Heroes Assemble!

Taking Some Vacation Time

The knock at the door had Phil glancing through the holograms hovering around him, across his office to see the shadowy shapes stationed on the other side of the frosted glass. Recognising both shapes, he pinched his fingers together, closing the file that he'd been frowning at. A swipe of his hand closed the entire filing system. Two strides across to his desk was enough for him to be able to tap the top of Fury's Toolbox, sinking it into its protective housing inside his desk.

Only then did Phil face his door and invite his guests in.

At his call, two women strode in, May in the lead. Her piercing eyes spoke volumes; at least, they did in this instance because she was checking up on him. Swallowing his annoyance, Phil gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of his head. That, at least, was enough to cause May to relax, or at least, as relaxed as May ever got.

"You're back," Phil stated the obvious. "How'd it go?"

"The five surviving members of Project Sinister are tucked away on The Raft," May related. "They're not going anywhere."

"Except to the Northern Atlantic," Skye interjected. "At least, that was the last trajectory that we had of the Raft before we lost contact with it."

"Our involvement?" Phil asked.

"Remains unknown," May finished. "I used some contacts as intermediaries to ferry the group from the Bus to the Raft."

"While shadowing them the whole way," Phil guessed.

May's nonplussed look was enough to tell Phil that she had no idea why he'd even assumed anything different.

"Yep, Ross has no clue that we were involved at all," Skye agreed happily.

Phil shook his head. "How Thaddeus Ross ended up as US Secretary of State I can't fathom. Especially after all that he did to Banner and the Hulk."

"Ours is not to reason why, just to follow orders?" Skye half-stated, half-asked.

Phil nodded at her statement before stopping as she pulled out a crumpled envelope and held it out in his direction.

"We're receiving letters now?" Phil asked curiously.

"Yep," Skye replied. "At least, you are. It's from Harry."

Phil's eyebrows rose in surprise and he shot a look at May. The slight raise of her shoulder told him that she had no idea about it either.

Taking the envelope, Phil turned it over. Apart from his name scrawled on the front, there was no indication about what it contained. As he slipped his finger under the seal, he felt a brief tingling sensation. Instantly, Phil froze. Barely half a second later, it'd disappeared. There'd simply been a sensation; it hadn't hurt at all. When it didn't repeat, he concluded that it was some magical security system to ensure that the correct person was opening the letter. With that, he finished the task and fished out a single piece of paper.

"Well, what's it say?" an impatient Skye asked as Phil began reading it a second time, his brows furrowed as he tried to understand the point of the letter.

Glancing up at her, Phil blinked.

"Why do you have a stone, Skye?" Phil asked lightly, his eyes focussing in on her hands which were indeed turning a stone over and over again.

Her response started with a shrug.

"Dunno. Harry told me that I needed to have it when you read the letter," she said. "I was assuming that the letter would say, but judging by your question, I'm guessing the answer is 'no'."