The Equivalents

2. The cat.

Clint was walking down the hall and into the kitchen to grab a snack. The Avengers compound had been peaceful as of lately. None of the heroes had seen a lot of action lately. For some of them, that was a good thing. For some, they were bored to tears. Clint was a bit of both. He was happy people weren't getting hurt. But he had nothing to do. At all. But he had food.

He went to the pantry and grabbed a box of cereal before going to the fridge to grab some milk. As soon as he closed it, he went to the island and was shocked to see a cat right behind him.

"Ah!" Clint jumped. "What the heck?!?!"

"Everything alright, Clint?" Bruce Banner said as he walked in.

"Where did this cat come from!?!?" Clint asked.

"Umm... I don't know." Bruce shrugged. "I've seen it before. But I don't know why it's here."

As they were talking, Kate Bishop walked into the room.

"Kate! Do you know where this cat came from?" Clint asked.

"That's Alpine." Kate answered.

"Who's cat is it?" Bruce asked.

"I... have no idea." Kate replied.

"You know it's name but not who's it is?" Clint questioned.

"I heard someone calling her Alpine, but I can't remember who." Kate said, staring at the white cat in front of her.

"Well then at least we know it belongs to someone." Bruce nodded.

"You both couldn't tell that by the collar?" Kate laughed. "Did you even check it?"

Clint looked down at the collar and saw nothing but the name.

"Nothing. We need to get to the bottom of this." Clint stated. He hadn't done anything in days. He needed some sort of mission.

Clint called in Peter and Thor to see if they knew anything.

"I've seen this feline here before." Thor nodded.

"That's Alpine, right?" Peter said.

"So you know her too. It she yours?" Clint asked.

"No." Peter shook his head.

"So we've all seen this cat before. You guys even know her name is Alpine. But no one knows who her owner is?" Bruce questioned.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Let's call everyone in here and ask them." Peter suggested.

The five Avengers called the other team members in. They all stood in a circle, staring at the white cat as it just looked back up at them.

"I know I've seen this cat before." Tony stated. "I can't remember who's it is though."

"Didn't you bring him to one of my veterans support group sessions, Steve?" Sam asked.

"Wasn't me." Steve answered. "I think I'd remember if I got a cat."

"Wanda? Can you use your powers to see it's thoughts?" Tony suggested.

"You want me to use my powers... on a cat..." Wanda stared at him.

"Who's not here?" Steve asked.

"A couple people went on a grocery run. I think Nat was one of them." Peter replied.

"So the cat must be Natasha's?" Clint asked. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah." Steve nodded.

"I could see that." Sam agreed.

After a few minutes, Natasha came back from the store. Everyone was waiting for her to come into the room.

"Am I missing something?" Natasha asked.

"This is your cat, right?" Clint asked.

Natasha shook her head. "Not mine."

Everyone in the room said "Agh!" Or sighed in defeat. At least until someone else came into the room. As soon as he did, the cat ran right up to him and jumped in his arms.

"Hey, Alpine." Bucky smiled. Everyone in the room stopped to look at him. "What?"

"So that's your cat?" Steve asked.

Bucky nodded and everyone cheered and high fived each other. "I've lived here for three weeks now and none of you knew I had a cat?"

Nobody said anything.

"Sam, you met her when I went to your support group thing." Bucky stated. "And Tony's met her too."

"Well at least I was right about that." Sam laughed.

"We've all been really bored this week." Kate explained. "A mysterious cat has been the most exciting thing to happen in awhile."

"Ok..." Bucky said.

Just as they finished talking, an alarm went off. Meaning, something was about to happen. A mission.

"Yes!" Clint cheered.

"Clint, people could be getting hurt." Steve pointed out.

"Then we hurt the people who hurt them." Nat smirked.

Steve sighed and everyone went to Tony and Bruce's lab to check on what was going on.

"A large energy source was detected just outside Brooklyn by one of my drones. A mysterious group of people showed up out of nowhere from it. Some of them could be hostile. It seems a few have already departed while the rest still remain unconscious." Tony explained.

"I'd be willing to check it out. If not just to give us something to do." Clint shrugged.

"You could always play yahtzee with me, Tony, and Kate." Peter suggested.

"I'm good." Clint huffed. "I feel like punching something."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Steve asked. "Suit up."