Banner's Big Break Part 1

“...and so yeah I guess I kinda hit Sam with Thunderstrike here and it kinda uhh…” Erik made an explosive gesture with his hands toward Niko in the kitchen. He was glad for a bit of decompression from the training session he had just been through; he was certainly not used to fighting so talking it through helped to bring down some of the adrenaline he was still feeling. “And yeah...it’s weird because you know...I’ve never been in a fight before and so like...it’s….I don’t know it felt good to hit something.” He looked down toward Thunderstrike again as it sat on the kitchen island - serene, but he felt as though it was still calling to him, still wanting him to fight, but he felt near exhausted from just training.

“That’s great! I too like hitting things. Except the books. It’s like we said, the more you use what you can do, the better you’ll be able to control it. Just don’t use it on me. If you can catch me. Which,” he made himself a second sandwich in the blink of an eye. “You can’t.”

Erik was beginning to contemplate the possibility of hitting Niko when suddenly a sling-ring hole began to appear in the kitchen, nearly right behind Niko. Erik watched on in a mixture of awe and anxiety as the portal filled in with what looked to be a back alley somewhere with Theo standing before them on the other side. “Uhh..Niko?” Erik looked over Niko’s shoulder through the portal and pointed semi-nervously.

“Fuck. There’s something behind me, isn’t there?” Niko asked with a mouth full of peanut butter. “Please don’t be horrifying.” He glanced over his shoulder to see Theo standing with one hand cocked on her hip. “Yep. It’s horrifying.” He quipped, zipping through the portal.

“So you found him?” He asked his cousin. “The Arrow kid? Do you want me to gather the team up? I can have them here in a blink.” To prove it, he dashed back through the portal, and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hello, HELEN, it’s me, Niko.” He said loudly. “Please tell Sam Rogers and Ghost Spider Girl that Theo found the broken arrow. Tell them the eagle has left the nest. The horse is out of the stable, I don’t know what the code is when you find a broken arrow. But most important tell them to come to the kitchen for the portal.” Less than a second passed and he was already impatiently rolling his eyes. “Seggr? Didn’t you want a chance to talk to him?” He asked while impatiently pointing to the gateway.

Sam’s helmet comm went off as he exited his room, “Sir, you are being called to the main kitchen, Mr. Maximoff is summoning all available teammates to the currently active portal Ms. Maximoff is maintaining.”

“On it.” Sam replied, starting his sprint towards the stairs.

Erik had only watched as Niko zipped in and out of the portal. For a moment he had just thought that Niko would handle everything moving so fast. But as he was snapped back to reality he looked around quickly as he mentally blanked on what his plan had actually been. “Oh uhh right..” Niko zipped off again leaving Erik with the portal. He had a plan of course, it was a good plan...probably. He just had to put it all back together in his head, what was step one again? He patted down his pants and pulled out his phone onto the table for safety’s sake and started reciting his talking points in his head as he rushed through the portal sans any plan or equipment.

Gwen hoofed it from the computer room before she realized she was being summoned, but not told where! She skidded to a halt standing on the wall. “HELEN? Where is the nest … er … portal?” She asked scratching her head. Gwen assumed there was a portal; she could be wrong.

“Too slow Ghost Spider girl!” Niko said, scooping the girl up to head out the portal. He tossed her through to make sure she wasn’t snapped in half if it closed too quickly. “Sam?” He called next, zipping up to the third floor. “Sammy? HELEN, Locate Sam, tell him the portal is in the kitchen.”

“Relaying message,” HELEN replied.