?
?

"Ughh..." Eddie groaned, feeling himself slowly come back into the world of the living, "My fuckin' head..." His ears rang out like the sirens that whined outside of every New York street- he must've passed out... wait, no. No, he'd been knocked out. His eyes fluttered open, expecting to be met with harsh, searing lights of an interrogation room- but instead everything was unusually dark. Confusion took him for a moment before he registered that his breathing was particularly labored, and the air was very hot and thin, and he could feel ropes tying his hands behind a chair, "Oh, for the love of Jesus H. Christ, get this fucking bag off my head."

After a moment longer, he could feel the ground vibrating from a pair of light footsteps approaching him, as the bag was suddenly ripped from his head. His eyes squinted reflexively as he was met with a yellow lamp off in the corner of the room, but other than that it was completely dark- he couldn't make out anything except for a figure that stood before him at roughly five-foot-four, "You curse too much." The figure spoke, in such a light voice that he was taken aback by it.

"Wait," Eddie half-chuckled, "How... how old are you?" Another light suddenly flashed on- this one a ceiling fan- making him groan in annoyance as his eyes immediately watered up at the stinging sensation, "Can you stop with these damned lights?" It was a good minute before his eyes finally adjusted, "..." Just enough time for him to make out the person before him, "...BWHAHAHAHA! Really, Veidt?" He bellowed, looking up at his captor. It was a girl, she couldn't have been older than fifteen or maybe- maybe- sixteen years old.

She wore a pair of blue jeans with a baby blue shirt, with light-olive skin and straight brown hair. She was literally a high school student. "This Veidt guy is not here," Another voice came, this time from the mother earlier, who he hadn't noticed sitting in a chair next to the lamp, "But she is," The woman said, "So I guess you found who you're looking for."

Eddie laughed out loud, "Listen lady, I've been through this before. Nothing's new to me, whatever Ozy's got you up to is not gonna work," He spoke, before tilting his head in sudden interest, a wicked smile stretching across his bearded face, "Speaking of past mistakes, how's that little shit of yours? I manage to kill him before you pulled the plug?"

The woman seemed to flinch, but recovered quickly, make Eddie frown in disappointment, "He's fine. Clearly you don't remember what happened, then," After he managed to get over his discontent with the situation, he actually considered what she'd just said- and the answer was no, he didn't really remember how they'd subdued him, "I know that you Russian spies know what Eleven can do," She said, gesturing over to the girl, "So maybe you should answer my questions?" She wasn't so much stating things as much as she was asking them.

"Okay first off, never use the words 'maybe' and 'should' in an interrogation," He said, horrified at how terrible this person was at this, "And secondly, you and I both know sure-as-shit that the ruskies have been running with their tail between their legs ever since Doc kicked their ass back in 'Nam." The woman tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"I'm... pretty sure we lost the Vietnam War," She laughed nervously, "Is that what Krushchev's been telling you guys?" Okay, that's weird. Eddie thought, trying to hide the confused look on his face. Why would Adrian try to convince him of this? He was supposed to believe that the smartest man in the world would forget that Eddie was there when the ching-chongs (A/N: Again, the character, not me) were bowing before that naked-blue-psychopath? What was going on here?

"M'kay lady, I'm supposed to be the comedian here," Eddie replied, half-sarcastically and half-deadly serious, "But I'll play along. So Nixon lost the war?" The woman nodded, "So... is he still... is he still president?" She made that confused look again, shaking her head, "Then who is?"

"Well, the election's coming up, but right now it's Reagan," She answered, but he still kept his blank face, "Ronald Reagan?" Yeah, okay. Sure he was.

"That guy from The Killers? Gimme a break, lady," He replied, "If Adrian's gonna try to brainwash me after I saw that... that..." His voice broke, unable to speak the final words of the sentence, "...at least tell him to get his damn facts straight. And that he's lost his marbles." As he said this, he noticed that the rope wasn't tied correctly- just a normal knot rather than what was usually used... he was supposed to escape! That was Adrian's idea all along! Okay, you crazy piece of shit, He thought, I'll play your game.

"Well, I think that..." Before she could finish, Eddie ripped his hands from the ropes, rising from the chair suddenly and slamming his fist into the young girl's face at lightning speed, making her cry out in pain and send her flying to the ground, "Jane!" The woman yelled, before backing into a the plastered wall behind her. Eddie approached her slowly, cracking his knuckles loudly and smugly.

He stopped when he was a matter of inches from her, "So... what can you do?" He growled, seizing the woman's arm, thinking about what he would do to her... just before he was ripped backwards by something, as he flew through the air before slamming into the wall violently. He fell onto the ground, making a shelf collapse and various items plummet down on his head, "You know who I am?!" He shouted in rage, standing and prepare to rush back at the woman, "I'm the motherfucking Comedian, you bit-" He suddenly flew backwards again, slamming into the wall once more- but this time he stayed there.

