Hello all! This is my first crossover, so please be patient with me. Thanks so much!
Natasha could feel her heart pounding as one of the creatures swung at her. It was a giant, nearly ten feet tall and surrounded with a purple aura.
"What are these things?" Steve shouted.
"Some kind of robots, though they seem to have a few organic parts. Don't take their heads off: it makes them go berserk." Tony flew overhead, launching rockets at the hordes of bots.
"Man, this is like Ultron all over again." Clint grumbled. Romanoff dodged another swing and drove her staves into the thing's chest. Electricity flickered over its body and the aura seemed to shatter.
"What did you just do?" Rogers hurled his shield, which took the beast's head off. It screeched and slammed a fist into the spy's side, sending her flying. They could see more lights appearing, filling their eyes with static and smoke.
"Kill it!" She screamed, scrambling away from the robot. It was running after her now, teleporting to come closer. It was going to kill her. And then an arrow erupted from the hole left by its head and it crumpled to the ground. "Oh, God," she could see more of the creatures coming, along with smaller ones with long tails. "There's different ones?" She accepted the hand that Steve held out to her.
"We have to keep fighting," the soldier blocked a red laser from one of the smaller creatures. "These things are going to overtake earth if we don't."
"I think it's too late for that," Stark sounded crushed. "They're all over the world, just appearing out of nowhere. It's-they're killing everyone they come across." Natasha looked farther down the battlefield and saw a circular portal. Several monsters appeared out of it and then teleported away.
"I think we need to go through that!" She pointed at the glowing light, only to shield her face as the Hulk tore one of the large ones in half and smashed another into oblivion.
"We have no idea where it goes!" Tony flew overhead, firing rocket after rocket.
"Man of Iron, do not be overcome with fear." Lightning struck and then Thor appeared. "If these beasts are emerging, then we can enter."
"Oh, yeah, like that's a wonderful-" Tony's voice cut off as he disappeard through the portal.
"Tony!" Steve sprinted towards the circle, soon followed by the rest of the team. Romanoff slid into the light and then felt nothing.
"... Hello? Are you awake?" She blinked groggily, seeing the roof of a car above her. It was rusted out and bare of all carpeting, but still distinguishable. "Oh, thank goodness. You're alive."
The spy struggled to sit upright and searched for where the voice was coming from. "Right here," a tiny white object spoke. She reached up and grabbed it.
"What are you? Where's everyone else?" Natasha turned it over in her hand.
"I'm your ghost, in a sense. Not you, but I am a ghost and I belong to you." It floated free from her grasp and looked around. "As for everyone else, I don't know who you're talking about." A distant screech made the tiny ghost turn. "We can figure that out later; you've been asleep for a long time and we kind of need to go."
"What's going on?" She clambered out of the car and found herself in what seemed to be a never ending wasteland. A massive wall towered into the sky on her right, and a highway full of deserted cars stretched into the distance on her left. "Where are we?"
The ghost shook its head. "The Fallen own this place. They want to feast upon your light."
"My light?" She looked down at herself, seeing that she was dressed in skin-tight olive colored armor.
"Yes, guardian. Your light." It was obviously getting tired of her questions. But where was everyone else? They had all come through the portal, so shouldn't they be in the same place? Another scream, this time closer, made her flinch. What was out there? "Now come on," the ghost drifted toward the wall. "It's safer in there." And then it promptly disappeared. Natasha looked around in confusion for a moment before starting in the direction of the wall. "Don't worry, I'm still with you." The ghost seemed to speak from inside of her head.
A diamond appeared in her vision as well, apparently coming from a HUD inside of her helmet. The spy ran after it and soon reached a doorway leading into the massive barrier. A few sets of stairs put her on a catwalk. Everything was getting very, very dark.
"You need a weapon," the ghost appeared above her shoulder and shone a light around them. A pane of glass leaning against a wall showed her reflection; she looked as if she belonged in a sci-fi movie. The tight-fitting armor was mostly white and mixed with green, along with a white hood and a full helmet that hid her face. Romanoff pulled the helmet off and nearly dropped it as she saw her face. She looked like she always had, except for pale blue skin, glowing orange eyes, crimson hair that swept back and to the side, and a black hourglass over her left eye.
"Is something wrong?" Her ghost looked at her, its blue eye searching her face.
"What am I?" She stepped closer to her reflection.
The ghost seemed to cock its head to the side. "What do you mean? You're part of the Awoken race. Don't you know?"
"No, I don't." She touched her face. "I'm not from here, if you can understand. I'm from Earth."
"We're on Earth, Guardian. This is Old Russia."
"You don't get it," she turned to the little thing, "I am not from this time. I was in New York City and some creatures invaded, using teleportation and portals. I jumped in one of the portals with my friends, and then I woke up here."
"The Vex?"
"I don't know what those are," she sighed and pulled her helmet back on. "Whatever, it's okay. I can figure it out later. Where do I go?" Her footsteps echoed around the room as she walked to the exit.
"Well, Guardian, we need to find you a weapon. You're hopeless against the Fallen in this state."
"Call me Natasha," she said as she looked around. They were on a platform that overlooked pure darkness. Her ghost eventually drifted away, muttering something about entropy and hardened military systems and then suddenly there was light everywhere, blinding her for a moment. She could see several creatures scuttle away, up bars or across catwalks and back into the darkness. Fallen?
