Summer Camp or Space Adventures?
When Natasha opened her eyes again she didn't see the forest anymore. Or the road they had been standing on before. In fact, nothing she saw was close to where they been before. She carefully got her fingers out of her ears and started to move around to see how it looked.
The car seemed to stand in some kind of room, not very big or tall, and made out of some kind of metal. It looked almost like a big box of something. She turned to look at the others and gently shook Clint, who was sitting with his fingers in his ears and eyes shut tight, to snap him out of it while looking around at the others.
"Hey guys, are you okay?" The others started to move and look up from where they were sitting with their heads ducked down, hands over their ears and eyes closed.
"What trickery is this?" Thor jerked up from where he sat and gaped around in the room, which made Clint jump a little and he also looked around, both shocked and a little scared.
"Where the hell are we?" Clint eyed the little box they were trapped in. Tony shrugged and placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder, who had started to look a bit pale. Steve looked out his window and tried to examine the room from his seat.
"It looks a little like a box, but maybe someone stole the car and we've gotten stolen with it or something?" Tony looked up from comforting Bruce and over at the others.
"Maybe we've been drugged and kidnapped? Maybe they're looking for ransom for something?" Natasha rolled her eyes from her seat.
"I don't think that's very likely. If we were kidnapped, why would they leave us in the car, let a lone steal an old New York Taxi car to begin with? Besides, aside from you none of us come from particularly wealthy families." Bruce took a shaky breath and looked up at the others, very pale and breathing heavily.
"Um, not that this isn't a very valid conversation to have at the moment, but could we please have it outside this sardine can, please?" Tony and Steve immediately started to move out of the car to allow Bruce to get out and the others weren't slow to follow. But the little box they were trapped in wasn’t much better. It was barely big enough to be qualified as a garage and it was only barely big enough to fit them all.
Natasha started to look over the walls, running her fingers over the smooth, cool metal to try and find anything that could tell them how to get out of there, and the others weren’t slow to follow suit and try find a button or hatch or a door that could get them out of there. But before anyone found anything, one end of the box opened itself like a slide door, making all of them jump back and stare at the opening.
The kids stared at the opened door, then each other and then Tony started to walk out of the room, only for Steve to grab his arm and yank him back. “Are you crazy? We have no idea where we are or who brought us here and you’re just gonna waltz out there?” Tony rolled his eyes and yanked his arm back.
“Well, what exactly are we supposed to do then, Rogers? Just stand around here and wait for someone to hopefully come and maybe tell us what’s going on?” He snorted. “No way. You do that if you want, but I wanna see where the hell we are. Hopefully we can find a way out of here.” And so he walked out, followed by Clint and Thor and eventually the others also started to slowly get out of the small little box, the doors slowly closing behind them. But the kids’ barley noticed that as they took in the room they had walked into.
They had walked into a big room, almost entirely made of white and light grey metal and a few strange contraptions were scattered across the room. In one corner was a machine that looked like a cross between a computer and a super advanced hairdryer, with a seat formed under a big bowl-like apparatus, which was connected to the big machine and had a keypad and a display on its side. In another corner was a device that looked like a cross between a dining table from a diner- one of those round ones with a bench that went around the whole table and were connected to each other- and a big round dome that covered the whole table. There a door close behind the hair dryer machine, and two doors on each side of the room, each with a small display on the right side, but they were at the moment closed and maybe even locked if the red symbol of a closed lock on the displays were any indication.
But most of the room was empty, aside from one end that was taken up by a giant closed window and a big control panel, along with six chairs in front of it. There were actually a couple of windows here and there in the room, but they were all covered so when Natasha tried to look outside and to see where they were, she couldn’t see anything aside from metal.
All of them stared at the room for several minutes without saying a word. But eventually Clint licked his lips and took a step forward. “Where… where and what is this?”
Bruce took a deep, shuddering breath, still looking very pale. “It looks like some sort of control room. Maybe we’re in some kind of… nuclear power plant or something?” Tony shrugged but also looked a bit more curious than the others.
“I don’t know, but I’ve never seen anything like this before, it’s probably some kind of secret lab or something. I still say we’ve been kidnapped, the guys might come here and cut off a finger or ear to send to our parents.” Steve rolled his eyes and looked at him, mostly annoyed but Natasha could see if he wasn’t quite as convinced as he probably wanted to be.
“Cut off a finger, seriously? This isn’t a hostage movie, Stark, can you please just act like you’re taking this seriously?” Tony glared back at him, putting his hands on his hips.
“Have you ever been kidnapped?” Steve lost the glare, now looking more confused as he shook his head. Tony nodded and looked away from him. “Okay then.” Then he started to walk further into the room and looked over the walls and doors, fingering on the displays and buttons that were scattered across the room.
Steve jerked forward and barked, “Hey! Don’t touch anything if you don’t know what it is!” Tony rolled his eyes but didn’t look away.
“I’m just trying to find a way out of here!” He moved onto looking over the big hairdryer, running his fingers over the cool metal and looking over the display and buttons on the sides. When he didn’t seem to find anything of too much interest or that could tell him where they were, he moved on the doors. The one behind the hair dryer was locked and no matter how much Tony yanked on the door handle or fiddled with the lock, it remained immovable, so he eventually moved on to the other doors.
