Sam: Meeting The Avengers (Book 2)

Team Building

  The strip mall was in the shape of half of a rectangle. There were quite a few different looking stores. In the area, there were the regular stores that would just sell some clothes, while other - cool looking - stores seemed different from the rest. The group and I had a lot of options when it came to looking around. Although, the whole point of the trip was to go as a team and hang out so we all stayed in the same group.
  Pepper stood in front of a board with a map of the area. Luckily for us, we were on one side of the strip mall and could make our way down the row of stores. So I peeked around Pepper and glanced at the options they had to shop.
  "Where are we going to first?" Pepper wondered as her gaze continued to scan the map.
  With a shrug of my shoulders, I stated, "We should just go to all of them."
  Before anyone could confirm or deny the suggestion, Thor was already strolling down the street to the first store. A few of us rolled our eyes because it was like we had to babysit the foreign man. So we all decided to follow Thor's lead as the first store to us was just some regular clothes shop. Fortunately, everyone was dressed in casual clothing - even Thor - as to not bring attention to ourselves.
  Pretty much all of us decided to split up in the building so we could each look at our own things that interested us. Some of the Avengers decided to stick together so they could have someone to talk to while they browsed. Steve and Banner decided to hang together as they didn't even look at most of the options in the store while they chatted. Nat and Clint stuck together while they decided to discuss random things. Thor was off in his own little world as he examined every item in the store as if it were from another planet. I, on the other hand, decided to stick with Pepper since it was supposed to be a bonding day with her.
  Breaking the silence with her, I inquired, "So, what have you been up to, Pepper?"
  After peering down at me, the woman answered, "Well, since Tony has been especially busy these past few weeks, I've been managing Stark Industries a lot more."
  Feeling guilty that it was me who had been occupying his time, I mumbled, "I'm sorry..."
  However, she just smiled and reassured me, "Oh, it's not your fault. It's just part of the job." Before silence could fill the space between us, Pepper asked, "What about you? What have you been up to?"
  With a shrug of my shoulders, I replied, "Same old, same old. Mostly just dealing with school."
  This time, Pepper allowed the quiet to linger in the conversation. I peered over at her to notice her eyes glazed over in thought. Was something bothering her?
  Eventually, she brought up a rather random topic, "You know, you sound a lot like your mother."
  The statement caught me off guard as I shoot my gaze to look at Pepper with bewilderment, "What do you mean?"
  "Just the way you talk, you remind me a lot of her..." the woman admitted, a hint of pain hidden behind her eyes.
  "I miss her," I confessed with my head hung low.
  "I know, me too," Pepper agreed while she stared longingly at an article of clothing. Her mind wasn't on the outfit but deep in thought. "Around the time you were born was when I had met Tony. I just got so busy that I didn't have time to see you or my sister..."
  Detecting the guilt in her voice I decided to murmur, "That's not your fault, Pepper. People get busy, it happens."
  However, she argued, "But even after the accident, I still couldn't find the time to see you. You were probably having such a hard time in foster care and living without your parents but I was too scared and worried that neither Tony or I was ready to take care of a kid." She allowed a pause but didn't give me enough time to respond before continuing, "I should've found you sooner, Sam."
  Holding back the tears that were begging to come, I gave a measly shrug, "It's okay, really. You couldn't have known... Besides, everything turned out great," a smile easily appeared on my expression.
  Fortunately, this got a smile from Pepper as well, "Yeah, I guess it did."
  "YOU RIPPED THE SHIRT?!" came a scream from some woman behind us.
  Immediately, our attention turned to Thor who was wearing a tight, ripped shirt. His arms were crossed as he loomed over the employee and argued, "You should have larger sizes!"
  "Maybe you shouldn't have been flexing in a shirt that doesn't fit you!" the woman shouted back.
  Stifling my laughter, I quickly ran up to the two and assured the woman, "We'll pay for the shirt." Then I turned to Thor and gripped onto his larger biceps, "Come on, big guy. We should leave."
