Heroes Assemble!

Let The Hunt Begin

Tony stared incredulously at the lanyard that was being held out to him.

"You and Happy would get on like a house on fire," he finally told the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. "He's got a thing for badges, too."

"Just put it on, Tony, it's not going to kill you," Steve stated, even as he placed his own 'Visitor' lanyard around his neck.

"Here," Nat finally relented, taking Tony's lanyard. "Like this."

Tony's nose scrunched up as the lanyard was dropped over his head to settle in the middle of his chest.

"This way," Agent May stated, indicating the doorway to their left.

Supposedly, this was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new secret base. The Playground. Exactly who came up with these names was anyone's guess. Originally, they weren't supposed to be given its location but a simple look at Agent when he'd called had the new Director changing his mind. A good thing, too. It wouldn't have taken Tony long at all to ascertain where they were, especially with Jarvis monitoring the tracking charms on each of the seven who were invited.

As they were led through the Base, Tony idly kept a mental list of anything of interest. The most promising was the lab, but even that looked fairly dingy with quite a number of machines still with plastic sheets draped over them as though they hadn't even been unpacked properly yet.

Finally, they were ushered into a large conference room that was dominated by a table that could seat a dozen and had multiple large screens on the wall.

"Thank you all for coming," Agent, no Director, said, shaking each hand as the Avengers entered.

"I don't see any swings. Or a sandpit for that matter," Tony stated before continuing when everyone began staring at him. "What? This is supposed to be a 'playground', isn't it?"

Coulson's small enigmatic smile was almost almost enough to make Tony smile, especially as death hadn't seemed to change the guy.

"You asked us here," Steve stated, once they'd all taken a seat. "I'm guessing you have a mission for us?"

"Not quite," Coulson replied. "We do, however have some information that you need to have."

"What sort of information?" Clint asked, leaning back in his chair.

"I was contacted by General Glenn Talbot from the United States Air Force," Coulson stated and immediately, Tony began tapping away at his personal pad to gain extra information about this General.

"He shared some footage that he thought S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to see," Coulson continued. "After seeing it, I thought that I'd pass it along."

"Footage?" Steve echoed.

"Yes. This comes from the Army. It seems that one of their more secure bases in Alaska wasn't as secure as they thought it was and an ... asset was ... released from there by outside forces," Coulson stated.

"Alaska?" Bruce repeated and there was definitely something in his voice that shot Tony's head up.

"What's so special about Alaska?" Harry asked.

"My guess is that the footage will tell us that," Nat stated.

"It will," Coulson stated flatly. "Skye?"

As the hacker-girl tapped a couple of buttons on her keyboard, Tony swung his chair around to face the big screen.

An image of a large room appeared with three individuals, one of whom looked vaguely familiar.