Agent Coulson Declassified: part 3
Fast asleep on a Shield cot...
Phil's curled up on a cot of his own, wrapped in a blanket. The kind of day they had can really do a number on a kid, after all.
Bruce is sleeping with one arm off the cot, mouth open...but he's too young to snore at this stage.
Outside the door, an agent is keeping watch. Just in case. The room was put together a bit hastily, a small toybox in the corner, a few posters up, one of Captain America for Coulson. Sitwell probably put that one in. And a table with small chemistry set for Bruce.
Phil is the first to wake up. He has the advantage of not having had a hulk-out, after all. He sits up slowly, blinking at the unfamiliar surroundings before the memory of what all happened comes flooding back.
He yawns.
Bruce shifts in his sleep with a whine, mumbling something about not wanting to get up yet, mom.
"You can sleep more," Phil whispers as he climbs out of the cot and goes over to explore the toybox.
The toybox has a bunch of action figures, dinosaurs, and vehicles. Typical young boy fare.
Bruce cracks a sleepy eye, that didn't sound like his mom. He blinks a few times at the room and at Phil going through the toy box. What happened? He couldn't remember. And he felt like he could sleep for days.
Phil has busied himself with pulling all the dinosaurs out of the toy box. Because dinosaurs. Okay, all the dinosaurs and Captain America.
Bruce sits up sleepily rubbing an eye and holding the shield issue blanket around himself. "...did I fall asleep?"
"Yeah, we both did." Aaaaand Cap is now riding a brachiosaurus in battle against a T-Rex.
He looks around the room, more confused. "How'd we get here?" He remembered Phil...and feeling sick. And sharks. Kind of hazy before and after.
Bruce gets up, blanket and all and plods over to where Phil is. "Whatcha playing with?" He sits down on the floor to peer at the toybox.
"Ummm... You turned into the Hulk and we fell into the shark tank and then you beat up the sharks and we got out of the shark tank and then the secret agents gave us towels and we fell asleep in the car." And no, he is not really aware of how made up that story sounds.
"And I'm playing with dinosaurs!"
Bruce has a lopsided grin, scratching his hair sleepily to make it stand up more without realizing. This kid had quite an imagination. "Think I'd remember that..." He picks up one of the dinos for himself, inspecting it. "Diplodicus," he says absently.
"You can play with the dinosaurs too, if you want."
Bruce isn't sure if he's ever played with dinosaurs. At least, not with a friend. He had a sister growing up, she wasn't the dinosaur type. He walks the dinosaur idly along the edge of the toybox as if he's not sure what to do with it. It's just a plastic toy anyway. Maybe he's too old for this stuff...
Phil tilts his head a bit quizzically. "You don't have to. They gave us other stuff to play with too."
"Like wh--..." Bruce's sentence fades off when he sees the test tubes. The dino gets dropped in the box as he gets up, the blanket trailing behind him as he checks what's in the chemistry set eagerly.
Well, eagerly at first, till he realizes there isn't much to work with. He sighs and sits in the chair. "Guess I could always mix baking soda and vinegar."
"What happens then?"
"You don't know?" Bruce didn't mean that unkindly, he just figured everybody knew. "Wait...here, lemme see one of the smaller dinos." He gestures for Coulson to come over as he fills up a small dish with vinegar.
"Okay." He stands up and comes over, bringing an ankylosaur.
Bruce sets him in the dish with the vinegar. Almost like the dino was in a lake. Then he takes a spoonful of baking soda and dumps it in with him. The result? An overflowing pool of bubbling froth.
"Oh, cooooooool." He grins. "That's awesome!"
Bruce has seen it a hundred times. But he can't help a smile at Coulson's reaction. "You want to put your action figure in there next?" Not realizing who it is of course as he reaches for it.
"Nuh-uh, no drowning Captain America."
"No?" Bruce shrugs, dinos were fine anyway. "Who's he?" He looks at the red, white, and blue figure. "Looks like a flag."
"He's Captain America! He lived a long time ago, like thirty years or something, and he was just a little guy but they did an experiment and he got big and strong and he went out and fought in World War II and blew up a bunch of the bad guys' buildings and then he went missing in the Arctic and they never found him but they did when I was a grown-up and we both know him now."
".....you sure know a lot." About stuff that Bruce was lacking right about now. "You think he could help us out of here?" His brain was working on the fact that they used to be grownups. Something must have gone wrong.
"I bet he could. He can do pretty much anything."
