Ch64. Hulking mess

Tony's little scan of Mjolnir brought him massive benefits. He didn't understand everything, in fact, Tony didn't have a clue what ninety percent of the enchantment structures did, but he had them stored in his mind and would look into it when he has time in the future.

The remaining ten percent he understood though... now that would help him to enhance his inventions and golems to an astonishing degree!

How could he not be excited about that!?

Days slowly passed as he researched and improved the nanobot clothes both him and Natasha wore. Fortunately, he didn't need to directly improve the golems. JARVIS and FRIDAY could do that by themselves.

Natasha also had a blast testing the shit out of Tony's new improvements and it was funny seeing her punch a reinforced wall only to be launched backward because she miscalculated the recoil force.

Or seeing her jump... and be launched headfirst to the ceiling.

Viva la protection amulets that prevented her from crippling herself during those tests.

Nevertheless, Tony even constructed an arena with walls sporting an enchantment that made them similar to trampoline and had an epic slug-fest with Natasha during their morning sparring session.

It started quite tamely with exchanging punches with the power of normal human beings but as their nanobot attire could now accumulate and store the kinetic force, an idea Tony got from vibranium, their punches got progressively stronger and stronger and the later stages of their spars looked as if they played ping-pong with each others' bodies and the walls. Each time they hit each other and send the other flying into a wall, it simply threw him or her back much like a trampoline.

Seeing Natasha's wide smile of enjoyment and happiness at finally being able to experience having enhanced strength and the joy of using it for something so childish made Tony's day.

Yes, the research was totally worth it. If only to see that smile.

...

The peaceful and playful two days since they returned from New Mexico quickly ended with JARVIS reporting two green monsters ducking it out in the middle of Harlem.

Tony wanted to go himself but Natasha quickly put a stop to that. She was usually quite easily persuaded by his arguments but this time, Tony had to agree she was right.

His treatment in Extremis Cradle was just two weeks ago and while he was mostly fine, an exhausting fight would not be good for his health.

To give Tony credit, he thought both Hulk and Thor would appear much later in the year and not... now.

Unfortunately, his health was a strong argument for Natasha and in the end, she persuaded Tony to stay home while she took care of the Hulking problem and secured some of his blood.

Tony would not let her go and risk herself for his plans, however. He made sure to put every defensive enchantment on her nanobot clothes he could safely pull off. Experimental or not, if it was safe, it went onto her clothes.

Only when Tony was totally sure she would survive even the Hulk smashing his fist into her face did he allow her to finally go.

Natasha used a portal to get into an empty alley in Harlem, instantly hearing screams and sounds of mayhem coming from somewhere close by.

Because of that, she could easily locate her 'target'.

When she arrived at the street where Hulk and Abomination were having a battle among the screaming and running civilians, Natasha was glad she had black attire with a hood and full face mask so nobody would recognize her.

Just like when she dealt with the Green Homies, her body was fully covered to give her full protection.

The very first thing Natasha saw after reaching the street was a car flying in her direction. It wouldn't hit her if she didn't move into its way but as if on purpose, right in its path was a small crying Asian girl holding a teddy bear by its ears.

Natasha did not have the time to enjoy the 'WTF' effect of the situation. She quickly rushed towards the girl, grabbing her around her waist and barely managing to jump out of the way as the car crashed into the ground.

Unfortunately, the car was instantly flattened by the force of the impact alongside the driver.

Natasha put the girl back onto the pavement and grabbed the forearm of a nearby running woman.

"You! Take the girl and run!" She firmly ordered, putting the girl's hand into the woman's.

The woman was clearly too distraught to oppose the straight directions she was given and took the girl away.

One problem solved, Natasha looked towards the place where the two green monsters were having an all-out fight, only to find out Abomination was currently holding Hulk in a chokehold and smashing his fist into Hulk's face, making him angrier by the second.

The pavement under them was cracking as the two struggled, Abomination trying to keep Hulk down while Hulk tried to push Abomination away.

'Oh, boy.' Natasha sighed, knowing she had to get in between these two if she wanted to fulfill Tony's request.

