An early update for you wonderful readers! What a stupendous response to the last chapter! :)


The Doctor sat down beside West, his hearts pounding. "I think the most important thing," he said to the man, "is to find out how to close the portal and get rid of the ship. I can help you if you tell me."

"I was not told how to close it," West rasped. "Only how to open it."

"I imagine it's pretty similar," the Doctor said, and then laid a hand on West's shoulder. "How did you open it? My friends are smart, they'll figure it out anyway, but things would go faster if you would tell me."

"Friends," West scoffed, and sagged further against the wall, if that was even possible. His eyelids were fluttering now, and the Doctor knew there were only minutes until he passed.

"There's not time for this," he muttered, and then gently shook the man beside him. "Listen, just hang on for a moment. Tell me about the Master." Hearts pounding harder, waiting for the response. Hoping West was present enough to answer.

He looked very human just then, with blood-stained teeth and the light in his eyes slowly fading as he looked up at the Doctor. Broken, with a terrible thing like excitement in his face. "I'll be rewarded," West said, his voice so faint that the Doctor could hardly hear it. And there was hope in West's expression, too, the same kind that the Doctor knew was on his own face as well. "He has a grand mission...a purpose, and I'll be...rewarded..."

"What was he trying to do?"

"He said...he found a...gro..." West's eyes closed, and he took what had to be his final breath.

"Please," the Doctor whispered. "Don't die. You have to tell me. I don't want to be alone. What about family? Talk to me. For them. West."

The man didn't reply, and when the Doctor felt for a pulse, there was none. And despite the fact that the human had been nothing but malicious and harmful, the Doctor felt the loss like a punch in the gut, another hole dug into his hearts. West had been so very wrong, but he'd only wanted the pain to go away. He'd been so desperate he'd teamed up with the Master, who he hadn't even been sure was alive anymore.

The Doctor stood, and felt the tears on his cheeks. He would have liked to say that it was West's death - treasuring all life and all that - but he knew that it wasn't. It was the death of information rather than the human on the ground. The death of any knowledge of the Master. The Doctor had no idea what he was planning, let alone if he was even living.

Almost mechanically, the Time Lord turned away from the corpse and faced the army of Cybermen still spilling endlessly into the open. The Avengers were faltering now, even the Hulk. The Doctor caught a glimpse of Steve, Clint, and Natasha heading toward him through the crowd of robots, all charred and exhausted. The Doctor wanted to lay down beside West again and go to sleep - he'd already caused these people enough pain, and he had no idea what was in store for them with the portal - but he remained upright and met the three with his most determined expression.

"I was right," Clint said, "there's a portal." He clutched his bow tightly, like a security blanket. His only real protection against the Cybermen. "How do we close it?"

"I have absolutely no idea," the Doctor told them. "West didn't answer me. We'll have to figure it out on our own."

"The Cybermen will know what we're up to as soon as we get close to the portal," Natasha put in. "We'll need a distraction. If we have enough time, Barton and I can figure it out."

Despite the fact that he didn't know these people very well, and he knew that they didn't completely trust him still, the Doctor felt a rush of pride. Human beings were wonderful, really. A somewhat elated feeling overcame him then, and he couldn't help but smile, startling the three across from him. "I'm great at distractions!" the Doctor proclaimed. "But I'll need to help you out, too, with the more spacy-wacey bits."

"I can take over," Steve offered. "What are we planning to do?"

"It won't be very complicated," the Doctor said, "so don't worry about that. I'm thinking...big speech. My usual. It's a very good distraction. They always get caught up in what I'm saying, so they usually don't notice when I have a few friends sneaking past. And the Cybermen still coming out of the portal will be too disoriented to really notice you lot working. Then, when they're alright again, they'll notice that Steve and I are doing a nice show and come over to check it out. No bother to you two at all. I'll have to come in later to help, but until then there's not a whole lot of risk."

Clint shook his head. "We can't let you leave to come help us, Doctor. If this is what you normally do, they won't expect you to leave. When you do, they'll get suspicious."

"I can handle-"

"And so can we," Natasha interrupted. "Just tell us what to do."

The Doctor was a little peeved, but finally sighed and agreed. "Oh, fine then. But I'll have to see it for a minute."


Natasha and Clint, as soon as they heard the Doctor's voice ringing out over the din of battle, took cover in the crumbling remains of the main room of the building. Cybermen were still pouring outside from a hole in the hall, leading to a room. The Doctor had gotten a very brief glimpse of the portal, and given the agents careful instructions and the strange tool he'd called a sonic screwdriver. Then, he'd run off with Steve to make a nice distraction.

Clint had folded up his bow and stashed it away, and Natasha had holstered her pistol. They wouldn't be able to use weapons on this mission. Both the bow and the gun were too loud, and would ruin their plan. Neither of the agents had been pleased, but they had accepted it and moved on. Dependancy on their weapons would distract them.

"You think you're so clever!" the Doctor was bellowing outside, just loud enough for Clint and Natasha to hear him as they sneaked toward the room. The Cybermen marching out of it were, as the Doctor had said, too disoriented to notice them, and there were no guards. They'd known they didn't have many fighters, and so hadn't felt the need to protect the portal.

