The Watchers: The Incredible Hulk

by The Ethereal Lord

It's been six weeks since the Team and their mentors watched Iron Man. Now they are back with a few additions to their group. *Timestamped following the take down of the old version.

8. Mr Blue

TW:TIH

Wayne Manor, Gotham

A Few Hours Prior…

"I might be reading the situation wrong but…" Alfred frowned as he studied the fiercely determined look in Blonsky's eyes. "It would seem that the General might have a problem on his hands."

"I was thinking along those lines too," Dinah nodded as she shifted on her bean bag. Herself, Clark, Bruce and Alfred were all sprawled out in Bruce's mini-theater (not Alfred, of course; the old butler was seated as primly as he would have if he was before the Queen), taking a break from the billionaire's therapy session to indulge in a private watching of their own. "Ross may not realize it but I don't think his leash on Blonsky's anywhere near as tight as he thinks."

"Wait," Clark turned away from the screen to the blonde heroine as Bruce joined them from his trip to the cocktail bar. "You think Blonsky's going to go rogue?"

"It's not definitive but the hints are there," Bruce nodded, taking his seat. "Remember his little face-to-face with the Hulk?"

"You mean when Blonsky got his head caved in?"

"You could just have said yes."

"Aww, but where's the fun in that?"

Bruce resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the grinning Kryptonian. "Immature comments from supposed adults aside, that whole scene showed a different side of Blonsky: up to that point, he was just the good soldier. A highly talented one who had no problems challenging his leaders if he had to but a good soldier nonetheless."

"When he marched right into the Hulk's face, though, he was doing that purely for himself." Alfred continued. "It is merely an opinion but I believe Emil Blonsky isn't in this for the General, not any more, at least. Rather -and he referenced this when Ross asked him why he hadn't shifted career paths- he's in it for the challenge."

"And that's where things get very problematic." Bruce stated. "He may not be as strong as you or your cousin, Clark, but the Hulk is still leagues ahead of creatures like Blockbuster, Mammoth, even Solomon Grundy. The Super Soldier serum might have bumped Blonsky up to superhuman levels but I can't see him taking on the Hulk and-"

‹‹‡››

Mount Justice, Happy Harbor

Now…

"-coming out alive." Conner concluded. "Even with the crazy heal-time we now know he has, I can easily imagine Hulk straight up ripping him in half if he gets pissed off enough."

"And at this point we know just how easy it is to get Big Green angry." Wally agreed, a frown on his face. "Which means Blonsky's either got some trick we have no way of predicting-"

"Or there's a plot twist coming up." Artemis nodded. "Still… Blonsky and Ross still have to find Banner first."

1:07:56 - 1:08:07

"You know," Dick whispered to Zatanna, "I want to crack a joke about how silly that sounds but I've actually seen Bruce track Catwoman with her lipgloss so…"

"You're kidding!" His girlfriend stared at him in shock. "How'd he manage that?!"

"I dunno. He never told me and I never pushed too hard to know."

"Too stalker-y?"

"Way too stalker-y."

1:08:08 - 1:08:19

"Very true." Barry nodded. "Some of the fastest ways to catch people on the run are to check for a money trail, uses of their ID cards and triangulating their phone activity. For these two, they shouldn't even turn on the phone since Ross might have set up a tap on her number."

1:08:21

"Looks like Banner knows about as much as you do on this," Oliver joked to Barry.

"He's had to be," Kara stated soberly. "I'm pretty sure he's had a few close calls thanks to his phone."

1:08:23 - 1:08:29

"The hits just keep coming don't they?" John muttered as they watched the beleaguered scientist sigh in frustration.

1:08:30 - 1:08:38

"You think he's talking about…"

"Unless Betty had an ex-girlfriend she really cared about, I'm pretty sure he's referring to her mom." M'gann replied quietly. "It could have been from a sister or an aunt but… somehow, I just think it belonged to her mom."

1:08:39 - 1:08:43

"I know we've mentioned it a few times already but I have to say: Betty just keeps being more and more impressive," Oliver remarked. "I mean, she's faced down her dad, walked right into a battlefield, practically thrown her career -and pretty much her life- away to be a fugitive with him and she pretty much swore off sex for him. Now she's willing to pawn a precious belonging of hers off for him?"

