  Editor-in-Chief DarKnight77
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You're a good man father, despite your flaws, I know it, Betty Ross knows it…and history knows it too! I…haven’t been around long, and I have been angry, and too scared to approach you, but…I don’t want this to be the only thing I remember of our relationship so…Dad, please!
Appearing in "Annihilus Part 7"Edit
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
Supporting Characters:
- Avengers
- X-Men Blue
- GeNext
- X-Men Gold
- X-Men
- Lyra (She-Hulk)
- Valeria Richards
- Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) (First Appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-3116
- Earth
- Cuba
- Havana
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Cuba
- Earth
- Negative Zone (Mentioned)
Items:
Synopsis for "Annihilus Part 7"Edit
The issue starts at the same place the last issue started with James, Lyra, Dani, Megan, Olivier, and Jimmy leaving to the Negative Zone to complete their given task.
They are at the Mansion and things are more in the other heroes POV.
“Okay time to Portalize.” Riri turned to the team “Stay safe guys. Portalizing in 5...4...3...2…-
“Chin up guys, we're going to win this!” Cap called right before they disappeared in a flash of bright light.
Everyone was tense as one second, two seconds, 3 seconds ticked by, 4 seconds, 5 seconds, 6, maybe they had miscalculated? But suddenly before that seventh second could tick on a portal appeared.
And all hearts dropped for a moment as a ship flew right through. It was Torunn who quickly got everyone’s minds off of the possible failure, and instead the task at hand.
“AIM FOR THE SHIPS! SHOOT FOR THE POSSIBLE WEAK POINTS WE DISCUSSED! FLIERS WITH ME, WE CAN STILL GET THROUGH THIS. FOLLOW THE PLAN!”
Immediately everyone began to spring into action. Torunn surged forward as two more ships began to fly through the portal in the sky before it closed. There were now three huge ships and Annihilus was no doubt on one of them.
It wasn’t hard to realize that this was all Annihilus had, far from the numbers that were originally reported. So it was fair to assume that in some capacity, James and the others had managed to do their jobs.
How well they had managed to do it, and if they were alive were totally different questions. The first was answered immediately when the ships began firing, they quickly blasted through parts of buildings, and things like that, but they didn’t crack the planet in half. So that was a win. They just needed to keep the battle here before things could spiral further.
When Torunn had called for fliers, ten others had immediately taken to the air. Azari was the first and he trailed right behind her. Then there was Torch, Ironheart, and Vision. Beside them was a group of six composed of Psylocke, Cascade, Nocturne, Radiator, Rogue, and Solstice.
These 11 had been chosen to be the first response to Annihilus’ attacks. The creature had clearly seen them coming and had opened the hatch of the three huge ships and immediately Arthrosians fell from them like drops of rain. There were so many.
Some fell and fell and fell until they hit the ground and went to attack those who were still there, while some of the other Insectoids were gifted with flight, and began their descent on the flying heroes, more than ready to take them on.
“We need to be quick people. Deal with your opponents fast and don’t give them time to strike! Remember the ships are our main focus.” Torunn insisted, she then turned to the Iron Legion which had slowly begun to rise through the air, a coordinated attack. “FIRE!”
At her command the Legion did their best to attack any Arthrosians and and the ship. It would help as having strength in numbers was a very real thing. But the fact was the Legion wasn’t very strong. They hadn’t been used for combat in a very long time. There wasn’t much time to truly weaponize any of them. So aside from their weak (Compared to Ironheart) repulsor blasts they couldn’t do much besides that and of course defend.
Still it was much better than nothing and already it affected the Arthrosians as they couldn’t simply lock in on the heroes. After giving the command Torunn found herself getting into a fight with a group of Arthrosians with Azari at her side.
She started cleaving through them with her sword imbued with tons of electricity and Azari did the same, extending the vibranium claws on his suit and began slicing through the Arthrosians. As they got closer to the ship, the harder the enemies got to kill and it wasn’t long before the duo found themselves blasting lightning through the Arthrosians hoping to slow them down.
