"The Incredible Hulk Meets
the Skysurfer Strike Force" 


Miles beneath the surface of the ocean, a cyborg in a red robe paced the floor 
of his control room.  He turned at last to a blond girl with him.
"I should have sent you, Sarina."
"I'm certain the borgs will not fial you, Father," the girl assured 
him.  "Besides, Easel and I have a special welcome prepared for our guest."
Out in the city, a giant, green skinned mutant was on the run.  The giant's name 
was the Incredible Hulk.  
Hulk ducked into an alley, hoping he had lost his pursuers.  Several bats 
twittered overhead, followed by a large figure that landed in the alley behind 
the giant.  Hulk spun to confront the follower.
"Who are you!?!  Why follow!?!"  He demanded.
The shdaow moved, and a blond vampiress emerged into the moonlight.  Her jumper 
was purple, and there were black boots on her feet.  A reversable, black and red 
cape protected the bat wings on her back.  Her skin was as pale blue as her 
eyes, and her lips were a bright red.  Black, fingerless-gloves, streaked with 
blue, were on her hands.  Her right hand was upraised in greeting.
"Don't be afraid, Hulk."  The giant looked releived when he saw her.
"Vampira."
Days earlier, Dr. Bruce Banner, Hulk's alter ego, had come to the X-Mansion, 
seeking help.  All his attempts to destroy his hated creation hs failed, so 
Banner came to the X-Men for help in, at least, controlling the brute. 
With the aid if Dr. Hank McCoy, Beast of the X-Men, Banner enjoyed moderate 
success.  A run-in with Vampira's creator, Magneto, ended 
those efforts.  Professor Charles Xavier had offered Banner the protection of 
the X-Mansion, he was a mutant after all.  But, Banner declined, fearing Hulk 
would harm one of the X-Men.  As the former scientist was departing the 
mansion, Professor Xavier chose Vampira to serve as guide on Banner's journey.
"I communicate with bats," Vampira explained, drawing closer to Hulk.  "So, they 
can help me to find you after you have to run."  She smiled, her fangs flashed 
whitely in the moonlight.
As if on cue, the bats began chattering, urgently, to her.  "Looks like 
trouble," she quipped, as an attack helicopter appeared on the 
horizon.  "Bioborgs!  Twelve o'clock!"  Vampira whipped off her gloves, and 
shoved them into her pocket.  She then flew at the chopper.
Bioborgs were genetically aletered humans, who had received their powers from 
Cybron.  This chopper carried Replicon, the shape-shifter, and Lazerette, the 
laser-powered witch.
"What's that meddler, Vampira, doing here?"  Replicon grumbled.  His head turned 
into a machine gun, and he began shooting at the bat-girl, who did what she 
could to avoid being hit.  As Vampira was weaving in and out of the storm, her 
wings were clipped by laser fire from Lazerette's eyes.  
Vampira felt herself falling, only to land with a thud on something solid.  In 
mid-air?  She looked up, to see a young man in a purpel and black body suit 
standing over her.  At his back was a large boomerang, a smaller weapon held 
back his shock of green hair.  He smiled to Vampira from beneath his black 
visor.  Her non-mutant friends, the Skysurfers, had come.
"Well, what's a nicve mutant, like you, doing in a place like this?"  Quipped 
Sore Loser, Slick to Vampira.  Her gingerly helped her to her feet. 
With her gloves off, Vampira's weaponry, suction cups, were revealed.  Were 
those suction cups to come into contact with bare skin, they absorbed energy 
until Vampira pulled them off, leaving the victim to sleep and regain 
consciousness.  Such a fate was reserved for the night-time prowlers Vampira 
openly stalked.
Another young man, in a blue-gold body suit, pulled up next to Sore Loser's 
skyboard.
Vampira lept to her feet.  "Thanks, Slick!  We've got to stop those 
borgs!  They're after Hulk!"
"On our way!"  Sky One broke awqay from Sore LOser's board, and dove down to the 
alley.  The wind whistling over his blue visor sent his blond mane flying.
