Everything Is Set Into Motion
“Are you sure about these humans, sir?”
“Yes. They all have the skills necessary to fulfill this mission. They are perfect for this cause.”
“They are volatile and unpredictable, sir. They will not be compatible to work as a team, nevermind for a mission such as this. We should find others-”
“Nonsense, they are going to be perfect for the job, I am sure of it. Now, the seeds have already been planted. The parents have fulfilled their part and they will all be together at the designated inception point tomorrow. We will move on to Phase 2 once they arrive here. You know your tasks, lieutenant.”
“Yes, as you wish, Commander.”
"Welcome to Camp Delight! A place where you can spend your summer without homework, parents and curfews! A place full of pleasure, amazing fun and playful Raccoons! And to you parents, don’t you want your kids to be out in the fresh, forest air rather than the stuffy city air? Or to find good friendships that will last a lifetime rather than hang around with hooligans?
To spend your summer at Camp Delight is not only a wise investment but also a guarantee for a fun and unforgettable summer! You can pay with Visa, MasterCard or American Express and make sure your kids have the summer of a lifetime! See you there!"
Tony stared down at the tablet that forced into his hands the second he’d gotten home, grimacing at the commercial he had just been forced to watch, because what the hell was that? 'A summer of pleasure, amazing fun and playful raccoons', what the fuck kind of slogan was that? And did they think that poor guy running around in that stupid raccoon suit was supposed to make kids jump with joy and beg their parents to please let them go to that camp?
He looked up at his mother, who was standing beside him with a wide and simpering smile on her face. That honestly made it worse, because it made him feel like she thought he was five years old again and not sixteen, and that he still loved to run around and play with his toys in the garden. His father also stood close by, but at least he wasn't even trying to look like he thought Tony would like it.
"Well, what did you think?" Tony tried for a smile, but it probably just ended up looking very awkward and he put the tablet back down on the table.
"Wow, that was… certainly something." He tried to sound somewhat glad because he knew she just wanted him to be happy, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't like whatever was connected to his parents sitting him down to watch that stupid commercial.
His mother stroke his hair back softly with a gentle smile. "Your father and I have been talking about what you should be doing this summer, and since you've done so well with your classes and didn't even cause a lab fire this year-" Tony rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to groan. Seriously, you accidently set a few school laboratories on fire and none ever lets you forget it. "-We have decided to let you to a camp this summer! So you can meet other kids your age and have some fun!"
Wait, what? Go to a camp? With a bunch of kids that had to be several years younger than him and also spend his whole summer in nature and miles away from any Wi-Fi or air conditioning? No way, no way in hell was he doing that!
"What?! But mom, you know I don't like outside stuff! I wouldn't have any fun being there, you have realize that!" Dad rolled his eyes with a loud and disapproving scoff, turning away from them and folding his arms over his chest. Mom sat down beside him and gently stroke his hair out of his face.
"I know it might not seem like your cup of tea, honey. But you spend so much time working in your workshop whenever you're not in school and it's just not healthy. You need to get outside, get some sun and fresh air and I really think a camp away from the city and away from everything going on here could do you some good."
Tony rolled his eyes again. 'Oh yeah, that sounds like a blast, doesn't it? Ten weeks stuck at a nature prison with some other kids he couldn't care less about or and without any Internet, stuff to tinker with and surrounded by bugs, poison ivy and ticks. Just what I've always wanted.'
He opened his mouth to speak, but his father glared down at him; firm and practically daring him to speak back to him. "Anthony, this is not up for discussion. Your mother and I have made our decision, you will go to this camp for the summer. We have already booked in a vacation and after your stunt last summer; you can erase any ideas or hope that we'll ever let you stay alone in this house again. Jarvis is upstairs packing your bags right now and the taxi will come and pick you up tomorrow morning."
And there it was. They were going on their vacation and needed to get rid off him, since they obviously didn’t trust him to be left alone in the house, since Jarvis would also be taking a few weeks off while they were away since there wouldn’t be too many people to look after anymore.
Not that there were many people in the house anyway, but who cares about semantics?
So they had to dump him somewhere, and of course it had to be in a fucking summer camp for babies.
Tony tried to grin while fighting against every urge to scream or cry to throw a tantrum over this. "Okay, fine. Sounds like it'll be a blast." Not.
He went upstairs to his room afterwards, where Jarvis was just closing his bags and placing them against the wall of his room. He looked up at Tony and smiled softly. "Young sir, I have just finished helping you pack your clothes. I figured I'd let you pack your other things for yourself." His smile turned pityingly. "I assume they have told you the news?"
Tony sighed and flopped down on the bed, placing an arm over his eyes. "I won't survive this, Jarvis! A whole ten weeks without my workshop or any Internet or anything I like! This summer will be my undoing, just wait and see."
