Heyya, I'm sorry :( that last chapter might not have made 100% sense. I was very tired when I wrote it, because I'd just spent the day at Alton Towers (The Smiler was amaaaazing!) and I was stuffed full of Chinese food. And that's my excuse.
FORWARD AND ONWARD!
Clint ambled slowly into the kitchen, rubbing his weary eyes as he went. He'd had a terrible night sleep. He'd been too busy worrying about Pepper and Tony to even think about shutting his eyes. They had vanished. They had both ran off, and he had no idea where they could have gone. He supposed he really ought to be out there, searching for them, but then Shield had stepped in.
They'd gotten wind from somewhere that they'd found Tony, albeit they still thought he was in adult form. When Coulson and Fury came knocking and heard about what had happened over the last few days, they had put Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Thor and Steve in house-lock. Which was essentially where Shield pretended they were harder than they were and forbid the Avengers to leave the house.
While all that was well, it did however give time for Bruce to analyse the situation at hand. Each of them had become most perturbed at the fact that Steve couldn't remember anything that had happened over the last few days, and after Bruce had finally managed to coax him into having a brain scan, it showed a series of anomalies in that one minute his brain was perfectly fine, the next second it was all over the place. Each time it went high, Steve wouldn't be able to recall anything that happened.
Now, Clint was worrying for his three friends. Rather than the usual one. So as he stepped into the kitchen, feet growing cold as he stepped on the marble as though it were ice, did he stop to think about the situation in full.
Pulling down a box of strawberry PopTarts from the cupboard, he opened it and began munching, thinking hard.
Pepper and Tony had run off. That was obvious. Loki had turned Tony into a kid and then kidnapped him, okay. Then they managed to get him back after that appalling street fight and he'd just shown up in Stark Tower.
He started on his second PopTart.
He had snuck onto the Helicarrier, and gotten himself taken again, by Loki and some other guy. Fine. Then Loki had shown up again and taken Pepper. But he didn't have her for long, before Bruce found them again.
Why had Loki given them back so easily? Blowing up the guy called Loftus's own facility, only to save himself and Loftus. Giving Tony and Pepper to Steve. Meanwhile a few hours later, Tony was running away from Steve.
Clint couldn't remember seeing Steve come back from his walk around New York. That was a regular occurrence for Steve. Usually, he'd go for a walk, and come back with three more bags full of PopTarts. Tony had told him repeatedly they just get the food delivered, but Steve had always insisted on walking down to the super market and buying some, while giving money to the Boy Scouts as they helped him back his bag.
Clint turned around and reopened the cupboard, finding a bare sight greeting him. Usually, it was laden full of PopTarts, so that they were never out. So why was he eating the last one?
He didn't trouble to keep his footsteps down as he marched towards Steve's room. Pushing hard on the door. It was locked. Wiping the crumbs away from his mouth, he pulled out his gun and shot at the lock, causing it to brake off and the door to swing open.
Stepping inside the room, we was met by the sight of Captain America wearing chequered pyjamas, staring bleary eyed as he clutched his shield, his eyes widened as he saw Clint.
"Clint?" He half yawned and half croaked, rubbing his eyes and putting down the shield. Clint smiled apologetically. "You could have just knocked."
"But you were asleep."
"Exactly. I was asleep. What do you want?" Clint looked grim and Steve returned the non-committal expression.
"What is the last thing you remembered before your brain switched off?" Clint asked, Steve blinked.
"We've been over this. I remember walking down the pavement." Steve said, and Clint glared.
"You must remember something?" Clint pleaded. Steve thought hard, and after a few moments spoke again.
"Someone was calling my name."
"Someone was calling your name?" Steve shut his eyes in an attempt to think. He snapped them open again.
"Someone was calling my name. I remember because I was really confused, it was really loud but I didn't know where it was coming from. Then I looked across the pavement.. Loki."
"This is Shield. They-"
"We know who Shield is."
Alright. This is Nick Fury. He's-"
"Eyepatch. I've had the honour of meeting him."
"Fine. This is-"
"Coulson. Agent Coulson."
"Phil." Pepper cut across him, and Tony shrugged.
"His first name is Agent." Loki frowned at the pair of them. He couldn't tell whether that was the child, or the adult side of their brains talking.
"Loki, just turn us back into adults." Tony said warningly at Loki, who looked at him bleakly.
"Yeah, c'mon Loki. What can you gain from us being children still? We remember everything." Pepper added, scanning Loki carefully.
"I had to find a way to take you down." Loki said, standing up and stretching. Tony and Pepper exchanged looks. "Basically, have you ever seen the Incredibles?" Loki asked. Tony and Pepper nodded, and Loki distinctly heard Tony mutter 'obviously'. Loki ignored him.
"Well, the baby at the end, Jack Jack?" Tony nodded, already knowing where this was going. Loki reverted to the next stage.
"Then because you had infinite wisdom you got yourself caught." Tony raised an eyebrow. "Basically, long story short, this was the most basic plan in the whole world. It was going to be simple and easy."
"But it didn't work." Pepper pointed out, Loki glowered.
"No. It didn't work. Which is why, I'm just going to have to kill you both right now."
So what did you think? I think this stories drawing to a close :) it has been a pleasure writing it however so far :D
