Chapter 12
"What the hell are you doing back here?," Carol growled at the Kree.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Yon-Rogg smugly grinned, looking down at his former ally, "Lovely outfit by the way."
Carol was fighting the urge to knock the manipulative bastard straight into space. This was a man she once thought of as an ally, a friend, but when she discovered the truth...The only reason she didn't turn him into a burning pile of paste was so that he could deliver a message to the Kree Empire that she was coming for them.
"I'm not going to ask again," Carol stepped closer to the man, her eyes beginning to glow gold.
Yon-Rogg let out a chuckle, "I must say, I'm impressed, Vers. All the work you've done throughout the galaxy, defeating the mad Titan."
"My name. Is. Carol," Danvers snarled, gritting her teeth.
"Hm. You really have changed, haven't you?," Yon-Rogg noted, "Well if you must know, I'm merely here as a tourist. Enjoying some time off, I believe is the phrase."
"Bull. Spill it. I know you and your men attacked New York and I know you're doing something here in D.C.," Carol glared at the alien, "What the hell do you want with Earth?"
Yon-Rogg grinned, a part of him enjoying the woman's anger, "Years ago, I came to this planet, thinking that it was merely some useless ball of mud. I mean, humans could barely keep peace amongst themselves, so what hope could they have of being a threat to us. But of course, we discovered that for once, we were wrong."
"Thanos," Carol muttered, understanding what the bastard was talking about.
"A gaggle of primates manage to kill the scourge of the universe, the one who destroyed half of all life, and you thought we wouldn't notice?", Yon-Rogg inquired, "This planet was already on our radar after our...confrontation decades ago, but now, the Terrans have placed themselves high on our list."
Carol scoffed, "So what, you come back thinking you can just wipe this place off the map? You couldn't beat us the first time and you had Ronan for help. What makes you think you can do anything?"
A sinister smile crept across Yon-Rogg's eyes as he placed a hand on Carol's shoulders. She desperately wanted to rip this man apart, but she couldn't risk hurting the people surrounding her.
"You should know by now, my dear," the alien grinned, "A Kree never comes alone."
Before the blonde could say anything, she heard the voice of a teenage boy on her comms, "Uh, guys! We've got a problem!"
She turned to where she last saw Peter run off to, her heart sinking.
"Oh, has something happened to that child you were speaking with?," Yon-Rogg asked as though he were innocent.
Carol faced the Kree, her hands lighting up, "You son of a-"
Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the building, a few of the windows shattering and the ground shaking as though there was an earthquake. The civilians began to panic, slowly inching for the exits before something crashed through the walls.
Carol looked up to see a green creature burst through the walls while riding on top of a glider, green smoke being emitted from the machines engines. It wore a purple hood over its head, pointy green ears protruding from its sides. Its eyes gleamed gold, almost demonic, as its gleaming, dagger-like teeth smiled down.
The creature cackled as it pulled out round, orange bombs.
"Bombs away," the creature sneered. The way its mouth moved was almost like an animatronic, as in the thing's lips didn't move as it spoke. Instead, the jaw merely dropped as its words came out.
It threw down the weapons and as they flew towards the crowd, they lit up on fire, green lines appearing on them. They struck the floor, causing the screaming citizens to dash for the exits.
"Come on now! Where are you going?," the monster grinned, "Party's just getting started!"
It began to chuck more bombs at the people below him, but before they could strike, Carol quickly threw a few balls of cosmic energy at them, causing them to explode mid-air instead.
She turned her attention to Yon-Rogg, who was no longer there.
"Dammit!," she snarled as she lit up her body, her suit burning off of her to reveal her red and blue uniform.
"Ah ah ah," the green monstrosity waved a finger at her, "Black tie only, sweetie."
"What the hell are you supposed to be?" Danvers asked, not recognizing what this thing was.
"By the time we're done," it whipped out some more bombs and set them to explode, "Your new rulers."
Before he could toss them down at her, a strand of webbing hit its arm. The creature turned to see the Spider-Man himself on the scene. Peter climbed through the hole left by the monster, his suit ripped up to reveal his Spider-Man uniform. He tugged his mask down to cover his face and pulled on the web.
"INCOMING!," Peter shouted as he pulled back on the strand and flew forward towards the monster.
The thing quickly descended right before Peter could kick it in the face. As it flew down, it released the bombs it was holding. Luckily, before they hit the ground, Peter shot a strand at the thing's glider and another to grab all the orange bombs.
