Chapter Seventy-One, Part Three

"Bruce… Bruce, can you hear me?" Betty's voice carried through the fog of green tinged dreams, where he leapt through the skies and roared out his anger to the heavens. "His eyes are half-open, but I'm not sure he's actually conscious yet…"

"It may take some time," an unfamiliar voice filtered into his thoughts, gruff but apologetic. "From the description of his accident, it's a miracle he survived at all…"

'Accident…'

Bruce's clouded thoughts began to slot into order, his unsettling dream replaced by memoires of the Berkeley laboratory. They'd been in the middle of an experiment, close to a workable regenerative technology. Containment had been breached, and he'd thrown himself between his colleagues and the radiation emitters.

"Betty…" the word forced its way past parched lips as Bruce forced open his eyes. "Are you all right? The lab… what about the data?"

"I'm fine… who cares about the data!" Betty shot Bruce a reproachful glare as she wrapped her arms around him. "You almost died, we all nearly did… we're still not sure how you managed to pull through!"

"How are you feeling, Mr. Banner?" a silver-haired doctor leaned closer, sharp eyes narrowed as he scanned over Bruce's face. "You were exposed to a vast amount of gamma radiation, yet all our tests show that you're in perfect health. Even the former injuries and scars listed in your file have vanished…"

"I feel fine, great even," Bruce blinked away the last remnants of his disturbing dream, focused on the sensations of his body. The aches and pains of his thirties had vanished, even the stiffness of his old knee surgery had left him. "Better than I have in years… Betty, I think our regeneration experiment worked! We need to do more tests, but I feel like I'm twenty years old again."

"Bruce, slow down!" Betty shook her head and pushed him back into the hospital bed. "We can order more tests on you to be certain. I'll run the data in the lab and bring the results here, but you should stay here at least overnight."

"Alright-alright, but you have to make sure to bring ALL the data back as soon as it's been processed," Bruce sighed as a half-smile tugged at his lips. He and Betty had been separated for months, but she still managed to badger him as she always had. "I'll stay here and let the good doctor run his tests…"

– – – –

Dan hovered above Bruce's hospital, only partially listening to the man's conversation. His gaze tracked through the lab, where Bruce's blood samples were currently in line for processing. The Hulk's blood was toxic, heavily contaminated with latent gamma radiation.

"Let's make sure no one gets exposed," molecule-thin lines of heat flashed out from his eyes, a brief luminance that vaporised the samples and their containers. Beyond the radiation danger, the blood could also turn normal humans into Hulk-esk monsters. "Once Betty and the doctor leave, I'll go and say hello… hmmm?"

Around the corner from Bruce's room, a rather grubby fellow with a grey streaked beard muttered to himself. His words were erratic, as were his movements. The old man shifted his weight from one foot to the other, fingers clasped together as if locked in a struggle with his own body.

"It looks like Bruce's father has already started to move on his son," Dan shook his head. David Banner was a monster, willing to kill his own child and usurp his power for himself. "His genetic structure still appears human, so he hasn't become the Absorbing Man just yet."

Bruce would be fine for a day or so, and he could return in an instant if the Hulk showed his face earlier than expected. Dan waved a hand and teleported Banner's father into the Fortress' cells. A single step and he'd joined the astonished David, the cheerful smile of Superman on his face.

"Greetings, David Banner," a snap of his fingers summoned forth a pair of chairs, while a flex of his biofield forced the unkempt scientist to sit. "I'm sure you know who I am, and why I've taken you into custody?"

"Superman… I haven't done anything!" David struggled to rise, held in place by Dan's unshakable grip. "Please, my son is in the hospital… I just want to go and be certain he's alright!"

"The same son that you attempted to murder in the cradle?" Dan shook his head and sat across from the pale faced madman. "The one that you butchered your wife, just for a chance to take his life?"

David Banner's features locked up, a rigid mask that turned his eyes to blackened lumps of coal. He met Dan's gaze without emotion, the unstable fidgeter replaced by a cold-hearted man of science.

"He has a monster inside him, a beast that I created by mistake," the old man shook his head and glanced around the crystalline cell. "If you don't let me deal with him, he will destroy everything you've done to better this world."

"Unlikely," Dan pressed into David's mind with his own, an overbearing assault that stripped the knowledge from his mind. Even Bruce never truly understood how his mutation was created. Only one man had that information, and now so did Dan. "Now, you've got two choices."

Dan scanned through the scientist's copied memories and opened a portal to the phantom zone behind them. The light of the phantom star billowed outward, a silver-black light that caused the Fortress crystal to hum.

"You can die now, or you can spend the rest of your life imprisoned within another reality," Dan rose to his feet and dispelled the chairs. A flick of his hand drew David's throat into his grasp, held eye to eye with each other. "I no longer keep my prisoners on Earth, and I don't believe you can be redeemed…"

– – – –

How do you feel, Jean?" Zero scanned over the young mutant's figure with a handheld device, satisfied with the results. "Everything is reading normal… a much greater psionic potential than an average Kryptonian, but with your mutation it's to be expected."

"I feel… different?" Jean rubbed her palms over her eyes and shook her head. "I thought I wasn't supposed to feel much of a change until I first stepped into sunlight?"

"Some of the other mutants who have received the serum have experienced similar results," Zero's metallic lips turned up in a reassuring smile as he helped Jean to her feet. "Your latent abilities will likely be magnified by your Kryptonian biology, even without exposure to the light of the sun."

"I see," Jean returned the Prime's smile. Unlike many of the others, she was very aware that these machines held a true spark of life. Their minds were well ordered and mechanical, but they had powerful loyalty and strong emotions within them. "I suppose that explains it, it's like I've got a little star inside my heart, a pulse of flame that is expanding my powers."

"Just wait until you've entered the sunlight," Zero laughed as he led the way toward the Fortress' exit. "With your raw power already being so high, I wouldn't be surprised if you could match the other Kryptonians after a short time!"