Heya everybody, time for an update after a lonnng period of time! (not as long as I'm waiting for some of my other stories, butt I shouldn't get into that XD)
This week I'm working as well as taking a Math SAT prep class at my Middle School and trying to do AP English 11 homework that's due August 5th. Yup. So, I was trying to hurry and finish this so I could get going on my other stuff.
I was a bit disappointed just a bit that only three people reviewed from Chapter Five, all of which on the first day it was posted (Which I guess is good, but eh I dunno I was expecting...at least one person to review over last week...*shrug*) but oh well. Thanks very much to those of you who did review!
Review replies from Chapter Five:
AglonAuthor: haha you'll see what's up, and yes that is Loki! And if you want to cameo, you can, just ask me how, when, where, why, etc. What kind of cameo, like if you want to be a SI employee or a person working for Loki or just a person mentioned whatever floats your boat. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, it means a lot!
Avengerlicious: hahaaha nooo I didn't make up "disapoofs" I wish I did. It's a made up word anyway, so meh. :D It's fun to use! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Guest who reviewed on 6/14/13: Loki. Loki happened in her head. XD Writing more, got it!~ Oooh first question! YAY!
Guest's question, for Cap: If you have one wish, any wish, what would it be?
Steve: Hmm...that's tough...but I think, it would have to be...to give Peggy that one dance that I promised her before I went into the ice.
And all of the reviewers get a warm toasty internet cookie of AWESOMENESS! WOO! *sends cookies*
Disclaimer!
I don't own the Avengers, nope, but I do own Tori since she is part of ME AAAHAHAHAAA!
Avenger'd
Chapter Six
Loki smiled in a mocking way to himself, sitting in the shadows. That foolish mortal girl thought herself safe from harm among those people? Lucky, even? The god of mischief found this very amusing. He gripped his staff tightly and focused in on the girl's thoughts.
"You think so now, mortal, but just wait…" he baited in her mind as he felt her worry ease for a moment. Almost as a reply he could sense her stiffening to his voice, as if it was a ghost, and he grinned. So it had worked…Loki glanced down at his staff, now glowing brightly, and mused. The girl Matthews had somehow connected with the power of the Tesseract at some moment, whether it had been a misfire of the energy or some small detail that had been overlooked. And because of that brief synchronization she fell through the portal from her realm instead of the Chitauri from theirs.
And so, Loki surmised, with the power he had been given that draws its source from the Tesseract, he could harness that connection when focused. To what extent however, he did not know. He stood up from his sedentary position and walked out towards the dim lights of the catacombs, and then he approached the artifact, and gazed at it pensively. Ooh yes, this would be interesting, very interesting indeed…
To say that Tony Stark was a genius would be an understatement, as well as to say he was rich, and to say that he was awesome would also most definitely be a major understatement. I nearly fainted when he gave us the tour of where we would be staying (not the same at ALL as a hologram, duly noted). Stark just laughed at all of our reactions and said that we were free to make ourselves at home.
"Why have four floors of penthouse if no one's going to use it?" he said, nonchalantly waving his hands. Clint (Agent Barton's first name, as I picked up) smiled widely, before toning it down to a smirk after Tony grinned at him.
"Well, Stark, you got me impressed," Clint muttered simply. Tony's smile widened as his eyes flashed with an idea.
"How about we all do some exploring around?" he suggested with a daring look in his eye. Natasha gave him a deadpan stare.
"This is your tower, how would we be exploring?"
Tony sniffed before shrugging. "I may have helped built most of it, but as my tower is new and I only really did the heavy lifting and financing and ordering and tech syncing, I never really got to tour around much of it besides the times I spent with Pep," he admitted. "So I think it'd be a pretty sweet time to see which one of us finds the coolest stuff, and if any of us gets lost, JARVIS is through the mainframe of the whole Tower, and he can lead us back up to the top. You all game?"
There were a few minutes of thoughtful silence before Bruce's face had gained a curious smile.
"Sure, why not?" he agreed, and after he said, we all nodded, smiling in accordance.
That second, Clint looked up and jumped straight in that direction, surprising me, but not really anyone else; until I realized that he had leaped into the overhead vent. Tony chuckled.
