Under A Panther's Watch

Chapter 4

Luna smiled as she walked down the hallway. It had been about a week since Black Panther had brought her to the Avengers Mansion and she really liked it there, having bonded with Wasp, Thor, Hawkeye, and J.A.R.V.I.S. She felt happy that they treated her like they had known her for a long time and she had had fun shopping with Wasp and sparring with Thor and Hawkeye. She decided to head for the training room to practice climbing faster. She entered the training room and stopped short at seeing a huge green person smashing the training robots into scrap metal. She stood to the side, not wanting to get in the way as she watched with a little fear and some awe as the robots were reduced to nothing.

Hulk sensed someone watching and turned to find the kid behind him. He saw her swallow hard as he approached and he paused. "You're the kid Black Panther saved," he said.

"Y-Yes," Luna said, stammering a little.

"Thor and Hawkeye say you're a good sparring partner," Hulk continued. "How about we spar?"

The girl's eyes widened. "Um, I don't know if I'd be able to keep up with you," she said.

Hulk chuckled. "You mean you're scared Hulk will hurt ya," he said, seeing right through her. "Nah, Hulk won't hurt ya, but Hulk want to see your technique."

Well, Luna decided that she could do that and just watch to make sure he didn't catch her. "Well, okay," she said before taking a deep breath and looking at him. "Don't go easy on me. I don't like easy challenges."

Hulk smirked. "Neither does Hulk," he said as he charged at her. The twelve-year-old ducked and moved to the side, avoiding him, but she knew she couldn't keep dodging. While generally a smaller opponent was faster against a bigger opponent, Luna knew Hulk was fast, no doubt due to training. One would think that being so huge Hulk would be slow, but anyone to think that would be a fool.

Luna dodged again, but Hulk almost caught her and he smirked. "Come on," he said. "Give Hulk a challenge."

She now smirked. "Okay, Hulk," she said. "See if you can catch a kitty."

With that, she got out her climbing claws and ran towards a wall, jumping up and springing off of it to land on the other wall and start climbing rapidly. Well, I did want to practice climbing faster, she thought to herself as she turned to see where Hulk was.

He was right behind her.

Luna let out a scream of shock when she saw that and squirmed as Hulk scooped her up and jumped to the floor, landing and lightly pinning the twelve-year-old girl to the floor. She squirmed harder, but he didn't budge. "Look at that. Hulk caught a kitty," he said with a grin.

She glared up at him. "Oh, it's on, green giant," she said. "Rematch."

He chuckled and let her up before they went at it again. Luna again climbed faster and at one point slid back down on purpose, surprising the Hulk who had leapt up to catch her again and she jumped to another wall, climbing up faster now before she got to the top and went to take another leap to another wall. She landed and was about to start climbing again when something grabbed her leg and gave a gentle, but firm tug, making her lose her grip and she fell back right into Hulk's arms. "Green giant, huh?" He asked before poking her side.

Luna squeaked and squirmed. "Let go!" She said, some more giggles escaping her when Hulk wiggled his fingers into her ribs, especially her lowermost rib. She squeaked. "No! Not there!"

Hulk grinned. "Did Hulk find kitty's weak spot?" He asked teasingly before focusing his wiggling fingers on that lower rib, to which Luna burst into laughter, squealing and giggling.

Black Panther, hearing the commotion as he was headed for the training room, looked inside to see Luna was trapped in Hulk's arms and the giant hero was tickling her. The black-suited hero chuckled as Luna squirmed to get free, but was unable to. Hulk paused the tickle torture, letting Luna catch her breath. "Well, does the kitty yield?" He asked her playfully.