Beast Amongst Monsters

Bruce's POV

As Bruce slowly raised himself from the ground, his aching and spinning head gradually becoming more bearable, he began to wonder just where he was. While the greenery appeared to be that of Earth, he could not make out any of the landmarks or land formations to place where on Earth he was, and he had been to enough "secluded" places on Earth to be able to at least recognize that much. Furthermore, the air smelled much cleaner than he had ever known in the areas that was furthest from civilization.

Putting all these pieces together brought him to one conclusion: though this place very strongly resembled it, Bruce was NOT on Earth. But how did he get here? The last thing he remembered was….Bruce couldn't remember! While certain memories were sharp and clear; the day he was in his fateful accident, the army trying to kill him again and again, when he was finally separated from the monster within due to the beast's battle with Onslaught and he went to sacrifice himself alongside the heroes only to find himself repeating history in Franklin Richard's new world, and the day his wife Betty was killed by Gamma radiation poisoning; other memories that were more recent were much more elusive, a blurred and scrambled mess. Though he initially thought that he had recently changed and that might be the reason for his memory loss, Bruce quickly dismissed the notion. Although he never had memories of what he did when the other guy took over, those transformations never affected his memories of him as Bruce Banner. Furthermore, his clothes were intact, more or less, and the forest he was in didn't look as though a hurricane had hit it, save for the small crater he was in (much too small to be created by him), so it had apparently been a while since his last incident.

As he made his way through the forest, disturbing a fawn that looked rather like an Earth breed, Bruce wondered again how it was he had got here. He didn't think anyone back home would be stupid enough to try and banish him from Earth again: the last time they tried, the "big guy" had made it very clear how much he didn't appreciate it and what would happen if they ever tried it again. Still, he would feel much better if he could know where exactly he was and how he came to be here.

When he came to the edge of the forest, Bruce's eyes widened as he took in the sight that laid before him. There, in the distance, was what appeared to be something like a huge mega-city! Even though it was hard to make out details from this distance, the buildings he could see appeared to be of Medieval-style, along with grasslands, forests, and farming areas, all of which were surrounded by a gigantic wall that put the one in China to shame! Correction, there were three circular walls: one outer, and two more set inside the first and one another, and the civilized areas were set within nubs at each of the four compass points. He had never seen or heard of such a place, even within Earth's history, further proof to him that this wasn't Earth.

As he goggled at the place, wondering to himself whether of not to see if the natives were friendly, Bruce felt a rhythmic tremor in the ground under his feet. Due to the almost exact pacing of the shakes and how they seemed to be getting stronger, Bruce's years of experience told him that it was being caused by the footsteps of something enormous, and that whatever it was was getting closer. While he pitied whatever brute had chosen to come after him, Bruce felt that discretion was the better course here. A throwdown here so close to civilization would be rather catastrophic, and he didn't need the first impression he made on the locals to be that of the big guy lowering their real estate values. So as quickly and quietly as he could, Bruce made his way to the fortress city.

As he neared the closest entrance, which looked as though something huge had smashed it open, the first thing that struck him was the stench of death. The death wasn't recent either. From what he was smelling, and judging by the state of decay the ruined building he saw when he'd passed through the entrance were in, it must have been some years since whatever catastrophe had struck this place. When he caught sight of the first body, in its advanced state of decomposition, Bruce's theory of the length of time was strengthened further.

As he came across body after body, Bruce wondered who or what attacked this place, for it must have been an attack. Bruce could think of no other reason anyone would leave their dead in the street like this! Then, as he came across a particularly gruesome scene, Bruce saw something that made his blood run cold. In one area of the street where a group of bodies were crushed flat, was the dried-blood impression of a giant footprint! While appearing the shape of a naked human foot, this print was easily the size of one that'd be created by a Sentinel! While Bruce had encountered giant living beings before, or those who could become giant (like Dr. Pym), he had never known any of them to run around barefoot amidst such death and destruction.

Once the shock of what he'd seen wore off, Bruce then noticed that the giant footsteps, which he thought he'd lost back in the forest, were present here too. Judging by the varying strength of the tremors, the frequency and unevenness (and the giant bloody print before him), all told him that this town had been overrun by the creatures, but did they cause this death or did they move in once whoever lived here no longer did?

