Hulk's vision blazed crimson.
Every breath he dragged into his lungs seemed to shake the Moon's surface beneath him, each inhale a guttural growl, each exhale a roaring storm. Before him towered Black Dwarf, taller by a full head and twice as broad, his obsidian armor thrumming with the stolen might of the Infinity Stones. Intricate runes, carved deep into the plates, shimmered with alternating surges of blue and violet light.
Space.
Power.
A cheat.
A gift.
A threat.
Hulk didn't care for the source, only the pain cut through.
Black Dwarf's fist slammed into his jaw like the collapse of a dying star.
Reality lurched; in the blink of an eye, Hulk was wrenched a meter sideways mid-impact, the Space Stone warping position to deliver the perfect strike. The follow-up blow landed with meteor force.
He skidded across the lunar surface, gouging a trench dozens of meters long as gray dust erupted skyward in explosive plumes.
With a snarl, Hulk forced himself onto all fours, muscles coiled, just as Black Dwarf's massive foot descended. Space folded on itself like a hinge, snapping Hulk's head into the brutal arc of an armored knee.
CRACK.
The sound reverberated through the vast, silent void.
Hulk staggered, the metallic tang of blood coating his tongue, his vision lurching and swimming.
Black Dwarf did not relent.
With a grip fueled by the raw, crackling energy of the Power Stone, he seized Hulk's wrist and swung the Jade Giant like a colossal weapon, hurling him through two jagged ridges of lunar rock before driving him spine-first into the ground. The impact birthed craters that spiderwebbed outward in violent ripples.
The towering warrior bellowed, his voice thundering against the fortress of muscle across Hulk's chest.
"You cannot overpower what my master has perfected!"
Hulk's answering roar tore through the void.
"HULK… CAN!"
Then he moved, not with blinding speed, but with unbreakable will.
He drove his foot down, a cloud of lunar dust erupting beneath it, and caught the next swing with one massive hand. His fingers clamped around Black Dwarf's forearm, sinking deep into the armor-hard flesh.
The brute snarled, bending the very fabric of space in an effort to wrench Hulk's elbow sideways, shunting the joint through warped dimensions, but Hulk held firm.
The Hulk roared, louder than ever before, a primal bellow that thundered across the battlefield and reverberated through the very bones of gods and monsters alike. His arm, twisted and strained by the unnatural might of Thanos' dark gifts, snapped back into place through sheer, unyielding will.
He rejected the distortion, defied the corruption, and reclaimed his true form with blazing, defiant fury.
Black Dwarf's eyes widened in shock, sensing the balance of power shifting. Hulk felt it too, the tide turning, the cosmic scales tipping toward him. Thanos had granted power to his spawn, but Hulk's rage was a living tempest, swelling faster, fiercer, and more unstoppable than anything the Mad Titan could forge.
Then came the strike, a monstrous punch from Black Dwarf, strong enough to rip a mountain from the Earth's crust.
Yet Hulk met it with his palm, catching the blow in an unyielding grip. The impact cratered the ground beneath him and sent violent tremors tearing through the terrain, but Hulk stood like an unmovable monolith.
His fingers locked around Black Dwarf's fist, and with a bone-shattering squeeze, he crushed the illusion of invincibility. The Titan spawn snarled in desperation, driving a knee toward Hulk's ribs, but Hulk was ready.
He countered with a brutal elbow, splintering the knee guard, then, without hesitation, slammed his forehead into Black Dwarf's face with seismic force.
The resulting shockwave erupted outward in a ring of raw power, launching dust and debris into the air like the blast of a volcanic eruption. Black Dwarf staggered, reeling from the devastating blow. But Hulk? Hulk did not flinch. He did not waver. He surged forward, a green juggernaut of wrath and vengeance, prepared to unleash the full fury of a world wronged.
His fist slammed into the giant's gut, driving deep and crumpling armor like thin foil.
Black Dwarf's breath exploded out in a cloud of frost and spit, but Hulk gave him no chance to recover. He drove another blow into his ribs, then the collarbone, then the jaw, each strike heavier, swifter, more devastating than the last, too fast for his foe to defend against.
The Space Stone flared, desperately trying to warp Hulk's arm away mid-swing, but his rage was an anchor, and raw power shimmered off him in sweltering heat waves. Words had long abandoned him; only a primal, guttural roar rumbled from his chest as he drove Black Dwarf backward like a living battering ram.
A jagged ridge shattered behind the larger warrior. Hulk seized him by the throat, hoisted him skyward, and slammed him into the ground with such force that the stone runes beneath them flickered and dimmed.
Black Dwarf struggled to summon the Power Stone's energy into a protective barrier, but Hulk's fist tore through it. Then came another punch. And another. And another. Each blow crushed armor, bruised flesh, and sent unstable sparks of infinity energy scattering into the air.
