-Tony Stark POV-

I wanted to say that I was fine but a ticking time bomb in your heart can never let you be fine in any sense of the word, so I ignored my fears as I put on the suit. I have been interested in Dr.Banners.....Green Problem. (Now that he thought about it, calling it the Green Problem makes it sound like he is a weed addict) It was a scientist's biggest taboo to experiment on themselves and Banner committed that taboo and is suffering for it.

I would have condemned him and laughed at him for the scientific folly that turned him into a monster but after going through that cave, after experiencing that hopelessness, after knowing the darkness. I understood him. When needs must fuck the taboos, you have to survive in whatever way you can.

I adjust my suit to make it look better before I enter the room in which the man behind Banner's current situation is standing, my stride has a purpose as I stop in front of the General "Hello Mr.Stark, I am General Ross" I shake his hand and give him a fake smile. He looked like a man who was happy to find that Christmas was early as he led me to a table with a map of New York on it.

"These blue areas are the places where we wouldn't engage with it but The red areas...that's where we strike" I look at the map and frown as I tell him, "I think we have a problem here" I point at the two areas marked red as I emphasize "Those are not civilian free zones" and if my hunch is right these military assholes don't care "Those points were taken into consideration but due to the low density of population in those areas, we have deemed them safe enough for engagement" What they meant was *A few poor people can die but it is a sacrifice we are willing to make*.

The two marked places were Hell's Kitchen and Brafney Avenue, both low-income areas where the down-and-under people live. They might be a little outside the law but it still didn't warrant this level of disregard. I look the General in the eye and find myself finding a man obsessed with something. I smirk as I tell him "You have to understand something Ross, I have agreed to help if I can, I don't think I can be of much help among your finest officers and strategies, I just don't think they are for me"

Ross looks at me coldly, as if he is looking at a disobeying soldier, unlucky for him I am not a soldier and I just grab a pack of Skittles to eat while I look into his eyes. A vein pops, and I can feel his clenched fist itching to hit me but I ignore it as he grits out of his teeth "The two positions provide us a strategic advantage, the traffic in those areas is remarkably less which might allow our vehicles to move more freely..." I point at the res circles "And trample a few people along the way, is that it?".

Ross pinched the bridge of his nose as he told me "You are supposed to be the backup Stark" He stood straight and looked into my eyes as he shouts "..AND IT LOOKS LIKE WE DONT NEED ANY BACKUP TODAY BOYS" his war room buddies back him up with an echo of *Yes sirs*. He put his hand over my shoulder as he slowly guided(pushed) me outside the room while whispering in my ear "You see stark, a blacksmith won't be good in fighting a War.." as I stood outside the War room door he proclaimed with a smug face "..No matter how good his Armor is" the door got shut on my face.

I smile as I think of all the dirt I could find on this asshole, if and if the worst happens and the monster is out on the street I will do my best to not stop him, I will save the civilians and try to divert the Monster towards a nearby park.

I get into my car and call Nick Fury and immediately start laying into him as soon as he picks up the call "Don't ever ask me to work with that fucker again....EVER" Fury sighs as he says "You know how the military works Stark" I slam the pedal going faster than I should as I ask him "Yeah, the military is getting too comfortable with bringing weapons into civilian space..." Nick cut through my rant quickly "They are old men, trying to minimize the amount of deaths, not negate them altogether. This has been their MO for a long time now, the threat they are facing right now isn't their normal enemy either so try to forgive them for being a little..."

"Cruel" I cut him off in retaliation before I continued "...I don't care how they used to operate fury but I won't work with them" Fury sighed as he asked me "Then what will you do when Banner inevitably loses control somewhere in New York?" I consider the issue as I stop at a red light "I'll help the civilians evacuate but the Hulk is their problem" Nick stays silent for a while and I can hear some muffled curses before he says "You have seen what happened last time, the Hulk cannot be stopped by normal weapons Stark" I grin as I tell him "They don't need Backup Fury, let them play their military games I'll focus on what's right"

It seemed like Fury gave up trying to get me to help as he said "At least try to get Spiderman to help, he knows New York better" I decide to agree to disagree as I tell him "I will do so if I meet him" which isn't possible unless there is any crime nearby but no crime in a city undergoing a large scale cleanup.

*BOOM*

An explosion rocks my thought process and I mumbled to myself as I brake hard "Fucking Universe and its jinxes" The car comes to a stop and I get out of it to find a gas station that has blown up two blocks in front of me and a man climbing onto a car as electricity fires out from various parts of his body.

I could have helped if I had my suit but Jarvis tells me that it will take 24 minutes for it to reach me, I watch as more and more people die around the electric maniac, not being able to do much other than hide behind my car and that is when Spiderman swings by.

I watch the fight and I had to admit the kid seemed to know exactly how to defeat this fucker as he got the whole thing done before heading off to save a baby and a kid.

I could not sit by and let him do all the work himself so I approached the downed maniac hanging onto the lamppost and try to look at what was on his neck as Peter seemed to have stopped himself from killing this fucker after looking at it. *S#02* is what it said and I understood his reasoning, this man must be a test subject in whatever fucked up science project some assholes were doing.

I look around for any hint of what might have happened, a wave of smog hits me and I choke at the smell of burnt gasoline, once the smog clears and my throat isn't burning, I remember that the explosion is where it all started. I head to the raging fire that is the gas station to look for any clues that I might find but the smoke makes it impossible to know what might have happened.

I get back to the Maniac and punch his face as hard as I can when he groans. better be safe than sorry with a super-powered individual, I look at the suit he was wearing, it seems to be an exosuit similar to mine being powered by.....? Something? The exo skeleton would have been a good, half prototype for a suit similar to mine. I squint and notice a few blue lines going from his neck to his head like nerves.

I ask Jarvis as I put my watch close to the guy's neck "Hey, Jarvis how much power does this guy produce" The watch works for a few seconds before it short circuits, and I *Yelp* before I throw the watch down and ask Jarvis "So, how much was it?" Jarvis tells me the words that confirm my fears "0.5 gigajoules per second sir" I give out a wobbly smile as I tell Jarvis "Looks like somebody thought of a very weird way to solve the arc reactor problem"