Thor felt the rubble of the building collapsing in on him and bellowed a mighty roar. The stones and bricks tore at his skin but he pushed through, tried to climb his way out of the pile of debris. The Wrecker stood just off to the side. He swung his enchanted crowbar in his hand like a baton with movements deft and well-practiced. He'd had a lot of time to perfect his skills in prison.
The rest of his crew were paired off with the other Avengers. Piledriver was pummeling mercilessly into Hawkeye while Black Widow desperately tried to force him off. Captain America was going toe to toe with Bulldozer, but after the fourth time of being rammed in the gut by his metal helmet, the captain was finding it difficult to stand. His abdomen was throbbing with intense pain and he wasn't sure how many more slams to stomach he could take. Nearby, Thunderball swung his wrecking ball around and around on its chain, continuously slamming the huge demolition ball into Iron Man every time the superhero fired up his pulsars to attack.
The Wrecker smirked. Everything was indeed going his way.
"RAAAAH!" A hulking green mass thundered into view, just off to the Wrecker's left. The Hulk was on a rampage right towards him, but the masked villain merely stood his ground, highly amused.
The Hulk approached quickly, fists raised and ready to drive the Wrecker into the ground, but the villain simply raised his crowbar, took hold of it in his hands like a baseball bat, and swung hard. The bar slammed into the Hulk like a bat meeting a ball and the green hero flew through the air at an impressive height, landing in a heap a few meters away.
"Home run!" The Wrecker called out comically just as Thor burst forth from the pile of rubble. The god watched the criminal swinging his crowbar around like he was some ringleader in a circus act or a magician leading a show of incredible illusions. He narrowed his eyes at him, that villain, and felt his jaw clench as he caught sight of the massive smile breaking out across his face.
"You fiend!" The god spat out. "Finding enjoyment in the pain of others." He took a few steps towards him, "Tell me, how do you wield such power in your little iron bar?"
The Wrecker swung his crowbar around in his hand again much like a drummer would twirl a drumstick through his fingers. Although, this drumstick was much bigger and much more dangerous. "Wouldn't you like to know, Asgardian?"
Thor's lips split into a disgusted snarl, but the god said nothing back, choosing to grip Mjolnir tighter in his hand and charge at the masked man instead. He gave out a loud yell as he ran, fully intent on sending the Wrecker to the ground once and for all.
Tony watched Thor fly through the air, not by choice, and land not far from where the Hulk had just been thrown. The big guy took two steps to reach the god and bent down to throw his large green hands out. The Hulk picked up Thor and righted him on his feet, dusting off his shoulder lightly, as if it would help any. The god merely grumbled in thanks, completely over this whole not getting a hit in thing.
Thunderball slammed his demolition ball into Tony's side again as he stood temporarily distracted by his friends getting beaten into piles. He was sent staggering back a few feet, having no time to think on a pun on Piledriver's name as the expense of his team. The interface of the Iron Man suit was blinking red, dozens of warnings popping up in front of Tony's eyes.
"Sir," Jarvis' voice said inside the suit, "the suit cannot sustain much more-"
"I know, Jarvis!" Tony bit out, clutching his right side as if he could heal it through his suit. "I know," he said again.
How had this all gone to hell so quickly?
"Cap!" He called out as he narrowly avoided another blow by the wrecking ball. "I think it's time for a new plan!"
He heard Cap wheeze from somewhere behind him, "Know that! Thinking!"
Clint gave a grunt from somewhere nearby, letting loose another pointless arrow, "Think faster!"
"Silly little Avengers," The Wrecker cooed tauntingly as he swirled his crowbar like a baton. "You're not all you're chalked up to be. It's a little disappointing."
Tony narrowed his eyes. "If there is one thing that Tony Stark isn't…" he said as he held his arm up, pulsar beam pinging and readying itself. He raised his eyebrows even though his face was concealed behind his mask.
"…It's disappointing."
He turned his arm away from Thunderball and sent his blast straight towards an unsuspecting Wrecker.
"Sorry, Cap," he mumbled into his comm, "your new plan was taking too long."
Stella sat in the back of the black, S.H.I.E.L.D issued SUV and nervously wrung her hands out in her lap. In a daze she watched the buildings pass by as the car inched closer and closer to their destination. Next to her, with only the middle seat separating them, Betty Ross sat perfectly poised with a smirk gracing her lips. Stella's silvery grey eyes drifted over to her companion meekly as she regarded her with trepidation, bottom lip beginning to tremble.
"You would be very pretty," Stella whispered softly, "if you were not so mean."
Betty's cold eyes slid over to fix Stella with a look of thinly veiled distaste. "Ooo," her lips contorted their shape and her voice held mock hurt, "did you get that bite from Romanoff? It needs a little work."
