Soo.. before anyone goes all crazy on me- this is just a fanfic i thought of with my sister, Oblivionxx. we did all the research we could and are trying to stick to the comics as much as we can. But as most of you would know, the Marvel Universe is depressingly messy so we've finally decided to go with the Earth-616 plot line. So... this chapter is just the beginning to (what we hope) is gonna be an awesometastic fic :3
feel free to leave your feedback as reviews- criticism, praise or even ideas are welcome! hit that review button and we'll love you forever.
Darkness.
Darkness wrapped the Asgardian warrior with its tight hold, suffocating her. Anonymity was the master's priority- that she was aware of- but the warrior couldn't help but hope to- as the earth dwellers put it- shed some light on this situation. The only light, however, was the light from the distant burning gas that floated in the vast empty void that was space. Surround by the fiery stars, the warrior stood on a stagnant crater in the middle of the vast universe, pondering on whether this was a good idea.
By 'this', she meant the meeting with the master. Of course the warrior had spoken to the master on numerous occasions, but this time the setting was much different. This time the warrior bore no weapons. She missed the comforting feel of her sword gripped by her glove clad fingers, ready to be wielded.
Much like the darkness, silence also overwhelmed the warrior.
In silence we wait, she told herself as she succumbed to the emptiness echoing in her ears.
Another moment passed and the warrior grew impatient. Many moons rotated around the distant planets and the ever present darkness made it hard for the Asgardian to tell how much time had passed. Biting the edge of her lip, she furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance. This was not how she had planned to spend her hours; standing on a crater in the middle of nowhere surrounded by looming darkness waiting for a sign of the master's presence. The warrior's eyes had now adjusted to the blackness, but even as she squinted through the folds of the night she still couldn't see anything. Other than the large towering rock that stood to her right- or maybe she only knew that because of the numerous times she had bumped into it. Letting out an almost inaudible sigh, the warrior casually leaned against the boulder, one of her two long ebony black braids resting one shoulder.
"Warrior."
The voice shattered the silence the Asgardian had grown used to, and she hastily straightened herself.
"Master," she said with a slight bow.
She wasn't sure if the master could see her or not, but she would rather bow than take the risk of being seen as disrespectful. There was a low hum of approval from the nothingness before her.
"Warrior, the time has come," rang the voice of her omnipotent master.
The much awaited words; the words the warrior had longed to hear. The corners of her lips twitched upwards in an eerie smile. But the warrior knew that containing her excitement would only ensure her a longer life. Slowly she pushed her rising joy down and forced the wretched smile off her face.
"Yes master," she said, feigning humility, "As you wish."
Another low and deep hum answered the warrior. With a nod the she spun around on her heel, her face breaking into smile once again.
This was long overdue; this havoc she was about to wreak upon the unsuspecting earth dwellers. She knew of Loki and his miserable failure, but she also knew that she was nothing like the unwanted son of Odin, and that nothing would stop her.
Desperation fueled the young Asgardian prince.
But not her.
Determination flowed through her veins and to every fiber of her being.
Leaving the darkness and silence behind, she prepared for her battle.
She only hoped the mid-guardians would be prepared as well.
It wouldn't be any fun if they weren't.
What was he doing?
As a yawn escaped his lips for the umpteenth time that night, he couldn't understand for the life of him why he was down in his lab at four in the morning.
Again.
The metal contraption on his arm was cutting a little too deep into his flesh and the magnifying lens between him and the object of his interest was fogging up with every breath he took.
Slamming the screwdriver against the tabletop, he proceeded to shake the semi-invention off his forearm. The steel skeleton of the device creaked apart as he flexed his muscles and tumbled onto the table. He scooped the now destroyed piece of tech with his other hand and lobbed it towards the bin across the room.
Oh yeah, he thought to himself. Let's score.
As expected, the flying metal deathtrap smashed into Dum-E, completely missing its intended target, and the stupid robot began to whine in a monotone.
He never scored.
These days, he did nothing but hide away in his lab waay past his bedtime, working on inventions he KNEW wouldn't work.