He swung through the air like a pendulum before flying up and smacking the creature with the web carrying the bombs in it, causing a ball of fire to erupt in the creatures face.
It fell off of its glider, landing on the ground with a hard thud. The claws on its feet sunk into the ground as it looked up at the webhead standing on top of its flying craft.
"Wow, this is some really cool tech you've got here, man! After we take you in, we are so talking science! Right, Captain Carol!"
The boy looked for his teammate, but found that the building was now empty except for him and the green thing, "Captain Carol? You there?"
Suddenly, the glider flew towards its owner, carrying Peter along with it. The teen screamed as the creature jumped up and kicked Parker in the face as the craft flew by it.
The two began to duel, the creature flashing its sharp claws at the boy to intimidate him. It was acrobatic, its movements almost as smooth as Peter's. Each time Peter tried to throw a punch, it narrowly missed the thing.
Between punches, Peter tried to speak with the thing, "So, uh, what do I call you?! I mean, you seem like a weird kind of dude! Uh, Mister Green, maybe? Or Goblin-Man!"
The boy gasped, an idea popping in his head, "What about Green Goblin? What do you think?"
His only response was a swift kick to the chest, knocking him into one of the holographic displays Oscorp was presented.
He coughed, staggering back up, "Not a fan, huh? Well...Green Goblin it is!"
Before he could jump back up, he saw the glider fly towards him. On instinct, Spider-Man hopped into the air and narrowly missed it. What he did miss however was the Goblin grabbing Peter's skull and slamming him into the ground.
"Insolent boy," it growled, its mechanized mouth beginning to form a frown, "I will enjoy enslaving your race."
"I can't tell if that's xenophobic or arachnophobic," Peter quipped.
"Ah, a jokester," the thing's smile returned, "I love killed those the most."
As it raised a claw to strike the child, a glowing red whip wrapped around the Goblin's wrist. It looked up before being swiftly dragged up through the roof.
The Goblin's grin widened as before he floated Doctor Strange and Falcon, both ready for a fight.
"And what do we have here?," it asked, "A bird and a street performer?"
"We'll be asking the questions here," Sam stared at the Goblin, "What the hell are you supposed to be?"
"Oh, just another wheel in the war machine, I suppose," the villain shrugged.
"Funny you should say that," said a voice from behind. The Goblin turned to see Rhodey crash down and pull out his massive baton, smacking the green monstrosity in the back.
"Gonna ask again before my big, grey friend over here punts you back to Middle Earth," Sam joked, "What are you?"
The creature groaned, "You Terrans will bow to the Kree Empire! You shall know our power and fall on your knees!"
"A soldier, huh?," Strange squinted his eyes at the being, "Tell me, what are your masters planning? What is your mission?"
"My mission?" the thing laughed at the doctor, "To raise a little hell."
The second it said that, the Goblin's glider crashed through the roof, the green soldier grabbing onto it the moment it arrived. He hovered above the heroes before tossing down as many flaming bombs as possible.
Strange summoned glowing shields to cover them from harm as the Goblin flew off, cackling as he did so.
Sam grunted, "Dammit!"
He began to start up his wings before he heard the sound of a gun click.
"Ah shit," Rhodey sighed as he turned to see a trio of Kree soldiers pointing their guns at him and the doctor.
"Got any bright ideas?" Strange sighed before summoning two shields to dual-wield.
"I'm open for suggestions," Rhodey replied as he pointed his armor's cannons at his opponents.
Before the aliens could charge, Peter jumped in and fired at the soldiers, webbing them so that they stuck to the roof.
"Whoa, you guys okay?" the kid asked, concerned.
"We're fine," Strange replied before tilting his head in confusion, "Are...Why are you wearing a tux?"
Peter's eyes widened as he realized his torn up tuxedo was still covering his body, "Uh, well, you know, I was just modifying my suit when I thought, 'Hey, a tux would be a cool additi-"
He stopped as he saw the disapproving and dumbfounded looks on his teammates' faces, with clearly none of them believing him.
"Please tell me you didn't ditch the mission for a damn party!" Sam shouted, clearly angry with the bug-themed hero.
Before Peter could get chewed out, the sounds of explosions caught the group's attention. Smoke rose from downtown as Sam flew off to deal with it.
"Sam, wait!", Rhodey shouted before a voice appeared on comms.
"Hello? Anyone there?," Lang's voice yelled, "We need backup down at the harbor! We found something big!"
The two adults turned to Peter as the teen could only stand there in shame.
"We're on our way," Rhodey replied before flying off to the docks.
