Stiles' POV:

As the pack makes its way further into the preserve, away from us, I see Stark move to leave his mountain ash circle. Smirking, I strengthen it so that instead of passing through, like normal, he hits a solid wall and falls into a pile on the ground. Quiet snickers float through the air from the direction of Nat and Clint, while the others just seem confused. Bruce reaches out to test his circle also, so I solidify that one too. Watching as, one by one, all of the Avengers that were not already used to my 'magic tricks' tested the force field surrounding them. Each ending up on their asses in the dirt.

Finally, once the pack is far enough away, I nod to Natasha while drawing the mountain ash back into the small bag I keep it in. Whispering a small goodbye to the Nemeton, I begin to lead them all back to the quinjet. What, it's a semi-sentient magical tree that has control over part of my soul, wouldn't you be nice to it too? Once we all get strapped in and take to the air, I wait and see how long before the questions come pouring in.

10...9...8...7...

6...5...4...

3...2...

1...

"WHAT WAS THAT?" "WHO WERE THEY?" "WHY COULD THE GIRL TOUCH THE TREE TOO?" "SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"If you shut up I might answer you..." And there go all of the jaws snapping shut, well mainly just Tony's but meh.

"That was mountain ash, I can make it do whatever I want because I'm a special snowflake. Those were my slightly overprotective friends who happen to enjoy wandering around the preserve, hence why I didn't want to go there. Lydia is a brilliant goddess of unparalleled magnificence, it's easier to just go along with it. And finally, were flying back to the tower in the quinjet and I'm with you because you are all destructive accident-prone idiots and the mystic, soul-sucking, evil tree of omnipotence told me so, so there."

Silence. The silence is actually kind of nice, like you very rarely get to enjoy quiet. Well I mean I guess you could, but people rarely do. It's like with the moment of silence in school, are we ever truly quiet for that? I mean I've never seen people be. Why do we even have that anymore? Seriously, no one even knows what the origins of that were. Well I mean I do but most people don't. Maybe schools should teach that too, so that students are aware. I bet they would make Coach teach us it. Or even worse, Harris. I can't stand Harris. The best part of me being gone is not having to see him. I mean-

Fingers snapping in my face cause me to jump, blinking up at the person, Clint, in front of me. Must have zoned out. Let's just hope I didn't miss anything important. Realizing that I was being spoken too, I pay attention long enough to catch the end of it.

"-long since you last took them?"

"Took them? Took what? Oh wait. My Adderall. Uh yeah, I kind of, um- sorta- well, I think I took some ereyesterday, or was it yesterday. Wait is ereyesterday still a thing? Day before yesterday is what I meant. Yeah so um yeah."

"Okay let's get you some of that ASAP please and thank you. Oh look, we're back at the tower already, what a surprise. Let's go Brucie, I want to go over our readings of the kid's sacrificial alter."

"TONY!"

As the two scientists rush out of the plane, I'm swept off by a scary redhead and Robin Hood (superior than the original, of course) (well maybe not superior to the animated fox 'cause that dude is smooth AF). I can see Steve attempt to make eye contact, but before he can do anything, I'm already gone. Time for the true interrogation to begin, because there is no way that with everything revealed today Nat and Clint won't want more info.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few weeks passed quietly, well as quietly as they can when you live in Avengers tower with a bunch of walking human (or humanish) disasters. After my talk with the spysassin twins, I was put on comms for all of the missions given to the Avengers. People, of course, questioned why I was given one, when I got clearance, or even (on one memorable occasion) who the heck I was. The team didn't know that I was listening in, since I never said anything, but I was since prophecies apparently didn't include time stamps.

People generally would refer to this 'calm' portion of my time with the super squad as the calm before the storm, or possibly even the eye of the storm where it's eerily quiet in the middle of chaos. Personally, though, I feel like the better comparison is a nuke in a desert. You know it's dangerous, beautiful, calm, and chaotic at random times, and then everything goes to shit.

It was a run of the mill mission: get in, track and capture the bad guy, try not to blow up more than is necessary... the usual. That is, until the Hulk was hit by a stray repulser blast and sent flying into the middle of the nearby woods. Of course, this meant that everything went to hell in a handbasket in about .3 seconds. Panicked screams broke out. The team was frantically trying to figure out what was happening. HQ was a furious flurry of activity (hehehe furious flurry).

And faintly, barely audible in the background, inaudible to someone who wasn't used to looking for then, were the familiar growls of pissed off werewolves. In the back of my mind I could feel the push of acknowledgement from the Nemeton and knew what was happening. Well ladies and gents... looks like it's showtime.

(AN: 988 words)

QotC: What is your favorite type of cake?

AotC: Chocolate stout cake (aka heavenly chocolatey goodness)