Today's the day, Shadow thought excitedly. After about a month of training, he and his friends were finally allowed to go on their first patrol. Of course, Katie would be there to watch over them, but Shadow didn't mind that much.

He heard a knock on his door and perked up. "Yeah?"

Breeze opened the door and looked in. "Hey," he said. "So, y-you ready?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," Shadow said. He got up and grabbed the case that he held a bat in and slung it over his shoulder so it hung at his back. Then he grabbed a bandana to tie over his mouth as he followed Breeze out of his room.

"Man, I-I'm kinda nervous, honestly," Breeze said.

"Same," Shadow said "I mean, I never thought we'd be using our powers to save people other than ourselves.

"Yeah," Breeze said. "But... do you ever think we might be putting ourselves in more danger than before?"

Shadow was silent for a moment. Sure, they were throwing themselves into these big battles, but at least they weren't revealing who they were to the world.

"I wouldn't think so," he said softly. "Besides, it kinda feels nice to save people from big powerful psychopaths."

Breeze chuckled softly. "I guess you're right," he said.

"Hey, you know, we've never come up with superhero names for ourselves," Shadow said as he and Breeze entered the elevator. "Like, obviously Scream is Scream, but what would we be known as?"

"I dont know," Breeze said. "I dont really want a superhero bame to be honest..."

"Well why not?" Shadow said. "How else would people recognize us?"

"Exactly," Breeze said. "People would know we exist. That's giving everyone something to know us by." He sighed. "I know it shouldn't matter anymore, but what if the Claws found out about us by some silly hero names? Dont you think they'd find it suspicious that these new heroes showed up that have the exact same powers as the kids they tried to experiment on?"

Once again, Shadow went silent as he thought about it. "I guess I never considered that," he said. "But, hey. If the Avengers can handle Hydra, I'm sure they could handle the Claws if they ever come after us."

"I hope so," Breeze said. The elevator doors opened, and they walked into the lobby. Peg, Misty, and Katie were already waiting there.

"Hey, guys," Peg said.

"Hey," Shadow said. Breeze waved.

"You guys ready?" Katie asked.

"Yep," Shadow said. Breeze nodded.

"Alright, let's head out then," Katie said. Just as she started to leave, Scream took over Misty's body.

"Well, this is quite different from what I'm used to," she said.

"You agreed to this," Peg said. "You're gonna have to get used to it."

"Oh joy," Scream muttered. Shadow chuckled softly.

"At least you still get to eat people. Just, bad people," he said.

"Hm, true," Scream said.

"Guys, we dont have all day," Katie giggled.

"Oh! Sorry," Peg said, quickly following after Katie.

"Its fine," Katie said. "You guys will need these, by the way." She pulled something out of her pocket and revealed four earpieces to them.

"Oh, cool!" Shadow said, taking the small device and putting it in his ear. The others did the same, while Scream just stared at it.

"What does it do?" she asked.

"Well, it let's you communicate with everyone else," Katie said. "So say we're in some huge battle or something. With these, we can talk to each other without having to scream at everyone."

Scream just stared at the device. "No thanks," she said. Katie gave her a look of confusion.

"This- This is going to help you," she said.

"Did I stutter?" Scream hissed. Katie rolled her eyes.

"Fine, greenie," she said, putting the earpiece away. Scream growled softly.

Shadow sighed softly. Why did Scream always have to mess everything up?

◇◇◇

Once they were out of the tower, the group had split up to patrol different parts of the city. Shadow had decided to stay with Peg. The two were sneaking through an alleyway, as they'd done before they joined the Avengers.

"So, you think we'll find anything?" Peg asked, trying to start up a conversation since she was clearly bored.

"Hopefully. This is New York, crime is kind of a common thing," Shadow said.

"Yeah," Peg said. "D-Do you think we'll be ready? I mean I'm kind of nervous about this, to be honest."

"So am I," Shadow said. "I wish Loki could've come with us."

"Oh?" Peg said. "Hm, I remember I time where you didn't want us to get too attached to him," she teased.

"Well, that was back before he gave an actual place to live," Shadow said, crossing his arms. Peg chuckled and shoved his shoulder.

