A/N: The author liiiiivessss! Hehe. Hi. Have some action.
Allie's phone rang. She was on the other side of the gym, doing stretches with Natasha. "Buck, can you get it?" she called.
Bucky put down his bottle of water and picked up hte phone. "Allie Barton's phone," he said politely.
There was a startled silence on the other end, and then a tentaive, "Uh, can I talk to her? This is Eden."
"It's Eden!" Bucky hollered, holding the phone away from his ear.
Allie made grabby-hands.
Bucky smoothly tossed her the phone.
Allie jumped off the floor and caught it. "hi Eden," she said cheerfully, watching Steve smack his friend upside the head for throwing a state-of-the-art Starkphone. "No I'm not busy. Uh-huh. Yeah. Do you wanna come over instead? No, just Steve and Bucky. Uh-huh." She glanced at her mom and whispered, "Her family's having a huge party and she needs to study, can she come here?"
Natasha nodded.
"Yeah, mom says it's okay. Yeah. Okay. Ook, okay. See you." Allie hung up. "She's bringing lasagna."
"Nice."
Allie scooted forward and hugged her. "Thanks mom."
Natasha smirked. "Don't thank me yet, sweetheart. Let's see if she can concentrate with these two here."
It was Steve that answered the door when Eden rang the bell. She blushed instantly. "Um, hi," she said, "I'm Eden."
He gave her a smile and relieved her of the two pans of lasagna. "Pleasure to meet you, we've heard a lot about you. My name is Steve."
She choked back a giggle. "I, um, okay." She set her backpack down with a loud 'thump'.
He eyed it with a grimace. "I should've offered to get the bag," he said, hefting the two pans.
Eden shrugged. "I'm used to it."
Allie skidded around the corner. "Hi! Ooh, lasagna. Oh, you've already met Steve, good. This is Bucky." She gestured to the man coming around the corner.
Eden's eyes went to the metal arm. "Cool."
Both men chuckled. "That's an engineer's voice," Steve said knowingly.
Turns out, Eden did manage to study in spite of watching Captain America and hte Winter Soldier watch Doctor Who with Allie and remark on whether or not the TARDIS could actually be infinite. She would have never thought the two men out of time would be such, well, nerds. Then again...
A~A~A~A
Bucky ate an entire pan of lasagna by himself, and earned a punch in the arm by the Black Widow. He didn't mind.
A~A~A~A
In a school full of geniuses in a world full of superheroes, there was always something exciting going on. So really no one was surrpised when someone in Astrophysics accidentally opened a portal to another dimension, releasing dinosaurs with dart guns.
Allie was only one building away and she was the only one that didn't panic when the lockdown alert went off. She cralwed under her desk, shrank slightly to fit more comfortably, and called her dad. "Hey dad."
"Hey Allie, what's up?"
"There's lizards attacking the school. I think we need the Avengers. And Dr. Reed."
Clint took a deep breath. "Okay. Are you safe?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Hold tight, baby, we're on our way."
Allie looked over at Eden, who was biting her lip. "Just don't panic," Allie advised the older girl. "Panicking does nothing. I've tried it."
"Sure, Allie," Eden said, forcing a small smile. "What do we do?"
"Stay put," Allie said. "Hawkeye and Black Widow will be here, ASAP."
Eden rested her chin on her knees. "I can do that."
A blast from outside made the walls shudder, and a few pieces of plaster came crashing down. Allie ducked and covered Eden, turning into an armadillo for protection. She reformed after the shaking stopped, and winced when there was another blast. "Okay, never mind. We're too close, we need to move." Allie grabbed her backpack, and picked up her phone. "FRIDAY, do you have cameras?"
"I do," her phone replied, startling Eden. "You are clear down the south corridor."
"Thanks, FRIDAY. Okay, Eden, let's go!" Allie shuffled out from under the desk, and bolted for the door, Eden on her heels. She poked her head out, confirmed the south corridor was clear, and they ran for it.
"Turn right," FRIDAY told them as they reached the end of the corridor.
Allie and Eden bolted out of the building and took shelter behind a pillar. Everyone else was screaming and running in random directions. The lizards were starting to rampage outwards.
"Okay," Allie said, "FRIDAY, suggestions?"
"If you reach the parking lot, you can borrow a car," FRIDAY said.
"You can drive, right?" Allie asked her friend, eyes darting this way and that as she tried to figure out which direction to go.
"Um, yeah." Eden stared in horror as two lizards started coming towards them, shooting.
