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[Marvel Cineverse] Tony Stark Aims to Please - AJN

FanboyimusPrime..CH_25a - Steve&Deadpool, Janissary, Razorfist, Clint

"Well I had an....odd encounter," Captain America admitted. "I am not sure what worries me more about him was his fighting skill or his sheer insanity. Not that his employer was any better.."

V-V-V

Steve silently made his way into the abandoned Kurtzberg manor. At least supposedly abandoned as someone had been moving in materials and was drawing power from the power grid. An insanely huge amount of power at that.

Captain America stopped under the cover of an overgrown gazebo and pulled out a pair of high tech binoculars and the cloudy night was like day to him. Milling around him were men and women with AK-74s dressed in costumes from Alice in Wonderland.

He frowned slightly at this as it was not AIM as suspected, but a complete unknown. Cap knew he to gather more intel, and watched the patrols for half an hour. Feeling he'd gotten their pattern and they hadn't noticed him he under darkness made his way inside the manor.

Inside he saw paintings of a young woman in white face paint with rabbit ears. Paintings clearly done by skilled artists, and Captain America was sure cost a pretty penny. Steve wondered what the White Rabbit as she was sure to call herself given the theme of her troops was up to.

All of this spoke to Steve of a woman who had money and a love of Alice in Wonderland. Possibly a love taken to unhealthy extremes. Cap made a note to be on guard for any pocket watches that could really be grenades.

Captain America moved with quietness and grace as he looked for the woman running this operation, and he was sure where the most lights on was where she'd be. Then he smelled chimichangas. Thing suddenly went dark for Steve.

When Steve came to he found himself chained to a chair, and surrounded by this White Rabbit and three men that Cap was sure they were crazy. The first had his hands replaced with short swords. The second smelled of chimichangas and was dressed in a mostly red costume. The final one was in silver light body armor.

And in front of them was the White Rabbit herself. A white bodysuit with a blue jacket, and looking into her eyes Cap could tell she wasn't quite right in the head.

"I think my late husband is as old as you are," she remarked. "You definitely are in better shape. Just a pity you're going to end up as dead as him. Off with his head boys."

"Can I use a flamethrower instead?" Deadpool asked. White Rabbit shrugged.

"Just don't burn the place down Wade."

The Merc with a Mouth gave her a thumbs up.

"Should I use my AIM Nerve ruiner or my KIllmaster 9000?" the one in silver mused out-loud.

"So many toys you have Janissary," the bladed man remarked. "I only need two to get the job done."

"I'd ask how you use the bathroom Razorfist but I'm afraid Deadpool will tell me," the now named Janissary muttered.

Razorfist had a smile that was basically baring his teeth and went for shoving a blade into Captain America's chest. He wasn't being paid enough to cover replacing the blade after cutting through a neck. It was harder than a lot of people thought. And frankly it always ruined the blade he used to do it.

Cap was able to move his chair Razorfist ended up falling on his face. White Rabbit then found out she should have done something to keep the chair bolted to the ground as Cap hit her with a shoulder tackle. Janissary opened fire with his Killmaster 9000 and trashed the chains around Cap.

"Man this scope is a piece of junk," Janissary snarled as threw it to the ground.

"You sure it's not just you that's got Stormtrooper aim?" Deadpool commented. "Hell the only reason you're here is because the author has a love for obscure characters!"

"I need to turn down working with you ever aga...." Janissary said before Captain America rose and punched him right in his exposed face.

Steve then felt a surge of heat as he barely avoided the flames of Deadpool's flamethrower. He then heard a growl of annoyance as Razorfist somehow got back to his feet. Cap dodged the strikes from Razorfist. This infuriated the man and Janissary fired his AIM Fleshcarver 9000 to hit Captain America while he was busy.

Janissary managed to hit Deadpool who at most looked annoyed, and gave the fellow merc a rude hand gesture. In this chaos White Rabbit got to her feet.

"And I wished my machine gun in an umbrella would work," she muttered as she grabbed her umbrella with an AK-74 for in it and opened fire.

Everyone got down and Cap looked for his shield. He found it after a moment sitting on a folded out table. With Deadpool between him and his weapon. To Deadpool's surprise Cap grabbed the thick chain that had been used to tie him to the chair and used it like a whip.

With the chain he was able to sever the line between the fuel tank and the business end of the flamethrower.

"Hey do I go around breaking your stuff?" Wade complained before Cap shoved the assassin aside and made a break for his weapon.

Janissary fired threw one of his Man Stopper grenades, and Captain America rolled under the table. There was a massive electrical burst that really did nothing as the wood of the table wasn't very conductive.

Cap rose and got his shield. The next thing White Rabbit knew was she had said shield hit her upside the head. She fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Before she had hit the ground Steve was on Razorfist like white on rice. Captain America battered the bladed man with blows to the head and legs to impair him and reduce his mobility. Cap then leaped away as Deadpool fired his magnum.

"You were a lot easier to shoot in the ass before!" Deadpool yelled.

"A magnum?" Janissary remarked. "Use an Desert Eagle."

"I can strap this to my waist band over my butt easier," Deadpool retorted.

"That's more than I wanted to now," Captain America stated before grabbing his shield out of the air and slamming into Janissary with a shoulder block. He then slammed his shield into the exposed face of Janissary again as it was the most exposed target on him.

Now the mercenary was out and Cap faced the slower moving Razorfist and the still fresh Deadpool. The Merc with a Mouth ran in and hit Captain America in the groin and found this Avenger was wearing a cup.

"Hey no fair...I mean that worked in our fight in my com..." Wade said before being cut off by punch to the throat.

"Shut up," Steve commanded before kicking Deadpool to the ground. It wasn't nice but Cap kicked Wade several times in the head to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.

"You really want to do this?" Cap asked Razorfist. "You can give up now."

Razorfist snarled and leaped at Captain America swords first. Said steel blades were slammed into by an adamantium shield and then a roundhouse kick to Razorfist. The man fell to the ground.

"Owe...." Deadpool wheezed. Cap hit Wade in the head with his shield. There was a blessed silence after that.

V-V-V

"And the rest of White Rabbit's goons were not that hard," Steve told them.

"Boy that Deadpool guy sure seems to get around," Clint noted. "At least he didn't want to call you."

Natasha muttered something very profane in Russian under her breath about Weapon X and their standards. ​


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AndrewJTalon..CH_26a - Tony&Bruce, Bruce, Lab, Betty


- - - - - -

Tony and Bruce were in the latter's lab at Avenger's Tower, both poring over a digital planning screen. Tony pointed to a particular part of the plans, tapping it with an annoyed expression on his face.

"I'm telling you, the emission rates are well within acceptable parameters-"

"That's because you're assuming the neutron bombardment won't render the shielding as brittle as a graham cracker," Bruce retorted. "Which, by the way, it will within one year."

"That fast? This is military grade steel, same stuff they use on nuclear subs. I've tested it myself. It'll be perfect! Five years at this rate of emission, easy!"

"One at best, Tony. I'm telling you, it needs better shielding."

"And I'm telling you the neutron flux isn't going to be that high!"

"Well who is the expert in radiation around here?" Bruce asked sarcastically. "You, or the guy who turns into a gamma radiated rage monster?"

Tony paused, considered... "All right, good point. I still think you're being a nervous Nancy over this whole thing."

"Well I'm not fond of the idea of people dying horribly from radiation, unless you want them all injected with a Super Soldier Serum prior to working around it," Bruce said dryly. Tony smirked a bit.

"Well, maybe you'd like it for Betty?"

Bruce looked away, adjusting his glasses. He sighed heavily. "You have to bring her up again?"

"Well, you are angry all the time. Lack of sex does tend to make men angry," Tony suggested. "I mean, there are things I could do to fix it up-"

"It's not just the... The physical aspects, Tony," Bruce explained. "It's the... Well..." He sighed. "I'm just..."

"What? Not sure she'll still be up for it?" Tony asked. The man who turned into the Incredible Hulk tapped the plans, not really looking at the display. Tony reached an arm across the table and rested his hand on Bruce's shoulder. Bruce looked up, as Tony smiled.

"Hey... She waited for five years for you, and still helped you out. Still loved you. Now that is devotion, and it's not likely to change. Hell, now you've got the fact that you helped save the world under your belt. That's bound to help things out."

"Yeah, but every time we've tried to meet in the past her dad would get involved... With... Tanks, and helicopter gunships," Bruce explained.

"Oh come on, every guy had to suffer the father of the woman they loved being an asshole to them, or making their daughter act crazy," Tony said. "That's why 'daddy issues' is even a thing! Besides, if he pulls out the tanks I'll deal with them. Let you two have a romantic evening together."

Bruce immediately imagined Iron Man as the waiter at a five star restaurant while he and Betty tried to eat over the loud roars of tanks firing at him. He fought down a chuckle.

"All right... I'll... Think about it," he said. Tony handed him a phone.

"Thinking's done, call," he said. "Her number is at the top of the list."

Bruce stared at Tony. "... How long-?"

"You can probably guess," Tony said, "but that takes time away from calling your true love. So, come on, get to it already."

- - - - -


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AndrewJTalon..CH_27a - Norman&Harry, JessicaDrew, SuperHotGirl, Tony&Pepper, Drinks

There is another, weirder reason that Norman Osborne may have made a female Spider-Man clone.

- - - - - -

*Norman leads Harry into the private lab, where Jessica Drew is naked and strapped to a table*

Jesscia: Osborne you sick freak I'm gonna kick your ass so hard when I get out of here-!

Norman: Happy birthday, son!

Harry: Uh... Dad? What...?

Norman: I made you a girlfriend!

Harry: ... WHAT?!

Jessica: WHAT?!

Norman: Yep! You're always complaining and whining and what not about me not spending enough time with you or doing things with a personal touch, so I decided to make you the perfect girlfriend!

Harry: Bwuh...? But...?

Norman: You see, I cloned your friend Peter Parker, and grew a female clone of him with all his memories!

Harry: ... HUH?!

Jessica: Wait wait wait... This was all just so you could give HARRY a GIRLFRIEND?!

Norman: Why not? You're already best friends with Peter Parker. This is him as a super hot girl.

Harry: I... But...!

Norman: Did I mention that in addition to being incredibly hot and nice, she's also got Spider-Man's superpowers?

Jessica: I... WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, OSBORNE?! This is fucked up and wrong!

Harry: And yet... It's the nicest thing my dad's ever done for me...

Jessica: *Glare* Do I have to beat the shit out of you too?

Norman: Ooh, she's feisty. Son, perhaps it's time I taught you about safewords...

*In the present, Jessica is relating this to an aghast Tony and Pepper*

Jessica: So yeah, that's why I had to flee.

Tony: ... *Takes a bottle of bourbon and pours it into a glass. He hands the glass to Jessica* Trust me, you need this more than me. *Before chugging the rest of the bottle himself*

Pepper: Normally I'd disagree but... You know what? You probably need it. *Steals Tony's bourbon and chugs some of it herself* Glug glug...

Tony: H-Hey!

Pepper: Haa... Oh get over it, you drive me to drink enough as it is.




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AndrewJTalon..CH_28a - WSC, Fury&Sterns, BettyRoss&GeneralRoss, HulkPowers

Part One of Rise of the Hulks.

- - - - -

If it wasn't for the fact that the World Security Counsel consisted of the people who provided most of the funding for SHIELD, Fury wouldn't even give them the time of day. As he stood before them in the conference room in the Helicarrier, he glared back at the shadowed forms of every member of the council.

"Fury, you will accept Samuel Sterns as a researcher. This is non-negotiable," WSC-3 said.

"Gentlemen....I must make it clear I am recording this," Fury told them. "So when this goes wrong, and it will, you can't pass the blame to me."

"One day those recordings aren't going to help you, Fury," WSC-2 said warningly.

"Oh, I'm sure of that," Fury said honestly. "Though it does allow me to go on record and say I think Sterns shouldn't be trusted to clean toilets, let alone work for us."

"He did figure out how to create the Abomination, how to suppress the Hulk, and his own mutation-" WSC-2 tried, but Fury cut him off.

"His own mutation has made him into a megalomaniacal fruit cake with delusions of grandeur," Fury stated. "Not to mention the knowledge needed to create monsters who lack Doctor Banner's self control."

"That is why we are pressing him to make a temporary Hulk serum. For use during world crises," WSC-1 replied, shifting in his chair. "We took a risk with the Avengers and it paid off. Now we're trying to expand your roster of super beings and you're complaining?"

"I'm complaining about who you're letting into the Monster Shop," the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. growled. "Giving him free reign. You have any idea what he might do?"

"We are well aware that Sterns is dangerous," WSC-2 said. "That is why we are balancing him with two supervisors. One is Doctor Betty Ross. The foremost expert on gamma radiation and nuclear biological reactions aside from Doctor Banner himself."

"Which will probably increase the probability of the Hulk becoming involved," Fury pointed out.

"And the other is General Ross."

Fury allowed himself a soft laugh and shook his head.

"Looks like I'll have to tell old Thunderbolt hello," Fury remarked. "Does explain how he's not been discharged or sent out to the middle of nowhere."

