This is a sequel to my previous crossover called Clashing with Legends so I'd recommend you read it first. This fic takes place after Iron Man 3 and Thor: the Dark World but before Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The films happening before that one will possibly be referenced and spoilered. There will be some important notes after the chapter so read them if you want to help me find more villains for the story.
1. Unrest
Leaves were disturbed from their gentle falling by a gust of wind that sent them tumbling all over the place. It wasn't a friendly sort of wind. It was unforgiving, cold, and angry. Not the sort of breeze to bask in or have a good, calming conversation with. The leaves hit the ground far away from their tree and were almost immediately coated crisp with frost. As soon as it formed, it melted when the temperature went up again, indecisive of whether to be lingering summer or upcoming winter. It was early October, a time when such a thing was not unheard of, but this time it carried an unease that sent animals into hiding in fear of things to come. An unease that swept across lands and did not go unnoticed by anyone with senses sharp enough. Or those with something to sense for them.
Meteorologists all over the world were baffled by the freak weather patterns. Storms and hurricanes shook the coasts even worse than usual, while in some areas people were suffering heatstrokes because of sudden extreme heat waves that had no business in the area at this time. It was as if the weather itself was having a temper tantrum. Some said it was the Apocalypse, some said it was global warming. Some denied either of them ever happening. Some said nothing and just tried to keep living their lives as if nothing was happening. Some really didn't notice anything odd. Some searched for the source, perplexed and without knowing what to look for. And the very few who did know were even more perplexed.
A sudden storm in the middle of Siberia went mostly unnoticed. It was in a fairly empty area, and people were more concerned when the freak weather hit the cities. The storm tore down ancient trees and lightning bolts struck so frequently that for a moment the air was filled with an unbroken stream of rumble that really did sound like some sort of end of the world. Then it was over. So quickly that the forest was left in eerie silence and even the hardiest of bears stayed cowering in their hiding places for hours after the storm had passed.
Bare feet touched one of the broken, fallen trees and frost coated the trunk immediately, almost gently as if soothing it after it had been torn down and burned. The feet continued on through the biggest clearing left by the storm and stopped in the middle. It was far too silent. The forest felt afraid. As it should be. Storms happened, and it was normal, but these storms were fuelled by emotions. A temper tantrum could really have been a good way of describing it, but as Jack Frost realized when he inspected the cowering clearing, the storm itself was fuelled more by apprehension than anger.
It wasn't right. This had to be her doing. And she didn't get apprehensive without a very good reason. Jack sighed and ran a hand through his snowy white hair. They needed to find her, but she was aggravatingly fast. She hadn't been here long ago, but Jack had just missed her.
"Come on, Wind," he said quietly, mostly just so that the silence was broken for a while.
He hoped Sandy had better luck than him.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters were never quiet. There were so many things the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division needed to keep tabs on that it could never take a break. They too were interested in the storms, among other things. At first they had paid no attention to them, but then their energy scanners had picked up something that made them immediately interesting. They had seen this kind of energy before, in an incident S.H.I.E.L.D.'s leader Nicholas Fury didn't remember very fondly. The energy was like what the spirits known as the Guardians generated all the time, but it was all over the place. It was never still enough for them to get a good enough reading of it. And it was just a bit too different. Perhaps it wasn't the Guardians after all. But then, who or what was it?
Fury sat down in his current office. It was in one of their headquarters in Canada, and it wasn't really one of his most well-equipped offices, but it was the closest to where the most recent freak weather patterns had occurred. Fury adjusted his eye patch and frowned at the screen that was filled with a cluster of opened files. Videos, graphs, 3D-models... all trying to illustrate something they couldn't really see. Something that could end up being just really weird weather. Then again, Fury's instincts told him that it would not. As if they didn't have other things to worry about now. Building new Helicarriers, keeping terrorist groups like HYDRA down, Project Insight... they didn't really need to add weather forecasts to the mix.
His gaze strayed to the phone he had on his desk. It was just one of the cell phones he owned and used. This one was sleek and silver-coloured and couldn't be used for calling. It only had one function, and that was sending one-way text messages to only one number. It was a number Fury had never thought he would need to add to his contact lists, but there it was. Had been since the Christmas after the Guardian incident. He had never used it, even though it had come with clear instructions that Fury had burned after he had memorized them. Now he was seriously considering using it. If the Guardians were involved... if it was going to concern them all... Fury didn't want a repeat of the last time. He picked the phone up but then put it back down. They had managed to coexist without coming into contact for some time now, and that was just fine by Fury. The Guardians and S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't parted in the best of terms. He would double-check things and make sure, then he would contact them, he decided. He turned back to his screen. It was going to be a long night.
