A/N: Sorry for the delay. I got sick, then had midterms, and now SPRING BREAK! I'm working over the break so it's not much of a break but yeah... Enjoy.

IMPORTANT: The ice cream spell is legit from the original comic books. I couldn't make that up if I tried.

Chapter summary: In which the sun throws a hissy fit, the Avengers attempt to regroup, and ice cream and candy aren't what they're supposed to be.

Not so Sweet Surprises

"We seem to be entering an early onset of sunspot activity this year according to NASA," the female reporter said serious into the television camera. "Sunspot cycles usually last about twelve years. At its peak, sunspots are often prominent across the sun's surface resulting in a higher level of solar flare activity and possible coronal mass ejections. These CMEs are responsible for the aurora borealis, or the northern lights, as well as the less than savory results such as loss of electrical power and disruptions in radio and transmission signals across the globe. As this activity increases..."

"What do you think?" Batman asked eyes still focused on the televisions.

"I think this could be more serious than we realized," Superman replied, more subdued than usual.

"The scientific world is in a flurry, but the general populace is clueless," Hawkgirl said, crossing her arms.

"Not surprising," Flash said, staring at the television and reading the subtitles as quickly as he could. "Most people don't care about the sun unless it pertains to the weather."

"That is foolish," J'onn said.

"I agree," Flash said, turning to his friend. "But there's not much I can do to change that. Most people see it as 'if it doesn't involve me, it's not important.'"

"But it does involve them and it is important," Hawkgirl countered.

"You know that and I know that, but they don't," Flash said, turning to the Thanagaran.

Batman nodded soberly. "For them, the sun is too far away to do any damage or affect them unless it's in the form of a tan or skin cancer," he said. "The last significant CME event to directly strike the earth and cause widespread damage was in the 1800s and no one from that time is still alive."

Hawkgirl hummed. "I see what you mean," she murmured. She heaved a sigh and fluffed her wings. "What do we do?"

"At the moment there's nothing we can do except keep watch," Batman said.

"And what about the Shadow Court?" Flash said turning away from the television completely. "The Regent's still MIA with Green Arrow and Green Lantern and the King's been shot last I heard. Other Arrow's been holding down the fort in Starling City pretty well, but he can't keep it up forever."

"Other Arrow?" Superman asked in confusion.

"He means John Diggle," J'onn said patiently. "Arrow's right hand man."

"Ah."

J'onn bowed his head guiltily. "It was my fault Green Lantern was forced to accompany them," he said. "It should not have happened."

"But it did," Diana said. "And accident or not, Lantern can handle himself. He's a member of this league for a reason."

"I agree," Hawkgirl said. "Besides, there needs to be a sane adult in that crowd of crazy."

Flash coughed a laugh. "Yes, he is kinda like a dad now that I think about it." He sobered. "But that still leaves the King's situation and let's not forget that whole 'tomb thing,'" he said with air quotes.

"Yes, what is that?" Superman asked.

"From what I understand," Diana began, "a group of archaeologists are attempting to unearth Set's grave which is inadvertently having adverse affects on the Regent."

"How so?"

"According to Arrow when I was able to ask him," she said, "sudden fits of violent shuddering and disorientation."

"That sounds similar to a seizure to me," Batman said astutely.

"It could be that," Diana admitted.

"But if we take into account the fact Kaiba's a reincarnation," Flash said, "What if his old body is still buried in his tomb? Then that means they would essentially be of the same person. Wouldn't that be, I don't know, confusing on some level?"

"There already are two of them," Superman said, his brow furrowed thoughtfully.

"Two souls, yes," Flash said. "But technically, they're two parts of a soul. But I mean two bodies of the same person."

"You mean like a twin?" Hawkgirl asked.

"No," Flash said, shaking his head in exasperation. "Literally two of the same person existing at once."

"Yes, that could cause problems," Batman said, rubbing his chin as he puzzled through the information they had. "If you went back in time and met yourself, you'd essentially be causing a paradox."

"But no one's traveled through time," Hawkgirl said hesitantly.

"No, Set did," Batman said in realization.

