when banner comes marching home again... OPEN

[pursuitofcappiness]

Who: EVERYONE INTERESTED INCLUDING YOU **If you want, we can handwave that Steve contacted everyone about it over the network but I don't want to spam the comm.**
What: RESCUE PARTY
When: After whenever Lydia posted to the network that Bruce disappeared, Steve asked her to tell everyone interested in finding him to meet up at the fountain.Where: Fountain!

Steve's at the fountain, checking his wristwatch in case anyone calls, making ocassional rounds because he's anxiously waiting to leave. He's carrying his shield, which looks rather out of place with his civvies.

He was at home, so he brought a couple bike helmets and some small weapons for people to carry into the woods, just in case.

Comments

MEET UP

[pursuitofcappiness]

[manofiron]

Tony's restless energy is practically palpable, yet he does nothing to conceal it. Hands stuffed in his jacket pockets so that no one can see how tightly clenched his fingers are, he paces back and forth around the fountain, impatient to be out looking for Bruce. That he's here at all, waiting for others, is a favor to Steve and nothing more.

Common sense tells him it's hopeless. That Bruce is gone the same way Steve was gone. The same way Romanoff - both of them, really - is gone. It sets his teeth on edge, makes the muscles in his jaw so tight it feels like it might snap from the strain. But here he is anyway, because he has to do something. Even if it's hopeless. Even if Bruce is gone.

He'll never forgive himself if he doesn't act. But he won't wait forever, Steve's request or not. If the others don't get here soon, he's going on his own, warnings be damned. The longer they wait, the more unlikely it is they'll find anything that might tell them if Bruce is alive or dead. And since Tony has neither seen nor heard any sign that points toward a transformation into the Hulk, he doesn't think they'll be lucky enough to find him alive.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve hands him a helmet and the candlestick he used to knock down their camera, since he's seen Tony's swing and it's not bad. He'd like to have been able to find some sort of armor, but on short notice and short fuses, that's unlikely to happen. He'll just keep an eye on Tony, like he is now, watching him grow nervous and worried.

Tony's not in a state or position to go into the woods, but Steve won't stop him and couldn't if he tried. He imagines volunteers will be plentiful but protection will be scarce. He doesn't know Logan, but Sharon said that he was one of her best men and that she'd been a director of SHIELD, which concerns Steve with what exactly is in those woods and what kind of danger they're all walking into.

"I got a few calls back. We shouldn't be waiting long, just enough so everyone can get something together," he says. But he's not sure exactly how long they're going to have to be here. As soon as a couple people show up, he supposes he can send Tony along with them and keep waiting for the others if there are stragglers. He takes a deep breath and tries to sort out all the thoughts in his mind.

[agentx13]

Sharon rounds the corner and heads over, her expression carefully schooled not to betray her thoughts. She has no great faith that they'll success, that they need another plan. Any plan. But she also knows how much people need to feel as if they're doing something.

"Rogers. Tony." She inclines her head to each of them, all business. "You two have a plan yet?" Oh, God. She hopes it's something better than "Wander around and call for them."

[manofiron]

"I'm not used to waiting. Not anymore."

It's a mark of how seriously he's taking all of this that he doesn't complain or make a snide remark about the helmet and candlestick Steve hands him. He simply takes them and holds them in his hands, loosely, like he barely realizes that they're there. Whoever it was took Bruce, took the Hulk. A candlestick probably isn't going to do a damn thing. Steve might be useful here, but Tony knows that he won't be.

His gaze shifts to Sharon when she walks up, and he gives her a nod. "Sharon." Does he have a plan? Not really. "Far as I'm concerned, find Bruce is the plan."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Well, that depends on how many people show up. But I figure there's three places we should be looking-- the forest, the town, and that little island up north... At least getting to the island should provide a better view of what's beyond the town."

He takes out his sketchbook, and he's drawn a crude map of the place. "It's a huge forest, and it's... dangerous, so we're going to have to send a team of fighters in. Someone should have medical knowledge and someone else should be good at orienteering, so nobody wanders around in the woods.

