It was a Tuesday when the Bifrost device Tony and Bruce had built was finally declared usable by Thor. It was sunny, and hot out, but none of the Avengers or SHIELD wanted to delay any longer. It had already been just over a week of standing around, antsy, waiting for the sleepless geniuses to find a way around the laws of physics one more time. But eventually, they did it, and with a manic gleam in his eye Tony had declared himself king of the universe for being such a genius. After a sidelong glance, he graciously dubbed Bruce 'the prince consort, or something, fuck it, how do monarchies even work?' Bruce had sighed the sigh of the long-suffering. Leah had smacked him.

Anyway, it was a hot Tuesday and SHIELD had sectioned off a corner of Central Park that was miraculously undamaged. Visible across the somewhat open space were the still rubble-clogged streets and the workers that swarmed over them diligently—in between the taxis that just refused to give up. SHIELD had made every effort to keep people back, but these were New Yorkers, and there was a curious crowd nonetheless.

Leah Smith had her leather-clad arms folded, eyes narrowed as she watched the people on the other side of the cordon. On her right was Tony Stark, on her left, Steve Rogers. Tony was making final checks to the Bifrost beam ("It's a fucking transporter, Bruce, we call it a beam, please, please let the sci fi nerd in me have this,") while Steve just stood there, looking anticipatory. Thor and Loki had yet to arrive—SHIELD had refused to put all their superheroes in one place until absolutely necessary when it was fairly easy to find out that today was the day. Leah could just see the irritation rolling off Agent Hill.

Leah had just opened her mouth to complain about gods obviously running on a different clock when there was the noise of the armored trucks SHIELD so loved. All of the present Avengers turned to see a contingent of no less than twenty fully armed agents fan out across the perimeter. Thor emerged from the back door of the black, windowless van, towing his bound and muzzled adoptive brother behind him like a dog on a leash. Leah snorted at the thought, smothering it when those icy green eyes turned on her. She met his eyes evenly, her face betraying nothing, but still his eyes narrowed in what was likely a smirk.

Almost as one, the heroes moved forward. Bruce and Tony delicately maneuvered the Tesseract into place within the device, and Tony smirked in victory when it lit up blue all over. Leah found herself staring at the thing, and it was almost physically painful to tear her eyes away—at least until she caught both Thor and Loki looking at her intently. Then it was pretty damn easy and she folded her arms again.

The humans stepped back, Tony's eyes obsessively checking the casing for any faults. Thor nodded to them all, giving Leah an appraising look. The two had talked for a while after her first Loki-watching shift had ended. She found she liked the god a lot more than she originally would have anticipated—she felt more comfortable around him period, with the constant feedback of a crackling buzz under his skin. But he told her stories, too, while she was bored and sitting in the lab, and he was hovering, waiting for Tony and Bruce to finish the transporter. When she asked, he told her about the rainbow bridge—something she still sniggered at—and the golden castles of Asgard. Unlike Steve, Thor had apparently taken bare moments to get over the shock of their age, and their powers were so complementary it would be impossible to ignore each other for long.

But now, the golden god nodded at her, then the Captain, and finally hesitantly offered the other end of the transporter to Loki. The muzzled god looked at his adopted brother, glanced at the crowd out of the corner of his eye, and after a long, tense moment, grasped the opposite handle. The closely watching agents and superheroes breathed a sigh of relief—technically, there was a contingency plan if Loki hadn't wanted to leave (technically, there were about thirty—this was SHIELD, after all), but everything was so much easier when a prisoner was cooperative. There was a flicker of bright blue light, and Leah swallowed, feeling a gut-wrenching tug and just barely managing not to react to it. A fluctuating beam of light consumed the spot where Thor and Loki had stood moments before, and then in another blink they were gone, and a circle of people were left staring at the sky.

It felt like there was a damn hole punched through her chest. Leah inhaled, blinking rapidly, scrambling to regain control. But she adopted the same policy she had established just as Tony Stark jerked back to life with a shower of blue sparks—ignore the hell out of it. She'd think about it later. Maybe. (Probably not.) Right now, she had to figure out where the hell she was going.