"What?" Superman gasped. "How?"

"Not in the way you're thinking," Batman said quickly. "But his body did."

"You mean by being buried," Diana said.

Batman nodded. "Two bodies of the same person at one time. That could theoretically cause a paradox."

"Playing Devil's advocate here: Set's body has supposedly been buried for over 5,000 years and Kaiba's existed for twenty," Flash said. "Why now? What's different?"

"Someone's breaking in," Hawkgirl murmured. She lifted her head and stared at her companions with hard emerald eyes. "Someone's trying to get into the tomb. I think we can safely say, Set had no idea he would be reincarnated. Even if he did know, there isn't much his people would do about the body. The Egyptians saw the body as holy and would not dare destroy it because to them doing so meant preventing the soul from moving on to the Afterlife."

"How do you know that?" Flash asked. Hawkgirl lifted an eyebrow and the speedster coughed awkwardly. "Oh, right."

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to visit Yugi," Hawkgirl said.

"You don't need our permission for that," Superman said looking at his comrade at arms strangely.

Hawkgirl huffed. "It was an offer for anyone else to join me," she said. She glanced at Diana and J'onn with raised brows.

Diana nodded. "We'll go," she said crossing her arms. "I haven't received a response from my gods but I think that in and of itself is an answer; one I think the Court should be aware of."

"I agree," Hawkgirl said.

"I too would like to see the King again," J'onn said calmly. "I have waited long enough before informing them of my absence from their Regent's side."

"They may be aware of that already," Diana said. J'onn nodded slowly but his eyes held reservations. He opened his mouth to speak again but stopped when the Amazon placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled gently. "If you wanted to visit them, it's not a problem. Besides, we already know Kaiba likes you."

"Really?" Superman asked in surprise. "He's got an odd way of showing it."

"He's god an odd way of doing a lot of things," Batman said with a shrug.

"It would probably be best if we went in our civilian covers to help minimize the media's involvement," Diana said.

"That could be a bit difficult for me," Hawkgirl said.

"You forget I can get us inside without problem," J'onn said.

The Thanagaran's eyebrows lifted and a small smile tugged at her lips. "Then I'm ready when you are," she said.

"You had better not be pulling my leg, Stark," Barton said, walking into the fellow Avenger's common room from the elevator in Star Tower.

Tony spared a glance at the irate archer for a split second before pulling out a remote, aiming it at the large screen television on the wall by the elevator door and hit a button on it. Immediately, the screen came to life showing a collection of images spread out across the monitor. Dropping the remote on the cushions startling Steve Rogers who was already sitting on the semi circular embedded bench facing the screen. Sam Wilson was rubbing his eyes groggily and nursing a cup of fresh, steaming hot coffee courtesy of Bruce Banner. The scientist himself was currently strolling out from behind the wet bar by the windowed wall facing the nighttime New York cityscape with two more cups of coffee which he handed to the newly arrived Clint and Natasha.

"Thanks," the archer said.

"Don't mention it," Bruce said calmly with a tired smile.

"What are we looking at?" Natasha asked, taking her coffee with a smile as she moved to stand by the couch facing the television.

"It's Coulson's file," Sam said, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees. "He's alive." He shook his head. "I may not have known him like you all did, but I'm aware of what he did on the Helicarrier during the Chitauri invasion."

"He died," Steve said, crossing his arms seriously. "I saw the cards. They had blood on them."

"Cards?"

Steve shifted uncomfortably with a slight blush on his face. "He collected vintage Captain America cards," he said softly.

Sam's eyes softened and he patted his friend's back comfortingly. "I take it he was important," he said.

"To all of us in one way or another," Bruce said, taking a seat next to Falcon with his own coffee in his hand.

"Which begs the question, why in hell SHIELD pretended he was dead," Stark asked, pulling up the screenshot of Coulson's file with the words "STATUS: ACTIVE" in bold, capital letters.

"Unless he did die," Sam said, "and they didn't manage to resuscitate him until later. It's happened before. I remember reading about this Irish guy who clinically died and no one, not even the doctors realized he was still alive until his hand twitched as they were putting him into refrigeration."

