I crashed through a wall and scowled as I slid back, my feet grinding against the pavement. I held four fists up, not taking my eyes off my opponents.
The humanoids had been on me from the second I’d started trying to pull them away from people, taking them in the direction of the water. They were currently facing me, those unblinking sockets staring at me mindlessly. I’d given up on punching my way out. Instead, when one came at me with a punch, I brought two palms up and grabbed it’s wrist with one hand, pushing it aside with the other.
I took a breath and felt some relief at the scent of water just under the constant smell of garbage that hung in the air of the city. While I knew New York pretty well, there was always a chance I’d been wrong. Good to know I wasn’t wrong.
I jumped back dozens of feet, the three humanoids following. We landed on a tennis court. It was one of a few that sat right next to the Hudson River, a place that was relatively open so I could fight more freely.
The Humanoids looked around for a moment. Then one of them spoke. In a voice, I recognized from files of the Avengers.
“I see. You wished to leave the city proper, so you could more easily utilize your more destructive abilities,” the voice said smugly. “I commend you, Mr. Schahed. You're much less of a brute than I expected.”
“Rath makes people think that.”
“I’m sure he does,” the voice said idly. “Well. If fighting with civilians in your vicinity has such an effect on you…”
One of the humanoids turned around. Facing the people who were watching us from the street. My blood chilled. He left the ground, heading for the people. Someone screamed. My body moved without me thinking.
I tapped the Omnitrix. In a flash of green light, I extended my hand out. And out, and out. I followed my hand, flowing down to a single scrap of fabric, shifting through the air, moving around pink robotic bodies. I grabbed a limb of the humanoid, wrapping it in bandages of organic cloth. My whole body was pulled through the air, like dozens of scraps in the wind. I wrapped around and around the humanoid. He ripped through the fence of the court. A pink hand reached out for a man, fingers that could rip apart concrete coming towards him as everyone screamed.
I pulled myself in front of the humanoid. Dozens of strands wrapped around his arms. I placed two forming feet on the ground. I formed a spine and arms, connecting those to the feet and strands wrapped around the humanoids arms. With little time, all I could do was that. It would be enough.
Disembodied strands pulled the humanoid, ripping it out of the air and into my control. It’s arms stretched, but I wrapped more and more of my body around it. With a heft using muscles of fabric, I shifted the weight of the humanoid in a circle, his writhing body spinning above the heads of the crowd, then tossed him back at his allies, his body smacking the tennis court floor with a sound like rubber on stone.
I formed into my full form, Snare-Oh standing before a crowd of people, my arms spread out.
“you will not touch them,” My bandages shifted against each other in a sound of sandpaper on sandpaper.
“Oh god!” someone yelled behind me. Other people began to let out noises of fear and panic. I had to calm them down.
“Don’t worry,” I turned my head to look back at them. A black man met eyes with me. A white woman wearing workout clothes watched me while opening and closing her eyes. An Indian family clutched at each other. “I’ll protect you. I promise.”
“Quite a thing to promise,” one of the humanoids said. They didn’t move though. That made me wary. The Leader was behind this. A mind more brilliant than any on Earth, or at least in the top five. “An impossible one. If I truly wanted them dead-”
“You still wouldn’t win,” long strips of organic fabric lifted off my back, waving about. People were watching me. I had to say something to reassure them. I projected my voice as much as I could as I spoke.
“Heroes are the ones who make impossible promises. Then they keep them. Every good firefighter, cop, Avenger, doctor, makes an impossible promise to the world. Then we make those promises come true. Doesn’t work everytime. Sometimes we can’t force the world to do what we want… But today, right now? Reality is going to bend to my whim one more time. You aren’t touching them.”
The humanoids moved the instant the last word left my… whatever I had in place of lips.
One jumped towards me. The other two headed to my left and right side.
I snapped out my arms to the side. Fabric split the air at high speed, wrapping around two lampposts placed on either side of me, turning me into a wall of bandages. The humanoids hit me, stretching my body back. The people finally started running away. Good. This was going to get sticky.
