Avenging Justice 2:

Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday

Part XXIV

Earth, South Africa, Johannesburg

Hulk landed, his mind racing as the colors and sounds assaulted him. He was free of Banner, the other couldn't hold him back. He would be free now, and nobody would ever hurt them again. Hulk was the strongest, he would smash those who tried to hurt. Especially Betty, something he and Banner agreed on, nobody hurt Betty Ross.

Freedom, but it came with a price. Horrid thoughts, the others wanted to end him. Not Nat, she was nice. The others though saw him as a threat, they feared him. They should fear fighting him, but he could see now. They were going to take his strength away, Hulk wouldn't allow that. But these were his friends, he was so confused. He just needed to think, get away, needed to escape. Would they let him?

"Hey now Big Guy, take it easy," the voice was calm soothing, the huge mechanical body, was menacing.

Hulk growled at Iron Man, pacing back and forth, judging the distance, preparing. He had his answer. This was Stark's answer to him, the problem of the Hulk. Well Hulk was the strongest and he'd crush this puny man. He let out a roar as he pounced suddenly.

Iron Man took the hit and countered with one of his. Hulk bounced down onto the street and immediately was back up. The green behemoth yanked the nearest car and chucked it right at Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor. Tony was able to catch it, but what he wasn't expecting was for Hulk's fist to come through the car and send him three blocks down.

"So, the hard way, okay," Iron Man shot back as he blasted off into the air.

The Hulkbuster was bigger than the Iron Monger armor Stane had used against him. However, where the Iron Monger was a crude proximation of the Iron Man armor, the Hulkbuster was the pinnacle of strength and durability. Tony had some ideas on making his normal armor better, but for taking on someone like the Hulk, this was the best there was. He also had hoped never to use it.

Iron Man shot off his right fist, and Hulk caught it, only for the metal hand to envelop the Hulk's hand. Then the pulse engines pushed the enveloped hand down. From above, another hand came down as Tony peppered the Hulk with repulsor blasts. For his part, Hulk was tearing at the metal hand pulling him down, ripping pieces of metal off.

Just as the hand attaches to the Hulkbuster, Iron Man lunges forward and sends it straight into the Hulk's face. The green behemoth was flung back and crashed into the ground. Before Tony can move though, the Hulk sat up, spit out a tooth and came back at him.

Realizing the Hulk was even angrier now, Tony peeped out, "I'm sorry!"

No sooner than those words left, than he was flying through the air, and he quickly recentered himself. It was just int time for him to use his repulsor blasts to destroy three chunks of concrete hurled at him. He rushed back down, only to realize the Hulk was leaping right at him. They crashed together in a mini explosion ten stories in the air.

Iron Man latched on to the Hulk and put as much energy as he could into this flight systems. They needed to get away from people. His unwilling passenger though wasn't having any of that, and quickly Tony found himself barreling through the side of a building. To make matters even more fun, Hulk had gotten a hand free and was ripping off parts of the Hulkbuster armor.

On reflex, he lashed out and managed to connect, sending the Hulk flying out of the building. Warnings flashed across Tony's display, even as more pieces of the Hulkbuster armor came to replace the damaged parts. Blasting out of the building after the green behemoth, he was shocked as a massive green fist gave him a massive upper cut. Even with the armor, that hurt, and Tony was seeing stars. That and a very angry Hulk coming down to smash a huge green foot into his face. Then there was red and blue.

"Banner, calm down, he's a friend," Superman calmly said as he pushed the Hulk away. "Look at the…."

Hulk punched Superman into the sky, and landed on the ground looking for Iron Man. He heard the sonic boom before he felt the responding double handed chop. Beneath him, the asphalt cracked and the concrete of the nearby sidewalks cracked. Tremors were felt three blocks over, and Hulk saw stars as another punch came.

"Look at the damage you are causing! This isn't you, Banner!" Superman continued, after delivering the massive hits. "Let's go somewhere safe, nobody wants to hurt you."

"Hulk smash!" Hulk responded, sending a left hook right at the Man of Steel.

Curiously, Superman caught it, held his blow and gave him an "are you kidding" look. So, Hulk sent his right in an over the head blow, and it was caught as well. To add insult to injury, Hulk felt a nearly indestructible had crash into that sensitive part between the eyes and nose. Growling in pain, Hulk could only feel gravity pull, as both he and Superman rocketed into the upper atmosphere.

The air thinning, the Hulk was having trouble breathing. Panic shot through him, and with it a new pulse of strength and he managed to get away from Superman, and sent the Man of Steel flying back again. He fell back towards the Earth and that was when a red and gold armored man grabbed him in a reverse suplex.

"That building is under construction, we can use it to take the wind out of the Hulk," Iron Man called out to Superman.

He then ignited the rockets on his boots and pushed himself and the Hulk through the building. In his ear, Friday was telling him the building sale had gone through. He was now the proud owner of a soon to be demolished near built building. Using the Hulk as a shield, he ushed him through the structure.

On the outside, the people on the street saw the two goliaths plummet through the under-construction building. Then the building imploded, falling in on the two fighters. The shock on those people's faces were replaced with awe as Superman lowered himself to a hover above the wreckage. His cape wafting in the wind, he waited till he saw movement, and then went in to either help or finish this.

