On the lounge chair, Heisenberg leisurely opened his eyes and glanced toward Manhattan.
That streak of light in the sky… Iron Man heading out, huh?
He opened up his hearing and locked onto Iron Man's audio.
Talking to Captain America first?
True love.
If a nephew falls for his uncle, does that count as a forbidden trope? Does it?
As for Cap, still fighting?
Yeah. He could fight all day.
Iron Man said Hulk showed up. Let's listen.
Heisenberg focused his hearing near the Triskelion and quickly caught it.
A woman's pained groan!
"F*ck!"
Heisenberg shot to his feet.
Jessica got beaten by the Green… giant?!
And while we're at it, the hell gives you the right, Iron Man, you flashy showoff, to play the hero and rescue my bed buddy!!!
…
S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy plaza, by the damaged outer wall of the library.
When Hulk's fist was inches away, Jessica's pupils finally caught the reflection of the man she'd been waiting for.
Heisenberg came in with a straight old-school punch.
In the blink of an eye, Hulk was blasted out of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, smashing through countless buildings until he finally stopped near Hell's Kitchen.
Heisenberg didn't pause.
He instantly chased after the flying Hulk.
Following the trail of shattered structures Hulk's body carved through, Heisenberg shot through one skyscraper after another.
When Hulk hit the ground the first time, he uncontrollably bounced once.
Before he could land again, Heisenberg flew right beside him and slammed another punch straight into Hulk's chest!
Boom!!!
The shockwave from that punch shattered every pane of glass within three hundred meters.
More than a hundred people passed out on the spot. Over a thousand suffered ruptured eardrums and started bleeding.
And that was only the aftershock!
Hulk, who took the punch head-on, had no time to react at all. In moments, he was sent flying at over fifty times the speed of sound.
That huge green blur shot nearly twenty kilometers before scraping the ground again.
Feeling that kind of pain for the first time, Hulk developed an instinctive fear of Heisenberg.
But even while afraid, Hulk still knew what he had to do.
He wasn't smart. His intelligence was about that of a child.
But his instincts screamed at him that he couldn't let Heisenberg keep hitting him with attacks he couldn't resist.
He had to find footing. If he could stabilize himself, he'd have a chance to defend.
So, swallowing pain and green blood, Hulk reached both hands out.
He clawed desperately at the ground, but the ground felt like tofu pudding, too soft to stop him.
Only after he left a pair of gouges nearly two kilometers long did Hulk finally feel his speed dropping.
But Heisenberg was still on him.
"Tough bastard, huh? Eat my kick!"
Seeing Hulk still had strength left, Heisenberg simply used everything. He even layered in his force field.
The kick came from below and blasted up into Hulk's face.
The shockwave expanded like an airburst bomb. Luckily, they were in the outskirts. Otherwise, countless innocent people would have died from it.
After taking that kick, Hulk shot straight up into the sky.
In the air, he had nothing to brace against. Nothing to slow him down.
He rocketed upward, blasting out of the atmosphere, until he slammed into the Moon.
Yes. Heisenberg had literally punched him from Earth to the Moon!!!
Hulk was already drowning in pain and dizziness. And with the fear growing heavier in his chest, he didn't even want to open his eyes anymore.
But he couldn't rest.
Because Heisenberg was still there.
In the center of a lunar crater over seven hundred meters wide, Heisenberg grabbed Hulk by one massive finger.
Hulk struggled and threw a punch. It hit Heisenberg square in the chest.
Heisenberg didn't even take a step back.
He tanked that weak punch and violently hurled Hulk back toward Earth.
The instant Hulk flew off, Heisenberg coiled power and chased.
At that moment, Heisenberg's burst speed reached tens of thousands of Mach.
The punch he threw at that speed erased countless pieces of space debris around him into nothingness.
At the same time…
Hulk became a true meteor, unable to resist at all, crashing back toward Earth.
Heisenberg saw it clearly.
Hulk had even closed his eyes.
He was scared. Truly scared.
Heisenberg chuckled, raised both hands, and casually lined up the Earth and Hulk like he was aiming.
Then he muttered with satisfaction, "Nice hit. Pretty accurate. He should land in the desert according to plan, right?"
Then Heisenberg chased him all the way down, watching Hulk crash like a meteor into the central Sahara.
This impact was comparable to a meteor of the same size. A small crater appeared in the Sahara's center, visible even to satellites.
And in the middle of that crater, the body lying there was no longer the massive Hulk.
It was Bruce Banner, unconscious.
Heisenberg was still wearing his pajamas, standing beside Banner like it was no big deal at all, quietly muttering to himself.
"In Avengers 3, from Hulk's entrance to getting knocked out by Thanos, he ate fourteen punches."
He might have taken advantage of a sneak attack and the terrain, but knocking Hulk silly in three hits was an achievement that could compare with Thanos.
Of course, beating Hulk that easily was only because this was the movie-universe Hulk.
Heisenberg looked at Banner with some regret.
