The Watchers: The Incredible Hulk
The movie started off with a close-up of a gold-silhouetted globe, gradually panning out to show the revolving planet and, in large, bold text, the name of the studio.
"Universal studios this time, huh?" Oliver noted, "Thought the last one was… crap, I can't remember; something about a mountain?"
"Paramount Studios," Wally answered. "They had the stars form a halo around a mountaintop."
"That's the one," Oliver snapped his finger and nodded. "Pretty understated entry for them compared to the whole 'global motif' these guys have gone for."
"These guys are called Universal studios though," Dick pointed out, "And the studio switch isn't all that much of a big issue. Sure, most franchises are owned by the studio that bought the rights to them but a collaboration between two or three studios isn't entirely impossible."
"The closed-door meetings for that kind of collaboration would be pretty intense, though," Raquel pointed out as the red-and-white comic-strip motif of Marvel Studios rolled on. "I mean, the scope of the project, the operational costs, the profit sharing…"
"You seem to know a lot about this stuff," M'gann pointed out, to which the dark-skinned girl smirked.
"Icon and I have rescued our fair share of business moguls. I chose to switch the autograph pleas for advice on how to run a successful business empire."
As she spoke, the opening credits of the film rolled by: studio names, production companies and what was almost certainly the lead actor's name, all overlaid atop multiple images of x-rays and other medical related photography.
"Okay, I get that this might deal with science and anatomy but if I have to slog through more than ten straight minutes of boring science stuff, I'm out of here," Artemis noted with an eyeroll.
"Really? The medical reports are what got your attention?" Zatanna asked with an arched eyebrow.
"What else is there, the overly ominous soundtrack?" The blonde scoffed. "It's pretty obvious that they're trying to set the tone of the movie with that."
"Yeah, but the title seems pretty awesome all the same," Conner noted as the title appeared.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK
As they watched, the credits rolled on, actors' names overlaid by medical reports of all kinds, interspersed by scenes of a laboratory in the middle of some sort of exotic energy experiment.
"Okay… looks like they're getting most of the boring research parts outta the way and skipping straight to the human tasting phase," Raquel noted with the faintest hint of a frown. "Which is good for us, since we won't have to sweat the small stuff but not exactly the best for the guy strapped to the chair."
"Yeah but it looks like someone really splurged on the lab so maybe he won't have much to worry about?" Dick said, his uncertainty about the unexplained procedure onscreen showing in how his statement ended up sounding more like a question than otherwise. "I mean, it's gotta be better than-"
"Dude," Wally cut in with a disagreeing head shake. "Flashing danger signs, worried-looking head scientist-type, ominous soundtrack: absolutely none of that points to a 'successful experiment' here."
Right on cue, the view zoomed onto the man's eyes as they grew bloodshot, bulging with faintly glowing veins creeping through them.
The next instant, a massive hulking back was shown, followed by the perspective of the scene changing to be viewed through a faintly green filter. A flurry of frantic scientists dashed around the control room, smashing buttons and turning dials; all the while, the female scientist stared with a violent mix of emotions -fear, horror, heartbreak- all visible in her eyes.
"Well shit," Oliver muttered as they watched a large, overly muscled hand flounder shakily, casually tearing through the chair the man had been strapped to earlier and receiving a few hundred volts of electricity in return. "You know, if I didn't know how beneficial these kinds of exotic experiments tend to end up being, I'd be harping about how we really need to cut down on them. I mean, I don't know if it's intentional or not but sometimes, it feels like Hollywood just abuses the hell out of the 'experiment gone wrong' trope."
"To be fair, you cannot completely remove the potential for these -or indeed any- kind of experiments to go wrong," J'onn stated, speaking up for the first time since the movie commenced. "The element of human -perhaps I should say organic life- error in the processes leading up to these experiments are often the cause for the failures that are sometimes recorded."
"I agree with you, J'onn, but Oliver is not incorrect either," Diana put in. "While the potential for error does, in fact, remain regardless of how many attempts at reducing them are made, the movie industry seems to glory in abusing the notion of human imperfection, whether it is wildly destructive results of altering chemical processes or faulty programming in the cores of advanced AIs or creating grotesquely disfigured bio-engineered lifeforms."
On screen, the monster that had once been a man charged into the control room to the visible horror of a gray-haired man. The explosive movement of the monster had seemingly unintended consequences, however, as the monster seemed to note when it stood over the badly wounded female scientist. Reaching forward with its overly large hands, the monster suddenly let loose an annoyed growl when a man garbed in formal military wear, shot at it.
"And there's the other wildly famous monster trope," Raquel pointed out with an exaggerated drawl. "The military's always gotta have something to do with it."
"Least I wasn't the one to point out," John sighed. "I mean, I get that most developed countries -and a number of developing countries- have pretty robust weapons development and acquisition arms but the whole 'we want X monster now!' thing is seriously overplayed."
Basically ignoring the bullets, the monster yanked the older man -a general, going by the adornments on his shoulder pads- out of the way, snapping the bones in his arm before punting the shooter through a wall. The monster turned its gaze on the grievously wounded man who let out a frightened cry when he realized that he was the focus of the beast's attention. His frightened cry seemed to mollify the monster -a sort of proof that he was no longer a threat, perhaps- and, rather than bring down the building, it simply plowed its way out of the building with a fearsome roar.
"… okay, that? That must have been pretty terrifying to the old man," Artemis noted with just the tiniest of shivers running down her spine. "I mean, we haven't seen the whole thing yet but I can't imagine it looking all soft and charming."
"However it looks, this monster… no, this creature, seems to have a degree of intelligence, limited as it might be, and retains a level of control over its impulses, all of which seem to be leftover traits from its formerly human self." Kaldur stated. "Given time, I suspect that it may very well grow out of its current, bestial nature."
The scene changed: a hospital room, with the lady scientist on a gurney, wired up to what seemed like the whole gamut of medical equipment. Beside her, the man from the experiment stared at her injured features with a broken expression as he recalled the loving times they had shared.
"Wait, I thought the guy became the monster-thing?" Conner frowned. "How the heck is he here now?"
"Perhaps the transformation into that… creature we saw earlier was a temporary thing," J'onn suggested, "inflicted as a result of whatever they sought to accomplish."
