Heroes Assemble!

Home Away From Home

Tony was bored, which was never a good thing. He needed to be doing something. Anything. He'd never been one for sitting still, without a tool in his hand or some tech to tinker with. And especially after New York, it'd become an obsession. Usually, he could cover any agitation he felt by ensuring that, whatever was going on, whoever was around, he was at the centre of it all.

And now here he was, stuck inside a quinjet on a ridiculously long flight and not only was he not in charge, he wasn't even piloting or allowed to know their ultimate destination. Oh, that didn't mean that he had no idea of their trajectory and the most likely place that they'd set down. No, Jarvis in his ear kept him apprised of those sorts of details.

Not that he could determine why they were being taken to the Azores of all places (assuming that that's where they actually stopped and that they didn't continue on to Africa).

The other thing that was bugging him was the fact that his quinjet, his highly functional and efficiently designed quinjet had been turned into a large, relaxing lounge area, complete with large screen TVs and a multitude of sofas. Not that he wasn't enjoying having Pepper leaning right back on him, his arms wrapped around her as they enjoyed the in-flight entertainment. Nor the fact that the insides of the quinjet were about three times larger than they were supposed to be.

Still ...

Leaning his head backwards over the top of the couch, Tony eyed Harry in the pilot's seat (and wasn't that something else to give him a bad case of nerves).

"Are we there yet?" he asked, only to have Pepper poke him hard in the ribs.

"Child," she muttered.

"Actually, just about," Harry replied.

Tony's eyes widened as Harry spun his chair around, brought up his wand and waved it at the walls of the quinjet.

Instantly, the walls shimmered into seemingly non-existence. Only the fact that there was no wind whipping in at them told Tony that the walls had only become transparent and had not actually vanished. Interestedly, Tony took in the full three-sixty-degree view. Most of the sky was a beautiful blue with only the odd cloud to be seen. Below them was the North Atlantic Ocean stretching from horizon to horizon, only broken by a number of landmasses, islands. The Azores, Tony realised.

Directly behind them flew the second quinjet and Tony wondered if Harry'd charmed their walls the same way.

A ripple of some kind washed over the quinjet and Tony's eyes widened even as he pushed Pepper to the side and shot to his feet. Not that he was the only one. Steve and Nat had done the same from where they'd been sharing another of the couches (and sitting quite closely, heads bent together for the past hour, Tony noted). Peter, Gwen, Doreen and Matt had their heads up, their eyes wide as they stared around. And wasn't that a strange sight to see on the blind man, but then, considering that an island had just materialised in front of them out of no-where, obviously hidden by magic, it wasn't such a surprise – Matt did have a strange connection with magic, being able to see it and all.

Stepping closer to the wall of the quinjet, Tony stared at the island. It was huge and filled with forests, hills, valleys and even a river. Golden beaches surrounded much of the island. It looked like a paradise, a pristine land that had been untouched by man. A trio of great bronze creatures flying through the sky suddenly banked towards them and Tony blinked as he realised that he'd just found the missing three dragons from Brazil.

"Excuse me, Sir," Jarvis said into his ear. "But I am having difficulty locating this island on any map. It appears to be a tenth island of the Azores when all records indicate that there should only be nine."