“We tried timing it with a stopwatch,” Toby said. “But that didn’t work…”

“So then, Claire came up with the idea of dropping a flashlight into one portal while we were filming it with a phone, so we could try and see if there was a delay,” Jim added.

“Good thought, but you’d need a lot more exact measurements than that to see if we’re talking lightspeed, FTL or just near light speed,” Mr. Stark said.

They were standing in a room that looked like a lab—a lab from Gun Robot, that was. Claire was holding her staff out, a small box on the table in front of her. At the far end of the lab there was a target mark. On the other side of the room, Dr. Banner was fiddling with the fetch.

“Okay, ready?” Mr. Stark asked.

Claire nodded. Moments later, the box fell into a portal, to appear over the target mark. Mr. Stark frowned, checked the equipment.

“Well, bad news, the equipment here isn’t exact enough to tell if you’re blowing past light speed.” Mr. Stark said.

“Thirty feet would be hard at the best of time,” Dr. Banner added.

“Oh ye of little faith. Hey, have you three ever thought about visiting Avenger’s Tower?” Tony grinned. “Best labs in the world, fully catered meals, not that you need help making good food,” he added, glancing at the sandwich Jim had whipped up. “In addition to luxury suites, Olympic swimming pool and—”

“Chaperones, I presume?”

Jim went cold. Claire turned pale, looking over his shoulder.

Which probably wasn’t a good idea, because it really brought out the bruises mottling her face and arms against the white of the clothes she’d found to replace her ripped clothing.

Jim turned around. There was no sense in waiting, in putting off his doom.

“Mama?” Claire squeaked.

“Hey, sis,” NotEnrique said, waving from… Thor’s shoulder? “Sorry, but the scary one-eyed dude didn’t give me much of a choice.”

“Indeed he did not, small one,” Thor said.

There, standing in the doorway was his mother, Claire’s parents and Toby’s Nana, along with the rest of the Avengers.

But the Avenger’s probably weren’t going to kill him and then ground him.

“Mom…”

“I heard the whole story,” Barbara quietly said.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t—I didn’t—”

“The whole story, Jim. Including the part about how Wal—how Stricklander was using me against you. When I was supposed to be supporting you, I was making things worse.” Suddenly Jim found himself enfolded in a fierce hug. Barbara whispering into his ear. “Oh Jim, I am so sorry.” Jim felt awkward for a moment, then reached back and hugged his mom. It had only been a few months since he’d become Trollhunter, but it felt like forever since he could talk to her.

“I’m sorry as well, Mom.”

Next to him, Claire was being enfolded by her parents.

“I’m sorry I ever doubted you Claire,” Ophelia said. “I’m sorry about what you’ve had to shoulder.”

“I—I’m.” Claire shook her head, then blinked as Ophelia pulled back.

“But we’ll have to have a long talk when all of this is over.”

“Mama?”

“You didn’t feel comfortable coming to us, and I didn’t notice. About you. About my own son. I think we need to talk, as a family, after this.”

“Hey Nana,” Toby said. “I’m sort of sorry about not telling the truth about our exchange student?”

“Arthur-san?” Nana asked, and suddenly Jim had the disturbing thought that she didn’t sound nearly as dotty as she usually did. “That’s okay, Tobypie. You were helping your friends.” She smiled. “Your father and mother would be so proud they’d burst.” Toby swallowed at that, hard, then hugged his nana.

“But first,” Blinky said, from the corner he and Arrrggghhh had been exiled to after accidentally breaking a piece of equipment that according to Mr. Stark, cost more than Arcadia. “We must recover the child.”

Jim really tried not to snicker at the sign Tony had put in the corner, reading “Big Troll’s Time Out Corner.”

“No,” Tony said. “We are going to recover every kid.”

Jim found himself grinning as he slowly disentangled himself from his mother’s hug. I never thought we could figure out a way to get them all. That had worn on Jim, thinking about all the infants in that dark place, even if they weren’t hurting, never being allowed to grow up, to live. Three kids couldn’t save the whole day…

But three kids plus the Avengers?

“I like that idea,” he finally said. Next to him, Claire and Toby were grinning.

“I like it as well,” his girlfriend said.

Claire hadn’t realized just how much she’d been beaten down until she’d spoken to Natasha.

And that was strange, being told to call her Natasha. But now they had people who knew, their parents knew.

And the world hadn’t ended.

And suddenly the tightness, the feeling of how wrong it was to lie to her parents, literally every time she saw them, never letting on about trolls or Enrique or how terrified she was…

It was gone. And Claire had never realized how wonderful that feeling was.

And it was time to listen to Tony’s idea.

“Okay, here’s the thing,” he said. “First problem, we only have a tiny gap into the Darklands. But solution, we’re going to use the magic staff and send something through.”

“Tony, the scans and probes aren’t showing anything other than a fog,” Mr. Banner said. “I don’t think this dimension extends that far above the ground.

“There are stories that it floats in an endless sea, but…” Blinky shrugged. “None have ever been able to verify that. This is incredible.”

“So what, the Darklands are like Earth?” Jim asked.

“Maybe,” Thor replied. “But it may be that the fog is a… metaphorical concept.”

“And good for our test, since we don’t want anyone to notice this. Okay, Hamlet-Lass, do your best.”

Claire looked at the fetch, then at the sensor drone that Tony was setting up.

“I’ve gotta try to push it through,” she said. “This works best with negative emotions—”

“It does?” Thor frowned. “That is dangerous, Lady Claire.”

“I… I know, and Angor Rot doesn’t have a problem using it, but I can’t exactly ask him,” Claire said.

“Still, you should be cautious,” Thor warned.

“Amen to that,” Banner added. “Fetch is ready, all sensors operational. “

“Right…” Claire took deep breaths, then closed her eye. She wanted it to go through the middle of the fetch, but to the other side, the side in the Darklands… She focused. It was hard, and took longer than her normal portals. There was a moment of stress, and then, the probe vanished into a portal, and beeping started up.

“Got it!” Tony said. “Two-hundred pound probe, two feet wider than the fetch and you sent it into another dimension. He raised his hand, and Claire gave it a light clap.

It was a little harder to do that than she thought. He was Tony Stark!

“But how do we find the kids?” Toby asked. “We were sticking our heads though the place and it went on forever.”

“Well,” Tony replied. “The probe is saying that the environment is suitable to radio signals, which means…” He touched a stud and a tiny, disk shaped device appeared. “We’ll be using these. They have sensors and a wireless repeater. Originally they had a shaped-charge because they were supposed to be for killing infantry, but I don’t make that anymore, so they were easy enough to repurpose for disaster relief. I’ve got my people shipping a few thousand here, so…”

“You use them to map the Darklands,” Claire said. “Holy sh—guacamole, we would know exactly where to go!”

“If they work,” Captain America said.

“And then…” Tony smiled and touched a stud. The hologram derezzed and showed baby baskets floating out next to a portal, an image of Claire waving her staff. “We bring the kids back and, of course, resolve Gunmar.” The next image was of a cartoony Gunmar, surrounded by equally cartoony forms of Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk, who reduced him to a rock pile. “Sorry for the theatrics,” he said with a smile. “I had a few minutes to kill.”

Sorry? Claire snorted. Not in a million years. She had just met Tony Stark, but she knew one thing. He was all about the theatrics.