Cosmic is Forever
Summary:Set after may have fooled Galactus and left before the Devourer could do anything,but was that the end?If so, then why is there a gold man the Universe is celebrating and the Cabal hunting?
As the Avengers Tower shook, Tony turned towards the Avengers in the kitchen. ''Hawkeye, topside, now! Cap, living room and wait for Black Widow. Sam, you and Thor are to go out and fire from there and I want Hulk to smash, because where there is Hyperion, the rest of the Cabal isn't far behind.'' The four men nodded and ran off while Iron Man looked at the teen at his side.
Spiderman looked up at him, determined to help keep his temporary home safe. ''What do I do?''
''Your web is not something the Cabal has ever faced before, so do your best to wrap as much of it as you can around them. Try to immobilize them but don't get in too close.''
''Got it!'' He was about to run off, but a metal covered hand stopped him by the shoulder.
''Not so fast, Spidey. You're sticking with me.'' The power was dancing now and he will need all of his concentration to keep it in. He didn't need to worry about young heroes facing down some of Earth's Nastiest Villains. "Just as they never faced you in a fight, you've never fought them. You aren't going alone anywhere unless it is strictly necessary. Got that?"
Spiderman saluted. "Sir, yes Mr Stark, sir!"
Tony waved him off. "Leave that for Cap, but later. Right now, I need to deal with annoying villains who are interrupting my lunch. Raviolis are not a tasty dish when cold, but sweet revenge is." With that, Iron Man flew out of the kitchen with Spiderman swinging out behind him.
He had been right about the rest of the Cabal being there. Hyperion and Thor were fighting each other high above the Tower, lasers lighting up the sky while the ground shook as Hulk and Atumma threw each other around or smashed things in their own fight. Captain America was fighting with Dracula, the King of vampires trying to suck out his supper soldier serum rich blood. Black Widow and Hawkeye were busy with AIM, HYDRA Atlantian and vampire foot soldiers with aerial help from Falcon and JARVIS, who had taken over the Towers's defenses in order to help in the fight since, for once, he could outside Tony's armor. That left the Supper Adaptiod and the Iron Skull for Spiderman and Iron Man to deal with.
''Adaptiod is yours. Leave the Skull to me.'' Tony commanded before flying over to said German. Red Skull grinned nastily and he charged at Iron Man. The two armored men clashed, metal fists hitting red or black plating. Spiderman watched the fight until Modok got annoyed of being ignored and attacked with the Adaptiod. The kid barely dodged the two repulser blasts from the humanoid and turned to look at his enemy. He had never fought something like it before and it looked a bit creepy, but there was no way he was going to fail the Avengers in his first fight with them. The red and blue clad young hero jumped off of the building he had been crawling across and fired two webs at the Adaptiod's head, wanting to blind him, but it slashed at the with Falcon's wings.
''Oh crap.'' Was all Spiderman got to say when he saw its fists turning into hammers and electricity dancing over them. The next second he was dodging lightning as he swung over Natasha and Clint. The two SHIELD agents were holding their own in Central Park against Atumma's and Dracula's armies, HYDRA and AIM stopped by a well shot icing arrow that had created a barrier between them and the Avengers. Black Widow was jumping from one vampire to the closest Atlantian as she knocked them down one by one, either by using pressure points or her stings. Hawkeye was firing arrow after arrow at the others, dodging the return fire from the two technical armies every now and then. He was slowly running out of wooden arrows but he had some new and improved blinding arrows that now had the same wavelengths as the sunlight so any vampires that were hiding in the shadows will be dealt with either way.
He barely got out of the way when a shadow fell over him and he looked up to see Hulk and Atumma overhead. He rolled to the side as they crashed into the ground, shaking the entire park with the impact. A few soldiers stumbled and Hawkeye used this opportunity to trap a few more of them in with his sticky arrows as the two behemoths got up, ready to start pounding each other again.
Falcon nearly got hit by lasers in the air when Thor and Hyperion flew near him. He had been lucky but it cost him a good hit from a big AIM gun and he still nearly got grounded for it. He turned back to his targets, only to find an even bigger gun, held up by three men and aimed by another one, pointed in his direction and ready to fire. The red beam hit him straight on, but it wasn't strong enough for a Tony Stark homemade armor. Still, had the armor been any weaker, he would be seriously injured. As it was, he was just angry and bruised. He got back to where they were recharging the weapon to fire at Cap and he threw the holographic wing feather like daggers and the thing blew up in AIM's faces. He cheered internally before noticing that Spidey was facing the Adaptiod on his own and he made to help him, only to see a building about to fall on some civilians.
''It would seem that I am forever on civilian duty.'' He commented dryly and Clint laughed in his ear.
''Dude, someone's gotta do it.''
''Not the time, boys!'' Nat yelled as she felled yet another Atlantian.
''Avengers, focus! The Cabal isn't even trying to work together today. It's every man for himself and we need to know why.'' Steve told them with a grunt as he punched Dracula straight in the face. The vampire hissed at him and teleported at his back, aiming a punch at his head only the Captain was expecting it. He turned around and hit the other man with his shield, nearly braking his teeth again. The blue man hissed once again before retreating deeper into the shadows of the alley they had been fighting in. ''Anyone got the slightest clue as to what is going on?''
''I don't know, but Hyperion seems to be acting ... different.'' Thor answered as said villain seemed to be looking all over the place in the seconds they weren't pounding into each other with fists and hammer. ''It's almost as if ... he's afraid of something.''
