Hypotheses

Bruce enjoyed walking at night. Now that people recognized him more, it was easier than daytime. Easier to relax, easier to go unnoticed. He used it as an opportunity to clear his head and to keep his evasion and observation skills sharp. You just never knew when they might come in handy.

Autumn was coming on and the night was getting brisk. He hadn't needed a jacket when he'd set out, but he missed it now, shoulders tightening and his steps hastening as the wind picked up a little. He was walking down a long stretch right next to central park, when he heard the scream. He might not have heard it if both the wind and the traffic hadn't died down.

It sounded like a kid. When the second scream came, he was listening for it, trying to localize it. He vaulted the spiked park railing and ran towards it.

"Leave me alone!" The screams resolved into words as he got closer.

She was being dragged along by one arm by an impatient looking man.

"You can't. You can't." She was sobbing and trying desperately to twist her arm out of his grip as she clung tightly to an overfull backpack with the other.

He stepped directly into the path of the man, who, since he had been looking down at the girl to reprimand her, walked more or less straight into him.

"Let go of her," he growled.

The man, who was a good head taller than him, looked at him and slapped an insincere smile on his face. "Look, buddy. You don't know what's going on here. Leave it alone."

"I know you're manhandling a girl who doesn't want to go with you. That's pretty much good enough for me."

The guy wasn't paying attention. Bruce noticed the girl looking up at him. She was tightening her grip on the bag.

"Seriously, fuck off," the guy said. "I am a cop."

"So what?" Bruce asked. The Hulk was rumbling dangerously within him. "Look. I'm getting angry, here."

"*You're* getting angry?" the man said. He sneered. "Why should I give a fuck?"

"You will," muttered Bruce. But he really didn't want to change right now, right here.

Suddenly, the girl ripped her arm away from the distracted man and took off running. When he made an impatient noise and turned--wether to follow her or just to yell, Bruce didn't know. He was already in motion. He lunged and hit the guy down low and took his legs out from under him, then he took off running after the girl. He could hear sounds of pursuit and yelling from behind him. He caught up with the girl and called "Follow me," as he passed her.

He made for a pizzaria nearby. If he was lucky, there'd even be a uniform hanging out there who he could sick on whoever the other guy was.

He didn't slow till he had to cross the street. He looked back for her and she wasn't far behind. There was no sign of the other guy. Nevertheless he ushered the girl across the street with swift steps and into the shop. The guy didn't come in after them. So either they had really lost him or the guy was holding back and biding his time.

"Two slices of mushroom & spinach, please," he said. "And whatever the young lady wants." He dialed while she ordered.

"Hey, I might need some backup," he said into the phone.

"Bruce. What the fuck? Why are you calling me from downstairs?" Tony asked.

"I am not," he said.

"You went somewhere?" Tony asked incredulously. "I thought you never went anywhere."

"How would you know?"

"I know things. What the hell, Banner?"

"Look. I might just...if I call you again how soon can you get to 69th and Columbus?"

"In my car or in the suit?"

"Low profile, Tony. Jeeze."

"Ah. So, generic car. Boring. What is going on?"

"Not sure yet. Call you when I know more."

"You asshole. Wind me up then abando..." Bruce hung up on him.

"So," he turned to the girl, who looked strained and wide-eyed, hair touseled wildly around her head. "What is the story?"

She shrugged and tried, futilely, to pat her hair down.

"Who was that guy?"

She shrugged again. "Said he was a cop."

"Did he show you a badge?"

She nodded. "Do you think he was for real? Am I in trouble?"

"I don't think you did anything wrong. Anyway, if you are, we'll fix it, okay?"

"I was going with him at first," she said. "I mean. The badge looks real and he said he'd help."

"Why did you change your mind?"

"He said he'd call my parents."

Ice crackled through Bruce's veins. "Which would be a bad idea?"

She nodded, then shrugged "I mean. Maybe not. But...after what they did to my brother..." Her face tightened and she squinted a little.

"Hey. It's okay," he said. "You can tell me what they did...if you feel like you can. You don't have to."

She started crying, then. Her whole spindly body shook with the sobs. "I'm a monster. A freak."

"You really are not."

She shook her head. "You don't understand."

He laughed. "You might be surprised."

"No, I mean. There's proof. They did a test."

Bruce took a deep breath. He already hated this girl's parents and she really, really needed him not to get VERY ANGRY about this right now. Even though he was. Furious. He took a paper napkin from the dispenser and started folding it into an origami swan. "What kind of test?"

"DNA."

"There is nothing in your DNA that would make you a monster or a freak," he said.

"But there's stuff there that...makes me freaky."

"Nope," he disagreed. "I know a lot of people with weird DNA and none of them are monsters or freaks. Some look different from other folks, but..."

She cut him off. "I knew you wouldn't understand."

"Look. Maybe...could you tell me the whole story?" Their pizza came out and he went up to grab it.

* * *

"You ever heard of the Friends of Humanity?" the girl asked. She used her thin fingers to make air quotes around the name.

He nodded.

"Mom and dad are...that. They're uh...really into it."

He made an encouraging noise with the deep, soothing breath he had just taken. Again -just - not a good time or place for hulk-outs.

"So like. My brother, Kevin, he's 3 years older than me. And a few weeks ago...well, he started to be able to do stuff."

"What stuff?"

"He could move stuff without touching it."

"Oh," said Bruce.

"I didn't believe him at first. He kept showing me and I thought it was a stupid magic trick. Like - last summer he learned all these card tricks. He tried to tell me they were magic, but they were all just...tricks. Lies. I thought this was, too."

"What changed your mind?"

"This one night, while he was asleep...I don't know, he must have had a really crazy dream or something. Stuff was flying around his room and thumping into walls and it woke me up. I went in there and he was definitely asleep. I tried to wake him up, but I got hit by something and it hurt. He must have woken mom up with the thumping, too, because she came in and started just screaming. It was all still flying around...you know, like in ghost movies, when the ghost is angry or something?"

Bruce swallowed, "Yeah."

"It was like that. Except real. And it only stopped when he woke up. And he only woke up when mom shook him hard.

"Mom shook him and everything hit the ground. She was crying and I looked up and dad was standing in the doorway and he looked really mad. He tried to pull mom away from Kev and kept shouting about how it was unnatural and impure.

"He made mom go out and take me back to bed. There was a lot more shouting between him and Kev then between him and Mom. First thing the next morning, this van came for Kev. And like, they took him away and dad said it was good riddance and mom cried a lot.

"I didn't really get scared till I asked when Kev was coming back and no one would tell me. I went into his room at night and I tried to put all the things away. I found his phone. He left it. I don't know why he would leave it."

She looked on the verge of crying, again. Fortunately the pizza came out at that point, which was a nice distraction. She wolfed down her first slice almost without pausing for breath and continued as she was reaching for another.

"Anyway, after just a few days, his phone got this weird text. I think it was from him. It was from some number the phone didn't know and it said 'Don't let them send you here.' That was it. I tried to text him back and ask him questions but he never answered.

"That was the same day that dad came and put a big q-tip in my mouth. And mom was all tense and sad and he was like 'we have to be sure'. He would barely even look at me.

"I started sleeping in Kevin's room, with my backpack. When dad came in looking for me and shouting that I was one too...that's all he said, 'She's one too. It's all rotten.' I grabbed my stuff and went out the window. I had my birthday money and some money I found in Kev's desk and that got me a ticket here. But now I just...I don't know. I slept in the park last night, but I guess that isn't really safe if people are gonna come drag me off."

"It's not really your job to know," Bruce said softly. "You should't have to deal with that kind of question at your age."

"Look, Mister, that's not how anything works."

He sighed. "I know."

She scarfed down a lot more pizza as he watched her, sadly.

"So you're a mutant?"

She shrugged. "I guess so. I can't think of anything else that would make dad hate me this much. I just...I have to find out a way to not be one or something. Maybe then I can go home. Maybe I should've let them send me to the place where Kevin is. Like - maybe they're helping him not float things."

"I...I really don't think that's how things work, either," Bruce said, quietly.

She looked at him. Her eyes glistened like she might cry again, but she mostly just looked exhausted.

"Look. I know sleeping in the park is independent and all, but do you want to come with me after this and sleep inside?"

She blinked at him. "Why are you being nice to me? Are you a perv?"

Bruce choked on his soda. "What?"

"Dad use to say the only reason a strange man would be nice to a little girl is if he's a perv."

"Do you know what a perv is?" Bruce asked.

"No, but it doesn't sound good."

"It isn't," Bruce confirmed. "I am not going to touch you or hurt you or make you do anything at all you don't want to do."

"So...why?"

"Because you need help and I can help," he said.

"What are you, some kind of superhero?"

He snorted. "What's your name?"

"Annie," she said.

"Okay, Annie. Well, I am not a superhero, but I do work with some."

She laughed like it had been a joke. He supposed she had no reason to think otherwise.

"Can we get more pizza?" she asked, eyeing the empty tray.

"Get one to go?" he asked her.

She nodded and he ordered and it wasn't too long before they were walking out. Bruce kept an eagle eye out, but he didn't see a trace of the guy who had been manhandling Annie earlier.

Annie looked dead on her feet by the time they made it to the tower. She blinked blearily at the gleaming lobby and the security guy that just nodded at him as they got in the elevator.

