no-sex Hulk Hunter

[AT2000]

Here's another Incredible Hulk fic that I don't think I ever posted here or at the old site.

 

Hope you like and thanks for reading.

 

 

Hulk Hunter

 

by Alan Thacker

 

The chopper banked hard and the pilot dropped them precipitously into one of the geometric canyons formed by the city’s skeleton.

 

Jared concentrated on steadying himself where he crouched just inside the helicopter’s large, open, side door.  He had to hold on tight enough to anchor himself yet not SO hard that he wrenched free the metal hand-holds he was using to brace himself from the aircraft’s aluminum bulkhead.  If that happened he’d almost certainly lose his balance and end up, at best, sprawling in an undignified manner across the chopper’s cramped cabin floor.  At worst he could plunge out of the pitching crafts door prematurely.

 

Brief, clipped bursts of static bracketed the sound of the pilot’s voice as he communicated with Jared via the tiny earpiece concealed almost entirely within his right ear.  “Ground units have a fix.  ETA four minutes.”

 

Jared leaned precariously outside the hurtling aircraft, wind buffeted his very dark brown hair, but he kept it so close-cropped that it couldn’t really be said to have ruffled it.  He scanned the city-scape in the direction of the chopper’s flight.  A new column of dark smoke was making a slanted exclamation point against the sky above some of the lower buildings further out from the city’s center.

 

Jared smirked slightly, wondering what the Hulk-Buster unit had just lost; A Tank?  One of their Super-Mandroids maybe.

 

Withdrawing inside, he touched the communication device in his ear.  “Drop me off at least two blocks away.  I want to approach on foot.”

 

“Roger that.”  The pilot acknowledged.

 

Minutes later, the chopper slowed to nearly a stop and came to hover more than three stories off the ground.  Taking this as his cue, Jared slipped gracefully over the side of the craft’s cabin-floor.  He plunged ground-ward in free-fall for a couple of seconds.  On impact, he bent stiffly at the knees and waist, going into a squat in order to absorb most of the kinetic energy of his fall into the muscles of his legs.  Even so, the faded gray asphalt of the street shattered beneath him.  Jagged, pie-wedge-shaped chunks of the street flipped into the air around him.  One caught him under the squared-off jut of his jaw and shattered even further.

 

Unaffected, he stood up, dusting the gritty residue of the impact from his chin.  He glanced down at his feet to see how the specially designed trainers he wore had held up to the tremendous force of his landing.  He gave a small nod of approval as they seemed undamaged.  Likewise, the form-hugging fabric of his simple, dark blue, short-sleeved tunic seemed intact, as did the only slightly less stretchy, but identically blue material that composed his mid-thigh-length shorts.

 

All of his attire had been designed to interfere as little as possible with Jared’s range of motion (This was entirely for the benefit of the survivability of the uniform, not a comfort issue).  Leaving the man’s arms and legs exposed was beneficial for the regulation of his powerful body’s temperature.  Jared’s smooth skin was a phenomenal heat dissipator, which was important in regulating the huge amounts of heat he was capable of generating via muscular exertion.  If the man began to overheat to the point of sweating, his muscles would register a detectable, if minuscule, loss of efficiency.

 

Jared’s physique and dress made him appear, at first glance, to be an avid runner or maybe a cyclist - though a phenomenally fit one.  He was at once lithe and graceful as well as possessed of thick and powerfully cut muscle.  The fact that he sported the seal of the CIA on both of the main pieces of his attire was rendered inconspicuous by his overall presentation.  A casual observer would most likely presume the identical emblems to be sports attire logos.

 

Jared strode off toward the nearby rising column of smoke.  The muted sound of a distant animalistic roar told him that he was headed in the right direction.

 

After closing the distance to the column of smoke by about a block, Jared stopped to listen carefully for clues about what was going on up ahead.  He frowned slightly when he couldn’t make out anything useful.  Stepping back from a two-story building a few feet away, he squinted up in the direction of the building’s roof.  He squatted low and leapt effortlessly to the structure’s top, landing fluidly on its roof.  He made his way to the far side of the building and planted a foot on the raised two-feet-high wall that ran the perimeter of its tarry roof.  He stooped a bit, planting an elbow on his knee as he scanned the low skyline before him.

 

A large explosion of dust and debris puffed into the air above a line of smaller buildings on the other side of the block.

 

Jared gave a small satisfied smile and hopped the low wall without hesitation.  He dropped to the ground again, this time he was able to minimize the damage of his impact to a few spider-web cracks in the pavement.  Once again he headed off toward the disturbance.

 

“STOP!”  Demanded an amplified voice.  Jared jerked his head in the direction of the command.  Its source was about ten meters to his right on an intersecting street.

 

Jared turned to take the measure of the owner of this booming voice.  At more than twelve feet tall and gleaming with a golden metallic shine, the exo-skeletal Super-Mandroid suit of the man addressing him would have been enough to intimidate, if not outright terrify, most people.

 

Jared wasn’t most people.

 

“THIS AREA HAS BEEN EVACUATED.  ALL RESIDENTS HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO LEAVE THIS PART OF THE CITY.”  Jared was informed with authority.

 

He grinned a gleaming white-toothed grin and put his hands on his hips.  “I’m not a resident, I'm from outta town, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be on my way.”  He explained, pointing in the direction he intended to go.

 

Its operator directed the Super-Mandroid suit to move in to intercept Jared.  It moved with an eerie and unexpectedly human-like agility.  “REAL FUNNY, SMART-GUY.”  The mechanically augmented voice boomed.  “YOUR PRESENCE IS NOT ONLY PUTTING YOU IN DANGER, YOU ARE INTERFERING IN A CRITICAL SECURITY OPERATION.  WE’VE GOT THE INCREDIBLE HULK ON AN ALL OUT RAMPAGE TO TAKE CARE OF HERE.”  The man in the sophisticated armor warned Jared as he closed in rapidly.

 

Just then there was a thudding, ground-shaking boom and a nearby building crumpled into a cloud of roiling dust.

 

The spectacular collapse momentarily drew both men’s attention.  “Yeah?  And how’s that going for ya?”  Jared smirked.

 

Suddenly, and with an almost comically clumsy clanging, a hulking figure in armor identical to that of the man confronting Jared, fell from the sky not ten meters from their position.  The other Super-Mandroid writhed on the ground, showing none of the impressive coordination demonstrated by the other robotic exoskeleton.

