AN: Another Chapter! Still alive guys don't worry. Slowing down because school though.
"Is there anywhere like this on your Earth?" Clint leaned against the straps toward Polis as they banked over the ships stranded on the salvage yard.
The tenno took a second to look out the window. "Not that I know of. I can count on one hand the number of places with a permanent population on the planet itself. Everywhere else I've visited was covered in trees the size of skyscrapers. No artificial structures could stay recognizable for more than a year unless actively maintained with biotoxins that would probably be considered outright inhumane anywhere on this Earth. Quite frankly it's unusual to even be able to see the horizon not blocked by trees or Sentient corpses."
"Your world sucks."
"Aye, but it is beautiful in it's own way." They landed just off a line of nearby trees. As they disembarked Clint paused, trying to picture what they would look like if they were as big as Polis said.
"What's up?" Natasha asked.
The archer shook his head. "Nothing, just trying to exercise my imagination."
"Well don't hurt yourself." She turned and started walking toward the boats. Barton rolled his eyes before following.
Before Polis could follow, however, Banner pulled him aside.
"Hey, I just wanted to ask, if it's not too much trouble, I-"
"Don't worry, Archimedean. We will do our best to make sure you do not need to get involved."
"Thanks."
"Hey, if anything it adds an extra bit of difficulty to our otherwise boring lives. Makes things interesting."
"I'll try to take that as a compliment." Polis laughed and slapped the scientist on the shoulder before sprinting off to catch up with everyone else who had already left.
They made it to the boat without any issue, there wasn't anyone on watch. Rain and Matariel wasted no time in scaling the smooth side of the ship. Polis, on the other hand, noticed that three of their party were noticeably incapable of doing so. They were looking for a way in on ground level and Polis shook his head at their lack of creativity.
"Hawkeye, Black Widow, grab onto the Captain, I can send you up by his shield."
"No thanks, I'm good." Clint said, firing a grappling arrow up between the boat's rails. He quickly scaled the wall. Steve jogged over and accepted the ride, linking one hand with Natasha and the other into his shield. Polis surged his warframe's systems and they both quickly passed Clint, who let out an exasperated sigh at Natasha's stuck out tongue. After checking to make sure they were up and secure, Polis launched up the metal plating after them, arriving the same time as Hawkeye. Together, the four ran as quietly as they could toward the door Tony and Thor had vanished through. Shortly they heard a familiar metallic voice bouncing off the walls.
"DON'T COMPARE ME TO STARK! It's- It's a thing with me. Stark is… He's a sickness!"
Tony, always one for timing, chose that moment to intervene. "Aw Junior." He said. "You're going to break your old man's heart."
Ultron looked unimpressed. "If I have to."
Polis and Rain chose instead to not be immediately visible, and instead hide behind a collection of munitions. Peeking over, they saw that both of the Maximoff twins stood a little ways behind the towering Ultron robot.
Thor stepped forward. "Nobody has to break anything."
"Clearly you've never made an omelette."
"He beat me by one second." Tony said, glancing backwards. Thor gave him a confused look. Next to Rain, Polis mimed pinching his brow.
The Maximoff brother spoke then. "It's funny, it's what, comfortable?" He gestured to the various weapon systems scattered around them. "Like old times?"
"This was never my life." Tony said, sounding for all the world like he believed it.
Captain America also took a step forward. "You two can still walk away from this. I've seen your file, what Strucker did was-"
He was loudly interrupted by Ultron gagging. "Captain America. God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but…"
Thor responded but neither tenno heard what it was, since Matariel opened up a channel to the two. "It's coming to a head, I'll be distracting, get to better positions." Without any pause the Limbo dropped down with a louder than normal clang. "Thor, he never said he believed in peace, only that he will bring it."
Ultron's face curled into an irritated expression, but he said nothing.
"And, unlike the good Captain here, I'm not going to pretend we don't need war, it's in the name after all." The tenno casually hefted his Arca Titron across his shoulders. "That said, there's only one species that's ever actually been able to make war against us, and humans," He gestured at the twins. "are not them."
