Chapter 48 – Clash of Titans
Harlem still burned.
Smoke rolled across the ruined blocks, carrying the sour bite of melted asphalt and the tang of scorched metal. Sirens wailed in the distance, but the streets around 125th were a warzone no rescue team would enter. Cars lay on their sides like kicked toys, windows shattered, alarms wailing and dying in random sequence.
Tony Stark crouched behind the dented hood of a delivery van, HUD flickering. The Abomination was down, thanks to the golden giant now standing calmly in the center of the street, but that victory hadn't cooled the chaos. His flight stabilizers were gone. For once the genius billionaire couldn't rely on altitude to keep him safe.
A fresh roar split the smoke.
Soldiers flinched as the Hulk rose from the far side of the rubble pile, eyes glowing like furnace coals. Tracer fire sparked harmlessly off his hide, but it only made him angrier. General Ross barked orders over loudspeakers, his voice cracking with strain.
"Contain him! All units, open fire!"
Muzzle flashes lit the haze. The first volley hammered into the green giant, rounds whining as they flattened against his skin. Hulk staggered, then bellowed, the sound shaking windows for half a block. His muscles swelled, shoulders bulging wider, veins standing out like ropes.
With a single bound he landed among the front line. A Humvee flipped end over end. Soldiers scattered as the street buckled beneath the impact. One backhanded sweep of his arm sent a squad tumbling like leaves in a storm.
"Hulk!" Tony shouted through the suit's external speakers. "Buddy, take a breath!"
The plea vanished under the next roar.
Hulk turned, searching for another target. For a heartbeat his gaze swept the wreckage where the Abomination had fallen. Nothing there, only smoke and the faint shimmer of heat. Then he saw the other giant.
The golden figure stood motionless in the drifting ash. Taller than Hulk even at full size, he held a long, curved weapon at his side. Armor the color of sunlight glowed against the blackened street, unmarred by soot or blood. Blue optics burned steadily behind the helmet's visor.
Hulk's lips pulled back from his teeth.
"HUULK… SMAAASH!"
He charged.
The ground trembled with each thunderous step. Concrete cracked like thin ice. Hulk's fist, broad as a truck tire, swung in a blur.
The golden warrior tilted his head. The punch grazed off the rim of his helm, a near miss that still sent a gust of air strong enough to rattle loose bricks from a nearby wall.
Before Hulk could recover, the giant moved.
One armored gauntlet slammed into Hulk's ribs. The impact was like a falling building. Air blasted outward in a sharp shockwave. Hulk skidded backward, tearing twin trenches in the pavement as his heels dug in. He halted with a roar, chest heaving, and grew. Muscles bulged, skin stretching as he gained another foot of height.
But the golden warrior was still taller.
He advanced without hurry, each step ringing like a hammer on an anvil.
Hulk lunged again, both fists raised. The next exchange shattered what remained of the street. Hulk swung wild, punches like wrecking balls. The giant met each strike with perfect economy: a raised forearm here, a sidestep there, a countering elbow that cracked like thunder. Cars flipped from the shockwaves. Windows burst in neighboring buildings. Dust drifted down like gray snow.
Tony staggered out from cover, trying to keep them in view. His HUD warned of structural collapse all around, but he couldn't look away. "You've gotta be kidding me," he muttered. "He's… winning."
The fight dragged block to block, a brutal ballet of raw strength and disciplined precision. Hulk fought with instinct and fury, every movement pure force. The golden warrior, Gaius, fought with the patience of centuries. He absorbed blows that would have crushed tanks, redirecting others with small pivots of his massive frame. Each counterstrike landed with surgical accuracy: a hammering knee to the gut, a hook that snapped Hulk's head sideways, a shoulder slam that drove the green giant to one knee.
Hulk roared louder, veins standing out like cables, but nothing changed the rhythm. Gaius pressed forward, inexorable.
Finally Gaius halted, lowering his arms slightly. Through the smoke his deep voice carried, steady and calm.
"You are strength without purpose."
Hulk answered with a bellow and charged yet again.
Gaius reached across his back. Metal hissed and a long blade slid free. The weapon was no simple sword; its edge shimmered with a pale blue aura that hummed like a live wire.
Tony's heart jumped. "Oh no. Oh no no no."
The power sword came alive with a rising whine. One sweep could carve through metal like paper, Tony had seen its capabilities firsthand, it sliced through the Iron Warrior's full metal armor with ease. And Against flesh and bone, even Hulk's flesh shouldn't able to stop it.
