It was a warm summer's night just outside the city of Chicago where a house was. Down in the basement of the medium sized three story house were two girls around the ages of 19 and 20. One had shoulder length curly brown hair and brown eyes while the other had long, straight brown hair and slightly darker brown eyes.
Since it was a Friday night it was movie night. So of course, they were watching Avengers with an empty pizza box in between them and a bowl half filled with popcorn on the floor.
"I feel like a couch potato" the brown eyed girl joked, noticing the mess.
"That's because you are, Panther" the long brown haired girl replied, smirking.
"Shut up Brooke" Panther said with a slight glare as she tried to fight back her own smile.
Brooke let out a small chuckle before letting her gaze fall back to the movie. Slowly, she reached for her Loki plushy and held it close, unconsciously stroking its head. Panther would occasionally look over with a concern look in her eyes, but she would say nothing.
"It would be cool if we saw the avengers in real life" Panther suddenly mused with a faraway look in her eyes.
Brooke nodded, for once agreeing. "Yeah, I'll have to agree with you on that one" she said.
Panther looked over at her friend with a surprised look. "You never agree with my dreams!" she said.
Noticing it just turned 11:11, Brooke smirked at Panther with a look that said 'well I do now' as they both nodded slowly. They both understood completely what the other was wishing, for the two wished the same thing.
That was when the portal opened up, and as they were sucked into it, Panther instantly regretted making the wish. But she didn't think it would feel like this. Her thoughts were confusing, and her senses were going haywire. Panther felt like her body was changing, but she couldn't tell.
After they landed, both Panther and Brooke lay motionless for a bit. Finally, when Panther felt that she had regained her composure, she shakily stood up on…all fours!
"Brooke!" Panther exclaimed with a slight growl.
"Wow Panther, your growling is actually sounding more realistic. It actually sounds like…" Brooke stopped mid-sentence as she turned to face her friend. Her eyes were wide.
"A panther? Yeah, I know! But how do I change back!" Panther asked as she walked towards a puddle of clear water.
Panther was exactly as her name described. She had black fur and ice blue eyes. Panther was all medium sized. Maybe I'll be more agile now. She thought with a smile.
"I can't believe this. How come you get a power, and I don't?" Brooke asked as she began to pace. Unbeknownst to her however, a second Brooke was following her.
"Uh, Brooke, look" Panther said, pointing a paw to the second Brooke.
Upon seeing her copy, Brooke nearly squealed with delight. "I'm like Loki!" she exclaimed.
Panther rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just find civilization" she suggested.
"Shouldn't you turn back?" Brooke asked as her copy disappeared.
"I don't know how! I'll just be your pet panther" Panther said.
The two friends eventually found the city of New York. Of course they got weird looks since Brooke was pretending to walk a panther. Of course, Panther took great pleasure in embarrassing her friend in a way that Brooke couldn't hurt her without getting in trouble for animal abuse.
"You know, I'm never going to let you forget this" Panther whispered.
Brooke was about to retort with a threat when she stopped at a TV store. On the news it was talking about the avengers. Panther looked over and placed her paws on the window, disbelief in her eyes.
"No way," the two whispered almost simultaneously in awe.
Brooke was the first to recover and she looked down at Panther. "We're going to go get Loki's weapon from SHEILD so I can have it" she said, not even asking for permission.
Panther was taken aback. "What? No! We can't! How would we even get into a highly guarded airship thing?" she asked.
Brooke smirked, already having an answer. "Simple. We're going to climb in the air ducts just like we used to as kids. And don't argue Nicole." Brooke answered, using Panther's real name.
Panther gulped and nodded slowly. She couldn't remember the last time she heard her real name. It had to be before high school for sure because she earned the nickname in middle school. Soon everyone including teachers and family were calling Panther by her nickname, and her real name was forgotten. It was just a vague memory in the back of Panther's mind. That was, until now.
The avengers had been in their meeting room trying to figure out what to do about Loki and the tesseract. They were arguing for a bit, but it soon turned into a tense silence as everyone glared at each other.
Thump…thump…thump. Clint looked up at where the air ducts were as did the other avengers. There was no way that sound was the air conditioning.
"Can't you be any quieter?" a voice hissed somewhat loudly.
"Sorry" another voice replied, although it seemed more annoyed then apologetic.
Tony was about to punch the air duct to scare whoever was in there, but Steve stopped him. "Patience" he whispered quietly.
So there they stood, listening to the two voices constantly argue as they walked along.
"Let's crawl through the air ducts…you said. We'll get to meet our favorite people…you said"
"Panther, I swear if you do not shut up I will come back there and…"
"Come at me bro!"
Their mission forgotten, Brooke whirled around and tackled Panther with a good hard thump. Of course, they would never really hurt each other, and were laughing more than anything.
"Are you licking me?!" Brooke exclaimed, pulling away from Panther.
"It was the only self-defense I had that wouldn't harm you!" Panther shot back.
The friends' little charade came to a halt due to a loud groan heard from underneath the two. Panther's eyes widened and she looked at Brooke. Already, Panther could feel the duct where they were standing caving in.
"Brooke!" Panther exclaimed, shoving her friend out of the way in the nick of time.
Panther was on the ground in the center of the avengers. Groaning, she placed a paw on her head only to see it was a hand. "Oh hey, I'm back!" she exclaimed before eyeing the avengers. "and surrounded"
Panther noticed Brooke stick her head out. Brooke was about to say something, but she saw the look in Panther's eyes that said 'stay quiet and continue on'. Brooke nodded slowly and left, making sure to be quiet.
