WHAT IF ... ? 132

by Mark Bousquet

WHAT IF ... BRUCE BANNER HAD BEEN TOO LATE?

Part Two of Two - History Reinvents Itself

Previously in WHAT IF ... ? Dr. Bruce Banner was in New York to give a presentation of the dangers of gamma radiation at Empire State University. Banner is cursed with the knowledge that his work with gamma energy led to the death of a young man named Rick Jones, a man Banner had tried to save when Jones had wandered onto a government test site, but was too late. Haunted in his nightmares by a pair of large green eyes since the incident, Banner drives himself to the edge to spread the word against further gamma development. In attendance at the presentation are two collegiate lovers, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. During the presentation something goes wrong and one of Banner's machines explodes, with both he and Parker standing near ground zero.

Gwen Stacy almost forgot to duck. As the chaos moved past her and out the exits, people crushing each other in madness, Gwen could only stand and watch her beloved, Peter Parker rush towards the front of the auditorium.

She watched him jump up onto the stage and plead with Dr. Banner to move. 'God, Peter,' she begged to herself, 'Just grab him and go! This is no time to be a gentleman.'

But Banner didn't move. He stood looking at his machine coming apart in a violent display of sparks and leaking radiation. The clear glass and lead walls of the outer lab unit began to split apart. Gwen could see - only a fool couldn't - that an explosion was about to take place.

'Move, Peter, move!'

Peter was begging, pleading with Banner, but he wasn't budging. He was staring at the ground and Gwen thought he was crying. Peter had his back turned to the Gamma Control Module and Gwen would forever think that if he had just been looking the other way, decades of heartache would have been prevented.

The GCM cracked and inside a ball of green light began to glow and expand. It hung there, for almost a split second, about the size of a large beach ball and then it flashed.

Gwen managed to duck just before the green ball of light exploded.

She didn't see what happened to Peter or Dr. Banner, but when she looked up they were both gone.

TWO MINUTES EARLIER

At the same time Peter Parker was jumping on the stage, the first crack was made in the roof of the Gamma Control Module. Whether feeling the influx of fresh air or sensing the imminent danger, a spider that was trapped in the GCM scurried up into the roof of the lecture hall and lost itself in the woodwork above.

Peter Parker remembers running to the front of the lecture hall and jumping up onto the stage, pleading with Dr. Banner to move. He remembers Banner looking at him with hollow eyes, saying simply, "God forgive me."

Dr. Bruce Banner remembers standing on the stage, staring at his malfunctioning machine, praying to a God he didn't believe in for forgiveness.

My name is Uatu and I am a Watcher. For countless millennia I have stood watch over the small planet it's inhabitants call Earth. You know of the Earth of Marvels, but there are other worlds, divergent worlds where things did not happen as you know them to. Where one change in one person's life can change the world entire.

This is one such tale of an Earth where a good, young doctor did not save a reckless kid and the landscape of world science was forever altered. Some research jumped forward, other research ground to a halt. New avenues were explored as others were abandoned.

But, more importantly for you, dear reader, one doctor working on a bomb in a New Mexico desert did not become irradiated with gamma rays and one young man on the outskirts of New York City had no lecture to attend in which a spider crossed the path of a particle beam accelerator.

But the Everything tries endlessly to reassert itself into one grand cohesive story.

And in this time and in this place you are witness to such an attempt. Four pieces have converged in this lecture hall at Empire State University. Four pieces: gamma radiation, Bruce Banner, Peter Parker and a radiated spider are in place, waiting to be played.

This is a tale of an Earth like yours, but not yours. This is a tale you may call ... WHAT IF ... BRUCE BANNER HAD BEEN TOO LATE?

There was fear in the air of Empire State University. Students and visitors fled out of the auditorium and onto the grounds of the campus. Behind them, the lecture hall was damaged, but not destroyed, creaking and moaning, green smoke hanging in the air.

Gwen Stacy walked out of the building. She had no reason to hurry, even with debris falling all around her - her life was over. Peter was dead. He had to be. He was standing so close to the center of the gamma core that when it blew he must've been vaporized.

Just like that Rick Jones kid out in New Mexico.

