At the same time.
On Ross's aircraft.
Betty, Bruce Banner's girlfriend, looked at the unconscious Bruce with pity and pleaded with her father, General Ross, "Dad, please let Bruce go…"
Ross was the type of person who wouldn't shed a tear unless he was beaten half to death.
He had just been threatened by Abomination, but now had already returned to his cold, unyielding demeanor. Facing his daughter's plea, Ross sneered, "Did you see that giant monster just now? There's absolutely no way I can let Bruce Banner go. Otherwise, he'll become just like that!"
"Studying him is my mission."
"If you can't stand it, I'll have someone take you home later."
However, just at that moment—
The 'unconscious' Bruce Banner suddenly sprang to his feet, flung open the helicopter door, and leapt out without hesitation.
"Shit!"
General Ross reacted quickly, his eyes wide in shock. He rushed to the door and looked out, but saw nothing.
"Damn it! I will catch you!"
Ross's furious roar echoed in Bruce's ears.
The whistling wind howled past as Bruce sighed.
He had actually regained consciousness a while ago.
He had heard their entire conversation.
It made him realize—it was time to leave.
Boom!
With a loud crash, Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk and smashed into a remote farm before leaping away into the wilderness.
…
Abomination was dead. And he didn't die peacefully.
His corpse twitched for three days in the morgue. During cremation, the power went out halfway through. They had to pull him out, air the body for half a day, and burn him again. It sizzled and crackled—and to everyone's horror, he even reanimated, screaming that he wasn't dead yet. He howled during the entire cremation, which lasted an entire day.
Afterward, as the funeral car was leaving, it crashed. The ashes scattered everywhere, blown away by the wind. Just as the family was about to sweep up the remains, a water truck came by, spraying water while blasting a cheerful song about "Today is a good day." One of the family members even chuckled out loud...
All that was complete nonsense, of course—but Abomination really was dead.
He was quite literally burned to death.
The scorching flames worked against his regenerative abilities. Although his healing factor couldn't keep up with the burning, it prolonged his suffering—a whole lot longer.
Again and again, Abomination wished for death, only to be pulled back by his own body's healing—forced to endure more searing agony.
Sometimes, death isn't the scariest part.
What's terrifying is being trapped in unbearable pain for a long time before being burned alive.
The black flames were unimaginably hot—hot enough to burn a being like Abomination alive. They weren't affected by water at all. It was like a flame that torched the soul itself—far worse than ordinary fire.
Who knows what horrors Abomination experienced before his death. He was eventually reduced to a lump of charcoal in an old riverside farmhouse. Luckily, it was a rural area. Few people lived nearby—mostly elderly folks who didn't notice anything strange.
S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly sealed off the entire area.
Nick Fury came in person.
The moment he entered a hundred meters of the scene, he could feel the searing heat.
At fifty meters, the heat became unbearable for a normal person.
Ten meters? Forget it. Without protective gear, you'd be incinerated instantly.
"And this is the residual heat after the fire went out."
"How hot was it during the actual burn?"
Nick Fury wiped the sweat from his forehead and, with help, put on a special protective suit developed by S.H.I.E.L.D.
In his mind replayed the scene captured by satellite—
Like the breath of a god, a single arrow pierced through space itself. It was terrifying.
In S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files, the words 'Do Not Provoke' next to Blaine's name had a new addition—'Absolutely.'
[Absolutely Do Not Provoke.]
All dealings moving forward would be in the spirit of friendship.
Oh—and forget about investigating his identity.
Even if they could find anything, what if the guy just didn't like being snooped on?
The last time Fury felt this restricted was during the alien invasion.
And he didn't like this feeling.
As someone who had held power for years, Nick Fury didn't mind respecting talent…
But that didn't mean he had no pride. He was, after all, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., commander of hundreds of thousands of agents, one of the few Level 10 agents in the entire organization.
No pride? That's a joke.
"The Avengers Initiative needs to be prioritized."
Even with the suit, Fury could still feel the suffocating heat. It was clear what would happen without it. The area around him was completely scorched black, like it might vaporize at any moment. It wasn't hard to imagine what the scene looked like during the fire's peak.
Nothing could survive. Everything—alive or dead—would be incinerated beyond recognition. Fury even wondered: if Abomination had stood still, would the ground beneath him have been vaporized into a crater?
He shook his head, brushing aside the wild thought.
Looking at the thoroughly carbonized remains of Abomination, Fury decided to try collecting a sample.
But to his surprise, the moment he touched it, the 'charcoal' that had been resting in a clenched posture instantly crumbled—
Turning into a pile of gray ashes.
Like pencil shavings.
Fury clicked his tongue in disbelief.
That fire… really was terrifying.
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