Chapter 11 The Incredible Hulk
Bruce's point of view
"Why does the Puny Banner allow this?" Hulk wondered aloud
"Because I do not have a choice" I replied
In this new beginning, scientist Bruce Banner desperately hunts for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned his cells and unleashes the unbridled force of rage within him: Hulk. Living in the shadows-cut off from a life he knew and the woman he loves, Betty Ross—Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross and the military machinery that seeks to capture him and brutally exploit his power.
"I warned you not to pursue him Dad, I warned you and… this is your fault. I will never speak to you again" I turned and found myself face to face with Betty Ross...
"Bruce I'm sorry"
As all three grapple with the secrets that led to Hulk's creation, they are confronted with a monstrous new adversary known as the Abomination, whose destructive strength exceeds even Hulk's own. One scientist must make an agonizing final choice: accept a peaceful life as Bruce Banner or find heroism in the creature he holds inside-The Incredible Hulk. Bruce Banner recalls the events from five years prior, in which he was transformed into a monster and hospitalized his lover Betty Ross.
"Why God Why? Why did I get this ignorant uncouth pudding headed great lummox for my father?" Betty yelled
Ross' father, General Thaddeus Ross, forced Banner to go on the run for years, as he is now a fugitive of the United States Army.
"Son of a bitch" the team exclaimed together.
Banner finds a home in Rocinha, Brazil, where he works at a soft drink bottling factory and has learned breathing techniques and martial arts to ward off his transformations. He is trying to find a cure with the help of "Mr. Blue", whom he met online. Banner has not had an "incident" for 5 months. When Banner has a cut, his blood drips into a bottle at the factory and is ingested by an ill-fated consumer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ross uses this incident to pick up on Banner's trail and sends British special-ops expert Emil Blonsky with an attack team to capture Banner.
"That deceitful monster Sterns didn't do diddly squat to help me... he became [statement redacted]"
"These sick twisted sumbitches are determined to hurt Bruce." said Tony
Banner then makes an escape to the bottling factory he works in. During the run, he bumps into a gang of thugs, one who was his former enemy, Silva at the bottling factory. During the confrontation, Banner transforms into Hulk at the bottling factory and takes out the thugs and everyone on the team. Before Hulk escapes, Blonsky, the last soldier alive, takes a good look at Hulk, before Hulk throws a forklift truck at him, which he barely survives.
"Karma, that'll teach you to mess with your betters!" Constance yelped.
Banner escapes and goes to Guatemala, and then the US, where he finds the now recovered Betty Ross at Culver University, dating psychiatrist Leonard Samson. Banner's friend Stanley Lieber (a pizzeria owner) gives him a job as a delivery boy. He uses this job to continue his research by sneaking past a security guard at the university. Ross sees Banner at the pizzeria, and they later reunite. Ross is informed by Blonsky that Banner escaped because of a green monster.
"You are a selfish hateful mean selfish arrogant selfish tasteless selfish wicked selfish awful selfish little man General! You willingly sacrificed your daughter's happiness to pursue someone who had suffered a radiation accident, how can you live with yourself"
The stern lecture that poured from the mouth of Pepper Potts startled Tony and the rest of us Stark kids. General Ross was unfazed however
"Do not speak of what you do not comprehend, girl" Ross snarled
"HEY!" Tony yelled, "DO NOT speak to her like that!"
"I'll talk to that annoying bitch how I see fit" Ross replied
Pepper and Tony held a silent conversation with their eyes...
"Then you will answer to me."
"Reign her in Stark… or else"
"Or else what?"
"Or else you and she and your abominable families will wish they had never been born"
"Oh yeah" Tony said sarcastically, anger dripping from every orifice I'll reign her in… NOT! Be warned General, you are outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned… the blood and shit will start spraying any minute and if you piss my brother off… you will be bug squash!'
Ross clapped sarcastically
"Insulting and threatening me with paraphrased lyrics from a song from a musical… very clever Stark" he sneered
"It's not just a song from any musical… it's the third greatest stage musical * EVER* written… right behind Les Mis and Starlight Express. And it is based on mostly factually accurate American History"
"I can paraphrase musicals too… or rather I can sing them accurately…
Tell me quickly what's the story Who saw what, and why, and where? Let him give a full description Let him answer to Javert In this nest of whores and vipers Let one speak who saw it all Who laid hands on this good man here? What's the substance of this brawl? "
"We can continue the musical dick-measuring contest later… right now, we need to finish this film" said Rufus
Ross continues to explain that Banner was the monster, created by a failed experiment meant to replicate the "Super-Soldier" programme.
"That's the programme my parents were kidnapped for!" Tony said furiously
Blonsky volunteers to be given a small dose of an altered Super Soldier serum (another failed experiment but considered "very promising") that increases his strength and agility. Blonsky leads a second attack on Banner at Culver University, where he and his team encounter Hulk and are defeated.
"BRUCE IS NOT A MONSTER!" Tony, Jay, Nat, Pepper, Clint, Steve, Peter, Bucky, Wanda, Pietro, Peggy and Howard yelled together.
"Thanks guys but I kind of am" Bruce replied sheepishly
Hulk saves Ross from an explosion and he takes her to the Smoky Mountain National Forest. Banner and Ross go to Grayburn College in New York City to meet Mr. Blue, who is revealed to be Samuel Sterns.
"THAT ABOMINABLE, MONSTROUS SON OF A COCK-LOVING WHORE STOLE MY DAUGHTER!" Ross yelled. Betty stood up and punched her father in the face.
Sterns invented a potential antidote, and Banner accepts it, despite the risks. Banner is restrained and a transformation is induced, but was successfully reversed through Sterns' antidote.
"He must be a genius"
Sterns revealed that he synthesized Banner's blood into a large supply, in hopes of using it in the next stage of human evolution. While Banner tries to convince him otherwise, he is suddenly tranquilized by one of Ross' snipers.
"Darn!"
Ross and Banner are taken into custody, while Blonsky confronts Sterns and asks him to give him a sample of Banner's blood to add to his power. Sterns warns that the Super Soldier serum and gamma radiation together could create an "abomination", but Blonsky doesn't change his mind.
"Because he can't, if he does he will be seen as a coward."
The procedure transforms Blonsky into a Hulk-like monster who knocks Sterns into a sample of Banner's blood, and goes on a rampage through Harlem looking for something that could challenge his new strength as well as to lure Hulk out.
"I think it will take a bit more than that"
Despite his fears that he has cured himself of Hulk permanently, Banner is given permission to fight Blonsky and jumps from General Ross' helicopter in an attempt to re-trigger his transformations. Banner emerges from a crater in the street below as Hulk, and proceeds to face Blonsky.
"Blonsky is a scary looking guy"
"And Hulk isn't?"
"Hulk doesn't scare me"
Hulk manages to defeat Blonsky after a lengthy, destructive and harsh fight while also protecting Betty and General Ross, who had been put in harm's way, but is again forced to run from the US one days later, Banner is in Bella Coola, British Columbia trying to learn how to control his transformations, instead of curing them. "It is hard to control a small child that is within the body of an adult and that's essentially what The Other Guy, the Hulk is."
Later, Tony Stark arrives at a bar, where he finds a drunken and defeated General Ross. Upon acknowledging the recent battle in Harlem, the two discuss a "team" being put together.
"Were you sent by Fury?"
"Yes"
"Since when are you anyone's messenger boy Stark?"
"He asked, I obeyed. I didn't want to risk angering him unnecessarily or creating the wrong impression. First impressions are everything."
"There is now an hour's break before the next film. It is time for dinner"