Eek, next chapter! xD Sorry, this is a few hours late, but I was unable to get to my laptop, so... anyway... Thanks so much to:
everyone who reviewed, followed, and/or favorited - This is new territory for me, given that it's a lengthy crossover, with longer chapters than I normally supply, so thanks to all of you for your support!
xxdarkvampireangelxx - Thanks so much for being the first to review!
Guest - Thanks for reviewing!
I do not own Supernatural or The Avengers. Nor do I own Star Trek or Top Gun.
I hope you all enjoy!
Oh, and warning: a bit of language near the end of the chapter (c'mon, it's Tony and Clint, what did you guys expect? xD).
Time of the Unknown
Chapter Two
Clint discovered rather quickly what it meant to be a ghost. Or, rather, the rules to being a ghost. Whatever a ghost was tied to - in his case, his bow - was a permanent fixture in their life. He couldn't stray more than about three-quarters of a mile from it. Thankfully, this meant that he still had full roam of the Avengers Tower. If he attempted to leave, however, he could only make it a quarter of a block before he was tugged right back into his old room, where his bow was set on the wall with all of his other weapons.
He didn't have to eat or drink, and sleeping wasn't necessary, either - just a way to pass the time. Touching salt and lead were huge no-no's, as he discovered in different circumstances that he would rather not repeat.
Moving things was possible, but it got harder the larger or heavier an item was. He quickly discovered a certain joy in spilling Tony's coffee and leaving paper clips everywhere around the tower - Tony thought Dum-E was doing the former, while Natasha - who had gotten back from her mission as quickly as possible, Tony, and Bruce would frown and automatically suspect Steve when yet another paper clip was discovered someplace it shouldn't have been. Clint wouldn't have been surprised if Steve was beginning to regret being the only one who really used paper documents and newspapers in the Tower.
Pepper, on the other hand, was growing suspiciously fond of Dum-E - Clint suspected that she agreed with Tony on the coffee matter, just from a different point of view.
He also wasn't sure if ghosts had the ability to physically appear to other people. He could see himself, but Clint knew beyond a doubt that no one could see him. If they had, he knew Tony would have killed him (or at least swiped a lead pipe through him) after he unplugged the TV in the middle of his Star Trek marathon.
One problem that he discovered, however, beyond not being seen, was getting the Winchesters to come to him. With his spirit locked onto his bow he couldn't really go anywhere.
That was when he remembered that the Winchesters hunted the supernatural. All he had to do was haunt Avengers Tower and get them to come to him - and hopefully not be killed in the process.
And so began Clint's new career of haunting his teammates.
Tony would swear on his life - and his father's grave, and his mother's grave, on Pepper's life, and even Dum-E's sorry pathetic excuse for a robot's life - that the Avengers Tower was being haunted. No doubt about it. At first he had thought it was Dum-E knocking over his coffee. Then, however, he finally got so fed up with making repeated trips to the communal kitchen for more coffee that he shut Dum-E out of his lab for the day. His coffee still got knocked over, and he was nowhere near it at the time. He was convinced. The Tower was haunted.
"The tower is haunted, Steve."
"That's ridiculous, Tony," Steve told him, attempting to focus on the documents in his lap.
Tony peered over Steve's shoulder, leaning on the couch in the communal living room as he attempted to see what Steve was working on. All he had to see was Steve's neat handwriting spelling out "Funeral Arrangements" at the top of the page before he backed off, sliding to the floor so that his back was pressed to the couch and his legs were spread out in front of him. Dum-E rolled toward him, a washcloth already in hand - or claw, but the schematics weren't really necessary.
"No, Dum-E, I'm fine," Tony snapped at the robot.
The robot gave a whir and kept on advancing.
"Dum-E?" Tony asked. "Dum-E, do I need to reprogram you?"
The threat - which wouldn't really have been carried out, but like he had said, the schematics weren't really necessary - didn't work as it normally did. Dummy just gave another whir and kept on coming, but now a different tool was held in his claw. Tony wasn't completely sure, but he was certain that he did not want to know what his robot planned on doing with the wrench.
"Dum-E?" Tony would forever deny that his voice cracked.
