Darcy looked up the next day as her lab's door was opened. "Hey, Agent iPod thief. What's up?"
"Miss Lewis. Is your son all right?"
She checked the camera feed from the daycare. "Yeah, he's sucking up orange slices with a friend." She looked at him again. "Though if agents want to change that, I'd stop them."
"I am going to do that. To make sure of something, he's not Loki's son?"
"No. Loki was helping defend him from the assholes who have power."
"Good. Are any avengers members allowed around him?"
"Clint, probably Natasha. Bruce and Stark seem to find him amusing but they're probably not going to be close uncles. They might say hi in the hall." She shifted to face him better. "Pepper thinks he's cute but doesn't want to cuddle him. Which is fine with me. Not everyone has to be fond of my kid beyond me."
"Good. I was hoping we wouldn't have to have a problem with the Hulk."
She smirked. "Adrian *adores* the Hulk. They destroy things and he adores that about the green guy. But I've told Bruce about that so he can talk to Hulk if the baby should try to pounce him."
"Oh, dear."
"I've worked on his 'you have to ask permission to pounce' manners. A lot sometimes. He's eighteen months though so sometimes he doesn't listen. Like how he pounced Steve earlier to get his shiny puppy friend Groo the shield."
"Groo..." He just nodded. "Weird kid thing?"
She grinned and nodded. "Clint has film."
"I'll get it from him." He looked up the hall then at her. "Is he safe?"
"Yes. And if your people try to change that I'm going to destroy SHIELD." She grinned. "Starting with Hill, who's glaring at him and filed a report that I have a son in the labs with CPS."
"Oh, dear. I'll stop that as well."
"And the agents that showed up shooting at us and the ones who set a fire to break into my apartment during the evacuation?"
"Yes. They'll be stopped." She smiled, relaxing slightly. "Why the court case?"
"To save my son being killed by sanctimonious asses with powers."
"That's a good reason. Is he safe from that?"
"They better hope so."
"You..."
An agent walked in. "Doctor Lewis?" he demanded, waving an envelope.
"The last I knew, you weren't supposed to read my mail," she said, snatching it from him. "And yes, I just got passed the other day." She smirked. "Anything else you wanted?"
"No!" He stomped off in a huff.
"I find people like that unsuitable to be human," she complained, looking at the letter. "From the college." She looked over the formal acknowledgment of her graduation. "Cool." She put it aside. She grinned at the staring director of SHIELD. "What?"
"Doctorate in political science?"
"Astral physics under Dr. Malcolm. Focusing in energy studies and chaotic portal events."
"Oh." He blinked a few times. "I see." She grinned. "That's good. I'm sure Dr. Foster is proud."
"Yeah, she is." She looked at the camera feed when movement caught her attention. "Aww. Someone brought in a real dog. He's pouting because the dog won't lick him." She looked at Coulson again. "It's your people screwing up. What are you going to do about it?"
"Stop them before you have to zap a few more."
"I'll go beyond that." She smirked. "A lot farther."
He nodded. "Understood. I'll lay down the law today. Do we need to give you two security for now?"
"Thor said he got the point across that he's not the son of Loki so hopefully that'll die down."
"I'll make sure that's heard by other higher ups and make sure there's security available when you two go out. Some people won't listen."
"Yeah, that's probably why Hill's in the daycare."
"Let me stop that right now." He went down there to find Hill yelling at an idiot agent. "I was hoping I wasn't going to have to write you up for harming that child's security," he said patiently.
Hill stared at him. "If he's not Asgardian then I don't care what she does as long as he doesn't become a threat to the US, Coulson."
"I doubt he would. Unless you force him to be." He looked at the agent and his dog. He took the leash from him and walked the dog off. "Lay down," he ordered quietly. "Rest for now. We'll get you a better handler." He walked off to grab that agent to arrest. "All right. Adrian, have a good day playing. Your mom's in her lab." The boy smirked at him. "You look just like your mother when you do that."
The baby beamed at him for that, waving a bit. He walked the agent and Hill out. "Even if he were Loki's son, we're not going to snatch him. Lewis can raise a calm, considerate child who won't harm people. Not like he'd have been tortured like Loki was, Maria. Leave her be." He walked that idiot off. "And make sure the others do as well."
She pulled her gun. "Loki, put the agent down and change back please. Coulson doesn't say 'leave her be'."
He smirked at her. "I'm not him, chit." He did change but he was a demon. A high level, dangerous demon. "He's on his way so you can talk to him." The agent was trying to get away. "Do stop. Your master wants you and asked me to fetch you. As I owe him a poker debt, this is a nicer payment for it." He smirked at Hill. "The point still stands." He and that agent disappeared.
Hill called that contact in. And sent the film from the lab to the real Coulson. Who got there an hour later and just sighed at her when he stared at her. "Why would a demon care about that child?"
"Because he's got magic and could potentially be fodder for bets and a later being of influence. Though I agree, leave Lewis alone. She can raise him to be a caring, pleasant young man who'll ruin SHIELD and everyone else if we make him feel threatened."
"Fine."
"Thank you." He went to check on Lewis, who turned to stare at him. "Congratulations on your degree."
"Thank you. I heard that you earlier was a demon."
"Yes, he was. Any idea why something so dangerous would know of him?"
"It could be because of his magic. We had to go to a Council aligned witch to get him reprotected. Strange broke them with Maximoff's help and she had an energy tap into him."
"Charming. Would that harm him?"
"Yeah, it could've."
"It's fixed?"
"Yup and if they come near him again it'd better be to save his life. I've made that clear."
"Good. I expected that to come with you zapping him."
"I did when I first got between them." She grinned. "I need a bigger threat of a weapon for them."
"Hmm. Try to warn us if you have to go to war with them?"
"If I can." She curled one foot up under the other knee. "He's a good boy."
"I figured you'd make sure of it. You're not the sort of mother that you see in the mall with hellions, Lewis. He won't be that bad until he's a teenager." She smirked at that. "Though, I did recognize his father. He's looking a lot like him." She raised an eyebrow. "There's a few others who might."
"Which puts my son into danger and I'd have to go become the evil mom."
"Point. We'll try to keep that down. Subtly so it doesn't look like you have a security escort." She nodded once. Jane stomped in. "Dr. Foster." He nodded at her. "Let me know personally if he suddenly has safety issues?"
"Probably not. It'd be over with before you got here."
"I can call in help and rush there."
She stared at him. "He won't work for SHIELD, Coulson."
"That's fine. I wouldn't expect him to." She quirked an eyebrow up. "But I know of his father's deeds and why it's so dangerous. With some of them, it'd be better if agents helped you handle it."
"You know his father?" Jane asked.
"Yes, I met him when he was handling something near one of our bases. The agents totally discounted him until he solved the problem and they were heavily injured for not listening to his instructions." He looked at Darcy again. "You should write a paper on his father's chaos skills." He left them alone.
"Not a bad idea but it'd taint him later." She looked at Jane, handing over the letter with a grin. "You were asleep when I announced it last night."
"Oooh!" She pulled Darcy up to hug her. "That's so cool!" Darcy grinned and nodded. "We have to tell others."
"I did. You were napping."
"We need a party!" She looked at the computer because the camera feed had just barked. "Someone gave the daycare a dog?"
"An agent earlier brought in his furry partner and got arrested so the dog's been there. So far the kids haven't been mean to it."
"Oh. Interesting." Jane settled in to plan a party for Darcy's degree. And fill out leave forms for that graduation ceremony.
***
Darcy looked up from her lunch on the main porch, nodding at Wanda and Clint as they came out. "The other end's still wet," she warned. She got back into reading on her phone while eating a chicken caesar salad with walnuts.
Clint sat down across from her. "Kiddo okay today?"
"Yeah, he's smooshing around in daycare today." She grinned. "They unwisely gave the kids playdough and then got out of the way." He snickered, nodding slightly. "So they've had a clay fight and now they're squishing it to figure out what it is. Later they have a bubble kiddie pool party planned. I'm so sorry for their nerves."
"The kids will love the bubbles." He glanced at Wanda then at Darcy again. "Do you know Wanda?"
"Yup, met her the other day." She waved her fork. "You can sit. I'm not evil today." She looked at Clint again. "The daycare was thinking about a trip to the Prospect Park zoo. They're asking for volunteers. Am I that insane?"
"You could at least control Adrian running at the animals," he offered.
"Yeah, but they've got eighteen kids going around his age. There's only four daycare workers." He winced. "With me would be five. Still not great average per kid."
"No, you really need three people per kid for that trip." He nibbled his bologna sandwich then sipped some milk. "Think Bruce would go?"
"Don't be mean to him, Clint!" she sighed, staring at him. "Kids creep him out. A lot. Mary in biometric's daughter was sleepy and tried to cuddle him and he nearly froze at the cuddle attempt. I don't think he's used to cute little things."
"Probably not. Did your son really go up to the Hulk?"
"Yeah!" She nodded, staring at him. "They were doing a 'these are the people who're saving people and you shouldn't bother them' talk. My son, who I'm sure you've seen destroying things, walked up to him, poked him on the bellybutton, then giggled and asked him if he'd like them to build him something to smash." Clint giggled, shaking his head. "Then Addy hugged him and cooed at his greenness. I'm pretty sure the Hulk is very confused about my son."
"Yeah, well, your son's a bit weird," he agreed with a grin. "Some of that's my fault."
"Yours, mine, his daddy's inherited crazies." She shrugged. "At least he's not a pod person or a clone." She went back to eating, shaking her head.
Wanda put down her drink, looking at her. "You do not like me, do you?"
"I liked you just fine until I learned that you had an energy tap into my son and were using it to make him really sleepy." She stared at her. "Until then you were just another person here, Maximoff. But you had to go and try to harm my son." She gave her a pointed look. Then she looked at Clint again. "Did you give him a second stuffed dog?"
"I think that came from Sam."
"Awww. I'll help my son write a thank you letter then. It's a good lesson for him to learn. He needs manners."
"He's got good ones most of the time. He asks before pouncing anyone. He's a cute little guy. Now and then he'll forget and climb up you and then ask if it's okay but otherwise he's a good boy. Most of the time. The rest he's a toddler." He blinked a few times. "What'll you do when he starts to date?"
"Give him a lot of long, in depth talks about how to be a good boyfriend and be in a steady, healthy relationship. And how to use a condom because I don't want to be a grandma before he's got at least one degree." She ate another bite.
"You'd be the cool grandma," he offered with a smirk.
