Author's note: Hey guys, here's chapter sixteen, still struggling for a title for this (help me pls) and trying to keep writing swiftly to get this done before exams! Knowing me I'll just keep writing until there are a hundred chapters and my fingers fall off though... hope you enjoy, leave a comment! :)

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Before you knew it, it was the week later and a public induction 'ceremony' (as Tony kept calling it) had been planned, and it was time to put on the outfit Nat and Pepper had bought for you on that shopping trip which seemed so long ago, specifically for this purpose. It was smart enough to show that you were trying, but casual enough that it also looked like you weren't trying too hard. Perfect. The minute it was announced to the public it seemed as though a race had started to get to the event as quickly as possible.

"I have a question." you asked Tony as you leant against the counter in the kitchen, watching him try to make at least four phone calls at the same time.

"I have time to answer one question." he answered distractedly.

"Why is this all so rushed? Is there a time limit to this procedure or something?"

"No. I'll be straight with you: this gives your stalkers less time to plan an ambush. The sooner we get there and back, the better." Tony told you, and then started talking quickly into his phone about something completely different.

Good to know. You'd been slightly nervous before, having only given a small thought to the fact that your stalkers might be watching, but now Tony had said it... it felt very real and daunting.

"I have another question." you stated, but Tony waved you away and plugged his free ear with a finger. Well, that wasn't a no. You walked out of the living area and down the corridor to stop outside Loki's door. You'd never been brave enough to knock before. Deciding to try a different tactic first, you let down the wall around your mind (noticing only then how tense you'd been) and reached out for him in your mind... to find nothing. He wasn't letting you in. Things had been... distant this past week. You still hadn't entirely forgiven him for not trusting you enough to tell you that he had his magic back.

You had to knock.

Raising your fist, you were about to knock when the door swung open and Loki appeared, looking less than happy.

"What do you want?"

You lowered your fist, trying to decide what to say.

"You want me to come and watch your initiation ceremony. Do you really think Stark will let me out of the Tower?" he asked sarcastically.

"Let me speak..."

"Oh and, what's that? You're sorry for being rude and ungrateful?"

"I-"

"Sh, there's more..." he told you, raising a hand and pretending to frown in concentration.

You exhaled heavily and turned to walk back down the corridor, unamused by his antics. Trying to put the wall back up around your mind was harder this time, and gave you more of a headache.

"Y/N, wait – I'm sorry." Loki said from behind you; you stopped short and rolled your eyes, turning back around to see him leaning out of the door frame.

"I get if you don't want to come. It's fine." you shrugged.

"I do. But you understand that means me sneaking out invisible and getting back here with none of them realising, don't you?" he asked. You nodded.

"I'm sure you're more than capable." you challenged, raising an eyebrow as you walked back towards him.

"How's your leg?" he responded, evidently reminding you exactly what he was capable of.

"Good as new. So, will you be there?" you asked.

"I'm rather confused as to why you want me there in the first place, but yes, I will be there." Loki responded.

"Moral support I guess." you smiled, consolidating the wall around your mind as you spoke, praying that he didn't realise what you were doing as his eyes swept your face.

"Y/N Y/L/N, we meet at last."

You and Loki turned to the source of the voice, and you blanched as you saw Nick Fury stood not five metres away from you.

"Fury! What are you doing here?" Tony's voice emanated from behind you, and you stepped away from Loki. Tony was still mad about the broken legs; you decided not to push it.

"Good luck." Loki said as he stepped back into his room, evidently wishing to avoid conflict.

"...wanted to meet the newest recruit before initiation. You don't look like much, do you?"

Was this guy for real? You turned your eyes purple and held up two hands shrouded in your mist.

"Big deal, glowing eyes. What do you actually do?"

You smiled. Oh, he shouldn't have asked that. Letting down the wall around your mind, you could hear Loki telling you in your mind to do what you had already been planning on doing, and smiled broadly.

"What are you smirking for? I asked you what you could-"

You walked up close to Fury, the scary looking man, and focused hard on his one eye which wasn't covered by an eye-patch; he stopped talking abruptly.

"Y/N, what are you...?" Tony asked, seemingly stumped.

Barely hearing him, you smiled as you were able tap into Fury's thoughts easily enough, and the situation became even better when you uncovered what it was you had been thinking about.

"You can't wait for the day to be over. You thought it was going to be fairly relaxed until my initiation was announced and you've had to come out here to oversee it. You couldn't care less about me being in danger, you just want it over quickly so that you can get home. You think I'm weak and vulnerable but your opinion is changing fast."

"Y/N..." Tony's voice was of little concern to you right now, you were enjoying your moment.

"Shall I go on? How about what you were planning on doing when the day is finally over, what was the plan... a nice bubble bath? And that book you've been wanting to get back to... Love on the Rocks?"

"That's enough. Very clever Y/N. See you in twenty minutes." Fury said, striding back off down the corridor. Tony was staring at you.

You could practically hear Loki smiling.

Very impressive. Well done.

I learnt from the best.

"That was brave." Tony commented.

"Thank you, shall we get going?" you asked, gesturing towards the elevator.

Happy was waiting for you and Tony outside the lobby and you ran to the car holding your coats above your heads; it was raining hard.

The journey didn't take long, and ten minutes later you were stood in the wings of a venue which was much bigger than you'd expected, with a lot more people than you'd hoped for. At least the team were all here, and Loki... probably.

"Here kid, put this in." Tony said, approaching you with an earpiece.

"Oh, thanks. Why?"

"Just in case. We won't use them, I promise. It will be fine."

Why did you have to wear an earpiece then? It wasn't the most reassuring gesture, but better safe than sorry you supposed.

