starkingenuity | The Not So Silent Hill

“Silent Hill isn’t combat. Silent Hill is hell. You always are trying to walk out of hell.” Especially since there is never any other escape, as Alessa was intimately aware.

“Do you remember fighting HYDRA?” Time for her own personal experiment. Were the memories that didn’t involve Bruce somehow still intact? “The hospital room. The woman who died in front of us before they came.”

Bruce was conspicuously quiet, allowing Alessa to move through the memory tests on her own. After all, magic was her area of expertise, not his.

And, in a small part of himself, he could admit he didn’t want to confirm his theory: that Loki had specifically stolen memories of their relationship from Tony.

Tony recounted all of it. Some of it wasn't right exactly but people couldn't remember every detail like Alessa could. For the most part, Tony had a grip on the majority of the reality Alessa had experienced as well. He noted Bruce's role as well but it was muted. Just about everything concerning Bruce was.

The localized memories, the specific emotions tied to, and anything truly meaningful with Bruce seemed to have vanished. Their history was gone, though Tony still seemed affectionate towards the man.

But did that mean that Tony was always going to feel that way or did their going to die sex start something that never would have happened otherwise?

Bruce was good at controlling his feelings, hiding them and burying them and pretending they weren't there. He learned to do it with his father, he learned to do it with the Hulk, and he knew how to do it now. He was hurt and angry and cynically unsurprised (he had expected something to ruin them sooner rather than later).

So he stayed carefully professional and put his glasses on again, melting into his doctor persona and forgetting what feelings were for a moment.

"Well, we figured out what you're missing. You--"

"Alessa, not right now. He just woke up." Bruce's voice was stern in a detached way, eliciting a frown from Alessa. "First, let's just make sure you're okay. How are you feeling? Any more nausea, dizziness, fatigue, anything?"

He wouldn't like to have a relationship he didn't remember forced on him, especially not in Alessa's patented blunt way. That would be handled far more delicately, and after all the other pressing matters were dealt with.

As typical of any human, genius level or otherwise, Tony assumed the worst. He'd blocked something traumatic from his mind. Immediately, his thoughts went to his hands and he wrung them just to be sure that he had all of his bones in place and nothing had damaged them. He couldn't exactly do work if his hands weren't pristine. That done, relief on his features visible for a moment, he moved on to other things that could have happened.

Pepper left him. He knew that, but he wasn't sure why. She left him quite a long time ago, long enough to know she would not be the cause of his memory loss.

Had he killed someone while he was in Silent Hill? Had something more nightmarish than he could remember have happened-- Rape? Oh God, he was raped!

Tony's hands started to sweat.

"Of course I am experiencing nausea, dizziness and fatigue, Banner!" he said, voice raised and on edge. "Something happened to the last few days of my life and erased something else from my memory so yes, I'm feeling like I might pass out."

Bruce's face was impassive, and that startled Tony. Bruce had never looked at him like that. Never.

So then...it wasn't rape. It was something that had to do with Bruce. Had he witnessed something Banner did...or maybe something that happened to Bruce? Was that why he'd been asking Alessa if he was all right? No wonder Banner refused to talk about it. Tony shrunk back in himself, lowering his gaze and stood up once more.

"I feel a lot better now. Uh... Yeah, the vomit's getting to me a little. Did I at least get some cool sight seeing in? It sucks coming to an alien planet and not remembering it."

Alessa was still looking at Bruce disapprovingly when she said, “Yes, we did. You wanted to get me a boat. Bruce said no. We got books instead.” They still needed to get something to translate the damn things. She looked at Tony, her expression smoothing out and becoming neutral again. “Maybe we can look around again later.” If the whole ‘Loki is king and Thor may or may not be killing the shit out of him right now’ thing didn’t make them leave in a hurry. Speaking of… “But we might need to leave soon.”

Bruce glanced at Alessa, his disturbingly dispassionate face mirroring her own. “Alessa, you should make sure your body is somewhere safe.” It was a weak spot of theirs. Alessa’s body was vulnerable. “Then meet up with us.”

They had to do something about Loki. Alessa nodded her head sharply before vanishing.

Bruce turned his eyes to Tony, face still blank. “Why don’t we go outside so you can get some air? I’ll explain what’s going on.” And by ‘what’s going on’, he meant ‘explain about Loki.’ He’d keep tight-lipped about their relationship as long as he could.

Without any idea at all how he and Bruce use to be, Tony just nodded at his friend and leaned on him a moment to get around the vomit and the table. The grand balcony off of the pavillion, overlooking the beautiful river, took Tony's breath away. He went immediately to the handcarved banister and gripped it with both hands to lean over. There was a wistful smile on his face before he looked back over his shoulder at Bruce. His grin was...well. Beautiful.

