Title: Charm of A Genius

Author: Me

Fandom: Avengers (movie)/Smallville/Batman Begins

Pairing: Steve Rogers/OC

…

Maria: *to loki* I hate you.

Loki: *rolls eyes* No you don't.

Maria: *deadpans* I fucking hate you.

…

Chapter One:

Pepper hadn't expected it. Well, she should have. She knew just how much Maria HATED Nick Fury. She hated the man with a passion, but he was willing to threaten and blackmail Tony just to get the man to do what he wanted. But the last string was when Fury threatened to have Maria taken from Tony. Maria was 14 during the Vanko incident and Tony did not like when Fury threatened his little girl. He almost killed the man, when he did it. Happy had been all too happy to help Maria with her plan.

To 'kidnap' Captain America.

And it worked. Pepper had to admit that she expected to see Maria dragging him out of the building, but when they came running out, the Captain was using himself to shield Maria...and Maria was letting him. Pepper knew that her step-daughter didn't like being the damsel in distress, but she was letting the Captain do it. The only men in the world who could get Maria to smile, genuinely and not forced, were her father and her three best friends. Her best friends being Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne and the reformed super-villain that was Thor's brother, Loki.

"So where we going?" Happy called back, keeping ahead of Fury's men.

He used to 'race' like this with Tony. Though it was always Tony that was outrunning Happy.

"The airfield," Maria sighed, just relaxing in her sprawled position on top of Steve, "Oliver has his plane waiting for me. Bart will run Pep the hell out of here, Clark will take you and Bruce will head off Fury," Maria grumbled quietly about morons, before speaking again, "Fury could have been a LOT more subtle about how he woke him. Stupid bit..."

Maria bit her tongue, taking several seething breaths. Pepper took pity on the lost Steve and spoke.

"Fury and Maria," She nodded to the teenager with pink hair, "hate each other. Her father, Tony...who is Howard's son," Pepper noticed the light of recognition in the Captain's gaze, "Tony had to of sweet talked Fury to get Maria in the building. Maria is very...good...at getting in and out of places. Fury would never have let Maria anywhere near where he was keeping you, if he knew that was where she intended to go. She wouldn't even be in the same city as the building if the man had anything to do with it," she took a breath, "While Nick Fury is one of the good guys, he is not afraid of using threats of bad things to get what he wants. Maria hates the man because of an incident four years ago, a man that Howard had worked with, after your disappearance, had died and left his blueprints of weapons to his son."

Maria laid her head over Steve's heart and closed her eyes. Pepper didn't miss the tired look on the girl's face.

"When Fury came into the picture," Pepper continued, "Tony was very against working with him. But to get Tony to work with him, he threatened to have Maria taken away from him. Tony had only had Maria for six months, he never knew of her existence until then. Fury stepped it up, though, and had Maria kidnapped from the house while Tony's back was turned. Thankfully, Clint, a 'friend' of one of Maria's BEST friends, had seen it. He took Maria while Fury wasn't looking and hid her away until it was all over."

Pepper relaxed back in her seat.

"And THAT is where we are going," She told Steve, "to where Clint hid Maria," she could tell that the pink haired teenager fell asleep, "the only safe place where Fury will never find her," Pepper smiled at Steve, "Smallville, Kansas."

…

Steve had carried Maria onto the jet. He didn't miss the sharp gaze of a black haired man in green. Or how a tall blonde, also wearing green in some form, glared the black haired man into sitting down. Steve sat down, after the blonde took Maria, then passed the sleeping teenager back to the man.

Steve looked out the window in time to see a red blur heading one way and a red/blue one heading another. Then a black militaristic vehicle sat between the jet and an approaching cascade of vehicles. A signal from the blonde had the jet moving. Neither the blonde or the black haired man spoke until the jet was in the air.

"It must mean something," The black haired man spoke smoothly, "if she is letting you hold her like that. Maria is not one for playing the damsel in distress," he pinned Steve with a look, "but if Nicholas Fury is involved, I will not question her motives."

The blonde threw something at the black haired man's head, making the green eyed man glare at him.

"Loki, stop trying to scare the new guy," The blonde chuckled, then directed at Steve, "sorry for the overgrown grump."

Maria stirred in Steve's arms, her face nuzzling into his chest.

"Loki's a stupid head," She mumbled, "needs to get laid."

Steve watched as 'Loki's chin dropped. But the blonde didn't look surprised.

"Maybe Ollie can oblige him with a reach around..."

And then the other chin dropped.

Steve smoothed the clothes and looked at himself in the mirror. Oliver (the blonde) had said that the clothes were just his measurements. He also told Steve that Loki was EXTREMELY protective of Maria. Because Maria's mother was actually one of Loki's 'mortal' children. So he was not only being an over-protective best friend, but an over-protective grandfather. Her mother's mother, though...was none other than Peggy.

Maria came out of the jet's bedroom, setting a Union Jack rucksack in one of the chairs. Oliver had said that Tony had devices sewn into all of Maria's backpacks, rucksacks, purses and bags that made them bigger on the inside. It made Steve wonder just how much she could carry in one of the bags.

She dug a white iPad out of Oliver's backpack, running her fingers over it as if to check something stored on it, before she turned it off and put it in the front pouch of the rucksack. She had a variety of things set out: a black/purple/silver set of eyeshadow, a container of Manic Panic Electric Banana Hair Dye, a bottle of Paco Black XS For Her, a pair of pink lensed aviator glasses, a purple 'Blackberry' cellphone, a blue Sony Vaio laptop, a silver Apple MacBook Air, a black Samsung R700 laptop. A pink portable dvd player, the complete Harry Potter series on DVD, Rocky Horror Picture Show and a dvd about Vincent Van Gogh. Maria looked at Steve over her shoulder, smiling at him and winking, before she tied her rucksack closed.

While they waited to get off the plane, Maria took Steve's hand and held it tight.

"Because of Loki," Maria said softly, "I'm a walking perception filter...when I want to be. Hang on to me and people will ignore you. Despite how I stick out like a sore thumb, I always seem to blend in."

As they disembarked, at a personal airstrip outside of Smallville's city limits, Steve saw how right that Maria was. The people just seemed to look past them. Steve noticed, though, a redhead woman that seemed to be actively looking for someone, her gaze and smile falling on Maria.

"Martha!" Maria said happily, running to Clark's mother and hugging her.