The Incredible Hulk #3

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The Incredible Hulk #3
Monsters
Part 3
Abominations

Witten by Timothy Eklund (Rodan)
Edited by Daniel Dyer (Spider-Man Beyond)

Previously, in the Incredible Hulk

Bruce Banner was transformed when a saboteur tampered with Bruce’s gamma reactor. He now turns into a green, rampaging hulk whenever he gets angry. He and his assistant, Rick Jones, tried to find a cure, and eventually decided to look for a lab outside of Desert Base, so they could keep Hulk a secret. They found a cave that would be suitable, and inside discovered an orange beast and a mysterious door. Hulk defeated the beast, but the handsome man and the transformed Emil Blonsky, the Abomination arrived. Bruce was captured, and Rick was shot. Bruce awoke in a blank room and was interrogated by the handsome man, and beaten by the Abomination. The evil pair eventually captured Bruce’s girlfriend, Betty Ross, and Bruce was filled with rage. He transformed into the Hulk, and the Handsome Man revealed his true form. Later, the Hulk and Abomination captured many residents of Desert Base. Rick had crawled inside the strange door, and discovered an amazing area filled with strange machines. A red-winged man named Raven captured him.

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Leonard Samson, a frail, white-haired man with thick glasses and a brown suit, returned to consciousness in the inner chamber of a gamma reactor. He sat up, and saw all around him others whom he recognized. He groaned, and felt his head. There was a sizeable bump. He looked around at his surroundings and found himself to be inside some sort of chrome chamber, lined with machinery. There was a door, but it was totally sealed shut.

“What’s going on?” he asked to a nearby woman.

“We don’t know,” said the woman. She turned away from Leonard and huddled in a corner.

What do they want from me? he thought. I’m- I’m just a psychiatrist! What could they possibly want with me? His thoughts were cut short as a harsh voice blared out of a speaker.

“You lucky people are about to become the soldiers that will bring about a new era! Rejoice!”

With that, the speaker clicked off, and a green light began to pour through nozzles in the walls. The people began to scream. The first to feel the effects of the gamma radiation yelled in pain and fell to the floor, clutching their heads. Their skin began to turn green and their muscles bulged. Then they began to scream louder, and their heads began to swell into bulbous warts that eventually popped. Their faces became unrecognizable, and they stopped screaming. Leonard started to feel the radiation and he yelled as well. His muscles bulged, his suit tore, and his hair turned green, then, the radiation flow slowed, and stopped. Somehow, the radiation dissipated, and the room was normal again.

Leonard felt different. He felt stronger, younger even. He looked at his arms and saw huge muscles. Somehow his hair was green, but his skin was not. His glasses had fallen, but he did not seem to need them anymore. He looked around him, and saw horrible carnage. The people with him were all dead, mutated into hideous creatures. He gasped with horror. Then, the door opened slowly, and out stepped two huge, hulking green monsters, one scaled, one with black hair (whom Leonard recognized as the Hulk) and a very tall man. The tall man stepped forwards, past the monsters, and Leonard almost vomited from horror and disgust. The tall man was not actually tall. His skin was green, and his body was actually quite small and thin, but his head was huge. The man’s forehead had swelled and was a mass of pustules and boils that required a special apparatus of small support poles just to be held up. His brow was swelling so much that his eyes could only be partially opened. He was wearing a strange orange jumpsuit.

This man’s appearance combined with his situation and the horrible deaths of people he knew, finally caused Leonard to turn around and vomit on the chrome floor.

“This? THIS? This is what my near endless toil has produced? One weak, cowardly survivor?! Impossible! The machine was perfect!” The man seethes for a while, and then falters, shocked. “Wha- what’s this? He can’t be controlled? How can this be? No matter, Blonsky, Banner, dispose of him!” The deformed man storms off. The two green monsters approach Leonard.

Banner? The name rings through Leonard’s head. Then he turns around and is smacked upside the jaw by the scaled monster. He fell to the floor unconscious.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Leonard awoke inside a blank room, tied to a chair. His jaw ached from the monster’s blow, and a few of his teeth were loose. In front of him stood the Hulk, blocking the only exit. He sat for a while and collected his thoughts. He had to get out of there, he realized. He strained against his bonds, but they weren’t made of rope, but some kind of extremely hard metal. He looked at the Hulk, and then he remembered what the deformed man had said.

