Chapter Text
The camera flickered for a few moments, static running across the screen before it finally came fully online. The red hue that was normally there was now gone, revealing a perfectly clear sight to the viewers.
Rick was standing in front of it, hands on his hips and beaming at the sight of his webshow finally back online after an entire year of being online. The most anyone had gotten was offshoots of them all in other forms of media, nothing this close and personal since the battle against the Supreme Intelligence.
"Heya' Hulkies," Rick grinned harder, showing off the rows of sharp teeth he had. "Boy, it's, uh, been a while since I said that right?"
He looked different. Taller and spikes more prominent on his back along with smaller spikes running along the sides of his jaw. Rick's voice was slightly more gravely now, though it kept his upbeat tone easily.
"I'm sorry for ending the show like that, or at least not really giving everyone a warning for the sudden radio silence." He rubbed the back of his head, looking away briefly before carrying on. "Still, it wasn't fair to you all and we're sorry for that. Especially me...but we're back now and ready to carry on that good content y'all love so much!"
He raised his hands and finger gunned, which would have brought attention to the white bracelet around Rick's wrist. It had a series of differently coloured buttons on it, but gave seemingly no clue as to what it did yet. Similarly, against the usual white "H" belt all the Smashers wore, Rick now had a series of pockets around the H, all seemingly filled with different items. "I'll let you all hear what everyone's been up to themselves, but here's what I've been doing since then!"
As he spoke, different cameras around the room began to lift onto the air before quickly zooming off. Most likely to join the other hulks in recording them through their days.
"I've been working more on my media career, getting a degree and stuff since I never finished school. After that I started getting some jobs to do web design for different websites over the year to get some cash." Rick shrugged as something occurred to him. "Was gonna get a place of my own but then it kinda hit me that it's probably gonna be harder for me to live on my own with my gamma form."
His face twisted up briefly. But it was only a split second before he smiled again.
"I've also been doing part time help at Xavier's! Mostly doing the media setup and other stuff since I'm quite close in age to a lot of their students."
Images flickered onto the screen to show the work he's been doing over time. Some of them were regular websites, but then they slowly shifted into advertisements for Xavier's school for gifted youngest. Often showing many different scenes of happy mutant children in a place where they would be kept safe and free to be themselves.
Rick pressed onwards, smiling happily. His joy at having his webshow and viewers back seemed to be fuelling his happy mood. "So yeah! Been earning my own cash for a while and now a lot of people wanna support the webshow and that gives us some funding through ads-"
Hands suddenly came around the camera and Rick gave it a serious look. " Good ads. I made sure to offer it up to a lot of places that could use it and I'm always up for offering more to anyone who wants to contact me!" He finger gunned after letting go of the camera and stepping back. It seemed that business was good for Rick on all parts.
Even if he gave almost no other mention of his social life like he used to.
"And here's our first Agent other than your favourite blue man!"
The camera shifted over to reveal Skaar, who was also slightly different from when most remembered him.
His clothing was different now. What was once a ragged loincloth was now a plated skirt, themed like it had been back on Sakaar. The boots and gloves were slightly different now, more covered over his feet and hands, though it still left his toes and fingers out. There was a necklace around Skaar that had a bunch of differently coloured jewels that the grey hulk fiddled with as he smiled to the cameras as well.
His hair was done up too. It was in a high ponytail with a braid down the side of his face as well as some small flowers in the back of it. Skaar was sitting next to Devil, mindful of the fact that there were smaller dinosaurs running around in the background.
One bit Devil's tail and then seemed shocked when the larger dinosaur sent the smaller one skidding along the floor.
"So," Rick clapped his hands together, beaming and making Skaar snort. "Decided that this first episode could be a bit of a catch up for everyone. Let them all know how their favourite slasher is, right?"
"Yeah. Skaar says it all, right?" He asked before humming at the nod he got from Rick. "Skaar wanted to learn about home but...home isn't a choice to make right now." He sighed, but Skaar smiled again when Devil nudged his arm for some petting and carried on.
"So Skaar wanted to take time to learn about new home since he never got time before. Wanted to learn better words to say now. Also wanted to help people more so..." he spread his hands out to gesture around him."Skaar started helping dinosaurs so Devil won't be sad and alone. Have few here to take care of before going back to Savage Lands for a while." It had been the reason why he was seen the least out of everyone, even with the fact that Skaar had the least media connection despite his Instagram.