Torunn stopped for a moment as she saw a familiar beast, the enormous caterpillar beast she and Pym had dealt with in the Negative Zone. Except this time it seemed even larger, it was covered in armor, and of course was flying with large wings on it’s back. Truly a monstrosity.
Torunn frowned harder as she locked eyes with the beast; it was almost as if the beast remembered her, even though it couldn’t have been the same animal. Either way the skies quickly crackled with lightning as Torunn summoned the storm and charged forward at the beast, and at the same time she made her move, the beast hmade it’s as well and they clashed in the sky, with a deafening boom.
With the six X-Men they were learning on the fly how intense war could be. Immediately these beasts attacked them with a ferociousness they hadn’t even seen at Doom’s castle. They were attacked much harder than they ever had been in their short lives, and yet the heroes adjusted and continued to fight on.
Psylocke and Cascade stuck together, using a mix of telekinesis and telepathy to dispose of their insect-like foes. Radiator and Solstice stuck together, their similar fire powers allowing them to work off of each other very well.
Rogue seemed to hop around and be an enforcer for anyone who needed it. In terms of pure physical strength none of the other X-Men in the air had too much strength unless they were using telepathy.
She was doing a good job of taking on the bigger beasts who simply needed a punch in the face to be taken down. And when things got a little too tough she had marbles in a pouch and when she imbued them with kinetic energy like her father could, they made a very nice explosion to give her some space.
Talia seemed to mostly be on her own. The daughter of Scarlet Witch was extremely poised when fighting and it gave her edge. Every move was made with the knowledge that it was the best one available in that situation. And even though the girl was very raw as a Magic user, and hadn’t tapped into her full potential yet, her hex bolts were very effective against the Arthrosians and so she handled herself just fine.
“Heads up Vision!” Riri called as blasted a rather large Arthrosians upwards towards the android. Vision himself was dealing with a large beast, but he still had time to turn and blast the beast straight through the head with Sunstone and return to his fight.
Torch started off with Azari, Torunn, Riri, and Jim but he found himself gravitating to Solstice, and Radiator. All three of them were fire users, yet the way their powers worked were vastly different.
The integration was rather seamless and few words were needed to get the two girls to work like a well-oiled machine with him. This was not his first war, and he quickly found himself taking control of the situation and handing orders when they needed it, but all in all things were mostly fine and the group found themselves getting closer to one of the large ships.
On the ground the story was slightly different. Those in the air had been considered the first line of defense, but the reality was that the first line had been broken very, very quickly. The moment all of those Arthrosians hit the ground the odds were they were going to be overwhelmed. The odds were right.
A lot of the “powerhouses” were currently in the air, and so that left a good portion of S.H.I.E.L.D. ground forces, some of the Iron Legion, Pym, Stature, Francis, Copycat, Spider-Girl, Colossus, No-Name, Apex, Beast, Dazzler, and the four older X-Men (Hank, Emma, X-23, Kitty) to help out.
The young Pavel would quickly prove to be the strongest man on the ground, his metal form seemingly unbreachable, and his punches pulverised anyone in his way. Pym and Francis were some of the most experienced and found themselves handling the situation fairly easily.
Apex, while not having metal bones like Jimmy, he was still his father’s son, and he found it very easy to lose himself in taking down every Arthrosian around him. Spider-Girl was handling herself like a veteran, webbing up the Arthrosians in bunches when she could, and proving to Hawkeye and Pym she needed less watching than some of the others.
Michael Wilson proved to be as good of a shot as advertised keeping up with Hawkeye with relative ease. Miguel was young but he was still immensely strong and his forcefield was practically impenetrable so he was never really in any trouble. Olivia stayed by his side and they tried to do the best they could. No-Name was a blur, doing her best to mess with the Arthrosians, and the Older X-Men really showed their age and experience when helping out.