“B-Bruce?” he said nervously.

Hulk half-turned and looked at Leonard, but didn’t say anything.

“Bruce Banner?” Leonard asked again.

Hulk turned angrily towards Leonard and stomped the ground. “Banner weak, Hulk in charge!”

Leonard flinched, but stayed fairly calm. “Bruce, I know you’re in there, and I know you wouldn’t do this.”

“It doesn’t matter what Banner do!” yelled the Hulk, brandishing a fist at the psychiatrist. “Hulk in charge! Hulk follow Leader! Leader smash puny humans, and Hulk help!”

“Bruce,” Leonard continued, undeterred, “I know you’re in there. Listen to me. You have to fight this… thing! They’ll destroy the base, and kill many innocent lives. You have to fight it.”

“Shut up!” the Hulk raged, but he grabbed his head. “No, Banner is returning, no! Not now!”

Leonard watched as the Hulk yelled and his body changed from green to normal, and Bruce Banner stood in front of him.

“Wha- what have I done?” asked the confused Bruce. “Usually I’m at least… conscious when I’m the Hulk, but that time was different. My entire mind seemed, clouded.”

Leonard just watched as Bruce talked, seemingly to himself.

“They... they’ve got Betty, haven’t they? Yes. Yes they do. I have to go get her, go save her, from… him.” Bruce stormed towards the door, but stopped when Leonard cleared his throat.

“I’m all for saving the damsel and stopping the villain, but could you untie me first?”

Bruce suddenly realized that Leonard had seen him change. He looked at the tall, muscular, green haired man in astonishment.

“Please?” asked Samson.

Bruce walked over to Leonard’s chair and untied the psychiatrist’s bonds.

“Thanks,” said Samson as he stood up and stretched. “So, uh, are we going to save Betty or what?”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

A cave in a New Mexico Desert…

Rick Jones sat and thought in his cell. He thought about Bruce, mainly. He remembered the accident, and wished so dearly that it hadn’t happened. He hated to see Bruce transform into a beast, or even to see Bruce sad. He looked up to Bruce a lot and would do anything to help him. Even break the law. He sat and thought. He thought about the orphanage. It had seemed so long ago… before Desert Base, even before college…

His thoughts were interrupted as Raven returned. “If you’d like to come with me, I can show you my cave,” said Raven.

“Um… okay,” Rick replied.

Raven unlocked and opened the cell door and Rick sat up.

“Come,” said Raven, and he extended a hand.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Leonard and Bruce talked as they hurried along the chrome corridors of the Leader’s base.

“So who are you?” asked Bruce.

“It’s me, Leonard,” said Samson.

“It is?” Bruce asked, incredulously. “Wow, you look different. What happened to you?”

“The Leader captured lots of people; me included, and stuck us in some kind of chamber. Everybody else died, but I feel great! I think I even have some super strength!”

“Everybody else died?” Bruce faltered. “Was Betty with them?”

“I didn’t see her,” said Leonard and they jogged down the hallway.

“I pray to God she’s okay,” said Bruce, and he sped down the hall.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Finally, they reached a square room filled with machinery monitoring the activities of the gamma reactor. In the room stood the Leader and the green scaled monster, inspecting the equipment and peering at the bodies of the dead prisoners through the observation window. The villainous duo suddenly noticed the pair of budding heroes, and the Leader burst out, “How did you get free? Blonsky! Dispose of them!” With that, the scaled monstrosity lumbered towards Leonard and Bruce, as the Leader made a hasty retreat through a second door.

“Go! Find Betty! I’ll hold him off!” Leonard yelled at Bruce.

Bruce just stood there in fear. The scaled abomination charged towards Leonard, and the pair of gamma-irradiated combatants locked in combat. Leonard had barely used his new powers, and they were very mild compared to the enhanced strength of his foe. Bruce had just thought of Betty and regained his composure when Leonard was tossed away into the machinery like trash. He strained to get up, but fell to the ground, spitting blood. The Abomination walked towards the fallen psychiatrist and prepared for the final blow, when suddenly, Bruce pushed a tower of machinery down, into the green monster, causing the Abomination to careen through the observation window and into the gamma reactor. Bruce looked out the shattered window at the figure lying below. The Abomination was quickly recovering, so Bruce set the remaining machinery for a short burst of radiation, grabbed Leonard, and fled the room. He shut the metal door behind him and prayed that it was strong enough to hold off the radiation for enough time, and that he hadn’t doomed whatever the Abomination once was. There was a quick burst of green light from behind the door, followed by a brief sucking sound. Bruce walked hesitantly into the room and walked down the steps and through the airlock into the reactor chamber. He found the Abomination unconscious, but otherwise unharmed. Bruce attempted to lift the Abomination and strained under the immense wait.