"Whatever the case, he seems really broken up about hurting her," M'gann remarked quietly. "He must have really liked her."
The tender moment was broken by the arrival of the General whose arm was strapped tightly to his side in a brace. The man's fury was evident and, even with the simple flashes that lacked any audio, it was clear that the two men had argued, perhaps even yelled at each other, with the General taking a more aggressive stance.
"Okay, there has to be a connection between the old man and the lady," John noted decisively. "That argument right now nearly came to blows and you don't do that for some random stranger or even a casual acquaintance."
""I agree," Diana nodded, "Considering the flash we saw of the younger man's memories, it seems likely that the older man is a close family relation; a father or an uncle."
"Could be an ex-lover too," Oliver pointed out. "I mean, he seems pretty darned old but stranger things have happened."
"Please let him be a dad," Artemis groaned. "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with it -they are consenting adults and all- but it still feels way too much like cradle robbing to me."
The woman came to in time to see the tail-end of said argument. She seemed to catch the eye of both men, who quickly fell silent but just as her eyes flickered over to her love, a soldier walked up to the general and the younger man took the opportunity to escape.
"Looks like the blame game's begun," John muttered just loudly enough for everyone else to hear. "The volunteer-guy is being held responsible for the incident at the lab."
"Which, of course, makes no sense," Dick added with a small frown. "I mean, sure monster-him rampaged around a bit and killed at least one soldier but we've already established the fact that the rampage was not intentional-"
"You're being too logical here, Dick," M'gann noted quietly. "If we're right and the old man really is related to her then it's kind of obvious that his emotions currently outweigh whatever logic there is."
The introductory scene continued, showing newspaper clippings and photos that all detailed the 'Culver University Incident' followed by more clippings and photos of various sightings of the creature and the swath of destruction that seemed to follow it. Then, a number of recordings detailing the efforts of multiple tactical squads at apprehending an unnamed person of interest played back, the as-yet unnamed General smoking his lungs away as his every effort ended in failure.
"Hold the phone, is that- it is!" Conner said excitedly. "It's the Stark Industries logo!"
"Looks like they're preparing a whole armada for whatever's going on here," John noted, eyes narrowed speculatively. "Stark's delivering some sort of enhanced Humvee with… yeah, looks like some kind of high-powered beam rifle."
"Wait, what's with all the excitement?" Kara asked, her hand midway between the popcorn bowl and her mouth. "What is Stark?"
The question drew incredulous looks from just about everyone present, the sudden attention almost forcing the Kryptonian back into her metaphorical shell before Zatanna pointed out what, in retrospect, should have been a very obvious fact:
"She wasn't here for Iron Man."
A wave of understanding 'oohs!' rang through the room, leaving Kara and Raquel feeling oddly self-conscious.
"Okay, so we're definitely going to have a girls-night sometime to catch up on that but the spoiler-free version is that Stark Industries, headed by Anthony 'Tony' Stark, is a weapons manufacturing company," Artemis explained quickly. "The whole slew of movies we're working our way through are part of a 'Marvel' franchise."
"I assumed the franchise would consist of standalone movie series but this?" Dick gestured at the image frozen on the screen. "We might be looking at an interconnected universe here."
"I noticed that you did not seem confused at the mention of Stark Industries," Diana said to J'onn as Dick hit the play button. "You were not at all curious about their sudden excitement?"
"I believe I would have been if I was unaware of the reference," The Martian replied with a smile. "Dear M'gann shared her memory of the… viewing party, I believe it is called. It was refreshing to see you and the rest of our friends interact with our young proteges as peers rather than mentors. Though I found your outburst about 'paying mister Stark's doppelganger on our world a visit' a tad… crude."
The Amazon did her best to hide an embarrassed blush from everyone else. "I… I let my anger at Stark's nonchalant attitude cloud my thinking. I only realized how my words seemed after Kaldur'ahm pointed out how Stark's actions might have mirrored his father's."
"I suspected this as well," J'onn nodded. "However, we must remain cautious of our words and actions, especially in the presence of our young friends. After all, one never knows how their actions might affect another."
Diana nodded, accepting the gentle rebuke for what it was and resolving to be better.
By the time the two members of the League returned their attention on the screen, the focus was on a ticking metronome, rhythmically counting down the time as images flashed by, building to a crescendo -until a lean, sweaty hand clamped onto it, silencing the ticking.
"He's found a place to lay low then," Raquel stated as she folded a leg up on the couch and dropped a pillow into her lap. "Looks like the movie's finally kicking off."
"Seems that way," Oliver nodded. "A hundred and fifty eight days without incident huh? Looks like we've found the missing five months."
"It would explain how he's been able to stay beneath the General's radar," John agreed. "If he has -somehow- found a way to prevent the transformations from triggering then he can move around without the press drawing attention to him."
"I'd be pretty surprised if at least one person hasn't connected the monster to him yet," Kara frowned thoughtfully. "I mean, someone has to have noticed that he's always around the areas the monster's been sighted; it's not even journalism, that's basic sleuthing 101."
"Maybe they want to meet the guy before exposing his identity to the world?" Artemis shrugged. "Or General Smokestack's keeping a lid on the media so they don't get too close to this?"
"True…" Kara conceded the point and Dick hit the play button.
On screen, a tired-looking Banner placed the clock on the floor with a sigh even as the scene transitioned to show an aerial view of a sprawling, densely populated area that was built on the leeward side of a highland range that overlooked the ocean. As the view moved, a tag in the lower right corner of the screen displayed the location: ROCINHA FRAVELA – BRAZIL
"He's got a good head on him," John remarked. "That's a densely populated area with enough branching paths and interconnected alleys to make even the Labyrinth feel simple."
"In addition, it is a foreign country which should limit how much force the General will be able to level against him at any given time unless he is willing to harm innocents and create an international fiasco." Diana added "As far as hiding spots go, Banner couldn't have done much better."
"You seem to know a lot about being on the run, Wonder Woman," Kara noted, sounding slightly baffled. "I mean, I'm not saying you've ever been on the run-"
"First off, Kara, while we are here we generally do away with the public personas," Diana smiled, "In here, I am just Diana."
