Hey everybody! I've finally updated on this! :D hahahaha I'm sooo happy I'm done with my summer homework, but sadly, I don't have that much of a vacation left :( my school is back on the 22nd and that gives me with not that much time at all. So, I'm planning to do as much as I can till then! XD during my time of leave on this story I've written three Bones fics (As I've fallen even more madly in dorky love with John Francis Daley GOD THAT MAN) anyway...maybe I'll write an Avengers/Bones crossover? maybe? Eh...who knows...

So, yeah, I had a bit of a writer's block for what to do next but thankfully, a little blue gem glass pebble gave me the inspiration I needed XD So now I've made a fairly long chapter!

Oh yeah and the whole thing about pitying, that's from Boston Public, JFD's character says about being pitied and he threatened this girl who dumped him because he didn't want to be felt sorry for. AND HIS FACE AAHFHFAKGJSKGJSKFJS so...this is kinda a tribute, and I can relate honestly.

In this chapter is some Thor and Clint action because they need more spotlight XD next I'll probably focus on Natasha...i dunno.

Review Replies from Chapter Eight:

krikanalo- thanks for saying so, and thanks a lot for taking the time to review. And no, I do not watch game grumps.

dragonteehee1- that's great you still love it and you're welcome for the cookie! XD that was my point, it'd be a bad ending if it didn't leave something to want! Thanks for the review!

Arabelle/Liberty Bell (guest)- Waaazzuuup! :D that's perfectly fine, you took the time to review anyway, which I greatly appreciate! Yup BigBrother!Tony XD I wish I had him as a real big brother *sob* no problem I love your reviews! Ohh and a question YAY! and yeah I wonder why people don't ask questions, and review to add to that. *is eating chocolate covered pretzels now* crud...oh well.

Cretha Loesing- It may be disgusting to you but it got you to review ;) huuuuhhhh? Glad you reviewed anyway, even if it wasn't anything to do with the story. interesting username by the way. Creative :D

Liberty Bell's question, for Clint- What do you think about having an ordinary teenage girl among Earth's Mightiest Heroes? Do you think she might be of any use to the team someday, or do you just enjoy her presence and want to help her get home?

Clint: Well, as ordinary goes, she's pretty sweet, and if you put it like that, Tasha and I don't really have super powers, we're just wicked cool people with hyper-reflexes and awesome weapons. Honestly speaking though, she's still a kid and I wouldn't want to put her through the hell of being who we are, dealing with death and threats and publicity. But it goes without saying that I'd like to have her around. I wanna do as much as I can to help her though.

Alrighty then, time for the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I do not own the MCU, but I am an avid fan who really can't wait to see Thor The Dark World in October! Am I right guys? :D

Avenger'd

Chapter Nine

Five more minutes into said thunderstorm felt like excruciating hours. I managed to drown out their voices in the rain but every so often they would look at me with a worried glance and it would send a shiver down my spine.

Of course it had to be during a thunderstorm. Of course. You know why? Because the universe hated my guts.

Or so that's what I had begun to think after the fifteen-minute mark had passed. Really how could people talk for that long? Well…they had stopped talking after the eleventh minute, and had just stared around, and then one by one, all began to look at me. Non-stop. With this awful pitying look.

I don't want to be pitied. Not by anyone. Not even during my most frightful hours when I'm curled up under a freaking table shivering and shrieking and jumping every time there's a damn flash or bolt of lightning and huge-ass crash of thunder, because hell, I'm 16 and I'm still afraid of it dammit. I can accept that, and I'll let others know so they can deal with it accordingly. But pity?

Nah. Especially not from my new superhero 'friends' whom I had begun to like a lot (especially after the party and the shooting of the gauntlet, duly noted).

I'd stopped looking back at the Avengers. I couldn't take it, Tony's and Bruce's brown eyes that just looked worried and apprehensive and Steve, oh god Steve, those baby blues of his just looked into my soul. Clint and Natasha thankfully, were out of my sight range but I could feel those super-spy scrutiny emeralds on me nonetheless.

I felt awful, and to my utmost horror, a few tears rolled down my cheeks, sending burning saline tracks down my face. I nuzzled my face in my knees, hoping to hide away from the rest of the world.

But it seemed like the rest of the world reached out to me. Or…a hand at least. I felt a strong, warm touch on my shoulder, and I could hear the table dragging across the floor as if it were being moved. I wanted to raise my head up to see, but the stubborn 5-year-old side of me disagreed. The warm hands reached around my frame and the stalwart feelings in my mind started to wane. Slowly, I lifted my head, and I heard a soft, but low voice whisper in my ear.

