#unappreciated superheroes

[the-faechild-writes]

“What if we just… quit?” I ask suddenly.

Noah is washing the dirt and plaster off his arms, scrubbing them so hard that what little of his skin isn’t scarred is bright pink. His scars are so faded that they look decades old.

We’re only twenty, but he looks so much older.

“I can’t,” he says simply, not looking at me as he washes the last bit of soap down the sink. His voice barely even broke.

The television host’s voice chatters for us.

“Stormwalker and Supernova: heroes, or no better than the villains?” it says, staticky from poor connection.

Our apartment is on the outskirts of the city—even as government workers, we’re paid far too little to live downtown. Even if it’d make our jobs easier to be there.

“—today the two heroes helped make a record number of arrests, stopping three riots and two villain attacks within one day. But are they any—”

“Why not?” I ask, pushing myself off the stool and moving to put a hand on his shoulder.

He shrugs it off.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

He finally turns to look at me, silent resignation written all over his face. He tries to fake a reassuring smile, but I know better.

“—left thousands of dollars in damages and thousands more homeless as—”

That’s their excuse for paying us so little. ‘Because they need it to repair the destruction left in our wake.’ ‘If we want to be paid better, we should do a better job; don’t cause so much damage.’

If it’s so easy, why don’t you do it yourself? Try dodging lasers while saving people, while leading the villains away from populated areas, while trying to take them down! Then—then you can tell us to ‘do a better job!’

“Even if they can’t appreciate it,” Noah finishes defeatedly.

The pain in his eyes makes me want to fly all the way to the reporters, standing out front of the half-destroyed West Bank and talking trash about us, and to punch them so hard they go flying into the wreckage themselves.

Like Noah was when Genesis made him pick between himself and the people trying to flee the streets.

Lasers do an incredible amount of damage, even to people whose skin is hard as rock and bones are hard as steel. Even Noah—Stormwalker himself—couldn’t fight against those.

That kind of force—powerful enough to send a man of steel through stone walls—is strong enough to cause cuts and scrapes and bruises on one of the strongest heroes in the world.

But, yeah. ‘Do better.’

I can’t even step in myself. I have to stand back from afar, watching Noah get bloodied and bruised while reporters salivate at the thought of talking shit about us once the danger is over. I have to wait for Noah to get close enough for me to heal him.

Because that’s all I can do. Heal.

Next to Noah, I feel useless.

I’m just as squishy as everyone else, but I still put myself at risk in order to help the heroes. Well, mostly just Noah. But he and Supernova are the only heroes in this city, so.

‘Do better,’ they say.

I want to spit in all of their faces.

‘It’s the right thing to do, even if they don’t appreciate it,’ Noah says.

“Okay,” I say gently. I fight the urge to cup my hand around his cheek.

Part 2 | Part 3

Divider from @cafekitsune

[ominous-faechild]

“What if we just… quit?” I ask suddenly.

Noah is washing the dirt and plaster off his arms, scrubbing them so hard that what little of his skin isn’t scarred is bright pink. His scars are so faded that they look decades old.

We’re only twenty, but he looks so much older.

“I can’t,” he says simply, not looking at me as he washes the last bit of soap down the sink. His voice barely even broke.

The television host’s voice chatters for us.

“Stormwalker and Supernova: heroes, or no better than the villains?” it says, staticky from poor connection.

Our apartment is on the outskirts of the city—even as government workers, we’re paid far too little to live downtown. Even if it’d make our jobs easier to be there.

“—today the two heroes helped make a record number of arrests, stopping three riots and two villain attacks within one day. But are they any—”

“Why not?” I ask, pushing myself off the stool and moving to put a hand on his shoulder.

He shrugs it off.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

He finally turns to look at me, silent resignation written all over his face. He tries to fake a reassuring smile, but I know better.

“—left thousands of dollars in damages and thousands more homeless as—”

That’s their excuse for paying us so little. ‘Because they need it to repair the destruction left in our wake.’ ‘If we want to be paid better, we should do a better job; don’t cause so much damage.’

If it’s so easy, why don’t you do it yourself? Try dodging lasers while saving people, while leading the villains away from populated areas, while trying to take them down! Then—then you can tell us to ‘do a better job!’

“Even if they can’t appreciate it,” Noah finishes defeatedly.

The pain in his eyes makes me want to fly all the way to the reporters, standing out front of the half-destroyed West Bank and talking trash about us, and to punch them so hard they go flying into the wreckage themselves.

Like Noah was when Genesis made him pick between himself and the people trying to flee the streets.

Lasers do an incredible amount of damage, even to people whose skin is hard as rock and bones are hard as steel. Even Noah—Stormwalker himself—couldn’t fight against those.

That kind of force—powerful enough to send a man of steel through stone walls—is strong enough to cause cuts and scrapes and bruises on one of the strongest heroes in the world.

But, yeah. ‘Do better.’

I can’t even step in myself. I have to stand back from afar, watching Noah get bloodied and bruised while reporters salivate at the thought of talking shit about us once the danger is over. I have to wait for Noah to get close enough for me to heal him.

Because that’s all I can do. Heal.

Next to Noah, I feel useless.

I’m just as squishy as everyone else, but I still put myself at risk in order to help the heroes. Well, mostly just Noah. But he and Supernova are the only heroes in this city, so.

‘Do better,’ they say.

I want to spit in all of their faces.

‘It’s the right thing to do, even if they don’t appreciate it,’ Noah says.

“Okay,” I say gently. I fight the urge to cup my hand around his cheek.

Parts 2&3

[writingsonsaturn]

mirrorball

{ masterlist } { the 'taylor swift' series }

🪐: so this was made in between like two weeks, so if it's a bit choppy and seems horrible im so sorry please forgive me i love you

wc - 1.2k

content warning: angsty, peter being an oblivious unappreciative boyfriend

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Everything you did was brushed off.

No matter how extravagant, or otherworldly, Peter was always either too busy working on making his suit better, or he was out saving other people. 

Obviously, you weren’t cold-hearted. 

It wasn’t the fact Peter was saving other people. It was the fact he never looked up to give you an honest five minute conversation anymore, or that he never saw, maybe not even cared about all the things you were doing for him. Trying to take the load of being a young superhero off his shoulders, you had started doing the laundry, dishes, making all meals, patching up his suits, and many, many more, painfully tiring tasks all in the name of love.

The only, and biggest problem here was that he never once said a simple ‘thanks!’ or any acknowledgement whatsoever that what you were doing was helpful. Although it wasn’t your goal to earn points in a system you weren’t even aware of, you still would’ve accepted even a simple head nod and kiss, but nope, nothing.

It all blew up on one fateful evening when you had just spent over four and a half hours making one of Peter's favorite meals for his birthday. 

You were so excited to show him the birthday gift that you had worked extra hours at your job for, everything was all set up in your teeny tiny living room and now all you had to do was sit and wait for your boyfriend to arrive home.

The click of the door sounded out through the apartment, announcing to the quiet apartment your boyfriend's arrival. “Hey, babe” Peter said as he walked into the apartment, he didn’t even look up and properly acknowledge your existence, he just simply knew you were always home before him. As he walked in you noticed he had the newspaper in his hand, probably another hit piece on Spider-Man, claiming he’s a monster.

“Hi, my love” you greeted him enthusiastically, walking over to him and wrapping your arms around his neck. He set the newspaper down and gave into your warmth, allowing his tense body to relax into your arms, then all of the sudden he pulled away.

“I'm sorry, baby, but I gotta get out in the city” his voice was fast-paced, almost giving you no time to process what he was doing. 

“Peter, are you joking?” you practically whispered, “It’s your birthday.”

Peter noticed the hurt expression on your face, and only then did he decide to look around and see everything you had set up for him. There were streamers hanging from the ceiling, a homemade sign that read “Happy Birthday, Spidey!” with little hand crafted webs around it up on the wall. Sat on the table was a homemade cake and a wonderfully prepared dinner. 

“Oh wow, Honey, this looks delicious! But i really have to go”

Your face dropped from the optimistic smile, to dead cold. You realised that you and your feelings will always be second best to his double life as a superhero.

“Peter, please for once can you just sit down, and have a goddamn conversation with me” you spoke lowly, nearly pleading for him to just sit down and give you the time of day. You think you might’ve actually, finally, be seeing how absolutely tired you looked. 

“For fucks sake, can you appreciate just this one fucking thing!” your voice gradually went louder for each syllable your sentence hit. The look of defeat portrayed in your eyes pierced through Peter’s soul, he felt his heart drop at how tired your face seemed, the way you seemed to have distanced yourself the moment he dismissed your thoughtful dinner. 

“It’s- It’s like you don’t even care anymore Peter” you weren’t yelling, which scared Peter more than if you were to be screaming five centimeters from his face and waving your hands, it was like you had given up. “I bought you a gift, open it before you leave” you whispered out before grabbing your bag and leaving. 

Peter’s eyes followed your sulking body out the door, before landing onto the gift sat nicely on the table with a red and blue ribbon tightly secured around the small square container. He walked toward the table with his head held low, gently picking up the present, as he opened it his eyes filled up with tears and he sat down on the edge of the couch, realizing how badly he had fucked this up.

Sitting in the box was the refurbished watch Uncle Ben wore, the glass protecting the arms of the watch had been shattered and links had been missing. Uncle Ben wanted to get it fixed but passed before he could get a chance. Peter remembered showing this exact watch to you when he took you to meet Aunt May, it was left on the dresser the two had shared, Aunt May never could put it away.

“Fuck” Peter exhaled, he set the watch down and ran out the door, he was desperate to find you and beg on his knees for your forgiveness. He was well aware he didn’t deserve that, but the thought of losing you had just crashed down over his head like a piano falling from the sky.

As soon as he got outside the air of the looming fall hit his face, as he frantically looked around he noticed your figure sitting on a bench right outside the apartment complex, watching the cars and people pass you by. Peter took a breath of relief before stepping closer, only to realize the tears glistening off your face.

“Baby, I am so, so, so incredibly sorry” he quickly tumbled out the words as if he couldn’t stop them, your eyes met his when you heard his pleas. He had no idea how badly you wanted to just say “it’s okay” and forget about this whole thing but you knew better. 

You knew doing that would only allow for that behavior to continue, and you just can’t go on like that anymore.

“I had to work extra hours to be able to pay for that to be refurbished, you know?” you said with a bittersweet undertone lacing your voice, “and it’s not even that, it’s the fact you just didn’t fucking care” the words came with your gasps for air as sobs tore through your throat, “you don’t care.”

Peter could only look at you in anguish, he fights villains, he stops your average bad guy on a daily basis, he can even tell when something dangerous is about to happen before it does, but he couldn’t tell his girlfriend was breaking before his very eyes with him being the root cause.

He was the hammer to your mirror.

Sitting down on the bench right next to you, he wrapped his arms around you and held you as you let out the most guttural sounds he’s ever heard come out of your body. He hates it. 

All Peter could do was rocking you back and forth, whispering apologies into your ear, promising to be better for you. 

You wanted to believe him, you really did, but all you could muster up was,

“Prove it.”

[eqt-95]

day 1 | leaves / race against the clock

supercorptober / whumptober

Time had always been on Kara’s side. The nightly chime of midnight, the seasonal shift of colors, the churn of years; they all passed thoughtlessly with predictable continuation.