"Yeah, we kinda ditched the formality after a while," Oliver commented. "Too… stifling."
"Agreed. As for my knowledge about being on the run," Diana continued, "While I have never had to hide from the law as this Banner character is forced to, I trained for such possibilities on Themyscira."
Wally blinked, surprised by the response. "Wait, so the Amazons taught you how to hide from authority?"
"It was more of an expanded training on how to hide from pursuers," She explained. "The training just covered everything from hiding away from regular enemies to keeping a low profile in crowds."
"Sounds like the ultimate self-defence summer camp," Raquel smirked. "Where do I sign up?"
"I'll talk to the head counsellor and get back to you," Diana laughed as the movie rolled on.
Banner worked away at a stove, putting the final touches on a simple meal he had prepared for himself and feeding a few scraps to a large black dog that stood to his side. When he was satisfied with his efforts, he slid the meal onto a plate-
"I wonder what dish that is?" M'gann muttered to herself. She had been looking into expanding her recipe list beyond baked goods and the occasional snack so the simple-looking dish had caught her attention.
Surprisingly, Kara supplied an answer to that, responding with a confident, "Feijao Tropeiro." Seeing that she had earned everyone's attention with the unexpected knowledge, she explained: "My roommate in NCU* was Chilean; she got me into Latin American cuisine. I'm not an expert by any means but some of them stuck and that just happens to be one of them."
"Someone's got depths," Oliver teased, playfully jabbing an elbow into Kara's side.
"Um, would you mind teaching me?" M'gann asked shyly. "Only if you want to, I mean! I don't-"
"I'll gladly teach you everything I know about it," Kara smiled at her. "Just say when."
Plate in hand, he turned on an old vacuum tube TV and picked up the well-read Portuguese-English dictionary and plopped down onto a seat he had dragged in front of the set. Settling for what appeared to be an educational program with a puppet, he opened the dictionary to a bookmarked page and started eating, keeping an eye on the TV. He had just put down his spoon when a word caught his attention. Paging through the dictionary, he quickly found it and tested it out to the dog. Feeling pretty confident in himself, he nodded and gave the dog a head-rub before getting back to his meal.
"Looks like he's getting familiar with the local language," John nodded approvingly. "I know I've said it before but it's good to know that he's got a good head on him."
Zatanna, along with Conner and M'gann didn't really seem to understand the need for the local language, though, and the young mage spoke up.
"You may not realize it, Zatanna, but languages provide a somewhat understated social link between people," Kaldur stated.
"Kaldur is correct," J'onn nodded. "Communication is a key element for building trust; without a means of clear communication between two parties, the development of trust is often hampered. This is why acceptance into a new culture is often sped up when a foreigner understands the language of the natives."
"It also provides an extra degree of security, which is particularly useful here," Oliver added. "Speaking the local language makes you a little bit less of a foreigner; accepting their customs, especially participating in their customs makes the bond even stronger such that anyone looking for you raises red flags in the society's collective mind."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," John agreed.
After his breakfast, the lanky man was then seen walking through the streets, a cap and a white shirt on as he headed to a new destination.
His destination turned out to be an old building that had been converted into a gym. Said location was empty save for Banner and an older, stocky man who seemed to tutor the foreigner in the basics of jiu-jitsu. After getting slammed onto the mat a few times -and subsequently practicing the same moves on his instructor- Banner sat on the mat, directly facing his instructor. Both men were seated cross-legged and the instructor was explaining something to him.
"Let's work on your breathing." The instructor said in his native tongue while placing his palm on his chest. "Here, emotion…" Feeling that his 'student' might get lost, he switched languages. "Fear, no good," He continued in broken English. "So emotion…control."
"His English may not be perfect but the underlying message is pretty spot on," Dick said, getting nods from Kaldur, Artemis, Oliver and Dinah. "Fear cripples, inhibits logical thinking and causes you to doubt yourself so an integral part of most martial arts schools is teaching the practitioners to control their fears."
"Wait, control fear?" Conner asked, clearly confused by something. "Not get rid of it?"
Oliver shook his head. "Contrary to some schools of thought, fear is not something to completely eliminate," He elaborated. "Fear is an important element in human survival, kid: it acts as a sort of warning system, your body's way of saying 'danger, approach with caution!' From there, your body processes the options and decides on what to do: flood your system with adrenaline and prepare you for a fight or flight or lock your muscles up to keep you from being seen."
"Adrenaline is an effective enhancer in certain situations," Kaldur continued. "It pushes the brain to process information faster, sharpens the senses, all of which are beneficial to surviving dangerous situations."
"Okay, so fear's good, then," Conner said slowly.
"In small doses," John clarified. "The thing with fear is, just like any other emotion, there's a fine line between it being useful and it being crippling. The same fear that helps sharpen the senses can dull the brain's ability to process information; you're breathing faster, oxygenating your blood and getting ready for action… except your brain's too frightened to make a decision. That's what the statement 'fear kills' means: it stops many people from making the decision that could end up saving their lives."
"Learning to control your fear allows you to take advantage of the benefits of your body's instinctive fear-based reactions without compromising your ability to think things through." Diana summarized.
The two of them then began to perform some breathing exercises, taking short, sharp breaths in quick repeats.
"Use your diaphragm." The instructor said before showing off his control of his abdominal muscles with an advanced breathing technique. "The best way to control your anger is to control your body." He explained.
"Hey! Canary told me about that!" Conner remarked, recalling the many sessions he'd had with the blonde heroine.
"Did she also have you do the weird ab-training?" Artemis asked teasingly, expecting the Kryptonian to blush furiously.
So, she was caught off guard when he smirked at her. "Looking for an excuse to stare at them again? Cause you'll have to ask M'gann if she's in a giving mood."
"And I'm not," The Martian 'teen' stated decisively before bursting into a fit of giggles at her friend's gobsmacked face. Beside her, Conner shot Wally a discrete thumbs-up as everyone laughed at Artemis' expense.
The hours of Quip-Fu training amidst their work on his suit was finally beginning to show results.
"Control your pulse." The instructor told Banner… before slapping him hard in the face.
"Okay…" Raquel blinked in shock. "Well, that's one way of doing things."
