2 months previously...The piercing noise of the police siren rang loudly down the streets of Los Angeles, drivers tried their best to make the way clear for the lights flashing red and blue on the police car. Swerving in and out of the busy traffic many drivers were privy to a passing glance of the inside of the vehicle. Where they would have the chance to see what was an extremely uncomfortable She-Hulk curled up and hunched over in the passenger seat. With each turn and every bump she found herself knocking her head against something. Her eyebrows broke out into an uncontrollable twitch born out of irritation. It had been only a few minutes since her father, Officer Walters, had been requested for back up at the Union Bank. And with how traffic can get in Los Angeles, they had been fairly lucky with how quick their journey had been so far.
Officer Walters gave a side eyed glance to her, his hands steady on the wheel.
"I told you, you should have shrunk down for the drive and when we get there, get all big and green again." "No, that wouldn't work dad. You do realize that a strangers first impression of someone is made in mere seconds after meeting them? I don't want to take any chance."He chuckled quietly
"Yeah some impression you are going to make when you get stuck trying to get out.""J-just keep your eyes on the road all right? And anyway we can just park around the corner from the bank." She crossed her arms just as her head bumped against the roof of the car again.
"Hmmm. That doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me. You never know how much property damage is going to go on when it's a powered criminal huh?""Yeah we don't want your car getting any scratches on it."The chatter continued back and forth as they drove. It might have been hard to believe for the average onlooker that the duo were on their way to an encounter with a potentially dangerous meta-human. However, both of them had many years of experience fighting crime, albeit each in their own ways. They had both been around and seen a lot, dealt with a lot too. So when someone who finds themselves having superpowers decides that they think they can hop down to the local bank and make a quick buck for free? Well they weren't too worried about it. After all most of the time these types weren't really out to hurt anyone, there was plenty of scarier people to cross paths with who didn't have superpowers.
Officer Walters slowed down the car and pulled it to the stop at the side of the road.
"Well that is us just around the corner as requested." He unclasped his seat belt and gently opened the driver side door as he pulled his police radio out of his waistband and raised it to speak into.
"Officer Walters reporting, arrived on the scene, brought a little extra assistance too."Jennifer had to be careful with how she moved within the car. If she wasn't then there was high chance of several things being damaged or even broken. Unclasping her own seatbelt she carefully as she could opened up the passenger door and attempted to exit the car legs first. Officer Walters stepped up and out of the car so there was more room for Jennifer to move about. She slowly pulled herself out of the car in what was almost an improvised limbo. As odd and awkward as it looked, it did the trick. Once out of the car Jennifer made sure to stretch her neck, soldiers, and back, with her joints cracking as she did so. She rested her palm on the roof of the car.
"Could be time to upgrade to a van don't you think?""Oh I could but y'know. I've been driving this beauty for years and years now. Wouldn't trade her in for anything else in the world. Speaking of vehicles of course." He smirked dryly.
"Sitting in the back would have probably been easier.""Ahahaha, in some ways sure it would but then it would look like you were taking She-Hulk to jail or something. Not exactly the best look is it?" Jennifer feigned laughter.
"Yeah you are probably right on that part. Anyways, let's go see just what we are dealing with shall we?" Officer Walters face shifted into a serious countenance that signaled that he was now 'on the job'.
As the two of them were about to turn the corner a police officer went flying past them. He hit the lamp post hard and crumpled to the ground unconscious. Officer Walters rushed over to the officer and knelt down next to him.
"Go on, I got him." He motioned with his head for Jennifer to continue on. Nodding she did so, rushing around the corner.
The street was for the most part empty, the police who had responded to the initial call had done a stellar job at guiding civilians out of harms way. There was still several empty cars parked up against the pavements as well as 2 empty police cars. Most of the cars had some small amounts of damage done to them, while the police cars had considerable dents all over the body of the cars as well as smashed in windows. One of the police cars was even flipped upside down. Jennifer could not see any other officers besides the one that had just been thrown into the lamp post behind her. Although they might have been inside of the bank. In the middle of the street was a rather strange figure. She was a tall woman, perhaps around 6 foot, wearing red boots, and expensive pair of red trousers, a large red jacket, and to top off all of that, where her head should have been was a large red orb. It almost looked like it was made of plastic, it was featureless and eerily smooth. There was something off about how the light fell on it. In each hand the woman was holding onto a full duffle bag, likely stuffed with cash taken from the bank. It was hard to tell due to the lack of a face but Jennifer felt like the woman was staring right at her.
"You?! Just what are you doing here?! Aren't you supposed to be in New York!" The womans voice had a strange effect to it, as if something was distorting it. Although despite having no mouth it was still rather clear when considering that. As she spoke she clenched her hands tightly into fists.
