Leander Hayes didn't just stare; he calculated. He observed the yellowish-brown behemoth intently, his mind racing through tactical possibilities and the energy expenditure required for each action. The minute he had spent violently suppressing the Abomination was a calculated risk. It bought time. Time for the ordinary people to achieve maximum flight distance, clearing the stage for the heavy hitters.
The Abomination, naturally, was absolutely furious about the sudden, cowardly disappearance of its victims. It craved the thrill of the hunt and the terror of the prey.
"RUNNING?! AFTER I JUST GOT HERE?!"
The monster roared, punctuating its outrage by stomping the asphalt. The pavement buckled and cracked under the weight and fury, creating a large, jagged crater. With a casual kick that sent two mangled cars flying into the night, it turned its attention toward the distant echoes of fleeing sirens and residual screams. The hunt was back on.
WHOOSH!
The sound was not that of a plane or a missile, but a human body impacting the ground at terminal velocity. A massive green shadow descended from the darkened sky, hitting the street with the force of a small asteroid.
"Oh, crap, oh, crap, oh, crap!!"
The voice, belonging to the plummeting figure, was not a battle cry but a surprised, slightly panicked grunt. The impact that followed was tectonic, smashing a huge, disproportionate crater deep into the already tortured New York street. The shockwave felt like a physical punch even at Liu Chong's distance.
Finally. Show time, Leander thought, a sharp, excited energy replacing his previous pain and nausea.
He narrowed his eyes, tracking the dazed Abomination. The green newcomer's chaotic entrance provided the perfect distraction. Liu Chong raised his right hand, the titanium-steel throwing knife shimmering faintly in his grip. With a silent command that was pure mental force, the knife flickered and vanished from his fingers.
A strange, compressed wave of powerful, unseen energy—the backlash of using his System at maximum precision and velocity—slammed into Leander's chest, forcing him back two hurried steps. It was the price of a high-speed telekinetic toss.
A hundred meters away, a silver streak materialized directly in front of the Abomination's face. The throwing knife—small, precise, and fast—pierced the air with a piercing, high-pitched whistle moments before impact. It drove straight into the Abomination's already damaged eye socket.
"NNNNNGGHHAAAAA!!!"
A colossal, primal roar of pain, agony, and pure, incandescent malice erupted, loud enough to crack nearby windows that had somehow survived the initial mayhem. Thick, turbid yellow-green blood spurted out. The terrifying fists of the monster slammed down on the asphalt repeatedly, showering the street with concrete dust, rebar fragments, and countless tiny pebbles, making it impossible to clearly see the scene unfolding thirty meters away.
With a gentle, almost bored wave of his hand, Leander brought his metallic "surfboard"—the heavy car door—back to his feet. He stepped onto it, using the platform for speed and mobility, and zipped directly toward the convulsing Abomination. A hint of a grim smile touched his lips.
"It seems only good metals are effective enough to break through the creature's defenses, huh?"
The realization was a bittersweet victory. It confirmed his suspicion that raw strength wasn't enough; he needed refined materials, which were currently his most precious, painstakingly accumulated resource.
He reached the corner, stopping his flying platform fifty meters away from the monster. As the dust settled, the scene became clearer. The chaos had subsided, revealing the Abomination clutching its face. The silver throwing knife's hilt was firmly lodged in the corner of its eyelid, blood and torn flesh spilling out. The monster had grasped the knife and brutally yanked it out, tearing its own socket further in the process.
But the most chilling part wasn't the wound. It was the sight of the mangled, hideous tissue around the eye socket slowly beginning to knit itself back together. It was a rapid, visible process.
"Stop," Leander commanded his platform, slamming the brakes on his rapid approach. The flying car door skidded to a stop. "No, no, no. That's a waste of titanium. I cannot afford a protracted engagement against that level of regenerative factor. Since the big green guy is here, my job is done—I'll just observe."
Leander retreated, shrinking into the shadow of a damaged building. He watched the massive crater shuddering violently, and then, a monumental green fist exploded into the sky, followed quickly by the rest of the body.
"Hulk. I finally get to see the real, unedited version," he whispered, a thrill running down his spine that overcame the pain in his arms.
The enormous Hulk lumbered out of the pit. His size was absolutely comparable to the Abomination, a towering presence of impossible muscle. Yet, where the Abomination was a chaotic mess of bone spurs and aggressive growth, the Hulk was power personified—a sublime, beautifully terrifying quality of raw strength.
"ROOAAAR!"
