Deadpool: [humming] Hmm, hmm, hmm, doo-doo-doo, waiting for lyokoMARVELanime~

AN: [walks into the room and then blanches at the sight of who's already there] Okay, I'm not even going to bother asking how you got in here, but I do want to know why you thought you'd get off easy by coming in before me today.

Deadpool: Whoa, cool your jets there, bud. I'm not here to cause trouble, unless there's a hot, sexy babe here who needs me to answer all her dreams!

AN: [muttering] Ugh, I'll believe that when I see it. [looks directly at Deadpool] Well what are you doing here, and get straight to the point, please. This is a long chapter, and I'd like for everyone to get right to it as soon as possible.

Deadpool: Well, I saw over in your Code Lyoko and Avengers crossover story, Code Avengers Cosmic that you're going to have a chapter in this story that acts as a crossover between this story and that one, and I was thinking, "Hey a crossover between two of lyokoMARVELanime's big superhero stories?! That sounds awesome! Maybe I can convince him to let me join in on the action in that chapter! Maybe if I promise to get him a chance to get with Wasp he'll agree."

AN: Okay, I'm going to ignore that last sentence and just say here we go again. Deadpool, for the god-only-knows-zillionth time, you. Are NOT. Going to be. In this story. Or any of my stories. So long as I can help it.

Deadpool: Awe, come on! Who better to give both the Avengers and the Justice League a real challenge that would make them unite together like that than me?

AN: You want the short list or the long one? [pulls out said lists an instant later]

Deadpool: [gains depressed cloud and aura you see in anime] That's just mean.

AN: That's life. Deal with it, nutcase. And while he's doing that, you all can enjoy the newest chapter of Justice Marvel, head over to Chapter 7 of Code Avengers Cosmic to see an early preview for the chapter that Deadpool just mentioned, or whatever else you may normally do after reading these notes. Trust me though, that chapter that crosses this story over with Code Avengers is going to be good. I can feel it.

I do not own anything from any of either of the MARVEL or DC Comics franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.


Chapter 9: The Brave, the Bold, and the Hulk

While every superhero typically sticks to their own corner of the globe, assuming they have one, that does not mean that they do not sometimes venture out of the city they protect to visit another place just for the sake of doing so. Most people would think that the only reason that a hero would go to another hero's city would be because one of their enemies is there, or they are just following up on a case they were working on, but that is not always necessarily true, because if that were the case, then every hero would probably be as anti-social as Batman was often considered to be. At the moment, our favorite super soldier was actually taking some time off from saving New York City to visit with Central City's favorite speedster, and while Cap would probably do so anyways, he would not deny that it did not hurt that there were quite a few heroes defending New York whether he was there or not. At the moment, however, Steve was actually more curious about a matter that he would consider to be much more mystifying.

"You seriously have your own coffee drink," Steve asked one Barry Allen as the two were waiting in line and looking over the menu of Central City's famous, local coffee hotspot. The super soldier was currently decked out in his usual civilian attire with the addition of a dark blue baseball cap to help hide his identity so that he did not cause anyone to start throwing up a fuss about Captain America being in the shop and so that he could keep anyone from figuring out Barry was the Flash.

Barry just gave a modest shrug in response as he said, "The city just loves the Flash and wants to do whatever they can to thank him for everything he's done. It's not like I've ever asked them to do this type of thing."

"Yet you're not denying that you enjoy it," Steve pointed out with a small smirk.

This time Barry let his smile come out in full and admitted, "Well it does feel pretty good to be thanked like this. I mean, who wouldn't want to thank their heroes, right?"

"Remind me to bring you over to New York sometime so that you can be acquainted with Spider-Man's biggest opposer: J. Jonah Jameson," Steve said with a small frown on his face.

Barry had to give a much more obvious frown when he heard that, mostly because he had read some of the stories and articles that the Daily Bugle had published about Spider-Man over the years, including the ones that had come before he became the Flash, and it was obvious that the editor had little to no interest in posting any facts about the web-swinger's good deeds. Add in the fact that Jameson sometimes even put in a few scathing articles about the Justice League every now and again, and you can see very well why the man had almost no supporters among the superheroes. "Man, what is that guy's problem with heroes anyway," Barry grumbled when they finally reached the counter and gave their orders.

"I'd tell you to ask Spider-Man, but he hasn't been seen for a few weeks lately, and he'd tell you that he's just as clueless as we are," Steve informed the fastest man alive. "He's sometimes said that his theories range from the idea that Jameson was bit by a spider as a boy and can't let go of a grudge, and that he just doesn't know how to see a good person trying to help out if they're wearing a mask."

Barry could not help himself from laughing when he heard the former of the two theories, but he quickly paused when he realized what else Steve had just implied when he said that. "You…Are you saying you've met him? You've actually met Spider-Man?!"

"Yeah, he actually helped Diana and I on a case we were working on a while back, and we sometimes do patrols of New York together," Steve nodded after he accepted his drink, having decided to try the one that was named after his friend just before they had reached the counter.

"So…so do you know how he got his powers or anything like that," Barry asked once they had found a table, clearly excited to hear about Steve's adventures and meetings with Spider-Man.

"Uh no, I didn't ask," Steve admitted. It was true that he did not ask about Spider-Man's origin, but he was not planning to tell Barry what he did know about New York's friendly neighborhood hero. Peter did entrust him with the knowledge of his secret identity for a reason, and Steve was not planning to break that trust. "You know, maybe if you stop by New York, you could ask him yourself, if you're that curious."

Barry's smile could not have been wider at that moment, but unfortunately, it did not last, due to the fact that the sounds of screaming and car horns blaring reached their ears a minute later. Looking out the window, the two were just able to glimpse a truck race past the coffee shop while running any vehicles in its way off the road. Seeing this never meant good news, and Barry just spared a quick glance at Steve before the super soldier stood up and started heading towards the door, his hand already going up to remove his hat as he immediately jumped into his soldier mentality. "You go on ahead and see what you can do to stop that truck. I'll catch up as fast as I can," Steve told Barry.

Barry simply nodded in response and was then gone in a flash of red lightning. As he was running too fast for anyone to really see him, Barry was easily able to tap the gold ring he wore on his right hand, releasing his red costume from within it, and then change into said suit in a quick, fluid motion without anyone realizing it, and thus, the Flash was now racing through Central City on the tail of the truck that was barreling through his city and causing so much damage to the surrounding area as it went. Of course, since the surrounding area and other vehicles on the road were being put in danger, Flash was not able to keep going straight after the truck the entire time, as he had to make slight stops to make sure that the people were clear of the path and destruction as he went, but thankfully, that was not a problem for the fastest man alive, and thus he was able to keep close to an even pace with the fleeing vehicle.

At least, that was the case until the man in the passenger seat of the truck suddenly leaned out and started shooting bursts of energy blasts at him with a very advanced looking laser pistol, forcing Flash to duck and weave around so that he could avoid getting hit by any of the blasts while simultaneously making sure that no one else was hit due to being caught in the line of fire and that the collateral damage was kept to as great a minimum as possible. "Why does it seem like everyone seems to have laser guns now-a-days? Why can't the bad guys just stick to the old regular guns that shoot bullets and such," Flash wondered aloud as he continued chasing the truck, only to pause in concern for a moment when he saw that a stray shot that had barely grazed him ended up striking a small store just above the heads of a couple just as they were coming out of said store.

The couple was barely able to huddle together in fear as the debris fell towards them, having little time to do much else, but just before Flash could think of whisking them away to safety, a certain red, white, and blue clad hero raced in on his motorcycle to pull them clear. After skidding to a stop, Captain America released the couple from the safe hold he had pulled them into and asked, "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks Cap," the man replied with a thumbs up.

"Just doing what I can to help," Cap nodded, and he then gunned the engine of his trusted motorcycle to rejoin Flash in his chase after the truck. As the two started to catch up to the fleeing vehicle, Cap had to ask, "How'd you get your suit so fast?"

"Flash Ring. Don't leave home without it," Barry replied with a smile. "Plus, it's a better alternative to having to carry the suit around in a backpack like I used to have to."

Steve smiled in response to that, easily understanding where Flash was coming from in that regard, and the two then accelerated forward so that they were now both on either side of the vehicle, with the man who was previously shooting at Flash quickly being disarmed thanks to a quick throw of Captain America's shield. Once he was riding right alongside the driver's side of the truck, Cap reached up and knocked on the door to get the driver to roll down his window. Once the driver had done so, Cap saw that he was a man with short, dark hair, glasses, and a fancy suit, and the blank look on his face gave Steve an odd feeling, but he quickly shook it off so that he could shout, "Pull over, sir! Not only are you speeding, but you're putting innocent bystanders in danger with your reckless driving!"

The driver said nothing in response, and instead just turned the wheel so that the truck would swerve towards Cap in an attempt to run him off the bridge that the two heroes had chased the truck drivers onto. Thankfully, Cap was able to hit the brakes on his motorcycle fast enough to avoid getting hit, but his move ended up causing the truck to hit the side of the bridge before veering out of control. Seeing that the vehicle was about to go right through the railing of the bridge and into the water below, Flash immediately put on an extra burst of speed to pull both driver and the passenger out of the cab over to safety just before the vehicle crashed through the railing. Once Flash was sure that the two people who were in the truck had been place safely on the ground and Cap had slowed his bike to a stop, the two found the only thing left for them to do was to wait for the inevitable splash that would follow the truck's collision with the water below, but in the end, it never came, causing the two to turn to where the truck had gone over and see that it was being suspended inside of a green energy bubble, courtesy of a fellow Leaguer of theirs.

"Lose something," Green Lantern rhetorically inquired as he lowered the truck back onto the bridge.

"For a moment there, yeah, but thanks for helping us find it," Flash quipped in reply. "Thanks for the assist, GL, but I get the feeling you're not in Central City for a friendly visit."

"Like I'd be able to find you if I was," John remarked as he led the speedster around to the back of the truck while Cap checked on the two men who were driving it. "I was responding to a police call that said someone hijacked a load of radioactive isotopes."

A quick look into the back of the truck easily confirmed that Flash and Cap's road-ragers were indeed the same isotope thieves that Green Lantern was looking for, which meant that the three heroes now had to interrogate the two on their reasons for doing so, since no one just stole radioactive anything for the same reasons as a common crook would try to rob a bank. There was just one problem with that, which quickly became apparent when the two started coming around to consciousness. "Where am I," the driver groaned after he had rubbed his eyes like he had just woken up.

"On the bridge that you tried to drive your hijacked truck off of," Captain America told the man.

"And in addition to those crimes, you also tried to run my buddy, Cap here off said bridge. Any of this ringing a bell," Flash inquired with a hard look.

"What," the man gasped in honest surprise, while his partner just stared in wide-eyed, silent shock at what the speedster had said.

Green Lantern did not seem like he was buying the two's act and immediately aimed his ring at the two and said, "Let's see some ID." A second later, a pair of green tendrils were pulling the two men's wallets out of their jackets and opening them up to the items that John wanted to see. "Professor Arthur Chen and Doctor Mark Stevens. Both work at the research center the isotopes were stolen from."

"And I feel guilty when I take paperclips from the Watchtower," Flash quipped.

"Wait…that's you," Captain America asked in surprise, but anyone could tell by the small ghost of a smile on his lips that he was just joking. The super soldier brought his attention back to the professor and doctor, and asked, "What's the last thing you two remember?"

"I…I remember going to clock out for my lunch break…and hearing someone muttering to himself about people coming after him, I think. After that it's all blank, like someone shut out all the lights and sound," Stevens said, with Chen stating that he remembered the same thing as well.

"What do you think, Cap," Flash asked.

"I'm not sure," Steve admitted. "Could be that someone had put the two into a hypnotic state and forced them to do this, but I can't be certain."

"You think they were hypnotized? Really," John asked.

"I've seen a lot of strange things in the Forties, John, and considering what I've seen since waking up from a seventy-year-long nap, I'm surprised you'd be so willing to rule anything like that out so quickly," Captain America pointed out.

John had to admit that the super soldier did have a point, but being in both the marines and Green Lanterns for so long, he knew that it was usually better to get all the facts straight before jumping to any conclusions. "Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this back at the research center," the Lantern of the three suggested.

"What's the place they stole it from," Flash asked.

"The River Bluffs Research Laboratory," John revealed.