They honestly weren’t doing a bad job, but this isn't your everyday fight. It wasn’t even the Masters of Evil or Ultron. It was a war. Those heroes and some S.H.I.E.L.D. forces were not going to cut it.
And so while the effort was there, it didn't matter. Those on the ground found it harder and harder to push back and it wasn’t long before they couldn’t keep up with the numbers on the ground.
“This is not good!” Pym yelled to Hawkeye whilst dodging a rather large blast of acid from a group of Arthrosians “We are hurting and their numbers continue to overwhelm us, at this rate-
“Don’t say it.” Francis warned “Don’t even put that energy in the air Pym!”
“It’s the truth we need more than this!”
“Go Giant!” Francis responded after shooting three explosive arrows at a multitude of the Arthrosians.
“I will, but I think we both know we're going to need more than that.” Pym said as he blasted an Arthrosian into the dirt.
“Yeah we do...are you gonna, are you gonna get him?”
“I’ll try. But I think we both know it isn’t a question if he will come out...It’s about what he’s going to do when he’s free.”
Even though they were already in the middle of a fight, Pym's words were very heavy, and brought more tension between the two heroes.
“It won’t get that bad..It can’t, we're stronger now.”
“Something tells me that might not make the biggest difference.” However there wasn’t really much time for more conversation as the others on the ground level began to fallback, as none but Colossus was currently able to handle the intense battle.
“Go Pym, It’s our one shot and he knows it has to happen! GO!” Francis urged his friend, Pym didn’t waste anymore time and shrunk to the size of a wasp and disappeared to the Mansion where Amadeus, Bruce, and Tony were watching the fight and controlling the Legion.
While Amadeus and Tony were controlling the Legion. Bruce was nowhere to be found. Pym knew where he would be though. He sent a message to Tony to clear anyone out of the Mansion though he was certain it was just him and Amadeus.
Pym found himself quickly getting to the training room where Bruce was and the man was already sweating heavy bullets watching from a small screen the destruction that was going on outside of the small panic room.
The tension on his face was clear, and the reason for the tension was somehow even more obvious. Release the green beast, or hope for the best and keep it locked down.
It was a question that was ringing in Pym’s own mind but the answer was also abundantly clear...Whatever it takes, even if the results were gonna hurt.
You see the first time they awakened the Hulk and he beat Ultron for them it was such an amazing experience that when he jumped away with Betty and hopped away into the abyss no one questioned a thing, they just knew that one day they were going to be working with him again.
The first time they found Hulk after that experience it had nearly been a year since their victory. They needed more help and Bruce had been the one they were looking for. They found the Hulk instead and were subjected to the beating of a lifetime. None of them stood a chance but through the help of Betty and Pym, they managed to calm Hulk down enough to get Bruce to transform.
He’d been with the Avengers everyday since then (Over 2 years) and he hadn’t hulked out once. He actually had a very strong resolve, and could keep the beast within through many situations.
He had a very strong will when it came to the Hulk. The problem was when he let go. When he let theHulk do what the Hulk did best, it was equally as hard to put him back in the cage, especially since Hulk got to come out less and less.
It was dangerous but as a shockwave was felt throughout the entire mansion, despite the enforcements of the buildings, it was their only option.
“We're going to die out there Bruce. James isn’t here yet, and neither is She-Hulk to take your place.” Pym told him simply.
“It’s far too dangerous! If the Hulk comes back out I don’t know if I can keep him back in.” Bruce told him fearfully “He hates being stuck. And the next time he gets a chance to get out, he’s going to do his best to stay. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to bring him back in.”
“So we’ll just have to do our best to tether you Bruce. I’ve gotten you to come back once before. With Betty I’m sure I can do it again.” Pym insisted confidently
“Could you do it before I destroy everyone and everything around me?” Bruce questioned
“If we do nothing, everything around us is going to get destroyed anyway.”
There was another shockwave, and it was large enough that Pym had to hold onto Bruce just to stay steady.
