The control room's lights were off. It fit the solemn atmosphere that stretched across the entire Helicarrier. Steve, Zuchino, and Tony all sat at the table and Fury stood in the front, looking down at something in his hands. Maria stood off the side, quiet as well. Steve had removed the top of his uniform while Zuchino remained in his cracked armor. Both looking down at the table with a somber glance. Tony sat next to the Saiyan, looking away from the group.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury finally spoke, not looking up from what he was seeing. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." He tossed the bloodstained Captain America trading cards on the table, one landing in front of Steve. Steve looked down and picked one up to examine it.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications…the location of the cube…Banner…Thor…I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Fury mused as he began walking to the trio. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea…Stark and Zuchino know this…called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea…in heroes." Tony stood up and his eyes shifted before walking from the room. "Well, it's an old-fashioned notion."
Steve put down the card and looked over at Fury. "Well, I once heard a wise man say that sometimes old-fashioned can be what we need." With that, he stormed away as well. Zuchino took one last solemn glance at the cards and followed the super soldier.
The trio all ended up in the containment area where Loki had dropped Thor from the Helicarrier and killed Coulson. Zuchino walked over to the billionaire, after briefly glancing at the giant hole ripped into the metal wall. He walked up and stood next to the billionaire. Neither one of them said anything to each other, just trying to absorb the days events.
Steve stood on the other landing and leaned against the railing. "Was he married?"
"No." Tony said after a brief pause. "There was a cellist, I think."
"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."
Tony scoffed and looked over at the soldier with an annoyed glare. "He was an idiot."
"Why? For believing?" Zuchino inquired as Tony started back up.
"For taking on Loki alone." Tony stated with a shrug.
"He was doing his job." Steve fired back.
"He was out of his league. He should've waited. He should've…"
"Sta-Tony, there are times you will have still have to fight, even if you know you going to lose." Zuchino responded, looking at the billionaire.
"Right, I've heard that before." Tony scoffed off the Saiyan's comments and began heading towards the door.
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked, looking over at him.
"We are not soldiers." Tony snarled at the implication. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."
"Neither are we." Zuchino said, making his way over to them. "And if you ask me, Fury's got Coulson's blood on his hands just like Loki does. But right now, we need to get past that and finish this."
Steve moved up behind Zuchino. "Loki needs a power source. If we put together a list…."
"He made it personal." Tony interrupted.
"That's not the point."
"That is the point. That's Loki's point, he hit us all right where we live. Why?"
"To tear us apart."
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants."
Zuchino caught on to what Tony was saying. "He wants the credit and, to get that, he needs an audience. Makes sense, he's been living in the shadow of his brother all his life. The entire world has to see him defeating us because he needs the world to see him defeating us." He turned to Steve. "Just like Germany."
"That was just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…" Tony paused as the realization hit him. "Son of a bitch."
Zuchino and Steve walked down the hallway to the medical wing. Deciding not alert Fury and possibly hinder their response time, they began heading to Barton's room in the medical wing. Tony had gone to repair his suit as much as he could within the lab. As much as Zuchino wouldn't mind flying there with Steve in tow now, Steve convinced him that they'd need a pilot for the quinjet and the best one they knew so far was Natasha. She had been with her good friend, Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye, once she broke him from Loki's grasp, hopefully helping through it. Once they found the room, Steve pushed the button and the door slid open.
"Time to go." He announced as Natasha looked back at them.
"Go where?"
"We'll tell you on the way. Can you fly those jets?" Zuchino asked.
"I can." Clint answered, emerging from the bathroom with a towel in his hand. Steve and Zuchino looked over to Natasha, who confirmed what they were thinking with a nod. They looked back to him and Steve asked, "You got a suit?"
"Yeah."
"Then suit up, we're leaving in fifteen." Zuchino said as they left the room.
"How do you think this battle will go?" Steve asked as they continued to the hangar.
"If we don't make it in time to stop Loki from opening that portal, we have a nigh-infinite armada heading towards the planet that the likes of Freeza couldn't defeat…eh, I've faced worse odds." Zuchino said with a small smirk. They soon reached the armory and while Steve put the upper part of his armor back on, Zuchino changed out the breastplate for the original breastplate (shoulder protection and all).
