She's got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry

-Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns 'N Roses


Slowly, Ellie started opening her eyes. The first thing she saw was the living room's ceiling, followed by clear memories of what happened the night before. A small smile crawled on her face as she turned her head and studied the cluttered living room. There were blankets all over the floor and an empty bowl of popcorn was on the coffee table. From what she could see, nobody else was around and her smile faded. Why didn't anybody wake her up?

She lifted her head and her pillow suddenly moved. Instinctively, her hand immediately felt around for the cause of movement, only for her fingertips to be greeted by a soft, cotton t-shirt covering a hard, flat surface.

"What the fuck?!"

Steve was asleep beside her –underneath her. How did she miss that? How did she not feel or even hear him breathing? He was the first one, out of the two of them to fall asleep. From what she could recall, she fell asleep far away from him. Ellie sat up quickly and tried to piece together what was going on. By the looks of it, Steve had fallen asleep while slouching and she had somehow, magically moved from one side of the couch, all the way to resting her head on his stomach.

It was strange seeing him sleep; he looked so content and peaceful. The longer she stared at him, the hotter her face went. Her ears heated up within seconds. She tried moving his arm from and after putting in a little effort, managed to successfully lift it, allowing her to get up.

Just when she sat up, she felt him move next to her. He had woken up. His eyebrows were creased and his eyes were still trying to adjust to the sunlight. "What?" his voice groggily said then saw Ellie.

"Err…what are you doing?" he asked her, slowly sitting up.

She blinked. "Um…I, ah…we –you…," she blurted at the same time, then shook her head, completely lost for words. "I'm lost," she sighed, feeling her face heat up again.

"Where is everyone?" he asked her, trying to change the subject. She shrugged. "Did we all just fall asleep here?"

She nodded slowly, taking her bottom lip with her teeth nervously. He rubbed his eyes and scratched the back of his blond head. Did he realize what had just happened? Was he disgusted that he fell into such an awkward situation with her of all people? She looked away. Something inside her told her to get the hell out of there before any more questions were asked.

"Listen," Steve sighed, drawing her attention, "I'm sorry if I made you feel a little uncomfortable. I didn't mean to…," he said, leaving his sentence to drift off. He knew what happened, alright. He was the one who woke up in the middle of the night and saw her about a second away from falling off the couch.

Ellie released her lip and couldn't help but smile just a little. He actually apologized. She shook her head with a short snort. "I wasn't uncomfortable. Just a little taken aback. Besides, it's not like you're some creepy pervert," she said, feeling a bit more at ease. Something of a grin took on Steve's face, too.

They stayed like that for a moment –eyes locked. It was blue against brown; both lips sliding further up into smiles before sharing a ridiculous laugh. She was relieved he didn't make too much of a deal about it and he was thankful that she didn't take his gesture the wrong way. The heavy, awkward atmosphere had disappeared and had been replaced with a warm sensation.

What broke the gaze between them, were two people entering the living room; one of which they had never seen before. It was Bruce with a mysterious brunette woman, laughing about something. Steve and Ellie both watched them intently, focusing on her and trying to piece together some kind of reason.

"Good morning, sunshine," Ellie called out after a few moments of being completely invisible. Bruce's head shot up and finally saw her and Steve sitting on the couch. The woman looked at Bruce, waiting for some kind of green light. He cleared his throat and brought her over to them.

"Betty, this is Ellie and Steve," he introduced them, "Steve and Ellie, this is Betty. She's an old friend of mine."

Just like when Ellie first met them, Steve respectfully stood up and straightened his clothes to make himself somewhat more presentable. He held out his hand and nodded his head once. "It's nice to meet you, Ma'am," he greeted her. Betty smiled and shook his hand. "I'm sorry about the mess."

"It's not a problem. This is your home after all. It's an honor to finally meet you, Captain."

Next up was Ellie, who followed Steve by standing up and holding out her hand. "Hi. I'm Ellie. It's nice to meet you."

Betty shook her hand. "Miss Telekinesis, huh?" she teased, glancing at Bruce. Ellie forced a stifled laugh, but not because of the name, but because of the irony. Sure, she had telekinesis, if you could even call it that. But what was the point if she couldn't even control it?

"Betty over here will be staying with us for a short while," Bruce explained, "so be nice."

