“Unstable Mindspace”
“It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.”
--Thomas Mann
Previously, in the HULK...
**takes a deep breath**
Okay. Here we go.
A long time ago, in an Arizona Desert far, far away - a man named Bruce Banner saved a young teenager from a gamma bomb detonation. Selflessly tossing said teenager into a safety bunker, Banner’s body was exposed to the heart of the gamma bomb blast, turning him forever into the incredible...
(Therein lies the rub: Banner was never the most stable individual. Bruce Banner suffered - and continues to suffer from - Dissociative Identity Disorder. He had - and continues to have - multiple personalities to contend with. So he didn’t just transform into one Incredible Hulk after the Terrible Day of the Gamma Bomb...he transformed into many. Which Hulk he’d become on any given day, of course, was certainly up-for-grabs):
The Savage Green Hulk - a childish, unthinking brute of unrelenting physical power. An engine of mindless destruction that got stronger and stronger with rage.
The Cunning Grey Hulk - a sneaky, manipulative, cunning adversary whose strength paled in comparison to the Jade Giant, yet whose devious motives were always suspect.
The Idealized Professor - a Hulk with the mind of Bruce Banner, the physical power of the Green Hulk and the devious, cunning tactics of the Grey Hulk. The most idealized version of the Hulk in Bruce’s eyes.
The Guilt Hulk - A lizard-like creature that represented all Bruce’s hidden, repressed guilt and shame concerning Bruce’s....tortured past.
The Devil Hulk - A chained monster clawing at the back of his mind. Enraged at the world at large, dedicated to destroying it at all costs.
The Professor had been the dominant persona for some time. However, since losing the love of his life - Betty Ross Banner - to a vindictive radiation-fueled murder by the homicidal Abomination, the Professor had retreated to a world within the safety of Bruce Banner’s mind, where he could be with the woman he’d loved for so long.
In lieu of the Professor, Banner and Savage Hulk had joined up with the Avengers, saving the world with Banner’s undeniable genius and the Savage Hulk’s unimaginable (yet untamable) might. Things had been good for Bruce Banner - he’d found the support of his Avengers teammates, proven himself a hero and been able to turn the Savage Hulk’s ferocity toward a decent goal - helping others.
Except when Bruce got a letter from Mr. Blue. With proof that Betty was alive - comatose, cryogenically-preserved and captive inside a secret government installation. That elements within the government were deceiving him. That the Avengers were not above reproach.
Which Hulk will meet the current crisis remains a mystery. And how will the Hulk escape the watchful eye of his teammates and rescue his wife from the fateful jaws of death?
Read on, gentle reader. Oh do, read on...
# # # # # # # # # #
Avengers Mansion
The Bedroom of Doctor Robert Bruce Banner
Mr. Blue’s Nondescript White Envelope
Bruce let out a long, relaxed sigh, collapsing against the yoga mat in a sweaty huff.
“That was too close,” he breathed out.
He focused the entirety of his being on simply relaxing himself, taking deep regular breaths for a full three and a half minutes before sitting up, promptly chastising himself for nearly losing control during a simple meditation session. Chastising himself for nearly letting the beast out.
Toweling off from a meditation session-gone-wrong, he walked over to his worktable and noticed something new: A simple, nondescript white envelope.
Snail mail, he thought. For me? At Avengers Mansion?
He regarded the envelope suspiciously, rolling his eyes at the lack of return address and the astoundingly-pristine penmanship of the letter-writer.
No. Not suspicious at all, he mused sarcastically. Why would it be?
Picking it up, he slowly slid his finger through the top, neatly slicing through the lip of the envelope with his puny human appendage. Curiously, he unfolded the letter that lay tucked neatly inside. A picture caught the light suddenly as it slid out from within the letter, falling gently to the floor. However, it was the contents of the letter itself, which left Bruce Banner’s eyes nearly popping out of his skull:
Bruce,
Don’t fret, old friend. Your pretty Betty is still alive. The government creatures have been lying to you.
Regards,
Mr. Blue.
Bruce’s breath caught heavy in his throat. The smell of her perfume hung heavy on the note.
However, laying face-up on the floor, was the picture that had been nestled so snugly inside Mr. Blue’s letter: A picture of Betty Banner, naked as the day she was born. Suspended in a catatonic state in some bizarre cryogenic chamber. In a dark laboratory, with a timestamp no more than five days old.
Government markings. On the walls.
Bruce Banner’s brown eyes went wide, a hushed whisper upon his lips. And then, they went green.
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Tumultuous Psyche
The Dark Matter Desert
A Savage Heart Races...
The Savage Hulk growled, coils of tensed muscles grinding beneath a thick, calloused hide of emerald rage. Tousled green hair dripped with the sweat of exertion, as his snout huffed mightily in frustration.
The black desert was massive. Or at least, as massive as literally 85% of the matter in the universe tended to be. Banner had run the calculations once, imagining that a desert that large could probably contain the fury of the Incredible Hulk. Or at the very least, keep him from smashing any of the other 15% percent of the normal matter in the universe.
Not that the Savage Hulk could understand any of that. All he knew, was that the desert was a prison. A prison he had to escape..
The beast trudged thick, calloused, green feet across gritty, black sands, breathing in dark, black air and gazed into a starless, black sky.
Then, he saw it:
A shining star.
Growling, the beast blinked once. Twice. Three times. Yet, the star remained, absolutely resolute in its existence. Then, it began to glow even brighter. The Savage Hulk couldn’t know what it truly was - all he knew was what his instincts told him...
Hulk finally escape stupid black prison, he thought eloquently, with a grunt of satisfaction. Hulk finally be free.
With a mighty roar of rage, the Savage Hulk leapt toward the source of the blinking light, bounding off the ground with a might that turned the endless coal sands of the Dark Matter Desert into gleaming black diamonds in his angry, angry, angry wake.
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Twisted Psyche
A Dark, Dreary Back Alley Behind the Fixit Casino & Hotel
A Grey Heart Laughs...
“Mr. Fixit! I swear, I’ll never do it again!” a puny thug named Anthony Gold murmured weakly. “I’ll never try an’ cheat you guys, I swear.”
“Heh. Sure you won’t.”
CRACK.
“GOD!” Gold screamed, panting and crying pathetically as the grey behemoth before him snapped the thug’s arm like a twig. “My arm! Please, Fixit, I’m beggin’ ya...”
The Grey Hulk smiled, poking his cane into the leg of the tiny human who’d tried to rob his casino, breaking the leg with a satisfied grunt. The Grey Hulk, clad in a pressed pinstripe suit and matching top hat, joyfully fed on the punk’s agonized screams and took a satisfied pull from the cigar nestled twixt his granite lips.
“The sign. Outside the door. What’s it say?”
“Wha--what?” the weak victim murmured.
“Does it say the Anthony Gold Casino and Hotel?”
Gold’s eyes fluttered with tears in the dim light. “N-n-no, sir. No it does not.”
“So what. Does the sign. Say?”
“It...it says the Joe Fixit Casino. The Fixit Casino an’ Hotel. You, Mr. Fixit.”
“So the money inside this casino - would you say it belongs to you?”
“N-n-no. No it does not, sir. P-p-please..”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured.” the grey goliath sneered, backhanding the punk into the hard wall. Gold bounced off the wall with a sickeningly-wet sound, the breath knocked completely out of him. “I see you around my casino again, maybe I’m not so nice next time. Maybe I snap all the limbs like tree branches instead of just two. Yes?”
Gold stammered, sweat beading down his pale-white face as his badly-bruised lungs desperately struggled to reply. “Y-y-y-es sir. Anything you say, Mr. Fixit.”
“Good. Good,” Fixit smiled. “I’d say now, that it’s time t’ give you the boot.”
“The b-b-boot?” Gold said, as his eyes suddenly went wide. “No. No no no no nononono!!”
Fixit smiled, delightedly-drinking up the smaller man’s terror as he picked him up by his belt and pointed his head toward the outskirts of Vegas. With a mighty wind-up, he kicked the poor man hard with his colossal boot, sending Anthony Gold sailing helplessly over the city skyline.
“AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee---!!!”
Mr. Fixit watched the skunky cheat fly, the broken wretch’s form slowly disappearing into the glittering pearls of the Las Vegas night sky.
Suddenly, one of those pearls blinked brightly. Brighter than any of the other stars along the skyline. It was as if the sky itself was starting to crack open, letting some blinding light from some faraway world into this one.
Betty?
A dim, distant memory flickered through his mind. Yet, a pragmatic sensibility quickly poured across those base animal instincts. Fixit knew, in his heart-of-hearts, that it was a trap.
It had to be a trap.
Banner had just read the note in the real world. Which meant Joe Fixit also knew its contents in this one. However, the Gray Hulk was much less naive than the Professor or that half-wit Banner: He knew what the letter was trying to do. Mr. Blue was fucking with him - fucking with them both. Someone was trying to manipulate Banner into doing something stupid. Someone, somewhere, was trying to poke the goddamn bear.
Someone, somewhere, is doing a pretty good goddamn job o’ that. Fixit thought glumly.
The granite monster in the pinstripe tuxedo twirled his cane, smiling wide.
“Might be fun to poke my head out. See the sights out in the real world. Bust some heads, cause some trouble,” Fixit smirked. “At the very least, I’ll get the chance to piss the Professor off pretty damn good. No way that lovesick bastard misses this meeting.”
It had nothing to do with Betty. Oh no. Nothing at all.
