The kid avengers

The Trifecta

Fury had been on the phone literally begging and pleading Coulson and Hill to come into the office; there were several issues which needed to be sorted and Fury just didn't trust anyone else to handle these types of situations.

After exhausting all of their options; including asking the Fantastic Four to come and help Pepper out, they'd agreed to go in; only if they could take some of the kids with them. Fury, although initially reluctant, had agreed on the grounds that they leave the most troublesome and mischievous ones at home. That worked out well; meaning Clint and Natasha could stay at the tower with Pepper. At least; that was the original plan.

Maria, Steve and Thor

Maria walked out of the elevator onto the bustling floor; eyes darting round the room to try and find an agent who looked like they knew what they were doing.

"You, Jones?"

"Agent Cartwright mam"

"Cartwright what's going on?"

"We're in the process of tracking a strange energy signal mam, it keeps shifting, but wherever it appears; people are disappearing. We can't predict where it's going, but so far it's been to the mall, the underground and a hospital; estimates of missing people are at around 90 at the moment mam."

"Great, if only Banner were here!"

An alarm sounded on the system and Maria spun round; Steve and Thor were stood right behind her, so close she almost fell over them. They were silently taking in everything that had been said as well as all the activity around them. She smiled brightly at them as if she'd just remember that they were there; watching as agents in the background dismissed the disruption as a 'false alarm'.

"Boys, do you want to go to the cafeteria and get some lunch and hot chocolate?"

"I think I'd rather stay here actually" Steve answered with a smile as Thor's gaze continued to scan the room.

"Okay, but can you do me a favour and just behave? Please?" Maria's tone was almost desperate.

"Don't we always?" Thor asked; the serious tone to his voice concerned Maria but she smiled gently at them. She handed Steve his sketch pad and Thor a portable games console that she'd grabbed on leaving the tower and pointed to an empty desk in the corner, kissing both of their heads as they turned to walk away. She turned back to Agent Cartwright; "Right, compile me a report; I want to know everything about this thing; where it was, how long, how many people disappeared from each site, who disappeared, who didn't..."

Steve and Tony watched in awe from the desk in the corner, both far too intrigued by what was going on to be distracted by the things Maria had brought to occupy them. They were most interested in watching Maria; this was a different person to the one from the tower; she spoke in a different voice, held herself different, she was so much more focused and in control; the agents around her were filled with respect or fear, or possibly a little of both.

"Excuse me" Steve interrupted a passing agent carrying a pile of paperwork, "Please could you explain to us what exactly is going on?"

An hour later and Maria was mostly through the huge pile of information which had been delivered to her; most of it was pretty useless, except the fact that she'd figured 30 people had been taken from each location; ten men, ten women, five boys and five girls. Ages varied, as did race, social stature, health, religion and all other aspects of the people, but always the same quantities.
She looked up to report the pattern to one of the other agents working on the case, or supposedly working. As she looked around the enormous room; she saw piles of paper work, endless computer screens showing the same shield logo as their background and lots of empty chairs. Cartwright was still there, she'd always been a bit of a suck-up, but other than that the only person in the room was Tom; the janitor.