Avenging Flash
Chapter Four: Comrade Returned.
(Hours later)
"Bring the carrier around to 180 heading south, take us to the water!" Nick ordered upon entering the bridge.
Cisco had said that Loki could have set the sceptre up to mess with their heads or damages the ship, but Nick had ignored the warning and let Bruce and Tony work near it anyway.
Now the hulk was roaming around in his ship, Cap and Iron Man were arguing while trying to fix engine one. And Thor was off who knows where trying to find Widow.
Not to mention Barton and a few others of Loki's underlings had attacked the Helicarrier and were now somehow on board, trying to bring it down.
"Sir we're flying blind, Navigation is recalibrating after the engine failure" A shield helmsman explained, trying manually override the computer. But it wasn't working.
"Is the sun coming up?" Nick asked.
"Yes sir." The man replied with a wince.
"Then get us over water, one more turbine goes and we drop."
~ - ~
"Stark, Stark I'm here!" Cap said, having helped a few shield agents evacuate the area before he headed outside to help bring the turbine back online.
"Great, open up those consoles up there and tell me if any look like they are going to overload." Tony told him, pointing at an undamaged walkway before he blasted open the armoured side of the turbine so he could enter the main area where the blades spin.
Doing an impressive jump, Steve landed on the walkway before pulling open the console Stark had pointed at. Only to see a large amount of glowing rods, motherboards and other lights he had never seen before.
"Well, what do you see?" Tony asked.
"It seems to run on some kind of electricity." Steve replied, unable to make sense of the high tech he was looking at. He was from the 1920s, not 3020s! How was he supposed to understand any of this!?
{Elsewhere}
Natasha breathed slowly, trying to calm herself as she hid from Banner's alter ego. Never had she known fear like this before. Sure she had been in world ending scenarios and against fearsome foes before, but never against a green rage monster hell bent on hunting and killing her!
She slowly got up from her spot, and turned her head, only to feel breath on the back of her neck.
She turned around, eyes wide, only to see the hulk grinning down at her. And so, she ran.
The highly trained woman dodged random objects that the hulk was throwing her way as she ran through the decontamination rooms, trying to head to the stairs so as to get to another deck and find another place to hide.
Unfortunately the Hulk was fast, and strong. He smashed through the decom rooms like they were paper and backhanded Widow across the chest, sending her flying into a metal support beam.
The hulk stalked forwards as Natasha lay there, raising his fist to Nash into her pulp-
Only for a Bolt of golden lightning to smack into him and phase through the wall, bringing the green giant with it.
Widow lay there, eager to catch her breath and rest for a bit. It was going to be a LONG day.
~ - ~
Hulk tripped over some debris and fell sideways into an f-18, breaking the fighter craft in half.
The golden lightning bolt came to a stop, revealing Barry.
"Hulk, we are not your enemy. Calm down and think. I don't want to hurt you!" the teenager said, body sparking with electricity.
Hulk merely growled, picking up the back half of the broken f-18 before flinging it at the Flash.
Barry vibrated on the spot, figuring that he could phase through the plane and grab the missiles before they hit the deck, that way no more damage would he caused. However before he could act, Mjolnir crashed through the broken half and slammed into the green giant, sending him to the floor.
"We are not your enemies banner, try to think!" Thor exclaimed.
"I literally just said that dude, keep up." Barry muttered.
~ - ~
"I want every Well bodied agent that isn't working on the rotors or keeping us in the air to head to the armoury and load up, we need to keep the Helicarrier secure." Nick ordered.
"Yes sir." Agent hill replied, walking from her station to the exit, so as to head to the armoury. However three armed soldiers in shield garb entered the room, as did something small and circular..
"GRENADE!" Hill called out, grabbing the nearest agent near her before tossing them over the railing to keep them safe.
The bomb detonated, sending hill over the same railing to land next to the agent she had saved.
Nick ran up to the first gunman and kicked out his legs, grabbing his gun before slamming it into the second guy's face, taking them both down.
As the third gunman raised his rifle to kill Nick, Hill fired her pistol from her position on the floor, killing the man before passing out herself.
{Hangar}
Barry and thor Continued to work together to to take down the hulk, relying on their instincts and skills.
However the more they hurt him, the angrier he got, increasing his strength.
"Allen, Stark needs some assistance at the rotor. Go help him, let thor handle the hulk." Nick ordered.
