I don't think I failed Calc!!! YAAAAAAY!!!! (I still might have hahaha)

Sorry I don't have time for a nice fancy edit :( :(

Ily all!

I finished planning out the last two books, and I'm just telling you, get pumped. It's gonna be epic.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

~Nobody's POV~

Peter and Max walk through the street towards the Calen's apartment building at around noon. It's a beautiful day, despite the circumstances, with the cold temperatures nicely balanced by a sunny sky. Max is on the phone, talking in a heated voice with his brother, who is due back in New York that evening, and Peter's hands are in his pockets dejectedly. To Peter, this entire search has been fruitless, like looking for a needle in three haystacks, one for each realm.

As the two men walk into the apartment building, Max swiping his identification, Peter's phone vibrates. Peter doesn't even need to look to see who is texting him.

From: Jack

anything?

From: Peter

nope; ky's coming back tonight though

From: Jack

bloody hell

Peter pockets his phone and follows Max up three flights of stairs. They technically could use the elevator, but for both of them, the exercise gives them something worthwhile to do.

"Yeah, talk to you later, just make sure...yeah, okay, bye," Max hangs up, and like Peter, shoves his phone away. Taking a deep breath as they walk down the hall, Max says, "This isn't doing a damn thing. And now Angelique's not picking up her phone either?"

"She could just be busy," points out Peter.

"She was supposed to take the apartment watch, not watch Gilmore Girls," says Max, "She should be picking up the phone."

"Relax, I'm sure it's nothing," says Peter.

At that moment, they open the door.

"I take that back," says Peter.

Nothing appears ridiculously out of the ordinary, except for the fact that in the hallway leading to Thea's room, there are pieces of paper and photos strewn around; and in the kitchen, Klaka is whimpering shrilly. The half-wolf, which has grown quite big in the past month, is lying on the ground, blood running down his shoulder from a gaping wound.

"Peter, call Bruce," says Max, hurrying to Klaka. The dog whimpers, and feebly licks Max's hand with his sandpaper tongue. Max strokes the top of Klaka's head, stands, and then strides into Thea's room. Peter follows quickly, his phone held to his ear.

"Dear God," says Peter.

Thea's room is a mess. The paper and photos have fallen from her nightstand, littering the carpet. Her lamp has crashed, the lightbulb cracked and the shade smashed against the bed. The dresser across from her bed, which usually houses Thea's books and assorted knick-knacks looks as though it got slammed by something heavy; books, shoes, and Thea's jewelry box have fallen off the shelves. The corner of the rug has been mussed and rolled up.

While Peter speaks hurriedly on the phone, Max walks carefully around the room, his eyes darting around. Although Kyle is more skilled at deducting crime scenes, Max is fairly experienced too. He reaches under the bed, feels, and finds nothing. Running his hands through his hair, he then opens the first drawer of her nightstand and finds it empty as well.

Standing up, Max looks around the room again; at this moment, Peter hangs up the phone.

"Bruce is on his way, and I think he's bringing Tony and Natasha," says Peter, "What do you think happened here?"

Max points to under the bed, and then the nightstand, "Her dagger is gone, and so is her box, where she keeps all of her valuables. Thea was here."

"Yeah, well someone else was too."

Max groans, blinking, trying to clear his head, "I need Kyle over here. Or someone, I just can't think right now."

"I'm calling Jack, if you need me," says Peter.

"That's probably a bad idea you know," says Max, "He'll ditch school."

"He'll also get really mad if we don't tell him right away," says Peter.

Max shrugs with a resolving manner.

Jack picks up on the second ring, "This better be important, because I'm skipping out of physics on the pretense that you're my beloved great-grandmother."

"Thea's room is disturbed," says Peter, nipping Jack's sass in the bud, "She's been in here, but someone has been in here too, someone who didn't get along with her. Klaka's hurt."

"Thea was there?" demands Jack, dropping the sass immediately, "How do you know?"

"Her dagger is gone, and so is her treasure box."

"Couldn't someone have taken that, the same person who hurt Klaka?"

"No," says Peter, who hadn't thought of that, and wished he had, "No."

"Why bloody not?"

"Because," says Peter, then groans, "I don't know, maybe you're right."

"Of course I'm bloody right. I'll be right over there."

"Hey no, Max said that you-"

The dial tone beeps in Peter's ear.

"Jack's coming here, isn't he?" asks Max. He has sat down at the edge of Thea's bed, and is speaking with his head in his hands.

