Hey, gang! Sorry for the hella long wait, but here's the next chapter to your cliff hanger. In full honesty, it's actually been done quite a while; i've just been pretty busy with life lately. I'll try to update as soon as I can next time, but thank you so much for waiting! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and please remember to leave me some feedback (it fuels my happiness levels to the max and helps me improve).

Disclaimer: MARVEL everything...still not mine. Shocker!

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Chapter 7: You Have Your Father's Eyes (Or At Least the Other Guy's)

Ross was backing away into the corner, a psychotic grin spread across his face, and he threw his arms out in excitement, "YES! I knew it! It's not exactly what I hoped for, but this will do perfectly either way!"

Before Ross could make another move, Bruce and Steve came barreling through the window, scattering shattered shards of glass everywhere, and Ross flying into the air. Steve rolled nimbly to his feet and Bruce tumbled behind him, but quickly bolted upright beside him. Bruce's gaze almost instantaneously fell on Ross, and he instinctually backed away in astonishment and fear as the breath hitched in his chest, "You…" His heart stopped as he recalled everything that the graying man before him had done to ruin his life…and what he could do to ruin Ben's life too. There was an angry roar in the back of his head egging him on to defend himself and protect his son, but Bruce winced and pushed the other guy away quickly; now was not the time for revenge.

Ross groaned as he pushed himself to his feet, whipping a small trickle of blood away from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. He grinned darkly and said, "Hello, Banner. Long time, no see," he paused and added angrily, "it's nice to know that you abandoned my daughter alone to raise this little freak of yours!"

Ben, now standing, cracked his knuckles, and fixed the general with his angry, electric green eyes. "Shut up," he growled lowly with a voice quite like his own, but it now resounded with a deep, animal-like snarl.

Upon hearing this voice, Bruce and Steve spun in its direction and both of them froze in place. Ben was standing alright, but he had now grown in height, standing at about 7'0" feet, his muscles had grown somewhat as well, and his skin was turned a medium shade of emerald green. His glowing electric green eyes burned brightly behind his messy dark hair.

Compared to Bruce, Ben was definitely a lot smaller, and even looked a lot more like himself for the most part, but the most alarming part was that he had a look in his eyes that somehow still resembled his own gentle, intellectual eye, The only difference now… was that he looked really pissed off. None the less, Bruce didn't know what to think, and didn't get much of a chance to either before Ben spoke up again.

"Don't you dare say another word about either of them," he growled loudly at Ross, barely taking notice of the new arrivals. "You're one to talk…after all, it's your fault that he had to leave her anyways!"

Steve glanced at Bruce with a mixed look of attentiveness and confusion, and asked quietly, "He can speak…that well?"

Bruce was dumbfounded and shook his head, "I…I guess he can."

Before the two could even make sense of what was happening, Ross shoved Steve into Bruce, sending them tumbling into the ground. Sharp shards of glass cut their fall, and the two hissed in pain as they were grazed with cuts from the window's shattered remains.

Moving briskly to make an escape from the scene, Ross started to open fire on Ben once more, making the boy wince when the bullets glanced off his green-tinted skin. Ben let out an angry roar and he lunged at the wide-eyed Ross.

He had wound up his arm, and nailed Ross in the face with his fist, feeling the man's nose breaking beneath his heavy blow. The general was sent flying into the wall with a loud thud, and he slid to the ground, just barely conscious.

Ben's mouth spread in a wicked grin, satisfied with his hit, and he strode slowly towards Ross, snarling lowly, "You know, I think my mom was right to hate you. You're just a selfish asshole that doesn't even seem to care about his daughter, no matter how much you say you do," he paused and hissed, "She's dead and you haven't even stopped to let that sink into your thick skull because all you care about is getting to me, for god knows what reason! I'm worthless to you!"

As Ben slinked closer towards Ross, his spiteful remarks spilled angrily from him, and the crippled man inched away slowly from him while cradling his broken nose a scarlet stain rained down from it.

"Ben, stop!" Bruce shouted loudly. Ben had turned to see his father standing behind him, watching him with concern in his eyes. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, as Ross leapt out of another window and made a run for it.

Ben groaned almost childishly when he saw him escape, "C'mon! I thought I said to wait in the freaking car, now he's getting away!"

Bruce glanced at Steve and the soldier didn't even need to hear his words, "I'm on it," he said as he dove out the window after the deranged general.

Bruce breathed in deeply and exhaled before he spoke inquisitively to his son, "Ben…do you even know what's going on?"