"We'd have to find him..." Bruce pulls off the blanket to find himself in clothes that fit. Though he's not liking the camouflage pattern for some reason.
He gets up and goes to the door to open it. An agent standing out there shoos him back in, saying it wasn't safe to be out. "Why?" But Bruce doesn't get an answer, just the door shutting.
He didn't like being locked in, it made him feel antsy. "How would your friend get out of here then?"
"Ummmm." He scrunches his face up in thought. "He'd make a distraction?"
That's....not a bad idea. Bruce gives him a surprised look in return. "Okay...what would distract an agent?" He's looking over at the chemicals he's got...and then up at the fire sprinklers. "Wait...wait, I got it."
"Cool, what are we gonna do?"
"Science," Bruce says, that faint lopsided smile back. He hands Coulson some scissors. "Cut a few strips off the bedsheet, about two inches wide ok?"
Meanwhile, he's mixing up something that will make smoke...
He carefully takes the scissors and heads to the bedsheet and starts cutting. "I hope we're not gonna get in trouble..."
"I think we're already in trouble," Bruce says with a sigh. Might as well get into more before they find a way out. "You don't want to help, you don't have to. I just....I don't want to stay here."
He continues dutifully cutting bedsheet strips. "How come?"
Bruce gives the mixture he's stirring a frustrated look. "I dunno...it's too small. I don't know how to explain it."
He brings over the mixture in a large bowl, one test tube in hand. "Soak the strips in this..." Once that's done, he has Coulson get back while he pours in the catalyst. The whole thing starts smoking like it won't ever stop. Bruce puts it right under the sprinkler...
"Get ready."
"Whoa!" He flattens himself against the wall next to the door, staring at the smoking concoction with wide eyes.
Bruce coughs on some of the smoke before yelling "FIRE! HELP!"
The agent runs in with a fire extinguisher....and Bruce pulls Coulson through the smoke and out the door. Down the hall and around the corner, he ducks into the nearest double doors and gets down, taking Phil with him. "Stay down, okay? And quiet." His heart is thumping but somehow this is all familiar. Running and hiding.
"Okay," he whispers, staying low. "What if they find us?"
"Then...." Bruce racks his brain for an idea. "...then we were just playing a game." That sounded plausible enough. They were just kids after all. A few agents are starting to check the different rooms to find the two of them.
Bruce starts moving again, staying low as he moves between tables and chairs to the back of the room and through another door. Another hallway...this one empty. "Okay...okay...um..." He's not sure which way to go.
He looks back and forth down the empty hallway and then... guesses. "Let's go right."
Bruce doesn't have any better ideas so he goes right, making sure Coulson is still with him.
They end up at a heavy set of double doors which reveal a set of stairs leading up to a large garage of vehicles. "Whoa..." There must be every kind of vehicle ever in this garage. Including helicopters.
He looks around at all of them. "Do you know how to drive?"
"Um..." Bruce rubs the back of his neck, looking around. Most of these were army type vehicles. "Probably not these." He walks carefully between rows of black humvees and past a few helicopters, looking for a normal car. "Don't go too far." He stops to let Coulson catch up, taking a handful of sleeve so he didn't wander. Since Bruce was older, he felt like he had to be big brother.
At the moment Shield knew where they were but Fury didn't want them to engage and have Banner explode again. So he's having someone else come down to assess the situation.
Ahhh, the poor unsuspecting young ones. "Maybe we can hide in the back of one until someone leaves with it?"
"Maybe..." Bruce eyes one of the trucks, pulling himself up into the back of it. "But we wouldn't be able to see where we're going." Bruce jumps back down, dusting his hands off.
He stops, tensing as a door is opened at the other side of the room and ducks down quickly, gesturing for Coulson to do the same. He crawls under the jeep, watching a pair of military boots walking towards them.
He crawls under the jeep next to Bruce, tucking his arms underneath himself and holding his breath.
The boots stop. Bruce can feel his pulse beating in his ears...
"Phil...Bruce, it's okay. You can come out, nobody's going to hurt you." Bruce didn't recognize the voice. And he wasn't sure if he could trust it. No matter how trustworthy the voice sounded.
A radio squawks with Fury's voice, "Have you found them yet, Cap?"
"No, not yet, give me a moment."
And that is the point at which Phil Coulson freezes stock still and lets out a squeak.
Bruce mouths what??, looking a little annoyed. This was not the time to be making squeaky noises!
