Disclaimer: Dont own Marvel IP.
Novi Grad, Sokovia
It was dark, there was only some light peaking through the crumbling building they were moving around.
As they passed by, she magnetized her hand like Tony taught her, and caught Bucky's shoulder. His gun was firing at the Iron legions coming at them, while Dara took the brunt of their weight. The suit was strong.
They made it to the flying part of the city, and she let them go. Rolling out of the fall, they were up again, weapons primed. Dara looked around, she saw the people that needed to be evacuated and got started while her suit worked on covering her from enemies. It was a very defensive suit.
Using an idea she went into a sport shop and got a raft. Getting others into it was easy when they noticed the color of her suit, a silver and forest green. It was a roller coaster ride for them. The distance kept increasing, as did the length of the trips until she couldn't make them since there were a lot more concentration of attacking Iron Legions. So she was going about getting the civilians, into a secure area of her choosing - a pet store, just after one of the Avengers or aids took out an Iron Legionnaire. She didn't need to fight, just keep moving between the fights.
"Jarvis call Maria." Dara asked as she used a car to throw at some attackers. "Hey, Maria I was kind of hoping you would be here by now. I can't evacuate anymore, we are too high up."
"We are almost there, just tell me your position." Maria asked as she checked the ETA, 23 minutes.
"Pet shop, on the …" she looked to the local and asked in Sokovian, before replying the rest of the directions to Maria.
"Ahhh, guys I need some fire power here! Pet store!" Dara asked as she let loose a missile at the three oncoming Iron Legions. One of them avoided it, so she had to jump at him. Its not fun fighting a robot, she cant use Jarvis's advice here. It all came down to her training with Nat and Steve.
After taking off the lower half, she yelped as the arms kept coming until a shield threw it off her. "Thank you, mi amor." she said to Steve as he caught his shield. Getting up, she jumped back to the pet shop, to take up her vigil. Steve and Bucky were keeping the fight away from her. It was such an invigorating sight to behold. The Howling Commandos back together.
"Alright, we're all clear here." Clint announced from where Wanda, Pietro and he had cleaned out a section of the flying city.
"We are not clear! We are very not clear!" Steve shouted as he was being strangled by an Iron Legion. A metal hand came through it and tossed it aside. "Thank you, milady." He gave her a grin.
"Could we put a pin in on the flirting!" Tony complained as he took out another Iron legion while studying the contraption.
"Yes, please stop." Pietro huffed. He tripped when he heard a perfect Sokovian accented scolding coming at him with swear words. Wanda was surprised and let out a small laugh. "Sorry." he said to Lady Dara.
"Tony any chance we can slow the accent?" Dara asked as some more people were sent her way. She let them through into the packed pet store.
"Nope, its rigged to flip in reverse and accelerate with gravity's pull." Tony told her.
"It's a choice, brother. He has setup a test, we can either fail at saving the whole world, or simply saving the people of Novi Grad." Dara said softly. She knows they don't want to know this, but Ultron had thought of this detail.
"The next wave's gonna hit any minute." Steve noted from his observations as he turned away from watching Dara. Bucky had a grim determined look on his face, no regrets his look said to Steve.
"Look the way to save everyone down there is to blow up the city with dual hits. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear with as many civilians as possible." Tony concluded his analysis.
"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan." Steve gritted out, knowing there wasn't much of a solution available.
"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice." Tony gave Dara's same point again.
"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock…" Nat told Steve as she reloaded her guns.
"Not 'til everyone's safe." he said with resolve. Dara smiled, that's why she loves that man, he wont leave anyone behind.
"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? I know its grim, but there's no math there." Nat tried one last time to give him the big picture.
"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." He told her.
"We know Steve." Dara told him.
"I didn't say we should leave." Nat told him, making him turn to her. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" She looked at the landscape of clouds and beautiful orange blue shades of the sky.
"You rang, Dara." Maria's voice came to her suit. Her head whipped around and found the rising Hellicarrier as Fury addressed Steve for his foul mouth.
"No, he kisses me with that mouth." Dara supplied with a giddy grin.
"You just had to, didn't you sis." Tony let out a laugh. She laughed with him as she turned to address the civilians. Calmly talking to them in their language.
