Earth-717: Hulk Vol 1

Chapter 7: Loss

Ross and Talbot stood outside the operation room. Ross had his arms folded, while Talbot had his behind his back. They were silent for several minutes as they waited. Afterwards, the door to the room opened, and a young woman in a blue paramedic outfit stepped out. She had short, brown hair, sharp facial features and striking blue eyes.

"Are you the . . . ." started the woman.

She looked at Ross and paused.

"The ones . . . . in charge, of her?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What's the story?" asked Talbot.

"She's incredibly resilient," said the woman. "I've never seen anyone take that kind of punishment . . . . she shouldn't be alive."

"But she is alive?" asked Ross.

"Yes. Heavily beaten, but it looks like her body is healing at an accelerated rate . . . . do either of you know . . . ."

Talbot looked at Ross with a raised eyebrow. Ross narrowed his eyes and then nodded. Talbot looked back at the woman.

"She's a mutant," said Talbot.

The woman's eyes widened.

"Oh," she said. "Well, that makes sense now. We'll need to keep her for a while, probably a day or so, but even with her . . . . uh, abilities . . . . she's going to need lots of time before . . . . going back into, the, uh, field, I suppose."

"Understood, ma'am," said Ross. "We'll send a unit to pick her up when she's ready."

Ross turned away and put on his cap. He gestured for Talbot to follow him. Ross walked past Talbot and kept moving down the hallway. Talbot started walking, but then stopped and turned around to face the woman.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I had the chance to catch your name," said Talbot.

The woman weakly smiled.

"It's Jane," she said. "Jane Foster."

Talbot nodded and smiled before tipping his hat.

"Miss Foster."

Talbot turned around and walked after Ross as Jane sighed. Ross smirked as Talbot caught up to him.

"This is no time for socializing, Major."

"Just being courteous, General," replied Talbot. "So . . . . what are we doing with Sabra?"

"Shipping her back to Israel."

"Just like that? I mean, she almost took him down."

"Almost," said Ross, "is the key word there. Sabra was never my final solution. I just needed an emergency response plan until my special project was complete . . . . and I just heard from my engineering team that it is."

"Special project? Why am I just hearing about this now?"

"Because it's a surprise."


An hour later, Ross parked his jeep outside of a large, industrial warehouse. Talbot, who was sitting in the passenger seat, looked around the building to see that nothing except for fields surrounded the warehouse for miles. Frowning, he watched as Ross got out of the jeep. Shrugging, Talbot pushed open the door and walked over to Ross.

"This is where you're taking me?" asked Talbot.

"We're not about the decor, Major," replied Ross. "The real prize is inside."

Talbot nodded and followed Ross as he walked towards the door. Once he reached it, Ross looked over his shoulder, and scanned both directions of the nearby street. After a few seconds, he nodded in satisfaction and grasped the handle. Pulling down, the metal of the handle let out a soft clicking noise as it shifted into place. Pushing the door gently, Ross watched as it slowly crept open with an elongated creaking sound. The room inside was utterly dark.

Talbot looked over at Ross with a face of concern. Ross didn't respond and walked into the room. Talbot followed suit, and the door closed behind him once they were inside. For a moment, everything was silent and black. Then, a voice spoke as a small light near the top of the room turned on.

"Identify yourself."

"Ross. Thaddeus. Rank, General."

"Voice identification confirmed," said the voice. "Who is your guest?"

"Talbot. Glenn. Rank, Major," replied Ross. "He has my authorization."

"Understood."

A door on the other side of the room opened, and a small amount of blue light flowed into the room. Ross walked through the door as Talbot raised an eyebrow. After a couple of seconds, he began walking after him. As they entered the new, much larger room, Ross turned his head back slightly.

"This . . . . is my final solution."

Talbot's eyes widened as he turned the corner to see what was in the centre of the warehouse. Several engineers and technicians were moving about the room, preforming various duties, all based around the object in the middle of the room. It was a large, silver, nine foot tall metallic humanoid, with a circular chest piece that glowed with blue light.

Talbot felt his mouth hanging open as Ross lit a cigar and placed it in his mouth.

"Did . . . . Sterns build this?" asked Talbot.

"No. I wanted to keep the good doctor out of this one . . . . since the origin of the designs . . . . well, let's just say we have to keep the circle small. I hope you understand."

Talbot nodded.

"This," started Ross, as he blew out some smoke, "is how we're finally going to kill the Hulk."


