Alright, everybody. Back with another chapter.
I am blown away by the response this story has already received. I did not expect it to be this popular, but I am glad you all are liking it. I thank you all for being so interested in this series.
This chapter is going to set up Barry's return to Earth-99. I hope you like it. Also, quick FYI. In this, HR has left the team to pursue a career as an author, and Sherloque has taken his place on the team. Most of Season 5 went the way it did (excluding Nora coming back, since she didn't in this universe), including future Grace coming back in time as the new Cicada.
Guest: I have not kept up with Agents of SHIELD, so I do not have plans to include anybody from that show in this series. I may very well pair up Oliver with Natasha, but that's still up in the air. I will include more franchises, like the X-Men and Fantastic Four, in this series.
HeroWitch: Supergirl will come to Earth-1 very soon. I will say no more than that.
Watson Smith: It is not Star Lord's mask. It's just a mask from Sakaar that was on the Statesman.
toscanofrancsico01: You'll find out soon enough.
GreenHal37: For the story's sake, just imagine that the Oliver tried to dodge the blow, but wasn't able to stop it from breaking his bow, though it didn't kill him. As for my Cris on Earth-X story, I'm not sure of the title yet. It won't just be "Crisis on Earth-X", though. I will say that.
Chapter 2- The War Begins
Tony sits back against the wall of the Sanctum Sanctorum, having just heard Wong finish explaining the Infinity Stones. He looks up at Bruce and asks, "Tell me his name again."
"Thanos," Bruce says, his fear evident in his voice, "He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes what he wants, he wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York, that was him."
"This is it," Tony whispers to himself. He then looms up and asks, "What's our timeline?"
"No telling. He already has the Power and Space Stones. That already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six Stones, Tony…" Bruce says.
"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of. And there's no guarantee it would be confined to this universe alone," Dr. Strange finishes.
Tony looks right at Dr. Strange. "You know about the multiverse," he says blankly.
"Yes. I've visited other Earths. And if Thanos uses the Stones, there is no guarantee our universe would be the only one affected," Dr. Strange says.
Tony is quiet for a moment, then gestures to the Eye of Agamotto. "If Thanos needs all six, why don't we send this one to another Earth, then?" he asks. He specifically means Earth-1, but knows Barry would not take kindly to him showing up there.
"Thanos has the Space Stone. He would just track the Stone down and travel to that Earth," Bruce explains.
"We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives," Wong says firmly.
"And I swore off dairy. But then, Ben and Jerry's named a flavor after me," Tony says sarcastically.
"Stark Raving Hazelnuts. A bit chalky," Strange says. Tony looks at him like he's a bit offended.
"A Hunk of Hulk of Burning Fudge is our favorite," Wong adds.
"That's a thing?" Bruce asks in confusion.
"The point is, things change," Tony says.
"Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. And this Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos," Strange says.
"Yeah, so conversely, it may also be his best chance against us," Tony shoots back.
"Well, if we don't do our jobs," Strange replies.
"What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?" Tony asks.
Strange smirks before saying, "Protecting your reality, douchebag."
Tony glares at Strange as Bruce says, "Alright, guys. Can we table this discussion right now? The fact is that we have this stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone. And we have to find him now."
"Yeah, that's the thing," Tony mutters, drawing a "Huh?" from Bruce. Tony looks at Bruce and says, "A few days ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline."
"What? Tony, you've lost another super bot?" Bruce asks in exasperation.
"I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving," Tony protests.
"Who could find Vision, then?" Strange asks.
Tony looks off into the distance and curses before saying, "Probably Steve Rogers. Or Barry Allen. Maybe," he says. Dr. Strange curses himself.
"Who's Barry Allen?" Bruce asks.
"Forgot you missed that. During the battle in Sokovia, a speedster showed up out of nowhere. Said his name was Barry Allen, aka the Flash. He said he was from another Earth in the multiverse, Earth-1. He joined the team for a while," Tony sums up.
Bruce looks stunned. "Earth-1? There was a man from Earth-1 with me and Thor. His name was Oliver Queen. Called himself the Green Arrow," he says.
Tony looks at Bruce in surprise, remembering Barry mention an Oliver Queen once. However, he shakes that off and says, "Well, I can't call Allen anyway. He's back on Earth-1. I don't know how to contact another Earth."
"Well, call Steve," Bruce says.
"It's not that simple. ***, you've really missed a lot. The Avengers broke up. We're toast," Tony says.
Bruce looks stunned. "Broke up? Like a band? Like the Beatles?" he asks.
"Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms. And that's why Allen left this Earth," Tony explains.
Bruce takes a step closer to Tony, looks him right in the eyes, then says, "Tony, listen to me. Thor and Queen are both gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."
Tony keeps looking at him for a moment, then finally gives in. He takes a few steps away, turns away from the others, and pulls out the flip phone that Steve sent him. He flips it open, grumbling about it being a flip phone, then searches for Steve's contact. He finds it, then pauses. He's about to hit the call button, when suddenly, he hears something. He turns around and sees the others looking confused. Tony looks right at Strange, and sees some of his hair blowing a bit as if in a slight breeze.
