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Kamar-Taj

Vision was the last member of the team to arrive, phasing into the room where the rest of the team had reassembled. As he solidified, Kate made the final introductions for the android.

"Billy and Tommy are friends of America's," Kate said, gesturing to the brothers, who waved. The archer then looked at the third person to come through the portal and her tone was much less enthusiastic. "This is Loki. He was an…unexpected arrival."

"Are you named after the Asgardian god, by chance?" Vision asked respectfully, not picking up on the nonverbal cue.

"I am the Asgardian god," Loki snapped back, still miffed about the bind Billy had put him in.

"Long story short, he hitched a ride on one of America's portals," Kamala helped, seeing the confusion on the faces of the others. The god huffed and crossed his arms. Before the others had arrived, they had made him swear not to mention the magic Billy used to keep him from double-crossing them.

Vision gave the boy a curious look before turning towards Billy and Tommy. His eyes narrowed slightly like he was trying to remember something about them. The two boys glanced at each other, clearly confused about why Vision was staring at them, but they never broke the awkward silence in the room.

Instead, Riri did.

"Vision, what did you find?"

The android appeared to shake himself free of whatever thought had captured his attention. He bowed his head towards the M.I.T. student before answering her question.

"Nothing, I am afraid," he replied, folding his hands behind his back. "There is no mention of the Iron Avengers in any database owned by S.W.O.R.D. or the U.S. government."

The team deflated. They had hoped that luck would go their way and they would find where the robots were kept and destroy them before they could be activated. That way no one had a chance of being hurt and they could take down the problem before it became one. It was the easy path, and like all teenagers, they had hoped to take it if they had the chance.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Cassie asked, looking at Kate. The archer crossed her arms and thought for a moment.

"We are going to have to force S.W.O.R.D. to send the robots after us," she said eventually. "Which means facing them in the open."

"Isn't that what we were hoping to avoid?" Riri countered.

"We don't have a choice," Kate shrugged. "If we can't go to them, we have to make them come to us."

"So the question becomes: How do we lure them out?" Billy offered, mindlessly swatting his brother, who was fixing his perfectly gelled hair. "If we go after this agency—S.W.O.R.D—they just have to point a camera at us and we're the bad guys."

"Oh, for the love of Odin," Loki muttered, shaking his head in disappointment. "It's obvious what you should do."

"Care to tell us, autostopista," America countered.

"What did you call him?" Kamala asked.

"A hitchhiker," Eli grunted. As soon as he said it, all eyes were on him. He looked around and looked a little embarrassed. "I took three years of Spanish in high school. Chill out."

"Loki, do you have a plan?" Kate asked, bringing the conversation back on track.

The god sent a glare toward America, ensuring that she wasn't planning on making any more snide comments, before speaking. The rest of the team huddled in a little closer, anxious to see what the new guy came up with.

"The cheap-trick magician is right, you can't be seen as the bad guys," Loki said, making a gold dagger appear in his hands so that he could pick his nails. "However, you can still make a problem for these 'heroes' to stop."

"Like a crisis," Kamala said, immediately catching on. "A natural disaster."

"It shouldn't be too hard to whip up a storm," Kate said. "It would clear an area of people and force some sort of emergency," she looked at Loki, "especially if a known bad guy is in the middle of it all."

Loki raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Fair."

"We'll figure out everything when we're on the ship," Kate said, authority leaking into her tone now that she had the plan in mind. "It's time to suit up."

For the first time, the team of young heroes looked the part. Cassie and Riri wore their necessary suits, and Vision had returned to his all-white appearance. Kate wore her purple and black attire, complete with her specialized bow and quiver. Kamala wore her blue, red, and gold tunic, complete with the golden bangle on her wrist. They looked like the heroes that Nick Fury had assigned Kamala to recruit.

Skaar was the next to reveal the suit he had worked on while Vision looked for information. As he stomped out of Kamar-Taj, their eyes went wide.

"Damn," Riri muttered.

