Dr. Bruce Banner had told Natasha once that the secret to keeping 'the other guy' at bay was not, in fact, avoiding stress, but when a situation like this came up, he did still tried to avoid it. If – like in this case – a distress call came up that he couldn't avoid, he at least tried on stay to the fringe of it, which was usually accomplished by keeping his mouth shut while the others ran theirs. In keeping his mouth shut, he had learned the usefulness of keeping his eyes open a little wider. Generally, he didn't say much anyway, but he was a very observant man.

Observation one had been the very state of the art security systems that were all over this place. It sure seemed like somebody valued these kids – Fury, more than likely, if what Agent Hill had told them was correct.

Observation two: these kids – whether or not they were in fact the biological children of the Avengers – did not like them for one reason or another. Why else would the one girl who was supposed to be here go into hiding?

Observation three: the house did have an AI, and while it didn't seem to be half as intricate as Jarvis, it was still there. Because of that, Bruce was willing to bet money that Tony had a kid here. Well, because of the AI and the fact that Tony and Pepper really did look like someone's concerned parents right now. After Maria's telling the Avengers that Fury had sent six teenagers out on a mission against Loki, even Bruce was concerned for them, and he didn't know if any of them were even his kids. God forbid it; nobody needed his gene pool in their body.

Observation four: The boy who had come out and talked to Agent Hill for a minute had been about seventeen years old and Bruce wanted to say bi-cultural as well. Latin American something, he thought. The teen had obviously threatened Agent Hill with something, and Bruce wanted to dislike him for it, but the very way the kid had carried himself had reminded Bruce of his best friend – and that had served to put him all the more on edge. What if the kids they were about to meet really were their offspring? Surely not any of them were his though… They couldn't be.

Not every time do I get what I want…

Observation five: the kid who had talked to Agent Hill appeared to be the leader of the eight. If Fury wanted a second generation of the Avengers, could that be another sign that this boy was Tony's?

A few minutes after the Latino went back inside; he came back into the outdoors from around the front of the house and called out to them, "Are you guys coming inside, or what?"

"Can we get in now?" Tony snapped, heading up the Avengers' group as they went towards the house.

"Sure," the boy answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "Couldn't you before?"

"You ha-" Maria started, but a sharp look from the boy made her clench her jaw shut even though her eyes still flashed.

"You locked us out," Thor said.

"Did not," the boy said flippantly, turning on his heel to lead them up the hill to the house's front door. "It wasn't technically me, anyway. This house is big; even the eight of us on my team working together couldn't lock all the doors in time to keep you out."

"Eight of you?" Steve repeated.

The boy nodded as he ushered them into the room where the teens were already gathered. "And Fury despises us so much that he hasn't even named a one of us. We're just numbered."

Bruce raised his eyebrows as Clint smirked, repeating, "Numbered?"

"Uh-huh." The boy nodded cheerfully. "I'm One." He pointed to another boy, this one with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. "That's Two."

"That's me," the other boy seconded, but there was a bit of a snap in his eyes as he said while looking at the Latino, "I'm number two."

Just the way the two teenagers were acting around one another made Bruce think that this "number two" had to be a relative of Steve's, but how could that be…

"So who's Three?" Clint asked dryly.

"Three and Four, our twins," "One" said, nodding towards a couple of kids. The girl, "Four," was sitting on the couch chewing on her lip, and the boy with glasses, "Three," was openly pacing against one wall while ringing his hands and refusing to look at the adults in the room. Bruce felt horror swell up inside of him as he took in those achingly familiar movements. No way! Not possible! But then he did some math and it hit him. Seventeen years ago, he had still been trying to find a way to make the "other guy" coexist with his being in a relationship with Dr. Betty Ross. It was possible that she had conceived and just not told him… The "other guy" stirred inside of him, but Bruce took a deep breath and shoved him away in time to hear "One" continue.

"This is Five."

"One" gestured to another teenage boy, this one with spiky light brown hair who was sitting rigidly on a couch, his eyes simultaneously dark and dull as he took the adults in suspiciously.

"One" nodded to a girl with hair so blonde that the gene for it had to have come from Thor. "Six."

"And that's Seven."

Standing at the back of the group, Bruce noticed the exact moment when Natasha stiffened. The girl's auburn hair was a perfect match for Natasha's and there was no denying it. What must it be like for the assassin to see her child again after so many years, after having lived for so long without them, and knowing that they had no memory of her? That had to be hard.

"Scarlet?" Natasha whispered, nearly under her breath.

Tony surveyed the other three girls carefully through narrowed eyes before his gaze settled on the girl who would be "Eight," and he declared, "That means that you're Dakota."

"Who's that?" the girl asked in a very measured tone.

And then Tony and the girl rolled their eyes practically in sync.