Little Toy Guns - Carrie Underwood.

"The family is the nucleus of civilization." - Will Durant.

"What? Did Red and Mini-Cap quit on us?"

Steve and Clint turned around only to find Tony walking towards them, dressed in his Iron Man suit, which still looked pretty banged up.

After Natasha and Katie left the recovery room a few moments ago, Clint and Steve quickly made their way to the armory, where Steve grabbed his shield and Clint got his bow and arrows. After that, they headed towards the quinjets.

They were now waiting outside the door. And really, they were only standing there for a few short moments before Tony showed up.

"Natasha took Katie to suit up." Clint informed Tony, who simple raised his eyebrow but didn't say anything else as he leaned against the wall.

Steve, meanwhile stood there with his mind reeling, adrenaline pumping through his veins. After all, this was all still new to him and, now that he and Katie were on a good path - at least he thought they were - he couldn't help be worry, even just a bit.

Katie and Steve, they could both get really hurt. Both father and daughter weren't gods or had the safety of an iron suit. Really, they were just humans, though with perfect physiques. Well, Natasha and Clint were human too, but they were trained for this.

Was he worry to much? Was this the protective father side of him that he did know he had?

Steve may not know Katie very well, and they may not be on 'father, daughter terms' yet, but would he bail on the team to save her? He didn't know. He knew Katie could handle herself. In fact, she was probably more suited for the job then he was right now. After all, she had different training and probably even trained longer, then Steve.

However, before Steve could think anymore on the subject, Clint spoke up.

"About time."

Turning around, all three men found Natasha and Katie walking towards them, Katie now too dressed far better suited for the upcoming situation.

Gone were the dirty pants and ripped tank-top. Now, Katie was dressed in a black suit similar to Natasha's but there were differences. Instead of a zipper in front, Katie's had a turtle neck. The S.H.I.E.L.D. logo was on her left shoulder, and a gold star in the middle of her chest. Similar to the Captain America uniform, black and white stripes went down her stomach. On her feet were a pair of black boots, and she wore a pair of finger-less gloves on her hands. She had two gun holsters, one around her hips and one around her right thigh while her long blonde hair was now in a french braid down her back, a few strands falling around her face.

Tony let out a low whistle.

"You're really playing with the whole 'mini-cap' image, you know that right?" He said to her with a smirk tugging at her lips.

"I don't really want to be thrown around like a doll again." Katie smiled slightly, looking down at her outfit . "Plus, Phil designed it."

Upon hearing that Phil designed the outfit, a small smile pulled at Steve's lips even playing at his lips as Katie met his eyes, a smile also on her face.

"We have to get to New York," Natasha stated as she walked up to the door and pulled it open.

Tony quickly explained to them that he was going to fly over to the tower - "No doubt reindeer games is already there by now" as Tony said, while the hovered to the plane.

"What are you going to do once you get to the tower?" Katie asked.

"Try to reason with the God."

Natasha looked over at Tony with an raised eyebrow. "And you really think that will work?"

"Don't worry," Tony flashed her a smile. "That's Plan A, I have a Plan B too."

"We'll be right behind you," Clint told him, and Tony nodded once more before turning around and walking towards the end of the landing deck.

As Tony took off into the air, the others entered the plane. A young man was sitting up front and he heard them come aboard, causing him to stand up and turn around, walking towards them.

"You guys aren't authorized to be in here."

"Son," Steve gave him a look. "Just don't."

The young man paused for a moment as he looked over Katie, Natasha and Clint. All their faces stone-cold serious, before he realized that it wasn't the best idea to argue with 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' and he quickly walked off the plane.

Natasha and Clint quickly walked up to the front and took their seats, closing up the drop door as Katie raised an eyebrow at Steve, who gave her a confused look.

"What?"

"Son?" Katie said, a smile tugging at her lips. "How old are you?"

Steve let out a laugh as the plane started to take off.

"You're one to talk," Clint spoke up from the front, plane now in the air. "Grandma."

