"Come on, Sparrowhawk, just a couple more," Tony near-whined. "There's still plenty of time yet."

"Tony, the others will be here in a couple of hours at most," Harry replied, his patience at a near-end, both with the constant tests and Tony's incessant use of naming him after literary wizards and sorcerers. "We've been at it for days. If you don't have the information that you need somewhere in your computers by now, then I seriously doubt that an extra hour of testing is going to help. Besides, I need a shower."

Tony pouted at him, even while manipulating his computers, tasking them with running a different spectrum of scans on Harry's body.

"Obviously magical people aren't as much fun as I was led to believe," he stated.

In response, Harry gave his wand a brief wave in Tony's general direction.

The instant that his machines began beeping, Tony leapt at them.

"What'd you do? I know you did some kind of magic," Tony stated, his words near-blurring together in his excitement.

"Pardon me, Sirs," the voice of Jarvis said from the walls around them, "but there is something on the television that I believe that you should both be made aware of. And might I add, Sir, that I approve of your new look."

"What? What new look?" Tony asked, before waving the question away. "Forget it. Show us what you've found."

In response, one of the holographic displays changed to display a TV screen. Harry and Tony unconsciously moved to stand side by side as they watched what was clearly a view from a news helicopter.

"Where is this?" Harry asked, staring at the familiar-looking bridge.

The bridge was currently filled with cars, all at a standstill as the occupants of said cars fled for their lives on foot from ... something big near the midpoint of the bridge.

"New York," Jarvis replied. "Specifically, the Williamsburg Bridge."

Suddenly, one of the cars was pushed over the side, beginning its inevitable plunge towards the river below, a plunge that was halted mid-way. From the looks of it, that car, along with half a dozen others, were being grabbed mid-air by a line of some kind.

"The tensile strength of that has got to be enormous," Tony murmured.

The origin of the line was revealed as a red and blue figure appeared.

"Spider-Man!" Harry exclaimed.

"But what's that that's doing all the damage?" Tony asked.

Whatever it was, it was obviously big and green, thankfully not as big or as green as the Hulk. And this one seemed to have a tail. But that was as much as they were able to work out from the erratic pictures that the helicopter was transmitting back to the studio.

A quick glance around had Harry snatching up an empty coke can and tapping it with his wand.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked.

"Making a portkey," Harry replied, before deciding to explain further after noticing Tony's lack of comprehension. "I can only apparate myself so far. This allows me to travel over much greater distances instantaneously."

"You're heading back to New York?" Tony asked.

A brief flick of his eyes towards his suits of armour told the story of how much he wished that he could go too. Unfortunately, New York was on the wrong side of the country and Harry's magic wouldn't allow it to take him as well. At least, not without the suit blowing up straight afterwards.

"Yep. If I'm quick enough, maybe I can find out more about Spider-Man and whatever that is and lend a hand to the good guy or at least protect the innocents," Harry said.

Then, with a brief nod, he tapped the can once more and disappeared.

ooo00ooo

The Mage arrived on top of one of the support struts of the Willamsburg Bridge. Instantly, he peered downwards, looking for either the Spider-Man or the big, green thing that it was battling on the TV.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he was too late – neither of the two were there anymore.

Travelling across the country, albeit instantaneously by portkey, quickly donning his black dragon hide pants and shirt, his boots and many pocketed belt and finally his trademark blue-grey cloak before apparating to this position had taken too long.

Well, Mage decided, the main two may not be here. Their mess, however, was.

A second quick apparition took him to a point near the edge of the bridge near where Spider-Man had tied one of the dangling cars to.

A few judicious waves of his wand straightened the cars still on the bridge while at the same time manoeuvring them around so that there was some space left for the cars that he was about to retrieve.

After glancing over the side, Mage began levitating the cars back up to the bridge one by one. By the time that he was finished, he was visibly sweating, at least it would be visible if not for the hood on his cloak and the obscuris spell on his face. Levitating a ton of metal was slightly harder than levitating a feather, after all.

