Thor treaded mindfully, armored boots clanking against an iron floor. He clutched Mjolnir as he scanned the darkened room. They were hiding, but with his divine senses, he wouldn't allow the darkness to hinder his search.
He rounded the corner, where he came to a hub with pathways leading out in four directions. In the center of the large room was a metallic spire, coming to a point just below the ceiling. This would be his best line of defense if he were to get in a pinch.
One of his observers must have caught on to his plan, because no sooner than that thought came to him did he see waves of red sparks swirling around the spire.
Lifting his hammer, he summoned forth his power; the room lit up in a gust of wind and lightning. With a furious roar he struck the ground, sending sparks of lightning racing across the floor in every direction.
His opponent revealed herself; the Scarlett Witch levitating safely in the air some distance in front of him, her red eyes and swirling aura piercing through the dark.
The spectral being lunged at him; he braced himself for her attack. He caught her arm and threw her to the side, but she skillfully landed on her feet. She wasted no time shooting a wave of red energy back at him, but he endured with his sheer strength. Thor engaged his opponent with a flurry of punches, but the enemy dodged and deflected each of them. His last punch collided with a sudden burst of energy, sending him stumbling against the wall behind.
He quickly returned his focus to the woman, but before he could make his next move, he felt himself being pulled into the wall behind him, blinding him. He tumbled across the floor after being thrown out of the other side of the wall. His blurry gaze refocused on a crimson humanoid phasing out of the wall. The android Vision, possessor of the all powerful mind stone, emerged through a golden imprint.
Vision braced himself as Thor revved up momentum in his hammer. Using the weight of Mjolnir, the thunder god lunged forward. The android moved to defend himself as the Thor's weight pinned him to the wall.
Vision quickly retaliated by shooting himself forward, crashing Thor against the outer wall. The two powerful beings wrestled for dominance as their battle raged along the wall in a flurry of sparks and ruble. Thor finally got the upper hand and pinned him to the wall, but no sooner was he suddenly surrounded by that red aura. He was harshly thrown from the wall and sent careening back into the center of the room.
Before Thor could get back on his feet, his disruptor had already regrouped with the android and they were both closing in on him. This was his opportunity to utilize his trap.
He held Mjolnir high above him and summoned the lightning once again, this time aiming for the conductive spire. Before long, lightning was shooting forth from the spire in all directions, transforming the entire room into an electric death trap.
Thinking quickly, the android flew towards Wanda and embraced her protectively in his arms. With his heightened concentration, he manipulated both of their body densities to act as an electricity resistant material, defending them from the all-encompassing lightening.
When the storm of lightning had subsided, Vision released her and slowly set her down with his telepathy, but Thor was already charging up his next attack. The golden light of the Mindstone began to grow brighter as braced himself to tackle the Thunder God's powers head on.
Thor summoned the lightning once more, this time aiming it directly at Vision. The android retaliated by releasing the power of the mind stone in the form of a concentrated energy beam to counter Thor's lightning. The result was an intense collision of powerful, radiant energy, quickly exploding into a massive shock wave.
The force of the blast sent both fighters flying in opposite directions. Thor's back hit the spire, while Vision tumbled onto one of the paths leading towards the exit.
Recovering uneasily, Thor mustered up the strength to execute one last move. He sent Mjolnir flying straight towards the android. Vision, having exerted much of his strength by engaging Thor's attacks while also protecting Wanda with his telepathy, could only manage to dodge the oncoming object. The hammer continued flying straight for the sliding door exit.
What happened next was all as much frozen in time as it was a blur, because as luck would have it, the door began to open. Captain Rogers stood there, looking like a deer in the headlights as the hammer zoomed in on his face. He only reacted just fast enough to pull his shield from his back to defend himself. Vision was just close enough to take the full brunt of the ensuing shockwave. The entire ordeal ended with both the captain and the android splayed out on their backs.
"Shit..." Thor mumbled while Wanda let out an exclaimed "oh my god!" The thunder god rushed to Steve's aid while Wanda tended to Vision.
"Friend Steven! Are you alright?"
"Vision. Vision, wake up!"
The captain uttered a pained groan. "Ouch" was the particular word he used.
