We Rise, Only To Fall / Steve Rogers

5

The Hulk

I groaned out, in immense pain from where I was knocked to the floor, my head hitting the ground first. I felt something heavy on top of me and glanced to my left to see Nat. The two of us had dropped through the glass floor and a large pile of metal had fallen on us. I looked around wildly to see Bruce on the other side of Nat, face down and panting.

"Rose, help me with this!" Nat called out to me, struggling to lift the metal on top of our feet. 

I tried lifting with her, but it refused to budge as I heard Fury talking in our headsets in the background. "Romanoff? Stark - the female one?"

I pressed a hand to my earpiece. "We're okay," I told them as Bruce began to grunt painfully, fists clenching.

Nat takes a sidelong glance at Bruce. "We're okay, right?" she asked nervously. 

"Doctor?" I said quietly, watching as he began to writhe on the ground, his skin beginning to turn slightly green. 

"Bruce?" Nat tried as we attempted again to lift the metal crushing us. "You gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants."

"We're gonna be okay," I told him as two other men jogged up. "Listen to us."

"Are you hurt?" the men asked but Nat quickly waved them away.

"We're gonna be okay, all right?" Nat kept talking to him as I pushed, sweat beginning to form on my head and my legs beginning to ache.

"I swear on our lives, we will get you out of this," I said to Bruce.

"You will walk away," Nat continued and dread began to course through us both. "You will never, ever..."

"Your lives?!" Bruce's tone was deeper and struck fear into my heart with the pain and anger laced in it. He was suddenly thrown into a more upright position, his purple shirt beginning to tear as his usually tan skin shifted into a darker green, his muscles growing in size. 

My eyes widened and I shared a scared look with Nat, knowing we had little time and hurried to push this piece of metal holding us down. Just before Bruce could turn full form, he scrambled back and slid off the platform we were on, ducking just a few feet away. He was huge by now, and roaring in pain. At the last second, he turned to look at us, as Bruce, his expression sorrowful and already regretful. 

"Bruce..." Nat whispered. And then he turned fully, shirt ripping from him and with a loud groan he got up and tried to move away, swaying dangerously.

"Hurry!" I urged Nat and with a final pull, our legs came free and we scrambled up, stopping for a second to watch Bruce's actions.

Slowly, he turned around and I had to clasp a hand to my mouth to stop from screaming out. Without hesitation, Natasha and I ran the opposite direction, up a few steps of a staircase before the both of us reached our hands up on the bars and hauled ourselves up before the Hulk charged at us, ripping the bottom half of the staircase clean off. I flipped onto the other side of the rails, holding out a hand for Nat to do the same before running on the grates, each one falling away behind us as the Hulk tore them down. 

We swung through several bars and down a hatch before scurrying under a massive cooler. We crouched, waiting with baited breath as it grew silent. I clasped my hand around Nat's, the two of us trying hard to keep it together as genuine terror took over. I didn't dare speak, but if I did, I would've let out every curse under the sun. We cowered, with each and every dull thud of the Hulk moving.

I nudged Nat, pointing at our guns and she nodded. We removed them from their holsters, armed them and silently we tiptoed out, both of us facing different ways.