Table #2: Lab Accident (AU, Spider-Man/Hulk) Title: Lab Accident (1/10) Author: Krim Universe: AU; based on movie!Bruce and comc-esque!Peter Character(s): Peter Parker/Bruce Banner Prompt: 10. Confused Rating: PG Word Count: 695 Summery: After meeting while working on the same project, scientists Peter Parker and Bruce Banner form an unusually close friendship. When Bruce wants to try out a new serum, Peter warns against it, but shows up to watch the disastrous results. Author Note (optional): This is just for some fun, to be honest. This probably won't turn into a serious storyline. This also assumes that Betty and Bruce never have a relationship and that Peter actually holds down a job at a lab for more than five minutes.
"I'm telling you, messing around with that super soldier stuff isn't a good idea."
"When was the last time I've messed up, Pete? I'll be fine."
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
* * *
Peter feels like kind of an ass for saying that now. Bruce is the only guy who really bothered to make friends with Peter---or maybe it's the other way around. Scientists are a little withdrawn by nature, and neither of them have ever really been social with the others, for their own reasons. They just wound up on a project together that one time and hit it off, one chemistry genius to another. Loud, talkative Peter Parker and quiet, reserved Bruce Banner were the go-to team if you wanted something done fast and right---if you could get Peter to show up on time. They worked together over and over after that initial partnership, spent a lot of time together, got close. A little too close, maybe.
Which is why Peter had been comfortable telling Bruce that this super soldier revamp is a bad idea. No one's ever managed to duplicate what created Captain America, and Peter thinks it's a bad idea to even try. That's probably why Bruce had brushed him off, chalked it all up to his paranoia, and Peter had backed off. He didn't want to push away the only friend he had at work. He's lucky to have this gig in the first place; Dr. Connors had put in a good word with the university and Peter hasn't screwed it up. Yet.
Still, stupid idea or not, Bruce is testing this crazy thing on himself. Peter tried to talk to him beforehand, but it's hard to find the right words when he's busy trying not to say "Don't test it on yourself, idiot, Osborn tested on himself and now he's the green crazy flying goblin guy". Besides, Bruce had been Bruce, all dedicated to his craft, and strapped himself right in.
Peter's got a bad feeling about all this, but he goes into the observation room to watch Bruce play test subject anyway.
* * *
It's all kind of a blur, even as it's happening.
He heard somewhere that traumatic events are always crystal clear, slow motion. Clearly, that person never watched his friend turn green, writhe, burst out of his own skin.
He remembers his spider senses, strong and almost painful. Ducking down, dragging another scientist with him, covering her head. Flashes of green, the ground shaking. Something hard and metallic colliding with his head, hitting the floor, vision blurring, the feeling of blood on his skin.
And then everything is white.
* * *
He wakes up in the hospital twenty-three hours later. Which, by the way, is a long damn time for Peter; he must've gotten clocked pretty hard. He shifts in bed, head still aching. This one's going to take a while to clear up, won't it? Damn.
"The doctor said he didn't think you'd wake up for another day or two."
Peter flinches at the voice, shifting again and cracking his eyes open. His vision takes a moment to clear itself, and when it does, he sees the person the voice must have come from. One of the other scientists from the university. Ross. Betty. She'd developed the project with Bruce, in the beginning, had dropped out for some reason to work on something else.
And she'd been in the room to watch.
"What now?"
"You're just up early."
"Yeah, how 'bout that." Peter rubs his eyes, groaning quietly. He and Betty aren't close friends or anything. It's weird, that she'd be there in his room. "Why are you...? I mean, I'm not ... ungrateful or anything."
"You saved me. You pulled me down? Kept me from getting a faceful of glass. The least I can do is make sure you come out of it alive." She gives him a bit of a smile. "You have a concussion. That console smacked you pretty hard."
Concussion. Great. He'll have to lay off the crime fighting until that clears up. Concussions and spider senses do not get along.