Bedtime Story
It was nine years after the Avengers had first assembled and fought in the Battle of Manhattan. It was just over three years after they disassembled and they'd all gone their separate ways. Now, all the Avengers, their partners and children they had in the last year together, were all out of contact. The children themselves had no idea of the family they'd lived with for a while before the Avengers split. They also had no idea about their parents other identities. Apart from the Stark twins. They knew their older sister; Rosie Stark was Iron Woman but had no idea about Tony being Iron Man. Tony, Pepper and Rosie agreed to keep it from them, try and give them a normal childhood for as long as they could. Rosie however was free to let them know as she was still in the superhero game. She had told the twins but as far as they knew Iron Man was only her mentor not their Father. So that's why one night when she was babysitting her two younger siblings she was always nervous they may ask her about Manhattan, if they ever found out she wasn't too sure what she'd do.
One night on a rainy July night Rosie found herself babysitting the two twins once again. Pepper and Tony had gone out for their weekly date night and as usual called Rosie to babysit. It was one only time apart from Birthdays, Christmases, Thanksgiving's and New Years that she saw her brother and sister as she lived on the New Avengers Mansion. Looking up to the clock she saw it was half nine and the two kids should have been in bed long ago but oh well they weren't tried but half past nine was really pushing it.
"Right you two, time to go to bed!" Rosie smiled pausing the Little Mermaid which they were watching. Both four year olds turned and pouted at her.
"But Wosie I'm not tired!" Maxie stropped.
"Me nwether!" Jason pouted. Rosie smiled at the two.
"You know you're up way past your bedtime. If Mummy knew she'd have my head!" Rosie tickled Jason who was closest to her. Jason squealed and tried to wriggle out of her grip but failed.
"No! We go to bed!" Maxie jumped up and ran to out the room. Rosie stopped her attack on Jason to look down at him. She raised an eyebrow at the four year old daring him to move.
"Well I stay here." he grinned.
"Oh no you don't, let's go Munchkin!" Rosie quickly picked him up and put him on her shoulder. Jason squealed in delight at being so high up. Rosie quickly made her way to the twos shared bedroom ducking at the doors so Jason wouldn't hit his head. When she came into the room she saw Maxie fighting with her top. As soon as it was over her head she turned to Rosie in delight.
"Look Wosie, I'm a big girl! I can dress myswlf!" she cried. Rosie smirked as she looked at the four year old who had her top on the wrong way. Carefully she put Jason down before turning back to Maxie.
"Well done Maxie! But don't you think it would be better to have your top on the right way round?" she suggested. Maxie looked down to her top before nodding. Rosie helped her turn it round and was greeted by a My Little Pony before turning to help Jason into his Thomas the Tank Engine PJs. After she'd put away the dirty clothes and put the two to bed she was about to turn off the light when Maxie stopped her.
"Wosie! Aren't you going to tell us a stowy?" she called. Rosie turned. Dam she forgot. If she didn't read them a story the two would be awake by the time Tony and Pepper would be back and Pepper really would bite her head off.
"Of course, what story do you want?" she asked going back into the room. Rosie took her usual seat on the edge of Maxie's bed expecting for one of the twins to jump up and get a book. When neither of the two moved she furrowed her eyebrows together.
"Tell us about Manhattan pwease Wosie!" Jason cried, "Mummy and Daddy won't tell us!" Rosie froze. No she can't. Wait how did they even find out about that? Oh never mind she can ask Pepper and Tony later. They were going to know about the Battle of Manhattan sooner or later. If she tells them now she can change a few things. Sighing Rosie nodded.
"Alright but don't tell Mummy and Daddy, it's our little secret ok?" she told them. Pepper and Tony would be annoyed if they found out about this particular bedtime story. Hearing this, the two nodded eagerly. Rosie was about to start Maxie jumped out of bed and ran over to Jason's bed and jumped in. Rosie waited until she was tucked in before starting.
"Before the battle started I sat in the tower trying to track down the very evil wizard known as The Trickster and my captured friend the Witch (she replaced Mello's name, they've met Mello they shouldn't know about her). Suddenly a crash came from the tower. It was a devise that could open a portal to another dimension!" Rosie cried. At this the two gasped.
