DISCLAIMER: Sterling and Charlie belong to me. Marvel and its characters that are written in this story belong to Marvel. Nikki Minaj belongs to herself. Nick Jonas belongs to himself. Justin Bieber belongs to himself.
Sterling had no clue what time it was at that exact moment. He had no way to tell the time being he had been stuck in a stupid white room with nothing but a single table and two chairs for who knows how long.
'We have been away from home for 4 hours and 17 seconds. It's exactly 5:23 P.M. and it will change to 5:24 in 23 seconds.' Charlie helpfully responded to his counterpart's thoughts.
The teenager felt his mouth open slightly in surprise at the sudden answer from his noggin-buddy.
'...How did you know that...?' Sterling mentally inquired.
Instead of hearing an answer to his question, he heard chuckling inside his head.
'Now 20 seconds.' the head-invader knowingly added in small chuckles.
This had happened many times before and Sterling always assumed Charlie was just yanking his leg. He would just ask whoever so happened to stroll into the room he was stuck inside for the time.
'You mean we.'
"Wait, what?" Sterling accidentally replied out-loud before he covered his mouth with his hand. He needed to stop replying out loud when talking to Charlie. He assumed that that's what got him in trouble in the first place.
'WE are stuck inside this room. You really need to work on getting that right. You're 15 years old and should know better by now.' Charlie playfully scolded.
Really? Was he really being scolded by the guy who kept on comparing him to Justin Bieber earlier? He heard a snort of amusement from the alien at his irritated huff.
The teen shifted an icepack he had been holding against his swollen nose ever since he was lead into the boring, white room. An agent had given him the icepack along with a short strip of gauze and several disinfecting wipes for the blood he had lost from his nose. He had crumpled the now bloody wipes and gauze in a heap and left them on the table for someone else to pick up. He was so cruel.
This was revenge for leaving him in the most boring room in the history of boring rooms.
He also missed Agent Coulson for the small amount of time he knew him. The agent had ditched him and left him with a couple of other agents whose names he forgot in 0.5 seconds. The nameless operatives were as boring and dry as the room he was sitting in. At least Coulson smiled. The others just lead him to this place with unamused facial expressions. They probably had the same facial expression when they laughed or cried. Or maybe they used the same expression for every emotion they had. If they even had emotions. Maybe they were secretly robots. Or aliens!
'Hey! I object to that! Us aliens do have emotions! I mean, it's absolutely hilarious when we make cows float in mid-air!' Charlie giggled out a bit more psychotically than he should have.
Sterling tried to ignore the comment about aliens abducting the beef and milk population just for giggles.
Speaking about the place he was at, he had no idea where he was and how he got there. Everything happened in a blur, almost like they drugged him. All he remembered was getting into a black vehicle in front of his apartment's building then suddenly appearing in a hall where Coulson ditched him with Gloomy-Dee and Gloomy-Dum.
'I've been wondering about the loss of memory, too. I would have known if they had drugged us.' Charlie interjected.
Sterling suddenly felt really uncomfortable about that knowledge. Did they truly drug him?
'Sterling...'
The teenager ignored the being and continued on with his thoughts.
Maybe it was a scentless drug that was sprayed in the air? But how would Coulson and the driver not be affected by the air drug?
'….Sterling...!'
It was like a little lightbulb popped up above Sterling's head. They took something beforehand that made them immune to the drug in the air! The teen felt very smart when figuring that out for himself.
Wait, isn't it illegal to drug somebody? That probably didn't matter since these Government people most likely knew how to play the system.
'…...STERLING!' Charlie screamed at the boy.
Sterling literally jumped out of his seat and yelled at his counterpart for being so loud.
"Jeez, Charlie, could you be any louder!?" he shouted while massaging his now-aching head with one hand and still holding the nearly melted icepack up to his nose with the other.
'Uhhh...I was trying to get your attention because the eye-patch pirate from earlier is right in front of you.' his head-buddy explained hesitantly.
Sterling snapped back into reality and his vision cleared up only to see the same guy Charlie had talked about. They both stared at each other while the boy froze in shock. When had eye-patch come into the room!?
'He's been there for a few minutes, already, just observing us.' Charlie mentioned.
"Uhhh...Hello..." the teenager dumbly addressed ignoring his counterpart.
"So. Who were you talking to? Who is Charlie?" the man suspiciously asked.
Sterling's words were caught in his throat as he continued to stare at the man who had suddenly appeared in his field of vision.
'Say something, you nut!' the being hissed in annoyance.
"I-I...er...Who are you?" Sterling immediately asked.
"Switching the subject? Hm. Alright. I'm Nick Fury, the director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division or simply, S.H.I.E.L.D." Fury stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
'Quite a mouthful of words there. But at least I don't have to SHIELD you from bad guys.' the alien giggled at his lame and unfunny joke.