"Too bad you're not Worldbreaker Hulk, not four-armed Hulk, not gray Hulk. You're just a giant with the mind of a child, someone easily broken and tamed by human thinking…"
Then Heisenberg suddenly thought of something and burst out laughing.
"But I finally knocked your big shorts off, hahaha…!"
When Hulk crashed down like a meteor, his pants were completely reduced to ash.
Heisenberg actually destroyed Hulk's iconic shorts!
That was his greatest accomplishment!
He laughed for a long while before finally getting it out of his system. Then he looked up at the sky. He could see plenty of satellites aimed right at him.
Heisenberg grinned and raised his right hand, showing a arrogant middle finger to everyone watching.
"After this display, nobody will dare mess with me for a while. You can't even deal with Hulk, so how are you going to deal with me, the guy who knocked Hulk out in three hits?"
As he spoke, Heisenberg grabbed Banner's wrist in disgust, lifted him like baggage, and returned to New York.
He casually tossed Banner onto a lounge chair, then lazily flopped onto another.
Rummaging through his pocket, he found his phone and called Bullseye.
A moment later, the line connected. Before Bullseye could greet him, Heisenberg's order came out.
"I know your ass hurts. Deal with it. Take all our people to the area between Manhattan and Hell's Kitchen.
"I just beat up Hulk. A lot of buildings and civilians got caught in the process. God knows how many people are cursing me behind my back.
"New York's police are all tied up keeping order. The injured civilians won't get properly handled. Take our people and help. Save everyone you can.
"As for the purpose, I think you understand!"
"Of course, Boss. I'll promote you properly. Don't worry!" Bullseye accepted instantly. Even if his butt still hurt like hell, that was nothing.
As long as his place in the Boss's heart became more secure, that was what mattered.
After hanging up, Heisenberg closed his eyes in boredom and fell asleep completely.
…
The war didn't end because Hulk failed.
If anything, without Hulk's chaos, HYDRA's advance became even harder.
Most S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in New York were dead, but the ones left were elites among elites. Those unreasonable monsters couldn't be crushed with numbers alone.
Hawkeye had already finished slaughtering the HYDRA squad at Purple Man's apartment, but John Garrett had left long ago, so Hawkeye never got to personally kill the man he thought was HYDRA's leader.
Coulson, Iron Cavalry, Captain America and the others had returned to the Triskelion for support even before Barton ended his fight.
The true S.H.I.E.L.D. agents still resisting to the bitter end.
Captain America's presence was like lighting a sacred flame in their hearts.
Even HYDRA agents, with all their terrifying cohesion, suffered a morale drop when Cap returned.
One shield. One man. Seven hours.
When the sun rose again, Cap, through sheer influence and combat power, ended the duel-to-the-death fighting among over nine thousand agents inside the Triskelion.
More than two thousand HYDRA agents surrendered.
But victory brought no joy to those who had lost thousands of comrades.
In that bleak atmosphere, Alexander Pierce secretly boarded a plane in New York's outskirts with his confidants.
A hidden crew of twenty-six people in total. Aside from Pierce himself, every single one was his absolute trusted inner circle.
Naturally, that included Sitwell and Crossbones.
Wait.
Crossbones?
Who the hell knows how he wormed his way back to Pierce's side again.
When the plane took off, Pierce let out a long breath, then complained to Crossbones and Sitwell beside him.
"John Garrett was careless. Why bring so many of our people to the mission, especially when the target can control others?!"
As he spoke, Pierce slapped the armrest hard.
"And he still failed to kill that bastard Steve Rogers, who should've been dead long ago!"
Pierce's blood surged. Decades of hiding, destroyed in a single night.
But after a burst of anger, he quickly calmed down.
He rubbed his temples and muttered to himself.
"Thankfully, we successfully killed the President and two Vice Presidents. With the Secretary of Defense acting as interim President, we have a lot more room to operate.
"We'll go to London first and rendezvous with Madame Hydra, then before Cap and the others free up their hands, we'll wipe out S.H.I.E.L.D.'s forces across Europe and West Asia.
"Luckily Nick Fury did something stupid. Not only did he die inside S.H.I.E.L.D., even in death he never issued any administrative orders to unify the divisions.
"That black bastard did one good thing. Otherwise, we wouldn't have had it this easy!"
As Pierce spoke, Rumlow suddenly coughed twice beside him.
Pierce looked over immediately.
Crossbones frowned, thinking for a long time, then finally asked Pierce with a conflicted tone.
"Boss, you and Nick Fury were friends and comrades for over thirty years. Do you feel sad about his death? He died without ever knowing it was you, the man who raised and promoted him, who betrayed him!"
"Hahahaha!!!"
The moment Rumlow finished, Pierce laughed loudly.
"My heart only has my cause. How could I ever care about friendship? Good that he's dead. Good death!"
Slash!!!
Pierce's laughter hadn't even faded when his heart was already pierced by Rumlow.
Rumlow gave him a final smile and said, "Yeah. It's all for our cause. Each of our causes. Goodbye, Boss!"
/-\
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