There was no light, just the tunnel.

And, like the most unappreciated, the passing of time suited her just fine. Until it didn’t. 

Until the ticking mortality of those around her ebbed closer to a light she wasn’t privileged to see.

Until it became her personal boogeyman - looming and clouding the present with fears of no future.

Until time made her reckless.

With time, skittishness feigned ‘heroism’; as the corners of eyes wrinkled with laugh lines; as light hit differently against grey-flecked jet-black hair; as curves softened and stamina faded.

“I had it,” Lena huffed.

“What’s the point of being married to a superhero if I can’t carry the heavy stuff?”

“They’re just groceries, darling.”

“In those heels?”

Skittishness grew to paranoia. Kara didn’t call it that. She called it vigilance. Every second saved was a second back. 

“He had a gun.”

“A squirt gun,” Lena countered.

“It could have been real,” Kara offered with a shrug. “Can’t be too careful.”

It intensified. She calculated away the selfishness. Interrupting fate became defensible.

“You’re ok,” she whispered into soft curls. She inhaled: the familiar lilac stained with smoke. “You’re safe-”

Frantic palms cradled resistant arms until Lena broke free. “Kara, the others-”

“There wasn’t time,” she reasoned.

“What? What do you mean-?” Lena begged. Her cheeks were dirtied with ash. A crumpled tower engulfed in flames reflected in her darkened eyes. “The volunteers, the technicians, the-?”

“There wasn’t time,” Kara repeated, shielding herself behind a flimsy wall of heroic justification. Her fingers stretched, reaching, hungry to feel the tangible pulse echoing in her ears. “If I hadn’t-”

“No,” Lena interrupted, voice shaking; broken. A tear trailed its way down Lena’s ashen cheek. Overhead helicopters whirled uselessly. Around them firefighters lingered aimlessly. Reality struck Lena’s defiant gaze and landed heavily onto her shoulders.

“I had no choice-”

Lena tore away from desperate hands. “Yes you did.”

It escalated - this fear of time, of what an end could mean. It morphed and warped and gave life to Kara’s irrational actions. It fed a fear she couldn’t stop. 

It was bittersweet then that the end still came. It came all the same. She just didn't expect it to happen

“Lena? Lena, wait.”

with empty hangers,

“Please just-”

a barren night table,

“Babe, please.”

and a growing rift.

"Don't go,” Kara wept. “Please don’t leave.”

- - - - day 2 | courage / trust issues

[marinettesaltprompts]

Inspired by one of maribat-menagerie's proposals

One of the big things that happen in almost every Maribat fic is Adrien getting stripped of his Miraculous so a batboy can be the Black Cat. But you could actually play with this idea of Adrien becoming Catwoman's apprentice/accomplice:

The story starts in stereotypical Maribat fashion with Marinette feeling unappreciated for her efforts and easily falling for whatever Batboy came into town to solve all her problems. Things progress as normal: Robin uncovers Gabriel, Lila gets sent packing and Adrien gets thrown to the wolves because he didn't do what the Batboy did- left to enjoy the association of being Hawkmoth's son while losing Plagg.

Because it turns out that Ladybug does actually believe in the idea that the holders of creation and destruction are soulmates, just not with him.

Anyhow normally this is where Adrien's story in a Maribat fic would end. He's condemned to a mundane life of public disgrace and suffering while Marinette goes to Gotham to live the superhero dream.

But not this time. Sure, Marinette leave with her Box and the Ring now fits on Robin's finger, but Adrien's not quite done. Sure it seems that way and as he retreats from public life under the heat of condemnation he falls into a deep depression. He's lost everything. His friends (can't be associated with Hawkmoth's son). His family (Nathalie is probably dead, Gabriel is in prison forever and The Gorilla needs employment after all). Even his home was seized by the The State- if not for a small trust fund Nathalie had had the foresight to set up for him he'd have nowhere to live at all.

The best he can do is live in an old house far in the countryside, hoping that people won't recognize him with his dyed black hair. At this point, all Adrien has to his name of his old life are his parents rings- one last gift snuck to him by Nathalie. Holding a secret within whose revelation robbed him of even his humanity.

It seems that after everything he did to try and make a life for himself outside of his gilded cage, he's doomed to spend his life in this new one. A cage made of crumbling old walls who were his only protection from a hostile world beyond them.

At least until one day, a certain Cat shows up. Not Plagg as Adrien dreamed of seeing again, or even the Robin who appeared in his nightmares to taunt him, but the infamous antihero Catwoman.

She' was surprised that he noticed her sneaking in, but Adrien's senses were still sharp from his time as Chat Noir. But it makes no real difference, one way or the other she's leaving with what she came for: The Graham de Vanily rings.

It turns out that his dear Auntie still wanted "her heirlooms" back, so she'd contracted Catwoman to go get them. Normally she wouldn't take such contracts, but with the Bats having ready access to magical jewellery her usual picking grounds were becoming harder to play in.

This breaks something in Adrien. After everything he's lost, after everyone had abandoned him in one way or the other, after neither Felix or Amelie could be bothered to help him in his time of need they still wouldn't let him have his soul?

Catwoman seems bemused by his spluttering, but she's intrigued enough to let him elaborate. Adrien knows from one look at her that he has no chance of beating her in a fight anyway, she'd get his rings one way or the other so he might as well tell her the truth. It's not like he owed anyone his silence and no one had actually cared about his side of the story since he'd lost Plagg.

So he spills. He takes the chance to rant about his situation, how he'd tried his best to be Ladybug's partner but he'd been pushed away, sidelined without cause. how his parents had had a magical slave collar on him since his creation. How his friends had abandoned him, how Ladybug who'd promised him "them against the world" had dropped him like garbage the second she'd gotten a "better model".

Selena listens, but she also happens to know Marinette herself- at least through others and knows the story on both sides now. So she bemusedly tries to correct him- only to find herself corrected:

Catwoman: You didn't exactly try to help her that much did you though?

Adrien: Ladybug pushed me away every time I tried. But I was always there for her. Every time she needed someone to fall on his sword for a plan. Every time she needed a shield I used myself. The one time I failed to show up, she stopped calling on me and started using an entire team instead.

...

Catwoman: Were you really that great a partner though? Robin picked up the ring and did a better job than you did even though you'd had it for months, plus all the training as a holder the old Guardian gave you that Robin didn't have while he was in France.

Adrien: What training? Fu never trained me. I didn't even know he trained Ladybug. As for Robin, maybe the fact that he's been trained by Batman for years before he even came to Paris might play a factor?

You know, I had martial arts and acrobatics before I put on the ring but I'll bet training under "the dark knight" might just be a bit above that. Oh, and Ladybug actually told Robin things. I didn't even know about the Grimoire until after the last battle.

...

Selena: But what about your friends? I've done my research you know? They said you were two-faced and cowardly, you knew about Lila and did nothing. You got your friend Marinette to take the high road and do the same.

Adrien: Did nothing? As far as I knew when I gave that advice Lila was just lying for attention and the first time I tried to get her to stop she got Akumatised on the spot. Marinette was freaking out and acting crazy, the only thing she was doing was making herself look worse in front of the class and risking Lila getting Akumatised again. It was the best advice I could give her until Hawkmoth was captured, or unless someone could prove she'd done something bad enough to get her sent out of Paris.

But I did what I could.

When Lila got Marinette expelled, I was the one who stepped up and helped her. No one else. I couldn't prove anything. I'm not a Robin trained by the Greatest Detective in the world. But I knew what Lila wanted and I used myself as collateral to get her to stop.

And two-faced? That's rich from my "friends". I've had time to think and realise what they were doing all those times they left me and Marinette together. Even before they left me out to dry they treated me more like some prize for Marinette to win instead of a friend, it was all some big game to them.

Now none of them speak to me now that I'm not a rich-boy celebrity anymore. It's like they all decided that I'm responsible for their mistakes with Lila.

---

And so the conversation continues. For the first time, Adrien finally gets to tell his side of the story, even if it's to someone who came to rob him of the one thing of value he had left. And Selena... is intrigued.

She looks carefully over the boy. He's a pretty thing, but he's also clearly strong. There's still lean muscle on him despite the year trapped in this miserable little house. It suddenly strikes her ironically just how much like one of Bruce's Robin's he is- especially with his hair dyed black.

An athletic, intelligent young man made from birth to be a perfect heir to an evil father? One whose socialization had come far, far too late to be healthy? An echo of Damian.

All around her were cheap, but well-read books on an eclectic range of subjects. Tim would find plenty of common interests with this one.

The spark wasn't there now, not in this broken shell of a boy. But when Chat Noir had been in his prime even Dick would have found a cat-themed mirror for his puns and the sheer joy he took in his freedom as a superhero.

Thankfully there's precious little of Jason in him and the similarities to the rest of the bat-family faded from there. But it was undeniable how well he fit the shape of a Robin, even down to the lack of a family with Gabriel Agreste apparently having no interest in his son even before his life sentence.

But he wasn't a Robin now was he? He was a cat.

And in this place, in this dead-end of a life: he had nothing to lose.

Selena asks him for his rings.

Adrien, exhausted from his rant, simply hands them over. What would be the point in fighting?

But to his surprise: Selene doesn't leave or mock him or anything else that he expected. But rather she raises the rings to her skilled eyes to make sure she had the real things and then asks him a question;

Answer me; was anything you just said a lie?

Adrien is compelled to confirm that it was the truth.

Selena considers him once more. Considers his performance as Chat Noir again. Considers what he'd achieved without the training he should have had.

There was potential here. Potential that had been discarded and left to rot. Potential with no loyalties left to his family, friends or anything else. With a new name, a new mask: this boy could become to her what Bruce's Robins were to him.

And really, the Vanily's money couldn't really compare to what she could do with a kitten of her own. One with a bit of resentment ready to be aimed at Bruce's new foundlings that were annoying her so badly.

Selena: So Adrien, you were a bit of a rulebreaker once upon a time. Do you still have that in you?

It turns out that Adrien very much did.

Wonderful prompt! A lot of salt fic stories don't tend to focus on what would come after the story ends, it just assumes that anyone that isn't Marinette just lives miserably ever after. Having Adrien make a comeback without a even having a miraculous sounds actually dope.

[ceilingfan5]

It's here. It's time. You finally get to read A Little Less Call for Help, A Little More Call to Action on ao3!

This is the taakitz supers au that blew my old record out of the water-- at 150 thousand words, it almost longer than Revenge Plus One and Sticker Stars combined. It is a love letter to TAZ Balance, and superheroes, and ridiculously indulgent goofshit romance. It is a fuck you letter to my old job. It is made with deep love and humor and batshit crazy passion, and it is complete, so I will post a chapter every other day until we get to the end. Taakitz, rated E

Summary: Kravitz has worked his whole life to be a superhero, only to find himself unappreciated and overworked. Taako's about to change that, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Sometimes life crashing down around you is a chance to take it from the top one more time. You'll never know what connections are waiting for you if you don't reach out.

Gear up. It's time to play.

[total-drama-wlw]

welcome to total drama wlw week! (introduction/pinned)

the purpose of this event week and blog is to celebrate and shine some light on an overlooked part of this fandom, and give some love to wlw creators who are often unappreciated for their work. as well as promoting wlw ships that aren’t always given a lot of love!