"Bad idea, big guy," Tony muttered, already firing his micro-missiles.
A scatter of warheads streaked between the two titans, exploding in a curtain of sparks and smoke. Gaius slowed, blade raised. Hulk halted, confused by the sudden firework of light and sound.
Tony's helmet retracted with a hiss. "Gaius!" he shouted, voice cracking through the smoke. "Don't kill him! He's one of the good guys!"
Hulk blinked, eyes flicking between Stark and the golden figure. His massive chest heaved. For a long moment the only sounds were distant sirens and the ticking of cooling metal.
"Friend!" Tony called again, desperate. "Friend!"
The word seemed to reach through the fury. Hulk's posture eased by degrees. His breathing slowed. He stayed ready, but the blind rage faded from his eyes.
All around them, the military regrouped. Engines rumbled as more tanks rolled in. The whup-whup of rotor blades cut through the smoke. Spotlights swept the battlefield.
General Ross's voice thundered from a loudspeaker:
"Stark! Remove your golden armor immediately. That creature is a United States military asset. Stand down or be detained!"
A ring of soldiers tightened around the three figures. Rifles came up, laser dots dancing across Gaius's chestplate. Helicopters circled, their guns tracking.
Gaius did not lower the sword.
The standoff stretched. A single nervous soldier stepped too close, weapon trembling. The barrel wavered an inch.
Gaius moved faster than thought.
His gauntlet flashed outward. The soldier's upper body vanished in a blossom of red mist and shattered bone. The shockwave knocked nearby men to the ground.
Shouts erupted. The entire line opened fire.
The storm of bullets pinged harmlessly from the golden armor, sparks skittering like rain on a statue. Gaius advanced, unhurried, each step deliberate. His blade stayed raised but untouched; his fists were enough. One backhand caved in a concrete barricade and the soldiers behind it. Another strike sent a Humvee spinning across the street.
"Gaius, stop!" Tony ran toward him, armor sputtering. "They're not worth it!"
A heavy machine gun barked from above. A combat helicopter swept in low, barrels glowing red. Tracers streaked through the smoke.
Gaius never flinched.
He broke into a sudden sprint, each stride faster than the last, the ground cracking beneath his boots. He vaulted onto the crushed roof of an abandoned taxi, used it like a springboard, and launched skyward in an impossible arc.
Metal groaned as his gauntlet clamped onto the helicopter's landing strut. The pilot shouted over the comms, the craft bucking under the sudden weight.
With his free hand Gaius seized the fuselage and tore it open like paper. Fuel ignited. The helicopter exploded in a blossom of fire, raining debris across the street.
Through the blaze Gaius dropped back to the ground, cloak of flame trailing behind him. He landed with a seismic boom, utterly unscathed. Burning wreckage crashed a moment later.
For the first time that night, the soldiers stopped shooting.
A deep rumble built overhead. From the smoke descended a sleek black Quinjet, its turbines whining as it settled above the ruined street. A clear, commanding voice boomed from the external speakers.
"Stand down, Gaius. This is Director Nick Fury. I'll handle it."
The remaining troops hesitated. Engines idled. Fingers eased from triggers.
The Quinjet's ramp lowered and a single man strode out, long black coat, eye-patch gleaming in the firelight. Nick Fury walked to the center of the devastation until he stood a few paces from the towering warrior.
"You've caused a lot of trouble, Gaius," he said, voice even but sharp as a blade.
The golden giant regarded him for a heartbeat. Then his helmet unlocked with a hiss and folded back. Firelight reflected off a face carved in calm stone.
"I don't care," Gaius said simply.
Fury's one eye narrowed, but he said nothing.
Inside the Gaius's mind, a quiet chime sounded, something only he could hear.
System Message
Mission: Help Tony Stark
Objective 1: Defeat or Kill Abomination — Completed
Objective 2: Defeat or Kill Hulk — Completed
Rewards now available.
'IT seem these two Green Ogryn are the Hulk and Abomination, My mission then is completed' Gaius thought.
Then another voice filled his head, deeper and older than the stars.
The Emperor's voice echoed in his mind. "This Terra holds no trace of the Immaterium," as the Emperor observed, "yet I sense weaker and stronger echoes, dark realms, hellish planes, countless other dimensions. And this world is veiled, shielded from them…"
The message faded, leaving only the crackle of flames and the heavy silence of men who no longer dared to fire.
End of Chapter 48 – Clash of Titans
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