The muzzle of his gun flashed, bringing with it a deafening boom that Detective Colvin felt rip through his ears split seconds later. His eyes glued themselves shut in an instinctive defense mechanism, as he felt himself stumble back, blind and deafened in the face of the monster he knew as the She-Hulk.
His ears rang painfully from the dangerously close pistol shot, lessening the sound of the creature's painful roar in reaction to his bullet, which had just hit her point blank in the face. Though his body fought him, Colvin forced his eyes open and steadied his feet, squeezing the grip of his firearm.
The She-Hulk stumbled back a step herself, her large, green hands shooting up to cover her face. The furious yell transitioned quickly into a rage-filled growl.
It may have been the massive amounts of fear and adrenaline coursing through his body at the moment, but as he looked upon her, the detective swore that the monster looked larger, stronger, and more bestial than she had when he last encountered her the night before. Muscles bulged from her bare skin looking as if they were about to rip through, with bulging veins carrying gamma-irradiated blood mapped across the span of her naked body. As the She-Hulk removed her hands from her head her face contorted with fury, framed by a furrowed brow and a set of clenched teeth soaked in cascading saliva.
Last night, he had seen traces of humanity in the monster. Tonight, those were gone.
Colvin was also loathe to remember the creature's frightening speed from their last confrontation, and he knew when she wanted to make her move, he'd be left with little options. He briefly wondered if he'd be left with his life.
The contemplation of his future, as well as what the She-Hulk's next move would be, was not to last, as the beast made her move. Everything happened in a blur, and it took the detective several moments to realize he was no longer on the ground, but in the grasp of his adversary. Fiery eyes of emerald stared through Colvin as he hopelessly attempted to free himself from the submission.
"She-Hulk!" came the woman's voice. The creature made no move to acknowledge it.
Colvin briefly allowed his eyes to dart to the woman, who was attempted to force herself to her feet, struggling for balance while her arms remained handcuffed. Visibly frustrated by the failure of her first call, she shouted again. "SHE-HULK!"
The monster again did not acknowledge the woman, but instead unleashed a low, rumbling growl. The detective felt the hands surrounding his body start to tighten.
She's going to crush me into powder! he thought. Out of options for what he could do, Colvin felt his mind racing for a last ditch solution as the pressure increased. His attempts to squeak out any words were futile, for he couldn't draw in enough air to even speak. He refused, however, to close his eyes and wait for his end - if these were his last moments he wanted the beast, if there was any recognition inside, to see his defiance until the end.
However, Colvin realized slowly, he had inexplicably not yet been turned into powder or otherwise harmed by his adversary. Instead, to his great surprise, the monster released her grip and let him fall to the ground.
Ignoring the sting of the drop on his aging body - it was preferable to being crushed - the detective made quick use of his fortune to scramble away. The She-Hulk, however, no longer paid him any heed, but instead was staring off into the distance.
The woman looked to Colvin briefly before shifting her gaze up at the She-Hulk with a mix of confusion and annoyance. "She-Hulk, we need to get out of here." Her voice was now beginning to carry a tone of desperation. "Remember me, Rachel? Ray-Chel? I'm going to get you away from all of this."
Rachel, her name is Rachel. Remember that, Colvin told himself.
The creature only growled in response, whipping her head back and forth and moving her large, green body into a defensive stance. She's acting like a scared animal, thought Colvin. He noticed that the monster seemed to be turning her vision in response to sounds in the distance. Sounds he couldn't hear...yet.
Something was wrong.
"She-Hulk!" the woman — Rachel — yelled.
The roar of engines and the screeching of tires finally became audible to his human ears, and as they did his human eyes and body were given little time to react. A fleet of bright yellow Humvees - Colvin could immediately identify five - screeched through the parking lot, tearing their own path toward their location with little concern for other cars or obstacles that were obliterated in their path.
Before he knew it, the vehicles had pounced upon their location. In unison, each of the Humvees began circling around the three of them. Colvin stayed on the ground, unsure of what move to make, while the She-Hulk attempted to put herself between them and the vehicles, constantly moving around and roaring at the aggressors.
