This is my first attempt at an Avengers fic! I'm not an expert on the comics, but I do know some things here and there. However this is going to be 100% from the movie-verse. This is just a dabble so please let me know what you think and if you would like to continue reading. While Loki, Iron Man and Thor all belong to Stan Lee and Marvel, Zully and Marv are all mine. Enjoy!

And just a heads up, it does take a few words in to get any mention of the Avengers. So don't get confused this IS an Avengers fic!

Dawn was breaking and Zully could feel the weight of her eyelids begging to close. Her back ached from sitting at a desk for hours on end. It was the third day in a row that she sat in her bosses office perplexed over a mystery she could not solve. Marv wasn't like any other boss Zully had ever had, she was a born prodigy in decoding anything and everything. However, it was hieroglyphics and ancient ruins that were her niche. This passion that Marv held when talking about her profession is what drove Zully to study and eventually get her degree in it. After graduating with honors at the top of her class, Marv hired her on as her apprentice which brought them to their present predicament.

Marv was in the middle of a breakthrough, everyone in the department knew. The only bit of information she disclosed to Zully however was that it was something big. After everything that took place last summer in New York, the country lived in fear of another alien invasion. The very thought that at any given moment an unknown and unidentified being from another planet could hail down and dominate had the world's best and brightest scurrying for a plan of defense. That meaning that anything that was strange and usual was examined until it was one hundred percent comprehensible to humans.

"Did she tell you when she would be here?" Zully decided to ask lifting her head from the stack of leather bound books in front of her.

"No." Marv answered sourly. "I estimate she should be here in about an hour or two, she is flying in from London after all." With that said Marv pressed a finger to her oversized tortoise horn rimmed frames and tied up her auburn locks in a messy up-do.

It was clear that both of them required some much needed rest to communicate like real human beings. Late nights and long hours were something that Zully was used to working for Marv but the not being able to decrypt something was not. It was irritating Marv to her core that every time she searched she turned up empty handed.

"Coffee break?" Zully stood up stretching her aching body. If she had to sit for another single minute, she was positive she would lose any sensation in her butt. "Ralph's should be open by now." Ralph's was their favorite place to escape from the office and gossip away from eavesdroppers. Marv's eyes looked interested.

"Go ahead. I have some bottled tea in the fridge." Marv answered hesitantly.

"Marv…we both need a break. All this silence and dead air is driving me mad. Plus I think we both could benefit from some fresh air and nutrients." Zully pranced around Marv's desk as if she were pitching an idea. "…it'll be my treat." Marv laughed at her last comment.

"Will it get you to shut up." Marv groaned reaching for cashmere coat.

"Scouts honor." Zully said with a smile and cheerful eyes.

Zully had been right. Although the New York air wasn't equivalate to that of the countryside, it was nice. Oddly refreshing. The hustle and bustle of the city life hadn't reached its morning time peak yet but remnants of the beginning where making its appearance.

"Thank you for talking me into coming Zully. I would've moved into my office by now if you hadn't come along and joined the project." Marv spoke as she took her first sip of coffee. "I would be lost without you."

"That's what I'm here for boss."

Zully and Marv ate their breakfast and drank their coffee and tried talking about something other than the strange case they were on. Not that Marv would spill any details in the first place.

Last year Marv had asked Zully for assistance with a decryption of an odd glowing alien stone that was found in a remote village in Rwanda. Marv was very hush hush about who contracted her for weeks, once the case was over they had a few drinks together and Marv spilled that it was SHIELD. If Zully had any friends left after spending every waking moment with her boss she would've been tempted to spill.

"You know it wouldn't kill you to say yes to a date every now and then." Marv said out of the blue on their way back to the office.

"I know. " Zully shrugged unsure of what brought her bosses comment on. "Its just a significant other isn't exactly part of my plan in life. Plus between graduate school and this, whenever would I find the time?"

"I just don't want you to end up like me. A lonely spinster." Zully laughed and teasingly shoved Marv. It was a running joke between them.

