Chapter 13

"Excuse me, Dr. Stern. I'm Betty Ross."

At Culver University, after class, Betty approached Dr. Samuel Sterns.

"...Oh! You're Dr. Ross!"

Sterns was momentarily stunned, then suddenly realized—this beautiful woman named Betty Ross was the renowned Dr. Ross.

"Someone wants to see you."

"Mm~ okay."

At that moment, Banner stepped out from behind Betty. "Mr. Blue?"

"You're... Mr. Green?"

When Sterns saw Banner nod, he immediately understood.

After a brief exchange, Sterns led the two of them into his lab.

"Alright, lie down."

Sterns rolled out an examination table and set up all the equipment on Banner.

"This will protect you if you have any strong reactions later."

"Wait—are you sure about this?"

Betty looked at the simple, makeshift equipment and began to have doubts.

"Well, it hasn't failed before," Sterns said to Banner. "Let's begin!" Then he hit the start button.

After giving some instructions, Sterns held up a headset-like electrode and asked, "Ready?"

When Banner didn't answer, Sterns took a deep breath and handed him the electrode.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, Banner let out a scream as he slowly began to transform. Sterns, watching from the side, was amazed that it was all real.

Just as Banner was about to fully transform and lose control, Betty leaped onto him and tried to calm him down. Thanks to Sterns' adjustments, Banner gradually returned to his human form.

"Bruce, Bruce, can you hear me?" Betty called out to the unconscious but stabilized Banner.

"Oh... did it work?" Banner asked groggily upon waking up, directing the question to Betty.

"Oh my god, we did it," Sterns blurted out in Betty's place. "This is the most insane, most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life."

"The gamma pulse comes from the pineal gland in your brain… We may have neutralized those cells—or just temporarily suppressed your transformations. I'm guessing it's the latter, but I'm not sure. None of my other samples have ever survived like this before…"

"Wait, what did you say?" Banner suddenly caught something. "Samples? What samples?"

Sterns, clearly excited, replied, "Come with me."

"What's this?"

Banner followed him into a room lined with refrigerators. Inside were vials of blood.

"That's your blood. You sent too little, so I concentrated it—and made more. Only with enough of it could we continue our research. There's limitless potential here…"

As Sterns spoke about his research, his face lit up with barely contained excitement.

"No, we have to destroy them. All of them. Tonight." Banner interrupted him.

"Why? We could win a Nobel Prize with this," Sterns protested.

"You don't understand the power these things hold. They're too dangerous—uncontrollable!"

"We have an antidote," Sterns tried to push back.

"But the military only sees him as a weapon. If the government gets their hands on this, we're doomed. You have no idea how dangerous that weapon is!"

"I hate the government too, but you're overreacting."

Frustrated by Sterns' refusal to listen, Banner stepped closer to plead with him—but suddenly, a tranquilizer dart flew through the window and struck his shoulder.

"Ugh…" Banner looked at his shoulder, then collapsed.

As he fell, Blonsky burst through the door. He yanked Betty away from Banner and grabbed Bruce's face.

"Where is he? Bring him out! I want to fight him!"

But Banner, semi-conscious, couldn't hear him at all. Furious, Blonsky slapped him hard across the face.

Still, Banner didn't react.

Other soldiers arrived and pulled Blonsky away, while Banner was restrained and taken.

Afterward, Blonsky found Sterns.

"I want what you took from Banner. Make me like that. You're going to make me like that."

"But if I inject you, you might become something terrifying."

Blonsky pulled out a gun and pointed it at Sterns.

"Wait—I didn't say I don't want it. I just need your consent. Alright, you've consented."

Sterns had no choice but to inject Blonsky with the Hulk serum.

After the procedure, Sterns looked at the towering figure before him in fear.

"I know you probably can't understand me, but... could you lie down?"

At that moment, the monstrous Abomination backhanded Sterns, slamming him into a cabinet containing Hulk's blood samples.

Some of the serum entered Sterns' head wound. His face twisted into a strange smile.

Then Blonsky's monstrous form jumped out the lab window and into the city.

Meanwhile, Clark and Natasha had just gotten off work and arrived at Broadway.

"Since you treated me to a show tonight, I'll treat you to dinner. What do you want to eat?"

After parking the Q7 that Tony had given him, Clark turned to Natasha. He figured it was only right to return the favor, especially since they'd made a lot of money these past few days, and they might become teammates someday.

Clark actually wanted to join the Avengers. After all, there were movies based entirely on them now. If he didn't join, it felt like a waste of his efforts.

But as Clark tried to blend in, he noticed that the Avengers were full of internal conflict. Not just the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hydra problem—there were also ideological splits.

There were now two factions:

Iron Man's camp: Hulk, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Vision, Black Panther.

Captain America's camp: Hawkeye, Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch.

As for Banner—he seemed aligned with Tony in his human form, but once he transformed, no one really dealt with him. Thor only showed up during major events, otherwise staying in Asgard as a prince.

These camps hadn't formed deliberately—it was just a natural consequence of Iron Man and Cap's differing personalities attracting like-minded allies.

Honestly, if Clark wanted to seize leadership, his power alone would be enough. But to persuade others like Superman did? Clark didn't have that kind of charisma—he was just a former average guy in his past life.

And that was the thing: Superman had conviction, righteousness. Clark just wanted a comfortable, free life.

So he remained torn about whether to join the Avengers.

"The show starts at eight. I heard there's a new Japanese place nearby that's really good. Let's go there—don't worry about the bill."

"Haha, Japanese food? Isn't that super expensive?"

Clark winced at the thought of his wallet. After all, foreign cuisine in the U.S. could be pricey.

"She probably already spent the money she helped me earn over the last few days."

Still, Clark didn't say no.

But just then, he spotted a yellow-green monster charging into the street.

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