Heyoo! Another installment of Avenger'd! WOOO! Hope you guys were ecstatic to get this email alert cuz I am excited to be posting this! I'm sorry it hasn't been sooner but I had a really hard time transitioning this chapter and plus with school and crud, there's the works. Upside, I did get the blu-ray combo pack of Iron Man 3 (and the new Marvel One-Shot Agent Carter is A-MAY-ZING!) and Thor The Dark World is coming out in a MONTH! :D
Little upset at the lack of some recurring reviewers but I guess since it's schooltime...
Review replies from Chapter 11:
Concrete63- haha you're welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying it! ...Loki isn't really bad necessarily . I am planning some big mushy scene involving the God of Mischief so...*spoiler I haven't revised yet but still spoiler yeahp* Thanks for reviewing!
koryandrs- thank you and thank you! I'm glad you like Tori's development! Thanks for continuing to review!
Liberty Bell(guest)- heyoo! naah I won't slap you. Maybe just a light scolding. XD oh wow a freshie! I was a freshman once. Then something called time was invented and decided it didn't want to be my friend and keep me young forever. Thanks for saying so! (and you haven't asked Loki a question yet ;3 ) Oh wow a question for "me"? Hahaha oh lord you're REALLY going to think I rigged this chapter now XD
Liberty Bell's question, for Tori Matthews: I know hanging out with the Avengers and being manipulated and harassed by everyone's favorite God of Mischief is time-consuming, but aren't you the LEAST bit concerned about how your family back home feel? They must be devastated! Imagine losing YOUR sixteen-year-old daughter to a whirlpool of every Marvel junkie's wildest dreams?!
Tori: *can't speak due to LB hitting every note on the cord* *whispers* I-I am concernedbutbutbutbut I I just I don't know you know I don't know whether things are moving along or if I'm missing and they're worried it's not like I can do inter-dimensional texting! *melts into a pile of feels that will give away chapter spoilers XD*
Dramatic Disclaimer:
DAAH DAHHH DAAAAAAHHH *fanfare*
I. OWN. NOTHING. HAZAAHH!
Avenger'd
Chapter Twelve
I sat on the bed and everyone else stood around, silent and unmoving. Pepper stood next to Tony, Clint and Natasha stood beside each other by the door and Bruce and Steve were by the bed. Thor kept pacing for the last minute, which seemed to be an extremely unusual action for the god. He turned around to look at all of us.
"There must be more that we can do to find my brother," Thor bellowed in a rumbling voice. Tony rubbed his face tiredly.
"We're running the same systems and programs as we did on the Helicarrier and it took a little to place that the Cube was here at the Tower," Tony replied quietly. "We had no idea where Loki was before they brought it here and that's probably where he is now."
Clint scowled, I noticed, and looked away at this statement. Natasha gripped his arm and gave him a firm glance with those dark emeralds of hers. Thor frowned deeply and gripped Mjolnir at his side. I looked down at my hand and studied the mark for a few seconds. Bio-synchronization, huh? I rose up my head.
"Hey, ah, do you think we could scan this?" I asked, holding up my marked palm. The others looked quite shocked at my proposal. "You know, see if the signature of the frequency matches anywhere else instead of just guessing a gamma signal or something."
Bruce and Tony exchanged curious glances at one another, before Tony cracked a smile.
"Good idea there, maestro! Why didn't I think of that?" he jested and smiled to Pepper and the Avengers, but what I didn't notice at first was the flicker of worries and doubt in his chocolate brown eyes. Steve helped me get up and he gave me a concerned glance with those beautiful baby-blues of his that just freaking stared into my soul.
"Are you sure you'd want to do that? I mean, none of us know what could happen…" he said softly. I was surprised by this comment, and I took a second to nod slowly.
"Even if it's a little unpredictable, I want to help you guys," I replied solemnly. "You all have done so much to help me, I want to return the favor, you know?"
Thor walked over and patted my head, ruffling my hair. "You are a brave and kind, Lady Tori."
I lowered my head in a half-nod, trying not to blush at his statement.
"Where can we do this?" I asked, glancing around to all of the people gathered in the room. Tony stepped forwards, next to Clint and Natasha.
"I've got a rig set up in the lab," he stated, crossing his arms, but pointing in the direction of the door.
"Alright, then, let's go," I said, intent on delving into the mysteries that had been brought up.
At the lab, Tony set up my arm in a large device reminiscent of one of those blood-pressure checkers you see at grocery stores and doctor's offices, except it covered my entire arm and hand.
Clint patted me on the shoulder reassuringly, and to my left, Bruce, Steve, and Tony were at a set of glass-screen flat computer monitors. Natasha and Pepper were stationed watching JARVIS's security feed. (Pepper was watching the feed, while Natasha was watching Pepper on favor of Tony, duly noted). Thor had his hand firmly grasped around Mjolnir, glancing out the large window.
"Now," Tony said, firing up his systems, "This will send a special kind of energy beam cooked up by Brucie here that will scan up your arm and analyze the rays and frequencies that little tattoo of yours is giving off."
I nodded detachedly, and Clint muttered, "It's gonna be fine, kid."
