William soared across the sky, the wind shrieking past his ears like a siren song of urgency. His arms were cradled tightly around Harley's unconscious form, her limbs limp, her breaths shallow but steady. Her platinum hair fluttered in the wind, catching glints of sunlight like a living banner of hope. The air around them shimmered faintly, disrupted by the raw energy radiating from William's body as he surged forward like a meteor forged of purpose and fear.
Just behind him, two streaks of light moved in close formation, Kara to his right, her cape snapping like thunder as it caught the air, her expression hard as steel and soft as sorrow; and Peter to his left, his form agile and controlled, every muscle tuned to tension, his senses drinking in the atmosphere with microscopic clarity. They flanked William like twin sentinels, protective but respectful of the space he held. None of them spoke, words, in that moment, would have been an insult to the weight of what was happening.
Below, the alien world spread out like a vast, painted tapestry, verdant forests, molten rivers glowing like veins of lava, crystalline cities nestled between ridges of obsidian stone. As the trio streaked across the sky, the people below looked up. Murmurs spread like wildfire. Fingers pointed. Some fell to their knees. Some wept. And many, awash in the blinding silhouettes of the three celestial beings above, clasped their hands in prayer, mistaking salvation for a second sun.
Peter's enhanced hearing caught it all, the rising chorus of voices whispering in awe, in fear, in reverence. They were praying. To him. To them. Deities descending from the heavens. The idea struck him like a slap. His brow furrowed. He reached up and scratched the back of his neck in awkward disbelief, an instinctive gesture, almost childlike in its discomfort.
He let out a low sigh, barely audible over the wind. "We're not gods," he muttered to himself, though the words tasted hollow in the mouth of a man flying like one.
Turning his head slightly, he glanced at William, his brother, his anchor. A thousand questions rippled in his chest, unspoken but loud. Does this ever feel normal to you? Do you ever get used to being more than human in the eyes of others? But the moment passed, the weight of their mission crushing down on the need for philosophical introspection. There was no time for existentialism when a mountain ahead was glowing like the eye of some ancient beast awakening from its slumber.
That green glow.
It pulsed from the distant mountaintop like a heartbeat, slow, ominous, unnatural. The clouds above it had parted in a perfect circle, sucked upward like water swirling into a drain. The energy that bled from it made Peter's skin crawl. His spider-sense screamed at him, not in short bursts, but in a continuous blaring alarm. Every hair on his arms stood on end. His stomach clenched in warning. He didn't need words, his entire body was telling him: Danger. Now.
Still, he didn't waver. He didn't question. He followed.
William, sensing it too, slowed, his flight path descending slightly until he hovered mid-air, boots suspended over the treetops. He looked back over his shoulder, his expression unreadable beneath the hard lines of focus etched into his features. Without a word, he extended one arm to Kara, who immediately moved forward to take Harley from his embrace with infinite care, as though transferring the soul of a star.
Their hands met briefly in the hand-off, and in that fleeting second, something passed between them, unspoken but understood. A burden shared. A promise made.
William turned to Peter and gave a single nod.
Follow me.
No words. No debate. Just trust.
Peter exhaled once, letting go of the tension that threatened to paralyze him, and dipped his head in return before closing the distance between them. The two brothers moved forward together, no longer streaks of light, but silent shadows gliding toward the mouth of the storm.
"RAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The roar that tore through the mountains wasn't just a sound, it was a declaration. A shockwave of sheer rage and power detonated from the shattered peaks where the Hulk had landed, and with it came a blinding, pulsating wave of radioactive green light that surged outward like a tidal wave of fury.
Peter halted mid-flight as if he'd slammed into an invisible wall.
His eyes widened. His hands clenched at his sides, trembling slightly.
"I... I don't think I can get any closer," he said, his voice tight and strained. The words sounded distant, warped by the overwhelming static in his ears.
Every nerve in his body screamed. His spider-sense, once a finely tuned instrument of survival, had become a deafening siren, stabbing through his skull like ice picks. Waves of nausea rolled through him in violent pulses. Just the thought of moving forward, just the idea, made his very cells recoil in abject terror, like prey instinctively shrinking from a predator it had no chance of escaping.
William slowed and turned, his eyes narrowing with concern. Peter looked like he was being pulled apart from the inside, sweat beading down his forehead, muscles twitching involuntarily, jaw clenched so tightly he might have drawn blood. A part of William wanted to tell him to fall back, to rest somewhere nearby but safely out of reach. He opened his mouth to speak.
But then the light changed.
Without warning, the sky overhead darkened, not like the slow, creeping dim of sunset, but like a curtain yanked down violently. Shadows spilled across the land like black ink, swallowing the sun's warmth in a heartbeat.
William's eyes snapped upward, and they immediately narrowed to sharp, glowing pinpricks.
Something's coming.
"WHOOSH!"
An explosion of golden energy erupted from William's body, blasting outward in a wide-radius shockwave. The sheer force of it pushed Kara and Peter back through the air, heat and kinetic pressure slamming into their chests as they shielded their eyes. William rocketed upward, a burning lance of light streaking into the darkened sky.
Then they saw it.
Kara's breath caught in her throat. Peter, still clutching his ribs, stared upward in disbelief.
"Is that…?"
"M… MOUNTAIN…" Kara whispered, horror flooding her voice.