Zuchino sat in the back of the ship, meditating and trying to collect his ki. It was all he could do to try to make sure his ki was at the highest amount for this battle. It had been a very long time since he had to fight in his Super Saiyan state for an extended period of time and, as of such, it will be a real drainer on his ki. However, the sound of his scouter beeping broke him from his concentration. Steve looked over as well when the hologram appeared in front of the Saiyan's eye.
"They're here." Zuchino said, seeing the large cluster of power levels forming around New York City.
"Stark failed?"
"Doubt there was anything he could do; no doubt Loki prepared for us to find out about his plan." Zuchino muttered as he sighed. "Oh well, I kinda expected this would happen."
"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." Natasha radioed.
"What? Did you stop for drive-through?" Tony quipped over the radio. "Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you; Zucchini, I may need your help."
"I hate you, Stark." Zuchino muttered as he pressed the button to lower the ramp. Quickly transforming, the Saiyan shot out of the jet with great speed, quickly catching up to the billionaire. He turned to see a dozen Chitauri troops heading towards them. Spreading his fingers, each shot a red beam of energy towards them and piercing their bodies. Just as Tony was going to congratulate the Saiyan, he looked up to see a giant creature fly through the portal. It looked very similar to a giant worm, but its body flopped through the air like a fish in water.
"Oh damn it." Zuchino muttered as he watched more Chitauri troops climb off the body and hop into windows of buildings.
"Any idea what that is?" Tony asked, still in shock.
"I believe it was called a Leviathan." Zuchino stated before the two looked over at each and exchanged a slight nod before taking off after it.
"Guys, are you seeing this?" Steve radioed in their ears.
"Seeing." Tony replied. "Still working on believing."
"Welcome to my world, everyone." Zuchino said.
"Your world is terrifying." Natasha came in through the comms.
"You get used to it."
"Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Stark asked as Zuchino looked over at the billionaire, a bit confused. He thought Banner was lost after the assault on the Helicarrier.
"Banner?" Steve inquired.
"Just keep me posted." Tony said as they began to fly parallel to the giant alien. "Jarvis, find us a soft spot on it." He commanded as Zuchino vaporized a few more Chitauri troops in the air before Stark gestured to him.
"I have an idea, follow me." He said before boosting his speed, prompting the Saiyan to do the same. Once they were a comfortable distance in front of it, they flew back and, at Tony's cue, fired a mixture of ki blasts and ammunition at the giant creature. It roared at the minor explosions around it, but it seemed to do no damage. It did, however, give the beast a target; it sideswiping a building and causing the debris to rain down on the pedestrians below as it turned to them.
"Well, we got its attention by annoying it." Zuchino quipped as he looked over at the billionaire. "What is step two of your bright idea?"
"Flying away like hell." Tony muttered before they sped away, the creature following behind them, along with a few of the gliders.
"What's the story upstairs?" Captain America asked over the comms.
"The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable." Thor informed them.
"Thor is right." Tony confirmed. "We gotta deal with these guys."
"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.
"As a team."
"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor growled.
"Yeah, get in line." Clint chimed in.
"Save it." Steve instructed. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark and Zuchino up top, they're gonna need us…" Steve was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a moped.
"So, this all seems horrible." He heard Bruce say through the radio.
"Seen and fought worse, much worse." Natasha responded.
"Sorry."
"No. We could use a little worse." She told him.
"Stark? We got him." Capt. informed them.
"Banner?" Tony asked.
"Just like you said."
"Well tell him to suit up. We're bringing the party to you." Tony said as he and Zuchino changed direction and began heading towards them. After rounding the corner, the giant alien worm plowed through the building next to it and began heading towards the group. The duo moved closer to the ground, bringing the Leviathan down to ground level. Countless cars and street poles were crushed in the charging creature's path.
"I... I don't see how that's a party…" Natasha muttered before Bruce began walking towards the creature, currently on the ground.
"Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Steve informed.
"That's my secret, Captain," Bruce said, turning back with a smirk, "I'm always angry." With that, he once again began growing and turning green as he clenched his fist before hitting the snout of the creature head-on, stopping it in its tracks and flipping it, causing most of its outer shell to fall off, revealing soft spots.
"There," Tony commanded as he aimed at a revealed soft spot. Zuchino also spotted it and fired a yellow ball of ki into it just as Tony fired a missile into it. Zuchino put a shield around him and the billionaire just as the alien exploded, its severed head falling off the elevated highway. The creatures across the buildings all screamed at the loss of their massive weapon as Hulk roared, satisfied with its kill and everyone gathered in a circle to watch them. Natasha looked up at the portal and said, "Guys." They all looked up to see several Leviathans pouring through the portal.
