RAMPAGE

In the deserts of New Mexico, loud echoing noises, as if bombs were exploding, filled the vast open wasteland. Sure enough, it's revealed that the cause for those noises was that of the Green Goliath himself, the Incredible Hulk, who leaped his way through the desert until he finally stopped at a small crater, which just so happened to be the place of his 'birth.' Upon reaching this place, the Hulk sat down as he remembers the events that led to his creation...

...More specifically, the day in which Bruce Banner was at the testing site of a Gamma Bomb, where a young and careless teenager named Rick Jones wandered into the site while it was just minutes away from exploding and was running towards him. "What are you doing, kid?!" he asked as he quickly grabbed Rick's arm. "You need to get to shelter now!"

"Hey, hands off, pal!" said Rick, trying to pull his arm away from Bruce in defiance as the scientist was trying to get him out of harm's way. "I'm trying to settle a bet with a few guys that I'm not...!" Suddenly, before Rick could finish his sentence, he is soon brought to a nearby trench.

Sadly though, before Bruce could get in himself...

KABOOM!

The experimental gamma bombed exploded in a blinding green light, where the screaming Bruce felt the searing heat and pain from the radiation...and moments later, the whole world to him went completely black...

...All in which resulted in the Hulk himself, who as he thought about that day, he soon spots the astral form of Bruce Banner sitting next to him. "Hard for me to believe too," said Bruce. "Still feels just like yesterday."

Hulk let out an annoyed grunt upon seeing the 'weakling' that was Bruce Banner. "What do you want?"

Bruce felt a little offended by Hulk's brashness towards him, after all, he figured since they had come to an understanding of who controls the body, he just thought that he might have grown on the jade giant just a little. But he explained as to why he was now right before the green powerhouse. "I know you needed some time to yourself after the whole Red Hulk incident," said Bruce, trying to break this gently. "And I also know that you weren't fully eager to officially rejoin the Avengers after the mess with Galactus. But by now, I'm sure that Cap, as well as the rest of Avengers, now see you as a friend and are willing to make up for the mistake they made in not trusting you. They need you...just as you need them."

This was enough to make Hulk snort with anger, then stand up and look down at Bruce. "I don't need anybody!" barked the Hulk, after letting out a breath, he seemed to calm down a bit, but his anger was still present. "But...I don't know. Cap may have pulled through for me, but Stark and the others have turned on me two times already. How am I supposed to know that they won't do it a third time?!"

Before Bruce could answer that question, their conversation was halted when they heard the voice of a young woman calling from a short distance. "Hulk!"

The sound of the woman's voice caused both Hulk and the ghostly Bruce to spin around, and a both surprised to see that the voice came from none other than that of the beautiful, black-haired love of Banner's life, Betty Ross. The sight of which not only brought a smile to Hulk's face but that of the Astral Bruce, which led the two of them to say this in unison. "Betty...?"

Betty, with a relieved smile and tears of joy running down her cheeks, soon ran towards the Hulk. However, she stopped when Hulk also headed towards her, and thanks to his muscular legs, ran much faster and approached her more quickly, thus forcing her to stop it right then and there. Nevertheless, she looked up to the green-skinned behemoth happily, then gently grabbed his large right hand. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" Betty told the Hulk, but later became somewhat hesitant, and she began to ask the question that would get him riled. "Can I see Bruce? Please Hulk, I need-"

Suddenly, and without warning, an armored female figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, via deactivating of a camouflage device, then grabbed Betty and jetted off into the sky.

"BETTY!" yelled both Hulk and the astral Bruce, and as Bruce's spirit faded away, the Hulk, with rage surging through his body, bent down and with his large leg muscles, jumped straight up into the air in pursuit of the mysterious female that just abducted the love of his life.

In the sky, as Betty struggled to get free, the armored female looked over her shoulder to see the Hulk hot on her trail. Moments later, however, she flew down and landed in a small nearby town, and strangely dropped Betty off on the sidewalk. Just as the Hulk landed, the armored female flew right back up into the air once again and disappeared, leaving a visibly Betty behind.

