The Old Hydrokinetic (MCU AU)

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Manhattan, New York [Stark Tower Periphery]

–Bruce Banner–

PUNCH.

It was nothing like he had thought it would be. In the beginning, before he lost all hope of ever becoming normal again, he had silly thoughts. Thoughts of gaining the Hulk's abilities without the accompanying mad rage, of things he could accomplish with the powers that the Hulk wasted on destruction, of how he could advance virtually every single field of science he could think of if he could just study the Hulk's physique in more depth.

Well, now he had it.

SMASH!

Total control of the Hulk or at least for now. See, he could think better and clearer than when he was just plain old Banner but even now, he could feel the Hulk, just sitting in the backseat, allowing him to have control for now, albeit reluctantly.

SMASH!

Yup, there was the favourite saying of Hulk. Every time he punched something into oblivion, the Hulk cheered from the backseat, shouting so loudly that it echoed in his mind. Sure, not the end of the world and way better than it was before when he was just drowning in mindless rage, so much rage that his mind shut down on its own but it was a little incessant as he continued to reap alien lives.

That was another thing he noted, was that he gained perfect control over his body within an instant, allowing him to fly. Not just jump really high but actually fly! With the shockwave generated by his feet just slamming together, he could generate enough thrust to lift his giant body up from the ground.

For steering, his hands were more than enough as just his fingers snapping together generated enough air pressure for him to turn. Numbers continued to pour in from every single sense, and the senses were so sensitive, he could hear when the next big lizard thing was going to come out of the portal, allowing him to react by quickly finishing off any Chitauri that existed away from the portal and then flying straight to the blue hole in the sky, just in time for the lizard's nose to come in and his fist to crash straight through it.

It was all very visceral and he was kind of surprised that he did not feel much about it, not anymore. The logical part of his brain screamed about brain chemistry, and alternate personalities with varying chemical composition and whatnot but the other side of his brain, was just enjoying it all for now.

The sheer freedom that came with becoming the Hulk, it was intoxicating. Backhanding yet another Chitauri into meat paste, he jumped, uncaring of the property damage to the streets, or to the streetlights as he regularly used them as weapons to take care of entire squads in a single throw. They were usually a single use that way but eh, he was sure that Stark had more than enough money to reimburse everything, and worst case scenario, SHIELD surely has more than enough money to rebuild everything.

In between his gallivanting around the city, as he felt the air breeze across his bulletproof skin, he felt something. A shiver ran along his spine as, for the first time, he felt something other than rage and elation in Hulk's voice as he spoke from the backseat of their mind.

UH-OH.

Before he could ask the Hulk, the sky itself darkened. He looked up and his eyes widened as he saw the massive cloud of water around the city glowing blue. He lost focus as he found his face kissing a glass window, his hands carving a groove through the flooring of the building as he stopped himself.

Then, he jumped, as all his instincts told him to get away from this place at once, as fast as he could, and yet, even as strong as he was, he was not fast enough to get away in time, as he saw a massive mass of glowing blue just coming down from the sky.

"Shit!" He exclaimed before he was drowned in millions of litres of water coming from the sky. He was genuinely afraid that even the Hulk's skin would not be able to take that much pressure but quickly, he found out that it was not crushing, at all.

Instead, it created a small bubble of air around him as water, surrounding him, brought him down to the floor, before whisking him away in a certain direction. He couldn't see as there was still glowing water in front of him but he could see things that came into the pocket of air he had around him. He could see that he was being transported along a city road, as the markings on the road were clear.

He could also see things like cars, trucks, and even ruined Chitauri ships being pushed away from his path before he came to a stop, the bubble staying in place even as the water flew.

He was confused for a moment before he heard a voice speak directly into his ears, "What are you doing here?" it sent chills down his spine because he now knew, so did the Hulk, that the old woman was infinitely more dangerous than he was, someone he should stay away from.

The next moment, he was flung out of the water wave, and despite the height his ascent reached, he was not concerned about that as his eyes were glued to one thing and one thing only.

The massive wave of glowing blue that spread as far as his vision could see, presumably ferrying people away from the point of impact as fast as she could.

