Liz frowned at the sound of coughing coming from her jacket pocket, and then suddenly remembered that she'd changed her ringtone to the sound of herself coughing so she wouldn't have to put her phone on silent during the lectures.

The professor at the front of the class turned around as he finished his equation, and Liz quickly faked coughing so her ringtone wouldn't sound out of place.

"So then if you have the root of x squared, then essentially that's just x, so you can simplify the whole equation to x to the third power minus twenty-seven equals y squared plus the root of x plus nine."

In the far corner of the room someone's hand shot into the air, and as he asked his question Liz subtly declined the call so her phone would stop ringing.

The professor patiently answered the student's question, and Liz tapped on her desk impatiently. They were recapping a few basic stuff as a large test was coming up, and the majority of the class had missed one of the lectures the week before because some old Hammer HQ building had exploded, leaving that section of town on lockdown for a day.

The professor turned back to the board to further simplify the equation, and Liz quickly checked her phone.

The phone number was unknown to her, so the quickly pulled up Messages, texting the unknown caller.

LizHolmes: who dis?

Unknown: Bruno. I was with Hanna and Steve and Tessa?

LizHolmes: you guys? I literally gave you my phone number yesterday dude. When I said "one day" I meant sometime far into the future.

Unknown: Sorry, but we need someone's who's good with computers and Tessa got kidnapped.

LizHolmes: why am I not surprised? amateurs.

Unknown: Could you please help us out?

LizHolmes: where r u at?

Unknown: We can meet up at the library

LizHolmes: you're in the forbidden forest? dude, that's not safe

Unknown: What? I never said that

LizHolmes: don't lie to the person tracking ur phone honey

Unknown: WHAT?

LizHolmes: why do you need a hacker anyways?

Unknown: I'll explain at the library. When can you be there?

LizHolmes: 4 this afternoon

Unknown: Ok I'll see you there

LizHolmes: gtg l8r morons

Bruno switched off his phone with a small sigh.

"She'll be at the library at four. Right now it's..." -he glanced at his watch- "almost 11 AM. Which means we have roughly five hours. Any ideas?"

"What exactly is your plan?" Rudy enquired.

"Break into the AWSOMR prison and get our friends out," Cove shrugged.

"It won't be that simple," Rudy shook his head, "any building of the AWSOMR's is well-guarded. You'd need superpowers to break into one and get out again unnoticed."

A tell-tale smirk twitched at the corner of Cove's mouth.

Hugo watched him with a you-have-to-be-kidding-me look in his eyes.

"Don't tell me you're enhanced..." Hugo began, and Cove's grin widened.

Hugo let out a low groan.

"You have superpowers?" Rudy enquired curiously, his gaze switching from Cove to Winter and back.

Cove shot Winter a quick look, as if asking for permission - although at this point, neither Hugo nor Rudy would've believed him if he said no - and Winter paused for a moment before giving him a slight nod.

"Superspeed," Cove answered, a slight spring in his voice as if he was about to dash to the North Pole and bring back a penguin to prove it.

Rudy didn't seem too surprised as he turned to Hugo with a half-smile.

"So you were right."

"I hate being right," Hugo complained.

"Does your twin have superspeed too?" Rudy enquired, and Cove nodded energetically.

Hugo perked up.

"Hey, if you're interested, I might know someone who could offer you a job as a field agent. The two of you would be impossible to stop!"

"No thanks," Winter answered before Cove could say anything, "he's only 16, and still technically my responsibility."

"The orphanage's responsibility," Cove muttered under his breath.

"Sorry to interrupt," Bruno spoke up softly, "but we still don't have a plan."

Rudy bit his lip.

"Well, you want to break your friends out of an AWSOMR base, correct?"

Bruno and Cove nodded.

"...for which you'll need the data that your hacker friend is gonna give you this afternoon, correct?"

Another nod from Cove, and a slightly less enthusiastic one from Bruno.

"...so you want a plan for how you're going to use the data, correct?"

More nodding.

"Well then," Rudy gestured to Hugo, "I present to you the best strategist I know."

Cove and Hugo started protesting at the same time.

"What? That guy?"

"Hunter, you can't possibly expect me to help them break into an AWSOMR prison!?! You-know-who'll kill me if I get in his way again!"

Cove turned to his sister in desperation.

"Come on Winter, help me here! I know you don't trust him."

Winter shook her head slowly.

"You're right, I don't. But I trust Rudy, and if he says Hugo can help, then I have no choice but to trust Hugo as well."

"You'll be fine Hugo," Rudy reassured his companion, "besides, you-know-who wouldn't kill you, I'm convinced he's taken a liking to you. You two think alike, and he can appreciate that. And if he does try to kill you, I'll just tell him it was my fault."

Hugo let out a low grumble, and Cove didn't seem entirely convinced either, but both gave in.

"I'm going to need to know exactly what you're all capable of, though," Hugo pointed out, "and lying is only going to work to your disadvantage here."

Winter shrugged.

"There's not much to say. Cove has superspeed, I have fast reflexes, and Bruno has whatever's in that backpack of his."

