Crack!
The deep-diving pod's load-bearing shell buckled inward half an inch.
Dark-green, corrosive energy surged up through the Abyss fault, striking the armor cast from abyssal adamant and titanium alloy and raising white foam like an acid burn. A choking stench and temperatures approaching ten thousand degrees burned through the seals in an instant. The reinforced outer layers of their radiation suits turned into charred sludge the moment they touched the toxic mist, and the searing pain of roasting flesh stabbed along their nerves into their brains. The once-rigid cabin walls softened like red wax held over a flame. The high-pressure alarm shrieked, only to be cut off a second later by a muffled explosion outside.
"The shield generator's fried!"
Banner hunched over the warped console. Electrical sparks and acid mist had already melted through his radiation gloves, leaving his palms charred black.
A shaft of green light carrying an aura of utter decay wormed through a crack in the cabin floor.
Intense nausea shot up through Banner's nose and into his head. The veins on either side of his neck swelled violently, and a rough, dark-green layer of hardened skin forced its way up from beneath his flesh.
"Roar!"
Before the low, savage roar had fully rolled out of his throat, Banner's eyes were already bloodshot. But he gritted his teeth, refusing to let Hulk take complete control of his body. His thick, emerald-green arm, swollen to three times its original size and packed with terrifying muscle fibers, braced sideways against the roof frame as it threatened to flatten them. At the same time, he hooked the bend of his knee firmly around the lead-sealed safety capsule beneath the base-the samples inside were what the external mechanical arm had blindly snatched back just before it failed completely.
Held in