Marvel: The Enlightened One-Chapter 88: [] - The One Who Chose to Accept and the One Who Chose to Refuse! (Bonus)

Chapter 88: [88] - The One Who Chose to Accept and the One Who Chose to Refuse! (Bonus)

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When Bruce Banner got home with the groceries, Nick Fury was already gone.

Betty knelt on the living room carpet, her eyes vacant and staring at nothing.

Seeing her like this, Bruce quickly closed the door, rushed to her side, and gently helped her up onto the sofa.

"Betty..."

"..."

She seemed to snap back to reality at his touch. Her eyes focused on him, and without a word, she lunged forward, crashing her lips against his.

Bruce froze for a second, stunned by the sudden, almost savage intensity of her kiss. He then yielded, meeting her passion with his own.

With a soft thud, their embrace sent them tumbling from the sofa onto the plush rug below. Clothes were torn away, piece by piece...

"Do you love me, Bruce?"

"Of course."

"Really?"

"I swear to God."

"Then you’ll help me get my revenge, right?"

"Of course I—" Bruce’s voice was thick with desire, his own eyes lost in hers. But then, as her words registered, the haze began to clear.

Betty didn’t give him a chance to react. "My father is dead. Help me get revenge, Bruce!"

"Okay, I will."

Bruce was lost in the moment.

A look of joy crossed Betty’s face. She leaned over him, her arms wrapped around his neck, and whispered in his ear, her breath hot and ragged.

"Then become the Hulk again, my love."

"..."

Hulk???

The word struck him like a slap of cold reality. Bruce’s mind cleared in an instant. He stared up at her, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"What... did you say?"

"Become the Hulk again."

"The Hulk is dead."

"But you’re not."

"What?" Bruce Banner was stunned.

In the dim, shifting light of the living room, Betty’s beautiful features seemed to twist. "The man who killed my father is the same man who killed the Hulk. Don’t you want revenge?"

Bruce Banner froze.

"..." The image of Hawk, standing before him in the snow-covered woods, flashed in his mind.

Betty took a deep breath, her own eyes burning with a desperate intensity. "Bruce, he killed my father..."

Nick Fury hadn’t told her the killer’s name.

But before he left, he’d told her that the man who killed her father and the man who killed the Hulk were the same person.

Betty had asked Bruce before who had killed the Hulk for him. But he had never told her who it was.

She hadn’t pressed the issue at the time. After all, with the Hulk gone, it was a good thing. It meant her father would have no more reason to stop her and Bruce from being together.

But that was then.

Now, Betty desperately wished that Bruce could still become the Hulk.

It was the only way she could get her revenge.

Betty looked at Bruce, her eyes filled with a desperate hope. "Tell me, Bruce. You can still become the Hulk, can’t you?"

Bruce met her gaze and said nothing.

Betty’s eyes lit up. Just as Gwen understood Hawk, Betty understood Bruce. His silence didn’t mean no. It meant there was a way.

A thrill went through her. She leaned in, holding him tightly, her voice a desperate plea.

"Bruce, Please!"

"I..." Bruce felt her on top of him, felt her tears and the strength in her grip. He bit his lip, shook his head, and said one word. "Sorry."

Hearing his answer, Betty’s body went rigid.

With a sharp movement, she sat up, staring at him with her red-rimmed eyes, her expression one of pure disbelief.

"Bruce?"

"Betty..."

Bruce quickly got to his feet. He looked down at Betty, who had slumped back onto the rug, and gave her a pained smile. "The Hulk is dead."

He had come to terms with it. Losing the Hulk had its pros and cons, but overall, it was for the best.

He could finally live a normal life.

And that was a good thing.

Bruce had never been a wild person. He was a scientist. As a normal man, he could find a job in a lab, earn a good salary, and continue his research.

He had already lined up his next gig.

Stark Industries had a gamma lab in Jersey City.

Tony, who was about to undergo his own medical procedure, had already given him his blessing to use it.