The three pink humanoids grabbed portions of my body and started pulling at the wall my body was creating. I released the fabric at my left and right side, reforming my body in the center while two humanoids struggled with the fabric I’d left behind. My chest and waist grew new arms and legs immediately. I snapped a hand out to grab the robot directly in front of me, holding his head tightly in my right hand. He raised a fist and punched me. His hand went through me. Then I tightened the fabric of my chest around the arm impaling me. With that strange control I had over every literal fiber of my body, I used my grip on the robot's arm and head to twist it around. My left arm snapped out, turning into a giant net, wrapping around and around the robot to my left, lifting him off the ground and pulling him close.
That had been my plan. The second I was in an area where I could have room to stretch and control them, I could start stage 2 of my plan. Stage one had been surviving using Four Arms durability. Stage three was on the way.
I brought the two humanoids together and wrapped them in portions of myself, the bandages tightening. While my fabric could be torn apart, if I put my focus on them I’d end up with fabric strong enough to hold the Hulk, even if only briefly once his rage meter rose. The third Humanoid grabbed a piece of the street and ran to me, tossing the stone at a woman and child running away.
He was trying to split my attention. I could either catch the missile headed for the woman and kid or fight him off. I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to reveal how creative I could get with Snare-Oh’s powers just yet. Fine.
The stone flew through the air. A long arm stretched out, grabbing it. I squeezed down hard. Paper beat rock, the asphalt crumbling. With a new third arm, I tried to grab the last humanoid as the other two struggled in my grasp. The last one ducked around the arm, grabbing it and pulling it. I let him, dragging the other two along so that the three of us slammed into that humanoid.
I had them. Fabric filled the spaces between us. I was through. I wrapped around their forearms, elbows, knees, even around their fingers.
“I must admit, I underestimated the capabilities of this alien,” the Leader said through his robots. “The level of strength of it’s organic material is impressive.”
“Mention that when you update the wiki page,” I said harshly. “I’m not going to banter with you, Sterns. You tried to kill people,” I twisted my body around, pulling and tugging the humanoids as they struggled inside of my body. “I’m breaking your toys. Then we’re coming for you!”
“How drama-” the humanoids were cut off when I twisted one last time, hefted them into the air, then tossed them up and forward, towards the Hudson. Organic fiber flexed and tightened, rubbing against pink ‘skin’ in a raspy sound, before I tapped the Omnitrix with one of those fibers, ripping myself away to leave them bound into a massive ball of bandages.
In a flash of light, Snare-Oh was gone. And my body was now green goo.I brought my hands up and aimed at the ball of robots and fiber. With them coming down over the water, I didn’t have to worry about property damage.
In Goop form, I changed my body's composition to something I’d found had the best all around effect on any material. With my gelatinous palms facing the ball, I sprayed them with a blast of precise liquid. Like Snare-Oh and Four Arms, I’d spent a lot of time perfecting this form with Ares. So my spray was much more focused, much more powerful, practice giving me control.
The green spray hit like an emerald fire hose, keeping them above the water. And it began to eat through their bodies, acid digging through their forms, slicing through Snare-Oh’s fibers. Pink limbs began to turn to steam and liquid, my acid having an odd effect on whatever the Humanoids were made out of. I watched with narrowed eyes and kept it up until they landed in water. I cut off the spray, watching as green and pink mixed and flowed in the water. My acid was becoming diluted by the water. Funny. With how bad the Hudson smells, I’d almost expected my acid to cause an explosion.
“...Lava, then acid. The day has run on a theme it seems,” one of the Humanoids said. Half its head was melted away. “Still, I’ve found something interesting. I assumed your most dangerous ability was the new aliens. But this new growth in technique has given me new avenues to explore.”
“Good lord, will you just shut up?” I snapped, already irritated with him.
“How ruuuuuuu-chshhhhhhh!” the head finally finished melting, disappearing into the waves of the river.
“...” I changed back into human form. At the familiar sound of someone flying in on scarlet chaos power, I turned around. Wanda landed behind me.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You won too?” she asked instantly. She smiled happily. “Those robots were very strong!”
“No, neither of us won,” I couldn’t hide my frustration. “The guy is a genius, and Klaue is a criminal mastermind. Beating up robots might as well have been foreplay to that guy. If anything, we just made it so whatever method we used won’t work the next time. Unless Nat caught Klaue, all we did was cost him resources.”
