Tony stepped into Stark Towers, strolling up to the bar as Loki joined him, the two eyeing each other like predators, waiting for one to make a wrong move.

"Would you like a drink?" Tony asked, doing what he could to act nonchalantly.

He just needed to get to the bracelets he and Jess had made for his new suit that were tucked just under the counter.

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no. Threatening," Tony corrected, eyes glancing out the window and wishing he had a better view of the roof where Jess was. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

Loki scowled, turning away to look out the window himself, making Tony stiffen. Loki knew Jess had come with him, and despite how strong-willed Jess was, Tony would rather keep her out of the fight as much as he could. Thankfully, Loki didn't look bothered.

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. Not even your clever little girlfriend. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers," Tony said, popping a bottle open and earning a confused look from the man. "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah," Tony smirked, glad Loki looked at least a little unnerved by them. "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demigod."

Loki groaned, turning away in annoyance at the mention of Thor.

"A super-soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend," Tony continued, sliding out the bracelets and slipping them on unnoticed. A man with breathtaking anger-management issues, a couple of master assassins, my girlfriend, and you, big fella. You've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan," Tony mused, sipping his drink and stepping around the bar. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off," Loki mused, as Tony went closer.

"You're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

Loki moved closer now. "How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you." Loki tapped Tony's chest with his scepter, expecting to take control over his mind, but nothing happened as the tip of it bounced off his chest piece.

He tried again, but still nothing.

"This usually works."

"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon," Tony remarked, not really impressed, though curious himself about what was failing to happen. "One out of five—"

Loki's hand snapped forward, grabbing him by the throat and throwing him across the room.

"Jarvis, anytime now," Tony grunted under his breath as he picked himself up off the floor only for Loki to grab him again.

"You will all fall before me," Loki snarled.

"Deploy!" Tony called out again, seeing the compartment in the wall slowly opening and wishing it went just a bit faster. "Deploy!"

Loki threw him out the window, sending him falling down below and catching Jess's attention up on the roof.

"Tony?" She called out, looking at Loki through the window before realizing one window was broken and Tony was nowhere to be found. "Tony!"

Before she could throw herself off the roof after him, a suit flew out of the tower and went after Tony, allowing her to let out a sigh of relief and rub at her eyes—not knowing they were now a startling shade of bright blue. Tony flew up before he could hit the ground and faced Loki.

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil."

Loki lifted his scepter, but Tony got his shot off first, knocking him back just as the machine on the roof went off, making Jess call out awkwardly.

"Uh, Tony? I-I don't think I can stop this!"

Tony flew over to where she was and winced at the beam that was shooting up into the sky. "Keep trying. I'll do what I can to stop too many coming through."

"It's an army," Jess argued. "I really don't think I can help much he—"

"Jess, please," he urged. "Stay here."

He flew up and started taking out the creatures on hoverbikes, hoping she listened and didn't put herself in any more danger than she already was. They might have come to an agreement that Jess would help him with things involving Iron Man, but that didn't mean he was glad about it. She'd gotten hurt enough helping him before, but this was even more of an extreme than a few Iron Man copycats. This was an army of aliens that they hadn't the slightest clue how to fight. And he would do everything he could to try and keep her safe, even if that meant upsetting her by putting her on the sidelines.

He took out as many as he could, but there were so many getting past him, he worried about any civilians below. Surprisingly enough though, there weren't as many screams as he'd expected. Did it work? Did they make it in time? He brought up Jess's internal camera, blinking in surprise at the bright blue in her eyes, but shaking it off as just the pixels being off.

"Jess? What's the number of civilians still here?"

"Uh, not many? The army has a blockade up at about 39th street and have evacuated most of the people close to the tower. I'm getting a few life signs near the border, some in the subway tunnels. Shit," she cursed, and he could hear her typing away. "There's some stuck inside a bank and a bus that got caught in traffic. I'll go and—"

"Stay put, Jess. Leave it to the Captain," Tony replied.

"But—Oh, great. Thor's here. Now, I have to try and stop this thing and avoid getting involved in a brotherly spat."

"Just stay out of their way and you'll be fine," Tony huffed, just as the plane carrying the others connected to their comms.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast."

