Because every 5 year old thinks superhero is a fun game and because grownups can't really help it. Protecting children from both physical and psychological trauma is a biological imperative.

Thor once released, stormed to the door raised back his fist.

"Wait!" Robin piped up.

Thor looked back at the little boy in disbelief, "You freed us. Is this not where we do our part?"

"Well, that's going to make a lot of noise. Have you tried it yet, to see if it's even locked?" Robin padded quickly and silently up to the door. He pressed an ear to it then reached up and tried the knob. The door was open. He silently shushed the two big warriors then peaked outside.

Captain America rubbed a hand over his eyes in embarrassment; then nodded for Thor to follow after the child.

"Psst, Robin, it's the other way," the Captain corrected in sotto voce.

Robin looked back at the smaller of the two warriors with guileless questioning eyes. "The generator is to the left. Look up. There are more terminated power lines on the far side. The generator was, like, um right beside the portal machine or were you, you know, looking to retrieve gear?" Robin was bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet with the effort it took to stay mostly silent. They were in unsecured territory he had to shut up. He didn't want to shut up. If they could just start moving, moving would be just as good as talking.

Thor looked at the Captain with an eyebrow raised. With the Avengers, everyone had agreed the Captain was the leader.

Captain America sighed in defeat and went the way Robin had originally indicated. Robin kept running a few steps ahead then looking back quietly and bouncing on the balls of his feet waiting for the two soldiers to catch up. All of a sudden in a flash Robin darted around the corner, the bed sheet fluttering to the ground behind him. There were two heavy thuds. Captain America and Thor ran round the corner recognizing the sounds of combat.

Robin sat on the ground with his head in his hands, butt naked beside two fully grown armed soldiers, both of whom were sprawled out unconscious. "N..Nn..Not whelming. Ouchy, ouchy…" He was rocking slightly holding his head.

Thor picked up the bed sheet and passed it back to the child.

"Thank you," Robin chirped quietly still holding his head. Once he'd tied his bed sheet back round himself, he passed Thor a security card from one of the guards. Robin tried to stand and fell back down shaking.

Captain America picked up Robin in one arm hoping for the bouncy little chatterbox to look a little less broken. "What happened? You went around the corner without us. We didn't see. Are you alright? Are you going to throw up on me?"

"Can I ask you a question?" spoke Robin softly resting his head on the patriotic soldier's shoulder.

"You can always ask. You may not get the answer you were hoping for, but you can always ask," replied the captain, carrying the child away from the soldiers while Thor took over guarding and scouting.

"Can you guys fight and defend yourselves? I mean, don't get me wrong, you look ripped and all but it's not always the same thing. You see, the problem is, I'm not sure I can do that again," Robin admitted weakly gesturing back to the K.O.'d guards. "My head won't tolerate it. Even before I kicked the first guy in the head, the rotation on my handspring had me feeling like I was gonna black out and I don't have enough mass anymore to take them out with punches so I had to spin kick the second guard and there's two of everything now. They didn't even lay a finger on me and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to stay conscious. I'll keep trying to protect you but I honestly think any more hand to hand combat might kill me. So,… can you fight? I mean really fight… not like, W.W.E.(World Wrestling Entertainment) cause you do kind of look a little like professional wrestlers. I was working on the hypothesis that you could fight based on the efforts they took to restrain you. But, like Batman says, a hypothesis used as a final conclusion is reckless and likely to lead to failure so, can you fight or are you civilians that I need to protect?"

"Shhh," interrupted the captain because the little guy wouldn't shut up even to be given an answer to his own question. "Years ago I was enhanced and trained to be a perfect fighting machine, a super-soldier. The big guy up ahead can easily match me and he can make lightening bolts come crashing down out of the sky on bad guys everywhere. You don't need to fight. Shhh…" The captain looked back at the K.O.'d guards, then looked at the itty-bitty Robin he had balanced on his hip, then examined the walls closely to make sure they weren't still melting.

"Can you please ask the big guy to stop stomping his feet," whispered Robin still, ever so quietly prattling on. "The guards heard us and if we're not going to fight we need to be quiet, stealthy, silent. "

"Can you be quiet?" interrupted the captain asking it as a question, rather than issuing an order.

"Don't know…" honest but bloodshot blue eyes looked at him blearily. Robin did fall silent. After a while his trembling eased and he was able to lift his head and pay attention to where they were going.

The Captain let Thor take the corners and intersections first, so opposition was neutralized before the child even came into range. Thor seemed to be enjoying it. Actually, he seemed to be performing. His battle roars were a little too animated but also a lot quieter than normal. Really, bonking two soldier's heads together, then slamming a third with a showy backhanded fist was not the most efficient way to clear the room.

Robin smiled for him. Thor puffed out his chest.

"How fairs our tiny warrior?" asked Thor coming back to ruffle the child's hair and check with the captain.

"Better, I think you can put me down now," Robin answered. He then pointed up. "Look there."

"What are we looking at?" asked the Captain.

"That's a data line. There should be a computer terminal through that door."

Robin looked between the two soldiers. The Viking one had been mostly silent with the patriotic looking one doing most of the talking. "Sir, if you could keep a lookout," Robin asked of the Viking.

Next he addressed the patriot, "That way I can hack the security system and you Sir, can find out why the base is so empty. There should be more personnel around and because there isn't, it would be good to make sure we're not walking into something messy."

Captain America swallowed a smirk as the kid tried to give them the illusion that the grown ups weren't letting themselves be bossed around by a kid. The problem was that everything the kid "suggested" was exactly what a commanding officer would order. He even seemed to have figured out the Avengers chain of command.

Robin was looking up at him with a happy excited puppy look. Captain America gave as serious a nod as he could and the kid tried the door. It was locked. Thor's pass card didn't open it either.

"Give me a boost please? I can slip through the louver window over the door."

Thor lifted Robin who scrambled through the louver window. The bed sheet got caught on the window frame and slipped free again. Thor frowned and grabbed it for the child passing it back to him when he peeked out of the door at them.

"Kid, I'm getting tired of looking at your bare bum," the captain stated before pushing into the room.

Twelve/Thirteen year old Robin, would have been snarky and a little indignant. At five years old, somebody just said 'bum', Robin giggled like it was the silliest joke ever!

Thor slapped Captain America upside the head not really appreciating the humor and little Robin giggled more, tying his sheet around him, then turning to the computer terminal and typing at a million miles a minute. He was bouncing cheerfully from foot to foot again.

"Okay I found out where everyone is!" Robin whispered. "There's a giant green gummy bear and a red and gold robot attacking the base. They've drawn everyone into the southeast corner of the facility so if we follow this route here, we should encounter minimal resistance."

"The gummy bear and the robot are our allies," the Captain explained.

"Oh and there's a purple Green Arrow coming in from the East," Robin added.

"A purple-green arrow?" Thor asked.

"Sorry, an archer wearing purple," Robin clarified with a happy smile.

Thor wondered which realm this strange Robin child was from. He was from neither Midgard, nor Asgard. He recognized neither Thor God of Thunder, nor Captain America. Robin believed himself a protector of man. What strange place had the Tesseract brought him from where a child would think such a role required of him? A world of man bat's, magician's and Martians? Thor could honestly say he'd never had so insignificant a being take it upon itself to act as his protector before. The world made a little more sense when the captain had held the child cradled to one shoulder. A loose nail in the window frame had scratched a small blood track across the child's back. It made no sense that someone so fragile would ... Thor's thoughts were interrupted.

Thor felt a small hand tugging at him. They were moving out.