CH 4

Tony Stark was not surprised to see Captain America as well as Dr. Bruce Banner aboard the S.H.E.I.L.D Helicarrier. Afterall, he had been aware of the prospected Avengers members for quite some time. What he didn't expect, was what their first mission was to be. They were observing the holographic monitors while Fury began to detail their mission, but instead of images of the tesseract, or Loki, a surveillance video of Two winged youths in sealed interrogation rooms streamed. The taller youth was pacing agitatedly within the room, his startling white wings flaring out with the rise of his temper, whereas the younger was sitting solemnly on the bed with his head down, wings drooping down pathetically behind him. If the morose scene wasn't so depressing Steve would have found it more humorous how their wings seemed to mirror their affect.

"What the…" The doctor muttered to himself quietly one arm crossed over his chest, supporting the other which was thoughtfully stroking his chin in intrigue.

"Just hours before the Tesseract was taken by the demi god Loki, these two apparated inside the facility where we were holding it. We learned that they are brothers, the older one is named Dean and the younger is Sam. We don't know their last names at this time or where they came from. They vanished soon after their short appearance without leaving a trace, although we were able to get a few blood samples from them." Fury informed the group, each individual expression in response slightly different from each other, ranging from neutral, intrigued, suspicious and confused.

Steve's brows furrowed. "Are you saying these kids assisted Loki with the theft?" he asked gesturing towards the screen.

"Although we do not know for certain, we do not believe that these two had anything to do with Loki's theft of the tesseract." An agent woman named Maria Hill interjected. She was a tall slender woman with her hair up in a tight bun. A serious countenance on her attractive features.

"We need to find these two as quickly as possible. They seem to have multiple abilities and could be a danger to themselves and others." Fury stated. "And although we don't know if these two are in correlation with the tesseract theft, we also don't want to take that risk if they are."

"And how exactly do you want us to find them?" Bruce asked, hardly looking from the screen.

"That's where you come in doctor." Fury said as he clicked over to the next slide. It was the picture of DNA with silvery blue winding around the ladders of the double helix.

"Whatever it is, it looks like it's woven into the DNA." Bruce said as he slipped on his glasses for a better look.

"We want you to try to separate that substance from the DNA, see if you can figure out exactly what it is." The director instructed. "Agent Romanoff will show you to the lab." Natasha nodded her confirmation of the order.

"I'll see what I can do," Bruce said as he tucked his glasses back into his shirt pocket. "But I've never seen this before. Honestly, it doesn't look like something from this planet."

"Alright." Fury then turned to the Captain and Stark. "As soon as we get a location on the kids, I want you and the Captain to head out to collect them and bring them back here. They seem to be able to teleport, so hopefully the good doctor will find a way to incapacitate them if necessary, but we are hoping it won't come to that."

"Explain to me again why you are sending us after a couple of kids when one of the most powerful objects in the universe is currently in the hands of a psychotic deranged demi god with an overdeveloped sense of self-importance and a desire to subdue the human race?" Stark asked, his voice not sparing any sarcasm.

Steve shifted as he crossed his arms over his muscled chest, his body language relaying his own discomfort with the idea. "Got to say, this doesn't seem like it should be the priority at the moment." Voicing his own concerns.

Nick Fury simply swiped over to the next slide, the streaming video showed the younger boy collapsing in the elder's arms, clutching his head. "Moments before Loki's arrival, the younger one, Sam, collapsed with a headache, he then forewarned me of Loki's arrival as well as his intentions. Unfortunately, with the commotion during their disappearance the warning slipped my mind, but-"

"You're hoping to use this kid's ability to locate Loki and the Tesseract." Steve finished for him.

"If what your saying is true, then we could figure out what Loki's scheme is. We could maybe get a step ahead of him." Bruce interposed epiphanically.

"So, we're using kids now, is that what we're saying?" Tony inquired sharply; his bearded jaw clenched. He never liked the idea of bringing kids into war, and Fury's interest in the kids made him suspicious.

The director let out a controlled breath before looking back towards the screen. "When the world is at stake, I don't think we have a choice."

"And you, Mr. Righteous? Are you cool with this?" Tony asked, turning towards Steve.

The Captain paused for a moment, looking conflicted, before addressing his opinion. "I think that we should at least find them for now. If we're looking for them, there is a chance that others are looking for them too."

