WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU MIX RED AND GREEN?

Part III

By Derrick Ferguson

“Ya got five seconds ta turn me loose, Strange. I mean what I say.”

The look on the face of the Green Hulk was pure animal rage. His emerald eyes blazed with an anger that bordered on insanity. Dr. Strange stood in quiet contemplation, one orange gloved hand absently stroking his chin.

“Most interesting, wouldn’t you say, Leonard? This is most certainly not The Hulk I am used to dealing with.”

“He’s more articulate, sure. But that’s nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve dealt with different aspects of The Hulk in the past.”

“You ain’t never dealt with this Hulk before, Samson. Now tell yer purple flunky there ta get me outta this concrete straitjacket before I-“

“SAMSON!” The Red Hulk howled. “I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”

Sleepwalker looked around nervously. Dr. Strange had erected an invisible barrier that was keeping the civilians and police back but it was only a matter of time before their images went out on the news and the Internet and then-

“I sense your distress, Mr. Sheridan. Rest assured, I have the situation under control.” Dr. Strange lifted his hands and made complicated designs in the air, designs that left sparkling trails of mystic energies.

How does he twist his fingers like that without breaking them? Sleepwalker wondered. He must go through a whole tube of Ben-Gay every night.

And suddenly they were no longer in downtown Phoenix. They were in the desert, miles from any inhabited area. The Hulks were still encased in concrete with only their heads exposed.

“This should be a better place to hold our discussion I think,” Dr. Strange said. “And you can rest easy, Mr. Sheridan. I have erased the memory of this event from the minds of those who witnessed it and repaired the damage as well.”

“Wow. I guess they don’t call you ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ for nothing.”

“I should hope they call me ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ for something,” Dr. Strange replied in a tone that Sleepwalker wasn’t exactly sure was entirely serious.

“But enough of idle banter. We have a serious problem on our hands, gentlemen. Or should I say two problems.”

Both Hulks were furiously struggling, trying to free themselves from their concrete prisons but were unable to do so. Doc Samson was eyeing The Green Hulk with extreme interest. “I want an explanation. You’re obviously a more intelligent incarnation of The Hulk. How much of you is Bruce Banner?”

“NONE A’ ME!” the Green Hulk raged. “Th’ only thing we share is a body and if I had my way we wouldn’t even been sharin’ that! We had a deal, me an’ Banner an’ he ain’t lived up to his part of it!”

“Deal?” Doc Samson pounced on the word. “What sort of deal? You mean that you and Banner reached some sort of accord?”

“Turn me loose and I’ll reach an accord with him!” The Red Hulk bellowed. “Banner’s gotta talk to me!”

“You made that phony, didn’t ya, Strange?” the Green Hulk snarled. “Magicked him up outta nothing, didn’t ya? Yer workin’ wit’ Hardbottle, ain’t’cha? Where is that low-life bastard?”

Dr. Strange arched an eyebrow at Doc Samson. “Hardbottle?”

“Military man. I’ve never met him but I’ve heard the name. Give me a minute.” Doc Samson fished out his cellphone and placed a call to Washington while Sleepwalker talked to Dr. Strange.

“Look, Doc…when I restructured the concrete to hold these guys I also hardened it as much as possible but still, we’re talking about trying to hold two Hulks. It won’t hold them forever.”

“It won’t have to. I intend to get to the bottom of this quickly. We must return to my Sanctum Sanctorum. Other matters of importance await us.”

Doc Samson rejoined them. “According to my sources in Washington, this Hardbottle is a Lt. Colonel with the Army and has been on some sort of covert assignment but nobody seems to know what it is. And get this: since the Seattle disaster nobody has seen him. The Army will only say that he is on ‘extended leave’.”

“You think he was at Seattle?”

“Let us find out.” Dr. Strange held out his hands to Sleepwalker and Doc Samson. “Take hold.”

“Why?”

“We are going to go talk to Bruce Banner.”

Doc Samson took Dr. Strange’s hand. “And how do you propose we do-WHOA!”

They were no longer in the Arizona desert. The three Defenders stood in the middle of a ruined street that looked as if it had been blasted by an artillery attack. Proud skyscrapers were now blackened shells. Mounds of rubble and smoking debris along with the shattered husks of cars, buses and military vehicles dotted the street. The sky was so thick with choking black smoke it blotted out the sun.

And above all else was the screaming of the dying.

“My GOD…” Doc Samson said quietly. “Stephen…is this…Seattle?”

“In a way. This is the Seattle inside of the mind of Bruce Banner. This is what he lives with now.”

“Let me get this straight,” Sleepwalker said. “We’re inside Bruce Banner’s mind right now?”

“We need to talk to Bruce. Not his belligerent alter ego. It was simpler for us to come here rather than me trying to force a transformation upon The Hulk in his enraged state.”