Theoretically, another dose of gamma radiation could trigger the transformation again. That was why he had been silent when Betty had asked. But he didn’t want to. He had finally gotten his normal life back.

...

"Betty."

Bruce knelt, placing his hands on his girlfriend’s shoulders, his gaze fixed on her tear-filled eyes. His voice was heavy.

"Yes, there might be a way for me to become the Hulk again. But I don’t know if it would even work. The Hulk is dead. He was the product of an accident. Maybe it would work, or maybe it would just kill me. If you really want me to try, just say the word. I’ll do it."

Their eyes met.

Betty looked at her boyfriend’s unwavering determination, at the devastating promise that he’d walk through hell if she asked him to. That’s when she finally cracked. With a broken sob, she collapsed into his arms, her body shaking with raw grief and despair.

Bruce said nothing. He just held her tightly.

After a long while, Betty’s crying subsided, though her eyes were even more red and swollen than before.

But she seemed to have calmed down.

She took a tissue from Bruce, and as she dabbed at her tears, her voice was quiet. "How did my father die?"

Bruce hesitated, then told her everything.

He had been there when she got the news. He had gone with her to D.C., had held her when she collapsed, had been the one to call Nick Fury and get the full story.

It was the same as what had happened to him.

Except Hawk was far more ruthless. His revenge had been swift. In a single day, he had gone to New Mexico, then to Quantico, and had killed Ross when he’d tried to have him captured.

When Bruce had heard the story, he had felt a secret satisfaction.

After all, he had been on the receiving end of it himself. General Ross had chased him so relentlessly that he’d had to hide in India.

So, to hear that Ross had been killed while trying to hunt someone else... he couldn’t help but feel a little pleased.

After listening to Bruce’s story, Betty had no extreme reaction. Her voice was calm.

"Who is he?"

"Betty..."

Bruce frowned, shaking his head. "No weapon in the world can hurt him. And besides, this was Ross... just let it go."

He had been about to say that Ross had brought this on himself. But he caught himself. The dead deserve at least that much respect.

"Even the military has conceded."

"I know. But the military knows who he is. And you know who he is." Betty’s voice was still quiet as she looked up at him. "I just need to know who killed my father. Don’t worry, Bruce. I’m not going to do anything stupid. There’s nothing I can do anyway."

Bruce looked at her sad, pleading face, and after a moment, he sighed. "Hawk."

"Hawk? What’s his last name?"

"I only know him as Hawk."

Bruce shook his head. "He killed the Hulk because his sister was killed during the Hulk’s fight with the Abomination. So before Christmas, he found me, killed the Hulk, and spared my life. If your father hadn’t tried to go after him, he..."

Bruce stopped himself again. But the meaning was clear.

Even the military was trying to bury the whole thing. Was that just because Hawk was powerful?

No.

The real reason was that Hawk had been in the right.

When the U.S. military’s force is not enough to crush an enemy, the military becomes remarkably reasonable.

Betty looked at Bruce, who had once again cut himself off, and smiled faintly. "Don’t worry, Bruce. I really did just want to know his name."

"Alright."

Bruce sighed. He looked at Betty, who seemed a little less strained now that she had the name. "Are you okay?"

Betty smiled again and stood up.

"I’m tired, Bruce."

"Okay." He stood up as well. "Let’s get you to bed."

She shook her head. "I think... I think I’d like to sleep alone tonight. If that’s okay."

Bruce didn’t question it. He just nodded.

"Then I’ll walk you to your room."

"Okay." Betty didn’t refuse.

After Bruce walked her upstairs to her bedroom, he lingered in the doorway, about to speak. But she’d already turned onto her side, facing away from him. He shook his head, switched off the light, and quietly pulled the door shut.

...

Lying on the bed, Betty heard the door click shut. Her eyes, which had been closed, snapped open.

Her pupils, calm just moments before, now blazed with fury.

"Hawk."

"From New York..."

"Just wait!"

"I will avenge you, Dad."

"I swear it!"

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