"Okay, cool. Black sedan, second row, over there by that one tree. We're gonna zig-zag run and duck behind every cover, okay? And then we're gonna get in the other side of the car, and leave," Allie said, pointing to the car and tugging Eden further behind a pillar.
"Wait, we're gonna steal a car?" Eden hissed.
"Priorities," Allie hissed back. "Let's go!"
They started running. Allie made her legs longer to compensate and kept a firm hold on Eden's arm, dragging her this way and that as they dodged for cover. They made it to the car and Allie pulled them to the far side of it.
"Okay, FRIDAY, hack it."
The lock clicked open a moment later. Eden got in the driver's seat as teh car started on its own, and Allie crawled into the passenger seat. "Where am I going?" Eden asked, wheeling out of the parking space slowly, trying not to attract the lizards' attention.
Allie's nose pressed up against the glass as she stared at the lizards. "They're rounding 'em up," she muttered, eyes widening. "I think they're gonna take those students hostage! Eden stop the car! Stay here! Wait, no, just go!"
"What! Allie! Your mom's gonna kill me!" Eden screeched in panic as Allie jumped out of the car.
Allie ignored her and turned into a low-flying blue jay, trying to figure out a way to draw the lizards away. They were hissing and shrieking in their own language, communicating with each other. Wait...
She dropped to the ground and turned into a smaller version of the lizards. She started running towards the far end of the quad, where there were no students. And then she started shrieking in the universal language of "MOM HELP!"
The lizards reacted as if shot, and half of them took off after her, calling after her.
Allie ducked around the corner and turned into a tiny hawk, shooting over the top of the building and looking for another way to distract the rest of them. She landed, and spotted a fire extinguisher. Better than nothing? Sure. She blamed her dad's "everything is a weapon" training, and grabbed it.
She came around the corner firing white chemical foam at the closest lizards in a sweeping motion, screaming, "RUN! RUN!" at the paralyzed grad students.
The students scattered, and the lizards converged on her. One of them got off a clear shot, and Allie felt a dull thud in her chest a moment later. She ignored it and continued spraying, retreating around the corner.
Five seconds later, the Avengers swooped in with suitable dramatics.
Allie dropped the fire extinguisher and ran for cover.
Sam dropped down in front of her, his wings folding. "I saw you get hit," he said, sounding both panicked and calm. "Let me see." He pushed aside her sweater to check for injuries and pulled a dart from her shirt. "Oh, shoot, get a medic!" he hollered into comms.
Allie tugged her shirt collar down, and frowned. "I wasn't hit," she said. "Huh." Her necklace, the vibranium one from Wakanda, had a slight dent in the pendant. "I think it hit the necklace..." she held out the pendant for inspection. "Look, Sam. I'm good. T'Challa's dad's present saved me."
He looked it over, and sank back onto his heels with a sigh of relief. "Cancel medic," he said. "Allie's fine." He looked at her. "What were you thinking?"
"To save them," she said, pointing at the kids being herded away by Bruce and Pietro.
Sam scooped her up in a hug. "You're crazy, kiddo." He covered their exit to the quinjet, making a detour to pick up Eden. "Wait here, Allie." He went off to help get the last lizard stragglers.
Eden grabbed her in a hug. She was laugh-crying. "You're insane," she choked, squeezing Allie tightly. "And that was awesome."
"Please don't encourage her," Coulson said, from the cockpit of the jet.
"I couldn't just sit there," Allie said, offended.
He kissed her forehead. "I know." He winked at her. "That was good work."
Allie beamed.
The lizards were rounded up and ushered back through their portal with a stern warning from Captain America. The Avengers regrouped at the quinjet, and Hawkeye and Black Widow proceeded to smother their child in half-relief, half-scolding praise.
Allie just grinned at her parents. "It was good though, right?" she asked.
Clint kissed her cheek. "Yes. Next time, please just run in the opposite direction."
"Okay dad," Allie said demurely.
Bucky snorted. "Right. She's almost as bad as Stevie following that rule."
Natasha met her daughter's gaze. "If you're not going to listen, then you're going to train every day so you can have the skills to survive and help others," she warned.
Allie threw her arms around her mom. "Yes! I mean, yes. Absolutely. I will not listen to dad."
Clint sighed. "I am getting too old for this."
Eden stared at them all in fascination. "You're all nuts."
"Shh," Pietro said, winking at her. "Don't tell the press."
Eden blushed.
Wanda smacked her twin.
A~A~A~A
The next day at school, everyone was talking about the awesome shapeshifter who'd saved forty kids from the alien lizards. Allie and Eden just smiled.
A~A~A~A