A/N. Hello to all! What's new? So here's chapter two, action packed already :D Hope you guys enjoy!

Disclaimer - I do not own the Avengers or anything else mentioned that you recognized. Tania, Graham, other OCs and the plot are all mine, as well as the title :P

Chapter 2

Tania sipped her coffee and sighed. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this."

Pepper nodded and hummed in agreement. "You never do, really. Though eventually you learn to ignore it for short periods of time." She shrugged.

"Is this how you feel every time Tony puts on the suit?" Bruce asked, sitting on her other side at the counter. Pepper nodded and he hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder in a sign of comfort. "I don't know how you stand it."

Pepper sighed. "Honestly, neither do I." she tilted her head back and downed her champagne.

It was about half past midnight at Avengers Tower in the kitchen. Tania, Pepper, and Bruce were all sitting in a row on the bar stools at the counter and drinking something different to quell their fatigue. Tania had coffee, Pepper had champagne, and Bruce had tea. The three of them were still dressed in their formal attire and makeup, though their hair and shoes had long been abandoned for messy do's and bare feet.

They were waiting anxiously for the others to come home from the mission they'd been sent on during the gala. Bruce had refrained from going because the mission didn't require his specific… skillset. So once Happy had dropped them off near the helicarrier to get suited up and armed, he drove the remaining three home.

Half an hour later, they stayed up to wait for their friends and boyfriends. Suddenly, Bruce's phone rang, startling all three of them so much that both girls were on their feet in seconds and Bruce almost dropped his phone in his haste to get to it.

He pressed "Talk" and held the device to his ear. "Hello?" he greeted nervously, tapping the counter in an unsteady rhythm. His eyes widened at what the other person was saying. "Are- are you sure? There isn't someone closer who could-" he was interrupted by the other person, "But what if the Other Guy-?" he sighed, "Fine. I'll be there as soon as I can." He hung up.

"Well?" Pepper prodded.

Bruce looked up, meeting Tania's gaze and apologizing with his eyes. Tania immediately caught on and held a hand to her mouth. "Steve…?" she whispered shakily, and he nodded. Complete and utter dread gripped her from the inside out, and she found it difficult to breathe.

Pepper, being all too familiar with her situation, immediately grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "In… Out… In… Out… Do it with me Tania, stay with me. In… Out…" Tania stared into the red head's eyes and did as she was told while Bruce grabbed his jacket and shoes in a rush.

Tania tore her gaze away from her best friend. "What happened?" she asked him fiercely.

Bruce didn't stop flitting around as he answered. "I don't know. All I know is that he needs medical attention and I have no idea how severe it is."

"I'm coming with you." She stated, metaphorically putting her foot down. When he heard this, Bruce stopped moving.

"No." he said, plain and simple.

"You don't understand-"

"I understand perfectly well, but under no circumstances are you to come with me or follow me. Not only would both Fury and Steve have my head, but if you got hurt… I could never live with myself."

Tania could easily see his reasoning, and it was really very hard to argue with him, seeing as her own reasoning was "I want to see if he's okay". Not a very valid argument… So she decided to compromise.

"Call me with details the first available chance you get." Without giving him time to answer, she turned to Pepper, "Call Happy and have him give Bruce a ride."

Pepper nodded with determination. "Right." She took out her phone and started dialling.

Tania faced Bruce once more and her face softened. "Be careful."

Bruce smiled slightly back. "Always am." He replied before swiftly exiting the room to join his friends. From what she had gathered from the phone call, Bruce wasn't going into battle as the Hulk, but as a doctor for a fallen Avenger.

With her heart in her throat, Tania went back to the counter for her coffee. Another half hour passed in complete silence. Dark circles started to form around the women's eyes the longer they stayed awake. The tension in the room was almost palpable, but it was easily broken when Tania's phone rang as well.

She answered it in record time. "Yes?" her heart was pounding against her ribcage so hard she thought it might break out and fly across the room.

"Tania Banks, this is Nick Fury of SHIELD." Tania's throat closed up completely as she awaited him to continue. "We need you on that mission."
That wasn't what she had been expecting… "Wh-what?" she managed, unblocking her throat.

"The Hulk has gone haywire and you are the only one in our systems close enough to subdue him."

"But… what?"

"Because you aren't a SHIELD agent, I can't force you to follow my orders, but I highly recommend you get your butt over there before your boyfriend and company get squashed."

Tania gulped. "Where exactly is 'there'?"

