C16: Finish
Boom—
The Hulk, trudging forward through the urban battlefield, was momentarily distracted and failed to anticipate the brutal strike. In an instant, Li Ran unleashed a blow using ten percent of his Vajra-enhanced leg strength, an ancient mystic power refined through internal cultivation.
With a thunderous crash, the Hulk's massive green frame hurtled backward like a missile, smashing through the façade of a high-rise across the street and vanishing in a plume of concrete dust and broken glass.
So damn tough.
Though Li Ran had achieved the seemingly impossible landing a clean hit on the Hulk, it came at a cost. Wincing, he stumbled as he rose to his feet, a sharp pain pulsing through his right leg. He didn't need to glance down to know his foot was likely swollen or worse possibly fractured.
Compared to concrete or steel, the Hulk's gamma-irradiated musculature was something else entirely.
After all, this was a being whose defense could shrug off tank shells and survive impacts from Mjolnir.
> [Famousness from Hulk +55]
[Famousness from Bruce Banner +70]
[Fame from General Thaddeus Ross +45]
[Legend from U.S. Army Infantry +0.5]
Even if the process was more grueling than expected, the fame points were undeniably generous. The Hulk was no random villain, he was one of the foundational members of the future Avengers. Striking him not only yielded fame from the creature but also from the man inside—Bruce Banner.
As for General Ross, although the name had only flickered across Li Ran's interface a few times, he pieced together that this was the relentless commander of the Hulkbusters and head of Project: Thunderbolt—a man with personal and professional vendettas against the Green Goliath.
Still, while Li Ran dreamed of milking millions of fame points off the Hulk to instantly unlock a high-tier treasure chest and steamroll through the Marvel Universe, the reality was much grimmer. Landing one clean blow was already bordering on suicide. And with Ross watching from above, eyes like twin targeting systems locked on his back, it was time to cut his losses.
He made the wise call and disappeared into the shadows of the city.
---
Aboard a modified SHIELD-commissioned gunship circling overhead, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross watched silently through tactical binoculars as Li Ran retreated from the area. Due to Hulk's earlier vertical leap, the chopper had maintained altitude, unwilling to risk proximity without air superiority. All Ross could do was sear Li Ran's silhouette into memory, a new anomaly on his battlefield.
Minutes later, heavily armored units from the Gamma Response Division secured the impact site. The building Hulk had crashed into was reduced to dust and rebar. But of the jade-skinned target? No trace.
Ross disembarked moments later, trench coat flapping like a general from a different war. He scanned the remains of the structure, his face granite.
"Fan out and sweep the surrounding sectors," he ordered coldly. "He's reverted. Banner's on foot."
Finding a 10-foot-tall rage monster in New York was one thing. Finding Bruce Banner—America's most elusive fugitive nuclear physicist was another matter entirely. Over the years, Banner had mastered vanishing. With knowledge of sewer grids, surveillance blind spots, and back alley routes, he could ghost the Army in minutes.
---
In a dank alley a few blocks away, a disheveled figure huddled beneath tattered blankets near an overflowing dumpster. He blended into the urban despair just another homeless soul eroded by the city.
But his eyes, bloodshot and calculating, tracked every movement around him.
Banner exhaled slowly as a squad of camo-clad boots passed the alley mouth. His body trembled not from the cold but the remnants of adrenaline and transformation.
Memories after a Hulk-out were always fragmented. Senses blurred. Time skipped. But this time… this time there was a vague image seared into his hippocampus:
A figure. A blinding strike. Then flying.
Who the hell had the power to kick the Hulk like that?
---
"Unhh..."
In a heavily guarded medical facility operated by the U.S. Army and partially subsidized by Project: Rebirth, Emil Blonsky stirred from unconsciousness.
"You're awake, soldier."
That gravel-thick voice. Blonsky tried to shift but couldn't so much as twitch a toe. His limbs were locked. Immobilized. Bandaged.
"Don't move," Ross said, stepping forward, his features shadowed by the sterile light. "You've suffered extensive trauma. Comminuted fractures in over half your skeleton. Paralysis for now is a certainty. If you recover, crutches will be the rest of your life."
Blonsky's world cracked. The pride of Royal Marines. The elite warrior. Broken.
"So I'm finished, sir," he whispered through cracked lips. "I'll never fight again."
"Theoretically, yes," Ross said. "But theory is... flexible."
That flicker in his voice reignited something in Blonsky's soul. A soldier's instinct. He narrowed his eyes, pushing past the pain.
"Sir... are you saying there's a way? To recover?"
Ross didn't blink. "There's a program. One with roots in the same science that created Captain America. The serum... it's unstable. But the right emotional catalyst enhances the results. Rage. Drive. Obsession."
Blonsky's breath quickened.
"No guarantees," Ross said, reaching into his coat and removing a lead-lined case. Inside: a syringe filled with viscous, murky-blue serum, an offshoot of Banner's gamma research combined with early super-soldier serum remnants from the SSR vaults.
"But it's a chance."
"Hell," Blonsky muttered, eyes locked on the syringe. "What do I have to lose?"
Without another word, Ross jabbed the needle into his vein.
A scream followed.
---
> [Famousness from Banner +60]
[Fame from Emil Blonsky +40]
"Huh?"
Back at his dingy apartment in Queens, Li Ran blinked as the fame notifications appeared on his panel.
He hadn't even done anything. Yet two new figures had triggered legend points.
Banner made sense, barely maybe residual fear or awe from their earlier clash.
But Emil Blonsky?
Frowning, Li Ran tapped the air to summon the legend logs. The name glowed. A military background. Injuries. Rage. And now... transformation.
Whatever was happening behind closed military doors, it was tied to Ross. And it had something to do with another weapon in the making.
Li Ran shrugged. A mystery for later.
Legend points were legend points.
And now, his interface showed 560 fame. Just short of the threshold needed to unlock the coveted [Black Iron Treasure Chest].
One step closer. High risk, high reward, exactly how he liked it.
---