Chapter 142: Chapter 136: How to deal with anger issues
I stumbled to my feet, trying to regain my sense of balance. The world was spinning and I had the urge to throw up. My eyes focused on the wall, a large gaping hole was in the middle of it. The gap was big enough for me and Thor to pass through.
I blinked and realized that Thor and I had been blown straight through the metal wall and created a hole. A Thor shaped hole mind you.
I was in some kind of metal storage room, the ones we had thousands of in this flying ship.
I tried to remember what happened. Then I remembered; we had an argument next to Loki's scepter.
Next to me Thor groaned and spat out some old English curses.
"Does anyone copy?" I heard Fury's voice in my head. Wait, that shouldn't be a thing.
'I connected you to the communication line,' Chaos said, 'I thought that would be convenient.'
I smiled, 'Huh, convenient. Thanks.'
"What happened!" Thor bellowed behind me.
I turned around, Thor had gotten up and...well he wasn't looking happy.
"Percy Son of Jack!" Thor yelled, "What's going on?"
"It's Jackson," I groaned. "And I have no idea what's going on. I think Loki's scepter exploded."
"Wrong,' Chaos chirped.
'What do yo-' I began but I was interrupted with Fury yelling furiously into the intercom.
"We are under attack. The enemies are dressed like SHIELD agents. Does anyone copy?"
"Still here," I heard Tony's voice through the intercom, though he sounded winded. "And Cap's with me."
"Engine number three is down," Nick Fury shouted through the headset, straight into my ear. "If we lose one more engine we'll go down."
"That sounds bad." I replied, though engines going down were vaguely familiar to me. Leo had that problem all the time.
"Silent," Tony snapped, "the grown ups are talking here. Fury, what's the status of Engine 3?"
"The turbine is loose," A new, female, voice cut into the conversation. "Mostly intact but loose, we can't repair while we are in the air."
I wished Leo here, he would be able to fix it-
"I can attach the turbine back onto the back end panel." Tony said through the intercom, "should be easy."
I blinked, then I realized that Tony Stark was as good, or maybe better, as a Hephaestus. I hadn't seen Hephaestus flying in an iron suit yet. Better not let those two meet.
Still Tony Stark might be the closest this world had to Hephaestus. He made the Iron Man suit after all.
"I got Steve with me, he can help me repair the turbine."
"What?" Steve said but before he could finish his complaints he was cut off from the feed.
Fury shouted more orders, meanwhile I tried to get up. Man, explosions really do hurt.
I heard gunshots, lots of them.
"Loki." I suddenly remembered and I turned to Thor. "We need to check on your brother."
"Agreed." Thor replied.
Just as we agreed on that I heard loud sounds coming from somewhere above me. It sounded like something big was coming our way.
"We might have a problem here." Natasha spoke through the intercom. "The big guy is out."
"You check up on Loki, I'll keep the Hulk busy."
Thor gave me one good look before nodding and making his way.
I uncapped Riptide and opened the Shield of Winter and stormed through the Thor shaped hole in hopes of finding the green monster I heard so much about.
Would Riptide even be able to hurt it?
'It will,' Chaos reassured me.
I followed the sound of things being smashed, hoping to find Natasha and Banner. When I found people running away in panic I knew I had found them.
I stormed through the room into a room designed for the planes to take off.
A loud roar greeted me along with a crate that was flung against the wall. I saw Natasha sliding underneath a fighter jet.
Hulk followed after her, walking straight through the jet like it was butter. He brought down his fist upon Natasha.
While I ran towards the pair I drew water from the air and splashed it towards Hulk.
It wasn't much, not even a normal human would be damaged but it did gain his attention. His eyes drifted away from Natasha and landed on me.
I had to gulp. Damn, I faced titans and gods but seeing someone you just had a talk with smash through a fighter jet still made me shiver.
"Now Bruce," I came to a halt. "Take it slow."
I purposefully put Soul Speak into my voice. Hoping to reach out to the Banner I knew.
The Hulk shook his head, like a dog almost. He clenched his huge fist but didn't come closer.
"You might want to break everything on sight but we need you to be calm." I spoke, coming closer again. I saw Natasha silently crawling away from under the plane and retreating out of sight.
Hulk was relaxing, his breathing steadied and he wasn't punching everything in sight.
Progress!
I smiled as things were going my way. Which is ofcourse the right moment for the Fates, or whatever version of the Fates this world had, to screw me over.
An explosion rocked the helicarrier again, making me stumble and I bit my tongue.
Next thing I knew was a fist in my face. Just in time I managed to raise my shield.
The Hulk roared as I skidded over the floor before bumping against a stack of crates.
I regained my senses and saw he was already storming towards me, enraged.
Oh shit.
I got to my feet and waited until the Hulk close enough before jumping out of the way. He crashed into the wall but it did not seem to bother him in the slightest, if not just more angry.
I shot a patch of webbing against the Hulk, trying to tie his hand against the wall.
It worked for a slight second. Then the Hulk roared and tore his hands free, again looking angrier than before.
Next option.
I opened my mouth and unleashed a scream. The sound waves plastered the Hulk against the wall, however it didn't last long. The moments I stopped he jumped forward and tossed me away.
