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reactionimagesdaily · 4 years ago

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I dont understand bionicles at all, so maybe a crash course into like. 1) what a bionicle is 2) general plot of the bionicle story? happy 5k btw <3 love ur page!

OH BOY OH BOY, this is a question I've been waiting for. Thank you so much for asking, and I’m glad you like my page!! <333

A couple of disclaimers, before I start: I'm going to focus mostly on the mainline plot, but let it be known that there WERE a bunch of serial stories and comics and games that added to the story overall. Bionicle was, I think, one of the first big instances of a plot that was consumed through a bunch of different mediums.

I'm also going to try and do a lot of streamlining - it's not that I DON'T want to talk about bionicle, but there's 10+ years of story to cover, so... yeah. :P

Also! Sorry in advance to anyone whose 'read more' function doesn't work, because this is gonna be a doozy

So, what is a bionicle? From a meta perspective, Bionicle is a Lego theme that ran from 2001-2010, and was briefly rebooted from 2015-2016. It's name is a mashup of biological chronicle, and it was hugely successful in its time, essentially helping to save the Lego company from bankruptcy. The idea is that you use finnicky technical pieces to build humanoid figures (and sometimes their vehicles!) and then. play with them

From a textual/lore perspective, I'm not sure Bionicle is an in-universe term lol. But the characters that we recognise as 'bionicles' are grouped into a bunch of different classifications - 'Toa', 'Matoran', 'Makuta', 'Glatorian', and so on. The characters are kinda like inverse cyborgs, where there's metal on the outside and flesh and muscle on the inside. They often function like robots (e.g. have removable and replaceable masks that they constantly wear over their faces) but are still essentially living creatures.

So, what's the general plot of the story?

...[inhales deeply] Okay

In the time before time, there's an island called Mata Nui that sits in the middle of the ocean. It's populated by these dinky lil' guys called 'Matoran' that live in six villages organised by elements - fire, water, ice, air, earth, and stone. They eke out a life as best they can, facing dangerous wild animals (collectively called 'Rahi') and worshipping the Great Spirit, who is confusingly also called Mata Nui. (They named the island after him.) The great spirit, they say, once watched over them all, but was long ago forced into an enchanted sleep by his evil brother.

(These are the matoran. Look at these cute little guys :3)

One day, six canisters wash ashore, on the island's golden beaches. And out of these canisters step six strange figures called Toa. Tall, strong, and heavily armed, there is one of these 'Toa' for each of the villages, and each of these guys have control over an element. They are the main 'heroes' of this story.

(These are the six Toa. Here's a fun game - spot the girl!)

Each of the six Toa are named characters - from left to right we have Onua (wise and grounded), Lewa (fun-loving and mischievous), Pohatu (friendly and confident), Tahu (hot-headed and impulsive), Kopaka (cold and quiet), and Gali (intelligent and compromising). Some of the Matoran are also named characters - there's Jaller, the captain of the guard at the fire village, Hahli, a sports player from the water village, Matoro, a translator from the ice village, and Takua, who's technically from the fire village but is also an 'outsider' who tends to wander the island. Takua is especially important because he becomes the Toa's 'chronicler', following them around on their adventures and writing everything down for posterity.

Without getting into too much detail, the Toa spend two real-life years getting into wacky highjinks. They hunt for masks (as aforementioned, the masks they wear can be removed and replaced) that grant them special powers, fight the Rahi, and also face up against a terrifying race of creatures with mind-control powers called the Bohrok that are determined to strip the island of all life. They also fight against a being called Makuta, a mysterious shadowy figure who claims to be the brother that forced Mata Nui into his slumber. When they first meet him, Makuta takes the form of a Matoran to throw them off, before turning into a nebulous black void and doing his best to murder them all to death.

(Makuta as he appears in 2001's 'Mata Nui Online Game'. As far as villain introductions go, marching out to meet all the heroes and then telling them "I bore you, for I am nothing. It is from nothing that you came, and it is into nothing you will go. The people of this world are builders, but look into their hearts, and you will find they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I will destroy you." is pretty fucking solid though I say so myself.)

There’s a lot of cool worldbuilding and mysterious details about the island. At one point, the earth Matoran note that they can only dig so far into the dirt before they come across some hard material - some type of metal - that they just can’t break through. Also, amidst the stars in the sky, there’s an ominous blood-red star that’s appropriately known as the Red Star. What’s it doing there? Nobody knows

Also at one point, the Toa also get mutated into new forms after falling into a liquid that's called 'energized protodermis' but should really be called 'McGuffin Sauce'. There's a lot of changing forms and characters being mutated in this series in general, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Lego always needed new figures to make into toys.

(This is how the Toa look after being mutated. In these forms, they're referred to as the Toa Nuva -and let me assure you that that distinction will soon become necessary. :P)

So, in 2003 in our world (I’m not sure about the timeline within the lore), Takua the chronicler finds a mysterious mask and brings it back to the Turaga, who are the wise old rulers of the Matoran (The most promiment of the Turaga is the Turaga of fire, who’s called Vakama. He’s an even-tempered and wise old man who’s not above hitting villains with his walking stick if they threaten his village.). It turns out that the mask is special - it’s the mask of Light, and it’s part of a prophecy that involves the arrival of a seventh Toa who’s destined to defeat Makuta. So Takua and Jaller go on an adventure to try and find the seventh Toa.

Meanwhile, Makuta isn’t just going to sit around and wait for the Toa who’s destined to defeat him to rock up: he unleashes his secret weapons, the Rahkshi, who are, in lore, suits of armour driven by slugs. Sounds corny - in practice, they’re hella intimidating.

(Look at these bad boys)

Some more adventures happen and, to make a long story short, the Rahkshi kill Jaller and Takua the chronicler puts the mask of light onto his own face, transforming into Takanuva, the Toa of Light. The audience surrogate and ‘weird’ character was the secret hero all along!! I love that honestly.

(Takua and Takanuva - before and after)

As someone with light powers, Takanuva is essentially the perfect counter to the big bad Makuta, who has shadow powers, so he finds Makuta’s lair intent on beating him. Makuta challenges him to a game that’s called ‘Kohlii’ but is basically this universe’s version of lacrosse - Takanuva accepts and proceeds to wipe the floor with him. During their fight, they fall into another conveniently-placed pool of energized protodermis and become merged, forming a new being called ‘Takutanuva’. Takutanuva doesn’t stick around very long, because he’s this weird contradictory being of both light and shadow, but before he fractures he opens a gate underneath Mata Nui and lets the Toa, the Turaga, and some named Matoran get through. Inside, they find a hidden city - a whole other world.

Takutanuva then manages to use his powers to hack the universe and bring Jaller back to life. Hooray! After that, he dies, and Takanuva is back. Makuta is nowhere to be found. [eyes emoji]

So now the Toa, the old Turaga, and a couple of Matoran are inside this whole new location, and they’re all wondering what the heck is going on. Well, not all of them are wondering. Vakama, the head Turaga, steps forward and admits that actually, the six (seven) Toa heros that we’ve come to know and love... aren’t actually the first Toa. Gasp!

The next two years of sets and story are essentially one giant flashback, as Vakama tells the current heroes about adventures past. It turns out that the hidden city they’ve found is called Metru Nui, and once upon a time, Vakama and the other Turaga were Toa themselves, fighting to keep the city and the matoran safe.

(New (old) Toa! The flying green one is Matau, who was a stunt-driving excitable madman, and then on the ground from left to right we have Whenua (nerdy chronicler), Nokama (schoolteacher-turned-superhero), Vakama (anxiety-ridden leader), Nuju (absent-minded stargazer), and Onewa (racist prick who needs (and gets) a character arc). To differentiate themselves from the Toa that we’ve come to know and love, these Toa are the Toa Metru)

They had a bunch of adventures of their own. They fought the Vahki (capture robots upholding an authoritarian police state) and the Morbuzakh (evil sentient vines), and they also had ‘arch enemies’ in the form of the Dark Hunters, who were mercenaries that hunted Toa.

Also, that story about Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep? Not a story so much as a history lesson! Ultimately, the reason that the city of Metru Nui was abandoned was because Mata Nui WAS awake, watching over them all, but then Makuta forced him into slumber and essentially caused a cataclysm. The Matoran were rounded up and forced to sleep as well, and the Toa Metru had to flee the city. When they came back, it had been overrun with Visorak (basically giant spiders), and they had to fight hard to defeat the horde and its leaders and escape with all of the sleeping Matoran.

Once they left Metru Nui (and arrived on the island that would become Mata Nui), the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to wake up all the Matoran - which is how they transformed into the wise old Turaga. Also, the Matoran woke up with no memories, which is how they’d never known about Metru Nui up until this point.

Anyways, after exploring Metru Nui and making plans to move back in, everyone does some digging around and discover something about Mata Nui: his spirit is fading. Whatever Makuta did to him, it not only put him to sleep, but it’s also slowly killing him. After presumably having an existential crisis, the gang come up with a solution: there’s another legendary mask, the Mask of Life, that should be able to resuscitate Mata Nui, or at the very least, keep him from kicking the bucket while he’s sleeping.

(The Mask of Life! If you look closely, you can see that the faceplate is shaped like a humanoid figure (because, yaknow, life) and if you think that’s not the tightest shit ever you can get out of my face)

So, the modern-day Toa (the Toa Nuva, if you guys remember the name) are like ‘okay, give us the location of the mask, we’ll go and find it’. So they get sent to another island, this one called Voya Nui, and they arrive and... get their asses handed to them? What?

A quick backtrack: a gang of thugs called the Piraka had already arrived on Voya Nui in search of the Mask of Life, wanting it so they can use its power to blackmail powerful organisations and generally get ahead in the criminal world. (From a Meta perspective, they’re,,, really interesting. Up until this point, the villains in Bionicle had either been wild animals, or villains with grand overarching plans. These guys are basically overpowered street thugs, complete with their own theme song - the ‘Piraka Rap’. Look it up on YouTube; it’s fucking hilarious, because the rest of Bionicle is generally timeless, but the Piraka Rap was basically dated as soon as it came out. I love it.)

(The Piraka themselves! Fun fact; in Bionicle lore, ‘Piraka’ is a slang term for ‘thief’ and ‘murderer’, and was also considered so vulgar that if a Matoran called another Matoran ‘Piraka’, war would be declared over it. These guys are really just going around calling themselves slurs. I have to respect that.)

So, yeah. The Piraka defeat and imprison the Toa Nuva when they get to the island. Now what?

Well, now it’s time for the Matoran to get involved! A group of named and previously-established Matoran set out to see if they can rescue the Toa. There’s Jaller, Hahli, and Matoro, who I’ve already mentioned, and then there’s Kongu, Nuparu, and Hewkii. And I need to take a break to say that all these characters have been with the story since 2001 (it’s now 2006), and they’ve all contributed to the plot before!! Kongu is a prominent Matoran from the air village who led a flight of giant bird-riders to save the day one time, and Nuparu is an engineer from the earth village who basically invented mechs to help the Matoran defend themselves against the Bohrok. These guys are BADASSES and I want to bring up how a really strong initial 3 years of storytelling laid a great foundation for so many small characters. It’s just neat! :D

Anyways, these Matoran travel to the island of Voya Nui in canisters (like how the original Toa landed on Mata Nui) and while they’re sailing the ocean blue, their canisters are struck by lighting from the mysterious Red Star. And that lighting, say it with me now, TRANSFORMS them! Specifically it transforms them into Toa. They end up calling themselves the Toa Inika, because they’re searching for the mask of life, which is also called the ‘Ignika’.