Too soon, your name was being announced, and Tony was accompanying you onto the stage among rapturous applause. There were so many people here... for you. Nick Fury was there, plastering on an obviously false smile as he addressed the crowds, talking about you. Your eyes searched the crowd, unable to believe that all of these people knew you and were here to support you as you became part of the most famous group of people to ever live. Suddenly everything felt like, a lot.

Hey.

Loki.

Where are you?

To your left, blonde hair, good looking.

You had a quick glance, and sure enough there was a blonde handsome guy leaning nonchalantly against the wall, looking at you.

Hm. Think I preferred Bertrand actually.

You saw him smile at that, and had to contain a grin of your own.

Concentrate.

All in all the ceremony was turning out to be a bore, so far it had just been Fury and Tony talking, and then you were called forward to swear an oath. There was a large cheer as you were declared an Avenger, and you thanked everyone for coming when Tony urged you to say a few words. Then Fury said that there was time for a few questions, which you were not prepared for. Luckily they were fairly easy ("what's it like living with Tony Stark?"), and you were just starting to feel confident, even managing to get a laugh out of your audience, when your earpiece crackled into action.

Your heart dropped.

"We have a problem. Five blocks away, it's too close to say no. Police are at least another five minutes away." Nat's voice was urgent.

Tony's hand was on your shoulder as he guided you from the stage, to the audible annoyance of your audience.

Y/N? What's going on?

"Suspected terrorist attack. They reckon there's a bomb in this block of flats, there might be more." Nat informed you as the rest of the team gathered in the wings, most of them suited up.

"Move, now." Tony ordered; you ran to the nearest fire exit and spilled on to the street outside. Tony's suit came flying down to greet you and he got into it immediately, barking orders at the rest of you.

Y/N, talk to me.

There's a mission, five blocks away.

"I can carry two of you, the rest of you get there as fast as you can." Tony said, offering two of his arms out. Bucky and Clint stepped forward; Thor was gone in a flash having wielded Mjolnir and Steve was already running, alongside Bruce who was already Hulk. Nat pulled you towards a motorbike parked next to the curb; in less than a minute she'd started it up with no key, driven it (with you holding on to her for dear life) five blocks and delivered you both with no injuries. You made a mental note to learn how to ride a motorbike.

"Which of block flats is it?" you asked, realising where you were with a sudden horrible flash of déjà vu.

"That one." Tony said, pointing briefly and then launching into the plan of action.

"That's my old block of flats. I lived here." you said, cutting over Tony. "Is this to do with...?"

There was a second of silence.

"Right now we need to get everyone out of these buildings, we'll worry about that later. Y/N, stay near." Tony said, before numerous police cars screeched to a halt on the road, sirens blaring, followed by fire engines. Then bomb disposal.

"They're saying focus on this one first, there may be others." Tony told you all, gesturing again to your block of flats.

"Let's go, be careful."

You stayed outside with Nat and Clint and get all of the civilians away from the flats and outside the perimeter which was already being set up by the police, the rest of the team went into the block of flats tasked with getting people out; Tony had already started tracking the bomb, despite the fact that literal bomb disposal was present. Luckily most people in the flats seemed to hear the police announcements through the megaphones and were swiftly exiting the buildings, clutching anything they could carry, looking terrified.

"It's almost mid-day, with any luck most people will be out on a Saturday afternoon." You heard Bucky say through your earpiece.

"They can't miss us knocking and that racket the police are making outside." Steve answered.

"What's going on? Why do we have to leave?" people were asking questions left right and centre as you, Nat, Clint and around twenty police officers herded them away from the potential danger and did your best to reassure them. The contents of three blocks of flats were spilling on to the streets, hundreds of people, all too close to the danger, they were moving so slowly.

Suddenly there was a commotion from behind you, and you turned around to see Nat pushing past a police officer to climb on to the roof of a police car with a megaphone.

"There is an active bomb in one of these buildings, please get as far away as you can as quickly as possible. Thanks."

Chaos reigned. At least the civilians were moving faster now, but there was also panic; people were pushing and shoving to get away as swiftly as possible.

"Nat, that was stupid."

"No it wasn't, look, they're moving!"

"I've found the bomb... it's about to go off." Tony informed you all, sounding oddly calm for a man stood next to a bomb which was about to explode.

"How long Tony?"

"Fifteen, fourteen... Cap, I'd get out of here if I were you." he said, now sounding vaguely panicked.

"How many people are still in here?"

"It's impossible to tell, there might still be people on the top floor, the whole building is coming down the minute it goes off."

You listened to this in horror from your position a hundred metres away, watching people still emerging from the building Tony had gone into. There had to be something...

"Ten, nine..."

Tony now flew from the building in his suit, flying up to check for people in the windows.

"There are still people in here!"

"I can hold it." you said, thinking out loud to the team, stepping back into the perimeter tentatively, watching the steady stream of people still emerging from the building.

"Y/N, don't be stupid." Steve panted through your earpiece; you watched for him to reappear out of the building with the others, but he didn't. It had started to rain.

"Where are you guys?!" Tony yelled, still scouring the windows.

"It's too dangerous to go down any further if that bomb is about to exp-"

You were only about twenty metres away when the bomb went off, having timed your arrival from Tony's earlier countdown. It went off right as you said zero in your head, and threw up a shield of mist around you. That didn't stop you from getting knocked back at least five meters, and the sheer noise of the explosion made your head spin. There was no time to think about the fact that your hearing was obscured by a loud ringing noise, muffling the yells and screams of civilians behind you and the shouts of your team-mates through your earpiece, you had a building to hold up.

You staggered to your feet and ran straight into the wreckage which the bomb had caused, hearing the building groaning and beginning to collapse already. Ignoring the yells from the team and ripping your earpiece out, you closed your eyes and concentrated, planting your feet firmly beneath you.

You had to get this right.