I posted this mostly because I wanted to have something out the first day of the new year and partially because I'm trying to write more and I'm excited to show you all where this goes! What better way to start 2019 than with some GOOD OLD FASHIONED FUN!

Chapter 3: Team building

Somewhere over the announcing system, she could hear Tony speaking; something must have changed. Natasha watched the video from an air duct, shook her head and pressed on. She wouldn't waste time going to the weapons cache, and anyway she had things hidden all over the tower in the event of an emergency. Deciding to get to one of these hidden stores, she pressed on until she found an opening and dropped down onto Wanda's level.

It seemed to be empty, which held up after she did a quick sweep of the floor. She could hear the shenanigans of the others, it took precious minutes (and an awkward bit of stretching) to get the floor plan of the entire building pulled up on one of the security pads near the front of the floor. There was a path of ducts she could get through if she was careful and avoided the others.

She took a moment to consider her plan, sitting on the coffee table just because she could. Thor would fly, but he would be easy to confuse. Wanda wanted to get in good with Steve because he'd become a surrogate big brother. So she probably wouldn't cheat, to make him proud and that made her slower.

Tony was smart but cocky. He could quickly be taken out. Vis didn't entirely understand the game anyway, so no issue there. That left Cap and Barton.

Roger's was an unknown. He was a boy scout through and through, but he had no issue toeing the line with technicalities. And he had a bad habit of throwing himself headfirst into things. If anybody got in her way, it was going to be him.

Clint would probably also be in the ducts somewhere; she'd need a way to get him to the ground so he'd be out of the running. Then she could handle Steve and have a clear path to winning.

Natasha went to the bathroom closet, pulled up a panel and grabbed her guns. The ammo was wrong; she'd have to get darts from her floor since Steve would probably be mad if she caused any real pain to the others. Irritating, because she'd stuck to the other rules when no one would have been the wiser.

Ready with the guns on her belt and the internal systems memorized, she was just about to use the kitchen island to pulls herself back up into the air ducts when Steve slid in penguin style on his shield. They blinked at one another.

And she completely lost it.

She broke up laughing, her sides aching when he tried to push himself up off his belly without touching the floor and only succeeded in sending himself spinning in circles. She laughed so hard she very nearly fell off the island.

"It's not- god I think I'm gonna be sick Romanoff give me a hand here!" Still snickering, she tossed him a roll of kitchen twine and hauled him up.

"Any sign of the others yet?" She asked.

"Thor's somewhere around here. But Tony called a free for all- don't shoot!" He immediately held up his hands, nodding at the gun. She shrugged. "Wrong ammo. Besides, I don't need this to put you down."

Steve eyed her, but slowly lowered his hands.

"There we go, Breathe Rogers."

There wasn't time to do that, unfortunately, as the air crackled with electricity. Thor was bringing down lightning bolts from the windows and cackling all the while. The sky rumbled ominously, punctuated by his maniacal laughter.

"I shall vanquish each of you, my friends! Thor Odinson, future ruler of Asgard shall be the Victor, I will rise-"

"Move." Natasha scrambled up, climbing up onto Steve's shoulders without so much as a "beg your pardon."

"Tasha what the-"

"He's coming, shut up and give me a lift."

He braced his arms, tossing her up into the duct lightly and then one slim hand reached down, yanking him up along with her. They slid the duct back into place just as Thor entered and Natasha immediately stilled, lying on his chest as the Thunder god moved below them.

Searching.

"Nat-"

"Stop talking."

Holding their breath, they listened for Thor below. He seemed to have forgotten the purpose of the game and was mostly just looking for his "brothers" with promises to defeat them with a mighty blow worthy of the finest warriors in Asgard. Luckily for them, Thor had a bad habit of announcing his intentions and continued to do so, loud enough that they could hold a whispered conversation.

"Listen, the others will be here soon-" Steve began.

"I'm not concerned." Natasha interrupted, counting under her breath. Just a few more steps...

"But-" She put a finger to his lips,pressing firmly when Thor paused below them. Only when he began to walk again did she move her hand.

"Stark set traps. They start on this level, my guess is he wanted to get us good and comfortable and then have everyone spring em as they tried to get to the top."

Steve blinked.

"When did he-"

"Besides the point. Anyway, I'm going for it. Don't get in my way." There. She'd warned Steve and even given him a hint when she didn't have to. Her duty was done.

"What if we tried a little team building instead?" Natasha raised an eyebrow, which he took as a sign to continue. "You and me. We create an alliance. I'll have your back, you have mine." She looked below them as Thor bellowed in frustration, he'd jumped back to avoid one of Tony's little cleaning droids and was now struggling to free himself from a giant web hanging from one of the walls. Steve stared up at the woman lying on him and she shrugged.

"Stark said all bets were off. I just used what was at my disposal." She didn't owe him any explanation, but Steve had a knack for making you want to stand a little taller and speak with a little more sincerity.

"Consider me at your disposal." Her lips turned up. "Is that a proposition captain?" His cheeks reddened and his hands went to her hips.

"Wha-"

Slowly, he rolled a hip until he could crawl through the duct comfortably without squashing her. Which is just as well really, since she'd been shocked into silence. She was further shocked to find she was… disappointed?

"Where are we headed to?" He asked as a way of answering. She briefly considered pushing him out of the duct but ultimately decided against it and crawled forward.

"This way."

As the pair made their way through the ventilation system, Sam was already on the floor above them, smirking to himself. He'd made it through to the gym, which meant all of his gear was ready to go. Once he got ahold of his wings, he could just fly straight to the top of the building and claim the win.

