Heroes Assemble!

Not All It Appears To Be

The ringing of the phone brought Harry out of the library. As he passed the guest room, an unusual sound had him glancing in the half-open door. There on her bed was Doreen, sitting cross-legged in front of her pet squirrel and it sounded as though she was talking to the animal or at least attempting to mimic the sounds that the animal was making. It was almost like how everyone always described him of being when he was speaking parseltongue.

The insistent ringing of the phone, though, pulled him onwards.

"Hello? Harry speaking," he said, silencing the phone by picking it up.

"Sparrowhawk!"

"Tony?" Harry asked, before continuing in a rush. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

"Hey, calm down. I'm fine," Tony replied. "Pepper said you'd been a worry-wort. Now I see what she meant."

"What happened?" Harry demanded.

"Hey, you know. Got involved with some bad guys that I probably shouldn't have. But they learnt their lesson and won't do it again," Tony replied, giving Harry no useful details.

"And you're alright?" Harry insisted.

"Yeah. A bit banged up and bruised. Pepper's going to need some medical help, but I'll have her put right in a couple of days, tops," Tony replied.

"Pepper was hurt?" Harry asked anxiously. "How?"

"Those bad guys I mentioned. Captured her thinking that they could use her to get to me. I showed them the error of their ways, though," Tony said vaguely. "Anyway, that's not why I called."

Harry sighed. It seemed that if he wanted the whole story, then he'd have to go see Pepper. Which sounded like a good idea anyway.

"So, why did you call then?" Harry asked.

"Mostly to stop you being a worry-wizard. But also to tell you that me and Pepper are moving to the Tower. It's all but done. Party in two weeks. We'll get the gang back together, have a few drinks, a few laughs, the whole enchilada," Tony said.

"The Tower's nearly finished? About time. And a party sounds good, Tony, or at least, seeing everyone again. Let me know when and where," Harry said.

"I'll send an invite or you can just use your magical voodoo to work out when all by yourself," Tony replied. "Better run. Looks like Pepper's waking up."

"Thanks, Tony. Take care of yourself. And Pepper, too," Harry said.

"You know Tony Stark?" a voice behind him asked as he put the phone down.

Harry turned to see a wide-eyed Doreen staring at him, Monkey Joe perched on her shoulder like he often was.

"We've met a few times," Harry replied nonchalantly.

"That is sooo cool!" Doreen nearly squealed. "You have to introduce me."

"Well, Tony is moving to New York soon. I'll see what I can do, but no promises," Harry temporised.

Doreen nodded her head eagerly, her brown eyes shining with excitement.

ooo00ooo

The marvel of computers that talked was an amazing blessing to a blind person. And especially to a blind lawyer.

"Work history of James Broadshaw," Matt instructed the computer on his desk. "List in reverse order."

"Searching. Results found. Current employer: Eastwell Mining. Time of employment: six years."