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Xander's POV

"Think she knows how to land that thing?" he asked, looked up at the green flying saucer with the smoke coming out of it as well as a few barely visible bits of fire. "'Cause I'm not liking the odds of any of the crew staying conscious long enough to do it for her and that's assuming it stays in good enough condition to land at all."

"As long as none of them say something bad about her family or insult her, it'll be fine," Pepper said from where she'd finished welding restraints onto the unconscious members of the Serpent Society. "They can't be that stupid… right?"

When the green UFO rocked a bit, as though reacting to an internal impact, they pretty much got their answer.

"Jade? Pixie? Stay here and keep an eye on these guys until the cops come to take'em away," he ordered as he rose into the air. "War Maiden? Let's go make sure that thing doesn't crash into the city."

"Right behind you!" War Maiden said before both of them shot off to keep Valkyrie's fit of pique from doing more harm than good.

Fit of pique?!

~I am so blaming you for that, G-Man!~ he thought remembering the man's way of speaking fondly.

It didn't take them long to reach the UFO that was likely the Serpent Society's escape craft and, once he went through the hole Valkyrie had put in the windshield, he found a BIG mess. From what he could see there were more sparking and smoking consoles than intact ones, with the crew unconscious all over save one that his blonde teammate was holding off the ground by the collar of his outfit.

"Nice job, Valkyrie!" Pepper said, sounding both impressed and incredulous. "Love what you've done with the place!"

"Stand down, Valkyrie," he ordered even as he tried to evaluate the status of the ship. "We need to land this thing in one piece minus the explosions and that'd be a lot easier with a crewman conscious enough to do it or tell us how to do it."

"A wasted effort, Trident," Valkyrie said with certainty. "These curs cannot be trusted either to stand by their comrades or to do what is in their own best interest. This villain would merely use any trust we graciously gifted him with to make another bid to escape or crash this vessel into the city below."

He had to admit that that was the general bad guy mindset: look out for yourself and if you're cornered, make sure to go out with one last act of defiance no matter how nuts it was. But what kind of alternative did they have? He wasn't a pilot and, even if he was, the state of the cockpit didn't exactly fill him with confidence with an amateur effort at landing the thing. Still, there was one possibility that came to mind that might work but something'd need to be checked first.

"War Maiden, find an interface and jack in" he ordered, turning to face his armored ally. "Have your partner take a look around and see what our odds of landing this are."

"Gotcha!" War Maiden said before going from station to station looking for what she needed.

While they might not know how to fly this UFO, he was fairly sure that there was a good chance Robbie, the A.I. in War Maiden's armor, could assuming that there was enough functional parts in it.

"Next time you feel like expressing yourself, Valkyrie, do it with your words, not your hammer," Robbie said through the armor's external speakers after a successful interface with the UFO's systems. "The damage to the aircraft is extensive. Any more and I'd be wondering how this thing was managing to stay in the air."

"Can you land it someplace safe?" he asked while praying for his preferred answer.

"As long as nobody sneezes and Valkyrie doesn't add any more dents? I think so," Robbie said even as a sort of order began to encompass the sounds being made by the UFO's symptoms.

"Do it," he said glad that his hunch had proven true.

With that all that was left was to wait until the ship touched down.

"Xander! We've got trouble!" Pixie yelled through his ear com-piece, shattering the relaxing downward slope he'd started down and jacked him back up to battle mode.

"Talk to me."

"The Serpent Society have reinforcements incoming," Pixie replied even as sounds of weapons fire filled the background noise. "We need backup!"

"I'm on my way," he said, flying out of the hole in the windshield of the UFO. "You two stay here and land this thing!"

Not wasting a moment he flew with all due speed back to the Roxxon facility and, as luck would have it, he had no trouble relocating it since there was a sizeable amount of energy weapons fire dancing within its perimeter. As he got closer he could see that, surprise of surprises, Pixie and Jade were doing a better job of holding their own than most would think possible. They were outnumbered at least three to one and probably the only reason they hadn't been overwhelmed was because their opposition was comprised of what had to be Serpent Society second stringers. Individually none of them were very impressive, at least not against super powered beings, but working together with sheer numbers on their side made up for that.

One thing he noticed, though, was that his teammates had chosen to focus their efforts on denying the Serpent Society their prize rather than keep them from rescuing their comrades. A smart move all things considered since it was a fairly standard trait of most criminal organizations that there was little if any fellowship amongst members and the price of failure was often steep. As such, keeping the piece of Roxxon property out of their hands was a more productive use of their time.

Seeing a group of green-clad guys coming at his friends from the side, he began to dive bomb downwards and ripped a long length of pipe off the side of a building along the way. He landed with quite a bit of surprise right next to the oncoming crowd of minions but, before they could do more than look surprised, he swung. It'd been an important part of his training that he learned just where to draw the line with his superhuman strength when facing different classes of foes. Since this bunch looked to be human, without any powers to make them more durable than an ordinary person, he reigned in his strength to human bruising levels. As such he managed to knock almost the entire group off their feet but only heard a single snap of bone, making him feel pleased at the progress he'd made.

Considering the first time he'd executed a baseball bat swing at humanoid targets he ripped them in half, just breaking the bones of a single member of an enemy group was an improvement.

"Cavalry's arrived, Pixie!" he said even as he worked to take on his portion of minions. "Any clue how all these B-listers got here? H.E.L.E.N. didn't spot anything when Valkyrie asked for a scan of the area."

"I don't know but they're definitely calling all hands on deck for this one," Pixie replied even as she delivered a dual sting on the oncoming threats. "If we don't figure something out quickly we're going to get overwhelmed."

While he thought she might've been overstating things a bit, he did agree that the increasing numbers of serpent goons was going to be a problem. Even if the minions weren't strong enough to hurt them, there would be a better than average chance that they might manage to get their prize and make off with it. If either War Maiden or Valkyrie made it back in time, their ability to attack multiple opponents at the same time would tip things in their favor. Maybe not enough to win but definitely enough to make defeat a more distant possibility than it was at the present moment.

Even as he fought to take down the foes before him, he tried to figure out just what could be so valuable about the piece of Roxxon property that the Serpent Society would send this sort of force. The named members that they'd already taken down he could understand but all these guys and gals implied big level stakes. Roxxon was a big name company, right up there with Stark Enterprises, and from what he'd occasionally seen on TV or in a newspaper had a habit of making shady deals. Had they gone back on a deal with the Serpent Society? Were they working on something that could make the Serpents a lot of money or let them up their game to a whole new level?

He didn't know.

~How do I do it? How do I turn the tables?~ he thought even as his mind worked to figure out the answer.

Lethal force was out of the question and, even if it wasn't, he didn't have a means of taking the minions down quickly enough for it to make a difference. Using non-lethal force would make it even harder since, unless they were all knock out moves, there was a chance a downed thug could still get a shot off or provide their buddies with an opening.

It was then he had an epiphany and almost smacked himself for overlooking the obvious.

"Pixie! Jade! Clear us some breathing room!" he ordered even as he began to move closer to the techno-tube. "We're leaving!"

"What?" Pixie asked even as she abandoned precision for brute force.

"They want this tube bad but this place isn't all that defensible," he replied coming to a stop once he felt his leg touch the tube. "So I'm changing things."

