The Dark Knight Initiative

A/N: Hey guys, okay so this chapter will be in Batman's perspective, if anyone was wondering.

Also, here are some points I'll talk about that some of you guys asked or pointed out.

Hurricane Jackson: I'd say my Batman is an amalgamation of the comic book, Bale's, Arkham games, and eventually Affleck's Batman once I see him in his movie. I dunno about the height but as for the character, his abilities and backstory, like I said it will be an amalgamation.

Miss Singing in the Rain: Hopefully the chapter answers where in the story we are. I still enjoyed Age of Ultron, but as I kept watching it I noticed I didn't get the same feels in the fight scenes as when I watched the first. I like the characterization and conversations between Steve and Tony, but there were some things that I felt lacked compared to the first movie. As for the villain, Ultron didn't feel that threatening, nor was he funny, I know I might get too much hate reviews for that but having watched the movie several times it's just what I observed. But I will say that this movie made me hyped for Civil War.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these movies or franchises, if I did, or rather if anyone did, they wouldn't be putting it on the internet but rather make the crossover happen in reality right now. Lol

Ch4: Conflict

Earlier…

Standing on the roof of the tallest building in Gotham, Wayne Towers, a dark caped figure is watching over the city. His armor-plated suit, cape, and even his mask was all colored black, most distinguishable are the ears protruding upwards from the top of his head, all of these giving him the features of a bat. This is the person everyone knows as the Batman.

His hand to an earpiece inside his cowl, he was listening in on all radio frequencies, seeing if any crimes were being committed, having a bit of time until his meeting with Selina Kyle, he decided to go out on patrol. There might not be as much organized crime as he was used to, but other crimes were still apparent in Gotham. Moments later, some static interrupted through the regular radio signals he normally hears in Gotham, slightly turning his head to concentrate on what he heard and turning his receiver to the max he heard some words being said.

*tzzz*"—eone inform the directo— "*tzzz* More static, climbing even higher to the very top of Wayne Tower, Batman was dangerously balancing himself on top of the electric rod that was built at the tip of the building. Attempting to listen in again, he managed to hear some words spoken a little more clearly.

*tzz* "—We have company coming in, someone inform Colonel Fury that Iron— "*tzz* Transmission suddenly cut off. 'Fury?' he thought, and then scowled, looking up at the skies Batman pulled a small pair of infrared goggles from his belt and used them to confirm his suspicions, up there in the sky, is an enormous SHIELD Helicarrier hovering in the sky emitting a lot of heat, no doubt the amount of energy used to keep it afloat must be astronomical, much less using a camouflage feature. Putting away his goggles Batman noticed what looked like a small aircraft approaching the Helicarrier, until he noticed something weird about it.

'Is that a man hanging on to the plane?' he thought. True enough there was a man holding on for dear life underneath the aircraft, but when he focused his eyes, he noticed the aircraft wasn't an aircraft at all; it was painted red and gold, in the shape of a man. He knew of only one person on the planet who would dress himself as a Christmas ornament just to get attention, Tony Stark. His face scowling even more, he watched as the view of the two men disappeared from his view, most likely they landed on the Helicarrier. He didn't like it one bit, Fury, SHIELD, and even the Avengers are here? A couple scenarios played out in his head, they were here either because they know about Bane, or if Fury is still persistent about it, they are here to recruit him, and each one seemed likely.

He knew about Fury and SHIELD since before his retirement, it happened on a night he was staking the streets for someone who has connections to the mob families, Batman's eyes doing a thousand-yard stare as he remembered his first encounter with SHIELD.

