Chapter Five: Down in the Valley
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Wanda Maximoff
Slap!
I stifle a vicious growl of frustration as I smack another damn insect off of my bare arm. Even on an alien planet I am being eaten alive by bugs.
I wipe the back of my fingerless glove covered hand across my sweat slicked forehead, then tuck a few stray hairs back into my ponytail. This godforsaken planet is hot. Hot and humid and full of bugs and... a thousand times preferable to the glass cage they'd been keeping me in.
Here at least I can move. Here I am not fending off the panic inducing memories of my time on the Raft.
My green army jacket is tied around my waist, and though it is tempting to put it back on to provide more protection against the biting insects, the heat has me grateful that I was wearing a tanktop beneath it when Vision and I returned to New York to help fight off the aliens.
I press a hand against the smooth bark of a tree as I step over a particularly huge root, my booted feet landing with a squish into the damp, dark soil.
I am about to take another step when I suddenly still.
It's silent.
It hasn't been even slightly quiet since I woke up in this jungle, a cacophony of organic noise filling my ears in every moment. But surrounding me as thick as the canopy above, is a weighty silence.
Slipping into a crouch, I press my body against the slight hollow beside the huge, arching tree root and its trunk, making myself as small and hidden as possible. My eyes scan the foliage and trees around me, searching.
Animals only go quiet in the presence of a predator, and after I'd begun moving through the jungle, the wildlife had clearly not been threatened by me.
Something else is here.
My ears strain to hear the squelch of a footfall on moist earth, the snap of a branch, the brush against a leaf. But all I can hear is my own heart pounding inside my chest. I curl and uncurl my fingers, holding them out on either side of me. I don't call my power forth, not yet, not when the red light of it would reveal me, but I keep it ready, nearly bursting beneath my skin.
A long, agonizing moment passes.
Gradually, the din of the jungle returns, the supposed threat having passed.
I loose a breath, slapping the insect landing on my neck as I straighten and turn.
Grey-blue eyes are inches from my face.
Barely stifling a scream, I throw up my hands, red waves of power arching up beneath me-
"Vis?" I gasp out in disbelief, brows furrowed, panting as I halt the movement of my arms, my power frozen around me.
Vision stands before me, his cape fluttering in some nonexistent breeze, looking utterly unsurprised to see me, though his strange eyes dart from the red energy swirling around me then back to my face.
"Wanda."
My name on his lips seems to break some kind of spell, my power evaporating, my footsteps carrying me forward. I throw my arms around him, clinging to him tightly. After a hesitant moment, I feel his arms encircle me in return.
I'm breathing heavily, my throat burning, and I realize my arms are trembling.
It hadn't hit me just how afraid I was until I saw him. I had tried to ignore the crescendo of fear and despair that had been steadily building since the moment we'd been taken. Had stifled old, cowardly urges when I'd found myself alone in the jungle.
And somehow I go from keeping it together, to crippling panic, to bone melting relief all in the span of a handful of seconds.
"Are you hurt?" Vision asks softly, his breath warm against my hair.
He's here. He's here and he's safe and I'm not alone.
"No," I finally manage to say, pulling back to scan his face. "Are you?"
"I am uninjured," he assures me, reaching a hand to tuck a stray tendril of hair behind my ear.
"How did you find me?" I ask, searching his eyes.
"I...don't know. The probability of us having remotely close drop points in this expanse of jungle is very low. So, I suppose luck was a factor in that equation," Vision gives me a small smile. "That, and I've been flying through the jungle for approximately seven hours."
"Seven? I think I've been awake for maybe three. Have you seen any sign of the others?"
"No," his smile turns grim. "Though I'm sure they can't be far, if I was able to find you as quickly as I did."
I hardly think seven hours qualifies as quick, but I don't care. I'm just so relieved to see him. Sighing heavily, I embrace him once more, squeezing my eyes shut as I pretend for a moment that we have just extended our trip to the jungles of South America.
Vision's hand brushes against my hair. "I missed you, too," he whispers.
I don't want the moment to end, but it does. Finally stepping away, I cast another glance around us before asking, "Why did they separate us? Why leave us here?"
"I don't think they did."
A chill skitters across my overly warm skin. "What do you mean? Have you seen them?"
"No, but I've seen signs of them," Vision glances back the way he came. "Along with some rather disturbing sights."
"Like what?"
