Serena's POV

"Hey you! Get back here!" a man yelled above the drone of the busy street.

I grinned as I wove through the busy Manhattan crowd. I had finally managed to steal an alien mask from the earlier attack on New York. This item would be a great addition to my collection of government secrets.

"Somebody!" another man called, "Stop her!"

I rolled my eyes at the word 'her'. I used to be well-known in the federal world, but had settled down and began exposing government secrets to the public and other countries. Nobody knew me now. I was another face in the crowd. Someone made a grab for me and I realized I was too conspicuous running down the street. I ducked into an alley and hid behind a dumpster.

"Where'd she go?!" the first guy asked.

"I don't know. I'll double back and you check around the corner up ahead," the two men spilt up and began stalking the area for me.

Cursing under my breath, I pulled out my phone and dialed Sam's number. Please pick up, I thought.

"Ugh…hello?" a female voice groggily answered.

"Sam! I need you to pick me up!" I peeked around the dumpster to make sure the men weren't coming.

A groan came from the other end, "Why? Can't you just walk back?"

"I'm trapped in an alley. If you don't come and get me, I'm going to be locked in federal prison or worse," I paused to let my words sink in, "besides, if I'm in jail how are you going to get your free alcohol?"

There was only silence from Sam. Then, she spoke, "I'm on my way. Where are you at?"

"I'm between the Peterson building and Starbuck's. Hurry. These people mean business," I closed my phone and began watching for Sam.

I sat for fifteen minutes before I heard "Confession" by Red ringing out. This was my signal that Sam had arrived. Sticking to the shadows, I maneuvered my way to the sidewalk. I spotted Sam pulling up on her motorcycle.

"Well, come on. Get your butt over here," she called.

I turned around and saw the two men making their way straight towards Sam and I. Fear quickly filled me as I raced to Sam and jumped on the bike. "Go, Go, Go, GO!" I yelled as the two men began running at top speed towards us.

"Shut up," she growled, "and hold on tight," we sped off and were soon lost in the busy Manhattan traffic.

Jackie POV

To say the least, the battle in Manhattan was a librarian's worst nightmare. They obliterated most of the books in the Public Library, so that explained why I was searching through the rest of the city for abandoned or unwanted books. That was how I ended up in a scatter-brained scientist's lab, uncovering baseball books under cogs and hammers. Chelesea the scientist had a fondness for random things. This may explain why she was my friend.

"Chelesea, why do you have a toy dinosaur in this mess that you call a lab?" I asked.

"Hmm? What was that?" she asked, too busy tinkering.

"A toy dinosaur in a mad scientist's lab. And what are you even working on? It looks like a massive death ray."

It did, made out of sheets of different colored metals. It looked like a satellite ray, but it pointed straight at the huge doors of the lab instead of the sky.

"It's called a Preservation Ray. It keeps things looking the same. Like if I blast you with this, you'll still look 24, even 50 years later."

"That's nice," I said uneasily.

Like I said, mad scientist.

A loud engine roared outside and the huge garage doors to the lab rolled up. A blue and silver Yamaha TZR 50 quickly sped inside and hit the button to close the door. It rattled down as the two passengers climbed off, one of them clutching something.

"Hi, Sam," I called to the passengers. "Hi, Serena."

"Hi, Jackie!" Serena skipped over, her long brown braid, swinging behind her. As she came closer, I noticed that she was carrying a silver mask. "I got a mask!"

"A what?" Chelesea asked, and then proceeded to bang her head on the ray while trying to get up. Her sharp cry echoed on the metal as she emerged, rubbing her head with a rueful expression.

"Are you okay?" I asked, not really concerned. She did things like that all the time.

"She's fine," Sam answered. "Serena's not going to be because she interrupted my nap."

"Well, I knew Chelesea would be too busy tinkering with her…thing to get me and I didn't know where Jackie was. She could've been all the way in Timbuktu for all I knew."

"I'm searching for books," I protested. "I would not go all the way to Timbuktu for books. Just to Davy Jones' Locker."

Sam huffed and rolled her eyes, stomping into the living room.

I should say we live in an old firehouse. Chelesea's lab is where the trucks were stored, while everyone claimed the other random rooms. We only kept the showers and the kitchen the same. There are the perks of living her, like the fact we kept the fire pole. I usually slide down that when I'm bored.

Serena shrugged at me and went off to store the mask with the rest of the government secrets that she keeps. I just shook my head and put in my ear buds, blasting One Republic while digging through the rest of the random stuff.

Which took me a second to realize the building shook.

I yanked out my ear buds, cutting off Republic mid beat. I was just in time to hear Chelesea squeak in alarm.

"No, no, no, no, no, NO!" she shouted in panic as a loud beeping started from the ray.

Whatever had happened, Chelesea was panicking over her machine, which was not a good thing.

I was two steps into my run to help her when the garage door collapsed. And when I say collapsed, I mean like pulled from its hinges. It fell to the ground with a bang and I caught a flash of bright green before I ran face-first into something hard and tall.

I unceremoniously crashed to the ground, my nose stinging and eyes watering I glance up to see someone looming over me, dressed in red, white, and blue and carrying a…round shield.

Holy Jesus, I just ran into the Captain America.

No time to worry about that now, I chided myself. But it was really hard not to stare at him like he was my dream guy, which in truth, he was.

I jumped to my feet and tried to push around him, but he caught me by the arm and held me in place.

"Let me GO!" I shouted over the beeping, which was getting louder and more insistent.

"Not a chance!" he shouted back.

I whipped around to see that the death ray was glowing red-hot. Chelesea was still trying to somehow turn it off, getting herself burned in the process.

"Chelesea!" I screamed in warning.

There was another glimpse of green before Captain spun me in his arms and turned so his back was to the ray.

It exploded in a burst of purple light and a thundering boom. A hurricane-force wind ripped through my hair. Captain tightened his arms around me and I forced myself to not think about him.

Well, I tried and failed.

After an endless amount of time, the explosion finally stopped. We stood there for a minute, and then I pulled myself from Captain's arms and glanced around.

The walls were still standing, which was a good thing. Nothing else was though. All of Chelesea's random parts were thrown against the wall. There was nothing from the ray except a smoking mess of twisted metal.

A mass of green muscle stood up, and then I realized it was the Hulk.

Sweet Mother of God. We brought the Avengers. Serena, what did you steal?!

There was movement by the Hulk that I realized was Chelesea. I rushed over, struggling to pull up my suddenly too long clothes. Why were they suddenly baggy?

As I came closer to Chelesea, I realized something was off. She seemed too short and…younger. But that couldn't be.

"Jackie?" Chelesea was staring at me in shock. "Why do you look younger?"

"It's not only me. You look younger too." I frowned in puzzlement.

We both turned to look at the Hulk and Captain America. The Hulk seemed smaller and not as muscled as I imagined. And Captain's suit drooped on his frame, as if it was too big for him.

"Oh no," I whispered in horror.

"You stupid, son of a -" Chelesea shuffled through almost 10 different languages, cussing out the destroyed death ray. She finally finished with, "I wanted a preservation ray, not something that would make us young!"