 

One of the stricken unit’s mechanical arms was missing.  Jared wondered if the arm of the operator was similarly absent somewhere beneath the mangled golden metal of the suit.

 

“Guess that answers my question.”  Jared said.  He started to continue forward toward the epicenter of the carnage but the guy in the still functional Mandroid suit stepped in front of him.

 

“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANY FURTHER.  MY MISSION IS TO PATROL THE PERIMETER AND KEEP ANYONE OR ANYTHING FROM ENTERING WHILE THE OTHER UNITS ENGAGE THE HULK.”  The guy in the suite explained menacingly.

 

The standoff between Jared and the man-machine combination looked ridiculously one-sided.  Any observer would quickly conclude that the man clad only in the skin-tight, short-sleeved attire must have had some kind of death-wish to go up against the monstrous metal entity that loomed over him.

 

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Jared crossed his arms over his chest.  He tensed the muscles of his arms and torso, which swelled and bulged in such a way that the two opponents didn’t seem quite so mis-matched all of a sudden.

 

“Let me ask you something.  Have you Hulk-Buster light-weights EVER managed to do anything other than slow the jolly green giant down for a second or two?”  Jared noted that the pilot of the downed Mandroid had wriggled out of an opened hatch.  The guy managed to find his feet.  He appeared to be barefoot and wearing only underwear.  Jared payed this other man little attention as the guy beat cheeks in the opposite direction.

 

Silence was the only response to Jared’s question.  But looking up defiantly, he could see the visored face of the functional Mandroid’s operator.  The silent fuming expression there was answer enough.

 

“Didn’t think so.”  Jared scoffed.  He started forward again.  “You’d do well to clear outta my way.”

 

“YOU WERE WARNED.”  Boomed the voice from the Mandroid suit’s PA system.  The Mandroid stepped forward and two massive mechanical hands clamped around Jared’s upper body, pinning his arms to his sides.

 

“So were you.”  Jared replied.  With effortless fluidity, Jared curled his arms as he elbowed the massive metal hands apart.  With a lightening shrug he was able to power his hands into opposition with those of the Mandroid.  Palm to massive palm, Jared pushed back against the mechanically augmented strength of the guy in the suit.

 

Sculpted stacks of micro-fusion-driven flat-motors that mimicked the shape and operation of human muscles within the Mandroids exoskeleton clashed with the real thing...and were handily bested.

 

The H.U.D. of the operator’s visor flashed a dozen warning lights and an equal number of warning tones and klaxons sounded over his com system.  The Mandroid’s flat-motor stacks, which would allow the operator to tame the charge of a rhino, were almost instantly overtaxed.  The more mundane hydraulic back-up system fared no better as Jared flexed his unstoppable arms to full extension, driving the Mandroids arms further apart with ease.

 

Clenching his hands into fists around handfuls of deforming metal that had moments ago been the Madnroid’s intricately articulated mechanical hands, Jared began to twist the massive robotic arms together like the ends of a twist-tie.

 

“THIS - THIS ISN’T POSSIBLE!”  Stammered the Mandroid’s operator.  “WHAT ARE YOU?”

 

Jared released the out-matched machine’s ruined arms and stooped to sink one bare hand into the metal of its left foot.  That grip secured, his left arm shot out and grabbed a similar hold on the machines right foot.  “Let’s just say that someone decided that it was time to send in the big guns.”  He explained.

 

He then hefted the Mandroid overhead.  It teetered but was held upright by sophisticated gyro-stabilizers.  That is, until Jared slammed the Mandroid to the ground with a simple flick of his wrists.  Jared put just enough of his inhuman strength into this to show who was in charge without actually killing the Mandroid’s occupant.

 

As the machine struggled to right itself like an overturned turtle, Jared twisted the massive legs together with as much ease as he’d done its arms.

 

He’d effectively hog-tied the thing with its own limbs.

 

Dusting his hand, Jared kicked the demolished machine out of his path with a sweep of one foot and continued on his way.

 

“HEY...HEY!  YOU BENT THE HATCH!  I’M TRAPPED IN HERE!”  The helpless pilot of the Mandroid cried.  “YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE ME HERE.”

 

Jared stopped, threw his hands up in frustration and turned back toward the crippled Mandroid.  Grabbing it by the thick attachment point for one of its legs and the diagonal shoulder, he simply tore the whole thing in half.  The pilot slipped out onto the pavement like the yolk of a cracked egg.

 

The man scrambled to his feet tearing a tangle of interface wires from various parts of his body.  Even outside the Mandroid suit, the guy was almost a full head taller than Jared.  Now, instead of a sheath of golden metal, he was clad only in what looked like a pair of solid black boxer-briefs.  Red circles stood out on his skin from each of the spots where he removed a biofeedback sensor from the network that had helped him to operate the Mandroid, but they almost immediately began to fade.

 

From the intel Jared had quickly studied on his way to this location, he knew that the latest version of the Hulk-Buster’s Super-Mandroid suits multiplied by many times the strength of the wearer.

 

To maximize this, selection of recruits to the Mandroid corp placed great emphasis on putting powerfully built guys into the suits in the first place.  The guy before Jared was obviously no exception.

 

The big guy’s wide-eyed stare moved back and forth a couple of times between Jared and his demolished Mandroid.  “Just how the FUCK can you do that?”

 

Jared gave a slight, cool smile as he cocked his right arm in front of his chest, his flexing biceps stretched the blue fabric of his sleeve.  “What did you not get about the ‘big guns’ reference I made earlier?”

 

The former Mandroid operator swallowed nervously and took a step back.  He might have been larger than Jared, but there was something about the smaller man’s confidence and the look of his powerful muscles that inexplicably confirmed Jared’s total physical superiority.  This would have been true even if the Hulk-Buster hadn’t just watched the lean, yet muscular Jared tear apart a state-of-the-art Super-Mandroid with his bare hands.

 

"Okay."  The Hulk-Buster said.  "I'm impressed."  The taller man conceded, then began to glance around, nervously.  "But we need to find some cover.  Being out in the open and unprotected like this is just asking for trouble.  We could run into the Hulk at any moment."

 

The man moved in closer to Jared as he spoke as though driven by some sub-conscious herding instinct; Safety in numbers.