The Grey Hulk glanced up toward his casino hotel, narrowing his eyes at his private penthouse luxury suite. He caught a glimpse of the redhead at the window, pouring matching Mai Tais with the fully-stocked bar inside.
Marlo Chandler - his main squeeze in this pristine dream-world.
“What the redhead don’t know, won’t hurt her,” Fixit said.
Gripping his cane tightly, the Grey Hulk flexed his mighty legs and leapt across the glittering town of Las Vegas, steadily advancing towards the fleck of bright, white light that gleamed brilliantly in the Nevada night sky.
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Tortured Psyche
The Grassy Knoll Where Two Lovers Once Loved
A Professor’s Heart Throbs...
A gentle breeze whisked across the grassy hillside, leaving the bright-green grass swaying lazily in the springtime winds. The Professor listened as the leaves of the trees swelled and swayed with the relaxing, soothing sounds and smiled.
The two lovers sat there, relaxing upon one spot on the rolling hillside in particular - a spot that had been permanently-ingrained in the Professor’s memory. They sat, nestled against the picnic blanket, with four shoes holding down each of the four sides. One set of shoes was far larger than the other set, however.
Two lovers sitting atop the blanket, gazing into each other’s eyes. One - a towering mass of emerald muscle, clad in logger man’s plaid and overalls. The other - a stunning brunette woman, clad in a flowing dress that perfectly accentuated her lovely figure.
The scent of turkey and bacon hung luscious in the air as Betty pulled the two sandwiches out from the picnic basket and placed them in front of herself and the towering mass of might that was her loving husband.
The Professor-Hulk stroked his square jaw and scratched at his well-kempt green hair. “You remembered the sandwiches?”
“Of course I did, Bruce,” Betty winked, playfully pointing in the Professor’s direction. “It’s not like you were going to.”
“Hmmmph,” the Professor scoffed delightedly, picking up the tiny sandwich in his colossal hand and regarding it suspiciously.
Betty smiled, unwrapping her own sandwich from the aluminum foil as she watched her Hulked-out husband play with his tiny portion.
“Well, in that case,” he smiled, flicking the sandwich into the air and swallowing it - tin foil and all -in one massive gulp. Betty’s eyes opened wide, and she shook her head in disbelief.
“Well, when in Rome,” Betty Ross Banner shrugged as she finished unwrapping the sandwich and pitifully-attempted to shovel the entire turkey-and-bacon sandwich in her mouth in one go. The Professor laughed at her, trying to fit the whole thing in at once, mocking his treatment of the late turkey-and-bacon sandwich.
God, he loved Betty so, so much.
Suddenly, he heard a crack in the sky. A massive thunderclap that seemed to shake the entirety of the peaceful, serene hillside upon which the lovers sat.
“What in--?” the Professor asked, catching a flicker of movement along the clouds darting to and fro along the blue skyline. The Hulk watched in horror, as the clouds themselves reassembled into a startling, terrifying message:
“Don’t fret, old friend. Your pretty Betty is still alive. The government creatures have been lying to you.”
The Professor’s eyes opened wide, the horrors of reality finally settling in against the lovely fantasy he’d created for himself.
“No. No no no!” he spoke to the clouds, glancing back toward his wife. “Betty’s right here--“
His pulse quickened as he saw Betty slump into the fetal position, dropping the remnants of her turkey-and-bacon sandwich against the gentle folds of the picnic blanket. Towering over her quivering form, the Professor desperately cradled her.
“Betty?” he said softly. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
“I think...” she stammered weakly, clutching at her stomach painfully. “...I think...something was wrong...with the sandwich...”
The Professor placed a hand on his wife’s stomach as her face turned suddenly towards him - more out of instinct than anything else.
What the Professor saw terrified him to his gamma-green core.
Betty’s eyes had turned bright green. He saw sudden sores lining her once-beauteous features. Her lips began to swell and her skin began to tighten and crack as the symptoms of radiation poisoning radiated across her entire body.
She shook as small, green cancers began to multiply along her cheeks, cloistering themselves next to her pale-blue lips.
“B-B-Bruce?” she stammered, her eyes filling with tears. “W-what’s happening to me?”
“Oh God, please, not again...” the Professor gritted his teeth, anguish spreading across his emerald eyes as he watched Betty’s body begin to deteriorate rapidly. “God, please, not again!”
The Professor held his wife in his arms, watching her voluptuous figure thin and fray, as her flowing brunette hair turned to grey, dried straw jutting out from a shriveled, white scalp. It fell in clumps against the flowing green grass, sweeping away gently in the rushing winds.
“I l-l-love you...B-Bruce,” her hoarse voice choked weakly through strained vocal chords as her dry, bloodshot eyes flickered, went dull and stared lifeless into the horizon. Her tiny fingers scrapped against the Hulk’s face, wiping away a final tear from his cheek before they fell hard against the ground.
The Professor clutched his wife’s lifeless frame against him, desperately holding onto the dream as it faded away around him.
“Betty,” he wept, cradling her body as gently as his massive green bulk could manage, until even her thin, wiry corpse deteriorated into so much dust, blowing away in the gentle summer winds. The Professor felt the anguish wash over him, grinding his teeth together and hugging himself tight.
He wiped the tears from his eyes, glancing up at the once-green hillside. The Professor grimaced painfully, watching as even the hillside began to blister and blacken, the lively-green grass falling prey to the sudden orange onslaught of autumn. He watched as the grass fell limp and died quickly, leaving only a brown, barren hillside with thick stalks of gnarled, twisting branches that were once lively trees.
With bloodshot eyes, he glanced toward the heavens. Toward the white light cascading out of the grey skyline.
“Betty,” he growled, digging his massive hands into the dirt and pulling his body up off the ground. “I’m not losing you again.”
The Professor leapt off towards the white light, an insurmountable rage burning bright inside his grieving heart.
# # # # # # # # # #
Avengers Mansion
The Bedroom of Doctor Robert Bruce Banner
The Hulk Is Coming
Bruce Banner’s eyes glowed bright green, as the black armband - the one which alerted the doctor if his pulse was too high - was already going ballistic.
He blinked again, eyes glowing greener and greener as his body suddenly started to change...
BEEP.
BEEP-BEEP. BEEP-BEEP.
BEEP-BEEP. BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
The digital display was flashing bright-bright green, but Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s mind was already gone.
One of the Hulks was coming, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it now...
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Tortured Psyche
The Crack in the Gilded Cage
Hulks Fight Amidst the Crossroads...
The unstoppable granite meteor crashed onto the walkway, his impact sending shockwaves for miles along the annals of the winding Crossroads.
This wasn’t the REAL Crossroads, of course. This was all scenery in the twisted, labyrinth landscape of Bruce Banner’s puny mind. However, the Savage Hulk’s extended stay in the real Crossroads had left an indelible imprint in the twisted mind of Bruce Banner.
As such, wouldn’t this be a natural point at which an exit into the real world would form in Banner’s mind?
However, the Grey Hulk scoffed instead, vocalizing that same thought in a slightly more negative form:
“Jesus, Banner. Can’t ya pick somethin’ original for us to wade through to get to this ‘exit’ of yours?” the granite giant growled, sneering derisive as he gazed around the familiar landscape of portals and pathways that stretched on into forever. “Ya stupid, puny jerk.”
The Grey Hulk clenched his fists and shook his head, walking across the twisting yellow pathways that branched off toward an endless array of alternate dimensions.
On his left, he saw a portal that led to an underwater dimension. The Grey Hulk spotted a menacing gray beast with a thousand eyes swimming merrily along, cloaked in shadow on the icy ocean floor, unaware of the portal to the Crossroads. Another dimension on the Hulk’s right led to a pure fire dimension, with creatures made of ash and soot meandering toward a temple of flames, praying to their assorted deities. A third dimension seemed to hold several rock creatures, whose stoic, vibrating movements led the granite beast to believe that dimension operated with a completely different set of physical laws than the dimensions he was used to.
The Grey Hulk trekked along the winding yellow path, noting a few ice dimensions along the way, each with different shimmers in light and freezing denizens that made them distinctive and unique. One dimension looked totally barren, presumably due to the fact that entropy had finally taken its course and that universe was fully and completely dead and devoid of life. He snorted, hoping that the annoying Puffball Collective found its way into that place and had been snuffed out by accident along with that dead universe. The Grey Hulk smiled, letting out a merry growl that sounded like granite slabs being dragged for miles across bumpy, cracked concrete.
So amused was he, at the thought of the dead Puffball Collective, that he almost missed the signpost to the Crossroads.
“Took you long enough,” he murmured, refusing to be thankful to Banner’s unconscious mind as he gazed at the Signpost.
The Signpost to the Crossroads was a colossal assemblage of arms from all kinds of different races. Each one of the arms pointed in the direction of whichever portal that specific arm had originated from. The Grey Hulk noted two arms: one of ash-and-soot, and another rock-like appendage, pointing back in the direction he’d come from. The two arms were guiding him towards the portals of the fire dimension and rock dimension which he’d already passed.
A third arm of scales wrapped in strands of poison ivy pointed off in another direction, presumably toward a portal where that particular creature was originated from, while a fourth arm made of spikes and mincemeat stretched out in a completely different direction. The Grey Hulk grimaced, looking at the myriad types of arms leading toward all of the thousands of portals in this wacky Crossroads he found himself in.
Crabbily, the Grey Hulk inspected the host of limbs upon the Signpost, looking for three specific limbs in particular. As he inspected the limbs, a few of the oily and spiky appendages got fresh, reaching out malevolently toward the curious observer. With a grunt of disdain, he swatted the arms away, and continued his search.
