KONNICHEWA MINNA! :D How has your summers been? Good? Good! I've been stuck with AP English HW for the while and lifeguarding and aaahhh I just couldn't get around to updating this, but good news! all I gotta do is finish writing my three essays and turn them in on Monday and then I'll be DONE until school starts on the 22nd! So I can just write and play my heart out after that! Alright, I had A TON of reviews compared to the previous chappies I should get to them!
Review replies from chapter seven:
AglonAuthor: Nope, that's all that's needed! Glad you liked it! Cookie for youuu!
Ooh boy...Liberty Bell(Guest): Long review indeed! HAHA wow, no I love this thank you! Wow, I'm glad you liked everything, from Parker, to the party! WOW MORE QUESTIONS YAY! Okay, first, you are, I dunno why I said everyone is free to ask, I guess no one besides you is up to it. Second, again, I love your reviews, hell it's a free country make em as long as you want. (I'll give you your cookie now! XD)
Third Question, to AglonAuthor's Parker: How long have you been a fan of Captain America? (...okay Parker will answer that after cuz this is getting long...)
Fourth Question, to Tony muse: Ooooooooh, I may not have a super-brain, but it's still capable of telling me that you've got some warm fuzzies for Tori. Is that true? OH, if it IS true, then what about Pepper? (...Also answering this after cuz there are more reviews)
CrystalClear98: Glad you're liking the story! Thanks for reviewing! Internet cookie! :D
Avengerlicious: *nod nod* tis true. And *shrug* there's no dictionary for bilgesnipe but yeah I think it's good. Thanks for reviewing! Cooookkkiiiiieee!
dragonteehee1: ...whoa wow I think that made me die of a happiness coma. Jeez...all these people think I'm brilliant it's not good for my ego XD Thanks for reviewing! COOKIE FOR YOU!
Last but not least, Obsidian the Ghost Faced, who was reviewing on chapters 3-7 today: CRRRAAACKKK YES that was awful Javert why why? ^^ wow you really reviewed a lot today, thanks so much! It really means a lot and I'm glad you like the story! YOU GET AN AWESOMENESS INTERNET COOKIE WOO!
Woo now that that's done...DISCLAIMER TIME!
Oh hey look at that Thor 2 is coming out soon, do I own that?
*lightning strikes me*
nope...dun own that and I dun own the MCU...
Avenger'd
Chapter Eight
In the few moments between unconsciousness and consciousness, I thought for a while that all that had transpired was part of a huge dream. The vortex, the Avengers, eye-patch wearing spy, super technological artificial intelligences and damn huge pizza parties: sounded like a dream to the old me. But what had Steve, the illustrious Captain America, said to me earlier?
Everything from that point on was real…he knew how I had felt. But that couldn't possibly have been, it was obviously a dream.
My false sense of reality was broken as I stirred to the sounds of the quaintly familiar British voice of JARVIS musing over the weather forecast for today. My eyebrows furrowed and slowly I worked on lifting my eyelids to see the blurry outline of the bedroom I had crashed in. My ears began to register the AI's words:
"It seems that a large storm front will be hitting this area this afternoon. I should inform Mr. Stark soon of the possibility of a shortage in the arc reactor in case lightning strikes."
Blearily, I replied, "Wouldn't he already know by now, since you're in the whole Tower?" I rubbed my eyes for a moment.
"That is true, Miss Matthews, but currently Mr. Stark is suffering from an extreme nausea due to over-consumption of greasy food and carbonated beverages," JARVIS said in almost a deadpan voice. "I do not believe he would take to the information in this state." I chuckled at this and my vision became clearer, then I promptly screeched.
I hadn't taken any notice the night before, being too tired and sick to care; moreover, it took me awhile to comprehend I was in a bedroom at all. As soon as my senses came to, I realized that this was the single greatest room I had ever slept in.
The bed itself was large and fluffy, and the room was lit with a golden hue (most likely due to the enormous window, duly noted) and there were large adornments on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. And if I wasn't mistaken, there was also a large couch and coffee table sitting by the window. That was when I promptly leaned so far over that I fell off the bed and hit the floor with a thud!