"Breathe"
Feeling his pulse quicken, the lanky student immediately heed his instructor's command, sucking in short, sharp breaths in a constant pattern… right before a second slap threw his head to the side. An insistent beeping noise chirped from somewhere as Banner struggled to maintain emotional equilibrium, practicing the breathing technique again before glancing at the heart-rate monitor strapped to his wrist.
"So, it looks like our favorite fugitive's struggling with a temper problem," Oliver noted.
"Yeah, and he got the world's crankiest instructor to help him out," Wally scoffed. "I mean, getting slapped?! Really?"
"The instructor's methods, while crude, were not entirely unfounded," Diana disagreed. "It is easy to profess one's control of their own temper when unprovoked; the story often changes, however, if a person's sensitivities are prodded. For many, an unfounded attack is enough to trigger their anger, a fact that this man seems ready to exploit."
"Besides, if this leads where I think it will, a few slaps will be the least of Skinnyman's problems," Dick added. "Don't forget, he has a pissed off General looking for him with squads of crack troops on the ground."
"Yeah… that's a lot worse than a slap," Wally admitted with a wince, to which both Raquel and Artemis snorted.
"Understatement of the year, Baywatch."
"You gotta gift for understatement, you know that?"
Through with his training for the day, Banner joined a moving throng of people that filled the streets, many of them headed in the same direction as he was: a large, somewhat rundown but still functional factory.
The scene changed to show a large, rowdy locker room filled to the walls with men in various states of undress as they changed into their work-clothes. The view gradually moved in to focus on Banner, now decked out in a pair of blue coveralls with black-and-gray ball-cap still on, as he tidied his locker up. He was just finishing up when a thuggish man intentionally shoved him forward, practically pushing him into the locker.
"Yeesh, someone isn't popular," Zatanna muttered.
"Nah, that's just the obligatory bully," Kara replied with a faint scowl. "Because society just wouldn't be the same without them."
"Sounds like you've had a bit of a bad experience with one," Wally noted, clearly fishing for a story.
Kara didn't disappoint: "Oh trust me, what I had was way worse than just bad! Emily DuPont was evil! Like, she was the closest thing to a devil we had at Ridgehill. And she wasn't even a classic bully type! She wasn't a cheerleader or a star athlete or whatever, she was just dedicated her life to making everyone miserable!"
Oliver winced at the clear anger in the blond's words and started, "Okay, on behalf of Miss DuPont, I'd like to apologize to you, Kara, and anyone else who's ever been bullied." When he saw the confused look the Kryptonian woman directed at him, he nervously scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah… I was a bit of a bully back in senior high. Nothing physical!" He quickly confirmed, before deflating again, "It's not like the fact that it wasn't physical makes it any less appalling."
"You know, I've always wanted to ask this so I might as well take this chance," Wally spoke, his uncharacteristically serious tone drawing attention. "Why do people bully other- no, let me ask you: why were you a bully?" Beyond being a serious question, it was also deeply personal to the redheaded speedster. Of everyone present, only Dick knew that he had been bullied when he was much younger: before switching schools, reinventing himself as 'the Wallman' and becoming the decently popular jokester at Central City High, he had spent most of his elementary and junior high days as a target of relentless bullying, his freckly face, ginger hair and then-scrawny frame the primary cause.
Though he had fought his way out of that stage, the idea that one of the men he had grown to respect for 'standing up for the little guys' had, at one time, been on the side of the enemy…
"Looking back…" Oliver sighed tiredly. "Looking back at the Oliver of that time, I just can't figure out what the hell I was thinking. Was it the money? The looks? I can't figure out what it was but I know a large part of my 'bully mindset' came from a feeling of superiority. It was like… hey, I'm better than you so you either kiss the ground I walk on or watch me make your life miserable."
"The company you keep also plays a part," Diana added solemnly. "While I was never subject to bullying myself, I was often able to watch many of my peers interact from a distance and I saw how the relationships and associations kept by individuals gradually turned them into things that are often far removed from who they truly are."
"So peer pressure and superiority complexes," Wally scoffed. "That's all you need to scar someone for life huh?"
"Sometimes bullies change, Wally," Artemis said quietly, resting her head on his shoulder. She may not have known that he had been bullied but she could tell that the matter was deeply personal to him, just as she knew, through personal experience, how much Oliver had changed from the immature youth he had once been.
It wasn't much of a consolation, she knew, she was there to help him work through the rest of it, however long that would take.
When Dick hit the play button, the movie continued from where they had stopped, showing a sighing Banner toss his cap into his locker and locking it away before switching scenes to show a sprawling forest of machinery, steam pipes and conveyor belts laid out in a seemingly disorganized mess that rose from the ground floor of the factory, occasionally rising to nearly two-thirds of the building's height. Catwalks connected various sections to each other as the conveyors rolled on, carrying an assortment of materials around the factory as daylight shone through the large windows.
On the ground floor, Banner pushed a trolley laden with the boxes around, delivering each box to a different workstation while the other workers slogged away at the task of bottling the factory's AMAZONA - with Guarana Kick! Soda. As he made his rounds, he came to a station that was manned by a particularly pretty young woman, whose shy smile somehow enhanced her beauty, in spite of her sweaty form. Unfortunately -for her, at least- the lanky foreigner, though interested if his equally shy smile meant anything, seemed distant and her smile quickly disappeared as he was swallowed by the throng of workers.
As he moved on, though, his attention was drawn by a sudden cry of, "Breakdown! Breakdown!"
The problem, as it turned out, came from a power relay switch that controlled one of the conveyor belts. Upon realizing this, Banner swiftly walked to the faulty box and took out his glasses-
"Wait, he wears glasses?!" Conner goggled at the sight.
"Do you have a problem with people wearing glasses?" J'onn asked humorously, shifting to his human alter ego and donning a pair of square=rimmed spectacles.
"No, it's just… he looks so weird with them on," Conner explained. "He almost looks… I dunno, like a professor or something."
"Well, he's clearly not as simple as he seems," Artemis noted as they watched the lanky man swiftly reach in and, within seconds, had the problem solved. "I'm getting Iron Man vibes here."
Wally turned to her with a questioning stare. "What do you mean babe?"
