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?
It didn't take long for them to assemble and get to the scene. That was a good thing. The bad thing was the sight that waited for them. AIM goons armed with dangerous Tesseract-enhanced guns greeted them with a wave of constant fire that only stopped due to Thor's lightning. A second wave was prepared, however, and it got the Asgardian knocked out of the sky. The Avenjet was the next in the line of fire and Natasha just barely managed to save the flight craft from falling on a busy bus stop. After they couldn't get the thing out of the air, AIM goons turned to firing on Tony and Sam as they flew overhead, firing back at their enemies. Peter nearly got killed by one of the shots coming his way, but Ant-Man had seen it before him so he had fired his Pym-Particle gun and shrunk the teen until he was small enough for one of his flying and to catch and carry him. When he was turned back to normal, Spiderman returned the favor by pushing the scientist out of the way of another blast that had been aimed for his head by a beekeeper.
"Cap, on your six. Three guys with a really big gun." Hawkeye called from his perch on a tall building, firing arrow after arrow and dodging the incoming attacks, abandoning one roof after another as he called shots and directions for the other Avengers. Captain America barely had the time to bring up his shield to protect himself and the mother and son he had been evacuating before the blast hit him. He grunted as he bore its force but the shot just kept on pushing and just as he thought that he'll be thrown back, exposing his charges to the deadly ray, Hulk landed behind the AIM soldiers and hit them into the side of the brick building on the other side of the city block. "You're welcome," the green guy said before Steve could even open his mouth and was off, running towards the newly arrived AIM Tesseract-enhanced robots.
Not far away, Natasha was doing her best to defend the still disoriented Thor as the blond thunder god tried to get back to his feet. He had always known that the Power Cosmic stored in the cube was great and that weapons made from its energies were very dangerous, even to him, but he had never guessed the extent of it. He looked up towards the sky just in time to see Tony turning to block an incoming blast from a blind spot and the Asgardian had to wonder if it were his sensors or his new senses that had tipped him off about the attack. He knew it wasn't Barton as the man was now yelling at Scott where to shove it because the newbie was in the way of a good shot. Beside him, Natasha rolled her eyes as she ordered Ant-Man to shrink before her partner got even more annoying about it.
Flying up to Tony, Sam took out three guns with his flashets and blocked a hit that almost had him out of the sky as he talked with his mentor. "There's no way they're here just for the money! Do you keep anything in bank safes?"
"Stopped doing that after I was nine, so no. And they really could be just after the money. Even they have expenses and bills to pay." The genius commented as he blasted at another bundle of AIM agents. Seeing that they weren't going to scatter, Tony activated his missals and fired, blowing them sky high.
"Now isn't the time for jokes, Iron Man!" Falcon snapped, hissing as he barely dodged on more attack.
"It wasn't a joke. Modok may lead AIM towards a "better" future that they will dictate through superior technology or some other jazz like that, but their projects also require funding. Since not even Justin Hammer is stupid enough to support organizations like AIM or HYDRA financially, they have no other option but to steal. Case and point," a red metal gloved hand pointed towards the group of eight AIM lackeys running out of the bank with two big bags of money on each of their backs, Modok floating out of the building right behind them, the Super Adaptiod at his side like a loyal, obedient puppy. "AIM and Modok."
"I'll have to agree with Shellhead on this one." Natasha, who had left Thor's side when he had fully recovered, said over the comms. "I'm inside the building and there doesn't seem to be anything else that they have taken."
"The ants I sent in there say that the personal safes are untouched." Scott added, throwing a pebble at the AIM goons and then amplifying its size with his gun full of Pym Particles. "No hostages, either. But many, unfortunate, casualties."
"Then we'll have to do our best to keep the casualties on the outside as minimal as we can." Steve said from his side of the battlefield, facing down one of the robots that had miraculously escaped Hulk's rampage range and had been heading towards where they had stashed the civilians. "Battle stations, Avengers! We're going to execute plan Alpha-three-zerargh!"
"Cap!" The rest of the Avengers yelled at his grunt of pain, their blood going cold as they heard the familiar evil laughter of Red Skull.
"You dropped your guard there, Captain. How very unlike you." They heard a grunt and a wheeze following that statement and Tony was off before any of them could react more than calling the genius's name in wain. "And now it will cost you your life."
Tony arrived just in time to use his unibeam and Red Skull grunted as he flew back a few feet. Not taking any chances, Tony fired another unibeam attack, combined with repulsors and rockets but Skull drew up a shield the same color as the Tesseract and Iron Man's weapons were wiped out of existence. While this was happening, Steve had gotten up to his feet and was now holding up his shield, ready to continue the fight. Skull looked like he wanted to continue fighting with the two greatest annoyances in his life and finally deal with them once and for all, bud Modok's call stopped him.