  Still angry and upset, Thor ripped the torn shirt off and threw it to the ground. Then he turned around and began to storm away. Fortunately, Pepper strolled up to the employee and handed her cash to pay for the useless shirt. I would've rolled my eyes at how Thor acted like a child on a temper tantrum but I was too distracted by staring at his shirtless body.
  Ignoring my teenage hormones, I picked up the shirt that Thor was wearing before - that wasn't ripped - and jogged after the god. He was already out of the store and trekking on to the next store. Since he was still shirtless, Thor was causing a scene as people stopped and stared.
Taking responsibility, I ran forward and grabbed onto his muscular arm again, "Thor, you're forgetting this."
  When he peered down at my small figure, I held up his shirt in my hands. Finally, he took the shirt and slipped it over his head onto his body, "Thank you, child."
  Soon after, the rest of the Avengers followed out of the store. A part of me wondered if bringing all of these heroes was a bad idea and I just hoped no one would make another scene. Although, I didn't focus on that too much right now because everyone still seemed to be having a good time as we moved on to the next store. I was sure that most of them even thought the earlier situation was funny - judging by Clint's snickers.
  The moment that all of us stepped inside the store, we instantly smiled. It was a toy store! The little child inside of me came out as a squeal escaped from my lips and I raced to the back of the store to look at all of the toys.
  Even the rest of the group was interested in all of the toys as they began to look around. Most of the group kept their composure - unlike me - but Clint and Thor let their excitement show as they began to play with the toys.
  There were toys ranging from puppets, to board games, to friendship bracelets, to action figures, and more. However, the aisle that quickly got my attention was the aisle that was solely dedicated to the Avengers.
  "Hey, guys! Come check this out!" I called as I looked through the toys. I took the giant, plastic, green gloves and slid them on my hands. They were too big - because they were meant to be - so they fit funny on my hands. As soon as I heard footsteps from the group behind me, I turned around with a grin. "Hey, Banner! Wanna box?"
  The toy gloves were supposed to be like Hulk's hands so Bruce scoffed slightly and pointed out, "You'll inflate his ego."
  After a moment of pondering, I noted, "You know, I've never met him before..."
  "Let's hope you don't have to," Banner grumbled.
  As cool as it would be to see the Hulk, I also knew where Banner was coming from. If Hulk was out then that meant something bad was going down. Also, Hulk and Banner were two completely different people - especially since Hulk wasn't a person at all. From what I've heard about the two, they really don't like each other. It was like a Jekyll and Hyde story.
  We focused back on the toys and everyone began to pick up stuff that related to them. There was Hawkeye's bow and arrows, Captain America's shield, Black Widow's belt and gloves, Hulk's fist, Thor's hammer, and - finally - Iron Man's helmet with his palm repulsors to match.
  "We're so getting a picture!" I exclaimed.
  A startled Steve chimed in, "What? Why?"
  With a grin, I responded, "For Tony. Duh."
  Still hesitant, Rogers pointed out, "Isn't someone going to see us?"
  "Nah, no one will notice! Hey, Pepper. Do you think you could-," I started.
  However, Pepper was already getting her phone out with a grin. Fortunately, everyone complied as they held or put on their stuff. All of it was really small but we managed. I decided to take the place of Tony - for many reasons - as I slipped the helmet over my head and pulled the flashlight toy on my palms to resemble the repulsors. I was the only one small enough that could actually get the toys on but I didn't know how I felt about that.
  Although, I ignored it as we all turned to Pepper and posed. Even though they were toys, we looked awesome. A blush - that was hidden behind the helmet - formed on my face at how cool this was. I was hanging out with the Avengers! Minus Tony but I've already seen him in action plenty of times. Still, these guys were legends and I was able to just hang out with them.
  Thor was the one that pulled me from my thoughts, "This hammer is super light... and tiny."
  There were a few chuckles as Thor stared at the toy hammer with a puzzled expression. Just one small squeeze and Thor could crush the plastic toy as if it were paper.