She wanted to cry, but Stacy's didn't cry, as her father was wont to say. She just kept walking, for what seemed like hours. When she turned around, she was only fifty feet from the building. Her dulled mind registered a bit of surprise, but it didn't matter. If there was no Peter to walk home to, she would walk forever in her mind, no matter if she was home or not.

That's when Bruce Banner walked out of the building.

Banner walked out of the building somehow, but he didn't know how he even survived a gamma explosion - even one as mild as the one in the GCM. 'That poor kid must've died, too. He was standing-

'Oh god. Oh god no!' Banner's mind cried out. That kid had shoved him aside at the last moment. He fell off the stage and down to the ground below. The gamma radiation would've missed him, just like it had in New Mexico.

That's when he felt an incredible sense of impending danger and jumped.

Peter Parker remembered nothing. His mind was a jumble of emotions, one trying to overcome the other. Anger ... confusion ... anger ... joy ... anger ... anger ... anger ...

His head hurt like hell. There was a pounding, a continuous hammering pounding like something was trying to ... smash ... into his mind.

That's when he felt an incredible need to lash out at the world that had dealt him such a harsh blow by ... well, it did something to him at a time when ... he was so happy with ... with something ...

"AAARGH!" he screamed as his arm lashed out at the GCM. He didn't even notice that what was left of the unit shot through the back of the hall and didn't stop until it had smashed it's way through three other classrooms.

His rage carried him towards the exit, confusion gripping his mind. Thoughts were jumbled, he was acting on emotions and not conscious thought.

He knew he needed to be somewhere ... somewhere ...

He walked through doorways, absently noting that his shoulders were destroying door frames on both sides of him. He knew he needed to be outside, so when he saw a glint of sunlight, that's where he walked.

Gwen Stacy did not believe in ghosts or angels or demons. She didn't disbelieve them, either, she just never thought about them before now.

But when a six and a half foot green monster wearing the scraps of Peter's shirt and pants crashed out the front door of the science building, she believed in demons with all her heart.

She watched, stunned, as the monster, screaming in pain and confusion, it's hands on it's head, rambled down the steps (crushing them beneath his massive feet) and across the ESU quad.

She felt faint and wanted nothing more than to fall down and pray this was a dream, but she couldn't tear her eyes off the ... the ... the Hulking green version of the man she loved until it had passed from sight. She tried to run after it, but her mind and body were working against each other.

That's when she remembered Dr. Banner. She turned back, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. She ran to the steps and checked the area to the right and left for him. She saw him jump out of the way, so where was he?

That's when a shoe, falling from the sky, nearly struck her in the head.

Dr. Banner had jumped, and he was struck by three pieces of empirical data that couldn't be.

The first bit of data was that he had jumped twenty feet into the air.

The second was that he was now clinging to the walls of the ESU science building, almost ... like a spider would.

The third was that hulking, lumbering green monster that was walking first under and then away from him.

His scientific mind was trained to question everything. Nothing was true until you could duplicate it again and again. He looked at his hands, stuck to the wall. There was a red welt on his right hand, and the crushed form of a spider next to it. "How did ...?" he said aloud, then figured he must've been bit while crawling out from the rubble of the lecture hall.

He moved his right hand off the wall, leaving himself suspended just by the other hand. He placed his right hand back on the wall ... it stuck.

'Oh ... wow,' Dr., Banner thought. 'I wonder ...?' He kicked a shoe off of his foot and placed it against the wall - it stuck!

"Hey!"

Banner looked down into the eyes of a young woman, staring up at him with his shoe in her hand. "Er, sorry," Bruce said, embarrassed as he jumped down from his perch.

Gwen looked at Banner, first on the wall, then jumping down to her and did the only thing she could do. She fainted.

NOT EMPIRE STATE UNIVERSITY

"Where am I?" Gwen Stacy asked, feeling a throbbing in her head.

"Huh? Oh, you're awake, good."

Gwen turned to look at Dr. Banner, pacing back and forth across a laboratory. "What am I doing here?"

"I brought you here," Dr. Banner said. "I needed to run some tests on you."

"What?" Gwen exclaimed. "What kind of tests?"

"Easy, child, everything is going to be okay," Janet Van Dyne assured her.

"I needed to check you for gamma radiation. Don't worry," Banner assured her, noting the panic on her face, "you're clean. I couldn't let the medics take you because they wouldn't know what to look for, so I, well, I kidnapped you. Sorry."