"We don't know what the island's going to be like, so we should send a similar group over, with someone who's sailed before, in case there are any surprises with the water. Has anyone figured out if there's a way to get underground in the town?" Because most likely, an above-ground search won't take very long... But Steve's not discounting hiding someone in plain view.

"We'll keep in touch over the watches-- I'm not sure how they work, if we need to be near a tower or each other, but that's something we're going to have to figure out on the way. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We meet back here at sundown or we set up a conference call to check in."

He pauses and lowers his voice before anyone else around hears. "And a member of each group should know about Dr. Banner's condition, but I'm not ready to tell everyone else just yet."

[agentx13]

She nods along with the plan as she evaluates it and searches for holes. "Which means SHIELD personnel with each team. I've been wanting to recon the forest as much as I could, so I'd like to join that team, if I can."

"As for the water, one of our former residents, the Doctor, said the water was faintly acidic. He was taken before he could tell me how harmful it might be to humans, though." She glances at Tony before her eyes shift back to Steve. "With your regenerative abilities, it might benefit us most for you to go in the water, and Tony can help lead the search on the town. We haven't found anything underground except for a basement here and there. But it would explain a great deal."

As for Banner's condition, she's fine without advertising it. She won't tell until he's ready for people to know, and even then, she'll follow his lead and nothing more.

[manofiron]

Tony listens to Steve lay out the plan with growing irritation. Oh, it’s a good plan. It makes sense. It’s why Steve’s the strategist of the group and he’s not. He finds nothing wrong with the plan. What he takes issue with is his place in it.

He doesn’t miss the fact that he’s been relegated to searching the town, which to his mind is equivalent to giving the kids something menial to do while the grownups go out and do the real work. Just like he doesn’t miss the way Sharon looks at him when she speaks about how harmful the water might be to regular people. And he gets it. Of course he gets it. He’s a normal human. He doesn’t have special powers. He can’t heal himself if he gets injured, he can’t withstand physical trauma that would kill an ordinary person. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bother him. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t hear what they’re both tactfully not saying.

Without the suit, he’s nothing. Without his fortune and his technological toys, he’s nothing but a man. One who doesn’t even have a gun. It knots his stomach into a tight ball of bitter frustration and makes him want to lash out them, to call them on what they’re doing and remind them that he’s Iron Man. But he doesn’t. Because he’s not Iron Man. Not anymore.

So Tony holds his tongue. He lets the soldiers speak and plan and decide things that, as a civilian, he has not place in deciding. And his eyes drift toward the forest again. Because he knows Bruce isn’t in the town, and he thinks that finding out what’s on the other side of those trees is their only hope of finding him again.

MOVE OUT: TOWN

[pursuitofcappiness]

Re: MOVE OUT: TOWN

[pursuitofcappiness]

For a moment, everything's brilliant bright white and Steve thinks this is it, his number's up, this time it's real. He feels a pang of guilt and a surge of weight on his shoulders. Banner is still out there. He needs to get to the island or at least tell the others and he's dead and he can't and--

--Things start coming into focus. He sees sky, and he feels cold and he tries to move but he can't. He's not conscious of when he jerks up and coughs up half the sea and there's a burn of salt in his lungs. There's water at his feet, and something washes up and hits his feet. It's the shield. Grab it, he commands himself, before it washes out to sea. It's the shield.

The crisp, clean stripes and star get unfocused and he takes it, gets the sudden instinct that he should run but he feels like he's being crushed, like he's being pulled under and all the sounds are too loud and too muffled.

His legs have moved him through grass to somewhere, the edge of town. Where is he? Where is Coulson? He needs to find Coulson. His whole body shakes and he leans against a wall. He has to move.

[theshield_agent]

Phil's been checking the town up and down. He's been in every building looking for any clue of Banner. There's nothing. There isn't even the sign of a struggle in the house he'd been in.

This is driving Phil crazy. People can't just disappear, especially not his people. Natasha and now Banner and Rogers disappearing and coming back without memories. He should be protecting them. What if Clint or Sharon are next?

He's walking through the cemetery when he sees something glint by the shore. He starts to walk towards it and it's... the shield?