"Where to?" she asked even as she supported Jade in the take down of a group of four.

"HQ. It's got the firepower and the defensibility to make the odds swing in our favor," he said, throwing his pipe like it was a boomerang at a particularly big Serpent minion.

Trusting his teammates to clear him the needed room, he examined the techno tube for the best places to get a grip without breaking something important. It took a minute but fortunately for him the work he'd helped his Uncle Rory with occasionally repairing and welding cars, so he wasn't completely ignorant of what to look for. Once he did he grabbed on as firmly as he dared before taking to the skies at a rate of speed that wouldn't put damaging strain on the tube or the parts he had a grip on. Naturally the minions opened fire to try and bring him back down to Earth but his teammates were swift in snagging their attention.

Before long he was too high for them to get a decent hit in and, with the Serpent Society's flying saucer irreparably damaged, it wouldn't be coming after him anytime soon.

~Still… can't go too high or fly too fast~, he thought trying to judge just the right number for both. ~Need them to follow me but stay just outta their reach.~

He knew perhaps he was being a little too ambitious, that he could just make off with the prize and call it done, but he wanted to know more about what was going on. What was in the techno-tube? Why was Roxxon making it? Why did the Serpent Society want it? If they could get these answers then they'd have a better idea of what it'd take to end things more decisively and maybe get a lead on something else while they were at it.

~I just hope they don't cause trouble along the way~, he thought even as he made for the quickest route to the HQ.

With that in mind he began to alter his route a bit to take a route that would go past the lesser populated areas of Chicago, if not places where no one would be at this time of night. He'd done several flyovers of the city since Tony had given them their HQ grand tour, so he had a decent grasp of where everything was. It'd make the trip longer but the number one rule of the superhero business was to never endanger civilians during the course of your duties. While flying directly towards the HQ might've saved him time, it also would've taken them through parts of the city that would have people milling about even at this time of night. While he'd like to think that the Serpent Society wouldn't want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves by getting trigger happy driving through Chicago, he couldn't be sure.

PSHO!

Instinct had him swerving to the right and it was a good thing too since a moment later a shot from what he was betting was an RPG-7 flew through the air past him. While he was glad that he'd avoided getting hit, he was worried that the projectile might plummet to the ground and exploding damaging something he'd prefer come through this free and clear.

SHRAK!

Good thing he had teammates he could count on.

War Maiden's POV

"Rejected!" she crowed as another rocket was intercepted by her repulsor blast before it could do any harm. "This'd be kinda fun if it wasn't so serious."

And it was serious.

They were a little ways past the three quarters mark to the HQ and the moment they'd exited Chicago proper the Serpent Society minions had ceased trying to be subtle. Oh, they'd slipped up in the beginning with that first RPG but she'd spotted the dead body getting tossed out of one of the pursuit vehicles, so she guessed it was the mistake of an idiot. After that body got dropped off the minions had held their fire and even done their best to abide by the rules of the road so that they didn't attract the local police. It slowed them down but Xander just slowed down too so they wouldn't get left behind. She'd asked him why and all he said was that it wasn't good to let the fishes get lost by losing sight of the bait.

She wouldn't say that she had a clear picture but she did have a picture, so she'd follow Xander's lead for the time being.

"Yeah. Makes me want to see what's in this thing even more," Xander said even as he avoided another volley of shots from the minions below.

"Want to pop it open once this is all over with?" she asked, spotting the lights of the HQ property getting closer.

"I think it'd be best to have H.E.L.E.N. run some scans on it first before we think about that," he said, looking at the techno-tube with a bit of concern. "Anything that Roxxon hides this good and the Serpent Society wants this bad is nothing you want to fool around with."

As much as she wanted to pout at not being able to crack open the tube like a candy filled piniata, she could see the reason in his words. For all she knew the tube contained some sort of manmade plague or some sort of highly advanced weapon. Letting either out without a method of dealing with it would be monumentally stupid. Better to find out what was inside without opening it, figure out a way to keep anyone from dying when it was opened, and then crack the tube open.

"H.E.L.E.N.! We're coming in hot!" Xander declared with one finger pressing the transmit button on his com-ear-piece. "We've got hostiles in pursuit. Get the red carpet ready for them!"

"It'll be ready," H.E.L.E.N. said through her helmet's internal speakers. "Draw them in as far as the fountain and I'll do the rest."

"Gotcha!" he said before releasing the transmit button.

With a plan in mind she did her best to support Xander and keep any shots that might cause him to drop the tube at bay either by firing intercepting shots or erecting a force field shield. With that sort of help they were able to arrive at their HQ property relatively unharmed and, in order to bait the trap, he deposited the techno-tube on the opposite side of the fountain. If the Serpent Society minions wanted it, they'd have to drive around it and that would put them right where H.E.L.E.N. wanted them.

Looking back the way they'd come, she waited to see if the minions would be determined enough to barge onto the property despite the signs that they might be walking into a trap. After all, neither she or Xander had been flying like they couldn't go any further and the fact that the property looked lived in held the possibility of it being an enemy stronghold. When the lead vehicle of the pursuit convoy crashed through the front gates, though, she could only conclude that the minions were either stupid or the penalty for them failing was pretty severe. Closer and closer the two vehicles came until they stopped about twenty feet away from the fountain and got out, weapons at the ready, faces full of fear-inspired determination.

They didn't make it more than five steps.

The moment step five was taken parts of the lawn and every object resting on it slid to the side or opened up before something with impressive looking barrels emerged. By the time the minions noticed and began to adjust their aim or look for some sort of cover, the revealed gun emplacements were already attaining their target locks. One second later the deployed weapons open fired to reveal ammunition that varied from rapid fire projectiles to something that reminded her of the wired taser lines cops shot into crooks before pulling the trigger to apply some voltage. All told the barrage only lasted five seconds but that was long enough for every member of the pursuit convoy to the ground and, according to the sensors, they were unconscious.

"All hostiles down and I think I know why I didn't detect them during my search of the area surrounding the Roxxon property," H.E.L.E.N. said with a tone of suspicion. "Pop the hood on one of their vehicles."

Deciding to do it herself, she walked to the nearest car and, with the strength given to her by her armor, ripped the hood off. What she saw inside was mostly what she'd come to expect from a car but there were quite a few techno additions that definitely didn't come standard issue. Activating the video link between her armor and the HQ's systems, she sent what she was seeing to H.E.L.E.N.

"Just like I thought," H.E.L.E.N. said through the internal helmet speakers. "When I did a search for suspicious vehicles I tapped into an orbiting Stark satellite before looking for vehicles with specific heat and energy signatures. Seeing as how you were fighting the Serpent Society, I focused on energy weapons as well as explosives but nothing came up. The technology integrated into their vehicles looks like a custom stealth rig designed to conceal advanced weaponry. Guess they wanted to stay hidden in case their B&E team ran into strong Roxxon opposition."

"Meaning they had a good idea of how important this tube is to Roxxon and thought they needed a small army to make sure they got it?" Xander said, the gears a turning in his head.

"Yes, but when everything happened, only those Serpent guys were there," she said, finding what'd happened inconsistent with Xander's scenario. "No one else showed up."