"Shh, it's ok Tori. Don't think about the storm, think about your songs."

Moonlight Sonata…Midnight Escapade….Pachelbel's Canon…Heart and Soul…

Piano pieces flitted through my mind at the suggestion, and my heart calmed its rabbit's pace. My eyes breached the knee-level and my hazel irises met the steely-blue of none other than Clint Barton.

"Clint…" I managed to squeak, my voice was a bit hoarse from being quiet.

"Shh, it's okay," he repeated, face stoic as he reached his hand up to wipe the tear streak. I blinked and nodded, and slowly the archer helped me stand. He helped me walk over to the others and he gave them a light scowl. "Wow, guys I didn't know any of you were so heartless as to ignore a teenage girl in distress. Really."

All of their eyes widened and simultaneously sputtered, looking down, and away.

"I know, this whole Loki thing is deep, but come on, don't take out your suspicions on Tori, seriously. Fifteen minutes? If I hadn't done something, would you have?" Clint questioned of his teammates. "I know it was killing me to wait that long."

Thor immediately responded to this and took my hand and kissed it. (I was glad my face was already red).

"Lady Tori. Please forgive my actions, it was foolhardy to leave such a maiden as yourself in such distress when we were discussing plans of my brother," he apologized, his fist against his chest solemnly. I blinked a few times and gave an awkward smile.

Tony blinked in slight confusion, but nonetheless grinned. "Yeah, what he said. Sorry kid, this whole fiasco's a little taxing on us all." He reached out his hand and rumpled my hair. Bruce and Steve patted me on the back and Natasha only smiled, although her eyes were a different story. They seemed to still be distant, and calculating, as if trying to analyze the situation like this.

"So, you really are pretty scared of thunderstorms," Dr. Banner bantered, to which I muttered a quiet "Yeah."

"Lady Tori, do not be afraid of the storm. I would never allow you to be struck with any sort of lightning, so do not fret," Thor consoled, and that made me feel a little less afraid. Who else than the God of Thunder, am I right?

"Thanks Thor," I replied, symbolically wiping my face, because of course I wasn't crying anymore. I looked around and then sheepishly smiled. "If you guys still need time to talk about what you gotta do, I could…go down to the music room or the gym or something. Better than sitting around, ya know?" I offered to the heroes, to which they looked at each other and then nodded.

"Sure, JARVIS will make sure you get to where you wanna go, and he'll let ya know when we're done, sound good?"

"Yeah! Good luck with finding Loki; I'll see you all later!" I added, running to the elevator and grinned, spirits now recharged as the doors closed. I pressed the button of the floor I remembered the gym and pool was on. I felt like now was a good time to go swimming and clear my head.

I took off my turquoise green jacket and the jean shorts, leaving the ivory camisole and underwear. Tony's pool was fairly large and it had plenty of lap lanes and I grinned.

"Ohh I've missed this," I mused, taking off my shoes and plunging into the lukewarm chlorine water. I could feel the liquid flow around me and closing my eyes shut, I pushed off the bottom, swimming up for air. Gasping sharply for breath, I treaded around, looking around at the lap lanes, and then I took a deep breath and propelled myself underwater towards them. I breached the surface once again and began swimming freestyle, flooding my senses with the water, methodically getting into my old rhythm.

As I reached a 50, my mind began focusing less on the swimming, and began to roam aimlessly. I could still faintly hear the booms of thunder from outside.

I feel like wearing bows.

Bow ties are cool.

BOOM.

Cool is the opposite of warm.

Most gunshot victims experience a burning sensation.

BOOM.

Guns are for killing.

BOOM.

Can you die in real life if you die in a dream?

BOOM.

That's what the bird says.

BOOM.

The strange bird who knows things.

BOOM.

In front of my eyes, in the hazy blurriness of no goggles seeing underwater, I saw a flash of gold and green. My eyes widened and I stopped my momentum, floating forward and looking around. There was nothing there, but blurry light blue fuzz. I heard a swishing behind me and I twirled around, but again seeing nothing.

I went back to the surface and coughed, rubbing my now-sore eyes. I scanned from above water to see if there was anything that I could see more clearly. A chillingly familiar voice echoed through my mind, sending goose bumps down my arms, despite my body temperature being normal.

