A/N: Thanks for the suggestions, guys!


Chapter 7- Choosing the Team

"I sized it down. That way we can carry it around when we're over there."

"We?" Fury looked incredulously at the girl. "You aren't going."

"What if something goes wrong with the transporter?" Chrissy asked, narrowing her eyes at the director. "The team will need somebody to fix it. I'm the only one with the knowle-"

"Tony can handle that. Just give him your research and I'm sure he'll be smart enough to figure it out."

Chrissy rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Look, even Stark isn't smart enough to figure this out. I've been working on this since I was fourteen. Stark doesn't have years to do this. He'd be lucky if he even had a week to sort it out."

"If I can become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics overnight then I'm sure I can learn interdimensional transport in a couple of days," Stark spoke up from where he stood near the door, causing Chrissy to jump. She hadn't realised he was listening. After all, he had been on the phone a minute ago- talking to 'Pepper', whoever that was.

"Thermonuclear astrophysics looks like child's play compared to this stuff, Stark," Chrissy snapped at him before turning back to Fury. "Why shouldn't I go? What exactly do you think I'd do over there? Loki tried to kill me when I'd sent his goons the last of the research. Do you really think I'd want to go back to him?"

"We'll send you back to your family-"

"My family?" Chrissy laughed loudly at that. "My family abandoned me when I was three years old and my foster family hardly cared for me."

"Fine. You'll go. But if you cause any sort of calamity, I give permission for the team to terminate you. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly, thank you. I also want in on the decisions about who is joining the team," she demanded.

"You want what?"

"You heard."

"Fine. They're in the meeting room now."

[-]

"I'm not going," Banner announced from where he sat. "I can only protect myself if the other guy comes out and I'm sure you don't want him messing things up for you in the other dimension."

"Alright. No green guy," said Stark. "Who else wants to stay?" Silence.

Nobody wanted to be left out of this journey except for Banner.

"So the team so far consists of Tony, Clint, Wally, Steve, Thor, myself and Chrissy," Natasha listed. "Plus the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that Fury wants to send with us. We still need more than that."

Stark pressed a button on the table to bring up a holographic monitor, waving his hands about to scroll through the list of potentials. "Spider-Man." He brought up a large image of the red and blue clad hero. "He's local and his abilities include wall-walking, endurance and strength. He also uses 'webs' made out of a substance he's probably created himself."

All members at the table sat in silence, looking at the image rotating in front of them.

"What do we know about him?" Steve asked.

"He's worshipped in New York," Chrissy piped up from where she sat before Tony could go further than opening his mouth. "Heck, they even sell some of his merchandise over in the UK. "I'd go as far to say that he's as big as you guys. Though God knows where he was during the battle with the Chituari."

"Most of these guys were missing during that battle. But we handled it," Stark pointed out.

"I say he comes with us," said Steve. "If he's famous and they're selling merchandise it means he's likely a good guy."

"Right," Tony shifted the image across into a folder. Next he pulled up a one of a man with thick claws protruding from his knuckles.

The whole image looked painful and Wally almost winced at the thought of the knife-like metal spikes bursting from his hands.

"This guy calls himself 'The Wolverine'," Stark explained. "I hacked the database of Xavier's School for the Gifted to get some information on him. It seems they don't have much but he's one heck of a fighter."

"Haven't we already got enough brawn?" Clint asked. "We have Thor and Rogers. They're both all muscle."

"From what Wally's given us, we'll need a lot more brawn than two people. I say he goes," argued Natasha, looking over towards Clint. Then her eyes flickered back to Tony. "Any other ones that will be good in the field?"

Tony pulled up an image of a man with a staff and a long, brown coat. "This guy is another mutant. He calls himself Gambit. He's good with the staff and he can also manipulate kinetic energy to cause things to explode."

Wally's eyebrows rose slightly as Tony shoved the picture into the on-screen file without any consultation.

The other heroes took more time deciding. But, in the end, they had their team. Most of the team departed and, as Wally himself was about to leave, he caught Chrissy hacking Tony's computer to look at the file.

"What are you doing?" the speedster asked as he walked around behind her, watching her sift through the file.

Spider-Man, The Wolverine, Gambit, Ant-Man, Storm, Lady Sif, Nightcrawler. It was an odd team but Wally was pretty positive it would work… hopefully.

"Memorising," Chrissy replied. "I want to make sure I know everything about these people before we leave."

"Oh…" Wally was unsure of how to reply to that. "Alright."

He continued to watch her, realising that this was the first time he had properly had a chance to talk to her without any agents around.

"So I see you don't have guards anymore," he pointed out and was confused when he saw her eyes flash up, almost threateningly.

The expression was gone pretty quickly, however, and her attention returned to the files. "Yeah. It seems I'm no longer much of a threat now that they have my device. If I'd wanted to then I could have easily gotten away from them anyway."

Wally thought that was doubtful. Considering she'd almost been crushed by the crumbling ceiling, he didn't think she was quite quick enough to outrun the agents, especially with all of the superhuman team members they had.

Closing the file, she shoved it to the side and continued to look through Tony's computer system. Without the agents around, she was free to do as she pleased. She pulled up a file and, before Wally could lean in to read the name, the image was in the centre of the table, large and spinning. It was the image of a man with large, curved metal horns attached to the helmet on his head. His outfit was green, his eyes a shining blue-green.

"I've never actually seen him in person before," Chrissy admitted and Wally realised that this was Loki, brother to Thor and the one who had caused this whole mess. "He had a couple of come find me and never actually came to me in person. I'd only ever seen him in the videos from the New York attack."

"Why did you work for him?" Wally asked.

"Because he offered me fame," Chrissy admitted with a small chuckle. "And because I was stupid enough to think that he wouldn't use it for anything too bad. And because he actually took an interest in me, where other people acted like I didn't exist."

"Wh-" Wally was interrupted by the AI, JARVIS.

"Miss Hewett, Tony wants you down in the lab. Your machine is malfunctioning and it's urgent."

Christa looked confused. "Malfunctioning? What do you mean?"

"He wants you down there as quickly as you can."

Chrissy looked at Wally. "I'll see you later." With that, she hurried from the room.