Together We Stand...

Chapter 10

        The awkward silence that had fallen over all of us as we ate the shawarma was killing me. Everyone had almost completely finished their food, and no one had said anything. The workers who were cleaning up the damage would occasionally look at us in awe, but they remained quiet as well. I couldn't take this any longer.

        "So... the Avengers..." Everyone looked at me. "I guess that's a thing that's happening now." They all glanced around at each other and I sighed. "Look, we're a group of very different people. Our personalities clash, we have different pasts, and I'm a twelve year old girl they're expecting to save the world. But we're a family now, so no matter our differences, we have to be there for each other. I need you all to be able to do that." A smile spread across Thor's face. "What?"

        "The child would make an excellent leader," he declared. "You are very wise beyond your years." I shrugged.

        "Well, I am pushing five hundred."

        "It's still creepy that you're older than your dad," Stark muttered.

        "Older and wiser." My father looked up from his food.

        "Hold on, what?" I laughed and looked around at all of the faces sitting at the table.

        "I guess since we're all a family, I need to know what you all want me to call you."

        "You can call us all by our names, kiddo." Natasha's smile made me feel safe. "There's nothing wrong with that."

        "I just... didn't want to be disrespectful." Stark rolled his eyes.

        "You've clearly been spending too much time with Capsicle." Everyone laughed and I relaxed in the chair. We all talked for a little while longer, then headed back to Stark Tower to get cleaned up and changed, ready to all head home. My dad and I had a pretty long drive, with DC being six hours away, but it would be worth it. I was ready for a break. Thor had been handed Loki and the Tesseract to take back to Asgard. The god kept his gaze on me the whole time, the look on his face mixing sad and pensive, with a slight touch of a threat.

        "Whenever your world needs me, I will be called back." I nodded.

        "Thanks for everything, Thor. Good luck dealing with that one." I nodded to Loki and he smiled.

        "Farewell, Lady Elanor. Take good care of these people."

        "You got it, man." A multi-colored beam came down from the sky, and when the light faded, Loki and Thor were gone.

        "Well, I guess this is it for a while." Stark looked around at everyone. "Oh, wait, I have something for Baby Rogers." He opened the door of his car and pulled out a brown box. "Open it when you get home. Hopefully you won't be so lonely when your dad goes away with this." I smiled and reached up to hug him.

        "Thanks, Tony." He looked down at me and ruffled my hair.

        "You ready to go?" I nodded and climbed onto my father's bike, grabbed on so that I wouldn't fall.

        "Don't stray too far, everyone. We'll see you soon."

        My father woke me up as soon as we pulled into the apartment. It was dark out and I could feel my stomach rumbling. My legs were incredibly sore and I found myself too tired to get up, so my father picked me up and carried me in. I laid there for a moment after he set me down on my bed, then leaned over and opened the brown box. Inside, I felt something cold and metallic, but I couldn't see it because it was so dark in here. I focused on the light switch to turn on my lamps and found a smile stretch onto my face. In my hands sat a robotic raven, much like the one I vaguely remembered having back before I had been reawoken. I eagerly switched it on and the eyes lit up red before it flew out of my hands and rested on my dresser, scanning me.

        "Hello, Elanor Margaret Rogers. I am D.M.I.T.R.I, your assistant." I smiled. He had the same name.

        "It's nice to meet you, D.M.I.T.R.I. Welcome home." I smiled and laid back on my bed.

        The world might fall again. Loki certainly wasn't the only one that wanted to kill us or take over the Earth. But now, Earth had people defending it whenever they called us. We were a strange family, spread out over all different places, and none of us were even close to being blood related, but we were family. We were here to help the Earth and each other.

        We are the Avengers.