"He is the one man whose motives we can completely trust: He hates the Hulk."

"And envies his power," Fury retorted. "Great idea leaving him with Sterns and Ross. Last time those three were involved we got the Abomination tearing up Harlem!"

"Doctor Williams will also be on hand to make sure Sterns keeps his work going towards what we want," WSC-4 finally intervened. "We recognize this as risky business, Director Fury. Hence why we are involving you in every step of the process and accepting your input."

"Save for my recommendation that this project is far too dangerous to even be allowed," Fury groused. WSC-1 nodded slowly.

"True. But we could have simply started this project without informing you. You have considered that?"

Fury closed his remaining eye and sighed.

"Yes."

"This is a courtesy, Director Fury. An act of humility on our part," WSC-1 said. "We accept that you do have the right to be involved in this process. However, you are not the dictator of Earth's defense. No one man can be allowed your level of power without checks, you know that."

"And I accept that," Fury responded, his fists clenching slightly. "But I strongly advise the council that this action is one that will only lead to destruction."

"Your advice is noted, Director Fury. You are dismissed." The World Security Council vanished from the screens, leaving Fury in a dark room with a headache.

- - - -




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AndrewJTalon..CH_29a - Capt.America, Fury, BettyRoss&GeneralRoss, Jennifer&Bruce, Sterns, BooBoo

Part One of Rise of the Hulks.

- - - - -

If it wasn't for the fact that the World Security Counsel consisted of the people who provided most of the funding for SHIELD, Fury wouldn't even give them the time of day. As he stood before them in the conference room in the Helicarrier, he glared back at the shadowed forms of every member of the council.

"Fury, you will accept Samuel Sterns as a researcher. This is non-negotiable," WSC-3 said.

"Gentlemen....I must make it clear I am recording this," Fury told them. "So when this goes wrong, and it will, you can't pass the blame to me."

"One day those recordings aren't going to help you, Fury," WSC-2 said warningly.

"Oh, I'm sure of that," Fury said honestly. "Though it does allow me to go on record and say I think Sterns shouldn't be trusted to clean toilets, let alone work for us."

"He did figure out how to create the Abomination, how to suppress the Hulk, and his own mutation-" WSC-2 tried, but Fury cut him off.

"His own mutation has made him into a megalomaniacal fruit cake with delusions of grandeur," Fury stated. "Not to mention the knowledge needed to create monsters who lack Doctor Banner's self control."

"That is why we are pressing him to make a temporary Hulk serum. For use during world crises," WSC-1 replied, shifting in his chair. "We took a risk with the Avengers and it paid off. Now we're trying to expand your roster of super beings and you're complaining?"

"I'm complaining about who you're letting into the Monster Shop," the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. growled. "Giving him free reign. You have any idea what he might do?"

"We are well aware that Sterns is dangerous," WSC-2 said. "That is why we are balancing him with two supervisors. One is Doctor Betty Ross. The foremost expert on gamma radiation and nuclear biological reactions aside from Doctor Banner himself."

"Which will probably increase the probability of the Hulk becoming involved," Fury pointed out.

"And the other is General Ross."

Fury allowed himself a soft laugh and shook his head.

"Looks like I'll have to tell old Thunderbolt hello," Fury remarked. "Does explain how he's not been discharged or sent out to the middle of nowhere."

"He is the one man whose motives we can completely trust: He hates the Hulk."

"And envies his power," Fury retorted. "Great idea leaving him with Sterns and Ross. Last time those three were involved we got the Abomination tearing up Harlem!"

"Doctor Williams will also be on hand to make sure Sterns keeps his work going towards what we want," WSC-4 finally intervened. "We recognize this as risky business, Director Fury. Hence why we are involving you in every step of the process and accepting your input."

"Save for my recommendation that this project is far too dangerous to even be allowed," Fury groused. WSC-1 nodded slowly.

"True. But we could have simply started this project without informing you. You have considered that?"

Fury closed his remaining eye and sighed.

"Yes."

"This is a courtesy, Director Fury. An act of humility on our part," WSC-1 said. "We accept that you do have the right to be involved in this process. However, you are not the dictator of Earth's defense. No one man can be allowed your level of power without checks, you know that."

"And I accept that," Fury responded, his fists clenching slightly. "But I strongly advise the council that this action is one that will only lead to destruction."

"Your advice is noted, Director Fury. You are dismissed." The World Security Council vanished from the screens, leaving Fury in a dark room with a headache.

- - - -




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amlawren3833..CH_30a - JenniferWalters, Lawyer, TonyStark, Samuel, GeneralRoss, Betty

I know I said I wasn't going to get involved in this one, but...

Jennifer Walters was tiny. This had been a fact since the day she had been born three weeks prematurely, and been forced to spend her first few months attached to a respirator in the hospital. This size also had the unfortunate side effect of making her rather plain in appearance. These two things would become the great banes of her twenty seven odd years of life. She had never been picked for any sports teams, she had never been picked to even try for any of the main leads in the school plays that she had auditioned for, she had never even managed to get a guy to go out to dinner with her, much less a boyfriend.

Yet what Jennifer lacked in height and pure raw sex appeal, she made up for with a mind so sharp you could pop an hot air balloon with it. She had never faltered in her academic pursuits, getting into Empire State University with a full scholarship, and graduating in three years. Soon after, inspired rather strangely by a weird Japanese video game series, she had signed up for Yale Law to study to become an ace defense attorney, which she complete also in three years.

Coming out of law school, she came under the tutelage of one Matt Murdock, perhaps the best attorney in the entirety of New York state, in spite of, though some insane theorists on the internet would claim because, of him being blind. She had spent four years with Mr. Murdock, learning the ins and outs of the law, and affirming time and again her sense of Justice. She had believed for a short while that her life was perfect, and that nothing could go wrong for her.

Then the NYC invasion happened. It had been a wake up call for Jenn. She had seen her world nearly come to an end, and she had had a hard time coming to terms with that. She came to question her place in the world, wondering if what she did had any real purpose.

Then she heard that SHIELD was being sued for damages. With Matt's help, she managed to become the leading attorney defending the organization against the OsCorp company, which had attempted to sue the Avengers for the damage incurred by the invasion on the main OsCorp building in Manhattan. She had won in a landslide, and afterwords, she had been asked to become the legal consultant on the SHIELD Helicarrier. She agreed, said goodbye to Matt, and three days later, she was living in the same place as the Avengers.

It had only been then that she had finally found out that her second cousin was a member of the Avengers. She had only bet Bruce a few times before, and it had been a decade and a half since they had last seen one another, but it had made the transition far easier than she had expected. She had also somehow managed to become part of a small clique of female SHIELD members, Assistant-Director Maria Hill, ace pilot Captain Carol Danvers, scientist Doctor Janet Van Dye and Avengers member Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. They went drinking, they had movie nights, things that were so basically ordinary that it was almost surreal to Jenn. For her first three months aboard the Helicarrier, she did her job, gave advice to various departments, and enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence.

And then she had gotten an email from Tony Stark, with a small link that said "surprise." She had waited for a moment truly hoping she was not about to be mocked by a screamer, when she clicked, and was greeted with a very nice view of Captain America's posterior.

That was the moment the craziness had begun. The Captain had, by Jenn's count, been the victim of over three and a half dozen cases of sexual harassment by Jenn's friends, mostly Danvers and Hill. Even she admitted she could herself probably be sued for her rather unethical use of the shower cameras. She was just glad that the Captain had not pressed any charges for all their misbehavior.

Admittedly, she was actually having much more fun just watching Steve dodge the other more forceful suitors. She still can't help but giggle every time she remembers Cap jumping out of a window when Maria had attempted to "debrief" him in private after a mission, or about how Cap refused to go anywhere near his bedroom after he had woken up with a naked Carol next to him. More so from just how adorable the Captain's shyness was.

Of course, she could laugh about that all later. Right now, she was listening to the head of the newest SHIELD research program, sarcastically called by Nick Fury the Monster Shop, more formally known and MR. BLUE, the program created to make new Avengers. She had been rather put off by the man once known as Samuel Sterns, and it was not just because he was now a green mutated mass of flesh held in a giant jar of chemicals and electric wires. No, she could tell from the way he talked, even through the voice modulator that mad him sound like a bad Steven Hawking parody. That and he had created a monster to try and kill her cousin. Right now he was stand...sitt...floating in front of a large screen, with a picture of the Abomination's DNA shown on it.

"-as I have stated before," Samuel continued in his robotic drone, "the Abomination's great failure was the implementation of too much of the unstable Hulk Serum. For the past six months, I have been synthesizing the serum again and again, removing impurities, fixing instabilities, and giving the serum a more stable base state. Within a few more weeks, I should have the new serum ready for testing. I need only to find a few out a few more parts of the Hulk's transformation, and everything should fall into place."

"Thank you Dr. Stevens," General Ross, the new head of security of this project, and one of the only two other people besides Jenn to have been invited to the presentation, interjected, glaring angrily at the jar, "That will be enough for today. You will be returned to your lab, and you will give us an update next when you actually have the serum," the general then turned away, "I will be returning to the bridge, to discuss the current situation with Director Fury," he then proceeded to walk out the door, acknowledging neither Jenn nor the other woman in the room.

"I am so sorry," Dr. Betty Ross spoke up, obviously put off by her father's rudeness, "He means well, but at times he can be so...focused on the Hulk that he fails to give people around them the respect they deserve."

"No problem," Jenn spoke as she waved her off, "I have dealt with people like him before. Tunnel vision on only what they want to see. Besides, he isn't the one I need to talk to," she stopped, "What is the plan for testing?"

"Oh yes," Betty smiled, "That would be what the legal department is worried about wouldn't it?" she then pulled a sheet out of a file she had in her arm, "only volunteers will be used. List of all known side effects will be given to them on the application, and then they will also have several weeks of psych testing before we even try it. Don't want another abomination. Also the reason we aren't doing animal testing. Keeps it from getting messy. We have also installed enough tranquilizer guns throughout the lab that we would be able to knock out a Blue Whale. No expense has been spared."

"Good," Jenn smiled, "Can't say were completely in the clear, but you do seem to have taken the necessary precautions for the current moment. Just stick to guidelines and call me before you try anything possibly legally dangerous."

"No problem," Betty said, before a ring on her phone gained her attention, "So sorry Jenn, but I just got a page from the Director, he wants me to meet me at the North Laboratory right now. Got to go make a good impression with the boss. Good to meet you," and with that the Ross girl ran through the door, heading in the opposite direction of her father.

"Wait," Jennifer stated, rolling over the conversation in her mind, "Wasn't the Director meeting her father on the bridge? Why would-"

"I must say that it has been a pleasure to meet you Ms. Walters."

Jenn nearly jumped when she heard that voice carry through the room. She turned back, and saw two men lifting the jar onto a cart. As they moved the Doctor out, the thing in the jar continued to speak.

"It is so rare to meet one such as yourself aboard a place such as this. I thought that the Village People had always been correct about those in the Navy, but one look at yourself has proven how wrong this is to me. If you ever wish to no more about the process and what occured to your cousin, you are free to join me in my lab whenever you like."

And with that, the jar was out the door, and no longer in her view. At this point, Jenn grabbed her arms, and shivered. She had just been hit on by that thing. Of course she couldn't have someone like Cap or even that scumbag Tony hitting on her. Nope, it was the creepy monster maker who thought the Geneva Convention was some kind of list of suggestions. She...she needed a shower.

And at that moment she ran to the nearest female bathroom. From what she remembered, Carol should be getting done with her shift at this time too. It would be nice to see her, maybe talk about something other than creepy abominations in jars.

Hope this was okay.




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AndrewJTalon..CH_31a - BettyRoss, Sterns, GeneralRoss, Jennifer


Not bad, not bad. We're nice and established so there's that.

- - - - - - -

Betty Ross scrutinized the sample under the microscope, tapping her pen against the desk as the computer was busy compiling the results. Her assistant, Dr. Williams, was reading through radiological data at the other work station. And in the center of the lab was Mister Blue, Samuel Sterns himself, still floating. A few robots on thick wheels moved about the lab, transporting samples of serums around for testing or scrutiny by scanners. Frankly Betty thought the robots were a waste of resources-She was perfectly capable of handling a few test tubes and syringes.

"The rad absorption is still too high at this level," Williams sighed as he looked over the readings. "I mean, Banner took thirteen times the radiation dose to kill a normal human being - We can't exactly try that for a starter."

"Of course not," Betty said, humming thoughtfully. "The serum seemed to catalyze the energy and adapt his cellular membranes to such a massive influx. The energy is contained inside him and continues to be generated, through chemical reactions."

"Not chemical reactions alone, Doctor," Sterns finally spoke. He had been scanning through data projected on his tank in silence for the last hour, and his voice almost made Betty jump. "While that component is vital, there is a quantum reaction as well. The Super Soldier Serum possesses unique properties of quantum tunneling, allowing for extra dimensional energy transport. On this level, matter and energy are essentially one and the same and as such, the affect allows for the channeling of that gamma radiation into the very biological structures of Banner's being." The monotone voice took on an almost reverent air. "Such power... Such elegance... The process at first seems like magic and yet these interactions on the very edge of matter and energy, once you understand it... So beautiful..."