8 years ago…

Running along the rooftops of the decaying and dilapidated streets of the Narrows, Batman has been following someone by the name Eric McKillen, born from Irish descent having arrived in Gotham a year before the Batman emerged, Eric worked for Carmine Falcone as just a courier, personally handing message from one hangout to the other, until he got a promotion and started doing some money work for them, and that means he should know something about the man who overlooks the entire money laundering, and that someone is the Chinese accountant by the name Lau. As he jumped off one rooftop to the other he felt something watching him, knowing not to tip whoever is tailing him, Batman merely kept running and jumping, after jumping on the fourth rooftop he ran and jumped down onto a dark alley that was shrouded with steam and smoke thanks to the cheap generators running the apartment building right next to him. Hiding in the darkest area of the shadowy alley he waited for whoever was tailing him to make a mistake.

Not even a minute later he saw two people, one came running into the alley looking exhausted, and another one just walking casually from the other side. Batman noted the exhausted one as a dark-skinned male with glasses, looks to be in his early thirties and bald, walking towards his companion, who didn't even look as frustrated as his associate. The older man was a Caucasian male, late thirties and balding hair line combed neatly to his right. Time and patience on his side, Batman carefully made his way closer, using the shadows to keep himself concealed, intending to find out who they were.

The dark-skinned male looked absolutely frustrated, pacing back and forth, still catching his breath, "Dammit! We lost him, again!" he roared.

"Shhh, remember we're not supposed to be above a low voice Sitwell?" the older male calmly reprimanded.

"As if it matters by now, Coulson," the agent now known as Sitwell whispered back, "We've been tracking the Batman for weeks now; normally we'd be onto our target in days."

"Which means we just have to try harder, our Division Director tasked us with this job, so even if it takes time it's up to us to deliver," the calm agent Coulson advised the younger agent.

"Yeah but, we're senior SHIELD agents, we've been hand-picked and trained by Colonel Fu—"

"Don't finish that sentence agent," Coulson cut him off, the normally calm and collected look he normally has been replaced by a harsh grim look in his eyes.

"W-why?"

Still holding the stern look, Coulson briefly glanced around his surroundings before turning around and walked away, "Come along Agent Sitwell, since we've lost our target, we'll have to wait until he appears again so we get another chance."

"Tch," Sitwell hissed before going on to follow his partner, still bitter that the best agents SHIELD has to offer couldn't even keep up with one man dressed like a bat.

Looking down on them as they continued walking away, Bruce heard everything they said, 'They've been trying to follow me for weeks?' he didn't like the sound of that, if they managed to hide under his radar for weeks, they must definitely be better than he gave them credit for, and something about a shield? Could be an abbreviation of some sort, and the names Coulson and Sitwell, including whoever their superior officer is. Too many questions, but not enough time to have everything answered. After pondering on what his next course of action is, Bruce decided to continue following his lead on Eric McKillen first, find out where he can catch Lau, then after he finds out what he needs tonight and once he cleans up the streets of Gotham, he shall give this secret organization his full, undivided attention.

Present…

Snapping out from his thoughts, Batman reflected on his memory, he did find Lau, and thought he cleaned up Gotham for good, until he showed up and made everything difficult. Suddenly his cowl picked up another radio frequency, this time it doesn't sound like it's coming from the Helicarrier. Turning his focus to the streets down below, he can hear some conversation between several people.

"You really sure it's him?" someone spoke through the communication.

"I'm sure, who else could he be?" a second person confirmed.

"We should let Bane know," another person considered.

"Agreed, I'll go alert him, the rest of you take care of this," the first person who spoke directed as he cut himself off from the group to warn Bane. 'Good, they should be scared,' Bruce thought, Bane will get what's coming to him, everything from injuring Gordon, attempting to steal and destroy his family's company, and for threatening Gotham, but who is this other man the mercenaries were talking about? He continued listening in to their conversation.

"So how we doing this?"

"We follow him into a corner, make sure no one's around then shoot him til no one can even recognize his face."

"But what if someone does?! I mean worrying about the Bat is one thing, but the whole Avengers?! They managed to beat a whole freaking army of aliens! What'll you think they'll do when we off Captain America?!"