Bruce sighed, and looked down, slightly disappointed in himself “I can’t Pym, I can’t put that on myself.”
Pym was slightly annoyed, but he felt for the old man, unfortunately though, his mentor had no choice. “I’m sorry Bruce, because I wasn’t asking.”
And with that he punched him in the face, sending the old man to the ground. He cringed as it clearly hurt, but he didn’t stop and he punched him again, and then kicked him in the ribs.
“Stop Pym, you-you don’t want this!”
But Pym ignored his cries and instead began zapping him with his blasts, only enough for it to hurt a little, and annoy him a lot. Eventually Bruce’s words became incoherent, and seemed to be a bunch of noisy growls.
His skin took a green hue to it, and despite being afraid of what was coming Pym only doubled the speed at which the blasts were coming.
When Pym finally stopped it was out of fear, as Bruce’s head snapped straight towards him and he stared at him with an very angry glare. “STOOOPPP!”
He yelled in the way only Hulk could, and with that Pym knew his task was done. He sent one more blast towards the Hulk for good measure and then he flew out of the Mansion as fast as possible he only stopped once when he heard a blood-curling “RRRARGGHHHH!”
As he got outside the Mansion and saw the looks on the Older-X-Men’s face it seemed they knew what he had done as well. While they looked worried, it was obvious they knew it was all they had as well.
And so when Hulk smashed through the top of the Avengers Mansion and landed on the street creating the biggest shockwave of the day they were relieved. And yet they were also worried, because there was no telling what was going to happen next.
The next scene takes place in Havana Cuba.
The explosion had been huge and the group had only seen a glimpse of it, felt the molten levels of heat creep up on them in an instant before their miraculous exit. Still the subsequent fall they took and the prior damage acquired had meant that they had all passed out for a couple of minutes before waking up again.
Lyra had been the first to awaken and James had came to shortly after. He quickly called a Quinjet to their location and eventually realized they were in Cuba, recognizing the place from the first time he and the others had gone to liberate the country from Ultron.
After calling the Quinjet to their location Lyra and James began the process of waking the other heroes up. Megan, Oli, and Dani were a little out of it, but they quickly remembered what they were needed for and shook off that groggy feeling.
“How long do you think it will take the Quinjet. To get here?” Dani asked
“A few more minutes at the most. We don’t get to do it often because it’s dangerous, but the Jet can surpass supersonic speeds with ease. We should get there soon enough.”
“Hopefully things are okay over there. The longer we are away the worse it’s going to get.” Olivier noted with a sigh.
“We just need to have some faith in the others, and believe they can manage things for a while until we get there.” Dani countered
“It’s harder than you make it sound.” Olivier sighed “My teammates...They aren’t like you.” Olivier said whilst looking at James “They haven’t been in the field like that and I’m worried about how they will handle actual field work. Because let’s be honest Doom’s Castle wasn’t much. Those ships Annihilus took were huge.”
“Well I can assure you everyone’s vital signs are relatively okay. I’ve relayed our survival to Tony but haven’t gotten a response yet. But everyone is okay. Everyone is...Oh.”
“What is it!” The other five asked immediately, because from his tone and expression good news just turned bad.
“Everyone is alive, it's just...Bruce’s vitals...they’re spiking.” At first it seemed only Lyra understood what that meant, and she simply frowned but soon the others caught on.
“The Hulk...he’s a hero, right?” Megan questioned worriedly.
“The Hulk has proven time and time again he will fight for what is right...At times he can be...misguided. But I’m confident he will do his best to help everyone out.”
“I hope your right Cap, cause we can’t survive a Hulk attack, no offense Lyra.” Olivier admitted
“Let’s focus on the task at hand.” Lyra unsurprisingly shifted the conversation from her father. “We know what we're going to be getting into, so instead of talking about the Hulk we should be strategizing on how we will help them as quickly as possible.”
