When Phil had gotten a call from the hospital his first thought was that someone had gotten through Thor to Darcy and the children. The noise over the line was a surprise. "Are they singing?"

"We're videotaping it for you, sir. I just thought you'd like to know that Ms. Lewis has gotten the most reaction out of them as a group yet."

"Thank you." Phil shook his head has he ended the call. He turned to the screen showing tracking for the final stage of the building clearing Black Widow and Hawkeye were conducting.

Peggy was flicking through the status report on Jarod's injuries. "Stupid boy."

Phil read the list and frowned as he looked across the table to Jay. "He'll be fine."

Jay nodded. "I know. I've been a doctor before." He pointed at the tracking dots on the screen. "They got Raines?"

"Yes." Phil pulled up the feed for the prisoner transport that was taking Raines to the helicarrier. "He's in SHEILD custody." Phil checked the report from the agent riding along with the man. "Looks like he isn't speaking." He didn't mention the non-stop laughing.

Clint covered Nat as she moved through the next doorway. She moved on and he followed right behind. They got to a closed door. He stood beside it and nodded at Nat to open it up.

Clint went through and cleared the room for hostiles and adults. Then he just stood there staring at the child huddled in the back corner.

Nat came up beside him and looked down at the kid. She nudged him with an elbow. "Are we good?"

Clint slung his bow over his head. Then he crouched down and held out his empty hand for the kid to see. "Hey there. I'm Clint."

The kid tucked their head down and whimpered.

Clint settled onto his butt because this was going to take some time. "It's okay. No one is going to make you do anything."

He listened to Nat slip back out of the room as he worked on getting the kid to lift his head to look at them.

Natasha leafed through the papers on the desk outside of the kid's room as she waited for Coulson to get back to her on arranging transport of the kid. She stopped when she found the notes for the child's origins. "Coulson, this isn't good."

Coulson snort came across the line. "Tell me something I don't know."

She read down the page and flipped it over to read the list of failures. "Please tell me that I'm going to be allowed to kill that man."

"What have you found?"

Natasha gathered up the paper evidence as she reported her intel.

Steve silently fretted as he watched Hulk and Dr. Jackson talk. Tony followed Ross out of the Gateroom leaving Steve to watch over the children as they slept.

Hulk cradled them carefully as he talked to Dr. Jackson. "Hulk smell good."

Steve stepped up beside Dr. Jackson. "What's he mean?"

Dr. Jackson grinned as he looked up from the notes he was taking. "He means he has a very good sense of smell. Hulk, you said the gate, Star Man's shield, and Spaceman's chest all smell the same?"

Hulk rumbled. "Good Hit's puny hammer smell same." He twitched his nose. "And poky shock too."

Steve and Daniel exchanged looks as Tony came back in without his armor on.

Dr. Jackson looked back up at the Hulk. "Poky shock? What does that mean?"

Tony reached over Hulk's arm to brush Hanna's hair. "Thor's lightning. Like static electricity for Hulk."

Steve nodded. "So what is Hulk smelling, Dr. Jackson?"

"Just call me Daniel." He tapped his pen on his notebook. "The Ancients used naquadah to build the Gates. It is really rare here on Earth. Our supply of it comes from off-world."

Steve looked down at his shield. "Howard said what they put in my shield was all their known supply back then."

Tony tapped his reactor as he thought about it. "And I created what I've got for my cores. So, we're looking at a substance that Hulk can detect. Awesome."

Hulk rocked forward a little, causing Jon to brace against his chest. "Hulk help?"

"Yeah, that helps." Tony patted Hulk's knee. "You ready to go home yet? You usually have gone to sleep or something by now."

Hulk cocked his head. "Hulk take Tiny Friends home."

Steve raised his eyebrows and looked at Tony who was making one of his 'well, shit' faces.

Tony thought for a minute before snapping his fingers. "Tell you what, buddy. We'll get a transport to get you from here to the airfield, but it isn't Hulk sized. I don't have that made up yet. We'll talk about what you want for comms on the way. Okay?"

Hulk grinned and lifted Jon out of his lap to the floor. Then he gathered Hanna and Francis carefully so he could stand up. "Hulk go home."

Tony shrugged at Steve as he made a face. Tony leaned in close. "You want to tell him no?"

Steve shook his head. "Not really." He turned to find General O'Neill standing a few feet away.

General O'Neill steadied Jon as he looked up at the Hulk. "If you don't mind small spaces we can put you on the elevator, but if that's a problem I'll get the silo opened up."

Hulk bent down and looked O'Neill over carefully. "No Army?"

