Notes: Yeah, if you're thinking Twisted Sister for background music with these two, you're totally missing the nuance that was none other than INXS - 'Need You Tonight'. Come on. Perfect bait song.

Chapter Three: Clint, Natasha - This Is Not A Date

While Tony had been 'reprogramming' Noh to keep him out of the Kree's hands, Natasha and Clint had been relaying what they'd learned from K working on Sinta (and, occasionally, from Natasha helping enthusiastically) to Nick Fury. The Kree simply had too many tactical targets for the Avengers and X-Men to defend at once — and with the size of the fleet they were facing, they were going to need all the help they could get.

After they got done relaying the information to Fury, Clint wanted to be sure to check in with the Avengers back at the tower, and Natasha had to smirk at him. She knew he was mostly worried about the younger members of their team, and the fact that he opened up the communications by asking Kamala how she was holding up certainly confirmed her suspicions.

"We're fine — Thor just took Billy and Teddy to do some aerial fighting," Kamala reported. "Just about anybody who can fly is headed toward the sky," she added, sounding a little bit starstruck. "If you look outside the windows, you can actually see it. It's kinda freaky."

"Typical alien invasion stuff then," Clint said with a shrug. "You guys get into any trouble, you call us, got it?"

"Yeah, Dad," Miles broke in over Kamala's shoulder, and Clint rolled his eyes at him.

"I'm serious, kiddo — these invasion things tend to suck," Clint said, and the fact that there wasn't any teasing in his tone got both of the younger Avengers to be a bit quieter and quickly agree to call him if there were any problems.

"You really are such an overbearing father," Natasha teased lightly, bumping his shoulder with hers. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you had adopted them both."

"Like they need me for a parent," Clint replied, shaking his head, and Natasha laughed at him.

The two of them had just finished making sure that Sinta was well secured and couldn't go anywhere — not that he had much energy to try at the moment — when they met up with Noh and the others headed over to meet up with the other heroes. They shared quick nods between them before they made it to where the rest of Earth's protectors were already moving out, under the direction of both Steve and Scott.

With the addition of the intel from Sinta, both team leaders made quick assignments — strategic targets that needed protecting — before they split off, in a hurry to run with their new intelligence.

Neither Clint nor Natasha was surprised when Steve sent them off together to a location Fury had suggested to him — apparently, some things never changed, and there were still secret bases to be guarded. Or secret prisons, as the case might be.

They were both familiar with the concept of the Cube — a prison that was supposed to be for extraterrestrial terrorists and criminals, even if that had not been the case leading up to the last big alien invasion of Earth. But seeing as Fury had put Hill in there at Noh's request, the thing was back up and running the way it was supposed to, more or less — and the last thing anybody wanted was for the Kree to be able to get to a prison full of possibly sympathetic alien prisoners.

Not everybody in the Cube was Kree, of course, but there were enough of them that it was a strategic target, especially considering the Kree creed that each and every one of their citizens would be protected and avenged if wronged.

"Almost want to pay the old assistant director a visit when we're done here," Clint said as he set the Quinjet down at the hangar and a few SHIELD personnel came to greet them and update them on the situation — not that they needed it spelled out, when they could actually see the Kree ships headed their way.

"If you're feeling sentimental, we can even try to kill Tony later," Natasha replied with a little smirk that had Clint laughing outright.

"I'm sure Tony would appreciate the joke," Clint said, still laughing.

"If he doesn't, I'll be sure to explain it to him," she replied, the smirk widening, though she stowed it when the SHIELD agents arrived to give them an update on the situation.

"We've tried to hail them a few times, but they won't respond to anything — in any language," one of the agents explained.

"The only message they're broadcasting is that they've already shot down a SWORD craft, so we should go right ahead and surrender," added another agent, who looked personally insulted that the Kree thought she was going to do anything like that.

At that, Clint and Natasha shared a glance and a nod. "I'll want to see your lockdown protocols," Natasha told the second agent. "As well as your weapons and tracking equipment."

The agent nodded quickly and led Natasha inside as the first agent turned to Clint with an expectant look.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna stay out here," Clint told him, shrugging lightly. "They're gonna have to break in first, and that means I can make their lives pretty miserable while they're trying to do that. You're welcome to bring some backup if you think it'd make you feel better having guys out here with me."

The agent tipped his head Clint's way for a second before he nodded once. "Anybody who isn't manning any weapons already can join either you or the Black Widow on the defenses," he offered.

"Pretty sure that's what I just said," Clint deadpanned. "C'mon — we don't have all day," he added, gesturing toward the fast incoming ship.

The young agent scurried off to go get some reinforcements, and by the time the Kree ship was in range of the SHIELD weapons, they were about as prepared as it was possible for them to be, considering the short notice and the circumstances.

The first thing that the Kree did was fire some kind of energy weapon at the facility, and the spread of their firing pattern told Clint that they weren't trying to destroy the place but to weaken the defenses.

"I hate alien invasions," Clint muttered to himself as the roof of the facility shook beneath his feet, and he had to steady himself against the nearest wall. The Kree ship had scored some good hits, but as he watched, some kind of energy beam came from the Cube, and he had to grin. Looked like SHIELD had a few tricks of their own, likely stolen from the very aliens that were in the Cube at the moment.