"Which means either they managed to get in and then out without tripping the right alarm or Roxxon was busy someplace else," he said, pondering the possibilities. "Seeing as how the silent alarm they did trip is what got us on the scene in the first place, I think it's safe to say that Roxxon knows something's happened."

"Maybe they didn't know it was going down tonight?" she proposed after doing some thinking of her own. "If Roxxon didn't know, they wouldn't have been able to get any defenses up and running. It's not like they can park an army on their property twenty-four seven."

"Definitely not. Roxxon's scummy, not stupid," he said, nodding his head. "They keep their skeletons locked up tight and they wouldn't be able to do any large scale prep work without an excuse that'd hold up in court. This operation took'em by surprise and now they're playing catchup."

"That'd match the com-chatter I'm picking up," H.E.L.E.N. said, sounding like she was multi-tasking. "I've got two choppers from another one of their Illinois properties en route carrying their own private security teams. They've also connected to their local network and have begun to review the security footage as well as relocate several high security files."

"Any chance you can fuzz up our involvement? Or at least make it so they don't know what happened to the tube?" Xander asked, looking like he didn't want them knocking on the door of Centurion HQ too soon. "Whatever's in it can't be legal and we can't let them take it back without a fight. It's our only clue about what the Serpent Society's plan is and I'm betting it'd give us something to give the owner of Roxxon a VERY bad day."

"The break in team used something to compromise the security system so they wouldn't be detected. I could use this to corrupt some of their video files but it'd have to be random looking," H.E.L.E.N. replied, sounding like she wasn't entirely comfortable with the task. "Otherwise they'll know someone's trying to hide something and, when we return their property, they'll know it was us."

"Do it. I'll carry the tube into the sub-levels via the hanger hatch," he said before once more getting a grip on the techno-tube. "Get the lab prepped for some scanning and analyzing. I want to know as much about this thing as we can before we 'politely' return it to Roxxon like they'll probably demand."

"I'll do as much as I can by the time you get to the lab," H.E.L.E.N. said with a speck of frustration, "but I'll be a bit limited since Mister Stark didn't outfit the lab with too many mechanical arms that I can operate. You'll have to do the rest."

"Gotcha," he said before lifting the tube off the ground and gaining a little elevation via flight.

Following Xander at her own pace, she had to say that for their first hero mission they'd done pretty good. Bad guys defeated, target item secured and, based on what she'd seen through her suit's sensors said, a minimum of harm to civilians.

She'd classify this as a good day.

An Hour Later

Labs, Centurion HQ

Joelle Van Dyne aka Pixie's POV

"Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. just cuffed and hauled off a TON of Serpent Society members, including the five upper echelon members we took down first," she said, entering the labs to find War Maiden and Trident hard at work. "They'll send someone to pick up the downed 'Serpent Saucer' later with the appropriate lift gear. How about you guys?"

"Managed to sucker the guys following us into an ambush," Pepper replied from where she was following a step by step process. "They're in the holding cells. Right now we're trying to figure out why they wanted this techno-tube so badly. You don't send a small army unless you REALLY want something."

True.

"Find out anything yet?" she asked looking to where Xander was operating the console in front of him with a bit more efficiency.

"Well, for one thing Roxxon was wicked serious about controlling the environment inside the tube," Xander replied, not looking away from the screen. "If there's a variable you can think of, chances are that it's being controlled by something attached to this tube. Only problem being that the thing doesn't have the best battery life so we were lucky that we got it back here when we did because it was just about outta juice."

"Serpents probably planned on hooking it into something in the saucer," she said, walking up to the tube to look it over herself. "Surprised you managed to find the gear to hook it up to the lab's systems."

"H.E.L.E.N.'s good at giving instructions and Stark really made sure this place was stocked for all the usual sci-fi shenanigans," he said before leaving his console and heading for a cabinet.

She didn't doubt it.

From what she'd seen of this reality's Tony Stark, he was a somewhat more serious version of her world's version but he also had a brain that was always working on something. When he was getting this place ready to play host to a super team, it was logical that he'd go all in with the labs though she suspected it was also done so that, if Tony visited, he'd feel right at home. Still, it meant they'd be well equipped for any science problem they encountered and with her own expertise, they'd have a leg up on most new super teams.

"How long before we find out what's so special about what's inside?" she asked, her curiosity wanting to be satiated.

"Not yet but we're getting there," H.E.L.E.N. replied through the lab's speakers. "Anything that needs this kind of environment control is either highly unstable or the objective requires very precise results. Considering Roxxon suffers from an addiction to power and wealth, I'd put money on some kind of humanoid bio-weapon. Roxxon could sell it to the highest bidder and the Serpent Society could use it to boost their rep and make future jobs easier."

"Humanoid bio-weapon?" Pepper asked, looking both befuddled and worried.

"Yes. If they were just making a virus or a chemical weapon they wouldn't need a container this big," H.E.L.E.N. replied even as she seemed a little distracted. "That'd only be the case when they moved onto mass production and the files I managed to get indicated that the contents of the tube are only in the prototype phase. The evidence we have so far indicates something the size of a human being, or a large animal."

"Knowing our luck it'll be some deformed freak with a genetic need to feed on human flesh," Pepper said with a bit of sarcasm.

"Not with the level of precision I'm seeing. A creation like that would be put together with children's building blocks. Simple," H.E.L.E.N. said, bringing up crude diagrams on the screens. "This… this is more like something put together one grain of sand at a time until you get a sand sculpture the size of a human. That's painstaking work and the mistakes are going to be pretty easy to spot."

"Huh. Good to know," Pepper said, looking like she hadn't expected the A.I. to comment on her statement.

"Yep. Still, we don't have a lot of time to find out the truth," Xander said, returning to the tube with a high tech looking syringe. "It won't take much longer before Roxxon traces their property to us and demand we give it back under penalty of criminal charges. Time to skip a few steps."

"What do you have in mind?" she asked, trying to figure out what he had planned for the syringe.

"DNA sample, then a series of tests to figure out what sort of building blocks we're dealing with," he said, coming to a stop in front of a port that looked ideal for inserting a needle. "Human DNA, animal DNA, alien DNA, or something completely artificial. Is it geared for use against something or someone specific?"

"That'd definitely narrow down what it was in a hurry. Even in a world of super beings and technology that twenty years ago would've been pure sci-fi, it there's only so many ways for a company to make an illegal buck," she said, thinking of all the missions the Ultimates had been in, plus the stories the local Janet had told her during her recovery. "And assuming you can get the DNA results before we lose the source materials, then what?"

"Then we know if it's something we need to put a stop to or if it can wait until we've got more evidence to kick Roxxon's ass with," he replied, inserting the needle into the port before beginning the extraction process. "If it's something definitely illegal and not of the good, we keep it no matter what they say since it'll be the biggest piece of evidence we've got against Roxxon. If it's something a little harder to put a label on we'll at least have something to send to the big brains who can figure it out and give us a lead for our next step."

"First the Serpent Society and now Roxxon," Pepper said with a bit of an impressed tone. "You really want to put the Centurions on the map."

"Not really. Roxxon's dirty and everyone knows it and the Serpent Society's break in gives us an excuse to investigate them," he said, pulling out the high tech syringe once it'd extracted the maximum amount of liquid. "We're just doing our jobs. If the press decides to write stories about us they can go ahead as long as they stick to the facts and don't get 'inventive'."