Clint and Natasha also started to look around the room, though Natasha seemed to follow Clint around just so he wouldn’t touch anything rather than try to find a way out. Thor ran up to join Tony by one of the doors, but Bruce stumbled over to the hairdryer machine and sat down on the seat, leaning his head back against the metal and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths and tried to calm himself. While this room wasn’t as bad as the metal box or the car had been, the fact that the windows were covered and the doors were closed, made it all feel like they were still in a box.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey, are you sick?” He cracked one eye open and saw Steve stand over him, looking very concerned. He tried to smile, but it looked a bit more like a grimace and took another deep breath.
“No, no I’m fine, thanks. I’m just a little dizzy. This room feels really confined and I don’t really like that too much. It was bad enough inside that car or the box we were in before.” He tried to sound normal, but was voice was rather weak and it cracked a little and Steve’s eyes widened slightly before kneeling down beside him with a soft smile.
“Oh, well, you know, my mom is a nurse and she told me that you could always lean your head back like this,” He gently placed a hand under Bruce’s chin and lifted it slightly, so his chin was tilted up and his nose was pointed up in the air. “And that it, you know, releases the airways and it might help you with your breathing a little.” Bruce smiled in thanks, closed his eyes again and kept breathing deeply.
Steve smiled too before getting back up on his feet and looked over at what the others were doing. Clint and Natasha were looking over the doors on the left and Thor and Tony looked over the doors on the right. But none of them seemed to have had any luck in trying to open them.
He walked over to Natasha and Clint- anything to be as far away from Stark as possible- and looked over the display. “Any luck opening the doors?” Clint shook his head and seemed to gotten bored with trying to open it, whereas Natasha was still trying to make sense of it.
“No, it’s no good. It looks like whoever brought us here didn’t want us to go exploring in any other rooms.”
“I’m telling you!” Tony called to them from one the doors without looking away from it. “Kidnapped.” Steve rolled his eyes and had to bite his to prevent himself from saying something stupid.
‘Seriously, did that guy ever shut up?’
Thor looked over at Bruce, who was still sitting by the hairdryer and looked over at Steve, coming up to him so they could speak to themselves. “Is he well? He looks ill.” Steve glanced over at Bruce, who thankfully didn’t look as pale anymore and had regained some color in his face.
“He’s just a little nauseous, I think. He’ll be okay.” Thor nodded and then started to look over the big control panel. It was covered with buttons, displays, levers and all kinds of blinking lights and big screen by the center chairs, almost like one from a small computer.
“Hm, perhaps it is here we can locate the means to leave this room?” He mumbled to himself and sat down in one of the chairs, scanning over the buttons and levers, but Natasha smacked his hand before he could press anything.
“Hey, don’t touch anything!” She hissed. “We don’t actually know what any of this is, for all we know we could set off a bomb by pressing the wrong buttons.” Thor grumbled, but Tony came up beside him and also started to look over everything.
“Yeah but we have to try something, right? Or else we might be trapped here for who knows how long.” He moved to sit down in one of the middle chairs. “Let’s just have a look-“ But just as he sat down, and before he could touch or look at anything, the lights went off and everything started to beep and blink as an electric buzzing went off. Tony flew up from his chair, only a second after Thor and everyone quickly moved away from the panel as everything seemed to boot up.
“What did you do?!” Bruce came running up to him and Tony raised his hands defensively while shaking his head furiously.
“I didn’t touch anything, I just sat down!” But before anyone could start asking more questions, the covers over the big window started to move and opened up, revealing-
The kids stared out the window, eyes wide open and jaws almost hitting the floor as they took in what they were seeing, because outside the window, spinning in its orbit slowly and painstakingly real, was planet Earth. In fact, they were seeing the continent of North America right outside the window, as well as the big blue from the planet’s oceans and white clouds.
Everyone was silent for what felt like forever, just staring out the window at the slowly spinning planet. It was Natasha who eventually found her voice, but it was uncharacteristically weak and soft for her. “Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it sounded about as loud as a yell in the silence of the room.
Steve swallowed loudly and only managed to squeak out a, “Oh my god…” and Tony shrugged while trying to sound as cocky and cool as always but sounded just as blown away as the rest of them.
“Well, it sure ain’t Camp Delight, that’s for sure.” Clint laughed weakly at the comment, but suddenly looked a little pale.
“What is this, some kind of movie set?” Natasha laughed, the laugh equally as breathless and weak as her brother’s and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“If it is, it’s the most convincing green screen or CGI effects I have ever seen. Pictures from satellites don’t look this convincing.” Thor leaned against one of the chairs’ backrests and stared out the window.
“What does this mean? Have we been transported to some sort of space center?” Tony snorted and shrugged his shoulders, never looking away from the window.
Bruce swallowed loudly and walked closer to the window, placing his hand on the glass and his eyes locked on the green and blue planet on the outside. He stared at it for what felt like an eternity before turning back to the others with big, wide eyes and his face suddenly very pale.
“Where… Where are we, really?” But before any of them could give any sort of answer, another voice joined them.
