Why can’t I have a normal field trip? Jim thought as he forged through the corridor, full of smoke and ash. It had been nearly a year since the battle of Trollmarket, and things had been…

  Well, really great. He and Claire were doing fine, Toby and Darcy were joined at the hip, the closest he’d come to a fight in the last month was a bunch of revolutionary gnomes, and he’d managed to talk them down to accepting a tribute of socks in return for keeping Trollmarket clean—even Vendel tended to smile. They’d had a few adventures up top, mostly involving small time crooks, natural disasters (and some alien bounty hunters), but well, Jim had no complaints.

  Enrique had even said some of his first words, and called Jim by his name!

  And now, here they were, in an apartment building that had gone up like a bomb while they were at the museum. Senor Uhl had covered for them, and now Jim, Claire and Toby were trying to get people out before everything came down.

  “Bottom floors are clear, Jim,” Claire’s voice crackled in his Starktech earpiece.

  “There were people stuck in the stairwells,” Toby said. “Someone chained the emergency exits shut. So not awesomesauce.”

  “You need help?”

  “Nah, that’s what the hammer is for,” Toby said. “But Jim, some of them say that there’s people up above—could be they got out of another door, but…”

  “I understand,” Jim said. “Claire can you try to damp this down?”

  “I can’t hit it with a surge, it might collapse… Wait a minute, Me and Angor were practicing…” Her voice faded out, and suddenly, a head-sized portal appeared in front of Jim, and from it, blueish white flames erupted.

  Cold flames, and wherever they hit the smoke, the smoke seemed to vanish, while the fire itself had the heat sucked out of it.

  “I can’t do this for long,” Claire said, her voice strained.

  “I understand. Toby, try and get a complete head count.”

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  “Gotcha.”

  Jim’s armor didn’t have the technological flourishes of Tony’s “apology suits” but it had magic that grew with the wearer, and Jim had been practicing. He could easily see through the smoke as he moved through the mist, heading up to the top floor. Most of the doors were open. But one at the end of the corridor wasn’t.

  Gone, sleeping, hiding? Jim didn’t care. A touch showed there was no fire behind it, and a kick disposed of the deadbolt. Jim entered the room. There was a bed in the living room, made up. Everything looked…

  Shit. A smaller bed in the other room, toys around it. Unmade. Jim dropped to his knees. Nobody under the bed, but…

  The door to the bathroom was open. Jim flew there, and yes, there was a kid curled up in the bathtub. Not moving.

  Shit.

  “Claire, I need a portal, no—”

  The entire building rocked from the explosion. Chunks of the room were falling apart, fire was erupting through the floor, overwhelming Claire’s spell…

  No time for a portal. Jim picked up the child, holding her to his chest with one arm and called daylight to his hand, then charged through the bedroom, slashing at the exterior wall as fire roared in from the open door behind him.

  And then he was flying through the air, the building behind him, the ground swiftly coming up… Only to be held in a glowing purple field, and lightly deposited to the ground.

  Jim dismissed his helmet, rolling the girl onto her back. She wasn’t breathing.

  Check the airways, start CPR for a child. The no-nonsense SHIELD trainer at their “summer camp” had been right. This was something he was going to need.

  Portals opened up, and Claire and Toby were there. Claire turned and raised her staff, and portals appeared over the now evacuated (not to mentioned collapsed and on fire) building, a torrent of water falling onto it.

  “I don’t know what caused that,” Claire muttered. “Something went off like a bomb.”

  “Fire department is here. Jim, need me to spot you?” Jim nodded and then he and Toby exchanged places, Toby pulling his helmet back and starting to breathe for the little girl. A few moments later, she started coughing and gasping.

  “I—my house! Mama!” she cried out.

  “It’s okay,” Jim said. “Your Mama’s okay.” Then there were fire fighters moving forward, as Jim and Toby got out of their way.

  “I—”

  “Is that Jim? No way!”

  That was Mary’s voice. Jim blinked. Right, my helmet is off. Thing is, he couldn’t even be angry—the kid came first. Even a few seconds would have been unacceptable.

  “Wow, Jim is lively today!” Aja.

  “Toby? My boyfriend is a superhero?”

  “Well, at least I don’t—” Jim blinked. Claire had retracted her helmet. “Claire, what are you—”

  “Jim and Toby are revealed to be part of the Arcadia three.” Claire shook her head. “How long do you think it’s going to take to realize that I’m the only female member?”

  “Fury, we have a situation,” Maria Hill said.

  “What is it?” Fury asked.

  Maria just put the page up on his screen.

  The Arcadia Observer.

  ARCADIA THREE REVEALED TO BE LOCAL TEENS.

  “Damn. It.”