Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started out simple enough, everyone was at the tower to celebrate Clint’s birthday; it had been Lara’s idea, she and the kids had even come out to New York to celebrate.
Everything was going smoothly when some plans hit a snag, Tony had waited until the last minute to tell everyone about his ‘gift’. He had reserved tickets for all the Avengers and Co. for a late night performance on Broadway.

“I don’t think that’s gonna work Tony. The kids can’t come with us and we just can’t leave them here alone.”

Tony looked over at Clint, “hold on there birthday boy, they won’t be alone, Jarvis will be here. Wont you J?”

“Undoubtedly, sir.” The beloved AI responded.

“See, problem solved, we leave the kiddo’s with J and we can go enjoy the fine talents of Broadway.”

Clint shook his head while his wife looked at the inventor like he’d lost his marbles.
“Tony, in no way would that work, OK it might if Cooper and Lila were a bit older and could take care of Nathaniel by themselves, but they are in no way ready for that.”

Steve was watching with mild amusement as Tony tried to salvage his plans and somehow get the “guest of honor” on board with his plan. He looked away to see the two oldest Barton children sitting in the living area of the common floor Cooper was deeply invested in something on a tablet while his sister was having a discussion with Thor. As for the youngest Barton, he had probably been snatched by his godmother Natasha at some point this morning.

When Steve turned back to the adults he made his own preferences known, “I’ll watch them.”

The other three adults turned to him with stunned expressions. Lara was first to recover, “Steve that’s very nice of you but-

“It’s not like I’d be missing out, I’ve seen the play twice already. Anyway I did watch children back when I was growing up and I’m sure that Cooper and Lila would be able to help me if needed.”

Clint looked from Steve to Lara and back, “you sure Cap? I mean they’re a bit of a handful when they want to be.”

Steve nodded, “you guys go out and enjoy yourselves and I’ll hold down the fort here.”

“It’s settled then, we’ll have dinner and cake here then change and go enjoy ourselves.” Tony said before anyone could object further.
Steve smiled, after all how hard could watching three kids be?

Everyone had a blast the rest of the day, a trip around New York for Lara and the kids, dinner out, then cake and ice-cream back at the tower. The show was to start 8:30 so the adults went to get ready right away.

“Steve, I want to thank you again, Clint and I haven’t had a proper night out in a long time.”

“It’s not a problem Lara. Besides You’ll love the play.” Steve saw that Lara had a piece of paper in her hand.

“Are those my orders for the night?” He asked gesturing to the paper, with a smile.

“Yes, they’re mostly for Nathaniel though he should sleep through the whole evening for you. There are also some ground rules for the older two. They’re bed time is at nine tonight since it’s Friday and a special occasion. Lila should fall asleep before that though, and Cooper is allowed to stay up and read just not on his tablet.” At this point Clint came in with the oldest kids.

“Yeah he’s addicted to the thing.” He said as he ruffled the boy’s hair.
“Dad! I’m not addicted I’ve just got a new game and I wanna finish it.” Cooper protested.
Clint laughed, “alright if you say so. Now you two are going to behave for Steve and do as he tells you; O.K.?”

“Yes Dad.” They answered in unison.

“Well then lets join the others down in the garage dear. Nathaniel is already asleep Cap and Jarvis will let you know if he wakes up.”

After they had left Cooper collapsed onto one of the many overstuffed couches in the rec-room and turned on his tablet, while Lila looked up at Steve questionably.

“Well Lila, looks like your brother is going to entertain himself for a while. Is there something special you’d like to do?” Steve asked.

Lila pondered this question before answering, “ Can we watch a movie”

Steve grinned, “Sure. Should we have popcorn with it?”

Lila nodded looking at Steve as if he’d handed her the moon.

“OK then, we’ll start the popcorn and then pick the movie. Which one do you want to watch most?”
Lila nodded again, “I wanna watch the blue planet one; it has all sorts of animals that live in the ocean and it shows you what they do and everything! Daddy and I were watching it downstairs while mommy got ready.” Steve nodded and they went to make popcorn.

Lila and Steve watched the ocean documentary which she fell asleep in the middle of, while Cooper played his game.
It was only 30 minutes from bed time for the kids and Steve had placed Lila in her room, checked on Nathaniel and cleaned up the spilled popcorn.
All the while Cooper was still engrossed in his game, occasionally flinching or gasping were all Steve got out of the boy until he gave the 30 minute warning.

“I was about to quit anyway. I’m at the hard part of the game and I can’t level up.”

Steve was a bit puzzled at this, he had been exposed to few video games and most had been rather simplistic. Thus boring to Steve and quelling his interest in the commodity.

“What are you playing?”

“Five nights at Freddie’s. It’s a cool point and click game that came out last summer. You can play it on the computer too, but mom doesn’t want us downloading stuff from the internet so I bought it for my tablet.”

Steve nodded, he had already learned the lesson of downloading things off the internet. Tony wasn’t about to let him forget it either.

“What’s the game about? Is it like that game with all the blocks?”

Coopers face scrunched up in confusion, “do you mean Minecraft?”

“I think that was what Sgt. Rhodes called it.”

“No Minecraft and Five nights at Freddie’s are very different. Here let me show you.” Cooper offers his tablet to Steve and slides closer to him on the couch.

Steve looks down at the screen where a main menu with a friendly looking bear is displayed prominently.

“OK, I’ll let you play the game and explain it as it goes. The only way to understand the game is to watch it be played or to play it. So go ahead and tap the new game.”

Steve does and the screen switches to a loading screen before showing a newspaper want add.
Its not long before Steve gets into the game and starts enjoying it, jump scares and all.

When Foxy kills him for the 5th time on night 3 Steve laughs, and looks up at the clock, it was ten ‘till 11.

“Well Cooper you’d better get to bed before your parents get home, I think we’re lucky they haven’t come home and caught us yet.”

Cooper laughed, “I won’t tell if you don’t, besides when mom has her girls night out at home Dad usually lets us stay up late ‘by accident’.”

Steve joined in on Coopers laughter, “Thanks for showing me the game its cool.”

“Sure,” he yawned “good night.”

Steve smiled as Cooper headed off to bed his mind still on the game they’d been playing.

Clint and Lara returned and Steve took himself off to bed. That night his dreams are filled with animatronics chasing him trying to eat him.

Steve is grumpy the next morning and stays on his floor to spare everyone his sour mood. (yes Stark even Captain America gets bad moods.)
Steve uses this time to surf the internet and eventually googles Five nights at Freddie’s. He finds the best site –it had a 5 star rating from his anti-virus software- to get the game from and buys it. Steve spends the whole day playing, and gets to night 5 before he decides to take a long break. After a workout with Scarlet Which and Quicksilver he sits down with food and finishes the game.

It is only after he completes the game and decides to give a rating on the site that he bought the game through that he finds the other two games in the franchise and buys them too.
He enjoys the games so much that a plan begins to form.

Steve picks up his phone, there are two people he’ll need help from to pull this off.
“Pepper? It’s Steve, I was wondering if you would be able to meet me to discuss something.” A grin spreads across the super solders face. “I’ll see you in ten. Oh and bring Darcy. We’ll need her help too.” Steve ended the call and leaned back in his chair. ‘This is going to be so fun.’

Pepper Pots stared at Steve, she honestly couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She wasn’t surprised that he had played a computer game, but the fact that he had come up with an elaborate scheme to get the other avengers to play this game too was almost beyond her comprehension. Almost; she’d been Tony Stark’s personal assistant for years.
Darcy on the other had had no problem accepting this side of Captain America.

“Dude, that’s a great idea. But you know what would take this to the next level? Video. Record the others reactions and put them all together, then after everyone has played show it to them.”

Pepper looked at Darcy, the towers Avengers Wrangler, yes that was what she had to put down as her official title, Tony had insisted.

“Do you think that’ll go over well?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, and I’ll even help you edit the video and make it look great so that Tony won’t say anything about your tech skills. Which have improved dramatically if you played all three of those games.”

