kore_logs | Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head

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Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head

Who: Bruce Banner and Kobra Kid
Where: Near Sharon's house
When: Forward-dated to day 50, right before the upcoming hulking out
What: Bruce gets Kobra Kicked in the heart, hulks out
Warnings: Discussion of past abuse and abusive behavior, attempted murder by arson

Fuck everything. Fuck this town. Fuck the scientists and fuck Sharon. Kobra's still pretty sure she's a mole and he's going to show them what he does to fucking moles. He waits until she's home to head over to her place.

He's going to teach those scientists not to mess with him. He's going to teach everyone. Party had said he can't do controlled burns and he's going to prove that wrong, too. Just Sharon. He'll show them. He's the picture of fuckin' control, so come at him.

He's walking with so much purpose that he doesn't even see Bruce as he storms through the town, heat dancing in his clenched fists.

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Bruce is on his way home when he spots Kobra, and something about the look in his eyes and the set of his shoulders unsettle him. He's been trying to be patient with Kobra because Bruce knows as well as anyone how difficult it can be to get past anger problems, but patient doesn't mean tolerant, not when Bruce's warning bells are going off. He follows after him and then jogs to catch up with him, looking over him with open concern as he keeps pace.

"Kobra? What happened? Why are you upset?"

Edited 2013-03-11 04:53 (UTC)

Kobra stops. He likes Bruce, honestly, and he appreciates the man's help, but fuck does he not want to control his anger. He wants to lash out. He wants to fucking burn so that everyone knows not to fuck with his people and Bruce is sort of almost one of his people, too.

"I'm going to smoke out a mole."

Oh, good. That does absolutely nothing to make Bruce think Kobra killed Maria any less than he did before. The idea that Kobra might not want to control his anger literally hasn't occurred to him. If he's thought he killed someone, wouldn't he want to reign himself in? Wouldn't he be afraid of his anger? If he isn't, then he really isn't very different from people like Bruce's father who justify being assholes based on their anger. He frowns and steps forward, reaching out to Kobra's shoulder.

"What do you mean? Who's a mole?"

Kobra shrugs it off, hands unclenching as he turns around, and there's just a spot of fire in them as they open.

"Who do you think? It's her fault. All of this is her fault and I'm going to send a fuckin' message that can't be ignored." She'd acted like she cared that Lydia was missing. That's really the thing he can't forgive here. Sharon had pretended to want to help and what had she actually done?

"Who -- " Then it clicks. "Sharon?"

Oh, Jesus Christ. Bruce just barely restrains himself from rolling his eyes. What is with this feud between Sharon and the others? He thinks Sharon's might be unwilling to see that they have a lot that they're trying to handle, just like her, but he also thinks there's some ridiculousness coming from them. The whole thing's getting to a point where Bruce almost wonders if there shouldn't be an intervention.

You know, after he makes sure Kobra doesn't go and kill Sharon. He can't even say that lightly in his mind as if it weren't serious because he's pretty sure Kobra is serious. Bruce double-takes because he thinks he sees a flash in Kobra's hand, and he assumes it's a knife, but when he looks, there's nothing.

"Kobra. It's not Sharon's fault. Even if it was, going off like this isn't the way to do anything. Remember? We talked about this. Come on with me back to my house. You need to cool off."

"Why? So you can derail me?" He shakes his head. "She needs to answer for what she's done. She's working with them, Bruce. You have to see that. You're playing into their hands. You're doing what they want you to and I'm not going to be a good little boy. I'm not gonna sit down and eat my fuckin' vegetables."

As his anger spikes, so does the heat in his hands. This time, it flares up for nearly half a minute, getting brighter as he speaks.

"I don't think not violently going after someone before you've even proven that she's done anything wrong is really the same thing as eating your broccoli."

Though Bruce's words lose momentum as he sees the fire in Kobra's hand. He almost backs up a half step, but then he stays where he is. Kobra can't really hurt him anyway.

