Yay! The second part of my Romanogers Civil War Universe has arrived. Read the first one before you start with this. I hope you enjoy it!
In this part I'm bringing in some characters who are not and will most likely never be part of the MCU, including Hawkeye's trainee in the comic and later an Avenger Kate Bishop and the Fantastic Four. I don't do the X-Men, I'm sorry. You get to know the teams in this part.
I am warning you: violence, sadness, death
I still own nothing, didn't manage to get rich in the meantime ;)
„No! Why would you even be here, if not for justice?", Wanda Maximoff's fist hit the table. Susan Richards, The Invisible Woman, sighed and faced the ground: „I just don't think this is a good idea. Why shall we fight our friends, comrades?"
Wanda swallowed hard: „Don't you see? There is no other way. Times of talking are over –it's too late!"
Susan gritted her teethand looked up: „I won't fight my husband…"
A wave of red rushed over the eyes of the Scarlet Witch: „You're not the only one who has to do things you don't want to… the New Avengers split up too. I know Vision and Rhodey, but they decided to betray us."
Susan glared at her brother, The Human Torch, searching for help. Johnny Storm hesitated but then raised his voice: „Susan's right… I know Reed for a long time. We are the Fantastic 4. The number is part of the name. We split up too –so, who are we now?"
Kate Bishop sat in silence besides Bruce Banner. Like the doctor she didn't really want to be part of that discussion. As the trainee of Clint Barton she had known Captain America from the beginning of her training. Since she had taken over the titel ‚Hawkeye' and joined the New Avengers she had responsability. She trusted her captain and didn't want to question his intentions.
Wanda didn't know how to respond, but at the other end of the table Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man, spoke up, putting his feet down from the table: „This isn't about friendship! Nobody even mentioned the Superhuman Registration Act yet, even though it's why we are here. We all have loved ones, but we also have enemies. It's not the best idea to introduce them to each other."
The Invisible Woman turned to face Scott: „I didn't ask you… you are just a criminal!"
Scott sood and pushed his chair back: „I am over it! And I am turning against the man who helped me on my way to a normal life. Hank Pym made me a hero, but I let him down for my daughter's safety."
Johnny crossed his arms: „How do you know this is the way to achieve that?"
Captain America coughed slightly. All eyes switched to the corner by the door: „Is that what a team is supposed to do?" No one dared to give an answer.
Steve stepped forward until he reached the table accompanied by Natasha. He surveyed the arguing superheroes for a moment then spoke up again: „I know how you feel. We all have friends who turned against us or refused to help us, but still –we are all here now. There has to be something inside us –even if it's just a feeling –that gives us the strength to be here, together. I won't force you to stand by my side and fight the Superhuman Registration Act, but before you leave, think about your families, your friends, everyone you love. The public will just have to open Google to find out everything about you and about them. You maybe don't care, if your neighbor or the friendly lady in the cafe 'round the corner knows, but what if your enemies know?
What if they pay your relatives, your kids or probably your girlfriend a visit? For Tony Stark it may be to late to care about that. The whole world knows he's Iron Man and he wrote his name on the outside of his home –as large and shiny as possible. He doesn't know what it's like to flee in the shadows of anonymity. I won't pretend that I know, but I am sure most of you do and that shouldn't be taken away from you. And I swear to you –I will fight for the right to not only be a hero, but also a person, a human being. And if it costs my life so be it. If it makes the world a better place, I would gladly die for it."
The room was deadly silent again. Steve furrowed his brow: „So? I don't see you leaving…" Scott was the first one to answer: „I guess we will stay…"
Captain America smiled at his team, as the Falcon looked at him: „So? What's the plan?"