"They'll just have you arrested, but if you keep talking that loud we're gonna kill you, understand?" One of them threatened his comrade through the radio, "Besides, it doesn't matter what happens to us, what's important is the mission, to send a message to Gotham and the world, now come on, the Cap is last seen walking east towards Jackson on Kirby."

Hearing this, Bruce quickly jumped off Wayne Tower and began to free fall, a few hundred feet before he hit the ground he activated the glider capabilities of his suit, his cape spread out, attaching themselves to his arms and turning semi-rigid, gliding his way across Gotham trying to make it in time, he was sure Captain America can handle himself, but he didn't want either SHIELD or the Avengers involved in this, it would cause certain problems in Gotham he didn't want to be revealed.

Elsewhere in Gotham…

Still traversing the streets of Gotham, Thor certainly had a fairly difficult time obtaining information on the Man-of-Bats, or Batman as they refer him as. Why would anyone dress up as a creature of the night? Was the man some sort of Draugr? Still not sure what or where he should be going when he heard a gunshot off in the distance, head snapping back up, his mind racing as he heard more gunshots being fired, getting a general idea where the shots are coming from he ran, Thor Odinson ran as fast as he could, if there is trouble anywhere he was sure he'd find what he was looking for, and aid those in need.

An alley in the Narrows…

Bruce had to admit to himself, he didn't think he'd be meeting, much less saving Captain America's life. Standing up after dealing with Bane's men, he met eye to eye with the Living Legend himself; Bruce eyed him, wondering why the Leader of the Avengers is here in Gotham.

"Thanks," Steve respectfully said, "So, you're the one everyone's calling the Batman, huh?"

"What are you doing here in Gotham?" Bruce growled.

Visibly wincing a bit, Steve kept himself from commenting on the gruff voice Batman is using, 'It helps hide his normal voice I guess.'

"Captain Steve Rogers," Seeing the look of surprise on the Super Soldier's face as he called him by name amused Bruce, "You didn't answer my question."

Having his identity has been made by three different people in a single day somewhat irked Steve, 'Is Gotham full of detectives or something?' shaking his head in amusement, he simply looked back up at the Bat as they started walking in a circle, facing each other, sizing the other person.

"I'm here because I'm trying to find the truth," Steve initiated the conversation. While doing so he noticed the body armor Batman is wearing, he could obviously tell there were some armored plates covering the body, with possibly a sort of protective suite underneath the armor, the cowl is obviously hardened as well, likely to protect the head. Looking down to the midsection Steve noticed the belt; does the belt hold some weapons? Not sure about that Steve lastly looked at the cape, when he first saw the Batman in action on TV yesterday he thought the cape was for aesthetics, but a firsthand look demonstrated to him that the cape is not just for show, the Batman literally dropped out from the sky when he took care of those mercenaries, he probably uses it to glide his way down. "What about those men? Who were they?" It was his turn to ask a question.

"These are Bane's men, a terrorist group," Batman walked over the unconscious men as he observed the man in front of him. Exactly as his information says when describing the Super Solider, his body pretty much to the peak of human perfection, something Bruce has trained most of his life for, while Rogers obtained it thanks to some experimental serum. But now, even though the man is over ninety years old his body is still at its peak, while Bruce's has grown older, and weaker from not training as he used to in the past eight years. The physical gap between them growing each second, he analyzed the Captain, Bruce had to remind himself that there's still one weapon he had left, his mind, but from what he researched on him, even that would be difficult, out of all the Avengers he had investigated, Steve Rogers always had a mind for battle tactics, making him a brilliant tactician, able to make quick decisions on the fly. So the only thing he had to do is to always stay one step ahead, "What truth are you looking for?" he asked in kind, if Steve said the truth that could only mean one thing.

"What happened here eight years ago? And more importantly, what is going on?" Steve demanded. Not sure what was going on, but the word 'terrorist' never sat well with him, and there's that name again, 'Bane,' Steve is sure to have Fury or Tony do a search on whoever this man is.

"Nothing you should concern yourself or your team about, I can handle the situation myself," Batman gave his first warning.