  "They have action figures!" I cried out in excitement. I bound over to a nearby shelf and looked at all the figurines they had. They're all just of the Avengers since we're still in their aisle. So I picked the closest one up - which happened to be Iron Man - and examined the toy. My thumb rubbed and traced against the plastic suit as my mind started turning. While the rest of the gang strolled up beside me and went through the action figures that they had.
  "I look great as a toy," Thor boasted with a smirk. Then he picked up another toy and exclaimed, "They even have my brother, Loki!"
  A smirk formed on my face as I checked out the action figure. Even as a toy, Thor's adopted brother was pretty attractive like Thor - except in his own creepy, power-hungry kind of way. Detecting my expression, Nat was the one to call me out for it, "Sam, what is that look for?"
  "Nothing..." I replied innocently. Then I turned to Thor, "If your brother ever comes back to earth and has changed his ways, then tell him that I want to meet him." Not giving anyone time to respond, I got back to the action figures, "These toys look awesome though!"
  "I think they over exaggerated the amount of muscles I have..." Steve noted as he looked over his own toy.
  Confused, Banner wondered, "Why is Hulk the same height as all of you?"  
  While Clint sighed, "My face looks weird."
  "They got my hair wrong," Nat complained because her toy's hair was longer than what Romanoff had it now and the color was more of an orange than a red.
  All of their criticism of the toys just made me laugh harder. I was laughing so hard that I had to hold my stomach in pain while tears formed on my eyelids. The looks and glares that they shot me just made me laugh harder until I could hardly breathe. Needing to calm down, I wiped away tears and took a huge breath to relax.
  Finally, I breathed out, "Oh, that is just too funny."
  Haplessly, my eyes traveled back to the Iron Man toy in my hands. My mind began to wander again until a frown melted onto my face. The reason I was so down was because I realized how much fun I was having with these guys and with Tony. However, when the mission was over and everything was said and done, I'd have to go back to foster care and probably never see Tony or any of them ever again. It wasn't like Tony made an effort to see me over the past six months after I left his house last summer. So would it be any different this time? They were all probably going to "get busy" again and completely forget about my existence.
  "Hey, are you okay?" the soft voice pulled me from my reverie.
  "Huh?" I involuntarily asked as I turned my head. As soon as my eyes connected with Steve - whose expression was soft with concern - I muttered, "Oh," then shrugged as I turned back to look at the action figure. "Yeah, I'm just thinking," I admitted. However, I didn't want to go into full detail what I was thinking about so I just changed the subject, "We should head out to a different store."
  Before anyone could comment on my suggestion, I took the lead out of the toy store after putting all of the toys back. It was great to relax a little and be able to play with a bunch of toys. Even the grown adults seemed to have fun in forgetting all responsibilities and to just live a little. The Avengers continued to walk behind me as we passed a few stores that were just generic clothing stores. Keeping in mind how last time went, we decided to steer clear of the clothing stores.
  While we sauntered down the street, I noticed the air getting cooler. The sun was slowly going down which meant that it was getting pretty late. Although, that only made me smile because I realized that hanging out with them had made time fly by so fast. It was even great to hang out with Thor since it was the first time that I had met him.
  When the group had caught up to me - since they were taller and their strides were longer - I noticed Thor peer up at a sign, "Victoria's Secret? What is this Victoria hiding? We must find out!"
  "NO!" the whole group yelled in unison.
  This caused Thor to narrow his eyebrows in confusion. From behind, I could hear Clint laughing hysterically because the god didn't understand our reaction. However, it was Pepper who explained gently, "That's just a store for women."
  "Hey, it could be for men too," Clint smirked.
  "SHUT UP CLINT!" the three of us females - Nat, Pepper, and I - shouted. The three of us glared at the immature man which only made him giggle harder.
  Finally, Steve uncomfortably spoke up, "Let's just move on to the next store."
  Following Cap's lead, the rest of the group continued walking on to the next store. We passed by more stores and I was just thankful that the strip mall wasn't that crowded. Thor was behind me as he asked Banner about why everyone freaked out so Banner - awkwardly - explained to Thor what the store had. Although the god still didn't seem to completely understand so Banner just ended the conversation by admitting that going into the store would've been awkward for everyone.