"Great, just so we're on the same page." Tony scoffed sarcastically before turning on his heel and walking away.

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"Did you take your medicine squirt?" Dean's voice called over from the small kitchenette where he was preparing their breakfast for the morning. Sam felt his eyes roll back. Seriously, Dean was taking the whole de-aging thing a little too seriously, and he never missed an opportunity to remind Sam that he was once again the shorter of the two.

"You do realize I'm not actually thirteen Dean, right?" Sam snapped from behind the countertop where he was sitting on a stool. He was getting a little irritated with how comfortable his older brother was with falling back into old childhood roles. Dean simply turned around and gave his brother a knowing glare.

"So, no then." Dean stated matter-of-factly, his arms crossed in disapproval. Taking his brother's guilty silence as confirmation he stepped away from the stove and went into the bathroom to grab a small glass vial from the medicine cabinet.

Sam clenched his jaw tight to avoid retorting in colorful language as his brother came back with a little glass vial filled with grace before stepping back over to the stove to flip their eggs. Dean found a set of ten of the glass vials at the local thrift store when he was shopping for clothes for him and Sam. Dean figured they must have been part of some kid's science project. Luckily for Sam, because of Dean's grace he could now revert his wings back with ease, allowing him to wear shirts again.

Despite all his fussing Sam was grateful to his brother for both the grace and the income. He knew his brother worked long hours at the garage for them. Once the owner realized how adapt Dean was with mechanics, he practically had Dean working overtime, which was great for their finances but bad for Sam as his older brother was still reluctant to let him go outside by himself and he was beginning to climb the walls, there was really only so much crap t.v. Sam could take.

"I'm thinking of heading out to the library while you're at work." Sam was tempted to cross his fingers as he said it, and predictably Dean took a deep breath in, preparing himself for another argument. Dean was beginning to understand what their dad felt like before he left on a hunt.

"Sam, I don't think that's a good idea." Dean said with a false calm as he flipped the eggs and sausages onto two plates, setting one before his little brother who was currently glaring daggers at him.

"And why the hell not!?" Sam argued. Dean took in another deep breath before letting the air escape through his nostrils in an aggravated huff. He patience wearing thin with the recycled arguments.

"Because, we got the men in black after us and we still don't understand what's been going on with your psychic stuff!"

Sam opened his mouth again to argue. "Dean, it's been two weeks already. I can hide my wings now, I haven't had a vision since we were imprisoned in that weird facility and the library is only five blocks away." Sam winced as he realized he was whining by the end of his tirade.

"Sam I get that I really do, but-" Dean began before stopping his sentence abruptly. Sam looked up curiously from his breakfast to his older brother whose expression was set in a hard glare.

"What!?" Sam snapped out defensively. He wasn't sure what he did, but that was definitely a "Sammy is in trouble" kind of glare. Damn his brother for making him feel all of six years old again.

"How did you know how far the library was?" He asked coldly and his eyes narrowed when he saw his little brother flinch guiltily and looked back down to his cooling plate as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. "Sam!?" He barked out when he didn't get a response.

"I checked it out yesterday when you were out." He said with a half-hearted shrug as if it were no big deal, the fact that he said that to his plate instead of his brother gave away his guilt. As if sensing his brother's growing ire, he quickly added. "I made sure there was no one around, nobody saw me Dean, I swear!" finally looking up at Dean who did not look at all placated.

"Or so you think Sam! How could you be so careless! What if you got one of your premonitions while I was away!?" Dean shouted, concern buried beneath the more easily expressed emotion of anger.

"I'm sorry Dean, I am. I'm just so bored and you're gone all day working, I've already cleaned the place top to bottom, and I can't even do research here." Sam was aware that he was whining again, but at that point he no longer cared. He saw the guilt in his brother's eyes at his admission and was hopeful he would give in. His older brother ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"I'm sorry Sam, but no." Dean really did sound apologetic, but there was an edge to his tone that booked no room for argument. Sam felt his hopes drop and angerly shoved his plate away.

