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[COLOR=AF7AC5][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=white][I]El Diablo Air Force Base, (Navapo, New Mexico)[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]Seeing [color=228B22]Green[/color] – 1.07[/b][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][color=AF7AC5][sub][B]Interaction(s):[/B] [COLOR=white][I]None[/I][/COLOR][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][b]Previously:[/b] [COLOR=white][I][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5007024]1.06[/url][/I][/COLOR][/right][/SUP][/color][/INDENT]
[indent]The air was tight as the contingent went through the halls of the base. There were no words, the alarm’s blaring leaving an ominous air that stifled the thoughts.

General Ross led the way, Talbot in tow with the police, and Betty along by the General’s insistence. The defense was only just being organized, and with a battle plan in motion. Ross’ solution was going to be heavy handed, but the man had a point, as much as Betty hated to admit it. She winced as they finally came to the heavy doors, the unlabeled lab she so often came around to find her boyfriend.

The heavy tiled walls gave the large room a structured feel, while the blast walls separating the lab into two made it all the more foreboding. Going through the first half of the lab, dominated by computer equipment, Ross reached the wall, punching in a number, sliding his ID, before letting the reader scan his retina. With a shudder that moved the whole room, the walls shifted open, a heavy chrome behemoth of a machine shuddering out. Betty felt a pit in her stomach as she stepped away from the opening, much like a cannon barrel: the Gamma Discharger.

[color=F1948A]“I really think the rest of us should be somewhere else.”[/color] Betty insisted. Her voice had a bit of worry tinging it, which she hoped her father wouldn’t notice, but that was wishful thinking. Ross had headed for a console on the side of the machine, but instead stopped, going to Betty’s side and putting ah and on her shoulder. She felt herself tense, but she didn’t pull away.  [color=BE1C1C]“The safest place for you here is with me. God knows where that monster is going to come in from.”[/color] Stepping away, he reached the machine. [color=BE1C1C]“The world is changing Betty, you know that as much as I do. If anyone had [i]listened[/i] to me, maybe the Stryker incident wouldn’t have been half as bad, but now we have our second national landmark damaged by terrorists since the turn of the century. People are scared, and the government they have to trust is going to need the power to protect them.”[/color] With a whir, the Discharger began to rumble to life. [color=BE1C1C]“I’d love to see the meta who could look down the barrel of this without sweating.”[/color]

“Sh-shouldn’t we be wearing protective gear sir?” One of the soldiers asked, sweating even as he stood off to the side.

[color=BE1C1C]“You all are going to the other side of that blast wall. N-”[/color] Echoing down the hall came the sounds gunfire, shouting, and an angry snarl. Betty felt herself tremble: she only got the gist of it earlier, but it looked like she was about to get the full picture. Torn between her fear and her journalistic desire to pull out her smartphone and start taking video, she took a half step back, glancing at the Discharger. Her instinct says having a way to take down rogue metas wasn’t really a bad thing: the only thing that could fight a meta was another meta, at least generally speaking, and government forces were still a ways behind. But at the same time, it was an extreme solution: she wanted metas accountable for their risk factor, not [i]dead[/i].

The bystander group stepped back towards the open barrier while Ross got his hands dirty, switching the setting from ‘test’ to ‘pulse’. From his belly, Ross barked, [color=BE1C1C]“All combatants retreat immediately!”[/color] No one had any idea if the soldiers could hear him or not, one hurtling past the open door, before [i]it[/i] came into sight. A naked foot stomped by the ground, the 10 foot tall beast’s posture rugged and standoffish. It only wore light purple slacks, stretched to the seams and torn at the sleeve, its massive chest bare to the world. A ratty mop of purple hair lazed on its huge skull, green eyes stabbing from a stern mug, its skin almost a neon green. It breathed heavily, stomach heaving, each breath joined by the sense that it might suddenly burst out into a snarl. The soldiers reached for their firearms as they defensively maneuvered backwards. Betty felt hands guide her as they moved her away, Ross working feverishly ahead. [color=BE1C1C]“LAST WARNING! GET OUT OF THE WAY!”[/color] Formality fell away to fervor. No soldiers were in sight past the monster, but untested weaponry could be unpredictable.

The monsters eyes lit up, the beast intent on something. Eyes locked on, its roar echoed on the walls, striking the eardrums of everyone nearby with one accusatory boom. [color=228B22][b]“TALBOT!”[/b][/color] Ross was given pause, sideways glance sent at the target, who looked about ready to shrivel up into his rectum with how tightly it was no doubt puckering. The behemoth began its charge, stomping in, and Ross stopped hesitating. The room had a surge of power, and then nothing.

Well, nothing was a reductive way of looking at things. Radiation wasn’t a magic green glow: it needed equipment to detect exactly because it was outside of the perception of humans, that was until the symptoms started to show. Outside of all eyes, a pulse of gamma rays hit the Hulk. A normal man would have been dead within seconds of a continued burst, but even just a pulse was likely to leave one wishing they were dead.

As it washed over the Hulk’s body, he sneezed.

