Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not own any of these great characters.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: I just want you all to know, I've gotten so much enjoyment out of writing this little story and your reactions to it! Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter 12

As the six of them gathered for a quick breakfast that morning, Tony was still a little bit annoyed with Samantha, Steve, and Bruce. They had practically demolished an entire floor, and punched a hole through another one, on top of that.

He glowered at his house guests, then with a small grin thought, Oh well, at least I got to see the look on Shep's face when she realized that I, her own personal genius, fixed up some of her cool toys. And look on the bright side Tony, Pepper will love getting to redesign that floor and... Oh shit!

Tony jumped out of his seat saying, "Well I'm screwed guys, gotta run, I promised Pepper I'd be at JFK to pick her up..." He glanced at his watch, "Fifteen minutes ago! ...Huh... I wonder if the FAA would get on my ass if I did a little stunt show for the kiddies... over the runway to delay her flight..."

Before anyone could tell him what a horrible idea that was, Tony was on his cell phone saying, "Happy, I need you to drive like the wind on over to JFK airport, now!"

After that, everyone waited in fascination, as he raced to the elevator, and about thirty seconds later they all watched Iron Man fly off, determined to royally fuck up some poor JFK Flight Controller's day.

"That man... is completely... utterly... insane.", Shepard muttered, as she lowered her head and put her face in her hands.

Clint suddenly perked up, and smirking at Bruce said, "Speaking of insane... why did you pull that crazy stunt last night, Bruce. You and Steve should have been smarter, and grabbed us." He looked over to Samantha and continued, " I, for one, would have gladly come to help you out, Shepard."

Shepard was mildly irritated at Clint comments, and as she raised her head, she saw that both Steve and Bruce, especially Bruce, were extremely embarrassed.

Both of them, were trying their damnedest to focus solely on the food in front of them. Natasha didn't look particularly happy with Clint, either.

Shepard just cocked an eyebrow and replied, "Thanks Clint... but I'm sure you already do that plenty with Natasha... no need to involve me."

Steve promptly spit out his corn flakes, and Bruce was trying his best not to laugh out loud. Shepard expected Natasha to be pissed at her, but instead the SHIELD agent just gave her a small grin.

Then smirking at him, Natasha looked over next to her, at a now slightly blushing Clint, and said, "Hey Shepard go easy on Clint... he just likes to help people... repeatedly."

Steve had made the mistake of taking another spoonful of corn flakes, and this time, he spewed them half-way across the table. "Okay... I think I'm done with breakfast guys.", he said as he wiped up his mess, picked up his bowl, and headed towards the kitchen.

If Clint had been mildly blushing before, then he was doing Steve proud now. Bruce must have decided that was a good time to change the subject, as he said to Shepard, "Hey Samantha, check this out... you apparently have a new nickname in the media."

Grimacing, Samantha took the dinosaur of a laptop computer that Bruce handed to her, and replied, "I gotta say, even where I come from, I never had the best relationship with reporters." As she read the headline, her jaw dropped, as she loudly said, "The Blue Blaze? ...Your kidding me, right?"

"Nope... I think their already selling posters and t-shirts with you on them.", Natasha said to her. Samantha just dropped her head back down into her hands, and in a muffled voice said, "Jesus... I'm only here a little more than a week, and I'm already a damn poster girl again!"

A blinding white flash suddenly stunned everyone, and as Steve came running back from the kitchen, he shouted, "What happened? Wait... guys... where's Shepard?"

Every one of them just stared at the recently occupied seat, which was now disturbingly vacant.

Ah yes "Page Breaks" a lit- So sorry to bother you, dear readers. I just needed to borrow the main protagonist for a few minutes... Sincerely - Q

Shepard blinked, trying to clear her vision, as she found herself in very familiar place. "Really? You couldn't think of anything better than white in very direction?", she observed of her odd surroundings.

Once again, just like the unending whiteness around her, the same man, still in a Fleet Admiral's uniform, was standing a few feet away from her, with a huge grin on his smug face.

He gave her a slight bow and boomed,"Welcome back, Mon Capitaine de fregate! Your humble servant Q, is so glad to see you again! I'm also happy to see your taking very well to your new life. How you can care about that fellow, who can turn into a giant... green... grotesque... monster... at a moments notice, is beyond my understanding though."

