So True of Aim With His Marshmallow Laser

[lil_hulk]

Jay had less of his senior year in front of him than he thought. He was behind on his senior year job shadowing. Most of his fellow students on the rez had access to all the Keewazi technology businesses and labs to do theirs in. He was in New York City and had fewer options.

He knew he could have gone to the Future Foundation and gotten credit for it. However, him showing up at Pier 4 would have been a signal for Mary to prank him somehow. Rather than deal having to redo somethings due a prankster shapeshifter, Jay got some suggestions from his school for some science-based businesses in NYC that he could get credit for.

Jay currently stood outside a nondescript building housing several businesses that could fit his science job shadowing requirement. He checked the slip of paper once more to make sure he had the right address. If he had not been specifically looking for this building, he doubted he would have even noticed it.

Shrugging to himself, he headed toward the front doors. He had an appointment with one of the businesses inside. He was dressed in a light jacket over a button-down shirt, his cleanest pair of jeans, and his pair of green Chuck Taylor All Stars on his feet. Not very science-y, but comfortable to him.

Comments

[lena_essex]

The lobby of the building was quite different from the outside, very modern and minimalist. So minimalist that the walls appeared to be a solid stretch of brushed metal, except for the single rectangle of deep green glass hanging directly across from the entrance.

They appeared solid, that is, until a door slid open next to the glass panel revealing an elevator car and a young woman with flaming red hair. She stepped out into the lobby and smiled.

[lil_hulk]

Well, this lobby... was like a big metal box. Maybe these were avant garde scientists? Or was he going to be sprayed by disinfectant as he headed to the lone door in?

He was just starting to move toward the deep green glass when there was a surprise elevator door opening. He blinked at the woman who stepped out. She looked vaguely familiar but he couldn't place from where.

"Uh, hi. Is that the way to get the offices?"

[lena_essex]

"Which offices are you looking for, ducks?" She smiled wider. "There's lots here."

[lil_hulk]

He looked at the small, crumpled piece of paper in his hand to make sure he got the name right. "I'm looking for Direct Geosciences, Inc."

Something about that smile made him shift a little from foot to foot.

[lena_essex]

"Hm. That's... oh, just a moment."

Lena reached into her purse and retrieved her phone. She held it up to her ear, nodding and smiling.

"Yes... yes... oh, really?" She giggled. "Very well. I shall get right on it. After I show this nice young man in the lobby to his destination, of course. Of course. Ta."

She slipped the phone back into her bag. "So sorry. One of my father's old acquaintances owns this building, and Daddy is thinking about leasing some space here. Direct Geo is in the basement."

She turned around and placed her palm against the glass panel. The elevator doors slid open.

"I'll show you to it. The directory system in this place is frightfully difficult to manage sometimes."

[lil_hulk]

Jay didn't know how he felt getting into an even tinier box with this redhead. He hoped she wasn't some sort of demonic cat girl redhead. He nodded and shoved the crumpled paper into his jeans pocket.

"Oh. Okay. Thanks." A scientific place in the basement that was hard to get to. Sometimes he wondered about scientists.

[lena_essex]

Inside the elevator looked perfectly normal, if a little high tech. There was another glass panel with softly glowing green numbers next to the door. Lena pressed her thumb into a blank space beneath the bottom row of numbers, and the car began a rapid descent.

"So, are you applying for a job with Direct Geo, then? Perhaps an internship?" She chattered away, so friendly and disarming. "Geology must be so interesting. Daddy is a geneticist, so I'm more used to all that. Oh, and here we are!"

The doors slid open, revealing a hallway. The decor here was almost the polar opposite of the lobby, in every way but the obvious expense. The walls were dark wood, lined with lush green plants and what appeared to be original oil paintings, or at least very good reproductions.

"I do so love what Iggy's done with this place. She decorated it, you know. She gets so cranky when she's nothing to do, and she doesn't care for the lobby. Too... hm. Too reflective for her, I think. She's not much for mirrors these days."

Lena started down the hall, then glanced back at Jay, smiling fetchingly.

[lil_hulk]

"Well- I- Uh- Not-" As the woman chatted away, Jay tried to get words in to answer her questions, but she just kept going. He shifted a little from foot to foot in the plummeting box of confinement. He was not truly worried about getting stuck. He could Hulk out, possibly before he smacked into the subbasement.

Jay looked into the hallway like he was walking into another dimension. He stepped into the plush hallway.

"Yeah. Different decorating styles for sure." He sped up a bit to catch up with his guide. "Not much for mirrors? The designer a vampire or something?"

He tried to remember if he had his phone programed with one of the Strange numbers.

[lena_essex]

"Vampire?" Lena cocked her head curiously. "Why, no, ducky, she's an actress. Or, she used to be. Although, I overheard her talking to someone about a Bollywood remake of Godzilla. Musicals are so in now, you know"

She laughed, then placed her hand on yet another flat glass panel, this one next to a heavy, ornately carved wooden door. The door swung open, and inside was another dark paneled room, this one filled with strangely archaic looking furniture and medical equipment. A man of medium height, with dark hair, is standing in front of the desk, with his back to the door. He turns around slowly and smiles...

[lena_essex]

Minio... labratory assistants appeared with a gurney that they strapped Jay onto, then took him further down via a hidden elevator. The room they wheeled him into looked like an unholy amalgamation of a particle physics lab and a rave club from the '90s, with softly glowing green tubes running all along the ceiling. They moved Jay from the gurney, taking his clothes, and draping a sheet over his body, then placed him onto something that slightly resembled an MRI table.

The burly assistants left, and the room was quiet, but not empty. Lena stood at Jay's feet, eyeing him curiously.