 

"That IS the idea."  Jared muttered under his breath as he turned his back on the Hulk-Buster and resumed his course toward the area where the building had collapsed minutes earlier.  He knew that the Hulk could move around with incredible speed.  The delay caused by the guy in the Mandroid suit had cost him precious seconds.

 

Not sure what else to do, the Hulk-Buster took off at a trot to catch up with Jared.

 

Apparently able to hear even the muffled footfalls of the guy's bare feet on the asphalt, Jared called behind him without turning around.  "Unless you want to be my tag-team partner when I lay into the Hulk, I suggest you piss off."

 

The Hulk-Buster stopped cold, his face blanching at that prospect.  It would have been a daunting one even if he still had his Super-Mandroid suit.  He wrapped his hugely muscular arms protectively around his own bare torso and continued to cast fearful glances all around the abandoned street.  Finally he decided that the only thing around that might offer him any protection should he encounter the Incredible Hulk was the obviously superhumanly powerful man about to disappear on to an intersecting street up ahead of him.  Once more, the nearly naked man took off at a run to catch up with Jared.

 

Moments later, Jared was nearly trampled by another Mandroid.  This one seemed fully intact, but was running scared, hell-bent on leaving the area.  Not far beyond the fleeing machine, Jared could see why.  There was a virtual wall of wrecked armored vehicles forming a crude front line in the  battle that had been raging between the Hulk-Buster's and their target.  Beyond which Jared could finally see his quarry.

 

The Hulk was casually, almost gleefully dismantling a stricken tank.  He had a massive section of broken track in one giant hand, the metal was crumpled in his grip like it was nothing more resilient than damp cardboard.  The tank itself was  balanced above the Hulk's head in the brutes other hand, its naked drive wheels spinning madly.  The turret lay mangled on the ground a few meters away.

 

The Hulk tossed the remains of the vehicle over one impossibly broad green shoulder like a man discarding an apple-core, it tumbled, crashing along a deserted intersection and came to rest on its side, rotating weakly in a small circle as its exposed wheels continued to spin.

 

"Stupid soldiers."  the Hulk grumbled.  "Why do they always attack Hulk?  Why do they never learn?"

 

The Hulk trudged onward, coming in Jared's direction.  Jared decided to lay low and let the Hulk come to him.  He wasn't sure how much of a challenge the Hulk's gamma-spawned might would prove to be against his own strength.  If he could take the Hulk by surprise and end their confrontation quickly, then all the better.

 

He assumed a non-threatening casual stance and waited for the approaching power-house to spot him.  He didn't want to telegraph his intentions by moving in on the Hulk or presenting himself as an aggressor in any way.  It seemed the Hulk was feeling triumphant and coming down from an anger spike.  Which would mean his strength levels would be returning to his baseline resting state - another reason not to get the lumbering colossus riled up again.

 

The Hulk kicked at chunks of debris along his path with irritation as he came.  He nearly stumbled over Jared before he spotted him.  When he did notice the much smaller man just to the side of his course, the Hulk barely spared him a glance as he passed.

 

Jared stole up behind the retreating brute and tapped him on the shoulder.  "Excuse me, could you point me in the direction of the nearest Kwik-E-Mart?"

 

The Hulk turned, blinking stupidly at the question and was caught by what was probably the most devastating uppercut the green mountain of muscle had ever been dealt.

 

Jared stood frozen for a split second, his arm still high in the air at the peak of his swing, his feet planted firmly, slightly more than shoulder-width apart.  A smile of smug satisfaction formed on his face as he watched the massive Hulk sail into the air in a high arc.  The Hulk tumbled end over end in one complete revolution before slamming to the asphalt flat on his back about thirty meters away.

 

Jared hit an all out sprint and skidded to a stop, standing over the downed Hulk, ready to press his advantage.  It didn't seem necessary.  The Hulk wasn't moving.

 

Cautiously, Jared planted a foot on the Hulks rib-cage and gave a few firm nudges to see if he could rouse him.  Still, the Hulk didn't move.  Jared crossed his arms and looked mildly disappointed as he stood victorious over the apparently vanquished juggernaut.  "Too easy."  He sighed.

 

"Guess you don't know your own strength."  A voice called from behind Jared.

 

He turned to see the former Mandroid operator he'd encounter before standing near a chain-link fence not too far away.

 

"Still don't."  Jared replied then turned back to look down on the Hulk.  "At least as far as what my limits are.  I'd hoped the good doctor here might be able to shed some light on that for me.  But I guess not."

 

"Umm...what's your name?"  The so called Hulk-Buster asked.

 

"Jared."  The more literal Hulk-Buster replied.

 

"Warren."  The other guy offered.  "Look, if you have any means of communication on you, I could have a containment unit here within half an hour for our big green friend here."  Warren explained as he approached with caution.

 

"I appreciate the offer."  Jared said as he stooped to shove his arms underneath the unconscious Hulk.  "But I'm thinkin' I"M the only 'containment unit' that's up to this particular task."  He hoisted the enormous, slack body off the ground.

 

Both men were equally startled when, without warning, the Hulk grunted and began to flail violently.  An elbow thick as the stump of an oak tree caught Jared in the temple.  His vision filled with stars and he stumbled, lost his balance, then pitched backward hitting the ground hard and nearly disappearing beneath the Hulk's heavy frame as they both sprawled on the ground.

 

The Hulk growled savagely as the brute scrambled to his feet.  Warren watched, frozen in terror, as the Hulk reared up roaring at the sky.  One of the Hulk's massive feet had come to rest completely obscuring Jared's head, driving it into the pavement as the enraged monster stood and glared around still bellowing with rage.  Almost immediately, the Hulk fixed his attention on Warren.

 

Warren had a block-long stretch of unbroken chain-link fence at his back, an enraged Hulk in front of him and the only one who stood a chance of helping him lay unmoving and unnoticed, ground into the asphalt beneath the Hulk's heel.

 

Only one phrase came to mind and he breathed it out with quiet resignation.  "Oh Fuck."

 

******

 

The Hulk closed on Warren like a predator.  There was a murderous look in the eyes of the giant and Warren wondered if Jared's punch had so disoriented the beast that it thought that Warren had been the one who delivered the blow.  He thought about the power the Hulk would put into retaliating against someone he perceived to be capable of that kind of strength.  He then thought about what would happen to his powerfully built, but all too human body when the Hulk laid into him.

 

He stood tall and squared his shoulders.  Turning his head away only slightly, he closed his eyes and waited.

