"So you're telling me that Pietro just appeared in your bed?"

Natasha didn't believe her daughter's rushed lie, not for one second. She had lived on this Earth for thirty-four years, and she had experienced her fair share of men and women 'appearing' in bedrooms.

"Uh..." Dahlia scratched the back of her neck sheepishly, having given up on her attempt to hide Pietro from sight with her arm. "Yes?"

"You know what, whatever, this is irrelevant at the moment. Suit up, the fight's coming," Nat awkwardly glanced at Pietro, who was shirtless. "You too, Maximoff."

The door shut behind her, and Dahlia buried her head in her pillow in embarrassment. "That was the worst thing ever."

He chuckled, ruffling her hair. "You'll survive. Probably."

"Leave my bedhead alone, meanie."

The two made their way to the courtyard, fully equipped and dressed for a fight. Well, to say they made their way would be a bit presumptuous, seeing as it was basically just Pietro dragging Dahlia by the wrist.

"Ugh, it's too early for this. I haven't had my hot chocolate yet." She whined, doing her best puppy eyes on Pietro.

The group of Avengers all snorted as they watched them make their way other.

"Anelace, Maximoff. You sure took your sweet time." Steve crossed his arms.

"Well, I don't expect you to have known this, but looking this fabulous takes time." Dahlia flicked her hair over her shoulder.

"That really means that she shoved three donuts in her mouth at once, then spent fifteen minutes trying not to choke on it." Pietro said with a shake of his head.

Rhodey started cracking up, and was only ceased three minutes later when Okoye's urgent tone interrupted.

"Something's entered the atmosphere."

The team looked up at the sky just as the defense shield above the city destroyed one of the alien vessels, which had approached the force field at full acceleration.

"God, I love this place." Bucky whistled as he watched the alien spaceship explode.

"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome." Rhodey said, his voice a bit more electronic sounding, since he closed his helmet.

The debris from the ship landed outside the shield, sending vibrations through the ground.

Cap spoke to Wanda, who was in Shuri's lab with Vision, through the comms. "Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head... you blow it to hell."

T'Challa started giving out orders. "Evacuate the city. Engage all defense procedures," He stopped at turned to Steve. "And someone get this man a shield."

"And some star-spangled tights! C'mon, people!" Dahlia called out, putting on a mock-stern voice and clapping her hands together to rush them.

"Alright, stupid, let's get on the carrier." Pietro laughed and helped her up into one.

As it started speeding off to the border of the city, she turned to her boyfriend. "Why are you riding on this thing? You literally have super speed, what's the point?"

"To spend time with you, obviously."

Dahlia raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "And?"

"Fine, and I was tired. Happy?"

"Very."

Bruce, who was keeping pace with the flying carriers in a Hulkbuster suit, was having the time of his life.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it! Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-" He stumbled on a rock and went flying into the ground, face (or should I say, helmet) first. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Rhodey's voice sounded in her ear. "I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line."

The two figures came into view as the carriers swerve into position, soldiers swarming out and bursting into a run.

As they came closer, Pietro and Dahlia recognized one of the two approaching aliens.

"Fuck, it's that Proxima bitch." Pietro muttered to the woman beside him.

Dahlia groaned. "Someone kill me. Wait, we're about to go fight, I'm not supposed to say that." She raised her voice so loud that everyone in a fourteen mile radius could hear.

"HEY! IF YOU HEARD ME BEFORE, I DIDN'T MEAN IT, DON'T LITERALLY KILL ME! ACTUALLY, YOU GUYS ON THE OTHER SIDE, I'LL PROBABLY END UP KILLING YOU, SO."

Steve looked embarrassed, but Dahlia really didn't care.

Another group of Wakandans, the Jabari, approached the battlefield. They stopped to greet T'Challa, forming a line at the front.

"Thank you for standing with us." The Wakandan king said, clasping wrists with the leader of the Jabari.

M'Baku smiled slightly. "Of course, brother."

Natasha looked towards Dahlia and gestured with her head.

She, Steve, Nat, Pietro, and T'Challa made their way to the edge of the barrier, where Proxima Midnight and another alien, Cull Obsidian stood.

"Where's your other friend?" Natasha smirked.

Pietro grinned. "He's just having a tea party with Satan, don't worry."

Dahlia snorted, earning a glare from the two aliens.

"You will pay for his life with yours. Thanos will have that stone." Proxima snarled, her dark eyes gleaming with hate.

"That's not gonna happen." Steve stepped up his face still and fearless.