Hulk didn't know what a bioborg was, but they couldn't be good.  Not from 
Vampira's reaction.  A second helicopter landed.  This one carried Grenader, the 
bioborg time bomb, and Noxious, a gas-powered borg.  Dr. Five-Eyes, the bioborg 
mad scientist with five eyes.  Hulk began to try and fight them.  Noxious 
sprayed enough gas to put him into a drug-induced slumber.  Crazy Stunts, the 
youngest Skysurfer, Ace to Vampira, lassoed Noxious's arm.  The borg spun, and 
began to spray gas in his direction, causing Crazy Stunts to drop his rope.
 A missle launched by Air Enforcer, the black Skysurfer, impacted Grenader.  He 
exploded, only to rematerialize inside the chopper.
"Hurry!  We've got what we came for!"  He ordered Noxious.
Lazerette and Replicon kept the Skysurfers and mutant busy, while Noxious and 
Grenader loaded a drugged Hulk into their helicopter.
"THEY'RE TAKING HULK!"  Vampira screamed, and raced after the fleeing chopper.
Slices Ice, a Japanese woman, froze the propellor blades with a blast from her 
sword.  The hgeavy ice caused the helicopter to crash and burn.  Upon closer 
uinspection, however, it was discovered that the crash was merely a mirage, 
courtesy of Dr. Five-Eyes.
Bruce Banner came to consciousness in a dungeon cell that was gilded by 
electronic bars.
"Where am I?"
"Do not be afraid, you are safe here," a girl assured him.  Banner looked up to 
see a young gril standing by his cage.  Her hair was long and blond, she wore a 
maroon color dress, and a crescent moon-shaped crown on her head.
"Trisha?"  Banner guessed.
"It is not your friend, but my dear daughter, Sarina, whom you have had the 
pleasure of addressing," Cybron informed the former scientist.  "I am called 
Cybron."  The cyborg glided forward.  "By borgs broguth you here to save you."
"From who?  What?"
"You don't rememebr what the Skysurfers did to you?"  Sarina inquired.  "There 
are a lot of things I don't remember," Banner admitted.
"Perhaps this will refreshen your memory," sniveled Easel, the bioborg artist 
who could bring his drawings to holographic life.
He flipped a switch, and the projector came on, revealing a scene with which 
Banner was familiar.  His friend, Trisha Shafton, acting as a human shield, 
stood between Hulk and the Skysurfers.  A strange beam of light from Sky One's 
board washed over Hulk.  Before Banner's shocked eyes, Hulk turned on Trisha, 
and attacked her.
"No!  I don't believe it!  Trisha's dead?!"  
"You were Hulk at the time, and don't remember doing it," Cybron pointed 
out.  Banner's shoulder's hunched, and he began to weep for his fallen friend.
Slowly, Banner turned into Hulk.  He looked up, to see the pictures that had so 
horrified Banner.  If Banner had been sickened by the sight, Hulk was even more 
so than his creator.
"Hulk not kill Trisha!  Trisha friend!"
"The Skysurfers made you do it," Sarina lied, in mock sympathy.  "The borgs 
brought you here befire they could make you do any more damage."
Meanwhile, Vampira had gone to SkyCommand, the Skysurfers headquarters, to try 
and figure out how to best rescue Hulk.  Vampira had first come to the 
Skysurfers on Professor Xavier's advice.
When she first became a mutant, Vampira would revert back to her human form at 
daybreak.  One morning, she awoke to find that the change was 
permanent.  Fearing that she would begin to get "vampire cravings," and knowing 
the Skysurfers would have ways to stop her, Vampira decided to try her luck with 
non-mutants.  Professor Xavier suggested that she try the Skysurfers, led by the 
son of an old friend.
Jack Hollister, Sky One, was the son of Charles Xavier's friend, Adam.  Adam 
Hollister had helpted the psychic professor design and build Cerebro, the X-
Men's computer.  Jack wanted revenge on Cybron for his father's murder.
Adam Hollister had been a scientist at a top-secret, government sponsored, 
artificial intelligence lab.  The lab awas on an island off the coast of the 
United States.  Then, Cybron was merely a computerized brain built by Adam and 
another scoenitst.  Unfortunately, the other scientist was greedy, and wanted 
the project for himself.
