"And a mutate is different from a mutant?" Harry asked.
"Yes. Mutants have an extra gene encoded in their DNA from the moment of their conception – the X-gene," Bruce confirmed.
"Does that make witches and wizards mutates or mutants?" Harry wondered.
Bruce shrugged. "Without looking into their genetics, it's hard to say. My guess is that they'd be given a different classification."
"You're saying that there's four different types of humans on the planet?" Steve asked, shaking his head.
"Well, yeah, I guess so. Normal humans, mutants, mutates and … magicals, I guess we could call them," Bruce replied.
"Well, now that we're all here and we've got that out of the way, are you going to tell us why you summoned us?" Clint asked Tony.
"And why you're wearing that ridiculous hat?" Natasha added.
"I think it's the height of fashion," Tony replied, although none missed the glare that he directed at Harry, nor Harry's chuckles.
"What? Did you do something?" Clint asked Harry.
A quick wave of his wand banished Tony's cap, revealing a headful of lurid yellow and red striped hair. The momentarily stunned look from the rest of the Avengers quickly dissolved into howls of laughter.
"You did that?" Bruce asked through his laughter.
"He said that magicals had no sense of humour," Harry explained. "I'll have you know that I am the son, godson and adopted nephew of some of the greatest pranksters that ever lived."
A second wave of his wand towards Tony had the billionaire quickly plucking at his hair, trying to pull it down so that he could see it.
"What'd you do?" he asked panickily.
Not being able to see his hair, Tony rushed across the room to look at his reflection in a metal surface. His sigh of relief at seeing his hair black again caused the others to dissolve into laughter once more.
"If we've all finished playing 'laugh at the man who's been working hard to make you all a lot of money' then I've got presents," Tony pouted.
His words also triggered the appearance of Dummy, his one-armed robot, carrying a large cardboard box.
"Put it down on the coffee table," Tony instructed.
Dummy complied but it was with a morbid sense of fascination that the group stared at the robot as it attempted to manoeuvre its way back out again, making dozens of small turns backwards and forwards before it could trundle back the way that it'd come.
"You made that?" Steve asked incredulously.
"Give me a break; I was a lot younger then," Tony countered.
"You mentioned 'presents'?" Natasha asked.
"And 'money'?" Clint added.
"Yep," Tony said, rubbing his hands together. "After … New York, I started to see a lot of stuff starting to appear with us on it. I've got some of it here."
Opening the box, Tony began pulling items out and tossing them about. A toy hammer, shaped just like Mjölnir, was left on the coffee table. A toy shield was tossed to Steve; a mask and giant green gloves in the shape of clenched fists went to Bruce; a pair of black underwear with 'Black Widow' written in white on its bum was tossed at Nat; a baseball cap with a purple arrow and 'Hawkeye' on its front went to Clint; and a blue-grey cloaked action figure, its face a simple black, was thrown at Harry. Lastly, an Iron Man T-shirt was placed on the table beside the hammer.
"This is only a sampling of what's out there," Tony said. "Pretty much anything and everything that you can think of has been made either like us or with our names and images on them. Toys, clothes, books, pencil cases, lunch boxes, you name it, it's out there."
"People actually buy this stuff?" Steve asked, the blush that had appeared with Natasha's underwear finally having disappeared.
"You better believe it," Tony confirmed. "Which led me to wondering why we weren't getting any royalties from it. So, I put my lawyers on it."
"You trademarked us?" Bruce asked.
"Got it in one, big guy," Tony beamed. "Now, whenever someone wants to use our names or images on something, we get a cut."
Diving back into the box, he pulled out a stack of small black books. After opening each one, he tossed them about the room. Harry caught his and opened it to find out what it was. His eyebrows rose as he realised that he was holding a bank book giving him the details of an account in his name.
"Why does it say 'Captain America' and not Steve Rogers?" Steve asked, beating Harry to the question by a fraction of a second.
"Well, apart from me, the rest of you are all wimps, wanting to hide your identities and what not," Tony explained, receiving a number of head shakes and eye rolls in response. "So, I convinced the bank to open the accounts using our Avenger names. There's also one for Thor for when he decides to come back. And one for the Avengers in general. Figured we'd use that one for upgrades and whatnot."
"I'm not complaining or anything, but why'd you do this?" Bruce asked.
"I'm not bragging or anything but I'm worth a fair bit of coin; figured you lot could use a bit of cash as well," Tony explained.
"Thank you, Tony, we appreciate it," Steve said formally. "But just so you know, while none of us have the same kind of money you do, we're not poor."
"Seventy-odd years of back pay from the Army would have been a very nice surprise," Clint commented.
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