"Not a lot," Bruno muttered, unzipping his backpack and going through the contents, "I have a plum in here, a blacklight, and..."

He trailed off, taking out the Iron Man helmet.

"Is that..."

Rudy trailed off, and both him and Hugo stared in disbelief.

"Oh yeah, did I mention we were collection the Iron Man armour?" Cove smirked cheekily.

Winter shook her head.

"All carrying those around does is make you a target. The name Stark is far from a compliment."

"Stop being so cryptic and let us enjoy the moment, sis," Cove countered.

Bruno dug further into his backpack, searching for anything else that would or could be useful.

"I have birdseed for Mission in here," he mumbled, "not that that'll be of a lot of use to us."

He paused, biting his lip as his hand rested on the transparent bottle in which the Hulk serum was still floating, oblivious to the disasters it's creator was experiencing.

"Is that all?" Cove enquired, and Bruno hesitated.

Yes, he trusted Cove. And he wanted to trust Winter and Rudy too, although Hugo was perhaps a step too far. But trust and trust are two different things.

"Yeah," he answered, zipping his backpack shut again, "that was it."

"Well that's not a lot to work with," Hugo grumbled.

"What about you two?" Cove enquired, and Hugo began to frown.

"What do you mean? I already know what we're capable of."

"Yeah, but we don't," Cove pointed out, "with the exception of Winter, perhaps."

Bruno tilted his head.

"Who are you guys, anyway? I mean, I know your names, and that you're friends of Cove's sister, but that's pretty much it."

"You don't need to know more," Hugo grumbled, "you'll find out soon enough."

Cove crossed his arms.

"And what if I refuse to help unless you tell me?"

"We're the ones helping you," Hugo scoffed, "if you quit, it honestly wouldn't bother me. In fact, it'd give me a good reason to drag Rudy out of this deserted forest and back to civilization."

Rudy sighed.

"We're... spies. Of some sort."

"Enhanced?" Cove enquired, a commanding undertone in his voice that annoyed Hugo to pieces, although Rudy didn't seem bothered by it.

"No," Rudy answered, "at least, not in the conventional way."

"Hunter," Hugo hissed, "Shut. Up."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cove frowned, ignoring Hugo.

"Just... I have enhanced strength and stuff, but not really enough that it's worth mentioning."

"Hunter." Hugo warned through gritted teeth.

"And Hugo?"

Rudy turned his gaze to Hugo, who was evidently agitated and trying to get his friend to shut up before he said anything they wouldn't be able to take back.

"Just... that's for him to say. Although he has enhanced annoyance at being ignored for sure."

A smile crossed Rudy's face, and anyone who was used to observing people would've noticed that it wasn't something that happened often.

And let's just say Winter's job was to observe people.

Hugo took a deep breath, recollecting his calm.

"Enough about us. What are we going to do in the time before your hacker shows up?"

-

Pascal allowed his gaze to wander over the small cell as he tried to think of a realistic escape plan. Winter would've picked the lock in under seconds, as would Cove, but Pascal had never really mastered the art of lock-picking simply because he saw no need to learn it as long as Cove was around.

Stupid mistake, of course, but nothing to do about it now.

He let his gaze drift to the others in the room - people that were still almost strangers to him, although in the one day Cove had spent with them he'd seemed to have earned their trust. They were all descendants of superheroes - Pascal could've figured that out without Cove telling him so. But while they all carried the likeness of an Avenger, they also all had a few of their own traits. A past that was unique to them, that could make them unpredictable.

Could.

He studied them carefully, determined to learn as about them as he could.

Tessa had nearly fallen off the bench three times as she kept dozing off, and after the third time she'd moved to sit next to Steve on the floor, falling asleep against his shoulder. Steve didn't seem to mind, but then again, he was so deep in thought that he might not even have noticed Tessa hugging his arm in her sleep.

Lilian had the bench to herself now, and had fallen asleep as well, her left arm dangling off the bench and her knuckles j-u-s-t scraping the hard cement floor. She seemed peaceful, clearly not having experienced as much horrors and violence as the original Romanoff.

Hanna was facing away from them all, standing in front of the door and staring at the bars of the cell, as if she was going to open the lock on the door just by staring at it. There was not much to be noted about her, although she certainly didn't look like someone who had given up. Her shoulders were squared, and Pascal had little doubt that her eyebrows were furrowed in a combination of fury and focus. He glanced past her - she was probably watching the guard that was aimlessly pacing through the passages, clearly bored out of his mind.

Which left Pascal himself, sitting on the floor in one far corner, observing them all.

Between him and Cove, Pascal had always been the more analytical one, while Cove seemed to run on spontaneous action. Of course, to the average person, they both reacted intensely quickly. But while Cove's actions usually had a wild, reckless motive and a drive of pure instinct, Pascal moved with a fluidity of someone who had planned out every millisecond, and had calculated every possible reaction and result of what he was about to do before taking action.

Pascal allowed a small smile to touch his lips. There were a lot of differences between him and his twin, but most people didn't bother to look past the silver hair and superspeed.

Their loss.

-

Question of the chapter: Cove or Pascal?

Thanks for voting and commenting :D

~Evanlyn