“Travellers from Planet Earth.” Everybody jerked away from the window and started to look around, trying to spot the speaker. It was a deep voice, powerful, strong and commanding and unmistakably masculine, yet at the same time there was a strange undertone in the voice. Like it wasn’t entirely human. Also, the voice seemed to come from a speaker as opposed to from somewhere in the room from an actual person.
When no one seemed to spot anyone else in the room, or where the voice came from, it spoke again. “Here I am.” And a light blinked to the right of the control panel and on a small podium of sorts a small screen had appeared and a strange display of colors and different shapes was floating across the screen.
The kids slowly made their way towards the podium, all a bit warily, and took their spots around it. “What is that?” Clint asked, nudging Tony in the side, who just shrugged while never looking away from the screen. Natasha elbowed him in the side with a glare and shushed him before looking back at the screen, just as the voice started talking again.
“Travellers from Planet Earth. Welcome aboard my ship. It is a pleasure to have you all here. You are currently, as you may have already guessed, in outer space. To be exact, two hundred and twenty three thousand miles above the equator and Planet Earth.” Bruce felt his mouth fall open and Steve and Thor’s eyes widened as they took in the information. Natasha, while still appearing to be very stoic and unfazed, also had her mouth slightly open and her green eyes were glued to the screen. Tony and Clint didn’t entirely convinced, though they didn’t look away either and were listening just as intently as the rest of them, but did side-eye each other every now and then.
“Now, I hope you can excuse to the means it took to get you all here. If we could have I would have preferred to get you all aboard my ship as soon as possible, so you wouldn’t have had to stay out in those woods for as long as you did. But unfortunately it had to happen at night, as to not draw too much attention to ourselves, and well, sometimes you have to do things the hard way in order to do it right. And I am equally sorry that I cannot greet you in person. This is a pre-recorded message and will only be shown once, so it’s best to listen closely.”
“What is this, Candid Camera?” Tony whispered to Clint, who snorted a little but the others quickly and harshly shushed at them and Natasha smacked Tony on the head, quite hard too. Tony yelped in pain and rubbed his head while throwing a dirty glare at her.
“Now, for your first question, who am I? Well, I can only reveal that I am not from Earth. And my appearance is, unfortunately, forbidden for me to reveal to you. But I believe this,” A somewhat human form appeared on the screen, with two legs, two arms and a small head, only it also had big wings that looked like big butterfly wings. And it also had a strange glow around it. “is a suitable form for me to take as a appear to you, and you may call me Watcher.”
“Seriously, what is this? Some kind of elaborate prank?” Clint shook his head and rolled his eyes, only to shushed again and he raised his hands defensively and took a big step to the left to avoid Natasha hitting him. Everyone else had their eyes glued to the screen, even Tony was listening very closely now.
“Second, why are you here?”
“To be on Candid Camera.” Tony said mockingly at the screen, only to be shushed harshly again and this time Bruce smacked him hard on the arm. He recoiled from both the surprising strength from the small, lanky guy and surprise from the sudden hit, rubbing his arm.
“You are here, because you have been chosen for a very important and very secret mission. And if you accept my offer, I will teach you to pilot this ship to worlds that no one on Earth has ever seen or even dreamed of.”
Everyone turned to look at each other. Was he serious? Being in space above Earth was one thing, if it was even true, but to pilot a space ship? Visit other worlds? Maybe even see aliens and who knows what else? He couldn’t actually be serious?
“I am giving you the chance to see the Universe. But I cannot force you. I will give you on hour to decide what you wish to do, and then you will vote between going to summer camp or have a space adventure. But before I leave you, I will first ask of you all to not push any buttons or do anything before you are given the proper training and knowledge to know what it all does.”
“Yeah, thanks for the tip.” Clint rolled his eyes again, only this time no one shushed him or tried to smack him.
“Also, I understand that you have promised to remain in contact with your families and friends on Earth. And you will be able to do that from here, with these,” A small hatch opened itself on the podium, revealing six small devices, about an inch long and looking like small USB devices. “Connect these to your phones and you will be able to call your families and friends.” Tony picked up one of the small devices and looked it over carefully, very intrigued and very curious, Bruce leaning over Clint’s shoulder to get a good look at it as well before picking one of his own.
“That is all I will tell you for now. I will give you an hour to decide what each of you wants before you vote. If you vote yes, you will have adventures through Space and the galaxy. If you vote no, I will put you back on Earth and erase your memories. The choice is yours. I will see you all in one hour. Good luck.”
The screen flickered before it disappeared and lights came on again. Everyone was silent for a long time, staring at the spot where the screen had just been and trying to make sense of it all. Space, aliens, missions, adventures, voting, it was all very much to take in so suddenly.
It was Clint who eventually broke the silence.
“’Kay. So that happened.” Steve snorted and shook his head with a smile that was both slightly exasperated and blown away at the same time.
“Well, I can safely say that this is not what I was expecting when my mom signed me up for summer camp.” Bruce breathed heavily and looked up at the others, his face gravely serious.
