A/N

Vision is in this because rEaSOnS.

And Shipsrlife2 , there is a certain recurring theme that you might be able to pick up on. Just think carefully! (There just might be a few tiny alterations to our original idea).

***

"Two Threes." Maya said.

"One Four." Clint said.

"Three Fives." Carson said.

"BS." Olivia said. No one said anything. Carson just smiled and took the mound of cards.

"Ooh, ouch!" Clint said.

"One Six." Olivia said, starting a new pile.

"Two Sevens." Maya said.

"You guys, I'm done." Olivia said. Sure enough, she put down her last card.

"You should have said so earlier!" Clint complained, tossing his hand onto the table.

"I had to make sure no one called BS. Insurance." Olivia said, smirking.

"That was not even a six, was it?" Carson asked.

"Nope." Olivia replied, popping the 'P' in the word.

"How do you have such a good poker face?" Clint asked.

"Clint..." Carson said.

"Oh right. God of Trickery boyfriend." Clint replied.

"And you are oh for six, Popeye!" Maya said.

"You were just waiting to make that reference, weren't you?" Clint asked. They had played six games. Olivia had won four, Carson won two. Clint was usually a master at card games; it was his deck of cards, after all.

And, of course, the whole team was very much into Stranger Things. There had been a surplus of Eggos in the freezer and quoting in the halls as a direct consequence.

"Yep!" Maya said, collecting the cards. "Another game? Or should we not add another mark into the 'you suck' column?"

"Har dee har har." Clint said, snatching the deck and shuffling them. Then Tony burst in.

"Aaaaand the Halloween Meeting is in session! Head for the debriefing room." He said, before dashing out.

"Finally, I never thought he'd call that." Maya said.

Every few years, Tony spent time coming up with a theme for a group costume thing and assigning costumes/characters for each team member. Some say that gives him too much power, but he tried to be fair. And usually he was, surprisingly.

The four of them went to the meeting room where they had their pre-mission debriefings among other things. It worked best because of the many chairs, long table, and white board. The rest of the team was already there.

"Okay, Tony. Now can you tell us the theme now that the Card Sharks are here?" Bucky said.

"Yes I can. Now, I probably don't need to go over the rules, but this is new for Val over here."

"Trust me, it's super fun." Olivia assured her friend.

"Tonight, you get your characters, then tomorrow, we buy the costumes. You can typically get discounts and fast service because of who we are, but try and stay away from online stuff cause it won't get here in time. Any store in the state is fair game. Get creative! Buy the licensed costume bags that have everything, or buy your costume piece by piece. And NO ILLUSIONS." Tony directed that at Loki, who rolled his eyes in response. "We spend the whole day, then at night, we have a little photo shoot, then run the little Trick or Treat at the gym down the block. Everyone understand?" Everyone nodded.

"What's the theme?" Clint asked. Tony flipped the white board and in big bold letters was 'Stranger Things' on it.

"Awesome!" Maya said, excited.

"The character list is on the paper on the board." Tony said. The team got up and crowded around the paper.

"Why am I Alexei?" Bucky asked.

"Cause you speak Russian and you're really sweet once people get to know you. Plus, you like the Woody Woodpecker cartoons." Tony said. Bucky nodded as he understood.

"Suzie?" Maya asked.

"Peter's Dustin, it only makes sense." Tony said.

"If that is true, then why am I Robin?" Carson asked. "She does not even talk to Alexei."

"Cause you and Robin are really similar. And she's LGBT and so are you." Tony said. "You can even gender-bend it if you want."

"Seriously? You made ME Murray? The bald fat guy?" Val said.

"Oh, you mean the bald fat guy who hates kids and is always drinking vodka?" Tony said.

"I see your point."

"Wait, we're missing a member of the Scoops Troop, who's Erica?" Clint, who was assigned Steve Harrington, asked.

"Make-a-Wish kid or something, I don't know." Tony shrugged.

"You just didn't think that through, did you?" Wanda asked.

"I did so! Why else would Vision be Lucas and Pietro is Billy if you're Max?" Tony defended. Wanda sighed, but nodded.

"Wait, so Steve is my father?" Loki asked.

"You just assigned Steve Ted Wheeler because of 'Language' didn't you?" Maya asked.

"One, that also makes Nat your sister, and two, yes." Tony replied.

"And I'm Jonathan, so that makes Thor my brother." Bruce deduced.

"And Tony is my adoptive father?" Olivia asked.

"Yep! So keep the door open three inches, dammit." Tony said.

"Too soon, Tony." Clint said.

"Wait, we don't have a Joyce." Maya said.

"Pepper can be Joyce." Tony said.

"So Lady Pepper is my mother?" Thor asked.

"This is giving me a headache." Pietro said.

"Hey, try not to think about it much, this is a one night only thing, it's not like I'm actually adopting Olivia or Bruce and Thor are actually Pepper's kids." Tony said.

