Thor's continual blows against the "eye" of the construct manages to completely bash it in, and sends shards of glass, metal, and plastic crashing to the ground below. Thor even manages to crawl up into the socket, admittedly a tight fit Thor's massive frame, and paws through the mass of electrical wiring and metal tubes and miscellaneous machinery like a gopher. "I'll make a stew out of this giant's stringy brains!" he mumbles to himself.
Venom sighs, wondering if her own strenght would be effective as Thor's seems to be. She always thought she was super-strong, but compared to the people she's recently met, she wonders if any of her talents need be used at all. Instinctively lashing out her frustration, she slams her fist into a nearby computer console, sending a large spark of electricity arcing out of it. Similarly, about the same time, a smaller spark seems to arc across the gash recently made by the Black Knight.
"Hideous monstrosity of iron, not for much longer shall you make your threats! Not for much longer shall the vile race that gave birth to you engage in their insidious plan to control the people of Earth! For the Black Knight shall put a stop to it!" pronounces the Black Knight, and he grabs a hold of the ripped edge of the golem's hide and keeps hold as his might sword cleaves the monster's innards!
One, Two! One, Two! The blade goes in and out like a woodchopper's axe hewing a log. Soon, the Knight is carried into the air with legs flailing (BK: "Camelot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!") as the robot clears the elevator-type floor it was standing on-- the HULC is fully in the cavern now!!!!
The HULC rears its head as its "voice" echoes from throughout the cavern--seemingly coming from every object, inanimate or unconscious, in the place: "DO YOU NOT KNOW THE POWER OF THE SUPREME INTELLIGENCE?! WE INFUSE EVERY ATOM WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS, AND EACH ATOM IN TERN INFUSES US!!" The HULC reaches up to its damaged eye, pulling Thor from it and enclosing him in its robotic fist. The HULC holds Thor aloft like a battered trophy, squeezing, as it continues its rant-- "BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE SUPREME INTELLIGENCE!!!!!!!!" And the entire cavern erupts in ionic energy, as electicity is discharged from everything in the cavern seems to glow with radiated electrons. The floor-- the air-- the walls, scaffolding and machinery lying about-- the heroes can barely see through the blinding electrical storm of lightning and static energy. The Black Knight tries to hang onto his perilous perch, but fails amid the light show, falling from the robot's chest area to the floor below.
After the smoke clears, the HULC robot rears its hand as if to smack the fallen Black Knight who has landed near a bunch of debris, but it hesitates to follow through for some unspoken reason, as if regarding the garbage around the hero...
Moon Knight tries to recover from the sudden assault, and clearing his head, tries to keep his distance from the robot and Light Blast the hell out of it. Even though his blasts connect, and seem to scar the armor of the robot, it seems about as significant as a mosquito bites...
Hellcat tries to scan the monster for any sign of mental intelligence. She holds a rune, braces herself, and concentrates. With a shudder and a yell, however, her knees buckle from beneath her. Rick Jones remains nearby, and catches her with a strong arm, keeping his ray gun poised, of course, and the couple strike a dramatic, if temporary, pose.
Hellcat can barely make out the words through her throbbing head, "The robot--- is as intelligent as everything else around here. It's as if we are inside some... massive... brain! The mind I touched-- so alien-- so... massive!"
Venom watches the two and realizes--- "Hey! So we don't have to attack the robot *directly!*" The girl looks around her and picks up a long shaft of Perez-tech machinery. "Damage anything..." Venom snaps the stick aross her knee, "and the Intelligence will feel it!" She takes one of the halves and uses it to smashh in a computer monitor nearby, sending flashes and sparks spewing from the console...
...And similar flashes of light seem to dance in time behind the lens of the HULC robot's remaining eye.
"The lass speaks aright! All of this vile machinery is an extension of that golem's body!" confirms the Black Knight. "Kill the body and the head must die! But somebody has to save Thor! Zemo, Moon Knight, one of you see to it!"
Hellcat notices Jones' arm around her as he tried to steady her from a swoon. Hellcat pulls away contemptuously, still staggering from the ionic storm. "Can't hold out much longer," she thinks. "Have to give it everything I have." She wearily raises a runestone, a blast of eldritch energy erupts from her fingertips into the wall of machinery, which explodes in a cascade of dust and metal.
The HULC robot pauses as the wall of machinery is utterly destroyed. It begins to reach with its free hand to grab the woman who has caused it this distraction... that is, until.... Rick Jones.....
Rick can see that Hellcat is OK on her own two feet, and notches his captured blaster up full. Taking desultory aim at the largest banks of equipment, he starts a "pray and spray" - and when he exhausts his batteries, he'll pick up more and continues wrecking anything nearby.
The HULC then swings its hand in a slow arc, reaching now for the latest distraction... no, PAIN!... caused by this erstwhile Kree soldier... but it still moves too slow...