As he placed the last car down, Mage strode forward, conjuring a small container as he did so. Then, after bending down, he plucked a piece of the line that was attached to one of the cars off, a surprisingly hard thing to do, before depositing it into the container. He was sure that Tony or Doctor Banner would love to get a look at it.

It was only then that he became aware of the sounds of a conversation happening not that far away.

"You're trying to tell me that Spider-Man was the good guy here?" an incredulous voice asked.

Mage's ears and head perked up at that and he drifted closer to find out more.

"Spider-Man rescued my kid," a man was saying to a uniformed police officer. "Jack was trapped in our car and it was hanging from the bridge. Spider-Man climbed down after him and when the car burst into flames he stayed and even managed to pull Jack from the car as it began falling towards the river. The guy's a hero in my book."

The police officer took a pointed look around at the wrecks of cars strewn over the bridge.

"From what I'm seeing here, the guy's just as bad as whatever else was on the bridge tonight," the officer, who Mage now recognised as Police Captain George Stacy, stated.

"Excuse me, Captain," Mage broke in, making himself known to the two men for the first time. "I'd like to know more about the other one involved in all this."

"Mage!" Captain Stacy started. "I didn't know you were here. I just thought that you were out of town with the rest of the Avengers."

"I was," he replied. "I came back as soon as I saw what was happening. If you don't mind, I'd like to know more about what happened."

Captain Stacy glanced down at the notebook in his hand before sighing and closing it. "I'm afraid that I can't tell you much. We've got a lot of conflicting reports. There were definitely two super-humans here – Spider-Man and something else, although we're not sure what that something else was. There was definitely some altercation, but we don't know why. I'm sorry that I can't help you any more than that."

"I could tell you," the other man said.

Harry looked towards the man who was still holding his son close to his chest.

"Anything that you could tell me would be much appreciated, Mister ..." Mage said.

"Napoli. Tony Napoli," the man said, awkwardly holding out his hand to shake. "It's an honour, Sir. What you and your team-mates did for us, was amazing."

Mage inclined his head but refrained from replying, instead waiting for the information that he needed.

"Anyway, the other one looked like some giant lizard-like thing," Tony Napoli said. "Easily eight or nine feet tall; massive claws; incredibly strong. It was going after a limo, I think, before Spider-Man swung in and distracted it. Looked like Spider-Man was gearing up to fight it but my Jack here was in trouble and he chose to save him instead. I'll never forget what he did. He's the hero here."

A disbelieving snort from Captain Stacy gave the policeman's view on that opinion.

"Spider-Man's the good guy," Mage repeated slowly.

"Yeah, well, stands to reason, don't it?" Tony agreed. "He's been catching crooks and stringing them up for the police for a couple of weeks now. Seems like he just wants to do what's right."

Mage nodded slowly.

"Thank you, Sir, you've been a great help," Mage stated. "And I'm glad that your boy's okay. Captain Stacy."

And with that, Mage turned on his heel and vanished.

ooo00ooo

Harry arrived back at Tony's Malibu mansion still in his Mage outfit. His sudden appearance in the midst of the rest of the Avengers caused a myriad of different reactions.

"Can you stop doing that!" Tony asked exasperatedly, having being startled backwards a couple of steps. "I nearly spilled my drink."

"Harry," Natasha nodded, holstering her gun.

Those two, being the closest, had the biggest reaction, although Harry could also see Steve leaning over to place his iconic shield back down beside his chair.

"Sorry, guys, didn't know that you'd arrived," Harry said, tapping his face to cancel out the face obscuring spell before lowering his hood.

A quick swish had his cloak removed and flung over the back of a conveniently vacant chair.

"What's with the getup?" Clint asked.

"I just came straight from New York; there was a bit of a fight or something between Spider-Man and some kind of mutant lizard thing," Harry explained.

"You just came from New York?" Steve asked. "How long did it take you to get here?"

"Couple of seconds," Harry shrugged tossing the empty coke can that he'd used as a portkey onto a nearby table. "Magic can be dead useful."

"Mutant?" Bruce asked. "Are you sure that that's what it was?"

