Heroes Assemble!

Getting The Band Back Together

"Yes, Your Honour," Felicia replied.

Judge MacIntyre gave Felicia a long hard look before lifting her gavel and bringing it down.

"Case dismissed."

Instantly, Felicia turned to Matt and grasped his hands.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," she said, before whirling about to thank Foggy as well.

"Just be sure to keep your nose clean, Miss Hardy," Matt stated once she'd turned back around. "Three years' good behaviour, remember."

"Don't worry, I will," Felicia assured him. "It's straight back to university for me and as soon as I can, to find a good, honest job. That should keep me out of trouble."

"Good luck, Miss Hardy, with everything," Foggy said, before beginning to straighten their notes and to place them into his briefcase.

Matt 'watched' as Felicia left the courtroom. He could only hope that she learnt her lesson from this and left what she'd learnt at her father's knee behind her. Somehow, though, he doubted it.

ooo00ooo

Bruce eyed the crowd across the street warily.

From the position he was in, he was almost invisible, not that any of the crowd were looking his way anyway. The bulk of the crowd seemed to be reporters, although there were a fair few everyday New Yorkers who seemed to be Avengers fans. Many, he noted, wore shirts and hats with one or more of the heroes on it. Two young boys, brothers by the look of them, were both wearing giant green fists on their hands.

Gasps, screams and pointing indicated that something high above the crowd had caught their attention. Bruce leaned out from behind the pillar and looked up, only to instantly start grumbling to himself.

"Sure, bypass the crowds; take the easy way in," he muttered towards the red and blue teen swinging high overhead and the cloaked figure on his flying broomstick.

Within minutes, the two had disappeared from sight, landing somewhere on the great platform above the Avenger's logo.

"Four jumps, maybe five," Bruce muttered, eyeing the Tower.

But turning into the other guy to reach the party would be somewhat counter-productive – they were gathering to celebrate that the Tower was finally fixed and refurbished, not to trash the thing again.

Finally, Bruce gave in and, after looking both ways, dodged through the traffic to reach the front of the Tower. Getting through the crowd, though, was a whole other ballgame.

"Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry. Excuse me."

It took a fair bit of manoeuvring to get his body through the tiniest of gaps and a whole lot of apologising as he made his way towards the front, but eventually, Bruce reached his destination. Only to come face to face with a cordoned off barrier that was still a couple of metres out from the great glass entrance doors.

"Doctor Banner," a security guard said, stepping forward.

Bruce looked around to find a face that he sort-of remembered.

"Ah, yeah, hi," he replied.

The man merely nodded and moved the barrier in slightly, enough for Bruce to make his way through.

"I'm guessing that you don't remember me," the man said. "I'm Happy Hogan; I'm in charge of security today."

"Nice to meet you again," Bruce replied as he was let inside the building.

"Wondered how long it was going to take you to get inside," a voice stated from the shadows.

Bruce's head snapped around.