Changing Colors - A Bruce Banner Story

Freefall

Indigo watched as Bruce swallowed his sleeping medication.

"Does it help?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing helps," the look on his face was one of pure pain.

Indigo wondered what he was hiding that was so bad that it would keep him from sleeping. She could never imagine having to self-medicate in order to sleep at night.

She knew it wasn't a prescription because there was no label on the bottle.

As soon as Bruce looked towards the window she knew she had made some sort of mistake. Some social queue she had missed, probably. She wasn't entirely used to talking to people.

She decided to leave him alone so she wouldn't make things worse. In order to pass the time she pulled out a sketch pad and a pencil. She turned to look at Bruce and slowly started to sketch his outline.

A while later she was starting to sketch the stars outside the window around his head when she heard a soft noise come from beside her. She looked up to see that Bruce had fallen asleep. She smiled a little, glad he wasn't worrying for once. Then he shifted in his seat a little and mumbled, "No stop. I can't! Not here."

She sighed and closed her notepad, shoving it back in her bag.

"Can't even relax when you're asleep," she sighed and rubbed his hand gently. She didn't want to wake him up but she thought he might feel better if he knew someone was there with him.

After a few minutes he stopped tossing and turning and she let go of his hand.

"No, Betty-" he grabbed her hand. It wasn't gentle, but he wasn't trying to hurt her either. He seemed almost desperate.

"Shhh," she rubbed her thumb against his hand softly and leaned back in her chair.

He calmed down again and eventually she fell asleep too.

About six hour later she woke up to the feeling of movement beside her.

"Oh good, you're awake," she smiled over at Bruce, noticing their hands had disconnected at some point. Thank god, she could only imagine how hard that would've been to explain.

"You talk in your sleep ya know," she told him.

The alarm on his face let her know she had probably said the wrong thing again. After reassuring him that it was nothing bad they started to talk about other things.

She learned that he was a doctor, which explained the self-prescribed pills. She also saw the guilt in his features when he talked about his job. Almost like he felt the need to help people to make up for something else. Something he did.

That was probably why he couldn't sleep. It must've had something to do with the Betty he was dreaming about. Maybe she was a patient he had lost. One he couldn't save.

She smiled when she noticed his hands had stopped shaking and was suddenly determined to keep him talking. It was obviously helping.

"It's alright, I'm used to it-" she stopped suddenly while responding to his comment about her name. She had been about to ask him if he had any family to give him a pet name when the plane lurched. Immediately she knew it was trouble, no matter what Jimmy said about a "misunderstanding."

Her body kicked into overdrive and she started getting things together. She zipped up her bag and threw it over her shoulder before forcing a parachute at Bruce and stepping out into the cold night air.

Her hands gripped the rungs on the side of the plane and she began shimmying her way up to the top.

To anyone else this probably would have been terrifying, but to Indigo it was just another day spent trying to survive. She felt her eyes begin to glow a fluorescent purple to match the light buzzing around her fingertips.

She heard another shot go off on the darkness and then a pained shout from Bruce. He hadn't jumped yet.

"Fuck," she muttered. She could blow the helicopter behind them into oblivion right this second, but she knew the force would ricochet back and knock their tiny plane out of the sky as well. She knew Bruce and Jimmy could handle jumping, but falling with the plane would be too much for them. Maybe even too much for her.

Suddenly she heard a scream. It started loud and then faded as the person fell farther into the sky. It didn't sound like Bruce. No, definitely Jimmy. He'd know how to work his parachute, he'd be fine. Why hadn't Bruce gone yet?

Just as she was about to go coerce him to jump a large green hand hit down on the roof of the plane beside her left foot.

"Holy-" her words were cut off by the sight of a massive green monster pulling himself onto the roof of the plane. The aircraft dipped under his shift in wait.

"B-Bruce?" she whispered in awe.

The giant creature shook his head, "No Bruce. Hulk hate Bruce. Hulk Smash!"

"No stop!" she yelled, grabbing one of his large fingers to try and hold him back.

He could have easily sent her hurtling into the air but instead he looked back at her in confusion. He was like a large kid.

She took a deep breath and started to speak, "Bruce- uh I mean Hulk- my name is Indigo Abernathy. I have the situation under control."

He looked back at the helicopter, then at her again and laughed. His booming voice shook the airplane, which whiteout its pilot was beginning to dip lower in the sky.

"Hulk. I mean it," she kept her voice steady and leveled, "When I hit them with this-" She let the violet light spark around her hand again to show him- "You have to jump. The plane is going to fall too, and the helicopter. Release your parachute sooner than later so they'll fall faster than you. You'll be able to clear them that way."

The large green guy seemed to consider this for a moment and then he nodded. "Chopper go boom," he muttered and took a step back.

She nodded and her hands began to spark more. Her eyes glowed with a bright indigo light and when she forced her hands towards the helicopter the same color lit up the entire sky.

In the split second before the power ricochet back she turned to the hulk, "Go!" Her eyes widened at the sight of him still standing there, "Please Bruce if you're in there please jump. I'm begging you, please-"

Before she could finish her sentence she felt a pair of strong arms close in around her.

Then she was falling.