"What? Did you stop for drive-thru?" He huffed at them, doing what he could to deal with the aliens on his tail. "Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you."

The plane swooped down the street he'd called out, pulling out its railgun and firing once they saw Tony zoom by ahead of them. They took out a number of the creatures behind Tony as even more came out of the portal.

"Sir, we have more incoming," Jarvis chimed into Tony's comm.

"Fine. Let's keep them occupied," he responded. "Jess? Progress?"

Jess shook her head up on the roof of the tower, typing away desperately on the laptop connected to the machine. "I can't shut it down manually. I'm trying every coding technique I know, but the system's completely locked down and somebody had to knock out the guy who set up the machine, so I honestly don't know what more I can do."

"Just keep trying. Think of any way to get that thing shut down or destroying it."

Jess grumbled under her breath as he cut off their comms, struggling to get the computer to give her anything and it didn't help that Thor and Loki were fighting just one level below her. Then, the plane with the others flew up to try and help, making Jess flinch away as bullets whizzed by.

"Oi! Be careful!" She complained to their comms, only for Loki to fire off a shot from his scepter and take out an engine.

Eyes widening, she quickly put on her helmet and flew after the falling plane. She grabbed ahold of the tail and used her thrusters to try and slow its descent. It was still falling, but not as haphazardly as it would have, and Hawkeye was able to land it without anyone inside getting hurt. Jess landed in front of the plane in concern.

"You guys okay?"

Natasha nodded, removing her seatbelt and scrambling out with the others.

"We've got to get back up there," Steve said, looking at the tower as Jess landed beside him.

"I've been working on the machine, and it's impossible to shut down manually. Try attacking it, and it lets out an energy blast and knocks you away. The shielding is impenetrable. Tony's already tried. And Thor is currently dealing with Loki. I'm more worried about the rest of the civilians."

Steve turned to her. "How many?"

Jess shook her head. "I don't know. There's some hoarded up in a bank that need to get evacuated. The ones in the subway tunnels should be fine, but there's also a few stuck in cars. The army set up a barrier back at 39th street, but I don't know how well their weapons will do against these guys."

There was a loud roar then and our gazes all shifted upward where a large, metal-covered, flying whale-like creature flew down from the portal in the sky.

"Holy shit," Jess breathed as it flew over them and more creatures were launched off its side and onto buildings nearby.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked.

"Seeing. Still working on believing," Tony replied, eyeing the creature himself. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Steve questioned, but Jess was quick to respond.

"Not yet."

"Just keep me posted. Jess, any ideas about the big guy?"

Jess eyed the beast as it flew by. "Look for gaps in the metal armor? Go for the face? I-I'm not sure. You can try hooking it around the mouth to steer it. M-Maybe an electromagnetic pulse could stop whatever's controlling it?"

"Jess, calm down," Tony said, hearing the slight edge to her voice.

"Calm down? There's a giant fucking armored whale in the sky!" She screeched, making him wince. "I'm allowed to not be entirely calm right now!"

She had a point and while he put on a good front for being a hero that needed to remain calm in front of people, he was also rather terrified about how wrong this whole thing could go. He had to admit though, her suggestions about the creature were rather helpful.

"I'll try some of those out, Jess. Stay safe."

Jess went to argue with him, but Steve placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "We'll figure something out. For right now, we need someone working on getting that portal closed."

Jess shoved his hand off with a glare. "And I've already tried everything."

Loki zoomed by overhead then, lighting up the streets and sending the few civilians left running.

"They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve muttered, anxious to help as more creatures landed on the road.

"We got this," Natasha said. "It's good. Go."

"Do you think you can hold them off?" He asked them.

"Captain," Hawkeye said, arming himself. "It would be my genuine pleasure."

He snapped up and took out a few and Steve jumped away to try and get to the trapped civilians as Natasha stood and shot at them as well.

"Jess, what are you going to do?" Natasha called out, but Jess was staring off into the distance where Loki had flown. "Jess!"

Jess turned around. "Did you see his scepter?"

"What?"