(The Toa Inika. Being transformed by a bolt of lighting means that in addition to their regular elemental powers, they also have electric/lighting abilities.)

Souped-up and ready for action, the Toa Inika manage to defeat the Piraka and rescue the Toa Nuva. However, through plot shenanagins, the Mask of Life ends up being sent to the bottom of the ocean around Voya Nui, and the Toa Inika learn that under the waves is a hidden city - Mahri Nui. As they descend, the Mask of Life does something odd; it sends out a wave of energy, transforming the Toa Inika so that they can breath underwater. So now, they’re the Toa Mahri. (Because they’re headed to Mahri Nui. You get me?)

Mahri Nui is ruled by the Barraki - ancient warlords who were imprisoned under the sea many thousands of years ago after they became powerful enough to threaten Mata Nui himself. They were put in a prison called The Pit, but during the cataclysm caused by Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep, the city of Mahri Nui sunk into the water and slammed into the Pit. Many prisoners and Matoran died, but the Barraki were freed. Uh-oh, spaghetti-ohs.

Speaking of Makuta - guess who’s back! Thought dead after no-one could find him after Takutanuva died, it turns out that his spirit is possessing a robot body that had previously been a prison guard. He spends some time hanging out with one of the Toa Mahri, Matoro, basically playing mind games with him and trying to get him to turn to the dark side. Eventually, three different characters and factions smack the shit out of him, and he slips out of the robot body to go do... something else (watch this space).

This year of story was REALLY plot-heavy and I kinda can’t do it justice here. The important developments are that the Toa Mahri eventually manage to reclaim the Mask of Life, and Matoro yoinks it. While his teammates act as a big distraction, he swims away and puts on the mask. It basically grants him ultimate power, but it also fuckin’ kills him. His final acts are to teleport his friends to safety, and then release a massive burst of energy that burns him up and saves Mata Nui’s life. The Mask of Life, with no-one left to wear it, sinks into the ocean.

(“In his last moments, Matoro feels no fear. He know he has succeeded--the Toa Mahri are safe, able to resume their lives in Metru Nui. The Turaga and Matoran will know that they became true heroes. Matoro does not see himself as a hero. As a Matoran, a Toa Inika, and a Toa Mahri, all he ever tried to do was his duty. Now that duty has led him to his destiny.”- Bionicle Ignition 11: Death of a Hero)

[dries tears] Anyways, now that Mata Nui’s life has been saved, the only thing left to do is wake him back up. To do that, the Toa Nuva (the Toa that showed up at the very beginning of this story, if you recall) need to journey to the core of the universe, and a civilisation called Karda Nui. Three of the Toa Nuva - Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka - are sent to a village in the clouds, where they protect the local matoran and battle the forces of Makuta. Because, as it turns out, the big bad Makuta that we know? Makuta is actually the name of his species. The guy just wanted to feel special, apparently. The Makuta that the Toa have been fighting for over half a decade is technically called Makuta Teridax (or just Teridax), while the other Makuta have other names that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Anyways, while those three Toa are figuring that out, the other three - Tahu, Gali, and Onua - journey to a place called the Swamp of Secrets in order to find a set of keystones that supposedly contain instructions on how to awaken Mata Nui. And it’s there that they find an unlikely ally: the Mask of Life itself.

See, the Mask of Life has always been a weird one - if you recall, it released an energy pulse for no reason that transformed the Toa Mahri and let them breath underwater. (It’s also done some other fucky stuff that I haven’t been able to mention - there’s a short story about how one time, a guy touched it, and it gave him the ability to involuntarily bring everything around him to life, which ultimately drove him mad. So. You know. That’s fun.) Well, it turns out that when the mask sank into the ocean after Matoro’s death, it ultimately ended up in the swamps of Karda Nui, and it senses the battles raging about it. More than that, but it remembers Matoro’s bravery as he donned the mask knowing it would kill him, and remembers how his final wish was to save his friends. Wanting to know what it means to be a hero, the Mask of Life creates a body for itself, and ventures out into the swamp to discover its destiny.

(The Mask of Life has a body now!! Good for him! Good for him.)

There’s some more shenanigans that I’m skipping over - at one point, Takanuva (Toa of light, remember him?) rocks up to help. Long story short, our eight heroes - Tahu, Gali, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Takanuva, and the Mask of Life - fight their way through the Makuta and into the very core of the universe - the Codrex. Inside, after yet more shenanigans, the Mask of Life figures that in order to wake Mata Nui up, it will have to sacrifice the body it’s built for itself. The moment is sad, but the mask remembers Matoro’s sacrifice, and is inspired to act. He sacrifices his dreams of becoming a hero, and in doing so, becomes a hero... ;_;

The mask flies deep into the Codrex, its body dissolving; when it reaches the bottom, it creates a massive energy storm that the other characters have to escape. (Our heroes make it out - most of the villains end up getting vaporized, big RIP.)

And just like that, the journey is over. After years of battle, the Toa Nuva have completed their purpose, and awakened the great spirit, thus bringing peace back to the land. Everyone meets back up in Metru Nui - the Toa Nuva, the Toa Mahri, the Turaga, the remaining Matoran. It’s a glorious day. And as they gather, something happens.

Deep, deep beneath the ocean, energy pulses through rock, and machines that have been dormant for millennia begin to whirr and move. The island of Mata Nui - long abandoned as the Matoran moved back down into Metru Nui - cracks open like a wallnut, each half sliding into the sea. From underneath where the island had been, a tremendous head rises out of the ocean, countless galleons of water pouring off of it. Titanic shoulders follow. Then the chest, and the limbs, and slowly, surely, Mata Nui rises.

Meta context: for years, the nature of Mata Nui has been a mystery. Is he a metaphysical being? Is he a real person? No-one was sure... but they know now. That solid material that the earth Matoran couldn’t mine through, all the way back in 2001? That was his skin. The mysterious red star that created the Toa Inika? That was a failsafe machine orbiting Mata Nui, poised to create new Toa as necessary. The island of Mata Nui was atop his head, Metru Nui was his brain, Karda Nui was deep in his guts. The Matoran were workers to keep him functioning, the Toa were basically his immune system (the canisters they arrive in are literally shaped like pills)... All this time, all these stories, all these characters, this entire world - they have all been inside a robot the size of continents.

(Fucking hell. Look at this. The clouds come up to his ankles.)

Celebrations ripple through Metru Nui as everyone realises what has happened. The great spirit is awake again! The Toa have won! But as the Turaga raise their voices to try and congratulate the Toa, a chill spreads over the spectators as the air grows cold. Everyone stops and looks around. What’s happening now? And then, from everywhere and nowhere, a voice rumbles. It’s a familiar voice. An unwelcome voice. A voice that most of the gathered heroes thought they’d never hear again.

It’s the voice of Makuta - the original Makuta. Makuta Teridax.

And what does he say?

“I AM EVERYWHERE. I AM EVERYTHING YOU SEE.”

Matoro’s sacrifice had ensured that Mata Nui’s body did not die, but before the great spirit’s consciousness could return, Makuta supplanted it with his own. After that, all he had to do was wait for the Toa Nuva to achieve their objective. And as they finished the fight and won the day, they handed victory to him on a silver platter. No longer does he need to strive to rule the universe - he is the universe.

(Meta perspective again but like: FUCK, man. I can’t emphasise enough how mind-breaking this was for the kids who were invested in the series. Think Thanos snapping his fingers in Infinity War, except probably more devastating, because there wasn’t a direct sequel lined up to give the heroes another chance, and there wasn’t a way to ‘undo’ it. This was a plot development that we all had to live with T_T)

(You can tell things are bad because his eyes changed from green to red.)

And what of Mata Nui? What about the spirit that the Toa were actually trying to wake up?

Oh, Makuta stuffed Mata Nui’s consciousness into the Mask of Life - and then blasted the Mask into space.

[inhales deeply]

man...

Okay, in all honesty, part of me wanted to end it there. But you know what? We’ve come this far. And there is more to the story. So I’m going to ignore my concern I won’t be able to do it justice and blunder on.

Bionicle’s last chapter (2009-2010) follows Mata Nui himself - no longer an abstract spiritual concept, but rather a concrete character. A god felled from his pedestal, struggling to find a way to save his people. And it’s AWESOME. Armed with only the Mask of Life and a sentient shield named Click, he wanders the shithole deserts of the planet he crash-lands on, bringing the disparate tribes together, uncovering secrets about who made him and what his ultimate purpose is, and learning what it means to be a regular person. Also, at one point, in a move very reminiscent of the god that he once was, he turns a guy into a snake. You know. As a ‘fuck you’.

(There’s something really cool to me about a main character being someone who essentially lost all the power of the cosmos. Mata Nui might just be my fave character in this whole story honestly.)

Eventually, Mata Nui discovers some crucial pieces of information. Firstly: the planet that he’s landed on, Bara Magna, is his ‘homeworld’ in that it’s where his giant god body was built. Secondly: the two moons orbiting Bara Magna (the jungle moon of Bota Magna and the ocean moon of Aqua Magna) were once part of the planet itself, and split off during a planet-destroying cataclysm, leaving behind a desert wasteland in their wake. Third: the function he was ultimately built for (his ‘destiny’) was to reunite the three celestial bodies into one planet, bringing life back to Bara Magna’s harsh desert environments. He was on his way to complete this task when Makuta crashed his systems with a computer virus - which was what forced him into the ‘slumber’ that he was in for most of the mainline story.

His fourth, and probably most important discovery, is that he’s essentially his makers’ second attempt at a world-fixing giant robot. Before creating him, his makers (the ‘Great Builders’) constructed a giant robot that malfunctioned and exploded. Long-deactivated, the pieces of it are still scattered through the deserts of Bara Magna - in fact, many of the villages on the planet are set up in or around these giant robot pieces. Mata Nui figures that if he can reconstruct this old robot, he can use it to complete his destiny, and maybe even save his people.

It isn’t easy. He has to convince the villagers he’s come to befriend (the Agori) to give up their homes and their safety, and he has to find an experimental power source that’ll actually get the giant metal body moving again. But eventually, he figures it all out. Powered by the experimental source, the Mask of Life, and probably also friendship, he inhabits this enormous form and rises once again. Without missing a beat, he reaches out and begins to pull the moons towards the main planet. As far as he’s concerned, he’s going to fix everything, or die trying.

(The power of skybeams)

However, it won’t be that simple. Makuta senses that Mata Nui’s spirit has inhabited a new form (and I don’t mean that in a metaphysical way, I mean that in a computer/technology way), and he quickly jets over to Bara Magna. Obviously, flinging the fucker into space wasn’t good enough. It’s time for him to destroy Mata Nui, mano y mano. Giant robot y giant robot.

(Makuta and Mata Nui, facing off. God I love this picture.)

It’s the final battle - for real this time. The two giant robots begin to punch each other, and Mata Nui is up against some obvious disadvantages. For one thing, he can’t risk attacking Makuta with all his might, because he doesn’t want to hurt his people, who are still inside the giant robot. (Inside, they’re fairing... poorly. It’s like facism, but if facism was being actively enforced by God.)

