Dream CXLII

I was Bruce Banner in the second "Avengers" movie.  I'd just woken up in bed, next to a beautiful woman who was there to keep me calm at all times so I didn't turn into the Hulk.  Since it was a nice morning, I decided to go exercise a bit.  I grabbed some equipment and walked up to the park downtown.  I passed Tony Stark and we nodded in greeting.

I was having a pleasant morning, but then I looked at some folks on the lawn and they started collapsing into the grass.  Then some of them would get up, and either start speaking gibberish or run around as if they couldn't control themselves.  I saw that the "phenomenon" was heading my way, so I steeled myself to resist when it reached me. 

I could feel something grab me, tugging at my mind, but I managed to regain control.  The force was strong, and I didn't know how long I could hold out. 

Just then Iron Man came running through the park, throwing big handfuls of what looked like glitter everywhere.  It seemed to neutralize the force.  I went over to him.  "Some day I'm going to have to kiss you," I said in gratitude.

We both knew something was coming.  A few black riders came through the grass, and then a human, twelve feet tall, balding, dressed in a black and brown leather suit appeared.  "I am the Black Knight," he told us.  He said that he had won the Earth in a game somewhere else, and that we were now his subjects, and that for some reason, all our lives were forfeit.  I fell backward through a tree but somehow managed to hold on to the branches. 

Iron Man told the Black Knight that we would resist; the Black Knight seemed to shrug, then he grinned and vanished.  We knew there would be a fight, but we didn't know when.

Just then Iron Man looked at me and said, "No, don't do it!"  I felt the Hulk emerge and I knew I had to stop him.  He was angry, but I spoke to him as an equal and told him that he had to remain calm, and eventually, he calmed and disappeared.  Iron Man looked at me.  "Well, that was very well done, very good."

We walked along and soon met Thor.  We discussed what we might do when the Black Knight returned. 

A young woman came up to us and said, "Why don't you return my sunglasses and my camera phone!"  I smiled at her and said, "Hello, Loki!"  Angrily, he dropped his disguise and started threatening Thor.  I was a little miffed that he hadn't acknowledged that I'd seen through his disguise first, but wasn't going to pursue it. 

Then I looked at my hands.  They were green.  Somehow the Hulk had come out, but I'd retained control.  "Why didn't you guys tell me?" I asked.

"You seemed to be doing pretty well, and we thought this was encouraging," one of them said.

Just then I woke up again.  This time I was in bed with a different woman, a beautiful petite brunette, who was wearing army clothes and dog tags.  She smiled at me, and I smiled at her.  "Why do you do this for me?" I asked

"Oh, because you're so nice," she said, smiling.  But I knew that, like the other woman, she was there to keep me calm at all times.  I smiled back and went to get breakfast.

Tony Stark showed up in the kitchen.  "Hey," I said, "you'll never guess what I just dreamed.  The beginning of the next Avengers movie."

"No kidding," he said, helping himself to an orange.  "That's great."

The petite brunette showed up then, looking very business-like and leading some children--my children, I realized--to breakfast.  She seemed somewhat grim, displeased about something.

I looked for a mop to clean the floor, and when I started cleaning, she led the children in a little chant about what they should do if I "Hulk out," because if that happened, forces elsewhere would fire a missile at the house to attempt to destroy me.  The chant was all about escaping the house, "going down the path that it's good to know," and so on.

In my mind's eye, I could see an atomic explosion engulfing the house, which was right by a huge river delta.  The house burst into a huge green glow...and out of the glow I leapt, as the Hulk, flying through the air, with children riding on me.  They were all slightly greenish, and I was going to teach them to do everything that I knew how to do.