"Depends on the person," Tony said. "I like mutants. Mutants are awesome, even if they are occasionally pains in my ass."

"Good to know," Avery said, mentally filing that information away.

"Why do you ask?" Steve said, setting down the controller for a moment.

"Personal reasons," Avery replied after a split second hesitation.

"The personal reasons that Jarvis mentioned," Tony said, glancing at Steve. "Cap, really, Clint's going to snipe you and I'm going to laugh."

Clint just snickered as he did exactly that. He picked off Steve's character, and then disappeared before he could respawn.

"I think information regarding the team is a bit more important, don't you?" Steve replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Regarding the team, yes. Regarding the handlers that Fury's throwing at us to see if they stick, not really." Tony went to go find cover from the madman for the moment.

"For the moment, things regarding the handlers affect the team as well," Steve said.

"On that note," Avery broke in carefully, looking at Tony, "what exactly did Jarvis tell you?"

"You have magic and your partner has something that is as of yet unidentified," Tony said, pausing the game to look at her. "At first it was just "they're not all human" but I get live updates."

"You can ask Kerry about her thing yourself," Avery said. She was quiet for a second or two. "Magic isn't all I am, but it's about the gist of what I can do. One of my grandparents was an off-worlder."

Tony nodded. "Alright. Like I said, no magic in the tower within reason and you'll be fine."

Avery studied him for a moment. She hadn't expected quite that level of mellow acceptance.

"Alright," she said slowly, nodding. "I can do that."

Tony, of course, wasn't really that accepting. Jarvis was already instructed to watch her every movement inside the tower.

Life was relatively quiet for a few more weeks. Avery and Kerry both kept to their routine of stopping by a few times a week, until one day it was only Kerry. Avery found herself on a quinjet out to Nevada, where she had been told that a SHIELD team was in need of a bit of magical support.

She hadn't been told which team it was that needed the support. So Coulson decided to meet her just after she transferred from the quinjet to the Bus.

"Nice to see you again," he said, looking at her with a faint smile.

Avery just stopped and gaped for a second.

"Coulson?" she asked, her voice a bit high in disbelief. "What the hell? You're supposed to be dead!"

"I was, for eight seconds," Coulson said with a little shrug. "Don't feel bad. Not many people know."

"Why do we still have your assets if you're not dead?" Avery asked. She looked at him. "Do you have any idea how difficult they've become since New York? They've been through three sets of handlers already!"

"I know," Coulson said. "They can't know yet about me. Besides, they need to get used to other handlers and they need to accept help from other people."

"That's the entire problem, they refuse," Avery said. She made a face. "And you know I won't be able to refuse telling them if they make Captain Rodgers ask, he ranks a level 8."

"If they make him ask," Coulson pointed out. "I'm sure the director will want to talk to you before you go back to normal duties."

"Lovely," Avery muttered. She glanced around. "Nice place you have here. What's the Director got you doing that requires a mobile command center?"

"We're taking our own assignments," Coulson said. "We get to pick, for the most part."

"Yeah, your little mystery team here," Avery mused. She sighed and looked at him. "Alright. What do you need my help for?"

Coulson motioned her to come the rest of the way inside.

"We found something two days ago and went to go investigate. It didn't seem to be dangerous, but..." He trailed off and stopped at a room, where a very aggravated-looking Ward was watching Fitz and Simmons, who were all of five years old.

Avery paused for a moment.

"Oh my," she said. "Is that FitzSimmons? They really gave you FitzSimmons?"

"They did," Coulson agreed with a faint smile. "However, they were a little older when they were given to me." He paused. "Only a little, though."