In MCU with One for All -Chapter 16

Snippet Pole Winner!

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

Earth - 16969 [MCU AU]

Rio De Janeiro[2009] 

–Jamie Bell–

With a sigh, he snatched one of the chairs from the broken office, one that was clearly broken since all the working stuff had been snatched out of this place long ago. He juggled the very heavy chair, using precise movements to use only the places that had a metal joint to them, avoiding any cushioning or plastic, as the chair felt like it would break apart with very little force applied to it.

It had been a little over 6 hours since he had chosen this place for staking out Bruce Banner, who was working as a temporary worker at the bottling plant here. As far as his knowledge of canon went, Bruce was working here, keeping his head down and trying to keep his other half of monstrous rage buried deep beneath guilt, only for a single mistake to come haunting back.

A single drop of Gamma Irradiated blood falling into one of the bottles, which the US government tracked, obviously, since they could track this and not the hundreds of children that went missing in the custody of the Child Protective Services.

Fucking pedos! He shook his head in disdain at the priorities of the people in power before focusing back on the present, keeping a keen watch on the people coming in and out of the sole gate that acted as the entry and exit of the factory, well, this unit of the factory.

A majority of this industrial area was dominated with similar bottling plans, all run by the same brand, but the information he received from Kamar Taj directed him here so he was going to focus on this place and this place only.

He was looking for someone who either looked like Mark Ruffalo, a young Mark Raffolo or an equally young Edward Norton, depending on the continuity this universe ran on. So far, most of the major characters he met looked like their MCU counterparts so he was going to run with either of these two faces.

The odds of both of them being here, in the same factory, were very slim so he was pretty sure that—

His senses tingled, snapping him out of his thoughts, as he leaned, very carefully, towards the window, trying to get a better view of the carts that ferried workers to and fro from the factory to the entrance, to see if he could recognise any faces.

Despite being arguably a relatively inexperienced Sorcerery when it came to sensing energy since he was not really exposed to any of the more exotic energies to really get a sense for it, he could feel that. That avalanche of energy just approaching his position and honestly, just sensing that increased his trepidation manifold.

It was one thing to know that the Hulk was a being of pure rage and power, capable of overpowering most beings if he was angry enough but to sense that well of energy? That bottomless well of energy from so close? He was sure that anyone would be disturbed by it, even Mordo even though Mordo would remain confident of dealing with the Hulk, however laughable the notion might have been.

It prickled at his senses, forcing him to discard the distraction he had built up for himself, as he keenly watched each and every person exiting the carts. To think he had thought it difficult to identify someone exuding so much energy?

Any Sorcerer worth their weight would easily sense this energy as long as they were in the same city, let alone near the source. 

“Bingo!” Despite the slight fear he felt at the possibility of having to confront this version of Hulk, he smiled as he recognised a very young looking Mark Ruffalo getting off one of the carts, not waving or talking with any of the other workers as he began walking out of the factory, with his hands in his hoodie, with a cap over his face, keeping his head down.

As expected, he was going the other way from the entrance of this industrial place, unlike most of the other people here. During his surveillance, he had realised that some of the people moved in the opposite direction from the entrance of this factory space, towards some of the more defunct areas.

Taking a split second decision, he had followed them from afar, keeping himself flush with the roof, hiding himself from any surveillance, and that was how he found himself standing in front of the slum area, housing the majority of the poor and homeless population.

The place was not a good sight, with dozens of people hanging out of any slightly well built place, with dozens of them just sleeping with what looked like stitched together clothing on their bodies, alive or dead, he did not know.

It would make sense that Bruce Banner would live in one of those slums because the guy had come here with basically nothing but the clothes on his back, which too must have been torn to shreds because of his transformation, save for his plants, since they always survived.

Probably because they were made of Vibranium, to survive the onslaught of the Chitauri, after having been stretched to the limits by the transformation from Banner to Hulk. It had done it all. 

Comic book logic, at play, he could tell.

Moving the same way he did before, he loosely followed Bruce, his heavily covered form easily visible from afar as most of the other people here wore loose clothing with many men choosing to go shirtless with shorts beneath since it was very hot here. 

Despite having found Bruce, he knew that he could not confront him, not at his home. That would just be unpleasant and a shock to Bruce since he would think that his safe haven had been compromised.

Well, it was compromised but he just didn’t want it known to Bruce that he was the one who compromised it. Let the Army come, then he can see what to do with Bruce. To be honest, he was not really sure what to do with the mission.

The mission parameters were really simple. 

Stop any supernatural spillover into the normal world, and prevent any clashes between said supernatural target and any government organisation.

That was all that was written, besides the small map that led him to that bottling plant. There were a number of ways he could do this, the easiest of which would just be kidnapping Bruce and dropping him somewhere remote, and be done with the mission.

But that would be such a waste in his opinion. Also, he was not so cruel as to leave Bruce much more confused than before. More than likely, such an action would increase the paranoia that Bruce already had within him, and likely weaken his already frayed sanity.

The next couple of options were really appealing to him because they helped Bruce in ways that Bruce would not have been able to.

Kamar Taj would most certainly accept Bruce as a fellow soul in need of healing and even if Bruce never learned Sorcery, the ability to simply tap into Hulk’s power on demand would be worth it since it would be step one to show the world that Hulk was not a mindless monster.

The other option was to wait for the Army to come pounding at his doors, wait for Bruce to hide from them and then offer his help. It did feel a little scummy, like he was taking advantage of a poor person but it would help Bruce immensely, and also show him that just keeping his head down and trying to hide in any normal part of the world was not going to work, further cementing the option of staying at Kamar Taj.

He sighed as he saw Bruce climb two stories of stairs that did not look structurally sound, opening a door that looked like it would break apart with a punch, and entered a small shack that would most definitely not survive a strong enough gust of wind.

Finding his vantage point on top of the cell towers nearby, he climbed it and used the only stealth spell he knew, to keep a close watch on Bruce and his activities.

As he saw Bruce close all the windows and then the curtains, after looking around shiftily, he noticed the small satellite perched atop the shack’s roof, which also looked like it had two holes in it, patched by tarps of plastic. So, Bruce was using that to communicate with Sterns.

Another potential threat that would be resolved if Bruce simply did not correspond further, and allowed Jamie time to pop in Sterns’ lab and swap out all those samples for fakes, removing the possibility of the existence of both The Abomination and the Leader, two very troublesome foes that the heroes of this universe would encounter in the future.

Well, he would too, if he could count himself as one of the heroes.

Sigh. Options and options.

He was fine for now, with enough water on his body but once night arrived, he would have to look for some dinner or portal back to his home in Bangkok, grab a quick bite and portal back here, hoping to Stan Lee above that the Army did not arrive and spook Bruce into fleeing to places unknown in that small period of time.

Sigh….Looks like it would have to be take out for now. Chinese too.