"Oh, they've upgraded." Zuchino muttered.
"Call it, Captain." Tony said.
"All right," Steve began, "listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything; call out patterns and strays. Stark, Zuchino, you two got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
Barton looked at the two warriors. "Can you give me a lift?"
"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Tony grabbed Clint and flew off to the roof of one of the buildings.
Zuchino powered up, his yellow aura reappearing around his body, and took off. He quickly found a cluster of Chitauri scaling a building. Speed being his advantage, he practically teleported in front of the group and grasped nearest one by the neck. Before it could even let out a strangled cry, Zuchino fired a ki beam, decapitating the warrior. He let the head and body fall down the side of the building while looking at its shocked friends with a bloodthirsty smile.
"Going somewhere?" He said before he flew forward and delivered a fist to one's face that caved its skull in, a roundhouse kick that shattered another sternum, and fired a kiai from his body, propelling the remaining three warriors down into the ground like a meteor, crashing into the sidewalk and kicking up a medium-sized dust cloud. Staring into the dust cloud, the Saiyan slowly came to his senses. "Welp, my bloodlust is back." He looked up to see creatures flying towards him and firing countless energy blasts from their blasters.
"Oh, you pathetic little creatures." Zuchino said as he raised his hand and charged a black ball of ki, accented by the red lightning crackling off both it and the Saiyan himself. The creatures, finally realizing their grave error, tried to turn back before the energy ball was ready. "Zenoshock!" His voice practically echoed before the black beam of energy screamed to the aliens, quickly vaporizing them and any other creature in its path. He quickly turned the beam upwards towards the portal and, once close enough, detonating it and sending a massive explosion into space. However, despite what he wanted to believe, the explosion didn't even make a dent according to the readings from his scouter.
Letting a disappointed sigh escape his lips, he took off and found a few more troops flying past the perimeter. He zipped over to them with an incredible amount of speed and spun kicked a gliding Chitauri down to the ground, exploding him. Letting a disappointed sigh escape his lips, he took off and found a few more troops flying past the perimeter. He zipped over to them with an incredible amount of speed and spun kicked a gliding Chitauri down to the ground, exploding him. Not missing a beat, he delivered a right hook to another glider, slamming him into a building.
With two more left and heading towards him, he flicked his finger towards them. The two gliders looked confused for a second from the lack of a ki blast…before they noticed they were glowing pink. Letting out one more scream, they exploded in a scarlet and black explosion. Zuchino gave a small smirk at his handiwork before charing aura around him yet again and dashing back into the perimeter.
He soon found himself flying next to Natasha, who using a dead Chitauri's glider to navigate across the city.
"How do you like my new ride?" She asked as he landed on it and fired a beam of energy at the following Chitauri gliders.
"I think it suits you." He answered as he jumped off and flew into the air.
He noticed a Leviathan gliding through the city and he dashed towards the beast. He quickly got in front of it and blasted it in the eyes, blinding it the creature. Giving a deadly smirk, his fist was quickly consumed in yellow ki. He dashed forward and, with a primal roar, delivered all of his strength into a singular punch to its head. The Leviathan's head blew apart from the force of the kinetic energy and its headless corpse began to coast down to the ground.
Zuchino dropped down to the ground and quickly began charging his ki, the golden aura blazing around him like fire. Once he gather enough energy, he raised his hands. A golden ball of ki quickly sparked into existance, bio-electricity crackling around the Saiyan and the area.
"Solar Bomb!" Zuchino roared, firing off the powerful beam towards the creature. Crashing into the creature, it easily carried the creature's body into the portal and exploded, taking out a number of warriors and Leviathans. He was getting ready to launch off when roars behind grabbed his attention. He turned to see a small army of Chitauri warriors forming, ready to take down one of the biggest threats to them while it appeared he was vulnerable.
"Haven't you all learned to not underestimate Saiyans yet?" He smirked before his aura burst around him, shattering the road underneath his feet. "I'm just getting started."
"Need some help?" Steve asked as he ran to stand next to his ally's side.
"I got it, but I'll never turn down a hand." Zuchino said before he looked at Steve with a smirk. "Let's do this."
"Captain, Zuchino, the bank on 42nd, past Madison. They cornered a lot of civilians in there." Clint warned as they looked at each other and nodded.
