She Hulk

May 18, 2014

Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk

When I left the law firm of Nelson and Murdock (Even though I'm a full partner, we kept my name off to try and keep reporters at bay for a bit), a car was waiting for me outside, a big SUV with the BRIDGE logo on the side. The door opened for me as I stepped towards it, and I got in immediately.

Inside was the cute BRIDGE agent from earlier. What was her name again? Agent Toniver? No. It was-

"Agent Tolliver, right?" I asked her, crossing one leg over the other.

"Yes," she gave me a smile. She had long black hair, black skin, and was wearing a women's business suit. She was also positively tiny, only about five feet tall.

"I'm supposed to take you, one of our specialists, and an investigator to the bank."

"What, am I gonna take out a loan?" I quipped.

"Huh?" she blinked at that, looking confused, before laughing. She snorted a bit, looked mortified, then hurriedly continued speaking. "No, they uh, they want you to investigate a spree of bank robberies."

"Bank robberies?" I'm a smart gal, so I figured it out pretty quickly. "You guys think a superhuman is doing these? Or at least someone that needs my green ass to help with?"

She nodded, biting her lip slightly. "Yes. Here, I have the file," she reached into a bag by her side and pulled out a manila folder. A bit more traditional than I was expecting. BRIDGE sometimes seemed obsessed with holograms these days. I took the folder and opened it up. Huh. Real paper and everything.

"There have been two robberies so far. The first was the Queens Community Bank. Someone went in and ripped the ATMs out of the walls, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, yesterday, someone entered the Midtown Consolidated Bank and somehow pulled a vault door off a wall. Do you know how much forcethattakes?"

She sounded positively excited about that. I thought about that for a second, but she immediately started talking.

"The vault door was put in place back in the 1900s, so it weighs 45,000 pounds or 22.5 tons! It's pressure system applied 8 tons of pressure, and the whole thing was just ripped off the wall! I mean, the rebar-reinforced concrete cracked first, but that's still a massive amount of strength!"

She clenched her fists in front of her, eyes practically sparkling. "But there's no sign of any heavy machinery being moved into the bank! That means either a single person with the strength moved that much weight or someone created incredibly small and efficient technology that can do the same! It's incredible!"

I blinked at her. Damn. She was enthusiastic. I decided not to mention all the people that I had met recently who both probably had the strengths or the smarts to do the same thing. "Got it. So I'm going in case there's a fight."

"You and one more person," she pointed at the folder. I'd been looking at pictures of the banks, one a small street bank, the other a much bigger one. "We also have an investigator coming to help you both. Your role is frontline support. One of our specialists will be your back-up."

Okay, I'll be honest. The idea I needed back-up was annoying. I could punch through steel for crying out loud. Well, maybe the specialist was another Avenger.

It wasn't.

"Frank Castle," Tolliver tapped on the file.

May 20, 2014

"Hrrrrk!" Mahmoud suddenly choked on nothing, coughing out of nowhere.

"Mahmoud!" I got up to help him, but he held a hand out, waving me back as he hurriedly grabbed a glass of water from the sink and guzzled it down. I frowned. "Something wrong?"

He took a bit. Then he turned and gave me that look again. Like he was deciding how much to tell me.

I didn't like that look. It made me want to hit him.

Damn it, Mahmoud. What are you keeping from me?

I kept those thoughts off my face while he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, Frank's a good soldier. He just never struck me as someone who would be doing a bank robbery investigation," he coughed. "Well, not unless he was about to kill someone who did the robbery, I guess."

I blinked. "Okay, youreallyhave a bad opinion of him if you think he'll just randomly kill someone like that. You didn't act like this when we were with him in Rio."

He coughed again, smiling at me. "Sorry Okay. Frank Castle and She-Hulk go into a bank with a BRIDGE agent. What happens next?"

"Actually, the funny thing about that," I watched as he went back to the stove, placing the egg omelet he'd made onto a plate and passing them to me. I took a bite and smiled. He'd put too much salt. Still pretty good. He started making another one while I took another bite and tasted some mushrooms he'd snuck, smiling a bit wider. "You didn't put shrimp in this again, did you?"

He chuckled, looking over at me. "No chance. 'She-Hulk hate seafood!' I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know to listen to you. For one thing, you're way too good at winning arguments."

"Top of my debate class," I took another bite and shook my head. "Anyways. We went to pick up Frank from his place."