"Owww…" I muttered, rubbing my shoulders as I stood, still looking around in bewilderment. "So, ah, JARVIS, where is everyone then?"
"Mr. Stark is semi-conscious in the lab, he's probably not gotten that much sleep, Dr. Banner is upstairs in the penthouse, reading, Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff are in the gym with Captain Rogers, and Thor is still asleep in the bedroom at the end of the hall. My log states that he retired only about three hours ago."
I flattened out my clothes and glanced down in rumination. I briefly wondered who the winner of the contest was. I assumed it to be Thor, considering, you know, him being a freaking god, but hey maybe Æsirs weren't adjusted to pizza? 'Adjusted' is a word which here means –able to eat foods which were not previously heard of without the body rejecting it in one of a few different ways. So, without any other thing to do besides gape at the room I had stumbled into, I slowly and quietly exited and made my way into the hall.
My mind swirled out of control. What was I going to do, now that I had already spent a day and it was obviously not a dream? What possibly could there be to do? Unconsciously, I thought of home, and if time had passed since I had been here. Would I be missed? Mourned? Searched for? Or would the universe just continue to roll on as if I were never there?
Should I be the one searching for the door back home? Is it only something on this side, so to speak? And why this universe out of all possible universes? Is it because of that Loki character and some artifact they were mentioning yesterday? And who's to say that this Loki person isn't gaining strength and getting stronger?
Who's to say that he's not sneaking in here now-
I suddenly bumped into a glass door, snapping me out of my thoughts and giving the bridge of my nose a very bad ache. I doubled backwards. Glass door-? Looking around I saw a sign that so obviously stated "The Lab: Do Not Enter unless you wish to potentially blow something up-" and the rest of it was Black Sharpie-d out. I'm guessing that there was some…other stuff on it. I rubbed my forehead in confusion.
How…exactly had I made it to Tony's lab from the guest bedrooms floor? Meh…most likely was wandering during my mental monologue…bleh. With a sigh and nothing else to attend to at the moment, I plodded into the laboratory.
"h-Hello? Tony, are you there?" I called out blearily. I walked down a small spiral staircase that led to a glass door.
I heard a muffled groan that I presumed originated from Tony, who was laying in what I thought looked like a very uncomfortable position on a chair in front of his work table.
"Hhnnn noooo Pep, I dun wanna clean the tables!" he grunted sluggishly as I walked in the room, his deep brown eyes closed in fatigue from the previous night. "Leafve me allloooonneee." The billionaire made a shooing motion with his right arm at me in a bovine manner, and I guess he was thinking of someone else (a 'Pep' person, assuming Pepper as mentioned earlier the other day, duly noted). I clenched my fists and urged myself to move closer into earshot.
"Tony," I persisted, speaking just the slightest bit louder. His eyebrows knitted together in a feeble attempt to open his eyes.
"Hnnn," he mumbled, finally getting to peer out, his eyes faded and glassy. I waved awkwardly in an attempt to get his attention. "Huh…hey kid, sorry, thought you were someone else." He sat up in the swivel chair and rubbed his face with a yawn. "What are you doing down here?" I rubbed the back of my head, racking my brain for an answer.
"Well, ah, JARVIS said that you were asleep down here and I figured I'd come down and check out your lab in the meanwhile and see what other kinds of cool stuff you built," I half-lied, smiling innocently.
The first part was true, I guess but really, I had just kinda wandered here. Tony didn't seem to notice, however; his eyes lit up in amusement and he sprang up from his chair.
"Oho cool stuff indeed miss maestro, wait till you see my latest design in Repulsor Technology!" he practically squealed like a kid at Show-and-Tell. I laughed as Tony grabbed my hand and led me to a blown-up section of the lab where a metal glove-like contraption was in its center. My eyes widened at the sight of it.
"What's…that?" I asked, referring to the object in the blackened center. Tony grinned.
