Sorry for the long wait for the next update! Here it is. Tony only has a tower in New York (as a house) for this fic, just so he doesn't have to build it. Oh, and I'm going to jump right into Tony's past for this one.

Like all things, there were advantages and disadvantages of hiding one's age.

Tony should know; he acted older than he was all the time. He had to do so to impress his clients. But that was when he created and sold weapons. Before some damn terrorists trapped him in a cave and tortured him.

There he met Yensin, and for the short time they spent in hell together, he had become more of a father figure than Howard had ever, especially since he died a year ago. He knew Yensin was willing to die for him, he saw the look in his eye when he picked up the gun to buy Tony time. Luckily, Tony thought quickly and barricaded the door.

"Stick to the plan!" He had hissed at the man.

Stane was once also a father figure, but then he took Tony's heart out of his chest, both literally and figuratively. Plus, he tried to kill Pepper, his PA's daughter, for helping Tony.

After the battle in the streets in New York, a man had entered Tony's private laboratory. He later would know him as Fury.

"Do you think you're the only super hero out there, Stark?"

Tony laughed. The public didn't know that he was Iron Man. Iron Man was an anonymous figure. Most thought that he was just a robot.

"Ya think I'm a hero? I built weapons of mass destruction until a while ago."

"My name is Director Fury. I am the director of SHIELD. Needless to say, I know you're Iron Man. You should know that you're not the only superhero alive right now. Let me tell you about the Avengers Initiative. There are people out there Stark, with incredible powers. Each of them is an outcast, branded by what makes them unique. They're just like you. Would you like to join them? Don't answer now- just read this." Fury handed him a file and walked out.

Tony opened the black folder, labeled 'CLASSIFIED." The first thing he saw was a school building labeled 'New York High School.'

...

One day, when Tony and Bruce were alone in the laboratory, working on science stuff, Bruce looked up, like he remembered something. After about ten minutes, he returned, handing an envelope to Tony. Inside was a check from a month's minimum wage work. It was addressed to Tony.

"It's for my board," Bruce muttered. "For giving me a place to stay."

Tony laughed. He cracked up. He was almost crying, until he saw Bruce's face. He didn't look like he was joking. In fact, he looked sad and his eyes were turning green. Realizing this wasn't a joke, Tony set the check down and looked Bruce in the eye.

"You don't need to do this."

"It's the least I can do after you saved me."

…

Bruce was sick of the New York ghetto.

To be fair, he was only sick up it because of his predicament. He was homeless, running from SHEILD ever since the lab blew up, and he became this freak.

He got some money helping people. He was known as "Dr. Child," because he taught basic medical care and treated the other homeless and deathly poor. However, it wasn't easy. Most of the time Bruce treated himself, because he was a lone child in the streets of New York, and was easily targeted. He was infuriated by his weakness, but instead of running away like most people, Bruce had to focus all of his energy into keeping calm.

After all, if his blood pressure got too high, the Other Guy would kill them.

It happened once, while he was traveling to his cardboard box that he called home. Bruce heard the screams of a female, and looked into an alleyway. There he saw a young woman, surrounded by a gang, probably about to be raped.

Bruce got angry. Really angry. He tried to take calming breaths, but the men spotted him and dragged him over, probably to kill him…

The next thing Bruce remembers is standing in front of her, who was screaming even more. He turned around, and saw the muggers, bleeding out on the sidewalk. They were obviously crushed by something.

He wanted to scream, to cry, to mourn for taking those lives. But for his own sake, he just ran, shirtless, into the New York night.

Days later, he literally ran into Tony on the Manhattan sidewalk. Bruce had gone into town, just to see his friend's house for one last time. One last time before he would get rid of the monster.

He did not count on running into Tony himself.

After colliding with him, he looked up to apologize, only to realize his childhood friend was hanging onto his wrist with an iron grip.

"Bruce?"

Bruce winced. "Hi Tony."

"Oh my god. Fucking hell." Tony looked at his hand, which was still stubbornly holding Bruce's wrist. "You're real. Where the hell were you? SHIELD hasn't seen you since…"

"You've seen the video footage Tony. You know what I am. Let me go."

"You're my friend, Bruce. You need to stop running."

Bruce looked Tony in the eyes. There was only brown, and sadness in Bruce's eyes. He smiled and said, "Oh, I'm not running anymore. I'm fighting."

He tried to pull out of Tony's grip, but Tony didn't budge after the seconds it took to realize what he meant. Because to fight the Hulk, Bruce would have to…

"Get inside," Tony grunted as he dragged the broken boy into Stark Tower. "I have a file I need to show you. Remember Eyepatch man?"

…

"I was low," Bruce whispered. "I was gunna stick a bullet in my mouth. I came to the Tower to say goodbye to you, but you found me. You gave me a life, a place to live, and a purpose. The check is the least I can do."

"I'm a billionaire, Bruce. I don't need the money."

"It's the least I can do-"

"Bruce. If you really don't want the money you spent hours of your life working for, hours that could have been with me in the lab, by the way, I'll get us some liquid nitrogen. We could always use some of that, right Science Bro?"

That's the end of the flashback series! Now I'm going to be going back to the original plot. Sorry for keeping you guys on a mini-cliffhanger…