"But you didn't say you wanted me to fight in the middle of the city," Bruce Banner said, his brow furrowed with deep-seated concern. He stared at Alexander Pierce across the sterile confines of the SHIELD holding room, a place that felt more like a cage than a meeting space.
A bitter, self-loathing laugh escaped his lips. "If I let that monster out, I promise you, you'll discover who the real danger is here."
Every time the Hulk had made an appearance, he left a trail of pure devastation in his wake—skyscrapers reduced to skeletal frames, streets torn apart like tissue paper, and countless innocent lives shattered. The green giant wasn't just an uncontrollable force; he was a walking nuclear weapon with a hair-trigger temper. Dr. Banner couldn't fathom any threat that could possibly justify unleashing such apocalyptic destruction upon a populated area.
"We've already evacuated the surrounding blocks," Pierce replied, his tone measured but laced with an undeniable urgency. Hydra's goal wasn't global genocide; they sought to overthrow the existing order and establish their own new world regime. To do that, they needed a world to rule, not a wasteland of ash and bone.
"If the situation weren't this dire, we wouldn't even consider bringing that… entity… into play," Pierce continued, his usually composed demeanor cracking under the pressure. "Dr. Banner, you've been away from the front lines for too long. You have no idea what we're truly up against."
He activated a holographic display, projecting a series of video clips that SHIELD had frantically collected. The footage showed many alien, each one more unbelievable than the last. Banner watched, stunned, as Heatblast battled a nightmarish chimera atop Stark Tower, his roaring flames painting the night sky orange. He saw Diamondhead and Four Arms tag-teaming the nigh-indestructible Destroyer armor in the New Mexico desert, their combined might actually matching the Asgardian war machine. Then came a blue-and-black blur, a creature moving so fast that the camera could barely track its movements as it dismantled Iron Man.
Banner fell silent, his hands clasped so tightly his knuckles were white. He worked his fingers restlessly, trying to process the impossible sights flickering before him. Finally, he looked up, disbelief etched across his face. "Are you absolutely certain you're not just showing me clips from some big-budget science fiction movie?"
"Is there anything more science fiction than the Hulk?" Pierce countered with a humorless smile. "Now you understand why we need your strength."
Banner nodded slowly, his mind reeling. He hesitated for a moment. "That person from before… Thor, was it?"
He was referring to the golden-haired man he'd been confined with earlier. Banner knew better than anyone the sheer destructive potential he carried, and if SHIELD was placing this Thor in the same high-threat category as the Hulk, the Asgardian must possess truly formidable power.
"That's… considerably more complicated," Pierce replied, his voice deliberately vague. There was no need to burden Banner with the intricate politics of the Nine Realms.
Pierce had initially hoped to recruit Thor, primarily to prevent Steve Rogers from potentially wielding Mjolnir again. The arrogant prince, however, had refused to acknowledge anything beyond the judgment of his precious hammer. After hurling a few choice insults, Thor had stalked away, radiating wounded pride. Frustrated as he was, Pierce didn't dare press the issue. A review of SHIELD's intelligence on Asgard had made it clear that even a powerless prince was not someone Hydra could afford to antagonize. Maintaining the status quo was the wisest course.
Honestly, if it weren't for the unpredictable power of these alien vigilantes, Pierce wouldn't have bothered with Banner at all. The man was a time bomb. The original plan had been to wait for Project Insight to launch, then quietly eliminate him before he ever had a chance to transform.
A sudden, violent explosion shattered Pierce's contemplation, shaking the entire building. The floor trembled violently, and Banner's body went rigid, his skin taking on a subtle, sickly green tinge. He looked around wildly, muscles tensing for a fight, only relaxing a fraction when he confirmed the blast wasn't a SHIELD-sanctioned attempt on his life.
An agent burst through the door, his face pale and his uniform disheveled.
"What happened?" Pierce demanded, his voice sharp.
"It's Nick Fury and his team, sir! They've broken out of the Primus Building!"
"Capture them immediately!" Pierce shouted, a flicker of triumphant excitement in his eyes. He had been waiting for Fury to walk right into his trap.
The agent's expression grew increasingly uncomfortable. "Sir, our firepower is… insufficient."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Pierce slammed his fist on the table, his face flushing with rage. "I requisitioned every available tank from the military! How can we not have enough firepower?"