"I don't exactly like admitting it but Tony ended up being a lot more complex than the initial 'billionaire playboy-slash-rich asshat' he seemed like in the first act." She explained. "That's what I was referring to: Mister Banner, here, started off as a simple test subject gone horribly wrong, then he's a fugitive and now he's, what, a handyman?"
"I see what you mean, Artemis," Kaldur agreed. "Taken together with how affected he was by the scientist… Doctor Ross, I believe she was called, and how even the creature he transformed into seemed to regret hurting her, it seems like there is more to mister Banner than we first saw."
Walking up to the man that had summoned him, Banner said, "I can make it work for a while, but you need, uh..." His attempt at explanation fizzled as he realized that, with his limited grasp of the language, he wouldn't be able to get his point across.
The man in question seemed to know exactly what he was trying to get at and responded with a dry, "I need a new factory." in Portuguese.
"Self-deprecating humor aside, the man's right; that factory looks like it's racked up one hell of a mileage," Kara observed. "I mean, he's obviously doing his best with what he's got but…"
"It doesn't look like there's a lot of profit coming in from that factory," Dick said, picking up from where she had stopped. "Most of the revenue likely ends up in the hands of the workers as their wages."
"Yeah, and venture capitalists don't exactly shell out the dough for 'dime-a-dozen' factories," Oliver agreed. "To be fair, though, much as I hate to admit it, if the product doesn't have a high chance of making large profits then tying my funds up in it just doesn't make any economic sense."
"True as that is, it doesn't quite console the business owners does it?" Raquel asked as Dick hit the play button.
"Five months you've been helping me out like this." He said, shaking his head ruefully as Banner coupled the disassembled power switch together. "You're too smart for day labor. Let me put you on payroll."
"Wait, what does he mean, 'put you on payroll'?" M'gann asked.
"It has to do with the wage structure for certain jobs, particularly menial labour," J'onn answered. "While skill-based jobs require that the company collect accurate records of their workers, physical labour jobs in factories like these tend to require far less documentation, and in Second and Third-world nations, the policies are loose enough that you could simply walk in, provide a name and a contact detail and you would have a job for the day."
"Which is where the term 'day labour' comes in: you show up, get in through the gates and you have a job for the day. You don't show up the next day and someone else fills your spot," John continued. "With skill-based jobs, you have a binding agreement detailing your job description, pay and other legal details; with day labour, you work however you're needed for the day and get paid an agreed fee without much hassle. And that's perfect for a man on the run."
"No need to put in his real name, no pictures or documents, hell depending on what the manager's like, he could request for cash so he doesn't leave a money trail," Raquel hummed thoughtfully. "That'd make him difficult to find, especially if the General doesn't have a clear idea where he's hiding."
"Exactly."
Attention split between his employer's words and his task, Banner's finger caught on a sharp edge of the boxy switch, a single drop of blood flying dramatically through the air until it landed amidst a group of bottles three levels below.
It was as though a madness had taken over him: no sooner had the blood landed than he was chasing it down in a blur of frenzied, panicky movement, pushing other workers out of the way while yelling for the manager to "Turn it off!" every other step.
"Hey Red," Raquel called out, eyes narrowed as she sat up. "You thinking-"
""I'm not a biology major but yeah," Wally nodded at the same time Dick did. "Whatever happened to him in that lab might have altered his genetic makeup."
The Team's resident geniuses seemed to agree on that, but Conner remained skeptical. "It can't be that bad guys; I mean, it's just a drop, right? And it's not like he's infectious or… I dunno, contagious or something."
"The part about him not being contagious or whatever may be true, big man, but it ain't a fact," Raquel rejoined. "And if it ain't then the absolute last thing anyone needs is another monster running around."
"As for the part about it being just a drop, it depends on just how powerful the causative organism is," Dick added. "Some blood-borne diseases require a bit more than a single drop of blood to get into a potential host's bloodstream before infection can take hold; for more resilient viruses, a drop is enough."
"Yeah but you're comparing his blood to… well, viruses and bacteria and all but the problem here is that those are all living organisms," Kara noted. "The human blood cell, on its own, isn't really alive, right? I mean, when a virus-infected blood cell infects another, the virus is what gets replicated, not the blood cell itself."
"Again, that's partially correct but still limited thinking," Wally answered, "The blood cell isn't really alive, yeah, but only if your definition of life includes the terms 'reproduction' and 'growth.' Anyway, that's beside the point: blood cells function based on a set of pre-programmed instructions, carrying out very specific tasks. And one of those tasks is attacking whatever it considers a threat."
Raquel snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "White blood cells!"
The redhead nodded. "One of the risks in the early days of blood transfusions was that the cells could reject one another and white blood cells from Sample A would attack sample B*. Of course, advancements in genetic research have helped reduce such occurrences to nearly zero but the fact that it could happen opens another angle: what if whatever happened in the lab turned Banner's white blood cells into… well, super cells? What if exposure to even a single drop is enough for these mutated cells to basically destroy 'rival' cells while remaining immune to attacks from said 'rival' cells?"
"… all of a sudden, his wild running makes a ton of sense," A faintly green Oliver admitted.
Cupping his hand around his injured thumb to ensure that he didn't spill more blood, he came to a halt in front of the area he had seen the drop spill onto. Shifting the bottles aside with his good hand, he released a sigh of relief when he saw a single, neat drop of blood on the conveyor belt and nothing more. After carefully wiping it clean, he patched up his wound with a bit of glue from a tiny tube he pulled out of his pocket before turning to the rest of the workers. "Okay!"
The manager, still standing where he had been when the man had been struck by his sudden fit, rolled his eyes and called for the other workers to get back to work.
"You know, as serious as that whole scene was, I can't seem to get my mind past the poor health standard they've got in that factory," Artemis stated as she peered darkly at the cans of soda on the table. "I mean, a drop of blood spills and they're all just taking it like it's nothing to be bothered about."
"To be fair, I doubt if anyone else noticed, even the manager," John said. "I mean, it was a single drop of blood; if it wasn't so important to the plot, I doubt that we'd have noticed it. For the manager who wasn't expecting it, it happened too fast for him to have seen anything and the workers would have been too busy to notice."