"That's...disconcerting," Stark said.

"Or, more realistically," Natasha said, "they wanted to protect him and send him into hiding. Killing a person is a great way to do that."

"Except he really was stabbed," Clint said darkly. "I knew the moment it happened. Loki didn't exactly keep it a secret."

"But it did act as a catalyst to the official formation of the Avengers team," Steve said, beginning to understand. "We wouldn't have worked so well together if we hadn't been acting on our united desire for revenge."

"How did you find out about this?" Steve asked.

"Some guy calling himself the Regent hacked the SHIELD systems," Tony said, tossing Coulson's profile picture aside to pull up another image. "He was quick and had a computer program working with him that was efficient."

"Is that a compliment?" Natasha asked wryly.

Tony ignored her and enlarged the new image with his fingers on the touchscreen. The image was a bit grainy, obviously from a low resolution webcam and showed a young man with Asian features, short brown hair, and clear blue eyes typing away at a keyboard.

"Holy shit," Clint gasped, his coffee forgotten.

"Care to share with the class Katniss?" Tony said.

"Don't call me that," Clint muttered as he walked closer to the screen to get a better look at the grainy screenshot. "I know this guy," he said. "I saw him a couple hours ago in the Park Grill and Bar."

"By the Planetarium?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Clint said.

"Tonight?" Tony asked.

"He was with someone else," Clint said, nodding to Tony's question. "I got the feeling he was with the only other group in the place. I didn't get a good look at the group. They were in a booth in the back. But this guy," he pointed to the screen, "and another guy came up to the bar to get tea of all all things."

"So he's a tea drinker," Tony said. "Never trust a tea drinker. Coffee people are predictable."

"So are alcoholics," Natasha snarked.

Tony raised his glass to her in a mock toast. "JARVIS, do a search for this guy for this guy within New York," he said.

"On it sir," the polite, male voice said over the integrated speaker in the room.

"So," Tony said suddenly and loudly, turning to face his guests. "We've got a guy who drinks tea, travels with a group, and can somehow get from one coast to the other in a matter of couple hours. Last I checked, airplanes take longer to travel that distance than this guy does." He grimaced. "We need to call him something. 'This guy' is too," he waved his hand still holding his glass of golden alcohol searching for the right word, "generic."

"Well, he did call himself the Regent," Sam offered helpfully. "Why not just call him that?"

"Because, Regent?" Tony said. "Seriously? Who would choose that title? I mean, why not King, or Lord of the Computer, or Supergenius, or-"

"Tony Stark?" Bruce said softly over the rim of his coffee cup and Sam snickered, quickly covering his mouth.

"I take that as a compliment," the technological genius said, taking the friendly jab in stride.

"Why do you say he can travel that distance in a couple hours?" Steve asked.

"Because this image," Tony said, pointing to the screen with the hand holding his glass, "was taken from a webcam in an Arizona public library less than three hours ago."

"I'm impressed you were able to get this," Natasha said, lifting an eyebrow.

Tony waved her concern aside. "Easy. I helped keep him at bay. Besides, the majority of SHIELD agents were a bit too distracted by the news Coulson was alive to stop me."

"How did you find out?"

"Our friend here," Tony said, "finally replied to my to chat."

"You opened a chat with a hacker?" Sam asked surprised.

"Why am I not surprised?" Bruce said.

"This," Tony pulled up and enlarged a third image next to the hacker's image, "was the chat reply."

The image was almost identical to the first except the hacker was in the process of leaving and a chat window was open with several lines of text. Most prominent was the hacker's reply:

/Unless he somehow died within the last couple hours since I spoke to him in person, he's very much alive./

"So not only is Coulson alive," Bruce said, "but he's been in contact with our hacker."

"It would make sense if Coulson was in Arizona so I did a bit of digging and," Tony began, taking a sip of his drink, "JARVIS, what do you got for me?"

"Coulson's current approximate location is thirty five miles outside Salt Lake City, Utah," the computerized butler replied.

"How did you... You know what," Sam said, "I don't want to know."

