kore_logs | now i'm stronger than yesterday

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now i'm stronger than yesterday

Who: The Hulk, some unfortunate scientists, and YOU.
When: Early morning hours of Day 22 (before sunrise). Good mooooorning.
Where: Near the woods.
What: After going missing for four in-game days, Bruce comes back... Kind of. Come mingle with the big guy!

At some point in time, Bruce wakes up to find himself held captive, and he decides to break free.

That much, at least, the Hulk knows, or can guess, or whatever – he doesn't really care about Banner's issues very much at all because Banner doesn't care about his, and if he didn't need the Hulk, he wouldn't have let him out in the first place. Why should the Hulk care about him? What the Hulk does care about are people trying to hurt Banner because Banner's body is his body somewhere down the line, and that is so not okay. That is the opposite of okay.

They might be able to contain Banner, but the Hulk is convinced they can't contain him.

He's right. Of course. He's the strongest there is, and these dinky, wimpy little scientists with their stupid machines are so easy to squish. Too easy – there's a nagging, a tugging, and something from Banner's end bleeds through. It isn't really a conscious thought, or a string of words, but it's something the Hulk understands anyway. Take prisoners to interrogate. What were they doing to Banner, what did they want to do with the Hulk?

The Hulk snorts, but nods to himself. Okay, Banner. That's a good one.

While the Hulk's deciding this, his captors realize the Hulk's right – they aren't going to win this one.

The Hulk couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when they start to move him; he's busy fighting, dealing with a particularly thorny (but ultimately destroyed, thanks) machine. He does notice when he starts to fall.

Roaring in rage, he drops out of the sky much like Loki's box did, and he lands on his back, with a loud crash, just outside of the woods. In his arms, he's cradling one live scientist. Two dead ones tumble out with him, in crumpled heaps beside him, but he doesn't really pay attention to that. What matters to him is trying to figure out where those white coat bastards dropped him. He holds out his captive, looking into his face, and thinks of how to interrogate.

Maybe if he just growls in his face.

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Ever since she'd resigned her post, Mina had taken to spending most of her evenings down by the water. Perhaps she was getting sentimental in her old age. It reminded her of the time before. Before Jacqueline and Chicago and the complicated truth about Thomas. That time when she had a purpose and an aim and a clear course to sail.

Perhaps she was simply missing Anne.

At any rate, she was sitting by the water when she heard the crash.

Mina was on her feet in an instant. She reached for her guns, but at the last moment, changed her mind. Instead, she pulled a scalpel out of her pocket, pressing the blade up against her wrist as she took off at a run toward the sound.

Most people ran away from a storm. Mina ran into them.

Besides, at least dying would help her escape the dreadful monotony of this place and its people.

The stupid human is unconscious. Great. The Hulk rolls and gets to his feet, the scientist dangling problematically where he's holding him under his arm. He snorts in frustration and quickly looks around him, looking for a threat and for a way to protect himself against it. When he turns around again, he sees the puny person running at him, and he snarls, stomps his foot, and readies himself for an attack.

Bring it on, Tiny. If Banner recognizes her, it hasn't sunk in through for the Hulk yet; there's adrenaline and confusion from the drop and the fight, and it will take her getting closer for it to click.

Sleep? Sleep was for the weak and stout of mind.

In all actuality, Clint really was more of an early riser as long as he had a pot of coffee in hand. Sometimes he was lucky enough to go grab a bagel from somewhere but that really wasn't the case here. There was no stopping at a little corner store where they had ready-to-eat food. He did, however, find a can of peaches which made as good a meal as any when he'd just woken up from what he would call a small coma. Clint had put it in his mind that he would make another pot of coffee for Galen and Phil after he was done with his own and went on a run.

Plans however changed as the minutes went by. The crash was not something he would miss. He had excellent senses and he was not deaf.

The archer's normal hour to an hour and a half of wandering around still half-unconscious was knocked down to a few short seconds before he had made his way out to where the noise originated from. Boots, forgotten. Bow, in hand. Coffee pot, that was in his inventory as well. Standing in the middle of the snow in nothing but a tank-top and boxers, priceless. For everything else there was...the Hulk? He stood there for a moment as Hulk held out the scientist before dropping his bow.

If there was one thing he knew, walking up to the Hulk with a weapon usually meant someone got smashed. And it was typically not the Hulk. Instead he moved closer, remaining a safe distance before taking a sip of his quickly chilling coffee. "Hey there, Jade Jaws. Get a new friend while you were away, big guy?" Safe distance meant not in arm's reach. But he knew how fast the Hulk could move. He wasn't stupid.