Barry growled, no way was he leaving thor on his own! "Fury, we couldn't take old big green with us working together. How is he going to take him out by himself-"
"Just go, have faith Flashy man." Thor smirked before jumping forwards, striking Hulk in the face and taking him out of the hangar and back onto the science deck.
Barry sighed. "Its just Flash..." He muttered before bolting outside.
~ - ~
"All relays are okay, I think."
"Good, now we wait on speedy Gonzales."
Two masked shield soldiers appeared beneath Steve, causing him to be confused. He hadn't asked for help.
It was only after one of them pulled out a grenade did he realise they were NOT shield agents.
Steve jumped through the air, kicking the grenade to the side where it exploded harmlessly in the air. He then flipped down, pulled the soldier by the arm and dropped him off the side of the Helicarrier, to his death.
Picking up the discarded rifle, Cap then opened fire on the second soldier, who was forced to take cover.
A split second later, that same soldier was knocked out cold by a Bolt of gold lightning. Said lightning bolt then ran up the side of the wall and across the turbine before coming to a stop on top of the rotor.
"I'm here Stark!" Barry greeted.
"Great, once I dislodge the broken parts I need you to Push the rotor in a circle as fast as you can, The mechanism is damaged and needs help coming back up to full velocity." Tony explained.
"Understood!" Barry replied with a thumbs up.
A few seconds later, the carrier went into a spin as the third turbine shut down due to Barton shooting a virus into the main computer using a USB arrow.
Barry grabbed a hold of the top of the turbine as his vision swam, not used to the thin air and high spin at the same time. "What now!"
"Run, kid run!"
Barry hopped down and ran in a circle, pushing the metal rotor with all his might, getting faster and faster with each lap he completed. Within no time, the turbine was back online.
So as to make sure Stark didn't get chewed up by the rotor, Barry grabbed him and flashed them to the hangar level, making sure to grab Steve as he did so.
~ - ~
"Where's thor?" Barry asked as he took off his cowl.
He had just helped Natasha strap Barton into a medical bed, making sure he was secure before joining the others on the bridge.
"Loki trapped him in the cage, he's fine but unable to catch up for the moment. Coulson died trying to help him." Hill informed the teenager.
"Crap..." Barry didn't know the agent that well, but he saw the man was kind and good at his job, it was going to be a big loss for shield.
Nick walked into the bridge and tossed a box of bloodied playing cards onto the table.
"These cards were in his jacket, guess he never did get you to sign them." The man said.
"We're dead in the air here, no communications, no idea where the cube is. Nothing. Banner, Thor... I got nothing for you." He added.
Nothing but silence followed him.
"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the tesseract. But I never put all my chips on that card though because I was going to bet something riskier. There was an idea. Stark knows this, Called the Avengers initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, so they could fight the battles we never could." The shield director sighed.
Nobody said a word.
"Phil Coulson died believing in that idea, in heroes." He added.
At that, Tony got up, unable to hear anymore. He didn't see himself as a hero, not really. And he couldn't deal with all this emotion. So he left.
"Hill, Project KR is a go. Inform Agent Danvers." Fury said once Stark had left.
~ - ~
"Clint, you're going to be alright." Natasha promised her friend.
"You know that, is that what you know?" Barton replied with a chuckle, his eyes flickering between their normal colour and the glassy blue of the sceptre's power.
After a few more seconds he took a deep breath before blinking away the glassy blue colour. "I...what's the window? How am I going to get this out." He asked, sounding exhausted.
"I don't know, you've just got to let it flush out on its own." Natasha replied.
"Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out, stuff something else in? Do You know what it's like to be unmade?" Clint muttered.
"You know that I do." Natasha replied softly.
"Why am I back, how did you get him out?" Barton asked.
"Cognitive recalibration." His friend replied, wiping his head down with a damp rag.
"Huh?" The archer questioned, not knowing the scientific words.
Natasha rolled her eyes. "I hit you in the head pretty hard-"
The doors opened, revealing a sheepish looking Barry Allen. "I know I'm probably not supposed to be here, but I just wanted to say that you're not alone. I know what it's like to not be yourself."
"Really?" Barton asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, I got whammied by this enemy of mine called Rainbow Rider. His ability is to manipulate a persons anger and aggression. Because of my speed the side effects took longer to show up, so I didnt believe I was affected. I put my friends in danger, severely injured a swat team and almost ended up killing a few cops. My friends thankfully managed to slow me down long enough to fix me, but If they hadn't...I would probably have destroyed the city before offing myself." The teenage speedster revealed.