Ignoring his counterpart, the teen slowly nodded while he shifted in his seat nervously. What was this guy getting at? Why was he even here?
"Oka-" Sterling started to reply, but Fury interrupted the kid almost as soon as he tried to speak.
"Do you know why you're here?" he asked.
The boy decided to stay silent as he stared at the man while shrinking down into his seat. The other simply stared back at the kid intimidatingly.
"Well?"
Silence.
Sterling shifted around in his seat again while now trying to avoid the other's gaze. This guy obviously knew how to do his job.
The pirate continued to glare intimidating holes into the teenager as he patiently waited for the other to respond.
Sterling nervously licked his lips before answering, "Something about me being a hostage or something?"
Fury's eyebrow raised at the kid's strange wording and started to bombard him with questions.
"What were you doing at the scene of the battle? Surely you knew there was, at least, something going on to avoid that place."
"I was going to McDon-" sadly Sterling got interrupted.
"You were yelling insults at someone and I highly doubt you were talking to the Captain. Who were you talking to?"
"I tend to get a little nerv-"
"Are you working for Hydra? It seems to me that you were talking to Burk. What were you two plotting?"
"No, I-" the teen was interrupted yet again.
"Why are you not answering my questions, Mr. Truett?"
Okay. That's it. This guy was definitely doing this on purpose. Sterling was at the end of his wits, so he practically screamed at Furt just to get him to stop.
"I'M TRYING TO ANSWER YOU, BUT YOU KEEP ON INTERRUPTING ME, YOU BALD EYEPATCH FREAK!"
There was a moment of silence before Charlie decided to enter in his piece.
'Holy crap...YOU CALLED HIM FURT! THAT SOUNDS LIKE FART!'
The teenager slapped both of his hands over his mouth while staring at Nick Fury in shock. Before the pirate could even comment on that insult, someone started cracking up in laughter. Sterling jumped ten feet into the air and turned his head to the direction of the noise. There, at the now open door, was Tony Stark laughing himself into tears. The teenager stared at the billionaire with wide eyes and mouth open.
"Oh man, kid, that was great!" Tony choked out between peels of laughter, "And I thought your insult towards Capsicle was clever. Though I never thought of glow-y as a descriptive word for him."
The billionaire actually paused to take a look at the teenager's face.
"That nose of yours looks painful. Did they beat you up that badly just to get you in here?"
"I-" was all the boy could say before Fury interrupted him, AGAIN.
There was a loud thud, which made the teenager jump once more. Sterling immediately redirected his gaze towards Un-jolly Nick who was now standing up with both of his hands on the table. The pirate looked greatly irritated and glared darkly at the billionaire.
"Mr. Stark! Did you need something? Or do you enjoy interrupting my interrogations?" he yelled.
'Good grief, this guy sure loves his questions. Do you think Clue is his favourite game? That would be hilarious!' Charlie happily blabbed to Sterling.
The teenager ignored his counterpart and silently watched the exchange between Who-Wants-To-Be-A-Billionaire and Pirate Santa.
His head-buddy snickered at the nicknames, 'Your nicknames are getting better by the minute. I have taught you well. I'm so proud...'
Meanwhile, the two older men were in the midst of a heated discussion.
"I came in here to tell your SHIELD-bros to stop wasting their time trying to hack JARVIS. I mean, seriously! I've gotten 6 attempted hacks this month. Are you guys that desperate?" Tony shot back at Fury Clause.
'6 hacks? I know someone who could hack Billi's security or whatever it is in like 10 minutes.' Charlie boasted which caused Sterling to roll his eyes.
"So you decided to barge in MY interrogation just to tell me that?" Nicky Minaj growled.
Tony shrugged nonchalantly, "I could have done worse. Like, hack you guys back. Your security sucks, by the way."
Fury muttered something angrily under his breath while continuing on with his one-eyed glare at the billionaire. Sterling just sat there awkwardly trying to become one with the chair. Being temporarily invisible in the presence of the intimidating Nick Fury and the laid back Tony Stark was incredibly relieving. He had enough social issues as it was. Along with his slight germaphobic and anti-social tendencies, Sterling got easily disconcerted in the presence of pretty much everyone. Basically, he hated everyone; except the people he was used to AKA his mom.
"Don't you have better things to do than being here?" Fury snapped at Stark.
The billionaire smirked at the SHIELD director and turned to head out the door before interjecting, "Awww...and I thought we were best friends."
The teenager whimpered mentally as he watched the man walk out of the room, 'Noooo! Don't leave me with Captain Eyepatch! He's gonna eat me for lunch like Krampus does to children!'
Charlie laughed hysterically at him, 'But your nicknames, though!'
The teenager stared longingly at the only exit out of the room as it closed shut. With the billionaire now out of the way, who knows what Krampus would do to him.
At that thought, Sterling heard Fury's throat clear to get back his attention. He turned his head fully seeing the annoyed look on the Director's face which made him quickly look down at the table. This guy was terrifying! How did the billionaire even talk to him without feeling the least bit fazed?
