The Avenger's Alphabet - Chapter Two
A/N: Next one-shot uploaded :). Thanks to everyone who read my last chapter and hope you enjoy this one! Reviews appreciated! :D
Barricading Bruce.
Groundhog Day. That's what it was like every morning inside the tower. Bruce and Steve were always the first up and not far followed by Natasha. The Captain would go straight ahead to the cereal cupboard because it was the only thing easy enough to make. Banner would quietly greet the other two with an apple in hand and make his way to where Jarvis would kindly place the morning paper.
After approximately ten minutes, The God of Thunder would make an appearance still half asleep and would drag his self to his Pop-tarts – which results in either the Assassin or the Doctor insisting he should eat healthier.
Clint and Loki would enter half an hour later than the rest of the Avengers and Tony would always be the last by a good hour to forty five minutes – depending on what mood hit him that morning. If he was in a bad mood it wouldn't take long before the coffee put him back to his usual self.
Without fail this would happen every morning but today was a different tale.
Bruce found his self up alone but that came with no surprise because he was up an hour earlier than usual. He had been on edge lately, perhaps it was a bad dream? Either way, he struggled to sleep and decided to start his day early. The doctor was peacefully eating his daily apple and reading today's paper when another abnormality happened. Loki slumbered his way in, half dressed and looking just as Bruce felt. The Liesmith did not notice the Doctor sitting at the table as he made his way to the fridge. He took out some orange juice and turned to get a glass and that's when he saw Banner.
"Oh, I didn't know anyone would be up..." Loki startled at the sudden company.
"Couldn't you sleep either?" Banner looked up from the paper.
"As a matter of fact my sleep was disrupted by thirst." The God retorted. Bruce rose an eyebrow and continued to read the article in front of him.
Neither of them uttered a word to each other. Loki happily drank his orange juice from the other side of the table as Bruce kept reading. That was until the Liesmith knocked the glass over.
"Fuck." He hissed. This caused Bruce to take notice. Loki thought fast and suddenly snatched the newspaper from Banner's grasp. He placed it on top of the orange puddle and sighed in relief as it adsorbed the juice.
"I wasn't finished with that!" Banner yelled. The god's eyes shot up from the puddle and to the annoyed Doctor's face.
"It was absorbent therefore I needed it." He simply remarked. Bruce clenched his fists under the table as he was now becoming pissed.
"That is what paper towels are for." He spoke through gritted teeth.
"This is paper is it not?" Loki did not understand why this was such a big deal. Banner sat up and slammed his knuckles against the table causing the God to flinch.
"I. Wasn't. Finished. Reading!" He spat. The Liesmith knew that anger wasn't a good thing went it came to Dr. Banner however, he tried to push his luck. He looked down at the paper and saw the ink was flowing freely.
"Well you can't read it now..." He smirked showing Bruce exactly what the juice had done.
Loki regretted what he said instantly as soon as he saw the green lines appearing over Banner's neck.
"Um – Banner?" He backed away immediately and the only reply he got was a low growl indicating that the other guy was taking control.
"Shit." Loki uttered before running off to the door and locking it behind – even though he knew it was no use.
"Puny God!" He heard the Hulk roar and that was it he was gone.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shiiit!" The God of Mischief continued to curse as he sprinted down the hall.
"THOR!" He bellowed. There was no answer and the door he previously closed smashed into pieces.
"ROGERS? STARK? ANYONE?!" He cried. He new from the last acquaintance with the Hulk that he was no match.
Clint got up grudgingly, after hearing Loki's scream. He had no idea what was going on but after the sound of smashing he knew it wasn't good.
"What the hell is going on?" Barton complained as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. He did not expect to see the Liesmith barge past him and a very green Bruce behind.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Clint muttered before copying Loki's motives and sprinting away.
"What did you do Loki?!" He yelled as he tried to catch up.
"I don't think this is the time to explain how this happened Barton!" Loki called back.
"HULK SMASH!" The Hulk raged letting the others two know how close he really was. They had now gotten to the start of the staircase just as Natasha and Steve were coming down.
"Why did I just hear the words Hulk Smash?" Natasha asked with panic in her eyes. Instead of an answer she saw why... Banner/Hulk was charging full speed towards the four of them.
"RUN!" Loki demanded and each of them listened. Clint, Natasha and Steve briskly made their way upstairs as Loki summoned his power to create a force field. He knew it would only last minutes but that was better than nothing. He was done just as The Hulk reached the staircase and the new barrier knocked him backwards. The Liesmith mechanically laughed at the green beast before he retreated and caught up with the others.
"Banner has Hulked out?" Tony repeated the Captain's words after he explained what was going on. Loki appeared right after and Stark glared.
"Why do you always cause us problems?" He complained to the God of Mischief as everyone continued to climb another set of stairs.
"Why do you assume that this is my doing?" Loki retorted.
"Because it always is!" Natasha breathed.
Once they reached the top floor, Thor was casually standing there with his Mjolnir in hand.
"I heard Banner?" He spoke with a clear frown across his features.