The Hulk's roar was a force of nature, a shockwave that visibly blasted away all the remaining dust, debris, and lingering smoke in front of them, clearing the stage for the true spectacle.
The roar instantly caught the Abomination's attention. The Abomination, based on the disgraced special forces operative Emil Blonsky, was intrinsically linked to and motivated solely by his obsessive need to defeat the Hulk. His eyes locked onto the green giant thirty meters away.
"HULK! COME ON, YOU WEAKLING!" the Abomination screamed, a sound mixing human cruelty with monstrous rage. He dropped his ruined titanium knife and charged.
The two titans ran toward each other, their massive strides leaving deep, radiating cracks in the pavement. At ten meters, they launched into the air simultaneously, two mountainous figures of muscle and fury colliding violently above the street.
The collision was deafening, a sensory overload that thrilled Leander to his core. Five years! he thought, his heart pounding. Five years of living in this world, and I finally get a front-row seat to one of the all-time classics!
The victory in the initial exchange belonged to Blonsky. With a tremendous, brutal thud of colliding muscle and bone, the Abomination hurled the Hulk away. The Hulk tumbled backward for more than ten meters, staggered upon landing, and then, disoriented and wobbly, fell back down, momentarily dizzy.
The Abomination emerged from the residual smoke, crushing the remnants of a burning car beneath its massive boot. Its damaged eye was now almost completely healed, leaving only a faint, angry scar.
"IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT, GREEN FREAK?!" the Abomination taunted.
Leander snapped back to reality, slapping his forehead with his uninjured left hand. "Idiot! That's right! I forgot! This is the early Hulk. Banner is still constantly fighting the change, and the military's suppressants have heavily gimped his strength. He's running on a quarter tank! I have to intervene, or this is a short film!"
Just as he prepared to push his System and throw another expensive knife, the scene flipped.
Fueled by a fresh surge of Banner's suppressed rage, the Hulk launched himself forward, delivering a series of rapid-fire, piston-like punches that utterly overwhelmed the Abomination. He pounded the monster mercilessly, crushing the Abomination's entire body down into the cracked earth, making the ground beneath seem as fragile as soft clay.
Blonsky, spitting out a few broken teeth, somehow managed a sneer. "Pathetic performance!"
With a sudden, violent kick, the Abomination sent the Hulk flying. The green giant shot directly backward, tumbling straight toward Liu Chong's hiding spot.
Oh, come on! Why me?!
Instinct took over. The abandoned car door, which Leander had used as a platform, flew forward instantly, slamming against the Hulk's trajectory, providing the giant with a sudden, metallic buffer. Leander himself desperately scrambled backward several steps, trying to escape the landing zone. I'm a squishy, level-one mage right now! I do NOT tank hits!
Before he could properly escape, the Abomination caught up, and the two muscular, raging giants coincidentally resumed their brutal, hammering slugfest right on top of Leander's former hiding spot.
Leander's emergency protocols engaged. The small, specialized metal support struts he always carried—thin, high-grade alloy tubes—instantly detached from his belt and jacket lining, attaching themselves to several key skeletal points on his body, bracing him. But it was too late for evasion.
A massive, golden-yellow fist—the Abomination's—came crashing down, narrowly missing the Hulk but catching Liu Chong in the periphery of its massive impact wave.
He barely had time to raise his braced arms defensively. Though his body was already in frantic retreat, driven by his System's self-preservation instinct, the unparalleled concussive force of the near-miss was still catastrophic.
CRACK! SNAP!
A series of sharp, sickening sounds confirmed his worst fears. The bones in both of his forearms and hands broke instantly, shattering into multiple fragments under the incredible force. The intense, blinding pain overwhelmed his senses, a violent assault on his brain that nearly caused him to black out on the spot.
The metallic car door behind him, acting as a massive, improvised kinetic plate, provided the necessary cushion and thrust, instantly launching Leander, fifty meters away—or maybe more—away from the epicenter of the brawl.
He landed hard, rolling to a stop. His arms hung limply, uselessly at his sides. Every slight twitch sent a white-hot, stabbing pain through him, the bone fragments grating against his flesh. Liu Chong's face was ash-gray, beaded with freezing cold sweat.
"That truly is an irresistible force," he gasped, trying to maintain consciousness.
He forced himself to look up. The two giants were still wrestling, the Abomination currently pinning the Hulk to the ground, raining down brutal, repetitive blows.
"Quick, think! Tactics!" he mentally roared, forcing his mind through the fog of pain. "Weapons! I need weapons!"
