Chapter 5

AN: Yes, I did I time skip, sue me. I honestly could not figure out any other way to get the story moving along, and every attempt I made at it failed. Also, I am aware that I am really stretching the timeline out a lot, but I feel like, with Mark (Harry), Bruce would have more of a chance controlling himself, and therefore, he would be able to live in one place for an extended period of time. As long as he doesn't have any bloody accidents at least. Also, I have decided that from now on, any foreign –by foreign I mean languages other than English- languages will simply be written in italicized English. Personally I feel that the language being spoken would look better, but I find it a real struggle to have to go down to the bottom, and throughout the entire story, and mark and translate everything they are saying.

Sorry for the long AN, but here you are. The next chapter.

5 Years Later – favela of Rocinha, Brazil

Mark woke to the sound of his father cooking breakfast in the kitchen, which, to this day, he was reminded that he was not allowed to be in alone. He climbed out of the small cot that laid next to his dad's bed and padded softly into the bathroom, then into the kitchen, curious of the time. It felt earlier than he or his father normally awoke. When he entered the small room and looked at the clock he realized what day it was. Last week his dad had finally accepted the job at the factory as an engineer that had been offered to him for so long. Today was going to be his first day on the job, officially, anyway. Mark knew that his father was excited, and he was excited for him.

He walked up to Bruce, and gently bumped up against the chair to let his dad know he was there. The father was easily startled, and Mark understood that he couldn't sneak up on him too much. The small noise still startled Bruce a little bit, and he gave a slight jump, careful not to hit the pan he was cooking with. When the older man realized who it was, he turned all the way round with a grin and scooped Mark up in a hug.

"Hey, menino, good morning! How are you?" Bruce's son looked up to his father before opening his mouth and pouring out his normal morning babble. Sometimes Bruce thought that the constant outpouring of words was a remnant of never being allowed to talk much as a young child, despite being removed from the situation fairly early in his life. He continued to wander in his thoughts for a few minutes before realizing that Mark was staring at him, obviously waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry buddy, I got distracted. What did you say?" Bruce always thought about how forgiving his son was when Mark just laughed and repeated himself.

"Papa! I was telling you about my dream! It was like the other ones, but different. I heard a lady yelling, and then I saw a bright green flash of light, and then I was on a motorcycle, and you know what? It could fly, papa! Do motorcycles fly? Can they?"

Bruce grinned at the telling of Mark's dream, not realizing what it meant. All he knew was that usually he would only dream about the green flash, and that the motorcycle part was new.

"Hmm, I don't know, menino, maybe someday you'll build one that can. How does that sound?" Bruce replied.

"That sounds good papa, maybe I will," he paused for a moment before continuing, "and you'll help, right?" Bruce blinked, confused for a minute, before he realized that Mark had switched easily from Portuguese to English. He'd been doing that a lot recently. The older man had decided that he was doing it on purpose, because his son noticed that he got a slight moment of confusion before he slipped into the other tongue each time he did so. He grinned, and refused to allow his son to make him look foolish again.

"Absolutely Mark, of course I'll help you. I will always be there to help you. I promise." At the sound of his original tongue Mark sighed, his father was hard to trick.

"Are you going to come to my game today?"

"Of course I will! Are you sure you won't be embarrassed by your old man?" Bruce ended his question with a wink, so Mark knew he was teasing, not that he wouldn't otherwise. The eight year old just laughed and shook his head, grinning all the while.

"Alright, let's go. I know the factory isn't very far from the school, but I'm sure you want to get to the field on time, right?"

"Well, yeah! I don't want to be late for the game!"

