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THE SHE-HULK – Part 2

Written by castor :: [Monday, 21 March 2016 19:20] Last updated by :: [Friday, 06 May 2016 22:20]

Jennifer paused and just stood there: a green, giant, glistening monstrosity of a woman.

“Okay” she said “Okay … what's going on? What's happening?”

“I don't have any good answers.” Roy said, still lying on the ground.

Jennifer leaned down a hand. “Let me help you.”

Roy flinched.

“It's okay I' m not going to hurt you.”

He put a hand around hers and got wretched up

“Ahhh!”

He flew across the room, hitting the ceiling before hitting the ground and, at last, she screamed in panic.

“Roy!” she said walking forward.

He turned his head and stopped her with his eyes before she could touch him again “Stop it! Stop it … don't … that hurt a lot! My hand …”

He got up.

“Nothing seems broken … but I want to go to bed …”

“Let's get you to the hospital” Jennifer said.

She reaches for the door and, as she did, the door handle broke off in her hand. She had a twisted piece of metal and a part of the door in her hand. The door, however, stayed on; quality construction.

“Oh what the hell is …?” Jennifer said “What the hell is going on?”

“Don't touch anything.” Roy said “Anything!”

“But … but …”

“Stay. Calm.” Roy said. “Stay in control.”

Jennifer paused looking at the door handle in her hand. It was just a twisted piece of nothing.

“I … think I'm … very strong now.”

“Interesting observation” Roy said.

“Please. Just please” Jennifer said with more panic than she was trying to make manifest.

She walked toward a couch and moved her legs as delicately as she could to sit down. She heard the couch creak, but it held.

“Okay” she said. She put her back against it, which caused the couch to break as she sat on the ground.

“Oh god!” she said “What's happening to me?!?”

“Stay. Calm.” Roy said.

Jennifer was, at least, sitting down now.

“I'm going to … I am going to …” Roy said “I am going to …”

“What's happened to me?” Jennifer said.

“Well, you know … getting angry and emotional about it, isn't going to help.” Roy said “That's sure. Stay calm.”

“You have said that.” Jennifer said.

“I am going to get you some water.”

He walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of water “Open your mouth.”

“What?”

“Well, you can't hold a glass.”

Jennifer did feel very strange as the water went down her throat.

“Let me try holding it.” Jennifer said.

“No.” Roy said

“It's my commemorative 'Pinky and the Brain' cup.”

He put it down, not wanting to transfer it by hand. Jennifer moved her fingers around it, held it

and lifted.

“Okay … okay” she said.

The glass fell down to the ground and broke. She didn't break it, but the grasp of her fingers was too weak to hold it.

“Oh no.” Jennifer said.

“Well … hum … you're improving.” Roy said.

*****

Mary McPhereson looked at her room and out to the quad of the exclusive Connecticut School of Saint Agnes Hollow. It was a quiet, lightly wooded campus that looked like something out a movie: a beautiful place. She saw the beautiful girls walking to and through it, smiling and talking.

Mary was a senior in high school and looked forward to have a year filled with good times and fun. She went to an all girl school but, hopefully, would make it funnier, with the slutty little uniforms. Except … well … she was, at her best, plain, small and ugly on the worst.

Being rich meant many things. One of them was that they were beautiful. There were plenty of ugly millionaires, but their young children, especially after a couple of generations, had good genes mixed with the occasional surgeries. They were a tall, blonde, well angled bunch of beautiful noses and perfect tits.

Though Mary wasn't hideous, she was in the bottom 10% – and she knew it. It effected how she viewed herself. She was timid, scared and afraid of being rejected.

