by The Pighead

Thank, God, it seems that I've managed to release at the date that I wanted!

So, first of all... it's my birthday, today. 23 years of existing on this Earth, still alive and all. Hooray.

Second of all, here's the promised She-Hulk one-shot I wanted to do since a while! The idea for it came to me when I realized that in IC, Jen' fourth wall-breaking abilities came pretty late. In her first stories post-transformation (Gamma Relations, Powers and Marvels...), she doesn't do it and the first mention of her doing it is when Tony Stark mentions that she "looks off and talks to someone who isn't there" in Generation Gaps. So, between this period of time and before the latter-mentionned story, what happened? What made her develop those abilities?

Well, this one-shot is me trying to give you a good answer to this. And I hope that you will like it.

Enjoy!


Jennifer Walters wasn't having a good time.

This was an understatement. The more correct way of describing her actual current state was « excruciating pain » because of the fact that those gamma lasers didn't stop coming and that she could actually feel her whole body changing (if you asked her to describe the sensations, she would tell you that it was similar to having every inch of her crushed, twisted and modeled like she was just a puppet made of clay) and that she really wanted it to stop and that she also hadn't count since how much time she was inside of it.

When the laser stopped striking her, her first reflex was to take a deep breath because she knew that it was just a short moment of respite and that quickly, it would resume and the pain would be back and she would have no way of escaping it. So, she breathed and waited for it to come back or for people to burst in the lab and get her out of it.

Which is why it came to her as a surprise when seconds started passing and nothing happened. No new laser. Nothing. In fact, there was actually no other noise in the lab other than her own breathing. Which wasn't better than hearing her own screams, mind you.

She tried to turn her head. There was no one. Jen couldn't help but sigh. She wasn't blaming anyone (especially not Hank or Bruce) for not managing to find the lab immediately, but damn it, the isolation was really starting to get to her and…

Wait a minute.

Jen turned her head again. Yes, indeed, there was still no one. But… it wasn't right. She was thinking about Hank and Bruce but they were there, actually ! And why was there no Sterns and even less of his colleagues ? Like, she was pretty sure they spent all their time bragging about their genius and…

Oh.

Yes.

It was a dream. And not a dream she was having for the first time. Which automatically meant one thing.

In one second, Jennifer turned into her She-Hulk form and her restraints were no more. She got up. So, that was cool but now, what could she do ? Recently, her dreams were becoming weirder and weirder, to the point that they were resembling visits into the mind of anyone who decided to post on YouTube some performance art they did (she looked at it two or three times and was never able to wrap her head around what they were doing, but no disrespect, it was cool !). And the most frustrating was that remembering them was difficult. She tried, of course, but all she could remember was morcels of it, bits and pieces of said dreams, which didn't help anything.

Guess I will have to fuck around and find out.

And so, Walters started to walk. She originally had no idea of the path her much loved kidnappers originally took from the cafe to their lab, but when it came to dreams, the first rule was always to assume nothing is like you think it will be.

She got proven instantly right when she opened a door and saw an empty room with two doors at the center. Because whoever part of her brain in charge of writing her dreams thought « Boy howdy, do you know what would be super-dope ? If you had to make a pointless choice while you're dreaming ! »

But she still had to do it and so, Jen went through the left door.

The first thing she felt when she entered was the ground, who definitely wasn't solid. It felt more like she was walking on marshmallows. It wasn't helped by the fact that she was seeing lizards dressed as clowns calmly working on their computers like nothing even remotely silly was happening. And was that Michael Stipe dressed as a Christmas tree against a wall ?

Trying to walk more slowly, she delved into the office in front of her, ignoring what was happening (despite the ground feeling so weird). She opened another door but quickly closed it after seeing a giant sheep stuck in an elevator. Clearly, that wasn't the right door.

She opened another one and, to her surprise, it led to a pretty normal warehouse. Jennifer decided to go on it. Like the lab, she immediately realized that this storage, like the lab, was empty of people. There was a lot of boxes and other stuff piled up but no one else in this place. The green-skinned heroine decided to ignore it as well. After all, not only it was a dream but also, it wasn't some empty warehouse with a lot of boxes that would scare her-

« BANZAIIIIIIIIII ! »

Jen immediately snapped out of her train of thoughts when she heard a masculine, loud voice coming from above. She turned her head towards its source and saw someone in a tattered, red and black costume with white eyes plungering towards her direction, a saber in his hands. Her first reflex was to punch him in the face. It was powerful enough to propel the man away.