"Seeing that you didn't respond well to the questions earlier before the brief...distraction, I guess it would be better to tell you why you are truly here." Nick Jonas clarified.
This caused the teenager to look up at the man who was now back to sitting in the chair.
"Wait, what? What do you mean?" Sterling quickly blurted out before Fury interrupted him. He had had enough of that for one day. He may be anti-social, but he was not going to get talked into the ground!
The man leaned in while looking into the teen's eyes which made him nervously shuffle around in his seat.
"So, Mr. Truett...how's life with the alien going? You know, the one who has been mentally communicating to you."
'Wait...wait...wait...wait a second...WHAT!?' Charlie shouted, nearly deafening his companion. How does that even work? How do you even make a person deaf from shouting inside their head?
Sterling's jaw was unhinged as he stared at the Director in confusion and shock. How did this guy even know about Charlie!?
"Oh, come now. Do you really think that I haven't done my homework? SHIELD has been watching you ever since you absorbed the alien creature that crashed to earth eleven years ago. So his name is Charlie? Strange name, but it seems fitting." Fury articulated.
'I didn't crash...I landed like a feather! There were no dents! No Dents!' the teenager's noggin-buddy whined.
Sterling couldn't help but feel a little upset. Why? Because he did not want to be bossed around by an organization full of self-entitled people. Or so he thought the people were self-entitled. He was still unhappy!
"So you scared the crap out of me for no reason? And you've been stalking me for eleven freaking years?" he angrily snapped.
"SHIELD has. I didn't even know you existed until I looked over your file. Quite an interesting life you have, Mr. Truett." the pirate responded.
"File!? They have a file about me!?" the teen shrieked.
"Of course we do." he stated while pulling a crème coloured folder seemingly out of nowhere.
He opened the file and started reading it out-loud to the already miffed teen.
"Sterling Truett, Male, Age 15..." he said while looking up at the now blanching Sterling, "Height 5' 5", Weight 123.5 lbs, Born August 23rd at Saint Michael's Hospital in Santa Monica, California."
"W-wait...California?" asked the confused teenager.
'Ooooo...Someone's been lying to you.' Charlie pointed out in a sing-song voice.
Sterling ignored his counterpart and continued, "I was born in New York, not California!"
Why would his mother lie to him about being born in New York? What was she hiding from him? The teenager couldn't help but feel a little betrayed.
Meanwhile, Nick Fury stared at the kid in front of him, already knowing all the answers to his questions. Those would be answered later. He ignored the teen's fretting and continued on reading the file.
"Hmm, this is interesting." Fury stated which earned him several questioning 'Whats' coming from the direction of the boy.
'What other positively joyful piece of information do you have in store for us, now, Ol' Nicky? The secret of how you keep your head so bald and shiny? Or maybe how to become a pirate master like you?' the Alien sarcastically remarked. It's not like the guy could hear him.
"It says here that your father is Tony Stark-" the Pirate's cell phone suddenly went off, interrupting him. He pulled out the offending object, took one look at the number, then promptly excused himself and walked out of the room. This left Sterling just sitting there with his mind catching up with what had just been said. Tony Stark. Father. Stark. Tony. Father. Dad. Father. Tony Stark was his father?
'Stay calm, bro...' Charlie warned.
What.
'Uh...Sterling...?'
What.
'You okay there?' his head-buddy fearfully asked.
…..What?
'Ehhmmm...At least don't go into shock?' the alien pleaded.
"WHAT!?" the teenager screamed while jumping up and trying to literally flip the table in hysteria. Little did he know that the table was bolted to the ground.
So, at an impossible level of strength for a boy his age, Sterling ripped the bolted table out of the ground and threw it, bloody bandages, icepack and all, against the wall. When had he put the icepack down? Who knows and who cares.
'HOLY MOTHER OF-' Charlie shrieked before getting cut off.
A wayward bolt, which was originally doing its duty in pinning the now wrecked table down, flew through the air and struck Sterling in the head, knocking him unconscious. Who listens to Charlie anyways?
Author's Note:
Sorry for not updating for a few weeks, guys! I got too sick to think and write. ;u;
Okay.
Now that's out of the way, let me explain a few things.
In the last chapter (or was it the first one?), I explained that this story is set between the first Avengers movie and the second. Well, this story also happens before the second Capsicle (Captain America, for newer fans) movie. So yeah.
Now, about Charlie...for those who may have gotten confused.
The bold italic text is basically Charlie talking inside Sterling's head. No one else, but Sterling, can hear him (unless there is telepathy going on). The simple non-bold italic text is Sterling mentally talking. So yeah.
I just thought explaining would be better because my writing does have the ability to cause confusion.
I will update this story with the next chapter when I can. I'm not going to promise that it will come soon. XD
