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Clint knows ghosts aren’t real, but then why has he been hearing creepy things since he returned to the Tower?
The rogues had been pardoned and they had all returned to the Tower a few days ago. Stark didn’t really trust them, but that was understandable. When Clint found out what Steve had done to Tony in Siberia, he didn’t talk to him for over a week. At the time he was so furious, and he understood his mistake. Tony had forgiven most of them, but Steve, not so much. Not yet, at least.
Now, back to the topic. Clint knew that the rest of the avengers wouldn’t believe him when he said that the Tower was haunted, not without proof. That’s what brought him to right now; standing in the common room, in the dark, and staying as silent as possible.
Two hours later, Clint began to doze off, when he heard footsteps. He jolted awake, turning on his flashlight, and yelling, “Who’s there!”
It was just Wanda, “Clint? What’re you doing?”
“Uh… sleeping?” Wanda raised an unimpressed eyebrow, “Ok fine! I’ve been hearing noises at night, and I decided to investigate,” He leaned in closer to Wanda and said dramatically, “I think that the Tower is haunted.”
Wanda’s burst of laughter startled Clint, “What? It’s true!”
“Sure.” She said, still amused.
Clint fumed, “You don’t believe me? Fine! Stay here with me, and I’ll prove it to you.”
“You know what, I think I will.” Wanda answered, and sat next to Clint on the couch.
“Stay silent,” Clint said.
“Okay.” She said, still pretty amused.
He turned off the flashlight. A few minutes later, they heard footsteps, but it seemed as if someone was crawling instead.
“What was that?” Wanda whispered.
“I told you!” Clint whisper-shouted.
He tried to turn on the flashlight, but it wasn’t turning on.
“Turn on the lights!” Wanda whisper-shouted.
“I’m trying!” it still wasn’t working, so he told FRIDAY to turn them on instead.
No answer. The smattering of footsteps finally stopped, and when he tried to turn on his flashlight again, it turned on.
“What just happened?” Wanda asked.
“I told you the Tower is haunted!” He said.
“Uh… Clint?” Wanda said and pointed to the ceiling.
He followed her pointer, and what he saw made his blood chill. There was a red handprint on the ceiling, “Is that blood?”
Wanda whimpered, “I’m going to Vision’s room.” She said, and pretty much ran.
Clint followed her, but went to his own room instead. He kept the lights on and started searching about ghosts as much as he could. Maybe that’s why he was so jumpy the next morning.
When Clint went to the place where the handprint had been the next day, it was gone. The area was perfectly clean. Wanda entered the room right after, holding on to Vision.
“It’s right the-“Wanda began, pointing at the ceiling, but then her eyes widened, “Where’d it go?”
“I don’t know, it’s completely clean,” Clint said.
“What’s completely clean?” Sam asked. The others had all gathered to the living room by now, and Wanda and Clint told them what happened the night before.
“That’s a load of bull,” Sam said.
Wanda glared at him, “Then stay on the couch at night, and you’ll find out.”
“FRIDAY, did anything unusual happen last night?” Natasha asked.
“Nothing unusual, Ms. Romanoff,” FRIDAY replied.
“There, solved.” Nat said, “But it was a good idea to rope Wanda into the prank, I’ll give you that much birdbrain.”
“But we’re serious!” Clint yelled.
“I swear there was something here yesterday,” Wanda said.
“I believe her,” Vision stated, “She had rushed to my room the night before and I had never seen her so frightened.”
“You know what, I’ll humor you. I’ll come with you tonight. But when nothing happens, you owe me ice-cream,” Sam said.
“Deal,” Clint said.
“I’m coming too, just to make sure none of you hurt yourselves,” Steve stated.
“Yes!” Clint said, gleeful, “Bring candles, our flashlights stopped working when ‘the thing’ came.”
“Sure,” Sam said, “Just keep in mind our deal.”
Clint rolled his eyes.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
That night everything was in order. Everyone decided to stay in the common room with the lights off and three candles. Clint had brought a camera. Only Natasha and Bucky weren’t present. They all had agreed to stay silent, and half of them fell asleep within thirty minutes, but not Clint. He was alert, keeping an eye on anything and everything. Suddenly, he heard footsteps, and shook everyone awake with hushed whispers. By the time everyone came to, the footsteps had stilled.