"I wouldn't call it that," Betty said. Sterns looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Is not Banner your protector though? The mightiest being on this planet, and yet... He wouldn't harm a hair on your head. He would fight an entire world just for you... Is that not beautiful?"

Williams was studiously focusing on his work. Betty felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck, and she cleared her throat.

"If we can please focus?" Betty said, a bit too quickly. Sterns sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"I am appreciative of this work... I hold no ill will against any of you, despite my circumstances, and you would treat me so badly?"

"It's... Just a little uncomfortable, Samuel," Ross tried to be nice. Sterns chuckled.

"Ah... A world of people who hide within themselves... And you, just another." He looked intently at her, as though seeing right through her. "Yes... I see why he cares for you..."

Abruptly Sterns reached up an arm to the call button on the inside of his tank. He pressed it, and the communication link was opened.

"Yes?" The SHIELD agent manning the channel asked.

"Please inform General Ross that I may have a means of duplicating the Hulk process in miniature," he said patiently. Betty frowned.

"Already?"

"It is a theory, nothing more, but since I lack access to Banner's blood," Sterns said patiently, "why not use the next best thing?"

Betty blinked. "... You mean, Jennifer Walters?"

"Exactly," he said. He looked over to the robots with a thoughtful hum. "Of course... If you could talk to Banner... Persuade him to help..."

"I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't-"

"Then why not again?" Samuel asked quietly. "After all... You're doing this for him, are you not? So he does not need to fight anymore?"

Betty bit her lower lip, again feeling uncomfortable. "Williams, handle things in my absence," she said. Williams nodded.

"Yes ma'am," he said. "I'll see if I can get the robots to get us coffee."

Betty smirked a bit. "I think that will be a lost cause after how they spilled it the last time." She walked out of the lab, instantly feeling better when the doors shut behind her. Hiding Samuel Stern's stare.

- - - - - -



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GBscientist..CH_32a - JustinHammer, HammerDrones, Doombot

So why is The Leader stuck in a tank? I don't recall any version of Samuel Sterns with that limitation.

Also, this:

"Look, big guy, I know you've got you're mystical powers and nifty suit, but that's just you. What about the rest of your army?" Justin Hammer asked his host before taking a sip of his wine.

"I need no army," the host replied from across the heavy wooden table from Hammer.

"Of course, you don't. Of course you don't. But what about your nation? Don't they need an army to protect the borders and stuff like that?"

"I am all the protection they need."

"Nobody's going to say that you aren't a heavy-hitter, your excellency, but who minds the shop when you're out on lunch?"

"I fail to see the point of you metaphor, Hammer."

"Who guards the country when you're off on diplomatic business?" Hammer clarified. "The world's a more dangerous place than it was a few years back, what will all the space aliens and super-powered terrorists running around. I could see someone being more than happy to take you down a peg by attacking your country while you were off on business. Now, you'd never let that stand, of course, and the guy in question's days would be numbered to a very small sum, but just one attack would give other schmucks the idea that you might be a viable target."

"That would be. . . Irritating."

"Exactly. So, why don't you let me build up an army for you? I've got the best trainer around on speed-dial and I can outfit your boys in whatever-colour-you-choose with the best toys on the market."

"I find humans to be unreliable, Hammer. I will not build an army of potential errors."

"Okay, okay. I get where you're coming from; I've had similar problems myself. So, I'll give you something better than humans, more reliable. How about Hammer Drones?"

"I have seen footage of your Hammer Drones' performance at the Stark Expo. I found them promising, if slightly flawed."

"From your point of view, I can see where that would be true, but I can only work with what I have. Now, if you felt like giving me some design tips, I'd be happy to give you a discount on a bulk order."

"No."

"No?"

"No. Here is my counter-offer: You will provide me with the plans for your Hammer Drones and a production license. I will build all that I need here, in Latveria. In return, I will provide you with plans for upgraded versions of the drones. Will you accept the largesse of Doom, Mr. Hammer?" Dr. Doom asked as he rose from the table and extended his armoured hand to Justin Hammer.

"I'd have to be some kind of moron to turn down an offer like that," Justin Hammer replied with a grin as he stood to shake Doom's hand.

Thus was begun the development of the Doombot.




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amlawren3833..CH_33a - Jenn&Carol, HittingOn, Dr.Samuels

"So the creepy green guy in the jar hit on you?"

Jenn sighed as she massaged her temples, all the while the hot water from her shower poured down on her. She was at times very grateful that Carol was unable to see her frustration. That and she liked being able to take her shower without feeling incredibly embarrassed.

"Yes, that is exactly what I have been telling you for the past five minutes," Jenn groaned. A second later, she heard Carol twist the knob, and the water stopped flowing. She then jumped when Carol stuck her head into the shower stall.

"Well have you thought about suing the guy for sexual harassment?"

"Dear god!" Jenn shouted, "there's a reason we have these walls."

"Ah, you're too much of a prude," Carol laughed, fully emerging in front of the stall, given decency by her towel, "Mind you, considering what happened today, I wouldn't be surprised that you might be worried. What if that jar guy got cameras in here to look at you. That would be awful."

"...you do realize how hypocritical you sound right now don't you?"

"Do, but don't really care," the blonde woman laughed, before taking the younger woman by the shoulder to lead her to the lockers. Jenn rolled her eyes, before remembering something.

"Hey Carol, I have to ask, what is the status on Steve. Anyone actually manage to go on a date with him yet?"

"Nope," Carol grumbled, clearly agitated by the question, pulling her clothes out of her locker,"At the current moment, there are really three in the running. There's me of course, and then Maria as well, but were kind of both on probation for sexual harassment. Carter is probably right behind us, through I think she is still kind of iffy about him having a rather weird relationship with her grandmother. Natasha's surprisingly the least in the open about her attraction despite being the closest to him and the one perhaps in the best position of going out with him, and I betting Janet's more invested in Hank right now. And you don't seem to have any interest in him at all."

"Well um," Jenn rubbed the back of her head, "What gives you that idea?"

"Wait, you are?" Carol seemed absolutely dumbfounded, "I mean I know you like to look at him, but so does everyone else on board. You've never really done something to show off or tease him or make catcalls to him or try to get him to do anything remotely fun."

"Just because I don't happen to be a pig doesn't mean that I'm not..." she paused to think of the right word, "Enamored by Steve."

"Well you need to try something," Carol stated matter of factly.

"Well I'm not going to show up naked in his bed with red white in blue whipped cream draped over me!"

"Oh come on, you have to admit that was a good one."

"He has every right to sue you!"

"Have you thought about asking him to a movie?"

"...that is surprisingly down to Earth and reasonable of you Carol"

"Well you know," Carol shrugged, "What's a little competition."

"You know, that might be nice, just going to see a movie...I'll go see if there are any theater's playing classic movies. Try to avoid culture shock as much as possible."

"Good," Carol smiled. Jenn, now fully clothed, set out with a new goal. In the next twenty-four hours, she would find the Captain, and ask him to go to a movie theater, as friends of course. Better to start out small of course. What could possibly go wrong.

(LINE BREAK)

If Dr. Samuels had an eyebrow to raise, it would be. The similarities between the Hulk's DNA and his cousin was astonishing. It was almost identical in most make up, far closer than most siblings should be, let alone distant cousins. If they could synthesize the Hulk reaction in her, than they would be able to really understand it, and then reproduce it on a more massive and controlled scale.

Steven took a second, and then offered this up to the empty lab around him.

"It does appear that I have found my first test subject."




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SotF..CH_34a - Peter, Dr.Strange, TentacleCrud, Fury, MercDeadpool

Peter was exhausted.

It had taken three hours to deal with the tentacle monster, Strange finally figured out just what Deadpool had done to the spell that summoned it enough to send it back where it had come from.

Add another hour after they could turn their attention to dealing with the Merc who had somehow managed to hack into Jamison's media feed system and had been singing "A Shoggoth On The Roof" at the top of his lungs for most of the duration of the battle.

And Fury did manage to send some help, the only help he could actually contact and managed to get to show up.

Well, almost all of it, ol' one eye had turned down General Ross' offer to send the Abomination in.

Like sending the A-Bomb anywhere near a place where humans lived that wasn't some super-ultra-hypermax prison was a good idea.

But when the fight was over, Strange had muttered about needing something for a migraine after threatening to dump Deadpool in the land of infinite teletubbies and leave him there... Not that they'd managed to keep their hands on the chatter box, he'd teleported out while babbling about Bea Arthur and chimichangas.

So that left Daredevil, Iron Fist, Power Man, and a girl in a white catsuit that was ranting about Fury not telling her what they were up against when calling everyone in.

He'd cleaned most of the gunk off his gear after Fury offered the use of the private changing facilities on the Helicarrier rather than let a slime dripping group of heroes wander about his domain. And Nick was kind enough to tell him who had managed to give the Avengers a vacation when he'd gotten stuck dealing with a hentai escapee.

Spidey finished the chips he'd snagged from a vending machine just as he heard Maria Hill's scream, his vengeance was complete!

With a grin and a feeling that some things were right with the world, Spider-Man leaped from the helicarrier and headed for home just as the corner of his eye saw the woman in question charge into the room, dragging one of the severed tentacles he'd snatched from the battle sight and had placed in her office.

Revenge was his!




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AndrewJTalon..CH_35a - Tony&Fury, WSC, Banner, Betty

- - - - - - -

"So, you're actually doing this. The Hulk Factory. More Jolly Green Giants," Tony stared without preamble as he basically barged into Fury's office. Nick Fury looked up and sighed. Banner was right behind Stark, his expression grim.

"I mean, Bruce here only underwent years of training to get a handle on it, thanks in no small part to his strength of character, but after the mess the Abomination turned into you're actually going to try turning more military jugheads into living weapons? You don't learn fast, Fury, you don't-!"

"You're right," Fury stated flatly. Tony blinked a few times, working his jaw as though he'd been punched.

"I... Knew that," he said. "Wait, hold on... you're admitting I'm right. You. Nick Fury. Admitting that I, Tony Stark, am correct on something?"

"I prefer to think of it as we're both right about this," Fury responded.

"Give me a moment. I need to bask in this," Tony said, sucking in a deep breath and closing his eyes. Banner rolled his.

"World Security Council?" Asked Banner. Fury nodded. Banner smiled wanly. "They don't trust me much, do they?"

"In theory, this is supposed to make your life easier," Fury said, rising and looking out the window at the ocean far below. "The new Hulk serum is temporary. Allows someone to become a Hulk and stay focused enough to be thrown at a global threat, not become one."

"And you don't agree with that theory?" Asked Tony. Fury shook his head.

"Especially not with who they have running this powder keg," he stated. "Samuel Sterns-"

"Sterns? He's okay?" Asked Bruce. Fury snorted.

"For a given value of okay, sure... He's become a gamma mutant too, mental abilities are off the charts. He's been assigned to work on the project but given he made the Abomination... And is doing everything in his power to creep out everyone around him, I don't really think he's on the level."

"Well it could be worse. It's not like you have..." Bruce trailed off and gaped. "No... Ross?"

"You put him in charge? The guy who calls himself Thunderbolt with a straight face?" Tony whistled, and rubbed his beard. "Oh, this is just perfect-"

"I didn't put him in charge!" Fury said defensively. "I protested! I did everything in my power to keep this from happening but guess what, it is. The only saving grace is that Betty Ross is in charge of the project-"

"Betty? She-She's working on this?" Bruce asked in shock.

"She wants to help you, Banner, and she's the only person in this whole affair I trust!" Fury admitted. "Frankly, I'd feel more comfortable with you heading this-"

"Except my response would consist of 'Hell' and 'No'," Banner stated. "With good reason! You can't just manufacture more of me, that power is too dangerous!"

"So what aside from total and complete destruction would convince the Council to cut the program and stick Sterns into the bottom of a very deep well?" Tony asked. Fury shrugged.

"Project heads deciding it was too dangerous and quitting. Sterns is a consultant, essentially. General Ross and Doctor Ross would need to be convinced-"

"Right," Tony said, grabbing Bruce's shoulder. "You handle your girlfriend, I'll handle General Mustache."

"B-But I-"

"Would you rather see her or see him?" Tony asked frankly. Bruce nodded.

"Good point," he said. The two scientists walked off, leaving Fury to sigh and rub his temples. He felt like things were already spiraling out of control and it had been a mere two days...

- - - - - -




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AndrewJTalon..CH_36a - TonyStark, Rogers, Ross, JennyWalters

- - - - -

Tony Stark's plan was pretty simple: Find General Ross and mock him for being an idiot once again. It was essentially fool proof. After all, he'd come up with it.

He was thrown off his game, however, when he spied the general at the table in the mess hall with Steve Rogers. The two old soldiers were talking, almost amicably, and Stark decided a little eavesdropping was in order before he stormed in.

"... So this man just blows through the door. Swear to God, he just smashes through it," Ross said, shaking his head. "You never saw so much commotion, and everyone assumes he'd gotten his hands on the Serum and he was going crazy-"

"But?" Rogers asked with a small smile. Ross actually laughed.