Steve, however, had no such problem. "Did your voice just crack?"
"Shut up, old man!" Tony snapped. "I'm a growing boy!"
"Mentally, maybe," Steve agreed with a chuckle. Sudden silence came, and Tony bet that Steve had just looked back down at the documents in his lap.
"Um, Steve? Cap?" Tony questioned. "I think something is possessing Dum-E."
"Are you sure it isn't just a malfunction or something?"
Tony scoffed. "Of course not! I made him, not some incompetent corporate robot making business! He's also coming after me with a wrench, Steve, so if you could maybe give some help to a fellow Avenger, that'd be much appreciated."
There was more silence, and Tony was just beginning to wonder if Steve was really going to leave him to Dum-E's possessed robot claw when a tall figure stepped out from around the couch, casting a long shadow over Dum-E. Almost instantaneously the robot stopped.
"Yeah, Tony," Steve said, a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice - and since when did the Capsicle know what sarcasm was, let alone how to use it? "Dum-E is being possessed. I'm sure of it."
All Tony could do was gape at Dum-E as Steve returned to his work, a stunned expression on the inventor's face.
"Now you stop?" Tony asked his robot, and Dum-E gave another whir and began to move forward again. "Steve!"
Thor had come as soon as Jane had contacted him, stumbling over her words about Pepper and the Avengers and a car crash and Clint's motorcycle and Clint and a funeral. Thor came as soon as he could, but not soon enough, in Thor's mind. To him, soon enough would have meant reaching Clint before the crash and his subsequent death. Soon enough would have been stopping Clint from leaving the tower until eight oh nine, exactly two minutes after the crash would have occurred - one minute to keep it from happening and another just to be safe. As soon as he could was not soon enough.
Within hours of moving in, the demigod was being bombarded with tales of spilt coffee, paper clips mysteriously turning up in weird places ("There was one in my shoe, Thor! My shoe!"), and a possessed Dum-E.
"We're being haunted, Thor," Tony had concluded seriously.
Thor was used to absurd Midguardian stories, but this one had piqued his interest, so he continued to ask questions from Tony, purposefully ignoring the raised eyebrows and strange looks from the rest of his teammates. He didn't say anything about ghosts or a poltergeist being a welcome distraction from his other teammate's death. He also didn't mention hearing about an archangel named Gabriel pretending to be his brother or about how someone (rumor had it it was the devil himself) had killed an entire group of Pagan gods, including his father's representative (because it would be rather stupid, wouldn't it, if they sent Odin himself down to do business with the other gods?). He didn't talk about how apparently the Four Horsemen had been raised and the Apocalypse was in full surge and about how three hunters and an angel were fighting against destiny itself.
Thor didn't say anything to them, but he did want to talk to Clint.
Clint wasn't feeling that good. It wasn't his health or anything (besides the obvious fact that he was dead), but rather his morale. He had been trying for the past week to get the Winchesters to come over, but as of yet he had had no luck. The pranks he was playing just didn't seem to warrant any attention in the newspapers or online, which he figured would be the only way to get the hunters' attention. While Tony seemed pretty dead set on the Tower being haunted, he hadn't figured out that it was Clint (and really, Tony? The hauntings start the day your teammate dies and you still don't know?), and the rest of the Avengers seemed convinced that Tony was playing games and attempting to get their mind off of the fact that Clint was gone.
He had felt a twinge of hope when Thor had arrived before he remembered that Norse mythology that wasn't really mythology and Christianity probably didn't mix too often.
Which lead to him hanging out in the vents like he used to, watching the movie that Tony had practically forced the other Avengers to watch. It wasn't that the movie wasn't good (even Steve would normally appreciate a military movie like Top Gun), but rather that they simply didn't want to bother.
Bruce had settled into the armchair with a heavy sigh but also refused to give up his notes (which, Clint had discovered earlier, were of necromancy of all things) and was paying more attention to them than to Maverick. Steve and Natasha were seated on opposite ends of the couch, both sitting stiffly and obviously otherwise preoccupied with their own notes (that Clint didn't want to look at at all - every time he chanced a glance they always had something like 'funeral', 'last will and-', or 'Agent' written across the top). Even Tony wasn't fully relaxed, scanning through his tablet and looking through the schematics of what looked like Dum-E. Only Thor actually seemed to be enjoying the movie, and he figured that had more to do with the fact that all of the fight scenes took place in the air than anything else.
