"You're kidding me," the detective hissed. "Just like that?"
Martin Colvin brought his right hand up to his head and rubbed his palm across the thinning hair on his scalp. A sarcastic smile spread across his lips as he allowed an incredulous chuckle to escape.
At the other end of a large wooden desk half-cluttered with paper-filled folders and assorted varieties of uncapped pens, a husky, grey-haired man refused to join in the laughter. "Yes, just like that."
"Captain," said Colvin, leaning forward onto the desk, one hand touching the wood and the other colliding with a triangular nameplate, rolling it so the name Capt. James Phillips sat upside down. "You are a walking contradiction."
That, however, drew a laugh from the man, who sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, shaking his head at the ceiling before meeting Colvin's eyes. "Oh save your uninspired insults for somebody who gives a damn." He pushed a brown folder forward on his desk toward the detective. "I would've thought you'd be more grateful to be off of this case, considering the hell you gave me when I put you on it. Who's the walking contradiction now?"
Colvin ignored the brown folder and stabbed his index finger down on the grey folder labeled "She-Hulk" that lay nearby instead. "I finish my cases, and this one ain't finished."
Phillips sighed. "But it is finished. For us. It's been taken out of our hands."
"By who?" Colvin slammed his fist on the desk. "Those assholes with the yellow humvees who almost got us all killed?"
"Maybe. Maybe not." Phillips' patience was wearing thin. "Word came down the chain that the case was not our responsibility any more. And-"
"But what about-"
"AND," the captain said, his voice overpowering Colvin's interruption, "honestly, good riddance." He picked up the She-Hulk folder and tossed in on a pile of clutter behind him. "If the feds want to waste their time with it, let them. Let us focus on real police work. Let you get back to being where you need to be."
The room sat silent for an uncomfortable moment, the buzzing of long-obsolete fluorescent lighting echoing off the numerous framed newspaper clippings that adorned the walls. The detective's hesitation allowed the dull aches of his injured ribs to make themselves known, the pain serving as a worthy companion to the monster-sized headache that was pounding within his head.
"Captain," Colvin said, his eyes closed and his voice as calm as he could muster. "Are you going to let me see this through?"
"You know the answer to that, detective."
Colvin took his arms off the table, turned, and walked toward the door. "Then I need some time off. Effective immediately."
Phillips shook his head. "And after you're done chasing this She-Hulk, what's next?" The question froze Colvin at the door. The captain turned to his desktop computer and typed a few phrases into a search engine, proceeding to highlight various headlines. "I've heard stories of giant lizards in New York, sasquatches and wendigos in Canada, teleporting demon acrobats in Germany, a man made of iron in California, and of course, the cherry on top, some woman dressed in Renaissance Faire garb ranting about claiming to be Thor, God of Thunder."
He turned back to Colvin. "You want the rest of your career to be focused on tabloid fodder?"
"But sir..."
"OK, here's the deal," the captain interrupted. "I put you in this assignment to whip you back into shape. You were a mess after everything that happened with Kelly. I figured having you chase some green Twilight Zone loonie around might make you yearn for real work again, and if you got to see a naked lady out of it, green or not, all the better.
"So the thing turned out to be real," Phillips shrugged. "You got more excitement than most of Vermont sees in a decade."
Colvin raised his eyebrows, unamused.
"Listen," said the captain. "You're a talented detective, Martin. Do what you need to do, but don't throw your career away for it."
The detective nodded silently and left the office.
Why can't I get the She-Hulk out of my mind? Colvin sat in his sparse one-bedroom apartment, the living room slowly growing darker as the lone window began to lose its glow due to the setting sun. The detective couldn't bring himself to turn on the nearby lamp, instead occupying his focus on the blank white wall ahead of him.
His mind began projecting images in front of him. He saw the monster as he had encountered it over the past several days - angry, powerful, bestial. His ribs ached in disastisfaction.
