"Oh, it's noisy here, and there's even a big guy in the mix," Noah muttered, stepping out of the portal.
A battlefield littered with the corpses of torn and scorched mutants stretched before him – Warwick's handiwork. In the distance, like a mountain, towered a gigantic mutated African elephant. Its size was staggering, its body covered in massive muscles, and its enormous trunk slammed against the ground.
But Noah noticed something strange. These mutants, usually acting chaotically, were now moving in a coordinated manner, as if someone was controlling them. Warwick was having a hard time: it was surrounded, and the mutants were apparently deliberately wearing it down. They attacked in groups, forcing it to release electrical discharges repeatedly, and with each discharge, its energy depleted, and its attacks weakened.
He concentrated and used magic to sense the surrounding space. A few hundred meters away, in the sky, he noticed something suspicious – a hovering mutated bird. It possessed powerful psychic energy, which seemed to be controlling the mutants.
"So, that's the Leader? He has telepathy?" Noah didn't know much about the Leader, a villain with high intellect, but now he understood: he possessed psychic abilities and could control the minds of mutants.
"This is a tricky one," he muttered, noticing that the bird had also noticed him.
The noise from their emergence through the portal couldn't go unnoticed. The huge glowing blue circle in the night sky was conspicuous.
"Hulk, I'll leave that big guy to you," he said, looking at the enraged Hulk, who was already roaring at the mutants. He pointed at the giant elephant, and the Hulk gladly accepted the challenge.
Noah raised his hand, and the bird in the distance, as if struck by an invisible force, exploded into pieces, leaving only blood behind.
A scream echoed through the secret laboratory. The Leader clutched his head, his eyes bloodshot, screaming in pain. His mind had been assaulted by a psychic force far exceeding his own. He soon collapsed to the floor, breathing raggedly. His abilities were temporarily weakened, but he knew he would recover in time.
"That damned Storm Swordsman... Who would have thought he possessed such power," he whispered, feeling his head, which was still throbbing with pain. The Leader struggled to his feet.
He looked around – the place had become unsafe. He needed to hide and lay low. The Leader took out a communication device and sent a message to General Ross, his ally, then threw the device on the ground and, staggering, left the laboratory.
Meanwhile, Noah, realizing that the Leader had noticed him and the Hulk, decided that the mission was temporarily failed. The villain had managed to detect them and would likely escape before they could catch him.
He had used all his psychic power to crush the enemy's mind. With the power he had accumulated through the champions, magic, and the rune, his soul possessed unparalleled strength, and the Leader was seriously injured from a distance.
When the bird was destroyed, the mutants went berserk again. Their ranks scattered, and chaos ensued. The Hulk had already crashed into the crowd, making his way towards the giant elephant, sweeping aside everything in his path.
Mutants flew in all directions from his blows like rag dolls. And the elephant, having lost the Leader's control, roared furiously, stomping the ground and swinging its massive tusks and trunk. Those who got too close were turned into either ground meat or decorations on its tusks.
Noticing the green monster, the elephant roared even louder and charged towards him, making the earth tremble under the weight of its steps.
Noah extended a finger, and a golden lightning bolt shot towards Warwick, killing the mutants around it. Then the lightning flowed into the wolf's energy storage, restoring some of its power.
"Hat, your turn. But no arson this time!"
Hearing its name, the magic hat happily circled around him, but upon hearing the ban on fire, it became a little sad. However, it was soon overcome with excitement again and soared into the sky. Magical projectiles began to rain down from above, crashing into the crowd of mutants. Each shot possessed incredible power, the explosions creating huge craters in the ground, reshaping the landscape under the hail of destruction.
"Boss," Warwick approached, having dealt with the nearby mutants. "My mission has failed."
"Failed? Not at all. You destroyed so many mutants that it's already a great achievement," he noticed that Warwick had already killed half of the creatures, which is why its energy was quickly depleted.
"When we get back, I'll upgrade you, add new functions, and increase your energy capacity," Noah said, and with a wave of his hand, he tossed aside a huge corpse, like a mountain, that was flying towards them. It was the mutated elephant the Hulk had been fighting. Now it looked absolutely mangled after its encounter with the green giant.
"Understood, Boss," Warwick nodded and, without delay, rushed back into battle, continuing to deal with the remaining mutants.
Combining their forces – the wolf, the hat, and the Hulk – they unleashed devastation upon the army of mutants. Their ranks thinned rapidly, and soon Noah began using his magic – lightning bolts, wind blades, and magic projectiles easily finishing off the remaining opponents. After a while, not a single living mutant remained on the battlefield.
"Raaaaar!" the Hulk roared.
Deprived of a target, he looked around and glared at Noah, clearly intending to attack him. However, noticing his magical gauntlets slowly disappearing, he just snorted and turned away, walking off.
Noah pondered. Taking out Mikael's Blessing, he decided to check if he could use it to turn the Hulk back into Bruce Banner. If it didn't work, he would have to wait for him to calm down on his own or call his girlfriend.
Ding~ ding~ ding~
The Hulk, already walking away, suddenly stopped. His gaze cleared, and confusion appeared on his face when he saw the bell in Noah's hand.
"Where am I?" Noah heard, and before him stood not the Hulk, but Bruce Banner.
Banner surveyed the battlefield, littered with corpses, and clearly felt disgust. Then he noticed something was wrong with his body: he had grown taller. Looking down, he saw huge green hands.
"Oh, God!" he exclaimed, realizing he was still in Hulk form. But with his awakening, his body began to slowly shrink, returning to its normal appearance.
Noah realized that Banner didn't intend to stay in Hulk form, and therefore the transformation weakened.
"Dr. Banner, we've completed the mission. We just need to check the equipment, but don't get your hopes up. Our target likely managed to escape."
Banner, adjusting his pants, which had become too large, looked at the devastated battlefield and added,
"There's heavy contamination here. We need to deal with it."
Noah nodded and opened a portal, moving the bodies of the fallen inside. On the other side was a volcano crater, which he used for disposing of remains. The fire on the battlefield had already destroyed the other corpses, and only Banner's tent remained intact.
"When we get back, you can research methods for cleaning up this contamination," Noah said, opening a portal back to the island where their laboratory was located.
They – Banner, Warwick, and the hat – stepped into the portal together.
[Mission Complete]
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