“There we go,” he said, finally stumbling upon the three he was looking for.
Two massive Hulking green arms, an a third, tinier arm. The first green arm was thick and calloused, its fingernails cracked and well-worn. It gestured toward its destination with all the dexterity of a disinterested ape. The second green arm looked much like the first, save for the fact that it was well-manicured, firmly pointing in its direction as a well-educated man would. The third, smallest arm of all wore part of a lab coat with it somehow, pointing toward the same direction as the other two.
The Grey Hulk smirked. “Well, that was easy.”
Suddenly, the Grey Hulk heard a massive crash in the distance, the echoes resounding across the bizarre landscape of the Crossroads. His eyes widened, cupping his ears tightly as he heard an ear-splitting roar of rage cascade across the world. He howled angrily, watching all of the portals within eyesight shake and shudder with the ferocity of the animal growls. Opening one eye, he noted each of the portals suddenly develop a bevy of different window shades. The denizens of each of the portals drew their window shades, closed their curtains, activated their shutters or locked their doors in a desperate attempt to drown out the noise of the growls.
The granite beast stood up from the ground, keeping his ears cupped as an earthquake shook the massive bends and turns of the Crossroads walkway.
It was then, he realized, that the animalistic roars were coming from two creatures instead of one.
“Me and my big damn mouth,” he muttered, as an avalanche of sound whisked through the world once more. “Looks like the Professor and Savage beat me to it.”
The Grey Hulk cracked his fingers, glancing over to the frightened limbs of the signpost as they flailed helplessly amongst the cries of the creatures in the distance, unable to find ears which to cover in order to drown out the racket. He watched the mass of appendages all move simultaneously, and raised an annoyed eyebrow as each of the hundreds of arms, claws, tentacles, spikes, suckers and scales point in the same direction as the first three arms were pointing: towards the source of the resounding battle playing out in the addled mind of Bruce Banner. A few of the appendages snapped their fingers, indicating a sense of urgency at the Grey Hulk.
“No shit, Sherlock,” the Grey Hulk leapt toward the fray, away from the frantically-gesturing Signpost. “I’m going, I’m going!”
The granite beast leapt across the winding twists of the yellow walkways.
“Don’t need some stupid Signpost tellin’ me my business,” he grunted, rapidly closing the distance between him and the battle. The Grey Hulk clenched his fists, listening to the sounds of the violence for a moment. With a grunt, he mashed his pinky fingers into his ears hard, temporarily collapsing his own eardrums to drown out the noise. He knew that his healing factor would kick in soon and repair the damage, but he’d at least have a full minute of blissful, wonderful silence.
Idiots, the Grey Hulk thought to himself, watching the walkways and portals before him bouncing and vibrating with the reverberations of battle ahead. He smiled in the joys of sweet, sweet silence from the cacophony of sound waves he knew was just around the corner. Maybe I can sneak through the portal to the other side while those green jackasses are busy fighting amongst themselves for the exit. Screw around with those Avengers morons a bit, just for kicks.
The Grey Hulk landed on the last walkway, scanning the damage. The walkway was horrifically-smashed, cracks extending in all directions. The ground was toppled, with several of the paths to the nearby portals literally shattered off in all directions, still hovering in the empty space. They were less pathways now and more shattered stepping stones that led towards the hopelessly-warped portals of the nearby dimensions. The portals themselves had metal shutters across their faces, all of which were clearly dented and crumpled from the sheer destructive force each Hulk had emitted against the walkway battleground.
Some of the shutters were bent inwards, others held colossal cracks and warping. Two of the nearby portals, the Grey Hulk saw, held large cracks in their faces. The two portals were hemorrhaging red and yellow water from their respective cracks - likely holding two strange water dimensions on the other side. The water was pouring fast into the ether, surrounding the respective stepping stones that led to their cracked dimensions.
“Idiots,” the Grey Hulk growled and shook his head, walking toward the battle he knew was ahead of him.
He kept walking until something strange dawned on him.
“Idiots,” he said again, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyebrows as he spoke the word aloud.
“You fucking idiots!” he suddenly screamed, letting the sound of his voice carrying across the landscape in all directions.
“Hunh,” he said, realizing what happened. “I actually heard that.”
Realizing his astounding healing factor must have taken care of his self-made injuries to his ear canals en route, he listened to the strange sounds of silence across the battlefield.
“Fight must be over,” the Grey Hulk grunted, lamenting in irritation. “Damn. Gonna be a lot harder now to sneak outta here to the real world if they’re not busy bustin’ each others’ brains out.”
The Grey Hulk knew he was no match for the physical might of the Professor or the Savage Hulk. He would have to outwit whichever one of the two was left standing.
“Please let it be the Savage one,” he muttered. “That moron’s dumber than a sack of bricks.”
The Grey Hulk walked up the winding, cracked walkway he trudged upon, surmounting the hilltop and finally seeing the epicenter of the battle in the distance: The walkway beyond the hilltop that led up to the epicenter was completely smashed, with pieces of the broken walkway floating lazily in the sky. A massive crater stretched across the shattered battlefield, cracks splintering out from every direction. A lone, green figure laid in the centerpiece, clad in shadow in the broken island epicenter that was once a part of the yellow walkway.
The Grey Hulk leapt off and landed upon the lone, silent battlefield, his landing sending pieces of debris and dust flying in all directions. He watched angrily as he saw a single crack in reality - which had shone with a blinding light - seal up completely as he reached it.
“Goddamnit!” the Grey Hulk screamed, watching his only link to the real world seal behind whichever Hulk beat him to the punch - so to speak.
The granite beast struck against the ground in anger, sending another loud shockwave screaming into the Crossroads as a violent grimace stained his grey features.
He’d missed it by seconds...
He glanced over at the still form of the green beast in the walkway crater, ready to take out his frustration on whatever Hulk aspect was closest to him.
As the grey Hulk looked upon the bruised, bleeding green Hulk before him, the scope of violence finally dawned on him. The green Hulk’s face was bleeding and horrifically-swollen, with purple bruises scattered over his hunched form. The Hulk was laying in the fetal position, green blood pooling out from his torn lips. The size of the welts along his midsection looked as if a meteor had collided with his stomach head-on, and the bruising indicated a wealth of internal bleeding.
But what really caught the Grey Hulk’s attention was the savagery of the damage: Wide gashes sliced out of the Hulk’s hide. Violent scrapes that went all the way down to the Hulk’s fat cells. Massive bite marks all over his body along with a missing ear that was struggling to re-grow itself.
The beast was clad in purple pants, yes, but the savagery of these attacks...
“Holy shit,” the Grey Hulk said as he approached. “You must be the Professor, then.”
The green behemoth’s body shuddered and shook, coughing up a mass of green blood from its mouth. The Grey Hulk realized his nose was also missing. He couldn’t tell between all the bruising if it had been bitten off, or simply smashed into his face.
“Not even recognizable anymore,” the Grey Hulk laughed. “Savage must’ve really wanted out this time. You dumb smart-talking idiot - you know how he gets when he’s angry.”
The grey Hulk leaned over his green cousin, watching the slow progress of his healing as the giant’s healing factor struggled with the enormity of the wounds.
Another cough, another spit-up of blood.
The Grey Hulk crossed his arms as the wretching figure shuddered again, and murmured almost incomprehensibly.
“What was that, dummy?” the Grey Hulk taunted with a smile. “Couldn’t heeeaar you.”
The Green Hulk’s eyes - nearly swollen totally shut - fluttered briefly, a mix of tears and blood dripping across his badly-shredded face.
All those times you got high-and-mighty with me, spouting off your lofty ideals with that arrogant, oh-so-punchable face of yours, the granite-colored Hulk thought at the quivering wretch before him. Look where it all gets you. Serves you right, you stupid prick.
The Grey Hulk poked the green goliath in the ribs, amused at the Professor’s pain.
“Still can’t hear you, you stupid bastard.”
The green Hulk cried, his hoarse voice barely a whisper:
“Hulk..just wanted to come out and play,” he choked out. “Why won’t mean Professor let Hulk out to play..?”
The Grey Hulk stared down at the felled green behemoth in shock.
“Wait, what--?” he stammered, stepping back in horror from the choking green wretch before him.
“Hulk just wanted to...see pretty Betty again. Why can’t Hulk...see Betty?”
Dumbfounded, the Grey Hulk looked at the green Hulk, then at the space where the exit portal had once stood, then back at the green Hulk.
“You...you’re the Savage one. Not the Professor,” the Grey Hulk murmured, “and if you’re here, then that means...”
He looked back toward the sealed portal once again.
“Jesus Christ, Professor,” he grunted, looking at the bite marks and torn flesh that had serrated much of the Savage Hulk’s hide. “You must’ve been angry as all hell to leave the Savage Hulk like this...”
The Grey Hulk’s eyebrow lifted as he watched the Savage Hulk’s injuries start to heal much faster than before. The Savage Hulk twisted fitfully, his voice lowering to a frustrated growl. “Hulk...wants to see Betty. Hulk wants....to see Betty...right now...”
“Oohhh shit,” the Grey Hulk muttered, watching his face begin to un-swell and un-bulge as the massive damage from the battle began to heal.
Last thing he needed was an angry Savage Hulk to deal with.
The Grey Hulk quickly stepped toward the behemoth, delivering a knockout blow that resounded across the landscape. The stirring form of the Savage Hulk slackened, his tired limbs thudding heavy and hard against the destroyed walkway. The grey goliath slammed another massive haymaker to the green goliath’s temple, just for good measure.