A green arm shot up, and the Hulk was feeling his control slip. With the anger leaving, being replaced with confusion, Banner was reasserting himself. The Hulk looked around at the devastation, and he could feel Banner's shock and disgust. He needed to get out of here, needed to get away.

"Stay down!" Superman said as he brought a fist down into the Hulk's face.

The Hulk fell limp and Iron Man hobbled over to where Superman was hovering. For once the brash inventor and hero, was at a loss of words. In the background he could hear the coming armed forces trucks, and the sirens from the Johannesburg police. Intermixed with them were the sounds of the horrified people, screaming children and rescuers looking for those trapped under rubble.

"I'll get him out of here," Iron Man finally said. "Thanks for the assist Big Blue."

"What happened?" Superman asked, even as he was scanning the rubble for anyone in need of saving.

Iron Man couldn't really answer it, "It's complicated."

Superman left him briefly to assist in the rescue of trapped civilians. When he returned, the Avengers were flying off in their Quinjet. He debated following, something in how Iron Man had sounded was wrong. Decided, he flew off, even as reporters began to mob around him, asking questions in multiple languages.

Earth, Tennessee, Gatlinburg

Seth Rowans paced back and forth, looking out the window every so often. He was trying to give off a confident vibe, but he was nervous. They had gone back to his apartment, only to find everything already ransacked. Luckily, he found his cat, stressed out, but safe. Quickly gathering her, and picking up a couple of weapons, he had Lara and Upita on the road.

They had gone to his great uncle's cabin, with only a brief stop. Worst of all, he had to use what little cash he had on him, for fear of using his cards. If they could track him to his apartment, they were probably tracking his credit and debit cards. Luckily it was enough to get him here, and some food. Granted it was Krystals, and he'd pay for that later. Anyone who had lived in the South, knew burgers from Krystal were little time bombs.

In the bedroom, Dr. Oyongo watched as Lara checked on her. The young woman had shown quite a bit of steel, and Upita was impressed. She could have easily just fallen apart, but instead she had fought. Even her boyfriend was showing a fortitude she found endearing. She didn't miss his relief when the cat had been found. Nor did she miss how he hadn't even batted an eye at keeping her close by. How easy would it have been to just throw her to the wolves?

"How long have you known him?" Dr. Oyongo asked, her voice raspy from disuse over the last few hours.

This seemed to make Lara relax, "Met him at the vet. My family's dog was going in for his shots, and he was there with Cheetara there. She was a little smaller back then." As if to accentuate she was the full conversation, the gold and black spotted cat jumped up for some petting. "He was so gently with our dog, scratching him behind the ears and telling him he was a good boy. It was that gentleness that won me over. We went on a few dates, and we've been an item ever since."

Dr. Upita Oyongo smiled, "You two are special. Thank you for staying with me."

"Do you know who is after you?" Lara asked. "Why did they blow up the lab?"

Upita shook her head, "I'm not sure. The woman with the gun was wanting my research. It wouldn't make any sense to blow it up like that, maybe there is another player involved." She reached over to the cat and began scratching behind her ear. Cheetara purred at that and plopped herself over the good doctor. "How much do you know about our research?"

Lara shrugged, "The data I was allowed to sift through, really didn't give me any information. But the others were talking about rediscovering something last back in World War II. There was a pool on if it was a new form of penicillin to a serum to make a new Captain America. You know, with all the hush hush."

Dr. Oyongo shook her head, how close people could get to the truth. She was wondering how much she wanted to reveal when her phone began to ring. She had distinctly remembered turning it off. Even as she pulled it out, the screen remained blank. Yet, the vibrating didn't go away, it just wasn't coming from her phone. Reaching back in, she pulled out her ID badge, and found green and red phone icons had appeared towards the bottom. Curious, she clicked on the green phone icon.

"Dr. Oyongo, we don't have much time," came the voice of a woman who was all business. "I'm Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D., we have a team coming to extract you. However, it's going to take a couple of hours for them to get to you. In the meantime, several Hydra agents are less than an hour from you. Are you in a defensible area?"

Upita shook her head, not sure if the agent could see her, "I'm not sure you would call this defensible. Have you been tracking me this whole time?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors anyone doing research on Dr. Erskine's formula. Dig in, we'll try to get there as quickly as possible. Just keep your head down," Maria Hill said. "For now, we'll cut communication. It should be secure, but Hydra is a threat we don't take lightly. If there are any updates, I'll contact you back."

"That didn't sound good," Lara voice held only the barest hint of a tremor. Behind her, Seth looked on with grim determination.

Dr. Oyongo knew they should have left her some place; they would have been safter that way. Now they were probably going to be hurt or die, and all because of selfish people wanting her research. She had started this to make the world better. More people like Captain America or Superman in the world, the better. The world needed heroes, bringers of light to those in the dark. Now she was stuck with two of them, and their light was about to be snuffed out. Pulling her lab coat to her, she found the vials.

"Listen, both of you, we have a chance," she said. "I must warn you, this is dangerous, but if it works, the world will forever be changed." Not seeing a hint of fear she continued, "My research was meant to change the world, and it is going to start with you two. Now quickly roll up your sleeves, we don't have much time, and you're going to need all the help you can get."