Little Tori Matthews, you think you're so safe, the voice of the bird sang tantalizingly. I looked under the water, and lo, a clear image of the bird from my dream appeared underwater despite the haziness of the water's effect. It could have been my imagination but I could have sworn I saw it smile. How wrong you are, little mortal.

A blinding electric-blue light emanated from the bird and it transformed into a large, jet-black octopus with dark green rings and bright gold eyes. I began to panic and I swam towards the wall, fear bubbling through my system.

One of the tentacles grabbed my foot and I let out a gasp of air, fully in flight-mode. My legs went into overdrive kicking and thrashing wildly, but the grip became more and more solid the more I struggled. I couldn't believe what was transpiring, my throat was drying up, and I could hardly breathe and combat at the same time. Suddenly, my other foot was grabbed by another tentacle and all at once, I was dragged under the water. I grabbed the tentacles on my legs with as much force as I could muster, but quickly they too were snatched out of my control and I was trapped, quickly running out of air, staring into the piercing gold eyes of my enigmatic attacker. My mind was becoming foggy as I ran out of ideas and flooding with wasted adrenaline.

I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I was drowning. I was going to die.

I lost consciousness and everything went black as the octopus wrapped its tentacles around my whole body.

When Tori had left the room, the heroes all turned back to face each other.

"So what? Loki's famous words are common in kids afraid of storms," Bruce muttered, rubbing his glasses. "What's the big deal?"

"We all know that Loki is able to manipulate people," Natasha countered, thinking back to the event on the Helicarrier that nearly got them all killed. "Thor said that he felt Loki's magic, what if he's trying to do what he did again?"

"But we were all showing signs of being stressed and we were getting on each other's nerves," Steve interjected, recalling the fight that almost broke out between him and Tony. Thor nodded in agreement.

"I too remember, I was calling my comrades petty and tiny, something that only arrogant Æsirs that I used to be would have said," he added, crossing his arms.

"The only thing that Tori was acting funky with was with the storm, which was after Thunder Arms here called the warning," Tony adjoined.

"But we still don't know what happened here with the portal generator, and how it even managed to bring Tori here. If there is something that Loki knows that we don't it'll put us at an immediate disadvantage," Natasha pointed out. "And it'll put all of us in danger, especially her."

Everyone acknowledged this quietly, Tony crossed his arms, and Clint leaned on the couch. All of a sudden, Thor looked up, shock coursing through his features.

"What's up Point Break?" Tony asked as Thor looked around wildly.

"It's Lady Tori, I believe she may be in danger!" he exclaimed, and Tony's face hardened.

"JARVIS, where did the maestro head off to?" the billionaire asked quickly.

"Miss Matthews took a route to the gym and pool area, sir," JARVIS responded.

"Alright, let's…where'd Point Break go?"

As soon as the AI spoke, the God of Thunder bolted out of the room, faster than any of his human companions could have responded. He already knew where to go, having been to the gym with Natasha the previous day. The pool was in the large room next to the gym, and the sinking feeling in Thor's large gut made him uneasy. He bounded, hammer in hand, towards the room.

He burst into the pool deck and gasped loudly at what he saw. A large black thing was lurking in the deep end of the water and its appendages were wrapped around something, and the thunder god could only guess what that something was. Thor dropped his hammer on the ground and dove into the pool.

The thing seemed to respond to this, for as soon as Thor drew closer, the creature disappeared without a trace, leaving behind the unconscious Tori, suspended helplessly. Thor swam forward and grabbed the teen in both arms, then thrust himself out of the water and back onto the deck with his godly strength. He carried her to the entrance, where he was met by the rest of the team.

Bruce grabbed the Emergency CPR Aid Kit from the wall and Thor placed Tori on the ground in front of the others.

While the heroes were busy trying to resuscitate their fallen friend, none of them noticed the dull blue glow coming from between the cracks of her closed right hand.

DUN DUN DUNNNNN! *flickers lights menacingly*

:D so we got some big brother-y Clint action, and some suspicions passed around, "I" pretty much drown, and a heroic Thor moment YAY.

Oh yeah and the mysterious blue glow thing will come in later ;) I did some concept art and I got a really good idea from it X3 *squeals* YAAAAAYYY!

Special shout out to anyone who can guess the two fandoms I alluded to in the roaming thoughts sequence~

The first one might be pretty easy but the second one is probably a little harder! Both are direct quotes!

Alright y'all, you know the drill! REVIEW!

let's see...chocolate covered pretzels might be a bit too fatty, so how about chocolate covered strawberries, huh?

~DarkMousyRulezAll, signing out to watch Bones.