Faith Meets The Avengers...Oooooo...

*Shit!* thought Faith, trying to get back her breath while trapped under the immense weight of a very dead demon that'd just collapsed onto the Slayer right after she stabbed the obese monster directly in the brain.

Letting go of the knife to frantically attempt shoving the corpse off her own body lying flat on the alley asphalt somewhere tonight in one of New York's more insalubrious neighborhoods, Faith then caught sight of even more angry demons rushing down the alleyway into her direction. She heaved away with minimal leverage, barely managing even with all her enhanced strength to slightly lift something which must've snacked on a coupla pianos lately.

All Faith needed was a few more undisturbed seconds to free herself, but it sure as hell looked like she wasn't gonna get that. This was goddamn embarassin'.

Over the millennia, Slayers had died all kinds of deaths while battling against the forces of supernatural evil: heroic, resigned, extremely gory, and the like. What was never spoken among the many other young superhuman girls nowadays who underwent the bygone dreams sent by the first of their kind, Sineya herself, were the completely ridiculous fatalities which could only be described as terminal slapstick.

For example, there'd been Livia of Rome during Vespasian's reign in 73 CE who'd been thrown hard enough head-first into a crypt near Ostia to break through the wall. The vampire accomplishing this rare feat gladly took the opportunity to then make a run for it, successfully getting away while Livia had been out cold with her head stuck in the wall. Unfortunately, an enormous colony of bees had established a nest inside the wall, and their honey dripped into Livia's open mouth and down her throat into her lungs, eventually suffocating the unconscious Slayer who never woke up in time.

Faith could remember dreaming at least several more of those same dumbass demises, and she fuckin' well didn't want to be another one of 'em. *C'mon, c'mon, will you move, fatso!*

Alas, the very first of the monsters gleefully about to rip Faith into bloody shreds was almost upon her when something zipped horizontally above the young woman still sprawled out on the ground under a hideous corpse. That object, a spinning metal disk the size of a garbage can lid, hit the demon with maximum accuracy against this fiend's forehead with enough force to flip it into a reverse somersault and next land unmoving onto the alley floor.

Bouncing backwards, the disk was unerringly caught by a man sprinting into the alley who easily leapt over both Faith and the demon she was under in a broad jump breaking the Olympic record. Faith froze, gaping at her rescuer who then commencing demolishing handily his opponents. Blurring strikes with fists, feet, knees, and elbows shattered demonic teeth and bones without any trouble, but the most damage was done by the disk which was now held by the man's left arm through the disk's straps to be used as a shield.

The shield had a central white star emblem not to mention circular red and white stripes which were soon covered with non-human blood and other fluids when the shield was smashed into ribcages and skulls with enough strength to effortlessly cave in those body parts.

Faith continued to watch fascinated, never having thought there could be a human guy an equal match for any Slayer in close-quarter combat. Had one smokin' fine ass, too.

Reluctantly getting back to the job of wriggling free under a ton of ogre before it started dissolving to coat her with disgusting gunk, Faith finally accomplished this, getting up onto her feet. A mental alarm abruptly blared in the Slayer's mind at sensing one of their ancient enemies now close behind herself.

Faith twisted around, pulling out a stake from her jacket at the same time. Some asshole vamp grinning viciously had just ambushed her, and their claw strike was way too close to her neck to completely dodge. This was gonna hurt—

Without even looking behind, Captain America flung his shield down the alley. He couldn't throw it directly at the vampire without also hitting the woman standing there, so the hero bounced his shield off one of the walls of the warehouse backed up to the alley. In a faultless ricochet, the edge of the shield sliced through the vampire's neck and continued flying through the air.

Faith gawked at the mound of vamp dust now settling onto the alley floor and also at the metal frisbee which had just rebounded from a telephone pole without any loss of momentum into a continued zoom an arm's length past Faith.

Not pausing the slightest, Faith snatched the shield from its flight. The weapon's impetus transference resulted in the Slayer twirling around a few times on her heels.