So he decided to do something about it.
The archer carefully focused on the TV and within seconds he was standing right next to it. He frowned at his teammates, wondering what he could do. Of course, being Clint Barton, it didn't take him that long to come up with an idea.
One finger pressed to the flatscreen TV was all it took for the movie to begin jumping around. Clint gave a grin as he heard a loud roar come from Thor as he skipped to the very end of the movie, back to the beginning, and finally to somewhere in the middle that was nowhere close to where the movie had been before he got his idea.
Then he looked at his teammates. Bruce, he noticed with a frown, hadn't even bothered to look up and see what all the commotion was about. Steve and Natasha were frowning at Thor, Tony was gaping at the TV (which Clint was very pleased to see), and Thor was staring at the flatscreen with a murderous expression on his face.
"Barton, I have had enough of your games!" The demigod roared, and this time it was Clint's turn to gape. "Show yourself! Now!"
"What? Thor, have you gone crazy?" Steve questioned as Thor leapt to his feet.
"Your so called 'haunter', Man of Iron, is none other than Clint Barton!" Thor shouted. "And as I said, enough of your games! Now show yourself!"
Clint stared at his fellow blond Avenger, his stormy eyes wide. He hadn't realized that Thor knew it was him. And by the other Avengers' expressions, they hadn't thought Thor really believed Tony. They'd probably thought he was just humoring the genius.
"Thor, it's not Clint," Steve said. "Tony, stop trying to drag us into these games. And fix the TV."
With those words, the captain left the room, taking the stairs up to (presumably) his bedroom. Natasha frowned at both Thor and Tony, shaking her head with a scowl before following Steve. Bruce gave a sigh and heaved himself to his feet, heading for the elevator with his head still buried in his notes.
"I'm going to the lab," he muttered as he passed Tony. "Come join me when you're ready to be sensible."
"But I'm-" Tony tried, his hand reaching out as if to drag Bruce back. It fell back to his side when Bruce spoke.
"My lab, Jarvis." His eyes met Tony's, but the others could all see that he was still addressing the AI. "Make it quick, please. I have work to do."
Tony stared at the elevator doors as they closed, the blinking light illuminating the floors it passed. Finally he shook his head and began to walk in the direction of his bar.
"I need a drink," he said in explanation, but Clint couldn't tell if he was talking to himself or to Thor (and, consequently, Clint, but Tony didn't know that).
"Man of Iron," Thor began, but Tony interrupted him.
"Tony, Thor. My name is Tony. Stark if you want to go monosyllable. I'm not in my suit, so I'm not Iron Man."
"My apologies… Tony." Thor replied, and Clint gave a laugh at the look on his face. He was obviously not completely adjusted to naming people without the use of a title. "But I will not apologize for what I said earlier. It is Hawkeye… Clint… who is haunting this tower. I just do not know why."
"No need to lie to me, Point Break," Tony said as he grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Go ahead and yell at me all you want. Tell me I'm crazy. I can take it."
"You are not crazy," Thor replied firmly, "And I will not yell at you."
"There, see, don't you-" Tony stopped talking and turned to face the demigod. "Wait, what did you just say?"
Clint rolled his eyes. "Iron Ass," he groaned. "I'm real! My ghost is, anyway."
Thor spoke at the same time as Clint, unaware that the archer had begun to talk. "I said that you are not crazy, and that I will not yell at you. Not right now, anyway. What you have been saying is not another of your normal crazy notions. Your tower is haunted."
"… Did you just compliment and insult me in the same sentence?" Tony asked, and then shook his head. "Never mind. Wait, no. I'll get you back later. But… shit, Clint is haunting us?"
Thor nodded, and Clint chimed in with a "You betcha!"
"Son of a bitch…" Tony said. "Clint? If you weren't already, you would be so dead. Seriously, I'd set Dum-E on you. I bet he'd be happy to, what with how he was- Legolass, you jerk! That was you, wasn't it?"