"Admit it, you're happy we met him," she said.

"Maybe," Shadow muttered.

"Suuure," Peg teased. Shadow rolled his eyes, but looked up at the sound of an alarm. Before he could say anything, Peg quickly ran off in the direction of the noise.

"Hey, wait up!" Shadow yelled as he followed her. The two came to the building that was making the noise and walked out of the alleyways to face the front of it.

"Is it a robbery or something?" Peg asked.

"I think so," Shadow said. He spoke to the others through his earpiece. "Hey, guys? There's a bank robbery going on."

"Where are you guys at?" Katie responded.

"Wh- A bank?! I dont know what street we're on!" Shadow said.

Before he could continue, Peg yelled, "Come on already!" and ran into the building.

"Peg, stop!" Shadow yelled out, but she wouldn't listen. Peg shoved open the doors and faced the criminals.

"I'd reccomend you stop what you're doing," she hissed, and the criminals turned to her, "i-if you know what's good for you!"

By the time Shadow was at her side, someone had a gun pointed at her. Shadow was ready to shove Peg out of the way, but the second the man fired his gun, Peg quickly brought up a forcefield to protect them. She then pushed the forcefield at some of the robbers, knocking them to the floor.

"Guess we're fighting," Shadow said with a shrug as he went invisible. He ran at one of the criminals and punched them hard in the face. Another one shot their gun in his direction, but he managed to jump out of the way.

"Shadow?" he heard Breeze ask through the comms. "Shadow, what's going on?!"

"Uh, I'm kinda in the middle of something," Shadow said. He quickly got up and attacked the person closest to him, while Peg was knocking people to the ground with her forcefields.

Just then, Scream burst into the room, opening her jaw to let out a piercing roar. Everyone froze at the sight of her. Before anyone could react, Scream launched herself at one of the criminals and sank her teeth into them. Almost at once, everyone was either shooting at her or running away. Shadow quickly grabbed one of the people who had tried to run and pinned them down.

Scream hissed at the people who shot at her and lunged at them. Peg stumbled back.

"This isn't exactly how I imagined this day going," she said.

"Well did you think it would be easy?" replied Shadow, flinching slightly as Scream attacked another criminal near him. Peg scrambled to her feet and tried to grab a gun out of someone's hand, who was pointing it at Scream. The man grunted as he tried to grab her. Shadow frowned as he looked around. This was chaos.

Thankfully, Katie and Breeze had found them. Katie quickly used her powers to throw a bunch of criminals into the wall, while Breeze used a gust of wind the push them back.

"Its about time!" Shadow yelled.

"Well sorry for not knowing exactly where you were!" Breeze said. Shadow sighed and was about to find someone else to attack, but then heard a scream. He quickly looked up as Peg kicked someone away and held her arm tightly.

"Peg?" Shadow asked, rushing to her side. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"I think so," Peg said. She tried to move her arm, but winced.

"You should get out of here. We can handle this," Shadow said.

"Its fine, I can still fight," Peg said.

"You know, you're starting to sound like Loki now," Shadow said.

"Well is that so surprising?" Peg said.

"Guys, we're supposed to fighting these criminals," Katie said.

"Yeah, Shadow," Peg said with a smirk. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Don't do anything stupid," he said.

"When have I ever done that?" Peg asked, creating a forcefield with her other arm. Shadow sighed as he left. Thankfully, there wasn't much left to fight. Most of the criminals had either ran off or were killed by Scream, and there were just a few left fighting back. After a few minutes, the group managed to chase the last few people off.

"Holy hell, that was insane!" Breeze said.

"You think that was insane? Please, I've seen far worse," Scream said.

"Yeah yeah, no one cares about your history stories," Peg said. She was still holding her arm.

"Peg? You alright?" Katie asked.

"Uh, I think so," Peg said. "This guy bent my arm all weird." Katie frowned.

"Is it broken?" she asked. Peg shrugged, and Katie went to check her arm.

Shadow sighed. I tried to warn her, he thought. Maybe I should've tried harder...

Scream huffed slightly. Shadow looked up at her, but she didn't say anything. Her face was unreadable; just her normal grumpy self.