"Helping animals and people there. Sometimes mutant school too." Like Rick, Skaar was close enough to many of the students' ages to be a large help, not to mention the fact that he was someone from a whole other planet that could also aid them as well. "Been good, been happy." A frown appeared on his face though. "Still can't remember home." It seemed to be a bad issue still, especially when joined with a frown of Rick's own.
"Hey, s'alright," The blue hulk patted Skaar's arm, trying to reassure the other man. "We had a lot of good stuff over the year and we've been talking to a lot of professionals about it as well as getting some physic help too."
It would have been easier if the Leader would have helped out, but he was currently yet to be seen. Even less appearances than anyone with how he hadn't even had any sort of mission to destroy them or the world lately.
Skaar seemed to have had the same thoughts, what with the way he smiled back and patted Rick's hand.
An interesting thing to notice was the fact that the bracelet on Rick's wrist suddenly beeped as numbers began to register on it.
Satisfied with reassuring him, Rick pulled away, ruffling at Skaar's hair and laughing warm the younger hulk took a swat at him. It was only a moment later though that Rick shrieked as green hands suddenly shoved him forward, laughing loudly as the blue hulk curled into a ball and spun on the spot.
"Rick, how many times are you gonna scream when one of us does that?" Jen smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Or are you just doing that for the great dramatics of being on recording again?"
Like the others, Jen now had some differences about her. Though she would have been seen more from her instagram posts and occasional news reports, not to mention the exciting news of getting her own team; The Liberators.
And now here she was, dressed up in a full body suit of light blue with a white patch across her chest and down the side of her legs. Her outfit left her arms bare, which was a very welcomed sight indeed. Jen seemed to have stopped straightening her hair, as it now fell into wild curls that made the green woman look even bigger with the way she used an 80s-esqe headband to keep it out of her face.
Rick sputtered, waving his hands about from his position on the floor. "That's- that's totally not fair, you always sneak around in order to bully me and now we finally have the webcams back, you will be seen as the foul wrench you are." He seemed certain of that fact, which only made Skaar laugh harder as Devil leaned in to lick the outer layer of Rick's shell.
Jen rolled her eyes, glancing up at her camera and giving a little wave towards it. "Mm, I'm sure the audience is just crying at how cruel I am. Because, y'know," she shrugged and gave a dry look. "People really hate it when a muscular woman is cruel."
"Except incels!" Rick was reminded as he took Jen's offered hand and pulled himself up off the floor.
"Yeah." Her scoff was easy to hear and dry as a bone. "Except incels Rick."
It seemed to be a good enough reply, because Rick then stepped back and with all of the flare he had as a showman, waved for Jen to take it away . Which...was lucky enough for him that she seemed to know what her cue was. Thanks to the writer of this fanfic! Wait, hold on-
"Anyway!" Jen finger gunned and ignored the look of confusion from both Skaar and Rick. They hadn't interrupted her? "I've spent the past year working on my law skills." A beat of silence. "My real law skills. Not that phoney hologram we all got stuck with that christmas jumbo." Like with Rick, images flickered over the camera footage to show Jen in a suit, standing outside a law firm and smiling with a group of different people. Another image flickered to then show Jen wearing a black sundress with white ruffles under the layers and glittering like stars as she smiled and showed off one long leg towards the camera. "And when Janet Van Dyne calls you up as a potential model for her clothesline? Weeeell….” She shrugged and smiled. One always had to answer such a call.
Her life had turned around pretty well as far as Jen was concerned. Things were finally looking up after so much trouble and it made her feel hopeful ever since she had first become She-hulk.
“Really?” A gruff voice called out, and the camera caught Jen rolling her eyes almost immediately. “Y’all interviewed Shulkie before me ?”
The camera moved over to feature Red standing in the doorway, raising an eyebrow and smirking. He was still in his usual get up from most of the season, with the exception of a pair of sunglasses tucked into the neck of his tank top. Anyone who remembered the incident with Ghost Rider would know that it caused Red to be left with chain markings all around his chest and biceps, something that not even gamma healing was entirely able to stop.
Rick rolled his eyes, though the gesture was almost unnoticeable due to the bright yellow of them. Oh you’re so right, guess I just missed you when looking for the next hulk to interview.” He seemed to have raised a good point, as Red then huffed, shrugging and stepping forward to (gently) push Rick out of the main spotlight.