Vision hesitates, like he doesn't want to frighten me, but before I can demand that he tell me, he discloses, "Traps. All across the jungle."
My blood runs cold. "What kind of traps?"
"Comprised of the same foreign metal and advanced technology that was on their ship, all of varying types and sizes, but equally deadly. Some look as if they were set a very long time ago, while others seem more recently placed."
Vision's expression fills me with foreboding, and suddenly I don't want to hear what he has to say next. He can see the hesitation in my face, but grips me gently by my shoulders.
"Traps meant for us."
Tony Stark
Well, shit.
That little Leia bunned princess actually did put her tech where her mouth was.
"How old is your sister again?" I ask, turning to T'Challa.
"She is sixteen," the king answers, a proud glint in his eyes. "Extraordinarily intelligent, a prolific engineer and inventor, and perhaps as humble as you are."
I pick up the vibranium lined collapsible bow, examining the mechanism at the center of its arc and the release that will separate it into two curved blades. "I believe it," I murmur, running my thumb along the smooth edge.
"Mine," Clint says from behind me, plucking it out of my hands and heading across the hull of the ship without breaking a stride.
T'Challa is smiling. "Shuri has always been ahead of her time. Always hungry for more, always seeking ways to improve her designs."
"She did all this herself?" I gesture to the mountain of equipment and weapons lining the wall and workbench.
The king nods, his hands clasped behind his back. "Even my own suit."
"And you have her hidden away in Wakanda like an untapped diamond mine," I note, pulling up some of her blueprints on the large holographic computer screen.
I can feel his eyes narrow on me. "Diamond mines have a history coated in blood, Mr. Stark. I will not have my sister exploited by the corruption of this world. Shuri's inventions are used for the betterment of Wakanda."
"They could be used for the betterment of the world," I counter, flipping through her many designs. This kid is a certified genius, and given her age, I would even go so far as to admit her superiority in engineering. Goddamn this is impressive stuff.
So impressive, it may warrant a visit to Wakanda in the near future so I can see her in action. Although, with the look T'Challa is giving me right now, I may just have to bribe the princess with frappuccinos to come look over things at Stark Industries. Something tells me bribery will work well with her, as will the opportunity to sneak around her older brother's disapproval.
God, I'm a terrible influence.
"I recommend finding your seat for the takeoff, Tony," T'Challa says, his voice a little less friendly than it was a moment ago.
Raising my palms towards him, I concede with a small smile that lets him know I won't press the matter of his sister.
At least, not right now.
I have bigger issues to deal with.
Like the fact that the only two seats unoccupied are what is clearly the captain's seat, and one next to Scott Lang.
Screw that. I start to head for the front of the ship when T'Challa passes on my left with a perfectly arched eyebrow. Damn it. Scowling at the king's back, I catch the eye of his general Okoye in the seat to his right, her eyes narrowed at me.
This is why I am not a diplomat. I'm pissing off all the foreigners, and it's only the beginning of the mission.
Sighing in defeat, I take the seat next to Scott and buckle the straps across my waist and chest.
The layout of this ship is remarkably similar to a quinjet, but broader, more spacious, and, I admit grudgingly, superior technology. Given a half hour, I bet that I'd be able to learn all the tricks this show pony has to offer.
"Stark," Scott acknowledges after a moment of awkward silence.
"Lando," I nod back. "How's the ant colony? Heard you guys had a nasty encounter with a four year old carrying a magnifying glass last week. Hope the women and children made it out ok."
"Is being a douchebag written in your DNA or something?"
"All from my father's side, unfortunately."
"You know, I don't have to be here," Scott reminds me.
"The straps locked around your chest as the ship takes off out of Earth's atmosphere kind of says otherwise," I crack my neck from side to side, fishing through my jacket pocket to place my sunglasses firmly on my face.
Natasha peers around her chair in front of me to give me a look. Stop antagonizing him, her expression says.
I wave her off. Fine, I'll behave. Nevermind that getting under Scott's skin was one of the few things that could have distracted me enough from the nauseating panic roiling in my gut.
As far as takeoffs go, this one is smooth, T'Challa's Wakandan ship, outfitted especially for deep space travel, living up to its impressive reputation as we glide up, up, up above the clouds.