With one last maneuver, the five Humvees pulled handbrakes and spun into position, front of the vehicles facing toward the three of them. A joint mechanical hum followed as large, cylindrical devices began to raise out of their roofs slowly.
The She-Hulk, however, had lost patience. Her rage, unspent since the transformation, found a target in one of the Humvees as the creature leapt forward, demonstrating her incredible speed. Her two muscular arms came down toward the hood of the vehicle, and was instantly rebuffed by a bright shock and loud zap of electric current, which sent the creature tumbling back in surprise. The Humvee remained undamaged.
Her failure did nothing to dissuade the creature, however, and instantly the She-Hulk propelled her body forward again, this time bringing her shoulder down for the collision. The electric current was there to guard once again, sending the monster tumbling back, but this time she kept her footing, and charged again, roaring in absolute anger. Planting her powerful legs into the ground, the She-Hulk again attacked, joining her fists together and bringing them down repeatedly onto the hood of the Humvee. The vehicle's safeguards continued to send its current into her, but the monster herself was safeguarded by her rage-driven strength, which kept her in place, continuing her onslaught in ignorance of any pain. With the following strike, the She-Hulk smashed a large dent into the hood of the Humvee.
The Humvee retaliated.
The large device, now completely unveiled atop the Humvee the She-Hulk was attacking, in addition to each of the five vehicles, slowly began to vibrate, before then unleashing a narrow wave of compressed sound directly into the creature's body. Unprepared for the magnitude of the attack, the She-Hulk found herself flung away from the damaged vehicle, ragdolling across the ground and sending chunks of grass and earth into the air as she left a wide crater.
Rachel, upset, ran over to the She-Hulk instantly. Colvin turned his attention, however, to each of the vehicles. Further vibrations began to emanate from the rest of the devices above Humvee fleet. They were going to attack again.
Acting quickly, Colvin sprung to his feet and moved himself toward Rachel, who he grabbed by the jacket and by the handcuffs that still bound her, using whatever strength he had to drag her away from the She-Hulk. She began to scream and resist him, but he had no time to care about that.
They had made it only about 10 feet away when another soundwave blast collided with the She-Hulk, the surrounding turf exploding in dirt and dust. Colvin felt his body, alongside Rachel's flung into the air, and he felt consciousness slip away.
Rachel jolted awake, in what could've been seconds or minutes after hitting the ground. Her senses were askew - she felt pain everywhere, could only hear a loud ringing in her ears, and any attempt to focus on her surroundings resulted in double vision.
Squinting through her instant splitting headache, she forced her eyes to cooperate and give her a hint to what was going on. The first clue was the detective, Martin Colvin, who lay prone on the ground a few feet away from her, still unconscious. Blood was dripping from his ears, no doubt from the same broken eardrums that she figured she was suffering from.
Rachel turned and saw that they had been flung clear of the Humvee circle. That did nothing to quell the feeling she had in her stomach, however, as the She-Hulk — Talia — was still in there. Instinctively she tried to move her arms, only to feel the metal of the handcuffs dig into her wrists. "Damn it," she cursed, before rolling herself onto her knees.
I need to help Tal, she thought. She's mindless right now in a way I've never seen the She-Hulk before. Pure rage. This transformation was different — the trauma of the gunshot must've made things worse.
Doing her best to focus, Rachel shuffled on her knees over to the detective's limp body slowly and began to quickly search for any sign of keys that would free her from the handcuffs. But even through ringing ears, it was hard to ignore the sounds of the battle raging on behind her.
Rachel looked over her shoulder and, to her great frustration, could only see the Humvees. Their weapons, the last thing she remembered, were still firing. She's going to just keep fighting them, and I don't know if she'll win.
Fighting back tears, Rachel turned back around and redoubled her efforts. She angled herself sideways, using her bound hands to ruffle through his clothing and pat down his pockets. "Don't worry Talia, I'm coming for you."
The detective — whether from Rachel's prodding or just natural recovery — began to move, recovering slowly as she had. Knowing she didn't have much time left, she instead changed her focus and grabbed the next best thing.
