Emily Thompson and the Beast // Bruce Banner

12

"That was the most extraordinary thing I have seen in my entire life!" Sterns yelled at the top of his lungs as the three all sat in his living room. Emily noticed Bruce look away and squirm uncomfortably in his seat. It may have been extraordinary for Sterns, but it sure as hell wasn't for Bruce.

Emily shook her head slightly, "Okay, you know what? Stop, please. We need to go back and talk about what just happened in there." Sterns eyes lit up as she said that and he quickly stood up. "Absolutely. Okay. The gamma pulse came from the amygdala. I think Dr. Thompson's primer..." Sterns started to go on when Emily heard a small groan from behind her.

She turned around to see Bruce with his eyes closed as he took in a deep breath. He then opened his eyes and made eye contact with Emily who mouthed, "Are you okay?" Bruce just waved her off and they turned their attention back to Sterns.

"...lets the cells absorb the energy temporarily, and then it abates. That's why you didn't die of radiation sickness years ago! Now, maybe we've neutralized those cells permanently, or maybe we just suppressed that event. I'm inclined to think the latter, but it's hard to know because none of our test subjects ever survived. Of course, they weren't getting the primer!" Sterns exclaimed, but Bruce ignored the last part he had said.

Bruce quickly sat up and looked at Sterns with wide eyes, "Wait, wait. Wait, what did you just say?" Sterns gave him a confused look before saying, "They weren't getting the myostatin primer..."

Emily shook her head, "No, no, no. Test subjects?" "What test subjects?" Bruce asked.
Sterns smiled, "Come with me."

Emily glanced over at Bruce who looked back at her. Bruce then sighed before standing up and holding a hand out for Emily. She took it and he helped her up before intertwining their fingers as they walked after Sterns.

"We started on rats and mice, but it just completely fried them, so we had to go bigger. And we still don't know which is more toxic, the gamma or your blood," Sterns explained as he brought the two into a room.

Emily furrowed her eyebrows and her grip tightened on Bruce. "What do you mean, his blood?" Emily asked. Sterns smiled and turned to the two before looking right at Bruce. "Bruce, this is all you," Sterns said as he waved his hands around and gestured towards the hundreds of bags of blood that were hanging up around the room.

Emily's eyes widened and she looked at Bruce in shock. "You gave him all this blood?" Emily asked, but Bruce quickly shook his head. "No, I didn't-" Bruce started, but Sterns interrupted him as he walked around the corner.

"You didn't send me much to work with, so I had to concentrate it and make more. With a little more trial and error, there's no end to what we can do! This is potentially Olympian! This gamma technology has limitless applications. We'll unlock hundreds of cures. We will make humans impervious to disease!" Sterns exclaimed while Bruce looked at all of the bags of blood, dragging Emily along beside him.

Bruce stopped at that and shook his head, "No, no, we've got to destroy it." Sterns looked at Bruce like he was crazy, "Wait, what?" "All of it," Bruce said firmly. "Tonight. We're gonna incinerate it. Is this the whole supply?"

"What... We could get the Nobel for this!" Sterns exclaimed. "You don't understand the power of this thing. It is too dangerous. It cannot be controlled," Bruce told him.

"This is Promethean fire!" Sterns yelled and Emily rolled her eyes as the two started to fight. Emily looked down at the floor and rubbed her temples, but as soon as she looked down, something flashed out of the corner of her eye.