"The main mall about ten minutes from your location by car."

She nodded. "Fine. I'm on my way." She hung up and turned to Pepper, distraught but set on her decision. "I have to go with them. Call Happy."
Tania gathered up her skirt and bolted for her shoes, hopping as she slipped them on while on the way to the elevator. Pepper came in right behind her while on the phone.

As the elevator descended the tall Tower, Tania took deep breaths to calm herself. This shouldn't be that nerve-wracking, she had been kidnapped by a mad scientist just over a month before! This should be a piece of cake! Just because she hasn't calmed down the Hulk in a while, didn't mean her method wasn't going to work anymore… did it? No, no of course not… at least, that's what she convinced herself anyway.

As soon as they hit the lobby, both women leapt out of the box-like room and ran out into the cold night (morning) air. Happy was parked out front, waiting for them. They jumped in and sped away into traffic towards the mall.

"Remind me to give you a raise." Pepper said, addressing Happy as the "inconspicuous" limo zoomed through the streets, weaving in and out between cars.

"Don't worry about it Pepper, if you gave me a raise every time I drove like this, you'd be broke." The chauffeur replied without taking his eyes from the road.

Pepper and Tania laughed. "I guess that's true," the CEO agreed. In five minutes, they stopped at the mall's entrance.

Tania threw open the door and stepped out. She turned to face the occupants of the vehicle. "Stay here and make sure no one else comes inside. If anyone gets in there's no telling what chaos they might cause." With nods from both people, she slammed the door shut and ran around the car and up to the automatic doors. However, it was after closing, so they were locked.

Sighing, Tania grabbed her heel and threw it as hard as she could at the door. The glass smashed on impact and she wasted no time in leaping through the hole she'd made. She made sure to land on the shoe-clad foot so as not to cut herself on the shards of glass. Once she was past it though, she abandoned her other stiletto heel and dashed down the hallway to the left.

She had no idea where she was going or what she was getting herself into, all she knew was that Steve was hurt and Bruce was on a rampage and that whatever the mission was, it was dangerous enough to call five of the six Avengers into battle.

Tania could hardly hear anything over her beating heart, but even so, the building was eerily quiet and all the lights were off. It was incredibly creepy to say the least, seeing as how she was so used to its bustling and bright atmosphere.

But then gunshots echoed from behind her she instinctively ducked and rolled behind a music standee of Justin Bieber (yeah, she was taller than it, but it was enough to crouch behind). Panting, she strained her ears to see what else she could hear.

Once the gunshots stopped firing, she swore she heard Iron Man's repulsors as well as metal clashing against metal. Cries of pain reached her ears, but she didn't recognize the voices. She prayed that no one else was hut as she hurtled herself back the way she came, toward the sounds.
Unfortunately, she forced to make a choice when a loud roar sounded behind her. The Hulk was one way, while the others were another way. She desperately wanted to see Steve, but she had a duty and promise to Nick Fury to calm down the Big Guy, not to mention the longer she kept him waiting, the more destruction he would most likely cause.

"Oh Steve…" she spun on her heel and pumped her legs to send her in the direction of the Hulk. After making a sharp turn and sliding down the banister of the stairwell, Tania leapt off of it and kept running.

She was breathing hard and her legs were burning by the time she reached the food court on the lower level of the mall. But that was where the Hulk was, terrorizing the place. He grunted as he threw tables into restaurants and smashed chairs with his feet. He destroyed everything in sight and very few things remained intact.

Bracing herself for resistance, Tania slowly approached him, not wanting to startle him. She opened her mouth to call out to him, when something slapped her back and then wrapped around her torso and arms a few times. Before she had a chance to scream, she was yanked all the way up to the ceiling without hitting her head on it.

Confused as hell and scared to death, Tania began to scream and kick and flail. The floor was so far away… after the whole "Neil" ordeal, heights had scared her more than ever. She was okay with elevators, high heels, high floors, things like that. She wasn't okay with not standing on anything, looking down through glass from dizzying heights, dangling from anywhere, or falling. And right now she was dangling.

Horrible flashbacks seized her mind and she screamed and whipped her available limbs around, trying to free herself. Panic and fear had overcome her every sense and she struggled with all her might to be rid of this… this… web around her.

"You know, I don't hear a thank you in there." Said a voice she didn't recognize. Tania looked through the strands of hair that had gotten in her face to see someone clad in red and blue spandex with black web-like designs and white triangles for eyes over the mask staring up at her, looking completely at ease. "You really shouldn't be here, you'll only get in the way. You're lucky I saved you. Oh, and you're welcome."

