TW: TIH
"At the risk of sounding like an overly violent teenager-"
"Let me stop you right there, Conner," Kara interrupted with a teasing smile. "Whatever you say after the words 'at the risk of sounding like' will definitely leave you sounding exactly like that."
"She's right," Dick agreed, barely concealing a grin as he continued: "I mean, you hadn't even gotten past 'violent' when I pictured you using Mammoth as a drill bit through that cliff."
"Or when he smashed his way through half of Queen Bee's military budget," Artemis snorted.
"Okay, the first one was a lesson for kids to not do drugs and the second happened while I -technically, at least- wasn't even me yet," The Kryptonian responded in a prim, dignified tone that Alfred would have been most proud of and had everyone present laughing. "Seriously, though: wouldn't it be better for the movie if the serum worked on Blonsky? I mean, that would be a cool way to end the movie right?"
"You mean it would be an explosive way to end the movie," Raquel pointed out with a grin. "And it would go a long way to satisfy some people's overly violent urges."
"Ugh, there's just no dodging it with you guys, is there?"
"Nope," Zatanna smirked as Dick hit the play button. "So when it's your turn just roll over and present your belly."
47:33 - 47:46
"Okay, I get that he's on the run and all but come on!" Zatanna groaned. "The 'mailman' chic he's got going for him here is just… blegh!"
"Girl you sound like he should be dressed to the nines or somethin,'" Raquel remarked before turning a sly smirk at the magician. "Wait… you're not ditchin' poor little Robin are you?"
In response, the magician threw her arms around her boyfriend and planted a theatrically romantic kiss on said boy's cheek. "I love my sweet baby bird just the way he is."
"… and suddenly I'm not upset anymore," Dick mumbled dreamily. Across from them, M'gann and Conner just shook their heads as the remote zipped over to smack into Conner's outstretched arm.
47:52 - 47:56
"He doesn't have anything to worry about," M'gann pointed out. "The General was still at the base testing that serum on Blonsky: Bruce is perfectly sa-"
"Don't say it!" The simultaneous cries came from Artemis, Kara and Barry, with Artemis actually leaping across the table to slap a hand over her Martian teammate's mouth.
"Okay," Diana released a slow exhale and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Lest I do something that might be considered an overreaction, let me ask: why in the name of Hades' unholy rage did you three do that?"
"It's sort of an extension of a superstition a lot of people have," Oliver started, directing a pointed glance at the guilty trio. "Of course, these three took it somewhat further than I'm used to. Particularly my protege who is so very fond of criticizing my more silly actions."
"… We're sorry?" Kara shifted self-consciously as Artemis meekly returned to Wally's side.
"Let's just get the movie going again, shall we?" John gestured at Conner.
47:58 - 48:21
'And they're back to longing stares,' Conner thought, a faintly grouchy tone underlying his mental complaint. 'Where's the action dammit?'
'You know I can hear you, right?'
'Sorry M'gann but the whole longing stares gets really boring!'
The Martain teen just rolled her eyes. 'Mer'ann F'ahl save us from overly violent teenage boys. Well, it looks like you'll get your wish.'
48:28 - 48:31
"Okay, the General's going to have the hide of whoever those two idiots are," Barry commented as Banner quickly ordered Elizabeth to run. "They just spooked their target."
"That was less because of a mistake they made and more because of Banner's paranoia-heightened senses," John rebutted. "I can't tell the exact distance but they had to be at least two hundred meters away from Banner: at that distance -plus the fact that he is currently in a shaded location- they can't accurately keep track of his sightline so they can stay out of it. Honestly, even with paranoia on his side, Banner was extremely lucky to have been looking in that exact direction when the first guy moved. If he was even a two seconds off-"
"They'd probably have him locked in tighter than- Well, he'd be in pretty deep shit." Oliver concluded.
48:36 - 48:48
"O…kay… that is a lot of troops to send after one guy," Barry muttered.
"But are they enough?" Kaldur asked quietly. "And do we want them to be enough?"
48:49
"Looks like Barry was right about the old man wanting to take this out of those two." Wally remarked, though John frowned, obviously disagreeing with that line of thought.
