"Sooooo. . .Why are the Avengers here again?" I asked, twisting around on the bench to see over the jumble of high school heads. Thor, Spider Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark were all lined up to have the lunch lady slap some of the glop that passed as food nowadays onto their trays.

"Why do you think?" Damon (the Bird-Kid) asked. His tone of voice insinuated that I was an idiot, that it was an everyday occurrence to see the Avengers in full costume in our cafeteria.

I turned back around on the bench. "Well, they're sure as hell not here to join the P.T.A." I retorted, rolling my eyes.

My group of super-powered kids all shared a table. There were more than a dozen of us that hung out after school, mostly just screwing around roleplaying, "training", or reading manga. A few liked to play electronics, so most of us were suffering lack of brain cells as they'd all been melted by solder-fumes.

Suddenly we were all forgetting that the actual Avengers were there. But it's not like we had forgotten the Avengers completely existed and started talking about the latest Doctor Who or the newest issue of Shonen Jump.

"Okay, the best Avenger, hands down, is Tony Stark." I said adamantly. I was the leader, no way they'd oppose my opinion, right?

Almost before the words were out of my mouth, there was a chorus of voices yelling, "Spidey," "Hulk," "Captain America," and others. All of which I had to grudgingly agree with because I'm just that kind of awesome leader.

That's what they said anyway.

"C'mon, Lies! We all know that you like the Cap and Spidey together. You're always reading that yaoi crap-" Damon started, but I cut him off by elbowing him in the ribs. He might've been a total smart ass, but there were merits to sitting in earshot of him.

"Earshot" means "close enough to hit."

"Shove it, Damon." I said through a mouthful of chips.

"Hey," Leo, a black kid with super speed leaned over the table, "Are you gonna eat all that?" He gestured to my lunch tray.

"Uh, yeah." I replied.

Leo threw is arms in the air. "Why can't you be like normal girls and not eat anything, ever?!"

Rolling my eyes, I said, "Because I don't want to starve to death?"

Damon made a face like, "What are we gonna do with her?" to Leo, and I shot him another elbow.

I think I heard his ribs crack.

So, even though the Avengers were at our high school for no apparent reason, we were just screwing around at lunch as usual. And that shows just how much promise we all have as a super-powered team. Amazing focus, right?

Actually, I'm pretty sure that if we had needed to save anyone we'd kill everything in a thiry-mile radius. We're just that kind of bad-ass.

~##~

"Why the heck do you think Tony Stark is so great?" Damon slammed his hands on the table. "Spider Woman's way better."

"You're just saying that because she's got big boobs." Veronica retorted, elbowing him on the side I wasn't on.

"Oh, I dunno, because he's genius, he's really smart, and I have to say he looks pretty bad-ass in that suit of his." I said.

"I also have a hunk of shrapnel in my chest and I'm still alive." Someone said from behind me. I saw all my pals' jaws drop who were sitting opposite me, and I twisted around to see. Tony Stark sat down next to me, a sarcastic smile (does he have another one?) on his face.

"There seems to be some sort of absence of energy suddenly." He took a bite off Leo's tray. "Weren't you just debating the best Avenger? Seems like this young lady was the only one saying my name. . ." He gestured to me.

"Yeah, well." I muttered.

"She likes to read yaoi about-" Damon started to yell, then I bruised his ribs again.

"So you guys are all special in some way?" Tony started, leaning his elbows on the table. He was really short now that I had got a good look at him, probably only an inch taller than me.

"Yeah, everyone but her!" Another member of our group, sitting down the table a ways, pointed at me.

"No, no, no. You don't get it." I waved my hand in dismissal. "I'm the special one. You guys are all mundane." Which was pretty ludicrous considering all of us were either geniuses, or had some kind of power. "I'm an otaku."

The table burst into laughter, Tony and I among them.

"So who's the leader here?" The deep voice that can only mean Captain America asked, as he sat down across from me and Damon.

"That would be-" Damon started to point to himself and claim leadership, but—you can guess what I did.

"Me." I finished for him.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "What's special about you?"

I shrugged. "Nothing. I can draw. That's about it. In other words, I'm a pretty useless human being."

The Captain shook his head. "Why you, then?"

I shrugged again. "Because I was there. And they were there. It just. . .happened." I looked down the table at all my members, who were leaning over the table to get a look of the Avengers.

Captain America nodded to Tony, "You guys meet after school?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Why? And how did you find out about us?"

"Believe it or not, you're pretty popular." Tony stated, grabbing another bite off Leo's tray. "Not as popular as me, of course. Oh, there he is." Tony turned around to wave Thor towards them. The giant of a man walked steadily to them, acting as a storm break in the jumble of kids.

"Greetings, young leader." Thor slid Tony away from me, which was amusing as hell, in case you didn't notice. Stark, the most arrogant bastard you will ever likely meet, and he just laid his hand on his shoulder and slid him down the bench, bumping a kid off the end.

"So, can we expect to see them again?" Damon asked.

