Natasha kept her comm unit switched on as she banged her fists on the restroom door. "Get out of there right now, Barton! We've gotta get to Stark Tower!" The door opened a few seconds later, and her partner came out, drying his hands on a towel. "Why?"

" She's there right now and so is Loki!" Natasha replied. She strapped on her guns and thanked god that she hadn't changed out of her suit yet. A look of confusion passed across his face, before his expression hardened just as the Captain burst into the room. "Time to go."

"We know." Natasha snapped, beyond caring if she was being rude. "Let's go get a jet."

"You can fly one?" He asked, hurrying along beside her as she marched down the hallway towards the Hangar.

"I can." Clint raised his hand.

"Got a suit?" Durak. Captain America? More like Captain Oblivious...

"Yeah."

"Suit up." Clint ran off to get his stuff while Natasha led Rogers off to the supply room to grab more weapons. She crammed in everything she could into the various holsters and hidden pockets in her suit. She saw the Captain grabbing a few guns as well, before he looked at her and nodded, signalling that he was done. She sprinted off towards the Hangar, where the Quinjets were stored and Clint joined them outside the huge doors.

A young S.H.I.E.L.D pilot stopped them right in front of the Quinjet. "You're not authorized to be here..."

Natasha was ready to tranq him if he delayed them anymore, but Clint held her back as Rogers handled the situation without much delay. The three of them got into the jet and Natasha stood by Clint's side as they took off from the Helicarrier. Once they were in the air and speeding along to Manhattan, Clint turned his head to look at her.

"How did you know?" he asked, and she noticed Rogers imperceptibly perk up his head, obviously wanting to know the answer as well. "I still had my comm connected. Stark told me before flying off." She answered. "He was the one who figured it out."

Rogers nodded his head, "We were standing outside the cell and talking, trying to decide why Loki had planned for that fiasco to happen, when Stark said something that led us both to realize what was happening. He ran off to find his suit while I came to get you."

Natasha acknowledged him with a nod of her head, too worried to say anything else. Clint laid a reassuring hand on her arm. "We'll be there before you know it." He lowered his tone so that the Captain couldn't hear. "She can handle herself. Besides, I'm pretty sure Stark's got a million security measures just in case."

She knew that Rosie would not be helpless, but Loki was dangerous and Natasha did not want to consider the possibility that he had mind-controlled her niece as well.

She had been very proud of the day when her only student had mastered the death-glare. It even managed to unnerve Natasha herself. Somehow, she found herself being intimidated by a tiny, shy kid who wasn't even sixteen yet and she didn't mind. Rosie was an amazing student and Natasha could see how much her training had helped increase the girl's confidence. The longer she spent with Rosie, the fewer nightmares and flashbacks she had about her time at the Red Room. Her dreams were now mostly happy ones, many of them memories of Clint, Laura and their kids or Rosie.

The girl had slowly made her way into Natasha's cold heart and had stayed there, giving her something to fight for other than Clint. Natasha was quite surprised at the way Stark had changed all for a teenage girl. He claimed that she needed someone sensible to look up to, not a drunk playboy who spent his money frivolously. 'She brings out the better side in both of us,' Natasha realized. 'I can't afford to lose her and neither can Stark or Rhodes. We have to get there in time, and we will, because she needs us.' There was no greater driving force than that.

She decided to try and call the girl to warn her about Loki and grabbed the communicator that was in the Quinjet. Typing in Rosie's number, she waited, hoping she would pick up. The call didn't even connect.

Shit.

Natasha typed in the number of the burner phone she'd gotten for the girl, hoping that she would pick the call.

"Tasha?" Natasha sighed in relief. She'd never been happier to hear the kid's voice.

"Where are you?"

"In my room, is anything wrong?"

"I need you to get out of there right now. There's a huge fight coming your way and I don't want you in the middle of it."

"Okay—" There was a loud clanging sound on the other side. "Uh, maybe not. Lockdown Protocol just got activated. Uncle Tony's made the shutters everything-proof, even a nuclear blast. I'm stuck here till Tony deactivates it himself or the entire building comes down."

Natasha cursed Stark and his overprotectiveness. "Try to make as little noise as possible. Hopefully, Stark will be able to get you out of there soon."

"Is he in his suit?"

