Carol clutched her ribs with both hands, grimacing as the full force of the Hulk's earlier blow finally caught up with her. It was as if his punch had short-circuited her entire nervous system, leaving a throbbing ache radiating through her core.
She twisted midair, narrowly avoiding a brutal collision with the arena barrier."I can't get too close... what the hell is with those muscles?!" she thought through gritted teeth.
But there was no time to dwell, her instincts screamed a warning as she caught sight of the Hulk hurling himself toward her in a monstrous leap.
His massive fingers closed in, nearly engulfing her, but with a desperate surge of energy, Carol unleashed a blast of light into his open palm, propelling herself backward just as his hand snapped shut where she had been.
WHOOSH!
The violent force of his grasp created a vacuum, the air sucking inward with a sharp crack. Hulk opened his hands to find a shallow cut across his palm, green blood welling up before dripping to the thirsty dirt below.
In the distance, Carol was already gathering power. Golden, iridescent light flared to life around her, swelling until it cast long shadows across the arena. Hulk's eyes narrowed. He turned, just in time to see her unleash a searing blast of energy directly at him.
A smirk tugged at the corner of Hulk's mouth as he flexed his recently healed hand into a tight fist and charged straight toward the oncoming attack.
"HULK SMASH PUNY BLONDE WOMAN!"
The mass of crackling energy and Hulk's titanic fist met—
BOOOOOOM!
The arena shook with the force of the collision. Dust and wind roared outward in a shockwave that silenced the crowd, every eye straining to see who would emerge victorious.
Inside the blinding explosion, Carol's form blazed like a miniature star, golden light shimmering off her skin. She and Hulk were exchanging blows at a speed too fast for ordinary eyes to follow.
BANG! POW! BANG! BANG! BOOM!
The shrinking sphere of energy finally gave way, spitting both warriors outward in opposite directions. They landed hard, skidding across the ground before regaining their footing, staring each other down with unyielding determination.
"HAAAAAA!"
Carol roared, channeling every ounce of her power into another deadly beam of light. It lanced across the arena straight toward Hulk, who met it head-on without hesitation.
The beam struck Hulk full force, but unlike before, it didn't explode.Instead, his feet began to sink into the dirt as the sheer power pressed against him. Veins bulged across Carol's neck and forehead, her Binary form burning to its limits.
But Hulk only grew angrier.
A deep, rumbling growl built in his chest. His muscles swelled, bones cracking and stretching, as his body increased in mass and strength.
With each deafening step, he pushed forward through the beam.
STOMP... STOMP... STOMP...
The ground shook under his feet, and despite Carol's relentless assault, Hulk advanced, each step ripping trenches in the dirt.
Meanwhile, unnoticed by many, something extraordinary was happening.
Where Hulk's green blood had soaked into the earth, a small purple flower had begun to sprout. A Sakaaran near the edge of the arena caught sight of it and gasped, the color draining from his face.
"S... Sakaarson..." he whispered.
The word traveled like wildfire.
First a whisper, then a murmur, and finally a roar from the crowd.
"SAKAARSON! SAKAARSON! SAKAARSON!"
Up in the highest box, the emperor of Sakaar leapt to his feet, his opulent robes billowing around him.
"They DARE!" he snarled, gripping the railing as he glared down at the crowd."They dare call him the Sakaarson?!"
His bloodshot gaze followed the wave of cheers to its source, Hulk.
The emperor's fists trembled with fury. He had given Hulk whatever he asked for, comfort, power, glory, as long as the green titan remained under his thumb. Now, with the people chanting a name tied to ancient prophecy, his rule was under threat.
"Will I have to use it again?" he muttered, a sinister smile creeping onto his face.
He already knew. His war bound shadow, Caiera, had been seen visiting the Green Scar in secret for months. Rumors swirled, whispers that she was carrying the Hulk's child despite her efforts to hide it.
The emperor raised a hand and summoned one of his most trusted Shadow Guards, a figure so skilled he seemed to melt into the very darkness itself.
Leaning in close, the emperor whispered a command into the agent's ear.
Without a word, the shadow slipped away, vanishing into the crowd like a ghost as the emperor settled back into his throne, stewing in venomous rage.
In the heart of the arena, the battle raged on.
Hulk strained against the golden beam, his muscles bulging, veins writhing like serpents beneath his emerald skin. Carol, burning bright with iridescent energy, poured every ounce of strength into the onslaught. She was cleverly siphoning the ambient gamma radiation Hulk constantly emitted, using it to refuel her powers mid-fight, an advantage Hulk could neither understand nor counter.
The beam intensified, growing so radiant that it made the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard seem pale by comparison. Under its relentless pressure, Hulk lost his footing, roaring with primal fury as he was driven backward.
"RAAAAAAHHH!"
With a thunderous crash, his massive form slammed into the far arena wall. Only the barrier's emergency reinforcement, shimmering and distorting like liquid glass, kept the entire structure from collapsing under the impact.
At last, the golden beam sputtered and died. Carol collapsed to one knee, her aura flickering out with a final, plaintive hum.
"WENG!"
Her golden hair fell back into its natural form, and her arms, once raised with might, now hung limp at her sides.
"Huff... Huff... Huff..."Her chest heaved with the effort, sweat trickling down her forehead.
She raised her gaze, expecting to see Hulk unconscious in a smoking crater.
Instead, through the swirling dust, she saw movement.
Slowly, inexorably, Hulk was rising, his body mutating before her very eyes. His veins slithered and bulged grotesquely, and his muscles swelled beyond all reason, granting him an almost eldritch appearance. His green eyes ignited with gamma energy, the power so raw and concentrated that it steamed off him like radioactive mist.
"STOMP!"