For the moment, Clint got to stand back and watch as the ship and the facility exchanged fire, but when there was a small explosion just beyond him as one of the shield generators finally gave out, it was time to get down to business and not just watch the fireworks.

The Kree ship had nosed into the opening created by the weakened shields, its sharp bow acting almost like a sword to cut into the facility and more or less force a docking as the hatch opened and Kree soldiers started to spill out over the facility.

"And this is the part where it gets interesting," Clint muttered to himself, stringing three arrows at once as he fired at the first Kree through the hatch, drawing their attention. He started to grin to himself. He always liked being a target — it meant that he was doing something right to get them annoyed with him.

The SHIELD agents on the roof and throughout the facility had surprises of the own — recently upgraded weapons that Clint hadn't seen in the field yet. He'd been pretty sure that some of those were still in the prototype phase last he'd been in SHIELD, but then… it wasn't like they could exactly be picky about things like that when they were being invaded again.

One of the Kree soldiers tried to take advantage of what the guy probably thought was Clint's distraction over the new SHIELD weapons and took a pot shot at the archer, but Clint saw it coming and ducked out of the way quickly, though not fast enough to avoid getting some brick dust in the mouth when the wall next to his head took the hit and bits of it exploded in a puff.

Clint pulled a horrible face as he tried to get the taste out of his mouth. "Really?" He shook his head and muttered under his breath. "Of course. Of course I get brick in the mouth as soon as the invasion starts up. Typical."

Inside the facility, Natasha was helping to run the counterpoint to the invading Kree ship, even manning one of their Skrull composite weapons when one of the agents pointed it out to her and noted that it was specifically designed to pierce Kree hulls.

She let out a string of Russian words that the agent nearest her looked surprised at when the Kree ship blasted through a nearby wall and showered her in debris. She'd been struck in the upper arm and could feel the warm blood trickling into the crease on her elbow, but it wasn't anything that would do lasting damage — or keep her from continuing to shoot right back at these alien invaders.

When the Kree ship turned to level its weapons and to give the invaders a bit more space to pour into the facility itself, it gave Natasha just the opening she needed, too, and she fired off the Skrull weapon with a satisfied smirk as half of the ship seemed to erode away after her direct hit.

"He-ey. Someone's trying to steal my shtick," Clint complained over the comms. "That's the kind of shot I like to take."

"You weren't here to take it," Natasha pointed out with a pleased sort of grin. "Next time, pick your position a little better."

"Yeah? How 'bout you just blow 'em up so there won't be a next time, and I'll pick off the ones that got in, 'kay?"

She chuckled to herself as the Skrull weapon warmed up for another big blast. Between the two of them, they'd have this wrapped up in no time.

Remy's place on the Gulf probably would have been considered to have a picturesque view on most normal days. One side of the house overlooked a steep incline that led down toward the water, and the other side, if you were in the top floors, gave an excellent view of the city skyline over the tops of the trees. But with the invasion incoming, the view wasn't exactly the serene, sleepy, Southern picture that it probably usually was.

Those that had been more or less sent into hiding with the kids were able to watch the Kree ships zip across the sky and to see the flashes of light that were energy detonations both in the sky and on the ground — and while for the moment, most of the fighting was close to the cities, even this far out from anything major, they could feel the occasional tremor beneath their feet.

It had been several days since the first of the Kree ships led out the invasion, and the frustrating part for the residents of Remy's hideaway was that they didn't know what was happening outside of what they could see outside or on the news — at least, not in any immediate sense. Their friends and family tried to keep them updated as best they could, but live feeds and constant radio contact were a security risk none of them were willing to take, not when it might mean the Kree discovered where the kids were hidden away.

There was a much brighter flash than anything else that had happened yet, followed by a tremor that rattled the windows, and Tyler looked up from where he was sitting in the corner holding Elin to see that Remy had swept into the room with a huge frown.

"It's time to get ev'ryone a bit deeper under de ground," Remy said, with half a glance over his shoulder at the light show beyond them.

"Are you sure I can't just … add to the light show?" Jubilee said with a worried look on her face as he ushered them toward the stairwell.

"If you can make it an hour without gettin' sick, we'll think about it," Annie said in a tone that suggested she wasn't actually going to think about it.

"You sound just like your husband," Jubilee grumped. "No. Fun. This whole invasion can be over with if I just barf on the creep in charge. He'll be so grossed out he'll just, like, pack it up and go."

"This is true," Kate said, nodding seriously. "I'll help you. Just spin me twice, and we'll be good. Little Elf likes to kick things that shouldn't be kicked when we spin."

"Yeah, well …" Jubilee kind of drifted off a bit and started to mutter about 'stupid ferals' and 'stupider Kree' just loud enough for Kate to catch.

Kate tipped her head Jubilee's way as Chance shifted in her arms to be sure he could see Elin while they were moving — so he knew she was coming with them and not being left behind or something. "Yeah well, they're overprotective," Kate said carefully. "The ferals anyway. Does… your Kree know… things?"