Before they could enter the tall skyscraper that harbored Marv's office, her phone rang startling the two.

"Oh god…I'm not ready to deal with people just yet." She mumbled before exhaling and composing herself to answer her iPhone. "This is Marv speaking." Her polish accent was always exaggerated when she spoke formally.

"Wait what Jane slow down- you're what?" Marv shot Zully a confused glance as she stared perplexed. "You're here?"

"Marv!" A soft voice shouted causing both the woman to turn their heads.

A petite brunette emerged from the building they were about to enter looking frantic. Her face and clothing were very simple and plain but a certain elegance remained in her.

"I'm sorry to show up earlier than planned. I just had to speak with you in person at this point." Jane said as she shook hands with Marv.

"Nonsense. Don't worry. Jane this is my apprentice Zully."

"Oh hello Zully. Nice to meet you."

"When Marv calls me apprentice it makes me feel like we focus on witchcraft and not encryptions." Zully said in attempt to lighten the dull and tense moment.

"I suppose the two go hand in hand at times." Marv joked. "Shall we continue this in my office."

"Actually no. I've scheduled for a car to pick us up. There is a conference about to begin at Stark headquarters." Jane said as she focused her eyesight on the road. Then as if on cue a black SUV pulled up into the parkway as a man in black formal attire got off and opened the door for them.

"Ok this is too cool." Zully mumbled to herself. Jane and Marv looked nonchalant as they entered the vehicle quietly discussing to themselves. Zully had not a single clue as to who Jane was but she spoke about strange weather readings she and her intern Darcy where finding in Greenwich. When Marv began to speak about the research she had done on the decryption Jane said it was best to wait to share the information with everyone else.

Who is everyone else? Am I about to meet the fucking Avengers? Who is this woman?

Zully had a million thoughts racing through her head and as they entered a dark underground she assumed to be a parking lot her heart began to beat faster. She might have been extremely sleep deprived but she was positive everything was not a dream.

As they exited the SUV, Jane thanked the driver and they walked forward towards an elevator with the standard Tony Stark logo that was plastered all over the city.

"Welcome ladies. The master is waiting for you in the conference room." A small robot creature spoke startling Zully while Jane and Marv followed the robot down the hall as they exited the elevator.

"There she is!" A loud prominent voice echoed the room and Zully immediately recognized it as none other than Mr. Tony Stark. "The woman of the hour please tell me you've found something." Tony embraced Marv in a tight bear hug as Zully stood perplexed. Not only was Marv working with the leader of the Avengers but…they were close enough to hug like that.

"First I want to introduce you to my understudy and apprentice." Marv held an open hand for Zully to move forward. Zully shook Tony's hand and smile at him politely.

"Zully...what is that short for?" He asked out of honest curiosity.

"Nothing. Its' just Zully." She stared at him awkwardly unsure of what else to say. It was a question she had been asked all throughout her life to the point that it became a nuisance.

"Oh please. Your girlfriend is named after a spice and you want to interrogate Zully about her name? Do better." Marv rolled her eyes and Zully held back a laugh.

"Point taken." Tony said. "Shall we begin."

"Zully if you could please." Marv glanced at her and Zully quickly obliged unloaded her laptop. Tony Marv Jane and Zully sat in front of the small screen as Zully quickly opened a file full of images and notations her and Marv had taken.

"What we've deciphered is that this has some semblance to that of a map hybrid calendar. Now while we would need to test the stone on location to depict the exact date of origin, however the pigmentation and weathering on the side indicates it is at least 3,000 years old." Jane gasped at the number.

"The language on the map are in a strange form of hieroglyphics that we've seen before in a cave in Iraq called Shanidar." Zully continued as Tony studied the images.

"The Neanderthals." Tony murmured in a soft tone as if he were thinking aloud.

"Precisely Stark." Marv beamed. "Who would've known you were such a history buff."