"So yeah, just wanted to say that you don't have to feel alone or bad. Yeah...that's about it." Barry added, rubbing the back of his head before turning to leave. Feeling awkward.
"Hey kid." Barton called out, causing Barry go turn and look back at him. "Thanks." He said giving Barry a small smile.
Barry returned it before walking away, leaving Natasha and Clint alone.
~ - ~
"Where are we going?" Barry asked as he followed Steve onto the Quinjet.
"Manhattan. Stark tower." Natasha answered him, having joined them along with Barton.
"Ohhh, Im guessing the arc reactor is powering the portal device that Doctor Selvig created?" Barry theorised.
"How did you-?"
"All the puzzle pieces are there, I Just slot them together." Barry shrugged. He was a genius in his own right after all.
~ - ~
"Sir I turned off the Arc Reactor, but the device is already self sustaining." Jarvis informed Tony as the man rocketed through the New York streets towards his tower.
"Its alright J, I got this. Shut it down Doctor Selvig!" He told the scientist, coming to a stop above the man.
"Its too late, it can't stop now. He wants to show us something, a new universe.." The man said, smile wide and eyes glowing.
"Okay..." Iron man muttered before firing a repulsor blast at the tesseract. The force field absorbed the blast before sending it back towards the armoured hero, striking him in the torso.
"The barrier is pure energy, its unbreachable." Jarvis told him.
"Yeah I got that. Time for plan B." Tony sighed, lowering himself down so as to enter the tower.
"Sir the mark seven is not ready to be deployed." Jarvis stated.
"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock." Tony ordered, going up to the device that assembles his armour before letting it take off his suit.
"Don't tell me you intend to appeal to my humanity?" Loki assumed sarcastically.
"Uhh no, I actually planned to threaten you." Tony chuckled, walking down the stairs from his balcony and into the living room.
"You should have kept your armour on for that." Loki taunted him.
"Yeah, especially as it seems you got the glow stick of destiny." Tony joked, pointing at Loki's sceptre as he walked over to his bar.
"Would you like a drink?" he asked, holding up a small glass.
"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki frowned.
"No, no, no, not stalling, threatening. No drink you sure. Im having one." Tony asked, picking up a bottle of expensive liquor with a raised eyebrow.
"The chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What do I have to fear?" Loki asked, eyebrow raised as he wondered around the room. Stark was annoying but also entertaining, which was the only reason he hadn't killed him yet.
"The Avengers, its what we call ourselves, we are kind of a team. Earth's mightiest heroes. That sort of thing." Tony shrugged, taking a sip of his drink.
"Ah yes, I've met them." Loki reminded him with a sinister smirk. He'd met, outsmarted and embarrassed every single one of them.
"Yeah, took a while for any of us to get any traction I'll give you that. But let's get a headcount here, your brother the demigod. The super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breath taking anger management issues. A teenager who can run near the speed of light. A couple of master assassins. And you have managed to tick off every single one of them." Tony stated.
"That was the plan." Loki retorted.
"Not a great plan, you see when they come, and they will, they will come for you." Tony told him.
"I have an army." Loki glared, not enjoying the conversation anymore.
"We have a hulk." Tony smirked.
"Oh I thought the beast had wondered off."
"You're missing the point, there's no throne, no victory party, There is no version of this where you come out on top." Tony replied.
"Maybe your army comes, and maybe it's too much for us. But it's all on you, because if we can't protect the earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it." He added.
"How will your friends have time for me, when they'll be too busy fighting you." Loki grinned, tapping his sceptre against Tony's chest. Only for there to be a little metal clanging noise.
Loki tried again, only for the same result to happen.
"This usually works..." He muttered.
"Well performance issues are not uncommon, one out of five-" Tony tried to joke.
Loki growled and grabbed him by the throat, enraged by that comment. "You will all fall beneath me." He snarled, tossing the man out of the window.
As he was falling, a hidden wall opened up in the tower and fired the mark seven out of the window after its creator. Said armour caught up with Tony and folded onto his body, surrounding him in a new version of his gold and red garb.
With a powerful blast, Iron man propelled himself back up to the window and gazed in at Loki. "Oh and there was one other person you pissed off, his name was Phil."
(End of chapter 4)