Gwen's head was spinning, "This isn't really happen- my god, Peter!" She bolted off of the cot she was lying on.

"Who?" Banner and Janet asked simultaneously.

"Peter, my boyfriend, the guy who saved your life," Gwen reminded Dr. Banner.

"Peter? Is that his name?" Banner asked.

"Yeah, why, you almost sound like you know him," Gwen accused.

"I guess I kinda do."

"Of course, everyone in the city, if not the country, kinda knows him by now," Janet said, pointing to a television. Gwen's heart sank. Upon the screen was a live shot of the hulking green version of Peter tearing through the streets of New York City.

"They're calling him the Hulk," Banner explained. "They estimate he's six foot three and 500 pounds, though I'd say he's closer to six three and 450," Banner added matter-of-factly. "You say this is Peter, though?" Banner asked.

"Yeah," Gwen said weakly.

"Good that gives us an advantage. They don't know who he is, yet," Banner said. "Tell us everything you know about him."

EMPIRE STATE UNIVERSITY

"We can't just sneak into this building," Gwen whispered harshly. "There are security guards at every door."

"We're going to go through the window," Banner stated plainly.

"But the science lockers are on the third floor," Gwen reminded him.

"I know," Banner said seriously, "hang on." Banner wrapped his arm around her, kicked off his shoes and began climbing the wall.

"This really has to be a bad dream ..." Gwen whispered, stunned at what was happening.

"If only it was," Banner sympathized.

"Why didn't Ms. Van Dyne come with us?" Gwen asked.

"Oh she said she had something important to do, probably a dinner date with some other scientist."

They reached the window and Bruce plied it open, "Yes, advanced strength," Bruce murmured beneath his breath.

Once inside, Gwen led him to Peter's science locker. "It's locked."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," Banner said as he ripped the lock off the locker and opened it.

"How can you do that?" Gwen asked as Banner started removing Peter's journals.

"Gamma poisoning," Banner stated absent-mindedly. "I was bit by a spider that had been poisoned by gamma radiation in the same explosion that affected Peter. Somehow, the gamma radiation effected the spider and Peter, but exactly how it did it, I'm not sure yet. I've got some ideas, but I'll need to do more testing."

"So, what, you've got spider powers now?"

"Something like that," Banner answered, "but it's tough to say what exactly I can do."

"Why do you need to look at his journals?" Gwen asked. "And I don't want to hear that you want to get to know him better. That's a load of crap. You're looking for something."

Banner snapped his head up and looked hard at Gwen Stacy. She could see the wheels turning in his head. "Please tell me, Dr. Banner. Peter means everything to me."

Banner sighed, "I guess you have the right to know. I need to know if Peter had done any experimenting on himself."

"What?!?"

"Shhhh, stay quiet," Banner ordered, taking a step towards Gwen.

"Experiment on himself? Never. Peter would never do such a thing."

"Oh no?" Banner asked. "Sounds unreasonable, does it? Well, it happens. Maybe you're familiar with Reed Richards? Henry Pym?"

Gwen bowed her head, "Okay, you're right. Have you found anything?"

"No, which is good. That less variables in his body, the more we can determine that the gamma radiation acted alone when it did whatever it did to him. There are other things to check, of course, but this gives us a start. Huh, look at this," Banner pointed to a diagram and formula in the journal. "This kid is good, this formula might actually work, though he's got a problem in his formula equations over here and ..."

Banner droned on, taking on the same absent minded tone, but look of steel concentration that Gwen had seen a thousand times from Peter, "English, please, Dr. Banner."

"Right, sorry," Banner forced a smile. "Look here, Peter's trying to develop a polymer that's both pliant and strong ... liquid steel fiber, he calls it, but he's having a problem with time. Seems he can only get the polymer to last for an hour, then it dissolves. Hrm, go get me some of those vials over there, would you, Gwen, let's see if we can get this to work. It may help us save him."

FOREST HILLS

At the home of Ben and May Parker, the loving old couple watches television, glued to the news reports of the Hulk's rampage.

"He's awful, Ben Parker," May says disgustedly, but Ben says nothing as he continues to stare intently at the television. "I hope Peter is alright. I told him he shouldn't have gone to that, that, that radical's presentation tonight."