These days, Tony doesn’t sleep much. He didn’t in California, he didn’t in New York, and he’s not sleeping much here. There’s too much to do, too much that has to be built from the ground up for him to let himself be too idle. Some of his teammates are gone, he himself has no way of being a useful contribution to the fighting, if it needs to take place, and the house has gotten a little crowded. Steve and Peggy don’t need a third wheel while they try to catch up with the seventy years that have been stolen from them.

So Tony goes for walks, now that he’s healed enough to do it. It’s not much, but it makes him feel vaguely useful and it keeps him out of the house, away from the possibility of falling asleep. Win-win for everybody.

He’s near the upper part of town when the earth shakes, but there’s no ocean to fall into this time and he’s not drunk. It’s got an odd feel to it, this earthquake, and having lived in California for so long, Tony’s become accustomed to earthquakes. It doesn’t feel like tectonic plates shifting, it feels like an impact. So naturally, unsurprisingly, he goes to investigate.

Tony’s not expecting the Hulk, evident in the way he comes to an abrupt stop immediately upon catching sight of him. “That you, Jolly Green?” Because it’s dark enough, and the place is strange enough, that he knows not to so quickly trust his senses. Besides, he doesn’t want to hope. Moving closer, ignoring the common sense that would tell other people to run, he walks right up to him. “Hulk?”

Foolhardy though she could be, the instant Mina saw the...whatever it was...she skidded to a stop. "Bloody hell," she murmured.

Even after all of her experience, dealing with Kindred and the True Fae and whatever else crawled through the night, making a nuisance of itself, she felt ill-prepared for this. The goddamn thing was enormous. And she could see bodies. Bodies she rather wished were still alive. The lab coats were...

...well, no matter.

She took a step back, pressing the blade of the scalpel against her wrist, hard enough to feel a prick, but not hard enough to draw blood. Not yet. She wasn't entirely sure which spell she would even use for this situation.

So she waited to see what the creature would do.

Dawn's a good time for Steve to be out catching whatever's waking up. So he's there early, since he didn't want to set up the alarm and wake everyone up in the house... So he tried the old "drink a lot of water and wake up early to pee" method and went a little overboard. So now he's at the edge of the woods trying to wake himself up. He brought his shield, so he might be able to reflect the light off it and attract anything still up before the sun comes up.

Then the sky opens.

Steve really hates when that happens and Thor's not around.

But then he sees, in the dark, something very large. Something very large and, as he squints, totally definitely green. He starts running until he gets close to the ground, at which point he gets down and ducks under the shield. If he wasn't healed from his poison, he'd have tumbled over. But he's back up and running, slows down before he gets to the big guy in case he's not into seeing his friends.

Apparently he's got friends. He notes the dead scientists around him and he should be sorry they're dead, but they made a choice when they kidnapped Dr. Banner and, from what it appears, tried to get him into a lab. He circles around, because he thinks coming up from behind might involve getting tossed into the ocean from here. Curiously, he seems to like the one in his arms more than the others...

"Hulk, I'm glad to see you," he says. "But you gotta put that guy down. Don't worry, I've got him."

Sharon is already up and about, stretching in the empty house she had shared with Natasha when she hears and the Hulk's yell and the ensuing crash. She wastes no time in running toward the fountain. But no, the noise came from farther away, and she sprints toward the woods.

She skids to a stop when she sees the Hulk, the two dead scientists, and... does the Hulk have a live scientist? Yes.

She rests a hand on the grip of her gun, the other on her knife hilt. She approaches more carefully, her eyes drifting to the Hulk, but just as much focusing on the scientist in his arms. Her expression is decidedly greedy. What she wants to do when she gets her hands on him...

For now, though, she merely watches. This is a new Hulk for her. She doesn't want to misstep. She'll let Steve handle it.

For now.

What, that's it? Oh, he's so impressed. So far as he can tell, she's paralyzed in fear or whatever, and the Hulk is no longer concerned with her trying to attack him. Not that he would be concerned anyway, considering how easily he's carrying the unconscious scientist under his arm. He stomps up to her, anger and annoyance rolling off him in waves, and he balls his hand into a fist. He rears it back just enough so it looks like it could be a threat, or it could be that he's just huge and breathing hard and, well, angry.

"Where?" he demands, staring hard at her.

