AN: [slowly peaks out from behind a heavily fortified fortress] Okay, in the words of Wasp, nobody shoot me. That goes for both readers and cast members, so put away the arrow and drop the bow, Hawkeye!
Hawkeye: [seen preparing to fire an arrow at AN, only to grumble and slowly do as asked] Fine, but you can't blame any of us. You haven't updated this in at least four years, man!
AN: I know, I know! I meant to, but time got away from me, and things IRL got busy. Nothing I can do about it now.
Aelita: Not to mention you've been really focused on a lot of things involved with either Kingdom Hearts or RWBY as of late. I really hope doing all those stories has burned you out on writing for them or anything.
AN: No need to worry about that. Like I said, a number of circumstances have just been keeping me from updating and writing as much as I'd like. But at long last, we're back with another chapter in Code Avengers: Cosmic!
[audience applause]
Ulrich: Man, I've been waiting for this one, and I'm sure everyone else has too. And why shouldn't they? After all, with Skrull-Cap exposed and a whole slew of new members on the team, there's no telling how things with Red Hulk are going to go down this time.
AN: Oh, you'll find that a lot more than that will come into play when dealing with old Raging Red over there. But why waste time talking about it here? Let's get on with the show already. Preferably before Deadpool shows up.
Wasp: Hey, do you get the feeling he might try to make even more appearances around here once the upcoming Deadpool and Wolverine movie comes out?
AN: God, I hope not. He'll likely become unbearable if he does. Anyways, announcements, disclaimer, and intro please!
If you haven't already, please check out our YouTube channel "Studio Fandom". It's the best place to get updates as to what I'm doing with my writing stuff at the time along with various other content. And if you want to look at some pretty cool artwork, we've also got a DeviantArt page now "studiofandom", so check that out too, when you get the chance.
Speaking of the YouTube channel, we're still looking for voice actors for the Remnant of the Key Reading Series videos. Not only that, but we're now looking for artists who might be interested in helping to create images for said videos as well. For more details on what to do to sign on and/or qualify, go check out episode 8 of Studio News for full details on the voice actor stuff. Or even check out the latest episode of Studio News, (that being Episode 12) for all the details on both the voice actor stuff and the artist stuff.
lyokoMARVELanime (aka lyoko Prime) does not own anything from any of either of the Code Lyoko or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, they became the Avengers: the invincible, armored Iron Man; Hawkeye, the world's greatest archer; the Wakandan King, Black Panther; Daredevil, the man without fear; Thor, Prince of Thunder; the Wasp, size-changing extraordinaire; Ms. Marvel, kree-energy-infused defender of Earth; the Hulk, strongest hero there is; Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch; the jade giantess, She-Hulk; Doctor Stragne, the Sorcerer Supreme; Ulrich Stern and Aelita Schaeffer, alias Sprint Samurai and Angel Guardian, the last Lyoko Warriors; and Captain America, the First Avenger. Assembled, they are strong, and forever, they fight as one. Avengers, assemble!
Chapter 16: Nightmare in Red
If you were to ask her to name one bad thing about being the director of SHIELD, Maria Hill would ask you if she really had to pick just one. If it was not the mundane stuff like the day-to-day paperwork, or the occasional pig who thought she did not deserve her position as director for the most idiotic or prejudiced of reasons, then it was the new agents getting cocky on their first missions only to nearly screw everything up and various meetings with the World Security Council. The last of those things was something she really wished she could just do away with, and it was definitely helping her understand just why Fury always seemed to get a little more ticked off when she told him they were calling. Of course, adding in the surprise visit she got from her old boss in the middle of the night a few weeks ago certainly helped break the annoying and mundane chain of events that surrounded her life recently, but she had wished said visit was Fury's dramatic way of saying he was there to take his old job back and not a warning about their being invaded by alien shapeshifters. When did the world get so crazy that alien shapeshifters hardly even surprised her?
Right now though, she definitely knew one thing she would consider to be a downside to her current position in SHIELD, and it went by the name of General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. The head of the Hulkbuster Unit had been constantly nagging at her nonstop for the sample of Hulk's blood that SHIELD had managed to retrieve from HYDRA Island after it was taken down by Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Panther, and Mockingbird, or for her to put an end to the pseudo-immunity Hulk's status as an Avenger had given him, and while she knew he had made similar calls to Fury in the past, she never knew how much of a headache they could really be until she was bearing the full brunt of it herself. Honestly, at another point in time, Maria probably would have at least considered handing over the sample to Ross, but her various interactions with Aelita combined with the knowledge of Ross's hand in the creation of villains like Abomination proved more than enough to stay her hand on this matter.
At least, that was usually the case, but today she was not going to be dealing with him over the phone. The general was coming up to the Helicarrier for a direct meeting with her about at least handing over the Hulk blood sample, and Maria knew she was going to need a lot more than just a few bottles of headache medication to get through it peacefully. It was for that very reason she had made sure she had gotten up extra early to make an important phone call to Avengers Mansion as a way of ensuring nothing would make this meeting go south, especially in regards to one thing that would definitely set Ross off.
"I know he's been under control for some time now, be it with your team's help or otherwise, but I really need for Hulk to stay in that mansion of yours today. As in do not let him leave for anything, including a mission," Maria told Hank as a final point in conversation.
"Firstly, I feel like if Hulk were here right now, he would have taken a lot of issue with you using the phrase 'under control,'" Hank pointed out.
"Sorry. Couldn't think of any better way to put it," Maria shrugged, though she kept an otherwise nonchalant appearance.
"Secondly, and I'm not trying to jinx us or anything, but if you really think it's that big of a concern, then why hasn't SHIELD ever made a call to us like this in the past?" Hank continued on.
"Mainly because Nick Fury was the one in charge and even people who hate his guts have enough respect for the man to not cross him. I'm pretty sure Ross is one of those types of guys who still think women belong behind a desk and not out doing field work, let alone being in charge of organizations like SHIELD, so I highly doubt he's going to be as keen on towing the line this time," Maria explained.
"With all due respect, and if you'll promise not to tell Aelita I used such foul language, anyone who still thinks shit like that can go to hell," Hank almost snarled, nearly cracking through Maria's stoic façade enough to make her smile at hearing his defense of her.
"I heard that, Hank! It was just the one time!" Aelita could be heard shouting from somewhere out of view.
"And yet everyone on the team is still making fun of you for it," Hank called back. When he turned back to face Maria again, he ended up just missing how she had to cover her mouth to hide the small snort of amusement she had let slip out from listening to this bit of banter.
Getting serious again, Maria then reiterated her earlier question. "Can you guys please just make sure Hulk doesn't go out today?"
"Actually, we can do you one better," Hank smirked in response, much to Maria's confusion. "Today's actually Banner's Day."
"It's…what?" Maria asked feeling more than a little confused.
Hank did not even need a second to launch in the explanation. "Sometime after the events of the Leader's little Gamma World plot, Aelita managed to convince Hulk into letting Doctor Banner out for a little bit of time. Don't ask us how, but she did, and ever since then, every once a month Hulk allows Bruce Banner to come out and have a whole day for himself. Today happens to be this month's Banner's Day, and he's currently out on a fishing trip in the country. His Avenger ID Card and Lyoko Cell can both attest to that if you'd like to see the data."
"That won't be necessary," Maria waved off, though she was still concerned. "More importantly, you're telling me Banner's out in the country alone?"
"No, of course not. We've also made it a point to have one or two other Avengers with him just in case something might happen, though that's partly due to the fact that Bruce doesn't really answer his ID Card when he's having his day. Not that I can really blame him," Hank admitted, earning a nod of agreement from Maria. Neither one of them could imagine what it must be like to basically be a prisoner in your own body, and they were not sure they wanted to imagine it. "Ulrich and Clint are with him right now, much to the latter's frustration. Anything else I can do to assure you're meeting is Hulk-free? Perhaps ask Jen to work from home?"
"That won't be necessary. Ross has always only ever been interested in the original Hulk, not his cousin. Still, thanks for the heads-up on that, Hank. I'll call you again in case anything happens in this meeting that I feel you should know about," Maria sighed in relief, happy to hear any problems that could be caused by the Hulk were likely taken care of. Just before she hung up the call though, she once again took note of how tired Hank looked and had to add one more remark. "By the way Doctor Pym, maybe should consider putting some of your lab work on hold. You look like you could do with a little more sleep."
"Uh…w-what do you mean?" Hank stuttered, and much to Maria's surprise, his cheeks seemed to color with a slight tinge of pink.
"I mean that you look pretty exhausted. I know your work is important Hank, but if you're really going to stick with this support role you've taken on for your team, you should make sure you're not exhausted at a moment when your team might need you most," Maria slowly explained.
The slight tinge of pink turned to a full blown storm of red as Hank rapidly ended the call and said, "Oh yes! I'll take that under advisement, Director Hill. Oh, the others are calling me. Gotta go! Bye!"
Maria could not help but stare at where her holo-screen had just been, blinking once or twice at how abruptly Hank had ended the call, until finally a few pieces started slipping into place. Upon gaining this new realization, Maria could not help but smirk as she marched out of her room and headed to the conference room to await Ross's arrival. She even went so far as to mutter to herself, "Note to self, next girl's day with Angel Guardian and Wasp, I need to give Janet props and a few tips to share with her boyfriend on how to keep certain information secret. Assuming they are keeping this development hidden from everyone."
"Yeah got it, Sis. Trust me; we won't be going anywhere any time soon. No matter how much Clint complains," Ulrich reassured Aelita over the phone before he hung up and pocketed the Lyoko Cell.
Even if they were not too worried about having a situation involving the Hulk, Maria's warning did still leave some of the team a bit concerned for the big guy, hence the reason why Aelita decided to call her brother. She had made especially sure to stress the importance of Bruce steering clear of New York for the day, and given all they had heard about General Ross, Ulrich had to agree. The man was clearly obsessed with Hulk to the point where Captain Ahab seemed like a typical game hunter when chasing after Moby Dick and that was more than enough for the Lyoko Avengers to have no intention of letting their friend fall into the general's hands. Of course, the fact Hulk was family was already plenty reason enough for them, but having a few extra reasons never hurt.
None of this kept the subject of their conversation from feeling highly annoyed or assuming the worst about what the call Ulrich just received could likely mean. "Please tell me my day did not just get canceled," Bruce almost begged Ulrich after pausing in casting his fishing line. "We only just got here."
"First off, we've been out here for hours now. You can't say we just got here after we've been out here for that long," Clint pointed out.
"And more importantly your day's not canceled, Bruce," Ulrich cut in before Clint could add any comment that may prompt the Hulk to come out. Despite his dislike of Banner, Hulk did get pretty defensive of the guy when given the right incentive. "Aelita was just calling to let us know we needed to make sure your day went through without any hiccups."
"Why?" Bruce asked.
"Hill's got a meeting with one of your old sparring buddies. Namely the one that runs an entire military unit," Ulrich revealed.
"Ross," Bruce almost growled, his eyes briefly turning green for a minute. He took a deep breath and managed to calm down though and declared, "Doesn't matter. I'm not about to let him ruin my day for me. Not this time."
"Yeah, I think I speak for everyone when I say we don't need a repeat of our first trial run of Banner's Day," Clint stated, earning nods of agreement from both of the other two.
The first time Hulk let Banner out for a day the scientist had immediately gone to visit his old flame, Betty Ross. It had started out decently enough. The two exchanged some small talk, caught up on what had been going on in their lives recently, and even had a small dinner at a local diner. Sadly, someone got word out to General Ross, aka Betty's father, and the man had mobilized probably the entire Hulkbuster Unit mere seconds later. The only reason it did not turn into a fight with the Hulk was because Aelita had been the one accompanying him and had heard the general and his tanks coming from a mile away, prompting her to summon the rest of the team.