She was also rich. Wealth has a way of making people popular. Her family was in the top 300 of wealth in America and that put her in the upper quadrarnt of the school, but not in the top 5. In a school were the lowest student came, maybe, from one of the the top 5000, it wasn't like those bellow her really had to suck up in terms of wealth. If she had gone to a less exclusive school – which she privately wished at times (her English teacher had written a couple of books, but also had a kind vague contempt for everyone) – she would have fit right in, had a handsome boyfriend, had all the friends and people would go to gigantic parties and …

She sighed, shook her head, put her clothes away in the cabinet and looked out, wishing she wasn't a small frail little nothing.

Such a nothing.

*****

Dancy sat down that night. A rare privilege he granted himself. He also gave himself a good glass of scotch.

He was in his throphy room looking at the crown.

It had been dredged up about six months ago from an oil well in New Mexico. Literally dredged, submerged in a thousand tons of oil. Nothing it had ever been found in such conditions; rocks aplenty, of course, and weird chemicals too, but not this. His engineers were amazed. Nothing human made had ever been found like this before.

Not that he thought it was necessarily human.

It was 27 millimeters inches across, shaped like, but not quite a circle. It may have been so once, but time, lots of time, had transformed its gold alloy into a slightly odd shape. It had six irregularly shaped juts around that looked like … well, the radiants of a crown. Maybe it had been bigger once and time had removed the irregularities … or maybe not … and this was as it always looked.

It was golden, though spots of oil had left some slightly blotchy shape. It was crude and weathered. It was beautiful.

So, so beautiful

He loved to watch it so..just watching it catch the light.

If you looked at it long enough – and he had – you could see what was behind it. The light started to form patterns of a coiled moving thing. Something forming circles around it, inside of it. It looked like a mighty wyrm, a snake forming an eternal circle.

A serpent. A serpents crown

And it was magic. Whatever that meant. They had done study after study. It was gold, but beyond it was impossible. It was 95% pure and the rest …

It emitted a form of weird radiation, harmless for the most part, but strange. It clearly had energy inside of it, but it was impossible to quite say what it was. It was receiving energy, but not producing it. It was a conductor to something, but to what?

He drank.

The lawyer saw it. She knew his secret besides. He would have to be cautious.

Maybe they would take him to prison.

Maybe they would take him away from his crown.

One may ask: why didn't he wear it? He was to afraid, of what it would do his consciousness.

But as he looked at it …

*****

“Lift the spatula.” Roy said.

Jennifer felt like a little girl, but she did so. She picked it up and hold it in her hand.

She opened her hand. It looked … okay, even if the rubber seemed a little warn

“Good. Good.”

“I should go to the hospital.” Jennifer said.

“They're going to poke you, prod you and lock you away.” Roy said

“Maybe they should.” Jennifer said “I'm a super strong giant monster.”

She turned her head.

“What?” Roy said.

Jennifer slowly got up. She pushed the door of her bedroom open and walked in.

“What?” Roy said.

“Look at me.”

Jennifer found the mirror.

“Look at me.” she said.

She turned around, looking at herself: the long arms, her tapered waist and the well formed ridges of her abs. She looked at her large, bulbous breasts, sitting on her chest; at her long, sleek legs and her muscles; her eyes; and her hair long gorgeous locks.

“I am beautiful.” she said quietly “I'm beautiful.”

“Hum … you're green.” Roy said.

“Still. I mean … I wasn't bad looking before, but … I was … tiny.”

“You were beautiful the way you were, Jen. I thought you knew that.”

He walked behind her and hugged her, a second before realizing that it was dangerous, but he did it anyway.

“If I didn't tell you, if I didn't let you know … you were beautiful inside and out. You were the most beautiful person I've ever met.”

Jennifer turned gently in his grip. “Roy … maybe you didn't, but … what am I now? I am … feel so … it's me, but … like right now … now that the fear is gone. Now that the anger and the shock are gone … I dunno what I am anymore. What can I do? What have I become?”

“Don't talk like that.” Roy said “We can fix you. We can fix this.”

Jennifer paused and looked at him. She shook her head.