"Oh I know." Ultron broke in. "But you won't get in my way. Not here."
"Yeah? What's the vibranium for?" Tony asked accusingly.
"I'm glad you asked that." Ultron said. "I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." Instantly the air between them warped with magnetic energy, but Iron Man stayed where he was. Ultron snarled down at Polis, whose hand was up in concentration. The Mag then brought down sections of the roof down on the robots that were pouring out from various hiding places. Tony charged Ultron who met him mid air and two wrestled off down the length of the boat.
Thor and the Captain engaged about three minions each, while Matariel phased and weaved in between four more, they went down in seconds.
Then the Maximoffs got involved.
The speedster whizzed around, getting punched in where he could. Steve charged Wanda, but she threw him back with a blast of energy.
Rain decided to take a queue and activated firewalker, flipping and skating around any henchmen who were taking aim at the Avengers. The fire from his feet stuck, creating an ever thickening maze, hampering the speed with which his enemies could move. After bringing down two or three, he caught sight of Black Widow in her own melee. He pulled out his Euphona and dropped her next two opponents before they could reach her, he then threw his Orvius, rebounding it through the throats of five henchmen and bots before catching it again and bringing it down through the head of another human.
Polis glanced up briefly and saw Tony follow Ultron through a hole in the ceiling. Quickly surveying what forces remained, he leapt from the floor, and, rebounding off the many jutting rails, made his way up and outside. Once there, a quick three-sixty revealed Iron man chasing Ultron down across the flat ground, away from the city. It also revealed a small group of bots flying in a different direction at high speed. They each appeared to be carrying small containers.
Without hesitation Polis took out his Rubico, kneeled, and took aim.
Bam. One of the robots fell out of the sky, the others around it tried to catch what it was carrying, but Polis shot them down too. A chunk of boat flew at the tenno out of nowhere but he dodged it easily. It was, however. Enough for the rest of the fleeing robots to cut their losses and try their hardest to get out of range, a few more fell, but they flew on regardless. When they finally left his field of view, Polis turned back to Stark's fight the big robot. Tony had it pinned to another ship, but appeared to be talking with it. That wouldn't do, so Polis put a high powered round through its head.
"Rule number one of a self-aware robot uprising, do not engage in witty banter with it. All it does is waste time." Polis said over an open channel.
"He could have revealed intel." Tony responded.
"He made it clear inside that he wasn't going to talk. Matariel only did it so we could get into better positions. Matariel, how are things going inside?"
"...aaaand that's that's the last one. I'm all done in here, I'm going to- oh."
"...What's 'oh'?"
Clint answered before Matariel could. "The girl messed with everyone's heads, most of the team is out. I managed to stop her getting to me though."
"Well that's not good. What about Banner?" Rain asked.
Realization hit Polis like a truck, and through their void connection he could tell Matariel had the same idea he did. Polis swung his Rubico around toward the jet, but it was empty. "Banner is gone, if Wanda got into his head…"
Tony instantly blazed off in the direction of the city.
Matariel began snapping orders. "Hawkeye, you're going to have to handle cleanup, make sure to get the vibranium and the other avengers to safety." He switch to orokin to convey information more quickly. "We're gonna have to be smart about this. None of us are equipped to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk right now." He pause briefly in thought. "Priority to saving non-combatants. I'll do what I can. Rain, with me. Polis, see if you can slow him down with debris. Go." The tenno sped away toward the city as fast as they could manage.
"You know, in hindsight." Rain said as they sprinted. "I think a Volt, a Nyx, and an Atlas might have been the better choice of frames for this mission."
"Why Atlas?"
"Because punch. And because debris everywhere and the inability to be knocked over also helps."
"Point made. Stark, what's it look like up there?"
"Not good. I've called in Veronica." A huge armored contraption blazed by overhead.
Polis grunted in recognition. "Oh I saw those plans. Good idea." The tenno were in the city by now and could hear the big green monster thrashing around up ahead. They skidded to a stop just as thick metal poles fell out of the sky and impaled themselves evenly spaced surrounding the Hulk, before bending inward and enclosing him in a six sided box.