Bruce coughed into his hands as he huddled next to the corner wall of the motel building. Wearing shorts and a crumpled sheet, he sniffled before focusing on regulating his breathing. Closing his eyes for a moment, he then looked over to the left, into the alleyway between the two buildings. In the alleyway was a rugged man with shaggy, grey hair, surrounded by a pile of garbage. He was yelling at a cardboard box that was in front of him, with a television crudely drawn on it in black marker.

"This show sucks!" yelled the man.

Bruce looked at the pile of garbage, and saw that there was a jacket on top of it. The jacket had a name tag pinned on it that displayed the name 'Jordan'. Bruce watched the man shout at the cardboard box for a few minutes before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Time to go," said Betty.

Bruce nodded as Betty grabbed his hand and helped pull him off the ground. Glancing one last time at the man, Bruce then followed Betty towards the staircase attached to the motel which lead to the rooms.

Betty opened the door to the room. Looking around for a moment, she then pushed it all the way open and walked inside, followed by Bruce. He was shaking and holding his chest as he stumbled in. She closed the door behind him and helped him on to the bed.

"This should work for a little while," said Betty.

Betty sat down next to Bruce and placed her arms around him as he continued to shake and slowly breathe.

"Hey."

Bruce blinked a couple times before turning his head to face Betty. After staring at her for a few seconds, he softly smiled.

"Hey," said Bruce.

"You're shaking."

"Huh?"

Bruce looked down at himself, noticing that he was indeed shaking.

"O-Oh."

"Here," said Betty.

Betty pulled Bruce tighter towards her body, placing her left hand on his right cheek and using her arm to frame his chin. He closed his eyes as he pressed his head against her body, and she wrapped her right arm around the back of his neck. They sat in that position for several minutes as she felt him breathe against her chest and shoulder. Eventually, he broke the silence.

"T-Thank . . . . you."

Betty squeezed Bruce's shoulder. She then gently pushed him off so that he was sitting upright. He looked back at her before gulping.

"This . . . ."

Betty blinked, staring at Bruce as he spoke.

"This . . . . this, I . . . . I n-needed, this . . . . to . . . . to, to . . . ."

Betty placed her hands on Bruce's cheeks.

"Bruce."

Bruce closed his eyes for a few seconds. As he opened them, he tried to speak again.

"To . . . . see you, see . . . . y-you, here now . . . . uh . . . . it's, w-what I needed . . . ."

Betty smiled. Bruce's breathing slowed.

"B-but . . . . we can't, can't . . . . s-stay . . . . have to, have, k-keep . . . . ugh . . . . keep moving . . . ."

Betty shook her head.

"No. Not tonight."

"What?"

"Tonight is for rest," said Betty. "No more running. No more hiding. You . . . . need to stay here, with me now. I am going to take care of . . . . Bruce . . . . I know that you said you needed this . . . . the thing is . . . . I need this too."

Bruce tried to shake his head, but Betty's hands kept it straight.

"I . . . . I can't stay. Ross . . . . Tal-bot . . . . they'll, they'll find . . . ."

"No."

A tear fell out of the corner of Betty's eye as she kept a straight face.

"You can't keep living like this," started Betty. "I can't live like this. Knowing . . . . knowing that you're out there, struggling each day to stay alive, barely clinging on to life . . . ."

Betty closed her eyes and lowered her hands, placing them on Bruce's shoulders. More tears fell from her eyes as she opened them.

"All the while I'm doing the same thing," continued Betty. "You think I can just go out there and do whatever I want? Huh? You think he isn't ruining my life too?"

Betty's facial muscles began to vibrate.

"I d-don't get to do anything. I don't have . . . . a real life. Not anymore. I'm always monitored . . . . and it's not for my safety. It's because of you. Because he knows . . . . knows that if you could, you would try to find me. Talk to me. That's it. That's the reason that my life has become a prison sentence. Because you care."

Bruce frowned in pain.

"So don't tell me that you have to run . . . . because tonight is probably the only night that he can't take away. So I'm not giving that up for anything."

Bruce licked his bottom lip as he closed his eyes and nodded.

"Okay."

Betty sighed and closed her eyes as she placed her forehead against Bruce's. For a long while, they sat there in silence. As the rain poured outside the motel room, ROB's cloaking mechanism rippled for a moment. ROB tilted himself to the side as he watched them through the window. He then felt the access code in the back of his mind. He quickly turned away, looking at the road. He heard the voice in the back of his mind.

"Have you found them yet?"

"No," replied ROB. "Still searching."

"Understood."

The access code switched off. ROB then turned back to look at Bruce and Betty one last time before turning away and floating upwards.