"Alright, I know that place and a few of the people there, so just follow my lead and try not to do or say anything to offend anyone," Flash informed the other two. With a quick nod from his teammates, Flash allowed Captain America to climb onto his motorcycle once again, and was soon racing off to lead his teammates to the institute that had been robbed.


It did not take long for the three Leaguers to reach their destination, and after asking around the facility, they were soon directed to Chen and Stevens' supervisor, Doctor Sarah Corwin, who easily agreed to let the three look through the files on the two scientists, though she did not really show any sign of emotion on the matter one way or another, but they mostly chalked it up to the fact that she was unhappy about how two of her employees had just suddenly stolen something from their facility, seemingly from out of nowhere and paid it no mind. "I'm sorry I can't explain their behavior," Doctor Corwin informed the three Leaguers. "They're both highly respected experts in their fields."

"They certainly don't fit the profile of armed robbers," John commented as he looked through the file that the doctor had given him while Flash looked around the lab at a speed that was faster than the eye could track. Cap was doing the same as Flash, though he was doing so much more slowly, yet just as unnoticeably while he stood next to John as the Lantern looked through the scientists' files.

"To be fair, they've been under enormous pressure to finish their current project. It's possible they simply snapped under the strain," the doctor evenly reasoned. "I wish I could help you but frankly, the whole thing just seems so…preposterous."

"What were they working on," Flash asked, gaining a pair of odd looks from his teammates when they noticed how his voice seemed slightly different when he spoke, almost like he was speaking through a microphone with an echo setting.

"That's classified information," the doctor quickly snapped as she snatched away the file before John could get any more of a look in it.

"With all due respect, Doctor, if there's a chance that it was responsible for why they did this then we should know now before any of your other employees suddenly start acting out of character," Captain America argued.

"With all due respect to you, Captain, rules are rules. I can't tell you anything more than I already have, but I will say that their project has no chance of causing such things to happen," Corwin replied with the smallest hint of an edge in her tone.

Cap looked like he was going to say something else, but he was quickly cut off when Flash stepped forward to prevent anyone from biting each other's head off. "Chen and Stevens mentioned that they came across a man who was muttering to himself about people coming after him before their memories on the whole thing went blank. Know anyone here like that?"

"There was one man who came in earlier to visit, but he wasn't exactly the type of person I would normally let into the building for any reason, given the state of his rather ragged attire," Corwin confirmed. "I had security throw him out a few hours ago when they found him. Afterward, he started ranting on about some random nonsense on how someone wanted to turn him into a lab rat or something, but we all figured it was the rantings of a desperate, homeless man. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

Cap and Lantern were about to say something in retort to the doctor, but once again, Flash just gave them a silent signal not to and led them out of the building, since he could tell that they were not going to get many answers here. None of them ever noticed how the large gorilla that was sitting in one of the cages for the lab animals was watching them depart with far more attention that what seemed normal for any animal on principle.


"Would you hurry up! We're supposed to be conducting an investigation," Green Lantern snapped at Flash when the three stopped by a hotdog vendor a few hours after they had left Corwin's facility.

"Sorry, but I can't help it that I have a hyper accelerated metabolism," Flash retorted as he scooped up the armful of hotdogs he just purchased. "Besides, this is just a little snack."

"Right," Cap slowly nodded while John just quirked an eyebrow in response to Flash's idea of a "little snack." After a minute though, Steve could not help but ask about something he recalled from their talk with Corwin. "What was with you changing your voice like that?"

Flash's expression became a bit more serious as he started on the first of his many hotdogs and he soon replied, "I've met Doctor Corwin a couple of times as my secret identity so I was a bit worried she might recognize my voice."

"Okay, but how'd you do it," John asked, admittedly feeling a bit curious about the matter as well.

"Well I can do this cool thing with my vocal cords where I vibrate them, so I sound like this," Flash explained in the same voice he had used earlier when they were speaking with the doctor.

That got a pair of laughs out of both of Barry's fellow heroes, which made him think back to the first time he had showed off the same trick to Joe West, who had nearly the exact same reaction. "That's actually pretty cool," Steve chuckled.

"Yeah, I know, right," Flash agreed with a chuckle of his own.

John was about to comment on Flash's little voice effect as well when a nearby military vehicle suddenly rolled past, gaining his attention. "I know that Central City is close to a military base, but there seems to be a few more military vehicles than usual for such a city today," the Green Lantern commented.

"Yeah tell me about it," Flash nodded. "I asked Detective West of CCPD if he knew anything about this as well as his daughter Iris, but they were completely in the dark on the matter. The most that we know is that some special unit in the U.S. Armed Forces has tracked some 'rogue element' to the city, but beyond that, they're not saying much else."

That drew suspicious looks from both the former marine and the super soldier, as they both knew that more than likely meant that there was either some secret operation going on that the government wanted to keep quiet, or that said rogue element was far more dangerous than they let on because they thought that it would cause a panic if the people did know. Before any of them could comment further on the matter, their attention was once again drawn away from the discussion, but this time due to the sound of passing police sirens. "Now what," John groaned in irritation.

"There's a gorilla on the loose," some random civilian shouted as he and several others came running past the trio of heroes.

The three shared a quick look between one another, each clearly thinking the same thing, and Cap immediately prepared to start giving orders until Flash beat him to the punch. "I'll run on ahead to scout it out, and then I'll try to slow our big hairy friend down a bit until you guys catch up," the speedster said as he handed the rest of his snack to John.

"Flash wait! We should go together," John tried to say, but Flash was already gone before he could finish his sentence.

When Lantern looked to Captain America in annoyance, Steve could only shrug as he slipped his mask back over his head and said, "This is his city. It's only fair that he take off like he's handling this on his own like that."


It did not take long for Barry to reach the area where the loose gorilla was last sighted, the large number of police and SWAT cars definitely helped narrow down where he had to go, but he was not entirely prepared for what he saw when he did arrive. The gorilla in question was rather large, and possessed a dark grey face and paws while his fur was a silvery grey, but the strange thing about it was that the ape was not only sitting in the driver's seat of a car, but was actually driving the vehicle like any normal human being would. "Now there's something you don't see every day," Flash muttered to himself before he started running after the gorilla driven vehicle. As he started closing in, he quickly tapped his League comm. device and said, "GL, Cap, you're not gonna believe this, but that gorilla that's got everyone freaked out is actually driving a car to get away from the cops."

"I'm sorry; could repeat that? It sounded like you just said that the gorilla was driving a car," Green Lantern replied, his voice oozing with skepticism.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have believed it either if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes," Flash stated as he put on a little more speed to catch up with the ape.

"Well to be fair, we work with three aliens, an Amazon, and a guy who dresses like a bat, and let's not forget about who the three of us are, so it probably shouldn't be that surprising," Captain America reasoned, no doubt shouting a little over the engine of his bike since Flash could hear it in the background.

"Was fighting evil in the Forties really that much like it is now," Green Lantern inquired.

"No; sometimes it got weird," Captain America joked. His tone became serious once again as he reported, "We're just a few blocks away from where you are right now, Flash, so try to slow the big guy down a little until we get there."

"You've got it," Flash nodded, and he was instantly swerved to the side to grab a nearby, discarded rake before he moved to run right alongside the car, much to the ape's surprise. "Hey, having fun, Mojo?"

The gorilla just growled a little in response before shifting gears and accelerating its stolen vehicle forward, but that did nothing to keep him safe from Flash planting the borrowed rake right in the path of said vehicle, as he quickly found out when the car's tires suddenly blew out. Flash then raced forward to get any bystanders out of the way of the out of control car, and then just watched as it skidded to a stop after running into a large trash bin. Seeing the gorilla climb out of the vehicle with a weak moan immediately told Flash that the large ape was not hurt, and he quickly raced over to help the gorilla out as he said as soothingly as possible, "Easy big fella. We'll have you back behind monkey bars before you know it."

"Get your stinking paws off me, you filthy human," the gorilla suddenly shouted in a deep sounding voice, much to Flash's wide-eyed surprise.

"Okay, that is definitely new," Flash gasped in shock, only to furrow his brow in confusion when the gorilla suddenly gasped in what seemed to be fear at something behind the Flash. Whatever that something was ended up drawing Flash's attention after it had come crashing down to the street behind him, and when he turned around to see what it was, Flash could feel his own fear spiking as well at the sight before him. There, standing over both the talking gorilla and the speedster, was the massive, green skinned bruiser in torn, tan pants that was feared by many and known to all: the Hulk. Flash was barely able to say or do anything before the jade giant let out a bestial roar and slammed one of his large fists right into the fastest man alive, sending Flash flying through a few buildings until he finally crashed down onto the street again and lost consciousness. The last thing Barry saw before everything went black was the gorilla running away like his life depended on it, while the Hulk took off with one mighty leap as a number of military vehicles started appearing where the green giant had been.


When Green Lantern and Captain America finally reached Flash's location, saying that they both became quickly concerned would have been like saying that Superman was strong; severely understated. Thankfully, John's ring was able to confirm that the speedster was alive and healing quickly like he always did, but he would still need to receive medical treatment if there was a chance that said healing powers did something wrong. Since it would have taken too long to get Flash to the Watchtower, Cap immediately contacted Barry's friends at S.T.A.R. Labs to let them know they would be headed there and then led Lantern off to the science facility. When the two arrived, Caitlin was the one who greeted them at the door and led them to the medical station where they would be setting Flash down while Cisco was nowhere to be seen, at least until he suddenly appeared before them decked out in a rather impressive looking, long coat, and high-tech glasses with reflective lenses that hid his eyes. When he did appear before the two, he was quick to introduce himself as Vibe, which immediately told Steve that the young scientist was also a superhero in his own right somehow, something he would be sure to question Flash about after he woke up.

Steve did not have to wait long, as Barry eventually awoke with a bit of a start, prompting Caitlin and the others to calmly reassure him that he was alright and safe, for which the Flash was very grateful. After letting his friend's nerves calm down a bit more though, Cap eventually did ask, "Why didn't you ever tell me that Cisco was a hero as well?"

"He's technically not," Flash whispered in explanation. "Cisco just recently discovered his powers and is still learning to use them. He wants to be sure he knows most of his limits before he does any crime fighting as Vibe, so that's why he typically works as support for me from here."

Steve nodded in understanding of this, and at the same time, he found his respect for Cisco increasing quite a bit. Steve knew better than most that it was always good to know what your limits were before taking a plunge like that, but that was something that he would probably think about later, because there was something else that needed to be discussed now. "So what happened to you," Captain America asked after he had helped the speedster slowly rise to his feet.

"Well…you're probably not going to believe this, but after I stopped the gorilla's car, I made my way over to make sure he wouldn't run off again, and he actually spoke to me saying to, and I quote, 'Get my stinking paws of him,' in perfect English," Flash admitted.

"The gorilla talked to you," John asked in full skepticism. He was willing to believe that such an animal could steal and drive a car since a person could train animals to do a variety of different things, but if someone expected him to believe that any animal could actually speak English like any everyday person, then they would need a lot more proof than just hearsay.

"Need I remind you about the point Cap made earlier about the people we normally associate with," Flash pointed out.

"Not to mention a lot of weird stuff does seem to happen in this city," Cisco commented.

"That's not the important part though," Flash quickly said. "The next thing I knew, he was looking at something behind me like he had seen a ghost or something and then something actually crashed down behind me, or rather, someone. When I turned around, I was greeted with the sight of…"

"Of what," Steve asked, feeling nervous when Barry had stopped short in his sentence.

When Barry did finish what he was saying though, everyone felt their blood run cold for a few minutes. "Of the Hulk."

Everyone in the room had heard at least one or two stories about the jade giant since his first appearance, including Captain America, so it was only natural that they all felt a sense of paralyzing fear wash over them when they heard that said giant was now in Central City for some reason. A very tense silence had filled the entire room so much that one could have cut it with a knife, but eventually, Green Lantern did manage to find his voice again. "Maybe…maybe you had just been seeing things," John tried to reason. "I mean, the Hulk is just a myth that was made up by the army to cover up some military experiments gone wrong."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Detective West announced as he entered the room, drawing everyone's attention to him. "CCPD just got a visit from General 'Thunderbolt' Ross himself, and it turns out that he's the one in charge of that military unit that's been coming into Central City lately, though for what reason, he wouldn't say until after the Hulk managed to make off with those isotopes from the truck you three stopped this morning. The Hulk is here in the city, and Ross wants to lock the whole place down so that he can capture him."

"Shouldn't he consider evacuating everyone, or even try driving the Hulk out of the city," Flash asked.

