As of right now, I finished writing this arc and will be publishing the next few chapters slowly till 2025.
Chapter 223: MojoWorld Season 2 - Part Three
"The Great Hunt"
MojoWorld, The Great Hunt
Merida trails Apollo and Iqadi through MojoWorld's forest. She scopes the scene, trying to see if there are any apparent abnormalities she could use to her advantage, aside from it being a television set with hidden cameras and microphones. The floral life seems real, so at least nothing is a fake prop. From what she remembers about the alien fight when she was first on, there would be a forcefield of some kind encircling them like the inside of a snow globe.
"What are we even doing here?" Merida asks, especially since Apollo brought them here without asking.
"Hunting," Apollo responds.
"Hunting what?"
Apollo shrugs and Merida rolls her eyes. She looks at Iqadi for any input but she shakes her head.
"I thought you made this," Merida tells him.
"No, I pitched the idea," Apollo corrects. "There's a difference."
"You didn't pitch what we were hunting?"
Apollo grins. "Element of surprise."
Merida groans. "Dear god, I'm going to die. What happened to scripted television? Does outer space just not do that?"
"No wonder Mojo wanted you back," Iqadi mutters. "So dramatic."
"Your speech to Daniel about giving the viewers what they wanted in the previous episode spoke to me," Apollo tells her. "I memorized it."
Merida thinks back to when she and Daniel were first kidnapped by Mojo to participate in his outer space fight to the death in a makeshift Roman Colosseum. Daniel had his Hulk forced out of him and he was beyond scared since he hadn't shifted in years and was scared of the monster inside of him, especially since he was out of his control.
"I hate it here," Merida mutters, kicking the ground at her toes.
"They want a beast and you have that!" Apollo quotes, bellowing so loud for the whole forest to hear. He turns around and opens his arms to emphasize the importance of Merida's famous MojoWorld words. "You're just letting them beat it out of you!" He looks at Merida and puts a hand on her shoulder. "That by far, Barton, is the best thing you've ever said."
Merida sighs tiredly. Xavier told her the same then when he read it in the mission report that he finally signed off on.
"It's only fair," Iqadi says. "Besides, if the monster out there doesn't know that we're hunting them, maybe it's a better show if we don't know what we're hunting. If nobody else is here, then it'll be obvious what we're hunting when it shows up."
"See, she gets it," Apollo says.
Merida glares at him. "Because it's in her nature. Also, you yelling so loud probably got something's attention."
"Archery was the primary form of hunting for game animals centuries ago," Iqadi informs her. "While not practised now because of modern equipment, its contemporary use is now for sport or work, in your case."
Merida waves her hands. "The more you know. Let's keep going."
Producer: As our hunters trek through the treacherous woods, we'll hear some messages from our sponsors…
-o-
MojoWorld, Commercial Break
They're no longer in the forest but a professional kitchen. The countertops are clean and the lights are dim except for a spotlight on the three of them. They turn to look at each other and they're in white chef's outfits with matching hats and bright Pop-Tart blue aprons. Merida and Iqadi have their hair bunched up in hairnets, while Apollo has one on his head and for his beard.
Merida's hairnet is extra bulky cause her curls are bunched up inside.
Apollo laughs at her. "You look adorable."
He bounces her hairnet and she smacks his hand away. Merida pulls on the hairnet around his beard as far back as she could before letting it go so it could snap against his face. He laughs again.
"I haven't laughed that hard in so long, Merida," Apollo tells her. "Thank you."
"I'm not laughing," Merida responds.
"Doesn't matter because I am."
Merida says nothing. She looks at Apollo and stories of his seven years on Asgard play through her mind. Seven years of sadness and insanity that all eventually ended (kind of) when he returned to them on Midgard. And now he's happy, finally content again. He wanted her to be here and she is, in this weird space commercial for weird space baked goods.
"Space Bites!" Iqadi exclaims, holding a bright blue box to the camera with a smile. "They hit that sweet solar spot when nothing else can!"
She winks at the camera as Merida grabs the box. She looks at the bright blue cardboard and the little square pastries on the packaging.
"Mini iced squares pastries with filling and different flavours," Merida mutters. "Are these Space Pop-Tarts?"
Apollo grabs the box and shoves a handful in his mouth. "Absolutely." He flashes the box to the camera and smiles. "Space Bites, The Galaxy's best Pop-Tart. Gods, I love this episode."
-o-
MojoWorld, The Great Hunt
Producer: Last we saw our hunters, they were catching up with each other and figuring out the wonders of the woods they're in…
"Apollo, I have an idea," Merida says as they continue trekking through the forest.
"What?" Apollo asks.
"Arrow roulette."
A grin slowly grows on his face underneath the war paint. "What's that?"
"I play around with my quiver and shoot whatever trick arrow comes out."
"That will be exciting!" Iqadi exclaims. "Sometimes you fire the same ones anyways."
"Hey!" Merida yells before trailing off. "That's not completely wrong, but I have some new ones we could test out."
"Do it."