"I'm not. I dated a history major in my undergrad and I learned a thing or two about Neanderthal dig sites to impress her." He joked as Marv playfully rolled her eyes.

"Ok back to the map. Some of the writing has coordinates with dates besides them. While some of the writing is in a language we've never seen before. At least not on Earth. While no historian on the Earth has learned Asgard's language, we do have enough artifact to prove that half of the unknown language belongs to their realm."

"I'm sorry…I just don't understand the relevance." Tony crossed his hands across his chest.

"It just so happens that the coordinates and date once translated line up with next month here in New York." Marv spoke before Zully could reply.

"For the past few days I've been getting really strange signals on my system indicating high pressure activity. The last time the signals where this strong I ran over Thor." Jane spoke.

Tony nodded clearly understanding what Jane meant when she said that. Zully was still trying to wrap her head around everything but was finally beginning to feel less tense.

"Jane." A strong voice caused everyone to look up at the door frame.

"The guy really knows how to make an entrance." Tony mumbled to Zully as they watched the two close the distance between themselves.

"Thor?" Jane sat up and ran towards the god of lighting himself. Jane looked as if she were busy processing her emotions that she had no words. "Did you do this." Jane held up her portable machine to him as he nodded.

"Then how did you get-" Her question was cut short as another individual walked in behind him.

"You didn't" Jane said covering her mouth in shock.

"It was necessary." Thor replied in a solemn tone.

The man who walked in had black hair that dangled just above his shoulders. His skin was pale white. He dawned an all-black formal attire that had Zully racking her brain trying to remember where she had seen him. To her he looked like any other human being but his grand entrance next to Thor and his overall better than attitude as he surveyed the room had her second guessing that.

"Oh no someone tell me what reindeer games is doing here." Tony shouted walking over to the two men.

"Heimdall sensed there was something wrong with Midgard and Allfather would not allow me to use the Bifrost to travel. I had to improvise." Thor said as a matter of fact causing much rebuttal from Tony.

"Ah so this is the Jane I've heard so much about." The dark haired man finally spoke stirring a rile of emotions from Jane. She looked furious.

"You do remember the last time he was on this planet he was trying to rule it?" Tony spoke to a clearly disgruntled Thor.

"I had no choice." Thor sighed.

Everything in Zully's brain clicked in that very moment. He was Loki, Thor's brother. She remembered seeing his face all over the news. He looked paler and more fragile than then.

Marv and Zully awkwardly glanced a look at each other. They felt like they were intruding in on a family argument. It was clear both of them wanted no part of the mess that was transpiring.

"You are new." Loki walked up towards the table where Zully and Marv sat. Marv was clearly distracted watching Stark and Thor argue while Jane tried to hold back the Asgardian god from punching the smaller Tony Stark.

"Me?" Zully pointed to herself confused that he was even addressing her.

"No. Not you. I was speaking to the gentlemen sitting way over there." He pointed behind her causing Zully to turn and realize there was absolutely no one else in the room. "Of course I am talking to you. Who are you."

"I'm Zully." She said partially frozen.

"And what do you do in this worthless building?"

In the distance Tony stopped in his tracks at Loki's comment. "Did he just call my building…worthless?" Was all she could hear in the distance.

"I'm a historian. I decrypt things like ancient texts." Loki stared at her as if he was waiting for her to elaborate. "I actually need to decode some Asgardian code if you'd be ever so kind." She turned her laptop over to him and she watched as his eyes gazed the screen.

"Where on Earth did you get this?" Loki asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Jane found it in London."

"It's a map indicting where the next comic event would take place that aligns the nine realms." His hand was on his chin as he continued staring.

"Cosmic event?" Zully asked still not grasping what he meant.

"It is an event in where the nine planets of the realm line up and one can easily walk between them. The last one we had was oh what…I guess a hundred years ago?" He looked as if he posed a question.

"I mean I wouldn't know. There is not a single record on it and I am 23 so I was obviously not alive for that." Zully said unsure of herself.