"You didn't tell me your name," she said.

"Bruce," he said.

"But I have to call you mister something," she said.

He shook his head, "No you don't. You can call me Bruce."

"Okay," she said. She was leaning heavily into the elevator wall.

Bruce led the way into his apartment and took her straight to the guest room. "Extra blankets are in the closet. Bathroom is through there," he pointed. "If you need anything and can't find it, I'll be in the living room."

He sat in there and flicked through some quick internet research on the Friends of Humanity. He also dashed off an email to the folks he knew who might be able to help in this situation.

After a while, he got concerned when she hadn't come back out for pizza. He peeked in to check on her and found her fast asleep on the bed, still clutching the backpack, not having even changed out of the clothes she'd been wearing in the park.

He pulled a blanket out of the closet and laid it carefully over her and then he snuck out, making as little noise as he could manage.

* * *

Bruce half expected her to be gone by the time he got up, but she was still asleep when he woke. He puttered around the kitchen till he heard her stir. When the shower went on in the guest bathroom, he started breakfast and by the time she came out he had scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies and oatmeal with apples and pecans.

"Morning."

She looked at him warily. "Hi."

"Want some food?" He had waited to dish any for himself till she got up, so she could see he was eating the same thing. Maybe he was assuming more paranoia for her than she had, but he knew how abused kids think. The memories were still vivid.

He made two plates and let her pick the one she wanted and took the one that was left.

"Hey, uh...thanks," she said.

"Sure thing," he said.

She ate quietly and quickly, going back for seconds and for thirds. He ate slowly, watching her pack the food away. She lingered slightly more over the third portion. Bruce thought it might just be that she was getting full till she looked up at him. "Guess I should go."

"You don't have to."

"I'm sure you have stuff to do."

"Kind of. You could come with me. Charge your phone and stuff."

"Uh. Okay."

He led her to the elevator and she seemed surprised when they got off on a different floor. "You work here, too?"

"Yup," he said.

"Why are you letting me hang out with you?" she said.

"I know what it's like to be a kid with nobody in your corner. I don't want anyone else to go through that."

"Anyone else sides you?" she asked.

"Exactly," he said.

She thought about that for a moment as he punched in the codekey for the lab. "What if I steal stuff?"

He laughed. "Take anything you like. Most of the really valuable stuff would be hard to fence, but you might get takers at a state college lab."

"What about your stuff? In your apartment?"

"Definitely take what you want. I don't have much, but you're welcome to it."

She gave him a hard look. "You're weird."

He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah. That's safe to say. So here. This terminal has internet if you want to do something. You can plug in your phone there and if you have any questions feel free to ask me."

"Uh...okay."

She took his advice and was deeply ensconced in some web game before he could say more. Bruce got down to work.

They went uninterrupted till about 12:30 when Tony stormed in like a force of nature. "Hey, big guy. You hung up on me last night. I will figure out a way to get you back for that, by the way, would have already if Pepper hadn't distracted me really, really well, so you should send her flowers or something. As should I, come to think of it. Pepper's distractions are the best. Anyway, revenge pending, but suspended for the moment, so do you want to go get some lunch and....when did you get a mini-me?" Tony noticed the girl sitting there who was staring at him mid-rant.

"Annie, Tony. Tony, Annie," said Bruce.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi yourself," said Tony. He draped an arm over Bruce's shoulders and hauled him towards one side of the room. "Why didn't you *tell* me you have a kid? Where has she been? Where did she come from? Does Pepper know about this? Does Steve? Do they know and not me? I'm hurt."

"She's not *my* kid, Tony."

"Who roped you into babysitting?"

"No one. I found her."

"Oh, no, big guy. No bringing strays home. I thought we agreed."

"Tony, she ran away from home."

"So send her back."

"She ran away from home, WITH CAUSE, Tony."

Tony stopped and really looked at Bruce's face. "Okay," he said. "Okay. Sorry I said we should send her back."

Bruce didn't accept the apology, but did give a brief nod.

"Seriously, though, there are systems for this. There are laws. We can't just...."

"Her parents sent her older brother away because he was a mutant. I am not throwing her into the system. I have contacted Sue Storm and Hank McCoy as well as a lawyer who specializes in representing powered persons."

"You talking about Jen? Because she terrifies me."

"She will be pleased to hear it."

"Really...in a good way."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "She'll probably be pleased at that too, but I'm not your sexting go-between, especially not for a blood relative."

"Okay. Okay. So you've got this handled?"

"Does this mean you're bowing out of lunch?" Bruce asked.

"No. No. Come on. You, me and micro-mutie there."

"Do NOT call her that. She's still freaking out about this whole thing."

"Just let me put some wheels in motion, then we can go," said Tony. "Hey Annie?" he added, louder and directed at the girl. "What's your full name, sweetheart? And your address if you know it."

"Of course I know my address. I'm TEN," she said. She gave him both and he spent ten minutes typing frantically before looking up and putting on his sunglasses.

"Okay. Let's roll," he said.

"Where to?" Bruce asked.

"Tenth floor," Tony replied.

Half the tenth floor was made up like an old-school diner, down to sparkly counters and vinyl booths. The other half looked like the bar & lounge from Star Trek: The Next Generation, just so Tony could call it Ten-Forward. He'd denied putting it in the plans but Bruce knew it damned well wasn't Pepper.

Employees could eat or relax in either place, but neither was open to the general public. Bruce guessed the choice was in deference to his own comfort or to Annie's, and he appreciated it.

They slid into a booth and a waitress dressed full-on fifties waitress outfit, including the little cap came out to hand menus out. "Mr. Stark, Mr. Banner. And who's your friend?" she asked with a smile.

"I'm Annie," she said.

"Well hello, Annie," the waitress said.

"She's hanging out with me, today, in the lab," Bruce said.

"Oh, lucky girl."

Annie looked shy, but smiled a little and looked up at Bruce. When the waitress left them to decide, she squinted at Tony then at Bruce.

"Are you important or something?" Annie asked.

"No," said Bruce at the same time as Tony said, "Yes."

"He is, I'm not," Bruce clarified.

"Are too," Tony said.

"Am not," Bruce countered.

"Are too. Are too Are toooooo!" said Tony, putting a little theatrics into it.

Annie giggled.

"You seem important," Annie said to Bruce. "You work in the big shiny room and that lady knows your name."

"She's just really nice," Bruce protested.

"He is important. He does science. For me."

"Is that why you're important? People do stuff for you?" Annie asked Tony.

"Well, that and I own the building and I'm Iro..."

Bruce cut him off. "He is my boss and the boss of a lot of people."

"Wow," Annie said.

"Yes, wow," said Tony. "I have a company with my name on it and I fund things other people could only dream of. Plus I get to weld whenever I want."

"What's welding?" she asked.

"Come by after lunch. I'll teach you."

"It's melting pieces of metal together and you will not teach her," said Bruce. "Not today, anyway."

"Just a little soldiering then?"

"Yeah. Just a little sodding?" she asked.

Bruce chuckled. "Maybe."

"So, Annie," said Tony. "What brings you to New York? Is it the museums? The night life? The culture? The shows?"

Her smile disappeared and Bruce could've socked Tony in the jaw.

"I just knew it was big and stuff," she said, with a shrug, staring down at the menu.

"Sorry, kid, I should let you pick what you want. Don't worry about the money. It's all on uncle Tony."

She looked a little happier when she saw the extensive list of ice cream flavors. "What's tutti frutti?"

"It's a bunch of fruit flavors together," said Bruce.

They ordered and the food came quickly. Annie ate quietly while Tony peppered Bruce with questions about his research. Annie got a to-go cup of ice cream after Bruce extracted the solemn promise that she would only eat it at the one desk she'd taken over and not contaminate the whole lab.

"Seriously," said Tony as he dropped them both off at Bruce's lab, "If you get sick of this guy come find me. 51st floor. Jarvis will let you in. I'll teach you how to make molotov cocktails."

Bruce shot him a murderous look.

"Thanks Mr. Tony."

"It's just Tony, kid. Mr. Tony was my mother." He disappeared in a swirl of toothy smile, expensive cologne and motor oil.

"Is he really your boss?" Annie asked when he had gone.

"Well, pretty much," said Bruce. "His company signs my paychecks."

"I can't believe that guy has a whole company," she said.

Bruce laughed. "Yeah. Sometimes I can't either."

"So what does this thing do?" She pointed to the centrefuge.

He explained the centerfuge, then the incubator, then showed her things under the regular microscope and the electron microscope. He'd barely had a chance to breathe, let alone check his email or anything, when Jarvis interrupted them with a soft ding.

"Pardon me, Doctor Banner, but Henry McCoy is at the desk and is being allowed up."

"Thanks, J," said Bruce. "That's fine."

"Who is that?"

"The voice? That's Jarvis. He runs the building."

"The whole thing? But it's huge! It must be a big job."

"It requires a substantial amount of epxertise," said Jarvis, "but I have had long practice."

Bruce couldn't help but notice that she was more impressed by Jarvis than she had been by Tony and smiled into his hand.

"So, a friend of mine is coming up here," he said to Annie. "He looks very different than you or I do, but he's really nice and I promise you'll like him if you give him a chance."

"What do you mean different?" Annie asked, fearfully.

