A giant green hand emerged from the crater, accompanied by a deafening roar. A green giant slowly climbed out.
After the green giant climbed out, he opened his hands and clenched his fist, roaring at the sky.
Li Yue was scared by the roar. Li Yue looked up to the sky and found a plane. As expected, Bruce Banner still jumped down from the plane and smashed through the ground, successfully transforming into the giant Hulk.
Hulk was rather confused. Where was the rampaging monster just now? How had the monster fallen to the ground? And how had the monster's head separated so far away from its body?!
A man was standing next to the monster's corpse. The long sword in his right hand slowly retracted, changing shape like a liquid, before returning to a normal palm. The man slowly raised his head and looked at Hulk. Perhaps because he had just killed a monster, a fierce look appeared in his eyes.
Hulk felt like he had just been taunted. He roared again.
Without any more words, Hulk charged directly at Li Yue.
...
"What the fuck?! Why is he charging at me?!" Li Yue shouted in confusion. I defeated your old foe; why are you turning on me?!
Li Yue didn't dare to confront Hulk face to face. Li Yue had only confronted Abomination due to the absolute advantage of his teleportation, so he didn't have to fight head-on. On top of that, his Adamantium transformation had been able to pierce Abomination's defense. These two factors allowed him to kill Abomination.
However, Li Yue could not cause any fatal damage to Hulk. He would just anger the green giant.
As Avengers' strongest fighting force, only Thunder God Thor could contend with Hulk head-on, especially with the green giant's abnormal ability to increase his strength when enraged.
There were theories floating around that the reason Hulk refused to come out on Earth during Infinity War was because Thanos had thoroughly beaten the green giant and instilled fear within Hulk. Li Yue personally thought that this theory was pure nonsense.
During the battle in the Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch hypnotized Hulk to rampage across the city, killing innocent people. He only broke off of the illusion after Tony beat the sense into him. He then realized the look of fear and disgust from the people around him. The childlike Hulk realized that the people of Earth would never accept him, and thus, he decided to not fight for Earth. That was why Hulk refused to appear after they returned to Earth.
Hulk was less than ten meters away. Li Yue prepared to escape. He was second to none in terms of running away, after all.
"I can't beat you right now, so I'll run. When I have the strength, I will definitely fight you," Li Yue promised fiercely in his heart.
Right before Li Yue activated his ability, a burst of extremely loud music suddenly came behind him. Li Yue immediately recognized the meaning and canceled his plan to escape.
Hulk kept charging until a few meters in front of Li Yue. The green giant then leaped with enough force to create small craters, his fist clenched and ready to slam on Li Yue.
"Hey, monster, eat this!"
As Li Yue expected, a figure rapidly whistled past Li Yue's head, targeting Hulk in front of him.
Bang!!!!
The sound reminiscent of metal clashing echoed. Hulk's massive body was forcefully sent flying back. The green giant somersaulted in mid-air and landed on the ground: he was unharmed, but his eyes were filled with rage.
Tony used the momentum of his flight to send Hulk flying. He then landed in a superhero pose.
Hey, Li Yue, where have you been, buddy? Your little girlfriend called me every day..." Tony landed his entrance, but he didn't spare any breath before teasing Li Yue.
"Tony, be careful. Behind you," Li Yue ignored Tony's question and instead reminded him in a deep voice.
Before Tony could turn around, he was sent flying by a punch—right at Li Yue. Li Yue disappeared in a flash to evade Tony's flying body.
"Hey, you are really strong!" Tony quickly stabilized his body with the repulsors in his hands and feet.
Hulk ignored Tony's words and gathered strength in his legs before soaring to the sky right at Tony.
Tony didn't want to be outdone, but he didn't fight Hulk head-on. He constantly evaded Hulk's attack and stayed at range to fight with his long-range weapons.
With Tony's mobility and armor, Hulk's attacks couldn't damage Tony. But Tony's attacks couldn't damage Hulk either.
For a moment, the two were in a stalemate.
...
Li Yue leisurely watched the battle between Tony and Hulk with pumpkin seeds in his hand. That's right, Li Yue went all the way to China to buy them. Li Yue never stopped being grateful for his ability. It was so convenient.
Tony and Hulk finally stopped fighting, standing some distance apart. They seemed to have come to an agreement.
Tony's armor was visibly damaged even though Hulk hadn't landed any clean hits. Hulk's skin bore several burn marks, but the green giant wasn't visibly injured and was even slowly recovering.
"Jarvis, prepare to activate F-HK2..." Tony whispered reluctantly. He had an absolute disadvantage in this battle; he had to use his strongest arsenal to even the odds against Hulk.
Li Yue stood up, patted his clothes, and teleported to Tony's side. He wordlessly disappeared with Tony.
"Jarvis, cancel the activation!" Tony half-shouted after the sudden change in scenery.
...
Back in Harlem, Hulk roared to the sky when he saw Li Yue and Tony disappear.
Suddenly, the sound of a helicopter caught Hulk's attention.
The helicopter slowly hovered in front of Hulk, its propeller whistling. A group of people descended, led by General Ross and his daughter, Bruce Banner's ex-girlfriend, Betty.
"Banner, it's alright. It's alright now," Betty slowly walked towards Banner, who had turned into Hulk.
Betty could not stop her tears when she saw Hulk.
Banner looked at Betty, not knowing what to do. He wanted to reach out and wipe away the tears in her eyes, but his hands were simply too huge, so he decided against it.
The police and soldiers who came to help surrounded Hulk with guns, but they held their fire. A floodlight shone from a helicopter in the sky. Hulk looked at the people around him, and then at Betty. He arrived at a decision.
General Ross looked at Abomination's body on the ground and waved to the soldiers next to him, signaling them to retreat.
Hulk exerted strength in his legs and jumped to a nearby roof. He jumped between buildings until he disappeared from everyone's sight.
Ultimately, Banner still decided to leave Betty and the city he was familiar with.