“So… we’re actually in space? Like, actually for real, we’re in outer fucking space?” Up till this moment no one had heard Bruce swear, which somehow made the situation feel more real. As if everything wasn’t just a practical joke from some TV Show or something.
Tony shrugged and tried to look cool, but as his brain more and more realized that they were in space and what they were being offered, he grew more and more giddy with every second. But he couldn’t show that to the others so he fought hard to keep those feelings and thoughts back. “Looks like it. But I was still right.”
Everyone turned to look at him, either exasperated or confused and he shrugged again with a grin. “We were taken against our will by someone who wants us for something. Sounds like a kidnapping to me.” Natasha glared at him, much like how a cat could glare at a person and Steve rolled his eyes and almost groaned, feeling very irate at Tony and his annoying mouth. But before he could tell him to stuff it Thor cut him off.
“So… what will we do now? Shall we try to discuss what our next course of action should be? How we shall vote?” Clint stared at him with wide eyes, as if the idea of what they should do was really freaking obvious.
“What we should do?! I’ll tell what we should do, we should vote yes!” Now everyone stared at him and Natasha raised her eyebrow at him, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What ever happened to ‘is this some kind of elaborate prank?’” Clint shrugged with a wide grin and gestured wildly with his hands.
“Natasha, we’re in space! That much has been made obvious here. And we’re being offered a chance to spend our summer vacation in space, maybe fighting aliens or saving the galaxy! And you’d rather pick a summer camp over that?”
She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say that. But I am saying that, if we are in space and we choose to stay here, we can’t go back. This won’t be like going to camp, faking illness after a few weeks and being sent home. Besides, we don’t know exactly what we’re getting into here. For all we know we could be asked to join a war of life and death or maybe it’s a trick where we’ll be eaten by a monster if we choose to stay.”
Tony rolled his eyes at her and almost placed his hand on her shoulder before he realized what he was doing and retracted it. “Who cares? It’s still an adventure through fucking space! So what if we face aliens and monsters or whatever, I’ll gladly take it over grilling hotdogs over the campfire in the woods covered in insect repellant or being forced to swim in some cold lake, because it’s awesome!”
Clint grinned and they high-fived each other. “I knew there was a reason I liked you Stark. You’ve got guts.” Tony smirked at him. Thor also grinned widely at them.
“I must agree with you. It does sound much more interesting to go on an adventure rather than stay at a summer camp I did not even wish to attend in the first place. I think I may just vote for this as well.” Tony and Clint immediately made sounds of approval, but Bruce just looked very apprehensive.
“Are you sure, though? I mean, it’s still space. It could be dangerous to stay here. We could die from- well, anything out here!” Clint shrugged with a wry smirk.
“Yeah and we could drown in a lake at summer camp, what’s your point?” Steve narrowed his eyes at Clint and took a step forward, straightening his back and towering over him.
“Hey! He’s right you know, Barton. We have no idea what’s out there, or what this,” He gestured at the podium and where the screen had been. ”thing actually wants from us. Like Natasha said, for all we know he could be keeping us hostage or make us fight in an actual war or something! You should at least the consider the risk.” Tony snorted and placed his hands in his pockets.
“Risk of what? Getting groomed by some alien? Like that can’t happen on Earth.” Steve gritted his teeth and turned to Tony, visibly holding back himself back from stalking over to him.
“Stark, for Christ’s sake will you knock it off with the jokes for one second?“ Tony took a step back, making a show up putting his hands up and looking mock scared.
“Whoa, watch out guys, it looks like Rogers is a little peeved.” Steve clenched his fists and looked very angry and like he was fighting very hard not to punch something. Or someone.
Natasha rolled her eyes at them and placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder to pull him back from actually hurting Tony, while keeping her eyes locked on her brother and Thor. “We’re just saying that there’s a bigger decision here than just how we’re going to spend our summer here. I mean out of everyone here, who even has a driving license?” Tony raised his hand, along with Thor and Steve sort of raised his hand.
“I have a driver’s permit but no license yet.” She rolled her eyes.
“Right, so two of us can drive a car. And you think that you can just learn to drive a space ship just like that? If we actually say yes to this, there will be no going back. At least on summer camp we’ll still be on Earth and have contact with our friends and families.”
Thor smiled widely at her, as if her serious tone hadn’t faced him at all. “And we will have contact with our loved ones here as well.” He gestured at the small devices on the podium with his arm. “With these we will be able to contact our friends and family just as simply as on camp.”
Bruce folded his arms over his chest and eyed them carefully. “Yeah, assuming they work. And even if they do, I’d still be calmer calling my dad on Earth and not from some other planet or the other side of the galaxy.” Clint tilted his head at him, eyebrow slightly raised.
“Why? There’s not that much difference. You’re still far away from him, whether on camp or in space. It’s not too much difference there.” Natasha smacked him and he yelped in pain, rubbing his arm where a small red mark was starting to form from her hand. “What? It’s true!”
Bruce tightened his grip around himself. “I’m just saying we shouldn’t rush into things. We have an hour to think about this, maybe we should really think this through before we decide what we want to do?”
They all looked between themselves, eyeing the others with cautious and begrudging eyes before nodding to each other, though the air remained tense and cold. Tony grumbled and started to turn away.