"On it." Zuchino radioed back, squeezing the neck of the Chitauri warrior until it broke. He dropped the alien before grabbing Steve and blasting off as Steve delivered the directions. When they arrived, Zuchino threw Steve into an open window and circled back. By then, Steve had already taken one out and he'd taken shelter behind a desk. They didn't even see the Saiyan enter before spin-kicking a troop off the balcony into the crowd.
"Everyone, clear out!" Zuchino ordered to the terrified citizens down below before one of the aliens grabbed him a headlock. Bad move. He flared out his aura, vaporizing the alien before he finally took note of the incessant beeping. But it distracted him long enough for a Chitauri warrior to launch a surprise attack, slashing his cheek with its blade. Grabbing the wound, the Saiyan angrily kicked the alien into the wall and sent an energy wave into its broken body. The beeping grew more rapidly while a troop grabbed at a small bomb, trying to throw it. Steve hid behind his shield while Zuchino dashed towards the super soldier, intent on creating an energy shield. He didn't get the chance before a blinding blue light of pain engulfed him and blasted both the warriors out of the window.
Steve fell into a car nearby while the explosion blasted Zuchino into another car, imploding on impact. Steve hobbled off the car and looked at the waitress he had talked with earlier that week (and wanted to get to know) carried out, looking over at him. He gave her a small smile, one she reciprocated before she disappeared into the military vehicle.
As soon as eye contact broke, Steve realized he wasn't the only one to be caught in the explosion. He looked over to find where his friend landed, but the crumpled taxi gave off enough of a hint. He jogged over, the pain of landing disappearing for the second.
"Zuchino!" He called out. the metal began to shift and the Saiyan pulled himself out. Besides a few gashes around his body where the armor broke through and a large open wound on his forehead that poured out blood, Zuchino seemed mostly undamaged. The Saiyan looked over himself and wiped the blood from his forehead and blinked it away from his eyes.
"Shit. And I don't think we've made barely a dent with all of this."
"You okay?" Steve asked as Zuchino looked over at him and gave a sigh, wiping away more of the blood gushing from his cheek wound.
"They've definitely improved their tech, that's for damn sure." Zuchino chuckled. "But that bomb did more damage than I would've liked. I can still fight, but we need to end this quick." To that, Steve nodded. However, Zuchino knew what Cap was thinking and it more than likely wasn't true. The explosion was more powerful than he showing and he was exhausting his ki reserves to maintain the Super Saiyan transformation. He'd give it ten more minutes of full-on combat before he would have to drop the transformation to fight for another hour at most…and that's not accounting another massive use of ki like his Solar Bomb.
"Yeah, go check on the others. It's been far too quiet on the comms." Steve said; Zuchino nodded before flying off. Once he put considerable distance between him and Cap, he powered down back to his base form. A few gliders began following him and firing their blasters at him; he dodged as best he could, even reflecting a few of the blasts at them. However, after turning a corner, he stopped. In front of him was a large group of gliders heading towards him. He turned back, but they were surrounding him on that side as well. He looked up to even see some descending down on him. They blocked every way, ensuring no escape for one of the greatest challenges to their invasion.
"Clever bastards." He growled and charged his energy to a maximum, crossing his arms over his face; his body began to emit a golden glow around it as he transformed into a Super Saiyan yet again. Almost immediately, the gliders began firing their weapons, bombarding the Saiyan with the energy blasts. However, it felt like mere bee stings to the Super Saiyans.
Once his energy finally hit the peak, he released an energy wave from his body in the every direction the Chitauri troops surrounded him on. The energy waves atomized the alien conquerors and faded away just as soon as they did their job. Zuchino floated in the air, fighting away his exhaustion. His struggle only lasted for mere seconds before his transformation blinked off and he fell to the street. He struck with enough power to cause a small crater around him, unable to gracefully land. He tried to stand, but was unable to fight off the darkness any longer.
"Zuchino, Stark, are you two hearing me?" Fury's voice roused the Saiyan back to life."We have a missile headed straight for the city."
"How long?" Tony asked as Zuchino stood to his feet, the shock bringing him new life.
"And what kind of missile?" Zuchino added.
"Nuclear. It's 3 minutes at best; the stay load can wipe out mid-town." Fury informed before cutting transmission. Zuchino activated his scouter and held the button a few seconds longer that usual. The screen flashed away before a small message box popped up. "Awaiting command."
