“I still wish Vendel were here,” Blinky said. He’d been waiting, on pins and needles (and why did humans have such an expression?) as it were, until the Trollhunter and his friends had returned.

He was happy they were back. He did indeed like Barbara and Claire’s parents were intelligent and wise…

But the grilling he’d been receiving about why he felt it was appropriate to keep the trollhunters’ missions from them had become…

Uncomfortable.

“So, Draal gave my son this… Grit-Shaka,” Barbara said.

“To aid him in calming himself before meeting the Lady-some friends of his.” Blinky said with a smile.

The parents weren’t returning it.

“And in trolls, it was used to… banish fear.”

“Yes,” Blinky said. “But…”

“But it had a different effect on the kid,” the Man of Iron said.

“Er, yes, but are you a mage? How did you—”

“Oh, let’s see, Trolls have a completely different biology, if you have a biology, I bet your brains don’t look anything like human brains, and you handed the magic version of combat drugs to a fifteen year old kid.”

Blinky was beginning to decide that he didn’t like the Man of Iron.

“Even if it worked, that kind of confidence boost would be dangerous,” the bespectacled man said in his diffident manner. Blinky had no idea why so many common soldiers gave him such a wide berth.

“Yes, well, Jim did attempt… To seek out Bular and kill him. Fortunately, he escaped with his life—And here he is!” Blinky said, turning to the door as it opened, and the trollhunters…

As well as Angor Rot walked in, both Avengers and normal guards around him.

Normally Blinky would be terrified of the assassin, likely because every other time he’d seen him he’d been trying to murder them.

In this case, however, it was a welcome distraction from his interrogation.

“So.” Barbara looked up at the intimidating assassin. “You made the spell.”

“Yes.”

“Can you break it?”

Angor tilted his head, looking down at her. “It will be painful. It would be best to have a book of sorcery in Stricklander’s possession, but even so, the sorcery was never intended to be broken. ”

“What was it used for?” Angor glanced at the bespectacled man speaking to him and immediately backed up, hand dropping to his dagger. Everyone tensed.

“You… Are more than you seem.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. Bruce Banner.”

“Mmm… It was originally used to bind kingdoms in peace, Bruce Banner. The Kings or Queens would be bound so that any betrayal would result in the death of their own.” Angor’s chuckle was grim. “It lasted a short time, even by your standards. Many kingdoms realized that they wished conquest more than they wished to protect their king…” He shook his head. “Where is Stricklander? Once we have the book, this should be done as quickly as possible. The longer you are bound, the harder the sorcery is to break.”

“Wait!” Barbara raised her hand. “But if that’s true… what would happen when I died of old age?”

“After a year, it would have been impossible to break the binding without killing you both.” Angor’s eyes gleamed in the light of the ship. “Stricklander should have been more careful what he asked of his ‘dog’.”

“Yep. Definitely still scary,” Jim softly said.

Claire glared at the staff. “Why does it take so long?” she asked.

“Because you are doing something that is unusual? That even an experienced mage would find difficult?” Angor asked. The troll didn’t seem perturbed at the explosive belt on him, the shaped charge designed to cut him in half while protecting anyone else. Or for that matter the guards in the room. “And you are becoming angry. You should not use that emotion. It opens you to other powers, such as the Pale Lady.”

“I agree,” Dr. Banner said. “Take it from me, negative emotions can… make things difficult.”

“As I warned you, Fair Claire,” Blinky said.

“Which is why, after this is over, I think maybe we should consider putting the staff somewhere safe,” Tony said. “It’s not as if—”

“You mean take it away?” Claire blinked. I know they’re better than we are, they’re older, but he’s just acting like—”I took the staff.”

“Yes, and are you going to need it, once the squirt is back, safe and sound?” Tony asked. “Other than to sneak out after curfew?”

“I—”

“Yes,” Angor said. “She seized the staff. I was attempting to kill her, and yet she seized it. It is hers. And she could not use it if she did not have the gift for sorcery and a powerful one at that.” The assassin looked at Claire. “Until she learns to control her gifts, the staff could be used against her, but it can also be a channel for her own powers.”

“And it’s mine,” Claire grumbled softly. “But I sent the probe through, why can’t I get anything back?” The three were working with Angor while Jim, Toby, NotEnrique and the rest of the Avengers cleaned out Stricklander’s office. Another shield team was observing the Janus Order’s HQ and Claire had barely been able to keep from flinching at the revelation that an entire underground HQ had been in her town.

Director Fury was holding off on it, until they cleared Stricklander’s office. According to Mr. Stricklander, the most important materials had been stored away from the order so none could betray him.

Most importantly, it had the book with a ritual to separate Dr. Lake and Stricklander. Angor had told them that he could do it without the book, but the chances of an accident went up.

Really went up.

“The Darklands were intended to be a prison,” Blinky said. “Even your current success is impressive.”

“Yeah, not good enough,” Mr. Stark said. He gestured at the pieces of a probe on the floor, sliced in half when Claire lost concentration and the portal closed. “Not a good look for some babies.”

Claire turned pale at that image.

“Yeah…” Mr. Banner said. “But the problem is you can’t keep it steady. There’s no anchor…”

He snapped his fingers. “What about the Bridge?”

“Killahead?” Angor asked. “It is a barrier, save when the Trollhunter opens it.”

“And Vendel would never permit that,” Blinky added.

“The entire point is to not open the door to the legions of angry trolls.” Mr. Stark said. “Still if it’s the only way, I don’t care how old this Vendel is, Fury can be pretty persuasive.”

“Maybe we don’t need to. Killahead bridge is a barrier, but it exists in both realities. It’s stable in both realities when the bridge is assembled.” Mr. Banner started getting animated.

“Like… Like a landmark!” Claire said. She could see it. “Like the way I can use something I have a tie to...”

“Right!” Mr. Banner said. “We secure the fetch to a single fixed point—you use it to project it out and since it’s fixed, you’ll know where Killahead is in relation to it, so you won’t have the same problems focusing and losing track of your position!”

“And we can use the SPYEYE algorithms…” Mr. Stark lightly smacked himself on the forehead. “Right! We don’t have enough power to make a portal, but we can send a few though with a generator and—Wait!” He turned and ran out of the room.

“Does the fleshbag always act like this?” Angor rumbled.

“Yes.” The voices, troll, and human, were unanimous.

Moments later, Mr. Stark came back in with a cart full of equipment. “Okay…” he said, plugging a fusor into some complex equipment that was far beyond anything Claire could understand. “Just give me one second…” He gestured at Claire. “Grab your staff of truancy and tell me if you can feel this.” A switch was thrown and Claire blinked.

“I… Sort of… Yeah.”

“And we’ve got it. If you’re right, Bruce, we use Killahead as our main point to generate a starting coordinate for the portals, and when we find the kids, I’ll make a smaller version of this to open a pinhole so you have another point to work from, instead of just going with what you see. We can triangulate with those.” He smiled. “Progress.”

Claire gripped her staff tightly. Progress. But you’re already talking about taking it away. What happens to us when this is over?