"Who the hell is Bruce?" Valkyrie asked, one eyebrow raised in confusion. She was seated at a table they had managed to find in Hulk's room along with Naomi and the brothers. The four had been discussing their strategy for getting off the planet, though Valkyrie hadn't figured if she would leave with them. However, the name Bruce kept popping up, and though she hadn't cared at first, and had barely been listening to the conversation, it was starting to seriously annoy her.

"I didn't tell you?" Naomi asked from across the table, genuinely surprised. She was usually so good at spilling the secrets of the Marvel Universe to everyone she came across. Almost as good as some the Marvel actors.

"Probably not." Valkyrie shrugged, since it was possible Naomi had explained it to her, but she had jut been hammered. It happened quite a lot.

"Banner is our friend," Thor answered, smiling fondly, "he transforms into the Hulk for battle." Beside Naomi, Loki glowered down at the table, attempting not to relieve the 'puny god' incident. Valkyrie arched her other eyebrow, and proceeded to stare at the lot of them as though they were children trying to fool her into believing something.

"Right." She commented, not buying it for a second. Naomi sighed, unwilling to spend an hour trying to convince Valkyrie of something she had already made up her mind about.

"You'll probably see it later. We might have to ask Hulk to de-transform." She leaned her elbows forward onto the table, balancing her head in her palms and chewing on her bottom lip. The best exit plan for all of them would be the abandoned ship that Hulk had arrived on, which she knew to be out in the junkyard. However she also knew that Hulk would have a hard time fitting, since he destroyed the thing in Ragnarok. Though, even if they could fit Hulk onto the ship and pile everyone else in comfortably, he would have to give control back to Bruce at some point.

"You're going to ask the Hulk?" Loki commented incredulously.

"No other way to do it." Naomi shrugged. Loki observed her with wide eyes, leaning back in his chair quietly.

"I commend you, Naomi." Thor nodded, pleased with her response. "But we should be leaving as soon as possible, so it'll have to be now." Naomi looked at him, contemplating for a moment how she would go about asking the Hulk to give up control of his body. After a moment she frowned, and huffed dismissively.

"Alright, lets do this." Naomi stood, sliding her chair out behind her with a squeak. "Can you guys get the ship prepped while i'm gone?" She was met with a chorus of nods from the brothers, and a contemplative stare from Valkyrie. Clearly, the woman still didn't know if she would be joining them. However Naomi could only concern herself with one superhero at a time, so she decided to convince the Hulk first. Turning to leave, Naomi made it a few steps toward the door before she felt a slight pressure on her shoulder. Her brown hair swished in the air as she turned around to face her approacher.

A smile made its was onto Naomi's features when she saw Loki staining before her, his arm still outstretched to lay lightly on her shoulder. "Be careful." He told her. She didn't say anything in response, only reached up to lay her hand on top of his, squeezing it for a moment before they both let go.

"I promise." She smiled, and turned to leave, her eyes transfixed on his until she faced the door. Naomi's grin refused to leave her face, and she could sense his eyes still staring after her, even if she didn't hear his whispered response.

"I know."

---

"Hey Hulk." Naomi greeted, closing the door to the training room behind her. Hulk, who had been standing by the weapons rack with a sledgehammer in one hand and a mace in the other, grunted in response. As she walked over to him, Naomi could practically see the gears turning in his head as he looked between the two weapons, considering which one was deadlier. For herself, Naomi chose to go with the small black bag stashed in between a couple of swords, which belonged to Valkyrie based on their size. As she rifled through the bag, she could hear Hulk drop one of his options back onto the rack and shuffle out to the middle of the room.

Finally, Naomi's hand landed on a cool metal object, and she pulled out her slightly battered phone from the bag, still with no signal. She hardly even knew why she bothered to check, since she was on a different planet. "Hulk?" Naomi called out, turning to face him. He had chosen the mace, and was now winding up to slam it onto a hunk of concrete at his feet. Holding the weapon up over his head, he tried his attention toward her with a grunt. "Can I talk to you?"

Another grunt, and the concrete was solidly split in half with a shattered mace in the middle. His work done, and the green giant walked back over to the rack. "Yeah?" He asked.

"Thor, Loki and I are planning on leaving really soon." Hulk's face fell, he looked like a child denied a treat after dinner. Unable to bear his sad puppy eyes, Naomi rushed the rest of her explanation. "We don't know if Valkyrie is leaving too, but we wanna invite you to come with us!" Naomi finished, wringing her hands. Hulk's mood had been lifted by her invitation, but not by much. His face turned quietly contemplative as he stared off at a point in the distance, an expression rarely seen on him.

"Hulk like contest. Hulk fight." He explained, waving his hands as he spoke in a tinge of desperation. It was clear to Naomi that he didn't want his friends to leave him, but he also didn't want to leave. It was nearly enough for her to throw the entire plan against Thanos out the window, and just live on Sakaar with the brothers, Valkyrie, and Hulk forever. Almost.