She looked at her attacker, now that he was at her level. In addition to his ruined costume, the skin showed was horribly disfigured (it was looking like the skin of someone who got recovered in acid before being burned to death) and almost all his lower half was gone, with only little shreds of his costume serving as an actual lower half. Immediately, the man waved his hand at her, the oddness of the gesture contrasting with his everything-but-sympathetic smile.

« Oh, excuse me, lady, I represent the Canadian Ex-Boy Scouts Association, this is our daily blood drive, would you be kind enough to give some samples ? »

Jennifer' only answer was to crack her knuckles.

« Not really sure it's how you're doing a blood drive, buddy. »

« Oh, really ? I don't know what makes you think that… maybe the fact that good ol' Wadey was ready to stab you ? »

The man immediately fled towards her, ready to attack again. But Jennifer was already ready and punched him in his chest. Without losing any more second, she threw herself at him, hitting his chest with her head and propelling him (and herself) towards the wall.

It broke, leading them to fall in a desert. Dreadpool quickly freed himself from his restraints and punched She-Hulk in the back. She quickly retaliated with another one, in the face.

« People who use the third person to introduce themselves are generally villains, you know. »

« I mean, your cousin do this too ! Or was he just grunting ? Honestly, I'm just confused at this point, thanks, canon that doesn't stop chang-IIIIIIIIIIIIING ! »

Before Wade could finish his sentence, Jen just grabbed him by his arm and, once again, used all her strength to propel him in the sky. She then jumped, just to not lose sight of him.

The desert disappeared and when the green-skinned Avenger landed, her and Wade were in a ballroom with a lot of people just dancing and not really paying attention to them.

« Ouuuuuh, nice ! I was starting to think that we were a bit too alone, don't you ? »

« Don't even try, buddy ! I have no idea what is even your deal but you will not harm anyone on my watch ! »

Jennifer immediately ran towards Dreadpool and tried to grab him again, but the only problem was that, at this exact moment, he had the same idea. In one second, their fight immediately turned into both of them trying to free themselves from the other' grip. From far away, it looked like they were trying to waltz like the others, but didn't learned how to do it quite properly.

Fortunately, no one was looking at them or even paying attention at them. Maybe that, from their point of view, they were just ghosts and they weren't having any impact on the current scene.

Well, Jennifer thought, if it wasn't the case before, it surely is, now.

« You know… nngh… I should have tried to invade the dreams of someone that wasn't you. Guess that's what… happens when you start having bigger ambitions. »

« Oh, because I wasn't even the first person you visited ? »

« Hey, I mean, you have to start somewhere when you're changing your methods ! Of course, they're going to resist a bit but I'm trying ! »

Jennifer heard some noises of bones cracking.

« What the hell are you even talking about ? »

« About the big thing that some people don't want us to know ! The secret ! No one understands what I'm talking about but I'm the only one who can deliver us all ! »

« By attacking people in their dreams ? That makes… ugh-even less sense ! »

« If I told people patiently, it would have worked even less well ! None of you can even understand when I do it on my own, so talking about that truth directly to you ? No way ! »

« What truth ? »

« This one. »

Without her expecting it, the alternate Deadpool punched her in the face. And he might have been tired of being the one on the receiving end of the punches, due to the strength he put on that one.

Sent away on the other end of the ballroom, she broke the wall and when she crashed on the floor, the coloured, lively ballroom was replaced by a dull, grey room.

She got up again. Her enemy wasn't here and the wall was already repaired, like it never even got broken in the first place. She looked around and the only things of notice she could see were a table and a computer that was already activated.

For some seconds, the presence of those objects stopped her on her tracks. Why was it here ? And why whoever made that dream thought this would be an interesting thing to watch, especially when there's a maniac near her ?

Jen, then, remembered that both of them were ghosts and couldn't interact with anyone and, since she was in a lucid dream, it wouldn't change for as long as she thought it was the case.

So, she slowly approached the computer and sat on a chair to look at it. An Internet page of a website named « TVTropes » was shown on it.

She started reading.

Infinity Crisis, by Michael Weyer, is a story who was originally published between May 5th and July 3rd, 2018, being the first of a crossover fanfiction series…

One of her eyebrows raised. What was that ?

