I forgot how to format on this site because it's been 3 1/2 years since I last posted something (sorry Brotherhood, I will finish you... eventually). I posted, like, twenty chapters before remembering that you can't do double paragraph breaks for scene breaks and I had to go back and add lines where there was supposed to be just a regular paragraph break. I knew there was a reason why I moved from here to Ao3. White space, my friend, I love you!

Also, if you've noticed that the chapters are called Book 1: Chapter #, that's because this is a series and there are two books so far, "The Hulk and the Beast", and "The Magical and the Mechanical". Book 1: The Hulk and the Beast, is twenty-seven chapters + an epilogue and so far there are twenty-one chapters of Magical and Mechanical, with, I'd say about ten more until it's finished. Ten points to the Avengers if anyone can guess the villain of tMatM by the title alone (it's not difficult). Also, sorry for the no fun chapter titles in this story like I do with all of my other stories, I wrote it in under two months, it's nearly 100k words, and I was way too tired to also think of puns or other fun quips on top of editing the heck out of it because I have no beta reader or editor.

I make no promises on a Book 3, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it because I do have some ideas left for this universe of Earth Space 12042, aka 12041B. I'm expecting to have the whole everything that I have written so far posted by, like, mid spring to early summer, which feels like it's far away but I'm sure it'll be here before I know it.

The Hulk and the Beast: Chapter Two

November 1, 2013 Early Morning

Tony prided himself on being the smartest man in the room. He'd even go so far as to claim to be the smartest person on the planet, but then his friends would accuse him of having an overblown ego. That was unfair. Cap himself said Tony was in the top three. He wouldn't say who the other two were, but a podium finish was a podium finish.

Tony's latest genius was his current pride. He hacked Red Skull's mainframe. Especially more impressive, as Red Skull and MODOK were currently teamed up, so he'd technically hacked HYDRA and AIM simultaneously. He found a backdoor in AIM and used that to sneak into HYDRA's servers. It was a stroke of genius.

He was currently going over Red Skull's top secret science projects. Most of them were failed attempts at recreating the Iron Man armor, super soldier serum, or Hulk gamma.

"Your crush is showing, Skully," Tony shook his head in amusement.

The rest of the 'science' projects were all hocus pocus bull. He had several of his goons reading over some books on magic. It was all nonsense, of course. If he couldn't even get science right, what made him think he could get magic right. After all, magic was just advanced science Tony hadn't gotten around to explaining yet.

He was about ready to turn in for the night when he came across another experiment. This one had been going on for a little under half a year. It was called Project Red Wolf, and it was the only one that had seen some sort of success.

It was well past Tony's bedtime, well past time he left the lab. But this last experiment drew him in with it's horrible macabre subject. Project Red Wolf sounded very stupid on paper. Yes, vampires were a thing, Tony could accept that. Dracula was real. Wizards were real and annoying. The Nordic Gods were aliens and one of them was his roommate who ate all the pop tarts.

But Werewolves did not exist. They weren't real. There wasn't a scared little boy locked in a tube on the full moon, ripping himself to shreds rather than hurt a little puppy. Red Skull hadn't kidnapped a child. He couldn't have had him for six months. That was just too horrible to think about.

Yet there were the videos, narrated with clinical detail. The videos of a little boy being run like a soldier, beaten when he collapsed or pleaded for a break. Videos of a him being tortured and pictures timestamped to show how quickly he healed and from what. Videos upon reports upon pictures.

By the time anyone found Tony, the sun was up and he was quaking from sleep deprivation and too much coffee.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Nat found him with his knees up to his chest and his eyes staring blankly at the screen.

"I think we need to suit up, Nat."

"Where to?"

"I'm not… sure yet…?" Tony winced. "I'll keep looking."

"Go to bed, Tony. A nap, at least."

"This is more important."

"What are you… oh…" Nat looked at the files and her face immediately went distant. "That's looks like a Red Room."

"He needs us, Nat."

"You've got us, don't do this all by yourself. We're a team. Go to bed, I'll look this over and brief the others. Steve, Sam, and I will keep digging while you rest. By the time you wake up, we'll be able to have wheels up in five."

"Promise?"

"Of course."

Nat called Steve, who was on his morning jog. He was back in five minutes, strongarmed Tony back to his room, and forcefully tucked him in. When he returned to the common room, Clint and Hulk were already starting their day with a game of Mario Kart, Thor was busy eating all the meat in the fridge for breakfast, and Sam hadn't arrived yet, but he'd come in with a double batch of cookies before Tony woke up.

