Sam turned to Tony. "I thought Hydra was all but gone."

"All but. Obviously they're still alive and kicking."

"Did your machine thing take a picture of her?" Steve asked.

"Her name is Veronica," Tony said adamantly. "Veronica, play footage of the girl."

With a flick of his wrist, her image was projected in the air. Tony vocally commanded it to pause, showing a whip of her hair and her eyes.

"Well, the whole DNA thing explains the eyes," Natasha said, walking around the table to get a better look.

"What do you mean?" Bruce asked.

"They looked familiar. They're Steve's."

"I thought they looked more like Bucky's," Steve said, taking a closer look.

"No. Look. She's got a bit more green than Bucky does."

They spent the next half hour analyzing what features she got from which of them, to avoid acknowledging the elephant in the room; the fact that they would have to fight her.

Finally, Sam interrupted Steve and Wanda's heated discussion of who's nose she had (Steve was all for Bruce's and Wanda insisted it was Pietro's). "That's all fine and dandy. But we've got to find her weaknesses."

"Obviously, she isn't bulletproof," James pointed out.

"She's got the force field thing though," Tony pointed out.

"Almost every weakness she has is balanced out by someone else's power. My weakness is lack of physical strength, so if I were in a space where my powers were useless, I would be doomed. But since she has genes from Bucky and Steve, she doesn't have that weakness." Wanda sat up on the table.

"What did she get from you, Bruce? She wasn't turning green," Tony pointed out.

"My DNA is different than the other guy's. She has mine," Bruce said, pulling up the display of her DNA.

"So what does that give her?"

"Intelligence, I suppose."

"Then why not use Tony's? Or use James' or Sam's for tactical planning?" Natasha asked.

"Or yours for your assassin stuff?" Bruce asked. Then he explained, "For you, Sam, and James, that's learned. You have an aptitude for it, but that doesn't show up in your DNA, except for how your brain is built. As for Tony, I don't know."

"It could be that they didn't have any of Tony's DNA or attributed all of his accomplishments to money instead of intelligence," Steve pointed out. Then he added, in a hurry, "Wrongly, of course."

"It makes sense that Pietro, Wanda, and Bucky have the most DNA in the girl. Hydra gave them each their abilities, so they've experimented on them and got their DNA from that. Steve has been in direct physical contact with various Hydra members, and I don't know about Bruce." Tony played the video again, stopping at a better picture, that showed more of her face.

"She's most certainly from Hydra," Steve said, restating what they all knew. "They used a very similar muzzle on Bucky to keep him under their control."

"Wanda, did they ever mention anything about her?" Tony asked.

"I didn't see any signs when we were in Sokovia last year." Steve turned his shield in his hands.

"I didn't either, but thanks for answering for Wanda." He looked peeved. Tensions had been a bit high ever since Steve and Tony had forgiven each other for what happened in Sokovia. They glared at each other tensely.

Wanda cleared her throat. "I don't remember them mentioning her explicitly. They did talk about a 'Project X.' Call me self-centered, but I always figured that Pietro and I were Project X."

"So how old is she then?" Sam asked.

"She looked sixteen, if not younger," Tony said.

"She's pretty young," Steve said.

"About the same age as Parker," James pointed out. "He's still in school."

"And everyone's young to you, Steve," Sam said, putting his hand on Steve's shoulder.

"Bucky's older," he said in defense.

"Back on track. How do we defeat her?" James asked.

"Do we have to?" Wanda asked. "I mean Pietro, Bucky, and I all joined you guys instead of staying with Hydra."

"You three were experimented on. You had a life before and were brainwashed. It looks like she was raised as part of Hydra." Tony flicked his wrist and the image disappeared.

"So we have to defeat her," Natasha said.

"Yes." Steve sighed. "My weaknesses are obviously mental manipulation, metal suits, and exhaustion."

"Bullets, anything that passes by my force field, robots, and those who are immune to mental manipulation." Wanda paused, then continued. "Pietro's were walls, exhaustion, dehydration, and lack of time."

"And bullets," James said.

Everyone glared at him, except for Wanda, who looked away, blinking away tears.

"Sorry."

"Mine as myself are anything that could kill a normal human. Unfortunately, the other guy takes care of those, but she's got my DNA, not his." Bruce tugged at the sleeves of his sweater.

"Bucky's are the same as mine," Steve said. "Except he has a metal arm. She doesn't."

"So her weaknesses seem to be bullets mainly, then robots and metal suits, then Wanda," Tony said.

"Me?" Wanda slid off the table.

"You're immune to mental manipulation, right?"

"Probably. I don't know. Nobody's tried it on me."

"What are we going to do, put Wanda in James' War Machine suit and send her off into battle?" Natasha asked dryly.

"No offense Wanda, I don't want anyone using my suit," James said defensively.

"None taken," Wanda said, playing with the red mist between her fingers. "I wouldn't want to use it anyway."

"I think we should all be ready to fight at a moment's notice," Tony said. "Maybe T'Challa would be willing to make Wanda a vibranium suit, maybe one for Steve too. Sam could use a bit also for the wings. If he can get it thin enough, some for Parker also. Just get everyone as safe as possible."

"Or maybe all of us who had their DNA stolen should just fight," Steve mused. "Not trying to leave you out, Tony, but maybe the five of us are who will be best at defeating Project X."

"Is that what we're calling her?" Sam asked.

"I guess."

"I don't like it." He crossed his arms, thinking. "It's not feminine enough for her."

"How misogynistic of you," Natasha said drily.

"Not like that. Project X also just sounds inhuman. I know we're supposed to be fighting her, but I don't like it for her."

"We could take the same route Hydra took and name her after a Greek monster." Steve crossed his arms.

"Chimeras have three heads," Bruce volunteered.

"What's that one thing Hydra members say?" Tony asked.

"'Cut off one head, two grow in their place.'" Steve recited.

"Well, we cut off three of their heads by bringing them over to our side, and they used them to create Project X," Natasha thought aloud.

"Chimera sounds good," Bruce said.

"Chimera?" Tony asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Alright, again, who fights?" he asked next.

"If it's just the five of us, we might want Bucky back with us," Steve said.

"He's only got one arm. Tony blasted off the metal one," Sam pointed out.

"T'Challa was working on a new one before I came back here," Steve told him. He'd returned after the rest of his team.

"No red star?" Tony asked.

"No red star. He's got an Avengers 'A' instead."

"Okay. I'll go down there after dinner. Expect me in two days." Tony stood up and was about to tell Veronica to ready the jet when Steve stopped him.

"No offense, but Bucky would prefer to see me when he wakes up."

They faced off for a moment.

Then Tony sighed. "Veronica, prepare the jet for Steve Rogers to depart after dinner."