"I'm actually more bothered by the way the whole thing just tidied itself up," Kaldur pointed out. "For a drop of blood to have fallen from such a height, the splatter on the conveyor belt was far too… contained. In addition, there should have been two splatters, not one."
"Wait… two…" Dick's eyes grew as the realization hit. "The blood split into two drops as it fell!"
Right on cue, the movie showed the now departing Banner's back before zooming in closer to a bottle that had slid further down the belt…
A bottle with a drop of blood smeared in it.
The watchers stared with mounting horror as the bottle slid forward to be filled with the neon-green soda, diluting the blood until it was untraceable before going on to be capped, packaged and marked for shipping.
"Oh hell…" Kara swore softly as the movie showed the package being moved to the distribution section.
"Looks like someone'll be getting a little bit more of a kick outta their favorite soda," Oliver muttered darkly.
"Well, this certainly proves that Bruce's paranoia might not always be unfounded." Dick added.
Later on as Bruce joined the rest of his fellow workers on their way to grab some lunch, he noted an altercation occurring on the far side of the factory: the same guy that had shoved him aside earlier in the day was now hitting on the young woman who seemed interested in him earlier. The woman seemed extremely uncomfortable with the situation and, upon catching Banner's eye, she shot him a desperately pleading look that turned to despair when he, after what seemed like an intense, internal battle, turned and left.
"What the-!" Raquel stared at the screen in shock, an action replicated by Artemis, Wally, and Conner. "What the hell man?!"
"You'd think that, after the whole 'stop and stare' thing, he'd actually man up and do something," Wally added.
"Would you prefer it if he brought the factory down around his ears?" J'onn asked quietly, drawing their attention. "You must remember that, for all his simple actions, he still bears a dangerous secret."
"The big monster," Wally said, earning a nod from the elder Martian.
"It is why he takes those jiu jitsu classes, why he was so terrified of his blood getting in contact with another person's," Kaldur supplied. "Whatever actions he takes must be tethered to preventing the transformation into the creature."
"He also has to worry about his actions -or their unintended results- getting back to Smokestack," Oliver added. "Right now, keeping a low profile and generally not rocking the boat has to take precedence…"
Flinching away from her 'suitor's' touch, the young woman's features suddenly turned hopeful when Banner, apparently having had a change of heart, returned to the scene.
"… then again, he might be considering setting down roots," Oliver shrugged as the man defied his expectation.
Not quite certain of what to say, he decided to blurt out the first thing that came to mind: "Martina, do you want to have lunch with me?" he asks in Portuguese.
The man turned to him with a dark scowl. "Get lost, Gringo."
"Yeesh, it's like he's not even trying to be likeable!" Zatanna scowled.
"I'm guessing 'gringo' is an insult?" Conner asked.
"Not really," Kara replied. "I mean, Isidora -my roomie- occasionally called me gringo when she was teaching me to cook. By itself, it means foreigner,* it's the way it is used that changes it from a neutral term to an insult."
"And the turd over there couldn't have been more offensive if he tried," The Kryptonian clone nodded.
Realizing that the foreigner wasn't ready to just back off, the thug turned to him with a vicious scowl. "You got a problem?"
"No problem," Banner replied, hoping to defuse the situation before it got out of control.
Unfortunately, the thug wasn't having any of it and shoved him back, spitting out a harsh "Too late!" as the foreigner stumbled back.
Seeing that resolving the matter was nearly an impossible task, he tried one last tactic: intimidation,
"Don't make me... hungry"
"Best catchphrase ever!" Artemis snorted as the room filled with laughter. "I swear, I can just imagine the bad guys falling over when they hear it."
"I should probably say something about correct intimidation tactics and all but…" Diana trailed off again when she saw the stupefied looks on the faces of everyone in the movie.
"You wouldn't like me when I'm... Hungry."
The Cave exploded into another round of laughter, and then laughed even harder when the now thoroughly confused Banner frowned and said, "No, wait. Oh, that's not right."
"Ya think?!"
Thinking that the foreigner was mocking him, the thug dove at him, attempting to tackle only to miss wildly when the man simply sidestepped the horribly telegraphed move.
Luckily for Banner and the now-named Martina, the manager noticed what was going on and ordered them all to get out of the factory, an order the two were all too willing to heed, not noticing the dark look the thug lanced at their retreating forms.
The next scene showed Banner, coveralls tied around his waist, as he walked up to meet someone in the shadow of a large building. Whoever the man was, he was someone that Banner seemed to know well as they launched into a quick conversation that soon had the foreigner standing akimbo, head bowed in defeat. Then, the next moment, he was perked right back up as the man he was meeting with pulled out a long, green package and waved it reassuringly in front of the man.
For a few moments, Banner seemed almost afraid to hope until he held it in his own hands and broke into an excited smile, embracing the deliveryman tightly.
"Someone's happy," Raquel noted dryly as they all wound down from their laughing sprees.
"Must've been quite the package to have him this excited," Dick agreed. "Wonder what it is?"
"At the speed he's moving?" M'gann gestured to the screen where the man was racing down the streets at a pretty decent clip. "I don't think we'll have to wait too long to find out."
"You see that?" He yelled as he burst through the door, his eyes almost wide with excitement as he rifled under his bed and pulled out a backpack. "Our ticket out of here!"
"Man I wish mom was here," Artemis groaned. "She'd see that under the bed is a perfectly logical place to dump your stuff!"
"…Artemis… babe, that's just… no," Zatanna shook her head. "Under your bed is neither a logical nor a decent place to 'dump' stuff."
"And that's not taking the fact that you aren't supposed to just 'dump' stuff anywhere in the first place," Wally tutted. "For shame, babe, for shame."
The blonde archer glared at her boyfriend and supposed 'friend.' "Baywatch, Zee, your rooms better be golden when I see 'em…"
"Superspeed," Wally sang.
"Magic," Zatanna smirked.
"… all of my hate."
Pulling out a laptop and portable dish from the bag, Banner quickly set both devices up on his table beside a large microscope, pausing to run his finger over his sole picture of Elizabeth Ross, before returning to work. His fingers danced across the keyboard in a familiar pattern as he swiftly set up an encrypted connection via the satellite dish. Opening a very basic-looking Instant-Messaging software, he quickly typed out a tentative, "Blue, are you there?"
