"Who are the brats?"

"Awww, Uncle Nick is grumpy."

"Tali…you're going to get shot."

"Someone tell me what the hell is going on here." Nick Fury demanded as his eye narrowed in on the two teenagers, one of whom was beaming in delight and the other was shaking his head in a manner that reminded him far too much of Dr. Banner.

"Well apparently they're kids from the future, bet you can't guess whose," Tony grinned.

"And I wasn't told of this because?"

"We didn't think it was important?"

Nick moved a hand to his face and let out a long suffering sigh, "You didn't think it was important to tell me that while playing host to a psychotic war criminal and god two kids showed up that could potentially get hurt by said psychotic war criminal and god?"

"Well-"

"Hey, we're not kids," Tali huffed, "I'm sixteen, thank you and I have been involved in fighting in a war for the last two years, I'm as far from a kid as a kid can get."

"And Loki wouldn't hurt us," Branden said and shrugged.

"Oh and how do you know that?" Fury sounded like if he was any more sarcastic flowers may wilt.

"He doesn't hurt kids intentionally," he explained and everyone else looked over to the trickster god who was pointedly ignoring them by looking out of the window.

"And you know this, how?"

Tali rolled her eyes, "Because we grew up with him," she smirked then, "Sorry guys you're stuck with him," she told the Avengers who of course had worked this out for themselves but still looked less than pleased.

"He's had a few kids of his own," Branden glanced at Loki who was now frowning him, "Most of whom were killed or hurt, and-" Loki moved faster than the others expected, making them all jump, but Tali, Branden and Thor looked unsurprised as Loki's hand clamped around the others mouth.

"That is quite enough, thank you," he said, but his glare had no heat, simply because it was true, Loki would never harm a child because he knew what it was like to be the parent to lose one. More than once. Instead he glared hatefully at Thor who had the tact to look ashamed.

Loki huffed instead and glared at Fury, "The Director must be here for a reason, not just idle chit chat," he said and Fury was looking at him through a narrowed eye.

"Doom has decided to try and raid a few laboratories in lower Manhattan, the Avengers are needed to stop him, I don't care what he wants, just put an end to it."

"Oooh! Doctor Doom!" Tali exclaimed, "I wanna come!"

"No," that was more than one voice.

"I can kick doombot ass!" Tali pouted, "Come on…I do know how to do this, please?"

"She does know how to take out droids better than almost anyone, she also likes to stick her hands in the wires and then yell 'I have your innards!' as she pulls them out," Branden commented lightly, Tali flipped him off.

Clint on the other hand snorted, obviously amused, Tony covered his stomach as if in sympathy for the poor wired innards, Loki and Thor looked confused. Overall it was a good performance.

Fury sighed, "I don't care, just as long as this gets done."

"Yay! Let's go! I need to borrow someone's gun or b- gun, let's go with gun," she said trying to cover up a slip, "Unless throwing knives are an option, Uncle Loki taught me well." She beamed at the former god who only arched an eyebrow in response.

"Did I?" he asked, "I am rather skilled with throwing knives."

"And by rather skilled he means he never misses," Tali smiled, Loki stared at the kids for a moment before shaking his head.

"I think I'm going to go jump off of the Tower," he murmured, Thor grabbed him around the shoulders before he could move however, laughing heartily as if it were a joke.

"I don't care! Just move!" Fury snapped, marching out, muttering under his breath about magic and how he wished he could strangle something.

"Let's go- Oh wait!" Tali dug in her pocket and then went over to Branden and handed him something, "Okay now let's go!"

"What was that?" Clint asked and she shrugged.

"My music player," she replied easily, but with her nonchalance it was obvious it was a bit more important than that, "Branden's not coming."

"Nope, I'm not a weirdo, I have no freaky superpowers," he said, smiling.

"Just a freaky superbrain," Tali said cheerfully, "He'd make a great supervillain!"

"Get lost before I decided to hold you to that," he said, putting the device in his pocket.

"Off to save the world!"

In the end, there really wasn't that much to do, just a whole bunch of Doombots to shoot down, Dr. Doom was already well gone by the time they arrived. Tali wasted most of her energy by showing off, the others really didn't seem to mind because the younger girl seemed to enjoy the attention and they didn't mind having to not do the work.

Of course by then, she was completely exhausted and was carried back into the Tower piggy-back style by Clint.

"Did she show off?" Branden asked, looking at the nearly sleeping girl clinging to the other man's back.

"Yup, it was pretty fun to watch actually, who knew people could bend that way," Tony shook his head as if he were in shock. Branden laughed.

"She's been in Gymnastics since she was two, she would have done the Olympics if she was actually dedicated to practicing."

"Well she was good, it didn't seem for a lack of dedication, why can't she do it now?" Clint asked, hiking her up higher, she grumbled into his neck.

"The judges are cruel…" she muttered, "One little slip up…and minus half point!" on the last few words she used a Russian accent. Clint snorted.

"Pretty much you have to be perfect, she does it for fun," Branden shrugged, "And to freak people out, she hangs from the ceiling sometimes."

At that several sets of eyes went to Clint, he ignored it, and turned, "I'm going to put the monkey to bed," he replied easily, but he didn't miss the sharp intake of breath in his ear.

Branden bit his lip and then shrugged, "She's going to wake up at 4 am and probably set a few dozen booby-traps, just a warning," he said.

"Branden, stop talking!" Tali wailed, "You ruin my secrets!"

Branden grinned to himself.