Chapter 355: Red Hulk

Chapter 355: Red Hulk

If you want to support me check out my patron at /athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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Chapter 355: Red Hulk

13th June 2013, Avengers Tower

(Tony Stark POV)

The former General, though, seemed to get angrier, and practically growled at the genius, "Is that what you think, Stark? That I'm powerless?"

"Well, aren't you? You're here as a last measure, where you're hoping to arrest the Avengers and put them back into your cells, to prove to the world that you're still capable. Well, you're wrong, and from what I'm seeing of you, you're barely stable as is. So, just accept your loss and move on, Thaddeus. It's better for everyone if you just do. I guarantee it."

"Guarantee it?" the former General asked himself, "GUARENTEE IT? YOU MISERABLE SON OF A BITCH! I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING I COULD TO PROTECT MY COUNTRY, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME? YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT!"

As he was talking, he was getting redder and redder, and oddly growing. His eyes started to glow red, and it looked like they were on fire. The process was slow, but it didn't take long for the General to turn into some odd red version of the Hulk. Although, for some reason, he was oddly burning. The ground seemed to melt slightly with every step.

Tony looked at the monster that used to be the Secretary of State, and only one word came to his mind, "Fuck!"

What the hell did Ross do to himself? Was he able to somehow reproduce Banner's accident? It was different, though. Outside the obvious red skin, the heat surrounding the former General's form was obviously something the Hulk never had to deal with. But could it be weaponized, or was it a side effect of the transformation?

Tony didn't have the time to think on this further. He leapt in the air, dodging the giant red arm that tried to hold him. The red hulk smiled, "not so smart now, are you, Stark? What was it you just said? Oh, that's right, that I'm powerless. What do you think now?"

Tony forced out a chuckle to hide how nervous he felt, "well, I think you've definitely been taking something. Is it steroids? It certainly would explain the muscles."

The General sneered, "You're going to tell me everything I want."

"Or, what?"

"Or what's left of you could be mistaken for ground beef. Trust me, I'll enjoy ripping you apart, you arrogant asshole," the former General responded.

Tony didn't like the sound of that, "How about a counteroffer?"

Before the red giant could voice his confusion, he was accosted by a veritable army of Iron Man suits. If Ross was anything like Banner, Tony knew that the suits wouldn't last long in the fight. Ross was unlucky, in a way; Tony had analyzed Bruce's transformation and structural weaknesses. Hulk's biggest weakness was his eyes. Oh, they were nearly indestructible and from the tissue he analyzed, he figured that they could even grow back. But no, they were far more sensitive. Tony motioned to Jarvis to target the eyes, and the yell of pain was enough to tell the billionaire that the Red Hulk shared the same weakness.

He then picked him up and threw him in central park, away from the people, to avoid casualties. He jumped up and leapt towards his opponent, trying to punch him in the face again. Ross dodged by rolling away and kicked him in the chest.

The impact sent Tony flying a few meters, but the genius was able to land on his feet and ready a repulsor beam at the Red Hulk's face. It seemed to be more effective than the one from his previous suit. Tony then ran and tackled him to the ground, and kept punching him in the face while muttering, "Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Got to sleep!" repeatedly.

Suddenly, Ross started steaming and heat came out of his body, blasting the Hulk buster armor away. It had practically melted through a couple of layers in. However, the Red Hulk seemed to be more exhausted with that attack, and was kneeling while gasping for air. Tony decided to take advantage of this by powering his unibeam. Twenty seconds later, he was ready to blast and fired his massive attack at his opponents. It was so powerful that the impact blinded him for a couple of seconds. As the dust settled, Tony noticed his opponent limping forwards, "I didn't think you had that in you, Stark. That's a damn good suit, I'll admit that."

The red giant then let out a smug glare, "But you're not the only one with fancy suits."

Before he could register the general's revelation, Tony was immediately accosted by a black mechanical suit. It looked almost like one of his own, but oddly organic. There was a hole on its chest that it was using to fly. It was a lot stronger than its size suggested, and Tony's inner engineer marveled at its creation.

The damn thing was deceptively powerful too. It was able to tackle the Hulk buster armor by itself. In response, Tony sent a punch at it and sent it away. Only to be accosted by another one from the back, which he grabbed and threw at the other one. He sent a repulsor beam at them, expecting them to be destroyed, but they were durable as well.

The beams did seem to be effective, but the robots were regenerating and becoming more resistant to the impact somehow. It had to be some kind of nanotechnology. Tony was planning on delving into the subject himself, but never found the time to do some proper research. Did Richards build him these monstrosities?

The suits were slowly walking towards him, only for Tony to be attacked again from the back. He grabbed the robot, threw it in the air and sent a small missile at it.

Or at least he tried. One of the robots' arm somehow morphed into a blade and sliced one of the suit's arms off like a hot knife through butter. This was insane. Tony was so surprised that he didn't see the other robots cut off the suit's other arm and a leg. Unbalanced, Tony fell on the ground while trying to get Veronica to send him more limbs to fight this thing.

What the hell were those things. Before He could respond the Red Hulk walked up to him while grinning, "I see that you're admiring my sentinels. They really are a marvel, aren't they, Stark? These are the enforcers of the Accords. Trust me, when these things are mass produced, no one will even think about breaking the law, especially with the mutant gene sensor they're equipped with. I have to say, they're very effective. Trask might be a dick, but he's an effective one, at least."

Trask? That racist asshole built these suits? Who the hell was insane enough to approve a project like that? No, this wasn't the time for this crap. The sentinels had destroyed some of the critical components in the Hulk buster. He'll need to summon a new one.

Tony ejected himself from the giant suit, staying in his smaller one, and activated the self-destruct of each of the limbs and torso. They exploded in his opponent's face, and he grinned slightly, only for him to feel pain in his gut. There was another sentinel there. How many of these things were left?

Tony fell down, while everything was getting dizzy. He thought that he was going to die, but for some reason, the pain turned to warmth, and his vision started getting clearer. He blinked and saw a familiar redhead appear next to him. He felt a voice in his head, 'Are you alright Tony?'

'Words can't express how happy I am to see you, Grey.'

The redhead chuckled and Tony felt her reading his memories of the events. He normally would have complained about this breach of privacy, but considering the situation, he would hold his tongue.

The redhead then turned towards the Red Hulk and waved her hand. The red giant immediately fell unconscious and every sentinel in the park turned to dust. What the hell? Tony had been fighting for his life, and the mutant could just walk there, wave her hands and just beat his enemy along with his overpowered robots? Life really wasn't fair.

Tony didn't care that this was ironic considering that he was a billionaire.

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.