Chapter 1

"I'm sorry, what did you just say? Did you say vampires?" Clint said in pure shock to Director Fury on-board the helicarrier. He and the rest of the Avengers Initiative were seated in one of the conference rooms, as Fury had just received news of a high-threat mission. Clint now understood the high-threat part.

"I did. A small coven of them have made themselves known in the New York/Boston area."

"How many are there?" Natasha asked, she had her elbows rested on the table and her head to the side a she lazily flicked through the mission file.

"At the moment, the head count is three, two brothers and a sister. They don't' know we've made them, and we intend to keep it that way. We're hoping to wrap this up as discreetly as we possibly can."

"So let me get this straight," Tony said from the other side of the room. "You expect us to bring in a bunch of vampires? Aren't they like, over a hundred years old? These guys don't look over a hundred years old."

"Vampires don't physically age, Stark," Natasha said agitatedly. "They're immortals."

"Immortal? Like, Asgard immortal?" he said, gesturing to Thor.

"I guess."

"Oh, wonderful, just what I needed this weekend. Capture a bunch of non-physically aged vampires. Just let me add it to my list of impossible things to do, I'm meant to be heisting the Statue of Liberty tonight."

"What is the Man of Iron saying? I do not understand," Thor stated in his booming voice.

"He's stating the impossibility of this mission, and he's not wrong," Bruce said matter-of-factly, across from Natasha at the table. "From what I've read, they're vicious when provoked, can do some pretty nasty things."

"Where'd you read that, Bruce? Twilight?" Stark said with a snort. Bruce rolled his eyes. He wasn't one to retort.

"Moving on," Fury interjected. "You leave for Boston tonight. We will support you as best we can, but we cannot risk spooking them, so, you six will be on the ground, and air support will be no more than three minutes away. Avengers, move out!"

"Looks like you'll be suiting up with the rest of us," Tony said to Bruce on their way out.

"Great," Bruce grumbled as he followed his teammates down the hall. Within the hour, the team, excluding Bruce, we're suited up and ready to go. Often he'd wondered what would have happened if Natasha had never gone to him for help, if she'd never found him in India, then where would they be.

"Bruce? What's wrong?" Natasha asked him timidly. She was still a little intimidated by the events of last year, after he nearly killed her.

"I often wonder where we'd be if you'd never found me in India."

"Do you know where we'd be? Ankle deep in the Chitauri and bowing to Loki. Because of you, the people have their freedom, don't forget that Bruce." She smiled warmly and patted him on the arm as she and the rest of the team loaded themselves onto a Quinjet and awaited take-off. She always made him forget the monster he really was. She really brought out the Bruce in him, instead of the Other Guy. With a smile, he too got on the Quinjet and strapped himself in. He'd never been a fan of flying, as it made him terribly claustrophobic, he found the best cure was to close his eyes and think about Betty Ross, his one true love. It's how he often got to sleep at night, after a nightmare or flashback. Suddenly Steve tapped his knee.

"Wakey wakey, Bruce. The fun's about to begin," he said as he pulled his mask down over his face and grabbed his shield.

Bruce grimaced.

The Quinjet landed softly in a small open patch of dense forest. The team exited to find nothing but tall trees and darkness.

"Okay, so, according to Google Maps, the house we're looking for is about three miles that way," Tony said and pointed east.

"We couldn't have landed the teeniest bit closer?" Clint asked as he rearranged the arrows in his quiver, before returning it to his back.

"Sorry Legolas, We couldn't risk it." Clint tensed up at the nickname. He'd often thought of just shooting Stark and getting it over and done with. He'd probably become S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agent of the month, or some cheesy crap like that.

"So, let's get moving, there's an NCIS: LA marathon on later that I don't want to miss."

"You mean you have interests other than hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files?" Natasha said sarcastically as they begun to move in the direction of the house.

"Well, they're not really secure are they?" he shot back.

"Shut it! I don't know about you, but I'm not really in the mood to be ravaged by a vampire tonight, so be quiet!" Steve whispered harshly to his bickering teammates. At the pace they were going, they didn't reach the house for an hour. It looked silent, elegant, but silent, nothing but the silver of the moon as a guide as to what lay ahead. Suddenly someone stepped on a twig, and then it began. They could feel gushes of wind swirling around them, lashing out, a fist here, a stray kick there. It took everyone a few minutes to realise that they were the targets. The Avengers went into attack mode. Stark was in the sky, providing light for everyone down below, though it was more like a UFO beam. Until the light suddenly disappeared, he'd been knocked out of the sky.

As he crashed into the ground, he felt this thing, clawing away at the iron attached to his body. He thrashed around wildly, sending repulsor rays, and every kind of weapon he had in the direction of his attacker. All too quickly, he saw pieces of his suit disappearing, and buckets of blood appearing. For a moment, he thought the bloodsucker was going to rip out his arc reactor, thankfully a female scream seemed to grab his attention, and he vanished. Hours seemed to have gone by, when really it was only a few minutes.

No one else was having much luck. Thor's hammer had seemed to have lost its effect, and Steve's shield was lodged into the side of a tree. Hawkeye's arrows were scattered, and the Black Widow had nothing left but her own two fists. Even Bruce was weary. The three vampires were much too fast for the man to grab. Though, just as all hope was lost, Steve got lucky, and made the perfect pass at the perfect time. Before he even knew what was happening, he had trapped the female vampire in his tight embrace.

