1595/Banner draws some blood

Banner draws some blood
Date of Scene:	10 May 2020
Location:	Avengers Mansion - Labs
Synopsis:	Banner takes a blood sample from his cousin, but it's soon stolen!
Cast of Characters:	Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters

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Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce is a whirl of activity. He darts from one data screen to another, ensuring his instruments are ready to go. Several test tubes are lined up perfectly in order of height, labeled with every kind of colored tape one could imagine all along the desk closest to his computers. A reclining chair faces the back wall, resembling a dentist's chair, where one can enjoy a wonderful big-screen view of the courtyard outside the mansion.

    The background noise of the normally quiet lab comes alive with every keystroke Bruce makes. He moves with puspose, his eyes wide.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
On the security monitors, the camera picks up the wirey and lithe Jennifer Walters, complete with human tone and smaller frame. She uses her security badge and skirts around the building, maybe a bit unfamiliar in the building in her human state. She did text Bruce Banner that she might be free around this time, so she looks hopeful she doesn't surprise him. The mysterious laborary sensors BEEP annoyedly as Jennifer breaches the outer door and invades the room, "Psst, Bruce," she says quietly as the door HISSES closed behind her in a final, sanitorily way. She looks around slightly at the delicate equipment and the complicated computers churning in time with Bruce's work, "Psst..." she says as she creeps forward toward him.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce looks up, hearing Jen's whisper. "JEN!" he announces happily. He practically hops his way over a cable or two on his way to the door to greet her, in stark contrast to the sheepish demeanor just a few nights ago when she bailed him out from jail.

    He gestures to take her hand to lead her to the chair, and stops, observing her normal sized hand. It brings him back to the moment, and he looks back up to her face. "Thanks for doing this, Jen. It means a lot that you do this." He walks to the chair a bit more carefully, explaining, "The blood from your human state will be compared to samples from mine, and maybe it will help give me a way to control the Big Guy like the way you can be more yourself when you're all green." He steps to the panel and smirks, "It might give me the key to your great hair, too! Did you know people would pay a fortune to make their hair as green and awesome as yours? I had to tell an agent from Revlon to piss off, he was pestering me too much."

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters stumbles a bit as Bruce whisks her toward the omnious Laboratory Exam Chair and she looks at apprehensively, "Yeah yeah, I know you've been waiting to poke and prod me but don't get so excited," she says dryly and chuckles. She takes off her little vest and rolls the sleeves up on her white blouse. She inches toward the chair and finally climbs in, sitting down. She glances around slightly, waiting for the dramatic tilt or something, "Alright, you just tell me what you need me to do," she tells him, fidding with her brown hair as she thinks about how green it was, "Whatever I can do to help. Uhh so...what are you...planning?" she wonders.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce adjusts a few settings on the final computer panel nearest the chair, and then brings his attention to Jen. "There's no reason to be nervous," he says. "I'm sorry if I seem excited. It's just an opportunity to try and bring this whole thing under some kind of control, you know? What am I saying, of course you know." He pulls out what resembles a blood pressure cuff and starts to wrap it around her left arm. "This thing has a few different scanners on it. It will find the vein and take the sample all in just a few instants. It really shouldn't be all that uncomfortable. If you want to to stop, just let me know or just pull this off. No sweat." He carefully slides the sleeve of her blouse just a bit higher to fit the cuff snugly to her upper arm, making sure the grip is not too tight.

