The sea wind howled; the deck was deathly still.
Every eye was fixed on the "Doctor" hauled up from the pit.
The atmosphere was eerily surreal.
The grin on Ace's face hadn't had time to fade.
He gripped Bruce Banner's arm as though displaying a prized trophy.
"Don't just stand there!"
"Someone grab the first-aid kit!"
"Doctor, this is my First Mate—he's dying..."
Still talking, Ace enthusiastically shoved the colossus beside him toward Deuce.
However...
No one answered.
The Spade Pirates stood as if turned to stone by Medusa.
Mouths hung slack; eyeballs bulged.
It was the primal terror of humanity facing the unknown.
Bruce Banner had long since left the realm of "human."
The once-fitting white coat now hung like a ridiculous bib around his neck.
The poor dress trousers had burst under thighs swollen with muscle.
Only a few tenacious strips of cloth preserved his modesty.
Even worse was his skin.
It was the sickly green of abyssal moss.
Veins like thick black serpents writhed and knotted beneath the surface.
Every heartbeat sounded like a war drum.
Boom!
BOOM!!
The muffled thuds drowned even the waves slapping the hull.
They set every heart aboard trembling in helpless sync.
Deuce, flat on the deck, rolled his eyes with effort.
His vision cleared from blur to sharpness.
Then...
He saw a foot.
A huge, green, calloused bare foot.
Its length alone rivaled half his body.
Toenails like rock wedged deep into the deck's grain, sending out a screech that set teeth on edge.
"..."
Deuce's mind short-circuited.
He traced the limb upward: calves like ancient trunks, thighs packed with explosive power, a back so broad it could blot out the sky, and... a head drooping with rage-twisted features.
"This... is the Doctor?"
Deuce's cracked lips quivered.
With his last ounce of strength, he looked at the expectant Ace, his eyes full of grief and despair.
Dear Lord!
Trying to kill me faster?
This is a Doctor?
Planning to treat me—or to perform last rites?
"Grrr..."
A low growl rolled from the green monster's throat, a caged beast of ten thousand years finally freed.
Eyes once bright with reason were now blank white, devoid of feeling, filled only with pure, all-consuming destruction.
[Astonishment value +88!]
[Astonishment value +99!]
[Astonishment value +120!]
System notifications flooded Mordred mind, but he had no time for them.
With Hulk's consciousness fully awakened, that berserk force seized the body.
It felt like a long-dormant volcano finally erupting—exhilarating!
And utterly dangerous!
The sea wind seemed frozen; the deck lay in suffocating silence, broken only by the creature's hoarse, bellows-like breathing.
Ace remained half-crouched, one hand clasping Deuce's icy palm, the other stretched behind him as if unveiling a rare treasure.
"Really!"
"Don't look so shocked!"
Ace pouted at his petrified crew.
"Sure, the Doctor's temper is a bit... fiery,"
"but he's super dedicated!"
"Up in the sky, he was so excited his face turned red!"
"That's passion for saving lives!"
Deuce, still on the ground, felt a tear of despair slide down his cheek.
Red in the face?
From your choke-hold!
That's blood congestion!
And that's NOT the point!
Just turn around, please!
Pretty please!
If you don't, your beloved First Mate will be stomped into paste!
Behind Ace, Hulk's bloodshot white eyes fixed on the back of the pirate's head.
White steam puffed from his nostrils; fury burned what little mind he had.
Though Hulk's IQ was that of a toddler, he remembered clearly: this orange-hat brat had flown him like a kite the whole way!
So dizzy!
So sick!
"Hulk... hate... little fire-man!!"
A brutal, mangled roar burst from the massive green chest.
The sound wave alone skewed Ace's hat and splattered thick saliva onto his neck.
"Huh?"
Ace finally sensed something off.
He shrank his neck, wiped the back of it—sticky.
"Rain?"
He muttered, turning around—
and froze, as if someone had hit pause.
Where once stood the mild, scrawny, curly-haired Doctor...
was now a wall.
A green, writhing wall of muscle.
Higher up: pectorals wider than planks, a neck corded with pulsing veins, and, finally, a face larger than a washbasin, twisted and gaping.
They were so close Ace could see glass shards in its teeth—remnants of a chewed-up vial.
"Uh..."
Ace blinked, his usually slow synapses racing to process the supernatural sight.
He glanced at the wrist he'd held minutes ago—once skin and bone, now a pillar thick as a tree trunk.
"Um..."
"Doctor?"
"Is that... you?"
"Did you... eat something bad?"
"Why so... green all of a sudden?"
Silence.
Everyone stared at their Captain as if at a martyr.
Eat something bad?
This is a full-blown mutation!
"ROOOAR!!"
Hulk answered with an ear-splitting roar.
He had no wish to chat with the "little fire-man."
He wanted one thing: to smash.
To flatten the pest that had dizzied him!
WHOOSH!
A green fist bigger than a millstone descended, air screaming under its pressure.
"Whoa!"
Ace yelped, his body reacting on instinct—a backward roll just in time.
BOOM!!!
The three-masted ship groaned in agony.
Where Ace had squatted, the deck was punched clean through, thick planks shredding like paper.
Splinters flew, revealing the dark hold below.
Nearby pirates were hurled aside, sprawled senseless.
"Hey hey hey!"
"Too much!"
Ace crouched on the rail, wincing at the hole.
"We just fixed that deck!"
"And Deuce is still lying there!"
"Are you here to heal or to scrap the ship?"
As the dust settled, Hulk slowly withdrew his fist, never glancing at the nearly obliterated Deuce.
His savage eyes locked on Ace upon the rail.
"Hulk... smash... little fire-man!!"