Jarvis chuckled and sat down on the bed beside him, patting his shoulder. "I'm sure it won't be that bad, Tony. It might not seem very fun right now, but I believe that you will find this summer very rewarding. It is often by doing things outside of our comfort zone and try new things that we learn the most about ourselves. And who knows, maybe you'll make some friends over the summer?"
Tony rolled his eyes while still pressing his arm over his eyes. Sure, like he could make friends with anyone in that kind of environment. Kids in his school only saw him as a spoiled, rich brat who had never worked a day in his life, so what were the chances of anyone seeing him in a better light at a freaking nature camp?
And sure, he probably didn't make it better with his obnoxious attitude and big ego, but it was better than the alternative.
His only real friends were Pepper and Rhodey and they were all away on vacations with their families so he'd been content on being alone for this summer and work on his projects.
Until now, of course.
"I don't think I can, Jarvis. I'm bad at making friends, you know that." Jarvis squeezed his shoulder and stood up.
"Well, I wouldn't say that Tony. You are a very good boy, with wit and charm and humor. I'm sure you can make some friends at the camp. And who knows, maybe you'll have some adventures there too." Tony looked up just in time to see Jarvis wink mischievously before leaving the room. Tony stared after him before rolling his eyes and sitting up, leaning back against the headboard.
Adventure? Friends? At a fucking summer camp? Yeah right!
He got up from the bed and gathered up his small toolbox and his smaller projects, shoving them into a small duffle bag. If he had to be stuck at that fucking camp, might as well bring some things he could work on while trying to hide from the 'playful raccoons' and the 'amazing fun' that they promised.
"What do you mean you're not coming with?" Steve had to fight really hard so he wouldn't yell into the phone, suddenly feeling nervous and scared. He and Bucky had more or less been goaded into going to camp together by their mothers and they had eventually caved, albeit under protest and had been prepared to find ways to tough through it together however they could. And now Bucky was calling and saying he wasn't going to go at all? What the hell!
Bucky groaned into the phone, somehow both apologetic and annoyed at the same time. "I'm sorry Stevie, but I can't. My flu has gotten way worse and I can't come with so mom cancelled the whole thing."
Steve plumped down on his bed, only barely avoiding sitting on the bag he was in the middle of packing. "Couldn't you just, I don't know, come to the camp when you get well? Like, wait a week or two and come then? It's just a flu, you'll get better soon, right?"
Bucky cleared his throat and Steve thought he could hear him blow his nose. "My mom already called and asked the camp directors. They said if you don't show up on the first day of the whole thing, you couldn't come at all. I don't know, some stupid policy or something. So she could only ask for a refund and that was that. Sorry pal, you'll have to go alone."
Steve groaned and fell back on his bed. The only reason he thought this camp would be bearable was because he would have Bucky with him, and now he wouldn't even have his best friend with him! How would he survive now?
"Sorry Buck, I hate to sound so self-pitying when you're the one who's sick and will be home alone for weeks. But it was the only good thing about this stupid camp thing was us being together for the summer. How will I survive without you there to keep me sane?"
Bucky snorted into the phone. "Knowing you you'll probably get kicked out in a less in a week after picking fights with assholes. You've never known when to back down and just let things be." Steve rolled his eyes and stared up at the ceiling.
Bucky wasn't wrong about any off it, he'd always hated bullies and never backed down from a fight or a challenge and it had ended in more fights than he could count or remember. And that had been before he'd hit his growth spurt and started to get his muscles after starting to play football.
So hey, maybe there was truth to that and he would get kicked out of there before too much time had passed? Or maybe he could try to convince his mom that he was sick too and really couldn’t got to the camp either and maybe she could ask for a refund too?
Yeah, like that was going to happen.
He sighed and pulled his fingers through his hair. "Well, get well soon Buck. I have to get back to packing." Bucky gave him a 'good luck' before hanging up and Steve sat back up again. He looked over at the bags on the floor; one stuffed with clothes and other necessities for the next two months and his duffle bag where he had stuffed a few books, his headphones, sketchbook and pens and other stuff. He was pretty much done but everything in him was screaming at him to try and run away from this whole crazy idea.
His mom knocked on the door and entered with a sad smile. "Hi honey. I just got a call from Bucky's mother-" Steve nodded and cut her off.
"I know, Bucky just called me. He said he won't come to camp with me." His mom's smile turned pitying and she came into the room and sat down beside him, stroking his hair.
"I'm sorry honey, but these things happen sometimes. I'm sure you'll find other friends at the camp-" Steve shook his head and looked down at the floor.