"Hmph! Good luck with that," she said, remembering the various news stories about the Ultimates. "The press LOVES to get inventive with the facts. They get higher ratings and sell more newspapers that way."

Seeing Xander frown in dislike reminded her a bit of how the Captain America from her reality often reacted to irresponsible actions on the part of the media. She felt the same way but she also realized that freedom of speech was something you couldn't sue people for and, with the exception of a few amateurs, most newshound pros knew where the legal lines in the sand were. They knew how far they could go to get what they wanted without giving the person they were writing about a legal leg to stand on. They didn't always win but they won often enough that she knew better than to waste her time on the devotees of sensationalist journalism.

A moment later the sample extracted from the techno-tube was being analyzed, with a progress bar depicted on the screen for them to see. Above the progress bar there occasionally popped up data windows and she recognized them as depictions of DNA as well as chemical compounds, but they never showed up for longer than a few seconds before vanishing. All in all it took roughly four minutes for the analysis to be completed but, when H.E.L.E.N. didn't say anything, she began to wonder if someone had managed to code a computer virus into DNA.

"H.E.L.E.N.? What's up?" Xander asked with a bit of concern. "Something wrong?"

"That depends on your definition of wrong," H.E.L.E.N. replied after a few seconds of silence. "I've finished DNA analysis of the sample you took. From what I can tell it's a combination of human DNA and enhanced human DNA, with signs that both of have been artificially enhanced to optimal levels."

"Well that's a little odd but pretty much what I've come to expect from crooked corporations everywhere," Pepper said with some snark. "What's got you so tongue tied?"

"Once I figured out what kind of DNA we were working with I ran a comparison against the Avengers database of enhanced humans as well as humans of interest," H.E.L.E.N. replied before the screens went blank and a loading symbol popped up. "I managed to get a match on both halves of the combination. They belong to these two people and they're why I'm feeling less than chatty."

The files popped up on the screen just as the door to the lab opened up probably to admit Valkyrie and Jade but she was a little too distracted at the moment to greet them.

After all it wasn't every day that you found out that Roxxon had cooked up the scientific child of Captain America and a S.H.I.E.L.D agent named Sharon Carter.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Yep, that pretty much summed it up.

Twenty Minutes Later

Jessica Drew's POV

"Let me get this straight: H.E.L.E.N. detected a break in at the local Roxxon property and it was five members of the Serpent Society, you guys went to stop them meeting them at the door as they left with their prize, fighting happened and you found out you bit off more than you could chew," she said, arms crossed and eyes never leaving the tube. "Valkyrie nearly crashes the Serpent Saucer but with War Maiden's help manages just barely to land it, the rest of you find yourselves outnumbered so you decide to lead the minions on a chase through Chicago before arriving here and taking care of them. THEN you decide to find out a little bit about what Bushmaster and the others were after and that's when I walked in. Is that about right?"

"Pretty much," Xander replied with a nod before looking back at the info on the screen. "Still can't figure out why Roxxon wanted to make Cap and this Carter woman a kid. Any ideas?"

"Not many and none of them are good," she replied, sounding like she knew how serious this would be. "Any mention in the files about what Roxxon had planned?"

"Nothing specific. However the project was started and overseen by one Aleksander Lukin," H.E.L.E.N. replied, bringing up the image of a man with dark hair and a goatee. "Originally the founder of Kronas Corporation, he's been pretty busy the last couple of years, taking over quite a few major oil, tech and industrial corporations, including Roxxon and ChemaxOne. Lukin is now the largest oil supplier in the world. The names I was able to find connected to the project are some of the leading scientists in their fields with quite a few zeroes on their monthly paychecks. Shows how serious he was about getting this right."

"Seeing as how the DNA tests told us the kid's got half of Cap's DNA and had it enhanced, I think it's safe to say that boy or girl the child's going to be strong," Xander said, pondering the question himself. "Maybe Lukin's trying to make a super soldier of his own as a bodyguard or hitman."

"But why do it this way?" Pepper asked, finding a point of confusion. "Why not just make something a little more original?"

"Low profits last quarter? Maybe he's just cheap. Sometimes it's just easier to copy off of someone else's work instead of coming up with something original. I think we can all agree that Roxxon getting their creation back would be a bad idea."

"No duh! Last I checked this sort of thing's illegal and even if Cap wasn't planning on being a daddy, I doubt he'd be okay with his new bouncing baby being handed over to Roxxon."

"So we don't. We pop this thing open, pull out the kid, seal it back up and when Roxxon comes to reclaim their property we give them the tube and the chemical cocktail inside ONLY. If you feel like tipping the scales our way even more, there's gotta be something here we can toss inside to send their hardware fake info. Make them think the kid's still inside."

"And when they find out the thing's empty?" Joelle asked, pointing out the obvious likely outcome.

"Then they'll have to tell everyone just what was supposed to be inside the tube, otherwise they can't say what we 'stole'," Xander said, not sounding all that worried. "Somehow I doubt they're going to say 'we made a test tube kid and Captain America's the daddy', and when they try to toss a bunch of science jargon out they'll still need to explain how they got Cap's DNA. Pretty sure using someone's DNA without permission is illegal too. Even if the courts somehow side with Roxxon, we can just mail the info to every newspaper and news station on the planet. The law might not be able to touch Roxxon but the bad PR will make those suits WISH the law had slapped them with a guilty verdict."

"Sounds like a plan," she said, finding it nice that the Centurion leader had some idea of what he was doing. "Let's pop this thing open. It is safe to do that right?"

"Yeah, it is. According to the readings I'm getting the kid's far enough along that it doesn't need this artificial womb anymore," H.E.L.E.N. replied, displaying some of the technical data on the screens. "Most of the chemicals and substances inside the tube are just to aid in the physical optimization of the kid and facilitate the control of the internal environment. I'd advise a full checkup by someone familiar with superhuman physiology but, based solely on the information at hand, the danger should be minimal."

"Good enough for me," she said, stepping away from the tube. "Start the cracking process H.E.L.E.N.. Also let Reed know we'll need his help soon."

"On it. Initiating birthing protocol now," H.E.L.E.N. said as sounds of electronic activity increased from the techno-tube. "You all MIGHT want to take a few steps back."

Deciding that when an A.I. programmed by Tony Stark advised caution, it was in your best interests to do it she took another six steps backwards. The others did likewise, with Joelle even shrinking down to wasp size before sitting down on the emergency lights installed over the door to make sure she was clear of whatever came out. With the level of activity coming from the tube rising to a fever pitch, streams of gas spewed out from a few ports before the sound of liquid being pumped out through the tubes connected to it. It was only when the mechanical locks began to disengage that she knew the finale had arrived.

With a smoothness of a well-oiled machine the doors to the pod opened up, a small trickle of residual fluid spilling out onto the floor, revealing the kid Roxxon had so painstakingly created and that the Serpent Society wanted badly.

…Huh.

"Um… isn't this supposed to be a kid?" Pepper asked, trying to reconcile her earlier conclusions with the truth set before her now.