In the fight, a hole gets blasted in Makuta’s body, and out pour a whole LOAD of Rahkshi. (Remember those guys?) However, Tahu and Takanuva also manage to escape, and join a ground battle that’s breaking out between the Agori (and their protectors, the Glatorians), the Skrall (a tribe of warriors native to Bara Magna who are absolute dicks - I’ve had to gloss over them, unfortunately, but believe me when I say that they’ve been major antagonists for as long as the narrative has focused on Bara Magna), and a bunch of guys who are called ‘Piraka’ but aren’t the gang of thugs from Voya Nui. (I think they’re the same... species?) Long story short: large-scale shitfight is happening at the feet of the two robots that are slugging it out. Makuta, being a dick, decides to try and literally stamp on all of Mata Nui’s friends down below, and Mata Nui has to desperately hold him off.

Around this point, the Mask of Life (which is really the MVP of this whole story) uses its convenient energy bursts to imbue Tahu with a set of golden armour that allows him to release energy blasts of its own. (Why it singles out Tahu, I’m not sure, but I’m presuming it’s because Tahu was the first face of the series and it just makes thematic sense for him to be a major player in the final battle.) Tahu uses his new golden armour to disintegrate ALL of the Rahkshi - and there were a lot of them on the field of battle, let me assure you. Makuta feels the loss of so many creations at once, and falters, and Mata Nui seizes his chance. He’d done his work well before Makuta had arrived, and the jungle moon is now in low orbit above the planet. Pouring every last ounce of his strength into one more push, he surges forward and up, pushing Makuta up and making sure that his head is right in the path of the falling planet.

Crunch.

(Kudos to Makuta Teridax for being such a persistent antagonist that the only way to get rid of him for good was to drop an entire damn planet on his head.)

Mata Nui guides the falling body carefully to the ground, letting it open and freeing his people. The remaining Skrall and Piraka surrender. The Matoran and Toa meet and mingle with the Agori and Glatorian. Mata Nui raises his hands, and completes his purpose; aided one last time by the Mask of Life, as well as his body’s innate systems, he enacts a synthesis on the now-united celestial bodies. Lush forests and large bodies of water appear in the desert. Life flourishes. Birds probably start to sing. Mata Nui has completed his purpose, and vindicated all of the heroes who fought for him for so long.

He feels himself fading. He lets his spirit withdraw into the Mask of Life. A new slumber - this one, earned, and of his own volition.

Perhaps one day, he will return.

(“We will honour Mata Nui, and all those who fought for him, in our memories. But the time has come to move on. His destiny is fulfilled, and for many of us, it has yet to be written. My friends, it is time to go.”- Tahu, The Mata Nui Saga, chapter 34.)

And there we go! Very, VERY long, but that’s the general plot of bionicle. There are an absolute tone of details I’ve missed out or skipped over, and I encourage you to search them out for yourself if you’re interested. But them’s the basics! :D

#Also: love (as in romantic love) is 'not canon' in the Bionicle universe. Big win for the aromantics #(I couldn't find a place in my lore explanation to mention that but my friend Zacch insisted I mention it somewhere)#also... fuck me dead this is a long post. I spent literal hours writing all of this down. Was it worth it? probably.#not a pic #Someone asked me a thing!#Ask mood: Don't Get Me Started #bionicle #bionicle lore #bionicle story

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fishoutofcamelot · 5 years ago

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(for the ask thing) any book/tv show/movie/song recommendations?

BRO! I heckin got you man! Now, I’m gonna skip the song and book recommendation bit because that sorta thing isn’t really my scene. BUT! In terms of TV? My rec list is like a mile long. I’m gonna include a read-more line, actually.

BBC Merlin: You know I had to put this on the list. But the fact that you’re on my blog means you’ve probably watched this one, so I won’t go into detail about it. Available on Netflix

Mob Psycho 100: Just a cute, sweet story about a bunch of psychic kids trying to kill each other. A story with this much fighting has no right to be so wholesome. Mob is just a good boy, he doesn’t deserve all this! Fair warning, its messages about identity, self love, and growth WILL make you feel Emotions. Available on various anime pirating websites

Red vs Blue: The found family game is SO strong in this one. By far the best found family plot/dynamic I have ever and will ever experience. The characters are all so solid, yknow? Like it took me three rewatches to understand the plot, but I didn’t even care because I loved the characters SO MUCH. It’s also really, really funny (although some of the jokes have aged a bit poorly tbh). Basically about a bunch of space marines who goof off and accidentally dismantle corrupt governments along the way. Available on Youtube

Supernatural: Is it cringey? Yeah. Does the fandom suck? Also yeah. Is Destiel overrated? BIG yeah. But it’s got monsters, magic, family, and a plot that doesn’t revolve around romance - and really, what more could you ask for? And sure, a lot of people don’t really like the later seasons, but idk I actually prefer them. Season 15 has me THRIVING. I mean come on - character vs author?! Fighting the guy who literally wrote you into existence because he doesn’t want to give your story a happy ending?! Say what you will about Supernatural, but it’s one of the most imaginative shows I’ve ever seen. Available on Netflix

Avatar the Last Airbender: You like stellar animation, intricate worldbuilding/magicbuilding, and a perspective on war that is surprisingly mature for a kids show? Check it out. This show is without a doubt one of the best animated series of all time. Go on. Watch it. It’ll change your life. Available on Netflix

The Umbrella Academy: Time-travelling assassins. Superheroes. Ghosts. Talking monkeys. Murder mysteries. Baller soundtracks. This show will never give you what you expect. I don’t even think I could properly describe it to you. Available on Netflix

Detective Conan: An anime. It’s about a teen detective - think Nancy Drew but bloodier - who witnesses a crime and is fed an experimental poison in order to keep him from telling anyone. But instead of killing him, the poison turns him into a 6-year-old. So now he’s got to solve crimes and take down a criminal organization while in the body of a child. Naturally, shenanigans ensue. Fair warning, the main character becomes a bit of a Mary Sue in later episodes, but the first 300 or so are pretty fun. A few episodes are available on Netflix, but not any of the good ones. You’ll need an anime pirating website for that

Knives Out: My favourite movie ever, of all time. It’s a murder mystery that both subverts and pays homage to its parent genre in all the right places. It’s funny, it’s intelligent, and has a spectacular ending! Although I do wish the fandom would stop being so horny for Ransom, I mean he’s literally racist...No clue where you can find this tbh, I saw it in theatres

Derry Girls: Now I’m not normally a big fan of realistic fiction/sitcom stuff. Despite how funny they are, I’ve not even watched The Office or Parks and Rec because that normal daily life stuff just doesn’t peak my interest. And yet, somehow this story about a group of Irish high schoolers just has me enthralled. Very funny, very well-written, give it a watch. Available on Netflix

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Another anime. Phenomenal animation? Check. Fascinating plot and characters? Check. Detailed magic system that gets my lore-obsessed heart fluttering? Big heckin check. So basically two kids try to use Fantasy Science to bring their mom back to life, only the experiment fails and has some pretty nasty consequences - one boy loses his arm and leg, while the other loses his entire body and has his soul bound to a suit of armour. Now they gotta go through government conspiracies, ethical dilemmas, and Daddy Issues to try and get their bodies back. Available on Netflix

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K: Yet another anime. I know, I know, I’m a nerd, get over it. This show doesn’t have a complex plot or even complex characters, tbh, but what it does have is some amazing humour. It’s extremely funny, and it’s also just a nice show to kick back and relax to. Basically this guy who’s so op that he could rewrite the laws of reality on a whim is stuck dealing with relationship drama in high school despite being very, very asexual and very, very tired. Mostly he just uses his powers to avoid people and eat junk food, which is honestly a mood. Available on Netflix

Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Honestly I’d recommend almost anything that’s Scooby Doo-related because that was my childhood obsession. I used to have like 20 of the movies on DVD before my mom gave them all away. To this day I still love Scooby Doo, and watch it whenever I get the chance. But if you ask any SD fan, they’ll probably tell you that Mystery Incorporated is the best, most intelligent, most creative installment in the franchise. And they’re right (although I do wish there was less relationship drama...) Available on Netflix

Evil Genius: This is a documentary series about the Collar Bomb Robbery. Now, despite what the above list might indicate, I actually watch a LOT of documentaries, and if I were here to recommend all of them then we would be here all day. Not really ‘funny’ like the other entries on this list, it’s actually rather tragic, but definitely a cerebral viewing experience. Available on Netflix

Screwball: Now this is a documentary that IS funny. It’s about drug scandals in baseball. But the dramatic scene re-enactments are done with child actors that are all wearing fake beards and pretending to be drug dealers. It’s not only a fascinating subject, but it’s got amazing editing and visuals that have me in awe. Available on Netflix

Behind the Curve: Yet another documentary. This one’s about the rise of the Flat Earth movement. You’ll spend most of the time on the verge of having a stroke because of how stupid it all is. Available on Netflix

The Movies That Made Us: Okay okay okay last documentary on the list I swear. This one’s exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a series talking about the behind-the-scenes production of iconic movies like Home Alone and Ghostbusters. I eagerly await the second season. Available on Netflix

Monster Factory: If you’re familiar with the McElroy brothers and their brand of humour, you’ll love this. Griffin and Justin team up to make the most disturbing avatars they can create using video game character creators. The origins of the Final Pam meme. If I had a shirt with a quote from Monster Factory on it, I’d die a happy man. Available on Youtube

Baman Piderman: The dumbest show I have ever watched, but it’s so adorable and stupid and I love it so much. It doesn’t really have a plot, but later episodes allude to the presence of one and I’m upset because there are so many mysteries/questions hinted at and we’ll never get answers because it’s been abandoned. PLEASE watch it. Available on Youtube

Stranger Things: Okay, season 2 was a bit of a let-down imo, but season 1 was ICONIC and the Scoops Troop subplot in season 3 deserved its own freakin spinoff. I’m not joking. I didn’t even like s3 all that much, but the only reason it’s my favourite is because the Scoops Troop plot was so great. People call this show ‘horror’ but I don’t think it’s scary enough for that, although it is admittedly kinda spooky. If you like 80s nostalgia and the horror aesthetic, then I’d give it a watch (Do it for Scoops Troop. Do it for Robin). Available on Netflix

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart: Despite my overwhelming love for this film, I’ll be the first to admit it’s kinda mediocre. The plot is weird and the romance feels forced, but despite its flaws it manages to be one of my favourite movies. Mostly I just like it for the unique concept and beautiful ending. Also the music is off the par man. Probably because the writer/producer of the movie was the lead singer for a French band called Dionysus (what? I do my research). Available on Netflix

Wakfu: I haven’t seen past season 3, but so far it’s pretty good. You go in thinking it’s just a wholesome action/adventure show about a kid who can create portals - but then it just. Sucks you in. From its bopping theme song to its fantastic found family to the unique worldbuilding, you very quickly fall in love with it. It’s got a cool plot and also talking dragons, and it doesn’t get better than that. Available on Netflix

Mystery Skulls Animated: Technically not a TV show so much as it is a series of animated music videos with a plot, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the greatest things of all time. It’s basically Scooby Doo but if Shaggy got possessed by a demon and killed Fred, causing Fred to become a ghost hellbent on revenge-killing Shaggy in return. And if Scooby was an ancient Japanese spirit that bit off Shaggy’s arm, forcing him to wear a metal prosthetic. Yeah, MSA is wild. It’s only got three videos out so far, with a fourth one coming out this October, but there’s already so much lore! Available on Youtube

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: Ah yes, yet another cringey entry on this list. But you know what? Cringe culture is dead!!! And despite its fandom being...like that...DHMIS really is a cool show. Think if Sesame Street was like haunted or something. The episodes about creativity and telling time remain the most unsettling, imo. Definitely worth a watch. Available on Youtube

