#4: Minus Human, Part 2

“Blonsky, what the Hell are you doing?”

“This is it, isn’t it Banner? What you’ve been working on?”

“Y-yeah, I guess, but what… what are you doing with it?”

“Haven’t you ever wanted to be more, Bruce? Ever wanted to be free of all the constraints of society? This is that way out! You can be the next Captain America! We can both be!”

“It’s not tested, Emil. You… you don’t know what you’re doing…”

“I know enough. And I know enough that the top military brass wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have it ready for practical application.”

“Put it down, Blonsky!!”

***

“DUHHHHHH!”

Bruce Banner gasped, warm air filling his lungs. Everything was numb. Everything was a blur… but his memories still kept him company. ”Nahhhhhh… Nuuuahhhh…” That memory. So sharp. So razor sharp. Blonsky. Blonsky. “Naahhh… Hhh… Hhhuh…”

“You’re awake.”

Bruce looked up through a haze, a strange looking man before him smiling. “Guhhhh… Guhhhh…”

“I’m sorry about the pain. It’s to be expected.” The man checked Bruce’s restraints. Everything was as it should be. “Good. Good.”

Bruce was gasping for more of the humid air. He needed to breathe. His chest hurt. His lungs burned. He couldn’t feel his legs but everything above his waist was… needles. Needles of pain penetrating his nerves. “Whhuuuuuhhhh… What have you done…?”

“Look down, Doctor Banner. Look at yourself.” The tone was mocking. That voice, so familiar…

Bruce complied, and saw the first tube digging into his chest. His heart began to pick up. He looked down, and saw that there were tubes digging in all over his body, and inside them… red.

“We’re harvesting the very beautiful bio-weapon that is in your blood,” the man sneered.

Bruce tensed his muscles and clenched his fist. He gritted his teeth and begged for the release that would come as the adrenaline pumped through his veins. “Gaahhhh…!”

Hulk. Hulk. Hulk.

“Of course, you’re wondering why you aren’t triggering the Hulk manifestation. It’s quite simple. The reservoir in your spine that you can’t really see because you can’t turn your head 360 degrees is preventing you from transforming. We pump out the blood and we pump in a cocktail of my own devising. Soon you’ll be a drugged-up sack of skin. But right now you’re a weapon that we can use. Blanco--”

The strange man ushered another man behind him inside the room. The new man was all muscle, a tattoo of an Iron Cross on one arm and a swastika on the other.

“--Blanco is a friend of mine. He hates everyone. Blacks. Jews. Gays. But he has a soft spot for green skinned folk, Doctor. And I offered him the opportunity to become one.”

Blanco grinned.

“Yuh. Yuh. You don’t know… what you’re doing…” Bruce sputtered.

Blanco stepped forward, and slapped Bruce in the face. “Eyes down, you little bitch. I didn’t give you permission to talk.”

The strange man said, “I do know what I’m doing, Banner. We all do. We always will. Now sleep, and let the world around you burn.”

The man left, turning off the light as he went.

“…Nuuuhhh.”

Bruce remembered what the voice reminded him of.

His father.

***

The darkness welcomed Bruce with open arms, and soon he was in another place. A familiar place. The dreamscape that allowed Hulk and Banner to interact was fully formed. The Hulk was standing before his creator/captor, and he was angry.

“Hulk trapped, Banner! Why is Hulk trapped?!”

“I don’t know, I don’t know. I can’t think straight…”

“Let Hulk out, Banner. Let Hulk out now or Hulk smash Banner!”

“You can’t smash me, Hulk! We’re one and the same. Two sides of the same coin. But the line is beginning to blur…” Bruce looked at the Hulk. The raging behemoth of destruction. “… I want you to come out. I do. So much. But… his drugs. I can’t let it happen, no matter how much I want it. I can’t trigger the change.”

“Banner… want Hulk? Hulk free?”

“Yes! We’re dying! We’ve been trapped and that madman is strip mining my--” Bruce paused. “He’s strip mining our body. If I die, you die, I think… I don’t know… I need you out. If you come out, we regenerate. My body is intact when you emerge. All the blood will be regenerated, muscles will grow back, oxygen starved lungs will be enriched. I need you to live.”

He fell to his knees.

“I need you so that I live.”

***

The Leader began pulling at levers and typing into his makeshift computer. “This will hurt. This will hurt so very much. It’s going to be delicious.”

Blanco was strapped to a table. Intravenous lines were in his arms, just beneath his tattoos, and he had a mouth guard in between his teeth. “Geeer on wid id.”

