WITH BRANTLEY, AT JASON'S APARTMENT:

I knocked on the front door, self contiously straightening my jacket, and making sure my shoes were tied.

Jason had never been the kind to do any fancy get together, and his wife had learned that. But even though I didn't have to wear a polo and dickies, I made sure that my purple button down shirt was wrinkle free, and my jeans had no holes or stains. I made sure the shirt had long sleeve, covering up my recently done tattoos.

After Tyson had burned off my HU tattoo in a training session, I had replaced it with a big red LS, for Long Shot. and on my left shoulder, I had a series of small square-like tattoos. One was solid red, for Tyson because fire was red (mostly) and he controlled fire. One was solid green, for Jade, cause her hair was green. One was a mix of red and silver for Tama, the colors of her armor. One was a mix of black and blue, for jackson's iron-lad armor. One was light blue with a white star, for Clyde's Bucky uniform. And there was a solid purple one there, for me of course.

Carol opened the door, smiled, and pulled me into a hug, "Glad you could make it on time Brantley! And by on time, I mean half an hour late."

I smiled back, "Sorry. Ever since one of the squinterns crashed a top of the line jet into the side of the helicarrier, finding a pilot has been rough."

She gestured me in, "Isn't your team mate Jade a pilot?"

"Yeah, and i tried to ask her, but she was a bit preoccupied, with her tongue in her boyfriends mouth."

Carol laughed, "Young love."

"I'd be more enthusiastic if it wasn't on my desk."

"Oh."

As soon as I stepped in, Jason was there. He scooped me up into a huge bear hug. While it was great to finally get a hug from my brother, it also made me a bit sad. Jason used to be a really short kid, which had made me laugh a lot because Dad was huge, and he never gave anyone a one armed hug. Dad used to scoop me up right off the ground, and hug me until I was pretty sure he thought I was a teddy bear, instead of his kid.

It was even harder to realize that Jason was looking more and more like him every single day. His eyes, his jaw line, his cheek bones, everything.

Jason set me down gently, "So, how's our little spy doing?"

"Pretty good." I said, "Just missed Carol's baked beans, that's all."

And suddenly an Oompa Loompa is attached to my leg. Marlo smiled up at me, a front tooth missing, "Auntie! Auntie! Up! Up!"

Carol's voice came from behind me, "Full sentences Marlo."

I scooped up the little ball of energy, balancing her on my hip as she got a choke hold around my neck, one that feels tighter than Clint's. "I missed you Auntie!"

"I missed you too kid."

"Hey Marlo," Jason said as he peeled her off of me, "Can you help your mom set the table? I need to talk to your Aunt."

"Otay!" And Marlo bounded off, followed by Carol.

I turned to stare at Jason as he sat down in a chair, gesturing to the couch across from him. "What's wrong?"

He waited until I sat down before answering, "You should probably go see Mom."

Oh no. Please no. Please don't make me do this! I don't want to! "Why?"

Jason gave me a stern look, "Brantley, you haven't seen her since foster care took us away, she deserves a visit from you."

I slumped back on the couch to cross my arms, and curled my toes inside my sneakers. I didn't even bother to answer him. I just kept thinking about Mom, the look on her face when I got shoved into a police car, how loud she kept crying, how she wouldn't stop screaming, screaming at the top of her lungs. She would rip a breath from the air and it would slash through the night with her scream. I lived on the streets, where I would see people cry every day, over money, drugs, pimp beatings, or how hungry they were. But nothing has every compared to the sound a mother made when her children were taken from her.

"Brantley!"

My head snapped up to look at Jason, seeing only concern on his face. "What?"

"I said I'm overdue to see her again too. The fourth of July is coming up, and I'd like to see her before then. Maybe even get the whole family together, check Mom out of her holdings for the day. It'd be nice to have the whole family together for the Fourth of July, right?"

When I was a kid, Fourth of July meant that Mom was making pigs in a blanket, and Andy was making burgers. It also meant Dad would yank me and Jason into his car, and drive us all over the city we had been in, looking for the best fireworks he could find. He'd keep the radio on the whole time, but only country songs talking about how great America was, and he would sing at the top of his lungs. I would always try to sing along with him, but I didn't always get the words right. Jason knew all the words, but he'd just hum along instead of sing.

Dad used to tease him about that, call him shy. I remember one time he said, "You better stop actin' like a girl, or when you get older, girl's are gonna think your a fruit."

Jason had just pouted.

He sure wasn't a fruit now. Well, if he is, he sure as hell has a great cover, married to a hot mama, and an adorable little angel.

"Brantley!?" Jason snapped, "Did you go deaf recently?"

"No." I mumbled, "I just, I don't know Jason. Are you sure mom would stay lucid the whole day?"

Jason glared at me, "Brantley, she's our mother, we're taking her out for the Fourth of July, and we're going to be happy about it."

Yep, more like Dad every single day.

WITH JACKSON, AT STARK TOWER:

"Hey, you, carbon copy of me that eats all my food."

I looked up at Dad over my phone, raising an eyebrow, "You, slightly bigger vesion of me with more facial hair, what?"

