Peter Parker had been feeling a bit guilty lately. The final exams were fast approaching, and his busy schedule of fighting criminals had caused him to miss countless classes.
If this trend continued, he was genuinely afraid that Uncle Ben's spirit would rise up in anger. Therefore, Peter had decided not to patrol the Queens area today.
However, out of a lingering sense of responsibility, he kept the television turned on in the background. The screen hadn't even warmed up before he saw a news anchor acting as if they were pumped full of frantic energy.
"We are temporarily interrupting our regular broadcast for breaking news. Please do not change the channel as we connect to the scene right now," the anchor announced.
The screen briefly went black before lighting up with an aerial view far away from the television studio. The cameraman then tilted the lens downward to reveal the sprawling streets of Manhattan, New York.
Several armed helicopters hovered menacingly in mid-air. Heavily armored tanks on the ground were rolling aggressively across the city roads.
A massive deployment of soldiers rushed toward a specific street with urgent, determined strides. The local police scrambled alongside them to establish a tight security blockade on the outer periphery.
They frantically evacuated the civilian crowd at the exact same time, trying to keep innocent people far away from the danger zone.
'What exactly happened?' Peter wondered.
'Has the Third World War officially started?'
'Did terrorists attack New York City again?'
'Or is it possible that aliens have actually invaded?'
The American citizens sitting in front of their televisions unanimously felt a sudden jolt of adrenaline. Blood rushed to their brains in pure excitement, prompting them to urgently call their friends and family to watch the live broadcast together.
As soon as the news camera zoomed in, a colossal monster standing nearly four meters tall came into clear view. This horrifying sight caused the millions of people watching from home to gasp for breath at the exact same time.
It possessed tough, dark brown skin covering its entire muscular body. Sharp bone spurs that looked like small, terrifying hillocks aggressively overgrew along its exposed spine.
The creature's massive arms and thighs resembled thick steel support pillars. It was clearly overflowing with a violent desire to completely destroy absolutely everything in its path.
The hulking monster raised a terrifying fist and slammed it directly into the front of a parked car. The heavy blow instantly punched a hole straight through the engine block, deeply frightening everyone glued to their television screens.
The single punch clearly wasn't satisfying enough, so the beast leaped onto the hood of the vehicle and aggressively stomped its feet. The metal chassis was as fragile as tofu beneath its weight, collapsing completely in the blink of an eye to become a useless pile of scrap iron.
The creature spread its incredibly thick arms wide and tilted its bony, horned head back to unleash a deafening roar into the sky. It was a true, living behemoth.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Heavy machine gun fire rained down on its body, bouncing off the dense hide like harmless little peas. The terrifying monster then rushed directly through the military line of defense with completely unstoppable momentum.
Sandbags and reinforced bunkers couldn't slow its advance down at all. The gigantic body acted exactly like a human-shaped bulldozer, moving with astonishing speed.
Its overwhelmingly powerful physique stepped heavily onto the asphalt, visibly shaking the earth with every single stride.
There was absolutely nothing capable of slowing its relentless pace. The monster leaped high into the air and executed a devastating, downward chop.
The heavily armored tank suddenly caved in under the massive impact, allowing the beast to grapple the front chassis with its bare hands.
"I am invincible!!"
With a single flex of its hands, the armored tank was violently torn to pieces as easily as wet paper. He then casually picked up a small sedan with his other hand and forcefully hurled it upward to smash directly into a hovering, high-altitude military helicopter.
The burning wreckage roared as it fell from the sky trailing thick black smoke. A massive, soaring explosion quickly followed upon impact.
The reinforced military vehicles proved to be as fragile as cheap children's toys against this brute strength. The concentrated line of fire formed by the soldiers did not manage to leave even a single small mark on its hide.
An anti-tank rocket launcher was fired point-blank at its chest, but the blast didn't force the terrifying monster back even a fraction of a step.
Such a highly trained, heavily armed military force was being effortlessly crushed and beaten by a single monster from start to finish. This entire, humiliating massacre was being clearly broadcast live on camera.
"I am power, I am absolute hatred!"
The Abomination swaggered aggressively in front of the media helicopters, eagerly venting his newly acquired power. He desperately wanted to let the entire world know exactly who the strongest being on Earth truly was.
The Abomination was Emil Blonsky. In order to become undeniably strong, he had injected himself with a radioactive blood sample of the Hulk, irreversibly mutating into a horrific monster.
Unlike the Hulk, the Abomination could not shift back and forth between a human and a monster. However, despite his permanent mutation, he managed to maintain a certain degree of his original tactical reasoning.
He was fundamentally a soldier, highly proficient in advanced military fighting skills and boasting a wealth of rich combat experience. However, unlike his green counterpart, his raw power possessed a definitive upper limit because it could not be infinitely fueled by sheer anger.
While he was roaring his hatred for the Hulk and reveling in the mindless killing, a visibly weakened man suddenly plummeted from a hovering military helicopter high in the sky.
While still bellowing challenges meant for his nemesis, the Abomination watched as that frail figure dropped from the aircraft amidst the slaughter.
