The Sokovian Shadow

Chapter 21

TW: None.
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I couldn't bring myself to land on the Helicarrier roof just yet, so instead, I circled the Helicarrier, freezing my soul fire into claws and latching onto the side near one of the windows. I saw Nat's red hair as I peered in, and she was talking to the Hulk. He was on the Quinjet Ultron had commandeered, and I think Nat was trying to convince him to come back. But he cut off the call. I reabsorbed the claws and fell off the side of the carrier. I was going to find him.

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I found the Quinjet a couple of hours of flying later. Mainly because a couple of seabirds had asked for my help in removing a "metal monster" from their territory. I chuckled at what they called the Quinjet, calmed them down so they could talk in proper sentences, then asked them to lead me to the "metal monster".

I shifted into my falcon form to try and make them calmer and it worked for a while, but when they showed me where the Quinjet was, they lost their nerve. They wished me good luck, thanked me for dealing with it, and fled. I didn't blame them; the Quinjet was terrifyingly big when you were the size of a bird.

I shifted back into my Wraith form and landed gently on the roof of the jet, shaping claws with my frozen soul fire so I didn't fall off. I crept forward, peering into the jet through the windscreen. The Hulk was sitting back, not doing anything to steer the jet. I turned around and crawled to the back of the jet.

This was the riskiest thing I'd done in my death, and that was saying something. If I failed, I could kill the Hulk. I placed one of my hands flat on the roof of the Quinjet and coated it with my frozen soul fire. I formed a soul metal knife and brought Celes out of my body. My claws dissolved, and the sheet of soul metal and the knife shrunk a bit, but otherwise remained unchanged.

Celes formed, possessed the knife, and directed it into the Quinjet. I waited for a minute, then the jet's engine began to fail, and I knew Celes had succeeded. I wriggled my hand free of the clamp that bound it as the Quinjet began to fall. I took a few steps, then jumped off the back of the jet.

I flipped onto my back in the air so the wind wasn't blowing into my eyes. A small blue ball of light exited the descending jet, closely followed by a large green mass that I couldn't see very well. The ball of light zipped towards me at, well, light speed, colliding with my chest. I flicked down my third eyelid and flipped over in the air.

At the last possible second, I unfurled my wings from my back and shot into the air, twirling and barely missing the Hulk as he plummeted past me. He landed in the water with a large splash. I twirled out of the way again as the Quinjet passed me again. I traced my fingers over the side of it, coating the side of it with my soul fire and stopping it in mid-air, straining as I waited for the Hulk to resurface.

Eventually, I saw a green shadow underwater making its way to shore. I sighed in relief as I released my hold on the Quinjet. The jet fell into the water with a small tsunami. I followed Hulk's path to the shore, making sure he was okay. After a while, we made it to dry land. Hulk pulled himself out of the water and turned and roared at the ocean. I don't know why.

The Hulk stormed over as I landed on the far side of a nearby rock and I met his gaze as calmly as I could. I was confused when I felt distressed in his soul until I remembered that the Hulk and Doctor Banner had two souls, but they could rarely be in the same body. This was Bruce's soul reaching out to me, but I wasn't sure if he knew that I could hear him. I narrowed my eyes as I reached out to his, calming him down and reassuring him I was here to help.

I closed my eyes completely and shuddered as I reached out to his blood. I figured I could manipulate it to return Hulk to Bruce, and maybe give Bruce better control over the Hulk in the future. I tilted my head as I figured out what I could about his blood. Maybe if I diluted the amount of Gamma radiation...