Chapter 1: The Avengers

The Avengers were, by far, the strangest, most eccentric gang at Shield High School. Not a single member was the type of person you'd expect to see in a gang, and for the most part, it seemed highly unlikely that any of them would have ever befriended the others in the first place. There were nine of them total, all seniors, all simultaneously incredibly nice and massive assholes. They never picked on anybody who didn't deserve it, but when it came to bullies – and authorities – they were the biggest bunch of rabble-rousing punks you could ever imagine.

Their leader was named Steve Rogers. He was tall, muscular, and handsome, a star on the school track team, but until puberty hit him like a train in the summer between freshman and sophomore year, he had been a skinny little thing, always bullied and beat up by the dumpsters after school (though he was often the instigator of these fights even back then). He had a strong moral center that only bent to let him beat the shit out of assholes and rival gangs, and was incredibly political; he had acquired a fake ID when he was 15, not for the purpose of buying alcohol but so that he could vote, and the first thing he did on his 18th birthday was register to vote legally. Now that he was no longer scrawny, Steve was no longer directly targeted by the school bullies, but they still had snide things to same about him on occasion, especially after he came out as bisexual during junior year and started dating his lifelong best friend, Bucky Barnes.

Bucky was, as Steve's best friend and now boyfriend, the unofficial second-in-command. He too was tall, muscular, and handsome, and as such had been the one to save Steve's skinny ass every time the big kids would corner him after school. He was a bit put-out that his role of protector had been cruelly snatched by the claws of puberty, but he continued to have Steve's back one hundred and thirty percent and was always there to get him out of scrapes. Before settling down with Steve, Bucky had been a runner-up for school slut. He had been aware of and open about his own sexuality far earlier than Steve was and had dated a very large portion of the school's population. These relationships rarely lasted long, probably because it quickly became clear to everyone he slept with that he'd rather they were Steve Rogers, so when they finally got together, every boy and girl in the school who could claim the title of "Bucky's ex" gave a sigh of exasperated relief.

The young man who had beat out Bucky for the title of King Slut was fellow Avenger, Tony Stark. Tony was the son a multi-billionaire inventor, which automatically led to the question of what the hell was he doing in Shield High rather than some illustrious private school. The answer was simple: all of Tony's friends were there. Tony took after his father in many ways, from his cocky, narcissistic personality to his brilliant brain. Like his father, he loved science and inventing and was all set up to inherit his father's company after college. Provided he didn't get arrested (or worse) for his gang activity before he even graduated high school. Like Bucky, Tony had once been renowned for his sexual exploits until he settled down with his own childhood friend, Pepper Potts. Pepper wasn't part of the gang and spent a great deal of her time being highly stressed out over Tony's membership, but everyone who knew Tony would say that she was the best thing that could ever have happened to him.

The next member of the Avengers was Tony's best friend, James Rhodes, who usually went by Rhodey. He was a lovable hard-ass (as anyone with the role of Tony Stark's best friend needed to be), who grew up in a military family and was expected to follow his father's footsteps after he graduated. Of course, this led to a lot of disappointment on his parents' part as he was a significant member of one of the toughest teenage gangs in town. He put up with very little nonsense and several outsiders were surprised he wasn't the gang's leader. However, he was incredibly loyal and an invaluable member, especially when they got into particularly rough situations.

Next was by far the most unexpected member of the gang: Bruce Banner. He was a quiet science student with unruly curls and glasses, and he hated conflict. He and Tony were good friends from their hours of overtime put in at the school labs, and that was how he'd somehow accepted the invitation to join the Avengers. Mostly he helped with behind the scenes stuff and patched up the team's injuries after fights, but if you pissed him off enough, he could have a vicious temper. He was always very apologetic and regretful after he calmed back down, but even though he was loathe to admit it, angry-Bruce was really helpful in a fight.

The next most unexpected gang member was Clint Barton. Clint was the founder, leader, and champion of the school's archery club, and that was his crowning academic achievement. It wasn't that he was stupid, or bad at schoolwork, or even that he didn't try. He was just that unlucky. No matter what he did, something always went wrong and he'd end up turning in half an essay or his calculator would break into several pieces ten minutes before the end of a test. His unluckiness wasn't reserved solely for school unfortunately, and though he was excellent in a fight, he was the Avenger that Bruce had to stitch up the most often. Clint was generally rather a dork: he was addicted to coffee, loved dogs, and was always ready with a joke or a snarky comment. However, he could easily flip the switch from fluffball to badass if he needed to, even on just two cups of coffee and with his fly undone.

Clint was dating the only girl on the gang, Natasha Romanoff. Natasha was a certified badass (according to pretty much everyone) and you most definitely would not want to cross her. She'd moved to the States from Russia when she was very little, only for her parents to die mysteriously a year later, leaving her to grow up in a rather awful orphanage until she was adopted by Clint's next door neighbor when she was 13. Natasha was a ballerina and a black belt, a deadly combination it turned out, making her infamous in gang circles only a month after the Avengers began. However, despite her apparently terrifying exterior, she was a surprisingly warm friend, fiercely loyal, and a bit of a dork herself. Everyone who didn't know her and Clint well enough was shocked that they were dating, but their friends knew how perfectly matched they were.

Then there was Sam Wilson, Steve's fellow track star and one of the most loyal people on earth. He wasn't loyal so much to the Avengers gang as he was to its individual members. If the gang were split up, he would still stand by every one of them. He was smart, capable, witty, and by far one of the most friendly and approachable of the group. He had lost a good friend in a gang fight at his old school, before joining the Avengers, and he was constantly worried that one of his new friends would meet the same fate, but that didn't stop him from backing every fight they went into, so long as they were fighting for a good reason.

Last but most certainly not least was Thor Odinson. Like Tony, he was from a rich family that made many question why he was at Shield High and not a fancy private school, especially as they were rather a pretentious bunch ("I mean, who names their kid after a Norse god?" Clint would say). Thor was also the highly popular quarterback for the school football team, which added the second question of why the hell was he part of a gang. The answer to both was two-fold. Part one: he loved his friends. Part two: his father was kind of a dick. A well-meaning dick when it came to Thor, but still not the greatest guy on earth. Thor had a brother named Loki who was a year younger and took the brunt of their father's less-than-excellent parenting skills. As a result, Loki had become estranged and angry and had spent the last year in and out of juvie. Thor was constantly trying to get his brother to turn over a new leaf, but the point had been made and therefore it didn't matter to their father that Thor was in a gang, he was still the model son. It was true that Thor had many admirable qualities, namely his bravery, strength, and loyalty, but he had a bit of an arrogant streak that would win out at times and his fight-picking attitude got him into nearly as much trouble as Steve's did.

Anyone who was close with the Avengers, or even with just one member, would tell you that they were a lovable (though perhaps a bit hard to like) gang of misfits, thrown together by God knows what, maybe fate or destiny or maybe just high school. They didn't always know exactly what they were fighting for, and sometimes they seemed to be fighting just for the sake of a fight, but in the end, their hearts were always in the right place and they never hurt anyone without a damn good reason. However, apart from each other, there weren't a lot of people who were actually close enough with any of the Avengers to realize this. So to most people, they were just "that weirdo gang". But to Hydra, they were the ultimate rivals.