Chapter 36: A Strange Intruder

Adora knew the new team was gonna take a little getting used to. It was basically the same thing when the initial team assembled. However, she was quite surprised to see how well most of the crew got along. Admittedly there was a bit of early distrust, specifically directed towards Wanda, but things were smoothed over fairly quickly. The hard part was getting the new team to fight well together.

The original members, Steve, Adora and Natasha, were able to co-ordinate their combat with shocking ease. Catra was only able to co-ordinate well with Adora due to their shared history. However, Wanda, Sam and Rhodey were far more used to working on their own. This lead to a number of issues during Training. Adora lost track of how many times Catra pounced into one of the others, or Rhodey would throw a fit over someone taking a target he was after. Even Wanda was clearly still having difficulty controlling her powers.

Another issue at hand was Wanda's grief over the loss of Pietro. Adora had convinced her to see Doctor Plume about her mental health. She had hoped that the Doctor would be as helpful to Wanda as she'd been to her and Catra. Though, and Adora wouldn't admit this to anyone, Wanda's powers terrified her. The last thing she wanted was to found out just how destructive Wanda could be if she wasn't in the right state of mind. She wasn't sure if this fear was a genuine reaction to Wanda's power, or leftover resentment from what she had put her through during the Ultron incident.

On top of all that, there was still no sign of the Hulk, nor the Quinjet he took after the battle. Natasha continued her search, day by day, but still there was no sign of him. This began to cause Adora some worry, not only because of her mother's feelings, but due to the public not exactly being happy with there being no sign of the Hulk after his rampage during the Ultron Incident. Public outcry against the Avengers had been rather rough, but nothing their PR department couldn't handle. Not to mention Tony continuing to help fund the Avengers with SHIELD no longer operational.

In spite of all this however, The New Avengers found themselves in a time of Relative peace. The worst they had to deal with was mopping up remnants of HYDRA, and minor crime syndicates. Adora was content to keep dealing with the smaller threats, happy to not have another world ending catastrophe to deal with on a monthly basis. Catra on the other hand was growing increasingly bored with the mundane state of their current situation.


One day, she was relaxing in the Recreation area, when Adora and Steve approached her. "Hey Catra, we were going to investigate a suspected HYDRA base in Argentina, you wanna come?" Adora asked her.

"Nah, I'd really rather not." Catra replied with a sigh. "Nine times outta ten there's nothing there to even find." She stretched out on the couch and laid on her back, looking at Adora Upside down. "I'll stick around to guard the base."

"Sure, because the base is always under attack." Steve quipped with a smirk.

"I have TV, and don't have to trek through the middle of nowhere for a potential waste of time." Catra replied. "The answer is no guys. Maybe if we have a confirmed sighting."

"Fine, fine." Steve laughed. "Adora was right, you ARE very catlike. We're taking Rhodey, Nat and Wanda. You and Sam are in charge of security while we're gone."

"Try not to lost the base, Catra." Adora teased, kissing her girlfriend on the forehead before she and Steve headed for the new Quinjet. Catra waved off their concerns and returned to her nap.


Sometime later, Sam and Catra were doing the rounds of the headquarters, and sharing old stories with one another. "Sounds like you and Adora have a hell of a history." He commented as they walked.

"Could've been better." Catra replied.

"Still, worked out in the end didn't it?" Sam pointed out. "You girls seem pretty happy now."

"Yeah. Yeah we are." Catra admitted, smiling. "I just wish Mom hasn't found that damn stone."

Sam patted Catra on the back. "Think of it this way. If she didn't, you and Adora might not have been Avengers." He tried to reassure her.

"We'd probably have ended up working with dad to launch Insight. Or sicced on the Avengers in Sokovia." Catra said with a nervous chuckle. "And I highly doubt we'd have survived either of those situations."

"I dunno, considering how hard you punch in training." Sam quipped, rubbing his jaw.

"Hey that was an accident!" Catra protested.

Sam laughed, "Well for an accident it sure hurt. You've got one mean right hook." he told her.

"You oughta see Adora's." Catra commented. "Seriously, I was on the receiving end of several punches from her. And every single one sent me flying."

"You sure she's strong, and you're not just a lightweight?" Sam replied with a smirk.

"Says the guy who flies." Catra groaned. "I'm not weak, I'm agile."

