Sorry for the wait guys! Things got in the way - you know, school, the holidays, school, winter percussion, school. Did I mention school? 35 followers? Amazing! Thanks for the love guys :)
The TARDIS
The Doctor ran up to the console and spun around to watch, leaning against the controls. A childishly happy grin spread across his face as he watched the men through the doors in anticipation. This was always his favorite part, watching their reactions as they stepped into the TARDIS for the first time. He waited, listening to the conversation outside. "A trap," he scoffed to Clara who was on the opposite side of the control room, "They would only recognize a trap if there were 50 foot warning signs and Admiral Akbar screaming into a megaphone directly at their faces! Humans," he mused, "It's pure luck that you've lasted for so long. I don't know what you would be without me."
The Doctor turned his attention back to the door and watched as the Captain walked through the doors. He got only three steps in and then immediately stopped, causing Tony, still in his Ironman suit, to walk straight into him, sending them both clattering to the ground. Clara laughed as the two Avengers untangled and picked themselves up, too in awe of the room around them to be embarrassed. Rogers took a long look around and then immediately turned to walk back outside and walked headfirst into Thor's massive chest. He once more stumbled backwards, this time catching himself before he hit the floor. Thor didn't so much as lose his balance, unaffected by the collision. Thor stared in wonder for a moment and then, apparently unimpressed, continued dragging Loki inside, handcuffing him to the metal railing that surrounded the console. Steve walked back into the blue box again, blinked and then stepped out once more, staring hard at the call box, as if by gazing at it he would be able to unlock all the answers to how it was possible.
Without power, several pieces of Tony's armor had fallen off when he had so gracefully tried to occupy the same space as the Avenger in front of him and ended up sprawled on the ground. The faceplate had somehow jammed shut in the process, so Tony, unable to see or move very well with the heavy metal suit still on, began to pry off the remaining armor. "Jarvis, transfer communication from the helmet to my earpiece," he shouted out to the computer as the rest of his armor fell to the ground.
"Already doing it, sir," Jarvis replied from outside the TARDIS. "Better?" the computer asked, this time the voice coming from Tony's earpiece.
"Yes," Tony said aloud, then he lowered his voice to an almost inaudible whisper, "I want you to run scans on the spaceship and the Doctor, as well as his girlfriend. Steve and Goldilocks may be gullible enough, but I still don't trust them. Oh, and keep an eye on Loki."
"As you wish."
Stark stood up from the pile of armor, finally taking a good look around the room. Despite his best efforts to remain nonchalant and guarded, he gasped in amazement at the technology around him. The Doctor's smile grew wider as he watched the billionaire look around like a child in a candy store.
"I've got to hand it to you, Professor, this is an impressive setup you got here!" Tony approached the control panels, laying his hand on it almost reverently. Subconsciously, the Doctor stepped protectively toward the controls. No one, no one got to stroke the TARDIS except for him and, reluctantly on his part, a few of his most trusted companions that the TARDIS trusted and who knew how to fly her. Clara noticed and giggled at the Doctor's jealousy. Stark continued, "Even I have no idea what most of this stuff is or does, and I'm the smartest techie in the world!"
"He doesn't humble himself much, so take it while you can!" Steve called from the entrance.
"And then in comes the oncoming storm and blows you away!" Clara said to Tony, winking at the Doctor as she walked up to the two men. The Doctor gave her a quizzical look, and then broke into a grin. He tapped his companion on the nose. "You clever girl! I keep forgetting how much you learned about me since . . . well, you know."
"Not clever girl, remember? You're the clever boy. I'm just your impossible girl."
Tony tore his eyes away from the console and looked between the two Brits. "And you're sure you're not together? Because the way you talk all mushy to each other like that, it sure seems like it." He made a funny face and did a horrible imitation of a British accent. "Did you two meet trying to snog in this telephone booth?"
Clara threw the Doctor a knowing look and answered, "That's what I thought he might be trying to do anyways. That's why I didn't get in at first. Unfortunately, an airplane was crashing toward us, so I didn't have much of an option, now did I?"
Steve and Thor had walked up and began listening to the conversation. Loki still sat chained off to the side, pretending to look bored but actually listening intensely in hopes that the Doctor might accidently let something useful slip.