''Hyperion? Afraid?'' Falcon asked, incredulous as to what would scare a person with almost infinite power. ''Of what?''
''Somehow, I don't want to know.'' Widow commented as she jumped on the shoulders of yet another AIM lackey and snapped his neck with her thighs of doom, as Tony jokingly called them. ''Whatever he fears must be beyond our imagination.'' Apparently she was thinking among the same lines as Sam was.
''I don't know. We can imagine quite a bit.'' Hawkeye couldn't resist but add and his partner threw him a look. He shrugged with a smirk as Iron Man threw the Red Skull into a building overhead. They were just pushing at each other, hands locked and trying to get the other to yield. Tony's armor had been upgraded by Tony Stark standard technology while Modok had to make do with any piece of tech that the Cabal could steal, so Tony's upgrades gave him some advantage. However, with most suits have the same core build, it wasn't much and so the Skull was almost on par with him, especially since he was still technically a super soldier like Steve. He used the building behind him as leverage and pushed Iron Man off of him, Tony quickly catching himself but the Skull had decided that it was enough with the games.
''Modok, proceed to stage 2.'' Suddenly, all of the Cabal was transported from their partners and the Avengers were prepared for a switch like last time, but instead, they all appeared on a tall building overhead, standing as a united force. They froze when they realized that Modok had transported his big floating head as well as the Tesseract and the cube was now in Red Skull's hand, raised high over all of their heads.
''Avengers, brace yourselves!'' Captain America warned as he raised his shield and the others took up defensive stances, Tony and Thor hovering over them, Falcon on the ground for once. Spiderman was sticking close to Iron Man, as he was instructed, hanging from a building right beside the armored man.
''Attention, Avengers!'' The Nazi addressed them instead of attacking them and Tony and Steve grew more tense. ''Today, we are here just to remind you that you cannot stop us as you are, and that you will never stop us with the power of the Tesseract.'' A nasty smirk was on the mad man's red lips and Steve scowled. ''However, we are not here to make you admit to our superiority-''
''Although, you might as well admit it already.'' Hyperion interrupted and Skull scowled at him. Dracula actually elbowed him in the gut, causing the space man to growl at him.
''As I was saying, that is not the reason we are here for today. Today, we are here to ask a simple question.''
''Go ask someone else to help you with your homework, tomato-head.'' Hawkeye snarked and Tony smirked under his faceplate. Thor laughed as he was swinging his hammer to stay in line with Tony in the air.
''Ay! We shall not help you.''
''You misunderstand, Avengers. By not answering,'' Skull directed the cube at some bystanders that HYDRA agents had caught. ''You endanger these innocent people.''
''What do you want, Skull? This isn't like you.'' Captain America said behind his shield, his eyes promising danger if he so much as dared to think about firing on a civilian. The German smirked, his heavily accented voice making him sound even more sinister than he already really was.
''We simply want to ask a few questions.''
''Why us?'' Falcon demanded.
''Because you are, regrettably, the nearest secure source of information regarding what we want to know.'' He really did sound like he regretted it, and he would once the Avengers managed to get those civilians safe and him away from either the suit he stole from Tony or the freaking Tesseract. He was holding the thing quite securely and none of them had a single doubt that he would gladly use it on them in a second's notice so they all stayed on high alert.
''And, pray tell, what would those questions be?'' Iron Man asked, for some reason the thing coursing through his veins not liking where this was going at all and it was raging inside. He briefly wondered if this is what Hulk felt like every day. Imagine living like that, all the time, knowing that you had to be extra careful so you don't hurt anyone and knowing that if anyone should ever take control of you, your friends would be unable to do anything against you or to stop you.
Before Skull coud even open his mouth, Hyperion pushed him to the side and Dracula just barely caught him before he fell off of the building. Skull was glaring at the orange and yellow clad man's back with such intensity Tony was surprised that he wasn't drowning in his own blood with a huge hole in his chest by now. ''Who is the Space Knight? How did he get his power? Where is he now?''
''Who?'' Was the confused answer that came from Hawkeye, the others exchanging uncertain looks. Tony froze and Thor stared, slightly alarmed, at the Cabal.
''The Space Knight!'' Hyperion yelled.
''Odin's beard.'' Thor mumbled under his breath and the power in Tony was doing cartwheels, demanding that its host get out of there, now! No one but Spiderman, who was level with them, noticed. That, and his spider senses were tingling, sensing a potential danger but not actual danger. It was strange but he knew that whatever it was, no matter how dangerous, it wasn't going to hurt him.
''We don't know anyone that goes by that name.'' Black Widow answered after a moment of a tense and confused silence.
''Don't lie! We know that you have fought Galactus during his last meal!'' The alien all but roared. ''I know you teamed up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to fight him and the Space Knight! Who is he? Where is he?''
Tony's blood was ice and boiling at the same time and he couldn't think straight. JARVIS was whispering in his ear, trying to calm him down and bring him out of his panicked state, but it was having a lot less effect than it usually would. This couldn't be happening. It was too soon. He wasn't ready to confront anyone about who he now was, who he will now forever be. They wouldn't trust him with it, with this power that makes and destroys Universes. But he can't get rid of it, it's infinite, he can't use it up. He was dangerous and he still didn't know how to control or live with this terrible privilege, so much more so than even the Arc Reactor.
''Wait, do you mean-'' Sam was cut off and Tony was so glad for that, because if any of them said it, he would break.
''Yes! Where is the Herald of Galactus?!''