AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Finally, chapter 13! This chapter. I can't even describe it. I hope you like. I had to rewrite it several times. Coulson is director of SHIELD. Skye hasn't gotten her powers. She's still a funny, sort-of silly computer geek. There isn't much Skye, unfortunately, I couldn't find a real way to put her in where it felt natural, and the AOS people are going bye-bye this chapter. There were just too many freaking characters! It got too stressful trying to fit everyone in without neglecting one character or another.

Anyway. Enjoy! this is by far the longest chapter!

DISCLAIMER: Shawn Spencer senses that I don't own this stuff. He happens to be right. (I don't own Psych either.)

"Mr. Merlin, Mr. Stark has invited you to the breakfast hall. He wishes to speak with you."

"…."

"Mr. Merlin."

"…mmmm…."

"Mr. Merlin! Wake up!"

Merlin shot to his feet, magic at the ready and fists cocked. "What?" he shouted in alarm, looking around wildly, hair mussed and face pale and confused. "What's going on?"

There was a chuckle from the ceiling. It was Tony's AI, FRIDAY. "Merlin, Mr. Stark would like you to come to the breakfast hall," she said. "He would like to talk with you."

Merlin breathed out. "Okay. Yes. Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."

Merlin dressed and headed toward the breakfast hall. He'd had strange dreams last night. Things from his vision zoomed in on specific points. Meaningless sounds. Indecipherable words. Maybe it had stemmed from his trepidation about Miss Simmons' tests and his continued fear of the three figures in his vision.

The elevator dinged, interrupting Merlin's thoughts. The doors opened. A man and a woman stepped inside. The man had thinning, brownish hair, and he was wearing a suit. The woman was of Asian descent, and she was dressed in tight black clothing, similar to the Black Widow's. The man nodded. "I'm Agent Phil Coulson," he said. "Director of what's left of SHIELD. This is Agent Melinda Mei." The woman nodded stiffly.

Merlin eyed the large gun strapped to the woman's hip and twiddled his fingers awkwardly. "Hello."

The man, Phil, hit the stop button on the elevator. "I want to know why you're here," he said.

Merlin shrugged. "I... had a funny feeling," he chuckled. "Something big is going to go down soon, and I want to try and stop it before it starts."

The two agents stared Merlin down, trying to find a lie. Apparently, they found none, because Agent Coulson hit the button on the elevator, and it started to move. He smiled wryly. "Sorry about that," he said. "Steve told me what you told the others. You're really Merlin, huh?"*

Merlin smirked. "Yeah. I'm the real thing. I'm an ancient artifact. Even more ancient than the Captain."

Agent Mei smirked for some reason.

The elevator doors slid open again. Phil Coulson and Melinda Mei stepped out. "Good to meet you," Coulson said. "The Avengers trust you, which is the only reason why I'm not dragging you to a special prison cell right now." Coulson smiled widely. "Good bye."

Melinda Mei's mouth lifted in a tiny smile. "See you," she said, her voice smooth. "Don't die."

The two agents disappeared from view as the elevator doors closed once again.

That was strange, Merlin thought.

Finally, the elevator doors opened to reveal the breakfast hall. The Avengers, still minus Clint, were eating various breakfasts. Bruce and Sam were missing as well. Tony was chowing down on a heaping bowl of Coco Puffs. The box was on the table next to him. He grabbed at it protectively, but Merlin snatched it out of his hands.

Chocolate was definitely one of the world's best inventions. Especially European chocolate.

Merlin poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down. "So what was it that you wanted?" Merlin asked Tony around a mouthful of Coco Puffs.

Tony swallowed his mouthful. "Cap wanted me to offer you a place to stay until you—we—figure out this weird vision. We'd head back to the tower this afternoon, if you want to come. If you have any reconnaissance missions you want to do to find your baddies, we can help with that. I have issues with possibly world-ending catastrophes."

Merlin was surprised. He had kind of thought that Tony had issues with him as well. Merlin suspected that it wasn't that Tony didn't like him, he just had trust issues.

Steve spoke up. "We'd like to work as a team with you. We want to stop… whatever it is you say is coming, before it comes."

Natasha, Sam, Thor, Vision, Wanda, and even Tony nodded.

Merlin hardly even had to think about it. "If you'll have me, that would be perfect."

"Perfect," Tony said, clapping his hands together. "Everyone get your stuff. We're going back to the tower right now. This place is way too boring. Too much gray."

The tower was comfortably decorated, and it felt lived in too. Merlin could feel residues of magic as well. He suspected that the strong emotions of the various Avengers had colored the air here permanently.

Tony had even given Merlin his own floor. Officially, it was a guest floor, but it had all of the amenities. Full-sized kitchen, bathroom with jet tub and shower, two bedrooms, an office and a living space with a TV.

Merlin had gone shopping to pick up some clothes, as his nearest house was over two hours away, and Merlin didn't feel like traveling, even by magic. Merlin had enough money anyway. The combined money in his all of bank accounts (which were under several different names) was over seven million American dollars.