This had led to a brief stand-off between the Hulkbusters and the members of the Avengers who had arrived, among which were Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hawkeye, and Aelita herself. Janet and Hank had not come because they were in the middle of an important meeting with the board members of Greyburn, and Ulrich had been at the movies on a date with Ava. In the end, despite all the Avengers being ready to throw down with Ross, it was only when Fury had arrived and ordered Ross to stand down that things eventually ended. True, Fury had to practically threaten the man with a court martial, but it still worked out in the end even if it did sour the mood of Bruce's date.
Even though he agreed with the sentiment of not wanting to repeat the disaster of that first Banner's Day, Bruce still had some small problem with Hawkeye's attitude on his choice of activity for the day. "Could you maybe try being a little more positive?" Bruce requested. "Your negative energy is upsetting me. And scaring away the fish."
"What fish? Neither one of us have even had a nibble all day so far," Ulrich pointed out as he cast his line out again. He had decided to join Bruce in his fishing about an hour after they had gotten out on the lake, if for no other reason than to have something to do other than listening to Hawkeye complaining or watching the clouds.
Clint had to smirk at Ulrich's defense, but he still had to voice another complaint all the same. "I just can't believe you, Banner," Clint remarked for the umpteenth time that day. "You get to come out and play one day a month; the one day the Hulk actually lets you come out and you want to do this?"
"Yeah," Bruce replied with a simple smile.
Clint did not let the matter drop of course. "I don't know if the Hulk passed this little note on to you, or if Ulrich over here just forgot, but we're being invaded by aliens. We should be out finding those other Skrulls and taking them out. We should be doing something. Anything, or did you guys forget that the only one we've actually caught said we had less than a week and a half before they make their big move?"
"We didn't forget, Clint, but what can we really do about it right now?" Ulrich questioned in return. "Carol and SWORD have questioned Pitt'o ever since we exposed and locked him up, and they've been following up on every lead they've managed to squeeze out of him since. Plus, we still don't know where the real Cap is or just how many organizations the Skrulls have infiltrated besides SHIELD It'd be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, while the needle is the exact same color as the haystack."
Bruce was glad Ulrich had a valid argument in favor of his choice of activities, but he still had his own defense to offer. "None of the Avengers are showing any kind of radiation discrepancy. If any of you are aliens I can't detect it," Bruce revealed. "That took me fifteen minutes to determine, and now I just want some peace and quiet."
"Wait, you figured that out in fifteen minutes?" Ulrich asked in awe, honestly feeling pretty impressed.
"Radiation expert, remember?" Bruce smirked good-naturedly. Seeing Hawkeye still giving him the same annoyed look, Bruce could not help but sigh and offer up a few more points in his favor. "You have no idea what it's like inside the Hulk's head. No idea what I'm giving up to prove the Hulk can be a force for good. So I'm taking the day for me, and I'm going to fish."
"Good for you, Bruce," Ulrich praised, feeling that Bruce deserved to take this day for himself in the way he wanted to take it. After all, even the most selfless person on the planet needs to take time for themselves every now and then.
Clint on the other hand was still not entirely satisfied, but he could see he was not going to win any arguments right now. That did not mean he would not make one last parting shot before accepting his loss though. "I've been with you guys for four hours now, and you know what I miss? The Hulk."
Hill's meeting with Ross went just about exactly as she had been expecting. General Ross talked down to everyone in the room, demanded the Hulk's blood sample be turned over to the Hulkbusters, and tried to sell them the story that they needed it to take down the Hulk. Needless to say, Hill hardly needed anyone to point out no one actually believed that story, but she still did anyway, and it then lead into a debate about whether or not it was a bad idea to try and use Hulk's blood to create an army of super soldiers with the Hulk's powers. Even having Doctor Samson there to point out how both he and Hulk were only around because of mistakes did nothing to help their point, and trying to remind Ross and his second-in-command, Talbot of the fact Hulk is an Avenger and now recognized by the world at large as a hero did not do any better. The two just refused to believe the Hulk was anything more than the fugitive monster they had been hounding after for years. In the end, the only way Maria could shut anyone up was by promising she would consider Ross' request. Of course, she knew Ross could tell the promise was an empty one, but thankfully the man made the smart choice and recognized he would not be winning this fight. The only downside was the small warning Samson gave her about what the Hulk might do if he found out SHIELD still had a sample of his blood, but Maria was willing to put that problem off for another day.
What none of them knew was that the entire meeting had just been a cover for a different operation; one that had begun the second Ross's aircraft landed on the Helicarrier. One of the SHIELD agents had actually been none other than the HYDRA assassin Winter Soldier in disguise who slipped away unnoticed and retrieved the sample of Hulk's blood without anyone noticing. Upon receiving the all-clear, he then moved to an out-of-the-way location on the Helicarrier where he would meet with one of his partners on this mission. After entering the room and sealing the door behind him, Winter Soldier proceeded to load the Hulk blood sample into a syringe then mixed it together with something from another vial he had hidden away in his pistol. Reaching down to his boot, Winter Soldier pulled a mouth guard out from his heel and tossed it to the person he was meeting with.
"Put that in your mouth. Otherwise, you might bite off your tongue," Winter Soldier instructed. The man he was addressing did as instructed without even a second thought, but all the same, Winter Soldier had to make absolutely sure the man knew what he was getting into before proceeding further. "You sure you want this?"
"Hm," the man grunted in affirmative, erasing any doubts from Winter Soldier's mind. Not that he really had any to begin with. He just found it easier to carry out his mission when his subjects were willing participants.
"You got it then," Winter Soldier nodded and he marched forward to inject the man in the arm he was offering to him.
The transformation began mere seconds after the entirety of the syringes contents had been unloaded, with the man grunting and groaning as his transformation began. This was to be expected of course; Winter Soldier knew the process was likely to be a painful one for the subject, but what he had not expected was the sudden rise in temperature, or for the man to start glowing like he was being lit on fire. In fact, from where he was standing that was exactly what looked to be happening for a brief moment as the man's body did seem to become ablaze even as he let loose a primal roar that was very similar to one that a certain gamma-powered hero used right before he started smashing.
Even as she was reading through some standard reports up on the bridge, Maria was just waiting for the moment someone told her the two men from the Hulkbusters had left. Days like this definitely helped her to understand just why Fury hated dealing with said unit so much, and her meeting with Ross certainly did not help. She did find it a little odd that they had not received any word about them leaving already and was just about to ask someone about the matter when suddenly a loud boom was heard from somewhere on the Helicarrier followed by what could only be described as a savage roar.
"What was that?" Maria asked. Quartermain had barely even shrugged before another explosion went off, and this one was powerful enough to shake up the ship and send everyone on the bridge that was standing up toppling to the floor.
A second later, several consoles began lighting up with warning lights and alerts from multiple decks, and Quartermain immediately hit the nearest one as he demanded, "Report!"
All at once the radios came alive with chatter, and none of it helped to stave off any sense of growing worry or panic. "Engineering reporting. What's going on?"
"This is O'Grady; we're getting an intruder alert."
"Some kind of explosion on Deck 10."
"Agent McCarthy reporting. Security systems are going down. There's something here."
"Agent McCarthy, this is Director Hill. What do you see?" Maria interrupted upon hearing that last one. The only answer she ended up receiving was McCarthy's screams before the line went dead. "I want Section Seven on the main monitor now!"
For a brief moment there was only static, until finally the screen came alive with a visual of a hallway in Section Seven. A very damaged and ruined hallway, with one agent who looked to be barely even alive struggling to make his way towards the camera. He dropped out of sight for a minute or two, but he did manage to pull himself up again so he could speak into the camera, likely hoping someone could see and hear whatever he had to say.
"We need backup. Send someone. Send everyone! It's the Hul—!"
Whatever else the agent to say ended up being cut off when something out of sight pulled the agent away, and the feed itself went dead. Even then, Maria did not like what the bad feeling in her gut was telling her about what her agent had been seconds away from saying. Regardless though, she had agents that needed help and may or may not have been dying, and she was not about to ignore them.
"Quartermain, you're with me," Maria ordered as she turned to rush down to Section Seven, already getting her sidearm out and ready as she went, and Quartermain did not hesitate to follow her lead.
Minutes later, Maria and Quartermain had arrived in Section Seven, and found the entire hallway in shambles along with the bodies of various agents littering the floor. Maria was quick to check the nearest agent for a pulse, only to find none. Seeing she had at least one dead agent on her hands now, Maria's grip on her pistol quickly tightened while she turned her angry gaze down the hall where Quartermain was moving to try and spot their intruder. At least he had been until he let out a startled yelp and disappeared through a hole in the wall and into the shadows.
The sound of several heavy impacts pulled Maria over to the hole Quartermain had disappeared into and even though she could barely see anything Maria felt it better safe than sorry to try firing blind in the hopes she hit whatever had just grabbed her agent. Whether or not she did hit the thing was up for debate, but she definitely got its attention judging by the low growls that were slowly coming closer to her. When the thing in question finally stepped into the light though, Maria quickly wished she was seeing things, because while the massive thing before her seemed to be a different color, there was only one thing it could have been.
"Oh my god," Maria gasped in horror at the sight of a very angry Hulk.
After his call with Maria, Hank had turned his attention over to SWORD's attempts at locating other Skrull spies, or at least what he could learn about them from Carol. Despite Pitt'o claiming he would not tell them anything more than he already had, SWORD was determined to get something from him, but so far most of the leads they had gotten were dead-ends or abandoned meeting points. Still, it was enough work to keep Carol busy for quite a bit, right to the point where she barely ever had a chance to so much as stop by the mansion for a quick chat or a meal. When he received an S.O.S. from SHIELD though, he was quickly wishing that she was here, because every time they called the Avengers for help it was always a matter that needed all hands on deck.
Thankfully, a good number of the other Avengers was in the mansion, as proven when Wasp, Wanda, Aelita, Jen, Daredevil, and Spider-Man all came hurrying into the Assembly Hall. "What's up Doc?" Spider-Man asked.
After briefly rolling his eyes at the obvious joke, Hank quickly activated the comm. device in the conference table and replied, "See for yourself."
Needless to say, the other Avengers were surprised by who appeared on the holo-monitor, and the damaged state of the room she was in. "Maria!" Janet exclaimed.
"What in the world happened up there?" Aelita immediately asked after.
"What happened? What happened is that SHIELD has come under attack by the Hulk!" Maria all but snapped. The only reason she was full-on snapping was out of respect for the friendship she had built up with Aelita.
"That's…A-are you sure?" Jen asked, hardly believing the director of SHIELD would make such a serious accusation.
"I have to agree with Jen's skepticism, Director Hill. Like I told you this morning, it's Banner's Day, and he's spending it outside of the city along with Hawkeye and Sprint Samurai," Hank reminded her.
"And if you don't believe that, I can easily send you the tracking data from both their Avengers ID cards and Ulrich and Hulk's Lyoko Cells," Aelita pointed out.
"Look, I want to believe you guys, and if we weren't currently under attack, I'd gladly take all the evidence you've got to prove Banner's innocence, but right now, it looks like one of your team is tearing apart my Helicarrier! Where's Stark? We told him that the Hulk was his responsibility, and until we can determine this thing isn't your Hulk, I need you down here to help take him down," Maria insisted, and a second later the line went down.
"That's…That's impossible. Hulk hasn't had a mad rampage episode in a long time. This has got to be some kind of frame-up by Ross. He's not exactly above unleashing other gamma monsters just to get a chance at the Hulk. That's how Abomination came to be," Jen insisted, her disbelief more than apparent in her voice.
"And it's not possible. Like I said, all the tracking data we have on Hulk places him right out in the same countryside as Ulrich and Clint," Aelita informed the female gamma-bruiser. She then turned her phone around to show them what was on the screen and added, "And Ulrich just sent me this selfie a second ago."
