The Fire Fist
All Ace felt was pain, a horrible ever consuming pain that felt like it was charring his entire body to a crisp, right down to the marrow of his bones. It was strange, he hadn't felt anything burn him since he ate the Flame Flame fruit. What was going on? Images began to come back to him in pieces, Luffy crying, himself crying, the sounds of a battle, oh...yeah. He died. Well...that sucks. But why wasn't he dead? Wasn't death supposed to be painless? Cause this felt like he was dying all over again.
He bit his tongue so he wouldn't scream but finally gave up and screeched with all his might, he was dead anyway. Why couldn't he scream? Then he heard voices around him, he couldn't hear full sentences just pieces of words..."hu...kay...reathe...Cap!...kid!" So even when he was dead he still couldn't be alone? Figures. Then someone was pounding on his chest. Why were they doing that? Couldn't they tell that he was ON FIRE?! Aww..fuck it.
He gave a deep breath of air and his eyes bugged wide. He blinked blearily and moaned as his lungs ached. Someone's arms snaked under him and lifted him off of the ground. He tried to focus on his 'savior' and saw...a Metal face? No it was a guy who was covered in metal. Oh god...so these were death collectors or something? God he was confused.
Suddenly the Metal mask thing slid up and exposed a human face, a man with a black goatee and wide dark eyes.
"Kid? Are you okay? Were you hit in the crossfire?"
Ace just started coughing, hard. His hands flew to cover his mouth and when he drew them back, they were covered in blood. The Metal man's widened as he looked at Ace's hand.
"Oh shit. Do you have a name, kid?"
Ace just tried to shove his way out of Metal man's arms. But he just held him tighter. Ace looked down and he felt like he was about to scream. Was this what being dead was like?
"Hang on kid, we're almost there."
Metal man flew him to this huge thing in the middle of a destroyed city, but wow...this was like nothing he'd ever seen. Even when it looked partly destroyed. They touched down on the side of this huge towering thing and Metal man went to drop him on the couch inside but Ace swung his foot upwards and kicked Metal man in the face. Metal man groaned and dropped Ace on the ground.
He staggered to his feet and openly glared at the creepy Metal man. He kept one hand over the partly healed hole in his chest, and staggered forwards. Hopefully to find a way out of this place.
"Guys! We've got an issue!"
Metal man yelled through the building and it of course it sent more of them coming. A tall, muscled blond man ran in along with a short brown haired man, a red haired woman, a long blond haired muscled man, and another man with shaggy dark hair all came to assist Metal man. Ace sighed and just hobbled over to the couch and flopped down on it.
"I give up. You win, Metal man."
Ace moaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. Metal man raised an eyebrow and frowned.
"Really? 'Metal man', Metal? This suit is made of gold/titanium alloy!"
Metal man cried, crossing his arms. The short haired blond man rolled his eyes and offered a hand to Ace.
"Ignore him. I'm Steve Rodgers."
Ace smiled at Steve and took the offered hand.
"Portgaz D. Ace, nice to meet you."
Ace said, before beginning to cough again, this time the blood trickled through his fingers. Instantly the shaggy dark haired man knelt beside him, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His dark eyes were full of concern and worry as he looked at Ace.
"Are you alright, Portgaz? Where's your family? How old are you? How were you wounded? Were you caught in the crossfire of the battle? How long were you unconscious?"
The shaggy haired man fired off quickly as he inspected the wound on Ace's torso. Ace's eyes narrowed and he sighed.
"First of all, my name is Ace. But as for the rest of your questions, Dead accept for one little brother, about 19 or 20, None of your business, the crossfire of what battle? Oh, and I have no idea, I thought I died."
The Shaggy man and the rest of them looked at him surprised. Until Metal man smiled.
"I like him!"
Steve rolled his eyes as Shaggy man kept inspecting Ace's chest.
"I'm going to have to bandage you up, this seems to be healing quite nicely for such a grizzly wound. I'm Dr. Bruce Banner by the way."
Shaggy man said quietly and Ace just nodded. While the long haired blond man sat in a chair across from him and peered at him thoughtfully. Ace raised an eyebrow, and just stared back. After sometime he spoke.
"My friends, is it natural to have dots on one's face such as this boy has on his?"
Long-haired guy asked and Ace blushed pink and crossed his arms, before wincing at the pain it caused.
"They're called freckles, Thor."
Metal man's voice said and Ace turned his head to see the suited man but was surprised to see Metal man's face coming from a normal looking man's body.
"Metal man! Where did your metal go?!"
Ace gasped and they all looked at him oddly, it was Metal man who answered him.
"Once again, not made of Metal. But, kid, it's just a suit, something I can easily take on and off. Oh, and my name's Tony Stark, not Metal man."
Metal man explained and Ace blinked at him, confused.
"So it's not a devil fruit power?"
He asked and was even more confused at the bewildered looks that met him.
"You know..'Devil fruits'? Devil fruit powers?"
Ace shook his head, rolling his eyes.
"Here, I'll explain."
He dug in his side bag and pulled out a match and tossed it to 'Thor' who easily caught it.
"Hold that up."
Ace ordered and he snapped his fingers, the match in Thor hand erupted in fire and within moments it burned to a crisp in his hand.
"It's the Mera Mera no mi power."
Ace sighed, and all they did was look at him in utter confusion. Ace just shrugged and tried to get up, Dr. Banner held him down securely though.
"Okay, it's been fun meeting you guys but I really have to get back to my little brother, he thinks I'm dead. Do you have a pirate ship I could use? Or maybe something less easily spotted, I mean the Marines are still after me so..."
Ace stopped talking as they looked at him like he was insane. He was so confused.
"What?"
Ace snapped and Tony spoke gently.
"Kid...did you hit your head on something hen you got hurt?"
Tony asked and Ace rolled his eyes, now he was starting to get angry. Why didn't these idiots understand? Just then these weird metal doors opened and a dark skinned man with a black eyepatch over one eye walked out, along with two other men dressed in suits. Ace frowned.
"Just great! There's more of you! Now who the fuck are you, eyepatch!?"
Ace groaned and the eyepatch-clad man walked over and glared at him. Motioning to the two other men who strode over and snapped steel handcuffs on him. Now Ace was even more fucking confused.
"Who are you and why do you have a slight tesseract aura around you?!"
Eyepatch growled and Ace snapped one foot forwards to try and clip him in the jaw. But he moved just in time, the fucker.
"What the fuck is a Tesseract?!"
Ace yelled and looked over to the rest of Tony and his friends. All their expressions were grim as they looked at him. What was going on here?!
