Chapter Forty-Four: Chaotic Brooklyn

Buoyed by the elimination of the first gamma monster, the morale of the army in Brooklyn reached an unprecedented high. The surviving soldiers hugged and cheered for their hard-won victory. This was the first time since participating in the battles against the Hulk that they had successfully neutralized a primary mission target, serving as a powerful shot of adrenaline for the troops.

It allowed them to momentarily forget their previous losses and refocus on the remaining operations. As for the soldiers who had perished, their comrades would likely only remember them once the adrenaline rush subsided.

Just as they were shouting in triumph, the earpieces of the commanding officers on the scene crackled with the voice of General Ross.

"Proceed to 43rd Avenue and intercept one of the gamma monsters. Leave two squads to secure the site and maintain order; reinforcements will arrive shortly."

General Ross still seemed to believe that the situation remained entirely under his control, issuing each order with almost zero hesitation. From the helicopter window, Betty watched the fierce battle between the Hulk and the Abomination, her eyes clouded with an indescribable sense of dread.

Down on the streets of Brooklyn, however, the combat between these two colossal entities born of gamma radiation was far from over. Their stamina seemed utterly inexhaustible.

As Betty sat by the window, an entirely unfamiliar object suddenly entered her field of view. In the night sky, stained amber by the fires raging below, a glowing green object was flickering erratically as it approached their aircraft.

"What is that?"

At the very moment Betty spotted the object, the helicopter pilot noticed a blip appear on the radar, closing in from their flank at extreme speed—and there was more than one.

One of them was a gamma mutant whose back featured massive, fleshy wings formed by the twisted overgrowth of arms and legs. The greenish flight membranes stretched between those leg and arm bones provided the monstrous creature with the power of flight.

Its entire chest cavity was heavily mutated, housing unstable internal energy that looked ready to detonate at any second, casting a glaring green light across the night sky. Its original ribs had punctured outward through the chest wall, extending like long, twitching legs.

The gamma monster's original head was nowhere to be found, leaving only a headless torso from which a long, green spine protruded. A pair of crimson mouthparts constantly darted in and out of small openings along the spine. Propelled by its arm-like fleshy wings, it presented a truly horrifying sight.

At that moment, it was lunging straight for General Ross's helicopter.

By the time the pilot attempted evasive action, it was already too late. The monster was about to collide head-on with the gunship.

Everyone aboard instinctively cradled their heads, but the anticipated impact never came. A metallic humanoid figure, far less bulky than the gamma monster, slammed into the ferocious beast.

With a forceful blow, the figure sent the monster plunging downward, crashing together with it into a nearby building.

"Descend, find a place to land," General Ross ordered the pilot, shaken as he recalled the terrifying gamma monster.

After all, the creature that had just appeared proved that even the skies were not necessarily safe.

***

By this time, Lynn had arrived atop a high-rise building not far from the battleground of the Abomination and the Hulk. He cared little about their fight; he had already encountered the Hulk himself. Although Banner might not have been fully awakened yet, it was impossible for him to lose to the Abomination.

Lynn looked up at the helicopter in the sky and the two objects closing in on it. The flickering green radiance and the ultra-high-speed flight path clearly belonged to a gamma monster gliding through the night sky.

As for the other figure, Lynn didn't even need to guess. There was only one person in New York who had recently emerged as a superstar and openly admitted to being a superhero known as Iron Man.

"Tony Stark really never misses a show."

Watching Iron Man and the gamma monster collide and plummet to the ground, Lynn frowned. The combat here had already drawn attention, and reinforcements would undoubtedly arrive soon.

"Leaving them here to brawl indefinitely is simply out of the question. Since Tony Stark has already arrived, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are likely on their way."

Glancing back at the clash between the Hulk and the Abomination, Lynn knew he could not let these two continue beating each other senseless. The Abomination's physical endurance far exceeded Lynn's expectations; showing no signs of fatigue after fighting the Hulk for so long, he seemed capable of trading blows here for a day and a night.

Yet, Lynn did not have the time to waste on them.

"It looks like I'll have to offer the Green Goliath a little assistance."

Deep purple mist swirling with crackling electric arcs erupted from beneath his feet, and Lynn's figure vanished from the spot.

