A second exposure to the Gamma Bomb
turns Hulk into a bigger, meaner, spike-covered monster that
Bruce Banner dubs "Hulk Squared.” Bruce hastily explains to Rick Jones
that he is Banner from the future. The army arrives and begins
fighting Hulk and when General Thunderbolt Ross arrives and confronts
Bruce, he launches a tirade against Ross which helps him calm down.
He washes his hands of the Hulk and announces his plans to marry
Ross' daughter and live a long and happy life—and then Ross says he
has no children. Bruce, discovering his timestream is more mucked up
than he thought, realizes the only thing that can stop Hulk Squared
is another Hulk and he sets out to learn if any of the Gamma Bomb is
left. He meets the Chronarchist Khotto who reveals the true purpose
for creating the monster Hulk: to free Zarrko from SHIELD's
underground prison. Bruce realizes he's been played and seizes Khotto
in a bear hug, manipulating his time suit to push both of them back a
few minutes until the Gamma Bomb detonates again. As Hulk Squared
approaches, Banner once again becomes Hulk and punches the viewscreen
that Zarrko is using to watch from the future; by doing this Hulk
breaks the time barrier and he and the two baddies are swept into a
swirling vortex—but then someone Zarrko calls “Master” reaches
in and pulls Khotto and Zarrko to their doom. As Hulk holds on, Red She-Hulk
reaches through the barrier and pulls him to safety....
Later, Bruce muses on how everything is
back to normal even though no one believes him when he tries to
explain how messed up history had gotten. The shock of breaking the
time barrier rewrote all of the new paradoxes in Banner's history
making it normal again...but there's something wrong nagging at
Bruce's memory but he can't place it. Later, we see a burglar
breaking into SHIELD's vault and taking the Project Gamma test
results....