Since his battle with General Ross in 2003, Dr. Banner had been hiding and moving around the world.
He knew full well that it wasn't just General Ross who wanted to capture him—there was also an organization once known as Homeland Security, now called S.H.I.E.L.D., and sometimes even local military forces would try to apprehend the Hulk.
Over three years of constant upheaval, Dr. Banner had never stopped injecting himself with special inhibitors.
This was to ensure that if he fell into enemy hands, the inhibitors would prevent his blood from being extracted for experiments after he was imprisoned.
Even if he was truly captured, Dr. Banner planned to turn the tables, unleashing the Hulk to rampage in any situation where he might encounter the mastermind, and crush the opponent in one fell swoop.
All of this was within Dr. Banner's calculations, but he hadn't expected everything to go so smoothly. At this moment, he had finally arrived before the mastermind, General Ross, only to encounter a massive lizard monster first.
Confusion, doubt, bewilderment, mixed with the self-reproach Dr. Banner felt for what he saw as a flaw in his plan.
These emotions converged into anger—the anger belonging to Dr. Banner, the anger belonging to the Hulk.
Bang!
With a thunderous roar, the cryogenic sleep pod shattered under a massive green fist. The pod's lid, which should have slid open, was instead punched into a '<' shape by the Hulk and sent flying with a huge gust of wind.
His muscles, bulging even more exaggeratedly than those of Solomon Grundy, whom Batman had personally dealt with, occasionally revealed a fibrous texture when flexed, as if strands of steel cable were intertwined.
With each breath, they rippled and expanded beneath his skin, which was stretched so taut it seemed ready to tear at any moment.
Thud!
The Hulk leaped out of the cryogenic sleep pod, his eyes practically spitting fire at General Ross, who lay on the ground. But ultimately, he turned his gaze to Professor Lizard.
It was a reptile whose appearance alone was even more terrifying than the Hulk himself. His body was slightly hunched, but even so, he still towered over four meters tall.
At this point, Professor Lizard had completely transformed, his entire body covered in yellow-green keratinized scales. Unlike the Hulk's muscle structure, which still retained a hint of aesthetic beauty, his body had completely departed from the human form.
His hands and feet had mutated into reptilian claws, his head was flattened, and a row of scutes protruded along the midline below his neck. A disproportionately thick tail dragged behind him, now twitching impatiently.
A Hulk with unimaginably developed muscles, and a giant lizard standing over four meters tall.
They both sensed the threat from each other, and for a moment, neither moved rashly.
Meanwhile, from a direction unnoticed by the Hulk, the alloy pod door that had flown out once again let out a 'clang' with a loud thud.
The door, which should have flown far away from the Hulk's punch, was caught by Batman and dropped to the ground with a heavy impact.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Hulk's gaze sharply turned to Batman, and Professor Lizard also flicked his tail toward Batman with a sharp motion.
The Hulk was momentarily unsure whether this guy in the black batsuit, with two sharp pointed ears, who could catch the pod door—carrying an impact force of over two tons—with his bare hands, was a human or a monster.
"Dr. Banner."
Batman once again mentally reviewed the more than forty plans he had specifically tailored for the Hulk, while rapidly activating all his muscles to their optimal state.
Among these forty-plus plans, attempting verbal communication and appeasement was also part of the strategy.
But before Batman could finish speaking, the Hulk powerfully thrust his fists backward, his entire body straining as he let out a roar at Batman:
"Hulk!"
"As I analyzed beforehand, the Hulk is like another personality born from within Dr. Banner, possessing an independent name and thoughts, and is emotionally more unstable."
Batman stood his ground as the Hulk's roar exploded like a bomb next to his ear, with transparent ripples in the air almost visibly sweeping toward him.
Professor Lizard squinted his eyes nearby, his massive body bending down. He grabbed hard at the floorboards, then leaped inside.
He had no intention of fighting the Hulk or Batman.
His only thought was to reach the twentieth floor and take the perfect regeneration serum to Metropolitan Hospital.
On the other side, facing the Hulk's sound waves and airflow, Batman didn't hesitate.
Crash!
Gripping the cryogenic sleep pod door he had just caught, Batman forcefully plunged it into the rooftop ground beneath him, as if erecting a shield in place.
But the next second, the Hulk stomped his foot, and the entire Osborn Building seemed to tremble as if struck by an earthquake. He quickly approached Batman and threw a punch.
Professor Lizard was digging through the floorboards to descend. The Hulk had no intention of continuing the entanglement on the rooftop. He wanted to quickly deal with this black bat, then use his fists to take down Professor Lizard.
The shield had just been set up when the Hulk's punch arrived.
Batman felt an immense force transmit through the pod door to his body. Even with the door separating them, the Hulk's strength didn't diminish at all; instead, it sent him, man and door, flying into the air.
"One broken rib. Within acceptable limits. Need to slightly adjust my stance for force application."
The physical pain was suppressed by Batman the moment it appeared; there was not a trace of expression on his face.
In mid-air, Batman extended both hands forward to launch webs. To prepare for a potential battle, Batman had preemptively changed the web formula to a new liquid that was tougher, comparable in strength to steel cables.
This type of web was thicker, but its stickiness and toughness far surpassed the kind Batman usually used.
Snap!
The web shot through the air and stuck to the Hulk's shoulders. At the same time, he rapidly asked Oracle AI:
"Barbara, is the gamma ray device in position?"
Batman forcefully pulled with both arms, turning his entire body into what felt like a heavy cannonball as he smashed into the Hulk.
"One minute countdown, Bruce," Oracle AI said.
"Activate 'Anti-Hulk Protocol' immediately upon readiness."
With a thunderous crash, Batman—who had adjusted his body posture with knees bent to his chest, curling into a ball—slammed into the Hulk.
The twenty-five tons of force, typical for Peter Parker in his normal state, erupted, instantly collapsing the rooftop floorboards beneath the Hulk's feet, and Batman and the Hulk fell together.
"Professor Lizard has reached the fifty-eighth floor."
Batman's keen hearing allowed him to ignore the Hulk's sounds beside him and pick up Professor Lizard digging through the floorboards.
The Batmobile on the tenth floor had attracted almost all the soldiers from other floors. Some others on the rooftop were knocked unconscious, and some were outside the Osborn Group.
"The battlefield needs to be contained between the eleventh and sixtieth floors."
"For the 'Anti-Hulk Protocol' to proceed smoothly, the optimal floor is above the twelfth floor."
"Barbara, enable Plan W."
Batman whispered, and then several webs shot through the floorboards Professor Lizard had dug through, pulling upward with force, forcefully dragging Professor Lizard—who was approaching the twentieth floor—back up again.
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