Chapter 105: Surprise (VIII)

Bonus Chapter for last week’s 5k stones will be up in a few hours.

A lot is happening irl so I didn’t get the time to schedule this earlier.

Goal for this week’s bonus is 2.5k stones as usual.

Get cracking.

...

Getting a feel for the process after the first blow, John started to look for spots he could improve on and how he could make his attacks even sharper.

And this time, John used the sword mode on both his hands. Raising them above his head. He felt the calm, cold breeze wash over his body as he started walking forward.

The recovered Abomination finally got to his feet, with a sharp hiss rising from his knee. But instead of running straight at John, it started to stay in its place. One could see the gears turning in his big spiky head.

John, however, had zero interest in anything else. If this thing wasn’t charging at him, John himself would do it. And he did just that.

’You can start the fight, but you can’t end it.’

It was Abomination’s own fault.

He was simply enjoying his time eating and conversing with Natasha; why did this guy have to rush towards him like that and attack him for no reason? If anything, Abomination had no say in what was about to happen next, it should make no complaints.

But Abomination only had complaints.

He wasn’t sure why that voice in his head had urged him to kill this guy over and over, and he wasn’t sure what made him consider it.

It seemed doable at first, even if he wasn’t sure why he was doing it in the first place, but then he landed one hit and something flipped in this guy.

Sure, this guy was a bit bigger than the average human, but he was the Abomination right now. An 11-foot mass of muscle that was basically a walking monster out of a myth.

Nothing should be able to touch him right now, not even that green monster, yet a normal-looking human had made him bleed?

It made him angry, very angry. But when he turned to look at the madman running at him with that bloody smirk, the one thing he knew for sure was that he fucked up listening to that voice.

The worst part was that there was no way to stop this guy. He was much faster and relentless. He always got past his swings like he had some sort of future sight, and now he was able to constantly cut through his skin with every attack.

Abomination could barely turn before several gashes opened all over his body. This was the same skin that wasn’t even harmed by machine guns and rocket launchers. Still, it felt like paper whenever John swung, and he swung relentlessly.

Even if he tried to protect his eyes and neck, this man didn’t even seem to be aiming for them. It was like he just wanted to continue for the heck of it.

Jumping away also helped little. Every time Abomination tried that, he found himself back on the receiving end of those attacks. It appeared to be the same ability this guy was using to zip about the place himself.

’I have to distract him...’ Abomination started throwing cars and basically anything he could get his hands on while looking around.

Of course, John dodged them all, but that gave Abomination enough time to lock onto the chopper from before. He had previously ignored it, but now he knew who was inside it.

General Ross, his daughter, and, most importantly, it had the one reason that made Emil turn into Abomination.

’Join in on the fun, Banner.’ Abomination finally got a chance to even the battlefield.

Inside the chopper, the tension was so thick one could cut it with a knife.

Elizabeth Ross was holding onto Bruce Banner, who was firmly strapped to a bed in the name of safe transportation. No amount of her protests reached her father, General Ross.

Part of the reason was the old man’s own agenda and the way he had already decided on how he would treat Banner after everything that had happened.

But the most important reason right now was the face-off happening on the ground between the new green giant with frilly ears he had seen for the first time, and a human.

Yes, a human was standing up to a creature comparable to Bruce in a head-on confrontation. The more terrifying part was that this human, at least human-looking, had this green monster on the back foot.

’What is he?’ General Ross felt an indescribable chill going up his spine, even though he was observing this human from a distance.

He had not been this scared even when he had seen the transformed Bruce standing in front of him. But now, every cell in his body was screaming at him to run away.

The ingrained instinct that had been developed for over millions of years was ringing in his head. Even if he was in an armoured helicopter, hovering in the air, he wasn’t safe. He had to move away, and he had to do it now.

"Take us closer." But his mouth gave the pilot a different order.

Wasn’t this human the exact type of soldier he had been trying to recreate? Wasn’t he just the perfect fit for the Army that he had been looking for all these years?

’How was he created?’ Ross couldn’t help but find a tinge of excitement even when all of his whole body was in flight mode.

"B-But, sir..." Still, unlike him, the pilot was unable to fight against his flight mode. If it wasn’t the last bit of his professionalism as a pilot and as a soldier, he would’ve long jumped out of the helicopter and run away.

"Do you have trouble listening to orders, Soldier?!" On the other hand, Ross was getting more impatient.

"Please stop this madness, please." Elizabeth was on the verge of crying with all the stress and that unnatural feeling boring down on her very soul.

"It’s ok, Betty. It’s ok." Bruce was doing his best to calm her down.

Even if his head was ringing, maybe because of the earlier procedure or because of the weird energy wave that came washing over from below, Bruce tried his best to keep himself steady.

He could see that Betty had cold sweat all over her, and it really looked like she might pass out. Bruce really wanted to speak with General Ross to leave this area as fast as possible.

But before he could say that, he happened to call a fall of fire heading right for them.

"Incoming!!" The pilot tried to swerve, but the flaming car caught its tail.

The chopper started to swirl. Everyone was thrown against the walls. Bruce’s head bashed against the pilot seat as he saw Elizabeth, knocked unconscious after her head hit the ceiling.

In that brief moment, Bruce felt the time had slowed to a crawl, and he saw right outside the opening for the machine gun. The helicopter’s nose pointed down and it started to head towards the street, leaving a trail of black smoke and screams.

John watched it all happen from one of the buildings. He knew Abomination’s plan. It wanted to involve Hulk in the scrap and run away. But instead of worrying about stopping the crash, John decided to look at Abomination, who was feeling a bit too proud of itself.

Well, it wasn’t that he didn’t care about fighting Hulk and Abomination together. That wouldn’t be easy by any means. But he still didn’t bother with helping the helicopter because someone else was already on the case.

And he meant that physically.

A blur of white and black swung through the low buildings of Harlem, and at last, it landed right on top of the helicopter, heading right for the pavement.

Spiderwoman was enjoying a few burgers after her usual patrols in Queens when she got a call from SHIELD regarding the incident in Harlem.

And the moment she arrived, a helicopter was shot right out of the sky. Still, she looked at John, who turned his attention back on Abomination after confirming her presence and tilted her head.

"Not even a greeting." With a click of her tongue, Spiderwoman flipped over a car thrown her way and attached her web to it.

With a spin midair, she flung the car back where it came from. The car burst into a ball of flames against Abomination, who shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"Note to self: never complain about fighting the Rhino ever again." A line of web shot out from her wrist and latched onto the helicopter, which she used to pull herself below the almost ball of flames.

There were no skyscrapers nearby, so she had to take some risks; thankfully, she was able to guide the crashing helicopter between two five-story buildings and prevent it from crashing onto one of them.

With her back to the street in freefall, and the helicopter/scream room above, Spiderwoman shot a barrage of webs like a machine gun. Attaching it to the walls of the nearby buildings to form a dense net.

At first, it didn’t feel like she’d be able to kill the falling helicopter’s momentum. But Gwen kept spamming her web as fast as she physically could, and barely managed to stop the helicopter before she stopped her own fall by shooting a web to the nearby building to pull herself up against its wall.

"Close call." She muttered while landing on the ground, blinking at the chopper’s nose that was only a few inches from the asphalt. "Now, about the big guy."