Coming to a stop facing Mr. Awesome Butt reaching behind himself to just realize his shield wasn't coming, Faith ignored that at how totally fantastic the thing now felt in her hands. Weight, balance, heft…they were all perfect.

It was even better than the Scythe! Slipping her arm through the shield straps, Faith had a maniacal grin peel back her lips.

*Oh yeah, baby, let's go downtown, whaddaya say?*

Steve Rogers incredulously watched the woman he'd presumably rescued to then appropriate his shield jump the entire length of the alleyway high over him to land right in the middle of a second wave of diabolic attackers. After that, all he could do was to stay there and occasionally duck from the random amputated limbs sent spinning his way.

When it was all over and done with, Steve cautiously approached the woman completely drenched in various colors of blood (none of it hers) now giggling to herself.

"Excuse me, ma'am, may I have my shield back?"

Faith glared at the guy who looked even better from the front but still didn't deserve such goddamn wonderful demon-killing weaponry.

*Want! TAKE! HAVE!*

Um…no, she wasn't that anymore. Crap. Bein' a honest, responsible adult sucked grotty elephant balls big time.

Miserably sighing, Faith divested herself of the shield and handed it over. The mere fact that Steve had to next tug with increasing force several times upon the shield's rim in his grip to ultimately make her let go was Faith just making sure this wasn't gonna fall to the alley floor. Well, that was her story, and she was sticking to it.

"Thank you," politely said Steve, who had an abrupt memory of something mentioned several days ago which made him finish his acknowledgement with an uncertain quote of, "Nátt Hunter?"

A startled Faith promptly peered through the demonic blood drops trickling down her forehead at him. "We haven't been called that for a helluva long time. Where'd ya hear it?"

"Ah, from someone I think would like to meet you. Do you know how to ride a motorcycle? Mine's parked out in the street and if you don't have anywhere closer to clean up, I can take you to a place with showers and spare clothes."

Faith instantly made a series of mental calculations. These involved just where to put her hands to hold onto the biker with those ripped abs during their motorcycle trip and how difficult it'd next be to coax this same someone into being her newest shower buddy.

The fact that she'd just been named as a Slayer by an archaic term that hadn't been used since way before Leif Erikson discovered America was a far distant third in these salacious thoughts.

"Sounds wicked good to me. I'm Faith, by the way."

"Steve."


The next morning, Tony, Natasha, and Clint were at breakfast taken from the buffet table set against the wall of the dining nook in Avengers Tower. Thor himself was busily munching through a plate piled high with nothing but frosted cinnamon Pop-Tarts at their own table when they all heard the soft padding of footsteps coming down the corridor.

A brunette woman sauntered into the dining nook, her dark eyes lighting up at the sight of all the grub laid out on the buffet table. Picking up entire trays of scrambled eggs, buttered toast, bacon strips and other foodstuffs to stack them high onto one arm, the woman also snagged a full coffeepot with the other arm.

The Avengers sat there totally stock-still: forks frozen while bringing sustenance to their lips for Clint and Natasha, Tony holding his coffee cup without the slightest quiver, and Thor's unmoving cheeks bulging with junk pastries.

Cheerfully calling over her shoulder as she departed with her load of delicious chow, the woman said, "Steve won't be down for a coupla more hours. We're gonna be polishin' his shield spotless, so introductions will just haveta wait 'til then, 'kay?"

After that, this stark-naked lady turned the corner of the dining nook out into the corridor, her superb nude body vanishing from the sight from all there except for Tony.

His position at the end of the table meant Tony could still watch one of the finest pairs of unclothed female buttocks he'd ever seen walk away.

Though, the further that strange woman went up the corridor, the further Tony had to lean over in the table seat to keep that glorious sight into view. It naturally culminated with Tony falling out of his chair with an accompanying crashing noise, the shattering of a coffee cup, and a very pained yelp of someone getting hot coffee all over his face.

This also produced a very amused feminine snicker from the corridor easily heard by the other Avengers.