Hey guys. I'm finally back from my short break. If you don't know my computer has been acting a bit funny lately so it made it hard to update, but I have also been updating my other works so that has taken most of my time. But I'm back. I left off at a pretty crazy spot and I know you guys want to just jump right in.

So let's go...

Disclaimer: Anything Marvel related does not belong to me. I wish it did but it doesn't. All of my OCs however are, so keep your mitts off 'em.

"Breaking News! A robbery and hostage situation goes horribly wrong. A group of men dressed in all black prepared to rob a Shawarma restaurant in upstate New York. The man identified as the leader grabbed a young boy and threatened to harm him while his accomplices took to gathering money and jewelry from the restaurant's occupants. Witnesses say that everything was happening so fast and they didn't really know what happened and all of a sudden the lights went out. When the lights came back on, the men were all either dead or seriously injured with knives served at the restaurant. No innocents were injured while the lights were out."

The woman whose son was apprehended by the leader of the gang appeared on TV.

"All that went through my mind was please don't let anything happen to my baby." She clutched her son closer to her body afraid to let him go. The little boy smiled at the camera.

"It was the Avengers. They were there and they saved everyone!"

The reporter looked at the little boy and pointed the microphone in his face.

"The Avengers were there?"

"Yeah. It was them and some other people. Probably superheroes. But they saved me and my family! It was so cool!"

"As you saw from the clip earlier the child claimed to have seen the Avengers. A few other witnesses and the hostess at her station during the failed robbery confirmed that Tony Stark, a.k.a Iron Man was in attendance. However, his teammates were not. He was seen, however, with a large group of people, but it is unconfirmed whether or not they played a role in what happened. We will get back to you later on this story. I'm Diane Warwick from New York Now News channel 17. Back to you Derek."

"Thank you Diane. Now on to some equally terrifying news. The Hamburger Murderer..."

The screen of the large television stationed on the wall flickered off and the screen went black. Sam could now feel the eyes of everyone in the living room boring into her. She hadn't said anything since the Shawarma Debacle (that's what she was calling it in her head) occurred. She didn't really know what to say.

"Sam?" Steve's voice called out to her. He had been trying to get her to look at him since they left the restaurant but she refused to look him in the eye.

Sam was afraid what she would see when she looked into his eyes. Disgust. Horror. Hate. She had just killed a numerous amount of men and critically injured on. Yeah she probably just saved more lives than she took but she didn't know how Steve Rogers, Captain America, would feel about what she done. It was instinctual, really, taking out those men. She had done it without a second thought, and if given the opportunity, she would do it all over again. However, she was fearful of what it would mean to her friendship with Steve.

"Hm?" Sam hummed still pointedly looking away from Steve.

"Can you please look up at me?" She felt him come closer to where she sat on Tony's uber comfortable and lavish sofa. His tone of voice confused her. It didn't hold any of the anger or horror she thought it would. But it did hold some caution in it, as though Steve was talking to a cornered wild animal.

That made Sam's head snap up. She glared at Steve for the way he was treating her. Sure she didn't want to lose his friendship because she felt it was special. She's never had this type of connection with someone, especially not one where their relationship was on simply friendly terms, however she wasn't going to allow herself to be looked down upon by anyone. Not even Steve I'm-So-Perfect Rogers.

Steve flinched back at her look. Out the corner of his eyes he could see Thor pushing Jane and Darcy slightly behind him and silently calling Mjolnir. But Steve waved his concern off.

"Sam I don't mean anything by it. I just want to know what happened back there. How did you-what did-where did you learn how to do that?"

Sam looked closely at Steve. His eyes were wide and amazed. His question was innocent and held mostly curiosity, but she could still see that lingering wariness within his blue orbs.

"Perfect accuracy." She said shortly. Steve and the rest of the people in the room, sans Sam's family, looked towards her in confusion.

"I have perfect accuracy. I can hit anything with anything. It may take me a while to adjust to a new weapon in my hands, but once I get used to it, I can hit any target that I aim at. And I didn't learn it anywhere. I've always been able to do it. It was one of the reasons why I was recruited into the marines."

Steve looked at Sam skeptically.

"Perfect...accuracy?"

She nodded.

"She's telling the truth, as unbelievably unfair it all is. She can hit anything with anything you give her. And she's always been like that. Which is why no one plays sports, darts, or Monopoly with her." Liam piggybacked.

"Wait...what?! Monopoly. What does Monopoly have to do with accuracy?" Tony asked bewildered. He stood near the television still holding the remote in his hand while the other arm crossed his chest.

"Oh, nothing. But Sam always finds a way to win at that game as well so I'm pretty sure she cheats then too."