He squints as he gets closer. "Captain Rogers!" He runs the rest of the way to the man, kneeling down to help. "Easy."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Hey," he says, trying to smile and feeling like he might hurl instead. It's not a strange feeling, but it's one he hasn't had for awhile. "I was looking for you," he says. "There's something in the water. Didn't get a good look before it dragged me under. Think it's strong enough to take down a boat, if we build one. Think it might be what destroyed the docks."

He tries to stand up, at least, but the thought makes him dizzy and the action makes him fall forward, though it takes until he hits something solid for his mind to catch up with his body. "We'll have to fly."

[theshield_agent]

"Let's make a mental note to warn Sam." He manages to not roll his eyes, but just barely. "That kid wanted to build a boat to get out there last time we talked."

He wraps an arm around Steve's torso, trying to help him. "Let's get you home." He tries to give Steve some stability, ready to take on a good amount of his weight. Phil's stronger than he looks and he's never been more thankful for that.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"No," he says, sternly, trying to give his best stare and ending up with something borderline hilarious. "We have to find Dr. Banner. If there's nothing in town, I said we'd go together into the forest."

He tries to be funny. Good god, he tries to be funny. "Got my orienteering badge in the Boy Scouts. You're gonna need someone who can find their way around."

[theshield_agent]

"Something tells me Agent Carter can... orienteer, Captain Rogers." Phil at least hopes that she can since she voluntarily went into the woods. She seems smart enough to understand these things.

"Listen, we're just going to get you home for a quick nap and then we'll meet the others. I'm sure they're fine." Well, that's a blatant lie. Who knows what could be out there? He's still not sending Steve into the woods when he can barely stand.

LMAO I MISSED AN IMPORTANT PART OF THIS CONVERSATION

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Phil... I'm not sure what you're trying to pull, but now's not the time to joke around. How are you going to catch up to Sharon's group?" he asks, trying his hardest during a moment of clarity to get up and stand straight and square his shoulders and look like he's ready to go.

He's not even fooling himself, really.

"We at least need to call, make sure that no one else got... drugged, or whatever this is."

MOVE OUT: WOODS

[pursuitofcappiness]

[agentx13]

Sharon bites her lip as Tony takes off, but Steve's orders stop her from chasing after him right away. Instead, she stands there, studying Steve's features. For a moment, just a moment, he had sounded like her Steve, but she knows that isn't possible. Still, she can't help but try to find some semblance of her Steve in his face. And that's just the problem, isn't it? He looks the same.

She barely refrains herself from rolling her eyes when Loki attempts his pleasantries. As if she would ever trust those. As if she would ever trust him. She had never dealt with Loki directly before back home, but she's determined not to fall for any of his tricks. Or at least, to fall for as few of them as possible.

She lets him breeze past and checks to make sure she has time to catch up before turning to Phil. "I suggest keeping Barton in the lighthouse to keep an eye on the captain. If there are problems, keep me in the loop." But he doesn't have to tell her immediately; Coulson can handle himself under pressure.

Without looking at Steve again - if something goes wrong in the woods, she doesn't want her lover's face to be the last thing she sees, particularly since it isn't even her Steve - she jogs to catch up with the others. As she passes Loki, she merely nods her head. "Loki."

She doesn't slow until she's caught up to Tony. "We're sparring when we get back so I can gauge where you are without the suit." She manages a weak grin. "If you're really good, as good as I hope you are, I'll even find a way to make up the ass-kicking to you. Or are you afraid of the possibility of a girl handing you your ass, Mr. Stark?"

[manofiron]

He’s not trying to get away from anyone as much as he is trying to get the search underway, so when he hears the sounds of approaching footsteps, he doesn’t duck away or try to lose them. He just keeps walking until they catch up to him.

It’s not that surprising to hear Sharon’s voice. Of course it would be her. Steve had assigned them to the same group, and someone with some amount of skill obviously needed to babysit his useless ass. The bitterness is childish and stupid, but he can’t quite shake it. He hasn’t been weak and ordinary for years; it’s like trying to put on shed skin three sizes much too small.

“I made peace with getting my ass kicked by girls when I met Romanoff.” He shrugs, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. “We can spare if you want. I don’t have any objections.”

