Chapter 75: The Battle of Giants
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"Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain't how hard you can hit. It's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It's how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done."
– Rocky Balboa, (Rocky Balboa)
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<(Omniscient POV)>
"Sir, Iron Man is getting thrashed around a lot here. I don't think he is ready to deal with a threat as big as the Hulk or Subject B, I think we should dispatch some of our resources and forces to take care of the situation before things escalate further." Agent Phil Coulson pleaded on his radio as he watched the Abomination smack Iron Man around like a ragdoll.
His boss had sent him here to monitor the situation and report anything important that he found out.
"I see your point, Coulson. But we currently don't have any free assets that are strong enough to take on this monster without causing massive damage to the city. The same goes for the weapons in our arsenal since Project Tesseract isn't ready yet. The only chance we have at subduing the Abomination without using some serious city-destroying firepower is to let him fight something that is on the same level of strength as him..." Director Nick Fury trailed off as he seemed to remember something important.
"What about... Atem and his metahumans followers? They can surely try and take care of him, right? I mean he is literally a God... or at least has powers like one." Phil asked with a measured voice, knowing that his boss would definitely get angry or annoyed after hearing him even mention the name of the self-proclaimed god and his army of believers. After all, Fury never liked people he could not control. But he still didn't hesitate to ask because he understood that it was his responsibility as an Agent to present all the options available to them in front of his boss to get the situation under control.
And currently, Atem was the most suitable option to stop this monster as efficiently as possible.
"Are you getting stupid, Agent Coulson? With the immense potential danger that someone like Atem represents to this world, we cannot justify asking him or any of his subordinates for their help against Subject B without knowing their true objectives. We need to keep them as far away from Shield as possible until we figure out everything there is to know about them. They already possess too much uncontrolled power and influence. No, we can't ask for their help... Also, we don't need them to stop the Abomination. We have someone equally as strong as Subject B here, remember? He can stop Abomination for us." Fury answered from the other side as he pulled up a few files about Bruce Banner on the computer screen in front of him.
"You mean Dr. Banner...? Is this some ploy to kill me, boss? If you are still angry about the pay hike I demanded last time, you can just ignore it you know. Telling me to cause two giant monsters with anger management issues to fight against each other is too cruel even for you." Phil said with a sad smile.
"Approach General Ross and find out about Banner's current status. Try to see if you can get him to change into the Hulk and fight the Abomination for us. This will also be a good test to see if he can meet my expectations for him in the Avengers Initiative. Now, go and quickly take care of it. I need to talk to the council and prepare for the worst-case scenario." Fury ignored Phil's complaints and ordered before shutting off the radio.
"... I am definitely going to get that pay hike after I am done here," Phil whispered to himself with a determined expression before he looked at his men and relayed Fury's orders to try and approach General Ross before he left with Dr. Banner on his chopper.
***
<(Omniscient POV)>
"Amazing, that power... how did this monster get it? Doom wants this power as well. He would make a good attack dog for Doom, maybe even a guardian for Latveria." Dr. Victor Von Doom muttered to himself as he observed Abomination trying to smash Iron Man into a paste with his fists but repeatedly failed to do so due to how slippery and fast the billionaire was in his suit compared to the giant brute even though more than half of his armor was already in pieces.
This uglier counterpart of Hulk might be extremely strong but just like a trade-off, his speed was quite slow. In fact, Doom actually wondered how the Abomination was even moving with all those huge muscles, bone lances, and bony protrusions sticking out of his body.
'It is a pity that Doom isn't prepared to defeat a monster like him right now, otherwise, Doom would show him that his strength is nothing in front of Doom's knowledge.' The king of Latveria confidently thought to himself while watching the "battle".
He had returned to America again to find Atem and remind him of their deal about rescuing his mother since the next solstice was coming when the veils between dimensions would be the weakest. But he had found something much more interesting on his way to the New God.
He had never expected that he would suddenly find something so entertaining when he reached here, a titan whacking Iron Man like someone playing around with a kid's toy.
Iron Man's armor was so damaged in the battle that if he were smarter, he would have already retreated from the fight, but it seems that his pride and his foolish sense of "honor" of being a so-called superhero wasn't letting him take the right decision. He continued to fight even with half of his armor destroyed with no chance of winning.
