Chronology Note: This story occurs some time between Incredible Hulk #311 and #312.
It was a realm of the deepest, most impenetrable blackness imaginable, against which a seemingly limitless series of yellow paths twisted and turned in dizzying patterns, all of which eventually terminated at a glowing portal, beyond which nothing could be seen, making their ultimate destinations a mystery. At the point from which the myriad paths branched out stood a large, solitary and gnarled tree, from the trunk of which grewnumerous arms, all pointing in different directions.
To those who knew the place, it was called the Crossroads, from where endless dimensions, realities without number, could be accessed.
Along one of those pathways there currently lumbered a gargantuan, green-skinned humanoid creature. The muscles in its thick arms and legs were as huge and hard as boulders; a pronounced, Neanderthal-like forehead jutted out over the brutish face. As for clothing, only a pair of purple trunks adorned the creature's midsection. On Earth, the creature had been born a man named Robert Bruce Banner, but in his current jade-hued form, he was known to humanity as the incredible Hulk.
It was because of the threat the Hulk's existence posed to the human race - though he himself did not seek to harm anyone, merely to live in peace, only to be so often provoked into violence by outside forces - that the heroes of Earth had reluctantly exiled the emerald behemoth, at the time reduced to an animalistic and barely sentient state, to these Crossroads, where - they truly hoped - he might find a world where he could prosper and be content.
But the Hulk had searched long and hard for such a world, with only limited success so far. Every time he discovered a world where it seemed he might live in peace, dissappointment had come his way and he had been returned this nexus. Now hunger and a loathing of his environment drove him to again search for a portal to travel through.
He presently came to one such portal, an opening in which a curtain of milky whiteness, lit here and there by brief, tiny flashes of golden light. He growled softly, wary of possible danger beyond. His brute brain dimly recalled his unpleasant experiences on the world of the red knights, and the world of ferocious demons to which his so-called 'friend', the Puffball Collective, had tricked him into going. But a grumbling belly, a parched throat and aching lonliness triumphed over his sense of caution, and so the Hulk stepped through the portal to whatever awaited him on the other side.
OOOOOOOOO
"Oh, father, we're going to die!" Jya wailed, clinging tightly to Orpen as they both cowered against the sheer rock wall. In front of them the dalrel lizard advanced closer, the scales covering its seven-foot long body glittering in the noonday sun shining down atop the forest. Its mouth was agape, saliva dripping from the rows of fangs onto the earth of the forest floor.
"Courage, daughter!" Orpen told her, fighting down his own terror. "Fear will not help us now!" They had come to the gully in the woods today to pick berries for the evening feast. With their baskets filled, they had been about to make their way back home when the dalrel beast stalked into the narrow gully, cutting them off. They had not expected this; the creatures rarely ventured this far from the deep interior of the wood.
The animal hissed sibilantly as it crept closer, until it was mere inches from them. Jya shut her eyes as tightly as she could and gave a small whimper as she prayed to the Originator to receive the souls of her father and herself. She heard the lizard growl as it prepared to spring...
...And then opened her eyes in astonishment as a deep voice shouted "NO!" in a tremendous roar, and from above dropped a gigantic figure with skin the colour of the forest leaves, and eyes filled with fury. The being landed just behind the dalrel, with enough impact to cause a small tremor and, glaring at the startled beast, bellowed "MONSTER NOT HURT PEOPLE!"