He reached out, grabbed the agent by the collar, and shoved him aside before striding to the monitoring station to assess the situation himself. The moment the screen flickered to life, a massive, reptilian creature lunged at the camera, its jaws wide open to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. Pierce involuntarily stumbled backward, his heart hammering against his ribs as he realized he was watching a live feed from the battlefield.
"What kind of monster have you people created now?" Banner stepped forward, his voice edged with a mixture of anger and disgust. The sight was uncomfortably reminiscent of the Abomination.
"We didn't create this," Pierce said quickly, his tone defensive. "That's Dr. Curt Connors—the Lizard. Norman Osborn claimed he was being treated. I had no idea he was hiding out in Primus Tower."
What Pierce really hadn't expected was that all of his enemies had been holed up in one place.
His attention snapped back to the battlefield feed, where absolute chaos was unfolding. "Dr. Banner," he said, turning back to the scientist with grim finality. "I'm afraid we're going to need you much sooner than planned."
The Lizard, now easily the size of a main battle tank, dropped from the sky like a scaly meteor, crashing into the assembled SHIELD forces with devastating effect. He charged forward, his thick, armored hide deflecting small-arms fire as if it were a spring rain. His claws, each as long and sharp as a combat knife, slashed through Hydra agents with terrifying efficiency. Within seconds, several lay in pieces on the pavement, their screams cut brutally short. To him, these ordinary soldiers were as fragile as paper dolls.
But SHIELD's forces were not so easily broken. Soon, Connors found himself the target of concentrated heavy weapons fire. Tank shells hammered into his body one after another, charring his scales black and filling the air with the acrid stench of burning flesh.
Yet, he didn't retreat a single step. The onslaught seemed only to awaken something primal within him. His eyes glowed a furious blood-red, and his already massive body began to swell even larger.
"ROAAAAAAAR!"
Connors unleashed a roar that shook the windows of nearby buildings, then charged directly into the artillery barrage. His massive hands snatched ordnance out of the air mid-flight, either crushing the shells in his grip or biting them in half with his powerful jaws. The heavy tanks looked like children's toys as he knocked them aside with casual swipes, their steel cannon barrels bending like rubber hoses in his grasp.
Then, as if summoned by his roar, figures began rappelling and leaping from the floors of Primus Tower above. Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Harry Osborn, and the rest of the fugitive heroes joined the fray.
Steve's vibranium shield carved through the air in perfect, deadly arcs, knocking down multiple agents with each throw. Harry swooped down on his glider, dropping pumpkin bombs that scattered clusters of enemies like bowling pins. Peter swung through the chaos, his synthetic webbing binding agents while his steady stream of quips kept morale high despite the overwhelming odds.
Even Nick Fury had abandoned his usual role as the man in the chair, fighting alongside Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff in the thick of combat. High above, Hawkeye provided sniper support from his perch on the building's edge.
"Activate the energy shields!" an agent shouted desperately.
A series of light blue barriers materialized with a sharp hum, deflecting the incoming attacks. But Peter was already one step ahead.
"You really think that old trick is going to work on us?" he called out, tossing a small, sleek device into the air. "Don't you see where you are?"
Invisible radio waves pulsed outwards, and across the battlefield, the energy shield emitters began to spark and overload. One by one, the protective barriers flickered and died. Following up immediately, Peter hurled several neurotoxin discs with pinpoint accuracy. The agents who were struck collapsed instantly, their nervous systems overwhelmed by the Primus-designed compounds.
"Primus Technologies is incredible!" Nick Fury shouted over the din of battle, taking down two agents with a pair of swift, efficient strikes.
Steve caught his returning shield, using his momentum to kick two more agents before striking a third with the shield's edge. He vaulted onto the roof of a black sedan, holding his shield high to draw a hail of enemy fire. The vibranium disc wasn't just a defensive tool; it was a taunt made manifest, attracting bullets like a magnet while keeping him completely unharmed.
On another front, Peter found himself facing off against New York's finest.
"Spider-Man, surrender immediately!" Captain George Stacy yelled, using his police cruiser for cover as he fired his service weapon. In a battlefield like this, the NYPD was woefully outgunned. Peter casually shot a web line that yanked the pistol from Stacy's grip, then used another to stick several officers safely to the side of a nearby building.
"Captain Stacy, please stop!" Peter pleaded, his voice carrying genuine concern. "I don't want to fight you! You're being used!"
