The Incredible Hulk #2

[fan4]

The Incredible Hulk #2
“Monsters”, Part 2:
“Monsters, All”

Written By Timothy Eklund
Edited by Aaron Martel

Previously, in Incredible Hulk:

Bruce and Rick came across a strange cave. Inside was a strange creature with two faces and large claws. It attacked the pair, but the Hulk saved the day before collapsing and reverting back to Bruce Banner. In Russia, Emil Blonsky underwent a transformation into a being not unlike the Hulk. He and a handsome man came to America and found Bruce and Rick shortly after their victory. Rick was shot, and Bruce was carried off.

[fan4]

Somewhere in a New Mexico Desert…

A huge green thing walked out of a cave carrying an unconscious man. The thing placed the man in the back seat of a nearby jeep, picked the jeep up, and began to run with it across the desert. A handsome man then came out of the cave, holding a gun. He got in a second jeep and drove off in pursuit of the green monster.

Inside the cave, Rick Jones lay bleeding. He wondered greatly what Bruce was going through, and prayed for his safety. Then, the stone crudely placed by the Hulk shifted, revealing the golden monster and the door. Something about the door seemed to beckon to Rick. He felt compelled to go inside it. He crawled feebly to the door… with a gasp of pain he crossed its threshold…

[fan4]

Hours later… somewhere else…

Bruce awoke. He found himself tied to a chair in a blank room. In front of him he saw a door, and in front of that stood a handsome blond man.

“The tranquilizer finally wore off,” said the handsome man. “Good. That means we can begin.”

“Who are you?” asked Bruce, weakly. He still felt a bit affected by the tranquilizer.

“Me?” The handsome man paused, and then said angrily, “I am not important. It is you who is important.”

“Me?”

“Well, your alter-ego,” the handsome man said, grinning.

“I don’t know what you-“ Bruce blurted out, interrupting the handsome man.

“The Hulk,” finished the man.

Bruce started to protest, but stopped. How does he know about the Hulk? Nobody should know, except Rick. Who is he?

“Yes, Bruce, I know about your accident,” said the handsome man with an evil grin. “I know what happened that day. All I need to know is, how do you transform?”

“What?” Bruce said, confused at the question. “What do you mean?”

The handsome man glared. “It is a matter of grave importance that you tell me how you transform into the Hulk.”

Bruce started to answer, but stopped himself.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he exclaimed. “And even if I did, you tranquilized me, tied me up, and transported me here, wherever ‘here’ is.”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Banner!” yelled the handsome man. “I know who you are! I created you. I created you with MY knowledge and MY invention! You are just a disgusting rodent who is barely even worthy of the part you play in my plan! If I wanted to, I could kill you right here and now, with my bare hands, but as it is, it would be much more beneficial for both of us if you stop playing dumb and tell me how you change into the Hulk!”

This is when Bruce decided that the handsome man was most certainly up to no good, and that he should do nothing that his captive asked. He remained silent.

“If you won’t tell me how to transform, then just transform, or I will send my minion inside this room and watch as he beats you into submission!” The handsome man was enraged now, but Bruce remained silent. He felt the beginning pangs of his transformation, but he suppressed it. If his captor wanted him to transform so badly, then he would not bring the Hulk out yet.

The handsome man waited a while, then he called out, “Emil, come in here!”

Bruce watched as the door opened, and a huge, green-scaled monster entered the blank room. He gasped in astonishment as it entered.

“Now, transform,” said the handsome man.

Bruce could only gape.

“Emil.” The handsome man gestured towards Bruce, and the monster punched Bruce across the face, knocking loose a tooth, and producing blood speckles on the white walls of the room. Bruce grunted with pain, but suppressed the Hulk with all his might and remained silent.

“You still won’t talk?” the handsome man asked. He walked over calmly and punched Bruce across the face, just as the monster had done. Though the punch was much weaker than that of the monster, the loose tooth went flying. The Monster and the handsome man then both left the room and closed the door. Bruce was alone.

[fan4]

Desert Base

“I want you to cease seeing that boy,” said General “Thunderbolt” Ross to his daughter, Betty. They were in his apartment on base. Betty had come to give General Ross a file, which he had left at her place. The visit was not going well.

“No, I won’t!” said Betty, her voice raised. The apartment was dusty and neglected. General Ross had only mind for the military, and the doings of his daughter.

“You will! That is an order!” Ross said angrily to Betty.

“I don’t care if it’s an ‘order’! I won’t!” exclaimed Betty, very angrily.

“Elizabeth Ross! You will heed the orders of your father! That boy is a person that you should not be involved with! I forbid it!”

