A/N: This fic takes place in the same universe as my Child's Play/MCU fics, as a sort of spinoff. Hopefully I don't have anything contradicting all my other stories. Anyway, enjoy!

September 20th, 2017

Tree Gelbman woke up to the sound of her phone's alarm going off. Unfortunately for her, she forgot to change the ringtone, so the same music was playing from a few days ago.

"It's my birthday! And now you gotta pick up the phone! It's my birthday, can't you just leave me alone? It's-"

Tree lunged for her phone, quickly shutting the noise off, and got out of bed.

"Hey, you're up." Tree's boyfriend, Carter Davis, noted. "You slept in again."

"Sorry." Tree mumbled. "I guess dying over a dozen times really drains your energy." Carter chuckled, walking over and kissing his girlfriend.

"How did I get lucky to have such a beautiful girlfriend?" Carter asked.

"I could say the same thing to you." Tree countered, before the two kissed again.

"Hey, guys-" Tree and Carter quickly broke apart from each other, staring in the direction of the doorway. Carter's room mate, Ryan, had barged into the room yet again.

"Dude. Seriously." Carter muttered, staring his friend down. "Out."

"Look, sorry for interrupting your make out sesh, but there's some guys here asking for you." Ryan stammered. "They don't look like they work here." As if on cue, Two men entered Carter's dorm, looking most definitely like they don't belong. One of them was a bald, African American man with an eyepatch over his left eye. The other wore what appeared to be a blue tunic, with a scarlet cloak and an oval shaped necklace.

"Who the Hell are you guys?" Tree asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My name is Nick Fury." The man with the eyepatch. "I'm the director of SHIELD."

"Wasn't that the organization that got taken over by HYDRA?" Carter asked. "Which was an offshoot of Nazis?"

"I'm running a new SHIELD." Fury explained. "It's supposed to be better than what it used to be."

"Cool." Tree smirked, before pointing to the man in the cloak. "Who's this?"

"Doctor Stephen Strange." The man in the tunic answered. "I'm here because i felt a ripple in time. Almost like a… time loop?" Tree felt her face heating up, and she grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah…" Gelbman said slowly. "The day kept resetting every time I died, until I solved my own murder and caught the killer." Strange and Fury looked at each other, almost in knowing, before turning back.

"Do you have any idea how you could have started the time loop?" Strange asked. In response, Tree shook her head.

"No, but each time I came back, I got a little bit weaker." Tree told the doctor. "If I had stayed in there for a longer time, I'd probably be dead for good."

"So, similar to Groundhog Day?" Ryan piped up.

"Seriously, man. Shut up." Carter hissed towards his friend, not wanting to embarass themselves in front of Fury or Strange.

"Interesting." Strange mused, fiddling with the necklace. "I once created a loop with the Time Stone last year…"

"The Time Stone?"

"Story for another time." Strange waved his hand, dismissing the question. "I'll look into this time loop you seemed to be in." With that, Strange created a circular portal with a wave of his hand, and disappeared in thin air.

"So cool." Ryan whispered. Fury gave the empty spot an odd look, before turning back to the teens.

"In the meantime, I've been thinking on something on the way here." Fury spoke up. "What do you think on becoming an agent for SHIELD?" Tree blinked, nearly not registering what the director said.

"You're kidding, right?" Tree laughed nervously. "I mean, I'm still a kid, and I have school-"

"We'll help pay for college." Nick Fury reassured Gelbman. "Besides, Stark recruited that one Spider kid, and he's still in high school."

"Spider-Man's not even legally a man?" Carter laughed. "That's hilarious!"

"I- I don't know." Tree fumbled her words, looking towards her boyfriend for support.

"Honestly, I think you should do it." Davis told her. "It'll help you out if someone tries killing you again, so you won't have to reset the day." Tree smiled, before turning back to Fury.

"Alright, Nick, I'm convinced." Tree told the director of SHIELD. "Just as long as I get through college first.

"Deal." Fury grinned, and stuck out his hand. Tree smiled back, grabbing the man's hand and shaking it.

Over the next several months, Tree continued college, while on weekends, she received special training as a SHIELD agent. True to his word, Fury and SHIELD helped in funding, much to the relief of Tree's father. Doctor Strange would visit from time to time, giving her more information on the Time Stone, but never had a concrete theory about how she ended up in a time loop in the first place.