Steve looked around him: „I got a message from Tony. He wants to talk about it to find a compromise, but I'm not sure about that. The last time we talked he kicked me out of his tower. He didn't even want to hear about the cons of the Superhuman Registration Act. He asked Natasha to join his team as well as most of you, I guess. I'm afraid they will attack us, when we meet them where Tony suggested, but sooner or later we won't be able to avoid each other any more. I really hope Tony made up his mind and wants to talk, but it doesn't seem like that unfortunately. If you are not willing to protect the right to privacy, you can leave, if you are… then you will have to fight for it."
Most of the doubt that had been clearly visible in the faces of the heroes minutes ago was gone. Now it was replaced with courage and determination. They were prepared and Steve was too. They were ready to face Tony Stark.
Tony was pacing at the meeting spot. They were late and that bothered him. Captain America was never late. Tony's followers had been watching him for a while already. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, was getting nervous as well. He was eyeballing Rhodey for the fifth time already.
Rhodey sighed and removed the faceplate of the War Machine suit to face Tony, who wasn't wearing his helmet: „Maybe they are smart enough to not come here." Tony stopped and faced his friend: „That'd be so unlike Steve… they will come, you will see."
„But what if…", Rhodey was interrupted by the impatient voice of Tony Stark who was now talking to Hank Pym over his earpiece: „Hank? Are there any signs of Captain America and his team?"
Hank checked on the monitors again: „No, I'm sorry, Stark. Not anywhere near you."
Tony cursed under his breath and faced his people again. There was worry on their faces and indisposition. Mr. Fantastic's nervousness had turned into something near panic –even if he wasn't showing it a lot, Tony could tell.
Rhodey was still suveying Tony with that concerned stare.
Hope van Dyne hid the wings of her Wasp-costume. She had her arms crossed and shifted from one foot to another. She still wasn't exactly comfortable with Scott being on the other side of the law, but she couldn't leave her father.
Even The Vision, who was calm and thoughtful most of the time looked worried in his own way.
Tony sighed softly: „Look… I know this seems silly, but there is still a chance to stop all of that. Maybe they will see, that the Act won't hurt anyone. And this meeting is that chance."
Tony's team colleagues shared looks with each other, then Hope nodded and eyed Iron Man again: „But Tony… what if you won't be able to convince them? Those are our friends and partners."
„I know… and I don't want to fight them, none of us does, but it is a mistake to let things be. This will reduce danger, neutralize threats in a way that doesn't destroy the world even more. And it has to be implemented. And if they want a fight, we won't deny them one!"
Hope just nodded again and eyed the ground –Tony was right. The act would improve the methods of crime fighting in the USA, maybe it would even affect the whole world.
Hank Pym's voice over the earpieces ended the silence: „Tony. I see a group of people coming in your direction."
„Thank you, Hank", was Tony's response after a second. He took a step in the direction the others were supposed to come from and watched the corner closely.
After what felt like an eternity several pairs of boots were making their way towards the small gourp of waiting heroes. Tony's eyes fixed on Steve, who was wearing his Captain America suit, his shield fixed to his back.
Right in front of Tony, Steve stopped and looked the other man in the eye: „So? We are here, like you asked us to be."
Tony surveyed the heroes who were with Steve standing right behind him, then gazed back at Captain America: „I hope you are here to cooperate…"
Steve crossed his arms in front of his chest: „I am… but that will only work, if you are too."
Tony raised an eyebrow: „Depends on the definition, you know?"
Steve sighed: „I already told you, what I think of the Registration Act and I haven't changed my mind."
Tony chewed on his bottom lip: „Please. Can't you see it? This will help superheroes and not hinder them. The government will help us –EVERY government will help us and they will give information about every situation, be it political or social or whatever."
Steve's blue eyes bored into Tony's brown ones: „I see how this can be helpful, but all that information can be turned against us, too. This will destory all justice that's left in this world. When the government doesn't want us to find a criminal they will push us in the wrong direction. Everyone will see where our families live. Tony… think about Pepper!"
Tony eyed the ground for a few moments, but then turned to Steve with strength in his expression again: „I won't back down because of that pathetic speech of yours!"