"Hahahaha! Turns out... Turns out, he'd been dared by the sergeant to mess with the door hinges, and one of his buddies had dropped an eel down his shirt and shoved him through the door!"

Steve shook his head in some disbelief as the general chuckled. "Enlisted men, huh?"

"Ah, they liven everything up," General Ross said, wiping a tear from his eye. His face became solemn. "I lost that man when the Hulk first emerged..."

Steve's face became equally solemn. "I'm sorry..."

"Yeah... He was a good man. They were all good men," Ross said. He raised his glass, an action Captain America repeated. The General looked up to Rogers again.

"Still... You can understand why I'd stick with this project, no matter what."

Steve nodded. "I'd hope you would understand, then, why I can't be a part of it."

Ross started, and stared at Steve. The Super Soldier stared back with steely resolve.

"But... You helped win the war... You were-"

"I did my duty, and I don't regret it one bit," Steve said. "But you're seeing it as a weapon to be used by anyone. Without realizing that you're turning someone into a weapon. When you do that, you get a weapon that thinks and feels and is inherently unpredictable." He gestured over to Tony, who tried to look like he wasn't eavesdropping. "Let's take Tony's armors. Very advanced, very complex systems, but still just weapons. They don't think or feel, they do. They're like guns."

"Very complicated, advanced, brilliantly engineered prostheses, thank you," Tony said, a bit offended. Ross sighed at the sight of Stark, and shook his head.

"Yes but the men we'd choose would be the best, the most loyal, the most-"

"The best soldiers?" Steve asked flatly. He shook his head. "I grew into being a soldier, General... But for me there is much more to life than war, even with everything I've been through. For Blonsky, war was his life. He was good at it, and was a good and honorable man... But look what happened to him when you gave him an incomplete serum. Look what he strove to become."

"Nobody could have predicted that-" Ross protested, but Stark cut him off.

"Which means you're just going to try again without being able to predict anything... Again." Stark smirked a bit. "I didn't think 'military intelligence' was an oxymoron but then I met you..." He looked over at Steve. "No offense."

"None taken," Steve replied. Ross rose, and adjusted his uniform. He gave a cold, professional expression to both men.

"Thank you for your time," he said curtly. He walked out, ignoring Stark entirely, and headed down the corridor. Tony sat across from Steve. The legendary soldier looked a bit tired.

"Hey... You all right? He didn't try to bleed you did he?" Stark asked. "Because we can sue him for that, I've got a great lawyer-"

"No," Steve said softly. "Just... Part of his drive is because of the men he lost. I can understand that."

"And the other part?"

Steve gave Tony a grim look. "He wants that power. He thinks he's the best person to use it."

"He doesn't strike me as the great power, great responsibility type," Tony commented dryly.

"Maybe... Maybe not," Steve mused. "Still... I agree this is a bad idea."

"Ahem." Steve and Tony looked to the person who had cleared her throat. It was Jennifer Walters, standing a bit awkwardly.

"Ah... Hey, Captain, Mr. Stark," she greeted. Steve smiled.

"Hello Miss Walters,"

"Jennifer," Tony said cordially. Jennifer smiled warmly at Steve.

"Um... I was wondering if you'd like to go to a showing of Casablanca with me at the Empire Theater in New York?" She asked. "It's... Probably been a while since you've seen it but it's one of my favorite movies and I thought, you know, we could just take it in and maybe go for dinner after."

"Ah, well," Steve began, but he was silenced when Tony kicked him under the table.

"He'd be delighted," Tony said with a grin. "When can he pick you up?"

Jennifer instantly brightened. "Six thirty would be nice, um..." She handed over a piece of paper to Steve. "Here's my address! I'm taking a quinjet to the surface to prepare after I finish up some work on the Helicarrier."

"Uh, er, s-sure," Steve managed. He smiled back. "I look forward to it."

"Great!" Jennifer walked off, her cheeks slightly red. Tony chuckled.

"It is like high school all over again with you," he teased. Steve scowled. "Want me to pass notes between you two?"

"How could you-?"

"Look, she asked you out this time rather than Danvers' showing up naked in your cabin," Tony said. The First Avenger's face burned bright red. "Which I still say you should have gone for. Danvers is great. She's got a large family, loves dogs, shot the Hulk with a pistol while jumping out of a plane, has insanely hot measurements-"

"I-I just... She came on a little strong?" Steve tried. "B-Besides, you know, since I am going with Jennifer - thanks to you-"

"I'll run interference. Besides! It's just dinner and a movie! It's an American classic," Tony soothed. "It's not like she'll want to bang you right in the theater. So relax! Have fun! Drop the soldier boy act for a while."

Steve sighed. "Well... I suppose you're right..."

"Now! We need to get you prepared," Tony said, standing up. Steve frowned.

"What about the Hulk project though?"

"They're not going to make that much progress in a day, they don't have me or Bruce working it," Tony said, dragging Steve off. "And you, my friend, need all the help you can get."

- - - - - -




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SotF..CH_37a - BruceBanner, Fury, Hammond

"Just like every other vacation I've had," Bruce Banner grumbled in response to the question by Fury about the Avenger's trip to Miami as he tossed two things onto the table, "Two madmen run amok, neither down but we did manage to find out what happened to those Hammer Drone's the techs had been studying."

For a moment Fury just stared at the robotic head and what appeared to be a metal olive as they lay on his desk.

"Just incase you can't identify the scrap metal, Deadpool was the one who swiped them and got himself an army of robo-Bea Arthurs to steal that painting that went up for auction a month or so back."

"Where's Cap?"

"That's where the olive and the other madman come into this," Banner answered, dropping into a chair, "Red Skull popped up, setting off that olive, or rather the EMP bomb disguised as one that managed to down Stark."

Fury figured the doc looked a bit more beat up than usual, despite Hulks healing, the man had been burning it at both ends since this thing apparently started.

"The nazi took off with Namor and Steve, leaving the rest of us there to try to keep Tony from going into cardiac arrest, something about missing the third and it was time to even the odds."

"Third?"

"Steve had found another old friend, that he'd been sharing drinks with to tell some old war stories with," the Hulk's alter ego answered, "Someone named Hammond."

That got a moments pause, "Human Torch, the original one, records say he retired."

"Well, he's an android, and the reason for the EMP combined with knockout gas of some kind, the other guy burnt through it, but not fast enough...Hammond had stepped out for a moment."

"Where is he?"

"That's where the real problems start, we came back here to contact Wolverine, while Hammond decided to call in a different favor."

"Why do I think this is going to be a nightmare in paperwork?"

"Because it is, he's trying to contact Magneto..."




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FanboyimusPrime..CH_38a - BettyRoss, Bruce, Hulkings, Abomination

Betty Ross wanted to go and take a shower. Sterns seemed to revel in making her very uncomfortable. Even that one SHIELD assistant/bodyguard of Doctor Pym was easier to deal with and she'd heard what he'd done.

"Betty!" she heard and it was a voice she'd wanted to hear for so long.

"Bruce!" she called out and ran over to him. "And here I thought you'd be deep in one of Stark's labs or teleconferencing with Doctor Richards instead on the Helicarrier."

"Well Reed and I have been working on something I can wear that can change to fit the Hulk," Bruce shrugged. "The only thing we haven't got working yet is a force field generator in it so I can have some defense if they need my smarts and not the Hulk's muscle in a crisis. Reed's working on something like that if his wife's powers go out. Actually he's working on something like that his entire team including himself."

"Yeah I'm sure wearing extra stretchy pants is becoming a bit annoying," Betty mused. "Still I'm sure better than giving those chasing after you inferiority complexes."

"I really didn't want to add that to the list of things the Hulk had done," Banner remarked. "Of course not sure how...big that is. Despite having friends that would probably record it."

"I'm happy you actually have friends now," Betty said warmly. "Besides those fans on the internet that sometimes helped you. What were they the Teen Brigade or something?"

"The Hulklings," Bruce admitted sounding a bit embarrassed. "I never imagined I'd become some counter-culture symbol."

"You've done a lot more good than you think over the years," Betty told her gently.

"Betty...I know about you and the gamma project," Bruce told her cutting right to the chase. "I think that's a horrible idea."

"I'm not exactly thrilled with some of my coworkers myself," Betty Ross admitted. "But Bruce someone trying to not make of mess of this has to be involved. They could have left me out and frankly I think that would be giving Sterns free reign."

"I'm not sure you being there is stopping that," Bruce muttered and instantly knew from the look she gave him she heard that.

"I might not be you Mr. Master of Gamma Radiation, but I am not stupid," Betty snapped at him.

"I am not saying you are," Bruce said to try to calm her down. "Just that your father and Sterns together last time made the Abomination. And this time they're adding a few gasoline hauling semis to the train wreck."

"I want this to work so the UN or whoever can have a temporary Hulk when they need it and we can cure you or find some way to control this even better," Betty told him.

"I don't think anyone should have a Hulk temporary or otherwise," Bruce said with his eyes glowing slightly...and he then took several calming breaths.

"Bruce this project is happening. Whether you like it or not," Betty said. "And if you excuse me I need to take a shower."

Bruce sighed and shook his head. No good was going to come from this.




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AndrewJTalon..CH_39a - Banner&Ross, Sterns, Walters

- - - - - -

"Huh... Well. Hello Banner."

Bruce stiffened a bit. This man's voice was inherently associated in his mind with guns, missiles, and explosions. He slowly turned around and tried not to scowl at General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. For all his growth, he was still a little intimidated by this man despite the fact he could crush him in an instant.

"General."

"You know, just because you're Fury's pet monster doesn't mean you get any influence on this project," Ross stated. "Not even with my daughter."

"Well, glad you're dispensing with the kid gloves right off the bat," Bruce replied, resting a hand against the worktable's edge. "You'd think you'd be more careful given I am a monster, right?" He glared. "Then again, you kept making a monster that gets stronger the angrier he gets angry, so maybe you're not that bright."

"You were a threat, a monster. Don't we agree on that?" Ross asked. "Even your own reports admit you can only give that thing a target and direction-"

"So making more of them is a good idea?" Banner retorted. "What, you want to give the Abomination some roommates five hundred feet below the Rocky Mountains?"

"You talked this through with Betty you know. It isn't going to change my mind," Ross said.

Bruce glared hatefully at Ross, and walked around the table. He scowled up into the eyes of the older man, his foe, the man who had hunted him for years.

"And you're right. So instead I'm going to warn you... Because I think I know what this is about," Banner said. "You want the power of the Hulk. You crave it."

"... And if I do?" Asked Ross. "Why not harness it? Control it-?"

"You can't control it. I can barely control it," Banner stated almost angrily.

"And maybe I'll do better Banner. Maybe I'll have it... And maybe you won't feel so inclined to preach at me," Ross replied softly, dangerously. "Maybe Blonsky was right... Maybe you don't deserve this power."

"And maybe, maybe, Betty won't get in danger because of this and I won't have to tell you that I told you so," Bruce said. He walked past Ross, his fists clenched. General Ross sighed, and reached up to rub his forehead.

"Damnit," he muttered. He walked through the security door into the lab, which was empty save for their captive consultant. Sterns was reviewing data on the inside of his tank. He slowly looked up at Ross.

"Hello General," he said. "Trouble with Banner?"

"Yes," Ross grumbled. "He's been trouble since I first met him..."

"Now now, surely you can't hold everything against him," Sterns soothed. "Besides... He did save your daughter, did he not?"

"So why is he still in our way?" Ross growled. "Why won't he just work with us?"

"Being hunted for six years can kind of change someone's attitude," Sterns noted. Ross looked away.

"... It was necessary," Ross said quietly. Sterns shook his head, chuckling a bit.

"Of course, of course," he said. "You will be pleased to know though," and Sterns tapped the control on the inside of the tank, and Ross knew that the security systems monitoring the lab were now deactivated, "that we have a solution. We may not need Banner at all."

"Walters?" Ross asked. Sterns nodded.

"Indeed... She is coming in... Now."

The doors opened, and Jennifer Walters walked in. She raised an eyebrow.

"General?" She asked, avoiding the gaze of Sterns. Ross nodded.

"Miss Walters," he said. Walters sighed.

"I passed Bruce in the hallway... He seemed pretty upset," she said. Ross smirked a bit.

"If he was really upset, trust me, you'd know," the general observed. Walters laughed a bit nervously.

"Ah... I-I see... Still..."

"Believe me, Miss Walters, this is just for comparison purposes," he said. "For protein sequences, nothing else."

"Nothing else," Sterns repeated. Walters frowned. She tugged at her wrist button.

"Well... If that's the case... I'll just sign the release form, shall I?"

- - - - -

Jennifer Walters sat down and laid her arm down on an armrest. General Ross rubbed some alcohol on the spot, and took up a syringe. Jennifer Walters frowned.

"Sure you're qualified for this, General?"

"I did go through medical training, Miss Walters," Ross said patiently. A robot arm pushed it's way between them, a syringe held in-between it's mechanical claws. Ross looked over his shoulder. Sterns' eyesbrows had risen.

"Do not forget the immune booster," he said. "We can't afford the sample to be contaminated."