Looking at the picture allowed everyone to clearly see Banner grinning widely behind Ulrich as the boy held up a large bass he had clearly just caught, while Clint could be seen pouting in the background. This made Wasp's next orders all the easier to figure out. "Aelita, get a Quinjet ready. Spider-Man, Daredevil, Wanda, and I will meet you down there once we're all ready to fly," Wasp instructed. "Hank, call Ulrich and Clint. Tell them to get Banner back here on the double and keep him in the mansion."
"Uh aren't you forgetting someone, Wasp? Namely a lean, mean, gamma green machine? If there is someone up there with the strength of the Hulk, you'll need someone who can fight him on that level," Jen pointed out.
"No. Whoever's behind this might be expecting the Hulk at the very least to go after this imposter. We need you here to help keep an eye on Banner," Janet insisted.
"Besides, whoever is behind this got the guy onto the Helicarrier undetected. They may have someone waiting in the wings to try and neutralize the real Hulk and prevent him from giving any kind of reliable alibi," Hank added on, having realized the other reason why Janet wanted She-Hulk here.
"Exactly," Janet confirmed upon turning back to her boyfriend. "Hank, do me a favor and call Carol and Strange. We're still likely going to need some extra muscle on this, and aside from our two Hulks, they're the best thing we've got to fight a Hulk."
"You've got it, but it might take a while. Carol's on the other side of the planet following up another possible Skrull lead," Hank cautioned.
"And getting in touch with Doctor Strange for anything other than a magic-related problem is like getting lucky at any gambling joint in Vegas," Spider-Man added on.
"I know, but we should still at least make an attempt," Janet stated.
"In that case, maybe you should call Iron Man. I mean, doesn't he have a special armor specifically designed to fight the Hulk?" Daredevil offered.
"Bad idea," Aelita quickly interjected before anyone could say anything, much to their surprise. Seeing how startled her outburst had made everyone, Aelita backtracked a little bit and said, "Tony's already got a lot trust issues because of the Skrull thing. Do you really think it's going to help him trust us if we call him to help deal with an attack Hulk's being blamed for?"
As much as she hated to admit it, Janet knew Aelita was right, so she sighed and said, "Good point." She then set her game face in place and led the charge as she gave the order. "Let's move it out, team. Avengers assemble!"
Back out at the lake, Clint, Ulrich, and Bruce had just rowed to shore so they could cook up the fish Ulrich had caught for their lunch. Clint was even starting to have a little bit of fun, said it made him feel like he was going on one of the camping trips he dreamed about having when he was a kid. Seeing as this was raising Clint's spirits a bit, Ulrich was more than happy to help make sure the archer got that dream fulfilled in full. Sadly, all those plans ended up being dropped when Clint and Ulrich's ID cards both went off.
Even before they answered they had a feeling Bruce was not going to like hearing his day was now officially canceled, but after hearing the reason why Hank was calling, they knew he would be even less thrilled. Still, it was not like they could hide it from the man, and that became apparent the second they pocketed their cards again and saw Bruce watching them with a bundle of sticks in his arms and a resigned look on his face.
"Okay, my day has definitely been cut short now," Bruce sighed as he dropped the sticks. Ulrich and Hawkeye's silence was all the response he needed. "So who's attacking us now? Time travelers? Aliens?"
Ulrich and Clint could only share an uneasy look with each other before the latter finally answered and left Bruce gaping in shock as a result. "You."
Bruce could hardly believe what he had just heard, and he had an even harder to believing the next thing Ulrich said, "We're getting you back to the mansion right now, and we've got orders to keep you there until the others have stopped the guy."
Bruce took the news really well. He did not turn into Hulk, but he did let out a very loud, angry "WHAT?!"
Getting to the Helicarrier took absolutely no time at all, especially since Aelita was the one doing all the flying, and the team wasted even less time waiting for her to land. Instead, anyone who could make the jump had leapt out of the Quinjet once it was close enough to landing on the deck and raced up to the bridge of the Helicarrier. Thankfully they did not need to slow down or even pause in their rush so the rest of the team could catch up, but they did stop short when they finally arrived on the bridge and laid eye on both the carnage that had taken place and the perpetrator who was still causing all the chaos.
There, right in the center of the bridge, surrounded by SHIELD agents and currently crushing the armor of a Mandroid was in fact a massive man who could easily be mistaken for the Hulk except for one very important detail. A detail that Spider-Man did not hesitate to call out on after he used his webs to catch the SHIELD agent the massive Hulk-imposter had just thrown across the room in order to deal with some agents that had tried for an aerial attack.
"So did all of the SHIELD agents suddenly go color blind, because that seems like a bit of a problem for an organization that's supposed to protect the world," the web-head quipped while he and Daredevil helped the downed agents. "I mean, it's not as bad as total blindness, but still pretty bad. No offense Double D."
"None taken," Daredevil assured his fellow street-hero.
Aelita on the other hand ignored most of the boys' bantering and instead focused her attention on the person who had called them for help. "Maria, what in the world is that thing?"
"Well, if you were to ask just about anyone it's attacked, they would tell you it's the Hulk," Maria replied.
Now Aelita had to wonder if Spider-Man's joke had some truth to it, but she was not going to say so just yet. She needed to focus on clearing up this obvious confusion. "I don't know if you've forgotten Maria, but whether it's the original or She-Hulk, our Hulk is gamma green, and this guy is raging red."
Indeed, the Hulk tearing apart the Helicarrier and attacking the various agents of SHIELD was a fierce burning red, and from what she could glimpse, Aelita could swear that it also had bright yellow eyes. Maria on the other hand had to point out a small problem with Aelita's attempt at defending her friend. "From what I hear, it started out grey. Bottom line, it could have polka dots and it'd still be the Hulk. If not in my eyes, then certainly the eyes of all the agents it's already attacked and the Hulkbusters if they get wind of this."
"All the more reason to stop this Red Hulk before he gets off the Helicarrier and does anything that could get the real Hulk into serious trouble," Wasp determined, stingers already charged and ready to fire as she flew up to the Red Hulk along with several SHIELD agents. Her attacks did about as much against this Red Hulk as they did the normal one, but he paid Wasp little mind, and instead focused on one of the agents that had been flying around with a jetpack namely by tearing out one of the bridge consoles and tossing it at him.
As the agent was falling out of the air, the Red Hulk quickly grabbed him by the leg and then hoisted him up and around in his grip so that he had the agent by the torso. From the way he was squeezing the agent and cocking back his fist, it was clear that he was about to crush the poor man in some way, and he would have too had a sudden scarlet red blast not stopped him. Turning to his attacker, Red Hulk saw Scarlet Witch preparing to fire another salvo of her hexes at him, and Spider-Man took this time to swing in and rescue the captive agent. With the hostage now clear, the Avengers quickly grouped up and prepared for whatever came next.
"We're only giving you one chance, you big knock-off. Surrender," Wasp ordered, almost sounding like Captain America when she did.
"Yeah, before we have to give you one painful and humiliating beat-down," Spider-Man quipped right after. Spider-Man did not think Red Hulk would react to his joke any better than the likes of Rhino, but the reaction he did get was more than simply surprising. After looking over the Avengers for a few seconds, likely weighing his options as best as any Hulk could, Red Hulk eventually just let out a sinister grin and laughed. "Uh, is anyone else suddenly feeling really scared?"
From the looks on Maria and the other agents' faces, the answer to Spidey's question was definitely yes, and that fear only seemed to grow when Red Hulk lunged at the Avengers, forcing them to scatter and begin trying to counterattack. Seeing that their attempts to resolve this peacefully had failed, Wasp just shot Aelita a look, to which Aelita merely nodded and then flew a little further back, sparing a couple energy fields to blast Red Hulk with as she went. Wasp then looked back at Red Hulk and charged her stingers for her next run of attacks, all while relaying orders to the team.
"Avengers, keep this guy busy. We're running Gamma-Interference 2," Wasp called out.
"Got it," was the collective response of the other Avengers, and of course, Spider-Man and Daredevil were quick to take point in distracting Red Hulk from what he was doing.
The whole time they were fighting none of them ever noticed how some of the bridge's security cameras were taking extra care to watch everything going on, courtesy of a simple hacking job by the Winter Soldier, who had been watching everything from the shadows of the aircraft he had flown in on. As he continued to watch, his radio buzzed, letting him know his partner was attempting to contact him. Tapping the earpiece, Winter Soldier waited for the incoming report.
"This is Savage Artillery. I'm in position," the young agent of Code Red reported.
"The experiment is a success. Bring me what I need," Winter Soldier ordered.
"Understood. Just one thing: are either of the Lyoko Warriors on the Helicarrier?"
Winter Soldier merely glanced at his monitor just to make sure Aelita was still on the bridge before he confirmed, "Just the girl. There's no sign of the boy. Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, Doctor Strange, and She-Hulk are also missing. They may be at the mansion as well."
"That's irrelevant. The Lyoko Warriors are a much bigger threat. Just be advised, I may be forced to engage Sprint Samurai directly," Savage Artillery stated.
"I'll be waiting to hear how things go on your end," Winter Soldier responded. With that, the communication line closed, leaving Winter Soldier to continue his secret observation of the events taking place on the Helicarrier. A small part of him did wonder why Savage Artillery considered the youngest members of the Avengers to be such a prominent threat, but then again, XANA did seem pretty focused on them as well. It would make sense for his top asset to hold them in a similar regard.
If there was one thing She-Hulk hated, it was to be kept waiting, especially when something really big was going on like right now. So when the water in the hangar bay parted and raised the landing platform to reveal the Quinjet her cousin, Ulrich, and Clint were on, Jen could not help but breathe a small sigh of relief. Sure, she would like to be up there helping to stop whatever thing was framing Bruce and his raging alter-ego, but right now she knew Wasp had a point in keeping both the team's resident gamma bruisers here at the mansion. Of course, knowing her cousin as well as she did, Jen had a pretty strong hunch that Bruce would be far less agreeable with the plan, and she was proven right the second the Quinjet's boarding ramp had lowered to allow its passengers off.
"We said no," Clint all but snapped at Bruce as they disembarked with Ulrich, the youngest of them already suited up and ready for action as Sprint Samurai.
"Ulrich I can understand, but how do you get to say no to me?" Bruce demanded of the archer. "I'm an Avenger. I was an Avenger before you were. I want to help."
"Okay, A, you're not an Avenger. The Hulk is. Calling you an Avenger is like saying my bow is a member of the team," Clint argued.
"Now that's a little unfair, Clint. If anything, it'd be more accurate to say it would be like calling one of Tony's armors a member of the team," Ulrich interrupted.
"Um, how do you figure that?" Clint asked, with Bruce shooting Ulrich a similarly confused look.
"Because Tony's armors can be used by just about anyone. Heck, we all have our own versions of his space armor. Meanwhile, your bow is only useful to you or anyone who at least knows some basics about archery. Since Bruce Banner is much more useful on the whole, be it as himself or as the Hulk, it just makes sense that he should be compared to a piece of equipment that's useful to everyone," Ulrich explained. He then gave Bruce a quick glance and said, "I say this with all due respect of course, Bruce."
"Don't worry, I know," Bruce assured him, truly glad at least one of the two was able to see he was useful whether he was the Hulk or not.
"Alright, fine whatever, but that doesn't change my second point," Clint insistently huffed.
"Which I hope is that Wasp is right in saying we need to keep my cousin and me right here," Jen interrupted, announcing her presence to the boys as she called for the elevator up to the main floor. "At least in the mansion, we've got a lot more ammunition to give you a solid alibi if SHIELD or Ross comes knocking to try and arrest you for this attack, and we're at less risk of walking into any kind of trap that might be lying in wait for the big guy."