"I wondered how long he'd wait to do that," he mused with a toothy smile. "Well then, we should follow in Hawkeye's leap steps and get going!" With that, Tony ran to the nearest elevator, followed quickly behind by Natasha who beat him to the front, causing him to turn the corner to the next elevator. Bruce smiled contentedly and made his way in the direction Tony said was the lab. Thor bounded out of the room with Mjolnir in front of him like a tether. Steve looked back at me, since I was a bit too slow in the reaction of everyone's departure.
"You wanna explore with me?" he asked kindly, his blue eyes twinkling at mine. "This place is a bit large, and what fun is it going around alone?" I nodded in response and smiled.
"Sure, I'd love to!"
Steve smiled broadly at me and then thought for a moment.
"Any place you'd want to find?" he inquired. I contemplated this for a moment, then I remembered what Tony said about JARVIS being everywhere. I looked around, a shy smile on my face.
"Hey…ah…JARVIS?" I called out hesitantly.
"Yes Miss Matthews, what is it?" the AI responded within seconds. I took a breath and glanced to Steve.
"Are there any rooms in the Tower with a piano, by any chance?" I asked the artificial butler which caused the red-white-and-blue clad man to raise his eyebrow at me with a curious smirk.
"As a matter of fact, there is one. Would you like me to lead you and Captain Rogers there?"
I nodded as I felt a lightness of joy course through my veins. "Yes, please." Why play without an audience?
"Right this way."
A holographic screen of a map appeared in front of me that had directions to the room which held the piano. I looked up at Steve.
"Come on!" I urged with an excited smile. "I want to play something for you." The Captain smiled and gave a shrug, before walking beside me towards the destination.
We reached a door which opened to a small music room, only called that because of the piano, though. It had a wide window that looked out to the city and the instrument was in the center of the room, next to a violin case and a cello. Surrounding the instruments were a few rows of benches. I gaped at the marvelous grand piano, mouth dragging to the floor. The instrument was carved out of a sleek cherry wood, and trimmed with gold leafing around the edges of the seat and lid. I walked up to the large piano and slid my fingers over the smooth surface. The instrument looked untouched and I almost seemed scared to open the lid. Captain Rogers sat down on the closest bench and gestured at me. I smiled nervously and took a shaky breath.
This had seemed a lot less pressuring in my mind. What if I screwed up? What if he thought I sucked? Shaking my head, I made up my mind. I sat down on the piano seat gently and lifted the ornate lid to reveal the ebony and ivory keys. I turned around to Steve.
"Do you mind classical music? I'm not so good with modern pieces…" I rambled in a low voice. He gave a small shake of the head and smiled.
"What did you have in mind?"
"Ah…some Mozart. Sonata in D major. It's for two pianos but I-"
"That'll be great. Just play what you feel," he said softly.
I felt my face heat up and I nodded. I gingerly placed my fingers on the keys, took a breath, and began my piece.
Clint was comfortably crawling in the rafters when he suddenly heard and felt the sound and vibrations of music. Music. Now who would be playing, he wondered. It sounded beautiful. He crawled swiftly towards the source of the sound and perched over the vent opening above the room and allowed his eyes to close in pleasure to the soft tune.
Thor and Natasha both ended up in the gym, the Widow before the god, of course. Once Thor arrived there, though, he immediately challenged the female to a match of strengths, to which the assassin accepted with a vitriolic smirk. After Thor bested Natasha at lifting but she aced him in agility, he decided to challenge her in the boxing ring, although she insisted he not use his hammer. Thor scowled, but then agreed, since his hammer could knock the super spy through the roof.
After they had started, however, Natasha perked her ears at the sound of a tune that she recognized and dodged Thor's blows repeatedly. The god was miffed at her distraction.
"Why do you not spar me with your full attention, friend?"
"Shh! Listen!" she scolded in a whisper, to which Thor extended his ear and too heard the music. Quietly as possible, they eventually made their way to the music room and silently listened outside.
