The first blast hit Harry, sending him spinning through the air before he crumpled against the wall and slid down it. Two more blasts were shot in the direction of Tony and Pepper. With a dive he didn't know that he was capable of, Tony careened into Pepper before they both hit the
couch, their momentum taking it and them over backwards, out of the line of fire.
A quick once over confirmed that Pepper was okay, meaning that Tony was free to scramble forwards and peer around the
couch.
The girl, Doreen, was currently in the midst of a backwards jump, where she did a complete spin before landing on her feet in a crouch. Her eyes were focussed on the rogue armour. As the armour hovered on its boot jets, its hands were extended, shooting bolts of red at the girl; not one, though, was hitting her.
Doreen dodged to the left, the right and then the right some more. Her eyes narrowed and Tony noted that both the claws and the knuckle spikes that Harry had mentioned were extended. Unexpectedly, she charged forward, but only a couple of steps before she leapt high. Tony watched, impressed as she twisted herself to hand on the roof, clinging there by her hands and feet for an instant before she pushed off, spinning once more to dodge the armour's attack before her hands grabbed the armour's shoulders as she passed.
With a grunting heave, she pulled the armour up and over her head before slamming it down onto the ground. Instantly, she was on it, her knees trying to pin its arms to its sides as she slammed her knuckle spikes into the armour's shoulder joints. The creak of metal told Tony that she'd succeeded in piercing it.
With that, Tony stood and made a slashing gesture with his hands, causing the armour to instantly power down and disassemble itself.
"What?" a confused Doreen asked as the armour fell apart under her, its lights going out at the same time.
"You alright over there?" Tony called.
"Yeah, I'm good," Harry grunted, rubbing the back of his head. "That packed a bit more of a wallop than I was expecting, though."
"Wuss," Tony countered. "I had it set at only fifty percent."
"Wait. What?" Doreen asked, looking backwards and forwards between the two men. "You knew about this, that this was going to happen? Was this some kind of weird test?"
"Got it in one," Tony grinned. "What? You're not impressed? I am. You did great. Didn't think you'd actually be able to take down one of my suits that easily. Although, truth be told, at full power, you wouldn't have had a chance, especially sitting on the arc unibeam. That thing could have reduced you to ash in milliseconds. You've got potential, kid."
"You wanted to show the Avengers what you could do, didn't you?" Harry asked.
Doreen nodded and Tony was pleased to see that she was getting it; he didn't want those spikes aimed at him, after all.
"We'll put you through your paces anyway, but we thought that this'd be a good way first way to gauge what you can do," Tony said. "And we'll make sure that the others see the video of it, too."
"Okay," Doreen nodded eagerly. "When can we do that?"
"How about we head down to the training room now," Harry suggested.
ooo00ooo
"She's good, plenty of potential. A little young, though," Tony said as he, Harry, Bruce and Pepper watched Doreen swing through the gymnastics equipment that Natasha had had installed.
Luna was in the corner playing with Monkey Joe, keeping him occupied and out of the way.
"A little young? She's what, fifteen?" Pepper asked incredulously. "You're not going to allow her to join the team! She's got to at least finish school first. It's bad enough that you're allowing Peter to join in."
"Peter's a little older …" Harry began.
"One year does not count, "Pepper snorted.
"And he was doing the hero thing before he joined up," Harry continued. "Matt and I'll keep an eye on him. Doreen's different, she hasn't done anything yet, not that she doesn't want to. But I think we can convince her that her schooling comes first, especially if we phrase it as 'getting the best skillset that she can in order to be the best Avenger that she can be'. And if we have her come in and train with each of us on a regular basis, I think that she'll be happy. Should buy us a few years before we need to decide if she'll be a full-fledged Avenger one day."
"What, like an Avengers Academy program?" Bruce mused. "Could work. We could use the same approach on Peter, keep him off the streets a bit as well."
"And it wouldn't hurt the rest of us to get some training in either, especially as a team" Harry commented.
"Not that you're going to be helping with that, Gandalf," Tony commented. "Aren't you headed back to jolly old England next week?"
"Yeah, well, it's something that I've got to do; I need to get some expert help with a piece of magic that I'm struggling with," Harry replied.
"Well, it's not like any of us could help you," Tony said before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a phone and tossing it to Harry. "Here. In case you do need some help while you're awy. I'm pretty sure that I've got the shielding sorted now so that your magic won't short the thing out."
"Thanks, Tony," Harry said before pocketing it. "And also for the loan of the staff you're sending over to manage the Den while I'll be away."
"Don't thank me; you're the one who'll be paying their wages," Tony replied.
"And don't worry about Doreen," Pepper stated. "I'll pop over every other day to check on her."
"Thanks, Pepper. I don't plan on being away too long; just a quick trip to get this magic sorted, maybe a visit with some old friends and then it'll be straight back here," Harry said. "Strictly a low-key visit."
Luna's peals of laughter had the four turning to stare at her.
"Oh, Harry, when have you ever done anything 'low-key'?" she asked before dissolving into laughter once more.
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