Pepper sighed, “alright but how are we going to pull this off? It’s not like you can have the element of surprise that you want if everyone is talking about their experience playing the game.”

Steve’s brow furrowed, he looked at Darcy and back at Pepper. “Maybe issue it like a challenge, ‘Beat Captain America’s time, win a prize’? I know that’ll get most of the team to play, at the end tell them about the video and ask them to take a ‘vow of silence’ until I get the video made?”

Pepper tilted her head in consideration, “that might work, but you can’t have Tony play first.”

“Yeah,” Darcy chimed in, “he’d tell everyone and then where would we be?”

Steve nodded, “I didn’t want him to be first anyway. I was thinking to ask Thor or maybe Dr. Banner.”

They were still discussing the logistics of how to make the video evidence work when a punchy Doctor walked into the common area.

Pepper looked at Bruce out of the corner of her eye, he looked as if a huge weight had been lifted and he didn’t look that way very often.

Bruce glanced at the group and headed towards the kitchen. Pepper decides it’s now or never and motions to Steve, “Well here is your first contender.”

Steve turns and the shenanigans begin.

Chapter Text

How on earth had he gotten himself talked into this, Bruce wonders for what might be the millionth time as he punched the ‘Mute Call’ button on the screen. He did not need to hear that phone guy again.

Bruce had only wanted some peace and quiet while he waited for the tests he was running to finish; he had innocently gone to the communal floor to have some tea and maybe nod off while reading a book knowing that Jarvis would alert him when the tests were finished. But, like so many things in his life, things didn’t go according to plan. When he’d reached the communal floor Steve, Pepper and Darcy were in what appeared to be a deep discussion; not wanting to distract them he’d made an attempt to quietly enter the kitchen when Steve spotted him.

“Hey Bruce, are you done ‘sciencing’ for the night?” Steve had asked, with a deceptively innocent expression on his face.

“As of now I’m waiting on some test results. Jarvis will let me know when they finish.”

Steve’s face had lit up and his smile had widened. (The smile of a wolf, Bruce now thinks as he flashes the flashlight at the stupid mechanical fox in the hall.)

“Well then, how would you like to play a game I found on the computer? I honestly can’t believe how amazing it is.”

Bruce had furrowed his brow, Steve finding ‘new’ things was not unusual but there was something that seemed a bit off in the way he was presenting this game.

“What kind of game is it?” He’d asked, he also noted the look that Pepper and Darcy shared; as if they knew something he hadn’t. That should have set off all his warning bells, but he’d been living in relative safety for too long for those warning signals to be prominent.

Steve’s smile had widened further, “It’s a computer game, I think they call it a point and click game; It’s called ‘Five Nights at Freddie’s’.

And that is how Robert Bruce Banner came to be sucked into the game called ‘Five Nights at Freddie’s’. He would admit to enjoying the first game on a level though it had seemed somewhat childish after a point and not scary after he’d experienced all the jump scares, the story plot seemed a bit dark for Steve (of all people) to enjoy. Even the ‘other guy’ had enjoyed Bruce playing the game. Although he did have to fight to keep ‘the other guy’ from smashing everything after he died 26 times on night 6.

But Bruce’s current annoyance came from the second installment of the franchise (that once again Steve had somehow roped him into playing.) in the form of a small child figure with balloons.
Bruce kept dying from this aptly named ‘Balloon Boy’ and it was always right before he finished the night. Bruce was so close this time, the music box was wound there was nothing in the vents or the hallway, when he heard that laugh.

“Oh. NO. You. DON’T! Not this time Balloon Baboon! I will not replay this night again so help me!” It was at that moment that the chimes rang pronouncing that the night had been completed. For Bruce he felt the weight that had settled in his chest at the sound of the ‘Balloon Boy’ lift. He had just completed ‘Five Nights at Freddie’s 2’ much to his relief. Bruce didn’t know how much more stress of this caliber he could handle without releasing ‘the other guy’.

“Dr. Banner?” The voice of Tony’s AI breached his scenes.

“Yes Jarvis.” Bruce answered weekly.

“Now that you seem to have a break; your test results are finished should you wish to review them, I could pull them up on Captain Rogers Computer if you like.”

Bruce slumped in the computer chair. He had literately spent hours playing a computer game and was exhausted.

“No, that won’t be necessary Jarvis, I’m going to my floor and I do not want to be disturbed unless there is an alien invasion or a fire.”

“Understood Dr. Banner.”

Bruce stood up from the chair and made his way to the elevator. As he did so he passed a sleeping Steve on his living room couch; he had been waiting for Bruce to finish the game. Bruce huffed in Steve’s direction and got in the elevator. If he had learned anything from this it was that underneath that golden boy smile and 40’s charm was a conniving mind, and a silver tongue.

Bruce slept for 48 hours off and on. His dreams were haunted by the sound of the ‘Balloon Boy’s’ laugh.

Chapter Text

After Steve had talked to Bruce about not discussing the game with the others and getting him on board with getting them to play all three games (honestly Bruce had no idea how Steve could coheres him to do these things.) he moved on to his next ‘victim’ as Darcy called them.
Thor was eating pop tarts in the kitchen and thinking about taking a nap on the deck when Steve entered the kitchen.

“Hello Captain, how are you faring this day of Suns?” He inquires.

“I’m doing well. Hey you know how we help each other out when we find new interesting things?”

Thor nods, he and the Captain have traded many a secret of Midgard in order not to seem foolish in front of the others.

“Well I’ve found a new game that is on the computer and I’ve been trying to get the other avengers to play it. Would you like to play?”

Thor who enjoyed being introduced to new fun things jumped at the opportunity to play “this game of Freddie’s.”
Unlike Bruce before him Thor was excited to play the game. He had asked that Darcy sit with him to assist him in not damaging Steve’s computer. She also made sure that the cameras were rolling as Thor started a new game.

When the phone guy started his mantra “Hello, hello”, Thor responds as if he is speaking to a living person,

“Hello Midgardian warrior! Will you be joining me on this quest of Freddie’s?”

But the Phone guy continued with his spiel, and surprisingly Thor understood it.

“Lady Darcy, am I correct in assuming that I must keep the powered devices on so that I do not succumb to death from these creatures?”

“That’s about the gist of it, Thor. But you need to check the cameras too.”

“Ahh, Then let us begin!”

Thor starts to click the camera feed, enjoying this aspect of Midgardian game play. When he first sees the animatronics he pauses and analyzes the creatures briefly.

“Lady Darcy, is that a duck?”

Darcy looks up from her phone and squints at the screen.

“Umm no; that’s a chicken Chicka the chicken, Freddy is the bear with the top hat, and Bonnie is the bunny.”

“Ah, well they don’t appear to be killers.”

“No offence Thor but you’re the last person I’d ask to decide if someone is harmless or not. Watch your power.”

Thor turned back to the computer monitor and took stock of what she had said. He also noted that the time was almost 6. Nothing was happening; he started to click through the cameras again when he spotted Bonnie.

“Ah there you are, look the bunny hath moved. You shall not vanquish me foul rabbit!”

Darcy looked between Thor and the screen, ‘the first night is always the easiest’ she thinks.

“NO! You stay out! You shall not enter this office.” Thor shouts after slamming the door down on Bonnie. Then it happened.

“Lady Darcy, I have vanquished night one! Listen to the children cheer for me!”

“Good job Thor.” Darcy congratulates before texting Steve; ‘Thor just beat night one, he’s moving on to night two. He’s having a great time.’

The phone on the monitor rings, and night two begins.

Later after Thor has finished the game he asks Darcy, "Pray tell me Lady Darcy, is there another game? As I quiet liked this one."
Darcy grins, "You betcha big guy."

Chapter Text

After Thor completes the third game and declares that there should be “another”, Steve must assure him that there is a fourth and final game being made and in exchange for his silence about the game to the others he promises to let him play the fourth game when he’s done with it.