"I still say Banner got lucky."
48:52 - 49:11
"Son of a…" Oliver muttered half-shocked and half in awe of what they saw on the screen. "He's outstripping all of them!"
:"What the heck did they dose him up with?" A slack-jawed Raquel asked.
"And is it weird that I'm seriously considering getting a shot of it myself?" Artemis added. "I mean, we haven't seen all it could do and we definitely haven't seen the side effects but… damn!"
49:12 - 49:19
"Gotta admit, the blue pill's racking up some seriously tasty brownie points right now," Dick admitted. "I mean, assuming these guys are all around the same level of fitness,"
"Which they should be." Kara added. "I mean, Blonsky may be an ace but these guys aren't slouches either and the General went hunting for the cream of the crop where he could so they're probably elite units."
Dick nodded. "Given all that, Blonsky is at least twice as fast as them and he doesn't seem to have lost any form of coordination."
"He seems to have retained his sanity and his discipline," Diana added. "With the wealth of experience he has garnered over the years, he may very well fit the precise definition Ross wanted with his project 'Super Soldier.'"
"All that being said, he has only recently been given the serum," J'onn observed. "He may be alright now but I wonder if it's not too soon to have him sent into a live combat scenario, particularly one that bears such potential for danger."
"Ross feels pushed to the wall," Kaldur noted. "Blonsky is his solution for the volatility of this situation; Blonsky and those weapons he commissioned from Stark Industries."
49:20 -49:45
"Oh this is going to be the perfect media storm," Kara muttered as John and J'onn both groaned. "I can just see the headlines: Soldiers storm Uni: Students left Traumatized! Cat would go nuts over this."
"Yeah, and whichever Senator's got Ross in his bad books is probably sharpening his stake and licking his chops right now," John added. "I can't believe I'm saying this but… if Ross doesn't get Banner now he might be facing the mother of all oversight hearings."
"At least they haven't let off a single shot yet," Oliver commented. "God forbid them hitting a student with a live round on a campus: Ross would never get out of that."
49:46
"What is he doing, stopping there?!" Conner exclaimed as the soldiers pounded up the stairs. "He can't be thinking of giving up the flash drive-!"
"He probably wants to hide it," Dick frowned as they watched the man stared determinedly at the drive. "He's probably concluded that they'll catch up to-"
"Ugh, that is just nasty!" Zatanna shuddered in revulsion as Banner swallowed the flash drive. "Why the heck did he do that?"
"I think your boyfriend pretty much nailed it just now," Artemis replied, seemingly unbothered by the man's actions onscreen. "He's going into a fight: he can't afford to lose the drive and, if he goes Hyde on their asses, he'll lose his clothes -probably the bag too. As it stands, the safest place for the drive is… well, inside him."
"Yeah but swallowing it?" Raquel shook her head doubtfully. "Digestive juices are pretty potent acids, y'know: odds are pretty solid the drive'll be too corrupted to be of much use and that's just his human digestive liquid. We saw what those green cells did to that serum that was supposed to help cure him: if every part of him gets that kind of upgrade… Well, corrupted data might be a good thing compared to a… uh, literally shitty drive."
This time, Kara, M'gann Zatanna and Wally shuddered.
"You are disgusting," Zatanna stated, fighting back the urge to retch.
49:58 - 50:12
"Is she nuts?!" Barry gaped. "I mean, yes, it stopped but what if it didn't? What if her dad wasn't in there?!"
"He was, her gamble paid off, she's not dead," Oliver grunted impatiently. "Comments later, movie now."
50:13 - 50:26
"If he refuses to see her after that cry then he has lost all vestiges of a heart," Diana swore softly, moved by the plaintive desperation in the young woman's voice.
50:27 - 50:36
"I understand he wants to keep her safe, but he's doing so at the cost of her happiness." M'gann said sympathetically. "He's not even listening to her."
"It certainly doesn't help that he wants to dissect her boyfriend." Zatanna said dryly.