Ben's face turned into a frustrated snarl, "W-what do you mean what's going on? My psycho of a grandfather just showed up and attacked me because he was convinced I'm like you!" He ended his words with a heated growl, and his angry eyes burned into his father.

Bruce eyes widened in surprise as Ben's response confirmed his thoughts; He doesn't seem to realize that he's transformed at all… If this really was the case, Bruce would have to tell him without knowing how he'll react to the fact that he's now transformed, even if it was more minor than his own transformation- it'd still be a shock to anyone. He anxiously chewed his lip and continued speaking cautiously, "Ben…I'm not sure what's going on yet, but…you've transformed…and I don't think you even remember it happening."

Ben looked genuinely puzzled, rather like a lost puppy, and he huffed, "W-what do you mean I…" As the boy started speaking he looked down at his hands and his eyes widened in shock. "My skin in green," he said as a note of panic crept into his voice, "Wh-what the hell happened to me! I don't…I don't remember this happening," he began to back away, as if to run away from himself, and instead he fell backwards over his own feet and landed hard on the ground with a heavy thud.

Ben grew more and more freaked out and he snarled deeply, "What's going on!" He made himself jump a little when he heard the deep, growling rumble that resounded after his own voice, and he looked at Bruce with fear in his eyes.

Bruce himself didn't know what to do at all; this condition of Ben's was turning out to be a whole lot different than his own, but he'd have to do his best to help the poor, terrified kid.

He approached Ben's side, feeling rather small next to the boy currently, and he put his hand on his arm comfortingly, "Honestly…I have no idea. This is as new to me as it is to you, Ben. But, I promise I'll help you figure this out, okay? "

Ben nodded, and shuffled uneasily, feeling awkward in his current body's larger proportions.

"Uhm…alright," Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "for starters, let's try getting you back to normal for now. So, you need to calm down a whole lot more before that's going to happen. You remember what I told you right?"

Ben nodded slowly, and looked really uncertain of himself. He started taking deep breathes; inhaling and exhaling slowly with his eyes closed.

Bruce sat on the ground next to Ben, and watched him closely. This was all he knew how to do when it came to dealing with the other guy, but his mind was still trying process what could possibly be Ben's deal. Obviously, they'd have to run some tests once they got back to the tower; maybe not right away just to give Ben some time to himself, but certainly as soon as possible. The sooner the better, Bruce thought, as he was relieved to see that Ben was beginning to shrink down in size. Bruce wrung his hands absent-mindedly as he continued thinking, but was snapped out of his thoughts when Ben repeatedly called for his attention.

"Dad, it's not working any more," Ben's voice shook nervously, and he hugged his knees to his chest.

Bruce turned his attention and examined Ben; he was relieved that he had begun to shrink back down to his regular size, but his skin still held a relatively green tinge to it, and his eyes were a strange mix of green and brown. Around his pupils it was still an intense green, and it slowly faded back into his usual soft brown tone. Ben waited for his father to tell him what was wrong, but he could see the confusion in his father's eyes already.

"Uh…I'm not sure," Bruce bit his lip, "this is new to me…not that you should worry," he quickly followed up and offered a hand to Ben to help him up. "I think you're good enough now to at least go back to the tower; we can figure it out from there with a couple of tests, I'm sure."

Ben stood and looked down at the mostly ruined shirt he was wearing; it was torn to pieces for the most part from his sudden transformation, but his eyes widened when he saw the blood stain that covered most of the chest, suddenly recalled what had triggered the cahnge. "T-that's right. Dad…he shot me," Ben breathed out in disbelief. He slipped his fingers through the blood stained hole in the shirt and dragged his fingertips over the skin of his chest in search for the bullet wound, but his fingers found nothing but smooth skin. He looked up quizzically at Bruce and was about to say the wound was gone, but the physicist interjected fairly quickly.

"Thank god! You must have the same healing factor," Bruce gave a massive sigh of relief and took a few reassuring breaths. He was beyond furious that Ross had dared to shoot Ben, regardless if his theories were right or not; and they were, but that was beside the point. That madman was more than willing to shoot a kid…his kid, and he was fuming.

Bruce nodded at Ben and said assuredly, "Come on. Let's get you back to the tower, so you can rest up. I'll have Tony take care of the rest of your things here.

The other guy was certainly being fueled by his rekindled hatred for the general and the newfound desire to protect his son, but he had to keep his cool no matter what. Now was not the time to defend and get his revenge; he had to help Ben solve his strange, growing problem. Ross could wait for now…