"Hulk!" His neck snapped to the side as Stark flew by.

"What? What is happening? What is the ETA?" He said as he flew side by side with Staerk, only needing a feet click every couple seconds to keep up with the man of Iron, which was actually kind of nice if he had a couple more seconds to think about it but alas, he only had the goddamned nuclear weapon on his mind as Stark and he flew to the Stark Tower.

In the background, he could hear the thunder grumbling as Thor presumably did his job and destroyed the Chitauri that were pouring out of the portal because he could not imagine an operation of this size allowing Weber to focus on anything else.

"Okay, One! We need to talk about this transformation of yours later on. Two, Weber said something about the sceptre. I have located it and Jarvis is currently running scans on it to see if it can do what I think it can do." Tony's face plate slid off as both of them landed on the now ruined penthouse floor balcony, walking into the bar section talking with each other.

"Which is?"

"Breach the containment around the cube."

His brows furrowed for a second before he spoke out loud, "Jarvis? Chances of energy backlash in the form of arcs of superheated plasma?"

There was a moment of silence before Jarvis replied, "...Very high, Dr.Banner."

He nodded and then turned around, heading to the sceptre which was being scanned by scanners coming out of the wall. He stopped as he felt a metallic hand land on his arm, which was huge by the way, making Tony look so small in that suit. "What are you doing? Even you wouldn't walk away from superheated plasma."

He shrugged off the hand and swiped the sceptre away from the scanners, "Well, someone has to try."

Tony's face looked complicated as he tired, once more, "But Jarvis hasn't had time yet to-"

"ETA for the nuke?" He asked the man and he shut up as Tony realised there was no point in them talking.

Then, without any word, Tony's faceplate slid on his face and he rocketed out of the penthouse, rattling the walls.

"Jarvis, please tell me he is not about to do something stupid." He said as he jumped out of the balcony, to land on the roof, a dozen feet away from the machine that was responsible for so much death and destruction.

Jarvis spoke from comms he had swiped earlier from Tony, "Sir is running on critically low energy reserves and the chances of him safely making it back are very low, Dr.Banner."

He sighed as his shoulders dropped at the statement that just made his fears come true. Tony could not do this because they did not know the optimal point of entry. Any backlash would just vaporise Tony's entire body. He could not carry the Nuke into the portal because, despite his newly gained ability of three dimensional movement, it was not as smooth and fluid as Tony's repulsor aided flight so it could set off the nuke early on.

Thor had the same problem as he did and the only other one who could fly and do everything effortlessly was the one who was making sure that people were out of the city, as fast as possible.

The wave had left the area now, moving all the people out of the way. By his calculations, she should be out of the preliminary blast zone within another 5 minutes, with all the people she met on the way, which was phenomenal and nearly impossible to believe but even so, they did not have five more minutes.

So, taking a deep breath, he aimed the tip of the sceptre to the bottom of the machine and began pushing, as Tony began his task for the day.

"I hope it's worth it," He muttered as he pushed, as arcs of blue zapped at his skin, darkening it black and blue, which began healing but then the arcs came again, and again, peeling off layers of his skin as he continued to push.

His arm twitched as the arcs continued to bombard the same place over and over again, as he saw Tony's form coming into the sky, straight towards them.

"Thor! Now!"

There was a deafening sound of thunder along with a war cry as dozens of lightning bolts came out of the sky and struck the portal, destroying any Chitauri that were coming through and also the stragglers in the sky, clearing the path for Tony and the missile.

"Come on. Come on. Come on." He muttered as Tony came close to him, as the optimal path was to run parallel to the beam of energy that was opening the portal.

He watched as Tony's suit scratched the edge of the roof as the missile rocketed up. He watched with bated breaths as Tony finally entered the portal, along with the missile.

He was sure that others were celebrating but his focus was on something else.

"Jarvis?"

"Communications lost, sir."

"...F*ck"


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[MrJohnAshwood]

Thanks for the update! Damn she's powerful although I hope she shares some of her backstory after the crisis Is averted

 

[transhumansage]

wait where are Black widow and Hawkeye?