Stella licked her lips and stared back down at her lap. "I am just saying," her voice remained painfully quiet, "someone so pretty should not be so awful. Even…the other you. She was pretty too."
The little supernova looked up briefly and watched Betty's lip twist into a snarl. She quickly snapped her head back down to her hands, twisting them around each other over and over. She thought of Bruce - she was usually thinking of Bruce - and she thought of how badly she wished her was next to her, if only to hold her hand. To stop her from gripping her fingers so tightly that she could see them starting to pale even further each time she squeezed them. To stop her from being so afraid of the woman next to her.
"And someone so naive should not have been allowed to live in the first place."
Stella held back a tiny sob as she felt her eyes begin to water. "I do not understand," she gasped out quietly and looked forward. Her eyes stared into the back of the headrest in front of her. "Why do you hate me so much when I have done nothing wrong? When I do not even know you?"
Betty's fist clenched so tightly that Stella was sure she was about to lash out and hit her. The tiny star woman pressed herself even further into the door to her left, closing her eyes and wishing that she had even a sliver of a clue about what was going on.
The dull thud of a fist slamming into the seat met her ears and Stella cautiously pried one eye open and then the other. Betty was glaring at her with such hatred, such malice in her eyes that Stella felt it in her chest, in her heart. So much disdain this woman held for her. Her! A woman who spent her days watching movies and burning popcorn and following Tony around and wondering why her entire being felt ten times lighter every time she saw a certain brown haired, spectacled scientist.
The car abruptly stopped, blocks away from Times Square, and Stella lurched forward in her seat. The driver, who had thus far been driving in a half-aware daze, merely sat in his seat with his hands limply looped around the steering wheel. Stella wondered if he was okay. She'd wanted to ask him during the entire ride but she had just been too terrified of the woman next to her to even think about saying any more than she already had.
"Nothing wrong?" Betty's voice bit out, drawing Stella back to their earlier conversation. Her eyes glowed an awful bright blue as she glared at the small, pink haired woman. Stella glanced down at her own hands. She knew that blue.
"Nothing wrong?" Betty snarled again and this time her voice changed. It was deeper, angrier. Heavier with disdain than it had ever been before.
"How can you possibly think that you have done nothing wrong, you foolish little girl? You utterly stupid little worm."
"Worm?" Stella whispered so softly to herself that she was unsure if Betty had even heard her.
"It was supposed to be me," Betty, who was most certainly not Betty as Stella had come to conclude, continued. "Not you, me. I was the best, the most successful. I was the one whom they praised, marveled at, practically worshipped. I had everything they wanted, everything they needed and I was power. Pure, incredible power.I was their greatest creation and nothing, nothing, could take that away from me."
Betty slid across the seat faster than Stella could even comprehend and gripped a hand around her throat with a strength that could match her own, that could even match Thor's.
"Until you."
Immediately Stella's vision began to tunnel as little specks danced in front of her eyes. She struggled to breathe, unable to fight back because she was just so stunned and so very, very alone. Sitting in the back of this SUV with a hypnotized driver and a woman, or whatever she was, who hated her so much that she might possibly strangle the life out of her before they even got to the rest of the Avengers.
And the worst part was that although he had ignored her since Halloween, although he had been distant and strange and one hundred percent not himself, Stella still wanted Bruce next to her. Even if he showed no interest. Even if he didn't help. Just seeing him one last time, being next to him one last time...that would have been enough for her. He would always be enough for her and now…now he wasn't even here. He'd told her, all those months ago when she had been scrubbing her own blood off the walls of her room in the old Stark Tower, that she would never have to be alone.
But now she was.
"Bruce..." she choked out as her eyes began to roll upwards.
Betty swiftly released her throat with another snarling look and shook her hand out as if she had gotten something rotten on it. "Bruce, you say," she made a noise of disgust. "We shall see what Bruce can do once we get to him."
Her voice so quiet that it was barely above a whisper, her throat sore and feeling impossibly hoarse, Stella asked meekly, "What are you trying to do to us?"
Betty stared into Stella's grey eyes and narrowed her own, hating the warmth she saw there in those silvery pools. Hating the compassion, the care, the love. Stella felt the icy chill of Betty's glare down to her bones. Never in her short life on Earth had she encountered such pure hatred.
"I'm trying," When Betty spoke her voice dropped to a low, threatening bass, "to ruin you."
"Why are we going this way?" Natasha was not amused as she spoke into her comm.
"No idea," Clint responded as he leaped over a car and rolled across the roof of another one. "They just started going in this direction."
"Yeah, but," Tony's voice came over their earpieces and a faint blast from one of his pulsars could be heard, "why this way?"
Clint's eye roll was almost audible. "No. Idea."