“Want some help with that?” asked Leonard, emerging from the airlock with a cut across his forehead. The psychologist helped lift the huge green figure, and the pair was able to carry it between them up the stairs and through the halls of the Leader’s headquarters. “Why didn’t you leave this thing back there, anyway?” asked Leonard.

“Well, the Leader controlled the Hulk with some sort of mental powers, and this man could have been too. If he’s an innocent victim then we can’t just leave him in there.”

They carried the green scaled thing in silence until they found the exit and emerged into the scorching heat of the desert.

“Well,” said Leonard as they set down the unconscious monster, “at least we’re still in New Mexico. Or, at least, I think we are.”

“We should be out of range of the Leader’s influence out here. I don’t feel his commands in the back of my mind.” Bruce sat down and sighed. “Now, I guess we wait.”

“Look, Bruce. You can go find Betty; I’ll keep watch over this thing.”

“No, no.” Bruce looked away. “I can’t turn into Hulk in there. His mind is too weak. The Leader can control him.” Bruce sighed, thinking of Betty, and his dilemma. “Saving this man is more important. We don’t even know if Betty’s- if she’s even…” Tears began to well in his eyes and he looked at the barren, sandy ground.

“I’m sure Betty’s okay. Why don’t I...” Leonard was cut off by a groan emanating from the fallen green-scaled beast…

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

A cave in the New Mexico Desert…

“What are your race’s weaknesses?” asked Raven. He and Rick were walking through the mysterious cave, and Rick had been staring at the many, mysterious and intricate contraptions around him, but was snapped back to attention at Raven’s question.

“What?” he exclaimed, surprised.

“What are your race’s weaknesses?”

“What?” Rick was dumbfounded.

“Look, I only captured you to aid me in my mission, and for the mission I need to know. What are your race’s weaknesses?” Raven said, sternly and seriously.

“I… don’t know,” said Rick, cautiously. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I happen to be part of the human race.”

“Oh, you will tell me,” said Raven, and they continued walking in silence.

Rick looked around him. Raven had put on a long scarlet robe that included holes in the back from which his feathery wings protruded. The cave through which they walked was full of separate chambers, each seemed to be carved out of the rock itself, and they were all filled with various intricate silver machines. Rick also noticed strange carvings in the rock walls that appeared to be writing in a strange language.

Eventually the pair reached a very large room filled with conical glass pods. As they passed between the many rows of pods, Rick noticed there were people in army uniforms inside some of the pods, and they seemed to be frozen and unmoving. They walked through the rows of pods towards the far wall, where there stood a contraption, much shabbier and less intricate and not as well built as the others. It seemed to be a metal chair built into the wall, with holes in the back and seat.

“Sit,” commanded Raven. Rick resisted as Raven forcefully sat Rick in the metal chair and fasted him in with metal wire. “Now, you will tell me what I want to know,” said Raven. He walked over to a lever protruding from the stone wall.

“I’m telling you, I don’t know any weaknesses!” yelled the now-terrified Rick.

“I think you’re lying,” said Raven as he pulled the lever to its first setting.

Rick felt immense, stabbing pain in his back as spikes began to drive themselves into his flesh. Rick screamed in pain. “I don’t know!” The lever dropped to the second setting. The spikes jammed farther. “Okay, fine!” yelled Rick.

Raven returned the lever to the off position. The spikes retracted and Rick gasped at the pain. “Well?”

Rick said the first thing that came to his mind. “Salt!” he blurted out. “The human race’s weakness is salt.”

“There. Was that so hard?” asked Raven as he un-strapped Rick and walked back towards Rick’s cell.

Rick found he could still walk, as the spikes hadn’t gotten far in. He noticed a sharp shard of broken rock and grabbed it. He walked up to his captor and stabbed him in the back. Raven let out a gasp of pain and a curse.