Dad leaned over the coffee table, pushing my smart phone out of the way to glare at me, "Why is mark 28 pink and purple?"

"It looks better that way. They can't all be the same colors Dad." I reasoned, pulling my smart phone away from him.

"I can't fly around in a pink and purple suit!" He protested.

"You can if you want to support gay rights." I snickered, "Besides, Mom said that I could."

He leaned away from me, confused. "You mother, let you paint one of my suits, pink and purple?"

"No."

"No?"

"She let me paint it fushia and violet. By the way, mark 18 is powder blue."

Dad stared at me a few moments, before running out of the room. I used my phone to hack into the kitchen camera to see him run in on Mom. "Honey, why is our son talking like a girl?"

Mom looked up at him from her paperwork, "What?"

"He just called pink fushia, and purple violet! Then he prattled something off about powder blue." He said, intensionally making the last two words high pitched and sound extremely gay.

Mom just rolled her eyes, "So?"

"SO!? So, I know I haven't been teaching him to be a girl, so that leaves you!"

Pepper rolled her eyes, "Oh relax, he's just yanking on your chain."

Sometimes, Mom was smarter than Dad.

LATER, AT THE FINISHERS SECTOR:

Jackson entered the small, jokeable space the team called their sector. He was actually pretty pissed that the council would stick them into this tiny little hole. He was the son of Tony Stark, he could build an engine designed to win the Indie 500, with a box of scraps he could probably find at Walmart. And they take the chicken salad he brought to the table, and literally turned it into chicken shit.

Deciding that was a pretty funny way joke, he decided to try and find someone to vent it to. Clyde was due back anyday from training with Steve, and he knew that if he found Jade or Tyson around here, chances were that they would be together, and if they were together, that meant Jackson would be stumbling into something nearly r-rated. Though a picture of Jade doing something like that sounded great, he knew she would bust his balls if she ever figured out he had one. Tama was visiting her grandparents in Asguard this weekend, so that left Brantley.

"Hey archer girl!" Jackson yelled, walking towards her office, just in time to see two other people walk out.

One was a girl about Jackson's age, with a blue and red spandex suit. Her half mask was red with blue web patterns layering it, and her combat boots were blue. The boy she was with looked about Tyson's age, with a half mask kind of like the girl, but her half mask covered her upper arm, while his covered his lower face. He had on a black muscle T-shirt, black pants, black combat boots, and black fingerless gloves. But what really stood out to Jackson about him was his eyes. They were such a pale blue, nearly white, Jackson knew that this boy had to be blind.

He heard Brantley call after them, "You can come back tomorrow, meet the whole team officially."

"We will." The boy said, and guided the girl past Jackson, out of the room.

Jackson peered in at Brantley, "Hey, you, the dirty street kid."

Brantley glared up at him, "Hey, you, the boy about to die."

"Alright, peace." Jackson ammended. "Those two kids that left-"

"The girl is single, the guy is not her exboyfriend."

"Thank you." Jackson walked out the door, only to come back in five minutes later with a black eye and a busted lip. "I hate them both."

"Grow up."

"Never!"

Brantley's laptop lit up with a picture of Jason's face, "Hey Brantley, we've got an interesting body down here! Wanna come by, give it a look?"

"I'm not in investigations anymore. And isn't it pretty easy to tell whether a body died of supernatural forces or not?" Brantley asked, "I mean, that is why your sector exists, right?"

"Yes, and we've alread determind the cause of death." Cam said, pushing Jason out of the camera's range of view. "The skull was split open."

"Okay, you don't need me then-"

"Not so fast." Cam said, "It was split open-"

Jason popped up infront of her, a huge grin on his face, "From the inside! Please come down, just for this one case, it'll be so much fun. I swear, just one case!"

"Im running a seperate sector Jason, I have a ton of paperwork-"

"Make Jade do it." Cam ordered, "It'll get her away from Tyson, and keep her from getting pregnant this weekend."

"Cam!" Brantley hissed.

"Did I cross a line?" Cam asked.

Brantley groaned, "Yes..."

"My bad."

Jason pushed cam away again, getting close to the camera, more than he should have. "Brantley! Forget about lines! Forget about being polite, and get down here!"

"Jason-"

"THE SKULL WAS SPLIT OPEN FROM THE INSIDE!" Jason screamed, "I REFUSE TO LET YOU PASS THIS UP, IT'S THE COOLEST BODY I'VE EVER WORKED WITH!"

"I said no!"

Casm shoved Jason away again, "Brantley, your sector is meant as a finaly line of invedstigations for cases no other sector has time to take one, correct?"

"Yes-"

"Then get down here, and pick up the case, before I decide to give Fisher back her pilots license."

"Coming!"

Jade wasn't going to be happy with the amoutn of paperwork, but Brantley had probably saved S.H.I.E.L.D. the trouble of a wrecked plane and several dead agents. But she failed to check and make sure Hell Hero and Spidergirl's filed were put where Jackson couldn't reach them...

Jackson paused, filed in his hand, "Hmm... maybe I shouldn't... who the hell am I kidding? Story time!"