This chapter is inspired in part by Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", "Dancing with Myself" by Billy Idol, and two personal favorites "A-Hubba, Hubba, Hubba" and "Accentuate the Positive" by Perry Como. Again, I happily take random, strange, and beautiful song prompts as this story has a basic idea behind it but I'm happy to go in as many different directions as the songs take me. If you have specific characters you'd like resurrected or to see more of, let me know as well. Cheers!

"Let's sink another drink before we peace out to the meeting." Tiamet chuckled at her companion's sudden blinking stare of incomprehension. "Sorry, let's have another drink before we head to the meeting."

Kushala shook her head and laughed, "Are you aware of when you say these strange things?

"Oh, you thought that was weird? How about this: Slip me some skin and let's shoot the breeze since you're no square and seem to be a chick what's really on the solid side. But if your lips are made of rubber and all you do is blubber with that knock out squawk then I'll dig you later because you're all root." Tiamet raised her glass in the face of Kushala's continued stare. "There's plenty more where that came from. Only, I don't remember which slang comes from which decade or country anymore. It all rather meshes together," she made a massaging motion over her head, "so much so that sometimes I find myself accidentally talking in languages that died out centuries ago." She shrugged at the memory of using the Mohenjo-daro dialect when she'd last been in India. "Ah the perks of knowing too much."

Kushala laughed again before ordering two more beers. Tiamet nodded to herself in satisfaction. She'd been watching the young woman carefully during their travels from Wakanda, taking note of the increasing shake in her hands, the nervous darting of her eyes, and it didn't take a genius to know that Kushala was apprehensive about their coming meeting with two of the representatives of the Avengers. Tiamet had spent much of the day acting the part of near mad-hatter to get Kushala to relax and laugh. She understood why her ward was so on edge but remaining on edge would only jeopardize their chances, not enhance them.

"Down the hatch!" She clinked her beer glass against Kushala's before taking a long drink. She saw Kushala smile before she too drank long and deep.

Though the Wakandan princess had arranged their meeting, she hadn't been able to guarantee them admission into the elite group, only an audience. Of course, that was namely because Tiamet hadn't bothered to show up in Wakanda in her humanoid form; no, she'd flown in in all her Taninoui glory. In that form, she was roughly the height and weight of an elephant with four wings attached to a long and svelte torso that appeared even longer due to her dexterous tail, and her strong legs ended in lion-like paws with an extra talon jutting out like a weaponized thumb. She had an elongated horse-like face with two great antlers branching out from her head and her entire body was covered in grey vibranium scales that she could retract to reveal soft grey feathers. In all, her figure was sight enough but whenever she released her plasma-like fire or snapped her wolf-like jaws at anyone, well that made even the bravest quiver a wee bit.

However, if she'd snuck into Wakanda looking as she did in her humanoid form, most likely Kushala would've had to use her time-bending transportation powers to save herself from rotting in a Wakandan prison. Though taller than most females, and of a stockier muscle-bound nature, Tiamet's waist-length hair was a nondescript brown, her features were wide and strongly defined, and only her large grey eyes had ever been described as overtly feminine. That wasn't to say that men hadn't found her appealing over the centuries—she'd been quite the hit during the Viking era—but starting around the early 12th century, the tastes of most Western men had changed to prefer the more petite and fragile appearing women. Of course, she'd slept through much of the 13th-15th centuries—taking full advantage of her species abilities to hibernate in a near-death-like state—and had only woken up for "good" starting in the mid-19th century. Tiamet hadn't hibernated to full capacity since then, though there were a few decades she'd purposefully slept through because they'd started out a mess and it had seemed like they were only going to get worse—and most of them did.

"What if they don't accept us?"

Tiamet pulled herself out of the past and looked back to her companion. Tiamet was certain that they looked the odd couple to outsiders. She, looking more warrior than most, and Kushala looking every bit the part of the petite damsel. Kushala had coffee-colored skin, almond-shaped eyes, an hour-glass figure, silken black curls that hung to her shoulders, and small bones that made her appear almost doll-like. Tiamet was well aware that this woman was no doll and could most assuredly do damage, Tiamet had trained her to do so, but there was more than that. Kushala had strength of heart and tenacity of character. She was no damsel in need of rescuing—though, true, Tiamet had rescued her at one point.

"What if you think about it this way," Tiamet took a quick swig from her beer before she continued, "We have nothing to lose and nothing to prove."

Kushala frowned, "If they don't accept us then we lose the chance to change things."