"Whatever." He moodily bit out. Feeling ever bit of his age of thirteen in that moment. Dean simply pushed his plate back with that same parental look that their father always gave but Dean perfected. Sam held his brother's stare for a couple of minutes before reluctantly stabbing his eggs with more force than necessary and shoving them into his mouth. The two ate in a tense silence and Dean knew that nothing was really resolved. When his brother was finished with his breakfast Dean pushed the vial of grace closer to his brother, ignoring the annoyed look Sam shot him as he popped the top off and tipped the ethereal contents back into his mouth. It was always a bizarre sensation, having something that was neither solid nor liquid in his mouth. But it was warm, flowing, and had an odd weight to it, and strangely enough it tasted like home and safety to him. Almost immediately he could feel the grace rejuvenating him. Dean gave a satisfied nod when the vial was empty and walked towards the door. He reached the doorknob before stopping to throw a look back to his brother, his eyes softening when he saw the miserable expression his brother had hunched over his empty plate.

"Maybe I can ask to leave work early tomorrow and we can go to the library together. If anything happens use your weird mind thing to contact me, Ok?" It was as close to a peace offering as Sam was getting.

"Ok, Dean." Sam responded in an annoyed tone, but it was a typical little brother annoyed tone and less kicked puppy tone that Sam had earlier. Dean gave another nod accompanied with a slight smirk that caused Sam to roll his eyes before he stepped out the door.

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Sam had to wait another hour before making his great escape. The library opened at 9 am and Dean's work started at 8 am. Sam felt slightly guilty leaving while his brother was gone, and logically he understood the reasoning behind Dean's reluctance to let him go outside by himself, and if he was being perfectly honest with himself, he understood that what he was doing was both risky and dumb. All that said, he couldn't stand this hit to his independence. He felt like a little snot nose kid again waiting for Dad and Dean to come home from a hunt he was too young to participate in. Just the thought of that made him bristle. He went over to the small dresser against the wall closet to his bed to pull out jeans and his grumpy cat t-shirt Dean stole for him. His brother got it as a gag, but oddly enough he rather liked it. He made sure to grab his brother's ballcap with his workplace logo, "Norman's Auto", on it to hide his face.

Sam was surprised when a kind matronly voice addressed him almost as soon as he entered the library.

"Hello dear, I haven't seen you before. Are you new to the area?" An older lady who appeared to be in her fifties waited patiently behind her desk for a response. She had a pleasant face and was more on the plump side, her hair in a bun with a pencil through it that was stereotypical of librarians.

Sam tried tip his hat down to hide his eyes better and cursed his bad luck. He stupidly forgotten in his eagerness the curiosity of small rural towns.

"Oh, you must be the brother of the boy Dave Norman hired down at his shop. He was tellin me in church how he hired on a strapping young lad who was taking care of his little brother, and seeing you wear that hat, I figured that must be you." She said not unkindly, though concern was apparent in her softened gaze. "I don't mean to pry, but do you not have parents?" she added cautiously, knowing she was treading into busybody territory.

"Shit!" Sam thought. Apparently talk got around this little town faster than a wildfire. If he were Dean he would have told her to buzz off, but as is, he turned up the charm he seemed to have on older ladies.

"No ma'am. It's just my brother and I. He's got legal custody…but I don't really like to talk about it." He made sure to turn on the "puppy eyes", as Dean calls them.

"Oh dear, me and my big mouth! Of course, dear that is your business. You just holler if you need anything." She then added with a kind smile, "Just don't holler too loud as it's a library and all."

Despite her nosiness, Sam couldn't help but smile back at the earnest woman's warmth.

Unfortunately, despite Dean's best efforts to fly under the radar, it seemed as though the brothers were already making waves. Sam was just hoping that the librarian didn't mention Sam's visit to Dean's boss next Sunday.

Sam was lazily browsing down the aisles of the small library when he noticed an increasing throbbing behind his eye. He swallowed back the saliva that pooled in his mouth when the nausea that usually accompanied his migraines threatened to make him purge his breakfast. Though Sam wasn't sure if the urge to vomit was due to the headache or the fear of what came next and where. He bitterly wondered to himself if it was karma for not listening to his older brother's heading. Pretty soon the throbbing became full on pounding, and the intensity of the pain dropped Sam to his knees with a soft cry, In the back of his mind he was hoping that the librarian didn't hear him but he was more concerned at the moment with trying to control his breathing in a feeble attempt to keep on top of the pain.