"Oh that's just an independently accessible gauntlet for the Iron Man armor. Just an upgrade of my current Mark VII, but what it does is infinitely more awesome," he explained with a toothy smile. He quickly ran back to his desk and grabbed something I couldn't see and returned within the constraints of a minute. "Hold out your right arm," he instructed, and warily, but excitedly, I did so. In his hand, he produced a metal wrist band.
"What's that?"
"Just a wrist sensor imbued with a microchip," he replied, placing it on my wrist. "The gauntlet will recognize the chip and attach to your hand."
I oohed and turned my hand around to observe the wrist band. "How does it work?"
"Hold your arm out like so." He showed me his pose, left arm in a right angle clutching the right arm out in a shooting position. "JARVIS, deploy Mark VIII gauntlet piece."
"Right away, sir," the AI responded.
I looked to the billionaire with a questioning glance, before the gauntlet rose up from the burnt floor and shot towards my arm. I instinctively flinched and shut my eyes, wrenching my eyebrows together. I felt a slight tugging and a cool sensation of metal on skin. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes to find a red and gold metal glove attached to my hand and my face brightened with adrenaline.
"Wow!" I gushed, laughing with pure exhilaration. "This…this is pretty cool!" Tony grinned in reciprocation.
"The repulsor thruster in this gauntlet is designed to power itself for a short period of time and this explosion was made testing the firepower of what it can dish out without the main chest piece."
My hazel eyes met his warm brown and they both echoed the same thing: I think there's more to be tested and blown-up!
"Care to give it a whirl, maestro?"
"Why not? Might as well to help with this project of yours!" I replied eagerly, as Tony brought up a holoscreen.
"Initiating 20% efficiency blast, get ready Tori, 3…2…1…"
A surge of energy rose up from the gauntlet and a literal sphere of energy erupted from the tips of the fingers and shot from the palm and hit the wall on the other side, causing the floor to rumble. A wide grin spread on my face. This was definitely awesome.
A few hours and a LOT of explosions later…
Many parts of the lab now were scorched and black, and Tony and I were positively psyched at how much fun that was. The gauntlet had run out of its separate power source, and the usually illuminated circle on the palm was now faded.
I turned my head to see the billionaire, hair wild and unruly from the backblast of one of the charges.
"You build this stuff for a living?" I asked.
"Yep," was all he said in reply, a winning smile to agree.
"Sweet."
Man, my old life really was lacking! How come none of the eccentric multi-billionaires of my world ever built repulsor technology?
Because they are not like the Man of Iron. They are not as brilliantly genius or destructive.
My eyes widened in shock. That voice…again!
The glass door to the lab opened and none other than Dr. Banner walked in, a look of surprise adorning his face as his eyes met with the aftermath of Tony's and my experiments.
"Ah…am I interrupting something?" he asked with a smirk.
"Nope, perfect timing, actually Brucie," Tony remarked, allowing for the gauntlet to drop off of my hand while I rubbed my wrist.
"Hey Dr. Banner!" I greeted and waved, shaking the weird anomaly out of my mind. The gamma scientist smiled warmly at me. His face hardened suddenly as if he remembered something important.
"Tony, everyone's upstairs. Thor said he could feel Loki's magic not too long ago."
Tony's face hardened as well. "Well, looks like fun time is over then, maestro." I nodded in reply, taking off the wrist band and walking over to the door with Dr. Banner and Tony.
The three of us went upstairs to the penthouse and as Bruce had said, all of the other Avengers had gathered, all with solemn faces. My stature seemed to decrease as I followed behind; feeling like a…seventh wheel…was it?
Thor approached Tony, Mjolnir in hand. "My friend Tony, it was not but an hour ago that my brother's magic spiked in power. I fear if we leave him much longer then he will return with a stronger force on his own."
Tony nodded. "What do you suggest we do, Point Break?" It was Bruce that answered.
"I think that we can track the Cube and possibly even find Loki with it. I can run the same algorithm as on the Helicarrier and that'll be a start."
