The World Always Needs Saving

America hates being wounded, but not as much as she hated down time. So she refuses to take it. The morning following the battle against the interdimensional creatures, Erica's serving coffee at the dinner, using her right hand instead of the left. She's a little slower than usual, but she'll manage.

Even harder than the wounds, though, is meddling with the team. They are clearly worried about the incident and she can't stand the looks they give her every time they're in the same room. So she avoids them. She leaves Kate's place early every morning and arrives when she knows everyone else will be gone and they'll let her sleep. The nights she has patrol she doesn't go back to the place at all. Since her patrols are with Noh-Varr and he's prudent enough not to make a comment about it, she has more than enough time to think calmly. 

It all goes right until the Monday of the third week.

"Geek guy's back," Rebecca tells her inside the kitchen as she brings over a tray full of empty plates. "Sitting at the bar today."

America holds back a grunt as she glances through the small round door window. Effectively, there he is. Loki. Great. 

"Can you take care of him?"

"Sorry, I'm swamped. 'Sides, looks like he's looking for you," the redhead says with a playful smile before walking back out. 

America takes a couple deep breaths and tells herself to keep it together before walking out. Loki doesn't look up from his phone as she approaches him. 

"Let me guess. A milkshake?" She deadpans already writing it down.

"Oh, hi, Erica," he says her fake name mockingly. "Wow! It's like you can read my mind."

America rolls her eyes.

"Be right back," she says. And she is, putting the glass in front of him as soon as she can manage, just wanting to get this over with. "Would that be all?"

"No, not really. The team wants to talk to you," Loki says calmly before starting to sip of the straw.

"Good. They're free to do so whenever they want," America deadpans turing around.

"Waitress!" Loki calls back for her, loud enough that she can't ignore it without getting in trouble.

"What?" She asks sharply, turning around to glare at him.

"No they can't," he goes on ignoring the interruption. "They are all worried about you. They are all just too scared to tell you."

America arched an eyebrow at him.

"That doesn't answer why the hell are you here," she points out. Loki being worried about her is a possibility out the table.

"Because I'm not scared of you," Loki gives America that very-serious-grim-look of his, where he tilts his chin down and looks at her behind his thick eyebrows. America let's out a very dry snort on return. Of course he is scared of her, little piece of lying- "I think you are scared."

America slams her palms on the countertop, glaring at him and ignoring the looks the costumers give her.

"What did you just-"

"I think you're scared of what's happening," Loki replies, quickly finishing his milkshake and preparing his retreat as he drops some bucks in front of her. "And if you do not calm the teams worries by acting normal and being a part of the team, I might share my little theories with them, yes?" That's a threat, full Loki style, accompanied with a sly smirk as he turns around and walks away. 

America doesn't say a thing. She grabs the money, puts it into the cash machine and gets herself busy again. Rebecca shoots her a couple worried looks she makes sure to ignore. Shutting her down as she always does to everyone. As she's doing with the team. 

But she can't go on forever. Not with the state of things.

She shows up to the next team meeting. No one makes a comment about the incident. Not even Loki.

 "This guys again?!" Teddy grunts as his fist smashes an interdimensional alien's helmet in.

"Looks like it," Billy says, floating beside him, taking as many as he can out with a spell. They just keep coming.

The battle around them seems pretty similar to last time. They're in over their heads, waiting for the damn hole to close already and give them room to breath. At least, this time they know what they're facing. More or less. America tries, not very successfully, the way she's more wary this time while fighting the robots. She's angrier too, more destructive, but she tends to use attacks that don't involve her coming into contact with them for too long. Tommy's into a somewhat similar situation. 

"Did you notice?" David asks when America lands next to him, helping with the battle on the ground for a while.

"That we're being attacked again? Yeah," America deadpans, not in the mood for smalltalk.

"Not that," David says annoyed as he shoots at the nearest hoard of aliens with a gun that's almost bigger than him. It seems to be one of the most useful ways to get rid of them so far. "We're not the only ones fighting them," he explains pointing upwards. 

America follows the direction of his hand and spots something that truly makes her go cold. They look like white spheres. Big, shiny, and they're shooting at the creatures as well, knocking them out with just one hit.

"Normalizers," she mutters, fists clenching.

"Normalwhat?" David asks confused.

"They won't attack you," she assures him, sending another alien flying. "They'll just attack whatever doesn't belong to this world."

Like her.

"Well, that's good, right?" David asks, trying too hard not to sound too cheerful. Their positivity is rarely rewarded with good results.

"Yeah, good," America doesn't sound quite as convinced.

"How do you know all that?!"

"You really wanna get into it right now?!"

"...yes!"

She doesn't answer, just keeps fighting.

She stays on the ground, away from the hole's edges where the normalizers are hovering. They won't attack any other team member so for now she doesn't have to worry about them. 

The battle goes on for a while before the extra shots start happening around them, at ground level, as well. Each hit immediately sends the empty armor crumbling to the ground. 

"Are those normalizers too?!" David shouts over the battle roar.

America's whole body tenses as she looks around, ready to fight or flee the normalizers. What she see is... not what she was expecting. She can't tell what she feels about it right now yet. She can't risk focusing on it.

