"Green hair boy... listen to Hulk... Hulk will SMASH stupid puny villains... Get down when Hulk says. Cover ears... Until then... OUT OF HULK'S WAY!"
"This is a superhuman society, with 80% of us possessing some uncanny ability. Cities swirled with chaos and confusion following the appearance of these quirks, and a new profession emerged. We call those who fight for justice and help others in need heroes. Oh, by the way! This is the story of how I became the world's greatest hero! With the help of two extraordinary people. The Symbol of Peace, and The Strongest One There Is."
The day had been like any other for middle schooler Izuku Midorya. He had gone to school, been harassed and ridiculed by his peers for his desire to be a hero in spite of his quirklessness, and had his things taken and destroyed by his childhood 'friend' Katsuki Bakugo, followed by returning home, shoulders slumped in defeat.
All business as usual.
The fact that he was now currently being smothered to death by a living sludge ball was but a small deviation from the norm of Izuku's charmed life.
Ordinarily, this would be the part in which All Might, The Symbol of Peace, The Number 1 Hero, the giant of a man who sends any vile villain flying with but a single blow would appear to rescue the unfortunate youngster.
But... What If... rather than being met with the aid of his greatest hero, young Izuku Midoriya had been aided by a very different sort of saviour? What if this being, torn from his home dimension, had been thrown into this very different age of heroes?
I am Soj of The Watchers, and I wish to pose the question... What if the Hulk became a mentor to Izuku Midoriya?
"This is it... I'm going to die... Please... somebody help..."
"I am truly sorry for what we've had to do..." the image of Iron Man buzzed as the restrained beast of a man began to struggle against his restraints.
"But we had no choice. When you get angry, Bruce, when you're overcome by rage, you are a force of destruction."
The restraint on his right arm is the first to go. Freeing his left is a simple matter. Both massive hands then crush the shackles around his legs and he is free once more.
"You fear nothing and even the mightiest heroes of Earth cannot deter you."
"RAAAAAAAGHHH!" came the low guttural roar of the creature as he began to tear the interior of his spaceship asunder. Steel warped and cracked with his blows, wires and conduits sparked with electricity as they are torn from the devices that once housed them. All the while, klaxons blared as the ship began to malfunction and veer off its intended course, the guidance system now offline.
"The madder you get, the stronger you get, and there is no limit to your rage."
In the distance, a great portal, brilliant blue and white, like a vast storm of cosmic energies came into view. The ship was now on a direct course towards it.
"We picked your destination carefully. A planet full of vegetation and game, no intelligent life-forms... There will be no one there to hurt you and no one you can hurt."
As the ship slowly neared the portal's event horizon, the giant green brute's furious blows had finally managed to breach the ship's hull. The portal, its pull growing ever greater with the ship's increasingly close proximity, swallowed both the monster of a man and the shattered remains of his ship whole.
"I know you must hate us, Bruce... but you always said you wanted to be left alone."
"May you finally find peace."
Off in the corner of his eye, his labored breaths muffled by the sludge filling his lungs, Izuku could have sworn he saw some sort of starburst in the afternoon sky just outside of the small tunnel. A bright green flash just barely perceptible to the human eye. Chalking it up to his eyes seeing stars as he was blacking out, Izuku thought little of it at first.
That is... until it got closer. And closer. And the object no longer resembled a starburst but rather a human shaped figure.
A very, very big and muscular one that was roaring like mad.
KRAKA-THOOM!
"Huh?! What's-?" the sludge villain staggered back as he attempted to see past the plume of dust that had been kicked up by the sudden impact behind him.
As the dust cleared, he saw an enormous crater... and within, a hulking green brute of a man, heavily muscled, with an enraged scowl that'd make even the most fearless curl into a ball like a frightened child. He was dressed, curiously enough, in only a pair of torn purple pants, and a mop of shaggy green hair framed his fearsome facial features. He looked about at his surroundings before seeing the young boy in the villain's clutches. The look he then gave the sludge-like creature holding him... let it be said it was quite fortunate that their body was already indistinguishable from the waste they were now struggling to keep contained within. Either through bravery or stupidity, the sludge villain began to speak in warning to the beast.