The spectacle in the sky had naturally caught the Hulk's attention as well. The gamma monster was moving at blinding speed, inevitably drawing the Hulk's focus away.

He didn't care what happened to General Ross, but the Hulk cared deeply about Betty.

In that split second, the Abomination seized the opportunity, launching a devastating right hook straight at the Hulk's face. The heavy blow landed squarely the moment the Hulk turned his head.

The loss of balance triggered a cascading collapse; the Abomination's relentless flurry of suppressive strikes instantly knocked the Hulk to the ground. The Hulk struggled desperately to pull himself back up.

"Where are you looking, big guy?"

***

"Betty!"

Even while being battered mercilessly by the Abomination, the Hulk's mind was consumed entirely by thoughts of Betty. Unbeknownst to him, a faint, tiny purple illusion of a tentacle was writhing right beside his ear.

Lynn's psionic tentacle slowly proliferated, eventually burrowing into the Hulk's mind without either the Hulk or the Abomination noticing.

"Our Green Goliath seems to require a little extra motivation.

Though your chaotic mind and consciousness are truly staggering..."

Lynn's psionic tentacle brushed against the Hulk's brain, and for a fraction of a second, the Hulk saw a vision of Betty's helicopter being shot down.

In the illusion, Betty was crawling out from the wreckage covered in blood, her lips moving as she pleaded,

"Save me, Banner."

It acted like a heavyweight bomb, igniting the Hulk's mind.

Lynn did not attempt to brainwash the Hulk. The moment his psionic tentacle made contact with the Hulk's brain, he felt a massive surge of gamma energy.

Furthermore, the Hulk's psychic landscape was completely unlike anything Lynn had ever encountered. If an ordinary person's mental realm was a house with a complete structure—no matter the architectural style, still a normal building—the Hulk felt to him like a chaotic, disorderly maze. The winding paths were fraught with unknown, bizarre thoughts, riddled with danger and confusion, both mysterious and bizarre.

Ultimately, Lynn merely made the Hulk witness the exact scenario he feared most, effectively stimulating his hidden potential.

And it proved extremely effective; the Hulk was instantly spurred into action by the vision Lynn planted.

"Betty!"

Under the influence of the illusion orchestrated by Lynn, the Hulk immediately erupted with unmatched power, instantly tearing Lynn's psionic tentacle apart.

This cut off Lynn's chance to inject further illusions, but it was already enough. The Hulk's fury had reached critical mass. The Abomination remained oblivious, treating the outburst as nothing more than the Hulk's dying struggle, paying no heed to the green giant's escalating rage.

"What's the matter, big guy? Missing your little kitty?"

The Abomination threw another heavy punch, but this time, his previously infallible attack was effortlessly intercepted by the Hulk.

"Hulk is angry! Hulk is going to find Betty!"

"?"

Before the Abomination could process what the giant was muttering, the Hulk's fist struck out like a cannonball.

Emil Blonsky instantly felt a dizzying flash of stars as his entire body flipped backward. Naturally, the Hulk had no intention of letting the Abomination fly away so easily.

Seizing the Abomination by the arm, the Hulk slammed another punch into his torso. Every single green fist that connected with the Abomination's body triggered a muffled explosion.

"Hulk Smash!"

Throwing yet another punch, the Hulk's immense strength lifted the Abomination clean off his feet. Yet the Abomination didn't get to fly far; the Hulk yanked him back, accompanied by the distinct sound of bones fracturing before the Abomination could even regain his senses.

The Hulk delivered two rapid, near-simultaneous heavy blows to his head and chest. This time, the Hulk did not hold onto him, and the Abomination was sent hurtling backward through the air by the barrage.

Amidst a deafening sonic boom, the Abomination's massive frame was blasted away, crashing deep into a nearby residential building. The dark structure swallowed him up, leaving behind only the clatter of falling bricks and masonry.

The Abomination appeared to have been knocked unconscious by that final punch, dropping out of sight like a severed kite and remaining completely motionless within the pitch-black dwelling.

Meanwhile, the Hulk cast a glance up at the sky. Failing to spot the helicopter, an expression of profound torment crossed his face. He certainly didn't want anything to happen to Betty.

"Betty! Where are you?"

With a powerful leap, the Hulk sprang into the air, surveying the entire district from above. Having apparently caught sight of something in the distance, he leaped forward again the moment he touched the ground.