On hos twenty-first birthday, Jack planned to go to the island, and spend the 
day with his father.  When the ferry was a few miles out, the whole facility 
exploded before Jack's horrified eyes.  When the rubble was cleared, Adam was 
dead, and the cybron computer was no where to be found.  All available evidence 
pointed to Adam as having bungled a robbery.
The computer eventually did resurface.  The other scientist had attached it to 
his own brain, and adopted the name "Cybron" as his own.  Cybron was using the 
computer to commit a series of crimes.  The other scientist was now more machine 
than human, and the red robe he wore concealed a life-supporting suit, like 
Darth Vader, from "Star Wars."
The police failed to see a connection between the cybron coimputer, and the 
robberies, and closed their files with Adam Hollister framed for robbery.  
Jack formed the Skysurfers as a way to bring Cybron to justice.  His friend 
helped him on his quest.  Among them were Kim Saki, Sliced Ice, a graduate of 
MIT, who served as the team's engineer.  Mickey Flannigan, Crazy Stunts, the 
youngest Skysurfer, was an extreme sport enthusiast.  Nathan James, Air 
Enforcer, something of a mama's boy was the most loyal of the team.  Brad 
Wright, Sore LOser, was the rogue faction.  He joined the Skysurfers after the 
criminal who killed his police officer father walked on a technicality.
When Vampira came to them, Jack welcomed her as a follower of his father's 
friend.  Nathan was the only stand out, he suspected the mutant vampiress of 
being a bioborg spy.  
She won him over, howevcer, when Sky One was kidnspped by Cybron and 
Magneto.  Vampira went to rescue him, taking along a gas mask.  She made Sky 
wear it, forgoing her own safety, when Noxious sprayed his gas.
Now, the bat-girl and Skysurfers put their heads together to try and rescue 
Hulk.  What would Cybron possibly want with the giant?
"His muscle," guessed Nathan, himself a rather large, imposing figure.  "And 
turn him into a borg."
"But Hulk wouldn't let himself be used," Brad pointed out what Vampira had told 
them.  "He would need some way to get into the big guiy's head."
Vampira straightened as a thought occurred to her.  A thought that made her 
blood run cold!  
"Trisha!"  She exclaimed.  "She's Hulk's friend from New Mexico.  If Cybron 
wants to get through to Hulk, it'll probbably involve her."
"Knowing Cybron, anything's possible," Kim agreed.
"Then, if Cybron's using Trisha, so will we," Vampira declared.  "She's an art 
student at Berkley.  I can fly out and get her."
"Would your friend help us?"  Jack wanted to know.
"If Hulk's in trouble, you can bet the farm she'll come," Vampira assured him.
Trisha Shafton was the cousin of Vampira's best, human friend, Andy Simmons--
Andy Barlot now--married and living in Buffalo, New York.
When Trisha was a teenager, growing up in New Mexico, she had formed a lwsting 
frinedship with Hulk, and credited the giant for saving her liofe.  In high 
school, she and her friends had formed "Hulk Anonymous," the Hulk's fan club.
The club had disbanded now, as its members had gone one to college in other 
states.  Trisha herself was an art student at U.C. Berkley.  
Hulk missed his friends, especially Trisha, since she was the first one to try 
and understand him.  Hulk had taken to wandering out of lonilness.  On his 
journey, only Rick Jones, the boy Banner had saved all those years ago, and now 
Vampira, were with him.
KNowing she would be unable to fly to Berkley on the power of her own wings, 
Vampira boerrowed the Blackbord, the X-Men's jet, to fly to California. 
It was night by the time the xraft settled down in a park.  Vampira exited the 
plane, and squeeked to her bat allies, who chattered in response.  Spreading her 
wings, Vampira flew after them to Trisha's dorm.
Trisha was in bed, sleeping at this time of night, when a soft, tapping noise at 
her window woke her.  Trisha sat up, and thought she asw a figure in the tree 
outside.  She reached over and turned on the bedside light, a pottery bust of 
Hulk, she had made.  Vampira was perched on the outside limb.
"What are you doing here?  Opening a flyoing school?"  Trisha teased, opening 
the window for her firend.
"Yeah, and it's night classes," Vampira teased back, then sobered.  "Trisha, I 
need your help."
The brave fgirl knew instinctively what the trouble was, but asked, "Is it 
Hulk?"
