The Falcon soared in first, his beloved jetpack whirring as the twin steel wings spread wide. He landed lightly on the cracked ground of the military base—the same facility that had once confined Dr. Bruce Banner. The reinforced wings unfolded further, their advanced scanners sweeping every inch of the chamber where Banner had been kept.
"No anomalies," Falcon reported crisply, turning his head toward the rest of the Avengers as they touched down behind him. "There are no signs of forced entry. Whatever happened here came from inside. And—" his voice tightened—"there are no traces of a struggle. Which means all of this was done by the Hulk himself."
"Yikes." Falcon's eyes swept across the twisted wreck of the blast door, steel wrenched and torn like paper. "That's easily over a hundred tons of brute force to rip through something like this."
"Cut the fancy numbers," Hawkeye said, crossing his arms with a knowing smirk. "Just admit it—that's exactly the kind of thing only one big, brainless, green meathead could do. We all know who you mean."
"I'm not so sure," Natasha Romanoff muttered, brows furrowing. "Something doesn't add up. Banner had learned how to control his emotions. He had ways of keeping the Hulk at bay. This feels… different."
Hawkeye shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe some poor fool managed to piss him off. Wouldn't be the first time Green Dumbass popped out for no reason."
"I'm siding with Agent Romanoff on this one," Tony Stark finally spoke up. The moment they arrived, he had already hacked into the base's systems. Now he held up the results of his deep dive. "I went through the logs. And I found something… off."
Natasha raised an eyebrow at that. Stark agreeing with her wasn't exactly common. After all, she remembered their rocky history—especially back in Iron Man 2, when Fury had planted her in Stark's orbit under the guise of his assistant. Watching him, protecting him, judging him. Their professional relationship since then had been… complicated.
"I checked the base logs," Stark continued, fingers flicking across a holographic display projected from his armor. "By design, this prison was equipped with gamma dampeners. The entire structure is wrapped in a gamma field—a gamma cage, if you will. No gamma radiation in or out. Banner was locked in a box built specifically for him."
"English, Tony," Colonel Rhodes cut in, rubbing his temple. "Some of us don't speak nerd. We're on the clock here."
Inside his helmet, Stark rolled his eyes so hard JARVIS almost issued a warning. He took a breath. "Fine. Put simply: Banner couldn't transform in here."
Rhodey jabbed a finger toward the gaping hole in the blast doors, steel twisted like a warhead had detonated against it. "So what the hell do you call that, huh? You're telling me Banner didn't do this?"
Stark didn't answer directly. Instead, he inhaled slowly and continued. "I also checked the surveillance feeds and operation logs. Guess what I found? Exactly one minute of missing footage. And wouldn't you know it—those sixty seconds line up perfectly with the time Hulk emerged. Then I noticed something worse. During that same minute, the gamma field was manually shut down. Not only that—it reversed polarity. Instead of suppressing gamma radiation, the system started pumping the room full of it. Enough gamma output to fry a normal human a thousand times over."
The words hit the group like a thunderclap.
"So you're saying," Hawkeye said slowly, brow furrowing, "that someone deliberately helped Hulk break free?"
"I'm not ruling it out," Stark replied grimly.
"Well, whoever it was must've had serious clearance." Rhodes stroked his chin, eyes narrowing. "This is a military installation. Only a handful of people would even have the authority."
"Exactly," Stark said, voice sharp. "Short of an external hack, only one person inside this facility had that level of access—"
And then, as if conjured by the accusation, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross stormed into the room, face flushed red with fury.
"Who the hell authorized you freaks in costumes to stomp all over my base?!" he barked. "Out! All of you! Get out!"
"General Ross," Stark said smoothly, utterly unfazed by the outburst. "We're here under direct orders from the White House. Face it—you screwed up. Either your protocols failed or your people aren't as professional as you thought. Hulk's gone. We're here to clean up the mess."
Ross's rage only deepened. The words cut deep—especially since years ago, when Hulk tore through New York, Ross had said nearly the same thing to Stark. Now the tables had turned, and Stark wasn't about to waste the opportunity to throw it back in his face.
"This comes straight from the President," Stark added, producing an official document like a magician pulling a rabbit from his hat. He slapped it into Ross's hand. "Effective immediately, all Hulk-related operations fall under Avengers jurisdiction."
"What?!" Ross snatched the order so hard his knuckles went white. His voice cracked with disbelief. "This is insane—insane! How the hell could there be such an order?!"
"General Ross," Stark said coldly, "I suggest you cooperate. This is above your pay grade now. So let's start simple: explain how the gamma field failed. Explain how the generator reversed itself and began blasting out radiation. You're the only man in this entire facility with that level of clearance. You must know something."
He paused, his helmeted gaze drilling into Ross like a spotlight.
"And according to the logs," Stark said evenly, "you were the last person to visit Banner before his escape."
The room fell into tense silence. Every Avenger stared at Ross, waiting for his answer.
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