  Eventually, Steve - who was taking the lead - paused to look at a store. When I turned my head, I noticed that it was an antique store. No wonder Steve stopped, there was a lot of stuff that was collected from the early nineteen-hundreds. Since Steve was hesitant, I decided to head inside first. Fortunately enough, everyone piled into the store as well.
  As soon as we stepped in, my eyes immediately locked on to Steve's. Everyone else in the group decided to scatter but I wanted to stay with Steve through this experience. When he peered around, his eyes filled with nostalgia and comfort. Everything was so familiar to him because he could actually recognize these gadgets instead of the high tech modern technology we had today.
  I was still curious so I stepped forward to Steve who was flipping through some old baseball cards. This store held all kinds of stuff from old toasters, to old toys, to old-timey photos, and other things. Honestly, it was the most relaxed I had seen Rogers ever because he fit in with the store.
  "Care to show me around, good sir?" I asked with a playful smile etched onto my features.
Fortunately, Steve grinned with me as he gladly nodded his head and took the lead through the store. First stop was at a table that had a huge, metal contraption in the center. Luckily, it offered some pictures of what the full thing was supposed to look like but it only blew my mind even more. This invention was huge in the pictures.
  "You know what this is?" Steve challenged with an excited smile.
  Still confused but curious, I took a wild guess, "Some part of a machine that goes in a factory?"
  After releasing a hum, he finally explained, "It's part of the first air conditioning. They eventually got smaller over time but they were still pretty big. And a pain to lift."
  A smile spread across my face but I quickly got distracted as I gasped and raced over to another object, "No way! Is this a tv?!"
  Steve gradually joined me to look at the old technology before me, "Small, huh?"
  "And boxy," I noted, wrinkling my nose. The electronic was pretty tiny for a tv and it was old so the wooden brown box was chipped and scraped to show age. There were a few knobs below the small screen but I was still perplexed at how it worked.
  Finally, the two of us went on to the next thing which was obviously a bike but the curves were different, the sizing was different, and the style was different.
  "I used to ride these with Bucky all the time," Steve remembered. However, as soon as he processed what he said, a somber frown melted his face. I had never heard any mention of Bucky but I read in the files that he was Steve's close childhood friend. Unfortunately, he didn't make it in an accident while fighting alongside Steve in World War II. "Let's move on to the next thing," Steve persuaded as he strolled over to another crazy invention made in the 1900s.
  "Is that a-...?" I began quizzically.
  So Steve let out a breathy chuckle as he nodded, "A toaster. It's what they used to look like."
  After examining the rusty invention, I turned my head and locked eyes on to the entertaining part of the store. With a smile, I bounded over to the toys and looked through all of them.
  I picked up an old, red, toy car that was pretty rusty and aged from use. Noticing that there was just a box of old toy cars, I knitted my eyebrows together in slight confusion, "Is this all you had to play with?"
  The shock in my tone was enough to get a soft laugh from Rogers but he just shrugged, "We were outside most of the time anyway."
  With a nod, I set the toy down then noticed all of the advertising photos. There was so much stuff made in the early nineteen-hundreds that I didn't know about, such as Kool-Aid, Double Bubble, even popsicles!
  When he noticed what I was looking at, he tested, "Do you know how much a popsicle used to cost?"
  Up for the guessing game, I pursed my lips and held my hand up to my chin in thought. I knew things weren't that expensive back then so I guessed half price of what they were worth now, "Fifty cents?"
  Steve simply shook his head and answered, "Five cents."
  My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. That was so cheap! Was everything that inexpensive? Almost with a pout, I muttered, "Can I go back to your time so you can show me around?"
  This got a wide smirk from the man as he assured me, "If you ever find a time machine, I would be happy to."