"Nope." O'Neill jerked his thumb towards Jon. "I'm Air Force like he was. No Army."

"Hulk" Hulk shifted Francis so he could stick out his massive hand towards O'Neill.

"General O'Neill." O'Neill eyes widened as Hulk to his hand in between his thumb and finger to shake. "Pleased to meet you."

Hulk blinked and turned towards Steve and Tony. "Pleased?"

Tony smiled. "Yeah, not Army people like to met you."

The Hulk rumbled and walked towards the Hulk-sized door. "Hulk go home now."

Tony followed hurriedly tapping something into his phone.

O'Neill turned towards Daniel and Jon as they followed the weird looking group towards the supply elevator. "You know the thing I don't get, Daniel?"

Daniel raised his eyebrow as they turned a corner. "What's that, Jack?"

"Why do those kids have bouncy balls? Don't kids like stuffed animals anymore?"

Thor watched over the hospital until Coulson came to tell him they were safe on again. Young Darcy had made merry with the children recovering from their captivity in a way that Thor was pleased to see. He turned as Coulson came from the rooftop door.

"Thor."

"Son of Coul."

"Everything alright?"

"Indeed." Thor nodded towards the windows showing Darcy trying to teach the children some ritual dance. "Darcy is making friends heartily."

"I see that." Coulson settled beside Thor on the roof. "The others are on their way back. The Hulk is refusing to change back into Banner."

Thor resettled his hammer next to himself. "Is my help required?"

"No." Coulson checked his tablet. "He's just insisting on taking the children home, so Stark has arranged a transport that can handle Hulk's weight and size."

Thor nodded. "General Ross has been captured?"

"Yes." Coulson sighed. "I was hoping you could tell me what Hanna told you of her life before."

Thor turned his head to look at Coulson. "Is there a problem?"

"We've found another child." Coulson sighed as he sat down next to Thor. "We had to sedate him to get him out of the room he was being kept in. I need a better idea of what is typically done to the children than I can get from the research notes. You are currently the only non-Pretender that possibly has this information that I can ask quickly."

Thor nodded. "Hanna was sorely mistreated." He picked up his hammer and turned it over in his hands slowly. "No affection was given to her. No hugs nor smiles. She was reprimanded or punished for any show of emotion."

Coulson nodded. "Frightened as well."

"She was told to fear the world." Thor smoothed his fingers across Mjolnir's cool surface. "That she is capable of any trust is remarkable."

"If you had to try to gain this new child's trust, how would you go about it?"

Thor stood up and held his hand out to Coulson. "I would pick a single person to be the child's lodestone."

Getting Hulk from the plane onto a transport to get him to the Tower was proving to be more difficult than getting him out of the O'Neill's base.

"I'm coming with you."

Hulk eyed the opening and looked down at Tony again. "Hulk no like."

"I know. You've said. If you would just let Bruce back out I promise he'll take you and the kids home."

Hulk huffed and moved Hanna from one arm to the other next to Francis. Both of them were still asleep. "Hulk protect not puny Bruce."

Tony nodded. "I get that. I do. You just can't walk across the city." Tony gestured towards the city's skyline. "It'd be too much noise and it'll wake up the kids."

Hulk blinked and frowned. "Hulk make noise stop."

Steve shook his head at Tony who made calm down motions with his hands.

Tony reached up to pat Hulk's forearm. "That'd just make more noise when someone called the Army. Trust me."

Hulk cocked his head and then snorted. He eyed the transport again. "How long?"

Tony climbed up into it and stuck his head back out. "Fifteen minutes."

Hulk frowned. "How long is minutes?"

Tony wrinkled his nose. "Uhm...Okay, something you don't remember from Bruce. Let's see...Fifteen minutes is the time in between the tiny mom bird to coming to feed the tiny baby birds and coming back again."

Hulk nodded and leaned down to look in the transport. "Friend Jon come too?"

Steve clapped a surprised Jon on the shoulder. "What do you say?"

Clint watched the kid scramble down from the bed they'd left him in to scuttle into the furthest corner from the door. The exam while the kid had been out told them the kid was male, around eight, and covered in bruises of various shades.

From his place in the vents, Clint could see the kid working the baseboard off the wall.

Nat leaned against the wall just inside the door and waited for the boy to notice her.

"I won't help you."

Nat's eyebrows climbed. "Okay. I wasn't asking for you to help with anything. May I know why you are prying a baseboard from the wall?"

The boy looked at her over the edge of the bed. "No." He went back to what he was doing and then stopped. He peeked at Natasha again. "Why aren't you beating me?"