Over them, there's a strange sound, a mix between a whale and a magic spell, as the hole closes as suddenly as it'd appeared. The normalizers disappear along with it. The armies left behind keep fighting. With the skies clear of the spheres, America quickly flies up to help the rest finish the battle up there. She's the last one left in the air. She's punching in a sparkly creature's head when she realizes what's going down on the ground.

There's two groups of people staring at each other, both with their weapons ready to blow each other up. Even from afar she can see a mix of anger and confusion in the Young Avengers' faces. It's clear if they haven't attacked yet, it's because they're not sure if they should, yet. It's the other team she's more worried about.

America lands heavily, denting the pavement, halfway between both groups, with her back turned at the Young Avengers as she faces the strangers.

"Chavez," the leader of the other team greets coldly, still pointing his guns at her.

"Nullifier," she responds tensely.

"Tell your team to put down their guns."

"Tell your team to do the same."

They stare at each other for a tense long moment before they both gesture at the people behind them to stand down. Nullifiers' people do it right away. The Young Avengers still doubt for a couple seconds before reciprocating. It's not usual for America to give an order to them, specially so one of standing down.

"What are you doing here?" America asks, not relaxing entirely, giving half a step towards Nullifier.

"Same thing as you. Avengers are gone, someone has to take care of this mess. You didn't think you were the only ones who could take care of it, did you?" He asks teasingly, walking towards her too.

"I was actually surprised that I hadn't heard from you yet," America admits, crossing her arms.

"Oh, we're always around. Just doing help behind the scenes. You know the Teen Brigade-"

"I know your speech. No need to repeat it," she cut him off dryly.

"Nice way to thank us for saving your asses, asshole."

"No one asked for your help, jerk."

"Didn't mean you didn't need it."

Before she realizes, they're standing face to face. America might not be specially tall, but she's always been glad she's taller than him. Makes it easier to glare down at him. They keep the cold stares for a long moment. She can feel both teams shuffling behind them, ready for more action. Then, Nullifier breaks into a smirk. America answers with a similar one as they shake hands.

"It's good to see you, idiot," she says calmly turning around to see the shocked faces of the rest of her teammates. "Young Avengers, this is the Team Brigade."

They don't move, barely react. She can feel every single one of them glaring at Nullifier.

"Is that your new team?" He snorts. "What a bunch of-"

"Watch it."

"Why do they look at me like they want to rip my head off."

"Because they do."

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm sure I haven't done anything to deserve that yet!" He grunts shaking his hands in the air. 

"It's a long story."

 "Well, looks like we have some catching up to do."

As the Young Avengers and the Teen Brigade slowly start to talk to each other, America takes a walk with Nullifier. She notices the team eyeing her carefully.

"So they created another me?!" the white headed guy snaps angrily. "That's fucking wrong? There is only one Ultimate Nullifier and he wouldn't go around following some stupid little green girly girl b-"

"You might wanna shut up," America prompts rolling her eyes.

"So you really thought I was one of the fucking bad guys?!" 

"Fits the profile," America shrugs. "You are an asshole with an ego the size of the moon."

"Thanks," he snorts with that annoying smirk that somehow makes him look more like a douche. "So what? I kicked you guys's ass?"

"Please, you couldn't hit me if you tried," America rolls her eyes. "You had to play dirty..."

"Obviously."

"Shot one of them to get me."

"Of course you'd be the one jumping in front of the bullet. Or beam, whatever," he rolls his eyes. "Lemme guess. Nerdy Geek with the dumbass hat?" he asks pointing at Loki with his thumb.

"How-?"

"He's the obvious choice," Nullifier shrugged. "So, cheating or not, I kicked your ass, right?"

"Have we met?" America arches an eyebrow at him. "I kicked you in the balls."

Nullifier winces. "That's playing dirty!"

"Sure is," America smirks.

"Okay, so cut the crap. What's going on here?" 

America looks up to the sky. "What? Do I have to spell it for you?"

"Holes in the sky. Not the weirdest thing we've seen. So how do we stop the ugly dudes from coming here?"

"You don't."

"What? You're gonna coward out now?"

"Shut your hole. You don't stop it. I do."

"And what are we supposed to do?" Nullifier asks crossing his arms.

"What you've been doing. Keep providing help behind the scenes."

"I will, but not cause you told me to, Missy."

"Yeah, yeah," America rolls her eyes walking away. She knows things are not gonna be getting sentimental between them. That's good by her. "Say hello to Angela," she waves as she approaches the team, who are already regrouping.

"So, what happened?" Loki asks immediately when she arrives. He looks like he's ready to start a fight any minute. 

Well, that's new. 

"Nothing. They'll keep doing their job and we keep doing ours. That's it."

Teddy looks even angrier than the rest. "But he-"

"He's not the one we were fighting," America says dryly, cutting him off. "It was Loki," She sees Loki flinch slightly at the comment, hurt, and she knows that was maybe too harsh, but having a past part of her life exposed in front of the team put her in a defensive mood. "Let's bounce before SHIELD arrives to clean this up."

She can see they still have questions, like usual, and she's sad about not being able to give them the answers they want. She tells herself it's for their own good, but she knows part of her is lying. This is also about protecting her own secrets.

At least David forgot to ask about the Normalizers. That's one thing she'd really rather not getting into right now.