 

"You've got the wrong dance partner there ya big green moron."  came a voice from behind the Hulk.

 

Warren opened one eye cautiously to see the Hulk, who had come to a stop less than a meter in front of the mercenary.  A rumbling growl grew steadily louder as the Hulk slowly turned to square off against the owner of that voice.

 

As the Hulk turned, Jared came into Warren's field of view from behind the green beast.  He was wiping dirt from the side of his face and spitting grit from where his face had been stomped into the pavement.  Warren noticed, however, that there wasn't a scratch on the man.

 

His growl escalating to a roar, the Hulk pulled back his mighty right arm and slammed a punch into the ground before his feet with devastating power.  Warren was thrown to the ground by the shock wave, even though only the merest fraction propagated in his direction.  The brunt of the shock wave ripped through the ground toward Jared, who bounced several stories high and was hurled backward by the raw power of the punch.

 

Scrambling quickly to his feet, Warren watched in amazement as Jared, with remarkable acrobatic skill, rebounded off the side of a building.  He 'landed' on the vertical surface feet first, immediately pushing off and sailing back toward the Hulk to land almost in his original position.

 

"Two can play at that Hulkster."  Jared declared with a confident grin as he prepared to hammer the ground with his own punch in answer to the Hulk's.  The grin vanished as he noticed Warren getting to his feet just behind his target.  "CRAP!"  Jared spat, pulling his punch at the last possible minute so as not to kill Warren with an answering shock-wave of his own.

 

Unfortunately, his momentum carried him into the Hulk's reach.  Warren felt terrible, knowing it was his fault as he watched Jared's misstep set the poor guy up in front of the waiting Hulk like a bad pitch served up to a home-run slugger.  Instead of standing around gaping, Warren knew he should have made a move to get himself out of the battle-zone, so that Jared wouldn't have to worry about holding back for fear of injuring him.

 

The Hulk connected, solidly and Jared became a blurred streak of motion as he hurtled backward.  The devastating punch sent him careening into the same building he'd deftly rebounded from moments earlier, only this time his momentum was too much for the structure to withstand.  Jared's body slammed through the wall explosively, near the foundation.  Moments later, half the building came down on top of him.

 

Warren backed quickly away as a cascade of pulverized masonry and other debris spilled toward him, blocking his only path of escape.

 

Nearby, a jeep had been hurled into the intact building nearest to Jared at some point in the Hulk's battle with the Hulk-busters.  It had come to rest standing on its nose, wheels pointed outward.  Now, jostled by the collapsing building, it tipped over and fell onto its wheels once again.

 

As the Jeep fell away from the building, Jared could see the battered, once-gleaming metal of a mandroid suit revealed where it had been partially knocked through the wall of the building, apparently when the jeep had been hurled into it.

 

A triumphant roar from the Hulk snapped Warren's attention back to the current battle, he pressed himself against the chain-link fence and froze in place.  He felt as though his blood was turning to ice-water as the Hulk roared his victory to the sky.  

 

The Hulk's bellowing ended abruptly in an almost comical interrogative grunt.  As the brute stared in mute surprise at his opponent, who emerged from the debris cloud, brushing dust from his his body and with much irritation and struggling to recover from a coughing fit probably brought on by a lung-full of the thick dust-cloud he'd just emerged from.  His Shirt hung in tatters and Jared shrugged it off exposing his incredibly powerful looking upper body.  The guy had to have close to zero body-fat.  He was absolutely armored with huge, impervious-looking muscles.  Warren had never seen the like.  It was hard to believe that Jared’s shirt had been able to obscure so much bulk.

 

Or had it?  Was this guy growing somehow?

 

"That tears it!"  Jared declared, coming to a stop toe to toe with the Hulk.  He wiped at his eyes trying his best to clear them of grit and debris, then he raised his fists like a well-trained boxer, though he was still squinting through his impaired vision.  "You wanna have a go at me, then let's do this like men."  He challenge between coughs.

 

The Hulk's fists were inbound for Jared's head before he'd even finished issuing his challenge.  The massive green fists, thumbs-out, crashed together against the sides of Jared's head.

 

Jared staggered back, his ears ringing.  The Hulk pressed his advantage and caught Jared in the temple with another devastating punch.

 

Jared spun and staggered and finally went down hard on his back.  He immediately began to struggle back to his feet, but he was moving slowly.

 

The Hulk closed in once more, moving farther from Warren's position as he did so.

 

Warren turned his attention back to that downed Super-Mandroid suit.  The Hulk was no longer directly between him and the suit and was currently paying him no attention.

 

At the very least, the thing might provide him with an armored hiding place.  At most, he might be able to use it to help Jared.

 

He sprinted for the machine as fast as he could.

 

Meanwhile, Jared had managed to roll himself over and was in the process of pushing himself up off the ground when the Hulk scooped him bodily into the air with a single hand, thick fingers nearly completely encircling his relatively narrow waist.

 

Disoriented, and with no footing or leverage, Jared was at a severe disadvantage.  In quick succession, the Hulk drew back his free arm, and hammered his hapless opponent with an uppercut that launched him high into the air.

 

The Hulk raged and leaped after Jared's tumbling body, intercepting him in mid-air and slamming into him with vicious force as he clamped a bear-hug on Jared.  They began their free fall back to the ground.  The impact as the two crashed to the earth shook the ground for an area of many blocks.

 

Warren had reached the Mandroid suit.  The impact drew his attention and he noted the location where the Hulk now stood, holding Jared trapped in his mightily muscled green arms.

 

Wasting no time, he crawled into the suit's hatch, the cover of which had been jettisoned.  He was only vaguely aware of his underwear snagging and ripping as he forced his way into the debris-strewn interior. Inside he found a jumbled mass of deflated airbags, similar to the kind incorporated into most automobiles.  Except these more advanced safety measures were designed to redeploy after each use, the fact that the bags hadn't retracted into their harnesses signaled that the suit had probably suffered a pretty severe power failure.

 

Warren attempted to initiate a power-up of the suit, only to be met by a shower of sparks.  He quickly killed main power and tried to run a diagnostic, hoping there was enough battery-power to run the secondary computer system.

 

He found that the only functional micro-fusion generator was the one associated with the suit's self-contained life-support system which was designed to keep the operator safe in the event of the deployment of anesthetizing gas or immersion in water.  He pulled that generator-pack and swapped it with the burned-out one that powered the emergency decoy system.  He quickly selected deployment options.  Then, reaching above his head into each of the suits "sleeve" compartments, he slid open two activation guards and simultaneously pressed the two buttons underneath.

