Heroes Assemble!

What Lies Beneath

The Hulk was coming out and Natasha braced herself for the challenge to come: seeing if the hypnotic suggestion that she'd put in Bruce transferred over to the Hulk.

ooo00ooo

Harry shrugged into his blue-grey dragonhide cloak, its hood hanging down his back and settled it correctly on his shoulders. Taking a couple of steps forward, he looked at himself in the mirror, turning slightly so that it was easier to see his left side.

High up on his left arm was a new addition. Primarily, it was the stylised 'A' of the Avengers done in red, but with a red circle around it, white filling the space inside. Harry nodded in satisfaction.

"That's good work, Gimpy," Harry said to the anxiously waiting House Elf. "And the cloak looks as good as new, too."

His cloak had needed some minor repairs and cleaning after all of the various battles and skirmishes that he'd been involved in. It was good to once again have it looking as good as the day that Charlie Weasley had given it to him.

"Gimpy lives to serve, Master Harry, Sir," the little elf replied.

"It does look good," Steve commented. "And once they're on all of our uniforms, it'll look as though we're actually all part of the same team."

"You get to convince Tony to paint one on his armour," Harry grinned at Steve via the mirror.

"A good leader knows when to delegate," Steve countered.

"Pepper!" they decided in unison, a beat later.

The sound of urgent footsteps interrupted them and Harry spun about to face the door. Maria was the first through it, with Bobbi hot on her heels.

"Harry," Maria said, focussing on him instantly. "We've just had a message from Coulson. It's about Skye."

ooo00ooo

Mage arrived in a swirl of multicoloured light and looked around with a sigh of relief. Directly in front of him was the Bus, the great modified Globemaster aircraft that S.H.I.E.L.D. had converted for its use. Sitting just to one side was a quinjet.

Really, it was a miracle that he'd arrived at the correct place at all. After portkeying back to the Tower, Harry had used Jarvis' satellite feeds to get a good look at exactly where Coulson and his team were located just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He'd then made a portkey to that location based off of simply that image. As far as he knew, no one'd ever attempted a portkey journey like that before.

The fact that it had worked was something to consider the ramifications of later. Right now, there were much more important matters to deal with.

Noting that the rear ramp to the Bus was already lowered, Mage didn't hesitate in striding up it, his footsteps announcing his arrival and causing Coulson and May to turn towards him, the latter having drawn her sidearm in the process.

"Mage," Phil greeted. "I didn't expect you here."

Mage gave the man a nonplussed look, not that he could see it with Mage's obscuris spell in place, hiding his face.

"You messaged that Skye had been kidnapped," Mage stated. "What can you tell me?"

"Mage," May greeted.

"May," Mage returned, although his gaze never left Phil's face.

"Approximately four hours ago, the Bus was intercepted mid-air by a HYDRA team led by Grant Ward," Coulson relayed. "There were half a dozen quinjets making combat not an option. Once they boarded, their objective was to capture a person that we were protecting by the name of Raina, as well as an object of extra-terrestrial origin."