Maeve swore under her breath as she braced herself. It didn't take a genius to figure out why Tony suddenly floored it. Ditto squeaked as it fell into Maeve's lap from the sudden turn.

Tony kept up the turns and the speed, glancing behind him frequently. He lost three of the cars, but a fourth was being persistent.

"Guess we're doing this the bumpy way," he muttered. "You can drive stick shift, right?"

"Yeah, I can," Maeve replied, "why?" She was already unbuckling her seat belt.

"You're gonna take over." Tony grabbed one of her hands, putting it on the wheel as he let go, grabbing the suitcase armor and popping it open. "Try not to kill the car."

"Damn it, Tony--!" Maeve clambered into the driver's seat, cursing under her breath. She threw the car into another gear and sped up, dodging through traffic.

Tony grinned and managed to do a complicated hop-wiggle-jump out the sunroof of the car as the suit closed around him, without even damaging the paint. And then he powered up a repulsor and blasted at the unlabeled black SUV (seriously, Hydra? Get more creative people), which was all well and fine until they started shooting back.

Maeve flinched a bit when she heard the gunfire, and turned the car sharply to the right, heading down a side street. She took two more quick lefts to start making it back to the main road again.

Tony managed to be a good enough distraction that the Hydra cars lost track of the car Maeve was in. And Tony was fine in the suit, he was more worried about civilians in the area. Which was a bit of a problem.

But not so much of a problem that he didn't call Maeve a few minutes after she'd left the scene.

Maeve had found a little out-of-the-way parking lot and stopped the car.

"Hey," she said when he called. "What's our status?"

"All clear, but the suit is kind of conspicuous, I'll meet you at the air strip," Tony said. "The directions are on the GPS, Jarvis will bring them up for you. Call me if you see anyone following you, or anything seems off."

"Alright, will do," Maeve said, starting the car again. The directions popped up on the GPS, and the voice calmly giving instructions was Jarvis. That made Maeve smile a bit. "Meet you there, Tony."

"Good." Tony hung up and flew low, taking the long way around to the airport again. But he landed only moments after Maeve parked, sure he hadn't been followed, and the suit folded up into a suitcase again.

Maeve parked the car and let the pokemon out of the back seat. She stretched a little and sighed.

"It'll be nice to be back in New York," she admitted as she recalled Ditto and Chandelure. She left Gardevoir out.

"It's a lot more comfortable," Tony agreed. "We can be back in ten hours if we leave now." He was already heading for the plane, which was ready to go and just waiting for them.

"Sounds like a plan," Maeve said, going to get her things out of the trunk of the car.

Tony headed onto the plane, Ninetails on his heels, and settled in for the ride home. He knew an attendant would take Maeve's things to store for the flight.

Maeve got onto the plane as well, once her things were safely stowed. She sank into a seat with a sigh.

"I never thought I would say this," she said, "but I miss America. France is nice, but I definitely miss home."

"Well, then, it's a good thing you've got a nice secure new apartment to move into," Tony said with a grin. "Your housemates aren't too bad, either." He waggled his eyebrows.

Maeve couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"And what would I be looking at in rent?" she asked, just a bit teasing.

"Well, I can always use help keeping track of the spysassins, and they need a new handler to glower at," Tony said easily. "I'm sure you and Pep can collaborate on something useful-sounding to put on payroll."

"I already have an asset, and they already have a handler," Maeve pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "What happened to Phil?"

"Oh he's still around salvaging stuff. He kind of got promoted from handler to Director." Tony grinned.

That made Maeve pause.

"What?" she asked, blinking. "He was made Director? Why not Hill?"

"Hill's working for me," Tony said. "Well, technically, she's working for Pepper. But still. Besides, Hill wanted the job. Coulson didn't."

"No kidding Hill wanted the job, she was Assistant Director," Maeve said. She shook her head. "I bet she expected to get the job. I can't imagine she's pleased."