"Of course. Just make it to breakfast before Thor and Clint because those guys basically suck everything up," Ellie joked, glancing at Steve, who had started folding up blankets and neatly piling them up. Suddenly, the elevator opened up and Tony, Pepper and Clint all came rushing out, all in costume. That was the first time Ellie has seen them in their suits up closely, so her face lit up as if she was a child in a candy store. Tony and Pepper were the only ones dressed in their usual clothes.

"What's all this?" she asked, going over to them to get a better look.

Tony ignored her and turned to Steve, who was still folding up blankets. "No time for that, Cap. We got Doc Ock running around the streets and Spider-Man's nowhere to be seen. C'mon, suit up," he said, clapping his hands, then turned to Ellie, "same applies to you. Your suit's in your room. Go get it and meet us out on the terrace. Go on. Hurry it up!"

Steve dropped what he was doing and made his way to the lift. Ellie eventually followed him, after staring at Tony in bewilderment for a few seconds when he said the word 'costume'. Just as said, Ellie found a suit in her room. She hesitated, but put it on anyway. Evidently, Tony had done an excellent job designing her suit. It consisted of a pair of black leather pants, which had laces going up the side of each leg with a tight navy-blue spandex t-shirt. Her black boots were wedge-heeled and black with a sheathed knife on the side. The heels were somehow designed to contract as soon as she started running. On her hands, she wore fingerless leather gloves with padding around the knuckles.

As she made her way back to the lift, she put her hair up into a thick braid and met Nat on the way up.

"How do you like your costume?" Nat asked her, studying it.

Ellie shrugged. "I like it. It's actually very comfortable," she admitted, looking at herself in the mirror. "Who designed it again?"

"Tony, believe it or not," Natasha answered, adjusting her own costume. Ellie looked at herself one more time in the elevator mirror. She could hardly believe that she was an actual superhero –the kind she read about in comics. She even had a kick-ass costume and everything. The two met the rest of the team out on the balcony, where their jet was supposed to meet them. Hawkeye and Iron Man were already waiting outside the jet. Betty stayed with Pepper, and the two women bonded by swapping war stories.

"Wow, I'd say I did a good job," Tony said, looking at how she looked.

She nodded. "I'd actually have to agree. So, what's our mission again?"

"Doc Ock is crawling around again," Clint sighed, inspecting his arrows. "Man, I hate that guy."

"He's the guy with four mechanical legs, right?" Ellie asked everyone as Tony opened up the jet.

An answer came from behind. "Yes," Steve answered, with Bruce and Thor following. They were all in costume, except Bruce, for obvious reasons. Nat and Clint immediately made their way towards the cockpit of the jet while Ellie, Bruce, Thor and Steve found and strapped themselves into seats. Tony chose to fly beside them.

"Alright, he was spotted on the corner of Third and Fourth Street, Manhattan. He could have a hostage, so be on the lookout," Steve commanded everybody. "Nat, you stay in the air with Thor and Stark. Me, Barton and Ellie will take the ground and Bruce –you know what to do."

Everybody nodded. Ellie stared out the window, watching the tops of the skyscrapers pass them by. This was it, she thought. Her first mission as an Avenger. Something at the back of her mind kept on telling her that she's screw everything up, but something else assured her that she's be fine. She prayed that all the S.H.I.E.L.D training she had spent hours and hours on would suffice, otherwise she'd might as well say goodbye.

"You alright?" she heard somebody ask her. She turned her head to see Bruce smiling at her.

She nodded her head. "Yeah. I think so. I'm just a little…"

"Nervous?" Steve intervened, giving her and reassuring smile. "You'll be fine. Besides, I don't think Fury would've chosen you if you weren't good enough. Plus, you're not exactly going to be alone."

"You're right," Ellie sighed. "I just hope I'm the one for the job."

All of a sudden, the entire back of the jet opened up. Thor shot up and swung his hammer around and around before being whisked away by the wind.

"ALRIGHT, WE'RE HERE!" Nat yelled over the howling wind, "I SEE HIM. TRY TO GET HIM ON THE GROUND!"

The jet lowered and once it was close enough to the ground, Steve and Clint jumped out and stepped right into the line of fire. Bruce looked at Ellie and gestured for her to go first, and she did. Eventually all four were on the ground and Thor, Nat and Tony were in the sky.

When Ellie landed, she was forced to quickly jump out of the way to avoid being hit by a flying car that Doc Ock had thrown at her. She looked up and finally saw him standing a few feet away. If her team's lives, as well as hers weren't on the line, she might've laughed at his ridiculous look. He had an old-fashioned mushroom-cut hairstyle and on his face, there was a large pair of goggles.