Ross’ jaw dropped. With a glare he raised his fist and slammed it into the Discharger. [color=BE1C1C]“Worthless [b]garbage[/b]!”[/color] Hulk stomped past him, intent on Talbot. The soldiers, having been given the retreat order moments ago, before seeing the Hulk sneeze off the most capable weapon at the base that wasn’t mounted on a jet, resumed their course to the blast doors, Talbot and Betty joining in the rush. Getting in, they weren’t fast enough in closing the doors: as they came shut, the Hulk’s arm followed, getting pinned for just a moment. He easily wrenched the doors apart, mechanisms groaning and cracking as they were forced past their limits. Fear and panic similarly broke into the hearts of the men untested in battle, who were more or less paralyzed as Hulk bore down on them. Ross yelled profanities and challenges as he dared the monster to come after him, but they went on deaf ears. As the Hulk reached out to Talbot, the man was frozen in fear, almost half the height and a fraction of the weight as the green giant. Betty reflexively grabbed him, pulling him aside as she tried to scamper away, the Hulk’s hand moved to follow but pulled back, teeth bearing as he followed, hand trying to reach for Talbot, but with Betty in the way it kept going short. Clenching both of his fists, Hulk snarled, it’s roar resounding, but Betty was starting to catch on to the monster’s hesitance. Hulk stepped around, going at it from a different angle, the soldiers scrambling to get out of the way, but Betty moved to intercept, keeping herself between him and Talbot. The Hulk paused, shuffling to go at another angle, and once again Betty moved. Face tightening in anger, the Hulk growled, arms at his side in frustration as he raised his foot, stomping on the ground in a tantrum, each footfall shaking dust from the ceiling and cracking the once ordered tiles on the ground. Turning away, he paced about the room, snapping out at any soldiers it moved close to, who kept out of the path. The Hulk might have been stripped of some his fangs, but no one was about to test and see if he could still bite or not.

The room was too stunned to react: the Hulk’s presence put a lead weight on everyone’s feet. Going back to Betty, the Hulk barked, [color=228B22]“TALBOT [i]HURT[/i] YOU.”[/color] Betty felt the air run from her blood. Her brain seemed to put pressure on her skull from how fast her mind was racing, chills echoing down her spine as that one piece seemed to click into place.

[color=F1948A]“Wh-what?”[/color] she stammered. Her knees were gradually becoming weak underneath her. The Hulk however, seemed to quiet down. A sternness was on his face, but the anger was reserved, a quiet, calm determination clear in his expression. One she’d seen before.

[center]---[/center]
[i]Betty cried. Curled up into a ball under a cedar tree, its red and brown leaves carpeting the ground underneath the child. No buildings were in sight from this small stretch of the woods, but such a distant feeling place in reality was much closer to home than Betty wanted to be right now.

Footsteps made the girl in her ponytail looked up, vision blurred from the tears. Wiping them away and drying her hands on her t-shirt, she saw Bruce. He stopped a few steps away and looked on quietly, sadly. Betty wanted to tell him to go away and leave her alone, but her sinuses were still full so she could only sputter and cough. Bruce didn’t seem to mind, coming closer, and reaching his hand out. [color=AF7AC5]“Let’s run.”[/color]

As if a bell had rang, her thoughts had cleared, Trying to hide the quavering of her lip, she stood, brushing off her jeans before taking the hand of the slightly taller boy. Bruce lifted his hand as he turned around. The long sleeve of his purple shirt fell back, an even deeper purple underneath. She felt her eyes water as his hazel ones were now out of sight. She was glad he was leading the way: it was hard to see right now. Betty couldn’t container herself, but now suddenly things didn’t seem as bad as she thought, so she beat them back, trying to beat them back until they were dry. It didn’t seem right to cry while Bruce had such dry eyes.

It would only be a few hours until they were discovered, well after the sun had set, but until then, Betty felt like maybe they could run forever.[/i]

[center]---[/center]
Betty felt her breath coming on strong as her eyes darted between the Hulk’s hands and his deep green eyes. Once again, her hand trembled at her side, but it didn’t move.

Behind him, Ross reached into his uniform dress coat, .38 mm resting behind 2 stars. The tail end of a sentence came out as he trained his gun. [color=BE1C1C]“[i]...my[/i] daughter...”[/color] A shot rang out, bullet landing square on the back of the Hulk’s head. Teeth bared, he turned about, letting out a rumbling scream, one that didn’t let up. Ross fired again, this one going straight into the Hulk’s mouth. He was silenced, for just a moment, biting down, eyes flaring, teeth on display. Ross winced, muttering in bafflement, [color=BE1C1C]“Do you even bleed?”[/color] Hulk took one step.

[color=F1949A]“[b]Don’t[/b]!”[/color]

Hulk stopped, fist shaking, before he snorted, shaking his head, and continuing anyway. Storming on towards Ross, the man raised his gun, but Hulk only just went by him, the jab of an elbow sending Ross back into the Discharger and to the ground. Now that the Hulk was retreating a few of the soldiers who’d been transfixed and helpless found the courage to go their weapons, firing at the monster that raised its arms to keep away their bullets as if they were flies.

Before he turned to leave, Betty saw his back. One that looked so familiar, but while before it had seemed so big, now it only felt small.[/indent]