"Loki's scepter. While he was flying that thing, he didn't have it, right?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

Jess grinned. "Because I just came up with an idea. Holler if you need help. I'm going to find it."

"Jess, what's his scepter going to do?" Natasha called out, but the woman took off. "Jess!" Natasha groaned, taking out a few more creatures in her frustration as Hawkeye raised a brow.

"She seems fun."

"Oh, don't get me started."

I flew up to the tower, checking up on Thor as he held his side.

"You okay?" I asked him and he nodded, tossing a small blade away that had been jabbed into him.

"Fine. Where's Loki?"

"Flying around on one of the creature's scooter things. Where's his scepter?"

Thor looked around, before pointing. "Down there. Why?"

"I'm borrowing it."

"What?"

I ignored his question and flew down to the lower lever of Stark Tower, picking up the scepter and wincing as my head ached while I held it. "Oh, don't be picky with me know. That stupid cube dealt with me earlier and for whatever reason, you don't like me. Thing is, I don't care. I need your help."

The light in the scepter faded and with it, the ache in my head as I pulled up Tony's internal comm. He now had the big whale following him, after all.

"Hey, Tony. Think you can fly that thing past the tower? I've got an idea."

"An idea? What idea? Jess, you're supposed to be working on the machine."

I grit my teeth, beginning to get annoyed with his smothering while there was an army wreaking havoc on New York City. "Tony, shut up and bring it over."

"…All right," he muttered.

I looked to Thor, who raised a brow. "What?"

"Nothing," the demigod replied hastily, and I rolled my eyes, heading over and bringing a hand to his side, making him wince.

"I've stopped the bleeding. That should help," I informed him. "Go help the others. Sooner or later, Loki will come to you. It is, after all, his plan to get revenge on you for whatever you did to upset him."

Thor cracked a smile. "Very well."

Jess's helmet snapped to the side then, a blast from a creature having hit it and Thor was quick to throw his hammer, knocking the creature off its bike before looking back at her.

"Jess, are you all right?"

"D-Damn thing," she spat, pulling off the damaged helmet and brushing her hand under her nose that leaked a spot of blood.

Thor's gaze though was locked on her eyes, making him step forward threateningly and bring his hammer back. "You…"

"Huh?" She frowned, giving him a look and suddenly feeling a little worried. "What? What's wrong?"

"He's gotten to you too."

"Who?"

"Loki," Thor spat. "He has your mind."

"What? No, he doesn't. He hasn't touched me with the scepter. I'm fine."

"Then, why are your eyes blue?"

I blinked, confused. "What?"

He pointed his hammer at me. "Your eyes are the bright blue of those he has placed under his control. They were green before."

I frowned, picking up a piece of glass from off the ground slowly to not aggravate him and looked at my reflection, proving he was right. My eyes were a bright shade of blue that they hadn't been before.

"How?" I muttered, thinking back to every encounter I'd had with Loki. "I feel fine. He only touched me back on the ship, but never on the chest with his scepter. I'm in complete control of my thoughts, my actions." I dropped the piece and looked to Thor, only to catch sight of the machine behind him and I groaned. "Oh, you didn't."

"Me?" Thor questioned as I dragged a hand down my face.

"No, not you. The damn cube. I'm not being controlled by anyone. I was talking with the cube earlier. She said some stupid things and probably did this to me."

"You spoke with it?"

"It's a sentient cube," I grumbled, giving him a look. "A really annoying one at that. Look. I swear I'm not under any mind control. Do you need to look in my head to prove it?"

Thor eyed her, having not seen anything proving she wasn't in control of herself, but the brightness of her eyes unnerved him. The last thing they needed was someone on their side to go rogue.

"What are you going to do with the scepter?"

"Loki uses it to control minds. I thought I might give it a shot on the whale."

Thor's eyes widened, looking out at where the whale was steadily getting closer to the tower. "By Odin's beard, that might work."

"Right?" I grinned, though I still held my hands up in surrender. "So, I would like to help, if you'd let me."

Thor hesitated, but nodded, begrudgingly lowering his threatening stance towards me. "Then, I will trust you for now."

"Good to know. Have fun on the ground."