“Fine. Let’s do that.” Then he started to walk away from them and the others turned to look after him.
“Where are you going, friend Tony?” Thor called after him and Tony turned to look back at them over his shoulder.
“I’m gonna go explore a bit closer at this ship. If it turns out we are gonna be living here for the summer, might as well get a closer look at everything around here. You sourpusses can sit there and grumble all you want if you feel like it.” Then he turned away and started to inspect everything he passed curiously while also trying to keep his itching fingers in check.
Clint looked after him, then at the others, shrugged and smirked at them. “Yeah, I’m gonna go with him. And he’s right.” He eyed Natasha and Steve with a dry look on his face. “If you killjoys want to stand here and take the fun out of everything, then feel free to.” He then turned and hurried after Tony. “Hey Stark, wait for me! Don’t find anything fun without me!”
“Then get your ass in gear, Barton!” Tony called after him from where he was, observing one of the big machines in the room and running his hands over the cool, white metal. Thor looked after him shrugged and then ran after him.
Natasha and Steve eyed each other with raised eyebrows and folded arms over their chests. It was a look that said ‘can you believe these morons’. She rolled her eyes and leaned on her hip. “So I take it you’re not too eager to go on adventure either, huh?” Steve pinched his lips and shrugged lightly.
“Well… I mean I can’t say I’m against it necessarily. There’s a part of me that is curious about going on adventures and what we might find. I mean it has to be more exciting than summer camp, right? But still… I can’t help but wonder what exactly this mission is about. That Watcher guy didn’t tell us anything about it other than that it’s secret and important, but that could mean anything!” He then shrugged weakly and looked over at Tony, who along with Clint and Thor was inspecting the big hair dryer machine. “Besides, I’m not exactly jumping at the thought of spending my summer this close to Tony Stark.”
Natasha glared a little at his tone and how he talked about Tony, but chose not to comment and just nodded and dug her nails into her arms, almost cutting through her shirt and she bit her lip. “Yeah, I can’t help but wonder about that too. Like, it could be war or it could be a trick or it could be literally anything. And while I’m not exactly jumping at the thought of what might be on that camp and the things and people there, it’d probably be light-years safer than here.” Steve nodded and looked down at the floor.
“Yeah…” Then he looked over at Bruce. “What do you think Bruce? You have to see how this could be really dangerous, right?” Bruce drew back a little when he was spoken too and immediately tried to make himself look smaller, just like he always did. He took a deep breath and tried to make sense of his thoughts.
Yes, he realized that this whole thing was not only dangerous and risky as hell, but he was also worried about how little they knew about this mission. No facts or anything, just a simple ‘do you want do travel through space or go to camp?’ What was Bruce supposed to do with that? Tony, Clint and Thor might be more comfortable with rushing in without thinking about risks or consequences, but Bruce really wasn’t and in a way he envied them for it. He wished he was brave enough to say yes to this, but he wasn’t. He was scared and worried about this whole thing and his instincts and gut told him to turn back and run. Or, well, go back to Earth anyway. Because his gut told him that nothing on that summer camp could be quite as dangerous as piloting space ships and landing on planets no human had ever even dreamed about.
And that’s not even mentioning his claustrophobia and the idea of being trapped in this ship for who knows how long and being able to go somewhere else or being able to breathe some fresh air when he needed it.
But at the same time, to go to space and see those new planets… to see new and strange places and creatures that no one on Earth had even dreamed about seeing or existed. He couldn’t deny that the scientist in him wasn’t thinking about it and wanted to see and do it all. Plus, he’d always told himself since his mom died that she would be up here among the stars, despite how he knew that it just couldn’t be true. So in a way, he felt closer to her up here than he’d ever been on Earth since her death.
So in the end, he was torn over what to answer Steve, so he just shrugged and nodded weakly. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I know it’s dangerous and all, but…” He shrugged again and looked away from Natasha and Steve’s prying looks. “I don’t know.”
He looked over Natasha’s shoulder over at Tony and the others, and felt his own curiosity overcome his fear as he looked over the machine and saw Tony and Clint laughing over something. He eventually decided that it couldn’t hurt to look and made his way over to them.
Tony had already arrived at the hair dryer when Clint and Thor came up to him, and he was running his fingers over the metal and looked over the small display and the buttons on the side. He looked up briefly at the others before looking back at the display.
“So, what do you guys think this could be? The world’s most advanced hair dryer or something?” Clint snorted and fingered on the bowl-like thing, pushing it back and forth a little.
“Yeah, maybe the Watcher guy wants his hair to look great at all times? Maybe that’s what we’re here to do, spread his ideas of hairstyles over the galaxy!” Tony laughed before standing up and circled around the thing. Thor smirked and sat down on the seat, looking up at the upside down bowl over him.
“Perhaps it’s designed to keep our heads warm? It does not appear to have any articles for your hair.” Clint and Tony laughed and Thor’s smirk widened a little. Then he turned somber and looked up at the others.
“Do you believe it’s reckless to choose to go on this adventure? While I admit the idea is very enticing and I do wish to go on this mission, perhaps we are a bit hasty?” Clint’s smile weakened too and he shrugged before folding his arms over his chest.