 

There was the sound of explosive bolts firing and a whoosh of released compressed air, as the suits sophisticated anti-measure decoy system deployed.  Warren wriggled back outside in time to see Jared manage to power out of the Hulk's hold, only to have the Hulk kick him into a large water stand-pipe, which split, sending a huge gout of water into the air.  The metal walls wrapped around his body on impact, cocooning him in the buckled steel of its shell and toppling the whole thing onto its side.  When it hit, the remaining water surged out the ruined top, spreading across the ground in a jagged fan-shape.

 

Jared turned his attention to the decoy unit.  The flying mechanical sphere was ringed by two integrated, counter-rotating circles of turbine blades which provided lift and gyro-stabilization.  A transparent inverted dome at the bottom housed advanced holo-projection technology whereas a micro-machine-gun turret was housed in the top portion of the basketball-sized  sphere.

 

Warren held very still and waited for the pre-programmed show to  begin.  He didn't have to wait very long.

 

The Hulk had just started to move in on Jared once more, when a burst of gunfire caught him squarely in the back of his head.  It did no real damage, but got the brute's attention.

 

The Hulk turned to be confronted with what was apparently yet another Super-Mandroid unit, one that appeared fully functional.

 

Warren took advantage of the distraction and made a dash for Jared's position.  He could hear the decoy unit pelting the Hulk with yet more short, controlled bursts of fire in a bid to keep his attention.  From the Hulk's perspective, the annoying fire seemed to be coming from the holographic Mandroid-suit, the illusion complete with muzzle-fire flashes from its arm-mounted guns.  It didn't take long for him to make a move to swat this annoyance.  Picking up a mangled Mazda Miata, the Hulk hurled it at the hologram with tremendous force.

 

The faux suit deployed boot-mounted rockets (not found on the actual models) and sailed into the air, avoiding the automotive missile, then continued to pepper the Hulk with bullets.

 

Annoyed further, the Hulk stormed off toward the floating Super-Mandroid mirage, which settled slowly back to the ground and continued firing.

 

Warren reached the wrecked standpipe and searched for any sign of Jared.  He found one of the man's legs protruding from the warped metal where it had imploded around the impact of Jared's body.

 

Warren worked his fingers beneath the edge of the metal and tried futilely to pry open Jared’s prison.  The steel was far too thick for him to budge.  Instead, he shook Jared’s exposed leg, trying to rouse the man.

 

With a loud shriek of protest, the ruined section of the standpipe opened up as Jared powered out of his predicament.  Warren scurried back away from the spectacle of Jared’s mightily muscled arms opening up the thick metal shell of the standpipe like he was shrugging off a light blanket.

 

“Where’d he go?”  Jared asked as he jumped back to his feet.

 

“I think I bought us some time.  We should use it to get the Hell out of here.”

 

Jared spotted the Hulk a few hundred feet away, where the brute was raging at the mandroid hologram.  “Not ‘we’, you.”

 

“Look, you’re obviously a powerful dude, but that’s the Hulk you are so intent on mixing it up with.”  Warren almost pleaded, pointing emphatically at the Hulk as he spoke.  “There’s no shame in admitting that you are out of your league.”

 

“Someone’s out of his league alright.”  Jared replied, seething.  “If you’d clear out and stop interfering I could do my job here.”

 

The sound of sporadic gunfire that had been emanating from the decoy unit suddenly ceased altogether.

 

“Sounds like the last of the ammo.  That means the decoy doesn’t have a lot of power left.”

 

As if on cue, the mandroid hologram lost focus and blurred out as the decoy unit fell from the air, clanging to the ground where it lay inert.

 

Momentarily confused, the Hulk searched his surroundings, seeking a new target for his rage.

 

Warren watched as the two locked eyes across the distance.  He felt cold dread in the pit of his stomach.

 

Jared turned to Warren.  “You need to keep out of the way this time.”  

 

“Where exactly would be out of the way?  Neither of you seem to be all that into precision control when you’re going at it.”

 

“Find some cover...NOW!”  The look accompanying that command made it clear that it would be unwise to argue.  Warren ran for cover.

 

Warren swore under his breath as he made for the building where the non-functional mandroid suit lay, moving at top speed.

 

In a single leap, the Hulk closed the distance between himself and Jared.  He landed almost on top of the shorter man roaring directly down into his face.

 

Jared merely stared up into the brute’s face.  “THAT is some SERIOUS halitosis, ya big green pansy.  Probably the strongest thing about you.  Why don’t you nix the bellowing and you and me settle this?”

 

The Hulk had started his swing even before Jared had finished his challenge.  Again, he connected squarely with Jared, this time the mighty punch landed right on the smaller man's jaw.

 

The Hulk's eyes bulged-wide with surprise at the result of his awesome punch.

 

Ready for the Hulk this time, Jared barely took a single half-step back, a brilliant grin on his face as he rubbed his bristly, chiseled jaw, more in self-appreciation than in any discomfort.

 

"That punch only brings one word to mind Hulk."  Jared explained, his grin widening.  "Puny."

 

The Hulk's face darkened with rage and he bellowed with a roar that rivaled the sound of a tornado.  That word was meant for every other thing in the world.  It was not meant for the Hulk.  Before Warren's eyes, the massive green leviathan seemed to swell with the power induced by this outrageous affront.  Veins surged into relief against muscles that threatened to split the Hulk's green skin as they burgeoned even larger with granite-hard mass and power.

 

Jared's gaze was forced upward as the Hulk's rage even caused the brute to tower higher over him, actually increasing his height.

 

In a flash, the Hulk brought down both boulder-like green fists on either side of Jared's head.  The sheer power of those fists against Jared's shoulders shattered the asphalt all around the two combatants and Jared was driven into the earth up to his calves.

 

But he barely seemed to notice.  Stepping up and out of the shattered ground, he followed up immediately with a more strategic punch to the Hulk's solar-plexus.  The jabbing strike didn't look as impressive as the Hulk's brute-force assault, but Jared's much larger opponent was staggered by it.

 

A trace of frustration mixed with the rage in the Hulk's expression as he instantly retaliated, targeting the same point between his smaller foe's pecs with a roundhouse answering punch.

