From the moment Jane woke her, rambling excitedly about an emergency consulting gig at some fancy observatory in Norway, Darcy had been suspicious. She knew Norway was like…eight time zones away, but since they were the ones doing the calling, you'd think they would've waited until a reasonable hour in New Mexico.

Really, how many astrophysics emergencies required 3 AM calls and chartered, private jets? Call her conspiracy nut, but she thought the whole thing reeked of eau de S.H.I.E.L.D..

She was proven right when news of an alien army invading New York broke and every news outlet in the world lost their minds. The invasion repelled by a team of…well, Darcy wasn't sure who they were, but she recognized Iron Man, a dude in a Captain America costume, the Hulk and Thor.

Soon after the fight ended, the news started calling them The Avengers.

Needless to say, Jane was pissed at the whole situation and Darcy found herself on her second transatlantic flight in a matter of days as they tried to get to New York. By the time they landed in Newark (LaGuardia was barely functioning), Darcy was seriously jetlagged and cranky while Jane was close to totally freaking out. S.H.I.E.L.D had been giving them the runaround and there had been a close call with the Air Marshal (apparently Jane's behavior was scaring the other passengers), so discovering that Coulson had been wounded in action only riled her further.

A beleaguered underling finally gave them a number where they could reach Tony Stark (Iron Man!) who had fought beside Thor. When Jane called, a woman answered and, after brief conversation, told them to come to Stark Tower.

A truly staggering number of media types seemed to have formed a phalanx around the base of the tower, just waiting to shove cameras and microphones at the billionaire should he choose to emerge. Elbowing their way through the crowd, they received more than a few nasty looks and comments.

When they reached the front of the mob, a door opened and a dark-haired man with a broad, pleasant face stepped out and strode briskly toward them. The reporters lost their collective shit upon seeing him, screaming, shoving and generally making Darcy want to use her tazer.

The man, who was wearing a suit out of Reservoir Dogs, glared at the reporters and nodded to Jane and Darcy herself. "Ms. Potts asked me to show you in," he offered, waving them forward.

Some of the more aggressive vultures took that as permission to follow, but the man cut them off before they'd gotten more than a few feet. "No!" he barked, glowering and waving a finger. "You know the drill. Stay on public property or I swear, I will find the biggest hose available and go crowd control on all your asses. You know I'll do it!"

Darcy was surprised to see the crowd creep back out onto the sidewalk, apparently heeding his threat. Once the scene was secure, he turned back to herd them into the lobby, past a lone doorman. "Sorry about the mob," he said, placing his hand on the digital scanner beside the elevator. "Harold Hogan, chauffeur/bodyguard. You can call me Happy."

They stepped onto the elevator, which shuddered then began a rapid ascent. Some of the lights on the ceiling panel flickered and went out and Darcy asked, "Uh, is this safe? Cuz I really don't feel like plummeting to my death today."

Happy gave her nod. "Sure. This left didn't suffer any structural damage."

Not to be deterred from her single-minded search, Jane asked, "We were told Mr. Stark could tell me where Thor is. Do you know?"

He shook his head. "Sorry. Haven't seen him."

Several tense seconds later, the elevator shook to a stop and let out a sickly sounding DING before the doors rolled open…halfway open.

Giving the door shake, Happy said, "Hey JARVIS, I thought you said this one was running okay."

Unsure who he was speaking to, Darcy jumped when a cultured British voice seemed to emerge from the walls. "My apologies, Mr. Hogan. The repairs in progress have caused a few minor glitches to cascade into other functional systems. I assure you, the lift is perfectly safe."

"We know you're doing your best JARVIS," a voice from beyond the elevator said and, when the doors heaved the rest of the way open, a tall, smiling redhead nodded to Hogan. "Thank you Happy."

He nodded and pointed down. "I'm gonna go keep an eye on the situation downstairs."

She chuckled and, as soon as Jane and Darcy exited the elevator, he was gone. "Dr. Foster, I'm Virginia Potts. We spoke on the phone."

"Jane," Jane replied, taking the offered hand. "And this is Darcy Lewis, my assistant."

"Hey."

"Hello," Ms. Potts shook her hand as well and, as she led them further into the huge apartment, continued, "Please, call me Pepper. Just about everyone does. Natasha, Steve, this is Jane and this is Darcy."

They entered a sitting room to find two people perched on couches. The woman, another stunning redhead (though this one looked like she'd recently gone head to head with Godzilla), turned to regard them with sharp eyes and a bland expression while the man scrambled to his feet.

