Chapter One: Tony Stark

Tony blinked in surprise and broke out of his grumpy reverie at having all the Avengers coming to his tower when he looked up from his drink to see the sky clouded over and releasing pristine white snow. "That's not a common occurrence." He observed.

"Perhaps it is Jokul Frosti." A deep voice suggested.

Tony turned to see Thor Odinson looking out the window, arms crossed. "Jo-who?" Tony inquired incredulously. "He one of your Asgardians?"

Thor shook his head. "Nay, that is simply our name for him. I do believe the mortals here call him Jack Frost." He replied, gaze still fixed on the scene outside.

Tony nodded slowly. "Right. That clears it up to about the density of mud. Who is this Jack Frost?" He asked. "Why doesn't SHIELD have a bead on him?"

Thor raised an eyebrow as he turned his head to give Tony a look. "Have you been in the archives again?" He inquired, adopting a tone not unlike one used to scold a child.

"Is it a problem if I have been?" Tony answered unashamedly, swirling his drink. "Are you dodging my question?"

Thor sighed and shook his head. "Joku-Jack Frost is a spiritual entity invisible to those who do not believe that he exists. He brings the winter, and brings fun and snow days to children." He looked like he might say more, but decided against it and looked out the window.

"Sounds like a lovely fellow." Tony mused, deciding to ferret out more information later. "And just how old is this man? Sorry, spirit?"

Thor laughed, long and loud. "Man? Nay. Jack Frost is a teenager, perhaps around seventeen years of age. He has, however, been around for over three hundred years."

Tony opened and closed his mouth a few times before any sound came out. "What, did he take a short swim in the Fountain of Youth?"

Thor smirked, though not in a very pleasant manner. "In a way. It was more a prolonged swim in a local lake when he fell through the ice."

Tony nodded. "This guy is getting more and more interesting." He mumbled into his drink.

"Sir." JARVIS said over a speaker. "Mr. Barton and Miss Romanoff are in the elevator."

"Well, I'm not in. Tell them to leave." Tony ordered right as the elevator slid open to admit the two agents. "Security breach!" He announced to nobody in general.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Nice. Well, you and Thor seem to be chatting amicably for once. Mind elaborating?"

"Oh, yes, we were talking about a mythical entity called Jack Frost that seems to be giving all the children in New York a snow day." Tony replied as he went to refill his drink. "Drinks, anyone? I'm having one."

He then looked up to see a boy, with a shock of pure white hair and carrying a strange staff, land delicately on the railing outside the windows. Thor made a small, involuntary movement of surprise. Natasha and Clint gave them both weird looks.

"Looking at something?" Clint asked.

Tony pointed at the boy, whose back was turned. "The magic kid that just came outta nowhere."

Clint shook his head slowly, and Natasha gave Tony an appraising look. "I see nothing." She told Stark slowly. "How many drinks have you had today?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "JARVIS!" He called, conveniently dodging the drink question, "Is there someone out there?"

"My sensors say that there is, though the thermal readings are quite strange, as if the person is emanating cold instead of normal bodily heat. Shall I put a thermal image on the window?"

"Yes, do that." Stark agreed, and watched Clint and Natasha blink in surprise as the shape of the strange boy appeared, large as life and blue, on the window. Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner chose that moment to arrive unannounced by JARVIS and blink at the silhouette.

"Is that suppose to be someone?" Bruce inquired, pointing a pen at the image.

"Jack Frost." Thor replied. "Shall we make contact?"

Tony blinked at Thor. "Ah, why not. He's on my tower, after all."

As Tony turned, he heard Thor comment, "Ah, Jack Frost cares little for property ownership. Unless it happens to be his property."

"Sounds like a few people I know." Tony mused as the door hissed open soundlessly.

"You?" Steve suggested as he followed everyone else out.

"Well, obviously." Tony retorted before walking onto the balcony near the boy. "Can I help you?"

The boy leapt into the air, startled, before landing on the railing again, facing the group with his staff coming up defensively.

"You...you can see me?" The boy demanded incredulously in a surprisingly deep voice.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Nah, I was talking to the other albino."

The boy tilted his head. "Al-what?" He then shrugged and studied the other Avengers. "So, who are you guys anyways?"

Tony stared. "Uh, the Avengers? The big shots of the nation? What are you, an idiot?"

The boy smirked. "Uh-pparently." He replied. "So this your place?"

Tony shook his head, waving his hands. "Oh, no. No. My place, yes. More questions, no. You answer what I ask."

The boy grinned. "We'll see."

Tony figured he might as well play dumb and asked, "Who are you?"

"Jack Frost." The boy replied, a confused expression flitting across his face. His grin came back with his next question, "Hey, you sure that all your buddies can see me and don't think that you're absolutely bonkers and talking to thin air?"

"I said no more...uhhh..." Tony started to snap, then turned to see Steve and Natasha looking about ready to ship him off to an asylum. "How do you two not see him?" Tony demanded indignantly.

"See who?" Steve demanded in a horrible imitation of Tony's recent tone.

"Jack Frost." Thor replied.

Steve blinked. "Oh..." It was glaringly obvious to Tony how much more stock the Capsicle put in Thor's words rather than in his.

Jack cleared his throat. "So, the interrogation done now, or do you have more questions?" He asked, placing his staff on one shoulder and draping that arm over it to hold the staff in place.

Tony glared. "Yeah. Why are you here?"

Jack shrugged. "It's harder than it looks to dodge around all these buildings using nothing but the wind. I was taking a break on the nearest tall building with an open balcony."