From their vantage point, it looked like the Hulk, the Hulk, had hurled an entire mountain. The impossible mass of earth, rock, and ice arced through the sky with terrifying speed, blotting out the heavens like an asteroid aimed straight at them. The visual dissonance was maddening: a single figure had thrown something that size. A single man. A beast.
And yet William didn't flinch.
He floated in the air, radiant and calm, his golden aura expanding in rippling waves like a second sun rising in defiance of the storm. His fists clenched. His body straightened. Then, almost like extensions of his will itself, four luminous, dense, arm-like constructs erupted from his aura. They extended outward with graceful, terrifying speed and precision, each slamming into the mountain at key structural points.
The shock of impact rippled outward with a thunderous BOOM, and for a moment the world held its breath.
The mountain stopped.
Not shattered. Not deflected.
Caught.
The impossible weight hovered in place, suspended by William's power. The strain was evident, his arms quivered, veins glowing like molten gold under pressure, but the mountain held. Kara exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding. Peter lowered his hands from his face, stunned.
Then it happened.
A roar, deeper and more monstrous than before, rose from the surface below. It was like the planet itself was groaning in fear. The earth trembled. Clouds dispersed in all directions from the pressure of the sound.
And from the heart of the mountain, a searing beam of green light tore upward.
"WILLIAM!" Kara shouted, but it was too late.
The gamma-charged blast lanced through the mountain's base like a sword through paper, piercing straight through the massive stone structure and striking William's chest with devastating force. The golden aura around him rippled, then fractured as he was hurled backward, his form a streak of light swallowed by the beam's intensity.
The mountain, suddenly unsupported, cracked and began to fall.
As the shattered mountain began its descent in a cascade of thunderous collapse, the largest remaining slab, a jagged, monolithic piece the size of a city block, hung suspended in midair for a breath longer than seemed possible.
And atop it, standing like a war god surveying the ruin he had authored, was the Hulk.
His arms were crossed over his massive chest, muscles bulging and heaving with residual fury. His expression was unreadable, somewhere between satisfaction and hunger. The green glow that had bathed the mountain now pulsed faintly from his skin, like the heartbeat of a living nuclear reactor. Below him, debris scattered in all directions, the sky itself trembling in fear of what was still to come.
"Hmph," Hulk grunted, a sound low and dismissive, as if he were unimpressed by the destruction around him.
Spiderweb cracks suddenly began to form beneath his bare feet, splintering through the rock in rapid succession. The sheer pressure of his coiled strength had become too much for the stone to bear.
Then, without warning, it shattered.
CRACK!
The Hulk launched forward like a missile, propelled by the unimaginable force of his own strength. A sonic boom tore through the sky in his wake, and his massive form became a blur of green fury, aimed with deadly precision at one target: William.
Far below, William had just regained his footing. Smoke still curled off his chest where the gamma beam had struck him. His aura flickered slightly, unstable, shaken, but not extinguished. His feet dragged through the dirt as he rose, grimacing, when suddenly,
There he is.
William barely had time to register the incoming meteor of muscle hurtling toward him. But instead of surprise or fear, a smile curled at the corner of his lips.
So that's how you want to play it…
Without hesitation, William roared as he summoned a massive surge of ki. Golden energy burst from every pore in his body, forming a fiery corona that set the very air ablaze around him. He clenched his fist, the ki concentrating and swirling like a star being born in the palm of his hand.
Then, with a powerful shout, he blasted upward, meeting the Hulk head-on in midair.
"BOOOOOOOOOM!"
The impact shook the very atmosphere.
A colossal shockwave detonated outward from the center of their collision, ripping through the air like a wrathful god's thunderclap. The remaining mountain fragments caught in the blast were reduced to dust and gravel in an instant, obliterated by the sheer pressure of the impact.
And yet, at the heart of it, the fight had only just begun.
Two titans. One battlefield. No restraint.
They traded blows at impossible speeds, their silhouettes blurring in and out of visibility as the sky itself seemed to fracture from their clash.
Each punch was like a cannon going off, "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Every strike carved new wind tunnels in the sky. Each collision sparked flashes of blinding light, like stars colliding. They didn't block. They didn't dodge. Every hit was taken, absorbed, and returned with equal or greater force. There was no finesse here, only the raw pride of beings who refused to be second-best.
Every blow was a statement: You're strong, but I'm stronger.
And then—
"POW!"
Hulk's fist connected cleanly with William's jaw, snapping his head to the side with bone-rattling force. William's eyes fluttered for a split second as his brain caught up to the impact.
Before he could recover—
WHAM!
A brutal uppercut to the gut lifted William off the air trail he'd carved, his body folding around the Hulk's fist. The kinetic energy from the punch rocketed William backward, sending him hurtling across the battlefield like a golden comet gone astray. His aura flickered violently as he spiraled into the distance, crashing through a ridge of stone with an explosion of dust and rock.
For a moment, all was silent, save for the echo of the last blow still ringing across the sky like a war drum.
And the Hulk hovered there, chest rising and falling, teeth clenched.
He wasn't done.
"STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!"
Hulk dashed towards the direction William crashed and leaped into the air before smashing onto the location with a thunderous explosion.
"BOOOOOOOOM!"
A gamma radiation infused eruption of force swept out from the center of impact but surprisingly William was not there which confused the Hulk greatly.
When the Hulk turns his head, he suddenly sees a massive fist directly in front of his face for a split second before.
"BOOOOM!"