Once again, Harry shrugged. "I don't know how else to describe it. From what I've been told, it was eight or nine feet tall, incredibly strong and seemed to be looking for someone; or at least, it was attacking a limo."

"What was Spider-Man's part in all this?" Tony asked.

"Seems to be the good guy," Harry replied, as he plucked a small container from one of the many pouches attached to his belt and tossed it to Tony. "Present. Some of the line or webbing or whatever that Spider-Man uses. He rescued a kid from a burning car that was falling towards the river; if that doesn't say 'good guy', then I don't know what does."

"I've seen footage of him on the television," Steve commented. "He's definitely been enhanced."

"Most likely a mutate," Bruce commented.

"Mutate?" Harry questioned the term that he'd never heard before as he sat in the seat his cloak was draped over.

Bruce nodded. "His DNA has been altered out of the norm. Steve and I would be classed as mutates."

"Nat, too," Clint piped up.

All eyes swivelled to the red-head.

"Let's just say that I had an 'interesting' childhood and leave it at that, okay, boys," she said, leaving no doubt that that was the wisest course for all of them.

"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.

"You could say that," Steve replied.

"Yeah, well, that didn't stop you going out and getting a job, even if it is with S.H.I.E.L.D.," Tony retorted. "In fact, all of you have to work to make ends meet; Harry there runs a coffee shop of all things!"

"I have the Den to give me something to do and because I enjoy it. I don't need it to make money," Harry said.

"You don't?" Tony asked disbelief clear in his voice. "What, magic people can just make money appear out of the sky?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Tony," Harry retorted. "If I need money, I've got a couple of vaults full of gold in Gringotts. Goblins are amazing investors, after all."

"Goblins?" Clint muttered, shaking his head. "Man, everything that I thought I knew is being turned on its head. Next thing you'll be telling me is that unicorns and fairies and dragons are all real as well."

"They are. What do you think my clothes are made from?" Harry asked. "It's all dragon skin, the strongest natural material there is."

"Right, well, that's all I had for you. So, show's over people," Tony said.

"The pizza has been ordered and is on its way, Sir," Jarvis piped up unexpectedly, eliciting murmurs of happiness from all there.

ooo00ooo

Central Park in New York City was over eight hundred and forty acres of grass and trees and even a zoo, all carefully manicured and sculptured for people to enjoy. Winding paths and seating, lighting and picnic areas, were all abundant. For the city that never sleeps, it was their oasis in the midst of their concrete jungle.

But for Doreen Green, Central Park was far too sterile. It was nothing like the woods and forested areas outside of Los Angeles that she'd grown up in. She loved the wild nature of her second home, most likely a by-product of her mutated genes.

With that in mind, it had been no wonder that the instant that she'd disembarked from the final bus that'd brought her to New York, that she'd made a beeline for the famous park. She'd wandered its many paths and tree-covered lanes and avenues until she'd finally found what she'd been looking for.

Her sharp ears had caught the sounds first and a chitter in her ear from Monkey Joe had confirmed it: there were squirrels nearby.

She'd left the path, venturing deeper in amongst the trees to a small clearing where she'd firstly dropped her pack before going to her knees in the grass.

ʆ"Hello?"ʆ she called in squirrelese.

It took another two calls before the first curious head had popped out from a small hole high in one of the trees. Seeing it, she smiled.

ʆ"Hi! I'm Doreen,"ʆ she said.

Cautiously, the squirrel crept further out from its home, its front paws inching down the trunk of its tree.

ʆ"You speak like us,"ʆ the squirrel chittered.

A tapping on her thigh had Doreen absently reaching into one of the nut sacks attached to her belt and handing Monkey Joe a nut.

ʆ"I do,"ʆ she replied.

ʆ"How?"ʆ

By now, there were an additional four other squirrels observing her.

ʆ"I was born this way,"ʆ Doreen explained. ʆ"There are a lot of ways that I'm squirrel-like."ʆ

ʆ"Can you show us?"ʆ a squirrel off to the left