It doesn't matter that the ship flies like a dream. It could be as pleasant as spending an afternoon in a hammock on a beach in Tahiti. Just knowing the destination, the journey we will have to take to get there, what we might find-
My eyes squeeze shut beneath the sunglasses, my teeth clenching together. The dull growl of the ship's engine makes the seat beneath me vibrate ever so slightly. Quiet. Smooth. Nothing like the last time I soared straight up through Earth's atmosphere.
That trip had been a barrage of noise ricocheting through my battered suit; the scream of the nuke, the thunderous, growling roar of my thrusters, the wind buffeting the metal around me, all swelling to a climactic blast until the world fell suddenly and sharply silent around me.
Until I soared straight into space, facing a massive army poised to demolish my planet, all surging for the portal that grew smaller behind me. The silence had been a thousand times more deafening than the noise enveloping me in the atmosphere, pressing into my ears, condensing around me as everything went quiet and cold…
My knuckles are white from my near painful grip on the arms of my chair, beads of cold sweat forming on my neck. I breathe through my nose, willing my heartbeat to pound just a little less violently, but it doesn't oblige me.
An endless expanse of black. Icy and soundless and filled with a thousand and one hostile forces ready to snuff out the life of my planet.
Ready to take everything from me.
"You know I got a job at a Baskin Robbins before this?"
Slowly, I turn my head to look at Scott, who nods, lips quirked to one side.
"Yeah, not my finest moment. You can see why I'd turn back to a life of crime before becoming Ant-man. What about you? Unfinest moments. Go."
"Ok first off, Baskin Robbins, really? You couldn't at least get a job at a decent ice cream joint like a Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's?"
"Hey, Gold Medal Ribbon is a national treasure. And the only reason you're partial to Ben and Jerry's is because they have an ice cream flavor named after you."
"Irrelevant. Second, unfinest moments? I don't have them."
Sam, Natasha, Clint, and Rhodes all let out various sounds of coughs or snorts, and I glare at the back of their heads. "Hey, this is a private conversation."
"I like Gold Medal Ribbon," Sam interjects, half turning his head towards us.
"Too much caramel," Natasha says simply.
Rhodes frowns. "Whoa, too far Romanov. There's no such thing as too much caramel."
"Laura once ate an entire jar of caramel we bought from a Ghiradelli's in one sitting when she was pregnant with Cooper," adds Clint.
This is derailing fast.
"I'm sorry, did I ask for all your opinions on ice cream flavors? We're on a mission here, people. A little decorum, if it isn't too much to ask," I call over them.
The ship falls into an amused silence as we hurtle through the last turbulent jolt of our planet's atmosphere and glide smoothly into a dark abyss littered with stars.
My breathing is more even, and though I don't relax my grip on the arms of my seat, the painful tightness in my chest has alleviated. Damn, when did this group of people start to know me so well? Ridiculous as the distraction had been, it had worked. It had taken the edge off.
I'll thank them later. Somehow. .
My eyes search the stars, knowing that our people are out there somewhere, deep in the void. My team. My friends. My overeager, too good for this world intern that always seems to find himself in trouble.
We're coming, kid.
We're coming.
"Gold Medal Ribbon is shit," says Okoye.
Peter Parker
Not having Karen sucks.
I didn't realize just how many features are inactive without her presence, or maybe they are active and I have no idea how to access them.
Like air conditioning, for instance.
It stands to reason that if my suit is supplied with a heater, it also carries a way to cool my body down in high temperatures. I'm almost positive it has one, but I can't figure out how to make it work. I've tried asking, tried code words that could maybe trigger it into turning on, tried messing with Droney and tapping various spots across my body.
Nothing.
The only thing I have going for me at the moment is the sweat resistant material the suit is made of. My skin is overheated, no doubt slick with sweat beneath my mask and suit, but the material remains light, breathable, not sticking uncomfortably to my body or causing any chafing.
But it's freaking hot.
I need water, badly. It's ironic to me that the air can be so humid, so dense with moisture, and yet my throat and tongue feel drier than a desert.
I keep my mask lifted up above my nose and mouth so that breathing is a little easier, but I don't remove it entirely. The lenses help me focus in an environment that is nothing but sensory overload. The sounds, the smells, the colors and overlapping, interweaving plant life...it's a lot to take in.
I've been swinging through the trees for hours, using my webs as sparingly as possible, but I haven't found anything. No evil aliens. No signs of civilization. No Avengers.
I might've been panicking if I wasn't so exhausted and thirsty.