Merlin and the Avengers were once again gathered in the kitchen. Merlin thought that, as long as it had food, the Avengers were happy. The SHIELD agents had stayed at the compound. Merlin had heard something about a guy with a metal arm and a metal leg, or something like that. He wasn't sure on the details.

Simmons had shown Merlin her research. She had also taken different scans of Wanda. Simmons, with Fitz's help had pointed out the slight similarities between Wanda and Merlin's powers. Mainly, though, Simmons had wondered about the vast differences. Simmons had also been captivated with the similarities between the tesseract's power and Merlin's. She had gushed about it being similar to certain radioactive elements. Merlin had started to tune it out by then. Too many technical terms. Merlin was a smart guy, but this was breaking his brain.

Simmons had also introduced Merlin to a girl named Skye. Skye had been friendly, and Merlin liked her. She had challenged Merlin to a Pac-Man contest. Skye had won by a landslide, but Merlin didn't care. It was nice to just have casual acquaintances. Simmons had been upset that she and her team had to leave so quickly, but she had told Merlin that she would try to keep in contact. Merlin had smiled and said that he would like that.

Merlin tapped his fingers on the tabletop idly. He had eaten his fill of potato chips and Pop Tarts. Now he was waiting for everyone else to finish. Thor had eaten nearly three full boxes of Pop Tarts and he didn't appear to be stopping any time soon.

"So…" Merlin began. "Should I go find a lead to follow about my vision, or are we just going to do nothing?"

Tony nearly choked on his Cookies-n-Cream Pop Tart. "Have you ever had any fun, ever? Or are you just so old and decrepit that you want to put work before pleasure, like Cap?"

Merlin chuckled ruefully. "Maybe I have been that way for the past few years." His smile faded. "Without anybody to do things with, responsibility starts to be higher on your list than fun, because without friends or family, it isn't very fun." Now Merlin frowned thoughtfully. Almost to himself, Merlin said, "I haven't had friends in years."

That wasn't exactly true; Merlin had had friends, but they had only been there for a year at most. Then they would drift away, or Merlin would move. Merlin didn't like to stay in one place for too long. Any friends that Merlin had were mostly just grocery store clerks. Those were wave-as-you-pass-in-the-grocery-store relationships, not really stop-and-say-hello relationships.

The Avengers were silent at Merlin's comment, just now realizing what hundreds of years of living had to do to a person.

Tony decided to set out to fix that. Personally, he hated being lonely. Being alone, he liked, being lonely, no.

"I have an idea," he said, licking his fingers. "Let's procrastinate, and put off your responsibility for a day or seven. We'll show you how the Avengers have a good time."

Merlin stood in a large, empty room. The floor was rather squashy, but firm enough to run, jump and walk without difficulty. The walls and ceiling were padded as well. There were no windows, but the room was well-lit by recessed lights.

The Avengers were in various forms of workout clothes. Clint was still missing. Bruce was there, this time, though. Merlin was in sweats, a t-shirt and comfortable tennis shoes. Tony and Sam seemed to be laughing at someone, but Merlin couldn't tell who the stifled giggles were directed at. Natasha was glaring at everyone in general.

Merlin had a sneaking suspicion what this was.

Training time.

"It's training time, cupcakes!" Tony shouted. Tony grinned at Merlin. "Time to see what you can do. No magic during the spars, unless we say so, because that's cheating."

"It's called using your resources," Merlin muttered good-naturedly. Natasha smirked at him. "I tell that to Tony all the time," she told him. "Tony never listens."

Steve grinned and slapped Merlin on the back, making Merlin stumble forward a step. "We'll set you against Tony first," Steve said. "Tony knows his way around a fist fight, but he doesn't hit as hard without his suit. We're trying to rectify that. Can you throw a punch?"

Merlin nodded. He had trained in hand-to-hand hundreds of years ago and had practiced at least two hours every day, five days a week since then. He'd even had Gwaine teach him a few things after Arthur's death. Merlin had had many masters and experts teach him different technics. Merlin could hold his own in most fist fights. But then again, these were the Avengers and they were in a whole different league.

Tony and Merlin faced each other in the center of the room, fists cocked. They were both wearing mouth guards and they were barefooted. The others lined the walls. Something told Merlin that this was unusual. He suspected that they were watching them to gauge his skills.

"On three, start," Steve called. "One… three!"

Tony threw an experimental punch, which Merlin dodged with ease. The fight escalated from there. Merlin delivered hits, and took a few, although the fight seemed to be tipping in his favor quickly. Merlin's fighting style was possibly unique; hundreds of years of fighting, drilled into his brain led to a strange mix of offensive and defensive strategies.

Merlin ended up winning the fight two minutes and thirty-six seconds in. Merlin slammed a fist into Tony's jaw, knocking him to the ground. Natasha counted to ten. Tony just lay on the ground, groaning. Merlin offered him a hand. Tony took it after several seconds and let Merlin pull him to his feet.

"I hate you," Tony said, his voice slightly slurry. Tony worked his jaw and wiped sweat off his forehead. "I hate you so much. I was hoping to win a hand-to-hand spar for once."