"She may have a few flaws of her own -I mean, nobody's perfect after all- but she has definitely shown why Bruce and Hulk love her so much." Kara agreed, echoing the general sense of loving warmth the onscreen couple elicited in the watchers.

That sense of love fizzled out the moment the next scene came up.

1:08:45

'Ah shit,' Raquel swore over the Team's telepathic link. 'Looks like General Dickwad's abandoning his own daughter.'

'What the hell is he thinking?!' Artemis commented almost simultaneously. 'It's one thing to have her walk into an active warzone on her own but slapping her face all over this kind of meeting might as well guarantee that she'll be a casualty!'

'Hold on a second,' Though her mental voice was confused, not a hint of it showed on Zatanna's physical features. 'That's kind of a leap there, Artemis; how does this prove anything like that?'

'The little we know about the General shows that he's the underhanded kind,' Dick explained. 'There's no way he'd call in any naysayers into this kind of meeting. Now, it's been hinted that the General's somewhat willing to hold back if he thinks his daughter might be in trouble-'

'How'd you figure that?'

'It's kinda flimsy but the whole gunship thing really shook him up,' The detective answered his Kryptonian friend. 'It's not much but it does sorta hint at that. Unfortunately for him, though, most of the guys in that room right now are the kind that'll see Betty as a simple casualty of war if push came to shove.'

'And that in itself would lead to an even greater disaster when the Hulk learns of her demise,' Kaldur grimaced as they returned their attention to the movie.

1:08:48 - 1:08:59

"He knows his target well," Diana stated with grudging respect. As one trained in the art of the hunt, she knew that the first -and arguably the most important- step to a successful hunt was to try to predict the target's actions and that could only ever be achieved when one understood the target's thought processes. "Still… it is quite interesting that Banner has kept ahead of him for so long."

"I was just thinking about that," Oliver nodded. "It's one thing to think 'the geeky scientist beat the hardass general' but to have done that for five years while crossing borders?" The archer shook his head in amazement. "My respect for the guy just shot up a few extra notches."

1:09:00 - 1:09:05

"What the heck is he thinking?!" Dick exclaimed furiously as they watched Bruce type out a message to his anonymous helper. "Sending a mail via a plain-old web browser?! Is he trying to get caught?"

"Dude-"

"No, man, do not ask me to chill!" The young detective jabbed a warning finger at his redheaded friend. "This is incredibly sloppy! He knows the General is on him just as he knows the old man's got access to a stupid array of resources! What was the whole point of the 'don't use your phone' thing if he's just going to paint a giant target on his back via an e-mail?!"

"Dick!" Artemis snapped, her sharp rebuke cutting into his rant. "Dude, take a chill already! Bruce doesn't exactly have a choice-"

"Except he does," Raquel and Kara pointed out synchronously. When the dark-skinned girl nodded toward her, Kara continued: "Look, I'm not a tech-whiz like Dick or Winn but simple logic dictates that Bruce's best shot at… well, at doing anything, really, is to stay as close to the ground as possible. If we got anything from the Rio chase it was that he's stayed ahead of the General for so long by keeping a low profile and having a pretty decent escape plan."

"Except, as the General pointed out a few minutes ago, Bruce isn'ttrying to escape, he's trying to meet up with this 'Blue' guy. Or girl or whatever." Zatanna commented. "Point is, he needs to meet someone and so the old way of doing things-"

"Would still have worked," Kara reiterated. "This e-mail he's sending, he's doing it with the knowledge that the General has his old laptop: he was extremely cautious about contacting 'Blue' when he had no clue if the General knew about their correspondence or not-"

"The mails to Blue were encrypted back in Rio," Artemis explained, answering M'gann's question before she could voice it.

"Exactly, if the mails back then were encrypted then why isn't he bothering now?" Kara asked. "Like Dick said, it's like he wants to be found."

"Well, what about Betty?" Conner suggested. "Maybe he's in a hurry so he can get this over with and get her out of the line of fire?"

"It's not impossible," Barry admitted before shaking his head. "Still, his best option would have been to take things slow: because she doesn't really understand what it's like to live a life on the run, pushing her to get moving before she's ready could just as easily backfire if she made a mistake."

