Peter, Ava, Sam, and Luke sat around a small table at the Blue Moose Café. They had come here to think. They couldn't face Fury yet: and tell them that they had failed. The same waitress as earlier came up to them. Sam remembered that her name was Mariah.
"Hey guys," She smiled as she set cups of cocoa down before them. "I see that you're back. That attack earlier was terrible, was that who you were looking for?"
"Yeah." Ava whispered. None of the team was crying, they were all just numb.
"Weren't there five of you? Where's the blond one?"
They all turned blank-eyed stares on her and her face fell. She knew that look. "Oh… Oh, I'm so sorry. Did you find him yet?"
"Only this." Once again, it was Ava who answered, pulling out Danny's bandanna.
"But if you didn't find him, that means he could still be alive, right? Where did you find it?" Mariah was trying desperately to give them hope.
"There's no way." Peter answered numbly. "We were searching Mount Steepridge, all we found was that bandanna and a LOT of blood."
Perking up, Mariah smiled. "Listen guys, there's still hope. If you didn't find him, that means the angel may have. She roams the mountains all the time. Whenever people need her, they climb Mount Steepridge."
"You really think he could still be out there?" Luke looked up, grasping onto any hope he could find that his best friend might still be alive.
Before Mariah could answer, the door of the Café blew open and a small child clinging to the back of a humongous white wolf padded in. The child's face looked to be maybe twelve or thirteen and he was wrapped in layers of furs.
"Daniel!" Mariah gasped and ran over to him, lifting him off of the wolf's back, she set him on a stool and Wolf curled up at his feet. Motioning at the café's owner/chef who had walked out of the kitchen to see what the commotion was about, Mariah commanded, "Dad, he's freezing. Bring some cocoa quick."
Pulling off his hat, Daniel rubbed snow out of his hair and shook his head. Moving the stubs of his legs back and forth anxiously, he spoke loudly so all could hear. "No time! There's a huge storm coming! Everyone needs to get home now! If you get stuck in this blizzard, you are going to die in it. None of you have ever seen a storm of this size before!"
"How big is it?" Peter walked up to the child, thinking he was being melodramatic.
Hearing the patronizing tone in Peter's voice, a grizzled old man stood up, hand clenched around a walking stick. "Don't act like that kid doesn't know what he's talking about. He's never been wrong about a storm. And I doubt you've ever been in Alaska during a blizzard, have you?"
"No Sir." Peter looked down bashfully and Daniel continued.
"Hurricane force winds going all four directions at once mixed with snow. We are all in trouble if we don't get home!"
Mariah's face went pale and she stuttered, somehow choking out, "She didn't!"
Shaking his head, Daniel whispered, "She did." Every person in the café except the team knew what they were talking about and all jumped up so they could get home quickly. Noise roared in the café as chairs scraped the floor and dishes clattered.
"Who did what?" At Sam's voice, the café fell silent. No one was sure how to answer the question. Finally, the grizzled man answered.
"She, you know: mother nature. Sometimes she's just cruel to us Eskimos." Everyone could tell he was lying.
Before Sam could comment, Ava pulled his arm. "Come on Bucket Head, we need to get out of here." Paying their check quickly, they hurried out.
"Director Fury! Director Fury! Come quick!" Coulson's panicking voice brought Fury running.
"What, what is it?" Fury tried to calm down the frantic agent.
Face falling slack, he pointed up the mountains. "Look."
Glancing up, Fury's jaw dropped open. "Rats. Call back the search team, now! This is a Level 4 emergency! Get to the jets, now!" The small dark storm swirling around Mount Steepridge had grown larger, now circling all the mountains and spreading outward, towards the city. Gale force winds picked up and buffeted the agents as they scrambled towards to get back into the jets.
"Fury!" Coulson yelled again, "We can't find the team anywhere! And the storm is interfering with our communicators."
"Here we are Fury!" Spiderman yelled as he and the team pushed through the winds.
"Where were you four!" Fury screamed. "You were supposed to check in every hour!"
The team didn't answer until they were in the helicarrier. Once they were in, outside of the storm, Spiderman choked out, "Sorry Fury, but we couldn't come back right away. We didn't want to tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Fury asked gruffly, but his heart fell into his stomach, dreading what they might say next.
But no one answered. Ava simply pulled Danny's bandanna out of her pocket and handed it to Fury. Her hands shook so violently that she almost dropped it. Fury gulped, looking at the tear-stained faces before him. For the first time in his life, he didn't know what to say.