-Later that day-

As Mark made his way from the school to the field, he caught sight of a flash of red hair in the crowd, before it dissappeared from his veiw, as it did, he couldn't help but be pulled back to a old memory, and the first time he had seen part of his father's other half.

~~~Flash back to when Mark was about 4 and a half~~~

After Bruce had learned who Mark's mother was thanks to her journal, he had been occasionally digging around the house for old photos of him and Mark's mother, and for Mark's fourth birthday as a gift, and that obviously caught Mark by surprise since it was the first time someone had celebrated his birthday instead of beating him for being born, Bruce had shown Mark the photos of Lily and Bruce together. Since then, Mark had learned that he had his mother's green eyes, though not her firey red hair. He thought she was beautiful, and wished he could have met her.

Right now, they were on their way back from a house call that Bruce had been called to make, he had studied some medical procedures due to his field of expertise, and so could pass as a doctor for some things, and he used it to make additional profit to help support himself and Mark.

As they made their way back home down one of the long country dirt roads, with only a few scarce buildings, most abandoned, off to the side, suddenly they found themselves surrounded by soldiers wearing strange armor. Mark didn't understand what their matching armor meant, but apparently Bruce did.

"Menino," looking back at Mark, Bruce's eyes were worried, and the child knew he had to take his father seriously at this moment. "Remember what I said about when I get green?" Mark nodded, "Good, when I give you the signal, run and hide, and I will stop these bad guys, try and make it home, ok?" He saw Mark standing there, looking at him worried, "If I can't find you, I want you to try and make it home and hide there, then I will find you okay?" Mark nodded and waited for his father to give the signal.

Before Bruce could begin, one of the soldiers attempted to grab Mark from behind, causing Bruce to cry out in anger, "Mark! Let him go, or else..." he demanded in a threatening tone.

"Or what, you will go Hulk on us in front of the kid?" the soldier taunted, thinking he had the upper hand. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending how you looked at it, while he and his fellow grunts laughed at his little bit of dark humor, Bruce launched himself at the soldier holding Mark, and promptly punched him through his mask. The attack caused the soldier to cry out in pain, catching the other soldiers by surprise. The soldier let go of Mark, who looked at Bruce before running away from the scene. However, before he left, Mark saw his father starting to turn green and get bigger, but, remembering his father's rule, he took off, trying to head home.

While Bruce fought with the soldiers after transforming, Mark ran around the corner of a building, dodging every soldier he saw until he ran right into someone. As he bounced back from the impact he let out a loud "OOF!" and fell looked up, whimpering apologies through his tears. Then, he stopped as he took in the appearance of the person he had run into, causing him to blurt out something in surprise. "Mama?" he asked, shocked and confused.

The woman standing before Mark was the spitting image of the woman from the photograph that Bruce had shown Mark, only, at the same time, she didn't completely match up with the photo of Lily. The woman standing before Mark wore skin tight black leather clothing, and had a more aristocratic looking facial features then Lily did. She was also looking at Mark in confusion.

"Did you just call me mom?" she asked, equally as confused as Mark was, if for slightly different reasons of course, "Do I look similar to someone you know?" she asked, looking at Mark curiously.

Mark nodded, "Red hair, green eyes..." Mark looked at her more clearly now, glad that Bruce had gotten him glasses, he had told Mark he would try and get him corrective eye surgery when he was older if Mark wanted to.

"I gotta find my papa," he said, as he slowly got up and began to walk off, only for the woman to stop him as she said, "Perhaps I could accompany you, make sure you get home safely?" she offered.

Mark looked at her with suspicion, he was not supposed to go anywhere with strangers, that's what his father had told him, but she seemed nice enough, and he was still naive to the dangers of the world.

-Present, but a little later, on the football field-

Mark was standing in front of the net after saving a goal when he noticed the interruption in the crowd, then saw his father run across the field, closely followed by several figures in military dress. One of his team mates, Carlos, jogged up to him.

"Hey! Wasn't that your dad?"

"Yeah, I think it was." Mark answered, his voice tinged with astonishment and confusion. "Maybe you should follow him, eh?" His friend laughed nervously and elbowed Mark. The boy nodded jerkily before doing what had been suggested and started off towards his dad and apparent aggressors, grabbing his bag on the way out.

Mark followed the group as they caused several disturbances throughout the community. Finally, they ended up in a courtyard filled with food and people. It seemed as though his dad had gotten away... Until the beeping began. Mark would have banged his head against the wall if it wouldn't have given away that he was there. His dad's heart rate monitor. If it was beeping, that meant that no one was safe, especially not the ones chasing Bruce.

He watched as the soldiers chased after his dad once more after hearing the beeping his watch emitted. After a while, Mark followed them into the factory where he knew Bruce worked. The small child nearly screamed when he watched several arms reach out and grab the older man, eventually pulling back to reveal three other men Mark knew had been harassing several women in the neighborhood. He winced and then started to cower in the corner as the men began to rough Bruce up. Mark knew they were just exacerbating his father's condition, and that by the time the soldiers found him, he would be hanging by a breaking, already worn thread.

Continuing to hide in the shadows, Mark watched as the soldier men tried to take on the Hulk, and then followed behind as Hulk got to safety. The boy was startled when, after realizing he wasn't followed, the Hulk turned towards him and sniffed.

"Boy. Come." The large green being Mark knew was his father held out it's hand and gestured for the child to climb on his back.

This was Mark's first time interacting with the Hulk side of his father directly. He had never tried to communicate or connect with Hulk before, so, this was untried territory. As a result, he was nervous, and he wasn't sure how Hulk would react when they eventually stopped. Would he be angry, worried, concerned? Would he try and hurt him or were Hulk and his father both protective of him? Were they in constant communication, and did they get along if they were different? All these thoughts and questions and more passed through Mark's head as he rode on Hulk's large, broad, back. Mark clung with all his strength as Hulk took off towards the wilderness. It wasn't long before the boy nodded off to sleep, trusting the giant with his life.

AN: Wow this forever. Omg. Well, here it is! Chapter 5 of The Child of a Monster! I hope you have enjoyed it! Thanks so much to my beta, ogreman, who has helped push me to write and get things done. depression and ADHD mixed is a bitch, huh? Thanks for dealing with my slumps and asshole-ish moods. And here's to many more chapters!

-Asher Jazz

8 Microsoft Word pages

2,217 words. Wowzers. This is, I think, my longest chapter so far!