The boots start walking closer though it looks like they might pass by entirely. IF the kids were quiet enough.
Phil ducks his head down as low as he can, trying to peer out at the owner of the boots. The angle makes it difficult to see any higher than his shins though.
Bruce has half of a plan. Once the guy has gone past, he gives Coulson's arm a tug to slide out quietly. They'd go the other way while he was looking the opposite direction.
Of course, when they start sneaking, if one was to look back...they'd see a familiar shield on the back of the guy walking away.
And one does look back and suddenly completely loses the ability to walk or move or do anything but stare at that shield.
Bruce pulls on his arm frantically once it stops moving, what was wrong with Phil? They were gonna get seen!
Cap hears the scuffling shoes and turns to see the two boys. Bruce hesitates before taking off running without Coulson, feeling awful that he's doing it. Cap hurries back towards them, "Hey wait, hold up. Bruce stop, it's alright."
Bruce ducks back into the myriad of vehicles and finds a small hiding spot, trying to disappear. Leaving Coulson with Cap coming towards him.
And the level of wide-eyed jaw-dropped staring that Phil is doing as Cap gets closer is kind of indicative at just how much of an improvement the disastrous conversation on the Quinjet actually was for him.
He ultimately manages to squeak out a very quiet "Hi."
Cap seems relieved that at least he's got one out of the two. He gives Coulson a smile and nod. "Hi."
And into the walkie-talkie, "I found Coulson. Still working on Banner." Then he crouches down to talk to Phil. "Can you help me find Bruce? I think he's scared."
Phil nods immediately in reply to the question, because really, there was no way he was actually going to say no to Cap. However, he is still not exactly inclined to, you know, move. Or do anything else but stare.
Cap may not have known how to take Coulson's....erm....well, fanboying when he was in the Quinjet. But kids, he knows how to talk to them. He carefully picks up Phil to carry him on one side so they can move quicker, looking through the cars for signs of Bruce.
"Okay...lets see if we can find your friend before he get mad."
Phil nods, clinging tight to Captain America and all, well, you know, just so he doesn't fall.
"Bruce! It's okay! It's Captain America. I told you all about him and he's awesome and he's a hero and he's not scary and he's definitely not going to hurt us oh and his shield is made from a super super rare metal and when you were a grownup you thought it was really cool because it adsorbs vibrations."
Bruce is hugging his legs to himself when he hears Coulson's voice. It's a trap his head is telling him. Captain America wasn't real....right?
Cap spots a hint of shirt around the corner and pulls back, putting Coulson down and pointing out where Bruce was. "You go talk to him, okay?"
He nods and heads over, squeezing into Bruce's hiding spot. "Hi. Are you okay?"
Bruce tenses, his eyes wide, just staring at Coulson as if he's not sure he's real either.
"....not really, no. How'd you....? What are you...? They didn't let you go."
"I got to meet Captain America, and he carried me around and it was so cool and he looked exactly like the photos on my trading cards and he said you might be scared so I should talk to you instead of him. Are you scared?"
Blink.
"No."
Maybe. Yes. He was hiding under a car after all.
"Stop making stuff up."
He is almost affronted at the suggestion that he would lie about Captain America. "I'm not making anything up! He's really real and he's amazing."
Bruce digs the action figure out of Coulson's pocket. "See? Just a toy. Fun to play with but not real." He freezes in place again as the pair of boots stops next to his hiding place. Bruce feels really uncomfortable but he's not sure if he should run or not this time.
"No, he's real, he really is, and they make toys of dinosaurs too but that doesn't mean dinosaurs weren't real. And they make teddy bears but that doesn't mean bears aren't real, and Captain America is real and he's a good guy and he isn't going to hurt us, I promise."
Phil sounds so certain. Bruce wants to trust him.
He slowly peeks out from under the car. Cap is standing there and nods, giving him a little salute.
Bruce stares for a moment or two at the whole red, white, and blue outfit, blinking as if it might disappear. How was that possible?
Cap bends down to give both boys a hand up, "Come on, can't stay under there all day." And surprisingly, Bruce lets him.
So does Phil, but that was much more of a certain thing. And he's grinning, because he successfully helped Captain America, and how cool is that?
"You okay, you alright?" Cap is more concerned over Bruce's wellbeing, something he's not so sure about right now. Bruce shrugs off the hand, still eyeing him warily. "M'alright."
