TGS - #120.3

A/N - Please read the notice at the end.

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan, New York

–Bruce Banner–

"And that is why Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian had to take the fight to Dormammu, resulting in Manhattan being left defenseless, if Ms.Maximoff didn't intervene, saving many lives nearby and countless more throughout the world as she held what could only be described as the apocalypse incarnate. Nothing we threw at it was even scratched…."

He watched as Captain Rogers gave his speech to the world on one screen, making sure that it was uninterrupted, while also timing the release of documents depicting everything with proof so that the Governments would not be able to suppress the information. Going a step further, Jarvis had already downloaded the reports into billions of devices worldwide, to be decrypted at a certain point in time if no new orders were issued by Jarvis himself.

It was written in all the major languages and in multiple digestible formats. He didn't want to leave anything to chance, give no opportunity to anyone else to alter the truth even slightly, that had already happened once in regards to him and he didn't want that to happen again.

On another screen, he saw the progress of Wakanda's team. He was the one who had contacted Wakanda as soon as he knew that the Hulk would not come out to confront Maximoff, not that it was ever needed because she was there for the good fight that time. Instead, the Wakandan contingent had become useful for a completely different purpose.

Jack's condition was…..unique, and exotic. They didn't know what the Purple Fire was, except it was absurdly dangerous and energy dense in measurements he didn't even know if they existed or not. Not even Wakanda had ever measured something like this ever before and that was saying something since Wakanda actually had early records of the Tesseract and the work they had done on it. He had reviewed those and realised that Wakanda could have outright stolen the Tesseract from SHIELD and hidden it from the world, making sure that the Loki fiasco never happened.

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and focused on the screen as the drones from the ships held on to the Large Vibranium block, which was going to be used to extract the Purple Flames since he knew from his research that Vibranium, especially after it was stripped of its processing alloys, could absorb any and types of energy, which is why the Block was pitch black since it also absorbed most of the light incident on it.

Jarvis' second volley of drones had reached Manhattan and are currently circling the air above Manhattan, keeping at bay any jet that might try to come close though realistically, he knew that not even Ross was crazy enough to send in jets to finish them off. The more realistic approach would be ground troops under the guise of rescue operations and that was rendered moot because there were no roads left that led straight to Manhattan, most of them were destroyed in the fight and the ones left standing were in perilous conditions, hence Jarvis' destruction of them.

As he thought, Jarvis really was angry at the incident. Tony had gotten gravely injured in the fight and there was not much Jarvis himself could do to either Help Tony or Jack or even Wanda.

"Hey, Minion no. 1," He smiled at Shuri as she called him something that had started off as a joke but had stuck around after he got comfortable enough around Shuri and the way she did things. There was no denying that Shuri was brilliant but she needed someone to keep her grounded, like the time she made a plan to turn the Giant mound of Vibranium in Wakanda into a vessel holding enough energy to make a second sun and then use that as a centre point of civilisation so that Humanity would never have to worry about energy ever again.

He had to remind her that not even her own brother would ever agree to that because the Energy sector would just collapse from that and that would just result in pandemonium around the world. He had to explain to her that Tony was doing something similar with his Arc Reactors even though they were much less efficient, only because he was doing it slowly so that the world markets wouldn't collapse.

"Yes, Overlord?" He asked back, addressing her with her preferred nickname.

"You think it will work?" He hummed and looked over the series of charts, pies, and more depicting the energy output and how it should… "Theoretically."

Shuri rolled her eyes at him, "I'm serious. We need a win, like, really bad. Wakanda's general population was already isolated from the wider net anyway so there was not much there but still, one of the Dora Milaje had to be hospitalised. It…It doesn't look good for her. Maybe, if we can wake him up, then–"

"Then there's something he could do?" He asked her, not knowing how to break the news to her.

"Shuri, I've read over the reports, both the ones that were presented to the world and the real ones that were hidden from the public. The entire thing is an exotic, alien phenomenon, something that cannot be explained by our knowledge. The thing damages anyone looking at it and the more you look, the more damage is accrued."

"Yes, and it doesn't even matter what the quality is or how much of the space in your vision it captures. Once your gaze lands on it, people just get brain damage and then, bodily injuries."

He exhaled at that, it was something that weighed heavily on his mind. The Dark entity Dormammu might have been repelled, at great cost but what about the cost it would continue to extract from the world in the form of that one final gift it left to the species that was used to sharing anything and everything that it laid eyes on.