"Yes we got no time, come on!" Loki rolled his eyes and grabbed his brother's wrist to drag him with the rest.
The group was all now huddled inside the game-room on the top floor trying to figure out how to get Banner back to his usual self.
"My force field would have more than likely died out by now so he should be on his way up." Loki explained gulping at the end of his sentence.
"With have merely seconds – we need a plan." Rogers stated. Stark was pacing back and forth and rubbing his forehead frustratingly.
"Reindeer-games could you produce another force field long enough for me and Thor to do our jobs and get Banner back to reality?" Tony stopped pacing.
"Could you please stop calling me Reindeer-" Loki was cut off by his brother.
"Loki can you or can you not?"
"Yes but it needs to be a constant loop, meaning I have to stand there constantly." He explained.
"HULK KILL PUNY GOD!" The Hulk roared in a distance.
"Couldn't we just let Banner have him?" Clint suggested earning a scowl from the two gods.
"He will not hurt my brother, Barton!" Thor bellowed.
"Jarvis! Suit me up." Stark called out and that shut everyone up. "Cap' and Barton get to the door and get ready to open it. And Tasha, Reindeer- games get ready to run through." He instructed as two mechanical hands were dressing him up. The floor began to vibrate with each stomp of the Hulk's feet meaning he was now even closer.
"Are we ready?!" Thor bellowed. Everyone nodded and the God of Thunder rose his hammer in the air. With that, the Captain and Hawk kicked open each of the large blue doors giving the Hulk easy access. Loki and Romanoff snuck past the beast and back outside, soon followed by the guys – which left Thor and Stark inside.
"The door! Close it!" The Liesmith demanded so he could begin summoning his magic once more. Once the door slam shut he did just that and also winced as he heard smashing and breaking from inside the game room.
"If the Xbox is destroyed, I will happily shoot an arrow in between your eyes..." Clint uttered to the God of Mischief. If his hands wasn't full, Loki would of definitely zapped him across the hall but instead he ignored the childish comment and focused on the force field.
"Bruce put that down!" Tony's voice pleaded from behind the closed doors. Straight after, a sound of something big crashed against the entrance.
"Stark what's going on?" Natasha yelled.
"Everything's fine - not everyday you get a pinball table thrown at you – everything's fine." They heard Tony muttering in a daze.
"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THE SON OF ODIN BANNER!" Thor was next to roar as he charged the hammer towards the Hulk.
"Perhaps I should go in there?" Steve suggested and began to walk past Loki.
"Oh no, not without your shield you don't.." Natasha grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and pulled him back with ease. Suddenly, everything went silent. Loki looked behind to the group, however still summoning his magic.
"Should I drop the barrier?"
Oddly, the guys turned to Natasha for an answer.
"Tony give us an update!" She shouted at the green force-field. No answer. That caused everyone to shudder. Loki didn't ask a second time, he instantly dropped the barrier letting Steve and Clint barge through.
The game-room was in complete ruins. The TV was hanging from its brackets while the game consoles – much to Barton's dismay – were broke beyond repair. Windows were shattered and walls were cracked; it was going to take a lot of time and money to fix this up – not even including the mess downstairs.
The God of Thunder was the first to be seen crawling his way out from under a flipped over couch. He looked a little confused but apart from that he was absolutely fine.
"Are you okay?" Steve briskly walked over to the God. He nodded insisting he was and pointed his Mjolnir to an undressed and passed out Bruce lying beside a Pac-Man machine. Clint grabbed the throw- what was on the floor next to couch - and marched over to place it on top of the Doctor.
"Bruce, buddy wake up." He said while slapping the cheeks of the unconscious man. Banner slowly opened his eyes and was quickly aware of what just happened. He sat up to glower at the Liesmith and everyone's eyes followed.
"My bad..." Was Loki's reply.
"Mrrrahghhhhh." A groan appeared from outside. The group including Bruce ran over to the broken window and looked down to see an Iron-Man suit face first against the ground. Stark was six floors down on his balcony trying to lift his self up.
"Tony are you all right?!" Steve called down as he put his hands around his mouth.
"Mrrahhghh" Stark replied with another muffled groan.
The Avengers and Loki rushed back down the stairs to help the struggling Man of Iron. By the time they got to the balcony he was finally standing and swaying side to side. Steve and Thor ran over to take each of Stark's arms to help him balance.
"I'm sorry Tony." Bruce grimaced at the sight of his swaying science partner.
"Jarvis!" Stark suddenly called out with a slight slur as they all led him inside.
"Yes sir?"
"Please add up the cost of the damages and send the bill to Reindeer Games."
"Right away sir."
Some of the group snickered at Tony's demand as Loki glared irritably.
"Good luck trying to pay for it all without any money brother." Thor smirked.
"Oh please, how hard can it be to get hold of Midgardian currency? The God of Mischief snorted as he stood still outside. No one answered.
"It isn't hard!" He defended his self. Still no one answered as they were well inside the tower.
"Is it?!" Loki's pitch raised and still no one replied. All this over a simple newspaper...
"Well, shit..."