“Dad, I’m not a kid anymore!” yelled Betty, tears beginning to roll down her face. “I love him! Don’t you understand that?”

“How the hell can you love that boy! He’s practically a rodent!”

At that, Betty sobbed and left the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

Betty sighed as she walked back to her place. It was dark and getting cold. She walked behind an apartment building as a shortcut. It was near the edge of the base, and to the left of her was a fence. She walked quickly; she wanted to get home fast. Then, suddenly, a hulking figure loomed behind her.

“Are you Betty Ross?” asked a voice. Betty turned to see a large, green-scaled monster standing in front of her. She began to scream, but the monster punched her across the face, hard. She fell to the ground unconscious, and the monster picked her up, then jumped over the fence and ran into the desert. Crimson speckles of blood stained the beige paint of the apartment building…

[fan4]

Elsewhere, Earlier

Rick crawled over the edge of the doorway with a groan. What he saw inside amazed him. He saw a gleaming chrome room with strange contraptions and machines lying everywhere. He recognized none of the equipment. He crawled slowly, staining the chrome with his blood. Eventually he got to the middle of the room and rested. He wondered what had happened to Bruce. He hoped and prayed with all his strength that Bruce was not dead. Then, suddenly, a crimson streak flew from the ceiling and smacked him across his face. His head fell, unconscious.

[fan4]

The White Room, later

Bruce sat, thinking in his white-walled prison. He wondered what Betty was doing. He hoped she was all right. He thought briefly about Rick, and hoped that he was all right, but dismissed it. Then the door opened. The handsome man entered the room. He was smiling slyly.

“This is when you will talk,” said the handsome man.

Bruce looked up at the man, but didn’t say anything.

“I have… something of yours.”

Bruce said nothing.

“A girl.” The handsome man grinned broadly as he said that.

Bruce’s eyes widened as the green monster returned, dragging in a tied-up, unconscious Betty. He immediately yelled in rage and transformed into the Hulk.

“Yes, yes!” The handsome man laughed, and began to transform himself. His handsome features drifted away. The Hulk stopped in his tracks…

[fan4]

Elsewhere

Rick woke up. He was in a gray-walled cell. Metal Bars separated him from outside the cell. He sat up. Outside his cell was a man with orange skin, wearing a red skin-tight costume and boots. He had blond hair and blue eyes. Two feathery wings protruded from his back. The orange-skinned man spoke in a strange language. Rick just stared at the strange being. It spoke again, this time loudly, enunciating every syllable. Rick finally spoke.

“Whu, who, where?” he stammered.

The orange-skinned man then said, “Ah, English. Thank you.”

“Uh, who… who are you?” Rick said slowly.

“My name is Raven. Ironic, isn’t it?”

Rick just stared, dumbfounded.

“I have healed your legs, and now I want to know about you, starting with how you got here,” said Raven. Rick suddenly realized the pain in his legs was gone.

“I, uh, I,” Rick began. “I walked through the cave.”

“How did you find the entrance?” questioned Raven sternly.

“Well, it was just there, in the cave…”

“You mean you could see the entrance?”

“Well, yeah.”

Raven cursed.

“What? Is that bad?” asked Rick.

“I must have… damn the luck…” thought Raven aloud to himself. Then he looked back at Rick. “I also want to know how your companion changed form to fight my sentiod.”

“You saw that? What was that?”

“A sentiod is a being engineered by my species to act as… ‘guard dogs’. What I want to know is how your friend transformed. Can all humans do that now?”

“You aren’t human?” asked Rick, looking uneasily at Raven.

“No. Now, would you answer the question?” asked Raven, annoyed.

“Well, only he can do it, but… we don’t really know why…”

“Hmmm… Well, I’ll keep you here until I have deemed if you are a threat or not… You will be fed and cared for, unless you try to escape, or I find out you are a spy, or mean me and my mission any harm,” Raven said sternly, and stood up.

“Wait, your… mission?” asked Rick.

“Yes, my mission,” said Raven as he walked away.

Rick sat in his cell and wondered where Bruce was…

[fan4]

Desert Base

A group of people was coming home from a restaurant after celebrating a birthday. They were all very drunk and not alert. Suddenly, two green monsters jumped in front of them and beat them unconscious. They then threw the bodies into a jeep that was half-full with other bodies…

Psychiatrist Leonard Samson was returning home, thinking about a particularly troubling case. He was nearing his apartment building when he heard a noise behind him. He turned and was then beat unconscious by a green monster. It carried Leonard and piled him onto a jeep, then picked the jeep up and jumped towards the desert…

To be continued