"The possessed robot?" Thor questioned. "Yes, I believe it was Clint, along with the coffee, paper clips, and the magic box."
"TV, Thor," Clint told him absentmindedly before remembering that he couldn't be heard.
"TV, Thor," Tony said as he tilted the beer bottle back, pouring the burning liquid down his throat. "So," he continued. "Why isn't he talking to us?"
"I am," Clint remarked. "You just can't hear me."
"I suspect that he is," Thor replied. "He is a rather recent ghost, so if I am not mistaken he just has not gotten the 'hang of it' yet, as you Midguardians would say."
"Great," Tony said. "So how do we get Casper here to contact us?"
"Casper?" Thor questioned, a confused look on his face. "I was not aware that you had two ghosts."
Tony and Clint groaned simultaneously, both rolling their eyes, though for different reasons - Tony at Thor for his ignorance and Clint at Tony for his ridiculousness.
"We don't," Tony said. "It was a TV reference, and we seriously need to get you and the Capsicle caught up on technology and stuff like that. You guys are like the Pitiful Pair or something."
"Or something," Clint agreed. "And I doubt Thor got that reference, either, Tony."
"You dare call me pitiful?" Thor asked, his eyes narrowing as he drew himself up to his full height.
"Totally, Point Break," Tony replied with a smirk. "You and the Cap, both. At least when it comes to new tech like what the 21st century has."
"I will pretend that you did not say that," Thor warned him. "But if there is a next time, I will not hesitate to rip your head from your neck and crush it like I did a troll's several centuries ago."
Tony stared at him, a bemused look on his face. "I can't decide whether you're serious or not, so I'm just gonna ignore that threat."
"Do what you wish," Thor said with a dismissive gesture. "I will attempt to see if I can contact Clint. Perhaps Heimdall will be able to see him…"
Clint shrugged, leaning back against the bar and crossing his arms over his chest. "Worth a shot," he remarked, "But I doubt it'll work. Not unless Heimdall can see ghosts."
He blinked as both of his old teammates froze mid-action, Tony reaching for another beer and Thor walking toward the landing pad. Both slowly turned to stare at him.
Wait.
Stare at him?
The short-haired blond looked down at himself and then back up Thor and Tony. He pointed to his chest, "Did you hear me? Can… Can you see me?"
"Oh my holy fricken shit."
"I doubt your crap is holy, Tony," Clint replied cheekily, a huge grin on his face. Now they were getting somewhere in this supernatural business!
"Don't get smart with me, young man," Tony fired back. "You are grounded for the next month for the pranks you pulled. No, make it two months. I think you need some self discipline."
"For the next… forever, actually," Clint said. "I can't get beyond a quarter block from here. Something to do with my soul being locked onto my bow or some other crap like that."
"Welcome back, Agent Barton!" Thor finally said, striding toward the duo next to the bar. Clint allowed himself a bit of pride for actually silencing the demigod for more than a minute.
"Hey, Thor."
"You have been missed greatly, my friend," Thor said, sadness beginning to cloud his eyes. Clint really hoped that the other blond would remember that demigods don't cry before he had a bawling six foot something guy sitting at Tony Stark's bar. That'd be a story the press would love to get their hands on.
"I've been here the whole time," he replied. "Well, kind of. I had a bit of an incident with the limo and everything, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of being a ghost."
"Wait…" Tony said, and Clint belatedly realized that he should not have mentioned the limo. "Did you sit on Cap's lap?"
"In it, actually," The archer replied glumly, before his mouth got the memo that, occasionally, sticking your foot in your own mouth was a good thing.
"Wow… you know, if you really wanna tell Capsicle your feelings, I'd be happy to schedule-"
"Aaaannnddd we're moving on," Clint said. "Look, guys, I know you only just got to see me, but I've got a bit of a favor that I need done. Tony, I don't suppose you could get in contact with the press?"
Alright, so that's the second chapter! Way less dialogue than in the first one, which I consider a success. xD
And please don't hesitate to review, guys! C'mon, feed the starving author! ;)