"Good point," Ross said. He took the syringe, and pushed it into the vein. He injected it, and Jennifer gasped. Ross looked up.

"You all right?" He asked. Walters nodded, trembling a bit.

"Y-Yeah... Kind of a rush," she said.

"The immune booster has a stimulant to ensure it's fast absorption," Sterns explained. Ross' frown deepened a bit... But he wiped the puncture point. He took the other empty syringe, and drew the blood sample. Jennifer hissed a bit.

"Geez," she muttered. "Military vampire division?"

"Please, nothing so morbid," Ross stated. He stood up, and the robot had a wristband in its claw now. "Hm?"

"Simple monitoring device," Sterns said. "After all... We don't want to risk anything. Not on so sensitive a project."

"Isn't this a bit extreme?" Ross asked flatly. Walters shrugged.

"It is in the contracts. Don't want me to sue, right?" She asked with a little grin. Ross grumbled, and fitted the band to her wrist. It was very heavy for some reason, and his suspicions grew...

But he kept them to himself. He gave Walters a comforting smile.

"You're fit and ready to leave," he said. Walters nodded, quickly rising.

"Thanks... After all," and she smiled, "I have a date tonight." And off she went through the security doors. Ross sat back in the chair, as the robot carried the blood sample away to an analyzer.

"... Something wrong, General?" Sterns asked, his eyes scanning data screens quickly. Ross frowned.

"A few things," he admitted. Sterns hummed.

"Perhaps you should tend to your daughter. After all," and the green genius looked up pointedly, "At the moment, I'm the only one on your side."

Ross sighed and rose to his feet. "I hope so," he muttered as he walked through the security doors. They shut behind him. He didn't relax one bit though.

- - - - - -




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AndrewJTalon..CH_40a - CaptainBritain, May&Brian, Clarkson


Atlan said: ↑
Me like.
Also the fact that apparently the Brits have broken the Vitaray problem, but NOT the supserserum problem,whereas the Americans have the correct serum, but not the rays. After all, that stuff was nowhere in sight when the Abomination was created? Maybe you need the Vitarays to "set" the effects of the superserum? Otherwise the mutations just keep piling up.
In a way. The "Union Jack" serum basically allows the human body to absorb the Vita-Rays for temporary superpowers, so the British solution is to just use a partial serum and recharge the Super Soldier periodically. Rather than the American serum attempts which try to induce mutations to make it self-sustaining like the original. The British version is simpler but the power potential is lower. American version is more complex and more prone to instability but has the potential for far greater abilities.

The Original Erskine Serum allows for a self-sustaining formula reaction that works constantly without the need to recharge and has no dangerous side effects, but it involves secrets of quantum chemistry nobody has redeveloped yet.

Anyway, Captain Britain works brilliantly, he's enormously popular with pretty much everyone, and the company that developed it is named "Excalibur" and run by the Braddock family.

And of course, he has shown up on Top Gear where Clarkson, Hammond and May all acted as Captain Britain's mission controllers for a training mission.

Brian: "Well... after all that it seems you fellows have managed to get all the hostages killed. And crashed the bus into a pet store, not only causing hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage, but also killing a lot of innocent puppies."

May: "... this is harder than it looks."

Brian: "This is why we leave this sort of thing to my sister."

Clarkson: "I'm... Sorry but you actually include a pet shop in your simulations? Destruction of pet shops?"

Brian: "Yes."

Hammond: "This wasn't just something special because Clarkson was here, was it?"

Brian: "No. Though the bus being filled with nuns, that was for you guys."

May: "Wait, all of us?"

Brian: "Yes."

Hammond: "Why...?"

Clarkson: "Apparently he's actually watched our show."



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AndrewJTalon..CH_41a - Steve&Tony, DatewJennifer, Stuff, Flowers, Ford

Resuming the Rise of the Hulks...

- - - - - -

Avenger's Tower...

"Look Steve, this will be great, you'll look great in it," Tony said, presenting yet another monstrosity of a modern suit. Steve held his hands up.

"Tony, I'm fine as I am! Shouldn't I be comfortable?"

"What about her? You'll look like her grandpa, taking her out in that," Tony said frankly. Steve frowned and looked at his clothes.

"How? I mean... There are other people who dress like this nowadays."

"Yes, and they're all old enough to qualify for Social Security... On the other hand, so are you so..."

"Tony," Steve said, pushing the suit away. "I'm fine. Really. Don't you have any actual help?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Oh, fine... Now Steve, remember: First base, second base, third base, home."

Steve Rogers, Captain America, looked utterly blank.

"... Baseball? Thought we were going to a movie."

Tony's jaw dropped, faster than he could assume it was Cap's attempt at a joke... Because of course it wasn't.

"Okay, you've got to be kidding me. You don't know the baseball metaphor?"

"For what?"

"For wha-- okay... look. Have you ever HAD a date before?"

"A few..."

"Did you have any sort of... I don't know..." Tony waved his hands, trying to articulate his thoughts, "shorthand method of explaining to others during the post-date analysis... how far you got?"

"How far I got? With..." Steve blushed. "Oh. Oh... Uh... Well..."

Tony actually sat down, and it was fortunate there was a couch behind him because he was going all the way down regardless of what was there.

"... you... you... did you ever even manage to hold hands, for God's sakes, Steve? Please tell me you did that!"

"Well, before the war... I got a kiss on the cheek once... That help?" Steve asked.

Tony buried his face in his palms and sighed. "You know... this explains so much now."

"Oh don't be so hard on him, Tony," Pepper Potts admonished, entering the room with a wry smile at her employer/boyfriend. "He was a scrawny nerdy asthmatic kid from Brooklyn, how much play could he have gotten? You didn't get any play until you actually learned how to talk to women." She went up to the blushing Steve and adjusted his collar. She turned and gave Tony a piercing smirk.

"And you still don't."

"And I don't need any other woman but you," Tony replied with a sincere smile. One Pepper returned.

"Don't you forget it," she said, as she sat next to him and leaned into his embrace.

"But this is not about me and my clear love for you. We're here to help our good friend, Steve, manage to score. Or if not score, if not to score... just y'know have a good time." She smiled warmly at Steve. "You don't need to worry."

"I'm not worried," Steve said, clearly worried. "I'll just... You know, see the movie, talk with her..."

"I guess that works... if you want to, y'know... BORE her to a coma," Tony stated.

"Tony!" Pepper admonished. She looked back at Steve and smiled. "No, Steve... that sounds perfectly fine."

"Tony's just being difficult because he doesn't think a date's successful unless he manages to get into the woman's pants within the first twenty minutes," Pepper teased.

"Please. First ten minutes, thank you," Tony said, looking wounded.

"Oh, sorry," Pepper said sarcastically.

"T-Ten minutes?!" Steve sputtered. Tony gave a grin up to his friend.

"Personal best. But since you're old fashioned, just relax all right? You're just going to talk to her. You know... Like elementary kids on a date."

"Be nice. I think its sweet," Pepper sighed with a smile.

"You know, I just kind of... I'd like to save that stuff for... Someone really special," Steve admitted.

"And that's just fine, Steve. You don't want to turn out like Tony: Spoiled for any woman who even has any kind of standards," Pepper replied. She then slapped a hand over Tony's mouth as he was about to reply. She kept her smile on the face.

"Ah... Right... Look, I think I'm going to be fine..." Steve said.

"You will get her flowers, right?" Pepper asked, as Tony mumbled something behind her hand.

"Flowers... Right, of course," Steve said.

"Compliment her on her dress. And above all else-Relax! You don't have to impress her or anything, just be confident and talk to her. She is a regular human being, I swear."

Tony mumbled something else, looking pointedly at Steve.

"What was that?" Steve asked.

"He's not actually saying anything, he's licking my hand for fun," Pepper explained. She giggled. "Stop that..."

"Ah, I see... I'm just gonna go..."

"Oh! Hang on!" Tony said, pulling Pepper's hand from his mouth. He rummaged in his pockets, and then tossed Steve some keys from his search. "Here. You'll need this."

"What's this?" Steve asked.

"Keys to the car. Parking space 4, the blue one. You'll have a hell of a time figuring out a modern car but I think you can handle a classic from the fifties..."

Steve smiled widely. "I... Thanks Tony. You didn't have to-"

"Oh, I did. Just relax, have fun! You'll be fine Cap, trust me," Tony soothed. Steve headed to the elevator.

"Have fun, Steve!" Pepper cried, before Tony pounced on her. "Hee!"

Steve's egress became a bit faster, especially when Pepper giggled. He really didn't want to stick around for that.

Besides... He wanted to know what sort of car Tony had given him.

- - - - -

At the parking space, several levels down...

"Ford... Thunderbird?" Steve read. He frowned. "Well, a car's a car..."

He checked the trunk, and smiled - Tony had actually packed him his shield and a uniform. How, Steve didn't really know. But he wasn't going to ask.

Though this might explain why his underwear kept vanishing...

- - - - -




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GBscientist..CH_42a - ExtremisPepper, Tony&Pepper, Memory, HealingPowers

Back on the topic of the availability of power armour, you guys forgot to mention any armoured villains besides Ivan 'Whiplash Dynamo' Vanko.

In the Ultimate Spider Man cartoon, the Beetle has been the featured antagonist twice now, and a member of the Sinister Six. I figure his armour would be powered by some sort of high-octane fuel cell with a jet engine for flight. His directed energy weapons strike me as some sort of sonic-type do-dad, and most of his heavy firepower comes from an ungodly large collection of missile launchers. Basically, his armour is fairly tough and very dangerous to cops and soldiers, but it's really low-tech compared to Stark's designs.

Then there's Doom. As I mentioned in my snippet with Hammer and Doom, Doom's suit is awesome, but it's not built using strictly technology because it has several enchantments and mystical properties, in addition to some pretty kick-ass tech. While the tech in question isn't quite as cutting-edge as Tony's, the combination of magic and tech makes Doom's suit arguably more dangerous than Tony's.

On the topic of super-soldier serums, if Tony has the means to fix the Extremis formula, why aren't they discussing utilising that?

And now Extremis Pepper:

"Pepper?" Tony called out as he came out of his workshop in the Tower. "Honey?"

"I'm in the kitchen," Pepper shouted back. Tony followed the sound of her voice to walk up to her and enfold her in a hug from behind. "Tony, please, not right now. I'm in the middle of making myself some soup and you're going to make me spill it."

"No, I'm not," Tony replied as he looked over her shoulder at the stovetop. "Tomato? I'll have some of that. After we're done of course." Tony started to kiss down the side of Pepper's neck.

"That, that's very distracting Tony. Trying to cook with divided attention isn't a good idea," Pepper said while trying to squirm out of his grasp and push the soup off the burner at the same time.

"So stop cooking and pay attention to me," Tony said before he spun Pepper around to face him. "Say, have we used every surface in this place? Because I distinctly fail to recall doing it in here."

"That's because you were drunk, Tony," Pepper said, attempting to push Tony away. He leaned in to kiss her.

"Yeah, that could be it. Want to refresh my memory?"

"No. I've got a meeting in an hour and I just want to have my lunch and go," Pepper put her hand back to brace against the counter so she could push Tony off more forcefully, but missed and planted her hand on the still-hot burner. "OoooOOOOWWWW!" Pepper shrieked before shoving past Tony and over to the sink to run her burned hand under cold water.

"Shit! Pepper, I am so so so so sorry!" Tony blurted out.

"Yeah you'd better be!" Pepper snapped back as she glared at Tony. "I told you not to distract me and now I'm going to have to go down to the Emergency Room."

"Just, just hold off on that idea," Tony suggested. "How much does it hurt?"

"It hurts a lot. . . less. Huh, maybe I didn't burn it as badly as I thought," She glanced back down at her hand, which was causing the frigid water to erupt into steam. "Tony? What the hell is this?" She held her palm out to Tony. A rapidly contracting area of Pepper's hand was ringed in tiny flames, leaving behind fresh, healthy skin as the flames receded.

"Um, well, honey, I can explain. . ." Tony stammered.

"Don't 'well, honey' me. You told me you got the Extremis out of me," she said as she advanced on Tony with her fists balled at her sides.

"To be perfectly accurate, I said that I fixed it not that I removed it," Tony said, backing out of the kitchen and into the living room. Pepper's fists lit on fire. Tony made for the balcony. "Jarvis! Spin up the rings; I think it's time to give Miss Potts some space!"

"I'm sorry, sir," Jarvis replied. "There are no suits currently available for deployment as you destroyed them all in Malibu."

"Oooh shit. Pepper? Pepper, let's be reasonable about this! Please?"




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Redrangerpower..CH_43a - Pepper&Tony, Harley, Pym, JARVIS

AndrewJTalon said: ↑
Tony built her some armor after Iron Man 3 in this fic. Because it's kind of hard to be Iron Man without, you know, the Iron Man armor. So he's rebuilt his armors. There.
Hmmm. If I may throw my hat into the ring.

~*~


Pepper was beginning to grow concerned. She had loved his gesture at the time: the destruction of the armors meant she'd have him all to herself. No more late night tinkering. No more coming home to find him in the garage having already eaten. They could, she had hoped, settle into something that was almost a normal relationship. With absolutely no glowing nanomachine viruses that made anybody breathe fire to get in their way.

