...
Baron Strucker desperately tried to bank the Magneto cyborg left, but the smart-assist combat system had already made its calculation: the attack was moving too fast, and the area of effect was too broad. Even at maximum thrust, Magneto's mechanical body couldn't clear the blast radius in time.
His only tactical option was to gather tens of thousands of tons of metal into a thick, concentrated slab to act as a heat shield—hoping to bleed off the beam's energy before the core was vaporized.
It was a beautiful plan on paper. In reality, it was a joke.
The raw power behind the Great Ape's "Mouth Cannon" was so immense that the wall of metal offered zero resistance. The beam punched through the massive barricade as if it were wet paper, vaporizing the center of the shield instantly.
The white-hot pillar of energy slammed directly into Magneto as he struggled to change direction. When the light faded, there was nothing left. The cyborg, the armor, and the last physical remains of the Master of Magnetism had been erased from existence.
"How... how can such a monster exist in this world?"
Back in the Sokovian base, Baron Strucker slumped into his command chair, staring at the static-filled monitors. His expression was vacant, his voice a hollow murmur of shock.
...
On the ground, Logan watched the Great Ape incinerate Magneto with a single roar. A wave of relief washed over him—the threat was gone.
But as he prepared to step out of the shadows to call out to Goku, to tell him to power down so they could find the Professor in Piñon, his blood ran cold.
After finishing off Magneto, the Great Ape didn't stop. It threw its head back, letting out another sky-shattering howl, and began a relentless march north. It wasn't Goku anymore. It was a creature of pure, unbridled destruction—a moon-mad beast with red eyes that saw only things to be broken.
"He's lost his mind!"
Logan watched the Great Ape smash through a rock formation, its movements erratic and violent. He felt a deep, gnawing helplessness. Even with his healing factor at its peak, he'd be nothing but a smear on the sand if he got hit by that energy breath.
All he could do was retrieve the Power Pole that Goku had dropped during the transformation and follow from a distance, praying the boy would eventually tire out and revert to normal.
Fortunately, this part of New Mexico was sparsely populated. If the Oozaru had appeared near a city, it would have been a massacre. Still, travelers on the nearby highways spotted the mountain of fur and muscle. They didn't just run; they pulled over to record the madness for Facebook and YouTube.
In an instant, the news of a "Real-Life King Kong" in New Mexico exploded across the internet.
Within the hour, the "sensationalist" press was scrambling for helicopters, but they were already being outpaced by the arrival of the U.S. Military and the world's premier intelligence agency: S.H.I.E.L.D.
...
Washington D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters — The Triskelion.
Agent Maria Hill—sharp-featured, composed, and radiating authority—marched into the Director's office with a secure file in hand.
"Director, we have a Level 5 incident in New Mexico. Intelligence just came in from John Garrett."
Nick Fury, the one-eyed director of the world's most powerful shadow organization, took the file and scanned the reports of a "giant primate" destroying everything in its path.
"Is the military on site?"
"General Ross has already diverted his units to the area," Hill replied.
Fury paused, a look of mild surprise crossing his face. "Isn't he supposed to be hunting Bruce Banner?"
He didn't need Hill to answer. His tactical mind connected the dots instantly. "He probably thinks he's found a bigger, furrier version of the Hulk."
Fury didn't seem overly concerned. Having witnessed Captain Marvel take on entire Kree armadas, his bar for "terrifying" was significantly higher than most.
"Dispatch Hawkeye and Black Widow with a strike team," Fury ordered. "I want to know which lab cooked this thing up. Collect the data and bring it back. If there's a way to grow a monster that big, I don't want it falling into the wrong hands."
In Fury's eyes, as long as a creature was made of flesh and blood, it wasn't a threat to the world order. Modern military might—missiles, bunker-busters, and tactical carpet bombing—usually made short work of large targets. General Ross's men were specialists in "big and angry" targets.
"You don't think it's Pym's work, do you?" Fury mused, thinking of Hank Pym's Pym Particles. "Actually, never mind. Any word on Tony Stark?"
"Nothing yet," Hill said. "Coulson's team is still on the ground in Afghanistan."
Fury nodded. "Keep me posted. I care more about a missing genius than a stray gorilla."
...
New Mexico.
General Ross stood in the command tent, watching a live feed of the Great Ape. He turned to his radio, his brow furrowed with annoyance.
"Has the civilian evacuation been completed?"
"Five more minutes, General!" the radio crackled.
"Position the tank battalion. Five minutes from now, I want a simultaneous fire mission. Kill that thing before it gets anywhere near Alamogordo."
Ross was irritable. He had rushed here thinking he finally had a lead on the Hulk, only to find a giant ape. He wanted this over with so he could get back to his real mission.
Five minutes later, on a ridge two kilometers from the Great Ape, fifty main battle tanks swiveled their turrets, locking their fire-control systems onto the beast's massive back.
"FIRE!"
Fifty armor-piercing shells—each capable of punching through nearly a meter of solid steel—screamed across the desert. In an open field, a target fifteen meters tall was a sitting duck for modern ballistics. Unlike the Hulk, who was smaller and possessed terrifying mobility, the Ape seemed like an easy kill.
*BOOM!*
A series of thunderous explosions rocked the ridge. Ross reached for his radio to order the recovery teams to clear the carcass.
Then, the smoke cleared.
Ross's face turned a sickly shade of white. "What? No..."
The fifty shells had hit the target with surgical precision. But the Great Ape hadn't even stumbled. The fur wasn't scorched; the skin wasn't broken. Not a single shell had managed to draw blood. Even the Hulk would have felt a volley like that.
Goku's Oozaru form hadn't just grown; its physical density had become something that defied the laws of Earthly biology.