"Sorry, you two, but we've got something more important than your Nintendo," Nat grabbed the remote and changed the channel to the briefing.

"Hulk winning!" Hulk shouted, crushing his controller in his big green fist.

"Is that a Red Room?" Clint's controller was shaking in his hands.

"No. Worse. It's HYDRA. The boy's a werewolf. We don't know his name or where they got him. They're calling him the Red Wolf."

"This better be a rescue mission," Steve said from the doorway.

"How old is he?"

"Twelve."

"Where'd he come from?"

Nat scrolls the mission until they found the general information on boy. His parents were marked eliminated. HYDRA used the Tesseract to get into a dimension that had werewolves, because theirs certainly didn't. The boy was twelve years old, fifty inches tall, and forty-five pounds. Very small for a twelve year old, and skinny for his height. He looked like Steve pre-serum, all scrawny and all elbows, like he shouldn't be able to hold his own weight.

His test results looked like Steve's post-serum. He could press five-hundred pounds, he could run thirty-five mph and maintain that speed for thirty minutes before collapsing. He could lope at twenty-three mph and maintain that for a little over thirty hours. He had an insane sense of smell and hearing. His powers waxed and waned with the moon, but they were there, which was unsettling.

The only thing he didn't have in spades was sight, but considering the source of his enhancements, it was a miracle he had normal human vision with a full color range.

Clint whistled, "Imagine him fully grown. Bet he'd be stronger than you, Cap."

"That's the point," Steve growled. "Keep digging. We've got to find their hideouts and determine which facility they're keeping him. We can't afford to guess because if we're wrong they'll move him deeper."

It took three hours to find the kid. They were in the north of Russia, out near Alaska. That sort of explained the code name Red Wolf, but Steve was in the camp of Red Skull naming the poor kid after himself. Sam returned with a batch of his mother's cookies and was the one who actually cracked the location code.

By the time Tony staggered out of his room, almost well rested, the team was loading the Quinjet. They were in the air by eleven o'clock, with an eta of 1400 EST. Tony was still scrolling through the kid's files.

"Can't this thing go any faster?"

"I'd say we're making good time," Sam tried to reassure Tony. "I mean, we didn't even pause for a mission debriefing."

"What are we gonna do with the kid once we've got him?" Clint asked.

"There's the SHIELD Trainee program," Sam said. "I really enjoyed it."

"No SHIELD," Hulk grunted. "Wolf-boy needs space."

"Hulk's right," Steve said. "SHIELD training would be too similar to what Skull's been putting him through. He'll need space and time to think of what he wants."

"Fury won't like that," Clint pointed out. "He'll want to make sure the kid's not a threat. And… don't werewolves turn every full moon? I'm not saying the kid's a danger to others, but isn't he?"

"According to these tests, he's only a danger to himself," Tony said. "Skull's tried everything to get him to attack anyone but himself. He hasn't. Even under duress."

Hulk growled, "Wolf-boy think he's a monster. He protects others from himself."

They landed outside a vault door and were immediately greeted by a wave of HYDRA goons. They made short work of them. Hulk ripped the vault door off its hinges and the team sped inside.

It was a standard artic base, militarized up the wazoo and designed for training and R&D. The only asset they were aware of in the facility was the Red Wolf. It was relatively easy to blast their way deeper in the facility. Hulk was especially vicious this time, but no one complained. They'd never had to rescue a kid before.

Sure, there had been Molecule Boy, but he was only in danger because he put himself in it. HYDRA had a multitude of victims, but never one like this. They hadn't known HYDRA had their own version of the Red Room. Maybe they hadn't until they kidnapped the kid.

The kid was on subsection seven, in the middle of an experiment. They found him because the lights flickered when he screamed. He was sending blasts of low level EMPs. Iron Man tracked the epicenter to the worst lab they'd ever seen.

They had the kid hooked up to several drips, and he was thrashing around like mad, begging for it to stop, begging for them to not let him hurt anyone. He was chained down with a titanium-adamantium alloy, cheaper than pure adamantium but still strong enough to contain the boy, despite his struggles. And he was struggling.

It took all of Tony's restraint not to obliterate the scientists. Captain America didn't hesitate, he lobbed his shield full strength at the back of Red Skull's head. If Red Skull got decapitated, he'd count that a win.

But it was never that easy.

Skull spun around and deflected the shield. It bounced around the room, back to Captain America's arm. The rest of the team was busy on the upper floors, clearing a path. It was a small miracle that MODOK was in a different facility. Tony gave it another week before AIM and HYDRA broke up again. Their team ups never lasted long.