As he awaited a response, he grabbed the package he had received and got to work on opening it.
Then, he got a response from 'Mr. Blue.' "Mr. Green! Good hearing from you again, my mysterious friend."
"Looks like the general is about to find him again," John stated with a frown that helped wipe away whatever remains of laughter they still felt. "If he already knows about the 'Blue' character when they've never met then it's safe to assume that he's hacked into Banner's system."
"How'd you figure this 'Blue' guy isn't one of Banner's old friends?" Kara asked.
"Standard military procedure for ops like these is to have surveillance in place around the target's most intimate friends, the closer they were, the more intrusive the surveillance." John explained. "From what we've seen of Banner, he isn't the type to willingly hurt a friend so I'd bet that he's distanced himself from his more well-known associates. Meaning he'd go for names that he normally wouldn't be connected to, probably people in the scientific community that would be considered… disreputable. Brilliant, but not respected."
"Makes sense," Oliver nodded. "Plus, 'Blue' referred to him as his 'mysterious friend.' Not exactly a term denoting familiarity."
Onscreen, the chat continued:
Mr Green: "I've found it."
Mr Blue: "At long last."
Mr Blue: "It's a lovely little flower, isn't it?"
At that point Banner lifted an innocuous-looking white flower from the banana leaf covering it had been delivered in and stared at it determinedly.
"You know, a part of me feels horribly letdown with this reveal," Conner admitted. "I mean, I can tell that it's gotta be important to him for some reason it's just sorta disappointing."
Mr. Blue: "Be sure to try a high dose."
Mr Blue: "Good luck :)"
"'Try a high dose' huh?" Dick muttered as they watched Banner carefully snip the flower petals into a ceramic pestle. "An organic-based serum of some sort?"
"Richard?" Zatanna turned to him with a small, concerned frown. "Are you-"
"I'm fine, Zee," He gave her a wan smile even as his mind raced ahead. "Just getting ahead of myself again."
Onscreen, Banner moved with the swift, confident motions of an experienced lab hand as he quickly used store-bought and backyard-cobbled equipment to synthesize a serum from the flower extract. Then, when he was through, he moved over to the microscope while drawing a drop of blood from his that he smeared on a clear slide. He added a drop of his new serum to the slide before placing it below the microscope and staring through the sights.
The powerful microscope allowed him to see his blood cells as they appeared after the Culver Incident: each cell seemed almost cancerous, with neon-green patches covering large areas of the cells.
"Oh my-" Kara forced herself to stifle a shudder of revulsion at the sight of the diseased looking cells. "That's his blood?"
"It would appear that his frenzied panic at the factory was, if anything, underplayed," J'onn frowned. "For his cells to be so unstable… the drink that was tainted by his blood may well be poison."
As he looked on, though, the cells began to twitch and vibrate before gradually returning to perfectly healthy red blood cells.
"Looks like there might be some light at the end of this tunnel," Raquel noted, eyes narrowed as she focused on the screen. "If this works- shit!"
The cause of her sudden expletive became clear as the healthy cells suddenly regressed at an aggressive pace, the green pigmentation not only returning but now subsuming the entirety of each cell, growing larger and larger until the slide cracked abruptly.
Banner's heart sank as his tentatively hopeful expression drained into a defeated outlook.
"By the gods…"
"His blood just cracked the microscope slide!" A wide-eyed Wally exclaimed.
"What the hell kind of experiment were they carrying out in those labs?" John swore as he -and the rest of the watchers- tried to wrap their minds around what they had just seen.
"His cells didn't just reject the change, it was like they took out the serum with a vengeance," Kara observed shakily. "And the way they expanded…"
"I don't think the General truly understands what he's going up against," Dick swallowed.
Mr Green: "Another failure"
Mr Blue: ":("
Mr Blue: "How much did you use?"
Staring hopelessly at the now petal-less flower, Banner typed: "All of it."
Mr Blue: "Then it's time to meet."
For a few seconds, Banner seemed tempted by that choice and it seemed like he might agree… before he sighed and typed: "Not safe."
Mr Blue: "Living with GAMMA poisoning is not safe."
"Gamma poison…" Raquel trailed off as her eyes grew wide with shock. "They were playin' around with gamma radiation?!"
M'gann's face scrunched up in confusion as she asked, "I'm guessing gamma radiation is bad?"
"Even in really low quantities, gamma radiation is powerful enough to seriously affect the atomic structure of many objects," Wally started. "In organic tissues, a gamma radiation bombardment would damage the DNA of the host organism, creating defects in their genetic structure."
"In this guy's case, I don't even know how he's alive," Dick stated. "For him to have been affected on a genetic level like his bloodwork indicated… that much gamma poisoning should have killed him thrice over."
Mr Blue: "Stop chasing flowers."
Mr Blue: "Send me a blood-sample."
Mr Blue: "I can't help you if you won't let me."
Banner stared at the screen for a moment before sliding his eyes over to the only picture of Elizabeth Ross that he had left.
In the end, he really only had one choice and in the next scene, the lanky man was filling a vial with a blood sample and securing the vial in a package that he quickly addressed to his unknown associate and handed it over for delivery at the post office.
"Man I hope this 'Blue' guy can help here," Conner frowned as they watched Banner stand outside the post office, seemingly filled with second thoughts. "The guy looks like he could use a break with all that's happened to him."
"Looks like he'll have to wait a while for that break though," John said darkly as a familiar, five-sided building appeared on the screen. "The Pentagon's just gotten involved."
It was as he's said: the building, bearing a location tag of Arlington, Virginia, was the famed center of military control in the United States and, inside one of the many offices within the complex sat a familiar figure.
"Oh hey, it's Smokestack," Artemis said in her most deadpan tone as the camera focused on the -once again smoking- General. "You'd think he'd give a shit about his own lungs or something."
"Hold on," Zatanna called out, her tone oddly serious in light of Artemis' dry comment. "The scientist lady that Banner's got a thing for, she's Elizabeth Ross, right?"
"Yeah… so?" Conner asked.
In response, Zatanna took the remote from her boyfriend, hit the reverse button for about three seconds and then paused the movie. "See anything familiar?"