Inanimate Insanity: Oh boy. Am I seriously recommending you dip your little fingies into the object fandom? Yes. Yes I am. This show is so obscure it makes freakin Detective Conan look popular. At its core it’s a parody of Total Drama Island and Survivor but with anthropomorphized inanimate objects as characters (hence the name). Season 2 is actually really, really good and surprisingly competent. You just gotta get through season 1 first. Available on Youtube

The X-Files: Wow, a live action series on this list? Who woulda thought??? But seriously, this show is really fun. Memes and jokes aside, I love it. Scully and Mulder are fun characters with great chemistry (both platonic and romantic), the Lone Horsemen are hilarious, and every episode is a unique adventure into the most creative acid trips the human mind could conceive of. Phenomenal from start to finish (if you ignore the last season). I have no clue where you would watch this. Pirate it, probably

Buzzfeed Unsolved: Two idiots investigate cold cases and haunted locales while being utter dumbasses about it. You know the “hey demons it’s be ya boi” meme? That came from these guys. Available on Youtube

Kingdom: Ngl, I didn’t go into this expecting zombies. Or for it to take place during Korean feudalism, for that matter. But mediocre dubbing aside, this show has such a clever concept. It takes the zombie apocalypse genre and gives refreshing, unique twists to old tropes that they feel like something new. Seo-bi is my wife and she deserves all the love and appreciation in the world, and those are just Facts. Available on Netflix

My Hero Academia: Superhero high school anime. I personally am not a fan of later episodes/arcs, but the first three seasons are pretty dang good. Diverse, colourful ensemble cast that you easily grow to adore, interesting commentary on disability (although I’m not qualified to give any actual takes on that), and a school curriculum that makes me very, very concerned for the wellbeing of these children. Plus all the superpowers - aka ‘quirks’ - are super imaginative and, well, quirky! I just wish people would stop shipping the main character with his childhood bully...You’ll need to pirate this one too lmao

Danny Phantom: The highlight of this show is its ‘phandom’, because unlike someone (*cough* Butch Hartman), we’re not a bunch of cowards. It’s about a guy who messes around with his parents’ lab stuff and accidentally acquires the ability to die! Well, half-die. He can turn into a ghost and fight other ghosts. Although the show never explores the existential, traumatic fallout of being kinda-sorta-dead, the potential for something deep and emotional is there. Plus there is a LOT of accidental subtext for a Big LGBT+ Metaphor. So much so that the Trans Danny theory is basically canon. Uhhh not available on Netflix anymore so it’s time to whip out your pirate hat, matey

And there you have it! Like I said, I have a lot of TV recommendations. And I just KNOW I’m forgetting a ton, but this is already really long so we’ll have to cut off here.

Thanks for the ask! <3

#ask #fish post

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mst3kproject · 5 years ago

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Exo-Man

Failed series pilots were very much part of MST3K’s stock in trade. We’ve sat through San Francisco International, Stranded in Space, Code Name: Diamond Head and I’m sure there were others. I generally recall all of those movies being kind of dull and lacking in personality, and I can’t imagine this 70’s superhero mess being much better. I don’t think anybody in Exo-Man was ever on MST3K but Jose Ferrer (the first Latino actor to win an academy award, for 1950’s Cyrano de Bergerac) was once in a movie called Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, which I am deeply remiss in not having seen yet. You may also recognize Harry Morgan, who was Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H.

Dr. Nick Conrad is a wacky physics professor of the type nobody has ever encountered in real life. He’s somehow both smart enough to invent anti-gravity and memory plastic, and stupid enough to chase after a fleeing would-be bank robber. The latter stunt, set to wakka-chicka Mitchell music, makes Nick the target of a mafia assassin, who kills his lab assistant and leaves Nick himself paralyzed from the waist down. He wallows in self-pity for a while, but then rediscovers his passion for invention and builds himself a suit of armor that will allow him to walk again… and to take on the mob single-handedly.

I don’t know why they called the movie Exo-Man. That name is never used in the dialogue. I guess the more accurate Fiberglass Avenger just wouldn’t have sounded as cool.

The first thing you’re likely to notice from the plot summary is that Nick’s story starts off as Dr. Strange and then takes a hard left into Iron Man. I’m pretty sure the latter at least was an intentional ripoff, with bits of the first thrown in, knowingly or not, to distance Exo-Man from Marvel’s lawyers. What’s funny is that posterity has actually made it a hat trick: the movie opens with a weirdly homoerotic jogging scene, so now he gets to be Captain America, too!

Exo-Man is a really stupid, often boring, and consistently ugly movie. The actors are mediocre, the music bland, the effects terrible, and stuff is made to look ‘high tech’ by sticking lots of blinky lights on it. Way too much time passes before we get to the action and when we do, we find a deep pit of disappointment. Yet at the same time… I kind of enjoyed it.

A major part of why has got to be the incredibly dopey super-suit the main character wears, which looks less like ‘Iron Man’ and more like ‘Fiberglass Commando Cody’. It moves really slowly and I doubt the guy in the costume can see very much. Nick controls the bottom half of it using switches on one sleeve, which appear to have simple functions like ‘sit’, ‘walk’, and ‘jump’ (there is, of course, no ‘run,’ because nothing happens fast in this movie). He puts the thing on by lying down in what looks like a tanning bed (or maybe one of those contraptions from Avatar). My personal favourite is the warning light labeled malfuntion.

All this is in a movie that sometimes manages to be surprisingly subtle. We are introduced to Nick while jogging, we watch him play tennis with his girlfriend, and see him maintain this exercise regime even while he’s supposed to be under police protection. These shots are in brilliant sunshine, and the camerawork is as active as the subjects. Post-injury, Nick never outwardly complains about his inability to participate in sports, but we now see him sitting in his wheelchair in dark surroundings, with the camera held perfectly still. We feel that he has lost something he loved dearly, and we never need to be told it outright.

We are also introduced to Nick as somebody who is devored to furthering minorities. His two lab assistants are an east Asian student and a Jewish one (the latter identified as such by a surname, rather than appearance), and the reason he was at the bank was to help a Latino student get a loan. Again, the script trusts the audience to get this without having to draw attention to it through dialogue. These minority characters are, of course, still just accessories to Nick’s story. The Jewish guy in particular is there to be fridged – its his death that leads to Nick flaunting his police protection and getting hurt. But the effort was made to say that minority rights are important to Nick, without hitting us over the head with it.

Theme-wise, Exo-Man is about a man coming to terms with a disability. I should preface this by saying that I am not disabled, so my perspective is necessarily biased. If anything I say below is offensive, that is out of ignorance, and please let me know so that I may edit or delete the review and do better next time. I was actually pretty impressed by how the script and director handled the life-changing nature of Nick’s injury… mostly. I’ll start with the bad stuff.

The attack on Nick comes with a heaping helping of victim blaming. As an important witness in the bank robbery, he was offered police protection. The assassin tries to get around this by putting a bomb in his car, but one of the lab assistants borrows the car for a late-night pizza run, and gets killed in Nick’s stead. This leads Nick to deliberately place himself in a vulnerable position, hoping to draw the killer out for capture and punishment. In the hospital with a broken back, Nick blames the police for failing to protect him, but I’m pretty sure the movie wants us to think that this is really Nick’s own fault. Like the tragic accident victims in Days of our Years, he has nobody to blame for his own misery, or that of his loved ones, except himself.

After that, however, the movie’s treatment of Nick’s disability improves quickly. His girlfriend Emily leaves him, but that’s not because he’s in a wheelchair, it’s because he’s too busy wallowing in self-pity to even let her into his apartment. Later when he apologizes to her, she takes him back and they resume their happy relationship, and the fact that they can’t play tennis together anymore is not an issue. She does not treat him as something to be pitied, she speaks to him on his eye level, and they avoid that weird trope of having the abled partner sit in the wheelchair-user’s lap. Emily loves who Nick is, not what he can do. His colleagues and students, likewise, treat him with respect and help him with his chair, and never make the latter feel like a burden.

By the end of the film Nick has come to terms with his disability. The suit he’s built is not a cure for his condition: in fact the first time he wears it out, it breaks down and he needs help getting back to his high-tech armored van. It’s a tool he has built for a purpose, and he doesn’t feel the need to wear it in non-superhero situations. Based on what we see, he could have built a legs-only version to wear under his trousers and let him go jogging and play tennis again, but that is no longer who Nick is. And when and whether to wear the suit is always Nick’s own choice, not something imposed on him from the outside.

Of course, it would also be really helpful in later maintaining Exo-Man’s secret identity, and I suspect the writers were thinking of that a lot more than they were of things like parents forcing questionable ‘cures’ on disabled children. The secret identity probably would have been a big deal if the pilot had sold, but in this stand-alone story, I thought the suit worked well as a metaphor about a disabled man at peace with himself.

Exo-Man also takes a quick little peek at the morality of vigilante justice, although this comes in pretty late and clearly isn’t something they wanted to get into in any detail. The first person Nick confronts in the suit is the assassin who actually beat him up. He says he didn’t go into this encounter with any real plan… perhaps he just wanted to scare the guy. What ultimately happens is that the assassin climbs a drainpipe to get away from the terrifying robot man, the pipe comes off the wall, and the man falls to his death. Nick feels this is his fault, and so the next time he takes the suit out he does so with a particular goal in mind: he wants to capture the mob boss and provide evidence of his wrongdoing to the police, not to kill anyone.

The mob boss’ name, by the way, is Kermit Haas, which is probably the least intimidating name a movie has ever given to its big bad.

Would that work? Is evidence a guy in a robot suit left in your dumpster for you admissible in court? Isn’t where stuff was found kind of important? I honestly have no idea and I’m not sure how to go about finding out. People might wonder why I want to know and I don’t think saying it’s for my blog would allay their suspicions.

At the end of Exo-Man, I was more entertained than not, but mostly on the level of laughing at the dumb-looking suit and appreciating the fine art of ripping off comic book characters. If that’s your kind of thing then this movie ought to put the fun in malfuntion for you. If that’s not your thing, well… this is an MST3K blog. What are you doing here?

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #exo-man #tw: abelism #70s

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sebastianshaw · 5 years ago

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@sammysdewysensitiveeyes - I felt bad you weren’t getting a lot of Pyro content in canon, so I wrote you some!

