"I also wanted to check that you were okay. This place isn't too far from Stark Tower and that's where the heaviest stuff happened. And when I hadn't heard from you, well … I checked with Dad and your name hadn't come up on any lists of injured or … or dead that he'd seen," she explained.
This time it was Harry's turn to duck his head.
"Sorry about that, I should have thought of letting you and the others know that the Den and I are alright," Harry said.
"Yes, you should have. I had to come all the way from England to find that out," a voice stated from behind him. "Hi, I'm Hermione."
"Gwen Stacy," the younger girl said as they shook hands.
"Gwen was my first and best employee," Harry explained.
"I know, Harry, you've told me about her before, remember?" Hermione smiled.
"About that," Gwen interrupted, "I also wanted to tell you that I may have to reduce my hours here somewhat."
"Oh?" Harry asked, not sure that it mattered all that much at the moment with the café being closed, but later, it would.
"Yes," she said and a massive smile slowly formed on her face. "I got the internship!"
"You did! That's great, Gwen. I know how much you've wanted it," Harry said, happy for her.
"Internship?" Hermione asked.
"It's with Oscorp. I'm going to be working in their research department, most likely with Doctor Curtis Connors. He's a brilliant scientist, specialising in cross-species genetics."
"Sounds amazing!" Hermione replied. "Congratulations."
"Thank you. I start next week," Gwen said. "As soon as I know my schedule, I'll let you know, Harry."
"Don't worry about it," Harry replied. "We'll work around your schedule."
"Gwen?" a deep male voice asked from the door.
"Here, Dad," she called.
"Captain Stacy," Harry nodded to the uniformed man.
"Good to see you in one piece," Captain Stacy said. "And your building made it through as well, which is incredibly remarkable."
"We were lucky," Harry shrugged.
"You ready, Gwen?" Captain Stacy asked.
"Yes, Dad. See you later, Harry. Nice to meet you Hermione," Gwen said as she crossed to the door.
"She's nice," Hermione said once the Stacys had left.
"Yeah, she's a good kid," Harry agreed. "And I suspect that that internship is going to be brilliant for her, she's going to meet people and do things that we've never imagined before."
"Well, you, maybe, Harry, but my amazing mind can imagine quite a bit you know," Hermione laughed.
ooo00ooo
"Gentlemen. Thank you for coming," their leader stated. "The events of the past week have not been of our making, nor of our choosing. We need to decide the direction that we will take."
"How did these 'Avengers' come into being? I thought that we'd convinced the World Security Council not to go down that avenue?" the man third from his left asked.
"We had. They were more than content to pursue the Phase Two weapons. Fury, however, is being as big a pain in the rear as usual," their leader stated.
"Do we need to have him eliminated?" another suggested.
"Perhaps, in time. But not just yet," he was answered.
"What about the Avengers? How do we respond to them?" one asked.
"Keeping them in line is not going to be easy," it was stated.
"Project Insight could be accelerated," another suggested. "Simply add them to the algorithm and problem solved."
"Can we afford to wait that long?" the leader asked. "Project Insight has always been a long-term project."
"We may have other options," the one who had yet to speak said quietly. "There are some … assets in S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities that we could … point in the right direction."
"Not a bad idea," their leader mused. "I take it you're thinking of Blonsky?"
"Yes. And Sterns."
"If we wish to go down that track, there are other assets that we could utilize. I know that Oscorp's secure sub-basement has some very interesting toys," another said eagerly.
"And I'm sure that there are others that we could use. If you could head up the project," the leader said to the one with the original suggestion. "Call it … Project Sinister."
The leader waited until he'd received an affirming nod before continuing.
"What of our other projects?" he asked.
"The tesseract has been lost to us, but S.H.I.E.L.D. has been given permission to study Loki's staff," he was informed. "It should be easy enough to divert it to a facility of our choosing."
"Do we have somewhere appropriate?"
"Not yet. However, a simple … nudge should be enough to cause a revolt within Sokovia and it'd be easy enough to establish what we need there."
"See that it is done," their leader stated. "Anything else? No? Then continue to monitor events. Build a comprehensive database on each of these 'Avengers'. We need to know everything about them – how they think and what their likely reactions and responses are likely to be in any given situation. After all, knowledge is power.
"Hail Hydra!"
"Hail Hydra!" the age-old battle cry was echoed.
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