Sorry for the long delay in updating...Stuff happened...

A good night's sleep was interrupted by the sound of a buzzing. Aly slammed on her cellphone to silence it. The sky had a tinge of yellow on the horizon. Aly climbed out of bed to change into a workout outfit. She tiptoed to the elevator to the roof, earbuds playing a calming song. She was surprised to find somebody had beaten her to the top of the tower.

It was Bruce, and he was so focused that he didn't notice her presence at first. Aly couldn't help watching him. Despite his physique, he was smooth, graceful, even. He looked completely at peace with the world. Bruce was definitely a master at tai chi.

"You gonna stand there and gawk all day?" A voice said, breaking Aly from her thoughts. She realized she'd been caught staring, and began to turn an interesting shade of red.

"Can I-" She squeaked. She looked away and cleared her throat. Bruce smiled. Aly turned back around. "Can I join you?" She asked

"Sure." Bruce nodded his head, motioning her to join him on the roof.

Aly laughed nervously as she walked away from the doorway. "Sorry I was being creepy, I'm just not used to anyone actually being here. I thought I was the only one who came up here."

"Me neither. I'm not used to anybody doing tai chi with me." Bruce explained

Aly smiled and put her iPod on the iDock she'd brought up when the tower had been rebuilt. It began playing "break stuff" by Limp Bizkit. Bruce laughed and shook his head at the song choice. "Good choice for Tai Chi. Very calming."

"Yeah, I can see my mistake with that one." Aly said, grabbing the device.

"May I?" Bruce asked, moving to stand beside her, a hand held out for the iPod. Aly nodded and handed it to him. He scrolled through the music, every once in a while smiling at the songs Aly had put on her iTunes.

"Why do you have the same song five times?" He asked

"Different versions from different artists. I couldn't decide on my favorite." Aly explained

"And the reason behind the 'nsync songs?" Bruce asked teasingly, raising an eyebrow.

"The reason is-shut up!" Aly said in a half-joking, half-defensive way.

"Oh, this is a good one." Bruce decided. With the song chosen, he put the device on the dock. "Ends of the Earth" by Lord Huron began playing. Aly started to nod her head to the beat.

"Splendid choice, sir!" Aly said in a fake snooty accent. She and Bruce began to practice their tai chi, letting the music play as they made their way through the easier poses. As soon as they started to do poses involving one leg, Aly became unsteady. Bruce stopped to help pose her. "You have to breathe in through the nose, deep into the lungs, and out of your mouth." He explained

Aly nodded and attempted to concentrate on doing the pose correctly, even though she was painfully aware of Bruce's hands on her hips. "Like that?" She asked, proud of herself for not sounding slightly hysterical.

"Am I interrupting something?" A voice sounded from the doorway. Aly whirled around to see Steve leaning against the doorway. She did not appreciate the smirk on the captain's face.

"You're not here for tai chi too, are you?" Bruce asked

"No, this is just the end of my run up the stairs." Steve explained

"You run up the stairs?" Aly asked apprehensively "Like…on purpose?"

"Tony doesn't have a track. Besides, I move out to SHIELD headquarters in DC at the end of the week. Need to keep my workout routine in the meantime." Steve explained.

Aly rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because you're totally out of shape, cap."

"Can you tell?" He asked, poking his stomach as though there was anything other than muscle.

Aly giggled. "So anyone want breakfast? I know the first thing i need after burning all those calories is some bacon."

"Meet you there." Steve said

"Bruce?" Aly asked

"Yeah, same." He responded.

Aly shrugged and took the elevator to the kitchen. Sitting slumped over the counter was the still form of Mels. A small contraption that appeared to have small repulsers attached with wires sticking out of everywhere sat in front of her. Aly gulped and looked down at her feet, tiptoeing across the tiled floor slowly and quietly.

Thor appeared at the arch across the room. As he opened his mouth, Aly began waving her hands wildly.

He noticed the sleeping Mel's and still was ready to speak. Aly made a slicing motion at her neck. "Don't say a word" she mouthed.

"What?" Thor whispered as soft as he could. Mels sat upright, almost falling from her seat.

"Wha-?" She asked, looking around, "What was-? Who was-?" He eyes fell on the god, "Thor, be a little quiet, please."

"By Odin's beard, Heimdall would be impressed." He commented

"It's a little something the doctors thought she'd grow out of. Super hearing." Aly whispered

"Yeah, it's strongest when I'm asleep or trying to focus on the sound." Mels explained, looking at what she made.

"And you were focused on me!" Aly said, happily.

"That's why my room is soundproof." Mel's added

"I thought that was so no one could hear you rage at video games." Tony said, entering the room behind Thor

"Another good reason." Mel said. She attached and pulled out a couple wires from the mechanism. Her hands deep inside it, the device gave a low hum as the repulsers lit. Mels gave a devious smirk as she turned around in her seat.

"Hey Tony," she said, "THINK FAST!" The item was thrown at Tony. He reached up to try catching it. Before any impact was made, the repulsers fired off, enabling it to stop and hover in midair, inches away from Tony.

"It works! It WORKS!" Mel's cheered as she jumped out of her chair repeating and singing the phrase. She hugged and danced around Thor before running to Tony.

"Is this normal?" Thor asked

"Just for Mels." Aly said dryly, watching her friend dance around the room. She actually was extremely proud of Mels, not that she'd say it.

"Well, it's unsettling...and strange" Thor had a confused look on his face.

Mels didn't hear, though, as she was too busy telling Tony about her device

"See, my satellite is meant to go deep space, farther than Hubble. But everybody assumed it would have to defend itself from obstacles and dangers. And for the power to enable it to fly out that far, it will need a lot of juice. But what if instead of defending itself, it knew when a danger was coming and what to do to avoid it?" Mels asked. She gently pulled the device from its spot in the air to the stove, putting it on one of the burners. She turned the heat on high.