"He's not wrong, though," Wally commented before quickly raising his hands in a gesture for peace at the glares Kara and Zatanna leveled at him. "Wait, wait, hear me out for a bit here guys, please." Though their glares remained, Diana's nod gave him the confidence to continue: "Look, I'm not monster man's biggest fan, agreed, but this time the General's not talking from a purely hateful stance: Doctor Ross really can't see this clearly. She's never seen the monster her boyfriend can become; she's never really seen the damage that thing can cause when it gets rolling. She can say she loves him all she wants but that's not the same as actually being there when things go nuts." He paused for a moment and saw that all but Zatanna seemed to understand what he meant. "Zee, you talked about how the General wants to dissect Banner but not even ten minutes ago Dick, Artemis and Oliver expressed at least a bit of interest in getting that Super Soldier serum Blonsky got shot up with: guess where the rest of that serum currently is."
Upon hearing that, Dick winced. "Babe, he's right."
"Look, I don't like the Hulk: it is the embodiment of power without control and I feel bad that Banner has to bear this cost but Martian Manhunter already explained how this entire situation is at least partially his own fault. If he didn't run it is entirely possible that this whole thing wouldn't have escalated this far. I mean, sure, Ross acts irrational at times but I don't think he'd have tossed Banner under the knife right there and then."
"He's got a point," Oliver nodded slowly. "He might have been locked up in a dungeon for a while but with Elizabeth working on her old man and Banner actually cooperating, they'd have access to greater resources and maybe they'd find a way to reverse the transformation -or at least a way to control it- and Ross would get his serum."
"We just saw him brush off his daughter's plea," A skeptic John frowned. "I think he's too far gone to care what she says."
"Only because he has had time to truly hate Banner and his monster," Diana noted. "Which is the advantage Wally's scenario would have had: with only the hospital rampage to its name and with Banner cooperating, Elizabeth's argument would have reached a far less determined Ross."
"Nice as all that sounds, none of it happened so can we please get back to the movie?" Conner asked before pressing the play button.
50:37 - 50:42
"Wait. Why-"
"He's got a plan." Conner stated brusquely, eyes focused on the screen as the soldiers blocked off both exits to the overpass.
50:50 -50:54
"They've got him," Oliver muttered tersely, now at the edge of his seat as the tension mounted with Banner being trapped in the overpass.
50:55 - 52:13
"God fuck that's scary," Raquel swore quietly at the Hulk's roar as Blonsky moved into position and Ross called out orders.
52:16 - 52:32
"What are they doing?!" A worried Zatanna whispered urgently. For all that she supported Banner's cause, she hadn't been able to repress a shudder at the enraged roar the Hulk had let loose few moments prior and now, faced with the possible deaths of all these men who had done nothing more than choose to serve their country… "They need to get away from him!"
"They can't," Dick replied tersely. "Ross has a plan to deal with the Hulk and they can't afford to deviate from it. If they run now-"
"They'll get flattened." Oliver finished.
52:33 - 53:22
The empty bowl of popcorn Barry and Kara had shared rocketed across the room into M'gann's grasp a split-second before she threw up, the brutality of the Hulk's actions combined with the sight of the burning bodies too much for her to handle.
53:23
"There goes the veil of secrecy," Kara noted, nervously biting down on her lips as a pair of daring students slipped past the cordon to record the confrontation on their phones.
53:25 - 54:13
"My God, he's doing it!" A stunned Diana breathed in sync with the General onscreen as the enhanced Blonsky took on the Hulk. "He's keeping the creature's attention!"
54:16 - 54:50
"Jesus Christ!" John shouted, clapping his hands over his ears as the sound of the sonic cannons boomed out of their speakers. The action was repeated all around the room -with Conner and Kara suffering the most thanks to their enhanced senses- until M'gann was able to pause the movie.
"Is everyone okay?!" Barry shouted, his own voice sounding dim even in his own ears. "Kara?! Conner?!"
"We're fine!" The older Kryptonian nodded and lifted a weak thumbs up to show that, despite the tears stinging their eyes and the throbbing headaches, they were, in fact, alright. "We'll be fine!" Conner agreed. 'M'gann, keep the movie on please.'