"Yeah, good thing. But who'd be Dr. Brenner in this case?" Olivia asked.

"*cough* Odin *cough*" Loki coughed. Olivia laughed at that statement and Thor glared at his brother.

"And exhibit A as to why I cast you two as Mike and El." Tony said. He waved his hands in circular motions in their faces. "Chemistryyyyy." Loki and Olivia glared at Tony.

"So should we do this in teams or...?" Nat asked.

"Maybe go in teams based on groupings. Like, the Scoops Troop goes together, couples go together, etc." Tony said.

"Then who'd I go with, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked.

"Couples take precedence. Go with Maya." Tony replied. "Okay, we're getting up first thing in the morning so you have plenty of time to search and sew if you need to. I'll put up an ad for a ten year old to be Erica tonight. Now go, plan, be free!"

***

~The Next Morning~

The first group up and out were the "Russian Guys and Extra Characters" squad, consisting of Bucky, Valkyrie, Steve, and Pietro. They immediately hit a local Thrift Store, finding all sorts of goodies.

Straight away, Bucky found a white shirt and glasses, Steve found a blue golf shirt and glasses, Pietro found a tank top, and Val found glasses and a long smock coat cape thing (Idk what it's called). They hit a different Thrift Store after and found the rest of what they needed.

On the other side of town, the Scoops Troop hit a local Party City, finding a Steve and Robin costume pretty quick.

"You gonna do the gender-bend idea?" Clint asked.

"I think I will alter the costume as I see fit." Carson replied.

Team Byers, consisting of Pepper, Tony, and Thor, went to a nice costume shop (Tony being Tony) to find their things. Pepper even decided on some LED lights that she'd wear. Tony tried to convince Thor to go with the "Will the Wise" look, but he found some Episode 1 Will style things and refused to budge.

Team Never-ending Story (Peter and Maya) first went through their closets in their houses and Aunt May's attic, Maya finding some big fake glasses in one of her drawers, and Peter happened upon a hat that looked exactly like Dustin's. Then, they went to a different Thrift Store than "RG&EC" group. They managed to scrape together the other components needed.

Team Lumax (Wanda and Vision) found themselves in a Spirit Halloween store for their costumes. Surprisingly, they found costume bags for Max and Lucas. Though, Wanda found a bandana for Vision when they realized the bag didn't come with one. She tied it around his head when they left the store.

Team Mileven woke up last (Olivia sleeps in on a normal day, but she and Loki stayed up late the previous night working magic), but in reality, they didn't need to do much. Tony said no illusions, but he never said they couldn't conjure the actual costumes. They were done within ten minutes, not even needing to leave the Tower. Through, just for the sake of it, they had lunch at a local Noodles and Company (Buttered Noodles and grilled chicken without the seasoning be👌).

As far as Nat and Bruce, Nat dug through a box of old disguises from past missions and managed to scrape together two costumes that looked pretty accurate. Bruce didn't question how she had men's clothes that fit him.

Around 5 PM, the rest of the team returned to the Tower, showing off their finds to everyone. Tony did get a little suspicious when Olivia and Loki had costumes that looked a little too accurate, but he didn't press. The costumes were tangible, non illusions, so...

A little girl named Mackenzie was the one Tony picked to be Erica. Her mother was a little worried about how late it would go (a girl has to Trick or Treat, you know), but Steve promised her that she would just be there for the team photo shoot, then be sent home with the costume Pepper made.

The team put on their costumes and set to work. They took recreations of iconic scenes from the show (using Green Screens, of course), a few standouts being:

~Tony saved a bunch of Eggo boxes and had Olivia recreate the scene where El takes the bunch from the convince store.

~There was one where Pepper was hugging Thor really tightly. Loki couldn't stop laughing from behind the camera because Thor was so much taller than Pepper.

~Tony managed to smuggle some old S.H.I.E.L.D. tech from one of their storage facilities so Peter and Maya could recreate the 'Never-Ending Story' scene with accurate communication equipment.

~There was a picture taken of the whole Scoops Troop that was pretty cute, and then one of Clint and Carson looking deflated as one might when working at an ice cream place at the mall over the summer.

~Bucky and Valkyrie looked like they were in a carnival, Bucky looking super excited with a giant Woody Woodpecker toy (again) Tony had found during the day.

There were definitely others taken. Of course, there was lots of shipping material for both characters and people in the costumes (Tony not-so-accidentally dropping off an envelope to Thor with the Mileven pictures inside). They eventually sent Mackenzie on her way, then drove to the local Rec Center where they hosted their little Halloween Trick or Treat for the kids who come from bad neighborhoods.

It's not exactly a huge deal. The team just sort of sets up tables around the gym and had bowls with assorted candies to pass around. It was fun and the kids loved it.

Because that's what heroes do.

***