  "Awesome," I called with a grin. When we continued on, I found a chest that had old photos in it so I crouched down to flip through some of them. All of the photos were either black and white or a dark tan color. There were some women with children, some soldiers, and others were full family photos. However, a shiny object caught my attention so I pulled the metal out of the chest to find dog tags. My thumb found its way to the indented writing on the metal as I traced the name. "This is going to sound weird, but I really want to have dog tags one day," I admitted while staring at the information on the metal tag that was connected by a chain.
  Curious by the statement, Steve pondered, "What for?"
  After shrugging my shoulders, I explained, "I just think it's a good reminder of who you are... And - as depressing as it sounds - I think it's a way to show that you existed so you don't get lost in the mix of people that have lived before you and the people that will live after you."
  "Hey, guys. Do you want to leave soon?" Nat's bored voice chimed into the conversation. It was obvious that she hadn't heard us talking but I didn't mind changing the topic. 
  "Sure," I responded then stood away from the chest and began to walk after the rest of the Avengers. However, then I stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes were attracted to a sparkly, fringy dress next to a mannequin. An excited gasp left my lips as I grabbed the dress and ran off to the changing room. When I slipped on the dress, I peered in the mirror to look at myself in the 1920s outfit.
  The color of the dress was black and it was decorated with tassels from the top to the bottom. Surprisingly enough, the dress even fit me. The outfit went just below my knees but the fringe hung lower as it brushed against my shins. With a huge grin, I bounced out of the room to show the rest of the group.
  "How does it look, Steve?" I asked since he was the expert on the fashion of the period.
  There was a twinkle of familiarity in his eyes as he smiled and stated, "Besides the hair, you'd fit in perfectly with the 20's."
  A blush and a smile brightened my expression as I bowed my head, "Thank you very much, sir." After peering down at the tassels on the dress, I stepped toward Steve and demanded, "Spin me!" I wanted to see them fly but spinning myself wouldn't be fast enough - and I'd probably look ridiculous by myself.
  With a faint beam of amusement, Rogers took my hand and pulled me closer to him so he could spin me around easier. With his hand holding on to mine, he pulled my arm above my head and turned me so my body followed suit with a twirl. The fringe on the dress flew upward and flailed around the dress. The motion was whimsical and it caused a gleeful grin to spread across my face as I peered down. I was hypnotized by the magical flare that the dress had.
  When the spinning ceased, I breathed out, "Why did these ever go out of style?"
  "Guess the modern days couldn't handle how crazy it was back then," Rogers guessed with a baiting smile.
  In agreement, I dipped my head, "Yeah, no kidding..." Then I abruptly swung around in the dress which allowed the fringe to fly up one more time. I raced back to the changing room and switched out to my normal - boring compared to the dress - clothes. When I paced back out of the room, I noticed that everyone was pretty much ready so I followed after them. Honestly, I was pretty bummed to be leaving the store but we had a good time and I was going to remember that.
  "Okay, guys. I've held it in long enough," Clint started, his voice turning completely serious. Up until he exclaimed, "I'm starving! Can we please get something to eat?"
  "Like what?" Romanoff challenged.
  "We could grab something like pizza," Pepper suggested.
  My eyes widened as an idea came to mind, "SHAWARMA!"
  This got everyone's gaze on me. There were mixed emotions in the group such as shock, amusement, agreement, distaste, and other varying expressions.
  Finally, Barton chimed in with, "Dear lord... Are you sure you're not somehow related to Tony? If I didn't know you two, I would never think twice about Tony being your dad or something." This got a low buzz of laughter as the team seemed to agree.
  Completely caught off guard by the comment, my eyes widened, "What?"
  Figuring no one was going to add on to the statement, Pepper chimed in with a grin, "Well, I think shawarma sounds like an amazing idea." Then she placed her hand on my shoulder and the two of us took the leader to the nearest place that would sell the food. I forced the earlier conversation out of my head or else I'd be stuck in my mind all day. So, instead, I focused on the pleasureful thought of food in my belly.

(Wow... This was my longest chapter yet! Hoped you guys enjoyed! This was really just for Sam to get to know everyone and stuff. Plus it was fun to write. Hope it was fun to read! And thank you all so much!
~~~~~ LL2z)