TW: Thanks.
Passing Through: I try my best to separate the actress from the character on a rewatch, although I found I really can't do that when writing her. Steve actually couldn't have told Tony, because he was hiding it from himself as much as Tony, confirmed by the Russos. He didn't keep it from Tony; he merely decided that a five second taunt by a man who was trying to kill him wasn't worth giving any credibility. It's a mistake on Steve's part, but hardly compared to keeping Wanda prisoner or blackmailing Peter into being a child soldier. Civil War tried to brainwash you into thinking Tony was right, even bringing up the thing with Bucky in order to emotionally manipulate you into doing that, even though common sense and basic morality told you that Tony's actions were becoming more amoral and irrational as the movie progressed.
Oliver stood in front of the Queen Mansion, dressed in a suit. His mother and sister were watching him, joy filled smiles on their faces.
Standing across from Oliver was Bobbi, dressed in a wedding dress as she smiled lovingly at him.
"Do you, Oliver Queen, take Bobbi Morse to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The priest asked, a Russian accent filling the silent grounds.
"I do."
"To have, to hold. To love, cherish, honor?"
"I do."
"To fail to protect?" Oliver almost started at this. "To allow the loss of your unborn child? To push her away? To abandon her in her time of need? To fail to prevent her abduction by Slade Wilson, nearly leading to her death?"
"Stop," Oliver almost pleaded. "Please, stop."
"Bobbi, do you choose to accept?"
"I do," Bobbi said as Oliver turned to stare at her in horror.
"No," Oliver said before turning to look at the priest.
It was at that moment that Oliver realized something, wondering how he could have overlooked something so important.
For it wasn't a priest standing in front of them. It was Kovar, smirking at Oliver maliciously.
"You could not protect the woman you love from me, Oliver Queen. What makes you think you can protect anyone?" Kovar laughed cruelly.
It was at that moment several explosions occurred, taking out the Mansion and Oliver could only watch in horror as his mother, sister and Bobbi were all blown apart.
Oliver gasped as he shot up in bed, breathing heavily, his heart racing. After a moment, Oliver calmed down, realizing it had only been a dream.
After taking a moment to calm himself, Oliver's phone buzzed, his alarm going off. Reluctantly, Oliver picked it up, shutting off his alarm before sighing. It was time to get ready.
Another day, more problems at the company, more searching for Brickwell and this Prometheus.
Singapore
Same time
At a warehouse, a red haired woman was sitting at a table, waiting when three men in suits walked in.
"You got the money?" one of the men asked her.
"Depends. You have the merchandise?" The redhead had an American Accent as she spoke, looking bored.
"The boss says you get the merchandise as soon as we get the money," one of the men said and she stared at him for a moment, a tense silence filling the room.
"Fair enough," she shrugged before pulling out a briefcase. "Here you go."
The woman put down the briefcase on the table and stepped back. One of the men eyed it warily before walking over it, opening the case. But they moment he did, a bright of light went off, blinding the three men.
The moment the flash went off, Wanda unleashed three powerful blasts of energy that sent the three of them flying. They landed a few feet away, dazed but not hurt. When their vision cleared, they found themselves surrounded. Clint was aiming an arrow at the leader while Sam and Natasha were aiming pistols at the other two. Steve stood behind them, completely silent as Wanda walked up next to him.
"Not bad for your first undercover Op," Natasha complimented.
"They thought I was just the courier. I used that to my advantage," Wanda said, a hint of her Sokovian accent shining through.
"We're making a new deal: You tell us where the Power Broker is loading their next sale of Enhanced, or I'll let Natasha and Clint use whatever means necessary to extract that information," Steve told the three men who eyed them fearfully, especially when Clint smirked.
"Been a while since I tortured anyone, but I'm sure it's like riding a bike," Clint quipped, almost laughing when one of the men nearly pissed his pants.
"So what's it gonna be?" Sam asked.
New York
Same time
"So why exactly are we in New York again?" Barry asked as he and Chloe walked down the streets.