"Even factoring that he wants to meet Blue ASAP, there are still a bunch of ways to do that without exposing himself so much," John added. "Right now, it looks like he's snuck into some shop to use their PC which is just stupid risky because if the guy at the counter caught him and decided to get cranky, he could end up getting a trespassing charge which might as well be him gifting himself to Ross."

"Okay, so we've listed all the things he shouldn't have done, how about what he should be doing?"

"Aside from laying low?" Oliver stated with a hint of snark before settling in to answer Zatanna's question: "Well, for one thing, they should have found a cybercafe or just a spot where the local kids hangout. He spends maybe twenty buck to use a laptop with a connection to the web and he'd be right where he is without needing to sneak around."

"I can get the cybercafe but what if the kids remember him?" Wally asked.

"It wouldn't matter if they remembered him, he'd be long gone before the cops showed up," Oliver shrugged. "Like it or not, at your age, not too many people focus on the news, particularly in a smaller town like that. And while the twenty bucks spent would make them more memorable, it wouldn't be by that much."

"Okay, so he has a laptop, what next?" Conner asked.

"Next up, he logs into that browser he used in the university faculty… um…"

"I think it was Encrypt something." Dick frowned as he tried to recall the little detail.

"Eh, whatever." Oliver shrugged. "Point is, he logs onto the site, sends an encrypted message and done!"

"There may be a need to adjust some details of that plan but I agree with Oliver," J'onn nodded. "If nothing else, the encryption on the mail would keep the General busy long enough to allow Banner slip past. As it stands, though…"

"It would take a miracle for the General not to find Bruce." Kaldur summarized.

1:09:11 - 1:09:31

"Huh. Looks like Coulson's group are now part of the whole 'Hulk hunt' thing," Artemis commented. When Raquel peered at her questioningly, she just waved dismissively. "It's from the first movie; we'll watch it together later."

1:09:31 - 1:09:39

"Well, looks like we won't be holding out for that miracle you talked about," Raquel muttered to Kaldur who just shrugged.

1:09:40 - 1:09:58

"Dr. Samuel Sterns. Department of Cell Biology at the Grayburn College, New York." Barry read off the screen. "So this is the infamous Mr Blue."

"Is it just me or does he look a bit…" Dick frowned a bit before shaking his head. "I dunno, he just gives me them 'mad scientist' vibes."

"Dude, I'm pretty sure that's all you."Raquel disagreed. "I think he's kinda… plain."

"You'll have to forgive him, Raq, our boy's just suffering from overexposure to too many crazies out in the boonies," Wally gave an overly dramatic sigh and shook his head. "Dick, I say this as a friend and a fellow ex-sidekick: you need to get outta Gotham, man."

"No Central City's too bright," Dick responded in a surprisingly deep, gravelly voice. "Gotham needs me."

Pin-drop silence.

Then:

"Seven out of ten," Diana declared. "The gritty tone and the similarity to his voice were very well done but you were not quite menacing enough."

Barry nodded. "Caped-Bruce is more 'Because I'm Batman!'''

"Dude, Bruce would never utter those words," Oliver laughed. "Anyway, the Bat's sorta like, 'I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!'"

"Like hell," Artemis snorted. "How are you guys teammates and still so terrible at doing impressions?! Batman is obviously…"

For the next couple of minutes, the room dissolved into attempts, counter-attempts and criticism of attempts at pulling the perfect 'Batman' impression until…

"Enough."

Pin-drop silence again.

Then:

"Uncle J'onn! That's cheating!"

"Wha- but- M'gann!"

"No way, Uncle! Shapeshifting your vocal cords is totally cheating!" M'gann reiterated, and the rest of the watchers added their agreement until the elder Martian finally grew quiet.

Which was actually quite sad: J'onn J'onzz was an excellent mimic who never resorted to using such cheap tricks as shapeshifting.

As they settled down to watch the movie, Wally felt a mental tug and connected to their telepathic network just in time to hear Dick's challenge:

'Twenty bucks says Sterns is a mad scientist.'

The speedster almost slapped his palms together and cackled as bets poured in. 'Oh you are so on!'

1:10:00 - 1:10:12

"You know, as cute as this scene is, I can't help but agree with what you said Richard," Zatanna muttered as they watched two lovebirds get into the truck and drive off, Betty at the wheel. "You would think that he'd be in a hurry to get to this Sterns guy and get the whole 'Jade Giant' thing out of his mind."