"SHUT UP, YOU CRIMINAL!" Stacy roared back, his face red with a mixture of fury and frustration.
"No, this is all a conspiracy!" Peter insisted. These officers weren't Hydra. They were good people caught in something they couldn't possibly understand, and he refused to hurt them.
Just as Peter dodged another volley of misplaced police fire, his spider-sense screamed a violent warning. A pumpkin bomb—one that wasn't Harry's—sailed through the air and exploded at his feet. The blast sent several police cars tumbling, and the officers in the front line were caught in the shockwave, thrown backward like rag dolls.
George Stacy hit the ground hard, his vision blurring. When he looked up, he saw one of the overturned cruisers rolling directly toward him, its two-ton frame about to crush him flat. Stacy closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable.
But the impact never came.
"Get out of here, Captain!"
Stacy's eyes snapped open to an impossible sight. A massive spider web stretched across the street like a safety net, having caught not just the car that was about to kill him, but a dozen other vehicles as well. On the other side of that web stood Spider-Man. He had caught his attacker's fist with one hand while simultaneously anchoring the entire web with his other arm, saving every single officer in the blast radius.
The scene struck Stacy to his very core. He'd had his doubts, but at that moment, he knew with certainty that whatever else Spider-Man was, he was no villain.
Peter, however, had no time to register the captain's change of heart. He studied his attacker—a man in tactical gear identical to Bucky Barnes's, clearly another super-soldier. And he wasn't alone. Three more Winter Soldiers now moved through the chaos with lethal precision.
"Be careful—Winter Soldiers!" Nick Fury's warning cut across the battlefield. Having been nearly killed by one, Fury knew exactly how dangerous they were.
But "dangerous" was a relative term. Even as Fury finished his warning, Peter twisted his attacker's wrist, yanked the man off-balance, and drove a knee into his chest. The super-soldier flew backward nearly a hundred feet, crashing into a parked car with enough force to completely crumple its frame.
Peter scratched his head. "Winter Soldiers? That's it?"
While he had made it look easy, the others were having a much harder time. Steve found himself locked in a brutal struggle against two of them at once. Their attacks were perfectly coordinated, a relentless storm of strikes and blocks that pushed even his skills to their absolute limit. Harry, meanwhile, was engaged with the third. The assassin had disabled his glider with a targeted EMP, forcing him into a ground fight he was ill-equipped for. With his primary weapons depleted, the only thing keeping him alive against the soldier's relentless knife attacks was his armor's durability.
"Although my presence isn't always obvious, please don't ignore me," a calm voice declared from above.
Hawkeye had nocked a specialized arrowhead and taken careful aim. The arrow flew true. The Winter Soldier menacing Harry and Natasha spun to slash it out of the air, but the moment his blade made contact, the arrow exploded in a burst of intense flames, engulfing him completely.
At the same time, Steve, through sheer grit and tactical brilliance, finally overcame his two opponents.
Seeing the tide turn, Nick Fury felt a surge of adrenaline. "Do we need to call for backup?" he taunted into his comms. "Just keep pushing forward! Pierce, what else have you got?!"
The response came a moment later. A terrifying gust of wind swept through the street, followed by—
BOOM!
A green shadow fell from the sky like a comet, landing in the middle of the street with an earth-shattering impact that shattered the asphalt for yards in every direction. As a dust cloud rose, a monstrous roar washed over the battlefield, so powerful it was a visible ripple of sound.
"What the hell?" Peter muttered, squinting into the haze.
But the faces of Nick Fury, Natasha, and Steve had gone ashen with absolute dread.
"The big guy is here," Natasha whispered, her voice filled with despair as she shot Fury a venomous glare. "Did you really have to ask for more?"
They were all intimately familiar with Bruce Banner's file. The only reason he had enjoyed any peace in recent months was that Fury had personally intervened to keep the military off his back. Fury could never have imagined that one of the cornerstones of his Avengers Initiative would be turned against them by Pierce—and it was, without question, their strongest member.
The Hulk slowly emerged from the smoke and dust. His savage, intelligent eyes swept over everyone present before finally locking onto the only other creature on the battlefield that could match his scale: the Lizard.
A terrible, feral smile stretched across the Hulk's face, an expression that promised nothing but violence. He slammed his massive fists together with a sound like thunder, then launched himself into the air, hurtling toward Connors with unstoppable momentum.
"HULK SMASH!"