“Yes you'er right.” she said, “This … this is getting to my head. Yeah, let's figure out how to transform me back. However … that's the tricky part.”

*****

Bruce Banner had what amounted to an apartment, into which he had either spent no money or a fortune. It was that kind of place. A giant empty industrial space that looked like no one had touched it for 30 years and certainly hadn't put any paint in.

It was a former industrial bakery that had been stripped of all the baking equipment years ago. He did pay money for it to an owner who didn't care.

He sat on a couch his laptop and not much else. Over the years he had become quite adept at making makeshift laboratories to research his condition and how to end it. He never succeded, but a small part of him found setting up equipment and figuring out beakers an intellectual challenge in and of itself. Well, he had the space for it.

He had gotten the research data on Jennifer. When anyone else had touched his blood before, it was a poison, but it had saved her life. Why her? The results of a DNA scan weren't complete yet, but maybe they were similar enough. Although, that would only really work if they were identical twins. Sure she was his cousin but, in a broader sense, so was everyone in the world. Blood types? Genomes?

Beyond that, it was interesting. He had studied the baseline of humanity and himself but Jennifer, with her limited ability to heal, was in the mean. It was as if he had told her about what was he hoping for with his research.

However …

Most of his research had been based on hoping to cure himself and, even if he couldn't get back to normal, getting her somewhere would be something. It was hope. Bruce had long learned that hope was dangerous. His blood had absorbed enough radiation that it was self replicating, getting his cells there had never worked.

He paused and wondered. Maybe more likely would be to get her to him. What would happen if she was exposed to more radiation – strong gamma rays. What would that do?

He chuckled. Well that was unlikely. Unless …

He shook his head. He loved Jen. She had gotten out of the hospital and she was living. She shouldn't go through these kinds of tests.

*****

Jen and Roy sat in her apartment. Jen was holding a pair of chopsticks in her hand. After a couple of hours she had – more or less – mastered manual dexterity, but it was becoming less fun.

“Well,” Jennifer said, “ I know that the classic rule of medicine is that it either goes away by itself or you get treatment for it.”

“Yes, that's very wise.” Roy said.

“Well, what they teach you in law is that the first one is usually more true than the last: you may ask for millions in medical aid but, mostly, it's just waiting for it to heal.”

Roy nodded “It's been what … 3 hours. Maybe this will go away in the morning.”

Jennifer nodded. “I mean, from what I gather about the incredible Hulk – for all of Bruce's bitching – the amount of time he is usually the Hulk is an hour or two at most.”

She paused. “Right?”

*****

This was possibly the best night in Alan Hampton's life.

This was the third such night in the last month for Alan.

Alan had a shit job, working for a publishing company that – he didn't know – planned lay him off for a month. He was single, whose longest relationship was five weeks, two of which his girlfriend was out of town on a business trip. He had a bad knee from a fall in the seventh grade on a skateboard that would never quite heal right, which meant he was 10 pounds overweight on a spindly frame and, at 24, already showing signs of balding.

But, man, if he wasn't a happy dude, who loved life.

Alan was throwing a party in his apartment – there were like 10 dudes and 20 babes, those were good odds. Man, they were good odds. They had great tunes, great brews and some … ahhh decent-ish buds going. It was that time of the night when everyone was getting loose – especially the babes. There was this one chick named Janet, who had the aura of someone who was going to take her top off if this situation was handled exactly right.

Exactly right.

Alan smiled. This was a pretty good night.

When – Oh my god – a Nickelback song played on the speakers.

Man this was bitching

*****

Across the street from the party – which was very loud, but street noises are one largely unavoidable pleasure of New York – Jennifer was listening to one of her own Cds and getting a little bored. Gee, her music had an edge of winy to it.

“This feels silly.” Jennifer said as she put the dress over her head. It was a very large party dress that Roy had been able to find at 10 PM, which was something. It was sleeveless and fairly loose on anyone.