"What is it with you and these dumb-ass questions today?!" I exclaimed. "Why the heck else would they ask us that?"

~##~

After school, we were all screwing around in the clubroom like usual. The "clubroom" was actually the off-limits roof, but what was the school staff going to do about it? Tell us off? Give us detention? Like most of us didn't skip class anyway.

I was having a hard time not smacking Damon for showing off his wings again. He kept jumping off the school building, gliding down to the ground, and flying back up.

"I dunno, guys." He yelled, "That Hawkeye is kind of lame. He just shoots arrows."

I chucked a rock at him, and it hit him right in the forehead. "Oh, and you're such hot stuff." I yelled.

He rubbed his forehead, gliding down and landing soft as a feather on the rooftop. It would have been picturesque had he not been cussing me out all the while and had a welt on his forehead.

All of us were up there, and you notice I keep calling the team 'us'. We didn't have a name. Not yet, anyway. But everyone with powers was playing around with them, stretching their legs, wings, and fins (where applicable).

I sat on the ledge, looking down at the ground several stories below and trying to hold myself back from spitting on the little umbrellas people were carrying. I'd put my sketchbook away because it was pouring rain, which didn't bother me but water and paper don't mix.

Presently Damon came and sat next to me, "Wanna spar?"

"Wanna get your ass kicked?" I replied, sucking on a stick of Pocky.

He shook his head, standing up. "Not this time."

I shrugged, and followed him to the center of the roof. Immediately the others cleared the area, Leo whistled and started to yell something, but grunted in pain, meaning Veronica had dealt with him. I was just about to sweep Damon's feet out from under him when a dark shadow blanketed the entire roof, casting us in its ominous presence.

Straightening up from my scratch, I turned around as Damon muttered, "That's no moon."

"No shit, man." Leo murmured.

"Shut it, guys." I gaped at the giant ship hovering over us.

A dark figure lowered out of the ship from a dark door. He jumped from a floating platform and stood in front of me, several inches taller.

"You must be Liesel Ruger?" He sneered in an attempt to appear friendly. He failed.

"Yeah," I answered, standing squarely in front of him and crossing my arms. "What of it?"

"You're the leader, I presume?" The man asked, his voice smooth and sickly sweet. He was dressed in silver steel armor, with a long purple cape and a helmet that looked like it was from a bad sci-fi movie. His long, black hair and electric blue eyes would have made him a real looker if it weren't for his cocky attitude.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not telling you anything unless you tell me who you are." I ordered.

The man smiled as if amused by me, which ticked me off. "My dear girl, I'm Loki, a genius who can make good use of your team. . ."

"What do you mean 'good use'?" I interrupted. This guy was already getting on my nerves. My team weren't objects—they were people. You didn't make any kind of use out of them, good or bad.

"I mean," he stated, "That I'm offering to buy them."

My stomach dropped, and my spine tingled. This bastard who lowered form his Death Star on a floating pedestal was trying to buy my team? "Not a chance." I growled.

Loki's smile twitched a bit, "You haven't considered. I'm offering you six million dollars for your people, not you."

My eyes widened momentarily before I hid my surprise. "No. They're not for sale." I could feel their eyes on me, they were all listening carefully, in fear.

Loki sneered in an evil, no joy way. "Sorry, deary. But I'm not going home empty handed. It's them—or you." He said as if that would scare me into selling them.

"No," I said coldly, glaring at him. I stood firm in my spot, not budging an inch mentally or physically. They were my team, they were my kids, even if they were my age. A lot of them didn't have parents, like me. I was their parent. And parents don't sell kids.

Loki strode up to me furiously. He leaned own so his face was right in mine, I didn't flinch. "Six million dollars for these brats, or I take you with me for nothing." He spat.

"Then it's me you'll have." I spat back.

Parents don't sell kids. Even if it means they never see them again.

"Liesel!" Damon yelled behind me.

"Shut up!" I yelled at him, at all of them. I didn't need them screwing with me right then.

Loki grabbed my wrist, yanked me down onto my knees, and punched the back of my head with a steel-clad fist. I started to twist around, in an attempt to dodge his fist, break the grip he had on me, and roll out of the way.

Which didn't work. He smashed his fist into the side of my head again, and I blacked out for a few seconds. When I woke up again he had thrown me over his shoulder, we were rising back up to his ship on his platform. In seconds my team was gone, replaced by the dark interior of a ship.

Loki's henchmen grabbed me from him, pulling me onto the ground, pinning me down. I tried to kick at them, yelling and cursing them and their mothers. One of them shoved a black gloved hand into my mouth, even though I bit down they did not remove it. A needle pushed through the skin on my neck, spreading its cold contents through my body, making my muscles go limp and me to finally lose consciousness.

As I blacked out, the immensity of the situation came down on me in a panic. I was being kidnapped by a (very) pissed off group of villains. Not the corner store-robbing, pot smoking street punks the cops dealt with. The super-human, genius Avenger-enemies that did worse than kill those that got on their bad side. I was on Loki's bad side before he stepped down on our roof.