"We have what we came here for, Skull. Let's get out of here. We don't have any time to waste." With one last glare at the two Avengers, Red Skull allowed Modok to teleport them away to where ever they now held base. They had more important things to deal with.
"Everyone okay?" Tony asked over the comms, frowning at the results his scanners were showing him of Cap. The super soldier won't be good for the field for quite a few days, which was really not good. Not with Tony leaving the country tomorrow. Out of all who were staying, Steve would have been the only one he would have entrusted the command of the team with. Hulk was Hulk, Thor was an Asgardian and often forgot human limits, Natasha best worked alone and Sam was too inexperienced to lead a group like the Avengers. Not that the three he was taking with him would be any better as leaders. There was a reason Scott stuck with ants and Peter was even younger than Sam. Hawkeye would have probably been their best bet, actually, since he already called shots out on the field from his high perch. The only problem would be that Clint sucked at making plans before going to battle.
This left Tony with no choice. Placing a hand on the tired Captain America's shoulder, Tony began exchanging energies, the negative effect of the Power Cosmic's destructive side being replaced with his own Power Cosmic's creation/restoration properties in order to help the super soldier serum along. Truth be told, Steve would have never recovered fully if Tony weren't to do this. Nothing man-made can counter the Power Cosmic, no matter what others would like to believe. That power is absolute, the creating and devastating force of the Univers that gives it birth and brings it destruction.
"Fine." Hulk grunted over the comms.
"I'm good." Scott reported as he checked on his ants.
"A little sore but good Mr Stark."
"You really need to work on my arrows, Shellhead." A smack is heard. "Ow!"
"He's fine, and so am I." Black Widow reported with an eye roll at her partner.
"Aye! We are fine, friend Tony."
"Yeah." Sam added as they slowly made their way towards where Cap and Iron Man were. "You guys okay?"
Steve grunted. "A little worse for wear but good." He could already feel the super serum getting to work and he was aware that his injuries will soon be nothing but faint bruises that will be gone in the morning. Had it not been for Tony, he would have been a goner. It was one more reason to not like Tony going to Switzerland tomorrow. He had kinda been hoping that he would feel a lot worse so that the man would have to stay for the Avengers but that is selfish. Tony couldn't stay with them all the time and his company needs him tomorrow.
They can get pass one day without him, surely, right? Who was he kidding. The Tower will be in rubble if Tony really does stay away a whole day. He still remembers the messes they got into when Thor smacked Hulk down to Earth from the Moon hard enough for him to lose his memories and they had to deal without Iron Man for half the day. It hadn't been Tony's fault he was needed out in the open sea but still.
"You're sure you're okay, Steve?" Sam insisted as they came into view. Despite what Steve was trying to sell, they could all see just how much damage Skull's newly upgraded repulsors have caused. Sure, there was no blood but half of Steve's chest was now exposed, his uniform destroyed from the powerful blast. If the blast had been more powerful, it would have erased Steve from existence, so that means that the Red Skull had only wanted to cause him pain.
The good Capitan waved him off as he put his shield on his back. ''I've had worse.'' And never say that Steve Rogers, America's Golden Boy, doesn't lie. He wasn't about to tell the others just how much it hurt to move or even breath right now, even though the serum had managed to get the worst of it healed. Of course, he could see that Tony wasn't buying it, but then again, he doesn't know that it was Tony who had tried to ease the process for the serum and it seemed to have worked, if only a little bit. At least Steve won't end up being a cripple, even if he will have an ugly scar there.
"That, however, doesn't mean that you're off the hook for SHIELD medical. You look like a truck ran over you." Iron Man said, leaving no room for arguments. Steve did try to protest but Tony just flipped up his faceplate and gave him such a 'I'm-not-shitting-with-you-so-you-better-listen-and-listen-good-because-I'll-say-it-only-once-and-I-expect-you-to-obey' look that the complaints died on his tongue, not even half formed before they were shot down. It was a look the billionaire rarely used but one that no one could disobey. Even Natasha gave in to that look.
As if they were summoned by his mention of them, SHIELD agents started pouring out of black vans and helicopters, getting to work almost before their feet were on the ground. Fury strolled past them all until he came to stand right in front of the Avengers, looking them up and down and wondering just what was used against them when even Thor and Hulk looked bruised. The good Captain's wounds spoke for themselves and they didn't exactly paint a nice story. Fury wondered if he should just turn around, walk away and pretend that this whole trip hadn't happened.
But it had and some of his Avengers were hurt. He watched as Stark made Rogers sit through an examination and wondered when their roles have reversed. Natasha and Clint were doing the same for each other, as they always have and always will, since neither really cared or admitted to personal injuries but they worried about their partner and closest friend. The Hulk only got an ointment while Thor said it was fine and that it will fade before this evening. Spiderman got the cut on his arm cleaned while Ant-Man seemed to only have a few bruises himself. When they were all done with the medical, Fury called them back to the Avengers Tower and then they followed him straight into one of the conference rooms they always used for debriefing.
