Nat wasn't exaggerating. As soon as Peter and I had dropped down into our seats on the Avengers meeting table, the screaming had begun. In any normal circumstances, I would have made an incredibly witty joke about how my devastating attractiveness was causing everybody to have an outburst, but these weren't normal circumstances. My mother gripped my hand so hard I thought my bones might break as the last remaining Salvatores screamed their heads off at me from their see-through hologram-like prison at the head of the table.
Endie's fire was burning along his arms as he yelled bloody murder at me for supposedly "turning Holly bad." Addison kept on flickering in and out of invisibility, her tiny body shaking with anger. Afia's usually calm front was gone, replaced with one of pure hatred as she glared at all of us Avengers, and Todd looked a lot like a tiny angry garden gnome bent on murder.
"Now, now, children, calm down," said Tony, his voice an octave higher than it usually was. "We don't want everybody to go deaf."
"That's exactly what we want!" Todd barked, spitting on the ground then saying a not-very-nice word.
"Language!" Steve looked aghast. That only provoked the Salvatores to scream even fouler words.
For awhile everybody was just screaming at one another, even me. Me and Endie were locked in an angry yelling match which mainly consisted of saying really bad swear words and then cursing Nick Fury. Peter had lost his calm front and was screaming at Afia, who literally looked like she was going to explode with fury. Evie was being held back by Wanda and Tina. Green was starting to snake up Bruce's neck.
Clint must have noticed that because he stood up onto the table and screamed super loudly, "WILL EVERYBODY SHUT UP?"
Remarkably, we all stopped talking and turned around to face that certain bird-man. "Jeez, Clint," Bruce mused, the green disappearing. "That was... very unlike you."
"Yeah, well," Clint hopped off the table and snorted. "Any second later and you'd've gone all Hulk on us." He glared at the Salvatores, who scowled back. "You kids are clearly deranged."
Addison stepped forwards and put her hands on her hips, somehow still managing to look sassy even though she was a literal eight-year-old. "Excuse you, Mr Massive Bird Guy," she argued, "But you're deranged. Holly has not gone bad. I bet this is all just some big plot to lock us up again. We don't trust you." She blew a raspberry and stomped off to stand next to Afia.
Endie shrugged. "Addy doesn't speak for the whole group, but yeah. Holly can't have turned bad - she would do anything for us. Literally, anything. She's kind and smart and a little bit grumpy but we trust her with our lives, and it doesn't seem right that she'd just kidnap Nick Fury and take off without us."
I softened a little bit and opened my mouth to say something, but Maria Hill got there first. "Perhaps that was the old Holly, Mr McGuffin, but people change. We all heard her plan - she graced us with that helpful 'evil-overlord' speech while we were tied up in Fury's office, and we literally saw her jumping out of the window with him. If that's not a solid lead to say that she has gone bad, I don't know what is."
"Yeah," Ben sniffed. "I liked Holly too. She reminded me of a cooler version of Kira. But Maria is right - people do change. You Salvatores, of all people, should know that."
I was shocked - partly because of that very rude statement of how Holly was cooler than I was but mostly because Ben had just given the Salvatores a massive piece of wisdom. I swear, that eleven-year-old kid was smarter than I was, and that's saying something. I poked him in the ribs. "Hey, now," I chided. "I am very cool. Obviously much cooler than anybody else here."
Nat poked me in the ribs a lot harder than I'd done with Ben and cleared her throat.
I blushed. "Uh, except for Mum. She's cooler than all of you. The coolest ice cube in the tray."
"You guys are all liars," Todd grinned, dropping his angry gnome front for a second. "I'm obviously the coolest here."
"We've literally just spiralled from a full-on screaming death match to arguing about who's the coolest," Steve mused, then shrugged. "Story of my life."
Tony chuckled. "Remember that dumbass war we held against each other?"
Steve laughed and slapped Tony on the back. Thor looked down at them skeptically. "You two mortals are significantly stranger than most," the god of thunder boomed. "That war was incredibly stupid."
"Agreed," said Peter, scowling at Afia, who stuck her tongue out at him.
"If everybody doesn't stop talking, there will be a Civil War 2," I grumbled. "Although I'm pretty sure we've already gotten there. Salvatores versus Avengers."
"We'd kick your ass," grinned Todd, cracking his knuckles, and for some bizarre reason, I believed him.
Endie sighed. "So let's say that Holly has turned to the dark side," he said. "And she has kidnapped Fury and is currently discussing world domination with Agnelsson and Ivan. What do we do now?"
"Well, we obviously have to get Fury back," Evie said.
"Do we, though?" Tony mused thoughtfully. Nat kicked him in the shin and he shut up.
"Are we seriously even discussing this?" Addison piped up. "The Avengers are the bad guys here! I'm with Holly! You should be too!" She stamped her foot, looking a bit like she was going to cry.
Afia touched Addison gently on the shoulder. "Addy, I know it sucks, but there's no use for fighting anymore. Holly's chosen her path, and we've chosen ours."
I couldn't believe my ears. "Why the change of heart?" I asked.
Afia locked eyes with me. "We didn't change our heart, Kira," she replied. "We'll always be with Holly, but people change, and I think that it's for the best if we go with you guys for awhile now, just while Holly is sorting herself out."
"We have to do the right thing," said Todd.
"We don't like it," Endie continued, "We don't like the Avengers. You guys are selfish and cruel and you care for nobody but yourselves. You probably wouldn't even be doing this if not for the fact that Holly is the Black Widow's daughter, but sometimes you do what's right. I think that following you for now is the right path."
"The right path is with Holly," Addison cried.
"We won't know for sure until we've heard them out," said Afia gently, smoothing the little girl's long dark hair.
Once everything had calmed down and the Avengers returned to their seats, Wanda said, "OK, let's face the facts."
Bruce seemed to like doing these fact-y parts, so he said, "Holly has taken Fury and we don't know where she's gone."
"That's a fact," I said.
Steve nodded. "The Irish S.H.I.E.L.D base has been all but obliterated and many agents now suffer life-threatening burns and injuries."
"Fact," Evie said.
Nat continued. "Holly is working for Kristoff Agnelsson and Ivan, who escaped from the explosion on Mount Gestola."
"Unfortunately for everybody, that is a fact." Peter confirmed.
"Tori was onto Holly's plot and so an associate of Holly's was sent to kill her," Ben said.
"We don't know that an associate of Holly's killed Tori for certain," I realised. "She might have been lying."
"She lied a lot to us, clearly," grumbled Todd. "While we were fighting crime on the streets of Galway, we always thought she was with us, but apparently not. Apparently our whole gang was just a lie; a ruse to drag the Red Triplets together."
He looked so sad that I think my heart melted. "It's going to be OK, Todd," I said. "I promise, I'll fix this whole mess."
Todd's eyes glowed with hope. "Really?"
I swallowed the lump that had arose in my throat and nodded, saying, "I promise, Todd. I'll fix everything."