"I told you, I'm building a team to go after the real threat. There are a few stops we need to make before we leave New York," Chloe told him.
Barry opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a crash, followed by police sirens. The pair looked up to see a truck driving down the road, running down police cruisers.
"Barry-" Chloe started.
But Barry had already disappeared in a blur and The Flash was then speeding towards the truck.
At the same moment, Spider-Man was swinging by and landed on top of the car, before swinging down to the driver's side window. Peter tapped on the window and the driver rolled it down, in disbelief.
"Hey, I'm Spider-Man. You can call me Web-Head, you can call me Amazing; just don't call me late for dinner. You get it?" Peter asked before jumping up as the driver tried to strike him through the open window. "Whoa! Not a shaker. Are you a hugger?"
"I am a killer!" the driver roared, pulling out a gun and firing, although Spider-Man dodged the bullets.
Inside the truck, the driver's partners were trying to get what they came from when a gust of wind filled the back of the truck.
"Hey," the two criminals whirled around to see The Flash standing in front of them. "You want some help with that?"
The two criminals turned their guns on him but, before they could blink, the guns had been dismantled and fell to pieces in their hands.
"I'm doing you a favor. You shoot those things off in here, the bullets bounce around and kill us all," Barry pointed out.
With a roar, one of them rushed Barry but, in a blink of an eye, both criminals found themselves on the floor, restrained by some metal that had been wrapped around their hands.
"Seriously, what part of 'fastest man alive' do you not understand?" Barry asked cheekily.
Up in front, Peter noticed the truck was about to head into a collusion, which would strike an innocent bystander
"Be right back," Peter told the driver before swinging towards the bystander.
The truck crashed into a taxi, which went flying. It would have hit the innocent bystander, if Peter hadn't grabbed him and pulled him out of the way.
"You need to stay out of the road, Max," Peter said, spotting Max's name tag before swinging back.
"He knew my name," Max whispered in awe.
Barry then emerged from the hole the criminals had entered through and sped around to the front of the truck. At super speed, Barry dismantled the tires and the truck fell, skidding to a stop. Barry appeared next to it, waiting as the driver got out. The driver roared as he aimed a gun at Barry only for a stream of webbing to yank the gun away before two more streams of webbing restrained the man, trapping his arms by attaching them to some street lights.
"Sorry, no more guns for you," Peter said as he landed next to Barry, looking over at the other red dressed hero. "Hey. You're that guy from Central City, right? The Streak?"
"It's The Flash, and yeah. And you're Spider-Man," Barry said, trying not to go full on fanboy. "So awesome to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too. But what are you doing so far from Central City?" Peter asked confused.
"Oh, that's kind of a long story," Barry said before they noticed the police coming in.
"You might want to get out of here. Sokovia Accords and all," Peter pointed out.
"Yeah, probably should. It was nice meeting you," Barry said before he sped off and Peter shot off some webbing, swinging away.
At the Xavier Institute, Logan was walking into the rec center, where some of the students and teachers were relaxing on their day off. Logan chuckled as he saw Bobby and Kitty sitting in the corner, lost in what Ororo had called the 'honeymoon' phase of their relationship.
However, the smile left his face as he noticed he wasn't the only one who had noticed, seeing Rogue look at the pairing with…not quite longing, but wistfulness.
"Hey, you doing okay, kid?" Logan asked as he sat down next to her.
"Yes. Yeah, fine," Rogue asked with that same look on her face.
"Rouge…you broke up with him, you knew he was gonna start seeing someone else eventually," Logan reminded her gently and she nodded.
"I know. And I don't regret it, there's no future for us if we can't touch. And I'm happy that he's found someone else, he and Kitty are good for each other," Rogue said and he didn't detect any deceptions.
"So what's the problem then?" Logan inquired and she sighed miserably.
"I guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself. I can never have a normal relationship with my powers, but everyone else can. Even you're seeing someone," Rogue said and Logan shot her an odd look.
"Kid, I'm not dating anyone," Logan said and Rogue laughed humorlessly.
