Lock noticed that the Hulk hadn't shown up yet.
Good.
That meant he had time—time to farm some recovery potions.
He darted across the ruined streets like a ghost, slipping just ahead of the monstrous creature known as Abomination. Each time the beast swung or smashed, Lock would dash in, plucking trapped civilians out of wrecked cars or snatching them from beneath collapsing debris.
One moment, a terrified man would be bracing for death, and the next—whoosh—he was suddenly soaring through the air, landing safely twelve blocks away, utterly bewildered.
Even traffic-bound drivers, too stunned or panicked to run, found their car doors ripped open by Lock. Seat belts? Tissue paper. Screams? Ignored. One by one, he yanked people to safety with surgical precision.
Ding!
"Life saved: +1 Recovery Potion."
Ding!
"Life saved: +1 Recovery Potion."
Ding!
"Life saved: +1 Recovery Potion."
Lock grinned as the system notifications piled up. Dozens of potions. Even if he didn't need them all, they were valuable. Tradeable. Potential leverage.
Up in a hovering military chopper, General Ross, Dr. Bruce Banner, and his daughter Elizabeth were monitoring the chaos.
Elizabeth leaned forward, squinting at the blurry feed. "Dad… someone's saving people down there. Superhuman reflexes. Is he one of ours?"
Ross narrowed his eyes. "He's not military. Zoom in... that's an Asian civilian. No match on record."
On-screen, Lock zipped through rubble like an Olympic sprinter with a teleportation quirk, plucking survivors out of danger like a man moving chess pieces.
Even Elizabeth was moved. "He's risking his life down there. We should help him."
Banner, quiet until now, said grimly, "It's not sustainable. He's fast, but Abomination's faster. If we don't stop the monster, it'll all be for nothing."
He was right.
Lock's power let him move people a dozen blocks at most. Abomination could cross that in seconds. It was like tossing water on a wildfire.
"I'll do it," Banner said.
Elizabeth's eyes widened. "You can't! The antidote—you're still on it. You can't transform!"
"I don't have a choice," he said, then stepped out of the helicopter.
A hundred-meter drop.
Back on the ground, Abomination—drunk on destruction—finally noticed Lock.
"Annoying flea!"
He hurled a car at him like a baseball.
Lock sidestepped it with ease.
That only made the brute angrier. He roared like a prehistoric beast and charged, stomping cars flat as he barreled toward his new target.
Then—
BOOM!
A body slammed into the street like a meteor, right between Lock and Abomination.
Banner.
Untransformed. Human.
Abomination stopped mid-charge, confused. He loomed over the limp body, sniffing it with the curiosity of a child poking a dead frog.
Then, deciding it wasn't worth his time, he stepped over Banner—
—only for a massive green hand to shoot up from the pavement and grab his ankle.
"Your opponent... is me!"
The Hulk had arrived.
He hurled Abomination into a crater the size of a swimming pool.
Abomination sat up, laughing madly. "YES! This is what I wanted! A real fight!"
The battle that followed shook Harlem to its core.
Shockwaves rattled buildings, flipped cars, and sent shock ripples through the very concrete. Water mains exploded from ruptured pipes, geysering ten meters high.
Lock, still nearby, glanced down at himself, then chuckled bitterly.
So this was the mystery of the Hulk's pants.
Back in his old world, people used to joke that Hulk's pants were indestructible. One of Marvel's great unsolvable mysteries. But here?
Yeah, no such luck.
The green... appendage was flapping in the breeze. Lock now understands what Thor must've felt when he saw Hulk naked in Thor: Ragnarok.
Burned into his brain forever.
Abomination, by contrast, had nothing. No pants. No shame. Probably absorbed by the transformation.
Mutation has its costs, Lock thought. Dignity, for one.
The two monsters didn't fight with style or skill. No techniques. No finesse.
Just raw, stupid, overwhelming force.
Even Lock, who was no combat expert, could see the waste. If he had their strength, he'd toy with both of them like puppets.
Occasionally, Hulk picked up a car for a shield or weapon.
Abomination didn't bother. Just fists.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Punches like cannon fire.
As the fight escalated, spikes on Abomination's back started to flare—his body mutating even further, looking like a skeletal dragon about to erupt from his flesh.
Then—
DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!
Gunfire from above. A squad opened fire from the helicopter. The rounds rained down on both monsters.
Completely useless.
"Hey!" Elizabeth shouted from above. "You! Asian guy! Run!"
Lock just smiled up at her. "Thanks for the concern. I've got this."
"HRAAAAHHH!"
Abomination ripped up a lamppost and hurled it like a spear toward the helicopter.
"NO!" Hulk screamed, leaping to intercept—but he was too slow.
The post whistled through the air.
Three meters from impact—
—CLANG!
It stopped, frozen mid-air.
Held in place by a single, outstretched hand.
Lock.
Elizabeth's jaw dropped.
General Ross stared in disbelief.
That post had been flying near the speed of sound. Stopping it was like catching a missile barehanded.
Ding!
"Five lives saved: +5 Recovery Potions."
Elizabeth, Ross, the pilot, and two soldiers—alive.
Lock lowered the post and looked up. "You should gain altitude. Those bullets aren't doing anything."
Then he dropped to the ground.
In the original timeline, the helicopter would've gotten too close. Abomination would've dragged it down. Crash. Fire. Everyone is dead—except Elizabeth and Ross, barely clinging to life.
But Lock had changed that.
This time, the chopper stayed airborne.
Even in chaos, human behavior is predictable. Ross barked orders like a man possessed. "Pull up! PULL UP!"
On the ground, Hulk had lost his momentum. With no innocent lives in danger and Elizabeth safe, his fury had cooled.
His motivation was gone.
Lock noticed. It's my turn now.
"You two done yet?" he called.
Abomination turned, white teeth gleaming. "Heh... You're worthy."
He launched a punch across the battlefield.
A blur of motion. First, like a wrecking ball.
Lock didn't dodge.
He caught it with an open palm.
BOOM!
The shockwave shattered windows for blocks. Asphalt cracked. Debris flew.
But Lock didn't budge.
Compared to Abomination's giant fist, Lock's hand looked childlike. Yet it held fast.
Lock assessed the power behind the punch.
About three times my strength, he estimated. Maybe ten injections' worth of serum. But strength doesn't scale linearly... he's underperforming.
If General Ross had heard that, he might've passed out on the spot.
Lock gestured between Abomination and Hulk. "Alright. Both of you. Come at me."
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A/N: Please Leave A Comment Or Drop A Powerstone It'll mean alot to me...