"We can help."

"And destroy everything everyone's worked so hard for? If you or anyone from your team gets involved in this the truth will get out."

"Is this about Dent?"

"No. Bane and his men are after me and the people of Gotham, I doubt he knows the truth," Batman replied, not knowing that Bane has obtained said truth from Gordon's person.

"So, something DID happen here eight years ago, but a different situation has come up," Steve was able to piece that together, "You don't have to do this alone."

"I'm not," Bruce figured Selina would give him a hand, "Don't you understand? The Avengers' involvement would only escalate the situation, the media will follow you, and since you are here asking about that night eight years ago they will eventually dig out the truth, and all that hard work would have been for nothing! Do me a favor, Captain, don't get involved in this," he gave his second warning.

Looking at Batman silently, Steve kept trying to piece together what he said, "You didn't kill Dent, did you?"

"I did, I killed Dent, I was the one who pushed him off that ledge," Batman looked down in guilt; he knows he didn't do it on purpose, but he was trying to save the life of a child, Gordon's son in fact. He tried to save Dent as well, but a death is still a death, and Harvey's was on his hands.

"No, not purposefully then," Steve countered, "I spoke to your friend, James Gordon," getting Batman's attention, "And he wasn't that good at lying, even I could tell he was broken inside from having to tell that same lie over and over again. So, here's what I think, perhaps you DID kill Dent, but the other murders you were convicted for, on whose hands were they on?"

Not bothering to answer, Batman turned around, facing his back to Steve, "This is wasting my time, if you can figure that much out then you don't need my help, and I don't need yours," before he started walking away he pleaded, "Just promise me, if you ever find out anything don't tell anyone," that was his final warning, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got business to attend to."

As he tried to walk away as fast he can, Steve quickly put a firm hand on his left shoulder, "Not so fast, we're not done talking."

"Yes… we are," Batman said before shrugging off Captain America's hand and landed a right punch straight on Steve's jaw. He didn't want to be the one to draw first blood, but he had an appointment to keep, he didn't want to keep Selina waiting.

Backing away from the blow, Steve rubbed his chin before glaring at the Bat, "I tried to be civil about this, but if you want it the hard way…" he finished, taking a battle stance.

Batman braced himself as well as he threw several punches and kicks which were swiftly evaded then blocked, Steve then retaliated with his own attacks which he managed to fend off as well, that was until a hit to the abdomen made him reel over in slight pain, the blunt force of that punch managed to go through his suit, the attack was followed by a left hook aiming at the side of his head, turning his head at the last second Batman managed to dodge. He then grabbed the thrown fist by the arm and threw Captain America over his shoulder in a judo throw, but instead of landing on his back Steve rolled his body with the movement and stood straight back up, seeing an opportunity Batman tried to tackle him but was countered with a reverse side kick to his chest, still reeling from the blow Cap tackled Batman to the ground, hard.

Grabbing him by his shoulders, Steve looked at him straight in the eye, "Is that it?" he asked. "No," Bruce replied grabbing Steve by the hands and brought them to the electrode network in his cowl that he uses to protect himself from anyone knowing his identity, the shock sending two hundred thousand volts of electricity through Steve's body. After temporarily stunning him, Batman head butted Steve twice as hard as he could, hoping his cowl was hard enough to cause sufficient damage to the Super Soldier so he could get away. Pushing the dazed Captain off him, Batman tried reaching for his grappling gun to get away when someone shouted, "Rogers!?"

Facing the source of the voice, Batman saw a man standing across from him wearing a plain white shirt and black pants, the clothing looked normal but the face of the man didn't, for he was looking at the face of Thor, the God of Thunder.

"Steve! Are you okay my friend?" Thor asked again.

Hearing movement from behind him, Batman saw Captain America slowly standing up while rubbing his forehead. Slightly surprised at seeing him immediately standing up, Batman cursed inwardly, having lost what precious seconds he had to escape.