"Not exactly. Never in the history of the world, at least that I have been awake for, have things been so dire that the answer for hope could be found in one place. If we are unable to join the Avengers, then we can seek out the other group of vigilantes. The," Tiamet tipped her head to the side in thought, sometimes feeling the need to slosh her brain around a bit to catch hold of the correct thought, "oh yes, the X-men. They are still a bit more secretive than the Avengers, even after the Day of Dust, but I'm sure once they found out your abilities, they'd take an interest."

"How can you be so certain?" Kushala shook her head. "I don't understand how you of all creatures could maintain any semblance of positivity or hope. You've seen more death and destruction than any other living being on Earth. Yet here you sit, drinking a beer, talking big and trying to encourage me to get over myself." Kushala let out a sarcastic sounding snort and finished off her beer in one go.

"What can I say? I've got a lot of jive that's really zoo." Kushala didn't look as amused with Tiamet's use of old slang now and so she shrugged. "Kushala, I remember, vaguely now, what it was like to have sanity. At least, what humans call sanity. But after my second century of watching people I'd come to care about live and die, well, I lost it. I found myself in a place, mentally, that was so wide that it seemed even emotions could echo and lose footing. And it was quite a pleasant place, to be honest. I could look out over the world and see it almost with empty eyes. But then a strange thing happened." Tiamet finished off the rest of her beer before she turned on the bar stool to face Kushala fully. "I found myself among the gods of men, the heroes that rose above the rest and had come to answer the cries of the people. Of course, I was with them more out of boredom than I was attached to their mission but," she sighed as in a moment she relived a lifetime, "suffice it to say these heroes had the heart to lose their lives for others and that was when I realized that I could have such heart but still keep the mental openness. I could claim it as an adaptation for the longevity of my species because that's the last thing any human wants, a morbidly depressed dragon flying about."

Kushala laughed, "So you're saying the coping mechanism of a species that can live for centuries is haphazard positivity?

"You gotta ACcentuate the positive, elimINate the negative, and latch on to the AFfirmative, and don't mess with mister in-between." Tiamet sang out a line from an old tune, not caring that her voice always carried above the crowd when she sang or that metal tended to warp and bend whenever she raised her voice. But she was so quick that other than a strange vibration that only a few who were holding something metallic would report, nothing other than the momentary oddness of a large woman singing an old song in a bar happened. "Think twice, that's my only advice, before bitching at the power of positivity." She smiled and nodded towards the door, "Listen to an old woman will ya? And let's hit the road before we're late."

Kushala fell into step beside her, "How old do your kind live to? You never told me specifically. I mean with vibranium bone structures and protective scales, I would think that it'd be damn near impossible to kill a Taninoui."

"And you'd be correct. Only a few of us were killed by anything other than old age."

Kushala pressed, "How old was that?"

"Around 3,743 years old." Tiamet laughed at Kushala's expression as they pushed through the door and came out onto the sidewalk of the busy city.

"Damn."

"Damn is right." Tiamet looked both ways before leading them across the road towards the office building they were set to meet the representatives in. She paused at the door and gave Kushala a hard look which seemed to surprise the young woman as these serious moments came and went like the wind for Tiamet. "Which, it's no coincidence that I came to your aid or that I've come with you now." She let the pause linger for effect and opened the door for her ward.

"What do you mean?" Kushala lowered her voice as they moved through the lobby area towards the elevators.

"I'm about two hundred years shy of two thousand." Kushala gulped and Tiamet smiled as she pressed the button for the elevator. "I can die when we're done."

Kushala made sure to wait until the elevator doors closed and no one else joined them before she turned to Tiamet, "Are you dying now? Are you certain you'll die when we're done? How long do we have?"

"Oh bless your soul," Tiamet laughed and patted Kushala's shoulder, "I just meant that this, to me, is similar to that first time I found myself among superior humans. It has happened now and again that I've found groups of such people, but it has been some time and it is most refreshing to be apart of it again." She looked at Kushala and shrugged as she added, "Oh at least have the possibility of it. But what I'm saying is I am getting older so it is 'easier' to kill me now than it would've been a century or so ago. As we age our scales grow thinner, our plasma fire dies out altogether, and our teeth will eventually fall out."

"Oh," Kushala seemed to glance at Tiamet's mouth, "Are you missing any teeth yet?"

"Ha! No, not yet," the elevator doors dinged and opened, revealing a sparsely furnished but spacious room, "but I may if someone says something drastically stupid and I end up getting decked for putting them in their place."

They were prevented from talking further by the appearance of an attractive woman and a man connected to what looked to be an exoskeleton. These were the two representatives it seemed.

"Welcome," the woman spoke first, "I am Natasha Romanoff and this is Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes. Thank you for joining us today."

Kushala looked over at Tiamet. She smiled in response as they heard the elevator doors close behind them.