In the center of the ruins, Linus Vance stood with his other hand tucked into his suit pocket, looking up at the green giant before him.
His tone was calm and measured.
“Put some muscle into it, Banner.”
“Struggling to lift a piece of sheet metal—didn’t you eat last night?”
The Hulk let out a deafening roar, pressing down with both arms again.
Linus clamped his five fingers tight, clamping onto the deformed edge of the steel.
He took a step to the right, drove power through his waist, and snapped his wrist upward.
The massive truck hood—along with the Hulk pressing down on it—was forcibly flipped into the air by pure, raw force.
Losing his balance, the Hulk’s massive body stumbled backward, his foot crushing half a brick wall behind him.
Linus brushed the rust flakes off his palm.
A hurried breathing sounded in his micro-earpiece.
Betty’s voice bore a distinct tremor.
“Linus!”
“That’s a multi-ton monster!
Have you lost your mind?!”
Linus tapped his earpiece, his gaze locked onto the Hulk as the beast regained his footing.
He lowered his voice, speaking into the mic.
“Betty, you have no idea what your man is capable of.”
“I told you this is a men’s playground.
Just sit back and watch from home.”
In her Manhattan apartment on the other side of the screen, Betty gripped the edge of her desk so hard her knuckles turned white.
She stared fixedly at the slender, upright silhouette on the monitor.
The man who had been conquering her in bed last night was now standing before a monster capable of destroying an entire army.
That intense contrast and overwhelming sense of security entwined together, sending a strange, warm thrum deep into her lower abdomen.
Betty bit her lip and spoke into the microphone.
“Hurry back.”
“I’ll draw a bath for you.”
“That shirt from yesterday…
I’m still wearing it.”
Linus let out a low laugh.
This subtle, unspoken pull was the most entertaining part.
He took two steps forward, stepping over a bed of spent shell casings.
Linus spoke, his voice carried by the wind straight into the Hulk’s ears.
“Banner, I know you’re still in there.”
“A top physics Ph.D.
from Culver University, running away from his girlfriend the moment an accident happens.”
“If you put this behavior on our online forums, you’d be flamed straight to the top of the trending topics.”
The Hulk shook his massive head, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Linus.
Beneath the beastly rage in those eyes lay a faint trace of human struggle.
Rough, hoarse syllables forced their way out of the Hulk’s throat.
“Bet…ty…”
He recognized Linus Vance’s voice—this was his former colleague.
Linus pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up his nose.
“Don’t speak her name.
You can’t handle her.”
Unhurriedly, he unbuttoned the suit cuff on his left wrist and pushed the sleeve up, revealing a custom Patek Philippe watch studded with small diamonds.
Sunlight hit the dial, reflecting a glint straight into the Hulk’s eyes.
Linus raised his wrist, pointing a finger at the edge of the watch face.
“Look familiar?”
“Betty put this on me herself last night.”
“She said this watch was custom-ordered months ago, originally meant as a birthday present for a nerd who only knew how to run experiments.”
“Too bad that nerd ran off without even saying goodbye, so the watch sat unused.”
Linus flipped his wrist, exposing the back of the watch.
Etched clearly upon it were two intertwined letters: *N & B*.
“She spent all night finding someone to alter the initials on the back.”
Linus continued his assault.
“Now it stands for *Linus & Betty*.”
“A perfect fit.
Seamless.”
The Hulk’s chest heaved violently, heavy, ragged gasps tearing from his throat.
Thick, dark-purple veins bulged across his green skin.
What remained of Bruce Banner’s consciousness was undergoing absolute torture.
Linus had no intention of stopping.
His tone turned cold, every word striking like a blade.
“While you were busy running away, she cried so hard in the lab she could barely walk.”
“Those soldiers pointed guns at her head, threatening to drag her to a military court-martial.”
“And what were you doing?
Hiding in the slums playing hide-and-seek with mercenaries.”
The Hulk slammed both fists into the ground.
The asphalt caved into two massive craters, sending gravel flying.
The debris clattered harmlessly against Linus’s Vibranium suit, leaving not even a scratch.
Linus stood where he was, watching the monster on the verge of exploding, and tossed more fuel onto the fire.
“I stepped up and dealt with General Ross for you.
I took her home.”
“Oh, right—when she got tired from crying and took a shower, she used my body wash.”
“She feels unsafe when she sleeps, so she held onto me tightly and refused to let go.”
“You’ve probably never experienced what it feels like to have someone rely on you so completely, have you?”
In the Manhattan apartment, hearing these words through the comms, Betty slumped softly in her chair.
Far from angry, she felt a shudder of excitement at being completely claimed by this domineering man.
She pulled the oversized men’s shirt tight around herself, crossing her legs.
…
In the center of the ruins, the Hulk threw his head back and let out a roar that shattered the clouds.
In this roar, there was no longer a single trace of human emotion.
Under this ultimate provocation, Bruce Banner’s consciousness suffered total collapse.
The thread of reason that had been suppressing the beast was shattered into pieces by jealousy, rage, and humiliation.
The Hulk lost his final chain.
The Hulk’s body visibly expanded once more, surging from just over three meters to a terrifying height of nearly four meters.
The muscle groups across his back stacked over one another like layers of armor, and his pupils turned a terrifying blood-red.
Inside Linus’s mind, the cold mechanical voice of the system arrived right on schedule:
[Ding!
Detected that target Bruce Banner’s psychological defense has completely collapsed!]
[Ding!
Host’s verbal assault achieved the “Heartbreaker” achievement!
Steal-intercept progress maxed out!]
[Critical Reward Issued: Perfect Hulk Strength 100% Unlocked!]
An unimaginably massive surge of energy flooded into Linus Vance’s body.
Unlike previous physical enhancements, this power felt like a primordial rule from the dawn of the universe, imprinting itself directly into his cells.
His bones popped with dense snaps as the lines of his six-pack and lats became even firmer and denser.
He still wore his tailored Vibranium suit, his height and frame unchanged.
Yet beneath that refined, scholarly exterior now lay a beast powerful enough to tear a planet apart.
The frenzied Hulk locked onto Linus.
Only one thought remained in his mind: smash the suited bug in front of him into a puddle of meat.
His massive body turned into a green cannonball.
Abandoned cars along his path were sent flying.
The Hulk leaped high into the air, descending like a collapsing mountain upon Linus Vance.
A massive fist breaking the sound barrier hurled toward Linus’s head, the fist itself larger than Linus’s entire upper body.
In the helicopter, General Ross lost control and screamed:
“Fire!
Fire covering shots!
That idiot is going to be crushed!”
Over the comms, Betty let out a sharp cry:
“Linus!
Get out of the way!”
The wind pressure blew Linus Vance’s hair back, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the rapidly enlarging green fist.
Linus didn’t step back an inch.
He stood right where he was and raised his right hand.
“I told you…
you can’t handle it.”
He spread his five fingers, his palm greeting the falling meteorite of a fist.