Thank you everyone who fav/reviewed! Also, a specially big thank you to MoreThanMeetsTheEye96, who's really helped me a bunch with ideas for this chapter and also for her awesomely lovely reviews!
Beta'd by the lovely Arrows the Wolf. ;)
Disclaimer: In case you had not already guessed...I still do not own a thing. And I mean NOTHING. The song lyrics you will find later in this are not mine! I've just enjoyed listening to 'em.
"Okay people, we've only got a few more games to slug through. So no more cuttin' up," Fury said, pointing accusingly at the four onstage, "Or I will have to shoot every-er," He suddenly cuts himself off, forcibly inhaling and exhaling a few times as he stacked the papers on his desk, "Or we will be forced to start the blasted thing over again. Do you want that, do you?! No? Then let's get on! Next game is called Scenes from a Hat!"
For some reason, the crowd suddenly erupted into cheers. Fury waited, glowering and growling towards the crowd, until silence once more descended.
"Good. Now, this is for all four of you," As he spoke, the four stood and went to take up their positions, Clint and Natasha on one side of the stage and Steve and Tony on the other. "The cards tell me that we've had members of the audience write down suggestions for scenes they'd like our Avengers to act out, and the best have been chosen and placed in that helmet." Fury explained, nodding at Pepper as she walked onstage carrying an old Iron Man helmet which she then handed off to Fury.
"Hey!" Tony was immediately indignant at this use of his property.
"Don't worry, Tony, I made sure it was one of the older models." Pepper smiled much too innocently, winked, then disappeared into the crowd once more. Tony huffed and crossed his arms but said nothing.
"Now," Fury began again with a grin, his hand reaching into the helmet. "we'll see how many these saps can think of, starting with..." He took out a piece of paper and unfolded it, reading it aloud. "Things NOT to do during a debriefing. Go!"
Clint was the first one to step down and take center stage, pulling a piece of crumbled paper from his pocket as he did so. He had one hand poised at his lips as if he were holding a straw, makes the sound one makes when readying saliva, brought the paper upwards towards the hand at his lips, then chucked it across the stage and, lowering his hands, watched it sail with a grin. "Bullseye!" He declared, then frowned with a murmured 'uh-oh,' and quickly retreated back to his spot.
Glancing down at the wadded up, crumbled piece of paper, Tony suddenly got an idea. Nudging Steve, he nodded to the paper with a mischievous grin. Steve rose a brow as he glanced at it, but subtly nodded; receiving the cue he needed, Tony stepped down and grabbed the paper, quickly turning to face Steve who had also stepped down. Steve who had his hands positioned like a goal. Tony took aim and flicked it across. It flew right between Cap's fingers. Tony pumped his fists into the air, yelling, "Score! Take that - five to three!" Steve smirked and rolled his eyes a little as they both stepped back off to the side again. Though, Steve right away stepped back down again. With a pointed glance aimed in Tony's direction.
He turned a little and held out his hand, looking down at it as if he were working a cellphone. And continued for several seconds, until he could hear Tony's not-so-quiet huff, Clint's poorly concealed amusement-filled crackling, and then, well, the buzzer sounded anyway.
"What a fine display that was; next scene is... What Natasha whispered to Clint as Thor and Loki, uh, 'left the building.'"
Natasha was the first to step down this time, faced the crowd, and said, "KFC's got this great deal going on their bucket of chicken meal, and guess what? There's one on the way back to base." then she calmly stepped off-stage once more.
Clint, with a wicked grin, stepped down and, turning to the audience, whispered rather loudly, and somewhat slowly, "Two plus two is four," then took a big step back to his original position, though a side step or two away from 'Tasha, whom was presently glaring at him. He merely grinned in response.
Before anyone else could move, Fury was reaching into the helmet again. "Okay, so now... 'Other uses for the Iron Man suit.' Ha!"
Steve grabbed Tony's elbow and stepped down, dragging Tony with him. He sort of turned to half-face Tony, then had on a small smile as he said, "...Told you those mosquitoes wouldn't bother us." And then quickly retreated to his position, leaving Tony behind. Tony let out a small bark of laughter, having apparently not been expecting that, then quickly retorted with,
"Hey, I kinda knew that already!" Before stepping back up beside Steve again.
Natasha, still staring straight ahead, grabbed Clint's hand and stepped down, dragging him down. She half-turned and made the motions of collecting something. She turned to Clint and said, "Told you those bees wouldn't bother us." Clint nodded as he too went about 'collecting honey combs.' Then they both stepped back up.