Furious, Tania started to screech at him in the hopes of distracting herself from her paralyzing fear. She swore and she kicked and she swung back and forth in her rage, but still she hung from the ceiling uselessly. She was starting to feel lightheaded, and that was never a good sign.

"Woah, you've got a mouth on you," the decidedly male voice said. He bent his ring and middle fingers into his palm and flexed the others, aiming his wrists straight for her, palms up, "Let's fix that. We don't want you agitating him after all." He was obviously referring to the Hulk when he spoke, his jaw moving up and down but the mask covered his mouth.

Just as some sort of web shot from his wrists, aimed for her mouth, a giant green hand intercepted its path and caught the string in its fist. The Hulk's angry face was suddenly all up in the mysterious man's face. If he were an anime character, he would have sweat dropped.

"Uh… hey, big guy!" he greeted, scratching the back of his head nervously.

The Hulk growled and raised his fist to smash the guy, when Tania screamed again, this time quieter than before. Hulk stopped mid-swing and turned around. He grabbed the web attaching her to the ceiling and snapped it in two with ease before catching the falling Tania in his hands so that she sat with her knees in front of her chest and her head down. She was breathing hard and collecting herself.

To everyone's surprise, the Hulk spoke. "Tan… Tan…" he sighed, failing at saying her name and instead settling for the nickname he had occasionally heard Tony call her, "Piggy Bank okay?" Oh Tony was SO going to pay for that.

Tania slowly raised her head and gave a very weak smile. "Yeah… Yeah, I'm okay. But… um… a little help?" she nodded to her restraints. With shocking gentleness, Hulk complied and pinched the web between his index finger and his thumb before flinging it at the man who was rooted to the spot in complete confusion.

Hulk placed Tania safely on the ground before whirling on the unknown guy and snarling menacingly. It looked like the masked man was about to speak (though it was hard to tell with the mask on), when a shield flew by. Almost as if he sensed it, the man bent backward and avoided it with ease. Even when the shield came back like a boomerang he was able to dodge it by back flipping out of the way.

The disc returned to none other than Captain America, who was looking extremely pissed off and putting all his weight on one leg. Behind him, stood Thor, who twirled his hammer in anticipation, Clint, his bow taut, Natasha, her gun cocked, Iron Man, hovering above the ground, and War Machine, who had one arm raised with some sort of weapon aimed at the man.

"Shit." the red and blue vigilante muttered.

Steve stomped over to him and shoved a finger to his chest, causing him to stumble backward a couple steps. Seething with anger, the Captain spoke. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tania had never heard his voice so low and menacing. It was kinda sexy…

"Uh, saving her life." The man responded with rapidly waning confidence as he eyed the team before him.

"She was doing her job!" Steve shouted.

"She was in the way!" the man argued back.

"So are you!"

"He was going to crush her!"

"Does it look like he's going to crush her?" he gestured to the Hulk, who was standing protectively in front of Tania, effectively blocking her from view while she attempted to peek around him. Red-and-blue-guy visibly gulped, but he didn't get the chance to say anything as Cap continued on.

"Look, son, just leave this to the professionals."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize the 'community helpers club' was exclusive!" the man snapped.

Steve ground his teeth. "Is that what you're here for? To help the community?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well yeah, haven't you seen me on the news?" He received blank stares all around and sighed. "Friendly neighborhood Spiderman? Ring any bells?" It was Natasha who spoke up. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, it's me! The masked vigilante who goes around stopping crime without help from the police. I'm one of you guys."

"You will never be one of us." Steve growled, fists clenched. This was the angriest anyone had ever seen him. It was kind of scary to see their leader get so out of control… and yet be so in control at the same time.

Before anything else could go down, Tania stepped around the Hulk and into view. She walked up to Steve and rested a hand on his arm. Almost immediately his muscles relaxed and he glanced at her. Blue met brown and he stepped back. "I'm okay," she whispered so that only he could hear. "It's okay." She then glared at the man before her who had strung her from the ceiling.

Spiderman seemed surprised… and a little scared. "Uh… she doesn't have a super power too, does she?"

Tony finally moved forward and landed on Tania's left, dropping the remaining foot to the ground. When he spoke, his voice was altered a bit by the suit and sounded somewhat robotic. "Yeah, she calms down the Hulk."

