Chapter 9: Three Months Later: They're Back
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN OR IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES. THEY BOTH BELONG TO MARVEL.
An extremely battered Quinjet touched down after an overly-extended space flight. Out of it stumbled five equally battered heroes. Tony Stark had his helmet scarred but he was fine. Pepper's armor was dented in a few places and she was clutching her rib-cage. Hulk had his head held between his hands as he stumbled around blindly. Reed was like a rubber ball. That is extremely bouncy but has no control of where he's going. Captain America limped after the group.
Tasha's POV
I heard a group of people stumbling around the mansion. I headed over to the source and I was quite surprised to see them there. My face fell when I saw all of them nursing all kinds of injuries. I asked Jarvis to help me get them to the medical bay. He obliged and hefted dad over his shoulders. He was stronger than he looked. I helped mum and the others get to the medical centre. After that, I called my friends. We had found unused AVENGER cards in the mansion during our stay. We decided to use them to our advantage. We didn't even have a clue of how to use them but Peter quickly saw to that. Ever since then, we've been using them consistently.
"Guys! Get here quick!" I didn't realise my voice was high-pitched. They came here as fast as they could.
"What's the matter?" Sam asked. I led them to the sickbay silently.
"They're back." Ava couldn't believe that the heroes were actually back. We thought they were all gone for good. I had prepared for the worse but this was much more than I had hoped for. I walked over to mum and dad. Jarvis had taken their helmets off to allow himself room to strap oxygen masks to their faces. They were breathing slowly, but surely. I checked the others. It looked like Hulk had a bandage around his eyes.
Reed was hooked up to a crazy contraption that was, I think, meant to relax all the muscles in his body. Captain America had a bandaged knee and was walking around on crutches but he was sleeping on his cot for now. My friends and I left them and we headed to the game room. Yes, we did find a game room. It was filled wall to wall with arcade machines, game consoles and practically every game in existence.
There was a huge plasma screen TV in there as well which was perfect for our weekly tournaments. Even Jarvis joined in. He beat everyone and I mean everyone at Mortal Kombat. Who knew he was such a fearsome Sub-Zero player? Anyway, We all plopped ourselves down onto one of the massive couches in the room.
"What do you think?" Peter asked me.
"About what?"
"You know, your mum, dad and the other heroes. What do you think about them?"
"What am I supposed to think!? They're alive and breathing. I'm happy they're back But I'm also confused as to why it took them almost three months to get back to Earth?" At this point I was standing up. Peter stood up as well to retort but Ava put a stop to it immediately.
"Can we stop this fighting please? We aren't getting anywhere with all of this." I let out a sigh.
"Of course. Anyway, how do you think they survived Doom's attack?" When we were heading back to Earth with a captured Skrull, Doom, unfortunately, managed to catch up to us and he targeted the ship with the Skrull. That ship happened to be the one that my parents and the other major heroes were on. I had wanted to fight back but my dad told no, ordered me to get way from there as fast as I could. I hightailed it out of there and made it back to Earth. That was nearly three months ago. Ever since then, we had to take care of ourselves, with Jarvis's help of course. We finally managed to have normal lives, sort of. Sam and I had started to date a couple of months ago. No-one, especially Peter, believed that I was his girlfriend but they just shrugged it off.
"Hmm, maybe they fought?" Sam asked
"Ya think?" I gave Sam a playful shove.
"No-one can survive an attack by Doom. But then again, it is the Avengers we're talking about." At that moment, Jarvis walked in.
"Excuse me, but Tasha, your dad has woken up. He said he would like to speak to you." He noticed the others get up. "Alone." He added. I waved to them and headed to sickbay. Dad was sitting up, gratefully drinking a one gallon bottle of water?
"Wow dad, easy on the drink." I chuckled lightly. He looked up at that.
"Tasha?" He threw the now-empty bottle on the floor and ran up to me. He hugged me tightly. "You can't believe how much I missed you."
"Dad … can't … breathe …"
"Oh, sorry." He let go of me and waited while I caught my breath back.
"How long have we been gone?" He asked nervously.
"Roughly about three months. Give or take a few days." He sighed in relief.
"Is that all?"
"Is that all? Hmm, let's see. You were gone for three months, three months without you or mum, three months not knowing what happened to you or the others, three months spent thinking the worst!" I counted off the things on my fingers.
"Honey, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. You can't believe how sorry I am." He hugged me gently this time.
"I'm starting to." I replied. I gently extracted myself from his embrace and sat down on his now vacant cot.
"Tell me, what happened when you and Doom fought? Oh wait, don't tell me. My friends have to hear it as well." Before he could reply I raced off to the games room. They were all playing Mortal Kombat, again. Peter and Sam were playing against each other.
"Can't you guys play anything else?" I asked them, with my hands on my hips. "Before you answer, though, my dad wants to tell us how he and the team escaped Doom."
They're back and better than ever! Or are they? Stay tuned for the next chapter!
