At times like these Maria Hill hated her job. Bad news in the morning gave her a bad reputation among her colleagues. But it had to be said, so she'd have to just bite the bullet.

She walked through the wide halls of the Avengers facility in Upstate New York. Fury had assigned her back to the Avengers a month ago, before promptly returning to Europe to continue his overseas exploration of Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D agents. It was very important work; without him, Hydra would still be relevant and S.H.I.E.L.D agents would most likely be running for their lives.

The compound was relatively quiet compared to Maria's life before being reassigned to the Avengers and quieter than life at S.H.I.E.L.D before it fell. She wasn't complaining, but sometimes it was a little boring. Training, preparing, and waiting was an odd way to live, constantly waiting for a threat you didn't know was coming. She was almost afraid the new team would be caught off guard when something did happen, but they would recover quickly she was sure.

As she walked to the kitchen Natasha stepped out of the gym sweaty from her workout, nodded to her and headed to the kitchen herself.

Maria's heels clicked on the floor as she entered the kitchen.

Wanda was sitting on the couch, her feet tucked under her, reading a book. As she walked by she could hear Sam and Rhodey loudly debating who had a better suit. Steve and Vision were deep in conversation which seemed to be about moral obligation based on the philosophical words she caught and intense looks on their faces. She wouldn't be surprised as it was one of their favorite subjects. Tony was sitting at the table surrounded by multiple holographic computers, paper files, blueprints, and multiple cups of coffee.

Steve looked up as Maria entered and smiled in greeting. She returned the smile and walked to the head of the table, looked down at Tony, and cleared her throat.

"Oh," Tony didn't look up, "Are we assembling? What'd Fury blow up this time?"

Maria ignored him and motioned for the other heroes to join them at the table. She stood at the head of the table and looked around at them. Some of Earth's mightiest heroes stared back, awaiting the bad news they figured she had come to deliver. She got straight to the point.

"A Hydra base has come back online. Specifically Strucker's base that held Loki's scepter. We don't know anything about who moved in so they could be harmless. Alternatively, they could be Hydra."

Disbelieving eyes blinked back at her.

"So, let me get this straight," Sam said. "Cap killed Hydra like a billion years ago and they come back, then we kill them again when they attacked S.H.I.E.L.D.-"

"Which no one invited me to," Tony interrupted, "Just saying maybe they would still be dead if you had, I am pretty awesome like that."

Sam glared, then continued. "And we took them handily when they attacked S.H.I.E.L.D., and now they're back again. Do they ever die?"

"I believe the phrase is cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Natasha leaned forward.

"If I may," Vision raised his hand.

"Yes, young Vision," Tony was still absorbed in his work. "I grant you permission to speak."

Steve glared at him.

"Previously you attacked the source. Perhaps this new base is simply a few stragglers of Hydra. They would easily be destroyed," Vision said.

"K," Tony said. "We'll take care of it." He stood up. "Thanks for giving us something to do, you know, on my break."

Tony was on 'vacation', spending a week at the compound away from his home at Stark Tower. It wasn't really a vacation, but that didn't stop him from using it to his full advantage.

"The world thanks you." Maria turned on her heel and left for the command room.