Talia, what have you done?
Rachel DeLanco found herself on her back upon her couch in the living room, staring blankly up toward her plain, white ceiling. Her mind, however, was in an entirely different place altogether.
The events of the past few days continued to play in her head forwards and backwards, every little detail scrutinized, rewound, then nitpicked again. The end result was an uncomfortable fact wedged into her brain: Talia had been caught. Even worse to Rachel, though, was the fact that Talia had turned herself in.
This predicament wasn't completely unexpected. The two of them had talked about such a possible scenario of her getting caught by some type of law enforcement. After all, rampaging around occasionally as a half-naked giant green rage monster usually meant their presence wasn't far behind. However, Talia, with Rachel's help, had always done her best to avoid crossing paths with them.
So how could she be so stupid?
Rachel closed her eyes and sighed heavily. She's not stupid. Talia was the smartest person she knew, and even now she understood why her friend would choose this path, and it wasn't stupidity, it was desperation. She was losing her battles against the She-Hulk, and those lost battles left others vulnerable. Including me, she thinks.
The choice was simple: Her friend saw no other way to keep others out of danger than turning herself over to their mercy.
That didn't mean she still didn't like or had to completely trust her choice, however.
Rachel's thoughts continued to bounce around her brain so hard that she began to hear a ringing sound. She knew Talia's mind operated on a similar wavelength of overcrowdedness. For once, she yearned for the blank minds that occupied the heads of some of her ex-boyfriends, who would've been lucky to sustain one ongoing thought in their heads most of the time.
The ringing wouldn't stop however, causing her to open her eyes. The slight movement of her cell phone upon the table caught her attention. Oh wait, the ringing is real!
She reached over and grabbed the device, pulling the screen to her face.
TAL CALLING. . .
Rachel's heart skipped a beat. She hit answer before her mind had any chance to wonder how it was possible Talia was calling her on her personal phone.
"Tal?"
"Rachel DeLanco, your friend is in danger." The voice was loud and overly modulated.
Rachel shot up from the couch, phone clutched white-knuckled in hand. "What?"
"Talia Walker is in danger." Rachel fought against her urge to immediately hang up, and tried to think quickly. She couldn't tell if it was a man or woman on the other end of the line, though figured that was probably the point of them masking their identity. She had to try still anyway.
"Who is this?"
"Somebody who can help."
Rachel pulled the phone away and began to pace around. Is this a trick? After a moment of hesitation, she shoved the phone back to her ear. "What do you mean 'danger'? Are the police going to hurt her?"
"It is not the police that need to be worried about. Time is short, you must act if you want to protect your friend."
A cold chill washed over her body. "I must act? I don't even know anything about you!"
There was a pause on the line. "If they take her, she is gone. If you get her to me, we can rid her of the beast."
Now it was Rachel who paused. How do they know Tal is the She-Hulk? She knew her choice was inevitable, however. "What do I need to do?"
The outside of her lab at the university campus brought deja vu to Talia Walker, and no doubt to her chaperone Detective Martin Colvin, as they had only chatted in this very spot the night before. Despite trying to mislead him about being the creature he called "She-Hulk," much had changed in the day since, after the beast had gone on a rampage downtown.
Talia took a deep breath, then typed in her access code to let the two of them in.
The lab hadn't changed much since she and Rachel had been there yesterday. Marks of her forced transformation still lay abundant in her normally pristine environment - a destroyed computer and a mangled platform lay in stark contrast to a set of impeccable supercomputers that were otherwise undamaged.
That sight did not evade Colvin's notice. "This is why you wouldn't let me in," he said in resigned acknowledgement. "Would've been pretty easy to figure out that somebody your size wouldn't be able to do this kind of damage."
The doctor didn't answer. Colvin continued to scan the area with his inquisitive detective's eyes. The lab remained silent for a pregnant moment, with the exception of the hollow sound of footsteps.
"Is this where the She-Hulk was born?"
Talia closed her eyes, flashes of her experiment months ago entering her mind. "Yes."
Colvin cleared his throat. "Why'd you do it?" His voice was softer, not as barbed as back during their brief visit to the police station. "Why'd you do this to yourself?"
His question went unanswered, as Talia made her way over to the computer terminal, careful not to touch anything or make any sudden movements that would harm Colvin's calm. "All the evidence you need to lock me up is in here." She lifted her hand slowly toward the computer, telegraphing her movement. "May I?"
The detective stared blankly, as if trying to register what she was doing, before realizing what she had asked. "Yes." He watched as Talia turned her computer on, unlocking it with her thumbprint. As he watched her type, he folded his arms across his chest, moving up behind her with a watchful eye. "You have video evidence that you're the She-Hulk?"
