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He caught glimpses of blurred scenes in front of his eyes. It was only that they were not, as a matter of fact, truly his eyes. At least not most of the time. Maybe they were, he wasn’t paying much attention because somebody was trying to rip his face off while simultaneously destroying a lot of other crap around him. Them. It was most likely them, because if it was only the Other Guy, this kind of dominance battle wouldn’t been happening.
When the Big Green finally gave up there was only a pile of small man left on the ground. What made the small man seem even smaller where the hugish pants around his waist and wooden pearls hanging from around his neck. The small man didn’t think he’d ever been as confused and disoriented as he was at this moment.
“Bruce!”
That low voice came from somewhere behind him, he wasn’t sure where exactly because he was having hard time figuring out which way was up and which down. The low voice however grabbed him by his waist and hoisted him easily up, making it a bit more clear in which direction the sky was supposed to be. It didn’t help for too long though when a great wave of dizziness washed over him making him take support of the mountain-sized low voice behind him.
Bruce. That was his name, yes. He didn’t feel too much like Bruce though. He felt more like a young sapling in the middle of a great storm. Like he had just been planted and he opened his leafy eyes for the very first time only to be almost pushed over by a forceful wind. He felt lost and pushed around.
After a while of this self-examination this Bruce-named sapling turned his head and peered over his shoulder. He took his time to wrap his head around on placing a name to the widely-smiling face just an inch away from his own. He was slightly surprised to see Thor there.
“Thor”, he sighed, or more like moaned, as he frowned his brows, “what are you doing here?”
Bruce took a wavering step forward, away from this god-of-thunder-friend of his. He almost tripped on his own pair of feet, but gained his balance again.
“Wait, don’t answer me yet. Where are we and how long was I out?” He asked with an ambiguous wave of his hand and turned to face Thor again.
“I feel more spent than usually. I feel…”, he took a breath while thinking for the right way to put it into words, “out of place.”
For a while he just examined his tall friend with that familiar furrow crunching up his brows. Something in the Asgardian had changed since he last saw him. He had a thoughtful expression on his face, rather than the big smile they were so used to. Now he was looking more like he was making a plan for an attack and was in his end examining Bruce’s face closely.
He had weird clothes for sure, that Bruce had noticed, but there was something else also.
His hair.
“Wha-… did you cut your hair?”
“Umm, no, I didn’t.”
“Huh, okay.”
There was a pause when Bruce lowered his gaze on the floor of the familiar aircraft. The air around them held a whiff or awkwardness.
Luckily the god didn’t notice but just walked past him towards the ripped-open tail of the craft. He crouched and turned towards Bruce with a pile of fabric in his arms.
“Here, put these on.” He was again a bit too chirpy for Banner’s liking. It seemed false in that moment of obscurity, like Thor was very badly trying to reassure him everything was normal when it did not feel normal at all.
“These are Tony’s”, the scientist replied hesitantly as he took the clothes he was handed. He put them on nevertheless.
“So…”, Bruce started while his eyes were darting around the plane. The quinjet was mostly destroyed, the tail had been clearly ripped off, as well as most of the inside walls. It had taken some damage when, presumably, Hulk had decided to redecorate.
“Are you not going to tell me where we are and how the battle ended?”
“The battle?”
“Sokovia, Thor! Did we beat Ultron?”
“Ah. Well, dear Bruce, this is a little bit hard to explain. Umm, the battle was two years ago and you are now on an alien planet, Sakaar they call it, and you have been here the whole time fighting on this big arena as the Hulk and beating the crap out of others.”
At first Banner was about to let out a laugh. However upon examining the face of his companion and seeing the somewhat-seriousness of it, he quickly glanced himself over. He was now wearing Tony's tight jeans and shirts, but the huge pearls that he previously had hanging around his neck and the weird giant pants were still visible on the floor. It was odd.
Bruce’s eyes met Thor’s again. There was not a hint of humor in them.
The next moment Bruce was rushing past Thor to the head of the craft to look from the huge front windows. Yup, the place was nothing like what he’d seen before.
“The Other Guy had wheels for two years?” Banner asked quietly. It felt even more surreal now. What had happened after his latest, spontaneous and forced hulking-out in Sokovia if he had never changed back in two years?
“I’m afraid so”, came Thor’s reply as he monitored Bruce’s slightly panicked face.
Banner stepped further from the windows and steadied himself with a heavy hand leaning on the metallic wall. His breath was coming a little bit too fast for anyone’s liking and he closed his eyes and leaned his back against the wall.
“Thor”, he started with a gasp, “I think I’m going to freak out.”
“No, no, no, there’s no need for that”, Thor blurted out quickly, reaching his hands out in a calming manner, “Bruce, the sun’s getting real low, it’s getting real low.” His words held a deep meaning for Banner and they woke many recent memories, but still somehow they were not recent at all. Those words that Natasha came up with to calm down the Green Giant. Those words coming from Thor’s mouth instead of the Widow’s were not calming in the least. And he just kept repeating them.
Bruce slowly worked his way towards the end of the aircraft in hope for some fresh air. He assumed the air was good to breathe outside since they were still standing and alive considering the huge hole in the jet.
He could vaguely hear Thor’s steps right behind him and a few ‘the sun’s getting real low’’s. He rolled his eyes a bit but regretted it right away when it made his head spin a tad too much. He reached the ragged opening and with a sigh sat down on the step.
The world before his eyes was looking very colorful and very metallic. There was no one around but in the distance an enthusiastic clamor could be heard. The air held a strong odour, it was sharp and somehow reminded Bruce of an 80’s disco bar. He let out a huff of laughter at this thought.
“The sun’s getting real low, Bruce.”
“Could y-, could you please stop that, it’s not helping at all”, Bruce answered and hid his face by rubbing a palm against his stubble. Thor let out a small ‘oh’ and fell silent, but kept observing his friend while he, too, sat down on the step of the jet next to Bruce.
“You know, it’s pretty nice to see you, Thor. Even though all this”, Banner indicated the sight in front of them with his hand, “is pretty surreal and really weird. And your hair, it actually looks kinda good.”
“Well thank you, friend-Bruce. It is nice to see you too, instead of the Green Warrior.”
“You had many get-togethers, huh?”
“Ah, yes. We had a battle.”
“Really? Did I win?”
“No, I won of course, it was rather easy, really.”
“Huh”, Bruce breathed and ran his hand through his hair, “okay I can’t do this.”
“Can not do what?”
“This!” He exclaimed and stood up in whizz. He peered around himself once more and pulled on his messy curls just a little bit. Turning towards Thor he made a face of utter despair.
“This! I’m on an alien planet having a casual conversation with a demigod about what we’ve been doing for the past two years while I was in the trunk watching an angry green maniac steer. Can you tell me, for example, what are we doing here and what are we going to do next? When can I get back to earth?”
“You see, the situation is sort of a complex and I am in need of your help.” Bruce heard Thor rumble with his low voice. He had gone from a cheery god to a very serious and troubled-looking god.
“You are in need of my help?”
“Yes, see, my apparent sister, the Goddess of Death, Hela her name is, has taken over Asgard and is planning on destroying the universe. It is Ragnarök, and it could very well be the end of all times.”
“Okay, I see your point. But you know I try to stay away from those end-of-all-time -situations, right?”
“The world needs you, Bruce Banner.”
“No, you just use me to get to the Hulk, you don’t even like me.”
“No, I don’t want the Hulk, I like you better. He’s all ‘smashity-smash and angry and unpredictable. It’s you who I like.”
“Thanks, Thor.”
It was very weird for Bruce for the next few hours and it only got weirder.
He still wasn’t sure which way was up and which down.