Robert Bruce Banner. A brilliant scientist forever driven by both an introverted nature and a quest for knowledge. A man who hid his every anger and rage his entire life behind horn rim glasses, and the latest scientific journal. But that rage was alive, and seething. Forever Seeking an escape. And finally that rage and anger was given form and substance by a freak accident, caused by Banners own deadly experiment. Now in times of peril, the meek and mild mannered scientist is transformed into seven feet, one thousand pounds of raging fury! The strongest, most powerful creature to ever walk the Earth !

The Incredible Hulk!

Hulk #466

"My enemy, my reflection!"

By Ralph L. Angelo Jr

Betty Banner stands disbelieving and in shock. Before her , a small town burns! The gas station across from her place of employment, an exotic bar where she worked as a waitress, burns furiously and out of control. The bar itself is demolished, as the monstrous beast known as the Abomination attacked her husband, the incredible Hulk, and threw him through the small bar, decimating it ! A battle raged, The Hulk fighting back against the seemingly insane Abomination, who now was beyond reasoning. Finally, Banner realized he wasn't going to beat the Abomination , unless he released his full strength, a strength held in check by his pragmatic mind. You see, the Hulk no longer gets stronger the madder he gets, such is the price of intelligence. And so, Bruce Banner did the one thing he could, to insure his wifes safety, for she was the object of the Abominations ire. He surrendered his mind to the dark Animus inside him, the raging man beast that makes the Incredible hulk the most dangerous opponent of all!

Betty feels her mind collapsing inside of herself. Her husband disappeared minutes ago ,and the Earth swallowed both he and his enemy up in one gulp of pain !

"No, not again." She moans quietly, as the starlit sky stares down on her and the carnage around her."How can he be gone again? He just returned to me. This is not right, it's not fair." She sinks to her knees and stares at the surrounding carnage, as tears begin to stain her cheeks.

Then suddenly , the ground rumbles yet again, as she quickly stands, and grabs onto a nearby car that was wrecked in the battle for support.

The ground quakes again and again, when suddenly it explodes upwards!

Ba-THOOM!

The Abomination erupts out of the hole, limp and unconscious, to slam into the ground a block away like a rag doll. An instant later, a huge green fist punches up through the dirt ,as a creature as if from nightmare itself pulls itself out of the ground, and looks around savagely with green eyes.

"Bah, Hulk is back. Stupid A-Bom-ina-tion thought he could stop Hulk. NOTHING can stop Hulk! Hulk is strongest one there is! "

He beats his chest like a mad ape, as Betty stares, both in fear and in relief, and then she stands from where she collapsed near the car, and walks towards the man-monster, quietly.

"Hulk." She speaks softly.

"What?" The green goliath turns towards her voice, his face a thing to instill terror, and then softens immediately when he sees her. "Be-tty? You are Be-tty. What happened here? Why does Hulks head hurt, why... Uhhnnn." He collapses to one knee, and hold his head in one huge paw, and when he finally looks up, the light of reason and intelligence fills his vision.

"Betty! Thank God!" He stands , his demeanor obviously that of Bruce Banner again.

"Bruce! OH thank God!" She hugs her husband tightly.

"Betty, I have to put these fires out, the fire department is afraid to come any further, and the rest of the town is deserted by now. Go, get in the car and get out of here. I'll meet you back at the house. Thank God you bought it in a secluded area." he adds as an afterthought.

She nods, and kisses him once , passionately , then runs to her car across the street, and drives away.

"Good. Now it's time to get to work."

He leaps into the heart of the raging gasoline fire at the services station, disappearing amid the flames. Suddenly there's a massive 'whooshing' sound as the Hulk slams his hands together, creating a powerful vacuum , smothering the flames, and killing them all immediately !

He stares around him at the destroyed buildings, and shakes his head sadly. "No matter what I do to get away from all this, it always returns to haunt me." He looks at the wreckage, and slowly picks his way through it, when suddenly his ears pick up small sound.