Vampira nodded.  "Yeah, it's Hulk."
Trisha snatched her clothes from the floor where she ahd deposited them.  A 
nightgown didn't exactly make good rescue gear.  "Let's go."
"You can change on the way," Vampira suggested.  "Come on, I've got the 
Blackbird's motor running."
Bank robbery was considered low-priority to Cybron, but ti would give him a 
chance to test his new alli.
Grenader blasted a hole in the side of the bank wall where the vault was 
located.  Sure ebnough, the Skysurfers appeared to fight them.
"Relaease the mosnter!"  Lazerette ordered.  "The Skysurfers will nevewr know 
wgat hit them!"
Five-Eyes threw open the van's doors.  Hulk roared in grief and anger when he 
saw the Sksyurfers.  "SKYSURFERS BAD!  MAKE HULK KILL FRIEND!  NOW, 
SMASH!"  Hulk picked up a piece of concreter and steel, that Grenader had 
blasted loose.  He threw it at the Sky One., who knocked it aside with his 
board.
Sliced Ice froze Hulk, but one thrust of the powerful shoulders broked the 
crystal prison.
Meanwheil, Vampira was racing back from Berkley.  As she drove, she explained to 
Trisha about Cybron and the borgs.  
"Poor Hulk!  Having someone toy with his mind like that!"  Trisha commented from 
the darkness where she changed her clothes.
"I don't know what all Cybron's told him, but it's a safe bet you;ve got your 
work cut out for you," Vampira said.  Trisha entered the cockpit, and strapped 
herself into the cockpit.
"I'm ready for it," She declared.


PART 2

The bioborgs returned to their master in triumph.  The Sky surfers had backed 
off of them, for once, thanks to Hulk.
"Our experiment was a success, wouldn't you agree, Father?"  Gloated Sarina, she 
was just as evil as he was.
"A resounding success, my dear.  I am proud of you.  With this monster in our 
arsenal, nothing can stop us!"
"Once we make him into a bioborg, then we will see what happens to the Sky 
surfers," Sarina added.
Down in the dungeon cell, Banner mourned for his fallen friend.  "Trisha, you 
looked up to me like a father.  How could you, Hulk?  The first person to try 
and understand you, you murdered without thinking or compassion.  I hate you, 
you monster!  Now, more than ever!"
A very much alive Trisha was brought to Sky Command.  Jack looked her over, 
almost unwilling to believe that a small girl would be his secret weapon in the 
fight against Cybron.
"So, you're Trisha."
"And, you must be Jack Hollister.  Vampira's told me about you."
"The borgs robbed a bank while you were out," Nathan informed Vampira.  "Hulk 
was with them."
"Did he say anything?  Vampira hoped something Hulk would have said would 
provide a clue as to the scope of Trisha's work.
"We didn't get close enough to have a conversation," Brad retorted.  "I think I 
heard something," Mickey provided.  "I think it was 'Sky surfers bad.  Make Hulk 
kill friend'."
"Hulk thinks I'm dead?"  Trisha gasped in disbelief.
"Then, you came at the right time," Jack said.  "A shipment of diamonds will be 
in the harbor tonight.  Cybron may want a little extra muscle for the job."
"A lot of extra muscle, you mean," Kim reminded him.
Just then, Vampira signaled for quiet.  Her radar-like hearing had picked up the 
chattered message of her flying spies.  "It's the borgs!  They're heading 
downtown!"
"Take Trisha with you!  We'll meet you there!"  Jack commanded.
Holding onto Trisha's hand, Vampira leapt from the window.  Her wings took them 
in a dipping, gut-wrenching swoop.  From the air, they followed the bioborgs' 
van as it headed to the docks.
Oblivious to their trackers, Dr. Five-Eyes drove on, fully confident that the 
Sky surfers would not dare attack them and risk being pounded by 
Hulk.  Suddenly, the van hit a freak patch of ice, and skidded to a stop against 
a telephone pole.  The ice had come from Sliced Ice's sword.
"Sky surfers!  They never learn!"  Noxious exclaimed.
Vampira set Trisha down in a side alley, with the whispered instruction to stay 
out of sight until signaled.  The mutant vampiress then flew off to join her 
non-mutant friends in battle.