May 18, 2014

I'd actually met Frank Castle a couple of times. In Rio, mostly. Hell, he was there when Dial turned into that monster of a creature he called Blight.

Frank had struck me as a crazy serious guy, one of those soldiers who were kinda born for it. Flattop haircut, rough-looking face, always kinda about to growl.

That day though, when he came out of his house, he was smiling, carrying a big duffel bag over his shoulder. Tolliver and I were standing just in front of his lawn, waiting for him as he came down towards us. He stopped smiling when he noticed me, immediately switching to a scowl.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Huh. Nice way to say hi, Frank," I said while blinking at him.

He didn't seem to care, just glaring at me. "You know my neighbors don't know about what I do, right? You just going to stand outside my house all green and shit?"

Okay, to be honest? I didn't think it would matter that much. The second he mentioned it though I felt dumb as hell. And before you laugh, Mahmoud, I was there when you walked around in Diamondhead form in the middle of Time Square.

"Uh, right," I winced. Damnit, why didn't I think of that? "Sorry. I'll go ahead and-"

"Dad!" a young voice called from the house. Two kids came running out of the house. A young girl and boy ran up together. The girl, a little older than the boy stopped to stare up at me, but the boy ran to wrap his dad in a hug.

The girl had long cinnamon brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a shirt with a picture of dinosaurs on it and a pair of blue jeans. The boy was a little younger, with the same color hair. They didn't look much like their dad. But they had the same eyebrows, if that makes sense.

Frank was surprised, and I could see him trying to pull back that anger. "Hey, hey," he tapped his son on the shoulders. "You're gonna end up cutting me in half if you hug me so tight."

The kid pulled back and grinned at his dad before noticing me. His jaw dropped as he stared up at me. "You're the Hulk's sister!"

"Cousin, actually," I grinned down at the kid. "How's it going?"

"Cooool," I gotta admit, seeing his wide eyes was pretty damn cool.

Frank, apparently realizing he was stuck for the moment, took one of his kids under each arm. "Yeah, so… These are my kids. Frank Jr. and Lisa."

He tried to hide it, but he sounded downright proud as he said that, his fingers clutching tightly at their arms.

The girl, Lisa struggled out of her dad's grip and walked up to me, looking up at me. She looked almost contemplative. "...You're an Avenger?"

"Some days. I'm also a lawyer when I'm not punching dinosaurs."

Clearly that was the wrong thing to say. She scowled at me. "You shouldn't hit dinosaurs!"

Oh my god. So cute!

"You're a fan of dinosaurs too?" I asked her, kneeling down to try not to loom over her so much. It didn't work, but she wasn't fazed.

"She's got about a dozen in her room," Frank grumbled. "And all over the house."

"I did too," man, did I ever. Bruce and I used to spend so much time playing with dinosaur toys. One of the coolest parts of being in Rio was seeing the big guys come to life. "I asked a friend of mine to get me one as a pet. He's going to a land of dinosaurs," I whispered conspiratorially to her.

"U-Um, that's classifie-" Tolliver stuttered behind me.

"Are you lying?" Lisa asked, narrowing tiny eyes at me.

"Not even a bit," I grinned down at her and patted her head gently. I was honestly surprised she let me. "Dinosaurs are still alive. And my friends are-" damn, couldn't say fighting them. "Researching them right now."

She stared at me for a second. I think she was trying to see if I was lying. Then her eyes widened. "Really!?"

"Really, really," I chuckled, looking up at Frank. "You the reason she's so paranoid?"

"She's got good instincts," he said with a shrug.

"Your dad's mean," I whispered to Lisa. She gave me a conspiratorial grin.

"Frankie, Lisa!" a woman came out of the house and walked over to them. She was an older version of Lisa, with her brown hair let flowing as she stepped out of the house and came over. Her face had some small wrinkles from smiling, and she looked positively radiant in a white sundress with blue flowers across it. She hesitated on seeing me, gaping at me, then looking at Frank.

"Frank, what-" she hesitated again.

"Jesus Christ," Frank mumbled to himself, shaking his head and looking at me. "See what you did?"

"Can I help it that I tend to stand out in a crowd?" I said with a smirk, cocking my hip. He rolled his eyes and waved at his wife to come closer. She came over with some trepidation, leaning into him as he hugged her close. Then they kissed.

"Ewwww," Frank Jr. leered, Lisa bumping him in the shoulder.

Frank and his wife grinned at each other as they separated before she looked over at Tolliver and I. Her smile faltered for just a second. "Hello? I'm Maria," to her credit, she held her hand out for us to shake really damn fast. I took it with a smile.

"Jen."

"Agent Tolliver."

After handshakes, Frank Jr. spoke up. "Dad, are you going on a mission?"

Frank and Maria froze. The kid sounded… well, he sounded worried. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell that he was scared of his dad.

"Buddy… see, buddy I-

"Have to sign some paperwork," I said quickly, stepping forward. I sighed dramatically. "Boring, I know. But whenever I'm not fighting monsters? I'm a lawyer. Your dad got some pretty sweet armor recently. Have you seen it?"

"Yeah!" Frank Jr.'s eyes lit up. "Dad looks so cool! With a skull on the chest and everything!"

The older Frank shuffled slightly, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Well, he's gonna be signing some stuff so he'll be able to use that stuff more often. And maybe, if he's lucky, he'll be able to play around with it while we're out there," I patted the kid's shoulder, grinning when he gave his dad a proud look. "We gotta go though."

"Yeah," Frank patted his son on the head, who grumbled as he pushed his dad's hand away playfully, then kissed his daughter on the head. Maria kissed him again, giving him a sad look so fast her kids didn't notice, before pulling her kids in.

"Come on guys, we better let daddy finish his paperwork," Maria said.

"Okay. Bye, Mrs. Hulk!" Lisa cheered, Frank Jr. waving as the pair ran inside.

"Mrs. Hulk?" What?

"Like that's worse than She-Hulk?" Frank, slinging his bag over his shoulder, passed by me while Tolliver hesitantly followed.

I'll be honest. Wasn't feeling optimistic about my teammate at the time.

We sat in silence in the car. Frank listened to Tolliver give her assessment in silence, finally nodding before he started rummaging in his bag. He'd come for battle. He was wearing the 'casual' uniform BRIDGE soldiers wore on assignment, a black sweater and black khakis with a small BRIDGE logo on both. He had a single handgun on his hip, but his bag also had a rifle carefully packed away in separate pieces. He wasn't putting them together or anything, just making sure he had all of them. Then he looked at me, noticing I was watching.

"What, you want one?"

I ain't one to leave an opening like that. "Nah, I bought two of my own," I flexed both my biceps with a grin.

He scoffed, though I could see him smirking a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, okay," he zipped up his bag. "I know you can handle yourself in a fight. But we ain't fucking detectives," he looked at Tolliver. "Hopefully your guy shows up."

"H-He will," Tolliver said. She looked pretty intimidated by Frank. "I'm supposed to drop you off and he'll meet you there afterward."

"Good," he leaned back in his chair. "So why am I here? You got Mrs. Hulk, you got your detective guy. Why me?"

"Your incredible charm and wit, maybe?" I teased.

"According to the director, we don't want any assets going out alone right now," she said. "HYDRA's remnants are still underground, but we don't want to have anyone get kidnapped by them again. So even though Miss Walters is superhuman, we don't want to take the chance that she could get sidelined by something that counters her."

I didn't like that. The idea that I needed protecting. I hadn't met much that could take me on these days.

"Yeah well, let's just get there and get this done, huh?" Frank looked out at New York City. "Promised I'd be home for dinner."

When we got to the bank, Tolliver couldn't leave fast enough. Once she was gone, Frank and I stood there awkwardly. Me, more than him.

The bank was surrounded by cop cars cordoning off the place with yellow tape, which meant there were also a lot of spectators and reporters. Then my eight-foot-tall ass showed up and everyone had something else to focus on.

People were staring at me. I could hear a couple calling out my name, and a few had their phones out to take pictures. I crossed my arms and looked out at them. Honestly, even after all this time, seeing how weird people acted about me was still strange. Matt and Foggy had gotten over it, none of the Avengers acted weird, even the staff in the Avengers Tower and BRIDGE members didn't really think I was a crazy sight anymore. But the average New Yorker still treated me like part-celebrity, part-freak.

"Hey, take off your shirt!" one douchebag shouted in the crowd.

There's always one idiot.

"Hey, can you get someone in charge?" I said to one of the police officers on duty.

"They're on their way, ma'am," the lady said, looking apologetic. "It'll just be a minute."

"HEY, TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!" the same idiot yelled.

