Earlier in Austin Texas, a young
man wanders through a crowd and bored with all the happy people, he cuts loose a
baby’s balloon and enjoys the child’s sadness. Maddy Cho is on the scene
investigating reports of a monster. The young man transforms into a giant
insectoid creature and revels in the terror and panic….
In Arkansas, an armored Black Panther
tries to subdue the Hulk while Jake Oh hacks into Amadeus’ laptop to
find that Amadeus knows where to find Hawkeye (Clint Barton); when Hulk gets a
report from Maddy about the monster, he tears Panthers armor off and T’Challa
orders Jake to teleport them both to the Negative Zone but Jake can’t: Hulk’s
energy has fried the controls of the laptop. Hulk leaps off for Austin…
…where Maddy is trying to hold off
the monster who feeds on strong emotions and finds Maddy a cold fish. Instead
he attacks the mother of the baby, terrifying the kid and satisfying the
creature. Maddy helps the mother and child escape and is then trapped by the
monster…and then Hulk lands on him. As they fight the monster, feeding on
Hulk’s emotions, grows larger; Amadeus, whose energy was being absorbed by
Black Panther, smashes his foe into the ground. But the monster rises and rips
into Hulk, knocking him flat. The monster then seizes the baby and vanishes
down an alley. Black Panther and Jake Oh arrive and the overwhelmed Hulk asks
them for help….