“You're right. Come on guys. Let’s focus up.”
It was obvious to anyone that the situation had the potential to be far worse than James was letting on, but they did their best to forget it. They had come too far to lose to a friend.
The scene switches back to Manhattan at the Mansion and the surronding areas. “RRRARGGHHHH!”
The roar of the Hulk was heard all around New York everyone knew. It was a sound that commonly bestowed fear into those who were unlucky enough to hear, but in this the Heroes were feeling pretty lucky.
Hulk had immediately become the main target of Annihilus and when the huge ships decided it would be a good idea to blast him, he forgot about chasing Pym and instead attacked the ship and the Arthrosians, tearing through them like they weren’t even there.
The Hulk was so dangerous he began taking down one of the huge ships on his own. Jumping up the large ship and smashing through the hull, going inside to wreak havoc. This gave the heroes new life and Torunn began to lead the heroes to the next ship ready to make an offensive move now that the Hulk was providing cover.
“Come on team. We are this close!” Torunn urged the fliers on. She was currently leading them towards the large ship that they planned to destroy by any means necessary.
The heroes flew in a “V” shape with Torunn at the front then it was Black Panther and Nocturne, Next was Psylocke and Cascade, Radiator and Solstice, Ironheart and Vision, and Jim flew in with Rogue.
They wrecked serious havoc with Torunn at the forefront and with the Hulk doing so much on his own it wasn’t hard for them to get into the ship and begin doing their best to tear it down.
The Arthrosian numbers had finally visually begun to thin, it was getting more and more obvious that the heroes were finally gaining a little bit of an edge, and this gave the fliers the adrenaline they needed.
Azari wiped out a group of Arthrosians with a blasts of lightning, he was punched in the stomach but all that did was fuel his suit, which had been brimming with kinetic energy, and he let go with a kick that ended up taking out another group of Arthrosians.
Jane released a blast of psychic energy and Cascade had gotten a hold of a blaster and was taking out every Arthrosian that crossed her path with a little luck and deadly aim.
Solstice and Radiator were doing a good job, never getting into positions they wouldn’t be able to handle and surrounding themselves with fire making it hard to get an actual hit on them.
Jim like last time kept close when they were in the ship handing out orders to make sure they stayed safe. Ray fought mostly by herself and once again did her best to help anyone who needed it. Ironheart and Vision had taken a completely different path than the others heroes hoping to find an easy way to destroy the ship.
They were similar enough to the Harvester of Sorrow that Riri and Vision were quickly able to hack into the ship and set it to self-destruct.
Whilst they all dealt with the ship, those on the ground did their best to deal with their own forces. Despite the additional help they had gotten from Hulk, and the fact that less and less Arthrosians were hitting the ground the original force was still a lot for those on the ground.
Currently Pym and Cassie had gone Giant, and Pym was directing Cassie in every step she made. She had only done it a couple of times so it wasn’t something she was going to be able to hold for a long time, but it was helping them a lot.
Hawkeye had gone into the Mansion to get more Arrows two times already, and it seemed in a little while he would have to go a third time. Spider-Girl had been fighting with him and had run out of webbing a while ago, luckily she was pretty strong and still doing decently.
X-23, and Apex were working in tandem, their similar abilities playing off each of them very nicely. Colossus hadn’t tired a bit and he still looked unbeatable, Hank and Miguel fought with him doing their best to stop the ground forces from gaining anymore territory.
Emma worked with the kids and Kitty, making sure Dazzler, Copycat, and No-Name could keep up the fighting. So far Michael was fine as he had a healing factor, but the other two continued to slow down as time passed.
Daisy, Fury, and Eli had been working together since the beginning and even Daisy’s powers hadn’t made too much headway.
Having the Hulk was undoubtedly great but they needed something else to change their favour on the ground level.
Francis was ready to ask Pym to find out where James and the others landed when his head snapped towards the entrance to the Mansion.