"I know, I know. But remember the war I told you about?" Naomi asked, looking up at him. Hulk nodded, still appearing sad. "Well that's on Earth, so that's where we need to go- we'll pick up some people along the way- but we need to go to Earth."

"...okay. Hulk go." He nodded, perking up slightly. "Angry girl go?"

"We still don't know if she's coming." She explained. Hulk nodded again, thinking hard. "But I also want to talk to you about something else..." Naomi trailed off, unsure of how to breach the topic of Banner.

"Yeah?" Hulk grunted, attentive.

"You've, uh, you've never spoken to Banner, right?" Naomi asked tentatively. For a moment, Hulk only appeared shocked that she knew who Banner was, before his face screwed up and he turned away with a huff. Faintly, Naomi could hear a mumbled, 'puny Banner.'

"No." Hulk huffed, and with a great deal of attitude. It would have been an understatement to say that her mention of the scientist annoyed him.

"Well, listen. I'm not asking you to transform into him-" Huff grunted, but Naomi continued- "but we're afraid you won't fit on the ship to go to Earth, so-"

"You want Banner." Hulk cut her off, fully facing away from her, hiding his expression. A frown etched onto her face, Naomi walked around him so she could face him.

"No, that's not what i'm saying." Naomi stressed, clasping her hands in front of her. Hulk refused to meet her eyes, and stared down at the ground. "You have a choice here, if you don't want to transform, you don't have to." Naomi said. It wasn't the total truth, since she and the others had agreed on taking the Quinjet, but she was sure that there were Hulk-sized ships they could steal in the Grandmaster's collection. Though she really didn't want to have to do that. But her words eased the Hulk, and finally he brought his eyes up to meet hers.

"Hey, if you could talk to Banner, would you?" Naomi asked softly, as though she didn't want to scare him. Hulk froze for a moment, caught off guard, before nodding once. Naomi said, "Well, I have an idea for that, see here?" She held up her phone, the black screen reflecting the Hulk's face like a mirror. He stared at it for a moment, before tearing his eyes away and looking at her.

"You could record a message for him, and then later, if you ever transform into him, he can see it, okay?" Naomi stressed the 'if', trying to keep his mood up.

"Hulk no want to be Banner." Hulk sighed, but his attitude was less frustrated, or angry than Naomi had anticipated. Instead, he seemed to be really considering her words.

"Banner doesn't want to be Hulk either." She offered with a shrug. Hulk stared at her, eyes wide with realization. After an eternity, his mouth pressed into a line, and he nodded himself.

"Hulk give message." He said, and sat down on the floor. Naomi smiled broadly, relieved he had seen reason, and moved a few steps away to begin. Swiping to her camera, Naomi held up the phone to Hulk's face, capturing his emotions as he spoke. She hit record, and gave Hulk the thumbs up to begin. He seemed to have a basic knowledge of recording technology, since he knew the general direction of where to look, but Naomi concerned herself with keeping the camera steady.

The Hulk sat for several seconds, staring quietly into the camera, his expressions flickering. Finally, he began to speak.

"Hulk is Hulk." He grunted, frowning into the camera- but not with malicious intent- instead, he seemed stern. "Hulk not Banner. Banner not Hulk." He stared down at his hands for a moment, playing with his fingers before looking back up at her phone. "Banner trap Hulk. Years. So Hulk trap Banner. Trap, trap, trap. Again, again. Hulk tired." The green giant was vulnerable to the camera, expressing his emotions even with his limited vocabulary. Naomi almost felt as though she were intruding on his private moment. "Hulk want to be Hulk, but Banner want Banner." Hulk shook his head, sighing down at the ground. For a few tense seconds, Naomi could see the labored rise and fall of his shoulders as the champion thought deeply. When he rose his head again, he stared into the camera with an intensity she hadn't seen before, even when he was fighting. He stared as through her phone was really Bruce, standing before him. Naomi wasn't even sure if he was aware of her presence anymore.

"Hulk fight. Hulk like fight, Hulk want to fight. Bruce no fight, Bruce no want." He shrugged, nearly defeatedly. "Bruce no want Hulk. Hulk know. Bruce want Hulk for fight, but Bruce no want Hulk." He said. "But Bruce and Hulk want same thing. Want body, want control. Can't both have at same time." His expression became calm, tranquil. Before Naomi's eyes, his skin began to change shades. Hulk only kept staring straight into the camera, straight at Banner as he began to slowly shrink.

"Hulk will give Banner Banner. So Banner need to give Hulk Hulk." His last words were morphed, his voice becoming higher as his form shrunk. Naomi was rooted in place, unable to do anything except point the camera at the mans shrinking form, noting that his eyes never wavered until finally, someone new was sitting in front of her, visibly groggy, with the Hulk's giant shorts draped over his lower body like a blanket.