 

"Yeah!"  Jared growled, thumping the same spot on his own chest that the Hulk had just pounded (to absolutely no effect) as he stepped in closer to the surprised giant and delivered another jab to the center of the Hulk's massive plate-like pecs.

 

The Hulk clutched at his battered sternum with one hand, bellowing with anger and (to Warren's amazement) pain, even as the Hulk reflexively cocked his other thickly muscled arm, making ready to continue trading punches with his infuriating opponent.

 

Jared made no move to dodge or block.  On the contrary, he stood his ground, staring the Hulk down with a smirk as he bounced his mighty pecs, taunting the Hulk.

 

For a split-second, the sight of Jared's powerful flexing even made the Hulk hesitate.  But the Hulk's eyes moved from the man's intimidating chest to the smirk on his face and the Hulk's rage spurred him on.

 

Again, the Hulk crashed his fist into Jared's pecs with a force greater than that of a pile-driver.

 

His stance firmly braced, Jared's thick, broad pecs utterly absorbed the hit.  The only detectable trace of the massive power in the Hulk's blow was a resounding, ground-shaking "thump" that jarred Warren's teeth even at a distance.

 

The Hulk's eyes were wide as saucers as he stared dumbly at Jared, who merely stood, still smugly bouncing those impervious pecs with an equally smug grin.

 

"My turn, isn't it?"  He asked as he slowly brought his arms back up into a boxer's stance.  "Let's get a little different angle this time."

 

Jared dropped his next jab, targeting the Hulk's abs, even as the Hulk was bracing for another blow to his chest.

 

Surprised, the Hulk bent forward with the impact and Jared quickly followed up, bringing his other fist upward in an uppercut motion that caught the Hulk yet again in the chest.  The power of Jared's follow-up hit actually lifted the Hulk's feet from the ground and the stunned Hulk barely manage to regain his footing as he came back down.  The Hulk straightened from a stoop and gasped and wheezed, trying to draw in a breath after such a stunning hit.

 

But the Hulk recovered quickly, if anything he was even more enraged.  He was determined to wear down this stupid human as he had every other foe.  Anything he could do, the Hulk could do longer and stronger.  He could feel his muscles powering up, fueled by his anger even as his super-accelerated healing ability was restoring his bruised pecs to full vigor.  He sent his most powerful punch yet careening into Jared's rippling abs in answer to the man's own targeting of the Hulk's mid-section.

 

The Hulk's knuckles slammed into Jared's eight-pack, his massive green fist completely covering the man's abs on impact.

 

But unlike the Hulk, Jared emitted only the faintest grunt and remained perfectly upright as the Hulk's fist merely bounced off, deflected by abs every bit as solid as Jared's stubbornly unyielding pecs.  Even this man's unprotected gut was imbued with a level of muscular power the Hulk had never before encountered.

 

The Hulk determinedly followed through, completing the same abs/chest combo that Jared had rocked him with, only to feel the unsettling sensation of his mighty punches being effortlessly turned aside by Jared's broad, bulging pecs as easily as the man’s chiseled mosaic of thick abdominal muscles had just done.

 

Warren wasn't sure if it was just for show, but Jared actually yawned as he lazily rubbed his phenomenally defined abs where the Hulk's punch had landed.  "Gotta bring your A-game Hulk, if you wanna take on this bod."  Jared sneered.  He again thumped his own pecs for emphasis, only this time, he put far, far more power into his grand-standing.

 

There was a tremendous sound:  "KA-THOOOM!"  Jared's inhumanly thick chest resonated with the phenomenal power of his self-inflicted blow with a sound like some cosmic bass drum and the shock-wave slammed the Hulk into a nearby concrete retaining wall, driving his massive green body deep into the shattered concrete, where he came to rest with only his arms and legs protruding from the jagged hole.

 

Warren's mind struggled to comprehend the kind of might that could slam the Incredible Hulk into a concrete wall, embedding him like a cannonball.  And not even with a direct blow, but merely the concussive force generated by Jared thumping his own thick chest.

 

Jared threw a glance in Warren’s direction and winked.  "How's that for precision control?"  He turned back and headed toward the Hulk once more.

 

Apparently, just by adjusting the way he flexed his muscles, Jared could direct the brunt of such shock-waves with the precision of a shaped-charge explosive.  Which was definitely a good thing.  Warren didn't even want to think about what even a fraction of such power might do to him if misdirected.  Warren scurried for better cover behind a pile of debris, peeking over it to watch the ongoing fight between these two titans.

 

Jared strode confidently toward the downed Hulk, who didn't stay down for long.  With a roar, the Hulk shattered a large section of the concrete wall, ripping wider the hole formed by his impact as he extricated himself.  Without hesitation, the Hulk scrambled upright and boomed across the asphalt toward Jared, who continued his own approach with that same confident swagger, unphased by the sight of an enraged Hulk bearing down on him, shaking the ground with the power of those enormous green feet.

 

Jared spread his arms in an open gesture, inviting the Hulk to take his best shot.  "I do love a sparring partner who is too stupid to give up."

 

The charging Hulk pulled back his mighty arm preparing to hammer Jared once more, but the sight of the powerful, bare-chested man standing there with a look, not of terror but of amusement, on his handsome face confused the Hulk.  Like a predatory cat whose prey refused to run, the Hulk was thrown off by the situation.  He skidded to a stop before Jared, his fist still cocked to deliver a blow, but uncertain about how to proceed.

 

"Aw C'mon Hulk, losing your nerve just because a guy’s got bigger muscles than you?"  Jared teased, peering smugly up into the Hulk's face over those impossible pecs of his, giving his sternum a couple of light wraps with the knuckles of one hand, inviting the Hulk to try again as he caused waves of striations to undulate across the wide expanse of his chest.

 

The Hulk's eyes were drawn to that display of rippling muscle and for a moment he seemed almost entranced by the sight.  Then the Hulk shook his head briskly, snapping out of his nearly hypnotic state as Jared's words sank in.

 

"STUPID humans NEVER learn!"  The Hulk raged.  "HULK IS STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!!"

 

The Hulk once again hammered Jared's pecs with a punch of phenomenal power.  And yet again, Jared took the hit without flinching, smiling at the Hulk's ineffectual effort as he clasped his hands behind his back, still leaving himself totally exposed to the Hulk's fury.