"Of course! But doesn't mean we need to be one anytime in the next twenty years. I'll totally taint his kid into my music instead of his dad's. Get him into retro stuff from the twenties too." Steve came out. "Hey, Rogers. That end of the table's still wet," she warned with a fork point.
"Thanks, Lewis. Lunch break?"
"Yeah. Jane's having a fit at her math for the next hour so I'm on lunch before I remind her that she forgot a negative again." She shrugged but grinned. "It gives time for Thor to go calm her down in that boyfriend way."
"Those can be good moments," Clint quipped with a nod. "I know Thor enjoys it too. Does he know?"
"Yeah, I sent him a message on my way up to make salad. He'll go check on her after sparring. Or she'll stomp off to go rant at him until he gives up sparring and calms her down. It's how they work." She smiled at the guard dog that came out. "Hey, Pupkins!" It barked at her and went to water a container tree. "That agent that tried to get the kids in the daycare brought him and didn't get to bring him when he got arrested." She let the dog sniff her when it came over, petting it gently with a grin. "You're a good dog. Did anyone feed you today? Miss FRIDAY?"
"He ate this morning," the AI said. "He's been good all day and distracted Sir's robots on him earlier."
"Okay. Let me know if we have to order stuff for him."
Clint got up and came back with something, handing it to her.
"Aww, the Clint got you a stuffed football. Anyone's toy?" she asked him.
"Nope. Laying in the living room this morning." Steve shook his head so Darcy teased the dog and played with it for a bit. Until her phone beeped. She looked at it and sighed. "Jane went to pounce Thor. The sparring room's blocked off. So I've got an afternoon to deal with data stuff I guess." She grinned, going back to playing with the dog. One of the guards came out. "I didn't think it'd bother his training."
"It won't," he agreed, taking the toy and the dog with him. "Happy wants to play with him, Lewis. Thanks."
"Welcome." She finished up her last few bites and cleaned up her stuff. "Let me throw this in the dishwasher and get back to the lab." Steve made a disagreeable noise. "Dishwashers use less water, Rogers. It's better for the environment."
"No one ever remembers to empty it," he complained. "It gets all mixed up in there."
"Well, set up a chore chart," she said with a shrug. "That way someone does things. Or talk Tony into getting a cook who'll do it for you." He grimaced at that. "Unemployment's up so it could be a great thing for someone's family." She walked off to do that, running the dishwasher since it was nearly full. She moved the 'dirty' magnet off to put the 'clean' on. She walked past the living room and had to back up to go grab her son from Natasha. "No taking him from the daycare please. He needs the socialization with normal children." She looked at her son, who grinned at her. "Say thank you, Miss Natasha?"
"Fanks!" he said with a grin and a wave. "Happy!"
"Yes, she was nice to make you happy by reading to you."
"What is your beef with Wanda?" she asked.
"She was going to siphon power off my son." She gave her a look. "That's why he slept for days." Natasha winced. "Fuck no, not doing that."
"I did not know."
"I know that. I didn't have a fit because I didn't want it to affect the team. But yeah, not into that with my kid." She walked him off, taking him back to the daycare. He squealed, wiggling to get down to go pounce the kiddy pool full of bubbles. The worker winced. Darcy grinned. "Me, Jane, Thor. Clint. Only," she said quietly.
"Yes, Miss Lewis."
"Thanks." She strolled off.
"Miss Lewis," someone yelled up the hall when she got off the elevator.
"It's DR Lewis," she yelled back. "Get it right or I'm going to portal your ass to a volcano!" Surprisingly that idiot didn't start anything else. So that was nice of him.
Jane leaned out of her lab. "Don't use my portals that way, Darcy!"
"I won't. I'll use a different one." She smirked. "The bridge won't go to a terrestrial volcano. That's for space and greater distances. We can test the point-to-point system that way."
Jane considered it then nodded. "We'd have to have a terminus."
"Which is basically a GPS coordinate since you don't need a second platform. Or we can build a single use one to use just that once. If the volcano eats it, well, oh well." She shrugged and grinned.
Jane nodded. "That's not a bad idea." She glared up the hallway. Then grinned at her. "What did I do wrong?"
"Did you find the dropped negative?"
Jane groaned, going to look over the upper levels of the formulas. Yup, she found it and it worked out better.
"Dr. Lewis, Sir has said if you destroy his idiot chemist, you have to replace him," the AI said patiently.
Darcy grinned and pulled up a thing going on at her college. "Have him look here. That one project is multi-disciplinary and was full of pretty cool and brilliant people who were only half assholes."
"I'll suggest he recruit there. They would seem to fit in around here. Thank you."
Darcy grinned at Jane, who was shivering. "Doctor Malcolm won't mind. Much. They've got to leave the college someday."
"Two of them had ideas on how to use a star to recreate the Big Bang and maybe even recreate an infinity stone."
"Yeah," Darcy said with a nod and a grin. "Do we want them in the military or with SHIELD?"
"No!" She got up. "Let me go wax poetic to Tony about that project of chaos." She went up to Tony's office to do that. "They're proving chaos is a real thing mostly. Two have ideas, workable ideas, on how to use a sun to recreate the Big Bang so they can redo the glowy cube." There was an automated listening device that went on at the mention of any infinity stone. "And others that'll be worse probably. Darcy's right, they'll need good jobs when they get out that won't be the military or SHIELD. Her mentor runs it to get all the ones with wacky ideas in one place."
"Was Lewis part of that?"
"She temped but he was sure she could make her own some day. So he was training his successor. Her and Peter." She shivered again. "Talk about Dr. Chaos."
He got into that guy's files through the college. "I could use someone like him."
"Just don't let SHIELD have him. Or the military. His paper was trying to redo my bridge in another manner with another energy stream. That's why they had to call Darcy to get me to come reverse it so the giant, sentient otters could go home. Dr. Malcolm was highly amused and pleased at that and them trying to breed with a dog they thought might be like them." She smirked at him. "He's a bit creepy." She went back to her lab.
Tony went back to his looking up. He didn't want people like that to destroy SHIELD. It'd mean more work for him if they did.
***
"Dr. Lewis, would you have any idea on how the portal got opened in downtown Manhattan?" an agent asked as he walked into the lab.
She smiled. "According to the Council's discussion boards, it was one of the mini witches showing off. Did they not get it to close? My mentor has someone who'd love to study those."
"Your college mentor scares us, Dr. Lewis," he said with a smirk for her. "And no, she closed it. Hopefully for good. Have you or Dr. Foster looked at that site for any leftover portal remains?"
"Nope, didn't know we needed to. Jane's at the doctor's right now but I'll suggest we field trip to look at it." She caught the running baby. "What are you doing out of daycare?" she asked patiently. He babbled and pointed, grinning at her. "A pretty demon? That's sweet of them to come visiting. Oh, Miss FRIDAY?" she called.
"A new employee's stepdaughter, Dr. Lewis. She's rather worried she upset your son."
"No, probably not. He wanted me to come back to meet her." Adrian nodded with a beaming smile. "We can do that." She stood up, groaning as she lifted her son up to her hip. "I'll ask Jane if she wants to go look at it if you want."
"Please. Just to make sure it's really closed. That flower realm looked a bit...weird to us."
"At least there's no cartoon characters."
"That's what we were hoping as well." He tipped his head, looking at the kid. "I..." Darcy glared. "He looks just like the guy I had to work with last month on a portal in Canada."
"And that's a great thing but if that's his father he probably stays away from him due to his dangerous career."
"That's always a good thing." He got out of her way, following her off. "Can we count on at least you going to look at it?"
"Fine."
"Thank you." He let her get on the elevator and followed, smiling at her. "This means I get to go to lunch until I get a text message about any remaining portal." He made a business card appear with a grin, handing it over. She smirked back. "Let me know please." She walked off on the daycare level and he went to lunch for now.
Darcy squatted down in front of the new kid, smiling at her. "Hey, kiddo. Adrian came to get me so I could meet his new friend." She held out a hand. "I'm Darcy. What's your name?"
"Bethany," she said quietly.
Adrian pounced her. "Cutes!"
Darcy grinned. "He likes me to meet anyone he considers cute or pretty." She winked. "You're safe here, kiddo, and if you're not let me know. Jane and I are not the geeks who are scared of bad people." She hugged them both. "Adrian, remember, you have to ask to cuddle."
He lifted his head to stare at his friend. "Cuddle?"
"Sure!" They cuddled together and Darcy patted her on the cheek before standing up.
"Have fun, you two." She grinned at the daycare worker. "He did the same thing when he found a pretty rose bush that had a squirrel hiding in it."
"I figured it was." She was smiling at the kids. "They're cute together. Adrian, want to get some toys to play with Bethany?"
"Toys!" he squealed, letting her go and running for something but bringing it back to play with her. "Toys!" he told her, looking totally serious.
Bethany grinned. "Toys are great!" They settled in to play some strange game with the lincoln logs. Darcy winked and left them to play, going to tell Jane about that portal event. Jane was already heading there so Darcy grabbed stuff to join her.
*** (sent to list's archive to here)
Stark looked at the scanning going on inside the building, sighing in displeasure. "FRIDAY, is that Lewis or Lewis and her kid?" he asked.
"Them together, sir, but there's an outside influence." She put up that scanning as well. "It appears the energy being drawn to them is being sent from outside them."
"Great! Any idea who's doing it?"
"No one's standing outside the building noticeably. Most of them really did run when the lab level started to glow in the visible spectrum." He got up to go check on that.
Jane looked up as Stark walked into her lab. "We know. It's someone outside shooting it at us. We took Adrian from the daycare in case it hit the other kids. It's somewhat magic but not fully. We've got a call in to that witch that helped him last time."
"That's what I'd expect. Any idea if it's that sorcerer guy?"
"Nope." Darcy grinned at him. "It's definitely portal energy. I had this happen before, about six months after I gave birth. The first was more minor but was about a year before I gave birth. There's going to be a portal event that shows off some rainbow, pretty, shiny world that's very crystally and bright. Dr. Malcolm was not amused when he caught us studying it to see what it was. That's actually how I got him as my mentor." She smirked a tiny bit. "I've alerted him so he can take readings in other areas of the city and watch the portal form."
Stark just nodded at that. "We didn't think to warn the rest of us?"
"Nothing comes through. We did alert the one SHIELD agent any of us trust, and Natasha said she'd call someone called SWORD instead. Apparently they deal with weird things that the Council would."
"Are they showing up?"
"Don't think so," Darcy admitted. "They didn't last time."
"Okay, so how do we end that portal?"
