This Isn't a Mutant-It's Art!

"What... is that thing?"

On the armed helicopter several hundred meters away, General Ross gripped the door handle so tightly his knuckles went white. Through his binoculars, he had a clear view of the burning figure hovering in midair.

That wasn't human.

It didn't even need fuel. It was a walking nuclear reactor!

"General! Thermal imaging shows the target's core temperature is still rising!" His adjutant's voice trembled. "If he unleashes his full power, these blocks will turn into an oven!"

"Whether it's a Mutant or one of Stark's new toys..." General Ross's face darkened. "It's completely derailed my capture plan!"

At the center of the battlefield.

Abomination was taken aback by the sudden turn of events.

Having just successfully evolved after injecting himself with the serum, Emil Blonsky was in the throes of an immense ego trip. He thought he was a god, an invincible being who could rip a tank apart with his bare hands.

But this "matchstick" had melted a car weighing several tons in an instant?

"ROAR—!!"

Abomination let out a deafening roar, his foul breath carrying several meters. His murky yellow eyes fixed on Jiang Li, and a cruel smile spread across his face.

"Are you Hulk's friend? Or some circus performer who wandered away from the big top?"

Abomination's voice rasped like sandpaper, dripping with mockery. "Whoever you are, if you want to play hero, get ready to be turned into mush!"

Faced with that terrifying killing intent, Jiang Li remained remarkably calm.

It was one of the changes brought on by the Omnitrix. Heatblast—a Pyronite—belonged to a naturally confident and fiery species.

Jiang Li tilted his burning head, raised a hand, and beckoned with one finger in an unmistakable taunt. A few sparks fell from his fingertip.

"Big guy, your breath stinks worse than your feet. If you want to fight, brush your teeth first."

"You're dead!"

Abomination flew into a rage. He hated being mocked for his appearance more than anything!

"BOOM!"

The ground exploded beneath him.

Abomination's terrifying thigh muscles tensed, and he shot forward like a cannonball, charging at Jiang Li with enough force to crush anything in his path! Abandoned cars were sent flying as he barreled through, like bowling pins struck by a ball.

He moved so fast that an ordinary person couldn't have tracked him with the naked eye.

"So fast!"

Jiang Li's heart tightened. He had an alien's combat instincts, but at that moment, he was facing one of the top powerhouses of early Marvel.

If he'd been in an ordinary human body, he would already have been flattened into a puddle of mush.

But now, he was Heatblast!

"Takeoff!"

Jiang Li focused, and two powerful streams of flame burst from the soles of his feet.

"Whoosh—!"

Like Iron Man activating his thrusters, Jiang Li shot upward at the last possible moment. In this world, where even Newton's coffin couldn't stay shut, he traced a graceful arc of fire straight into the sky!

Abomination's heavy punch slammed into the spot where Jiang Li had been standing.

"CRASH!!"

The ground in that small area collapsed, and the shock wave shattered every shop window nearby.

"He ran?"

Abomination looked up in fury, only to see a streak of fire circling through the sky.

Jiang Li hovered in midair. Flight was another of Heatblast's amazing abilities!

"This view... is incredible!"

Jiang Li looked down at the ruins below and the monster raging helplessly among them, adrenaline surging through him.

"Let's return the favor. Have a taste of this!"

Jiang Li thrust both hands downward, the fiery patterns on his palms glowing at full intensity.

Two blazing columns, like streams from high-pressure hoses, plunged from the sky, their devastating heat striking Abomination squarely in his broad back.

"Sizzle—!!"

This was the searing heat of a real inferno!

Abomination's tough skin could withstand bullets and even small-caliber artillery shells, but under Heatblast's flames, it sizzled like roasting meat, sending up clouds of black smoke.

"AAAGH! It burns! You damn bug!"

Abomination howled in pain. His defenses were incredible, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel pain.

He rolled wildly across the ground, trying to smother the flames on his back. But this was alien fire—it could burn even underwater. It wasn't going to go out so easily.

"And I'm not done yet!"

With the advantage of altitude, Jiang Li wasn't about to give Abomination a chance to catch his breath. He cupped his hands before his chest, and a massive fireball more than two meters across rapidly took shape between them.