At that moment, the elevator dinged, the doors opened, and Hank McCoy in all his furry blue majesty stepped out. Annie took one look at him and gave a high pitched scream.

Hank's smile dissolved. "Oh dear," he said. "I apologize, Doctor Banner. I assumed you would've...well, spoken to the young lady before I arrived."

"Sorry Hank," he murmured. "Didn't get a chance to check my email, so I didn't know you'd be coming in person till you arrived."

"Then the error is mine. I should've given more notice," he said.

Annie was hiding under her desk. Hank stepped neatly around it and then sat down easily on the floor, totally without regard for his crisp suit.

"My apologies, my dear young lady, if my appearance startled you. I promise that if I am a beast, I am a tame one," he said. "Please accept my apology and allow me the opportunity to do some small penance. I have brought a chocolate bar," he held it out to her. "I do beg you to accept it as a part of my mea culpa and I hope that we may continue our acquaintance on a happier path than on that which it began."

She was giving him a strange look as he held out the chocolate bar. "Huh?"

"I mean I'm sorry, and please have some chocolate as part of my apology for scaring you."

She slowly reached out and took the proffered chocolate.

"Are you a mon...did Bruce call you to take me to your cave or something?"

"I beg your...I don't live in a cave. I am a teacher at a residential school."

"*You're* a teacher?"

"Indubitably."

"What...what kind of teacher?"

"I teach biology, chemistry, philosophy and the odd bit of history when fancy takes me. And acrobatics."

"I used to do the balance beam," she said, quietly.

"A worthy feat, my dear. Requiring self-mastery and precision."

"What's a resi...residen..."

"A residential school is a school where our pupils live in the house where we all teach. I live there, myself and have for many years."

"Why?"

"That's a long story," he frowned. "The short version is I got kicked out of my old school."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because of my genetics," he said.

"Because..."

"My DNA," he said.

"Oh. Because you're a monster?" she didn't ask the question to wound, but Hank gave an indication of flinching, nonetheless. Bruce couldn't blame him.

"I may be a beast, but I endeavor with great energy never to be a monster."

"But...well...I thought bad DNA makes you...a monster."

"Who said my DNA was bad?" Hank asked her.

"But you said it got you kicked out of school."

"Sometimes you don't get sent away because you're bad, but because others are," he said, to her.

She looked at him seriously, then nodded, slowly. "You seem nice."

"I do try to be, especially where delightful little girls are concerned."

"I have bad DNA, too," she said.

"I doubt that anything about you is bad, dear heart," said Hank, softly.

Bruce heard the sniffles start and was not at all surprised when sobs broke out from under the desk. Hank held out an arm and Annie flew into it and the enfolding hug it offered. She clung to fistfulls of Hank's fur and sobbed into his broad shoulder. He just held her close and rocked a little.

"It's all right. You're safe, now. You're safe, little one," he said. "There is nothing wrong with you and you're safe." Hank gave Bruce an expressive look. Bruce nodded in return. He could wish for his younger self that there had ever been someone as reassuring as Hank to say similar words to him when he was so young. Maybe they'd gotten to Annie soon enough. Maybe she'd be able to believe the things she was told in a way Bruce would never be able to.

Those scars ran too deep for the Hulk to mend.

"So," said Hank, softly, after Annie had been crying for quite some time. "I thought I might stay a few days and do some things around town and if you have time, little one, we could talk some about my school and see if it sounds like a place to which you'd like to come, some time.

"I can always get a hotel room, if it's too much trouble," he said, to Bruce.

"No. Plenty of room. You can have my bed. I'll sleep in my den," said Bruce.

"I wouldn't want to put you out," protested Hank.

"It's no trouble. I sleep in there half the time, anyway when I get too groggy working on something."

"That is a malady I know well, my friend. Very well. I accept your offer. Many thanks."

* * *

Bruce wound up things in the lab while Hank asked Annie about herself. Bruce had given him the outlines of how she wound up running away, but he asked earnest, open-ended questions about anything and everything and got her talking a lot more.

By the time Bruce had everything set up to where he could leave it, they were talking like old friends.

"Well, it seems to me that if dinosaurs had feathers then we should depict them that way," Hank was saying.

"But they look weird!" Insisted Annie. "They're supposed to be scary."

"Why?" Hank asked.

"Why?" she repeated.

"Why are they supposed to be scary?"

"Well, they always are in movies and games and stuff."

"But does that mean they were in real life? After all, plenty of people are scary in movies and video games. Where in real life - many are not at all."

"This sounds like a deep philosophical discussion," said Bruce.

"Oh, it is. We're having fundamental differences of opinion and asking hard questions. As all scientists should," said Hank.

Annie giggled. "I'm not a scientist."

"What do you think a scientist is?" Bruce asked.

"Someone who wears a lab coat and does...science?" she said, tentatively.

"A scientist is anyone who observes the word and forms hypotheses about how it works and then observes to see if the hypotheses are correct," said Bruce.

"What's a hypothesis?" Annie asked.

"It's a guess based on observation," said Hank. "So like...if you observed Bruce, for instance...what guess about how he lives would you make about him based on past behavior?"

"I would guess...he likes to eat pizza," she said.

"Good guess," said Bruce, with a smile.

"He...has weird friends?" she hazarded.

"Ah," said Hank as he reached out to offer her his hand and they followed Bruce to the door. "But you can't say 'weird' you have to say weird *how*."

"He has friends who are furry and blue and who own whole companies," she said.

Hank smiled and smoothed his tie. "Well, let's call them exceptional friends, then. Friends who are far away from average."

"Okay. Yes. Not-average friends."

"Does that include all his friends?" Hank asked.

"How would I know?" she asked back.

"Good point. We'd better go meet some more of them," Hank replied. "Perhaps tomorrow?" he asked Bruce.

Bruce shrugged. "Sure, whatever you guys want," he said. "I'll take the day off."

"Splendid," said Hank, with a grin. "Now, young lady. Have you ever tried Ethiopian food? It is, I assure you, an experience."

Bruce shook his head and followed them out.

* * *

Later that night, after a dinner distracting Annie with tales of lab mishaps and travel to far away places, and after everyone had gone to their separate corners to sleep, Bruce was twisting on the sofa, trying to find the best angle when he heard a soft sound.

He looked up at the doorway and saw a blob there. He reached for his glasses and the blob resolved into Annie. Her curly brown hair was a disordered mop and her eyes were red.

"Hey. Hey," he said, gently, sitting up. "Are you okay?"

She crept forward. "I...I miss my mom," she said, in a broken voice.

"Hey. Hey," he said again. "I'm sorry. Do you want a hug?"

She nodded and ran over to him and he enfolded her in his arms as she flung hers around his neck. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said.

"This is dumb," she said.

"What? No it's not," he assured her.

"She doesn't even want me...," tears began and turned into body-shaking sobs.

"I can't speak for her, Annie, but I bet she does. And you are wanted in this world, just as you are." He rocked her softly back and forth. "Even if what you think is true and she doesn't want you around, it's okay to cry about that, too, okay?"

She sobbed more and nodded damply into his shoulder.

"If you want we could call her right now. We don't even have to tell her where you are if you're still afraid."

She shook her head. "I want Kev," she said, softly.

"We will find him. I promise you," he said.

"How?"

"I've already got some friends of mine working on that. And I bet Hank does, too. He knows some people who are really good at finding."

"Ceptional friends?" she asked.

"Yeah. Exceptional friends. Just like me. And you, now, too. You've got friends. We're gonna look out for you. And we're gonna find Kev and look out for him, too."

She sobbed again and hugged him harder. He held her and rocked softly till her body began to relax. Then he sat still for a while longer till he was sure she was asleep.

When he rose to take her back to bed, he walked nearly headlong into Hank in the hallway. He tried to signal that he should stay quiet. Hank nodded and padded softly after him as he put Annie back to bed. Then Bruce motioned him into the living room, which was a little further away from Annie's room than his den.

"I take it you heard that?"

"Hazard of my species, I'm afraid. I have very good hearing," he said.

"Why not come in?"

"She came to you. She needs to be able to make that kind of a choice right now. I think I am still other, to her. An entertaining other, but still..." Hank sighed. "I should've let Kitty come instead. She wouldn't have scared the child so much, but she's better with computers than I and I thought her skills would best be applied in looking for the brother and his captors."

Bruce sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Captors."

"Would you call them something else? They're holding children against their will. It is extremely likely they are abusing them physically. They are definitely abusing them mentally. I've seen those places. I don't give a good god damn about parental permission, they are...terrible."

"I know," Bruce said, quietly. "I just...wish I'd been able to...reframe some of my childhood with a word like that."

Hank smiled at him and gestured expansively. "There's still time, my friend. We all of us have things to re-frame. Heroes aren't built by all-american good heartedness."

"Superman was," said Bruce.

"Superman is *fictional*," said Hank.

"Well, what about..."

"Please don't recite exceptions and make me shoot them down. I am speaking in generalities, Bruce. Adversity creates...a constant need...for something. The something varies but the need is constant."

"What did it create a need for in you?" Bruce asked.

Hank sighed and sat back, mulling the question over. He smoothed the fur of one arm with the other. Finally, he said, "Acceptance, approbation, stability..." He fixed Bruce with a look. "And you?"

Bruce sighed. "Just...safety, mostly. Just...feeling safe for two whole minutes together."