Well, hello gorgeous.

Tall, blonde and built was clearly the dude who'd been running around in the Captain America costume and, from what Darcy could recall from her class on propaganda, they done a good job in picking someone who looked the part. "Good morning, ladies," he said politely. "Nice to meet you both."

Even the clothes he was wearing, which reminded her unfortunately of her great-grandfather Earl, did not detract from how smoking hot the man was and that was something of a miracle. "The pleasures mutual," Darcy assured him and allowed herself to be seated on the sofa with Jane.

Before Jane could begin her Thor related interrogation, Pepper took charge of the room. "Yesterday, after the fighting concluded, Thor took Loki back to Asgard. Tony did indicate that Thor now thinks Hemidall will be able to repair the Bifrost in short order, thanks to a recovered piece of tech."

"He left?" Jane asked sadly. "Without even seeing me?"

Whenever Jane got that look on her face, Darcy wanted to kick whoever it caused it. Seriously, upsetting Jane was like kicking a tiny bunny. Hot Steve seemed to be having a similar reaction, as he earnestly assured her, "He surely wanted to Miss, but from the moment he arrived, we really didn't get much down time."

Natasha inclined her head in agreement and Jane contemplated that thought, leaving Darcy to fill the silence. "So, there's like 1 billion camera phone videos gone viral showing the battle. How'd you wind up is Captain America 2.0? Not that you don't look the part, but wow, big shoes to fill."

Steve seemed to take a moment to consider her words, a slightly befuddled look crossing his face. "I…what?...Can I…."

"They were cleared and vetted after New Mexico," Natasha offered, sitting back and observing everyone with bright eyes.

With a nod of thanks to her, Steve continued, "I'm Steve Rogers. Captain America. A couple months back, a team pulled me out of the ice in the Arctic."

Darcy blinked. "Are you fucking with me?"

He blushed, looking startled an embarrassed. "No, Miss, I'm not."

"He's THE Captain America," Natasha confirmed in an even tone.

Somehow, Darcy got the impression that the redhead was enjoying their sudden astonished silence, though her expression never wavered.

Any further revelations or questions (oh, she had so many questions) were forestalled by Tony (oh, hello sexy walking wounded) Stark's arrival, a kerfluffle over Coulson's present status and the arrival of yet another gorgeous (though bruised) guy, via skyscraper window.

When they poured out of the building (joined by Dr. Bruce Banner aka The Hulk aka adorable, hot, rumpled guy), they found that Happy (probably on Stark's orders) had driven a huge ass car right up to the door of the building as to avoid the paparazzi. Darcy couldn't resist giving them a cheeky wave through the window.

Instead of heading toward Midtown (where Darcy assumed all the government type buildings lived), Stark's driver took them to the waterfront. "What, does S.H.I.E.L.D. have some kind of secret base hidden under an abandoned tuna cannery?"

"Nah," Clint (hot window guy) said, then tossed a stiff nod towards the water. "Look."

A freaking enormous…aircraft carrier thing was floating lazily on the Hudson, close enough to shore that she could see people running around on the deck. An entire dock had been blocked off, but several official looking vans were passing a checkpoint, so they got in line.

Of course, unlike the vans, they earned glares, in order to get lost and lots of guns pointed menacingly at them…at least until Natasha poked her head out the window.

Then they were waved through.

It was reassuring to know that even large, heavily armed government thugs found Natasha terrifying. Between her and Tony's imperious blustering, they found their way to a few boats, which were being used to ferry personnel back and forth from the big ship. That was when Pepper and Steve took over, and impressive double-team of icy professionalism and earnest innocence that practically demanded everyone listen to them and obey.

The poli-sci major in Darcy thought they'd be an unbeatable team if they ever chose to run for government office.

Aboard the boat heading out to the ship, a cluster of tech types were giving them all nervous side glances, though the grizzled looking older man piloting simply nodded to each of them and muttered, through teeth clenched around the cigar, "Alien invasion. That's a whole new kind of fucked up, huh?"

In the light of day, the bruises on Tony, Natasha and Clint looked so much angrier and Steve and Bruce just seemed tired… emotionally, if not physically. Idly, Darcy wondered how many of them were suffering from repressed PTSD and, if they were, what could be done?

She had a feeling the world as everyone knew it had changed irrevocably.

They could only hope it was for the better.

Comments, pretty please?