"Say, doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair now, would you?" Tony asks.
"Not at the moment, no," Strange says.
Suddenly, the sound of wind grows louder. Looking up at the hole in the roof that Bruce's arrival caused, they see some rubble being blown around. The four turn towards the door, and can see and hear people running past the door in fear. After a moment, Tony starts walking towards the door to find out what's going on.
(After the battle)
Bruce scans the street, which has been completely wrecked by the fight against the two aliens. He glances down, and sees the flip phone Tony had earlier. He reaches down and picks it up as he hears a portal opening. He turns to see Wong walking through a portal.
"Where are you going?" he asks.
Wong turns back to face him and says, "The Time Stone's been taken. The Sanctum remains unguarded. What will you do?"
Bruce looks down at the phone, then back at Wong as he says, "I'm gonna make a call." Wong nods before he closes the portal.
Bruce looks down at the phone, then flips it open. The screen is still on Steve's contact. He quickly presses the call button and holds the phone up to his ear.
A few rings later, he hears the other end pick up, and then hears, "Tony."
"Cap. It's Bruce," Bruce responds.
"Bruce? You're back?" Steve replies.
"Yeah. And we're in trouble. Bottom line, Tony just got taken by aliens, and they serve this guy named Thanos. He's after these items called the Infinity Stones, and Vision has one of them. We need to find Vision and protect him, because if Thanos can get all the Infinity Stones, he can wipe out half of all life in the universe," Bruce explains.
"Alright. We'll get on it. We'll meet you at the Avengers Facility in New York," Steve says before he hangs up.
Bruce lowers the phone, then looks around, wondering how he's gonna find the Facility.
(Unknown location)
Steve lowers the phone, then walks into the other room, where Sam and Natasha are waiting for him.
"Alright. We have a new mission. We need to find Vision. He's apparently being targeted by aliens who want his stone," Steve says.
"Just the three of us?" Sam asks.
"Well, we are all we've got," Natasha points out.
"Not necessarily," Steve says. Natasha and Sam both look at him, a bit confused. Steve smiles as he pulls out the extrapolator Cisco gave him and holds it up where they can see. "I think it's high time the Scarlet Speedster came back to this Earth," he says.
Now, Natasha and Sam smile, knowing what he means. "I'll go," Sam says, feeling very excited about the possibility of seeing Barry again.
(Earth-1)
Barry groans as he's thrown back against a car. After the future Cicada showed up at the precinct, he, Caitlin and Clint had all attacked her to try and stop her from killing the metahumans that had come for protection. Unfortunately, she was an even more difficult opponent than anticipated.
A breach open next to them, and Cisco jumps through. He fires a Vibe blast at Cicada, but she easily dodges it.
Cicada faces Cisco, her dagger in hand. She's about to throw it when another breach suddenly opens overhead.
Everyone looks up in surprise, especially Team Flash, as they knew Cisco didn't open it. Is it Gypsy? Barry wonders.
Suddenly, a man flies through the breach. Although onlookers, Cicada, and Caitlin don't recognize the man wearing mechanical wings, Barry, Cisco, and Clint do.
"Sam!" Barry says to himself with a big grin.
"Falcon!" Clint calls out.
Sam quickly circles around and flies in for a run on Cicada. He pulls out his pistols, while at the same time sending out Redwing, which splits into three segments that streak in Cicada from different direction. She tries to dodge/block them all, but a bullet catches her in the leg, and one of the three pieces of Redwing slices across her arm.
Cicada clutches at her arm in pain as three pieces of Redwing reassemble and fly back up to Sam. Cicada looks at him for a moment, then uses her dagger to take to the sky and fly away. Sam launches several small missiles at her, but she is able to deflect them or explode them prematurely. And soon enough, she disappears into the distance.
Sam swoops down and lands in front of Barry. He chuckles as he holds out a friendly hand to the speedster. "Well, Barry. Looks like as soon as I'm not around, all hell breaks loose," he says.
"Really, Sam?" he asks sarcastically. Sam laughs, and so does Barry before he reaches out and takes the offered hand.
As soon as he's on his feet, Barry throws his arms around Sam, laughing. "Oh, Sam. It's so good to see you again," he says.
"Good to see you too, buddy," Sam says with a laugh.
As the two separate, Clint walks up. "Hey, Sam," he says with a chuckle.
Sam smiles back. "Hey, Clint. Good to see you too," he says.
"Let's get back to STAR Labs. We need to talk," Barry says cheerfully.
"Yeah, we do," Sam says seriously.
Hearing the change in tone, Barry grows serious, nods, then turns to Cisco and says, "Cisco. Breach us to STAR Labs." Without question, Cisco opens a breach to STAR Labs.
Moments later, the rest of the team watches as Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and Clint walk through a breach into the Cortex. But, they're surprised when Sam follows them through.
"Barry, who is this?" Iris asks cautiously.
Barry's mask retracts, and with a big smile on his face, he says, "Everybody, this is Sam Wilson. Aka the Falcon. He's one of the Avengers, and back on Earth-99, was one of my best friends!"
