Re: log: Tony's Super Secret Facility
When Tony stepped forward the Soldier's eyes darted up to watch. He seemed to slowly be gaining ground on the drowsiness of blood loss and long stretches without rest, sharpening up moment by moment. But all Stark did was lean in and stare at him, and that faint blue light on his face suggested he was looking at something that Bucky couldn't see. He didn't like that. He had perfected the art of being invisible well enough to truly earn whispered myths and hearsay. The only times he had ever been under the microscope had been literal, and Stark's clean, analytical gaze earned him a closed stare back.
"Insight," he said. Surely Steve had told him that much by now. "Familiar with it? Or SHIELD didn't mention it." The Soldier would not be surprised to hear the latter. He'd expected that SHIELD would be in tatters while he targeted the centers of Hydra's hive. Not so. They seemed as collected and corrupt as ever, which was why he needed to keep his distance from anything but preselected targets.
At the mention of Rogers, his eyes turned back down to the wound site, watching Banner slice in deep with the scalpel, taking a long, slow breath through his nose. The pain wasn't beneath his notice, but neither was it at the top of his awareness. His endocrine system flushed with the telltale signs of injury and agony, with some abnormalities - there was a heavy dose of adrenaline.without as many of the physiological effects that should have resulted. His pupils barely dilated. This seemed to be a body burned out on adrenaline over a long period, slowly mending itself, but not as responsive to a 'fight or flight' impulse as it should have been. Everything was dulled.
And as for Steve - as for Rogers, he didn't want to talk about him.
He was reluctant to admit why the body count was so low, but answering truthfully was a calculated move to earn more information about something he had so far refused to think much about. There were bigger things at stake here than journals that wrote back, which he still assumed had to be some sort of cutting-edge communications technology that no one had bothered to brief him on. "Someone wished it," he said. That wouldn't be happening again, either.
Banner was focused enough that he didn't remark on the Soldier's question. He seemed invested on getting the bullets out and doing it right. What was his stake in this, he wondered? What did he stand to gain? Either it was a favor to Rogers or a favor to Stark, and, either way, it seemed strange. He watched him pick up the needle and thread, and didn't protest. He would heal, but stitches would only help speed that along, and get him up and moving again more quickly. The sooner he was on his feet, the sooner he could find an exit.