Shepard sneered at him, activated her biotics, and replied, "Q... Just so you know... If you were any other man... I would kill you where you stand!"

Suddenly, he started laughing, and told her, "Ha! You sound just like an old friend of mine... Mr. Woof... I'm sure you two would have liked each other... he's actually very similar to your hump-backed friend... Wrex."

All the mirth on his face seemed to drain away when Shepard didn't seem to give a flying fuck about his comment. In a much darker tone he said, "You should be grateful to me Samantha... I saved your pathetic little mortal life... and on top of that... I am graciously giving you another gift."

Shepard deactivated her biotics, and crossing her arms said, "I don't suppose, if I told you to shove this gift up your ass, you'd actually listen to me?"

He smirked and replied, "No... I believe that would be most uncomfortable and impractical. For me, and my gift to you, which you might really like, by the way.

Shepard flinched as Q snapped his fingers and, in a bright white flash, a man appeared on the ground between them. He was nude, unconscious, and seemed to be badly injured, with cuts, bruises, and burns on most of his body.

Samantha couldn't stop herself from quickly kneeling down by the man and checking on him. She felt a rage building inside her, as she yelled at the smug man standing over them, "What the hell did you do to this man, Q! I don't know how... but I'll make sure you pay-"

Q cut her off with a wave of his hand, and told her, "My dear Samantha, I had nothing to do with his injuries, actually in a way, he was responsible for them himself. If anything, I have bought him back to a far better state of health than where he ended up. Oddly enough, he was also in a massive fiery explosion... just like you Samantha... although, I suspect it was the fall beforehand that actually killed him.

Quickly looking the wounded man over, Shepard almost gasped when she finally got a good look at his face. Samantha gently placed a shaking hand on the man's face, and thought, It... it can't be him. I saw him die on Mindoir all those years ago!

Shepard, tears of joy streaming down her face, was just barely able to stutter out, "Mi... Michael!"

Q got down, kneeling on one knee next to her, and whispered in her ear, "Whats wrong Samantha... you didn't recognize your own brother when you saw him?"

Q snapped his fingers again, and everything became a flash of, blindly bright, white light.

There... I thought you might find that mildly interesting, my dear readers. Now I'll let this "Page Break" and story continue. The one and only – Q -dismissed that claim.

Only a few minutes had passed since Shepard had suddenly vanished right in front of everyone, and they were frantically searching for her.

Bruce was hoping it was only Samantha's doing, deciding to pull a cruel little prank on them with her powers. When they didn't find her on that floor, or any of several floors they checked above and below them, Bruce, once again, found himself worried sick for her.

As Clint, Natasha, Steve, and lastly, Bruce, gathered back around the kitchen table, Bruce said, "So... your all telling me you didn't find a trace of Samantha... in this entire building! That's nuts guys, she has to be somewhere!

Steve leaned over to Bruce, and placing a hand on his shoulder said, "Listen buddy, we don't know what happened... but I promise you we'll-", He was cut off by another blinding flash of white light.

"Find... her...", Steve finished, as they all gazed at the incredible site before them. Shepard was smiling, and crying, outright sobbing, as she knelt, holding onto a nude and, even more alarmingly, severely wounded man.

Steve instantly took charge of the situation as he knelt by Samantha and ordered, "Bruce, call SHIELD now, and tell them to send medics ASAP! Natasha, we need blankets and a first aide kit, as fast as you can grab them! Clint, I need you to head down to Tony's lab and grab something he was working on for Shepard, it should be labeled 'medi-gel'.

All three of them started moving into action, not even wasting time on the why or how, of there being an injured naked man, on their kitchen floor. Steve just tried his best to calm Samantha down, softly saying to her, "I promise you... he's going to be alright Samantha... whoever he is."

Samantha, for the first time since reappearing, noticed someone else in the room, turned to Steve, and said with pride and joy in her voice, "He's my big brother! ... Michael Shepard."

At that moment the elevator door opened and Steve, expecting Clint, looked up to see, a very surprised, Tony and Pepper, walking into the kitchen. Tony just stared at them and said, "Okay... so... what did we miss?"

A/N: Meet Commander Michael Shepard everyone! And no... I'm not telling you anything else about him... not until the next chapter! (Insert evil cackling laughter here.) ... Oh fine! Don't look at me with those puppy dog eyes! ... I will say that he was... far less fortunate, overall, than his sister.