Author's Note: Hey guys, Blind Bandit's back! I have a new story for you! I am in the process of re-writing my previous story, 'Words Hurt'. I restarted it because the whole timeline was really fuzzy, and I was starting to hate it. Plus, I really didn't like the chapters that dealt with Tony's chest injury. In this story, It happened before he and the gang met Bruce, since in the movies (and probably comics) that's how it happened.

I just want to say, thanks for all your support on my last story, and I hope you'll move it to this one! Make sure you review, because I love to hear what you think! I love all you readers! Well, now just read and enjoy! Blind Bandit out!

I do NOTown Marvel or the Avengers

They had moved again. And one, this move, it was permanent. His dad had finally found a place where he could do his work and not have to move them halfway across the world every six months. Sure, he couldn't exactly say he had been upset when the packed up and moved, had didn't have many friends no matter where they went. Sometimes, he wouldn't make any. But, he was okay with that. Friends would've made traveling so much more difficult.

Not that it wasn't already, with packing, and the airport security, and the settling in and repeating. His life wasn't exactly easy, especially when you took into account who exactly this kid was.

If you took a pinch of shy, a dash of awkward, a heaping spoonful of nerd, a handful of ill-fitting clothing, added glasses and semi-curly hair, and mixed thoroughly, you'd get Bruce Banner. The kid who's always left out, bullied, ignored. The kid who, even through all of that, stayed strong anyway. The kid who found an odd comfort in being alone. The kid who'd rather not tie himself down to friends. The kid who'd never even had a real friend.

Bruce knew his parents worried about him, about the fact that he liked being alone, but he couldn't help it. It's just how he preferred things. He always had. Sure, most eleven year old boys liked to play war games, pretend they were the comic book heroes they all adored. They liked to tease girls, who they were only about a year away from developing crushes on. Bruce knew it wasn't normal, the way he was. He just didn't know any other way to be.

"Bruce, honey?"

Bruce heard his mother voice at his door, and he looked up from his National Geographic magazine.

"Yeah, mom?"

"Would you please at least go outside? Explore the neighborhood?" she asked him. "I'd rather you not stay cooped up in here all day..."

Bruce sighed. As much as he wanted to stay inside, he knew better than to tell his mother no.

"Sure." he closed his magazine. "I'll go right now." the sooner he got it over with, the happier he'd be.

He went down the stairs, and out the back door, through the backyard, and out the gate to the sidewalk. He figured he'd take a walk around the block, maybe linger in a few places just to take up time, an go back in an hour. So, he started his journey, turning right from their house and walking. He passed by a house, where in the front yard, five boys and a girl were playing war. One of the boys held a trashcan lid like it was a shield, another held what looked to be like a cardboard hammer, one had what Bruce assumed to be a tap-light taped underneath his shirt, and another waving around a stick for a staff.

He couldn't help but feel a pang of loneliness. On the inside, he longed to play those kind of games with friends. He wanted friends.

He went on his way, though, Not bothering to stop and ask if he could play like he knew his mom would've wanted him to do. He would've been to shy anyways. He kept going, beginning to pass by a building that look rather old, and run-down. He heard a sound down an alley-way, but didn't give it a second thought until he felt someone grab a fistful of the back of his shirt and yank him backwards.