The next member of their team was meant to be arriving today. She was going to be a...most unusual addition. She was human. Pyro didn’t like it. The entire POINT of Krakoa was to keep away from humans who would hurt them. And sure this human allegedly very much did NOT want that, it was why Xavier handpicked her to be involved, and Xavier could vet a person inside and out...but Pyro couldn’t help WORRYING. Maybe she wasn’t a conscious plant, but what if someone was using her without her knowing? How was Xavier checking for THAT? Maybe the rest of Krakoa was happy to put their fate in the hands of men like him and Magneto and Sebastian Shaw, but Pyro was of the firm opinion that the guys on top never really had the best interest of the bottom at heart. But that didn’t mean he’d pass up a chance to roast some Verendi pigs, which was what had just been provided---the ship of their new ally had been attacked en route, big surprise, and thus the current crew of the Marauder---Sebastian, Shinobi, and Pyro---had been deployed to intervene. Shinobi kept their own boat safe while Pyro and Sebastian boarded the other---just in time to witness one of the Verendi hurling a sari-clad woman off the deck by her throat. “Allerdyce, take care of the rest,” said Shaw, tearing his shirt and jacket off with his bear---er, bare---hands. Not taking it off, literally TEARING. “Are you kidding?!” Pyro asked, shocked both at Shaw’s apparent intentions and at how beefed up the old bastard was under those tailored suits. Like he had eyes, he could tell the guy was huge, but JEEZUS. “I’m not having my team fail this early,” Shaw said, “And besides--” The rest came out mid-air as he dove into the drink, “--you’re hardly in swimming shape.” Secretly hoping he ‘teammate’ drowned, Pyro returned to the fray, gleefully keeping the Verendi at bay with his flames. That was the easy part. The hard part was not blowing them up in their stupid suits, or boiling them alive, or--- “ALLERDYCE!” he heard the oh-so-charming shout of his new ‘boss’ barking for him, just as the fun was over. “What, did you--” Pyro started to ask as he hustled over, admittedly not as fast as he could have. “Do the damn chest compressions!” Shaw cut him off. The woman, soaking wet and unconscious--or worse--was laid out on the deck. “Why--” “Because at my current strength I will pulverize her bones!” Shaw bellowed. Pyro didn’t like taking orders from Shaw, but he wasn’t about to let this lady die right in front of him either if half of what he’d heard about her was true, no matter what his misgivings might be about involving her in the Marauders. So he duly obeyed with the compressions, as well as mouth to mouth just so Shaw couldn’t. Because f this woman was an ally to mutantkind she deserved better than that. It worked. She gasped, her body jolting. “Alright, there she is” said Shaw, “You keep her conscious, Allerdyce---someone has to steer this ship.” With that, he departed to find the helm and radio Shinobi to let him know all was well, and knock out any remaining hostiles. Pyro glared at his back as he went, but then quickly turned his attention back to the semi-conscious woman, who was moving slightly now, her eyes glazed. She said something unsteadily in a foreign language. Well, in a language that wasn’t English; Pyro had been a foreigner in Southeast Asia and learned it really a matter of perspective. Speaking of that... “That Gujarati, love?” he asked gently. He couldn’t speak it nor understand it, but he thought he recognized it. He’d never got as far as India in his travels as a journalist, but he’d encountered this language in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malayasia. Sounded a bit different from her though, maybe because she was from India directly. Or just because she was terribly waterlogged. She mumbled something else weakly in the same tongue, putting one of her hands to her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak it,” he said, truly apologetic. The was woman silent for a moment, and her eyes closed. Oh no. Had he lost her? God, Shaw was never going to let him hear the end of it! Then she opened them, and said, “I apologize, I do speak English, I just...needed a moment.” “Take two, you earned ‘em,” Pyro smiled relieved. She began sitting up slowly, and Pyro helped her. “I...assume you saved me?” “Well, I helped,” he said, then amended, “Someone else go you out from the drink but I did the rest, getting you breathing again and all.” “Thank you, so much, I really have no idea what to say,” she sounded rather awed. Oh man, he’d forgotten what it was like to be a superhero! He’d never much cared for that life in general, the idea of just DOING things for people for nothing in return, especially people who HATED you for EXISTING as a mutant, but there had been a few times in Freedom Force like this where he felt really GOOD when people were actually grateful. “Aw it’s---it’s nothing, all in a day’s work really,” he said, puffing his chest as best he could, which was nigh-imperceptible given how skinny he was. “You have my deepest gratitude all the same. You also have a good ear---that was indeed Parsi Gujarati. “Ohhh!” Pyro was pleased he’d been right, “Is that why it sounded a bit off from what I heard ‘round Jakarta?” “You do indeed have a good ear! Yes, it’s very distinct. For instance, we use much softer consonants-- They were interrupted by Shaw’s sardonic tone over the intercom, “ I can see our guest is conscious, Mr. Allerdyce, so if you’re quite done flirting, send her to the helm for briefing before we get to the portal. At your leisure, of course.” Pyro did not say ass aloud but it was very, very much written on his face. *** Pyro was waking up waaay to early at Blackstone, specifically in Shinobi’s ridiculously oversized bed, Shinobi himself beside him. Pyro could tell his companion was going to be out cold for a long time yet, and probably wish he’d slept longer when he did wake up. Pyro would have preferred to just stay in bed himself, but nature called. And after a good long piss into the en suite bathroom---kind of surprised that the toilet wasn’t solid gold, although it did have more features than Shinobi’s phone---Pyro himself had yet to adjust to fancy celluars---found himself restless, and undergoing his typical post-drinking cravings for something salty. Kind of weird since wasn’t booze supposed to dehydrate you, but whatever, old man Shaw surely had some kind of super-fancy dried unicorn meat from a lost continent or whatever hanging around somewhere. He just needed to find it. But the place was a maze. Gilded maze, he made a mental note of that for one of his novels as he wandered the huge halls, intending to use it in the internal monologue of the heroine lost in the Marquis’s opulent mansion that nonetheless held an overbearing evil in its walls as potent and palpable in the air as that in his black heart. Actually shit, some of the decor in this place would make for great--- “Wider than a highway, huh?” Pyro had been so lost in cataloguing the fancy bric-a-brac along the way that he’d not noticed it had been joined by a flesh and blood person. Well, maybe flesh and blood, they looked silver. Certainly all the skin he could see was, which was a lot given their short little black robe, though he in his boxers certainly wasn’t about to be scandalized. Wait, silver skin? “Mindmeld, right?” “Shinobi tell you about me?” she was smirking a little. “Yeah, something like that,” he replied. It was suddenly really hard not to say something rude, given WHAT Shinobi had told him, but reminded himself if this woman was fucking Shaw, she deserved PITY more than anything. Plus it wouldn’t do to piss off her off before she told him where she got that coffee cup in her hand. “He didn’t tell me where to find the kitchen though.” “Which one?” Oh god of course there’d be more than one, Shaw probably didn’t want his food prepared in the same area as Shinobi’s guests since they were all people like Pyro. He groaned, lowering his head and burying his long bony fingers in his dandelion puff blond curls, “Just whichever one has some eggs and espresso.” “Come on,” she gestured lightly and turned, leading the way. Damn tall drink of water, might have been taller than Shaw, though far less broad than he was, but more so than Pyro...admittedly, that range probably covered almost everyone on the planet. She didn’t ask his name, so he offered his with some pride, “I’m Pyro, I’m one of the Marauders.” “Neat.” “‘Spect Mr. Shaw has a few things to say about me.” She looked mildly thoughtful a moment, “Uh...no, never mentioned you. I think I’ve heard the Marauders, but not Pyro.” “How about Mr. Allerdyce?” “Definitely not.” Ok, he was kind of insulted now, not by Mindmeld but he took it out on her anyway with a snippy, “Well he hasn’t mentioned you either.” She just gave him a funny look.” “Sorry,” he said abashed at how stupid and spiteful he sounded, “We just don’t get on too well, me and Sebastian.” “What a surprise.” “So you know he’s a pompous asshole.” “Oh yeah, it’s hilarious,” she said, “Like the other day, these two like, total Eurotrash blonds come in, and he told them they were living proof of how inbreeding ruined the royal Austrian family tree or something, I don’t know, and I just told the guy he shouldn’t wear black if he’s not going to clean the semen stains off it first. The girl, her outfit was great, but nothing I could say was going to be worse than that Basic Bitch haircut.” “So what, you two just hang around talking shit about everyone else like we’re dirt on your shoes?!” Any regret he had about being snippy was suddenly gone. “Yeah, pretty much,” she said, her blase tone not changing. He started to say something else but she turned her head to him and said, tone still the same, “Look, if you’re gonna get precious, I can leave you right here. Next person to find you will probably be him, you know. He’s always up crazy early.” It was a potent threat. Normally Pyro was not afraid at all to deal with that hirsute egomaniac, but in his current state, he was not fit for the battle of barbs. “No, no, lead the way,” he sighed. “Cool,” Mindmeld turned her gaze front again and added, “Sorry you’re mad I’m his dick puppet.” If Pyro had a liquid in his mouth he would have spit it out. He must have made some kind of sound, because she asked, “What, Shinobi not mention that?” “He uh...he mentioned it a lot, yeah. “Good,” she smiled at him, and turned away. Weird. They got to small kitchen, very normal looking. So much so that it felt almost surreally out of place. “Drip’s over there,” Mindmeld pointed. Okay, nice, Shaw had a proper espresso machine. No surprise, he probably kept a full roasting machine and French press and other fancy barista shit in HIS kitchen---he was obviously not using THIS one. While he put on the drip, Mindmeld sat down and started playing idly with a phone left on table, obviously hers. Pyro was sure the bowl of Lucky Charms next to it surely wasn’t Sebastian Shaw’s. “You uh, live here?” “Yeah basically,” she did not look up from her phone, “Beats public housing.” Pyro realized he hadn’t thought about how everyone on Krakoa was living; he’d been basically on a boat the whole time himself. “What, is it bad?” he asked, imagining the crowded slums he’d seen in some of his travels, as well as the crappier apartments he’d stayed in, which was most. “Nah, but this is better.” “Yeah well, the rent seems high to me.” “You just have a different landlord.” “Hey, I’m nobody’s kept--” The espresso shot was ready, and it going off gave him a moment to cool down again. “Sorry, there’s nothing wrong with...with you,” he said, after taking his cup and sitting down across from her, “I just feel bad for Shinobi, he says you two used to be..” . “Together? Kinda, yeah. He tell you the part where he left me to die? or before that, where I was stuck in somebody else’s body and he was still ready to put the guy through a depowering machine while I was inside him?” “I, uh...no.” Was there some kind of mistake? He’d thought Shinobi was harmless. He knew the guy was selfish and spoiled, but it was hard to imagine him that cold. “Yeah, I bet not,” she said, her tone still the same, “He doesn’t seem like he has it in him, does he?” “Uh...no.” “Well, even a rat will bite if it’s back is against the wall,” her eyes rose from her phone and met his intensely, “So if you’re in deep shit, don’t count on him to pull you out.” They went back to her phone, “He’s beautiful though so, you know, keep doing what you’re doing, I’m not judging.” “Uh...” Pyro had no idea what to say to this, “So is that why...” He had thought it had been money, since anything Shinobi had was actually coming from Sebastian, but now he wondered if it was for... “Vengeance? Pyro nodded. “Could you think of a BETTER way?” Pyro admitted he could not. “You must be pretty dedicated,” he said, still not able to get the ‘ick’ feeling quite out. It wasn’t the idea of sex for benefits his skin was crawling at, it was sex with SHAW. He supposed he could see the physical appeal if that man wasn’t so personally repulsive, but... “I mean, I just came back to life like this month” she shrugged idly, “I’ve got nothing from before to go back to, I’ve got nothing else going on.” “I don’t know, you look like you got it going on to me,” Pyro gave an exaggerated wink. That made her snort-laugh. Okay, he felt they were good now. And he felt suddenly a lot warmer to her. Not from knowing she had better reasons than he thought---the reasons unsettled him actually---but because of how similar their situations were. A situation doubtless shared by many Krakoans but he hadn’t had a real chance yet to talk to many Krakoans. He had planned to spend today fixing that actually, going and finding out if what few friends he’d had in his life before were here now. Like Dom. Wondered if Mindmeld had any, a Dom or a Mort or a Fred. Kinda doubted it, somehow. “Hey, uh, listen,” he began. She looked up from her phone. “Do you wanna go...check out the island with me? I been at sea since I came back, I don’t know what’s on it, but there’s got to be SOMETHING people been doing all day for fun, right?” She regarded him a long moment. “Yeah,” she finally said, “I’d like that."

#fic #writing #alt marauders #pyro

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dccomicsnews · 5 years ago

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Now that Arrow has concluded an incredible eight-season run, I couldn’t help reflecting on more than what happened on the show itself during that timespan. It wasn’t just enough to reminisce on what happened to the Emerald Archer on the small screen, but also to look back on what transpired in my own life over that period.