 

Warren watched in awe.  It appeared that Jared had the power to end this fight, but was intent on toying with the Hulk.  Warren knew enough about the Hulk's nature to worry about such a cavalier approach to the power of the Hulk.  Jared might have the upper hand now, but the extent of the Hulk's ability to grow stronger with his increasing rage had no known upper limit.

 

Almost as if reading Warren's thoughts, Jared continued his taunts.  "Better, almost felt that one."  Jared said, but shook his head in disappointment.  "Still, I thought you were supposed to really muscle-up when you get pissed.  Finding out just how much is why I'm here, so could we skip over these piss-ant little love-taps?"

 

Jared was intentionally trying to make the Hulk more powerful.  Warren couldn't believe it.  And clearly, Jared knew the psychological buttons he needed to push that would most enrage the Hulk - anything denigrating the Hulk's image of himself as the strongest being on planet Earth.

 

"Or is this all you got?"  Jared asked, laughing at the Hulk's efforts so far.  "C’mon, step it up Hulk, it’s embarrassing to see you gettin’ rolled by nothin’ more than a decent set of pecs."

 

"SHUT UP!  Hulk will SMASH puny man!"  The Hulk raged as another powerful punch thudded impotently against the point where Jared's mighty pecs met.  The Hulk blinked stupidly at the grinning, wholly unaffected target of his fury.

 

"Wow."  Jared said, obviously still disappointed.  He seemed to be at a loss for words to describe the Hulk's punch.  "That was just...weak."  He scoffed, shaking his head.

 

The Hulk was seized by inarticulate rage.  He punched Jared again.  Then he followed up, not waiting for a reaction.  He blitzed Jared's pecs with blow after blow.

 

"Yeah!"  Jared growled encouragement.  "Show me what you can do Hulk."  He laughed haughtily as the blows hammered his pecs, which seemed to withstand each new and more powerful punch as easily as the last.

 

"Hulk will make puny man STOP laughing."  The Hulk declared as his muscles again began to swell with intensified strength commensurate with his mounting rage.

 

Jared glanced over at Warren, where he cowered behind cover.  Warren couldn't be sure, but the man looked bigger now, taller.  Jared tossed his head toward the Hulk and rolled his eyes.  Warren stared back his jaw dropped in amazement, unable to believe what he was seeing.  Despite the Hulk's mounting power, Jared wasn't even breaking a sweat.  With a smirk, Jared mouthed the words "watch this", then turned his attention back to the Hulk.

 

Jared's pecs bunched up huge into a tight flex as the Hulk's next punch landed home.  Much of the power of the Hulk's hit rebounded back into the Hulk's arm from Jared's suddenly denser pecs and the Hulk staggered back a step, growling with the unexpected pain of the recoil.

 

"Hurts don't it?"  Jared teased as he bounced his pecs a couple of times before relaxing his chest once more.

 

The Hulk snarled and roared as he resumed his pummeling of Jared's chest.

 

Jared moved his left leg a little further back in order to more powerfully brace his stance, then he began to pay close attention to the rhythm of the Hulk's punches.  He began trying to match the Hulk's pace, flexing into the Hulk's punches.  Lightly at first, meeting the incoming fury of the Hulk's fist with the smallest tensing of his pecs.

 

The sound of the Hulk's punches changed, becoming less of a "Boom" and more of a dull "Thud".

 

As he got the timing right, Jared began to increase the intensity of his flexing.  Instead of bouncing off Jared's relaxed muscles, the Hulk's fists began colliding with perfectly timed expansions of Jared's flexing pecs.

 

The Hulk staggered back a half-step, as his fist was deflected uncontrollably in an unexpected direction with each punch.  But he continued his assault.

 

Jared smiled.

 

He flexed a little harder and forced the Hulk back another step.  The Hulk began to grunt with each punch as his fists were suddenly rebounding off the perfectly timed pulsing flexes of Jared's pecs with more force than they were imparting on impact.  It was hard for the Hulk to keep his balance as his own fists were bounced back toward him more and more forcefully.

 

The Hulk grunted and snarled with effort as he kept up his attack, even as Jared's flexing pecs intercepted and redirected his every punch.

 

Jared flexed harder, moving forward and bulldozing the Hulk relentlessly backward.  He began to humiliate the Hulk by occasionally deflecting the Hulk's fist with a precisely aimed flex of his pecs that sent the brute's fist careening back into the Hulk's own face.

 

The Hulk snarled and raged, leaning into his punches to try and hold his ground against Jared's advance, at first, with some success.  The Hulk tried to keep up the pressure and regain the momentum in their battle.  He clasped both hands into one enormous club-like fist and swung against Jared like a baseball batter swinging for the bleachers.

 

"Well, Hulk."  Jared said as he pressed his finger to his ear as though hearing something over his communicator.  "You're now hitting with an order of magnitude more power than your first punch."  Jared cocked his head, apparently still listening through his earpiece as he momentarily ignored the Hulk's continual pounding of his pecs.  Jared nodded as he verbally agreed a couple of times with the unseen party communicating with him.  All the while, the Hulk continued to pound with increasing fury on Jared's relaxed pecs.  The inherent muscle-tone alone of the man’s powerful chest was enough to absorb the power of the Hulk’s relentless hammering.

 

Jared finally dropped his arm back to his side and returned his full attention to the Hulk.  "Now, where was I?"  He asked himself as he glanced down to watch the Hulk's latest punch bounce uselessly off his chest.  "Oh, yeah."

 

As the Hulk's next punch landed, Jared resumed countering by flexing his pecs.  The expansion of muscle collided with the Hulk's double-fist and the recoil spun the Hulk around and sent him stumbling back several yards before he caught his balance again.  "I was in the middle of pounding you into next week just by flexing these little ole pecs of mine."  Jared explained as he once again strode forward into the Hulk's onslaught.

 

The Hulk ran at Jared full tilt, swinging.  He repeated his attack over and over.

 

Each time Jared's pecs flexed into the impact and the Hulk's punch was forced to rebound, the force of it driving the Hulk backward again and again.

 

The Hulk was lost in a berserker rage and only became aware of his surroundings once more when he felt his back pressed into that concrete retaining wall once again.

 

Jared moved relentlessly forward.  Crowding the Hulk to the point that he could no longer take a decent swing at him.

 

“GET AWAY FROM HULK!”  The Hulk bellowed, planting his palms against Jared’s pecs and pushing desperately.  The massive brute sank slowly to his knees as he put all of his strength into trying to stop Jared .