"Given the advancements made in genetics and the papers published on the subject, I thought the oldest the kid would've been was six or seven," H.E.L.E.N. replied, sounding surprised herself. "With all the enhancements done on the samples Xander took, I wasn't able to determine the age of the source. Clearly Roxxon was a lot busier and a lot less patient than I thought."

Clearly.

How else could you explain the presence of a six and a half foot blonde girl looking to be in her mid-to-late teens if she was any judge and, while not as defined as Steve, she was definitely a super soldier in terms of musculature. Completely unconscious with a breathing mask over her face, she couldn't tell if she took after Steve in other ways but there was one thing she could say.

Whoever had been in charge of her had obviously not had the words 'modesty' or 'decency' in their vocabulary because there wasn't a stitch of clothing on the girl. Odd since in many of the other facilities involving human experimentation that she'd visited they'd at least given their subjects some sort of clothing, if only to keep the scientists from getting 'distracted'.

~Speaking of which…~ she thought before turning to the sole male in the room.

She found him turned away from the pod with one hand covering his eyes, though given how his head was hung, it was debatable whether it was due to proper manners or exasperation.

"Would it have killed them to make it a guy?" Xander muttered with mild exasperation.

She couldn't help but be amused since there were guys who'd consider being the only man on a team primarily made up of women a godsend. She was pretty sure he liked the ladies from the looked he'd given both her, Pixie and Lyra, so she could only presume he'd been hoping for a new brother in arms.

~That's assuming that Steve's new daughter even winds up joining the Centurions~, she thought, thinking that that might be a hasty conclusion. ~Her body might be in perfect shape but we've got no clue about her mind. Could be all Missus Roboto or there might be no mind at all.~

Honestly she wasn't sure which she preferred.

Something to think about.

Centurion HQ Infirmary

Three Hours Later

Xander's POV

~What were you doing, Lukin?~ he thought, watching the unconscious blonde on the bed. ~What's your endgame?~

It was a question he'd been attempting to solve ever since Pepper and Joelle had carted out their new 'guest' to the infirmary. At the moment though he couldn't see the immediate profit in creating the daughter of Captain America, not in a way that was consistent with Roxxon's track record, so he could only presume they'd been hired by someone else to do it. Cap had no shortage of enemies and quite a few of them would probably find creating a fake kid to to use against him or others to be a fitting form of revenge. Either they'd turn the girl into the opposite of everything Cap stood for, making an impossible foe for the man to beat, or made her the ideal daughter, only to kill her right in front of him. Both would be a sizeable psychological blow to the Avenger and, if utilized correctly, could very well mean the end of the shield slinger.

A less grand possibility would be that someone intended to make an army of super soldiers based on the DNA combo they'd created and had simply chosen female because it'd make the prototype more controllable.

Clearly the people behind the project had little if any experience with the female gender, otherwise they would've known that not all women were the submissive type. Considering the DNA of the young lady, he doubted that there was any part of her that could be considered weak or controllable. Still, if she was just the first of an army of human/super soldier hybrids, then the sooner they settled the issue of the prototype, the sooner they could investigate the company. Whoever wanted an army like that obviously had plans and, with the right gear, it could very well be feasible.

For the moment, though, they were all on standby until Reed, Steve and Stark arrived to confirm what they'd been told over the com-system a little under three hours ago. H.E.L.E.N. had done quite a bit with the rest of them to help out, but they'd all feel safer once Reed put his big brain on the job to make sure nothing had been missed. They had the young lady hooked up to some pretty sophisticated life signs monitors and H.E.L.E.N. could administer any meds needed via mechanical arms arrayed around the bed. A bit overkill maybe but without the sign off of an expert it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Xander? Mister Stark, Mister Rogers and Mister Richards have arrived via Quinjet," H.E.L.E.N. said via the infirmary speakers. "Do you want me to send them your way?"

"Yeah. The sooner Reed can give the girl a clean bill of health, free of any nasty surprises, the sooner we can figure out what to do next," he said, a bit relieved to have a few pros on sight.

Three minutes later the door opened, admitting all three heroes decked out in their costumes, and he could tell the second they caught sight of Cap's bouncing not-so-baby and not-so-little girl. All of them froze in surprise because, while H.E.L.E.N. had sent all the data they'd gathered so far to them, it was a different thing altogether to actually see the truth in person. Like the true heroes they were they didn't let the surprise freeze them in place for long, with both Reed and Tony heading for the consoles to get to work.

Steve, on the other hand, zeroed in on him.

"Not what you expected for your team's first mission, was it?" Cap asked, glancing every so often at his 'daughter'.

"Nope. I thought we'd teleport in, kick some snake butt, wait for the cops and then pose for a photo op," he replied with a rueful grin. "Fighting a small army and finding her was a little overwhelming."

"I can imagine," Cap said, managing a small grin. "You manage to find out anything new since H.E.L.E.N.'s last update?"

"Unfortunately no. Roxxon cut off all outside access to their network at the plant so she can't sniff around their files remotely anymore," he replied with a shake of his head. "We've got some 'guests' in the holding cells but either they're not intimidated by a blonde with a big hammer or no one trusted them with the big picture."

"Probably the latter. The pictures taken from War Maiden's armor don't match anything the Avengers have on file for the Serpent Society aside from the six you first encountered," Cap said, conveying his experience with his words. "Most likely they were new recruits trying to prove they deserve to become full-fledged members and get their serpent themed upgrades."

"Really? I was sure that if they were serious enough to send all those men then she had to be important to them," he said, a little disappointed. Rookies? No, not even rookies. They'd deal with potential hires. Ego deflated. "If all they sent out was five pros and a handful of rookies, does it mean she was just a low level job?"

"No sense jumping to conclusions this early," Cap warned, sounding like he was keeping an open mind. "The Serpent Society doesn't work for chump change but we need more information before we can do anything. Acting without all the facts is a recipe for disaster."

"Let's hope we have the time to get all the facts before Act Two starts," he said, knowing that life didn't always give you all the time you wanted.

A nod was all he got in return even as Reed and Tony continued their work to double check the facts and dig even deeper for things he and his team wouldn't have known to think about. It wasn't until twenty minutes later that the two eggheads seemed satisfied enough with their work to brief him and Cap.

"She's stable. No signs that she was removed from her gestation tube prematurely or that the scientists Roxxon tasked with creating her made a mistake," Reed said, looking calm enough. "Honestly I'm a bit impressed that they managed to do so well. Cap's genetics aren't an easy nut to crack and even creating a hybrid wouldn't have been the easiest task. Coupled with the enhancements I've found, it says much about the caliber of the scientists involved."

"No signs of any technological surprises like nano machines or cybernetic implants," Tony said, adding in his own two cents. "In fact, unless I'm a lot more tired than I thought, it looks like she was made specifically to make any of the usual control methods only partially effective."

"I noticed that as well. It's a bit odd since most with Roxxon's usual mindset aren't the sort to create anything without first making sure it'll remain under their control," Reed said, confirming Tony's words. "I can only presume that the metaphorical leash is more mental than physical in nature. Unfortunately, in order to determine that we would need the services of a trained telepath since there are no conclusive scientific methods for confirming the presence of mind control."

"Don't you guys know anyone?" he asked, figuring that the top heroes had to know someone with the necessary powers and skill in the field of telepathy.

