Jason froze mid-movement, his fist pulled back, ready to drive into Hulk's chest. May's voice cut through everything—the sirens, the crackling energy, the sounds of battle.
"Jason, NO!"
He turned his head, looking back at her window. Her face was pale, her hand pressed against her mouth in horror. The bedsheet had slipped slightly, and she clutched it tighter, her eyes pleading with him.
"Please," May said, her voice breaking.
"Please stop this. You're better than this. I know you are."
Jason's fist lowered slightly. The rage in his chest flickered, damped by something he couldn't quite name. Guilt? Shame? He didn't want to disappoint her. Didn't want to be the monster she was seeing right now.
"I..." he started.
Jason was momentarily distracted by the emotion in his mind and looked away from the Avengers. And Tony thought it was the right time to subdue him as he didn't believe that Jason would stop.
"Now!" Tony's voice cut through the moment. "While he's distracted—hit him with everything!"
"Stark, wait—" Captain America moved to intercept, his hand raised. "He's standing down—"
But it was too late.
Hulk was already moving, his massive legs propelling him forward with devastating speed. His fist—green, enormous, powerful enough to shatter mountains—came around in a haymaker that connected directly with Jason's jaw.
The sound was like a thunderclap.
Jason flew backward, his body ragdolling through the air. He crashed through a parked car, sending it spinning end over end. Through a brick wall. Through another building. He finally came to rest three blocks away, buried in the rubble of what used to be a convenience store.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
"Oh my God," Natasha breathed.
"JASON!" May screamed, her voice raw with terror.
Tony's faceplate was up, his expression stunned. "Hulk, what the hell—"
"What? I just saved the trouble of taking him down together!" The green giant looked proud of himself.
"He was surrendering!" Captain America's voice was hard, disappointed. "He was stopping!"
"He was dangerous!" Tony shot back. "You saw what he did to my suits, to Peter—"
"He was listening to May," Steve cut him off.
"And you ordered an attack on someone standing down. That's not who we are, Tony."
Three blocks away, the rubble shifted.
A hand emerged from the concrete and twisted metal. Then another. Jason rose from the destruction like something primordial, dust and debris cascading off his shoulders. His shorts were even more torn now, barely hanging on. There was a red mark on his lip, a little scar—the first injury anyone had managed to inflict.
He wiped it away slowly, looking at the crimson on his fingers.
Then he looked up at the Avengers. At Hulk specifically.
His eyes weren't questioning. Weren't confused. Weren't even angry in the way they'd been before.
They were death.
Pure, absolute, terrifying death stare.
"Sir," JARVIS's voice came through, urgent and alarmed.
"I'm detecting a massive energy spike emanating from the target. Power levels are increasing exponentially. Recommend immediate evacuation—"
"JARVIS, what kind of energy?"
"Unknown, sir. It's not matching any known signature in my database. Thermal readings are off the charts. The air around him is beginning to ionize. Sir, whatever is about to happen—"
Jason's body began to smoke. Not from fire, but from something else entirely. The air around him shimmered like heat waves rising from summer asphalt. But this was different—wronger. The smoke-like energy coiled around him like living things, dark and hungry.
"—everybody needs to move back. NOW."
"Avengers, fall back!" Captain America ordered. "Defensive positions!"
But Hulk stood his ground, pounding his chest. "Hulk is scared of—"
Jason vanished.
One moment, he was three blocks away. The next, he was directly in front of Hulk, so close that their faces almost touched.
Hulk's eyes widened in shock.
"You shouldn't have done that," Jason said quietly.
His voice was calm. Too calm.
Hulk's instincts kicked in. He pulled back his massive fist, muscles bunching, preparing to deliver another devastating blow. The punch came forward with enough force to shatter steel.
Jason caught it.
His hand wrapped around Hulk's fist, stopping the punch cold. The shockwave from the impact rippled outward, shattering every remaining window on the block. The ground beneath them splintered.
But Jason didn't move an inch.
Hulk stared at his captured fist in disbelief. "What... Hulk strongest there is!"
"Not today," Jason said.
He yanked Hulk forward and drove his knee into the green giant's stomach. The impact folded Hulk in half, all the air exploding from his lungs. Before Hulk could recover, Jason's fist came up in an uppercut that lifted all fourteen hundred pounds of the Hulk off the ground.
Jason was on him instantly, a blur of motion. His fists became weapons of mass destruction, each punch precisely placed to cause maximum damage. Hulk's face. His ribs. His jaw. Every blow landed with fierce precision and overwhelming force.
Hulk roared in pain and rage, trying to fight back. But Jason was everywhere at once, his speed and fury overwhelming even the Hulk's legendary durability.
Blood—green blood began to spray from Hulk's mouth. A tooth flew through the air, landing twenty feet away. Then another. Jason grabbed Hulk's head and drove it down into his rising knee. The crack of bone echoed across the battlefield.
"Sweet Christmas," War Machine muttered, his weapons systems tracking but unable to get a clean lock. "He's dismantling the Hulk."