It was during this conversation that Clint walked in on the pair. “Are you two talking about that game Cooper is addicted to?”

“Yep, he showed me how to play it when I baby sat your kids; I really liked the game so I bought the other games in the series.”

Clint shook his head, “Really Cap? There are so many good games out there and you get hooked on a kid’s game? I would have thought you would have better sense than that.”

“I wouldn’t call it a kid’s game exactly. It’s hard to explain without ruining the experience though.”

Clint gave a short laugh he could see where this was going, “No dice Cap, I’m not playing a game that my 12 year old thinks is “Cool”. It’s most likely to have a dumb cutesy plot and poor graphics.”

Steve sighed inwardly, he had known that getting Clint to play would be difficult; but he hadn’t anticipated how stubborn the man could be once he planted his feet.

Bruce had walked in as Clint was talking and glanced at Steve and Thor before deciding to stick his ore in (and why shouldn’t he, Barton had been annoying him for the last week.) “Are you talking about ‘Five nights at Freddie’s’?”

Clint looked over at Bruce, “Cap. rope you in too Banner?”

Bruce nodded, “the games weren’t half bad. Even the ‘other guy’ liked them.”

Clint gave Bruce a weird look as he took a sip from his water bottle before leaving the kitchen.
He honestly felt like crap, he’d pulled a few muscles during practice today not to mention that he had picked up the flue shortly after his birthday. He gently flopped down on his favorite sofa, just wanting to be done with this day so he could go back to bed. ‘Maybe if I just close my eyes for a few minutes the world will right it’s self.’

Clint woke a few hours later to find the common room almost deserted with the exception of Pepper who was settled on a couch across from him wearing shorts and a tee shirt surrounded by paper work. She looked up and smiled. “Hey, are you feeling any better?”

“Does feeling like I got hit by a dirt bike instead of a tractor trailer count as ‘better’?”

Pepper winced, “well the others left you some pizza in the fridge. You slept through dinner and no one wanted to wake you.”

Clint tested his shoulders by rolling them, before giving up on getting the knot in his shoulder out by himself.

“Oh and Steve left out his computer for you. He said you might want to play a game or two on it.”

Clint groaned, ‘why me, why, why?’

“I don’t know why, I already told him that I didn’t want to play his kids game. My son plays it for crying out loud. I wish he’d just drop the subject already.”

Pepper looked at the archer for a long moment, before an idea hit her.

“Clint, have you even read anything about this game, reviews, theories, anything?”

He was silent, so Pepper continued,

“Then for all you know then this ‘kid’s game could be filled with violence that you and your wife aren’t ready for him to be exposed to. Maybe you should play the game, not because Steve wants you too but because your being a good parent and making sure that Cooper is playing age appropriate things. Besides even if it is boring you’ll have something more to bond with him over.”

Clint continued to stare at her; Pepper holds her breath knowing that everything could hinge on this.

“You learn that trick from Romanoff or my wife? Fine I’ll play the game and see what this is all about.”

Pepper lets out the breath she’d been holding, and moves forward like the accomplished business woman that she was.

“Will you play the other games too? Cooper may want to play them after he completes the first one.”

“How many games are there?”

Pepper was unsure about this so when in doubt, ask Jarvis.

“Jarvis how many games are in the ‘Five Nights at Freddie’s’ series?”

“There are currently three available for game play with a fourth in the works with a release date set for August 8th 2015.”

Clint groaned again, as he pulled himself off the couch. ‘I’m doing this for Cooper’ he thinks.

“Point me in the direction of Steve’s computer after I get something to eat.”

Pepper smiles and nodes an affirmative to the archer as he goes to the communal kitchen.

She only relaxes when he has completely disappeared from view and sends Steve a text.

‘Clint is going to start playing soon.’

Four Days Later

Clint stumbles into his bedroom at 2 in the morning. He’s bone tired but knows he won’t sleep until he’s done something important.

Clint dials his home phone number from his cell phone and listens to it ring. His wife answers on the second to last ring (don’t ask how he knows that, it’s almost as classified as Budapest.)

“ ‘Lint?”

“Lara, I know it’s late but I have to talk to you about Cooper.”

“Clint” she says sounding more alert by the second, “Do you know what time it is? I was asleep!”

“I know Lara but- it’s about that game he’s been playing.”

“What about it?”

“I want him to stop playing it. He’s not allowed to play it until high school…. in his Sr. year.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“You’re serious? It’s only a kid’s game.”

Clint sighed, “That’s what I thought until I played it. Honey it’s a horror game.”

With that Cooper Bernard Barton was grounded for two weeks and had his tablet put on lock down by both of his parents. Cooper still hasn’t forgiven Steve.

Chapter Text

Maria Hill had a bone to pick with an avenger. Head held stoically high as she exited the elevator and onto Steve Rogers’s floor she looked every bit like a proper Stark Industries employee image that Pepper promoted.

She found Steve seated on the living room couch with Darcy, both engrossed in something on the computer. She stood for a minute, waiting to be acknowledged.

“Good grief Thor, could you have been a little less good?”

Darcy laughed, “That’s Thor for you. He took it as a personal challenge to defeat the animatronics and win the game.”

Thor’s voice rang out from the speakers, “Ack, foul puppet! Thou hast defeated me for the last time!”

Maria chose that moment to make her presence known by clearing her throat, “Captain Rogers.”
Steve looked up startled, “Ms Hill, this is a surprise. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Yes Captain, there is. Pepper told me what you’re up to. Do you really expect to get all the avengers to play all the games in the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ franchise?”

“Yes.” Steve says slowly.

“Then why, may I ask, haven’t you asked me to play them? I should have at least been consulted about how this could potently affect the already shaky public relations that the avengers currently have.”

“He already consulted Pepper about PR, and though she thought it was juvenile she said that it might help improve the avenger’s public image especially with the teenagers and young adults.” Darcy fired back, not at all intimidated by Maria in the least.

The room was silent for several seconds only broken by the sound of Barton getting killed on night two,

“What the heck! NO! Vents are my thing!”

Maria took a deep breath, “The game isn’t even scary.” There she’d said it out loud.
Steve gave her a confused look that could be compared with that of a golden retriever.

“What? You didn’t think I’d come up here without doing any research first did you? I played the first game. It was about as scary as Barton dropping out of the vents in my room at 2 A.M. in his boxers; and before you ask, no I’m not going to give any context to that statement.” Steve’s eyes widened, while Darcy gave an unladylike snort.

“Well then, would you consider playing the rest of the games?” Steve asked.

“Why do you think I came up here in the first place? I may not think the game scary, but I do want to figure out the rest of the story line.”

Maria was situated at Steve’s desk with the second game’s menu on the computer screen. A sly grin crossed Maria’s face as she contemplated the fact that she was seated in Steve Rogers Chair at his desk playing his copy of ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’. “Eat your heart out Phil.” She said as she clicked the new game button. She listened to the phone guy give his spiel, only commenting when he was finished;

“So the name of the game is don’t get killed by the things in the hall or the vents, and keep the puppet happy, not too different from my job at S.H.I.E.L.D.”

A few hours later Steve knocked on the door to see how she was doing.
“Not bad, I think I’m doing better with this game than I did with the first one.”

“Really, What night are you on?”

“I’m on the bonus night, where you can turn up all the AI’s and make them as hard as possible.”

Steve gaped at Maria, he hadn’t even tried that. “Umm, that’s great. I think. Would you like to play the third game?”

Maria grinned, “Sure, I was hoping you’d ask.”

Maria emerged from the elevator just after the avengers had finished dinner. Steve, Bruce and Wanda were cleaning up the kitchen when she walked in.

“Steve, I will say this, the story was intriguing, but the game it’s self was less than impressive. When I play a horror game I want something that’ll give me night mares.” Maria then spun on her heel and left the other avengers to their cleaning.