“Well, yeah, maybe a little. I can’t deny that maybe this could be dangerous or whatever, but still it’s a fucking space adventure! Who in their right mind would say no to that?” Tony nodded and placed his hands on his hips.
“Yeah, I mean, anything is better than that stupid camp! I went into this knowing I would get a summer without Wi-Fi so either I get a summer without Wi-Fi in the woods in the middle of nowhere in being absolutely miserable or I would get a summer of adventure and planets and aliens and God knows what else without Wi-Fi.”
He held up both hands and weighing them up and down, like the different sides of a scale. “Space adventure or summer camp?” He grimaced a little at them and moved his hands up and down. “I think space wins out in that question. At least for me.” He then glared over at Steve, who was still standing over by the podium with Natasha and Bruce. “Though it’d be better if Captain Stick-Up-His-Ass could be dropped back on Earth so the rest of us wouldn’t have to suffer his bitching. Seriously, what’s his problem?” Clint snorted and shook his head.
“No idea, but the guy has been throwing dirty glances at us for the whole day. Maybe he’s just mad his BFFL isn’t here and is taking it out on us.” Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly.
“Yeah, well he’s still an asshole. I mean, what the hell have I ever done to him? I never even talked to him before today for fucks sake, so why does he glare at me like I killed his puppy?” Thor nodded and folded his arms over his broad chest.
“Perhaps he was actually received, how did you phrase it? A stick up his rear? It would make most men rather sour and angry.” That caused Clint and Tony to burst out laughing, with Tony slapping himself on the knee and Clint placing both hands on his knees to keep himself standing somewhat upright.
“That’s probably the most polite way I’ve ever heard that phrase being said before, Thor. I think you and I are gonna get along great if we end up actually going on this mission.” Tony managed to say between his laughter and Clint nodded on the verge of choking on his laughter. Thor looked very pleased with the reaction he’d gotten from his little joke, but then looked away from them and smiled at Bruce as he came up to them.
“Ah, Friend Bruce! I see you’ve come to join us in attempting to make sense of this machinery.” Bruce smiled and brushed some thick strands of hair out of his face.
“Yeah, I guess I have. I’m still not sure what to think of the mission yet, but I’d like a good look at these machines at the very least. Just in case we get placed back on Earth and our memories are wiped of all of this.” Tony nodded and patted his hand against the machine.
“Well then, Brucie Bear, let me introduce the universe’s most advanced hair dryer. It will make sure you’re hair stays warm and fluffy at all times, with extra styling of your hair for no extra charge.” Bruce chuckled and knelt down to look at the display.
“It sure does look like that, doesn’t it? But this looks like you have different programs on it. Maybe it has more than one function?” Tony shrugged with a wry smirk.
“I sure hope so, ‘cause if this is just meant for your hair it takes up a whole lot of space for very little meaningful purpose. I mean, I’m all for good-looking hair obviously, but this seems like very big machine for something that you easily fix with a jar of gel and a towel.”
Clint snorted and ruffled Tony hair, making the slighter shorter guy squawk in outrage. “Your hair ain’t that good-lookin’ Stark. If you have to style it before going out, then you’re clearly not a naturally handsome guy, like me.” He smirked and rested his arm on Tony’s head and leaning on him slightly before Tony pushed him off, looking mighty annoyed.
“In your dreams, Barton! You gotta work hard to look as good as me.” That was only slightly a joke, since Tony knew that he wasn’t a knockout, with his pimples that always refused to go away entirely and the fact that his muscles still refused to appear. But he had very nice, thick hair and while it often refused to look like anything other than the worst of untamable bedheads, big eyes- and yes he had big bulky glasses over them, but still- and nothing on his face looked bad or ugly. But Clint did have better hair with a nice shade of sandy blonde and with an actual hairstyle and puberty had clearly started to take effect on him. He had started to fill out with muscles, he was an inch or so taller than Tony and rarely had pimples.
And the less said about Thor and Steve and how they looked, the better.
‘Patience Tony. Both your mom and dad have really good looks, just wait for puberty to settle and you’ll look great! Just you wait.’
At least Bruce still looked like he needed time to go from kid to adult with his body too.
Speaking of Bruce, he had gotten back up from the machine’s side and was now looking over at the other machine in the room. “What do you think this is?” Thor got up from where he was sitting and they made their way over to the machine, Tony and Bruce running their fingers over the dome.
“Well it looks like you can sit at this thing, so maybe it has something to do with food?” Bruce looked at Tony, who seemed to looking for any buttons or display like the hair dryer had had. When he didn’t find anything he just shrugged and straightened up again.
“Well, I can’t find any clues on this thing that can tells us what this is supposed to be. But yeah, it does look like a sitting area, but it’s the weirdest dinner table I have ever seen. And my mom has had some pretty crazy ideas of how to furnish a room.”
Clint sat down on the bench-like seats and looked over the dome. He grimaced and looked up at the others. “Well, it’ll feel a little weird to have this huge dome in front of you if we have to eat here. You can barely see over the top of this thing.” Thor tilted his head and looked it over.
