Aberration

January 20th, 2014

Rana Williams/Aberration

Within the castle, in the early morning, Rana stood at Struckers right side, watching as soldiers and scientists lifted large boxes, put away equipment, and packed up chemicals and serums. Sterns was standing with them, the big-headed scientist scowling as everything was moved.

"This is not conducive to my research," Sterns said, his eyes hard on Strucker. "If you approved my experiment earlier, we could have a force capable of fighting the Avengers off."

"Not without control over them," Strucker pointed out. "As it is, we are being forced to leave America entirely."

Sterns scowled. "If you'd allowed me more time-"

"The AI has begun to track us," Strucker said firmly. "And your intelligence has proven insufficient. We can no longer even divert them," Sterns scowled at the insult to his genius. "SHIELD has taken down three bases in their rage... And the Hulk is helping. They are coming here."

Rana and Sterns glanced at Strucker. Sterns, with interest and a small smile on his face.

Rana, on the other hand, thought about that. The Hulk. She had only been changed a couple of days ago. And she'd felt... magnificent. Her strength, her durability, speed, even her healing. She felt unstoppable. But there were two beings she wanted to challenge now. She'd never been competitive. But now, even in her human form, she felt Aberration lurking in the back of her mind. A monster, wishing to challenge other monsters.

And the Hulk, no matter what Abomination said, was the pinnacle of monsters. Though a new challenger to that throne had appeared. Dial...

Sterns sighed dramatically. "Very well."

"Thank you," Strucker turned and walked out of the room, Rana following diligently. Once they were far enough away, she spoke.

"Sir-"

"I remember my promise to you, Rana," Strucker said softly. He was only ever soft with her, Rana appreciated that. Not in the way of a woman blushing towards a gentle demeanor. Strucker was soft, but only to let her understand how serious he was. "In the meantime, I need to speak with someone. Blonsky will be waiting for you."

Rana nodded. They walked until reaching the Chitauri soldiers Strucker always had some distance from him, then she turned and walked away.

It was easy to find the monster who everyone knew as Abomination. He was given a barn to live in, but the monster was often restless. It had been a problem, in fact.

Emil Blonsky was not a monster given to relaxation. He needed a battle. He needed a challenge.

So did Rana. Which meant when he'd challenged her, she immediately accepted.

It's why she walking towards the barn Abomination called home. The barn stood in the middle of a field, with a forest a short distance away and a peaceful river running nearby. She took a breath of the fresh air, only to wince slightly. Since getting her powers, her senses had been heightened, and the scent of fresh air was tinged with that of feces, blood, and more. There was the scent of vegetation and water as well, but she still had to get used to it.

She strode up to the large wooden structure and wasn't surprised to see the giant monster standing there, his arms crossed and a wide grin on his face. What did surprise her was the sight of Deathlok standing there as well.

The cyborg was a mystery to her. According to Garrett, Deathlok was his most trusted soldier, at least since he'd sacrificed Grant Ward to escape SHIELD. But she never knew what to think of the man. His face was scarred on it's left side by a large burn, but she got a sense that the pain in his eyes didn't come from that. It wasn't helped by how formidable he was. While not the strongest in HYDRA's current group, he was a strong contender for the title.

Deathlok was looking up at Abomination, who was speaking to him with a condescending tone as Deathlok listened calmly. As Rana strode up them, she began to shapeshift. Her smooth skin became scaled. Her boots stretched around her now clawed feet. Her eyes began to glow. And she felt her power increase massively. The feel of it, of suddenly gaining so much strength, that freeing sense of rage begging to lash out without worry of the consequences, made her sigh a little in ecstasy.

"-all the power in the world," Abomination mocked. "And you worry about things that don't even matter."

Deathlok's fists tightened, and his eyes hardened. His forearms opened, and the rockets within sprouted. He looked up at the giant Abomination, standing firmly and eyeing him angrily.

Abomination smiled down at him in turn.

Rana came up then, and both monsters turned to look at her. She eyed them both calmly, eyeing them.

"Damn," Abomination chuckled. "Why do you look so much better than me?"

"Shut up, Blonsky," Rana said simply. "Deathlok. We have a problem?"

"None at all," Deathlok turned around. "Just checking on things. Goodbye."

Deathlok leaped into the air and shot upwards. Ports opened on his back, and Chitauri energy sent him flying through the air.

"Huh. Didn't know he'd learned how to fly," the giant chuckled. "What a fun world I've woken up to." Abomination looked at Rana. His eyes panned up and down her form. For all the height and muscle mass she had gained, he was still larger. "They told me you picked the name Aberration."

"Yeah, I did," Rana said, looking up at her male counterpart.

"I like it," Abomination cracked his neck. "Well, we'regonna be fighting later today, and I want a good warmup. We're allowed to destroy this place, so we can really have some fun. How about it, bitch?"

He had to have said that on purpose. Just to anger her.

But that was the thing about those with gamma-irradiated blood. Anger came damn easy.

Rana stepped forward and kicked into Abomination's giant chest. He went flying back into the barn, destroying the doors with ease.

"I'm going to beat you to death!" Rana roared, leaping after him and landing on his chest.

Roaring with rage, she punched him in the face, her scaled knuckles smashing against his chin.

"Hahaha," Abomination laughed quietly.

She chose to respond to punch him again, sending one of his teeth flying. He grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up, and Rana kicked him in the throat.

"Enough!" he threw her to the side, getting up and confronting her.

Rana flipped in the air, landing against the wall of the barn and immediately jumping off of it. As the wall shattered under the strength of her jump, she flipped around and kicked Abomination in the face. He stepped back, then punched her in the face in return. She took the blow as the barn around them began to shake and fall apart, punching Abomination in the stomach. He grabbed her arm and spun around once before throwing her upwards. She went flying through the ceiling of the barn, and snarled with rage as she flew straight up, orientating herself to face Abomination as he rocketed towards her. He rose over her and brought his fists down on her back with a Captain Kirk ax handle, launching her back towards the barn where she slammed into the dirt. She took a breath, then rolled over, dodging Abomination's landing. They eyed each other for a moment.

"...Is that the best you've got?" Rana said, trying to get him to attack.

Instead, Abomination blinked, surprised. Then he laughed, a deep growling laugh. The barn began to fall apart around them as he continued to laugh. "Okay, 'Aberration'. Let's go!"

The two scaled monsters leaped towards each other, ignoring the barn falling on their heads, and began to beat each other, forgoing tactics trained into both military soldiers for the sheer joy of brawling. They tore through chunks of the barn, turning it into sawdust against their invincible forms. Shockwaves were sent out with every punch and kick. Anyone nearby would have assumed an earthquake had begun.

They fought for about ten minutes and turned the entire area around them into a crater before finally stopping. When it was over they'd turned the entire place into dust, shattered wood, and massive craters.

A good warm up, when the Avengers would be visiting soon.