"I wouldn't bet on that," Joe stated. "I got the feeling that Ross is more interested in just getting the big guy than he is protecting anyone who gets caught in the crossfire. The Hulk is Ross' Moby Dick."

Cap was a bit happy that he was able to understand that reference, mostly because there were a lot of references that people used that he did not understand, but that was easily overshadowed by the anger towards this General Ross that was building up inside of him. Thankfully, his training as a soldier was more than enough to keep his emotions in check for the moment, and he immediately said, "We're going to have to make sure that we can secure the Hulk or get him out of the city before Ross puts any civilians in danger with a fight against him, but we can't ignore Flash's talking gorilla either."

"Well we can't do both of those things, so where should we start," John pointed out.

"Maybe by finding King Kong," Flash offered. "If that look of fear on his face was any indication, he might know why the Hulk's here in the first place."

"And we can also find the Hulk anytime we want now," Caitlin revealed as she positioned herself at the central computer station. "When I was helping patch up Flash, my equipment detected some residual gamma radiation, which means there's a chance that the Hulk gives it off naturally. Vibe and I started scanning Central City for large concentrations of gamma rays a few minutes ago, so if the idea holds, then we should find the Hulk in no time." At that point, the scanners started beeping rapidly while another alarm in the lab started ringing, drawing looks of concern from both scientists. "Please tell me that's not right," Caitlin whispered as she and Vibe started rapidly typing away at their computers.

"What's wrong," Joe asked.

"There's a serious concentration of gamma rays right here at S.T.A.R. Labs, which is likely being reinforced by the proximity alarms going off," Cisco stated, and that was all the explanation that any of the heroes needed to start gearing up for action as they headed down the hallway to the main entrance of S.T.A.R. Labs.

When they reached their destination, they were greeted, not by a giant, green rage monster, but by a very thin, lanky man who looked almost as pale as a ghost. The man's attire was nothing to brag about either, as he was only wearing baggy, brown pants, a ball cap, and a blue hoodie, and even with his hood up, it was rather easy to see the rather scruffy beard on his face and a few strands of disheveled hair. When the man saw the heroes standing before him like they were ready to attack, he immediately backed off, clearly frightened, and shouted, "No wait! I'm not here to cause trouble, I just need help!"

"Who are you," Lantern demanded, his tone showing that he was not taking any chances.

"Please, just…I need to speak with Doctor Snow," the man pleaded. "I-I need to hide before anyone finds me."

Before anyone could ask anything else, Caitlin suddenly appeared behind the heroes and let out a gasp of shock. "Doctor Banner," the young woman inquired in honest surprise. "Doctor Bruce Banner?!"

"Yes," Banner nodded. "Yes, that's me, Doctor Snow."

"You know him, Caitlin," Flash asked.

"I only met him once when I was still in college, but I've read a lot of his papers on research in gamma rays. He's a leading expert in the field, at least until he disappeared one day," Caitlin explained. "What happened to you?"

"It's a long story," Banner replied. "But right now, I need you to hide me before Ross eventually figures out where I am."

"Why would the guy chasing the Hulk be after you," Flash inquired, his confusion shared by everyone else in the room.

Before Banner could reply, he suddenly let out what could be closely described as a blood-curdling scream and grasped his head like something was giving him a very terrible headache. "No, no! Not now," Banner pleaded in desperation. "I can't…WE can't let him…" After a minute or so, Banner started thrashing at his surroundings, making the heroes start moving towards him in an attempt to calm him down before he hurt himself, but they were stopped short when Banner raised a hand to them and shouted, "NO, STAY BACK! I can't control myself, and neither can he!"

"Who are you talking about," Captain America asked, but the only response he received was Banner screaming again.

"Guys, tell me what's going on down there, because the gamma ray readings just started skyrocketing faster than the Millennium Falcon going into Hyper Space," Cisco asked over the Flash's comm. device.

No one got the chance to answer him, as they were all soon backing away and becoming wide-eyed in fear at what they saw happen next. It started when they noticed Banner's eyes change from light brown to radiant green, and his skin was soon taking on a deeper shade of the same color as his eyes while his body and muscles seemed to expand and grow. It eventually came to the point where Banner's clothes started to rip apart from the strain, until his hat and hoodie were completely gone with a terrible rip. Somehow, Banner's pants managed to remain intact enough to stay on him, but not entirely, as evidenced by the holes that had formed in the knees and how the ends of the pant legs were a bit shredded. When this transformation was finally completed, everyone had paled quite considerably at the realization that they were standing before the Hulk, who's only reaction to the heroes was a mighty roar of anger.

That roar was all the reason Flash needed to whisk everyone away in a…well, flash, and the next thing they heard was a loud boom indicating that something had just crashed through the ceiling. A quick look to the various security cameras quickly told everyone that it was the Hulk that had broke the ceiling after he had taken a mighty leap into the air, and that he was still jumping away with equally if not even more powerful leaps, right in the direction of the park that the gorilla had been sighted at. After watching all this silence, Vibe was the one who ended up finally saying anything. "Well, I think it's safe to say that we now know our Hulk-Scanner works."


It was not long after Hulk's sudden appearance and subsequent escape from S.T.A.R. Labs that Ross and his Hulkbuster Unit, as it had come to be affectionately referred to by many people, had shown up at the door. Thankfully, some quick talking from Central City's local hero kept Ross from tearing through every nook and cranny of the facility to find anything that could lead them to tracking down the Hulk, which was easily backed with some help from Joe when he reminded the general that even if he was tracking a fugitive from the army he would still need a search warrant to go tearing through S.T.A.R. Labs in the way that he had intended to. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the general could have done some serious harm, or even have discovered something that would lead him to uncovering Flash's secret identity if he had been allowed to search the place in the way that he had intended to, so everyone who worked at the Central City S.T.A.R. Labs had to breathe a sigh of relief at that.

When Ross saw that there was no way he was going to get anything from the science and research facility, he ended up leaving in a huff while muttering something under his breath about crazy, monster-loving vigilantes. Throughout the entire meeting with Ross though, everyone found themselves gaining a less than favorable opinion about the man. Even Captain America, who had served with some strict generals and commanders in World War II found Ross' attitude during his time at S.T.A.R. Labs to be very unappealing to say the least. With the way that Ross ranted on and on about how the Hulk was a monster, a threat to the world, and the most dangerous man alive, one would almost think that he was the one with the anger management problems instead of the Hulk, and it also added further proof to what Joe had said about the Hulk being Ross' Moby Dick. The general may have been relatively more pleasant towards Steve during his time there, but that was most likely because Cap was both a fellow soldier and a respected war hero. Of course, another reason for that revealed itself when Ross ended up asking Steve to consider donating a sample of his blood to the army's science department in an attempt to restart the Super Soldier Program that had turned Steve into who he was today, only for Steve to refuse and lead Ross' mood to end up being more sour than it already was.

With the obsessed general dealt with, the three Leaguers were now able to resume their own investigations, but it was not the one that they had all agreed on, considering the question Green Lantern had posed when they arrived at one of the city's local parks. "Remind me again why we're looking for a talking gorilla when a serious threat to the world is running loose in the city," John asked in exasperation, despite the fact that his ring was already scanning for any hints that would lead them to said ape. "We should be trying to find the Hulk before he or Ross do any serious damage to the city that puts civilians in the line of fire."

"We are looking for the Hulk. Like I said before, the gorilla had a look of recognition in his eyes when he saw the green guy heading towards us, and it wasn't the typical kind you get from seeing someone that's known far and wide as a threat. It was more like being found by someone you're trying to hide from, so if we find the gorilla, we might find some more answers on what's really going on here, both in regards to Hulk and the scientists who suddenly turned into thieves and got a memory blank," Flash stated, though it was in a much more tired tone than the speedster normally had. A quick glance towards the park entrance allowed him to see some of Central City's finest guarding said entry point, which immediately told him a fact that he quickly made known to the others. "Looks like our big, hairy friend is still at large."

"Let's get this over with quickly," Lantern muttered as he hovered a little ways above the ground and resumed scanning the area with his ring, not noticing the slightly irritated look he had drawn from Flash as he did. While Barry was not quite as territorial or opposed to accepting help from other heroes as Batman, he did not like other heroes coming into his city and disregarding what he knew about the place and treating it like it was just another one of their usual missions like John had been doing. Sure it was probably his fault because of how he acted sometimes when he was on a mission with other heroes, but he liked to think that he showed a decent amount of his maturity and seriousness about superhero work to be taken seriously, especially when it counted most, and when it came to the safety of his city, it always counted most to Flash. This was something that Green Lantern did not really seem to have figured out yet, but he figured that was mostly due to the fact that the two had not really hung out all that much, even though he had acted as John's attorney when the Earth Green Lantern was put on trial, so he managed to keep it contained for now and just followed his two teammates further into the park while searching for clues as well.

They did not end up searching for long, as Green Lantern eventually found what appeared to be paw prints from the gorilla that Flash had encountered, and immediately called out, "Wait, I've got something!"

Once Flash and Captain America were standing on either side of him, John directed his ring along the path that the prints formed, right up to the point where they had disappeared into a nearby tunnel that went beneath a bridge. Thinking that it would serve as something of a suitable hiding place, the three immediately started making their way towards the tunnel, with John using his ring to give them some light. When they were halfway through, the light from said ring eventually found its way onto the same gorilla that Flash had stopped that same day, who immediately pounded his chest as he let out a roar, startling the three heroes a bit. When he saw Lantern raising his ring towards the gorilla again, Flash immediately realized what John was thinking of doing, and shouted, "No wait! Don't!"

John did not listen, and instead fired the beam of energy he had already started charging, which soon struck its target and sent the silvery haired ape rolling out of the tunnel and onto his back. Once the three had moved to stand in front of the gorilla, said ape sat himself up and asked, "Was that really necessary?"

Green Lantern and Captain America just stood in their in silent shock for a minute until the former finally said, "Okay, so he can talk."

"And apparently, you can't listen," Flash retorted. "What part of 'No wait' did you not understand?"

Seeing his friends were likely to start arguing in a minute, Cap decided to steer the conversation onto the more important topic, which could only be answered by the gorilla in front of them. "Sorry about that. My friend just got a little freaked by your little greeting earlier," Steve started off. "Who are you though?"

"My name is Solovar. I'm chief of security for Gorilla City," the ape replied after he had waved off the apology.

The three heroes exchanged a few disbelieving looks between themselves at Solovar's response before Flash finally said, "Gorilla City? You've gotta be kidding me?"

"I know. That is a horrible name. I could've come up with something that was so much better," Cisco said over Flash's comm. device, despite the fact that only the speedster could have heard him.

"I assure you this is no laughing matter," Solovar replied in a serious, grave tone.

That grabbed the heroes' attention, but then again, when someone talks in the way that Solovar was at that moment, it would be hard to ignore no matter what. "Go on," Green Lantern prompted.

Solovar looked up at the stars in remembrance of what had led him to where they were now, and while it started out rather fond, anyone could tell that by the end of his tale, it was anything but. "Safely hidden from humanity, we apes have lived in peace for thousands of years, until the black day when a powered mad genius named Grodd tried to conquer our city with advanced mind control technology. We were able to thwart his evil plot, but we couldn't prevent his escape. It wasn't until later that we discovered he had also stolen our city's security plans. Grodd has sworn terrible revenge on all who reside in Gorilla City."

"So that's why you're here," Flash inquired, though he did not really phrase it like a question.

"Yes, to stop him from carrying out his threats," Solovar confirmed all the same.

"If it's true that he has a mind-control device, that could explain the isotope theft and the scientists' memory loss," Green Lantern reasoned. "Still not seeing how the Hulk is supposed to fit into this though."

"Actually, the green beast you know as the Hulk factors quite heavily into Grodd's plan," Solovar revealed. "Shortly after my arrival to this city, I began looking for any lead I could find that would lead me to Grodd's current location, but shortly after, I was discovered by Grodd, and he subsequently set this Hulk, as you call him, on me. It quickly became clear that Grodd has taken control of the beast's mind and is now using him as additional muscle."

"What about the isotopes though," Captain America asked.

"He needs those isotopes to power his devices," Solovar easily answered.

"So where is he," Flash finally asked.