They followed the clear path made by Hulk with the warriors on either side to cover them, straight to the floating boats coming their way.
"Sir, we have multiple bogies converging on our starboard flank." Maria told them.
"Show 'em what we got." Fury instructed her.
"You're up." Maria told Rhodey and Falcon. They flew over to help the fight.
"SAM! What took you so fucking long!?" Dara shouted at him.
"Hey, I came with a floating ship, that's better than just my wings." Sam complained playfully. He flew over her as she went with a group of civilians, helping them onto the boat if they needed it. Then she returned to the shop again.
Maria warned them when they had incoming. Dara looked up and quickly led back some of the stragglers to an underground shop since the pet one just got bombed. Good thing no one was in there at the time. She rolled out of the blast range and looked around. Bucky had made it to her. He provided cover fire as they ran more civilians to the lifeboats.
"Rhodey, Falcon, Exmachina, Dara you four get the civilians on board the carrier." Tony directed them.
"On it." "Da" "Got it" " #I$)!" confirmed the four, they created a system between each other to speed up the upload.
"IF you are with children, take them with you." Dara shouted over the noise to the civilians.
"I can't find my son." the woman shouted frantically.
"Ma'am can you please check the lifeboat for your son, I will evacuate this whole area. If I find him, I will let you know." She told the woman, gently pushing her towards the lifeboats. The crying woman ran for the lifeboats. "Jarvis look for stragglers too."
"Rhodey, Falcon, don't let any of them leave the city." said Tony through the comms. Bucky doubled his attention on helping Dara get the area cleared.
Screaming his head off in fright was a child hiding under a car. Dara went over, picking up the car away from the child and lifted her helmet. "Hello, baby boy, how about we get you to your mother?" she told him soothingly. He sniffed, unsure until he saw her smile and eyes. Reaching his hands up to be picked up, she held him gently in her melt suit hands and put down her helmet as she jumped straight to the boats. The child had yelped but giggled a little on the flightless feeling when she stopped a foot from the ground.
"My son!" The same woman from before cried out. Dara let the child down, waved at him. He waved back with a small smlie, hugging tight his mother's neck.
Hearing gun shots, Dara looked behind her, rising up. Hulk roared at seeing the Quinjet. He pushed Nat behind him and jumped up at the Quinjet. The shots were going towards Clint. Dara gasped, then pushed her suit into fast pace for him and the child he was shileding. But then she noticed the blur coming from the side, Pietro. Changing her course slightly, she came to stand in front of him after he had stopped pushing the car to cover Barton and the boy.
Pietro felt the bullets, but he also saw something behind him. It was so strange for him, after the life he had lived so far. Iron Man's creation had just saved him. "I didn't see that coming."
He fell and Dara caught him. She had heard Steve shout for her, scared of the bullets pelting her suit. Hulk had changed the course of the bullets by then and started smacking Ultron around.
"I'm fine, Steve I'm alright. Pietro needs help. I'm going to fly him to the hellicarrier." Dara told him with her helmet up.
He looked conflicted but was happy to let her be off the flying city. "I'll see you later. I think it's the last of the civilians."
"You, got it, Knight." she smiled adoringly at him before closing her helmet and carrying a bleeding Pietro up and flying to the ship.
While she flew Jarvis told her Pietro was coding. Wanda felt it and reacted to this news. She went after Ultron. The doctors took Pietro, bringing back his heartbeat.
"Wanda, hey they are helping him now. Wanda. Whose at the drill switch!" she shouted. Hulk took the quinjet to the church and Dara flew after him. Bucky was taking out he last of the Iron legion with Steve.
"Hey, Big Guy, you did amazing." Dara told him as she landed. She had just seen him take out one of the Iron Legions that tried to hit the switch. "Are you feeling light of breath?"
"No, Hulk fine." he told her. She nodded, glad to know this as they searched the area.
"Jarvis did we get them all?" she asked while kicking over an Iron Legionnaire. It was not powered and half of it was missing.
"Yes, Dara. I suggest you and Hulk make an exit, Sir is going to be activate the last strike soon." He suggested, highlighting the Quinjet for her.
"Lets go, Dara." Bruce told her. She didn't know he had changed. He felt a bit weak. She grabbed him, flying for the Quinjet.