Using the thin metal strips and wires he carried—now vital for emergency repair—he began stabilizing his broken arms, attempting to bind the worst fractures with his left hand's limited capacity.
But in those few crucial seconds, the battle had moved on. The giants, a whirlwind of muscle and rage, had already destroyed several buildings and disappeared from view.
Leander commanded his remaining metal supports to lift him slightly. He shot upward, flying to the top of a relatively intact building for a vantage point. In the distance, he saw the final, furious act beginning.
An armed military helicopter was firing wildly at the Abomination. The heavy machine guns were futile, only serving to enrage the already psychotic monster.
The Hulk, regaining his strength, made a desperate leap, aiming for the chopper, but managed to latch onto the Abomination's leg instead. The two behemoths grappled, hanging off the helicopter, violently dragging the aircraft down for a forced, catastrophic landing. The wings were annihilated, the fuselage twisted and cracked.
Leander rushed over. The weakened Hulk was thrown aside, dazed. The Abomination stood atop the wreckage, looking down at his defeated rival. The helicopter's fuel tank was ruptured, leaking a steady stream of highly volatile jet fuel.
Blonsky slammed the Hulk against a factory wall. The Hulk struggled, but it was useless. Inside the wrecked cabin, Dr. Betty Ross (Banner's love interest) looked on helplessly, her face a mixture of despair and horror.
"You never earned this power, you idiot! You let them restrain you! Now, watch her die because you're a coward!" the Abomination spat, his voice laced with the bitterness of a man who sacrificed his humanity for a power he felt entitled to. Filthy saliva flew from his mouth, and the bone spur on his elbow drove deep into the Hulk's pectoral muscle, drawing a thick stream of green blood.
An electrical short circuit somewhere in the mangled fuselage sparked. The spark hit the pooling jet fuel, and a raging inferno instantly enveloped the cockpit and the helicopter's rear.
Leander clenched his fists. This was the defining moment. He used his broken left arm's remaining mental link to manipulate the helicopter's metal shell, trying to force the debris to close around Betty's location, shielding her from the flames. Simultaneously, he drove his last weapon—the titanium throwing knife—at maximum velocity toward a point of weakness he had identified: the back of the Abomination's skull.
The Abomination's head snapped forward violently as the silver steel knife drove deep into the back of his head. The resulting shock was a brief but potent distraction.
That fraction of a second was all the Hulk needed.
The creature's pupils narrowed into pinpricks of pure, incandescent green. The surge of raw, untethered power was visible as his muscles bulged, ripping his shirt even further. With a guttural roar, the Hulk pried open the Abomination's crushing hands, tore the bone spurs from his own back, and slammed the monster against the factory wall repeatedly, finally disappearing into the building's complex of walls.
Hulk emerged, taking two purposeful steps. He slammed his fists together, creating a massive, thunderous sound. "HULK... SMASH!"
A massive shockwave erupted from the impact point, rushing toward the flaming helicopter wreckage. The force instantly whipped up the oil slick and, critically, extinguished the flames clinging to the fuselage. Betty Ross scrambled out of the emergency gap on the far side of the wreck. "Watch out!" she screamed.
The Abomination emerged from the rear, wielding a terrifying, improvised weapon: a colossal iron chain fitted with large stone anchor blocks, originally used to secure massive cargo ships. The entire weapon weighed several thousand kilograms—enough to flatten a tank.
He swung it violently at the unsuspecting Hulk, who had his back turned, mesmerized by his own feat of power.
Blinded by the dust and exhaustion, Leander barely caught the movement. "NO! YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT!"
A point of pure mental agony exploded in Leander's mind—he pushed the System past any known limit, focusing every shred of remaining control on the massive chain. The deadly iron chain, carrying the kinetic power of a thousand-kilogram wrecking ball, slowed in mid-air, hovering momentarily above the Hulk's head, like a forgotten pendulum.
Hulk, meanwhile, slammed his fists into the ground in victory. A massive, tectonic crack spread toward the Abomination. Blonsky, stunned and losing his grip on the chain, stepped into the crack, which tore the ground out from under him. The massive iron chain fell directly into the Hulk's hand.
Seeing the Abomination fall and the Hulk armed with the colossal new weapon, Leander, covered in grime and blood, finally allowed himself a genuine, exhausted smile.
That's the cue.
He used his last mental strength to command his metal supports to propel his broken body as far away as possible from the approaching military sounds. After crossing two full city blocks, the pain, exertion, and adrenaline dump became too much. Leander Hayes collapsed into a dark alleyway, and the world faded to black.