EDIT 2/9/2014: Story's the same just going through and adjusting things. Proofreading and all that. Well, there was an area at the end of this one that makes a little more sense now. (Shrugs)

Chapter 4: Bio-Hazards

Bruce is unpacking from his trip. He really is. He most definitely isn't compulsively folding and unfolding his clothes.

When he arrived at the tower, JARVIS told him that Tony and Steve were out. That really didn't bode well. Bruce is pretty sure Tony doesn't know how to bode well.

In fact, all of the Avengers are pretty bad at boding well.

Never mind.

Tony wants him to test DNA samples. Bruce is not a geneticist, except for how he kind of is. but, no, just no. Bruce wants nothing to do with Tony's crazy new project.

He had told Tony that, but Tony doesn't listen to answers that he doesn't like. Tony had sent him a file anyway. Spider-Man's file. Filled with half-answered questions and spider DNA. And the names Richard and Mary Parker. Two Oscorp scientists who had died under mysterious circumstances. Oscorp was notorious for its bio-sciences division.

Shit. He was going to do the damn tests. This realization makes him sit heavily on his bed. Dammit, Tony's annoying.

As if in response to that thought, JARVIS announces, "Excuse me, Dr. Banner, Sir and Captain Rogers have arrived back to the tower. Sir has requested you meet them in your lab."

Bruce takes a deep breath. "Yeah, all right, tell Tony that I'm on my way."

"Of course, Dr. Banner."

Bruce walks briskly to his lab space. God, he hopes Tony wasn't serious about bringing -

There's his lab. Tony and Steve are in there waiting… with two teenagers. Great.

Bruce picks up his pace. Everything dangerous is sealed up because he wasn't here, but Tony excels at making messes, and there are kids in his lab.

He enters to hear the boy say, "Well, I don't exactly produce the webs biologically. It's compressed bio-cable from Oscorp." The kid digs in his backpack and yanks out a metallic glove. "Here, this is the 'web-shooter.'" He offers the device to Tony.

"I don't -" Tony starts to object, but the device must distract him. He snatches it from the kid's hand. "What is- Oh, wow. That is-" He peers at the kid. "Did you- Oh you did! This is great! We are gonna have so much fun, you and I. You are so hired, Parker. This doesn't completely rely on this button, does it?"

The kid smirks taking Tony's enthusiasm and question as his due. God, now there are two of them. "To some extent it does. Like for sustained shots. But quick burst shots mostly rely on the kinetics of my hand gesture."

This elicits a series pleased but unintelligible sounds from Tony. "Oh, that is just-"

"Hi, Bruce." Bruce can't help the feeling of vindication he feels at the face Tony makes when Steve interrupts him. "How was your trip?" Steve asks, ignoring said face of betrayed annoyance.

"Fine." He responds, before scowling at Tony, who has switched his focus back to the device. "Tony, why are there teenagers in my lab? My very dangerous, possibly filled with bio-hazards lab? And why is one of the teenagers talking engineering in my biology lab?" He turn to them with somewhat apologetic smiles. Which they half-heartedly return. Ah, so maybe not lost causes.

"Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy." He waves distractedly at the girl and then the boy. In the wrong order, Bruce hopes.

"Tony." Bruce is trying not to whine he really is, but there's something about being around Tony when he's in his 'reverting to the childhood I never had' mode that makes it difficult to act like a responsible grown-up. Besides Tony has at least one engineering stranger in Bruce's lab and is not explaining himself. There are definite rules about this. Pepper made Tony sign a contract and everything.

"Yes, yes." Tony waves a hand at the rebuke and the elbow Steve shoved into his side. "Your space. Hulk territory. Bruce angry. Stranger bad." He sighs. "Parker is Spider-man. He's been picking off petty criminals in Queens and wherever he sees them for the last few months." He snaps his finger. "Oh, and that mess with the crazy Godzilla-man back then that SHIELD completely missed until the idiot was already on the Williamsburg bridge. That was Parker and Miss Stacy's father." He nods at her in acknowledgement. "He was a police captain. He was KIA that night." His mouth twists at that, no doubt thinking that if they had been there the girl's father might not have died. "Sorry about that."

Miss Stacy smiles at that. "No biggie. Pete and I took care of Dr. Connors. He injected himself with a serum designed to make his cells perform a regenerative action not unlike those in reptiles." She glances at Parker, who is frowning at his feet, almost ashamed. "But it also increased his aggression. And then it warped his mind."

Like Blonsky. Like the stories Steve tells of the Red Skull. Some people just aren't made to take the changes they force on their bodies. Not that Bruce can really throw stones.

She sighs and continues. "I miss my dad, but his job was dangerous even when he wasn't saving Pete from mad scientists. But then he had to go and tell Pete to avoid me. And Pete, the idiot, tried to do it."

Parker shrugs. "It was his dying wish, Gwen. It seemed wrong not to at least try."

"Whatever. You were being noble and self-sacrificing. But neither of you realized I might be in danger because you weren't around to help me until that guy cornered me, did you?"