Traveling in this heat makes my body feel sluggish, heavy, like I'm moving through warm, murky water instead of the air. And, it occurs to me as I lean against the trunk of a tree, my legs stretched out in front of me on the smooth branch, that I haven't eaten or drank anything since being kidnapped.
The aliens never brought us food or water, not that I would have trusted anything they tossed into my cell, but still. No wonder I am so tired and woozy feeling. My stomach is completely and painfully empty, past even the point of growling its discomfort.
I let out a long sigh, letting my head fall back against the tree with a dull thud. I'm hot. I'm thirsty. I'm tired. I'm grouchy. And I'm BORED.
I thought this alien jungle excursion would be nothing but tense chases and a constant state of fear and panic. Maybe it would be if I wasn't feeling so out of it. But nothing has happened. I feel like I've made zero progress, except to wear myself out.
Something brushes against my shoulder, a tickling sensation that makes my arm spasm. I look down, eyes narrowing, then widening.
The grey bandages covering my shoulder are...molting.
I watch in morbid fascination as the fabric begins to shrivel up and turn wispy, paper thin, the edges curling and crumpling as their grip on me loosens. Chunks of it begin to flutter down to the jungle floor far below me like flakes of ash.
My empty stomach begins to rebel, cinching with nausea as I remember what Vision had suggested. That these bandages were made from the aliens' own skin.
The skin that is currently shriveling up and peeling off of me in shreds like my own does after a bad sunburn.
"UGH!" I gag and begin frantically brushing it off of me with my left hand, tufts of shriveled, delicate flakes drifting into the air as I scrub and scrape and swipe it off of me in a disgusted panic.
I snap to my feet, doing a grossed out, jiggling sort of dance on the branch as I shake off the rest of the bandages, shuddering and shivering as they flutter away.
"Gross, gross, SO gross!"
Once I am sure not even a scrap of it remains on my body, I look at my shoulder.
My suit is ripped where the hook had torn through me, revealing a small expanse of completely healed skin. A white, jagged scar is all that is left of the wound, the pain gone entirely.
"That...was disgusting," I grimace with a final shudder. At least it's healed, though I have another scar to explain to the guys in the locker room at P.E. now.
Glancing around, I roll my shoulders and try to pick a direction to go, hoping that I haven't been wandering in circles this entire time.
My spine goes rigid a brief second before I drop, flattening myself against the branch.
Thunk.
My gaze shoots up to the pencil sized dart embedded in the trunk of the tree in front of me, shining black and with metallic fletching blinking with tiny blue lights.
"What the hell?" my lenses widen along with my eyes, and a thrill of my spine has me rolling off of the branch and dropping in a crouch to one fifteen feet below it.
Thunk thunk.
Two more are sticking out of the wood right where I'd been seconds before.
Ohhhhh crap.
I jerk my mask over my face and fling myself out of the tree, firing off a web to an even taller one in the distance as my ears pick up the faint whistling of wind as darts come flying towards me.
Halfway to the next tree, in mid swing, I shoot off a second web in an entirely different direction, kicking my legs out together to swing even faster, avoiding a fourth volley of darts.
Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk.
"Holy crap!" I exclaim as I swing myself up and over a thick branch, landing on a wide bough beneath it and sprinting across the wood. "Where the hell are these all coming from?!"
I dive, kicking off of the branch, my body twisting into a front flip as I fall. The darts keep coming, faster and deadlier, giving me no time to look for who or what is firing them or how to stop it.
That's when I misjudge the strength of the branch I land on next.
SNAP!
"Whoa!" I cry as the wood splinters beneath my feet, and I am free falling towards the ground below, arms pinwheeling. Wildly, I shoot off a web, the end of it clinging to the middle of a nearby tree and sticking with a thwump. But it's too low, my swing too messy, and I end up slamming into the trunk, pain shooting through my left side at the jarring impact that has me letting go of the line.
I slam into the ground face first, a bush with leaves bigger than my torso softening the landing. Groaning, I stay there for a moment as my brain comes to term with the fact that I am no longer swinging through the trees.
Thunk thunk thunk thunk!
"Come on!" I growl in frustration as I spin away, landing on the mossy earth in a low crouch. "Enough with the darts already!"
I surge to my feet, running as fast as I can in what I hope is the opposite direction of my attackers. Navigating the jungle floor is even more complicated than hopping from tree to tree like a spider monkey, even more so since I am barrelling through the foliage as fast as I can go.