"Help! Some one help us!"

"Somebody's trapped there." He thinks as he leaps across the street to what's left of the bar. He begins to pick his way through it. "Who's in there ? Talk to me ,let me know where you are."

Voices answer, some female, some male, and all at once. "Here! Here we are." screaming in a senseless cacophony. He immediately begins to pull heaps of rubble out of the way carefully, as not to collapse anything more, and a womans hand pokes its way up through the rubble, he rips the rubble away from here, and gently pulls her out. She's a dancer at the club, he recognized her from earlier tonight. When she sees him, she freezes in fear, but immediately softens. "You saved me." she whispers. "The rest of them are in there, you have to get them out." She points at the hole.

"Is anyone hurt?" He asks as he continues digging.

"Just cuts and bruises." she answers slowly, and still in shock.

"Good. Now get back, I have to make a bigger hole, and one where no one will be hurt by it. " He begins to tunnel.

Nearby, the Police and fire departments have ventured into town as they suddenly saw the fires go out. The firemen stand by in disbelief as they watch the Hulk tunnel away to save lives. Suddenly one of the Cops nearby begins walking towards the Hulk.

"C'mon, we have to help him. He's trying to save lives."

Immediately they all jump into action, as the Hulk continues digging, the Firemen stand shoulder to shoulder with him, and they pull out the battered employees from the buried basement dressing room.

"Here's the last one." The Hulk states, as he yanks Tommy the bouncer out, who merely smiles weakly at the Hulk, obviously still frightened from their earlier confrontation*.

*See last issue.

The next morning...

Bruce Banner opens his paper with his wife by his side. The front page reads 'Hulk saves small town from utter destruction. Rescues a dozen from beneath buried club."

"I don't believe it." Banner grunts , smiling broadly. "After all these years, someone got it right. I finally get recognized for a good deed."

"I know, it's wonderful, isn't it honey?" Betty answers as she pours him some coffee. She hugs the thin scientist and goes back to the stove, as she flips a pancake over. "I guess my job is gone now. The club is ruined. At least we're going to get that stipend that the Avengers owe you from years gone by, plus you're going to go back to work for Stark, Inc. So we should be fine."

" I know, hon. I'm sorry about the club. I guess I got lucky that everyone saw the Abomination attack me in plain sight, otherwise, I'd be to blame for that one too. It feels good to actually come out on top of one of these things for once."

"What happened to the Abomination? " She asks as she sits across from him, and sips her own coffee.

"He got away, of course. By the time I got back to him, after rescuing those people, he was gone. Typical."

In the seeming distance a low rumble begins to fill their ears. Both heads turn towards the sound.

"Here he comes." Betty says nonchalantly.

"Yes, we were expecting this after last night. I'll get the door."

By now the sound has turned into an almost full out roar of machinery, as Bruce Banner opens the door at the very first knock.

Before him stands General Thadeus "Thunderbolt" Ross.

"Good morning, General. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Don't play games with me, Banner. You're under military arrest for what you did last night. You may have fooled the civilians, but I know you're nothing but a monster in every sense of the word, and always will be."

"Oh please , Daddy." Betty says as she walks towards her father, holding a cup of coffee out to him. "Why don't you relax and sit down with us. Send your soldiers home. Bruce is no threat, and everyone knows it. Especially after last nights battle, where he saved a dozen people as well as stopped a gas station from exploding and killing who knows how many. Face it, Daddy, Bruce is a hero."

"For today, daughter, maybe for today, but there's always tomorrow, and I'll be watching you, Banner, remember that." He takes the coffee from Betty's hand and begins to leave, but he stops and turns towards them one last time, again speaking "Remember, a leopard can't change his spots." and then he turns and leaves. A minute later, the military vehicles make their way off into the distance, taking their rumble with them.

"Well, that was pleasant." Betty grunts as she shuts the front door.