In fact everyone’s attention was pulled there as they heard the sound of a revving engine. Francis looked and saw a Hellcat. Not just any Hellcat. But the Hellcat was on fire, it burst past the Mansion gates and was speeding to their location.
It wasn’t even the weirdest thing as on top of the Hellcat was a…thing. Something as he could only describe as a flaming skull-man dressed in leather. He slammed straight through a blockade of Arthrosians and then used a long chain and used it like a whip, Arthrosians exploded on impact and he continued to slam through the army without saying a word to anyone or anything.
The only reason no one had questioned him yet or tried to stop him was because he hadn’t come close to hitting any of the heroes and had actually stopped Dazzler from getting hit.
“A f#$%^&! fire skull-man!?!?!” He heard Copycat question with a laugh, the Mutant had been trying to get close to the fiery hero from the moment he saw him. “This is great, genuinely I don’t think it could ever get better than this!”
Hawkeye and Yellowjacket were going to agree for the moment it hadn’t seemed like it could get better than this and yet the sound of a Quinjet hit the hero's ears next.
They could clearly see Cap in the cockpit and he opened fire on a ton of Arthrosians. The top opened up and Megan, Olivier, Dani armed with Captain America’s shield went flying for the third ship.
Lyra took a huge leap off of the Quinjet and her surrounding landing had created a shockwave so strong it sent some of the heroes down to the ground with the Arthrosians.
James came out next, jumping out of the still moving Quinjet that ended up crashing into a group of the Arthrosians. They had all seen Dani fly out with his shield which was shocking enough, but it wasn’t too surprising to see him with his old energy shield.
Suddenly in the matter of five or so minutes they had grown by seven. The second ship was going down already, and Dani, Megan, and Olivier had gotten started on the third one. Things were looking up.
“Took you long enough!” Francis called James and Lyra who were working in tandem on a particularly big Arthrosian.
“We got a little held up in Cuba, we came as fast as we could!”
“Thank goodness you did. Honestly I was a little worried at first, but now I’m confident we got this, with all our numbers, we have the upper hand!”
It was true, but as always it seemed the heroes spoke too soon. As the ship Hulk was dealing was completely destroyed they all heard a very loud “RRRARGGHHHH!”
And after that a blood curling scream, that clearly belonged to a female. “Lily!” they heard Emma gasp, she put a hand to her temple for a moment as she used her telepathy to figure out what was going wrong. And what she told them, made everyone freeze.
“It’s the Hulk…He’s gone feral.”
In a moment James had assessed the words and got to work. “Pym, shrink down and get to his location. You are our best hope at getting him to calm down, Colossus, you follow as well, you are one of the few people who might stand a real chance. Francis, you tell Torunn to tell the others to stay clear. Lyra-
“I know. Don’t worry.” Lyra assured and looked to Pym “Come on little one. If the Captain is correct I will need your help to calm my father down.”
“Good the rest of us, this is still a war, and if we lose focus the Arthrosians will catch us off guard.”
He made excellent points but it was hard to focus on the Arthrosians when the pained groans of Lily, Jessica, Jane, Oli, and Azari were so clear.
“Trust in the team guys!” Cap insisted as he battled hard with one Arthrosian, for the moment he felt like he and Stature were the only ones still fighting “Trust the others can do their job, and everyone will be fine! This isn’t a time to watch the skies, Annihilus is still here, the job isn’t finished yet!”
This roused the others into action and allowed them to focus back on the task at hand. With Lyra, Colossus, and Pym, Lyra held onto Colossus and leaped into the sky right towards one of the downed ships, that was where Hulk was going on his rampage. Pym otherwise flew behind them and they made it to the scene in no time.
When they got there, they found Torunn, Dani, and Megan fighting off theHulk. The first two doing a decent enough job Dani hit him with Cap’s shield and then Torunn blasted him away with her lightning.Megan was clearly on her last legs.