Talia nodded, bringing up a list of what looked to be the file names of numerous videos, categorized by date and time. "Take your pick."
Colvin paused. "Show me."
This is it, Colvin thought. This is the final piece of the puzzle.
The detective could tell Talia was uncomfortable. She's not doing all of this because she wants to, it's because she feels she needs to. No matter. The doctor took a deep breath in through her nose, letting the air trickle out slowly through her teeth as she selected one of the first files, which prompted a video player to take over the monitor. Talia's image - her hair slightly shorter but otherwise identical to the appearance as Colvin knew her - stood front and center.
Colvin squinted. Wait. Something else was different than just the hair. It was - her eyes. They were not the doctor's human blue, but instead they were a pale, almost glowing green. They were eyes Colvin would never forget after staring into them the night before.
The She-Hulk's eyes.
The Dr. Walker in the video was leaning against the monitor staring into the camera, her arms planted and stiff, dressed in a plaid button-up shirt, sleeves rolled up her arm, and off-white trousers. The modulated audio that played out the speakers betrayed that the image was breathing heavily.
"Log entry, day 17 since the first transformation. I-I've managed to somehow trigger the metamorphosis again after a moment of intense physical pain. I can - I can feel my body begin to - to -to change."
Colvin felt his heart begin to pump a bit heavier. He glanced aside and saw that Talia was looking away. A grunt returned his attention to the video.
"Unnggh." The doctor's body began to shake. "Heart rate's accelerated. Getting harder to think. Muscles are starting to grow..." Surely enough, the usually thin arms of the doctor began to spasm, growing in spurts of power as green veins popped up along her skin. Her shoulders broadened as her torso thickened, causing the patterned shirt to grow tight against her form.
Talia's hair had grown longer, and had taken a green tinge as it thickened, strands falling upon her shoulders. She lifted her arm up, as if to brace her head, but instead a green bicep burst forth, tearing up her sleeve. The buttons of her shirt were straining against engorged breasts and defined abdominal muscles, and her now strained top began to tear at the seams.
"Anger, rage building up inside me. Making me feel like, like I'm going to e-explode - I can't fight it, I can't - I CAN'T!"
Colvin watched silently as the flat image of Talia Walker ceased to exist and the green beast known as the She-Hulk burst forth, the doctor's struggle replaced by an untempered rage that almost made him jump, even through the confines of a video screen. He switched it off.
"This -" he trailed off, swallowing his word as he stared at the blank screen. The image of the She-Hulk was still burned into his eyes. "This will do, Dr. Walker." He turned to Talia, who was rubbing her arms in unease, no doubt at the sounds of the monster she was all too familiar with.
He banished the tinges of sympathy he was feeling toward Talia, because he couldn't let himself feel them now. Not when he was so close to ending the She-Hulk crisis. Instead, Colvin pulled out his cell phone and scrolled through his previous calls list.
"This is Colvin. Send the team down to harvest the computer."
Rachel found herself driving unusually reckless on the road heading toward Talia's lab. Getting the strange call itself had already unnerved her, but the things she had been told on the call terrified her.
She found herself swerving around and cutting off drivers who were already clearing 10 mph over the speed limit, nervously checking her rear view mirrors to make sure there weren't any police who had taken notice. Police. Can it be true?
Keeping her eye on the road, she shoved her hand down to the cup holder and felt around for the shape of her phone, clutching the device in her fingers and pulling it up toward her her field of view. "Where is that number?" she said to herself aloud, trying to split her attention between the road and her saved numbers list.
"There we go." She hit the green dial button and then tapped the speaker function, throwing the phone onto her lap as she returned her eyes to her driving, slamming the brakes and swerving around another car who was not matching the speed she was desperately trying to achieve at the moment.
"Pallas Police Department."
"Yes, hi," Rachel answered, quickly clearing her throat. "Hi, I'm looking to see about visiting someone who has been taken into custody, one Talia Walker. Has there been bail set?"
"One moment." Elevator muzak filled the line, the most obnoxious sound that only encouraged Rachel to put more pressure on her gas pedal. Minutes felt like hours, and miles felt like light years as she waited.
Finally, the muzak clicked off and the officer's emotionless, dry voice returned. "Hi, ma'am. We don't have anybody in custody under that name. Are you sure you have the right name or department?"
Rachel's heart skipped a beat. "Are you sure? I received a call from her from your jail not too long ago. Brown hair, on the skinny side?"
The officer paused. "Sounds familiar, but nobody by that name has ever been booked here. Are you sure that's the right name?"