"Shut up, Robin Hood." Katie shot back, and she could hear Natasha let out a low laugh from her seat.

However, the laugher and jokes soon died down. Once the plane was fully in the air and on the way to New York, seriousness took its place as the weight of what was about to happen settled in on their minds.

Katie thought over everything that had happened in the past few days. One moment, Nick was sitting in her apartment, telling her all about the Avengers. And now, here she was, standing on a plane in a spandex suit, on the way to stop a super villain.

In the middle of all that, she finally talked to her father, shut him out, yelled at him, and now was on good terms with him. Of course, she wouldn't call them a real family. She wasn't even sure if they could be called friends yet. Normally, friends knew a little bit about each other, while Steve and Katie hardly did.

But that was fine right now.

Then, Katie suddenly realized something. They were all on their way to New York now, but would they all still be there on their way back? Yes, it'd only been a day or so since they all met, but she couldn't image what it would be like is she lost Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Thor or Tony. In fact, a little bit of worry started to make its way into her heart when she remembered that they didn't even know where Bruce and Thor were at the moment.

And she didn't even want to think about how she would feel if she lost Steve.

Sure, they weren't a family yet, but he was still her father and she still had a lot to tell him - things she just couldn't open up about yet - and she still had stories to be heard from him.

She wasn't ready to lose her father when she only just got him.

And Steve felt the same way.

As he glanced over at Katie, standing up and looking at the front window with a dazed look on her face, he couldn't help but feel a bit of fear take over him at the thought of maybe losing, not only the team, but mostly Katie.

For years, Peggy took care of Katie and helped her grow up. She protected her and helped her become the woman she was.

Steve knew he had yet to see the real Katie. He knew that all the jokes and smirks were masks, but he was willing to show Katie he was there for her. To help her open up to him more. He couldn't do that if she wasn't around.

And, as far as Steve knew, this was Katie's first big fight.

Peggy took care of her for years, but Steve had only known her for a month, and there was a possibility he would lose her today.

He couldn't do that to Peggy, or Katie.

"You okay?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Steve found Katie looking over at him with a concreted look on her face, and he couldn't help but give her a small smile.

"I'm fine," He assured her. "You?"

Katie returned the small smile and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Couldn't be better."

Steve could tell by the look in her eyes that it wasn't the complete truth, but he decided not to question her on it. Shortly after that, Clint spoke up.

"Holy shit."

Katie realized she most have been in a daze for longer then she thought as she lifted her gaze from Steve to back out the front window, and her eyes going wide.

Before them was New York. But that wasn't what caused Katie's eyes to grow the size of baseballs. You could see Stark Tower from where they were and, shooting out of the top of the tower, was beam of pure light that hit the sky and opened up a giant wormhole. But, what shocked and scared them all the most, were the creations that were coming out of the wormhole, shooting beams at everything and everyone.

"Well," Natasha spoke up, getting right down to business as they got closer to the city. "Looks like Plan A worked just fine."

"Get a hold of Stark," Steve walked over and stood next to Katie, behind Clint and Natasha as he took on the leader role.

Nodding, Natasha quickly got to work contacting Tony as they reached the city.

"Stark, we're on your three heading north-east."

"What, did you stop for drive-thu?!" Starks voice was heard throughout the plane. "Swing up park, I'm gonna lay them out for you."

Clint flew the plane down low, so they were level with the buildings. They flew through the streets, Natasha quickly hitting a button and a large gun came out of the bottom of the plane, shooting at the Chitauri.

They flew up and around Stark tower, shooting the creations on their way. As Katie looked out the window she saw Thor taking on Loki. She couldn't help but feel a weight lifting of her chest now knowing that Thor was okay.

However, the relief was short lived as Loki spotted them and quickly shot his scepter at the wing of the plane.

Clint tried to gain control over the plane as they went down, but is was no use. He was, however, able to slow down the plane as Katie and Steve gripped onto the rails above them. Then, the plane hit the ground, causing everyone to jerk forward as it slid across the ground before slowly coming to a stop.