"Good choice," Tony said. "Any luck on our hacker Regent friend?" he asked JARVIS.

"He was last sighted leaving the Park Grill and Bar on Columbus Avenue at 81st Street ten minutes ago," JARVIS replied.

"Where'd he go?"

"He was headed towards Central Park."

"Anyone up for a field trip?" Tony asked the group.

"Regrettably sir, I'm afraid that might not be an option," JARVIS said.

"Why not? Rush hour traffic is hell, yeah, but it's not that bad."

"It would appear all the vehicles within much of Manhattan have been turned to ice cream," the A.I. replied smartly.

"Say what?"

"All the vehicles in much of Manhattan have been turned to ice cream, sir," the A.I. replied in the same unflappable voice.

Six befuddled faces stared at the ceiling processing the confounding information before Steve sighed. "Loki," he said simply.

"Looks like people are beginning to show up," Oliver said, glancing over his shoulder as another person came into the restaurant jingling the bell over the door.

"Well," Mai said, glancing at the faint sunlight filtering through the windows above the booth they were still occupying, "it should be about seven o'clock in the morning here by now."

Oliver hummed thoughtfully. "What day is it? Do we know?"

Mai shrugged. She glanced to the side where her Regent was currently using the table as a makeshift pillow to catch some sleep. Oliver had just woken from his nap to find Mai and Shaadi awake and speaking quietly to one another. The Shadow users had taken their naps first before waking up around four to switch with Oliver and John. They silently agreed to let Kaiba continue to sleep through both shifts undisturbed. The wait staff had stopped by every now and then to refill their drinks and deliver the occasional ordered snack.

"Don't know," the Sorceress said softly, yawning. "But it certainly feels like a Monday."

Oliver snorted. "You mean a Tuesday," he said. She gave him an odd look and he explained. "Yesterday was crazy enough to be Monday. Today is Tuesday."

Mai nodded with a wry grin and lifted her freshly ordered coffee in acknowledgement.

"Agreed," Shaadi said softly with a nod.

"The fuck?"

The three awake guests blinked and Mai and Oliver leaned around the booth to where the bartender was staring at something outside with a dumbfounded expression which quickly became horror.

"My bike!" the employee exclaimed before bolting out the door to a chorus of similar cries of surprise, horror, and confused amusement.

Mai got up and looked out the window which was a little above street level and gasped prompting Oliver to do the same. They both stared at the scene before then in shock. Then Mai started laughing hysterically. Shaadi furrowed his brow in confusion before standing to also look out the window. Oliver could not decide whether to laugh or be horrified by the sight before him. He settling with chuckling when he noticed Shaadi's outright stunned expression.

John Stewart woke up at the sudden laughter as did Kaiba. Both blinked blearily up at their companions before standing at Oliver's encouragement. Their eyes grew large and John's jaw dropped. Kaiba braced his himself on the back of the booth seat cushion and leaned forward, watching the chaos unfold outside.

Cars, scooters, and motorcycles that moments before had been cruising down the street were now blobs of multi-colored, and most likely multi-flavored ice cream skidding to a halt in the roadways and melting. Bicycles, including the unfortunate employee's, had become candy canes. Skateboards had become pretzels and strollers had become Twizzlers. People were running back and forth screaming, talking rapidly, hurrying to help one another, or standing by and laughing. It was clearly bad but it was also so completely unexpected that it was hilarious.

"What by Ra's holy fire is going on here?" Shaadi whispered.

"I have absolutely no idea," Oliver said.

"But it's hysterical," Mai said, bursting into belly laughs.

"Not really," John said, pointing to something a ways off. "Look."

The Sorceress lifted her eyes and followed John's arm to a point in the middle of the intersection and her laughter faded away. "Oh my god," she murmured.

Several blobs of ice cream that had clearly once been cars and trucks had continued moving due to their inertia before slowing down. But some of the people inside the vehicles had inertia too and when the cars suddenly slowed down and turned to ice cream, the seat belts also turned into frozen treat. The now edible and semi-soft treat was nowhere near as strong and durable as the seat belts they had been which resulted in some people flying through the thin layer of ice cream that had been a windshield out onto the blobs of ice cream in front of them as well or, more commonly, the asphalt streets or concrete sidewalks.

