A green hand, thick-fingered and careful in a way that looked improbable given its size, set a large handmade kettle down over the fire. The flames pushed heat upward in slow waves, and the kettle settled into them without complaint. The other hand was working coffee beans against a flat surface, crushing them by degrees with a patience that suited neither the Hulk's reputation nor the urgency of anything happening outside the town walls.
Nolan had taken his helmet off. The warmth from the fire found the short gray of his hair and drew the residual heat from his last sprint outward as slow wisps of vapor. He had his back against a section of broken wall, the vibranium plate of his armor scraping faintly against the rough edge, and he watched Professor Hulk with the same level expression he used for most things, nothing particularly warm in it, nothing hostile either. Simply attentive.
The self-introduction had been concise. Neither the Savage Hulk nor Bruce Banner himself, but a third thing, a personality assembled from both to handle something neither of them was suited for alone. Stimulated by the chaos invasion. Merged rather than chosen.
"Neither Hulk nor I would risk letting Banner surface easily right now." Professor Hulk's movements had a quality to them that was difficult to place on a three-meter green frame: easy, almost gracious, the gestures of someone who had made peace with the body they were operating in. He glanced up at Nolan. "The human form is fragile under the best conditions. In the current situation, caution seems appropriate. Don't you agree, Mr. Nolan?" A beat. "Coffee?"
"Clean water. I don't like bitter things."
Nolan watched the thick fingers press another coffee bean flat. He shook his head once, not with any irritation in it, and shifted his position against the wall.
He moved forward and sat down beside the fire properly, the armor's weight settling into the ground.
"Was it you, Professor, who worked out how to counter the plague? The disinfection protocol those civilians are running outside?"
"Mr. Nolan." Professor Hulk's voice dropped slightly. The wit in his eyes shifted to something heavier. "You should ask how many people remain in Uttar Pradesh, not only this town."
He was quiet for a moment. The fire between them moved.
"When I arrived here, this town had a population of around three hundred thousand. I have not been able to conduct a proper count since, but the number still alive inside these walls is probably below fifty thousand." He looked toward the sound of the walkers beyond the barricade, a constant low pressure against the edges of the town. "On the seventh day of the disaster, roughly two-thirds of the people here, many of whom had only just begun showing symptoms, turned. All rational function gone. If Banner's emotional state hadn't deteriorated severely enough to bring me forward, I do not believe anyone would have survived."
"Other towns were not positioned as fortunately as this one. Villages with large civilian populations, cities without defensible ground. I doubt their outcomes were better."
He set the crushed coffee aside. Reached into the debris near the fire and extracted several cups, dusty enough that he wiped each one against his palm before setting them down.
"What I can tell you is that the infection is a zombie plague. Spread by this thing that commands concepts of life and decay, and this plague is, by any measure, among the least of what that entity can produce."
Nolan laid out the relevant parts of the operational picture: the flesh foundries, the Chaos Astartes production, the scope of what David's perimeter was attempting to contain. He kept it factual and did not editorialize.
Professor Hulk listened without interrupting. When Nolan finished, he nodded slowly.
"That explains it." He began rinsing the cups with water from a smaller container, set aside for exactly this purpose. "A number of the compounds I synthesized early on lost effectiveness faster than the underlying biology could account for. I attributed it to mutation rate. But if the source is something operating well beyond conventional biological parameters..." He set a cup down and exhaled. "An ancient entity of that magnitude would explain the inconsistencies."
He looked at Nolan with something candid in his expression.
"I should tell you, Mr. Nolan, that my initial working hypothesis was corporate or organizational biological weapons release. The scale and the apparent deliberateness of the infection pattern suggested human agency." A pause. "I also suspected the Guardians of Terra, at one point. The operational methods your team uses produce a particular quality of collateral damage. I want you to know I entertained that suspicion, if you do not mind my saying so."
"I do not mind," Nolan said. "We are not a kind-hearted heroic team. We understand how we appear to outside observers. It is unavoidable."
The kettle had begun to produce steam in thin columns above its lid. Professor Hulk lifted it with one hand and poured.
"The coordinates of this town have already gone to my support team. They will arrive before long. All survivors who clear the quarantine review will be safe." Nolan let that land, then continued. "What are your own plans, Professor?"
The large body stilled. The rising steam drifted between them.
"If Savage Hulk were answering: find whatever started this and reduce its head to something unrecognizable." A faint, complicated quality entered his tone. "He is childish and he is frequently unreasonable. He is also, honestly, the most purely righteous of us."
"If it were Banner answering: attempt to synthesize a solution. Build or find a device capable of neutralizing the plague on a mass scale. Try to reduce casualties among all parties without escalating the conflict further. Banner is a scientist. He is not a combatant, and he is aware of that."
"As for myself." He poured the second cup. "I have inherited Banner's knowledge and his way of thinking, and I have had enough time in this situation to understand what fighting a conceptual god actually requires. I know I am not equipped to end it alone." He looked across the fire. "I am more curious about how you intend to end it, and how many people are actually committed to helping you do that."
Nolan's hand moved to the masterwork bolter at his side and rested there.
"Bolters and power swords," he said, without any particular drama in it. "That is the method. The method that countless humans before us found with their lives, and the only method that works. This operation has committed close to sixty percent of my available combat capacity. Every one of those people will use everything they have, including their lives, to fight what is in front of them." He paused. "My personal objective is to be the first to engage the high-capability forces Chaos has produced here."
He looked at Professor Hulk steadily.
"So. Whether that is Savage Hulk or the Professor sitting across this fire from me: are you interested in joining this war?"
Professor Hulk was quiet for a moment. He picked up the cup he had poured for Nolan and held it out across the fire.
"For the people who are already dead," he said. "And so that whoever is still alive can keep wandering safely." The wise eyes settled on Nolan without hesitation. "I do not think there is a reason to refuse you, Mr. Nolan."
Nolan took the cup. The steam from it rose against his face.
He looked at the enormous green form across the fire, at the intelligence settled carefully into something that most people would only ever see as a weapon, and the corner of his mouth moved by a fraction.
"Welcome to the team, Bruce Banner."
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