„I'm just protecting my fellow superheroes… the act is based on the believe that superheroes are a danger to the people- to the system. It is the wrong way to peace. The act is just another step to total control- it will cause more fear than safety."
Tony's expression was pleading by now: „Please… let me explain it to you just one more time- You'll see, it ain't that bad."
Steve sighed: „Times of talking are over, Stark." He gestured behind him with one hand and before Tony could even answer, two electrodes hit the torso of his suit. A moment later electromagnetic waves were sent through the Widow's bites. Tony could feel the full weight of the suit on his body now and his repulsors began fluttering: „What? How…?"
A small smile reached Steve's lips: „Sometimes it's good to be friends with Susan Richards… Because she knows how suits like yours work."
Tony had to think about a way to keep his suit working- and he had to find one soon. The others on his team didn't want to see their leader struggle like that. Hope instantly pulled the Widow's bites away from the suit and threw them away. The repulsors slowly steadied again and Tony leveled his hand at Cap. A glaring beam of blue light flashed through the air and hit the shield a moment later.
With ease Captain America caught his shield and fixed it to his arm again. Tony seized the moment and activated his foot repulsors. Fast as lighning he hurtled towards Cap and pushed him back, away from his team. Steve turned and hit the ground, shield first. It worked as kind of a sledge and protected Steve from the concrete ground and the silver color of metal appeared again under the red, white and blue. A huge scar stretched across the silver star at ist center.
Just at the right moment Cap raised the shield and dodged another beam of azure light, reflecting it back to the chest unit of the Iron Man suit.
It all happened too fast for Natasha. When she was about to run after Steve a petite hand wrapped around her ankle. She was pulled upwards trying to protect her head with her metal bracers. The Black Widow struggled, but she couldn't break free. At a venture Natasha shot her Widow's bites up in the air in order to hit her attacker, but the electonical spots returned to her arm almost immediately, because they were flying higher, faster. Natasha had to stop this before they were going to be too far from the ground. She took a deep breath and swung herself up and punched her attacker in the belly. The Wasp let out a scream and bit her lip: „I swear! I'll drop you and you'll be just gunk on the concrete!" Nat continued dithering: „Fine! I bet you won't, Hope!"
A second later Hope screamed again, her face twisted in agony. Natasha looked up at her in confusion, when she heard Scott's voice: „Sorry, Hope. But we won't let that happen!" Hope yelled and let go of Natasha when Scott punched her again. Quickly she shrinked down to ant size too.
Natasha felt herself falling. In horror she watched the gound coming closer and closer. Preparing herself for the crash Natasha closed her eyes when suddenly the wind stopped and she found herself in Sam's arms: „Missed me, Romanoff?" Natasha couldn't hide the grin slowly forming on her lips: „You got that from Tony's bad influence? You're a little late, Wilson."
„I can still drop you if you insist…" Natasha chuckled softly as Sam sat her down on the street: „Thanks…"
The Falcon gave her a quick nod before he lifted himself off the ground, following Rhodey.
Natasha gazed after Sam for a second, then she looked around herself. Everyone was gone. Steve was nowhere to be seen and that's what worried her. She quickly headed in the direction she last saw him. In the distance she saw two figures, the Iron Man suit shining in the sunlight. Natasha started increasing speed when a spider's web fixed her left foot to the ground. Nearly losing her balance Natasha stumbled, but didn't fall. „What the…?" She quickly stooped to free herself, when a pair of boots appeared in front of her: „Pretty impressive, isn't it?"
In confusion the Black Widow eyed the slender figure of the boy standing in front of her. He had a red and blue suit on, which had a black spider on its chest. He was wearing a mask the same red as his suit and with the same black pattern that looked like the spider's web, he just threw at her somehow. The eyes on the mask were too big for a human's face and also looked like a spider's, or like an insect one's.