'Should Doom take this opportunity and take Stark's arc reactor to find out more about its technology?' Doom wondered as he laid his eyes on the faintly glowing piece of tech at the center of Iron Man's chest, barely powering his battered armor. 'Hm, maybe later, there will always be time for it. Also, Doom's portable nuclear reactor isn't any worse than the Arc reactor.' He muttered to himself as he decided to just continue to watch the fight.
He had more than enough time to search for Atem after this. But watching the two fight was much more entertaining. Maybe he could even learn something from it or use this opportunity to become even stronger somehow.
*ROAAAAAAR* Suddenly, a new voice was heard roaring near where Abomination and Iron Man were fighting, shaking the entire city with the raw anger and power that the cry carried within it.
"Hmm? What is that?" Doom questioned no one in particular as he looked at the particular direction the roar had come from. After a few seconds of confusion, he finally realized what that roar truly was or who it belonged to.
"Such power," Doom murmured with his eyes wide.
The roar belonged to none other than the Hulk, the same green monster who was rumored to be undefeatable by the US military, one of America's strongest weapons gone rogue.
Even Doom had heard about the giant's limitless strength that came with his ever-growing rage. The Hulk according to the intel Victor had received from some of his spies, has singlehandedly destroyed multiple military bases around America with no organization being powerful enough to hold him. The most they could do was annoy him into leaving or just leave him alone in the first place.
A monster like that fighting against the Abomination... Doom could not even imagine who would win. But he was glad that he was there to find out.
***
"Finally," Abomination grinned wickedly as he tossed Iron Man aside like garbage, something that the billionaire used to get away in order to go and change his broken armor. "Hulk! Just what I've been waiting for. Let's have a rematch! You and me once again. This time, we will only stop when one of us dies." His voice echoed with fury.
"Hulk angry at ugly monster. Hulk wants to SMASH." The green giant counterpart of Bruce Banner yelled in equal rage as he jumped onto Abomination like a professional wrestler, aiming to crack his skull in a single hit.
But the Abomination though not as fast as the Hulk was smarter and most importantly, stronger than the base form of Hulk. Using his experiences as a soldier, he tacitly avoided the blow and punched Hulk in his face instead, throwing the monster hundreds of meters away. Then not giving him a chance to react, Abomination continued to rain down punches on him, especially targeting his head.
The Hulk did his best to defend himself but the bone spikes on the Abomination's fists hurt him more than he thought they would, making him bleed from dozens of cuts on his face, although they healed the very next moment.
After taking about half a dozen hits to his face, Hulk finally reacted and caught the Abomination's fist with his hands before headbutting the monster producing a mini sonic boom.
"No one smashes Hulk. Only Hulk smashes," he roared in fury, wiping away the green blood splattered across his face. His eyes reddened, dark green veins pulsing beneath the surface of his skin as he gritted his teeth and muscles with his entire frame seeming to swell and contort with growing intensity. The Hulk was slowly increasing in size.
Leaping at Abomination, he punched him in the face, breaking some of the natural bone armor that had accumulated around his head. Then holding his neck with one of his hands, Hulk's towering and green form prepared for what was going to be one of the most savage beatdowns he was ever going to give someone.
With a roar, his fists smashed into the bone-plated creature, sending shockwaves through the air. The Abomination tried to retaliate with wild swipes trying to defend himself, but Hulk's raw power overwhelmed his opponent, smashing through the bone armor with earth-shaking blows, producing visible cracks on them.
However, the Abomination's mutations proved more formidable than the Hulk initially thought. Bone spikes jutting from the ugly monster's forearms, sliced through the air and aimed at the green giant's face like a bunch of deadly blades while Hulk grappled with the Abomination, trying to establish his supremacy but still some of the Abomination's bone blades still found their mark, piercing Hulk's thick skin near his shoulders. Roaring in pain, Hulk momentarily staggered. Even though he started to heal at the very next second, he still felt the pain which resulted in his fury further intensifying.
As Hulk's anger surged, his blows became more ferocious, his strength increasing every passing moment. But despite that, for some reason, Abomination was still able to keep up. As Hulk plummeted his adversary with raw strength like a savage barbarian, Abomination struck back using the bone protrusions that had further grown from his wrists with lethal precision.