"He's making a mistake my old instructor once warned me of," Kaldur commented. "Forgive me for the interruption but I overhead your comment."

"Hey no worries big guy," the young magician shrugged. "I wasn't exactly trying to keep my voice down. So, what did your teacher say?"

"The battle's never won until you've paid for the first flask of wine. Get Greek translation for this." He recited. "It's-"

"Old Atlantean," Diana smiled nostalgically, remembering some of the fierce arguments she had thrown up when her mother demanded that she learn the ancient tongue. "In English, it would translate to: The battle's never won until you've paid for the first flask of wine."*

Kaldur nodded respectfully to the Princess and continued, "Captain Short, one of the best warriors in the king's personal retinue, taught me that lesson after one of the more humiliating losses I suffered at her hands. Put simply, she warned me to always remain focused the closer I got to a victory and to never let my guard down.

"Right now, Bruce must be feeling that he is so close to finally getting rid of the Hulk that he can almost taste it. The problem is, he is letting that feeling of impending success cloud his thoughts from a very important detail: he hasn't succeeded. Not yet at least."

"Oh… So you're saying he's letting himself get so distracted by the idea of success that he is underplaying some of the very real threats that stand between him and this Sterns guy." M'gann nodded slowly. "It makes sense…"

1:10:18 - 1:10:27

"That's… that's actually a good question," Barry noted with an uncharacteristically serious expression as he sat forward.

1:10:28 - 1:10:42

"Jesus!" Oliver swore softly as most of the Team blanched and even a few of the adults flinched. Even he, with the various kinds of pain he had suffered over the years, could only barely hold back a shudder. Acid, depending on the strength, was horrific when poured on the skin. For Banner to have described it as he had…

1:10:42 - 1:10:54

"I'm not sure where she's going with this but I don't like it," Artemis frowned. "I mean, I know we glossed over this earlier and how Bruce and Hulk could switch places or even merge fully but…"

"A Professor Hulk could easily be one of the most dangerous things to have existed," Dick stated, unwittingly echoing his mentor words from a few hours prior. "He may not be as powerful as you and Superman, Kara, but with Bruce's brains controlling Hulk's body…" The young man grimaced and shook his head. "I hate to say it but I really hope Tony's not the best they've got."

1:10:55 - 1:11:06

"She is grossly oversimplifying it," Conner frowned. "I know they probably aren't the same but… last year… when Psimon blasted my -our- minds and we lost our memories… It didn't… it didn't feel like my mind was overcharged." The room grew quiet as they realized that he was sharing a particularly bleak memory from the life he had experienced after Cadmus. "M'gann and Dinah helped me get through the nightmares but… Sometimes I still get flashes of… of the rampages and… it was more like I was trapped in my own head." He took in a deep breath to calm his nerves and to hide the tremble in his voice, a process that was aided by M'gann's fingers intertwining with his and her mental touch helping him find his center. "It was like I could see what was going on around me… what I was doing to others… but I couldn't stop myself."

"I think Conner's right about how Bruce feels when the Hulk takes over," Barry quietly agreed. "There was this one-off guy I fought a long while back… hell, I don't even remember his name." The speedster shook his head at the faint memory. "This guy could induce rages in his targets and when he got me…"* He shook his head, much like Conner had done. "Point is, the feeling was more like what Conner described and less like some sort of… chemically induced high like she's suggesting."

"If both of your experiences match what Doctor Banner experiences during his transformations then I suspect that any mergers between the Hulk and the doctor may be far off in the future," J'onn mused. "It would take an extremely traumatic event to force both sides to truly meet and attempt to bridge the gap between themselves."

"The implications of that are, in their own right, troubling, J'onn," Diana murmured, though everyone heard her thanks to the somber atmosphere. "After everything we have seen… what exactly could force the Hulk to suffer a 'traumatic event' without outright killing it?"

1:11:07 - 1:11:19

"Can't blame him for stopping things there," Oliver admitted. "After everything we've seen… well, I don't think anyone here would like to have the threat of 'Hulking out' hanging over their heads every time they got even mildly pissed."

"Agreed," John, Artemis and Raquel nodded.