WHY you ask?
Tony Stark was bored, that's why.
As much as he hated to admit it, the boredom had really set in deep.
Bone deep.
Tony could feel it in every move he made- and nothing was going to save him from this predicament. Unless of course some aliens decided to trash up the city for lunch. Maybe then he'd loosen up a bit.
But it had been an entire year and a few more lunches and there was no sign of alien activity whatsoever.
Except for those around his house.
Stark Tower had grown unexpectedly busy what with the new additions to the "family" and Tony was beginning to question his own half-brained idea.
Let's all crash at my place, I said, he remembered sourly. It'll be fun, I said.
Indeed, initially, the plan had turned out to be quite alright. But if he had thought living with Pepper was a crowd… living with the Avengers was claustrophobic.
Even though Stark Tower had enough space to accommodate fifty people comfortably on one floor.
And nothing ever went as expected. He'd expected Thor to be the one struggling to keep up with modern appliances, but apparently that Jane woman had that area covered for him. Instead, Cap had nearly jumped out of his skin when his bread had popped out of the toaster. That had been hilarious though, Tony admitted to himself.
Watching them struggle was cruel… but promising. Especially Captain Stripes and Stars. His reaction to the building and its gold mine of tech was priceless.
Chuckling to himself, Tony made his way out of his lab and headed for the kitchen. Normally, he wouldn't step in there until a meal was served, and even then he usually ate within the confines of his lab, but today he was starving something terrible. Silently, he crept up the stairs leading out of his lab and tiptoed towards the kitchen.
Almost there…. Almost…
'Great day isn't it?' a voice asked cheerfully as a figure hurtled down out of nowhere.
'Jesus kill-me-now Christ!' Tony shrieked, leaping a foot into the air.
Clint laughed heartily and dusted his shoulders with a shrug. 'How do you keep falling for this?' he asked with a smirk.
Tony growled as his heart rate slowed to a healthy pace. 'Why do you keep doing this?'
The archer just chuckled quietly and made his way into the kitchen to grab some breakfast, leaving his host fuming to himself.
Stupid Hawkeye and his stupid pranks…. Ugh, Tony grumbled to himself, mostly in distress rather than in actual contempt of his fellow team-mate.
Storming into the kitchen, he flung open the fridge and grabbed the last diet coke off a shelf.
'What was all the girly screaming about this time?' he heard a feminine voice ask and scowled before he answered.
'I do NOT scream like a girl,' he snapped, whirling around to meet the newcomer.
'Just my daily sneak-attack, Nats,' Clint replied as he made room for the Black Widow at the island sitting in the middle of the kitchen.
'He still falls for that?' she asked in her usual husky tone, quirking a brow at the billionaire extraordinaire across from her.
Clint only laughed in reply.
Tony couldn't believe it. Why did everyone pick on him? He was supposed to be the one pulling pranks on them. They were in his domain… his castle… he was supposed to be humiliating all of them!
'Erm… Stark?' Natasha ventured slowly, spooning ice cream into her mouth. 'You've got the 'world domination' look going on. Anything we should be worried about?'
Snapping out of his thoughts, Tony shook his head sadly. 'Nope. No world domination today. Is that ice cream?'
Natasha frowned and curled an arm around the tub of Oreos n' Cream protectively. 'Hey,' she snapped. 'Eyes off the merchandise.'
Beside her, Clint rose to his feet and stretched languidly. 'I'm off to the gym,' he announced shortly, before heading out of the room with only a frozen sandwich in his hand.
'Is it just me,' the redheaded spy at the island said slowly, in between spoonfuls of ice cream. 'or are we… dare I say it… getting lazy?'
Tony perked up upon hearing the word.
So it seemed he wasn't the only one.
'What do you mean 'we'?' he asked cautiously.
'Obviously not me,' Natasha said offhandishly, much to Tony's chagrin. 'I've got stuff to do.'
'Do you?' Tony asked immediately. 'What kind of stuff? No wait, don't tell me.'