Merida swings her bow over her shoulder and fiddles with her quiver that's buckled to her hip. She pulls a random arrow out, loads her bow, and fires it to the sky. Sonic beams pulse out as the arrow disappears into the forest's green foliage.
"That's it?" Apollo questions unamused.
"Not all my arrows explode," Merida retorts.
To their surprise, a monster roars from the distance. All their heads turn, arming up. Apollo holds up his axe, Merida with her bow, and Iqadi lets out her claws.
"Spoke too soon," Iqadi mutters. "But, finally, I was starting to get bored."
The monster's roars are louder as Merida loads her bow. Apollo and Iqadi glance at each other and smile before running towards the roar. Merida follows.
They run through the trees until the monster lands in front of Apollo and Iqadi, the impact sending them flying over Merida's head as she ducks. Dust and leaves fly everywhere. Merida fires the arrow loaded in her bow. Once it lands at the monster's feet, ice starts building up behind the dirt and dirt. It roars and scrambles to get out.
Merida fires another arrow and the ice turns into a buildup of bright pink putty. The monster roars louder as Merida reloads her bow, but Iqadi shoots strong gusts of wind forwards. Merida cowers to the ground, covering her face as the dust and debris clear and Iqadi and Apollo approach her again.
Merida lowers her hand and sees a pissed-off Hulk covered in melting ice and putty, roaring at her specifically. She rolls her eyes and she laughs as the Hulk fumes at her.
"We're back!" Merida cheers sarcastically.
Apollo pats Merida's shoulder before pulling her up. "I love arrow roulette."
"Given that you two weren't around when we had to fight a rampaging Hulk sans Daniel in there, I'll let you two take the honours."
Apollo and Iqadi look at each other, grinning. When they face the Hulk, even he smiles and balls his fists.
-o-
[Daniel wipes his glasses on his sleeve. He holds them up and squints his eyes to look through the lenses. He nods to himself seeing that they're good enough before putting his glasses back on.]
Daniel: Were we rolling this whole time? Oh god, here we go again. Can I at least get paid for it this time? I have an engagement ring I'm still making payments on. SHIELD demoted my status and my salary.
Producer: So, Daniel, what have you been up to since we last met?
Daniel: Oh, same old stuff. I went through a near-death self-acceptance journey, my friends came back, and I got married.
Producer: Congratulations. You do look happier than last time.
Daniel: Because last time, you forced out a monster from within me that I haven't let out in seven years.
[The Producer nervously laughs as Daniel stares at them with a deadpanned expression. The Producer clears their throat as Daniel looks right into the camera]
Producer: Any new challenges since truly becoming one with the Hulk?
Daniel: My in-laws are over for the holidays. I always thought Tony liked me since he was rooting for me since birth, but we were having drinks and I outdrank him. Out of everything I've done, I've never seen that man more proud of me. Now that I've been transforming more, my body is … how do we say, adapting? I don't know, but the Hulk is kind of like working a car. The more you use it, the more you have to refuel. So I get hungry a lot more. And my alcohol tolerance has plummeted the other way. I'm serious, I can't get drunk anymore. My wife and I were testing it out and I drank the whole upstairs wine cooler and she blacked out … this must be how Xavier and Angela feel.
Producer: What can you bring us here at The Great Hunt?
Daniel: A fight. The monster and I are amicable now. Might as well get a close-up of what it's like when we're on the same team.
-o-
MojoWorld, The Great Hunt
"Welcome, Banner, to The Great Hunt"
Merida rolls back her shoulders before pulling out another random arrow from her quiver. She fires an explosion at the midpoint between The Hulk meeting Apollo and Iqadi for a fight. They fall back and look at Merida.
"Fight off camera," Merida states, "let's get hunting so we can go home."
The Hulk shrinks back into Daniel, still covered in splotches of putty. Instead of being shirtless and in torn pants, he's in a similar MojoWorld hunting getup to them with smears of war paint on his face. His eyes remain green until Merida hands him a spare pair of glasses that she keeps in her quiver.
"Come on," Apollo whines, "I was just starting to have some fun."
"As was I," Iqadi says.
"I wasn't," Merida states. "Let's go. Daniel, I'm glad I'm not the only one returning here."
"I showed up as the Hulk on the other side of the forest," Daniel huffs. "
"Did you see what we were hunting?"
"I wasn't aware this was a hunt until now."
"I need you to focus on this with me because those two are thrilled to be here."
"Clearly. I'd much rather be in the wrestling ring. They would too, come to think of it."
-o-
Producer: So, why Daniel?
Apollo: Again, Mojo's most viewed episode and it was great when Sigyn, Freya, and I finally watched it the other day. I'll be honest, I watched it ten times. Mojo loved having them back because all these endorsements came in. A fight with the Hulk when he's actually invested in it? I've waited my whole life for it.
Daniel: What?
Apollo: I mean … can we cut back to the Hunt? We've done nothing for four parts already.
Daniel: How was any of that nothing?
Producer: Actually, now that we're all here. Time for a commercial break.
Apollo: Oh no…
Producer: And now another message from our sponsors!
Before you ask: Yes, I played arrow roulette and that determined how this chapter played out.