"Besides," the Doctor continued, "Can you imagine me with a girl with a face like that?" he teased, pretending to look disgusted. Clara put on a hurt-puppy face. Steve, as oblivious as ever, didn't notice the playfulness and immediately began to defend the woman. "Well, I think she's rather pretty!"
Tony smirked and Thor chuckled in amusement. Realizing his mistake, Steve's face turned bright red with embarrassment. "Well, you know, I mean . . ." he trailed off, unable to come up with a plausible excuse for the outburst. Why do you always do this, Steve? He kicked himself mentally. First with Natasha, now Clara . . .
Thankfully for the Captain, the Doctor had started rambling again, taking the spotlight off of the patriot. This time he was trying to explain something about the TARDIS to Stark.
" . . . Well, you see, it's kind of like this." He grabbed two clear cubes from a compartment in the control panel, one larger than the other.
"Oh no, not the box lesson again!" Clara groaned.
The Doctor held the two cubes out in front of him at the same distance, the smaller in his left hand and the larger in his right. "Alright, now which box is larger?"
Tony looked at him, trying to decide if the man was slow or mad. Probably a little of both. The billionaire decided to humor him and play along. He pretended to think hard for a moment, then pointed at the box in the man's right hand. "That one." He said the words slowly, almost mockingly, as if speaking to a child.
"Good," the Doctor replied, matching Stark's tone. He gave that cube to Clara and instructed her to walk with it a few meters away. She did so, stopping at the railing opposite to where Loki was chained and turned to face the console. It unnerved her a little to find that the trickster was watching the group closely, green eyes darting between the backs of the four men, missing nothing. His eyes met with Clara's and in that brief moment she tried to read what was behind those piercing emeralds. Hate? Pain? Curiosity? Longing? But then they had been staring too long and Clara looked away, breaking the stream of whatever information had been silently shared between the two in those few seconds. Loki smirked, enjoying the fact that he made the girl uncomfortable. Clara turned her attention back to the Doctor, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to push the contact out of her thoughts. The whole thing had taken place in less than five seconds, not nearly long enough for any of the other men to notice anything.
"Okay, now which box is bigger?"
Tony pointed once more at the cube that had been in the Doctor's right hand and was now being held by Clara. "That one," he replied slowly, drawing out each syllable as if it took the Doctor longer to comprehend each noise.
"Brilliant detective work, Sherlock," Clara smirked.
"Right, well from here, regardless of the distance, which one appears bigger?"
"Still the one your girlfriend's holding."
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"She'd better not be if Stripes over here wants a shot at her."
Not liking the new turn the conversation was taking, Rogers cleared his throat and tried to steer it back to the original topic. "What I think the Doctor meant before was something along the lines of which would look larger if you took a photograph of them. Am I correct?"
"Good! Give the man medal! Although I'm sure you already have plenty of those from WWII."
"How did you know I was –"
"Never mind that, back to the real question! Sa the Captain so brilliantly put into terms simple enough for you sciencey people to understand, from a two dimensional point of view, the box I'm holding looks bigger! But we know, in reality, that Clara's is! Now of you take her box and move it so that it's inside of mine –" he moved so that the two boxes lined up, "– you get a very crude representation of how the whole 'bigger on the inside' thing works! The two boxes exist in different dimensions, but occupy the same space."
A slightly smug smile formed on the Doctor's lips, while any hint of smugness had dropped completely from Tony's. You could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to comprehend how the heck that should be able to work.
Almost on cue, the Doctor commented, "Of course, I wouldn't expect you humans to understand. Even your most brilliant minds are too primitive to comprehend anything beyond what can be directly observed, let alone advance Time Lord technology!"
"But what you explained is physically impossible! It's nothing short of magic! And magic isn't real."
"I'm going to take personal offense to that," Loki called from the corner. They ignored him.
"But it is though, isn't it? Magic by definition is something that you can't explain with your current science. Isn't that what I have here? The science of the TARDIS is too complicated for your little brains to comprehend, so you label it as magic, when in reality it's just very advanced science."
"Although, magic is real in some universes," Clara added as she placed the two cubes back in their compartment.
"Yes, it's this one. I would hardly call my magic science." Loki was once again ignored.
"I know you were planning on taking them to that other parallel universe, but can we please stop at the magic one first? Please? I've always wanted to go there again, even if it's just for a quick butter beer!" Clara pleaded.
"Oh, alright. But I'm not going out if I have to talk to him again."
"Wait, you're not taking us anywhere!" Steve said.