Solovar did not immediately answer Flash right away, but instead walked over to a nearby bush, which soon faded away during the final steps of his approach to reveal what the three heroes could only assume was a very sophisticated hover bike of some type. Once he had reached the vehicle, Solovar reached into a compartment on the vehicle, pulled out a small, brown briefcase, and then made his way back over to the heroes with both the briefcase and a few papers in hand. "My investigation showed that Grodd had been carrying on an e-mail correspondence with a local scientist; Doctor Sarah Corwin," Solovar finally said in something of an answer to Flash's question.

"I had a feeling she was a bit annoyed by us showing up and investigating the reasons for the robbery, but I thought it was just because of the fact that two of her employees were behind it for reasons that no one could understand," Flash admitted, feeling a bit disappointed that such a respected scientist was probably using her talents for less than positive or beneficial means.

"We'd better call the others," John stated, not knowing that his voicing of the decision just made Flash feel all the more annoyed with how the Lantern had been acting since he showed up in Central City.

"Why? You think we can't handle the guy with just the three of us, or do you just not want to risk me screwing up somehow while you go in with guns blazing and not a care in the world," Flash asked, his tone having almost as much of an edge to it as Batman's typically did.

"I'd just like to avoid taking any unnecessary risks, especially since the Hulk is involved," Green Lantern replied in an even tone, but there was no hiding the fact that there was a bit of an edge to it as well.

"Oh you mean like the risks that come with living in Central City every day, which result from metahuman attacks that I tend to stop pretty easily without the rest of the League muscling in uninvited," Flash retorted, his anger now starting to show a bit more.

"John, maybe it would be better to hold off on contacting the rest of the League until we get a full idea of the situation, otherwise, we'd risk not having anyone able to act in case they were needed somewhere else," Captain America reasoned in another attempt to keep his friends from starting a fight with each other. When the two finally backed down from their near confrontation, Cap looked back to Solovar and asked, "Is there any way we can avoid ending up under Grodd's mind control like the Hulk is?"

"Yes there is," Solovar replied as he reached into the briefcase again and produced a silver headband, the inside of which the three could see had some green circuitry. "These headbands will be able to protect us from Grodd's mind control rays."

The three heroes immediately nodded and accepted the silver devices before quickly placing them on their heads. Once he had done so, Flash looked to Solovar and asked, "I don't suppose you have one in that briefcase that comes in an extra-large size do you? Say something that would fit a guy like our jade giant?"

"Why would we need one for the Hulk," John asked.

"I don't know; maybe because he's being mind controlled, and I seem to recall Banner coming to us begging for help before he changed into the big guy," Flash retorted.

"Let's get to Corwin's lab first and see if she knows where Grodd is, then we can worry about freeing Hulk from his control," Captain America suggested. No one could see anything wrong with that plan, and after exchanging nods of agreement, the three were soon headed back to the lab where the whole mess had started from.


After they had reached the science facility, John had wanted to scan the area to see if his ring could pick up any positive signs of Grodd being there, but Flash ended up thinking that the Lantern was trying to muscle his way into how the speedster handled things in his city again, so he ended up blowing that idea off and said he would scout ahead just seconds before he vanished into the building a streak of lightning and red without giving anyone a chance to argue with him. With his speed, it was only natural that Flash was able to comb nearly the entire building in a matter of seconds, until all that was left was the lab he, Cap, and Lantern had visited earlier that day when they were speaking with Corwin. It did not take a super genius to realize that was likely where the not-so-good doctor was, and this was easily proven true when Flash raced into the building and eventually paused in his tracks so that Corwin could finally step forward from the shadows in an attempt to hold the speedster at gunpoint. Corwin had just barely told Flash not to move an inch before she pulled the trigger on her weapon, only for Flash to disappear and then reappear next to her so that he could snatch her gun away with a swift burst of speed.

"How…" Corwin started to ask when her hand was suddenly caught in Flash's grasp.

"You blinked," Flash shortly replied, showing just how annoyed he was with his former-marine teammate when he spoke. "Where's Grodd?"

"I don't know what you mean," Corwin replied a little too quickly.

"Don't play cute with me, Doc," Flash retorted as he easily disassembled the weapon in a manner of seconds. "Grodd: your little monkey pen-pal. Where is…"

Flash the one who was cut off this time, but unlike the doctor, it was not because someone else was speaking up, but instead, because he was soon met with a large, black furred fist that sent him flying across a nearby lab table. A quick glance upwards allowed Corwin's gaze to land on the form of Grodd himself as he dropped down from the perch he had been hanging on since he noticed the heroes' arrival outside. "Foolish humans," Grodd chuckled as he picked up a gold helmet that was on a nearby table and placed it upon his head. "They are so easily predictable, aren't they Doctor?"

Corwin only had a few seconds to nod in agreement before the wall to the outside was suddenly blown open by Green Lantern's ring, drawing the two's attention to the three who had not come in with Flash earlier as John readied his ring for action while Solovar leveled his blaster on Grodd and Captain America simply took up a ready stance. "Don't move Grodd," Solovar warned.

"Solovar. You're a fool to come here," Grodd remarked as though he were greeting an old friend while admonishing said friend at the same time.

"And you can't control us while we're wearing these headbands," Captain America pointed out.

"Actually, Captain, I wasn't thinking of controlling any of you, or even Flash here," Grodd revealed as the red dial on his helmet glowed a little. "Why would I even bother attempting to do so, when I already control the most powerful human in the world?"

At that point, another wall was blown open, but this time it was accompanied by a very loud roar of anger, drawing the three's attention to where the Hulk had just burst into the room with a very angry, yet still extremely blank expression on his face. Hulk's entrance had ended up being more than enough to rouse Flash back into action, and he quickly dashed away from the lab table he had been laying on while playing possum in hopes of getting the other guys off guard, and over to where the others were as Hulk advanced towards them. That was when something none of them were expecting happened; just as he was about to reach them, the Hulk paused in his tracks and started shaking like he was fighting against himself in an attempt to stop himself from doing what Grodd wanted him to.

"What do you think you're doing," Grodd demanded. "Destroy them. Now."

"N…No…Hulk…not monster…will not…let stupid monkey…" the big guy struggled to growl.

"Well I must admit, you're resistance to my control is impressive for a human, but ultimately futile in the end," Grodd confessed as he increased the power of his helmet in an attempt to thwart Hulk's efforts of breaking free of his control.

When Hulk just roared in response, Lantern saw this as a chance to stop the guy for good, and instantly readied his ring to fire what he hoped would be a strong enough blast to subdue the Hulk for a while. Before he had a chance to fire though, he found his shot being blocked by his teammate as Flash raced forward thinking he could help Hulk break free of Grodd's control. "Hey big guy, come on. We don't want to fight you, and I get the feeling you don't want to fight us either," Flash reasoned. "If you can fight him off that much, then you should be able to fight him off completely, right? You're stronger than him and whatever stupid gizmo he's got. You just gotta remember who you are. You're Bruce Banner."

At first it seemed like Flash's attempt was working, but the minute he said that last sentence, the Hulk's hand had instantly snapped out and caught the speedster in its grasp, allowing Hulk to slam Flash into the wall with a force that would likely have caused any average person's bones to shatter. "Guess I should've warned you," Grodd mused in false apology. "He doesn't like it when people mention 'Puny Banner.'"

Seeing his friend in trouble while he still had a perfect shot, Green Lantern instantly acted and fired everything his ring had at the Hulk. The blast might not have been as strong as he would have liked it to be, due to the fact that he would have risked accidentally hurting Flash if it was, but it was still enough to blast Hulk off of the scarlet speedster and across the lab. That act had quickly earned him the Hulk's attention, and John was instantly raising an energy shield in an attempt to block the powerful punch that the gamma giant was soon sending at him. When the shield shattered and John was knocked back by the shockwave, Solovar and Captain America took their chance to jump in, with the captain charging directly towards Hulk with his shield forward while Solovar fired his blaster. Hulk easily shrugged off the blasts that were being fired at him, and was thus able to easily backhand Captain America away from him without any worries of being hurt by Solovar's blasts. With the super soldier out of the way for the moment, Hulk was free to charge Solovar and slam the ape into a nearby wall, knocking Solovar unconscious for the moment, and leaving him open for Hulk to finish off.

Thankfully, a certain vibranium shield redirected Hulk's attention from the unconscious gorilla and onto the super soldier that had caught said shield on his arm upon its return trip, and Captain America was quickly moving as fast as he could to avoid getting hit by the gamma giant again. During this time, Lantern and Flash were both able to get back to their feet again, and it was just in time to wince a little when they saw Cap actually land a hard kick to the Hulk in the one place where no man ever wanted to be hit. "I don't know if that's incredibly brave or the ultimate act of stupidity," Green Lantern mused as he used his ring to start forming a construct he could use to fight.

"I think it really depends on who it is that did it," Flash reasoned with a small smile, but that expression quickly turned to a scowl when he saw John's construct was a pair of large guns that was clearly meant for the Hulk. "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing with those," Flash demanded after he had run up to Lantern.

"What do you think I'm doing with them? Helping Cap take down a major, hostile threat," John replied like it was obvious.

"In case you forgot, he's not doing this of his own free will. He's being controlled by Grodd," Flash reminded John.

"I know that, and that's why we need to take him down before he kills us or someone else," John retorted. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but that's just how it is sometimes."

"And maybe you need to stop trying to muscle everyone into doing things the way you think is best and try actually listening to the guys who know what they're doing for once," Flash snapped, surprising John a bit with how angrily the speedster had sounded. "You may be in charge of keeping this whole space sector thing safe or whatever, but Central City is my territory, my responsibility, so if you really want to help keep it safe, then stop trying to treat this like some marine op and try actually doing things my way for once!"

If John was only a little surprised by Flash's sudden show of anger before, he was completely overwhelmed by it now, but he had to admit that the speedster had a point. While none of them were as sensitive about it as Batman, there was something of an unspoken rule among the heroes who protected a specific city over the rest of the world like how Superman did with Metropolis or Flash with Central City, and that rule was that if they asked another hero for help, then the other guy needed to at least try to let the local hero take the lead for the most part. Looking back, John had to admit that he had been acting like he was the one in charge here, but that was mostly due to the fact that most the times he was around Flash, the speedster was not really the most serious person in the room. At that moment though, John was finally seeing just how much of Flash's easy-going nature was really an act for the sake of the rest of the League, because there was no denying how tense most of the members tended to get in certain situations, and if it were not for Flash's ability to remain optimistic in even the darkest of times, there would be no telling where they would have ended up. After letting this sink in for a bit, John and Flash's attention was soon brought back to the matter at hand when Captain America was suddenly thrown through another wall by the Hulk, and John immediately said, "Alright, what's your plan?"

"Just try to keep Hulk busy for a while," Flash stated. "But do so without trying to hurt him too much."

Once the speedster had zipped away in his usual rush of speed, John could not help but mutter to himself, "He should probably be telling that Jade-Jaws over there."

If Flash had heard John's comment, he paid it no mind, but instead quickly grabbed one of the remaining headbands that Solovar had brought with him and started racing around the battlefield until he could find a suitable position to charge the Hulk from. Being able to move as fast as Flash does meant that he was able to find such a location in a matter of seconds and without being harmed by anything that was being thrown out by either side, be it Green Lantern's energy blasts, Captain America's thrown shield, or Hulk's huge fist. All Flash had to do now was wait for the right moment to make his charge, and he did not have to wait long. A moment after the speedster had gotten into position, Cap had somehow managed to knock Hulk off balance long enough for John to restrain him with as strong of a construct as he could manage against the Hulk's strength, and that was when Flash made his move, running straight towards the jade giant as fast as he could. While the world around him seemed to slow down, Flash jumped up onto a table that was close to Hulk and continued running towards the big guy until he was able to get on the Hulk's back long enough to slap the headband on Hulk's head. Such an action was not easy at first, as the headband did not fit so easily right away, but thankfully, the device was able to expand to accommodate the large size of Hulk's head, and the big guy soon fell flat on his face after Flash had jumped off of him and ran back over to his friends.

Seeing that the Hulk was now unconscious and likely free of Grodd's control, John could not help but pause for a moment as he looked from Flash to Hulk before he finally said, "Alright, I'll admit it; that was actually a good plan."

"Thank you," Flash nodded. "Now let's get Solovar up and go after Grodd. I saw him heading off to another lab with Corwin a couple of minutes ago."

