Chapter One

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but the Starks aren't accepting visitors right now."

The doctor's voice shook Tony from his trace. He'd been staring at his sleeping wife and sleeping bundle of joy, just thinking about how lucky he was to have two beautiful girls. The intense stare had actually began to make his eyes water. Seriously - if he wasn't married to/the father of them, he would probably be arrested for creeping so badly.

When Tony saw who was trying to see them, he grinned and stood. "No, we'll take this one. Come on in, Carter!"

Carter shot a smirk at the doctor and slunk into the room. Eyes flickering over to where Allie (as Tony had already taken to calling her) and Pepper were sleeping, a small smile crossed her face again. "Pretty," she said quietly.

"I know, right?" Tony got all giddy again. "Best looking women in the world, sorry, are in my family! I mean, how awesome can I get? Hey, wait." Memories came flooding back to him. "What... where's Bruce? I thought he was... kind of dying?" He looked at her hopefully, praying that she would say that he'd pulled through and would be walking in behind her any minute.

"He's dead." Her face was stony, just like her tone was rock hard.

Tony just gasped. He sounded ridiculous, but he really didn't care about that. Bruce had died while he'd run off to have a baby be born. His friend, his only really smart friend, had just gone and died. Bit the dust. Slept with the fishes. Kicked the bucket. He couldn't even... he couldn't...

The room started to spin again. Groping out blindly for the chair he'd passed out in while Pepper was giving birth (Apparently, he'd fallen over several times, and actually had thrown up in that bucket. Not that he remembered.), and collapsed in it. Once he was somewhat more stable, he glanced up at Carter.

Seeing as she was managing to keep her face so expressionless, she was handling this pretty well. Better than he'd expected. He could still remember how horror-struck and desperate she'd looked when Tony had walked in on the two of them. And how close she'd been to tears earlier...

"Why... why did you come?" Tony cocked his head to the side in a very Thor-like manner. "I mean... Bruce just died. Why... why didn't you, I dunno, go into depression or something? He's your husband. Or... he was your husband." Speaking about Bruce in past tense just felt weird on Tony's tongue.

For a moment, Carter seemed at a loss for words. Carter, who had a whole arsenal of quick comebacks. Wow. This must be getting to her more than she's letting on. "I needed to get out of the house," she said simply.

"Well, yeah. That makes sense. I just... I'm sorry, I guess," he finished lamely. Then, deciding that maybe this was one of those very, very rare times when mushy, heart-felt stuff was good, launched into a speech. "You know, my parents died. Well, yeah, you knew that. And when they died, I started doing a bunch of stupid stuff, because it just didn't matter to me anymore, you know? That was really when I started drinking. It hurt so much, and drinking made that pain go away. But really, it didn't. It made me feel nothing, instead of everything all at once. I guess my point is that it's gonna hurt, but you'll live through it. Huh. Yeah, I really shouldn't be a motivational speaker, should I?"

Carter opened her mouth to reply, but before any sound could come out, the two of them heard poor Dr. Burns trying to stay in control again.

"Sir, you can't be here - "

"You let her in!" a new voice growled. "Get outta my way!"

Tony rolled his eyes. Oh, Logan. What are we going to do with you? Send you to manner's school? Really, the guy needed to stop growling and snarling and snapping at people. It turned them off.

"I can't - "

"Move!" There was the sound of glass vials breaking and someone getting slammed into a wall. At that, Tony jumped to his feet. As angry as he usually was, Logan never acted this inappropriately. Even though he was Canadian, he knew better than to throw MD's around. Something must be wrong.

Logan burst through the doors, wild-eyed and his gravity-defying hair sticking up at even odder angles than it normally did. "Tony, don't trust her, it's a trap!" His words were rushed and panicked.

His eyes crossed the room, and when they landed on Carter, he sucked in a breath, then let out a low snarl. In one movement, he let his metal claws grow from his hands and leapt across the room. Less than a second later, he had Carter in a choke hold, claws pressed threateningly against her neck.

"Whoa!" Tony started to move towards the two of them. "Guys! Seriously! What the hell are you doing?" Remembering that he had a sleeping wife and kid in here, he looked over to the bed. Huh. Still sleeping. Birth must really take it's tole on you.

Logan ignored him. "What do you know about this?" he hissed, scrunching up his nose in a surprisingly intimidating manner. "Huh? What did you have to do with this?"

"I didn't do anything." Carter's lip curled. "And I don't know what you're talking about, Logan. Put me down. I think you're scaring Tony."

"Yeah, I'm kinda terrified right now. Just let the girl down before I have to call that doctor in with some sedatives, OK?"

With another growl, Logan snapped his around around so that he was facing Tony. "Don't you see? It's not Carter. I can smell her."

"You can smell her?" Tony raised an eyebrow. OK, yeah, Logan was starting to scare him. A lot. Right now his sanity was borderline questionable, and that was coming from Tony. "Look, man, we'll get you some help, alright? Some pills to straighten things out."

Logan rolled his eyes and let out another animalistic noise. "I'm not crazy! It's Mystique. She's pretending to be Carter!"

Yep, now Tony knew that Logan had lost it. Making up people so that you had a reason to attack your teammates? No, that was just going to far. "What the hell is a 'Mystique'?"

As if she'd been waiting for the right moment, Carter swung both her legs up and brought a foot to each side of Logan's head. When the mutant dropped her, she kicked upwards again, knocking him several feet backwards and making a crunching sound. Since when had she been so flexible?

Logan, not being one to take abuse well, spit the blood in his mouth out onto the floor. Then, with a battle cry, rushed forward, arms and claws extended, and... ran Carter through? Metal claws went in one side of the woman and out the other. Carter looked down in shock, mouth moving but not producing any sound.