1:11:20 - 1:11:24

"Wait a second, they're dosing him up again?" Zatanna stared at the screen in utter confusion. "Isn't that kinda… I dunno, dumb? I mean, they got what they wanted the first time; why not prep a team of Blonskys with the Serum instead of just amping the dosage on one guy?"

"I'm guessing Big Bad Ross wants his ace to be stronger, faster," John suggested, a look of disapproval in his eye. "A Blonsky who can take more hits and get back up faster will probably be more of an improvement in the old man's eyes than a squad of plain old 'superhuman' Blonskys."

"What an incredibly agile mind," Raquel drawled. "Wonder when he'll drop his own version of The Art of War."

"Whenever he does, remind me to take a hard pass," Wally snorted. "I'm more into the classics than these 'newfangled' remakes anyway."

1:11:25 - 1:11:31

"Someone's confident," M'gann noted. "Still… he does realize that a boosted dosage of the serum won't put him on the same level as the Hulk, right?"

"He doesn't have to be," Diana stated before gesturing at John. "You didn't consider it just now but if Ross has a plan this time, one that isn't 'throw everything and the kitchen sink' Blonsky may just need to repeat his earlier task: keep the Hulk busy until the real weapons are in place. So his comment isn't entirely off: he only needs to give himself a slightly greater chance of survival now that he knows the Hulk would likely recognize him."

"True…" John admitted. "And it may explain why Ross is upping his dosage rather than 'spreading the gifts' so to speak: quality over quantity."

"Plus, Blonsky's already used to the Serum so he doesn't have to give a new group the time to acclimate," Artemis added slowly, clearly reluctant to give the General any praise. "I guess the old Smokestack's not entirely senile yet."

1:11:32 - 1:11:40

"It… it can't be-"

"Ross?" Oliver asked, finishing Zatanna's statement before shaking his head. "He may have an idea where Bruce is headed but unless this Grayburn College's located in the middle of nowhere, he can't know exactly what route they're taking in. In addition to that, this place is too exposed," the Emerald Archer raised a hand to forestall Artemis' impending question. "I know, I know: he had no qualms taking Bruce on in the Uni or in Brazil. The thing is, in Brazil, Ross went for a silent grab first before things spiraled and even in Culver, he did his best to steer Banner toward a relatively isolated spot. Hitting Banner here is not his style."

"That may be true but he may also be receiving pressure from above." Diana suggested before shaking her head. "No, even with pressure from higher ups, he would never risk a major catastrophe by attempting to take the Hulk on in the middle of the road. And in broad daylight too."

1:11:42 - 1:11:49

"You sure about that whole 'Ross can't get him' thing?" Raquel asked archly. "Because this doesn't support that theory."

"Doesn't prove it either," Barry said between handfuls of chips. "The cops could be there on Ross' orders, yeah, but they could also just be there to ensure that nobody gets too hotheaded about the interruption."

"There is something we haven't considered," J'onn stated. "It is possible that Ross is trying to control Banner's movements. By strategically blocking off certain routes, he could force Banner to move along a specific route-"

"Without having him realize that he is being herded," Diana nodded. "It is a very logical thing to do and it would allow Ross to push Banner into a battle ground of his own choosing. Certainly a good way to keep the 'higher-ups' off his back for now."

"It is plausible, I admit," Oliver rubbed his chin in thought. "Still… I don't think this is Ross' play."

1:11:48 - 1:12:24

"And suddenly the 'herding' strategy falls out of favor again," Kara remarked. "I mean, it's not impossible for Ross to try to herd them but…"

"He'd need a hell of a lot of manpower to really canvass the Big Apple," John admitted. "And even then, the risk of them slipping away would be too high."

"Surveillance cams… no," Dick sighed. "Pretty sure he'd have a way to get around -or under- those. It wouldn't be prefect but he could do it."

1:12:25 - 1:12:32

"Cab," Artemis and Wally chimed instantly, followed by Oliver, Barry and Kara's agreeing nods.

'I may not have been to the Big Apple but suddenly I get the feeling I'm not missing all that much,' Conner thought wryly to his girlfriend.

1:12:33 - 1:12:59

"Okay, I know cabbies can be a little aggravating but Jesus this guy is nuts!" Oliver exclaimed as they watched the guy try to play off a suave charm and fail miserably.