And he feels like he needs to tell Phil something, ducking his head to mumble it. ".....sorry." Sorry, he left you behind and sorry he didn't believe you.
"Ok, got them both, we're heading up," Cap says into his walkie-talkie.
"That's okay." He looks back at Cap. "Where are we going? I don't think Bruce likes being stuck in a room so that wouldn't be good."
Cap thinks for a moment, trying to work out a better plan. Bruce shifts on the balls of his feet, wishing he could deny everything Coulson just said but he can't.
"Okay, how about if we go get something to eat instead?"
"Something to eat sounds good. Can we get donuts?"
Some things never change.
Bruce nods slowly, he is pretty hungry. Famished even. But he doesn't want locked back up in a room so he follows behind Cap and Coulson a few paces. Cap lets him, looking back now and again to make sure he's still there.
They make it to the cafeteria, which has been smartly emptied of people except a few agents having coffee. Cap shoos them into line to get whatever they want. Bruce works on making a big sandwich. And yes, there are donuts.
Phil gets some donuts, because he is Phil Coulson. He also gets some macaroni and cheese because it looks pretty good and he's pretty sure if his mom and dad were there, they wouldn't let him eat just donuts anyway.
Cap is having an apple....because he's a health nut like that. Bruce makes sure Coulson is alright before he sits, still feeling like he has to protect him.
He gives Cap a scrutinizing look, "....so....you're really this action figure guy?" He doesn't care what Coulson thinks, he wants to know the truth. And the truth might be he's blinded by a really good costume.
But Steve nods and pulls back his hood to show his face and take a bite of his apple. "You guys really don't remember, do you?"
He shakes his head. "But when Bruce was a grownup before we went off to look for a way to turn me back into a grownup too, he told me that he knew you and that they'd found you in the ice and then he showed me your shield and he let me touch it. ... That was okay, right?"
Cap harumphs, trying to hide a smile. "Yeah, that was alright. It's seen worse."
"So, you're really a superhero?" asks Bruce the skeptic.
"I...suppose I am." Steve is finding this whole conversation really surreal. "And you're really a scientist...and you're," pointing at Coulson "really an agent of Shield."
He smiles and looks at Bruce. "Yeah, you are a scientist. When you were a grownup you taught me about these things called free particles and how they're everywhere and how they move through things because they don't have an atom to live in."
Bruce's eyes light up at that because Coulson is absolutely correct about that. He's starting to believe this whole superhero story. "Wow."
And now, time to eat his ridiculously big sandwich.
And Phil digs into his macaroni and cheese. It's pretty tasty even if his mom's is better.
Bruce is starting to feel better. He's got food in him, he's a lot less stressed. He does keep looking up at Cap now and again but the man seems content to babysit them for the time being.
Phil also keeps looking up at Cap now and again, even if it's for a completely different reason.
The walkie-talkie crackles again. "Okay, whenever you guys are ready, we've got lab 3 set up for you."
"Roger that."
Bruce pauses, half eaten sandwich halfway to his mouth. "What's that?"
"I think they've found a way to make you guys bigger again. I know they were working on it...while you two were running around getting into trouble."
Phil sits up straight and squares his shoulders. "The fire was my fault. I'm sorry."
Cap smirks, his eyes looking over at the other one. "No, that was Bruce. They replayed the security tapes once you guys went missing."
Bruce just wants to sink into his chair and disappear. Why was Coulson trying to take the blame for him?
Cap goes on, "But that's nice you wanted to help him get out of trouble, Phil."
"No, it really was my fault, because coming up with a distraction was my idea. So he wouldn't have done it otherwise. So if he's in trouble, then I'm in trouble too."
"Phil, you don't have to..." Bruce tries to cut in but Cap waves off both of them. "Neither of you are in trouble. We just want you back the way you were and alright."
"Oh." He takes a bite of a donut. "That's okay then."
Bruce slurps his drink thoughtfully. He's not used to people standing up for him. Especially a friend he's only just met...that he can remember.
Once they're done, Cap leads them to one of the labs. And Bruce gets more wide eyed, looking at all the science stuff.
And Phil smiles. "It's like a spaceship, isn't it?"
"...it's...it's..." Bruce does not have the words for how amazing it is.
The two boys are led to a small white examination room with windows but Bruce balks at the door. He doesn't really want to go into another small room, not till Steve reassures that he's going to be with them in here. The techs are working on loading up a laser projector with a set of chemicals and light frequencies.
Phil peers around at the various apparatuses. "What do those do?"