They closed the door in time as the switch activated itself. Dara yelped as she hit the top of the Quinjet. Bruce growled and channeled some energy into climbing to the wheel. Controlling it, he dived it down to the sea. They had to avoid the breaking parts of the city. Tony and Thor activated their attack. The push of it speared the Quinjet through the gasps and closer to the sea below.
Dara couldn't stop her scream as the pressure of gravity was brutal on her body, even if she were in the suit. Steve shouted in the comms for her. He was stuck on a ship in the sky while she was down below.
"DARA!"
"BRUCE!"
They heard only her scream while Hulk was roaring. He had changed to protect Bruce from the pressure. He jerked the wheel hard and was starting to level out the Quinjet, but then they hit some strange turbulance that added more pressure, and everything went dark for them.
"DARA! BRUCE! Fury do you have a track on them?!" Nat shouted in worry. Maria was staring at the screen and shook her head.
"Their signal is gone." Fury said.
"Jarvis! Friday find Jarvis." Tony commanded. His heart was racing badly. He had not seen the jet while trying to avoid falling debris.
"Negative, Boss. Their signals are gone." Friday stated with a hint of sadness. She was missing the coding language Jarvis talked to her with.
Silence. No one spoke on the coms. Nat stared at the screen that had gone blank. She had seen Dara's suit and Bruce's struggle before Hulk took over. Dropping her head, she breathed, feeling a block of emotion in her throat.
Avengers Tower, New York
The tower's apartments were holding a somber atmosphere. There were two residents missing from the family that lives within the upper floors. The absence of which was giving a solid blow on morale to the individuals in different ways.
It had been 3 days since the fall of Novi Grad.
In those 3 days the sea and lakes of the area had been searched for the Quinjet and missing occupants of the Avengers Tower. Divers searched to find nothing but debris of the vibramanium structure and the city that fell. There was no sight of Stark tech in the nets.
A wider search was made with no avail. It took Tony Stark calling up Charles Xavier to ask about his sister and sciencebro's whereabouts. Charles claimed the same as Friday, they were not there, yet Charles claimed its possible they are not on Earth. There have been known portals or gateways, the Quinjet must have fallen through one. Especially with an Infinity Stone being used during that time.
Thor was determined to search for his friends, he will have Heimdall keep an eyes out. That was the only consolation available for Steve Rogers. There was nothing else to be done for his lost fiancé.
He had gone through the motions of debriefing, before just staying in his room, looking at her stuff in their room and apartment. The room still smelt of her perfume. The closet and bathroom still had the mess from when she had gotten ready for their victory party a week ago and their hurried dressing for the mission.
The tears came when he would look upon her things in the room. They had won, did what she challenged them to accomplish, yet she was not there, so they cant celebrate. She is not here, anymore. He hates the uncertainty of when he will see her again, if she will be able to come back wherever she went. It was one of his nightmares come true.
Pepper watched Tony go into a rage when he failed again to track Dara's suit, to track Jarvis, or track Bruce's tracker. He failed to find the portal. He hated going into his lab he shared with Bruce and knowing three important beings to him were missing. Guilt clawed at him, reminding him that its fault things escalated. Pepper couldn't do anything much to change his mind in the early days, so she waited. Time heals much, if one allows it.
Will the team heal?
Yes, bit by bit, because Dara left behind her vision of them, her faith in them. To stick together, to fight, to trust.
This is why Sam, Rhodey and Bucky stayed. Bucky had to go through registration with Secret Shield, he kept his distance from Tony by being around Steve. His friend needed him, because he lost a different friend, a kind friend who believe in him. Sam provided what Bucky couldn't, conversation that will make Steve talk though his lose and pain.
It's going to be a long journey. It didn't help that the world wasn't happy with them. All the team can do, is try to hang out, waiting for the rest of the family to return.
Avengers Facility, Upstate
A baby was waving at the screen, the eyes just staring ahead in curiosity. "Say hi to Auntie Nat. This is Nathaniel Daran Barton. Say hi." Said the mother as she tilted the phone down to the baby in her arms.
Natasha Romanoff looked at the video recording of the baby named after her and Dara, she could only remark. "Fat." Yet the smile was still there.
"One of our tech boys flagged this, splashed down in the Banda Sea. Could be the Quinjet. But with Stark's stealth tech, we still can't track the damn thing."