"Yes. Open a link to my comm and call out for help if you need it."

"I will. Please stay safe, Auntie Tasha." She hung up.

Natasha steeled herself before the others could notice. Thankfully, Rogers had been busy checking over his ammo to hear the conversation. She had no intention of telling him about Rosie before she could trust him. For now, she had some alien butt to kick.

--------------------------

Rosie wasn't too happy about being stuck in her room, but she couldn't do anything about the situation. Deciding that she had to make the best of it, Rosie pulled out her laptop and accessed the Stark Tower CCTV cameras. 

The ones on the penthouse floor and roof had been knocked out, but the others were working. She quickly sent out a text to Tony telling him to focus on the fight and not worry about her. The lockdown protocol had been initiated and she was perfectly safe.

Hopefully. 

Rosie asked Marlene to keep an eye on the footage and tell her if anything went wrong, while she used another laptop to hack into the NYPD database and their surveillance camera feed. It took her some time, but she gained access just in time to see a storefront camera capture a video of Tony falling off the Tower and his suit saving him just in time. 

Minutes later, a bright pillar of blue light emerged from the roof of the tower and into the sky. Rosie watched in horror as a wormhole opened and hundreds of aliens began pouring out of it, carrying weapons.

Now that she had an eye on what was going on all over the city, Rosie wracked her brains for ideas on what she could do to help. The civilians had to be evacuated, but the emergency responders would see to that, so what could she do?

Nothing, she realised.

Absolutely nothing. Rosie had never felt so useless in her life. She wanted to know if Natasha and Tony were safe, so she kept an eye on the footage hoping for a glimpse of them.

There was a loud roar outside, and Rosie watched as an enormous flying creature came out of the wormhole. It looked like a cross between a whale and a caterpillar. She watched helplessly as the creature knocked into the very building whose camera's she was seeing through and the walls caved in and the ceiling buckled, debris raining down onto the people in the room.

It was an office building, so she could see all across the floor as pieces of cement and tile fell on innocent workers. It was horrifying to watch, and Rosie felt bile rising in her throat. Hitting the power button, she crawled into her bed and drew the covers tight around her, trying to forget what she had seen.

Rosie did not know how long she sat like that, shivering with fear when there was a loud rumbling noise outside, and what sounded like repulsors. Rosie shot up in bed and tried to hear if it really was Tony in his suit, when the room shook violently. Someone, or something had exploded nearby. 

She moved as fast as she could, trying to get under the desk but it was too late. The rod that was holding up the curtains around her bed was jerked loose by the quake and it fell off of its position above Rosie's bed. She felt a heavy object slamming into her head and intense pain before everything went black.

--------------------------

Bruce had chosen to stay behind while the rest of the team went to get shwarma. Tony had disappeared a few minutes ago, and the others had left him the task of finding and informing the man where they had gone. A sudden voice made him jump. "Dr. Banner? Mr. Stark wishes to speak to you. Shall I put him through?"

"W-who's there?" Bruce shifted uneasily, looking around for anyone else.

"My name is J.A.R.V.I.S, I am the Tower's resident AI. Mr. Stark says that the matter is urgent. Shall I accept the call?"

Of course the man had an AI installed everywhere in the Tower. "Accept the call, J.A.R.V.I.S." Bruce said, feeling like an idiot when he spoke to thin air.

"Hey Banner? Is one of your PhDs a medical one?" That was unexpected. Tony sounded quite worried as well.

"No."

"Do you know atleast some basic first aid?"

"Yes, Tony. Why are you asking?"

"I have someone who needs help, but the Medbay staff have all left to help out at the other hospitals. Do you think you can have a look at her?"

"Uh, ok. Where is the Medbay?" She? Who would Tony be that worried about? He'd said that his girlfriend was not in New York, so who was this 'she'?

"J.A.R.V.I.S, show Dr. Banner to the Medical Room in the Living Area. Be as fast as you can, please." He was pleading? This was something serious. Bruce noticed a line of lights illuminating a specific corridor. He began hurrying along the corridor.

"I'm on my way."

Thankfully, Bruce was on the floor Tony had given to the Avengers, which was somewhere in the high 80's and wasn't too far from the medical room. He came into the room, panting slightly. "Who is it?" he asked.

