Terra Incognita: Part 1

After months of living with an Aborigine tribe in Australia, Bruce Banner has mastered their techniques of meditation and endeared himself to them, they call him Two-Minds. During a ritual ceremony, he is told that he is the snake totem due to his dual nature. With the ceremony over, Gateway tells him that he is a step closer to becoming one of the "true people". Suddenly, Gateway calls a stop to the ceremony and asks Bruce if he can feel what he does. They can both sense the arrival of human refugees feeling their mutant oppressors have set up a camp in the region. But their persecutors are coming and it will not end well. At the camp, the AIM agent known as the Scorpion reports to her mother Monica Rappaccini to tell her that the relocation has gone well. Monica expects that they will see more refugees if mutant persecution continues. The elder Rappaccini tells her daughter that she is aboard an AIM submarine off the course of the Gulf of Carpentaria off the coast of Borroloola. Monica learns that the refugees, 300 or so, all report that the mutant government in Australia has been rounding humans up and putting them in camps. Suddenly, Scorpion feels the ground shaking and is told by her ally Adam Isaacs that their enemies are coming.

Suddenly, they are under siege by mutants in battle mechs who have come to round up the refugees. While the forces of AIM counter-attack, Unus the Untouchable, the commander of the mutants orders them to surrender. Watching this from the trees, Bruce Banner asks Gateway if he would despise him if he let his other self out. However, Gateway points out that this intrusion is unacceptable and encourages Banner to do something about it. Banner confronts Unus and his men, and they laugh at the scrawny man armed with only a boomerang who has come to stop them. Banner tosses the weapon, but it bounces off Unus' force field. Unus then knocks Bruce into a nearby pond where a swarm of crocodiles dives in after him. However, instead of being eaten alive, Banner turns into the Hulk and fights off the lizards and then lashes into the soldiers. When Unus boasts about how the Hulk can't penetrate his force field, the Hulk instead claps his hands together as hard as possible, rupturing the mutant's eardrums and then kicks his enemy away.

Elsewhere, the Scorpion and her soldiers are losing ground to their attackers. The girl is disgusted to see that humans have sided with their mutant oppressors. Although she fights back, she is soon overwhelmed and then confronted by one of the mechs. However, before it can strike her down, Unus comes crashing into the battle suit, knocking it off balance. Suddenly, the Hulk lands in the middle of the battle and demands to know who attacks his people. Seeing the mutant soldiers, the Hulk leaps into them. Watching this through her daughter's communication device, Monica Rappaccini orders her men to prepare a shuttle so she can get there as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Hulk's rampage is also being viewed by the heads of the Australian mutant government. Pyro tries to tell his superiors, Exodus, and Vanisher, that this is a massive problem. They scoff at this, having never faced the Hulk before they have no idea what they are up against. Exodus punished Pyro for speaking out of turn and assures his subordinates that his administration will crush any human rebellion that may crop up and not even the Hulk can stop the march of evolution.

With the battle over, Monica and Scorpion introduce themselves to the Hulk. She tries to convince the Hulk to help them stop the genocide of humanity. However, the Hulk isn't overly interested in joining their cause. They are interrupted by Aaron Isaacs who tells Monica that his son was captured by the mutants. While Monica is distracted, the Hulk leaps away. Later, Bruce Banner meets with Gateway to tell him what has happened. Gateway tells him his suspicions that something isn't right and that they are somehow trapped in the Dreamtime of someone else. When Bruce asks Gateway what he should do, Gateway relates this situation to the "Stolen Generation", when the original Australia settlers took the children away from the Aborigine people in the hopes of forcing them to assimilate to their way of life. He finishes by saying that the truth will rise above all, and tells Bruce to walk the Dreamtime and find his own path along with it.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, AIM (Monica Rappaccini, Scorpion, Adam Isaacs, Aaron Isaacs), Unus the Untouchable, Exodus, Pyro, Vanisher, Gateway

Continuity Notes

• This story takes place during the House of M event that saw Earth-616 temporarily replaced with Earth-58163. The primary event can be followed in House of M #1-8.