"Kobra, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything. It was a gift." And just like that, he's on the defensive. He's sick of people questioning who he associates with and he's sick of people treating him like a fucking kid. He's a grown ass man and he's not stupid.

"Why is everything on me? Why doesn't she have to prove that she's on our side? How do people not see that some flashy government agent is exactly who's probably working with crazy, overbearing scientists." He's sorry that Kenzi's suit-friend died, but the dude was probably one of them, too.

"Okay, Kobra. You're overreacting." He doesn't know how Kobra can't see that; okay, no, he knows what it is to get carried away, but it's one thing when it's a giant monster made of rage and another when it's an actual human being. Kobra's still in there; how can he let his rage dominate him this much?

"You're letting this control you to the point that you're becoming an animal. Put the fire away. Let's calm down and then we can talk about this."

He comes forward because he really isn't afraid of the fire, though maybe he should be, and he reaches for Kobra again.

"'M not a fuckin' animal." The flames in his hands flared up. "And you're not going to just cut my balls off. I'm doing what needs to be done."

He doesn't want to hurt Bruce and he'll do everything he can not to, but Sharon's going down, one way or another.

"This doesn't need to be done. Violence never needs to be done." Seriously?

"I'm not going to let you do this, Kobra. I'm not."

"How are you gonna stop me?" Kobra's never going to agree with that sentiment. There's been such a necessity for violence in his life that he can't picture a life without it.

"Huh?" He moves into Bruce's space. "How are you gonna stop me without your own violence? You're just proving yourself wrong."

Even if Bruce knows he could justify this, that it's different, that he could very well be saving Sharon's life here, Kobra's words hit him in a sensitive spot. It's not like Bruce isn't trying the other way first, but yeah -- yeah, he might turn into the Hulk if it would keep Sharon safe, and let's be honest, it's probably not just Sharon at risk here. Anger breeds irresponsibility and it doesn't always stop when it's supposed to.

"It doesn't have to be violent, but I can make him make you stop," he says lowly, and he feels dirty saying it. It's not like when he was up against a squad of SHIELD agents outside that house in Kolkata.

"Don't make me go there, Kobra."

"No one makes you do anything." His own voice drops. "You make choices, the same as the rest of us. You wanna feel justified in what you do? You wanna feel clean an innocent? 'Cause that's too fuckin' bad. I take responsibility for what I think is right. Do you?"

He knows that he's taken actions that some people think are wrong. He'll make tons more, but he knows in his heart what's right and wrong. This is right.

"I wasn't just given this so I could light my cigarettes."

Bruce taking responsibility for what's right is a complicated question. For a long time he thought that meant hiding out and keeping the Hulk under wraps, but then there was New York, and then there was helping out in the escape attempt. Maybe the Hulk can do more good than he gave him credit for; maybe he's missed out opportunities to help out all this time, and maybe whatever didn't go right there is on him as much as the pain the Hulk has caused. He steps closer, not intimidated by Kobra in the slightest.

"What do you think I'm doing right now? You were 'given' this fire whatever so you could run off and hurt someone, and I can't let that happen, Kobra." He sets his shoulders.

"Sharon's never even done anything, and even if she has? Killing her isn't the automatic right answer. The eye for an eye rule didn't even last to the end of the Bible. Taking a life is huge."

"Maybe to you it is, but for me it's just part of my life." He shakes his head. Killing isn't anything new. He doesn't kill for no reason, but there's plenty of reasons to kill a person.

"You don't know my life. You don't know what I've had to do just to fuckin' stay alive! What? You think that just because you've got your... your thing that you understand? You're a fucking doctor." He's yelling by the end.

"I can understand what you had to do back home, but Kobra, Sharon has done nothing to you that you can prove, and what if she actually is innocent? What? You're going to set her on fire and watch an innocent person burn, and you could just be okay with that?"

Like Bruce could stand by and watch his mom be beaten to death, and he couldn't even testify against his father at the trial because he was so afraid, because he let his father manipulate him? He's not going to let that happen again. He doesn't notice his hands curling up into fists at his sides.

