Agent Maria Hill could handle anything. Aliens, fire fights, Director Fury, Stark's ill-mannered quips. All with a quick thinking head and a stony expression. Anything that was, except for a screaming child, or seven for that matter.
"Please Sir!" She almost yelled in frustration. Fury just stared her down, though he was secretly surprised and amused to see his effective second in command, almost beg something of him.
The newly resurrected Agent Phil Coulson wasn't quite as good at hiding his slight enjoyment of the situation, failing to bite back a humoured smirk at the young woman.
"The decision is final Agent Hill." Fury told her, "Whilst I acknowledge that you are not in this job to perform babysitting duties, this series of events has left me with no choice but to turn to my two greatest allies."
Had Maria been in a better mood, she may have even cracked a smile at that last comment, but as it was she instead, simply muttered a series of curse words under her breath, mainly towards the war-criminal Loki, whose intrusive misadventures on Earth had this time resulted in himself and the team regarded as 'The Earth's Mightiest Heroes' to currently be viciously attacking the walls outside of the Director's office, with brightly coloured crayons.
"But Sir…" She began again, only to be interrupted shortly after.
"Final decision." He repeated, glancing over at Phil, and then nodding towards the door. He left without complaint, at set about prising the rowdy youngsters away from the wall.
Maria lingered for a few moments, locked in a deadly staring contest with her Superior, hoping to get him to change his mind. No such luck. She eventually gave up and left, grudgingly of course, her voice ready to call Fury every name under the sun as soon as she was out of earshot; she got some satisfaction in slamming the door behind her too.
Loki and Steve looked up at her in shock, their eyes strangely innocent in their new found, miniature forms. She scowled at them, fixing her glare mainly on the Asgardian who, she reminded herself again, was responsible for this whole mess.
"Loki?" She'd asked just a few hours earlier, talking to Natasha through the radio.
"Loki." The other woman had confirmed. Maria paused expecting to hear gunshots and yelling and general chaos, though there was nothing.
"Romanoff?" she inquired, after pondering the silence for a few seconds.
"He's alone." Natasha hissed, "Armed, but alone."
"Just like the first time." She heard Clint mutter in the background.
Tony then made some snide remark to Thor about the security of Asgardian prisons; this was after all, his seventh return to Earth since the Battle for New York.
Maria considered turning off her communication with them then, stopping the Avengers from bickering had never been in her job description. She reached for her coffee, catching Coulson's gaze. She figured he must have taken pity on her, as he switched the coms over to him. She nodded courtly in his direction and busied herself with paperwork; until she heard Coulson's noises of panic across the room.
"Something's happened!" He yelled at her, causing her to blink at his vagueness, before ordering him to the landing deck, requesting and receiving Fury's permission en route.
They both knew all too well, that they could be flying into the line of fire. Loki's fire. Phil had been here before, Maria questioned if the Avengers were worth it, to her it seemed that sometimes the so called heroes seemed to attract trouble rather than deter it, though she did not voice her opinions out loud, not at that moment; she would save her protests for later.
They tracked the team down to a street a few blocks away from Stark Tower, though not the team they sent off an hour or so before. This team were much smaller, pintsized versions of each of the Avengers, lying asleep or unconscious on the sidewalk, a tiny adversary amongst them, a miniature Loki.
"Is this some sort of sick Joke?" Maria asked, storming past the children. "Dammit Stark this isn't funny!"
Her anguished yells must have done something to jolt life into the small hoard of children. They awoke one by one, and stared at each other, deep confusion knitted into their brows, they looked to Maria's meeting her irritated glare, and spontaneously burst into tears and loud wails.
"And they're definitely them?" Maria asked for the umpteenth time into her mobile. She must have got an affirmative response as she pursed her lips, gave a quick 'thanks' and then hung up, slumping slightly in the passenger seat.
They were on their way to Stark Tower, she still hated the situation and the new responsibility that had been dumped on her, though she was thankful that Phil had convinced Fury that contacting Miss Potts would be a good idea, if only to inform her of her boyfriend's unfortunate transformation. She was out of town at a conference though she did insist on them using Stark Tower to house the youngsters until she returned. Something about having little kids cooped up in a SHIELD base must have frightened her. Privately Maria had to agree with her, SHIELD wasn't even safe for adults, that much was explained in the job description, so young children, even superhero and assassin children were risky to have around, maybe even more so than normal children actually.
SHIELD were pretty ill-equipped for some things actually, and she had a feeling she was going to be too.