"Flame Meteor!"

Jiang Li swung his arms with all his might.

The enormous fireball streaked toward Abomination, who had just struggled to his feet, trailing a long tail of flame.

"BOOM—!!!"

A violent explosion bloomed over the streets of Harlem, raising a small mushroom cloud. A wave of scorching heat swept across a hundred-meter radius.

Yet when the smoke cleared, the figure still hadn't fallen.

Abomination was charred all over and looked utterly miserable. Large areas of his skin had burned away, but his vitality remained terrifyingly strong. The agony only brought out his savage nature.

"I'm going to tear you apart!!"

Abomination went berserk. He grabbed the wreckage of a nearby bus and hurled it at Jiang Li with all his strength.

"This is getting troublesome."

Jiang Li twisted to the side in midair, narrowly dodging the bus as it flew past.

His brow furrowed.

Heatblast's attacks were flashy, but against a gamma monster like Abomination—with maxed-out resistance to energy attacks and rapid healing—they were barely scratching him. Unless Jiang Li broke his bones, the creature could keep fighting forever.

[System Alert: Target has extremely high physical defense. Elemental damage effectiveness reduced.]

[Recommended tactic: Physical suppression.]

"Just what I wanted."

Jiang Li looked down at Abomination, who was tearing up the street in a frenzy, searching for something to knock him out of the sky. A cold smile curled his lips.

"Then let's have a real man's brawl—face-to-face!"

He plunged from the sky. When he was ten meters from the ground, he pressed his right index finger against the Omnitrix emblem on his chest again.

"Want to test your strength? Then let me show you what real, brutal beauty looks like!"

"Quick Switch!"

Zzzzt—BAM!

This time, the green light was more intense than ever.

Jiang Li's body, still wrapped in flames, didn't shrink. Instead, it grew even larger!

His streamlined, magma-like body vanished in an instant, replaced by bulging red muscles as hard as rock.

His bones cracked and popped. He grew taller and taller, quickly reaching three and a half meters!

Even more horrifyingly, with a sound like tearing muscle, two immensely thick arms burst out from beneath his ribs!

Four eyes snapped open, gleaming gold.

Abomination charged just then, raising his enormous fists to deliver a fatal blow to the Heatblast landing in front of him.

But he wasn't met by a fragile little flame.

He was met by four massive hands like hydraulic clamps!

"THUD!"

Jiang Li's upper pair of hands caught Abomination's fists.

The enormous impact shattered the ground beneath Jiang Li's feet. His legs carved two deep furrows into the earth as he skidded backward several meters before finally coming to a stop.

"What strength!" Jiang Li thought, stunned. Abomination was a monster who could overpower even Hulk. His brute force was truly terrifying.

"W-what?"

Abomination was stunned, too. His punch could've gone straight through a building, yet this thing had caught it?

And why did this red monster have four arms?

"Surprised, ugly?"

A fierce grin spread across Jiang Li's rugged red face. His voice no longer crackled like Heatblast's flames. Now it was deep and heavy, rumbling like distant thunder.

"A Tetramand. Four Arms!"

"See? I've got four arms."

As Abomination stared in horror, Jiang Li used his upper arms to hold him in place. His free lower arms had already wound up for a punch.

His muscles tensed and veins bulged. With enough force to punch through a steel plate, he drove his fists into Abomination's unguarded stomach!

"ORA!!"

"Ptooey—!"

Abomination's massive body folded like a shrimp, and a mouthful of green bile shot out. He was stronger, but with Four Arms pinning him down, he had no chance to defend himself!

The force of the blow lifted Abomination off his feet. He flew through the air and crashed hard into an abandoned building!

Aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier.

Dead silence.

Every agent had forgotten to breathe. They had watched an elemental being who could control fire transform into a red powerhouse in less than a second.

It completely violated the law of conservation of energy!

It completely defied everything they knew about biology!

Nick Fury's face, already as black as coal, seemed to darken even further. He stared fixedly at the screen, his one good eye gleaming with the shrewdness and greed unique to the king of spies.

"This isn't a simple mutation... It's a perfect work of art—a living weapon."

He pressed his communicator. "Natasha, don't rush into an attack. I want him alive."