Liam's family roll their eyes at him.

"There is no way that you just happen to have perfect accuracy like that without previous training," Natasha input. "No one is just born with the ability to take down a handful of men with knives in the dark."

"You can," Tony pointed out.

"She's a trained assassin." Bruce backed her up.

"Just what are you implying?" Sam's father Christopher finally returned to his usual intimidating persona and stood firmly with his arms crossing staring at the team of superheroes.

"Look. Sammy has always just been really good at throwing shit. I don't see why it's such a big deal." Joey shrugged.

Sam was glad that her family were backing her up. It's not as though she expected anything different, Saunders always stuck up for each other. But they were going up against the Avengers. A group of individuals they admired for their heroism.

"Well a mortal did just incapacitate, and nearly decapitated, a group of men that a group of highly trained, somewhat intelligent, agents were not able to. One of the agents is a God, one is a lab experiment, and another is a...green...thing. They find it highly improbable that an ordinary mortal such as your daughter was able to best them at something that they were specialized in and yet unable to do." Loki's slow and calculated drawl caused an uproar amongst the Avengers and company.

"That has nothing to do with it." Bruce disagreed.

"Are you baking cupcakes?" Darcy asked from the couch looking at the demigod. Jane pinched her.

"All I'm saying is that it is odd that she was able to pull off something we were not. She is untrained, unqualified, and frankly, the speed and accuracy she supposedly withholds is almost otherworldly." Natasha calmly added.

"Yes, but I really think we should acknowledge the fact that Loki is baking cupcakes..." Darcy murmured. Sam never did get to finish her food.

"Somewhat intelligent," Tony grumbled.

"It was a little strange. The speed at which she moved was at the very least, remarkable. However, stranger things have happened," Clint stated looking directly at Thor . It was Thor's turn to look affronted this time.

"Eye of Hawk-!"

"Did he really just refer to me as somewhat intelligent?" Tony muttered disbelievingly as he glared at the jokester from the top of the rim of his whiskey glass.

"Enough!" Steve shouted over them all.

The room quickly descended into silence at Steve's shout. He barely raised his voice. He was usually the ever so patient one out of them all. So it definitely grabbed their attention when he decided to yell over them all.

"No one is saying that we don't believe that your daughter—Sam, was capable of doing something that we could not. We may be specially trained assassins, or geniuses, or aliens, or even a chemically enhanced super soldier, but there are things even we can not accomplish. We're not perfect. If we were there wouldn't need to be a team of us." Steve clarified calmly.

Sam wasn't sure whether or not to believe what Steve was saying was true. He had no reason to lie, and frankly, she didn't think that Steve had ever told a lie in his life. But she couldn't ignore everyone else's incredulous stare, excluding her family. Even Clint, someone who she had hoped wasn't as closed-minded as the rest of his friends, couldn't hold back the slight disbelieving tinge that she could see creeping in his eyes.

"Look, I'm not asking any of you to believe me. You all asked and I answered. I don't know what else to tell you since I've always been like this. I've never had some top secret surgery performed by some underground lab professors or fell from the sky, I was born this way. And if you don't like that then, well..." Sam stood up and tightened her jacket around her.

All of the Saunders followed Sam's lead.

"Sam wait—" Steve called out.

Sam put a hand up. "No, Steve. I have nothing else to say and I'm not about to beg anyone to believe me. I don't know any of you and could give a damn whether you believe me or not. Thanks for lunch Steve."

And with that the Saunders left, one by one, none of them giving even the slightest of a glance backwards. Loki peered over the counter at the exiting family before looking back at the gathered group.

"If I may-" Loki began licking green frosting from of his finger.

"You can't." Clint grunted forcefully glaring at the demigod.

Loki continue anyway, "-I was actually looking forward to the shawarma this afternoon. Also, today could have been a lot worse." He shrugged pouring what looked like sprinkles on his cupcakes. "I had plans to 'accidentally' start a fire in the mens room."

Darcy stood and peered over the counter at Loki's creation. She looked up at him and waited for him to make contact with him. He quirked an eyebrow in question. She licked her thumb and quickly swept across his chin, before proceeding to lick the icing over her finger.

"Mm, I never knew green could taste so good."

Loki's left eye twitched.

Ahhh! I had to leave it right here. It just felt right. And I really needed to update so...here you guys go. I know, it's a really short chapter. Sorry ;). Leave me your thoughts. The review button is right below this. Can't get enough of them!

Never fear, the next chapter will be up to its long and delicious goodiness. We will see some new characters (hint hint—look at the crossover) and there will be a bit more about the Saunders' past. Maybe even a sneak peek into Sam's childhood. Who knows...?