“Yeah, yeah, Jones. ‘Bout time the people got who they really wanted and you know I love delivering to ‘em.” He seemed to tug his shirt, almost like one would have done so to a jacket lapels. “So, after all the shit with Supreme asshole, yours truly decided that I needed to try and do more digging on other government fellas, especially seein’ how...easy they gave up on me after hulking out in the first place.” Red went quiet then, looking away before suddenly carrying on. “S’all good now, though. Been doin’ some darker stuff with the Howling Commandos an’ Wolverine s’well as some other X-men. Details ain’t important.” He said and waved a hand.
“Pretty sure it’s more or less due to the details not being good for public knowledge rather than not being important.” Jen commented and smiled when she got a shrug in reply.
“Other than that...mmm, took up baking to help out a bit with my powers.” Now Red’s face took on an orange-gold hue as he rubbed the back of his neck. Camera images of Red appeared, ranging from him shooting things alongside Punisher and Wolverine but also images of Red baking stuff and squinting over at a large cookbook while Jen hoverd in the background. “Occasionally I go about with Greenie to see anything weird happening with those gamma signals JJ picks up at times-”
“He means Jump Jet.” Rick waved a hand and grinned. “We call him JJ to separate him from the jet itself.” After all, JJ had proved to have some form of sentiance, much like JARVIS did for the Avengers. It seemed too painful to let JJ suffer, especially after they had failed him before and made JJ so mad about being constantly crashed. “JJ was the one who suggested the nickname and while he isn’t exactly like Tony Stark’s JARVIS-”
It was then that JJ flicked the screen behind Rick’s head on, showing an image of A-bomb smiling while “Da bomb!” Appeared behind him.
“He’s pretty awesome.”
“But I’m mostly takin’ time for myself.” Red waved an inconspicuous hand. “Y’know how it is.” He furrowed his eyebrows when he caught Jen snorting and rolling her eyes, an elbow jabbing into Red’s side a moment later.
“Taking time for yourself?” Jen lifts her fingers up and makes quotation marks with it (Boy, actions were so much stiffer in the third POV!). “Please, as if you’d ever take a vacation or any time to relax, old man.”
“I relax! I relax plenty for your information. Since when don’t I relax?”
Jen didn’t think that raising her eyebrows was worth the effort, but she did so anyway. “Since you get up at six am for no reason and since you spend almost all of your free time making weapons or training!” It was honestly like Red had no other hobbies and if he did, she didn’t know about them.
Red was about to add one last jab, but a rather familiar voice to all of the viewers caught all of their attention.
“You’re all still here?” Hulk came into view and he spared the camera that rushed over to his side a small smile. “Thought you guys had stuff to get to.”
Rick frowned before putting on an easy going smile as he moved towards Hulk. “After all this time and working on ourselves? We can’t not hang out with the main man himself.” It would almost be a crime to not find Hulk with the rest of them. “I mean, it all started with me and you, it should restart with both of us again, don’t you think so?”
The taller man paused and frowned, thinking for a moment before he shrugged and nodded. “Suppose you’re right. I ended up getting a lot of questions from people, even from the other Avengers.” An image of Hulk hiding away from Tony Stark and Clint Barton flickered onto the screen, although it looked a little far too cartoonish to be real. “It’ll be nice to clear anything up.”
“Let’s just hope that nothing interrupts our lil’ Q an’ A.” Red rolled his eyes and quickly earned himself glares all around. “What? Not like I’m gonna be the one to jinx us. If anything, some random weirdo is gonna spot that we’re doin’ the show again and will take on the neat idea to go after us.”
There was a brief silence then as all the hulks and undoubtedly the viewers, seemed to collect their memories of the previous villain that had haunted them for ages. It didn’t make things any easier when Hulk sighed and turned fully to the camera, though he glanced back at Rick and raised an eyebrow. “Did you miss out on any details?” The last thing he wanted was for anyone to stay uninformed for the show and judging by Rick’s face, he guessed that most of the information had been about their personal lives rather than anything key. “Rick…”
“Sorry!” Rick shrugged and offered the taller man a sheepish smile. “I thought that maybe it’d sound better coming from you?”
“In other words,” Red rolled his eyes. “He didn’t wanna.”
“Hey! That’s not true, I’m a very reliable narrator but people like and want the Hulk-”
“Want the Hulk? What, are we not good enough?”