"Everyone good?" Clint called out as he and Natasha quickly got out of their seat beats.

Katie shared a look with Steve as they gained their balance. Steve gave her a small nod, which Katie return before turning to Clint and telling him they were good as Natasha clicked a button and the drop door went down. The four quickly ran off the plane, taking a good look at the, now, destroyed city as they did so.

"We have to get back up there!" Steve told them as they all ran down the street, everyone else running the opposite way, passed them and heading to safety.

Coming to a stop amongst all the torn up asphalt and flipped over cars, everyone looked up at the tower before, when suddenly, the wormhole grew bigger.

Katie's eyes couldn't help but grow wide as a giant, long, alien, whale-like thing slowly made its way out of the wormhole and down towards the city, destroying everything in its wake. Just when Katie' thought it couldn't get any worse, little aliens jumped out of the giant thing and into or onto the buildings around it.

"Stark," Steve looked up at the sky. "Are you seeing this?"

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

Katie turned to Natasha with a raised eyebrow, but the red-head looked just as confused as she did.

"Banner?" Steve said, sounding just as confused as everyone else.

"Just keep me posted."

Steve was still confused for a few seconds before he turned to Natasha, Clint and Katie, leading them towards an over-turned taxi so they could take cover and plan their next move.

"What now?" Katie asked, looking up at Steve.

"We got civilians trapped in the roof." Clint pointed out when a group of aliens quickly zoomed by, with a God leading the way.

"Loki." Steve looked up and over the taxi along with the others.

Katie watched as the aliens and Loki flipped and boomed everything in their wake, catching everything and nothing on fire as they raced down the street while innocent people ran for cover.

"They're fish in a barrel down there."

Just as these words left Steve's mouth, a group of aliens suddenly jumped in front of them and started shooting.

Clint quickly ran over and hid behind the car in front of them as Katie and Natasha took out their guns and started to fire at the creatures.

"We got this," Natasha turned to Steve. "Go."

Steve stared at Natasha for a moment before turning to Clint. "You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain," Clint smirked, setting up his bow and arrows. "It would be my genuine pleasure."

Steve nodded as Clint fired an arrow, before turning Katie, who looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

"Don't become the protective father now," She told him. "At least wait until after the alien invasion. Now, go!"

Steve gave Katie a nod and small smile before he got up and jumped over the bridge.

"Well, Rogers." Natasha turned to Katie slightly as they both stood up. "Ready for more training?"

Katie looked over at Natasha, raising an eyebrow at the girl as a smirk formed on her lips. Katie raised her gun and fired it, never taking her eyes off of Natasha, hitting an alien right in the head. What could she say, she had years of practice and her mother's aim.

"More than ready, Romanoff."

Natasha gave Katie a small smirk before they both got to work. They ran over to hide behind the flipped over cars in front of them, shooting aliens each and every way possible while Clint fired his arrows.

"Clint," Katie spoke up after a moment, nodding her head to the right as she shot another alien. "We need to get those people out of that bus."

Clint nodded, placing his bow around his neck. "Cover me."

Katie and Natasha kept on shooting at the aliens while Clint ran over and helped everyone out of the bus, allowing them to get to safety. However, it didn't take long for Katie to realize that shooting the aliens just wasn't working.

In no time, Clint had everyone out of the bus and was running back over to the girls, taking back out his bow and arrow as he stood between the red-head and blonde.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha yelled to Clint over all the shooting and fighting."

"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Clint replied as he continued to fire arrows. "I don't remember Katie being there."

"And I'm glad I wasn't." Katie said as she shot anything alien in the head, before adding as an afterthought, "I'd rather not know what happened in Budapest."

"You're wrong, Nat," Clint laughed lightly, firing and arrow that took out five aliens. "This is like training all over again."

"Speaking of," Katie said. "This isn't working. They aren't staying down."

"I've noticed." Natasha nodded. "What now?"