'Wouldn't dream of it,' the redhead deadpanned.
'Fury's got you doing secret special super spy stuff right?' Tony continued, not deterred in the least by the ex-spy's death glares. 'I knew he was going behind our backs and doing sneaky stuff! Ohhhohoho! I'm ON to you, Fury!'
'Uh... Tony?'
The billionaire playboy swiveled around in his chair to face the woman at the doorway.
'Pepper!' he said brightly.
Then he cast a glance across the table at the spy seated opposite him in her nightclothes, surreptitiously eating away at the tub of ice cream.
'We're just getting breakfast!' he explained hastily.
'What else would you be doing?' Pepper asked with a scowl that disappeared once she caught sight of the plastic tub in the redhead's clutches.
'Oooh, ICE CREAM!' she squealed, reaching out towards Natasha.
The spy merely hugged the tub closer to her chest with a frown.
Pepper backed off with an apologetic smile. 'Or bananas…. I'll have a banana.'
Sighing to herself she walked around the kitchen searching for fruit.
'Well today is quieter than expected,' she observed, tossing an apple on to the counter.
'It's only till Cap gets up,' Tony replied with a shrug. 'Once he's done snoozing we're gonna go bug Fury.'
'Tony no,' Pepper protested weakly. 'Give that man a rest already.'
'Why what else have you done?' Natasha asked with wide eyes.
The technician extraordinaire beamed with unabashed pride. 'Yeah well, I just busted through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s firewalls and trashed their protective coding systems and totally hacked into the mainframe and stole like… half of their future development plans- nothing spicy there though, just boring infrastructure stuff- but then I froze Fury's database and guess what I found… his digital diary. Oh yeah. I'm awesome. Pepper, get me a sandwich.'
'Excuse me?' the blond haired woman snapped, glaring at her boyfriend in disgust.
'I- I meant that I'd like a sandwich… with pepper in it. A sandwich that I'm gonna make. Yeah,' Tony corrected hastily, reddening like the tomatoes he was going to put in the hypothetical sandwich of his, as he backed away from his fuming girlfriend.
'Damn right you are,' Pepper sniffed, crossing her arms and biting furiously into her apple.
Tony groaned and made for the doorway, grumbling as he went.
'I liked you better as my assistant,' he mumbled under his breath.
'WHAT?!' he heard Pepper shriek.
'I mean,' the billionaire struggled to say.
'That you'd like a sandwich with… assistants in it?' Natasha snorted in amusement, thrilled by the idea that Tony Stark was lost for words for once in his lifetime.
The usually cheeky member of their team scuttled away quietly in rejection and bumped right into a steel wall.
'Hey,' the steel wall mumbled sadly. 'You guys are already awake?'
'No, Cap,' Tony snapped irritably. 'We're sleeping while standing with our eyes open.'
'Bad one,' Pepper called as she walked past. 'Morning, Steve.'
'Who's Steve?' Tony wondered in confusion. 'His first name is Captain you know!'
Pepper just waved in reply.
'Sorry I'm late,' the ex-soldier apologized. 'I had to decapitate the shrieking black object near my face.'
'You killed my alarm clock?!' Tony cried. 'Those were like… the best thing in stores this season! They were NEW! And they glowed… in the dark!'
'That's kinda creepy, Stark,' the blond pointed out with a frown.
Tony sighed. 'Never mind.'
'So what do we do today?' Steve asked with a bright sunny smile, heading for the kitchen to grab himself a glass of concentrated orange juice like always did every morning at exactly five thirty.
'I was thinking we could harass Fury a bit more,' Tony offered, sipping on his Diet Coke. 'We haven't done that in a while.'
The captain glanced up, startled. 'We did that yesterday!'
'Well, yeaah,' the technical enthusiast sighed sarcastically. 'It's been thirteen hours since then! Up and away, Cap'n! These super secret files won't decode themselves, you know.'
'I have doubts about this, Stark,' Steve grimaced, twirling his straw in his glass of juice.
