Chapter 15 The Intruder

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Everyone at the scene watched as Superman faced the Hulk's relentless attacks without dodging, then slammed him to the ground with a powerful strike and began pounding his head.

"Are you going to behave? Are you going to listen?"

After dozens of futile struggles, the Hulk finally quieted under Clark's fists.

Staring at the Hulk—who sat silently in front of him, unscathed despite the prolonged beating—Clark felt a bit speechless.

Thankfully, while the Hulk's appearance remained unharmed, he could still feel pain and fatigue. So after his continued resistance proved useless, the Hulk eventually dared not move anymore. After all, any movement was met with another round of punishment—and even for the Hulk, that was a serious beating.

"Alright, go back to Banner now."

Looking at the now well-behaved Hulk, Clark was unsure what to do next. He couldn't just let him go, so he decided to try and see if the Hulk would revert back into Banner on his own.

"ROAR!"

Clark asked Hulk to change back, but the Hulk growled in protest. He wasn't done having fun yet. Time passed, and he still didn't revert.

"Hmm?!"

When Clark heard the Hulk roar again, worried he'd start smashing things again, he raised his hand, ready for another round of blows.

"Whimper…"

But as soon as the Hulk saw Clark about to strike, he immediately raised his arms to shield his head. Then, with a whimper, his massive body began to shrink, the green faded from his skin, and he slowly transformed back into the unconscious Banner.

Seeing this, Clark was surprised. He had only tried on a whim. After all, the movies mentioned the Hulk had his own personality, but never explained how to tame it—no one in the Avengers had ever really trained the Hulk.

"Just hand Banner over to us—thanks for the help this time."

As soon as Banner returned to normal, General Ross, who had been watching from the helicopter, immediately descended and came over to take Banner.

"You can't have him—he's too dangerous."

But Clark shook his head and rejected Ross's request. Joking aside, if Banner told Ross the wrong thing, Fury might summon the Avengers before the Chitauri invasion even started.

"Haha, Superman, stop joking. Precisely because he's dangerous, we're the only ones capable of handling him."

Ross smiled smugly when Clark turned him down.

"You sure you can handle the Hulk? Frankly, General Ross, I'm more worried about you. You think no one knows what you've been up to? Think again."

As Clark was speaking, he suddenly thought of the perfect place to drop Banner off.

When Clark refused Ross a second time, Ross's smile completely vanished.

"Superman, do you understand what you're doing?"

"Of course," Clark replied, and began to prepare to take Banner away.

"Are you going to hurt him?" A voice called from behind as Clark was about to take off.

"No," Clark replied, glancing at the beautiful woman. "You'll probably see him again someday."

With that, Clark vanished into the night with Banner in his arms.

Seeing Clark take Banner and fly off, Ross's eyes gleamed with menace.

"Hmph!" Ross snorted and turned back toward the helicopter. "We're leaving."

After taking off with Banner, Clark flew toward Los Angeles. In his mind, the most suitable place to keep Banner safe was Tony Stark's house.

After all, only a few places could protect Banner from Ross—and Clark could only think of two.

One was S.H.I.E.L.D.—but sending Banner there now would be like delivering a lamb to the slaughter. Other than Fury, no one in S.H.I.E.L.D. could keep Hydra in check.

And Hydra only feared Fury out of fear, not respect. Compared to capturing Banner, they'd likely see him as a far greater asset. So S.H.I.E.L.D. was out of the question.

The other option Clark thought of was Tony Stark's home. With wealth, power, strength, and status, it was one of the few places nobody dared to mess with—unless they had a death wish.

Clark also believed Tony would agree to temporarily house Banner.

When he arrived at Tony's mansion, Clark scanned the building with his X-ray vision and quickly located Tony.

Right now, Tony was alone in his mountaintop villa, seemingly tinkering with something. Or at least, Clark couldn't figure out what exactly he was doing.

As someone not fond of studying, Clark felt there was a massive difference between himself and the Superman who mastered all of humanity's knowledge—mainly just a Google search's worth of difference. After all, that Superman basically had an internal search engine in his brain. Clark, by contrast, preferred to use his fists.

If that Superman had Tony's love of invention, villains on Earth probably wouldn't survive a single day.

"Sir, we have an unidentified flying object on the rooftop."

As Clark landed on the rooftop, Tony's AI assistant JARVIS alerted him through the security system.

At that moment, Tony was in his lab trying to find a solution to his palladium poisoning when JARVIS reported the intrusion.

"Really? Someone actually dared to break into Iron Man's house?

I'm guessing it's another reckless idiot gambling with their life.

JARVIS, pull up the rooftop feed—I want to see who this thief is.

After a long day, I think it's time Iron Man handled some business."

Having just discovered his palladium poisoning, Tony wasn't yet pessimistic. He still believed his genius would eventually find a solution.

So when he heard someone had entered his home, he figured it was the start of tonight's entertainment.

Ever since publicly announcing he was Iron Man, random strangers occasionally tried to sneak into his home—but none ever made it past his security. Most were caught before they even touched the gate.

Because in reality, Tony wasn't just the famous superhero Iron Man—he was also one of America's richest men. Though he didn't flaunt his wealth, he did possess a superpower: being rich.

So unlike the movies where he lived alone, his actual mansion had chefs, cleaners, bodyguards, and all kinds of staff.

With this level of protection, most people never got close before they were stopped.

That's why Tony was so curious about this latest rooftop intruder. And he planned to give them a "warm welcome"—with a blast from his Iron Man suit.

"Very well, sir."

Upon receiving Tony's command, JARVIS pulled up the rooftop surveillance. As a wealthy and high-tech billionaire, Tony had cameras installed at perfect 65° angles for maximum coverage.

Not for spying—but so JARVIS could efficiently manage the estate.

Once the video came up, it showed a man in a dark blue metal suit with a long flowing cape and a large "S" emblem on his chest—Superman—standing on the rooftop.

And lying unconscious at his feet... was another man.

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