"I'm pretty sure the only reason she stopped at 'asshole' is the movie's rating," Artemis commented. "Because I sure as all hell wouldn't have stopped there!"

1:13:05 - 1:13:12

"Oh, wrong choice of words there buster!" Raquel exclaimed as the room burst into peals of laughter at the clever role-reversal playing out onscreen.

1:13:13 - 1:13:16

"I swear," Oliver wheezed out between laughs. "I want to say he's whipped but-"

"There is just no safe way out of that without seeming whipped!" Barry concluded, throwing them all into gales of laughter again until M'gann reached for the remote.

1:13:17 - 1:13:27

'Ha! And someone thought he looked like a 'mad scientist! I can just see the cash now baby!'

While a certain speedster gloated over the Team's telepathic network, his older counterpart was commenting on the newly introduced character's appearance: "… I mean, the guy looks more like a student than I did in my first year!"

"That's because you were a geeky-geek who dressed like a fuddy-duddy and just radiated 'nerd,'" Kara fired back playfully, earning herself a poked-out tongue. "This guy looks like he actually knows how to match outfits."

"Wait." John frowned. "How do you know what he looked like back then?"

"Pictures," a suddenly pale Kara replied, her voice hoarse and devoid of all hope. "I saw… terrible things."

"Oh come on! I wasn't that bad!"

"Terrible!"

"Can we please get back to the movie?!"

1:13:28 - 1:13:41

"I wonder what's up with him," Oliver commented. "He looks like someone's just flipped his world onto its ass."

"In a way, you may be correct," Kaldur stated. "I believe his mental image of 'Mister Green' and the reality of Bruce's appearance were in two entirely different spectra."

"To be fair, it is pretty hard to reconcile the image of the 'Big Green Rage Machine' with unassuming old 'Doctor Banner,'" Raquel remarked and they nodded their agreement.

1:13:42 -1:14:18

"I hadn't even considered that angle," Barry blinked as he sat back in his seat, trying to calculate the odds of either outcome with the little information he had garnered over the course of the movie. "I want to say that this… whatever it is Sterns is about to do… I want to say that it'll work out perfectly but I keep thinking of how violently Banner's cells reacted to the flower-based serum in Brazil."

"Oh… yeah, I remember that," Raquel winced. "I'd say Bruce's cells straight up assaulted the serum with that reaction. Honestly, I hate to be the pessimist but if I had to, I'd put my money on the one-time use."

1:14:19 - 1:14:53

"Now here's a guy Ross would have loved to have worked with," Kara grunted, unimpressed by the man's declaration. "Probably doesn't care how many casualties he'd leave 'for science!'"

"I don't think so," Kaldur countered. "His response makes him seem more likely to blow himself up in the pursuit of an answer than to kill others."

"Honestly, he's kinda like Bruce when you think of it like that," Conner agreed. "I mean, sure, we heard it from Ross and so we should probably take it with a grain of salt but didn't Bruce kinda just skip the 'small scale testing' phase of his serum and jump right to the 'human testing' phase with himself as the volunteer?"

"… Well, now we know why they just hit it off so well," Artemis snarked.

1:14:54 - 1:15:03

"Well, this pretty much settles things," Wally remarked as the scene showed Blonsky in an empty bathing area. "If Ross was herding Bruce then he'd almost certainly have his troops rolling by now. With him just mobilizing now, I'd say that he just kept a few eyes on Sterns and waited for Bruce to show up."

"Ergh! For a guy who just went through the whole 'Super Soldier' thing, Mister Hotshot looks… bad." M'gann commented as the scene focused on the now-gaunt and pale Blonsky.

1:15:04 - 1:15:16

"I can't tell if it's the boosted dosage that's affecting him, the fact that he hasn't given himself time to recover from practically dying or just something else entirely," Barry frowned. "Whatever it is, I'm pretty damned sure he shouldn't be heading back into the field so soon."

"Pretty sure Ross would court-martial you for that suggestion," Dick scoffed.

1:15:17 - 1:15:30

"Okay there are definitely side-effects," A faintly disturbed Kara stated. "Looks like the second dosage is where things get problematic."