Before Sam could continue the conversation however, the two caught sight of a proximity sensor tripping. "Someone's actually trying to break in. I'll be damned." He commented.

"Where?" Catra asked, curiosity peaked.

"Rooftop." Sam replied. "Race you up?"

"You're on birdie." Catra laughed and ran outside, using her claws to scale the walls of the building as Sam flew outside and dove towards the building's roof. The two arrived at roughly the same time and began slwoly searching the roofs, catching no sight of an intruder.

"What's going on you two?" One of the Compound's techs asked over their radios.

"Had a sensor trip, but we're not seeing anything yet-" Sam began to say, before Catra's ears twitched and she subtly motioned for him to be quiet.

As she listened carefully, she picked up on a very faint, tiny voice nearby. "It's Falcon. And Wildcat!" the voice said, almost sounding amazed. She followed the sound of the voice with her gaze, and was absolutely stunned at what she saw. Her enhanced feline vision caught sight of a tiny humanoid figure looking up on them, clad in a strange red and silver suit with a gasmask style, high tech helmet. "It's okay, they can't see me."

"Actually, I can see you. And hear you." Catra deadpanned to the tiny figure. "I'm a cat, dumbass."

"And I can see you too." Sam added, having adjusted his telescopic goggles.

"They can see me." The man replied, before suddenly growing to full height in a flash and hitting a button on his helmet, opening it up to reveal his face. "Hi, I'm Scott."

Catra blinked a moment, completely stupefied by this man's audacity. Or maybe it was stupidity. 'Did he seriously just say, 'Hi I'm Scott?'' She thought to herself, just staring blankly at the man now standing in front of them.

"What are you doing here." Sam asked, putting on the old professional soldier act to the intruder.

"First off, I'm a big fan." Scott told them both, causing Catra to roll here eyes.

"Appreciate it." Sam deadpanned. "Now who the hell are you."

"I'm Ant Man." Scott replied, prompting Catra to bust out laughing. "What?"

"Ant Man?" Catra repeated. "Fucking Ant Man?! Is that seriously the best you can come up with?"

"I mean, I'd say it's a pretty on the nose name." Scott replied, somewhat indignant. "What, you guys haven't heard of me?"

"Fuck no, I think I'd remember a name as stupid as Ant Man." Catra deadpanned, shaking her head at the bizarre man she was speaking to.

"Guess you wouldn't have heard of me then." Scott replied, still trying to act cool, and in Catra's opinion, falling very flat.

"So you wanna tell us what you want?" Sam asked, almost amused by the guy,

"I was hoping I could grab a piece of technology." Scott replied, motioning to the warehouse they were standing on, causing Catra's jaw to drop from the sheer audacity of him asking that. "Just for a few days? I'll return it right afterward."

"How stupid do you think we are." Catra asked, facepalming.

"I'm serious. I need it to save the world. You both know how that is." Scott replied.

"Yeah, I know exactly how that is.." Sam said, finally having enough. He got back on his radio. "Located the breach, we're bringing him in." He reported, walking over to apprehend Scott.

Scott quickly shut his helmet as he saw Catra was also preparing to pounce and quickly shouted. "Sorry about this!" He hit a button on the side of his hand just as Sam reached for him and shrank out of sight. Catra looked around quickly, and the next thing she knew, Sam was sent flying by a nearly invisible punch.

"How the fuck did he do that?!" She yelled, catching sight of Scott flying off of the roof from the gust of Sam's wings. She hissed and leapt off the roof after him. "Going after him, Sam!"

"Copy that Wildcat." Sam replied, reporting back to the techs. "Breach is an adult male, has some kind of shrinking tech! Wildcat is in pursuit!"

Catra landed on all furs and sniffed the air to catch Scott's scent. She followed her nose and caught sight of Scott running nearby, then pounced, trying to land on him. Before she landed, he jumped right at her face and landed an uppercut on her jaw. To her surprise, the punch carried the full force of a regular sized human punching her and she was knocked back. She noticed Scott landing on her nose and swiped for him, only succeeding in smacking herself in the face. "Why you little!" She yowled in anger, rolling to her feet and looking for him.