By the time Jarvis managed to lock everything down, there were very few copies left on it in the world but even then, they couldn't risk even a single copy of that remaining because it was an untraceable one shot solution to everything.

Sure, the Captain had recovered remarkably quickly but that was probably only because he was enhanced in ways they still don't completely understand. His own mutation didn't reach in as deep as Steve's did. It was as if his entire body was switched with only his….mind…trans–

"Shuri, I think I understand why the Captain was able to shrug off the effects, at least on his mind."

"Why?"

"Because he is enhanced. I think the attack in question does something to the souls of people. I have heard Jack and Tony talk about it before. When a person is enhanced or born with power, their souls always have something extra. The people who practice magic also have stronger souls than normal, which would explain why The Captain recovered so quickly and why Ms.Maximoff didn't receive any damage."

"It was because she was so massively overpowered that she could shrug off its effects, whereas a normal person would be crippled instantly?"

"Yes but that doesn't solve our problem. There is no way we can reverse the damage. We can only hope that the people recover if the exposure was low." He sighed at that, yet another loss on his end.

He was actually feeling pretty useless these days as the Hulk refused to come out because of his fear and he–

"Dr.Banner, I am detecting multiple launches, both jets as well as rapid action ships, headed our way." Jarvis chimed in as Steve had finished his broadcast, ending the entire thing with a still of Jack's current condition with scars, burn marks, and purple veins criss crossing his entire body shown to the world.

He sighed once more, "Great, exactly what we needed." Standing up, he placed his glasses on the table, and spoke up, "Jarvis, just make sure I have something to stand on."

"Affirmative," On the screen, he saw multiple platforms emerge from the ground, creating a large rectangular floating platform for him to stand on, "Perfect."

He got out of the tent, looking at the Drones that had already progressed, absorbing some of the purple Fire and getting closer to Jack, and sighed. Straightening his shoulders, his eyes flashed green as he reached an accord with Hulk.

Now that Scary Lady—Wanda- was gone, he could finally come out and SMASH—no–protect Jack.

His thoughts remained in a state of disarray before he took control of the transformation, turning into the Hulk. Opening his eyes, he saw green for a brief moment before it narrowed on the Jets he could see in the distance.

Growling unconsciously at the anger he felt inside, at himself, at Hulk, at the situation, he jumped, hundreds of metres up in the sky before he latched onto the platform that was waiting for him, in the crevice that seems to fit perfectly in his hand.

Lifting himself up, he crossed his arms as his legs were embedded into the platform for extra stability, zooming straight towards the Jets. The Jets, seeing him scrambled in different directions.

Sighing, "Jarvis, get to the Optimum point please, and get me a direct link to the man in charge."

"Yes, Dr.Banner, the person in charge is General Waters, given orders to scout the city for 'exotic materials' that can be recovered in the aftermath."

There was a slight static before a crisp and cold voice entered his ear, the speakers on board the platform making sure that the voice reached him perfectly, despite all the air interference because of travelling at high speeds, "This is General Waters, you are in direct violation of multiple federal laws by breaching this secure line. Identify yourselves."

He made sure to make his voice extra gravelly, just for the effect it had on people in authority, "General Waters, this is Dr.Bruce Banner or Hulk. It doesn't matter what you call me, what matters is that you make sure that you stay the hell away from Manhattan at the moment."

"Dr.Banner, need I remind you that you were only pardoned for your previous crimes. We can and will detain you if you stop us from doing our duty." As if in response to his statements, the Jets began circling back.

Stretching out his joints, "General, I will only give this warning once. Stay away from Manhattan until I am sure that Jack Sullivan is out of danger, or do you want me to make sure that the world knows that you are endangering the World's Hero, who sacrificed himself, just so that you can recover 'exotic materials'. I am sure that you would love it if the words came from Captain America himself."

There was a beat of silence before he saw the Jets veering off to the side of his vision, "Dr.Banner, please note that this is only because Mr.Sullivan is injured and if I may offer, the Military has already authorised anything that Mr.Sullivan might need to recover."

"Thank you for your offer, General but I think we have it handled. You will know when the situation has stabilised enough for you to come in and start rebuilding the city or you know, do the thing you were ordered to do. Retrieve any useful weaponry at any costs, what stupid orders." He ended the call with those parting words, sighing and slumping on the spot as the platform descended to take him back to the tent.

Thankfully, it was not Ross in charge otherwise they would have learned that having the Hulk's strength and Banner's mind to channel that rage would be a terrible combination, especially since he would not be holding Hulk back from exerting his full strength.