''Avengers,'' Fury began as they settled, Hawkeye whining about his broken purple sunglasses as he pulled another pair from on of his pockets. ''I'm afraid to say that you have been slacking in the past couple of weeks. It started with the Tesseract and now tis happened. There are over 50 dead bodies in that bank, all civilians. It's all over the news and they're not saying anything pretty. We need damage control, like, yesterday!''
''Relax, Fury, I already wrote a check to the mayor to fix the streets and I will be personally giving my support to the unfortunate families as soon as I learn who are the victims.''
Fury rounded on Stark as soon as the man opened his mouth, a fierce scowl on his face that never seemed to deter Tony. In the rare times Howard was home and he got angry at him, he was far scarier than Fury could ever imagine. Besides, he fought gods, monsters and aliens on a daily basis. What did he have to fear from a scowling pirate? And that annoyed Fury like nothing else could. ''That's not the type of damage support I was talking about, Stark. You have all become reckless, you lack the teamwork we envisioned for a group like you-''
''Now hold it right there!'' Clint didn't even let him finish. ''I'll have you know that we are the best damn team out there. The only reason we've been 'slacking', as you say, is because they have the damn Tesseract pointed at our heads and at the entirety of the city! We can't just- You can't just- It's not like-''
''What Hawkeye is trying to say, Director,'' Natasha cut in since Clint didn't seem to know how to express himself. ''Is that you can't expect us to fight the Tesseract, since we know so little about it other than that it's one of the most powerful artifacts in the Universe. In fact, the only thing we really know about it is that it's shaped as a cube, it stores the Power Cosmic, it is an unlimited power source and is currently in the Cabal's greedy hands.''
''That sounds like a lot more information than we had on Stark when we first began working on him, yet that was a success and your last fight was, in fact, an epic fail.'' Tony flinched at the mention of his name while Steve scowled at the criticism.
''We did our best, Director Fury-''
''Well, your best wasn't enough today, Rogers!'' The one-eyed man didn't even let him finish. ''Many people died and as a result, the Avengers will lose favor with the people. The politicians already don't like us and now that they have a concrete reason to doubt our ability to keep the world safe-''
''But we saved them a thousand times over!'' Sam yelled and was promptly ignored.
''If we don't get our heads together, we will lose all rights to stay in this city. Now, I've spoken with the president, who has spoken with other presidents and prime ministers all over the world, and a decisions been made. I'm not really happy about it myself, so I have no doubt you all will be mighty pissed off by what I'm about to say. Just remember, please don't kill the messenger.''
Now they were curious and a feeling of dread and fear was creeping up their bodies because Fury so rarely said please and the whole 'don't kill the messenger' line had never been used before, no matter how bad the situation had been. How bad, exactly, could the situation be?
''Well, don't just leave us hanging, man, Out with it!'' Scott, who had no tact whatsoever, said impatiently. He was tired and he just wanted to go to sleep after he buried his poor ants that had fallen in this battle. Sure, the numbers were small if put in proportion with how many ants he has all around the city, but that didn't change the fact that some of them had been with him since his very first day as Ant-Man, when Hank Pym told him he considered him to be a worth successor of his legacy. The old man, for he was pushing past his seventies, was the first person to be really kind to him and give him a chance despite his record and so Scott always did his best to do him proud. Maybe he should visit him the first ''day off'he gets. He hasn't seen him in a few years now.
Fury took one long look around the table and sighed. ''The World Council wants the Avengers to have a new leader in Iron Man's place.''
''WHAT?!'' Came the all too expected outburst, the tension in the room skyrocketing faster than the Avenjet at full speed. Tony sat stiff as a board, his expression flickering to shock before it was wiped clean as if there had never been a trace of emotion on his face in his whole life. And if that didn't make Fury hate the Council even more, he wasn't sure what would. He knew all about Stark's past, having been close friends and coworker with Howard Stark and Director Carter. He just wished the ,man before him had more confidence in himself than the kid he had met a few times, but the world seemed intent on showing Tony Stark that he wasn't needed, wouldn't be missed and wasn't irreplaceable.
''They want a leader that has had military training-''
''I gave command to Tony for a very good reason, Fury. No one can lead the Avengers like he can.'' Steve put in before the man could finish, very much angered with this turn of events.
