Little Avengers

"I'm going to Mr. Fury's house to babysit! See you in a few hours!," I yelled to my mother down the hall as I grabbed my coat and headed across the street to the new neighbor's house.

Mr. Fury was this man who moved in about a week ago with a bunch of adopted kids and a grumpy teenaged kid about a few years younger then me. He worked a lot and rarely stepped out of the house, but when he did, the whole neighborhood noticed. It's also around the same time the Avengers disappeared after a major battle with Loki, Thor's brother.

I had just rang the doorbell when a cute, blonde boy with great big blue eyes and a Captain America shirt answered it and froze. He looked like he had been struck by lightning.

"Steve, who's at the door?," a teenaged boy asked as he came to the door behind the blonde boy. He was pretty cute with chestnut brown hair and expressive brown eyes. He had this smart ass grin on his face that seemed to say, "I am totally withholding information from you."

"Hi, I'm Coul and this is Steve. Welcome to our mansion," the teenaged boy greeted sarcastically, letting me in.

"You're really pretty-," Steve said as he followed close behind Coul and me, " and you smell nice."

"Thank you, Steve, that's... sweet."

Suddenly a projectile came and nearly hit me in the eye when Coul caught it in his left hand and dropped it right in front of me. It was a small arrow with a suction cup at one end.

"Hey, Coul! You never let me have any fun!," another boy said running up and retrieving his arrow.

"Clint, you should know it's all good fun until you shoot an eye out," Coul replied.

Clint had a purple shirt on and his gray eyes paused on my face as he gave me a once-over. "Nice acne, toots."

"I could say the same about you, ace," I retorted as he retreated to the couch.

"What are these 'logs of Lincoln' you speak of and how are they of any value to a warrior of my standing? Back in Asgard, we played with the trunks of mighty redwoods," boomed a boy's voice from behind the couch as he talked to another boy while playing with Lincoln logs. This boy was the tallest of the bunch and also had the longest hair.

"I don't care what you played with in Asgard, Thor, as long as you play with me right now. I'm going to build a replica of the Guggenheim museum," the long haired boy's companion whined.

Thor's companion was much shorter and had a scruffy head of ink black hair as well as piercing blue eyes. Though this one was different because of the glowing light machine which hummed on his chest underneath his red and yellow shirt.

"What is this 'Guggenheim' you speak of, Tony? I wish to know!," Thor said, impatiently.

"Bruce, wait up! I'm sorry for saying bad things about your orchids!," a red haired girl pleaded as she and another little boy ran past me and around the couch for several laps.

Bruce was the smallest and had huge brown eyes that made me want to pick him up and hug him. And it seems he somehow read my mind because that's just what he did. Bruce just ran up to me and hugged my waist and dug his face safely into my cleavage. I could tell the red headed girl must have really upset him because he was crying into my cleavage and when he lifted up his head, he left a huge tear puddle on my shirt.

"Honey, what's the matter?," I asked, gently hugging him back. He gripped harder and started running words together so that it was hard to understand anything except for the name Natasha. "It's gonna be alright, Bruce. I bet Natasha didn't really mean to hurt your feelings. And she's already apologized, so I think you should just keep a hold onto me until you've calmed down, okay?" He nodded into my chest and began to breathe regularly again.

"I see you've met my brood. I trust that you can handle the lot while I take my business trip. I should only be gone until midnight. Coul knows what to do and I've left emergency numbers on the fridge. You'll be paid when I get back. See you at midnight!," Mr. Fury said leaving in a hurry. Before I could say a word, he was already gone.

After the door shut on Fury's Departure, the house went wild. Even Coul went off into a corner and began to tune out the younger kids. The average age of the whole group was probably 8 years old with Coul being 13 and the rest at approximately 7.

The house was in total chaos now. I had Clint hanging from the chandelier (Don't know how he got there), Thor and Tony were fist fighting over Lincoln logs, Natasha was finger painting on the walls, Steve was ardently watching me and sighing every once in a while (I think he was in like with me), and Bruce was still crying into my cleavage.

'I think these are special needs kids,' I thought as I rubbed Bruce's back therapeutically.

Finally, I called the chaos to order by whistling the way a referee would. Suddenly, the room fell quiet and even Bruce stopped crying.

