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By now, there was only one conscious person left aboard the aircraft.
Betty Ross.
The crash into the water had drowned the pilot, but it had also prevented a far worse outcome. No explosion. No fireball. If rescue teams arrived quickly, the unconscious survivors still had a chance.
That was assuming one thing.
The Hulk could defeat Abomination.
For the moment, Abomination held the advantage.
He fought smart. Ruthless. Calculated.
The instant Hulk hit the ground, before he could even stabilize his footing, Abomination ripped a heavy steel bollard from the waterfront barrier. Swinging it like a medieval flail, he smashed it straight into Hulk's face.
The impact sent Hulk flying.
He crashed beneath the water tower where Jimmy stood, and a cascade of icy water came pouring down. The shock seemed to clear Hulk's head, at least a little.
From above, Jimmy could tell what really mattered.
Both monsters were exhausted.
Abomination's body was bleeding now. The wound Jimmy had stabbed earlier was seeping thick yellow blood. His muscle control was slipping.
That meant one thing.
Those claws would not get trapped again.
Below, Abomination continued pounding Hulk into the concrete.
Jimmy danced along the edge of the water tower, shouting like an unhinged sports commentator.
"That's it! Left. Right. Go for the legs, genius, Come on."
He laughed sharply.
"Throwing me like a dart earlier was a bad idea, pal, Real bad."
Jimmy flexed his shoulders.
"Alright. Time for the closer. Important characters always show up last."
He spotted his opening.
One push off the tower.
Claws out.
Jimmy launched himself straight at Abomination.
A diving strike. Fast. Precise. Like a hawk dropping from the sky.
The result was exactly what he expected.
Abomination tried to clamp down with his muscles.
Too slow.
Jimmy's claws sliced clean through his wrist.
Abomination screamed as the steel chain slipped from his grip and crashed to the ground.
"You little parasite."
Jimmy grinned.
Now you're scared.
He bounded across Abomination's body, never staying in one place for more than a heartbeat. Each strike landed in sets of three. Not single cuts. Not sloppy wounds.
Clean. Efficient. Relentless.
Abomination could not touch him.
Hulk, battered and bleeding, spat to the side and finally found his footing. Seeing Abomination stagger and bleed, he grabbed the fallen chain and charged.
"Move."
The word came out rough, broken, but clear.
Hulk was warning him.
Jimmy kicked off Abomination's shoulder and flipped away just as arcs of electricity rippled across Abomination's body. The massive creature seized up for a split second.
Hulk did not hesitate.
The chain wrapped around Abomination's neck, and Hulk pulled with everything he had.
Jimmy stared, stunned.
So prolonged damage triggered an electrical paralysis effect.
First time it proceeded after all this time.
Fantastic odds. About as reliable as a rigged lottery.
Hulk, of course, had no concept of defibrillators or cardiac shock. Otherwise, he might have realized what happened next.
The electric surge didn't just stun Abomination.
It forced his heart into overdrive.
His muscles convulsed and contracted violently, squeezing shut every open wound Jimmy had just carved.
Healing him.
Jimmy cursed under his breath.
They had practically spent ten minutes beating the regeneration right back into him.
Still, Hulk had momentum.
The chain cinched tighter around Abomination's thick neck, locking him in place.
Abomination thrashed, trying to free himself.
Too late.
"Stop."
Betty's voice cut through the chaos, trembling and tearful.
Hulk hesitated.
Jimmy didn't.
One glance was enough for him to understand the real stakes.
If Abomination lived, General Ross's experiment wasn't a failure. Just an incident. A controllable asset.
No court-martial. No consequences.
Just a bigger leash.
Jimmy's claws flexed as he prepared to move again.
At worst, Ross would receive a pair of strongly worded reprimands, Paper warnings, and political theater. The kind of consequences that meant absolutely nothing.
Then funding would quietly resume.
More grants. More experiments.
So many people were dead already. And you thought you would walk away clean.
Jimmy's eyes burned.
If it were not for your official badge, I would have already carved three neat holes straight through you.
He drew the Rolling Cloud Blade and lunged forward, driving it straight into Abomination's eye socket.
The scream barely lasted half a second.
Before Abomination could even finish howling, the blue-armored figure slammed a massive steel anvil down from above, hammering the blade deeper.
The sword punched through.
The tip burst out the top of Abomination's skull.
Abomination's body convulsed once.
Then went still.
Hulk froze.
Not because of Jimmy's brutality, but because the blade's tip had emerged dangerously close to him. A few inches lower, and things would have gone very badly for Hulk.
A near miss.
The anvil vanished back into storage. Jimmy yanked the blade free, gave it a quick shake to fling off the gore, and glanced at Ross, whose eyes looked like they might ignite.
"Come on," Jimmy said calmly. "Let's go, big guy."
He did not wait for Hulk to respond.
One powerful leap carried him toward the shoreline. Jimmy inhaled once, sharply, then vanished beneath the dark water.
---
Jimmy did not know this.
The moment he activated the armor, a signal had already reached Stark Industries.
"Sir," the AI reported, "Jimmy's armor has gone live, Would you like the visual feed?"
Tony Stark paused mid-sip.
"Hold it, Route it to the lab. I want to see what my nephew is getting himself into."
---
The footage appeared.
Tony froze.
His glass slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor.
"What the hell is that thing?" he barked. "Pull up their location, now, and tell me why Ross has a walking nightmare on the loose."
"That is General Ross's biological weapon," the AI replied evenly. "Based on current calculations, Jimmy's speed and agility should make him extremely difficult for the larger entity to hit."
Right on cue, Jimmy was swatted out of the air like a fly.
The lab fell silent.
"…Correction noted," the AI said.
Then Hulk entered the fight.
Moments later, the AI spoke again. "Probability analysis suggests a ninety-nine point nine percent chance that the green entity is allied. It will not harm Jimmy."
Jimmy was immediately grabbed and thrown like a human projectile.
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Alright," he muttered. "No more predictions, just observe."
Watching closely, Tony could tell something important.
Jimmy was fighting hard, but not desperately.
He was holding back.
When Abomination finally went down for good, Tony exhaled slowly. Relief washed over his face, followed by a shake of the head.
"That was a stupid call," Tony said quietly. "Ross is going to hate him for this."
Jimmy never gave Ross the chance to make contact.
He vanished into the water before military units could close in.
Ross, spotting the arriving troops, turned his attention to Hulk. The intent was clear.
Hulk noticed.
With a final glance, he bounded away, leaping across the cityscape like a massive green shadow, gone in seconds.
---
Harlem was locked down.
Hours later, Jimmy emerged from a sewer access point, drenched in grime and sewage. He blended into a line of evacuees waiting to be screened and cleared to leave.
There was a paper trail placing him in Harlem. A driving test. Official records.
That mattered.
If he resurfaced in Harlem, it looked normal.
If he reappeared in Queens instead, someone would start connecting dots.
And Jimmy did not intend to be found.
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