Bruce had made up his mind to take leave of this dead place before he encountered one of these beings when he heard a blood curdling scream. As he looked around the corner for the source he saw it! Nearly 50 feet in height, it looked like a giant & ugly Ken doll (complete, or rather incomplete with lack of reproductive organ), made flesh and blood with a hideous grin that detracted from his otherwise human appearance. Clutched tightly between both of his hands was a raven-haired young woman struggling to get free. Apparently the woman was armed, as a long blade was jutting out from the bottom of the giant's clutched fists, but he must have been holding her too tightly for her to use it to get free. As the thing lifted her to his hideously wide mouth, just what happened to this place became crystal clear to him, and the thought of those monsters devouring men, women and children made Bruce very angry!

Mikasa's POV

Please, Mikasa thought as the 15m titan prepared to eat her, not like this! The operation to reclaim Wall Maria had been going so well, with the titans falling left and right to their group, and Reiner and Bertoldt nowhere to be found. As they had split up on their different assignments, Mikasa had saw that a group of Titans ranging from 10 to 20m were following Erin, who had changed into his titan form, and she took off after them to give him some breathing room.

Then disaster struck as the gas in her 3D maneuvering system ran out! As she tried to regain her wind and her bearings after the brutal fall, this ugly bastard had found her and snatched her tightly before she could bring her sword to bear. Mikasa had screamed, something she would never had thought to do before, with the hopes that Erin or one of her teammates would know she was in trouble and come to her aid. However, there was no rush to her position, and Mikasa believed that either they didn't hear or they were too tied up with their own fights to help her.

When the titan opened its jaw wide as it lifted her up, Mikasa had two thoughts running through her head; that she hoped that it would swallow her whole, as she didn't want any identifiable bits left behind for Erin to find, and her regret that she didn't tell Erin how she was coming to feel about him when she had the chance.

Then Mikasa heard a furious roar getting quickly louder and her heart swelled with hope. Maybe Erin had heard her after all! As she turned towards the sound, Mikasa was surprised to see not the hideous-yet-handsome titan form of her Erin coming to her aid, but rather something else entirely. This titan, which was only about 5 meters tall, was flying through the air in a tremendous leap with it's fists clenched and its mouth open in a bellow. Even if it weren't for the fact that it had made such an impossible leap in the air, Mikasa would have still had tagged it as the strangest variant she had ever seen, both for its green skin and the fact it appeared to be wearing some sort of pants!

Just before the titan holding her could place her in his mouth, Mikasa felt both a physical and emotional shock as the titan variant whaled into her captor with a single punch that rocked the larger titan back on its feet. That was impossible! While she'd experienced the force exerted in a battle between titans, such a size difference should have resulted in a mismatch that ended badly, and yet the smaller variant came out ahead in that clash!

As the variant's momentum caused it to land in the other titan's mouth, Mikasa though her savior's days were up as the other titan prepared to bite down. However, she found herself surprised once again as the variant not only prevented the titan from closing its mouth, he actually managed to make it open wider! Then, with a mighty roar, the variant tore the upper half of the titan's head from its body and tossed it several meters away, and the headless titan collapsed forward sprawling on the street.

Apparently the variant believed the battle over, as it roared loudly in triumph. However, Mikasa knew what the variant apparently did not, and she saw that the Titan's head was already beginning to regenerate. Knowing that she didn't have much time to waste, Mikasa gripped her swords and prepared to finish the titan with a slice to the nape of its neck before it could rise up and menace them again. However, the variant apparently misread her intentions as it turned and growled at her! Quickly dropping her swords and raising her hands in a placating gesture, she pointed one finger behind him.

When he turned and saw the head halfway regenerated, the variant roared and began pounding at the restored bits in an impressive yet futile show of powerful force. Carefully maneuvering herself to within the variant's line of sight while trying to appear non-threatening, Mikasa called out "Wait!" When the variant looked at her, she pointed at the nape of her neck, then at the downed titan, hoping that this creature was not merely a variant but actually something closer to Erin and Ymir. Then the variant turned back towards the titan and crushed the area Mikasa had indicated on the titan with a single, powerful double hammer blow, grunting with satisfaction when the titan finally stopped moving.

As she sighed with relief, Mikasa turned away and her heart dropped into her stomach. Apparently the commotion from the fight had drawn a large number of titans towards their location. It seemed that Erin had also heard and was now trying to make his way towards her, but there was too many titans between them. As she backed away from the death that was coming to claim her, Mikasa found that she had accidentally backed into the variant. Rather than reacting indifferently or with violence as she expected it to, the creature gripped both her shoulders and picked her up with surprising gentleness, setting her down near the doorway of an abandoned home. Then it turned back to snarl at the approaching titans, and as it made yet another great leap it did one more impossible thing, something that not even Erin or those like him ever did! It bellowed out in a painfully loud voice, "Hulk smash!"