"No." Parker's reply is small and like he's repeated it time and time again.

Bruce clears his throat. "Not that this story wasn't very enlightening, but I'm still not sure why we're doing it in the lab with bio-hazards?"

Tony shrugs. He's playing at being casual. That usually means whatever it is, Bruce isn't going to like it. "Dr. Banner, we need you to take samples from Mr. Parker. Find out the basis for his new powers. Make sure the DNA code is stable." He smirks. "No bugs in the system."

Steve sighs and rolls his eyes. "Sorry, Bruce, they're both adamant that this is necessary."

"Yeah." Bruce pause scratching the back of his head. "I can see why." He turn an appraising look on Parker. He's really young. Crap. "How old are you?"

"Twelve days until my eighteenth birthday." The kid straightens, trying to posture his way into getting Bruce to ignore his youth.

He's not great at it, and he's pretty short for his age. Compact, like Tony, but more wiry.

Bruce sighs. "Yeah, that's close enough. You've already been experimented on in some capacity based on your powers. What's a few days to majority and a few blood samples between friends, right?" His smile turns dark and self-deprecating. "Not like I'm known for my adherence to strict scientific protocols." He raises an eyebrow at Gwen. "Mad scientist, indeed."

She stares him straight in the eye and doesn't so much as flinch. Good. Peter found a strong one. Like Betty. Must come from having tough fathers. Though Bruce would never wish Thunderbolt on any little girl.

Bruce waves the somber mood and the stares he can feel from his teammates away. "It's fine. Tony, Steve, get the hell out of here. Take Miss Stacy to get something to eat. Make sure no one's going to call the police about two missing teenagers. The girl's father was a police captain. That could go so horribly wrong that it doesn't bear thinking about. Phil would not be pleased about having to post bail for two Avengers charged with kidnapping."

None of them move for a moment and then:

"Shit!"

"Oh, my God! I forgot about-"

"Oh man, Aunt May…"

"My mom is gonna-"

Bruce sighs. They're all useless. Both kids are scrambling in their bags to find their phones. Gwen, Steve, and Tony leave while Gwen placates her mom. "No, Mom, really just studying with Peter Parker. Sorry, I forgot. Um, in the library in Manhattan. No, not 'til later. Yeah, definitely by then."

And Parker's sitting at Bruce's lab bench, sighing into his phone as a woman Bruce can hear from a yard away complains about how he "needs to tell me when you're going to be late. I was so worried. After you uncle, well, Peter you need to tell me where you're going to be, okay?"

"Yeah, Aunt May," Parker sighs. "I'm sorry. I'll see you later. I'm working on a project. Yeah, okay. Bye, yes love you, too."

Bruce is kind of surprised that Peter has no embarrassment about that. Telling his aunt that he loves her in front of a complete stranger, but he guesses that he has a rather skewed perception of that because of Brian.

Parker looks up after he hangs up. "So, the Hulk, huh?"

Bruce is so startled by Peter's nonchalance that he laughs. "Yeah, I guess so." He shrugs. "Still getting used to that name. I usually just call him the Other Guy."

"Yeah, we don't really name ourselves, do we?"

"Nope." Bruce clears his throat. "Look we should get on with this."

"Waiting on you, Doc. What do you need?"

Bruce sighs and gets to work. He ends up taking buccal swabs, 5 vacutainers of blood, and even a urine sample.

He can't help but think that this kid is too young to be out there fighting crime. Even if he sticks to petty crime, he's risking his life and those around him. He says as much.

Peter frowns at his hands. "I understand what you're saying, Dr. Banner. But this isn't something I can walk away from. I tried. And I lost my uncle because of it. I can't walk away from being Spider-Man." He glares up, his defiance written in every feature of his too-young face. "And with all due respect, I don't see how it's any of your business. I saved New York from Dr. Connors. He had an aerosolized form of the serum that he used on himself. He was going to turn New York's population into lizard-people. And with Gwen's help and her father backing me up on that bridge, I stopped that. And Tony just said that SHIELD didn't even pick up on it until it was too late." He stands, shaking with fury. "And it wouldn't have been a matter of just turning them back. There would have been injuries and even deaths because the serum heightens aggression. Those people would've torn each other apart."

"You said it had regenerative properties."

"That would've gone away once you administered the antidote. Connors was an amputee. He lost the hand again when the antidote was dispersed." With his piece said, Peter strides out of the room.

Bruce thinks that's pretty great. The kid won't let anyone talk him out of his choice. Good. Lord knows there will be people from both sides will try.

He turns back to his analysis and can't believe he agreed to this. He had agreed to do experiments on a seventeen-year-old. They're pretty tame as far as biological testing goes, he guesses. But still, ugh.

And the kid's out there, and he's half-way between Tony and himself. Interested in biology but also excelling in engineering. And he's curious about his powers and excited to have access to a lab not run by his school.

Bruce gets a little carried away. So carried away that when he's testing Peter's DNA, he does some fiddling against samples he already had.

Except then he gets some matches.

"Oh hell, this won't end well."