Tony stepped aside to show a young girl, who seemed to be in her early teens. She was unconscious, and he could see the half-dried blood in her hair. Something had obviously hit her in the head. Bruce hurried over to her and examined her head. "Do you know what hit her?" he inquired, pulling on his gloves.

"The rod that was used to hold up the curtains around her bed. I don't know how long ago this happened." He sank into a chair, looking very worried. Her bed? She lived in the Tower?

Deciding to confront Tony after bandaging the girl's injury, Bruce gently parted her hair to find the cut on her head. It hadn't gone very deep, and was just below her hairline, meaning he wouldn't even need to cut her hair to bandage it. Taking advantage of her unconsciousness, he slowly cleaned the cut with antiseptic and wrapped it up neatly.

He turned to Tony, "Don't worry, she'll be fine. It doesn't even need stitches. She might have a minor concussion, but I'm quite sure she'll be fine within a week. Though I must say-"

"You want to know who she is." Tony sighed, and Bruce felt guilty for asking. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Tony cut him off. "I was looking forward to bringing you over to meet her, but I never imagined that your first encounter would be like this. This is Rosie. She's Rhodey's Goddaughter, but he adopted her about two years ago after an incident with her biological father. Sweetest kid you'll ever meet. She's even got Romanoff wrapped around her finger."

Bruce's eyes widened. "Romanoff as in-"

"Black Widow, A.K.A. Superspy-assassin who has no feelings? Yeah, that's her Auntie Tasha."

Bruce was quite surprised when he heard that. She must be quite special to get that close to Natasha. He wondered how she'd come to live with Tony and Colonel Rhodes at the Tower, but from the way the genius scowled when he mentioned her father, it was obviously a touchy topic. Instead, he went for, "Why were you looking forward to the two of us meeting?"

The other man laughed, "She's a fan of yours. Quite in awe of your seven PhD's, keeps telling me how impressive it is, and how she would love some pointers. She's quite appreciative of your volunteer work in India as well. I figured that you'd like to talk to her. I.Q higher than mine, eidetic memory, crazy good computer skills and one heck of a killer glare. Rhodey's been calling her Mini Romanoff and I can't help but agree."

Bruce had no idea what to think of that. He'd never heard of a kid before who wanted to meet him for his academic achievements and it boosted his self-confidence quite a lot. "Does she go to school?" he asked, curious to know how they had managed to keep her away from the media.

The reply he got was, "She used to. The kid managed to finish the whole of high school in one year and now she's at MIT. Just a couple of months shy of beating my record as the youngest ever kid there."

MIT? She must be brilliant, if Tony was singing her praises so much. Bruce had gathered from the time he'd spent with the billionaire that he wasn't the type to lie or give anyone more credit than was due. Bruce couldn't wait to officially meet her when she was fully awake. "I guess you want me to keep her presence a secret from the team, right?" He asked.

"Actually, only Rogers and Thor don't know about her yet. But yeah, I would appreciate it it you didn't tell them. She's quite reserved and is terrified of the spotlight. We're trying to keep her a secret from the media till she turns eighteen, at the least. She's been training with the best of S.H.I.E.L.D. for about two years, and can give Romanoff a run for her money, but Rhodey and I aren't too keen on letting everyone know that she exists. I hope you understand."

"I do. Besides, I'd never put a kid in danger if I can help it." Bruce smiled at Tony. "I look forward to meeting her when she's better. I think I'll go crash in that room you gave me. Call if you need any help." He shook the man's hand and left. As Bruce was guided back to his room by a tiny robot, he pondered over Tony's offer to move into the Tower with him.

He didn't want to hurt anyone if he turned into the Hulk, and he knew that the property damage would be astronomical if the other guy stampeded around the Tower. Now that he'd seen Rosie, Bruce was even more hesitant to accept the offer, seeing that she'd be at a much greater risk if he lived with them.

Bruce had understood Tony's silent message. He'd told him his biggest secret to show that he trusted him and meant no harm. He just wasn't too sure if that sentiment would remain if the other guy got loose. Dropping onto his bed, Bruce enjoyed the fluffiness, and thought just before he drifted off - Maybe he could stay. Just for a few days... It's been ages since he was able to do any proper research. Maybe he could help with something Stark Industries is working on and repay Tony's kindness?