Faking It

After spraying the potion, Coulson paused his attack and hovered not far from the Hulk.

Without the continuous tremors that had robbed his internal organs of their power, Hulk quickly regained his strength. All the anger he had accumulated since Bruce Banner attempted to "eliminate" him erupted. Hulk got up and prepared to continue his battle with Reginald until he completely tore him to pieces.

Anger made Hulk's breathing heavy, and he inhaled a significant amount of the liquefied drug.

The potion had a strange smell, causing Hulk to sneeze violently several times before he could make a move, as if a giant inflatable doll used to attract customers at the entrance of a newly opened store had been poked by a mischievous child with a needle. Hulk's size began to shrink rapidly, and his skin returned from a deep green to a normal human skin color.

As is customary, when forcibly reverted to Bruce Banner, Hulk would certainly feel fear or even anger, thus suppressing that method. However, the part of Hulk's consciousness at this time did not react to this, as if a person without empathy was watching something that had nothing to do with him happen.

All the emotions that humans should be able to control, including anger, vanished from Hulk. Bruce Banner, wearing pants that were seriously disproportionate to his size, appeared in the same spot. The burden of transforming into Hulk instantly made him pass out.

While Bruce Banner had been thinner before, he was still within the range of an average person, with a lean physique. However, after this series of fierce battles, he became extremely emaciated, like a famine refugee. His arms and legs were as thin as sticks, and the pants that Hulk had stretched out looked very comical on him.

Hulk was beaten to a pulp by Abomination and healed countless times. Even if the law of conservation of matter is not followed, the writers still have to make some sense of it.

The stealth- Quinjet landed next to the unconscious Hulk. Two agents jumped out of the open hatch, placed the emaciated Bruce Banner on a stretcher, and carried him into the plane. Reginald also returned.

As for Wei Xiuming, he threw the Abomination, which was of no use except as a specimen for exhibition, onto the ground and returned to his fighter jet under the cover of drifting dust.

After the battle between the monsters ended, General Ross led the soldiers who had survived the Abomination to the ravaged battlefield. Watching the fighter jet, its outline barely visible, slowly rise from the dust, he felt a sense of loss.

As a closely guarded secret of S.H.I.E.L.D.., the performance of the Quinjet is still highly coveted by the military. The vertical takeoff and landing technology of the fighter jet was partially obtained from the CCCP legacy, and its optical stealth capability alone is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But that wasn't General Ross's regret. They had seen the battle clearly on live television; the two armored vehicles that came off the Quinjet were of exceptional quality, enough to overwhelm both Hulk and Abomination... Was the Super Soldier program outdated?

Ever since Captain America disappeared, the United States military, and even the now-defunct CCP, have been researching their own Super Soldier. However, they have the wealth plundered from the two World Wars and the blood samples left by Captain America, so they can afford to spend the time on it.

Hulk was an experimental accident, and also the closest to success. Even if it could be replicated, it would be uncontrollable and of little strategic significance. As for Abomination, it was even more of a matter of chance; he couldn't even produce a second Amazon Cells.

General Ross didn't know how many dollars the Super Soldier had cost, but the power from S.H.I.E.L.D.. was clearly enough to crush all the monsters created by any Super Soldier Program to date—it felt like starting a project for some kind of air defense system, only to end up with a dubious result, forcing them to declare the project unworkable in principle, while the country across the sea held a press conference saying, "We've created this thing, and it works great."

Based on their usual practice of equipping one generation (which they allow to disclose), developing another, conducting preliminary research on a third, and exploring yet another, they're probably still hiding something good.

"Recover all the Abomination corpses and scattered tissues..."

After issuing the order, General Ross began to consider his future, but everything he saw told him that this was more serious than the mess he had made at the University of Virginia. The blocks radiating outwards from Fifth Avenue were all prime locations with shockingly high land prices, and now they were being demolished into ruins, which meant losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He would definitely have to take the blame for this.

He didn't know if his connections could help him, but there was no doubt that his career was over.

"General Ross..."

Just as General Ross was worrying, a voice came from afar. It was a group of men in suits. Walking on the damaged street was certainly not as easy as walking in military boots, and they almost stumbled to General Ross.

"I'm Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D.."

The man at the head of the group, whose hairline was receding precariously, pulled out an identification document and waved it in front of General Ross to identify himself.

"Does S.H.I.E.L.D.. want to get involved? You've already taken away their biggest achievement." General Ross pointed to the sky, clearly very upset about S.H.I.E.L.D.. taking Bruce Banner away, who was now his bargaining chip to lessen his own responsibility.

Of course, General Ross also had another suspicion: these Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were there to arrest him. S.H.I.E.L.D..'s duty was to maintain world peace and stability, and Hulk and Abomination were clearly connected to him. Theoretically, it was feasible for S.H.I.E.L.D.. to use this pretext to arrest him.

But his own soldiers were all armed, and these agents, judging from their attire, probably only had one or two small pistols at most...

As the Quinjet flew to a nearby location, Nick Fury gave an order, forcing the aircraft to find an open space to land. Coulson hurriedly led his men over.

"No, General Ross, S.H.I.E.L.D.. needs forces to maintain world peace, not Beast that only know how to destroy." "I just need your help to find Tony Stark. He stepped forward as a hero when the Abomination raged, and although he was defeated, his actions were commendable."

"Besides Tony Stark, the fragments of his armor also need to be recovered... In exchange, we can help you cover up the Hulk incident, since the Abomination caused more damage and can be blamed on it."

The fact that Hulk was created through a project spearheaded by General Ross has been circulating for many years, and all organizations, large and small, already know about it. No matter how much General Ross tries to hide it, he can't keep it a secret any longer.

Instead, the birth of Abomination was completely unexpected, and it was portrayed as a monster created by some down-on-his-luck scientist to absolve him of guilt—although anyone with a discerning eye could see something fishy about it, but with S.H.I.E.L.D..'s cover, that was no longer necessarily the case.

S.H.I.E.L.D.. deals with all sorts of intelligence every day, and is adept at finding truth in false intelligence, as well as at creating smokescreens to confuse the enemy. Fabricating a scientist is a feasible option for them.

But when did Nick Fury become so generous? The reward is completely disproportionate to the cost.