Steve grinned as he went back to putting dishes away, of all the avengers he’d thought that Hill would have been too professional to want to participate. He was glad to have been proven wrong.

“Oh and Steve,” Maria called, “Don’t put any of my game play online, unless you have a death wish.”

Chapter Text

Pietro stood listening to Tony give one of his long explanations about the new substance he was having him test on the soles of his shoes; for durability, the inventor said.

‘Yeah, so that I don’t ruin all my shoes I bet.’ Pietro thinks as he stifles a yawn, did Tony ever shut up? That was his current question.

“O.K. then if you’ll just do your thing and tell me how long it takes for them to wear out, or catch fire. Can’t have you running around on unreliable foot wear now can we.” He smiles at Pietro. Pietro nods and takes off out of the inventor’s workshop and down the stairs to the gym where he could run ‘till Wanda yelled at him. In all honesty Pietro was still recovering from his near death experience with Ultron. So it probably wouldn’t be long before Wanda started to get worried. He hated to worry her, but a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.

Twenty minutes passed without Wanda making an appearance in his mind or in person and Pietro was starting to feel winded from running, much to his displeasure; he was Quicksilver after all, the fastest of all the Avengers, he wasn’t supposed to get winded after only twenty minutes! (25 minutes was a bit more acceptable for him to tire out from; but still if Tony found out….) So it was a slight relief when he heard his name being called.

“Hey Pietro!” It was Steve, yelling at him. ‘Maybe Wanda told him to yell at me.’ Pietro thinks as he stops thankfully not showing the amount of exhaustion he was currently feeling.

“Yes? Did Wanda send you to yell at me?”

“Uh no, I uh wanted to know if you liked to play computer games?”

Pietro cocked his head to the side. Honestly he did enjoy computer games but it had been ages since he played any. (The last time had been with his dad.)

“Yes I do, but why?” Steve, he thought seemed to be sizing him up, which made Pietro suspicious out of habit.

“I have this new computer game series. I’ve finished playing it and I was wondering if you’d like to play it? Some of the others have played it already.” 

“Sure, why not.” They both grinned, and started off towards the room where Steve had the computer set up.

A few hours later

Pietro was having a great time. He hadn’t played a game with so many conflicting emotions. On the one hand he was enjoying himself as he completed nights, but on the other hand the game was slightly terrifying. He blamed that on the moving animatronics that were trying to stuff him in a bear suit. He had found the posters that explained about the children, that made him feel like avenging them. But all in all he thought the game was great.

He was now on the 6th night for his fifth attempt at beating the game. He heard Foxy running down the hall, Pietro hit the door just as he did he saw Chicka on the other side! He cursed, as he only had 20% of his power left.

“GET AWAY STUPID DUCK!”He slammed the door down on her too. ‘You can do this’ he thought it was 5 o’clock after all, for all he knew the 6 o’clock chimes could be just around the corner. But his power was starting to wind down and fast. Pietro started to hold his breath in anticipation, he was so close.

The power was still winding down even after he let up Foxy’s door.‘4%, if I die here I’m going to go get snacks before I continue this.’ He thinks in frustration. When the power button reaches 1% though he is relieved to here the 6 o’clock chimes.

“YES! Ha, ha take that game I won!” He cheered.

Pietro decided to forgo snacks in favor of starting the second game.

“hmm new office, wait where are the-“

“Uh,hello? Hello, hello.”

“What! You died, I heard you die. Are you ghost?”

“Uh, hello and welcome to your new summer job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.”

“Maybe you were rescued? Is that it?”

“They’ve spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day.”

“Didn’t you tell me they weren’t allowed that last time?”

“Uh, now that being said, no new system’s without its… kinks.”

“What?” Pietro listened closer to what the phone guy said as he described the ‘kinks’. “So nothing changes from the other place. Great.”

“So our temporary solution is this: there’s a music box over the Prize Counter, and it’s rigged to be wound up remotely. So just, every once in a while, switch over to the Prize Counter video feed and wind it up for a few seconds. It doesn’t seem to affect all of the animatronics, but it does affect… one of them.”

“Robíš si zo mňa srandu! Only one! Why are there no doors?"

“So hey, we’ve given you an empty Freddy Fazbear head, problem solved!"

"NO problem not solved! Stupid man!"

"You may have noticed there are no doors for you to close, heh. But hey, you have a light! And even though your flashlight can run out of power, the building cannot."

Pietro snorts, "that improved, but still doors are best."

"Uh, check the lights, put on the Freddy head if you need to, uh, keep the music box wound up, piece of cake. Have a good night, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.“

The call ends and Pietro starts to play, but when Bonnie pays him a visit he forgets about the music box. 'Ah, no. I need to wind that.' He thinks hoping for a bit of a grace peirod.

He takes off the mask and just as he goes to click on the cameras the Puppet jumps out at him.

"Čo to sakra! Bábka!“ He screams, as he starts to hyperventilate.

"Wanda!“ He screams as he zooms out of the room to find his sister.

Chapter Text

Wanda was sitting at the table on the common room floor working on the ‘Times’ crossword puzzle with Natasha. She had asked Natasha for help with her English skills and Natasha had responded with Crossword puzzles.

Wanda looked up at Clint who was seated across from her on his computer typing furiously. She could hear Bruce in the kitchen fixing a snack with Steve. Wanda could also feel the buzz of thought wafting up from Tony’s lab where he had put the place on lock down while he worked on S.I. deadlines that he had put off for possibly to long as no one save Bruce and Pepper had seen the inventor in several days.

Wanda quickly shut down the tendrils of power that made her itch to look into his mind again. She knew better, she also knew that such a breach would shatter what little trust she had managed to build with the other members of the team.

She was just about to complete her crossword puzzle when she sensed pure terror. Wanda couldn’t sense pure raw emotion unless she had an emotional “bond” with the person; and thus far her brother was the only person to have such a strong bond with her. Within seconds she heard the whizzing that now accompanied his super speed running, which was soon accompanied by his presents.

“No, no way that I’ll be finishing that game! Steve you can that game and shove it up your-“

“Pietro! What are you talking about?” Wanda cut her brother off before he could finish that sentence. Steve wasn’t in the room she didn’t want him ticking off anyone, specifically Steve.

“He had me playing game that has a freaking babka in it! Wanda you know h-howIfeelaboutthose!”

Pietro started shaking and breathing fast, obviously panicking. Wanda was alarmed her brother had never had a reaction to a puppet like this before. She had only just started to get to her feet when Clint stood and put an arm around Pietro,

“Pietro, why don’t we go out onto the deck? Thor left his hammer out there and I bet that together we could lift it.” Clint walked Pietro out to the deck as she could only watch. When they were out of the room she turned to see that Steve and Bruce had come out of the kitchen to see what had Pietro so worked up. Wanda made a decision not caring about the consequences; she walked up to Steve and punched him square in the jaw, knocking him to the floor.

“A freaking babka! You let him play a game with a babka in it? What kind of a leader are you that you put the people who trust you, even minutely, in a situation that causes them to have a panic attack!”

Steve looked up at Wanda with a dazed expression, shocked that the small woman had been able to knock him on his back without using her telekinesis. “What’s a babbka?” He asked.

Wanda muttered something in her native tong, “it’s a puppet numskull. He’s terrified of them he has hard time saying the word.”

With that she stalked out of the room and down the hall she needed to cool off so she didn’t make the situation worse.

“Jarvis, where is the game that my brother was playing?”

“It is in the spare room on Captain Rogers floor Ms Maxamoff.” Wanda nodded and got in the elevator and headed to Steve’s floor.

>>>>>

Wanda sat down at Steve’s computer to see the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ home screen up. “Oh moj brat, this is what scared you. Well lesser men and women have been scared by this game.” She grabbed the mouse and clicked ‘new game’ and started her own game.

>>>>>>>>

Wanda flashed her light at the Mangle when it appeared in the hallway. She was on the last night and everything was falling into place for her to win.