"Last time I sneezed really hard, started off a period that I was due for a few weeks from then, and it closed." She grimaced but shrugged. "No cycle so far this time if that'll matter. We didn't get to see if last time it came from somewhere else and I was a focusing mirror or not. We *think* it came directly from over there but we can't be sure."
"That makes sense. Do we need to evacuate you two from the building?"
"We have shields here from excessive energy sources thanks to my portals," Jane said. "This is only half of what I'd expect from the portal system or the point-to-point system we've been developing."
Darcy looked at her desk and handed over something. "Your target, my queen," she said dryly.
Jane looked it over, moaning in pleasure. "That's sweet, Darcy. Thanks." She put it with that set of notes. "That'll work well to catch it and we can add the processing to realign people and to steady the wobble." Darcy grinned at that. "Think we should test it soon?"
"Not this week. Energy fields will be screwed up for a few days thanks to this one." She spun her chair to look at Stark again. "It's been four-hundred-twenty-seven days since the last time this happened."
"So about fourteen months," Tony said, nodding as he thought. "Does anything really come from there?"
"Not that we saw last time but we didn't have all the sensors set up." The agent leaned in to stare at them. "We don't know why this happened before. We didn't have all the sensors set up that we do now."
"Okay, great," he said, walking in smiling. "I'm Agent Woo, Mr. Stark." He held out a hand. "I'm with SWORD and we handle the things that're even too weird for SHIELD."
He shook it. "It's nice someone does. Do you have redundant sensors?"
"We do."
"Can you tell who's shooting the energy this way?" Darcy asked.
"Yes, we can. Rosenburg is reaching for other hellmouths as far as we can tell. It's stopping here for some reason."
"Well, I do have a sense for chaos energies," Darcy quipped. "We're sure?"
"Yes. She's with her girlfriend. It's not every time they're intimate but it's known to happen somewhat anytime it's apparently a nice night." He grinned at her. "We think these incidences correspond to her doing an energy raising ritual with sexual rituals involved." Darcy blushed, Stark snorted, and Jane moaned. The kid, of course, ignored it as big people stupid talk about stuff that didn't interest him. "We've alerted them to try to block her. We're not sure how they're going to do that."
"Okay, so we just manage the portal event," Darcy said, looking at Jane, who nodded, then at Stark, who nodded. "And we find a way to figure out later shielding."
"If you could, many people would adore that," Agent Woo said with a grin. "She's made such glowing moments in LA thanks to their hellmouth a bit more often and it freaks out the whole city."
"Us too now," Jane muttered. She cleared her throat. "Do we have a hellmouth up this way?"
"We think she might be reaching for any hellmouth taint that's local."
"What about people who carry it?" Darcy asked. "One of their people has a ton from what's been said on some online places."
"We have no idea. We know nothing about them and their ways."
Darcy grabbed her phone to call someone. "It's Darcy Lewis, is Mr. Giles in please? Because we've got what we think is a portal starting due to witchly influence up here in New York. Yeah, that one. The agents think it's something that Rosenburg is doing reaching for hellmouth energy." It got handed to Buffy by the younger slayer.
"Hi, Dr. Darcy Lewis, Miss Summers. Yes, the SHIELD agent did. No, I'm more worried about why it's happening in New York and if it could be due to someone who's from one of the hellmouths, who may carry a lot of taint." She listened. "Yes, I do actually know of him, and have met him in the past, but I'm pretty sure there's more than him.
"Yes, the SHIELD agents said it did. No, I work in Stark tower, in their labs. We're presently on full glow due to whatever whoever's doing and SHIELD said it's when she's reaching for distant hellmouth energy. Well, yes, we can tell that. We have multiple ways of measuring energy." She leaned back, grimacing as she listened.
"That's what we were wondering and worried about. Including that friend you mentioned. Well, if she's sucking at hellmouth energy for whatever reason...then anyone who carried any would get hit with it. And we still have to shut that portal that it looks like the power grab was creating. No, this is the second time we've seen this portal, Miss Summers. Yes, up here. About fourteen months ago we had another portal just like this." She looked at the machines.
"Yes, it is fully ready to open and if something comes through then the Avengers and SHIELD needs to stop that from happening. Well, New York City has ten million people living here," she said dryly. "Can you just have Rosenburg stop whatever she's doing for a bit so we can make sure? And you can check on that friend you mentioned? In case this would harm him?" She rolled her eyes. "Please do. And let Mr. Giles know since SHIELD would want a report." She hung up and sighed. "Jane..."
"I've texted you friend and no answer yet." They shared a look then she looked at Agent Woo, who grinned at them. "Where's their hunter guy Harris?" Jane asked.
"Up here. Somewhere. Last we heard he was brokering a peace deal." He grinned at the baby then at them. "I've worked with him a few times, ladies. He looks a lot like a certain someone in this room but not in this discussion."
Darcy nodded slightly. "Yeah. Can we...."
"Go zap Rosenburg? Quite possibly," Stark decided, walking off calling someone.
Darcy got up and looked at Jane. "Wanna kid sit?"
"I can kid sit, they won't listen to me."
"Cool!" She looked at Woo, putting on a hat and grabbing her jacket. "Let's go to where a certain hunter would be. Just to check on him?"
"Gladly." They walked out together. Natasha stopped them at the elevator. "Agent Romanoff, we have to go check on someone who is probably being killed by Rosenburg right about now."
"Go stop Rosenburg please?" Darcy asked dryly. "It appears that portal is her." She got around the agents, hitting the elevator. Woo followed her. "Only Coulson seems to have figured it out and he's not being involved due to the threats against him," she said quietly.
"I totally get that," Agent Woo agreed. "It's a hard decision to make. Should we go to the portal location?"
"I might end up opening it. The last one seemed to enjoy my company so...." She waved a hand in the air. She walked out of the building and found an obvious demon waiting on her. She walked up to him, staring at him. "Where's Harris? We think Rosenburg is the cause of that portal."
"He's in a shielded hospital room."
She nodded. "If she's responsible can someone go tell her that?"
The demon blinked a few times. "She won't listen to us and that would appear to be attacking."
"Okay. Can someone call other witches? Or go tell that sorcerer asshole since that's supposedly his job?"
The demon smirked. "You are most devious, mother of the heir," he said quietly. She stared at him. "The heir to chaos...."
"My son's not that chaotic."
"He is the scion of Rayne."
"No he's not."
The demon blinked. "Yet, he carries the energy of a chaos sort."
"Yeah, his daddy's pretty chaotic too. The same as I am. Which hospital?"
"He cannot be seen by others. It could let that energy explode."
"Fuck. Okay, have someone...anyone, go talk to Rosenburg?"
"I can try that." He walked off shaking his head.
Darcy looked at the agent, who was calling that in. "The sorcerer asshole?"
"We hope so. That seems to be their job."
She nodded. "Yeah it does. If she's knocked out suddenly it'll possibly backlash and kill the building."
"We can fix that too," he noted. "Let's go to the portal site."
"Yeah, let's." They went together. It was going to be a long, bad day.
***
Agent Woo went to see his director that night. "Sir, a report on what happened earlier." Coulson put down his pen and stared at him. Jimmy shut the door to stare at him, then handed over the report. "Also, I have to admit that I'm now aware of something that's semi classified information. Namely the parentage of Adrian Lewis."
"Mr. Giles is not a fond father to him," he said quietly.
"Why would he be since his father's actually Harris, sir?" Coulson moaned, staring at him. "Which is why the spell earlier from Rosenburg bounced off Stark tower. They knocked her out and it did backlash some to destroy part of the Council's building but it stopped opening the portal that was bringing unicorns here." He sighed hard. "And other things we kindly are letting them send home."
Coulson looked at the report, mentally grimacing. "This...."
"Rosenburg is a magic addict. She didn't care that she had killed four people who had hellmouth radiation and nearly her best friend as a fifth. Or his son as a sixth." Coulson winced again. "When they let her wake up she raged about putting the hellmouth energy back. She's in the hospital under observation by way of SHIELD's medical department. Miss Summers started to stick up for her until it was pointed out that she was killing innocents. Then Mr. Giles overruled her and called their coven friends. That sorcerer who supposedly handles rogue witches never showed up even after being notified."
"I'm about to lock all magic users into an underground bunker together," Coulson muttered, looking at him. "Are you certain about the boy's parentage?"
"Yes, and his mother agreed with me." He grinned. "I've worked with the father a few times recently, sir."
"That...explains why he's not there. It's much too dangerous. Which she said but I thought someone else."
"Some of the demons thought it was Sorcerer Rayne's."
"I think all children are chaotic at his age," Coulson said. "All right. Outcome?"
"She's in medical hold, Harris is in mystical medical hold by way of a demon clinic that saved him. Not sure how long before he gets out. Slayer Summers is pouting. Slayer Lehane went off and had a screaming rant at Rosenburg, Summers, and Giles while we were on the phone. The slayers are locked down tonight. And possibly for the rest of the week. The local peace treaty being worked on is presently on hold until they're sure there's no more attacks. We're not certain if they're going to attack Rosenburg for interrupting it with her attack on Harris.
"The portal was closed. Dr. Lewis talked to her college mentor and his group, who were most amused by that portal and the unicorns. Two unicorns did get free long enough to go pounce some carriage horses in the park and one of the ones stabled there for riding. The owners were informed of that with film so they could only groan. If Dr. Malcolm is right and life finds a way we'll have a few foals in a year."
"Charming," Coulson said. "The owners are mad?"
"One's suing the Council and Rosenburg for messing up her mare's special pedigree." He grinned. "They're not amused but the thought of having a unicorn foal made that one foam at the mouth. We saw most every magic user in the tri-state area outside Maximoff and the Sorcerer Supreme's group. They were all quite willing to help where they could, even if they couldn't. The sixty-four witches of both genders, and one gender neutral one, helped get it stopped and herded the unicorns back over.
"We do have agents there taking samples to make sure no germs came with them. Dr. Lewis was not amused that things came over this time but Dr. Foster was letting Thor figure out which realm that was. He was not amused. We saw Prince Loki however. He was giggling so hard he forgot to hold his invisibility shield. He came to help get the unicorns back over there and pointed out that some had ...procreated."
"So we can rate this on a cluster fuck scale?"
"Of Barton levels, yes, Director," he agreed with a grin. "We saw Barton too. The unicorns seemed very confused by his bow." Coulson was rubbing his forehead. "Romanoff went to help sedate Rosenburg. Something about giving redheads a bad reputation."
Coulson held up a hand. "She hates witches." He looked at him. "Fallout?"