Hank nodded. "And justice, of course...for me, I mean."

"Justice," Bruce snorted. "Not sure I know what that means."

"It means when I see pain meted out to children, I want to stop it," said Hank. "Amongst other things."

"Now I would think that would be a train just about everyone could get on," he said.

"Would that it were so, doctor," Hank replied. "If it were such a universally beloved conveyance, we wouldn't need it on the tracks to begin with."

Bruce sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Have you thought about what we're going to do with her tomorrow?"

"Museum of Natural History? Perhaps?"

Bruce nodded heavily. "Better get our beauty sleep, then."

"Indeed," Hank agreed. "Late nights take the spring out of the step and the shine out of the fur."

"I will have to take your word on that, but late nights sure don't let me keep up with ten-year-olds."

Hank laughed. "Nothing does, really, but at least we have her outnumbered."

"Pretty much our only shot," Bruce agreed. "Night Hank."

"Good night, Bruce," Hank went back into the bedroom as Bruce took himself back to the den and had much less trouble getting to sleep.

* * *

When Hank awoke the next morning, he had good cause to appreciate Kitty's foresight in making him pack a bag before he left the school. He was quite pleased not to have to get into the same suit as yesterday. The grey slacks and pale gold button-down were much more suitable for museum-going, in any case.

He found himself mentally planning an itinerary through the museum as he performed his usual morning ablutions and sorting through a lesson-plan.

"You can take the man out of the school, but not the school out of the man," he said to his reflection as he put his fur in better order with a short-bristled brush.

He called into the mansion to check on the progress. Kitty had located the girl's parents and their local chapter of the "Friends of Humanity" but she had yet to discover where they shipped young mutants off to when they got the chance.

"We will find him. I swear I will bust out him and any other kids they've got there with my teeth, if I have to," she said.

"I'm sure your dentist would prefer that you leave it to someone else, rather than abuse your teeth."

"Henry," she said, chidingly "It will be CATHARTIC."

He chuckled.

"Anyway. I'm not going alone," she assured him. "We're going to go in force to try to make sure we get everyone out as quickly as possible."

"You'll call if you need me?"

"We would, but we won't," she said. "Ororo is home. And me. And Kurt."

"I'd be more comfortable if you had one of the telepathics with you," he said.

"Quentin is coming."

"Seriously? Quentin? We're trusting him in the field?"

"Against civilians, no. But I am having trouble caring what might happen to guys running a mutant concentration camp."

"Fair point," said Hank. "Luck be with you."

"We don't need luck. I told you. We've got Ororo."

Hank laughed outright and said goodbye. He sauntered out to the kitchen from which breakfasty smells had been wafting for some little time.

"Good morning," he said. Bruce was at the stove. Annie was sitting at the table, swinging her feet and bouncing.

"Hi Mr. Hank," she said. "Bruce said we're going on a field trip."

"Indeed. We're going to one of the grandest places in all of Manhattan, in my opinion," said Hank.

"Really?" she asked, eyes wide. "Where?"

"It's a place full of dinosaurs and stars and giant rodents and all manner of interesting things," he said.

"It's designed for people of all ages," Bruce said. "It's going to be fun."

"And we'll get lunch there, too, I think," said Hank. "But of course, breakfast first, before we go. We wouldn't want to do the day out of order, would we?"

Annie looked at him. "Could you even do that?"

Hank smiled. "It depends on your perspective."

"Do you ever just say yes or no to a question."

"Sometimes," he said.

She rolled her eyes.

"You must understand that the structure of a day from a physics perspective isn't the same as that from an anthropological perspective."

"What?"

"He means," said Bruce. "The earth spins and that's what makes the sun seem to go up and down in our sky, right?"

She nodded.

"But people have a structure to their day, too," Bruce added. "So you can't break your fast last in the day, because 'breaking fast' means eating the first food that you eat after not eating all night."

"But you could have pancakes for dinner," said Hank. "Which many people would consider an out-of-order thing to eat. Or you could have pizza for breakfast. Or fish. Or salad."

She wrinkled her nose. "Fish for breakfast sounds gross."

"People around the world have traditional breakfast dishes that contain fish. Sometimes Japanese folks even eat sushi for breakfast," said Hank.

"What's sushi?" she asked.

"Raw fish," Bruce said.

She stuck her tounge out and made a horrified face. "Ew! Who would eat that?"

"The Japanese were the ones that started it," said Bruce.

"But lots of people eat it. I've had sushi. It's quite good," Hank offered.

"I like it too," said Bruce.

"You guys are WEIRD," she proclaimed.

"As weird as pancakes for dinner?" Hank asked her.

"Way weirder."

"Weirder or less weird than giant squids?" Bruce asked.

She giggled. "Less weird."

"What about clowns? Where do clowns fall on the wierdness scale?" Hank asked her.

She thought for a moment. "You're more weird than some clowns."

"Ahhhh. Now you're thinking like a scientist," said Hank approvingly. "Clowns are not a single data point but are scattered on the scale."

"Maybe we should map it out," Bruce offered, hiding a smile.

"Mmm...not now when the bacon is coming out," Hank said.

Bruce did pull the bacon out of the pan and set the plate of cheesy egg and vegetable scramble in the middle.

"Yum!" said Annie, reaching for the platter almost before it touched down.

"I heartily concur. This smells amazing. Many thanks for cooking, Bruce."

"Thanks," Annie echoed, her mouth half-full of bacon.

"You're both welcome," said Bruce.

"So what are the terminal points of our weirdness scale?" Bruce asked, pouring more coffee for Hank.

"Hm...I'm not sure. I do believe it'd be an insult to be on the normal end, though."

Bruce laughed. "Not much danger of that for me."

"Nor for me," Hank said.

"I...I don't know about me," said Annie.

"Well, let's say that the wierdness scale was from not at all weird to super-duper weird," said Hank. "Most people wouldn't be at one end or the other, but would fall somewhere in the middle."

"Have you heard of a bell curve?" Bruce asked.

Annie shook her head. And the two men spent the rest of breakfast explaining the ins and outs of normal statistical distribution in a population.

They decided to walk to the museum of natural history. Neither of the men commented when Annie took a long time deciding whether to leave her backpack behind. Hank was thrilled when she decided to leave it, though.

Annie shyly took Hank's hand as they walked through the park. Hank did his best to keep her attention split between himself and Bruce and not on the other people who occasionally stared. Though not too often. New Yorkers, after all, weren't surprised by much.

The museum was relatively quiet. Probably, since it was a nice day, people chose to keep their kids outside instead. Hank was quietly grateful as they moved from exhibit to exhibit. He thought he'd save the planetarium for last, after lunch. Good to sit down for awhile and be calm a bit before heading home. Following his mental lesson plan (while trying not to get too hung up on it) they started in the hall of ancient bones - dinosaurs and prehistoric megafauna of all types were always very impressive, in his experience.

He explained the extinction of the dinoasaurs the theories of the rise of mammals, how ice ages worked (with a side of how global climate change works, to which Bruce leant a great deal of expertise), and they eventually found themselves in the exhibit on evolution.

Looking at the giant, colorful cladogram on one wall, he began to give the familiar speech in the most child-safe version.

"All of evolution has to do with a few things. An animal's relationship to its environment, including other animals, an animal's own internal functioning and random chance," he said.

"Random chance? I thought it was natural selection like it said on the sign," said Annie.

"Well, without some random chance, nature would have nothing to select between. See, when life first came to this planet, it was all unicellular organisms," he said.

"He means tiny little creatures. You could only see them with a microscope," said Bruce, when Annie glanced his way for help.

"Indeed," said Hank. "They would just ooze around in water, blindly oozing for food."

Annie stuck out her tonuge and wrinkled her nose. "It sounds gross."

"Well, that's as may be, but there wasn't a different option for them. At least- not until they began to specialize."

"What's that?"

"Specialization is getting really good at one thing," said Bruce. "Like Hank spent a lot of time learning about biology. That's his specialization."

"And physics is Bruce's specialization," Hank offered. "And engineering is Tony's, and computers are my friend Kitty's."

"You have a cat friend?" Annie asked. "Who can use a computer?"

"No. Kitty is her name, my dear. It's a nickname for Catherine."

"Oh," she seemed disappointed.

"In any case, the cells specialized," Hank went on. "So one got better at moving around in the water. Another got better at reaching out for things, a third got better figuring out whether food was nearby.

"Then they banded together into groups. Because when they did that, each specialized piece could make lives of other cells easier with its specialty."

"Like a team."

"Precisely, my dear. As these organisms got more and more complex, they started to be more and more different from one another. A new creature would be born from an old a little different from its parents. With something that the parents didn't have. Those differences are mutations."

Annie frowned and looked down.

"Without mutation we wouldn't have all the different plants and animals we have today. These sudden changes would happen, and some of them were huge advantages, so the creatures that had the mutations survived better than the creatures without them. That means that the mutant creatures became the main branch of the species and went on."

"What?"

"That's natural selection. Mutations that help a species adapt to their environment are passed on and spread everywhere. They are advantages that can't be beaten."

"But do mutations always help?" Annie asked.

"Well, there's certainly a debate to be had on that topic," said Hank, "but I think the vast majority are helpful and good."