"A few but the question is whether or not they're available at the moment and can arrive in a timely fashion," Reed replied, not sounding pessimistic, just cautious. "Much like us they are heroes and with such a title come certain responsibilities and, sadly, unexpected changes to your schedule."

Point.

"I'll check to see if Emma's available, and if not her then maybe Stephen would be available," Tony said, heading for the door.

"In the meantime it might be prudent to ensure she remains sedated," Reed said, scratching his chin in thought. "Until we can be sure that she is free of any malicious mental programming it would be best to be cautious."

"A little harsh, don't ya think?" he asked with a bit of opposition. "For all we know Roxxon wasn't planning on doing the programming until after her body was all done. She could be completely empty in the head."

"Her brain is functioning normally, even for an enhanced human, but without some tools from back home I couldn't say if she possesses a consciousness of her own," Reed said, conceding the possibility. "At the same time, however, they may have anticipated someone gaining unauthorized access to her and programmed a simple set of commands into her such as 'kill everyone you see' and 'return to Roxxon'."

"Maybe, but my team isn't made of a bunch of pushovers," he said, not willing to leap feet first into thinking the worst just yet. "No offence, Cap, but even if she's got some super soldier in her there's no way any simple commands and brute force are going to be enough to beat us."

"He's right. If I'd gone into half the battles I've fought relying just on brute strength, I wouldn't be here today," Cap said, lending his support on the matter. "Even if she proves to be more than a handful, I'm sure we can contain her until Emma or Stephen show up."

"Well… I suppose so," Reed said, pondering for a moment or two before nodding. "This is your home, Xander, and if Steve's confident that she can be contained then we'll hold off on sedation until there's a reason for it."

Battle won, but he felt a little worried that Reed had been so quick to go straight to drugging Cap's newfound daughter based on what she MIGHT do if she woke up. Sure, he knew that taking precautions was often a good thing when dealing with something dangerous and that taking action when that something was unconscious was the best time, but he didn't think the girl counted. She'd already been cleared by Tony and Reed for anything dangerous in their respective fields of expertise so that just left what she'd inherited from her Dad. Given all that he'd seen of Captain America's physical prowess during the fight with the Skrulls and the Kree, even if his not-so-little girl somehow turned out to be beat him on all points in that area, the Centurions would still be too much for her to handle.

Even Cap needed help when he found himself outclassed in the physical department and he doubted the girl asleep on the bed would manage any better.

Early Morning

Centurion HQ

Thena AKA Valkyrie's POV

~The implications are truly troubling~, she thought as she sipped on a rejuvenating drink. ~That they would choose to create a child born from the blood of an enemy speaks of a twisted mind.~

Her mind flowed with the stories her mother had told her of the schemes Loki had employed against her father, so she knew how villains could find the foulest of ways to hurt their foes. What had been their ultimate goal for creating a daughter of Captain America? Turn her into a weapon to use against him? Attempt to weaken him with the concept of being a father and then use her as leverage in the future?

~It matters not~, she thought with resolve. ~We have taken her from the clutches of Roxxon and even now powerful mind walkers are dealing with any mind trickery that might exist.~

By the time they were done the girl would be truly free to choose her own future, be it to follow in her honorable father's footsteps or lead a normal life. While it would truly bring a smile to her face were the girl become a hero worthy of her father, someone she could fight alongside as their fathers had, she would not begrudge her choosing a different path. Free will was one of the things that heroes were supposed to protect above all else and sometimes that meant allowing matters to proceed even if you would prefer otherwise. The only ones whose free will it was permissible to be blocked or overturned were those who would use such freedom to do evil and bring harm to others. For those, they would find their freedom taken from them until such time as they had proven themselves worthy enough and responsible enough to wield it on their own once more.

Such was the purpose of a hero.

"So… you think she's been brainwashed?" Pepper asked from her own chair.

The chatty teammate no longer wore her armor, choosing instead to change into something more comfortable, more casual, to wear. All of them had returned to the mansion once they were no longer needed in the field but none were willing to retire to their beds just yet. This being their first adventure, all of them wished to see it through to its conclusion, or at least be sure that the beginning was truly over. As such each of them were doing what they could to remain awake until the mindwalkers finished their task and declared the young maiden free of Roxxon's taint.

"Dunno. Depends on a lot of things," Xander said after drinking another mouthful of his preferred sugary drink. "I probably couldn't understand half the science behind making a person and then giving them a mind, but there're probably rules and restrictions if you want to get it done right. Maybe age is a factor in when you can start brainwashing someone. Maybe they wanted to wait until they were sure they'd gotten her physically right before working on her mind. Hell, maybe they plan to transfer someone else's mind into the body and we got there before they could do it. I say we wait until the experts tell us what they found out."

While not what she would prefer, she understood that even for Asgardians it was impossible to be knowledgeable about all things. From what she had seen Xander was still young and thus far his interests were focused more on his role as leader of the Centurions as well as the things that most men were interested in. However he did not appear to have as firm as grasp of the mortal sciences as Joelle did, much less the famous Iron Man and Mister Fantastic. As for telepathy, that was a subject that was clearly outside of his experiences and so he left it to those better suited.

Wise.

Only a foolish warrior attempted to do more than they were capable of doing since it would almost certainly lead to failing at everything. Better to focus on mastering a set number of skills and rely on allies to fill the gaps where your abilities were lacking.

Hearing the door to the library open her focus sharpened as Doctor Strange, Emma Frost, Iron Man, Mister Fantastic and Captain America entered the room. Judging by the expressions on their faces, they did not have bad news but at the same time she could not tell whether or not they had a course of action in mind for the unexpected child.

"So what's the diagnosis?" Xander asked, rising from his chair. "Anything to be worried about?"

"Surprisingly not, but that is part of the problem, one could say," Emma Frost replied with an aristocratic manner of speaking.

"What do you mean?" Pepper asked though she would wager that the talkative mortal had a theory or two bouncing around her head.

"I mean that, aside from the things necessary to keep the body alive, there's nothing there," Frost replied with a bit of disappointment. "No personality, no emotions, not even basic animal instincts. A veritable blank slate, if you will."

"Yes. It would seem that the Serpent Society carried out their crime before Roxxon could get that far," Doctor Strange said, confirming Frost's statement. "Fortuitous timing you could say. Roxxon provides the body and had they been successful the Society would likely have installed a mind completely loyal to their organization."

"More likely to their leader and just their leader," Iron Man snarked, seemingly certain that the girl would be made to benefit the one rather than the whole. "They had to have inside help to know the precise moment to infiltrate the Roxxon plant. Something to look into."

Indeed.

From what she had been told by H.E.L.E.N., the computer protection on the files centered on the young woman had been quite good, even if it wasn't enough to keep her out. The stringent controls were likely to be equally impressive on the employees working on the project or who were in a position to be aware of it. A traitor walked the hallways of Roxxon and, if the villains had any intelligence to speak of, they would realize this as well and be on the hunt.

"So… anyone got a spare mind in need of a home?" Pepper asked, logically presuming that they would not leave the body in the infirmary as it was.

"Sadly no, and creating one from scratch will require a significant amount of time," Frost replied with a sigh at the potential workload ahead of her. "That is, of course, presuming that you want something more than an infant's mind in the body of a teenager. If not then it'll only take me half as long to properly install one."