Katie stopped shooting off her gun before quickly putting it back in her holster. Placing her hands on the roof of the taxi she was hiding behind, she quickly pulled herself up, before jumping off the car, spinning as she stuck out her leg and hitting one the aliens in the side of the face. The creation fell to the ground as Katie ended up in a crouch, now facing Natasha and Clint.

"That works," Clint nodded, jumping over a taxi with Natasha hot on his heels.

Katie quickly stood up, turning around and roundhouse kicking the closest alien to her right in the stomach as Clint and Natasha joined her, taking on whatever alien they could.

Punches, kicks, arrows, bullets, everything was flying everywhere as the threesome tried to take down all the aliens. Natasha ended up on the shoulders of one she was took it down, while Clint slide across the ground, shooting an arrow that took out three more aliens. Katie flipped an alien over her back before kicking it hard in the face, when a sudden thought hit her. She quickly picked up the scepters two of the aliens - who were now on the gourd - before spinning around.

"Tash!"

Natasha punched the alien she was fighting out before she turned around to face Katie, who threw one of the scepters at her.

Natasha quickly caught it, before looking between it and back up at Katie. Katie gave her a smirk before swing it around and stabbing and alien who was coming at her, right in the stomach.

As the girls worked with the scepters, stabbing and shooting aliens every which way, Clint was taking the aliens to the ground and stabbing them with his arrows and shooting as many as he could.

They were actually holding their own.

However, their little win over the aliens was short lived as the creations soon took the upper-hand a bit. They backed Clint, Natasha and Katie into each other as they kept on fighting, taking out whoever they could.

Suddenly, a flash of red, white and blue came out of nowhere, blocking the aliens from getting to the Natasha, Clint and Katie before Steve quickly used his shield to take out some of the aliens.

Katie looked up at Steve as he turned around. She opened her mouth to say something when Steve cut her off.

"I know," Steve smiled at her slightly. "You can handle yourself."

Katie smiled at him as a flash of lightening suddenly came down, grabbing the four avengers' attention as it took out the last bit of the aliens they were fighting a minute ago. Then Thor fell out of the sky, landing unsteadily a few feet away from them.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked as they all met up.

"The powers surrounding the cub is impenetrable." Thor told them before Tony's voice was heard over their earpieces.

"Thor's right. We gotta deal with these guys."

"And how do we do that?" Natasha spoke up. "These things aren't the easiest to take down."

"As a team." Steve informed them before Thor spoke up.

"I have unfinished business with Loki."

"Get in line," Clint and Katie both said at the same moment, an image of Phil lying broken on the floor flashed before Katie's eyes, rage welling up in her stomach.

"Save it," Steve cut them back off. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild." Steve turned around so we was now facing Thor, Katie, Clint and Natasha. "We have Stark up top, he's going to need us…"

"Steve." Katie spoke up suddenly, nodded behind him, causing Steve to turn around.

Shock took over their faces as they say Bruce Banner riding towards them on an old motorbike. Katie was surprised he actually made it to them, as she shared a quick look with Natasha. The whole group moved forward to met Bruce, as he got off the bike and slowly walked towards them.

"So," he cleared his throat as he took in everyone. "This is horrible."

"I've seen worse." Natasha spoke up, causing Katie to glance over at her for a quick moment before turning back to Bruce, who looked between the two girls.

"Yeah, sorry."

"No, we could use a little worse." Natasha assured him as Steve informed Tony that Bruce was here.

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

The moment Tony informed them of this, a roar-like sound was heard followed by Tony flying around the corner of a building not too far in front of the group on the ground. The giant alien creature was following behind him.

"Yeah," Katie spoke up slowly. "Not my kind of party."

"I don't see how that is a party." Natasha said, not taking her eyes off the creature as it moved towards them.

Turning around, Bruce slowly made his way towards the alien, as he informed the group of his secret. He was always angry. Then, just seconds before the alien reached Bruce, he morphed into the Hulk, taking down the giant creature in one swift movement.