I leap over a mess of roots, kicking off of the trunk of a tree to dive behind another, sliding down slopes and bounding over plant covered logs. My heart is racing, my breathing rapid and tight in my chest, my already tired muscles protesting as I skid down a slippery bank of plants and try to convince my body to run even faster.
Thunk thunk thunk!
I jump, arms thrown back behind me, legs tucking up towards my chest as I throw myself over a steep embankment. Crashing through more foliage, I tuck and roll as I hit the ground, surging to my feet and running several yards before I whip around a tree and-
SLAM
I crash into something that goes down, taking me down with it as it lets out a hoarse cry.
Heart in my throat, I rear back, fist raised-
"Dr. Banner?!"
I stare down at the scientist, his expression twisting into a pained, yet shocked grimace. Dr. Banner lets out a grunting wheeze that reminds me-hey, I'm still sitting on the man's chest.
"Oh! Sorry!" I clamber off of him, reaching down a hand to help him up.
He takes it, groaning and wincing as I pull him to his feet. "Geez, kid, where's the fire?"
Thunk!
Still clasping his hand, I jerk him forward, spinning as I yank him away from the incoming dart. "Run!" I shout, turning and hightailing it through the trees.
Dr. Banner, to his credit, doesn't hesitate or ask stupid questions like why or what from. His face just morphs into panic as he takes off right beside me. The man is slower than me, by a lot, so I have to cut back my pace to remain beside him, staying near enough to jerk him out of harm's way if I have to.
"What the hell's happening?" he cries, throwing up his arms as we run to avoid getting slapped in the face by the multitude of bushes surrounding us.
"We're running-through the jungle-trying to avoid possibly-whoa, watch it!-- poisonous alien darts!"
"Thank you for that clarification!" Dr. Banner shoots back dryly. "I meant-"
I dive, tackling him from the side just as four darts whip above our heads. We go down in a tangle of limbs right over the edge of a cliff I hadn't even known was there.
Dr. Banner yells, arms flailing as we plummet to another layer of jungle below us.
"I got you!"
I fire off a web that attaches itself firmly to Dr. Banner's chest, and with a harsh yank, I pull him to my side midair, hooking my arm around his torso. At the same time, I shoot off another line with my left hand, watching as it sticks to the top of the canopy we are about to crash through. "Brace yourself!" I yell.
I let us keep falling, our bodies slamming through the thick leaves, snapping smaller, thinner branches that whack into us painfully in return. Then the line I am holding goes taut, and instead of falling, we are swinging up, up, up-
My feet hit and stick to the wide bough of a tree, and I keep my grip on Dr. Banner as he stumbles forward, nearly pitching head first off of the branch.
Tensing, I look around, ears and eyes and senses straining for any sign that we are still being pursued. An impossibly long moment stretches on as we breathe heavily and wait for the telltale whistle of wind and thunk of impact.
"I think...I think we lost them, or it, or whatever," I pant, letting go of Dr. Banner and allowing my muscles to relax.
The scientist looks nauseated, winded, and like his brain is still free falling, trying to catch up his body.
"Are you ok?"
He scrubs at his jaw, glancing down at the jungle floor very, very far below us, paling, then moves quickly to press his back against the trunk of the tree. "No. Not really, no."
"Yeah, me neither," I admit, removing my mask and taking in several deep breaths. "Man, am I glad to see you."
Dr. Banner looks at my face, the worried lines on his own softening. "Yeah, me too, kid. I take it you haven't seen anybody else?"
I shake my head. "But, that's ok, right? Like, us finding each other means that they have to be out there somewhere too."
"It's pretty safe to assume the aliens dropped us all over this jungle," Dr. Banner agrees. "Though I've been walking for hours, and you're the first person I've run into."
Literally.
"Do you think that was them? Back there I mean, with the darts?"
"I didn't see anything, but it stands to reason those darts came from our alien friends, or something worse," he grimaces. "What I can't figure out is why they took us from Earth, go through the effort of keeping us alive, only to drop us into the jungle and try to kill us."
That's when it hits me.
"Oh my god," I press the heels of my hands into my forehead, my eyes widening as I stare at him. "That's it!"
"What's it?" Dr. Banner eyes me warily.
"This is just like that movie Predators!"
He looks at me like maybe I hit my head too hard on the way down. "With Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
I frown, my eyebrows furrowing. "No, not the really old one. The newer one with the guy with the big nose and that Morpheus dude from those old Matrix movies."