"Yep," says Peter, "Could the person who did this also have taken Thea's stuff?"

"Sure," says Max, his voice still muffled, "That's a possibility."

Peter looks at the shelves, with all of Thea's belongings scattered, "But look at all of this. It wasn't searched, I mean it could have been, but the distance from this stuff to the shelf tells me that it got knocked down. Someone slammed into it. There was a fight. And what about Angelique? None of her stuff is here."

"She's not answering her phone either. Plus, this place wasn't broken into; the door was locked this morning, and Angelique had the spare key."

Peter glances at the window, which is tightly closed. "I'm gonna look around to see if there's any other way someone could have broken in."

Privately, Peter already knows that he won't find anything, but he needs to occupy his brain with something, so he leaves Max sitting on Thea's bed with his hands still over his face.

Bruce, Tony, and Natasha arrive ten minutes later, and Bruce has hardly hurried over to Klaka before Clint and Jack burst through the doorway as well.

"Okay," says Tony, striding into Thea's room (as Jack follows and sees the mess, he lets fly a curse word), "Let's have a look-see. What time was Angelique supposed to get here?"

"Early," says Natasha, "Her last text to me was two hours ago."

Tony crouches down at the jewelry box, books, and shoes on the ground beneath the shelves, the same stuff that had captured Peter's attention. "And no signs of a break-in?"

"Nope," says Peter, "Nada. Everything's either shut or locked."

Tony nods, looking around the room; Natasha, Clint, and Jack follow suit. While Natasha and Clint follow Tony over to the shelves, Jack walks over to the pieces of paper and photos scattered from the nightstand out into the hallway. Two seconds later, he shouts, "Oy!"

When everyone turns to look at him, Jack holds up a piece of paper, and says triumphantly, "It's from Thea!" He begins to read out loud, as the rest peer over his shoulder.

Whoever is reading this,

I'm not dead, I promise I'm fine. I know You're probably going crazy right now, looking for mE. I got kidnapped, but not by someone who wantS me dead. I can't tell you who it is, either. It's literally not possible. But I can't come home either, because he is looking for me too. I can't tell you much, because I don't want any of you to get hurt. I'm with Videl right now, I hope it's okay I can say that. But he's not trying to Kill me at the moment, and honestly, he's not going to. But I'm fine. Please don't send half the National Guard looking for me, because that's just going to make things more dangerous for us and for You. I want to come home. I'll be home as soon as I can. Jack: Taylor Swift

-Thea

"She left a message!" crows Jack, snatching the paper away from Peter, who has been staring at it.

"Yes, obviously, we see that," says Tony.

"No, this," Jack points to a line of the letter, Jack: Taylor Swift. "It's a code that Thea and I had. Taylor Swift hides messages in her songs by capitalizing some random letters in her lyric book. So did Thea!"

"What's it say?" asks Max.

Jack's eyes scan the paper quickly. "Yes...Ky..." He frowns, "That's it. Yes, Ky."

"Well what's that supposed to mean?" demands Max, "'Yes Ky?'" That could mean anything!"

"This piece of paper is from the Mariott in Vancouver, British Columbia," says Peter, "Videl must have brought her from there to here. She was trying to leave a note."

"So then Videl attacked her?" asks Max, his voice rising, "Is that what-"

"Calm down, bud," says Clint, crossing his arms, "I don't think so. Why would he hurt Klaka then?"

"I don't-"

"And besides, if it were Videl, Klaka would have been drained of blood," points out Jack, "Klaka has a dagger wound."

"Videl had daggers," says Max.

"Think this through," says Clint, "If Videl has gone through all this trouble to help Thea, why would he kill her now? And he would have taken the note too."

"What are you suggesting then?" asks Max.

"Here's what he's suggesting. Actually, it's what I'm suggesting, but nuance," says Tony, "Videl and Thea came here to leave this note, and Thea also got her dagger and bag from the nightstand. I suspect the next order of events was that Angelique came in and found them. But then, whoever attacked them came too, and there's no sign of break-in because we've already determined that the person is a sorcerer of some sort. There was a fight, which, based on all this crap, was just between 'him' (probably the same person that kidnapped Thea) and Thea herself. Someone was slammed into the shelf, probably Thea, based on the height, and both of them tussled on the ground, based on that carpet. More than likely, Videl Jaunted Thea, Angelique, and himself out of here."

"How do we know Thea's alive?" asks Max.

"And what does 'Yes, Ky' mean?" asks Jack.