The force that the Hulk used to punch the alien caused it to flip over, slowing falling over towards the group on the ground. However, Tony suddenly appeared and shot at the aliens soft spot, causing it to explode as the Avengers on the ground quickly took cover. Steve covered Natasha with his shield as Clint took cover behind a car and Katie spun around, crouching on the ground as Thor covered her.

"Thanks," Katie smiled up at Thor as they stood back up.

"It was no problem, Lady Katherine." Thor smiled back just as Tony came to the ground.

And there they were, all the Avengers standing side by side in a circle back on to each other. Katie actually started to think that they could do this. Sure, they were only a team at this point because hell, who else would fight aliens. But, they were starting to seem like a good enough team to actually win this battle.

However, as Natasha's voice rang in Katie's ears, causing the blonde to spin around, Katie had to mentally kick herself.

"Guys."

Following Natasha's gaze, they all looked up at the sky only to see more of the giant, whale-like aliens come through and head down to Earth.

"Call it, Cap." Tony spoke up, shifting his attention to Steve, as the Captain turned around to face the group.

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're going to use containment." Steve then turned to Clint. "Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays." Clint nodded as Steve turned to Tony. "Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Ay ay, Captain." Tony stated as Steve turned to Katie.

"Katie, you're a good shot."

Katie couldn't help but smirk as she crossed her arms. "Good? That's it?"

"I want you up with Barton." Steve told her, a small smile playing on his lips before his face went serious again. Then, he picked up a scepter that was lying on the ground, tossing it at her which she caught easily. "Scepter, gun, anything you can shoot them with. Take them out."

Katie nodded, walking over and standing next to Clint as Steve gave the rest of the orders, turning to Thor.

"Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightening, light the bastards up."

Thor nodded, swinging his hammer around before shooting up into the sky, as Steve turned to Natasha.

"You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk," Katie watched as the Hulk spun around, watching Steve as he pointed his finger to the sky. "Smash."

Katie could have sworn she saw a smile on the Hulks face before he took off, jumped onto a building and started to take down alien after alien.

Turning around, Katie looked over at Clint. "How are we getting up there?"

"I have a way," Clint told her with a smirk, before looking over Katie's shoulder. "Stark. How many people can you take?"

"I'm not a theme park ride," Tony informed them, but he still walked over to them. "Better clench up."

Tony grabbed onto Clint's back tightly as he wrapped his other arm around Katie. Before taking off, Katie looked over at Steve, giving him a small smile before Tony flew up and dropped them both off on top of the roof.

Clint and Katie got right to work as Tony took off again. With Clint on one side of the roof and Katie on the other, they started shooting down whatever alien they could. With Clint being a master archer and Katie being one of the best shooters around, they hardly ever missed.

"Stark, you got a lot of strays stiffing your tail." Katie heard Clint inform Tony after a few moments. "Find a tight corner."

"I will roger that."

Katie couldn't help but roll her eyes, a small smile playing on her lips as she took out her gun and shot an alien right in the middle of its forehead, causing it to take out three others on its way down.

Katie and Clint continued on taking down as many aliens as they could, while Clint kept an eye out for patterns and to see who needed more help.

However, after a few minutes, Katie had to do a double take when she suddenly saw Natasha riding along with one of the aliens, something Clint couldn't see.

Natasha had been with Steve… Katie suddenly realized. Which means…

"Stark." Katie called into her earpiece as she shot an alien with the scepter, causing it to fly backwards. "Where are you?"

"Flying your way now with some more party guests."

Katie nodded to herself as she looked around before sporting Tony flying towards Clint's side of the roof.

"Are you a good catch?" Katie asked as she dropped the scepter, turning around so she was now facing Clint's back. She knew Clint could hold his own up here, down on the streets however, Steve would need some more help.

"Well, all the ladies think I am."

"That's not what I mean."

"Katie," Clint called over his shoulder as he shot another arrow. "What are you doing?"

Katie, however, didn't answer. She just kept her eye on Tony as he flew closer and closer towards the roof, and she prayed that this would work.

"Tony," Katie said just as Tony was almost to the corner of the building. "Catch."