Dr. Banner gapes at me for a moment, looking more and more confused. "Wait, what? There's a predator movie with Laurence Fishburne in it?"
"Yeah! These guys get snatched from Earth and then wake up parachuting into the jungle with all their weapons and they have to like, band together to figure out what's happening and then they realize they are on an alien planet and being hunted by the alien predators and they have to tear through the jungle avoiding all these traps while being chased by all the monsters."
I stare at him excitedly, waiting for him to get it.
He doesn't. "You lost me."
"We're being hunted," I explain, a chill shuddering through me at the word.
Dr. Banner pales. "Hunted?"
"Think about it. They nabbed us from Earth but not the rest of the Avengers, because-"
"Because we have abilities that they don't," his face immediately becomes grave with understanding. "We're stronger, more enhanced than regular people."
"And much more of a challenge," I add, my empty stomach squirming.
"That's why they healed you," Dr. Banner's eyes go to my shoulder, noticing the lack of bandages and the healed skin visible in the tear in my suit. "So you would be strong enough to present more of a threat. So they wouldn't just pick you off the moment you woke up in the jungle."
I wince at his words, but he's right. "And that's why they separated us all over the jungle, why they gave us a few hours head start before coming after us. To make it more interesting."
"God, this is messed up," Dr. Banner puts both hands on his forehead, leaning against the trunk of the tree and sliding down until he is seated. "Beyond messed up. This is...it's…"
"Yeah," I agree with a sigh, lowering myself to a crouch on the branch.
"I'm so tired of aliens," his hands move to cover his face, muffling his voice. "Why is it always aliens?"
I hesitate, then awkwardly reach over to pat his shoulder in a 'there, there' sort of manner. "I uh...had an alien parasite in my chest for awhile. It sucked. Aliens kind of suck. At least all the ones I've met."
Dr. Banner's hands drop to his lap. "An alien parasite...in your chest? That's...harsh."
"Yeah, no kidding. This isn't great either," I add, gesturing to the jungle around us. "So...what do you think we should do?"
The scientist frowns, brows knitting together as he thinks. "Try and find the others, I guess. Strength in numbers and all that."
"Great!" I say enthusiastically, standing up too fast and startling him. "They can't be too far. Hopefully. Oh, and I don't know about you, but I could really use some water about now. And food if there's anything edible on this planet."
"Agreed," Dr. Banner pushes himself to his feet, eyeing the ground again. "I uh-prefer to travel on the ground, where I can't fall a hundred feet to my death, if that's ok."
"Oh, right."
Slipping my mask over my face, I press the trigger of my web shooter, attaching the end of the web firmly to the trunk of the tree above Dr. Banner and move so that my feet are sticking to the very edge, the line growing taut in my hands. "Ready?"
Dr. Banner looks distinctly unhappy as he hooks an arm over my shoulder, my right arm grabbing him around his chest. "Don't drop me," he warns.
"I won't," I promise earnestly and push off the tree to rappel down its trunk.
Dr. Banner's other arm shoots up to wrap around my front, his body stiff as he curses under his breath.
Baby steps, I think, taking the descent slow and easy for his sake.
I am so beyond relieved to have found him, that I am no longer alone in this jungle, and that we have a plan to find the others.
As terrifying as it is that we've realized our purpose on this planet, and that we are currently being hunted by scary-ass aliens, I now have Dr. Banner with me.
And, even better, I have something scarier than any alien by my side.
I have the Hulk.
A/N: Ahhhh so the truth is finally out: The Avengers are being hunted.
I so enjoyed reading everybody's guesses! A lot of you were leaning towards a Hunger Games scenario, which I could totally see. Has anyone seen the newest Predators movie with Adrien Brody? It's sick, and actually what gave me the idea for this fic. One of you guessed it!
Many of you are big fans of the protective Bucky aspect of this fic, and trust me, I am a big fan of it as well. I love the character/relationship growth between him and Peter over the course of these fics, how they started off as complete strangers, then identified with the trauma they've been through, both becoming free of their demons, allowing Bucky to sort of rebecome who he was before he became the Winter Soldier...ahhhh I didn't plan this all out or see it coming when I first started writing it, but I am SO glad it has ended up this way. You guys are gonna love this fic.