"I don't think so mom. I don't click with other people, not like Bucky does. He's really my only friend, you know that." His mom shook her head and smacked him lightly on the head.
"That's only because you don't try, Steve. You don't reach out and try to make friends, you just sit there with your sketchbooks when you don't play football, which is strange considering how nice and friendly you are."
Steve blushed and kept his eyes down on his feet. She was right, of course. He wasn't the most social kid in school, that had always been Bucky. He'd never been one to reach out too that many people in his life and was kinda content where he was. Sure, he had Sam and he kinda knew Thor who both played on the football team, and he kinda knew his girlfriend Jane since she always met them up after practice or a game to greet Thor.
But other than that he always hung out with Bucky. He wasn't shy, had never been a shy or quiet kid, but he just wasn't that interested in hanging out with anyone in the school. He'd always felt out of place in there, and most of the kids there had either teased him when he was small or just ignored him and why would he want to hang out with anyone there?
He sighed and looked up at his mother, trying his hardest to look like a kicked puppy. "Mom, please, I really don't want to go without Bucky." She laughed softly at him and kissed him on the forehead.
"It's just a summer camp, Steve. You'll survive." She got up from the bed and headed for the door. But before she walked out, she turned to look at him with a soft, reassuring smile. "You know Steve, I have a good feeling about this summer. I think this camp will be good for you. Call it a hunch, but I think you'll really like this summer."
Steve looked after her as she left the room and then back down at his bags and sighed heavily. Oh well, he was almost done now anyway so he might as well finish packing the stupid bags and prepare for being driven to that stupid camp in that stupid taxi that would come tomorrow. And sure, it might be a torturous summer but his mom was right about one thing.
It was just a summer camp. What was the worst thing that could really happen?
Natasha closed her bag with a frown on her face before turning to look at Clint, who was still packing his bag, very, very slowly. She rolled her eyes and sat down on her bed and started to remove nail polish from her fingernails. She had long since given up on trying to get him to get more organized only for it all to fall on deaf ears. Which was already half true since Clint did require hearing aids, but still. He could never seem to remember or take in her advice and sometimes she had just ended up doing most of the work while he got to lie back and do nothing, which she had long since stopped doing.
Clint groaned and threw down the last t-shirt and a pair of jeans into his bag and zipped it before moving on the next one, dumping a stack of comic books, his headphones and his beloved teddy Golden Retriever Lucky into it. Natasha had never once seen him sleep without Lucky since they were both adopted by Phil and he was not ashamed to admit that he loved that dog and needed it for comfort at nights. Not that Natasha was one to judge, since she still had nightmares about her past some nights and would find comfort in sleeping with her old ballerina shoes or with her jackknife close by.
Clint looked up from the bag and turned to her. "Do you think they'll have archery at that camp, Nat? It would be one thing that might make this whole stupid thing a bit better." She looked up from her nails for a split second before looking back at them.
"I highly doubt that, Clint. Archery isn't really a thing most kids are into, but you can always hope I guess." She brushed a strand of red hair out of her face without even blinking or looking away from her nails and moved on to the next hand.
Clint groaned again and shoved his spare hearing aids into bag. "Fucking hell, why did we agree to this Nat? I hate camps, you hate camps so why are we going at all?"
Her lip quirked slightly and she pulled up her legs on the bed so she could sit cross-legged. "Because Phil wants us to become more social and hang out with more people than just each other. We've been over this already."
Clint sighed and took Lucky out of the bag again, hugging him to his chest and stroking the fur. “And here I thought we’d have some freedom and get some time to whatever we wanted for the summer, but instead we get sent to the most dorky, stupid looking camp ever.” He rolled his eyes and smiled mockingly at her. “Lucky us.”
Natasha’s lip quirked slightly and she got up from the bed and sat down beside Clint, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. “Hey Clint, I know it’s not what any of us wanted, but at least no one there will know who we are, right? You might make some friends there who won’t constantly call you a circus freak or whatever.” He looked at her, his eyebrow raised and head tilted.
“And what about you? Are you just sit around and glare at everyone who dares looking at you? Or sip on ‘vodka’ all the time?” She rolled her eyes and smacked him on the head.
“Well, better than hanging around you and constantly having to save your butt all the time. I am not your bodyguard, Clint.” She got off the bed and started to go through her bags one final time. “Besides, anything is better than staying in the city for the whole summer.”
Thor went through his closet for good camp clothes as he heard Loki laugh at him from the bedroom door. “Well brother, it looks like you will have to spend your summer alone, far away from our parents and me. How tragic.”
Thor rolled his eyes and felt anger brew up again. Stupid Loki and his stupid mouth.