"His name is Ross!" M'gann gasped, having noticed it first. "General T. Ross!"
"Considering his appearance and likely age, he is almost certainly the Doctor's father," Kaldur pointed out. "Which explains why he was particularly upset at her state in the hospital."
"Great," Oliver muttered. "So Banner's not only being hunted by a vengeful man, he's being hunted by a vengeful dad. That just makes it so much worse."
He knew all about vengeful fathers too; Detective Drake's vendetta against him in his early days as the Arrow had taken a really nasty turn when his daughter had gotten caught in the crossfire.* He still had the scars from those citywide manhunts, in fact.
"Here's something a bit more interesting." Onscreen, a uniformed assistant handed in some documents, drawing the General's attention. "It's possible gamma sickness."
"Gamma Sickness?" Kara asked haltingly. "You think…"
"It is possible," A somber J'onn nodded.
The next scene seemed to confirm the unspoken thoughts: an elderly, glasses-wearing man opened a fridge, looking for something to drink until he stopped at the same kind of bottles seen in the factory.
Raquel whispered, "Oh… that's not going to end well."
"Milwaukee," The assistant's voice narrated off-screen as the man reached in and grabbed a bottle, popping the cap off before taking a long pull from it. "A man drank one of those guarana sodas."
The man froze, seemingly hit by a nasty case of brain-freeze before letting out a whispered, "Wow!" before the bottle slipped out of his numb fingers, shattering and spilling its contents on the floor.
"Guess it had a little more kick than he was looking for."
"Son of a…" John broke off midway through his curse. "He took a mouthful of a drink that contained a single drop of Banner's blood and it hospitalized him near-instantly!"
"Makes you wonder how the old man's still alive," Artemis frowned. "I mean, Smokestack's assistant called it a 'case' of gamma sickness, right? Nothing about it being fatal or anything?"
"Yeah, if the old man died, there'd probably be a bit more to say than just calling it a case," Kara agreed.
"I'm actually not that surprised that he survived," Wally admitted. "I mean, that's the Hugh Hefner of their world, right? He's bound to have enough cash to splurge on, you know, not dying."
"Wait, how'd you know that the old man's Hugh?" Raquel frowned.
"He was in the first movie we saw," Dick said as he tapped out a few commands on his holo-computer and projected the scene of Tony's entry to the firefighter's gala. "Here's Tony greeting him."
"Huh. It really is him," Zatanna nodded. "Wait, when did you get the movie digitized?"
"Wally and I did that… a month ago?" Dick looked to Wally for confirmation.
"More like five weeks ago," The redhead answered. "We needed to reconfirm a bunch of details while working on the blueprints for project: EXO-KON so I digitized the movie and gave it to Dick so we'd have access to the source material anytime we needed it."
"Project… EXO-KON?" Raquel asked.
"A battle exo-suit for me," Conner replied. "We got the idea from the movie."
"So how's the suit coming along?" An interested John asked. "You started assembly yet?"
"Like hell we have!" Wally snorted. "We don't even have a full set of blueprints yet!"
"The project is… well, it's more challenging than we anticipated," Dick admitted. "The movie only shows clips of the internal workings of the suit without diving deeply into that so we might as well be starting from scratch."
"Need any help?" Raquel asked, her curiosity piqued by the challenge the suit seemed to present. "I mean, I worked on a number of things with Icon so I've got a decent grasp on tech."
"Yes please!" Conner consented immediately. Of the three of them, he had often felt… left out whenever they worked on the suit: while his brain seemed to easily take apart technological devices and figure out how to put them back together, it was far harder for him to actually come up with the plans for a project like this. With Raquel, though, he felt confident that they would crack the blueprints much faster than their current progress and he could get to the actual assembly where he would no doubt perform better.
"Tell you what," Oliver said, "I'll give you guys another two months to try your hands at this and then I'll put in a word with Doctor Stone at STAR Labs to see if he can't take a look at what you're working on. That sound okay?"
"Heck yeah!" Wally cheered. "Oh man! I am so fired up right now!"
"Yeah well we've got a movie to watch so keep it under wraps Baywatch," Artemis said pointedly.
The scene switched back to the office where the General, having both read and heard enough, stood up and calmly demanded, "Where was it bottled?"
The assistant glanced down at her notes and replied, "Porto Verde, Brazil."
Ross' expression hardened as a cold fire seemed to come alight in his dark eyes with his next words: "Get our agency people looking for a white man at that bottling plant. Tell them no contact." He seemed to grow even more serious about that last point. "If he even sees them, he's gone."
"This man…" John stated with a deep scowl. "He's all the worst military stereotypes rolled into one hard-assed package."
"Looks like Banner's on a collision course with General 'Smokestack' Ross," Oliver stated grimly. "Let's just hope the old man's ready for whatever Banner's going to fire back with…"
TW: TIH
*- NCU stands for National City University. Totally fictional.
*- This is true: Acute Immune Hemolytic Reaction. Pretty sure the med-students in the house have heard of it at least once. Oh, and if I missed (or, more likely messed) anything up please let me know via PM so I can correct it.
*- Pretty extensive research showed me that the term 'gringo' can be used inoffensively. Kara's example was from one of the research samples.
*- Another alteration to a hero's backstory: in this case, I'm taking an element from the Arrow TV series and moulding into this reality. As such, Dinah Drake (the second Black Canary) was the daughter of Detective Drake (who's tapping in for Detective Quentin Lance). Those are the basics, y'all should fit the rest as you please.
So, here's our first chapter for The Incredible Hulk, part two in our 'Young Justice watches the MCU' series!
I'd like to say a big welcome to everyone who's joining us, fans and newcomers alike! I hope I've been able to hit the standard you've come to expect!
I'd also like to say a huge 'thank you' to Katana of the Blade for her work on this transcript as well as to Mr War, my sound-board, advisor, editor and everything in-between. You two are amazing!
Finally, a huge 'welcome to the team!' and an even huger 'thank you!' to Vein Bloodborne for providing the transcript from his and Katana's joint work, "RWBY Watches The Incredible Hulk. May the fruit of our work reap bounteous harvest!
I've got nothing more to say for now except that the next chapter will be available by the 15th of June. See you then!
Mr War & The Ethereal Lord
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