As Colvin got to his knees, Rachel angled her body into him and pushed him back to the ground. As he toppled over, she turned her torso so that her cuffed hands could haphazardly aim the gun she had just stolen at its owner.
"This is all your fault!" she yelled at him.
The detective, still woozy, stared at her incredulously as he lifted himself back up. "What in the hell are you talking about?"
"I had an escape plan before they showed up!" she shouted. "You ruined that by shooting her."
Colvin glared back, unamused. "I'm sorry her being under arrest was inconvenient for you," he scowled. "Plus, I don't recall you sharing any information like that before you tased me. You going to shoot me now too then blame me for not helping?"
Rachel opened her mouth, but no words escaped. Instead, she bit her tongue and lowered the gun. "Fine. But why did you take me away from her just now? She's all alone in there!"
"I just saved your life, honey," Colvin said deadpan. "I saw them, they weren't going to wait for you to get out of the way. And unlike your friend in there, we can't survive a direct hit from something like that." He craned his neck over to the mysterious vehicles. "You knew they were coming, so who are they?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I was warned that some dangerous people were going to come for her."
He placed a hand on his forehead, no doubt in a futile attempt to relieve the same headache she was suffering from. "Whoever they are, we're not their concern. That works to our advantage now, too."
"I can't leave her." Rachel looked back towards the Humvees. "They're going to take her," she replied, continuing to fight back tears. "Or worse, they're going to kill her."
Colvin was unmoved. "Maybe that'll be a good thing."
Rachel felt her own rage overwhelm her headache. "Bullshit!" she spat, motioning her head over to where she had last seen her friend. "She didn't ask for any of this! She's still a person deep down — a person tried to do the right thing by turning herself in and trusting you to do your job."
"Don't go all moral on me," Colvin said, rolling his eyes. "You tried to take things into your own hands, and now you want me to bail you out."
"No, I want you to be a goddamn good person and help me save a life." Not wasting another moment, Rachel willed herself to her feet and — Colvin's gun still in hand — took off running toward the battle.
Colvin attempted to run after her, but his sore muscles were no match for Rachel's died, even handcuffed. "Wait!" he shouted at her. "You idiot, you're going to get yourself killed for a monster!"
She-Hulk strained to return to her feet, but yet again met another blast from one of the various sound cannons. As the creature turned to face the source of the attack, she felt another one collide into her, violently forcing her to collide to the hard ground.
There was no thought, only rage. No people, only enemies.
No reaction — only smash.
As the attack ceased, she began to rise from the ground as she had before. Again, the rumbling roar of the weapons began to feel the air.
She-Hulk met the soundwave barrage once more, but this time she was ready. Teeth clenched and muscles flexing, she stood against the puny weapon, refusing to let it send her to the ground again. They could not overpower her.
A second attack collided into her, but She-Hulk fought. A third wave joined the assault, but the beast stood. They could not outnumber her.
She leaned her hulking torso into the soundwaves in front of her as a fourth began to pound against her, extending her arms to push back against the pressure. Calf muscles rippled as her feet sunk into the ground as the attacks pummeled get body, veins popped out of her skin as every fiber of her being fought despite it. They could not cripple her.
Finally, the fifth and final weapon unleashed its power, and the creature was under assault from all sides. She could not hear, she could not see, she could not breathe.
And it made her angry.
The beast, rage fueling every muscle, propelled herself forward and delivered an uppercut to the Humvee so powerful that it immediately shorted out the vehicle's electrical shielding and sent it flipping upright then onto its back, the sound cannon crushed against the ground.
The other four Humvees began to steer their weapons toward She-Hulk's new location, the soundwaves tearing up swaths of ground as they cut toward the monster. However, the green giant did not cease upon her first conquest, commanding her muscular legs to carrying her in a full sprint around to the neighboring vehicle. Before the soundwaves could be focused against her, She-Hulk lowered her shoulder and rammed herself into the side of the second Humvee, again ignoring the shock of its defensive systems. With a thundering boom, the vehicle skid against the ground a good twenty feet and spun about, tire marks leaving an earthen trail amongst the grass.