The Grey Hulk looked down at the green beast before him, looking for any sign of movement - anything at all.
The granite beast breathed out, smiling. “Much better.”
Satisfied, he glanced across the expanse of the damaged Crossroads, noting the shuttered portals to various dimensions all around him. The Grey Hulk hefted the unconscious form of the Savage Hulk above his head, tossing him hard into one of the surrounding portals, watching the slumbering beast sail off into another dimension. Using the stepping stones, the Grey Hulk closed the distance between himself and the portal in question.
Using all his might, the towering mountain of grey muscle angrily gripped the sides of the dimensional portal, and crushed it down until he was certain that nothing over the size of a small mouse could scurry away and make its way back into the Crossroads. Silently, he scooped up pieces of destroyed walkway that were floating in the dimensional nothingness surrounding him, stuffing them into the tiny portal, making a makeshift door to keep the Savage Hulk trapped there, in that dimension.
“Good riddance,” the Grey Hulk muttered, satisfied with his work.
Granted, it was all an aspect of Banner’s mind. Granted, the Grey Hulk knew that Savage would find his way out eventually. Nevertheless, he thought this should buy him at least a few weeks of peace and quiet.
The Grey Hulk gazed off into the distance, smirking and shaking his head.
The Professor. Did that. To the Savage Hulk, he thought to himself. Holy shit.
“You better know exactly how to find Betty, Mr. Blue,” he said to no one, crossing his arms. “Because if you don’t, I’m pretty damn sure the Professor’s going to literally fucking kill you.”
The Grey Hulk leapt back toward his “Vegas” high rise, his cruel laughter echoing across the wrecked landscape of the Crossroads.
# # # # # # # # # #
Avengers Mansion
The Bedroom of Doctor Robert Bruce Banner
The Hulk Has Arrived...
Carol Danvers - also known as the superhuman Warbird and current leader of the Avengers - raced down the hallway, her heart pounding in her chest as she rocketed down the winding halls like a bat out of hell.
The scream had been ear-splitting - to the point where she had wondered if all the breakables at the mansion were fully insured, should they all shatter at once. However, that was not the thing that concerned her most at the moment.
The scream had come from Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s bedroom.
The voice she’d recognized, at first, was Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s voice.
Until it lowered several octaves and began to vibrate all the objects in her own bedroom.
She knew - just from the sound of his voice - that Bruce had transformed into the Hulk. INSIDE the Avengers Mansion.
While her superpowers made her fast, there were several twists and turns in the hallways that slowed her down quite a bit. By her estimates, she had perhaps - ten, twenty milliseconds left, tops - until the enraged green behemoth made Bruce Banner’s room (and perhaps the rest of the mansion itself) into one shattered, bombed-to-all-hell memory.
When Warbird sprinted around the corner, she expected the worst - Bruce’s wall exploded outward. The unbearable vibrations of his violent screams. Needing to dodge a teammate thrown suddenly in her direction. The ceiling on the verge of collapse due to the disappearance of a load-bearing wall. Needing to dodge a violent, crazed green locomotive that called itself the Incredible Hulk. Perhaps a spew of a teammate’s life’s blood, gushing about in any and all directions.
The last thing she expected was what she saw next.
Photon and Binary beating her to the source of the disturbance? Of course. Their powers didn’t force them to stop at any ninety degree angles or risk destruction of the mansion. They could travel at (nearly) the literal speed of light and turn at any angle at that speed. Of course they were going to beat her here.
Not that she wasn’t jealous of that. Oh no, of course not. Why would the leader of the Avengers be jealous at that kind of speed?
The thing that surprised her was the laughter.
“What the fu--?” she said.
“Carol! How’s it going?” the green behemoth inside Doctor Banner’s room waved a massive arm at the newcomer, extending his head out of the doorway to flash his toothy grin.
Carol Danvers - the Warbird - raised her eyebrows, gazing at the Hulk before her. Chiseled jaw, well-kempt hair. Great smile, pristine teeth. Hardly the ape-like Savage Hulk she’d been terrified of meeting after the ear-splitting scream she’d heard.
“Doctor...Banner. I presume?” she said, walking over skeptically toward the massive green behemoth before them.
“Well, sort of,” he laughed mightily. “You can call me the Professor.”
“Yes,” she said, closing the gap between them and joining her teammates in gazing up towards the towering Professor. “That’s right. I remember you. You’re one of Bruce Banner’s other aspects. So, forgive me for being blunt but, what...exactly...are you doing here?”
“Oh? Instead of the Savage Hulk?” he replied.
“Well, yes. I think that’s what she means,” Binary smirked, placing her hands on her hips.
“Well, I will certainly tell you everything I know,” the Professor stated, pointing toward the three women. He turned red with embarrassment as he continued using his other hand to hold up what was left of his tattered pants and the remnants of his dignity, “if someone is nice enough to get me a pair of pants?”
“Well, I--“ Warbird began, looking down at the green behemoth, realizing what he meant. Her cheeks turned rosy red with embarrassment as Photon suddenly phased out of existence. When she came back less than a second later, she was holding the largest pair of pants they had on hand. “This was in the donation bin. Couldn’t find anything else in any of the other rooms.”
Light-speed traveling bitch, the hot-headed Warbird thought to herself, biting her tongue as she silenced the jealous, inappropriate thought in her head. Carol, you’re the leader of the Avengers now. You’re better than this.
“Ah, thank you.” the Professor smiled, grabbing the pants with his free hand as the remaining Avengers joined the three ladies. “Though, there’s not much to tell, really.”
He told the story of how he’d stopped the Savage Hulk from emerging and that - with any luck - he would be staying as the main persona for some time now. He very carefully, however, edited out all the details of Mr. Blue’s note and the picture of Betty Banner. Both items currently tucked away in a very safe spot.
After all, he didn’t want the government creatures to know anything about what he was planning...
# # # # # # # # # #
Somewhere Far Away
A Villain Twiddles His Mustache...
The gamma-irradiated creature watched the flickering TV screens with tired, weary eyes. The static-y, pirated images danced across the digital displays, and the creature licked his parched lips, its subconscious mind singing in tune with the ebbs and flows of each transmission frequency.
Creatures from the desert mindlessly skittered across the dials at the behest of their weary master, carefully adjusting the feeds as their chitinous exoskeletons tumbled to and fro along the shadows of the dark hideaway.
The creature smiled, watching Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s body twitch, and hemorrhage, and burst apart on the screens, revealing the massive form of the hulking Professor persona. The villain licked his lips, watching the Professor remark at his new status quo.
The same chiseled jaw, those same civilized mannerisms, and that damned eloquence of speech.
The Professor.
The Pretender.
The Murderer.
The creature’s brain pulsed, luminescent fluids gelling across its wretched skin. A transcendent anger pulsed through the throbbing veins growing across his elongated skull - like wild, untamed vines - as his mustachioed mouth drew into a sneer.
“Begin Phase Two,” the Leader said, his eyes alighting with emerald fire.
Next Issue:
Well, now that Banner’s finally picked a damn Hulk incarnation to actually be out in the real world, it’s time to get out of Bruce’s savage, twisted mindspace and take the fight to reality at last!
The Professor has his hands full with his search for answers as the Leader begins the second phase of his plan. Also, just where has the Leader been since his death in Incredible Hulk #400 (seems like just yesterday, don’t it?) and what is he up to this time? How far will the Professor go to be reunited with his beloved Betty? Who is Mr. Blue anyway? And what does the true Bruce Banner have to say about all this?
All profound questions, my friends. The answers lie waiting for you in the incredible HULK #3!
AUTHOR’S GAMMA-NOTES:
***The Mindless Hulk visited the Crossroads in Incredible Hulk #300. Running wild without the calming influence of morality and decency that the Banner persona had once given to his tortured mind, the Mindless Hulk was left enraged and homicidal, destroying everything and anything in his path. Unwilling to kill the Hulk - but also unwilling to allow the Savage Beast to cause any more loss of life - Dr. Strange banished the Mindless Hulk to a gateway dimension known as the Crossroads, where the Hulk could perhaps find some semblance of peace somewhere along a multiversity of other dimensions adjacent to our own.
The madness of the Crossroads dimension naturally left an indelible imprint upon our Gamma Goliath’s mind.
RAGE MOMENTS
‘bout time I set up a lettercol for this here fanfic thingy.
So what’s this space for? This one right here? So glad you asked, dear reader: This space is for YOU. I got you all the DELUXE PACKAGE here. Rent-free, climate controlled, utilities included.
Don’t you go getting a big head about it, now.
I want to hear all your thoughts, reviews, comments, questions, critiques and all the other assorted calamities that might be swirling up in that mind of yours after reading this lunatic rambling of a HULK issue I just put together! Send them on the Yahoo Groups list, or to me ([email protected]), or post them on the M2K Forum (http://marvel-2000.proboards.com/) or on the M2K Facebook Page (http://...errrhmm...)
Wait, M2K doesn’t have a Facebook? What about an Instagram? No, none of that either? Well, whenever M2K gets a Facebookgram, or an Instatwitter, or a Pdisinterested account, you post those HULK comments and reviews right on there too, and I’ll collect them into this here lettercol. And if you’re really, really nice, I may even respond to them! How’s that grab you?
Alright. That’s it for my ramblings. Now you get to do the heavy lifting from here on out in this space. Let’s hear what you guys have to say about our Jolly Green Giant here!
Jason McDonald
5/2/2016
--Thomas Mann
Previously, in the HULK...
