"Okay, but why cats?" Tony said again for probably the 100th time.

"Man, I don't know! It's Hydra! Why anything?" Sam was beginning to get exasperated at the constant question coming from the older mans mouth. He finally got the lock broken on the cage-like cell holding what appeared to be a lion cub inside. "What's this one's name?"

Tony glanced at the file he was holding. "Lion-O. Very original. Oh look! This ones Steve's. Hey, Capsicle! Congratulations!It's a boy!"

Steve ran a tired hand over his face before walking across the room to rescue the boy from Tony's personality. "Hey, Kid. You're safe now. We're going to get you out of here." He picked up the small furry body and held it securely to his chest. Steve bent his head down as he heard some small whimpers and mumbling coming from the boy. "What's that?" He turned to Sam, "What's his name?"

The man had already moved on to the next cage in the row. "That's Lion-O."

Steve nodded and returned his attention to the small body in his arms. "What are you saying Lion-O?"

The boy pulled his head off of Steve's chest, looked at him with big eyes and whispered again. "What about the others?"

"We're getting them. Look," Steve pointed back towards the door leading out of the room where some of his teammates had gathered holding their own young feline DNA enhanced offspring. "See the lady with the red hair? She's holding your friend Cheetara? That's my friend Natasha. And beside her, with the twins crawling all over him, is my other friend, Clint. Tony and Sam are working on getting the others out right now. And then we'll all go somewhere safe."

"Panthro. Two guesses as to who this one belongs to. The first guess doesn't count." Tony was still flipping through the folders they'd managed to find. He was trying to figure out how Hydra had gotten all of the DNA from the different Avengers and how they had managed to graft the feline DNA so successfully.

T'Challa stepped forward to accept the most recently released cub. It swiped at him with its claws before settling into his hold. "Ah. A fierce warrior."

Sam moved to the final cage with Tony following behind. "Who's this guy, Tony? He seems a little more timid than the others."

Tony peered into the cage. Sure enough, unlike the others, this cub was cowering in the back of his enclosure and was trembling. "Last one. Tygra. And he's...mine apparently. Tygra Stark. Yeah, that sounds alright. Passing down the initials. TS. You know instead of doing the whole Senior, Junior thi-" He broke off as Sam yanked the files out of his hands and then much more gently placed the shaking body into his arms. "Oh. Hey." Tony and Tygra locked eyes.

"That's all of them. Let's get them back to the tower." Sam led the way back to the quinjet.

"We're keeping them, right?" Clint was struggling to keep ahold of his two tiny kits. One was on top of his head nibbling on his hair and the other was attempting to crawl up his shoulder to bite his ear. "Because if we don't, you know they're just going to be subjected to more tests and doctors that might be slightly less evil but that's just a maybe and that's no way for young children, kittens? Cubs? Kits? For anyone to live, Steve!" He pouted at the team leader and made his eyes huge and pleading.

Steve looked over at Tony, who was staring in awe at the cub he had cradled in his own arms. Tony glanced up at Steve and shrugged. Steve just sighed. "We'll discuss it back at the tower."

"Yes! That means yes, Kits! We are going to have so much fun! I can't wait to show you all the best hiding places in the Tower! We'll working on your pouncing skills!" Clint's cackles were almost maniacal as he went up the ramp to board the jet.

"Well life just got a whole lot more interesting." Sam clapped Steve on the shoulder as he walked past the blonde man.

Steve looked down at the cub nuzzling against his chest. "Yes it did."