"Three unicorn foals possibly. Lots of angry people at a certain witch. The other witches among them. We missed three American covens who're stronger than the Devon coven. Mr. Giles can swear in multiple languages. The demon community has thought about a hunt order on Rosenburg. That may be the biggest fallout."
"Great. Any recommendations?"
"Dr. Malcolm suggested we put up some sort of energy sucking device there. Dr. Foster agreed since the last portal was in that location and Dr. Lewis suggested they could hide one inside a statue to camouflage it. It was thought to be a good idea and Dr. Foster's devices from the London incident would work well according to them. Dr. Malcolm's students do not want to work for SHIELD but a few like SWORD." He smiled again. "I talked up our program and two really liked that. Dr. Malcolm just smiled at that and then at Stark for putting out offers for his students during that."
"Great. I'd rather have them with Stark or SWORD than anyone but SHIELD. I definitely don't want his chaos studying people in the military. No idea what might come." He stared at him. "Did any agree?"
"Two are expecting the recruiters I called earlier to show up in the next week." He grinned. "They'll be good fits."
"Wonderful. Any other cheerful news?"
"Saw your protégé, Director. She's...well, she did happily pet a something that was vaguely dog shaped that came with the unicorns. It loved her so much."
"Daisy does not have permission to adopt a pet at this time," he said blandly. "You still look amused."
"Yes. We saw...you've seen the movie Legend?" Coulson frowned but shook his head. "With the dress and the dance and the demon played by Tim Curry?"
"Yes, I've seen that scene."
"Yeah, he showed up too. He's in Manhattan, teaches at CUNY, and was highly amused as well but got some portal creators in to help remove the portal. He did adopt a baby unicorn foal that ran over. We weren't going to argue because he might be able to horn us. Your protégé tried to argue but he did something that took her voice for an hour. She's fine now though. I dropped her in the infirmary on my way up here."
"Wonderful. Thank you, Agent Woo."
"Welcome, Director." He grinned again. "I've made sure all assumptions about that child's parentage are out of the system. Including the ones that were behind the times and still thought he was Loki's son." He saluted and left, leaving the door open.
Coulson filed that report and the classified notes to go with it then went to check on Daisy. He could finish having that headache later, after he checked on his people.
***
Darcy looked at Thor that night, staring at him. "How did the baby daddy get a drop on Loki?" she asked quietly.
"I know not or if he expected such an attack or even if he knows of the father of your son." He shrugged. "That leads to questions that I do not want to think upon, Darcy."
"Point." She looked at her son, who was curled up next to Bruce, both of them taking a nap. He had spotted Bruce napping so curled up next to him to cuddle and nap next to his icon. She shook her head and went back to watching tv again. Jane was clearing her throat while trying not to think about that question either. Darcy handed over her work on the teleportation target device. Jane tipped her head sideways and got to work upgrading it to multiple streams and holding more than one person. Darcy grinned. "That way we can send the idiots to a volcano," Darcy quipped happily.
Jane nodded. "We could but that would waste a target."
"That one can be projected," Darcy offered with a grin. "A small glass plate with the electronics and the symbols projected."
Jane looked around Thor at her then sighed. "We do not participate in human sacrificing, Darcy."
"If we don't, someone like Mayhem may have kids for mine to battle. Gotta make sure the kiddo doesn't have a built in nemesis already."
Jane blinked a few times. "Dr. Mayhew?"
"No, not her, who is bad enough. Him!"
"Oh, *him*." She nodded, going back to work. "Just one or two might not hurt. Though it'd be safer to let him build his own and test it on himself." She sighed. "But happy wishing and all that."
Thor sighed, hugging Jane to his side. "We should not encourage people to end themselves, even if they would endanger humanity. Or else I would know fewer people." She poked him on the side and got back to work.
Bruce woke up and snorfled, looking at the tiny, warm thing against his chest. "No wonder I napped so long."
"He caught you napping and decided it was a great idea so climbed up," Darcy said, getting up to grab her kid. "Apparently you looked like a safe, snuggly one, Bruce. I couldn't make him move without waking you up with the screams of rage he'd give out."
He snorted. "I'm not safe, Lewis."
She grinned. "Yes you are. Even if the kid pisses you off you won't Hulk off at him. Adrian would enjoy that too much and cuddle you more."
Bruce burst out snickering, nodding. "True, he would." He got up with a few joints popping and a moan, heading for his apartment.
"Bruce, we're taking names of people we want to test new technology on themselves. Anyone beyond *him* down on the third lab floor?" Jane asked.
Bruce paused to think about that. "That's kind of evil, Foster. But I'll third his name and his mentor's too." He continued on his walk, thinking happy thought about idiots taking themselves out before they got to annoy him again.
Darcy grinned at Jane. "We need to use one in the middle of nowhere or at least somewhere without civilization. We don't want anyone to be showered with ash of human remains when it goes off."
Jane nodded. "Not a bad idea," she said, adding that to the side notes she made.
Thor sighed as he stood up, picking Jane up to carry her off. "Come, we will have dinner and then rest in the tub. That way your mind does not go more evil places that would give me more battles, my Jane." Darcy was grinning and waving with Adrian. "We'll see you both on the morrow."
Darcy looked at her son, who grinned back. "We should go back to our apartment too." He nodded so she took him down there to feed him dinner.
Natasha, who had been reading in the corner just made notes on that idea. It sounded like something she might want to use someday.
***
Jane walked into her lab the next morning and heard 'rawr' from under a desk. She leaned down to see a blanket covered lump. "Are you a desk monster?" The blanket nodded. It was a bigger blanket monster than she expected so another question. "Okay. Are you the blanket monster Adrian?" It shook its head. "Huh. Darcy?" she called, bringing her out of her working on something. "Where's Adrian since this blanket monster isn't yours?"
Darcy looked under that same table. The shoes were a dead giveaway of who the blanket monster was. "Hey, Bethany! Is Adrian with the shinies?" The blanket monster nodded. "He's in Stark's lab. Let me go get him. I figured out how to work magic portals on mirrors like in stories." She went up the hall, knocking before leaning in. "Is my son being the Pirate Shiny in here, Stark?" she called. "He left Bethany blanket monster and seems to have run off."
"Yes," a male voice called back. "Though I am not Stark."
"Sure, Loki. Thanks." She headed back there, forcing herself to not wonder how that had happened, staring at her son, who had 'taken hostage' a half-built robot. She sighed. "Son, you may not capture a robot friend of Mr. Tony's for pillage and ransom. Please let your hostages go." Adrian pouted. "Or no pop tarts all week long."
He let the robot go and gave her puppy eyes about keeping Loki tied up. "People will be mean to him for being captured by such a pirate. Please let Uncle Loki go too." She sighed. "I figured out how to make magical portals. Want to go work on that? You can be a space pirate then." She got the knot undone for Loki and walked her bouncy and cheering son off. "Sorry."
"It's not much of a problem," he admitted, looking confused. "Like on the mirrors?" he demanded, following them. He nodded at Stark when he walked past him. "The lad had me tied up. Apparently I was a hostage for ransom."
Stark looked really confused standing there in the hallway with his mouth slightly open. "Um...." He shook himself quickly then went to check the security feeds.
Loki looked at the notes. "That would be the math the magic is built upon but you'll need to refine the locations." He looked at her. "It may work in short distances but in longer you'd land off to the side thanks to traveling in a straight line. You can build in curves however."
"I can?" Loki nodded. "Oh, okay. Thank you." She grinned. "Are you perhaps hanging out with his baby daddy?" she asked quietly.
"No, though I do know him fairly well. We've fought together in some battles." He stared at her. "I'm still beholden to Dawn." He rolled his eyes.
Darcy grinned. "Some day, he can rewrite all the myths about evil witches if he wants."
He looked at the boy then at her. "Perhaps but he is a bit tilted toward chaos." He disappeared because he heard agents coming up the hall.
"Is Dawn the perky brunette that his baby daddy showed us pictures of?" Jane asked.
"Yup." She sat down, staring at her son. "Let's be space pirates. Jane's got a bridge trial tomorrow, Adrian." He beamed at his aunt.
"We'll see if it works then you can go be a space pirate instead of a shiny pirate. Until then, can you help your buddy be a blanket monster?" He wiggled down there to play with his daycare buddy. Darcy called the daycare to let them know about the blanket monsters. The agents were checking each lab. So when they came in, Jane looked at them. "He already left. He was checking on Adrian for his father."
"Adrian's father, not Loki's father. Odin doesn't seem that parentally concerned," Darcy quipped. "And has no relation to Adrian anyway. Odin also thinks that Jane's a goat so...." She shrugged, smiling at the daycare worker. "The scary blanket monsters are there. The nice, giggly one is calming down the scary, pirate loving one." She pointed.
Adrian popped out. "Yar!" he yelled, waving his hands, trying to be fierce. "Give me booty!"
The agents all tried not to laugh at that. One handed over a quarter. "That's all the shiny booty we have, Adrian. Can we take any hostages you have for that ransom?" he asked with a grin.
Adrian stared at it then looked at him. "I demand pops!"
Jane got him a pack of pop tarts to share. "There, all your ransom, Pirate Adrian. Share with the giggly blanket monster friend you have." He grinned and ducked down to do that.
Darcy grinned at the daycare worker, who was trying not to giggle but was grinning. "Yeah, he's a pirate this week."
"He's an adorable one and we can go over ships and space ships this week so he knows what he'll need to sail." She gathered the kids, the blanket, and their booty to go downstairs. Jane had to come rescue her coffee grounds but he was good at stealing the important booty.
Darcy grinned at the agents. "Thanks for not scaring him, guys."
"We're just making sure Loki isn't here to be a pain in the butt," the quarter giving agent said patiently.
"He was checking on him for the baby daddy's friends."
"Awww. He gone?"
"Yup."
"Okay. Thanks." They went to make a report. Coulson, so not amused until they shared the film from Adrian the pirate. That made even Melinda May giggle.
***
Darcy smiled at her mentor when he walked into his office, and smirked at her for being in his guest chair. "I have need of an intern for Jane and I. Because I figured out how to do teleportation with Jane, and then I figured out how to do magic mirror traveling mostly by myself, with a slight flaw."
Dr. Ian Malcolm sat down, staring at her. "You did what now?" She handed over the basics of her idea. He looked it over and moaned. "Oh, dear."
"Oh, yes. And we're taking names of people who should build their own to test it before we build ours." She smirked. "We have one we affectionately called the Asshole of Mayhem in our labs."
He cleared his throat. "Don't tempt me, Lewis." He handed it back. "We only have Patricia that's interested in that area of study."