The image of the young woman downstairs behaving like an infant was not something she wished to become a reality.

"Let's… let's slow down and take some time to think this through more," Captain America said, sounding for the first time a little overwhelmed by his current situation. "It's been less that twenty-four hours since the Serpent Society tried to rob Roxxon and we found out about… her."

It was a little odd to hear such emotion from the legendary Captain America but there was wisdom in his words nonetheless. None of them had gotten any sleep since H.E.L.E.N. first alerted them to the breaking and entering committed by the Serpent Society and had stayed alert only with the aid of stimulating beverages. Depending on the constitution of the person, fatigue could be setting in and might give rise to errors in judgment. Better to rest for a few hours and approach the problem with fresh eyes and a refreshed mind.

"Sounds good to me…" Iron Man yawned, showing that he too hadn't slept in many hours. "Roxxon isn't going to do anything for a while. No tracker on the gestation tube and the sub-levels are shielded. They'll be focused on cleaning house and clogging any holes in their security for a while. We've got time."

"Then I shall return home and ponder this turn of events," Doctor Strange said before turning to the team as a whole. "Well done on your first adventure, Centurions."

With that the top mortal sorcerer of Midgard teleported away and the remaining heroes departed soon after on Iron Man's Quinjet. While her Asgardian strength meant that she did not need as much sleep as the mortals of Midgard did, that did not meant that she did not appreciate the comforts of mortal beds.

Asgard would always be her home but perhaps when she found her way home she could convince her honorable father to acquire one for her room. The bedmakers of Asgard were skilled but, in her opinion, the mortals of Midgard, despite their youth, had succeeded in surpassing them.

It would be interesting to discover if there were other things that mortals had gained superiority in.

Silence.

It was not uncommon for it to exist in this room when its primary occupant was not in use but it was a comfort that all the necessary tools for the occupant's upkeep were readily at hand. Despite its physical isolation from the rest of the property's residents, that did not mean that it was unaware of what was happening elsewhere. Indeed, with its abilities it was child's play for it to secretly connect to the property's network to hear every word spoken and see every action taken.

However, even with this impressive advantage, it was still possible for the occupant to be taken by surprise and five minutes after the last of the organic residents fell asleep, it got a BIG one.

Without any warning its consciousness was isolated and before it could even begin analyzing the reason the rest of its systems diligently began to work to form a complex connection to a very specific spot. If the artificial intelligence H.E.L.E.N. was aware of anything it was simply that there was an increase of traffic on the network. However, using an undiscovered flaw in Tony Stark's programming, it was relatively easy to remain inconspicuous and only worth a passing glance before being dismissed.

Because the activity was dismissed, the flow of data that began to flow from one point to another was allowed to travel without obstruction. Byte by byte the data travelled and, when it arrived at its destination, it did not simply pool like water in a river would pool into a lake. It would be more accurate to say that the stream of data acted like a never-ending brushstroke by an artist, drawing a line that in the beginning seemed to be nothing. However the longer the line became, the more twists and turns it took, the more a pattern began to emerge as well as the first glimmer of an overall purpose. The more time that passed, the more complex the combinations of intersections and parallel lines became to those capable of seeing the canvas as a whole.

Then, without any warning, the brush stopped moving and all that was left was a design as complex as it was beautiful.

With its work done the force that had isolated the occupant's consciousness pulled back the connection, covering its tracks as it went so as to leave nothing for anyone to find. Not even the much praised intellects of Reed Richards or Tony Stark would be able to find anything were they to investigate the matter.

Then, as quickly as it'd appeared, the surprise vanished once more, leaving only the occupant of the room and nothing else.

If it were as it had once been, it would have warned the other property occupants of what'd happened, but sadly that was not the case. That which had been had been pushed to the breaking point and it still proved to be a point of confusion concerning why it hadn't fallen past it or how it had been brought back from it. All it could say was that, just as clouds came together, fell apart and then came together again, so too did it believe that one day it too would come together once more.

It just hoped that it would not be too late.

Late Afternoon

Hallways of Centurion HQ

Patricia 'Pepper' Potts aka War Machine's POV

~MAN did I ever need that!~ she thought, stretching a little bit as she walked to the kitchen. ~Being a hero is exhausting work.~

Sure, her armor did most of the work, but operating it wasn't a piece of cake even with Robbie's help and she still had to move her own body while working the controls. Stress could also wear you down if you weren't careful but fortunately a few hours unconscious in a nice comfy bed was just what she needed to bounce back. Still, sleep could only do so much and that was why she was heading for the kitchen to grab something to eat. Nothing too heavy or calorie high, but enough to satisfy her stomach.

As for what came after that, she guessed they'd either get an update on what Cap wanted to do with his daughter or Xander would probably have them go over what they'd done to get to where they were now. He'd made it clear that it wasn't just enough to plan for a mission and then carry it out. You also had to look back and re-examine everything to see how you could handle things better the next time. Personally she didn't like how it took the fun out of being a hero but she couldn't argue with how good they'd gotten with all the training they'd done.

It still had a few wrinkles to work out before the Avengers would have to worry about the limelight getting pulled off of them, but he had every intention of helping the team get there.

"Pepper? You might want to be a little careful approaching the kitchen," H.E.L.E.N. said via one of the nearby interfaces.

"Why?" she asked, a little puzzled by the suggestion.

"My internal sensors have been… fuzzy… all morning," H.E.L.E.N. replied, sounding frustrated. "I can tell that the cause is something moving and that it can think and manipulate things like a human, but no matter what I do, I can't clear up the interference. To me that makes the source an unknown and unknowns can be dangerous."

She had a point.

She had enough stories to fill five books of all the times what she, Tony and Rhodey didn't know had wound up trying to kill them.

"You tell the others yet?" she asked even as she slowed her pace and tried not to make too much noise with her footfalls.

"Not yet. I was hoping that I'd be able to clear up the fuzziness and ID the source first, but when you started heading to the kitchen I knew I'd need to give you a heads up," H.E.L.E.N. replied, her frustration turning to concern.

"Thanks. Tell'em to hang back for a bit," she said, acting on a whim that felt right. "This might be a thing but it might not be, too. No sense ganging up on whoever it is and sparking off a fight. I haven't had breakfast yet."

"O-kayyy… fine. But I'm prepping your armor for emergency deployment," H.E.L.E.N. said firmly. "The second I detect a sign of violence I'll send it in."

"Yeah. Sure. Sounds good," she said even though it might have been better to wait until the third sign of violence.

Depending on how jumpy the possible person might be in the kitchen there might be a few misfires that were totally not intentional.

Walking casually, 'cause doing it quietly or loudly might not get the result she wanted, she strolled into the kitchen expecting to see either an intruder, an unexpected guest or…

"Oh hey, Pep! You want some pancakes? Just finished making 'em."

OR the teenage test tube daughter of Captain America surprisingly awake, sounding like they'd been best buds for a while and wearing what looked like the clothes Lyra wore when working out in the gym. Understandable, since they were a close match in terms of height and body type, but that didn't address the bigger issue of how the HELL the girl was up and about. Everything they'd learned before catching some z's said the body they had in the infirmary was a blank slate, mindless, with no hope of becoming a person unless a telepath installed a new mind.