“Then I have bad news,” Natasha walked over to us. She was holding a piece of machinery that looked like half-melted scrap. “Because Klaue escaped. He’s down an arm, but he was alive.”
“Fuck!” I couldn’t help it. Even though I was glad I’d stopped the robots from harming anyone, I knew enough about comic book bullshit to know that we’d been distracted. Distracted in a way we couldn’t ignore without allowing property damage or murder.
“Calm down,” Natasha said. She lifted the machine in her hands. “We have a lead. Once our next mission is done, we’ll track him down.”
“I know…” I said slowly, my eyes still on the water. “...I’m tired of having these guys hiding in the shadows Nat. We need to start taking them down. Before they start threatening more people.”
Faces flashed in my minds. Faces of those I’d saved. Those I had to yet to. I was getting tired of guys like the Leader, Kragoff, Hydra, coming out to cause trouble, then getting away scot-free. It was interesting in comics, having a constant menace in the background. In real life, I was ready for it to be over.
“We’ll get them,” Nat pulled my arm. We met eyes. She gave me that look. A combination of telling me I was being dumb, but also understanding why. I was being done. She gave Steve and Bruce the same look sometimes.
“I think we did a good job,” Wanda said shyly.
I looked at her. On seeing the hopeful look on her face, my lips lifted upward. “We did. Sorry. Just a little frustrated… Okay. Let’s get back to the tower.”
Still, the frustration was setting in. If this next mission didn’t go as planned- No. It would go as planned. I wasn’t going to accept anything less.
------
Bruce Banner/Hulk
“Good puppy,” Hulk patted Nezuko gently on the head. She yipped happily, rubbing against him, licking his palm. Hulk had a large smile on his face as he tended to the puppy.
“The Hulk, petting a puppy,” a voice brought Hulk’s attention to the television screen nearby. At the sight on screen, the minds of Bruce Banner and the Hulk reeled at the same time. Samuel Sterns, floating against a blue background, was eyeing the Hulk. “I can imagine this would be quite confusing for your detractors.”
“Sterns,” Hulk snarled. Nezuko whined, scared by the rumbling sound that filled the air at his growl.
“In the flesh,” Sterns crossed his arms. “So to speak. It is good to see you.”
“Keep him talking,” Bruce said to the Hulk. “Jarvis has to be tracking where this broadcast is coming from as we-”
“He is not,” Sterns smirked when Hulk’s eyes widened, Bruce’s mind freezing in shock. “No, I did not read your mind. But I have worked hard to understand the mind of Bruce Banner and the Hulk. Jarvis will not know I was here until you tell him. On the subject of understanding you however-”
“Why should Hulk not smash tv?” Hulk said pointedly.
“Well, considering how Stark works,” Sterns said with a hint of disgust. “I imagine this tv is expensive. And I simply wish to speak to you both.”
“About what?”
“About gamma radiation. About gamma cells,” Sterns raised a hand to his chin. “I’ve learned much, in these last weeks. Lessons both of a practical and theoretical nature. But gamma radiation has led me on a merry chase. Discovering and dismissing things on a subject I had thought was cut and dry. It is interesting, isn’t it? That objects of power, such as the Tesseract and Loki’s Scepter, emit gamma radiation? That the same energy that granted my intelligence and your strength, gave the Maximoff twins energy projection and superhuman speed? Even if we consider the interference of other energies, environmental factors-”
“Bored,” Hulk whispered to Bruce in their mind.
“It’s fine. I’m listening. Pet Nezuko and I’ll keep an eye on him,” Bruce reassured him.
Hulk did just that, brushing a large finger across Nezuku’s back. The tiny puppy barked happily. Sterns ignored her, continuing to speak.
“Why us, Bruce?” Sterns said softly. “What allowed our powers to manifest? Gamma radiation? If so, then why is it only in recent years that we’ve heard of powers like these manifesting? Why do they have such a wide range of effects? How did Omnitrix manage to stabilize those survivors in that horrific Graveyard?”
Hulk grumbled. “What Bighead saying?”
