Heroes Assemble!

There Are Some

The party had been in swing for a number of hours already. Actually, the reason that it was being so drawn out was simply that the party-goers were all arriving at such disparate times. The ones hit with the stunner-paintballs had to wait until they'd woken up and then been given a once-over by Healer Greengrass before they were clear to join the revels.

And then there was the Hulk. In his confusion over what the game that they were playing actually was, he'd bounded off, deep into the forest of Paradis Noir, intent on avoiding his cousin so that he wouldn't get 'tagged'. It took Harry riding on his broom and asking the Peruvian Vipertooths a long time to finally locate the Big Guy. And then, Harry'd had to convince the Hulk that the game was over and that he'd won without getting tagged by an enormous green finger, constantly jabbing at him.

Finally, though, Hulk came down from his victorious bouncing around, his arms in the air, and calmed enough for Bruce to re-emerge. A simple apparition by Harry returned the two of them to the main building to find that the party had already started. Quickly, Bruce rushed off to have a shower and to find some clean, unruined clothes.

"What was that golden mist?" Pietro asked, drifting over to Harry as soon as he joined everyone.

Harry grinned as he picked up a bottle of butterbeer.

"That was a disorientating mist. In basic terms, it confused your senses so that up appeared down and down, up."

"So, I wasn't really standing on the ceiling?" Pietro asked.

"Nope. Your senses were just confused enough to think that," Harry replied. "Believe me, I know how it feels – I encountered it back when I was in a Tournament at school."

"Did it freeze you in place too?"

"For a minute, then I simply closed my eyes and walked out of it," Harry replied. "But I'd put that field in the entirety of the room, so the only way out of it for you was back through the door."

"Huh," Pietro grunted thoughtfully.

"You wouldn't really have needed much to confuse Pietro," Wanda laughed as she joined them.

"Tell me about it," Harry grinned. "You should have seen him when he ran into the illusion that I made. He thought that he was entering the hut; instead he found himself triggering a skidding jinx and an overpowered acceleration charm. How far'd you end up running, anyway?"

"Nearly three kilometres before I could stop," Pietro groused. And then, when Wanda broke out into peals of laughter. "You're supposed to be on my side, I'm your big brother, remember?"

"By twelve minutes," Wanda countered.

"Hey, you," Daisy said as she joined the group, bumping hips with Harry as she arrived beside him.

Automatically, Harry's hand snaked out around her waist and he gave her a kiss.

"How'd you go in the game?" he asked.

"Not bad," she shrugged. "Didn't get tagged. Oh, and learnt a new skill with my power."

Harry's raised eyebrow encouraged her to elaborate.

"I managed to 'catch' Ted when he was falling from his broom after Bucky shot him and knocked him out," she said.

"In that case, thank you," he smiled.

A loud chime echoed over the gathering and Harry, along with everyone else there, turned to find Maria Hill standing on a small platform above everyone.