With a mighty leap, she was atop the vehicle. Crackling filled the air as the defensive system attempted to shock her away, but the beast ignored it. Stomping her feet into the metallic roof to plant herself, She-Hulk grasped onto the sides of the sound cannon and flexed her muscles. Mechanical gears grinding, she turned the firing weapon off its intended axis and ripped it from its housing. Holding the weapon above her head like it was a trophy, she then brought it down with her full might against the armored roof over and over, its delicate parts exploding around her as the deadly vehicle began to look more and more like discarded scrap.
The victory was short-lived, as a barrage of soundwaves collided into She-Hulk and sent the creature spiraling through the air before colliding with the ground in an explosion of dirt and rock. She-Hulk felt anger, but she also felt...pain.
"She-Hulk!" The voice entered her ears almost ethereally, appearing despite the overwhelming noise. "She-Hulk, are you OK?"
Her mind, which had been consumed with pure rage-driven instinct, latched onto the familiar voice. The pupils in her eyes contracted. Her senses, which had been a blur, returned to her. Thoughts began to populate in her head aside from emotion.
Puny human? No, friend? Ray-Chel?
Then it was there again, the vibration. Multiple vibrations. Those were the puny humans, again in their vehicles, ready to attack. They wanted to hurt her, but there was no hurting She-Hulk.
But they were going to hurt Ray-Chel.
The weapon fired.
She-Hulk's body moved, however, as if time had slowed. Every muscle used its power for speed, every thought was to protect. She comprehended only the need to put herself between her friend and the weapon. Reaching out, she wrapped her large arms around the small human and pulled her close.
The sound waves hit, and her senses went dark once more as the earth exploded around her. Pain didn't matter, the anger didn't matter. But Ray-Chel…
She slowly unwrapped her body from her friend. Time stood still to the creature as she waited for a response.
"She-Hulk?" Ray-Chel spoke, looking up. She was safe. "Are you OK?"
She-Hulk felt relief. But she also felt something else, something rising quickly.
They tried to hurt her. Humans always wanted to hurt her. Humans never wanted to leave her alone. Now they had tried to hurt the one human who knew her.
She felt anger. She felt the rage.
"She-Hulk?" Ray-Chel asked again. She-Hulk, my name…
"She-Hulk…" the creature repeated. She stood, and turned around, her naked body scuffed by dirt and battle. The vibrations started again, as the three remaining Humvees moved into formation one next to the other and began charging their weapons. She spread her stance wide, leaned forward, flexed her muscles and let the rage wash over her.
"SHE-HULK" she screamed, her voice a boom even amongst the sound weapons. "... SMASH!"
The creature lifted her arms over her head and brought them down onto the ground with fury. A massive wave of power rippled forward along the ground, opening up the earth underneath the Humvees. The vehicles collapsed into the sinking dirt as She-Hulk stood tall and roared.
Rachel almost couldn't believe what she had just seen, but if there had been one thing she had learned in the time since Talia first transformed into the creature, it was that the She-Hulk was full of surprises.
"She-Hulk,"she said, staring up at the monster from the ground. The creature turned toward her and it was if the anger burning within her transformed body instantly seemed to vanish.
"Ray-Chel," she spoke slowly.
"Can you get me out of these?" She did her best to wiggle her bound arms behind her back. "Then I'm going to get you out of here, OK?"
The creature's brow furrowed and her eyes darkened, the anger returning. "Why Ray-Chel in chains? WHO PUT friend Ray-Chel in CHAINS?! Was it PUNY Talia?"
Rachel shook her head. No, let's not go there, She-Hulk. "No, puny Talia didn't do anything to me."
The creature's head whipped around, searching for the missing Colvin. "Was it PUNY HUMAN with PUNY WEAPON?"
"No, no, don't worry about that," she answered, eyeing the detective's gun which she had dropped on the ground. She turned around and offered her bound hands to the creature, who grabbed the handcuff chain and snapped it in half, before then ripping the individual cuffs off.
OK, Rachel thought, now that you've done your magic trick, now it's time to do mine.