Using his Sling-Ring, Strange opened a portal and began to walk through.
"Oh, hey, wait up!" Peter said as he tried to chase after the doctor. However, once Stephen walked in, the portal closed right up, forcing the boy to swing to where the action was.
"Aw, man," Peter sighed, ripping off what was left of his tux and hopping off the building.
…
The doctor stepped out of the amber gateway onto the roof of a storage facility facing the tranquil harbor of D.C. Next to him were Valkyrie, Scott, Hope, and T'Challa, all huddled together and looking down.
"What's up?," the sorcerer asked the Wakandan.
He peered down to see a group of men throwing what looked like cargo into the water.
War Machine arrived and slowly hovered down to get a look as well, "Well, that's a good way of wasting supplies."
"Hang on," T'Challa held a finger to his helmet, scanning the docks, "Thermal scanners are picking up something down below."
Through the tech in his suit, T'Challa was able to see something down underneath the boardwalk.
"There's a ship docked below," he explained, "Three men inside, bringing in the cargo."
"Then we have to stop them," Hope said, "Scott and I can go in and take them down."
"Easy as pie," Scott smirked.
"In the meantime, I can infiltrate the storage building and attack from within," the king noted.
"Alright," Rhodey nodded, "Get as much info as you can from these guys and remember, stay stealthy and stay qui-"
Before he could even finish that sentence, he saw someone running down the docks towards the Kree soldiers. A man with brown hair and weird-looking eyes.
One of the soldiers looked over, "Commander Yon-Rogg?"
"Evacuate the area, leave no trace behind," Yon-Rogg panted, a look of concern on his face.
"Sir?"
"She's on her way right now," Yon-Rogg couldn't help but smile.
"She?" Strange raised an eyebrow in confusion as the commander rushed into the building.
Suddenly, a burst of cosmic energy crashed onto the boardwalk, the smoke clearing to reveal an enraged Captain Danvers.
"ROGG!," she shouted as she began to charge towards the building. Her presence alerted the Kree troops to attack as they jumped out of whatever ship they were hiding under the docks and rushed in from within the building.
"Welp, there goes that," Strange shrugged.
Rhodey screamed at the sky before turning his attention to the fight below, "Come on! Let's go!"
The team revealed themselves to the soldiers began to fight off the invaders. However, the group barely had a plan for this so they had zero coordination. Most of them were just doing their own thing with no regard for what their teammates were doing.
Carol blasted through the soldiers with zero focus. Only a building rage. Rhodey tried using his armor to its full potential, but Scott and Hope kept blocking him from shooting down their targets. T'Challa tried to charge for the ship, but his teammates kept throwing bodies in his way.
Once she saw an opening, Carol launched herself into the building, ready to take out Yon-Rogg. She crashed through its walls and ended up on the other side of the building. She scoped the area and saw the Kree darting over buildings to escape the area.
Before Yon-Rogg could escape, a blast of energy stopped him in his tracks, knocking him to the ground. He looked up to see an enraged Carol slowly walk towards him.
…
"HAHAHAHAHA!," the Goblin laughed as it flew over the streets, "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, BIRD-BRAIN!"
Falcon growled as he fired his guns at the flying menace, hoping to hit at least one of the engines on the glider. Each time he fired, the Goblin merely swerved and dodged a bullet. The green smoke began to get in Falcon's eyes as he struggled to keep balance.
The two glided above the traffic, cars, and trucks nearly hitting them, as the Goblin merely laughed.
"That the best you can do, CAP?!," the thing cackled.
"AAARGH!", Sam could only yell out in frustration.
Finally, the Goblin skidded to a halt mid-air and pulled out more round, orange bombs, a malicious look in its yellow eyes, "Here! How about a game of catch?!"
"SHIT!," Sam yelled as he tried to stop his flight.
The thing threw three bombs at the hero, all lighting up and preparing to detonate. Sam could only stare and pray that it would be quick.
Thankfully, someone came to the rescue.
Before the bombs could hit Sam and lead him to a fiery end, they froze in mid-air, a red mist encircling them. With one swift motion, the bombs were thrown into the sky, as far away from any of the surrounding buildings.
"What's this now?," the Goblin spoke.
Wilson looked up to see Wanda Maximoff slowly hover down, her eyes and fingers lighting up with red energy. She wore a black scarf around her neck, complimenting her classic red trench coat.
She turned to Sam, who had a huge smile on his face as he slowly landed on the rooftop of a nearby building.
"So, I'm assuming he's the bad guy," Wanda looked at her friend.
