Avenging Justice 2:
Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday
By Kristopher Rose
Earth, Delaware, Metropolis
Chaos reigned, ER doctor Samantha Freeman was rushing towards the sound of sirens. Beside her was Dr. Chopra, his features locked in a serious expression. With incoming casualties, one could understand why. The first patient was nearly dead, collected from fallen debris. The next one screamed, their left arm nearly sliced completely off. Another came in with half her face removed, both doctors tried not to look at the pile of flesh in her lap. A young boy came in, but he looked relatively unharmed. His older brother, though, had a metal pipe through the midsection.
Dr. Freeman triaged, while Dr. Chopra began following one of the patients to the next bay. Nurses took over, letting Dr. Freeman start treating some of the casualties. More doctors arrived, along with called in nurses and specialists. Some look bleary eye, clearly the nightshift called back in. None would complain, because this was an emergency, and one that Metropolis had more experience with. Aliens had attacked.
What caught Dr. Freeman's attention was the crushed patient. Their vitals were so far gone, that she didn't expect the young man to live past the hour. His father must have just arrived. She heard him saying that he'd fix it all, that he'd save his son. With a quick motion, she sent a nurse over to calm the father down. However, she was quite surprised as the man started to push his son out and into a waiting van.
"Wait!" she called out. "Sir, he needs swift medical attention."
The man turned, calm despite the emotions inside, "You're overwhelmed here, and this is my son."
"Yes, sir, but unless you're a medical doctor, his best chance of survival is here," Dr. Freeman countered.
The man shook his head, "You're limited here, and I've seen the chart. He will expire in less than an hour, but I have a way to save him. Step aside, and thank you for trying to save my son."
"Wait!" she called out again, but was interrupted.
"Doctor Freeman, your patient in three is crashing," a nurse called out to her. "We also have more coming in."
"Thank you, Jan," Dr. Freeman replied and when she turned back, the man had loaded the crushed teen into a van.
On the side of the van read S.T.A.R. Labs. She went to run after it, only to be met with more casualties coming in from New York. Despite the overwhelming nature of the emergency, she had presence of mind to have the patient's chart pulled and security notified. Then she went back to treating the overflow patients.
By that night, she was dead on her feet, only coffee and pure will moving her. Finally, the flow of wounded had stopped. For that she was eternally grateful, and hoped to never see such an event ever again. She picked up her tablet and went to Daily Planet, which showed Superman and other heroes fighting the invaders.
Metropolis had its shares of invasions from the sky, but thanks to Superman, normally the human cost was very low. The city leaders and Metropolis' own police department had enacted several contingencies that kept the populace safe. Which meant the amount of injured and dead in New York was nearly unheard of. Not surprisingly the article focused on that, with several other articles dedicated to the long-term consequences.
"Dr. Freeman, I've been meaning to catch up with you," came the voice of Boris, their head of security. "I liaised with Metropolis PD, that man was the patient's father, one, Silas Stone. He is one of the researchers at S.T.A.R. Labs, and his son, Victor was on his way to a STEM retreat."
"Kind of buffed for a science guy," she replied back. "I would have guessed he was an athlete. So, was MPD able to talk to the father?"
Boris laughed, "Doc, I can tell you're not a football fan. Victor Stone is big news, an up and coming player. As for the father, you're not going to believe this, he's got the kid hooked up at the lab. The cops even verified he was still alive, before being politely shown the door."
"That's amazing, I would have said the kid wasn't long for the world," Dr. Freeman sounded shaken. "What kind of tech are they hiding in that place?"
Earth, Delaware, Outside of Metropolis
Reed came back to pain, his whole body felt like it had been twisted and pulled in every direction. His first thought went to Sue, frantically he flailed, trying to rise. Something heavy was on top of him, darkness was all around him, but he fought. Then he heard her gasp, and his heart both leapt out of his chest, and a shiver ran down his spine. She sounded in distress.
"Susie!" came a deep gravelly voice, one that sounded like Ben's, but different. "Reed! Johnny! I'm coming, I'm coming."
Reed saw light, and he found the metal over him was being lifted. He helped push, and soon daylight blinded his eyes. All his vision could see was the large outline of his life long friend, Ben. Blurry visioned, he blamed his eyes adjusting for the image that came him. Instead he called out for Susan, and she responded back.
Together the pulled the metal sheets off, with Reed being thrown off balance as Ben chucked the sheet as if it were nothing. An explosion from ahead, threw another set of debris into the air. This time blazing fire in the form of a man stood, before falling to the ground. Johnny's battered body, lay there, burn marks pock marking his uniform.
"Found Susie," Ben said. "Check on Johnny, she seems okay."
Reed was torn, but Susan's waving hand told him she was fine for now. Running, wobbly, over to Johnny, he found the young man was alive. Carefully moving him to his sister, Reed could see Susan look protectively over Johnny. She gently caressed his forehead, and the motion was enough to stir him.
"See, told you I can fly," he said. "When did the Hulk get here?"
"Whatcha talkin' about, Johnny?" Ben asked, before catching sight of his hands.
"Ben, you're going to be okay, I'll find a way to fix this," Reed said. "Look at me, Ben. We're going to figure this out."
Ben Grimm wasn't listening. His hands held before him, they were another's hands, a monster's. Three fingers on each, instead of five, and skin of rock and colored nearly orange. He could feel, but things were different, felt different. Shock ran down him, and his expression was one of horror. Touching his face, his features were foreign to him, and inside he screamed. Stumbling back, he clenched his fists and hit the ground. Clouds of dust erupted around where they hit, and Ben screamed. He was once a man, now he was a Thing!