EVENT DETAILS & RULES:

drawings, fanfics, animations, edits, posts of headcanons, pinterest boards, socmed AUs, etc. are all allowed!

you can make as many posts as you want!!

you don't have to post every day!

tag #tdWLWweek24 on any social media posts

this is a tumblr based event, so post your works on tumblr, but feel free to participate/spread the word on twitter, tiktok or whichever social media you prefer to promote your work as well.

the prompts are guidelines more than rules, but do try to follow them (especially for art & fanfic)

you can choose one of the prompts given on each day, or if you’re feeling creative, try to combine them both!

it doesn’t need to be ship content! you can write an analysis of your favourite girl character through a queer lens, you can draw her wearing the colours of the bisexual flag, you can write a oneshot of two lesbians being best friends, etc.

for ship content, please make WLW/sapphic ships the MAIN FOCUS, not sidelined or briefly mentioned alongside straight or mlm pairings. fics/art that centre non-sapphic pairings will not be reposted.

celebrating other queer identities in this event is of course fine (trans, non binary, aspec, etc) but the centre of the event is wlw/sapphic identities so be sure to make that the highlight.

you do not have to be wlw yourself to participate, but of course always listen and make room for wlw creators & do your best to represent wlw stories with guidance from your wlw mutuals & friends <3

if you follow all these rules, you will be reposted/reblogged by us!

the rules listed are not to limit people in their creativity but just to ensure this remains a wlw/sapphic centred event, in order to highlight & celebrate wlw specifically. 

PROMPTS & DATES:

DAY 1: thursday, 24th october - campfire / historical au

DAY 2: friday, 25th october - sunlight / butch character

DAY 3: saturday, 26th october - put a spin on a myth, ‘canon’ literary story, or fairytale that includes your pairing of choice (the tale be from any culture or country of origin!)

DAY 4: sunday, 27th october - rollercoaster / superhero au

DAY 5: monday, 28th october - robbery / proposal

DAY 6: tuesday, 29th october - double date / horror au

DAY 7: wednesday, 30th october - free prompt / rarepair

BONUS: thursday, 31st October - write something for HALLOWEEN!

EXTRA INFORMATION:

this is a blog I started as a response to a lack of appreciation + overall content being made for wlw/sapphic fans of the show! many wlw creators have been making content for ages and not getting a lot of appreciation, and (like many other fandoms) it seems that our pairings and stories aren't given as much of a spotlight or appreciation as heterosexual or gay ones.

I also thought it would be fun! There's no pressure to make lengthy 20 chapter fics or portfolio-ready fanart for this event (though you are perfectly at liberty to do so), you can also make pinterest boards, share headcanons, create socmed AUs, or whatever creative outlet you choose, to celebrate the wlw characters and pairings YOU love.

once this event week is over this blog will remain active, reblogging any posts that are late or just sharing more wlw headcanons, content and rarepairs.

[the-dixon-effect]

For a brief moment, the colourful pages of the comic book had captivated you and caused you to lose focus on your actual objective. The mall was cleared of rotters, and it wasn’t exactly like you had somewhere to be. Truth be told, you didn’t know a thing about superheroes, though, during an apocalypse, it didn’t surprise you that the comic book store was the only place that hadn’t been completely ransacked. Gotta start somewhere, you figured. The vivid characters dancing across the thin pages seemed to know exactly where they were, what their purpose was. Not that you particularly understood the absurd plot of the first book that you picked up, but, it was clear to you. This was a time capsule, an artefact of a world left behind where imagination and creativity were the most admirable of traits. Where in a world that could numb you to your core, little girls and boys still dreamed of becoming Superman or Black Widow when they grew up. You snapped out of your daydreams and decided that perhaps it was unhealthy to fixate on the old world too much. Maybe Carl would enjoy some of these, you thought.

“Hey,” a voice came from the entrance of the store, causing you to abruptly turn around and hide the book behind your back. “Still a couple scraps over in tha’ food court. Are ya’ reading?” Daryl drawled, crossbow slung over his shoulder as he moved to enter the store, looking around in a state of somewhat confusion.

“Uhh, yeah,” you began, a little embarrassed to be caught engaging in something so futile, especially by the man who seemed so unappreciative of useless leisure.

“What, ya’ like comic books or somethin’?” he said, leaning over you attempting to get a look at whatever you were reading.

“No, not really, I just never really got the chance to be a kid, y’know.” It seemed strange to be opening up about that subject to Daryl, and though you were friends, he didn’t know much about your past.

“Nah. Me neither.  Merle used ta’ like these comics but I was never into ‘em.”

“Oh, really? What did you wanna be when you were older?” you said, placing the book back on the shelf and turning to meet his eyes.

“When I was little, I always said me and Merle were gon’ be King of the Forest. I mean, that was ‘fore he left,” he laughed a little and you smiled deeply at the brief sound of joy in his voice, before you saddened at the mention of his flaky brother.

“Well, I think you’ve definitely earned that title now. Daryl Dixon, King of the Forest,” you joked. Maybe you were wrong about him.

prompt: “I never really got to be a kid,”

[michaelnordeman]

Amazing photography! I especially love all the nuthatches, they are very unappreciated birds. I hope you enjoy knowing that your lovely cat has a Canadian cousin named Percival

Thank you so much! Nuthatches are wonderful. I often affectionately think of the nuthatches in my garden as the clowns of Käxsundet (that's where I live). They are loud and noisy; they run up and down the trees and they are anything but shy when it comes to finding food. They have those typical nuthatch poses, a little bit like those superhero poses red squirrels sometimes pull off. Oh, and have you ever seen a male nuthatch dance for a potential partner? It's extremely awkward but also very charming. I have some pictures of it somewhere here on my Tumblr.

Percival is very handsome and Keiko sends love to her Canadian cousin!

[ordinaryschmuck]

I have plans for a web comic. Your standard, superhero comic, written and illustrated by me and likely ONLY by me. A comic that has this premise:

"When some of the world's mightiest heroes are discovered to be dead, with more villains growing and super killers out in the world, it's up for humanity's last hope to band together as a single team for justice. Unfortunately, humanity's last hope includes a narcissist, a coward, an idiot keeps losing fights, a homeless person who wants a normal life, a super genius that's thirteen-year-old, a shape-shifting pacifist, and a recovering drunk leading them all. Will they be able to save the world? Well...They'll certainly try."

It'll have lots of stuff that makes superheroes fun. Action, comedy, heroes being human, struggling to do good for both the world and for the people in their lives, tragic backstories that show why the heroes make sure no one has as bad of a day as they did, SELECTIVE intense violence, heroes advocating for redemption over final acts of violence, and some gay characters...Alright, that last one's more or less implied in most superhero content, but why not include here, right?

I love this idea, these characters, and all the plans I have for them. The problem? On the internet, it's a shot in the dark if whether or not what you make is popular. And I don't know if my heart can take it if the first few pages of my comic go up, and only ten people see it with two of them liking it. I can't take it anymore. I've tried three times to make a webcomic, really trying to make something good and pouring everything I have into each one, only for my work to go unnoticed and unappreciated.

"Maybe they're not good."

Yeah. Maybe. Maybe my writing's not good enough to stand out. Maybe my art-style isn't appealing enough to some people. Maybe my jokes aren't funny enough. Maybe my ideas aren't interesting enough. Maybe my story's aren't profound enough. Maybe...I'M not good enough.

...But at least maybe it'll be worth another shot. Who knows, this will finally be the one to worth trying and get a lot of attention. At least, worth trying for a year and see how big the numbers are. But here's the thing: I want to make sure first. I want to know, going in, that I'll have enough people supporting me.

So, here's what I want: 1,000 notes. I don't want money, I don't want donations, I want 1,000 notes on THIS POST to tell me that my creative mind is worth creating again. If I get 1,000 notes, at any point throughout...let's say the rest of the year, then I'll do it.

I'll make another webcomic. And hopefully don't waste my life doing it.

[the-faechild-writes]

Check out Parts 1 and 2 first!

Death stands before me.

And before you ask, no, I do not mean metaphorically.

A being dressed head-to-toe in black and red robes towers over me, every bit as intimidating as you’d think when imagining Death before you.

A little cliche, but maybe that’s for a reason.

“Alina Jones,” Death begins—

I don’t let it finish.

“Please!” I beg, trying to step forward. I can’t move. I’m frozen in place, eyes burning without tears, as I try to bargain with Death. “I can’t be dead, I can’t die! He needs me—NOAH NEEDS ME!”

I can’t see it, but I know Death is grinning underneath its black hood.

“Why,” it begins—

I try to scream more pleas, but nothing comes out.

“Silence,” Death commands. After a moment, it continues slowly: “Why, Alina, do you think I would take a single soul when, through sparing it, I could claim countless more instead?”

What… do you mean? I want to ask.

Before I can, a flash of light sweeps over me like a barreling train.

I’m amidst rubble, bleeding but not injured, as fighting continues above me. Noah lays a few feet away, the glider much further.

I don’t feel his life force.

Time drags as I tear myself from the rubble, crawl to him, and reach for his pulse.

It’s not there.

Death may have spared me, but it didn’t spare Noah.

I hadn’t understood what Death meant by its words of sparing me to ‘claim more instead.’

Now I do.

My power isn’t just healing—it’s aging.

And I am not as kind as Noah.

Without him, there’s nothing stopping me from getting revenge on all those who’ve hurt us—starting with the thing that killed him.

Part 1 | Part 2

Divider from @cafekitsune

[ominous-faechild]

Okay I just want to say I came across a little bit of your superhero story and must say that I absolutely love it. Realistic superheroes dealing with the issues of being superheroes is so much fun and I felt like I was the only person who ever played with it (especially because I’m not much of an action person, so if it was just mixed into there, I wouldn’t have seen it). So, anyways, just wanted to tell you that I love your writing!

Thank you so much!!! I love putting realism (genuine realism, not grimdark) and themes of discrimination and/or poverty in my writing, so it was a given for me to write those into that short! I did it inspired by two different writing prompts which I'll share after I've posted all of the short story, haha. I've seen a good few stories that deal with "what kind of struggles would a superhero go through?", though most of them play it for grimdark or unnecessary angst. Y'know, stuff like Invincible, a lot of modern-day DC, and even Incredibles with the anti-superhero rhetoric.

There'll be two more parts for my superhero short, though! The first of two will have some action mixed in, but the narrator isn't part of it if it makes that better for you! Last is, ah... spoilers. 😉🤭

They'll be out in the next couple days, and I hope you like them too! 🥰

(confession: I might have given an audible "eeeee!" when I read your message. 🥰😊)

[starspangledspanks]

In Another Multiverse: Book 1

IN ANOTHER MULTIVERSE

(Hi lovelies! I got this idea from a Tumblr blog and I can’t remember which one. If you know the original asker please feel free to tag them so I can give them credit. The characters

and the script belongs to marvel exclusively, I just put my character in and she's mine.

NO LIKE GUYS LITERALLY NONE OF ITS MINE I JUST ADDED MY OWN CHARACTER INTO THE SCRIPT AND A FEW SCENES AND CHANGED WHAT I NEEDED TO TO MAKE THE STORY WORK.

This is part 1 and takes place during the original Avengers, the love story will progress as the movies do!!!!)