But it wasn't long before she'd started seeing the cracks.

"Oh come on!" Tony raged over his headset. He jabbed the red and gold controller he'd built himself at the television, and the blue space marine which was repeatedly sitting on his deceased form. "That's ridiculous! I had a rocket launcher! A. Rocket. Launcher. If I shoot one at you, you explode! That's how that works!"

"Na-ah!" A high pitched voice, that no doubt belonged to the blue space marine, replied imperiously. "It's the future! Rockets are garbage in the future!"

"Look kid, I'm sure middle school is really testing your limits, but don't try to get all pissy with me." Tony replied scathingly. "I used to build rockets, and I know what they do, thank you very much."

"You're just mad because you're a newb!" The voice crowed back. "Newb, newb, newb!"

"Yeah. And you're just mad because puberty is hard. Hate to tell you this, but I don't think it'll take you places." Tony growled and turned off the Xbox.

"Winning hearts and minds?" Pepper asked and sat down next to him.

Tony made a noncommital noise, still scowling at the screen. "I think I'm going to hack his console. Make it so every time he turns it on, it plays one of those jump scare videos. God, are all kids like that?" He glanced over at Pepper. "I'd kinda hoped I was just wrong about them after that kid in Tennessee."

"Harley?" Pepper asked.

"Think that was his name, yeah," Tony replied and shrugged causally. "Probably. No you're right, you're better with names."

Pepper rolled her eyes and smiled. "You remember his name. You did give him a scholarship."

"The company gave him a scholarship," Tony corrected instantly. "The company did. I had barely anything to do with it. He can thank me in his graduation speech I guess, but whatever."

"Tony, we need to talk."

Tony's brows quirked. "Uh-oh. Was it something I said? It was about the shoes right? Look, I'm just not big on robin yellow. They clash with your eyes."

"No, Tony. It's just," Pepper sighed. "I'm a little worried about you."

"I'm not dying. No arc reactor, no palladium. No more green smoothies. And, just to let you know, if I was, I'd make you that omelet. I've been practicing."

"I'm sure you have. And I'm glad you're not dying," she kissed him on the cheek. "But you're getting antsy."

Tony gave her a look. "What's Pym got to do with this?"

"I don't mean Pym. I mean you. You're all fidgety, and have been for the past few days. You need a hobby."

Tony blinked, then pointed at the television. "But I have hobby."

"One that doesn't include you yelling at kids Tony."

"I wasn't yelling. I was informing. You know, dealing out life lessons."

Pepper shook her head with a smirk, and put her hands on Tony's shoulders. "Tony, I need you to listen for a minute. This isn't easy for me to say, because I still don't like it, but..."

"But...?"

"I think you should start building armors again."

Something glinted in Tony's eyes. "But, I blew them up. You know, for you. No takesies backsies."

"I wanted to spend more time with you." Pepper shrugged thoughtfully. "And not get grabbed by armors while I'm trying to sleep."

"Once. That happened once."

Pepper stared at him bluntly.

"Okay, twice. But I needed to test out the finger mechanisms in the new gauntlets. The second time was an accident. Totally unintentional." Tony replied hastily.

"You destroyed them. And I appreciate that. But I don't want you to go stir crazy either. And, much as I hate to admit it, the world does need you."

Tony smirked. "Yeah. It'd be pretty bad if Cap'in Fury called us all up to fight something and they didn't have Iron Man with them. They'd be helpless."

"Well, maybe not helpless." Pepper replied, then smiled. "Not as good looking, though."

"Well, we can't have that." Tony replied. "J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"Yes sir?" The AI replied dutifully.

Tony slipped off the couch, his face alight with purpose. "Spin up the lab. I'm in the mood to make some neat stuff." He looked back at Pepper, and extended a hand. "You coming?"

Pepper blinked. "What?"

"You wanted to spend some more time together. So, I'll let you into my inner sanctum. We'll have to start you small, you know, handing me tools and picking up the lattes, but I think we can make a lab geek out of you yet."

Pepper looked at his hand for a moment, then back at him. His smile was so genuine, so obviously happy, that she couldn't bring herself to say no. She took his hand.

They walked toward the lab where a new generation of Iron Men would be born.

"So, ever think about an armor of your own? I'll make sure it has all the bells and whistles. Flight capable, voice activation, high caliber ballistics-urgh."

Pepper took her elbow out of his side, but she was smiling. "No boob armor Tony."

"Spoilsport."




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Captain Sarcasm..CH_44a - Jen&Steve, MoviePicks, Nitro, Thor&Natasha


Now, there aren't any drive-in movies in New York city. You'd have to go way upstate for that, and the closest is something like an hour, hour and a half away, as the Google Maps flies. But that would be a tremendous waste of a wonderful night, a sweet vintage car and a good bit of superhero fiction, so let's just ignore all of that and have some fun.

* * *

Jen had bought tickets for a drive-in revival theater designed to replicate the image of the golden age of cinema. A big, outside screen, classic movies, both brilliant and schlocky, old-fashioned concessions. In practice it was sort of an anachronistic mashup of the thirties through the fifties, but only somebody who had actually lived back then would really notice. And so the 40's man with the 50's car arrived to pick up Jen Walters, who was wearing a close-fit, floral print dress that came right out of 30's fashion.

Steve said "Hello," to Jen when he picked her up. Jen said "Hello," back. He said "You look nice," and she said "Thank you."

That was the extent of their conversation. Not for lack of trying, however.

On the way to the theater, Jennifer briefly considered raising the topic of privacy rights and identity theft as it relates to costumed superheroes, and whether or not a person's secret identity can legally be considered a separate person from the man or woman wearing the mask. She thought it would be boring and lawyer-y.

When they arrived at the theater, Steve wanted to talk about how before he was treated with the serum, he was so small that James and his friends used to sneak him into drive-ins by hiding him under the back seat. He thought it would be corny and old-timey.

When they went to get popcorn, Jen thought about how Bruce had come to live with her family for a while, after some… unpleasantness with his dad, and that they used to go to Disney movies together. She didn't say anything, because she didn't like talking about what her uncle David had done to Bruce.

When the outdoor lights came down, and the period-accurate newsreel came up, Steve was reminded of the time he teamed up with Dr. Horton's android and the ruler of Atlantis to stop Baron Zemo from forging an alliance with the Mole people in order to gain control of the Dragon Lords of Kakaranathara. He didn't say anything because he didn't want to bring up his memories of serving with Bucky.

They were halfway through a Donald Duck cartoon about invisible paint when somebody walking by their car happened to say "You know, I've never even seen Casablanca." Both Steve and Jen, thinking the other had finally broken the ice, quickly pounced on the opportunity.

"Neither have I!" they said, at exactly the same time. There was a moment of awkward silence. Then Jen smiled, followed by Steve. Then they both started to laugh, and everything started to flow.

"You've never seen it?" said Jen, blushing. "But you're Mr. 1940's. I thought I'd be taking you to see something familiar."

"I had heard some of the men talk about it when they came back from leave, but I never saw it myself," said Steve, smiling like he was posing for a photo. "How come you've never seen it?"

"Oh, my work keeps me pretty busy," she said, turning away from the screen to look at him. "And there's just so much new stuff out there that sometimes we forget to appreciate the… the classics."

"So… so I've heard," said Steve, looking into Jen's green eyes. "Tony keeps telling me I have seventy years of movies to get caught up on. Mostly I want to know about this Kirk person that everyone thinks I look like."

"Oh god…" Jen said, laughing into her hands. "I have to show you this one episode, where Kirk and Spock find you floating in space, and then a rock alien makes you fight Genghis Khan and an evil moth woman and…"

Steve was staring. Staring politely, but staring.

"…and you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not a clue," he said. "And I'm kind of scared to see where this story is going."

"Oh, it's horrible," she said, patting him on the thigh. "After the movie we'll have to watch that one on Netflix."

"Oh, Tony got me a Netflix," said Steve. "I have no idea how it works, but it was nice of him."

"You've got no idea what you're getting… into…" said Jen, her eyes trailing down. "…my hand is still on your thigh."
"…yes, yes it is."

"…do you… mind, particularly?"

"…no… I don't think I do."

"…good…" Jen said. "Me neither."

It's hard to tell just who was blushing harder.

"So, I know you've seen the Wizard of Oz," said Jen. "What about Snow White?"

"I was a bit too old for that," said Steve.

"Metropolis?"

"I was way too young for that."

"It's hard to remember when all these movies came out," she said. "Dracula?"

"Scared me to death," he said. "Couldn't stay for the ending."

"Citizen Kane?"

"Never got a chance to see it."

"The Maltese Falcon?"

"Oh, I didn't like that one," said Steve.

"You didn't?" said Jen. "But it's a classic!"

"I just didn't like Ricardo Cortez," said Steve. "He was a horrible Sam Spade."

"…Steve, Bogie was Sam Spade," said Jen.

"Not in the movie I saw," said Steve. "I heard something about a remake but those are never good."

"I have got to teach you how to use Netflix," said Jen, smiling.

"I don't think I can refuse," said Steve. "Although personally, I think I'd just rather read the book."

"That's cool," said Jen. "Not many people today read the Sam Spade novels."

"Not many people read them when they came out," said Steve. "I always preferred Raymond Chandler, though."

And then the screen exploded.

"Holy-"

"Jen, get down!" said Steve, pushing her down against the seat, shielding her as the car windshield shattered, sprinkling the interior with a cloud of broken glass. Steve winced as it cut through his jacket, leaving bloody tracks down his back. Steve held on to Jen for… maybe a bit longer than was needed.

"Steve…" said Jen. "Are you alright?"

"I've had worse," he said, peeking over the dashboard. The outdoor screen had been blown clear through, leaving a charred, blackened hole where Rick Blaine's face should be, and some of the closer cars were burning. Thankfully most of the other cars were new enough to have safety glass, but there were still people hit by the shrapnel. In the middle of the hole, illuminated by the light from the projector, was a man, somewhere in his late 20s, with a long black trenchcoat and long white hair, and some kind of metal… device strapped to his bare chest.

"Attention unlucky bastards!" he said, his voice carrying through the drive in speakers. He was talking into some hand-held device that may have been an advanced electronic scrambler or may have been a souped-up Mr. Microphone. "Allow me to introduce myself and my little friend. My name… well, fuck you what my real name is. But you all can call me… Nitro. And this beautiful device strapped to my chest is the Hammer Industries XD-3 Hurricane Personal Defense vest!"

He opened his coat, strutting back and forth like he was putting on a fashion show. Steve put his finger to his lips and reached back, slowly opening his car door.

"This little beauty carries a payload of 36 variable-charged, impact fused projectiles, deployable six at a time," Nitro was lost in his own speech. Most people watching were too scared to move, so he paid them no mind, and didn't notice Steve Rogers slipping out of his car. "Designed to protect the wearer in a variety of close-quarter combat situations, it can be loaded with tear gas, or flashbangs, or EMP charges… and you know what the funny thing about all those things are?"

He squeezed his other hand into a fist and leaned back, shooting off a half-dozen explosive charges into the shy. They whistled overhead, arcing back down to earth in the parking lot, flipping cars into the air and scattering terrified people.

"They have the EXACT same shape as a high explosive grenade!" Nitro laughed, running his hands through his hair like he was petting an excitable dog. Steve had got the trunk open long enough to slide out his costume and his shield. It would take him at least a minute to get his armor on…

"Now this isn't a robbery," said Nitro, pacing to the other side of the screen. "This ain't no terrorist attack, neither. This is your good, old-fashioned, crazy mother fucker with a bomb! And you all wanna know why I'm gonna blow your asses into ashes?"

He grinned, brushing his hair back out of his eye.

"'cause this shitty movie doesn't have any explosions in it!"

Meanwhile, 2787 miles away, as the Google Maps flies, the other Avengers had problems of their own.

"Great Odin's beard!" cried Thor, god of Thunder. "Fourteen of the mortal dollars for a helm festooned with the ears of a cartoon rodent? 'tis nuaght but open banditry!"

"Just pay the man," said Natasha. "We'll never hear the end of it if we don't bring one back for Tony."

"I still don't see why he had to come," said Clint. "I thought this was supposed to be our weekend."

"I thought you invited him," Natasha said. "Maybe he followed us."

"Surtur's horns!" cried Thor. "That beast is accosting that woman! HAVE AT THEE, FIEND!"

"Thor, no!" Clint said, running after the vengeful god. Natasha just sighed.

"We need to get him a Neftlix account," said Natasha. "And can I get a hat that says 'Bruce'? In the largest size you have."



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AndrewJTalon..CH_45a - Steve, Suit&Shield, Nitro, Jennifer, SevenFootTall, Hot, JennyPunts

- - - - - -

Steve had the suit on, and shield ready. He calculated his odds. With the shield, he could knock Nitro out if he closed the distance with him by a few meters. He could use the sidearm strapped to his thigh, but at this distance he'd have to shoot to kill.

Steve wasn't in a violent vigilante kind of mood right now.

"So, unless anyone has any other objections," Nitro loudly proclaimed, "I think I'll just get this party started!"