Tony Stark looked at Bruce Banner over a plate of shawarma. It was weird, Tony mused, how the most random things could become sort of constant. The shawarma-thing had started after the Chitauri attack, and Bruce and Tony's get-togethers had started a bit later. Maybe it had been because Tony had needed someone to talk to during his worst times. When his post-traumatic stress had become too bad to bear and he had just been a crazy, obsessed Iron Man -suit fetishist. When he had walked through some form of hell and almost lost everything he held dear and in the end realized he didn't need the Iron Man -suit to be Iron Man. Even though Tony felt like he had come to a point in his life where he could start calling that terrible time "the past", some things had stuck. Like Bruce, who had gone from a sort of amateur therapist who couldn't even stay awake during the talks Tony had practically forced on him to just a friend. That one Tony didn't mind at all. Now a simple talk among friends, away from Tony's tower or Bruce's place was a welcome break every now and then.
"You know, I never thought I could like this stuff so much," Tony remarked and lifted the shawarma roll slightly, "And I think this place has been packed ever since we ate here the first time. With all the Avengers assembled, remember that?"
Bruce looked around as if only now noticing that the place didn't have any empty tables left.
"This is pretty good," he admitted and took a bite of his food, "So, in a... in a nutshell, how have you been lately? Everything good with Pepper?"
"Yep," Tony said proudly, "She's recovered and we're doing well. This sort of retirement was something that back in the day didn't seem like an option, but now it's like... I was supposed to do it all this time."
Bruce nodded.
"And Pepper's been happy lately too," Tony went on, "Really busy, but happy. I've been thinking of taking her for a vacation one of these days. Soon, hopefully, just the two of us. You know, normal couple stuff after all that crap we've been through. How about you? No green giant episodes? Nothing else weird?"
"I'm doing fine," Bruce said curtly, "The weather's been a little strange, though."
Tony slapped his hand lightly on the table.
"Oh, come on! Don't tell me that we've become two guys with genius level IQs who get together to talk about weather! That's one of the most boring subject ever."
"It isn't if it's strange. Or if you analyse it."
"Okay, a fair point. Actually now that you mention it, I picked up some weird readings back in the tower and I think it has something to do with that."
Bruce raised a brow.
"Really? What kind of readings?"
Tony looked around in the packed shawarma joint. The people were minding their own business, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were sharing their lunch-eating space with a doctor who could turn into a giant green man when angry and a billionaire genius who not too long ago had been flying around in a metal suit and saving people. Still, it never hurt to be cautious. Even if Tony figured that he could probably get away with talking crazy stuff. He was still recovering from PTSD, after all.
"It's... uh... Guardian-readings," Tony finally said in a low voice, "But we can talk about that later. I don't have much at the moment."
Bruce's eyes widened.
"What?" he whispered.
"Exactly. So... yeah. Weather. Weird stuff, huh?"
As if Tony's words had served as a sort of ill omen, golf ball sized hailstones started falling from the sky, sending even more people into the already full restaurant to seek shelter.
They waited. It wasn't a very comfortable wait. The silence was awkward and in a room that was usually meant for strategic meetings it felt especially poignant. But this was a strategic meeting, right? They were waiting for intelligence they required to actually plan their next steps. Fury had sent a message to a certain number almost an hour ago, and they didn't really know how long it took for the message to reach the Guardians. Or even if they would respond at all. It was frustrating. Very frustrating. But then again, it was the smartest way of going with it as far as they could see. The last time they had barged into a situation like this they had almost ended up in a war with holiday mascots.
Steven Rogers sat in a corner and tried to pass the time by studying the others in the room. The meeting was very small. Fury, agents Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton were in the room with him. Hill was in her place next to Fury, ready to operate one of the many computers in the room. Clint watched the room warily as if expecting one of the Guardians was already there and just hiding in a corner somewhere. Natasha sat next to Steve, and was too focused on waiting to have a conversation, which Steve kind of regretted. He and Natasha had been to a couple of missions together lately, and they had formed what Steve could call friendship. It was always a nice feeling, to have someone to count on. Steve knew everyone thought of him as a nice guy and usually got along okay with him, but in many cases it was more like admiration and politeness. Real friends made Steve feel more like at home. Like he wasn't a super soldier who had been frozen for almost seventy years and then woken up in a world that had gone so much forward without him that he might as well have woken up on a different planet.
