The Avengers Whump and Bromance Anthology
The Ghost
Whumptober 2020
PenPatronus
Nobody believed Tony when he told them the things he heard: footsteps he couldn't account for, the sound of the refrigerator door opening when no one was in the kitchen, scratching sounds from his closet when he tried to sleep… Nobody believed Tony when he told them the things he saw: shadows around the corner that weren't there when he turned, objects moving by themselves, a brief extra face in the mirror… Nobody believed Tony when he told them about what was moved or missing: his favorite screwdriver disappeared, his laptop was always closed when he returned after he swear he left it opened, the books on his nightstand rearranged themselves…
"Are you saying there's a ghost in the Tower?" Cap asked while he and Tony ate eggs together one morning.
"I'm saying…" Tony thought about it for a moment. "I'm not sure what I'm saying… All I know is these things are happening."
Steve gave him a long look. "Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"Yes."
"No, you haven't. You never get enough sleep."
"Ok, I'm getting my normal amount of sleep," Tony conceded.
"Have you been eating?"
"Yes, and don't ask about my bowel habits next, please."
"I'm just saying, maybe you're getting sick or something."
"I don't have a headache, I'm not sleepy – I feel fine," Tony insisted. "And I know what I'm seeing!"
"Mhmm…" Steve chewed and swallowed two forkfuls of eggs before he spoke again. "Maybe you should, you know, get your, er, brain checked. MRI or EKG or EEG or whatever machine it is that looks at your brain."
Tony glared at his friend. "You don't believe me, do you? You think I'm paranoid."
"Tony, I believe you're seeing things, I'm just not convinced those things are real."
"Great. Nice." Tony slammed his dirty dishes into the sink. "You know, if you were seeing these things, I'd trust you. I'd scan this whole place looking for irregularities and—"
"Have you scanned the whole place?"
"Of course, I—!" Tony sighed. "I'm going for a swim."
"You just ate."
"Don't mother me, Rogers!" Tony marched to the seventeenth floor in a huff. He thought he heard footsteps following him, but decided to ignore the sound. Maybe he WAS getting paranoid? They hadn't been on a mission in weeks… Maybe he was getting antsy and looking for things that weren't there? Tony contemplated all of that while he undressed in the men's locker room and then dove into his Olympic-sized pool. Swimming always cleared his head.
He was in the deep end, in the left lane, when something heavy landed on him. Arms wrapped around his neck, legs around his torso, and he sank, fast. Tony struggled, but whoever it was had his arms pinned to his sides. He let himself sink all the say to the bottom and then, when his bare feet touched, he launched himself upwards with all his strength. Briefly, he emerged – long enough for a strangled "HELP!" that he hoped JARVIS heard. Then he was back underwater. He hadn't had time for an inhale, so the water went up his nose almost instantly. Whoever was on top of him turned his body and, for a moment, Tony thought he saw a face…
He woke up, sat up, and promptly vomited. Steve was beside him, pounding on his back, saying encouraging words, telling him to breathe. Tony obeyed, but he also turned left and right, looking, desperately, for whoever had tried to drown him. His left leg suddenly screamed for his attention. It was cramped up from knee to ankle. Tony rubbed it furiously. "Where is he?" he coughed.
"Where's who?" Steve went from pounding on Tony's back to rubbing it. "I told you not to go swimming right after eating. See? You cramped up."
"I didn't almost die because of a cramp, Cap, someone jumped on me!"
"Tony, JARVIS didn't say anything about that when he summoned me, and it was only you when I got here. There was no one else."
Tony got shakily to his feet. Steve begged him to sit down, but Tony pushed him aside and headed for the locker room. He got to the nearest screen implanted in the wall and started pushing buttons. The security footage of the pool showed him swimming, then going under, up again, and then back under. JARVIS summoned Cap and, a few second later, Steve dove in and pulled Tony out. There was no one else there.
"This… This isn't right." Tony turned to Cap. "I'm telling you, someone tried to kill me!"