While Skaar was frightening in his Hulk form, he looked utterly terrifying now. He wore a spiked pauldron over his left shoulder and a leather pauldron over his right, held in place by leather straps that crisscrossed his broad chest. Bracers and greaves protected his wrists and legs. He had switched out baggy trousers for an armored kilt.

His broadsword was kept in a sheath on his back, leading the handle poking over his left shoulder. His hair, which was normally tied back, was left to hang loose around his face.

"What?" He demanded when he saw the others staring.

"Um, nothing," Kate answered. "Is this what you wore as a gladiator?"

"Yes," Skaar said simply before moving past them to the cockpit. When he was gone, Riri looked at them all.

"Are we sure we can't use him as the bad guy?" She asked. "He scares me and I know he's on our side."

"Skaar's is a big softie," Cassie joked, "...on the inside."

The four girls laughed as Billy and Tommy came out. The speedster still had his hair slicked back, but now he wore a green and white suit with a pair of orange goggles that currently hung around his neck. His brother, on the other hand, looked like a magician. He wore a ragged red mantle over a black suit and metal bracers on either arm that was adorned with a large red gem. A metal headband kept his hair out of his face.

"Here," Riri said, handing the two comlinks.

"Do I get one?" Loki asked, appearing behind the brothers. The trickster god looked the same as when the portal spat him out the day before.

"Catch," Riri tossed the god a comlink.

"Thank you, Riri," Billy said kindly. "Who else are we waiting on?"

"America—" Kate began to say before the heroine walked up to the ship, still wearing her jacket and jeans.

"I'm here," she waved.

"No suit?" Cassie asked.

"Nah," America smiled. "This will be fine."

"Looks like all we're missing is Eli," Kamala said. "Riri, did you end up making something for him?"

Riri grinned as she produced a metal bracelet. When she activated it, a holographic version of Captain America's iconic shield appeared. It looked to be the same size as the original, complete with the correct color scheme and a white star in the middle.

"In Wakanda, the Border Tribe have cloaks that can make a shield barrier using vibranium," she explained, happy to show off her invention. "I still haven't worked out how he can throw it, but there'll be time for that later…hopefully."

"I'm sure he'll like it," Kate said confidently.

"I do," Eli said, surprising the group. They all turned to see him standing at the entrance to the ship, still in jeans and a hoodie with his hands stuffed deep in his pockets.

"Eli, are you okay?" Kamala asked. She was the first one to realize that something was up.

"No, not really," he replied, looking at the others. "Look, I appreciate that you guys want me on your team, but I shouldn't be here. I'm not a hero, not like all of you."

"Eli, why are you now saying this?" Kate asked, her concern written plainly across her face. "Has someone said something or…?"

"Nah, no one said anything," Eli shook his head. "I'm just saying that I'm not ready to do this. Not yet, I mean."

"But you fought with us at S.W.O.R.D.," Riri pointed out.

"Our mission there didn't show me that I was ready to be with you guys, it showed me that I wasn't," Eli explained awkwardly. He nodded to Kamala and Kate. "Again, I'm thankful that you guys want me on this team, and maybe one day I'll be ready to be one of you, but I'm not right now."

"You've made up your mind, haven't you," Kate asked, but her tone showed that she already knew the answer.

"Yeah," Eli confirmed. "I just talked to Wong. He's going to get me back to Baltimore."

The new members of the team didn't know how to react to the news. They hadn't spent days with Eli, getting to know him. His confession had a much bigger impact on Kate and Cassie, who knew the boy from Baltimore much better. They viewed him as a friend and appreciated seeing him come out of his bubble around them.

Kamala felt the worst of the group. She knew she shouldn't beat herself up, but she couldn't help but kick herself for not foreseeing the problem sooner. Everyone else in the group had some experience being a hero, everyone except Eli. Yet, she had still managed to convince him that he could be a hero with very little training. She hadn't truly thought about whether or not he was ready, only that he had the potential to be a hero.

"A spot is always open for you, Eli," Kate said, giving him the decision he was waiting for—the understanding from his friends to do what he thought was right.

"Thanks," he said with a sad smile. "Good luck."

Without another word, he turned and trudged back to the fortress, never looking back over his shoulder.