Hearing Jen's reasonable arguments did seem to calm Bruce down a little, but he still had to admit, "I can see your points, but that doesn't make it any less difficult to not turn into the Hulk and tear some of you apart right now."
Knowing his luck with this sort of thing, and feeling as though Bruce's statement was directed mostly at him, Hawkeye wisely put a little more distance between himself and the scientist as the elevator closed and carried them up to the main floor. As the elevator ascended up to the mansion's ground floor, Ulrich tapped his visor and asked, "Any word from the others yet, Hank?"
"Nothing as of yet. They only just arrived. I can't exactly get much info from the others other than what they tell me right now. None of them have a helmet or any other kind of head-wear that can relay visuals to me, but from what I'm hearing over the comms, it definitely sounds like they're fighting the Hulk up there," Hank reported.
Hearing this made Bruce shoot the others a look, clearly thinking this was just proving his point about letting him help out, but Jen quickly shot it down. "The answer is no, Bruce. We can't take that risk right now."
"Why not? We're not exactly bursting at the seams with other options for fighting something like the Hulk right now," Bruce pointed out.
"Hey, Aelita's up there with them, and if all that practice she and the big guy have been doing lately pays off, we might not even need to worry about anything other than keeping your alibi airtight," Ulrich reminded him.
"Besides, SHIELD and the government are just itching for a reason to go after the Hulk; the Hulkbusters even more so. We don't need to be adding any fuel to that little fire," Hawkeye added on right as the elevator had arrived at its destination and allowed them to step out into the lounge and the main foyer shortly after.
"If they think the Hulk is attacking the Helicarrier, I'd say it's a little late to stop it," Bruce sighed agitatedly.
Ulrich and Jen could only groan in response to Bruce's stubbornness, and Clint was already jumping to his next point of defense. "Hey, I like a fight as much as the next guy, but…"
Hearing Hawkeye stop short in what he was saying made Ulrich and Jen glance over to him in curiosity, having both missed the passing shadow that made him pause in the first place. No one missed the sound of something crashing through the skylight, and Ulrich quickly raced over to pull Bruce to safety before any broken glass could get near him. It turned out the glass was not the biggest concern they had though; it was the barrage of energy projectiles that had followed quickly after. The shooter in question had landed in a crouch between the two pairs, and Ulrich immediately snarled under his breath upon recognizing their attacker in question.
"Savage Artillery!" Ulrich growled while drawing his saber. Hawkeye had already been gearing up to fire on the mystery ally of HYDRA, but Artillery was just too quick for him.
Artillery quickly lunged forward and slashed at Hawkeye with his claws, knocking the archer down before he jumped at She-Hulk. Jen managed to hold her own for a bit, easily powering through whatever slashes Artillery landed against her, until he struck a pressure point that brought the powerful giantess down to her knees, landing her in prime position for Savage Artillery to nearly blast her in the face. He would have too had Ulrich not tossed his saber and diverted the blast just in time, but Artillery did not let that stop him. Instead, he just kicked Jen aside before moving to tackle Ulrich, all while discreetly pulling out a dart gun.
He immediately turned his side-arm on Banner and fired its payload, nailing Bruce in the shoulder right when he had shoved Ulrich into a wall. Seeing most of his opposition was dealt with, Artillery proceeded to rush over and scoop up Banner like a sack of potatoes and prepared to make his exit. Naturally, Bruce tried to get out of Artillery's hold, and thankfully, his struggling gave Jen enough time to recover and keep Savage Artillery from walking out the door. Not that she could really do much else so long as her cousin was a hostage, and Artillery knew it given how he kept his distance and fired more energy projectiles at her.
Seeing all of this only served to further irritate Bruce, only this time, he had no intention of keeping his anger in check. "You shouldn't have made me angry. You wouldn't—," Bruce started to say, his eyes flashing with gamma energy for all of two seconds before it died out again, bringing along a startling realization to Bruce. I—I'm not changing."
"Meaning the dart did its job, Doctor Banner," Artillery noted. He then leapt over Jen once again and proceeded to scale the walls so he could get back out the way he had come. Luckily his escape was cut off by an incoming arrow, which upon exploding released a strong net that easily ensnared him and his captive.
Seeing the two crash down on the ground thanks to Hawkeye's timely intervention, the three Avengers immediately moved in to properly capture their mystery foe at last. They did not move fast enough, because Savage Artillery easily cut himself free with his claws and then destroyed Hawkeye's bow with the next energy blast he fired. Hawkeye quickly reached for his quiver, making Artillery think he was going for another bow, so he immediately rushed the archer to dispatch him before he could re-equip himself. Jen immediately jumped at Artillery to try and stop him, but Artillery easily side-stepped and countered her as well, knocking her down with another energy blast to her center, followed by another barrage of energy projectiles being fired at Ulrich right when he was about to charge.
Hawkeye took this as his chance to attack, only for his attempt to fail when Artillery easily caught the archer and flipped him over onto the ground. He immediately followed this by delivering a powerful blow to the back of Clint's head, thinking that would render the archer unconscious, but instead, Clint managed to keep himself in the game and shot Artillery a knowing smirk.
"Got something on your back there, wild man," Hawkeye managed to grunt out.
Hearing something beeping prompting Savage Artillery to look over to see one of Hawkeye's arrows had been planted into the back of his belt, and before he could pull it out the trick arrow went off, releasing a powerful electric shock onto Hawkeye's target. To the heroes' surprise though, the shocks only seemed to be as effective against Savage Artillery as they would have if Ulrich or Aelita had been hit by the same arrow. Even more surprising was how his suit seemed to fluctuate in the same strange manner the twins' would when something managed to get past their protection.
Not wanting to question this turn of fortune, Hawkeye immediately drew another arrow while Ulrich summoned back the saber he had thrown earlier, and they both quickly moved to try and restrain Savage Artillery once again. It ended up all for naught, as Artillery managed to get the arrow off his person, and then fired wildly at the heroes, discouraging them from getting closer long enough for him to draw a grappling gun so he could finally make his escape.
Seeing this particular enemy making a run for it again, Ulrich could not help himself. He immediately broke out into a running start while shouting, "I'm going after him! Get Bruce down to the lower levels and seal off the mansion!"
"Ulrich, wait!" Clint shouted, but it was too late. Ulrich had already blasted off at the full speed of his super sprint. "Oh great," Clint groaned. "Pym, we've got some new problems."
"I gathered as much from all the noise. What's going on up there?"
"We were just attacked by the kids' new buddy, Savage Artillery. We managed to fight him off, but Ulrich's gone after him," Hawkeye explained.
"And you didn't try to stop him?!" Hank exclaimed. The last thing they needed was for either of the Lyoko Avengers to face Savage Artillery on their own, especially right now.
"How am I supposed to stop the kid with super speed, Hank? Especially after wild boy destroyed my bow and laid a smack down on all of us?" Hawkeye retorted. He then leveled a look at Bruce and added, "And Banner wasn't much help either. Thanks so much for Hulking out and lending us a hand back there, Avenger."
"I couldn't," Bruce revealed, cutting off the angry retort Jen was about to unload on Hawkeye while simultaneously raising the levels of concern she and Hawkeye currently had. "The dart he hit me with, it was an adrenal inhibitor. I can't transform into the Hulk."
"And at a time when we would really need the Hulk most," Jen finished. "If that's not proof this whole thing has been a set-up, then I don't know what could be."
Hawkeye could only curse under his breath at this new turn of events, and in spite of everything that had happened recently he suddenly found himself wishing they had Iron Man, Thor, or even Black Panther with them right now.
Meanwhile the fight on the Helicarrier was not going too well for anyone. Red Hulk had already knocked out several more agents, and Daredevil was just barely holding onto consciousness after the raging red beat had slugged him into a wall. Somehow, Wanda, Spidey, and Wasp were still in the fight, and even though they were not doing too much, Maria and Quartermain still kept up a barrage of gun fire on the Red Hulk as well. What all the agents found odd though was how Angel Guardian did not help at all. In fact, after those first few energy fields, she had taken to just sitting off to one side, crouched down on the ground like she was praying for something. It was not until Maria heard the faint sounds of Aelita's signature singing that she realized the girl was using her creativity powers for something, and if she had the chance she would have asked the pinkette what she was cooking up.
As it was, the chance to question Aelita about her plan was not very forthcoming, as Red Hulk finally managed to get a shot in at Scarlet Witch, bashing her into the wall alongside of Daredevil. Luckily Spider-Man and Wasp were still managing to avoid being hit by the big guy and keep his attention off their last teammate, even as one or both of them continued talking his ear off.
"Alright ugly, last chance. Who are you and why are you doing such a bad job of impersonating the Hulk?" Wasp demanded as she bombarded Red Hulk with her stingers. She would have gone Giant-Woman to try some more devastating hits, but she did not feel like it would be safe turning giant on the Helicarrier bridge. After all, she did not have the same level of fine control over her growing powers as Hank did.
"No kidding. I mean, Mysterio, Chameleon, and heck even Venom did a better job of impersonating me a while back, and only two of them ever got my costume right. Or at least right enough to where it had been a costume I was regularly using at the time," Spider-Man quipped while firing some webs into Red Hulk's eyes. To his surprise though, Red Hulk just growled before the webs seemed to melt away in an instant. "Okay, that's not supposed to happen. Those webs should last a lot longer before dissolving."
"Maybe you just mixed up the cartridges?" Wasp suggested, only to dash out of the way when Red Hulk tried to smack her in between in his massive palms. "Seriously? Again? What is it with Hulks trying to squash me like an actual fly?" Spider-Man glanced at Wasp, clearly about to say something, until she cut him off. "Don't answer that. I realized as soon as I said it."
"As long as you're aware," Spider-Man shrugged in response before he had to flip to one side in order to avoid being flattened by Red Hulk. He then glanced to his girlfriend and muttered, "Any time now, Angel."
Spider-Man's moment of distraction ended up earning him a hard kick from Red Hulk, but when Red Hulk charged forward to try and punch him again, his fist ended up striking a solid, metal wall that just materialized out of nowhere in front of him. To his surprise, the wall did not even bend under the blow. The next thing Red Hulk knew, a large cuff had appeared around his wrist, chaining him to said wall, while more walls appeared around him, along with additional cuffs appearing on his other wrist and both ankles, until finally, he found himself completely encased in a massive metal box and thoroughly chained up inside.
Everyone just stared for several seconds, watching and listening as Red Hulk attempted to break free, and all wondering how it could be possible for a Hulk to have so much trouble breaking out of such simple confinement. At least they were wondering until Angel Guardian walked over and reported, "Gamma-Interference 2 successful."
"Nice work, Angel," Wasp praised while Spider-Man moved to help Wanda and Daredevil.
"Um…could someone please explain?" Maria asked.
"You really think the Avengers or the Hulk aren't aware of just how dangerous it would be if the big guy lost control?" Aelita asked, surprising the agents who were still conscious. "After he rejoined the Leader's little Gamma World event, and ever since he allowed Banner to have a day for himself, Hulk has been helping us to make sure we had plenty of contingencies in place on the off-chance we would have to fight him or another Hulk-like enemy again. Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor is the obvious default, or Gamma-Interference 1, and this is Gamma-Interference 2: me using my creativity powers to create restraints and a containment unit that's completely gamma-proof. Not even the Hulk himself could break out of that."
"You're sure about that?" Quartermain could not help but ask as a loud bang rang out from inside the box Red Hulk was currently locked in.
"Positive. Hulk himself helped me to perfect this little maneuver until it got to the point where he would have to reach a level of power that would be too dangerous even for him to get out of there. Red Hulk's not going anywhere," Aelita confidently assured him. Her confidence did not last long though, as everyone suddenly saw the metal of the container begin turning red like something really hot was heating it up all of a sudden. "Um…That's not me doing that."