The young man crossed his arms, he seemed to be waiting for an answer from Natasha. On top of his knuckles sat little machines, that looked like her Widow's bites, but smaller. Natasha gritted her teeth when she saw a single word written on the black boxes, one letter on each finger. The same five letters on both of the boy's hands forming the word STARK.
Natasha stared at his hands for another second, then she looked him in the face, eying the big silver spiderorbs: „Who the hell are you?"
The boy started laughing: „I am Spiderman, and you are the Black Widow, so I'm going to make sure, you won't eat me!"
Natasha rolled her eyes and stood up: „Listen, kid… I don't know, what you want from me, but I will go and help Steve now, so get out of the way."
The Black Widow started walking past the boy, but another web pinned her feet together and made her fall over: „What's your problem?"
Spiderman looked down at her: „I can't let you… Tony's orders!" Natasha clenched her teeth: „Fine, kid… you make me do it." She raised one hand and shot her Widow's bites at Spiderman, who immediately jumped. The Widow's bites missed the boy and landed uselessly on the ground.
„Not cool!", the boy screamed in protest and shot another web in Natasha's direction. This time the spy managed to roll out of the way, while she kicked her feet in an attempt to get rid of the sticky gossamer gluing her shoes together.
Instead of getting the web off she managed to make her hands sticky with it. The boy, who called himself Spiderman, now grabbed her hands and pinned them to the ground. He was much stronger, than he looked and Natasha was surprised by that, but she still had more experience in fighting and kicked him away, both feet hitting his stomach. Hurried Natasha pulled herself to her feet. She shot the Widow's bites at the boy again, but he reacted immediately and shot the shockers down, before they reached him. Then he ran at the Black Widow and blocked her weapons with webs. In dibelief Natasha stared at her bracers. She glanced up at Spiderman a second later: „How the hell are you so fast? Are you fucking Lucky Luke?!"
Spiderman chuckled: „Almost, babe! Spider senses."
Natasha sighed and drew her guns: „Fine! Then we'll do it the oldfashioned way." Spiderman just smirked and watched her: „Really? I thought you would be better, little Spider-Girl."
Natasha gritted her teeth: „Shut the hell up!"
Spiderman was about to say something, when he suddenly jumped. An arrow hit the ground, where he stood before. The boy's feet touched the ground again and immediately he turned. With his Spidersenses it was no big deal for him to make out the position of the shooter. He stared at Kate, who was standing on a rooftop, for a second, then he shouted: „Hey! You missed!" Kate grinned: „No… I never miss!"
Confused Spiderman turned around to face the arrow again, but before he realised the explosive in the tip went off and the boy was slung away and part of his uniform was ripped, when he landed a few feet away. The Black Widow seized that chance and freed herself immediately. She leveled her guns at Spiderman and shot a few times. One bullet hit his shoulder, but he managed to get to his feet and dodge the others. Now it was much more difficult to dodge all the attacks with Kate firing all kinds of arrows at him.
Steve ducked behind a piece of rubble and held his shield up protectively in front of him. Tony was shooting at him without a break, mercyless. Steve remained in his shelter waiting patiently for the right moment to attack. His hands were shaking from holding against Iron Man's strong energy rays, but he knew that giving up wasn't an option. It was his mother who used to tell him to keep fighting – no mather what. You never lay down and wait to die, you always stand up and keep going. Counting to three in his head Steve threw his shield at Tony and immediately ducked down deeper. He couldn't avoid being hit on the shoulder and gritted his teeth. A moment later an agonizing scream could be heard from the direction where Tony was standing. Steve straightened himself up again and looked at Tony. His shield was now located in the Iron Man suit. Half of it was visible, blue sparks surrounding the broken chest piece.
Tony was staring at Steve in horror: „You know… not long ago that would have killed me! Not long ago that thing you just smashed was my heart!" Steve didn't know how to respond at first. He chewed on his bruised bottom lip and his voice came out calmer than he assumed: „Tony… This is real. We tried to talk, more than once! But words can't solve everything, as it seems." Tony eyed the ground and clenched his fists: „Fine… then I won't be gentle any longer!"