Tony nods towards Max, "We don't, for sure, but there's no blood." He looks at Jack, "And I have no idea. We're going to have to talk to Kyle about that."

"In the letter, Thea said that the person who kidnapped her wasn't trying to kill her," says Peter, "Then why'd 'he' attack her?"

"Maybe Thea wasn't going quietly," suggests Natasha. "Knowing Thea, she wouldn't. And maybe the person who kidnapped her is different from the person who just attacked her. I doubt it, but it's possible."

"He came in through the bedroom door," says Peter, "So he came in through the apartment regularly, through the front door, most likely, explaining why he hurt Klaka."

"How'd he come through the door and then shut it, locking it from the outside, from the inside?" asks Jack.

Peter wiggles his fingers in the air, "Magic."

"Great," says Max, "Well, we're nowhere. Thea came here to leave us this note, and then got attacked. We don't even know if she's alive."

"The only way she'd be dead is if Videl and Angelique died too," points out Natasha, "Like Tony said, there's no blood."

"He's a sorcerer," says Max, "He could have cleaned all that up."

"Then why'd he leave this mess?" asks Peter, gesturing to the stuff in Thea's room.

Max shrugs. He doesn't have an answer for it.

"I think the most important thing we need to think about is whether or not we're going to listen to Thea's note," says Tony.

Jack immediately looks fiery, "Was that even a question? Of course we should listen to it."

"She just got attacked!" says Max, "She needs help!"

"Yeah, well she also just said that us looking will make things worse for her. Which it could. The government is tricky, and if we're using those resources, then whoever is looking for her can tap into our intel."

Bruce pokes his head in the doorway, then widens his eyebrows when he sees the mess in the room, "I'm taking Klaka back to the lab. You guys can take Clint's car back, right?"

"Sure thing, Banner," says Tony.

"Will Klaka be okay?"

"If he were a normal dog, he'd be dead by now," says Bruce, "But he's not a normal dog, so I'm going to have to go with the fact that he's going to make a full recovery, provided I can get him some treatment, stat. Catch me up about Thea when you get back for me, would you?"

"We gotcha," says Peter.

The debate starts up again as soon as Bruce leaves the room.

"I have to agree with Jack," says Natasha.

"You're kidding," says Max.

"More serious than Regulus's brother," says Jack.

"This isn't the time for Harry Potter references, Jack," says Clint.

"All times are Harry Potter time," says Jack, "Always."

Peter snorts.

Max looks like he's about to kill Jack, so Jack has the presence to look apologetic.

"Max, I can't believe I'm going to say this," says Tony, "But I think Jack is right, "If Thea asked us to lie low, then we're not going to do any favors by not doing that."

"This is Thea we're talking about! The same girl who tried to walk into an Imeldi camp to save her sister!"

Jack coughs surreptitiously.

"Thea's not thirteen anymore," says Peter.

"She's FOURTEEN."

"Well, yes," amends Peter, "But she's also a lot smarter than she was a year ago. She knows by now when she needs help."

"Really? You didn't see her over the summer," says Max.

"Think about this," says Tony, steering the conversation away from shark-infested waters, "Videl would have had to agree to take Thea here. Evidently, he thinks this note is worth it too."

"Did you actually just suggest that if I'm not going to take Thea's word for it, I'm gonna go ahead and take Videl's word for it?"

"Fair point," says Tony, "But there's a reason that Videl is in on this in the first place."

"And I'd really like to know what that reason is," says Max.

"So would I," says Tony, "But apparently, Thea can't tell us much. We all know she would if she could, so I think that she physically can't. So it's a spell."

"Neidra?" asks Clint.

"The note said 'he'," says Jack.

"What Asgardians are sorcerers?" asks Clint.

"There are plenty," says Tony, "I don't happen to have a roster, if that's what you're asking."

"We'll contact Thor," says Natasha, "And he get in on that. He also needs to get onboard the whole Ardhigiza mess."

"What mess?" asks Peter.

"You know, the whole, 'Our beloved young leader got brutally killed' mess," says Tony.

"Ah," says Peter, nodding, "That mess."

"And I'm going to call Kyle," says Max, "Maybe he has something. But my guess is, probably not. Thea would have been careful, and vague."

"She put it there knowing we'd understand it," says Natasha.

"Do you understand it?" asks Max testily.

Natasha knows that Max's temper is short when he is stressed and worried, so she responds calmly, "No. But we'll get it figured out. Thea wants to come home. She'll come home soon."

Hope you liked it :) I know y'all like to know how the 'Vengers are doing :)

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