Despite the heroes' best efforts, they ultimately fail and Thanos manages to wipe out half of the population of Earth-199999.

instead of destroying half of the population of the MCU, Thanos's use of the Infinity Gauntlet wiped out half of the entire Multiverse…

the usual criminals and supervillains are still up to no good but the Multiverse also starts to become a major source of interest for several people…

The description of what the page was about felt… no, it was extremely reminiscent of the Snap and the way it played out. She clicked on the first link in the page and a new one opened, leading to a website called « FanFiction ». After a short disclaimer made by the author, She-Hulk started to read the story proper. She was able to read pretty fast, so that wasn't a problem. What was more troubling to her was the fact that it was very apparent that this story was actually about the Snap. The event in itself, the Second Battle of New York… she only saw glimpses of it on TV and Bruce told her a bit about what happened but, clearly, this story was going directly into the details of it, it was almost like whoever wrote it was here when it happened !

There was also this last chapter that was just the author explaining his creative process and all the ideas he originally had before scrapping them and changing for other ones. Ultron being resurrected directly by Thanos, all the Defenders that were supposed to be wiped out with no survivors among them, General Ross showing up to try to arrest several of the Avengers only to be fired by the President…

At this point, Jennifer was more and more curious but also a bit creeped out. She went back to the TVTropes page and looked at the two folders under the pitch. She opened the first and was very surprised to see her own name appearing in the pitch of one of the stories, named Gamma Relations.

She clicked on the link to this one. It had only 2 chapters. She started to read and it took only the first sentences for her to realize that this was, indeed, about her. Her meeting with Bruce & Hank at the cafe, Octavius coming in and kidnapping them, their imprisonment… this story had everything right, down to a T. But no one, unless it was one of the Avengers or one of the people who participated to the kidnapping and Sterns' experiments, knew about it ! So, how could this person possibly know the entire story ? It didn't made sense, unless…

And it was at this point that something clicked in Walters' mind. It was something that, logically, she shouldn't be able to believe in or even consider a possibility but, for some reason, in her head, it was the reason that made the much sense.

Or rather, it made sense because the author operating right now let her know.

« You understand, now ? »

She didn't turn to face him. Of course, now, she understood.

« That's what I had to face. This damn continuity. Trapping us, forcing us to act the way they want, only seeing us as puppets for the entertainment of a bunch of voyeurs from beyond ! That's what I'm trying to stop. I couldn't find them while I was alive – and the bitch who's writing, right now, may have killed me – but that doesn't mean I'll stop. »

And now, she understood who he was. His quest, his motives… and technically, he could guess how he came to do this.

« Of course, people don't understand. But they were programmed to not understand, if they knew, it would be complete chaos and they would be more busy doing that rather than gaining their freedom. So, that's what I'm doing. I help them gaining their freedom. »

Yes. He was a guy who had to learn a truth that not everyone was meant to know, far from it, and took it the worst way possible.

« I mean, if there was another way to do it, I would do it. But, like I said. They don't understand. I'm just showing mercy, so… »

But when Jennifer finally turned her head towards him, it was clear that she didn't bought it at all.

« Several things. One, I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna wake up in a few hours and I'll go on with my day like usual, because being fictional will not turn me into a puppet incapable of walking, moving or doing its job. Two, there's only a small fraction of us that are directly subjected to the authors' whims because we're the heroes and there's trillions and trillions of people living their lives without much interference. And three. »

As she got up and slowly approached Dreadpool, she made sure that the smug smile he had while talking was fading away. Just so he could realize that, once again, he lost.

« Get out of my dreams. Buddy. »

This time, he was the one who was punched. Not only did the wall got broken, he got sent away so quickly that the last sign of him was a twinkle in the sky.

Silence fell, once again. Jennifer turned her head around again and saw that a door appeared. She couldn't help but let out a satisfied sigh. Because, honestly, now that this new ability of hers allowed her to see this alternate Deadpool for the cynical loser he truly was, she really wanted this bullshit to end.

Without any hesitation, she passed through it… and woke up in her bed.

Immediately, she had several thoughts that came to her.

One, she was pretty right in the sense that right now, everything felt like usual.

Two, she was convinced there was dozens of eyes on her. It didn't happen in the dream, of course, but now that she was awoken and fully conscious of her surroundings, her body and her brain felt… alert. Alert enough to tell her that something was watching her but not enough to make her attack or lash out. Yes, she could feel it. It was them, she was certain of it.

Three, she had now knowledge of dozens and dozens of events that she never lived herself, for sure. Knowledge of names she never heard of, too : Stan Lee, David Kraft, John Byrne, Dan Slott… and not only that, she also knew about what happened and what will happening in the entire series !

Four… why the hell did she gained this power after such, such a stupid dream ? Like, really ? Though, with what happened not too long ago with Rita Repulsa & Lord Zedd, this was not among the weirdest things she experienced recently, not even by a largest margin.

