Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Only one or two more games to go before this will be over... Sadness. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it!
Edited by Arrows the Wolf!
"Moving onto the next game - Weird Newscasters. This is for all four of you knuckleheads." Fury declared from his seat behind the desk, squinting as he read off the cue card. As he was doing so, the four Avengers stood and made their way down to center-stage. Natasha and Tony had each picked up a stool and set them side-by-side dead center of the stage; Steve standing off to the side and behind Natasha, Clint a bit further down and to the side of Tony. The positioning all went strangely smooth, almost like they'd rehearsed this before or something...ah, oh well. Fury was speaking again.
"Natasha, you're the anchor of a local news show." The redhead nodded, her expression blank as she settled herself on the stool. "Tony," Fury went on, "is Natasha's co-anchor, and Tony you're a crazy cat lady who thinks people are stealing her cats." At the sound of his name, Tony had snapped to attention, though his attention appeared to be on the ceiling. At hearing his personality, however, he slowly turned his head towards Fury and raised an eyebrow quite high.
"All right, okay." Tony muttered under his breath after a moment, rubbing his face as he too settled onto his stool.
"Steve," Fury again went on, "you're on sports, and everything around you seems to spontainiously burst into flame." Steve stared blankly at Fury for a few seconds, then slowly began to nod, turning to the side slightly. "Clint," Fury continued, "you've got weather and you are Robin Hood seeking to recruit merry men for your troup." Clint had stuffed his hands in his pockets, inclining his head slightly as Fury addressed him. Then, he blew out a breath of air and did a sort of half-turn, shuffling his feet as he stared at the floor and muttered to himself, something about 'Robin Hood' and 'real arrows, sheesh.'
"When you hear the music, Natasha, take it." Fury finally concluded, leaning back in his seat with a triumphant sigh. As soon as Fury had finished speaking, intro news music started playing. Right as it was finishing up, Natasha, staring down the camera closest to her, began to speak.
"Good evening," She started, her voice low and serious. Tony sat next to her, smiling and petting an invisible cat. There was a beat of silence before she continued. "My name is Betty Boop and this is my associate, Rainbow Dash."
"And this is Tiddels. Say 'hi' Tiddels!" Tony chipped in, using a high-pitched old lady voice as he held up the invisible cat and pretended to have it wave a paw.
"Right." Natasha stared at Tony, narrowing her eyes at him a moment before turning forward again, tossing her head a little as she continued. "Our top news story tonight is that the city seems to have been overrun with giant cats, who appear to be chasing bugs and yarn balls, along with the occasional mutant mouse. I wonder if our super hero team will be able to come and assist, what are your thoughts, Rainbow?"
"I think someone left the door open again! Naughty kitty you. Wait, what's that?" Tony glared at, then pretended to lift the invisible cat to his ear, as if it were telling him something. "Patches left the oven on?!" His eyes grew quite large, but before he could go on any further with this, Natasha cut in.
"..Okay, so, that was interesting. Let's go over to sports, with Johnny Tumbleweed. Johnny?"
"Right, so that was a thrilling game last night, eh guys? Both teams were really on fire-" Steve began, and had turned to face away from the crowd, acting as if he were pointing to a TV. "And the - Whoa!" He began to point to the 'screen,' when he suddenly exclaims and jumps back a little. "Uh, well that was not supposed to happen...could we get a fire extinguisher over here?!" He asked, turning to glance over the crowd.
"Fluffy! Where oh where have you gone-?! You!" Tony suddenly yells out, leaping up from his stool to face Steve, pointing a finger accusingly at the blond. "Hand Fluffy over! I know you took her!" Tony declared, inclining his head slightly. The Captain, hands up with palms out in a 'calm down' type motion, was about to speak when Tony cut him off with a gasp and a shout. "SHE'S ON FIRE!" Tony yelled, then covered his mouth with both hands, his expression one of mixed horror and shock. Steve took a step back while Tony jumped forward, continuing to exclaim with rather a lot of excitement and hand waving, "Put Fluffy out, put Fluffy out!" Tony reached out and pretended to grab something from the air, brought his hands to his chest and patted the invisible creature off, then glared at Steve.
"There, there Fluffy, the mean ol' man won't be catching you on fire anymore.." Tony then lifted his head, sniffed and returned to his stool.
"...All righty then. This just in, fire retardant suits - not just for humans? On to weather with our special guest, Robin Hood. Mr. Hood, what's the weather gonna be like?"
"The weather is going to be bright and sunny, Betty. Great weather for sign-ups. Speaking of which, a brief word from out sponsors, Robin of Loxley and his Men in Tights." Clint paused to clear his throat, then stood profile to the audience and waved his hands as if motioning to a board or TV screen behind him.
"Are you merry? Are you a man? Well I have quite a deal for you-" here he pointed at the audience, "Tonight only we are accepting applications for our Merry Men. So if you are skilled in archery, knife throwing, hand-to-hand combat, stealth attacks or cooking, please come on down and fill out an application!" Then Clint turned and pointed his other hand towards the crowd, his expression suddenly stern. "And if you are a bad guy, no matter where you are, your weather within the next few weeks will be arrows of justice raining down upon you!" Clint jerked his head up with a grin, "So you'd better watch out! Back to you, Ms. Boop." Clint concluded, taking a small step back.
"Excellent. Well, unless my co-anchor has anything to add, I believe that is it for the night.." Natasha began to say, when Tony spoke up.
"Whiskers AND Milo have disappeared...I blame you and arrow boy." Tony claimed, pretending to be petting a cat as he glared at Natasha, then Clint.
"Yes, well. That's all then, good night and we won't be seeing you in the morning." Natasha said with a smile, and then the end of the news music started to play. Steve and Clint turned to head back to their seats, whereas Tony and Natasha stood and returned the stools to the side of the stage before heading back to their seats. Even a moment after they'd all taken their seats, silence still reigned in the studio. So all four turned to look at the Director, only to find that he had fallen asleep. Scowling, Tony shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, extremely loudly. It seemed to have no effect. So, Clint looked down and happened to spy the little wadded up piece of paper they'd been using in the earlier Scenes, and made a quick decision...
Standing, Clint stepped down, knelt and grabbed the little ball of paper, took quick aim and chucked it at the Director. It landed squarely on his nose, bounced off and nestled itself upon his stomach. Until he gave an undignified yelp and jumped to his feet.
"What-oh." Fury stood there, observing the four Avengers sitting in the chairs.
"The game is over, Director. What now?" Steve asked, opening his hands to express the 'what now' part. Fury huffed, straightened his clothing, then retook his seat.
"Uhm, five hundred each...since I, er, was otherwise occupied... Sorry, we still have at least one more game to go, team. But we're almost there. Next is..."