Taking a deep breath, Katie took off running towards Clint's edge of the roof. She could hear Clint calling out to her as she leaped off the side of the building, but she wasn't really listening as she started to fall towards the ground, closing her eyes after a few moments of falling before she suddenly felt something cold and hard grab her hands.

"Like I said, the ladies think I'm a catch."

Katie couldn't help but let out a laugh as Tony looked down at her, holding onto her hands as they flew through the city streets.

"Where am I dropping you off?" Tony asked, causing Katie to look up at him.

"By Steve."

"To Papa Cap." Tony nodded as he flew faster, heading toward Steve. As they got closer, Katie could see him by himself, taking on as many aliens as he could.

"Let go!" Katie yelled to Tony, and he dropped her right as they flew over the aliens and Steve.

Katie fell from a few feet in the air, so she was able to stick out her leg, and knock out an alien that Steve was fighting as she stepped on its head before landing on the ground in a crouch.

"Thought you could use some help," Katie said as she stood up. "And don't you dare make a 'I can handle myself' comment."

Steve let out a low chuckle as he panted slightly, a smile tugging at his lips before his face suddenly fell, his eyes looking over Katie's shoulder. As she followed his gaze, Katie found a dozen or so more aliens handing towards them.

"Time to get to work," Katie said, mostly to herself as she quickly pulled out her gun and fired it at one of the aliens before aiming at the next.

Katie shot at alien after alien, taking out as many as she could as she ran over and took cover behind a car and Steve continued to fight on, taking them out with the help of his shield.

"Where's Tash gone?" Katie called over her shoulder at Steve.

"To try and close the portal!" Steve informed her as he smacked an alien in the side of the head with his shield.

Katie nodded, though she doubted Steve saw, as she shot at some more aliens, watching as they fell to the ground. However, just when everything started to be looking up, it all went downhill.

The aliens started to come in bigger groups towards Katie and Steve, making father and daughter work even harder to take them out.

Katie ducked down behind the car to gain her breath for a moment before she quickly stood back up, pointing her gun towards the group of creatures and firing. Nothing happened.

"Seriously!" Katie groaned as she quickly ducked back down, placing her gun in his holster after checking everywhere to find she had no ammo left.

Looking up over the car, Katie quickly reminded herself that she couldn't just sit there - not that she planned to anyways - as she got back up. She hopped onto the car before jumping off it onto the shoulders of one of the aliens, taking it down as fast as she could before getting off his shoulders and taking on anything.

She was holding her own for a while, taking down one alien before moving onto the next. Kicking, punching, and hitting as many and as hard as she could. However, it didn't last long.

She soon had to start taking them on two at a time, kicking one in the side so it could take out another. She was backed into a corner, surrounded by a circle of aliens, and she couldn't even reach a scepter.

Katie was quickly outnumbered and so busy focusing on not getting killed, that she didn't even see Steve on the ground, taking on his last alien before he was able to take the upper hand and take it down.

Steve pushed himself off the ground, panting slightly before he slowly turned around to face Katie, only to find her encircled by a large group of aliens as she tried to hold her own.

Steve's mind quickly worked overtime to think of his next move. He could go over and get the attention of the aliens, but more than likely, only a few would be distracted. And Katie was still in the middle of the encircle, Steve guessed weaponless because he couldn't hear gunshots.

Weaponless…

Katie continued to punch, kick and hit anywhere she could as she tried to take out the aliens. She quickly roundhouse kicked one it the stomach, causing it to fly backwards and take out about five others. But, it didn't matter. It was like when you took one down two more took its place.

Suddenly, one the of aliens pointed his scepter at Katie's head and she froze, her mind going blank as she quickly placed her arms in front of her head as she crouched down.

However, just as the alien was about to fire his scepter, the sound of something flying though the air filled Katie's ears. And, before she could even lift her head, a red, white, and blue shield landed just a few inches away from her feet.

Katie didn't even think as she quickly grabbed the shield and placed it on her arm, using it to take out the alien that still had its scepter pointed at her head.

