38

“Take me,” you volunteer. You figure if there’s any problem getting the prisoners out, the Hulk will be a lot more use than a guy with some arrows, and if there’s no problem, then it doesn’t really matter who goes where.

Sitwell nods and drags you along toward the control room without another word. Tony radios in with a snarky comment (no more than you expected, to be honest); you shoot back; he escalates with an actual pun and you start to reply, but before you can, Coulson’s voice interrupts you both with firm, S.H.I.E.L.D.-phrased instructions that basically amount to shut up.

He gets his wish almost immediately, when there’s the sound of shouting and then some kind of low, rumbling boom from Tony’s end of the line, and he stops responding even when you and Coulson shout his name.

“That’s not good,” says Sitwell, and he’s more worried than he has been all along. “I can’t release the controls here if the remote ones at the tower aren’t opened first.”