Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.
The Anolians and every related character/lore are invented by me, as is the overarching plot, but obviously, I don't own it. Still Marvel.
Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.
PART 6: The Truth Confuses
If only to keep the trust of her team, Carol decided to get them on an additional mission. She and Wonder Man, and Geena, would watch over the meeting of the two sides. Meanwhile, Sunfire, Nova, and War-Machine would be looking for the hidden Chosen. Hopefully, between the life-tracking tech in Nova's helmet, War-Machine's own psychometric scanners and Sunfire's heat signature sense, they would find the Chosen and get to the bottom of the whole thing.
In reality, Carol believed she could force the two sides to step down from their claim. One of them was lying. One of them was in the wrong. One of them was going to lose.
"You are to be united with the earth!" The woman president said, pointing at the rebel leader.
Wonder Man was standing by the rebel leader, engulfed in the purple hue of his ionized energy field. He was ready to protect the rebel should there be a need. Carol was standing on the other side of him, similarly prepared to take action. They were in the midst of the meeting room they had been in before: a great circular thing where half of it was filled with the thrones, and those sitting on them.
"I do not recognize your authority!" The rebel leader yelled back. "You may have the foreigners tricked, but your people know better! We know you have attempted to take the gods unto yourselves, against the law! Chosen cannot be presidents! Presidents cannot be Chosen! That is the law!"
"Stop with your lies," another of the presidency yelled out. "You are the ones who have taken the gods! All but one of the Chosen yet lives because of your treachery!"
"What?! You are the ones who united the Chosen with the earth, not us!" Argued the rebel.
"Because they surrendered the gods! That is law!"
"They surrendered the gods so you wouldn't take them!" the rebel leader continued to yell. "How else to escape the system than to give them to unChosen? Those you care so little about that we can leave and never be noticed!"
"Found more rebels," War-Machine reported. "Will the translator work with me, Nova? Over."
"Yes. Go for it," said Nova. "Over! I remembere-over!"
Carol's radio shut off just as missiles started flying, and she was left a bit peeved by the fact War-Machine had found them. A disorderly team member wasn't as bad as one who could be more of a leader than the actual leader, but the combination of the two worried her. Still, there was nothing she could do about it, and in the end, he was a friend. She knew Rhodes wouldn't do that to her, not lightly.
"Lies and more lies," said the old man of the presidency, and then a slithering voice took over. "So you succeeded to smuggle unChosen out of the system. You are right to assume we keep a much better eye on the Chosen. Why shouldn't we? They cannot leave our system, that leaves the entire galaxy undefended! The Unseen will come for them, and we will all be doomed."
"Not if you accept the will of the people and unite with the earth!" The rebel leader yelled out. "Then they will return! Without a doubt, the gods will return to us!"
"There is an Anolian all by himself hiding inside a tree trunk," Sunfire said in her ear, disgruntled. He wasn't happy about the whole mission, it sounded like. "Shall I take him?"
"Don't burn the whole forest to the ground," Carol whispered, reflexively turning her face to the side. "Nova, go meet him. War-Machine, report. Over"
The presidency and the rebel leader kept yelling about the same topics, and while Carol had expected it to be a spiral, it was actually in a circle. She frowned impatiently and took a breath to keep her cool.
"This is going nowhere," Geena said from her side, as if it needed to be said.
"This is weird," War-Machine's voice pointed out. "These guys are telling a slightly different version of things. According to them, the Chosen fled on his own. They're still claiming he's on their side, but the part about hiding him seems to not be true. Over and out."
Carol thought about that. It was possible that that was a new development, and so the rebel leader to her side wouldn't know of it.
"Sunfire? Nova? Over."
"This vine man is the Chosen," Sunfire said, still sounding upset. "According to him. The child Nova is finding out what his lies are. A few minutes." Sunfire's sarcasm was palpable.
"Hey, what?" Nova's voice sounded out, from the distance, getting picked up by Sunfire's intercom. "Child?!"
Carol cleared her throat, calling the attention of the room.
"We have just located your Chosen." Both parties, the eight members of the presidency and the rebel leader, looked back at her startled. "We will find out his version of things momentarily. Does anyone feel like getting ahead of this? For the sake of your world. Of your planet. Of your people?"
"Please!" The rebel leader started breaking the bark ground with his head, once again cowtowing. "Save our world, save our people! You are our only hope, heroes of the space! Please!"
"Do not listen to those wretches!" the woman president demanded.
"Whoever you have captured is most likely a lying, conniving pawn! Let us confirm his identity, do not blindly believe him!" another president demanded, heartily.
"Eesh," Geena said, utterly confused. "This is a mess. What the heck's going on?"
Carol sighed and waited for Nova's report, and it soon came.
"Alright. A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B, and a little bit of column C."
"They're both lying," Sunfire broke in, to explain the vague metaphor.
"Dude, let me tell it!" Nova protested, and quite frankly, Carol was starting to get a headache. She needed to rethink the intercom system. "Captain. Assuming these Chosen actually had some kind of power inside of them, these gods? The presidency really plotted to steal them. But so did the rebel leaders. Apparently, up until now, for all these thousands of years, most of the Chosen have been seasoned and trained when a new one is selected. But through a series of machinations - that's the word he used - all of the Chosen were new to their gods, and pretty ignorant. Like, not even this guy knows a lot about the rules. They know they can pass out and-"
"Hold on," Carol asked, and turned her head to face the shouting Anolians. Her hand glowed and blasted a wide hole into the floor in front of her. That startled them all. "Shut up! Now!"
The presidency regarded her insulted, but the rebel leader crawled away a step and immediately shut up.
"I mean it," Carol added. "Go on, Nova."
Nova coughed, and gulped, and continued. "They pass the gods only if someone is receptive. If they accept it. Both the presidency and the rebels tried to convince them to do that with them, and then plotted to coerce them. Kidnapped family, friends, the usual, but these guys weren't the Chosen for anything!"
"Hey sorry," Mr. Immortal cut in. "I dozed off a little bit there, mind starting over? What's this about coercing gods? To do wha-"
"This isn't a joke!" Carol yelled, "are you kidding me, mister?"
"I was trying to," Mr. Immortal said, snickering apologetically. Somehow.
"It's not funny. Nova, go on, hurry."
"Well. According to him, the Chosen gave the gods to whoever they could trust and sent them off planet. The Chosen were killed, all but this guy. And their families, too. The rebels did some of them in, the presidency did the others, but they just blame it all on the other side. The really bad part is that only the leaders and a few agents are aware of all of this. Most of the warriors and soldiers, on both sides, just believe the lies. Same with the civilians. I mean, according to this guy."
Sunfire loudly snorted in a depreciating manner. "The few leading the many on lies against each other, vying for all of the power." Then he cursed in Japanese, insulting everyone involved.
Carol was looking on grimly.
Geena whistled, and Simon glanced over at a loss, and Carol completely agreed with that sentiment.
What the hell did they do, now?
Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time.
Oh boy. What would you do? Be back for the next part, when things escalate and blow up, and Carol makes her decision
This story and Spider-man: Repulse are heavily connected by lore, even though they're not connected by plot. All my marvel stories are in the same universe, and following an overarching plot. Just in case you want to give that a read.