In that moment a small missile emerged from Tony's shoulderblade and hit Steve, who was without his shield, directly in the chest. With enormous force he was hurled back into a wall. The explosion turned his clothing into nothing but ashes and the silver star on his chest melted like ice cream in the sun. On his chest and arms red marks caused by the flames formed and he couldn't help but scream. Captain America struggled to get up. A pair of red and golden iron boots came to stop in front of him. When Steve looked up, he could see the hole his shield left in the suit. Tony's skin was exposed there and he was bleeding. He looked down at Steve with cold eyes: „Give it up! You'll never win." Steve managed to smirk and supported himself against the wall behind him: „I am not down yet." Tony sighed and attacked him with his fists: „You're crazy, old man!" Steve dodged the fist and punched Tony back. His fists left notches in the metal suit. The fistfight continued for minutes, but Tony clearly managed to get the upper hand. Steve's burns looked terrible and it hurt a lot when the hard fists pierced them and cut them open. He had tried to call his shield to him, but the machine on his arm had been damaged by the missile and it didn't work properly any more. Tony stopped, when Steve fell back on the ground again and sighed: „Steve… please! Don't make me do this! I don't want to kill you…" Steve took a deep breath: „Go to hell with your registration act! As long as I'm alive I will fight against that… against you!"
A shiver ran down Tony's spine and he raised his fist in order to hit Steve again.
It hurt Reed Richards a lot, when he hit the ground, but it hurt him even more, that it was because of his wife. Susan pulled punches at her husband while being invisible, so he couldn't hit her back. Johnny shot his fire at him and Reed had a hard time dodging all of it, stretching and deforming himself as much as he was able to. He tried to talk, but Susan didn't even respond. She was angry with him for leaving her in the middle of the night, just to hang out with Tony Stark and tell the government everything about their life. That clearly pissed her off. Again Susan's fist hit his face. Her voice made an appearance in his head: „Reed… what are you doing? It's 3 am." He heard himself say: „Don't worry, honey. I just had an amazing idea…" Retrospectively it maybe wasn't that of a good idea to leave the only woman he ever loved alone so many times. Just to build toys and rockets and meet people who thought they were the top of the world everytime he felt like it. Maybe it would all be okay, if he stayed with Susan and if he told her he loved her a million times and even then it wouldn't be enough.
Mister Fantastic felt his back burn from a blast of fire Johnny shot at him. It seemed to be forlorn battle for him, but still, he needed to do this- for everything he worked on during the last months, maybe years.
Right above them, on a rooftop another fight was going on. Wanda Maximoff's hands glew red as she faced her former teammate Vision. Vision was just looking at her, not quite sure about his actions: „Wanda… I am sorry. You are my friend, you know that, but this is the right thing to do." Scarlet Witch shot a beam of red engergy at him: „No! Stark is trying to control everything and you are silly enough to support him." Vision stepped out of the way and bowed his head: „The Act is necessary to make the world think about us as heroes and not as danger to the public. That is the only way we can help and we should do this together."
With a cloudy look on her face Wanda eyed the AI: „I will never trust Stark completely… Pietro wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I owe him." The Vision sighed, then attacked her with the Infinity Stone embedded in his forehead. Wanda immediately put up a force field against the blast and reflected it into the sky. She attacked with her own magic, which Vision dodged with his powers.
Peter Parker was out of breath by now. He had several bruises and was partly covered in oil because of one of Kate's special arrows. He had to max out his last option. Panting he spoke into his com: „Pym… I need backup and I need it now!" Hank quickly studied the map on his screen, in order to call in any of the others on the team, but they were all buried in their own problems: „Sorry, boy. There ain't any backup…" Spidey let out a pleading scream: „Oh, come on! I can't take it any longer…"
A third voice joined the conversation. It was the voice of Mister Fantastic: „Hank… listen! We are outnumbered and we will fail! We prepared for this… send us the backup."