"Scan for a flying aircraft made from Terran material within 500 miles of this location." Zuchino commanded as the device accepted the command and displayed an image of the city, generated from the hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite. Towards the bottom, he could see the plane speeding towards the city and the missile that it was planning to launch. Fury was right, it was definitely nuclear and had the power of wiping out not only the general area, but very well the entire of the city. A few solutions passed his mind.
Shooting down a plane would most likely not help. Trying to vaporize the missile and its contents contained slightly more risk. And his only solution left was to hold the missile in an energy barrier and trying to contain the destructive energy once it detonates. Under normal circumstances, it would probably be a little hard, but definitely possible. But this was not normal circumstances and most definitely not possible with his current ki reserves.
"Damnit." Zuchino muttered before he felt something a roar behind him. He turned around to see another wave of the creatures descending on him, weapons aimed directly at him.
"Do you bastards ever quit?" He growled as he raised his arm, a ball of black ki sparking to life. "Die!" Zuchino bellowed as he shot the energy forward, completely incinerating everything in sight. Once the beam had faded away, he collapsed down to his knees. The previously bombardment and explosion had done more damage to his body than he'd previously thought, judging from the previously unseen wounds causing blood to coat his arms, his massively depleted energy and his slightly blurring vision. The adrenaline from learning about the plane must've pushed him past the pain, but now the pain won out.
Zuchino tried to stand up fully, but his body immediately denied the action and he fell back down to the ground. Denying his body's objections, he grabbed to a light pole to pull himself up and clung to it. Finding the strength, he raised up his good arm and pressed the button on his scouter for a progress report. It alerted him that the plane fired the nuke and it was heading towards them.
"I can close it. Can anybody copy?" Natasha sounded out through his comms. "I can shut the portal down."
"Do it!' Steve ordered through the comms.
"Don't!" Zuchino warned them.
"But we still got more of these things still coming."
"Zuchino's right, we've got a nuke coming in; it's going to blow in less than a minute. I may need a little help."
"On my way." Zuchino said before he charged his power and flew towards the nuke. He quickly caught up to the billionaire and grabbed the top of the weapon and tried to help pull it up.
"You guys know that is a one-way trip…" Steve warned, his tone denoting the grave nature of the situation.
"We know…" Zuchino said before they continued to attempt to tilt the nuke up through the nuke. Their efforts weren't enough and they were closing in on Stark Tower. Simultaneously thinking to put more power into their efforts, Tony put more power into his boots and Zuchino pushed his body to transform into Super Saiyan. Almost immediately, the nuke tilted upward, aiming directly at the gaping hole of time & space in front of them. Zuchino held his breath once they got closer. Then…they entered it. They easily found the Chitauri mothership with more waves of the aliens heading towards the planet, waves that would be impossible for anything short of the entire Freeza Force to annihilate at this point. However, before they could release it, Stark's suit powered down and he let go. Seeing something in his peripheral vision, Zuchino looked back to see Tony slowly floating away.
"Tony!" Zuchino screamed before he released the nuke and began heading towards the floating billionaire. His hand reached out to Stark's metal hand…right as his transformation snapped off; his body's remaining energy voided.
Shit! Zuchino internally shouted as he could feel himself beginning to black out. He looked back to see the bright light of the explosion, brighter than the Earth's sun. Desperation began to surge through his body and he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his blood once more. He could feel a bit of power appear, which proved just enough for him to quickly grab Stark and dash down to the shrinking portal. Just as the portal closed and disappeared, the Saiyan and the billionaire fell through the portal.
He tried to slow their fall, but his body rejected him. It used every little bit of ki it could spare and now it was doing its best not to use up the last bit of energy keeping him alive and conscious. Thinking fast while gazed at the rapidly approaching planet, he grabbed Stark and pushed the billionaire behind him. He would take the brunt of the impact and might be able to survive such an impact as weakened as he was, but Stark, despite his suit's capabilities, definitely wouldn't. He closed his eyes, making peace with whatever his fate would befall him. However, something grabbed him and Stark from the air and brought them to the ground after skidding down a building. Hulk pushed him and Stark off his torso onto the ground. The green being looked up and gave a thumbs up to the Saiyan.
"Nice save." He smirked, pushing himself up. Steve and Thor rushed over as Zuchino pulled the faceplate off his helmet. Inside, Stark lied there, not breathing; his arc reactor wasn't even glowing anymore. "Shit." He said, trying to figure out what to do before an idea popped into his head. He placed his hand right where his heart was located above the armor. Quickly channeling the smallest bit of ki he could muster, he shot it into his chest similar to a defibrillator.
