Compared to Hulk, the Abomination was different. His strength didn't surge with wild mood swings; his altered genetics were stable, giving him a mind closer to a human's. That stability should have made him more dangerous, more calculating.
Instead, it only made his current rage burn hotter.
He was no longer the fragile soldier who once crumpled under Hulk's fists. Now his body rivaled the Green Goliath's, shrugging off bullets and blasts with contempt. Tanks couldn't slow him, and even a missile strike seemed laughable in his mind. He felt godlike—untouchable.
Yet somehow, this one human had made him feel pain again. Real pain. The shame of it was intolerable. Humiliation curdled into fury, and all rational thought was swept away.
With a thunderous snarl, Abomination smashed his fists into a nearby wall, sending rubble cascading to the street. The jagged bone spurs along his back flared and grew. In the next instant, he launched himself forward like a missile, heading straight for Kurogai Alexander Blackwood.
"I'm going to tear you apart!"
No car-throwing this time. No theatrics. He wanted Kurogai's blood on his claws.
The monster's massive fist came screaming down with the force to pulverize concrete and carve a crater into the earth. But he'd chosen the wrong opponent.
"I thought you were smarter than Hulk," Kurogai said coldly. "Seems I was wrong."
He stepped once—then vanished. In Abomination's eyes, Kurogai reappeared in front of him faster than thought. The brute tried to grab him, but his movements looked sluggish in Kurogai's accelerated perception.
Kurogai's foot lashed out in a deceptively light kick.
Bang!
The ground split beneath Abomination as his massive body was driven down like a meteor. Pavement exploded outward, a deep crater spreading spiderweb cracks in every direction. The sheer force of the blow was enough to make nearby buildings shudder.
Abomination roared from the pit, voice shaking the air. "I'll kill you! I'll tear you limb from limb!"
He clawed his way out, eyes burning with feral madness. The controlled soldier was gone—this was a beast, consumed by rage. That he could even lose his sanity at all was surprising; his transformation was supposed to be stable. But the gap in power was so humiliating that rational thought had drowned beneath raw fury.
He didn't stop to question how Kurogai possessed such overwhelming strength. All that mattered was tearing him apart.
"Come on," Kurogai said, eyes glowing with dangerous amusement. "Show me everything you've got."
To him, this was perfect. He had wanted to test himself against Abomination from the moment he arrived. Now the creature's rage made him reckless—an opportunity Kurogai was eager to exploit.
From the sidelines, soldiers and trapped civilians stared in disbelief. They had seen Abomination's power firsthand against Hulk moments ago. This was a monster the military couldn't subdue—yet here was a man, unarmored, fighting him on equal footing. The sight was beyond comprehension.
"What the hell is this? The perfected serum?"
Aboard a nearby helicopter, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross watched with wide eyes. Greed sparked in his gaze. This was the man behind tonight's disaster—the one who had tried to weaponize a variant of the Super Soldier Serum. His project had birthed Hulk and Abomination, both disasters he now wished to contain.
Yet this… this was different. The stranger below possessed impossible strength without any monstrous transformation. His appearance was completely human. To Ross, this was the holy grail—a super soldier without the side effects.
If he'd ever met Steve Rogers in person, Ross might have realized how absurd the comparison was. Kurogai was something else entirely, far beyond the serum's capabilities. But ignorance only fed his ambition.
He ordered the soldiers to pull back, wanting to see more before making his move.
A high-pitched roar of repulsors cut through the air. From the distance, a red-and-gold armored figure descended in a flare of light, landing not far from the chaos.
"Wow," came a smooth, amused voice over external speakers. "You start a party this big and don't invite me?"
The faceplate slid open, revealing Tony Stark's grin. In the original timeline, Stark hadn't become Iron Man before the Hulk-Abomination clash. But here, things had moved faster. The moment he caught wind of this battle, he'd suited up and flown straight into the action.
"Tony Stark," Ross's voice growled over comms. "The military is handling an internal operation. Stay out of it."
Ross recognized him instantly—the billionaire weapons manufacturer turned armored hero. The Abomination, Hulk, and now Kurogai were all tangled in what Ross considered a military affair. He couldn't afford Stark interfering, but neither could he afford offending him outright. His tone came out stiff, forced.
"Internal military business?" Stark's eyebrow arched inside the helmet. "Didn't know that guy down there worked for you."
Jarvis's sensors had already locked onto Kurogai's bio-signature, confirming his identity. Stark smirked at Ross's thin excuse, the sarcasm dripping in his voice.
If Kurogai ever heard Ross claiming him as "military," the thought alone might make him punch a hole through the general's command post.
Ignoring Ross entirely, Stark strode toward the battlefield. His fingers twitched, eager to let the repulsors fly. Watching this fight from the sidelines wasn't an option—especially not when his shiny new armor was itching for a field test.