Sleep isn't an issue for Anna, and that means a lot of sitting in the house that she occupies and waiting for something to happen. She's in the attic this particular day, it's quieter than the rest of the house and she's sure that Gabriel and Balthazar have clued in that she doesn't really want to put up with any hassle when she's up there by now because her night has gone completely undisturbed.

Her house is close to the woods, and she hears the impact. That puts an end to the undisturbed peace. She could ignore it. She should ignore it, really, but she can't. She's worried, people might be hurt, it could have been another earthquake. Who's to say there aren't people who are hurt again? Maybe she can actually do something about it this time.

It's early enough that she's sure no one else will be up, and she is at least sure that no one else has responded to the crash quite as quickly so she's not so worried about flying. When she appears though she notices how wrong she is, there's no earthquake but there definitely is something out here, and the initial shock sends her turning to hide behind the tree she's just landed next to, and she lets out a few slow breaths before turning and sticking her head out again to get a closer look.

The Hulk starts to brace himself when he sees the human approach, but he recognizes him soon enough.

"Cupid." Oh, well. That's not what he was looking for. He was looking for more of these white coats to smash. He abruptly turns away from Cupid and turns in a circle, looking for any sign of where he was, for something worth smashing, but there's nothing he can do except spike this scientist against the ground, and he isn't going to do that. He guesses he'll talk to Cupid then. He picks up the scientist's head -- by pinching his hair -- so Cupid can see his face.

"Prisoner. They had the Hulk prisoner." Well, no. They had Banner prisoner. The Hulk didn't have time for that shit.

The Hulk is still braced for an attack from those scientists, so when Iron Man walks up, he rears around with one arm raised, hand in a fist, and ready to strike. The fist relaxes as soon as he talks, and then his arm drops entirely when he says the Hulk's name. Oh.

"Tin Man." He sounds... not annoyed seeing him. That's like being glad. "You're a prisoner too." He squints, information tugging at the back of his brain, and he picks his gaze up to the buildings beyond them. He's still holding the unconscious scientist, who's dangling like a rag doll from under his arm.

That it was capable of speech was a bit of a surprise. More so than the fist. She'd already gathered that it was powerful and dangerous. But intelligent? Again, she found herself ill-prepared.

But if intimidation was how it communicated, she could certainly play that game.

She allowed the Queen to manifest, framing her body in a glowing aura of light. It meant absolutely nothing, but she hardly had the muscles to match the Great Green Thing.

"Where what?" she replied calmly.

It’s him. It’s got to be him. No one else would call him that when he’s very obviously not wearing the suit. Which means this is Bruce. And he’s back. But he’s the Hulk now, so obviously something set him off and…

“Where have you been?” It comes out sharper than Tony means it too, and never mind that the Hulk just raised a hand to him, he moves forward until he’s right in his space, glaring up at him. “I’ve looked—We’ve been looking everywhere for you and we couldn’t find you. I thought you were dead. I thought they killed you and I’ve spent—Are you okay?” Mid-sentence, he changes tone, worry replacing agitation. “What happened to you? Did they hurt you?”

And belatedly, he realizes that they’re not alone. Pointing to the dangling scientist, Tony asks, confused, “Who the hell is that?”

The Hulk tenses, stepping back and crouching to take whatever fight this springy person might have once he gets close enough, but he recognizes him as soon as he speaks. That's kind of strange for the Hulk, honestly -- recognizing people who recognize him and still want to talk to him before trying to kill him. He doesn't think the Flag Man will go that route either. Weird.

He looks at the prisoner hanging under his arm, clearly unconscious or maybe even dead, and he snarls.

"Not a guy; prisoner."

The Hulk sees her approach and readies himself, rearing his other arm back and crouching, prepared to strike. What he really wants is information, though, so he doesn't just start by piledriving her and moving on. She isn't wearing a white coat, and that's something, and she isn't made of metal and trying to kill him, so that's something else. He can dispatch of human attackers even easier than metal ones.

"Gonna stand over there all day?" he snaps, egging her forward.

The hell -- ?

Did he just see someone appear out of thin air? Magic. He bears his teeth and stomps forward, toward where the magic girl mistakenly thinks a tree's going to save her from the Hulk. Even if she has magic. Especially if she has magic.

"Come out, or the Hulk will drag you out."

The Hulk's eyes widen slightly, and then narrow again immediately. He doesn't understand magic; light tricks and magic shows and things meant to confuse him, to try to hurt him -- that's what magic is to him, and he's the opposite of impressed, maybe even not all that intimidated. He's just even more annoyed. She wants to scare him with fireworks? Well, the Hulk won't be scared.