Catching sight of the landing spot of General Ross's helicopter, the Hulk vanished amidst the reinforced concrete and brick structures, departing the site of his battle with the Abomination.

***

"Truly formidable. After such an intense battle, he acts as though nothing happened, possessing seemingly infinite stamina and strength."

Watching the Hulk leap away step by step, Lynn had virtually no inclination to give chase. Compared to the utterly uncontrollable and unpredictable Hulk, Lynn preferred things he could comprehend and control—such as the Abomination, who had just been beaten to a pulp by the Hulk.

Or rather, Emil Blonsky.

"Hopefully Tony Stark won't lean into his special talent for annoying people. The Hulk's temper isn't very pleasant right now."

With that, Lynn materialized amidst crackling purple mist and electric arcs, walking toward the location of the Abomination. From the dark mouth of the residential building, a green arm stretched out, and the Abomination finally staggered out, shaking his head dizzily.

It seemed the Hulk's devastating punch had left him permanently disoriented.

Before the Abomination could recover, a squad of Lynn's vampire combatants emerged behind him, firing several rifle grenades before he could react.

Rifle grenades were naturally incapable of piercing the Abomination's defenses, but Lynn's operatives had no need to breach his armor.

Their coordinated volley knocked the still-dazed Abomination flat on his back once more.

The operatives quickly retrieved restraining black magic binders from their modified vehicles—magical technology Lynn had extracted from Brutus's memories.

However, Lynn had improved upon the design; wrapping these steel-cable-like devices around a target would continuously drain their physical stamina. If used to restrain an ordinary human, it would lead to systemic organ failure and death in a short time.

Even though the Abomination had been severely battered by the Hulk, he was still not an entity these vampires could easily handle single-handedly.

As Lynn's subordinates advanced with the restraints, the Abomination swept a massive arm and swatted several of them away.

Clearly, the strength of these vampires paled into insignificance compared to the Abomination. Still, with Lynn present, these vampires were more than sufficient, especially since the rest of the bio-weapons were deployed elsewhere to deal with the remaining gamma monsters and didn't need to linger here.

"What are you freaks? Where's the Hulk? I'm going to fight him for a hundred days!"

Yet his voice was already laced with profound exhaustion. Unbeknownst to the Abomination, psionic tentacles had wrapped around his body, draining both the gamma energy and life force from within him.

Lynn's psionic tentacles appeared to be the key to the growth of his mutant abilities; the more energy he extracted, the stronger his own powers became.

The Abomination could feel himself growing rapidly weaker. By the time he collapsed onto the ground upon stumbling out of the small residential building, it was already too late to notice the psionic tentacles clinging to his body like clinging bone-deep parasites.

Watching the black-clad soldiers swarm around him, armed with cable-like restraint tools to bind him, the Abomination could only glare helplessly.

Lynn's operatives operated with high efficiency, taking a mere five minutes from initially restraining the Abomination to loading him onto a transport vehicle and preparing to depart. Supervising the entire process from the sidelines, Lynn watched them roll out before deciding it was time for him to leave as well.

Kala was still leading the bio-weapons through the sewers in search of Samuel Sterns, and there were other gamma monsters on the surface yet to be dealt with.

"Doctor, the target is loaded. We are ready to withdraw."

"Remember, upon securing him in the laboratory, apply multiple layers of restraints immediately, supplemented by sufficient physical measures."

The squad leader nodded, driving away with his team from the chaotic scene.

Glancing up at the sky one last time, Lynn vanished once more amidst pale purple mist and crackling electric arcs.

Just a few minutes after Lynn's disappearance, Tony Stark flew in like a bowling ball. It appeared he had ultimately managed to provoke the Hulk, though the Hulk had merely swatted him away in annoyance rather than finishing him off.

"Jarvis, did that green thing follow us?"

"According to the audio data recorded during your flight along a near-perfect parabolic arc, Mr. Stark, the Green Goliath did not pursue. After exchanging a few words with General Ross's daughter at the scene, he departed Brooklyn."

Reactivating his armor, Tony picked himself up and surveyed the surrounding environment, relieved that no other gamma monsters were lurking nearby.

"Damn it, I'm definitely building something to lock him up next time..."