The other two heroes immediately nodded in agreement, and then wasted no time in getting Solavar up again before heading off in the direction Flash had seen Grodd and the doctor leave in. When they reached the entrance of the room in question, Captain America raised a hand as a silent signal for everyone to wait a moment before they went charging in, and the group immediately moved to stand against the wall near the door as they heard the sounds of machinery powering up coming from inside, along with the voices of both Grodd and the Corwin. After moving towards the door as silently as they could, Cap and Solovar both glanced into the room, and were immediately greeted with the sight of a large, sophisticated device, which Corwin seemed to be powering up while Grodd was climbing aboard a hover bike like the one that Solovar was using.

"The system is operational," Corwin reported.

"Then we'll take our leave," Grodd nodded, allowing Corwin to climb aboard once she had finished, but he found himself halting their departure when Solovar decided that they could not wait any longer.

"Not this time," the silver ape shouted, and he quickly opened fire on the traitor to Gorilla City. Sadly, none of his shots ever so much as grazed the two, as they were intercepted by a transparent barrier that Solovar clearly recognized if the look of fearful shock on his face was any indication.

Grodd on the other hand could not have looked more smug as he casually drove his escape vehicle over to an exit on the other side of the barrier, and called out, "My apologies for the hasty exit, but I have a city to destroy!"

When Grodd hit the trigger on a small, black remote, the machine that Corwin had been preparing instantly came blazing to life with a large, orange and yellow orb forming in the center before said orb started to expand and grow. Seeing the look of distress on Solovar's face was all the indication that the heroes needed to tell them that they needed to stop the device from activating, and Lantern instantly fired everything his ring could spare at the device, hoping to destroy it. Sadly, his efforts had no more success at breaking through the shield than Solavar's gun had, and the same was soon apparent when Flash tried to vibrate himself through the barrier so he could try to shut it down from the control console that Corwin was using. Seeing that his friends were not succeeding in slowing the energy orb's expansion, Captain America immediately dived towards Solovar and moved the ape behind him so that his shield would be taking as much of the damage from Grodd's device as possible, but even his indestructible shield could not keep the energy sphere Grodd had activated at bay, and soon enough, all of their group were met with an incredible flash of light before they all lost consciousness.


Flash was not sure how long he was out for this time, but he was not entirely sure he wanted to know, given what had happened before he had been knocked out. The first thing the speedster registered as he started to come around though, was that he was definitely alive, somehow, and the second thing he noticed, was that someone or something was gently nudging his side. When Flash finally came to completely, the first thing he registered was that something really big and green was standing over him, and considering that it was too big to be Green Lantern, that only left one possibility as to who it was standing over him. As soon as his accelerated healing had managed to bring him around completely, Flash was back on his feet and racing a reasonable distance away before leveling his gaze with the Hulk, who had previously been kneeling over him a minute ago, and said, "Okay big guy, I know we probably didn't get off on the right foot or anything, but before you try to smash me, try to remember that my friends and I freed you from Grodd's mind control, so please don't smash me."

Hulk just stared at Flash for a minute, until finally the jade giant did something that Barry was not expecting at all; Hulk started laughing. "Streaky funny," Hulk said as he pointed at Flash.

"Uh…so you're not going to hurt me or my friends," Flash asked, just to make sure he understood correctly.

Hulk's laugh immediately died down at that question, and he scowled a little before growling, "Hulk not hurt anyone. Hulk smashes bad people and stupid Ross."

"Right sorry," Flash immediately replied. "But I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't smash me or my friends before I started waking them up."

Hulk turned to glance over the other two Leaguers and Solavar for a minute, and then looked back at Flash as he said, "Hulk going to hit Glow-Stick for shooting Hulk, but not smash Streaky's friends."

Flash considered Hulk's words for a minute and eventually nodded in acceptance before he started waking up the other three. True to his word, the minute Green Lantern was awake again Hulk did indeed punch John for blasting him, much to the Lantern's irritation until Flash explained the reasoning behind said action. John just nodded in begrudging acceptance of the reason, and then looked to the green giant and asked, "Why'd you stay and wait for us to wake up, anyway?"

"Hulk wanted to punch Glow-Stick for shooting at him, but Hulk also wanted to make sure puny Justice League not hurt since stupid bad monkey made Hulk try to smash Justice League," Hulk replied with a snarl. "Hulk hate stupid bad monkey. Hulk smash monkey!"

"Easy there, soldier, we'll get Grodd, but let's come up with a plan first since it seems that Grodd's device wasn't meant to kill us," Captain America calmly reasoned with Hulk.

"Maybe we should start by getting some backup," Green Lantern suggested, throwing Flash a quick look to make sure that was okay with him. When the speedster nodded to show that he agreed, John immediately tapped his League communicator in an attempt to reach the Watchtower, only to be met with static instead. "My comm. link's offline," John informed the others.

"…Mine too," Flash revealed after he made his own attempt to contact the League's space-based headquarters.

"Same here," Captain America added as he lowered his hand from his own attempt.

"And for good reason," Solovar stated, drawing everyone's attention to where the silver gorilla was standing, looking out towards the sky through the hole that he, Lantern, and Cap had all come in through. When the four looked out to see what Solavar was looking at, they did not need long to see what looked to be a strange, distorted barrier that almost appeared to be like a fog over the city with how it made the night sky seem so hard to see.

"What is that," Flash gasped, his concern and worry showing through his voice.

"It's just like the shield that protects my city," Solovar stated. "Nothing can get in…"

"Or out," Captain America finished.

"Unless I can shut down the generator," Green Lantern argued as he turned towards the room that the generator was located in. Once he was standing before the generator, Green Lantern fired everything he had at the generator, but his blast was easily blocked and deflected by the energy field surrounding it as well much to nearly everyone's surprise.

"Whoa. Not even a scratch," Flash gasped in shock, having hardly ever seen something remain so unscathed after being hit by a blast from John's ring.

"Gorilla technology is highly advanced," Solovar reasoned.

"Humph. Techno-thingy is techno-thingy, and all techno-thingies can be smashed," Hulk roared, and soon enough he too was trying to break the generator. Hulk's efforts were impressive, but they did not yield anymore results than Green Lantern's did. Even so, Hulk did not seem like he was planning on giving up in his attempts to smash the generator anytime soon.

Seeing this, Flash immediately ran up to the big guy and said, "Easy there, Hulk. Don't want to tire yourself out wasting strength like that. If you want to help stop Grodd, then we're gonna need everyone at their best."

Hulk looked between the generator and Flash for a minute, as if he were honestly weighing his options, until he finally huffed, "Fine. Hulk can smash shield-thingy later."

"Then come; we must find Grodd," Solovar stated as he turned to lead the way out of the building.

"Wait a minute. Gimme one good reason why we should let this guy tag along," John asked as he pointed to Hulk. "He's done nothing but cause mindless destruction without a care in the world from day one."

"Doesn't seem so mindless or careless to me," Captain America pointed out, with Flash nodding in agreement.

"Hulk not smash carelessly anymore. Hulk not smash like that in long time," Hulk growled in revelation. "Hulk just want to be left alone because stupid people think Hulk is monster, but stupid Ross just chase and attack Hulk. Blames Hulk for destruction Ross caused."

"Look, none of us are gonna lie and say that Ross is the greatest guy to be around, but why would he be after you at all," Flash asked.

Hulk seemed to gain far off look, as if he were remembering something, until he finally explained, "Because Ross wants to make more of Hulk. Abomination, Zzzax, the Leader, all Ross' attempts to make more of Hulk in same way that Hulk was born. Ross wants to make army of Hulk because he thinks Hulk is just a monster that's only good as a weapon."

The three Leaguers all exchanged surprised looks at this new information. They were all able to tell that Ross did not care about who got in his line of fire if it meant he could get the Hulk, but they had no idea that it was for something like this, or even that he was that desperate to get what he wanted. It really made them wonder how no one had managed to figure out that this was Ross' true intention yet, even if someone in the government was trying to cover it all up. Eventually, Steve had to ask, "How were you created Hulk?"

"Puny Banner scientist that was supposed to help create more of you for Ross, Flag-Man," Hulk revealed. "Thought he could do it with gamma rays. Didn't work the way Banner wanted it to, and Hulk was end result."

That definitely made Steve mad. He knew that a lot of people would have wanted to recreate Erskine's serum, but to hear that someone like Ross wanted to do so in a way that resulted in something like this was definitely not something that the super soldier was pleased with at all. Looking over to his teammates, he quickly got a nod in reply from Flash, and eventually from John as well, which prompted Captain America to ask, "Do you really want to not let people get hurt?"

"Hulk not want to hurt anyone unless they hurt Hulk or someone else," the gamma giant replied.

"Well then help us stop Grodd, because if he gets away with this, a lot of people will get hurt," Steve reasoned.

"Hulk already wants to smash stupid bad monkey. Don't need Flag-Man, Glow-Stick, Streaky, or other monkey's help," Hulk growled.

"We're not saying you do need our help; we're saying that we need your help," Flash stated. That got Hulk to pause for a minute in confusion, allowing the speedster to explain, "We have no idea what Grodd's planning, and depending on how tough his mind control tech is, there's a good chance that Ross' guys and a lot of other people are now under his control. These headbands that we're all wearing right now may keep us safe from that mind control, but we'll still need a lot of muscle if we want to help the people of my city." When Hulk did not say anything in response to this, Flash continued to press on. "Look big guy, this is my hometown, and I don't want to see it be destroyed in any way at all, but when it comes to something like this, I can't save it alone, and that's why I'm asking…no, I'm begging you to help me save my home. Please."

Hulk did not need to hear the desperation in Flash's voice to know the speedster was being completely honest in what he said, but that did not mean he was willing to help with this either, because he knew that once this was all over, no one would admit that he had helped, and they would all go right back to treating him like a monster again. He was about to say no and leave, when another voice that only he could hear suddenly made itself known to him. "You really should help."

Turning to glance in the voice's direction, Hulk was soon greeted with the image of Bruce Banner. The gamma scientist had started talking to Hulk in his mind like this a while back, and vice-versa, each of them voicing their opinions on matters at times, but the one thing that Banner would always try to convince Hulk of was that he could prove to the world that he was one of the good guys, despite how often Hulk had made it clear to his other half that he did not believe it for a second. "You're already planning to go after Grodd, so why not help them," Banner continued to press on. "Can you really just ignore how desperate Flash is to save his home? What if this were Vista Verde and they were the only hope we had of saving it?"

"Doesn't matter. It'll just end the same way as it always does. Besides, Hulk not remember Justice League coming to help him before," Hulk argued aloud, drawing confused looks from everyone when they saw Hulk talking to thin air like that.

"Maybe it won't," Banner stated. "It's like I keep telling you. Walk away from a situation where you can help, and you really will be a monster. More importantly, if people see you standing with other heroes, helping them save lives, then maybe people will start to see the Hulk as a hero as well; that you can be a force for good."

Hulk seemed to regard Banner's words for a few more minutes before he finally looked back to the heroes, who were still looking at him weirdly for apparently talking to himself like that, and said, "Alright, Hulk help save Streaky's city from bad monkey."

Flash just beamed in response to this while John let out a silent sigh of exasperation at hearing that they were actually accepting help from someone like the Hulk, and with that, the five quickly departed from what was left of the research labs to chase after Grodd.


When the group first made it back into Central City, they were a bit put off by the fact that the city seemed like a near ghost town at first, until they followed the sounds of an excited crowd to the center of Flash's hometown to see that everyone had gathered there as Grodd gave a rather long-winded speech on how the age of humanity was over and how Central City would be the starting point for Grodd's new empire once Gorilla City was destroyed, and from the way that the people were cheering for him, it was clear that they were too late to stop Grodd from taking over the minds of everyone in the city. When asked if he had anymore headbands to break Grodd's control, Solovar had to sadly inform the heroes that he did not have nearly enough for the entirety of Central City, or even enough to break the hold Grodd now had over the entirety of Ross' Hulkbuster Unit that was standing guard around the perimeter of the gathering.

Seeing as they would not be very likely to reach Grodd without going through Ross' troops and the possessed people of Central City, the five dropped back a little bit so that they could start drawing up some theories on what Grodd's exact plan was and how to stop it. That was when John brought up something that had been bothering him since they left the science labs. "Why would he come to Central City in the first place," the Green Lantern asked.

"Uh, care to explain the reasoning for that question," Flash requested.

"Why would Grodd come to Central City? Aside from Doctor Corwin, there's no real reason for him to come here, and even after he met her, he could've just left with her to go somewhere else, like someplace that was a bit more secluded and out of the way, but he stayed here to carry out his plans," John explained. "Even with all the metahuman activity in this city, it doesn't really make much sense as to what Grodd could gain that would help him achieve what he wants."