"Oh, thank the Nine Realms." Thor prayed in relief. "I could have killed you."
"But you didn't." Steve noted uneasily, still in pain as Thor helped him to sit up.
"We're okay." The captain breathed as he turned to the still downed android "You're okay, right Vision?"
As if on que, the android's eyelids snapped open, startling Wanda as she kneeled over him. The orbital circuits in his eyes revolved as he quickly reconfigured his damaged systems. He floated up from his downed state until he was in an upright position.
"I am quite fine, Captain." He courtesies in his refined demeanor as his feet touched the ground. "That was a most unfortunate occurrence."
Wanda was silent, clearly appearing startled to everyone that could see her.
"My apologies for frightening you, my lady."
Wanda released the breath she didn't know she was holding as she held his clearly alive gaze. To her relief, the android didn't seem to have been affected much.
"It's alright. I'm just glad that you're safe."
"G'job holding out, Vizh." The Captain patted the android as he walked past. "Thor, what's the status report?"
"Our progress is stupendous!" The thunder god roared with pride. "The Underworld awaits any who should face these two in battle!"
Steve sighed when he heard Wanda groan disheartedly. Vision stared at Thor, confused.
"Of course that's only if you feel that would suffice." Thor hastily corrected. "Perhaps a trip to the..."
"Thor!" Steve interrupted the thunder god before he started fumbling to correct himself. "I think they get the point."
"Right," Thor mumbled as he turned away with a guilty frown.
"Do you mind explaining to me why it's so dark in here?"
"I thought I'd issue the other two a challenge by darkening our environment. I think they've performed quite well considering..."
"Considering I wouldn't have walked in on you if I knew you were even in here."
Realizing that his friend nearly lost his head to the hammer because of his negligence, Thor's expression flushed pale with subdued shame. Vision, picking up on the Steve's concern, centered his focus on the circuits within the room's dormant systems, and in an instant the training room became alit with whirring lights.
"Thank's Vizh. And don't stress about it, Thor. Like I said, I'm still here, right?"
Taking the captain's words to heart, Thor regained some of his spirits. Steve always held the belief that one should always live for the present, and not dwell on the past or worry about the future. Friend Steve's words were, at the very least, alleviating whenever he thought of the family he left behind on Asgard.
Wanda, however wasn't as accepting. Ever since the death of her parents, her life almost revolved around her brother, Pietro. She knew no other life but the tragic one they shared. The only thing she had in this world was the life she could not live any longer. Truth be told, she was trying her hardest to live her new life as an Avenger, but she could never fill the void that Pietro left behind.
Vision couldn't think about the past, but that was only because he had no past to speak of. The only one he knew was a series of disjointed bits of electronic memory and data created during his previous life as Tony Stark's personal AI. He'd only had several months to obtain a grasp of what real, organic memory actually was. As an artificial being, he was intrigued by the humans' ability to associate emotions with memories.
"I think I'm going to, um...shower before dinner."
Spirits were quickly drained from the room after Wanda spoke. Vision felt it in her voice before she quickly departed from the training room. She was thinking of Pietro again. He could always decipher her thoughts whenever she was overcome by the sudden need to be alone. Though he recognized the emotion, Vision could not understand how humans, who seemed to take pride in their hearts and desires, would want to hide their emotions.
"We'll meet again at a later time, Vision." Thor announced, breaking the android from his thoughts. "Right now there's something I must do."
"Very well, Odinson."
Thor left the room with a nod, soon following Wanda's trail. Steve and Vision conversed as they were the last to take their leave.
"How do you think Wanda's holding up?" The captain asked in his heart-on-sleeve tone. "In regards to her brother, I mean."
"I believe she is improving, but she still suffers from moments when she is difficult to approach. For some reason, Wanda thinks she will risk the lives of those around her with her presence, which is why she isolates herself when she's not feeling well."
"So she's doing better?"
"Yes, but not optimal. It's hard to approach someone when they feel they are a danger to others."
"That's a shame. It would be easy enough to tell her that I understand what she's going through, if only she'd let me." Steve's gaze was became distant. "It's hard...when you lose someone who's protected you your whole life, only because you couldn't return the favor when they needed it most."