The more I got to thinking, this game-changing TV series was running parallel to my career as a writer. Although Arrow got things started by premiering in October 2012, I wasn’t lagging too far behind when I began as a volunteer contributor at Comic Book Movie in July 2013. As the show grew, I did likewise as a person and a writer – and there was more than a little overlap.

From this point on, I’ll sum up the finer points of my journey so that you can see the affect an inspiring work of fiction such as Arrow can have on a real person. I hope you all enjoy this piece, and you’re more than welcome to share your own stories in the comments section. Our own Damian Fasciani recently wrote a retrospective of his own, so click here if you would like to check out that as well.

My Name Is Oliver Queen, I Mean, Eric Joseph

Like I said, my time as a writer pretty much ran parallel to Arrow as it grew from a standalone superhero show/crime drama into something that birthed an entire universe of comic book adaptations on television. I didn’t stick around at the aforementioned CBM for too long, later making my way to Dark Knight News (2014-17) and We Got This Covered (2015-19).

Along the way, I had the chance to meet various cast members at different points during the series’ lifespan, thereby lending multiple perspectives on the tale as it grew. Some of them them I merely met at conventions, while others I actually got to interview.

Motor City Comic Con (you’re going to see that one referenced a lot) was often the means I had of making this all possible. In 2014 alone, I was able to shake hands with Katie Cassidy (Laurel Lance), John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn) and Robert Knepper (Clock King). Cool as that was, it prepared me for the interview opportunity I’d get with Michael Rowe (Deadshot) in 2015.

2016 was a mixed bag, as I met – but didn’t interview – Katrina Law (Nyssa al Ghul), though I did get to speak with Echo Kellum (Mister Terrific) over the phone. I won’t forget either of those experiences, but I’m holding out hope that Kellum will roll through Detroit as some point so that I may actually meet him face-to-face.

If you’re keeping track, these encounters went down near the conclusions of seasons 2, 3 and 4, respectively, with the Echo Kellum phoner happening right before the “Invasion!” crossover. Dedicated fans of Arrow shouldn’t have to strain themselves remembering what each of these characters were going through at those times, and what it must’ve been like to hear, say, Katie Cassidy tease the inevitable Black Canary reveal, or how Kellum’s Curtis Holt may deal with Dominators.

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Cosplay

It’s at this time I’ll discuss the cosplay element. This is a field to which I’m certainly no stranger, and I always wanted to own an awesome-looking superhero costume. Seeing as how Batman is my favorite character, he’d be a no-brainer, right?

Well, if you’ve looked around at gear online, then you know how Batman costumes that don’t look like crap are quite expensive. This was key in my motivation for instead laying down money on a replica of the Green Arrow suit worn by Stephen Amell in seasons 5-7. For an affordable price, I felt every bit as badass as my onscreen hero, and the compliments from fellow convention attendees never cease whenever I choose to suit up. Heck, I’ve even worn that thing to a cosplay beach party!

Although I wouldn’t mind taking a crack at the Dark Knight at some point, there’s something inherently altruistic I’ve noticed about guys cosplaying as Batman that I don’t think I share. But Oliver Queen (at least The CW’s version) is flawed. He’s made mistakes unlike those of Bruce Wayne’s. He’s done stuff he’s not particularly proud of – but he never stops trying to better himself. That, I found relatable, and it occurs to me when I flip up that hood.

All that said, you couldn’t believe how elated I was when Stephen Amell himself shared a DC group cosplay photo taken at Youmacon 2017 (above) on his Facebook page for one of his “Fan Art Fridays.” Yes, I was the one who submitted it, but to see the man himself deeming myself and the accompanying DC enthusiasts worthy of sharing with his fanbase at large was truly touching.

Which brings me to…

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The Main Event

If I have to single out my favorite event ever attended, that honor will probably go to Motor City Comic Con 2018. Should you have been there as well, then you’ll recall how that particular show was an embarrassment of riches when it came to booking actors from superhero shows – and where I finally met Stephen Amell himself.

Hey, he may have not been doing interviews for that weekend, but getting a photo with him and attending his panel meant the world to me. Despite him being only a few years older in age, that doesn’t mean I can’t look to him as a positive example. I mean, the guy is known for having an incredible connection with his fans, doing charity work, and has even appeared on American Ninja Warrior.

Speaking of which, a lot of praise could be thrown Kirk Acevedo’s way as well. The man responsible for bringing the inhumane Ricardo Diaz to life is actually an awesome person himself. I actually did get to interview him during that weekend, as we discussed what was next for “The Dragon” in season 6.

Before I move on, I’d like to give an honorable mention to one Cress Williams. Black Lightning may have not been part of the Arrowverse at the time, but it sure is now. I likewise interviewed him on behalf of WGTC, as he was just cooling off after a spectacular debut season.

Fadeout

If there’s any impression I’d like this article to leave on you, the reader, it’s that you shouldn’t let anyone tell you it’s silly to say a TV show can impact you. Arrow, The Flash, Black Lightning and countless others can be a driving force in inspiring ourselves to become better people. To Stephen Amell, his co-stars and crew, I thank you all for eight years of phenomenal storytelling – and I hope to once again meet the people mentioned above.

You helped me become someone else…something else.

Reflecting On A Personal Journey Through Arrow's World Now that Arrow has concluded an incredible eight-season run, I couldn't help reflecting on more than what happened on the show itself during that timespan.

#arrow

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dearlazerbunny · 6 years ago

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Lie to Me (Ch. 14 of 28)

Pairings: Loki x Reader

Genre/Ratings: M eventually (aiming for a slow burn here); warnings for kidnapping and subsequent anxiety/PTSD (will be marked before every chapter)

Words: 2,700

Summary: If you had to guess what the captured, traitor, trickster god Loki Laufeyson wanted or needed at this moment, a babysitter would be far, far down on the list. (Set after the events of Avengers 1.)

SHOUTOUT TO @molmcb and @jessiejunebug, who are now happily living in my closet amongst my cosplays and stuffed animals

Requested Tags: @deraniel, @iamverity, @yasnooshka24, @wegingerangelica, @themusingsofmany, @dark-night-sky-99, @tarynkauai, @stuffandstuff-stuff, @angelicshinigami, @my-current-fandom-is, @geekysimmerthings

Another vague email, another secret meeting. Par for the course you suppose. You brace yourself to walk into another room full of superheroes, but thankfully when you push open the door there’s just two relatively standard-stock agents in black suits, albeit with incredibly stony faces. The man gestures for you to sit, and you do so at the head of the table, so the pair are flanking you on either side.

“Hello.” You set your stuff down. “Can I help you?”

The female on your right, wearing her hair in a severe bun, raises a perfectly groomed eyebrow at you. “Do you know why you’re here, agent?”

“No, you guys didn’t exactly put it in the subject line,” you joke, but are met with nothing but glares. Yikes. Tough crowd. “Am I… did I do something?”

“Not precisely.” The man sitting on your left hand side pulls out a few unassuming folders and sets them across from you. “My name is Sitwell. We recently received a few… interesting reports, from Agent Barton.”

Oh, crap. This can’t be good. “I see. What about?”

“How long have you been assigned to Loki, Y/N?”

“Um-” you count back the months in your mind. “It’s been a while. Eight months? Nine?”

“And what would you say your relationship to the prisoner is?”

You can’t help but wince a little at how he says the word prisoner. “Friendly, I guess. I mean, you talk to someone every day for almost a year, you get used to them, I suppose.”

The man- Sitwell- nods. “Agent Barton expressed similar sentiments. While it appears your assignment has been going smoothly, there have been concerns regarding your ability to maintain… neutrality.”

You bristle. “What does that mean?”

He slides a folder towards you, flipping it open. “You were in D.C. for the Incident, correct?” You nod. “I’d like for you to take a look at some photos.”

The first photo, in horrifically excellent quality, is a skyscraper crumpled to ruin, its steel bones twisted and mangled into a fatal position. The street before it is upended, with concrete shattered everywhere.

You know what these pictures are from. You’ve seen the news. The city workers pushing rubble from one place to the next. The memorial reels commemorating the funerals of those caught in the crossfire that day.

Despite trying to brace yourself, your stomach twists at the images of carnage marring New York’s proudest city. You aren’t heartless, you can imagine the anxiety that permeates the alleyways. Once, it was the city that never sleeps. Then someone finally put its lights out.

“If you’ll flip to the last photo, please.” A picture of an incredibly unassuming man greets you. Receding hairline, watery blue eyes, same professional yet nondescript suit everyone wears around SHIELD. You squint at the headshot. His tie has a subtle design on it- do they really make neckties with Captain America’s shield on it?

Apparently you asked that last question out loud, because Sitwell gives you what you assume is the closest you’ll get to a smile from him. “They do, though I believe he had this one specially made.” He sobers. “Did you know Phil Coulson, agent?”

Oh. So this is the agent everyone’s had on the tip of their tongue. Apparently he was a legend around here- Fury’s right-hand man, both the Black Widow and Hawkeye’s handler, not to mention all the fantastical rumors of his own exploits. It’s something of an initiation process, scaring the interns with stories of how he battled his way out of a secret underground HYDRA base and escaped the Amazon with nothing but a Dasani water bottle and a popsicle stick. “No. I mean, I know of him. Everyone does. But he was gone before I transferred.”

Sitwell nods. “Phil Coulson was a very special man. Unfailing loyalty, a sharp eye, and a knack for keeping us all out of trouble.” He pauses. “He was one of my best friends.” You’d known that even before he had told you, just based on the admiration and grief in the agent’s voice. “He was also one of the most personal tragedies to result from the Manhattan Crisis.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.” He nods elegantly, graciously. “There are, of course, dozens of other agents who ended up in the crossfire. Not to mention the civilian count.”

“Why are you showing me this?” You ask tiredly, even though you already know the answer.

“We thought it prudent to remind you who we have in that cell, and why.” The folder is closed; the pictures of a devastated city fade back into history. “Loki Laufeyson is not your friend, agent Y/L/N, nor is he someone to be reformed, rehabilitated, or empathized with.” His words are crisp and incredibly cold; hailstones biting at your cheeks in December. “He is an inter-dimensional war criminal with hundreds of innocent lives hanging over his head. He is a murderer, a manipulator, and a liar. He speared Coulson through the chest and left him to bleed out on the floor. Do not forget that,” he adds gently.

You open your mouth to say- something. To defend him, or yourself, or both. But nothing comes. Sitwell and his friend rise from their seats and tuck cream folders neatly under their arms. “Thank you for your time, agent.” When the door closes behind them, you’re still sitting blankly, imagining Phil Coulson staring blankly at you with just a hint of a smile in his blue eyes.

XXX

“Copper for your thoughts, darling?”

You smile wearily at Loki, head propped on your hand. “It’d be a waste of a penny; I’m not thinking anything in particular.”

“Mmm, I do not believe so. It’d be nothing compared to your attention. But beyond that, something is clearly wrong.” He gestures to you, at your shoulders that are clearly slumped and your fingers twisting anxiously. “Tell me about it?”

You sigh and force yourself to stop fidgeting. “I was called into a meeting. It wasn’t very fun.”

He hums noncommittally, clearly waiting for you to elaborate.

Everything in you hesitates. You don’t want to go there. You really don’t. In the beginning, you told yourself you wouldn’t because it wasn’t your job; later, it didn’t really seem to matter. But if you’re being honest, it’s been digging at the back of your brain for a while now. Every so often you’d be laughing with him and then suddenly stop and think to yourself, this is the man who tried to take over the world. Loki is a tricky, temperamental bastard with a lot of issues, but world domination always seemed a bit… much? You can’t reconcile the carnage downtown with the man sitting across from you. And yet…

“Promise you won’t get mad?”