'Yeah me too,' Natasha added from her perch upon the island.
'Not you too, Romanoff!' Tony cried.
'I was thinking maybe we could watch a movie,' the ex-spy said, eyeing the soldier before her. 'Steve here needs to be updated about cinematography.'
'I'd say,' Tony sighed.
'So… what do we watch?' the captain asked as he struggled to keep up with the conversation.
'I dunno… how about the Sound of Music?' the redhead suggested, wiggling her eyebrows.
Tony gasped in horror. 'I- I was thinking more along the lines of the Titanic!'
'What are we doing?' Pepper asked, approaching them in her work clothes. 'I'm off to do some real work, please try and stay out of trouble. I'd like the roof in place once I return.'
'Natasha's trying to make Steve watch the Sound of Music,' Tony deadpanned.
'Oh that's lovely- Julie Andrews is amazing!' Pepper smiled at the captain in glee. 'You'll love it- it's so mellow.'
'Pepper, no! We can't show him a film with singing Nazis!' Tony cried in exasperation as Natasha groaned in defeat.
'You're losing it, Stark! It would've been hilarious!' the ex-spy grumbled.
'Singing Nazis?!' Steve choked on his orange juice.
'Oh my goodness I totally forgot, Steve's ancient!' Pepper squealed in mortification.
'I'm not ancient,' the captain protested weakly.
'Oh gods, I'm out of here,' Pepper cried, racing for the lift that lay open in wait for her departure.
'Have a good day, Miss Potts,' J.A.R.V.I.S said enthusiastically.
'What the hell?' Steve exclaimed. 'Why does your house keep speaking, Stark?'
'That's J.A.R.V.I.S, don't mind him, he's lonely.'
'Negative on that, sir.'
'Can it, J.A.R.V.I.S.'
'But sir… there's an incoming-.'
'I thought I told you to be quiet. Just help me hack into Fury's personal stuff will you?'
Tony headed for the stairs leading to his lab with a soft smile on his face, thankful for a moment that his day wasn't turning out too bad.
And just as the thought crossed his cluttered mind space… the roof caved in with a thunderous booming sound and brick exploded over their heads, raining down upon them in the form of debris and fragments. Coughing through the haze of dust, Tony called for his home computing system.
'J.A.R.V.I.S! What on earth is going on?'
'I told you sir, there was an incoming-.'
'Yeah but why didn't the defensive mechanisms activate? And the shield? Or the alarm, for Christ's sake?' Tony spluttered, waving an arm through the cloud of dust obstructing his view, with his fingers outstretched; waiting for his suit to automatically latch onto his body.
Around him, he could hear Natasha assisting the Captain to his feet and shouting over the rumbling of Stark Tower for Clint.
'Well, sir, I never said it was an unfriendly.'
Sure enough, a figure rose out of the debris, standing gloriously amidst the rubble and dust. If the red cape flapping behind the silhouette wasn't enough of a clue, the booming voice that erupted from the newcomer a second later was a dead giveaway.
'MIDGUARDIANS,' Thor bellowed, raising his hammer in the air. 'I HAVE ARRIVED.'
'You could've spared my ceiling!' Tony protested weakly.
'APOLOGIES, MAN OF IRON. BUT I COME BEARING GRAVE NEWS.'
'What is it, Thor?' Natasha asked curiously, batting the dust away from her face.
At her side, Clint slapped a hand to his face. 'Had to have a dramatic entrance, didn't you big guy?'
'Is it honestly that terrible?' Steve coughed, eyeing the Asgardian skeptically.
'THE FATE OF MIDGARD HANGS IN THE BALANCE- SO I'D SAY IT'S TERRIBLE. HONESTLY.'
As the group crowded around the Asgardian to hear his message, Tony sighed and plunked down to sit on an excessively large piece of rubble.
'Still could've used the door,' he mumbled to himself, gazing up through the massive chunk of space in his ceiling to the clear blue sky above.
a/n: well we pretty much said everything right at the top.. so just fave follow and review. we'll be back with another chapter soon!