“Well, if you think about it, it's most likely to work.” Roy said “Your giant arms can't rip through sleeves that don't exist.”

Jen adjusted the dress. It had little sequins on it that glittered a little. It was actually not a bad dress. It was obviously designed to go down to the knees, but to her it was a lot shorter. Not obscene, but shorter. The arm holes were much smaller on her too. It was designed to have cleavage but, similarly, her actual cleavage pushed it out so far to make the hole impossible and, for the same reason, more impressive. It could use a lot of tailoring and had its awkward spots but – you know – it wasn't bad.

“Okay these are an old pair of very large loafers.”

She put the shoes on. They didn't ruin the look but …

“Here's a trench coat.” he said handing it to her

“I feel like a ninja turtle.”

She tried to put the very large coat on …

***RIPPP***

It was her shoulders pushing large holes through the coat. She got it on anyway. It was cut off at her knees and barely got around her stomach.

“Well that's one thing.”

He went to the closet and returned “This is a blanket.”

“Hahha” Jen laughed.

“I'm serious.”

*****

And the top …

… Dropped

WoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo oooo!!!!!!!!

Sure, her tits weren't really in the cosmic sense all that great – but man …

Meanwhile, Alan's upstairs neighbour, Mr. Smithers, wasn't enjoying the music. He had lived in Park Slope most of his life, since he moved into the quiet Jewish neighborhood 40 years ago. Then the hippies moved in and it had all gone to shit.

Man the hippies with their stupid glasses.

He would complain. He would bang his broom, but what was the point?

Instead he drew himself a bath

That was one good thing about this apartment: it had a nice bath.

Terrible neighbors, crappy noises and the cyclists. But a really good bathroom with beautiful white ceramic tiles.

He sighed and got in. Resting himself as he relaxed and then fell asleep because the acoustics were much better in there.

However, while his face stayed out of his water, his foot slipped and turned more water on. He didn't notice.

The water overflowed the top and sloshed on the floor, found a crack in the beautiful white tiles and sank down into the floor boards.

*****

Jennifer sighed as she sat. “Do we have anything to eat? I'm hungry.”

“I don't live here.” Roy said.

“Oh yeah.” Jennifer said shaking her hair. They were really pretty, with flowing locks that went down to her mid of her back. She wondered if, when she turned human again, she should grow it out like that; or did it depend too much on being a gigantic, green monster? She shrugged. Ahh well.

Roy walked into the kitchen. “Can I interest you in … huh is this like baloney? I didn't figure you for a baloney woman.”

“Is this like one of those situations where someone does a lot of drugs and you have to be that person who babysits them?” Jen said “I don't want that to be for you.”

“It's fine.” Roy said.

“Maybe I'm a non-furry version of a werewolf.” Jen said “I don't want that.”

“It's okay and, thank God, you're not a furry.”

Jennifer sighed “You can go home if you want.”

“No, no.” Roy said, “This is … intellectually interesting. I mean you live in a universe that 99 percent of the time is normal. Every day you go to the store and buy luncheon meat and then … wow … I mean wow. Suddenly you're in a girl's apartment as she turns into a green creature from outer space.”

“I'm from Ohio.”

“Same difference flyover.”

Jennifer shook her head and her hair … felt …

It was then that she heard an explosion.

*****

It wasn't a loud explosion. It was like a boom in the distance. Park Slope was the kind of neighborhood where you heard gunshots now and then. Either that or people really liked champagne, which Jennifer told herself, but this was bigger. It wasn't a car backfiring either.

She ran to the window, managing not to break anything in the process.

Almost literally across the street a large fire had broke out on the 10th floor apartment. It looked like there had been a large blast that damaged stuff and the flames were starting to build everywhere on the two floors around and spreading fast.

From Jennifer's perspective it looked pretty bad.

“Remember” she said, “when you said I was a superhero?”

