The Issue on The Table...

An Avengers Songfic

"Team, we are assembled today to discuss a potential threat or friend. Neither is assured at this point in time." Fury stated to the Avengers, all called in to discuss the carnage at the-once hidden-Hydra base.

Only a select few of the team was taking it seriously. That is, everyone except Tony was looking sufficiently stoic enough for Fury's liking. Although, they were hardly on red alert. The debriefing had no current mission in mind, and the meeting itself was not urgent enough to call in the team immediately. According to Fury and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. the actual event had taken place barely 72 hours ago.

In any case, if the situation required immediate action they would've been informed within 24 hours of the event and any debriefing would've been handled on the way to an actual mission, not in a S.H.I.E.L.D. conference room with a screen showing the identical looking faces of the targets.

"The facts are: these three women killed the operators of an Austrian Hydra base, their motives for doing such are currently unknown, and their abilities-in addition to training-are lethal. Our late Hydra agents can attest to that."


"Cut off one head, two more take its place." Damon slowly stated before smashing his fist against the table, "And this is precisely why we should report back to our overseers immediately!"

Mackenzie and Elisabeta appeared to be listening solemnly, while Tamera rolled her eyes at Caldwell's waxing poetically about why they should turn themselves into Hydra and explain their actions.

Damon appeared to be trying to calm himself down, his blue eyes still burning as he ran a hand through his blonde hair. He did manage to slow his breathing as he continued his point.

"We all agree, Baptiste was wrong, and his methods were unbefitting that of our organization. But murder and carnage have done nothing but portray us as the wrongdoers here." He said pointedly to Tamera's glare, then turned to Elisabeta and Mackenzie, "However, we have a chance to fix this. If we go on the run, we won't just have Hydra to worry about. We still have S.H.I.E.L.D. who won't hesitate to take us out. On our own, we are fugitives. S.H.I.E.L.D. is just as bad as Baptiste, and they let their freaks run around like wild animals. All governments are controlled or in league with them or Hydra. And right now! Hydra probably wants our heads! There will be no peace!"

He paused dramatically with a raised finger, "But I say we go to the Sokovian base, explain what happened, and beg for mercy. We can't survive without them and they may even see it as a service for all that Baptiste's control has done. We can prove to them that Baptiste was a power-hungry madman. Now, I know some of us here would rather not be debating this."

Damon gave a condescending glance to Tamera who looked unimpressed and 110% done with his speeches.

"I'll remind everyone here that hotheaded decision-making is what got us into this mess." Mackenzie gulped silently, biting her lip as Damon took her hand gently. "I think it only best we hear from those who will consider all positions fairly. Who will take the floor?"

Mackenzie was still solemn and quiet, as were her sisters. Tamera knew Damon would never accept anything she had to say, thus she stayed quiet. She only threw her hands up briefly towards her sisters, as if to say, "Go ahead." It was only a stone-faced Elisabeta who spoke up first.

"You must be out of your God damn mind."

Caldwell's once smug assumption of victory suddenly turned to frustration as he griseled and gripped Mackenzie's hand tighter. He scolded, "I said only those who'd considered both sides would speak."

"And meant that anyone who takes your side could speak." Tamera quipped.

"Shut up, you! You're the reason we're in this mess!"

Elisabeta and Mackenzie stood up, although the former took a more confrontational stance in front of Caldwell.

"If you think Hydra is going to accept us back, after what happened in Austria, you're just blind to reality." Elisabeta said, then explained, "Baptiste was a madman, hired and trained by the same people who gathered those in Sokovia. Not only that, all the higher ups like Baptiste are colleagues. How do you think that conversation will go?"

Tamera huffed, standing now, her serious face taking on a slight bit of humor, "Oh yeah, that'll be fun!" She widened her eyes in mock innocence with a high-pitched tone, "Um, excuse me, Sokovian Commander, but your coworker in Austria was mean to us so we viscerally murdered him. But since he was a jerk, how about we kiss and make up?"

Tamera's eyes snapped back to seriousness as she countered angrily, "Does that sound reasonable to you?!"

"This from the primary murderer!" Damon said pushing forward to have a stand-off with Tamera.

"You have done absolutely nothing better than I have in the entire time we were at Hydra. In fact, at least we did something while you were all perfectly content to give their asses a nice spit-shine. And hey, if you like ass so much Damon, turn around I've got a gift for yours!"

"Tamera!" Mackenzie said, ripping herself from Damon and holding off her sister by her shoulders. Elisabeta transformed her arms to keep Damon from going back after them too. "We all need a break. We'll reconvene after everyone's mood has calmed down. Tamera, come with me, we're taking a walk!"

Nobody left that room without a soured and vicious expression.


"You said these women have abilities." Steve said, flipping through his file, "What are they?"

"That we don't know for sure. By the time we got to the crime scene, all files in relation to these women were cleaned out. All we have here are reminiscent from the files we've managed to sneak out over the years."

"What are the estimates for their abilities?" Natasha asked.

"We believe that at least one of them has some form of mind control, although it's been difficult to track without the documents from the base. Hydra likes to keep information like that under their hats, in case folks like us are trying to listen in. One of them we've heard can transform themselves, but into what we don't know: people, animals, household objects. Reports vary."

"So one of these women could be my toothbrush, is what you're saying?" Tony asked, "Should I stop having all my super, secret meetings in the bathroom in case my water-pick is an Austrian woman spying on me?"