"John," Oliver said.

"Got it," the Green Lantern said, pushing past his friend to get out of the booth and run out if the restaurant.

The group quickly followed behind the superhero. Oliver paused to pull his hooded Arrow jacket out of his duffel bag, pull it on, slip on his new eye mask, as well as strap on his quiver and knock his bow. He nodded to his Regent before bolting out the door. Frustrated, Kaiba groused as he dug through his wallet for a $100 bill to leave on the table hoping it would be enough to cover everything. He would collect on the debt later. For now, the Regent mentally went through his Deck trying to think of any Monster, Spell, or Trap which could conceivably mitigate the situation.

He stepped out of the restaurant and saw Green Lantern using his ring to catch and protect people with solid green light. Oliver held an arrow knocked in his bow but unwilling to lift it to fire simply because he had no real target in mind. Mai was actively shuffling through her Deck for any usable cards and Shaadi was staring directly ahead with glazed eyes.

"Shaadi," Kaiba said, stepping up next to his Advisor. "What do you see?"

Arrow glanced at his Regent curiously and listened to Shaadi's reply with interest.

"It would seem," the Advisor began, "a spell has been cast over the area."

"How far and how powerful?" Kaiba asked.

"I cannot say for certain how far," Shaadi replied. "The spell is of a magic I am unfamiliar with. It is clouding my senses."

"So it's powerful," Kaiba mumbled. "Can you find the source of it?"

"I..." Shaadi trailed off as he reached out with his Shadows as well as something else. Arrow could not quite tell what that other sense was but he could faintly feel it if he focused hard enough. "I believe," Shaadi said slowly, "the source is to the south and east of here."

"Can you lead us?" Arrow asked.

"Possibly," Shaadi said. "But only if the source remains stationary."

"Then let's hope it does," Arrow said, getting ready to catch Lantern's attention when a hand snagged his arm.

"Wait!"

The vigilante paused to look back at the Advisor in confusion. "Something else is coming, another power source. It is similar to the first but different."

"Different how?" Kaiba demanded.

"It feels less animate," Shaadi said.

"Animate?" Mai asked. "You mean alive?"

"I cannot say," the Egyptian said, clearly straining to understand what he was sensing.

"Anything else we should be aware of?"

Shaadi hesitated a couple moments before shaking his head. "No, nothing I can tell."

"In that case," Kaiba said, "Arrow, use you Spell Shattering Arrow. Mai-"

"Got it," she said, pulling out the Spell card. "Harpie's Feather Duster!"

Wind blasted the place, yanking umbrellas out of their places on outdoor patio seating, blowing newspapers and magazine across the ground, and pulling women's hair. A moment later, it was still and everything was back to the way it should have been.

"Hey!" John hollered, running back to the group. "Whatever you did, it worked."

"Talk later, find the source now," Arrow said.

"Wait!" Kaiba snapped. "This is not our world. Do what you can but do not put yourselves deliberately in harm's way. Understood?"

"With all due respect," John said, "I'm a marine. These are Americans. They may not be my Americans, but they are Americans. More importantly, they're people and the need help. I'm not going to stand by and do nothing."

"I'm not telling you to," Kaiba said calmly. "I'm telling you to live so you can go home. Die another day, not today."

"I don't plan on dying," John said firmly.

"Good," Kaiba said. "See to it, it stays that way. Shaadi!"

"Come," the Advisor calling, hurrying down a street towards Lower Manhattan and the Midtown area.

However, no sooner had the rounded a corner than Shaadi turned and pushed back, slamming his body into Green Lantern's. Half a second later, something nearby exploded and half a dozen robot dogs darted through the air into the previously be-spelled block.

"What the hell are those?" Green Lantern asked.

"More importantly, do I want know?" Arrow said rhetorically. He lifted his bow with an arrow knocked on the string and aimed at one of the dogs firing beams from its eyes. He was briefly reminded of the classic Star Trek before he drew his Shadows to him, letting them weave around his arrow shaft, and fired. The Shadow empowered arrow flew through the air and blasted cleanly one robot before striking a second which had flown behind.