Flashes of an elaborate party played across Sam's mind before it pulled him in completely into the vision. He could see that the event was in what seemed to be a grand museum. The people were speaking another language, German, if Sam had to wager a guess. When he heard the chatter around the room come to an abrupt stop, he followed the people's line of site towards the stairs and had to stifle a gasp. It was the same man that he had seen before in his previous vision. The tall lean man with raven hair and a mischievous disposition. He strode down the steps with powerful intent and grace, with the airs of royalty. A startling green leather outfit apparated over his crisp black suit as he descended into the main area, viciously clubbing a guard across the face with his staff. He then rapidly approached an older man around his lapel and flipped him onto his back over an ancient table. For some reason the name Heinrich Schäfer popped into Sam's head and played and repeat. A gruesome scene played in front of Sam's eyes as he saw the attacker use cruel looking technology to tear the man's eye out of its socket. Just as suddenly as the vision began it ended. The pitiful man's screams faded from Sam's ears, leaving a slight buzzing that came with lightheadedness.

"Honey? Are you alright? Can I call someone for you, your brother maybe?" The gentle words barely registered within his ringing ears, but the sudden weight upon his back did. With his heart in his throat he glanced behind himself to see his dark wings folded tightly against him, as if they were also trying to escape the pain, his favorite shirt torn in pieces on the floor, and for some reason, that hurt more than it should.

"Honey?" The voice prompted again; this time accompanied by a gentle shake around his shoulders. Sam glanced up to see the librarian with her hair slightly askew and a worried frown on her lips.

Immediately Sam felt tears well up in his eyes. She saw everything.

"Please don't tell anyone. Please." He softly begged. He once again cursed his hard to control emotions. He was sure Dean would have just threatened her into silence, but Sam couldn't bring himself to do it. Immediately the woman's eyes softened.

"Oh honey, you don't have to worry about a thing." She assured, and Sam felt a breath of relief escape. He willed his wings back and adjusted the cap that fell off back on his head before he made his way to the door.

"Are you sure you don't want to call your brother?" She called out after him, but he turned back around and shook his head with a smile that ended up looking more like a grimace.

"No, we're pretty close by so I will just wait for him at home."

She looked reluctant to let him leave, but before she could protest, he was out the door. The entire painful walk back Sam was kicking himself for his utter stupidity. If his own mortification wouldn't kill him then his brother surely would.

"Dean." Sam found himself saying out loud to the air. "Dean's going to kill me." After a relatively short internal debate, Sam decided that it was probably best not to tell his brother how close they came to every bad thing Dean had warned him about. But he was still conflicted about what to do about his vision.

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Banner wasn't having much luck with separating the shimmering substance from the blood samples. It was almost as if it couldn't be touched by anything from Earth. Nothing would interact with the mysterious matter, so it was difficult for him to quantify it.

"Any luck in here Doctor?" Stark asked from the doorway, leaning casually against the frame. The doctor hardly looked up from his work as he answered him.

"No, whatever this stuff is, it certainly isn't from around here. It's incorporeal in form, and nothing that I have used so far can interact with it."

Tony moved over from doorframe to table Bruce was working. His curiosity winning over his previous reluctance. A look of confusion settled on his face as he looked at the image on the microscope.

"So, what have you figured out?"

"The only thing I can say for certain is that these two are indeed brothers and they are definitely not human. Their DNA makeup is different." Bruce explained. "Tell me what you see here." He added motioning Tony over to look through two different microscopes. The other man acquiesced and peered the lens of the microscope, the moved over to the second one, a frown tugging at his lips.

"Whatever this blue stuff is, it is more pronounced in one than it is the other."

"Exactly." The spectacled doctor confirmed. "This aligns with what Fury was saying about the older brother seeming to be stronger than the other. At first, I simply thought that maybe they had different abilities, but now I'm not so sure…." He trailed of in contemplation.

Tony narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He had an idea where this was going, but he had to be sure. "So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that there is currently no way to interact with this substance, however, we may be able to catch the younger one if his powers are as underdeveloped as Fury says. And if we catch the younger one-" Bruce left hanging.

"The older will follow." Tony finished, not liking the plan, but even he had to agree that currently it was their only option to catch them. The doctor nodded his affirmation.

"And we just have to hope the angry older brother doesn't kill us in the process." Tony snorted in ill humor.