“Torunn, Dani, get out of here.” Pym told them quickly, they only had a moment to spare and they both were ready to rebuttal, but Pym quickly shut it down. “Cap’s orders."
“Alright.” Torunn nodded, “Stay safe.” Dani added, there weren't any words from Megan who had taken a pretty bad beating, but she did give them a little smile. Torunn picked up the diamond girl and flew away allowing the group of three to deal with the rampaging Hulk.
His screams were getting louder as he got back to where he had just been blasted, and it was clear he was getting angrier, not good for them.
“Priority one is getting him to calm down. Make him see reason, he told me that was going to be harder this time, and I believe.” Pym explained to them, “Do your best not to hurt him because that will make him angry, but if you have to don’t hesitate. Because he will hurt us if he gets the chance.” Pym assured them.
“Of course. Though I believe you need to be the most careful.” Lyra told the Avenger “From what I understand you caused him to transform, and you are the weakest out of here. This will be dangerous.”
“Everything is dangerous, and this isn’t the first time I’ve done this…hopefully it’s the last time though.”
Afterwards there wasn’t any time left for talking. Hulk launched high into the air and was coming down fast, Pym and Lyra were able to jump out of the way relatively easily, but Hulk hadn’t been going for them rather it was Colossus who hadn’t been able to dodge out of the way, he did his best to block Hulk’s fists that was aimed straight for head, he braced for impact with his arms, but despite that he still felt his body crumbling under the force and he hit the ground.
Shakily he managed to get back up. But for the first time since the fight had started, Pavel had felt real pain, and it had him just a little worried.
“Bruce, stop this madness!” Pym yelled at the Hulk. The name only angered Hulk more and he lunged at Pym with a loud roar “ARGHHHH, NOT BANNER!”
Pym shrunk down and avoided being hit by Bruce, but he knew the Hulk was smarter than he let on, and he turned and clapped towards Pym but he had been prepared and in his small form hid behind Lyra who wasn’t bothered by the gust of wind in the slightest.
He quickly popped back out now on Lyra’s shoulder and addressed him again “You are Banner. You always have been and always will be Hulk. You two are connected whether you like it or not, and right now Bruce we need you, so come back please!”
The Hulk stared at the group of 3 and grabbed his head, as he seemed to be struggling to comprehend everything he was hearing and eventually Hulk clearly won out “NOOOO!”
He lunged for Lyra and the girl made an expert move avoiding the Hulk’s fists but in the process Pym was thrown off her shoulder and left on his own. Hulk nearly got to him, but Colossus got into the way and punched the hulk causing him to back up just a bit.
“Bruce come on. You can’t forget everything we’ve been through. Dealing with Ultron. The Masters of Evil, doesn’t that mean anything to you?” Pym called from behind Colossus, but suddenly the metal man was thrown to the side and Hulk backhanded Pym straight into a tree, they were farther from the Mansion than ever and it would have worried Pym if he could see anything, but at the moment, his vision quadrupled and he could barely speak.
“Bruce you-you have to remember.” Pym called, but Hulk was focusing on beating down Colossus, if it weren’t for the huge punch from Lyra he probably would have knocked him out as well.
“Father, look around you!” Lyra demanded, almost furious. She knew her anger would have to be kept in check for her to have any chance at this.
“You are striking fear into those who love and trust you, I know you don’t want this.” Lyra told him, he lunged at Lyra, but at the moment the girl was strong enough and fast enough to keep up with Hulk and so she grabbed his fist and threw him to the ground.
“When I was a little girl, this is what everyone was afraid of. Everyone was afraid I would get so angry I would turn into a mindless raging beast. So afraid that I genetically altered just so that wouldn’t happen! I’ve heard of your stories father. I know no one regrets your rages more than you. I know this isn’t what you want so get a hold of yourself you're better than-Urghkk!”
It was sudden the downed Hulk moved with a speed Lyra hadn’t thought possible and suddenly he had his hand around her throat.