Though she was concerned about him -her own shapeshifting abilities had kicked in instinctively and created a pad of flesh around her ears to block out the harmful sound levels- the young Martian acquiesced to her boyfriend's mental plea and, after adjusting the volume settings, hit the play button.*
55:03 - 55:15
"I can't believe this!" Zatanna shouted angrily. "She's practica- no, she is pleading for him to stop this and he-"
"He won't stop for anything, Zee," Artemis stated quietly. "Ross is so close to this that he's guilty of the exact thing he accused her off."
"He can't see this clearly -objectively- anymore," Kaldur stated and the blonde archer nodded.
"At this point, nothing short of a reality-altering event would get him to change his mind about the Hulk." Artemis finished.
55:16 - 55:54
"He should have had more," J'onn noted disapprovingly. While he had tried to keep it suppressed, the part of himself that had once been a general in the army found Ross' methods lacking. He didn't like it, personally, but he knew that, against a target that represented the kind of power the Hulk did, the preferred term was more is always better.
55:56 - 56:26
"Well, there's our side effect," Raquel stated dryly. "Users of the Super Soldier serum are prone to fits of insanity and death by being crushed beneath their own stupidity."
"Definitely not worth it," Dick frowned as the face-off continued.
55:27 - 55:32
"That… He's done," Barry said bleakly as M'gann, Wally and Zatanna fought back the sudden surge of bile in their throats. "That kick must have shattered everything in his torso and the tumbles would have taken care of his limbs as well; the impact against that tree… well, if he's not dead, then he'll either be in a few moments or he'll survive this and end up in a hospital till he dies."
"He was a fool," Diana stated harshly. "Perhaps not in every other way but those last moments… No warrior does what he did against a creature as powerful as the Hulk." Then, leveling her sternest glare at the Team: "Let this be a lesson to you all: never let your ego override your judgement, whether on a battlefield or in a simple conversation. Your life is worth far more than a few moments of needless pride and it is a living warrior that surmounts the seemingly impossible tasks."
56:33 - 56:55
Without even realizing it, everyone present sucked in a tense breath as the giant creature loomed over the defenseless woman.
56:57 - 57:03
"She got through to it!" A shocked Wally exclaimed softly, his disbelieve all too evident in his tone. "She actually got through to it!"
"She got through to him," Kara corrected quietly, just as awed at what they were witnessing. "The Hulk may run on instinct but it's still born from Bruce's mind and love is just as much of an instinct as anger-"
"They need to get out of there now!" Dick shouted suddenly, cutting into the Kryptonian's statement.
They didn't need to wonder why for long as a speck in the distance quickly grew to reveal the gunship bearing down on the Hulk from its blindside, weapons locking onto the creature's back.
57:10 - 57:31
The younger members of the Watchers stared at the screen in muted shock while the older ones closed their eyes in pain: for all that the General had rubbed them the wrong way with his overbearing ways, they all knew that no one deserved to see their child suffer like that.
57:34 - 58:09
"My God," Raquel murmured quietly as she released a shaky breath, noticing for the first time how her hands shook. "That was… I can't even…"
"If this isn't enough to change Ross' mind then nothing ever will," Kara stated decisively. "I mean, the Banner part of the Hulk is the only reason his daughter is even alive right now!"
"But the Hulk part of Banner would have torn the whole campus apart without Betty," Kaldur noted. "And while I agree that Doctor Banner does not deserve the treatment the General has visited upon him I cannot blindly ignore the man's fear either."
"He's right," Barry sighed, his agreement earning him a few wide-eyed glares. "I'm not saying that Ross suddenly has carte blanche to do whatever he likes to Banner -God, no!- but, considering what we've just seen from him, the Hulk is sort of like Superman without the morals holding him back." The speedster grimaced slightly at the thought, an action only noticed by Diana, J'onn and Kaldur. "As it stands, if the Hulk really got going, there's nothing anyone can do to stop him; not from what we've seen anyway."
"But-! He listens to Betty!" M'gann argued fervently only for the man to shake his head.