"You think she's innocent? She almost got Kenzi killed! Jesse and Galen, too. You think an innocent women takes fuckin'... fuckin' kids into a battlefield? You think an innocent woman threatens to break my face on a table for being annoying? She left innocent behind a long fuckin' time ago. I'm not letting her get any of my friends killed!" He's shaking, flames licking up to his wrists. "You're damn right I'm going to put a stop to that!"

Bruce is starting to feel hot, and he can blame the fire in Kobra's hands, but it's coming from someplace deeper within him. For all he talks about being aware of one's anger, he's not quite aware of how angry he is now, or how close he is to snapping. Maybe the better way to phrase it would be that the Hulk is close to the surface; Bruce has changed into him more often in the past few months -- starting with the helicarrier -- than he has in a long time. The hallucinogens also ate away at the barrier between Bruce and the Hulk, even though he hasn't quite realized that yet either; he's always angry, yes, but his fuse is shorter than it has been in a long time, and in a way he hasn't experienced yet.

He gets to experience it now.

Kobra's being ridiculous; he's letting his anger over things that were ill-advised, but not in Sharon's power, take over him, and he's actually going to use this fire he somehow found to hurt Sharon. He knows Sharon's not defenseless -- logically, he knows that -- but she's still a woman, and Kobra's still a powerful man right now, and that's a kind of violence that sickens him, right down to his core, right down to his childhood...

And hadn't he attacked women, too? He was on drugs, mostly out of his mind and full up of fear and rage and defensiveness... He's no better than...

...no.

The heat that had been licking at his skin suddenly seizes him from the inside; his brain is boiling with it, and he knows what this is. This is the Hulk, clawing his way out, scratching his way to the surface, and Bruce isn't letting him out this time. For an instant, he considers not resisting, wonders if that would bypass the Hulk's rage, but what if it doesn't? What if it doesn't, and Bruce just lets him out? It's only just starting; he might be able to fight it off, if he just tries hard enough, if he just holds on --

He stumbles back from Kobra, his nails digging into his palms now, and he struggles, and fights, and pushes -- but it's happening faster than it has before, and Bruce knows that it's way past letting anything happen; it's happening, and he never said yes.

He sinks to his knees and then falls forward onto his hands as his body starts to shift, his skin tinting green as his shoulders expand, his shirt tearing. He cries out; the pain's never not a shock, not when it feels like he's being dipped in acid slowly, and when he looks up at Kobra, his eyes are flashing green.

"Run."

And then with the cracking and stretching of a few more bones and muscles, the Hulk is on his knees in front of Kobra. This time, when he lifts his head, his eyes are brown like Bruce's -- but Bruce is definitely not at home. He snarls and then smirks slowly, his muscles tensing as he prepares to leap.

"Run." Bruce had been warning Kobra. The Hulk's giving the mouse a head start.

Edited 2013-03-13 05:09 (UTC)

In an instant all of Kobra's anger is gone. He wants to hurt Sharon, yeah, but not Bruce. He likes Bruce and they're almost sorta friends... or they were.

"Bruce, I..." He goes from zero to guilty in .5 seconds, but as Bruce transforms into the Hulk, he doesn't even get his apology out before he starts to run.

Fuck, he's such a shit. He's no better than Sharon now. As he runs, his hand brushes a trash bin and the contents burst into flames. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He doesn't even look back at it as he puts everything he has into running away. He's been running all his life. He can do this.

The Hulk gives him five -- no, two seconds. Look at him run. Good; he should run. He can't actually remember what was going on, but he knows Hot Hands is why he's here. Not that he's upset that he's here; fuck Banner, the Hulk would always rather be out, but clawing out like this? It fills him up with leftover rage, and he just wants to smash; there's not room for anything else, not while the anger's flaring bright and hot.

So Hot Hands is first. Look out, Fiery.

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Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head

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