In other news, I had an epiphany/idea for the concluding story in this series and I am insanely excited about it, even though it is a long way off. So after Riders in the Sky, there's actually another, shorter fic called Hunted (possibly a working title) that is totally different from this one, but the next in the series. And after that may be the epic conclusion to this series (though I may do smaller fics or one shots to add to it later) called Sound of Silence. It's going to be eeeeeeeppppiiiiccccc. You guys will die. But! That is all slightly irrelevant since this story has a long ways to go before it is finished, and it is going to be one hell of a ride.
STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING. THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM YOUR QUEEN. If you haven't started PippinStrange's "Where They Go", you HAVE TO GO READ IT RIGHT NOW. She just posted chapter ten of it, and as her beta, I got the privilege of sneaking a peek at chapter eleven last night, and I DIED. I ACTUALLY DIED. FANGIRLED SO UNBELIEVABLY HARD. If you are a fan of my work, you seriously cannot miss her story, it feels just like canon and makes everything about Infinity War ok. Please, please, please go read it so that we can all geek out together. Tell her Queen sent you. ;)
DarylDixon'sLover: Maaaaybe...;)
sparklydog9: good guess! it was close!
gandalf537: Yay! Seriously makes me so happy how much you are enjoying this.
Heroes21: Hope it was satisfactory! :)
Web-HeadSuperFan: Ahhhh thank you!
zoyzonda: Thank you very much! Back when I wrote Paint it Black, all the povs totally intimidated me, and even though this story has a couple I've never written from before, I feel a lot less intimidated by the process. It's a great practice as a writer and so fun getting into everyone's heads. :D
Seawell: Yes! Ah, you caught a major typo there! Definitely supposed to say never. Hopefully no major missing words in this chapter! lol
AppleSpongeCake: Errrr...sorry? Lol. Five days late on the update. :D
Guest: Ah thank you! I definitely wanted to make this one about the team as a whole, almost like an Infinity War style of bringing lots of heroes together (although not everyone, I am not prepared for that business yet. lol) but still have Peter be a central character. :)
Shoyzz: Lol! Your commentary is always so great! I answered a couple questions for ya there! But many still remain...glad you're enjoying! ;)
StarStepper: Thanks so much! Wanda is so one of my favorites to write for, and to think, I had no idea before this fic! Glad you have a love/hate relationship with the teasers! lol!
LoonyLovegood1981: OMG Wow! Thank you! I definitely feel like my writing/plot has improved since I first started in this verse, so I am so glad you think so too!
ItsAnnieMikaelson: YOU GOT IT! :D
Ginaboo: Thank you so so so much! I love writing in all the povs, and I seriously geek out when you guys say I do it well. Makes me so happy to hear!
icotnoir: Ahhhh thank you so much! And welcome aboard! I love getting new readers and they get to binge everything while the others have had to wait. lol!
Vivienne: Omg thank you! Infinity War ripped me apart too. Like, i have a lot of theories that comfort me, none nearly as comforting as Where They Go by PippinStrange, but I also felt like I needed to write something to make myself feel better. :)
Endoftheline: LOL! I was wondering if anyone from Ao3 would hop over to read ahead! I know I would, I have no patience. lol. Welcome aboard! Thank you so so much for your review! I also love the protective atmosphere, I live for that kind of stuff, and there will be plenty of that in this fic. :) And yes! Protective Bucky! I adore him.
Andy Frost: Lol yes! Jumanji! XD I can't answer the thanos/asgardian ship question, as it is part of the plot and a huge spoiler, but I can tell you that I came up with the alien race on my own, and I'm glad you think they sound menacing! I will try to keep doing updates at least once a week if I can. :)
JeyFeather1234: Ahhhh yes, plot definitely thickening! XD Close with the hunger games!
MsSoraya: WOW. JUST WOW. Thank you so so so much! It's always my favorite compliment when someone remarks upon the canon/accuracy of the characters, or how they see it just like a Marvel movie. Makes me SO happy because that is exactly what I am going for. So thank you! So glad you are enjoying, and I hope you continue to do so! :D :D :D
cargumentluv: Thank you! :)
Luckias: Thanks so much!
You guys are the best. Love the crap out of my review squad. You so make my day. Special thanks as always to the best beta ever, and also the greatest writer I know, PippinStrange!
COMING UP:
Chapter Six: God's Gonna Cut You Down
Tension grows, the stakes escalate, and the Avengers trapped on the alien planet experience first hand what it's like to truly be hunted.