"Yeah but she hates kids. Adrian's still around. Last time she saw him, she fled from him cutting a tooth. Since he's recently decided he wants to be a pirate and likes to jump out to demand booty..." She grinned. "Not a great fit and please don't suggest Eric either. I don't trust him around other humans."
"No, he's left the program because I looked him up when everyone kept him away from others and he had to flee from me sending him to that certain island to be eaten." He grinned. "Where were you going to end your terminus?"
"Volcano." She grinned. "Uninhabited island volcano in the Pacific ocean. We picked a pretty one that's still slightly active."
He nodded. "That would make sense. Does it work?" She pulled a glass plate out of her bag and tossed a blank piece of paper from his note stack on it then hit a button. It disappeared. It came back a minute later with a coffee order. She held it up with a grin. "Oh, wow." He was feeling tingles he hadn't felt since he had to watch his mentor and buddy break the 8th dimension.
She beamed and nodded. "Jane and I both need someone who can do some of the nagging I used to do. I need a mini me that's already grown up. I'm not half as bad as Jane is about forgetting stuff thanks to the kiddo but Jane's still forgetting to eat even with the application of Thor."
He cleared his throat. "Have we tested life forms?"
"A single mouse and it came back...gooey but I think I know why."
He slumped, staring at her. "You're amazingly a problem, you know that right?"
"Yup!" She beamed. "You should've seen the trying to figure out Adrian's daddy thing from agents. They guessed every chaos leaning person but you, Dr. Malcolm."
He smiled. "Good, I'd hate to have a kid." He stared at her. "What about a non-geek like you were? There's that guy who wants to be Quicksilver."
"That might set Maximoff off since she's in the tower right now but if he works...." She shrugged. "Yay him? Can he handle seeing the kid trying to be a pirate?"
"That I don't know. Or we do have a minor witch in chemistry but that might counteract hers since she wants to heal the earth and believes her magic comes from an angelic source." He adjusted his glasses, staring at her again. "I'll send the Pietro wannabe and Miss Marsha over to you guys later."
She beamed. "Marsha's a great choice and Jane would probably like her baking." She stood up, tucking that plate into her bag. "Thank you, Dr. Malcolm. By the way, I suggested Stark look at your students." She winked and walked off.
He grinned. "That bit of fluffy chaos is very good to my project, yes. She'll be a great benefit to humanity." He made a few calls to those two people so they could go interview with Foster and Lewis. And their kid.
***
Darcy walked up to Wanda that night. She didn't *like* her but she didn't want to see anyone have a panic attack. "I have to note something before you see and freak out." Wanda stared at her. "Our new intern thinks your former brother is a hot pinup to emulate. He's a huge fan. Dyed his hair and all that too." Wanda winced but nodded. "I didn't want you to see him in the hall and freak out. He even changed his name from Peter to Pietro he's such a huge fan."
Wanda sighed. "So yeah, just don't freak out on him please?" She looked at Bruce. "Miss Marsha is our other intern and she's quit baking again to go to the gym. She thinks she wants to run marathons with her new snuggly. So she's a tiny bit uptight about candy. She nearly had a pouty fit about pop tarts but Adrian made her mind go gooey."
She smirked. "She's a biology sort and loves our office plants already. He's a history geek." Bruce just nodded, looking smug. "Oh, and we need to borrow a few things to test with, Bruce. We *think* we know why the platform works well on inanimate but not fully animate." He sat up straighter to stare at her. She grinned. "You know Jane won't touch mice. I'd have to bring the spawn to a pet store to pick some up and that would end up with him adopting everything in there."
"I can get a few tester mice," he agreed. "Tomorrow?"
"Whenever you get some." She beamed. "It self installed very well." She strolled off. "Jane's secondary bridge is nearly set up too. So we might have an Asgardian showing up soon."
"Yeah, I think that's fine," he said, getting up to follow her. "How do we think it works, Lewis?"
She grinned as he got onto the elevator with him. "We think we're bending time and space. Unless we're pulling the eighth dimension stuff."
He moaned. "Okay, I need to see this." They went to the lab to show him with some plant samples. They survived, mostly, after some calibration. Their two interns were in there helping too. Jane was calibrating on the fly. Darcy was setting up new examples. And making a third base to work from. The first mouse sent, stolen from a chemistry lab, came back inside out but
Darcy recalibrated it and they sent a second stolen mouse, which got eaten on that side so it couldn't come back without the bird eating it. That got sent immediately home. The third stolen mouse came back whole and tried to flee for its life. Bruce got Stark, who came in to help test that. He could order mice so none of them had to hold one.
***
"Motherfucker," Xander said as he appeared, glaring up at the ceiling. Then he sighed, looking at Darcy. He spotted the guy he kinda knew. "Pietro? I thought you were dead. Did someone bring you back to life? Was it Rosenburg?"
"He's a huge stan of his," Darcy quipped, grinning at him. "Howdy. Someone sent you this way?"
"Um, yeah. The witches are mad that you're doing things with science and that it can easily cross into the mystical and actually might be able to either breach dimensions or maybe even the veil of death."
"So if we bring Sirius out of the portal...." Darcy quipped, waving a hand.
"The coven might not be that amused or that surprised." He shrugged. "They sent me because they send me to talk to anyone they consider weird or who might want or need a peace treaty." He looked down at the floor then around. "The sprout in the daycare?"
She looked then pointed. "Staring at Bruce." He grinned. "He's a huge Hulk fan."
"Yeah, so am I. He's the only one who can take on a huge demon and not need weapons or help. Damn I wish I could sometimes but not literally. It might freak out some of my dates."
Darcy snickered, nodding. "With some we've heard you dated, probably." She looked up the hallway. "There's Wanda lurking again, Pietro." He went to freak her out. He liked to do that because he thought her brother would enjoy him doing that. She looked at Xander. "Vision about it?"
"Um, yeah. It can breach dimensions and death." He grinned. "I thought I might be too late, but not your fault."
"I'll let others know." She looked over at Adrian, who was staring at Wanda now. "Hey, little pirate, she won't come near you. Quit stressing. Come meet someone new?" He ran over to pounce Xander, babbling at him about pirate stuff and shinies.
Xander grinned at him. "Being a pirate's great. I even know a few I can go steal the ship of so you can go sailing some day, little man." He petted down his hair. "I think you'd like that and you can take your Auntie Jane with you so she's safely away from the hammer. Before it picks her." Adrian beamed and talked about the hammer friend he had. Xander pulled his axe off his back and let the baby see it. "This is my axe." He squatted down so the boy could pet it and check it over. "You can be friends with him too if you want."
"Kitty?" he asked, looking at his mother.
"It's not a kitty. These are kitties," Xander said, puling a set of battle claws from his pack. "See, these are claws."
"Ooooh, shiny kitties." He grinned at his mother but went back to petting the shiny kitties. And then the new tall friend that was sharp but pretty.
Darcy grinned. "FRIDAY, we're taking film?"
"Of course, Dr. Lewis. Your son is adorable," the AI said patiently.
"Cool. Thanks. You can share with Clint or Jane if they want." Her son was really appreciating the claws. "We need to get you some of your own that aren't sharp, don't we?"
Xander grinned and winked. "I've got a sword for his future pirate needs too, Darcy." He nodded at Wanda when she came to the doorway. "Hey, Wanda."
"Xander?" she asked quietly. She looked very weirded out.
"Yup, the witches sent me to talk to Darcy and Jane about their portal stuff because someone had a vision about it belching weirdly." He sat down with his axe across his lap and Adrian sat down to play with the claws. "Don't scratch yourself, Adrian. Those are really sharp. Thankfully I cleaned all the demon blood off them."
The baby beamed and waved them at his auntie when she came in. "Kitties!"
"I can see the kitties, Adrian." Jane patted him on the head on the way to her desk. "They're pretty and shiny."
Adrian smirked at his father. "Shiny pirate kitty?"
"Yeah, they work as pirate kitties," he agreed with a grin back. Adrian beamed and got up to go show his other shiny friend but mom stopped him. "Stay in here, little dude. That way the kitties don't get lost." He nodded, settling in to play with them again. They cut his blanket friend so they didn't play well together. He needed to protect his blanket friend. But they did play well with his blocks so the pirate kitties got to help him build with them. Xander winked at Darcy, who grinned back. "Anyway, that's why I got sent with the warning."
"That's a great warning," Darcy agreed. Adrian was humming as he built. Jane was watching him. "Put some on the left, Adrian," she said quietly. He quit tipping his head and added to that side, evening it out so he could go higher.
Adrian paused then stared at his mom. "Kitties play shinny uppy Groo?"
"No, the kitties shouldn't play with the shiny puppy Groo," Darcy said patiently. "Dogs and kitties don't always get along."
"Shiny kitties house?" he asked with a grin.
"Doggies have houses," Jane said. "Kitties sleep wherever you don't want them to."
"Willow's nineteen sure do," Xander quipped. They stared at him. "Each time she does something weird, the coven in Devon give her a kitten to be a familiar so she has to think of what would happen to them if she did that again."
Darcy sighed. "With nineteen, haven't they realized they might need a better solution?"
"No. They're not talking. Giles finally got through to them that they had to be fixed. He complained about too many cats stealing his desk chair." He smirked. "They weren't amused but agreed that Willow's few cats shouldn't be allowed in his office if he hated cats that much."
"Let me guess, one started that problem off, told the others and they didn't realize they each kept giving her one?" Darcy guessed. Xander grinned and nodded. "Nineteen, wow. How many did she get for that portal that nearly killed you and let unicorns show up to screw some park horses?"
He shuddered. "None. They agreed it should go back to the source and if someone had sucked up that much energy from a hellmouth it was their own fault and they were probably evil anyway."
"And yet, we had a full glow here," Darcy said quietly, staring at him.
"I heard. There's a protection against that. It can be done in henna on his back."
"That'll make me feel better. Thank you."
"Welcome." He grinned at the boy, who was trying to sneak out. "Where are you going?" he teased, pulling him closer again and ducking the attempted pet by the 'kitties'. "You can't leave us alone. We'll be really bored without you, little dude."
Adrian grinned. "See Hulk," he said seriously.
Darcy shook her head. "You can't interrupt people, Adrian. You know that. He's working." He ran to look in there then pounded on the glass wall. She looked and sighed. "Great. Military idiots, Jane." Jane locked up all their stuff.
Xander got up and strolled over there, grinning at the staring military guy. "Sorry but the little dude wanted to show his uncle his kitty. Can we have Dr. Banner please?"
"You're that Council guy," he said quietly.
"Why yes, I am." Xander grinned. "Why do you ask?"
"My boss said there's a reward on you."
