Warbound, Part IV

This story takes place during the events of World War Hulk #3...

The tense stand-off between the Hulk and Amadeus Cho's Renegades continues. The Hulk tries to convince them that he is nothing more than a monster, but Hercules insists that he is wrong. He asks the people who have come with them to speak, and one of them tells the Hulk that they seek justice for the injustices caused to them by Earth's heroes. Although most are angry enough to condone the destruction of society, the Angel steps in and points out that they are all seeking justice, not wanton anarchy. However, the Hulk is tired of listening and warns them to stay away or they will all die. When they refuse to move, he slams his foot knocking them all out of the blast range of missiles that are being fired at him. These missiles strike the Hulk, hitting him with Adamantium shrapnel. This does nothing more than anger the Hulk and he leaps up at the helicopters that fired upon him. Amadeus Cho contacts the choppers and tells the pilots that they messed up their plan to talk the Hulk into stopping his rampage. The commander of this squad is none other than the Hulk's long time foe, General Thaddeus Ross.

Ross has thought ahead to prevent Amadeus Cho from hacking his fighting force like he did with SHIELD, and as such he is flying completely mechanical choppers with no onboard computers. Suddenly, the Warbound arrive to help their leader fight off this most recent attack. When one of the choppers fires a missile at Korg and the others, Cho uses his hyper-intelligence to whip a bolt at the missile, causing it to blow up before it can reach its target. Amadeus is then pulled to safety by the Angel. Namora then swoops in and saves a squad of Hivlings, and is in turn rescued from a missile fired at her by No-Name of Brood, making them grudgingly accepting of each other. However, the battle has compromised the structural integrity of a building, threatening all the innocent people around. Korg and Hercules then join their strength in bracing the building while everyone gets clear. Watching from a rooftop is Rick Jones who is suddenly ambushed by the Scorpion, Gabe Jones and their SHIELD unit. Gabe informs Rick that he is going to work for him now.

Down on the street, the building splits in half, but the top portion is blasted to rubble by Hiroim. In the aftermath, the Warbound meets Cho's Renegades and consider themselves allies. Suddenly, the Hulk returns with General Ross and his troops as his prisoners. Suddenly a bomber passes overhead and drops another bomb. Although Namora and Angel fly up to try and intercept it, the Hulk leaps past them and takes the brunt of the explosion. As he gets up off the ground, he is approached by Rick Jones and the SHIELD agents. The Hulk tells all of them to leave him alone and walks off. When Amadeus and Rick try to follow after him, Hiroim points out that they are been saved by the Hulk and won their freedom. He tells the Renegades that they should focus on protecting the innocent people who might get caught in the middle of Hulk's war. Gabe Jones takes command of the situation and orders Rick to follow after the Hulk and try to talk sense into him. Amadeus balks at this, but they convince the boy genius that he'll be more useful on the ground helping with the relief effort where he can become a true hero. Without any other ground to argue on, Cho agrees to the plan and helps set up a triage tent in the middle of the city.

Sometime later, they have no word from Rick Jones and witness the Hulk turning Madison Square Gardens into an arena. This convinces Gabe to send Amadeus out to try and talk sense into the Hulk. The rest of the Renegades warn Amadeus about how dangerous this mission will be, especially if the Hulk is creating an arena like the one he fought in on Sakaar. Cho gives them all a signal device, telling them that if they go off they need to evacuate everyone off the island because the Hulk has lost complete control. With that, the Renegades part company, perhaps for the last time. As Cho makes his way to the Gardens, he soon discovers that he is being followed by the Scorpion to help Cho sneak into the building. Getting past the guards, the pair discover that many of Earths heroes have been tagged with Obedience Discs and are being tortured by Elloe Kiafi and the Death's Head Guard. Cho is spotted by Tony Stark and Reed Richards who try to convince Cho that he has to stop the Hulk otherwise he will force all of the captured heroes to fight to the death. However, when Cho disputes the notion that the Hulk would force them to kill each other, the Hulk sneaks up behind Cho and asks him if he wants to bet on that.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, Renegades (Amadeus Cho, Hercules, Angel, Namora), Warbound (Korg, Elloe Kaifi, Hiroim, No-Name of Brood, Miek), Tom Foster, Scorpion, General Ross, Tony Stark, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing, Black Panther, Storm), Luke Cage, Doc Samson, She-Hulk, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Kirby

Continuity Notes

• Rick Jones mentions the first few times that the Hulk hit him and then how he once crippled him. These events happened in Incredible Hulk #1-3 and 457. Although Jones was crippled in that latter story, he was ultimately cured of his disability in Avengers: Forever #12.