"EVERYBODY GET BACK!" Wasp shouted just seconds before the box exploded outward and was followed by several waves of intense flames.
Spider-Man was quick to try and shield Daredevil and Wanda with his body, but thankfully, Wanda had recovered enough to raise a telekinetic barrier to protect them all, leaving Aelita to shield herself and everyone near her with a defensive energy field. Luckily Wasp did not need much shielding, as her smaller size allowed most of the flames to miss her, but she did get a little singed just from the passing blaze that had licked at her for a few brief seconds.
"What just happened?" Wasp asked.
"Hey guys? I know technically I'm the newest of the new guys on the team and all, but has classic Hulk ever done that before?" Spider-Man asked, indicating Red Hulk when he did.
Turning to face their enemy again, everyone gasped in shock at seeing the flames from earlier had all come from Red Hulk, and there were still a few lingering on him as well, almost like a Hulk version of the Human Torch. "Okay, that was never considered when we made the plan," Aelita commented.
"I've got a pretty good idea why," Maria admitted, having never once heard about the Hulk being able to light himself on fire like this before, but they did not have time to contemplate Red Hulk's surprising extra powers, as the red gamma giant was already leaping to attack once again.
Reacting on instinct, Wanda and Aelita both fired off a blast at the Red Hulk, and easily knocked him out of the air before he could hit any target. Too bad that doing so caused him to grab onto the raised platform of the main bridge, and bring it down to the lower level decks, along with Maria and the other agents that had been gathered on the stairs leading up to it. Luckily no one was too badly hurt, and Maria herself was able to get out from under the rumble in order to move in on the hostile entity. Red Hulk on the other hand was quicker to recover than the rest of her agents, and Maria was only able to fire a few shots from her blaster before the Red Hulk had grabbed both of her arms in his massive hand.
Seeing Maria in trouble prompted the Avengers to leap down onto the lower deck as well, but they all stopped short in attacking when Red Hulk squeezed a little tighter, causing Maria to cry out in pain. With how she was grunting and screaming, the Avengers were convinced they would not need to have Aelita's level of hearing to pick up on the sound of bones breaking in a second, and given the way Red Hulk was smirking he had no intention of easing his grip anytime soon. At least not until something did make him pause. A something that only Aelita was able to pick up on thanks to her super hearing.
"Savage Artillery has failed, and is now currently being pursued by Sprint Samurai," said a voice that Aelita did not recognize, and give the static surrounding it she quickly realized that she was hearing a radio transmission from somewhere. Given how Red Hulk's smirk had been wiped away for an annoyed scowl, she had a pretty good idea who the person was talking to even before Red Hulk had responded.
"I don't care!" Red Hulk roared angrily to the person on the other end of his radio, finally speaking up for the first time since the Avengers arrived on the Helicarrier.
"You will," the voice stated, and a second later, the Red Hulk was lit up with electric shocks that had him grunting in pain. In his attempts to block out the pain, Red Hulk was forced to finally release Maria and grip both sides of his head, even as the voice continued. "You will obey, or you will suffer. I have a job for you; one which I believe you will enjoy."
Aelita's focus was brought away from the radio communication she had just overheard when Red Hulk's little shock attack finally ended and the sounds of several SHIELD blasters being primed greeted her ears, prompting her to glance about and see the remaining SHIELD agents were all up again and training their weapons on Red Hulk. The other Avengers had now recovered too, and were making sure they were just as prepared for whatever Red Hulk's next move might be. None of them were ready for him to just leap through the window roof of the bridge and off the Helicarrier though.
"Well that's not good," Daredevil commented before moving to grab a jetpack from one of the downed agents.
Wasp had to agree and quickly tapped her earpiece to alert the rest of the team. "Hank, the situation on the Helicarrier's just gotten a lot worse. There was a Hulk attacking up here. A red one, and he just jumped off the ship," Wasp reported, making a mild note of how Maria was rubbing her sore wrists and moving to give another set of orders. When she heard Hank's reply though, Wasp's eyes immediately went wide, and she quickly pulled out her Avengers ID card and set it to broadcast the transmission so that everyone in the room could hear. "What was that, Hank? I didn't quite hear you. Say again?"
"I said we've got a few problems here too. Savage Artillery was just here at the mansion. He attacked Hawkeye, She-Hulk, and Samurai, and tried to kidnap Banner after injecting him with something that's preventing him from turning into the Hulk."
The second she heard that, Maria immediately stopped from giving her next orders just when the words had formed on her tongue and immediately turned to Wasp. "Pym, this is Director Hill. Can you confirm that Banner is in Avengers Mansion and unable to transform into the Hulk right now?"
"I'm sending visual from the mansion's security cameras to Wasp's ID card right now. Both footage from the attack and live feeds," Hank reported, having picked up on what Maria was likely asking for.
A second after, everyone watched as Wasp's ID card projected both the footage of Savage Artillery's attack on the other members of the Avengers, and live feed of Hawkeye retrieving two of his spare bows while he and Jen continued arguing with Bruce in an attempt to get him to move to a safer location in the mansion, much to every SHIELD agent's surprise. Hank had even gone so far as to have the attack footage focus on Banner so that they could all see the moments when he was hit with the dart and subsequently failed to turn into the Hulk, so there was even less doubt about Banner's innocence in the attack.
"I'd say this helps put Hulk in the clear, wouldn't you?" Aelita asked of Maria.
"Yes, but I'd make sure to keep that and every other piece of evidence you've got at the ready, considering what I have to do now," Maria advised. She then turned to her second in command and ordered, "Agent Quartermain, find Ross. Tell him to activate his Hulkbusters. They've got full authority to engage the Red Hulk, but make sure they know the original Hulk is not a target."
"Ma'am, with all due respect, you really think they'll care once they hear they've got clearance to engage any Hulks?" Quartermain asked.
"No, I don't. That's why I want you to make sure there is a full record of you specifying which Hulk they are to go after and which they cannot," Maria instructed him. She looked back to the Avengers and added, "And why I'm telling all of you to keep making absolutely sure you've got every piece of evidence lined up to prove the Hulk's innocence at even a second's notice. No doubt Ross will see this as the perfect excuse to go after Banner."
"You didn't even have to ask," Wasp informed Maria right at the moment when Daredevil had gotten the jetpack on and fired up. With that, she led both Daredevil and Wanda in flying after the Red Hulk.
"Uh guys? Did everyone forget that spiders can't fly?" Spider-Man asked, only to find himself scooped up by Aelita a second later. "Oh, never mind. Glad to know someone remembers the range for my methods of travel."
"We should probably look into getting you something like web-wings to help you glide or something at some point," Aelita noted to her boyfriend.
"You know, it's funny you mention that. I did have a couple ideas for a new suit I was hoping to run by you and Wasp at some point," Spider-Man admitted right when they had left the Helicarrier.
Maria could not help but smirk a little at the two lovers' banter, before turning to reorganize her agents and start getting some clean-up done for the Helicarrier. All the while thanking her lucky stars that the ship had not been knocked out of the sky again.
Was it a little stupid to go after Savage Artillery on his own? No, it was very much incredibly stupid, but given all that had happened ever since the first time he encountered the mystery warrior, Ulrich could not find it in himself to care. Whoever this guy was, he had ties to HYDRA and whoever was behind both the Mecha-Tarantula and the most recent upsurge in weapons that could hurt him and Aelita while they were suited up. Sure, they cut off one potential source of those weapons when Aelita, Spidey, and Strange defeated Dormammu, but none of the weapons or plans they had encountered in the past ever specified using any kind of magical property before. Given how Artillery's weapons proved just as capable of hurting him while in his suit the first time they met, Ulrich was certain that this guy had some answers about exactly who was heading up all this latest research on his and Aelita's weaknesses, and that was more than enough reason for Ulrich to chase him down. The fact he had attacked both him and his friends in their home was a slight bonus.
Oddly enough, Artillery was able to keep a pretty good pace ahead of Ulrich, almost reminding of the time when the Avengers had been chasing after Hawkeye, but since he was pursuing the mystery man with his super sprint instead of his bike, Ulrich had an easier time keeping up. The only reason he was not already right on top of the guy was because the chase did not follow a straight path, and Artillery seemed to utilize that grappling hook in a way that would have almost made Spider-Man joke about suing for copyright infringement. Knowing the grapple was providing Artillery a good majority of his speed in his escape attempt, Ulrich knew that had to go ASAP, so the second he felt like he had gotten close enough he drew one of his sabers and tossed it right at the line. The blade spun through the air before slicing through the grapple line with ease, sending Savage Artillery plummeting down to a rooftop below him, where Ulrich soon came to a stop ready to confront him.
"Looks like I've got you cornered now," Ulrich smirked with pride.
Savage Artillery did not say anything. Instead he simply armed his gauntlets and extended his claws with a flex of his arms and fingers, showing he would not go down without a fight. This was perfectly fine with Ulrich. He had expected this to turn into another round, and the fact he had summoned back the thrown saber just as he had stopped on the rooftop was proof of his own readiness for battle. A few seconds' breath past between the two before they both charged, Savage Artillery firing wildly while Sprint Samurai spun his sabers around to deflect the blasts or just danced around them, until the two met in the middle, saber colliding with gauntlet.
Their lock did not hold for very long, as Savage Artillery quickly moved to slash Ulrich with his claws, forcing Ulrich to back off in order to dodge. This gave Artillery just the opening he needed to start shooting off another round of energy projectiles, some of which passed dangerously close to Ulrich's face, granting him enough of a glimpse to see they had a rather distinct arrow-like shape. Under normal circumstances, Ulrich probably would have made a joke about this guy ripping off Hawkeye's whole shtick, but these were not normal circumstances. Artillery proved that when he charged again and unleashed a rapid, slashing barrage that Ulrich barely managed to dodge, block, or parry. Whoever the guy was, he was clearly well trained, or at least trained enough to be able to match him blow for blow. His style was still pretty wild and uncoordinated like that of a brawler, and given how often he tried to get some distance between them, Artillery was clearly proving to be more comfortable using his weapons than he was in close-quarters.
Having picked up on all of this, Ulrich did not hesitate to use small bursts of super sprint to close the distance at several instances, and throwing out punches and kicks when he managed to get in range, until finally, he scored a hit on the man with his sabers, knocking Artillery clear across the roof and into a nearby ventilation shaft. When Artillery landed, Ulrich was a little shocked to see how his whole form seemed to fizzle in and out of being like how his and Aelita's suits would when they fought against Wanda, Kang, Ultron, and Loki, proving he had not imagined it when Hawkeye's little surprise had caused the same thing back at the mansion. All the same, it once again raised a question that Ulrich had asked once before.
"Who are you? And more importantly, what do you want with Banner?" Ulrich demanded as he started to close in on Savage Artillery.
"I told you before. I'm the beginning of yours and Schaeffer's worst nightmare," Savage Artillery responded, choosing to be just as cryptic as he had the last time they met. A second after, his moment of weakness finally passed and he fired several more blasts that forced Ulrich to back off. "As for Banner, he's actually a person of interest for an ally, but my concern remains on your destruction."
"You're welcome to try, but you'll find that a lot harder to pull off than you think," Ulrich quipped in response, charging forwards as super speed.
Savage Artillery immediately opened fire again, hoping to knock Ulrich off-balance with any shots that could hit his legs, but Ulrich had easily avoided most blows and ended up surprising him by suddenly dashing away to the side instead of going straight towards him. Seeing his enemy vanish so suddenly put Savage Artillery on high alert as he scanned the rooftops for any sign of the samurai hero. No matter which way he looked though, he failed to pick up on any hint of Ulrich, until he heard his opponent's voice coming from behind him.