“Perhaps it isn’t any machinery? It looks more like one of the strange artistic exhibitions at the museum we traveled to a few months back.” Tony snorted and ran his hand over the dome. Bruce looked over at the other guys, then back at Steve and Natasha before taking a breath and walking away a few steps to get some distance.
‘Well, it looks like they’ve decided what to vote for. Steve and Natasha seem to have decided, and Tony, Clint and Thor have definitely decided. So that just leaves me, and I don’t know. Have a grand adventure through space, or just go to summer camp? Stay safe or take a risk?’
Bruce sighed and leaned his head back against the metal and ran a hand through his curly brown hair. As if it wasn’t hard enough to breathe in this enclosed space with so small windows and everything, the pressure of coming to a decision under such a short amount of time didn’t make it any easier to breathe.
‘Seriously, that Watcher guy couldn’t have had a ship with slightly bigger windows? Even if they just showed empty space and a bit of Earth, it’d be better than this.’
He walked up to one of the small-now open- windows and looked out over the stars and dark space. And despite all of his fears and anxiety, seeing all of this vast space, all these stars and Planet Earth was still so mind-blowing. And the idea of seeing more… of seeing so much more that could be out there.
Bruce sighed again and leaned his forehead against the window, his glasses slipping down his nose slightly. ‘Mom, if you’re out there somewhere, please help me make the right choice.’
When the hour was up, the kids gathered around the podium again as the lights went off again, the screen reappeared and the Watcher’s strange alien form appeared in front of them.
“Well then, it’s time to vote. Those who wish to go on an adventure through space, press the green button. Those who wish to back to Earth, press the red button.” And from the hatch that had given them the strange devices for their phones, now two big buttons revealed themselves, one green and one red.
“If the results end in a draw, 3-3, against will win and I will put you back on Earth. So you require four votes for space adventure to win. So, go ahead and vote.”
After The Watcher vanished and the lights came back on again a tense silence fell over the room. Everyone looked at the buttons, waiting for someone to make the first move and be the first to vote. Which, of course, turned out to be Tony. He shoved himself between Clint and Steve and walked up to the buttons with a confidant grin on his face.
“I know I’m not missing this chance! I never back down from a challenge or an adventure.” And so, he slammed his hand down on the green button, which lit up for two seconds and made a whooping sound. Tony smirked and walked back to the others, folding his arms over his chest and looked to his classmates with a ‘well, who’s next?’ look on his face.
Steve scowled lightly at him, took a deep breath and closed his eyes before walking up to the podium. “Well, I can’t say that going on an adventure like this this isn’t enticing or anything, but I still think the risk is too big considering the unknown variables. So, I say no.” And he pressed the red button, which lit up and made a loud buzzing noise. He stepped back and Clint took his place, also he with a grin on his face.
“Okay, so if choice is between lame or awesome, I’ll always choose awesome! And if I can get even the smallest chance to see actual, real-life aliens in my life on this trip, you can bet your ass that I’ll take it!” And he pressed the green button before going over to Tony, who raised his fist for him to bump.
Natasha stepped up, just as composed and in control of herself as always and looked over at the others with a slightly raised eyebrow. “Well, if no one else here is going to be the responsible one here and make sure no one gets hurt or does anything stupid, I guess I’ll have too. I say no.” The buzzing noise filled the room again she pressed the button before calmly walking over to Steve’s side, arms folded over her chest and leaning on her leg.
Thor marched up to the podium, chest puffed out and head held high with a proud look on his face. “My family comes from a long line of brave men and women who have done many great things in their lifetimes, and I will not show weakness in the face of challenge. And this quest promises great adventure and for an honorable cause. So I will say yes as well.” He slammed his big hand down on the green button, smiling widely at the whooping sound before joining Tony and Clint, who high-fived him and patted him on the shoulder.
So, the results were 2 against 3, which meant one vote would decide the results. And so, everyone turned to Bruce, who still hadn’t voted yet. And poor Bruce stood with his arms folded over his chest and shoulder slightly hunched over.
“Oh man, that means it’s up to me. And I still haven’t decided.” Steve smiled gently and placed his hand on Bruce’s shoulder.
“But you’re a smart guy, Bruce.” Tony, narrowing his eyes at Steve when he saw what he was trying to do, placed his arm around Bruce’s shoulders and grinned at him.
“Yeah, so you’ll choose the adventure, right?” Bruce grimaced at him before shaking off his arm and slowly walking up to the podium, looking over the buttons carefully. Natasha chimed in, a slightly concerned look on her face.
“You won’t have to many open spaces in space, you know. Your claustrophobia won’t like this cramped ship, right?” Bruce bit his lip and eyed the red button, but then Clint ran up and grabbed his shoulder.
“Not too many other scientists will get a chance to see these parts of the galaxy that we will get to see!”
“Uh…” Bruce looked over to the green button, finger hovering inches the button, when Steve grabbed his other shoulder.
“But hey, camp will be so much safer than flying through space or maybe getting stuck on some hostile planet, right?” Bruce head whipped back and forth between the other kids before raising his arms and raising his voice.
“Will you please back off? I can barely breathe here, nevermind think when you crowd me like this!” That made Steve and Clint take a few steps back and Thor looked at them with a very stern look on his face.