"World breaking Strength?" He muttered to himself something that Jack once told him. The Hulk had strength in spades, more than what it knew what to do with, and if the Hulk truly were a mindless monster, the world as they knew it would be gone because the Hulk was capable of splitting continents.

He shook his head as he shrugged off the Hulk transformation, returning to his normal form. Dealing with the sudden bout of exhaustion and weakness that assaulted his mind, he thought of Jack's words, whether they had any truth to them or not. Everything that Jack has told him, has helped him at one point or another. Nothing has been useless but that single bit had him doubtful because why would Jack run around and stop threats when the single biggest threat to the world would be right at his side, all the time?

"Connected!" He perked up as he heard Shuri's excited voice coming from inside the tent. Turning sharply, he ran right to the Crater, seeing multiple hovering Jets standing behind T'Challa as the drones did their jobs. The purple fire that had been flaring out of the crater was nowhere to be seen now. 

The tent was moved a fair distance away, just in case anything happened to the Vibranium so he had to jog quite a bit before he stood beside T'Challa and the Captain.

"Did it work?" 

"According to Shuri, the Vibranium block has just made contact with Jack's body, which should be good but I am doubtful of the Vibranium's ability to hold that much energy. We already have another block of unrefined Vibranium ready just in case but as you can see, there is purple energy all around it now."

Yes, that could be a problem. The purple fire was gone but the Vibranium Block now had criss-crossing purple veins that were only spreading as it absorbed more of the Purple energy.

"Shuri?" T'Challa's voice was anxious, rightfully so because he was not sure if even the Hulk could survive an explosion followed by Vibranium shrapnel enhanced by energy that vaporises anything it comes into contact with. 

"Don't worry, almost there," Shuri's voice was one of concentration as she used minimal data to properly apply force, otherwise Jack's body could misconstrued that as a threat and blasted everything away.

He was about to speak up when the block dipped down a bit, barely noticeable but it did definitely dip. Something changed in the air as the veins of purple that were increasing at an alarming rate stopped expanding.

"Uh, Shuri?" he spoke out loud, knowing that the hundreds of mics all around them would pick it up.

"Just a second, the energy levels dropped completely. Lifting the block now," The drones actually groaned in protest as the block was slowly lifted from Jack's body, revealing a naked Jack with…

"What the hell.." He muttered as he saw a Stone, glowing purple embedded in his hand. The purple veins emerged from there then.

"He is safe to approach now. Jarvis?" Shuri's voice echoed in the clearing as the whines of repulsors came closer. He looked up to see a giant block coming towards them. IT abruptly stopped right above the crater, releasing multiple smaller cuffs of some sort that reached Jack and attached themselves around his limbs, lifting it slightly before a sheet of some sort exited the platform and attached itself to the cuffs on Jack, creating a makeshift bed.

"I believe Wakanda will be the best place for Mr.Sullivan to recover. I give you my word, as the King of Wakanda, no harm shall come to Mr.Sullivan under my watch," T'Challa clarified to the Captain who looked suspicious initially.

He nodded at Captain, knowing that it was in the best interest of T'Challa to do so.

The Captain finally sighed and nodded, "Fine. Just make sure that Jarvis knows when he is awake. I'll deal with the stuff here. Jarvis," Steve gestured at the bed as it slowly entered one of the jets, with T'Challa and the Dora Milaje following through.

"I will see you in Birnin Zana, Dr.Banner,"

He nodded at T'Challa before turning around, looking at all the destruction, the only thing left after the Invasion.

"Jarvis, inform General Waters. Let them take all the Exotic material they wish to take. I need a nap."

"What, tired? I could do this all day," 

"Ha!" He laughed tiredly, chuckling at the Captain's sad attempt at a joke. It was appreciated but after the day they just had, jokes were not going to cut it.

Word Count - 2789

A/N - Hi! First of all, let me thank you all for reading this far along but as most things, the muse for this story has hit a creative end. I have written the same chapter with the same premise many times but have been unable to come to a conclusion for the end of Volume 1.

Funny thing is that I already had ideas for Volume 2 written down but my creative brain ran out of steam even before Volume 1. Because of that, I have decided to put this story on hiatus.

I know that is not what you guys would like to hear but I have just been unable to write for this story for a while now.

….

….

Getting that out of the way, if you would like to read something else that I have written, you guys can check out DoorMan (MCU SI), a new fic I have written and published.

As always, Thank you for reading! Toodles!