    Bruce steps back to make sure the fit is good, then attaches an array of wires and tubes to the cuff. Click! He turns back to make sure the monitor is on in front of her . . . a lovely view of the gardens outside the mansion. "This will only take a few seconds . . . " he assures Jen as he steps to the console to begin the process.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters nods slowly as Bruce promises the poking and proding machine won't take too long, "Alright," she says softly. She raises her arm as he puts the cuff around it and she looks at it curiously, "Really, no needle?" she asks him. She leans her head back in the chair as Bruce dashes off to operate the computers, "You've always been good at complicated computer equipment," she tells him as the few seconds pass. As he operates the computers, Jennifer looks into the monitor of the grass and the beautiful garden. She just stares and stares into the visage of the monitor and her mind drifts off.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce presses a few keys, and a low humming sound emanates from the floor. The cuff wrapped around Jen's arm tightens a bit, and starts to glow, spreading its light several inches above and below, spreading through her arm. "That's just a bright light to find your vein," he says almost absent mindedly, paying close attention to the screen in front of him. "Don't worry," he says. "I've got my eye on everything!" A slight pinch can be felt from underneath the cuff, and the tubes linked to it go dark in color, to prevent the sight of blood. Bruce might have added that to protect himself, it's hard to guess what makes him squeamish!

    Everything seems according to plan, but behind Bruce, visible on the big screen in front of Jen, a dark out-of-focus shape with glowing eyes can be seen darting across the courtyard, coming closer and closer to the camera. It disappears from view, and once again only the gardens can be seen. But a few moment later, the screen goes completely dark!

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters stares at the monitor as the devices whiz and whirl, taking her blood, and she seems to be thinking deeply about something as she looks deep into the pristine picture of the green garden. Green garden. Green. Hmm. Did I pay that bill today? Green. I wonder what's for lunch. Green grass. As the shadowy figure darts across the screen, Jennifer doesn't react at first but when the screen goes blank, she's ripped back to reality, "Bruce...?" she mutters and frowns at what's she's just seen. She reaches out for the monitor but it's miles away, "You better get out the warranty on your equipment," she says as she points at the monitor.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    "Hmmm?" Bruce asks, his voice still distant, his mind barely paying attention to the "patient." After another moment, the light emitting from the cuff subsides, and the hum becomes silent. Bruce smiles, "Got it!" he whispers in triumph.

    He now looks up to see the concern on Jen's face, and turns his attention to the big dark screen. "Huh," he says, approaching it. He pushes a button on the side panel, and an error message "NO INPUT" displays before them. "Something cut the feed from the camera outside," he surmises. "Could be a bird or something," he guesses, turning to remove the cuff. "I've been down here for days, it seems. I wouldn't know if a jumbo jet flew over! Did you feel anything? It shouldn't have hurt, not really . . . "

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters frowns a bit as she feels her arm where the highly technological cuff pricked her, "Could have been a bird I guess," she says, then finally looks away from the dark, mysterious monitor. "No, it was fine--Yeah Bruce! You totally need to get out," she says and brightens up with a chuckle, "Stop being a hermit in here. Let's go get some lunch," she suggests. She sits up a little and swings her feet to the side of the chair, planting them back on the ground.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    "Sounds good!" Bruce agrees, glad that this has gone so well. "These machines will spend some time analyzing your blood, and I could eat!" He grabs his jacket, looking around for his keys. "Hey . . um . . " he grins . . "You mind driving? I can't know where the keys went to my bike, I could have sworn I laid them around here somewhere . . . " He almost backs into one of the desks and steadies himself, closing his eyes in frustration. "You know what . . forget 'em. You drive, I'll buy?"

    He pushes his hand on a panel and the door slides open. The noise of the lab is almost swallowed completely by the silence of the adjoining hallway. "Huh . . I wonder where everyone went?" He shrugs and grins, "More cuban sandwich for the rest of me!" he declares, holding the door open.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters stands up from the dreaded exam chair and rolls her eyes, "Gawd Bruce, you lost your bike eyes? How you gonna get home?" she smirks dryly and pokes him in the shoulder as she walks to the door, "Let's look in the foyer...or maybe you left them in the ignition. When did you start riding a motorcycle?" she asks. She walks through the sliding door that SWISHES open again like on Star Trek, then glances back into the sanitary lab, "You want a cuban sandwich? Oh hey, you got all the equipment to do your ...blood examining right? You don't need Tony or anything? Maybe Doctor Frankenstein?" she jokes.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce walks Jen through the mansion hallways, to the elevator as he explains, "The bike makes it easier to go from place to place. I can get around traffic, I can park it anywhere, and it stays out of the way. It's pretty low-tech but I put a wifi in it so I can listen to music." The elevator door opens, also not unlike Star Trek and they walk together to the front door. No sign of anyone along the way.