Hands finally free, Rachel rubbed her raw wrists, but then offered her touch to her friend. She Hulk growled defensively at first, almost instinctively, but Rachel stroked her arm comfortingly, which lowered the creature's guard. "Listen, close your eyes, She-Hulk. Listen to my voice. You don't need to fight anymore. You can rest now."
She thought she saw a glimmer of Talia's eyes in the She-Hulks, but the monster flinched. Rachel continued to soothe her.
"I know you're hurting, I know you're tired," Rachel continued. "Rest now."
The She-Hulk closed her eyes, and with a deep breath, signaled that fatigue had won over rage. The large, scuffed, muscle-hardened green body that stood in front of Rachel began to shrink. Broad shoulders narrowed. Hard biceps became soft flesh. Large breasts and hips became humble curves. Long, green hair retracted to ear-length brown locks. Bold, emerald eyes became pale blue.
Monster became woman.
Talia fell into Rachel's arms, shaking from the stress of the metamorphosis. "Wh- where am I?" she stuttered. "WHERE AM I?"
"Tal, it's OK," said Rachel, who began to slowly rub Talia's back in an attempt to soothe her. "I've got you."
"Danger," Talia mumbled wearily, shaking her head in a confused manner. "Danger. . . is coming."
"It's OK, Tal, it's all over -"
Vibrations rumbled across the ground again, and Rachel froze. Oh no.
She looked over and saw the Humvees beginning to stir. The sound cannons had been reactivated, but instead of aimed at them, they were aimed at the ground. As the deafening noise filled the air, the vehicles began to blast themselves upright.
No! Rachel thought. Why is nothing going my way today?
"No, danger, DANGER -" Talia grabbed her head, as if she was in pain, and her body began to shake. "I can't let them hurt you…"
No, please Talia, we're so close.
Rachel wrapped her arms around her friend tighter, looking her directly in the eye. "Talia, I know you're confused, but listen! We're both going to be safe, we just need to get to my car and -"
"No, they're coming and I can't let them hurt you. I CAN'T LET THEM HURT YOU," she growled. "NOOOO!"
Rachel's heart skipped a beat as Talia's eyes once more flared green and her body began to change. Talia's body pressed up against hers, Rachel could feel her friend's soft flesh hardening with muscle, bones cracking underneath as her small frame expanded beneath her grip.
"Oh, Tal…" Rachel sighed sadly.
Rachel squeezed harder, hoping to provide any sliver of comfort to Talia as her humanity slipped away once again. Where Rachel's hands once felt the smooth, chilled skin of her friend, she gradually felt the hardened, rough skin of something else. Her hug, which had started as a cradle, now was the obsolete egg that the newly formed creature inside needed to break out of.
The woman who she was holding in her arms slowly became no more - now there was only She-Hulk, back as quickly as she had gone away.
"I WILL NOT LET PUNY VEHICLES HURT RAY-CHEL!"
I can't fit She-Hulk in my car, thought Rachel. And these Humvees are going to come back after her once they're out of that ditch.
"She-Hulk!" Rachel shouted. The monster shifted her gaze to her, and Rachel reached out and grabbed her massive hands with her own smaller ones. "I can't let you smash right now, but I know how you can protect me from puny humans." She pulled on the She-Hulk's hand, and surprisingly the creature followed willingly. They crossed the grass away from the Humvees over to where she had haphazardly parked her car - where she had originally tried to get Talia before Colvin's gunshot had started this whole ordeal. Where is the detective, anyway? He vanished after I ran to help Talia.
She reached in and grabbed a backpack. Rachel paused to quickly zip up her jacket before buckling the pack's front straps across her chest. With a quick sprint, she ran, jumped, and threw her arms around She-Hulk's neck. The creature, confused, caught her and supported her body in her arms.
"She-Hulk, do you see the sun?" Rachel asked, pointing towards the fiery late afternoon sphere. "I need you to keep jumping toward it as long as you can, OK?"
"Ray-Chel?"
"Please, She-Hulk, for me, for Rachel, I need you to JUMP!"
With a mighty roar, the She-Hulk, clutching Rachel tightly, leapt into the air toward the western sun, and the pair made their way toward the horizon.