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The HQ was quiet. Only the noise of a functioning coffee maker and the occasional sound that escaped from Johnny's earphones could be heard, and only if someone paid attention (but no one was doing it; the team was too tired to pay attention to buzzing and a Dazzler’s album). Then, as a surprise, the silence was broken.
“What is the twelve letter verb for ‘to throw something out of the window’?” Clint wondered, unaware that he had done it out loud.
“Defenestrate.” Gwen replied, almost automatically. Thanking him with just a nod, the archer wrote down the word in the newspaper's crossword puzzle.
Bored, Kate slowly found herself sitting next to the blonde, seeing the remaining words over his shoulder. “Deceptive view typical of the desert…” She murmured, thinking, before she snapped: “Mirage! And the chemical symbol of francium is--”
“Fr!” Johnny did not shout, from the other side of the room, distracted on his cell phone, but spoke loud enough for him to be heard. “Are there any other biological one?”
“Ah…” Barton scanned the paper until he found one. “Herb used in bruises, six letters, has an a in the beginning and an n in the middle.”
“Try arnica.”
“It fits, thank you.” He and Bishop continued to answer a few more, and with only one missing, they decided to ask a colleague again. “Quire! What is Edda's first poem?”
“Ah, Völuspá.” The team's pink-haired mutant replied without much excitement. “The creation of the world and the final destination of all the gods--”
“Anham, anham, and we're done!” Clint announced, euphorically interrupting him. “Can you find any more of these on the internet?”
“Of course I can.”
Kate pulled out an old tablet from her stuff, and, finding the Daily Bugle website, started together to complete more crossword puzzles. The HQ remained silent until Jeff knocked a vase off the shelf after trying to reach a butterfly; but at least that end of day didn't feel like a funeral anymore.