Chapter 79: Batman vs. Hulk/Lizard Professor
Since battling General Ross in 2003, Dr. Banner had been hiding and fleeing across the world.
He knew very clearly that those pursuing him weren't just General Ross, but also an organization once called Homeland Security, now renamed SHIELD. Even occasionally, local military forces would attempt to capture the Hulk.
Throughout three years of wandering, Dr. Banner had never stopped injecting himself with special inhibitors.
The purpose was that once he fell into enemy hands, the inhibitor's effects could prevent his blood from being drawn for experiments after imprisonment.
Even if truly arrested, Dr. Banner would play along, letting the Hulk emerge for some air in any situation where he might encounter the mastermind behind it all, defeating them in one strike.
All of this was within Dr. Banner's considerations, but he hadn't expected that everything would go smoothly, that he'd finally arrived before the mastermind General Ross, only to see first a massive lizard monster.
Confusion, bewilderment, blankness, mixed with Banner's self-blame for what he believed were flaws in his plan.
These emotions converged into fury—Dr. Banner's fury, the Hulk's fury.
ROAR!
A sound comparable to thunder. The cryogenic sleep chamber was shattered by massive green fists. The lid that should have slid open was instead punched by the Hulk into a "<" shape, flying away carried by massive airflow.
Muscles so robust they were even more exaggerated than Solomon Grundy—whom Batman had personally dealt with—bulged high, occasionally presenting a stringy state when exerted, like steel cables tangled together.
With each breath, they rolled and expanded beneath the skin, stretched so tight it seemed ready to split at any moment.
THUD!
The Hulk jumped from the cryogenic sleep chamber. Looking at General Ross prone on the ground, fury nearly erupted from his eyes, but ultimately he turned his gaze to the Lizard Professor.
This was a reptile that, judging by appearance alone, looked even more terrifying than the Hulk himself. His body was slightly hunched, yet even so still exceeded four meters.
The Lizard Professor had completed his transformation. His entire body was covered with yellow-green interlocking keratinous scales. Unlike the Hulk's muscle structure—which barely retained a trace of aesthetic beauty—his body structure had completely departed from human parameters.
Both hands and feet had mutated into reptilian claws. Head flattened. Below the neck, raised armor plates along the midline. A disproportionately thick tail dragged behind, currently swaying impatiently.
A muscularly developed green giant beyond imagination. A massive lizard over four meters tall when upright.
They both sensed the threat from each other. For a moment, neither made any rash moves.
Simultaneously, from a direction the Hulk hadn't noticed, the alloy chamber door that flew away rang with another tremendous "clang."
The door that should have flown far away under the Hulk's punch was caught by Batman and set down with a clang.
SWISH! SWISH!
The Hulk's gaze suddenly turned toward Batman. The Lizard Professor also whipped his tail suddenly, looking at Batman.
The Hulk momentarily couldn't determine whether this figure wearing a black suit, possessing two sharp pointed ears, capable of catching barehanded that chamber door whose impact force exceeded two tons—whether this was human or monster.
"Dr. Banner."
Batman once again reviewed in his mind the over forty strategies he'd designed specifically for the Hulk, while rapidly mobilizing all his muscles to optimal condition.
Among these forty-plus plans, attempting verbal communication and pacification was also part of the strategy.
But before Batman finished speaking, the Hulk suddenly thrust both fists backward forcefully, his entire body exerting force to roar at Batman:
"HULK!"
'As my prior analysis indicated, the Hulk is like another personality born from within Dr. Banner, possessing independent designation and thinking, emotions more unstable.'
Batman stood in place. The Hulk's roar was like a bomb exploding by his ear. Transparent ripples almost visible to the naked eye surged toward him through the air.
The Lizard beside them squinted, his massive body bending down, hands forcefully grasping the floor before jumping in.
He had no intention of fighting the Hulk or Batman.
His mind only thought of reaching the twentieth floor, taking the perfected regenerative serum to Metropolitan Hospital.
Meanwhile, facing the Hulk's sound waves and airflow, Batman didn't hesitate.
WHOOSH!
Hands forcefully gripping the cryogenic chamber door he'd just caught, Batman suddenly thrust it downward into the rooftop floor beneath his feet, as though erecting a shield on the spot.
But the next second, the Hulk suddenly stomped his foot. The entire Oscorp Tower seemed to earthquake. He rapidly approached Batman then extended a punch.
The Lizard Professor was digging through the floor downward. The Hulk didn't plan to continue entangling on the rooftop. He wanted to quickly resolve this black bat, then use his fists to pound the Lizard Professor down.
The shield had just been erected when the Hulk's punch already arrived.
Batman felt tremendous force transmitted through the chamber door to his body. Even separated by a chamber door, the Hulk's strength didn't weaken by half. Instead, it sent him—person and door together—flying into midair.
'One rib broken. Within acceptable range. Need to slightly adjust force application posture.'
The instant bodily pain appeared, Batman suppressed it. His face showed not a trace of expression.
Airborne, Batman extended both hands forward simultaneously, firing webbing. To respond to possible combat, Batman had preemptively changed the web formula to a new formula that was tougher, comparable to steel cable strength.
This webbing was thicker, but adhesion and toughness far exceeded Batman's daily-use varieties.
THWAP!
The webbing passed through air, adhering to the Hulk's shoulders, while asking Prophet AI at extremely rapid speech.
"Barbara, is the gamma radiation device in position?"
Batman's arms suddenly exerted force pulling, making his entire body seem to transform into a heavy artillery shell crashing toward the Hulk.
"Countdown one minute, Bruce," Prophet AI said.
"Activate 'Anti-Hulk Protocol' immediately upon readiness."
BOOM! Adjusting his body's posture, knees bent to his chest, Batman—curled into a ball—thunderously crashed into the Hulk.
Peter's normal state twenty-five-ton strength exploded, making the rooftop floor beneath the Hulk's feet instantly collapse. Batman and the Hulk fell together.
'The Lizard Professor has reached the fifty-eighth floor.'
Acute hearing allowed Batman to ignore the Hulk's sounds beside him, hearing the commotion of the Lizard Professor digging through floors.
The Batmobile on the tenth floor had attracted soldiers from almost all other floors. Another portion had been knocked unconscious on the rooftop. Another portion was outside Oscorp.
"The battlefield needs to be controlled between the eleventh and sixtieth floors."
"For smooth execution of the 'Anti-Hulk Protocol,' optimal floors are twelfth and above."
"Barbara, activate Plan W."
Batman spoke quietly, then several strands of webbing passed through the floor the Lizard Professor had dug through, suddenly pulling upward forcefully, forcibly hauling the Lizard Professor—who was approaching the twentieth floor—back up again.