He nodded, swinging his hammer and flying off as I looked towards the approaching whale.

"We're nearly there, Jess! Hope your plan works!" Tony called out and I swallowed thickly.

"So do I," I breathed before jumping off the side of the tower and landing on the back of the whale.

I grimaced when my feet slipped off its metal plating before I adjusted things to climb up it's back better. When I got to the head, I held the scepter and murmured under my breath.

"Please, work. Please, please, please work."

I reached the scepter out and touched the creature's head with the tip, wincing as my head ached with the bright blue flare of the scepter. Controlling another's mind was not nice on the head. It was stifling, honestly and I knew I wouldn't be able to control it long, but I tossed the scepter back onto Stark Tower as I led the beast over it, easily pulling it off Tony's tail as I opened up my comms.

"Anyone need some big help?" I questioned, a grin lacing my tone. "I've got control of our big friend for at least a few more minutes."

"You're kidding."

"How the hell did you do that?"

"Loki's scepter," I replied, wincing as sweat began to roll down my neck from the strain. "I-I figured if he can control people with a touch of it, why couldn't I control a whale?"

"You're insane," Natasha replied.

"Just a little," I said, steering the whale around to take out more and more creatures flying around before I spotted someone down below. "Is that Banner?"

"Yeah. We've got him," Steve replied.

"Well, tell him to get ready, because I'm bringing the party to you. I've got seconds of control left."

I turned the creature around towards where the group was waiting, hearing Natasha's unsure response.

"I don't see how that's a party."

"Oh, trust me. You're not the one controlling it. It's quite the party," I grimaced, feeling my control slipping before I let it go and pushed off its head.

Tony grabbed me and flew me further away from it, dropping me off with the others as I lifted my helmet and wiped more blood from under my nose.

"He's all yours," I hummed, earning a disbelieving shake of the head from Natasha as Hawkeye helped me to my feet.

Steve faced Bruce. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Cap," Bruce said, approaching the beast as it skid across the street. "I'm always angry."

He turned into the Hulk and slammed a fist into the creature's head, flipping it over as Tony blew up the center of it to keep it landing on the rest of us. The other creatures screeched in anger, the Hulk roaring in return as Tony landed beside me and we prepared for even more aliens. And we weren't disappointed.

"Guys…" Natasha breathed.

"Call it, Captain," Tony said, knowing that Steve would have the best way of countering the group we were about to face.

"All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Can you give me a lift?" Hawkeye asked Tony, who nodded.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas."

Tony flew him up and went off to his position as Steve gave out the rest of the orders.

"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor spun his hammer and rushed off as Steve looked to Natasha.

"You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. Jess, I want you back up in that tower trying everything you can to shut that thing down. See if you can wake up Selvig and find out how to stop it if the computer won't."

I nodded, not thrilled to be back on tech duty, but knowing at this point that they weren't going to let me do much else. I'd taken down the whale, but now had a migraine that threatened to knock me out if I wasn't careful. And I wasn't as specially trained as Natasha and the others for fighting. Something to add to my schedule.

"And Hulk?"

The Hulk turned with a snarl.

"Smash."

I smirked as the man threw himself up onto the nearest building and began taking out enemies, while I flew back up to Stark Tower to try and get the machine turned off once more.

"All right, cube. You showed us the universe, now help me put it back."

I did what I could, though my head throbbed being so close to the cube after what I'd done with the whale and with it resisting what I was trying to do.

"Just let me stop you. Give me a hint or something," I asked it, ducking as a blast flew over my head only for the riders of the hoverbike to get attacked by the Hulk.

I heard heavy breathing then and looked over to Selvig.

"You're awake. Thank God. You have any way of shutting this down? I could do with a bit of help over here. No coding is working and if we don't shut it down soon, some stupid person is going to screw the entire city over. Despite my connections, I can't stop everyone."

"T-The scepter," he said briefly, and my head snapped up with wide eyes.

"Oh, my God. Of course!"