Bruce squirms as the nurses try to check him over, not really liking being poked and prodded either. "Looks like a laser array," he says, glad to have something to take his mind off this place.
"Lasers! Coooooool." He peers at them while he gets checked over himself, but otherwise keeps still.
"Yeah. Cool." Bruce doesn't sound convinced. "Are they gonna use those on us?" he asks Cap. The super soldier nods, not hiding the truth from them. "I don't understand the science behind it, but it's supposed to...let me get this right..."
"Absorb the excess radiation and let our cells resume their normal state?" Bruce seems to already understand the situation more than Cap does.
"So we get to be grownups again? ... Um, did they bring bigger clothes for us?"
Indeed they had. Sitwell had confiscated one of Coulson's good suits...he felt like a common thief doing it. Bruce, however, they had a normal t-shirt and jeans. His indestructible shorts were still on, being that they were built to grow and shrink under any circumstances.
"Did they calibrate that right?" Bruce doesn't want to get shot with anything. Not a laser or anything that looked like a weapon. He was starting to get antsy again.
"Bruce, they like us. They don't wanna hurt us, so they're not gonna do it unless they think it'll work."
He smiles. "If you want, I can go first."
Cap looks between them, a little worried about that. "Actually...they were hoping Bruce would go first."
"What? Why me?" Bruce squeaks.
"...because you can handle more radiation than Coulson can," Steve says after a moment. Bruce is quiet for a moment, remembering when he left Coulson in the hallway to run away. He didn't want to do that again. "So if it doesn't work...I would be alright but he wouldn't?"
Cap nods.
After listening to the explanation, he looks between Bruce and the lasers. "Oh." And then he takes a deep breath. "If he doesn't want to, I'll still go first."
"No," Bruce says, surprising even himself. "No, its okay...I'll go." If a kid younger than him was willing to go first, then he could handle it too. Even if he was scared.
Cap gives them both a reassuring hand on the back. It was hard to not think of them as brave kids instead of what they really were. Adults who had forgotten they were adults.
"Okay," he replied with a nod.
"Don't worry, you'll do great."
Bruce nods nervously, hugging his arms around his middle. That sick feeling was coming back, though he was trying to be brave about it. The medical techs point worriedly at the computer screen of his heart rate going up.
One of them has an aside with Cap and hands him a milky looking drink in a glass. He comes and sits between the two boys. "There's one more thing because if you change, Bruce, before they can turn you into an adult, then you might destroy the lab. And Cou-er-Phil won't get a chance to be okay again too."
Bruce didn't want that. "What can I do? I'm trying not to be scared," he pipes up nervously. Cap hands him the glass of milk. "Drink that and you'll be able to get through it without the Hulk showing up." Truthfully, he would sleep through it.
Bruce looks to Coulson, he's really the only one he trusts in this situation now.
And Phil trusted Cap implicitly. "It's okay. You'll be a grownup again soon and then you'll laugh about it!"
Bruce tries to smile, but he still felt sick to his stomach. What if they were all lying? What if this wasn't going to work?
But if Phil said it was okay...he was going to do it. Bruce took the glass of milk and drank it all down in front of them. He still looked nervous though, hoping he wasn't going to throw up after all of that.
But a minute later, his heart rate is way down and Bruce looks like he's going to fall asleep sitting up, his eyelids drooping closed. Cap catches him before he can keel over completely, carrying him over to where the lasers were. "Come on, Phil, you don't want to miss the lasers, right?"
"No, I don't want to miss the lasers." Phil follows behind Cap, looking around and taking a few deep breaths.
As Cap lies Bruce down, Phil looks up at him. "What if he's not okay? What if they're wrong?"
Bruce sleeps quietly on the table, much to everyone's relief and nerves. Cap gives Phil's shoulder a squeeze. "Then...he'll turn into the Hulk and we'll have to clear out really fast. He'll be alright." He just won't be an adult and they'll have to go from there.
The scientists are calling for them to move back behind the safety glass, everyone ready in case this goes south.
"I don't think he'd hurt us if we were nice to him," Phil replies simply, walking back behind the glass. He climbed up on a chair to get a better look at what was going on.
"Sometimes he doesn't have a choice," Cap explains but he appreciates Coulson's optimism.