"Well he did have the Hulk under his control. Maybe he took control of the big guy to get Ross and his men out here. They are equipped with some serious hardware," Captain America suggested.

"No, stupid monkey started trying to control Hulk after Puny Banner came into town and went to science place," Hulk argued. "Thought he could ask some old science friends for help in hiding from Ross since he was already close behind."

"So Hulk was just an improvised part of the plan," Flash reasoned, his face scrunched up in thought as he tried to think of a reason for Grodd choosing Central City as his starting point, until it sudden clicked for him. "He must've come here to get his hands on the military base."

"There's a military base in Central City," Solovar asked.

"It's actually right on the edge of the city," Flash explained. "They set it up shortly after the event that created all of the metahumans in the first place as a way to contain the situation in case it ever got out of control…and that base is armed with a number of missiles that could destroy Gorilla City."

"Assuming they could get through the force field around the city," Captain America pointed out.

"Grodd was one of the brightest minds in Gorilla City. Not only will he be able to get those missiles through the barrier, I have no doubt that he'll also be able to force Gorilla City's shield to shut down remotely without ever leaving wherever he is now," Solovar stated.

"Then we've got to get to that military base before he does," Green Lantern stated, and no one had any arguments on the matter, for a minute after he had said that, the five were soon racing off again in the hopes that they would reach the military base before Grodd did. Unfortunately, they arrived too late, as evidenced by the sight of Grodd's hover bike being parked at the entrance.

After knocking out a possessed guard that had tried to stop them, Solovar quickly broke through the gate and shouted, "Hurry, before Grodd finds out we're here!"

When an alarm suddenly started ringing throughout the base, Hulk quickly said, "Hulk thinks stupid bad monkey already knows."

"No, that's a launch alert," Green Lantern shouted in alarm, and he was proven right when four missiles suddenly burst forth from their containment bays in the ground and flew straight up into the sky.

Without wasting a minute, Cap quickly climbed aboard Grodd's hover bike and started flying it towards the missiles as he shouted, "Lantern and I will go after the missiles. Flash, you, Solovar, and Hulk stop Grodd!"

With Cap's orders given, the team quickly split into their assigned groups with Lantern immediately flying after the super soldier as fast as his ring could take him and Flash turning to lead both Hulk and Solovar into the base. Before they went in though, Solovar had to ask, "How did Captain America figure out how to operate that hover bike so quickly?"

"He must've been watching very closely when he saw you driving yours," Flash answered. "Cap's got a photographic memory, so it was probably easy for him to figure it out. More importantly, how're we going to stop Grodd?"

"We smash him," Hulk growled as he punched a fist into his palm.

"Yeah, that's a given, but it's not going to be that straight forward, Hulk," Flash explained.

"Hulk knows that; Hulk not dumb," the jade giant snapped. "And Hulk has plan."

Flash was a bit skeptical at first about any plan that Hulk might have, along with the idea that Hulk was not dumb given how the guy talked, but after hearing what the big guy had in mind, Flash could not stop himself from smiling in approval of the idea that the gamma giant had come up with, and simply said, "Yeah, that ought to work."


Batman was not really sure how his day could go from just a typical routine thing to something that was completely crazy like the situation he was in right now. It had all started out peaceful enough, or at least as peaceful as it could be when someone lives in Gotham, when Diana had contacted him and told him that Central City had seemingly vanished, while an energy field of some type was now covering the area where Flash's city once was. After getting the specifics of the energy dome from the scanners in the Javelin, it was an easy enough task for the Bat-Computer to track down any similar or matching energy patterns to the dome around Central City's location, which had led Batman, J'onn, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman out to Africa where another dome that was practically identical to the first one was located. Batman had managed to arrive a little sooner than the other three and was thus able to get a few scans to confirm that the energy fields were identical to one another, but before the four could investigate any further, something suddenly sprang out of the nearby grass and shot them, rendering them all unconscious.

When the Leaguers eventually came around again, they were all shackled in what was obviously a prison cell. This was of no surprise to any of them, seeing as they had been captured by various different types of individuals before, each of which had failed to detain the heroes for very long, but what did come as a surprise was that this time around, their captors were intelligent gorillas. Aside from this fact, the only thing that they learned about the situation was that they were in a place called Gorilla City, and these apes seemed to think that they were spies who were trying to bring harm to their home. There was also the fact that J'onn was unable to phase through his restraints, but that just meant that Batman would end up having to be the one who would be the first to break free, so while the apes were interrogating the others, Batman took the time to use one of his lock-picks to open his own restraints. Batman did not really like the idea of using the others as decoys while he tried to escape, especially given the treatment that they were being subjected to as they tried to tell their captors their reasons for being here in the first place, but at the moment, the Dark Knight could not really see any other options.

"Quit stalling spy," an ape with a large scar over his left eye growled after he had slammed J'onn against the cell wall. "Tell me who sent you!"

"No one sent us," J'onn repeated for the umpteenth time since this interrogation had begun.

"LIES," the ape shouted, and he immediately slapped J'onn down to the floor again while the other three could only watch for the moment. "I want the truth, or you'll all pay most dearly! I'll give you all one last chance," the ape informed the Leaguers before his gaze finally came to rest on Hawkgirl. "Starting with you."

"Take your best shot," Shayera challenged.

The scarred ape intended to do just that, but just as he was reeling his paw back to strike the redheaded Leaguer, Batman finally made his move, showing that he had managed to finally break free when he did, by throwing a powerful bola at the ape. The gorilla was soon wrapped up tightly in Batman's weapon, his arms pinned to his side, and Batman was quick to fire a grapple towards the ceiling so that he was soon flying upwards above everyone. With this new vantage point, Batman was easily able to toss a batarang into Diana's cuffs, allowing her to break free as well and toss one of the guards aside like a rag doll before he could fire even a single shot at the hero of Gotham. Hawkgirl then took the chance to leap up and slam her knee into their interrogator's chin before using her wings to put her just high enough above him so that she could bring both of her feet down on him to further knock him out of the fight. Eventually, Batman released his line's hold on the ceiling and quickly knocked out another pair of the gorilla guards with a few quick punches after tossing another batarang into J'onn's cuffs. When another gorilla was about to shoot him, Diana stepped in the way and deflected the blasts with her bracelets, letting J'onn finally break free and land a finishing blow. Soon enough, the four Leaguers had subdued each of their captors with minimal difficulty at all, which showed just how greatly these apes had underestimated the heroes, and after they had confirmed the apes were all knocked out, the team paused only long enough for J'onn to free Shayera from her own restraints and then let Hawkgirl retrieve her mace from where it had been set down on the ground.

"Let's go," Hawkgirl told everyone as she charged up her weapon, and with a powerful cry of effort, she was easily able to open a hole in the wall that the team was able to slip through so that they could leave Gorilla City. They soon saw more reason as to why the place was named as such, as the whole city seemed to possess technology that was likely years beyond anything anyone on Earth had at the moment, judging by the design of the buildings and vehicles alone, and everywhere they looked, they were greeted with the sight of gorillas walking around and going about their day like any other humans would in another big city, at least until they spotted the Justice League passing by and started to panic a little, some even shouting to call for security after they had seen the heroes.

"What madness is this," Diana wondered aloud.

"Let's not wait around to find out," Hawkgirl suggested, and she quickly picked up her pace a little so that she was flying just a little distance ahead of both Diana and J'onn, making a beeline for the edge of the city where they hoped that their transports were still waiting for them with Batman following as close behind as he could on foot and with a few swings from his grapple. Just when it seemed like they were home free, the two women of the League suddenly struck the very barrier they had been investigating earlier with a force that felt similar to colliding with a brick wall. Thankfully, J'onn was able to swoop down and catch both of his female teammates before they had hit the ground just as Batman had finally managed to catch up with them, but the downside was that now they were cornered and surrounded by a small army of the intelligent apes, all riding on hover bikes with weapons aimed at them.

"Try to escape like that again, and I promise you will regret it," the interrogator from before warned the Leaguers. Both groups were more than willing to start fighting each other again, but before they could, the barrier behind the League seemed to shimmer and ripple in a way that immediately caused a state of alarm amongst the apes. "The shield wall! It's shutting down," the ape with a scarred eye exclaimed. "Get it back up, immediately!"

"It's not responding," an ape who was working a control tablet soon reported after tapping a few of the controls. "Someone's overridden the system."

"Grodd," the lead ape growled in a low tone of anger.

"Sir, defense scans have detected armed missiles headed this way," another ape then reported as he pulled up alongside his commander. "What are your orders?"

The leader of the apes did not hesitate to give the requested orders, but it was not an order that he ever thought he would have to give. "Evacuate the city, immediately."

"But what about the humans," a brown furred gorilla asked.

"I've got bigger problems now," the leader retorted as he turned his bike around to head back into the city, but he was soon freezing in his departure when one of said humans suddenly spoke up.

"Maybe we can help," Wonder Woman offered.

The ape was surprised that four people they had previously been holding prisoner under the suspicion of being spies would be so willing to offer any help to them, but he was really more skeptical about one thing than anything else. "What can you possibly do to save us," the leading gorilla inquired in full disbelief.

The four members of the Justice League merely exchanged a confident look between themselves before Hawkgirl hefted her mace with a smirk and said only two words in reply. "Just watch."


Grodd was feeling really good right now. Sure he may have lost what little control he had over the Hulk, but that was only a minor setback in his grand scheme, because he had achieved everything else he needed to win in the end. He gained access to the missiles in the military base, launched said missiles at Gorilla City, and now all he had to do was just sit back and wait for about five minutes or so until at least one of those missiles hit his former home. Grodd's revenge was now well within in his reach, and nothing could prevent him from achieving it now. Or at least, that is what it seemed like until Corwin told him something he had not expected to hear.

"Missile Number One deactivated," the doctor stated, stirring Grodd from any thoughts he had of taking a nap until the missiles had hit.

"What happened," the traitor to Gorilla City demanded.

"Best guess: it was either my buddy with the power ring or my patriotic pal with the indestructible shield," a voice that was quickly becoming irritatingly familiar replied, causing Grodd to turn around and see Flash, Solavar, and Hulk standing in the doorway.

"You again," Grodd grumbled.

"Grodd, you're under arrest for crimes against Gorilla City," Solavar stated.

"In five more minutes, there won't be a Gorilla City," Grodd retorted.

"And in a minute, Grodd will be smashed," Hulk roared in retort, and he immediately prepared to charge the evil gorilla, only to stop in his tracks when what appeared to be a web suddenly splattered into his face.

"What the…" Flash started to say, only to be interrupted when his legs were suddenly trapped in webs as well along with Solavar's gun hand. Looking to where the shot had come from, Flash had to gasp in shock when he saw Spider-Man sitting on the ceiling above them with one hand still pointed towards them ready to fire more webs.

Grodd could only smirk at the speedster's look of disbelief before he boasted, "You didn't think that Hulk was the only 'menace to society' I had placed under my control, did you? You'd be surprised how much help Spider-Man's been in making sure I get here with no one even realizing it."

Flash was immediately reminded of when Steve had told him earlier that Spider-Man had gone missing a few weeks ago, and now the reason had been thrown right in his face, much to his shock. After another minute of staring at the web-head, Flash found the only thing he could say in response to this was, "This is so not what I had envisioned when I pictured my first meeting with Spider-Man."


Captain America and Green Lantern's pursuit of the missiles that Grodd had fired was definitely something that would cause even Batman to be on the edge of his seat, given how fast the two were having to go just to keep up with the projectiles, but thankfully, John's ring and Cap's commandeered hover bike were able to get the job done relatively easily. After a few minutes of flying said vehicle, Cap could not help but smirk a little as he made a mental note to ask Stark to consider designing something like this for him later on, or even to try making some modifications to his own motorcycle so that it was flight capable, especially since there was only so much he could do to help out the League when most of its members were able to fly. That was a matter for another day though, because right now, they needed to focus on stopping the missiles.

The first missile was easily taken out thanks to John's ring, but he was forced to move back a little after he had disarmed the thing so that he would not be caught in the explosion that had resulted from his efforts. Thankfully, Captain America had managed to press on ahead, knowing that John would be able to disable that first missile easily enough, so he was soon close enough to the second missile to jump off the hover bike and onto the missile itself. After he had situated himself at the point where he would be right above where the detonator was located, Cap slammed the edge of his shield into the missile's outer shell and pried the metal aside so that he could reach in and pull out the wires that he needed to disconnect in order to disarm the missile. With that done, Cap immediately leapt clear of the missile, back down onto the hover bike, which he somehow managed to set to autopilot before jumping on the missile, and flew away before the missile could explode.

