Vex Chapter 23: Hulk double smash (Patreon)

It had come to his attention when he could not find some of his favourite Hollywood movie stars ever since he arrived on this Earth.

Some had explanations like Robert Downey Jr who did not exist and instead was the Merchant of Death in MCU Earth. Similarly, there were quite a few movie stars who were now other people on this Earth or even outright missing. One of those who were missing was Angelina Jolie, an old favourite of his in another life.

In all his planning to secure Dr Banner and save the guy from being hunted down by the US military, Cerion never imagined he would stumble onto the MCU version of Angelina Jolie.

Well, she didn't go by the name Angelina either. So, it'd be rude of him to accidentally call her that instead of her true name…Thena.

“I never imagined I'd stumble into an Eternal in Louisiana.” Cerion commented noncommittally as he sipped the cup of coffee Thena offered him.

Thena looked sharply at Cerion over his comment but went back to fixing her home. There was a large hole on the roof of her home while a man-sized hole on the floor.

“I wonder how you know of our existence. Our existence has remained a secret for thousands of years.” said Thena as she gathered broken planks of wood from her house's floor.

“Maybe on Earth as humans took you for gods.” Cerion conceded. “But, certainly not by other old races. Your kind or at least a version of your kind is recorded to have populated the planet, Titan, in ages past.”

“That’s impossible!” Thena disagreed with a shocked look on her face.

“Nothing is impossible. The Kree archives have recorded a race known as the Titans. They are clearly descended from Eternals.”

“This is not possible. The Kree must be wrong. The Eternals are charged with protecting humans from the Deviants. That has been our sole purpose.” said Thena

Interesting, thought Cerion.

He was really throwing out the theory of Titans being descendants of Deviants and Eternals to see whether it'd stick. Apparently, that was a wrong theory if Thena is to be believed unless she was purposefully lying to his face.

The Kree archives held almost nothing on Titan's history. Sure the archives held plenty of information about the planet and the Titans but not their history. The Kree unfortunately never managed to find out the history of Titans. If anything, the Kree Empire took great care not to antagonize the Titans and pretty much stayed away from the planet Titan.

One could almost say the Kree respected the Titans or even feared them. The most likely conclusion is that the Kree were already in wars with Xandar and Shi'ar from time to time. They might have wizened up and tried to be diplomatic with the Titans just as they did so with the Asgardians.

Unfortunately, Cerion could not confirm whether Titans were descendants of Deviants and Eternals. His knowledge of Marvel Comics was shoddy at best. He was no fan of Marvel Comics and tend to focus on Batman in his ‘earthly' childhood. Even this bit of ‘advanced’ knowledge in regards to Deviants and Eternals came from some snippets of conversations among his old friends.

“Charged with the protection of humanity…? Charged by whom?” he asked curiously.

Before he could get an answer the control panel in his suit began to vibrate. A red blip was also present at his wrist panel which was not good.

“Excuse me for a second.” he said as he attended to the warning.

Flicking open the panel he was met by the video feed of Hulk smashing up Koron in rage.

“Looks like I'll be busy for a while. Can we rearrange this meeting at another time?” he asked looking up from the disheartening video feed of Hulk thrashing up his place.

“I didn’t realize we were in a meeting.” said Thena with an amused tilt in her voice.

“Point. But, we are going to continue this conversation, right?” asked Cerion as he felt the scouter hovering over the house.

“Sure. Whenever you are comfortable.” said Thena

Cerion nodded before flying straight out of the house and entering the scouter through an open hatch.

“To Koron!”

The ship blasted away straight into the open skies at full speed.

A few moments later, he gaped at the destruction wrought on Koron. The newly constructed pillars and a small section of the city were in the process of tumbling down. All thanks to one big green rage monster.

“Oh, fuck!”

Cerion cursed as he noticed Hulk was now eyeing his scouter.

Not a moment later, Hulk threw a full-blown tree straight towards the ship. Cerion immediately positioned the ship away and prepared himself for another bout. But, this time he picked up a small black pyramid and secured it on his suit's tactical belt before dropping down from the opened hatch.

Air rushed into his face but that didn’t keep him from seeing the huge tree Hulk threw at him from the island. Red hot laser beams blasted out of his eyes bisecting the tree. The two halves diverged away from his position.

He flew unimpeded straight for Hulk who had picked up another tree and holding it like a baseball bat.

Just as Cerion closed in Hulk swung with all his might but Cerion cut the tree with a concentrated laser blast before quickly catching Hulk in a chokehold.

“Calm down!”

Cerion whispered as he wrapped his arms around Hulk's neck and bringing the head of Hulk to ground level.

“I'm here to help you.”

Unfortunately, his appeal fell on deaf ears as an elbow to his nose was the response he got.

He held his nose as he stumbled back from Hulk who was back on his legs.

“Okay, that hurt a bit.” he muttered as he rubbed his nose.

He narrowed his eyes when he saw Hulk smirk.

“Okay big guy. Let’s stop this dance and calm down. You won’t like it if you piss me off.”

Once again, his warning was not much of a deterrence for Hulk who jumped high into the air with an animalistic roar.

If he was anyone else he’d be running for his life but he was a Kryptonian.

As Hulk plummeted towards him with two raised fists intent on crushing him into the ground, he let go of the gloves so to speak.