"That you did, May, that you did."

EMPIRE STATE UNIVERSITY

"I'll be ... it works!" Banner exclaimed. "This stuff is very impressive. Your boyfriend is quite a scientist, Gwen. How are the fiber shooters coming?"

"Fine, I guess, some of this stuff is a little complex for me. I'm not a scientist, or an engineer."

"Lemme see," Banner said, picking up the wrist units. "This was very smart of Peter. Do you see what he did? He designed personal units to "fire" the fiber cables, making it easier to get at things in hard to reach places. Very smart."

Banner placed cartridges in the fiber shooter and aimed at the far wall. TWHIP! Parker's fiber cable shot out across the room and stuck on a distant locker. "This is amazing stuff, Gwen," Banner marveled. "Even when wet, this substance is incredibly strong."

"What are you two working on?"

Banner and Gwen spun on their heels. "Janet!" Bruce exclaimed. "How did you get in here?"

"Nevermind that, Bruce. Let's just say that I can be very small when I need to be. I've made something for you," she smiled, holding something behind her back.

"What is it?"

Janet unfurled the black clothing, "it's a costume."

"Why would I need-?"

Janet turned serious, "Because I know you're going to go after that ... Hulk. You feel guilty and responsible and you're going to drive yourself to an early grave trying to help that poor boy. If you go try to stop him as Dr. Bruce Banner, with your ... spider powers ... you're just going to draw undue attention onto yourself." She smiled. "So go out wearing this ... Spider-Man!"

Bruce didn't like the idea of costumed heroes, or at least, the idea of becoming one himself. But Janet had a point. He looked at the costume that Janet held before them. It was all-black with a large white spider sewn on the front.

"Simple, I know," Janet apologized, "but on short notice, it's the best I could do. Now, let's get you dressed so you can go save Gwen's boyfriend."

FOREST HILLS

The world watched in morbid fascination as the green monster the media had christened the Hulk smashed it's way through the usually quiet community of Forest Hills. Citizens had come out of their homes to stand on their porches and watch for the Hulk.

"Crazy people!" Ben Parker shouted, as he too came to stand on his porch, noting the large throng of media that had turned out once it had become apparent that the Hulk was headed in this direction.

A mile away, Janet and Gwen hurried through the streets inside Janet's limousine, heading straight for the Parker household.

"That's where he's going, I know it!" Gwen kept saying, over and over. Janet looked at her, 'Poor girl, it's going to be a long life for you, Gwen Stacy. I hope you're up for it.'

Bruce Banner, now begrudgingly the costumed adventurer (if just for on night, he told himself) known as Spider-Man leapt from roof-top to roof-top, watching the Hulk uproot trees, shove cars aside and tear through houses. A few foolish cops shot at him, but that only served to make the Hulk angrier. Something, Bruce was sure, that nobody should want.

'I feel bad for him,' Bruce thought as the Hulk kicked aside a VW Beetle, 'he's confused, troubled. His mind, unlike mine, was apparently altered as well, by the gamma radiation. Gwen said he grew up in this neighborhood with his aunt and uncle and I'd bet my next grant that that's exactly where he's headed.'

The Hulk did indeed walk toward the Parker household, only one word resounding through his head. That word was, "Home."

Ben Parker stood on his porch, knowing full well that the Hulk was his nephew Peter. He didn't tell May that, though he was certain if she was honest with herself, she'd know it, too. So he stood on his porch and waited.

A limousine screeched to a halt before the house, drawing May out of the house. Gwen Stacy leapt out and ran up the step to stand next to Ben. "Ben, it's ..." she choked on the words.

"I know, child," he whispered, "I know- Hey, get off my lawn!" he screamed at the television crew that was setting up camp in his front lawn.

"Stuff it, old man," a cameraman yelled at Ben. "This is news. That Hulk is coming this way and we need to set up location for a live shot."

"Not on my front lawn, you're not!" Ben yelled. "Get off my property."

"Sir, please," the reporter tried to smooth things over, "my name is Trish Tilby and we'd like to-"

"I know who you are and I don't care!" Ben screamed. "I will not be responsible for that Hulk hurting someone on your crew, so leave!"

"Ben, please," Aunt May whispered, "your heart."