Of course Pierce had run off to tell the principal that he had threatened to injure him today, which he had called to tell his father about. And Odin of course had been furious at how Thor had threatened with violence and had yelled at him for so long about how it made the family look and how he needed to think before acting and control his anger and, bla bla bla. Thor had heard that talk many a time before.
Only it had taken a turn for the worst when he had been told that he would be sent off to a camp for the summer and he would be forced to leave the next day.
“Hopefully it will help improve your behavior for the next Fall.” His father had said before sending him up to his room to pack. His mother had tried to talk to him and calm him down a little, which had only worked a little. She had tried to tell him that it might be good for him to make some friends and get away from his father for a while.
But Loki was really, really enjoying the fact that Thor would be sent away for the whole summer, which meant he would be allowed to do whatever he wanted without him butting in the whole time.
“If you have nothing of value to say Loki, I suggest you leave me to my packing.” Loki smirked and plumped down on the bed, picking up one of Thor’s stuffed animals and played a little with it.
“I am merely saying that I feel pity for you. To spend the whole summer far away from here, in some stuffy forest alone with no friends or Internet or anything else that you might enjoy. Poor Thor, no friends and no fun things to do for two and a half months.”
Thor tried to take a few deep breaths to calm his anger. It would do him no good to loose his composure and hit Loki; it would only make his father even angrier. Maybe he would even be forced to leave his phone in the house, or maybe take away his money or something equally terrible.
He only grumbled and threw a pair of socks at him. “I know what you are attempting to do Loki, and it won’t work. I can’t say that I’m too happy with how all of this has transpired, but I am simply trying to make the best of it.” He grabbed a couple of jeans, a few t-shirts and a couple of hoodies before stuffing it all into his bag. “Also, I don’t seem to recall you having any better plans for the summer. What are you going to do with all your free time, exactly?”
Loki grinned and leaned back against the wall, still clutching the stuffed toy and making it wave its paw at him. “I am going to do what I have always wanted to do; spend some time far away for you and do whatever I feel like doing, without you here to drag me to play with sports or competitions or whatever you want to do. See, that is the beauty of it all. Since you have no friends and have forced me to whatever you want to do with you, and you will spend your summer away from me, I will finally be able to do whatever I want to.”
Thor gritted his teeth and snatched the animal out of Loki’s hands and putting it back on his bed. “I do not force you to-“ Then he stopped as he remembered that he had, in fact, dragged Loki away to a lot of activities that he had wanted to do. Many football games, concerts and activities in Central Park, but not so many things that Loki had wanted to do.
Still, he didn’t let himself get deterred and just glared at his brother. “If you have nothing more you wish to tell me, then I suggest you leave me alone and let me pack in peace.” Loki just smirked at him and jumped off the bed, making his way to the door. But before he left the room, he turned to look at Thor.
“Ah, don’t feel too bad about this situation, brother. I am sure you can find adventures on the camp too. Perhaps you will be able to catch a wild boar, or win the grand battles of Capture The Flag.” He laughed and then left, leaving Thor only barely holding his anger back and slamming the door shut behind him.
Bruce sighed as he zipped his bag closed. All packed and done. Now all he had to do was wait for the cab to come.
It had been a very big surprise when his father had told him, the second he had come home from school yesterday, that he would be sent to a summer camp instead of staying in the city, mostly because of how much money these things usually cost and they were not made of money. Especially after his mom had died and his father had been forced to pay for everything on his own. Bruce had tried to find part-time jobs to help pay the bills and save as much as he could for emergencies, but it was still not much.
But dad had been acting very strange when he had said this, almost like he was in a trance, so Bruce had just thought that he had been on the sauce and if that was the case, it was better to not question any of it and he had gone to his room to pack. Not there was much for him to pack, just some clothes, a few books and some other things, like his phone, headphones and a small bag of weed.
It helps mellow him out when he’s stressed out or getting too angry.
And now, the following day, he was just going through his back one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten or missed anything, before finally deciding he was done and going down the stairs and into the kitchen, where his dad was sitting with a bottle of beer and looking down at a newspaper.
“Dad, I’m done now.” He looked up from the paper and looked at Bruce with tired, drunk eyes. Bruce rolled his eyes and bit his lip so he wouldn’t say anything, he just sighed. ‘Not even 9AM and he’s already drunk. That has to be a record.’
Dad jerked his thumb towards the door. “Cab’ll be here ‘n a few min’uts. J’st go ‘n wait outs’de.” Bruce nodded and gave him a quick hug before going out.
‘I’ll miss you too, dad.’
When he got outside the house, he barely had to wait ten minutes before the taxi showed up and pulled up beside him. It was a fairly big taxi, but it was packed full of people already. There was a woman in the driver seat with short, black hair and dressed in a taxi uniform and her steel blue eyes were locked on the road ahead of them. And when Bruce looked to see who else was in the cab, he almost dropped his bag in shock.
