A/N: Okay! So if you pay attention, which I doubt you do, you can look below and see that there is a new entry between 'author' and 'rating' on my... intro thingy. This is the link to a folder on this story. I will restate this and expand in the lower a/n. Until then, enjoy!
Thank you to Dark Cat Food Lover and neah20 for reviewing!
Title: Fear of Infinity
Author: liketolaugh
Link: drive. google folderview?id=0B4a0w418KzaUc1lJXzJtX1lTZzA&usp=sharing (remove the spaces)
Rating: T
Pairings: None
Genre: Drama/Adventure
Warnings: None
Summary: When Loki mentions two more Infinity Stones, aside from the Tesseract, that fell to Earth thousands of years before, the Avengers are thrown into a centuries-old war between Dark Matter and Innocence - also known as the stones of Mind and Soul.
Disclaimer: I only wish I owned D. Gray-man, and the Avengers are but a dream that is not my own.
"Grrahh!"
Clint was so done that he genuinely forgot to exclaim in surprise when Krory, blood red and alarming, hauled himself and Natasha over the edge of one of the pillars, looking completely unbothered by the strain.
"Krory!" Lavi smiled, sparing him a glance before redirecting his attention to duck an attempted blow from Jasdebi.
Natasha swung off Krory, casual as a cat, and darted off, hopping over the gaps as if nothing had occurred. When the invoice packet made a reappearance, she dodged it neatly and kept going.
Jasdebi didn't look all that surprised either, just annoyed. "Monster," he muttered.
Now, by many standards, this fight was going pretty well, considering they were fighting an immortal monster thing.
On the other hand, Jasdebi was barely looking irritated, so actually it was going pretty poorly, and most of them were wearing down badly.
Spoiled by his distance, Clint took stock.
Lenalee's leg looked dislocated, not that that was stopping her from using it, and she had a welt across one cheek, dangerously close to her eye. Blood flowed from beneath her hairline down her face, but she was doing well.
Lavi's red mark had developed into a bruise around his throat, and there was a shallow gash in his side, which he had one hand pressed over, grimacing, and Clint had to force himself not to worry.
He didn't know what was up with Krory. He probably didn't want to.
Natasha was generally beaten up, small bruises and cuts scattered across the visible parts of her body, with one prominent bruise threatening to develop into a nasty mark on her cheek.
Clint himself had rope burn down his dominant arm, and he thought one of his wrists might be sprained, which made shooting frustratingly painful.
A grin spread across Jasdebi's face, drawing Clint's attention again.
"Well. Monsters belong in the dark, don't they?"
In a flash, it was dark. Clint let out a curse that he heard echoed on several sides and also above, to his slight surprise.
He stiffened in place, suddenly unwilling to move despite knowing exactly where the boundaries of his particular pillar lay. The sound of something moving very fast through the air was his only warning before he hissed; something sharp had sliced into his cheek, leaving a gash that quickly started to drip with blood.
"What's wrong, exorcists?" Jasdebi asked gleefully. "Can't fight what you can't see?"
Other things joined the first, and the chorus of curses increased in volume as all of them suddenly had a much harder time, little sharp things flying through the air. Clint dodged what ones he could and hissed each time one hit. One narrowly missed his neck and he flinched.
Then, something a little worse: Natasha let out a pained grunt as Jasdebi, to Clint's best guess, set upon her, and then sounds of flesh hitting flesh again and again. And from what Clint could hear, Natasha wasn't doing real well.
Natasha was not doing well. While fighting blind would normally be well within her capabilities, normally her opponent was not a creature of inhuman speed and strength, if not skill, who could see perfectly, unaffected by the illusion that robbed her of light.
Still, that didn't mean she was completely helpless; Jasdebi yelled in pain and anger and fatigue as a bullet, only slightly lighting up the area around her, burst from her gun and exploded as it sank into him, causing what would be, to a human, most likely fatal damage.
He retaliated by sinking a fist into her stomach and then shoving her with something large, cold, and flat. Natasha took a forced step back, felt a distinct lack of support, and used the breath most would have gasped out in shock to leap back, onto the next pillar over.
"Having fun, exorcist?" Jasdebi sneered, audibly smirking.
"Not really, no," Natasha replied, feigning unconcern, heart racing. She fired three bullets to where it sounded like Jasdebi had moved, and all three found their mark, exploding on impact and sending Noah blood splattering, though the wounds didn't last more than a few minutes each, from what she'd seen.
It felt hopeless. It felt futile.
But no. Giving up wasn't a tactic in Natasha's handbook.
"Natasha?" she heard Clint call out, worried. "Everything all right?"
"A little dark for my tastes," she called back dryly, ducking a blow she would've heard coming from a mile off.
Clint smiled slightly in relief at Natasha's reply, but it transformed back to worry when he heard Lenalee gasp, presumably getting hit with a projectile.
Shit, they really needed to be able to see. What he wouldn't give for a flashlight or, hell, even a cand-
Candle. Fire.
"Lavi!" he called out, ducking another. "Fire snake!"
"Of course!" Lavi sounded relieved at the proposed solution, and a little exasperated. "Got it!"
The sound of a hammer slamming on the ground was unmissable, as was the voice that called, "Fire Seal: Hellfire and Ash!"
Sure enough, a snake of twisting plasma erupted, casting everything in an eerie glow, glinting off blood and eyes and dimly lighting everything.
Clint caught Natasha's eye almost instantly. She was plenty beaten up now, panting and wincing, but she nodded at him and he nodded back and finally started moving, adjusting his position to something more advantageous.