Vision knew not of the grief of loss that plagued many of his comrades, but he did know of the experience that his captain was referring to. His comrade in arms, Bucky Barnes, suffered death and assimilation at the hands of Hydra, turning him into the Winter Soldier. He could sense Steve reflecting on the moment he lost his best friend, much the same way Wanda did for Pietro.
"Have you found any leads on the Winter Soldier?"
It only took Vision to see his captain flinch to know how much his questioned grieved him. He turned away from Vision with a solemn answer.
"No."
Without having suffered loss, Vision could not perceive emotions he did not understand, let alone experience. But he knew enough about his companions to understand the purpose of condolences.
"I'm sorry."
"It's alright." Steve reassured, catching on to Vision's attempts at projecting sympathy and responding with a genuine smile for his effort. His tone then became much more serious.
"Right now, we have to be her anchor in her brother's absence, until she is strong enough to stand on her own again. Until next time, Vision." Steve concluded as he left the android's side.
Vision reeled from the sudden change in subject and the captain's subsequent departure. There again, was that tendency for humans to lock-up their emotions. Steve of course, had different methods than Wanda, but Vision could see the purpose of their conversation's abrupt ending all the same.
Humans are confusing beings.
Wanda tried her hardest not to collapse to her knees once she entered her quarters.
Okay, Wanda, get it together. It's been months now. You can fight this.
She tried to think of any thing but her brother. Her mind drifted towards anything from her training assessments to her current teammates. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to isolate herself from them. She really did appreciate the things that the Avengers did to make her feel welcome, but they were not the family that she knew. Her family was dead...
Great. Now she was thinking about her parents as well. The harsh reality that she was the only Maximoff left came crashing back to her. The slightest whimper trembled through her as she sat down on her bedside to keep from all but breaking down.
This is just so hard. This didn't have to happen. You should be here with me Pietro. It's all my fault.
*CRASH*
Wanda's skin nearly jumped off of her flesh when someone crashed through the vent in the ceiling. It landed with an even louder crash.
"Ohh, man" the intruder groaned when he landed flat on his back.
Wanda had already jumped into a corner, holding her hands out defensively, before she could make out just what had crashed into her room.
"Hawkeye?"
"Hello." Clint greeted her sheepishly. "Hope I'm not intruding."
"You came in through the vent?"
"Yeah. Still trying to get the hang of this place." Clint strained as he pushed himself off the ground. "Thor wanted me to check on you. You doing alright?"
Wanda didn't respond. Clint received his answer when he saw the puffy redness in her eyes. She had clearly been crying.
"That bad, huh?"
"I'm sorry, I..." her voice failed her as tears started to break forth again.
"Hey, hey, come on, now." Hawkeye tried to comfort her. "Come have a seat."
Clint sat down on the bedside, gently pulling Wanda next to him. His touch allowed him to feel Wanda's trembling limbs. She was trying to hold in her emotions...and her power.
"I sent him out there, Clint. I told him not to come back for me at the church."
"Wanda."
"I couldn't be there when he needed me."
"Kid, it's okay. Listen." Clint gripped her hand tighter. "If Pietro was half the man I think he was, he wouldn't think any less of you for what happened. You did great out there, you helped save a lot of people." His hand moved up to her shoulder. You are an Avenger now. I bet Pietro is looking down on us and thinking how proud he is of his sister."
Her tears began to break forth freely, but Clint could tell that Wanda was trying to muster a smile for his kind words.
"Come here." Clint pulled Wanda into his arms. She let go of her restraint as her tears fell on his shoulder.
"I miss him so much, Hawkeye."
"I know..." Clint tightened the embrace, both for her and for himself. His heart was nearly broken by her sorrow.
"I miss him, too."
"Alright. Let's check on the reactor's status one last time."
Various measurements and data lit up on Tony's HUD as he stood in the underground chamber. Behind the display, the blue light of the reactor shined through the visor.
"Arc reactor stabilized." The AI Friday assessed.
"Good. I'll tell the chief that the reactor is ready for commission. Friday, let's move out."