"This is-- Okay, probably having the exact same reaction I had a few days ago," Tony said with a laugh. The affection had never died, and that, likely, made it even harder for Bruce. Especially because Tony didn't try to touch him.

He turned to lean back against the railing and crossed his arms over his chest.

"So what's the latest? Other than Alessa's body getting repaired-- Great by the way. Saves us some time worrying about the other effects of Extremis--" Jesus, Banner's face... Tony hated it.

It hurt. It hurt to see Tony to laugh, to smile at him like that, and know that it was just friendship. Bruce wanted to break something, to snap it into little pieces with all the hurt and rage and frustration in his heart.

He had told Tony it would end badly. And, in some twist of irony, Bruce was the only one to see that it had.

But his face was carefully blank, no hint of his thoughts or feelings in his eyes or mouth. He looked over Tony’s head, avoiding the smile and the eyes and the laughter, and instead looked at the sky.

Asgard was gorgeous.

“Yeah, you’re reacting about the same way. You almost wandered off the bridge, you were so distracted. So did I, actually. Alessa kept us from falling off.”

That was just yesterday. Tony was touching and kissing him just yesterday. He hid his hands in his pockets before he started to fidget with them. “We’ve actually decided to try to use Extremis on her anyway. Her body is… functional, but it doesn’t have any muscle mass. She can’t even lift her head.” Even his voice was less expressive than usual. It wasn’t quite to Alessa’s level of blankness, but it certainly wasn’t giving anything away.

This was not the Bruce he knew. The chunks of what he remembered from the last few weeks didn't really exist within the frame of this person in front of him. It was horribly wrong, but Tony wasn't sure if that he could bring it up. Bruce kept his silences to himself for a reason. Anger issues probably didn't account for it entirely either.

"So..what? They just reverted all of her cells to a prenatal state? Huh. Never even thought of that," Tony said, trying to engage with Bruce...only to have it flop completely. His smile was plastered to his face because he knew how to keep on smiling through pain. Why make things worse?

The talk about Alessa was short. It had to be considering, in the distance, something terrible was going on at what Tony assumed was the palace.

He turned bodily towards the building.

"Uh...is that the situation then...?"

Bruce avoided looking too long at Tony. He was glad, in some twisted way, that there was a crisis making sure their conversation was short.

“Loki’s alive. He posed as Odin. Alessa only just told us.” Bruce took his hands out of his pockets, slipping off his jacket and taking off his glasses. “Thor went to deal with it. Let’s give him some backup.”

Today seemed like a good day to smash things. He kept his jacket in the crook of his arm and started walking towards the palace.

Tony wouldn’t be able to help, but Alessa and Bruce would. That should be enough.

"Oh c'mon, I thought that guy was dead!" Tony followed Bruce from the balcony to the pavilion again and quickened his pace when they got to the street. It was chaos. It was New York all over again. It was insanity. Tony could actually feel his heart skip in his chest before he grabbed Bruce's arm.

He didn't have armor. Bruce couldn't just unleash the Hulk without knowing how dangerous things could get. He was smacked into twice, shoving him against his friend, but Tony just righted himself and tried to ignore the whole crush of bodies thing he really wasn't all that cool with.

Two guards came to join them, trying to direct the panicked crowd and Tony wondered if those scepters were like the one Loki had had. He could always act as backup fire power!

Maybe...not.

"This is crazy, Banner."

Instinctively, Bruce touched the hand on his arm, as if to make sure Tony was there and safe. Trying not to concentrate on the closeness.

“Tell me about it.” They were being pushed further and further to the side by churning Asgardians. Bruce looked over their heads, trying to see where the commotion was. “You shouldn’t be here.” Even if Tony hadn’t just been thrashing in a neurological spasm an hour or so ago, he didn’t have any armor or weapons to hold his own against any kind of Asgardian attack. “Find someplace safe. Alessa could probably—”

Speak of the (perhaps literal) devil. Alessa appeared next to them. “Body’s with Valtiel. What did I miss?” A fleeing Asgardian passed right through her. Alessa took a moment to frown in mild irritation at the man. “Never mind. Just general chaos. Are we going to go kill Loki now? Because I’d like to do that.”

“Get in line,” Bruce said with far more darkness in his voice than usual. Alessa was rubbing off on him.

"We are not killing anyone-- And if we are, he's mine." To Tony, Loki was the one that did him the most damage. He didn't know, he hadn't been told, that Alessa and Bruce had lost so much more than just some blood and half a building. They had been cheated out of part of their newly formed family.

Tony still wasn't that okay with the killing though. Even if it was Loki.

"Thor has it handled. You know. Thor? Big guy? Indestructible? Hammer?" He didn't want to subject Bruce to a transformation but unfortunately, Tony was at a massive disadvantage. Alessa and Bruce went one way and the guards took Tony another.