"H-hey... don't get any funny ideas! I don't know if I've ever seen you before, hero! But take one more step closer and I'll skip the smothering and just strangle this kid to- HRRRGHHHHRAHHH!"
The villain is cut off as one of the creature's massive hands reaches out and crumples their head before tearing it away from its body. The other wrests the boy from within the villain's body and pushes it away to the mouth of the tunnel and away from the villain. The brutish beast draws the gelatinous head of the villain, its yellow eyes staring at him, pleading and fearful, before in a deep, booming voice the beast shouts.
"UGLY SLUDGE MONSTER HURT BOY... UGLY SLUDGE MONSTER BAD! AND HULK SMASHES BAD MONSTERS!"
Suddenly, the villain's prone body begins to struggle to life before enveloping the green goliath's body from behind in an attempt to trap him.
This would prove to be a grave mistake. From within the hulk shaped bubble, two powerful arms would each rear back before coming together in an ear shattering thunderclap. The villain's body would splatter all across the tunnel's interior before reassembling on the floor, prone.
"HNGHH... STUPID SLUDGE MONSTER. HULK IS STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!" bellowed the Hulk, victorious. He then looked to the boy who lay unconscious at the tunnel's mouth, lumbering towards him slowly.
Izuku's eyes opened slowly to be greeted with the sight of...
Oh thank god, a hero! If it hadn't been for him I'd be nothing but a meat jacket for that sludge villain! But who is he? He's not the first I've seen of a large, muscular hero in green, but I don't think I've ever seen or heard of him before.
Iwonderifhisquirkissimplysuperstrengthandifthatsthecasetowhatdegreedoeshispowerscalecomparedtotheaveragehuman'slevelofstrengthand-
"HULK STRONGER THAN ANY PUNY HUMAN, GREEN HAIR BOY."
...and I've been saying this all out loud again, haven't I? "O-oh! Um, thank you very much for saving me from that villain, Mr. Hulk, is it? I didn't mean to go off muttering like that, it's just, sort of, a-a habit of mine. I really like heroes, y'see, and it's a hobby of mine to analyze their abilities and quirks. If- um... if it's not too much I'd like to ask.. what IS your quirk, sir?"
"QUIRK? WHAT IS QUIRK? HULK NOT HAVE QUIRK. HULK JUST STRONG. STRONGEST ONE THERE IS."
Izuku was confused by the green man's declaration. No quirk? That can't be, he's got to have one with what he must have done to handle that villain. He's so big and tough looking, he has to have a quirk.
"IF GREEN HAIR BOY IS SAFE, THEN HULK GO."
Izuku looked up again to see the hulking brute start to walk away before rearing up to leap. In that instant, he thought back to the thoughts and words that had prevailed among his peers today. Of how without a quirk he could never hope to be a hero, how no matter what, even if he had tried his hardest he could never hope to prevail in his efforts.
"If you think you'll have a quirk in your next life... go take a swan dive off the roof!"
In the next instant, Izuku made a decision. One that would impact his life in ways he couldn't have possibly known.
He reached out with both arms and jumped.
HMMM... HULK NOT LIKE BIG CITY... TOO LOUD AND NOISY... TOO MANY STUPID PUNY HUMANS... HULK GO TO QUIET PLACE.
And with a single action of his powerful leg muscles, the Hulk leaped high into the sky towards the rooftops.
"HUH... WHY HULK NECK FEEL TICKLISH?"
The Hulk peered down towards his chest to see two pale, thin hands clinging to his shoulders. He looked over one to see the horrified face of the young green haired boy from earlier, his lips flapping around teeth grit into an anguished scowl from the high speed at which the Hulk was traveling.
"P-p-p-please, I have to ask you something important, sir!"
"WHAT GREEN HAIR BOY DOING?! IS HE CRAZY?!"
"N-n-no, sir! i just really need to talk to you! You're a hero and only you or somebody like you can answer this question for me!" Izuku's eyes shifted down to see what was at least a 200 ft drop. "B-but first, c-can we please land somewhere?!"
The Hulk let out an exasperated grunt at the young boy's request before nodding. Seeing the roof of an old tenement building free of prying eyes approaching fast, the Hulk shifted his body in its direction to touchdown.