"The Supreme Court said there's not. Your boss is behind the times and you can tell him I said that. Thank you anyway." The guy pulled a gun but Xander had him in a choke hold before it cleared the holster. "Yeah, not into that today. Thank you anyway." He let the unconscious guy go. "So anyway, the kid wanted to show you his new shiny friend, Banner." He smirked. "And the Supreme Court said I was to blow the fuck out of the ones trying that. I'm being nice today. Come on, so you're safer?"
"I.... Yeah, let's be safer." He went that way. "Wanda, they shouldn't see you either." She stomped off. Xander waved at her back. "Don't like her?"
"I like the one I met from another realm better than this one. She wasn't as fractured and evil." Adrian came running over to show his idol his new kitty friend. "Are they being good kitties, Adrian?" The baby beamed and nodded, pulling on Bruce's arm until he came to help him and the kitty build a house for the axe friend. Xander leaned out to look at someone stomping up the hall. "Hey, Hill." He grinned and waved. "The military guy said my name in awe then said there's a bounty on my head again. Of course, I told him the Supreme Court said he was wrong and knocked him out like they said I could."
She nodded. "Excellent. Thank you, Harris." She looked in there then at him. "Is that your axe?"
"Yeah, the little dude thinks he's great." He grinned. "And my battle claws are his new kitty friends."
"The kid's a bit weird." She went to take care of the mess. She did not want to stay too near Harris. Last time they had been in a battle together, she had gotten licked by one tongue swipe all the way up her back and nearly taken as a special concubine. She didn't need that again.
Xander sat down, grinning at Bruce. "The last time I ran into her during a battle, two demons decided to fight over who'd claim her and Venom ended up licking up her backside from her knees to her hair to get her out of his way. Then he laughed when she punched him for it."
Darcy was shaking her head quickly. "Great for her."
"Venom's hot," Bruce said. "But he eats people. Hill would never let herself be lunch." He went back to building with the kid. Stark leaned in. "The military showed up. Harris got him when the guy tried for him."
Xander grinned and waved. "The Supreme Court said I was to blow the fuck outta them for it too. I was nice and only knocked him out."
"Thanks for that, Harris." He looked at the kid then at him. "Big reasons to show up?"
"Warning them that their device can breach dimensions and maybe the death veil."
"Oh, okay. We'll be on the lookout for that and the return of the dead mice then." He walked off frowning. "Who let military people into my building?" he demanded.
"They snuck up," Hill said as she finished handcuffing that guy. "Security is going to have massive PT this afternoon and then an ass kicking."
"Thank you. We don't want them to capture anyone around here. We might all become normal." He saw the kid go running past him. "Adrian, should you be doing that?"
"Shit!" Darcy called, chasing after him. "Sorry. Didn't see him sneaking! He's heading for Steve's shield."
"It's in my lab getting a new paint touchup, Lewis." He went to grab it and brought it back for the kid. "Here, Adrian." He handed it over. The kitty's claws hit the shield and a loud ring went out with a loud vibration. "Wow. Are those vibranium?"
"No," Xander said. "It's a semi-mystical metal, Stark." He let him see it. "There's some special asteroid metal that's not vibranium and some dwarven crafted remains folded into it. They created them for me."
Stark looked at it, turning it over. "Nicely crafted, no seams. Dwarves do good work." He handed it back. "Do we have any samples?"
Xander handed over his other one. "That one needs sharpening on the last claw if that'll help. I keep that one a bit more blunt since I cut myself with it."
"I can do that," Stark agreed, walking off to file that edge a bit to get a small sample. He stopped Thor since he was walking up the hall. "Get the hammer so I can test this against it, Thor?" He walked off again.
Xander leaned out of the lab. "They're dwarven created from scraps," he told Thor.
"Ah." He nodded, going to get his hammer. The claws didn't ding his hammer or send out a loud vibration but it did create a small charge between them when they were brought close together. "I have much the same with the shield," Thor noted.
"The shield and this one rang out like a huge bell from a single touch."
"Dwarven metals are unique in composition and only they know of where they get it." Stark finished getting a few shavings and let Thor bring them back for him. "It conducts my electricity from the hammer."
Xander grinned. "I figured it would. It's metal." He tucked that one away. Adrian was still playing with his axe and claws with Bruce. He looked at Thor. "The witches wanted me to come warn them that their little plate device can breach dimensions and the veil of death."
Thor moaned but nodded. "That is good to know. Can we arrange not to do that?" he asked Jane, who nodded. "Good. That would be mean to the ones pulled." He looked at the young boy. "Adrian, I was going to do some yoga if you wanted to join me."
He looked up, eyes wide. "Yoga?"
"Yes, the stretching stuff," he said with a grin. "You can use my hammer to help."
"Cool!" He carried the claws on his wrist and dragged the axe with him to go play with his uncle. "We stretchy, Mama."
"Okay. Have fun stretching with Uncle Thor, but you can probably leave the axe and the kitty here so Xander can pet them himself." Her son scowled and swatted at her before running out.
"I can get it back in a few minutes," Xander said quietly.
"No, he needs to not steal things," Darcy said. "Thor...."
"Of course." He took the shield with him to get the axe back. It didn't work, the boy wanted all the weapons with him. "You are much too young to be a warrior, Adrian. You do not need weapons yet."
"Yes, do!" he said firmly. "Always do!"
"Fine. Their owners would probably like them back later." Steve came out to stare at them.
"Groo play kitties!" Adrian said with a huge grin, waving his new kitty friends.
"I can see that. Can I have the shield to shine it? It needs a bath and some new hair dye."
Adrian looked at it then sighed. "Need it back later. Building house! Uppy house!"
"Sure, we can build it a puppy house later," he promised with a smile, taking his shield back. "Those look sharp."
"My kitties!" he said, hugging them. "Good kitties."
"I'm sure they're very good kitties, Adrian. You take good care of your friends so they're probably very sweet kitties." Adrian nodded with a grin. "Good boy." He walked off, taking his shield back down to the lab. He paused at Darcy's doorway. "He has weapons? Sharp weapons?"
"He borrowed them. He has to give the back soon. The same with the axe." She went up to sweet talk her son out of his new friends with some pop tarts and popcorn. It usually worked. This time it worked partially but the demon showing up got clawed by Thor, who had grabbed them from the boy to use. Adrian sat down to pet the poor, bloody, messy kitties until Darcy talked him into giving them a bath in the sink. Then they could go back to their owner for a few hours of napping.
***
Jane turned around when their new intern snuck into the lab, turning up the overhead light. "Forgot your backpack?" she guessed with a point.
"Yeah, that too." He did something and she fell asleep. "Sorry but she needs me back," he said quietly. "Then this one can be the lesser me." He moved to the new glass plates on the floor, doing what the voice had told him to do. That and her bridge terminus got put together and he turned them on.
Darcy hurried in. "Oh hell no, Pietro! I don't care if it is to save your sister's sanity! You're not using our shit!"
"You don't understand."
"I do understand. My only sibs were a set of identical twins. They died within minutes of each other when one drowned, the other was on dry land." She moved closer. "You can't use it that way. Using the bridge means you end up somewhere and bodiless. After you destroy your host body. Jane doesn't have a second terminus set up. You'll end up in the void and the only other terminus for the plates is in a volcano area. So step off them please." He huffed but did move slightly. "Try the mirror," she suggested with a point. "It goes to the area called Between. And leave him here. He doesn't deserve this."
"No, he doesn't. I'm sorry I found him and possessed him."
"I'm sure he'd be thrilled that your sister brought your spirit back."
"No, I never left," he admitted. "And your twin sisters are adorable, Lewis." He smirked a tiny bit. "Turn this on for me?"
She did the markings she needed, grabbed a calculator to do the final measurements, then turned it on. He touched it with a hand, closed his body's eyes, stepped out of him so Darcy could rescue that one, and floated into the mirror. Upstairs, Wanda screamed in agony like he had died again but he came out of the mirror a minute later, whole, shaky, and really back. He heaved a bit, staring at her. "That's not the trip anyone should take." He passed out.
"Yeah, that's why we don't allow that." She got security up there. "Guys, freeze," she ordered. "Long story. Our intern who wanted to be Pietro Maximoff was possessed by him. I got Pietro back to his own body using a portal. But he did knock Jane out before he tried to combine the bridge and portal system and would've killed himself and his twin sister. So we need three to go to the infirmary, I need to see Agent Woo from SWORD right now, and don't upset Thor when he stomps in to yell at Jane?"
The head guard nodded. "Okay. Are we taking either of the guys in cuffs?"
"For needing to come back to save his twin's sanity?" she asked.
"Point. Twins can be weird like that."
She nodded. "My twin sisters were." That got a wince and a hiss from one of the guys in back. "So yeah, let's medical tent them, let Agent Woo take reports? We can tolerate him. He's neat enough to talk to and he likes the same shows I do. So much better than Hill."
"We can call out for him," a guard said, finding his card on her desk to make that call while they got stretchers. "Can you untune the bridge? It's humming."
Darcy looked and separated the portal and the bridge terminus then turned to look at the mirror. "That might not turn off and shattering it would be a bad idea. And there's a something staring this way. Let's cover this for now." They nodded, getting a blanket to do that from the stash in the closet so she didn't have to look away and possibly let something out of the mirror. Darcy watched them take the three unconscious people then went to grab Clint. "Get me to Maximoff," she ordered as she came off the stairs.
"We heard an alarm going off," he offered.
"Yeah, her twin was hanging around and got himself brought back."
He winced. "Okay." He took her to Wanda's suite, knocking before picking the lock and walking in. "Wanda?"
Darcy walked over to nudge her. "Thanks to your brother borrowing some of your skills to hang around, he managed to bring himself back to his own body. He's in the infirmary and is presently passed out." Wanda blinked hard at her. Darcy stared back. "My siblings were identical twins, Maximoff. You didn't have to use others to get that done, but it's done." She nodded, going to find her brother with Clint's help.
She followed, making sure the door was locked. She went to the lab, running into SHIELD people. "Oh, hell no! That mirror portal is still open, people, and there's things on the other side! Step away from it! Before you get eaten!" They all got out of the lab and she looked at Hill. "Agent Woo is very pleasant to deal with so we can give him a report since SWORD would have to deal with the portal anyway."
"That's not an option," Hill said.
"Yes it is," Stark yelled. "She's a Stark employee, not a SHIELD one, Hill. Get the smart guy who doesn't live to piss off geeks!" He came up the hallway. "Explain it to me very fast before I kick you with a jet boot, Lewis."