"Wind?" Tony laughed. "Come on, nobody can..." He trailed off as Jack's eyes flashed defiantly and he swung his staff, causing wind to whistle around the Avengers before Jack rocketed into the air. Jack grinned, hovering easily before he loosened his grip on his staff and the wind stopped, depositing Jack gently on the balcony floor.

"Yup." Jack replied, leaning against his staff. "Wind. How else would someone without wings fly solo?"

"An iron suit." Tony shot back.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Now that, I gotta see." He smirked at the rest of them. "So, what, are you guys like, superhumans?"

"Some of us are not human at all." Thor rumbled. "Though your guess is mostly accurate."

Natasha sighed. "You too?"

Jack's face donned a smirk that Tony knew well. "So how is she rationalising the wind just now?" He inquired curiously, standing fully upright.

"Dunno, how about something a little more drastic?" Tony replied.

Jack looked at him for a long second, then snickered. "I think we'll get along well."

Natasha, meanwhile, was glaring at Tony. "Drastic? What-" She then blinked as snowflakes appeared overhead, seeming to pop right of Stark Tower itself. "I assume that's not normal."

"It's Jack Frost, he's a winter spirit." Bruce supplied.

Natasha blinked at him, then seemed to decide that surely Tony couldn't have roped both Thor and Bruce, the two more level-headed on the team, into a strange prank like this.

Tony smiled as Natasha looked back towards Jack, her jaw opening slightly. "Oh."

Jack smiled widely. "Hey, not bad for adults! So...this is all well and good, but am I in trouble or something?" He asked. "This seems a little grand for just a small chat."

"Suspicious, are we?" Steve inquired.

Jack stuck his tongue out. "The last little chat I had ended up with me being stuffed in a sack and tossed through a magic portal." He defended himself.

"That's a story I have to hear." Tony decided. He then furrowed his eyebrows when Jack suddenly looked up at the roof, a sheepish look blooming on his face.

Tony looked up, but saw nobody. "Who're you looking at, kid?"

Jack hesitated, then shrugged. "The Easter Bunny."

Natasha snorted. "So now the Easter Bunny's real?"

Jack grinned. "Oh, he's real all right. Real annoying, real grumpy, and real full of himself." He then yelped and dove to the side as something clanged against the banister the he had been standing in front of seconds before.

Tony thought that the object looked like oddly a boomerang before it suddenly vanished from sight. Well, that was proof enough for him. The next moment, a six-foot rabbit seemingly popped into existence, holding the boomerang threateningly.

"What was that, ya gumby?" The bunny snapped irritably.

"Ok." Tony sighed. "Easter Bunny has an Australian accent. Cool. What's next, a Chinese Santa?"

Jack snorted. "Russian, actually."

"Wait." Steve muttered. "All those guys are real?"

Jack nodded. "Yup. And most likely mad at me for something I did."

"Ya bet we are!" The rabbit snapped. "What were ya thinkin', spreadin' snow in New York?"

"I remember thinking that the children seemed happy." Jack replied with an innocent expression. "Besides, it's not like I made it snow in Africa or something, it is possible for snow to fall here. So, I made it snow. Whoop-dee-doo. So what's got your tail in a bunch?"

"I'll bunch you!" The rabbit roared, lifting his boomerang.

"Whoa, whoa." Tony protested. "Not on my tower, it just started looking brand-new after the last time it got beaten to pieces."

Jack looked up in interest. "Ooh! When was that?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Oh, when some crackpot guy called Loki decided it would be fun to try and take over the world by opening a portal in New York right above my tower and let an army of aliens through. No biggie."

Jack snickered. "Really, very similar to an experience I had a while back. The Boogeyman, a.k.a. the King of Nightmares, literally, decided to try and kill off the Guardians by causing all the children to stop believing in them. He almost succeeded, but we won."

Bruce looked at the rabbit in fascination. "So, I take it that the both of you have considerable power? I mean, we've seen some parlor tricks from you, Jack, but..."

The rabbit glared at Jack. "Ya did what?"

Jack smirked. "Oh, stuff like this." He relied, freezing the rabbit's feet to the ground. "Nothing big." He then ducked as the boomerang was thrown at him, diving to the side when the rabbit pulled out another boomerang and went on the attack. He flew up into the air, wary of the boomerangs circling back around.

"Hey, hey, I just said no fighting!" Tony protested. "This isn't funny!"

The rabbit scowled as it sheathed its boomerangs. "So who are ya, anyways?"

"They're the Avengers." Jack replied sweetly as he landed again.

"Recent knowledge for yourself." Steve pointed out.

Jack shrugged. "Well, yeah." He looked over at the rabbit. "So, do I need to go to the Pole or were you just irritable about the snow?"

The rabbit sighed. "Nah, North doesn't wanna see ya."

Jack grinned. "In that case..." He unfroze the rabbit's feet, then turned a hopeful gaze upon Tony. "So, could I get a tour since I'm here?"

Tony sighed. "Sure, what the heck, though not a tour. You can have a peek inside."

Jack let out a whoop. "Yeah!"

The Easter Bunny rolled his eyes. "Well, ya have fun with that. I'm headin' back to the Pole."

Jack wiggled his fingers as if shooing him off. "You've got aways to go then, I'd suggest you get going, Cottontail."

The Easter Bunny looked like he'd like to make a snappy remark but had then thought better of it and simply tapped his foot, opening a hole that he jumped down into. Tony blinked several times, but the hole had already closed, the only evidence that something had been there being a small flower popping up out of nowhere.

Tony turned to Jack. "Right. Why not. So, you wanted to see the inside?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yay, that actually took alot less time than I expected. For those of you who read my other story, don't expect to see much relation between the two. You have been warned.