"Where's the beloved Spider?" the villain roared, laughing at himself, "is he too scared to take me on?!"

He was knocked back suddenly by Captain America's shield. His grin was replaced with a bitter glare as he started running towards Steve. Hawkeye, who had positioned himself on top of a bus, started unloading some of his most dangerous arrows. He lived up to his 'expert marksman' title when he didn't miss a single shot. Ellie shook herself out of her daydreaming. There was no time to dawdle; people's lives were at stake. She began her sprint toward the Doctor and unsheathed her knives.

"HEY DICKFACE!" she shouted behind him. He stopped and turned around. "IT'S NICE TO FINALLY MEET YOU!"

She quickened her pace and once she got a little closer, she aimed and threw one of her knives at once of his four mechanical arms. It definitely did some damage. She saw this when the leg gave in for a moment and started to glitch.

"Get the legs, guys. It's his weakness. Just watch out for the claws," Ellie told the rest of the team. Shortly after that, Natasha stared firing the jet's machine gun at his legs while Thor took some shots with his hammer. Ellie turned around to look for Bruce and when she spotted him, he wasn't looking at anybody; he was watching his hands as they turned green.

"Bruce?" she breathed as she watched his skin go green. He turned to glance at her and for a second, she could still see the Bruce Banner she knew. His eyes suddenly changed to a bright green color, and then she knew what she was up against. She watched for the first couple of moments as he transformed into the huge, infamous green monster she had read about. For the first time in a long time, Ellie was genuinely afraid. She could feel her heart racing within her chest as she gradually backed away, eventually breaking into a sprint to get away from the Hulk.

The big monster came running towards her and she jumped out of the way, purely out of fear. She watched as he simply pushed himself off the ground and landed on one of the arms, trying to rip it apart.

"HULK SMASH!" Bruce howled and managed to snap of the mechanical legs in half. "HULK HELP! HULK GOOD!"

Ellie was forced to step back into action. She stopped watching the Hulk and sprinted towards one of the four mechanical giant legs. She managed to retrieve her knives and re-sheathed. Steve's shield smoothly slid through the air and hit Doc Ock harder than the last time.

"Alright you ugly bastard," Tony said to himself, holding out his two hands. "Eat this." Two blue beams shot out of the palms of his hand and hit one of the legs until it gave in.

Ellie closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. Maybe she could use her telekinesis. Maybe if she tried hard enough, it would work. She closed her mind from the rest of the world and from her surroundings. She could only hear faint sounds, such as herself breathing and Iron Man's beams being shot. Time moved at a slower pace as she stood there.

"ELLIE!"

She ignored it.

"ELLIE WATCH OUT!"

She opened her eyes and another car was a few feet away from crushing her body. It stopped in midair. For a few seconds, the entire team stopped and watched. She stared at it intensely. It was working. She nodded her head once and the whole car flew back, hitting Doc Ock fiercely. His body had collapsed underneath the weight of the car and everybody waited to see whether he was still moving or not. After a minute or so, the car moved to the side as he lifted himself up and prepared himself to continue the battle. Natasha began shooting again and Iron Man thought of a new plan.

"I'll distract the assclown. Poltergeist, Hawkeye, Widow and Hulk, take out his legs. Cap, you and Thor take his body."

"Roger that," Steve responded and started running towards Doc Ock.

Clint sighed. "I hope Spider-Ass pays us back for this one. This douche bag belongs to him," he complained, talking out three arrows.

The Hulk let out another snarl before jumping at one of the mechanical legs again. He pulled and ripped until half of the leg finally fell off. Thor grasped the lighting with the power of Mjölnir and sent thousands of volts through the villain's body, as well as his arms.

Doc Ock's body violently jolted as electricity ran through his system. Clint took one more shot and hit him with an explosive arrow. The Hulk stopped smashing and stepped back, roaring aggressively as he watched Doc Ock grow weaker and weaker. When the electricity flow ended, his body fell to the ground.

"Alright," Clint cheered, as everybody made their way towards the motionless body, "not bad, I'd say. What did you think, newbie?"

Ellie tilted her head and gently kicked one of Doc Ock's legs to see if it would move.

"Jury's still out," she sighed and folded her arms, "but it sure beats being stuck in a cage."

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