It All Started In A McDonald's...

wtf am i even doing here?

And so, I learned the fascinating ways of the doorbell. Loki and I proved to be a match when it came to our technology knowledge because, even though he did his best to explain how the security around this place worked, he had no clue. Clearly, I did in fact know how to use a doorbell, living in an apartment, and I understood that kind of thing, and even Loki could get that part. In the end, we both agreed to just leave manning the security to the professionals. Besides, Loki said most of the security stuff (which he was only telling me because Stark said he had to) was irrelevant because FRIDAY watched over everything anyway. But I felt all enlightened now.

He also taught me about A.I.'s – turned out all there was to it was they were basically a more advanced Google Assistant or Siri. Apparently there was a humanoid android here that was the result of two A.I.'s and a magical stone thing merging, but I told him to stop there. It was my first day. I didn't want my brain melting anymore than it already had.

Twelve came by and I had to remind Loki that we had to go to some group training session so I could meet the other Avengers. Most of them were there, except Stark, who was apparently exempt from training and Bucky, since he was on patrol.

Ah, patrol. Another thing Loki had taught me about was the different ranks of Avengers. There was a Leader and a Deputy Leader – Rogers and Stark – who were in charge of different aspects of the Avengers. There were Underage Avengers, who were any Avengers under the age of eighteen – Spider-Man was the only one of these. There was the newly created rank of Avenger Protégé – me! – which basically meant I wasn't an Avenger, I was just kind of, in training to be an Avenger. It meant I couldn't go anywhere without my "Mentor" (Loki) and couldn't do anything without his permission, and even then it had to be approved by Stark or Rogers. Then there were the two categories of Official Avengers – trusted and untrusted. Trusted Avengers had more perks than untrusted Avengers because they were (you guessed it) untrustworthy. Both Loki and Barnes were in this boat, but clearly, Barnes being Rogers' best mate, he was more favoured than Loki was. Apparently this was why getting Stark to allow him to mentor me had been such a big deal – either for my own safety or because I could be trained for "an immoral intent". That's what Rogers had apparently said when Stark consulted him. But anyway, both Loki and I called this theory bullshit because if he'd wanted the Avengers dead he'd have killed them. Simple as. Not made a half-hearted attempt at trashing the city. (That's what I'd said, and Loki hadn't quite met my eye, so I knew there was something he was hiding.)

But no matter. Another thing about untrusted and underage Avengers – they were instructed to do more menial jobs. As in patrol. Barnes had the morning shift (seven until three), Spider-Man took the afternoon (three until nine) and poor Loki got the long night shift (nine until seven). I was amazed the guy was even awake after hearing this. Apparently though, now I was here, I would have to do patrol as well. I could hardly do nights, so Rogers had changed the shifts so Barnes got to start earlier (five) to shorten Loki's shift, but me and him had to go on patrol during Spider-Man's shift as well. I asked Loki how the fuck he was going to cope with fourteen hours of patrol on top of training, to which he replied that he never slept and didn't need to sleep.

I couldn't imagine that. But I didn't ask why. Probably an Asgardian thing.

Now, back to training.

I'd been in the training room already today, when we'd walked in on Wilson and Rogers, but now the place was alive with energy. From the raised platform above the main part of the gym, I could look down and watch everyone and I was surprised to see that I could name basically everyone in the room – I couldn't believe that was the real-life Natasha Romanoff! It was too much to believe I was really in a room full of the most famous people on the planet. And off. One Avenger I was looking forward to meeting, however, averted my sight.