But that image soon changed. In front of him was a woman - dark hair, small frame, meek. But he had seen too many bad people hide behind innocent facades before. Talia Walker was too smart for her own good, and just as dangerous as the monster.
Is she, though?
His mind rewound several days to the outside of the doctor's lab. His bullet. Her pain, her rage…
Her eyes.
The monster's eyes. The mighty transformation that happened right in front of him. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before in his life. Even though he had seen the She-Hulk before, seeing the beast come to life made it more... real. It kept replaying in his mind over and over.
"I warned you!" she had grunted, barely clinging onto humanity. "Now it's - it's too late...ungghhhh...I can't - I can't stop it. I can't...hnggggh..."
"THEN SHOOT!" she had spat at him when the only thing he could answer with was the threat of his gun. Then the monster was reborn, tearing through both her human clothing and her human shell.
The detective anxiously twirled a cylindrical tube - taken from the lab - between his fingers.
He had been so sure, once Dr. Walker had turned herself in the day before, that he had her, the She-Hulk, and the whole thing figured out. But he really had only hit the tip of the iceberg.
Maybe, Colvin thought to himself begrudgingly, she was telling me the truth back at the station. That she's trying to seek help.
"Help. Truth," Colvin grumbled to himself, derailing his skid toward sympathy. The truth is that whether she controls the She-Hulk or not, she's a menace. And now she's out there ready to let her destruction loose on other innocent people. Who can help her now? Who else could bring a savage She-Hulk to justice?
But the other truth? I ran. Like a coward.
The doctor's friend, Rachel, had run after the yellow Humvees battling the monster. The two of them had barely escaped an errant shot of their sound weapon. He wasn't ready to follow her to a potential death.
He instead withdrew to Dr. Walker's lab, using the distraction to retrieve the evidence he needed to put her and the She-Hulk behind bars, where they couldn't harm anybody. Or so I told myself.
The harddrive of the doctor's files sat on his table. He knew, on there, were videos of Dr. Walker transforming into the She-Hulk. They, however, were worthless without the actual She-Hulk, who had escaped his grasp while he was hiding - no, gathering evidence in the safety of the lab.
And the yellow Humvees? Gone just as quickly. No trace of who were operating them, not an ounce of debris or a speck of yellow paint left in their trail.
The only things that remained were the shreds of a shirt and shorts that the woman-turned-beast had left in her wake. And me.
Colvin laughed sadly. You talked a big game with the captain, Martin. You walked out and committed against orders to follow the She-Hulk, but you have no damn idea where it even is. The captain had been right - he had never wanted the assignment - but, now things were different. The She-Hulk, wherever the monster was, was calling to him. He needed to find it.
And as the yellow Humvees had proven, he wasn't the only one looking. I need to find them, too. Are they Feds? Military? Something else? Nothing had turned up in any of his preliminary search.
Also of concern was the word from his contacts in the Pallas police that the doctor's lab had been ransacked by an unknown party. What were they looking for? Do they know what I have?
Do they know how to find the She-Hulk?
He had no leads, no witnesses, no clues for either of his mysteries. Time to work, then. He placed the purple tube he had found in Dr. Walker's lab down on the small, scratched-up coffee table next to his worn-in recliner and retrieved his cell phone with the same hand.
After scrolling through his contacts list to a familiar name, he hit the dial command and wedged the phone between his right ear and shoulder. The line only rang twice.
"Hello?" A gravelly voice answered at the other end.
"Hi, Mike? It's Martin," the detective said as he flipped open a pocket-sized spiral notebook. "I need to call in a favor."
Author's Note:
Hi all, sorry for the long gap between updates. It's been a busy summer, and I found I hit some writer's block. That said, I have so many things ready to come your way with this story, and the words seem to be flowing again! I do hope you're all cool with a Colvin-centric chapter after the long wait. Either way, Talia will be returning soon (As for the She-Hulk? We'll see...)
Please let me know your thoughts in the reviews, and I look forward to bringing you more ASAP!