Looking around, Katie could see a number of aliens that were standing a moment ago were now on the ground - probably because they'd been in the path of the shield - before she looked up at the rest of the aliens that were still standing.

Quickly, Katie started fighting with the shield, struggling at first before getting the hang of it as she used it to take out the rest of the aliens. And, as the numbers got smaller, she could see Steve on the outside, punching and kicking aliens along with her before Katie took out the last one by smacking it in the head with the shield.

"Looks good," Steve panted as he walked over to Katie, aliens lying on the ground all around them.

"Yeah," Katie breathed, looking down at the shield once more before looking back up. "I should get one."

"Thought you already had one?" Steve smiled a little, referring to the story Katie told him about how she got a shield for her 8th birthday.

"True, though I don't think that one would be of much use in an alien invasion." Katie laughed lightly before she took the shield off her arm and headed it back to Steve. "Thanks."

Steve smiled back at her but, before he could say anything, they both heard Clint over their earpieces.

"Captain, the back on 42nd past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there."

"I'm on it." Steve nodded before he looked over at Katie.

"Go, I'll be fine." She assured him as they both saw a wave of aliens headed their way. This one wasn't as large as the last group, but Steve was still weary.

"You sure?"

Katie raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't make me say it."

Steve smiled slightly, before he nodded and headed towards the bank.

"Alright aliens," Katie sighed as she bent down, making sure to have a scepter in her hand this time as a weapon. "I'm getting quite sick of you."

A very true statement.

As Katie started to fight the aliens once more, stabbing and hitting them with beams from the scepter, she couldn't help but start to feel drained and tired. After all, this was the most action she had ever had in her life.

This had to end soon.

The sound of breaking glass and something, or someone, hitting something hard caused Katie to jump just as she shot the last alien, making it fly backwards.

Spinning around, Katie saw Steve slowly getting off the top of a car on the street below, his mask off as he looked around, dazed.

Dropping the scepter she was holding, Katie quickly ran over to the edge of the bridge and jumped off it, landing on top off a turned over bus before she jumped to the ground and raced over to Steve.

"Hey," She said softly, placing a gently hand on Steve's shoulder. "You okay?"

Slowly turning towards her, Steve nodded before his eyes shifted above Katie's head, causing her to sigh.

"Please tell me there aren't more aliens behind me."

Steve shifted his gaze down towards Katie, about to open his mouth before there was a sudden clap of thunder. The thunder caused some of the aliens to fall as Katie and Steve turned around, seeing Thor walking towards them.

"Would you like some help?" Thor asked, his hammer flying into his hand.

"I'll tell you want I want," Katie looked over at the aliens that were making their way towards the threesome as Steve picked up his shield. "I want these aliens to bloody go away."

"Bloody?" Steve raised an eyebrow at her.

"My mum's British." Katie pointed out plainly, as if this was new information to Steve.

Thor, Katie and Steve all got down to work, and started fighting the aliens once more. It was easy to see that the days long events were taking their toll on them.

With Thor using his hammer, Steve using his shield and Katie using hand-to-hand combat, that were slowly taking down the aliens. However, everyone was starting to get tired, which was shown when Steve turned around only to get shot in the stomach by a beam from one of the aliens' scepter.

Quickly, Katie took down the alien she was fighting before running over and picking up Steve's shield, throwing to so it could take out the aliens behind her as Thor used his hammer to make a car roll, taking out the last bit of aliens around them.

Because Katie wasn't her father, she couldn't catch the shield like he could. Katie walked over and picked it up off the ground before making her way toward Thor, who was helping Steve up off the ground.

"Ready for another bout?"

"Why?" Steve panted, holding onto his stomach with one hand and taking the shield from Katie with the other. "You getting sleepy?"

"Not sleepy," Katie sighed as she ran a hand though her very messy French braid, pushing all the loose pieces out of her face. "Annoyed."

"I agree." Thor said as Steve nodded. "The portal needs to be closed."