The jade giant landed as softly as one of his size and stature could afford, creating a small crater in the concrete on the roof's surface. He crouched so as to allow for the boy on his back to safely meet the ground below them.
"BOY HAS QUESTIONS? FINE. BUT ASK QUICK. HULK TIRED NOW. WANTS TO BE LEFT ALONE." said the Hulk, as he crossed his arms over his broad chest, his brow furrowed into an annoyed glare. Mustering up the courage, a difficult task given the intimidating aura that the Hulk radiated, his gaze turned away from the mountain of a man, but the boy began to speak.
"I just have to know... even without a quirk, without any special powers ...can I still be a hero? Can someone without a quirk become a hero like you?"
The Hulk took a moment to ponder the question. "HM... PUNY LITTLE GREEN HAIR BOY ASKS IF HE CAN BE HERO LIKE HULK EVEN IF HE IS NOT STRONG LIKE HULK? THAT-"
Wh-where am I? What happened- Hulk, I-
HNGH... PUNY BANNER COMING BACK... FINE. HULK TIRED. REST NOW.
And so, unknown to the boy, his back still turned, an astonishing metamorphosis occurs... the giant frame of the Hulk begins to grow smaller, thinner, as the beast transforms into his human alter, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner.
"B-because I don't have a quirk, I- people have always been hard on me. and it's because of that... that I... I just think that saving people is the coolest, most amazing thing someone can do."
"The way someone like you just sees a person in need, and you just go out and save them in spite of any danger or threat to yourself... it's the greatest! And that's why... I want to be a strong hero just like..."
"WH-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
Izuku was shocked to see that in the place of the green skinned goliath, there was now a thin, gangly man, sprawled on the ground, his head held in his hands with a pained expression on his face. Like the Hulk, he too was clad only in torn purple trousers, though without the mass the Hulk possessed they appeared comically oversized on the man's skinny frame.
"Y-you're so skinny now... but, how? Mr. Hulk, is that you?!"
Wincing at the shrill cries of the boy, the man grimaces, eyes shut, covering his ears before speaking in reply.
"Urgh- slow down, kid. Let me get my bearings... Gah, even after changing I'm usually not this exhausted... why-"
Suddenly the man jolted out of his stupor, eyes wide open in shocked realization.
"Wait. Fury. S.H.I.E.L.D. The shuttle. Huh... guess he must have won. This is definitely earth, so he must have."
The man gave an inquisitive eye towards the boy at his side, still wide-eyed and gaping at him.
"Um... I know this is probably a lot to take in, but... do you mind telling me where I am?
"Um... Musutafu?"
"Oh. Good."
"Where's that?"
And so... the stage is set.
Dr. Robert Bruce Banner. The Incredible Hulk. Cast out from his own world and thrust into an entirely different world in the midst of its own very different age of heroes.
Izuku Midoriya. Possessing of a strong heroic spirit, and a powerful desire to be a great hero himself, now met with the presence of this strange new hero who until an hour ago did not exist in his world.
Both unknowing of the magnitude of this meeting and what it shall mean for the fate of both of their worlds.
What shall come to pass? Like you, I too may only watch and see what may be.
Have you anything to ask of Soj? Please. Rate, comment and review.
Seriously, my performance is being graded by the senior watchers. If I obtain a certain amount of feedback I am to be promoted to observation of universes possessing more wildly divergent events. I speak about worlds where Izuku Midoriya becomes some manner of death metal god king with a giant war tyrannosaurus and an army of undead cyborg knight troopers. Worlds in which Shoto Todoroki becomes the next Ghost Rider after a deal with Mephisto results in the death of his mother. Even that of Earth 598-B where the one to receive One For All instead of Izuku Midoriya is Minoru Mineta who surpasses all odds and becomes the next number-
APPRENTICE SOJ, YOUR POSSESSION OF KNOWLEDGE REGARDING THESE PARALLEL REALITIES IS FORBIDDEN IN YOUR CURRENT POSITION. YOU HAVE LIKEWISE OBSERVED ONE SUCH PARALLEL REALITY WHICH IS WHAT YOUNG EARTHLINGS WOULD REFER TO AS 'CRINGE'! FOR THIS YOU MUST-
I must go. Until we meet again.