Martha started to scream before she felt a hard hit against her head as one of the men's pistols whipped her. Suddenly, her vision got all blurry.
Kel was in the back of her mind screaming but Martha still was cognitive enough to mentally tell her to hold back for just a little bit. Too many witnesses around and she was not in mortal danger just yet. Even these robbers weren't dumb enough to simply kill her when she was much more useful as a hostage.
After a few moments, the group opened a manhole cover and with their stolen cash and hostage in hand, quickly made their way down into Gotham's sewers. Obviously, they planned their escape route as the terrible odor hit her nostrils and kept moving.
"Just like we planned, we know the way, they don't...", the man, who Martha guessed must have been the leader, "Just get back to the hideout and lay low until the A.M.".
Martha mentally frowned as she tried to think if she should hulk out in the middle of the sewers to scare and hit them, so she would have a straight shot back to Alfred, but then again, she can't risk the stolen money getting wet if she is to somehow return it back to the cops or the bank...
Perhaps the hideout is drier and perhaps having more people as friends of the gang, she could then get all of them at once without risking one of them running away to expose her to the criminal underworld or baiting her to outside the hideout to any bystanders to witness her as a monster hurting the criminals...
Martha then thought that was what she would do; especially if the cops asked again, she could just claim that the creature somehow came through and she didn't see anything. It was many minutes later of twists and turns before finally, they reached what appeared to be a large chamber; an intersection of some of the lines before everything started to relax.
"Okay, first things first, let's make sure our little guest is quiet...", the leader said one of the other thieves pulled out some zip ties that were used as cuffs and some tape to put over her mouth.
"The hell is wrong with you, Green? I told you to be watching the manager and the alarm!", one of the other thieves got aggressive with another one.
"Not my fault, Blue! I literally blinked and the dude leapt from the floor to hit the alarm!", the other one argued. Martha could guess all the men were going by codenames rather than their real ones; and all were still keeping on their ski masks.
"Shut up!", the leader shouted, and Green and Blue looked at him with slight fear, as the other two watched, as Martha heard the silence for a moment before the leader replied, "Green and Blue, you take our little guest to her room, and for your punishment, Green, you are to stand post at the door with no breaks for a two hour shift. Blue, you take post at the left side. White, you take post at the right side. Yellow, you take post at the front side. I will count the money as I have already discharged the tracking mechanism, and then we will figure out the rest of the night. Is that clear?!".
"Clear...", the other thieves grunted as Martha was grabbed once more and pushed into a small room. For what purpose it was originally, perhaps a filling chamber for excess runoff or flooding; either way, it was now a little makeshift cell as Martha was shoved into it before they closed the door.
Martha took a deep breath through her nose as she tried to remain calm. These thieves were a fairly well-oiled machine, albeit from the one mistake that blew much of the heist. They had things well planned out and knew their jobs as well as their escape. Of course, they picked the worst person to take as a prisoner as Martha started to try and get her zip ties loose.
She easily could bust out in a few moments, but she was glad she finally was wearing that new 'outfit' that Leslie and by extension, Fox, even if he didn't really know exactly why he was doing it, worked on. Still, she wanted to make sure that she could quickly be able to strip out of her normal attire; it would raise less questions if she escaped but was practically in her underwear.
"Hey, how long is this going to take?", Martha heard Green on the other side of the metal door. "What? The waiting or the counting?", another one called out; from the right it seemed so that was White.
"Waiting... I don't want to be in here longer than necessary...", Green said. "Are you scared?", Blue laughed from his position.
"Kinda...", Green admitted. "You guys heard of that bum that greased that Wayne guy? There're these two cops that always show up to this coffee joint I visit-".
"Hey, no details of our lives, remember!", the boss shouted. "I ain't saying nothing! There're dozens of coffee places in this city, relax! Anyway, these two cops, I overheard them... about what they found with the bum...", Green started to talk.
Martha froze as Kel growled in the back of her head, with White replying, "Yeah?", as Green explained, "The bum was actually cracked, not just in the head for being drunk, but he was literally cracked!".
Blue replied, "Like he was stuffed with coke or something in his pockets? You know idiots stuff coke up their asses and they get really greedy for the stuff, which is probably why Wayne got mugged...Heard he got a widow and a boy who saw it all. Never saw the newspaper, but a guy told me that it happened in Park Row.".
"No, no...", Green said. "I mean... like the guy apparently was smashed into the wall, very nasty like... like something of great weight or power crushed him into it... apparently some green monster...".