"Distracting the devise I didn't notice the evil The Trickster and the Witch was in the room! The Trickster ordered the brainwashed Witch to chuck me out the window but she didn't do it. Angry the Trickster did it himself. I thought I was doomed when a pair of metal arms wrapped around me. It was my mentor Iron Man! He returned me to the tower before going to face The Trickster alone. When he arrived there the Witch was gone but he distracted The Trickster instead giving me enough time to get my suit before he too was chucked out the window! Seconds later he appeared again hovering in his metal suit. I quickly joined him before he shot at The Trickster sending him flying. Together we flew up to where the devise was and much to our shock there was a man! Iron Man told him to shut it down but the man refused saying her couldn't stop it! The machine had already started! Iron Man taking none of it shot at the machine but we both flew back. The machine was protected by a force field!" Rosie pretended to be shocked. The twins gasped again before Maxie muttered something that sounded like an 'oh no'. Rosie waited a second before carrying on.
"Once we'd stabled ourselves we looked up to see a portal in the sky with aliens flying out of it! Quickly we flew up and started to attack the aliens. When we were a jet arrived in New York carrying our soon to be team mates. One of them, the Trickster's half-brother the Thunderor flew out of the jet and landed on the balcony of the tower. The Thunderor tried to persuade the Trickster to fight with us and for a moment he thought he had but instead he stabbed the Thunderor! Hurt, but in no way injured Tho- the Thunderor fell to the ground when the jet carrying the team went to shot the Trickster but the Trickster shot at them. Seeing the jet get shot the Thunderor jumped up and fought with his half-brother."
"What about the jet?" Jason asked worried.
"I'll come to that," Rosie nodded, "Whilst all this was happening Iron Man tried to stop the aliens flying out of the portal whilst I went after the ones that got into New York. I was just chasing one when I saw the Witch. She too was fighting the aliens not helping them but trying to stop them! Confused I went over to her and asked her what she was doing." In truth she'd flown over to Mello and well… tried to kill her. The two fought for minutes all the time Mello tried to convince her that she had been brainwashed and was on their side. Eventually Rosie believed her but the twins didn't need to know the whole truth.
"She told me she was on outside, that she had been brainwashed. After a bit of talking she convinced me and not long after I did a jet came flying towards us! Quickly we both dived for cover before rushing to the jet! Before we could reach it the jet opened and out came three people. The first was the world's first superhero, the amazing Captain America, then the best spy in the world and also my trainer the Black Widow. Followed by the Black Widow was the archer Hawkeye, he never ever misses. We went over to the three and the Captain explained to us what happened not long after the Thunderor flew towards us before telling us the Trickster had escaped! Whilst we were talking about what to do a motorbike came towards her. I recognised the man instantly; it was a very famous Dr who could transform into the Hulk when he is angry. We walked over to Dr and not long after we did Iron Man came spoke to us from the ear pieces in our ears.
'I'm bringing the party to you!' he said. We all looked up to see him followed by one of the alien ships! None of us knew what to say apart from Black Widow. Shaking her head she muttered.
'I-I don't see how that's a party,' she muttered." The two twins giggled before urging Rosie to carry on.
"Captain America quickly turned to the Dr.
"Dr now would be a very good time for you to get angry,' he told him. The Dr nodded before getting off the bike and started to transform into the strongest thing on this Earth. The Hulk. Iron Man flew down low causing the ship to slid along the pavement. The Hulk walked towards the ship and punched it at the front causing some of its armour to split. Iron Man quickly shot it with a mini missile and it fell to the ground unable to move. Captain America quickly gave us all our orders so we all went to carry them out. As ordered I flew into the sky and started to hunt down the aliens that were flying through the sky. Whilst we were fighting the Hulk had found the Trickster! Angry he hit him off the alien hover board he was on and into the tower. The Trickster went flying across the room but quickly jumped up before the Hulk could attack him he spoke," saying this Rosie jumped up and imitated what he had done.
"Enough!' he cried causing the Hulk to stop, 'You are all of you beneath me! I am God you dull creature and I will not be bullied by you any-' but poor old Trickster didn't have time to finish his sentence the Hulk had had enough. He grabbed Trickster by his feet," Rosie turned and grabbed the teddy off of Maxie's bed by the feet and lightly swinging it about like the Hulk had Loki, "and sung him about hitting him off the floor. When Hulk dropped him he smiled and walked away muttering.
'Puny God.' Poor old Trickster could only lie in his created hole and let a whimper escape him." Rosie imitated him whimper making the two laugh, "Whilst all this was happening, we took down aliens after aliens, ships after ships but it was all too much. They kept coming and we all knew it."
"What did you do?" Jason asked worried.