Just because he wanted to win didn't mean he would break all the rules though. The others had abilities and gear to rely on, so it was only fair he do the same. But until he got his wings, he would do this the old-fashioned way. Out of the elevator, he grabbed his jacket off the coat hook and put it beneath his feet, shuffling forward towards the gray modern couch, crawling atop it before bringing the jacket along with him.

He considered his next move and decided to simply stick with the jacket as a means of transportation. Tossing it as far as he thought he could reach, he jumped to zippered safety and once again slid himself to his destination. The wings were in a glass case opposite from the door, it didn't take long to reach and within seconds he was eagerly reaching inside for his prize.

The only indication he had that something was amiss was at the piercing cry of a falcon sounding somewhere over the intercom, right before the ceiling opened and a massive gilded cage came crashing down around him. He spun around, trying to run but it was too late.

He was locked away behind opulent gold bars.

"Hey, Sam? I've got something pressing, it's kinda been weighing on my mind… Why, exactly, does the caged bird sing?" Tony asked over the gym's speaker.

"Oh come on, lemme out! Tony what the hell?!" He slammed his shoulder up against the bars, to no avail.

"Sorry buddy, your wings just got clipped. Get it? Cause you're a bird, and the cage.. I know you're giving me a very rude gesture right now and that's not worthy of an Avenger. See you at the end of the game." Sam shot another "rude gesture" at the speaker.

"You're a bastard Stark."

"I know you mean that with love. Sit tight, I'll make sure to throw in a snack in case you get hungry."

Something hit him just them, a small fleck of something grain like. He bent down to examine it, frowning at the odd looking seed. And then he was being pelted with birdseed raining from above.

Tony's laughter echoed off the walls.

While Sam was cursing Tony with every name under the sun, Clint was two floors from the top. He'd found out early on that Tony had booby-trapped the place, with everything from an odd serum that left you stuck to furniture to something simple as a doorknob falling off leaving you locked in. Careful to use his arrows as a means of testing spaces, he'd grabbed a pack somewhere as soon as he could and packed it with small tennis balls from the indoor court.

He'd already used several, rolling or bouncing them in suspicious spots to test for traps and had sprung several including a few webs, a thunderbolt-shaped ball pit, and more.

Wary of where the others might be, but having managed to avoid Thor and his hammer wherever he might be, Clint was feeling fairly confident that he'd be able to win this. He also had yet to see Nat, which was a problem nagging at the back of his mind as the spy no doubt had plans of her own.

Looking around, all seemed well enough. Arrows aimed at the ready, set to stun anyone who might try to get in his way, he pressed on. So far as he could tell, he was alone but something had the hair on his neck prickling and that was never a good sign.

"Hey out there. Anybody planning on popping out?" He looked around the movie room, still not sure what had him so on edge. A sudden clattering had him spin around, arm drawing back and he only was just able to stop himself as Wanda came in through the door, carrying a large bowl of popcorn.

"What the- Wanda! What are you doing?! I almost shot you!" She shifted, evidently not sure if she was in trouble or if he was just startled.

"I'm out, I slid on the whip cream streak. Popcorn?" She held out the bowl, waiting patiently while he took a handful and looked around.

"Thanks... Any idea what's lurking on this level? I know Tony's got more tricks up his sleeve." Wanda shook her head, munching her snack.

"I don't even know where the others are at this point. We're close to the top though?"

He nodded, still scanning the space and helping himself to a bit more of the salty treat.

"Two more levels and that's that. I'm waiting for Tony to get caught up in his own game, there's no way he remembers all his tricks."

She shrugged, snagging a cup out of one of the cupholders and taking a long sip.

"No, but others will probably find them."

"Yeah.. wait, there was a whip cream streak? What floor was that?"

He knew a second too late when she smiled sweetly and carefully put the bowl in his hands. He looked down and found that in reaching for the popcorn, he'd inadvertently taken a step forward and what he'd believed to be someone's lawn chair used to move around was actually the early makings of… no. No.

"Wanda."

"Yes?" Her smile grew wider.

"Am I standing in a damn bird's nest?"

"I believe that's what Tony intended you to think of it as." She brought her legs all the way up done, where as a few moments early she'd been just barely hovering off the floor. Just enough to fool him.

He sighed, sitting in the circle that was, in fact, a bottomless box, having stepped in the "lava" and surveyed his new prison. The sides were done up in the shades of older bark, a blanket made of a softer almost feather-like material was propped around the edges and there was even a football painted to look like an egg.

"Et tu Wanda?" He asked. She handed him a soda and the remote to the large screen.

"The Captain said this was a good team bonding exercise and I really want to win. I swear to you, you may be my second in command when I am winning." She promised. He grunted and began flipping through channels.

"Just make sure you win. If you're gonna trap me, I at least wanna see Tony's face when you beat him. Little sneak." She grinned and pulled out what looked like an America shaped skateboard.

"What-"

"I found it!" She sat on it, crossing her legs and grabbed ahold of the two spoons she'd been using to push herself around.

"Have fun."

She nodded and then paused to hand him a little tape deck, one that had a post-it note with his name on it.

"I don't know what's on it, in case it was private."

He smiled at her sincerity, even if she'd tripped him up it was kind of impressive.

"Alright, thanks. Go get em."

Wanda nodded again and rolled herself out, while Clint made a pillow of his feather blanket and stretched out. As long as he was stuck, he might as well make the most of it. Curiosity got the better of him though and he hit play on the tape deck. The scream of a hawk sounded through the room.

He was gonna punch Tony next time he saw him.