"Oh, over here. I found a weapon." The ghost was floating above an assault rifle. "I hope you know how to use that," it said as she picked it up and tested its balance. It was bad at best. Stark Industries caught her eye, inscribed into the handle. How was Tony involved in this? "That way," the ghost directed its beam of light down a dingy hallway. At least this one was lit, though it was an orange light that cast odd, disorienting shadows. She padded down the hall and nearly screamed as one of the Fallen dropped from the ceiling. The Awoken fired quickly and blew the thing's head off, spraying black blood everywhere.
"Damn," she breathed as she wiped the stuff off of herself. Natasha didn't have long until another three of the Fallen appeared, letting out their high pitched screams and charging towards her.
"Dregs," her ghost explained while she shot them. One came a bit too close and she instinctively drew a knife from her belt and stabbed it. She had no idea where it had come from, but it was comforting to have as a sidearm. The two continued to progress through the oddly lit halls and soon came across red lasers crisscrossing their path. "Don't touch those if you want to keep your body in one piece. They're trip mines."
"Alright," she ducked down and carefully squirmed under them. "This seems like it should be in Mission Impossible,"
"I'm not sure what you're talking about,"
"Of course you don't," the spy was finding it easier and easier to talk to her companion. More Fallen dropped from the ceiling and she ducked behind a barrier.
"Use your tracker to find them." As the ghost spoke, a circle appeared in her HUD. It had red bars that she assumed would signal where enemies were. She quickly peeked around the corner and took care of another Dreg. More trip mines had appeared as well.
"Can we just get out of here?" She ducked under another laser and knifed the last Dreg.
"Hopefully soon, though we need a ship."
"What kind of ship?" She looked over at the light as they walked down the corridor.
"Interplanetary," it replied. The Awoken dove to the side as a blue bolt of energy hit the ground next to her. "Wire rifle," the ghost said, "probably a Vandal. Watch out for them: they're sneaky." Romanoff nodded and turned to shoot. As she did, her eyes settled on a large chest-like object. "That's got loot in it. Take care of the Vandal first, though. Those wire rifles don't feel nice."
"I know, I know," she put a few bullets in the Fallen's throat and then ran over to the chest. A shotgun was lying in the bottom of it. "Oh, wonderful," she pulled it out and checked to see if it was loaded.
"Come on, come on, we're running out of time." Her light was looking around uncomfortably. "I really don't like it here."
"I can tell," the Awoken ran past a group of Fallen and into a long ventilation tunnel. Sunlight shone through the fan at the far end and suddenly she was back out in the sunlight. She stared in awe at the spires in the distance, which had space shuttles all over them.
"In the Golden Age, this would have been one of the greatest cosmodromes ever built. Each one of those ships would carry thousands of people out to another planet to create wonderful cities, full of new technology and life. Of course, all of this was ruined when the Darkness took over. That's why the Fallen are here." Her ghost suddenly looked up as a number of ships appeared in the sky. "Speaking of which," it blinked and rotated. "They're here. I've never seen this many so close. We have to move before they find what we're looking for." The light flitted off.
"What are we looking for?" She called as she chased after it. The thing really needed a name.
"I already told you-a ship!" They both halted as several Vandals dropped out of a carrier above them. The things screamed and began to fire. One of the bolts hit Natasha, sending pain racing up her body. She grit her teeth and allowed her training to take over. It wasn't long before all of them were dead on the ground.
"Nice work," her ghost started floating away again. She followed and soon they were entering another building. "We're looking for-oh, here it is." A large hangar opened up before them and then they were staring at a large ship.
"Will it fly?" She crept into the room, her eyes catching on several Vandals and one larger creature.
"I hope," the ghost flew over and cast a beam of blue light onto the cockpit of the ship. Several of the Fallen turned and started to fire, trying to hit it,
"Hey!" Romanoff found herself waving her arms and yelling at them. The distraction worked as each of the creatures directed their baleful stares onto her. "Come get me!" Sparks began to rain down as her ghost disappeared into the cockpit and the spaceship began to lift out of where it was being held above the ground. There was no way she could reach it. Was the little light going to abandon her? She pushed the thought away and aimed at the largest enemy. The ghost wouldn't have brought her back to life or whatever it had done only to steal a ship from the Fallen.
"Watch out!" It called. A rocket fired and then most of the Vandals were on the ground. An odd feeling overtook her as she was lifted off of the ground and then she was in the ship, her body temporarily surrounded in light. They took off into the atmosphere and were soon in orbit.
"Well, this is great." Her ghost-Ranger, she chose to call it-seemed to sigh. "We need a warp drive to get out of here, and guess what? The Fallen already took it."
"Then why don't we go get one? We already stole this."
"I prefer to call it taking back what is ours," Ranger grumbled. "Besides, the only way to go get that dumb drive is to go back down there, and I really don't want to."
"I do," the spy pulled off her helmet and gazed at her reflection. She needed to find her friends, and the only way to do that was to get a warp drive. "I need to find the others, and then we need to go home."
"You are home, Natasha." The ghost looked at her. "You never had a home until now; you were a corpse for hundreds of years."
"That's where you're wrong," she set down her helmet and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not from here, and I never was a corpse. Like I said: we jumped through a portal."
Ranger seemed almost exasperated. "Fine, fine, you're not from here. I would suggest talking to the Speaker about this, but we don't have a warp drive."
"Then we go get one."
"You're insane." This conversation was going in circles. "Look, I want to get back to the Tower just as bad as you do, but we can't."
"What is the Tower?"
"Home of the guardians, probably where you'll find your friends."
"Then we're getting a drive." The spy stood.
Her ghost turned its eye heavenward. "Why do I even try?"
Thanks again for reading! Please leave a review and tell me how I can make this better!