T'Challa felt a spark of anger. "You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."

"We... have blood to spare." Proxima brandished her sword, and the ships that had landed behind her opened their doors, releasing tons of grotesque looking animals.

The five returned to the line of defense, and Dahlia whispered to Pietro quietly. "Is it bad that when she said that, I thought she had, like, bottles of blood on her ship?"

"No, I did too." Pietro whispered back.

"Glad to know we're both idiots."

"Did they surrender?" Bucky asked sarcastically, a sly smirk making its way onto his face.

Steve sighed. "Not exactly."

The Wakandans begin to chant their war cry, standing their ground as the alien creatures bounded towards the barrier.

"Yibambe!" T'Challa cried out.

"Yibambe!" The entire crowd responded.

Bucky's eyes widened at the sheer number of the creatures. "What the hell."

"I guess we pissed her off." Natasha loaded her gun.

"I can't imagine why." Dahlia said.

Okoye gasped as she watched the creatures cutting themselves in half and into pieces, trying to get through the shield. "They're killing themselves."

A few of them managed to squeeze through the border intact, and everyone began to assemble into attack formation. The front line raised their shields and took a knee. The line immediately behind them rested their sonic spears on the shoulders of those before them.

T'Challa's personal guard started firing at the monsters. Bucky armed his machine gun and Bruce began to fire the Hulkbuster's hand repulsors.

Dahlia handed one of her guns to Pietro, and they began firing on the creatures from a distance, not wanting to get close until they had to.

Sam flew into the battle from above, swooping in to fire at the aliens. "You seen the teeth on those things?"

"Alright, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed." Rhodey said, flying over the heaviest concentration of creatures, dropping a barrage of mines on top of them, which exploded loudly.

A pack on the outside of the shield began to run around the force field, to the right of their defense position.

Bruce's voice was concerned. "Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us... there's nothing between them and Vision."

Steve knew what it was he had to do, and it wasn't going to be easy. "Then we better keep 'em in front of us."

"How do we do that?" Okoye had an inkling of where this was going and she didn't like it.

"We open the barrier," T'Challa spoke into his comms. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."

"This will be the end of Wakanda." M'Baku said.

"Then it will be the noblest ending in history."

"Now!"

A very small slot opened in the shield, and the creatures came swarming into the area, distracted from trying to enter anywhere else.

The group charged towards the fight, but Cap and T'Challa pulled ahead of the crowd, their enhanced abilities putting them in front.

Pietro would have overtook them both, but he was so determined to stay by Dahlia's side that he slowed himself down to the pace of a regular person.

The larger group reached the monsters, and Dahlia began attacking them viciously. Her dagger sliced through the crowd, leaving countless alien corpses on the ground.

Pietro attracted his own crowd of aliens, using his speed to dodge all of their punches, knocking them all out in one fell swoop.

The pile that was swarming around Dahlia grew tenfold, and she knew she wouldn't be able to fight her way out on her own, so she chopped the head off of one of the creatures, creating a hole she used to climb through. Wrestling her limbs out of the alien's grasp, she climbed to the top of the pile, using their heads as a launching pad to jump off and towards Pietro.

She worried she might land on the ground and break her ankle, or something worse, but luckily for her, she had a boyfriend with super speed who would never let that happen.

Without breaking a sweat, Pietro caught her in his arms, sparing a wink at her while he did. "So, I guess you haven't stopped falling for me, now have you?"

"I would never." Dahlia grinned and kissed his cheek.

"Now let's go kick some ass."

"Let's do that."

So, they re-entered the fight, with a new strategy that was a bit outlandish, but whatever works, works, right?

Pietro ran through the crowd using his speed, Dahlia riding on his back, a dagger in one hand, popcorn in the other.

He ran in a circular pattern, and she cleared the whole perimeter, all while pouring the contents of the plastic bag into her mouth.

While Dahlia and Pietro were holding their own, the rest of the Avengers were struggling against the creatures. And while those two were fabulous, they alone weren't enough to pull everyone else out from the deep end.

Bruce was being dogpiled and pinned to the ground, the Hulkbuster couldn't take much more than that. "There's too many of them!"

Suddenly, a large beam of rainbow light burst into the middle of the action and an axe flew out of it, wreathed with lightning and tearing through the aliens, freeing several of the heroes.

The axe flew back into the light and back into its master's hand.

The rainbow beam cut out, revealing Thor, a raccoon, and a tree.

If it was in any other situation, Dahlia would've thought she was going crazy, but all she could feel was relief. "That's my best friend! Boom!"