Leah had only had the one bag when SHIELD—or, rather, Cap—had picked her up, and she hadn't seen it after the quinjet. She assumed it had been thoroughly searched and probably destroyed by SHIELD, since no one had even offered to return it. It was kind of unfortunate—there had been at least one really great lighter in there, and an extra pair of pants she was fond of. But other than that, there had been a few changes of clothes, the most recent shitty forged passport, and a few hundred dollars. Those, Leah could get anywhere. Right now, though, she had only the clothes on her back and the uniform Tony had given her. She'd be free as a bird if it wasn't for the newfound mound of data she had given SHIELD. Leah would be surprised if she could sneeze from now on without them knowing.

And, somehow...she was okay with that. This was worth it. These people—this city was worth it.

It did leave her in somewhat of a snit, though. There was no way she was going back to SHIELD HQ or the damaged Helicarrier for the foreseeable future—it would be as good as giving consent for boring things like training and certification and documentation. And that just wouldn't do. Leah supposed she could go back to the streets—it wasn't like she was hard up for cash. All she had to do was act natural at an ATM, brush her fingers against it once or twice, and she'd get all she needed. Now that she was here, she probably wouldn't leave New York—that counted as 'available' to SHIELD, right? Eh, right. Leah vaguely registered her teammates moving around her—Steve was walking towards Tony with a sheepish look, while Natasha and Clint headed towards a car, and Bruce looked just a little more at home in his own skin. But Leah just stood there, arms folded tightly and eyes narrowed at the scuffed and slightly scorched spot the Tesseract had inhabited a minute before. Streets it was, she mused. Who knows, maybe she'd even get a job. Become a productive member of society, and all that, stimulate the economy, blah blah blah...

...God. She was boring herself just thinking about it. Leah sighed, blinked up at the sky, and turned to vanish into the crowd like she always did—

"Hey, kid!"

...or...not. There was only one person who called her kid.

Leah turned, frowning, only to be faced with a cherry red convertible. Tony had one arm over the driver's side, grinning at her through his tinted sunglasses. Bruce was half-smiling behind him, clutching his small duffel bag something like a lifeline, but the tightness around his eyes was finally seeming to ease. But she didn't understand, so she just raised an eyebrow and waited.

Tony stared at her. He cocked his head forward to look at her over the sunglasses, eyebrows drawn down. "Well?" he said impatiently. Bruce groaned quietly behind him.

"...well what? Get out of here," Leah replied, waving a hand. She hadn't really expected their acquaintance to last any longer than the mission—he was a billionaire, and she had just about nothing. Their spheres of influence were so far apart they were basically in different solar systems.

"Stark Tower, kid, I know you saw it on the news, c'mon, we talked about this," Tony sighed, seemingly disappointed in everyone. Leah's brows just furrowed further. Finally, the billionaire knocked his head against the car mirror, muttering something under his breath, and whipped off his sunglasses, staring Leah dead in the eye.

"Are you coming," Tony said slowly, enunciating each word clearly, "or not?"

...are you coming or not.

She could say no. She could pick 'not,' return to what her life had been for years now, what she knew, what she was sure of. Or...she could pick the back seat of a cherry red convertible that would take her to a glittering tower, somewhere she had been invited, instead of ejected from.

"Well?" Tony demanded.

Slowly, ever so slowly...

Leah Smith grinned.

XXXXXXXXXXX

And that's it. That's the whole thing. Volt is complete.

I know, right? I'm a little upset too. Fifteen chapters, more than sixty thousand words, over a hundred reviews...yeah. This is the first story I've ever actually finished that wasn't a one-shot, did you know? That's how much I love you guys.

Now, on to the actual info. I've decided to leave whether or not I write a sequel up to you guys, so please, please vote in the reviews. I have a definite plan for one, but I'll only write it if people actually want to read it, heh. Also, I'm going to be posting a story called Arcs soon, which will basically just be a collection of Volt-verse one-shots or two-shots. Obviously, they'll just cover the time right after the end of Avengers for now, and mainly involve Leah, Tony, and Bruce. It'll probably be a while before I work on the first chapter of Superconductor, which is the tentative title for the Volt sequel—if I work on it at all. It is, as I said, up to the reviewers. But until then, Arcs will give you your Volt fix.

Uh...crap, what do I say. You guys have been the best. Even if you don't want a sequel, and even if there was a tiny rough patch or two, every single person who's reviewed, whether it be just once or for every chapter, has made my day, knowing that someone out there liked or loved my writing. It's a huge, huge boost to my confidence and my happiness. So thank you. Thank you for the tears and the laughter, the ups and downs, and thank you for the journey.

Fin.

-Hoppiholla.