Chapter 29: CHAPTER 27

[Draul St. Cross POV]

Bucky was strong. Like SUPER SOLDIER strong. His strength was on a whole ‘nother level.

His strength was… Well it hella hurts. I remember a 17 year old Peter Parker grabbing Bucky’s fist in the movies like it was a baseball and I can’t help but think of how strong the SEVENTEEN year old Spider-Man was. Add another decade and that rattle mouth kid would be a force to be reckoned with.

It really drove home how super soldier level strength was like tutorial level stuff in the Marvel-verse. 

I mean, Bucky and Hawkeye were both inconsequential in the final movie of the Avengers while Cap got the leader's perk that increases stats when fighting alongside your team and a mid-tier cheat code. 

If it wasn’t for his ability to swing Mjolnïr and summon lightning during the last arc of the movie then Cap would have been zilched the moment Thanos rose to run their fade. 

Hell, all Tony had to do was build himself a suit and boom! He can kick a super soldiers’ ass. Or Hulk? Thor? Wanda? 

If Bucky gave me such a tough time then the others would just fold my ass and fuck me over. No homo. 

But then again I had what the others didn’t – Time. 

And knowledge. 

And hell if I don’t milk the fuck out of it. 

These were my thoughts as Clint and I fought off waves of HYDRA goons. Knowing to watch out for regenerating-inviting bullets took most of the surprise away from the bullets. I had already told him what I could about Bucky so Fury would know how to keep him secured. If they could somehow undo his brainwashing then all was good. 

It was until a while later before S.H.I.E.L.D agents burst into the place and started rounding up the bodies that we had room to breathe. 

When Clint and I walked out I was greeted with guns to my face and it was starting to piss me the fuck off. 

What was it about me that made me gun-pointing worthy? 

I was already heating up in case one of them decided to be a smart-ass and pulled a trigger. 

I don’t care about S.H.I.E.L.D agents, maybe Clint ‘cuz he’s cool like that, nor do I care about S.H.I.E.L.D. The only reason I’m working with Fury was to get HYDRA off my case. After that I’m off in the air. 

Thanos wipes out 50% of all sentient beings in this universe in 15 years. I’m not about to bet my 50% chance to win on a 50% chance to lose. And I pretty much doubt he’s going to be the last. Just because the MCU didn’t show them didn’t mean they wouldn’t come, and this verse wasn’t exactly canon MCU. 

I was literally about to blow up with all the agents telling me to stand down if it wasn’t for Coulson who came and clarified me as a homie. 

Clint, Coulson and I drove away in the same vehicle because I would be stupid as hell to drive with a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who could very well double up for HYDRA. 

Turns out Fury actually did spy work on Malick, with hacking into his account, systems and all, and dug out some incriminating HYDRA files and also a list of S.H.I.E.L.D agents who worked for HYDRA under him. 

We went to the hideout since I still wasn’t in the clear, and Coulson cleared us in on what Fury had been doing. 

Turns out the spy finally hit ten on the paranoia button that he started using Morse codes to send us messages only Coulson could read since he would undoubtedly be in the spotlight for a while and HYDRA finding out he’s been in contact with me would do no good for anyone. 

Also without telling any of us, Fury brought down Hale together the same time we did Malick. So here comes our window. 

“Fury wants you to lay low for a while before we do any other raids. You can stay here if you want to or not if you have anywhere you could go that’s off the record. I wouldn’t recommend that though.” Coulson advised. 

Finally a break! Just what I needed. 

“Got somewhere on my mind.” 

“Where?”

“Virginia .”

He looked confused for a while before he asked, “You know someone in Virginia?” I’ve actually never been to Virginia, nor do I have someone I know there. So why am I going there? Simple. Virginia is the birthplace of the green Embodiment of Wrath: Hulk. Specifically, Culver University. 

“No I don’t. I’m just trying out new sights.” Was all I said. 

“Okay. We’ll prep you a transport in a few days.” He said before he left since S.H.I.E.L.D would be busy for a while because of the clusterfuck known as HYDRA. 

“Virginia uh?” Clint asked as he came to the chair I was sitting and plopped down with two bottles of beer in his hands and handed me one. 

“Try not to blow a top there. Things are pretty hot as they are now, we don’t need you stoking it.” He said with a smile. 

Did he… did he just said a heat joke. 

“A heat joke, really?” We both laughed at that. 

“Try not to do anything stupid while I’m away.”

“How can I when you take all the stupid with you.” Clint was a bro. 

… 

[Three Days Later] 

Today was the day I left New York. 

I called Coulson the night before and asked him if my transport was ready and he said yes. 

And that was the reason why I’m seeing a helicopter a ways from the safe house. 

“He’ll take you to Virginia.” Was all Coulson said before he handed me a one-way burner phone for me to call S.H.I.E.L.D, specifically him, if I was ever in trouble which I appreciated the sentiment of. 

It was also at that moment that I remembered a horrifying fact. 

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I was broke, poor, homeless and jobless. 

I turned to Coulson and without any hint of shame like any broke man, “Hey Coul, my man! Let me holla at you for a sec,” I think I heard Clint say ‘What the fuck?’ or something like that but who cares, “Y’know, Fury and I never talked about a finders fee.” I said as we looked at each other with contrasting expressions, me with hope and him with confusion. 

“I’m pretty sure Malick’s got some soft currency right? How ‘bout you tell your bossman to sprinkle some cheddar on little me’s digits. Savvy?” He let out an ‘oh!’ in realization as he savvied. 

