Heroes Assemble!

Here There Be Dragons

"What the ...?"

Sam stood in the doorway of the small prison cell in the basement of HYDRA's Sickle Base, frozen in shock at what he was seeing. It wasn't the fact that there was a prisoner there, after all, he and Thor had already released twenty-eight people from the cells in the level above. No, what had completely overwhelmed him was the fact that this person didn't look human at all.

The ... female ... inside the cell was unconscious, one arm dangling from the narrow concrete slab that was obviously supposed to be her bed. Her head was turned towards them, her eyes closed. Sam could only assume that lying face-down was the most comfortable position for her, what with her large, leathery, green tail.

But it wasn't just her tail that was leathery-looking or green. No, it was all of her. Every inch of skin that Sam could see through her old, tattered clothing was green. Apart from her skin, it was her head that showed the most difference from 'human-norm'. Her bald head allowed Sam a good look at one of her pointed ears, something that her crest fin on her head failed to hide.

"Is this normal for Midgard?" Thor asked.

Sam glanced back over his shoulder at the tall Asgardian, but only for a second before turning back to stare at the female-lizard-hybrid-human again.

"No. No, it's not," he said.

ooo00ooo

Bucky stepped out of the deep shadow of the building that he'd been loitering in, his gun cradled to his chest as Steve walked closer. His best friend's nod acknowledged his presence but Bucky was certain that Steve had known that he was there long before he revealed himself.

"We'll be regrouping at the quinjet in thirty minutes," Steve stated.

"The prisoners?" Bucky asked.

"The ones we took are being taken into custody by the German military; Colonel Rhodes is seeing to that as we speak," Steve replied. "As to the ones that Thor and Sam found, the last of them are being checked over before they will be loaded into the last of the fleet of ambulances that the military called in."

"What's the odds that HDYRA will get their claws back into them?" Bucky asked.

"Next to none," Tony stated, joining the conversation via his comm even as he brought the Iron Man armour in to land just beside them.

"How can you be sure?" Steve asked intently.

Tony's face appeared as his face plate flipped up.

"It won't happen because I've had Jarvis call in the Iron Legion," Tony stated. "Jarvis will have them monitor the hospital for the time being to ensure that they're getting the best care and that HDYRA won't have the opportunity to kidnap them again."

"What were they doing with them?" Steve asked. "I'm guessing some kind of experimentation?"

Bucky couldn't help but flinch slightly. He'd been through enough of that over the decades to never wish that on anyone and especially not innocent civilians.

"From the records that I read, I don't think that the HDYRA scientists actually got to those people," Tony replied. "There were others, though ..."

"What was their aim?" Bucky asked, moving the conversation on from the thought that Tony's last statement had left.

"They were trying to replicate something that, until today, I thought had only been achieved once before – by Doctor Curtis Connors," Tony replied.

"Wait. I know that name," Steve said, a thoughtful look on his face.

Tony gave him a significant look.