    Bruce chuckles at the mention of Tony Stark, "Heh. Tony . . he's uh . . . He's pretty brilliant. But he focuses on mechanical engineering and power sources, that kind of stuff. Not like gamma radiation isn't power!" he jokes, making jazz hands in front of his face, "But when it comes to blood chemistry . . . like ours . . . I like to keep it close to the vest. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him in a little while . . ."

    He opens the door and gestures to the small, older model motorcycle parked just outside. "There she is in all her glory . . ." his voice stops dead. "Where's the storage container?" he says quietly, almost in disbelief. He shuffles hurredly to the side of the bike, where a panel is clearly missing. He looks up to the sky, worried. "Jen, there was a black box here, capable of storing biological samples, like your blood, in preservation for travel in case I needed to bring it to Atlanta or something for further testing. It's missing!" He examines further, then closes his eyes. "The only way someone could have taken it off without setting off the alarm is with the keys!"

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters walks with Bruce casually and heads into the dark and mysterious garage. She squints a bit as Bruce gets all excited, but she's more subdued and pats Bruce on the shoulder, "Alright calm down, you probably left it in the Mansion. In the lab or something," she tells him and leans forward to look for the keys. No keys. Hmm. She crosses her arms, as if she's in court wrangling an issue in her head. "I don't see why anybody would go to all the trouble of swiping your keys and coming all the way out here for your...storage thing," she muses as she glances down the bike, looking it over, "What else do those keys unlock? We better go back inside and check," she says and purses her lips apprehensively. It's not easy to be calm when Bruce looks at her that way, "C'mon," she tells him with a flick of her wrist. She turns back around and heads back the way they came.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce recognizes when Jen is trying to keep him calm. For most people, telling Bruce to calm down usually produces the opposite effect. Jen is fortunately one of the few who can actually pull it off with intended results. He takes a deep breath and exhales, nodding. "You're right." He walks back in, following Jen. "They don't open a lot of other things, really," he thinks out loud. "A bank box in LA, but that requires another person's key at the same time . . um . . There's the old desk key I had that I never took off . . there's the key to Betty's old apartment . . . " he continues to walk with Jen back to the elevator. "Man, I hope this doesn't put off lunch!" he whines as the doors close, the car of the elevator descending to the lab.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters walks with Bruce back to the lab, and glances around the foyer AGAIN as they walk through. No keys. Hmm. "Besides, nobody can just waltz into the lab even with your keys right?" she wonders. No keys. She walks up the hallway to the lab. No keys. "I guess we better check the monitors if we can't find them," she suggests, continuing to keep calm but she can't help but remember the evil Monster lurking in her mind, striking out at her through the monitor of her dreams. Was it just a daydream? Jennifer stands aside so Bruce can admit them into the lab, "Who uses keys these days anyway?" she jokes, trying to sound dry and amused but she grows quiet shortly after.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce defends his choice, "Keys can't be hacked!" he says. "They can be stolen I guess, but I don't have to worry about some dolt with a drone broadcasting some encryption signal and stealing my credit card info . . or . . " he realizes he's not making sense. "or whatever . . . " He walks to the lab door and groans . . it is already open! "Oh no . . " he mutters. "No no no no . . . "