The moment the words left Thor's mouth, Natasha's voice was heard in the earpieces.

"I can close it! Can anybody copy?"

"Do it!" Steve basically yelled into the earpiece as Katie shared a look with Thor, a smile forming on her lips at Thor's timing.

"No, wait!" Tony's voice was heard, causing confusion to show on everyone's face.

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"I got a nuke coming in," Tony informed them. "It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

Fear suddenly took over Katie as he eyes went wide at Tony's words. And the only thing she could hear in her head was her promise to Howard to watch over Tony. A promise she made when Tony was only two, and she'd done a very crappy job so far. But she wasn't about to let Tony die in front of her, not when she could finally be in his life again.

"Tony," Katie spoke up, hoping he couldn't hear the fear in her voice. "If you enter that wormhole-"

"Save it for the trip back, mini Cap."

Time seemed to move in slow motion as Katie and the rest of the Avengers looked up into the sky, seeing Tony flying with the nuke as fast as he could, turning up just before he hit Stark Tower and flying into the wormhole, before he disappeared.

Katie stood frozen in her spot as she stared at the wormhole, waiting and willing Tony to come back through. She had just lost Phil, she was not about to lose someone else, not so shortly after finding people who could possibly become her family. Not after she finally had a chance to talk and get to know Tony. Not before she got the chance to tell him who she was and how she really knew his father.

Suddenly, all the aliens around them dropped to the ground, stone cold dead. Katie looked around a moment, confused at what just happened, before she glanced back up at the sky. There was still no sight of Tony.

Too many seconds passed by before Steve shared a look with Thor, Katie still looking up at the wormhole, before Steve took a deep breath.

"Close it."

Katie took a sharp breath as he hand flew to her mouth when she heard no response. She continued to watch as the wormhole slowly closed up, looking away just as it disappeared.

"Son of a gun."

Katie's head snapped to the sky at Steve's words, a look of relief on her face when she saw Tony falling from the sky. However, relief soon turned to confusion and then shock when she noticed that he wasn't moving.

"He's not slowing down!" Thor pointed out, starting to swing his hammer when the Hulk suddenly came out of nowhere, causing Katie to jump as he caught Tony, holding him close as they both fell to the ground.

After sharing a quick look, Thor, Katie and Steve ran over to the duo through all the dirt and flipped cars as the Hulk pushed Tony off him before standing up.

Thor quickly flipped Tony over and ripped off his mask as Steve and Katie knelt down beside him. Steve checked to see if Tony was breathing and, to Katie's horror, Steve pulled back with a defeated look on his face.

Katie looked down at the ground, half her hair out of its braid and falling in her face as her eyes started to sting and swell up.

They all sat there in silence for a few moments until the Hulk suddenly let out a deafening roar and, all at once, Tony jumped to life. Everyone snapped their attention to Tony as he panted and looked around confusedly.

"What the hell!" Tony exclaimed. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me. Well, nobody besides Katie."

Rolling her eyes, Katie couldn't help but laugh as her face cracked into a smile while Steve took a breath, looking around before speaking.

"We won."

A comfortable silence fell around them all as Steve's words set in. Well, it was silent until Tony spoke up.

"Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job." He groaned. "Let's not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma tent about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

"You almost died and the first thing you want is shawarma?" Katie questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"We're not finished yet." Thor pointed out, causing everyone to look up at the tower where Loki currently was.

Katie shared a look with Steve, a small smile on her face. It didn't matter what happened now, once they got Loki. It was over. They really did win. They managed to come together as a team and save so many innocent people. Sure, they still clashed and rubbed each other the wrong way. But maybe, just maybe, some day they would all think of each other as friends. And maybe even family.

Tony let out a sigh, causing everyone to turn to him as he spoke up.

"And then shawarma after."

Please note, this use to be chapters 10 and 11 before I combined them together.

Big thanks once again going out to my beta, Tospringe :)

Links to my tumblr and twitter in my profile. Also, head over to my Polyvore (also in profile) to see a little draft I made of Katie's outfit.