“Hhh…” The Leader clutched at his enlarged temple, and nearly toppled to the ground. He steadied himself, and then looked on at Blanco, who had noticed. “Yes. Steel yourself, Blanco. This will be beautiful.”

Blood began to pump as the Leader began the process. Banner’s blood hit the inside of Blanco’s veins and Blanco, if he were in the thinking mood, would say that it felt cold. Ice cold. But as he was currently strapped down to a table being pumped with the blood of a mutated son of a bitch, he wasn’t in the musing mood.

“It’s simple, Blanco,” continued the Leader. “The transfusion will allow the unactivated Hulk cells to be immersed in your bloodstream. Then…” He clicked his fingers, and small, misshapen creatures emerged from the walls, carrying a massive device. “… Then this will activate them.”

“Hhhhf. Wd is dat?”

The device was attached to a rail above Blanco’s head, and hoisted up so it pointed down at him.

The Leader explained, “Gamma radiation projector. It has much more finesse than a gamma bomb. If Banner was Hulk, Mk I, you’ll be Hulk, Mk 1000. He will be Arnold Schwarzenegger to your Robert Patrick.”

“Radiation?!”

“Yes. Goodnight.” 

VZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!!!

The scream woke Bruce Banner up. He jolted awake with a start, and the scream continued. The scream triggered an influx of memory inside him. He drifted back into the darkness…

***

“Stupid bastard!”

The needle plunged into Bruce’s neck as Emil lunged for him and slipped. Banner looked up as the green chemical emptied out of the hypodermic.

“E-Emil!”

“You… You made me do that…”

“I… God…”

“Bastard!” Emil slammed a folder into Bruce’s face, and he fell backwards. “Stupid bastard! You used it all up!”

“You… junkie… bastard…” Bruce stammered.

“Big words, little man!” Emil kicked Bruce in the chest, sending him sprawling toward the door. “Here we go, here we go, more of the stuff. I’m going to be Captain America, Bruce, Captain Goddamn America!”

Bruce pulled himself up. He tried to slow his heartbeat, tried to calm down, tried to slow the progress of the serum inside his veins, but he couldn’t… “Nuhhhh…”

Emil pushed Bruce down again and headed out the door. Bruce could hear Emil start up his truck as he pulled himself up again. What could he do? What could he do? Fear filled him. He was full of a biological attack agent. In his veins was a weapon of mass destruction. He hadn’t yet performed trials! The top brass were here because they wanted to shut down the project! The gamma bomb took precedence! The gamma bomb…

He looked over to the monitors that showed the testing grounds. The bomb wasn’t active yet. He’d have… what was he thinking? What… He ran over to the monitor that showed the boundaries of the bomb site. A red convertible had just crossed into the grounds. His heart raced. Someone was headed straight for the zero site! His heart raced and his blood was pumping. He had to hurry!

***

“Rick…” Bruce groaned.

“Wanting a friend, Banner?”

Bruce opened his eyes and the Leader grinned. The lights were on bright but Banner’s eyes had adjusted, and he could see his captor fully now. His head was unnaturally enlarged, and his skin pigment… green? “Who’re… you?”

“I’m the Leader. That’s my name now. My emancipation from the human race was thrust upon me, but I accept that now. I am part of the homo superior!”

“You’re a mutant?”

The Leader paused. “…No.” He cleared his throat. “Would you like to meet my friend Blanco again?”

“Whuh… What?”

“Blanco!” The ground quaked. The world shook. “He’s put on a bit of weight. Don’t mention that, though- he’ll get all angry.”

The doorway to the room smashed open as a behemoth entered. He was almost as big as Leonard Samson had been, but instead of his flesh being green, he was albino, and the little skin he had left was stretched tightly over bulging muscles. “Hhhhhhhhrrr.”

“He’s still a bit woozy from the procedure, but I thought you’d love to meet your ‘brother’, as it were.”

“You’re… insane…”

“Maybe. But at least I use my insanity for the forces of… science!” He turned to Blanco. “Now, you, go stretch your legs. One of my animates will lead you to the surface, and you can go try out your new abilities. How does that sound…?”

Blanco grinned, flashing large, yellow teeth. “Sounds… worth… it…”

“Good.” The Leader watched as Blanco left, and when he was out of ear shot, turned back to Bruce. “Won’t be long now, Banner. A normal man would have died by now, but you’re still regenerating cells, even in your default form. Isn’t that fascinating.”

Bruce didn’t reply. His head hung limply down.

“Banner? Nothing to say?” The Leader approached him slowly, and pushed his head back. “Well, Banner?”