Next to the driver was another girl, a girl with long red hair tied into a ponytail, green eyes and dressed in a tight dark red shirt and black pants. He knew her, it was Natasha Romanov. Everyone in school knew her despite very few people talking to her aside from her brother Clint Barton.
Speaking of Clint, he was sitting behind her, his sandy blonde hair a tousled mess and dressed in a purple t-shirt and loose, dark blue jeans. And beside him was a big and buff guy, shoulder long blonde hair and dressed in a t-shirt, red hoodie. In the backseat was another big and blonde guy, dressed in a flannel shirt, brown leather jacket and khaki pants, looking really uncomfortable and had his arms folded over his chest. And next to him was Tony Stark, who Bruce definitely recognized. He was dressed in tight jeans, a red, yellow and black jacket and a black tank top. He had also styled his hair like he always did and had a pair of sunglasses over his face.
So they were all going to the camp together? Hm, it didn’t seem like something people like Tony, Natasha or Clint might like, and he didn’t know about the others but they didn’t look like they were jumping at the chance to be here either.
‘I guess we have that much in common.’
The driver honked her horn, glaring at him through the window. “Hey, you comin’ with or what?” Bruce started to nod and dumped his bag in the trunk, opened the door to the backseat and squeezed in between Tony and the other blonde guy, who seemed to look revealed to have Bruce between him and Tony.
‘It had to be in the back between two other guys, didn’t it? God, I hate tight spaces.’
The woman started to drive again and they made their way out of the city and eventually made their way onto a thin road, driving further and further into a forest. There was complete silence in the car, aside from some low rock music from the radio.
Bruce looked around at the other kids in the car. Natasha had earbuds and seemed to listen to music from her phone, slightly moving her head in time to the music. Clint was playing on some kind of game console and the blonde guy next to him was looking out the window, admiring the scenery. The blonde next to him had taken out a sketchbook and had started to draw something, and Tony was playing around on his phone. Bruce was starting to regret throwing his bag into the trunk and that he hadn’t taken out his phone and headphones, but before he could do or say anything, Clint looked up from his game and looked between them all before putting his game down.
“Okay, so I’m not the only one who clearly doesn’t want to be here, eh?” Everyone looked up from what they’re doing, aside from Natasha who probably didn’t hear him, and looked at Clint, who just smirked lightly and rested his arm on top of the seat. “Oh come on, it’s clear no one here is jumping at the idea of going to camp. So who else has been forced to go to camp against their will?”
Tony snorted and put his phone down. “You mean I’m not the only one who had this whole thing dumped into my lap the second I got home from school? Well, at least it’s a comfort I won’t be the only one who’ll suffer.”
Clint smirked and leaned over the gap between them to hear Tony better. “Oh yeah, I sure didn’t beg my dad to go this this lame camp.” He stretched out his hand for Tony to take. “Clint Barton by the way. We go to the same school.” Tony smiled and took his hand, shaking it.
“Tony Stark, and yeah I know, I think I’ve seen you around there before. You hang out a lot with Natasha, don’t you?” Clint nodded and looked over his shoulder at her.
“Yeah. We have the same dad and we’ve lived together since we were kids. She’s had my back since as forever.” He looked over at Bruce and smiled. “And you are?” Bruce smiled, a bit awkwardly and reached out his hand.
“Bruce Banner. I think we have history together.” Clint nodded and shook his hand enthusiastically.
“Oh yeah, I thought you looked a bit familiar dude. Are you also here against your will?” Bruce shrugged and tried to smile.
“Well… I mean, I certainly didn’t ask to go here, but my dad probably just wanted me to go and have some friends aside from school or whatever. And we don’t have a lot of money so I didn’t really have the heart to say no, so… here I am.” Tony snorted and shook his head at him.
“Well, next time they want to do something for you or whatever maybe you should tell them what you want instead of just forcing you to do whatever they think you want to do.” The blonde next to them both half-glared at Tony and rolled his eyes with disgust.
“Well, maybe it was just meant to be a nice gesture from a parent, Stark? Not that you would know anything about ‘nice’, right?” Tony snapped his head at the guy, first surprised and then angry.
“Oh fuck off, Rogers, no one asked for your opinion.” Rogers? Rogers… Bruce had heard that before, but was the full name… oh yeah, Steve Rogers! They had math together, but he was probably a bigger introvert than Bruce because he was sure the guy never actually spoke or hung out with anyone. At least not that Bruce knew.