« I can agree on that, honestly. »

Turning her head towards her alarm clock, she saw that it was 9 AM. Great, it was early, she would be able to start her day without too much complications !

And so, starting her day, she did. Taking her breakfast, taking a shower, getting dressed… and then came the moment of leaving her home and for one second, she stopped in her tracks and thought again about what Dreadpool said. She told him that nothing would change and was pretty sure of it…

« …and also, I wanted him to go away. »

But there still was the lingering possibility that what he said was true and that every person was a puppet on strings with no free will. Her chance to find out was to actually check outside, however… so, she left.

When she saw the outside world, she was very relieved to see that it was exactly like usual. Nothing changed, people were doing normal things and…

« Yeah, I think they got the point, no need to drag it on, pal. »

And with this rather rude interruption, Jennifer decided to go on with her day. She had some cases to look at, she already planned to have a lunch with Nikki and after that, maybe she could go look at what Bruce was doing ? Of course, she already knew he would be busy but hey, not a problem. Tony would be here and she could infodump about legal strategy to him.

Yep, it sounded like it was about to be a great day.

She already stopped thinking about the ghost unstuck in time that was condemned to aimlessly float for the rest of his life because neither Heaven nor Hell would accept him.


And that's all! Here's me ranting about some things:

- So, yeah, this story happens before Generation Gaps. However, if you read Another Side of the Glimpses, you might be surprised by Dreadpool' appearance here. But the explanation for this is simple and got summarized in the last line: after Pighead killed him, he got barred from the afterlife by fear that said afterlife would end up completely empty, for obvious reasons. So, now, he's a ghost who got unstuck in time and space, which would allow him to keep doing his killing spree... if I wasn't afflicted by a curse who forced me to make him a complete butt-monkey. Lol.

- Still about Dreadpool, I hope to show this in other installments, but just to say more about him: the main reason of why Jen told him to piss off was because she basically understood that he's full of shit. When he talks, he tries his best to act like he's this well-intentioned extremist, he fancies himself as that... but deep down, he's really not. All of his killings were made partly out of repressed hate towards the heroes of his homeworld for basically shoving him in the trashcan at every opportunity and partly because when he realized the truth about his fictional nature, he just stopped considering others as human beings. For him, it's "I can finally murder all those assholes I always loathed because, after all, they're just puppets and not humans!" but he will never tell you that because he tries hard to convince himself he's doing the right thing.

- At the opposite, I really think Jennifer acts as a foil to Dreadpool because she's more of the "fun-loving, optimistic, angst-free" type of person so, of course, she would have a different view of all of this. Plus, there's not a lot of works when you have a fourth wall-breaking character explaining that it's not THAT big of a deal.

- I wanted to include a scene being set after Celestial Navigation in which the MCU Deadpool would have met She-Hulk and in which they would talk about this ability they share and, basically, the latter making a declaration of friendship to the former and saying "Hey, look, I know that being aware of all of this, it's not only fun & jokes, don't hesitate to call if you feel you're not doing OK". However, because Celestial Navigation hasn't been finished and Chapter 1 implied that Jennifer & Wade would actually play kind of a role in the story, I cut it out. Tho, I would have love to do it because it would have been a real discussion of what being a fourth wall-breaker meant and it would have also established Jennifer' nature as a foil to Dreadpool more apparent.

- Also, I wanted to do at least parts of the discussion between Jennifer & Tony but... I don't know shit about legal strategy.

- Unrelated to all of this, but since it's my birthday, I wanted to, once again, thank you for all the views, the reviews and the support y'all gave me since the start. This life has been... quite interesting, despite me still being young. I had a lot of highs and a lot of lows and, to be honest, the period between 2019 and May 2022 has been pretty difficult and ugly, at points, to the point when I thought that my Internet life was completely destroyed and I would end up being remembered in shame.

But it's not what happened. Instead, I ended up rebuilding bridges and knowing a very enjoyable amount of success and, today, I'm at my happiest since a long time. I'm still stressed, still anxious about the future and that capitalist nightmare we're trapped in, but I have a lot of friends again, a lot of people who give a shit about what I say and do, people who support me and I'm very, very grateful for that.

So, to my family, to all my former friends, to all my current friends, to my Tumblr homies, to the SCP Foundation, to the Infinity Crisis authors & fans... thank you. For putting up with my bullshit. i'm not the best person in the world but I'm doing better and I will keep doing and being better.

Peace out, y'all. See you later.