''Proper military training.'' The Director of SHIELD said as he rubbed his aching forehead in hopes of alleviating his headache a little. ''They want someone who went to the Military Academy, through proper army training and has risen through ranks for his leadership skills. If he ever came into contact with Stark Industries weapons, he would be perfect. We have a suspicion who they might chose, as he has followed similar orders once before-''
He stopped when Tony stood up with a thunderous expression on his face and some of the Avengers had to repress flinches or gaping mouths as they have never seen such fury in the genius's eyes before. They never had the chance, as nothing angered the man as much as anyone trying to get their grubby little hands on his weapons, which he had bought back and wasn't planning on selling ever again. ''You can tell the World Council that they can go fuck themselves, those damn ass-hats, and that Colonel James Rhodes will never again set eyes on any of the SI weapons, the Iron Man armors least of all.'' He hissed through clenched teeth with such venom dripping from his voice, Thor wouldn't be surprised if the table and floor melted through.
''Stark, as far as I'm concerned, there is no one who could be a better Iron Man than you, since you know the armor inside and out, but I can't do anything here. My hands are tied! If we don't follow through with a trail run, at the very least, you could be declared an enemy to the country and the Avengers would get either disbanded or set after you.'' Fury tried to explain but he knew it was hopeless. Stark was adamant on his weapons staying under his watch and there was almost no doubt in Fury's mind that the World Council will order Rhodes to at least steal schematics.
Tony seemed to be thinking this over before he nodded, much to everyone's shock. ''Alright, a trail run it is. I'll be out of the country tomorrow anyway, might as well deal with everything else now, too. My board of directors has been fussing over some things for over a month now, I guess I might as well solve the problem for them, the lazy assholes. I'll be on standby and the only armor that Colonel Rhodes will have access to will be the War Machine one, and he better not try anything because JARVIS has full clearance to eject him in mid flight if he tries to take my tech to the military science division or anywhere else for that matter. I'm giving you a week for this, so don't wreck my Tower too much.''
''Tony, this is bullshit and you know it!'' Clint said as he stood as well. ''There's only one leader of the Avengers and that's Iron Man, and Iron Man can only be Tony Stark.''
''Cap will be there as a medium between the army folks and you guys and SHIELD, I'm sure, can handle the PR, just don't blow New York up because only SI has a good enough PR department to deal with that.''
''Tony, you can't do this.'' It was, surprisingly enough, Natasha who protested. She stood up elegantly, a glare on her face but actual concern on her face. ''The Cabal is out there, with the Tesseract, looking for the new Herald of Galactus and we all know that when they can't get straight to what they want, they will do something else to aggravate us or further their plans. And the greatest possibility of that right now would be eliminating you. You know that the Red Skull is now more obsessed with you than he will ever again be with Steve. You're in danger. What if you don't have a suit nearby-''
''He'll have us, remember!'' Peter pipped up. ''We're going with him tomorrow.''
Before the redhead could subtly relax, Tony shook his head. ''This changes our plans. I'll be taking care of Tyberious Stone on my own. You guys will have a stiff, stuck up military man to please.''
''What!? No way are we letting you go without us!'' Long got up and glared at the slightly taller man. Tony crossed his arms and glared right back. ''Black Widow has a point. We have no idea what they are planing with the cube, nor why they want the Herald, but we know for sure that Skull won't hesitate to take the chance to take you our of the picture for good. Cutting the head and all that jazz.''
''Scott, until tomorrow morning, I am still the leader of this team, and as your leader, I am asking you to let this go. I'm not going to order it, I am asking it. Please don't make things any more complicated than they already are.''
''Then at least take someone with you!''
''JARVIS is always with me.'' The genius shot back and Sam had to repress an eye roll.
''He meant someone who can get you out of a possible sticky situation. JARVIS is great and all that, but he's still a program with no physical form. How's he to get you out of a prison that maybe doesn't have a computerized defense system? Or if Modok was the one who was keeping you prisoner.''
''JARVIS, make daddy proud.'' As soon as those words left Tony's mouth, all of the many Iron Man armors flew in, maneuvering with almost the same precision as Tony would. They all gawked at the sight as Tony explained. ''JARVIS helped me create these beauties and if anyone, besides myself, could steer them like a pro, it's J. If I get into a pinch, I know JARVIS, as my copilot, will be able to help me.''
''You rally thought of all possible scenarios before agreeing to this, haven't you.'' Scott will never case to be amazed with the speed of this man's thoughts. A computer wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Well, JARVIS would, but no other computer could, he was sure.
''If I'm going to be away and leave you in the care of someone who knows nothing about you, I might as well be prepared to be needed for saving you in three days time.'' Tony shrugged and Thor frowned.
''You think we couldn't last without you for an entire week?'' The blond god challenged and Tony rolled his eyes.
''You could, but there's always the off chance that you might need me. I'm sure that between Scott, Peter and Sam you'll have enough genius and with Clint enough sarcasm to last you the time I won't be around but what about tech support. I guess SHIELD could cover that. On second thought, I'll finish all of your weapons upgrades tonight, that should last you the week...'' And with that, Tony walked off, leaving Fury in a room full of pissed Avengers.
Shit.