I've had this chapter in my head for so long now. I hope you guys enjoy it!
Music: Driving with the top down.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or The Avengers.
"This is not wise," Thori'odi states. "It could be a trap."
Oh now he says, Tony sighs, when they're all clinging to the sides of the floating rock, trying very hard not to fall down into the mists below.
"Could have expressed that opinion before," Bruce grouses. His skin is flickering green from the stress of the situation.
"It's worth a shot," said Rogers. "If Ewya gave us allies, it's was probably for a reason."
"But that's if they're allies," Natasha points out. She moves along to the narrow path and makes a heart stopping leap upward to a crag of rack. "If it's a trap, we're not exactly in the best position to find out."
"Does no one trust me?" Barton asks rhetorically. He's the furthest ahead and the highest up, picking out the path for the others, to the rope vine that leads to the next rock which the banshees are perched on.
"We trust you," Tony told him. "But whether or not you're smarter than Loki is up for discussion." Clint risks death to flip Tony the bird and Cap sighs but Tony can see he's hiding a smile. Then Clint makes a leap upward more heart-stopping that the one Natasha had performed and disappears around a projection of rock.
"I hate my life," Bruce says looking at where Clint had disappeared.
"Luckily I'm here to make it better," Tony says. "Come on doc, up we go."
"You good doc?" Cap calls down. Natasha is up over the rock now.
"Yeah," says Bruce. "I'll make it. It won't be fun but I'll make it."
Cap looks down, analyses Bruce and then nods. He too leaps upwards and disappears. Tony is next and he tries to calm his frantically beating heart. He's in a na'vi body, made for this environment but even for the Na'vi this is risky. Still Natasha and Barton are basically human and made it up, so he should be fine. The wind blowing does not help. Tony waits for a slight break on the wind and then bunches his muscles and leaps upwards.
He overcompensates but manages to make it fairly safely, although his heart and stomach is falling far, far beneath him. If he leans over he might hear their pitiful cries for help as they fall into the abyss.
"Come on Bruce!" he calls hoping that Bruce does not hear the waver in his voice.
There is a long moment of silence and then Bruce is up over the projection of rock and Tony is steadying him. His eyes are wide, his skin is green and Tony is sure he feels his body shift and change under Tony's grip but then he takes in a harsh breath and settles. Tony pulls him across the rest of the way and then Thor'odi is there, looking like the jump was of no consequence to him.
They travel across the uneven surface of the flying fortress until they arrive at where the vines are rooted into it. It's like a giant, ugly umbilical cord, made up of vines and rocks caught int their grasp that ties the floating mountains together. If the paths they'd just come up was awful, Tony lacked the words to describe what climbing up that was going to be like.
"Are you sure these are safe?" Cap asks Thor'odi. In response Thor grips the vine-and-rock and scrambles onto it. He moves up the structure with ease, grabbing onto individual vines and handholds of rock to make his way up to their destination.
"Oh this is fantastic," Bruce breathes, sarcastically.
Clint and Natasha share a look and then they're moving. Clint is first and he goes up with the same ease as Thor even though it's clear he's definitely using much more effort. Natasha is right behind him. She's not a proficient as Barton but the difference isn't too large. She's got a good eye for the easiest paths too.
Rogers nods to him. "I'll come up after Bruce," he says and Tony nods back in agreement. He approaches the wild ladder and then takes hold of the vines and pulls up. It's not as hard as he'd though it might be but boy oh boy, the height was making him dizzy. The sudden flashbacks of falling partway up the ladder weren't helping either.
"Tony!" It was Natasha's voice, cutting through the haze. He looked up at her and she said, "Count with me."
"What?" he said.
"Count with me. Odd numbers. Come on. 1, 3, 5, 7. Come on Tony, continue."
It takes a few moments and then Tony says, "9." He swallows and then starts back, "11. 13. 15."
Barton continues from somewhere up top. "17,19,21." Tony takes another deep breath and starts moving again.
"23," Bruce says, "25. 27."
"29," says Natasha.
"31," Tony breathes out. "33, 35, 37."
"39," Steve continues.
"41." Even Thor'odi joins.
They count odd numbers for the entire time they climb up the stupid pan-rock-vine ladder. It's embarrassing but it keeps Tony from flashbacks and Bruck from hulking out. When they are finally, finally, on flat-ish land again and Tony sees the strain ease from Clint and Natashalie's face, he concludes that it may have helped the others keep their minds of the terrifying height as well.
The warm glow in his chest presses in for a moment and Tony is okay. Okay with showing this weakness. Then the moment is gone and everybody has their game faces back on. Time to go spring a trap, if they're stupid.
Barton settles his bow and quiver more firmly on his back and then he's moving across the sharp-edged terrain towards the outcropping where the banshees are. They follow him of course, everyone creeping out and putting themselves in the best position to defend Barton if something goes wrong.
The banshees screech at Barton and the archer flinches a little. It's not a scared flinch more like a I'm-ready-to-fight flinch. The banshees screech again but instead of attacking Barton they jump of the ledge. They don't go far. They basically circle above the floating rock screeching horribly. Tony definitely understand why they're called banshees.
That is, all of them take flight except one banshee. The remaining banshee, eyes Clint disdainfully and then hisses sharply at him. Clint grins sharply back at it and hisses too. The creature moves from its disdainful position and gives a full out attack snarl.
"Barton," Thor'odi's voice is warning. "I think he has chosen you."
"Yeah I think so too," Clint said, face split in a sharp smile.
"But the halo can't be made," said Natasha. She pointed. "Look their bond ports are limp too."
"So Ewya did lock them out too," said Tony.