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters frowns, "Open? How'd it get open? How is that even possible?" she wonders, looking at the computer and the monitors as she walks in, "Someone's been through here," she suggests and then squints at the computers and the equipment again, maybe trying to figure things out or read what's going on in this room, "I...let's go to the security room. Where's Thor? Or Steve?" she asks a little more quickly and zips out of the room back into the hallway. She looks up and down the hallway, maybe for something, anything that could explain this. Something concrete. Something maybe she could punch. "I'm getting upset," she mutters hulkily.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    ?Bruce clenches his jaw, trying to swallow his anger. Dammit, he trusted this place. And Jen trusted him! This was the last thing that should have happened! He walks to the module that should have contained Jen's blood . . . empty. The computers will still crunching data on the samples taken while it was still here, but . . . "JEN!" he shouts. "The monitor . . what exactly did you see?" he calls after her, running out into the hallway. "Tell me everything!" He stops to add, "I know . . I should have listened last time." He doesn't wait for the elevator . . . he smashes his weight onto the panic bar of the door leading to the staircase, which immediately trips one of several alarms. Bruce knows it also kicks several more sensors into "active" mode, and maybe it will detect something useful. "Going up!" he announces, his voice becoming a bit lower.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters high tails it (with Bruce) to Security Monitor Central, and hops into the elevator. She crosses her arms again as the elevator zips up to the top top floor, and she looks serious like she's going to take on all the lawyers in New York. "There was a dark shape. I thought I was imaginging it, Bruce. It lurched at the screen and it went out. It looked like some dark figure, I don't know," she explains.

Jennifer marches out of the elevator, "I'm gonna kick somebody's ass. Whoever's on that footage is gonna get it," she promises as she heads into the Monitor Room. Jennifer glances around, half-expecting everything to be off and the computers to be disabled, as the result of terrorists or something. "Everything's on. Looks...normal," she suggests. She purses her lips again, as if apprehensive about the time its taking to uncover this mystery, "Everybody must be out. Can you run back the footage? When were we in the garage?" she asks him.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce nods, entering the computer security station. She is right, everything looks normal. He quickly guides himself around a kiosk to one of the workstations, typing and waving his hands through the various virtual screens on display. "Ok, we were going out right here . . . " and suddenly eight screens appear in the air, all of various vantage points throughout the estate. One shows Bruce and Jen discovering the state of the motorcycle, others show various interior rooms. A final three more show points of view of the grounds, but one crackles on and off, as if there is some interference. Sometimes, it is clear for a moment, and the others it is fuzzy. "What . . what is that?" he asks.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters frowns and leans forward, "Evidence," she says and taptaptaps on the keyboard thingie, "Roll it back again to that time signature," she tells him ang gives the time seen just as the inference. She nods again to the footage, "Alright, that's it," she explains, taptaptaping on the keyboard again, "Okay bring up the lab now. Right," she says, looking at the blurry picture, "Can you clean this picture up...?" she sighs, "Are we getting anywhere?" she says, checking the alarms again, considering calling Thor or Steve again.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce concentrates, and focuses on a still picture, one in which the courtyard can clearly be seen. "What in the hell . . . ?" he mutters as he zooms in on a corner of the screen. What looks like a black box appears to be floating, or flying through the air, carried on a strange streak of darkness. He freezes on another shot, and it appears the box is moving away from the mansion, more slowly than it came. "Whatever that thing is, it's got your blood, Jen!" he exclaims, rising from his chair. He looks at her and says, "Can you green out? Do you need a . . . a . . costume or whatever?" he waves his hand in her general direction, looking away awkwardly.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
Jennifer Walters frowns as some of the things in the lab move on their own and she watches closely as the dark streak takes the blood out of the lab, then she checks the time signature, "It was watching us, waiting for us, listening to us," she suggests, "Now it's outside". She watches the video of the outside of the mansion. She steps back and suggenly grows in height, the muscle mass of her body growing....doubling, tripling, ripping her blouse and her cute skirt. "Don't be too disappointed," she smirks, because her stretchy leotard underneath her clothes keeps her decent, "If I can leap off the roof, I can try to track ....that thing down but we're way behind," she says and zips out of the room.

Bruce Banner has posed:
    Bruce nods, and points to the stairs. "That way to the roof!" he says, and takes off his glasses. He shakes his head and forms a grimace on his face, one that starts to expand as his skin tone turns green. He marches out of the room, expanding feet exploding out of his sneakers. He starts trotting, then running to the garage, tatters of shirt hanging from the muscular shoulders that frame his massive bulk. He glances his green eyes toward his cousin and offers, "Or I can throw you!" in a deep-throated rumble.