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...

[ngm_villains]

"Hello, Jay. It's been a while. Welcome to my humble abode. Please try not to wreck this one."

[lil_hulk]

Jay's eyes widen in recognition. He feels a jolt from the need to Hulk out now. The jolt felt a lot like fear. "What the f-"

[lena_essex]

From behind Jay, Lena reached into his mind, and began shutting things down. Nearly all of his conscious functions, like movement, but not any of his senses, because it's just no fun when they don't know what's happening.

Then she set to work on the trickier, autonomic portions of his brain. She disconnected his limbic system from his endocrine system and adrenals, because it just wouldn't do to have a full blown Hulk crashing around, now would it? The she shut down the part of his brain stem that controlled his breathing.

She giggled. "Oops. sorry about that."

She reactivated it.

[ngm_villains]

"Now, now..." Dr Green frowned at Lena. "I want him alive. At least for a while."

He walked forward, bent down, and gently cupped Jay's chin in one hand.

"Oh Fortune, like the moon, thou art changeable, ever waxing and waning... I bet you're wondering how this happened, aren't you, boy? I'd love to take credit, but you just fell into my lap once again. I just could not believe my luck when I saw what was on the closed circuit camera feed from the lobby. Oh, didn't my old associate Mr. Essex's lovely daughter tell you? I own this entire building, yes, I do. I don't mind telling you, it cost me a fortune to undo the damage you did to me the last time... a fortune. But it's ok now. You're going to have the chance to make it up to me."

Dr. Green turned away.

"Take him to the lab."

[lil_hulk]

Jay kind of wished that she had left his breathing off. He would rather be dead than in Dr. Green's hands again. It had taken him so long to get over those nightmares. He didn't have May anymore to help him calm down from the new batch he was going to get.

He wanted desperately to do something. Punch Dr. Green in his face and run away. All he could managed was a huffed breath and widened eyes.

[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.

[lena_essex]

"You're going to hurt my feelings, ducky."

Lena laid her hand on his chest, then reached in to his mind, pulling images and voices out.

"I can be anyone you want." Her image wavered, and then Jay's mother was standing there.

"Anyone."

She-Hulk turned into Marcus.

"Anyone."

And now, into May.

"Anyone."

Lena operated the controls of the table with her telekinesis, and Jay slowly slid into the tube. Lights came on, and the machinery surrounding it began to hum. Then she reached into his brain, and jabbed at the area where memories were stored.

[lil_hulk]

He should have opened his eyes when she put her hand on his chest. The warm contact he hadn't expected made him look. He knew she was none of the people she turned into. It hurt to not be able to call any of them to for help.

Particularly the last one.

He didn't have to dwell on that long as he slid into the metal tube of doom. He looked around as things came to electronic life. Jay didn't have mental defenses, so Lena would find it easy to get at his memories.

[lena_essex]

Lena sat, crosslegged, on the floor in a room that was the astral representation of Jay's amygdala, the area of his brain where memories with a strong emotional connection were stored. In front of her was a cardboard box full of Polaroid photographs. She pulled them out one by one, glanced at them, then tossed them over her shoulder, until she found one that looked interesting to her. Dr. Green told her to start out easy, and subtle.

In Jay's mind he saw a lush, green hillside sprinkled with wildflowers. Nearby was a softly bubbling stream. He was sitting on a plaid picnic blanket spread with food, and across the blanket from him sat May. She smiled, and handed him a plate loaded with fried chicken and potato salad.