Battle of the Bands//IronStrange//

2

After school, Tony and his friends piled into his nice Jeep and drove to his small house in the suburbans of their town. He lived with his adopted aunt May and her nephew Peter, a freshman that hung out with Tony's group a lot. The teens pulled up to the small house, My Chemical Romance blasting from the car's speakers.

  Tony unlocked the door to his house and waltzed in, waving to Aunt May while she cleaned up the kitchen. "We're gonna hang out in the garage, May," Tony informed her. She nodded and the boys went to the garage,  which was Tony's room.

  The garage walls were covered in miscellaneous band posters, including but not limited to Blink-182, Green Day, and even The Offspring. An old drum set stood in a corner farthest away from the kitchen door and had random shirts thrown on it. Tony's double bed was placed on the same wall as the drum set, and lay unmade. A workbench with random tools and papers strewn across it sat by the door. Christmas lights hung all around the room. The garage looked quite homey and aesthetically pleasing.

  Tony dropped his bag by his workbench then plopped on his bed. Thor sat on the rolly chair  by the workbench, his old but loved bass that had scratched up stickers decorating it sitting in his lap. Bruce sat on the bed by Tony and Loki just stood there with his guitar resting on his back.

  "Explain to me again why you guys can play guitar? Not that is a bad thing of course," Tony questioned the two Odinsons in the room. Loki smirked and moved his guitar so he could pluck the strings.

  "Father wanted us to learn at least one instrument. He didn't specify which one," the goth said pleasantly, fingers tapping against his metallic green electric guitar. Thor nodded and chuckled, "I'm sure he would've preferred we learn piano or violin, but oh well."

  Tony nodded and grinned a bit at Thor's comment. "Who's singing?"

"What?" Bruce asked.

"Probably you because you have no other skills," Loki replied laughing under his breath.

"Well, how do we know if he even has vocal skills?" Thor questioned.

"Hey, I give a very awesome concert in the shower!" Tony exclaimed defending himself.

"It's true, I've walked in on him a few times," Loki said.

"Perv."

"Then show us your singing abilities, Tony," Thor chuckled and handed Tony a mic from off the workbench. Tony took the mic and turned it on, then nodded towards Loki to play something.

Loki grinned and started the intro to What's My Age Again? by Blink-182. Tony belted our the lyrics, his voice slightly more gravelly than normal, but it went well with the song. Thor and Bruce stared at the punk in astonishment, then Bruce ran to the drum set and played along. Tony was an amazing singer!

-

Strange was walking home from Hell-I mean school. His earbuds were in, blasting Waterparks, as he fiddled with their cord. Suddenly a rusty pickup pulled up beside him, pulling him out of his own little world. The window to the pickup rolled down, showing Peter-Quill's overly happy face. God, the dude radiated annoyance.

"Hey Strange! We were wondering if you'd like to practice with the band today, considering you're our new member?" The ginger asked.

"Umm sure, do you have an extra guitar though? My house is kinda far away," Strange said, his suaveness hiding his slight anxiety. He did not want these guys to see his apartment.

"Totally! Here, hop in dude!"

Strange got in the pickup, his music forgotten. Drax was driving, which Strange suspected was better than Peter-Quill at the wheel. 70s music was wafting from the old cassette playing radio, Peter mouthing along to with lyrics.

They pulled up to a decent sized house in a suburban neighbourhood. The three guys jumped out of the truck and walked in, Drax and Peter talking animatedly about something or other, Strange wasn't really paying attention. His eyes roamed around the quaint house, it was grey and white and had flowers growing all around it. Strange doubted he could get used to it.

They all went to the basement of the house, which kinda reminded Strange of Eric's basement from That 70s Show. There were band posters covering almost all the wall space and an old, lumpy couch sitting against the staircase. A drum set sat near the centre of the room and three guitar stands were placed around it. It was an overall nice room, at least to Strange.

"Make yourself at home, dude. There's cokes in the cooler over there," Peter-Quill gestured toward a small cooler beside the washing machine, "Our bassist is on his way here with his boyfriend. You're cool with gay people, right?"

"Of course. I'm pan, anyway." Strange said whilst grabbing a Diet Coke from the cooler.

"Ah cool! Our bassist's name is Wade, by the way. He's a freshmen, but he's pretty neat..." Strange blocked out the rest of the ginger's rambling as the looked at the pretty orange coloured guitar resting on one of the stands. It had a few scratches on it, but those added to its character.

Drax noticed Strange looking at the guitar and grinned, "How about you play us something, show us your skill."

Peter-Quill grinned too and agreed, gesturing for Strange to pick up the guitar and play a riff or something. Strange nodded and set down his Coke, then grabbed the beautiful guitar.

He started with the beginning of Bang Bang by Green Day, which earned a pleased nod from Drax, then moved to First Date by Blink-182. His fingers moved artfully across the strings, a look of unfiltered joy on his face. He felt at peace when he played, as if he were in a different dimension. Music was his valued escape.

Once he finished, Drax and Peter clapped excitedly. They had found the perfect dude to play lead guitar in their band.

"So, what's your band called?" Strange asked while setting the guitar back on the stand.

Peter grinned at the question. "We call ourselves the Guardians," he answered.