He crouched down by her and pointed up at the cladogram. "We all have a place in the history of evolution. Some people think that homo sapiens -- that's humans -- are the pinnacle of evolution, but any species can grow and change and will, in fact, inevitably continue to grow and change till they die off completely.

"To continue on in the world, mutants must happen and be allowed to flourish if they can," he said.

She stared at him wide-eyed.

"Annie, ther reason people like your parents join groups like Friends of Humanity is because they are afraid of this process of change. They think they'll be left behind, shunted to the side...irrelevant. But that's not true. Just as mutants are a step on the evolutionary path, we could not exist without them. They are our family."

Tears were glistening in the girl's eyes as she nodded.

"You are important. You are valuable. If you're a mistake, you're a lucky one. There is no shame at all in being what nature made you. Even if people are afraid. Even if they're afraid, you are still good. Okay?"

She gave him a watery smile. "Okay," she said, softly.

"Mutant and proud," he said to her, with a reassuring smile. "Alright. Who wants lunch?"

She smiled brighter. "I do."

"I could eat," Bruce added.

"Excellent. Let us repair to the cafe. And afterwards...THE UNIVERSE!"

***

The planetarium show was a simple little thing on light speed and the properties of stars, but Bruce found himself enjoying it anyway. It was nice to just sit back with a full belly after the emotional intensity of the morning. He wasn't surprised when Hank immediately capitulated when Annie looked longingly at the gift shop as they were leaving. Nor was he surprised that they left with books and various other over-priced toys and souveniers. Apparently he and Hank were both suckers for both museum shops and lonely kids.

He got a text as they were checking out. "Sue has invited us for dinner, if we are up to it," he said to Hank.

"Well, what do you think. Shall we meet another of Bruce's exceptional friends?"

"Yes!" Annie bounced out of the shop clutching a stuffed dinosaur already having pulled a sweatshirt with glow-in-the-dark stars printed over it over her head.

"They're doing taco night," Bruce added.

"Yum!" Annie cried.

Bruce took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair and followed the bouncing girl at a more sedate pace.

"Drained already?" Hank asked him.

Bruce chuckled. "Maybe."

"Well, it'll be good for her to meet Franklin and Val," said Hank.

"I thought so, too," said Bruce. "Apparently Jen is going to be there too."

"Your comely and cosmopolitan cousin?" Hank patted down his shirt in an obviously self-conscious manner.

"Why does everyone want to fuck my cousin?" Bruce muttered.

"Is that vulgar question born of jealousy or envy, my friend?"

Bruce laughed. "Both I guess."

"In any case, I wouldn't dream of presuming."

"She could do a lot worse, Hank. Sorry. I'm just...tired, I guess."

"And on edge, perhaps? It's no easy thing to see one's past reflected in someone else. Especially when it's such a negative one."

Bruce sighed again. "Yeah....yeah."

Annie bounced back to them, impeding any further psychologizing with her enthusiasm about stars and everything else they'd seen that day. Her enthusiasm cranked itself to eleven when she found out they were taking a cab to the Baxter Building.

Sue was waiting at the door for them when they arrived.

"Hello Bruce, Hank. And this must be Annie. Val and Franklin are excited to meet you."

"Who are they?" she asked.

"My children. Franklin is a little older than you and Valerie is a little younger, but I suspect you'll get along."

"Do they know...." she looked up at Bruce, anxiously.

"I don't know, but they won't be afraid or angry if they do," Bruce assured her.

"Or mean?" she asked.

"Definitely not," Bruce said.

She clung to Bruce's hand for the ride up in the elevator. Franklin and Val hugged Hank enthusiastically and Franklin shook Bruce's hand seriously before the chilrden whisked Annie away in a torrent of noise to "play with legos and the matter printer". Bruce decided not to be alarmed by that since Sue wasn't.

"You two look like you've been through the wringer," said Sue, sympathetically.

"Well, your customary pulchritude and charm can only help revive us," said Hank. He kissed her hand.

Bruce rolled his eyes. Sue caught that and smacked his arm before giving him a hug. "Jen is finishing up some...document or something. She'll be out for dinner."

"How is Reed?"

"He's Reed," she said to Bruce. "He's inter-dimensional at the moment so odds are he won't be home to eat with us."

"Well, that's a very solid excuse," said Hank.

She laughed. "Barely. Around here, at least. Can I get you guys something to drink?"

They accepted and were chatting about science and kids when Jen arrived. Bruce stood to hug her and watched her accept her own hand kiss and effusive greeting from Hank.

"Good to see you, cuz," she said. "You guys look like exhausted dads. Thinking of taking it up permanently?"

Bruce shot Jen, then Hank an alarmed look. "Together?"

Jen laughed. "You so could do worse than Dr. Fuzzypants, Bruce. Don't even."

Hank chuckled and winked at him. "Seems to me I've heard that before. But no. We're not embarking on new domestic fronteirs just now. This is...important, but temporary."

"Okay, well, this isn't," Jen let a hefty stack of paper thump on the table. "We've got paperwork on the girl's rights, on making the school the foster home...you guys are still registered for that, right?"

Hank nodded. "Kitty has made sure of that. We need to leverage it often enough."

Jen nodded. "I've also started to draw up a civil suit against the reprogramming place that has her brother, though it'll be a lot easier to fill in the details when we know where they are and who's running them."

"Kitty is working on that, too. I think she's gonna ride in there like a valkyrie and set the place on fire."

"Make sure she gets paperwork before she does that so we know who to sue into the fucking ground," said Jen.

"I'll do my best."

"I thought you guys had pretty much shut down all the re-education centers that took kids," said Sue.

"We did. But they pop up as soon as we can shut them down, especially when we're trying to go through legal channels to do it."

Jen nodded. "A name change and a hop across state lines and they start it all again," she said. "A lot of judges will only jail the director of a center or the main doctor. If even that. There's a lot of sympathy some places for what they're trying to do."

"Torturing kids?" Bruce asked softly. "Lots of sympathy? Really?"

"Sometimes people just don't know how bad it is for them," said Jen.

"And others do not care. You know...we're a scourge...a danger et cetera et cetera," added Hank.

Sue frowned and reached for her wine. "I swear to god. People."

"Indeed," Hank said sympathetically.

"Well, now that we're all here, I'd better get the kids up for food," Sue said.

She went out and then was soon preceded back by three youngsters babbling happily. Bruce noted that Annie's plesiosaur had gained a ruffled dress and matching bonnet in the time since they'd arrived.

Annie seemed like all her fear had been washed away. She chattered happily with Val while everyone filled their plates.

"Val and Franklin don't go to school," she confided to Bruce as they ate. "They said they learn things here. And around with their parents."

"That's true," he said.

"Val says it's because they're too advanced for normal schools. Are they 'ceptional?"

"In a way. No more so than you or I."

"How can you know who's ceptional if almost everyone looks normal?"

"You have to get to know them," he said.

She thought about this while she stuffed another taco into her mouth.

"Your dinosaur looks great in her new outfit," Bruce offered.

Annie lit up, "Isn't she pretty! I named her Pleasance."

"That's a nice name."

"It was Val's idea. She said I should name her Pleasance cause she's a plesiosaurus. So it makes sense. Val helped me make a few outfits for her. With the matter printer. We designed em!"

"That sounds like fun," said Bruce. "Looks like you did a great job."

People were chatting all around the table. Bruce almost missed it when Hank got a call and stepped away to take it, but everyone noticed when he came back to get Jen.

"Problem?" Sue asked quietly.

"Possibly," said Hank. He and Jen went into the next room, and Bruce had to fight the urge to follow them and find out what was going on. Instead he concentrated on keeping Annie distracted.

Hank came back out after a few minutes. "Kurt is coming for us," he said, in a voice pitched for Sue and Bruce's ears only. "We could use more help."

"I'll go," Bruce said immediately.

"I will go too," said Sue. "Just let me call Johnny."

Sue stood up and went into the next room as well. She came back quickly. "We have to go somewhere to run an important errand," she said to the children. "In the meantime, Johnny is coming to look after you."

"Uncle Johnny!" Val squealed and clapped.

"Is he bringing Spider-man?" Franklin asked.

"I don't think so. You kids be good for him. Till he gets here, Franklin is in charge."

Bruce went over to Annie. "We'll be back as soon as we can, okay?"

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"We're going to help some people who need help," said Hank, walking up beside him. "They'll take good care of you here till we come back."

She looked at them, clearly afraid. "What if you don't?"

"We will. Bruce in particular always comes back. Always," said Hank. "Don't worry about that. Just stay with the Richards until we come, okay?"

Annie nodded. Val was standing nearby and gave her a hug. "It's okay. It's scary, but they're good. They will be okay."

"Does your Uncle really know Spider-man?" was the last thing Bruce heard Annie say before Hank whisked him into the next room. He had a feeling that he'd have a lot of questions to answer when he saw her again.

In the next room, everyone was suiting up. Hank stripped efficiently down to his bathing-suit of a uniform. Jen was already in a unitard and getting bigger and greener. Sue was in her body suit and flexing her muscles, sending tiny force-waves out each time she did. Bruce shrugged and took off his shirt and laid it by Hank's suit.

"Really?" Jen asked.

"It's my favorite," he replied.

Suddenly Kurt Wagner appeared bringing with him the smell of sulphur.

"We must be quick, meine freunde. Are you prepared?"