"I didn't do anything. It was Black Widow. She had an idea on how to close it. she was fighting with the Captain at the time so she told him. He used his shield to boost her up so she could grab onto one of the alien's hover board and drove it up to the tower. She jumped up onto the tower and looked at the machine. She talked with the man who had been under the tricksters control this whole time and together they shut down the machine using the Tricksters own weapon. After all the aliens had defeated we regrouped and went up to the tower where the Trickster lay just getting up. We stood behind him as he slowly turned to face us. As soon as he saw us all he knew he was defected. The next day we let his half-brother take him to a place far away before we all went our separate ways but not for long. Months later we got back together and called ourselves the Avengers. There you go the Battle of Manhattan," Rosie smiled getting off the bed. Rosie lifted up Maxie and placed her in her own bed tucking her back in and giving her back her teddy.
"Were did Trickster go?" Jason asked yawning.
"Well I can't tell you! It's a secret!" Rosie kissed Maxie on the head, "Now go to sleep. Night Maxie. Night Jason." She kissed Jason on the head before turning off the light and walking out the room. Stretching she wasn't looking where she was going and walked right into Pepper and Tony, squeaking in surprise. Pepper and Tony laughed before they moved into the living room.
Pepper left them after a bit of talking to check on the twins. Tony took a set on the couch before turning to Rosie. Now that Pepper was gone they could talk about superheroes business. It wasn't that Pepper wouldn't let them talk about it the subject just worried her a lot. It brought up a lot of bad memories for her for all of them but Tony and Rosie can deal with it better than her.
"So how's the job going?" he asked, "Fury missing me much?" Rosie laughed before looking down nervously. Tony looked at his 21 year old daughter. Something was wrong, really wrong. She never acted like this unless something was really wrong.
"Rosie?" he asked moving closer, "What is it? You can tell me." Rosie stood up and motioned him to follow her outside. Pepper couldn't hear his. It would only make her worse. Tony did and followed her out the door.
"I was talking to Fury yesterday he told me something that worries me a lot… There's something coming Tony. Something big. We don't know what it is but it's taking down planet after planet, not destroying it but whipping out its people and replacing it with something else. It's heading here. To Earth. We're starting to prepare but Fury doesn't think it'll be enough. He's put every superhero team on high alert. The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, my New Avengers all of us. He also told me something else, that when the order is given it's my job to reassemble the Avengers," Rosie explained. Tony stayed silent for a minute unsure what to say.
"I'll come as soon as you need me, you know that but the others, we've not talked in years!" Tony whispered.
"I know but we've, by we I mean S.H.I.E.L.D. and my New Avengers to some extent watched over them. They're all alive and safe," Rosie took car keys out her pocket and pressed the button unlocking her red sports car, "Be ready Tony, I think it'll be time to assemble once again pretty soon." Tony nodded before hugging her good bye before watching her drive away, out of the mansion's walls and towards the airport. He watched the car tail lights for as long as he could see them. Pepper soon came out to join him before putting a hand on his shoulder causing him to jump. Seeing him jump caused Pepper to narrow her eyes. Something was wrong.
"Tony, everything alright?" she asked looking to the car tail lights that were fading away. As soon as they were gone Tony sighed and put his arm around Pepper's waist, leading her back inside. Once the door was locked and closed he kissed her on the lips.
"Yeah, everything's fine. Go to bed I'll be there in a minute I just have to check something," he told her. Pepper hesitated for a minute staring at him. Something was really wrong she could tell. But she knew Tony wouldn't tell her, she knew that. Maybe Rosie would tell her but even Rosie telling her wasn't very likely. Pepper sighed before nodding, kissing him again and walking away. Tony waited until she was out of the room before speaking.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. you up?" he whispered.
"For you Sir, always," the IA responded. Tony ran a hand through his hair. This was a lot to take in but he has to be strong, for his family. They can't know it would only make them worry.
"Put the security up to high alert and prepare the lab. Tomorrow we're starting up shop again." Tony ordered before walking out the room. He headed toward Pepper and his room but before he did her looked into the twins. Both Jason and Maxie were sound asleep unaware of the danger that was looming. Carefully he shut the door. This time he'd be prepared. Unlike in the Battle of Manhattan, he'd have a plan. As soon as the word is given he'll become Iron Man once again. He'll do anything to protect his family. The whole world. With or without the Avengers.
Ok so I didn't mean to leave it like this but it just kind of happened... If anyone wants me to I could make it into a story but if not I'm just going to leave it as a one-shot. Please review and tell me what you think