Decision made, Steve planted a foot on the bumper of the Thunderbird and sprung across the trunk, pulling his arm back and letting loose with the shield. It spun through the air, a perfect air foil shooting right for Nitro. The shield slammed into the surprised Nitro's face, and sent him tumbling off the movie screen. The discus spun back, humming through the air, before bouncing off another car. Steve sprinted, and caught his iconic weapon with ease.

"You got him!" Jennifer cried, peeking out from behind the dash of the car. The other theater patrons immediately began cheering and whistling, and Steve smiled.

"Yeah," he said. "Stay here, I'm going to go check on him." He had smacked the guy pretty hard right in the face with his shield, and he'd fallen in front of the movie screen...

Where he was now getting back onto his feet, wheezing.

"Heh... Heheh... Superhero... Huh...?" Nitro gasped. He grinned at him, and sat up enough for his weaponized vest to be afforded a clear line of fire. "Just makes this night even better!"

"STOP!" Cap shouted, pulling his gun and letting loose a shot. He hit Nitro in the shoulder, but it was too late - The crazed bomber let loose his payload, which launched into a spread. People ran for cover, screaming in panic, as cars began exploding. Steve threw his shield to intercept a few of the projectiles, deflecting them away from panicking patrons. However, he felt the heat and pressure wave of an explosion behind him, and ducked down instinctively. He turned and his face screwed up in horror as he saw his Thunderbird on fire. He caught the shield almost negligently as it bounced back and he ran for the flaming wreck.

"JENNIFER!" He shouted, frantically searching around the car in the hopes she'd been thrown clear, or had gotten out, or... Or...

He'd done this. He'd screwed up. He'd lost someone else, right here in the modern world, someone depending on him. And she wasn't a soldier or a fellow Avenger, no, she was just out with him on a date. He didn't even have the comfort that she was doing her duty. That her death meant something.

Red hot rage filled Steve, and the things that flashed through his mind... What he would do to Nitro for this...

"Nnngh...!" Something stirred in the car. The vehicle shuddered and creaked, and the ground underneath it cracked as though powerful feet were planting themselves on the concrete pavement below. The car was torn asunder as a smoking, tall figure lifted the front block up over its head.

Or rather, her head, as Steve got a good look at the very, very generous proportions the seven foot tall woman in burned clothing possessed.

"Nngh... Grrgh... RAWRRRRR!" She roared in fury, making any intact windows nearby shatter. Her blazing green eyes narrowed as she threw the front half of the Ford Thunderbird right at an aghast Nitro. The car overshot, and smashed through the movie screen. The supports for the venerable screen gave way and collapsed, sending a cloud of dust into the air. Nobody paid this much attention though, as the seven foot tall, bright green woman in barely there clothing held everyone's attention.

"Jennifer...?" Steve asked.

Steve was reminded of some cover art for Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with how the ruined dress barely clung to the woman's body, nearly keeping her decent.

"... I have... Such a kill boner right now," Nitro said through his microphone.

Jennifer roared again, and charged for Nitro. The would be bomber gaped in shock, and struggled to escape.

"WAIT! JENNIFER!" Steve shouted, sprinting at near super human speed. Jennifer slid to a stop just in front of Nitro, and raised her arms up to smash him. Steve slid in as though stealing a base and held his shield up, just as those mighty green fists came down.

The shockwave from the impact radiated outward from the vibranium shield, shaking the very ground beneath their feet. Jennifer screamed in rage and kept slamming her fists down, Steve holding the enraged female Hulk off with gritted teeth.

Nitro observed this... And opened his mouth. Steve looked at the mad bomber, wondering if he had something useful to say.

"Dude... Your girlfriend is hot."

Nope. Of course not. Steve grunted, and stood up, managing to deflect Jennifer's next blow with his shield. Jennifer roared in his face, and he grimaced as he held his ground.

"JENNIFER! CALM DOWN!" He shouted. He held his hands up, and Jennifer blinked. "Calm! I'm not going to hurt you! Please...!"

"... St-Steve...?" She asked. Steve smiled broadly, relief filling him.

"Jennifer, I'm-ULP!"

And suddenly he was being hugged by the Amazonian green woman, his face squeezed quite firmly in between her now very large breasts.

"Mmph!"

"Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve!" She cried happily, swinging him around. Steve looked up between her breasts, and saw the look on her face. And it was positively amorous...

"Steve~," she crooned. "I really, really like you in your uniform."

"Er... Thanks...?" Steve managed.

"I think I want to see you without it though~," Jennifer grinned. Steve gulped, and tapped his communications system.

"Tony," he said, and the call connected.

"Steve! Don't tell me the date's gone bad already," Tony Stark said in amusement. "Need a little disaster to bail you out?"

"I'm... Kind of... In the middle... Of said disaster...!" Steve gasped. "JENNIFER! NO! STOP!"

"It doesn't sound like it's going all that bad to..." Tony talked to someone else off the radio. "... Right, I'll be right there."

"HURRY!" Steve yelped.

"Oh come on... Seriously?" Nitro grunted below them. "You're complaining about the hot green chick who wants to bang you? What are you, gay?"

And Nitro was subsequently punted right out of the movie theater parking lot.

"Now, where were we?" Jennifer purred.

- - - - - -




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Winged Knight..CH_46a - Tony&JARVIS, Cap&TallGreenLady, Steve&Jennifer


And here we go! Might tweak it a little bit, but I gave it my best shot. Hope it works and moves the story along.

****

Tony listened in on the police broadband as he launched himself from the Helicarrier. It was mostly a jumbled mess, something about explosions and Captain America hitting someone in the face. Which he would have thought would be the end of any problem, but apparently today was the day things had to go wrong.

Fury had been only a bit more informative when he'd screamed in his ear to get down there. Some kind of terrorist attack with advanced technology. How that damn Cyclops actually knew, and knew that Tony was talking with Steve at the time, he wasn't so sure about. Must have been some sort of superspy trick.

He'd have to figure out how the old bastard managed to do that sometime.

"JARVIS," he said as he approached New York. "How soon till we get there?"

"Approximately three minutes, sir," his mechanical aide responded.

"Let's try for two. Got a bad feeling about this."

He made it with about five seconds to spare, touching down just outside the movie theater. People were fleeing the parking lot, quite a few of them screaming and flailing around. Which just seemed par for the course, really. The smoke going up further ahead seemed a likely reason.

As did the man lying flat on his face right where the parking lot ended. Tony's suit picked up a number of interesting signals coming off the man, as well as explosive residue. Quite a bit of it, actually. Tony looked back at the smoke, then the man, and nodded.

"Oww…" the white haired man groaned, sitting up. "Lady packs a punch."

"You okay?" Tony asked. The man looked up, and Tony noted the electronics all across his chest. "Uhh… You do realize you're wearing a very dangerous, high explosive device on your chest, right?"

The man grinned and got to his feet. "Oh yeah! This night just keeps getting better and-"

He cut off as Tony blasted him in the face with a low-level repulsor beam, sending him flying into the theater's dumpster. There was a clang as the thing's lid slid down, trapping the man inside.

"Right, just making sure you knew."

He took a minute to seal the dumpster with a directed laser, leaving just enough room to give the guy air. He didn't want him to suffocate, after all.

That's one problem handled, he thought to himself. Better check on Jenn and Steve. Maybe flag boy's swept her off her feet? This dashing heroic stuff always works wonders for setting the mood.

What he actually found when he walked in wasn't quite what he was expecting.

"The fuck?"

Cap was running around, and sometimes over, cars as he tried to stay out of the grasping hands of a giant, green woman. And, oddly enough, he was missing a piece of his uniform. The crotch area looked like it had been ripped right off, exposing the plain white boxers Steve was wearing underneath. Which was strange, because Steve's uniform could block small arms fire with little trouble.

Tony wasn't focusing too much on that, though. He was too busy looking at the woman. Over seven feet tall, with long wavy hair and clothes that barely fit her, she was the epitome of hot. She had a body to die for, muscled and well proportioned. She had the kind of build that fitness freaks trained years for. Better, even. She didn't look like she had an ounce of fat on her, aside from a generous bust. Tony could tell, because most of her clothing was about eight sizes too small and ripped everywhere. She wasn't leaving much for the imagination that was for sure.

And from the look on her face, she wanted to bump that perfect body of hers next to Steve's. Tony had seen many shades of lust before, and this was definitely a class ten "I must have you!" look. Those types were occasionally fun, though the morning after could get nasty. Not that the green woman looked like she wanted Steve to actually get any sleep tonight.

"Come on, Steve," she said, practically purring as she reached for the man. "It'll be fun, I promise!"

Yep, Tony thought. Right again, as always.

"Did we finally get an alien invasion of green skinned space babes?" he asked no one. "Cause that'd be a nice change for once."

"Tony!" Steve screamed, ducking just out of the woman's grasp. "Help me!"

"You sure?" Tony asked.

Yes!" Steve yelled, exasperation mixing with desperation as he flipped over a car to get away. The green woman, one the other hand, simply ran through it. The car buckled and broke under her charge, breaking into a hundred pieces. Tony's eyes shot wide open under his helmet.

"Oh, wow! Okay, I see your point." He looked around. "Is Jenn okay? If you can hang tight for just a bit, I'll check on her and make sure she's all right."

"That is Jennifer!" Steve yelled, juking to the side and dashing toward him as the green woman overextended. "Something happened to her when Nitro attacked!"

"That's Jenn?" Tony asked as she halted her motion, digging deep trenches into the ground before turning around. "How? Ah… Dammit."

"You know what's going on?" Steve asked as he skidded to a halt beside him. He was breathing harder than he normally was, which only made sense. Tony had arrived on scene in just under five minutes. Even Steve was going to be a little winded if he'd been pushing himself to his max all that time.

"I've got a good idea," he said softly before raising his hands. "Jenn!" he called. "You need to calm down! I think I know what's going on here, but you need to relax! We can help you, but you'll have to stop running around half naked and let us! Well, just the running bit, anyway. The half naked part's optional."

"Hell to that!" Jennifer shouted back. "I've been waaay too calm tonight already!" She gave Steve a sultry glare, licking her lips. "The only help I need is from the good Captain there, and I aim to get it!"

"Man," Tony whispered, tilting his head in Steve's direction. "She is really into you."

"I noticed," Steve said with a wince, moving his shield to guard his torn pants.

"Right," Tony said as Jenn charged them. "Time to end this. Sorry, Jenn. You'll thank me when you wake up in the morning."

Tony unleashed another low-level repulsor blast; about four times what he hit Nitro with. The beams hit Jennifer dead on, making her stumble a little under the unexpected assault. She snarled and dug her heels, leaning forward against the beams. They pushed her back about three feet before they finally ceased, gouging a new set of grooves into the already abused theater lot.

Growling, her face locked in fury; she reached to her side and picked up one of the still semi-intact cars. She lifted it over her head; the metal undercarriage creaking a little under the strain Jenn was putting on it, and threw it right at the dumbstruck Tony Stark.

"That didn't go as planned," was all Tony had a chance to say before the car hit him straight in the face.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.



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FanboyimusPrime..CH_47a - Betty&Ross, Sterns, RedHulks

One could tell how General Thaddeus Ross earned the nickname thunderbolt as stormed into the "Monster Shop" lab. Betty and Professor Leonard Williams nearly jumped as rage radiated from the man almost as strongly as the monster he hunted.

"Sterns!" the general bellowed. "Do you have to live up to everyone's expectations of you?"

"Yeah pretty much," Sterns admitted and shrugged a bit in his tube. "Fury, Stark, and the others might not be as intelligent as I am but they at least are savvy enough to know a bad idea when they see it."

"So what are you going to do now?" Ross growled. "Army of robots? Your tube turns into a rocket? Super-powered mercenaries use the mess you caused as a distraction to break you out?"

Stern chuckled. "All rather good ideas General. However I have a different idea. Let's see what inner truths you and your daughter have."

The pair screamed as the pair started to turn crimson. As Professor Williams saw them change he wondered when his time to be a Hulk would come. He wanted the power, and freedom that it had to give. He was sure with his intelligence he easily could conquer some drug lord's mansion and manage their operation far better than they ever did. He'd have wealth, women, and frankly the ability to do whatever he wanted.

Yet Sterns had told him through Flumm that it wasn't time for him yet. William felt the wait was killing him.

Then a crimson Hulk and She-Hulk rose and let out an animalistic howl.

"Go forth my Crimson Hulks," Sterns ordered. "Your Leader commands it!" and had to put some force behind it for what was once General Ross as he still wanted to smash Stern's head in.

The Red Hulk gave Sterns one last glare before turning and making his own door with his fists. The Red She-Hulk made her own door as well.

Sterns had a robot inject Williams with a sedative for cover's sake, and his tube was drained of fluid. The tube opened and for the first time since his transformation, Sterns walked.

"Time to collect my severance pay and go," the Leader mused out-loud. "And definitely create a robot servant better able to pour and transport coffee."




===============


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AndrewJTalon..CH_48a - Bruce, RedHulks, Ross, Betty, Love&Hate Hulks, Stern

All right then, next part. And yes, Jennifer Walters is all the hotness.