Everyone looks at Sam for a few moments before Joe walks forward. "Welcome. It's a pleasure to meet you," Joe says.
"You too, Joe," Sam says. He then chuckles at the look of surprise and says, "Barry talked about you a lot. It wasn't hard to tell who you are." That brings a smile to Joe's face.
"Why have you come to this Earth?" Sherloque asks.
Sam grows serious and turns to look at Barry. "Barry, we've got a situation on Earth-99. There was an alien attack in New York. The aliens took Tony and a guy called Dr. Strange," Sam says.
Everyone looks stunned. "Dr. Strange?!" Barry asks in alarm.
"Yeah, you know him?" Sam asks in confusion.
"He came to our Earth a year ago. He's a friend," Barry explains.
Sam looks surprised, but continues on. "We got a call from Banner. He returned to Earth right before the attack, and was in New York when it happened. He called Steve with the phone Steve sent Tony, and said that more of these aliens are going after Vision, and apparently they want his Stone," he explains.
A chill runs down Barry's spine. During his brief return to Earth-1 after Ilan's defeat to talk to Barry, he had confirmed to Barry that Vision's stone was the Mind Stone. It's immediately clear to him that whoever these aliens are aren't just targeting Earth. They're targeting the Infinity Stones.
"Alright. I'll head back with you right away," Barry says.
"Barry, you can't leave! We need you here to stop Cicada!" Iris protests. In secret, she doesn't want to give Barry a chance to see Wanda again. Her attempts to move on from Barry had failed. With Barry having spent a little over 2 years on Earth-1, he had started to seem more at home, and Iris had begun to have hope that he would stay, and she would get him back after all.
"Call Wally. Call Jesse or Jay. H***, call Bucky and Team Arrow. They can come help you. This takes precedence. Dr. Strange and Vision are guardians of two of the Infinity Stones. And I'm sure you remember me telling you about them," Barry says.
Everyone freezes, instantly realizing the gravity of the situation. After a few moments, Joe says, "Go, Barry. They need you on Earth-99. Go. We'll make do here."
"And don't worry. I'll be staying," Clint says.
"Clint-" Barry starts to protest, thinking it would be good for him to go to.
But Clint quickly cuts him off. "No, kid. This team needs as much help as it can get, especially people who aren't metahumans. You'll be much more help to Steve than me. Just go, and I'll stay here. It'll be okay," he says.
Barry and Clint just look at each other for a moment, then Barry nods. He then turns to Sam and says, "Alright. Let's go."
Sam nods, then turns and uses the extrapolator to open a breach. Iris is about to protest again, not caring too much about keeping her true intentions hidden, but Barry races himself and Sam through the breach.
The team stares after them, wishing them well in their hearts, except Iris. She hopes desperately that somehow Barry and Wanda won't have to cross paths while he's over on Earth-99.
(Earth-99)
Steve and Natasha look to their right as a breach opens up. Then, there's a streak of lightning, and Barry and Sam are standing next to them.
"Barry!" Natasha cries as she gives him a hug. Barry is surprised for a second, then smiles and hugs Natasha back.
"Good to see you too, Natasha," Barry says.
They hug for another moment, then release each other and Barry turns to Steve. "Hey, Cap," he says.
"Barry," Steve says with a smile before giving him a hug.
Barry grins brightly, feeling very happy to be back with his friends of Earth-99. But, when he and Steve separate, he grows more serious. He looks right at Steve, then asks, "Alright. Sam told me the situation. How are we going to find Vision?"
"I have an idea. But first, do you want to go find your wife?" he says with a grin.
Barry freezes, it now hitting him that he can see Wanda again. He stands there for a few moments before he manages to push his emotions down. He takes a deep breath as he says, "No. I want to see her more than you can imagine. But first priority is Vision. If we don't find him soon, we're in a ton of trouble. Once we find Vision, then I'll go find her."
Steve nods, trying to keep a straight face, but inwardly feeling very proud of Barry. He knows that the Barry he first met in Sokovia would not have hesitated to go after Wanda. The Barry before him knows that sometimes things take priority over seeing family.
"Alright. Let's get to work. The sooner we find Vision, the sooner you can go see your wife," Steve says. Barry nods, then follows the team out of the building and onto the Quinjet, ready to go.
I'll end there.
I hope you liked this chapter. I skipped the battle in New York itself because I didn't change anything, so I felt I'd just cut it to save room in the chapter.
So, for those of you wondering, I decided to include the little thing with Iris not being over Barry because, let's be honest, she probably wouldn't be. And, obviously, her last wish as Barry went back to Earth-99 isn't going to come true. Barry will reunite with Wanda very soon.
I originally was going to post this tomorrow, after tonight's episode of the Flash comes out and I could use it for inspiration. Instead, I just wrote the fight against Cicada based off what I've seen from the trailers for the episode. All I will say on that side is that Cicada is not done with. Her final defeat is still pending.
I will post the next chapter soon. It's already almost done, so it should be up tomorrow or the day after. It'll be one I'm sure you're waiting for.
Alright. That's it. Please review and give me your feedback, and stay tuned for the next chapter.