"And you shouldn't have come after my family," Ulrich all but growled at Artillery. Right after he had spoken, he immediately ducked down, having expected Artillery to spin around and attack after he spoke, and then landed a powerful, upward swing of his sabers against the man. Artillery was sent flying back by the blow, and his scouter completely fizzled out of existence entirely when he struck. When Artillery landed face first on the ground, Ulrich knew he had this fight won, and declared, "Looks to me like the nightmare's over before it even began."
Savage Artillery did not stay down of course, and Ulrich was immediately on guard again, ready for anything that he could do next. What he did not expect was for Artillery's hood to fall down as he stood up again, nor the shock of what would greet him when he finally got a full, unobstructed look at the man's face. When he did lay eyes on the man in question, Ulrich could hardly believe his eyes. He was so shocked he dropped his guard, his battle stance, and even his sabers, because while the face was slightly older and a bit more rugged than when he last saw him, Savage Artillery was still a man he would recognize anywhere. After all, the two of them had been roommates for most of his time back at Kadic.
"It…It can't be," Ulrich whispered as he staggered back a little. "…Odd?!"
"Who the hell are you calling odd?" was the only response Ulrich got from Savage Artillery, aka Odd Della Robbia. Despite the question, Ulrich only grew more certain, as he was now able to notice just how much the man sounded like his best friend, albeit much more subdued and robotic, like someone had sucked out everything that made Odd who he was and left him with nothing but the bare basics.
Before Ulrich could do or say anything else though, Artillery raised an arm up again and fired several blasts, forcing Ulrich to jump out of the way and into cover. "Odd! Stop! It's me! Don't you recognize your old friend?!" Ulrich shouted over the sounds of what he now knew were rapid fire laser arrows. The only answer he got was more laser arrows, but that did not stop Ulrich from trying again. "Come on, Odd! This isn't funny! How are you alive? Why are you working with HYDRA?! And why did you attack the mansion?!"
"Thought you wanted to stop me, not waste time talking," Odd retorted as he slowly closed in on Ulrich's location.
Before Ulrich could say anything in response, his comm. buzzed to let him know someone was calling. Upon tapping his visor, Ulrich could only say the first thing that came to mind. "Now's really not a good time!"
"Well you're gonna have to make time, Bro! Red Hulk attacked the mansion and took Banner," Aelita retorted.
"Wait, what?! Did you say Red Hulk?!" Ulrich asked.
"Yes, I did, and that he took Banner! Hank's tracking his Avengers ID card, but it's going to take a while for us to get there. You're closer than all of us, so stop chasing Savage Artillery and get over there before we end up losing one of the good Hulks," Aelita told him.
Ulrich could only curse under his breath at this. He wanted to help Banner, but at the same time, he now had a mountain of new questions that needed answers. All them revolving around the man who was currently shooting at him. It seemed like an impossible choice, until Odd suddenly stopped firing to answer a call of his own. Ulrich could not hear what was being said of course, but from the way Odd scowled a little bit more, he had to figure it was not good news.
"What'll it be, Stern? Chase me or save your friend? Even you can't do both," Odd stated, and he fired a few more blasts before leaping off the roof to make his escape.
"Wait!" Ulrich called after him, rushing over to the roof's ledge in an attempt to at least see where Odd went, only to find no trace of Savage Artillery whatsoever. "How…How is this possible?" Ulrich could not help whispering to himself. "How are you alive and why are you an enemy now, Odd?"
His only answer was the sounds of New York traffic and an insistent call from the rest of his teammates to go and help Banner. Seeing as the choice had been taken completely out of his hands now, Ulrich just retrieved his dropped sabers and took off in the direction of Banner's coordinates once Hank had relayed them to him.
Bruce would say that today was now officially the worst Banner's Day he's had since that first one. At least that time he could still turn into the Hulk, which is something he really wished he could do right now. Mere minutes after Ulrich had left to chase down Savage Artillery, Hawkeye had retrieved a spare bow along with an extra quiver, clearly gearing up for war with whoever came after them next. Sadly, they were not expecting the next thing to come after them to be Red Hulk, as Hank had not had enough time to let them know about the developments on the Helicarrier before the beast himself had come crashing through one of their windows.
One brutal fight later and Bruce was now being dragged across the city before they arrived at the docks, where Red Hulk tossed him aside like a sack of potatoes. Bruce was worried for his cousin and Clint, but right now, he needed to figure out how to get away from the man who had just tried framing him for an attack on SHIELD. He was not entirely sure how willingly it may have been, but given how Red Hulk showed absolutely no signs of wanting to talk things out while still being cognizant enough to recognize Banner's attempts at talking, he was beginning to think it was possible. Given how this Red Hulk now seemed to be especially focused on him, the possibility of him willingly setting up the original gamma giant was looking more and more likely. Still, Bruce had to be sure, and the only way he knew how to find out was to ask the big question that had been bothering him since he first heard about this nightmare.
"I don't understand," Bruce grunted as he backed up against a shipping container. "What do you want?"
Red Hulk's only response was to stomp closer to Banner and growl one word. "Hulk."
"What? Why?" Banner asked, completely bewildered. All of this was just to get at the Hulk? Sure, it would not be the first time someone went out of their way to get at the Hulk, but none of the usual suspects were capable of something this extreme. Or at least, no one that Bruce could think of.
Red Hulk did not answer, but only because he got distracted by the person who was barking orders into his ear via the comm. device. "What are you doing? Bring me Banner or you will be punished."
"No. Hulk is mine," Red Hulk growled back. In response to his defiance, Red Hulk was hit with another round of electric shocks, much to Bruce's horror. That terror only grew when Red Hulk immediately went ablaze in response to this, and then proceeded to melt the ground around him, until finally, with a loud primal roar, he had managed to overpower and block out all the shocks completely. Even after the shocks had ended Red Hulk was still letting his flames rage, and that terrified Bruce even more when the beast turned back to him, still flaming, and asked, "Where were we? Right, Hulk."
Bruce immediately scrambled to get away, just barely avoiding the fist Red Hulk rammed through the shipping container he had been previously backed up against, but before Red Hulk could do anymore, a trio of arrows suddenly landed on Red Hulk's back and exploded, followed by a barrage of energy fields and someone shouting, "Get away from my cousin!"
A second later, She-Hulk had appeared out of nowhere and landed a hard kick on Red Hulk, with Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Wasp, Daredevil, and Angel Guardian not too far behind her. While She-Hulk proceeded to start hammering into Red Hulk as hard as she could, with Wanda and Aelita covering her as best they could, Wasp made it a point to fly over to Banner and said, "Bruce, you may want to run like crazy now."
Given how easily Red Hulk broke free of the net and webs Spider-Man and Hawkeye tried entangling him in, he had agree a little. Not entirely though, seeing as Red Hulk was still going strong, even when Daredevil tried to disorient him with some precise strikes to various pressure points. She-Hulk had quickly followed this up by throwing out a devastating spin-kick that likely would have left an average person with several broken bones, Wanda a chance to try and force Red Hulk down with her telepathy. Wanda did not need to hold him for long thankfully, as Hawkeye and Spider-Man quickly made sure he would stay put with a massive amount of webs and an ice arrow.
Too bad for the Avengers, neither restraint lasted long, as Red Hulk easily melted his way out of the ice and the webs. Seeing him breaking free prompted Aelita and Wasp to rush in and open fire with their respective energy blasts, hoping to at least disorient Red Hulk a little further. They only succeeded for a few second, as Red Hulk took a page out of classic Hulk's book and hit both them and Banner with a powerful thunderclap. The shockwave from said attack knocked Wasp unconscious, prompting Hawkeye to fire a round of sonic arrows. The noise from the arrows did slow Red Hulk a little, but he dealt with this just as easily as the Avengers' other attempts at stopping him. Namely with a powerful ground pound that knocked out Daredevil and Wanda. Spider-Man and Jen both managed to evade the shockwave and rocks that were kicked up by said ground pound, but the web-head ended up unable to avoid Red Hulk grabbing his leg and then using him to bat She-Hulk away shortly after.
Seeing the rest of her teammates all go down, Aelita immediately started charging up an energy impact, but before she could even start to attack, Red Hulk had grabbed her by the arm, making her disperse the energy field on instinct, and then slammed her down on the ground before Banner. Red Hulk did not release the pink haired Avenger though; he kept a firm grasp on her and immediately tightened his hold to the point where Banner could hear something cracking along with Aelita's groans of pain.
"Give me the Hulk," Red Hulk growled to Banner, not letting up his grip on Aelita for even a second. If anything, Aelita could swear it was getting tighter.
"I—I can't!" Bruce insisted. "I was injected with—"
"I don't care. I want the Hulk," Red Hulk snarled, and his grip tightened even more, turning Aelita's groans into straight up screams of pain.
"No! No! Stop it!" Bruce shouted.
"No," Red Hulk grinned evilly and he continued to squeeze Aelita's arm harder. If it were not for the protection of her suit, Aelita and Bruce were certain that nearly every bone in her arm likely would have been broken by now, but the at the rate Red Hulk was squeezing and how Aelita was screaming, they could not help but wonder just how long her suit's protection would really last this time.
Bruce could only pant heavily, watching and listening as Aelita screamed and writhed in pain, right to the point where tears started to form in her eyes. Seeing all of this, something finally snapped inside of Bruce, because if there was one thing he and the other guy could agree on it was that no one hurt Aelita and got away unscathed. A flash of green in Bruce's eyes, a primal roar of his own, and the sound of Banner's clothes being torn to pieces until all that was left was the purple pants he worn underneath his fishing attire all proved that even before Hulk roared angrily.
"Let. HER. GO!" Hulk roared before punching Red Hulk hard enough to make him release Aelita at last. Red Hulk was grinning excitedly at Hulk finally arriving, but his mood changed a little bit when he noticed just how pissed off Hulk looked. "You just made a big mistake," Hulk snarled at the crimson criminal. "So you want me, come and get me."
In an instant, the two Hulks had leaped at one another and proceeded to smash and crash all across the docks. Shipping containers were soon turned into massive projectile weapons, craters formed all across the ground, and loud grunts, growls, and roars could be heard almost all across New York City in its entirety. For a brief moment, the two seemed pretty evenly matched, but only one of them had the advantage of experience with gamma-powered strength, and Hulk proved it when he managed to not only push Red Hulk well away from his friends, but also pinned him down long enough to deliver several powerful punches straight to Red Hulk's face over and over again.
Hulk did not let up even at the faint sound of Ulrich passing by at super speed. He was just too focused on making sure Red Hulk paid for hurting Aelita. When he finally did stop, he waited only a few seconds to make sure Red Hulk was out of commission before turning to go back and help check on the other Avengers. He should have waited a little longer though, because Red Hulk ended up recovering the second Hulk had turned his back, and immediately grabbed Hulk by the head. Red Hulk then tossed Hulk through several shipping containers before the latter landed again, and Red Hulk was quick to chase after him afterwards.
"Is that all?" Red Hulk asked. "I've waited for this moment. All I've wanted is this moment, and now—now I'm stronger!"
Hulk immediately tried another punch in response to this, but all he did was end up being caught in Red Hulk's grasp long enough for Red Hulk to send him flying with a powerful kick. Neither of them ever noticed a certain flash of gold splitting into three and then speeding around the area they were fighting in placing various cameras and recording devices, but even if they had, Red Hulk likely would not have cared. He was too busy enjoying what he believed to be his inevitable victory over the Hulk, even as he continued beating on the downed gamma giant.
"You know what the best part is?" Red Hulk laughed. "At the end of the day, I won't be taking any heat for this, because as far as everyone else is concerned, you're the only one to blame! You're the one they'll lock up for my attack on the Helicarrier, and for every injury I inflicted on your precious little playmates." More punches and laughter followed this, even as Red Hulk continued boasting loud enough for everyone on Earth to hear. "Face facts Hulk, you've lost! Do you hear me?! YOU'RE NOTHING!"
