CHAPTER THREE

After Hill and Steve found me awake, they called a meeting down stairs in one of the main rooms. I suddenly found myself surrounded by Avengers. Flesh and blood Avengers. Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton. All of them, even Sam Wilson was there.

"What's your name," Steve said. "let's start there."

"Mavis," I said.

"Okay, Mavis, now tell us what you were doing in Sokovia and why it's so unbelievable." He gave me an encouraging smile.

I took a deep breath and told them. I told them everything. I even sprinkled in my background knowledge about Marvel Studios and the movies and how Iron Man was only made into a movie to sell toys but the toys didn't sell and the movie did so much better than anyone expected. I told them about the upcoming Avengers movie, too. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tony and Bruce share a look I couldn't read.

When I was done, there was silence. No one spoke for such a long time I wondered if I broke them. Admittedly, my story was pretty wild, but they'd seen crazier.

"I don't believe you," Tony said finally.

I stared at him. "You fought aliens in the Battle of New York," I said. "He's a super soldier from the 40's and he's a freaking god." I pointed at Steve and Thor, respectively. "But you don't believe me?"

"Look, it's a lot to process," Steve said.

"There's nothing to process," Tony said. "She's lying. She has to be."

"Who would make something like that up?" Natasha asked. "I mean, alternate universes where we're all comic book characters? Come on. Sounds pretty out there."

"If she's right, do you know what that means?" Bruce asked. "It means irrefutable proof of the multiverse. It would mean that the multiverse exists."

"There's no way to know if the multiverse exists," Tony said. "And she's not proof of anything. She's a liar."

"You said she just appeared out of nowhere," Steve said.

"Yeah, in a Hydra bunker with two other known enhanced persons on the field," Tony said. "How do we know she doesn't work for Hydra?"

"I find her to be truthful," Thor said. His voice was deeper than Chris Hemsworth's. A little more like thunder. I'd only been around the Avengers for maybe half an hour but already they were starting to look less and less like their movie star counterparts. Similar, but not the same.

"Why?" Tony asked.

"As Romanoff said, what reason is there to lie in such an obvious manner?" Thor replied.

"If she was going to lie about what she was doing in a Hydra bunker in Sokovia," Clint said. "Don't you think she'd say something like she'd been kidnapped? What the hell is this multiverse shit?"

"Steve he said a bad language word," Hill said.

Natasha snickered.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" Steve looked at Tony.

Tony shrugged nonchalantly. "It slipped out." He smirked.

Steve hung his head.

It hit me that I was actually there, standing around with the Avengers. Steve was acting like an old man and Thor was talking like he was in a Shakespeare play. How many people would kill to be where I was? I was in Avengers Tower. With the actual Avengers.

"Eli's gonna lose it when I tell him," I said quietly.

"Who's Eli?" Sam asked.

I looked at him. "My brother. He probably loves the Marvel comics and movies more than I do. He'd be over the moon if he was here. You probably wouldn't be able to get him to shut up about it." I paused. "If I was out cold for three days here, do you think it's been three days there?"

"There's really no way to know," Bruce said, looking at me sadly.

"Oh." I looked down at my shoes.

"How old are you?" Natasha asked.

"Sixteen," I said.

"She's a kid, Tony, you want to take it easy?" Steve asked.

"Everyone's a kid compared to you," Tony said. "Anyway, we have a party to get ready for. You want to go to a party kid?"

"She's not old enough to go to a party," Natasha said. "Besides, she just woke up from a near-coma, I don't think she needs to go to a party right now."

"What else do you want her to do?" Tony asked.

"We should be trying to figure out how to get her home," Steve said.

Tony sighed. "Fine, look, let's get through this party first, okay? And then tomorrow we can try and figure out how to get her home. She appeared after I got my hands on the scepter, maybe the scepter had something to do with it?" He looked at Thor.

"It's imperative I get the scepter back to Asgard," Thor said. "But if you think it could hold the key to get this young Midgardian back to her home, I'll allow you its continued use."

"There." Tony looked at Steve. "I don't believe she's from another universe, but this is as good as it's going to get right now. Party time." He clapped his hands together and left the room.

"What do you say? You want to go to a party?" Natasha looked at me. "I might have a dress or two that'll fit you."

"I guess," I said.

Natasha took my hand and lead me away from the rest of the Avengers. I could feel their eyes on me, boring into my back as I walked away.