"You've improved from miserable to mediocre," Natasha told Tony. "Nice job," she said to Merlin, who was panting and rubbing a patch of bruised ribs. Tony could hit hard. "We'll have to pit you against Sam next time."

Merlin looked to Tony while Bruce was checking to make sure that Merlin's ribs weren't cracked. "This is your idea of fun?" Merlin asked incredulously. "I don't know about you, but I like relaxing with a bowl of ice cream while I binge-watch Psych on Netflix."

"We'll get to that," Steve said, tossing Tony and Merlin water bottles. "Training comes first. Actually, we all think that Tony secretly likes getting his butt kicked, because he doesn't complain as much as we expected him too."

"Haha," Tony said, twisting the cap off his bottle and taking a drink. "I say Cap and Nat go, and then we throw Sam at Mr. Magic. And then we have a tourney between Mr. Magic and Little Miss Witch."

Wanda shook her head quickly. "I'd rather just spar hand-to-hand," she said, tugging on the bottom of her t-shirt. "I know when I'm outmatched. I would not have a chance against Merlin. Don't you remember how he smashed apart my powers?"

"It's fine," Steve told her. "Nat and I will have a go at each other, then we'll work with you." Wanda nodded, relieved. She didn't want to admit it, but Merlin still made her nervous. She remembered vividly the terror she had felt when Merlin had broken the bonds she had placed around him.

Steve and Natasha ended up calling their fight a draw after seven minutes. Merlin's fight against Sam ended in Merlin being slammed against a wall. He hadn't been able to take a full breath for nearly a minute. Now the front of his ribs and the back of his ribs hurt. Bruce had been severely annoyed. Sam was probably still smarting from the tongue lashing he had received.

When Merlin had recuperated, Thor wanted a demonstration of Merlin's magic. Tony had wanted someone to fight Merlin, but Wanda refused again. Vision and Thor had volunteered at the same time. Steve had (much to Tony's chagrin) declared that it had to be a one-on-one battle. Vision had graciously offered to go against Merlin at a later time.

Merlin glanced at Thor's bulging muscles and the shoe box-sized hammer clutched in his fist and swallowed. This wasn't going to be fun.

Thor grinned at Merlin. "Worry not, Merlin. I won't hurt you more than necessary."

Merlin's answering grin was one hundred percent fake. "Thanks."

Merlin knew that if he had any chance of forestalling his death, he had to strike quickly. He immediately sent a blast of concussive force at Thor. Thor threw himself backwards with the wave of magic, and managed to land on his feet.

Thor grinned again. "You have considerable strength." Thor swung his hammer. "But not enough to best me!" A blast of lightning almost fried Merlin. Merlin blinked back bad memories of the few times he had used lightning. Nimeuh and various dying friends and relatives were at the forefront of his mind.

Merlin and Thor fought back and forth, nearly evenly matched. Merlin couldn't tell who was pulling ahead. The low ceiling prevented Thor from using his hammer-copter ability, which definitely helped Merlin's case.

Thor dodged another strike from Merlin, who had managed to avoid being zapped so far. Time seemed to slow down as Thor threw his hammer, sending it flying straight towards Merlin's unprotected chest.

Merlin knew he couldn't get out of its way fast enough. So, dreading the pain he was about to feel, he waited for the hammer to strike. And waited.

Then he realized that time had actually slowed down. It was funny. Merlin had never gained full control over this particular ability. It was 98.5% instinctual. The other 1.5% was dumb luck. Merlin glanced around. The Avengers were watching raptly from the edges of the room, frozen in the stand-still. Thor looked to be enjoying himself, feet off the floor as he was frozen in mid-leap.

Merlin stepped out of the way of the hammer just before it touched him. As time resumed its normal pace, Merlin shouted a binding command, along with a sleeping charm. The hammer smashed a hole into the opposite wall and Thor froze, confused and woozy.

Tony blinked. "What the crap just happened?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Magic, duh."

The Avengers and Merlin had all gotten cleaned up. Tony, Sam, Wanda, and even Natasha had started teasing Thor about his royal butt-whooping as they had called it and Thor was arguing that it hadn't been a true defeat. Merlin had explained about his strange and unreliable ability to slow time, and the Avengers had gaped.

They were just starting to grasp the true extent of Merlin's powers.

Steve was ignoring most of the commotion. He was talking with Natasha and Vision. "I don't have any more doubts," Steve said. "I believe him. He's Merlin. Who else could beat Thor like that?"

"No one," Vision said. "Except perhaps me and Dr. Banner." Vision hadn't said that out of pride. He was pretty much the only Avenger who would have a chance against Thor.

"We'll still need to keep an eye on him until we're one hundred percent sure that we can trust him," Natasha said, keeping her voice low. Steve and Vision nodded seriously.

The rest of the Avengers, plus Merlin were engaged in a shouting match, because they had decided to play a round of Go-Fish while they waited for their companions to return. Tony was being accused of cheating. (Merlin was the one who was really cheating. He was skilled at using magic to his own personal ends.) To stop the shouting, Tony had promised to take everyone for a round of shawarma... as soon as he kicked everyone's butt at Go-Fish.