It looked at first like the hexagonal box would hold, faint pounding could be heard, but no visible damage was being done. People and the police started slowly creeping closer, but Matariel wasn't having it. He fired his Aklex prime into the air and made a shooing gesture at the police to get the civilians away from the action. Thankfully, they got the message, just in time for the ground to drop a couple feet from under them. The tenno recovered quickly, but many humans were laid out and struggling to get to their feet. Polis went to help them up, but Matariel and Rain stood with their gazes locked on the sinking box.
"Polis, get the cars out of the way. Some of them are still occupied so be careful."
"Aye." Polis said. He raised his arms, lines along his warframe glowing ice-white as he mimed a pushing motion and the vehicles began to slowly roll backwards. He kept pushing even when the ground dropped another foot and the metal box nearly vanished underground.
Behind his mask, Rain's eyes widened. "He's digging! Move!"
Matariel whipped around just as the ground underneath a car erupted into a snarling green monster. But instead of the massive fists coming down on the person inside, they passed right through. Polis, abandoning his task, instead took two unoccupied cars and slammed them together on the Hulk, throwing him back into the center of the nearby plaza.
"Stark, I'm sensing a massive design flaw in both that containment device and the length of time it takes to get that suit on!" Rain said over an open channel.
"Don't worry I'm-"
BOOM. The ground when the Hulkbuster landed.
"Done changing." Tony said. He blasted the Hulkbuster's loudspeakers. "Alright everybody STAND DOWN." This, of course, only pissed the Hulk off more.
"Will you listen to me?"
Rain made exaggerated slicing motions across his neck.
"That little witch is messing with your mind. You're stronger than her."
Polis facepalmed.
"You're smarter than her. You're Bruce Banner."
Hulk screamed bloody murder.
"Right right don't mention puny Banner." Tony backpedalled verbally, then physically backpedalled from the car that got thrown at him. Hulk went to use the blind spot the vehicle made to get another punch in but he phased right through the armor suit. He screamed in frustration.
"Hey." Tony asked. "Can't you just do that to him permanently?"
Matariel twirled his hands. "Doing that requires serious calculation and concentration. The Hulk is too unpredictable to effectively keep in the rift. I will prevent damage where I can, but we're going to need to get him out of town asap."
"Alright, suppose this couldn't be that easy." Tony threw himself at the raging Hulk and began to wrestle him across the plaza, bouncing off buildings and pulverizing concrete as they went. In between blows he told the tenno. "Focus on evacuation. I don't want any more-" Hulk laid Tony out with a huge steel bar he had gotten from somewhere. He impaled it in the Hulkbuster's shoulder, rendering the arm nearly useless. Tony responded by twisting the arm up and around and punting the Hulk through a storefront.
Arm almost completely torn off, Tony elected to simply eject it from it's socket and replace it with a new one from the the hovering armory overhead. This time with a jackhammer function. "Let this punch through." He told Matariel, who was keeping his distance so he could keep track of everything. The tenno made an affirmative noise. Tony fired his remaining arm's repulsor beam to keep the Hulk at bay while the new arm finished connecting and met his assailant's punch dead on, shattering every window within fifty feet.
Matariel shrugged off the sense of deja vu and pulled out his Titron, charged up from his fight with the Ultron minions. "Stark. Pull him over this way, we need to get him out of the city." The tenno began to run along the edge of the building. Tony, meanwhile, had locked the Hulk's arm inside the Hulkbuster's and was flying toward the tenno. Matariel banished all three of them into the rift and slammed his hammer down, using up a charge and sending him flying toward the struggling duo. He reached out and grasped the trailing edge of the Hulkbuster's foot and pulled himself upward, but before he could get enough leverage to use his hammer the Hulk threw a hard punch that sent all three of them flying through the nearest building. Being in the rift protected the structure from damage, but the next big twist threw them out and into an office building. The three were knocked separate from the force, Tony dislodging an occupied elevator and having to turn to catch it while the Hulk ended up on the other side of the courtyard below and Matariel bounced two stories up. Hulk recovered first and threw himself after the armor but Matariel dropped down from where he landed and met him mid air with another amplified hammer swing from the Titron. Tony swiftly followed by swinging the now unoccupied elevator into the monster and spinning into a brutal hook that reintroduced Hulk's face to the pavement.