Captain America was glad that he had disabled the missile, but his mood soon changed when he saw that a large piece of metal from the missile had struck John in the head, rendering him unconscious as a result. Steve was quick to react, and immediately redirected his bike so that he would come up right underneath John, allowing him to catch the Green Lantern before he fell to his death on the mountains of Africa. Once he had a firm grip on John, Steve pulled his teammate onto the bike and then fired its engines to their maximum output so that they could reach the last two before they hit their target, but sadly, at their current pace, it did not seem likely that they would make it in time.


"Missile Number Two deactivated," Corwin gasped in shock when she lost the signal from the missile that was just disabled by Captain America.

Grodd just scowled in response while Solavar smirked and said, "Even with us pinned down like this, you've still lost, Grodd."

"No! I won't lose to the likes of you," Grodd protested as he lunged at Solavar, only to be intercepted by Hulk before he could reach his old enemy.

"Hulk told stupid monkey that he would get smashed," Hulk grinned in excitement, only to find his fist being held back by another of Spider-Man's webs.

"Seems like you're having a bit of trouble with that today, doesn't it," Grodd mocked the Hulk, and he took his own swing at the gamma giant, allowing for him to be released from the hold that Hulk had on him and then continue charging towards Solavar.

Just when he was about to be within arm's reach of Solavar though, Grodd was suddenly knocked to the side, courtesy of Flash much to the mind-controlling gorilla's shock. "How did you…" Grodd started to ask.

"I can vibrate my molecules so fast that I'm able to phase through solid objects without any trouble," Flash boasted. "Didn't think of that when you had Webs try and tie me down, did you?"

Grodd just snarled at the speedster and then tried to retaliate for the strike that Flash had made on him, but Central City's defender was easily able to stay ahead of Grodd's strikes thanks to his super speed until he finally disappeared from sight completely. While Flash continued to keep Grodd busy, Hulk managed to get Spider-Man in a firm hold that the web-swinger could not escape from and slid the headband that Flash had placed on him earlier onto Spidey's head, freeing New York's friendly neighborhood hero from Grodd's mind control. "Huh? Who? What? Where," Spider-Man asked with a start before he realized the position he was in. "Uh…please tell me you're just giving me a bear hug and not about to crush my bones."

Hulk just smirked in reply as he let Spidey go and said, "Hulk not want to smash Bug-Man. Just stupid monkey that was controlling Bug-Man."

"Stupid monkey? And Bug-Man? Seriously," Spider-Man inquired in disbelief until he saw Flash giving Grodd the run-around in more ways than one. "Oh, right. Now I remember. I was responding to a call about an escaped gorilla on the loose when suddenly everything went black. You mean that I was being controlled by said gorilla the whole time?"

"Yep," Hulk nodded.

At that response, Spider-Man's eyes immediately narrowed behind his mask, and he immediately web-zipped himself towards Grodd, allowing him to land a hard kick on the black furred gorilla after Grodd had found himself suddenly off-balance because of Flash's constant evasion of his hits. "Hey, King Kong! Nobody makes a monkey out of me and gets to walk away so easily," Spider-Man shouted. "Oh and by the way, you are not getting any bananas from me anytime soon!"

Grodd immediately kicked Spider-Man in the chest for that remark and said, "That was for both that banana joke and the one you made when we first met. I hate bananas."

"Good to know," Flash stated as he suddenly ran up and hit Grodd with a punch that was backed up by the amount of energy he had gathered from his super speed charge.

Grodd was about to launch another attack on the two heroes in retaliation when he noticed that Hulk was no longer wearing a headband to block out his mind control, and he immediately grinned in response. "Destroy these pathetic humans, monster," Grodd commanded as he directed his helmet's powers onto Hulk. For a minute it seemed like Grodd was going to successfully take control of Hulk once again, but then, the evil gorilla was suddenly knocked back by an unseen force while the Hulk just roared in anger. "Impossible," Grodd protested. "How could you…"

Hulk's answer to Grodd's question was instantly roared out before he could finish, while the gamma giant punctuated it with a shockwave that was brought about by clapping his hands together. "NO ONE CONTROLS THE HULK!"


Captain America was now gritting his teeth in desperation as he tried his hardest to catch up to the last two missiles before they could reach Gorilla City, but there was no hiding the fact that even if John were to wake up now, it would not make a difference. This was made clear to the Green Lantern when he finally woke up and asked, "What happened? Did we stop all the missiles?"

"No. We're too late," Captain America said with despair, prompting John to widen his eyes in shock when he realized just how far behind the last two missiles they were. It only took a few seconds for John to realize why they had lost so much ground, and he was quick to bow his head in shame for the fact that they probably would have managed to stop all the missiles if he had managed to avoid that slab of metal that hit him and Cap had not been forced to turn around to save him from falling to his death. His pity party was short lived though, because his attention was quickly brought forward once again when Cap suddenly said, "Wait, what's that?"

The thing that Captain America had spotted was actually J'onn, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman flying up from Gorilla City to intercept the missiles before they could get much closer, much to both Green Lantern and Captain America's surprise. When they saw J'onn phase through one of the missiles in order to retrieve its control box, John quickly leapt off of the hover bike to fly over to his Martian teammate just in time to see J'onn crush the item in question. "How'd you all get here so quickly," John asked once he had reached J'onn.

"I believe the short version would be to say that it is a long story," J'onn replied before turning to watch Hawkgirl smash the fourth missile in half with her mace and then destroy the lower half of the projectile a few seconds later.

Unfortunately, the other half of the missile that Hawkgirl had broken apart was still on a collision course with Gorilla City, and Wonder Woman was quick to place herself in front of it in the hopes of stopping it from reach its target, or at least slowing it down enough so that it would not bring the destruction it promised when it did hit. When the citizens of Gorilla City saw the warhead approaching, they immediately scattered to find cover, with Batman directing them to safer locations, only to wince a little when he saw both Diana and the warhead suddenly run crashing through a building on their descent towards the ground. As they drew closer and closer to the ground, Diana soon found herself praying to Hera for strength as she often did in such situations, not knowing that a certain patriotic hero had been watching on in concern since she first intercepted the missile.

When both Wonder Woman and the missile finally hit the ground, Steve felt his heart rate skyrocket in response as both skidded along the ground until they missile finally came to a stop with the Amazon princess still underneath it. "DIANA," Steve shouted in horror when he finally landed the hover bike, and he was soon racing towards where the missile had finally come to a stop so that he could attempt to dig Wonder Woman out.

Eventually, a crowd had started to form around the crash site to watch as the captain desperately tried to dig his friend out, which was eventually joined by the rest of the League who had been in the area. While each of the Leaguers were bearing looks of sadness at both the likelihood of having lost one of their own along with seeing Cap's desperate attempt to save her, the citizens of Gorilla City were looking on in both sadness and surprise. These humans, who they had thought were here to bring harm to their city had just saved their home, right to the point where one of them seemed to have given her life for them while asking for nothing in return. The question of how they could have thought that these people were spies that were sent to harm them was running through all their minds along with the feeling of despair for the heroes' apparent loss.

Eventually, Batman could no longer stand by and watch as Captain America struggled to find their friend, and slowly walked over to place a placating hand on Steve's shoulder, getting him to finally stop digging so that he could turn to look at the Dark Knight's face. When he saw that a look of sorrow was seeping through his normally stoic façade, Steve finally lowered his head in sadness and acceptance of what everyone else had already started to think, until the metal of the warhead suddenly started to groan and creak, prompting them both to move back from it. After another minute or so, the missile was finally thrown to the side, revealing Wonder Woman underneath it, tired but alive, much to everyone's shock and beaming pleasure.

After crushing the missile's control box, Diana moved to stand alongside her teammates as she addressed the citizens of Gorilla City. "The fates were kind today. Your city is safe."

The gathered crowd of apes immediately burst into cheers upon hearing this, praising the six humans who had risked their lives to save Gorilla City, giving Wonder Woman the chance to discreetly throw Steve a knowing smile. Cap was a bit unsure as to the reason for Diana's look, until she glanced down at his gloves, which were now covered in dirt from when he was digging around the missile a minute ago, hiding a good deal of the red that they were normally colored with. Steve immediately started to blush a little as he moved his hands behind his back while he tried to stutter some kind of excuse for his behavior, but that stuttering was instantly silenced while his face turned crimson when Diana planted a small kiss of thanks on his cheek. Steve turned away a little after Diana had pulled away in an attempt to hide the small smile that had crept onto his face, but his efforts only forced him to take in the knowing looks that the rest of his teammates, including Batman, were all throwing him, much to his slight irritation.


"Missile Number Four has been deactivated," Corwin exclaimed when she saw that the last missile shut off, while Gorilla City remained unscathed on the monitors.

Hearing this immediately made Grodd's blood boil as he turned to the three heroes and growled, "I'll rend you all limb from limb!"

"Gotta catch us first, Banana Breath," Spider-Man easily quipped in reply as he flipped over Grodd while the others just moved to either side to avoid the mind controlling gorilla's charge, leading Grodd to collide with the monitor of a nearby computer.

Grodd was about to charge in and throw a rage-fueled punch at Spider-Man for his banana-breath joke, when he suddenly found his helmet being pushed down over his eyes and then continuously hit like a bongo drum. "Guess who," Flash stated before he rushed away from Grodd's blind retaliation.

Grodd quickly readjusted his helmet back into its original position on his head, but it was only just in time to see Hulk charge him with a roar, sending him flying to the other side of the room. Grodd tried to hit either the speedster or the web-head when he saw that both were within his striking range, but both were able to quickly move away from him before he could, leaving him open to another hit from Hulk. "Do you intend to let the monster fight your battle for you, you irritating simpletons," Grodd demanded. "Stand still and fight me!"

"Okay, one, why would we stand still to fight you if that's just gonna result in us getting hurt? And two, we can't really fight you at all if we're going to be standing still," Spider-Man joked getting a laugh out of Flash in response.

"I'm loving this guy," Flash muttered before he turned his attention to Grodd. "You know what, Grodd; I will fight you on one condition. You ditch the mind control helmet, and I'll ditch the headband."

"Flash don't," Solavar warned, thinking Flash had lost his mind, but the speedster did not seem to acknowledge his warning.

"Come on Gorilla-My-Dreams, take off the helmet and make it a fair fight," Flash dared, and he then did something that made them all question the speedster's sanity; Flash removed his headband before Grodd had even reached to remove his helmet.

When he saw Flash toss his headband to the floor well out of arm's reach, Grodd could only smirk at the speedster's actions, feeling that Flash had just given him the golden opportunity he needed to win here and escape so that he could have his revenge another day. "You're a bigger fool than I believed the arachnid to be," Grodd chuckled to Flash.

"Hey, I resent that remark! And at least he's not naked like you," Spider-Man retorted.

The web-head's retort quickly earned him odd looks from everyone in the room until Flash finally asked, "Really? 'At least he's not naked?' Is that the best you've got?"

"What? My jokes get worse when I'm really stressed out," Spider-Man defended.

"I'm sure no one will miss your so-called wit after I've had Central City's hero destroy you for me, Spider-Man. And now, goodbye Flash," Grodd smirked as he activated his helmet. What happened next was not what Grodd had expected; instead of entering Flash's mind so he could seize control of the speedster, he was suddenly hit by a powerful shock from the device that quickly rendered him unconscious, and possibly even comatose. When he finally fell to the ground, a horrified Doctor Corwin was quick to race to his side.

"What've you done to him," Corwin demanded of the heroes.

"Hey, don't look at me! Whatever happened just now was not my fault," Spider-Man instantly protested.

"Yeah, that was me actually," Flash revealed. "When I pushed the helmet down over his eyes earlier I also crossed a few wires."

"Yep, just like Puny Banner planned," Hulk smirked with pride, knowing that Banner was smirking within their shared consciousness right now.

"How could you? You've destroyed the greatest mind on Earth," Corwin demanded in sorrow, drawing concerned looks from everyone.

"Uh lady, you do know that you're free from Grodd's mind control, right," Spider-Man asked.

Corwin just looked at the web-head in disbelief before she revealed, "He never used that on me. I loved him."

