Abomination joined the battle and lunged straight at Hulk. Rimuru was dumbfounded. Didn't I kill Mr. Blue? Where did you come from?
In the middle of the battlefield, the two enemies flew into a furious brawl the moment they met. General Ross fell silent as he watched. How had another Hulk shown up? And why was the new one so ugly? Then a subordinate came to report that the newcomer might be Blonsky.
"Blonsky? What happened to it? How did it turn into that freak?" He had a feeling his career was about to be over.
At the center of the battlefield, the two brutes were still locked in a passionate slugfest. Hulk relied on the damage from his left hand and the heavy damage from his right to hammer Abomination relentlessly. Abomination, relying on both his strength and his skill, gave as good as he got. The fight was surprisingly entertaining to watch.
Watching the scene before him, Rimuru had a bold idea. "Tony, what do you think about taking those two to an arena and charging admission to watch them fight?"
"An arena probably won't work. That's illegal. We'd have to take them to an underground fight club. I can call a few rich guys over; they love this stuff." Tony nodded, thinking it could work in theory.
Underground fights? Isn't that part of Abomination's story later on? And that guy Wong, too. Not only do they fight underground, they also throw matches. Speaking of which, that redemption arc later was pretty damn ridiculous. Look at him now-isn't he just a complete psycho?
He's fighting Hulk and goading him at the same time. Hulk's gotten twice as big as he was just now. This motherfucker is pure evil. There's no way to redeem him at all.
The recovered T-1000 sent word that Blonsky had injected Banner's blood directly into his own body. Combined with the enhancement serum he had received earlier, it had turned him into his current monstrous form. "Holy crap, that fucking worked? That's not scientific! How the hell did he survive? Shouldn't he have dropped dead on the spot? T-1000, destroy all that blood for me. Don't leave a single bag."
Huh? Who's calling me at a time like this?
Rimuru answered the phone, and Nick Fury's voice came through. On the other end, Nick Fury sounded weary in an "I knew this would happen" sort of way.
Nick Fury: "Rimuru, I'm guessing you're watching two big green guys beat each other up on the streets of New York right now. One of them is creatively ugly, right?"
(Hulk's roar and the thunderous crash of a collapsing building could be faintly heard in the background.)
Rimuru: "Wow, Director, did you plant a camera on me, or do you just have a radar for 'Hulk-type incidents'? By the way, he's not creatively ugly. He's ugly enough to make you want to leave Mr. Blue a bad review for his taste, though he probably won't get a chance to read it anymore."
Nick Fury: "I don't have time to appreciate your sense of humor. General Ross's 'little project' has gone completely out of control. They've smashed up the whole street, and half of Manhattan is shaking. Better yet, a S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite also caught a certain tin can and an unidentified shape-shifting object at the scene, watching the show. Care to explain?"
Tony leaned toward the phone and cut in. "Hey, Fury! We're conducting a 'civilian disaster assessment and feasibility study on the observation of controllable violence.' Also, I propose we open an underground betting pool. Interested in buying a stake? The odds are exciting."
Nick Fury took a deep breath on the other end of the line. "Stark, when this is over, we need to have a long, unpleasant conversation about 'superhero business law.' Rimuru, to the point: is that new monster Emil Blonsky?"
"The one and only. Former special forces elite, current 'Frankenstein experience participant,' Abomination. Somehow, he got the idea to give himself a mixed injection using Banner's blood. Instead of dying, he mutated. I'm having my... uh, 'janitor' take care of the remaining blood samples."
"All right, enough about that for now, Rimuru. I know you must have a way. Stop them first. They're about to tear that street down completely. Otherwise, tomorrow's headline will be 'Big-Guy Demolition Crew Appears on New York Streets.'"
"Director Fury, what are you saying? You really think too highly of me. I already tried just now, and I could barely handle one of them. Besides, I'm not your agent. If you want me to step in, you've got to give me something for it, right? You're the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., for goodness' sake. You wouldn't want a little kid like me to work for free, would you? Surely not, surely not."
Rimuru's obnoxious voice and his tone, as though he couldn't get enough of the spectacle, sent Fury's blood pressure soaring, but Fury couldn't do anything about him. Still, in the current situation, he could settle for being able to negotiate.
Nick Fury fell silent for a few seconds. Rimuru could almost hear the eyeball in his one good eye rolling wildly upward. Then Fury spoke in a tone that said, "I admit defeat, but don't get cocky."
Nick Fury: "Benefits? Fine. First, a special S.H.I.E.L.D. permit for 'rapid response testing at disaster sites,' for that T-1000 of yours or whatever it is. Next time it transforms and gets stopped, show them that. It'll save you at least two hours of explaining and a possible exchange of gunfire. Provided it hasn't turned into a tank, of course."
(Louder impacts and the sound of concrete cracking came from the background.)
Nick Fury: "Second, a backup of all the unencrypted research data from General Ross's Gamma Project. I know you don't think much of it, but the early blood-tolerance experiments might help you understand why Blonsky didn't turn into a puddle of ketchup and became... that thing instead. It'll be useful for controlling or preventing similar incidents."
Rimuru was speechless. What do I want that stuff for? "You know I don't think much of it, so don't bother. Remember my electric car project? Your government's efficiency is far too slow. Give me a VIP lane. You know what I mean, right?"
Tony (cutting in quietly from the side, though loudly enough for the microphone to pick up): "Ask him for a tour ticket for that Helicarrier, the kind that comes with a chance to pilot it."
Rimuru's eyes widened as he turned to look at him, his eyes full of disbelief. Wait, you already know about it?