The female cop and I shared a look. For just a moment, I felt angry. If I actually went and confronted the idiot, he'd probably scream about being abused or something. Logically I knew that hanging him on a lamppost by his underwear would end badly in terms of my reputation, but I was actively considering it.

Frank, standing next to me, growled and turned towards the guy. I held out a hand in front of him. "Let it go. We have actual things to deal with."

He glared at the idiot, who gave Frank a smarmy smile back, before turning away. Honestly, that's the problem with guys like that. They think they win just because the people they yell at aren't supposed to punch down to them.

I ignored him as he kept on yelling at us. Apparently unsatisfied with my lack of reaction, he tried to move forward.

A cop who'd been cordoning off the area shoved him back with some prejudice. "Back off! This is a crime scene, chucklehead."

"Come one ma-" the idiot tried to argue.

"You want to complain, you wanna get taken in for disturbing the scene?" the cop warned.

I didn't have time to hear what the idiot said before someone came towards us, an older woman in business suit wear. "Frank Castle, She-Hulk? I'm Detective Leslie Perez."

Frank took her hand gruffly. "Ma'am."

The black-haired woman gave me a look I was used to, one of surprise and awe, before shaking my hand as well. "I was told there would be three of you."

"Our BRIDGE investigator should be here soon," I said.

"Huh. Well, might as well take you in for now," she turned and walked into the bank, Frank and I following.

The inside of the bank was covered in paper and pens, chunks of shattered wood scattered about. Several officers dressed in jackets that said 'crime scene' on them were dotted about the room. The room was circular, with the various teller desks surrounding the center. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, oddly unharmed by the devastation underneath it, it's glass crystals glowing in the sunlight outside. A vault door sat near the left side of the room, pieces of bent rebar and concrete hanging off of it.

"Yeah, that's the reason you're here," Detective Perez said when she noticed my gaze. "The second we noticed that we tried to figure out what the hell could have done that. Then one of our guys noticed the handprints," she pointed at them. I walked over and kneeled down to take a look.

It looked like a human hand pressed into clay, squeezing hard. Except in steel three inches thick. "I'm guessing you didn't find fingerprints, huh?"

"Nope. Whoever the superperson was, they used gloves," Perez sighed. "Gotta say, I don't like living in a world where people can just toss a vault door like this. Uh, no offense."

"None taken," I said absently. Out of curiosity, I held my hand to the print. "Holy…"

It was bigger than mine. Just barely, but it was.

"The thing is… they also beat a security guard half to death," Perez shuddered. "His ribs, arms, legs… he's lucky to be alive. Looks like he was attacked by a damn gorilla… How much strength does someone need to do something like this?" Perez asked me. "I mean, are they stronger than you? Are they bulletproof? I mean… can we even stop them when we find them?"

I looked up at her. She bit her lip and turned to look at the vault, which was covered in yellow cards with numbers, the signs of someone taking evidence. People were avoiding the sight of the vault door.

I looked at Frank. He was nudging at a nearby chunk of wood with his boot, a disinterested look on his face. "Hey, Frank, you okay?" I asked, knowing his answer was just what I needed.

"Yeah, just bored," he said idly.

Perez blinked. "You'rebored?"

I laughed. "Yeah. Frank isn't as impressed by all this stuff as most people are."

He looked at Perez and shrugged. "I'm a soldier. I don't really have the luxury to be impressed. Still, this place is a lot cleaner than I thought it would be."

"Clean?" I asked, nothing all the destruction.

"Yeah," he pointed at the vault, then motioned his hand to the door. "See. This shit got destroyed in a straight line. From the vault to where the door got thrown. But everything else is fine. Fuck, the bank doors aren't even cracked."

He was right. The wooden desks had been destroyed by the door as it smashed into them, but nothing else. That got me thinking.

"You know… a while back, I had to persecute a bank robber," I said thoughtfully. "He was cooperating, so he told me a lot about how he worked."

"Oh?" Perez said. "You think that will apply here? I mean, this guy, or girl, was superhuman, you think they'll do things the way regular robbers do?"

"Absolutely. Super or not, people are people. Stupid, smart, emotional people. We're dealing with a different scale here, but," I got up and walked over to Perez with a smile. "People are people. That's the best and worst part about superpowers."

"Yeah," she winced back from me once I got close enough. I was actually surprised by that. She swallowed and turned around. "I'll leave you folks to it."

She turned and walked off a bit faster than necessary.

"...Fuck," I whispered to myself, looking around. I turned to Frank-