed into the safe and was lowered inside.

"Is she mad?" Steve whispered.

"This is her speciality," said Clint. "She'll be fine."

"Besides," said Tony. "If we have to, we can intervene."

As the time was almost up, with 30 seconds left Henley, opened the door of the safe and swam up to the top.

Everyone cheered.

"Now," said Daniel. "For our finale, we are going to do something never done before."

"We," said Jack. "Are going to break into..."

"Avengers Tower," said Henley.

The rest of the avengers around Bruce went tense.

Tony was about to stand up to yell at them but Bruce grabbed his wrist.

"Sit down," he said, firmly. "And watch."

"What I am showing you," said Jack, holding up the magic helmet from years ago. "Is what we call a magic helmet. We are going to ask for a volunteer."

People began raising their hands, trying to get picked.

"We're going to chose someone at random," said Merritt.

Bruce scoffed.

"Will you pick a ping pong ball out of this bucket, please," said Merritt, holding a bucket out towards a girl next to him. Jack and Henley did the same and they all passed the balls to Daniel. Daniel opened looked at each of the balls and called out the seat number.

"Section 4, Row A, Seat 4!"

Bruce chuckled. He stood up and waved his hand.

"Hello!" called Jack. "What's your name?"

"Bruce Banner," he called.

"Mr. Banner," called Daniel. "Can you confirm that you are sitting in seat 4A4?"

"Yes," said Bruce.

"Can you come down to the stage please Mr Banner," said Henley.

Bruce went down to the stage stairs and climbed up. Merritt greeted him. Merritt tried to hypnotise him.

"That's not going to work on me, Merritt," Bruce whispered. "Don't you remember?"

Henley came over to them and shook Bruce's hand.

"Hi Henley," Bruce whispered. "Thanks for doing Dad's trick. It's very nice of you."

Bruce got into the machine that Henley had conjured up and was 'transported' to 'Avengers Tower'.

He looked around. The set up was very similar to the real Avengers Tower, but a lot cleaner.

"Bruce, can you hear me?" said Daniel's voice.

"Yeah I can hear you," said Bruce. "This is very impressive."

"Now Bruce," said Jack. "I'm going to need you to go into your pocket and pull out a playing card."

Bruce reached into his pocket. Inside was a playing card with the Four Horsemen symbol on it.

"Bruce," said Henley. "We now need you to put that playing card on the table in front of you."

Bruce put the playing card on coffee table. 

"Now Bruce," said Merritt. "We're going to bring you back. Can you reach up to the helmet, and there should be a button on the side of it. Push that button."

Bruce pushed the button and he was immediately standing on the stage again.

Jack came and took the helmet back. "Very good," Bruce muttered. "But avengers tower is a lot messier."

Jack stood next to the other three and they all got ready to leave.

"We are the Four Horsemen. Goodnight."