They're warming up the laser, the humming noise gathering volume as it starts to glow at the tip. Finally, the leading scientist throws the switch and the red laser beam shoots out at Bruce...he twitches uncomfortably in his sleep, his heart rate jumping all over the place before they reach the maximum energy output the laser can handle without breaking it. Sparks fly, servers overload...and they have to turn it off before the whole thing can explode, powering down.
It's still Bruce laying there, asleep. But he's slowly starting to fill into his clothes.
"It worked!" Phil exclaims brightly, jumping up and down on top of the chair.
"I knew it was going to work the whole time!" ... Okay, he cannot in good conscience lie to Captain America. "I mean, most of the time."
Cap laughs, relieved himself that it worked. It diffuses the whole atmosphere of tension in the room. He ruffles Phil's hair, "Sure you did, kid." Forgetting for the moment that Phil was not a kid.
He gets off his chair to pick up the mini agent. "Okay, your turn. You want to sleep through it too?" They're carting Bruce away to monitor his vitals.
"Nope! I wanna be awake. So I know what it feels like to get zapped by lasers!" He smiles hopefully. "Can I? Please?"
Cap gives him a serious look. "It might hurt. Alot." But Cap can relate to wanting to go through with an experiment like this, even though it was dangerous.
He stands up straight. "I'm not scared. I wanna do it. Even if it hurts."
"Good man," Cap says, picking Coulson up and putting him on the table. He's instructed not to move if he can help it while everyone gets back.
They're starting with a lower dose, being that Coulson doesn't have the increased metabolism Bruce does. Soon the tip of the laser is glowing red again and firing straight at the mini agent....
He does his very best to sit as still as he can, and at the beginning he has very little difficult, however, as the power slowly increases and it actually begins to have an effect, it results in him squeezing his eyes closed and getting a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the table.
Cap calls out from the sidelines, "Doing great, hang in there!"
Bruce has recovered enough to wake, pushing the nurses away as he stumbles towards the testing room to watch from the door, his eyes keeping track of the monitors and how Coulson is doing. He's a little disoriented from all that happened but he's clear headed enough to be able to make sure his friend is alright.
Phil curls in on himself a bit, trembling as he grows but remaining resolutely silent. His jaw is clenched tightly and his heart rate is elevated, according to the readings, but he is showing no other outward signs of distress. He manages to open his eyes and shoot both Bruce and Cap reassuring smiles.
Bruce has a new found respect for Coulson after this. Even as a kid, he's willing to go through this and taking the laser treatment without a sound.
Once it reaches the correct levels, Bruce makes a slashing motion across his neck, "Cut it there, no more!" And they turn off all the machines.
Once the machines cut off, he slumps over some, resting his elbows on his knees and catching his breath as his growth settles.
He waves off one of the technicians who approaches. "I'm fine. It's okay."
He's not waving Bruce off though, the man has already grabbed a stethoscope off one of the techs and coming to listen to Coulson's lungs. "Deep breaths..." him making sure everything grew at the right rate. But so far, so good. Cap watching both of them with a worried look.
He breathes a sigh of relief, a lopsided smile. "Looks like we lucked out." Hopefully they will never have to do that again.
"Lucked out, yeah." He sits up straight, smoothing out his jacket, and he looks over at Bruce. "Are you feeling all right, Dr. Banner?"
He nods, pulling off the stethoscope. "Insides are a little sore but I'm alright. The sedative dose wore off as my cells got older.
You?"
He scrubs a hand down his face and nods. "Yeah, a little sore about covers it. Growth that rapid is... not exactly comfortable."
Bruce smiles ruefully. "Tell me about it." This from a man who rapidly grows and shrinks when he gets angry.
"Great job, guys," Cap says, coming over and looking visibly relieved that this whole thing was over. Only Bruce knows it's not over till they get that artifact turned off.
"Yeah, if anyone would know that already, it would be you."
When Steve walks over, Coulson barely manages not to wince in embarrassment. "Thank you for your help, Captain."
Cap smiles amiably. "No problem. Glad I could help." This was definitely one of the more...unique situations he's had to help out with.
Bruce cuts in, looking a little puzzled. "Okay, it was a little hazy for me but...were there sharks at some point?" He really wants to know if his mind is making that part up.
"Yes there were. They were running a number of experiments at that facility. One actually involved a tank of sharks, because they apparently decided that there was no such thing as too cliche."
Bruce shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just when my....our lives can't get any stranger..."
He is going to be taking a few days off after this.
"Oh, it can always get stranger, believe me." He shakes his own head. "Going to make for a very interesting incident report."
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