Hey guys, I'm super excited to see people have read this. It's my first fanfic ever, so I really appreciate it. A few notes before this next chapter:
Both fandoms deviate from canon a little bit. Amphibia, the trio kept the stones and can use them to get to and from Amphibia. Marvel, it's mostly in the timeline. This happens sometime after Age of Ultron, but some events may not have happened, like SHIELD still going strong under Fury's leadership. There are a few other differences, but mostly you can figure it out as we go along.
Second, updates will be irregular. I might write another chapter in two days, or in a month. I procrastinate pretty badly, and I'm writing this for fun, so updating's not really a priority, but I will remember it don't worry.
The ride to Los Angeles passed fairly quickly, and mostly in silence as the four read over the notes Fury had sent them. They would be staying in a decent hotel, not overly lavish but with decent reviews. It was Sunday, so Tony would start at the school the next morning.
After settling in, they all met up in Tony's room to discuss their first steps.
"So, Tesseract energy, huh," remarked Clint. "Any chance it could be Loki again?" He was doing a good job of hiding it, but Tony could see Clint's discomfort. Tony didn't blame him, of all the Avengers Clint had probably had it the worst when Loki attacked.
"Thor seemed pretty sure he was dead last time he visited," answered Natasha. "And even if he somehow isn't, Fury said this energy shared similarities with the Tesseract, not that they are the same thing." She turned to Tony. "Any ideas on what it may be?"
Tony had been thinking about that since Fury first sent them on this mission. "I think it's pretty obvious. Thor said the Tesseract was the space stone, right?" He paused, looking each of the others in the eyes.
"Get on with it Stark," sighed Wanda. Tony decided to overlook her tone, considering the circumstances.
"Space stone equals teleportation. So this energy is probably from a similar device, most likely a portal."
"But then why the larger and smaller pulses?" asked Natasha.
"My guess, which of course means it's practically certain, is that we have a large portal for the first and last pulses, and either smaller portals or more short-range teleports in between."
"So we are dealing with who knows how many people, if it even is people, with completely unknown intentions, who can also teleport?" Clint groaned. "Why can we never go on normal, non-magical missions anymore?"
Tony leaned over and put an arm around the archer's shoulder. " Because normal things are boring. We gave up on 'normal' when there was an army of aliens flying out of a wormhole in the sky, led by a guy with a literal god complex and a magic stick." Clint ducked out from under Tony's arm, grumbling something unintelligible.
The four sat there a bit longer, bouncing ideas around, but they ultimately concluded that without more specific information, there was no way to confirm any theories. So with that in mind, they set out to do a bit of recon in the hours before it got dark.
Walking around the neighbourhood, Tony could see nothing immediately out of place. Houses, trees, children playing on lawns. Exactly what one would expect to see in the suburbs. With no specific goal in mind, the heroes ended up wandering near St James Middle School, where Tony was to go the next day. He glanced at Wanda a few times, but aside from a small frown of concentration it seemed she had nothing either.
Tony was looking at the school, wondering how on earth they could track down 'mysterious energy', when something hit him from the side. He immediately jumped back, instinctively reaching for his watch to transform it into a repulsor, but stopped when he saw what had hit him.
"Oh my god I am so sorry, I didn't hurt you did I, you don't look hurt but sometimes it's hard to tell," babbled a small girl, who appeared to be holding a notebook and pen. She had olive skin, short black hair, and was wearing a green-ish grey hoodie. Her words were fast, and Tony took a second to register what she was saying. He opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the girl.
"Oh my god, oh my god, ohmigod. You're Tony Stark! You know I love your work on clean energy, and I always wondered, how do you get your suits to anticipate your intentions? Y'know, like when you hold your hand up but don't want to fire do you have to specifically state that? Wait, I just ran into you. I just ran into Tony Stark. Ugh, I knew this sort of thing would happen someday…" Tony watched in awe as the girl rambled worse than he did, jumping between ideas so quickly it was almost hard for him to follow.
"Wait a second. Why are you even here?" She finally paused for him to answer.
"I'm here for an advanced program at this school for the week. I'll probably see you in class tomorrow." There, that should hopefully delay too many more questions. But it seemed this girl was just full of surprises, as she responded with:
"Oh, I don't really go to school anymore. Used to, but things happened and it doesn't really work anymore, y'know?"
Natasha narrowed her eyes slightly. "You said things happened. What sort of things?"
The girl shifted slightly. "Oh y'know, some family stuff. Then I sort of got hurt for a bit, and really, online courses are just so much more convenient." She seemed much more nervous than she was a second ago, and a look at Natasha's face told Tony that the spy hadn't missed it either. He was considering pressing the girl further, but before he could she interrupted him yet again.
"Anyway, maybe I'll see you around, got lots to do, okay bye!" With that, she quickly turned around and rushed away surprisingly quickly, stumbling a bit on an uneven part of the sidewalk and disappearing from sight. The Avengers stood there for a second, before Clint summed up their thoughts in one sentence:
"Okay, what the fuck just happened?"