It was a technique he'd learned a long ago that would work regardless of his near-fatal level of ki (since Stark didn't need that much ki to survive in the first place). But, there was no response afterward. He tried again…and again…and again. Still no response from the billionaire. All hope seemed lost until the Hulk let out a mourning roar; it was enough shock the billionaire back into the land of the living.
"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." Stark panicked as Zuchino laid back down.
"We won." Zuchino said as a smirk began to appear.
"Alright, hey. Alright. Good job, guys." Tony cheered as Zuchino and Steve both began to chuckle. "Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."
"We're not finished yet." Thor reminded as Zuchino sighed, all eyes turning towards the tower.
"Then shawarma after?" Tony asked.
It was a couple of days after the battle and the Avengers gathered at Central Park to oversee Thor's transfer of Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard and away from Earth. While Zuchino wore a black leather jacket, black jeans, and a red t-shirt, Steve wore a brown leather jacket, blue shirt, and khakis. The Saiyan had driven to New York to help Steve move his belongings to his new apartment in D.C. (Steve vetoed flight).
Steve finally decided to take S.H.I.E.L.D. up on their offer as a full-time agent. For his sake, they also moved him into the apartment next Zuchino's. If they were going to place Rogers anywhere, it would probably be best for it to be the two shore shared similar and unique struggles. Zuchino, however, chose to remain on call. While he still had doubts about S.H.I.E.L.D. (and he wasn't sure if it was because he was still unwilling to work for any type of organization after the Freeza Force), he'd still help them in whatever capacity he could.
Dr. Selvig joined them with a glass tube while Tony held the Tesseract within a metal briefcase. Once he and Bruce had removed the Tesseract and placed it in the tube, Thor grabbed it and walked over to Loki, holding it up to his confined hands. Loki grasped one of the handles, not before rolling his eyes in annoyance. Thor looked over to his fellow teammates before nodding. His teammates nodded back in return and he turned the handle. The duo disappeared in a blaze of blue light that left scorch marks on the concrete sidewalk. Almost immediately, Tony turned over to Zuchino with a clap of his hands.
"ET, it's so strange to see you outside of your armor; you almost look human." Tony said.
Zuchino glared at him before looking away with a smirk; despite his annoyance, Tony did have a small bit of charm. "You're so lucky I've grown accustomed of you." Tony extended his hand, which Zuchino accepted and shook.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"You know, saving my life. I mean, I could've done it myself, but you did what you had to do."
"You don't have to thank me; it was nothing."
"You should take the thanks while you can; I usually don't give them out." Tony reprimanded as Zuchino chuckled.
"Fine, no problem." Zuchino said as Tony turned to Steve. "Captain."
"Mr. Stark." Steve said.
Tony held out his hand. "Tony should be fine." They shook hands and exchange a small smirk.
Zuchino walked over to Bruce, extending his hand. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Dr. Banner; hope to see you again?"
Bruce smirked before taking his hand and shook it. "I'm thinking around staying around here for a while; help Tony out with repairing the city."
"Great; in case you guys need some extra muscle, don't hesitate to call me. It was my mess too, after all." Zuchino said with a smirk that Bruce returned before he walked away.
Natasha walked up to the Saiyan with Barton. "So, will we be seeing you around S.H.I.E.L.D. now?"
"So-so." Zuchino said as Natasha nodded. "I'll be on call, so I have a feeling you'll be seeing me more often than not over there. After all, for a lot of the world, the universe just got a lot bigger."
"Good. I look forward to working with you some more. Maybe you can teach me a few things, including how to fly."
"We'll see about that." Zuchino said with a small chuckle.
Steve walked up beside Zuchino, grabbing his attention. "You ready?"
"Where are you guys going?" Barton asked.
"Well, Steve's took the job with S.H.I.E.L.D., so he's moving to D.C. and I offered to drive him since I have to head back anyway."
Natasha smiled at the duo. "We'll see you two later, then."
"Hope too." Zuchino said as he gave Natasha a hug before she and Barton got in their car. Zuchino brushed his hair back before grabbing a band to tie it back. "Let's go."
With that, Steve and Zuchino hopped into the car, the back loaded with Steve's suitcases, and began to drive towards DC.