The Leader didn’t notice the subtle change in pigmentation in the thin scientist’s eyes. It was beneath him to notice such meaningless things.

“I…” Bruce gathered his strength, and then spat in the Leader’s eye. “…I’m going to kill you.”

***

“Hulk feels… tired…”

“I think… we’re dying,” Bruce said.

“Hulk will not die! Hulk strongest… one… there… Hulk is tired…”

“You need to focus. We both need to focus. On anything…”

“Anything…?”

***

Bruce pushed the car to its limits. Everything was becoming sharper. The parked red convertible was just within his sights, and he had to get there before… why couldn’t he think straight? Why couldn’t he keep one thought in his head for longer than a few… push the car to its limits. “YOU! YOU!”

Rick Jones unhooked his headphones from his ears, and looked confused. “What’s up, man?”

“You idiot! You’re… hhhhhhgghh… you’re in danger!”

Rick moved his hand to start his car up. “Yeah man, from you, it looks like… S’up?”

“This is a testing site! A military testing site! Didn’t you see the signs?!”

“Dude, we all know that the man puts that crap up to keep people penned in. You’re joking.”

Banner leapt out of his car and pointed to the massive structure to their left. “Then what’s that?!”

“Dunno. Why is it flashing?”

“It’s a BOMB! We’ve got to… GHhhhh…”

“You alright man?”

“NO! WE’RE GOING TO DIE!” He grabbed Rick, and pulled him out of the car with inhuman strength. “Come ON…”

“Where are we going..?”

“The bunker! Just…”

Sirens blared. <<GAMMA BOMB DESIGNATE ZERO POINT ONE: FIRING.>>

“… Oh God.”

He pushed Rick down into the bunker, and felt his blood pumping in his ears. He looked down at his hands, and could swear… they were growing? Rick looked up from the bunker. “Come on, man! Come on!”

“Hhhh…” Bruce reeled back, his clothes beginning to tear, and then the gamma bomb exploded… Green light bathed him, and then everything went dark.

***

“Oh. God,” Bruce said.

“Hulk does not understand.”

“It wasn’t the gamma radiation… You… you weren’t caused by the gamma radiation…”

***

His muscles tensed. Blood began to pump inside him. Blood began to spontaneously form inside his bone marrow… his skin hardened. The tubes inside his chest were rejected violently, pushed out by newly forming body mass, and blood spilled out of the openings as they hit the ground. The spinal reservoir keeping him sedated was on the ground in seconds, and the damage from the rejection, a torn spinal cord, was quickly fixed as new nerves grew.

“Hhh…” Bruce Banner screamed in defiance as the Hulk began to emerge. “Give… give… them… Hell…”

His skin changed colour, his muscles multiplied again and again until he was stronger than anything, and then, as he stepped off the rack that helped him down, he stretched outwards. “Hulk… Will… SMASH!”

***

The Leader wasn’t amused when the alarm blared. “Huh. Well. That’s interesting.” Security cameras flickered online, and then the green blood inside the Leader drained from his face. “Oh, lord.”

The Hulk was free. He stepped toward the crumbled doorway that led into the main complex and then hesitated. The Hulk turned and looked at the camera. He pointed at it. That lingering look of defiance. And then in a blur, the entire underground complex shook as the Hulk leapt upwards. Higher and higher until…

Air!

The Hulk was free. He fought the urge to run, to be free, and instead turned. He felt something pulling at him. He took a step forward, and just in view was Blanco, holding something that glistened in the sunlight. Blanco. His enemy. Fueled by his own blood. The Hulk roared, and began to run.

***

“…You… weren’t needed… but… it was… fun…” Blanco dropped the metallic, glistening man, and looked around. “The Leader… will… be pleased…”

“HULK SMASH!”

Blanco spun around too late, and his face was shattered by a blow from the raging Hulk. He pirouetted on the sand, and hit the ground hard. Hulk roared in anger, and pounded on his fallen adversary, fist meeting flesh and muscle, slamming down harder and harder.

“Ggggghhh… Banner… No…” Blanco pleaded.

“EYES DOWN!” Hulk punched him again “HULK DIDN’T GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO TALK!” He punched him again and again and again.

“B-Bruce?” Another voice.

Hulk screamed and pounded his own chest as he stood up from where he had been crouching, and then turned towards the voice. “Is… that you?” the metallic man asked.

Hulk approached the man, who was encased in gold and red. “Who… is… tin man…?”

“Oh God, Bruce, it’s me. It’s Tony Stark…” The man coughed blood. “Don’t you remember?”