Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers (although I certainly wouldn't mind owning Jeremy Renner).
All civilians were supposed to be outside the perimeter, but the dark haired woman was running towards them anyway. Captain America took a breath to shout at her, but the words died in his throat when she picked up an abandoned car – picked it up, as if it were made of cardboard – and threw it at a group of Chitauri.
It took out three of them.
She kept running and came to a stop in front of the group as if she had just done nothing more remarkable than swatting a few flies.
"Is this a private party, or can anybody join in?"
The Captain blinked. "Ah…" she was a good eight inches shorter than him, and nothing about her indicated the strength he had just seen. She was most definitely a civilian, too – her T-shirt, jeans and sneakers were definitely not SHIELD standard issue. "I don't think –"
"Sir, we need all the firepower we can get." Black Widow interrupted.
"But she's a civilian –"
"Barely, Captain." The woman turned to the Widow and Hawkeye. "Code name Unbreakable. I assume that means something to you?"
Both assassins nodded. "Captain, if half the stories we've heard are true…"
"They are."
"Then we definitely want her." Hawkeye finished.
Iron Man was looking intently at her. At least, he was looking. Nobody could see his expression behind the faceplate. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?"
Unbreakable smirked. "It'll come to you." She looked around. "I don't think we have time for further introductions. Orders, sir?"
The Captain nodded. "First off, what can you do?"
"I'm a beta-level mutant." She noted his confusion, ignored it and continued. "I have some basic superpowers – strength, invulnerability, and flight."
"Any weapons?"
She glanced around at the Chitauri. "I can get one."
He nodded. "All right. Barton, I want you on that roof." He pointed. "Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, Unbreakable, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
She was gone before Hawkeye finished asking Iron Man for a ride.
They all kept catching glimpses of her throughout the battle; she started out mostly throwing things, but at some point got her hands on a Chitauri weapon and learned to use it very quickly. Unfortunately she had no comm, and so was unaware of the missile situation until she landed between the Captain and Thor. "What's going on?"
"SHIELD ordered a nuclear strike. Stark is redirecting the missile."
"What?" She pointed at the portal. "Through that?"
"Yes."
"But that goes straight through to deep space."
"Yes."
"He'll die!"
The Captain sighed. "He's lying down on the wire."
She huffed. "If you just cut the wire everybody gets through."
He stared at her for a moment, then turned his attention back to the portal. When it seemed that Iron Man wasn't coming back, he gave the order to close it.
Then he heard Unbreakable shriek, "Tony!"
Iron Man was falling, and Thor wasn't the only one to notice that he wasn't slowing down. Unbreakable shot off the ground only to be knocked out of the way by the Hulk, who caught his friend and brought him down to earth. After the faceplate was torn off though, it was Unbreakable who started running her fingers over his face, brushing them through his hair, checking for a pulse at his neck and whispering, "Come on, kiddo, wake up. Come back, Tony."
His eyes didn't open until the Hulk roared. "Please tell me nobody kissed me." She laughed, and his eyes narrowed, then widened in recognition. "Lucy?"
"Took you long enough." She tweaked his nose. "But under the circumstances I'll give it a pass."
"But…wait…you look the same as you did when I was what, eight?"
She laughed again. "Please, do you really think you ever once had a normal babysitter?"
"Babysitter?"
She waved a hand. "Later, Captain."
"You ever try shawarma?" They all stared at Tony. "There's a shawarma place about three blocks away. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."
Thor chuckled. None of them had ever realized how sad laughter could sound. "We are not finished yet."
"Right. Shawarma after?"
At the tower
"Guy's got cojones." The others glanced at Unbreakable, except for Barton, who kept his eyes on Loki. "What? It takes balls of steel to ask for a drink with a gun, an arrow and a Hulk all aimed at you." She turned to Tony. "I need to make a phone call."
He nodded. "JARVIS?"
"Who may I call for you, madam?"
She raised her eyebrows at Tony. "AI, hmm? Impressive." He grinned at her. "I need a direct line to Nick Fury, please, JARVIS."
Fury answered before the end of the first ring. "Fury."
"Hello Nick."
"Lucy."
"We have a prisoner here for you. On what's left of the top floor of Stark tower."
"I'll send a jet."
"Do that. And Nick," she paused, took a deep breath, and asked. "Where is my son?"
Fury didn't answer right away. Then he sighed. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, Mrs. Coulson."
