2014-02-20 - Cutscene: The Death of a Dream - Only One Man

Jennifer Walters. The She-Hulk. A woman never known for being serious, for being sober. Not particularly known, either, for wearing black. A simple black dress, high neck, long sleeves. Modesty from a woman known, often, for the exact opposite. Yet, she's unmistakeable. Only a few people are that familiar, that specific shade of green. Her hair, loose over her shoulders. No jewelry. No ornamentation.

She touches the casket, once, then turns to regard the crowd. "Sometimes people think we're invincible. We're not. Even the most powerful...or the most skilled of us."

She hesitates, brushes back her hair. "It's easy to look at the spandex and the codenames and the logos and see gods, not mortal men and women. I know. I see how people look at me all the time, that mix of fear and envy and respect." Another of those hesitations, the wind blowing her dress against her legs. "And I think the Captain got that more than the rest of us because he was only a man, not some demi-god who could walk through walls or fly under his own power or...smash everything in sight." A quirk, a slight smile. "Because he was only a man none of us saw him as one, as something fragile and mortal that could fall so easily. So easily, between one moment and the next. I was there. I was with him. I...failed." Not all of the truth, the fact that she was compromised in that moment, struck with a weapon that damaged, for those few vital minutes not her nigh-indestructible body but her mind. "But I have been in this business long enough to know that failure happens, that we are not responsible for the actions of our enemies. And I know something else as well. What lies here is a man. One man. We're all stricken...some of us more than others." Tony, she fears, is broken, but that too cannot be voiced. "But he was still one man. One of the best of men. A true warrior, a brilliant tactician, and a good man. But still a man. The man is dead. Captain America is NOT." An odd promise there, from the Emerald Amazon. "The man became the symbol and nothing, not even a lousy fascist relic, can destroy the symbol. And even this loss *will not stop us*."

She turns back to the casket, then she salutes it, military style, before turning back to the crowd. Her eyes seek out her friends and colleagues in the throng. "I only have one more thing to say." That smile returns. "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" After all. They...mostly are. With a missing man, yes, but the formation flies on.