Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #46
Multiple Organism
Bruce Banner is under police custody in a hospital after recovering from injuries sustained from a car accident. Arriving at the hospital is Agent Pratt, who holds him at gunpoint. On the television is a news report about the Hulk's rampage in Chicago that apparently claimed the life of young Ricky Myers. Knowing that Ricky is alive somewhere, Bruce asks how they managed to pull it off. Pratt points out that they easily doctored the footage. When last Bruce saw Agent Pratt, his body exploded after being injected with some of the Hulk's blood. Banner demands to know how he could have survived such a final fate. Pratt refuses to answer, instead of wondering how Sally Riker was able to find them in their last encounter. Banner explains that he used the same bug he planted on her to allow her to find his location. Pratt is genuinely impressed and wishes he had someone of Banner's resourcefulness on their side, but that's why they are trying to recruit him. When Pratt grabs a vial of Banner's blood, Bruce points out that it is his and not the Hulk's blood, therefore useless to his masters. Pratt angrily swats Banner across the face, knocking him out of his hospital bed.
Banner wakes up in bed back at Laurie's apartment to the sound of knocking at the door. When Banner asks who it is, the person on the other side says it's Laurie. When Bruce answers it, he sees a walking corpse on the other side. That's when Pratt throws a glass of water on Bruce's face, waking him up from this horrifying dream. He then tosses clothes at Bruce and tells him to get dressed. When Banner rhetorically wonders if he should ask where they are going, Pratt refuses to divulge that information. As they walk out of the hospital, an ETM wheels in the coroner at the city morgue, who apparently tried to commit suicide. Pratt puts Banner in his SUV and drives away, and along the way, the feverish Banner tells the former FBI agent that he is getting sick. Pratt unsympathetically turns on the radio, sarcastically telling him that music will probably soothe him. Banner blacks out again, and in this dream. he is back in Laurie's apartment. This time, the cadaver who answered the door is in bed with him giving him a blood transfusion. The ghoulish woman laying next to him tells Bruce to go back to sleep because she needs her beauty rest.
Banner wakes up in the middle of what sounds like Pratt explaining Home Base's plans for him. However, Pratt was just playing with him since he passed out. The agent then hands Banner a flask and tells him to drink. They soon arrive at the city morgue and go inside. There they find a janitor cleaning blood off the floor. Introducing himself as an FBI agent, Agent Pratt confirms that the coroner had enough blood in his system to survive and his cuts miraculously healed. After getting this information, Pratt shoots the janitor dead and orders Banner to follow him into the morgue. When they are interrupted by a female employee and she is shot as well. Not wanting anyone else to die because of him, Banner goes into the morgue with Pratt. Pratt then goes over the events that led up to Banner ending up in Laurie Copeland's apartment and accused of murdering her and how the story doesn't add up. In fact, the body found in the closet was at a state of decomposition that was longer than the time between when Laurie left and when the police arrived. He then has Banner open the drawer which contained the body that was recovered from the apartment. Bruce is shocked to discover that the drawer is empty.
When Banner asks where the body is, Agent Pratt thinks Laurie Copeland is still in Kansas City. Suddenly, the police burst into the room and order the two men to surrender. When Pratt raises his gun, he is mowed down by the officers. However, while they are distracted by trying to apprehend Banner, Agent Pratt gets back up no worse for wear and begins picking off the officers. During the gunfight, Agent Pratt takes a rifle blast to the chest, sending him flying backward. He slams into Bruce Banner, sending him crashing through a window outside. When he looks up he is shocked to see Sandra Verdugo, alive and well, standing before him. With a car idling behind her, she suggests that they take off.
Recurring Characters
Bruce Banner, Agent Pratt, Sandra Verdugo
Continuity Notes
Agent Pratt "welcomes" Banner to the new millennium as if it just recently passed. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
The mystery of George Copeland is revealed next issue.