"Oh," Rachel said, feeling herself on the verge of tears. "Maybe my mistake. Thank you for your time, officer." She tapped the disconnect button and locked her eyes back and the road. She's been erased, like the caller said she'd be. This is bad.
Talia couldn't hear what the other end of the line had said to Detective Colvin, but whatever it was, it had him incredulous.
"What do you mean you can't send anybody down?" he yelled into his phone at a distance that she thought he tongue might reach through the speaker and spit on whoever was on the receiving end. At least now I know why he's angry.
That's when she noticed a blinking light on her computer.
She turned to Colvin, who remained distracted by his phone call, then back at the computer. She figured she wasn't supposed to touch anything without his supervision, but the only reason a light would blink on her computer was if it had triggered one of the custom alerts she had set up during her research. Do I risk it?
Already standing near the computer, she subtly reached over to her keyboard and quickly tapped the return key, triggering the alert to display, before quickly withdrawing her arm.
Nanoprobes detected. Data requested during last search transmitting...
Talia's brow furrowed as she squinted to make sure she had read the alert correctly. The nanoprobes had completely disappeared during the experiment with Rachel when she had forced her change. How could they be back now?
"This is bullshit!" Colvin's voice echoed throughout the lab again, and Talia turned to look at him again. His eyes glanced over with a mixed look of worry and confusion, before he turned back to the wall and began to yell again. "If your department can't do the simple task of keeping the records accurate, I'm reporting you all to the Attorney General!"
The alert light flashed again. Talia waited until Colvin's back was to her before plunking the return key once more.
Data received. Displaying results...
Numbers and statistics flooded the screen, and Talia's eyes began to devour the information with widening eyes. These readings, this is incredible! This could be a major insight into the energy behind the metamorphosis!
The doctor stopped herself and tore her gaze reluctantly from the computer screen, and glanced at the detective standing across the room from her. A little too late.
The red message light caught the corner of her eye, and Talia looked back at the computer. "What now?" she whispered to herself.
Another discreet keyboard tap unveiled words she had never programmed into the system.
YOU ARE IN DANGER. THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU AND THEY WANT YOUR MONSTER.
"What in the..."
All thoughts were quickly abandoned as the door to Talia's lab swung open, and the noise of the heavy door smacking into the wall caused both Colvin and Talia to spin around in surprise. Before she could register who had invaded her lab, the stranger lifted a device in their hand and aimed it at the detective, launching two thin wires at his body. As they made contact, Colvin began to convulse as he dropped to the floor, being pumped with electric current.
Talia's eyes darted back to Colvin's assailant. "Rachel?"
Her friend stood there with the most serious look she had ever seen in the history of their relationship. "Talia, we need to go NOW."
"Rachel, I-"
"Now!" She dropped her taser, grabbed onto Talia's wrist, and pulled her through the door.
The two of them ran out of the building and into the open air, Rachel running at a breakneck pace while Talia struggled to keep up in her flimsy flip flops, before finally tripping to the ground and forcing her friend to stop running.
"Rachel!" Talia shouted. "Are you crazy? What are you doing? I turned myself in, I'm in police custody!"
"No Tal, that's the thing: You're not," Rachel responded grimly. "There's no record of you anywhere. And somebody wants it that way."
She wasn't convinced. "And that gives you the right to attack the detective? Now we're both going to be thrown behind bars!" Talia felt her pulse rising, so she forced herself to take several deep breaths to counter.
"Listen, I can explain this on the way, but you have to trust me." Rachel held out her hand to her friend. "Please, Tal, for both our sakes?"
As Talia relented and reached out to her friend, the loud roar of gunshots rang out into the open air. The women both hit the ground and looked back toward the lab to see Colvin standing with his pistol drawn, opening fire at the pair. "Stop right now!" he shouted, his voice ripe with ire.
Rachel got on her hands and knees and grabbed Talia "Ok, let's go, now!" The doctor felt herself clumsily forced to her feet as Rachel's grip on her wrist pulled her in the opposite direction of the angered detective. She once again did her best to make her feet keep up with the brisk pace her friend was setting, those this time she followed willingly. She could feel her heartbeat rising, fear taking over her mind, but she did her best to expel the emotions
Another gunshot rang into the air, but nothing happened. Instead, the sweet relief of grass became apparent under her feet as Rachel began to cut their path away from the open.
It all happened so quickly. The gunshot exploded into the air, and before she could comprehend anything about it, Talia felt the bullet rip into her leg, the shock of pain sending her to the ground as a spurt of blood colored the grass around her. Rachel, turning to see what happened after losing her friend's grip, screamed.