“You’re not scared Big Green or Big Red will break free while we’re here?”

“Time does not exist here. We can stay a minute, an hour, a week, a month or a year and we will return to your perception of reality at precisely the exact moment we left.”

“Uh…what do you mean by that? Isn’t your perception of reality the same as ours?”

But Dr. Strange was already walking away from Sleepwalker and Doc Samson. And the other two saw why. There was a man kneeling in the middle of the blasted street, his shoulders shaking with nearly uncontrollable sobbing.

Dr. Strange placed a hand on the shoulder of the man, who turned his tear-streaked face around and looked up.

Bruce Banner looked like a man who had no soul. His face was aged and his hair turning white. His sunken eyes were dark pits of despair. “Stephen…Stephen…”

“I know, Bruce. I know.”

Still on his knees, Bruce Banner wrapped his arms around the waist of Dr. Strange and continued his anguished weeping while Sleepwalker and Doc Samson stood silently by, looking around them at a literal hell on Earth.

“Why did you do it, Bruce?” Doc Samson asked. He knelt next to Bruce Banner who had let go of Dr. Strange but seemed to lack the strength to get to his feet. Doc Samson was frankly unnerved by all this. Despite the fact that Dr. Strange had assured him that in reality the three of them were still in the desert holding hands and this was all taking place inside the mind of Bruce Banner it felt absolutely real.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this!” Bruce shouted, clutching at Doc Samson. “If Hardbottle hadn’t come after The Hulk this wouldn’t have happened!” Bruce looked wildly at Dr. Strange. “You know what The Hulk is like when he’s provoked! They shouldn’t have pushed him!”

Dr. Strange said calmly in that resonate tenor voice; “I know what The Hulk I knew is like, Bruce. I have no idea of what this Hulk is or what he is like. I do know what he is capable of. The chaos in your own mind speaks of that.” Dr. Strange threw out his arm to take in the ruined city.

Bruce pushed away from Doc Samson. “This wasn’t supposed to end like this.”

“How was it supposed to end, Bruce?” Doc Samson persisted. “Talk to me. Help us make sense of this.”

Meanwhile…back in the desert…

The Red Hulk glowered at the still forms of Dr. Strange, Doc Samson and Sleepwalker. They were as motionless as redwoods, still holding hands. The Green Hulk was also staring at the three with his own unique brand of hatred.

“Y’know we ain’t done, red ass.” The Green Hulk snarled at his crimson counterpart. “Just because Strange come along an’ gave you a reprieve don’t mean a damn thing.”

“Oh, don’t worry…I’m gonna finish what we started. And sooner than you think.” Hairline cracks were starting to appear in the concrete casing as The Red Hulk’s intensely rising body heat made it brittle. It would only be a matter of time before he would be able to break it altogether and be free to resume his battle with The Green Hulk. And get his answers.

And now back to the mind of Bruce Banner…

“It all went so wrong so fast,” Bruce moaned, looking around him at the devastation. “The Hulk just went completely out of control and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I had to watch…”

Sleepwalker said; “Shouldn’t we turn him into the authorities? S.H.I.E.L.D. or somebody?”

Doc Samson placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “Bruce, I want you to come with us. I want you to place yourself under my care and turn yourself in voluntarily. It’s the only way, you know that.”

Bruce scrambled to his feet and backed away from The Defenders. “NO! I can’t do that! Not yet! Not until I make this right!”

Doc Samson shook his head. “Bruce, you’ve killed and injured thousands. Not just in Seattle but in other rampages as well. The only way to make this right is to turn yourself in and face your crimes like a man. I promise I’ll be there with you every step of the way. I’ll-“

“I said NO!” The quality of Bruce’s voice was changing. It was becoming rougher, gruffer. “They’ll sedate me up to the eyeballs and throw me in the filthiest hole they can find, you know that, Samson. I’ll turn myself in but on my own terms.”

Doc Samson’s face was grimly set. “That’s simply not going to work, Bruce. You can’t possibly think that we’re going to just let you walk away. Right, Stephen?”

Dr. Strange was looking intently at Bruce. The ornate circular golden amulet at his throat opened slowly. Within resided one of the most powerful mystic objects in existence: The Eye of Agamotto. It floated from its resting place inside the amulet and affixed itself to Dr. Strange’s forehead. “There is much here we do not understand, Leonard. I suspect there is far more at work here than we can know or suspect.”

The Eye emitted a golden cone of pure mystical energy that washed over Bruce Banner. Doc Samson and Sleepwalker both felt their skin tingling as Dr. Strange examined this mental representation of Bruce Banner. It did not take long and The Eye returned to its home.

Dr. Strange turned to his companions. “Let us go.”