“Who’s there,” Steve asked calmly.
“Hmrgh …” was their reply.
“FRIDAY?” Vision tried.
No response.
“Okay, I’ll admit it, that’s creepy.” Sam said with a very slight tremble in his voice, “Well done on your prank Clint.”
Everyone ignored him
Wanda was clinging on to Vision.
Clint made his way over to the voice, camera at the ready and Steve right behind him. He came closer and closer, and saw a dark figure huddled on the ceiling.
He shone the candle over the figure, but it hissed and scurried away on all fours. He took a picture before it completely got away though, but right as he clicked it, he felt a cold breeze, and the candle snuffed out. A few seconds later, the other two candles that were alight snuffed out too.
“What the hell,” Sam stated, “You were actually right.”
“I told you!” Clint said.
“FRIDAY, turn on the lights,” Vision said.
“Yeah, and FRIDAY, tell Nat and Buck to come over here now,” Steve said.
“Already done, Mr. Rogers,” Came her reply.
A few seconds later, Nat and Bucky came hurtling in, “What’s wrong?” Nat asked.
“The ghost, that’s what,” Sam replied.
“Oh, come on guys, there are no ghosts,” Bucky said exasperated.
“Show them the photo, Clint,” Sam said.
He did as he was told, and Bucky and Nat’s face scrunched up. They glanced at each other, and simultaneously looked up, “FRIDAY?”
“As I said yesterday, nothing unu- usua- al,” The lights flickered as FRIDAY’s voice faltered. Then it went completely dark and silent.
“It’s happening again,” Wanda whispered.
Nat got out her gun, from where, well, no one really knows. Bucky and Steve got into a fighting stance.
They heard the footsteps again, and the dark figure came back. It came out from the stairs, but was walking on the ceiling, not the ground.
“Who are you?” Nat shouted, “Stop being a coward and show yourself!”
And then it spoke, its voice low and gravelly, but with a little static, as if it was using a voice changer.
“I have been watching you,” It said, “I know it all. The betrayal… Siberia…” before he could say anymore, Tony had arrived.
“Kid, why is FRIDAY telling me you’re on the avenger’s floor? On second thought, why is it so dark in here? FRIDAY, be a dear and turn on the lights please.”
“NO!” The figure shouted, but it was too late, the light turned on and Peter, wearing his hello kitty pajamas and Spider-Man mask, was visible to everyone.
“Okay kid, what’s going on here? Why are they all looking frightened and confused and-“ he faltered when he saw Nat, “Nat! Put the gun down!”
“Mr. Stark!” He whined after taking off his mask, his voice sounding high pitched and young, “I was haunting them! You ruined it!”
“You were… haunting them?” Tony asked, and then glanced at the others, “Please tell me you guys didn’t fall for that.”
“Spider-Man’s our ghost” was all Clint could say, his mind malfunctioning.
“I got my butt kicked by a twelve year old,” Sam stated.
“I’m not twelve!” could be heard from the ceiling, but no one payed any mind to it.
“I dropped an airport hanger on a kid.” Steve said, a horrified look on his face.
“You what!?” Tony yelled, while Peter said at the same time, “I’m not a kid!”
“I got scared by a twelve year old,” Wanda said.
“I’m sorry sweetheart, but I promised Peter that I would not to tell anyone what he was doing,” Vision said, sounding as sorry as he could.
“I too promised to keep this a secret, however I must say that I was amused by everyone’s reactions,” FRIDAY backed up her older brother.
Nat and Bucky simply smirked.
Tony stared at them with an unreadable expression for a whole two seconds, and then he lost it. He laughed for at least two minutes straight, “Oh my god, you guys thought- HAH! Oh kid, you got them good, real good.” He chuckled, but managed to control himself.
“I know!” was his cheeky response, and then smiling mischievously at his mentor, he said, “By the way, you have a surprise for tomorrow too!”
That made Tony sober up, “Kid, what did you do?”
“… I may, or may not!... have done something to your coffee machine. Itwasnicemeetingeveryonebye! ” he shouted that last part at the Avengers, already running before Tony could grab him.
“Peter!” Tony hollered before following him back downstairs.
“What the heck just happened?” Sam asked.
“Tony got a kid, that’s what.” Nat answered with a small genuine smile on her face.