“Well maybe you’re not, but the rest of us-”
“Alright!” Hulk interrupted and got a glare from Red, which he ignored. “I’ll...start it off.” He sighed and faced the main cameras while the others seemed to back away. Rick and Jen seemed to stay close by while Skaar and Red backed away to the kitchen.
“I’ve been keeping up the same gig as usual, working with the Avengers and the Smashers.” An image of Hulk with both of his teams appeared. “After the whole big fight, it took a while to deal with sudden press and to help Vista Verde out with any remaining damages among...other things.”
At this point, pictures of kids with overly green eyes and someone blasting a green ray through a wall. There were multiple pictures of people and the hulks, both looking shocked and a particular one of Skaar looking quite terrified as a small girl exploded into green light.
“Other things include the fact that the people of Vista Verde now apparently have powers.” Jen dryly stated and frowned. “We...think that maybe a lot of people from the town have been absorbing gamma from the town or...us. And that’s caused a lot of issues all over the place.”
Her cousin nodded, crossing his arms and frowning deeply as he remembered it all. “Yeah, we had S.H.I.E.L.D and other governments down our necks when it got out that people around here started getting powers. Lots of folks were looking for potential weapons and a town full of gamma mutates seemed perfect for it, which took a lot of work in keeping them away. We’re lucky that so many other teams and people wanted our town to be safe.”
“It had been all over the news at the time. Some people made jokes about it online but a lot of people were mostly just scared about what this meant for themselves and what dangers gamma mutates could mean.” Hulk sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. He looked tired, that much would have been obvious to anyone.
“I…” He frowned and went quiet. There wasn’t any sound but the quiet hum of the cameras whirring. “I hate it. So long spent being a monster on run and then Jen got hurt and cursed with my blood, then Red made himself a hulk and I know that it was his own choice to do that, but I don’t think that he was ever really prepared for what being a hulk would be like. Then there’s Skaar, who needs so much help and I feel like we haven’t had much time to get him fully settled or to work out more about his past. I mean, he can’t read or write yet and he still has speaking issues that have barely changed and we we-”
He sighs again and almost immediately, seems to have lost all of his energy. “It’s a lot.”
“In any case,” Hulk shrugged and tried to not look overly bothered for the cameras. “It’s a lot we’re dealing with and it’s taking some time to keep normal humans out, helping everyone within the town learn their powers.” Anyone who had seen the news before the show would know that it had been such a big deal, that countless conservative politicians were now saying that they had to do something about the town before gamma killed everyone.
Clearly the team found it stupid, as Skaar snorted loudly and Red crossed his arms and glared off into the distance.
“It’s so stupid!” Rick frowned and threw his arms into the air, wanting a more passionate display that just made Red frown further and shake his head. “I mean, we haven’t hurt anyone...much. But- but! Not on purpose .”
“Dummy, even if we haven’t done anything on purpose, that’s still more than enough for humans to hate us or to go after us. In fact, that’s probably worse that we didn’t do anything on purpose.” Jen said and when she had got some confused looks from Skaar and Rick, she then sighed and carried on talking. “If we did this stuff on accident , imagine how humans must feel about us being able to hurt them on purpose . There’s no telling what they know about us or what we know.”
Her voice went a little quieter then, and something bright and rippling seemed to pass across Jen’s face then. “Who’s to say that this webshow wasn’t another mistake for humans to try hurting us?”
There was a brief silence then as all the guys stared in shock at Jen. Hardly anyone would have expected the Sensational She-hulk to come out with something that dark and clearly it showed on their faces when Red glanced over at Hulk and could be seen mouthing “what the fuck?”.
It only took a brief and rough shove at Red before Hulk nudged his cousin and smiled down at her. “Hey, it’s...going to be better. You’ll see.”
“How so?”
“Well…” He shrugged. “We’re all doing new stuff with our lives and people appreciate us plenty and we’re all here right now, together and ready to face anything. It’s tough and it’s gonna get tougher I bet, but we’ll all be here and we survived a year and a half of dealing with countless villains and the Leader.” Hulk said and his smile got a little softer, a little fonder, because this was Jen he was talking to. She was his little sister and it still made him feel prouder than anything to look at her and to see the type of person she had become. “And we’re gonna be fine.”
Not even a minute later, warning alarms came on and Hulk and Jen’s green skin were now washed with an orange hue.
“Had ta’ jinx us,
didn’tcha
Greenie.” Red sighed and prepared to get his guns out.