He had succeeded in bringing down two robots; but unfortunately, this act drew the attention of the others. "Incoming!" the vigilante cried.

Green Lantern acted the fastest. He raised his fist and a wall of solid green light materialized and took the blasts. "Gotcha covered," he called. "Go!"

"Well," Mai said as she ran behind Kaiba, "flying robot dogs that fire lasers from their eyes. That's a new one."

"They are part of the other magic source," Shaadi called. "There is magic in them as well as technology."

"Magic?" Arrow gasped.

"Is there any sentience in them?" Kaiba asked, continuing to run.

"Only a speck, but it is not unique to them," Shaadi replied. "It is an extension of the master."

"So puppets," Mai said.

"If they're magic," Arrow said, "then maybe this will give them something to thing twice about." He skidded to a stop and whirled around, drawing the empty bow all the way back to his ear before muttering, "Spell Shattering Arrow."

A golden arrow appeared knocked in his string, the gleaming feathers brushing his ear, and he aimed and released. The bolt flew through the air and struck a robot causing it to spark and burst apart, the smoldering pieces falling to the ground.

"Nice," Lantern called. He pushed the solid green light wall forward, knocking the robots back, before forming a fist and smashing several forcefully to the ground.

"Nice yourself," Arrow said.

"Not so nice up ahead," Mai said drawing the two Justice League members' attention.

The road they had been running down was now flooding with policemen and emergency personnel as well as more robot dogs. Arrow groaned. "Great, interference."

"Shaadi," Kaiba said. "You said they don't have any sentience of their own."

"That is correct," Shaadi replied.

"In that case," he lifted his hand and murmured in hieratic, "Enemy Controller." Instantly, the robot dogs halted in their advance, waiting for a command from their temporary controller. "Find the one who ordered you to attack this place and attack them."

All of the robotic canines barked mechanically before wheeling around and returning the way they came. Arrow glanced uncertainly at his Regent before noticing a taxi slowly becoming ice cream and fired another Spell Shattering Arrow at it instantly returning it to its true form.

"I suggest we deal with this problem ASAP," he said. "I can't keep firing like this forever."

"I thought we wanted to stay under the radar," Mai added morosely.

"We do," Kaiba confirmed. "Split up," he commanded. "Mai go with Green Lantern. Lantern, you and Mai help mitigate this. Your power's useful at holding those things back. Mai, try to keep this place free of the...ice cream spell as best you can."

"A safe zone, you mean," she said nodding. "I can do that."

"Shaadi, take us to the source or sources," Kaiba continued. "Arrow, keep those things off us."

"As you say," Shaadi said at the same time Arrow nodded tersely.

"We'll meet back by the bar once we've taken care of our side of things," Kaiba said. "If the other group doesn't show up within a few minutes, lie low. We'll find you."

"Understood," Lantern replied before moving to help the victims in the area with Mai.

"Shaadi," Kaiba said.

The Advisor nodded and hesitated in order to regain the spell's source with his senses before racing down the street followed closely by Arrow and Kaiba. They dodged pools of melting ice cream pausing just long enough for Arrow to fire a Spell Shattering Arrow at vehicles that were clearly emergency vehicles before continuing. At one point, the vigilante was about to fire his Shadow Spell when he noticed a flash of red and gold darting through the air. From his research online and Kaiba's hack into SHIELD, he recognized the colorful blur.

"Avengers," he cried.

"Where?" Kaiba demanded.

"Iron Man, my twelve o'clock," he replied before released his Spell and hurrying after his Regent, not waiting to see the ice cream become an ambulance once again.

"Sir."

"Yes JARVIS," Tony replied casually as he fired a repulser blast at another stray Doombot which attempted to dodge by rounding a corner sharply.

"I have identified the Regent on the ground."

"Where?" Tony exclaimed, pulling up abruptly to study the visual indicators on his visor.