Hulk took a single step, and the ground trembled violently. Deep spiderweb cracks raced across the arena floor, threatening the stability of the very stadium. Only the full-circle shield kept the underground tiers from crumbling beneath the spectators' feet.
With a sudden snap of movement, Hulk threw his arms wide, so fast that afterimages trailed his hulking form, and locked his blazing gaze onto the exhausted Carol.
Her heart pounded.I don't have the strength left... I can't survive this.
Hulk's voice, thick with rage, erupted across the stadium like a war drum.
"WAHHHHHHHHHHH! HULK SMASH! HULK KILL!!"
Before Carol could move, Hulk clapped his hands together, faster and harder than any living being should have been able to.
"CLAP!!!!!!!"
A shockwave ripped through the air, so dense with gamma energy and kinetic force that the arena's barrier, the very shield that had withstood gods and monsters, shattered in a rain of glittering fragments.
"WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!"
From Hulk's palms erupted a colossal tide of pure destruction, a visible wave of gamma-charged kinetic force that reduced everything it touched to dust. The earth near the blast was visibly atomized, the particles turning to sparkling nothingness in the air.
Carol stood frozen, trapped between the tidal wave and the ruins of the battlefield.
I can't absorb that much... it would rip me apart! But where can I run? There's no way out—
Time seemed to slow as the wall of death bore down on her, and for a single, soul-shattering moment, Carol closed her eyes.She could almost feel the cold, skeletal hand of death tightening around her throat.
Then—
"WHOOSH!"
A golden light crashed between her and oblivion.
A figure appeared, haloed in burning energy, hair spiked upward, face steeled with determination. His hands flared as he manifested a barrier, woven from a furious blend of Ki and the crimson light of the Ring of Rage.
The gamma torrent struck the shield with the force of a dying star, but the barrier held, wrapping around the energy like a vacuum-sealed cocoon. Slowly, methodically, the man raised his hands to the sky, lifting the roiling mass upward.
The energy churned and hissed, desperate to break free.
Then, with a single clench of his hand, he compressed it.
"CRACKLE!"
The chaotic storm of gamma and kinetic force imploded inward, folding itself into a violently pulsating sphere. It writhed and twisted, spitting deadly arcs of crimson lightning in every direction.
The sheer pressure of it distorted the air, giving the orb a catastrophic beauty, something straight out of a Dragon Ball final attack sequence.
The crowd, for a moment, was too stunned to even breathe.
Carol, gasping and wide-eyed, stared up at the figure who had saved her.
The man she was supposed to hate William watched as the mass of energy in the sky suddenly reached critical mass and erupted in an explosion that would go down in Sakaaran legend for millennia.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The explosion rocked the entire planet but thanks to William it was high enough in the upper atmosphere to not cause any irreparable damage.
The once roaring arena fell deathly silent.The crowd, who had been chanting the Sakaarson's name with fanatic glee, now sat frozen, pools of sweat, and in some unfortunate cases, urine, spreading beneath them. The only sound that dared to break the heavy silence was the relentless dripping, echoing through the massive coliseum like a leaking faucet in a tomb.
Up in the emperor's box, the so-called ruler of Sakaar lay sprawled on his back, his gilded goblet of wine toppled beside him. His panicked gaze was locked onto the searing sun-like orb of compressed energy still burning high in the atmosphere.
"WHA... What the hell was that?!"He had been too busy sipping wine to notice the true climax of the battle, and now he was staring death itself in the eye.
Before he could process it, the Hulk's massive body came hurtling from the arena like a comet, crashing violently into the distant mountains with a ground-shaking explosion of dirt and stone.
"HE'S ESCAPING!!"The emperor roared, voice cracking with panic."STOP HIM! NOW!"
His elite guards and hidden assassins, his "shadows" immediately scattered to fulfill their orders.The emperor's bloodshot eyes darted toward the spot where Caiera once stood, and a sinister grin split his face.No matter what chaos had erupted...If all went well, his beast would be back in its cage soon enough.
Back in the arena, the stunned silence finally cracked and then shattered.A tidal wave of cheers erupted from the stands, shaking the ground itself.
"SAKAARSON! SAKAARSON! SAKAARSON!!"
The chant rolled through the ruined stadium like a physical force, shaking dust and debris loose from the shattered architecture.Along the ground where Hulk's blood had spilled, green tendrils spread, painting the dirt an unnatural, sickly hue.
William wasted no time.He seized Carol by the wrist, and without asking for permission, vanished from the arena in a flash of light.
"HEY!"Carol yelped as the world reformed around her.They now floated atop what appeared to be a sleek spaceship anchored just outside the atmosphere.
But the sharp glare William shot her froze her mid-protest.The fire left her instantly, and she stood stiffly like a teenager caught breaking curfew.
"Stay. In. The ship," William ordered, his voice carrying the weight of absolute authority."We don't know what the device in your neck can do, but I guarantee it has a range limit. Stay here until I figure out how to safely remove it."
Carol opened her mouth to argue, but one look at him shut it again.Sulking like a scolded child, she floated into the airlock without another word.
Alone now, floating amidst the stars, William exhaled a slow breath.
"I should set up some preemptive attacks..." he muttered.
Raising his hands to the void, William summoned the depths of his ki.One by one, ten glowing spheres of power formed, miniature suns pulsing with devastating potential.Each Kamehameha hovered around him like loyal sentinels, awaiting only a single mental command to rain death from the heavens.
Satisfied with his celestial minefield, William descended back toward Sakaar, vanishing from sight before the first clouds could even register his presence.
Peter who was still sitting in the arena with Kara and Harley felt his senses tingle slightly to his left and he turned his head to see William returned to his seat with his arms wrapped around both lady's waist as they stood up.
"Time to go!"
He signaled Peter who nodded in response and following the three.