"What gave it away?," Goblin chuckled.
By pointing her glowing hands at the creature, Wanda wrapped red energy around the Goblin and began to choke him, his armor crumbling under the pressure.
She slowly hovered towards the thing, reaching her fingers towards its mask, "Now, let's see what is in that odd head of yours."
As she placed her digits on the Goblin's face, she tried to reach into its mind. However, something went wrong.
"ARGH!," she screamed as she arched back in pain. She was pushed back some odd force and almost crashed into Sam.
"Wanda, you alright?" he asked, concerned.
"I'm fine," she gasped, grabbing at her head, "There's something...blocking his mind. Something powerful."
As the mutant tried to regain her senses, she forgot the one thing that kept her powers from breaking: concentration.
"Well, this has been fun," the Goblin stretched its arms, now free from Maximoff's telekinetic chains, "But I must be off. Toodles!"
It fired another bomb at the two before darting away. Before it could hit, Wanda once again stopped it and redirected it away, allowing it to explode harmlessly in the air.
"Damn!," Sam cursed before placing a finger to his earpiece, "Guys, I have a visual on the green guy!"
"WILSON, GET THE HELL OVER THE DOCKS NOW!," Rhodes called out, "Danvers gone off on her own, the kid's missing, and we're having some trouble here!"
"Alright, we're on our way," Sam nodded before turning to the Scarlet Witch, "Head over to the harbor. The rest of the team needs us."
"What about you?" she asked.
"I'll meet up with you there! Just go!"
Wanda nodded before flying off to provide aid. Sam watched her fly away, thankful that she came to his rescue. He looked down to his suit in a wreck, barely holding together.
He placed his hand on his earpiece once more, "Strange, this is gonna sound weird, but I need a portal to Brooklyn."
...
"Funny. You were never to type to run from a fight," Carol noted.
He bitterly laughed, "True, but unlike you, I know my limits."
Carol lit up her fists, grabbing the man by the throat, "I'm not going to let you hurt anymore of the people I care about."
"Oh, Vers," despite being choked, Yon's grin only widened, "It's cute how you think you can stop what's coming."
"Yeah, well," she tightened her grip on the manipulative bastard, "You're not the biggest fish I've had to fry."
Before she could knock him into oblivion, a web hit Yon-Rogg's back and pulled him into Spider-Man's grip.
"So, I'm guessing you know each other," Peter looked back and forth at the two intergalactic warriors before Yon aimed a pistol at Pete's head.
"WHOA, THAT'S A GUN!," Peter panicked, nervously shouting the obvious.
Before Yon could fire, Carol threw a blast of energy at him, blasting him off of the roof and causing him to fall through the air, down to the streets.
"I GOT HIM!," Peter called out as he shot a web-strand at the alien's back and shoulders, "Whoo! That was a close one!"
"Kid, what are you doing here?" Carol asked, stunned that the kid showed up.
"I saw you going after the guy and you ran after him at the party, so I figured he had to be really important and, well," Peter stammered in a rushed tone, "I figured you needed the back-up to-"
"Kid, you gotta go now," Carol sternly told him. She finally had some time alone to get some well-deserved payback and the kid's presence was stopping her from doing that.
"Yeah, you're right. Weird dude over here's down, but we gotta go help the others!"Peter said, grabbing the woman's arm, "Come on!"
"Peter, I-"
The two turned at the sound of cackling as something zoomed forward and grabbed Peter by the throat, taking him into the sky.
"PETER!," Carol yelled out before a large bright light shone from the sky. She watched as, in the blink of an eye, a large airship hovering above her beamed Yon-Rogg up.
"NO!," she shouted as a loud explosion directed her attention to the docks. She looked back and forth between the harbor and the ship, trying to decide what she needed to do.
"DANVERS, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!," Valkyrie shouted on the comms, "KIND OF COULD USE A HAND HERE!"
"Dammit," Carol muttered, "The kid's in trouble! That green soldier thing's got him!"
"Peter's in trouble?," Strange asked, sounding worried, "Alright, hang on. I'll get him. You take care of the soldiers."
Carol nodded and flew towards the harbor, hoping that the kid had things under control.
…
"WHY DON'T I HAVE THIS UNDER CONTROL?!," Peter shouted as he gripped onto the flying maniac, slamming his fists into its face to loosen its grip.
At one point, Peter was able to punch it so hard in the face that its yellow, glass eye broke from the impact.
Peter kicked the thing's chest and flung back, shooting strands from both his hands to act as a human slingshot. He shot forward, but the thing dodged the attack.
