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"People's lives don't end when they die, it ends when they lose faith."
- Itachi Uchiha, (Naruto Shippuiden)
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<{Yuma Desert, Arizona, United States of America}>
<(Omniscient POV)>
"HULK SMASH!" A familiar green giant yelled at the top of its lungs before landing a heavy earth-shattering hammer fist right on top of Juggernaut's huge ugly face.
The massive mutant was thrown back a couple of feet due to the direct hit before landing on its back with a loud thud. However, before he could try to get up on his legs again, a bulky metal arm suddenly held his head from the back and smashed it further inside the Earth, resulting in the can-headed metahuman getting trapped inside a large crater on the ground.
"Normally, it would have taken me an hour to defeat him, and that too would have resulted in a lot of collateral damage, but the two of us were able to do it in less than ten minutes. We make a good team, Hulk." Colossus, aka Piotr Rasputin, spoke with a heavy Russian accent while holding up his fist for a fist bump.
Hulk, however, was slightly surprised at how friendly the huge metal guy in front of him was. By now, he had found out a lot about humans, either through Banner's own memories or by having met them himself in his green form, but most of them with the exception of a few like Betty, were either always afraid of him or just looked down on him for some reason. Some even outright hated or were disgusted by him. Piotr, on the other hand, was different. Despite being one of the physically strongest people Hulk had ever met, powerful enough to even take on a punch or two of his without getting turned to mush, Colossus acted humbly most of the time, choosing to treat Hulk with respect and a tone of warmth in his voice, something most people never bothered to do. And Hulk was glad for this.
"Metal man also strong." The Hulk declared with a happy grin on his face before bringing his own fist up and throwing it out in a fist-bump, but unfortunately for Piotr, the punch was too strong for a simple knuckle bump, resulting in Colossus getting knocked a couple of feet away by the punch. "Heh, but Hulk stronger." The big green brute smirked.
"This is way too funny for an experiment." A girl in her mid-teens, standing a little distance away from them, chuckled before looking at another blonde girl beside her. "Illyana, look at that. Your brother fits right in with the Hulk. Both of them are like two cute teddies. I just wanna hug them." She jumped up and down excitedly like a kid on a sugar rush.
"Don't try it though, you WILL get smashed to paste if you do. They might sound like two lovable teddies, but they are two of the most durable beings on the planet." Illyana muttered with a straight face as she continued to monitor the situation as they were instructed.
After Atem had rescued the still-alive Bruce Banner from Harlem the night he was thrashed by Abomination, they had been doing their best to help the scientist recover and gain control over his strange... power. In their endeavor, they had outright tried to erase the Hulk's personality at first but soon discovered that it was a very bad idea to mess with the Hulk's mind. If it wasn't for Jean and Wanda's quick thinking about putting his entire brain into a peaceful sleep-like state, they would have been in big trouble that day. So, they had to quickly stop trying to remove the hidden personalities inside Banner and instead try to help him in some other way.
It was then that Atem himself came up with the idea of forming a psychic link between Bruce and the Hulk so that the two could communicate with each other whenever they wanted and sort out their differences. The New God believed that Hulk wasn't truly evil or destructive. He was just an angry kid throwing a tantrum, and Bruce, instead of always behaving like a wronged victim, should instead try to act like his parent and show him the right way. Only then could he ever hope to gain control over the Hulk inside him. Bruce, of course, wasn't too happy about the idea, but considering that Atem was the guy keeping him safe from the US army as well as the monster inside himself, the genius had to agree to avoid annoying him.
So, for the next few days, more than half a dozen telepaths worked tirelessly to construct a telepathic link inside Banner's head while keeping the Hulk inside him calm. And they were quite successful, too, because once they were done, Banner was finally able to have the LONG overdue conversation with Hulk inside his mind that both of them very much needed. Nobody knew what the two talked about, but by the time it was over, the two seemed to have reached a consensus. Both of them would get to spend time in the real world doing what they wished while the other would only watch from the inside, something that they could do now because of the telepathic link between them. In short, they both wanted their own me-time in the driver's seat of the body without long intervals and large chunks of time missing from their memories.
The deal was honestly particularly more advantageous for Banner because this way Bruce was getting most of their time since Hulk was kind of lazy for a monster and preferred to either watch through Banner's eyes most of the time or just "sleep" inside his head. The only couple of times when he actively wanted to come out were whenever he saw a lot of food, exciting video games, or a strong enemy to smash. This fight with Juggernaut was one such instance.
"Maybe we should go to a karaoke place after this. I bet the Hulk has never done karaoke. We could have some fun there, maybe even invite a couple of others and have a full-blown party." Katherine uttered as if she was seriously considering the idea. "What do you think, Miss. Natalia?" She asked the bespectacled woman who was silently standing beside them while taking notes on an iPad.
"Hmm? I think we should return to the HQ after this. I am under strict orders to report Hulk's performance and psychological evaluation to Miss Claudine as soon as we arrive, and I don't want to lose this job just because of one karaoke." The woman said with a half-smile after finishing taking up the notes. "But maybe you all can go to a pub or karaoke once we reach Neo Genosha. I heard that there are quite a lot of new entertainment zones there." She quickly added after noticing a sorrowful expression on Katherine's face.
Of course, it didn't have to be said that Natalia or Natalia Rushman was none other than Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. After putting in quite a lot of work, more than she had ever put in any other mission before this, she was finally able to get chosen as Atem's secretary in the Meta Corporation but unfortunately for her, Atem was away most of the time on his "secret" missions, so she was mostly tasked with small assignments in his absence that could justify her role in the company. In fact, this was the first time that she was allowed a responsibility on the field like this.
For some unknown reason, Atem had allowed her to see a little of everything that he was involved in. She had seen Neo Genosha with her own eyes since the company had its HQ there. Also, like the rest of the world, she had seen demonstrations of his true power, but unlike the rest of the world, she had also seen what other metahumans under his command were capable of. She even had an idea about how powerful Meta Enterprises was or how deep Hellfire Club's connections ran. By this time, despite how limited her knowledge was, she was sure that she still knew more about Atem than every other intelligence-gathering organization on the globe combined.
So, when she got this task to keep tabs on the Hulk's performance, the same Hulk that disappeared from all the governments' radar after Harlem, she was more than happy to comply because not only did this mean that she was rising in the ranks and getting access to more insider information but also that she would be able to get intel on the Hulk, the same green monster that everyone in the world wanted to know about. So, no way was she messing up this golden opportunity of hers.
"She is right, Kitty. We cannot just bring Hulk to a normal karaoke. Don't forget that he is only welcome everywhere in Neo Genosha because nobody is normal there. In the rest of the world, most people will have a heart attack if they suddenly see him entering their establishment." Illyana agreed with Natasha, understanding where she came from.
"Hulk like Genosha. Humans there stronger and not annoying like other humans." Hulk agreed with a nod as he continued thrashing Juggernaut, making even Piotr raise an eyebrow at his antics, wondering if what they were doing to the can-headed mutant in the name of an experiment could be considered sadistic.
"I see. Sigh. I guess you are right. People do judge us a lot quickly everywhere once they hear about our powers. Fine, we can go to Kyoka's place once we are done capturing Juggernaut here. I heard that she opened a cool new karaoke bar in the capital called Jiro's." Katherine nodded before taking a glance at Natalia to see if she had a problem.
"You are free to do whatever you want once we reach Neo Genosha, Miss Pryde." Natalia responded after noticing her gaze once she was done writing the words 'increasing intelligence and better fighting skills because of Banner's constant help through the telepathic link' on her iPad.
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