"Monster? Ha! Jeez, why did we let this guy in here, Black?! This dude probably looks under his bed every night before he goes to sleep!", Blue taunted as Martha almost wanted to laugh now by hearing that. Oh, of all the odds...
Martha felt Kel's growls becoming offended in the back of her head as she allowed her alter-ego, not blaming her, not stopping her as she felt her hands enlarging a bit and the zip ties broke quickly as the laughter by Blue infected the others as Green replied, "I'm telling ya, the cops were downright wary!".
Black's voice replied, "Bah, it was probably some fake story the kid made up or a hallucination by that widow!". White replied, "Speaking of which, did you hear that the widow got Wayne's company? Can you believe that?".
Yellow's voice called back, "Don't forget that the paparazzi said that the widow got knocked up!", and Green replied, "You know, one of the cops said that the widow got assaulted...".
Blue snorted, "That explains a lot...I read some gossip rag with a picture that she looked literally ready to pop a couple of months ago when she was in the city at some baby store or something...I bet the baby isn't even related to Wayne as she hoped!".
During all of that conversation, Martha was taking off the tape, and the zip ties to her feet, and went to quickly take off her clothes and heels quietly, folding them on the side of the door, grateful that she wore her special hulk out clothes underneath, even if they looked like swimwear or underwear in a way.
Kel's voice snarled in the back of her mind, "No one insults my Martha-mate or Thomas-mate or our pups! Can I be smashing them, pretty please?", as Kel got better at speaking more properly since she and Martha got the soul bond with their astral forms, getting closer and falling in love with each other more, though she wasn't exactly perfect yet, but she is very not clearly a mindless monster at all.
"Of course.", Martha mentally responded as she tilted her head left to right as she was loosening her neck like she was the one getting ready for the fight. "Try not to kill them alright; put them in the prison hospital, sure, but let's try to keep the death non-existent, alright?".
"Can't promise.", Kel mentally told her. "If they have weak body...", with a slight snort. "I get it...", Martha mentally sighed as she took a deep breath. From what she briefly saw of the group; they all seemed to be in alright shape though who knows what one of Kel's punches could do to them. Either way, there was now no other choice. Odds were that they'd probably would just be leaving her to rot if they thought they had gotten away from the cops cleanly.
Martha closed her eyes, focusing on all the annoyance that she was kidnapped from Alfred, on all the disgust that she was touched by criminal hands, even only if it was only tying her hands and feet and taping her mouth, on all the offended feelings that she and her family was insulted deeply, and on the determination to get out and get home after some stress reliever, on the worry to check on Alfred and her children, and then unknown to the group, she opened her eyes, now glowing eerily vibrant green in the darkness, and she changed in a record of 15 seconds, which she is still working on, but it's better than the past hulk outs to head down for Kel's den or feed Poppy.
The guard, Green, took another deep breath as he sat down on a concrete guard, using it as a makeshift seat as everything was fairly quiet once the conversation stopped. The fact they would have to stay put for so many hours drove him a bit stir crazy, not to mention the odor which he was getting a bit better dealing within the past weeks of planning the heist, but never wanted to be around again. He then heard a groaning sound coming from behind him as he turned to see the door.
"Probably asleep or something.", Green said to himself, dismissing what would be a dangerous mistake... though not one he would've been able to stop anyway aside from not grabbing her in the first place.
A roar then suddenly echoed through the large chamber as the door crashed out, pinning Green under the door, his strangled screams of pain echoing as his bones broke here and there including his pelvis, barely registering the standing and snarling posture of the She-Hulk above him in pain yet in fear, for she's not Kel right now, for she is in angry mode.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?", one of the thieves screamed out, sounding like he's White as the remaining four quickly turned to deal with the threat... of course none of them were prepared for what they saw when they saw the 7'2 emerald amazon roaring as she stomped her foot down, practically shaking the whole chamber before she charged straight towards one of them.
The man quickly swung around the shotgun he had and fired two quick blasts at her... but they merely bounced off of her skin and didn't even slow her for a moment before she got a hand around his neck and lifted him up. Her other hand quickly grabbed the weapon and crushed it easily in her hand before she slammed the thief down hard, knocking both the wind out of him but also unconscious with some pretty rough injuries that would take months of healing and physical therapy to recover from.
The remaining three scrambled with Black screaming, "RUN!", but the She-Hulk thought quickly and brought her hands in an echoing, shaking slam, deafening the trio as they screamed in pain, collapsing to their knees, and She-Hulk jumped in one bounce, landing with a crashing sound besides Black who scrambled on his hands and feet backwards, ears bleeding as she snarled at him with a monstrous look.