“What say you to a 5% cut for being the middleman?” I said as I stretched my hands for a shake while he chuckled and returned it meanwhile Clint was looking at me in disbelief. 

I got onto the chopper after that as it lifted off to Virginia. 

My story may have started with HYDRA but my journey begins with the Hulk. 

… 

[Willowdale Virginia] 

There was something that always bugged my mind when thinking about the Hulk movies and it wasn’t until I got to Virginia that I finally understood what it was. 

There was only one MCU movie of the Hulk. 

The Incredible Hulk was the only MCU movie of the Hulk. Every other movie apart from that was inconsequential, non-canonical. Meaning the Hulk movie in 2003 was definitely not of this universe. How did I know? 

The fact that my search for Bruce Banner on the net gave me a picture of what Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo would look like if they were combined was proof. 

I don’t remember much from the 2003 Hulk movie and given how it wasn’t canon then I have no idea what to expect. 

I started my search for Banner immediately after I settled in Virginia and it took me three weeks before I could find him. 

He was a recluse even before he became the hulk. 

I was able to live pretty well from the cash that Fury DID send me. 

He put a whooping sum of 3 million dollars inside an offshore account which he sent me the access to. Realistically this was a bribe from Fury to get me into S.H.I.E.L.D and rationally it would be advisable not to take it but when you know the only thing remaining in your bank account is just over a thousand dollars, that was if HYDRA didn’t wipe it clean, there is no way in hell you would refuse 3 million dollars. This was easily the largest sum of money I’ve ever seen and had in both lives. 

It wasn't until recently that I realized I needed money since HYDRA’s accommodations were free of charge. 

I could do a lot with 3 mil. Maybe buy a house, a car or I don’t know… buy Facebook. 

Zuckerberg should still be a broke sophomore in Harvard by now so he probably hasn’t seen a 100 thousand in dollars in his life and that was only if he had already started writing the code for it, if he hasn’t then I’ll just create it myself and have a poor sucker run the future media king platform. 

Back to the hulk. 

I found Banner after three weeks which makes it June currently and since I don’t know the date he becomes the hulk I’ll have to watch him every day. 

So what do I do? I applied for the University he was working at as a janitor. A Biology degree holder as a janitor, even the dude I submitted the application to was surprised as fuck and I had my reasons why I did so. 

If I applied as a lab assistant or whatever the degree would get me, I would be in their database and I could get roped in, even if the chances were very miniscule, into the entire hulk fiasco, which was what I definitely didn’t want. 

I already had HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D on my tails, adding the US Army and General Ross to it was a big no-no. 

I got the job, the dude was pretty skeptic of me though but he cooled after a while. I met Banner and Betty a few times when I cleaned around the lab they used and that was when my stupid little brain came in handy. 

I overheard Banner talking one day about gamma rays, now I might not know much about gamma rays as much as gamma waves but I did know some things. I was nerding out and Banner heard me and he started nerding out on me about the radiations and when he saw that I could somehow keep up he kept on blabbing. 

After that day, I realized I was neglecting my brain too much which was none of my fault as I’ve never been in a learning conducive environment until now so I started reading. 

Theory papers, textbooks, thesis, projects, theories, both proven and unproven, I read them all. Any I could find from different branches of science. 

Astrophysics, thermonuclear physics, photon shunting, molecular recalibration, nano-mechanics, advanced mechanics, biological engineering, molecular science, neural science etc. I read all I could find on such short time. 

Reading all this didn’t make me a genius overnight as reading and understanding are two completely different things. While I remembered what I read, thanks to my eidetic memory, I still couldn’t understand what they meant apart from the surface comprehension. It would take a while before my brain understood all the information it just digested and given that these were just part of a bigger subject branch of science I would need to read a lot before I understood what they all meant. 

Another thing I found out was that Banner smart as fuck. It was never really put into perspective what 7 PhDs meant. When it comes to the biological and cellular branch of science no one tops him. 

In the comics he was even compared to Von Doom. 

Now I have to listen to two people with multiple PhDs who were too smart for anyone’s comfort talk about cells and vitamins and radiation day after day. Sigh, the love life of a superhero. 

I had spent over a month in this lab watching an American reality rom-com live before the military came. 

General Ross came one day and gave a contract to Bruce and Betty, or rather renewed the contract of the project they had already been working on for months now under some new military stipulations. 

This was the birth of the hulk. 

After the visit, Banner became tensed as he worked day in and out on a formula he believed was for stopping radiation poisoning and curing cancer tumors. A Noble goal albeit he was being lied to. 

The following few weeks were tense in the labs as Banner, Betty and their assistant Eric worked trying to perfect the formula before the military shut them down and confiscated their research. I on the other had was counting the days roll by with giddiness. 

It continued like that until one day Banner, being the radiation loving fool he was, decided to replace the vita radiation, which my steady rising IQ told me that it was the stabilizing agent that made Steve Rogers cap out at the peak of the human race, with gamma radiation, which we all know what that did or will do to him. 

To make matters worse, Ross called and gave him a deadline of two weeks and that blew Banner's rationality out of the waters that after a week of 40% successful experiments on mice and lizards, he decided to move on to human experimentation without the seal of approval from the military or the board. 

Betty and Eric tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn’t listen, atta boy!, and when the deadline was but a few days away he nominated himself for the experiment much to Betty’s shock. 

After spending 3 hours of convincing her to go with it and leaving me utterly bored, Betty finally gave him the green light. 

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