She stared at him. "We realized about yesterday that Pietro, our intern, was actually possessed. Xander pointed that out and we realized what was happening then. Jane wasn't sure about anything to be done but I've been researching for Adrian's later magical education to keep him away from certain areas. Including Between." He winced but nodded once. "Tonight, Pietro came back to use the plate system and Jane's bridge to give him back a body.
"Which would've left him in the void, our intern damaged or dead, and Maximoff going further off the deep end. Late last night I spent most of it looking up the Between area. It's like Purgatory but different. I used the mirror portal system to switch one to that area instead of sending him Elsewhere or anywhere else." Stark nodded once again. "If he needed his body back, that's the safest way because it won't start an apocalypse like Rosenburg did. Something higher on that end would have to do it over there then send him back if they thought it was the right thing to do."
"Okay, so he's back in his body, your intern's okay, and Foster?"
"They knocked her out." She grimaced. "I'm going to kick both their asses for that tomorrow." She shifted to lean against the wall. "I could've stalled him but we would've had the female Maximoff going off the deep end. Further off the deep end," she said more quietly. "Xander pegged it, she's mentally unhealthy."
"Yeah, she has been. She's not accepted any offer of help though."
Darcy stared at him. "I had twin sisters, Stark. They died within minutes of each other. I have the feeling so did Wanda."
He considered it then nodded. "Yeah, he was helping her control her gifts," he sighed, rubbing his face. "So you acted to save lives, protect the rest of us, and it just made a portal that you can't close?"
"It's being held open. The only other portal to Between is somewhere in space. Right now this one's covered with a blanket." She looked. "Don't even try to come through to this earth, being! We don't need more immigrants right now please!" The lump under the blanket disappeared. She sighed, looking at Tony. "Breaking the mirror would cause a backlash that could conceivably destroy this floor from the energy lash. We're going to have to hide it and that's why I used that mirror, it's mobile."
He went to look, staring at the creatures staring back. He recovered it. "Okay. Where do we hide it? That sorcerer guy who wanted your kid?"
"Maybe. Not sure about that part. This was immediate plan that worked level, not preplanned beyond we'd have to let him try to save our intern. No one deserves to be possessed forever."
"No, the kid deserves his own life," he agreed. He stared at the being who appeared. "That's another option I guess," he told Heimdall.
"She acted with stealth and sense. That was the only way to not destroy others," the God of the Bridge said. Darcy walked in. "It was wise to lean on Between."
"I ran into it while researching things Adrian should never see."
Heimdall smiled. "With his skills, he could become a master of it, but we know of one named Ilyana who does that better for now." He patted her on the shoulder. "We cannot break that portal but it can be hidden."
"Safely?" she asked.
"Any who would use it would do so at their own risk and folly." He shrugged. "We have a few temples that could hold it safely." She smiled and nodded.
"I'd prefer that they not let anyone near it," Tony said.
"Us as well but some people are desperate," Heimdall said. Thor stomped in so he nodded.
Darcy looked at him. "Pietro moved to get his own body back. Jane got gassed gently."
"That's fine. I've checked and she'll be well when she wakes. This portal?"
"To Between," Darcy said, moving in front of him. "That was the safest, sanest way, Thor."
He considered it. "I have only heard rumors but it sounds thus." He patted her on the cheek with a smile. "It is a wise warrior who can plan, Lightening Sister."
"I'm so going to go get wine drunk and sob in a few minutes, Thor. I don't want this sort of stress." He nodded, giving her a hug. "Heimdall, can it be hidden safely? And moved safely?"
"Yes, it can be," he assured her. "Though I do want to look at Jane's bridge."
"She'd consider it a betrayal if I turned it on without her being here," she offered. "But I've been working on the magic mirror teleporting and we've been working on teleporting platforms together." She let him see those ideas. That was the first time she'd heard Heimdall moan like a man. Even Thor got hard at that sound. Heimdall kissed her on the forehead when he handed back the notes she had let him see, taking the mirror with him. The blanket fell down to the floor once it was gone. Darcy took a deep breath, letting Thor put her into her desk chair. "Okay." She blinked at Tony. "It's wine o'clock."
"Yeah, if not something stronger," he agreed patiently. "A little warning, Lewis?"
"He started it. We thought we had days and he'd do it around their birthday. A significant date for them."
"Point. Okay. Let Agent Woo in when he gets here to take a report," he ordered the guards. "Keep everyone else out of here, the infirmary, and away from the twins."
She put a hand on his arm. "In her apartment is a resurrection circle," she said quietly. "I just saw it when I went up to tell her. She's got one back."
"She'll try the other," he sighed. "We can talk about that later." He patted her on the cheek. "You did good, kid. You lessened harm, you protected my building and us, it was good. Just shout out first, as you're running to handle something?" He left to go to the infirmary.
Thor nodded. "If I had heard, I could have guarded the bodies," he said. "Let us know, Darcy." He gave her a hug. "I shall go hover over Jane." He left.
Darcy heaved herself up with a sigh. "I'm going to lock some stuff up and go to my apartment." The guards nodded. They let her lock up the information on how to make the various devices work then escorted her to her apartment. When Agent Woo strolled in they escorted him up to talk to her while they listened. That way they had a report for Stark as well.
***
Clint looked at the young guy on the bed when he groaned. "Well, you managed it," he said bluntly.
Pietro blinked at him then sighed. "You are not the one I wanted to wake up to," he said in Sokovian.
Clint grinned. "She's in the next bed, knocked out." He pointed. "Because she started to go off on a nurse. So she got darted." He put his hand down. "How long have you been watching her?"
"The whole time," he admitted quietly, staring at him. "She is my twin."
"I get that. Even if I'm not one so I can't fully understand. But a little warning might've helped." He gave him a pointed look. "They're going to be all over Darcy for that, Pietro."
"I will talk to them, get her out of trouble." He sighed and slumped. "Having a body hurts again. I forgot about this sensation."
Clint grinned. "I've been there many times. You'll get used to it. And the soup they'll bring you in a bit to make sure you're able to hold down fluids. Then there's the x-rays, the CT or MRI...all that stuff to make sure you're fully human and didn't come back funny."
Pietro looked at him. "It bound us tighter. If I go again, she will follow this time."
Clint nodded once. "I can see why. Still, warning? Before you do the stupid shit?"
"If I can." A nurse knocked and came in with some water. "Thank you." He took it to sip. "Between is not hell but it is not a nice place." He let her refill it and gulp the rest, then sighed in pleasure as he laid back down. "Thank you. My sister?"
"Can wake herself up in about an hour. By then you'll be out of the MRI probably." She stared at him. "That way we make sure you came back as human."
He nodded. "As far as they told me I would. They do not want to see my sister. She tried to reach them once and could not." He shifted with a wince. "I won my freedom," he told the nurse when she looked concerned. "My shoulders are sore."
"We'll check that too. Agent Barton, are you done debriefing him?"
"Yeah, we can get a full report after she wakes up."
Pietro looked at him. "Go erase her floor," he said, staring at him.
Clint nodded. "I saw that. Yup, I sure am." He went to do that with Natasha's help. She did good breaking mystical things.
Pietro smiled at the nurse. "May I go relieve myself? I died with a full bladder."
"Sure." She helped him up and into the bathroom then back to the bed so they could go test him. She had that all ready when Agent Woo walked into the infirmary. "As far as we can tell, he's fully back," she reported, holding out the folder. "His sister is awake and sobbing on him after she nearly destroyed the MRI to get him out of it."
"That's good. Can I debrief him tomorrow?"
"That'd be a good idea. Let them finish twin bonding or whatever." She smiled. "I've heard Dr. Lewis called it wine o'clock."
"I've talked to her. She made notes for us." He grinned. "I'll be back about sevenish for his debrief and hers." He took the files with him to go over with Stark. Who was pouty when he walked in. "I have no idea about how that stuff works. Can I get you to explain it in little words, Mr. Stark? Or should I go look up her college mentor?"
"He'd have a holy fit if he's sensible. The same as I should." He took the notes to go over, letting him know what and how it had worked. Loki appeared, already shaking his head. "The mirror went with Heimdall."
"It's in our Temple of Light. Which was consecrated to my mother. I came to see the witch to bind her for a few days before she lashes out. Our Academy asked that favor of me for everyone's safety."
"Clint's up erasing her drawings on her floor," Stark offered. Loki raised a brow then huffed but nodded. "Yeah, we think she was going to try it the traditional way."
"That would've caused another incident that brought the First Evil." He grimaced.
"Lord Loki, are you watching over Adrian Lewis?" Agent Woo asked. "I realize who his biological father is and I've heard tales that he's been up on Asgard helping a few battles. I'm wondering if he conned you into it with a poker hand the way he usually uses it to befuddle arms dealers into giving him things."
Loki smirked. "It's a smart question but it's more about watching over his type of magic. He has some power that is...celestial in nature instead of simple nature magic that's most common down here. His father has asked that I give him hints of how to control it when he's older." He walked off looking amused.
"I figured out long ago that weird things happened around the Council," Agent Woo said dryly. "I'm glad I don't have to deal with it or the magical problems they have. Rosenburg is still locked in medical hold by the way. She won't show up here."
"Thank God," Stark said sarcastically.
"She'd want to use the portal to get her former girlfriend back. The one she nearly destroyed humanity over after she lost her."
"Yeah, let's not allow that."
Jimmy Woo grinned. "We do try." He got back to the report. "Do we see any evidence that he's compromised or otherwise dangerous?"
"No more so than usual I guess. They were trained by HYDRA though." He stared at him. "They're blaming me for a Stark Industries bomb destroying their family instead of the people who sent it."
"Okay, we can see if he's a threat outside that by asking him probably. Death does change a person." He bundled it back up. "I'll report to Director Coulson in the morning after I debrief him. Have an easier night, Mr. Stark." He left, going to get some coffee to stay awake in case more things happened suddenly.
Tony Stark shook his head. "An agent who listens, is polite, and doesn't try to break or steal things? I need to steal him. Before they corrupt him."
***
Adrian jumped out at the new guy, waving his plastic sword. "Yar, give me booty!" he shouted.
Jimmy Woo stared at him. "I don't have booty, Adrian. Sorry but they don't pay me enough to have booty. All I have is stuff you shouldn't drink." Adrian pouted. He grinned. "I can get you something from the snack machine if you want." The kid beamed and followed him to point out something candy. Jimmy got him something else candy that was a bit healthier. "Hmm, looks like this came out by accident. Would that work as booty?"
Adrian grinned and snatched it. "Go, ransom!" He ran off with his treat.