**takes a deep breath**
Okay. Here we go.
A long time ago, in an Arizona Desert far, far away - a man named Bruce Banner saved a young teenager from a gamma bomb detonation. Selflessly tossing said teenager into a safety bunker, Banner’s body was exposed to the heart of the gamma bomb blast, turning him forever into the incredible...
(Therein lies the rub: Banner was never the most stable individual. Bruce Banner suffered - and continues to suffer from - Dissociative Identity Disorder. He had - and continues to have - multiple personalities to contend with. So he didn’t just transform into one Incredible Hulk after the Terrible Day of the Gamma Bomb...he transformed into many. Which Hulk he’d become on any given day, of course, was certainly up-for-grabs):
The Savage Green Hulk - a childish, unthinking brute of unrelenting physical power. An engine of mindless destruction that got stronger and stronger with rage.
The Cunning Grey Hulk - a sneaky, manipulative, cunning adversary whose strength paled in comparison to the Jade Giant, yet whose devious motives were always suspect.
The Idealized Professor - a Hulk with the mind of Bruce Banner, the physical power of the Green Hulk and the devious, cunning tactics of the Grey Hulk. The most idealized version of the Hulk in Bruce’s eyes.
The Guilt Hulk - A lizard-like creature that represented all Bruce’s hidden, repressed guilt and shame concerning Bruce’s....tortured past.
The Devil Hulk - A chained monster clawing at the back of his mind. Enraged at the world at large, dedicated to destroying it at all costs.
The Professor had been the dominant persona for some time. However, since losing the love of his life - Betty Ross Banner - to a vindictive radiation-fueled murder by the homicidal Abomination, the Professor had retreated to a world within the safety of Bruce Banner’s mind, where he could be with the woman he’d loved for so long.
In lieu of the Professor, Banner and Savage Hulk had joined up with the Avengers, saving the world with Banner’s undeniable genius and the Savage Hulk’s unimaginable (yet untamable) might. Things had been good for Bruce Banner - he’d found the support of his Avengers teammates, proven himself a hero and been able to turn the Savage Hulk’s ferocity toward a decent goal - helping others.
Except when Bruce got a letter from Mr. Blue. With proof that Betty was alive - comatose, cryogenically-preserved and captive inside a secret government installation. That elements within the government were deceiving him. That the Avengers were not above reproach.
Which Hulk will meet the current crisis remains a mystery. And how will the Hulk escape the watchful eye of his teammates and rescue his wife from the fateful jaws of death?
Read on, gentle reader. Oh do, read on...
# # # # # # # # # #
Avengers Mansion
The Bedroom of Doctor Robert Bruce Banner
Mr. Blue’s Nondescript White Envelope
Bruce let out a long, relaxed sigh, collapsing against the yoga mat in a sweaty huff.
“That was too close,” he breathed out.
He focused the entirety of his being on simply relaxing himself, taking deep regular breaths for a full three and a half minutes before sitting up, promptly chastising himself for nearly losing control during a simple meditation session. Chastising himself for nearly letting the beast out.
Toweling off from a meditation session-gone-wrong, he walked over to his worktable and noticed something new: A simple, nondescript white envelope.
Snail mail, he thought. For me? At Avengers Mansion?
He regarded the envelope suspiciously, rolling his eyes at the lack of return address and the astoundingly-pristine penmanship of the letter-writer.
No. Not suspicious at all, he mused sarcastically. Why would it be?
Picking it up, he slowly slid his finger through the top, neatly slicing through the lip of the envelope with his puny human appendage. Curiously, he unfolded the letter that lay tucked neatly inside. A picture caught the light suddenly as it slid out from within the letter, falling gently to the floor. However, it was the contents of the letter itself, which left Bruce Banner’s eyes nearly popping out of his skull:
Bruce,
Don’t fret, old friend. Your pretty Betty is still alive. The government creatures have been lying to you.
Regards,
Mr. Blue.
Bruce’s breath caught heavy in his throat. The smell of her perfume hung heavy on the note.
However, laying face-up on the floor, was the picture that had been nestled so snugly inside Mr. Blue’s letter: A picture of Betty Banner, naked as the day she was born. Suspended in a catatonic state in some bizarre cryogenic chamber. In a dark laboratory, with a timestamp no more than five days old.
Government markings. On the walls.
Bruce Banner’s brown eyes went wide, a hushed whisper upon his lips. And then, they went green.
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Tumultuous Psyche
The Dark Matter Desert
A Savage Heart Races...
The Savage Hulk growled, coils of tensed muscles grinding beneath a thick, calloused hide of emerald rage. Tousled green hair dripped with the sweat of exertion, as his snout huffed mightily in frustration.
The black desert was massive. Or at least, as massive as literally 85% of the matter in the universe tended to be. Banner had run the calculations once, imagining that a desert that large could probably contain the fury of the Incredible Hulk. Or at the very least, keep him from smashing any of the other 15% percent of the normal matter in the universe.
Not that the Savage Hulk could understand any of that. All he knew, was that the desert was a prison. A prison he had to escape..
The beast trudged thick, calloused, green feet across gritty, black sands, breathing in dark, black air and gazed into a starless, black sky.
Then, he saw it:
A shining star.
Growling, the beast blinked once. Twice. Three times. Yet, the star remained, absolutely resolute in its existence. Then, it began to glow even brighter. The Savage Hulk couldn’t know what it truly was - all he knew was what his instincts told him...
Hulk finally escape stupid black prison, he thought eloquently, with a grunt of satisfaction. Hulk finally be free.
With a mighty roar of rage, the Savage Hulk leapt toward the source of the blinking light, bounding off the ground with a might that turned the endless coal sands of the Dark Matter Desert into gleaming black diamonds in his angry, angry, angry wake.
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Twisted Psyche
A Dark, Dreary Back Alley Behind the Fixit Casino & Hotel
A Grey Heart Laughs...
“Mr. Fixit! I swear, I’ll never do it again!” a puny thug named Anthony Gold murmured weakly. “I’ll never try an’ cheat you guys, I swear.”
“Heh. Sure you won’t.”
CRACK.
“GOD!” Gold screamed, panting and crying pathetically as the grey behemoth before him snapped the thug’s arm like a twig. “My arm! Please, Fixit, I’m beggin’ ya...”
The Grey Hulk smiled, poking his cane into the leg of the tiny human who’d tried to rob his casino, breaking the leg with a satisfied grunt. The Grey Hulk, clad in a pressed pinstripe suit and matching top hat, joyfully fed on the punk’s agonized screams and took a satisfied pull from the cigar nestled twixt his granite lips.
“The sign. Outside the door. What’s it say?”
“Wha--what?” the weak victim murmured.
“Does it say the Anthony Gold Casino and Hotel?”
Gold’s eyes fluttered with tears in the dim light. “N-n-no, sir. No it does not.”
“So what. Does the sign. Say?”
“It...it says the Joe Fixit Casino. The Fixit Casino an’ Hotel. You, Mr. Fixit.”
“So the money inside this casino - would you say it belongs to you?”
“N-n-no. No it does not, sir. P-p-please..”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured.” the grey goliath sneered, backhanding the punk into the hard wall. Gold bounced off the wall with a sickeningly-wet sound, the breath knocked completely out of him. “I see you around my casino again, maybe I’m not so nice next time. Maybe I snap all the limbs like tree branches instead of just two. Yes?”
Gold stammered, sweat beading down his pale-white face as his badly-bruised lungs desperately struggled to reply. “Y-y-y-es sir. Anything you say, Mr. Fixit.”
“Good. Good,” Fixit smiled. “I’d say now, that it’s time t’ give you the boot.”
“The b-b-boot?” Gold said, as his eyes suddenly went wide. “No. No no no no nononono!!”
Fixit smiled, delightedly-drinking up the smaller man’s terror as he picked him up by his belt and pointed his head toward the outskirts of Vegas. With a mighty wind-up, he kicked the poor man hard with his colossal boot, sending Anthony Gold sailing helplessly over the city skyline.
“AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee---!!!”
Mr. Fixit watched the skunky cheat fly, the broken wretch’s form slowly disappearing into the glittering pearls of the Las Vegas night sky.
Suddenly, one of those pearls blinked brightly. Brighter than any of the other stars along the skyline. It was as if the sky itself was starting to crack open, letting some blinding light from some faraway world into this one.
Betty?
A dim, distant memory flickered through his mind. Yet, a pragmatic sensibility quickly poured across those base animal instincts. Fixit knew, in his heart-of-hearts, that it was a trap.
It had to be a trap.
Banner had just read the note in the real world. Which meant Joe Fixit also knew its contents in this one. However, the Gray Hulk was much less naive than the Professor or that half-wit Banner: He knew what the letter was trying to do. Mr. Blue was fucking with him - fucking with them both. Someone was trying to manipulate Banner into doing something stupid. Someone, somewhere, was trying to poke the goddamn bear.
Someone, somewhere, is doing a pretty good goddamn job o’ that. Fixit thought glumly.
The granite monster in the pinstripe tuxedo twirled his cane, smiling wide.
“Might be fun to poke my head out. See the sights out in the real world. Bust some heads, cause some trouble,” Fixit smirked. “At the very least, I’ll get the chance to piss the Professor off pretty damn good. No way that lovesick bastard misses this meeting.”
It had nothing to do with Betty. Oh no. Nothing at all.
The Grey Hulk glanced up toward his casino hotel, narrowing his eyes at his private penthouse luxury suite. He caught a glimpse of the redhead at the window, pouring matching Mai Tais with the fully-stocked bar inside.