Natasha dashed towards the two hulking monsters, using the fact they did not register her as a threat and therefore completely disregarded her existence as she jumped at Hulk's upper back and her slender frame crouched on it before she punched downward.

Hulk was still in Abomination's chokehold so he could do nothing to prevent Natasha from doing that. Her punch, however, was just a normal human punch and normally, Hulk would have not felt it at all.

The second Natasha's punch landed, the nanobots around her glove created a very sharp protrusion, getting through Hulk's skin and drawing blood, causing him surprise and pain as he started thrashing more in the chokehold.

It barely lasted three seconds and the nanobot 'injection' did its job, filling a small syringe full with Hulk's blood so the nanobots retreated back into Natasha's glove as she stashed the syringe into her sleeve, deep behind the influence of the enchantments where it was enwrapped in layers of nanobots for additional protection against breaking.

Because of Hulk's thrashing, Abomination finally noticed Natasha standing behind him on Hulk's back and since it was highly unlikely he would be able to keep the extremely pissed Hulk in the chokehold for much longer, he decided to swat the fly that dared to interrupt their fight and made Hulk angry and more powerful.

Abomination released the chokehold on Hulk, swiping the hand he previously held around Hulk's neck backward and swatting Natasha away.

The world suddenly spun for Natasha as she felt the impact... and the next thing she knew was her body breaking through several thick walls, flying through a street like a launched pinball, hitting a back of a car, her uncontrollable course of flight redirected by it before she once again started breaking through several thick walls on the other end of the street, stopping only at the fifth that only got heavily cracked as her body impacted it.

Natasha's body fell to the ground on all four as she breathed hard and cold sweat poured all over her. She could feel her bones rattle with every wall she broke and her head was still spinning... but she was fine. Nothing broken, nothing bleeding. She had no injury at all other than feeling like a shit that just got flung through the park by a slingshot.

Without thinking, she took out the syringe from her sleeve, sighing in relief when she saw it intact. She opened a portal and reached through it, depositing the syringe on Tony's workshop table before she closed the portal. Now that she didn't have to worry about it breaking, she felt a bit better.

Raising her head... Natasha's eyes came into contact with a gaping fifteen-year-old boy who sat behind his computer only in his boxers and next to him was a massive hole in the wall.

She blinked, "Er... this didn't happen."

"But..." The boy weakly started, looking into the faceless helmet of Natasha's suit under her hood, only to be cut off by Natasha as she stood up, a bit wobbly but she managed.

"Nope. You are just dreaming. There are no portals. No super suits. And definitely no magic. End of discussion." Natasha sternly rebuked.

"So, that was magic?" The boy's eyes sparkled with interest.

"Nu-uh." Natasha huffed before walking out of the boy's room through the massive hole in the wall.

She was sure his parents will be happy as heck once they came home today...

It took Natasha five whole minutes of walking until she got back to the street where Hulk and Abomination fought. She couldn't really run for now and she was using the time to shake her dizziness from the impromptu flight.

Theoretically, she achieved what she needed and she could just leave Abomination and Hulk to resolve their differences by themselves.

On the other hand, Natasha felt her nanobot clothes pulse to the brim with the kinetic energy of Abomination's punch, and... she wanted to smack him at least once. Preferably in the face.

Looking straight at Abomination, Natasha made her decision.

'What a mess.' She mentally deadpanned before forming a blunted lance out of eldritch energies and sending it straight towards Abomination.

Abomination was too focused on Hulk and didn't notice it until it was too late. The lance slammed straight into his head, lifting him from his feet and sending him onto his back.

'Natasha smash!' Natasha smirked.

It was more shocking than damaging but damn if it didn't make Natasha feel good!

Then she created a portal and retreated.

Hulk used the opportunity she created for him to straddle Abomination and started pummeling his face. He had it well in hand it seemed and she fulfilled her objective.

There was no reason for her to stick around.

---

Author Note:

I had a massive writer's block here. Couldn't decide if I should have Natasha fight or not but in the end, retreating seemed more along the lines of her personality.