“Let the man choose for himself! We have all made our decisions on our own, let him make his.” He then turned to smile gently at Bruce. “Take your time my friend, there is no rush.” Bruce smiled gratefully at him before turning back to the buttons and took a shaky breath.
‘Okay, time to make a choice here, Banner. Adventure or camp? Risk or safety? What will it be?’ He swallowed thickly and let his finger hover over the green button, then the red one and then back to green.
He started to go over the pros and cons of each choice in his head again, when he heard Clint mutter under his breath, either talking to Tony and Thor or just talking to himself.
“Figures. He’s a nerd, he doesn’t have the guts.” And Bruce immediately felt his anger boil up, like flicking on a switch and he glared over his shoulder at Clint before, completely without thinking for another second, pressed his finger down on one of the buttons without looking at which one it was.
But before anyone could hear any of sounds from the buttons or say anything, the ship’s lights suddenly started to flicker over by the control panel, loud alarms blared out from speakers and a slightly louder robotic voice spoke from the computer.
‘Asteroid Warning. Asteroid Warning.’
Everyone whipped around the look at the big window beside them and a big, fiery red asteroid was heading towards them at an alarming rate. Tony and Bruce ran towards the controls and looked over the controls.
“Come on, we need to try and get out of the way!” Tony yelled to be heard over the alarms and the robotic voice that kept repeating ‘Asteroid Warning’ over and over again. Bruce looked from the screens, to the levers and buttons and then out the window at the big asteroid. He sat down in one of the chairs in front of one of the screens and started tapping. The others came running up and Natasha clutched the back of Bruce’s seat tightly.
“What are you doing?” He looked over his shoulder at her for one second before looking back at the computer screen, frantically tapping at the keyboard.
“I’m trying to figure out if this computer can tell us what to do!” Tony glared at him from the middle chair, clutching something that looked like a big joystick.
“We can’t just go through everything in that computer in just a few seconds! We need to act, like yesterday!” Steve leaned over Tony’s shoulder and pointed at the joystick.
“That thing! It’s probably how you steer the ship, with that! Pull on it!” Tony was tugging on the joystick in every direction possible and his eyes flickered over from the asteroid right outside the window and then back to the stick.
“I can’t! It’s stuck, I can’t do anything with it!” Thor came to them with a big, thick book in his hands, flickering through the pages.
“I believe I have found a manual of sorts! Perhaps the answers on how to steer the ship can be found in here!” Clint glared over him and almost slapped the book out of his hands.
“We can’t go through that whole fucking book in less than a minute! There’s just no time, we need to act!” He flew over to Tony’s other side and looked over the joystick, while Tony was still tugging on the thing like a madman.
‘Asteroid Warning. Asteroid Warning.’
“Yes, we fucking get it!” Natasha snarled at the computer before turning back to Bruce and his typing. Steve had placed his hand on Tony’s shoulder and was shaking him wildly.
“Stark, anytime now!” Tony placed both hands around the stick and tugged, when Clint suddenly found a button on the joystick’s side and pushed it to the right, and suddenly the ship jerked wildly to the left and they all fell the floor around the control panel but that asteroid thankfully did not hit the ship. The alarms became silent, the lights came back on and the ship kept flying forward like nothing had happened.
It took about a minute for them all to collect themselves and calm down before they slowly got back up on their feet and looked between each other. Tony and Clint looked at each other, very stunned and still breathing heavily before grinning widely to each other.
“Nice moves, Stark!” Clint raised his hand for Tony to smack, which Tony quickly responded with a hard smack.
“Nice moves, Barton!” Bruce leaned most of his weight on the control panel, looking with wide-open eyes and his glasses hanging from one ear.
“H-How did you know which button to push?” Clint shrugged and shook his head, his expression still looking very high on the adrenaline from the encounter.
“I don’t know. But it looked to be connected to that steering thing, so I just… acted.” Tony snorted and Thor came up them, slapping them both hard on their backs, so hard that they almost fell to the ground again.
“An excellent course of action my friends! You have saved all of our lives with this move, friend Clint. And friend Tony, your steering was quite impressive as well!” Tony and Clint both stumbled from the force from the slaps on their backs and blushed a little from the compliments, but Natasha just grumbled as she brushed her now very tousled hair out of her face and straightened out her clothes.
“Yeah, great driving skills you got there, Stark.” She pulled the hair tie out of her hair and let her long red locks fall over her shoulders and back, rolling her eyes as she combed through her hair with her fingers. “Guys behind the wheel…”
Steve also grumbled a little as he glared over at Tony. “Yeah, maybe next time you could try to not to get our heads cracked open on the floor?” Tony sneered at her and folded his arms over chest.
“Well, I didn’t see you come with any bright ideas or initiatives Rogers, so maybe you should just-“ Then the lights went off again and they turned to look back at the podium as the screen appeared. Steve turned to Bruce, now looking very concerned.
“What button did you push, anyway?” Bruce paled a little as he realized he hadn’t actually looked at which button he had pressed and didn’t know what he had voted for, but before he could answer The Watcher appeared on the screen again.