The battle had shifted; confidence drained from Black Dwarf's eyes, replaced by desperation, as Hulk's strength surged higher with every heartbeat. And Hulk wasn't stopping.
He was only getting angrier, and infinitely stronger.
Sensing the tide turning decisively against him, Black Dwarf made a frantic bid for escape, channeling the last remnants of the Space Stone's power to tear open a shimmering portal to safety. Yet, as though foreseeing the alien's every move, Hulk suddenly emerged, an immovable wall of muscle and fury blocking the massive warrior's path. With a deafening roar and unshakable resolve, Hulk extended his colossal arms, prepared to clamp down on both sides of Black Dwarf's head with a crushing, inescapable grip.
Black Dwarf fought with every ounce of strength he possessed, but the sheer gap in raw physical might was something no mere flicker of Power Stone energy could ever bridge. The towering, musclebound alien could only stare in dawning horror as Hulk's jaw parted wide, revealing a swirling maelstrom of blue and green energy igniting deep within. The chaotic fusion coalesced into a volatile orb, a dangerous amalgamation of forces that were never meant to exist together, pulsing with unpredictable and devastating potential.
Hulk's jaws stretched beyond the limits of mortal anatomy, tendons straining and teeth splintering under the immense pressure of the energy surging within.
Deep in his throat, a volatile mass churned and roared, like a star being born from rage alone. Blue and green light spiraled in violent coils, colliding in chaotic waves that spilled raw power into the emptiness around them.
The radiance grew, casting sharp shadows across Black Dwarf's quaking frame, his eyes widening as panic overcame his fury.
In that instant, he understood, death was inevitable.
The massive warrior writhed in desperation, clawing at Hulk's wrists as cosmic armor screeched under the strain. The Space Stone flared with blue bursts, failing to twist the monster's grip, while the Power Stone sent its final sparks through Black Dwarf's muscles.
Yet the Jade Giant remained unmoved, utterly immovable.
Hulk gripped him with the unyielding dominance of a predator claiming its catch.
Each second dragged into infinity, every pounding heartbeat a drumbeat counting down to annihilation.
Within Hulk's gaping maw, raw power condensed into a blazing sphere, swelling outward as jagged veins of lightning danced and split across its surface. Scorching heat tore at his tongue, seared the back of his throat, but agony only fed the wildfire of his rage.
Black Dwarf's roar ripped through the air, warped and broken:
"RELEASE ME! RELEASE ME, MONSTER!"
Hulk's reply rumbled up from deep within the storm of fury and fire building inside him:
"HULK…
BREAK…"
The orb reached the brink of detonation.
Hulk's head snapped forward—
"…YOU!"
FWOOOOOOOOM!!!
The world ignited in a colossal beam of blue-green fury, a god-forged lance of destruction tearing through the void. In that blinding instant, Black Dwarf's existence was utterly erased.
His helmet went first, erupting into molten shrapnel that scattered into the void. An instant later, his face followed, flesh tearing away in vaporizing sheets as the beam bored through bone and brain with cataclysmic fury.
The beam did not relent. It consumed. Armor curled and flaked like blazing petals in a solar wind. His skull burst into atomized vapor, spinal links igniting and popping in rapid succession.
What had been his head dissolved into a swirling cloud of incandescent ash, drifting away like the shattered remnants of a meteor obliterated by a star's heart. A shockwave roared outward, hurling a ring of lunar dust for kilometers and carving a molten trench between the colossal combatants.
Black Dwarf's headless form spasmed once, then toppled, knees striking the Moon's surface before the rest crashed forward with a deep, resonating THUD. Smoke coiled from the corpse.
The air hissed. Silence swallowed the battlefield. Hulk loomed above the ruin, chest heaving, spirals of blue-green energy fading from his lips. His gaze rose, not serene, not victorious, but brimming with an even greater, rising fury. One down.
Hulk's fury didn't fade; it surged, swelling like a tidal wave of raw power.
The death of Black Dwarf brought no peace, no release; it only poured fuel onto the inferno raging within him, sharpening it, evolving it into something even more dangerous.
The green titan rose to his full, towering height, shoulders heaving with thunderous breaths that sent tremors shuddering through the Moon's crust. His skin fizzed and crackled with the remnants of stolen cosmic energy, arcs of blue and green lightning snapping from him like furious, newborn stars.
His pupils contracted to searing, blood-red slits, burning with primal wrath.
There were others, he could feel them, their presence tugging at him like gravity dragging on rage itself. The ground quaked underfoot as his fists clenched, knuckles paling beneath layers of rippling emerald muscle.
He turned his head with slow, deliberate precision, each movement radiating the predatory calm that came only when his rage reached its most perfect, lethal form.
