Heroes Assemble!

Getting Past The Bouncer

It seemed that even the combined intellect of the genii Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Peter Parker was no match for a simple time deadline. Three days. The three had spent seventy-three hours holed up in the lab, attempting what was surely the impossible – combining alien programming that none of the three fully understood with the Earth-based program 'Ultron' that Tony and Bruce had created the bare bones for before abandoning as being 'untenable'.

Gigabytes of data had been combed, elaborated upon and combined in new and occasionally unusual ways. The three had filled numerous screens at each of their workstations with data. Once or twice, they'd even resorted to a simple pen and paper method. Countless permeations had been attempted but all had finished with the same outcome: failure.

It seemed that combining such different programming was simply impossible. At least in the limited timeframe that they had. All three vehemently agreed that, given enough time, they could succeed. Unfortunately, that was the one element out of their control.

"I will continue running scenarios and alert you of any progress," Jarvis told his boss. "You, however, have a party to get ready for."

"Thanks, J., I don't know what I'd do without you," Tony said.

Then, conceding defeat, something that immensely irked him, Tony rose from his chair and left the lab, its lights turning off and the windows themselves darkening as the room was no longer in use.

ooo00ooo

Ted arrived on the balcony of the great common room of Avengers Tower in a multicoloured swirl of light. While he took off his cloak and threw it over a nearby chair, he surveyed the room through the glass windows.

Dozens and dozens of people filled the room, the vast majority of whom Ted had never seen before. The long bar looked to be standing room only. Every chair was filled in the small lounge areas that dotted the room. A pair of pool tables that Ted didn't remember looked to be in high demand. There were even people in one area dancing, spotlights of red, blue, green and yellow swivelling about giving the area a real 'party' feel.

The more that Ted looked, the more that he began picking out people that he knew.

Thor and Steve were drinking with a group of really old guys. Nat, Bobbi and Maria looked to be relaxing on some low lounge chairs, glasses in their hands. Healer Greengrass and some guy with cool-looking longish black hair were on the far side of the balcony, standing extremely close, their shoulders touching, as they stared out over the city.

And then Ted saw them, or more accurately, her.

Slipping in through the door, Ted snaked his way around the outside of the room, his eyes fixed on his target. It took a bit of manoeuvring to cross the floor, weaving his way between all of the people, slipping into some tiny gaps when the crowd got too thick but finally he was there.

Peter was the first to notice him, standing as he was beside the video arcade game. Quickly, Ted raised a finger to his lips, cutting off the call that Peter looked about to make, at least judging by the way his mouth opened. Ted noted that Peter nudged Gwen beside him, giving her a small nod in Ted's direction but Ted ignored it, his whole focus on the girl currently playing the game.

Sneaking up to stand directly behind her was child's play, especially with the noise that the party-goers were making. Looking over her shoulder, Ted could see that the game consisted of a monkey that was jumping over barrels and climbing ladders. His grin was wider than he would have thought possible when he reached around and covered her eyes with his hands.

"Hey! Not cool!" Doreen called and promptly drove an elbow viciously backwards into his stomach.

"Oof," Ted exclaimed even as he doubled over and struggled to breathe.