Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Part 4

Bruce Banner wakes up from the best sleep he has in years and gets ready for another day of plying his scientific knowledge for SHIELD. While getting ready for the day, he briefly panics when he notices his hand is green, but it turns out it is only painted, not a transformation into the Hulk. He exits his home in the center of the Nuclear Springs testing site, which has since been renamed to Bannerville. On his way to the lab, he calls his contact to check in and let them know that he was doing okay but to be ready to let out the damning information in the event he fails to contact him in the future. He informs his friend on how the government has set him up to carry out his work. He goes down into the underground lab where he meets his new assistants: Patricia Wolman, Melinda Leucenstern, Randy Jessup, and Damian Veteri. They all have many questions and bombard him all at once, and he stuns them to silence by pretending to lose his temper over not having internet connectivity. He congratulates them for passing the final "Hulk test", but warns them that if the real thing ever happens that they should run away.

He starts their first project by showing them a small sliver of Uru metal taken from Thor's hammer. While Thor states that it is mystically enchanted, Banner doesn't agree, thinking it only contains subatomic properties that are unfamiliar to human knowledge. However, before they can get to work, Bruce gets a summons from SHIELD director Maria Hill. He goes to the meeting room and she tells him about a situation brewing in the undersea domain known as Lemuria. She plays him some footage showing of giant sea monsters attacking a transpacific freighter, one of many that have been sunk by these monsters. She informs Banner that the individual responsible is the undersea barbarian known as Attuma, who has laid claim to Lemuria and the sea around it. There is concern that this warlord with his armies and cache of doomsday weapons could pose a threat to the surface world. She concludes by telling Banner that he is to be taken to the region by allies within the Chinese government that have the deep-sea technology to reach Lemuria.

Soon, Bruce is shipped off to the Pacific a few thousand miles off the coast of Japan where he is brought aboard the Chinese mega sub known as the Dreadnaught. When he discovers a language barrier between him and the Chinese sailors, he is annoyed to find that Maria has sent a ROB unit to translate for him and monitor the mission. Before he can protest the robot's presence, an alarm is sounded when Attuma and his hordes are detected coming their way. The Chinese sailors suddenly grab Banner and carry him to the torpedo tubes. ROB informs him that his SHIELD bio-suit will provide him with air underwater and before he can stop it, he is loaded up in a torpedo tube and fired at the approaching army. The sudden shock triggers a transformation into the Hulk. The Hulk plows through Attuma and his barbarian horde, and in response, he orders his men to fire a cannon called the Seabreaker. The weapon doesn't phase the Hulk, but they fire it on the Dreadnaught, causing the vessel serious damage.

When the Hulk attempts to fight back, he is blasted again and send floating down to the ocean floor. From an undersea trench, the tentacles of a massive undersea monster grab him and pull him down even deeper. The ROB unit tries to warn him to get free as the water pressure should get too power strong for his body to handle. Its protests are soon silenced as the water pressure it is warning the Hulk about crushes. As the Hulk begins to blackout, he is pulled closer to the hungry maw of the creature who has him in its grasp.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, SHIELD (Maria Hill, Randall Jessup, Daman Veteri, Patricia Wolman, Melinda Leucenstern), ROB, Attuma