Marlo Chandler - his main squeeze in this pristine dream-world.
“What the redhead don’t know, won’t hurt her,” Fixit said.
Gripping his cane tightly, the Grey Hulk flexed his mighty legs and leapt across the glittering town of Las Vegas, steadily advancing towards the fleck of bright, white light that gleamed brilliantly in the Nevada night sky.
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Tortured Psyche
The Grassy Knoll Where Two Lovers Once Loved
A Professor’s Heart Throbs...
A gentle breeze whisked across the grassy hillside, leaving the bright-green grass swaying lazily in the springtime winds. The Professor listened as the leaves of the trees swelled and swayed with the relaxing, soothing sounds and smiled.
The two lovers sat there, relaxing upon one spot on the rolling hillside in particular - a spot that had been permanently-ingrained in the Professor’s memory. They sat, nestled against the picnic blanket, with four shoes holding down each of the four sides. One set of shoes was far larger than the other set, however.
Two lovers sitting atop the blanket, gazing into each other’s eyes. One - a towering mass of emerald muscle, clad in logger man’s plaid and overalls. The other - a stunning brunette woman, clad in a flowing dress that perfectly accentuated her lovely figure.
The scent of turkey and bacon hung luscious in the air as Betty pulled the two sandwiches out from the picnic basket and placed them in front of herself and the towering mass of might that was her loving husband.
The Professor-Hulk stroked his square jaw and scratched at his well-kempt green hair. “You remembered the sandwiches?”
“Of course I did, Bruce,” Betty winked, playfully pointing in the Professor’s direction. “It’s not like you were going to.”
“Hmmmph,” the Professor scoffed delightedly, picking up the tiny sandwich in his colossal hand and regarding it suspiciously.
Betty smiled, unwrapping her own sandwich from the aluminum foil as she watched her Hulked-out husband play with his tiny portion.
“Well, in that case,” he smiled, flicking the sandwich into the air and swallowing it - tin foil and all -in one massive gulp. Betty’s eyes opened wide, and she shook her head in disbelief.
“Well, when in Rome,” Betty Ross Banner shrugged as she finished unwrapping the sandwich and pitifully-attempted to shovel the entire turkey-and-bacon sandwich in her mouth in one go. The Professor laughed at her, trying to fit the whole thing in at once, mocking his treatment of the late turkey-and-bacon sandwich.
God, he loved Betty so, so much.
Suddenly, he heard a crack in the sky. A massive thunderclap that seemed to shake the entirety of the peaceful, serene hillside upon which the lovers sat.
“What in--?” the Professor asked, catching a flicker of movement along the clouds darting to and fro along the blue skyline. The Hulk watched in horror, as the clouds themselves reassembled into a startling, terrifying message:
“Don’t fret, old friend. Your pretty Betty is still alive. The government creatures have been lying to you.”
The Professor’s eyes opened wide, the horrors of reality finally settling in against the lovely fantasy he’d created for himself.
“No. No no no!” he spoke to the clouds, glancing back toward his wife. “Betty’s right here--“
His pulse quickened as he saw Betty slump into the fetal position, dropping the remnants of her turkey-and-bacon sandwich against the gentle folds of the picnic blanket. Towering over her quivering form, the Professor desperately cradled her.
“Betty?” he said softly. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
“I think...” she stammered weakly, clutching at her stomach painfully. “...I think...something was wrong...with the sandwich...”
The Professor placed a hand on his wife’s stomach as her face turned suddenly towards him - more out of instinct than anything else.
What the Professor saw terrified him to his gamma-green core.
Betty’s eyes had turned bright green. He saw sudden sores lining her once-beauteous features. Her lips began to swell and her skin began to tighten and crack as the symptoms of radiation poisoning radiated across her entire body.
She shook as small, green cancers began to multiply along her cheeks, cloistering themselves next to her pale-blue lips.
“B-B-Bruce?” she stammered, her eyes filling with tears. “W-what’s happening to me?”
“Oh God, please, not again...” the Professor gritted his teeth, anguish spreading across his emerald eyes as he watched Betty’s body begin to deteriorate rapidly. “God, please, not again!”
The Professor held his wife in his arms, watching her voluptuous figure thin and fray, as her flowing brunette hair turned to grey, dried straw jutting out from a shriveled, white scalp. It fell in clumps against the flowing green grass, sweeping away gently in the rushing winds.
“I l-l-love you...B-Bruce,” her hoarse voice choked weakly through strained vocal chords as her dry, bloodshot eyes flickered, went dull and stared lifeless into the horizon. Her tiny fingers scrapped against the Hulk’s face, wiping away a final tear from his cheek before they fell hard against the ground.
The Professor clutched his wife’s lifeless frame against him, desperately holding onto the dream as it faded away around him.
“Betty,” he wept, cradling her body as gently as his massive green bulk could manage, until even her thin, wiry corpse deteriorated into so much dust, blowing away in the gentle summer winds. The Professor felt the anguish wash over him, grinding his teeth together and hugging himself tight.
He wiped the tears from his eyes, glancing up at the once-green hillside. The Professor grimaced painfully, watching as even the hillside began to blister and blacken, the lively-green grass falling prey to the sudden orange onslaught of autumn. He watched as the grass fell limp and died quickly, leaving only a brown, barren hillside with thick stalks of gnarled, twisting branches that were once lively trees.
With bloodshot eyes, he glanced toward the heavens. Toward the white light cascading out of the grey skyline.
“Betty,” he growled, digging his massive hands into the dirt and pulling his body up off the ground. “I’m not losing you again.”
The Professor leapt off towards the white light, an insurmountable rage burning bright inside his grieving heart.
# # # # # # # # # #
Avengers Mansion
The Bedroom of Doctor Robert Bruce Banner
The Hulk Is Coming
Bruce Banner’s eyes glowed bright green, as the black armband - the one which alerted the doctor if his pulse was too high - was already going ballistic.
He blinked again, eyes glowing greener and greener as his body suddenly started to change...
BEEP.
BEEP-BEEP. BEEP-BEEP.
BEEP-BEEP. BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!
The digital display was flashing bright-bright green, but Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s mind was already gone.
One of the Hulks was coming, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it now...
# # # # # # # # # #
Bruce Banner’s Tortured Psyche
The Crack in the Gilded Cage
Hulks Fight Amidst the Crossroads...
The unstoppable granite meteor crashed onto the walkway, his impact sending shockwaves for miles along the annals of the winding Crossroads.
This wasn’t the REAL Crossroads, of course. This was all scenery in the twisted, labyrinth landscape of Bruce Banner’s puny mind. However, the Savage Hulk’s extended stay in the real Crossroads had left an indelible imprint in the twisted mind of Bruce Banner.
As such, wouldn’t this be a natural point at which an exit into the real world would form in Banner’s mind?
However, the Grey Hulk scoffed instead, vocalizing that same thought in a slightly more negative form:
“Jesus, Banner. Can’t ya pick somethin’ original for us to wade through to get to this ‘exit’ of yours?” the granite giant growled, sneering derisive as he gazed around the familiar landscape of portals and pathways that stretched on into forever. “Ya stupid, puny jerk.”
The Grey Hulk clenched his fists and shook his head, walking across the twisting yellow pathways that branched off toward an endless array of alternate dimensions.
On his left, he saw a portal that led to an underwater dimension. The Grey Hulk spotted a menacing gray beast with a thousand eyes swimming merrily along, cloaked in shadow on the icy ocean floor, unaware of the portal to the Crossroads. Another dimension on the Hulk’s right led to a pure fire dimension, with creatures made of ash and soot meandering toward a temple of flames, praying to their assorted deities. A third dimension seemed to hold several rock creatures, whose stoic, vibrating movements led the granite beast to believe that dimension operated with a completely different set of physical laws than the dimensions he was used to.
The Grey Hulk trekked along the winding yellow path, noting a few ice dimensions along the way, each with different shimmers in light and freezing denizens that made them distinctive and unique. One dimension looked totally barren, presumably due to the fact that entropy had finally taken its course and that universe was fully and completely dead and devoid of life. He snorted, hoping that the annoying Puffball Collective found its way into that place and had been snuffed out by accident along with that dead universe. The Grey Hulk smiled, letting out a merry growl that sounded like granite slabs being dragged for miles across bumpy, cracked concrete.
So amused was he, at the thought of the dead Puffball Collective, that he almost missed the signpost to the Crossroads.
“Took you long enough,” he murmured, refusing to be thankful to Banner’s unconscious mind as he gazed at the Signpost.
The Signpost to the Crossroads was a colossal assemblage of arms from all kinds of different races. Each one of the arms pointed in the direction of whichever portal that specific arm had originated from. The Grey Hulk noted two arms: one of ash-and-soot, and another rock-like appendage, pointing back in the direction he’d come from. The two arms were guiding him towards the portals of the fire dimension and rock dimension which he’d already passed.
A third arm of scales wrapped in strands of poison ivy pointed off in another direction, presumably toward a portal where that particular creature was originated from, while a fourth arm made of spikes and mincemeat stretched out in a completely different direction. The Grey Hulk grimaced, looking at the myriad types of arms leading toward all of the thousands of portals in this wacky Crossroads he found himself in.
Crabbily, the Grey Hulk inspected the host of limbs upon the Signpost, looking for three specific limbs in particular. As he inspected the limbs, a few of the oily and spiky appendages got fresh, reaching out malevolently toward the curious observer. With a grunt of disdain, he swatted the arms away, and continued his search.