Activating his repulsers, he took flight through the hatch in the ceiling. The vertical path opened up to a view of the blue sky. He readjusted the angle of his flight over a sea of trees, towards the New Avengers facility. Tony purposed the idea of running the facility on Arc reactor technology. It was only after Natasha suggested building it in a hidden location some distance away from the facility that Fury agreed to the idea.
The facility was a modest distance away. It didn't take long before Tony was approaching the building. He zoned in on the balcony for a smooth landing before deconstructing his armor.
"Boss, Dr. Cho is in the laboratory. She requires your presence" Friday announced.
"Is it about my new assistant."
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?" Tony grumbled impatiently.
"I ask that you find out for yourself."
Stark made his way to the facility's lab with only begrudging curiosity. Ever since Dr. Banner had disappeared, Tony had been seeking out a new scientist to assist him in his research. He would have hired Dr. Cho herself for her unmistakable experience, but she had her own research center to run in Seoul in joint operation with SHIELD The most she could do for him was assist him in him his search. Lately, the two had been eying a woman named Gwen Stacy, who was reportedly one of Oscorp's most excelled biologists. Frustratingly, Stark was having trouble getting a hold of her, and she hadn't responded to their attempts to contact her in weeks.
Upon reaching the lab, Tony was confronted by Helen in her typically professional demeanor. What was strange, however, was the scrawny looking teenage boy that accompanied her.
"If you're here about selling me those regenerative plastic suits again, then sorry, I've gotten kind of attached to the iron."
"Mr. Stark. Greetings," Helen always tried her hardest to remain professional, especially around Tony. "I'm glad to announce that I and other undisclosed members of SHIELD have made a decision on who would be best to become your assistant."
Tony's anticipation quickly turned to dismay as she motioned to the scrawny nerdy-looking guy beside her. Looking at him, he recognized the boy as one of Gwen Stacy's "confidantes." He had no profession in science, rather choosing a job as a photographic journalist for the Daily Bugle newspaper.
"I'm sorry, why is he here?" Tony questioned, his tone quickly becoming serious and short tempered.
"This is the person who will be assisting you in the lab from this point forward." Helen said as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe.
"Peter Parker, sir." The boy held out his hand, but only received a cold glare.
"I know who you are, and quite frankly, I don't care." Tony hissed coldly. "I asked for Gwen Stacy, not Jamison's lapdog, Helen."
"Mr. Stark..." Helen called out to Stark as he began to take his leave.
"I'm not putting up with SHIELD's shenanigans today. Don't get back to me until you've got Gwen Stacy with you."
"Dr. Stacy's been compromised, Mr. Stark."
Tony stopped himself from getting out of ear shot, both his body and words frozen in place. He turned slowly back to Helen with an irritated smirk.
"Compromised? What are you saying, Is she sick? Did she lose her virginity or something?"
"Dr. Stacy was recently murdered, sir."
Stark's smirk quickly disappeared.
"Director Fury recommended Mr. Parker in her place. Apparently, he knows more about her research than anyone else."
"Really..." Tony nodded as he stared judgingly at the boy. "Do you even have a degree in any field of science? What was your last science project?"
The boy looked sheepish as he answered. "I made a electricity-repulsive thread."
Tony's dejected grin slowly erupted in an almost hysterical cackling. In his psychotic fit, he couldn't see Peter looking away in suppressed shame while Helen just looked awkwardly to the side.
"This is great. I mean this is fucking unbelievable..." his words trailed off into more fits of laughter. "SHIELD really outdid itself this time."
The two flinched when the engineer's amusement turned to visible anger in a flash.
"Where's that one-eyed shit pile. I'm gonna kick his ass." Tony called for blood as he walked past the two.
"Mr. Stark..."
"No! I've had enough of this bullshit!" Helen and Peter reeled back when Tony suddenly started yelling. "I'm not putting putting up with this anymore. Anyone who doesn't understand not to stick their nose into my business is getting an ass-kicking tonight."
After listening to Stark ramble on like a madman as he left the lab, Helen turned to Peter with clear disappointment. "I apologize for Mr. Stark's crudeness. I assure you, he'll come around soon. In the meantime, would you like me to give you a tour of the facility."
"Yeah," Peter answered hastily, desperate for something to distract him from what was on his mind; the same thing that had been on his kind for months now. "That would be great."