"H-Hey!" Too late.

When the pair arrived at the palace, the doors had been blown open. It was deadly still, deadly quiet. At least for a moment. Thor's voice boomed as they entered the main hall followed by a green spark that lit up the gold.

Bruce put his jacket aside. He hated transforming. He hated the feeling of losing control, of his muscles and bones twisting and ripping and snapping and rebuilding themselves in completely unnatural ways. He hated waking up in a pile of rubble, naked and covered in blood that wasn’t his.

But now? Now, he was angry, and he could use a punching bag.

“If we’re not killing him, I get to pick his next prison,” Alessa said firmly. Bruce just gave a tight-lipped nod before they both barged into the throne room, both of them immediately taking stock of the situation, Bruce only half-listening to what Thor was saying to make sure he could figure out which way the fight was tilting.

There wasn't a fight. Not exactly. The throne room was completely gutted, statues and wall panels fallen over, gilt mirrors smashed, the throne once more destroyed. There were dead guards everywhere, laying in small pools of blood on the ground. Thor himself, in his full regalia with his streaming, heavy cloak, knelt in the centre of the room, back to the two new combatants. In front of him, sprawled on the stairs leading up to the dais, sat Loki as he was not, not Loki as the All-Father.

He wore a smirk, fingering an amulet hanging low around his neck.

"Only two? Where's the man of iron? Impressive trick, mortals that can fly. I'd like to see how well he'd do without his safety net." Loki lifted his hand and with a gutteral moan, Thor lurched to his feet and turned. "I believe you know my brother? He makes a fine champion does he not?"

“Sooo… are we killing Thor t—”

“No, Alessa, we’re not killing Thor,” Bruce said sharply, already working out in his head how to deal with this without hurting Thor too much. She held up her hands and shrugged.

“Just asking.” She wouldn’t have done it. Probably. Maybe. Well, Blondie over there had been ready to kill her too when they first met, so she didn’t think it was so bad that she considered it.

She dropped her hands to her sides, looking past Thor to the not-king on the throne. “Is this the part where you start taunting everyone and brag about outsmarting a lot of people who aren’t actually that smart?”

Alessa had clearly been spending far too much time with Tony. She was picking up his irreverent attitude.

Loki shrugged. "I do believe that is what tends to be expected of me," he replied, quite mad, and laughed as he stood. Thor pushed against the magical bonds but took a few hurking steps forward.

There was only one person that Loki felt could do anything against the beast in the room. The Hulk was dangerous but Thor was nigh indestructible. And he should know. What Loki didn't anticipate was Alessa.

"I think I've changed my mind about Ragnarok," he said, his grin wide as Thor picked up a scepter from the floor. Mjolnir would not heed his call but Loki did not need it to. "Go right ahead and wipe us all out, Alessa."

“Complete annihilation? You’ll beg for it before I’m finished.” Alessa looked at Bruce, beginning to float off the ground. “Can we get started?”

Bruce pursed his lips, taking a deep breath as Thor lurched forward. “Thor, I’m sorry in advance. I’ll make it up to you.” Because this wasn’t going to be fun for anyone involved.

The Hulk was far easier to control when it was voluntarily allowed out. When it was allowed out instead of forced out, Bruce had a chance to give it clear instructions of sorts.

Defeat the red and silver one. Then SMASH THE GREEN ONE.

The Hulk arrived mid-motion. And immediately went to slam Thor into the wall.

Alessa, on the other hand, didn’t have to worry about Thor hitting her incorporeal form. She had to restrain herself from doing anything that could hurt the Hulk or Thor, but—well, the two of them were really sturdy.

The temperature ratcheted up, higher and higher, playing on the advantage of fire over ice. Thick smoke rose from her ghostly image, getting indistinct at the edges.

If she wanted to make it clean, she would just use simple telekinesis to crush Loki’s heart in his chest cavity, if he hadn’t found a way to defend against that. But this? She was going to play with her food.

The dead bodies of the guards jerked to life, empty eyes rolling in sockets as arms shuddered and grasped their weapons again, their legs folding and pushing them up to their feet, their skin melting off their muscles and faces until they resembled the beasts in Alessa’s home. A small army of monstrous Asgardian corpses, all of them raising their weapons and charging Loki once again.

He would sincerely regret underestimating her.

Loki kept right on laughing until Bruce Banner disappeared along with his shredded clothing and the colossus that had pounded him into the floor stood before him. Thor was gone, shoved two rooms over. While the blond was shaking himself off to return to battle, however, Loki was alone with not one monster, not two, but three dozen at least thnks to the reanimated corpses of the guards he had killed himself, caused to kill each other or forced his brother to do.