"You know, seeing this, I can almost understand why he looks so… gaunt," Raquel commented. "It's just a theory but I think his body's going through a gradual transformation and it's consuming any spare source of energy in him to fuel the transformation."

"Wait, are you saying his body is… what, it's eatingitself?" Even Wally and Artemis looked green now while Zatanna -who had asked the question- seemed on the verge of throwing up.

"It's not impossible," Barry mused and though he wasn't quite as affected as some others thanks to his day job, he was feeling a bit squeamish. "We already talked about how the transformation seems to drain Bruce to the point of unconsciousness when it's undone; a slow transformation like Blonsky's would probably require a constant supply of energy rather than Bruce's sudden bursts. If Blonsky's running on less than the serum needs then it is very possible that the serum is forcibly breaking down his muscles, body fat and whatever else it doesn't consider necessary. Right now, it's just a question of whether or not he makes it to the point where the process becomes cyclic."

"Wait. What do you mean, 'the process becomes cyclic'?" Oliver asked.

"Well, again, it's just a theory but I'm guessing that when Banner transforms, the process starts by draining his own energy stores to kickstart the transformation. The energy drained is poured into a single cell which then switches from red to green and, during the switch, the cell radiates enough energy for two more to repeat the process…"

"…at which point the whole thing continues exponentially," Diana concluded with a nod. "It certainly sounds logical to me."

"I also believe Barry may be on the right track," J'onn agreed. "However, I am more concerned with the effects this may have on his mind. When he stared into the mirror just now, he seemed… torn. Like his mind was being pulled in a million directions at once."

"You think he might end up like Hulk?" John asked. "Another rage-filled mind?"

"I… I do not know." The Martian admitted hesitantly. "And that is what bothers me."

1:15:30 - 1:15:53

"He's losing it," Kara frowned before getting interrupted by a snort from Oliver.

"I'd say he's already jumped clean off the deep end." The archer stated, his grave tone at odds with the quip. "Or, if we're being picky, the serum pushed him off the sanity cliff."

"Well, at least now we know that Bruce's trip here was a massive waste of time," Artemis scowled. When she noted the questioning look on Wally's face, she elaborated: "He came looking for a cure, right? That's why he's with Sterns."

"Yeah…?"

"Well, if this movie sticks to the path it's beating then Blonsky's 'like a monster' comment will be realized before the end of the movie and he'll go on a rampage and, with what we've seen from the Hulk, we know that the military can't do shit to him so…"

"So Hulk gets his moment in the spotlight and we get a huge, CGI-fueled monster battle," Dick finished quietly, the implication of her words settling in. "And since the only way for Bruce to transform is for the cure to fail…

"Then Banner remains stuck with the Hulk until he ages to death."

‹‹‡››

*- The Movie-Hulk has absolutely no showing at this point to match up to Clark or Kara which is what I meant here. I know the 'who's stronger' is FAR more debatable if we strayed into the world of comics.

*- Captain Short refers to Holly Short from Artemis Fowl. In my A New Life fic, she shows up as a minor character who was one of Kaldur'ahm's instructors/mentors. I decided to port that over here.

*- Paraphrased quote from the Belisarius Saga (Eric Flint/David Drake)

*- I recall a 'villain of the week' from the Flash series having this ability way back in Season 1. IIRC, he was the villain of the first official Arrow/Flash crossover

Thanks as usual to Katana and Vein for their support and to Mr War, my partner/editor. You guys are the best!

Also: Here's my list of Reaction-fics that have been Cross-posted to other sites:

Author: Katana of the Blade

Fic: RWBY Watches Iron Man

Site: Quotev

Author: VeinBloodborne

Fic: RWBY Watches The Incredible Hulk

Site: Watt Pad

Author: The Ethereal Lord

Fic: The Watchers: Iron Man

Site: Sufficient Velocity, Quotev

So, that's the list. As it stands, I won't be bothering with the Time-stamped version of Iron Man any longer. The full fic (movie dialogue + reactions) is available on both sites I listed (SV by Mr War, Quotev by me)

Alright, thanks for all the love from the beginning of the year and I will see you guys in January! [Insert preferred holiday greeting here!]

Please support my work! pat-re-on.-com-/-theethereallord Remember to remove the dashes. Your support is greatly appreciated.