Loki crashed into the tower, making me tense in concern as his eyes snapped to mine with a snarl. Before he could even try to do anything though, the Hulk slammed him into the other room and proceeded to—rather aggressively—slam the demigod repeatedly into the ground. I winced, not really wanting anyone to have to go through that, and something nagging the back of my mind telling me there was something off with Loki, but it wasn't clear enough what. The Cube is still trying to send me vague messages. It's probably why my eyes are still blue. I'm… connected to it now or something. How annoying. Natasha landed nearby as well, rushing over to join me.

"Did you figure anything out?"

I nodded, pointing to the lower level. "We need the scepter. It's a part of the cube almost. Well, not exactly, but I-I can't really explain it when I'm dealing with this headache."

"It can't fight against itself," Selvig explained. "I built in a safety to cut the power source. Loki's scepter may be able to close the portal."

"Could you grab it?" I asked Natasha, looking up with a small grimace at what was going through my internal screens. "Damn, we're really starting to lose the upper hand. Clint's out of arrows. Tony's surrounded. Bruce's being beat by numbers—"

"Jess, you hear me?"

I blinked at Fury's voice. "Yeah, what's going on?"

"You have a missile headed straight for the city."

"Shit," I cursed. "How long till it's here?"

"Three minutes max. Payload will wipe out Midtown."

"Right. Right. A nuke. Have to deal with a nuke now. Um… Tony? I know you're a bit tied down at the moment, but did you get that?"

"Yeah, I'm on it."

"If you can get it up through the portal—"

"How'd you know what I was thinking?"

I rolled my eyes. "Now's not really the time to flirt. I'll hold out on closing it for as long as I can, but we can't let much more of them get through. You'll have to be quick, and I'll kill you myself if you do anything stupid."

Natasha climbed back up with the scepter and I stopped her.

"We can't yet. There's a nuke heading for the city and Tony's going to send it up the portal. Just get it ready."

She nodded, pressing the scepter into the shielding of the cube and making me wince. The Cube wasn't thrilled, and I could taste copper on my lips from my bleeding nose.

"Isn't that a one-way trip?" Steve questioned over the comms about Tony.

"It's not. The portal is a door. If we can get it and they can get out, then he'll be fine. He should be fine."

I watched as Tony flew up into the portal, feeling nervousness worm its way into my heart. But the suit isn't made for space. The systems will shut down almost immediately, including oxygen supply—if there even is one. He'll fall unconscious, won't be able to fly out on his own. If he falls and misses the opening of the portal…

"Natasha, I'm going up."

"What? Jess, you can't—"

"I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions and this suit can make it up there just like his. I can give him the boost to get back here safely."

"But if he can't get out on his own, you—"

I turned towards her, glad she couldn't see the scared look on my face through the helmet. "Tony is worth so much more than I am. All I wanted to do today was help, and all I've really done is gotten in the way and proved to be useless at shutting this thing down before they sent a nuke in the first place. I'm not trained to fight. I'm not a great computer hacker or a genius. I'm an ex-lawyer who happened to be dating Iron Man long enough to get a suit of my own, only to not be able to use it for more than flying around. So, yeah. I'm going to get him. Because despite what everyone thinks, he is a hero and the world needs him."

And with that, I took off up towards the portal.

"Miss Norris, I really don't think—"

"Do me a favor, Jarvis. Shut up," I bit out, passing through the portal and flying past Tony's drifting suit before using the last of my thrusters to push him out.

He flew out of the portal as I myself drifted that way as well, but at a much slower pace. I would make it so long as the portal remained open, but it started to close just as my eyes did.

The Avengers all stared up at the closing portal, hoping that the two Iron Man suits would fly out like everything was okay. Not taking any more chances of something sneaking out, Steve had Natasha close the portal not long after spotting Tony's red suit tumble out. Thor grabbed him and brought him down to the pavement, before looking back up in concern.

"Jess is still up there," Natasha murmured, desperately watching the last bit of the portal begin to close.

"Come on, Jess," Steve breathed because, despite their previous fighting, the woman was kind.

She had to be, in order to see all the good in Tony. And the others felt much the same. Despite what she'd told Natasha, they all felt that she was very much a part of this team. More so than Fury or the SHIELD agency. She fought for them, came up with strategies, though outside the box and befriended them in a way that made all of them feel almost normal. Even Clint and Thor, who barely knew her could tell she was a good person who deserved to make it out of this with the rest of them. Then, a flash of blue just as the portal closed and Steve let out a sigh of relief.

