The third room was set up exactly like the previous ones, white walls and white floor. But one difference made Tony scream. Loki and another man were standing in the middle of the room watching the door. Loki gave the Avengers the best death glare he could muster and his companion observed them silently. Something about him set the Avengers on edge, but they didn't know why.
The purple man was the first to speak. "Loki, are they those Avengers you fought trying to take over the Earth?" Loki said nothing, but nodded in response, still piercing their souls with his glare. Tony, showing how brave he was, hid behind Natasha, who sent an even fiercer glare at the Asgardian.
"What are you doing here, Midgardians?" Loki spat, venom lacing his words.
"We could ask you the same thing, Loki." Steve snarled, moving into a threatening stance.
Bruce, while peeved that Loki had shown up again, did his best to not 'Hulk out'. He studied the other man instead, who was doing the same to him.
After a moment of silence, the hum was heard and the Game Master spoke.
"Good job, Avengers! Welcome to the next challenge! Don't worry, Mister Stark, both Loki and Thanos here have agreed not to kill anyone for fear of punishment by myself. Isn't that right, boys?"
Loki and the purple man, Thanos, gulped and nodded quickly before the Game Master continued.
"Good boys. I won't punish you. Not just yet, anyway. So, the task in this room is to escape into the next one, where things are a little different. Maybe. I haven't really thought that far. I've kind of been flying on the seat of my pants this entire time. I work on the rooms while y'all are trying to escape. And since Captain Rogers solved the clue so quickly in the last room, I haven't had the time to think of anything significant. How about y'all sit tight while I think of something and code the room, okay? You guys don't kill each other or there will be serious repercussions. Also, there'll be a box of snacks dropping down soon, in case anyone's hungry."
The hum returned and everything was silent again. That is, until Tony started screeching at Loki.
"I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU'RE PULLING THIS OFF, BUT YOU'RE BEHIND THIS AND YOU'LL PAY!" He yelled, pointing at the God of Mischief and Lies.
Before anyone could stop the impending fight, the ceiling opened up and another, larger cardboard box with a parachute dropped down. The ceiling shut before anyone could enter the duct and the occupants who weren't trying to kill each other opened the box. Inside were lunch boxes with pictures and their names embossed on them. Everyone took theirs, leaving Tony's Iron Man lunch box and Loki's green and gold one.
Inside the lunch boxes were sandwiches, juice boxes, chips or an apple, and a mini chocolate chip cookie. A note was taped to the inner lid of the lunch box, stating "Enjoy!" with a smiley face. Bruce felt that is was a kind gesture, if not slightly demeaning. They weren't children after all. Well, Tony acted like a child most of the time.
On the other side of the room, Loki and Tony were kind of just screaming at each other.
"I REALLY DON'T LIKE YOU, REINDEER GAMES!" That was Tony.
"NOR DO I FIND YOUR COMPANY PLEASANT EITHER, MIDGARDIAN!"
"AT LEAST I'M NOT CRAZY."
"YES YOU ARE."
"NO I'M NOT."
"YES YOU ARE."
"NO I'M NOT."
"YES YOU ARE."
"NO I'M NOT."
"YES YOU ARE."
"NO I'M NOT."
"NO YOU'RE NOT."
"YES I AM- DAMNIT!"
At that, Loki grinned maniacally at the fuming man.
Back on the non-violent side of the room, the others were eating lunch. It was delicious. Thor was right, because when he said something was 'very satisfying' food-wise, he wasn't usually wrong.
"Hey, Stark, get over here and eat your lunch!" Steve yelled at the bickering genius. Tony shot him a glare before returning to his shouting match with Loki. After a couple more, "NO I'M NOT, YES YOU ARE"s and some well placed insults, some of which involved mothers, Tony and Loki finally decided to calm down and eat lunch with the others.
They reached into the cardboard box and grabbed their respective lunch boxes, glaring at each other all the while. The note attached to their lunch boxes were different from the others. Tony's read, "Please don't kill Loki. Thanks!" with a smiley face. Loki's was similarly written, reading, "Please don't kill Tony. Thanks!" with a smiley face.
The two continued their staring contest as they ate their lunches, the poor sandwiches meeting their untimely demise. Those poor, poor, sandwiches… The others watched them as they tore through their lunches, only to resume their shouting match once again. More insults were thrown as was some… colorful language, causing Natasha to cover Steve's 'innocent' ears. He sent her a look that said, "Are you kidding me right now?" She smirked at him and he rolled his eyes at her.
Bruce and Thanos silently watched their surroundings and each other. It wasn't unusual for the scientist to be quiet, nor was it unusual for the Mad Titan to observe the chaos that had ensued. Thanos smirked, the grin looked slightly evil to Bruce. Every instinct he had, including the Other Guy's, told him to get as far away from Thanos as possible. Bruce scooted away from him quickly, but just slowly enough to avoid attracting his unwanted attention.
The hum was heard once again, briefly causing Tony and Loki to shut up.
"Loki Laufeyson and Anthony Edward Stark. What did I say about playing nice?" The Game Master yelled, causing the two in question to bolt upright, eyes wide. The others just jumped, other than Thanos, who paid no mind to the sudden outburst.
"Actually, you said we couldn't kill each other. Nothing about arguing or playing nice." Tony mumbled, crossing his arms. An eerie silence fell and everyone turned to glare at him, surprisingly including Bruce, who wouldn't hurt a fly.
"What?" Tony asked, looking them each in the eye, except Thanos, who he thought was just too creepy.
The ceiling opened up ever-so-slightly and a machine similar to a security camera floated down out of the duct and attached itself to the ceiling.
"What's that for?" Steve asked, tilting his head in confusion at the machine.
The machine turned to face the billionaire. He blinked at it, as did everyone else. A blue light was emitted from it, running him and Loki over, scanning them. The duo started to get nervous watching the machine. The others wisely backed away from it, attempting to predict what it would do next. Sure enough, they were right.
~o0o~
Hey people who have read this story! I see y'all haven't been reviewing... So review, okay? I need the reviews for feedback and criticism. I need ideas so I can do well on this story. I need to do well on this story so I can get a good grade in my Creative Writing class. SO PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE! Peace out! ^-^