He stomps forward and picks her up, one solid, green fist wrapped around her middle to lift her off the ground. There's noting in his mind beyond holding her, but something triggers, and the expression on his face changes. He tilts his head at her, recognition flooding in. Then he snorts.

"Fang Lady. Tell me why the Hulk shouldn't smash you." Because he doesn't get that much explanation from Banner's end, and all of Banner's other friends are pretty nice to him, so it's not hard to comply.

Mina let out a startled yip, but immediately went limp to avoid broken bones. They wouldn't be the worst outcome of this, but they were certainly a bloody pain. And she couldn't afford to use up too much blood in healing them.

The Queen's light died as Mina hung there. Apparently, the damn fae infection didn't feel like dealing with this.

Which left her very much on her own.

And her dropped scalpel quickly told her that she was more or less defenseless.

"Because it would be an awful mess," she replied evenly. "And my friend Pendragon would be very sad without me."

Has anyone ever asked the Hulk that? He straightens and blinks in surprise, even though Iron Man here needs to watch his tone. Mostly he goes too fast for the Hulk to keep up with, and the switch from accusation to concern leaves him with his head spinning. What he can do easily enough is show off his prisoner; he's kind of proud of that. He rearranges him so Tony can get a better look at him.

"Prisoner. It'd take more than puny nerds in white coats to kill the Hulk." He says it with a growl, but maybe it's half a reassurance. There, there, Tin Man. It's going to be okay.

"How long was Banner gone?"

"Okay Hulk," he replies. "I need you to put the prisoner down, so we can take him in," he adds, as he goes around to the other men and checks their pulses. Yep, dead as doornails.

He straightens up as soon as he's done with that, looks Hulk straight in the eyes. "I'm sorry for what they did to you. What they tried to do to you. And I'm sorry we couldn't come help." He slowly approaches, arms slightly out to catch the scientist if Hulk decides to drop him. He hopes that's what going to happen, and then he can worry about getting the Hulk to get back to Dr. Banner. "We tried to come look for you. Everyone will be happy you're safe. Thank you, for coming back."

Stupid Banner influence. He can ignore it when he's blitzed on rage, which he isn't currently, and so the bleedover from Banner is stronger and more likely to loosen even his agitation. It's so not fair; can't Banner ever let him have something? Like smashing Fang Lady if he wants to? Not that he really would kill her, even without Banner telling him not to. Shake her up a little (literally) and then leave her, sure.

"How do you know Banner?" he snaps, pressing ahead. He doesn't know who Pendragon is and he doesn't care. All that matters is why she's important enough to Banner that the recognition reaches through.

Banner?

That caught her off guard even more than being hefted off the ground. Oh, she'd been deeply concerned about Banner. Enough to attempt several (unsuccessful) rituals to locate him. But she hadn't expected that nagging problem to pop up in this moment.

Then again, judging by the men in lab coats, there was a certain logic to it, certainly.

"He's a friend," she replied diplomatically. "One I should very much like to see again. Alive."

The Hulk narrows his eyes during the Flag Man's speech, waiting for the punchline. It isn't that he thinks the Flag Man really wouldn't mean anything he's saying -- actually, that's the problem. He thinks Flag Man probably does. It's weird... trusting... people.

"Didn't get much chance to do anything to me." The pronoun use is proof of how calm he is, and he eyes Flag Man's arms for a second before he drops the scientist into them. His expression turns menacing as he points a big, green finger at him.

"Don't lose him."

He gives the prisoner a distracted glance. "Good. Good plan. We can use this guy to tell us what the hell's going on."

It is a good plan. Maybe someone else would think it odd that the Hulk came up with it, but Tony doesn't think there's anything out of the ordinary about it. Bruce is brilliant. He takes for granted that the Hulk is too, despite how terse a conversationalist he is.

"Four days. You've been gone four days." It may have been four years the way he says it. "There was an earthquake and giant robots that looked like you. I almost died. Steve got poisoned. It's been a long damn time. Don't you ever leave again." Brow furrowing, he shakes his head. "Not without taking me with you. You can't go off and have all the fun yourself. It's not fair."

Banner and his friends. The others aren't so bad though, so he guesses he can spare this one. He eyes her a second longer, and then drops her -- only a little far off the ground. Just a little!

"You will. And you're welcome." Because the Hulk's the only reason Banner got out of there when he did, and he wants people to know that.

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now i'm stronger than yesterday

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