Clint and Natasha walked over to where we were congregated and Clint crossed his arms.
"Should we notify S.H.I.E.L.D. of another possible attack?" he asked, but his eyes said much more. I saw glimpses of guilt and shadow in his bright blues that made me wonder. Natasha nodded.
"We told Fury we'd keep him posted, and who knows, Loki may attack again if he knows we're not there."
Suddenly, a rumble was heard in the distance and I shirked away from the six Avengers. Oh god no…what was it that JARVIS said this morning?
"It seems that a large storm front will be hitting this area this afternoon. I should inform Mr. Stark soon of the possibility of a shortage in the arc reactor in case lightning strikes."
Thunder….storms….brilliant. The group of heroes were not fazed by this in the slightest. I peeked to the large window and my eyes widened. The sky was becoming very dark with storm clouds, dark as-
That dream…
I shuddered. No, no, no, come on, not like that not like that at all! A flash of pulsing light illuminated the dark sky, and a soft "EEEP!" was heard, right before a resounding boom of thunder followed. Another mouse-like squeak was heard following the thunder. This caught the attention of Tony, who turned around to see me, hiding under a table next to the bar. He smirked at me.
"What's the matter, kid, scared of some lightning?" he asked jokingly.
"y-Yeah, really don't like it," I muttered wildly with a shaky chuckle. "I'm not terribly fond of what follows either." Another large burst of light pierced the sky and I caught the downright shocked looks on Natasha, Steve, and Tony's faces as I trembled in the wake of the resonating sound wave.
Interesting choice of words, mortal, the ghostly whisper echoed in my mind. I gulped. Something was obviously wrong with what I said, and I did not like the looks of concern that the Avengers were giving me.
Nor did I like the thunderstorm, but hey, that didn't get any better at all. It actually got worse, pouring down rain to match the light and sound.
Oh joy.
A/N: -Repulsor Technology (RT) is the technical term for the arc reactor tech. Learned that from reading the Iron Man 3 magazine ^^ I'm just kinda hinting towards that a bit XD haha
-And no, we didn't find out who won the contest, I forgot to ask. And Tony's calling Tori 'maestro' as a nickname because of the events of chapter 6. Figured I'd stick with that motif for a while.
-And I also have been reindulging myself in ASOUE so I did the whole 'a word which here means' thing XD
-Not a lot of Loki again, I know but I'm working on it! Okay, time to answer those questions Liberty Bell so generously asked...
Q3: "Well…four years actually. I was sixteen. My brother was a bigger fan first.
He had all of the cards (vintage. Very proud.) He went out and served our
country, leaving his cards with me as a reminder of what he was doing. He
actually met Mr. Stark while serving. He was in the military vehicle that was
ambushed in 2009 when Mr. Stark was taken hostage. He was killed and the cards
were left with me. That is why I decided to work for SI and I've been a fan
ever since I was given the cards" - Parker
Q4: *Tony sputters incomprehensibly* Tony: WHOA HELL GODDAMN FGHEDVNSDJVS She's a cute kid, a KID for crying out loud, I like her yeah because she's fun and awesome and she can play a mean Midnight Escapade-
Me: TONNYYY YOU WERE supposed to keep the last song a secret!
Tony: -But in all honesty, DMRA is a Pepperony shipper, so, Pep and I are still going out. *shudders* Tori is what 16? Way too young anyway. So to answer, yeah, warm fuzzies but not THOSE kinds of warm fuzzies. Think of it...hmm what do I think of it? Maybe fatherly, or no...huh...I dunno. I guess I think it's adorable as hell that she loves the geeky side of me.
Okkaayy now that that's done, the usual, read, review, love! :D You guys can ask me or my muses anything you want! REALLY, ANYONE. Come on people, join good ol Liberty Bell in the askin pool! XD
Maybe I should tempt with something better than cookies...? OOHH
Chocolate and peanut-butter covered pretzels. YES. Those are like freaking addicting.
~DarkMousyRulezAll, signing out!