No one else had been told of the meeting. They had all agreed to keep any possible contacts to the Guardians as much a secret as possible. It would just raise too many uncomfortable questions otherwise. And wreck their image as a serious organization. Still, Steve hoped the rest of the Avengers wouldn't mind being left out of the loop at the moment. Although to be fair, at least Tony would probably find some way to get wind of this before he was officially told. Steve was fairly sure of it.
The wait ended when a hole opened up in floor in the middle meeting room. Clint tensed just a bit and Fury raised a brow. When a tall, grey rabbit hopped out of the hole, Steve concluded that Fury's message had really reached the Guardians. And they had responded very personally. The Easter Bunny, Bunnymund, stood in the middle of the high tech meeting room and surveyed the people present with a calculating stare that was just distrusting enough to not make anyone comfortable. Without the stare the Easter Bunny might have looked very comical in such an environment, especially when he seemed to be holding a colourful box of chocolates under his arm and there were goggles resting on his forehead. Bunnymund's sweeping stare stopped at the sight of Fury, and he let out a sigh.
"G'day," the bunny said, and it was the least cheery "G'day" Steve had ever heard in his life.
Steve remembered that he had been invited primarily because he was the most friendly with the Guardians out of the Avengers and stood up to respectfully shake Bunnymund's hand... paw.
"Good to see you again, Mr. Bunnymund," he said, as businesslike as one could be when talking to a bunny.
Bunnymund nodded. The hole in the middle of the room closed up as if as an afterthought.
"Glad to see some of you have manners."
"It's good that you responded," Fury said, "There's an urgent matter we need the Guardians' opinion on before we act."
Bunnymund crossed his arms.
"Oh? What would be so important that you need our opinion on it? We've told you your work isn't exactly up our alley. Out with it, and make it quick. I need to get these recipes done by tonight. Ya're lucky I'm in a good mood or I wouldn't even be here. Chocolate?"
It was all said so fast that it took Steve a while to process it. Then he realized the last part was addressed directly to him.
"Um... yes, please," he managed to say when no one else said anything.
Bunnymund regarded Steve appraisingly again. In the background Fury was getting annoyed. Steve could tell it mostly by the man's intensified glare. Otherwise the man looked as professional as ever.
"Ah. Gotcha," Bunnymund said, carefully picked out a beautifully shaped piece of confectionery from his box and handed it to Steve, "Very fine milk chocolate with vanilla and just a bit of blueberry and raspberry in the filling. Okay then, business."
Bunnymund spun around to look at Fury. It was the most bizarre meeting Steve remembered them ever having in the room. Bunnymund seemed so far removed from the killer rabbit persona he exhibited on the battlefield. If it wasn't for the "Don't mess with me" -stare and the familiar Australian accent, Steve would have thought they had got the wrong Easter Bunny.
"The business," Fury said with a slightly impatient edge to his voice, "is this."
He motioned for Hill to bring up a few better screens on their weather pattern analyses. They were projected into the air in three dimensions.
"I don't know if you have noticed the strange shifts in weather all over the Northern hemisphere recently."
Bunnymund looked suddenly very interested.
"Yeah, we've noticed," he said warily, "What's it to you?"
Fury brought up more visuals, this time of energy readings Steve had already seen dozens of times.
"This," Fury simply said.
Bunnymund tilted his head.
"What am I supposed to be lookin' at?"
Fury pointed to the nearest energy reading.
"Energy. Similar but a bit different to what we used to track your group the last time we crossed paths. At first we thought your Frost was acting up, but this is too different. This one isn't any of yours, is it? We need to make sure before we start taking any precautions."
"Make sure?" Bunnymund repeated, "Well, that's an improvement. Or did you already kidnap the source before you contacted us?"
Fury deliberately ignored the comment.
"Do you know what the source is?" he just asked.
Bunnymund looked thoughtful. Steve took a bite of the chocolate before it melted in his hand. His taste buds started immediately doing a happy dance.
"Yes," Bunnymund finally said.
"This is the best chocolate I've ever tasted!" Steve blurted out.
There was a pressing silence when Fury looked very pointedly at Steve, who tried very hard not to blush in embarrassment. Bunnymund, however, looked pleased.