Another day, another job. Being a SHIELD agent wasn’t exactly all it had cracked up to be. The long hours, and brief days off. Unappreciated and overworked. The only thing keeping me going at this point was the way my fathers eyes lit up at me following in his footsteps. His longtime love for superheroes outweighs his need for a break. I was distracted from my soggy cereal when I heard him enter.

“Hi dad,” I said leaning off the barstool in the kitchen to watch him pop through the door.

“Good Morning pumpkin,” he said, coming in to kiss my forehead.

“Long night?”

“You have no idea. Selvig and Barton are completely brainwashed. Loki’s got the Tesseract and Nick is furious.” he said, grabbing his own bowl and pouring some of the bland cereal in.

“What were they even doing with the cube in the first place? I thought it was supposed to be locked away somewhere?”

“That’s classified,” he said, smirking at me before pouring the milk into the bowl.

“I’m offended.” I feigned being hurt, as if I had been stabbed in the chest.

“Don’t be. The chances of you getting called in for this are high. He sent Widow to retrieve Banner.”

“You’re lying,” The Hulk was not someone I was personally looking forward to meeting. Natasha and I both shared a mutual fear of the monster but not the man.

“Rumor has it Captain America is getting called in,” he said with a huge smile blooming on his face. Dad always had a crush on the Captain. The memorabilia lining the walls of his bedroom, the trading cards he always carried around.

“And I’m sure you’re just jumping at the chance to get him to sign your cards,” I laughed.

“Oh absolutely, they’ll be literally priceless.” He smiled, taking a bite of the corn flakes. I smiled at his enthusiasm before gathering my bag and jacket.

“I have to go, duty calls, see you tonight?” I asked before giving him a hug.

“Tonight,” he said, kissing my head before I made my way out the door. The walk was brief before my phone chimed in my bag. Stopping to pull it out, the picture I had snuck of Director Fury that one time lighting up the screen. He had been begging me to delete it for a year., his one good eye bulging in surprise.

“This is Coulson,” I said phone to my ear.

“Coulson, I need you in Brooklyn. You should be getting the address now.” I lifted the phone to see the address, the message flashing on the screen.

“I’ll be there in 30, sir.”

“You have 15.” He said, hanging up the phone. 

“Shi-” I tossed the phone back into my bag before hurriedly turning to the street to hail a cab. Getting to Brooklyn would take at least 20 minutes with morning traffic. But I reminded myself I did tell him 30. He could be upset about it later. I hopped in the cab giving the driver directions and tossing him an extra $5 to step on it. Before long I was outside the address tapping my foot. It was an old gym, and Fury was late. The dark armored Suburban pulled up a moment later and the dark mysterious man step[ping out.

“You’re late,” I chimed.

“Don’t start with me, Coulson.”

“What are we doing here sir?” He shot me a side eye.

“Getting help. And Sarah?” he said, me meeting his eyes. “Don’t tell your dad you were here.” He half smiled before making his way into the gym. The air was hazy and hot, the gym walls decorated with old murals of boxers past. The gym was empty besides one man. His back turned to us, beating the absolute shit of a bag. His large shoulders controlled his punches, harder and harder until the bag literally came off its chain and flew across the room. Evident that was a common occurrence with the amount of bags lined up on the floor ready for their turn to be but open. The man sauntered over to another bag before hanging it and started his punches again.

“Trouble sleeping?” Fury's voice broke me from my thoughts. We approached him slowly, making our presence known.

“ Slept for seventy years, Sir. I think I’ve had my fill.” the man answered. Still punching.

“Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world.”

“ When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up- they say we won. They didn’t say what we lost.”

“We’ve made some mistakes along the way, some very recently.”

“You here with a mission, Sir?” He started removing his hand wraps.

“We are.”

“Trying to get me back into the world?” He said starting to remove his other wrap.

“Trying to save it.” I said offering the folder of information to who I had easily deduced was Steve Rogers. My dad would be losing his shit right now.

“Ma’am,” he said, grabbing the folder with a small smile. It quickly faded when he got a load of what was inside.

“HYDRA’s secret weapon.” he deadpanned.

 “Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That’s something the world sorely needs.” Fury explained.

 “Who took it from you?”

“He’s called Loki. He’s- not from around here. There’s a lot we’ll have to bring you up to speed on if you’re in.” Fury said. 

“The world has gotten even stranger than you already know.” I said lightly to the Captain.

“At this point I doubt anything would surprise me.” The soldier got up grabbing another punching bag, throwing it over his shoulder, and his duffel.

“Ten bucks says you’re wrong.” I said, shooting him a playful smile which he returned. 

“There’s a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?” Fury asked as the man headed towards the door.

“You should’ve left it in the ocean.” and with that he was gone.

“Do you think he’ll help?” I asked Fury.

“He’ll help. He didn’t crash a plane into the ocean for nothing.”

“Touche,” I said, playing with my lip.

“I need you and your father to get Stark, he’s got all the information.”

“You think he’ll say yes?” I asked.

“That's what you’re for.” Fury smiled. Stark and I had a soft spot for each other. Strictly platonic. He was like a brother. After the whole Natasha fiasco I was actually his and Peppers assistant for a summer while I trained at SHIELD, and we had become close. Flash to later that evening Dad and I were outside Stark tower, Jarvis not letting us in.

“I just saw him fly in, he’s here.” My dad quipped.

“Give me your phone,” I said, holding out my hand. I made quick work of the AI getting us into the building and into the elevator. A trick Tony should’ve admittedly not told me about.

“Here,” I said after overriding Jarvis and calling Tony back. “Maybe want to warn him we’re on the way up.” I said putting in the floor.

“Mr. Stark, we need to talk.” Dad said holding the phone like he was borderline elderly.

“You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message.” I held in a laugh at that one.

“This is urgent.” dad said.

“Then leave it urgently.” Tony quipped as the elevator opened and we stepped out.

“Security breach! That ones on you,” Tony pointed to me.

“Phil, Sarah, come in!” Pepper said warmly coming over to meet us. I greeted her with a hug.

“Phil?” Tony asked.

“We can’t stay.” I said hugging Tony as well.

“Uh, his name is Agent.” 

“Come in, we are celebrating.” Pepper said, handing me a glass of champagne.

“Which is why they can’t stay,” Tony said, winking at me. I shot him a knowing smile before placing down the champagne I couldn’t have on work hours.

“We need you to look this over, as soon as possible.” Dad said, trying to hand Tony a laptop but receiving a blank stare instead.

“I don’t like being handed things.”

“That’s fine because I love to be handed things. So, let’s trade.” Pepper said, handing her glass to my dad before switching the laptop into Tony’s hand and stealing his drink.

“Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday.” Tony quipped.

“This isn’t a consultation.” I answered.

“Is this about the Avengers?” Pepper asked, all three of us snapping our heads to look at her.

“Which I know nothing about.” she answered, throwing up her hands.

“The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought, and I didn’t even qualify.”

 “I didn’t know that either.” Pepper said.

“Yeah, apparently I’m volatile, self-obsessed, don’t play well with others.”

 “That I did know.” She said, shooting me a smile.

“This isn’t about personality profiles anymore.” Dad said.

“Whatever! Ms. Potts, got a sec?” Tony asked Pepper before she excused herself to go over to him.

“What did you do?” I whispered to dad.

“What do you mean?”

“What were you macking on Pepper?” I hissed.

“NO.” he rolled his eyes at me.

We were interrupted by Tony and Pepper kissing. 

“Work hard.” She said before turning back to us. “So, any chance you’re driving by LaGuardia?”

“I can drop you off.” Dad said.

“Sarah, stay.” Tony motioned to me. I shot dad a smile before they turned to leave.

“Ooh, I want to hear about the ah- cellist, is that still a thing?” Pepper pressed as they left.

Tony was grazing over the information on the holograms floating before him.

“Can I help you, sir?” I said hands behind my back. Tony turned to me feigning disgust.

“Sir, is my father. Drop the theatrics Coulson, what has Fury told you?” he asked, tapping a pen against his palm.

“Honestly? Next to nothing, it’s past my security level. I’ve just been told to get the kids together.” I answered.

“Who’s in so far?”

“Well I know Fury sent Natasha after Banner. Rogers didn’t seem thrilled.” I said. Tony gasped at me.

“Did you meet Captain Stars and Stripes before dear old daddy?”

“He doesn’t know, I’d like to keep it that way, Stark.” I said, folding my arms over my chest.

“Oh c’mon.” he said, waving a hand at me before turning back to his screens. “Let’s find out what Fury’s hiding in his easter eggs.”

.

After a long night of deduction with Tony I was absolutely exhausted by the 6am call time. The bags under my eyes are prevalent. Our orders were to take a quinjet to the Helicarrier and escort Captain Rogers. Dad was absolutely losing his shit.

“We’re about forty minutes out from home base, Sir.” The pilot said to dad as Rogers was watching a video of the Hulk.

“So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?” The captain asked.

 “A lot of people were. You were the world’s first superhero. Banner thought Gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine’s original formula.” Dad was fangirling a little too close to the sun.

 “Didn’t really go his way, did it?” Rogers said.

“When he’s not that thing though, guy’s like a Stephen Hawking.” I said from my chair. The poor man looked at me confused.

“He’s like a- smart person.” I said with a sympathetic smile.

“It’s nice to see you again Miss-?”

“Coulson. Sarah Coulson. Yes there’s a relation.” I said, getting up to shake his hand.

“Steve Rogers.”

“Again?” Dad quipped from his spot. I shrugged in his direction as an apology for not telling him.

“I gotta say- it’s an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was, I was present, while you were unconscious from-the-ice.” Dad said awkwardly. Rogers moved over to the cockpit, my dad following hot on his trail.

“You know it’s really- it’s just a just a huge honor to have you on board- it’s…”

“DAD,” I interrupted him before he could continue his embarrassment.

 “Well, I hope I’m the man for the job,” Rogers answered. 

“Oh you are, absolutely. Ah- we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input.” Dad said.

“Clearly he’s a huge fan,” I teased.

“The uniform? Aren’t the stars and stripes a little...old-fashioned?” Steve said hands on hips. 

“Everything that’s happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned.” My dad reassured him. And he was, old fashioned that is. He was wearing clothes my grandfather would have surely worn was he still here. It was endearing, in a cute innocent kind of way.

“Excuse me for a moment,” dad said as the pilot waved him over. Steve took his seat back in front of me, I was shuffling through some paperwork. A comfortable silence over us when I looked up at the Captain. He was looking at me, almost studying me it seemed.

“Is there something I can help you with, sir?” I asked.

“Uh, no- Please just Steve. I’m sorry I wasn’t trying to be rude I just, I uh-”

“It’s ok,” I laughed. “Just making sure you didn’t have any questions.” I smiled.

“I guess I have one.” he said, bringing a finger to his lips in query.

“Shoot.”

“Are you advanced? You know you have powers?” he asked.

“No I don’t. Just an agent.” I said.

“Then why bring you along? I’m not trying to be rude, I just wonder why Fury would put you through the trouble.”

“I’m basically his assistant. But I help on missions too. Still training but I can fight with the best of them. Nats been my sparring partner for years.” I answered.

“Good to know,” he said. I shot him a smile before the quinjet was set to land. I packed up all my work and headed out the door with the others. Natasha approached as we stood in the doorway, Steve clearly taking it all in.

“Agent Romanoff - Captain Rogers” I said introducing the two.