[laevisilaufeyson]

Were Loki privy to Tony's thoughts he might add that his ass, though otherwise somewhat remarkable, is so thoroughly useless that it requires two babysitters, one of them a deity -- but under the circumstances he's reduced to having to be a pain (in the ass or otherwise) via other methods.

"One does rather wonder why it is that Rogers insisted I go along with you, Agent... Sharon, whoever you are, if the only language you're willing to spout in my direction is going to be so..." He sucks in a breath, thoughtful, searching. "Monomorphemic."

A politely disapproving frown tugs at the corners of his mouth. "I believe courtesy dictates that if I am going to be assisting you, you do your level best to provide me with all the instruction and encouragement I'll require to do so. In return, I furnish favours. Simple, and if you were to have acted accordingly you might already know that I'm quite capable of getting us all where we're going much more quickly than this."

A sigh. "If only someone were willing to tell me where that is."

[agentx13]

Her grin for Tony fades as Loki falls in with them, and she bites the inside of her cheek to keep from filling the pause with her last name. She has to be careful around him.

More importantly, she has to be smart. She doesn't reach out to stop Tony, instead hoping he'll follow her lead and stop as well. She schools her face into something more passive, almost pleasant, and turns to Loki. "You're right, Loki. I'm sorry for being rude. The people missing are friends of mine."

She looks over her shoulder toward the woods. "The three of us have to check the woods. Last time I sent a man in, he didn't get far before he was attacked by creatures he described as 'metal bears.'" Even though Anna had said none of them were within her reach, and she was an angel, perhaps... just perhaps, with Loki, they could make it. "I don't think we have a chance of finding the others unless we can get past the defenses of the people keeping us here. How far could you take us into the woods?

As for instruction and encouragement, Sharon isn't going to say anything. Though she has to admit, his overly polite routine is mildly amusing. Amusing like a King Cobra that dances before it kills.

[manofiron]

And now they’re going to stop and debate some more. Clenching his teeth, Tony stops, takes a deep breath that does nothing to calm his irritation, and turns to look at them. He doesn’t know why Steve sent Loki with them either. The suspicion that it’s because he can do double duty as two people, as powerful as he is, and pick up Tony’s slack only serves to make him more annoyed.

“Bruce is gone. Vanished without a trace yesterday.” There’s subtlety and there’s Tony Stark, and right now, he doesn’t have the patience to play games. Loki’s right. He’ll be more helpful if he knows what’s going on. “I’d like to find him.”

He doesn’t know if there are cameras out here, or whether their movements and conversations are being tracked by the wristbands they wear. What’s safe to say and what isn’t, he doesn’t know. Lately, there’s a lot of things he doesn’t know, and as a genius, that doesn’t sit well.

“Is there anything you’d be willing to do to help us?” It’s his only nod toward subtlety, the careful choosing of his words to make it seem to their invisible audience – if they have one - as though he has no idea what Loki can and can’t do.

[laevisilaufeyson]

"I can take you to the boundaries of their bindings on me; no further. And I can keep you safe... perhaps." Perhaps. Well, finding out will be interesting. If not, well, he can extract the lot of them quickly enough, should he choose to do so.

"Don't fret, járnsíða. I owe the good doctor a debt, and debts I cannot stand. Messy things." Járnsíða. Iron-sides. Obvious on the surface, but also a joke. Defensive. Prickly. Rigid.

Brittle.

"You may always trust me to do what is best for me," he says sincerely, an utter lie but one that's easy to believe, and convenient under the circumstances.

And so he sketches a bow, plays the scapegrace, and offers both his hands, palms up, to his companions.

"I'll take you as far as I can." If they trust him. It's simply enough done -- just a tug, just a nauseating jaunt through the spaces between things, spaces where nothing is anything, directionality and spatial reasoning have no meaning at all, and out the other end in the blink of an eye. But only within the area that is clear to him. Part of the way, but nowhere near all of it. Whatever they've done to fog his senses restricts him also to this place.

MOVE OUT: THE ISLAND

[pursuitofcappiness]

SUNDOWN: BACK AT THE FOUNTAIN

[pursuitofcappiness]