"What the fuck?" Tony exclaimed. "Logan... you just killed her! What the hell is your issue? You can't just go around killing people because they smell funny! Come on! You - you - you..." Unsure of what else to do, Tony just threw his hands up in the air. Why was he always the one to be with the crazies?

As if a friend of yours coming in and randomly murdering another friend wasn't strange enough, things got weirder from there.

Carter let out a gasp, eyes fluttering shut. There was a sound like a card deck being shuffle, and Tony watched, stunned, as blue scales, began to creep their way up Carter's body. Her curly brown hair shortened and slicked back, turning a deep crimson color. When she opened her eyes, they were bright yellow instead of green.

"That's a Mystique," Logan explain gruffly, just as Mystique crumpled to the ground. After toeing her with his boot, he turned to Tony. "We have to go. There's been an attack on the mansion - Bruce Hulked up and then this dinosaur thing showed up and beat the crap out of Thor and broke Barton's leg. Get Pepper and your baby and let's move."

"Whoa, wait. Slow down." Tony looked at the mutant incredulously, then at the dead blue body, then back to the mutant. "Bruce is alive? Carter - er, Mystique - just said he was dead. And what do you mean, 'dinosaur'? What is this, Jurassic Park?"

Logan rolled his eyes again. "It's Central Park. And are you really surprised that she lied to you? C'mon, you're probably in danger. Magneto has more than one minion."

"What the hell is a 'Magneto'?"


AVENGERS ASSEMBLE


Waking up after Hulking out was a lot like waking up after a really crazy party: you were usually face-first on the ground, you had no idea where you were, your head hurt, and you were missing pretty important articles of clothing.

Bruce groaned into the asphalt, head spinning. God, what had happened? Hadn't he been... laying in a pool of his own blood and vomit? Yeah, as gross as that was, that sounded about right to him. But that wasn't the last thing he remembered. No, he knew there was something else, something he was missing.

"Carter - run! I can't... I can't control... He's - he's back, I... Arrrggh! Ughn. Run."

Struggling, Bruce lifted himself into a sitting position, keeping one hand on his now way to big and ripped pants. He rubbed his face and let out a long sigh. One minute he'd been dying, the next, he'd somehow become the Hulk again and had flipped out while his wife was in the room.

Oh, God, now what was he going to do? Seeing Carter always made his heart pound a little faster, and he was married to her. As in he would always be with her. Which was what he wanted. But now that every moment he spent with her would put her in danger...

Maybe it was all just a dream. Yeah. If he was lucky, he'd wake up and still be in that run-down cabin in Canada, and none of this would have ever happened. SHIELD still wouldn't have found him yet. Heck, maybe if he was really fortunate, he'd wake up and it'd be the night before he created the Hulk the first time.

Let's face it, though: Bruce had never really been a lucky guy.

When he heard the sound of little peebles flying everywhere and feet slapping against the pavement, he jumped to his feet and whirled around, tensing. Before he could even see who was coming at him, they tackled him in a huge bear-hug.

Bruce was almost over-whelmed by the smell of coconut.

"Oh my God, you're OK," Carter muttered, her warm breath hitting his bear skin and sending chills down his spine. "I - I thought I'd lost you there for a minute. Don't you ever die on me again, you hear?"

Unable to ignore his racing heart any longer, Bruce reluctantly peeled her off of him. She grinned at him, only highlighting the fact that her face was covered in grime, sweat, and blood. Bruce reached up and lightly ran his finger's over a bruise that was forming just over her brow. "Did I... did I hurt you?"

Carter rolled her eyes and moved his hand away. "No. Thor and I head-butted. He was wearing his helmet. The one that's made of metal." She waved it off. "You saved me. That dinosaur thing would have killed me, but you jumped in the way."

"Please don't forget what happened the last time I tried to save you." He knew he wouldn't. That image of her lying broken in the hospital bed was one that would never leave him.

She opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it again, her brows drawing closer together. Hesitantly, she reached out and placed her hand lightly on his chest (which only made his heart beat faster again). When she pulled away and examined her hand, a concerned expression crossed her face. "You're bleeding," she murmured, still looking at her hand.

Bruce glanced down at his chest. Sure enough, three gashes were sort of oozing blood. Huh. He hadn't really noticed it before.

"Come on," Carter said, taking his hand. "Let's get you back to base and cleaned up."


AVENGERS ASSEMBLE


"Stay close to me," Loki muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

Roan, who was already clutching his father's arm, pressed closer to him. Loki felt a pair of little hands wrap around his leg, and so he adjusted his pace accordingly, falling behind Doom and his metal minions.

Smoke seemed to rise from the gray gravel, and the air was thick with fog. So thick, in fact, that it was becoming difficult for the god of mischief to breath. That was one of the problems with being a living soul in the land of the dead.

Darkness and despair seemed to creep up on them as the continued their journey, silently following Doom to wherever the madman had in mind. The air grew colder the longer they walked, and it wasn't long before Roan began to shiver. In a desperate attempt to keep his son warm, Loki wrapped his cloak around the boy's small shoulders.

If only he could create a fire to keep them warm.

But in order to do that, he would need magic. Which Doom, being only a little insane, and not a complete fool, had taken away.

Oh, Hel, forget the fire. If he had his magic, he could get them safely back to Midgard.

Up ahead of them, Doom came to a sudden halt. His troops stopped in sync, too, and, thankfully, Loki's reflexes kicked in and stopped him before he could run into the Doombot right in front of him.

Loki squinted, but he couldn't see through the thick fog ahead. Whatever was there, he knew, was the thing that had stopped their army from advancing. Whether it be friend or foe, Loki was unsure.

Doom let out that light chuckle of his. In a warm, almost welcoming gesture, he spread his arms out wide.

"Hello there, Herr Schmidt."