She tucked a hair behind her ear. "You won't be hit here. No one will beat you for saying no or anything else."

"Great. A new test." The boy went back to what he was doing to the baseboard and ignored Nat completely.

She looked up at him and Clint gave her the hand sign for how-the-hell-should-I-know through the vent covering. She rolled her eyes and kept watching the kid.

Tony followed Hulk down to his room and watched with amusement as he insisted on tucking Francis and Hanna into his pillow pile. Hulk came back over to his door once the kids were arranged to the Hulk's satisfaction. "Thanks, Hulk."

Hulk sat down and pushed Jon into the room past his knee. "Sit with Tiny Friends."

Jon nodded. "Yeah, sure." He settled in between the kids and grinned when the Simpsons appeared on a screen beside Hulk's hummingbirds. "Sweet."

Tony sat in the doorway to the room. "Are you ready to switch back to Bruce?"

Hulk looked around his room and then nodded. "Hulk home." He leaned against the wall next to his door and closed his eyes.

Tony grimaced as the popping noises of the transformation filled the air.

"Gross." Jon wiggled his fingers at the transformation. "Does that hurt him?"

"Probably." Tony leaned forward to catch Bruce as he listed to one side. "He won't say, but I figure it does." He pulled on the outside edge of the purple pants he'd given to Bruce. "The pants worked great, though."

Jarod mentally groaned as all the minor injuries from Raines' anger made themselves known. He pried open one eye and stared at Miss Parker sleeping on a couch next to the bed he was in. Jarod started to push himself up, but Jay appeared at his side and pressed him back down.

"You need to hold still. You will heal faster if you do not aggravate the injuries."

Jarod nodded and relaxed into the bed. "We got him?"

Jay climbed up to sit cross-legged on the end of Jarod's bed. "Yes. He was raising another child."

Jarod tensed up. "Another clone of us?"

"No." Jay frowned down at his own hands. "He is a clone, though. Raines appears to have made him after losing me."

It made sense to Jarod. Raines' experiments had never been stopped, only hindered, by setbacks like losing the location that had held Jay. "Who is he cloned from?"

Jay shrugged. "The tests aren't done yet and the papers called him a clone without saying who he came from."

Rhodes frowned as they moved Ross in a mix of chains and some woven fiber Tony hadn't named yet. He'd been happy when O'Neill said he wasn't needed to go off-world until he heard that Tony had gone instead.

Ross's eyes widened as an older woman stalked into the holding cell they were moving Ross into. He struggled against the chains and fiber-rope as she stomped right over to him and leaned in to glare.

She reminded Rhodes of some of the Military Training Instructors he seen just before they tore up whatever cadet had pissed them off.

She smiled grimly at Ross. "Well, it appears you've managed to endanger my son and his friends. You've even managed to offend an off-world government into asking if they can charge you under their laws. I rather liked their punishment. Sticking you on a lifeless moon for a few decades might straighten you out a little."

Ross rolled his eyes. "You don't scare me, old woman."

She smiled. "No, I wouldn't expect a berserker like you know enough to fear anything. Just remember that the Hulk enjoyed smashing you into the rock hard enough to break it. I'm sure he'd like to do it again. I'll be sure to mention where you are being held to Dr. Banner."

Ross frowned as she swept out.

Rhodes clomped over to the door guard. "What was that about?"

"She's General O'Neill's mom."

Steve watched the video feed of the child Clint and Natasha had pulled out of Raines' small base. "Has he said who he is?"

Betty shook her head. "Clint spent three hours trying to get him out of that room he'd been held in before they tranquilized him."

Tony came in and snagged a banana from the counter. "Bruce is normal sized again. I left him to sleep it off in the movie room." He came over and leaned in to see the video. "What this? That the new kid...Holy shit."

Steve startled at Tony's outburst and dropped the tablet with the feed. He turned to find Tony standing there hyperventilating. "Hey, Tony." He grabbed Tony and sat him down. "Deep breaths. Slow down and just concentrate on breathing."

Betty moved the tablet out of Tony's line of sight. She came around the table and rubbed at Tony's back. "What's wrong, Tony?"

Tony shook himself and reached for the tablet. "I must be seeing things." He zoomed the feed in on the boy in the corner of his room pulling on the baseboard. "I am not seeing things." He dropped the tablet and put his head between his knees.

Coulson came in from the hallway followed by Thor and Darcy. "What's going on?"

Steve held out the tablet with the video feed. "Tony seems to know who the child is."

"Who is it, Tony?"

Tony wrapped his hands across the back of his neck still hunched over. "He's me."