He tried to walk forward, but his foot was tightly kept in place, and he could feel his bones being squeezed. The wall suddenly cracked as he felt his body being pushed farther into the plaster, and then he saw her.

The girl from before walked towards him with an outstretched hand, forks and knives hovering behind her, all pointed directly at him, and a furious look riddled her face, "Who... who the hell are you?" The Comedian coughed out.

"I'm Eleven." She answered, and then everything went black.


Unknown Location,

"Watch out!" Tony shouted as he wrestled the soldier to the ground, well aware that there were more just like him coming up the ridge. He rose his fist and brought it down on the man's face, crashing it against his skull as hard as he could, but it did nothing except make pain shoot through the Avenger's knuckles, "Where's a suit when you need it?" He grumbled, just as the soldier kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

Tony landed roughly on the sand, spinning to face his attacker, just in time to see the weapon pointed at his face. A blast went off just as a web made impact with the gun, pushing it off target, and yanking it into the sand in front of him, "Finders keepers, Mr. Stark!" Peter shouted, jumping over Tony's head and kicking the guard into the ground. Tony picked up the weapon and fired it at two targets rushing up the hill, watching a pair of blue rings slam into them as their bodies went suddenly limp.

"That's three!" Tony yelled back, "Where's the other two?" As if on cue, a storm of blue plasma erupted from the dunes, charring the sand into a sickening black, sending it flying everywhere. Tony dove for as much cover as he could get, when the suddenly the sand started flying into his hair and the wind kicked up, "Wind storm!" He hollered to his younger companion.

"Uhh, Mister Stark..." Peter's voice started, "That's not a wind storm!" Tony looked up to see the X-Wing hovering above the dunes, facing directly towards him. The billionare sprung from his spot and took off running, narrowly avoiding a massive blaster bolt that made the sand around him explode. The ship's wings unfolded and formed their signature X-shape, before it suddenly took off into the distance, and then began to circle their position.

Tony spotted his young friend and rushed towards him, "We've got to get out of here!" He shouted, pulling the boy up as the X-Wing came in for another strafe, pulverizing the ground around them, "No, wait!" Tony said, stopping in his tracks, "Get those blaster-things! I've got an idea." Peter nodded and took off towards the knocked out soldiers.

Tony pulled one of the blasters out of one of the soldiers' hands, examining it carefully, and found what he was looking for. He pulled at the access panel that rested just above the trigger, clenching his teeth with effort as he tore it from the socket. Inside was a blue energy core, filled with what looked like pure plasma. Grinning, Tony pulled it from the circuitry, tossing it in his hand and watching the chemicals speed up. That could only mean one thing: it was flammable. Very flammable.

"Mister Stark!" Peter yelled, coming back with a hand full of energy cells- it seemed he was just as clever as Tony had hoped he'd be.

"Web them up!" Tony told him, giving him the other cell, and watching him bundle them together in a bulky ball of web-fluid, "I don't think I need to tell you what to do now." Peter smirked and picked up the power cells, waiting as the X-Wing drew closer, before hurling it towards the attack ship.

A moment later a massive blue explosion erupted around the hull, the engulfing it in flames and frying the machinery it needed to fly, sending the X-Wing spinning towards the ground in a fiery wreck, "YES!" Peter cheered, throwing his fists up in the air as it slammed into the sand.

"I've gotta tell you, I didn't think you'd survive that." Tony mused, but not trying to hide his grin, "Now let's... wait that guy's still alive." He said, pointing at a pilot climbing out of the ship. Peter immediately rushed towards the fighter pilot, grabbing his vest and dragging him away from the fighter as it suddenly exploded into fire and shrapnel.

He laid the pilot on the ground between the two of them, and checked his pulse, "He's alive, just out cold." Peter said, prompting Tony to let out a sigh of relief- until he heard a distinctly strange beeping noise, "Uh... you hear that?"

"Shhh!" Tony hissed, stepping towards the pilot's body, and picking at his pockets before pulling out a small white device, "Shit."

"Shit? What's shit?" Peter worriedly asked.

Tony threw the device as far as he could into the distance, "It's a radio. He's calling for help," Tony said, before seeing four large objects suddenly appear in the atmosphere, "And I think they just arrived."


It ain't no magic, ain't no lie,
You'll laugh so loud you'll cry.
Up and down, round and round
On my supersonic rocket ship.

-The Kinks


A bit of a shorter chapter, but it's out quicker, so there's that. I wanted to finish this before Rise Of Skywalker comes out and throws writer's block at me, so here you go. To answer the guest's questions: I am in conflict with how RvB will fit into the story (if at all), and Daredevil will have a part later on, so don't worry about that. The rest I can't answer just yet, so you'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

Thanks for reading, and as always leave a review on the way out, if you've got a minute. Until next time!

-MB