Lazerette threw open the van's door, releasing Hulk.  "SKY SURFER!  BAD!"  Hulk 
tore a mailbox from its mooring.  "Make Hulk kill friend!"
"Remember, we don't want to hurt the creature.  We have to give Trisha a chance 
to do her work," Sky One reminded them.
"Sky, do you think it's possible to hurt this guy?"  Air Enforcer pointed out as 
Hulk threw the mailbox.  The sky boards broke apart to avoid being hit.  Crazy 
Stunts knocked the projectile aside with his own board.  Lasers from Lazerette's 
eyes bounced off Sky One's board.
"Now, Trisha!"  Vampira called.  "We're keeping the borgs busy!"
Hulk broke a fire hydrant, its geyser froze by Sliced Ice.  He was about to 
throw the weapon, when a movement from the alley caught the giant's 
eye.  Thinking it was one of the Sky surfers, Hulk spun around.
"Sky surfer!"
"Hulk, wait!"  A female voice called.  Trisha emerged into the street light, 
Hulk was stunned.  Remembering what Trisha had once told him about angels, Hulk, 
subconsciously, began looking for wings on her back, or a halo about her head.
"Trisha?"  He croaked.
"It's me, Hulk," she drew as close as she dared to the leviathan.  "I'm o.k.," 
was all Trisha managed to say before Noxious sprayed enough gas to put the both 
of them to sleep.
Cybron had not counted on his daughter's idea being turned into a weapon for use 
against them.  He ordered Five-Eyes to probe Banner's mind once more.  Easel 
would create a new batch of holograms, these would be worse than the 
first.  Cybron wanted to flood Hulk's mind so full of hate he wouldn't even 
recognize Trisha.
Trisha awoke on a bean bag chair at Sky Command.  Vampira had come up with an 
idea for rescuing Hulk.  "It's risky, though."
"Let's hear it," Jack urged.
"The bats know a secret entrance to Cybron's hideout.  I can sneak Trisha in, 
and bail Hulk out from under that fake nose of his."
Brad's eyes gleamed.  "Can I go too?"
"It's too risky," Nathan agreed with Vampira.  "We should use caution."
"I'm not afraid," Trisha protested.  Jack shook his head.  "No, Nathan and 
Vampira are right.  This is too . . . ."
"He saw me!"  Trisha argued.  "I could have gotten through to him if we hadn't 
been knocked out!  I have to go!"
"I think I'm in love," Brad muttered.  "I'll come with you, I live for danger."
Following the lead of Vampira's bat allies, the Sksyurfers found Cybron's 
hideout.  Their sky boards were picked up on radar.
"Sky surfers!"  Sarina exclaimed in alarm.
"Scramble the borgs!  Prepare the monster!"  Cybron ordered.
The bioborgs were launched to fight the Sky surfers.  The projector in Banner's 
cell came on.  He tried to turn away, but was chained.  So, he had to settle for 
closing his eyes.  That didn't quite drown out the sound of Hulk's roar, or 
Trisha's scream.
"How many times must I watch my friend die!"  Banner wondered aloud.  "The first 
person to think of Hulk as a hero murdered by the monster himself."
The secret door opened, and the bioborgs emerged.  Sore Loser, Trisha, and 
Vampira waited just out of seeing range.  They ducked in with a bat as the door 
was closing.
"It's the girl!  She's in here!"  Sarina screamed.
"WHAT!?!  That's impossible!"  Cybron exclaimed.
Down in the dungeon, Banner had turned into Hulk.  "Friend hurt," the giant 
mourned as a boomerang caught the edge of the projector and sent it crashing to 
the floor.
Just outside the dungeon, Sore Loser paused to let Trisha jump from the back of 
his board.  "Wait here," Vampira whispered her instructions.
Hulk wept to himself.  "Friend gone."  Something caused him to look up in time 
to see Vampira enter with Sore Loser.  The giant mutant roared in grief-stricken 
anger.  
"Sky surfers!  Make Hulk evil!"
Sore Loser maneuvered his board through the bars.  "Trisha's not dead!"  He 
tried to reason.  Hulk's roar knocked him from his board.  Hulk tore a section 
of metal from his prison wall, and wrapped it around Sore Loser so that he 
looked like a trout in tin foil.