"Oh, but I am!" He reached for a lever.
"Thor! The door!"
The Asgardian ran at the door, but it was slammed shut before he reached it with a snap of the Doctor's fingers. He pulled at the handles, but it wouldn't open. He thrust out his hand and Mjolnir flew into it from where he had left it by the console. He swung the hammer down, expecting the doors to break easily. To the god's surprise, the weapon didn't so much as scratch the paint.
"Don't do that, I just had them repainted!" the Doctor whined.
Thor swung Mjolnir again and again, and each time the doors came away unscathed. Finally he stepped away, panting. "What is this sorcery?"
"That? That's nothing. Wait until you see some real sorcery!" Clara exclaimed.
With that, the Doctor pulled a lever and the centerpiece on top the console began to move up and down, making a whirring noise. Clara laughed. They were off on another adventure.
Asgard
"Heimdall! Why have you called us here? Is it something to do with Odin's disappearance?"
Sif entered the bifrost, followed closely behind by the Warriors Three. They were panting slightly, Volstagg a little more than the others, having run all the way from the palace to the bifrost without stopping. Even for Asgaridans, that was a long run.
"Loki."
"But Loki is dead!" Fandral exclaimed.
"So it was believed," the guardian replied. "But I have seen him. He appeared in the mortal Tony Stark's tower only moments after Odin was discovered missing."
"That murderer!" Sif hissed. She stormed over to the entrance. "Send me down, Heimdall! I will deal with the traitor's sins myself!"
"As will I," said Hogun.
"And I."
"And I."
The Warriors Three joined Sif.
"Very well. I will put you down outside of the tower. Loki will be found at the top of it. Thor is there, as well as his mortal companions Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. They are also with another man and a girl, neither of which I have seen before. Do not harm the mortals where at all possible."
"Just send us down!" Sif snapped.
Heimdall reached for the sword, then stopped.
"What's wrong Heimdall? Just do it!"
"I – I cannot see them." Heimdall for once looked shocked.
"What do you mean?" Hogan broke away from the group and approached the guardian.
"They have left my realm of view. The other man arrived in a strange blue box. They entered, and then the box disappeared again."
"Then they have teleported to another realm! Please, search for them, quickly!" Sif urged.
"I cannot see them. They are in none of the nine realms. They are gone."
Stark Tower
After almost five minutes of standing in the elevator with Jane, Pepper was glad to finally exit the stuffy box. The elevator rides were the only thing that she hated about living in the penthouse. When they had started rebuilding, she had urged Tony to put their living quarters somewhere else, but he had insisted on putting it at the top as before, saying that they had the most privacy there. She glanced over at Jane. She could tell that the other woman wasn't too fond of confined spaces either from the way she had acted in the elevator, being tense and answering questions in clipped phrases. She was far more relaxed now, so Pepper decided to start a conversation.
"So, would you like to go shopping or see the movie first? And, before you say anything about it, I'm paying for everything."
"But –"
"No ifs, ands or buts about it. Do you see what kind of place I live in? I would gladly spend a thousand dollars on clothes today, if only to see the look on Tony's face when I give him the bill!"
Jane smiled. "Alright then, how about –"
"Miss Potts!" A male receptionist called to the woman from behind the counter next to the main entrance.
"What is it?"
"There's been a disturbance on the top floor!"
Pepper swore under her breath. They leave those three alone for five minutes . . .
Jane sighed. "Guess that means another long elevator ride back up to the top."
"Yep," Pepper replied. As they entered the elevator, she began composing the lecture she was going to give Tony about how he ruined their day.
They reached the top and the elevator doors slid smoothly open. Both women's eyes widened, taking in the damage around them. A chunk of the bar was on the other side of the room and the rug was torn to bits in several places. The polished wood floor was wrecked and there was a hole in the wall to the left of the elevator. Glass shards littered the floor and a breeze came in from a hole in the wall where there had once been a floor-to-ceiling window.
And the room was empty. Not one of the Avengers was there. Jane bent down and scooped up Steve's black bag. "They're gone," she whispered.
"Damn it, Tony!" Pepper shouted. She turned and stormed back into the elevator, followed by Jane. She had to figure out what happened.
With 35 followers, you'd think there'd be more than 4 reviews . . . hint hint. I have a Christmas chapter coming up! Hopefully I'll get that up today or tomorrow. Happy Holidays everyone! Love you all!