“Go? Go where?” Doc Samson demanded.

“Back to New York and my Sanctum Sanctorum with The Red Hulk.”

“What about Bruce and The Green Hulk?”

“Leave them to their fate.”

Doc Samson’s face was aghast and he said, “Stephen, you cannot honestly expect me to leave such a potential danger running around loose! Bruce and The Hulk have to be taken in!”

“The fate of Bruce Banner and The Hulk is not in our hands, Leonard. At least not this day.”

“You can whip up a containment spell long enough to transport him to a holding cell in The Vault!”

Calmly, Dr. Strange replied, “I could but I will not.”

Doc Samson whirled upon Sleepwalker. “Are you just going to stand there? Don’t you have an opinion on this?”

“Only this: we can barely handle one Hulk. How do you think we’re going to handle two?”

“Dr. Strange’s magic-“

“I have already said that we will leave Bruce and The Hulk to their fate.”

Dr. Strange snapped his fingers and just like that, they were back on Earth. They let go of each other’s hands and Doc Samson stepped away from Dr. Strange.

“Do whatever you like, Strange. I’m not letting The Hulk go.”

“Got THAT shit right!”

With a sudden surge of immense thews, The Red Hulk shattered his concrete confinement, showering The Defenders with stinging pellets. “That green bastard’s goin’ nowhere until I get the answers I came for! Now step aside!” The Red Hulk charged at the still confined Green Hulk.

Dr. Strange stepped in the path of the charging crimson colossus and said in annoyance; “Oh, go to sleep.” And made a mystic pass with a hand.

The Red Hulk abruptly collapsed into a snoring heap to the ground.

“You mean you could have done that at anytime?” Sleepwalker yowled. “Why didn’t you?”

“Actually, I wasn’t sure that would work. This red Hulk is partly a creation of magic. Whose magic I do not know. But I will find out. And that unknown quality makes him a priority of mine. One that takes precedent over that Hulk.” Dr. Strange pointed at The Green Hulk.

“I don’t believe what I’m hearing. Stephen, you can’t be serious!”

“Leonard, I do not have the time or the inclination to debate this issue with you. You and I have been friends for a long time. You either will have to trust me on this or not. It is not for us to judge The Hulk. Not this day. We must content ourselves with that. But trust me when I say that Seattle will not be forgotten when The Hulk’s day of reckoning comes.”

Doc Samson looked highly unconvinced. He turned to Sleepwalker. “And you’re okay with this?”

“Hey, he’s The Sorcerer Supreme. If we can’t take his word for it then whose word can we take?”

“Listen to purple puss, Samson,” The Green Hulk grinned viciously. “He’s givin’ you good advice. Walk away. Walk away and I’ll let you live. Fer today.”

Doc Samson made a final appeal to Dr. Strange. “Listen to him, Stephen! The Hulk has been many things before but never homicidal! There’s something seriously wrong with him! And that means there’s something seriously wrong with Bruce as well!”

Dr. Strange snapped his fingers and the Red Hulk levitated upwards six feet to float in mid-air, massive arms and head hanging limply. “I return to New York, Leonard. Go or stay, which is it to be?” A mystical portal shimmered as it opened a doorway into Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Dr. Strange stepped through, followed by the floating form of The Red Hulk. Sleepwalker quickly followed.

Doc Samson gave The Hulk one last miserable look. “I won’t stop trying to help you, Hulk. You or Bruce.”

“Go fuck yerself sideways, Samson. I see you again; I’ll bite yer head clean off.”

Doc Samson visibly flinched as if he’d been slapped. His every instinct was telling him to stay but if he did he and The Hulk would only end up fighting and that would do no one any good at all. And given this Hulk’s unpredictable mental state there was a high possibility that the fight would end with one of them dead.

Doc Samson stepped through the portal and it closed behind him. The Defenders were gone.

The Hulk flexed and the concrete casing exploded outwards into powder. The Hulk could have burst free but he wanted to see exactly what The Defenders were all about and how much they knew about Hardbottle and any further plans to catch The Hulk. And the man monster had found out all he wanted to: The Defenders knew nothing. They were just as stupid and ignorant as the rest of the puny humans crawling on the face of the planet.

The Hulk was right pleased with himself that he had practiced guile and not wasted time in a useless fight with The Defenders. Why should he when he had an entire world trembling in fear and awe of him?

The Hulk threw back his head and filled the desert with his roaring laughter. A laughter that made coyotes slink into their nests quivering with terror. Vultures flew as far away as they could to escape that horrible laugh which continued until the blackest of nights engulfed the Arizona desert.

NEXT: One of the most important people in The Hulk’s life at last makes an appearance! Be here next issue for “Who Is Betty Ross And What Has She Been Doing All This Time?”