"Nope, he knows surprisingly little," Jubilee said back low. "Stupid Supremor interrupting things. Wanna lodge a plasma bomb in his nose so freakin' deep … "

"Well, interrupting something like that…" Kate tipped her head. "I'll sit on Remy, and you can go blow things up on your way to find the Marvel Boy and tell him," she said only half-teasing.

"Doubt he'd be able to concentrate enough to hear me," Jubilee grumped. "Again."

"We'll blow up the Supremor too, and then he'll have to listen," Kate assured her even as Annie looked at both of them with raised eyebrows. "In the meantime, be sick and miserable with me and make Remy and Ty find as much candy as possible to feed our addiction."

"Something tells me that supplies are going to be hard to come by if they're not already, and I really don't want my snuggly Swamp Rat caught in the crossfire," Jubilee said before she leaned in close to Kate. "He's a cuddler."

Kate grinned over her shoulder at Remy, who was indeed in the middle of all but cooing talking with Charlie as he latched the door to the cellar behind them. Charlie was giggling madly as his accent seemed to get thicker talking with her — which only made her giggle harder. "Yeah, I figured that out," Kate whispered to Jubilee.

Chance, meanwhile, immediately slipped out of Kate's arms the second they sat down to go run over to Tyler to check on Elin. "It stormin," he told both Ty and Elin. "Loud!"

"Don't you worry, sweetheart," Annie told him as she reached over to ruffle his brown curls. "It's quieter down here, see?" She gestured around the room, and for a second, everyone was quiet enough that they could only hear the very softest of tremors if they strained.

"So, until the storm is over," Tyler suggested to Chance, "why don't we just play, okay?"

Chance positively beamed. "Otay," he agreed, giving Elin a very quick baby kiss before he toddled off to find something to play with, returning a few moments later so he could make sure he was playing where he could see both Elin and his sister — a fact that didn't escape the notice of anyone in the room, especially when there was a faint rumbling and the little boy almost instantly reached for Charlie with a look that was so much like his father that they couldn't possibly miss it.

"It's okay, honey," Annie tried to tell him when she saw that protective look, but he looked up at her with wide eyes.

"All safe?" he asked seriously, and Annie melted that much more.

"Yes, baby," she said, scooping him up to give him a little kiss. "We're all going to be just fine. Thank you for looking out for us, my beautiful little boy."

Chance completely misunderstood why Annie looked the way she did and patted his mom on the cheek. "It otay, Mama," he said. "All safe. See?" He took her face in his hands to turn her toward Remy and Charlie, then toward Ty and Elin. "All safe!"

Annie snuggled her little boy that much more. "Yes, you're right, sweetie," she told him, then decided to distract him by tickling him so he'd stop looking quite so much like he was ready to be a superhero before he was even two years old.

"Oh, I see — it starts early," said a new voice, startling the gathered X-Men into being on the alert until they recognized Cable and Hope Summers stepping into the room in a wash of light. Hope was grinning widely as she looked over at Annie and the twins. "So, so early."

"Whatchu doin' here?" Remy asked, putting away the cards that he had been ready to throw at the intruders only moments before.

"We thought you could use an extra set of hands," Nate said simply as he made his way over to where Annie was with the little twins. He gave Chance a warm smile, and Chance just stared at him, totally awed.

Charlie, on the other hand, looked suspicious of the very large man in the room — and this time, it was her turn to get protective, stepping around Annie's legs so she was between Nate and Chance as she asked, "Who dat?"

Annie let out a sigh as she looked up at Nate. The twins were too little to understand a time-traveling older half-brother, and the last time he'd been around, it had been for Scott and Annie's wedding. "This is Nate, your big brother," she explained.

"Brudder?" Chance repeated, perking up significantly and wriggling down from Annie's lap. Charlie didn't try to stop him, though she still looked suspicious until Hope reached out telepathically to reassure her.

We're here to help take care of your mom and your brother, Hope explained, leaving out the part where they were there to meet her, too, and instead appealing to Charlie's obviously protective streak.

Charlie gasped at Hope and then started to giggle. "You in my head!" she said, almost dancing in place. "You in my head!"

Hope nodded with a slow smile. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Wike Wachel," Chance said, glancing over Hope's way with that same sort of awe before he went back to looking straight up at Nate until he crouched down. And as soon as Nate did that, Chance immediately held up his hands to be picked up. "Big brudder wike Forge," he said, leaning in to take Nate's face in both hands and study him and his bionic eye.

Nate smirked as he let Chance explore his face for a moment before he projected, Actually, I'm a telepath too.

Chance startled outright before he simply fell apart laughing, hard enough that Nate had to hold him a little tighter so he wouldn't fall out of his arms, and Nate simply sat down with the little guy to let him happily explore Nate's bionic arm and declare that he "wike brudder."

Annie beamed at Hope and Nate down as they sat down with a twin apiece, the mood of the hideout much lighter with the twins giggling and happy, and she reached over to rest her hand on Hope's arm even as Hope continued her telepathic conversation with Charlie.

"Thank you," she said, her warm smile lighting up her eyes.

Hope returned the smile in spades as she tickled Charlie. "Hey, what's family for?"