Spiderman suddenly didn't seem so cocky. "Oh! Oh man… uh…"

"She's also Cap's girlfriend." Tony stated blankly.

This only seemed to further disturb the man, whose voice clearly said that he wasn't one yet, but rather a boy – a late teenager at least, but still young. "Crap, I'm really sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Famous last words." Tony whispered, seeing as how when Steve and Tania first met, he'd asked her that and it eventually led to their relationship. Knowing what he meant, Steve punched him in the arm, crushing the metal easily.

Tania smirked, but it wasn't at full capacity. She still hadn't one hundred percent recovered from the overall experience of being dangled from such heights. "Just let me do my job. Karma will do the rest." She turned, putting her back to him and facing the Hulk. Steve immediately stepped behind her, not letting his eyes leave Spiderman as he stood back-to-back with her. Tony even did the, "I'm watching you" motion.

Spiderman gulped as almost every turned to watch the show. Tania was very much aware of how everyone's eyes were on her, waiting for her Latin singing performance. She pushed away the slight stage fright and closed her eyes, imagining that they weren't there.

"Thanks," she whispered before starting, "Benedictus Quivenit Inomine Domini, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, In excelsis." She repeated the verse over and over in the softest soprano voice she could muster. Behind her, she could hear Clint and Tony arguing over her super hero name again. Those two just wouldn't leave it alone! Ignoring them, she continued to sing the same song as before, not having looked up new ones for this particular situation.

Eventually, the Hulk began to sway, just like last time, before eventually falling forward towards her. However, when he landed on her, he was in human form and she caught him easily enough, though she had to kneel. The fact that he was completely naked again made her blush so hard she swore that her entire body was red as a tomato.

Clint and Thor walked up and took him from her, much to her relief. She turned away and buried her face in Steve's neck. But that was when Spiderman interrupted their moment.

"Oh! That's where I know you from!" Everyone wheeled around to stare at him. Seeing that he had made a mistake, he hastily backtracked. "I mean, at the… at the Gala. You were both there, and-":

"You were there?" Rhodey asked, shocked that Tony (or Pepper) would invite someone like him.

"What?! No! Nothing like that!" Spiderman rushed to reassure them, "Um, I saw a picture of the two of you on the internet not too long ago announcing that you two were dating. Publicity travels fast nowadays you know." He laughed nervously.

And then in a flash he was gone, swinging away by his webs that attached to the ceiling as he went. Rhodey fired up the jets in his boots. "He's getting away!"

"Nah, hold on." Tony grabbed his friend's shoulder, preventing him from going after the guy. "He's just a kid, let him go. He thought he was doing good, but he accidentally did the opposite. Just let him go." Rhodey nodded and landed roughly on the floor.

With that said and done, Tania wrapped her arms around Steve's neck and nuzzled him, needing the comfort at that moment. Slightly red in the face (whether it was from blushing or embarrassment, no one knew) Steve snaked his arms around her waist and hugged her back, resting his cheek on the top of her head. He breathed her in and held her tight, lifting one hand to cradle the back of her head.

"I don't trust him…" he said simply.

Tania laughed quietly, muffled by his neck. "Me neither, but he's gone now. It's over." She stopped and pulled away, but not far enough to leave his embrace, just enough to stare deeply into his eyes. "It is over, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah, the threat's been neutralized."

She deflated a bit, "Still not allowed to tell me?"

"Nope. Sorry."

She sighed. "It's okay." That's when she stared down at his foot with worried eyes. "Are you?"

He waved it off. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just broken. With the serum I'll be up and at 'em in no time."

"I believe you left out the part where you got shot multiple times." Iron Man interrupted.

"What?!" Tania exclaimed as Steve sent Tony a death glare.

"He's lying!" he claimed, she sent him a look that said 'don't you dare lie to me', "I only got shot once."

She sighed in exasperation. "Come on, let's go home. Pepper and Happy are waiting outside, we'll patch you up when we reach the Tower."

"What? Pepper and Happy are here?!" Tony questioned. Tania nodded and he was off like a rocket, leaving behind a breeze that blew everyone's hair into their faces. Rhodey trailed after him, followed by Clint, Thor, and Bruce. Natasha walked beside them, leaving the couple standing there.

Tania sighed and took his left arm and wrapped it around her shoulders while she wrapped one around his waist to help him walk. He insisted that he was fine and that he could walk without difficulty, but she just gave him a look that told him to shut up and he complied.

"I want coffee." She muttered.

Steve laughed.