"She made it."

"She's not slowing down," Thor commented, swinging his hammer to go after her as well, but the Hulk jumped across the skyscrapers and caught her limp body, bringing her down to lie beside Tony.

"Are they breathing?" Steve asked and Thor took off both of their faceplates, wincing at the blood streaked under Jess' nose.

Tony's chest piece was dim and he himself was unresponsive, up until the Hulk let out a loud roar of frustration and the man jerked.

"What the hell," Tony panted. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me unless it was Jess. Then, I'll take it."

Thor was kneeling beside Jess though, worried. "She's still not moving."

"What?" Tony gasped, rolling onto his side and trying to push himself up with a grimace. "What happened? Why is she like this?"

"She went up after you," Steve explained. "Shoved you out of the portal."

"And she warned me about doing something stupid," he grumbled, reaching over and tapping the band around the wrist of her suit, making it come off.

"How come yours doesn't do that?"

"She doesn't like the suits as much as I do. Always wanted a way to get it on and off easily. It needs improvement, but…" Tony shrugged, patting Jess's face. "Jarvis?"

"Life signs are stable, though heart rate is a little slow. She may need something to wake her up."

"I've got just the thing," Tony smirked, leaning forward as though he was going to kiss her, only to turn—surprising Steve as he whispered in her ear. "Jess, I may have accidentally gotten myself into a lawsuit with the entire city of New York."

"You, what?" Jess nearly shouted, snapping awake only to grimace and bring a hand to her head. "God, my head."

Steve blinked. "Did you just…"

"Wake her up with the threat of a lawsuit against me?" Tony smiled. "Yes. She's surprisingly motivated when it comes to the trouble I cause for myself."

"And others," she muttered. "Did we win?"

"We won," Steve nodded, and Tony sank back to the ground with a sigh of relief.

"All right. Yay! Hurray. Good job, guys," he said tiredly. "Not to you, Jess. Who told you, you could fly off an save me like that?"

Jess lightly shook her head and closed her eyes, exhausted. "Don't talk to me, Tony."

Tony continued like she hadn't spoken. "Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."

"It's Middle Eastern," Jess muttered. "It's rotisserie meat chopped up and put inside a pita or flatbread with vegetables."

"Sounds great. Can we get some?"

"We're not finished yet," Thor said, drawing our attention back up to the tower where Loki was only just beginning to move after being pummeled by the Hulk.

Of course, the moment he felt he wasn't alone, he turned to see the entire group of Avengers waiting behind him threateningly.

"If it's all the same to you… I'll have that drink now."

I scratched the back of my neck as Thor took Loki and the Tesseract back to his home planet. Even with the cube gone, I had expected some sort of relief in my mind, but nothing felt any different and at Tony's raised brow, I shook my head. He shrugged though, not really caring about the change in my eye color or what I'd been willing to tell him about communicating with the cube. I wasn't about to tell him that the cube said I didn't belong in this universe or the fact that I still had those dreams that I couldn't quite remember full of flashing images of things I didn't understand and whispers. Tony, the big goof that he was, only seemed interested in what had changed—which honestly wasn't much of anything, as the mandatory MRI he forced me to do informed him.

For now, though, the Avengers were all going their separate ways. Or, well, most of them. Bruce was coming with Tony and me, more than willing to be doing good in a lab that didn't require cages or judgmental looks about who he was. And Natasha and Clint went back to their own jobs along with Steve, who planned to undoubtedly continue with Fury and the rest at SHIELD. The media was reeling though, something I grimaced at on my phone.

"How troublesome."

Tony rolled his eyes as Bruce raised a brow at me.

"It's the media. They'll do what they want."

"And we both know how that can be detrimental, so don't act like this doesn't concern you," I chided Tony.

"But I have you to keep them off my back," he purred, sneaking a kiss on my cheek before I slapped his arm

"Drive. And Bruce? If he starts being an ass, you have full permission to smack him across the room."

Bruce cracked a smile. "Okay."

"Hey!"