"All right, everyone, line up!," I commanded, firmly. The lot of them obeyed reluctantly. "Now I'd like to introduce myself and get to know everyone. My name is Chloe and I'll be watching you this evening. My favorite color is yellow, I like cats, and I love to draw. How about you?" I pointed to Thor.

"My name is Thor. My favorite color is red, I love to slay monsters, and rescue fair maidens such as yourself."

"Okay, and you?"

"My name is Steve. My favorite color is blue, I love my shield, and my favorite person in the world is you. Will you be my girlfriend?"

"You're very sweet, and if you're good, I will. Okay? And you?"

"My name is Tony. My favorite color is red, I like to build things, and I like you, too."

Steve shot Tony a fierce glance and Tony just smirked in reply.

"And you?"

"My name is Coul. My favorite color is brown, I like ice cream, and to use a taser on anyone who uses my ipod without permission." Tony shivered and refused to look in Coul's direction.

"Sounds like fun. And you?," I said as I continued down the line.

"My name is Natasha. My favorite color is pink, I love to do ballet, and I like to beat up on the boys."

"That's how you keep them in line. And last, but certainly not least..."

"My name is Bruce. I like to grow plants, use a microscope, and I like the way you hug."

"That's very nice, Bruce. I like the way you hug, too. Now who wants to play a game?," I announced, excitedly.

"I DO!," everyone, but Coul yelled at the top of their lungs. And then the house shook violently. All the children started screaming and, by instinct, I grabbed everyone and huddled them around me so that I could protect them from falling debris. After 5 minutes of earthquake drill, the house stopped shaking and the huddle dispersed to their rooms to "get their costumes on."

I remained in the living room, but then the roof was suddenly ripped off the top of the house and green light blinded me as the shadow of a large, horned figure hovered feet above my head. Just in time, the kids got back from their rooms dressed as miniature versions of each of the Avengers. Even Bruce had Hulked out, only he was about a half a foot shorter then I was.

"I knew I'd find you all eventually! It was only a matter of time before your new appearances would attract my attention. Now to finish what I started!," the figure said coming into view. It was Loki! He's the one who de-aged the Avengers!

"Too bad you had to involve the mortal female... she is quite pretty. Now she has to die!," Loki announced as he pointed his weapon at me.

"NO! NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!," Steve bellowed, ran in front of me, and held his huge shield up to protect me. The weapon's blast deflected off the shield, but launched Steve several feet into the wall.

"No! Steve-," I cried and then turn my fury onto Loki, "They're just children! Leave them alone! If you want to fight someone, pick on me!"

"No, Chloe! This is a job for the Avengers! AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!," Thor boomed. Coul held me back so I wouldn't charge with the rest of the Avengers into the fray.

Suddenly, Steve appeared from where he had been flung and seemed to only have a few scrapes and bruises. He joined his teammates in the battle.

The battle was awesome to see. Natasha flinging knives and shooting her handguns, Clint was aiming perfectly even while using a bow that was way too big for him, Thor had Mjolnir summon mighty lightning bolts, Tony was using his suit to fly around Loki and shoot tiny missiles, and Bruce was the most adorably powerful Hulk I had ever seen.

Steve was a capable and brave leader even though he was seven and Coul joined the fight when he knew I wouldn't try to get myself hurt. I just watched the whole thing in awe and anguish as the Little Avengers looked like they were slowly getting beaten back. I needed to do something quickly to give them time to retreat and regroup.

I picked up a sling shot which was laying in the rubble and probably belonged to Clint, and I loaded it with a stink bomb that Tony was building. I aimed and fired it at Loki who automatically began gagging and tearing up.

"Come on! Time to retreat and regroup, everyone!," I yelled and we ran to the back bedroom where we could barricade the door and escape out the back window. We were out near Bruce's greenhouse now and we had no attack plan.

"Good idea, Chloe. We needed a break," Natasha huffed out in exhaustion.

"What's the plan, team? Do we want to try and blitz him or try a sneakier approach?," Steve asked his compatriots from behind his tiny mask.

" I think he relies too heavily on his staff. Maybe if we destroy that, we could weaken him enough to defeat him," I suggested.

They looked at me in surprise at my tactical prowess and I replied to their shared stare with, "I had a lot of time to think about it."

"But we need a distraction...," Clint realized.

"I can help you out with that, too," I announced.