Steve pointed at the screen. "You just saw, Tony. There's nothing there. You got a cramp in your leg and you couldn't swim with it. That's what really happened." Steve took him by the elbow. "Let's get you dried off," he said. "Come on. Sit down." Steve plucked a white towel off a neat pile and wrapped it around Tony's shoulders. "You're shaking." He took another towel and wiped off his arms.
Tony tried to relax and allow Cap to take care of him.
They were all eating dinner together – Tony, Steve, Clint, Bruce, Natasha, and Thor – when the ghost attacked again. Suddenly, Tony fell backwards in his chair, taking the steak on his fork with him, and smashed into the floor. Everyone but Steve laughed. They all assumed he'd leaned too far back. But Steve noticed the speed and force of the fall and knew that Tony had been pulled from behind. He sprinted around the table and helped Tony back up onto his feet. The moment Tony stood straight, something slammed into his chin and he ended up on the floor. He then rolled up against the table as something kicked him in the stomach.
"Believe me now?" Tony grunted to Steve.
"Team, there's something here – protect Tony," Steve ordered. Everyone took out their weapons and made a circle around Tony, their meals forgotten on the dining room table. Something picked up Tony's plate of food and frisbeed it across the room.
"What the hell?" Barton sputtered.
Tony suddenly fell on his ass, his left foot in the air. Something had reached between Thor's legs and grabbed him by the ankle. Thor dropped his hammer down, but hit nothing. "I do not see anything," said Thor. He twirled his hammer in his hand. "What is happening?"
"Team, we have to be able to see this thing. Talk to me!" Steve yelled.
Natasha sprinted into the kitchen. The moment she stepped aside, invisible hands grabbed Tony by the shirt and threw him over the couch. Tony landed hard on his side, his arm twisted under his torso. Another kick to the stomach and he was on his back, fighting off hands trying to choke him. Steve tackled the being on top of him and they went rolling across the room. Two punches to Steve's cheek later, and the thing moved back to Tony. It lifted him nearly off his feet, and then launched him into the air. Tony bounced off a window, leaving a crack in his wake. He fought up to his knees, swaying back and forth, debating between trying to get up and staying down.
Steve hurried back to Tony. "Think I have a concussion," Tony said, words slurring. "Or possibly a skull fracture. Or a 'me' fracture." He leaned too far to the left, then too far to the right, and had to hold on to Cap's shoulder to stay up. "Steve…"
"Hang in there," Steve encouraged. His eyes darted around the room super-soldier fact. "We'll get him."
"That would be lovely," Tony deadpanned. And then he was tackled from the side. His head twisted back and forth as he endured punch after punch. Tony spat blood. A tooth fell out. His eye turned black. Natasha reappeared. She launched an open bag of flour at him and it didn't hit him – it covered the thing on him in white powder. Thor immediately threw his hammer and hit the thing right in the chest. It bounced off the same window Tony had, this time leaving a broken window instead of just a crack. The ghost tried to wipe off the flour, but it was too late. Clint tackled him from behind and, with Bruce's help, put handcuffs on his wrists, behind his back. Thor lifted the thing up by the throat and held it in mid-air. "Reveal yourself," he ordered with a growl.
Light fluctuated. A rain of color descended and there, grinning at them all, was a very familiar face.
"Loki!" Thor roared. He slammed the back of his brother's head against a window. "What the hell are you doing?"
The trickster shrugged. "Can't a guy have a little bit of fun?" He looked at Tony, who was on his feet only because Steve and Bruce held him up. "Psychologically torturing Stark for weeks? All fun and games."
"Fun and—!" Thor dragged Loki to the elevator, kicked him inside, gave Stark an apologetic look, and went inside. "Let's see what Father has to say about this…" he said before the doors closed.
Tony's knees gave out. Steve and Bruce carried him over to the couch and helped him lie down. While the others got ice packs and first aid kits and blankets, Steve knelt and took Tony's hand. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you."
Tony rolled his eyes. "I don't always give people reasons to trust me, I know… I just thought…"
"I'd be different." Steve winced. "I'm sorry. I really am. Let me make this up to you."
Another roll of the eyes. "You don't have to do anything, Cap."
"I want to."
Tony stared at him. "Fine." He thought for a minute, then smiled through bloody lips. "Cheeseburger."
The End