"The entire point of doing it here was because none of you people were!"She-Hulk cracked her knuckled, loudly for the added effect.
"Well can't say I am sorry for showing up and throwing a wrench in that well thought out plan of yours. I just happened to be in town so it looks like you got rather unlucky, Miss...?""Pfaa the name is Ruby Thursday. And soon that will be name that people speak with gratitude in their hearts! What you do today matters not She-Hulk for whether it is tomorrow or in a year I shall find a way to carry out my research by any means necessary.""Last time I checked, prisons for meta-humans didn't have the best of facilities for that sort of thing.""You can't possibly understand, none of you fools can. That will change in time. In good time...""Yeah I am sure it will... Why don't you just put down those bags and calm down, let us settle this peacefully there is no need for anymore violence than there has been alright?"As She-Hulk finished her sentence, something began to grow out of the head of Ruby Thursday. If she was not mistaken it looked almost like, a long red plastic arm. The fist grasped the air just before it was launched towards She-Hulk like a piston.
Taking off guard the fist cracked her right on the nose. She-Hulk took a step back and and put up her forearms to block any kind of follow up attack. And right she was in doing so as two more punches collided with her forearms just moments after being raised. The strikes were not so powerful that it was something to worry about but they were rather, irritating.
She-Hulk attempted to grasp the arms out of the air but they moved in a strange serpentine like manner, graceful and slippery they coiled and swayed about out just on the brink of being within arm length of her. Suddenly the appendages retreated back to hovering around the head of Ruby Thursday. It looked like they were being directly controlled by Ruby as if they were extra limbs. And where there was two, six more suddenly sprouted up from the red orb.
"Oh great."She-Hulk surged forward, almost closing the distance between the two of them in a matter of moments. However, Ruby had taken hold of one of the cars nearby with all eight of her strange red appendages and with effort lifted it up, before lobbing it at She-Hulk.
"Better and better." She-Hulk muttered as she bit her lip.
Planting her feet on the ground and bracing for impact She-Hulk adopted a wide and stable stance, which allowed her to catch the car straight on spreading the impact throughout her body, allowing her to execute the catch and descent of the car back onto the ground with relative ease. With gentle care and precision she executed the maneuver, resulting in damage only being done to the front where she caught it.
While She-Hulk had been distracted, Ruby had boosted herself up onto the roof of the car using some of her appendages to push herself into the air. From atop the car she sent punch after punch down onto She-Hulk.
She-Hulk, largely shrugging this barrage off managed to take hold of one of the red plastic arms and swatted another away with her free hand. Yanking the arm that she caught she pulled Ruby Thursday down off the car and onto the road right in front of her. The rest of the arms continued to punch and slap at her whether it be in the side of the head, the chest, stomach, or legs.
"You really should have just put the bags down at the start."With a single, well restrained, punch She-Hulk knocked Ruby Thursday unconscious. The eight arms sprouting from Ruby Thursdays head lay limp on the ground with the rest of her body before they slowly started to retreat back into the red orb.
She-Hulk - Gamma World Tie-In #2
Location - Gamma Base
@Kale19
Jennifer laughed nervously at her cousins joke about 'lounging about all day'. Now what he had said was very true and rather on point actually. Bruce was always working on something, not just working on something most of the times, it really did come off like it was always. That caused her to be a little worried about her cousin, stress or burnout for Bruce... She felt that would not bring about the best results for anyone, for Bruce himself most of all.
The sudden ringing of the alarms caught Jennifer off guard, her eyes widened and almost instinctively shifted into her She-Hulk form. Thankfully she was wearing her combat gear underneath her clothing, as she always did just in case, unfortunately that did mean the clothes she had been wearing were torn to shreds. Jennifers transition into She-Hulk was a rather quick and seamless one, a matter of sections and a brief feeling of adrenalin pumping through her entire body along with a wave of euphoria and it was all done.
She accepted the tablet from Bruce in her now large green hands and turned it towards herself to get a look at it.
"Amadeus Cho huh? Well best I get out there before those agents get the chance to say hello before I do."Jennifer smiled kindly at her cousin.
"Don't worry Bruce, I will handle this quickly and be back at the lab in no time." She waved after him as he made his way down the hall.
She followed that path out of the base after the Agents who had passed her and Bruce earlier. Standing with them they all looked up at the sky where it looked as if Amadeus Cho was arriving in some sort of aircraft.
"Well let's see what he wants shall we?" She spoke to the agents as she waved at the aircraft as friendly as she could in greeting.
Master Bruce