“There we go,” he said, finally stumbling upon the three he was looking for.
Two massive Hulking green arms, an a third, tinier arm. The first green arm was thick and calloused, its fingernails cracked and well-worn. It gestured toward its destination with all the dexterity of a disinterested ape. The second green arm looked much like the first, save for the fact that it was well-manicured, firmly pointing in its direction as a well-educated man would. The third, smallest arm of all wore part of a lab coat with it somehow, pointing toward the same direction as the other two.
The Grey Hulk smirked. “Well, that was easy.”
Suddenly, the Grey Hulk heard a massive crash in the distance, the echoes resounding across the bizarre landscape of the Crossroads. His eyes widened, cupping his ears tightly as he heard an ear-splitting roar of rage cascade across the world. He howled angrily, watching all of the portals within eyesight shake and shudder with the ferocity of the animal growls. Opening one eye, he noted each of the portals suddenly develop a bevy of different window shades. The denizens of each of the portals drew their window shades, closed their curtains, activated their shutters or locked their doors in a desperate attempt to drown out the noise of the growls.
The granite beast stood up from the ground, keeping his ears cupped as an earthquake shook the massive bends and turns of the Crossroads walkway.
It was then, he realized, that the animalistic roars were coming from two creatures instead of one.
“Me and my big damn mouth,” he muttered, as an avalanche of sound whisked through the world once more. “Looks like the Professor and Savage beat me to it.”
The Grey Hulk cracked his fingers, glancing over to the frightened limbs of the signpost as they flailed helplessly amongst the cries of the creatures in the distance, unable to find ears which to cover in order to drown out the racket. He watched the mass of appendages all move simultaneously, and raised an annoyed eyebrow as each of the hundreds of arms, claws, tentacles, spikes, suckers and scales point in the same direction as the first three arms were pointing: towards the source of the resounding battle playing out in the addled mind of Bruce Banner. A few of the appendages snapped their fingers, indicating a sense of urgency at the Grey Hulk.
“No shit, Sherlock,” the Grey Hulk leapt toward the fray, away from the frantically-gesturing Signpost. “I’m going, I’m going!”
The granite beast leapt across the winding twists of the yellow walkways.
“Don’t need some stupid Signpost tellin’ me my business,” he grunted, rapidly closing the distance between him and the battle. The Grey Hulk clenched his fists, listening to the sounds of the violence for a moment. With a grunt, he mashed his pinky fingers into his ears hard, temporarily collapsing his own eardrums to drown out the noise. He knew that his healing factor would kick in soon and repair the damage, but he’d at least have a full minute of blissful, wonderful silence.
Idiots, the Grey Hulk thought to himself, watching the walkways and portals before him bouncing and vibrating with the reverberations of battle ahead. He smiled in the joys of sweet, sweet silence from the cacophony of sound waves he knew was just around the corner. Maybe I can sneak through the portal to the other side while those green jackasses are busy fighting amongst themselves for the exit. Screw around with those Avengers morons a bit, just for kicks.
The Grey Hulk landed on the last walkway, scanning the damage. The walkway was horrifically-smashed, cracks extending in all directions. The ground was toppled, with several of the paths to the nearby portals literally shattered off in all directions, still hovering in the empty space. They were less pathways now and more shattered stepping stones that led towards the hopelessly-warped portals of the nearby dimensions. The portals themselves had metal shutters across their faces, all of which were clearly dented and crumpled from the sheer destructive force each Hulk had emitted against the walkway battleground.
Some of the shutters were bent inwards, others held colossal cracks and warping. Two of the nearby portals, the Grey Hulk saw, held large cracks in their faces. The two portals were hemorrhaging red and yellow water from their respective cracks - likely holding two strange water dimensions on the other side. The water was pouring fast into the ether, surrounding the respective stepping stones that led to their cracked dimensions.
“Idiots,” the Grey Hulk growled and shook his head, walking toward the battle he knew was ahead of him.
He kept walking until something strange dawned on him.
“Idiots,” he said again, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyebrows as he spoke the word aloud.
“You fucking idiots!” he suddenly screamed, letting the sound of his voice carrying across the landscape in all directions.
“Hunh,” he said, realizing what happened. “I actually heard that.”
Realizing his astounding healing factor must have taken care of his self-made injuries to his ear canals en route, he listened to the strange sounds of silence across the battlefield.
“Fight must be over,” the Grey Hulk grunted, lamenting in irritation. “Damn. Gonna be a lot harder now to sneak outta here to the real world if they’re not busy bustin’ each others’ brains out.”
The Grey Hulk knew he was no match for the physical might of the Professor or the Savage Hulk. He would have to outwit whichever one of the two was left standing.
“Please let it be the Savage one,” he muttered. “That moron’s dumber than a sack of bricks.”
The Grey Hulk walked up the winding, cracked walkway he trudged upon, surmounting the hilltop and finally seeing the epicenter of the battle in the distance: The walkway beyond the hilltop that led up to the epicenter was completely smashed, with pieces of the broken walkway floating lazily in the sky. A massive crater stretched across the shattered battlefield, cracks splintering out from every direction. A lone, green figure laid in the centerpiece, clad in shadow in the broken island epicenter that was once a part of the yellow walkway.
The Grey Hulk leapt off and landed upon the lone, silent battlefield, his landing sending pieces of debris and dust flying in all directions. He watched angrily as he saw a single crack in reality - which had shone with a blinding light - seal up completely as he reached it.
“Goddamnit!” the Grey Hulk screamed, watching his only link to the real world seal behind whichever Hulk beat him to the punch - so to speak.
The granite beast struck against the ground in anger, sending another loud shockwave screaming into the Crossroads as a violent grimace stained his grey features.
He’d missed it by seconds...
He glanced over at the still form of the green beast in the walkway crater, ready to take out his frustration on whatever Hulk aspect was closest to him.
As the grey Hulk looked upon the bruised, bleeding green Hulk before him, the scope of violence finally dawned on him. The green Hulk’s face was bleeding and horrifically-swollen, with purple bruises scattered over his hunched form. The Hulk was laying in the fetal position, green blood pooling out from his torn lips. The size of the welts along his midsection looked as if a meteor had collided with his stomach head-on, and the bruising indicated a wealth of internal bleeding.
But what really caught the Grey Hulk’s attention was the savagery of the damage: Wide gashes sliced out of the Hulk’s hide. Violent scrapes that went all the way down to the Hulk’s fat cells. Massive bite marks all over his body along with a missing ear that was struggling to re-grow itself.
The beast was clad in purple pants, yes, but the savagery of these attacks...
“Holy shit,” the Grey Hulk said as he approached. “You must be the Professor, then.”
The green behemoth’s body shuddered and shook, coughing up a mass of green blood from its mouth. The Grey Hulk realized his nose was also missing. He couldn’t tell between all the bruising if it had been bitten off, or simply smashed into his face.
“Not even recognizable anymore,” the Grey Hulk laughed. “Savage must’ve really wanted out this time. You dumb smart-talking idiot - you know how he gets when he’s angry.”
The grey Hulk leaned over his green cousin, watching the slow progress of his healing as the giant’s healing factor struggled with the enormity of the wounds.
Another cough, another spit-up of blood.
The Grey Hulk crossed his arms as the wretching figure shuddered again, and murmured almost incomprehensibly.
“What was that, dummy?” the Grey Hulk taunted with a smile. “Couldn’t heeeaar you.”
The Green Hulk’s eyes - nearly swollen totally shut - fluttered briefly, a mix of tears and blood dripping across his badly-shredded face.
All those times you got high-and-mighty with me, spouting off your lofty ideals with that arrogant, oh-so-punchable face of yours, the granite-colored Hulk thought at the quivering wretch before him. Look where it all gets you. Serves you right, you stupid prick.
The Grey Hulk poked the green goliath in the ribs, amused at the Professor’s pain.
“Still can’t hear you, you stupid bastard.”
The green Hulk cried, his hoarse voice barely a whisper:
“Hulk..just wanted to come out and play,” he choked out. “Why won’t mean Professor let Hulk out to play..?”
The Grey Hulk stared down at the felled green behemoth in shock.
“Wait, what--?” he stammered, stepping back in horror from the choking green wretch before him.
“Hulk just wanted to...see pretty Betty again. Why can’t Hulk...see Betty?”
Dumbfounded, the Grey Hulk looked at the green Hulk, then at the space where the exit portal had once stood, then back at the green Hulk.
“You...you’re the Savage one. Not the Professor,” the Grey Hulk murmured, “and if you’re here, then that means...”
He looked back toward the sealed portal once again.
“Jesus Christ, Professor,” he grunted, looking at the bite marks and torn flesh that had serrated much of the Savage Hulk’s hide. “You must’ve been angry as all hell to leave the Savage Hulk like this...”
The Grey Hulk’s eyebrow lifted as he watched the Savage Hulk’s injuries start to heal much faster than before. The Savage Hulk twisted fitfully, his voice lowering to a frustrated growl. “Hulk...wants to see Betty. Hulk wants....to see Betty...right now...”
“Oohhh shit,” the Grey Hulk muttered, watching his face begin to un-swell and un-bulge as the massive damage from the battle began to heal.
Last thing he needed was an angry Savage Hulk to deal with.
The Grey Hulk quickly stepped toward the behemoth, delivering a knockout blow that resounded across the landscape. The stirring form of the Savage Hulk slackened, his tired limbs thudding heavy and hard against the destroyed walkway. The grey goliath slammed another massive haymaker to the green goliath’s temple, just for good measure.