"I'm fine Thor, just a bit dizzy, what are you doing here anyway?" Steve waved a hand, showing it didn't bother him thanks to the super-soldier serum giving him some sort of a healing factor.

"I've been given an omen by my friend Heimdall, and it involves this city," Thor briefly explained then set his eyes on the man between them, "Dark Knight, we are not here to cause harm, just to warn and aid you, but if you hurt my friend again I cannot say I will hold back," Thor cautioned.

Seeing Captain America behind of him and Thor in front of him, Batman knew he had to make a tactical retreat, pulling out his grappling gun and pointing it at Rogers, who tensed up, thinking it was a regular gun. From there Batman seized some smoke pellets and threw them to the ground giving him some cover as smoke released into the air, aiming the gun to the next building across the street he fired, the tensile wire locked itself to the building's structure as Batman zip lined from the ground up.

"Thor!" Steve ordered.

Understanding what his friend asked, Thor extended his right arm into the air, palm open, it may look weird to some but those who knew him comprehends he's doing one thing, summoning his hammer.

Far away from them, Mjolnir quickly flew hundreds of miles an hour to reach its master within seconds, Thor gestured his hand towards Batman as Mjolnir followed. As he approached the building his grappling gun is leading him to, he saw something at the corner of his eye flying towards him at high speeds, his eyes widening as the hammer came in and broke through the tensile wire cutting it in half. His grappling gun essentially destroyed, Batman began to fall to the ground, but used his cape in time to slow his decent, landing on his feet.

A flash of lightning and the sound of thunder appearing out of nowhere, Batman turned his focus to the origin. Now instead of the plain clothes he wore, Thor has changed into his regular armor and red cape, looking rather serious, followed by Steve right next to him.

"You still have a chance to continue our talk," Steve offered.

"Not interested," Batman replied, reaching into his belt and pulled out some batarangs, throwing them at the duo, Thor parried the attack while Steve jumped out of the way landing a few feet away, which is what Batman wanted, put some distance between the two of them. Running towards Thor, he jumped and landed a flying kick at the Thunder God's chest, which simply made him back away as he threw more batarangs at Steve, making the solider keep his distance. Delivering another fist into the midsection of the Asgardian followed with a right hook to the jaw, Batman attempted to land another blow when Thor caught his fist in mid-strike, the grip on his wrist incredibly strong feeling like it might break. Thor merely smiled as he proved to Batman who is the stronger one and threw him over dozens of feet like a ragdoll, making him land on his back.

"My friend, as good as your fighting skills are, they matter not to one who one who has incredible strength," Thor taunted, "Though I must say, you hit harder than most mortals, even a fair share of Asgardians as well," admitting to himself as he rubbed his jaw.

"Thanks, but it wasn't a contest of strength," Batman said in his gravelly voice, lying down on the street as he reached for his belt and pressed a button.

"There is something unnatural in the way you spea—AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Thor felt immense screaming pain in his ears, releasing Mjolnir from his grip as he used his hands to cover his ears as best he could, the agony not getting any better.

Several feet away from Thor, Steve is also experiencing the loud ringing in his ears, covering them as well, but he could seem to tolerate it better, is it perhaps because he wasn't that close to Thor? Not having much time to think about it, Steve spotted Batman simply get up and walked the other way, seemingly not affected by the loud ringing. Making his way to stop Batman from getting away, Steve struggled to walk, his sense of balance from his ears being affected so much, impeding him, but he pushed as hard as he can.

As Batman kept walking further away, making his way to the sewers he deactivated the sound dampeners in his cowl, making him hear normally. He thought about when Thor managed to catch his punch, the Thunder God didn't notice he placed a device on his chest piece, having activated it after he got thrown like an insect and activating his sound dampeners before the ultrasonic cry from the device could damage his ears as well. The device emits a high-pitched ultrasonic frequency outside the audible spectrum which can render any being unconscious, something he had received as a gift from Lucius, one of the other leftover projects Wayne Enterprises created when they did weapons dealing and other contraptions back in the day, and it was something he saved for super-powered beings he couldn't handle fairly in a fight, like Thor, it won't kill someone like him, just incapacitate him long enough.