"Wretched monster, where be your pride now? For too long have you wreaked your vile plans on earth and her people! Now the pain you have caused shall be returned unto you tenfold! Your victims shall be avenged!" screamed the Balck Knight into the air. Spying a large bank of machines with one of those big old yellow signs with the exclamation point on it, he continues "Indeed, yon item of infernal technology looks important, the Black knight shall lay waste to it!" B runs up to it, gets a little jump and slashes down mightily with the usual cry!
"Camelot!!!!!"
The energy released from within the impressive-looking machinery causes a nifty explosion of metal and fire, sending shrapnel and the body of the Black Knight flying.
And the HULC robot staggers backward a few feet.
Thor watches from his vantage point high in the cavern-- in the grip of the HULC robot itself! "Slay the giant, friends! Thor can ... ugh ... Thor can save himself!"
Redfaced and straining, obviously on his last legs, Thor pushes with all his might not only to break free of the titan's hand, but to shatter the hand itself. It's not only personal hatred of giants that motivates Thor, not merely the fact that it is an agent of evil menacing innocents, no Thor is driven by the fact that this damnable behemouth shattered the fifth of Scotch he had been carrying in his coat -- and for that there can be no forgiveness!!!
With supreme effort, Thor holds his breath and strains every muscle to its breaking point....but it is not enough. With a sigh of realization that he is but a shadow of his former self, Thor lets his breath out, remaining trapped within the robot's hand as the HULC squeezes once again!
Baron Zemo flies toward the trapped Thor: "The others can handle destroying mere machinery. I'll save Thor from this monstrosity!"
The good Baron knows destroying the machinery would do more good, but where's the fun in that? Battling a giant robot will make the better story! "Let's see how this giant monstrosity can stand up to good German technology!" Zemo flies straight towards the arm holding Thor, and lets loose a mighty punch with an armored gauntlet!
CLAAAAAAAANGGGG!
Unfortunately, the HULC takes no notice of the blow. The robot had swept its hand toward Hellcat, but turned it towards Rick Jones... and was staggered backward by the Black Knight's blow against its machinery... The HULC slowly rocked backward, "staggered," of sorts, but soon it began to rock forward again, like a ponderously massive pendulum. The HULC's hand continued forward, and a giant shadow overtakes Rick Jones, just as the young man snatched up a new charger for his ray gun, slapping it in place like a new round of ammo. Rick Jones reacts to the giant shadow by looking up at the huge hand rapidly filling his perspective and desparately rolling to get out of the way...but not fast enough.
SPLAAT! The HULC hand rises after an agonizing slow split-second passes, revealing a battered and still body of Rick Jones.
Venom, Wonder Boy, and Moon Knight also cause general mayhem, but the two youngsters appear groggy on their feet, and can only break handrails, smash machinery, etc. with slow-motion moves. Suddenly, the far side of the cavern explodes in a tremendous cloud of flame and light, sending machines, scaffolding, rock and brick scattering everywhere! QUA- FOOOOOOM!!! A gaping hole now stands in the wall, and the cold night air of Mesa Nueva brings with it......
"Heya, boys and girls," sounds a familiar voice, vaguely reminescent of Humphry Bogart, "Is this a private party or can 5 more join in?"
As the smoke clears, a six-inch floating figure grows to a full man-sized height. It's Fire-Ant! Beyond the temporary ally, the outside of the Mesa can be seen outside the gaping hole that was just blown in. The scene is littered with the fallen bodies of Kree soldiers, wreckages of personnel carriers and tanks, and four other figures-- Mr. Fantastic, a garishly circus-caped young man; the Rainbow Girl, a shimmering figure of a teenage girl made of mutli-colored light, Herbie, the Super-Ape; and the Thing, a misshapen green figure looking like a cross between a Swamp Thing and a moldy puff pastry.
"Actually," remarks Venom in responce to Fire-Ant's swaggering remark, "I think we're done here..."
Indeed, the massive HULC robot seems to stand motionless-- the only activity being the sparks and fits of light that spout from various places of the HULC body, echoing similar sparks that erupt from teh scattered machinery about the cavernous complex.
The Supreme Intelligence starts to "speak" again, but its voice is different, faint and static-ridden. "WE ARE THE SUPREME INTELLIGENCE. WE MAY BE EXCISED FROM ONE LOCATION, BUT OUR BODY EXTENDS THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM, YEA, EVEN THE VERY UNIVERSE ITSELF. BEWARE, EARTHLINGS, FOR THE SUPREME INTELLIGENCE WILL NOT BE DENIED ITS INTEGRATION...
WILL NOT BE DENIED...
WILL...
WI....
......."
Uncomforable in the strange silence that now permeates the cavern, each hero cannot but feel that they occupy the dead bones of a fallen creature... and they look from one to the other in similar silence until Thor breaks the silence. He's still in trapped in the grip of the robot, after all!