Hulk simply spit out a tooth.
"...I'm sorry." Tony said weakly.
The Hulk winded up for another punch but was stopped by an Orvius tying his fist in place. Rain blew through the doors, feet ablaze, firing off his Euphona at the wall of muscle. Polis was right behind him, simultaneously holding any structural damage in place and crushing any debris he could around the Hulk to keep him immobilized.
"Polis." Rain said. "We need to get him back out in the open."
"On it." Polis responded. He released areas cleared of people and began collecting metal underneath the Hulk, who was struggling against the Orvius. He finally broke free, but the Orvius released a blast of ice in the process and the resulting flailing gave Polis enough time to fling the debris into the air, taking the Hulk with it out and over the edge, where Tony air tackled him and sent them both out over the street again.
"This is ridiculous. Nothing short of dropping a building on this guy is going to slow him down."
"Great idea." Tony said. "Uh, how quickly can we buy this building?"
"Son of a- Polis! Prepare to catch!"
Polis blitzed across the two blocks Tony and the Hulk had flown over and prepared to intercept any falling debris. "I'm not going to be able to catch all of it!"
"I'll throw people in the rift! Just focus on the big stuff!" Matariel said from right behind him. He banished them both and they used the extra burst of energy to speed their way across the remaining distance, just as Tony dropped the Hulk high above them. Matariel began casting indiscriminately in an attempt to get as many as possible. Polis' Mag glowed like an overtaxed lightbulb as he tried to grasp as much of the building as he could.
Then Tony slammed down.
He had fired rockets just before he dove to guarantee as much of the structure came down as possible. Even as a smoke cloud replaced where the construction site had stood Matariel was still banishing, Polis managing to redirect most of the metal down and toward the center of the site.
Then the dust cloud hit them.
Despite Polis' efforts there was still tons of non-metal in the building. Even with all their efforts, there were still casualties. Rain joined them again, he had been able to cast warding haloes on a few, but there were just too many people nearby. The three surveyed the destruction as the Hulkbuster armor made its way into view, carrying an unconscious Bruce.
They made their way to the edge of the city where Clint had parked the jet. Polis stayed back to help with rescue and cleanup.
Rain came to a stop at the foot of the ramp. "Hey Stark?" He asked. "How fast can you get a round trip from here to New York?"
"It might take a few hours, even with our best jets."
"Worth it. Get me a ride. I'm going to switch to Trinity and help the city recover."
"I'll do what I can." Tony exitted the armor after making sure Clint had a secure grip on Bruce and helped get him on board. Matariel turned and tipped his Limbo's fedora to his clanmate before disappearing inside as well.
Rain watched the jet take off, easily bracing himself against the backdraft. Once it was out of sight he turned and ran back into town, stopping to make sure anyone he came across was ok before moving on. Once he reached the site of the collapse he met up with Polis, who was carefully moving large hunks of twisted metal out of the way so rescuers could get to a family inside. They had gotten trapped against a neighboring building and seeing the parents huddled over their kid caused a wave of sadness to briefly rear its head before Rain squashed it down.
He activated his divine spears, which impaled themselves from the ground and into the floating debris. "I got this Polis." He said through their void connection. "Go."
Polis saluted him and went off to coordinate with another rescue group. Rain then bent down and crept under the suspended concrete to get to the humans underneath. They initially panicked at the sight of him, and since he couldn't talk with them directly he simply made a placating gesture and offered his hand. When they didn't take it he sighed and sparked his blazing chakram off the ground, he approached them and used the energy from the halo to begin to heal their wounds. It wouldn't hold, but it would last them until they got to an aid center. The family realized they had been healed and accepted his hand when he offered it again, leading them around the spears supporting the ceiling and out into open air. Once safely in the hands of other humans, Rain let the spears go slowly, lowering the rubble back to its resting position.