His victory was short lived, as he suddenly felt strong arms wrap around his neck in a sleeper hold position, struggling to get out Batman could see from the reflection of a car nearby that it was Steve putting him in a choke hold. Gasping for air, Batman ran up a wall near him to perform a back-flip, escaping the grip and making the Captain hit the wall face first. Seeing him turn around Batman swiftly did a front kick on Steve's chest, slamming his back to the wall. Quickly recovering again, the Captain launched himself at the Batman, the two of them trading blows, each countering or dodging the other's attacks. Steve's offense was stronger and swifter, while Bruce's prowess and training allowed him to keep up with the super soldier.

But Steve was a quick learner, studying his opponent's moves, he reacted to a left elbow swing coming at him by blocking it with a left elbow swing of his own followed with two solid right punches to Batman's abdomen, pushing him back a couple feet. He then finished with a flying knee strike to the chest, propelling the Bat several feet, landing on his back; he quickly got up with a kip-up as the two of them continued their skirmish.

SHIELD Helicarrier…

Nicholas Fury rubbed his eyes with his right hand, he felt like burying Tony Stark right then and there for illegally hacking into SHIELD Archives without permission… again. He listened on to Stark bantering and wisecracking about SHIELD's interest in the Bat while Banner, Barton and Romanov were standing in the corner looking amused.

"-I mean, look at the guy, a guy who dresses up as a bat clearly has issues," Tony commented.

"And a man introducing himself to the world as Iron Man doesn't?" Fury quipped.

"Ouch…" Barton whispered to his two colleagues next to him, Banner suppressed his laughter while Romanoff felt a smile tug on her lips.

"That, no, what I have is not mental issues of dealing with flying rodents," Tony countered, "What I have is an ego-centric narcissism."

"Thank you for your confession Tony," Banner couldn't help but join the conversation.

"Not that admitting it would help him in any way," Romanoff added. Tony looked at them with a face that says, 'You guys have your own issues too!' as the other remaining members of the Avengers shared a grin among them, prompting Fury to shake his head in slight exasperation.

Abruptly, the door to Fury's office opened with Maria Hill marching in, "Sir, you need to see this!" she announced as she punched in a code on the wall as two holographic images in front of everyone. One screen was showing Thor huddled to the ground keeping his hands to his ears; it seemed he was screaming his lungs out, but the other screen caught their attention even more. Fury slowly stood up as he blinked a couple times to make sure he wasn't seeing things, the screen shown in front of them shows Captain Steve Rogers one-on-one against Batman.

"Hill, how— "

"One of our staff located them a couple minutes ago through one of our video feeds. This is live, sir," Agent Hill answered his question before he finished asking.

"What the hell are Rogers and Thor doing in Gotham?!" Fury hollered.

"By our calculations they've been in Gotham at least six hours ago, sir."

Fury gave the remaining members of the Avengers a one-eyed look, making all of them begin walking out, "Wait, Dr. Banner you stay," Fury ordered, "As much as your help is much appreciated it wouldn't do us any good here, you'd just cause collateral damage."

Understanding what he meant, Banner nodded and calmly stood next to Fury, deciding to watch what is going on alongside him instead, "He's right, the Other Guy would just make a mess of things, you should help them out."

"Pft. Don't worry about it," Tony reassured him, "I mean, how much trouble can this guy be?" concluding as he followed Clint and Natasha.

SHIELD Helicarrier aircraft runway…

Clint and Natasha checked their gear while waiting on Tony, who showed up fully armored in his Mk. XI armor, "Alright kids, you ready?" Tony teased.

"Let's get this over with boys," Nat said, ready to finish the mission.