Bruce and with him Tony, as the genius wanted to go to the lab anyway, were tinkering with ALL of Tony's different scientific toys, to which led the billionaire genius playboy philanthropist to rattle off on the different kinds of hydraulic engines he had built when he was younger. All of a sudden the battered gamma scientist felt calm for the first time in a while as his ears picked up a faint but melancholically beautiful melody, in place of Tony's rantings.
"Is that…Moonlight Sonata?" Banner muttered aloud, interrupting his friend. Tony gave him an odd look.
"Beethoven? What are you talking about?" Tony asked Bruce, and he put his finger to his lips in response. Tony pouted but shut his mouth all the same. It was then he heard the music as well. "Huh," he breathed after a few seconds of quiet and the sound.
"I wonder who's playing…" Bruce thought verbally, and Tony nodded contemplatively.
"Hey JARVIS?"
"Yes, sir."
"Who's that on the piano? That's a piano isn't it?" Tony asked, hand resting on his chin in thought.
"Yes sir, and it is Miss Matthews playing, I believe Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in C# minor," the AI replied. Bruce's mouth twitched in a smile and Tony's soon followed.
"Well then," Tony said. "Let's go pay Tori's concert a visit, Brucie!"
Bruce shook his head with a smile as they exited the lab and headed for the music room.
I gave a deep sigh as I finished the piece, my fingers starting to get a bit twitchy from playing. I turned around to Steve and he was smiling contentedly at me, silently applauding in case I was to play another song.
"That's okay, I'm done," I stated, causing his claps to become audible, making the red on my face go much deeper. He stood up from the bench and walked over to me.
"That was amazing, Tori. Thank you," Steve praised and I instantly looked down at my feet, finding the floor very very interesting.
"It was nothing, really. I took piano lessons for a while and I learned a lot of classical pieces so really this is just helping me practice, really it's nothing but I'm glad you liked it," I ranted in a low whisper.
All of a sudden I heard a loud booming from above me and then Clint fell down through the air on top of a bench, surprising me and Steve.
"If this is practice I can't imagine what a serious concert would be," he commented, making me really wish I had something to cover my stop-light face.
"I agree with Clint, that was pretty superb. I could hear you playing from the gym."
I turned around to see Natasha and almost did a double take. How long had she been there?! And how did I not notice?! (Super spy, doi Tori, she could probably have climbed the walls or something.)
"Yes, Lady Natasha has a most agreeable point! If not for her, I would not have heard your masterpiece!" Thor thundered, coming in from the door. "You should play your marvelous music in Asgard!"
"M-masterpiece?" I could only stutter. Honestly, I wasn't really that good, in my opinion. No better than the thousands of other kids at my school who could play the piano the same way and better, but I mean I had been practicing after work… and trying to add effects of my own while playing, but that's only because I'd been playing those for a long time!
Had all of the Avengers had been listening the whole time?
As to answer my mental question, Bruce and Tony walked in, as if on cue.
"Astounding, you're just full of surprises," Tony joked at me. "Maybe you and Coulson could have-" All of a sudden, his eyes went wide and he took a brief glance at the cello next to the piano. Steve, Natasha, and Clint seemed to reciprocate this manner and if I wasn't mistaken, all of them became just the slightest bit somber. Tony for a brief moment looked like he was going to throttle someone or something, fluids slightly twinkling in his chocolate brown eyes. He coughed shortly. "-played together. Well now that we're all here and not eavesdropping, would you mind playing one last song?"
I noticed this topic change and the others seemed to have as well. Steve smiled at me.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, you sounded great before," he consoled, but I shook my head. I sat back down on the bench and turned my head to the others, now taking seats on the benches.
"What would you all like?" I asked with a shy smile. Tony and the others exchanged glances.
"Make it a surprise."
And so the Avengers all listened quietly and contentedly as I played my finale.
Hope you all enjoyed this fairly long chappie!
The songs, in order were Mozart's Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos, Mozart's Sonata K545, and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The last one I was kinda just leaving up to the imagination.
COULSONNNNN I know he's alive but they don't know that yet and this kinda exemplified my own feelings before I knew!
Welp same stuff applies for reviews! Gotta go! PLEASE REVIEW!
~DarkMousyRulezAll, signing out!