DC HERO AT MARVEL

"What?"

Anton was taken aback.

This was indeed something he hadn't anticipated.

A green monster?

The military?

And now the remnants of The Foot Clan were entangled with these two forces?

Although Phil hadn't explicitly identified the parties involved, the mention of Brazil and the timeline naturally brought certain figures to mind.

The Hulk—and the military unit led by General Ross that was hunting him.

"Boss, we didn't expect this either!"

Phil sounded exasperated as he recounted the series of events to Anton.

They had spent an entire day searching the rainforest. After painstaking effort, they finally pinpointed the exact location and unearthed the last piece of the Teleportation Beacon. Then, out of nowhere, a deafening crash echoed from afar.

A helicopter, crumpled as if it had been smashed like a tin can, came hurtling toward them. The rotor blades were twisted beyond recognition, and it plummeted from some unknown distance, crashing just meters away.

Trees in the rainforest were snapped in half, some even uprooted entirely. Dirt and debris flew everywhere, splattering across their faces. Everyone stood frozen in shock.

Boom!

The next moment, the helicopter exploded.

As the shockwave rippled through the air, a massive, muscular green figure leaped into the sky like a giant flea and landed with a thunderous impact before them.

It was a towering, shirtless green monster clad only in a pair of tattered shorts.

When he landed, the ground trembled as if struck by an earthquake.

The green monster took one look at the armed group and, without hesitation, delivered a devastating punch that killed one of The Foot Clan members instantly.

At that precise moment, the military arrived.

Several helicopters armed with heavy artillery positioned themselves above the rainforest, their weapons trained on both the green monster and Phil group.

In the chaos, the green monster inadvertently stepped on the location of the Teleportation Beacon fragment, activating it.

Whoosh!

The green monster and the Teleportation Beacon fragment vanished together.

Everyone was left dumbfounded.

Phil and his group exchanged bewildered glances, only to find themselves surrounded by the military moments later. It took everything they had to escape, and even then, the cost was immense.

What had started as a straightforward mission had spiraled into a complete disaster at the very end.

They had set out with nearly ten people, but only three returned Phil, Dr. Stockman, and the female ninja Karai.

The military also suffered significant losses.

In the chaos of The Foot Clan remnants' desperate counterattack, over thirty soldiers were killed.

It wasn't as if the two sides had any prior vendetta, but now, one had certainly been forged.

Honestly, the person most troubled by the entire ordeal wasn't the military or The Foot Clan—it was Phil.

He had only come to Brazil, and now he'd managed to antagonize the military. Didn't this practically cement his status as a supervillain?

What if they tracked him down once he returned home and hauled him off to prison on the spot?

Phil had recognized those soldiers. The ones pursuing the green monster weren't Brazilian—they bore the American flag on their uniforms. They were the same cross-border task force he had spotted when he landed at the airport.

After explaining the entire sequence of events, Phil was left with mixed feelings, while Anton, having heard the story, was at a loss for words.

"However, we should still be able to track the remaining fragment and the monster location using the locator device," Phil added, seeming to grasp at some semblance of hope. "But during our escape, the locator was damaged. It not functional right now."

"In that case, come back first," Anton said, thinking over their next steps.

Before he could finish, a loud bang echoed through the phone.

Phil instinctively turned toward the sound and froze in place.

The hotel room door had been kicked open, and assault rifles were aimed directly at him. His eyes widened in shock.

"Don't move! Hands up!"

The soldiers had surrounded Phil hotel. A squad of armed men, their rifle barrels gleaming ominously, trained their weapons on him.

Phil didn't even have time to put on his Green Goblin suit. He obediently raised his hands, letting his phone fall to the carpet.

As he was led out of the room by the soldiers, he saw Dr. Stockman also handcuffed and subdued.

Even Karai, the most formidable in hand-to-hand combat, had been captured by the military.

"Well, I guess I don't need to worry about being arrested back home anymore," Phil thought bitterly, his mind racing as he allowed himself a sliver of dark humor.

"Getting back at all is the real problem now!"

"Phil?"

Anton face darkened as he heard the commotion on the other end of the call.

Acting quickly, he summoned his Cyborg avatar. Within seconds, he used Phil phone to locate his exact position at a hotel in Brazil and promptly deleted all data from the device.

Through the hotel surveillance cameras, Anton, via Cyborg perspective, saw Phil and the others being escorted out of the room by the military.

Boom!

Without hesitation, Anton transferred his consciousness into the Cyborg body and launched into the sky, shattering a window as he ascended. His destination Brazil.

As he soared out of the villa district, every surveillance camera he passed froze on its last frame until Anton, now fully merged with Cyborg, had left the area. The cameras only resumed normal operation once he was completely out of sight.

Brazil, near Rio de Janeiro

At a military airbase.

This was a temporary base arranged through General Ross connections, serving as a staging ground for their operations.

Today, they planned to stay overnight. By early the next morning, they would return to the United States.

During this time, Ross had swiftly uncovered the identity of Dr. Stockman.

As for Phil and Karai, their identities remained unclear.

Dr. Stockman was a renowned scientist, while the other two were relatively obscure and virtually unknown by comparison.

Inside the base, in a room resembling an interrogation chamber

A single beam of light shone directly on Stockman face. Across from him sat General Ross, his expression impassive but his eyes filled with contemplation. After a long silence, Ross suddenly let out a small chuckle, sending a shiver down Stockman spine.

"Baxter Stockman, a scientist who spent years researching mind transmission technology…" Ross began slowly. "So, you're saying the reason the person I'm after vanished is because of your technology?"

"No, it not that simple," Stockman stammered, swallowing nervously. "The mind transmission technology isn't perfected. I can teleport someone away, but I can't bring them back. Do you understand? If you want to find that person, I can't help you!"

"You're saying you can't even guarantee they're still on Earth?" Ross eyebrows arched.

"Well, that…" Stockman hesitated, visibly panicked.

Stockman was at a loss for words and hesitantly nodded.

"I found something interesting among your equipment," Ross said after a moment, his tone laced with amusement. "My tech experts tell me it a locator device."

Ross leaned forward slightly, his expression a mix of curiosity and menace. "Dr. Stockman, would you care to explain what it used for?"

Stockman heart sank. Staring at the cunning general before him, he couldn't shake the feeling that Ross had already figured out the truth.

Moments later, Stockman was dragged out of the room, groaning in pain.

Though still alive, he'd been subjected to grueling interrogation.

For a man like General Ross—ruthless, single-minded, and determined to achieve his goals—resorting to torture was only to be expected.

"Teleportation Beacon. Locator device. Banner, your little escape has brought me quite the unexpected gift…"

Inside the interrogation room, Ross remained seated, lost in thought.

After a while, a cold smile appeared on his face.

There was no doubt in his mind if Banner had used the Teleportation Beacon fragment to escape, then the fragment location would coincide with Banner current position.

Once the locator device was repaired, finding Banner would be straightforward.

And with Banner in custody, Ross could potentially reconstruct the entire Teleportation Beacon.

Two birds with one stone.

What Ross didn't realize, however, was that a man was hurtling through the clouds at incredible speed, heading straight for Brazil.