"Agent Coulson just called, we need to go." Steve Rodgers had thrown open the door with far greater force than he had meant to, and winced when it slammed against the unsuspecting wall behind it.
"Well, I guess we better suit up then." Tony Stark quickly jumped off of his sleek couch which Steve honestly wasn't sure how he had managed to get into his temporary S.H.I.E.L.D apartment, and followed him down the hallway to the dimly lit steel room that held their armor.
Tony was lucky, all he had to do to "suit up" was push a button, and the suit came to him. Steve, on the other hand, had a less technologically advanced outfit. It required stripping down to nothing but a pair of boxers and an undershirt, and then putting on an elastic suit that wasn't exactly easy to get into quickly. That was why he would usually wear parts of it around, making an emergency easier. This time he hadn't been at all prepared though, the entirety of his impossibly difficult costume was hanging on that wall. Then again, he thought it would've been a bit uncomfortable if he had worn it to bed.
"Let's go Cap." Tony whined impatiently, his voice muffled by the newly placed helmet on his head. Steve put his last arm through, quickly grabbed his helmet, and started running down the hall to the main deck he had been told to go to, with Tony following quickly behind.
As the two of them sped down the hallway they ran into Clint and Natasha, coming towards them and turning into the next hallway with them.
"Do you know what it's about?" Steve asked Nat, his helmet still clenched in his hand instead of on his head. She continued to looking forward as she kept in pace with his speed walk.
"No. I'm assuming you don't either, then?" Her words were clipped and precise as always.
"No, we do. We just wanted to quiz you first, and you failed." Tony kept his voice even, not even a smile detectable in his tone. He had sarcasm down to a tee.
"No, we don't." Steve responded simply, not taking much notice on Tony's comment. His mind was on far more important things like figuring out possible scenarios as to what they could be facing, and finding possible game plans to match such problems.
They hit the meeting point rather quickly with Steve leading them in first. They were faced by Coulson and Fury, both of their arms crossed looking rather intimidating. Seconds later Thor came in from the other side of the room, quickly walking over to stand beside the rest of his team. All of them stood silently staring at the two S.H.I.E.L.D agents for a good minute. All of them came to realize that they were waiting for one very important member of their team.
"Where's Mr. Banner?" Coulson asked exasperated. The tension was broken and everyone looked to each other for the answer, none of them knowing.
"The son of Banner was sleeping when I passed by his room, I assumed you had contacted him to assemble as well." Thor boomed amidst the silent wondering. Fury sighed deeply and put his hand to his forehead. "Mark test number one as a fail, Coulson."
"Woh, wait, test?" Clint asked sounded a bit aggravated.
"Number one?" Tony added in exhausted.
Coulson took a pen from his jacket pocket and a clipboard that was sitting on the table next to him.
"Wait, what exactly was this test?" Steve asked more serious than he needed to be, but this was his team, it was his job to make sure they passed every test because when it mattered, it would need to be a pass. There would be no second chances during the real thing.
Coulson paused before his pen hit the paper and automatically answered Steve's question, "We wanted you to all work together and make sure the rest of your team was on the same page as you instead of just worrying about yourself. So we only contacted three of you, hoping you would gather the rest of the kids on your own." Steve nodded and looked down at his feet looking as if he was trying to determine the meaning of life.
"Oh come on, you know the only one who does stuff like that is Steve." Tony whined to Coulson who had proceeded to check off the fail box on his paper. "And apparently one of these two." He looked over to Natasha and Clint, who both turned a bit pink. "No never mind, obviously that wasn't the reason they're both here. So see, just Steve."
"That was the point of this test Tony," Fury started, sounding horribly aggravated, "all of you should do that, not just Steve."
"But you're going to contact all of us when it's a real problem anyway, so what's the point?" Natasha put in after him. Everyone mumbled their agreements.
"What if one of your phones aren't working, or your completely asleep so you don't even hear it go off in the first place, or you're hurt, or in the process of being hurt–" Coulson was cut off by Fury, "The point is, there's always a chance that someone didn't get the call." Everyone got quite then. They all knew that the two agents were right; most of them just didn't want to admit it.
"I am very much sorry my friends," Thor said a bit quieter than normal, "it is my fault we have failed this most important test."
"It's fine Thor, you didn't know." Steve reassured him, giving him a small smile even though he looked more disappointed in himself than anything else.
"Well, you all better get back to doing whatever the hell it is you do when you're not saving the world." Fury said, turning around shaking his head and leaving the room. Coulson followed closely behind him like a little puppy dog and everyone let out the breath they had been holding as soon as they were gone.
"Well that's just great. It's four thirty in the morning and there is no way I'm going to be able to get back to sleep now." Tony huffed, having taken off his helmet.
"You weren't even sleeping when I came to get you." Steve pointed out a bit confused.
"Yeah, but I was about to go to bed. Now I won't even be able to do that."He crossed his arms over his chest and the rest of the group rolled their eyes.
"Hey Steve, don't look so beat up about this. It's not your fault." Clint tried to comfort him, casually placing a hand on his shoulder. Everyone subconsciously looked to Thor as he said it, but Thor didn't seem to notice. Steve shrugged off his hand and looked up at them all, taking his time to make eye contact with all of them.
"It's my job to make sure we're all together, if this had been real we would have been down one very important member." He furrowed his eyebrows and flicked his eyes back down to the ground.
"Seriously, Steve, let it go. It won't happen again." Tony said to the surprise of everyone, the emotion clear on all of their faces. "What? I can be sensitive. It's one of my many wonderful qualities." He threw his nose up in the air and everyone rolled their eyes at him once again.
"You're right, it won't happen again." Steve nodded almost to himself and looked back up to his team all standing around him. Natasha gave him a small smile, "See, we'll be fine. Now come on. Let's figure out something to do since none of us are going back to bed." Everyone agreed with her loudly and started filing out the room.
"I will go awaken the son of Banner!" Thor called from behind the group, turning and leaving out the door he came.
Clint shook his head as they made their way out into the hallway, "I don't know how much Bruce is going to like that."
Tony shrugged, "As long as he doesn't turn into his wonderfully green alter ego we'll be fine." He said casually.
"Not funny." Natasha scolded.
"Whatever, mom." Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling.
"She's right Tony, not funny." Steve added in after.
"Well of course you don't think so; you have a horrible sense of humor." He stated simply. It got a bit quiet after that, no one really sure what to say. None of them really hung around each other when it wasn't needed. Of course Fury and Coulson always scolded them about this, saying they needed to bond so they would work better as a team. Everyone basically ignored that wish, so it was strange that all of them had suddenly agreed to hang out now. Maybe it was because they were all too tired to try and defy the orders of their employers, or maybe it was just because they all genuinely wanted to. Either way, they were all headed down to the "hang out room" (minus Banner and Thor) Fury had insisted be available to them, enclosed in horribly awkward silence. None of them had actually been inside of it before because, well, they had their own rooms to be in so they were all a bit surprised when they opened the metal door.