Verde immediately decided to stay with Adrian after his first encounter with a large bird who ate boa constrictors. As a snake raised in captivity, it had no idea how to defend against such predators and was properly panicking.

Natasha had found this amusing, and had told her son he was still responsible for his 'pets'. Verde infinitely preferred life as a pet to being a captive inside a cage...at least Adrian let him hunt and he got to eat all the rats he wanted. If Natasha made a point to pick run-down hotels with noted rat infestations with the addition of the boa in their group, Adrian said nothing about it.

He was currently in a rather unhealthy hovel on the outskirts of the Amazon rain forest while his mother went on an assignment to kill a local gang lord that had pissed off the wrong person.

Adrian was used to denying knowing his mother when she acted as the Black Widow, and no one cared about who he was unless he looked like he had money. So long as the hotel bill was paid on time, no one cared who he was or why he was there so long as he didn't cause trouble.

So it came as an annoying shock that what he thought would be a routine lunch would end up like this.

Here's what happened...

Adrian had left his room with most of his things, one of his mother's safety precautions. People couldn't route through your stuff if you had little and took all your most important things with you after all. He was out to get lunch, with Verde sleeping inside his shirt as usual. It was his preferred spot to snooze, since Adrian gave off enough body heat to make the snake happy. Kara was off eating some local bugs and would find him later.

He had picked a cheap, if not exactly pleasant restaurant that didn't look twice at the fact he couldn't be older than twelve at the least and ordered something to eat. The great thing about the slums was that they didn't give a damn about who came in so long as they paid upfront. If he looked like a runaway, that wasn't their business so long as he paid first.

He was finishing his goat burger and soda when a man came in. He was clearly a foreigner just like Adrian, though judging by the looks the local gang members were giving him, the man wouldn't be left alone for long.

He seemed to linger on Adrian, clearly wondering why a kid his age was all alone in a place like this when he wasn't local.

Adrian continued to ignore him right up until the point the local idiots tried something...and then recognized him. Natasha had been careful, but not careful enough. Someone had seen him with his mother and assumed that they knew of each other.

So they decided to try and grab him as well as the obviously broke American.

Adrian decided to run, and to his annoyance the American followed him. Safety in numbers and all that.

It had been such a nice day too.

"I think we've lost them," said Adrian, looking outside. They had ducked into an empty storehouse and he had sent out his snake. Verde had helpfully gone out to knock over some trash cans to create a fake trail before he slithered back to his owner.

"Sorry about that. Why are they after you?" asked the American.

"My mother, most likely. She's out on a job and I was supposed to be hiding in the motel until she got back and we left Brazil. Someone must have recognized her and connected her to me," said Adrian annoyed. Then he grinned. "Good thing I always take the things I need with me. All they'll find is clothes."

"So what's your name?"

"Call me Andy."

"Bruce Banner."

Adrian stopped being on the lookout and actually looked at Banner.

"Huh, so you're Banner. Not what I was expecting," he said.

Bruce blinked.

"You know of me?"

"Your papers on astrophysics are surprisingly well informed, and you don't puff yourself up like all the other so-called experts. Even Tony was impressed with your work and I know for a fact he's dying to discuss some of his theories with you," said Adrian.

"You've read my papers? And understood them?! How old are you?"

"Recently turned eleven. We had better move before those thugs get back. Got anywhere to hide?"

"My house...well, it's less of a house and more of a hovel but you get the idea. I only came into town for supplies," said Bruce.

"I take it you have an infestation of pests?"

"It's a hovel. It's not exactly known for being clean," deadpanned Bruce.

"Verde will be happy then. Mom's been renting the more seedy places since I rescued him," said Adrian.

"You named your pet snake 'green'?" said Bruce amused.

"It gets better, I have a pet crow named Karasu, or Kara for short."

"What's Karasu?"

"Japanese for 'crow'," said Adrian dryly.

"Seriously?" said Bruce amused.

"I was six, and it had been following us for months. Mom thought it was an animagus, a magical person who can turn into an animal at will, but when she had it checked out we found it was actually the familiar of something really powerful. Still have no idea what or who, but whomever Kara belongs to is apparently really, really overprotective of me for some reason."

Adrian paused, and they ducked down. It took them thirty minutes to find Bruce's transport into town without being noticed, and another hour before they were in his hovel. He was in a really, really secluded area...one that wasn't accessible by car. That didn't discount the bike Bruce used, or the broom Adrian had that his mother had bought him while they were in England.

It was a belated birthday present, a Nimbus 2000. Adrian still treasured the days out that they had, but this made getting around a lot easier when they were trying to avoid detection.

The FAA didn't monitor magical flight, and so long as they were discreet and didn't attract attention, they were left alone. Though trying to explain how they got into the country when they didn't have their passports stamped was a pain in the arse.

Bruce looked at his current companion and noticed how Adrian took stock of his 'home'. Things had gotten infinitely harder since the Other Guy had appeared in his life. For the time being at least, he had someone intelligent to talk to.

Adrian heard his mirror go off. His mother preferred two-way mirrors to phones because they couldn't be hacked or tracked.

"Andy, where the hell are you?" she demanded.

"Someone recognized you, and I nearly got captured at a restaurant. Fortunately I've seemed to have made a new friend so we're safe for the moment."

"You know you're supposed to wait for me before going out," she said in disapproval.

"You said you wouldn't be back until nightfall and there wasn't any vending machines nearby that worked!"

"Where are you?"

Adrian maneuvered his mirror outside to a known landmark. She sighed.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Stay put!" she said firmly.

Bruce looked at him curiously.

"What sort of phone is that?"

"It's actually an enchanted mirror."

"So you're what...a witch?"

"Magically-inclined, and witches are female," said Adrian.