“As long as hlupy chlapec stay away I will win this!” Two minutes later the chimes ring and Wanda pumps both her fists in the air. “YES!!”

She shuts down the game to see the other icons for the first and third games. ‘Steve wouldn’t mind me playing these too, I think.’ She thought as she clicked on the icon for the first game.

>>>>>>>>>

“Chika you are ugly. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but you are ugly.” Wanda had been staring at the chicken anamatronic for a full two minutes off and on so that she could check the other door to keep from dying at the hands of the others.

“Go bother Freddy bear; he could use some pizza I think.” 5% Wanda was sure she was going to spend another hour playing this game and she was on the last night too. 0% the lights went out first there was nothing but silence then the footsteps; Wanda held her breath, the jumpscares were the hardest when you knew they were coming but they were delayed. Just when she was sure Chika was going to jump out at her, the chimes rang. Wanda let out the breath she’d been holding with a grin as she exited the game.

But instead of starting the third game she instead clicked the internet icon on Steve’s desktop. She pulled up YouTube and opened her account. She looked through her subscriptions before finding the video’s she wanted. Clicking on the video she leaned back and took mental notes.

“Hello everybody, my name is Markiplier; and welcome to ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 3’”

>>>>>>>

Wanda walked out of Steve’s spare room to find him seated on his couch watching T.V. he looked up as she approached him.

“So am I still in the dog house for letting your brother play?”

Wanda shook her head, “It wasn’t about the games. It was more-” Wanda’s words failed her at this point not knowing what to say. She sighed and tried again. 

“I’m very protective of Pietro as is he of me. We know each other’s worst fears; we look out for them and help the other to avoid them. Does that make sense?”

Steve nodded he understood; he’d had that with Bucky. Wanda turned to leave but looked back at the super solder,

“Oh I hope the camera didn’t stop, I had some good stuff at the end of the third.” Steve grinned; Wanda was the first to take note of the hidden cameras without a hint about them.

“I doubt they stopped. Can I expect you to keep mum about this until a later date?” Wanda nodded,

“On one condition, erase Pietro’s second game with the babka, please. He does not need panic attack again.” Steve nodded his consent. Now that he knew what to look for he’d be careful not to let Pietro be put in that situation again.

“One more thing, I got ‘Good ending’ first time just so you know.” With that Wanda left the room as Steve stared in disbelief after her.

“Jarvis, can you pull up the footage of Wanda playing the third game please?” The footage played on the T.V. screen in front of him, Steve watched for an hour and a half as Wanda appeared to breeze through the game with ease; dying very little and getting all the mini games right.

It wasn’t until later when he was editing the footage with Darcy that they discovered how she’d managed to do so.

Chapter Text

“She cheated!”

Steve and Darcy had been editing Wanda’s game play and had found out how she’d done so well in the third game. When Darcy had heard ‘Mariplier’s’ voice, she put two and two together and proclaimed Wanda a cheater not a winner.

“Darcy, we never said that they couldn’t look up how to play the game. Besides she was still jump scared something awful. If no one does better than here we’re giving her the win.”

Darcy huffed, “I still think she cheated.”

Steve sighed and looked back at the computer screen; they still had a lot of editing to go through and as it was the video was an hour and a half long.

“Come on Darcy we have to finish this.” Darcy agreed and they went back to work; though Steve had a feeling that this conversation wasn’t over.

Chapter Text

Natasha watched as Pietro started to have a panic attack thankfully Clint was able to remove him from the room. She knew that he was the best person in the tower to help Pietro as he still had panic attacks himself after Loki and his “glow stick of destiny” incident.

Natasha smirked as Wanda landed Steve on his butt and laid into him as if he were a child after they had nearly killed themselves.

“What’s a babbka?” Natasha rolled her eyes as she thought, ‘seriously Steve, we need to get you some language lessons to go along with that date.’

Natasha didn’t move as Wanda stormed out of the room, presumably to cool off, she for one couldn’t understand what was with her fellow residents in the tower lately. The only people who seemed to be acting normal were Thor and Stark and she had barely seen the inventor in the last week and a half.

Bruce had been jumpy and moodier than normal; Clint had showed up on her floor at 3 am one night having a panic attack and hadn’t used any of his vent traveling skills since, and Hill hadn’t been sleeping at all recently. Not to mention that Steve and Darcy were doing a lot of sneaking around lately; and then there was Pepper, she had been going round the tower with a slightly guilty look on her face whenever she saw Steve.

Something wasn’t right in Stark Tower and Natasha Romanoff wanted nothing to do with it; she’d had her head and emotions screwed with enough thank you very much.

>>>>>>>>>

Natasha was curled up in her favorite reading nook hidden in a corner of the tower; it was more of a ‘reading room’ that was obviously not used by the tower’s owner, and was filled with natural light and many, many overstuffed couches and chairs. Natasha thinks that Pepper had designed and furnished this room as a privet get away, but if the other woman knows of Natasha’s presence in the room she says nothing about it. Natasha often came to this spot when she wanted to be alone. Sometimes she settled in with a book and a drink, other times she just sat there thinking. But eventually her solitude is broken by an alert, mission, shouting match, the odd Hulk out, or by a well meaning person who thought it was time for her to ‘rejoin the rest of society’. In other words Barton and Maria were the ones who most often pulled her out of this room; and on one occasion Bruce, but that’s a different story all together.

Natasha had her computer out and was reading over some S.H.I.E.L.D files that she’d managed to protect from the huge file dump that had happened during the Hydra invasion. She had released most of the files but there were some that she’d thought shouldn’t be released mostly because in the wrong hands it could prove disastrous.

For example the current file that she was reading; Project T.A.H.I.T.I . It had been Coulson’s last project when he was killed. She had no idea why but this project had consumed much of her former handler’s time. Then just before the battle of Manhattan, he’d died.

Natasha didn’t like coincidences; at all.

It seemed from what she was reading about the Project that Coulson had resigned from S.H.I.E.L.D and had given Director Furry a week’s notice; then almost a week later he died. It was too much of a coincidence.

‘I’d love to know when he was going to tell Clint and I about this.’ She thought while scrolling down. ‘He even advised that the whole project be shut down. Furry had to of been thrilled about that.’

That Loki had killed him, that he went in without backup, his last words over his comm. before he’d died-which Natasha had found the audio recording of, because S.H.I.E.L.D never deleted anything.- the way Furry had reacted; something was off about how it all fit.

‘Hmm they had one last subject before S.H.I.E.L.D fell. I wonder if the name is in this file too.’ But before she could investigate further someone clearing their throat made her look up. There stood Steve smiling down at her and holding a plate of what appeared to be chocolate chip cookies, they even smelled fresh.

“Steve not only have you found my sacred hide away in this tower but you also come bearing gifts. What might I ask do you want?”

Steve just smiled wider, “Can’t I just bring freshly baked cookies to a friend?”

Natasha cocked her head for a moment, considering the statement.

“Yes, but you hardly ever bake cookies and ‘just bring them to a friend’ you tend to just leave them in the kitchen for everyone to eat. So I repeat myself; what do you want?”

Steve for his part looked like someone had kicked his puppy; Natasha was immune to such looks, unless they came from some certain god children of hers; then those looks were considered and possibly given into.

After about three minutes Steve set the plate of cookies down with a sigh and sat down himself. Natasha raised her eyebrow and picked up a cookie, ‘this is gonna be good.’

“So you know how I have my note book of things I need to catch up on?” She nodes finishing off her cookie and grabbing another.

“Well video games were on it at one point. I played a few and didn’t understand why they were so popular, but just shrugged it off cause every generation has its thing that the previous one doesn’t understand.

“But recently when I watched Clint’s kids, Cooper was playing a game and he let me play it and honestly I loved it.”

“Wait was this game the one that Cooper is not allowed to play now because Clint played it and found out it was a horror game?”

Steve’s eyes got wide. “I-I didn’t know Cooper wasn’t allowed to play it anymore.”