It hurt, it hurt alot. I actually felt something break as I slammed against a plane. Gods that hurt a lot. I knew the Hulk was strong but how strong was he actually.
With blurry eyes I got up, trying to figure out how to beat this damn thing. Something in my face felt wet and I had the feeling I was most likely bleeding all over the floor.
If it wasn't for Hel's blessing I would most likely have been dead by just a single punch. However I could already feel my flesh repairing. Somewhere I had the idea that I wouldn't survive a second hit; seriously what did they feed Banner?
'Chaos, how do I stop him?'
'Dunno,' I felt Chaos shrug. 'Have you tried hitting him?'
And the award for most useless goddess goes to our lovely creator.
"Guys," I asked through the intercom, "what is the protocol to stop the Hulk?"
He was already running towards me, his footsteps making dents in the floor.
"He should stop his rampage when no one is around." Natasha called back. "Besides that there is not much that can stop the Hulk."
"Get him outside, got it." I readied Riptide and loosened my shield. With one swift spin I threw it at the rampaging monster.
I missed.
A fist was on its way to my face and I had to scramble not to get hit by it. I slashed Riptide through his leg as I dove underneath the Hulk.
Behind me I could hear the sound of glass shattering. Like I had hoped it would.
I got up to my feet and stuck Riptide in Banner's back. Quite literally backstabbing him.
Ofcourse, it didn't do anything but anger him even more.
This guy had some serious anger issues.
I retreated from the Hulk with my back to the shattered window. I quickly gazed back, trying to determine if the hole I had created was big enough. It was luckily. I looked back to the Hulk.
My sword was still stuck in his back like a needle. The Shield of Winter returned safely to my arm and I summoned Frostsilver.
The Hulk looked at me, as if he was pondering something.
For a second I thought that Banner had managed to regain his control. Then he picked up a plane and threw it towards me.
"Oh shit."
Without even wasting a second I activated my combat avatar. Suddenly I was much higher up in the air, towering above Hulk.
The plane still crashed towards me but I managed to kick it away with my holographic leg just in time.
Only to find the Hulk right behind the plane. Ready to smash me.
I prepared my own fist and clashed it against his.
We were evenly matched. The Hulk groaned as our fists were locked against each other. He roared and put extra weight into it.
My eyes widened as the overhand I had suddenly disappeared. Does this guy get stronger the more power I use?
My feet were sliding over the floor as the Hulk pushed one.
I quickly abandoned that idea and dispelled the Combat Avatar. I had to play it smart. Try to outmaneuver the big guy.
The floor suddenly started to tilt to the right. I first thought my vision was becoming blurry due to the hit to the face I just got but when I saw jets and cabinets sliding over the floor towards the wall I knew something was wrong.
Weren't Cap and Tony supposed to fix this situation? Right now I had the feeling that the helicarrier was dangerously tilting over.
The big guy also looked surprised when gravity suddenly shifted and he fell to the floor, wall?
I shot a line of web towards the ceiling and managed to hang on while the floor tilted underneath my feet.
This gave me a few seconds to think about the situation. I had already shattered the window, now the question was how to get the Hulk out off this ship.
I gazed out of the window and didn't see an ocean like I had hoped.
The ship slowly stopped leaning over and the floor became normal again, along with that a very angry Hulk was storming towards me.
"Come here big guy!" I yelled as loud as I could before running towards the window.
I heard glass crunching underneath my feet and the heavy breathing of the Hulk right behind me. He was definitely gaining on me.
Without a warning I started to pull water from the air around me. This time I didn't throw it, instead I allowed it to spread over the floor like a small flood.
I spun around to check how close the Hulk was. And his hand was reached out, almost grasping me.
With a snap of my finger all the water on the floor suddenly turned into a solid matter; ice.
Like I had hoped the big guy wasn't agile enough to change his directions, especially not on a frozen floor. He skidded towards me, unable to reverse his momentum.
Just as I thought I had managed to do it the Hulk grabbed me in his grip while he was flailing towards the open window.
I could only stare as we both slid out of the helicarrier like Santa's green messed up reindeer couple.
The Hulk roared but didn't seem to be concerned with the lack of floor underneath us. After looking down I decided that I was scared. Really scared because we were very high up.
Wind rushed past my ears, almost deafening me while also violently jerking at my body.
Oh, and there was of course the Hulk who still had me in a deadlock.
While falling he raised his fist. My eyes widened.
Hel's blessing was still working overtime on repairing all the damage done by the first hit. A second hit was not something I could use right now.
I screamed. Not a normal scream but a super powered sound wave scream.
The Hulk was momentarily stunned by the soundwaves that hit him point blank in the face. While he was confused I desperately wiggled myself out of his grasp with every strength I still had left.
It worked. With a powerful kick I managed to get myself free from his grasp.
Like before he roared angrily and tried to reach out for me. However, he wasn't making any progress and he was falling much faster than I was.
Falling! Oh we are still falling.
The helicarrier was a speck in the sky right now, no way I could reach it with a webline. I looked down and didn't see any lakes or rivers I could fall into.
This was looking bad for me.
Yeah, this might prove to be a problem.