“Hi” she smiled.

“Ma’am.” he responded. She looked to me before speaking.

“They need you on the bridge; they’re starting the face trace.”

“Got it, see you there. Captain Rogers,” I nodded and smiled before making my way to the bridge to assist. The bridge was a flurry of activity. Agents all over rushing to prepare to sned us into the sky. Minutes later Nat walked in, Dr. Banner and Steve on her tail. The look of shock plastered on their faces at the complicated ship.

“We’re at level, sir.” I said from my control panel.

 “Good! Let’s vanish.” Fury said.

“Engage retro reflection panels.” Hill chimed from next to me. A rumble shook the large carrier as the reflection panels deployed on the underside of the massive structure.

“Reflection panels are engaged sir,” I said to Fury. He turned to the men with a hello nod.

“Gentleman,” he motioned. Steve approached me, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket before flipping through a stack of cash and handing me a $10. I let out a soft giggle before catching Nat’s eye. She sent me a knowing wink and I rolled my eyes.

“Doctor, thank you for coming.”  Banner shook Fury’s hand. 

“Thanks for asking nicely. So, um, how long am I staying?” the doctor sheepishly asked.

“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the wind.”

 “Well where are you with that?” he asked.

“We’re sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops, if it’s connected to a satellite, it’s eyes and ears for us.” I answered. 

“It’s still not gonna find them in time.” Nat chimed from a monitor, Steve looking hopelessly confused in the corner.

“You have to narrow your field. How many Spectrometers do you have access to?” Bruce asked me.

 “How many are there?” I asked.

 “37.” Bruce said. “Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the Spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for Gamma rays. I’ll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?”

 “Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please?” Fury asked.

Natasha walks over to Banner and they begin walking out of the bridge area. 

“You’re gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys.” she smiled.

“Really? Do you have the com-meter sixty-four?” Their voices trailing off as they left. It was my job to keep the bridge going with Hill while we waited for a trace. Steve roamed around the bridge for a while as we did so.

“He’s cute huh?” Hill asked next to me.

“Don’t start with me.” I warned. She laughed at me for the quick tone. Some time passed before I noticed dad standing with Steve. No doubt bugging him about his cards. Jaspers voice suddenly breaks the ebb and flow of the bridge.

“We got a hit. Sixty seven percent match. Wait- cross-match, seventy nine percent.”

 “Location?” I asked, standing at the ready.

 “Stuttgart, Germany. Twenty eight, Königstraße. He’s not exactly hiding.” He said.

“Captain, you’re up.” Fury’s voice barked. Steve nodded and began to walk off, I quickly caught up to him knowing he probably had zero clue where he was even going.

“Need some direction?” I asked.

“Yes actually,” he said. “Thank you.” We bobbed and weaved through the agents busying themselves to get read for the mission that was about to take place. We made our way through the floors silently before I key carded him into the suit bay. The back wall was light from beneath, the uniform for Steve waiting on a mannequin.

“It’s a little brighter than what you’re used to. Dad got creative.” I laughed. His hand reached out to touch the suit, no doubt feeling a lot of feelings.

“You okay?” I asked sympathetically.

“Yeah yeah I’m alright. It’s just the last time I put on the suit-”

“You crashed a plane.” I interrupted. He let out a little laugh.

“Something like that.” he smiled at me.

“You have a whole team backing you on this. We’ve got your back.” I reassured him. He shot me a small smile.

“Good luck Captain.” I said before making my way back to the bridge. It was late by the time they had returned. All looking a bit worse for wear, and apparently with two gods in tow. We all sat at the meeting table in the main bay as we watched Fury interrogate Loki.

“In case it’s unclear, you try to escape- you so much as scratch that glass” Fury pushes a button and the floor beneath the cell drops away to nothing, the wind screams. “Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?” He pushed the button again and teh floor closed.

He gestured first to Loki. “Ant.” Then back to the panel. “Boot.”

“It’s an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.” Loki ekissed.

“Built for something a lot stronger than you.”

“Oh I’ve heard.” Loki looked directly into the camera then. “A mindless beast- makes play he’s still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?”

“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can’t hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill ’cause it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.” Fury explained.

“Ooh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power- unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is.” Loki hissed.

“Well, let me know if ’real power’ wants a magazine or something.” Fury said before leaving the room. We all turned off the stream at that point.

“He really just grows on you doesn’t he?” I snarked. Steve looked at me and let out a scoff before talking.

“Loki’s gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what’s his play?”

“He has an army called the Chitauri. They’re not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead the against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.” The blonde god answered.

“An army, from outer space?” Steve asked.

“So, he’s building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for.” Bruce chimed.

“Selvig?” Thor asked.

“He’s an astrophysicist.” I said.

 “He’s a friend.”

“Loki has them under some kind of spell- along with one of ours.” Natasha looked down and to the side. 

“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here.” Steve said.

“I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him.” Bruce said.

“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother.” Thor said.

“And that’s cause for a break?” I asked. “He killed eighty people in two days.”

“He’s adopted?”

“I think it’s about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?” Bruce asked. At that moment Tony and my dad entered.

“It’s a stabilizing agent.” he said before turning back to my dad. “I’m saying, take a weekend; I’ll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive.” He patted my dads shoulder before he peeled off.

“Means the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings point break, you got a mean swing.” he said, patting Thor's bicep.

“Maybe now isn’t the best time to anger the god Stark?” I chided.

“Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. Ah, raise the mizzen mast, ship the topsails.” Tony gestured to the crew members who shot back a confused glance.

“That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did.” Tony was standing at the main controls now. Covering one eye and spinning around.

“How does Fury even see these?” he asked.

“He turns.” I said in a tone.

“Sounds exhausting!” He quipped, messing with the screens. I didn’t miss him placing something under the screen, the rest of the team not noticing however.

“The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kick start the Cube.” He said, clicking his fingers.

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” I asked.

“Last night. The packet, Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?” he asked back. I crossed my arms over my chest before sinking a bit.

“I did the reading…”

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked. How he even was following on was a mystery to me as I barely was.

“He’d have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.” Bruce said.

“Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect.”

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.” Bruce answered.

“Finally. Someone who speaks English.” Tony quipped.

“Is that what just happened?” Steve asked to the rest of us.

“Get a room,” I teased the two men.

“It’s good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

Tony said to Bruce.

“TONY!” I chided.

“Mom,” he smirked at me.

“Thanks.” Bruce said sheepishly.

 “Doctor Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him.” Fury said entering the room.

“I’d start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.” Steve added.

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” Fury said.

“Monkeys? I do not understand-”

“I do!” Steve interrupted Thor. The entire room fell into silence. “I...I understood that reference.”

“Shall we play, Doctor?” Tony asked Bruce motioning to the door.

“This way, sir.” Bruce said and the two men walked off. I joined Steve and Nat at the table.

“For what it’s worth I worked under Tony for an entire summer and I have no clue what just happened…” I said putting my feet up on the table.

“Feet off the table,” Dad chirped from the screens. He didn’t even have to look to know what I was up to.

“Tony’s up to something, I just can’t place it.” I said tapping my chin.

“You think he knows something we don’t?” Nat said. I glanced at the small device Tony had placed on the monitor but didn’t mention it. Steve saw me flick my eyes but didn’t register what I was getting at.

“I think he’s going too. Tony may be a pain in the ass but if he’s suspicious it’s for a good reason. I think we need to keep an eye on him.” I said, as I pushed myself out of the chair and away from the table.

“I’ll come with you,” Steve said, doing the same. Nat shot me another quirky look that I quickly dismissed before we headed to the door and towards the lab.

“Is Tony always so hard to deal with?” Steve asked, falling into step next to me.

“He can be immature. We both have this kind of diluted sense of humor. He’s like a brother to me though.”

“So you trust him?” he asked.

“Most of the time…” 

“Most of the time? That’s not very reassuring.” he said as we stopped a few feet away from the lab windows.

“Look I wouldn’t trust him not to eat my sandwich out of the fridge but I’d trust him with my life.” I said turning to face him.

“That’s an interesting opinion,” he said, smiling down at me.

“OW!” We heard Bruce quip from the lab.

“Hey!” Steve said leaving me and stomping into the lab.

“Are you nuts?” He asked Tony. I hadn’t even seen what happened.

“Jury’s out,” Tony said.

“What did you do, Stark?” I said, crossing my arms. He ignored me and turned to Bruce.

“You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?” 

“Is everything a joke to you?” Steve chided.

“Funny things are.” Tony said.

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, Doc.” Steve sadi turning to Bruce.

“No it’s alright. I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things.” Bruce said.

“Tony, you can’t be serious. You know how dangerous this is?” I said.

“You sound like Captain popsicle, calm down.” Tony said before turning to Bruce. “You’re tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut.”

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mister Stark.” Steve said hands on his belt.

“You think I’m not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.” Tony responded.

“You think Fury’s hiding something?” Steve asked.

“He’s a spy. Captain, he’s the spy. His secrets have secrets. It’s bugging him to, isn’t it?” Tony gestured to Bruce

“Uh, Aah, I just wanna finish my work here and-”

“Doctor?” Steve interrupted.

“A warm light for all mankind," Loki’s jab at Fury about the Cube”

“I heard it.” Steve said.

“Well, I think that was meant for you.” He gestured to Tony. Who in return offered him a blueberry. “Even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big ugly -” Steve noticed Tony's glare before finishing. “-building in New York?”

“It’s powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?” Bruce asked.

“It’s just the prototype. I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now, that’s what he’s getting at.” Tony said to us.

“So, why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?” Bruce finished.

“I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files.” Tony said.

“I’m sorry did you say-” Steve couldn’t finish.

“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?” Tony said, offering us the fruit. I declined.

“Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around.” Steve said.

“She knew.” Tony gestured to me next.

“Hey don’t bring me into this.” I said putting my hands up pin defense.

“You knew about this?” Steve asked.

“I mean I saw him place the chip…”

“And you didn’t say anything? God what is with all of you people?” Steve said. I felt like I was getting grounded by my father when I was 15 again.

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome.” Tony interjected.

“I think Loki’s trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don’t stay focused he’ll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.” Steve said, looking at me.

“Following’s not really my style.” Tony said, saving me from Caps intense glare.

“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?” Steve smirked at him.

“Out of the people in this room, which one is "A" wearing a spangly outfit and "B" not of use?” Tony chimed.

“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?” I asked. He glanced between all of us.

“Just find the cube.” he said before storming out.

“Gonna follow your boyfriend?” Tony quipped at me. I shot him a glare before leaving to catch up with the captain. He was striding down the hall, I had to jog just to catch up.

“Steve!” I shouted following him. “Wait up-” He turned to me intensely.

“You’re Fury’s closest agent and you’re saying you don’t know what he’s up to? I find that hard to believe.”

“Steve, I'm not cleared for that sort of intel. Fury’s a great director because he can keep a secret. Even from me. You CAN trust me.” I said.

“Fine. Prove it.” He said turning and walking towards the back of the helicarrier.

“And how exactly do I go about doing that?” I asked falling back into step with him.

“Just come with me…” he said as we made our way deep within the large plane before finally coming to the door of the storage area.

“If they're hiding anything I bet it’s in here.” he said looking at the scanner for the door. I approached and swiped my card to enter only to be met with a denied access and a loud beep.