“You little bastard!” He turned around and backhanded Rick across the face, knocking him down, then stumbled to the far wall and grabbed a small, hand-held chrome machine. He pulled out the rock from his shoulder and ran the machine over his wound, which quickly disappeared. Raven walked back over to the Rick and grabbed the fallen teen by his hair. “You insolent fool.” he muttered as he dragged the bleeding Rick through the cave towards his cell…

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Leonard and Bruce stayed still and alert as the hulking abomination came to and sat up.

“Whu… Where am I?” the thing mumbled in a thick, Russian accent.

“Are- are you okay?” asked Bruce.

“You. You’re Banner,” said the Abomination, pointing at Bruce.

Bruce tensed. “Yes, my name is Bruce Banner, what’s yours?”

“Are you going to stop him?” asked the Abomination, looking down at the ground sorrowfully.

“The Leader? Yes, we’ll stop him. Will you help us?” said Leonard, cautiously.

The creature sighed. “I can’t, he’ll control me. Besides… he’s my friend.”

“Can you tell us his plans?” asked Bruce.

“Damn it, he didn’t use to be like this… he was good, he was a friend.” the Abomination said frustrated. “Then he got the news. His project was being canceled because of you.”

“Me?” asked Bruce. “Why me?”

“He had been working on a gamma reactor for the government when they told him that a scientist in America had nearly completed the same project and that since they didn’t want another space race, they were canceling his project and he would be fired. The Bastards. After that he went mad. He tried to complete the project in the short time that he had. He was working on it day and night.

“Apparently another janitor was foolishly cleaning the reactor while he was testing it, or at least that’s what he told me. Anyway, I think that’s when he discovered the effects of gamma radiation. He tested it on himself and changed into that horrible thing. It drove him mad. He hatched a plan to conquer the world and convinced me to help him. I traveled here to America and sabotaged the gamma reactor here.”

“Wait a minute!” interrupted Bruce, angrily. “You’re the one who sabotaged the reactor? You’re the one who made me that thing?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry. I think he has some mental powers, he convinced me so easily… I didn’t see any problem with what he was doing… I did anything he told me. I’m sorry for what happened to you.”

Leonard restrained Bruce and he calmed down. “It’s fine,” he said, half-heartedly. “Would you continue?”

The creature continued. “After I got back he put me in the machine. He turned me into… into this.” The Abomination sat in silent sadness for a while before breaking into sobs. “Oh, God, my wife! My kids! How can I ever go back to them like this! Why did this have to happen? Why did this have to happen to him? Why me?” He stood up and looked at Bruce, suddenly overcome with anger. “You! This is your fault!”

Bruce was startled. “Me? What did I do?”

“You got him fired! You drove him mad! This is your fault! It’s your fault we’re like this!”

The Abomination lunged at Bruce, but Leonard jumped in his path. Bruce felt the pangs of transformation in his head. Leonard battled the Abomination as Bruce’s hair turned black, and his skin turned green. The Abomination was too powerful for the gamma-irradiated psychiatrist, and defeated him easily as the Hulk took control.

“GREEN THING TRY TO SMASH HULK! HULK WILL SMASH GREEN THING!” The pair of green monsters lunged at each other and locked in combat. The Hulk led with a powerful right hook, but the Abomination recovered easily and smashed the Hulk across the head. The Hulk faltered and Leonard rejoined the fight. Leonard managed to get two good punches in before being sent flying by a powerful swing. The Abomination grabbed the psychiatrist as the Hulk recovered and kicked the monster in the back. Hulk beat the Abomination over and over on the ground. Eventually he was convinced the monster was unconscious or dead and stopped. As he did, the Abomination got up and smacked the Hulk across the face, before returning the brutal beating. He stopped when Leonard jumped on top of him, catching the creature in a chokehold. Leonard was easily knocked off, but the Hulk was able to recover in the time gained. The pair of heroes ganged up on the Abomination and berated him with punches and swings. The Abomination fell and didn’t get up. The Hulk reverted to Bruce Banner.

“Thank God he’s down,” mumbled the battered Leonard.

“It’s not over yet,” said the determined Bruce. “Let’s go save Betty and the world.”

To be concluded...