He grabbed his pistol shakily, firing at her but he didn't succeed as her knee raised up to deflect the bullets, and her foot slammed into him with a bone-crushing sound, breaking his pelvis and hip as he tried to turn away, and was kicked by the slam, crashing into the wall, going out cold.
Yellow and Blue was in horror and fear as the She-Hulk turned her attention on them, their ears bleeding as well, and the She-Hulk wrinkled her nose in disgust as Blue ironically wet his pants, showing that he was making himself so tough, not easy to scare when bantering and taunting Green, when in truth, he's a scared guy on the inside.
Yellow, on the other hand, seemed to have a bit more confidence and even while his ears messed up, he still tried to use his weapon, another shotgun, but like before, the shots proved little effect before she was right in front of him. She held out her palm and pushed it forward, slamming into his face, breaking his nose and causing him to collapse into the sewer water, unconscious though his head was still above the water.
Finally, she turned back to the last remaining thief, the so-called Blue, a few steps to him and one look before he simply fainted from fear. She-Hulk grunted in disgust at the fact that she couldn't do much to him like she had with all the others.
"Puny men give She-Hulk no real fight...", She-Hulk huffed before she saw the money. Black appeared to have only started to rifle through one of the bags so much of the rest of the money was already still secured. She looked back to Green and the door before she thought of a good idea to keep them all 'zip tied'.
It was almost 30 minutes later before a GCPD patrol car found all five men in an alleyway back near the bank once more, tied up with the door crushed and wrapped around them to keep them from escaping while their captor was nowhere to be found. She would be right back in the hideout, huffing as she was still trying to calm down from the rage and rush of energy that flowed through her from the fight and then all the labor that she had to do to make sure her former captors were put on ice.
She-Hulk really tried to focus on being Kel as she took deep breaths between her huffing from the rush and rage of adrenaline, and then heard Martha's voice, "Steady, we're safe, we're okay...I'm here...Come back to me, Kel...".
She-Hulk rumbled warmly, "Martha-mate...", remembering all the wonderful and good memories of being Kel, and she closed her eyes as she shrunk two inches to her usual straightforward 7ft height, and Kel opened her eyes, the eerie vibrant green becoming a calmer glow of vibrant green as she spoke clearly, "Martha Rosalyn Wayne.".
Martha's astral form came out of her, and Martha smiled warmly as she cradled Kel's cheek, "There you are...", before kissing her tenderly on the lips, and Kel smiled, "I really tried, Martha-mate...I listening to you as She-Hulk...".
"I know...I saw...It's a bit frightening, yes, of your power when you get angry like that, but you saved us...again...you protected our family...our pack...You did great, not too much damage on those bastards.", Martha smiled, reassuring Kel, and Kel sighed in relief through she glanced at her mate, "Martha-mate did good too...You didn't panic...".
Martha chuckled, "Apparently, Leslie was right...Mediation is really working good...", brilliantly smiling, and Kel looked at her, "And you are my calming mediation...I love you, Martha-mate...".
"I love you too, Kel...", Martha spoke lovingly before Kel brought her closer with her hands, kissing her passionately, and she whispered huskily, "I want to be Kel-mate...I want to taking you in my nest, my den as my Martha-mate...deep in caverns...I feeling that even if we under city, sewer chamber not as deep as caverns, and I not wanting to risk our pack like that...".
Martha's heart pounded and skipped a beat, blushing with a smile, "It has been close to a year, hasn't it?", as she, in her astral form, is wearing the same clothes as Kel, and strangely enough, she is attracted to Kel in her power and strength to protect their family, their pack, even being turned on in watching her recently.
Kel nodded, "Yes...But I will not pushing you into this, even if we love each other...And even if I am being like a alpha female...I...I never been taken as myself, even if I know that I not a virgin anymore, thanks to being in you, by Thomas-mate, and I...I nervous to mess this up when you deserve better than me...I not exactly being normal...", with a heavy sigh, looking down.
"You couldn't ever mess anything up, Kel...", Martha assured her. "And don't think that I deserve better or that you're lesser in any way... you're not.", she promised her.
"Thank you...", Kel said as Martha smiled, "Now, come on, we better get presentable again and find Alfred or the officers. Easily can say that I managed to escape from them and had no idea what happened to them.".
"Think police will search sewers for me?", Kel asked as Martha nodded. "Probably, once those guys start talking... but not like they'd ever find us.", Martha smirked as she chuckled before Kel could find herself starting to shrink once more when Martha vanished.