“Yeah, he’s not a big Captain America fan right now. I didn’t get why he said that but I do now if you told Clint. Lara is very against horror games, video’s ect. Clint isn’t a fan either, not after the whole Loki thing; don’t ask me why, it’s his brain.”

Steve nodded again, thinking before he continued. “I played the game and finished it to find it had two sequels and I played those too. I’m now asking the other avengers to play and try to beat my time. You and Tony are the only ones in the tower besides Pepper and Darcy that I haven’t asked to play.”

Natasha could hear the unasked request, ‘would you like to play a game?’, she had a feeling that this was the same game that’d had Pietro wound up the other day and had sent Steve to the floor after Wanda knocked him there; his bruise was just barely visible now.

“Did you know that I was the champion of horror games during my time at S.H.I.E.L.D? Or did Barton and Hill not mention that when they told you where to find me?”

Steve smiled,“Actually Clint might have mentioned that you’d get a kick out of the games.”

Natasha could see how this could go wrong in so many ways. But video games were a guilty pleasure, an odd one, according to some, for an assassin. She picked up another cookie before answering.

“All right Steve I’ll play your games. If only so that I might be able to convince Cooper’s parents to let him play them again.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Natasha officially hated bunnies. The stupid thing kept climbing in the vents; it was more annoying than Barton in the vents. Not to mention that the stupid thing was in the vent again!

“There’s Bunny Barton again; won’t say out of the vents. Oh and there’s Balloon boy, and Chica in the hall way wonderful.” Natasha’s Russian accent was thick now as she was greatly annoyed and stressed.

“Ahhh, puppet, puppet need to wind the puppet.” She mutters, when Bonnie jumped out at her and seemingly killed her. But Natasha noted that there wasn’t a game over screen; just a bunch of red lines, then a decrepit picture of Foxy and instructions to use W,A,S,D which made Foxy move.

“So if I win this game does that mean I can go onto the next night?”

Five Seconds later

“Well apparently not. Stupid fox didn’t even ring- ding- ding-ding-dingeringeding at me.” She muttered. 

Needless to say when she finished the second game she was relieved, “Jarvis please tell me that was the last one. This is a stupid excuse for horror.”

“I’m sorry Miss Romanoff but there is one more game left for you to play. Would you like me to start it for you?”

“No need Jarvis,” Natasha sighed, “I’ll get it myself.”

Five minutes later

“Wow absolutely nothing happened. The first game was more exciting when the phone guy called and talked for two hours. Rogers I’d rather be stuck in an all day meeting about how many paper clips we use on a daily basis than play this boring game.”

The phone call began and Natasha settled in for another boring level of gaming.

“Hey, Man-okay, I have some awesome news for you!”

“That this game is over and all the other nights are a joke; because that’s what it feels like." 

“But I have an even better surprise for you, and you’re not gonna believe this- we found one. A REAL one.”

“A real one? You found one animatronic? Well give yourself a gold star; I hope it’s not one of those ugly toy ones.” Natasha starts flipping through the nights and comes across a camera with a strange face in it. 

"What is-“Natasha, the normally stoic game player lets out a scream as a withered Balloon Boy jumps out from the camera.

“Kakogo cherta! What was that? Der’mo now I have to reset everything.” She clicked the main menu, but as she did she thought she saw something move.

She was right.

<<<<<<<<<<<

Steve was settled in a chair on the common room floor with his sketch pad in hand working on a drawing of the New York skyline. He loved these peaceful moments when all he had to think about was where to put the next line on the paper.

He was also glad not to be arguing with Darcy at the moment; they’d argued about how long to make the video and Steve had won that argument by stating that they needed to give each avenger an even amount of time on screen and add warnings for flashing lights, and various puppet appearances. (Wanda could hit very hard and he didn’t want to experience that again.)

But nothing final could be done until Natasha and Tony finished up. Darcy was just thankful that Sam and Sgt. Rhodes were out of town and they didn’t have to try and fit their game play into the monstrosity that was the current video. Steve was only concerned that they get the best parts into the video for YouTube video, but they could put in whatever they wanted for the video that they were going to show here at the tower.

So in short, when it came time to put the video up on YouTube Steve would let Darcy have her way with the footage; she just didn’t know it yet.

Steve gave a content sigh and decided to call it a night and put a way his sketch pad. It was moments like these that he felt guilty; he was comfortable, fed, and surrounded by people who cared in one way or the other but the person that he cared about the most could be anywhere in the world suffering at the hands of who knows.

These thoughts plagued Steve as he entered his apartment to find a very emotionless Natasha Romanoff sitting on his couch sipping what appeared to be coffee.

“Nat, how’d you enjoy the games?”

Natasha cocked her head to one side, considering him.

“I liked the first one to a point.The second was awful, and the third one isn’t too far behind. Now I have talked to Darcy, she told me about the whole plan. When and how are you going to get Stark to play?”

Steve smiled, “Well if you have any ideas or advice I’m all ears.”

The spy motioned for him to sit next to her and discuss strategies. As the plan fell into place Steve’s melancholy mood started to disperse.It was moments like these that made him feel like anything was possible, that included bringing his best friend back.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark had slept for 32 hours straight and was now ready to face the inhabitants of his tower. He zombie walked into the kitchen and somehow managed to start the coffee pot and grab a mug while he waited with his head laid on the counter in front of the coffee maker for his precious rejuvenating liquid. Needless to say Tony wasn’t a morning person; he’s one of those people who has a mug that shows in increments when it is safe to speak to him by how much coffee he’s had.

So it’s no surprise when Steve waltzes in post morning work out that the only response he can illicit from the inventor is a primal sound as he sets about making his own breakfast.

 Tony only pulled his head off the counter after the coffee maker beeped to announce that the brew was finished to pour himself an over-sized cup.

It wasn’t until he’d drained his second cup of coffee that he noticed that the other avengers had ‘assembled’ for breakfast.

 Bruce with his healthy cereal, Natasha was eating something white that looked like yogurt with bits in it-‘seriously who eats that, gross’ Tony thinks- Clint was frying eggs and bacon up, the twins had yet to make their appearance, Thor was quickly emptying another box of pop tarts, and of course Steve was fixing pancakes.

Tony sighed, this was something unexpected that he’d never knew he’d wanted until it was right in front of him. He honestly had no idea what he would do without all these crazy people that he was surrounded with.

‘Probably go insane from lack of human interaction. Or at least that’s what Pepper says.’

“Who wants pancakes and how many?” Steve calls out.

“I want three.”

“Four if you would.”

“Two Capsicle.”

“Eighteen.”

“Four for me too Cap.”

“Two to go with my bacon and eggs.”

“Five please Captain.”

Steve grinned and turned back to making up a batch of pancake batter that would have satisfied a small army; he didn’t need to ask who wanted what in their pancakes Tony observed, even he could remember that Thor liked strawberries on his pancakes, Natasha like hers plain, the same went for Legolas, Wanda enjoyed having chocolate chips in hers- though she wouldn’t come out and say it-, her brother liked any kind of fruit in his or on it for that matter Pietro wasn’t to particular so long as he got to eat them, Tony’s science bro liked to put powdered sugar on his, Tony for his part would eat two plain pancakes then deck them out with a plate full of syrups and a square of butter; the first time Steve had made pancakes Tony had watched the super solder almost choke as he watched Tony fix his pancakes.

Tony had finally gotten his pancakes just the way he wanted them when Darcy Lewis breezed in. Tony liked to give the young woman a wide birth as she had tasered Thor after all. He wasn’t convinced that she really was as innocent as she appeared.

For her credit Miss Lewis didn’t engage Tony she made a bee line for Steve. “It’s done, and ready whenever you are.” Steve smiled around a mouthful of food giving a nod as his reply.

Tony raised an eyebrow, while he did suspect Lewis of being crafty he knew that Steve couldn’t be clever with anything outside a tactical planning room. Stealth wasn’t one of the super solder’s strong points.