Ben Parker played her no mind. He knew Peter was coming this way and he'd be damned if he'd let these people get caught in the path of the Hulk.

"Look, sir," Trish tried to reason, 'if we get hurt, we promise not to sue you."

"You think that's what I- oh god."

In unison, the people gathered near the Parker household turned to look. Not twenty feet away, walked the Hulk. "Please get out of the way," Ben begged, but the words didn't come out as more than a whisper.

The Hulk, clearly a look of pain upon his face, knocked the camera crew aside with ease and came to rest at the foot of the steps that led up the Parker's porch.

"Home," it said aloud.

"Yes, home," Ben said, trying to block out the pain growing in his chest. "Come forward, son."

The Hulk took a step forward when Spider-Man swooped in and landed on the porch next to Ben Parker. "Huh?" Ben gasped, shocked at the man seemingly falling out of the sky. Then his hands grabbed his chest as his heart exploded inside him.

Ben Parker fell to the ground dead as the Hulk roared in pain.

THE NEXT DAY - PARKER HOUSEHOLD

Bruce Banner, Gwen Stacy and Janet Van Dyne stood in the Parker household talking with Mary Jane Watson.

"How's Mrs. Parker?" Bruce asked.

"Aunt Anna says she's in shock," MJ explained as the room fell into another spell of silence. "It's to be expected. How's Peter, Gwen? Should I go check on him?"

"No, he's sleeping in his room," Gwen lied. "I'll check on him in a bit."

"Gwen," Bruce said, the pain obvious in his voice, "I'll do everything I can to ... help."

"I know, Dr. Banner, I know." Gwen said, staring at the television, desperate for a news report about the now missing Hulk. He had leapt away after Ben died and the media had lost track of him.

Janet walked out the front door and brought in the morning edition of the Daily Bugle. "Oh, heavens, take a look at this."

They hovered around Janet and read the front page.

The Daily Bugle

SPIDER-MAN: MENACE TO SOCIETY

editorial by Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson

Yesterday we were witness to the birth of two more of the so-called Marvels, but there is nothing marvelous about the Amazing Hulk and the Incredible Spider-Man.

One of them, the Hulk, is a monster in appearance, but I ask you, what did he do? Any fool could see that the creature was in pain and lashed out only in confusion. Let me tell you something about the man underneath all that green muscle.

His name is Peter Parker and if you've read the Bugle in the last three years, you know the name. He's one of our freelance photographers and a more caring, gentle soul you will never find.

He was caught in a gamma explosion at Empire State University, a demonstration I must add, that was being run by radical crackpot Dr. Bruce Banner. Yes, the same Dr. Banner that is responsible for the death of a kid named Rick Jones out in New Mexico. Parker, the Bugle has learned exclusively, saved Dr. Banner's life, but could not save himself.

At the time we went to press, the whereabouts of Dr. Banner were still unknown, though there was a positive identification of him made leaving the campus after the explosion.

Peter wanted to be a scientist, solving the world's ills. He grew up with his aunt and uncle in Forest Hills and he worked here so that they wouldn't be burdened by paying for his education.

Did I mention that he was on a full scholarship? And yet, still, he worked for us here at the Bugle because as he told me, "Maybe someday May or Ben will need money and I want to be able to help them."

Yes, readers, this is the creature who the irresponsible television reporters began calling the Hulk. The 'dangerous' menace the foolish cops shot at, even after it was clear bullets could not harm him.

The Hulk, Peter Parker, does not need our anger, our derision or our bullets. He needs our help.

The same can not be said for this other so-called Marvel, Spider-Man. No one had ever seen him before yesterday, but suddenly he appears at the Parker household, scaring Ben Parker to death.

This newspaperman wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with the explosion at ESU.

I ask you, who is the real monster? It is Spider-Man and I swear that the Daily Bugle will put it's money, it's people and it's front pages toward the capture and unmasking of this menace to society.

It is our mission as a newspaper and my mission as a human being to find a way to help Peter Parker overcome the curse that has befallen him.

And I promis you that I will see Spider-Man brought to justice.

God Bless you, Ben Parker. You will be avenged.

Read the Daily Bugle for details.

End What If ...? 132

Any comments or criticisms s can be sent to the author at mariner2@tiac.net

MBQ ... 22.September.1998