A/N: Here is Part VI of my Avengers AU. Sorry for the long wait on this and What's Wrong With Six. I promise I haven't dropped that, but life has been hectic the last several months. Car accident, grandfather in the hospital for a spell and is still dealing with problems with both his legs; plus work and my monthly expenses have doubled. But enough about my problems; I'm back and have a new story for you guys.

Enjoy! :)

Inhumanity

Red with Envy

Los Angeles, California

February 8, 2016 – 3:45 PM

Loki. The Masters of Evil. Hydra. Ultron.

In the last three years, the world had seen four different would be conquerors. They were all close, each one coming to within one battle of reaching their lofty goal. Standing between them and victory were the Avengers, forever the buffer zone between evil and world domination. If not the original six, then the expanded nine hero roster or the New Avengers, or all of them at once. How many ever it took, they always won the day in the end.

Because of their presence – and that of the X-Men, who returned from their very lengthy space excursion a few months ago – the world saw nearly one full year of uninterrupted peace and security. The entire population could finally relax without having to worry if some homicidal maniac was about to blow up their city.

Clint's team of Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, played a key role in that maintained peace. Since the Avengers remained in New York City, many villains moved west to avoid detection.

Natasha said before they separated that Los Angeles was like the wild west, and she was right. Many villains moved there for big scores. They were hoping they could overwhelm She-Hulk, who for years had been the lone hero, with sheer numbers. Spectrum put a very swift end to that thinking.

However, despite peace being maintained on a global scale, that didn't mean that there weren't some who rose up to disturb it locally.

"I NEED BACKUP, RIGHT FREAKING NOW!"

Over the last year – in fact, a few weeks after the events in Durban, South Africa – there had been rumors of several attacks by the Hulk. Of course, the Avengers immediately knew that their Hulk, Bruce Banner, wasn't involved. The attacks were too precise, too coordinated for the lumbering mass of lividity to have been behind. Still, the eye witness accounts were too accurate to ignore. They all recounted a being that was the same size and build as the Hulk wreaking havoc with his extreme strength.

There were a few issues, though. They all described him as being some shade of red. Bruce Banner, as everyone in the world knew, turned green. It wouldn't have been the first time Hulk changed colors, though. There was a time, for instance, that he turned gray.

Also, they described streaks of fire billowing off of him whenever he exerted himself. That was another piece of evidence supporting there being another Hulk. The fact that there may have been another one wasn't surprising; there was a different one on their team, after all. However, no one could recall Bruce saying he ever put himself in a position for someone else to be contaminated.

The last reported incident involving this red Hulk was in San Francisco, so the WCA went to investigate. Super Bowl week had just wrapped up the day before, so it was imperative that they have the situation contained quickly so no one got hurt. Clint, Rhodey, Monica, and Jen went to San Francisco, while Bobbi stayed behind in LA with Sam to try and get in contact with Bruce. No luck so far.

They split up to cover more ground more quickly. Clint, being the only one without powers or a high tech suit of armor, was the poor bastard who made first contact. He stepped inside a warehouse at the B.A.E Dry Dock and found it ripping open crates emblazoned with the Oscorp logo. Clint tried to duck out, but was caught. Immediately, the scarlet-colored Hulk roared and gave chase.

Clint was just an average human. He worked out every day and kept himself in tip-top shape so he could keep up with his superhuman teammates. As such, he was pretty fast for a man his age and size. Still, this Hulk was so much faster than his size should have allowed.

Clint weaved in between towering stacks of crates to try and lose his pursuer, but every corner he turned was nullified by the behemoth just plowing right through the stack. Large metal crates tumbled to the ground, creating a lot of noise and attracting the attention of his teammates.

=Hang tight, Hawkeye!= Monica chirped through the comm.

Clint was only human, so he was starting to run out of steam. His adrenaline helped to mitigate his exhaustion, but his body could only take so much.

He leaned against a crate to catch his breath. "Please… hurry…" he wheezed. A short distance away, he could hear the thudding footsteps and the sound of melting cement a short distance away. "God."

He notched a flare arrow and turned in the direction of the footsteps. He counted to five, then leaped out and loosed the flare. To his absolute surprise, the Hulk closed his eyes to block out the intense flash of light.

"No way." Clint took off running again, the Hulk right on his tail. "Man, where's Thor when you need him!"

Behind him, the Hulk slammed his fist into the pavement, causing the ground between him and Clint to quake violently and crumble into pieces. That wasn't all, though; a wave of what seemed to be fire surged through the cement, quickly catching up to Clint and threatening to incinerate him.

Suddenly, just when he ran out of room, Rhodey swooped down and airlifted him to safety atop a crate. "You alright, Hawk?"

"What'd you do that for?" he asked, indignant. "I had him right where I wanted him!"

Rhodey chuckled and turned to scan the red Hulk. "Yep, he's gamma powered. But he's putting out a tremendous amount of gamma energy. More than Banner, actually."

Monica streaked up to them, then circled behind the Hulk to hem him in. Soon after her, Jen leaped in front of it. "End of the road, copycat."

This was the first time any of them got a good look at him. He stood, easily, at nine feet tall, and was a mass of crimson muscle. He had jet black hair, cut high and tight, and soulless yellow eyes, no pupils.

Instead of roaring incoherently, the Hulk grinned at seeing Jennifer. "Just who I was waiting for," he said. His voice was deep and booming.

The heroes were shocked. "Did he just talk?"