Cerion rose up to meet Hulk head-on and slipped inside Hulk's guard. The problem with taking on mindless berserkers in a fight is that they tend to be walking destruction. The Hulk was a classic case in this regard and this was the only reason why he held back in Louisiana.

But, over here in this depopulated island, he could take his chances.

Cerion drew his right hand back as he slipped in easily under Hulk's wide exposed guard and punched straight on Hulk's abdomen. When his fist connected it was reminiscent of a clap of thunder.

With a boom, Hulk was swept away under the force of Cerion's punch. He didn’t wait around to see whether Hulk would recover. Instead, he quickly followed Hulk who let out a grunt as he punched through a row of hills.

Cerion quickly caught up to Hulk and had the big green rage monster face down with his leg over Hulk's spine. Instantly, he slapped the black pyramid on Hulk's body and caught two of Hulk's arms. He began to pull the arms back while keeping his leg on Hulk’s spine.

The roar let out by Hulk made him frown but he kept exerting pressure. While he kept Hulk pinned down the pyramid began to do its work.

The pyramid began to deconstruct itself and began to spill all over Hulk's body. As the pyramid converted all over Hulk's body like a painted suit he slowly began to decrease the pressure he was exerting.

Hulk thrashed around a bit but clearly, he could see Hulk was slowly calming down. A few minutes later Hulk was asleep and slowly began to phase shift to his human form.

The ‘pyramid' was a polymorphic suit he designed specifically for dealing with Hulk. It worked by covering the entire body of Hulk and releasing a powerful sedative. The suit keeps the sedative trapped inside and thus Hulk will get the full brunt of the chemical agent.

As evident by an out cold Bruce Banner, the plan worked perfectly.

Looking at the total devastation that Hulk dealt to Koron he cringed mentally. On second thought, it could have gone better if he had just led with the suit.

********

Bruce rolled around in his comfy bed quite happy. It has been aged since he felt this comfy and peaceful.

Wait a minute? A comfy bed!

Bruce's eyes opened wide in alarm and he jumped out of the bed with a wild look on his face. He gawked at the surroundings with an open mouth.

He was sure he was in a forest.

The forest!

Then everything came back to his mind. He had been running through the woods and he distinctly remembered tripping over on the ground.

“Where am I?” he wondered aloud.

“You are in Koron Dr Banner.”

Bruce was astonished to hear a robotic voice from the corner of his room. A small octahedral shaped metallic box floated to his side which made him scoot back in the bed.

“Please don’t be alarmed. I'm only here to help you.”

Bruce eyed the robot with equal parts wonder and fear. Sure he had seen many crude attempts at robotics but the best of them tend to be automated arms. The robot he was seeing was far more sophisticated and advanced.

For Christ's sake, the bot was defying gravity and he could see a feminine face on its interface unit.

“Who are you?” he asked trying his best to keep his heartbeat under control.

“My name is Optima. I'm an artificial intelligence interface created by Cerion Vex.”

“Who is Cerion Vex and where am I?” he asked incredulously.

“You are in Koron Dr Banner. As for my creator, he is waiting for you. But first, please put on some clothes.” said Optima before the bot opened a closet by his bedside.

It was then Bruce noticed he was stark naked. The whole situation was bizarre and he dressed himself in a pair of black pants and a white shirt. Reluctantly he followed the bot out of the room.

The building he found himself around was a maze. There were long stretches of hallways and he was provided with a small hovering car to travel. The bot floated beside him as the hovercar took him through a maze of passageways. On the way, he saw hundreds of bots of different sizes and designs working diligently on their stations. Some worked by their lonesome while some worked in groups.

He even passed by a large foyer filled with giant machinery that looked far too advanced than anything he ever saw in his whole life. Finally, his trip came to an end before a giant metallic door that held the insignia of a giant stylish X.

“Please step out of the speeder, Dr Banner.” said Optima

“Oh! Okay. So it’s called a Speeder. Like star wars huh?” asked Bruce

“Mr Vex is fond of that movie.” said Optima before a small metallic arm stretched out from the bot coupling with a small port by the door's side.

The door immediately dissolved before Bruce's eyes making him blink in wonder.

“Ah, welcome Dr Banner. Please do come in and take a seat.”

A welcoming voice called from within the room.

Stepping inside Bruce was taken aback by the scenery before him. The whole room was surrounded by lacquered glass that gave him a view of the outside. There was a sandy beach in the distance on the right side while on the left all he could see was tree leaves.

Right in the middle, there was a silver roundtable with cushy seats here and there. On the far side of the room, there was a walled section with a doorway and a small square hole on the wall.

“Please take a seat, Dr Banner. I gather you are quite hungry.”

A man stepped out of what Bruce assumed was a kitchen with two plates in his hands. The man was tall and had a youthful face. Truth be told the guy looked like a college student in his early twenties with sandy blonde hair.

On first look, the guy looked harmless but Bruce felt the hairs on his stand up as the guy approached him. Bruce took a cautious step back even as the guy sat down on a seat and placed two plates on the table.

“Come, please sit. Have some breakfast. I hope you are fond of veggies. I made Ratatouille.” said the guy before pushing the plate towards Bruce.

“Who are you? What’s going on?” Bruce asked hoarsely.

“Quite rude of me to not introduce myself. I'm Cerion Vex and I'm afraid I'm the only one who can help you.”