"Then whatever it is you have going on in Starling City with that friend of Oliver's, Sara is it? You obviously like her, because you go down there every few weeks to see her," Rogue pointed out and Logan grimaced, unable to deny her accusations.
It had started out with him just trying to help her, the way Charles had helped him. But Logan would be lying to himself if he said that's what it was now. He cared about her; he might even be falling in love with her. All Logan knew for sure was that the part of him that he'd thought died with Jean…seemed to come back alive when he was with Sara.
"See, even you have someone. But I'm alone, and I'll always be alone," Rogue said before standing up and storming from the room.
Logan wanted to go after her, but even if he knew what to say, which he didn't, he doubted Rogue would be willing to listen. So instead, he just stared after her worriedly as Ororo walked over to him.
"That seemed intense. Is Rogue all right?" Ororo asked and Logan was silent for a moment before speaking.
"No. No, she's not," Logan said with a sigh.
Singapore
Afternoon
A group of men, surrounded by armed men, were loading a group of people, ranging from teenagers to adults into the back of a truck when suddenly; the guns were all surrounded by red energy and yanked from the hands of the men. They all stopped, looking up at the guns collected in the air before they were disassembled and fell harmlessly to the ground.
Then, an arrow flew out, hitting one of the men in the shoulder. They cried out in pain as Steve and Natasha dropped down, beginning to engage some of the men as Sam flew in, knocking some out with his wings before sending a spinning kick to the chest of another.
The leaders tried to make a run for it only to find themselves slammed to the wall by red energy.
"Going somewhere?" Wanda asked with a dark smile as she walked over, her hands glowing with red energy.
Within seconds, the hired muscle had all but taken down and Steve cautiously approached the frightened people, who eyed him with fear.
"It's okay. You're safe now, we're going to get you back to your friends and family," Steve promised.
New York
Same time
"Try not to look like you just met your idol," Chloe said amused as she and Barry walked down the street, Barry almost vibrating in excitement.
"I'm sorry, but come on; I just teamed up with Spider-Man! Cisco's going to be so jealous," Barry almost rambled and Chloe almost laughed.
"Okay, Barry, I need you to focus. We're here," Chloe said as they stopped.
"Right, sorry. Calming down," Barry said before noticing the sign on the building they had stopped at. "Nelson, Murdock and Page. Aren't these the guys who put away Wilson Fisk, twice?"
"Yes. And they are our first stop," Chloe said before looking over at Barry. "I need to tell you something about Matt Murdock..."
Inside, Matt was listening as Foggy and Karen watched a news report about the Flash being sighted in New York.
"Well, looks like New York is filling up with heroes again," Karen noted.
"Until The Accords force them out," Foggy pointed out.
"As long as there are people that will keep fighting, heroes will never be forced out of New York City," Matt said before pausing, listening to something.
"Matt? What is it?" Foggy asked as they noticed Matt had paused.
"There are two people outside our office, a man and woman. The man's heartrate…his heart is beating so fast…it's not humanly possible. And the woman…she knows who I am," Matt said, pale.
"Matt Murdock is…that is so cool," Barry said with a laugh.
"Yeah, it's a pretty cool. And he can probably hear every word we're saying. So, can we come in or what?" Chloe asked as she faced the building.
For a long moment, it was silent. Then, the door opened to reveal Matt standing on the other side.
"Come on in. We clearly have a lot to talk about," Matt said, gripping his cane tightly.
At the same time, Brett Mahoney was sitting down at Oscorp, talking with Norman Osborn.
"So Mr. Osborn, any idea on why these men would have wanted to steal this…what was it again?" Brett asked and Norman smirked slightly.
"To put it in terms you might understand, it's a revolutionary kind of micro-processor. Imagine cars that can think for themselves, that can warn you of an oncoming collusion before it happens. That is what they were trying to steal. And a better question is who wouldn't want to steal it? These men were merely hired guns, the real question you should be asking is who hired them," Norman pointed out.
"I see," Brett said after a few moments where he stared at Norman impassively. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Osborn. I'll see what we can find out."