But Clint just smirked at him tilting his head at Steve. “Oh, so you wanted to go here? Tell me, what made you jump at the chance to go to Camp Delight for the summer?” Steve flushed a bright red and looked down at his sketchbook.
“Well… I mean, I didn’t want to really, my mother really wanted me to get to know some new friends. But I was going to go with my best friend so I thought it’d be somewhat bearable. But then he called me yesterday and told me that he had caught the flu and couldn’t come, so I had to go alone.”
Tony smirked teasingly at him. “Oh, so you mean you didn’t actually want to go here, either? What was that about it being a ‘nice gesture from a nice parent?’” Steve glared at him but quickly went back to his sketchbook without saying anything else.
The other blonde guy in front of Tony turned around to look at them and smiled sadly. “Well, I can only envy you. My father has sent me to this camp as punishment for my behavior in school and believes it might help my temper. But I hardly had a choice in the matter.” Bruce narrowed his eyes slightly at how he spoke, but then remembered that a guy from Norway had started going to their school some time ago so this was probably him.
Clint grinned widely at him. “Oh hey, you’re that guy from Norway, right? Um, Thor, right? Sorry, Natasha is better at names than me.” But Thor just smiled and slapped Clint on the shoulder so hard he almost fell onto the floor.
“Ay, that is correct. Thor Odinson is my name. My father moved here for work and I started going to your fair school about a year ago.” Steve looked up from his sketchbook again, this time a bit more interested.
“Really? What does he do?” Thor looked over at him, seemingly a bit surprised that he spoke again, and then smiled again.
“He is into weapons manufacturing. He then he figured that business would be better here in the United States and we moved here. We have lived here for almost a year now.” Tony sat up straighter and smirked at Thor.
“Oh, so your dad is the CEO for Odinson’s Solutions? My dad has talked about that before, he says they’re one of the few big companies that pose any threat to Stark Industries.” Thor smirked back at him and nodded, but before he could say anything, a loud BANG was heard and the driver cursed as she slowed down and pulled over by the road.
She got out of the car, popped the hood on car and started to look over the engine. Natasha finally removed her earbuds and turned to look over at the others. “Well, looks like we’ll be stopping for a while. That sounded pretty bad.” Tony smirked and also got out of the car.
“I’m sure I can fix it. I’m really good with engines, it shouldn’t take too long.” Steve rolled his eyes but he also started to get of the car.
“I need to stretch my legs a little anyway.” He muttered, putting his stuff back in the bag and got out, and Bruce was quick to follow. The tight space was really starting to get to him and he needed to breathe. He sat down by a tree and leaned his head back, breathing slowly and deeply and closed his eyes.
He heard the others also getting out of the car, chatting amongst themselves and he heard Tony talk a little with the lady about the car, though she did not sound the least bit grateful for his ‘help’. Though in her defense he did sound a bit like a know-it-all, and very few adults that Bruce had met actually liked being shown up by a kid.
“You okay?” Bruce looked up and saw Natasha stand beside him, hand on her hip and head slightly tilted, her mouth very slightly quirked. He smiled weakly and sat up a bit straighter.
“Uh, yeah, I’m okay. I just… I don’t really like tight spaces is all, I needed to breathe a little.”
“So you’re claustrophobic?” He nodded weakly and she brushed a string of hair out of her face and behind her ear. “You look pretty pale, you should drink something.” She handed him a bottle of some clear liquid and he instinctively jerked back a little.
She rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed but pushed the bottle towards them. “Relax, it’s just water. I always bring water with me just in case. And you look like you need something to drink right now.” Bruce immediately felt a bit embarrassed for his reaction, but there were a lot of rumors floating around about Natasha and that bottle she always carried around.
Still, he smiled gratefully at her and took the bottle from her, taking a few deep sips of cool and clear water. And it did help a lot to clear his head a little and also cool him down a little. He handed it back to her with a soft smile. “Thank you, Natasha.” Her frown turned into a very small smile and she patted his shoulder before he went over to Clint and started to talk to him.
Steve was walking around the car in circles before he started to walk over to the side of the car, leaned back against it and sighed, either out of frustration or tiredness, and tilted his head towards the sun. Thor and Clint had started to throw rocks at certain targets, Thor getting both very impressed and annoyed that Clint kept beating him and Natasha was fiddling with her phone, before placing it to her ear, held it there for a few seconds before groaning and putting it down again.
“There’s no signal here, guys. I can’t call for another taxi or a tow truck.” Tony looked up from where he was working with the engine and smirked at her.
“Well, maybe you phone just has a bad reception.” He wiped his hands on his pants before taking out his own phone with a confident smirk. “My phone is the best of the best and has found reception everywhere.” Natasha glared at him and Steve looked at with annoyed eyes before rolling his eyes at him.