In answer, Hank grasped Bruce's hand and offered his other to Kurt. Quickly they all joined hands and just as quickly they blinked through dimensions and found themselves on the edge of a green wood. The air was humid and Bruce blinked for a bit till his vision adjusted to the dark.

"The fucking baby jail is over that way," said a lithe youth with bright pink hair. "I can hear them." He tapped his head.

"We need any paperwork or records we can find. Any proof of who they are and the methods they're using needs to go back with me," said Jen.

"We *need* to get those children out of there," Said Sue, looking incredibly angry as she braced herself against the ground.

"That goes without saying, though I don't blame you for saying it," Ororo came in for a landing in her full uniform, her hair standing out from her head with electricity crackling through it.

"Why call us in?" Bruce asked.

"Well, the place is bigger than we thought it was," said Kitty, phasing through a tree right next to him. "Also it seems to be a lot better guarded than we anticipated. We think something may have tipped them off that we were looking for them."

"Something in your hacking and hunting?" Hank asked her.

"Not *my* hacking," Kitty said, annoyed.

"Could have been Tony. He set some digital wheels in motion, but he's usually pretty good at subtle...at least when it comes to code."

"Who cares why they know? They do and we've got more to punch through before we can get those kids out," the youth said.

"Knowing how they found out may tell us just how prepared they are, Quentin," said Hank.

Suddenly, a phone rang. Bruce realized sheepishly that it was his and answered it.

"They're planning on moving the kids from the place where Annie's brother is," said Tony. "We need to do something right now."

"Already on it," said Bruce. "When are they moving them? Is that why they've beefed up security?"

"Tonight and yes, as far as I can tell. How did you know?"

"I'm about half a kilometer from there with a passel of assorted superheroes. We're about to bust in."

"Well, you bust the kids out and I'll have full evac and medical there in two hours," said Tony. "I need to fucking talk to some congressmen. This shit needs to stop."

"Figure out the politics later, Tony. Thanks."

Bruce relayed his info to the group.

"Okay, well, whatever they're ready for they are not ready for this group," said Kitty.

"They can't be ready for me," said Sue, fury in her eyes.

"All right, huddle up," said Kitty. "Here's the plan...."

* * *

When they adults had gone, Annie felt a little lost. Franklin and Val were super nice, but everything was so new and she was feeling all scrumpled up inside.

"Why did they all have to go?" She asked, half-panicked.

"Mom wouldn't have left unless it was really important," said Val.

Franklin nodded. "She's good about being selective when it comes to heroing."

"Heroing? Are they really heroes?" Annie asked.

Franklin blinked slowly at her and Val laughed. "Don't you know who you've been hanging out with?"

Annie shrugged. "Bruce and Mister Hank?"

"Also known as The Hulk and The Beast, members of the Avengers and the X-Men, respectively," said Franklin.

Annie felt weird. "What? No way!"

"How did you not know?" Val asked.

"How would she know?" Franklin asked. "It's not like Dr. Banner goes around advertising his alternate identity."

"But Dr. McCoy?" Val said.

"I just thought Bruce called him cause I'm a mutant and so is he. He said he was a teacher."

"He is," confirmed Franklin.

"He's almost as smart as our dad," Val added.

"But he's also an X-Man," said Franklin. "So you're a mutant? What's your power?"

"I don't know," said Annie. "I don't even know if I have one."

"How do you know you're a mutant, then?" Val asked.

"My parents tested my DNA."

Val exchanged a look with Franklin, then looked back at her. "Why?"

Annie shrugged. "They found out Kev could float things around and dad was really upset."

Franklin frowned. "That sucks," he said.

"They sent Kev away."

Val looked really sad and came over to hug Annie.

"Bruce said they'd find him."

"I'm sure they will," said Val.

"Huh," Franklin said. "I wonder if that's where they've gone."

"They went to get Kev?" Annie gave him a hopeful look. "How do you know?"

"Seems likely," Franklin shrugged "call it a reasonable hypothesis....We can find out."

"Why wouldn't they take me?"

"They probably think it's too dangerous for us," said Val.

"I don't care! I want Kev!" Annie started crying. She felt like her feelings were just too big for her head.

"It's okay. It'll be okay," Val was saying. Franklin had his phone out and was tapping on things.

"I think they're in rural Pennsylvania," he said.

"How do you know?" said Val.

"I've been working on a tracking program for mom's force powers. Also, emergency services have reported several Hulk sightings in the past fifteen minutes," he said.

"Oooh. You're gonna be in trouble when mom finds out you've been hacking government nets again," said Val.

Franklin fixed her with an icy stare. "Only if SOMEONE TELLS HER."

Val shrugged and backed off. "I won't tell, but she'll find out."

Annie was looking back and forth between them, feeling helpless. "Do you think they're where Kev is?"

"Seems quite probable," said Franklin.

"Yeah, probably," agreed Val. "It's funny how they think we wouldn't figure that out."

"We should head out," said Franklin.

"You're right," said Val after a glance at her phone.

"To where they are?" Annie asked.

"Yeah. If we don't go soon, Uncle Johnny will already be here," said Val.

"He'll feel worse if we let him think he could've stopped us," Franklin said. "Quickly. You can leave your stuff here, Annie. The 'copter will get us there in less than an hour."

"I bet Annie will fit into your spare armor," said Val.

"Armor?" Annie asked, "cool."

They left their stuff and ran, piling onto a strange-looking helicopter where Val helped Annie strap into a funny outfit. It didn't feel like a suit of armor, but Val assured her that it would protect her.

They hadn't been gone more than ten minutes before the radio crackled to life.

"Come in Fantasticopter this is Bax Control," a voice said, sounding crisp and close in the earphone built into the helmet Annie was wearing.

Val and Franklin, strapped into the front seat, exchanged a look. They didn't respond to the voice.

"I swear to god Val and Frank, if you don't answer me and let me know you're okay, I will murder you myself."

Val pressed a button. "We're fine, Uncle Johnny."

"Oh, only till I catch up with you," the voice said. "You're grounded. You're both grounded. And your little friend, too, if it's up to me."

Franklin snorted. "The irony of telling us we're grounded when we're currently flying is palpable, Uncle Johnny."

"I am tracking you but it will be easier if you just tell me where you're headed," the radio guy said.

"Easier for who?" Val said.

The radio guy gave a dramatic sigh. "All right. I have to warn you, I am calling your mother now."

"She's busy," Val said.

"I know! That's why she called me to look after you pair of menaces!"

"We'll be fine. We can help!" Val said.

"THEY DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!"

"How would you know?" Franklin asked.

"Okay. Look, kids. Your mother is going to murder me if anything happens to you. You wouldn't want me to die, would you?"

"Of course not, Uncle Johnny, but this is important. We have to go get Annie's brother. You wouldn't leave mom somewhere awful, would you?"

The radio was silent for a bit before their uncle finally said, "I still formally disapprove of this course of action."

"Noted," said Franklin. "It's hilarious, coming from you, but noted."

"You kids be careful. I'm on my way. Don't rush into anything without backup."

"We *are* the backup," said Val. "We'll be fine."

The radio fell silent again.

"Are you guys in trouble?" Annie asked them.

"Nah," said Val. "Uncle Johnny didn't mean it."

"We'll be fine as long as none of us gets hurt...much," said Franklin.

"I don't care if I get hurt," said Annie, trying to feel brave.

"I do," said Val. "I care if you get hurt and if we do. Getting hurt sucks."

"Do you guys do this a lot?"

"Not too often," said Val. "Only if it's important."

"Like - only if people we love or the world is in danger or something," Franklin agreed.

"About twice a month," Val added.

Annie quietly considered this as they zoomed through the dark.

* * *

Hank had to admit to Kitty that it was, indeed, cathartic to break in to the mutant 'reeducation' facility. Though he found it frustrating that he was looking through the documentation in the office while Jen was down fighting the security staff and Kitty was the one busting kids out of cages.

He was filling up boxes with anything that looked plausibly useful in pinning down identities of kids or captors as well as the daily operations of the place and handing them off to Kurt whenever he poofed into existence.

"Okay. I think that's about it," he said after ten or so boxes. "Let's go where the kids are," he said.

"I can only get you close. The main area is deep underground. And you know I can only go where I can see."

"Close will be fine, my friend. Danke vielmals."

Hank carefully put his reading glasses away in a hidden pocket and clung to Kurt for the brief flashing journey to outside then to a lower floor. He could hear the noises of screaming and shots and metal-on-metal.

"We'll get the kids to here as soon as we can and you can get them out?"

"As long as my strength holds, Iche werde das machen."

Hank nodded and sprinted and leapt towards the sounds of battle.

Open, industrial ceilings let him crawl along beams and pipes, getting behind the few remaining dogged security men who were still standing against the She-Hulk. She was holding off seven of them without so much as breaking a sweat. Hank dropped nimbly down behind them and casually grabbed one of them out of the fray.

He was startled and wide-eyed and before he could bring his gun to bear on Hank, the Beast had bent the barrel nearly in half.

"How do I open the cells?" he asked, in a mild voice.

The man set his jaw and gave Hank an angry stare.

Hank bent the gun's barrel back the other way and broke it off. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Either we walk out of here with those children and you in restraints, ready to hand to the authorities or we walk out of here with those children and you..." he leaned in closer and let a growl creep into his voice..."never walk again."