"What’s with all the whispering Spangles?”

Steve looked in Tony’s direction and smiled wider, “Well Tony Miss Lewis has been helping me with a project that has been helping me become acclimated to computer games.”

‘Oh this is new.’ Tony thought, “Really, have you played all the classics yet? I personally think that all the good and difficult games were from the days when Mario and Donkey Kong reigned supreme.”

Clint tried to mask his laugh as a cough and failed. “Really Stark, when was the last time you played a computer game? There are some really hard ones out now that aren’t made by major companies.”

Tony shot a skeptical look at Clint, “Well to a brain like yours, that maybe so but I am a genius. It takes a bit more to befuddle me than it does to do the same to you.”

Clint looked back at his breakfast so that he could hide his knowing smile, Tony completely oblivious turned his attentions back to Steve.

“So what have you been playing? Maybe I could give you some pointers, or more game background.”

“Well I don’t know. Its kinda a small game franchise, I don’t know if you’ve even heard about it.”

Tony rolled his eyes, ‘Oh how very hipster of you Steve.’

“Ok I’ll bite, what’s the name?”

“It’s called ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ it’s an Indy horror game made by Scott Cawthon. Lots of people say that it’s really hard to play the games.”

Tony cocked his head he didn’t follow gaming trends –he had things to do!- but he did know what Indy games were, some were good and some were awful.

“Hmm I haven’t heard of that one before. Did you download it?”

“Yeah it’s on my computer if you wanna take a look. I just have one condition, you have to play it all and it’s sequels too. Unless you get to scared, I hear that can happen with some of these games.”

“Please," Tony Scoffed, "I’m Tony Stark I don’t get scared by minuscule things like computer games. I’ll play the games and make sure that they’re not to scary for you though Spangles.”

“Ok then, why don’t we get you started.” The pair left the common room headed for the elevator, just before the doors closed Tony could have sworn -and later did- that he heard laughter coming from the area that they had just left.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

“I HATE YOU ROGERS!!!!!”

Steve couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up as the inventor continued to scream at Steve, knowing what was yet to come.

Chapter Text

About a week later after hours of work -and bickering don’t forget the bickering Steve- the video was finally completed and Steve had assembled all the avengers in the common room to watch the video.

“I suppose you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here tonight.”

This statement was met with groans as he gave an unrepentant grin. “Sorry I always wanted to say that. Now as you know I’ve taken the plunge into modern video games.”

“No kidding.”

“Really? I never would have guessed.”

“*&%$ you Capscicle.”

Steve held up his hand to quell his fellow avenger’s comments. “Well since you’ve all played the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ games after I asked you to I wanted to show you a short video of what Darcy has aptly named “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Avengers edition”.”

Wanda shot Steve a look from where she sat next to her brother. Steve smiled at her, “Darcy and I have spent a lot of time editing this video so that it can be enjoyable for all, so please don’t attempt to hack the system or change any of the video. Let it roll Jarvis.”

Tony who up until Steve had mentioned the video had been sitting with his arms crossed glaring at the super solder, now looked a shade paler than he had before. “Wait, you mean to tell me that you recorded us playing the games and put it in a video?”

“He sure did Stark.” Darcy quipped at the inventor.

“That’s got to be an invasion of privacy! You can’t just record me without my permission; Right Pepper?” Pepper turned away not looking at Tony.

“Come on Pep back me up here.”

“Oh be quiet friend Stark the good Captain recorded us all so it was fair; not to mention don’t you record all the goings on of this tower daily? Would that not be as you say an invasion of privacy?”

“You know what Thor-“

“Pipe down Stark and let Jarvis start the video!” Hill snapped at him.

“Sir?” Jarvis inquired.

“Go ahead J.” Tony sighed, hoping that Steve had at least been gracious enough to leave certain moments of his game play out of the video.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The video started playing and Steve appeared on the screen at his computer chair wearing a ‘tasteful’ plaid shirt and his Chinos. The super solder looked up from the computer monitor and smiled at the camera:

“Hi my name is Steve Rogers, though some of you may know me better as ‘Captain America’ the leader of the Avengers, WWII hero, and the guy who was frozen in ice for seven decades. But despite that I’m just a regular guy and I like to explore new things. For example-“

“What is this” Tony interrupted, “A PSA announcement?” He was promptly shushed by the rest of the room.

“I recently found a video game series that I really liked and decided to share it with my fellow Avengers, but to make it even better I decided to film their reactions to the games. So sit back and relax, while the Avengers play ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’!”

The screen faded to black and video of all the players in turn (including Maria, much to her chagrin) and the phone call from night 1 played. As it played the camera panned to one video in particular.

“Rogers please tell me you didn’t-“Tony started but he was shushed again.

“OK” Tony’s voice plays over the speakers, “So this is what a haunted ‘Chuck E Cheese’? Oh animatronics? Pfff Please I could build better animatronics in my sleep with one hand tied behind m- AHHHHH!” Tony was cut off by a jump scare from Foxy instantly killing him.

“Screw you Rogers!” Tony yelled ignoring the laughing of the other avengers, completely mortified; and that was saying something.

The video played on showing more deaths, and nights accomplished.

“Aw Bunny no!”

“Ach foul wolf you haven’t best me yet in this quest of Freddy’s! I shall return!”

“Stupid, stupid shouldn’t have done that. Go away duck!” Pietro screamed.

“Wait” Barton said, slightly panicked, “What do you mean they might stuff me into a suit? WHAT! I thought this was a kids game!”

“Aw nuts and bolts, the stupid fox is out! Why don’t I have a weapon? Seriously, this place has murder bots and the company doesn’t give them any type of protectionnnnn!” Tony dies from a surprise attack from Chica.

“Please go away, go on go!” Hill pleaded with Bonnie as the animatronic looked up at the camera before entering the vents.

“Stupid thing is just like Barton. Whelp if the shoe fits; you will thus far be Bunny Barton.”

Clint looked over at Natasha with a raised eye brow. “Don’t look at me like that, I was board.” She replied while she watched Pietro swear at the computer Chica killing him again.

Tony was playing Night three of FNAF 2 when the Golden Freddy jump scare caused him to fall out of his chair; “#%#@^ Rogers!” followed by Steve’s voice “Language!”

“I can’t believe my son plays this.” Barton commented as he hurriedly switched back and forth between cameras and door lights.

“Come on fox I am ready for you now.” Wanda bated Foxy on night 4.

“Wait the guy’s dead, guess the killer bots were tired of him too.” Natasha stated never once breaking her steel expression.

“Who would work at a place like this? I would have booked it during the first phone call!” Barton yelled at the screen.

“Ah my fellow guardian of the night I shall think of you fondly and endeavor not to sub come to the same fate as you.” Thor laminated after hearing the phone guy’s death.

“Oh, that’s too bad, I hope I don’t die here too.” Bruce then whispered, “or smash the computer.”

>>>>>>>

A flashing warning appeared *Warning Puppets ahead*. Pietro chose that moment to race out and get popcorn.

>>>>>>>>>>

Bruce was breathing heavily as he clicked the flash light, “come on, come on just one more hour come on. BRAAAHHH!”

“Click, click clickity, click, click no way I’m gonna die if you don’t- Awww come on man I was so close!” Barton yelled as he hit the desk with his fist after getting killed by the puppet.

The puppet jumped out at Natasha, she started and raised an eyebrow, “that’s it?”

Maria was focused on everything at once, -“OK, got that, stay out of the vents!”- But she too fell to the same fate as the others when she didn’t reach the music box in time and screamed bringing up her hands to protect herself.

>>>>>>>>>

“Ha ha” Barton laughed, “Hill I didn’t know you were afraid of puppets.”

“Shut it Barton. I know where you sleep.” Hill threatened the archer who only grinned at her as the video continued.

>>>>>>>>>>

“Achk foul puppet you have proven to be a worthy opponent. But you shall not best the son of Odin!”

