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Bruce Banner had been on the run for only a few months, but his old instincts had kicked in and he’d managed to successfully hide and evade the people looking to arrest him. Who knew that publicly preventing the Avengers from arresting Spider-Man would put him on the Accord’s shit list?
After that little display, he’d had to book it out of town, slipping through the cracks caused by the chaos of New York’s vigilantes descending onto a city street to aid Spider-Man, and raced out of the country. He’d managed to stay out of the US for a grand total of 2 weeks before the news on the Accords made him angry enough to blow his cover, so he’d returned under a pseudonym in the hopes that maybe he’d be able to do more from here.
So here he was, three months later, living in a shady apartment on the outskirts of New York city, with a bad blonde dye job, a scraggly beard and a job working for the local gas station. All in all, it was better than when he’d been hiding from the government the first time around, and even if there were people who recognised him (which he knew there were, some people stared just a little too long), then they either didn’t care or thought he was right, and refused to turn him in. It was nice having the public’s support, even if he didn’t have the support of the people he had thought were his friends.
After one too many news stories on the Avengers and other Accords heroes ‘helping’ people, but actually causing more collateral damage than if they hadn’t gotten involved, Bruce and the Hulk decided it was time to make a return. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be done as the Hulk, nor as Bruce Banner, not with the order to take military action against him on sight, so a choice was made.
He took a page out of Hawkeye and Antman’s book. A change of hero name, a slight change of costume and strict denial.
Half a week later, he’d found a fabric that would stretch as the Hulk grew, and made himself an outfit in a deep green with a matching black mask that covered the top half of his face (he was attached to the colour green after all this time, and he saw no reason to not use it.) Two weeks after the costume was completed, he and the Hulk had come to enough of an agreement that Bruce didn’t transform completely, and didn’t quite look like the Hulk or Bruce Banner, enough to confuse anyone who might have recognised his face even with the mask on..
The opportunity to make his new debut presented itself in the form of robots in New York, as was becoming the norm. He slipped into the stretchy material of his suit, unleashed the Hulk just enough to change his features and arrived to the battle. The increased strength of the Hulk but still having full access to his brain allowed for a much nicer experience in a fight. Strategy and strength worked hand in hand for him, and he fared well enough, not getting in the way of any other heroes, though he did get a few weird looks.
The battle finished, and he saw the Avengers moving in to arrest some of the vigilantes, so Bruce chose to get the hell out of dodge before things could go wrong and he could get himself arrested again.
Things continued in that manner for a while, until there was a battle against giant squids that was just on the wrong side of dangerous, and Bruce had to let the Hulk go a little bit more than he normally would. His suit expanded with him, but his skin turned green and he swelled up, revealing him more than he was comfortable with. His added strength ended the fight quickly, and the customary ritual at the end of fights began, with the Avengers descending upon the vigilantes who were simply trying to do their best to help people.
Except this time, Bruce wasn’t able to leave quickly enough. The Avengers surrounded him.
“Bruce Banner, put your hands up and surrender! You and the Hulk are under arrest for violation of the Sokovia Accords.”
Bruce didn’t have his wits about him enough to respond, but Spider-Man jumped in with a quick and simple rescue.
“That’s not Bruce Banner! He’s clearly not even the Hulk! The Hulk is much bigger than that. You’re talking to Rage.”
Silence dropped over the street, no one even moving, all staring at Spider-Man and Bruce.
“He’s green and strong. He’s the Hulk.” Said Wasp, disbelief so thick in her voice that Bruce nearly choked on it.
“He’s green because of the fluids from the giant squid. The light’s reflecting off it and making it look like he has green skin. See, it makes me look green too. Am I the Hulk?” Iron Fist made a sound argument, and it clearly caught the Avengers off guard.
“And he’s always been strong, but this is the first time he’s ever had the appearance of being green. Would you assume that Jessica Jones could potentially be the Hulk because of her super strength? No, because that doesn’t make sense. Don’t make assumptions you can’t back up.” Ah, Reed Richards. He’d been the one to convince Bruce to stand up to the Accords, so it was lovely to hear him defending the Hulk.
The Avengers were clearly fed up with this. Iron Man stared at Bruce, presumably trying to run some form of facial recognition on him, but Bruce’s mask covered enough of his face that no results could be slightly reliable, so he was in the clear there.
Exasperated, Wasp pointed at Bruce.
“Don’t move, you’re under arrest for violating the Accords for illegal acts of vigilantism.”
Well Bruce was under arrest either way, so he let the Hulk out a little bit more just to screw with the Avengers, then immediately reined him in. There was nothing they could do to prove he was the Hulk. Nothing at all.
“Bruce Banner, you are under arrest. Cease this game and surrender yourself to us!” Iron Man yelled, anger tainting the robotic tone of his voice.
“Whomst the fuck are you talking to?” Bruce had never had this much fun pissing off his (former) friend, but it was worth every second.
Spider-Man broke out into wheezing cackles, Iron Fist following suit, although to a lesser extent. Reed smirked, the sight of it bringing joy into Bruce’s heart.
Iron Man spluttered, horrifically offended. Wasp, and the rest of the team with that day near gaped at the sight in front of them, and the vigilantes used that as their escape, disappearing off into the city. Bruce found himself fleeing with Spider-Man, who got about 3 blocks away then settled on a fire escape overlooking a shady alleyway, and Bruce followed suit.
Silence stretched on for a few minutes, before Bruce broke it.
“Rage?” He asked, incredulity laced in the word.
“I needed to come up with something quickly! It’s not like you came up with a vigilante name for yourself or have a theme I could grab a name from!” Spider-Man defended.
Bruce simply laughed, watching as Spider-Man relaxed and joined in the quiet laughter.
“Why did you help me?” Bruce asked, once their laughter had died down.
Spider-Man paused, and Bruce got the feeling he was looking at him and smiling.
“Because you helped me, Bruce. We all know who you are, but the Avengers can’t prove it. You’re one of us now.”
He took off, swinging away into the city streets. Bruce sat on the fire escape for a few more minutes, smiling softly. It was nice to belong to a community like this one.