The little thing started to hover above it. Mels put her hands on top and tried to push it down, but it only increased its own power to avoid the heat. When Mels let go and it started to rocket to the ceiling. It slowed itself down to avoid the danger. "From studying the bit of JARVIS you gave me, and a little Iron Man tech, I was able to make this little baby here." She said with a satisfied smile on her face as she beamed at her creation.

"Time to put it on the full-sized model. Tony, wanna help?" Mels looked at the Billionaire, fully expecting him to say no, possibly with an insult. She was shocked when he gave her a grin.

"What the hell, why not? I actually have a project I've been working on that maybe you could give me some input on." Tony said.

"Oh?" Mels asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Her name's…Veronica."

"Oooo!" Mels exclaimed excitedly as she began to follow Tony out of the kitchen. Aly couldn't help but notice that Mels hadn't seemed to have eaten anything. She made a mental note to keep tabs on that.

"But first…" Thor said, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder to stop him from leaving the room. "I am bringing Loki back to Asgard today, would any of you care to witness it?"

"Oh, you mean a chance to see the douche who almost broke the world go back to face justice?" Aly asked from her perch on the counter, where she was adding sugar to the cup of coffee Bruce had just handed her.

"Yes…" Thor said, looking at her apprehensively. "But is it strictly necessary to put that much sugar in your beverage?"

Tony barked out a laugh at that. "Good lookin' out, Point Break, I've been telling her for years she's gonna give herself diabetes." He patted Thor on the shoulder. "Also, I'm in. Wouldn't miss a chance to say goodbye to Reindeer Games."

"I'm in, too." Bruce said sheepishly, leaning against the counter next to Aly with a cup of Chamomile tea.

"I'm sure Widow and Agent Chuckles will come, too." Tony piped up, referring to Agents Romanoff and Barton.

"You know I'm in." Steve confirmed from the table where he was eating a bowl of oatmeal.

Later that day, the team all gathered in a secluded corner of Central park. Bruce raised an eyebrow at Aly's outfit. She was wearing a white sundress under a black leather jacket. Her bright hair was loose, falling in waves to the middle of her back. What really set her outfit off, though, were her shoes. She'd ditched her usual combat boots in favor of a pair of knee-high suede boots with five-inch stiletto heels.

"A dress, really?" Mels asked her, getting out of Tony's convertible. They'd parked right behind Aly's Range Rover.

"What can I say? Aly grinned, slinging an arm around her best friend's shoulders. "Some days, you just refuse to put on pants." She nodded a smile to Natasha and Clint, who'd just pulled up, and went to stand with Tony, Bruce, and Steve, who leaned against his motorcycle.

None of them noticed the figure in red watching them from the tree nearby. Deadpool leaned against the tree trunk, quietly eating a microwave burrito and generally showing signs of boredom.

"Ok, first of all, I feel like I've missed the Stan Lee cameo," He said to himself as he snacked. "Second of all, I'm pretty sure this burrito is gonna give me the shits later. And lastly, is this chick EVER alone?"

Aly smiled at Thor and gave him a hug, which he returned.

"Farewell, Lady Stark. It has been nice knowing you these past few weeks. Take good care of your brother."

Aly grinned. "Hey, Thor, can I say goodbye to Loki?" she asked, giving the Asgardian an innocent look. Thor reluctantly nodded.

Aly walked up to Loki with what could only be described as a beatific smile. It brought out a dimple in her right cheek that Bruce tried very hard not to notice, to no avail. Her grin was downright gleeful as she stopped in front of the Trickster God.

"Loki…I just want you to know…when you get out of whatever punishment is waiting for you back on Asgard, and if you think, you know, about coming back here…" Loki gave her a confused look over the muzzle he wore over his mouth. With no warning, Aly's leg struck out, the business end of her boot striking him in the –for lack of a better word- family jewels. Her grin turned into a menacing snarl.

"DON'T!" She said forcefully. Her voice became deadly quiet. "If you ever think of coming back here, you just remember what's waiting for you. "

Seeming to have gotten her anger out of her system, Aly stalked back to stand between Bruce and Mels, who just looked at her in awe.

With that, Thor forced Loki to take hold of the case the Tesseract was in. Thor cast one final look around at his friends. Loki took a look around as well, his gaze resting almost overlong on Mels and Aly. The look unsettled Aly. It made her nervous, that look. It was almost…smug. She got the feeling that Loki knew more than he was letting on, and she couldn't shake the feeling that he was exactly where he wanted to be for now. Almost unconsciously, she reached out and took Bruce's hand in hers. He hesitated for a moment, then wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him protectively.

Mels could swear she heard a chuckle as Loki stared at her. She got the feeling this wouldn't be the last time she or any of her friends dealt with him. What she felt could almost be described as a premonition.

With a flash of light, both Asgardians were gone from their sight.

As Deadpool watched the scene before him, he watched the easy way Banner wrapped his arm around the Stark girl, the way she practically melted into his side. Deadpool didn't quite like the feeling in his gut-this time it had nothing to do with the dodgy burrito he'd just consumed.

Shit…If I take her…that's coming after me….I wonder if it's too late to ask for more money. He thought.

As the group dispersed-Stark Senior had suggested something called Shawarma-He watched the techie-Mels, he thought he'd heard her called-get into the fancy Acura that Tony Stark was driving, and the Boy-Scout on steroids (also known as Captain America) get onto his motorcycle, the two assassins were whispering together before getting into their yellow Mazda, and Aly Stark tossed Banner the keys to the fancy truck she drove.

This is gonna be harder than I thought…

As always, Reviews are love, constructive criticism is love, flames will be openly mocked.