"Not possible," Dakota answered instantly. "They're the Avengers; we're just JID."
"Well, maybe we could use that," Ryan suggested thoughtfully.
They all looked at him, and Blaine asked, "What do you mean?"
"Let's assume that they are here to meet us, get to know us, or are concerned over something that Maria's told them – whichever. They can't get to know us if we refuse to talk, even though we know a lot about them, right? It's not much, no, but if worse comes to worst and need be, we could confuse them with it. If they don't know who's who, they don't know which of us can do what, should we end up needing to fight them for some reason. And our refusing to give out our names is one way of showing them that we don't like them."
"So we're just going to be 'hey, boy, yeah you' the whole time they're here, however long that is?" Blaine asked skeptically.
"We could assign ourselves a number," Dakota suggested practically.
"Okay," Hayne said, "Even if that does work, what about Maria? She's on their side right now; she wouldn't let us try to confuse them, not when she wants to sort this whole thing out."
Andy narrowed his eyes, thinking before he said thoughtfully, "Let me handle Maria."
"Why?" Dakota asked. "What do you know this time that we don't?"
"If I told you, the information wouldn't be any good," Andy said evenly, standing from his chair as he asked with false cheer, "Now, who's ready to go meet the 'rents? On second thought, stay here for a minute. Let me go talk to Maria for a second, and then I'll let you guys know when it's safe to come out."
"Just… don't be stupid, okay?" Hazel said.
"When have you ever known me to be stupid?" Andy asked with a smirk.
"Yesterday," Ryan said.
Hayne added, "Day before that."
Scarlet smirked, and Andy cut her off before she, too, could add her two cents. "Alright, I get it. I'll be careful; no interaction with the Avengers until my team is with me."
"Thank you," Hazel said, giving him a tight smile.
"We'll stay in here and clean ourselves up," Ryan said. "But if you aren't back in here within ten minutes, I'm coming out."
"Jawohl, Kapitän!"
Ryan rolled his eyes. "I'm not German, I'm British, so stop it."
"A British Captain America is just as bad as a German one nowadays, private."
"I am not Captain America, either."
Andy rolled his eyes. "Close enough."
"What happened to our united front, guys?" Dakota asked sternly. "Andy, if you have a plan, quit stalling and go do it."
Andy nodded briskly, squared his shoulders and strode towards the door. The metal squealed its resistance once again as the door slowly opened, garnering the attention of every one of the adults that had come to stand nearby.
"Hey, folks," Andy said, shoving one hand in his jeans pocket and waving with the other as he took a few steps away from the building. "You don't mind if I talk to Maria for a second, do you?"
He bit back a smile when Steve Rogers took a half-step towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, which was all the verification he needed of his being correct on his findings. Maria obligingly stepped up to him, and he guided her out of hearing distance before he stated his case.
"Okay," he started in a stage whisper. "You majorly overstepped boundaries bringing them here out of the blue."
"The director doesn't know they're here; I had to act fast and without his permission if I wanted to get you guys safe."
Andy snorted. "Because the Hulk is safe?"
"Maybe not, but Dr. Banner is one of the best people I've ever met."
Andy inquired sweetly, "Better than Captain America?"
"What do you mean?" Maria asked, stiffening noticeably.
"You're dating him." Andy paused before throwing another thing out there. "But you have done worse. I mean, sleeping with a married man – with Fury? Not cool, Maria, no matter how long ago it happened."
"What do you want?" she asked fiercely, her eyes darkening with anger.
"You keep your mouth shut, let us say anything we want to, don't try to get us to say things we don't want to, and I keep my mouth shut about your personal life. Deal?"
"Fine," Maria all but snarled.
Tomorrow, Andy figured he was going to regret hurting her and saying what he had, but right now he had to look out for his team, and he had very little to do it with save for blackmail. That he had a virtual abundance of.
"Great," Andy smiled like what he had just said wasn't already twinging at his conscience and walked back into the training center.
"We good?" Blaine asked, seeing him first.
Andy nodded. "I think so. Maria's not going to say anything when we go out there, anyway."
"That might give us an inch to run with," Hazel said. "Maybe."
"Well, we were blindsided," Ryan replied. "There's not really any way that we can start out with the upper hand here, is there?"
"If we take this inside, Sid only answers to us, so the house would be under our control," Andy suggested.
"So we've got an agent's silence and a house," Blaine said with a roll of his eyes. "That's just great."
"Hey," Dakota spoke up, "At least you guys are looking better."
And they were. Sans Andy, they were all scrubbing off the dust and sweat – and in Blaine's case, blood – and changing clothes. Even Demi was wearing "Midgardian" clothes now. Nondescript clothes. Blaine and Scarlet weren't wearing their normal uniform of black on black – holy smokes! – Scarlet was actually wearing one of Dakota's sundresses. Ryan had commandeered one of Andy's own jean and t-shirt ensembles instead of his normal camouflage.
"What's the point with the clothes?" Andy asked.
"To blend in with each other," Scarlet said. "It was Ryan's idea."
"Black is Hawkeye and Black Widow's color, and it might clue them in to who's who if their children are wearing it." Ryan explained.
Andy asked, "What's your excuse?"
"Camouflage is army colors. Maybe I'm being a little paranoid, but-"
"It's fine," Andy said easily, accepting the change of clothes that his sister handed him.
Five minutes later, the teens were all cleaned up and had made their way to the main level of the house. Andy watched the others settle into various spots in the entertainment room and then went to get the adults from where they were still barricaded into the outdoors, requesting, "Sid, unlock the doors."
Here went nothing.