"Give me the coordinates of the location this was found." Zully raised her brow but still gave them to him. "You might want to hold on." Loki said as he stretched out his hand and placed it on her shoulder. Then without warning flashes of light invaded Zully's eyesight. Nausea and an overall sense of discomfort invaded her senses.

"What the hell." Zully shouted as she realized she was no longer in the Stark building.

"Fascinating." Loki mumbled to himself as Zully stood studying her surroundings. The room was dimly lit only by the broken windows in the building. The building appeared abandoned for there was not an iota of civilization in sight.

"Excuse me? You can't just take me to another country without my permission." Zully said standing up from her original landing position on the floor.

"I can quite literally feel the magic in here. This is bewildering." He spoke not directly to anyone but more as if he was speaking out loud to himself. His hands pressed against the stone with the carvings.

"Are you even listening to me?" Zully shouted as she now stood next to him. "Take me back."

"What is it with you humans that you always find the need to complain about something?" Loki refused to face her as she now stood at his side. She look fragile and petite compared to the mischievous god. "Place your hand here."

Although she was hesitant Zully obeyed and pressed her hand against the cool stone. A tiny spark pulsed through her body as she pressed down fully. The stone felt like it was weightless. As if she could rip it from the wall at that very moment. "Wow you were right. This is amazing…I wonder how long this has gone unnoticed. Life just seems to continue around it but this rock it is preserved while everything else decays."

"It is probably for the best that no one has found it." Loki spoke suddenly.

"Why do you say that?"

"Think of all the harm it could do. Imagine a normal human enters a realm that is filled with magic and overall things way beyond their wildest imagination. Dwellers of the nine realms are not all as kind as Asgardians."

"You call yourself kind?" Zully practically chocked out a laugh

"I never said I was an Asgardian." He retorted back with a stoic tone.

"Then what are you…"

"Does it even matter? To you humans its all the same. I'll always be a monster."

"Ok no need to be melodramatic. I don't know you and I most certainly don't think you're a monster. I mean would a monster be here showing me how cool this rock is?"

"Cool is an understatement. This is pure untapped energy. With the right tool…someone or something could easily keep the portal between the realms permanently open. And now we wouldn't want that."

"I wonder if all the decoded coordinates have stones with engravings like this?" Loki turned to face her.

"You have a valid point there. Might as well check it out." His hand was about brush against her shoulders to teleport them to the next set of coordinates when voices erupted down the hall.

"Jane?" Zully snapped her head back to hear the brunette she had just met running down the corridor before entering the room with the stone.

"Oh Zully. Thank God you're alright." Jane tightly hugged a very confused Zully.

"What are you talking about?" Zully asked as she stood watching Thor enter the room wielding his hammer.

"Brother." Thor said in a stern voice.

"Oh you guys made it." Loki said with a smirk adding fuel to his brothers anger.

"What's going on?" Zully asked Jane.

"You guys just disappeared. Marv is so worried about you. Tony thought you would be dead by now considering Loki's history." Jane eyed the man in which she referred to with a disapproving glare.

"Hey big guy! I'm fine." Zully called over to Thor causing him to raise a brow at her. "Look at this." Zully lead everyone to the stone that stood in the center of the empty building.

"Loki was able to translate the words for me including the language that wasn't Asgardian or from Earth. He was able to determine that this here is one of the first portals between the nine realms. It seems as if new ones are opening up every 100 years. Next month one will be opening in the middle of New York."

"What did I miss?" A robotic yet bold voice echoed in the halls startling a focused Zully. If she wasn't so annoyed that she would have to repeat herself she might be impressed that she was seeing Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit up close and personal.

"Are you serious?" Zully shouted. "I'm not repeating myself. Loki care to elaborate?" Loki shot her a smirk that caused a wave of confusion through everyone else.

"Well since everyone is alive and what not…what do you say we get some Shawarma. I know just the place."

Again I reallllly hope you guys liked it! I would love to continue this if anyone shows interest. Thank you for reading, please leave a review even if its a bad one :)