"Yeah, it's broken," Katie said. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't think it was too serious," Peg said. "Besides, I have two arms for a reason."

Katie sighed. "Alright, smartass," she said with a smirk, "we should be heading back to the tower then."

"Aw," Peg pouted.

"I'm tired anyways," Breeze said.

"Yeah, that was crazier than I expected," Shadow said.

"A lot of things are unexpected here," Katie said with a shrug. Shadow chuckled softly. Huh, I think I might actually like it here.

◇◇◇

"What?!" Loki hissed.

"Are you deaf? What part of 'Peg broke her arm' do you not understand?" Katie asked.

"Where is she? I have to see her," Loki demanded, trying to walk away. Katie quickly grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Loki, she's fine. Bruce is patching her up right now," she tried to reassure him.

"She's with Bruce?" Loki asked. Before Katie could answer, Loki started to walk away again. Katie rolled her eyes.

"She needs to rest, ok?" Katie said as she followed him.

"She can rest once I've seen her," Loki said simply. Katie sighed.

"When did you get this protective?" Katie asked. "What happened to the snarky old asshole that didn't give a shit about anyone?"

"I'm not old," Loki snapped. "And you don't know them like I do."

"What, because they're your children?" Katie asked. Loki glared at her, and she smirked.

When they walked into the Medbay, Bruce was helping Peg put a sling on her arm. Loki quickly rushed over to her, and Katie shook her head, but smiled.

"Hey, what happened?" Loki asked.

"Well, I appear to have broken my arm," Peg said matter-of-factly. Loki chuckled and sat by her.

"Alright. Do you need any painkillers or anything?" Bruce asked Peg.

"No, I think I'm fine," Peg said. Bruce nodded. "H-How long will it take to heal?" Peg asked.

"I think about 2 months," Bruce said. Peg frowned slightly, and Loki rubbed her back.

"It'll be ok," he reassured her. "You need to rest your arm anyways." Peg just nodded slowly. "Thank you, Banner," Loki said to Bruce.

"No problem," Bruce said, before walking away. Peg sighed and laid down.

"Life sucks and I hate everything..." she muttered.

"What? Earlier you were making jokes about this," Katie said.

"Yeah, but.. 2 months?" Peg said. "This was only my first patrol, and I already got hurt." She rolled on her side, awkwardly trying to move her arm.

"Well it's not like you're gonna be perfect," Katie said. "I was a mess on my first mission."

"And let me guess, Bucky was there to save you?" Loki asked. Katie glared at him and punched his arm. "Ow! You wanna break my arm too?" Loki whined.

Peg chuckled at them. "You two are weird," she said.

"He's the weird one," Katie said, pointing at Loki. "He likes turning into snakes! Snakes!"

"That was one time," Loki hissed.

"Now I'm just concerned," Peg said.

Loki sighed. "Don't listen to a word Katie says," he said. "She's delusional."

"Says the one who constantly shapeshifts into weird animals!" Katie said. "What are you, a furry?"

"A what?" Loki asked. "I have no clue what that is."

"Oh, of course you don't, Snake," Katie said. Loki and Peg looked at each other.

"You guys don't get along that much, do you?" Peg asked.

"I- Well," Loki said. He looked at Katie. "We may not agree a lot, but we're there for each other," he said. Katie smiled at him, and Loki smiled back. "And we'll be here for you too," Loki said to Peg.

"You really think I can still be an Avenger?" she asked.

"Of course!" Katie said. "You'll be fine, Peg."

Peg smiled softly. "Thanks," she said. Loki grinned and ruffled her hair, and she giggled.

"Get some rest now, alright?" Katie said. "If you need anything, you can text us."

"Alright," Peg said. Katie smiled and got up, but Loki stayed by Peg. Katie looked over at him.

"Loki, come on," Katie said. Loki seemed to hesitate, so Katie added, "She'll be fine."

Loki sighed and got up, walking away. He glanced at Peg again.

"Come on, she needs to rest," Katie said. Loki nodded and walked away. Katie smiled at him softly. Something tells me Loki and those kids are gonna end up just like Tony and Peter.