“I never said that.” Roy replied “I distinctly remember never saying that … hum Jennifer …”

The window of the apartment smashed open as Jennifer jumped.

It was about 150 feet away from apartment to apartment and – with a running start – the world's record for long distance jump was around 40. It was a snap for her now. She flew through the air for a second – just a second – but in that second she felt like Superman.

Superman who was wearing a dress without underwear, but a Superman all the same.

She had aimed her hump to hit the window of the building across the street. She hit the wall instead.

It was one of those walls that was supposed to look like brick and was brick for about an inch. Which was another way of saying that it wasn't as sturdy as you might imagine – but still pretty sturdy. The kind that if you hit going 120 miles an hour – like she was – you would break almost most every bone in your body.

She flew through it like a champ; and through a non burning bedroom and its far wall; and through a non burning bathroom and its wall … and she finally landed in the apartments hall.

She landed to find a stream of people, who looked drunk, running out of it screaming. They ignored the fact that a 9 feet tall, green woman in a party dress was landing on the ground covered in drywall dirt. It evidently was that kind of party. Hey did that woman have her top off?

Well, this superhero thing was tricky.

Jennifer got up shaking her head.

“It's … clobbering time!”

Wait. Was that already a line?

*****

Alan felt woozy.

He remembered a loud noise, then a coach flying on top of him. Yes, that definitely happened, as the coach was still on top of him. Except he was in his apartment and it was on fire.

That much had changed. It was disconcerting when things were changing. Especially when you were drunk. It happened.

He looked around. Most of the people weren't around. Several were on the ground, injured. His friend Rick seemed to be trying to help one of the girls he didn't know the name of. Ahh well.

When in the doorway he saw her.

She was 9 feet tall and green.

This was unusual – even for someone who had a major concussion and drank a lot.

She didn't burst into the hallway.

“How can I help here?” she said. She looked around and saw people on the ground.”I am not sure I should move you.”

She paused looking around and walked towards Adam. “That's not what you're supposed to do.”

Someone screamed when she looked up at her. A loud piercing scream, suggesting that she was really there and not something he was just imagining. Well, that was comforting.

She grabbed the couch with one hand and pulled off the massive oak number off. “Are you okay?”

Alan considered. “I donno.”

“Well, that's vague.” said the She Hulk “but … oh well.”

It was then that the ceiling on top of them started to cave in.

The woman reached up instantly, putting a hand against the falling ceiling. It wasn't that hard for her to reach it and held up the weight.

“Okay everyone. It's probably a good idea to get out of here unless—”

A hole opened above Alan's head and a bathtub slipped down. The woman reached a hand and grabbed the rim as it fell. The old man was unconscious inside of it.

“Okay. Yeah let's …”

There was another blast of fire.

“… let's get out of here.”

*****

Roy stood across the street looking out the window.

Oh damm Jennifer. What were you doing? You turned a perfectly normal … okay, not perfectly normal evening into something …

He shook his head. He knew that deep down she was a hero, that deep down she was a good person … but deep down.

He shook his head.

Oh Jennifer …

Well, time to help out.

Did that make her sidekick? Ahh, who cared.

*****

Jennifer paused. She was holding up a ceiling with one hand – which wasn't that hard. How much did it weigh? The problem with being someone who just discovered to have super strength was that she wasn't that great at judging how strong she was yet. 10 tons? 500 pounds? It wasn't that much of structure. The building was colapsing.

In the other hand she had a man with a bathtub, which she put on the ground.

At least she wasn't alone. While there were about 10 people injured, there were also about 10 other people who where helping, including some people coming in from the hall. Heroism. It wasn't just for super strong green women anymore.

“Someone help the guy out … and everyone else.”

She heard the fires raging on.

Jennifer had, as far as she knew, super strength – which included jumping that was kind of a gimmick with superstrength – she also suspected that she was probably somehow of invulnerable and had a healing factor on top of it. Because – well – that's what the hulk was.