“First, please don’t call me that,” Sterns said politely, though there was an edge to his voice. “I would like that to not become a thing. And what I’m saying, is one thing. What is the destiny of Gamma-Mutated beings?” Sterns slowly smiled. “The power we hold, the potential we have. Why should it belong to us alone? These gifts we have. Imagine, a world where all humanity has power. Power to defend themselves, power of immortality, strength, and intelligence. Why should these traits be a rare gift, and not the norm?”
Sterns stared into Hulk’s eyes, meeting the gaze of two men at once. “Haven’t you found peace, Hulk? Among allies, friends, who love you and care for you as you are? Why shouldn’t we share that gift? What if, when someone like us finds their way into power, they don’t have to spend their life hunted. Ostracized, kidnapped by brutes begging for scraps of greatness. Can you imagine a world, my friend, where all of us are Avengers?”
Hulk stared at Sterns. Bruce said nothing to him. Hulk was left to answer on his own.
“Blonsky.”
“...What about that buffoon?” the Leader said.
“Hulk monster. But good. Blonsky monster. But bad.”
“He was evil from the start,” Sterns protested. “Gamma radiation had nothing to-”
“People good. Bad. Dumb. Make all like Hulk… Not good.”
Hulk placed Nezuko on a counter, where she toddled over to a bowl of food set for her. The puppy began to eat happily.
“...There will be growing pains. Those who wish to use that power to become evil. But that is the truth of humanity. It is worth the risk of a few evil men coming into power, if I can guarantee the elevation of humanity as a whole.”
“That’s insane,” Bruce said within the mind of his monster. “Giving everyone gamma powers. Unless he can guarantee that it’ll be safe, any number of mutations can occur. And even if they do, super soldiers are never-”
“I can see I won’t convince you, will I?” Sterns sighed. “It is all right. I will wait. When you see what the world I make will be like,” the tv screen shut off. But his voice still echoed. “You will see, my friends. Gamma-Mutates are humanity's future. In a universe of horror, we will save the world. No matter who tries to stop it.”
“...That is not good,” Bruce said, immediately wincing mentally at how little that statement really said. “Mind if I take over?”
Hulk looked reluctantly at Nezuko. He wanted to spend time with the puppy, now that the boring things were done. Bruce knew that. Lately, Bruce had let him out for more than just punching things. He watched as Hulk spent time with the Avengers, played video games, ate mountains of food. Spent time living.
It might have been the newly built trust between them that made Hulk close his eyes, shrinking down and down until Bruce Banner stood in his place. Once he was back in control, Bruce opened his eyes to see Nezuko looking at him. The small puppy cocked her head to the side.
“I do that sometimes,” Bruce said, looking up at the ceiling. “Jarvis!”
“Yes, Mr. Banner?”
“Yah!” Bruce jumped, turning around. Jarvis stood there in his butler suit, blinking. “How long were you there?”
“I just walked in. For some reason I seemed to forget my surveillance of this room. I came to see what was amiss.”
“It was the Leader,” Bruce said without mincing words. “He showed up on the screen, wanted to talk to me.”
“How-” Jarvis’ eyes flickered, lights turning on and off before they switched to bright orange. “He somehow slipped past the defenses X and I created. If he had tried to access something like personnel files we could have stopp-” his eyes flickered again. “No. We couldn’t have stopped him. I will speak to Mr. Stark and Mr. Fitz. I will not allow another breach like this.”
“Good. But this whole thing might have been good,” Bruce walked over to the counter, tapping it. A hologram rose up, and Bruce began typing on it. “I know his plan. And after we take care of the big mission, we can stop it.”
I hope.
------
Samuel Sterns/The Leader
Back in his cave, Sterns stared at his computer monitors. He sighed, placing his palms on the desk before him. “Bruce. You’ll understand,” he looked at the monitor again. A satellite map of Manhattan was displayed there. A red dot blinked slowly, heading out of the city. “Now that I have it. We can build a new world. One no threat will ever come to.”
His lips rose slowly. “It is always satisfying. Completing a shopping list.”
“Would you stop being pretentious and fix my damn arm!?” Klaue shouted from the back.
The Leader sighed.