The falling man smashed into the concrete instantly, creating a massive crater upon impact. A deep, spider-web-like crack aggressively broke open the street, sending jagged rubble splashing violently in all directions.
A massive, hulking green man slowly climbed up from the newly formed pothole, unleashing a furious, tearing roar from his mouth. He possessed a bulky body shape very similar to the Abomination.
He violently tore off the tattered, exploded rags covering his torso, leaving only a miraculously intact pair of shorts wrapped around his waist.
Crack!
The Incredible Hulk stomped his heavy feet in a highly demonstrative, aggressive manner. He spread his massive hands wide and shouted a furious challenge directly at the Abomination.
The Abomination and the Hulk didn't waste any time talking nonsense to one another. They simply threw their massive fists forward, and the two titans instantly engaged in a brutally fierce brawl.
Neither beast considered the fragile environment around them, completely demolishing absolutely everything they encountered in their path. The surrounding brick walls, commercial buildings, and parked vehicles were completely ignored by the two raging monsters.
They were merely venting their primal anger, meaning no human architecture could possibly survive under their terrifying, overwhelming power. Their devastating clashes continuously kicked up massive, blinding clouds of dust into the New York sky.
In just a few chaotic moments, more than half of Broadway was thoroughly demolished and turned into jagged rubble. The Mayor of New York was reportedly so incredibly angry that he cried, violently verbally abusing the military forces for their utter incompetence.
Meanwhile, inside the Triskelion, the primary headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Quickly, has Tony Stark been notified of this?" Nick Fury asked, frowning deeply as he stared at the massive high-definition display monitor.
He continued exclaiming and rapidly passing down tactical orders to the frantic bridge crew.
"Also, send an agent to formally invite the Fantastic Four to assist us. After all, Manhattan is their home turf, and it is highly unlikely they will just ignore this level of destruction."
Commander Maria Hill briskly walked up to Nick Fury and spoke with deep anxiety in her voice. "Director, the President and the World Security Council just issued a strict order demanding that these two monsters be driven entirely out of Manhattan without utilizing any weapons of mass destruction."
If New York City was the undisputed economic capital of the United States, then Manhattan was the irreplaceable lifeblood of that economy. Nearly eighty percent of the city's overall financial prosperity flowed directly from this single borough.
This was primarily because the critical financial hub of Wall Street was located dangerously close to Broadway.
As the foundational center of the world economy, if this district turned into smoking rubble, the resulting financial crash would be absolutely devastating. It wouldn't just be an isolated tragedy; it would cause hundreds of thousands of ruined investors to line up and jump off corporate rooftops every single day.
The resulting, catastrophic economic downturn would be more than enough to drive the entire nation straight into the ground.
Nick Fury grimaced, his usually stoic dark face turning slightly green with frustration.
"How exactly are we supposed to rush them out of the city?"
"Absolutely no conventional forces can intervene safely, so we have no choice but to wait for the Fantastic Four and Tony Stark to try and stop this madness."
"You send a reply to the Council, stating clearly that S.H.I.E.L.D. currently possesses no spare operational capacity to handle this mess," Fury ordered sharply. "Remind them that the Hulk is a direct, failed product of the Super Soldier project personally overseen by General Ross."
"They all willingly signed off on that disastrous initiative at the very beginning."
"Now that his pet project has gone horribly wrong, they suddenly know how to find someone to clean it up?" Fury sneered.
"Use this exact crisis to put heavy political pressure on the World Security Council and force them to finally pass the Avengers Initiative."
"Otherwise, tell them to let the military clean up their own damn mess."
After Maria Hill quickly turned and jogged away to draft the reply, Nick Fury stood perfectly still, staring blankly at the live feed with his single eye. Absolutely no one in the room could guess exactly what the legendary king of spies was currently thinking about.
Back in Queens, Peter shuddered visibly as he watched the two behemoths brutally ravaging Broadway on his television screen. He quickly yanked open his bedroom closet, hastily pulled on his classic red and blue Spider-Man uniform, and swung out of his window with a sharp thwip.
Meanwhile, heavily relying on his superior tactical fighting skills and immense combat experience, the Abomination delivered a brutal kick directly into the Hulk's chest. The green giant was violently kicked straight through the facade of a nearby building, and the Abomination aggressively rushed in right after him.
Rumble!
A sound like blasting thunder echoed outward as the Hulk flew backward, completely shattering the critical support beams and load-bearing pillars of the structure. The heavily damaged building was now groaning and about to totally collapse onto the shaking ground.
There were still dozens of terrified, fleeing civilians trapped in the immediate vicinity.
The Abomination looked at the three remaining structural pillars without saying a single word. He maliciously raised his massive fist, fully planning to smash them down one by one to purposefully let the collapsing rubble crush those innocent people to death.
Pure rage, unadulterated bloodlust, and an insatiable desire for complete destruction perfectly constituted the monster known as the Abomination.
"Hey, did you start demolishing this city block with my explicit consent?"
The ridiculous, highly arrogant voice echoed from a distance just as a streak of golden-red steel armor rushed directly into the fray.
Iron Man violently tackled the Abomination around the waist, using his powerful thrusters to forcibly fly the massive beast out of the collapsing building.