"Of course. My assistant will walk you out," Norman said as he got to his feet, shaking hands with Brett. "If you need anything else, just ask. I want the people responsible caught as much as you do."
"I believe that. I'll let you know if we find anything," Brett promised before he exited the room.
Once the door had closed behind Brett, Norman let out a dark laugh that would have sent chills down the spines of most men.
"Go on, keep looking Sergeant. You won't find anything. Because the person you're looking for is right in front of you," Norman said a crazed look in his eyes.
Not long after, in Hell's Kitchen, Barry and Chloe sat across from Matt, Foggy and Karen, the room silent as the trio processed Barry and Chloe's story.
"It's a lot to take in, I know," Barry started.
"What, that this magic helmet helps your friend see the future and now she's trying to convince us that's she needs Matt's help to save the world?" Foggy asked sarcastically.
"They're not lying," Matt said and Foggy and Karen looked at him in shock. "At least she's not. Not sure how he's still alive. But Chloe's heartbeat never wavered. She's telling the truth, or at least she thinks she is."
"Do you believe me, Mr. Murdock?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know, but this isn't my first time running across magic. I've seen things, things that defy explanation, defy logic," Matt said, remembering The Hand. "And I'm not sure how else a former reporter from Metropolis would know my identity."
"What about Fisk? They could be working for him," Karen interjected but Matt shook his head.
"Fisk would never risk Vanessa's freedom. And if they did work for Fisk, it would be a very stupid move on their part to let me know they know my identity, with such an unbelievable story at that. At the very least, I'm willing to hear them out. So, you have my attention Chloe, Barry," Matt said, giving them the floor.
"We know it's hard to believe, I don't really believe it myself just yet. But if she's right, The Accords are just the beginning. Something far greater is coming for us," Barry said, glancing at Chloe, who smiled at him gratefully before turning to Matt.
"It's a lot to process, I know. But I don't care if you believe me or not, I just need you to come with me. Because what The Avengers are about to face, they'll need all the help they can get," Chloe said, almost smiling when she saw Matt grip his cane tightly. "And I'm sure you'd like to see Natasha again, right?"
Matt sat there for a moment, realizing she knew about his past with Natasha. If there was any doubt about Chloe's story, that erased it. There was no other way someone could know about his history with Natasha unless they had seen it themselves.
"Matt, what's she talking about?" Karen asked confused and Foggy stared at Matt before his eyes widened.
"Wait, that Russian girl named Natasha you started seeing after Elektra? That was Natasha Romanoff?!" Foggy exclaimed as everyone but Chloe looked at Mat in disbelief.
"It's a long story, Foggy. But I believe you, Chloe. No one else could possibly know about my past with Natasha unless they'd seen it," Matt said confidently.
She'd done more than seen his past, but also his future, Chloe mused, thinking of what she'd seen for Matt and Natasha. But that wasn't important for the moment.
"So then you'll come with us?" Chloe asked and Matt sighed.
"If things are as bad as you say, I don't think I can afford not to," Matt said before glancing over at Foggy and Karen. "Can you pick up the slack while I'm gone?"
"You know we will," Foggy said with a long suffering sigh. "Why can't you just let things go?"
"He wouldn't be Matt if he did," Karen said, torn between exasperation and fondness.
"Try and bring him back in one piece," Foggy said with a look at Barry and Chloe.
"We'll do everything we can," Barry promised before glancing at Chloe. "That's one down. Where to next?"
"Did Oliver ever tell you about Charles Xavier and his school for the Gifted?" Chloe asked, grinning at Barry's look of confusion. "Let's just say you're not the first person with powers that Oliver has met."
Peter Parker has officially entered the story. Hope you all enjoyed his appearance.
Norman Osborn would be played by Cillian Murphey.
Yes, the Power Broker will be part of the story. And no, it will not be Sharon Carter, because good God was that stupid.
Given everything he went through with the Hand and Elektra, Matt would be a bit more open to Chloe's story than Barry, although he'd still take a bit of convincing.
Next chapter will get back into the Arrow side of things, so until then.