re: Bard's Poor Attempt at a Combined Marvel/DC Universe (an ongoing project)

“So you know I’m here now? Great. Now let’s try that name thing again. Do you have one or are you also just a big hulk-“
The beast had baited Hal into allowing the pincers to remain long enough to give it some leverage, just enough to push and twist to get a single arm free. Hal quickly clamped another set of pincers on it.

“Let’s try this again. Do. You. Have. A. Name. Or. Are. You. Just. A. Hulk-“ it interrupted by trying again, this time with an incredible roar of raw, animalistic rage followed by heavy breathing as it stared at Hal with a promise of furious pain in its eyes.

“Wow. Okay. Apparently ‘hulk’ is a trigger word for you. That’s a bit of an odd word not to like. ‘Hulk’. Everyone is different, I know Carol hates the word ‘moist’. I still haven’t figured that one out but I can take some guesses. Not like ‘hulk’. I mean what is ‘hulk’? It’s just a word that sits there. It doesn’t even sounds like a real word if you hear it enough. Hulk… huuuuuuulk… hullllllllllllllk…”

The beast continued its focused on Hal, he could almost feel its concentration.

“Hhhhhhh…”

“Oh, you like the word ‘hulk’ now?”

“Hhhhuuuuu…”

“Come on there, big-green, you can do it. Huuuullllk.”

“Hhhuuuullk…”

“Great now you know a new word. Any chance I could get your name now?”

“Huuullk...”

“Or maybe where you’re from…”

“Hullllk…”

“Or how you got this way…”

The creature seemed be concentrating on speaking. “HuuuUULLK!”

“Yeah we’ve gone over that…”

For a brief moment, Hal wondered why he and the monster were no longer drifting downward at the same speed. His confusion was cleared up a moment later as the creature moved with lightning speed to reach down, grab a handful of rock and sand in its huge hand, then hurl it all at Hal’s head. “HULK!”

On instinct, Hal raised his hands to cover his head. Through training he also strengthened his shielding around himself. Through inexperience he had let go of the giant green monstrosity. He realized his mistake right as a rock twice his size slammed into him, causing him to hurtle into the wall of the canyon. Before he could recover, the beast was on him. It punched and pounded on him relentlessly, and with each strike is roared a single word: “HULK!”

The onslaught was incredible.

“HULK!”

The beast’s hits were so strong that enough of the kinetic force was able to get through Hal’s shield to actually hurt him. He could feel some of the impact from the blows coming through the shield. He hadn’t thought that was even possible.

“HULK!”

Hal’s shield began to crack in places, the monstrosity began to focus on those while punctuating every strike with that single word: “HULK! HULK! HULK! HULK!”

Hal had to put so much focus into keeping his shield up that he couldn’t spare any to launch a counter-attack, much less just get himself free. A head-butt from the monster left him slightly dazed.

“HULK!”

Amazingly he had been able to keep his shield intact. An overhand strike to his chest felt like it cracked a rib. The best paused for a moment as he looked down at Hal, then took a deep breath as he raised his gargantuan fists high above his head.

“AM! HUUUUUUULK!”

Hal tasted blood in his mouth, his willpower was waning. He was physically and mentally wrecked as the ongoing might of the monster was driving him deeper into the hillside. The beast didn’t seem to be slowing down at all. The rhythm of the beating blended into a low rumble, then increased until it culminated with the beast being swept away by a wave of dirt and rocks. The green behemoth’s rage had created a massive landslide. While Hal was thankful for a few minutes to catch his breath, he soon realized he was buried under an unknown amount of debris. The pressure of the land and rock above him was nothing compared to the beating he had just taken so Hal took a few minutes to recover his wits and take stock of his health.

Hal mumbled to himself, “When I woke up this morning, I didn’t think it would be the kind of day where I was glad to be covered up by a landslide.” The noise of the landslide had become more and more muffled as he was buried deeper. Once the earth settled, the silence was almost deafening. Without the constant assault, Hal was able to focus his thoughts after a few minutes. There was still a rampaging monster out there needing to be stopped from causing more damage or possibly even killing people. Hal took a deep breath and focused on creating a wedge above himself in order to shove the rubble out of his way. He had intended to fly out of the hole, but with his willpower flagging he quickly understood the most support for movement he would be able to muster was assistance has he climbed out.
Twenty feet later he struggled out of his hole, he was spent but he would give whatever he had to take this dangerous beast down.

Hopefully.

He winced as he turned around, ready for a giant green mass, a rock, anything to come hurtling at him. Nothing came. Aside from the dust hanging in the still air, nothing moved. He was alone in the quiet of the desert night.