- - - - - - -

"Banner? What's your status? Banner?"

Bruce had slammed into the deck hard when the first impact had rumbled through the Helicarrier. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but when he felt a second impact and heard a somewhat familiar roar, he had a good idea of what was going on.

"Huh... I owe Tony twenty bucks," Bruce muttered. He'd thought it would take at least two days for things to go tits up. Well, he didn't have much choice. He tapped the communicator in his ear as he struggled to control his breathing.

"Fury? Sterns break loose?"

"Yeah. With Doctor Ross and Thunderbolt," he replied. Bruce was confused for a moment... Then the two impacts from before suddenly made sense.

"Yes Doctor, they're Hulks," Fury said. "And they're on their way out, into New Jersey. We're recalling everyone, but..."

"But I'm closest," Bruce breathed hard. His eyes glowed bright green, and his fingers dug into the steel plating below him. "Tell everyone to get out of the way..."

"Already done. You're clear," Fury said.

Bruce Banner nodded, and with a grunt... He let go, and closed his eyes.

All right Big Guy... Let's do this.

- - - - - -

When he opened his eyes, the Hulk let out a roar of rage. He could feel the presence of beings like himself. Three of them. One small, puny, flying away at a speed that indicated it was in one of those annoying flying metal things... And two others heading off for land, leaping across the waters. Headed for city, where large numbers of puny, squishable and innocent humans would be.

Hulk didn't like that, so Hulk smashed through the flying ship until he was outside. With a great leap, he moved through the night air, soaring across the sky. He looked down and saw he would land in New Jersey.

Hulk did not subscribe to the various stereotypes about New Jersey! Therefore, Hulk was careful to land somewhere he wouldn't smash too much stuff. He crashed through the roof of a building into boxes full of candy - Hulk could smell it. Hulk would have enjoyed some candy, but he had to stop the others like him first. So he smashed through the wall and hurried along, dodging cars and screaming puny humans!

"HULK NOT SMASH YOU! STOP SCREAMING!" He roared at some particularly annoying screaming people. He took a short cut over a building, landing near a bus. He leaped again, and made it into a dock where he landed on a shipping container and crushed it beneath his weight. He looked around and growled as he sensed the three other beings like himself. One in the flying metal craft, the other two smashing up the docks. He leaped again, and landed on the other side of a warehouse, crushing the pavement beneath him.

He looked up and snarled. He had sight of the other two beings... And one of them was familiar to Hulk. The mustached one, father of Betty, who sent tanks and planes and super soldiers against Hulk!

Now he was like Hulk, only red. Big, red, and angry looking. Almost as angry as Hulk. His formally white hair was black, and even in Hulk form he kept his mustache.

"ROSS," Hulk growled. He looked to the other being like himself... And Hulk was shocked. While she was taller, stronger, redder than he remembered, with glowing yellow eyes and an enraged look on her face... Yes... "BETTY?"

Betty and Ross were now... Hulks too?!

And Betty was... A very hot Hulk. Hulk had confusing feelings about that!

"Impressive, is it not my friend?" Hulk looked up, and his eyes narrowed at the voice coming from the loudspeakers of the flying metal thing. He could sense the third being like himself in it - Puny. Puny in everything except his head.

"STERNS," Hulk identified, the memory bubbling up of the man Banner had gotten to try and suppress Hulk. Why was Hulk so self destructive? It made Hulk want to SMASH!

"Yes indeed," the man said. "Though you know, you should probably call me your leader. After all, this is only the beginning! Through you, I have given birth to a new race, a new form of life that will inherit the Earth and-!"

"HULK NOT CARE! SHUT UP BIG HEAD MAN, UNLESS GET TO POINT!" Hulk roared. Sterns was silent for a moment.

"I suppose I'll just have to do this the direct way. A pity, but you'll see this for the good thing it is - in time," Sterns sighed.

Hulk felt something at the corners of his mind. This made him angrier, and so he grabbed a shipping container and chucked it at the flying craft of the big headed man. The craft buzzed and dodged out of the way.

"I see... You are going to be stubborn about this," Sterns said. "Perhaps I'll have better luck with Banner... Hulks? Please, subdue him."

Betty screamed, loud and powerful enough to make the windows around them shatter. Ross roared, making the ground shake. He slammed his fists into the pavement, shattering it like glass, before he lunged for Hulk. Hulk caught him, but Betty attacked from behind! Hulk roared, and threw them both off of him. He threw a punch at Ross, slamming him into a shipping container! Ross grabbed the same shipping container and swung it back into his face! Hulk got angrier!

And his anger continued to grow when Betty threw another container that he had to smash!

"WHY BETTY ATTACK HULK?!" Hulk roared. Betty just roared back, charging and punching Hulk in the chin. Hulk's head snapped back, and he headbutted Betty back. "BETTY NOT BE MEAN TO HULK!"

"BETTY... SMASH!" Betty shrieked, kicking Hulk in the stomach and sending him screeching backwards. This allowed Ross to drop a crane on Hulk!

"HULK NOT MESSING AROUND! LEAVE HULK ALONE, STUPID ROSS!" Hulk bellowed. He threw the crane back, and Ross smashed it into disparate pieces. Ross grinned at him.

"ROSS NOW KNOW... WHAT FEELS LIKE... TO BE STRONGEST OF ALL!" Ross thundered. He leaped up and came down, powerslamming Hulk into a crater in the pavement. "NO TANKS! NO PUNY GUNS! JUST FIST!"

Hulk would not take that lying down! Hulk grabbed Ross, spun him around, and threw him into a pile of shipping containers!

"HULK STRONGEST OF ALL!" Hulk yelled. "ROSS BEING RED HULK NOT CHANGE THAT!"

Hulk spun around, remembering Betty was also trying to hurt him... But he froze when he saw that Betty was holding herself back, trying to control herself like Banner did when he tried to keep Hulk inside. Her eyes glowed bright yellow as she grunted.

"Come now Betty... Let your anger go... It is nothing to be ashamed of... You'll be helping Bruce... You want to help Bruce, don't you?" Sterns said over the speakers. Betty seethed.

"BETTY... WANT BRUCE... LOVE BRUCE... BUT BETTY... HATE HULK!" She roared. She lunged for Hulk, but Hulk dodged! Hulk rolled into the side of a warehouse, denting the metal siding. Ross reappeared, slamming into Hulk and smashing him through the wall. He pinned Hulk down and grinned at him.

"ROSS... SMASH... HULK," he gritted out. Hulk then had a thought.

Puny Big Headed Man was trying to make Betty hurt Hulk. Ross already wanted to hurt Hulk... Maybe Ross... Was not so easily controlled? Ross loved Betty too, though he was always trying to hurt Hulk!

"Sterns... Is using... Ross!" Hulk gritted out, grabbing Ross's fists and holding them back. He grunted in exertion. "Ross... Love Betty?"

Ross actually paused. His yellow eyes widened.

"Ross... Love Betty," Ross admitted. Hulk nodded.

"Hulk love Betty... Betty being controlled... By Sterns..." He gritted his teeth and pushed back. "Ross... Help Hulk... Smash Sterns?"

Ross snarled, his brow twitching. "Can't... Fight... Sterns...!"

Hulk snarled back. "Betty fight Sterns! Hulk fight Sterns! ROSS WEAKER THAN PUNY BIG HEAD MAN?!"

Ross's eyes widened. He snarled, before pulling himself away. He roared in rage.

"ROSS SMASH PUNY BIG HEAD MAN!" He bellowed. Hulk grinned, and got up.

"HULK SMASH PUNY BIG HEAD MAN FIRST!" Hulk thundered.

"Oh dear," Sterns said over the loudspeakers. "Betty? Little help please."

The two great Hulks, red and green, leaped up to swat the quinjet from the sky... But Betty leaped up too, slamming them both into the ground.

The three titans fought furiously, tearing their surroundings apart, roaring and bellowing at one another...

And above, Sterns sighed.

"So beautiful..."

Hulk was angry at how creepy he was.

- - - - - -




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Rift120..CH_49a - AbnerJenkins


I dunno WHY my mind is stuck on Mach-V/Beetle charcter.. I never was a fan of THunderbolts or the charcter... but the idea seems good... so at work last night I came up with a rough outline.

Abner Jenkins was a airline mechanic who designed and perfected a power armor suit he dreamed of selling to the military and retiring in style. Only just as he got his Beetle mk1 suit up and running, Iron man showed up on the scene and so clearly outperformed the Beetle suit the Brass was no longer interested in his suit. They wanted Stark tech.

Incensed Jenkins deisgned a mk2 suit and challenged Iron man to a fight to prove his deisgn was worthwhile. Of course by this point Tony had already advanced Iron Man tech a few more generations and trounced 'The Beetle'.

Cue a repeating scenario of Abner going back upgrading his suit so it can at leas thave a respectable showing fo rinterested buyers, only to find Stark has upgraded several other generations. (Or as Abner puts it "SOME of us geniuses don't have multi-billion companies to upgrade willy nilly!")

Abner drifted into crime as ways to call out Ironman when eh stopped answering his challenges. But did take efforts to keep his crimes non-lethal. He also did some enforcer work, and shady repo at the behest of a 'Agent Z' who started contacting him. And by Shady that included repossessing villain supertech that said villain missed a payment on.

Somewhere between Ironman 2 & Avengers his latest beetle suit was demolished after Stark busted up a Gang summit, that Abner was acting a neutral enforcer for. Abner As a neutral party was there to prevent the two gangs from shooting each other up and hopefully prevent a full fledged gangwar should the summit fail.

While he managed to avoid jail his lawyer fees essentially bankrupted him with only a few old very obsolete Beetle suits as his possession. But hey, the marks were rated for underwater use... so Abner went into underwater salavage. Again finding work from Agent Z, who directed him to various undersea wrecks of Hydra, AIM, various mad scientists...etc.

Shortly after Ironman 3 Abner was contacted by Agent Z to salvage the remains of the destroyed Ironman suits from the ocean. a VERY lucrative contract. After Abner turned in most of the salvaged parts (Keeping a few he found interesting and deliberately 'losing' some of the stronger items since he has suspicions already regarding Agent Z.)

He begins building his most latest armor suit design.... going away from the beetle look for something more fighter jet like....

Abner also quickly makes a connection of his 'salvaged' Iron man debris and the sudden influx of partial-Stark tech improvments to several supervillians suits. He is now convinced Agent Z is a blackmarket weapons/tech dealer (Well he's partly right...)

Around the time of Red hulk and She hulks creation... ABner is in Jersey testing out his new suit before he goes to challenge stark with it... when the Hulks land nearby... and ABner goes "OH HELL NO!"

He starts to leave but

Abners head turned as he heard a young scream of terror... watching as a young girl was pinned under a wall... while debris fromt he Hulk fight rained down....

"Dammit!"

Cursing himself as fool he reversed course and with in a moment was lifting the wall with one of his arms while using small wrist mounted laser to blast chunks of rubble falling towards him. And quickly found himself rescueing and dragging away civilains caught int eh crossfire.

"Wow! Are you a Ironman sidekick???"

"WHAT???!!" ABner snarled turning his head to the voice that had distracted him "One of tha t RIch brats lackeys???!!! I make my own TECH!"

He blinked as he watched a young skinny girl clothed only in rags dodge superhumanly several pieces of flying rubble, backhanding one with a spark from her own hands as she did so. A mutant?

" Oh than who are you? A new hero??? I Want to be hero to! Ever since that jackass with a head for a stomach made me like this! THan I can thrash the bad guys just like Ironman does!!!"

"LIsten kid... don't take Stark as a role model..." ABner grunted as he used his suit to prop up a dumpster as a impromptu shield while the two ushered a group of civilians away. " He's just a rich nancy boy.... playing gang... not a working stiff who understand these things. Besides the jerk isn't looking for sidekicks...."

"Awww.... well how about you mister? you need one? ummm... whats your name? I didn't catch it."

ABner grunted... him a superhero as... well.. he was saving lifes here.... and its not like his other career ended so hot..." I'm the be..."

He paused. THe beetle was rather well known for all the times calling Ironman out... maybe a new ID if he's going to try this hero bit. One teenager running from the fight wearing a speed racer T-shirt caught his eye. "I mean Mach... Mach version 1 armor...."

THe kid nodded... "Neat Mach-1! I'm gonna call myself Jolt... cause of my sparks...."


------------------------------

Sorry if I didn't get the two right, Thunderbolts was never my comic so I just know the general outline of the two. but something like that. After the Hulk fight moves away or dies down... Mach and Jolt get some praise for evacuating the civilians... and Jolt reveals she hasn't eaten in days. Abner ends up buying her dinner. And Jolt convinces him to try out the 'hero and sidekick' thing.

Of course a few weeks later Agent Z calls, and makes some 'threats' about revealing Abners role in the release of Stark tech to various superivllians (and his past as a beetle). But if he were willing to help found Agent Z's own set of 'heros'... the Thunderbolts...

I think we can all guess who agent Z is here. Although if suppose it could also easily work without Zemo and instead OSborn recruits Mach and Jolt for his 'Dark Avengers' to.

would that work?




===============


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