"He was merely rattling his saber, Betty. Just letting me know he's still there."

She shrugs and shakes her head. "Like he'd be hard to forget."

"Well, he is your father."

She smirks "So immediately he's my problem?"

"Yes , I thought you'd appreciate that." he laughs as he picks up the TV remote and flicks it on, and he begins to flip through channels.

"What th-" He stops dead in his channel flipping tracks. "I don't believe this." He murmurs , dumbfounded.

Betty turns towards him, and the TV screen. As she does her eyes go wide, and she immediately grabs the remote out of Bruce's hand, instantly turning the volume up. "What is he thinking?" She asks stunned.

"He obviously isn't." Bruce answers, his mind riveted to the TV screen.

Before them, Rick Jones sits on a couch , across from a desk that his wife Marlo is seated at and Rick is talking about his experiences with Super heroes in general, and the Hulk in particular. Behind them both, images of the Hulk are seen on a huge screen, rampaging through different situations.

..."And then the Hulk and I leaped across the desert, me hanging onto his back for dear life, as he covered the empty expanse away from General Ross and his troops."

"And where did you two go, Rick?" Marlo asks, as she leans on her elbow, listening to his story intently.

"Well Marlo, the Hulk had these caves hidden around where he had equipment stored. In those days, he used to be able to trigger his change himself with stuff he had stored in those caves."

"You mean the Hulk ?" Marlo asks, as if she doesn't already know who Rick is talking about.

"Here it comes." Betty sighs, as she slumps into the couch.

"I can't believe they're both going to do this to us." Bruce groans.

"No." Rick begins, "not the Hulk, but his other self, Bruce Banner."

"Bam, there it is." Betty says as she slaps herself in the forehead. Before them both, the images behind Rick and Marlo coalesce into an image of Bruce Banner, boy scientist, pocket protector and glasses in place while wearing a white lab coat, and holding a clipboard.

"For all the word to hear. Like it wasn't common knowledge enough." Bruce slumps down in the couch even more. "Now the two or three million who didn't know who the Hulk was, do. Thanks buddy."

"Well honey , don't worry about it. In another four or five years, no one will remember who the Hulk really is." Betty shuts the TV off as she gets up off the couch.

Ba-DOOM!

Suddenly an explosion rocks the ground beneath their house !

"Oh, now what?" Bruce leaps upwards and runs towards the door, Betty right behind him.

"I-I don't know, it sounds like it's in the direction Daddy went."

"Betty, stay here." He orders her, as he changes immediately into the Hulk.

Ba-BOOMM!

Another explosion rocks the ground again, as gunfire now fills the air.

"Go inside Betty, if I'm not back in 10 minutes, get out of here, and head in the opposite direction. No, scratch that, leave now! That's starting to sound like a full fledged fire fight going on."

He leaps away towards the sounds, as Betty shouts behind him "Be careful!"

"Yeah, right. Think about who you're telling that too." He shouts over his shoulder.

Thirty seconds later, The Incredible Hulk lands amid devastation ! Army tanks and vehicles strewn about, as if they were toys. Men lay all about , injured , or worse!

"He did it this time. Now he's got to be stopped. Once and for all" The Hulk thinks.

"Come out Emil. I know you did this. "

Behind a tank a figure stands, sweeping the 70 ton tank aside like it was paper !

Thoom!

"I'm right here , Bruce, and look who I have with me."

The Hulks eyes go wide with recognition at the unconscious figure in the Abominations hand.

"Yes Bruce, it's my old friend, General Thunderbolt Ross. Now I will kill him, unless you turn into your weaker self ,and allow me to kill you. Answer me now Bruce, or I snap his head off his shoulders like a soda bottle cap." The Abomination stands with his pointer finger under Ross' bobbing head and chin. "What's it going to be Hulk? The man? Or the monster?"

To be HULKINUED !

Next : The Conclusion of our Abomination epic !

Radioactive Rumblings

C/O CptMarvell@aol.com