Though the Hulk was naturally confused as to why the mysterious female just dropped Betty off and let, he could ultimately care less. Betty was his primary concern, and he proved to rush over and to arrive at her side.

While dazed and confused over what just happened, Betty soon calmed down a little bit when she felt Hulk's massive hands gently touch her shoulders, thus making her look up at the worried giant.

"Betty...?" asked a worried Hulk, an emotion that he did not show very often.

"I'm fine, Hulk...thanks to you," replied a relieved Betty, but suddenly, she begins to twitch uncontrollably. "I-I'm fine, Hulk, thanks to-thanks to-I'm fine-Thanks to-" As Betty started to ramble on and on like a broken record, her head suddenly shot off of her shoulders like a bottle rocket, a sight that surprised and confused the Hulk. Nevertheless, it proved that this was not Betty Ross at all, but that of a life model decoy! As Hulk dropped the headless Betty decoy and stood up looking baffled at what just occurred, he soon heard, as well as felt, mighty running footsteps coming his way.

As the Green Goliath spun around, he saw that the footsteps were coming from that of colossal, bulky, heavily armored horned villain who often fought with Spider-Man in New York. It was that of Alexander O'Hirn, otherwise known as...the Rhino! "Heads up, Jolly Green!" he shouted as he rammed his head, and ultimately, his horn, into the Hulk's solar plexus, then quickly moved his head to the right, and in turn, threw Hulk off of his horn and into a small electronic's store. "Huh, who knew that the big, bad Hulk was a sucker for the babes! Even if those babes weren't real."

As the Rhino stood there confidently, basking his glory of seemingly beating the Hulk in one hit, the Jade Giant lied in pain with his hand over his abdomen, namely the spot where Rhino gored him, all the while on top of demolished merchandise completely underneath him. After a few short moments, however, he could feel the open wound start to close up, and after he removed his hand, he saw that they would be now fully healed. Once Hulk sat up, he looked around to see whether or not he crushed on any innocent people, and sure enough, he did squash a few. But luckily though, like the Betty Ross that he saved, they were all life model decoys. All of this which made the Hulk realized that this was all a trap. One in which used his love for Betty to bring him in...something that enraged him. And so, the Green Goliath stood right up, lets out an anger fill roar, then jumped up through the ceiling and bursts out of the stores roof, ending up into the air and dropping back down onto the ground outside, where he was just three feet away from Rhino and making a small crater on the pavement beneath his feet.

The Rhino himself stood somewhat amazed, for not only was the Hulk's wound healed, but on how resilient the green monster was. Nevertheless, this made him smile a bit, for he saw this a challenge. "Well, looks like you are as tough as people say are!"

The Hulk, however, just stood there with an angry scowl and pounding his massive fists together. "You haven't seen anything yet, horn head!"

With a cocky smirk, the Rhino charged towards the Hulk with the intent of ramming his horn into his abdomen, and this time, make sure that the green powerhouse didn't get back up.

This time, however, the Hulk held up his hands and caught the Rhino by the shoulder, who refused to stop running and caused the Hulk's feet to drag and leave streaks into the pavement. Finally, as the Rhino was forced to stop running Hulk pushed the horn villain's shoulders downward, then wrapped both of his tree-trunk sized arms around his waist. Now in control, the Hulk used his strength to throw the Rhino up into the air and crashing into a sidewalk, destroying it upon impact.