"No!  Trisha dead, Sky surfers make Hulk evil.  Make Hulk kill friend, Cybron 
show.  Now, Hulk smash Sky surfer."
Vampira flew between them.  "Wait, Hulk!  Cybron's tricked you.  Trisha's here, 
with us!"
On cue, Trisha entered the dungeon.  Hulk could scarcely believe his 
eyes.  "Trisha?"
"It's me, Big Guy.  I'm o.k., Cybron's been playing you."
Hulk stared at the girl, thinking he was seeing a ghost.  Trisha guessed his 
thoughts, and came as close as she dared.  "Can a ghost do this?"  Her hand made 
contact with his through the bars.  She was real, and not a dream that would 
vanished when touched.
Joy exploded on Hulk's face.  '"TRISHA!  HULK FRIEND!"  In sheer joy, he seized 
the bars of the cell, and tore them, heedless of the thousand volts jolting 
him.  All Hulk knew now was the joy of seeing his friend was indeed alive.
Careful not to hurt her, Hulk clasped Trisha close in a fierce embrace.  The 
rivers of tears that washed the green face were now tears of joy, instead of 
grief.  "Trisha.  Hulk thought dead."
"Cybron lied to you," Trisha explained, her voice muffled beneath the 
muscles.  "Vampira said he was going to turn you into a bioborg."
Hulk stepped back to look at his brave friend with a kind of 
admiration.  Gently, he touched her face.
"Hey!  If I'm o.k., could you let me out of here?"  Sore Loser squirmed in his 
metallic cocoon.  Hulk turned and broke him free.
Seeing his joke was over, Cybron knew he had to flee from Hulk's wrath.  Having 
seeing the giant's grief-stricken rage, the cyborg knew Hulk's strength was not 
something with which he wanted to tamper.  
Sore Loser, Vampira, Hulk and Trisha had made it to the air lock, which was 
abandoned by Cybron and Sarina's escape pod.  "Vampira, watch Trisha," Hulk 
instructed, then leapt after the fleeing chopper.  
Now that he knew the truth, Hulk turned his anger on the one who had started the 
lie, Cybron.
Cybron and his daughter heard a loud, metallic thump on the rear of the 
chopper.  "IT'S GOT US!"  Cybron screamed to his borgs.
Bullets from Replicon and lasers from Lazerette bounced off the thick, green 
hide.  Noxious was too far away for his gas to be effective.  Trisha appeared to 
halt Hulk's steps.  This Trisha was a mirage, courtesy of Dr. Five-Eyes.  But, 
by now, Hulk was well acquainted with Cybron's tricks.  He pushed past the 
mirage.  
"Not this time."
Grenader was about to pull his pin, and jump, but Lazerette stopped him.  "No, 
you idiot!  You might hit Cybron!"
Sarina screamed with the rear of the cockpit was torn open.  She and her unusual 
father were face to face with the angry behemoth.
"Cybron make pretty girl evil," Hulk growled, ominously.  "Lie to Hulk!  Say 
Trisha dead, Sksysurfers make kill!  Trisha not dead!  Sky surfers find!  Cybron 
evil, now Hulk smash Cybron!"
As fast as lightening, Hulk's fist shot past Cybron, and smashed into the 
helicopter's control panel.  Hulk pulled out a bit of wire, then jumped 
clear.  Cybron and Sarina also baled out, their pulled the rip cords, and the 
parachutes opened.  They glided, safely, into Replicon's plane.
Hulk landed with a ground shaking thump.  The Sky surfers descended and a lit 
from their boards.  Vampira glided down with Trisha.  The moment her foot 
touched the solid ground, Trisha let go of her friend's hand.
"Hulk not know Cybron trick," the giant began to apologize, in his own way.
"You couldn't have known," Sky assured him.  "Cybron's a criminal genius that 
hides his tracks well."
"Not well enough if my bats found the hideout," Vampira pointed out.  "Are you 
sure you're not related to Loser?"  Crazy Stunts inquired of Trisha.
"Trisha safe," Hulk ventured, then Buena to sag.  Air Enforcer steadied 
him.  "What's going on?"
