Being a Banner [ 1 of JA ]

61

A little while later, it starts to get stuffy in the helicopter, so I unbuckle myself to take off my sweatshirt. As I do, I hear guns raising. I turn to see the armed men ready to shoot. I glare at them as I take my sweatshirt off. Once they realize this, they start to put their guns down.
      As they do I look at the floor, my eyes travel up to Dad who's looking at the ground. He looks like he's in deep thought, distressed and anxious all at once. Maybe it was just me, but I could feel it all. I could feel his emotions.
      Dad has his head in his hands and elbows propped on his knees. He lifts his head up to look at me and give as much energy as he can to smile and hold his hands out. I take Dad's hands into mine, and gently nudge my green converse on the toes of his shoes.
      Dad looks at me with the brown eyes I once had, and smiles. I smile back. The boys are just as drained as we are, so we continue to sit in our own silence, listening to the propellers of the helicopter.
      I don't want to look at them. I had to tell them so many lies that I now have a big ball of guilt in my chest, tightening every day.
      Lies are what started this. Lies are what nearly broke my friendships. If I could restart my life I would.
      Maybe my Mom would've stayed. Maybe Dad would've told me about the Hulk. Maybe Dad and Dalia would've ended up together and everyone would be happy. I'd still have Jax and Levi, sharing everything together like we used to. Everything could've been perfect.
      Looking at my situation now, I realize that I didn't hold on any longer. I let everything fall apart. Thanks to me we're all recorded by the government, listed as problems and data based on inconveniences. All because of me.
      And life will be different now. What's going to happen when Dad and I are in Virginia? Will we be experimented on? Will needles poke me, inject me with serums I don't know?
      Will they cut me open? Are scars going to cover my body, and never fade away? Mark me until there's no more places to be scarred?
      Or am I just going to be tucked away by the military in a base where no one will know that Dad and I even exist?
      My thoughts are interrupted by a voice.
      "Flying near Harlem sir," a soldier looking at a screen calls out to Ross.
      I notice that Dad tenses up hearing this.
      "You okay?" I ask.
      He looks up at me, about to speak, until the helicopter jerks. I nearly fall out of my seat, forgetting to buckle myself back in, but Dad catches me. Jax and Levi reach to help me up.
      "You okay?" Jax asks.
      "Yeah," I nod. Just as Dad instructs Jax to help me back in my seat and be buckled, the helicopter jerks again, this time it's fast.
      Dad catches me before I can fall. He begins to unbuckle himself as he shouts at the pilot, asking what's going on.
      "General!" The soldier at the screens hollers. Ross moves around people to get to his man. I watch Ross and the soldier, both blocking the screens so I can't see anything.
      Dad helps me back into my seat and starts looking at the buckles to hold me in.
      "What do you think they're talking about?" Jax whispers to me. I look at him and shrug. I see Levi trying to lean to see through the men. General then stands up, and looks towards Dad and I.
      "Banner, get over here," General demands. He looks a little pale in the face as he says this. Dad looks confused but stands up straighter and tells me to hang onto something for the time being. Once Dad moves towards General, I follow him.
      As Dad stands in front of the screens, Ross takes notice of me.
      "I didn't ask you to come," he says. "Go sit back down before you're hurt."
      "You're relocating me and Dad, I think I deserve to know what's going on." I say with some stern attitude.
      Dad is about to speak to me when a beeping noise comes from the screen. We all look to see a very blurred image, colors of green, brown and yellow.
      When the picture comes into focus, a voice behind me asks, "What the heck is that?"
      I turn around to see Levi and Jax now gathered with us. Looking back at the screen, I squint trying to understand what it is I'm looking at.
      Honestly, the creature looked like a giant, muscular lizard, with skin like one too, It almost looks like he's got spikes or something sharp trailing down his back. In a way, it sort of looks like Hulk.
      "What is that?" I ask, looking between Dad and Ross.
      Dad looks incredibly worried, sick even as he shakes his head.
      "No, no, no that's–that's not who we think it is, right?" Dad asks.
      "It's who we think it is," General nods.
      "No. . ." Dad whispers.
      "I sent a team to go after him." General says, looking at Dad. "They didn't return."
      Apparently, this thing seems like a big deal to the General, and especially Dad.
      "What is that thing? Dad, what is that?" I ask, getting angry that no one is answering me.
      "Abomination," Dad almost whispers.
      "What's that?" I ask.
      "Not what, who." General says to me.
      "Who? Who is that?" I ask, I'm frustrated that I'm not getting any answers.
      "Emil Blonsky." General says after a pause.
      "Emil who?" I ask.
      "He was sent to kill me years ago." Dad says. "He was a soldier, and then he underwent a different process like me to have his own Hulk. But he likes causing trouble, which is why we call him Abomination."
      Dad is glaring at Ross, which means he had something to do with Abomination. My eyes turn back to the screen.
      It was hard to fathom my own dad having an alter ego, but now knowing that there's someone like Dad who's an actual monster. Someone who wants to kill, who really wants to destroy.
      "Call in Alpha and Omega team, get them on those streets." General shouts behind him to his men. "We had one weapon to actually stop him," General says, looking to Dad. "But that didn't work the last time, so I have to ask. . ." Ross sighs in disappointment, and perhaps even embarrassment. "Will you help us, Banner?"
      Dad looks to me and stares at me for a few moments before looking back at Ross and nodding. "Keep Kerry and the boys safe."
      Dad takes off his glasses and hands them to Ross. He then turns his head and calls out, "Open the platform!"
General nods at a soldier near the platform. The soldier pulls a lever, and a big noise groans as the platform opens.
"Dad, what are you doing?" I ask yelling over the wind. Dad walks passed everyone. Walks passed me, looking straight ahead into the dark sky.
My eyes grow wide realizing what he's doing as he steps out onto the platform. I do the one thing I know I shouldn't, and I follow him. I run through the helicopter and to the platform where I outstretch my arm to grab his shirt.
"Dad! Wait!" I cry out, grabbing him by the arm instead.
"Kerry!" Jax cries out, grabbing my other arm as he holds onto a soldier, who's holding onto a part of the helicopter inside.
Dad turns around, and seeing me makes his eyes grow to the size of soccer balls.
"Kerry!" He exclaims. He places his hands on my shoulders and pushes me back towards the helicopter, but I don't budge.
"I have to go with you!" I yell over the wind as it whips my hair all around my face.
"What? No!" Dad shouts, "Just stay up here—"
"But I have to make sure you don't hurt anybody!" I protest.
"Kerry," Dad says with a tired smile, "you've done your part, and now I need you to stay up here so I don't hurt you."
"But I'm still trying!" I shout, "I know I can make Hulk not kill anyone!"
Dad looks at me with sadness in his eyes. "Kerry, you can't fix what he's already labeled as. He's a monster, and I have to carry the burden of being unable to stop him. I'm a monster too."
"Maybe you see a monster, but I see a hero." I say, loud enough so everyone could hear. "You fall, I fall." I say.
"Kerry—"
"You fall, I fall, that's our deal!" I sob, my eyes filling up with tears. "I can't lose you again."
"I don't want to lose you either." Dad says with pursed lips, like he's holding back all of his emotions.
If this was the last time I was gonna see him be him, then I want to cherish it.
I hug him as tight as I can with my free arm. My face in his chest, and his big arms around me.
"I love you, Dad."
"I love you too." Dad says.
Then, I feel his arms leave me, his hands running over mine as he falls back off the platform. I watch him plummet to the earth, falling between the clouds in the night sky.
Falling, falling, and falling; down, down, down.
Then I heard a loud boom.

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