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Meriln was starting to think that Arthur did come back and Freya simply forgot to tell him. Between all the jibes and ordering him around he half expected Tony Stark to tell him to polish his armour.
Nevertheless he was glad that he took the risk and went undercover as a SHIELD agent. He had his doubts- the technology made it more difficult to hide his magic than it was in Camelot, especially if he was hiding from intelligence agency but the future of Earth was at stake.
Besides he used the best method of hiding known to mankind.
"By the way... emmmm..." Tony Stark said and squinted looking at the agent standing before him "What is your name, anyway?"
"Merlin" said the greatest sorcerer who walked the earth and beamed. Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you a little too young to be a wizard?"
"Actually, Merlin was a warlock. And he could be a young warlock, we'll never know for sure."
Tony just shrugged.
"Yeah, whatever. Go get me that coffee, will you?"
Meriln nodded and went in the direction of the coffeemaker.
In all that time he was waiting for Arthur, he learned that whatever alias he could come up with, nothing worked better for hiding his secret than his real name.
***+***
"It seems to run on some form of electricity" Steve said and looked at Meriln. It was completely natural for a World War II weteran to assume that the young agent standing before him was better suited for handling advanced technology. Unfortunately, Merlin had problems with keeping up with technological advances since the industrial revolution.
"I'll take care of that" said Merlin wondering if a spell used for repairing broken vases would work on the helicarier "You go get the bad guys."
Fortunately the spell worked like a charm.
***+***
"What are you doing?"
"I'm coming with you" Meriln said smiling and tried to look as determined and competent as possible. Natasha wasn't impressed.
"No, you're not. It's too dangerous. Why would you even want to come?"
Meriln didn't hesitate when he answered. He could choose many different answers- that he wanted to avenge Coulson, that he was a trained agent and could take care of himself or that he was a powerful warlock and someone you really wanted on your team when you planned to fight a god. He could list hundreds of logical arguments but his experience taught him that in a situation like this a joke worked better than logic.
"It'll look good on my resume."
Natasha stared at him for a moment and finally said:
"I'm not babysitting you. You're going at your own risk."
***+***
Merlin was happy that he still kept track of the locations of swimming pools wherever he went. Asking Tony Stark if he had a pool in Stark Tower when Meriln and Coulson went to fetch him might've made him look like an idiot (at this point that really was an integral part of his image) but at least now he knew where to go.
He kneeled at the edge of the pool, whispered a spell and waited. There were no windows in the room but he could hear the noises of the battle taking place above him. He hadn't been waiting long before a woman appeared in the middle of the pool.
Merlin groaned internally.
"Morgana, I called Freya, not you. I need Excalibur."
The witch laughed.
"Freya is currently unavailable. And I'd like to know which part of 'the sword will wait for the return of the Once and Future King' you don't understand."
"The part where aliens attack New York and he still hasn't returned."
"So it begins" said Morgana without any trace of her previous amusement. Merlin had a bad feeling about this.
"What begins?" he asked but Morgana just shook her head.
"You know it doesn't work this way, Merlin. I can't tell you what happens, only that you'll soon face many trials. And Arthur will come when he'll be needed the most."
"There's a battle above us that'll decide the fate of the Earth. When he'll be needed more than today?"
"Soon. When everything else fails, when there will be no hope, Arthur will rise" she said and there was faint trace of a smile on her lips "and he'll go for the head."
Morgana turned around slowly and started disappearing.
"Wait! The sword!"
"Excalibur won't do the trick this time. To pierce that barrier you need Loki's scepter. Good luck," she said not turning around.
"Great, just great," Merlin mumbled and went to find himself a scepter.
***+***
Merlin was quite surprised how much he liked that "shawarma" thing. He probably would never tried that if it wasn't for aliens attacking New York.
"You know what? That was worth this entire trip," he said after eating the last bite.
"You're sure? Because it's a long way from here to Camelot..." said Tony playing with his can of cola.
"Can you stop? Are you always picking on skinny, too nice to fight back kids?" Steve interrupted him before Meriln had a chance to answer.
"Wait, I'm comparing him to a badass sorcerer, you're calling him a skinny kid and somehow you think I'm the bad guy?"
Natasha rolled her eyes.
"Stop it, both of you. We should get back to Fury."
"Right. Have you seen my hammer?" asked Thor looking around.
"Oh," said Merlin standing up "here you go," he handed Thor Mjölnir. The god of thunder stared at him.
"That's impossible," Thor whispered. Merlin frowned.
"Is something wrong with it?"
"You need to be worthy to pick it up," seeing the confused looks the rest of the Avengers gave him, he added "I don't think any of you could lift it."
Meriln chuckled nervously. He wanted to run and possibly throw Mjölnir into the nearest lake.
"Maybe I'll try pulling out a sword from a stone next," he said and was relieved when his favourite hiding trick worked once again.