The Grey Hulk looked down at the green beast before him, looking for any sign of movement - anything at all.
The granite beast breathed out, smiling. “Much better.”
Satisfied, he glanced across the expanse of the damaged Crossroads, noting the shuttered portals to various dimensions all around him. The Grey Hulk hefted the unconscious form of the Savage Hulk above his head, tossing him hard into one of the surrounding portals, watching the slumbering beast sail off into another dimension. Using the stepping stones, the Grey Hulk closed the distance between himself and the portal in question.
Using all his might, the towering mountain of grey muscle angrily gripped the sides of the dimensional portal, and crushed it down until he was certain that nothing over the size of a small mouse could scurry away and make its way back into the Crossroads. Silently, he scooped up pieces of destroyed walkway that were floating in the dimensional nothingness surrounding him, stuffing them into the tiny portal, making a makeshift door to keep the Savage Hulk trapped there, in that dimension.
“Good riddance,” the Grey Hulk muttered, satisfied with his work.
Granted, it was all an aspect of Banner’s mind. Granted, the Grey Hulk knew that Savage would find his way out eventually. Nevertheless, he thought this should buy him at least a few weeks of peace and quiet.
The Grey Hulk gazed off into the distance, smirking and shaking his head.
The Professor. Did that. To the Savage Hulk, he thought to himself. Holy shit.
“You better know exactly how to find Betty, Mr. Blue,” he said to no one, crossing his arms. “Because if you don’t, I’m pretty damn sure the Professor’s going to literally fucking kill you.”
The Grey Hulk leapt back toward his “Vegas” high rise, his cruel laughter echoing across the wrecked landscape of the Crossroads.
# # # # # # # # # #
Avengers Mansion
The Bedroom of Doctor Robert Bruce Banner
The Hulk Has Arrived...
Carol Danvers - also known as the superhuman Warbird and current leader of the Avengers - raced down the hallway, her heart pounding in her chest as she rocketed down the winding halls like a bat out of hell.
The scream had been ear-splitting - to the point where she had wondered if all the breakables at the mansion were fully insured, should they all shatter at once. However, that was not the thing that concerned her most at the moment.
The scream had come from Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s bedroom.
The voice she’d recognized, at first, was Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s voice.
Until it lowered several octaves and began to vibrate all the objects in her own bedroom.
She knew - just from the sound of his voice - that Bruce had transformed into the Hulk. INSIDE the Avengers Mansion.
While her superpowers made her fast, there were several twists and turns in the hallways that slowed her down quite a bit. By her estimates, she had perhaps - ten, twenty milliseconds left, tops - until the enraged green behemoth made Bruce Banner’s room (and perhaps the rest of the mansion itself) into one shattered, bombed-to-all-hell memory.
When Warbird sprinted around the corner, she expected the worst - Bruce’s wall exploded outward. The unbearable vibrations of his violent screams. Needing to dodge a teammate thrown suddenly in her direction. The ceiling on the verge of collapse due to the disappearance of a load-bearing wall. Needing to dodge a violent, crazed green locomotive that called itself the Incredible Hulk. Perhaps a spew of a teammate’s life’s blood, gushing about in any and all directions.
The last thing she expected was what she saw next.
Photon and Binary beating her to the source of the disturbance? Of course. Their powers didn’t force them to stop at any ninety degree angles or risk destruction of the mansion. They could travel at (nearly) the literal speed of light and turn at any angle at that speed. Of course they were going to beat her here.
Not that she wasn’t jealous of that. Oh no, of course not. Why would the leader of the Avengers be jealous at that kind of speed?
The thing that surprised her was the laughter.
“What the fu--?” she said.
“Carol! How’s it going?” the green behemoth inside Doctor Banner’s room waved a massive arm at the newcomer, extending his head out of the doorway to flash his toothy grin.
Carol Danvers - the Warbird - raised her eyebrows, gazing at the Hulk before her. Chiseled jaw, well-kempt hair. Great smile, pristine teeth. Hardly the ape-like Savage Hulk she’d been terrified of meeting after the ear-splitting scream she’d heard.
“Doctor...Banner. I presume?” she said, walking over skeptically toward the massive green behemoth before them.
“Well, sort of,” he laughed mightily. “You can call me the Professor.”
“Yes,” she said, closing the gap between them and joining her teammates in gazing up towards the towering Professor. “That’s right. I remember you. You’re one of Bruce Banner’s other aspects. So, forgive me for being blunt but, what...exactly...are you doing here?”
“Oh? Instead of the Savage Hulk?” he replied.
“Well, yes. I think that’s what she means,” Binary smirked, placing her hands on her hips.
“Well, I will certainly tell you everything I know,” the Professor stated, pointing toward the three women. He turned red with embarrassment as he continued using his other hand to hold up what was left of his tattered pants and the remnants of his dignity, “if someone is nice enough to get me a pair of pants?”
“Well, I--“ Warbird began, looking down at the green behemoth, realizing what he meant. Her cheeks turned rosy red with embarrassment as Photon suddenly phased out of existence. When she came back less than a second later, she was holding the largest pair of pants they had on hand. “This was in the donation bin. Couldn’t find anything else in any of the other rooms.”
Light-speed traveling bitch, the hot-headed Warbird thought to herself, biting her tongue as she silenced the jealous, inappropriate thought in her head. Carol, you’re the leader of the Avengers now. You’re better than this.
“Ah, thank you.” the Professor smiled, grabbing the pants with his free hand as the remaining Avengers joined the three ladies. “Though, there’s not much to tell, really.”
He told the story of how he’d stopped the Savage Hulk from emerging and that - with any luck - he would be staying as the main persona for some time now. He very carefully, however, edited out all the details of Mr. Blue’s note and the picture of Betty Banner. Both items currently tucked away in a very safe spot.
After all, he didn’t want the government creatures to know anything about what he was planning...
# # # # # # # # # #
Somewhere Far Away
A Villain Twiddles His Mustache...
The gamma-irradiated creature watched the flickering TV screens with tired, weary eyes. The static-y, pirated images danced across the digital displays, and the creature licked his parched lips, its subconscious mind singing in tune with the ebbs and flows of each transmission frequency.
Creatures from the desert mindlessly skittered across the dials at the behest of their weary master, carefully adjusting the feeds as their chitinous exoskeletons tumbled to and fro along the shadows of the dark hideaway.
The creature smiled, watching Doctor Robert Bruce Banner’s body twitch, and hemorrhage, and burst apart on the screens, revealing the massive form of the hulking Professor persona. The villain licked his lips, watching the Professor remark at his new status quo.
The same chiseled jaw, those same civilized mannerisms, and that damned eloquence of speech.
The Professor.
The Pretender.
The Murderer.
The creature’s brain pulsed, luminescent fluids gelling across its wretched skin. A transcendent anger pulsed through the throbbing veins growing across his elongated skull - like wild, untamed vines - as his mustachioed mouth drew into a sneer.
“Begin Phase Two,” the Leader said, his eyes alighting with emerald fire.
Next Issue:
Well, now that Banner’s finally picked a damn Hulk incarnation to actually be out in the real world, it’s time to get out of Bruce’s savage, twisted mindspace and take the fight to reality at last!
The Professor has his hands full with his search for answers as the Leader begins the second phase of his plan. Also, just where has the Leader been since his death in Incredible Hulk #400 (seems like just yesterday, don’t it?) and what is he up to this time? How far will the Professor go to be reunited with his beloved Betty? Who is Mr. Blue anyway? And what does the true Bruce Banner have to say about all this?
All profound questions, my friends. The answers lie waiting for you in the incredible HULK #3!
AUTHOR’S GAMMA-NOTES:
***The Mindless Hulk visited the Crossroads in Incredible Hulk #300. Running wild without the calming influence of morality and decency that the Banner persona had once given to his tortured mind, the Mindless Hulk was left enraged and homicidal, destroying everything and anything in his path. Unwilling to kill the Hulk - but also unwilling to allow the Savage Beast to cause any more loss of life - Dr. Strange banished the Mindless Hulk to a gateway dimension known as the Crossroads, where the Hulk could perhaps find some semblance of peace somewhere along a multiversity of other dimensions adjacent to our own.
The madness of the Crossroads dimension naturally left an indelible imprint upon our Gamma Goliath’s mind.
RAGE MOMENTS
‘bout time I set up a lettercol for this here fanfic thingy.
So what’s this space for? This one right here? So glad you asked, dear reader: This space is for YOU. I got you all the DELUXE PACKAGE here. Rent-free, climate controlled, utilities included.
Don’t you go getting a big head about it, now.
I want to hear all your thoughts, reviews, comments, questions, critiques and all the other assorted calamities that might be swirling up in that mind of yours after reading this lunatic rambling of a HULK issue I just put together! Send them on the Yahoo Groups list, or to me ([email protected]), or post them on the M2K Forum (http://marvel-2000.proboards.com/) or on the M2K Facebook Page (http://...errrhmm...)
Wait, M2K doesn’t have a Facebook? What about an Instagram? No, none of that either? Well, whenever M2K gets a Facebookgram, or an Instatwitter, or a Pdisinterested account, you post those HULK comments and reviews right on there too, and I’ll collect them into this here lettercol. And if you’re really, really nice, I may even respond to them! How’s that grab you?
Alright. That’s it for my ramblings. Now you get to do the heavy lifting from here on out in this space. Let’s hear what you guys have to say about our Jolly Green Giant here!
Jason McDonald
5/2/2016