While the battle raged on, the surrounding cityscape slowly turned into a war zone of pure destruction. The Shield agents and most of the army had already evacuated from there to escape the decimation. However, amidst the chaos, a military helicopter still hovered above the two titans, carrying General Ross and his daughter Betty Ross in them.
Earlier, Bruce had told them to escape after he was convinced by Phil Coulson to use his powers to defeat the Abomination for good but General Ross because he was obsessed with the Hulk, had refused to do so and was constantly monitoring the fight. In fact, he was even planning to take both the Hulk and the Abomination into custody once the two weakened and tired themselves out with their battle. Of course, he still hadn't realized just how much he had underestimated the two gamma giants and overestimated his own capabilities.
As the Abomination felt Hulk's strength constantly increasing with his rage, he understood that soon, he would not be able to keep up anymore. He was stronger than Hulk's base form and could even fight better due to still retaining his complete human intelligence and skills but there would come a time when all of that would fail in front of Hulk's overwhelming and limitless strength.
That was when he decided to fight dirty and win at any cost, like how a soldier is supposed to. Sensing an opportunity after seeing the chopper flying over their heads, he pushed away the Hulk and picked up a truck, hurling it with devastating force toward the aircraft.
Seeing Abomination's sudden action, Hulk was confused at first but the deeply ingrained feelings of love that Banner had in himself towards the love of his life, proved much more powerful than mere anger or confusion. Fueled by a primal instinct to protect one of the few people he truly loved, Hulk jumped up to intercept the airborne vehicle. With a thunderous impact, Hulk caught the truck mid-air, redirecting its trajectory away from the helicopter, giving it a chance to escape further.
However, this act of heroism left Hulk momentarily vulnerable, and that single moment of vulnerability was all his enemy needed. Abomination seized this opportunity, launching a brutal assault on his adversary before he had even landed on his feet. Hulk, caught off guard, struggled to regain his footing as the Abomination's spiky bone-plated fists hammered into him relentlessly, not giving him even a single moment to stabilize himself.
"Weak." Abomination sneered as he closed in, seizing Hulk by the shoulders. "You don't deserve your power, I do. I am more worthy than you." He yelled in anger as the two bone spikes grew from his wrists before driving them deep into the green giant's chest.
"AAAAAHHHHH" Hulk bellowed in agony as the spikes pierced his heart. However, Abomination still wasn't done with him. Slowly, green energy began to travel from inside Hulk's body through his spikes and spread throughout his own body. "MORE. I WANT MORE. GIVE ME ALL YOUR STRENGTH" The monster's bone armor glowed with an eerie green hue as he continued to completely drain Hulk's entire gamma energy, siphoning his opponent's strength and making it his own.
By the time he was done, Hulk's colossal form began to slowly shrink and shift, reverting back to the battered and skinny frame of Bruce Banner while Abomination on the other hand only grew in size, standing victorious amidst the wreckage, a sinister grin spreading across his monstrous face.
As Banner lay defeated near Abomination's legs, his consciousness slipped away while the monstrous form of Blonsky absorbed the last remnants of Hulk's power, his colossal green form standing triumphantly amid the city's ruins.
"What have I done? This was not how it was supposed to go. They should have weakened each other or outright defeated them... We are done for...." General Ross muttered in desperation from the helicopter hovering safely above, while two of his men held down his daughter to stop her from jumping from the chopper to try and save her lover.
As Harlem lay broken and devastated by the recent brutal clash between the two gamma giants, Abomination, now even bigger and stronger than the original, loomed over the fallen unconscious body of Bruce Banner with a victorious smile on his face, the bone armor and spikes all over his body pulsing green with stolen gamma radiation.
"I have won. I am now the most powerful being in the entire world. I HAVE NOW BECOME GOD. THIS ENTIRE WORLD IS NOW MINE. NOBODY CAN STOP ME NOW." He yelled crazily while laughing crazily in absolute ecstasy and joy as he celebrated his victory.
However, before he could brag further, a voice suddenly interrupted his words. "Eh, well... not really."
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