Thanks to Rue Dawn for reviewing! Yes, I know it was pretty short... this chapter as well as future ones will hopefully be longer. :)

Flashback

"So, you're telling me you made kids, beat them up to see how strong they were, and when they got out of control you tried to kill them? You realize that qualifies you as a seriously abusive father, right, Nick?" Tony Stark asked, unable to keep disbelief from his voice.

Nick Fury was unamused. "This isn't the time, Stark. These kids have the powers of all six of you and no clue how to use them, and they're not very cooperative. We tried to put them down quietly, but they broke out of their cage and-"

Cap held up a hand, a fairly disgusted expession on his face. "Wait a second. Cage? You were keeping these kids in a cage?"

"They're tiny. They probably didn't even notice," Fury said dismissively.

Black Widow leveled her infamous glare at him as memories of her own horrific childhood washed over her. No way in hell was she going to let kids that were pretty much her own son and daughter go through that. "We'll find the kids, Fury... but there is no way you're getting them back."

She turned on her heel and strolled away, slipping into stealth mode. The other Avengers nodded in agreement before following in her footsteps, and Fury was left to wonder what exactly he had expected they would do. He had assumed they would just catch the twins and bring them back, but now he realized that calling in parents to subject their kids to torture hadn't been the best idea. Well, at least it would stop Subjects 13 and 14 from wrecking havoc on the helicarrier.

The Avengers followed the trail of malfunctioning computers and injured SHIELD agents. "What happened to all of the technology?" Bruce wondered aloud as they passed a massive blank screen usually covered with scrolling data.

Tony frowned. "To take a wild guess, I'd say that at least one of these kids has Thor's power over electricity and no idea how to use it, so it's just running rampant, short-circuiting all of the computers. I hope that doesn't affect my suit," he added as an afterthought.

Thor laughed and shook his head, patting Tony on the shoulder so hard he stumbled, even in the Iron Man armor. "Nay, Man of Iron. Your armor was able to withstand the full force of Mjolnir. You need not worry about this child's fledgling powers."

Bruce's face turned ashen. "But they're my kids too, right? What if they... you know... have the same problem I have?"

It appeared that the possiblity of fighting two mini-hulks with no degree of control or understanding had clearly not occurred to the rest of the Avengers, and they froze mid-step. It was Clint who broke the silence.

"Nat, I think we should quit working for SHIELD. I don't think I like them anymore."

Natasha just smiled, possibly the largest emotional display any of the Avengers had ever gotten from her. Clint and Natasha shared a rather stiff hug and few congratulatory high-fives were shared before they returned to the matter at hand.

They didn't need to worry. They found the twins huddled in a closet, hugging each other tightly. They looked like they were about six or seven, far too young to have to suffer through this. The girl had blonde hair with red stripes, apparently taking more after Natasha, while the boy was a brunette. When the Avengers found them, they backed into the corner and the boy's eyes flashed green. Bruce recognized the look and hurried to calm his mini-me down before the helicarrier fell from the sky in flames.

"Look, we're not going to hurt you guys, we swear. We don't work for SHIELD. We're different, like you, and we can teach you how to control your powers. We don't want to fight you or hurt you at all. I know SHIELD was mean to you and did horrible things, but that doesn't mean you have to hurt them back. You can leave all this," Bruce gestured at the helicarrier, "behind, and come with us."

"Is this a trick?" the girl asked in a small voice. "You're SHIELD agents trying to trick us and make us go back, aren't you?"

Her brother nodded. "Yeah! We know you guys use holograms and things to make stuff that isn't real look real. Well, we're not going back, never ever! You guys were gonna kill us! We saw those guys coming in with big guns, that's why we was scared and ran!"

"And you hurted us," his sister added. "You kept saying it was gonna stop, you just wanted to see how strong we was, but you didn't... you didn't..." she collapsed into tears and her brother shot a glare at the Avengers, clearly blaming them for everything he and his sister had been through.

He was getting really riled up, the Avengers saw with alarm. There was green fire dancing in his eyes and he was close to hulking out. Tony shook his head in exasperation. "Look, kid, we'd never work for SHIELD. They're royal pricks and we're not gonna hand you over to them, but if you don't come with us now they'll find you, decide you can't be controlled and used for whatever the hell they wanted you for, and kill you. You want that or not?"

Both kids shook their heads slowly.

"Then come hither, spawn of science!" Thor boomed, startling everyone. "You must see the Man of Iron's mighty castle!"

The girl moved first, standing slowly and taking a couple steps towards her would-be rescuers. She poked Iron Man, surprised to feel solid metal under her touch. "You're real!"

Iron Man grinned behind his mask. The kid was just so cute! "You betcha, kiddo. Now come on, we have to get you someplace safe."

End Flashback

Tyler wished he could have chosen where he was going to appear. Maybe someplace nice, like a carnival, or a movie theatre. He could watch a movie while he figured out what the hell had happened, that'd be nice. But no, he had to appear at the one place both he and his twin had been born, tortured, and escaped with the help of the Avengers. SHIELD Headquarters. He had hoped to never have to see that damn eagle again. Stands for freedom and justice my ass.

Right now the more pressing worry was where Taylor was. His little sister (he still thought of her as little even though they had actually been born, or created really, at exactly the same time) had been emotionally scarred by the first few years of their life and tended to break down when in stressful situations, which meant that he worried about her whenever he wasn't there for her. He wondered where she had ended up. They had started off in Avengers Tower, but that didn't explain what he was doing at SHIELD Headquarters now, or why they weren't in the same place, since they had traveled together. What would happen if only one person used the machine, would they get split in half and the halves would be sent to different places? That was a disturbing thought.

Or maybe they had ended up in same place, SHIELD had caught Taylor, and they had restarted their experiments on her... well, that thought was definitely worse. The idea of his poor sister, probably having her PTSD-riddled mind picked apart by those bastards made Tyler slightly sick to his stomach. Or maybe that was the effects of whatever travelling method they had used.

It was at this point that the little warning voice in his mind shouted for him to duck, seconds before an arrow split the air where his head had been.

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