Black Star: The Legend Begins

丅𝔀𝓔︎𝓷𝐓︎ⓨ︎-ꪮ𝓷𝓔︎

WE have to destroy the core,” you say desperately, blinking fast to hold back the tears threatening to spill.

“Yeah, well that’s pretty much impossible with all these metal bastards guarding it,” Clint tells you.

“Speaking of metal bastards, Cap, you got incoming,” Tony puts in.

“Incoming already came in.” Steve sighs. “Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job. Tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed… walk it off.”

“I’m sorry, ‘walk it off’?” you repeat. “How are we supposed to do that if we’re dead?”

“Find a way. We’re gonna need all hands on deck to stop Ultron.”

You turn to Peter. “Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for any more civilians, you focus on fighting the robots. And… try not to die. I have no idea how serious Steve is about walking it off.”

“Great idea.” He’s clearly trying to help lighten the mood, but his voice is high-pitched and tense with nerves.

You fly towards the main fight, constantly checking your suit’s display for any heat signatures. A few feet behind you, Peter swings from building to building as he scans the sky. After a few minutes, you recognize the sound of repulsor blasts and spin, expecting Tony, but find three robots preparing to fire at Peter. Without even thinking it through, you fly directly at the robot in the middle. Its back is to you, so you’re able to knock it out of line, but don’t do any real damage. That becomes clear when the robot, along with the two others, circle around to face you, hands glowing blue as they prepare to fire repulsor blasts — that you know full well can be deadly — at you.

“Well, shit.”

The robot on the left is immediately pulled backwards with a web, but Peter doesn’t manage to destroy it, either. He and the robot begin to fight, leaving you in a two-against-one battle. It doesn’t matter, though. Using tricks Nat and Clint have taught you, it only takes four repulsor blasts, one thrown dagger, and two bullets before the robots fall to the ground. Peter, who has finally managed to smash his robot into unrecognizable scraps of metal, stares at you.

“What?” you ask as you bend over to retrieve your dagger from the robot’s eye.

“Uh– nothing.” Peter averts his gaze. “Come on, let’s keep moving.”

He returns to the roofs, and you resume scanning every structure you pass. As you’re approaching the center of the city, you see Clint shoot a few arrows at approaching robots before ducking behind a car.

“Ow!” he exclaims.

As more robots advance on him, you whip out a gun for each hand, preparing to fire–

The door of a nearby building glows red and begins to open of its own accord as Wanda begins to walk out. She stares straight ahead, not even looking at the robots as she aims a power blast at them. She grabs one of them with her magic, then, keeping her right hand outstretched, turns to face it. Her left hand begins to glow red as well. Her right hand guides the robot’s body in one direction while her left hand guides it in the other, causing it to rip apart at the waist. She tosses the robot’s lower body aside, then flings out her right hand, causing its upper body to zoom towards the side of a building. It catches another bot along the way, and they both smash to pieces against the wall. Wanda leans over, creating a glowing red ball, then throws it at the remaining three robots, incinerating them.

You and Peter stare at her.

“Woah,” you say together.

Wanda looks over at the two of you, the faint outline of a smile on her face.

“Alright, we’re all clear here,” Clint reports into comms.

“We are not clear!” Steve shouts back. “We are very not clear!”

There’s a few grunts, clangs of metal, and an explosion as Steve presumably destroys a robot.

“Calm down, old man. We’re coming to you,” you assure him.

There’s a flash of silver as Pietro runs over to the four of you. He stops running just long enough to scoop Wanda up into his arms.

“Try to keep up, you three!” he shouts before running away, leaving nothing but more silver streaks in his wake.

“Nobody would know,” Clint says quietly, aiming his bow in the direction Pietro ran off in. “Nobody.”

You clear your throat noisily.

Clint sighs, letting the bow drop as he puts the arrow back. He slowly begins to run to where Steve is, muttering, “The last I saw him, Ultron was sitting on him. Yeah, he’ll be missed, that quick little bastard. I miss him already!”

You sigh dramatically. “Okay, well, clearly you need to be left alone with your thoughts. See ya later, Bird Man.”

With that, you zoom away on the Shooting Star, flying to the main fight. Peter quickly swings after you, shouting, “Hey — wait up!”

“Aw, come on!” you hear Clint groan as he runs after you.