Red Hulk's next hit never landed, as this time, he was the one who had his fist caught by his opponent, as Hulk merely smirked back at him and retorted, "You're wrong. I'm an Avenger."
"And we don't ever leave anyone to face something alone," Ulrich's voice could be heard shouting. Red Hulk hardly even had time to turn and face where the Sprint Samurai's voice had come from before said hero's saber had come spinning at him, slashing him across the front before it became embedded in the ground behind him.
Any thoughts Red Hulk might have had about retaliating against the samurai hero were quickly forgotten when one of Hawkeye's arrows landed near him and released a powerful flash bang in Red Hulk's face. Seeing how disoriented his opponent was, Hulk did not hesitate to finally rise up and punch Red Hulk off him. A minute later, Ulrich had raced up to retrieve his saber and stand alongside of his friend, and said, "Sorry I'm a little late. Got a bit held up with some other matters."
"Better than never," Hulk assured his friend before he glared at Red Hulk and shouted, "Avengers, assemble."
"Anyone else think it sounds a little weird when he says it?" Spider-Man asked as he swung in, already shooting off several webs along with Hawkeye's bola arrow to tie up Red Hulk's legs.
"No weirder than it probably would if you said it," Wanda commented as she fired off a few energy blasts of her own in an attempt to cover Wasp, Daredevil, and She-Hulk's approach.
Daredevil led the charge by bashing Red Hulk with his billy club as hard as he could, leaving his disoriented enough for when She-Hulk leapt over and planted another hard kick into Red Hulk's front. Wasp then shrank down just enough for her to fly into Red Hulk's ear canal, and proceeded to bombarded the inside of Red Hulk's head with as many stinger blasts as she could before Red Hulk flared up his fire powers again to smoke her out. Luckily Janet managed to get out before she was too seriously hurt, but Red Hulk's moment of distraction with Janet gave Aelita the chance she needed to fire the most powerful energy field she could muster with her good arm.
The blast managed to knock Red Hulk far enough away from Wasp for Hawkeye to safely scoop her up and carry her to safety. Wanda was quick to try and assist the archer in his escape, but none of them were prepared for the moment when Red Hulk used a powerful ground pound attack to bring several shipping containers down on top of them as the ground gave way beneath their feet. Red Hulk then used his brief moment of reprieve to finally rub out the remaining spots in his eyes, but when he opened them again, it was just in time to be greeted by a powerful pair of punches from both Hulk and She-Hulk.
The two good Hulks' attack was soon followed by a pair of swing kicks from both Spider-Man and Daredevil, with the former adding a little extra hurt to his attack when he used a web-slingshot to come back around for another hard hit. Ulrich came rushing in a second after to slash at Red Hulk with everything he had, and even from a distance it was clear his attacks were bit more ferocious than usual. Clearly he had something that he needed to get out of his system, and Aelita was more than willing to give him a few extra minutes before she fired another energy field at Red Hulk. Not that she really had much choice in the matter, given how much her arm still hurt, but Aelita could ignore the pain for now.
When Aelita's last blast hit, it served to help the Avengers finally back Red Hulk into a corner, where he could only rub his jaw as he realized just how bad his situation had become. To add more salt onto the wound, his mystery partner radioed in again and asked, "Have you had enough? Or do you prefer to lose to the Hulk, and have your identity revealed?"
Red Hulk said nothing in response, but his silence at seeing the heroes slowly closing in on him was likely all the answer he needed to give. Instead, he just flared up his fire powers again, making himself so hot that the others had to stay back and raise their arms up in defense out of worry of being burned. With the heroes sufficiently distracted, Red Hulk leapt high into the air, well over the heroes' heads and out of sight.
Hulk was just about to go after him when She-Hulk and Ulrich stepped in the way, "Whoa, hold up there, big guy," Ulrich cautioned. "It's over now. He's gone."
"And you're hurt," She-Hulk added, taking particular notice of the bruise on Hulk's right side.
Hulk brushed them off while rubbing the sore spot in question, but still showed he appreciated the concern when he said, "It's not that bad." His eyes then went wide with concern as he asked, "Hawkeye. Wasp. Wanda."
"Already working on getting them out," Spider-Man called out, prompting everyone to turn and see the web-head hard at work trying to pulling the shipping containers off their teammates. "Although, I would appreciate a little assistance. Being super strong is very painful for some of us."
The others quickly hurried over to try and help Spidey, until Hulk stopped short and gave Aelita a look of concern. "Are you okay, Tinker Bell?"
"I'm fine, Hulk," Aelita tried to assure him, only to flinch a little when she raised her injured arm in an attempt to reassure him. "Okay, maybe a little more sore than I thought, but I'm alive, and nothing's broken."
"Come here. Let me see," Spider-Man requested, prompting Aelita to approach her boyfriend. Upon gently taking hold of her injured arm, Spider-Man could not help but wince along with Aelita as she groaned in pain, even as he proceeded to fashion a sling for her arm with his webs. "It's not a perfect fix, but this should help a little until we can get back to the mansion and have your arm properly looked at."
"Thanks Hun," Aelita smiled in slight relief, bringing relieved smiles to the other Avengers' faces as well. Hulk's had to be the most notable of them all, but all good feelings evaporated at the sound of helicopters and heavy machinery approaching them.
Upon turning to the source of the sounds, the Avengers all went on guard at the sight of a Hulkbuster squad forming around them and training their weapons on Hulk, even as the unit's second in command, General Talbot stepped forward. "Hulk, by the authority of SHIELD and the U.S. Army, you are under arrest for the attack on the SHIELD Helicarrier!" Talbot ordered. "Surrender!"
Hulk just growled, already gearing up to start another fight, until She-Hulk stepped forward. "General Talbot, I suggest you stand down. The Hulk is innocent and we've got more than enough evidence to…"
"I don't take orders from you or these other vigilantes, freak! Stand aside or we'll place you under arrest for obstruction of justice," Talbot interrupted.
"I've got a better idea. You do as Miss Walters says and stand down," Maria Hill hollered as she and a squad of SHIELD agents approached.
"Director Hill, you can't seriously…" Talbot started to protest.
"I can, and I am. Unless you want me to run you and your boss in for defying orders," Maria interrupted. She then turned to the Avengers and asked, "I assume you still have all that proof readily available?"
"That and more. While the big guy was keeping his newest playmate busy, I made it a point to plant a few cameras and microphones all around the area. I think your friends will be very interested in what they picked up," Ulrich revealed before pulling out his Lyoko Cell and firing up its holo-screen to show a few images. The first few were all the videos and live feeds from the mansion that Aelita and Wasp had already showed Maria earlier on, but the new stuff was all footage from Hulk and Red Hulk's fight just seconds ago, including the moment Red Hulk confessed to his crimes.
"You know what the best part is?" the Red Hulk in the footage laughed. "At the end of the day, I won't be taking any heat for this, because as far as everyone else is concerned, you're the only one to blame! You're the one they'll lock up for my attack on the Helicarrier, and for every injury I inflicted on your precious little playmates. Face facts Hulk, you've lost! Do you hear me?! YOU'RE NOTHING!"
Maria hummed in approval of all this before turning a glare onto Talbot and said, "Well there you have it, general. A new playmate for the Hulkbusters. I suggest you get to work on finding this Red Hulk right away, unless you want to waste more time allowing him to escape?"
"Oh, and for your sake, I hope you'll be pursuing him just as doggedly as you did our teammate, otherwise you'll be hearing from our attorney regarding charges of abuse of power and harassment," Aelita added on.
"Just so you know, even if decided not to pursues the case, we've got Nelson and Murdock on speed-dial, and you know how rare it is for them to ever lose a case," She-Hulk pointed out, feeling it necessary to add more salt into that wound.
Talbot just sneered in disgust, but in the end, he could see he was cornered, even before Spider-Man added in his own two cents. "By the way, I think I saw my old buddy Parker hanging around earlier. No doubt he's got his own photos and videos to share with the Bugle, so this whole story is going to likely hit the evening edition before you know it. You really want it getting out that you arrested the Hulk for a crime he didn't commit?"
Hearing all of this prompted more than just Talbot's sneering. It also made several Hulkbuster agents lower their weapons and exchange uncertain looks. Clearly there was a bit of discourse amongst the ranks of the Hulk-Hunting military unit, but they did not need to worry for much longer. "Stand down, people," Talbot ordered. "You heard Director Hill and the Avengers. We've got a new target to pursue."
No one missed how Talbot spat out two particular words like they left an awful taste in his mouth, but right now, they could hardly find it in them to care. They had managed to keep the Hulk from being locked up yet again, and made sure the real criminal's identity was known to everyone involved today. The Avengers were just about to return to digging out their buried teammates when the shipping containers shuffled a little before ultimately getting shoved aside by a combination of Wanda's powers and Janet turning into Giant-Woman.
"What did we miss?" Janet asked before she returned to normal size.
"We'll tell you on the way home," She-Hulk informed the team's leader. She then spared the SHIELD agents a brief nod along with the rest of the team, though only Aelita received any kind of response from Maria, mainly due to concern after seeing the pinkette's arm in a sling.
"You sure you're okay, Angel?" Maria had asked.
"Like I told Hulk earlier when he asked, I'll live and nothing's broken as far as I can tell," Aelita assured her.
Maria nodded in response, clearly relieved to hear this, and then proceeded to return to the Helicarrier with her squad. As they were departing though, Aelita noticed how Ulrich seemed to be lagging behind, a confused and troubled look etched on his face, and she immediately made her way over to ask him about it.
"Ulrich? You okay, Bro?" Aelita asked.
Ulrich just looked at Aelita without saying anything for a minute. He really wished he could tell her otherwise, or even keep what he had learned a secret from her, but he knew he had to tell her. She had a right to know, and it would only be a matter of time before she found out anyway if their constant encounters with Savage Artillery were anything to go by. As much as he hated having to do this, he knew he had to tell her everything, and he started it all off by saying, "No Princess. I'm not."
That evening down in Washington D.C., Red Hulk stood proudly alongside of Savage Artillery, Winter Soldier, and the rest of the Code Red Team including Samson. All of them gathered together in the office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Dell Rusk to report on the operation and how things had proceeded that day. Of course, Rusk's mysterious partner was not present for this, but they had been assured he would hear about this debriefing later from Savage Artillery. Rusk could not bring himself to care either way.
"The Red Hulk is a success, despite his earlier disobedience. You've all done a great service for your country," Rusk commented. He spared Samson a look and asked, "Wouldn't you agree, Doctor?"
"I'd say so," Samson replied softly, though with a rather neutral tone of voice.
"Hmm, excellent," Rusk nodded back. "That is all for now. You're all dismissed."
With that, the Code Red Team left Rusk's office, but only Savage Artillery left the group to head in another direction. His destination was a little more important. When he finally arrived at the lab he needed to be in, he kneeled down before his master just as the machine housing him came to life.
"What do you have to report, Soldier?" XANA asked of his agent.
"Red Hulk's creation was a success, sir. The Lyoko Warriors still don't suspect any involvement on your part. Our experiments are also bearing more and more results on damaging the two warriors while in their armored suits as well," Savage Artillery reported. "The setback they dealt us when driving our forces out of Dormammu's realm has proven to be little more than a minor inconvenience."
"Excellent," XANA nodded in response. He then turned to resume his previous task, only to stop when he noticed something off about his agent. "Is there something more you have to add?"
Savage Artillery hesitated for a moment, something XANA knew he had programmed him to never do, but he still responded eventually. "The one called Stern…He had a chance to finish me, but he hesitated. Called me a name. It was almost like he knew me somehow."