"Thor!" Tony shouted.
"Now!"
The God of Thunder had already moved. Mjolnir spun in his hand, lightning coiling around his body.
"You've done enough!" He hurled the hammer with all his might.
Jason's head snapped to the side, tracking the hammer's trajectory. Without releasing Hulk, he raised his free hand and caught Mjolnir mid-flight.
The entire battlefield went silent.
"Impossible," Thor breathed.
"None but the worthy can—"
"I don't care about worthy," Jason interrupted. Lightning from Mjolnir crackled up his arm, but he didn't even flinch.
"I care about power."
He raised the hammer, and the lightning responded to him. Not like Thor commanded it—but violently, chaotically. The sky above darkened as Jason channeled energy through Mjolnir, amplifying it with his own heat vision, his own Kryptonian power, his own rage.
The lightning strike that erupted was like nothing anyone had ever seen. A column of pure electrical fury that lit up the entire neighborhood like day.
Jason directed it all at Thor.
The God of Thunder barely had time to brace himself before the lightning hit. His own element turned against him, amplified tenfold. Thor screamed as the energy tore through his body, his armor blackening, his hair standing on end.
When it ended, Thor dropped to his knees, smoke rising from his body.
Jason tossed Mjolnir aside casually. The hammer clattered across the pavement, forgotten.
"Anyone else?" Jason asked, his voice carrying across the battlefield.
Falcon had been circling above, looking for an opening. He dove in now, wings folded for maximum speed, trying to get behind Jason for a strike.
Jason's hand shot out without even looking. He caught Falcon by the throat mid-flight, stopping all that momentum instantly. Falcon's wings strained, servos whining as they tried to pull him free.
"You're brave," Jason acknowledged. He looked at Falcon's terrified eyes behind the goggles. "Stupid, but brave."
He threw Falcon—hard enough to send him crashing into a parked car three blocks away. The vehicle crumpled around him like tinfoil.
That left Captain America, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow.
Steve Rogers stepped forward, his backup shield raised. Beside him, Wanda Maximoff's hands glowed with red chaos magic. Natasha Romanoff held her position, widow's bites charged and ready.
Three of the most skilled fighters on the planet.
Jason looked at them and felt... nothing. No thrill. No excitement. Just exhaustion and rage.
"Move back," he said to Wanda and Natasha.
"I don't want to hurt you."
Wanda's eyes narrowed. "You're giving us a choice? After what you just did to our friends?"
"They attacked me," Jason said simply.
"While I was standing down. But you two haven't yet. So I'm giving you a chance. Walk away."
"Not happening," Natasha said, but Jason could hear the calculation in her voice. She was assessing, looking for weaknesses.
"Wanda," Jason said, focusing on the Scarlet Witch.
"I can see the energy inside you. It's powerful. Chaotic. But I've survived an atomic blast. Your magic won't stop me. It'll just make me angrier."
Wanda's hands trembled slightly. She could feel it too—the wrongness in his energy signature. Something that didn't belong in this universe.
"And you," Jason turned to Natasha.
"You're human. Skilled, enhanced, but human. I can hear your heartbeat from here. One hundred and forty beats per minute. You're terrified. As you should be."
"Fear doesn't stop me from doing my job," Natasha replied coolly.
"It should." Jason took a step forward.
"Last chance. Both of you. Walk away."
Captain America moved to intercept, putting himself between Jason and the women. "They're not going anywhere. And neither are you. This ends now."
"Does it?" Jason's eyes glowed red.
"You're the leader, right? The moral center. Tell me, Captain—was ordering Hulk to attack someone who was standing down part of your famous morality?"
Steve's jaw tightened. "That was a mistake. But it doesn't excuse what you've done—"
"I haven't killed anyone," Jason interrupted.
"Could have. Should have, maybe. But I didn't. Because she's watching." He gestured toward May's apartment. "And I don't want her to see me as a monster."
May was still at the window, Pepper Potts beside her now, trying to pull her back inside. But May refused to move, her eyes locked on Jason.
"Then stop," Steve said firmly. "Surrender. We'll figure this out. Talk. Find a solution that doesn't involve violence."
"Surrender?" Jason laughed.
"You think you can make me surrender?"
"We can talk this out."
"You had your chance to talk," Jason replied. "You chose violence. So now we finish what you started."
Wanda's chaos magic flared brighter. "Jason, please. I can feel your pain. Your anger. You're lost. Confused. You don't belong here. Let me help you—"
"I don't need help," Jason growled. "I need everyone to leave me the hell alone!"
His heat vision lanced out, not at them but at the ground between them. The concrete exploded, forcing all three to leap back.
Jason was done talking.
He moved toward them, and the battle resumed—three of Earth's finest against one impossibly powerful young man who'd crossed universes and lost all patience.
The streets of Queens burned, and May Parker watched in horror as the man she'd spent the night with became something else entirely.
Something terrifying.
Something unstoppable.