He smiled on his way to the infirmary. He ran into Darcy getting something for her headache. "I got him a granola bar that has chocolate."
She shook her head. "He needs to behave today."
"He's adorable. Things like that are good for kids. Maybe he'll become a anti hero sort of pirate." She grinned, going to find her son to nag him. He walked into the infirmary. "Are they up?" The nurse let him into their room. "Good morning. I'm Agent Jimmy Woo from SWORD." He stared at Pietro. "I'm here to debrief you about this."
"I figured you were," he agreed. "SHIELD changed its name?"
"SWORD deals with the weirder things and aliens."
"Oh. Yes, Between would fall into that."
"So does your sister." Wanda glared. He stared at her. "We keep files on all magic users, Ms. Maximoff. Including you and Rosenburg." He looked at Pietro. "How long before you got pulled back?"
"I was there right after death. Before she even realized. I floated after her." He sipped his water. "I found the...copier of me and when he came here it was too good to pass up. Then that one showed up to announce that it was a possibility. Somehow he knew."
"Mr. Harris has visions. He usually only sees apocalypse battles though." He shifted his stance. "Can I record this by the way?" Pietro shrugged so he turned it on and put his phone in his jacket pocket so it could listen for him. "So Xander Harris showed up here?"
"He said he was sent to warn Drs. Foster and Lewis that their devices could breach dimensions or the veil of death. Which got me thinking and I figured something out when I went to make my sister lighten up. She needed some humor." She threw a pillow at him. "You do," he told her, giving her a pointed look. "Also, your plan to attempt that? That's why that town out west got sucked in. It won't work and I cannot allow you to do that," he said in Sokovian. She slumped but nodded. He looked at the agent. "Her grief was making her blind."
"It's happened a lot. People compare her to Rosenburg. She lost her soulmate and nearly destroyed humanity for it. Your sister was losing herself and her mind but only mildly lashing out." He looked at the pouty witch. "The therapist working with Miss Rosenburg is available to you as well. She's worked with the paranormal community before.
"She's already unscrewed what Rosenburg's parents did to her. She's good, and she has her own magic. I can leave her name for you if you want to look into her sometime soon. That way you have someone to talk to that's not involved." He looked at Pietro again. "She told me she'd talk to you as well but she might not be objective when she stared at your butt."
Pietro grinned. "Many women do." He sipped his water. "I thought I needed to put the two devices they had together. But Lewis knew something somehow."
"Her son has magic. She's been researching things her son shouldn't go near in case someone tries since his powers are apparently not normal magic."
"He's very powerful," Wanda said. Her brother threw that pillow back at her, making her finch. "I was not...."
"I would hate that and so would our mother," he assured her. "She told me thus when she wished me to paddle you like I was a dog in a pool." She blanched. He stared at her. "Adrian is as strong as you were, and healthier than any strong magic user should be. Leave him be."
"Yes, I will. I would not want to hurt him. I was only going to siphon some of that energy into my renewal request."
He finished that glass of water and stared at her. "We are not the reason that the world ends, Wanda."
"No, we are not," she agreed quietly. "I..."
He shook his head. "I miss many as well," he said more gently. "Including your innocence. I do not wish to miss you more or any others."
She nodded. "I understand. It's a moot point."
"Good." He smiled at the agent. "Sorry."
"It's good she's got support. Grief goes easier when you have someone to talk to about it." He stared at him. "I realize she was drowning in it, Mr. Maximoff. Most people who watched her did." He shifted some. "If she reaches out, we can help her find people who can help support her healing. SWORD is full of assholes but not that sort. Very few would want to use her and we have Rosenburg available for that first. Some day we may need your sister to counter her plans."
Wanda looked at him. "I am not that sort of magic user."
"No, but your probabilities could help a lot. She's tried to kill the last one who stopped her a few times so maybe you and Harris can work together the next time it's needed."
"We know of Xander. Before Ultron happened, he showed up to take out a demon in our main city," she said quietly. "He was tense and an asshole but he did good and he protected people he didn't even know."
Jimmy Woo smiled. "We like that about Harris. And if he ever goes evil we'll probably be better for it because he'll start with the assholes." She smiled at that. He wrote down a name and number, handing it over. "The therapist working with Rosenburg. She's associated with the coven out of Maine." He stepped back. "If it'll help, great. If not, she might know someone who could help more since she's part of the magical community."
"I...I may talk to her," she admitted.
"Would they care about our given specialness?" Pietro asked.
Jimmy Woo grinned. "Her sister is one of the ones Centipede got but managed to survive. She knows about that too. Her great uncle was IRA at one point in time until his future wife made him leave it. She even understands Loki." Both twins looked impressed at that. He grinned. "So please, if she doesn't work out let us know and we can give you other names to try," he told her. "None of us want you to be suffering, Wanda Maximoff. I hate to see anyone but evil assholes suffering."
She smiled. "I do try not to be one." She looked at her twin, who had snorted. "Only to him."
Jimmy Woo grinned. "Siblings are like that as far as I've been told." He looked at Pietro. "Any qualifications put onto you coming back? Any obligations, any restrictions?"
"To help my twin sister," he admitted. "They were scared of what she would do if she finished going mad." Wanda winced but nodded once. "Our mother requested I paddle her."
"Moms can be that way. No other ones? Anything that would suddenly cause a battle to change?"
"Not that I'm aware of."
"Okay." He made one of his cards appear, handing it over with a grin. "If you should find out, let us know so we can help you mitigate it? We don't need another mass battle being lost."
"I can do that." He tucked that into his t-shirt pocket.
"Thank you. Anything I should include in the report that we haven't covered?"
"I need to restart my life. I'm still officially dead."
Jimmy Woo grinned. "No you're not. We fixed that last night. You have to go get your license or state ID card soon though. So many things take it these days." He turned off the recording feature. "I'll go report this to SHIELD's higher ups. You should be safe here in the tower for now. I'll let you know if I hear of SHIELD being pricks about all this but they shouldn't since SWORD got called in."
"Lewis called for you," Wanda said. "Specifically."
"I like working with her. She doesn't lie to me and doesn't try to cover things up. If it's an accident she'll say that." He shrugged but smiled. "Rest, you two. You probably need it and more talking time." He left, going back to SHIED's base where Hill and Coulson were both waiting. He laid out his report, getting a nod. He told them he had given Wanda that therapist's name. That got a smile from Coulson. He pointed out that SWORD had first dibs on Lewis if she left Foster.
"We'd like to see her somewhere safer," Hill said.
Woo looked at her. "Why? Because she figured out how to work teleportation?" Hill slumped. "She's safer there. And her son is safer." He looked at Coulson. "He's apparently got stronger magic than the average nature witch down here has. Which is why Loki is giving his mother ideas on how to train him."
"One master, one apprentice there always is," Coulson said dryly.
"Yes, but Darcy Lewis will only become a Sith if we harm her child." He grinned back. "Adrian Lewis may well be the next Rosenburg or Summers."
"He's...oh, Dawn," Coulson realized. Woo grinned. "We think?"
"Loki called it celestial powers. So he's drawing on stars or something like that. His Aunt Jane will probably teach him what he can and can't draw from. Oh, that mirror is on Asgard in a temple to Frigga. The Temple of Light Loki called it."
"It's a good place for it," Coulson decided, leaning on his crossed hands. "Could that be what the Sorcerer Supreme worried about?"
"No, I think he worried more about a child with magic. His people seem to come down harder on the young magic users and the female magic users especially. Most of the ones they've bound, who have died of it, were female."
"Oh, dear."
"There's that stereotype that women with power will always be evil," Hill said. Woo nodded. "So he's safe?"
"He's a happy, smart, loved little boy. Why would he need to use his magic on anything that isn't threatening him? If his mother was a bad one I'd worry more about that."
"Loki had a good mom and went bad," Hill said.
"Loki was also tortured." She slumped. "If you look at how he appeared out of the tesseract, it showed him sweaty, shaky, limp, tired, and about to fall over. He was tortured." She grimaced but nodded. "And his life wasn't all that idyllic. Even Thor has put his brother down. I don't think they were close siblings and I'm pretty certain that it's Odin's fault by what I've heard about up there." He pulled up a report for them. "We asked a bard we found down here about stories of Thor and Loki, plus their family, to get better personality profiles. Granted, that's what's in popular media, but that has some truth in it."
They read it and Hill grimaced. "So he was the unwanted son." She handed the phone back. "We could have handled it better when he showed up in New Mexico."
"Yeah, he was working against his rival. It happens when there's a throne at risk." He put his phone up.
"Point. Fine. Did he show up again?"
"To check on Adrian."
"Do we know why?" Coulson asked.
"Someone obligated him. I asked if Harris had gotten him in a poker game like he does arms dealers. Lord Loki looked very amused but his eyes showed I had hit near the target."
"Hmm. So someone near him is making him mentor the child." Hill nodded once. "Fine. We'll leave Lewis alone with her kid."
"Harming her child is the best way to create an origin story for her," Woo agreed, making Coulson flinch. "It nearly happened in London when STRIKE tried to grab the kid. They were amused but did record she picked up the hammer and went after the agent who had her not-yet-crawling son."
"Shit," Coulson muttered. "Can she generally?"
"No, but Harris had a vision about Foster using it apparently. It's on the site he uses to put visions up on. There's a female, blonde Thor in one." He grinned. "Only so many blondes who could get near the hammer."
Coulson moaned but nodded. "I can see that actually. She was brave enough to get into my face."
"And Lewis. Did she ever get back her i-pod?"
Coulson blinked at her. "Good point. That is nearly legendary."
Woo grinned. "Yes it is." He left them to talk. He needed a nap. "I'm stealing the couch in the ready room."
"Go for it," Hill agreed. She looked at her technical boss and old friend. "Lewis...."
"I don't want us to become the reason she turns evil, or her son." He stared at her. "Do we think she won't break down then build something?"
"Point. We'd put her into holding but she'd still manage it. Possibly with Loki's help."
"Or the baby's father." He smirked a tiny bit. "With who that actually is, we'd all die."
She swallowed. "A magic user?"
"Not that anyone's seen." He shrugged. "But I'm aware of it. Agent Woo figured it out. He's worked with him a few times over the last few years."
"Harris?" she mouthed. He nodded. She shuddered. "Yes, we're going to make sure nothing comes near that little family. Before he lets Venom eat me next time." She walked off to make orders. SHIELD really had to leave Lewis alone. Today.
Coulson smiled but made notes on the report so it was closed out.
***
To Be A Baby Daddy Or Not To Be A Baby Daddy, That Is The Question.