Though the Hulk had proven himself to be frightening on the most base of levels, it was Alessa that was truly terrifying. Loki watched her gather her demons, cool mouth drying up on the spot as she set her hellish eyes towards him.

Loki knew all about Hel, she was his daughter after all, but this was so very, very different.

He immediately let his hands fell to his sides.

"All of this for Stark? How horribly sentimental," he hissed. "Keep them away from me!"

There were a lot of reasons for this to Alessa. Tony. Loki's impudent disrespect and threats to her. The fact she dearly wanted an outlet for her bottled violent urges.

And honestly? She didn't give a crap what Loki thought of her.

The Hulk let out a ground-shaking roar before charging, barreling through corpses to try grabbing Loki and start pounding him into the floor, far more rage (and thus strength) behind the blows now.

"This could have been avoided if you just let us walk in and out." Alessa wanted his amulet for Thor's sake, but she couldn't just rip it off like a normal psychic. No, she would make him suffer. She started trying to melt part of the chain, tugging it so the hot metal would press against his throat and weaken until it pulled off. "Now you'll have the rest of eternity to regret it." If she had her way and Hulk didn't kill him.

Loki had learned quite a lot from his assault on New York, from the loss of the woman he had always thought of as his natural mother, from his two years in captivity. He wasn't even sure why he had done all of this. Revenge was...pathetic. And still, he wanted it. He wanted Thor to suffer. And, more than that, he wanted to suffer himself for the person he had lost and the one he felt was shoved down his throat.

The masochism was perhaps his greatest downfall.

When Alessa finally attacked him, the Hulk spending a few extra moments mowing down the dead guard, Loki let his own rage go. The ripples might not be enough to affect Alessa or the Hulk, but they did send Thor right back where he came from. One attack, one heartwrenching scream, and Loki had had enough.

Well, that and the Hulk was close enough to swing him around for fun.

And oh, did the Hulk swing him around. Instead of before, there was real, concrete rage directed specifically at Loki. The Hulk was smashing.

And Alessa got the amulet, the chain still glowing bright red with her heat. She looked down at her corpses with a smile. "Let Bruce deal with him. He has the right." And Alessa would have her turn later.

Instead, she turned towards the hole Thor's body left in the wall. "Thor? Am I supposed to break his, or is taking it away enough?" She was probably going to break the amulet anyway, because she liked breaking things.

Other than more debris and a lot of grunting, there wasn't entirely too much of Loki actually visible in the cloud of mess the Hulk was making of him. Gods, however, seemed to be rather hard to kill, even for rage beasts like Banner's Other Guy. That was more lucky for Alessa than for the Trickster who had given himself away for no other reason than his own morbid, masochistic hubris.

At least Thor was not much of a threat now unless Alessa decided to command him to be otherwise. Yes, he still fought against the amulet's hold but it was more subtle and subdued now that he wasn't being forced to attack his allies. The Thunderer's voice was stunted when he answered his new master. "I believe it must be destroyed."

The same seemed to be true for many a magical item.

It was their singular flaw.

Alessa raised the amulet to smash against the wall... then hesitated.

She looked down at the amulet, listening with a small smile as the Hulk smashed Loki into the ground.

"You want to do the honors?" she asked Thor. To her, it was actually a nice gesture. Thor was the one who was controlled by it, so he should get to destroy it if he wanted to, just as Bruce got to punish Loki.

Though Thor took the amulet almost daintily, he smashed it against the wall with such force that one if the beams still left standing cracked at the blow. The dark green light died from the edges of his eyes and hair and he kept his arm out for support until he could catch his breath.

Loki was having no such luck but he had at least stopped squealing. A limp toy wasn't much fun to throw around, however, and just in case the Hulk looked for another victim, Thor called for his hammer. He approached the beast carefully, angered and lost himself.

How many times could he keep falling for Loki's lies?

He'd been played the fool.

In Alessa's opinion, everyone involved had been stupid about Loki. Stupid for not killing him for treason in the first place. Stupid for believing he was dead. Stupid for not being able to tell the difference between their king and dead prince.

She allowed the Hulk to keep thrashing around the limp Asgardian as she picked up a single shard of mirror from the floor, ignoring how her twisting monstrous corpses stood unsteadily on their feet, their weapons raised with no one to attack.

"Bruce, you can just put him in here. I'll make sure he pays properly."

She left a thumbprint on her shard before floating closer to the thrashing Hulk.

"Bruce?"

Smash smash smash.

"Bruce, it's over."

Smash smash smash smash.

But the Hulk seemed to get the message because it finally cracked Loki over one massive knee before throwing him into the ground.

Then it arched its back, letting out a loud, furious roar that shook the palace and caused dust to rain down from the cracks overhead.

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