"How should we do this?" Clint said in an undertone. "Fighting our way past them is impossible. There's a big enough space for us to slip in one at a time, but it would still be risky." Indeed, the Cybermen were coming out one by one. The doorway was wide enough that two regular-sized humans could have gone through at the same time, but the Cybermen were bulky and seemed to have chosen not the destroy the building any further. That would work to the Avengers' advantage.

"That's what we'll have to do," Natasha replied in the same low voice. "I'll go first." She adjusted her hold on the Doctor's odd screwdriver and started forward with Barton just behind her. She waited for the slight opening between Cybermen, and dashed into the room, spinning away from the oncoming robot with ease. This was the kind of thing she was trained for.

Clint came in next, with nearly as much grace as his partner. They'd both been almost entirely silent, and the Cybermen remained oblivious, thankfully. The Doctor had been right. Relief flooded through Natasha, but she pushed it back. They weren't done yet.

Neither dared to speak as they approached the portal. It was greenish-blue and opaque, rippling like water when the Cybermen stepped through it. There was a very thin silver ring around the outside of the portal, and it was embedded into the wall. If Natasha hadn't known what it was, she might have guessed that the Cybermen were simply stepping into this room from another behind the portal. A small control panel was located in the wall beside it, with flashing lights and buttons with writing on them that Natasha was unable to decipher. An alien language, clearly.

Silently, Clint and Natasha exchanged a look that clearly said, what do we do now? The Doctor had given them the sonic screwdriver and blurted, "point and think," before he'd raced off. The Time Lord had also mentioned something called a deadlock seal that they'd have to disable, so they'd have to deal with that before using the tool.

Okay, Natasha thought, taking a deep breath to focus. We need to figure this out.

They stayed out of the path of the arriving Cybermen, who continued to trudge past them without even sparing them a glance, and bent down beside the panel to examine it.

She stared the buttons down, knowing at some point she'd have to make a choice but determined to gain something from the strange writing before she picked one.

To her surprise, the strange symbols slowly morphed into English, just as she was reaching for a button that read self-destruct. She quickly pulled back, and re-scanned the control panel with wide eyes. When she glanced at Barton, she could see that he was as shocked as she was, although the only think that hinted to it was the slight twitch of his lips. She almost smirked, but held back. Turning back panel, she could now read that a switch several rows below the self-destruct button had the inscription of seal on it. That had to be 'deadlock seal,' didn't it?

She would just have to go with it and hope for the best.

Clint nodded at her, and she flipped the switch and was greeted with a wailing alarm.

The Cybermen still stomping into the room suddenly froze and whirled toward them with the slightest of staggers and started coming at them.

Clint and Natasha swore at the same time, and Natasha quickly passed the sonic screwdriver to Hawkeye before she started going at the Cybermen coming quickly toward them. The room was rapidly filling up with robots, all headed toward the agents.

Agent Romanoff leaped over a Cyberman and grabbed it from behind, twisting it to her right and sending it tumbling into several of its counterparts. "Point and think!" she called to Barton.

"I know," he growled, aiming the screwdriver at the control panel with an intense expression. He pressed the button.

Nothing happened, and Natasha's wrist was caught in the grip of a Cyberman.

This one she also sent into its partners, and she kicked another robot square in the face. It staggered back, but it didn't stay down and was up again in minutes. "Clint!" she cried, and continued to fight wildy, slipping out of the Cybermen's hands and smacking them around. But although she certainly had strength and skill on her side, she didn't possess Steve or the Hulk's super-strength, and couldn't put the Cybermen out completely.

It wasn't like Barton was dumb, she thought absently as she fought to keep the robots away from her partner. She wondered why the Doctor's tool wasn't working for him. "What are you thinking of?" she yelled.

"It blowing up, like the Doctor did before with this place," Clint replied, and Natasha had a sinking feeling as he had to kick a Cybermen away from him. The robots were closing in on them. They didn't have much time.

"Try thinking about just closing the portal," she suggested, and then - the Cybermen stopped coming.

She didn't stop to let out the hoot of relief she wanted to, simply continuing to fight the Cybermen, now with Clint's help.

"Which is why your liittle portal has now been shut!" the Doctor's voice called, and it sounded now like he'd been handed a microphone. "They're brilliant, these humans. You can't bring them down!"

The Hulk came barreling into the room, avoiding the agents but crushing the Cybermen and the portal.

From outside, Thor let out a whoop of elation and the fight continued.


I have an announcement to make - this story is officially done, with a total of ten chapters! Sorry all, but it didn't feel right to keep it going past ten. It didn't work out for the story, really. But exciting news - this means we're one step closer to the big one, folks, and quite possibly the most epic crossover story I'll ever write. I'm really excited, and I'm expecting the first chapter of the next little-ish crossover story to be up next week. More on that later.

As for the last chapter of this wonderful story, that will be posted either tomorrow, extremely early (if I have time!), or if we're lucky on Saturday. If we're not lucky, Monday or Tuesday. I'm going to Kentucky, and I don't know if there'll be wi-fi or not, so...yeah. It's possible that it'll also be up tomorrow afternoon, but again, that's all depending on wi-fi, so.

Please review this chapter, if you could. You guys have been really awesome at telling me what you think - 80 reviews as of posting this, that brilliant - so thank you. :)