"Wait!" a SHIELD agent ran up to them, she had curly, shoulder-length blonde hair, her delicate features obviously belies her competence if she's in SHIELD, "Here, Director Fury's orders to make sure Captain Rogers gets this," she hands them his indestructible shield, because Steve didn't think he'd need the shield since he's on vacation, leaving it in SHIELD's hands until he needs it, which seems appropriate at the moment.

"Thanks Agent 13," Barton replied as he took the shield in his hands and held on to it.

"Okay, hang on tight!" Tony held each of them by the back of their uniform, making sure he had a tight grip before taking off into the air with them in hand, making his way down to Gotham.

Narrows…

As the fight between the two combatants carried on, Batman was beginning to feel the fatigue, he and Captain America have been fighting fiercely non-stop for over ten minutes, even the best athletes in the world would need at least a minute break or two in there somewhere. And he could tell that in this battle of attrition, to see who would last the longest, he wasn't going to win, not fairly anyway.

He didn't have enough time to come up with something as Steve persistently piled on his attacks, which Batman has learned to anticipate his moves as well, reacting almost instantly when he dodged to the left against a right straight, then blocked the elbow strike coming at him when the straight missed, he grabbed Steve by the neck, tipped him off balance and proceeded to body slam him with all his strength to the concrete. Backing off a bit after performing the move, Batman took in several deep breaths, resting up as long as he could.

"Unnnhhh…" Steve groaned, lying on his back, slowly pushed himself back up, causing Batman to look at him in disbelief, the man simply wouldn't give up, but neither would he. Deciding this was the time to get away, Batman suddenly got hit out of nowhere, sending him flying then landing back to the ground several yards away, knocking him out.

Coming from the air, Ironman and Agent Romanoff slowly descended from the skies, having dropped Barton on top a building a couple city blocks away from them, bow and arrow at the ready, Ironman gently letting go of Agent Romanoff down to the ground, his palm pointing forwards repulsor blast at the ready, which is what hit Batman, ready for another shot.

"Clint, what's Thor's situation?" Natasha asked.

"He's still huddled in pain a couple blocks away from you."

"Guys, my suit's picking up some high readings of ultrasonic frequency coming from where Thor is," Tony informed them, "And from what I can process, Thor's ears are experiencing something akin to nails on a chalkboard upped a thousand-fold, someone might wanna give him a hand."

"On it," Clint replied as he took aim at Thor, his uncanny eyesight helping him find what he's looking for, some little device no bigger than a baseball strapped to Thor's chest. Taking aim, he released a regular arrow, flying through and penetrated the device without harming Thor.

The pain in his ears finally going away, the Thunder God gradually regained his bearings. Comprehending what just happened he spotted the arrow beneath him, realizing it belongs to his comrade Barton. Scanning his surroundings, he eventually spots Barton a distance away waving a hand at him, catching his attention before pointing to a location, most likely where the Dark Knight is. Despite originally arriving to aid him, Thor decided he would teach the Dark Knight to show respect, and then he would aid him, injuries to him or not. Summoning Mjolnir to his hand, he swings the hammer around giving him flight, approaching to the site by air.

"You alright Cap?" Natasha asked as she helped Steve up, "I think you'll need this," she said as she handed him his shield.

"I'm fine, thanks Nat," Steve replied, catching his breath as well, he hasn't been this tired in a while, not since the alien invasion. He had to give the Batman credit, his overall fighting prowess is something else.

Regaining consciousness, Batman awoke with a gasp, struggling to get up; he only managed to get up on one knee when he saw them. Captain America, while still not in official uniform but bearing his iconic shield. Iron Man, armored head to toe and his repulsor beams aimed right at him. Thor, just landing behind them, his magical hammer in hand, and his face does not look peaceful. Agent Romanoff, killer look on her face and dual handguns aimed at his head. And last but not least, Agent Barton several yards away, bow and arrow at the ready.

Five of the six Avengers before him, ready to take him down, and him still down on one knee. All that went on in his mind is, 'This doesn't look good…'

To Be Continued…