“That’s weird… I should be able to get in here.” I quipped. He placed his arm in front of me, pushing me back and out of the way. He leaned into the door and gave a large shove until the door broke loose before gripping the edge and pushing it the rest of the way open.

“Wow, do you do kids parties?” I teased.

“Not the time,” he said, moving forward silently into the storage facility. He jumped up to the cat walk before reaching down to grab my hand and pull me up after him.

“Through here,” he said, leading me further into the ship and to another room. It was large and cramped. Boxes lined the walls and large crates filled the floor space.

“What is all this?” I asked running a hand over one of the boxes.

“Let’s find out.” he said, grabbing a crowbar and knocking it underneath the lid of one of the crates. He easily made work of the lid before sliding it aside. Much to both our shock and dismay inside the crate was a handful of weapons. Each one a dark reminder of HYDRA. The symbol painted on the side of each one.

“Cap I, I had no idea.”

His jaw clenched before he grabbed one of the guns and turned on his heels.

“What are you doing?” I asked running after him.

“Confronting Fury.” he said. I could barely keep up with him. We quickly arrived at the lab, over hearing Tonys words.

“And you’ll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?” He asked, turning his monitor towards a very shocked looking Fury.

Steve strode into the lab and slammed the gun on the table harshly, me following on his heels. 

“Phase Two is SHIELD used the Cube to make weapons.” he said before turning to Tony. “Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for us.”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we’re-”

Tony turned the screen towards Fury. It showed a plan for some missile.

“What were you lying?” Tony quipped.

“I was wrong, Director. The world hasn’t changed a bit.” Steve said, crossing his arms. 

“You made me a part of this too. You didn’t think I should have a choice in doing your dirty work?” I asked Fury. “And pulled my dad into this? I can’t believe you.”

“Sarah I-” he was interrupted by Nat and Thor walking in.

“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked Natasha.

“You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Nat asked.

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed.” he answered.

 “Loki’s manipulating you.”

 “And you’ve been doing what exactly?” he asked.

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.”

“Yes, and I’m not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.” Bruce asked gesturing to the monitor again.

“Because of him.” Fury said pointing to Thor.

“Me?”

“Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly hilariously, out-gunned.”

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet.” Thor responded.

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you? And, you’re not the only threat. The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched, they can’t be controlled.” Fury said.

“Like you controlled the cube!” Steve chimed.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for A HIGHER FORM OF WAR.” the god boomed.

“A higher form?!” Steve asked.

“You forced our hand! We had to come up with some-”

“Nuclear deterrent? ’Cause that always calms everything right down.” Tony interjected.

The room became a hostile environment of arguments. 

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury quipped.

“I’m sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-”

“Wait-Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?” Tony interrupted Steve.

“I’m sorry, isn’t everything?” Steve mocked. The room became a flurry of voices and yelling. Steve was at Tony, Bruce at Nat, Thor at seemingly everyone. I became so tuned out that I almost missed the scepter start glowing brighter and brighter.

“Guys-” I said trying to get someone, anyones, attention.

“You speak of control, yet you court chaos!” Thor said.

“It’s his MO, isn’t it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re- we’re a time bomb.” Bruce said.

 “You need to step away.” Fury said to Bruce.

 “Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” Tony said, placing his hand on Steve's shoulder. 

“You know damn well why! Back off!”

“Guys…”

“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.” Tony got up in Steves face.

“Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?” 

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

“Guys-”

“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

“I think I would just cut the wire.” Tony snipped.

“Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.” Steve said.

“A hero, like you? You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”

“Put on the suit, let’s go a few rounds.”

“You people are so petty, and tiny.” Thor chimed in.

“Yeah, this is a team.” Bruce stated.

“GUYS-” I said, gripping Steve's arm. His lock on Tony distracted as I did so.

“Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-”

“WHERE? YOU RENTED MY ROOM!” Bruce raised his voice.

“The cell was just-”

“IN CASE YOU NEEDED TO KILL ME. BUT YOU CAN’T, I KNOW, I TRIED!” Everyone turned to him at that. My heart clenched in sadness. “I got low. I didn’t see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?” At this point he had stepped to grab the scepter. All of us instinctively had our hands on our guns at the ready.

“Doctor Banner, put down the scepter.” Steve said stepping in front of me.

Banner looked down, surprised, to see the spear in his hand. The monitor makes a noise, signaling the Tesseract has been located. Bruce puts the scepter back on the table and walks over to the screen on the other side of the room.

“Sorry, kids. You don’t get to see my party trick after all.”

“I can get there faster-” Tony said, turning to leave after the beep of locating the Tesseract.

“You’re not going alone!” Steve said, going back for Tony’s arm. Tony smacked his arm away.

“You gonna stop me?”

“Put on the suit, let’s find out!” Steve said.

“I’m not afraid to hit an old man.”

“Put on the suit.” Steve mocked again.

“Guys enough,” I said, stepping in between the two. Quickly the chaos escalates as Brucde sees something on the monitor.

“Oh my god-” He says before a loud and powerful explosion sends all of us flying. Everyone was thrown in different directions, me, Tony, and Steve tangled together in the entryway of the lab. We scrambled to our feet. Steve looking to Tony.

“Put on the suit.” Steve urged.

“Yep” Tony says running.

“Sarah, you stay with me!” Steve says all of us running down a dark hall. Agents are scurrying everywhere, and there’s panic as we are invaded.

“Find engine three. I’ll meet you there.” Tony said to us. We both agreed and bolted. Holes littered the carrier as we moved. Agents hurt and running around like mad men. We got to the damaged engine. It was a shit show.

“Stark! Stark, we’re here.” I said in the comms.

Tony now in full armor flies out to us. 

“Good. Let’s see what we got.” He said hovering around. He begins to examine the engine, his suit scanning through the different levels of machinery. 

“I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris. I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.” Tony instructed us.

Steve jumped from the catwalk we were at over to the control panel.

“What’s it look like in there?

“It seems to run on some form of electricity.” Steve said sarcastically.

“Well, you’re not wrong. Sarah, I need you to get over there.”

“Tony, it's like a 15 foot jump.” I said loudly over all the commotion.

“Jump, I'll catch you!” Steve said across the way.

“Are you fu-”

“You said I could trust you, can you trust me?” He said.

“Son of a…” I said pressing myself up against the back wall preparing myself for the jump. I huffed out a breath before running and jumping off the catwalk. My jump coming up short, I reached out for Steve's hand. Thank god he caught me.

“STEVE!” I yelled, dangling from his hand. 

“I got you!” He said pulling me up, rolling onto the walkway with him on top of me. Both of us heavy breathing after the near death experience.

“If you two are very much done staring longingly at each other..” Tony chimed in the comm. I popped up quickly to fix the relay before pushed the panel back in.

“’Kay, the relays are intact. What’s our next move?” Steve said.

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won’t re-engage without a jump....I’m gonna have to get in there and push.”

“Tony, if that thing gets up to speed, you’ll get shredded!” I stated.

“Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that should-”

“Speak English!” Steve yelled.

“See that red lever? It’ll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word.”

We both located the lever back across another jump before looking at each other.

“Don’t look at me Rogers, I'm not jumping again.” He makes his way over before two men start engaging us, a grenade thrown in my direction I was thankfully able to deflect. We were battling guys left and right, I was finally able to get my hands on a gun before Steve tossed a man off the carrier. 

“We’re losing altitude!” Fury shouted on the comms. Just then Steve was knocked off balance and sent hurdling over the edge of the walk.

“Steve!” I said gasping as I saw him dangling by a wire. I needed to get back over there. Taking another deep breath I jumped with all my might, thankfully this time making the jump.

“Cap hit the lever!”  Tony rang in our ears.

“I need a minute here!” Steve shouted as I struggled to pull him back to the walk by the wire.

 “Lever! Now!” The second Steve gets a grip on the rail I’m on my feet throwing the lever for Tony.

After a flurry of activity Tony shoots out of the fan before taking out a gunman we hadn’t even seen before crashing. We rushed over to see if he was okay.

“Tony! Are you alright?” I said as he sat up. 

“I’m good. Way to cut it close kid.” He said giving me a thumbs up. We all just kind of giggled and breathed heavily. Taking a moment to compose ourselves before Cap hauled Tony to his feet.

“Agent Coulson is down.” Fury's voice rang through the comms. I felt my breath hitch in my throat. It stopped all together as I waited for a response. My vision tunneling.

“A medical team is on its way to your location.” An unknown agent states. Hot tears welling up in my eyes and I can feel Steve and Tony’s attention on me.

“They’re here…They called it.” Fury said solemnly. Immediately I felt my world crashing down. The hot tears from before spilling over in waves. I needed to see him. I took off in a sprint not even knowing where he was. I could hear someone chasing after me. I rushed to wherever I could see others running hoping he would be there. I was aimlessly running, not being able to find him. I stumbled upon a dead end. Lost. 

“Sarah wait!” It was Steve chasing me. All I could do was turn to face him. He approached me before wrapping his arms around me as I sobbed. I didn’t realize how weak I was until he grabbed me, immediately falling in his arms. And all he did was hold me; there on the floor as sobs racked through my body….

After a while I ended up leaving Steve in that hallway much to his protest. I needed to be alone. I needed to think. My dad had given so much of himself to SHIELD… Did I want to end up the same way? Back in my room I cleaned myself up. The dirt and blood matting my hair needed to go. Putting on my combat suit in preparation for what was to come. We had nothing. No clue where to go from here. But wherever it was I was going to be there. I was going to avenge my fathers death. It wasn’t long until I found myself in the med bay. Natasha and Barton clearly ending a heavy conversation. I silently walked in without saying a word, them both looking at me with pity.

“Oh sweetie I’m so sorry…”Nat trailed off coming to hug me.

“How are you Clint?” I tried to ignore the subject as long as I could. I couldn’t let myself feel the pain.

“I’ll be fine. I’m sorry hun,” he said, also coming to hug me.

“If it’s all the same to you I’d rather not talk about it. If I pretend it didn’t happen long enough we can get through all this mess and I can feel something later..” I trailed off. If anyone was going to understand it was Nat. A knowing hand placed on my shoulder by her in acknowledgment. Clint headed to the bathroom.

“Are you okay? I heard you had a tumble with Bruce.” I asked the red head.

“You know how we always talked about how scary it would be?” I nodded to answer. “It was way scarier than we could ever imagine.”

Cap interrupted us storming into the med bay fully suited up.

“Time to go.” he said.

“Go where?” Nat asked puzzled.

“I’ll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?” he asked her.

“I can.” I chimed.

“No, you’re not coming.” Steve chided. I was shocked. After everything I wasn’t coming?

Barton entered from the restroom, drying his hands.

“I can.” he says.

 “Got a suit?”

“Yeah.”

“Then suit up.” Cap says before turning on his heels. I shot Nat a look before chasing after the captain.

“Cap?” I asked, trying to keep up. No response.

“Cap?” No response.

“STEVE!” I shouted coming to a halt as he did, before turning to look at me.

“ ‘You’re not coming’ “ I air quoted at him “What the hell?”

“You’re compromised, I can’t have you in the field putting the other members at risk because of your emotions.” he said.

“My emotions are just fine Captain Rogers I assure you.”

“You just lost your da-” I held a hand up to stop him.

