As the Avengers Turn

Frank was paying for having ever agreed to bring Cap in on his and Bucky's fight. Bucky alone was more than enough to keep Frank's hands full. Add to that the fact that Frank had spent the entire time concentrating on defending himself from Cap so that he wouldn't have to consider actually going on the offensive that he'd left himself wide open to any number of attacks from Bucky. He was sore all over and he was in a rotten mood. Which pretty much explained why he was hauling the zombie troublemaker back to the jail by his ear. The kid had been hanging around the outskirts of town, sneaking around houses and checking for loose windows when Frank had walked up on him and surprised him. Scared, the kid had thrown a lucky punch and caught Frank in the ribs. Frank had reacted predictably by busting the kid's nose. Once they made it back to the jail, Frank tossed him into a cell and slammed the door closed. The weekend crew was in the office, so Frank made sure they had everything under control before walking back to his place. A shower and some pain pills were looking pretty good, really.

It was hot. It was rather insufferably hot, actually, or at least it was to Johnny since he actually felt it. It was making him more than a little cranky.

His powers would come in seriously handy right about then.

In order to cope, he snuck out of his own house, which actually had people in it, and snuck into Frank's while he was out, leaving the shades down and the lights off. There he just sprawled out on the relatively cool living room floor with the t-shirt he'd been wearing balled up beneath his head like a pillow. Now if he just didn't move for a while, it might actually be tolerable.

The front door of Nick's house owned just enough for an all-too-familiar arm to slip through. His fingers flipped the lock on the door handle. The door closed again. It was tested with a sound rattling of the door knob to prove it was locked. The sound of metal sliding against metal eeked out before the door knob twisted.

Tony threw open the door with a pleased smile on his face. As he walked in, he twirled a thirteen key set of bump keys on a key ring, tied with a red bow. It may have been a red shoe lace bought at the local convenience store, but the idea was the same.

"Anyone home?"

Victor had grabbed takeout from one of the less horrible restaurants in town and headed over to Tony's, hoping that the not-horrible food would maybe make up for the not-horrible-but-not-great sushi.

He knocked on Tony's door and waited, take-out bag in hand.

Clint rocked back on his heels with his hands stuck into his pockets, grinning down at Wanda as they stood outside the pharmacy. Not that he didn't want to hold her hand or anything... it was just that he tended to get distracted whenever they did that. "So. What was so important at our one and only drug store again?"

He had noticed, of course, that Felicia had taken to leaving random pairs of panties laying around his living room. Or in his liquor cabinet. Once there was a pair in his box of cigars. That last one was the one that had really gotten him. Chuckling, he'd gone to the only florist in town and bought the most expensive arrangement of flowers he could and left them in her room with a card inviting her to dinner. Maybe she'd quit desecrating his cigars if he gave her some attention, too.

Two days of cleaning was enough. Felicia cleaned up at Nick's and headed out. Purposely, she left a stray set of panties around for whomever Nick was carrying on with - oh, she knew something was going on. She just didn't know with whom.

In tight, black jeans and a mid-drift sweater, Felecia strutted down the street to the main drag. Certainly someone somewhere knew that something good was going on. The Black Cat was ready for some fun.

Alright, he was willing to admit it. Two Tony's and only one Pepper had him curious. Especially as she'd attached herself to the other Tony. So he decided to drop by the bank and see what was what. He pushed the door open and the ringing bell announced his presence cheerily.

She stopped by his office on her coffee break, donut in one hand, cocoa in the other. "I just wanted to say, Mr. Castle," she offered, cheerily. "You don't have to bring in donuts if you're doing it because you kissed my boyfriend."

Johnny had taken to crashing at Frank's every few nights, just to get a break from his family. It was why he was tangled lazily in the sheets on their day off, sleeping in as late as he could before the sun actually crept up the bed and shone in his eyes.

With the lunch crowd taken care of, Matt put together two plates and put a sign on the diner's door stating that they'd re-open in time for dinner. After all, it wasn't like the diner was the only place to eat and he wanted lunch to be quiet.

"Here we are," he said, putting the plates down on the table of a corner booth and sliding in across from Elektra. "I hope everything's still warm."

Her feet dangled back and forth as she sat on the top ledge of City Hall. Nighttime always gave her "the jazz" or a buzz under her skin that told her good things were about to happen. Tonight, she sure hoped so.

Dressed in basic black cotton as tight as the cloth could get, she wore her domino mask. She didn’t dress in her usual Black Cat costume since her "date" did play dress up to kick bad guy butt, but she couldn’t resist the mask. Luckily, she hand one for him as well. It rested on the ledge next to her.

Felicia gazed up at the stars. She smiled. It was going to be a good night.

( Cut for Wanda and Pietro being Wanda and Pietro )

Sure, finding all her worldly possessions stuffed serendipitously into her bag on the front porch hurt for a moment. Felicia stuck out her bottom lip and hung her head as she walked away. But as she made her way across town, she amused herself with bedroom designs. Pink was right out, because she wouldn’t be the type of woman that went back on her word. Peter taught her the importance of that lesson. However, she never promised not to paint his bedroom yellow and put up He-Man decals. Maybe Frankie-pooh needed a nice He-Man bedcover too.

Oh wait. My Pretty Pony would be so much better. After all, he left the party without dancing with her as he promised.

By the time she reached City Hall, Felicia was all smiles again. She found Nick Fury’s office easily enough. She introduced herself to his secretary. No, she didn’t have an appointment, but she hoped Nick would see her anyway. She took a seat and waited.

Frank had expected the garage to be empty - he'd noticed that there hadn't been any signs of life there for a little bit. He was missing a set of allen wrenches that he was pretty sure he'd left in the glove compartment of the car and needed to work on one of his Colts, so he tried the door to the garage and was a little surprised when it opened. "Anyone here?" he called as he walked in.

Frank was sitting in his kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand, looking over a map of the town and the surrounding area that he'd made over the past several months while working his rounds. Scattered on the table around the map were photos of a house at the far edge of town. They were obviously surveillance photos and showed five different zombies going in and out, some carrying supplies. Underneath those photos were more pictures showing the exits on the house as well as pictures of the zombies from the house in town. Some where shopping, others showed the zombies in obviously shady deals behind the bar and on dark street corners. Frank had obviously been busy for the past several days.

Johnny scrubbed his hand over his face, trying to get up the nerve to knock on Abi's door. He was going in without backup or an escape plan and with a fairly high likelihood of getting slapped. Not so fun. Still, there was always the chance that he was being overly pessimistic and it wouldn't turn out so bad after all, and so he knocked.

Johnny didn't really know what was happening, but one minute he was writing in his journal, and the next the doorbell was ringing. He pulled open the door to find a bunch of party-ready townies looking way more lively than usual, and then turned around again when he heard his stereo suddenly coming on with music to dance to. Food, drinks and decorations showed up in a matter of moments, and within five or ten minutes, he had a full-fledged party going on, pulling people from all over town.

"Huh."

With one hand on the large, black steering wheel and the other punching keys on his blackberry, Tony steered the beat-up truck in the direction of the big, red arrow on the display screen. He bounced in his seat as a tire clipped the curb. His foot pressed the brake all the way to the floor as the truck stopped in front of a fairly plan house. He studied the outside for a moment before he opened the door. It squeaked and crunched when he closed it.

Tony knocked on the glass plane of the front window.

Walking sucked. Felicia chanted it over and over in her head. The walk from the cabin to the sheriff’s office soured her mood until her frown threatened to line her face. Her bag slipped from her shoulder. It thunked outside the door. She knocked.