"Dr. Green says you're a Hulk..."

She reached out and gently squeezed his big toe.

[lil_hulk]

This was one of those moments when Jay wished he could control his ability to Hulk out. He would have more defenses that way. Along with the ability to tear this place apart.

He looked down the table at the redhead squeezing his toe. He blinked in anger. That was the best he could do.

[lena_essex]

"I've never met a Hulk before. Daddy says you're all more trouble than you're worth, and not very genetically interesting."

Lena giggled, and stroked the inside of Jay's ankle, petting it like it was a kitten.

"Oh, you're angry. That's bad for a Hulk, isn't it? Angry and afraid, too. I can feel it." She shivered slightly, and the tip of her tongue darted out across her lips.

"Don't be scared, ducky. Dr. Green wants you kept alive. He was so happy when he called me on the phone. Why, I didn't think he could be happy, cooped up in that musty old office of his, with the lady in the tube." She glanced up at the metal cylinder above and behind Jay. "Oh, not that kind of tube. Hers is glass, and he puts flowers around the base. You've got a shiny metal one."

[lil_hulk]

Jay closed his eyes and tried to sum up being a Hulk somehow. He was overflowing with negative emotions at the moment. Why wasn't it triggering?

Maybe Hulks don't like to be at a beck and call.

Which did not explain his Mom's ease with her Hulk side. He opened his eyes at the mention of the creepy dead woman in the box. He looked up at that tube and started getting a little claustrophobic.

[lena_essex]

"I know why. But I can't tell you." Lena giggled. "What, you didn't know that I could hear you? I can. I can do lots of things."

She walked closer to the head of the gurney, running her nails along Jay's leg as she went. "Your Mummy's a Hulk too? What is that like? I don't have a mum, not really. Daddy made me all by himself."

"Oh, and the lady isn't dead. Not quite. If she were, there wouldn't be any point to all this, now would there?" She laid her hand on Jay's forehead. "Don't be scared. Don't be. Is there something I can do for you?"

[lil_hulk]

Jay's eyes widened at his thoughts being read. He tried to have a coherent thought beyond why was she doing that to him. He needed to focus. She was making him have seven thoughts at once. He needed to not think about Mom and how she was half a continent too far away to save him this time.

Let me go. That would be a swell thing to do for me.

He fought to move an arm, a leg, or even just roll off the gurney, but Jay achieved only stillness.

[lena_essex]

I can't do that. Would you like something else, ducks? An ice lolly? Sex? I can do that for you.

Lena giggled.

Would you like your Mummy? I can be her. If you think of her hard enough.

[lil_hulk]

Jay blinked and then screwed his eyes shut as tight as he possibly could. Maybe he could find that calm, quiet place everybody was supposed to have inside them. A space to retreat to. Though being a Hulk made finding a calm, quiet spot near impossible.

Leave me alone. Just leave me alone.

[ngm_villains]

The expensive teak paneling in the hallway cracked and splintered when Jay broke through, revealing a network of circuitry buried in the walls. It crackled and sparked. Alarms blared from speakers that were also hidden in the walls, and every one of those dark glass panels flashed an alert, but the corridor was empty.

Empty, until one of the walls slid back. A small group of minions in powered body armor stepped out. There were only three of them, because the armor was too heavy for the elevator to carry any more.

The armor looked like it had been hastily worn, and the faces behind the slightly askew visors looked very frightened indeed.

[lil_hulk]

The young Hulk huffed at the absence of anyone to smash. There should have been someone to smash for putting it into that metal tube. It looked up and down the hall to figure out which way to go.

Until men in body armor stepped into the hallway. The young Hulk turned toward them, lips distorted into a snarl. It charged them an angry bellow.

They had came out of an exit. The young Hulk would go right through them to get out of here.

[ngm_villains]

The men stood their ground, but only because Dr. Green had threatened to make them spend the night with Iguanalina if they didn't.

One of the men stepped forward, and raised a rocket launcher to his shoulder. It fired off a giant tranquilizer dart.

[lil_hulk]

The young Hulk's eyes were locked on the men as It came rushing down the hall. It saw the rocket launcher go up. It bellowed and hunkered down lower to come at the men.

The giant tranq came at it, and it batted the missile away. The massive dart imbedded into the wall next to the Hulk. The dart quivered in place as massive green legs ate up the distance between the Hulk and the men quickly.

[ngm_villains]

The first man, the one with the rocket launcher, stood frozen at seeing his missile batted away like a toy. Behind him, the other two minions began spraying gas at Jay from the tanks strapped to their backs.

[lil_hulk]

As the first man stood rooted to the spot, the young Hulk batted at him like he did the large tranq. Though the Hulk was now standing in a cloud of gas that made his nostrils sting. It was not a minty fresh sting. Which made the Hulk angrier.

"Bad POO GAS!" That might have sounded funnier had the young Hulk not grabbed a section of wall as wide as his chest and thrown it at the two men spraying him with gas.

[ngm_villains]

The first man flew into the wall with a crack, his armor further damaging the expensive wood. The second man ducked, letting the third man take the full impact of the thrown wall. It knocked his incompletely fastened visor off, and he immediately succumbed to the powerful sedating gas.

The second man frantically raised the nozzle on his tank and sprayed the gas directly at Jay's face. It had to work... had to!

[lil_hulk]

The young Hulk made deep throated disgusted sounds at what was being sprayed into its face. It turned its head and slapped blindly in front of it.

"Poo gas taste BAD. HULK NOT LIKE." The gas was not slowing the Hulk down; it was only making the behemoth angrier.