#hulktechtonics

Four years they had been underground. On the run from HOPE, SHIELD, and the governments of the world. Henry McCoy had never felt this isolated from the world before. Certainly there had been all the bigots and frightened people who made him feel like less than human, but HOPE had changed the dynamic entirely. Their movement had only grown since their arrival on the scene. Since then, he and his compatriots had been forced to live off the grid. Stark’s money and ingenuity had gone a long way to keep the Illuminati’s operations moving and beyond the reach of the long arm of the law.

Now was one of the rare occasions that all of them actually met together, in person. It was just down to him, Banner, Stark, and Quill. They had lost Stephen Strange two years back when he vanished without a trace. That was the risk of dealing with magic, Hank supposed. Still, they were doing good work: keeping the Earth safe.

Arranging this had been a long, arduous process. It meant securing a site, establishing security measures, and sending plenty of encrypted messages. The big blue ape-man sat patiently in the operations room of their hideout, waiting for all of the members of their secret cabal to arrive. One by one, they entered the site from different angles of approach and made their way through a series of ID-printed barriers. Prior to his disappearance, Dr. Strange had put in place anti-illusionary spells. McCoy’s contribution to it analyzed the subject’s DNA, making it impossible for shapeshifters such as the Skulls from bluffing their way in. And it would take a Hulk to bust into the bunker itself, so it was fortunate that he was on their side.

Eventually they had all gathered.

Hank was excited to run a game of Dungeons & Dragons that night. With everything that had happened in Detroit, duties at the Jean Grey School, and now with the emergence of HOPE, the mutant headmaster had a lot on his plate. This game would provide some stress relief. It had taken a while to find the time for everyone to start up their regular game again, but finally tonight was the night.

After picking up his old D&D books at his birthday party several months ago, the geneticist had decided to invest in the newest edition of the roleplaying game. Finally, after the Foesitians were defeated, he found the time to start the campaign he’d been wanting to for the longest time. Hank was able to gather a few people who were interested, some unexpected and other not so much. Regardless, he certainly was not going to complain about having players. Surveying the dining room table from behind his gamemaster’s screen, the big blue nerd organized his dice and took stock of the snacks that everyone had brought.

All of his players had arrived, Jack Romulus and Adam Warlock being the last to show up, were still pulling out their character sheets and getting situated in their seats. The founding X-Man had forgotten how exactly Adam had been wrangled into their campaign, but Jack had insisted that he join and after much convincing, Hank had relented and allowed Warlock to play with them. Recently the gamemaster had rolled up a tiefling rogue named Hilda Whisperstep for the golden-skinned hero to play. Their original party had consisted of Romulus’ half-elf cleric, Celestia Silas, Carol Danvers’ human fighter, Swordbearing Cockman, James Dwyer’s dwarf barbarian, Kronk, and his good friend Bruce Banner as Hulkar the half-orc monk. Together, the group of adventurers set out to thwart evil and gain glory, all in the name of the Empress of the Shimmering Wastes.

Beast cleared his throat, hit play on the playlist of fantasy music he had queued up, and began to narrate: