Bruce Banner's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Banner walked north for days. The cold suited him. Snow muffled sound. Empty land meant no crowds to hurt. He built a lean-to from ice and old driftwood and told himself he could rest here. No general. No soldiers. Just wind. But something felt wrong. For two nights he sensed eyes on him. Tracks in the snow that were not his own. He told himself it was nerves. He was wrong. The attack came at dusk. A shape burst from the drifts, tall as a tree, white fur over cracked bone. Its jaws opened wide. Banner had heard old stories of a thing called the wendigo, a hunger that walked. He did not believe them until its claws raked his chest and threw him into the snow. Fear did the rest. Banner's skin split green. His body swelled and tore his shirt. In seconds the Hulk stood where the man had knelt. The monster lunged. The Hulk caught it by the throat and slammed it down. Bone cracked. The two crashed through ice and stone, trading blows that shook the ground. Then a second figure dropped from a ridge. He wore a torn army uniform and old boots. Three metal claws slid from his fist with a wet sound. This was Logan, the hunter Ross had sent to find Banner. He had tracked the Hulk here. But the wendigo came first. Logan drove his claws into its back and tore. "Hit it high," Logan said. Nothing more. The Hulk hit it high. Logan hit it low. The monster shrieked and fell. Its bones went still in the red snow. For one breath the two stood over it, enemies who had just fought as one. The breath ended. The Hulk turned on Logan. He did not know friend from foe. He only knew the small thing with metal claws had cut something, and everything near him was a threat. He swung. Logan rolled clear and came up slashing. They fought through the night and into the next day. Nearly a full day of it. Logan's claws opened wounds that closed as fast as they came. The Hulk's fists broke bone that knit again. Neither could win. Neither would stop. At last the Hulk grabbed Logan and leaped high. He drove down at a mountain wall, meaning to crush the man against the rock. The strike missed flesh but split the slope. Snow broke loose above them. It came down in a white wall and swallowed them both. Banner woke buried, human again, torn purple shorts on his hips. He clawed up through packed snow and dragged himself into open air. He was alive. So was the hunter, somewhere under the same slide. Banner did not wait to learn where. He let the fear take him one more time, went green, and leaped. He cleared the valley in a single jump and was gone before Logan broke free.