His efforts went on in a similar vein for another half hour before Polis contacted him, saying that the transport Stark had promised had arrived.
"Wow. That was fast."
"Stark must have called for them the moment we realized Banner had gone berserk."
Rain shrugged. Once the Stark Relief Foundation had unloaded all its things, Rain loaded himself back on the jet, ready for takeoff. The pilot, obviously informed beforehand, didn't bat an eye when Rain sat down cross-legged and began to meditate, waiting for their arrival back at the tower.
"We have touchdown. It will take us about three hours to ready up for the next trip but there's another jet taking off in about half an hour. Will you be transfering over or staying with us?"
"I'll transfer over. Thank you." Rain told the pilot. As he stepped down the ramp he made note of a blip on his minimap.
Normal humans aren't blips on his minimap.
Rain snorted in his pod and walked into the warehouse like he hadn't noticed anything. Quickly, he changed into his Trinity, and, after a moment of consideration, pulling his Panthera out of storage along with his Synoid Gammacor. He kept the Orvius on the off chance he'd have to lift anyone out of a bad spot again. With that out of the way, he turned his attention back to the blip. He exited his warframe and began voidwalking. Invisibly slipping out of the warehouse, four void dashes and he was behind the blip. Silently Rain flipped open his amp and charged the prism. One. Two. Three breaths, and he spun around from behind his hiding tree.
Nothing on the ground. He glanced up.
And was met with a bright blue and red jacket and pants hiding in the space between two branches.
"You really thought this was a good idea to follow me here?" Rain asked. "I could literally behead you right now and the law would be on my side. Not that it could really do anything if it wasn't."
Spiderman dramatically fell out of the tree and caught himself on a lower branch. "I was curious about a plane flying overhead that was triggering my spider sense. Didn't know it was you."
Rain frowned behind his mask. "Your ability to locate us unaided is troubling."
"Yeah well it doesn't work when you're out of your warframes. When you're out and about it's just like a normal person. Speaking of, how did you get behind me? Your warframe is still..." He pointed in the vague direction of the warehouse.
"I've mentioned the Zariman before?"
"Not really. I mean you've made allusions once or twice but you haven't really told me anything."
"In order to stay alive on the Zariman we learned to move unseen. Or die. Regardless, I'm going to erase your memories of this place when I get back. No chances."
"What? Nononono you can't do that I-"
"Nyx. No arguments." Rain's posture was serious now. "This place is secret for a reason and I won't let that change until it's time for-" He shut himself up.
Spiderman gave him a look. "Time for what?"
Rain mentally smacked himself. "Now I'm really going to have to erase your memories. Short version Sandon is able to see in four dimensions."
"If you're going to erase my memories does that mean you can tell me my future?"
"Nope. You're a smart kid and the mind wipe won't be permanent. You'll remember this eventually. No spoilers."
"...Fine."
"Am I going to have to hunt you down?"
"No. What's up with the news about the Hulk going crazy?."
"Thank you. Stark screwed up and the resulting mess decided it needed allies, one of which caused Banner to lose control."
"Oh."
"..."
"..."
"Shit I've got like five minutes before the plane takes off. I'm going back to help with healing. Later Spidey." Rain dashed off in the direction of the warehouse.
AN: DAMMIT I HAD A WHOLE THING WRITTEN OUT THEN I ACCIDENTALLY PRESSED THE BACK BUTTON ON MY MOUSE.
All of my rage. Here're the cliff notes:
I'm messing up the timeline on purpose in case it wasn't obvious. This is a fanfiction and I can do that. So I'm probably gonna do Black Panther and Homecoming simultaneously.
Civil War isn't on Netflix anymore AGGGHHHHHHH.
Ugh. I'm going to have to unfreeze the Tennoverse timeline. Not looking forward to dealing with that, you know, Revenant and all, BUT I do have a good idea for what to do with his...lore...
I feel like action scenes are a weak point in my writing, so let me know how I did.
I've got THINGS in mind for future arcs that I'm happy about.
Hope you liked the chapter! Do the review thing it helps me get better at this.