"I know.  We have to get back to Sky Command, warp-speed."  Vampira instructed.
Air Enforcer heaved Hulk onto his sky board, and lifted off, heading for home.
Banner woke on the same bean bag chair Trisha had.  As he slept, he had seen her 
face before him.  Slowly, he opened his eyes, and thought he saw a familiar 
face, quite close to his own.  A voice, known to him, said "Doc."
"Trisha?  Am I dead too?"
"No, you're o.k.  You're at Sky Command.  The Sky surfers and I sprang you from 
Cybron's dungeon."
Banner opened his eyes.  Joy filled them, as it had to Hulk's.  Gently, the 
former scientist touched the girl's face.  "Trisha!  You're alive!"
"Of course I'm alive.  What else would I be?"
"But the tape . . . ."  Banner began.
"I think we have an answer for that.  Kim inserted a tape into the VCR. 
The film Cybron had used to warp Hulk's mind broke when Sore Loser's boomerang 
knocked the projector from its shelf.  Vampira recovered the tape, and brought 
it back to Sky Command, where Kim pieced it together.
The tape picked up after the last frame.  Easel looked up from his drawing 
board.  "This is the last one, Cybron," the little borg sniveled.
"Good.  Following Sarina's plan, Five-Eye probed Banner's mind.  This will be 
our most powerful weapon."
"They are rather gruesome," Easel admitted, for once distasted by his own 
artwork.
"That will play right into Banner's fears," Sarina informed him.  "He cares for 
the girl, and so does Hulk.  If Hulk thinks the Sky surfers angered him to the 
point he killed his friend, we will have the beginnings of a borg more powerful 
than Grenader!"
Banner's eyes widened.  He had been tricked the whole time!  "Why don't you 
stay, Professor," Jack suggested.  "We could use another scientist on the team."
"Yeah, you stick me with all the work," Kim quipped.
"No, thank you," Banner declined the offer.  "Maybe, if I can find a cure for 
myself, I'll come back."
Beast of the X-Men piloted the Blackbird back to California.  This time it 
carried Bruce Banner, as well as Vampira and Trisha.  Beast then returned to New 
York with the flying machine.
Trisha slept in her dorm room, while Banner occupied a couch in the 
lobby.  Vampira kept her vigilant night watch over the city.  Her radar-like 
hearing brought in the surrounding sounds of the night.  The sounds of trouble 
were no less prevelant in California, than they were in New York.
When morning came, it was time to say good-bye.  Trisha hated to see her friend 
leave.
"You can stay here," she suggested to Banner.  "I think they have a teaching 
position open in the biology department."
Banner smiled, sadly.  "Thank you, Trisha.  But, I must leave.  Cybron was 
right.  Those pictures played right into my fears."
Trisha was puzzled.  "What do you mean?"
"Ever since you've befriended me, it's been a fear of mine that Hulk would harm 
you, or one of the kids in the club."
"But Hulk wouldn't do that!"  Trisha's faith in her friend was unshakable.  "He 
recognized me in Cybron's dungeon."
"When mindless rage is a factor, he could be unreasonable."
"But, you're going out be out there, all alone," Trisha pointed out, still 
trying to talk Banner out of leaving.
"He won't be alone, Trisha.  He'll have me and Rick with him."  Vampira assured 
her.  "We mutants have to stick together."
"That's a relief.  Do you need any food for the road, Doc?"  Trisha inquired, 
knowing Banner's mind was made up.  "No, thank you, Trisha."  Banner caught her 
in a long embrace of farewell.  "Good-bye, Trisha.  Maybe if I can control the 
Hulk, I'll come back.  Until then," Banner turned away, his shoulders hunched 
under the great weight of sorry.  "I'm too dangerous, even for a good friend 
like you."
"Good luck," Trisha said in farewell, then added Pip's last line to Estella from 
Great Expectations, "'And we'll continue friends apart'."
Banner turned back with a chuckle, recognizing the line.  "Of course.  Good-bye, 
Trisha."
With that Banner took his leave.  Vampira bid farewell to her friend, and flew 
after him.  From her window, Trisha could see Banner trudging up the 
road.  Vampira flew after him to see to his needs, and be a companion for the 
journey.
THE END