As the dazed Rhino rolled to his stomach and tried to push himself back up, he noticed that the Hulk was running towards him. This was enough to make the horned brute get back up on his feet, then run straight towards the Hulk himself and throw a mean left hook, only for the Green Goliath to hold up his left arm to block the punch, then responded with a right cross to the Rhino's face, followed by a left uppercut to his jaw, sending the villain reeling back. Even after taking such a punishing blow, the Rhino was able to shake off the effects of the punch and spotting the Hulk going for another right cross, to which he blocked by holding up his right arm use his left fist throw a hard middle punch to the Hulk's gut, knocking the wind out of the Jade Giant and forcing him to stagger backward. Now with enough space in between them, Rhino looked around until he spotted a nearby street lamp, then bent down, grabbed the base and pulled it right out of the pavement. With 'weapon' now in hand, the Rhino ran in and swung it like a baseball bat, nailing the Hulk in the left side of his head and sending him flying and crashing face first into a pickup truck.

All this attack did was make the green powerhouse see nothing but red, and sure enough, the Hulk stood straight up and pounded both of his fists into the truck, picked it up over his head and split it into two, thus creating two make-shift metal punching gloves. Moments later, the Hulk turned and ran towards Rhino, who once again took a swing with the street lamp. Fortunately for Hulk, he held up his left hand and used his 'truck glove' to block the swing, then capitalized by throwing a steel enhanced right hook to the side of Rhino's face, stunning him.

Though knocked loopy, the Rhino saw that the Hulk was about to bring both of his gloved hands into a clapping motion and use the two halves of the truck to bash his skull in, thus forcing the villain to hold up both of his hands to cover his head and successfully protected it against the truck gloves. He then noticed Hulk throwing a left legged front kick, and thus used both of his hands to catch his left leg by the ankle, then spun the Green Goliath around and threw him right into a gasoline tank of a pickup truck, causing a massive explosion.

But even this was not enough to stop the Hulk, and after bursting out of the flames, as well as let out a roar, he clapped both of his hands together, and thus created a massive shockwave that was powerful enough to dispense the flames around him, but also stunned the Rhino with enough force to stagger backward. Once he saw that the Rhino had dropped his guard, the Hulk ran in and gave his horned opponent a hard right cross to his jaw, one that was so powerful, it sent him flying backward, plowing through three cards and crashing into another building that just so happened to be a gas station. Now back on the offensive, the Hulk jumped up and landed right on top the Rhino so he could deliver more punishment to him.

Meanwhile, a from a long distance away from the town, the armored female landed on top of a cliff, then turn and used her zoom in vision feature in her helmet to see the Hulk and Rhino at the gas station. Moments later, the armored female pressed a button on her helmet as if to get in touch with someone. "Both the Hulk and O'Hirn are in position."

The armored female's transmission made it to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrier, where the Iron Patriot listened. "Excellent," said the mysterious Thunderbolt, then turned to face Maria. "Proceed with phase two."

Maria replied by giving the Patriot a nod, then turned to a female, Hispanic agent sitting at her computer station. "You heard him," she told the agent, then typed in a sequence on her keyboard.

Back at the gas station, Hulk pulled his right fist back and was just about to deliver the final blow to the semi-conscious Rhino, but stopped when he heard an unusual beeping sound coming from behind one of the gas pumps. Upon getting a closer look, he saw what appeared to a technologically advanced black box with a digital clock counting backward from ten suddenly appear via its small holographic project deactivating. But even more puzzling to the Jade giant, he noticed more black boxes appear when their clocks activated, be it they were under the nearby vehicles, the buildings, until ultimately, the who town was infested with these devices. The Hulk, however, did not appear to be completely surprised by this, but slightly annoyed, seeing as how he suspected that this was a trap.

The Rhino, on the other hand, had regained some of his consciousness and noticed all of the boxes appeared and saw this with his eyes wide open with fright. "Oh, crap...!"

Both the Hulk and Rhino all watched as the boxes collectively reach zero, until...

KABOOOOOMMM!

They all explode and completely obliterate the town, leaving only flames with neither Hulk or Rhino in sight.

It was a sight that did not go unseen, however, for Maria, the Patriot, and all of the agents on the bridge saw the explosion via the large screen in front of the Helocarrior's main window. A sight in which pleased the Patriot himself, who looked at this with a grin behind his faceplate. "Now that we have that green neanderthal out the way," said the Patriot. "Let's move on to phase three."