Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 141

"Stay!" Electricity crackled and wires hung loose and exposed. The engines made a sad power-down noise.

"Hulk, stop breaking everything!" All the noise made Dreyma start crying.

"DON'T GOOOOOO." Thor began pushing random buttons in a panic, and I backed up until I was practically sitting on the controls. I knew Hulk meant well, but the instinct to protect Dreyma was too strong.

"Nice work, big guy." Thor had pulled up a message from Nat! "We don't know where Ultron's headed, but you're going very high very fast, so, I need you to turn this bird around, ok?" This was an old message, probably sent after the final battle when I was already unconscious. That feels so long ago now. I hadn't even known Loki was alive and now here I am holding our six month old baby on my hip! "We can't track you in stealth mode, so, I need you to help me out, ok?" Her voice and face made Hulk slow down and eventually stopped, his senses blind to all but her. After that, the video began to glitch.

"I need you to–I need you to–I need you t–" It cut out completely, but the transformation was already underway. Hulk roared, punching himself in the face, and pretty much went berserk. He threw himself against the walls of the Quinjet. More sparks flew, and his roaring was outshining Dreyma's excellent lungs, and it was making consoling her impossible.

"NO! NO BANNER!" His body shrunk rapidly, his skin adapting a more human hue, but he grew back not a moment later. During the entire episode, Thor positioned himself in front of Dreyma and I, in case Hulk came our way during his internal battle. The process repeated itself a few more times, and Hulk continued to wreck the interior of the Quinjet, but he began to lose momentum, before finally collapsing on the floor, and shrinking.

"Oh jeez." His voice became more tenor, and he was breathing hard.

"Banner?" Thor crept forward, "You alright? Banner?" He placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder, and Bruce exclaimed, leaping away from him.

"Shh, shh. Sun's going down, sun's getting really low, sun's going down. That's it, breathe." Bruce looked around, taking in his surroundings and slowly calming down, "I won't hurt you."

"Ugh. Thor." Thor continued the mantra of 'sun's going down', "What happened to your hair."

"Some creepy old man cut it off." Dreyma calmed down a bit, but she still looked overstimulated.

"It looks good."

"Thanks."

"Where are we? How's Nat?"

"Uh...Nat is, uh, is good."

"And what about Sokovia?"

"S-Sokovia?"

"Sokovia. The city, did we save it?"

"Banner, listen–"

"What?"

"Sokovia, Ultron, that was two years ago."

"What are you saying? Huh? I've been Hulk for two years?" I began to creep forward, he seemed safe enough to approach now, "Mira?" The look on his face when he saw me reminded me that I was still wearing the dress from Loki. I quickly called on my sedir to summon my Korea outfit. "Hey, Bruce."

"Is it true? Has it been two years?" I bounced Dreyma, drawing his attention to her.

"Yep. Hard to believe, but that's the truth."

"And you have..." He pointed at Dreyma.

"Mh-hm. This is Dreyma." I gently turned her head in his direction.

"Is she..." He looked at Thor.

"My niece. Loki is alive."

"Is he here?" Bruce got up.

"Uh, Banner there's something you should know." He brushes past me, going into the cockpit. He took no notice of the heaps of intergalactic trash just outside.

"Voice activation required."

"Banner."

"Welcome, strongest avenger."

"Uhhh, what?"

"Ship's log." A video was projected, but it wasn't of Nat this time. It was of Hulk and the interior of the ship. It looked like it was in the process of crashing, Hulk was struggling to hold on to something and keep himself inside the ship. There were sounds of metal clanging as the artificial gravity failed. After a few more seconds, the video glitched out.

An alarm blared outside.

"Thor. Where are we?"

"Uh, yeah, about that–"