"Of course it is," he said smugly, "I don't usually just hand 'em out like that, but like I said, I'm in a good mood. And it's good to find some test subjects for the latest batch."
"What is the source?" Fury repeated.
Bunnymund looked at the readings again.
"Someone who doesn't usually do this," he said, "Don't worry. She's not... wicked. Kind of above all that nonsense, really. We have Frostbite and Sandy on the case. They're tracking her down as we speak. We think a good talk will straighten things right out."
"Her?" Natasha asked, "Who exactly is she?"
Bunnymund sighed.
"Ya're not going to leave this be without too many answers, are ya? You humans are always too bloody curious for your own good. Not that it matters. Ya won't be able to find her if she doesn't want to be found."
He sighed.
"She's Mother Nature."
Silence again. Fury massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Do we have to start assuming every possible fairytale character will start acting up at some point?"
Bunnymund snorted.
"Ya've dealt with magic before. Don't be too surprised. Some people ya're friends withcould be called fairy tales. Just because you can explain weather doesn't mean there can't be someone behind it."
"So what should we do about her?" Steve asked.
"Nothing. And I mean it so ya'd better believe it this time. We'll straighten this out. Just focus on warning people of the nasty weather, if that feels like your thing.
"Where is she now?" Fury crossed his arms.
"We don't know yet," Bunnymund admitted, "But we're looking, and you can bet we'll find her soon. Now was that all? 'Cause I need to go back to my chocolates. It's only five months 'till Easter."
He looked almost challengingly at everyone in the room. Fury slowly shook his head.
"That's all. Thank you for your time."
"No worries," Bunnymund said and thumped his foot on the floor. The hole opened up again, swallowing up Bunnymund and the box of the best chocolates in the world. Fury shook his head again, this time a bit more determinedly than before. He signalled Hill to switch off the screens.
"We'll continue keeping an eye on this. Now we have an idea of what we're looking for."
"Bunnymund did say that they are on it," Steve pointed out.
"I know," Fury said, "But we have to make sure this doesn't become our business as well. Barton, Romanoff, Rogers, you're dismissed, but stay alert. Hill, you come with me. We still have a lot to do, and I need to take a call from Pentagon."
They stood up to leave the meeting room. On the way outside, Natasha crouched down to pick a flower from where it had inexplicably grown through the seams of the polished floor tiles. She pocketed it and Steve could only assume it would end up somewhere where flowers occurred naturally. No need to leave evidence of the Easter Bunny's visit to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s highly guarded facilities.
Author's Note: So some time ago I wrote a thing called Clashing with Legends and quite a lot of people enjoyed it. A lot of you have asked me to write a sequel to that, and I have answered to everyone who have asked that I would not write a sequel in more or less certain words. Now first of all I have to say that I am very sincerely, deeply sorry for that, because as you can see, I'm back (and I'm extra-special sorry if I didn't answer your questions; I really try to answer every review that asks me something and most of the others as well to the best of my ability and time). I really didn't plan on writing this but then lately these ideas started buzzing and growing in my head and I guess the weather has been so unbearably hot these last few weeks that my brain melted and I typed this. So here we are, and I'm kind of excited by this brain-melt-induced sequel idea.
Okay, now an important thing: I have some ideas of how this will play out but there is not a very set chain of events in my mind yet like I had when writing the first crossover, so updates won't probably be as frequent. Second and most important: I NEED A VILLAIN! Or at least one more villain; I have some in mind. I am going with Avengers-villains this time so if there's someone from the Avengers -comics you'd like to see going against the film!Avengers and the Guardians then tell me! I might make that wish come through and get help shaping my story. I would prefer to find a tech/schience-based villain from Earth to go with the ones I already have in mind. Now you need to realize that I have never read a single Marvel comic book as far as I know and one might say that writing fanfics while taking elements from something I haven't read is a terrible idea and I tend to agree with that. I have done a lot of research already and I will be doing more but I know, it isn't the same. So if you think that I shouldn't be writing this at all or if I'm writing someone/something horribly, terribly wrong, TELL ME AND I WILL BE VERY GRATEFUL! I will do my best to fix my mistakes. If this whole thing will become unfixable, I'll just scrap this and we'll still have that other crossover story by me that people seemed to like so... yeah. All other feedback is also very, very welcome.
All right, I'm ready for a possible train wreck of a fic and I'm trying to make it not train-wrecky to the best of my abilities. I hope I'll manage to entertain at least someone. :)