"Doesn't matter," Steve's voice clipped out. "Wherever they go we know where they're going to end up."
There was a beat of silence and it was Tony's turn to roll his eyes, giving in to playing along with Steve's heroic, theatric pause.
"Where, Captain?!" He mocked in a voice laced with admiration.
Steve didn't notice, or he didn't care.
"Jail."
Natasha was next to roll her eyes as she continued on after the Wrecking Crew.
They were headed towards the Hudson River.
The Wrecker held up his crowbar as a signal for the rest of his crew to halt. He peered around the area and noticed the crowd. Noticed their faces, their fear.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" He gestured wildly, playing the part of a ring leader in a circus act. "We are the Wrecking Crew!"
He swung his arms out wide, his crowbar knocking into a trashcan and sending it flying into the air. It landed with a crash and the crowd erupted into screams again.
"And we have come..." He shouted and waited until they quieted down to look upon him with terror in their eyes once again. "We have come to do a little..."
He smirked and motioned with his hands for the rest of the crew to get ready.
"Remodeling."
The Wrecking Crew sprang into action and chaos followed.
When Stella and whoever was impersonating Betty Ross came to the clearing near the bank of the Hudson River, the tiny star woman was already in a panic. Her friends were there! Fighting without her! Getting hurt without her there to try to help them! She felt the dread building up in the pit of her stomach when her eyes followed Tony, decked out in his suit but wildly flying backwards through the air and landing in a pile of red and gold a few feet away from her. A masked man with a giant metal ball on a chain stood from where Iron Man had just been thrown.
"Tony!" Stella's voice ripped from her throat as she ran forward, abandoning all thoughts about Betty and their conversations on the roof and in the SUV parked a few blocks down.
Tony cleared his head and shook himself off as he stood. He could have sworn he just heard...
"Tony! Are you alright?!"
"Supernova?" He turned and saw Stella, still in her lounge clothes, running towards him. "Supernova, wait!"
Before she could reach him, Bulldozer charged forward, leaving a wheezing Hawkeye in his wake, and rammed straight into her side. The pink haired woman cried out in pain and surprise as her body flew forward away from Tony. She toppled over on the ground and dust flew up around her. Her bare feet pressed into the earth, rock and loose gravel jabbing sharply against her skin. From just one attack her thin, black cotton leggings had a rip in her knee, silver streams running out of a gash in her skin. Her previously neon orange tank top was smudged with dirt and grass from sliding across the ground.
Tony looked at her bright colored top, the light pink hair disheveled on her head, and the usually bubbly silver eyes that were now confused and scared. Something had happened to her since they last saw her. Something wasn't right and it had nothing to do with the superhuman who just slammed his enhanced helmet into her ribcage.
Stella's eyes slid over to Betty and Tony watched, all in the few seconds that this entire moment took place, as the tiny woman's shoulders shrank, her bare feet nearly on top of one another as she sat with her arms held up close to her, hands gently clasped together at her chest, knees raised as if to block her body from something. She resembled a small, terrified child with the exception of the faint glow of silver and the crackle of blue that shone across her linked palms. The orb of light lit up around her chest as she watched Betty, and Tony knew exactly what that position meant.
Stella was a cornered animal, and she was on the defensive.
"What are you doing here?" Steve deflected Thunderball's wrecking ball with his shield, wincing as his arm rotated too far to the right to drive it away. His eyes flew back to Betty, waiting for her response.
Betty's eyes turned desperate and Tony watched the exchange while blindly firing a pulsar over towards Piledriver at the same time Thor shot a bolt of lightning towards the villain.
"She wouldn't stay at the mansion!" Her voice was sickly sweet and laced with fake panic as she took on the role of an innocent victim that Tony knew was a complete and total lie. "She begged me to take her to you all! I couldn't stop her. I-I, I couldn't," she stuttered and made a show of looking fearful as the Avengers went toe-to-toe with the Wrecking Crew. "What is happening here?"
Steve watched her labored breathing, her panicked eyes, shaking hands - signs of someone in clear distress - but he narrowed his own eyes at her nevertheless. He didn't buy her charade for a second.
"You're not Betty," he quietly said to her.
Betty's eyes narrowed ever so slightly back at him. She quickly searched the crowd. Black Widow had Piledriver in a headlock with her thighs. His huge fists desperately clawing to get her off. Hawkeye was luring The Wrecker over to a land mine trap he had set with one of his explosive arrows. Thor was off near Tony, engaged in combat with Thunderball after Captain America had knocked him towards the god. That only left...
"RAAAAH!" A mighty roar bellowed out across the field as The Hulk's huge, green fist met Bulldozer's helmet head on. The villain slid backwards a few feet from the force, but charged forward towards him again. The Hulk roared out again and stood his ground.