Sure enough, running down the sidewalk with a digital red circle around his head was the Regent. The visuals momentarily zoomed out to take in a hooded archer who fired a glowing arrow towards one of the former cars. Tony moved to retaliate when he noticed the ice cream was now an ambulance. The archer on the visor appeared to have noticed Tony watching and bolted down the sidewalk, catching up to and keeping up with the Regent.

"Well well," Tony said. He activated his communicator and said, "I've found the Regent. He's being followed by an archer in green. Looks like you've got some competition Legolas."

"I will kill you," Barton disgruntled voice replied.

"Is the archer a friendly?" the Captain's voice asked.

Tony smirked. "He fired some special arrow which turned Loki's magic on its head."

"Meaning?" Natasha pressed curtly.

"The ice cream's now an ambulance again," Tony said. "And from the looks of it, fully functioning since the EMTs are getting stuff out of it."

"Friendlies then," Sam's voice said. "Got it. I'll keep an eye out."

"Someone tell Bruce?" Tony asked.

"Bruce is a bit...indisposed at the moment," Sam said. "Looks like Big and Green couldn't resist some target practice. Not that I blame him," he added with an audible snicker.

"Right," Tony said.

"Stark," the Captain said. "Try to follow from a distance."

"Already on it," Tony said, activating his repulsers and jetting through the sky after the Regent and his archer buddy. "They're headed southeast from the south end of Central Park."

"I'm near there," Barton said. "I'll see if can spot them."

"Don't get shot out of your nest," Tony teased.

"Will you ever stop it with your bird jokes?"

"Never."

Hawkeye huffed and Sam called in. "Looks like more of those Doombots are headed this way."

"Anyone actually seen Doom yet?" Captain America said.

"Not yet," Natasha said. "Which is weird. He's usually more showy than this."

"Unless he's aiding Loki indirectly," Barton said.

"The hell?!"

"Sam! Sam whatcha got?" Tony called urgently.

"The Doombots are attacking Doom!" Falcon exclaimed. "I repeat, the Doombots are attacking Doom!"

"So he is here," Natasha said.

"Yeah, he just showed up on a hovercraft of some kind," Falcon said. "There are about six or seven Doombots attacking him."

"Any of the others joining in?" the Captain asked.

"Yes but not on our side," Falcon replied.

"Hang on, I'm almost there," Barton said. "I see them," he said after a moment. "Falcon, move a little to the right."

"Gotcha."

Barton waited until his comrade cleared the space before firing an exploding arrow at the hovercraft Doom stood on. "It's a pity Wolverine couldn't get here," he said, drawing another arrow to fend off the Doombots who had sighted him.

"On your left," Falcon said before dive bombing a Doombot advancing on Barton's position.

"Thanks for the cover," Hawkeye replied.

"Don't mention it."

"I agree," Captain America said. "He would've been a good addition."

"Good drinker too," Tony added.

"You would," Natasha said followed by a gunshot. "Fury said the X-Men to stay out of this for the time being."

"What? I thought they liked parties."

"They do," Natasha said. "But not the kind that involves two supervillains tag teaming."

"But those are the best kind."

"Tony," a new voice interrupted.

"Yeah Cap?"

"Control yourself."

"Yes Mom." Tony smirked at the all but audible eye roll as he rounded the corner before pulling up short. "Guys," he said. "I found Loki."

"Where?" Barton demanded sharply.

"Or more accurately," Tony corrected watching the red circled Regent stop and stare directly at the Asgardian trickster in civilian guise, "the Regent found him." He noticed an Middle Eastern man pointing to the Asgardian who seemed to take notice of his company.

"What's happening?" the Captain demanded.

"Nothing yet," Tony said. "Looks like we can add another to the Regent's group."

"Who? Loki?" Falcon asked.

"Nope. Some Middle Eastern dude," Tony said. "Long robes, turban, the whole shebang."

"Eclectic, this Regent," Natasha said. "Where are you?"

"West 71st Street and West Central Park," Tony said.

"Falcon, switch places with me," she said. "I'll cover Barton. You meet up with Stark."

"Can do," Sam said.

"Better hurry," Tony said. "Last thing we need is another team up."