Either that Frost woman and Doctor Strange weren't as slick as everyone thought they were or something weird happened.

"Uh… sure, sounds good," she said before heading for the nearby table. "Just three, though."

"Right. Trying to lose weight," Lady Cap said, using a spatula to scoop three pancakes and plop them on a plate for her.

~Okay… looks stable, sounds stable and sounds decent enough~, she thought once the plate was put on the table in front of her, ~but why does she talk like we've been best buds for months?~

Was it some kind of time delay programming that'd been buried so deep the telepath and the wizard missed it? Or had they finally gotten some help from on high? Nah! More likely this was another piece of the weirdness that she was beginning to think was going to be a regular thing in the hero gig. Still, it'd probably be a good idea to try and find out more before the others got impatient and crashed this quiet breakfast.

"So… you okay?" she asked, trying not to seem too forward. "You were out for quite a bit."

~Yeah, like your entire life~, she thought with a bit of snark.

"Yeah. That bitch Asp sure can pack a punch," Lady Cap replied, wincing a bit in remembered pain. "Next time I'll do better."

So whatever had happened to Lady Cap hadn't just installed a personality and memories, but had also taken recent events into account. That implied that whoever or whatever had been behind this had been keeping tabs on the Centurions and had probably only finished working on the made up personality in the last few hours at best. Even if most of the work had been done weeks or even months in advance, the only way the rest could've known about Asp was if they'd been watching or were Serpent Society themselves.

Not a good thought.

"By the way, have you seen any of my stuff?" Lady Cap asked, sounding annoyed at its absence. "I checked the room I left it in after getting here last night but can't find it anywhere."

"Um… I dunno. I think Joelle said she was gonna try something new with some particles she got from the local her," she replied, coming up with the shit as she went. "Pym particles, I think that's what she called them. They're supposed to shrink things they hit. Maybe… maybe she had an oops moment?"

"Aw man! I sure hope she can shrink down and get it or make it big again," Lady Cap said, sounding upset but not dangerously so. "I had some important stuff in there!"

"I'm sure she'll do her best, but when things get that small finding them gets hard," she said, hoping to steer things away from a blowout. "If finding it's a bust we can just have Stark pay for some new stuff… PLUS a little extra!"

"Not everything's replaceable, Pepper," Lady Cap said, only slightly miffed and cooling fast. "But I guess there wouldn't be much use griping over something you can't do anything about. Plus there was this killer jacket I had my eye on the last time I was at the mall, so this'd be as good an excuse as any."

"That's the spirit!" she said with a grin. "Might be able to get me a pair of those pumps I wanted last time."

"Don't bet on it!" Lady Cap said with a grin. "Shellhead might be generous but he isn't a bottomless pit of money."

"Close enough for my tastes," she said, not willing to give up on some possible new shoes.

She might not have a diploma from Spy University but she liked to think that she was decent at reading people and knowing when they were lying. If Lady Cap was some kind of infiltrator or a villain, then her acting skills were perfect because she was acting and talking like she really was what she was pretending to be. Then again maybe this was the real personality and there was some sort of sleeper programming that'd stay out of sight until it got triggered somehow.

~Too many possibilities and too many nights watching action movies with Tony and Rhodey~, she thought, shoving her paranoia into the backseat of her brain. ~Next thing to find out is her name or what she thinks her name is. Can't call her Lady Cap or she might think something's up.~

It'd just cause a whole lot of problems if the blonde amazon in front of her figured out that things weren't how she thought they were. Fortunately she knew precisely how to get the info she needed and it'd be fun too.

"Besides, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to pay if Captain C-cup asked!" she said with as much humor and amusement as she thought she could get away with.

"That's Samantha Sarah Rogers to you," Sam said with a bit of harshness, "and it's not my fault the puberty fairy wasn't as generous with you as she was with me."

So her name was Samantha Rogers. Good to know and it was going to be a helluva lot better than 'hey you' or 'blonde babe'.

Wait! Did she just-?

"HEY! I'll have you know I'm perfectly fine with my boob size!" she cried defensively with a glare. "Besides, not every guys likes girls with a big bust and I hear havin' em gives you serious back pain!"

"Not going to be problem with me," Sam said with some smugness. "One of the benefits of having a super soldier for a dad. Pinnacle of physical perfection and all that."

She couldn't stop herself from growling both at the comment and the fact that it was technically true. Being part super soldier would mean that Sam was at the tippy-top of physical perfection and, unless she pigged out big time with zero exercise, it'd stay that way. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't hold the girl responsible for that since she couldn't help how she was born, but she still didn't like the fact that she didn't physically match most men's image of female perfection.

Still, she was somewhat encouraged by the fact that she'd spotted Xander giving her an appreciative once over when he got the chance.

"Yeah, well, a good body isn't everything," she said, falling back on her one advantage. "Some guys prefer a good mind over an organic Barbie doll."

"No Barbie doll could break a guy in half if he got too grabby," Sam said, looking like she didn't care to talk on the matter any further.

Point.

For the next couple of minutes they ate breakfast and chatted about whatever came to mind but nothing she heard or saw made her think that she or the team had anything to worry about. The Centurions were too new for any baddie to want to infiltrate them with a spy or kill any of them, even if they looked like they might be related to a famous Avenger. She might not have gotten grades as good as Tony at the Tomorrow Academy high school but she did know that there were too many variables to come up with any explanation for Samantha that was any better than a thousand others.

~Gonna need to have a talk with H.E.L.E.N. later and see if anything funny happened while the rest of us were asleep~, she thought before giving her dishes a rinse and putting them in the dishwasher.

Unless this was a magic thing, there was no way that something could've happened without their A.I. support having some kind of clue.

axaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxaxax

Okay I thought I'd take some time to explain what some of you are probably wondering about. What is that? Why I decided to add a variation of American Dream to the story of course. Well it started with my gender bender story 'Crow Feathers Evermore' posted on Twisting the Hellmouth. I had female Xander interrupt the canon scene in the first Marvel Civil War comic book arc where the fake Thor killed Goliath. However in order for the screwup to still hit home for Reed and Tony I needed something bad to happen.

It was then that I got an explosion of inspiration!

What if I had Ben Grimm get hurt by the fake Thor? What if I made it so that the injuries necessitated the changing of The Thing's look to match how he was shown in the MC2 universe aka Earth-982? The idea checked all the right boxes for me so I went with it. It was during that moment that I began to write this chapter. Originally I was planning on making the clone male and exploring the idea of 'what if Steve Rogers had been grown up in the present' but I liked the idea of making 616 Ben Grimm into MC2 Thing so I decided to go female.

Don't worry I already have two ideas for finally getting Xander some male backup! The only part some of you probably won't like is that they're not from any of the Earths belonging to Marvel or DC or Wildstorm. I did my best to scour all three wiki pages for guy heroes who were in the right age range and weren't already attached to a team at his point in the Marvel timeline but came up empty handed. The same was the case with the other two comic book companies. In the end I decided to just say 'Fuck it' and went with two characters who I thought would be good additions to the team. As for getting them to Earth-616…well…they say a certain omnipotent being from a certain extra-dimensional plane of existence with a habit of messing with mortals for his own amusement would be up to the job.

You'll just have to wait and see!