But Tony either didn’t notice or care because he just dialed a number and then put it to his ear only to look really surprised when he apparently didn’t get any response and looked down at his phone. “What? But it’s never…”
Steve smirked from where he was standing, arms folded and leaning against the car. “Your daddy’s tech not good enough anymore?” Tony glared at him and tried again a few times before giving up and turning back to the engine.
“There is nothing wrong with my tech, Rogers, but this has got to be sabotage here. This engine doesn’t look like it malfunctioned, it looks like it’s been tampered with.” The driver rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.
“Oh really, do tell Mr. Whiz Kid, how do you figure that?” Tony grimaced at the engine seemed to jerk something loose.
“Well, I’m fairly certain this isn’t supposed to be here.” He held something in his hands that looked like the remains from a few taped together firecrackers in a small, plastic container. “Looks like someone was trying to be funny.” She grabbed the container and looked it over, before swearing and throwing to the ground.
“Ugh, okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna go back the way we came and see if I get any signal and if I can call for help. In the meantime you kids stay here and wait for me to come back.” Clint narrowed his eyes at her and walked away from what he and Thor had been doing.
“What, you’re gonna ditch us here? Without any means of getting back or calling for help?” Steve got from where he had been leaning against the car and walked a few steps towards her too.
“Yeah, what if something happens? You’re the adult!” She rolled her eyes and started to walk down the road the way they came from.
“It won’t take so long, just stay where you are and I’ll be back soon.” And with that she disappeared down the road and they looked after her, until she disappeared out of view. Tony closed the hood and walked over to the others, sitting down close by Thor and Clint’s throwing game.
“Well, I guess we’d better get comfortable here, we could be here for a while.” Thor looked at him, confused and head tilted to the side.
“How so, friend Tony? She said she would merely be gone for a short while.” Tony shook his head and smirked tiredly at him.
“Nah buddy, I don’t think so. First of all, we’re miles away from the city, which means she’d have to go quite a while to actually get any reception. Second, I could see she didn’t want to deal with this situation at all, or us. I’ll bet you ten bucks that she just wanted to get away from us for a while. She’ll probably not be back for a while.”
Steve glared at him, arms still folded over his chest and his eyebrows were furrowed. “Oh come on, Stark, she was just going to look for phone service, it can’t take too long. I give her an hour or so, an hour and a half at most.” Tony just shook his head and leaned back against a tree.
“Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that Rogers. But I’m telling you that she’s not gonna be back for a long, long while.”
And Tony turned out to be right, because after an hour and half she had still not come back and they were still waiting. Tony had taken Thor’s place and was now playing an impromptu game of darts, with small rocks and a few branches instead of actual darts or circles on a round board. Steve had started sketch again, sitting leaned back against a tree with a pair of headphones over his ears. Natasha was looking through a book and Thor was doing pull-ups on a thick and sturdy branch.
Bruce was sitting with a book of his own, but he had taken to watch Tony and Clint throw their little rock-dart game, and while Clint was still better at hitting bulls-eye than Tony, Tony was still pretty good and did hit a few every once in a while too, until he eventually decided he’d had enough and sat down close to Bruce while Clint was rubbing his obvious victory in his face.
Bruce looked over at Tony and eyed him carefully. While Tony did sometimes get lumped together with the nerds, he didn’t really look it. Sure, he had those glasses that didn’t look the best and he always had at least a few zits on his face, plus being very skinny and short. But he had really good clothes, well-styled hair and managed to look good, if a little awkward in certain clothes sometimes, like he didn’t fill them properly. But he was clearly going to be a really good-looking guy once puberty had settled a little and he always did much better in gym class than Bruce ever did, so he at least had that going for him.
Tony looked up at him and smirked a little at him. “Hey.” Bruce flushed a little at having been caught staring at him, but tried to smile like he hadn’t.
“Hi.” Silence. Bruce wracked his brain for something to say so Tony wouldn’t think he was an idiot. He came up blank, but then Tony smiled a bit more genuinely at him.
“I... uh, I never got the chance to ask if you were okay from yesterday.” Bruce immediately remembered what Tony was referring to and nodded with a grateful smile.
“Oh yeah, I’m fine- I-I mean I was fine. A-and I never got to thank you for helping me with those jerks. They’re always on my back for something or other, so thanks for, you know, helping me out.” Tony smiled and bumped him with his shoulder.
“Don’t mention it. I might be an asshole but I don’t like bullies anymore than anyone else do.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a protein bar with nuts and berries, breaking it in two and handing one of them to Bruce. “Want some? I get the feeling we’re not gonna have lunch anytime soon.” Bruce took it with a grateful thank you and quickly finished it.