Before Rimuru could ask, Tony spoke as though he had read his mind. "They invited me to be a consultant. I gave them a few pointers on their technology."
"Damn it, something like that happened and you left me out again? I'm going to fight you."
Listening to the voices coming through the phone, Nick Fury nearly ground his teeth to pieces. "Tony Stark! That's not an amusement park! Rimuru, third and last: one archive search. You can name a person or an incident. As long as it's on Earth and there's so much as a punctuation mark about it in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s 'possibly relevant' database, I'll let you see it. Of course, the highest-sensitivity material is off-limits. This offer is for your personal use only."
The offer made Rimuru pause. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network did have some appeal, especially when an "outsider" like him wanted to find out how many more "surprises" this world held. Some secrets were never uploaded to the internet at all and existed only in paper files.
Just then, Abomination let out a furious roar from the center of the battlefield. He seized an opening and slashed a deep wound across Hulk's shoulder with a bone spur. Hulk roared in pain and grew even more violent, punching Abomination into the second floor of a nearby building. The entire wall came crashing down. General Ross's roars over the radio had taken on a note of despair.
Rimuru sighed as though he were taking a terrible loss. "Sigh, all right, all right. I'm just too softhearted to watch ordinary people suffer. Deal! But Director, remember, the backup data had better be complete. And I'm saving that search for later, so don't go back on your word."
Nick Fury: "The price of going back on my word is higher than you think. Now, hurry!"
Tony shrugged, his faceplate snapping shut. "I'll handle aerial harassment and keep that ugly bastard's attention. Hulk's yours? Or do you have a way to calm them both down first?"
Rimuru gave the phone one last reply. "Director, get ready to clean up the mess and deal with General Ross. And remind the medical team they might need a lot of sedatives, for the two big guys and maybe for the general who's about to crack, too."
After hanging up, Rimuru's gaze sharpened. He shook his head at Tony. "No need. Stand back, watch closely, and learn. I'll show you the might of thunder."
Tony raised an eyebrow at that and stepped back, wanting to see what trick he would pull.
It's time to show off!
Only the most awe-inspiring thunder can shatter the deepest darkness. Shatter the darkness with thunder!
Bolts of Balthakk!
Dazzling lightning erupted, illuminating the entire street.
It was not a single bolt of lightning, but hundreds of blazing orange bolts, twisting like dragons and serpents, bursting from the void in the same instant! They did not come from the clouds. Centered on Rimuru, they violently tore through the veil of reality, turning the entire battlefield into a hell of thunder! The light was so blinding that General Ross and his soldiers in the distance were instantly blinded, while the visual sensors in Tony's suit erupted with overload warnings.
The Bolts of Balthakk were not natural lightning, but a manifestation of the Vishanti's power. Even Thanos would not dare take them head-on. Bearing the searing heat of purification and the weight of judgment, they precisely "embraced" the leaping Abomination and Hulk, who followed close behind.
"Aaargh~!!!" Abomination's furious roar turned into a piercing scream. The lightning did not merely explode across his skin. Like countless fine silver-white chains, it bored through his thick hide and coursed through his muscles, bones, and even every cell that had just been driven into a frenzy by Gamma Radiation, destroying and breaking down that chaotic power. The vicious bone spurs on his body broke apart inch by inch and vaporized in the lightning. His massive body seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer, smashing back into the ground faster than he had risen and leaving a deep crater. Blue smoke rose from his body as he convulsed, unable to move for the moment.
Hulk was engulfed by the lightning as well. But the energy of rage within him seemed to put up some strange resistance against the thunder. The lightning burst into dazzling sparks against his green skin, drawing a roar of pain from him, but it also further fueled his fury. His body seemed to swell another size within the lightning, his eyes blood-red as he struggled to break free of the net of thunder. His movements, however, had become noticeably sluggish and stiff, as though every inch of muscle bore the pressure of a mountain.
The lightning lasted only three seconds.
But to everyone on the battlefield, including Nick Fury watching through the satellite feed, those three seconds seemed as long as a century.
When the blazing orange light abruptly faded, leaving only the sizzling scent of ozone in the air and the burn marks lingering on their retinas, the scene had changed.
Abomination lay sprawled at the bottom of the crater. Though he was still breathing faintly, the violence in his eyes had lessened somewhat, replaced by bewildered pain and weakness.
His skin was charred black and split open in many places. Most of his overbearing arrogance had been forcibly beaten out of him; he was practically a living man who was slightly dead.
Hulk lay in another, shallower crater, panting heavily as wisps of white smoke rose from his body. He tried to stand, but stumbled and shook his massive head, apparently somewhat dazed. His furious roars had also grown low and confused, his urge to attack had visibly diminished, and his body was beginning to shrink.
The entire street fell eerily silent for a few seconds. The only sounds were the occasional shifting of building debris and the faint wail of sirens in the distance.
"JARVIS, energy readings?" Tony was the first to recover. His faceplate rose, revealing a face full of astonishment.
"Sir, I cannot perform a precise analysis. That form of energy... exceeds what is recorded in conventional databases. At its peak, it briefly reached the total energy a small tactical nuclear weapon would release at ground level, but it was extremely concentrated, and its destructive range was precisely controlled to the individual targets and a very small area around them. In theory, those two targets should have been completely carbonized, but they are still alive, and their vital signs are slowly recovering." JARVIS's voice carried a rare note of hesitation.
JARVIS's reply left Tony baffled. You had that move, so why didn't you use it earlier? Did you have to go up and fight him hand-to-hand? Did you have nothing better to do?