Beyond that …

What fire fighting powers there were?

She sighed.

“This guy has damage to his back.” said one of the guys in the room.

Alan got up “Well, what can we do, dude?”

Jennifer paused as fire went up and out of the kitchen. She picked up the tub and tossed the water in it on the fire. It doused it, but not put it out.

“Well, something.” Jennifer said “This isn't much weight for me, I guess, but this fire won't stand forever.”

“Like a streaker.” said the guy who walked in “Oh, I am nurse by the way.”

“But you're a dude! “ Alan said.

“THIS ISN'T HELPING.” Jennifer said.

“Right right.”

“Um … do you have a blanket?” the guy said.

“Oh yeah, I guess.” Alan said “But it's in the linen closet.”

“Where's the linen closet.” Jennifer said

“It's in the bedroom which is …” he pointed to a doorway full of fire.

Jennifer shook her head, then looked around the coach. She did some quick math. With her spare hand she grabbed it and put it sideways up on top of the tub. The top of it reached the ceiling. She let go of the ceiling with her right hand and immediately started racing into the flames.

The fire hit her. She didn't feel it much, apart from feeling hot. It was odd, but it was hot. She saw a closet. She opened it. A lot of T-shirts nearly folded onto hangers.

“Can you get some stuff?” Alan said.

She ignored him, listening to the sound of the coach creaking. It wouldn't last. She opened the next closet and saw towels and – bingo – a couple of sheets. She grabbed them, noticing that the top one was filthy … ahh well. She ran out, just as the couch was starting to crack and fall over. She raced and put her hand back.

“Okay.” she said dropping the sheets.

“Okay.” the nurse said “Let's get four people … and …”

Four people (including Alan) got underneath the fragile man who, she noted, had a really long really well developed beard – and lifted him up on to the sheet and pulled it up making a makeshift hammock. She hoped he would be okay.

“Get out of here.” she said.

The men raced. Almost everyone else raced at this point. A woman shook her head walking out. “What happened? What are you …?”

“I'm …” Jennifer said “Well, I'll work that out latter.”

Then she was alone.

She closed her eyes.

Solutions.

Well, this was an idea.

She let go of the roof for a second and slapped her hands together. Really really hard really really fast. A shockwave came out towards the fire. A massive shockwave that broke a number of glasses – those that weren't already gone – and windows several buildings down

When she opened her eyes the fire was gone … blown out … and the upstairs apartment was on her head.

*****

Jennifer made her way out of the building a few minutes later, shocked and a bit woozy. Not so much from injury – she was perfectly fine – but from just the awe of what had happened and what she had done. She was … what had she become? She sighed.

Fire trucks and ambulances were coming. She saw the nurse talking to paramedics to help the man. She looked around and she laughed.

Roy came over.

“Hey. God, I am so glad you're alive”

“I'm fine actually.” Jennifer said “Just … wow! That was … um … oooh … ahh gee. That was something.”

“You're so smart and witty.” Roy said.

“Well, you try to come up with the sparkling dialogue after you just fought a tenement fire.”

“Freeze!”

Jennifer turned to see three policemen standing there. They had drawn there guns.

“Freeze, you monster!”

Jennifer raised her arms.

“I am not trying to hurt anyone, or do anything.”

“Jennifer.” Roy said “What are you doing?”

“Respecting the law.” she said “And the systems of society it represents.”

With a blast one of the officers shot her hitting her in the stomach

She barely felt it

“Okay, I think very few people would blame me if, right now, I go on a giant rampage because you shot me, but I am not going to do that because I respect the law.”

“On the ground.” said the lead cop.

She sat down on the ground and put her hands down

“I am fully and completely complying with you and your authority in every way.” Jennifer said.

He walked over.

“But if you want to do anything brutal do understand: I am a lawyer.”

The officer paused.

“Okay what's going on here?”

“Excellent question!” Jennifer said “Really excellent question.”

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