"Die, fucking mutie scum."

"Oh yes, how original," said Hank. He slammed the man into the wall, cracking his head with a blow significant enough to knock him out. He quickly went through the man's pockets and found his keycard. Going to the wall-panel, he realized he needed the man's fingerprints, so went back for him, tossing him into an easy fireman's carry and holding his hand to the appropriate spot.

When he got in, Kitty was there in the hallway frustratedly tapping away on her portable keyboard which was wired into a ripped-open wall panel. "The walls are electrified and also have some kind of tech that keeps me from phasing through them as long as the current is running," she said.

"Will this help?" Hank handed over the keycard.

"Maybe. Thanks." She went back to typing frantically and staring between a small LCD readout in the panel itself and her phone which was spewing lines of code across its surface.

Hank looked around for anything useful. He found a pair of rubber gloves that wouldn't fit over his paws. He was contemplating a way to try to get the cells open with them without injuring himself when suddenly Kitty gave a delighted cry and the power shut down over the whole area -probably the whole building. The cell doors swung open.

Blinking till his night vision was decent, Hank went to search through the cells. Some of the children were standing warily at the doors, trying to see out into the inky blackness. Others were unconscious, slumped on their bunks, in spite of all the hubub outside. Hank feared for their condition. Still others were awake, clearly. Eyes open, bodies erect, but staring blankly. Those were the ones that frightened him most of all.

He found one of the alert ones. "Hey. Here. Take my phone. Help me clear everyone out. There's someone waiting to evacuate you all at the top of the second flight of stairs."

"Who the fuck are you?" The girl asked.

"We're the X-Men," he said. "And assorted friends. We're here to take you away from here and to somewhere with warm beds and medical care."

"Works for me." She used the phone like a flashlight and started rounding up everyone who could move under their own power.

Hank went back to Kitty. "Can you find out which cell Kevin is in?"

"Kev?" one of the kids being herded out said. "Kev is in solitary. They took him away."

"What? Where's solitary?" Hank asked.

He could just make out the young man's shrug.

"I'm going to go look for him," he said to Kitty.

"Go. Jen and I have this," she said. "And Bruce, Sue and Ororo are holding them off outside."

"Quentin?" Hank asked.

"Upstairs routing anyone left hiding."

"Good. That will help." Hank went to find the young telepath.

"There are no more mutants up here," Quentin insisted, when Hank found him. "Just a few of those assholes."

"Well 'solitary' has to be somewhere," said Hank.

"Maybe it's shielded." Quentin said. "Seems like the sort of thing they'd do."

"Any blank spots?"

Quentin rolled his eyes, but then closed them and concentrated for a few minutes. "Hm...Nothing that seems to be in the building."

"Well, that's something," said Hank. "Let me know if any of them tells you anything."

"I'll think real loud," Quentin confirmed.

Hank decided to search the old-fashioned way. He concentrated on Annie in his mind, then set out to sniff out anything that smelled remotely like her. His nose took him out of doors (where he carefully avoided the main fight) and to the edge of the walled part of the property where there was a beaten-down patch of grass leading up to a thick metal door embedded in rock. An old bomb shelter? A newer bunker? It wasn't clear, but there were strong scents along the path. Anger and fear...terror, really.

He twisted the door open. It took an unexpectedly large portion of strength to do so. He ran down the stairs and took an electric jolt straight to the chest as he hit the bottom. He cried out and went down hard, his world fading to black.

* * *

Hulk hurtled around, hitting everything. Except flying electric lady. She wasn't hurting him. But the big trucks and the men with guns were trying.

He didn't like being shot at.

He roared into the night.

Suddenly, the electric woman swooped closer to the ground. She cried out.

"Sue! SUE! Henry's in trouble!"

The magic bubble lady didn't appear. Hulk wondered if that meant she was invisible and going or if it meant she was nowhere around. Could be either with the magic bubble lady.

"No, Quentin! I can't go! We've got to get him help!" said the electric lady.

Hulk didn't understand who she was talking to till a voice came up in his own head.

"Anyone- anyone. Beast needs help. Here is his last known location. He went down hard. I think he's in immediate danger."

Hulk thought about going there, but another truckload of gun-toting men drove up and he got distracted. He hoped someone would help the fuzzy blue man.

* * *

When Franklin landed the copter, Val helped Annie unbuckle and they all three tumbled out. It was clear where all the adults had gone. There were lout booms and gunfire off in one direction. It didn't seem like the movies. It was loud and scary and some of the booms made the ground shake.

Annie's helmet was hurting her. Maybe she and Franklin weren't quite the same size. Or maybe it was just that she had so much more hair than he did. She took it off while they were walking carefully closer. Suddenly, there was a strange voice in her head and it told her someone was hurt.

"Repeat, Beast is down and in immediate danger. Last known location here. Backup needed." She wasn't sure who the voice was, but she knew it was true. She took off running.

"Annie! Wait!" Val ran after her. She didn't stop to see if Franklin followed. She approached a tall, concrete wall. Something had blown a huge hole through it and she picked her way through the rubble carefully. She ran towards where the head voice told her Mister Hank was. It was a dark hole in a stone wall, with stairs leading down. She went down them carefully and quietly, the way she used to move at home when she was trying not to wake her parents up.

The stairway was dark, but at the bottom, there was a dim light. She paused in the doorway, blinking. There was a hallway here and an open arch to one side. She snuck up to the opening and peered inside. There was a person, there, in a white coat like a doctor. They were messing with equipment around a bed with a figure under a white sheet.

Annie crept past the door when the person's back was turned to see what else was down there. Further along the hallway were rooms with solid doors. She tried the handle on one and it opened for her. And inside she found..."KEV!"

He was chained to a wall. It looked like he was asleep. She went over to speak urgently to him. "Kev. KEV. Wake up!"

He didn't stir.

"Kev, please. Please! Wake up, Kev." She peered at him in the dim light that fell into the cell from the hallway. It looked like one of his eyes was bruised. His shirt was torn up and he had a bunch of little bloody spots on one arm. He was still hanging, limply, by his wrists, sitting on the floor.

She started to cry and hugged his limp form. He was warm, but unresponsive.

"Kev. Kev. I wanted to find you so badly. I want to help," her insides felt huge and tiny at the same time. She was so upset and frustrated. She had been stupid to think she could do anything. She wasn't exceptional like Hank or like Franklin and Val. She wept helplessly and clung to her unconscious brother.

A feeling inside her pushed outwards. It was almost like something rippling over her skin. Kevin's chest moved beneath her and she heard his voice. "Hey. Hey, sunshine. What are you doing here?"

"Kev? Kev?! I thought you were hurt." She leaned back to look at him. The bruise she thought he had didn't seem to be there anymore.

He twisted his neck, trying to stretch. "I...me too. You shouldn't be here, kid. It's not safe."

"There are people helping. Mister Hank is in trouble."

"We're all in trouble unless we get out of here," he twisted his wrists and yanked, frustratedly.

"We need to go!" Annie said. "My friends brought a helicopter."

"Nice," he said. "I'd love to go get in it, but I don't think that's an option."

"I'll find the key," she said. She got up, prepared to dash back out into the hallway, but a looming figure blocked her path.

"Why are you down here? I thought you all knew better than to come down from the big house to solitary." The woman's voice was mean and full of sneering. Annie moved backwards and stood firmly in front of where her brother was chained and sprawled.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

"It's all right. If you don't know, you'll be TAUGHT," the woman said. "Some of you piglets are just slow learners."

"Don't TALK about her like that," Kev shouted.

"Oh, awake, are you? Pity. I thought the last injection would've kept you down for longer." She stepped forward. "He wouldn't learn. He kept using his unnatural abilities, so we had to put him down here for some more intensive lessons."

"Don't you hurt him. I won't let you!" she said.

The woman laughed, cruelly. "How, precisely, are you going to stop me? Do you have a gun, little girl? Do you even have a knife? Do you even know who I am or what I do here?"

"You hurt people."

"Not people, child. Mutants."

"*I'm* a mutant. Mutants are people," she said.

"Oh, you are? Fabulous. We're losing subjects to work on up at the surface. I'll just lock you in here with him until the security folks have that under control."

"They're not going to have it under control. They can't win," she said. She was feeling strangely elated and a wave of confidence washed over her. She thought about Bruce and Mister Hank, and Miss Jen and Miss Sue. She thought about Franklin and Val and their Uncle Johnny who was coming behind them.

"Of course they can win. What do you even have to stop them?"

Annie saw a shadow in the hallway behind the mean woman that was a familiar shape. She smiled. "I have exceptional friends," she said.

The woman snorted and opened her mouth to say something else mean, then suddenly she was on the floor with Mister Hank pinning her down.

"Hello, Annie," he said. "That was a superb job of distraction."

"Thanks!" she said "I found Kev!"

"So I see. How, if I may ask, did you get here?" Hank said.

"Franklin flew us!" She grinned broadly.

"Well, I'm glad you're safe, at any rate," said Hank. She started to skip towards him, but he held up a hand. "Allow me to get this unpleasant woman under control before you approach. Who knows what she has about her person?"

There was a red gash on Mister Hank's arm where the fur had been discolored with blood. There was also a patch of his fur that looked like it had been burned. She looked at it in alarm. "What happened?"