Lenalee was now more cut up before, and some of those gashes looked concerning, but she was still in the air and her expression was as fierce and determined as ever.
Lavi was a bit better off, but had several more cuts to add to the one on his side. His face was intent, strange in the firelight.
Krory looked completely unaffected by the sharp projectiles, and several - stars, Clint noted - were scattered about his feet. He also looked like he hadn't dared move before, wary of plunging off a cliff again.
Clint caught his eye, too, and nodded to Natasha, who was murmuring to Lenalee, having already passed by Lavi. Krory nodded in acknowledgement and moved along, graceful now that he could see.
He flinched when Jasdebi swept out his hand and caused a shock wave that nearly knocked Lavi off the pillar, but Natasha gripped him tight and he stayed steady, looking as pale as he could in this light.
"Clever," Jasdebi admitted. "But it won't help you." He smirked. "You couldn't kill me if you tried. And you have, I might remind you."
Clint didn't think he sounded so sure, though, and it made him smirk.
It would take a lot of power, but in the right circumstance, everything could be killed.
Finally reaching his position, Clint cast his gaze around quickly.
Lenalee was high in the air, jaw set and poised to dive. Natasha was braced on a pillar, gun ready and eyes narrow. Lavi was a few pillars away, hammer standing huge and high, and Krory hung back slightly, eyes intent and ready to sprint.
He glanced at Natasha, who nodded, and both of them fired.
Jasdebi realized his position a second too late and stepped back, almost off the pillar, eyes widening slightly. But he didn't get to say a word before both projectiles hit and exploded with far more force than before, coupled with Lavi's fire snake, charging on the pair-turned-one. Jasdebi screamed in pain and rage.
A scant moment after the snake dissipated, plunging them black into darkness, Clint heard Lenalee slam down hard, unnaturally so, and Jasdebi screamed again.
"No! NO! I WON'T LET YOU WIN!" Jasdebi bellowed angrily, pain lacing his voice.
Wind whooshed past Clint and the spell keeping them in the dark abruptly vanished as Jasdebi screamed once more, bloodcurdling and agonized.
Clint blinked and flinched at the sudden light, then cringed again when he finally made out the scene before him.
Krory was crouched over Jasdebi, who was pinned to the ground, eyes wide and wild, trying his level best to thrash as Krory tore into him with blood-born claws, feral and animalistic.
The damage from the others was clearly visible, ribcage smashed to hell and burns all over his body, but that was overshadowed by the claws, ripping and tearing, and the mouth lowered to the grievous wound, tongue lapping.
"MONSTER!" Jasdebi screamed. "MONSTER!"
Jasdebi arched in agony, and Clint watched with detached fascination as Krory ripped at him mercilessly, strange from what he knew of the kindly man.
"MONSTER! MONSTER!"
Clint jumped and stepped back suddenly, eyes widening and head starting to jerk back and forth in alarm, as reality twisted, trees spiraling into unnatural shapes, the ground rippling like water, and monstrous silhouettes rising from random places.
"MONSTER! MONSTER!"
Jasdebi's eyes were wild, thrashing harder and harder. Krory didn't stop. Lenalee looked away, but Lavi didn't dare, eye fixed on the train wreck before him.
"Monster-"
Clint didn't see the writhing start to slow; the pillar beneath him swirled and cracked, and he yelled as he started to fall.
What he wouldn't give for a fucking grappling arrow. Suddenly the endless supply didn't seem quite so useful.
"Clint!"
Lenalee's worried call failed to draw his attention, but he did notice her streaking toward him as he grasped fruitlessly for the pillar, only scraping his fingers badly across the rock.
Then, after far too long, she was on him, arms wrapping around him and then twisting, just enough to give Clint a good view of the pointed spire Lenalee was now heading straight toward, unprotected. If she hadn't twisted, Clint would have landed right on it.
In a split second, Clint realized. They were too far down, going too fast. Lenalee wasn't going to able to pull up in time, and she knew it.
He cursed loudly and wrapped his arms around her roughly, then threw his weight the best he could, throwing them off slightly.
They didn't miss the pillar entirely - it still scraped badly across her side, leaving a deep gash that was potentially fatal in its own right - but it hadn't impaled her like it would have otherwise.
Lenalee let out a moaning, whimpered cry and pulled back up, eyes now squeezed shut. Clint's eyes were hard, teeth gritted in anger.
"Stupid," he muttered under his breath, beneath the sudden cries of Lavi, who had quickly noticed them. "Stupid, stupid…"
Lenalee leaned against him now that they were on solid ground, and he caught her as she passed out, bleeding out red from beneath his hand.
"Shit," he snapped. "Natasha!"
"Already on it," she replied, crouching beside him.
19 Days to Invasion
IMPORTANT:
I mentioned above that there is now a link in my intro spiel, right below 'title' and 'author'. This link leads to a work folder for this story and contains two sections, Spoilers and Non-Spoilers. Non-Spoilers are for those very patient people who want to take things as they come. It contains a copy of the story, a file that will contain whatever chapter I'm currently revising/planning on revising, and, soon, a map of the Black and White Arks.
Spoilers are for those people who are really excited/impatient and want to see what I've got planned. It contains a complete mission timeline, the plan for the final battle (which also needs to be revised, as the setting has changed), future scenes I've already written, and a few *cough* other things.
All files have comment permissions for anyone who looks, so feel free.
Besides that, thanks for reading, and please review!