"He does: now how many Doctor Elizabeth Ross' do you think exist in their world?" Barry rejoined gently but firmly. He had nothing against Banner but the Team, he felt, should understand why the General's fears weren't entirely without justification. "There's only one person that can talk the Hulk down so what happens if they lose her?"
The shared grimaces all around the room answered that question.
58:12 - 58:16
"Looks like the clean-up's begun," John stated when he noticed the boxy burden each soldier bore.
"Wait, why are they searching Betty's place?" Conner frowned. "I mean, no one saw them together at home right?"
"Even if the answer to that was a no, Conner, it still wouldn't take the military analysts long to figure out why she was in his company." Diana explained. "Remember: they had a history together; it would be logical, then, to assume that Banner had spent the night in her arms. All they'd need, then, would be Ross approval for a thorough search."
"Three guesses how long it took him to give that order," Artemis sighed as the General walked up to the younger man onscreen.
58:20
"Well, that solves that mystery," Conner stated as he smacked his forehead with his palm. "I mean, what was he thinking?!"
"Maybe he thought he was protecting his girlfriend from herself?" Raquel asked archly. "I mean, as far as he knows, Betty's ex-boyfriend is a criminal on the run from the law. He probably thought he was doing the right thing."
"True…"
58:23 - 58:38
"Bullshit," John snorted disgustedly. "He didn't even flinch at the boyfriend's accusation, even after looking like he was about to die when the chopper blew up around the Hulk. Her safety is definitely lower on the priority list than getting Banner locked up and drained for very last liter of that serum he can squeeze out."
58:39 -58:59
"I feared this would happen," J'onn sighed somberly. "He only sees the world in absolutes; black and white, tall and short. To him, there are -no, there can be no shades of gray which is exactly where this whole matter exists. As such, he can only ever see Banner as a villain and, now that his daughter has chosen to remain by her lover's side despite witnessing the damage the Hulk can cause, he has begun to see her as such too."
59:01 - 59:10
"Almost makes me wonder what Waller's relationship with her kids would be like," John sniffed.
"You really think the Wall would lose all that precious career-building time to raise her own young?" Barry's scoff was the thing of legends. "Yeah, sure."
59:11 - 59:19
"Don't you just love it when stubborn old windbags think it's the boyfriend's fault and casually ignore every hint that the problem stems from them?" Oliver stated with as much sarcasm as he could stuff into that single statement.
"Gee old man, speaking from experience there?"
"And that's how we know my dear little protege is back," Oliver stated, shooting a dry glare at the younger archer. "The Quips have returned."
*- I forget the exact episodes but these two instances are part of the YJ canon.
*- Directly related to the 'Mammoth as a drill bit' thing: I always felt Conner's use of those red tags had some serious 'Substance Abuse' vibes. Maybe it's just me, though.
*- I know that their reaction to the sound waves might be considered an overreaction for some, especially since -even for me- there was nothing particularly loud about that scene. Consider this an author-inspired exaggeration.
Well, here's the next chapter for you all.
Having the fic taken down on FFN was really annoying and it seriously dampened my writing buzz but I'm glad to say we're back and -well, not necessarily better than ever because this whole timestamping business just ruins the flow of the reactions IMHO but it is what it is.
For those of you who would like the movie-insert version, please search for The Watchers over on Sufficient Velocity: my partner, MR WAR has been cross-posting them over there from day one so every last chapter of the series is there.
To the FFN Admins and their Secret Police: PLEASE learn some goddamn manners. I was already working on correcting the old chapters of TIH after learning of what happened to Katana; if you had sent an advance notice of some sort -via PM or something- I could have told you that and we would have avoided this cock-up. Seriously: give authors at least a month's notice BEFORE you yank down our stories. These things require time and effort and if you just acted with a bit of decency regarding this you would be surprised how things would turn out.
Eh, what do I know right?
As always, thanks to my collaborators: Mr War, Katana of the Blade and Vein Bloodborne; you guys rock.
Next chapter should be up by the 15th of October.
The Ethereal Lord.
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