This was her only chance. Now the star spangled savior of New York City held her under suspicion. The Black Widow undoubtedly didn't trust her either and there was no way that Tony Stark was going to let her go. She had to do this now and ruin her while she still could. Betty turned towards the man in red, white, and blue, and gave him a look that held such contempt, such utter hatred, that Steve was momentarily startled.
"Love is a terrible thing, isn't it, captain?"
Steve only had time to let out a confused "wha-?" before Betty ran out into the ensuing fighting. She shared a brief look with Bulldozer as she ran by him and Steve was positive that something passed between them. Some sort of connection or telepathy or whatever, because the next thing the escaped criminal did was make a bee-line straight for Stella.
"Tony!" Steve started running full force towards the little star woman. "Stella! He's going for-"
Piledriver had flung Natasha off of him and gave himself enough of a head start to ram his fists into Steve's back from behind. The super soldier fell face first into the ground and landed awkwardly on his shield. Tony barely had time to register his warning.
"Supernova! Watch out!"
The Wrecking Crew, as if compelled by some controlling force, all acted together and attacked each Avenger, engaged each of them in combat that they couldn't escape from. Piledriver slammed down into Steve, crushing him further into the ground. Thunderball had pinned Natasha underneath his wrecking ball as Clint desperately clawed at the dirt around her to try to free her. The Wrecker was matching Thor and Mjolnir blow for blow with his super powered crowbar. Tony watched as Thunderball abandoned his weapon and left it pressing down painfully on Natasha's legs. The gigantic villain approached Betty and grabbed her around the middle. She shrieked out loud and drew the attention of the Hulk, who had been watching the entire scene and assessing which of the Avengers to help.
"Betty?" Bruce's voice sounded from deep within The Hulk and he shook his head frantically, trying to get Bruce to understand what he wasn't seeing.
"Help me!" Betty's voice forced The Hulk to step towards her as if his legs had a mind of his own.
"Bruce," he ground out through clenched teeth, "You. Stop. Now!"
The firm whisper of the scientist inside of him nearly broke The Hulk's heart.
"No."
Tony had thought that the worst feeling he had ever experienced was looking at the rubble of the destroyed Stark Tower and knowing Stella was inside, crushed underneath. He'd thought that would be the only time he would ever have to feel so utterly helpless that all he'd been able to do was fall to the ground and beg someone to hold the back of his shirt. It was a moment of his life that he didn't think about very often anymore. Stella had lived and continued to fill his life, and everyone's life, with such light and such incredible, immeasurable joy that he never really allowed himself to think back on the time he almost lost her.
But now he watched Stella struggle to her feet, eyes wide and filled with pure terror as she watched Bulldozer's helmet barreling straight towards her. Ragged breaths escaped her mouth and she felt like her legs might give out, but she held her hands up anyway, ready to stop the oncoming blow, trying to be brave for her friends. Her hands lit up into a brilliant silver, but it all happened so fast. So damn fast.
"Supernova!" Tony screamed out. His suit was at its lowest capacity and he was trying desperately to pull himself up and still save enough power to fly after her.
The Hulk's eyes flew from Betty over to where Tony had just yelled out.
"Stella?" The Hulk's voice became mixed with Bruce's. The green giant could feel the confusion of the man inside.
"Bruce!" Betty's voice was grating on his mind in the background. "Bruce, help me!"
Bulldozer slammed into Stella full force and her bright silver starbeams blasted upwards. The enhanced criminal kept running and bucked his head up, sending Stella flying into the Hudson and way off the shoreline.
Tony knew Betty's plan, or whoever the hell this woman was. His knees buckled as the suit sparked. Circuits blew and everything went completely haywire on his helmet screen. She was going to make Bruce choose. She was going to make Bruce choose her or Stella because…
Tony closed his eyes as his suit powered down and his body lurched forward.
"Bruce! You can't save them both!" Tony was pulling himself in vain towards the edge of the shore.
The Hulk closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth. Everything was so loud and everyone was yelling. Everyone was screaming.
"Bruce!" Tony's voice was breaking as he shouted, nearly screeching before it broke into a much quieter plea.
"Bruce," Tony lifted his head and locked eyes with The Hulk, seeing the familiar brown of Bruce's eyes swirling just at the edges of the angry green ones, "please."
Bruce felt every inch of his heart scream out as Tony looked him dead in the eyes.
"She can't swim."
The Hulk took a deep breath…and took a step.
Hi? I don't really know what to say.
Sometimes life wants to break you down, but you just can't let it. Thank you to everyone who is still here. It really means a lot to me and you are all truly wonderful. I'm sorry for being away for so long. I really am. Don't forget to smile, y'all. Nothing stays bad forever 3
Stay tuned. xx