"Uh, yeah."

He roared, which was what they were expecting him to do in the first place, and lunged forward to attack Jen. His strength was tremendous. One punch, which she blocked, sent her skidding back several yards, leaving a pair of trenches in the ground where her feet dug through the cement.

Jennifer was no slouch. In her human form, Clint made her begin lifting weights every other day once he found out that She-Hulk's strength was proportional to hers. After several months, she was able to manhandle Rhodey in his armor during their training sessions. She also held her own against Thor in a wrestling contest during one of his visits. She was one of the strongest people on the planet, without question.

Knowing this, she charged headlong at the Hulk. She was faster than he was, and used this to her advantage. She ducked under his punch and landed a solid knee to his side. The ground trembled when she landed four more punches, but he didn't budge an inch.

"And they call you a Hulk," he taunted as he whirled around, fist flying through the air. Jen wasn't prepared for the sudden move and caught the punch flush. She was sent flying back hundreds of feet before crashing into a pile of overturned crates.

Rhodey and Monica leaped into action. Rhodey unleashed everything his armor had: missiles, .50 caliber bullets from his shoulder mounted Gatling gun and a fully powered unibeam.

Red Hulk girded himself and withstood the onslaught without budging. In fact, when the unibeam hit him, his lips split into a wide grin. The flames generated from his body grew more intense by the second.

"He's absorbing the energy from the unibeam," Jocasta informed him as she cut off the beam. "His gamma signature has just increased tenfold.

"Great." Monica sighed.

"Play distraction," Clint said as he climbed down the ground. "I have an idea."

She nodded and shifted into her light form and flew after him. "Hey!" She fired several beams of light at his feet, leaving large pock marks where they struck.

The Hulk regarded her briefly, chuckled, then went on to ignore her in preference of lunging after Rhodey.

"Hey! What the hell?!"

This Hulk was much, much more intelligent than the original Hulk. He knew that Monica had no other means of attacking him, other than energy, which he could absorb. In fact, he could absorb her if he could get a hold of her, but knew that chasing her around would allow the other Avengers to regroup.

Monica gritted her teeth. There has to be… Got it! "Guys, hit your audio blockers."

The others nodded and switched on the audio blockers they were wearing in their ears, which, as the name suggested, blocked out all incoming audio waves.

She shifted into a sound energy form she gained during an encounter with Klaw and circled around to interpose herself between the red Hulk and Rhodey. She unleashed a massive sonic wave that engulfed him. It tore through the pavement with ease and pushed aside any nearby crates.

The Hulk tried to stand tall against the vibratory attack, but the assault on his eardrums made it too difficult. Green blood dripped from his nose and ears. He fell to his knees and gritted his teeth, neck taut from his exertions.

"Enough!" he roared. He roared as the flames around him flared and expanded outward in a wave that threatened to engulf them.

Thinking quickly, Monica switched to her gamma form in an instant and absorbed the energy from the burst. However, as she did so, the Hulk rose to his feet and slammed his hands together, sending them crashing to the ground. He took the distraction as a chance to leap away.

By the time someone rose to their feet, he was just a small dot on the horizon.

"He's gone." Monica sighed again and shifted back to her normal formal. "Everyone okay?"

Clint rose to his feet and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, as soon as my head stops spinning."

"What was that thing?" Rhodey wondered aloud. Jocasta reported that the burst of fire he used to escape was in fact a burst of gamma radiation. A very powerful burst of gamma radiation.

"Don't know." Clint noticed Jen explode out of the pile of crates she was buried in and leap toward them. "Maybe Shulkie knows."

She landed a few feet from them, creating a sizable crater beneath. "Where'd he go?"

"He left about a minute ago," Monica said. "Looked like he knew you."

She huffed out a breath, likely to calm down after being amped up for round two. There was a large purple bruise on the side of her face that she was rubbing as she answered. "Nah, never seen him before."

"He's smart," Rhodey noted. "He knew that Monica could only be a distraction. And he could talk."

"Nothing worse than a smart Hulk," Clint said with a shake of his head. His façade was given away when he smirked after seeing Jen's glare. "Besides you, Shulk."

There was nothing left to do at the docks. There wasn't any trace left behind by the red Hulk, so they couldn't determine his identity through DNA. However, there was one more thing Clint wanted to check out. The warehouse where he first encountered him. He was looking for something, and Clint felt that it was important that they find out what exactly.

The warehouse looked as though a tornado had been through it. Boxes and crates were strewn all across the space, along with their contents. Footprints were burned into the floor leading from the entrance. "Something in here was important enough for him to show up in the middle of the day."

There was only one box still intact in the very back corner. Jen ripped the top off and reached inside. "Whoa." She pulled out a large rectangular machine with a plethora of different switches and buttons. There was a large screen on the front and some kind of node at the top. "What is this?"

The Oscorp logo was emblazoned on the back. "Not sure," Rhodey answered. "Knowing Osborn, there's no telling." Jocasta informed him that the machine wasn't listed on Oscorp's official shipment list. "Black market, it seems."

"Not surprising. Maybe Phil knows. We can send it up to him once we get it back."

"Maybe let Tony have a look at it?" Monica suggested.

"Don't see why not. I'll have Bobbi give him a call while we're on the way back." Clint led the team out of the warehouse and back to the quinjet.

While the red Hulk escaped, he did so empty handed and without any loss of life. All in all, that was a victory as far as they were concerned.