Nat looked to her side where Nick Fury stood in his dark accented clothes and trademark trench coat.
"You know they are not on this planet Nick. That's the best case scenario I want to accept right." Nat told him as she put her phone away.
"Doctor Foster and her team will continue their search for the portal. We will keep searching the area." Nick reassured his friend. She sighed and looked out the window.
"You sent me to recruit him, way back when. Did you know then what was going to happen?" she asked him.
"You never know. You hope for the best and make do with what you get. I got a great team." he stated, showing he bad and good side of the situation.
"Nothing lasts forever." she said somberly. "It's barely picking up now with Steve and Tony."
"I remember what Yates said though, if you stick together, work it out, talk it out, you can make it through still intact. She had faith when she said it, keep up that faith." Nick suggest. He admired this about the linguist. "If she is out there, she has an advantage, other than having Hulk and Banner with her. She'll adapt."
"I know. Hopefully they wont run into too much trouble." Nat wished deep in her heart.
"Trouble, Miss Romanoff. No matter who wins or loses, trouble still comes around. Be prepared, that's the only way." He believed this entirely. Which makes him a futurist, just like Stark.
Thor smiled softly at the reasoning Steve and Tony were bringing forth. This was a distraction for them, from who they were missing from their homes. He really prays that Heimdall will find Doctor Banner and Lady Dara. If not, he will keep searching.
"Well, the Vision's artificial intelligence." Steve mentioned to Tony across Thor.
"A machine."
"So it doesn't count."
"No. Its not like a person lifting the hammer." Tony reminded this point.
"Right. Different rules for us." Steve pointed to his chest.
"Nice guy, but artificial." Tony added for nicety.
"If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with the Vision and these days, safe is in short supply." Thor intervened in their debate. It seemed to not work in settling the debate.
"But if you put the hammer in an elevator…" said Steve, creating a scenario.
"It would still go up."
"Elevator's not worthy."
"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours." Thor joked with a smile. They gave him sad smiles. Yet they needed him to be out there, looking for their loved ones. "The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. But once all these pieces are in position…" he tapered off.
"Triple Yahtzee?" Tony asked.
"You think you can find out what's coming?" Steve asked.
"I do. Besides this one," he patted Tony on the shoulder before continuing to walk past them to the lawns. "there's nothing that can't be explained." He raised his hammer and was transported to Asgard.
Steve and Tony looked down to the grass, seeing the sigils left burned into the ground.
"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance. I'm going to miss him, though I hope he finds Bruce and Dara." Tony told Steve, who wished the same thing. "You're going to miss me too. Big manly tears will be coming." Tony joked a bit as he got into his car.
"I will miss you, Tony." Steve told him. "I'm sorry to move out, I just can't be there… at the…"
"I know. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book, tap out, build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up." Tony said aloud his actual dream and aspiration. Its in the works, he wants that peace he has been fighting for, yet he waits for the final fight to arrive.
"You might blow it up." Steve teased lightly. Not wanting to think about how that was what he and Dara had talked about, the simple life, a house, kids, and listening to her sing while he draws till they are old. Clutching his hand in his jacket pocket, he breathed in deeply.
Tony let out a small laugh. "You will be welcome there, whenever you want downtime."
"I would rather go to Gabe's." Steve said with a grin. Tony rolled his eyes. His house will be so much better than Gabe's home. He drove off and Steve returned inside. Until his home came back to him, he will move forwards, help the team, train the newbies.
He joined Nat's side on the balcony. They looked upon their new recruits. Bucky wasn't one of them, he wanted to spend time on hunting down more of HYDRA, find himself, but he will do it while around Steve.
"How do we look?" asked Steve. He was making his own analysis, having read their standard tests.
"We've got some hitters." Nat remarked.
"They're good. They're not a team."
"Let's beat 'em into shape." Nat looked along the line; War Machine, Falcon, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Vision. The potential is there, she can see it in the sense Dara taught her.
"Avengers….!"
A green body and Suit smacked into each other as the ship lost control going through darkness and swirling lights before daylight hit and its surface. The locals watched as an aircraft spun and crashed into the hills of garbage.
They wondered if it were Food or Fighter.
Sakaar