Everyone in the room groaned. Tony stretching his arms out as if he had no idea what he did wrong, though the snarky smile betraying his lack of caring for this case. He looked over to Nick Fury who was staring him down with his one good eye, not a sound heard in the entire room.

"Are you trying to frighten me? Stare me down till I apologize?" Tony said, then after some more staring just said, "I'll be quiet."

Fury stared a little longer before turning back to the screen, yet just before Tony opened his mouth again.

"But one more question first!" He said, seeming to be taking it a little more seriously, "What do we actually know about them. Factual information that will be of use, I mean."

"I'm glad you asked." Fury said, "What we do know is that these women were not recruited by Hydra. They were literally made by them."

There were some furrowed brows among the team, and Banner seemed to have pushed his chair forward to listen.

"Back in '92 Hydra had their best and brightest agents participate in a breeding program. They matched up the genetic makeup and skillsets of their agents to what they thought would create the most promising offspring. The program was not stable enough to warrant continuation, but the children from the program were raised into adulthood as Hydra assassins. Some of them are still alive today, sans the ones killed in Austria two days ago. From all recorded documents, the sisters Tamera, Mackenzie, and Elisabeta were a phenomenon. The sperm and egg in the lab where they were fertilized and grown created triplets. Given Hydra's history with twins and genetics we can guess this has made them a valued asset for experimentation."

Steve Rogers nodded his head. Back in the day, when attempting to sign up for the war, he heard about twin-experiments by the Nazis. He'd heard one story that sickened him to this day. A woman in a death-camp gave birth to twins, and the Nazis took one child away from her and starved the baby to the point of death-keeping the child in the next room so the mother would hear the baby cry until they died. Then they took the other baby away and shot it.

They did this so they could compare the brains of the dead newborns.

"Sir, if you're right about this and the girls did in fact take out that base. Wouldn't be best to offer them an olive branch? They may hate Hydra just as much as we do."

"Or they could have lost their damn minds under them and not be safe around anybody. We don't know." Fury said, "Until we have more information, you will treat these women the same as you would treat any other Hydra agent. If, and only if, any evidence supports that they are not a threat to anyone but Hydra, we can talk about holding hands and making peace. Until then, we keep our eyes peeled and our wits sharp."


Mackenzie pushed Tamera onto the roof of the half-reconstructed building they were occupying, their already identical faces showing equally matching frustration.

They took a breath.

"Can you pull yourself together?" Makenzie questioned.

"I'm sorry, but I can't just pretend I agree with that stupid, arrogant-"

"Stop it. He has a right to an opinion too. We did spring this on him." Both women were silent. Mackenzie looking sympathetically at her sister, "But so do you. I'm sorry he behaved that way, I'll talk to him."

"You'll talk, he'll plug his ears."

"I don't like the way you talk about him." Mackenzie said defensively through her teeth.

Tamera had a disbelieving look in her eyes, "Mac, I'm your sister. I am not here to blow smoke up your ass. This debate asked for opinions about what we should do, and I gave mine."

Mackenzie sighed, frustration still biting in her tone, "You've never been respectful of Damon. I don't know what your problem with him is, but it needs to stop now!"

Tamera looked at her sister, and Mackenzie started to shift her eyes towards the skyline where red and purples clouds gathered. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest as she looked at the dawn, and Tamera looked at the yellow and red marks that were peeking out from the wrists of Mac's jacket.

"I don't like how he treats you. I don't like that his initial instincts are to grab your wrist and not your hand."

"My relationship with my boyfriend is none of your business!"

"I think it is my business when we're on the run with him because you insisted on bringing him along!"

"What's your point?" Mackenzie said finally looking her sister in the eye.

"That you apparently love him so much that you brought him along, and yet can't admit to him that all this was your idea."

"Oh don't give me that, you and Elisa wanted to leave just as much as I did."

"But you were the one who made the plans, brought us together to officially decide we wanted out. And nothing was going to stop us, plain and simple. I won't ever lie to you, I would've been more than fine with leaving him behind." Tamera sighed, her jaw tight, "But I went along with bringing him because that's what you wanted. I won't speak for Bet but I think she feels similarly."

The sisters' eyes both started looking very liquidy in that moment. Tamera continued, "I know I can't feel you guys anymore, and I know I have no basis for understanding what happens between couples. But what I can't figure is why you don't seem to trust him with something as basic as why you wanted to do this."

Mackenzie wasn't even looking at her anymore, the deafening silence hanging between them.

Tamera's face was broken and tearful, and she asked the question she'd had ever since she first started noticing the strange behavior between Mackenzie and Damon. It was a question that hung in the air like the silence between them now. It was the question that confrontational (and even inappropriate, at times) Tamera was afraid to ask whenever Caldwell touched her sister too roughly or the weeks in which Mackenzie became distressingly silent and distant from even her and Bet.

As protective as she was, Tamera fought against her nature as a sister to not ask this question, and yet it was proving to do no good as time went on. And in the closed environments they'd been in the last two days, there were no places for Damon to hide his behavior or for Mackenzie to recover from it. That question was finally coming to a head and needed an answer.

"What has he done to you?" She asked Mackenzie, a tear rolling down her face and, without her knowledge, matching a tear that rolled down her sister's face.

No verbal answer. Just deafening silence.

But even through her doubts and insecurities that reinforced those doubts, Tamera did receive an answer from that silence.

"Figure it out. When you do, no matter what you decide, we'll always be there for you. We stood by you before, we're not gonna stop now." Tamera said, "Just make sure it's your decision when you make it."