Adrenaline surged through Talia's body as an immediate response, her brain attempting to counteract the agony inflicting her pain receptors. At the same time, the unique body chemistry of the scientist began to react to the introduction of the adrenaline, and triggered the beginnings of a metamorphosis.
Rachel knelt down, grasping Talia by the shoulders. She felt her friend's eyes locked onto the bullet wound. "Oh my God, Talia!"
Gripping her wound, Talia screamed - not at the pain, but at the familiar sensation that she recognized as the beginning of her transformation. "Rachel," she cried. "Don't want - don't want to be the monster agaiiiiiin!"
Colvin kept his gun aimed high as he shuffled his feet toward the fallen doctor, refusing to shift his gaze off of her or her friend. As he moved closer, he ignored Talia's screams, instead eyeballing the bullet wound he had just inflicted into the back of her left calf, which she was still cradling. Non-fatal, he confirmed, though he momentarily wondered if that was a good thing.
"Don't move!" he shouted, attempting to steady his firearm within his shaking grip. "Don't either of you dare try anything."
The mystery blonde woman looked up, her eyes holding daggers. "Do you know what you've done?!"
Colvin kicked her to the ground and put his knee on her back, pulling the woman's arms back and cuffing her. "Let's see you use a taser on me now." The woman didn't put up a fight, but instead kept looking to Dr. Walker.
"Leave her ALONE," growled Talia.
The doctor, on her knees grimacing, whipped her head toward him at a frightening speed. Her eyes, however, were even more unnerving - what were pale and blue were now a bold emerald, almost glowing. Even worse was the feeling he had seen those eyes before.
The eyes of the She-Hulk.
"I warned you!" grunted Talia. "Now it's - it's too late...ungghhhh...I can't - I can't stop it. I can't...hnggggh..." the doctor closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around her abdomen as she knelt amid the grass. "You need to run, and take her with you!"
Colvin swallowed back a lump in his throat and did his best to hide his growing uneasiness. "I warned you too, doctor." He pulled the hammer back on his pistol, meaningless in practice, but useful as an audible warning. "If you try to change I will shoot before I let you rampage again."
"THEN SHOOT!" Talia shouted, her voice audibly deeper. She whipped her body backward, arching her back, her arms planting behind her and her head facing upward toward the sky. Green veins began to pop up all over the doctor's body. Instantly her skin began to darken into a shade of jade as the fabric of her once-oversized t-shirt began to tighten. Skinny arms began to swell beneath the loose sleeves, the thin material stretching tightly over enlarged muscles before bursting at the biceps. Colvin could only stare in disbelief, unable to drop the gun or to pull the trigger.
Talia's shirt began to stretch and strain across her body as her torso began to bulk up, gaps of green skin appearing through tiny tears as the shirt struggled to stay together. The doctor's once-modest breasts rapidly engorged underneath, pulling the material taut across her chest, enlarged nipples poking though the thin fabric. Unable to hold any longer, the shirt split open in the middle with an audible tear as the large orbs pulled the tee apart. The rest of the top fared no better, with the seams separating and the cloth falling to shreds - victim of the musclebound power of the emerging monster's body.
Colvin's eyes fell from her breasts down to the rippling muscles of her abdomen pushing against the skin of her stomach. Beneath, the once-baggy gym shorts grew tight, the material pulled thin against the woman's widening hips and bulging thighs, then stretched taut down her pelvis. The material began to tear away like tissue paper, splitting at her thighs, hips, and crotch.
Her bare, narrow feet had doubled in size, and were now pushing themselves into the thick soil of the earth below. The woman's - no - the creature's hands began to wildly pluck clumps of grass, roots and dirt and let them crumble between her fingers, squeezing the turf in pulses as bones painfully cracked underneath the skin, her frame growing faster and faster. The bullet wound, which had been inflicted upon the doctor's calf, rapidly began to heal, spitting the projectile out from her flesh bouncing to the ground near Colvin's feet - one final affront to what he had done to her.
Long, wild, and green hair spilled down off the emerging creature's head as the last vestiges of clothing fell in tatters to the ground, revealing a similar green patch of hair strewn wildly on her pelvis. The monster began to rise, flexing newly reborn muscles and the power of the rage behind them.
Colvin had just watched the same process on a video in the lab, but it hadn't felt real until now. The She-Hulk stood in front of him - a naked mass of muscles and rage - and all he had was a puny gun.
The monster's teeth were clenched, a violent growl vibrating beneath them, warning him of what was to come. Her wild eyes met his, telling the same story.
Colvin swallowed, lifted his gun to the monster's head, and fired.