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Manhattan, New York

–Samantha Weber–

She made sure to wrangle every single living being in her senses, into the living river she had created as she was ferrying the entire population around Stark Tower out of the blast zone. Despite her best efforts, she was certain that it was not going to be enough.

Even she was not strong enough to transport an entire city's worth of people within minutes, especially since the nuclear bomb coming their way was due to detonate any minute now.

Her senses were spread thin as is, as she had to keep watch over every single human, children or adults, to make sure they did not end up drowning or scraping themselves against the wall of water because it might look fluid to them but they were very much solid. If someone tried to ram their way out, they would find that the wall of water would be just as hard as concrete.

She had to admit, in all of her long life, she had never exerted herself as much as she was doing now. It was refreshing, to go all out for the first time in…ever, basically. Still, she knew she could do more but she was unsure if the humans would survive it. She had to be extremely careful with all of them lest she accidentally break some of them.

Despite all of that, her senses were keeping track of everything happening behind her. The last of the water had already left Manhattan, as she looked at Thor floating mid air

Her eyes narrowed as she saw Stark rocket off, towards the direction of the nuke and the Green one heading to the roof, right where the contraption that started this whole thing was.

Stark was now heading back as the Green One was getting slightly injured by something, which she did not think was possible because he was just so much more durable than anyone she had come across yet.

Her eyes widened minutely as she processed everything, as Stark was coming in with the missiles, Banner was getting more and more injured. So, that's how they were going to play it.

She kept an eye on them and slightly increased the speed of the wave, just in case. She grunted a bit as her wave hit a gridlock of cars, just stuck, as she had to rescue numerous injured, stuck, as well as unconscious people and assimilate them into the river. Meanwhile, a massive air bubble was being created at the centre of the river, just in case the very air around them became poisonous in mere moments.

The moment Stark entered the hole in the sky with the missile, she safely deposited everyone on the ground, redirected the flow of water to the nearest water body and the drains and then dropped her focus before shooting towards the contraption that was keeping the hellish hole in the sky open.

To not just close the portal and push back the invasion but to do something, even at the cost of his own life, to deter anyone else from coming in, by sending in the strongest possible weapon humanity had at its disposal, Stark had earned her respect.

She would not let his sacrifice go in vain.

The moment she reached the roof, her eyebrows shot up as she finally saw what was happening to the Green One. His arms were charred beyond recognition as he was holding onto the sceptre, having already punctured the sphere she thought invincible and was just barely a moment away from plugging the flow of energy that was keeping the whole thing going.

The blasts of energy that came from the contraption clued her in as to what was hurting him as she decided to spare him the pain and summoned water from the ocean, creating a ball of glowing water, that she intended to chuck at the sceptre, giving it the final push necessary when the Green one, spoke, nay, roared back at her.

"NOOOO!"

She reared back a bit at the desperation and intensity of it, even as it was mixed with pained grunts as the contraption continued to punish the Green One.

"Why?" She found herself asking, keeping an eye on the hole in the sky. The second she saw an explosion, she was going to close the hole. After all, the problem with destroying the machine was not the machine itself but the sphere of unbreachable energy around it.

No matter what she did, she could not get the energy to budge, leaving her with no other option than to mitigate the fallout and remove the civilians from the area. Now that she could breach the energy, she could very easily dismantle the machine from the inside and that was what she planned on doing, no matter what.

Because no one, no human, no matter how pure their intentions, should be allowed to have a contraption so devastating in nature. No, she was going to crush the remains and throw them in the ocean once this whole invasion was done.

She was all out of trust for humans and yet, even she was a bit surprised by the words that the Green One spoke next, clearly in pain and yet, determined to push through till the end.

"H-He, Tony W-will come b-back," The man said with clenched teeth as he held the sceptre in place, not pushing or pulling it back.

She raised an eyebrow at the sentiment, admirable and naive as it was, "Be realistic, Stark is long gone. He cannot survive an–" Her neck snapped up as she heard more than felt the explosion as a small sun bloomed in the darkness beyond the portal.

Moving with haste, she floated towards the contraption, ball of water in hand when even she had to instinctively shield herself as a primal roar full of anger and fear was directed at her. The Green Man was now covered in a shroud of green, so much so that she could see his hands being healed in real time.

