I just wanted to thank you all for your support, and especially my beta, who made this story less (more?) lame and overall funnier. And if anyone has an idea of what activity they'd like the Avengers to do in the next sequel, please leave a review and let me know!
Natasha had JARVIS summon the whole group from whichever corners of the mansion they were in, as opposed to spending all day trying to locate them and then losing the rest of them along the way. She had learned her lesson the first time.
Having done this, she walked into one of Tony's game rooms, the chosen area of their meeting, ten minutes later. It was a high-ceilinged room with the shiny wood floors covered in plush carpets, squashy couches, and nearly a whole wall taken up by a huge television screen that stretched from ceiling to floor. Shelves on the opposite wall held what seemed to be every gaming system ever created, with special drawers to hold all of the games.
All of the Avengers were there (except Tony, but Natasha couldn't remember the last time he hadn't made an intentionally fabulous entrance), reclining on the furniture with their feet up on coffee tables and chatting. There was, however, an unexpected guest, who was sitting in one of the armchairs as if it were a throne, even though he was being ignored by everyone.
"Why is he here?" Natasha grumbled, walking over and collapsing onto the couch next to Clint.
"Thor couldn't find a babysitter," Tony said in a bored voice as he flounced into the room, pressing a couple of buttons on the wall before sinking royally onto the sofa.
"It's wonderful to see you, too," said Loki from his armchair-throne.
"What made him king of the world?" grumbled Natasha, and Steve glanced at Loki out of the corner of his eye.
"For one, he was literally a prince. On the other hand, Loki has Anti-Social Personality Disorder, which is marked by his complete lack of sympathy for other human beings, and his belief that he is the most important person in the world. Well, worlds," Steve explained. "Luckily, it's a mild case, and it manifests itself largely as him pretending he's king of both Earth and Asgard."
"Enough with the psychology, Rogers! We're here to engage in a gruesome battle for honor, not impress our colleagues with the Community College classes we've been taking on the weekends," interrupted Tony, walking back to the couch and throwing himself on the middle of it, landing partially on top of both Bruce and Peter, who grudgingly squirmed aside to make room for him. "JARVIS, turn on the N64."
"I am sorry sir, but your modifications will take another six hours to complete," came JARVIS's level reply from invisible speakers. "However, the Wii version is completely modified and can be available in 4.2 seconds."
"Yeah, okay, fine. I guess we can do the Wii version," said Tony, somewhat reluctantly. He began pulling white Wii remotes out of the bottom drawer of the coffee table and tossing them to various people. "First round will be me, Steve, Tasha, and Peter. Any objections can be directed to our complaints department, which is just out the front door."
The game loaded quickly, and Tony scrolled through the menu and selected 4-person multiplayer.
"What button do I push?" Steve asked, examining his Wii remote closely. Experimentally, he prodded the round one on the front. "Something happened! What just happened? What did I do? Did I break it? Is it supposed to make that sound?"
"Just pick a character, Steve," said Natasha, rolling her eyes as she lazily scrolled her cursor over to Toad.
"It's telling me to pick a vehicle! There's a girl in a pink dress in my corner of the screen...
"You've got to go back if you want to change your character," said Natasha slowly and calmly.
Steve pressed a button on the remote.
"I don't think it worked!" said Steve, beginning to panic as he clicked more buttons. "It says 'OK'! It is not 'OK'; I am not prepared for this race! I don't think I can do this! Bruce can take my place, Bruce - "
"Too late!" said Tony, who was staring intently at the screen. The race was starting. In all of his frenzied button clicking, Steve had chosen his kart and gear setting along with the others without even realizing it. He was sporting Princess Peach on a fancy pink motorcycle.
"Oh no," Steve groaned, leaning back and resigning himself to his inevitable humiliation. He wasn't going down without a fight, however.
"Really, Tony? Bowser's Castle, on Steve's first try?" said Natasha, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Steve cried. "Why? Is this bad? Why wouldn't this be a good race? Nat?"
"He'll be fine," dismissed Tony with a wave of his hand, turning back to the screen as it began to count down to their start. At the buzzer, Tony, Peter, and Natasha were off with a bang, while Steve was left behind to grapple with his controller. Bruce leaned over and helped him figure out which buttons would make the engine start.
They were barely halfway through their first lap when Steve jumped about a foot in the air, throwing his controller in shock, which ended up hitting Loki in the forehead.
"What just happened? The controller started shaking!"
"It's supposed to do that, Cap," said Bruce gently, grimacing apologetically at Loki when he picked the controller off of the god's lap and handed it back to Steve, who was regarding it warily. "It vibrates when you get hit by a shell or use a certain power, or something."
"Oh." Steve accepted the controller, turning it over in his hands as he tried to figure out which way was right side up. He glanced up at Loki who was pointedly ignoring them all. "Sorry about that, by the way. It was about 90% involuntary - "
"Heads up!" Peter yelled as his motorcycle smashed into the back of Steve's Princess Peach bike from behind as he lapped him, sending Steve's kart tumbling to the side of the track and careening off into the lava. Tony was right on Peter's tail, Natasha having passed more stealthily several moments before.
Natasha managed to claim the first place spot in the first race by carefully throwing a banana peel in front of Tony's kart just feet from the finish line. Peter flew in next at second, and Tony managed a respectable fourth place. Steve was in the expected twelfth.
Peter was allowed the honor of picking the next race, and he scrolled through the possible choices with his tongue between his teeth before finally deciding on "the one where you jump from mushroom to mushroom."
"What?" said Tasha, at the same time Tony asked, "You mean Mushroom Gorge?"
"Yeah, that's what I said," replied Peter, selecting the race on the screen. "The one where you jump from mushroom to mushroom."
Peter won that one, his Yoshi celebrating enthusiastically on the screen, and Natasha chose Toad's Factory as the next race.
This race was relatively uneventful, and Tony shot past the finish line into first place. Steve surprised everyone, especially himself, by finishing in ninth. He was rewarded with cheers and high fives from everyone, excluding Loki, and stared at the screen with an awed smile on his face.
Steve didn't do so well in the next race, however, as Tony picked Wario's Gold Mine. When they entered the mine and the bats few out and hit their carts, Steve screamed and dropped his controller, covering his face with his hands. Bruce soothed him with a hand on his shoulder, silently handing the controller back.
Tony won this race, winning him first place overall in the round. It took several well-aimed whacks with throw pillows, but they did eventually manage to get him to stop gloating. Mostly.