Across the lunar battlefield, distant bursts of light flared, Saiyan's unleashing tempests of ki, Kryptonians casting beams like spears of living sunlight. The air was alive with war cries, detonations, and colossal shockwaves.
And looming over it all, vast and unyielding, like a black star anchoring a collapsing galaxy, stood Thanos.
The Mad Titan loomed across the battlefield, framed by the wreckage of shattered worlds, the flicker of firelight, and the fallen bodies of war, his gaze locked on Hulk.
On the severed form of Black Dwarf. On the smoking scar carved deep into the Moon's surface. Hulk's fists throbbed with power, his chest constricting as the roar began to swell from the depths of his being, a roar meant for only one.
The one who had drenched the cosmos in agony. The one who believed he understood true power. Step by earth-shattering step, Hulk advanced, each footfall detonating craters into the Moon's surface, one, then another, then another.
His voice erupted, a primal bellow that tore through the void and made the Moon itself tremble.
"THANOS!" It was not just a cry; it was a challenge, a vow, and a death warrant.
For the next life, Hulk would claim… was no mere servant. It was the Mad Titan himself.
Thanos stood motionless, four Infinity Stones blazing with the brilliance of stolen creation. The Power Stone throbbed like a malignant heart upon his gauntlet, its violet radiance spilling across the jagged lunar surface. Space warped subtly around him, while Time rippled like a disturbed veil. The Soul Stone smoldered with a silent, ravenous flame, its amber light threading into the Titan's flesh like veins of molten gold.
For the first time in years—
Someone had dared to confront him head-on.
Hulk's roar ripped through the Moon's crust, a tempest of sound that made distant mountain ridges quake like terrified beasts.
"THANOS!"
The green behemoth charged across the battlefield, each colossal stride birthing fresh craters, his emerald muscles flexing and knotting like tectonic plates grinding in fury.
Thanos' expression altered.
Not with anger.
Not with fear.
But with dark amusement.
A slow, wicked grin began to etch itself across his face.
"A bold proclamation…" he rumbled, his voice flowing like molten stone.
The smile deepened.
"…from a creature who has only begun to grasp the true meaning of power."
The Power Stone erupted, an overwhelming, blinding surge of violet energy spiraling around his armored form, distorting the very air beneath its crushing force. Lunar dust tore free from the surface, spiraling upward in a violent vortex as gravity itself groaned under the strain. The Titan advanced, each step pressing his boots deep into the Moon's surface, the ground fracturing beneath the weight of unleashed power.
Hulk did not falter.
A meteor of unstoppable green rage.
A juggernaut of unrelenting wrath.
Thanos braced himself.
The Moon trembled.
The Power Stone snarled with raw energy.
A halo of crackling violet lightning exploded from his fist as he raised it high.
"Come, then," he murmured, his voice low, eyes alight with cruel, burning anticipation.
For the first time in what felt like ages, Thanos felt truly alive.
A being had slain one of his children.
A being had dared to roar his name in defiance.
A being had the audacity to meet his gaze with murder burning in his eyes.
This warranted acknowledgment.
This demanded respect.
This promised violence.
The Time Stone flickered once, stretching each second into a viscous flow of syrup. Through the amber haze, Hulk's massive frame thundered forward, unstoppable even as reality itself strained desperately to hold him back.
Thanos clenched his fist tighter. The Power Stone surged, turning the Infinity Gauntlet into a weapon capable of shattering stars. The Soul Stone drank in the fury pounding within Hulk's heart, savoring every drop of rage.
The Space Stone wrapped itself around Thanos, forming an invisible armor of warped dimensions.
Then, in a sudden snap, time lurched back into its natural rhythm...
FWAM!
Hulk's fist met Thanos' Power-Stone-fueled strike in an impact that sent shockwaves tearing across the Moon.
Lunar dust vaporized in a perfect, expanding ring; cracks split the crust for kilometers; the sky flashed an unholy white; and even Earth's orbit shivered under the force. Thanos slid back a single step, his grin widening with the tremor.
Hulk was hurled backward, smashing through rock, kicking up a tidal wave of lunar debris, yet he was neither stopped, nor slowed, nor dazed. Rising with a growl that froze Thanos' smile for half a heartbeat, Hulk's crimson eyes burned hotter with murder.
"GOOD…"
Thanos hissed, flexing his gauntleted fingers as purple fire licked his wrist.
"SHOW ME YOUR TRUE POWER." Hulk charged again, faster than before, his fury igniting the void.
Thanos raised the gauntlet, Power and Space entwining as violet lightning crackled through distorted reality. Their second collision ripped the horizon apart.
The battle for supremacy, the merciless contest for ultimate authority, and the unrelenting march toward utter annihilation had begun in terrifying, awe-inspiring earnest.