Tony stormed into the monitor room at his own accord. He was greeted by Steve Rogers.
"Stark."
"Can it, Spangles! Fury and I need to have a talk."
Any effort to stop Tony was futile, Rogers quickly realized. He settled on merely trailing after him to keep him in check.
The engineer spotted the director seated near the large monitor at the front of the room.
"Fury, your ass is grass!"
"Now Stark, is that any way to address your director." The colonel feigned enthusiasm.
"Peter Parker? REALLY!"
"Our records suggest Mr. Parker was the most fit to take Dr. Stacy's place."
"Well it didn't occur to me that your high school sweetheart qualified as a fitting alternative to take your position. Sorry, but I didn't get that memo."
"The data we have on him is sufficient, I assure you, Mr. Stark. Here at SHIELD, we have the tendency to actually think things through before we make our decisions." Fury stood up to entertain this confrontation. "Have you even had an actual conversation with the boy."
"Yeah. It was one too many."
Fury rolled his eye. "Why am I not surprised?"
"You know what..."
"It really bothers you that anyone could possibly make any decisions for you. The possibility that there might be a decision better than your own doesn't even occur to you."
"Do I need to remind you who the technological genius is in this room?" Stark sneered, bringing himself just inches from the colonel's face.
"Stark!" Rogers barked warningly, but he was ignored.
"And where has that "genius" gotten you, Stark. Let's recap. You dragged Dr. Banner, one of SHIELD's best and brightest scientists, into your little Victor Frankenstein song and dance without so much as a second thought, and now he's half across the world doing God knows what because of everything your contraption put us all through. Now we can hardly track the guy because whenever someone so much as sniffs anyone of us lurking around, everyone out there gets scared to death that we have another robot army hiding in the shadows ready to throw the world into further chaos! You have no one to blame but yourself for this, Stark!"
"Colonel!" Steve shouted in disbelief.
Tony had to turn away, clenching his fists as Fury's last words sank in painfully. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of just how much he had fucked things up, as if being forced to hide out in this facility after months of facing mounting scrutiny from the public wasn't enough.
"You're right." Tony conceded, throwing his hands in the air. "What's it matter now? I already nearly got everyone killed. Lost my entire life." He sighed as he rested his hands on his hips. "What's this little dispute any way? Just the cherry on top."
The colonel couldn't help but feel pity for Stark. He appeared more helpless in here than he had when he ran into him at a donut shop several years ago. Back then he was dying and he was desperate for a way to save himself. Now, he was barely even the same man that he fought to save.
Fury stepped up to him, speaking with a more forgiving tone. "Well, it's all in the past now. When everything you have is gone, you've gotta start over, and keep moving forward. Take this old man's word for it. We've got a new team, with new people, just trying to find their way. Best we all do it together."
Tony's gaze met Fury with unspoken sorrow. He couldn't muster a response. He only wished "moving forward" were so easy, but the future only seemed to grow darker for Tony.
With a grieved sigh, the engineer left Fury's side. He exited the command room, veering off in no particular direction. Nowhere to go.
Steve approached Fury, having overheard the entire conversation.
"Colonel?"
"He's like his father in many ways." Fury assessed uneasily. "He doesn't know how to cope with loss."
"Well, anyone with a conscience wouldn't be able to." Steve replied.
"Howard was no ordinary mind. Tony, even more so. Their minds are much too large to allow any instability. Howard lost a lot during the Second World War. You can probably figure who suffered the consequences of that."
"Consequences." Steve contemplated. No doubt the war affected Howard in many ways. Steve knew how Howard considered him his greatest creation, and how his devotion to finding him consumed him until his death. Going back to Tony, Steve had to acknowledge the fact that Tony's deprived childhood ultimately came back to him.
"For most of his life, Tony has carried his father's baggage as well as his own. Put all that on a man who feels he is slowly losing everything he worked so hard to build and." The pause in his speech was foreboding, "well let's just say that a 'recipe for disaster' would be an understatement."
Steve ran out of the monitor room, heading straight for the lab. When he caught up to Tony, he had already locked himself in his personal workplace. He knocked on the door and waited patiently for Tony to come out
The door didn't open.