The other four occupants of the room just stared at Corwin for a few minutes before Flash finally shrugged and said, "Internet romances, huh? Go figure."

"And I thought my love life sucked," Spider-Man muttered. That was when the web-head saw something on a monitor that was sending in a feed from one of the perimeter security cameras that quickly made him concerned. "Uh guys, we've got company, and I don't think they want to share a few drinks."

Looking to the monitor allowed everyone to see Ross and his Hulkbuster Unit gathered outside the perimeter of the base, while the general in question was shouting out a demand for the Hulk to step out of the base and surrender now, much to Hulk's ire. Hulk was more than willing to go charging out of the base and smash his way through Ross and his troops, even if there was a chance that he would not likely make it, but he did not get the chance to even start his charge when Flash suddenly raced over to Solavar and said, "See if you can get the shield control device off of Grodd so we can shut down the barrier around the city. The rest of us will take care of Ross and his boys."

Solavar just nodded in response to Flash's request and immediately set to work while the two masked heroes and Hulk headed for the exit so that they could face Ross and his Hulkbuster. As they were heading out, Flash nervously looked over to the web-head and said, "Um, I know this isn't really the best time and all, but despite the circumstances, it is an honor to meet you, sir, Spider-Man, sir."

Spider-Man shook his head a little before turning a disbelieving look towards the speedster and asked, "You…consider it an honor…for you to meet me?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, you've been around for almost as long as Batman, or even longer. You're like, the first modern day superhero, Mister Spider-Man, sir," Flash insisted.

"Oh…wow, uh, thanks," Spider-Man finally nodded after a minute. "But don't call me sir, or Mister Spider-Man. It's just Spider-Man, or Spidey, and honestly, I'm the one who should be saying that he's honored to meet you."

"Can you do this later," Hulk interrupted, getting sheepish looks from both of the other two, which quickly vanished as they schooled their features and finally made it outside.

"Step away from the Hulk! He's a fugitive of the U.S. Armed Forces," Ross shouted to the two heroes.

Hulk was instantly gearing up to fight once again, but he soon paused in surprise when Flash stepped in front of him with his arms spread out as he said, "If you want Hulk, you're gonna have to go through me! Hulk just helped save not only Central City, but two entire cities when he could've just walked away and ignored it. He's a hero, same as me and Spidey are."

Spider-Man clearly shared that sentiment, as he was quick to move in front of Hulk and stand right next to Flash as well, but Ross did not seem to care what the heroes were saying. "Fine, if you want to defend the most dangerous man on Earth, then you'll both be arrested as well. Now stand down."

"The fastest man alive, who's also a founding member of the Justice League, and is friends with guys like Batman, Superman, and Captain America said no," Spider-Man retorted. "Besides, there could still be a few missiles in this base that haven't been launched yet. If you fire on us right now, you'll destroy everyone in Central City, making everything we just did all for nothing."

"An acceptable sacrifice for the protection of our country," Ross retorted. "Someone has to bring the Hulk down and keep America safe from any and all threats it may face in the future, and I'll do whatever it takes to do that."

"So you'd be willing to sacrifice thousands of innocent bystanders and civilians just to capture one man, whose only crime is being considered a monster due to how he can't always control his strength," Flash questioned.

"Of course! That kind of thing happens all the time, and if a few people die, then who do you think they'll blame? Us or the Hulk, who actually has a record of destroying entire cities," Ross retorted.

"Really? Hulk did that, or did you just pin the blame for a lot of your mistakes on him because it was convenient enough to keep you out of trouble?"

"That doesn't matter! I said I would do whatever it takes, and if that means a few people get hurt, then fine! Now move away from the Hulk!"

Flash just smirked broadly in response before he said, "Actually General, I think you should be the one to leave. Everything that you just said has been recorded by the cameras and microphone in my suit and is being transmitted to Central City's best reporter as we speak."

"Oh, I can see the headline now: 'Army General Attempts to Endanger Entire City for Selfish Gain.' That'll definitely earn you a few brownie points with your superiors, right," Spider-Man added while Ross just drew back in shock from Flash's declaration.

"You're bluffing," Ross tried to say.

"You sure you want to take that chance? After all, who do you think the people of this city will believe more? The guy who's saved Central City countless times, or a general who's clearly got an attitude problem," Flash retorted.

Ross just scowled in response to Flash's challenge, leveling a glare with each of the three heroes standing before him, until he finally turned to his men and said, "Stand down, troops. We're pulling out of Central City." The soldiers of the Hulkbuster Unit did not hesitate for even a second to obey the general's command, and they were all soon on their way out, but the general paused for a moment to throw one last glare at the three and promise, "This isn't over."

Flash, Hulk, and Spider-Man just returned Ross' glare with silent ones of their own, which did not waver for an instant until the Hulkbuster Unit was well out of sight and the shield surrounding Central City finally shut down.


It was not until nearly a day later when the Justice League and Spider-Man met up again with Solavar and the people of Gorilla City so that the apes could apologize to the League for their initial treatment of some of their members, and for involving them in the matter with Grodd, but the League just waved it off and called it water under the bridge, since they could fully understand the apes' caution when they had first encountered one another. During their visit, Solavar revealed that the feedback from Grodd's helmet caused all of Grodd's memories to be completely wiped out, leaving him in a near mindless state as he received the best of care from the people of Gorilla City. Seeing Grodd in the state he was now in almost made the heroes feel bad for the ape, but then again, it was a bit hard to feel bad for someone like Grodd.

After departing from Gorilla City, Flash was more than happy to give Spider-Man a fast trip back to New York, much to the web-head's immense gratitude. After Ross had been driven out of Central City, Flash had spent a bit of time really getting to know the web-head, not to the point where they revealed their secret identities to one another, but it was to the point where they could honestly say that they really enjoyed hanging out together, which inevitably led them both to promise that they would look each other up if either of them ever needed the other's help with something, or even if they were just in the neighborhood. After dropping Spider-Man off on a rooftop in New York, Flash was quick to return to Central City S.T.A.R. Labs where Green Lantern and Captain America were both waiting for him.

"You were right, Cap. Spidey is a great guy to hang out with," Flash informed the super soldier. "I think I might just drop by New York later just to see if he wants to grab a few doughnuts or something."

"Oh joy," Lantern muttered in response, having felt like he had quite enough of Spider-Man for a while, since he and the rest of the League had to endure listening to the web-head's babbling and so-called jokes. John quickly shook the thought from his head though, and then approached Flash as he said, "Listen Flash, I was a bit out of line before when we started on this whole case, but…"

"Hey forget about it. I shouldn't have snapped you the way I did," Flash interrupted. "I guess I just forgot how much of a joker I would tend to be when I'm working with the League, and even then, I guess it never really occurred to me how you guys would react when you eventually came to Central City for some reason and started working with me on a case."

"Don't let that get you down. To be honest, I think your little act does help keep us honest and hopeful at times while making sure we don't let ourselves get lost in what we're doing," John admitted. "Besides, you did outsmart a super genius and you've been keeping this city safe on your own for a long time, so I guess that should be a big indicator that you're not as dumb as you look."

Flash was about to say something in protest to John's jab until he saw the smallest ghost of a humorous smirk on the Lantern's face, showing that he was just messing around with him, to which Flash could only laugh in reply as he playfully punched his friend in the arm, drawing a smile from Captain America. That smile quickly morphed into a look of concern when they reached the central lab where Caitlin and Cisco said they would be waiting for them, and he quickly said, "Uh guys. Should we be concerned about this?"

Flash and Lantern ceased their messing about to turn and see, much to their surprise, that Hulk was actually sitting off to one side in the lab, while Cisco, once again in his full Vibe-attire, and Caitlin stood off to the other side with Joe, each nervous about what they should do. When Vibe saw that the three heroes had arrived, he quickly said, "He just came in here and said that he wanted to see you for something Flash, and he's been sitting there waiting ever since."

Flash just nodded to Cisco in reply and then slowly walked over to Hulk so he could ask, "So…what did you need to talk to me about, Hulk? I thought you would've left Central City by now."

"Hulk wanted to say…uh, thanks, Streaky," Hulk hesitantly answered, much to everyone's surprise. "Streaky help Hulk get Ross to go away, and is first person to say Hulk not a monster."

"Oh…well, you're welcome," Flash nodded with a smile. "But I thought you would've left by now? Aren't you worried that Ross is going to surround the city waiting for you to leave if you don't go right away?"

"Nah," Hulk replied. "Story that Streaky's news lady friend write likely keeping Ross busy for now." This was actually quite true, as Iris had indeed used Flash's recording of his confrontation with Ross to publish the true story about what had happened in Central City and what Ross would have done in spite of that, so there was no doubt that someone was going to be coming down on the general pretty hard for a while, meaning Hulk could go anywhere he wanted to without having to worry about Ross constantly hounding him. "And there is one other reason, too," Hulk admitted.

"And what's that," Green Lantern asked, silently praying that the other reason was that Hulk wanted to hit him again.

The answer quickly came when a loud grumbling sound seemed to echo throughout all of S.T.A.R. Labs, followed by a small moan from Hulk as he revealed, "Hulk really hungry."

"Yep, you definitely made friends with the right guy," Vibe stated as he pointed to Flash.

Flash and Hulk just looked at each other for a minute before the speedster finally grinned and asked, "Do you like Keystone City pizza?"

"Who doesn't," Hulk asked in excitement.

"Give me a few minutes to get a couple dozen pizzas and a few for everyone else," Flash said as he turned to leave.

"Okay, but what Streaky going to eat," Hulk asked, making Flash pause in his departure for a minute.

Flash just stared in mild surprise for a minute until he finally corrected himself and said, "Make that three dozen pizzas and a few for everyone else."

A minute later, Flash was gone, leaving the rest of the group just laugh at the two hungry heroes, each just taking some enjoyment out of the fact that Flash and Hulk were clearly going to be bonding over a shared, massive appetite.


AN: Well, that's everything. Quite a few twists and turns this time around in comparison to how the original episode was, huh? Show of hands, who liked seeing Hulk help out this time along with some of the nicknames he gave to the Leaguers he met? And aside from that, who also caught those little tid-bits and references to some elements from The Flash?

Moving on from that stuff, I know that originally Batman was the one who was trying to dig Diana out from under the missile, but in case you guys haven't noticed, Bats isn't Wonder Woman's love interest in this story. That role has been taken over by Cap. Also, don't start getting on my case about Cap using the hover bike to help stop the missile or anything like that, because no one ever really specified how fast those things are, but given that they were able to keep up with J'onn, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman pretty easily during their attempted escape from Gorilla City, I'd think that would make them pretty fast.

Oh, and about the sudden inclusion of Spider-Man, that was actually something that was a bit last minute...okay not really. See that's actually going to be something that comes into play later on in this story series. If you know the DCAU, then I'm sure you guess which little Justice League adventure that it comes into play in. The only hint you'll be getting in regards to this is that it takes place during Justice League Unlimited, so yeah, we won't be seeing that for a while.

Well, that just about covers everything that I wanted to...oh, wait, there is one other thing I wanted to mention.

You all know what I said in the beginning author's note about a chapter in this story crossing this story over with my Code Avengers story series? Well you can expect that to take place very soon, so try to stay as patient as possible for that. If you haven't read any of the Code Avengers stories yet, then don't stress it too much. I'm going to do my best to write it so that it won't matter all that much unless you want an idea for where in the series it takes place. But please, feel free to check it out if you really want a good idea of the dynamics that go on in that story, or even if you just want an early sneak peek at that upcoming chapter for this story.

Now, that settles everything I wanted to talk about, so Onto the Preview everybody!...

The Injustice Gang has reunited under new leadership, which is soon revealed to be an Amazon from Diana's home, and not long after, Superman and various other men in Gotham suddenly find themselves falling victim to an unknown virus because of this Amazon. Can Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl stop the rouge Amazon and help the brave women of Gotham City keep the city from falling apart, or will they need a couple of extra hands to avert this crisis? Find out next time in…Chapter 10: Femme Fatal.

Yeah, expect a couple more MARVEL special guests next chapter. I really seem to be doing a lot of those with this story despite how it's supposed to be mostly a Captain America and Justice League crossover, huh? Well don't worry too much. I'm sure I've made it clear that not every chapter has a special guest Marvel hero by now, haven't I? Besides, with so many great Marvel heroes, it's kinda hard not to do that. Anyways...

Please read and review, and I'll see you all next time, hero believers!