"Hallo, Captain. I am surprised you found me before I wanted to be found."

"Let the kid go," Captain America responded in his most heroic voice.

Red Skull motioned for the guards at the edges of the room to engage, forcing Captain America and Iron Man to skirmish. They kept them away from Skull, which was endlessly aggravating, because neither of them had ever wanted more to punch the man in his stupid nose-less face.

"We were just finished with the first half of Phase Three."

Red Skull undid the restraints. He pushed the boy to the floor and kicked him to his feet. Captain America managed to throw his shield once more, but Red Skull deflected it. Iron Man wanted to start blasting, but the kid was too close and his weapons had too much firepower.

"Get up!" Red Skull kicked the boy.

"No," the boy cried. "No… no."

"Them or your dog, Wolf."

"They're people," the boy whimpered.

"Them or you," Red Skull drew his gun and pressed it to the boy's temple.

The boy's only response was to close his eyes and tense for the inevitable.

"They're people," the boy whispered. He so desperately believed he wasn't. The conviction sounded deeper than anything HYDRA could hammer into him over the course of six months.

By the time they dealt with the guards, Skull had the boy between them and him, holding the gun to his head. The boy had tears, snot, and blood on his face. His cheeks were gaunt and there were bags under his eyes. His whole body was shaking with exhaustion and pain.

"Let him go," Captain America repeated. "This is low, even for you, Skull."

"Drop the shield, Herr America," Skull sneered. "His usefulness is running out. I have what's necessary."

The boy sniffled.

"He's not asking to be polite," Iron Man was so tense his arms were shaking under the armor.

"So be it," Skull shoved the boy forward and shot him in the leg.

The boy let out a horrific scream that quickly morphed into a howl of agony. Instead of grabbing for the wound, he reached up and racked nails that turned into claws along his small, scarred back, splattering blood onto Skull as he made his escape.

"Shit," Steve lunged forward.

He tried to pull the boy's hands away from himself before he hit any major arteries. He switched immediately to gnawing at his arms and digging his claws into his palms while they were still finger-like. Steve was having difficulty keeping the kid from hurting himself. He seemed obsessed with causing himself pain. His uninjured back paw was already trying to twist around and tear at his wound or his belly, which ever was easier to reach.

"Tony, help!"

"Crap, crap," Iron Man tried his best to grab the boy's legs, but there was still the problem of Skull getting away with several vials of something that looked like blood and another something that looked like the drip.

"Skull's headed up," Captain America said in his coms. "Widow, Falcon, Hawkeye, stop him or slow him down. Thor, try and get above ground, in case he makes it to an aircraft and tries to fly away."

There was a chorus of affirmatives and then a few more position confirmations.

"I can't hold him. How long does this last?" Steve struggled. The boy might only be able to press five hundred to Steve's eight hundred, but the wolf was stronger than both of them.

"According to the files, eight hours but only on the full moon. They did something to him. If I could get a sample of the serum I might be able to reverse it or at least determine what it does…"

"Hulk smash!" Hulk busted through the roof. He knocked over the table that held the rest of the samples.

"Crap! Dammit, Hulk! Shit, maybe I can salvage this."

"Wolf-boy!" Hulk wrestled the kid from Steve and Tony.

The wolf-boy was pinned to Hulk's chest in such a way that he was only able to feebly claw at Hulk's torso. His claws were tough enough to leave shallow scratches, but no more. Without so much as an acknowledgment, Hulk leapt once more and smashed a second hole in the ceiling.

"Guys, Skull's got the only surviving sample of the serum they put in the kid," Iron Man said into the coms. "It's golden, looks kind of like syrup. I think he's also got a sample of the kid's blood before the serum. Prioritize the serum but get both if you can."

"If we can't?" Hawkeye asked.

"Destroy it. The last thing we need is a fully grown army of super werewolves. I never thought I'd have to say that outside of D&D night."

Hulk smashed the way through the facility, keeping the squirming wolf-boy firmly in his grasp, where Wolf-boy couldn't hurt himself. Wolf-boy tried very hard, but Hulk was stronger. Hulk is the strongest there is. The Wolf-boy's eyes were wide, frightened. All fear, no fury. Like Banner. Hulk protects Banner. Hulk protects Wolf-boy, too.

