War

Bruce's POV:

My life changed when I met David and Natasha.

David locked up the Hulk and Natasha showed me again what it feels like to be important to someone.

She even became my girlfriend last year.

When I asked her one day why she liked someone broken like me, she said that a 'normal' and nice guy like me was like a cure for her in a world full of killers and spies.

I don't know if I'm normal or nice and it doesn't matter in the end, because I was for Nat.

She even told me about her past.

If I look at her work for Tony now, there is no difference between her past and now...

Even so we were still happy, but I couldn't say the same, about the others.

After the New York accident, Tony's only goal was to destroy everything that threatened his world peace, regardless of the method he used or the people he needed to sacrifice.

It was clear to me that it was only a matter of time until things went south.

Unfortunately, my prediction came true when Bucky Barnes was captured and brought to the Raft.

I wasn't there, but Natasha said it was disturbing...

Shortly after people started to leave the Avengers and Shield.

Seeing the warning signs, I wanted to leave with Natasha too. I thought I could start a new life with her.

However, Tony, or let's call him Stark, told me that if I left Shield, Ross would hunt me down again.

Even though he promised me when I met him for the first time, that it would never happen again.

Because of that, I had no choice but to stay.

But then everything got even worse.

Steve attacked the Raft to free Barnes and for some reason, Natasha got locked up for it.

When I tried to convince Stark, that Natasha would never betray Shield, he said I should never trust a spy and that the possibility is always there that she would betray us.

Hearing this made me nearly explode.

She was with him that day the Raft got attacked, but he still doesn't believe her?

Channeling some of Hulk's power I transformed into my half form. However, before I could punch some sense into him, I was surrounded by robots of the Iron Legion.

And then I got locked up in the basement of the Triskelion for an unknown period of time....

But only after two days, the light went and my prison door suddenly opened.

When I stepped out, I could see a person with a bow beating up some agents.

After defeating everyone, he steps closer and says, "I retire for what, like, five minutes, and it all goes to shit. What the hell are you people doing?"

It was Clint.

He told me that Natasha could escape her prison too. She was with Steve, Sam and Barnes and they were hunted by Tony.

I was shocked to hear this because Stark could kill them all if he finds them.

As soon as he asked me to help him save them, I agreed immediately.

So we stole a Quinjet and tracked down the location of the Iron Legion, which was somewhere in Africa.

---

When we arrived at the location, there was a full-fledged war going on.

The Iron Legion fought some natives with strange weapons and shields.

Sam and a man in a black catsuit helped them.

I couldn't find Vision or Barnes, but since a part of the Iron Legion flew to a city in the distance, I could guess where they were.

After flying over the battlefield, we found Steve and Natasha. They were fighting Tony and it looked like they were about to lose.

"I will help Natasha and Steve. It seems that it can't be resolved peacefully anymore." I say, as I open the door of the jet.

"OK, I will use the Quinjet to thin out the Iron Legion and then I will support you." said Clint back.

I nodded at him and jumped down while channelling the power of the Hulk, who was still sleeping inside me.

During my fall, I saw Steve on the ground while Stark aimed his repulsor at Natasha...

To save her, I landed directly in front of her and hugged her. When Stark saw me, he still shot at us and sent us flying.

Before we crashed, I changed our position to cushion her fall while stopping it with my back.

When Natasha realized what had happened, her eyes grew wide and she stared at me for a second before nearly screaming, "Bruce, what are you doing here?! It's too dangerous."

"Shouldn't that be my line?" I say while laughing a bit and hugging her with one arm.

She rolls her eyes but then looks at my left arm.

"Oh my god, you are wounded! We need to get you out of here!"

To silence her, I transformed back into my human form and kissed her.

"Do you really think I would run away while my girlfriend is fighting for her life?" I ask while hugging her even harder and she don't tries to send me away anymore.

We stand up and I turn green again.

"Since when are you so eager to fight?"

I started to run towards Stark, who was fighting Cap and shouted, "Since I found something to fight for!"

She shakes her head but then smiles and runs after me.

Tony sees us and shoots out some rockets. However, I grab Natasha again and jump in the air to evade them.

In the meantime, Cap managed to hit Stark with the shield to stun him, giving us enough time to get to them.

I land in front of Stark, let go of Natasha and hit him with my fist in the helmet, which makes him stumble back.

While Natasha took out her batons and combined them into a staff. Then she hit him on the shoulder causing him to kneel.

Definitely not a normal staff she used there, since it could damage the armor a bit.

"Destroy the Arc Reactor and he is out," said Natasha while Cap and I got ready to beat the crap out of him.

But he activates his rocket boots and flies high while stretching out his arms.

"You really think you can land a few hits on me and it's over?"

We suddenly saw huge red rockets heading towards him from the distance.

It splits up and then combines with his armor, creating a huge Iron Man suit.

---

A small crater was formed when he landed on the ground.

"Now it's over! Nothing you can do can beat this, so give up!"

But Steve tries his luck and throws his shield at Tony, but it bounces back and flies back to him.

If it was not such a dangerous situation, I would have laughed about it.

But then, rockets exploded in Stark's face.

When I looked up, I saw Clint waving at us from inside the Quinjet.

However, a red repulsor beam hit that Quinjet a second later, causing it to crash.

But Clint managed to open the door and jump out safely.

When I looked where the beam came from, I saw Stark standing there, without even a scratch on his armor.

Then he runs towards us while the ground shakes with every step.

"I'm sure you guys have a plan, right?" said Clint as he walked towards us and prepared his bow with explosion arrows.

Is there anything we can do? His Arc reactor can still be seen, so there is a chance.

"I will hold him back, while you guys destroy his Arc Reactor!" I say and start to run towards Stark.

Natasha screamed something back, but I was already to focused on my opponent.

He slams his fist down at me as I approach him, but I can avoid it.

Next, I jump on his arm and then on his back and grab his helmet to divert him from the others.

His arms flung around to catch me, but he couldn't grab behind his back, giving the others enough time to attack.

Clint shot some explosive arrows, but because Stark moved like crazy, they only hit his armor and not the Arc Reactor.

Even when the arrows exploded and burned my skin, I didn't let go of him.

Cap then runs towards us and jumps up. He holds onto the shoulder of the suit and hits the helmet with his shield, distracting Stark even further.

Next, I saw Natasha coming towards us with an arrow from Clint, she wanted to stick the arrow directly in the Arc Reactor so it could be detonated remotely later on.

While Clint stayed back to make sure he had a good shot in case something went wrong.

"Enough!" screamed Stark and used one hand to grab Cap and slam him to the ground.

Then he activated his rocket boots and Natasha had to retreat to avoid being burned to death.

He flew up and then let himself fall to the ground back first, while trying to crush me under him.

It all happened so fast that I couldn't let go of him.

When we crashed to the ground, my vision turned dark and I could feel literally every bone in my body break.

"No! Bruce!" I could hear Natasha scream."

"Surrender, or I can't guarantee that you'll survive this." said Stark to the others, while standing up.

Our choice was to fight and die or to surrender and get locked up forever.

Not one of us would give up that fast, especially not Steve.

Knowing there is a possibility to save everyone, I thought about the thing that I swear never to let out again.

As the darkness changed, I was standing in the middle of my mindspace.

In front of me was the cage the Hulk was sleeping in.

When I touch it, the cage and the cuffs disappear and he opens its eyes while slowly standing up but not attacking me.

Does it know what happened and why it's so calm?

I look at the thing that destroyed my life and say, "I think it's time that we have a chat."