Hank Pym was getting nervous: „But Reed… we didn't run any tests in action. We can't take the risk."
Reed was in stress and he sounded defeated: „We did everything right! Send Ragnarok!"
Hank hesitated, but the cameras showed him that Reed was right. The team was not strong enough and they couldn't lose anyone because of him. He left his control chair and went to the backroom. He opened a door and pressed the red button on the machine. A door opened and out stepped a tall figure. Red eyes met Hank Pym's blueish, green ones. A blink later the figure was gone and a big hole in the wall indicated where it had gone to.
The figure made its way to the battlefield and dropped between Spiderman, the Black Widow and Hawkeye and Reed, Susan and Johnny. Everyone at the site stopped fighting, when they saw it. Natasha swallowed heavily and her voice was silent: „Thor?" The machine looked exactly like the Norse god they came to know, but his face was like stone and his eyes were red. The thing turned to Natasha and leveled the hammer at her, when an arrow hit it in the back. Promptly the thing that looked like Thor loaded the hammer with lightning and shot it all at Kate, before the archeress could react. The lightning hit her and she screamed loudly and in pain. Natasha shot her guns at the figure: „NO! Stop it!" But Thor continued to attack Kate and ignored the bullets like they were nothing but stones.
It was deadly silent when the lightning stopped and Kate's lifeless form dropped to the ground. Natasha stared at the attacker in disbelief. The girl she had known for years now, the strong, intelligent woman she had been on a team with, the funny, talented archeress Clint had been so proud of lay there in the dirt – broken and still.
The next thing that followed disbelief was anger. Natasha shot her Widow's bites at Thor, but the thing seemed to be immune against every kind of attack. Desperate she tried her guns again, but she was obviously wasting her bullets. The thing raised his hammer again, about to attack her too, when two familiar hands grabbed her and lifted her off the ground. She looked up and found Sam carrying her away fast: „Sorry, Widow, but we need to get out of her… this is gonna end badly." Natasha felt numb and just let him take her away: „Sam… I need to go back… You left Kate there." Sam swallowed: „We get her later, I promise, but if we go back, we will die. The others are already gone."
Natasha felt sick and she had to force herself to speak: „Are they okay?"
Sam hesitated: „Yeah… Susan is back at her place, she can't continue… but Johnny is with us. He and Scott have gone to the hideout."
Natasha suddenly had to think about Steve: „And… and Steve?"
Sam looked down at her for a moment: „He… Wanda was able to hold back Tony with her magic and took him with her. Right now they are on the way back, like us. He looks pretty bad… Nat… Banner will fix it, I'm sure of it."
That was it for Natasha. She couldn't help but cry. She tried to stop, but it ended in her sobbing uncontrollably. One of her best friends was dead, the one man who had always treated her way too good and loved her more than anyone should was dieing. How was she supposed to be okay after that? The worst thing was that she would have to tell Clint… She never wanted the conflict to escalate this far and she was sure Steve didn't want that either, but now they had taken one of theirs and that meant war – that meant a Civil War.
The false Thor started to collect lightning with his hammer even though Natasha was gone. In panic Reed screamed into his com for Vision to help them. Right away the AI flew down from the roof and landed behind the drone. With his ghostlike powers he reached out for the control box inside the machine and disabled it with a few movements. The Thor doppelgänger fell to the ground and the lightning stopped. The glow in his eyes disappeared and nobody spoke a word. Reed directly rushed to Kate's side and checked for a vital sign, but there was nothing to save her anymore. Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, Avenger, friend, archeress was dead. An innocent girl who was about to trump her masters died at the age of 24 and for a moment the world stopped turning.
Well… I am deeply sorry for this one, but it is a Civil War and wars a cruel and terrible! Please review and criticize. Also: Happy Christmas to all of you out there! Lots of love and hugs! :)