Bruce gave a thumbs-up and, with a crooked smile, I raised my left hand and gave a thumbs-up as well.
For a moment, I noticed a flash of immense worry on all of their faces as the machine hummed to life- and then it became eternity.
The second that beam hit my palm, I felt an odd shock wave course through my arm and spread through my body, then everything froze. I blinked my eyes and looked around, and it all was indeed stuck the moment that the energy touched. The looks of worry on all of their faces remained and I saw them all. I saw them all.
I bit my lip in confused frustration. What had just happened?
"Oh, nothing of importance, really. I just stopped some time to talk," a hauntingly familiar voice rang out.
No…that was impossible-!
"I believe your friend Captain Rogers had informed you that the realm of possibility is quite large," the voice of the shape-shifter replied, having heard my thoughts.
I turned around as much as I could and I came face-to-face with the emerald irises of a black cat. For a brief minute, I was paralyzed. I wanted to scream and run away, hide behind one of my newfound wayward friends, but my body would not cooperate with my wishes.
After a few seconds, I managed to speak, "What are you doing here? You realize that when the Avengers see you they'll gut you!" I tried to sound threatening, but I only made myself sound like a whining child. The cat leaned back and laughed in response.
"Smart girl, but you see that's why I froze time. They won't move unless I let it be," he purred. "I can do whatever I want." I tried my hardest to glare at him. "But you are correct in a sense I suppose. I cannot hold this forever, which is why I simply have a message for you: a lesson, so to speak."
"A lesson in what, exactly?"
"Why, yourself of course! But to be more precise, your greatest fear."
My breath hitched and I struggled to retain composure. Dear god if he was going to pull the same stunt as he did in my dream!
"Didn't you already exhaust your 'talent for lessons' in that theatrical performance a couple nights ago?" I retorted, causing the cat to smile, which sent shivers down my spine.
"Oh yes, that was indeed amusing, but this has much more substance," he murmured silkily. "You see, storms, falling, and darkness are all excellent fears to prey on, but those things are mere child's play when compared to what really digs at your soul!"
"You-!"
"You're afraid that you'll be forgotten, that you'll never be special, or important enough for adequate attention from your peers, or even the world around you. That you're just another leaf in the wind, blowing by with the others and will be stepped on and forgotten by a person, a human."
Every word was just another arrow through my chest, another weight in my heart.
"w-What do you know?" I combatted weakly, barely able to speak.
"I know that people walked all over you. They took advantage of your kindness and courtesy and trust. Everything anyone said was just a front; for when the judgment time came, they showed their true colors and brushed by you like you were yesterday's news. And poor Tori Matthews, wondering what she did wrong, crying on the inside as the days went on."
I became choked up, tears stinging my eyes, and I had nothing to say, nothing to rebut. I could only listen as the shape-shifter kept talking on.
"Your dearest friends, you had before, and now you can barely look them in the eye. Why is that little human? Because they betrayed your trust. They walked over you and forgot you. Went on with their lives like you were the Black Plague, and they were newly cured."
"So what?" I whispered. "That was then and this is now. It's different." The cat smirked.
"Ah, but you see, it's not. For I have found your world Tori Matthews, and your nightmare is a reality."
His tail twitched and with a chuckle, he leaped over to Tony and snatched a tablet out of the man's still hands. He pressed a paw on the screen, and a live video feed came up, from different areas familiar to me: the pool where I lifeguarded, my school, my house, my parents' work.
The timestamp was today's date, and in every feed there was nothing abnormal besides the fact that I was not present. The students went through classes, my friends had no worry on their faces, and I was absent from any classroom. My parents were working diligently but there had been no 9-1-1 calls or emergency communications in their history.
I buried my head in my hand, unable to look anymore, tears coming out of my eyes like waterfalls, sobs shaking my body. I felt a nudge on my arm and I looked up, the cat's eyes blinking curiously at my own.
"You see those looks of worry on their faces?" the cat said, gesturing to Tony, Steve, Bruce, Clint, and Thor. "Those are there because they do not know what to do with you. They are at indecision. But mark my words Tori Matthews; your precious Avengers will betray you just like the others."
"You don't know that!" I blurted, face becoming red. "They….they promised they'd help me and that they'd never turn me over!"
"Can you really say that with confidence, why, you're scaring them into betrayal right now!"
Wait…what?
"Tori!"
I grasped my head and shook it and the cat grinned, turning his back on me.
"Remember my words, they will betray you, because they are only human."
I was being throttled. Hard.
I blinked rapidly and with every time the scene changed from the still image to a different moving one: Tony grasping my shoulders with the others all circled around me, the tablet that the cat had taken now in Bruce's hands. I saw the faces of concern but I could not focus on them. The only thing I heard was his voice.
"They will betray you."
Dun dun dunnnnnn!
DUN
DUN
FREAKIN DUN
So Liberty Bell, does that answer your question? *evil grin*
This chapter begins a series of points that will bring about the climax! MWAHAHAHAHHAAAA IM SO EVIL AHAHAA *cough cough cough hack hack*
So please leave reviews (and questions pls) and I will be immensely happy!
~DarkMousyRulezAll, signing out!