"I'm sure you're probably wondering why I came here alone and in the air ducts. And you're probably wondering why I was talking to myself. Well, I can't explain that. So….later!" Panther said before running off.
I need to morph into a panther. Panther thought, looking behind her and seeing how she had Thor chasing her. And fast. Just think panther. Big cat, black with ice blue eyes. Fast and agile.
Before she knew it, Panther had morphed into a black panther and was able to run faster. "Hey what do you know that actually…AH!" whatever she was about to say was cut off the moment Thor's hammer went past her.
Brooke really hoped Panther was alright with leading a distraction. This wasn't supposed to happen. She thought worriedly.
Continuing on her way, Brooke could occasionally look through a vent in hopes of finding the right room. Finally, instead of finding the tesseract, she found something better. Brooke had found a certain god of mischief.
Time to have some fun. Brooke thought with a smirk before silently opening the air vent and hopping out of it with a chuckle. "Seems you got yourself in quite a pickle" she mused.
Loki looked up at the girl, slightly annoyed. "Who are you, and what do you want?" he asked.
Brooke pondered this for a moment, wondering if she was freaking Loki out like she half hoped to. She was feeling kind of evil for this, but it was worth it. Plus, it was amusing. Finally, she answered. "My name is Brooke, and CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH!" she shouted.
Before Loki could reply, Brooke had turn around when she heard a familiar voice. "Gosh dang it Brooke!" Panther said as she crashed into Brooke in her panther form.
"Panther, get off me and get out of here. Hey, where are the avengers?" Brooke asked, untangling herself from her friend.
"They're coming and fast. Run you idiot, run!" Panther replied, nudging Brooke with her head somewhat hard.
"Words can't even explain how much I really hate you right now" Panther grumbled as she sat in a corner of the cell that previously held Loki.
They had been caught after nearly a whole hour of running about and hiding. Of course half the time it took to get caught was only because they used Loki's escape as a distraction.
"Then just say what you're thinking right now" Brooke insisted.
Panther sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Let's just say it's beyond mentally stabbing you 37 times in the chest" she muttered.
Brooke glared at Panther, but made no attempt to start an argument. Instead, she stayed quiet, having an argument with Panther in her head. At least I didn't give my powers away. She thought bitterly.
"Clint, are you hearing this?" Bruce called over her shoulder.
"We're all hearing it. What we don't know is why they wanted the tesseract and that's what we need to find out" Clint replied.
Bruce was about to say more, but he heard the two girls, apparently called Brooke and Panther, talk again.
"Hey Brooke, guess what" the one called Panther spoke.
"What?" Brooke asked curiously
"I get to drink alcohol before you" Panther boasted.
"Shut up" Brooke answered threateningly.
"I also got to vote before you" Panther continued, ignoring Brooke. "And I got my learners before you and my drivers before you and…."
"WELL YOU DIE FIRST!" Brooke retorted loudly.
The room where the avengers were grew silent upon Brooke's retort. It was only broken by Tony laughing. "Ok, I like her!" he exclaimed.
"Brooke seems a little harsh, but then again Panther had it coming with her arrogance" Thor observed.
"I wouldn't be badgering Panther though. She did tell us she was alone in an effort for her friend to get away" Natasha said, defending the panther morphing girl.
"We never said anything about badgering Panther. Merely that she had it coming to her" Steve protested.
"I spy something silver" Brooke said, looking around.
"The pencil holder on the desk outside our cell" Panther guessed.
Brooke nodded. "Correct. I spy something…"
"This is boring! Everything here is either silver or grey! We need a new game!" Panther snapped as she stood up and began to pace back and forth.
"Well, if we had two cups we could play around" Brooke suggested. "But alas, we're cupless"
"Wait, we don't need cups. I got something we can use" Panther said, taking a necklace with a flash drive on it off and handing it to Brooke. "Here"
"Why are you…nevermind" Brooke began, only to sigh and drop it. Panther was just being weird.
After a little bit of tossing the flash drive back and forth, Brooke grew bored. There was nothing to do but sit and wait. She knew the avengers were listening and watching, so no way would she and Panther be able to talk about ways to escape or even about ways to get back to their home; if they even wanted to go back.
"Panther, you know what sucks?" Brooke asked.
"Your life?" Panther answered, before laughing.
Brooke glared hard at her friend. "Woman…I know where you live. I know where you sleep. I KNOW YOUR LAPTOP PASSWORD!" she yelled.
Panther shrunk some in the corner, curling up. "Ok ok, I get. No 'your life jokes' with you. Anyways, what sucks?" she replied.
"The fact that we're stuck here with nothing to do. It's obvious we're both bored" Brooke complained.
"Fine, I'll tell you my life story" Panther said.
Brooke's eyes widened as she forced herself not to bang her head on the glass wall. It was going to be a long time before they got out.
"And then when I was in 4th grade, I finally found out Grace read Warriors. Well you know how socially awkward she can be, and keep in mind at the time we only knew each other by name and face, nothing more. So you can only imagine the look she had on her face when I ran up to her and hugged her saying 'I love you!'" Panther continued.
Brooke groaned. So far it had been two hours, and Panther was still going. She couldn't take it! So, Brooke looked up at where she guessed the camera was and with pleading eyes whispered. "Get me out of here! Or at least kill me"
"And then, I really wanted a kitten, but I couldn't get o…" Panther said before Brooke let out a scream and began to bash her head on the wall.
"Shut up will you?! It's been nonstop blabber since we were bored!" Brooke shrieked before continuing to hit her head on the wall.
"Brooke" Panther whispered.
"WHAT!" Brooke snapped, turning around. Her left eye was twitching.
"You're killing brain cells" Panther said with a dead serious look.