As he flew past the thing, he grabbed onto a smoke pillar and swung himself back, extending his arms to reveal webbing underneath it.
"You're not the only one here who can glide!," Peter shouted at the Goblin.
The Goblin grinned, "You seem like a nice lad, Parker. Be a shame to tear you into ribbons."
The Goblin ducked and sliced at Peter's underarm webbing, rendering Peter wingless. He then grabbed the boy by the arms and held on tightly, crushing the boy's web-shooters. Peter tried to fight back, but the soldier threw him off of the glider, letting him plummet to the street below.
Peter screamed, his Peter Tingle going off the charts as he tried to come up with a solution, "ShitshitshitshitAAAAAHHHH!"
He shut his eyes, preferring not to look at the world below him. However, instead of landing on the road, he landed in a pair of large, metal arms.
Peter slowly opened his eyes to see his savior. His jaw dropped as he looked up, his throat closing up a little.
"Should probably be more careful, kid," Peter's hero said.
Peter stuttered, "I...I…"
"PETER!"
The boy looked up to see a worried Strange looking down, preparing to hop off the roof and float down. However, the man who saved Peter merely flew up and handed the boy off to the sorcerer.
"Easy, Merlin, your friendly neighborhood do-gooder's all right," the man joked, "Now, off to save your team's asses.
He flew off as the two heroes could only watch in awe. Peter was the one who first broke the silence.
"Tony?"
…
"WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!," Scott yelled as he tried to knock as many of the soldiers down.
The team was barely able to hold them off, each one being a struggle to handle. Something about the soldiers was off. They were noticeably bulkier than the typical Kree soldier. More durable, more agile. Carol couldn't help but notice this as she landed and joined the fight.
As she faced off against one of the extraterrestrials, another almost got her from behind. Emphasis on almost.
Before the Kree could strike, Wanda Maximoff arrived on the scene and threw him into the ocean with her telekinesis, smiling devilishly as she did so.
Carol turned, amazed, "Nice of you drop by."
"So, this is the new Avengers, huh?," the Sokovian looked around before rejoining the fight.
"Eh, it's a work in progress," Danvers shrugged.
"What the hell took you so long?!," Hope shouted as she jumped from soldier to soldier.
"Something came up," the intergalactic warrior replied.
"Like what?!"
Carol looked up and groaned, "LIKE THAT!"
The heroes turned to see a giant ship emerge from the water, its cannons facing the heroes.
"TAKE COVER!," Rhodey yelled out.
"SCOTT, GET DOWN!," Hope cried out as she grabbed her boyfriend and shrunk down with him.
Both the heroes and the Kree warriors tried to escape as the ship fired everything it had on them. Green blasts of energy demolished the building as the boardwalk was set ablaze.
T'Challa and Scott jumped behind a giant crate for cover as they peeked out to see what was happening. The king squinted his eyes and realized that the soldiers were making a getaway to the spacecraft.
"They're escaping," he shouted, "Come on!"
He jumped over the box and chased after them while Scott called out to him, "Wait! Cat Dude! What're you doing?!"
The king charged after the soldiers, Carol following behind him, "Your majesty, you might want to get out of the way!"
As T'Challa dashed for the spacecraft, his suit lit up, purple lines covering his black vibranium uniform. As he leaped towards the spaceship, T'Challa lifted his arms up, preparing to slam his fists into the thing.
Carol was doing something similar, lighting up her fists and preparing to punch straight through the craft.
However, right before either could reach the ship, a random bomb flew right at T'Challa and blew him away, causing him to crash right into Carol. Then, things got worse.
The force of the explosion was so strong that it caused T'Challa, a man wearing a fully-charged vibranium suit, to crash into Carol, a woman imbued with large amounts of cosmic energy.
The resulting collision created a massive burst of energy, blowing everyone away. The heroes flew across the boardwalk and crashed down, all of them shocked by the resulting explosion. Carol and T'Challa both fell to the ground, as knocked out as the other heroes.
The Kree ship staggered, but was still functional, slowly getting back on-course to escape.
From above the boardwalk, laughter was heard, "Oh, I love a good fireworks display!"
The Goblin cackled, "My, my. You really think you have what it takes for this? You humans have no idea what's coming!"
As he continued to laugh, something slammed right into his face, almost knocking him right off of his glider, "WHAT THE-?"
He looked down to see something red, white, and blue. Something round. A shield.
Suddenly, a red energy pulled it away, returning the shield to the man who threw it.