Unbeknownst to her, Scott was climbing along her body to her shoulder. She only noticed his presence when she felt a punch across her cheek, causing her to stumble again. "Sorry!" Scott yelled out, before punching her again. "Sorry about that too! I really don't wanna do this!" Getting frustrated, Catra began swiping and clawing all around her, hoping to catch him with at least one of her attacks. Next thing she knew, she felt something grip her finger and suddenly pull her to the ground, slamming her face into the dirt. "This is really gonna suck so again, I am so sorry!" Scott pleaded again. As Catra recovered, she suddenly noticed a bunch of flying ants begin buzzing around her head.

"Little fucker can control bugs too!?" She yelled, swatting at the ants, as they continued to fly around her and disorient her, a few even biting her neck. While she was distracted with the bugs, Sam took his chance to try and apprehend Scott. Sam seemed to do a little better, landing a few hits on Scott and keeping his calm. Scott was even forced to have to fight him at full size once or twice, and seemed to know a few martial arts moves of his own. Catra eventually drove the bugs off and rushed in to help, managing to land a leaping kick on Scott's face. Scott fought as best as he could agaisnt the two, but was being overwhelmed. He managed to get away only when he caused the two to hit one another by shrinking out of the way. "Argh! Sam please tell me you can track the little bastard?"

"I got him Catra!" Sam replied, flying towards the Compound. "He was riding an ant into the compound. Stay out here in case he tries to run." Catra nodded and waited as Sam walked into the building.

After several minutes, Sam suddenly smashed through the shutters and slammed into Catra, flying wildly and scrambling at his pack. When the world stopped spinning, she quickly radioed him. "Sam what the hell is going on?!"

"He's in my pack!" Sam yelled back, and Catra took off after him. After a brief scuffle, Sam crashed down into the dirt, and his pack was disabled. He and Catra searched the area for Scott, but couldn't catch sight of him, and soon Catra lost his scent as well. Sam took off his goggles and sighed, getting back on his radio. "It's really important to me that Cap doesn't find out about this."

"Adora too." Catra added. "She'll never let me hear the end of it."


"You got your ass kicked by a guy the size of a bug?!" Adora said a few days later through laughter, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Hey, he punched way above his weight!" Catra whined.

"That checks out with a report I came across the other day." Natasha said, walking over. "Police report from a Mister Jim Paxton about an 'Ant Man' saving his step-daughter from a high tech lunatic called the Yellowjacket."

"Oh great so he really WAS a good guy…" Catra whined even more. "So not only did he kick my ass, but we didn't even have to fight him."

"You guys did what you thought was right, it's what we asked of you." Adora commented, petting her girlfriend's hair to calm her down.

"The guy had a mean swing though." Sam added, looking over at Steve. "We could use a guy like him."

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Steve replied, nodding. "See if you can track this Scott guy down."

"I need a nap. And a strong drink." Catra said, getting up.

"Oh no, I do not need a drunk Catra today." Adora replied, scooping Catra up bridal style. "How about you and I just have a relaxing night."

"Deal." Catra replied, leaning into Adora and purring as she was carried out of the room. Adora smiled softly at let her friend relax. Though she knew she'd be keeping this hilarious loss in her back pocket. Just in case.

To Be Continued…


I am sorry Catra fans, but this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. I had actually been planning this since roughly the Avengers 2012 arc ^^; There wasn't much else to add to this filler chapter considering I don't really see myself able to do Post-AOE Wanda justice. Not to mention, this chapter was all that was between me and the arc I was genuinely excited to begin. Civil War.

This...is gonna be heavy.

Also I'm gonna address a recent comment I got last chapter. There was a bit of disappointment that events in the MCU are progressing mostly as they should. While I understand, I should probably make it clear this was never really intended to be a full rewrite of events. Adora and Catra are both relatively grounded heroes so the amount they can personally change is slim to none. While there ARE going to be some changes to canon in the future of the story, for the most part this is more of a "How would She-Ra characters fit into the MCU" than any sort of AU from the events of the Infinity Saga. I apologize if that's not to your liking. I should also take the time to say that this tory will ONLY cover the Infinity Saga. As of now I have no plans to include any of the Disny+ shows, Phase 4 material, or any other tie-in to the main movies. No Agents of SHIELD, no Daredevil, etc. This is the main movies, up to Endgame.

I do not own She-Ra or the MCU.

Comments are always appreciated.

NEXT TIME: The Cracks Begin to Form