The freezing northern air stunned the Wolf-boy long enough for Hulk to adjust his grip for better long distance jumping. Hulk knew Wolf-boy needed to get on the Quinjet, but Wolf-boy struggled too much. Hulk stopped outside the Quinjet, unsure if smashing would help. Probably not. Hulk had difficulty solve problems that didn't need smashing.

Talk to him, a voice whispered in the back of Hulk's head. He needs you to talk to him.

Hulk threw Wolf-boy to the ground. Before Wolf-boy could start biting himself, Hulk screamed as loud as possible. Spittle flew through the air, spattering around the Wolf-boy. Wolf-boy froze, quivering, ears pinned to his head and tail between his legs. Wolf-boy looked up with the most terrified eyes at the wall of green in front of him, uncomprehending.

Not like that, Banner's voice sighed.

"I'm not letting you out," Hulk grumbled to the voice in the back of his head. "You get into too much trouble."

Like you're any better, Banner's voice scoffed.

"Hulk strongest there is! Nothing can hurt Hulk!"

Wolf-boy started gnawing on the bullet wound on his leg.

"Wolf-boy stop biting!" Hulk commanded.

Wolf-boy froze with his leg still bleeding into his mouth.

"Wolf-boy stay or let boy back, I don't care," Hulk tried to be gentle. Hulk was not good at gentle.

Wolf-boy took one more tentative chew on his leg.

"Stop biting!" Hulk shouted.

Wolf-boy dropped his leg and cowered in front of the Hulk. Wolf-boy pressed his chest to the snow and started obsessively licking his lips and whimpering. Hulk didn't understand Wolf-boy.

At least he stopped hurting himself, Banner voice was relieved.

"Get on jet!" Hulk waved hands at Wolf-boy.

Wolf-boy yelped and rolled over, shaking and crying.

"Hulk help! Wolf-boy has to get on jet!"

Wolf-boy rolled back over. Wolf-boy looked at the vault door and whined. Wolf-boy pinned his ears back and lifted his head. The howl was woeful and keening, echoing through the snow covered valley.

He wants something, Banner voice said.

"Hulk want Wolf-boy on jet," Hulk snapped.

"We couldn't get the serum, I'm sorry," Black Widow said. She was breathing hard, but still fighting. "We weren't able to destroy it either."

"That's alright, I'll see if it's on his files. I downloaded them," Iron Man said. "Just get to the jet, Red Skull activated the self-destruct. If we're lucky, he'll get himself with it."

"Does Hulk still have the kid?" Captain America asked.

"That he does!" Thor answered. "The wolf's howl is most haunting."

"I found the kid's… room," Hawkeye winced when he said that. He couldn't bring himself to call it a cell, though that's what it was. "Next time I see Skull, I'm putting an arrow through his eye. He had the kid leashed to the bed and muzzled like an animal. Oh, and there's a dog in here."

"Red Skull mentioned the kid had a dog."

"Should I bring it?"

"Anything that can be a comfort to the kid right now is a good thing," Iron Man said.

"Alright, here boy. Here," Hawkeye paused. "Is that… some sort of Celtic? Gwill-gi? Gwilig? Gweg? I… there's not enough vowels in this name! Who names a dog this?"

"Spell it," Black Widow sighed.

Hawkeye spelled it.

"It's Welsh. Double L is different. It's pronounced gwi-sh-gee, if he's using the Welsh pronunciation."

"Gwyllgi, here boy. Huh, good puppy! The guy's friendly!"

Hawkeye ran out of the HYDRA facility last with a very squirmy five month old puppy in his arms. The Wolf-boy stopped howling as soon as he saw the puppy, but tried to chew on his paw again. He stopped as soon as Hulk shouted at him.

"Wheels up, wheels up!" Hawkeye shouted. "It goes up in less than ten!"

Hulk grabbed the wolf-boy and threw him onto the jet. Iron Man burst from the facility holding onto Captain America. Black Widow was already on the jet getting ready to take off. Falcon and Thor were circling above, waiting for any signs that Red Skull was escaping by jet or helicopter.

As soon as Hawkeye's feet where on the floor of the Jet, Black Widow took off. The entire landscape lurched. The facility imploded, collapsing into the mountainside. The shockwave knocked Thor, Falcon, and Iron Man off balance. By the time they regained it, Red Skull's escape jet was a speck disappearing in the distance.

"After him!" Thor battle cried.

"Wolf-boy's scared!" Hulk bellowed.

"Hulk's right. The kid's our number one priority. Red Skull's already scrambled his flight path, I can't track him so unless you've got eyes on him, he's gone."

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