Sam Wilson stood before the Goblin, wearing a patriotic-themed uniform with a bright white star on the front. He grinned as he held the shield up high.
"Oh, I think I've got an idea," Sam grinned, "A major ass-whooping."
The ex-soldier charged and began to fight the thing off, slamming his shield across the thing's face. The thing sliced at the shield, but couldn't even leave a scratch on it. Sam slammed the shield under the Goblin's chin and began to gain the upper hand.
However, that all changed when the thing grabbed Wilson's shield before it could hit the glider's engines, "All right. My turn."
The Goblin's fingers lit up before beams of burning green energy shot out of them. Sam yelped as it hit almost hit his chest. He jumped around, trying to dodge them, before they shot him point-blank, causing him to fly off and crash into the ground.
He groaned and tried to charge at the Goblin again, but another orange bomb slammed right into his shield, causing him to fly back and crash into the side of what was left of the storage facility.
Sam's vision was blurry, his goggles cracked. All he could see now was a nightmarish, shadowy figure with a flaming bomb its hand.
"Night, night, little falcon," the thing giggled before preparing to chuck the bomb.
*BLAM!*
Sam shot up in surprise as a figure appeared, firing small missiles and bombs at the Goblin. Instantly, the thing's demeanor changed from glee to horror, as it quickly changed tactics from attack to retreat.
"Well, you look lost," the figure chuckled, "Vulcan's that way, buddy."
"No. No, they said you were dead!" the thing whimpered.
"Yeah, well, people are liars. Rule 101 of life," the figure joked as it began to shoot at the creature.
The thing flew off into the night, setting its engines to its highest power, as the figure chased after it. The spacecraft followed right after, almost evading the scene. However, with one wave of his hand, a blast of light took the ship down, causing it to crash into the ocean in a ball of fire.
Sam staggered up in amazement, wondering if he knocked his head harder than he thought. The other heroes slowly arose as well.
Rhodey slowly rose up, "What...in the HELL was THAT?!"
"Anyone else hear ringing? Is that just me?!," Scott cried out, his vision blurry and his hearing even worse.
T'Challa got off the ground and turned to Carol, "That was...unexpected."
"Uh, how are we not dead yet?" Carol asked, confused.
Sam gulped, "Well, I'm not too sure we aren't."
"What makes you say that?" Rhodes asked.
"Guys", Sam coughed, "I think Iron Man just saved our lives."
A deathly silence consumed the group, the mere mention of the lost hero shocking them. They watched Tony die. They saw his burning body sink to the ground, hell, Rhodey himself was right next to him when it happened.
Speaking of Rhodey, the colonel walked towards Wilson, a serious look on his face, "What the hell are you talking about, Wilson?"
"Unless Pepper upgraded...a dude in an Iron Man suit just saved our lives," the Falcon answered.
"That's not possible, right?" Scott asked, "I mean, it couldn't have been Stark. There's no way."
"I've seen people who were supposed to be dead come back before," Sam sighed, "Hell, half of us are people who came back from the beyond."
"That's different, Sam," Rhodes began to raise his voice, "There is no way that was Tony. It...It couldn't-"
"Guys! I don't know how to tell you this, but something crazy just happened!"
The crew turned to see Peter and Strange, a look of shock on both of their faces.
"So, I was fighting that weird Goblin dude, right? When suddenly, it began wailing down at me! And, I mean, I got a few shots in and-"
Strange's cloak suddenly wrapped around the boy's mouth, silencing him.
Stephen shook his head in amazement, "As...incredible as it sounds, we were saved by a man in an Iron Man suit."
With all his strength, Parker tugged the cloak down, "It had to have been Mr. Stark! There's no way it could've been anyone else!"
"Peter, please," Rhodes held up his hand, trying to get everyone to be quiet. There was no way his best friend, a man he knew for years, a man he watched die...As much as Rhodey wanted it to be true, Tony was gone. He was gone and there was no way to bring him back.
"You should listen to your elders, kid."
The team turned to see their savior hovering in front of them. He wore bright red and blue armor from head to toe, his faceplate painted a shiny silver. On his chest was a bright arc reactor shaped almost like a star.
He finally landed on the ground and walked forward, "Believe me when I say I am not Tony Stark. Though, if I were, that would be one sweet office of his I'd like to get."
"Who the hell are you?" Sam asked, raising his shield up defensively.
The man in the armor sighed as his helmet retracted back into the suit.
"My name is Norman Osborn and I'm here to save the world."