Tony now stepped down, holding his hands up and as if he were holding something, turned to the audience and said, "Honey! I got an indestructible pi ata for the kids this year!" Tony grinned, then stepped back up.
Fury fished for another piece of paper and came up with, "Alternate endings to the battle in New York."
Tony stepped down first, faced the audience, bent his knees a little and pretended to be holding something on his back...like, say, a nuclear missile. All of a sudden his eyes widen and he says, "Oops, missed the portal...whelp, New York is doomed." He cleared his throat, dropped his arms, and stepped off to the side again.
Clint stepped down and faced the audience, a very concentrated look on his face as he brought his hands up. He made the motions of prepping his bow, notching and aiming it, then fired. A quick grin jumped to his lips, and he called out, "Ha! Try seein' with that eye now, Mr. Try To Take Over The World!" Clint threw back his head, grinning directly at Loki, before turning to step up again.
Fury grabbed another piece of paper and quickly read off, "'Theme songs for each Avengers teammate.' This should be good."
Clint rose an eyebrow, grinned and stepped down before anyone else could react. He started belting out I Am Iron Man by Black Sabbath, naturally. Not too hard to tell which Avenger this theme would be for.
"I am Iron Man! Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Can he walk at all Or if he moves will he fall?"
Before he could go any further, Fury sounded the buzzer, as pretty much everyone had gotten the point, and Clint retreated. Tony was smirking a little too much, a rather scary sign, as he stepped down to take certain stage. He was silent for all of a second, until he brought his hands up, fingers together, and in a sing-song voice...
"The Itsy Bitsy Spider climbed up the water spout..." He'd even made motions with his hands to go along with the song. Fury was quite quick to sound the buzzer, which was a good thing as said 'Spider' was glaring murder at Tony. Tony grinned cheekily, chuckled nervously, and as he retook his position, considered perhaps sleeping with one eye open tonight...but, it'd been so worth it.
Natasha tossed her head, smiling innocently as she stepped down. She stood with her profile to the audience, her smile turning somewhat apologetic as she glanced at Steve, then she put her hands on her hips and turned her head to face the audience, her voice low as she sang,
"We're men, we're men in tights.
We roam around the forest looking for fights.
We're men, we're men in tights.
We rob from the rich and give to the poor, that's right!
We may look like sissies, but watch what you say or else we'll put out your lights!
We're men, we're men in tights,
Always on guard defending the people's rights."
Fury'd had a moment of snickering before finally finding the buzzer to push it, making Natasha step back up again. She'd even been doing the moves to go along with the song, the dance routine from the movie. Steve stood there, arms crossed, looking none-too-amused. If there was a little upward quirk to his lips, well, that was just your imagination. They'd seen that movie together a few nights ago, and as the title of it was Robin Hood: Men In Tights, well that theme may just have been aimed at more than one Avenger...
"Okay," Fury grumbled as he unfolded the last sheet of paper he'd pulled from the Iron Man helmet. "Last scene is... Uh-oh." Fury sighed, glaring up at his team. "What Fury was thinking when he first assembled the Avengers." He pointed his index finger at them and rose his brow, daring them to misbehave.
Clint was the first one to step down, pretended to be searching through some papers, documents perhaps. Then he snapped his fingers and with a tone of disappointment, said, "Dang, Ant Man's busy!" Fury snorted and briefly sounded the buzzer; Clint retook his position.
Natasha stepped down, her appearance very stoic as she turned to face the audience. Suddenly, she grinned widely, pulling a fist towards her person as she shouted, "Yes!" And then, face going blank once more, stepped back up just as quickly.
Steve was the next one to step down. He took a deep breath, facing the audience, releasing it as he said, "The world," He paused and shook his head sadly, "is -so- doomed." He let that hang in the air a moment before he retreated.
As Steve retook his position, Tony stepped down to take center stage. He turned to face the audience, smiled and opened his arms wide as he said, "World's. Greatest. Super. Hero. Team. EVER!" He shouted, and the crowd roared with applause. Because of course, this sort of thing was what he lived for.
After an extensive bout of empty threats aimed towards the audience, Fury finally got them to calm down, and afterward shooed the four on-stage Avengers back to their designated seats. Fury then settled back in his chair, looking through the cards as he said, "Fine, fifteen hundred points a piece. Mostly 'cause I forgot the last couple'a games, I think. Finally, moving on to the next game..."