And for as strong as Lyra was, her father was undoubtedly stronger, mostly based on the fact that his strength was unlimited as long as he continued to get angry, and he had been getting angry for a very long time. Even if that wasn’t the case Hulk was naturally strong enough to have a near impossible chokehold to get out of. Even for someone like her this was a heavy task.
She grabbed at his hand but it wouldn’t budge, so she began to speak, with the limited air she had “You're a good man father, despite your flaws, I know it, Betty Ross knows it…and history knows it too! I…haven’t been around long, and I have been angry, and too scared to approach you, but…I don’t want this to be the only thing I remember of our relationship so…Dad, please!”
Lyra’s plea seemed to be on deaf ears at first but soon enough his hands softened and Lyra took the air as she could and began talking “You're a Hulk dad and you can never ever forget that. The Hulk is just as important as Bruce Banner, but right now I need the scientist…The warrior needs to rest.”
By this point Lyra easily broke out of the chokehold, but she did so softly, as the Hulk was slowly turning back into Bruce Banner, and when he finally did she her father knocked out, left in just his baggy purple pants.
She sighed, and checked on Pym and Colossus before using the commlink James gave her “Is this thing on?”
“She-Hulk, everything okay?”
“My father is done for now. He knocked out Pym but he’s awake now and he’s waking up Colossus, we should be back at the fight scene soon.”
“Good, hurry back as fast as you can because this is it.”
“Okay. Will do.”
James ended the transmission. And looked around him. At the moment it was him, Jimmy, Torunn, Francis, Dani, Laura, Miguel, Azari, Ironheart, Vision and a limping Nocturne. The flaming skull man had reverted into a regular teenage kid named Roberto not too long ago, claiming that if he went any longer he was going to lose control. So he along with the other injured heroes were in the Mansion.
Hulk had really done a number on their team but James still believed they could win. And as he watched a huge green creature with bat-like wings that seemed to cover the entire sky fly down towards their group he knew they had to.
“Avengers strap up.” James called “This is it.”
Annihilus landed on the ground in front of them in the Avengers Backyard, beside him were a few Arthrosians who had yet to be killed off, though it was obvious his army was no longer a threat as all three ships were downed on the ground.
He stared at the heroes and the heroes stared back, all wondered who would make the first move.
NotesEdit
- In this issue we learn that the Avengers have fought Hulk before and that Bruce has kept him inside for over 2 years.
- In this Issue we learn that supposedly history somewhat pities Bruce and understands his situation, not many think of him as a monster.
- This issue ends on a bit of a cliffhanger which is the third time it's happened in this volume alone.
- This is the second to last issue of the Annihilus arc. The Next issue concludes the story
- This issue makes it seem like Lyra could have fought her father hand to hand and done well if she had forego'd all talking. It also shows that despite her feeling of anger towards her parents, she does want a relationship with Bruce.
- Despite losing Colossus showed immense strength battling with Hulk who is Class 100+.
- Pym, Betty, and now seemingly Lyra are currently the only ones on Planet Earth who are known to get Bruce to transform back into his normal self.
- Annihilus was only able to bring in 3 ships and despite their number reaching the thousands the heroes with the help of the Iron Legion was able to destroy over 90% army leaving less than 50 Arthrosians on Earth left, including Annihilus.
- It isn't clearly shown, but Torunn beat her very large and similar opponent, the one who had shown up in A New Legacy (Vol.2) #6
- The next issue is already known to be the final battle and the aftermath, which is supposed to shake up the landscape. It's unknown if that means death, or something else entirely.
- Hulk defeated many of the flying heroes, and some of those on the ground.
- Robbie Reyes' name is actually never said in the story, they don't even seem to know that he might be Ghost Rider or what that is. It's notable because the O5 have been able to identify many other obscure heroes before. So it's possible Ghost Rider has never existed on this Earth.
TriviaEdit
- No trivia.
See AlsoEdit
Recommended ReadingEdit
- None.
Links and ReferencesEdit
- None.