"Oh, this alleged doctor attempted to take me out of commission with a tazer and a knife. She obviously did not succeed. At least - not for long." He got the woman thoroughly tied up and sat her down on the floor. She looked kind of dazed there, tangled in ropes and her doctor coat.

"I'm sorry you got hurt!" Annie said, and ran over to him to give him a hug.

"I'll heal."

Annie felt the ripple go over her skin, again, the way it had when she'd been upset about Kev. When she pulled back, Mister Hank was looking at his arm with some surprise. The cut had disappeared.

"What happened?! I didn't know you could do that!" she said.

"I didn't, my dear. I believe you did."

"What?" She blinked up at him.

"Congratulations. You've found your mutant power."

"I helped your cut? How?"

"I don't know for certain," he said with a smile. "But I do, of course, have some hypotheses. Now, my dear, wait here and I shall see if I can't find keys to realease young Kevin and whoever else may still be imprisoned."

Hank went out, putting on his glasses.

"Who was that guy?" Kevin asked her. He was trying to stretch, again, even though the chains didn't really give him a lot of leeway.

"He's a teacher," she said. "His name is Mister Hank."

"Does he always wear a speedo?"

"No. He was wearing a suit when I met him."

"Huh. Wierd."

She was quiet a while. She sat down on the cold stone floor next to him.

"I'm sorry, Kev."

"Why are you sorry, squirt?"

"I'm sorry I let them take you away," she said.

"You didn't let them do anything. I can't believe you came after me."

There was a pause.

"What did you do for them to lock you up down here?" she asked.

"Oh," Kev shot her an uncomfortable glance. "Nothing, really."

"But the mean woman said..."

He cut her off. "I floated a guard's phone off him when I got the chance."

"Why?"

"I had to text...someone."

Annie realized that he meant the text he had sent to her. "I got the message," she said. "I ran away from home."

"Good," he said. "Then it was worth it."

After a beat of silence, there were footsteps outside and Val came running in.

"Oh my god! I was so scared! I'm glad you're okay!" she said, hugging Annie. "Mom's almost done up on the surface. She said to come find you and then we could talk about whether Frankie and I are grounded."

"I can't leave! I found Kev!"

"This is your brother? Hi! I'm Val!"

"Uh...hi?" He waved one chained hand at her.

"Oh, crap. Hang on. I can help with that," said Val. "Okay if I grab you here?" she touched his arm.

"Sure," he said.

Val wrapped her hand around his arm and concentrated. a light seemed to envelop them both right next to their skin and then pushed outwards. The cuffs on Kev's wrist creaked and then broke away. Val grinned.

"Wow. Uh...thanks." he said.

"No problem. Mom's been teaching me."

Annie was staring in shock. "You have a power?"

"Sure. I'm a mutant. Franklin, too," she said.

"Oh wow! I was so scared to tell you that I was, earlier." said Annie. "OH! I found out my power!"

"Cool! What is it?" Val asked.

"I think it's...Mister Hank said I healed him."

"That is such a cool power!" said Val. "Wow! Oh man. You could be like, the world's greatest doctor!"

Kev was rubbing his wrists. "I can float things without touching them and move them around," he said. "At least, I could before I came in here. They kept injecting us with stuff to try to turn our powers off."

"Bet it didn't work," said Val. "Try floating something. Try this." She pulled a pencil out of her pocket. By the time Mister Hank got back, carrying three different kids at once, it was bouncing around the room, lazily.

"Still can't really control the direction," said Kev.

"Hey, you kids. Come on out. It's safe on the ground. The bus is here," said Mister Hank.

They all trooped out after him up the stairs.

"I don't need a bus! I have the FantastiCopter," said Val.

"You most certainly do not," said Miss Sue, who met them at the top. "You and Franklin are going on the bus with the rest of the kids to get checked out by a doctor."

"Mooooom," said Franklin. "I'm fine."

"Me too. Look! We found Kev! And Annie has her mutant power!"

"You do? Oh, my dear, that's wonderful," said Miss Sue. "Would you like a hug?"

Annie nodded vigorously and ran forward to hug her while Kev trailed awkwardly behind.

After the hug, Bruce came limping up. He was holding up his pants which looked like they had been all stretched and ripped and his shoes and shirt were gone. He flopped next to her on the grass.

"Hey, kiddo. Are you all right?"

She nodded. She looked out over where Mister Hank and the other adults were looking kids over with some doctor-type people who had showed up with the bus. "I think so. This...has been weird."

Bruce laughed. "Yeah. You get used to it."

"What if I don't want to?" she asked. She hugged her knees to her chest and looked up into the night sky.

"Well, there are some parts of weirdness you may have to get used to. Sometimes you go through something that means life will never be the same again."

That made her feel so sad, suddenly. She flopped backwards and rolled to cling onto Bruce's arm. "That's scary."

"Yeah," he agreed. "But things being different doesn't mean they can't be good. I promise."

They were quiet for a moment. "Seems like this is all going to take a while to sort out. Think Kev would want to come back and crash at my place with you while we wait?" he asked.

"Yes!" She grinned at him.

"All right."

"Can we get pizza again?"

"Right now?"

"I am pretty hungry," she admitted.

"You know what? Me too. Let's see if we can get someone to deliver pizza out here," he said.

* * *

Hank sighed. The bus packed with twenty or so tired, injured mutant kids was headed upstate to the school. Ororo and Johnny were giving it an air escort and Kitty and Quentin were on it to help keep the kids calm and safe. He was just as burnt out as he could be and hadn't even managed to grab any of the assortment of pizza and fast food that had shown up in the be-armored arms of Tony Stark when Bruce had found no one really delivered this far into the middle of nowhere.

He went to see if there was any left and found Kevin, Annie and the two Richards children curled up together on a blanket in the grass. Sue and Bruce were sharing some fries and Sue handed over a box that still had two thirds of a pizza when he shot her an inquisitive look.

He slumped down by them. "Pretty good day's work," he said, quietly.

"Mmm," Sue nodded in agreement and looked down on the pile of sleeping kids fondly.

"I've certainly had worse," Bruce agreed. Someone had found him a pair of sweatpants and a Friends of Humanity t-shirt, which he'd turned inside-out to put on.

"Why would anyone do any of this to children?" Sue asked.

"Whence and whither man's inhumanity to man?" said Hank, and quoted "This partial view of human-kind Is surely not the last!"

"It may not be a complete picture of humanity, but it's a substantial one," muttered Bruce.

"So are they," Hank nodded at the children. "A brother who risked exposure to warn his sister. Siblings who risked punishment and rebuke to help a friend. A sister who stood against evil to protect a brother."

"And two single men who wanted to help a little, lost girl enough to instigate it all," Sue added.

"What about *you*?" Bruce asked.

"I'm a mom," she said. "This is what we do."

"You say that as though a mother isn't a kind of superhero," Hank said.

"No. Motherhood is definitely heroism when it's done right," she said.

"I guess we better wake the kids up and get them in the copter," said Bruce.

They nodded, but none of them moved. Hank reached for another slice of pizza and chewed thoughtfully as the Eastern sky slowly lightened with the first hint of sunrise.

* * *

Bruce had helped both the kids pack up what they had in the way of belongings. They'd come to him with so little that he was kind of surprised how long it had taken to get everything together. They'd gotten hand-me-downs here and there, and gifts from several of his friends and now they were off to the Jean Grey School with the blessing of their Aunt.

She was living abroad, so even though she was now their official guardian, it was taking her some time to wrap up her business and move back to where she could really take care of them.

Bruce would miss them both. He would, though he was looking forward to having his apartment back, if he was honest.

"We ready?" he asked as he closed up the trunk of the car.

Kevin excitedly agreed, but Annie seemed thoughtful as they drove upstate.

When they arrived, Kevin grabbed his duffel bag and ran off to talk to some of the kids he'd been locked up with at the reeducation center. There would be a group of them at the school with him and they were all fast friends - the hardship having knitted them firmly into a group.

Annie just looked serious as she helped carry everything in and up to the room she'd been assigned (right next door to her brother's).

Bruce sat down next to her on the bed. "You okay?"

She shrugged.

"It's pretty cool, here," he said. "They've got great facilities. And great teachers."

"Like Mister Hank," she said.

"Yeah. We like him, right?"

She finally smiled a little. "Yeah. We do."

"You know you can call me any time. Or your aunt, too," he said.

"Yeah. Val gave me her number, too." She ran her thumb over the face of the new phone they'd gotten for her.

He nodded, and then let the silence linger, hoping she'd say what was bothering her.

"I still miss my mom," she said, softly.

He hugged her. "That's okay. You know what? You might always miss her. And it's okay to be sad. All right?"

She nodded.

"It's okay to be angry, too," he said. "It's good to express feelings when you have them."

"I wish I was calm all the time, like you," she said.

He laughed. "I'm not calm, Annie."

"You seem calm."

"I've just had a lot more practice being sad and angry than you've had," he assured her. "It does get easier."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm," he agreed. "And you know what else?"

She shook her head.

"Sometimes you find ways to be happy right along side your sad and your angry," he said.

"Sounds complicated," she said.

"I think you can manage it," he responded.

"How do *you* know?"

"It's my hypothesis," he said.

She rolled her eyes and bumped him with her shoulder. "Thanks. For everything."

He hugged her, tight. "Any time," he said. And he meant it.