“Captain Rogers, whether you like it or not I will find my way to wherever it is that you are going. So you either let me go with you or I crash land your party my way.”

“Sarah…” he trailed.

“So what’s it going to be?” I asked, hands on my hips. He looked me up and down for a moment weighing his options.

“Very well Agent Coulson…” A coldness in his voice I could tell was shock by my defiance.

Before long the four of us are making our way to the quinjet.

“Hey, you guys aren’t authorized to be in here.” The agent said as we entered.

“Son, just don’t!” Steve said. Nat and I rolled our eyes at each other before we were taking off to New York as the captain had explained. When we got there a large blue beam was shining bright off the top of Stark tower into the sky.

“Stark, we’re on a…” Nat began. “...three heading north east.”

“What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing that park, I’m gonna lay ’em out for you.”

The next few minutes were fast action paced flying through the streets of New York blasting whatever Chitauri that came upon us. Twisting and turning to throw them into buildings. Eventually we were hit, spinning through the air as we crashed. Nat and CLint did their best to pilot as we spun out of control. Cap and I both hanging onto the roof of the quinjet for dear life. Him wrapping an arm around me as we spun out of control before crash landing in the street. The hangar door of the jet swooshing open for all of us to exit. Outside was chaos, explosions abounded and the aliens were flying through the air in every direction.

“We gotta get back up there.” I said as we looked up to Stark tower, running onto the overpass.

Just then an enormous armored Leviathan enters through the space portal, it seems like a warship as more warriors jump out the sides and onto surrounding buildings.

“Stark, are you seeing this?” Steve asks.

Seeing. still working on believing...Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?” 

“Banner?” Steve asks.

“Just keep me posted.” 

“I think you owe me another ten bucks Rogers,” I joked as we took in the aliens creeping down the sides of the buildings.

“I owe you a hell of a lot more than that…” he trailed.

“Get a room” Tony, Clint, and Nat all said in unison. Before long we are all fighting with the Chitauri. Barton and Natasha are crouched behind a taxi cab. Cap runs over to them to say something as I’m still firing my guns down the bridge. Steves back next to me in a moment.

“Come on, we have to help the people under the bridge they’re sitting ducks down there,” he says before jumping off the bridge. I grab my wire and hook it to a bus before jumping off the bridge and lowering myself to the ground behind him. Unclipping myself quickly as he doesn’t stop to wait. We guided people to what little safety there was as we ran, not long before coming to a group of cops. Steve jumping up onto one of the cars in front of us.

“You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they can be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basement or through the subway, you keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th-” 

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” The cop asks before two Chitauri warriors attack Cap, he fights them off easily then turns back to the two men. The two cops stand shock. The sergeant reacts and walks back to his men.

“I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets. We gonna set up a perimeter all the way down to 39th street.” The cop recites into his radio. Steve jumps down to meet me again.

“That was poetically good timing,” I said as we ran.

“Come on, we need to get back to Clint and Natasha,” he said, taking off faster. nQuickly we are back on the over pass helping the pair fight off the aliens. Thor finally joins us, killing one of the Chitauri with a bolt of lightning.

“What’s the story upstairs?” Steve asks.

“The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable.” He responds.

“Thor is right, we gotta deal with these guys.” Tony says over the comm.

“How do we do this?” I ask.

“As a team.” Steve says.

“I have unfinished business with Loki.” Thor states.

“Oh yeah! Get in line.” I said re racking my gun.

“Save it. Loki’s gonna keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he’s gonna need us to-” He stops when we all realize Bruce is pulling up on an old motorbike. He stops in front of us, getting off as we approach him.

“So, this all seems horrible.” he says.

“I’ve seen worse.” Nat chimes.

“Sorry.”

 “No, we could- use a little worse.” She smiles at him.

 “Stark, we got him.” Steve says.

“Banner?”

 “Just like you said.” I answered.

“Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”  Stark says as he flys around the corner. The giant Leviathan following closely behind.

“I don’t see how that’s a party…” I breathed. Tony brings the creature low barely off the ground as Bruce darts to walk away from us.

“Doctor Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry.” Steve says.

“That’s my secret, Cap… I’m always angry.” He says before he quickly morphs into the Hulk. One smash to the snout sends the creature to the ground. Fully knocking the life out of it. Everyone protects themselves as Tony shoots a missile at it. Cap covering me and Nat with his shield. The Chitauri are sent reeling, sending out horrible screeches in defiance. Hundreds more Chitauri come flying out of the hole. 

“Guys?” Nat asks.

“Call it, Captain.” Tony chimes as he joins us in a defense circle.

“Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we’re gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.” Steve directs.

“Wanna give me a lift?” Clint asks Tony.

“Right. Better clench up, Legolas.” Tony says grabbing CLint and taking off.

“Thor! You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow ’em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up.” Steve instructs. Thor swings Mjolnir, flying off. 

“Nat, Sarah, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk!” Steve says turning to the monster.

“Smash.” with that he's off, knocking down whatever gets in his path

The three of us are absolutely going to town on the stray Chitauri that dare to get near us. Natashas widow bites can be heard in the background and I’m on top of one, stabbing it in the neck before flipping it down to the ground. Nats got an alien weapon in her hand that she nearly shoots Steve with until she realizes it’s him.

“Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don’t close that portal.” she states. 

“Our biggest guns couldn’t touch it.” he says.

“Well, maybe it’s not about guns.”

“You wanna get up there, you’re gonna need a ride.” he responds.

Natasha glanced up, seeing the aliens crafts fly past. I could see the wheels turning in her head.

“Nat…” I warned.

“I got a ride. I could use a boost though.” she smiles.

“You sure about this?” I ask. Steves already readying his shield.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fun!” She says if she runs at Cap before jumping onto his shield and him boosting her up as high as he can. She grasps a flying vehicle and she's off.

“Nat, you are so my favorite Avenger.” I state as I glance to see more Chitauri approaching us.

“You ready for more?” Steve asks.

“Are you kidding? I could do this all day.” I said winking at him, knowing his go to line from my father. He’d be so proud of me right now. But I block that down as much as I can and get my anger out on the stupid aliens. Slashing and shooting as much as I possibly can. Barton calls for Steve to clear a bank after a moment.

“Go! I’ll be fine!” I said taking down another alien. He hesitates for a moment before taking off. Things keep escalating and the fights continue. At one point I’m knocked so hard in the head the ear piece I have is nowhere to be found. There’s too much to do to bother to look. I kust keep fighting. Fighting for what seems like hours before a familiar shield knocks an alien right to the ground in front of me before returning back to its owner.

“Thanks.” I state. Thor coming to land next to us. We continue to battle, becoming almost overwhelmed. Suddenly, Cap is shot in the ribs and drops to the ground, Thor sends a car rolling towards some of them and them throws Mjolnir in the other way before helping Steve to his feet. 

“You ready for another bout?” Thor asks us.

 “What, you gettin’ sleepy?” he responds.

“Yes actually,” I say cutting open another alien. Its blood now covering me. I can see Steve hold his ear at the comm.

“Do it!” he yells. I have no idea what's going on at this point. He waits another second before saying.

“Stark, these things are still coming!” he adds. Another pause.

“You know that’s a one way trip?” I am completely not paying attention to anything when Stark flys by holding what appears to a missile. We are all watching when suddenly I feel a sharp pain at my side. One of those little fuckers stabbed me! I turn around shooting it directly in the heart and it drops before me. I look down and see the blade sticking out of my side. Blood dripping down my hands as I feel the wound. I drop to my knees.

“Sarah!” Steve shouts, both him and Thor running over to me. I keep my hand pressed to the wound to try to slow the bleeding. I know it wont kill me, but boy does it hurt.

“What kind of cosmic coincidence is it to get stabbed like your dad?” I ask Steve putting his shoulder under my arm to keep me upright on my knees. 

“Don’t speak of such things,” Thor chimes. We all look back up to see Tony fly into the portal with the missile. A sigh of relief washing over all of us. Waiting a moment hoping and praying he would come down, but nothing. Tears fill my eyes again, I don’t want to lose another person I’m so dearly close with.

“Close it,” Steve says next to me still holding me up. I have no comms so I cannot protest. The blue ray in the sky slowly closes and the hole vanishes before our eyes.

“No…” I breathe before we all notice a red dot falling out of the sky.

“Son of a gun…” Steve says next to me.

“He’s not slowing down,” Thor says starting to swing his hammer to retrieve him.

Before he can lift off Hulk flies through the sky catching Tony and crash landing near us. He rolls Tony off his side and close by. Thor grabbing his face plate and listening for his heartbeat. Silence falls over us until Hulk lets out an enormous scream, startling Tony and waking him up.

“What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me. Unless it’s Sarah.” he gasps.

“We won.” Steve breaths from under my arm.

“Alright, Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.” Tony says still laying on the ground.

 “We’re not finished yet.” Thor says. 

“And then shawarma after?” Tony asks. I was not present to bring Loki in unfortunately. The bleeding in my side became too much to bare and I was whisked away to be treated. My injuries were not life threatening. I was released to go but stayed in the Helicarrier. I couldn’t bear going home…

A couple days later we all at met at Central Park to say our farewells to Thor and to see off the prisoner. We all say our goodbyes as Thor holds the Tesseract in a tube. 

“Thank you.. For everything.” I say giving Thor a big hug.

“You are most welcome earth princess.” he says.

“A princess? I’ll take it.” I say smiling at him before turning my attention to Loki who was gagged like an animal.

“You took away the most important thing in my life… now you don’t get to live yours.” I sneered at the god. His eyes were cowardice.

Someone grasped my hand behind me and I turned to find Steve. He gave me a small smile and pulled me back toward him as Thor twisted the tube and a beam of light sent them somewhere else. Tony approached us, shaking Steves hand.

“New car?” I asked him, looking at the beautiful vehicle.

“Gift to myself for saving the world, ya know. It’s the little things.” He smiled at me. “What are you gonna do?”

“Well now that my entire family is dead and SHIELD is basically shut down until further notice I genuinely have no clue. I suppose I'll figure out what I’m gonna do with the house…” I trailed off thinking about all the things I needed to do. A funeral, sell the house? Clean out the house? Who knows.

“You’re welcome to stay with us at Stark tower. I mean it’ll be under construction for a while but,” Tony says.

“You know… I may just take you up on that.” I smile at him before he gets into his car with Bruce and they pull off into the sunset. Pretty soon it’s just me and Steve left.

“So…Now what?” he asks beside me as I watch the fountain we’re near.

“You know everyone keeps asking me that.” I shoot him a smile. “I guess maybe I’ll start with the house. I can’t be there. Not without my dad…”

“I know. His death was not in vain…”

“I know I know I just- can’t help but feel like he’d want something else for me. Maybe I need to step back for a while. Disappear…” I answered.

“Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” he said. “But if that's the case… before you disappear will you have dinner with me?” he asked. I looked to him, his big blue eyes giving me the puppy dog stare.

“Is Captain America asking me on a date?” I giggled. He nodded.