And once again, Tony turned out to be right, because several hours passed and the driver still didn’t show up or come back and it eventually got dark and moon and stars appeared on the sky. The kids got their phones out and used it as flashlights to try and see if anyone came. But of course, no one did.
“What the hell kind of road is this? There hasn’t been a car driving past here in five hours.” Natasha groaned and leaned back against the car, now having put on a sweatshirt as the temperature dropped and it got colder and colder.
Steve looked at his phone and sighed. “And our driver has been missing for almost five and a half hours now too. Something is very wrong about all of this.” Tony, who’d taken another crack at fixing the engine, rolled his eyes and stared him incredulously from the hood of the car.
“I told you, she’s ditched us. She’s left and didn’t come back to get us, because she got sick of us or whatever.” Steve narrowed his eyes at Tony and opened his mouth, but Thor cut him off.
“Perhaps she has gotten herself lost in these woods? Or she has gotten into trouble with animals? She may not have, as you phrase it, ditched us on purpose.” Tony didn’t respond to that, he just rolled his eyes again and wiped off his hands on his pants before looking through his bag.
“Well, I’m out of protein bars. I don’t suppose anyone else had the idea of bringing along snacks for the trip, ‘cause I don’t think we’ll get dinner either.” No one did have anything else to eat and Clint shivered, rubbing his hands over his arms.
“Well, what are we supposed to do then? We still have no service, no food and no way of calling for help. Do you think the camp people will call the cops if we don’t show up?” Bruce shrugged and rubbed his hands together and blew hot air on them in an attempt to warm them up.
“Maybe, but it’s not like they would know where we are, right? We can only hope someone realizes six kids are missing with no explanation as to why they didn’t show up to camp on the first day.”
Tony rolled his eyes again and swore as he tried to fix the engine while also holding up his phone for light. “Well, either way this damn hunk of junk isn’t going to be much help for us. From what I can see it would need tools to fix it that this driver thought to bring along for the trip.” He swore again and kicked at it before slamming to hood back down as hard as he could.
Then, before anyone could say anything else, a bright blue light shone from somewhere out in the woods and a low, electric sound and another hissing sound was heard as smoke poured out from the woods.
Everyone jumped and immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at it, as the light and the sound got closer and louder. “What’s that?” Clint asked as they all stared and he, Tony, Steve and Thor walked closer to spot what it was. But Natasha called them back.
“No, guys get back here! We don’t know what that is; we’d better stay here. Let’s get back in the car!” Tony turned to look at her over his shoulder, raised eyebrow and looking a bit defiant.
“Why?” She rolled her eyes, grabbed his sleeve and yanked him back.
“Because I say so, now come on!” Then, suddenly, an loud humming started to accompany the light and hissing and it all got closer and closer and louder and louder. The kids shared a look between themselves before hurrying back into the car, slamming the doors behind them, but still keeping a watchful eye on what was going on outside. Steve looked out his window and bit his lip.
“Maybe it’s just some military training exercise or something? We should be safe here.” Bruce shook his head; his breathing getting quicker and already feeling the stress, panic and claustrophobia make him a mess of nerves and fear.
“No, I can’t stand these tight spaces! I think we’d be much safer outside!” As he spoke he found himself having yell, as the sound had gotten incredibly loud and they all had to speak louder in order to be heard over it. Natasha looked over at him, her face strained and her voice almost a yell now.
“Look, whatever is going on out there, I don’t think it’s smart to be out there while it’s happening! It’s probably smarter to stay in here until it’s over!” Clint just smirked over at her, even if it was very strained now with worry and fear.
“Yeah, let’s listen to Ms. Bossy-Pants over there!” She glared over at him and Bruce could see that she really wanted to smack him but either restrained herself enough or was to distracted by what was going on around them to actually do it. But Steve bumped his knees against the seat in front of him to get his attention.
“Hey, whatever that is could be dangerous for all we know! No need to be nasty about it!” Thor grimaced as the sound got louder and stared out the window on Clint’s side of the car.
“What transpires here? What could possibly be making this noise?” Tony grimaced too and gritted his teeth as it got even louder.
“Do you think-“ He winced as a loud high-pitched sound started to ring. He raised his voice to a scream, “Do you think it’s some kind of weapon’s demonstration?” Steve turned to him and glared at him, now pressing his fingers over his ears.
“What kind of weapons would be tested out in the woods this close to a road where cars drive?!” Tony glared at him and Bruce snapped out his own panic and stress and screamed loudly into his face, both to be heard and also to be stop the fighting.
“Well fine then, you tell us what the hell is going on here!” Then the sound got so loud that they all needed to cover their ears and the light got so extremely bright that they all to duck down and close their eyes as it covered the whole car and then… blackness.