 

The Hulk’s mighty arms trembled with effort as he managed to hold Jared back briefly.  But Jared sneered and took the final couple of steps that resulted in him pinning the Hulk against the concrete, trapping the Hulks hands between the two combatants muscular chests.

 

“Oh come on, Hulk!  Surely you can push harder than that.”  Jared taunted.  He placed his hands on his hips, smirking into the Hulk’s face as the green goliath grimaced with effort.

 

“Here’s a question for you Hulkie;  If you are the strongest one there is, What does that make a guy who can do this?”

 

With an explosive flex, Jared’s pecs surged thicker.  The Hulk threw his head back and roared with his supreme effort trying to resist.  The trapped Hulk twisted and grunted, but he couldn’t free himself.  Cracks began to radiate from the concrete where the Hulk’s back was being pressed into the wall ever more forcefully.

 

Jared ramped up his flex again, his pecs were a relentless burgeoning wall of muscle that seemed on the verge of flattening the torso of the helpless Hulk, who wheezed loudly as the air was driven from his mighty lungs.

 

Warren bolted from his place behind cover, heading for Jared.  The Hulk might be a rampaging menace, but somewhere inside him was Bruce Banner.  He felt he had a duty to at least remind Jared of this fact before the awesomely powerful man did something he might later regret.

 

“Let...Hulk...breath...”  The Hulk pleaded weakly.

 

As he ran, Warren was relieved to see Jared step back momentarily.  The Hulk’s arms dropped to his side and the giant’s green body heaved with a massive inhalation.  After allowing the Hulk a couple of ragged gasps for air, Jared leaned in again, pinning the Hulk to the wall once more.

 

“Now, tell me who’s the strongest, Hulk!”  Jared demanded.

 

“Hulk!”  The Hulk insisted, snarling.  He threw his arms around Jared, attempted to crush him in a bear-hug.

 

Jared flexed his awesome muscles once more and there was a sound like a gunshot.  Huge cracks spread out from the Hulk’s back in the concrete.  Warren wasn’t sure if the sound was the concrete giving way or the Hulk’s ribs.  The Hulk let out a blood-curdling sound that wasn’t his usual rage-filled roar.  This was more like a scream of pain or terror.

 

“Wrong answer.”  Jared shouted into the Hulk’s face.  Jared’s pecs, triceps and shoulders simultaneously flexed even more powerfully, breaking the Hulk’s hold.  The Hulk resorted to beating his great green fists into Jared’s back as his trapped torso began to sink into the rapidly pulverizing concrete.

 

Warren came to a stop just behind Jared.  He found himself actually feeling sorry for the brutalized Hulk.  “Hey!  Maybe you should ease up.”

 

“Not until I hear him admit it.  SAY IT!  WHO’S THE MAN?!  WHO’S THE STRONGEST?!  SAY IT OR I SWEAR I’M GONNA BE WIPING WHAT’S LEFT OF YA OUTTA MY CHEST-HAIR FOR WEEKS.

 

SAY IT YOU WIMP!”

 

At this point, Warren was pretty sure that the Hulk was out.  He was totally unresponsive, his head lulling lifelessly.

 

“That’s enough, Jared!  He’s had it, he can’t hear you anymore.”  Warren pointed out, growing more concerned about Jared’s state of mind with each passing second.

 

But Jared kept ramping up the pressure, the flexing of his awesome musculature contorting the Hulk’s over-matched torso to a disturbing degree.

 

“Jared!  BACK OFF!”  Warren began to hammer his fists into Jared’s rippling back, but it was like pounding on an oak stump that someone had wrapped in a sheet of thick rubber.

 

Warren wasn’t sure that he’d had any effect at all on Jared, but for whatever reason, the frighteningly powerful man stepped back away from the Hulk, allowing the great green behemoth to slump and collapse on the ground at Jared’s feet.

 

Jared staggered back and then whirled around, his attention fixing fully on Warren.  Rage and frustration mingled on his face.  He was clenching his fists causing the muscles in his forearms to writhe like they were composed of braided anacondas.  Warren found that it was all he could do to keep from turning and running.

 

Warren held up both hands and tried to placate the man.  “It’s over.  Just calm down.”

 

Jared was breathing heavily, causing those Hulk-humbling pecs of his to heave like storm swells.  He forced himself to take two long slow breaths in an attempt to calm himself and then began to pace back and forth along a short line like he was trying to burn off the energy his anger had fueled within him.

 

“Sorry.”  Jared offered, almost sheepishly.  “I can be kinda like the opposite of our big green friend there.”  He gestured to the vanquished Hulk where he lay unmoving on the ground.  “The angrier he gets the stronger he gets.  But with me, the more of my strength I use, the harder it gets to control my temper.  His rage fuels his strength, my strength fuels my rage.”

 

Jared stopped pacing, placed his hands on his hips and stared at the ground for a moment.  “I thought I could handle it.”  He shook his head disappointed with himself.  “I guess it’s a good thing you were here.”

 

Jared took a final long breath and looked Warren squarely in the eyes.  “Thank You.  I owe you one.  You need anything, name it.”

 

Warren sighed.  His tension leaving him at almost the same rate Jared’s anger was subsiding.  This first bit of relative calm he had experienced since he'd first encountered Jared, made him suddenly aware of a distinct draft. He reached behind him in a vain attempt at pulling the shredded remains of his underwear over his nearly bare ass as a local news chopper approached their position.

 

“I wouldn't say no to a decent pair of pants?”

[Guest]

It may not be an Overimpowered, Narcissistic Doc Samson wailing on Hulk, but this will do!

[portamivia]

I remember this story perfectly. Have loved it since ever and waited since ever for a sequel. I wouldn't lie if I said that I'd love to see that superpowered Jared have sex...

[AT2000]

It may not be an Overimpowered, Narcissistic Doc Samson wailing on Hulk, but this will do!

 

I'm happy you approve!    I'll get back to the good Doctor someday soon, hopefully.

I remember this story perfectly. Have loved it since ever and waited since ever for a sequel. I wouldn't lie if I said that I'd love to see that superpowered Jared have sex...

I wouldn't mind reading about that myself.  Trouble is, I am total crap when it comes to writing those kinds of scenes.  While I don't have any real plans for a continuation of this story, if anyone else want to pick up the story and run with it, I would be thrilled to read it.