“My dad is freaking out up there right now.” I said pointing to the sky. Steve laughed and we both made our way to his bike. Hopping on and riding off into the sunset…

[questionnaire101]

I read a lot of wormfic and also reread a lot. I've been going through Trailblazer and I didn't even know The Weaving Force was still updating. Spacebattles has just been the hub of, well, wormfics. Sure, Sufficient Velocity, AO3, Fanfiction.Net, and Questionable Questing exist, but it's not too comparable to SB. I prefer SB's overall tone. The colors make it much easier to read at night. The others have customizations, yeah, but are they enough to make it so I don't make my eyes bleed? (Actually, they all make my eyes hurt, I should stop reading fics so late). However, AO3 is much easier to just manage. I guess it's the culture around it? I'm someone who likes well-written long stories. It's kept me out of a lot of one-shots because I just want to read more than 100 words per chapter. That's not to say I don't like short stories, I still read one-shots from time to time, but my tastes are pretty clear. However, there's been a surprisingly decent amount of research on optimized reader attention for fanfics. People like having the medium of words, enough so that they can keep themselves at the edge of their seats. It's why I think web serials work the way they do. I always liked them because they're notoriously long without the limits of traditional books. Not to say print books aren't good, I go to Barnes & Noble like every other week, but to have an entire story just there and for free? There's a quality difference for sure. But Worm, the first Web Serial I ever read, was the thing that settled it for me. It's such a unique take on the superhero genre with elements like Unreliable Narrators and Grimdark elements that just sang to me so well. They keep you there, waiting for the next chapter to be released, and you just want to keep reading more and more. That's what a lot of writers want, really. It's recognition for their time and effort, to cultivate interest in something they've really enjoyed. Web Serials and fanfics, all do that with surprising results. Fanfiction in general gets a bad rep. You can walk up to someone, and tell them you write fanfiction, and their face can crumble quite easily. People associate fanfiction with poor-quality writers and certain...works that shouldn't be shown to the general public. I always wondered, is it because it's just an extremely loud minority? There are a lot of good fics out there, quality work that I would expect from some top-notch author. And then I realized they are top-notch authors. It's that stipulation, that idea that fanfic writers are different from "actual" authors. The only difference is the area it affects. Anyone can make a book, but few can get the recognition it deserves. Underrated, unappreciated, and ignored. Fanfiction writers aren't understood. I think they should be. I see people saying reading fanfics is their guilty pleasure, it shouldn't be something to be guilty of. They should be proud to read history.

[racefortheironthrone]

Not really directly related to the X-Men, but did you ever read the original series for the Power Pack? What did you think?

I'm a big Power Pack fan, having started with their intersections with the Claremont run - as I've talked about in the past, Claremont, Simonson, et al. were masters of the crossover, so it was natural that they would want to give a push to Weezy's characters in the X-books - that are rightfully considered classics because of the way they deftly managed pretty dark themes through the perspective of children.

As for their own adventures, the Power Pack are an unappreciated gem in Marvel's storied eighties, because of the way they break from the Marvel formula while operating seamlessly within the larger universe.

See, from the beginning of the Silver Age, Marvel differentiated itself from the Distinguished Competition by focusing like a laser on the teenage market rather than children. That's why Johnny Storm was a hotheaded teenage hearthrob, that's why Peter Parker started out as a normal, socially-awkward teen (just like you!), that's why the 05 X-Men were the "strangest teens of all!"

What Louise Simonson and June Brigman did with the Power Pack was to reinvent the child-centric focus of Golden Age D.C (think Robin and Superboy) and Charlton Comics (think the original Captain Marvel). Unlike those earlier child sidekicks and superkids, Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Power were not one-dimensional plucky moppets or precocious tiny adults.

Showing an impressive insight into child psychology, Weezy made them emotionally complex but also unmistakably still-in-development children, who were innocent and curious and boisterous but who also had tempers and got into fights with their siblings, or got scared and cried sometimes, who struggled with the desire for maturity and autonomy and the need for comfort and support from their parents. At the same time, June Brigman managed to do something that most professional comics artists notoriously struggle with: draw kids who looked like real kids, who were allowed to look goofy or awkward or gangly or rolypoly, rather than the idealized forms set down by the Nine Old Men.

And somehow, this alchemy made this book unusually emotionally resonant - although I may be something of an easy mark, because the Power Pack kids happened to be the children of Columbia University professors growing up in NYC's Upper West Side in the early 80s, just like me irl. While wrapped in a candy coating of kid superheroes with cool physics-based powers (Alex can control gravity by touching people or objects, Julie can turn into both waves and particles of light and fly at lightspeed, Jack can alter his body's density to become a miniature juggernaut or a living cloud, and five-year old Katie can turn matter into energy, absorb it, and fire it at the bad guys - the living embodiment of E=MC^2) fighting the evil alien Snarks with the help of a sentient spaceship, the Powers kids had to wrestle with having to hide their superheroics from their parents and the anxiety and guilt that resulted from that, and in their adventures they dealt with heavy topics like child abuse, gun violence, school bullying, mental illness and kidnapping and homelessness, and on and on.

Indeed, in the pages of X-Men, the Power Pack would go into the sewers under Manhattan to fight Sabertooth and the Marauders during the genocidal Morlock Massace, witness Wolverine wrestling with his humanity and his berserker rage in the Canadian wilderness, and fight to save Midtown New York from demonic incursions during Inferno. That's heavy stuff for a bunch of kids ranging from 5 to 12 years old, but somehow the Power Pack managed to make it through the most harrowing of adventures without losing their heroic spirit.

[abbatoirablaze]

Welcome To The Dollhouse, Alone In A Crowded Bed

Word Count: 1.2k

Warnings: slight angst

“And in recent news yet another woman has come forward-“

“Turn that damn thing off, will you sweetpea?” Sweetpea frowned at her benefactor but said nothing as she turned off the large screen television and turned her attention back to him.  Johnny smiled, eyes still closed as he stretched out, pushing some of the other girls a little further away from his naked form.  His eyes opened and he opened his arms, gesturing her towards him, “come back to bed, sweetpea…let’s have ourselves a very good morning.”

A few of the girls murmured a few unappreciative remarks, but they stopped when Johnny opened his eyes once more and shot them glares.

“Why don’t you girls make yourselves useful and get us something to eat!” he suggested, “you both proved that you were tired out after a round or two.”

Trisha removed herself from the bed, agreeing, and Johnny slapped her ass on the way out.

“Atta girl.  Jenna,  why don’t you see if Barnes and Rogers are freed up.  I wanna talk to them about getting a girl for the weekend.”

She made another remark to which Johnny frowned, “what was that?”

“Nothing, Johnny,” she lied, batting her lashes at him, “I’ll go see if they’re free for you.”

“If they aren’t, send Bunny down…I know the super soldiers gave her the authority to help out.”

“Yes sir…”

“Good girl!” he smirked, slapping her ass as she walked out as well.  Johnny sat up in the bed looking at Sweetpea, “You gonna make me get out of this nice warm bed and get you?”

“You’re just as warm as any bed, Johnny!”

He smiled, “Exactly.  So come back to bed, sweetpea…let me warm you up!”

“IS that a request, or a demand?” she teased, stalking back towards the bed. 

Johnny smiled, watching the younger woman crawling back towards him in his shirt, “you know…you’re lucky I let you get away with that mouth.”

“It’s because I’m your favorite.” She grinned, “and I know just how much you like it when that mouth is wrapped around your cock!”

“You are…” he admitted thoughtfully, “and I do love it.  It’s just too bad you’re hooked on someone else and not me.  You know I’d spring you from this place and buy you out in a heartbeat if you would let me.”

She frowned, “Johnny…don’t start up on that.”

“I know you watch the news every day since that cop outside the city was shot,” he frowned, “I know what you’re doing.  I know you watch to make sure that he doesn’t show up on the news…”

“Lee doesn’t mean-“

“Lee,” he chuckled, cutting her off, “see, most girls wouldn’t call him by his first name, let alone try defending him.”

“He’s not as bad as they think.”

“Lot of the girls talk,” he chuckled, snapping his fingers until a spark and flame appeared between them, “lot of them say he likes to get a little fiery with his play…”

“They say the same about you.”

He shrugged, the flame going out on its own, “there’s a difference between me and Bodecker.  I’m a young, in-shape superhero…he’s an aging, overweight sheriff.   Women here put up with a little more if you’ve got more pull.”

“I think Lee’s got plenty of pull, Johnny…”

“That why you still let me pick you up?” he asked, “why you stopped letting him take you upstairs to your room?”

She frowned, “now you’re just being mean, Johnny.”

“Just honest, Sweetpea…”

“I don’t think I like your honesty…”

“Never stopped us before,” he replied with a shrug, “you give it just as well as you take it.  And you only take it when the good sheriff has pissed you off.  So what did he do this time?”

“Just the usual…”

“Oh, that all?” he chuckled, “Lee’s a little worried that he’ll buy out your contract and you’ll change your mind and leave him, so he refused to buy you out when you asked again?”

“Johnny…”

“That why you wanna be alone in a crowded bed, sweetpea?” he asked, “because I know we both felt the same thing last night when all of us were just a tangle of limbs, in a mess of sweat, and orgasms…”

“And what’s that?”

“We were both wondering what the hell we’re doing in a place like this.” He sighed, “especially when we both know that we’re worth so much more than just meaningless orgasms.”

“I had no other option, Johnny.”

“You were working at Stark Towers as an assistant to Barnes and Rogers,” he chuckled as he shook his head, “you always had an option…you just thought you could go off and play live-in whore to get away from your problems because no one bothered to notice you beforehand.”

“And you figured if you stuck your dick in enough of us, you’d forget how alone you are.”

“Sweetpea, I don’t ever forget how alone I am.  Ever…” Johnny chuckled, “I know it…every date I go out on, every woman I fuck, every time I see anyone I know living some bullshit, happy, fulfilled life I remember that no one will ever truly love someone like me…”

“And why couldn’t they?” she asked, “Sue and Reed had each other.  Even Ben has a wife.”

“Because my other half doesn’t exist.  Fire always finds a way to burn it down,” he reminded her, “and in the end, it’s just me…alone in a crowded bed.”

“You’ve got me, Johnny…we can be alone in a crowded bed together.”

“I’m taking you for the weekend,” he said after a moment, “going to pull you from the dollhouse.  We don’t need these others in our way…”

“And why would you do something like that, Johnny?”

“Because I’m going to drop you off on the good sheriff’s front porch…and you’re going to tell him how you feel,” he said firmly, “you two have been avoiding each other for long enough.  And if you don’t tell him, he’s just gonna keep his distance, and you’re going to be a brat and let him do it…and there’s no reason for two people that belong together to go on thinking they need to be alone in a crowded bed.”

“How do you know how he feels, Johnny?” she growled, feeling angry at being told that she was going to have to confront Lee about what was going on, “he left me in that room.  He told me that he was not going to buy me out.”

“And we both know that you are one of the few girls that don’t have to be bought out,” he reminded her, “you’re just testing him, and it’s not funny!”

“I’m not trying to be funny, Johnny…” she spat, pushing herself out of the bed, “how hard is it for you to get it through your head that maybe I gave up my life because there wasn’t anything to it.  That maybe Steve and Bucky offered me the freedom in being one of their girls.  Here I’m wanted.  Here I-“

“Am a hole to fuck!” he agreed, cutting her off, “don’t get me wrong, sweetpea.  You’ve become one of my best friends in here…one of the only chicks that I can have a conversation and a mind-blowing orgasm with, but I know you and Lee have feelings for each other.  And I’ll be damned if I let you throw that away because you two are both too stubborn to see the other person’s side.”