Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.

Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.

Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.


PART 8: Tutelage

Bruce made sure the teenager woke up inside the cave in which he had been living for at least three days. He wanted to guarantee that the young man didn't feel threatened, so he was sitting with his back turned to him, holding his hands up to show that he was unarmed.

He heard the rustling, and then the spasm of fear, and then he heard the boy dragging himself back across the floor until his mind made sense of what had happened and what the situation was. As the quick and hardy breaths came through, Bruce knew the young man would be interpreting the few brief glimpses of memory that he could grasp from his time transformed. Bruce couldn't help but grimace, for that was by far the hardest thing to do; to be able to see through each other's eyes and remember what they went through.

Bruce decided to help him.

"I am Bruce Banner," he said, in broken Vietnamese. "The Hulk," he added in English.

"Hulk," the voice said, knowing the name. "You Hulk?"

Bruce smiled and shrugged.

"It's complicated. What are you called?"

"It is fine to speak in English," he said, impatiently, "I have bad accent, but I can understand."

"Oh, it's the same with me," Bruce said, letting his arms down, and glancing back helpfully. "So let's do that. What's your name?"

The kid twitched his nose in consideration, and felt at his neck, feeling it stifled.

"The Hulk choked you," Bruce explained. "It was the only way to transform you back, so please keep calm, now, okay?"

He nodded, and Bruce turned the whole way around, facing the copycat Hulk with an easy smile that he hoped looked genuine and trustworthy. "Why are you hiding your name?" He asked.

"That is how this all started," he said. "I gave my name to a stranger, and then they found me in my home. They killed my parents and took me."

"I am not with them," Bruce said, first of all, and he was still holding his hands halfway up. "But you need to tell me who they are and how I can find them."

Those eyes squinted with distrust, even if only one of them was visible through the fringe that his messy hair was still capable of forming.

"They will be coming for us soon. Our fight, it made too much chaos and mayhem," Bruce explained. "If there's one thing we don't like, and by we, I mean our counterparts, is for people to be prepared for us. Offense, defense, doesn't matter. If they're not ready, they'll never win."

"You want to go after them?" he asked, surprised. "I could never defeat them. They have a huge base and are very well armed. Very prepared for my attack. Even the government is afraid of them."

Bruce thought that was interesting. It was probably biased, but he had expected the government to be behind it all. "Well, you are new to this, and we have the element of surprise right now. Unless they have access to satellite surveillance that I'm not expecting, at which point it might be a tough fight, but then, that's what makes the Hulk happy."

The poor guy looked utterly perplexed, and his face twisted to show it. "What?"

Bruce chuckled, and finally slid his hands into his pockets.

"Let's take it slow. Like I said, I really am here to help. The Hulk and I have been around for a long while so I know what you're going through. But you need to trust me."

The suspicion had definitely softened, so again, Bruce asked. "What is your name?"

"Tuan," he said, defensively, and Bruce smiled widely.

"There we go, Tuan. Now, how should we call your counterpart?"

Tuan glanced aside, scratching at his arm uncomfortably. Bitterly.

"Monster," he said, and Bruce skipped a step in his direction, gravely calling his attention. Almost frightening him.

"Never," he said, meaningfully. "Never monster, Tuan. That is something I will teach you."

Tuan watched him doubtfully. The emotional scars were blatantly present in his facial expression, clearly discernible to even Bruce, who was as far from empathetic as someone could be. He wasn't good with people, but still, he had seen a lot of them. Witnessed a lot of interactions and reactions. The kid was going through what Bruce had gone through, so he drew on that.

"The Hulk was never a monster, he was a hero from the start, despite his faults. Despite my faults," he added. "And I'm sure your counterpart is as well."

Bruce sincerely hoped that that was true. "Right there, when I said that, you felt a shred of hope, right? From inside? It wasn't a possibility of relief - that is coming from you alone. I am talking about a despairing hope. Right? A despair to be free."

Tuan's eye opened wide in realization, and Bruce nodded meaningfully.

"Like I said, Tuan. I've walked in your shoes." He looked down and pointed, but his feet were bare, having ripped open through the shoe wear during the transformation. Bruce chuckled and motioned to his own naked feet. "And I ruined them, too."

When he looked up, he saw a shred of a smile on Tuan's lips, which quickly faded away. But still, seeing it gave Bruce a sensation that was not familiar at all. He tried to remember if he had ever felt that way, but really couldn't put a finger on it. His brain, fast as it was, reported that it was indeed new.

While Bruce was bad with people, he had gotten to be very good with his own mind and feelings. He had to if he was to live in harmony with the Hulk. So he knew what that feeling had been.

As Bruce exchanged a stare with Tuan, he realized it was the certainty that he could make a difference in Tuan's life on a level that he had never been able to, so far as other people were concerned. He realized he could be a tutor.

He realized he was seeing his young self in Tuan.

"I can you help you understand each other, and live in harmony doing whatever it is you wish to do. Control the rage and the fear."

"Get revenge?" Tuan asked, his voice a bit inflamed. Bruce winced. That was a bad idea, but he didn't have time to explain why, and he was sure he wouldn't be able to convince Tuan. Likewise, nobody would have been able to convince Bruce of otherwise, had he gone through the same thing.

The memory of Sakaar came to Bruce, and he gave the Hulk a mental nod in respectful mourning. Exactly, he thought.

"Yes," Bruce said, thinking instead that the greatest revenge would be to truly prove he was stronger than those that had harmed him. By making a life for himself. Bruce would explain that at a later date. "The Hulk has been a blessing to the world, Tuan. I'm not saying you need to be that, but if you don't want to hurt people, I will help you with that. And if you want to hurt people, I will stop you. What I will not allow is for you to be used as a weapon. Or an attack dog."

That was near and dear to Bruce, and Tuan could tell by how he had sounded.

"So tell me where your captors are. Tell me everything you know about them." Bruce smiled and shrugged. "And let's let the Hulk handle them."

The Hulk grinned inside Bruce's heart, flourishing the little bit of confidence Bruce's statement had by a great, endless margin. Bruce's body straightened and gained poise, and Tuan's eye flickered with true hope.

Calmly, his hair wobbled in agreement. "Okay…I will trust you, Banner. For now."


Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!

And so begins a brand new type of relationship for the Hulk. In the next update, we find out all about Tuan as Bruce goes on the offensive.

(Reminder that this story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained like that one is)