The screen reassembled to mirror the opening with all the avengers on the screen with the exception of Bruce and Pietro.

“Ok lets get this over with, Steve you are going to owe me so much after this.” Natasha gripped as she started the third game.

“Ah another! I am enjoying this game!” Thor declared until night two when Springtrap showed up- “FOUL CREATURE I LOATH YOU!”- became his catchphrase for the rest of the game in reference to any of the character that would pop up.

“No, no, no! I have been playing these games for almost twenty hours you can’t do this to me!”; whined Barton when he found out about the bad ending and good ending.

“Mhmm I got this,” Wanda said as she took control of the last mini game in the third game, getting the ‘Good ending’, “Yes! Yes! I am Queen of ‘Five Nights of Freddy’s’!”

“Oh you’re afraid of ghosts? Well you should have thought of that before you- woah that is one vengeful ghost; ‘Bad ending’? What does that mean?” Tony checks the game online for a few minutes, “WHAT!! YOU MEAN I HAVE TO PLAY IT AGAIN!”

“Oh the children get to avenge themselves, not bad-“Natasha realized that she needs to play the game again- “well I will hand it to the developer I didn’t see that coming.”

“Wow those images are not going to get out of my head any time soon.” Maria looks up towards one of the hidden cameras, “is that a- Rogers! Oh no, you won’t be putting this on the internet, Rogers where are you!”

>>>>>>>>

The room was a mixture of laughter and indignation after the video finished. But Steve wasn’t done yet.

“OK I’ve got one more thing to tell you all and then we can watch a real movie as a team. Darcy and I have only showed you our favorite moments from all of your game plays and believe me that was hard to do. But we did manage to make a second movie and we put it up on YouTube for the world to see. We made sure to put everyone in a good light and to give you all an equal amount of screen time too.”

Maria shot Steve a look only to be nudged by Darcy who whispered to the former causing her to smile and relax.

“Now if you want to go watch that movie too you can. But I think I should also tell everyone that Wanda is the winner of the ‘competition’ I was telling some of you about as she beat my time and had the shortest game play time out of everyone. So she wins a bowl of ice cream served to her by yours truly, and she gets to pick the next movie on movie night; Jarvis don’t let us forget that last bit. Now let’s get on with our fun.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Tony sat on the end of the couch sulking while the team watched ‘Night at the Museum’. He didn’t like to be out witted nor did he like to lose. As he sat there he contemplated his next move. There was no way that he was going to let Rogers get away with something like this.

Tony’s phone buzzed and he looked at the screen- garnering him a few complaints as he was interrupting the movie- there was a text from Rhody: “Hey just saw the YouTube vid. I can’t believe my eyes I can’t stop laughing!”

Tony didn’t reply to the text he just glared at his phone before turning it off.

‘You want to play games? Well Game on Rogers.’

Chapter Text

Sam Wilson was enjoying his time off at his family reunion in South Carolina that his mother insisted he attend when he wasn’t overseas. Before he joined the avengers he had gotten questions like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend’, ‘when are you getting married’, ‘what’s it like living near the President?’ those sorts of questions were nothing compared to all the questions he got about all of his team mates. “What’s Thor like?”, “Is Captain America single?”, “Does Tony Stark have an indoor zoo?”, “What about the Black Widow, isn’t she dangerous?”, “When are you getting married Sam?”.

Sam had finally gotten away from all the ridiculous questions for a few seconds of peace by retreating to his appointed bed room. He almost couldn’t wait to head back to the tower at this rate at least he didn’t have to deal with all these questions. He was starting to contemplate going back to join his family around lunch time when his phone buzzed. He had a text from Darcy Lewis;

“Hey I’m sending you a YouTube link, go watch it ASAP!”

Confused Sam pulled up the YouTube app on his phone and followed the link praying that this wasn’t her way of saying that there was another flying city to deal with. But much to his relief is wasn’t.

“Hey mom! You’re not going to believe this!” He called as he walked into the kitchen area sending a text back to Darcy in the process;“Lmao and I can’t stop! Thanks for that.”

Chapter Text

The S.H.I.E.L.D base was quiet most agents were in their beds or at their appointed posts; the only exception was Director Coulson’s office. In his office the entire team and he himself had gathered to watch a video that Agent Skye had found.

“I can’t see why we can’t just watch this in the lounge.” Hunter gripped as he had been forced to give up his seat for Bobbie-not that he minded, after all she was still on crutches after her last round of surgeries- but it was the principle of the thing.

Skye not looking up from where she was messing with the computer answered him, “The lounge didn’t have a big enough screen stop whining like a baby.”

Coulson watched the agents banter from his office chair, being the boss had its perks. Looking around the room he could see that his team was for the most part relaxed. Fitz and Simmons were sitting together-they had been exceptionally close after they’d pulled Jemma out of that Kree rock- Mac’s body language was relaxed as he ribbed Hunter about his life decisions, Skye was at a computer so all was seemingly well there, May was still on her vacation, Bobbie was the only one who appeared to be tense though in all fairness that could be from the pain she was experiencing.

Coulson gave an inward sigh, he’d missed nights like this, where everyone gathered together and had a bonding session back on the bus. Back when life wasn’t so complicated.

“OK here we go!” Skye announced as a YouTube video popped up on the large screen. They had no idea what they’d be watching as Sky had been very secretive about the title of the video.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Melinda May entered the base in the early hours of the morning when all was quiet. She was almost dead on her feet and wanted to catch a few hours of sleep before getting up for ti chi with Skye.

Making her way towards the living quarters she ran into Bobbie who was trying to balance herself on crutches.

“Agent May I’m so glad your back!”

May arched an eye brow; “Did I miss anything important?”

Bobbie shifted on her crutches so she could lean against the corridor wall before she spoke. “That would depend on your definition of ‘important’. But Coulson hasn’t left his office in over 48 hours, nor have Skye, Hunter, or Mac surprisingly. Fitzsimmons is in and out of his office though but won’t tell me what’s happening.”

May sighed, “Alright I’ll look into what’s going on. It may only be some surveillance or something of the like; nothing to get worked up over.”

With that May moved toward her room to drop off her things, irritated that Coulson hadn’t paged her about anything that would warrant this type of reaction from him.

>>>>>>>>>>>

When May entered Coulson’s office the site that greeted her was the last thing she would have expected. There were food wrappers strewn all over the room bottles of what appeared to be beer, soda, and a few energy drinks; but this wasn’t what shocked her.

Coulson was sitting in his chair with his suit jacket off top buttons undone the tie having been banished long ago holding a computer mouse on his desk staring up at the screen across the room yelling at it.

“No! NO, NO, NO, NO!!! AWW Man! That doesn’t count, that doesn’t count I was looking for the mini game!”

Skye grinned as she replied, “Oh yes it does DC. That makes the total of deaths out to: Skye 55, Fitz 60, Simmons 61, Mac 85, Hunter 76, and Coulson 149; want to try for 150 DC?”

“You know what Skye I think you have hacked the game somehow.”

“How could I have done that? You took a way my technology; see I have written all the scores on paper with an actual pencil.”

May made her presence known by coughing causing all eyes to look at her. “What is going on here?”

“May” Coulson said, “you’re back. How was your vacation with Andrew?”

“It was very nice, now what is going on here?” The group shared an uneasy glance around the room.

“You see Melinda; there was this game and well… Cap played it so I figured it must have been a fun game he even got all the avengers to play it.”

May arched her eyebrow, “are you talking about that ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ game the one that he made a movie out of?”

“Maybe.”

She face palmed; “Phil no.”

Chapter Text

“Tony,” she interrupted, “What possible use could you have for not one but two replicas of those video game animatronics?”

“Oh there’s going to be more than two, I’ve got plans to replicate them all. As for what use I have for them that’s simple Pep. revenge I’m going to get my revenge on the others for setting me up for the second biggest scare of my life, and in order to do that I have to bring the animatronics to life.”