"Let me guess. You're thinking about Culver University. You' re wondering if any of the data from your original experiment might still exist. Let me stop you right there, Banner. If you go back to America, Ross WILL find you and he WILL cause another incident. More than that, he ' s still desperately working on trying to create super soldiers. What do you think will happen if he or any of his lackeys gets ahold of some of your blood, hm? You've done well to run this long, Doctor Banner. But you can't stop now."
Bruce stares with wide eyes at the armored figure. How? How had he known? More than that, everything else he was saying was … enough to chill Bruce down to his very bones. Unfortunately, his visitor wasn't done quite yet.
"Oh, and lose Mr. Blue's number. And please don't send him any more of your blood, I just got done destroying the last sample."
Another surge of emotion and adrenaline rushes through Bruce and this time he has to clench his hands into fists to try to calm himself down. Still the armored figure doesn't react with any sort of fear.
"What? Why would you do that? What are you talking about? Mr. Blue is helping me. He's the only one who's been helping me."
"He's using you, Banner."
Bruce blinks as he suddenly gets an alert on his computer. Glancing over, he sees that he has a new email from a scrambled address. There ' s an attachment. Carefully, hesitantly, he reaches out and opens it… and stares, eyes starting to water with tears of frustration as he reads through Samuel Sterns', aka Mr. Blue's research into his blood.
His long distance research partner hadn't just used the blood Bruce had sent him a month back for the purposes of trying to synthesize a cure. No, he'd been looking into other purposes as well. His overarching goal was rather noble to be fair… he seemed to want to make humans practically immune to every type of genetic disease known to mankind. But he was playing with fire. Bruce could have told him that if he'd known, but he hadn't known because Mr. Blue, Professor Sterns… had kept it from him.
Letting out a shuddering breath, Bruce nods and looks back to the silent, watching figure in his laboratory.
"You're right. I'll cut off all contact." His visitor tilts its armored head to the side.
" Good call, Dr. Banner. Consider this a token of my appreciation for your work."
A black square dislodges itself from the armor, dropping down into a metal palm. Then, the figure moves over to a nearby filing cabinet and sets the black square on top of it. Bruce stares at it worriedly for a moment before biting the bullet and just fucking asking.
"What… what is it?"
The armored figure almost seems to radiate amusement.
" It ' s a Starkphone, Doctor Banner. Modified to be untraceable and undetectable. You'll find everything that's left of the original experiment from 2005 on it, along with all of yours and Professor Sterns' work over the last year. I'm not unsympathetic to what you're giving up here, Banner. But with this, you won't be giving up half as much."
That was… Bruce eyes the Starkphone hungrily. Even still…
"This feels like a Faustian Deal. What's in it for you? Why are you doing this for me, exactly?"
The armored figure pauses.
"Hm, been a while since I was compared to the Devil. As for why I'm doing this… I'll just be honest with you, shall I? I' ve got a lot on my plate right now. It's going to be a busy couple months. The last thing I need is to worry about you and Thaddeus Ross tearing up a United States City because of his obsession with you. Giving you this warning along with the phone is my way of heading off a major disaster, plain and simple." That makes a lot of sense, actually. Of course, just as Bruce is getting ready to nod his head in agreement, his mysterious visitor has to cap it all off.
"For you, Doctor Banner, today might just end up being the most important day of your entire life. For me, it's just another Friday."
… Alright, fuck this guy, just a little bit. Even still, the assholish behavior actually kind of sets Bruce at ease, much to his own surprise. It makes sense in a way. Someone who could develop a highly advanced suit of armor like the man in front of him is wearing wouldn't really care about Bruce or the monster within, outside of the potential damage that he might cause.
"I'll leave you to start making your travel plans, Doctor Banner. Oh, and since you're going to see my own personal thoughts on your condition anyways when your curiosity finally forces you to use the Starkphone, I'll just tell you now… you're going about this all wrong."
Bruce frowns, but the armored figure isn't done.
"You think of the Hulk as something to be purged, to be purified from your body. You consider him a disease, an affliction to cure yourself of."
Gritting his teeth, Bruce does his best to hold back the urge to snarl. Green creeps into his vision as he bites out his response.
"That's because he is."
"Is he? Or is he just the other part of you that you've never allowed yourself to acknowledge before? Ask yourself this, Banner. If your passenger is nothing but a big green rage monster, why does he share your love of Betty Ross?"
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