"Irrelevant. You likely sharing a passing resemblance to someone he once knew and he was attempting to confuse you. Human emotions make them weak like that. Drives them to illogical actions," XANA brushed off.
"But sir is it possible? Do I know him?" Savage Artillery do not.
"No!" XANA snapped, startling Savage Artillery a little. Seeing this, XANA attempted to correct himself. "No, you do not. Now, I believe you may need to return to your pod. You've been out in the field for longer than usual, and may require the prep for your next mission."
"…Yes sir," Savage Artillery replied, and it did not escape XANA's notice how he had hesitated before responding. Seeing this, XANA made a note to make some modifications to Artillery's pod, if only to better ensure he did not break his conditioning any time too soon. The last thing he needed was for the man to realize who he was at a time when he was not fully prepared for his inevitable victory.
Around the same time all this was taking place, Pitt'o was just sitting in the cell he had been place in aboard Damocles, seething with anger at how he had been found out. This had completely thrown their entire plan off course, and now there was no telling just how formidable the Avengers would be when his people finally arrived. Sure, no one would have expected the child to have somehow adopted a Flerken of all things, but the humiliation was still there, and there was little doubt in his mind that the queen would have his head for this.
At least, that had been his thought process until Gyrich suddenly arrived at his cell. Sitting up, Pitt'o watched as the man tapped something on his wrist before suddenly changing shape until his true form appeared, showing him to be a Skrull as well right when he had finished opening up Pitt'o's cell. The two simply regarded each other for a few more minutes, until Gyrich walked in and proceeded to release Pitt'o from the restraints he had been locked into.
"If it were up to me, you would be left here to rot, Nili," the Skrull posing as Gyrich sneered as he released the last shackle. "However, the queen still believes you have some use to us and our plans."
Upon seeing another Skrull stepping forward, clad in the Captain America outfit he currently wore, Pitt'o could only smirk in response, knowing exactly what this meant. The Avengers may have routed their plans by exposing him, but they were far from derailed.
AN: Well, there you have it. Red Hulk's been beaten, our heroes kept Hulk from going to prison because of his actions, and Savage Artillery's true identity has been revealed at last! Oh wait...that last one might not be an entirely good thing.
Ulrich: Ya think?! What the heck! How is Odd Savage Artillery?! WHY is Odd Savage Artillery?! Isn't he supposed to be dead?!
AN: Okay, so Ulrich's most likely just voiced a lot of the big questions you guys are probably going to ask in your reviews. In fairness, I did more or less allude to the idea that this would be happening as early as the first Code Avengers Story. Namely at the end of Chapter 20: Hail HYDRA. And really, I'm sure many a Code Lyoko fan would've likely pieced it together by now it was Odd. But I'm sure the bigger questions you all want answered are how is Odd still alive and why is he working with XANA. Well...I can't answer that just yet.
Aelita&Ulrich: WHAT?!
AN: Sorry, that'd be spoilers. For now that, let me just say that Odd is essentially going to be the Winter Soldier to Ulrich's Captain America. Hence that little moment at the end of their fight. I know you all spotted the parallels the second you read that scene, don't pretend like you didn't, because it was in fact intentional. And as we saw during Odd's meeting with XANA at the end, he is very much living up to being the XANA version of Winter Soldier right now. Poor guy.
Moving along to the main big points here: I started out with that little scene between Maria and Hank because, as I'm sure you'll all recall, Maria's not the way she was in the EMH cartoon. At least not entirely. She's at least on slightly better terms with the team here than she was in the show, and as such, it would make sense that Hank would share details about Banner's day with her when she calls to ask them to keep Hulk quiet for the day. And of course, that also helps her to make sure she's not as harsh with the team or her orders when Red Hulk attacks, along with how willing Wasp was to share the info they learned about Savage Artillery's attack at the mansion.
Wasp: Hey, question? Can we finally talk about why Falcon was taken off the Code Red Team in this story?
AN: You know, I could've sworn we went over this already, but since I know some folks will likely have forgotten or just talk about it in their reviews anyways, I'll mention it again. Falcon, in my mind, is and always will be a full-on true hero, and a true Avengers teammate. I did not like seeing him as an antagonist in EMH. Gimme the Falcon from Avengers Assemble or the MCU any day of the week. Especially since MCU Sam Wilson is now Captain America. Side note, just saw the new trailer for the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World the other day, and I am SO excited for that movie! I swear, I was not expecting that trailer to come out around the time I posted this chapter.
Anyways, aside from those points, I also rewatched this particular episode of EMH, and honestly, I can't say I'm too crazy about Falcon in the episode. Like, even his voice didn't sound like Falcon in my opinion. I say this with all due respect to the voice actor who played him, but it just didn't sound right a voice like that coming from Falcon.
Also, for those of you who read Enter the Spider-Verse: A Code Avengers Story, I hope now you all are starting to get a much better understanding of why Aelita would have a grudge against Red Hulk. I mean, I wouldn't be either if the person in question tried to frame a family member, hurt my friends and teammates, and nearly crushed my arm. So yeah, not really much more to add to that.
On another note, I hope you all appreciated that little extra bit of backstory on Banner's Day we added in. Like I was glad to hear Bruce got to have a day to himself in the show, but we never really learned when it started in the show, and like many other fans, I'm sure he would've wanted to spend that first day catching up with his old love interest. Stupid Ross screwing things up for him. Sure, I didn't really go into detail about it in the last story, but only because I didn't really have a good idea on how to work that into things in a way that warranted an entire chapter without seeming like complete and total filler.
And uh-oh! Looks like Pitt'o isn't quite as secured as we thought. The Skrulls are about to make their move, and we may be in for a lot of trouble. Speaking of, hopefully you all are okay with the explanation as to why Carol was absent this chapter. After all, she may be an Avenger, but she's also an agent of SWORD, and considering how serious the Skrull situation is, of course she's going to prioritize dealing with any possible leads they have on that ASAP. Thank goodness our heroes were able to handle things well enough without her, huh?
Well, that's a wrap on the chapter details. Let's answer some reviews now and wrap things up...
Firstly, "Dragon Rider 66", honestly, I hadn't really made that connection regarding Aelita's little moment until you said something, but I will say that's not a bad comparison. Don't worry, I'm always having to look up the name of the squid monster too to make sure I'm spelling it right. Thank goodness it's not a one of the more combative monsters, otherwise that would be a real nightmare. Glad you enjoyed Aelita's little reflection of the past, and I think you might find the reaction to the space cat won't be as out there as you might think. As for Thanos, well I suppose it couldn't hurt to mention that whole thing will be more of a mix between how it went down in Avengers Assemble and the MCU. And no, you don't need to worry about Tony. He'll be fine. Trust me.
On another note though, technically speaking the weapons that hurt the Lyoko Avengers did not all come from Dormammu's dimension/magic. It was just one optional source for them. XANA's got plenty of others, as you'll soon see.
"Actionmoviefan", thanks for the suggestion on alternate names Thor could have for the axe if he gets it here. It may still be a little while before it happens, but I do appreciate the option for a different name. Especially since technically speaking the whole thing with Beta Ray Bill has already happened. It just wasn't shown here because...well, that adventure was purely a Thor thing, and as we've all seen by now, if it doesn't diverge from the story too much, or even include the crossover heroes in it, I'm not gonna show it. I do hope to do something to wrap up the whole Ragnarok thing later on, but that won't be for a while. And yeah, Jane will eventually prove herself worthy, but it won't be a long time. As for Vision, he'll have a Solar Jewel, not the mind stone. That is currently with Adam Warlock, as we have mentioned in previous chapters. Also, the Time Stone is not the source of the Eye's power. The Eye is just a containment vessel.
"Haxorus Knight", honestly, no I haven't thought about it. Mainly because I don't want to run the risk of making the Flerken sick. Which I'm ninety-nine percent certain will happen if I use it on my worst enemies.
"MarauderPrime", honestly, assuming that's where the characters in the MCU got it from, then I suppose in a certain technical sense, that's also where I got the idea from. I honestly just went with it because I first heard it in the MCU movies.
"LEGOBRICK13", wow! Glad to see you've enjoyed the story so far as much as you have. And always great to hear from another big fan of Code Lyoko. Don't worry though, I've already got something in mind for Odd's new name when he does eventually break free of XANA's control.
Aelita: Um...isn't that a spoiler?
AN: No, no it's not. After all, Bucky broke free of Winter Soldier, and since Odd is the basically a Code Lyoko version of said character here, it seems pretty obvious he'll eventually break free too. Anyways, back to the review answer. I agree, Code Lyoko Evolution was not the best entry into the franchise. I mean, design-wise in terms of the virtual world stuff, yeah, it was great. Hence the reason why I've got Aelita and Ulrich's suits in this story looking so much like those, but everything else...yeah, I think my biggest thing was that more often than not, I got the impression that the actors had auditioned thinking they were going in for a voice acting role, only to be left surprised when they learned it was only half-voice acting for the most part, because I did not really get much emotion or feeling from many of the characters in a lot of scenes that took place outside of the virtual world.
I do like the idea you had for how the story could've unfolded differently though. Very impressive stuff. You should make a full story out of that someday if you're interested in doing so, because I would definitely follow it.
"7-Eleventh", appreciate the advice, and normally I would agree, but in this case, I just couldn't really follow through. I was too eager to get those ideas out there, and couldn't wait forever before I posted them, so...yeah, that's a thing that happened. At least I didn't give away every little major thing though. Also, like what you've got in mind for your own eventual Code Lyoko x Marvel Crossover story. Hey, if you feel like you need to make a list of characters to show up in your story, I say go for it. Heck, I had to do the same thing myself back when I was writing the Gundam SEED Prime Trilogy, and I had to write up a list for each story. Imagine THAT for a minute, why don't ya? Can't wait to see what you cook up for that.
"Mapleworld312", technically speaking, I suppose you could say the sequel to this story would be kind of like a crossover with Avengers Assemble, if only because the good plot points it has would utilized in said story, and this series' version of the Infinity War would be a mix of the one in that series and the one in the MCU. More so in the case of the MCU version though.
And to everyone else who has favorited, followed, and reviewed the story since the last update, thank you all so much for your support and kind words of support. And thank you for your patience in this latest update. I will do my best to make sure you won't have to wait too long before another one comes.
Now with all of that settled, Onto the Preview!...
It's finally happened. The Skrull invasion is about to begin. The only problem is they've just thrown a whole new wrench into things that makes Ms. Marvel gain new doubts about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Meanwhile, Iron Man is still struggling to figure out how to detect the remaining Skrulls when he gets an unexpected visitor. Just what does he want? Can the real Avengers be found out before Wakanda is taken by the Skrulls? All these and more, including the mystery of whether or the Skrulls can be affected by the Lyoko Avengers even while in disguise are about to be answered next time in…Chapter 16: Infiltration.
Yeah, the finale to this little Secret Invasion Arc is about to start wrapping up, and then it's into the official second half of this story's plot. Like I said before, I'll do my best to not to take too long in getting those chapters posted this time around. But until then...
If you haven't already, please check out our YouTube channel "Studio Fandom". It's the best place to get updates as to what I'm doing with my writing stuff at the time along with various other content. And if you want to look at some pretty cool artwork, we've also got a DeviantArt page now "studiofandom", so check that out too, when you get the chance.
Speaking of the YouTube channel, we're still looking for voice actors for the Remnant of the Key Reading Series videos. Not only that, but we're now looking for artists who might be interested in helping to create images for said videos as well. For more details on what to do to sign on and/or qualify, go check out episode 8 of Studio News for full details on the voice actor stuff. Or even check out the latest episode of Studio News, (that being Episode 12) for all the details on both the voice actor stuff and the artist stuff. And as always...
Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time, fellow true believers!