"Which means they're allies," said Cap.
"Only if we prove our worth," Clint replied, still avoiding the menacing banshee.
"Uh as far as I know they only stop trying to kill you when you've made the bond," Natasha pointed out.
"First flight seals the bond," said Thor'odi. He looked thoughtful. "I guess we survive the first flight."
"This is not going to end well," Bruce said.
"Well we gotta try right?" Clint says. It's official, Tony thinks. Barton is crazy.
"You're too small Barton," he says. Banshees are good for riding with na'vi bodies but humans are tiny compared to the things. Barton just turns his head enough to grin at Stark and then lunges.
There are about five voices yelling 'Clint!" in various tones of alarm. Barton ignores them all. He somehow manages to get under the banshees and then twists to pin the thing. When he has it subdued he slings himself on its back. Which of course the banshee hates so Clint has to wrestle with it again while Tony stands on the sidelines feeling incredibly helpless. Finally though the archer has the banshee marginally subdued and then without even a by your leave Barton tosses both himself and the banshee of the cliff.
Yep. Tony's gonna kill him if he survives. By the look on Romanoff's face, Tony will have to get in line.
There is a lot of screeching from below them but after a few minutes the squawking settles down. For a moment everyone stands in tense horror that Clint might have been thrown off and then the banshee plus it passenger rush up from the depths blowing past them while Barton shouts in triumph.
Everyone releases sighs of relief and Bruce goes back to being brown skinned and not green tinged. Their relief is short lived though. The remaining banshees alight on the rock and starts hissing at the rest of them. They all look at each other and then slowly advance on the banshees.
The banshee that tries to kill Tony is a damn son of a bitch and Tony think he might half love the thing already even if it did almost take an inch of his tail. Currently the thing is trying to bite him in the face. Rogers is doing much better from what he can tell but it still isn't easy. Thor'odi, the bastard, had already jumped off the cliff with his banshee five minutes ago. Natasha had hers pinned but wasn't able to move from that position to actually mount the thing.
Tony manages to push the banshee's face from his own, scramble away from it and then dive back on top of it. The bashes squeals angrily and Tony feels like he's back on one of those bulls you have to ride at parties where everybody bets on how long you'll stay on. Tony used to like to try and win the bets.
Why did he like that again? It was stupid. And painful. And full of claws. Wait, wrong creature.
"Argh!" Tony yelled at the thing. "Stay down, you stupid thing so I can ride you." There was little pause on the rock. "Uh, that came out wrong…."
"Tony," Bruce sighed from where he was standing not wrestling any banshees at all because none had chosen him and well, there weren't any left anyway. "You're gonna rot my brain."
"Sorry," Tony called back. He finally managed to pin the thing with a foot on either main wing and clambered on to the thing's back firmly. The banshee tried to throw him off but Tony steered them to the edge of the cliff and then threw them off.
He tried not to scream on the way down, because who the hell though this was a smart idea?
The banshee tried to roll and throw Tony off it's back but tony clung on stubbornly. Not going to die today, getting allies of all things. The banshee's screeches and tries to slam him into a cliff but Tony shifts his weight and the banshees is forced to pull away from the cliff or risk bashing itself pretty badly. It tries to roll again but Tony shifts his weight just in time and stays on, so the banshee abandons fancy tactics and just falls. The wind shear is awful and Tony has to fight to stay on but he does it. For a long and terrifying moment Tony thought that he and the banshee would never come to an understanding but then the banshee stopped trying to throw him off and leveled out. Its wings caught air and suddenly they weren't falling anymore. They were flying.
They were flying and damn Tony remember those few moments before he'd fallen from the sky. He remembered the sheer ecstasy that he'd felt. It was the one good thing he could remember about the whole dark experience and here it was again.
He gripped tightly to the banshee and together they sliced through the sky like it was theirs. The banshee screamed and Tony screamed with it.
Answering screams came from behind him and Tony looked back to see Thor and Clint flanking him. He grinned wildly at them and they grinned back. Tony sends his banshee up into a climb and the others followed, soaring, higher and higher up. They reached as far as the banshee would go and then his banshee was closing its wings and tilting downward.
Tony expected to be greeted with a flashback, now that he wasn't clinging on for his life but all he felt was utterly alive, searing thrill running through his veins as they spiral down. Steve and Natasha flashed past them on their way up. At the last moment the banshees flared their wings and arced them back into the sky again.
Tony whooped joined by Thor, Clint and then a few seconds later by Nat and Steve. In a few moments they were all spread out in a line in the sky staring at each other, wild elation on their faces. Then a dark shadow spread over them. The banshees squealed in alarm and tired to scatter but an= wild shout from above had their riders pulling them back on course.
Tony looked up to the Torak Makto searching for the figure he knew had to be there even if his brain had trouble processing it. But then...there he was. Bruce Banner, on the Torak Makto's back. But…
"Well shit!" Barton started laughing.
Tony started laughing to too because Bruce…wasn't quite Bruce. He wasn't quite his hulking na'vi form either. He was a mix of both forms, using the Hulk's strength and speed to survive the Torak Makto trying to kill him.
"He's…." Thor was a little shocked and Natasha's eyes were sparkling. Rogers was grinning hard. Bruce looped back and flew under them and then he was shifting, changing back to just Bruce.
"He's the only one who can hold the other guy!" Bruce shouted up at them. Tony blinked. Made sense.
"You're awesome!" he shouted back down and Bruce shook his head at him but he was clearly pleased.
"Tony are you sure you haven't been infected," Natasha said, "You handed out a compliment to someone other than yourself."
Tony risks death to flip her the bird. She laughs.
Tell me what you think!