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Shifters aren't uncommon. Twenty percent of the world population, closer to fourty in the Americas, they're born with an animal spirit that they can inhabit.
Steve remembered the feeling of his mother's soft rabbit fur, her surprise the first time he shifted and revealed a sickly little lion cub. Bucky had been the only wolf in his own family of foxes, and the thick fur of his brown-black coat had saved Steve's pneumonia-stricken body more than once.
The Avengers were lucky to all be on the same page, each with their own unique abilities and transformations.
Steve's Greek lion - long extinct in the animal world - was huge with a golden mane and chestnut brown spotting along his undercarriage. He'd been big when he was sickly in that form, and with the enhancement of the serum, he'd grown even more impressive, standing four feet at the shoulder.
Bucky was a Middle Russian wolf, three and a half feet at the shoulder, but slimmer than his lion companion. He was streamlined and stealthy, even with his glinting metal arm. His eyes stayed their electric blue as a wolf, haunting when he was hunting.
Bruce was a demure Rocky Mountain fox, the red hues of his fur mixing with dark bronze. He was roughly the side of a poodle fully shifted.
Clint, as expected, was a decently sized Zone-Tailed hawk. His aerial acrobatics and stupid-fast shift allowed him incredible manoeuvrability on the battlefield.
Natasha, surprisingly, was not a spider, but a blue-ringed octopus. She didn't shift very often for this reason, but she was quite large when in water and more than once had killed a room full of unsuspecting interrogators with her highly-lethal venom.
Sam was also, unsurprisingly, a red-necked falcon. He wasn't as big a Clint, but still impressive and flexible in aerial combat. He was able to turn his arms into wings for short periods of time, something his rival wasn't capable of.
Even Rhodes was a shifter - a frankly massive grizzly that was none too friendly in his shifted form. Miss Potts was a red spitting cobra, but barely ever gave enough of herself away to reveal something to sensitive.
King T'Challa, when he joined them, was, unsurprisingly, a black panther.
Among all of them, the Hulk was perhaps the most mythical, being a full-bodied Minotaur when he so chose and all the more vicious for it.
That left Tony.
Her birth certificate signified her as a shifter, but her parents had decided to forego including her spirit on her certificate. She'd never mentioned what it was, and her friends and bots were notoriously tight-lipped about her secrets. According to her debrief, she'd not even used her animal form to escape Afghanistan. Only Rhodes' secretive smile hinted that Tony might actually be hiding how cute her spirit was.
"It's got to be something adorable." Clint argued. "Like a rusty spotted cat."
Bruce shook his head quietly. "Nah."
"She's likely majestic." Thor said, sitting back. "Large and imposing, or gracious and beautiful."
"What makes you think that?"
"If she was cute, she would find an advantage to it, would she not?" Thor cocked his head.
"I guess."
The elevator opened and out walked the lady of the hour, buried in her tablet and running her coffee on autopilot.
"Tony, come settle a debate." Steve called.
She wandered over as the coffee brewed. "Uh-huh?"
"Are you a rusty spotted cat?"
She blinked out of her haze. "No?"
"What are you then?"
She shrugged and went to walk away, but Bucky, curled on a dog bed some feet away, whined plaintively. He got bored listening to them go round about it.
She rolled her eyes at him, sarcastic as can be. "I'll be a lizard if it gets you to leave me alone about it."
Thor smiled almost knowingly.
"You could just say you don't want to answer." Sam muttered.
She grabbed her coffee, raised it to them, and left again.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Clint shrieked, barely dodging the lash of it's tail.
"A bilgesnipe." Thor replied, smacking it back down with a whack of his hammer like a dog owner with a newspaper.
"This is what you meant?" Natasha didn't often sound worried, but she did now.
"Okay fly boys, make some room. Let a professional handle this." Tony quipped. "Thor, be a dear and punt it into the air for me?"
"Of course." The god got under the beast and shot it into the air. A crackle of static later and Iron Man cut off comms.
"Tony?" Steve called, worried as more seconds ticked by. The suit landed nearby, but the open helmet signified it was empty. "Eyes on Stark?"
"Above, Captain." Thor replied, grinning and pointing.
The bilgesnipe, hovering for a fraction of a second at the peak of its drop, was suddenly slammed into by a dragon of all things.
It was massive, scales predominantly red, but with gold cresting the joints and the slope of its maw. It's underbelly was a flash of silver, it's claws the same. The roar it let out was loud enough to shake the windows of the street level.
Caught in its claws and thrashing, the bilgesnipe lashed out and struck at the dragon's face. Unimpressed at its attempts, it reared it's head back, opened its mouth, and unleashed a torrent of blue energy that tore right through the opposing beast. When it stopped it's attack, there was a hole of nothingness where it's organs had been.
"Yes!" Thor cried, immediately taking off into the sky. He met the dragon as it flew off to drop the corpse into the ocean. The Iron Man armour, too, flew off after the dragon and the stunned team came to a conclusion all at once.
"The dragon-" Clint stuttered.
"Tony." Steve confirmed.
Back in the tower, Tony was talking casually with Thor over a cup of coffee and some cookies when the team returned.
"So, yeah, not really practical despite being so impressive." She finished saying.
"Not really, no." He frowned. "Still. It is beautiful and impressive."
"Thanks." She tossed a casual glance over their way. "Hey guys. Ride back okay?"
"Why the hell did you never tell us you were a dragon?!" Clint demanded.
"Uh, because it's not your business?" She cocked her head at him. "Besides, it doesn't help the team."
"I can think of a few instances where we could have definitely used a dragon." Sam muttered.
"Iron Man was plenty." She brushed off.
"Do you have any idea what kind of tactical advantage that would have?" Steve sounded almost awestruck.
"Yeah. Me, getting shot at all the time without the ability to dodge and certainly no mitigation of loss." She turned to face them more fully. "Trust me, it's not as useful as it seems. Hell, where in New York can I even land? I'm too big for anything. Trust me. I considered it for three very long months."
"Why not use it to escape Afghanistan?" Natasha asked quietly.
"And get shot out of the sky by the US Air Force?" She sniffed. "My hide's strong, but not impenetrable."
"Did Howard know?" Bucky murmured.
"Nah. I never showed either of my parents. Not worth the hassle. They would have made it a show piece and then I wouldn't be able to go about anything."
"Quick thinking." Bucky nodded, then went over to his designated area, shed his gear, and went back to wolf form, curling up in his oversize dog bed and going to sleep.
"I should like to spar with your dragon." Thor said abruptly.
She rounded the counter and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Anything for you, Point Break. Out at the compound, though."
"Yes, of course."