"Please, just let me go. Please!" she pleaded. She had genuine terror in her eyes as she struggled to loosen herself from his grasp. She was strong too, almost as strong, if not stronger than him, and the iciness of her skin sent chills up his spine. Thank god for the serum otherwise he would've been face-down in the dirt ages ago. He glanced around quickly to see if anyone was available for help, but everyone else was too preoccupied with the other two vampires whom were wreaking havoc. Steve was especially worried about Natasha, as she was still just a human, she was the most vulnerable, as well as Clint. As he saw her take a kick to the back of her knees, he winced as she crumpled to the ground, thus allowing his captive to escape his hands. The blonde gave him a well-placed punch to the gut, bringing him to one knee. There was an almighty crunch, and then everything went black.

"Steve!" Natasha shrieked from where she had seen him go down. There had been no life in his face, no colour in his eyes and his muscular body was limp. After he lay motionless, the vampires vanished; they sprinted off into the night. Wasting no time, Natasha jumped to her feet and ran/limped as fast as she could over to Steve, which wasn't very fast at all because she was fairly certain she had a few broken ribs and possibly a broken kneecap, ignoring the crippling pain radiating up her body. She had tears streaming down her face as she reached him. Her teammates had heard her scream, and instantly flocked to where she was sitting. Tony's iron suit was in tatters, as if it had been clawed away from his body, Clint was holding his shoulder, and Thor was allowing Clint to use him as a leaning post. He himself was covered in scrapes, cuts and bruises. Bruce was nowhere to be seen.

"Jesus," Tony said quietly as they took in Steve's state. He knelt down next to Natasha and checked for a pulse. He sighed quietly. "Just."

"Thank god," she breathed, she then put her hand to her ear. "This is Agent Natasha Romanoff, requesting back-up immediately, there is one man down. I repeat, Captain Steve Rogers is down." After confirming that back-up was on the way, the team of heroes waited silently, taking in what had happened. The Avengers, two of the best-trained assassins in the world, a genius who built his own iron suit in a cave, a super soldier, a rage monster and the God of Thunder had just been reduced to almost nothing by three adolescent vampires. The Avengers, who had fought off an alien invasion no more than a year ago.

After exactly three minutes, the four could hear the subtle sound of an approaching Quinjet. It landed on the grass next to them, and instantly, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were everywhere. Tony basically carried Natasha and Steve's shield onto the jet despite his own injuries, as they rolled Steve onto a stretcher and begun hooking him up to machines, and poking and prodding his body, hoping to bring some kind of life back into him. A few of the agents tried approaching her knee, and the others' injuries.

"Do not touch me, not until he is okay," she said coldly. "I'm fine."

"Natasha, don't be stupid. Your knee is seriously fucked up, this is no time to be a hero," Tony said sharply as the last piece of his suit was taken off his body. He had deep scratches all over his upper body that were dripping with blood. Falling silent, she allowed the agents to attend to her knee as best they could whilst in the air. Her ribs could wait until they were back on-board the helicarrier. Clint let out a loud burst of foul language as his shoulder was popped back into place. Natasha felt like doing the same after the job the agent's did of her knee. After ten minutes of flying, the sleek shape of the helicarrier was just visible through the black rain clouds. The Quinjet landed with a gentle thud onto the Flight Deck. The moment it did, the doors opened and Steve was rolled away as the rest of the team was assisted into the infirmary.

Once they were as comfortable as they could get in the infirmary, Director Fury entered, with a pained expression on his face, and sorrow in his eyes. Maria Hill was at his side, as usual.

"Well, I guess the assault didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped?"

"No fucking kidding," Clint replied blankly. His shoulder was in a sling and assorted bandages over his arms and legs. Thor looked almost the same, minus the sling.

"I appreciate your brilliant efforts, but we have clearly underestimated the strength of this kind, and I apologise deeply, for not doing a better job to prepare you for the mission."

"Genuine sorrow? Not going soft on us now are you, Fury?" Tony said with a smirk. Through all the pain and suffering, he could still find a way to irritate everyone. His entire upper body was wrapped in bandages, and even then, you could still see traces of blood seeping through, staining the clean white fabric.

"Shut it, Stark. You will all be required to stay in the infirmary for the next two nights, longer for those of you with more substantial injuries." He looked directly at Natasha. "You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to leave this room without my say so." She rolled her eyes. With that, he left. His coat and Agent Hill trailed behind him down the hall.

"They have to have another go at it," Fury said as they reached the main floor of the carrier.

"What?" Agent Hill spluttered. "Sir, I do whatever you ask whenever you ask, but I cannot help but object-"

"We cannot leave those vampires out on the street! They're extremely dangerous! They could start wreaking havoc across Manhattan at the drop of a hat!"

"Well in case you hadn't noticed, Steve, the super soldier is on life support and might not ever wake up, and your little play toy superheroes are nothing more than a bag of broken bones!" Fury sighed in frustration.

"You're dismissed, Agent Hill." She gave him a menacing look before exiting the main floor. He turned to the big open window of the helicarrier, and stared out into the night.