"So magic exists," said Bruce, still unsure if he should believe that, evidence to the contrary.

"So does an entire series of societies based around it. Pretty sure there's one in Brazil, though as long as I don't got exposing it willy-nilly they don't give a damn about me."

"I can't believe magic is real. Then again it might explain a few things..."

Like how the hell he had managed to survive that much gamma radiation or where the Other Guy had come from.

"Haven't you ever done something that's impossible to explain? Like a cookie from the jar appearing in your hand or maybe getting out of danger with no reason why?"

Bruce thought back. There was one time he felt like he had been squeezed into a too tight suit and had appeared someplace he recognized as safe, but he had always dismissed it. Or when had lost his keys only to find them in his pocket when he had checked ten times and they weren't they before.

He heard someone approach.

"Andy?"

"MOM!"

Adrian hugged his mother, who looked nothing like him. She held him at arm's length and he hurriedly explained what happened. She sighed in irritation.

Adrian had the weirdest luck.

She looked at Bruce, and to his surprise she didn't recognize him on sight.

"Thank you for helping him escape those idiots. I thought I had been careful enough, but apparently not if they knew me," she said.

"Actually he helped me more than I helped him. I just provided a spot to hide," said Bruce honestly.

"Still, this means we won't be able to stay in that hotel for a while."

"What sort of job do you have Mrs..."

"It's Miss, and I'm a known assassin," she said bluntly. Bruce blinked twice, assuming she was joking. From the deadpan stare Andy gave him, he realized she wasn't.

"So that's why they were so eager to catch you," said Bruce in realization.

"Mom's got enemies. It's better to pretend we don't know each other until after her assignment is over with...they're always looking for a single woman alone, not a mother with a child with her."

"I've more or less kept Andy a secret from everyone."

"I can understand that," said Bruce.

Natasha spoke lowly with Bruce in private, mostly to assure herself that he wasn't a pedophile. Her son was safer with this scientist than he was at that hotel, and he could handle himself in dangerous areas almost as well as she could.

Better he was in the middle of the jungle than anywhere near those thugs that broke into his room.

Bruce stayed in the hovel with Adrian, talking physics with the eleven-year-old who was able to keep up with him to his open surprise and delight. Kara had come in from hunting and gave Adrian a squawking chastisement for leaving her to hunt before settling on his shoulder, her customary spot.

To Bruce's own shock, he had magic in him. Enough to use a wand and cast a few spells at any rate. He would probably never get past some of the basics, but he didn't mind considering the advantage he had thanks to the Other Guy and the fact he was a scientist at heart.

Adrian gave him the location of the known areas that sold magical goods (like wands and books) that he knew of. Bruce would make a point to go there once this mess was over...he certainly couldn't stick around once Andy left.

"So...you're mother is a known assassin."

"Ever heard of the Black Widow?"

Bruce's eyes widened comically, for Adrian at least.

"That was the Black Widow? I thought she was a myth!" he said in shock.

Bruce lived on the slums. He heard rumors of a woman known as Black Widow who could kill for a price, though in recent years she seemed to have calmed down somewhat.

At least now he had a reason why she had suddenly started taking easier missions. She had adopted a kid!

Bruce and Adrian take shifts watching for mafia thugs. With Natasha out on assignment he was safer around Bruce than in town.

Fortunately Kara seemed to know which plants were safe for human consumption. And Adrian quickly acquired a taste for roasted piranha to the amusement of Bruce...even if it took several of the deadly fish to actually be a decent meal.

Though how he caught fish with razor sharp teeth without being maimed or eaten alive, Bruce honestly had no idea.

Adrian spent a week with Bruce, though it was easily one of the better ones the poor scientist had since the Other Guy had been created.

Adrian paused when his laptop had a sudden news bulletin about the destruction of a hospital in São Paulo. Not too far from where his mother had gone to kill someone.

'She didn't...' he thought with worry.

Several hours later, Natasha reappeared looking rather harried.

"We need to leave, now," she said.

"...Can we drop Bruce off at the first magical alley we find?" he asked.

Natasha eyed up the scientist. Adrian had told her that he was a very low-level magical, enough for a few spells at any rate. And he had watched her son for her while she had done her job.

She supposed she owed the man that much.

They dropped Bruce off at one of the larger magical alleys in Brazil with a small bag of galleons (enough to afford a wand at least) before they left for another country, this one infinitely colder than South America.

Adrian was chatting with Charles Xavier about the differences between the European's treatment of werewolves and how the world over treated mutants when he felt someone try to get into the room. He reached for what appeared to be a cheap Pez dispenser in the shape of a black spider. Etched into the abdomen was an hourglass shape with a pair of squiggles that symbolized paralysis.

Adrian was immune to the weaker and less lethal form of the Widow's Kiss, and most poisons. He might get the runs or have his tongue turn a funny color for a while, but he wouldn't die from them. It had been his mother's idea for him to build up a tolerance as a safety measure...one she had done years ago.

Hearing one of the outside steps creak and the wards go off, Adrian prepared for a fight.

Someone broke into the house, and he unleashed his poison into the room.

The results were instant...several people went down as the poison knocked them out from inhaling it, and he started packing.

His mother's standard reaction to an intruder: pack the necessary things and meet at the agreed point. He sent a quick goodbye to his chat buddy, closed the laptop and ran outside the door. Verde had curled inside his loose shirt seconds before the intruder came in.

Adrian fought like a rabid dog when someone grabbed him from behind before he was knocked out. He woke up on a ship of some sort in an interrogation room. There were three adults, all of whom were shooting cautious looks at Kara and Verde. Clearly they had made quite the impression.

Suddenly he saw a familiar face outside the window who made a quick series of hand signs he was intimately familiar with.

"Mom!"