Hell Hath No Fury, Part 3

The Avengers are attempting to apprehend the Red She-Hulk for the destruction of a military laboratory that is part of Project Echelon. However, before they can capture her, she damages the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. This forces the Avengers to break off their pursuit of her in order to save the people on the bridge. X-51 observes as the Red She-Hulk leaps away from the scene. Once the Avengers have evacuated the bridge, Machine Man gives his report on the Red She-Hulk's status. He explains that while she has been committing acts of destruction and killed a man, it is was a great internal struggle as she is acting within a purpose. This leads them to wonder if Betty Ross is in better control of her Hulk forms like Jen Walters or the Red Hulk. The Avengers then depart so Machine Man can continue their investigation.

X-51 retraces Betty's steps back to the house where Eleanor Bennett lives. When he approaches the house, he scans the door and finds that it has a lock that is the most sophisticated technology he has ever seen. Still, he enters the house and approaches Eleanor, who somehow knows that he is looking for Betty Ross. She instantly knows that X-51 is a machine and she says that she herself is a part of a big machine. He asks if Betty has seen it and the girl asks him to hold out his hand. Scanning her body, Machine Man cannot detect anything mechanical about her and asks where this machine is. She tells him that it is everywhere and touches his hand. Machine Man suddenly finds himself pulled into a strange place on a different plane of existence.

Suddenly, a massive pyramid begins to talk to him about the extraordinary. When X-51 asks for the identity of the construct. Suddenly a man walks out from behind it, explaining that his name is unimportant as he is not even alive in this time and that he is talking to him through this machine that he calls the Terranometer. He explains that Terranometer is merely the name he has given this superstructure that acts like a computer for the entire world although it was created millennia before computers were imagined. He goes on to say that his organization has built a number of pyramids, some of the famous landmarks, some hidden, that allowed them to access the Terranometer. This made it so precise that they had been able to predict the course of human history. He then points out that every living being on Earth is connected to the device and explains that if there is any concept of God that exists, this would be it. He goes on to say that the Terranometer has allowed his organization to maintain power and operate in secret, while also knowing what the future has in store for them. Finally, he tells X-51 that in each generation there is an ideal person who can process the information from the Terranometer and distill it in ways that the human mind can grasp. That these are manifested in visions. The man explains that he is the curator of the Terranometer and that he also bridges the gaps between his species and that of Machine Man.

It's at this point that X-51 tells this man that he need not conceal his identity any longer as he had deduced that he has been speaking with the Nikola Tesla, the famous inventor. Tesla isn't concerned that Machine Man has deduced his identity as he is dead in the present time. However, when X-51 makes a connection between Tesla's ancient order and the anti-espionage organization known as SHIELD he finds himself booted back to reality. When he asks Eleanor to reconnect him with the Terranometer, but the little girl tells Machine Man that she is tired and needs to go to sleep. With no other avenue to investigate this further, X-51 leaves the house to continue his search for the Red She-Hulk.

Two weeks later, on the island of Puerto Rico, Betty Ross pulls up onto a restricted beach on the island and is confronted by a soldier who tells her to go back. She acts dumb until she can get close enough to the soldier to knock him out with a kick to the face. She then steals his uniform to try and infiltrate the military base on this island. She finds the facility, she tries to get past the guard, but he won't allow her without the proper authorization. Before he can call the field general, X-51 arrives and knocks him out. He warns her that the base has been designed to prevent her from entering the facility. However, this doesn't dissuade her from trying to get in. X-51 makes it easy by hacking into the security system and shutting it down. X-51 explains that even though he was recruited by the Avengers to capture her, he has developed some doubts about Project Echelon after his meeting with Eleanor. Entering the facility, they see that the number o Echelon recruits have increased since the government approved funding. Betty explains that she intends to find General Fortean and bring him to Eleanor so he can see the visions of the future that she has seen.

However, by this point, a super-soldier named Remmick has detected Betty and Machine Man's presence in the facility and raises the alarm to Reginald. When the alarm goes off Betty turns into the Red She-Hulk and engages the Project Echelon soldiers. As she battles them, X-51 weighs all the information he has learned and decides that he will ally himself with the Red She-Hulk. As he lunges into battle he is too late to stop the Red She-Hulk from getting swarmed by a group of soldiers. Suddenly they are all knocked aside as the Red She-Hulk goes savage, increasing in size and becoming an angry brute, much like her ex-husband Bruce Banner.

Recurring Characters

Red She-Hulk, Machine Man, Eleanor Bennett, Nikola Tesla, Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Thor), General Fortean, Project Enchelon

Continuity Notes

• Nikola Tesla states that he is "dead" in this time. He was seemingly killed by Master Man in 1943, as seen in Captain America: The Medusa Effect #1 circa 1943. However, he has lived on as a man-machine hybrid as seen S.H.I.E.L.D. #1-Vol 2 #4. However, how he achieved this state has not yet been revealed.

• X-51 explains that the security system around the military facility is the same anti-gravity technology used to contain the Red Hulk at Gamma Base. This device was seen in Hulk Vol 2 #25.