Red She-Hulk #62 — Nick Peron

Mar 16

Mar 16 Red She-Hulk #62

Hell Hath No Fury, Part 5

Betty Ross has just told Machine Man how she learned about the apocalyptic future caused by Project Echelon from Eleanor Bennett the human connection to the god-machine known as the Terranometer. Continuing her tale, she explains how after being shown this future by touching Eleanor, a trap door suddenly opened up beneath her and she fell into a lower chamber. There a hologram of Nikola Tesla identifies her as an intruder and unleashes a massive creature called a Zelegasj upon her. Transforming into the Red She-Hulk, she is able to overpower the creature. This impresses Tesla, but he is disturbed to learn that she had a means of activating a Terranometer station and find Eleanor. When the Red She-Hulk tells him about the doomed future she saw and he decides to recruit her to his cause. Taking a tram through an underground tunnel, he explains that he is an inactive member of the Brotherhood of Shield, an organization that has dedicated itself to stopping such disasters from occurring. As he cannot act on the Terranometer's information himself, he enlists the Red She-Hulk to help them stop Project Echelon. To this end, he takes her to a secret supply depot filled with weapons and vehicles that she can use at her own discretion.

With this, Betty has concluded her recounting of events that led to her one-person war against Project Echelon. Machine Man questions how sure she was that this doomsday scenario was going to pass. She explains that it the images were so vivid they couldn't have been anything but the truth. In order to confirm her visions, she suggests that the go back to Eleanor and see her both at the same time so that X-51 can confirm everything she has seen. She suggests that they should go immediately and not stop until they get there so they don't get captured by the military or the Avengers.

Meanwhile, Captain America has come to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the behalf of General Reginald Fortean. Fortean shows Cap the advances they are making in cybernetics which they are using to help rehabilitate soldiers who have lost limbs in combat. One of the soldiers, one seriously injured when the Red She-Hulk destroyed an Echelon facility, tells Captain America that when he gets better he intends to go back into action. Cap is impressed by this, as most people on the receiving end of a Hulk rampage aren't typically eager to put themselves in the middle of one again. Fortean takes Cap aside and gets to the reason why he asked the Star-Spangled Avenger to comes to see him. Aware that Cap knows the true identity of the Red She-Hulk, he asks him to reveal who she really is. While on the road, X-51 ignores another summons from Captain America. The pair arrives at the home of Eleanor Bennett, only to discover that it had been recently destroyed by a fire. She asks the firefighters on the scene about Eleanor, but they didn't find anyone inside the home. It's then that the police on scene recognize Betty from an APB that had been sent out by the military.

When Betty and X-51 leave the scene their vehicle is blocked by a military roadblock. Soldiers order her to stand down, but she refuses to surrender. X-51 converts into a flight mode and tries to fly himself and Ross away from the scene. However, he is blasted with an electromagnetic pulse emitted by a Project Echelon soldier named Devereaux. This causes Machine Man to malfunction and drop Betty. When the soldiers try to move in to apprehend her, she transforms into the Red She-Hulk. However, she is forced back to human form by a telepath named Martens. Betty flees from the soldiers under a hail of bullets, she manages to keep ahead of them until one of the bullets strikes her in the arm. However, she manages to find cover in a nearby marsh. The soldiers then start looking for her, and she uses the cover of the marsh to sneak up behind Martens and knock him out with a blow to the head. With Martens down, she is able to transform into the Red She-Hulk once again. She then leaps away from the soldiers and saves X-51 from Devereaux. Recovering Machine Man, she tells him that she is going to find Eleanor and asks if there is somewhere she can drop him off. X-51 decides to accompany her as he has lost any Avengers protection when her secret identity was outed. The Red She-Hulk then leaps away with her robotic ally in her arms.

Later, the authorities are cleaning up the scene of the battle. One of the officers on the scene is questioned by a woman. He asks if she is a reporter, but as it turns out she is not. The woman introduces herself as Jennifer Walters, a lawyer.