She raised an eyebrow as the corrosive shroud made contact with her shield and she had to supply energy to maintain the shield lest it crack from the energy. Very impressive. She could see that this was beyond what the Green Man had ever done before and to do so for a comrade, a friend, she could understand his feelings and yet, she knew what had to be done.

So, pushing through the shroud of green, she contained the energy blasts and thrust the orb of water at the sceptre, the one that was also glowing green now, having been affected by the outburst of energy from the Green One, all the while she was subjected to a primal roar.

The only reason the Green One was not blasted off the roof was because she was sympathetic to his pain and also because it helped that he was holding the sceptre in place. She watched as the water, under her command, turned itself into a stream and flowed along the length of the sceptre, finally reaching the end, before turning back into a orb and then pushing the sceptre along with it, finally reaching the and stopping the flow of energy to the hole in the sky.

The containment unit disappeared as she looked to the side, to see the Green One turn back human, unconscious as the hole started to collapse in on itself.

She smiled a bit as the dozen chitauri she had kept secured for experimentation later on, dropped dead like flies as the explosion ballooned in size.

She was about to fly off but then her eyes narrowed as she saw Stark dropping through the portal at the last moment, just as the wave of explosion was about to come through the portal. He was dropping uncontrollably so it would seem his suit was not functional but it had clearly helped the man do his final task.

And yet….

She looked to the side, at the now shrunken down man and looked up at Stark, "I suppose it was worth it, then."

With a negligent motion of her hand, a tendril of water shot out of the nearby sewers, latching onto Stark's form, forming a small ball of water that slowed down as it reached the ground, finally depositing the suit on the ground as she saw the rest of the rag tag group that Fury had assembled here, converge on Stark's position.

The man's heartbeat was weak, weaker than it was before but he was unquestionably alive.

They had removed his faceplate when she dropped down from the sky, the Green One's deflated form dropping alongside her as she stepped forward. "Step aside," She ordered Thor as a small drop of water fell from her eyes, as she collected it and then, flicked it towards Stark's downed form.

The effect was immediate, as Stark woke up with a gasp, sitting up when the Captain stopped him and pushed him down.

"W-What just happened? How did I–Ugh," Stark grunted mid sentence as the rest of them looked in concern and alarm. She concentrated and then sighed, realising the root of the problem.

With a flick of her hand, water shot out and infiltrated the little crevices on the suit before it was all dismantled and in some places, crushed before Stark was lying down with a full body suit.

"O-okay, what is happening?" He said in between pained breaths, his hands clawing at his chest or rather, his reactor as she bent forward and placed her palm on the circular reactor, water surging under her palms before she pulled and Stark, perhaps on instinct, reached forward as well, trying to save what he thought was life saving equipment.

He was pushed down by the water as she removed the reactor, and then–

KRA-KOOM!

Her left hand shot out as a shroud of water appeared around her, stopping the lighting strike that would have killed Stark and then worked on getting the metallic housing out of his chest, not before removing the little pieces of shrapnel struck in his chest, before, finally, her teardrop finished its work and healed the hole in the man's chest, leaving him hale and healthy again.

Stark was clearly astonished as to how that happened as he sat upright and continued to touch his chest as if ascertaining whether it was a dream or not.

Meanwhile, she, turned back and walked out of the encirclement as the shroud disappeared and she, with it.



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[minitune001]

Did Weber just more or less unravel the whole plot of Iron Man 3 and Avenger's franchise!?

Iron Man 3's plot was Tony dealing with the PTSD that accumulated as a civilian that was exposed again and again to major life threatening situations. He desperately clings to the identity of Iron Man to stay sane.
In Age of Ultron, Tony tries to deal with that all the trauma again by building himself an army of Iron Man to act as a comfort blanket.
In Civil War, Tony this time clings to the idea of government oversight to try to make some sense of the world that seems to keep slipping out of his control.

Without the need to keep the Arc Reactor in his chest all the time, Tony can finally step back from the whole situation and focus on his identity of a scientist and an engineer. He can finally take the time to unwind and recenter himself without the constant neon glow reminder of his trauma stuck to his chest.