Chapter 47 – Golden Intervention
Harlem was a warzone.
Tony Stark streaked above 125th Street in a blur of red-gold light, repulsors whining as he banked hard to avoid a chunk of concrete the size of a motor. Below him the Abomination, a mountain of muscle and bone, roared and hurled another slab ripped from the street. Cars lay crumpled. Storefronts burned. Sirens wailed in the distance, useless against a creature that could toss a bus.
Tony fired a pair of micro-missiles. They curved in, struck the monster's back, and burst in a white flash. The blast staggered it for all of two seconds.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Tony muttered. "Barely tickles."
Through the helmet HUD he caught a glimpse of the Hulk smashing through a wall to keep pace. The green giant slammed into the Abomination, driving it into the pavement. For a heartbeat the street shook under their combined weight.
Then J.A.R.V.I.S voice sound in his hear.
"Sir, you might wanna answer the call, It's General Thaddeus Ross."
Tony suprised 'General Ross?' and answered it.
Then a voice crackled in Tony's ear, sharp and cold.
"Stark, this is General Ross. Leave the area. That creature is a U.S. military asset. You do not have clearance to engage."
Tony rolled his eyes, dodging another flying hunk of asphalt. "With respect, General, your 'asset' is throwing taxis at civilians. I'm not leaving."
Ross didn't reply to him directly. Tony heard the general bark into a loudspeaker behind the line of tanks.
"Suppress the Hulk. Do not let him kill Blonsky. Open fire!"
On the street Betty Ross shouted back, her voice breaking. "Stop it! Don't hurt him!"
The order came too late. Tracer rounds lit the night, hammering at Hulk. Enraged, the green giant turned and swatted a Humvee aside. In that instant the Abomination clawed its way up from the cracked pavement. Freed from the dog-pile, it grinned, grabbed a bent car door, and hurled it like a discus at the soldiers. Screams followed as the metal sheet whirled toward them.
Tony dove, firing a micro-missile mid-flight. The door exploded into harmless shards before it could slice through the troops. "You're welcome," he muttered.
The creature roared, noticing Iron Man's interference. Its yellow eyes swept the street and locked on a rowhouse window where a small family huddled, father, mother, a girl no older than six. The child peeked out, saw the monster, and shrieked.
"Oh no you don't," Tony said, heart climbing.
Abomination charged, smashing through the wall with a shower of bricks. The parents shielded their daughter as dust filled the air. Tony rocketed forward, but his targeting system screamed warnings: the family was too close for missiles or a repulsor blast.
"Fine, old-fashioned way it is."
He slammed shoulder-first into the creature, driving it sideways through another wall. They crashed across the street. Abomination barely budged. It grinned, caught Tony's right arm mid-swing, and with brutal ease flung him into the pavement. Sparks burst across Tony's HUD as systems failed.
Flight stabilizers offline. Repulsor output critical.
Before he could recover, the monster seized him again and hurled him toward a brick façade. Tony braced, firing thrusters to slow the impact, nothing. Power was gone. The wall rushed closer.
And then he stopped.
A massive hand caught him from behind, firm but controlled. Tony spun in surprise. A towering figure stood there, over twelve feet tall, encased in gleaming gold armor that reflected the firelight. The plates were thick, shaped with sweeping lines and heavy ridges. A broad pauldron bore a familiar stylized "U" picked out in blue.
Jarvis measured automatically. Height: 3.6 meters. Mass: 990 Kilograms / 2182.58 Pounds
Tony blinked. "No way."
The giant turned its helmeted head. With a hiss of servos the golden helm unlocked and lifted. A stern, and calm face, almost regal.
"Gaius?" Tony shouted over the din.
The warrior gave a single nod. "Stark."
Tony let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Didn't Know you big guys are still in Growth stage, and Nice new armor by the way, Very Lowkey."
Gaius re-sealed the helm with a click. Blue optics flared.
Across the street the Abomination staggered from the wreckage, yellow eyes narrowing. It mistook the newcomer for another armored suit. "New armor won't save you, Stark!" it roared, crouching for a charge.
Gaius stepped forward, moving Tony gently aside with one hand. "Stay clear."
The monster lunged, swinging a fist of a size larger than a person's head . Gaius met the blow head-on, one gauntleted arm rising to block. The shock cracked the pavement in a spider-web of fissures, but the golden giant held firm. Fingers of ceramite and adamant tightened around the creature's knuckles.
Abomination snarled and tried to wrench free. Nothing moved.
Tony stared, astonished. "He just… stopped it."
Gaius's voice carried through the night, calm and deep. "You are strong. But strength alone is nothing."
His grip tightened. The monster howled as bones creaked. With his free hand Gaius drew back and drove a single punch into the creature's chest. The impact echoed like a thunderclap. Abomination's body lifted clear off the street, but Gaius's right hand still locked its fist, yanking it back mid-air.
Another punch followed. Then another. Each strike sounded like a piledriver, sending tremors through the ground. Streetlights shattered. Windows burst.
The Abomination's roars devolved into desperate, guttural grunts. Gaius delivered a final, earth, shattering punch. The force of the blow was so immense that the Abomination was sent hurtling through the air. But as it flew off, Gaius's hand remained tightly clenched.
Slowly, Gaius opened his clenched fist. What lay within was a grotesque sight, the Abomination's hand, a mangled mass of crushed meat and splintered bones. Blood oozed from the ruined appendage, dripping onto the ground below.
Without a moment's hesitation, Gaius clenched his hand again, this time at a lightning, fast speed. The force of the motion sent the remnants of blood and flesh flying off his Gauntlet, leaving the Gauntlet Clean of Blood and Flesh
The monster flew backward, crashing through a townhouse and bringing the roof down in a storm of brick and dust, and the Monster Abomination didn't get up this time.
Tony lowered his arm, realizing he'd been half-raised to fire. "It seem i was not needed anymore then."
~~~
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