Thor flashed her a smile, and Dahlia faltered. She gestured to his hair, which was now short, with a questioning look.

He shook his head as if to say, 'Later'.

Bruce opened the Hulkbuster's helmet and started laughing maniacally. "You guys are so screwed now!"

"Bring me Thanos!" Thor's tone was dark and threatening, and Proxima and Cull did a double take at his presence.

He charged toward the hordes of creatures, followed by the tree and the raccoon. Lightning circulated around him, thickening the air in the whole city. Thor launched himself into the air, demolishing a large group of aliens, making a crater where they had stood.

"Come and get some, space dogs!" The raccoon yelled, blasting the aliens to hell.

Bucky came up behind him, grabbing him with his mechanical arm and hoisting him into the air, and the two fired at everyone around them.

"How much for the gun?" The raccoon asked the man, interest sparking in his eyes.

Bucky blasted a creature in the face. "Not for sale."

"Okay, how much for the arm?"

Bucky just gave him a look and moved on.

"Oh, I'll get that arm."

Dahlia and Pietro were pushed into the middle of the battle, right alongside Steve and Thor.

"New haircut?" Steve panted.

Thor grinned. "Notice you've copied my beard."

"Why, thank you for noticing." Dahlia stroked an invisible beard, Pietro shaking with laughter from where he stood, still supporting her on his back.

The thunder god laughed and shook his head. The tree that came with him skewered three creatures with his right arm. "By the way, this is a friend of mine. Tree."

"I am groot!" The tree snarled.

"I am Steve Rogers." Cap greeted politely, thinking they were introducing themselves.

"I think his name is Groot, Thor." Dahlia smiled.

There was no time to revel in the small bit of happiness, however, because the issue of Cull Obsidian, one of the head aliens, was becoming more and more pressing.

Cull Obsidian's weapon was devastating, to put it simply. It was a chained hammer, and it shook the ground underneath everyone's feet the moment it hit the ground.

"Darling, we're doing a great job with these guys, but someone needs to take on that alien jackass." Dahlia said.

Pietro gave her a look. "Are you crazy? You could get hurt!"

"Not to be blunt, and I love that you care about my safety, but practically everything we do could get me hurt. I have to try."

He scoffed, but knew she was right. "Fine, but you're not doing it alone. I won't let you."

"Don't worry, I have a plan. And it involves you."

•

"You know, when you said that you had a plan, I was expecting it to be better than this."

"Oh, shush, now let me get on your shoulders."

You know when they say, 'It's so crazy, it just might work?' Well, look that up in the dictionary, and you'd see a picture of Dahlia Anelace's face. She was practically the human embodiment of that saying, so her plan was going to follow suit.

Dahlia climbed on Pietro's shoulders, and the two took off in the direction of the fight.

Her plan was a ballsy one, but what else would you expect from one from Dahlia?

She walked right up in front of the large alien, waving her arms and daring him to try her.

"Hey dumbass!"

Cull Obsidian looked down at the young woman as if she was a bug, and he'd like nothing more than to squash her with his giant feet.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you. You're the only ugly baffoon I can see here, well, besides Pietro."

"Hey!"

Cull looked at her with a sneer. "Puny humans, you all think that you're gods, but you will come to see that you are nothing more than a speck of dust in the universe."

"Well, I wouldn't be talking. You look like the physical embodiment of the words 'I think I'm going to throw up'." Dahlia put her hands on her hips.

Cull snarled and attempted to pull up his hammer, most likely to pummel her, but he found himself unable to do so.

Well, his inability was less because of a struggle on his part, but because of the lack of a weapon in his hand.

That was thanks to a certain speedster, whom Dahlia knew and loved.

Pietro was struggling a bit, but he managed to pick up the alien's hammer and drag it away from him.

Cull's confusion gave Dahlia the perfect window to jump off of Pietro's shoulders and kick the large giant in the face.

She winked at Pietro, and he immediately sprang into action, knocking the giant to his feet with his speed.

Together, the two Avengers hauled the hammer onto the giants chest, pinning him to the ground.

They stood atop the mountain-like alien's chest. Dahlia grinned down at their handiwork.

"Checkmate, bitch."

But while Dahlia was busy being so proud of what they'd done, Pietro couldn't tear his eyes off of the girl next to him.

"I'm so in love with you, you know that?"

"Well, who wouldn't be? I just helped take down a giant monster alien thing, it's a very dateable quality."

"Hell yeah, it is."