Loki tilts his head, worried. “I suppose. Is everything alright?”

“… why’d you do it?”

He doesn’t ask what you’re referring to.

For a minute the both of you just look at each other. Your gaze isn’t accusatory, it isn’t angry or demanding- simply confused, and a little sad. Loki, similarity, doesn’t react with heat or deflection or any of his hundreds of other tools of the trade. He looks sad, too, and considers you with a heaviness that’s tangible all the way across the room. “You don’t have to say anything. I just-” you drop head in your hands, as though it’s suddenly too much to hold it up. “If I’m being honest, I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around it for a long time. And then they showed me these pictures, and I guess an agent you, um… stabbed… and it- doesn’t make sense.” You can see your own reflection mirrored over Loki in the glass, just slightly superimposing your features on his own. “I like to think that I know you. I want to think that I know you. But everyone keeps trying to convince me that you’re not the person I think I know.”

You shake your head and laugh a little at yourself with a weary tone. “I’m sorry. I’m probably not making any sense.”

“You always speak intelligently, Witling. I admire you for that.” He laces his hands in front of him, as he does when he wants to keep himself still. “It is… complicated. And incredibly ugly.” He glances at you. “I would not wish to burden you with the story.”

“I’ve got nothing but time.” You smile a little at him, though it’s tinged with melancholy. “And I think we’ve established I’ve got a decent perspective on ugly stories.”

You feel his green eyes on you- such a familiar feeling, even though now it makes you shift anxiously in your seat. “I suppose you deserve to know. You are one of the few who have shown me any grace for my actions.” In a graceful movement, he criss-crosses his long legs in front of him, and lets his elbows rest on his knees. “You know of the events in New Mexico?”

“More or less.”

“It was, in essence, a desperate scheme to win the affections of my father. To prove my worthiness in the eyes of someone who had never seen me as such.” Loki is excellent at hiding his feelings when he wants to, but by now you can see through all the façades he throws up to protect himself. “I had discovered my heritage in… less than ideal circumstances. I believed Thor’s downfall was my chance to claim everything I’d ever yearned for, only to realize those dreams were never possible to begin with. My anger was- immense.” Something in his voice cracks. “I was mourning so many different lives. My childhood, my Aesir form, my father’s son and an heir to Asgard. Everything I had ever known was simply an illusion waiting to be shattered.” He grimaces. “I did not handle it well.”

You don’t think your chest has ever hurt this much. “I don’t think anyone would, Loki. You can’t blame yourself for feeling angry.”

“What has anger every gained us,” he says softly, as though he’s quoting some wise scholar.

You don’t know what to say to that.

“I pleaded with my father over the broken Bifrost,” he says, “asking him if he could ever truly love me the way any child craves. And he denied me that simple need once and for all.”

“Loki-”

He shakes his head. “Thor was holding me aloft over the abyss. He would have pulled me to safety, I am sure of it. But instead- I let go.”

In your entire life, you don’t think you’ve ever heard anyone sound so broken as he does in this moment. It makes you physically ache, and you want to take his grief and shoulder it yourself so he might have a spare moment of peace; let your thumb rub away the lines etched in his face until they smooth into something happier.

“When Thanos found me, I did not have the strength or heart to resist.”

Your eyebrows furrow. “Who is-”

“Don’t,” Loki warns. “Please. He is…” he mumbles a few things under his breath, but in languages you can’t understand. “He is a titan that has risen from the depths intent on his own ideas of perfection. His cruelty is outshone only by his ambition.” You can’t hold back a small noise of dismay when you notice his fingers are trembling. “I could not have fallen into his power at a more opportune time.”

“I will not claim to be wholly innocent. I am not. When he offered me dominion over Thor’s beloved Earth, I did not stay my hand from the weapon he gave me. But only after I received it did I realize his true intentions.” He takes a shaky breath, and presses his spine to the wall behind him, like he needs the support. “Casualties the likes of which you could not imagine. Violence, brutally meted without hesitation. The entire galaxy balanced in the palm of his hand. I tried to run- but I was weak, and now he had a grip on my very being.” The smile he gives is mirthless, haunted. “I am not easily broken. But they did so… effortlessly.”

By now you’ve drawn your knees up to your chest and wrapped your arms around them, curling in on yourself as tight as you can manage. It’s like the room has dropped in temperature, slowly freezing your blood from the inside out. “What did…” you trail off, your voice thin enough to crack the most fragile sheet of ice. “Do I want to know?”

“I would not tell you even if you did.” You roughly wipe away a tear with the heel of your hand. “But the heat was immeasurable, and the scars were thoroughly and deliberately gifted.”

You wince reflexively. “How do you torture a frost giant,” you murmur, trying to push all kinds of horrific images out of your mind.

He nods briefly. “Precisely. All the while the infinity stone was working its power. I can resist thrall more than most, but not completely.”

“You mentioned an infinity stone before.”

“The mind stone is one of them. It is housed in the scepter Thanos gave me; the one I brought to Midgard during the invasion.”

Pieces are coming together one by one, into a warped and twisted sort of understanding. “That scepter- you used it to brainwash Barton, and everyone else.”

“Yes.”

“And it was also… controlling you?”

“Not so completely. I could resist in certain moments.”

“No, but- Loki.” You sit forward, trying to understand what he’s telling you. “It was controlling you. You were being controlled. Just like Barton. Just like all the others.”

“One could say.”

“Loki! This means- it means it wasn’t your fault!” You’re a strange mix of hopefulness, wrath, depression, and enlightenment. “Does SHIELD know this? Do the Avengers?”

“No,” he says fiercely, and he pins you with that gaze of his. “And you will not tell them.”

That stops you short. “Why-?”

“Because I am guilty no matter the circumstances, darling.” His voice is gentle, like he’s trying to let you down easy. “I did not refuse Thanos’ offer.”

“You had just fallen through space and time after your entire identity was stolen from you,” you retort. “Even if the latter hadn’t happened, would you have physically been able to resist after your fall? Enough to escape?”

“I- do not know.”

“Loki.” You sit back and rub your eyes. “This changes everything.”

“It doesn’t.”

“It does! If Barton isn’t being held responsible for what he did when he wasn’t in control of his body then you sure as hell shouldn’t be!”

“Witling-”

“When Fury knows he’ll have to-”

“He will not know! And you-” he looks at you firmly, “will not tell him. Anyone. Promise me, Witling.”

“But why? Loki, you could clear your name-”

“He is the most dangerous thing in the galaxy,” he hisses, “and he will be coming back.” When your eyes widen, Loki closes his own and takes a deep breath to steady himself. “I fear it more than Ragnarok,” he says simply. “I would not bring any more destruction to this world than I already have. At least for now.”

You’re ready to argue, ready to fight with him tooth and nail until he realizes just how not at fault he actually is for this whole catastrophe- but you can’t bring yourself to do it. Not when he’s shivering and vulnerable and minutes away from tipping into a headspace you know would be hell to drag him out of.

“Okay.” He looks at you. “I- I don’t agree with it. But I trust you. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

“Thank you.”

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “Thank you for telling me.”

Loki nods, his face exhausted and drawn. “In here, I would trust you before I trust myself.”

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f4liveblogarchives · 5 years ago

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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #202

Thur Aug 29 2019 [11:35 PM] Wack'd: So this issue opens with the arrival of Tony Stark! [11:35 PM] Wack'd: He's real mad they made him pay their cab fare! [11:35 PM] Wack'd: Yeah, I'm just kidding, he's here to look into why the Baxter went nuts in #201 [11:38 PM] Wack'd: He smashes through a window and that's all it takes to provoke a superhero brawl these days I guess [11:38 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh right, this must still be back when he was pretending Iron Man was a guy who worked for him. [11:39 PM] maxwellelvis: Man, "Demon in the Bottle" IS still a ways off, isn't it? [11:39 PM] Bocaj: I want an issue of Iron Man that’s just a montage of all the times people have told someone to bill Tony Stark [11:39 PM] Wack'd: Look, it's not like he can't afford it [11:39 PM] Bocaj: Yes [11:39 PM] Bocaj: That’s why it’s funny [11:39 PM] Bocaj: If everyone were billing spider man it’d be sad [11:40 PM] Wack'd: True [11:40 PM] Wack'd: Credit to Janice Cohen for some surprisingly dynamic colors

[11:41 PM] Bocaj: (There was actually an issue of avengers where some lawyers from the Maria stark foundation had to come by and question some of the “bill it to Tony Stark!” charges the Avengers were making) [11:41 PM] Wack'd: No credit to Marv Wolfman for what has to be the quickest Sue's force fields have ever been rendered useless [11:41 PM] Bocaj: (Including two quinjets on the same day) [11:42 PM] Bocaj: Dammit wolfman [11:42 PM] Wack'd: So uh [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Apparently this is not just the playful playfighting the Four are known for [11:43 PM] Wack'd: Uh

[11:43 PM] Wack'd: Uuuuuuhhhhhh

[11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: Umm... [11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: First off, I'm pretty sure Collins was kidding, Reed. [11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: I don't think he expected you to actually strap rockets to your suite. [11:44 PM] Wack'd: I guess it makes sense Collins would think shooting these top five floors into space would be a good idea if he never expected to make money on them without the Four living there [11:45 PM] maxwellelvis: Anyways, this is looking really bad for Iron Man because he doesn't even have an AI to blame for this. [11:46 PM] Wack'd: Wait, Stark hasn't told you guys about his secret identity?

[11:46 PM] Wack'd: Jerk! Reed and Sue invited you to their wedding! [11:47 PM] maxwellelvis: He told nobody about this until his personal demons forced his hand. [11:47 PM] maxwellelvis: That's how Rhodey got started being a superhero; [11:47 PM] Wack'd: I'd been assuming superhero quid-pro-quo with everyone besides Spider-Man, honestly [11:47 PM] maxwellelvis: he filled in as Iron Man while Tony was battling his inner demons. [11:47 PM] Bocaj: It’s honestly weird how long Tony had a secret identity [11:47 PM] Wack'd: Don't the Avengers all live together in a fucking mansion? [11:47 PM] Bocaj: Yes [11:48 PM] maxwellelvis: The ones Iron Man was originally part of didn't. [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Do they just never take their costumes off? [11:48 PM] maxwellelvis: That's probably changed since then, though. [11:48 PM] Bocaj: Half of the avengers don’t bother with secret identities [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Reed explicitly refers to Iron Man as an Avenger in this issue btw [11:49 PM] Bocaj: When Beast joined and revealed he was Hank McCoy Thor was like whoa buddy you don’t got to reveal that and Beast was like my dude I’m a blue furry man [11:49 PM] maxwellelvis: The Wasp has never bothered with any sort of mask, so that means Ant-Man's identity was kind of an open secret. [11:49 PM] maxwellelvis: Thor kept his identity secret, as did Iron Man. [11:49 PM] maxwellelvis: Nobody knew that the Hulk was Dr. David Banner except for Rick in those days. [11:49 PM] Bocaj: The two of them revealed their id’s when they rejoined post kooky quartet [11:49 PM] Wack'd: Alright so [11:49 PM] Wack'd: Moving on [11:49 PM] Bocaj: That’s when they stopped bothering with the secret [11:50 PM] Bocaj: Ok [11:50 PM] maxwellelvis: And Cap... well, the first time the Avengers found Cap, he wasn't wearing his mask. [11:50 PM] Wack'd:

[11:50 PM] Wack'd: I dig Tony's look here [11:50 PM] Wack'd: Dunno why [11:50 PM] Bocaj: Yeah tony why don’t you go get iron man [11:50 PM] Wack'd: This is the second time Tony's shown up and I've been like "fuck that's a good look" [11:50 PM] maxwellelvis: "I'm skeptical that you can, yet intrigued that you may." [11:51 PM] Wack'd: Also I like that he's wearing a red suit jacket with a gold striped tie [11:51 PM] Wack'd: Subtle [11:51 PM] Bocaj: He’s a classy subtle man [11:51 PM] Bocaj: Or some of these words anyway [11:51 PM] maxwellelvis: There seems to have been a misjudgment in how much eyebrow to give him in this panel [11:51 PM] maxwellelvis: he looks like a strategically shaved caveman wearing Tony Stark's clothes. [11:51 PM] Wack'd: So anyway Tony goes to do a quick change while musing on the possibility of an imposter [11:52 PM] Wack'd: No one really makes anything of the fact that if Iron Man is Tony's bodyguard, they should probably be in close proximity most of the time [11:52 PM] Wack'd: Any bodyguard you need to go find is doing kind of a shitty job! [11:52 PM] maxwellelvis: It's his eyebrows, they make his brow look bigger for some reason. [11:53 PM] Bocaj: That’s a good point wack’d [11:53 PM] Bocaj: By all standards Iron Man is a shitty bodyguard to the outside world’s perspective [11:53 PM] Wack'd: So the Four and Iron Man head back to the Baxter to sort this out [11:54 PM] Wack'd: A smooth recovery

[11:54 PM] Bocaj: Does Reed know? [11:54 PM] Bocaj: That’s the kind of thing someone would say if they knew [11:54 PM] maxwellelvis: Reed's the sort who'd take a cover story like Stark's at face value [11:55 PM] Wack'd: Earlier I assumed that Iron Man was showing up to do the IT work from 201, but knowing what I know now it seems to be obviously inaccurate that it would be Iron Man doing that and not Stark [11:55 PM] Wack'd: Secret identities sure do make life confusing [11:55 PM] Bocaj: Tony as Iron Man uses that “yeah I pick up a lot from Stark” line a lot [11:56 PM] Bocaj: Nobody ever catches on, except Thor [11:56 PM] maxwellelvis: The one guy who isn't a supersceintist. [11:56 PM] Wack'd: The easiest way to learn supergenius-level engineering: spend all your time as a bodyguard paying attention to what they're doing! [11:56 PM] Wack'd: It's not like there's other things you should be paying attention to when you're guarding a man's life! [11:56 PM] Bocaj: Sure that sounds legit [11:57 PM] Wack'd: God this is the world's worst cover story on every conceivable level [11:57 PM] maxwellelvis: That's how we lost 14 Hank and Deans. When he wasn't busy growing that ridiculous... [11:57 PM] Bocaj: It is geez [11:57 PM] Wack'd: Brock was just so busy learning science [11:57 PM] Bocaj: I’m now super glad that mcu Iron Man was like “hey fuck that actually” [11:58 PM] Wack'd: So they find the Baxter on an island in the Atlantic [11:58 PM] Bocaj: HOW [11:58 PM] Wack'd: I mean I'd assume it has a set landing point far away from civilization, since it's an emergency measure [11:58 PM] Wack'd: But Reed specifically mentions that they had to use a signal tracker to find it, which raises a lot of questions [11:59 PM] Wack'd: Maybe the Iron Man impersonator put it there [12:00 AM] Wack'd: Man the late 70s really love their Inspector Gadget style villain teases

[12:00 AM] Wack'd: The square dialogue bubbles are a clue but also Quasimodo's on the cover, so [12:00 AM] Bocaj: Kurt Busiek pulled one where a villain sitting like this watching the heroes was being watched by a villain doing this [12:00 AM] maxwellelvis: What ever happened to the good old-fashioned cloak? [12:01 AM] maxwellelvis: @Bocaj Dammit, Scrier, get outta here. [12:01 AM] maxwellelvis: @Wack'd I see. So I guess it's a good thing you rarely show the covers, then. [12:01 AM] Bocaj: I think it was Kang watching Ultron watching the Avengers [12:03 AM] Wack'd: So uh quick recap: [12:03 AM] Wack'd: Last time we saw Quasimodo he was turned to stone by Norrin Radd since he couldn't handle being turned into a human [12:04 AM] Wack'd: He's apparently had stuff happened in other books since which I'm sure he'll recap for us [12:05 AM] Wack'd: Okay so apparently he got turned back into a robot, then Hawkeye paralyzed him, during which time he fucking...astral projected???

[12:06 AM] Wack'd: So uh [12:06 AM] Wack'd: He's back on Earth now [12:06 AM] Wack'd: For some reason [12:06 AM] Wack'd: And has a decoy Iron Man because his body can't move [12:06 AM] Wack'd: And he's convinced that in order to go back to the stars he hast to destroy the Fantastic Four [12:07 AM] Wack'd: For some reasom [12:07 AM] Wack'd: Oh okay he was syphoning power from the Baxter, hence all the nonsense in 201 [12:07 AM] Wack'd: And with that power he can move again [12:08 AM] Wack'd: And he has to destroy the team because, well, they're pissed at him and are going to try and stop him [12:08 AM] Wack'd: I don't get why they can't just give him the energy he needs so he can go back to space [12:08 AM] Wack'd: Like, if they can play nice with Mole Man, surely this is no issue [12:10 AM] Bocaj: Spite [12:10 AM] Wack'd: Aw, okay. In the scuffle he manages to steal the Four's rocket [12:10 AM] Wack'd: A happy ending! Kinda!

[12:10 AM] Wack'd: He's not in the next issue and there's no indication that anyone's going to go after him so [12:11 AM] Wack'd: I don't know how they got a rocket to begin with but they can probably just build another one

#1979 #Marv Wolfman #John Buscema #The Main Book

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howtohero · 5 years ago

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#280 Lava Monsters

As the weather begins to get warmer (depending on where and when you are) you’re going to be encountering a waaaay more hotter villains than you’ve been facing over the winter months. Sentient forest fires, evil models, a sun wearing sunglasses who lives in the desert and hates you. It’s gonna be a whole new ballgame for you. One of the hottest of hot evil forces that you’re going to need to be prepared to fight though, are lava monsters.

Lava monsters are pretty much exactly what they sound like. They’re monsters made of lava, magma, and igneous rocks and they will mess you up. Before we teach you how to fight them though, it is important that you truly understand where they’re coming from. Lava monsters’ bodies are so hot and so hazardous and so toxic (they’re very passive aggressive and will lie straight to your face, uch. Definitely don’t want that energy in the group chat.) that they have a very hard time getting through day to day life. They get touch things without them melting or exploding. They can’t even just walk down the road safely without giving a comptroller a migraine. They simply can’t live normal lives. And that alone is not reason to fight them.

If a non-hostile lava monster rolls into town you need to deal with them, sure, but you don’t need to fight them. If they’re the reasonable sort, all you need to do is explain to them that your town cannot survive a visit from a lava monster and give them directions to areas that can. If you live in an area where confused lava monsters is a frequent problem, I would even keep a few maps made out of something with a melting point higher than 2000 degrees fahrenheit (some kind of kevlar or spun glass or withstandium should do the trick) on hand so you can just disseminate them when the time comes. Alternatively, get your town to invest in a giant billboard with a map of nearby volcanoes to help lava monsters find their way home.

There have even been lava monsters who try their hand at becoming superheroes! That’s pretty neat I think, lava is a pretty powerful substance. Superheroes having access to some helpful living lava could certainly solve a lot of problems. Of course though, sometimes sending a lava monster to stop a crime is overkill. Bank robberies don’t warrant a lavarific response. Jaywalking as well. Arson definitely, you’re gonna want to send a water guy to deal with that. In fact, most regular in progress crimes would be ill-served by a lava monster. But don’t worry lava monster reading this blog! (If it’s Lavalanche, hello sir! Big fan! It was super cool when you melted that astro-drill that the Belvanchians were using to mine our planet that one time!) There’s plenty of situations where a superheroic lava monster is just aces! Sometimes there are crises when something really big needs to be melted really fast. Alien war cruisers, villainous doomsday weapons, evil glaciers, all of these things could be wrapped up real neatly if a lava monster punches them. Super-scientists have also developed super-cool (in both senses of the word!) containment armor that allows lava monsters to interact with society and the people around them! These exo-suits aren’t so wide-spread yet, but it’s only a matter of time before all lava monsters will be able to join society!

Unfortunately, not all lava monsters are good and friendly. Some of them are actually evil and incredibly dangerous. I guarantee these guys aren’t going to wear fancy containment suits or read maps on billboards. These guys are out for blood, and it is very easy for them to get that. Their hands are lava. Their feet are lava. Their butts are lava. It’s all lava all the way down and quite frankly, I don’ta mucha lava that. If you’re fighting a lava monster please remember not to punch the lava monster. If you punch the lava monster you will not have a fist anymore and then you can’t punch anything else so please, even if you love punching more than anything in the world I beg you, get some perspective. You need to give them a wide berth as well. To be clear, this isn’t something I really need to spell out for you, you physically won’t be able to get close to them without your skin starting to burn and blister. So I guess just listen to your skin on this one. All superhumans and lava monsters are different so how close you’re able to get will vary. Hurling projectiles at lava monsters won’t do you a ton of good as most things will burn or melt on contact. So you can’t get near them, you can’t touch them, and everything you throw at them is reduced to ashes or burning goop. So what the heck are you supposed to do?

Don’t worry, you’ve still got a couple of options. Show of hands, how many of you have read our entry on the moon? Well, in the post we briefly discussed Floon. The moon’s invisible twin who controls all of the lava tides on Earth. Well, lava monsters are also connected to Floon after a fashion. So if you can somehow gain control of the invisible moon, you can gain control of the lava monsters. Now, we don’t really recommend taking control of your enemies as a solution to all of your problems (more on that soon!) as a temporary fix it could gain you valuable time that you can use to come up with a more permanent solution. A great way to put a stop to any rogue lava monsters is to cool them down. When lava cools it becomes solid rock and it’s very hard to move when your body is encased in solid rock. Don’t ask me how I know that, just take my word for it. (Sophomore year in high school was a strange time for all of us.) A great way to do cool a lava monster down is to use water. Lure the lava monster to the sea, or if it’s easier, lure the sea to the lava monster! Once the lava comes into contact with cold water the lava will harden and the water will evaporate into sea, so that’s the clean up taken care of too!

Once you’ve got an evil lava monster encased in solid rock, I recommend turning them over to the lava monster authorities. It doesn’t really seem right to keep them trapped in stone forever, so the lava monster police will see to it that they’re incarcerated in a safe and comfortable way.

#superheroes #comics #comedy #humor #funny #hilarious #lava monsters #Lavalanche #Belvanchians #alien invasions #monsters #Floon #the moon #withstandium #creatures

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triscribe · 5 years ago

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Legacy, Prologue

“You must be joking.”

Tarot blinked. “Uh, no. What makes you say that?”

Despite wearing a helmet without moving parts, the white lenses that protected Goshawk’s eyes seemed to sharpen their glare. Or maybe it was the dry tone of the deep voice that came out through a hidden speaker that conveyed the air of growing annoyance. “Isn’t your little heroic country club meant for super-humans only?”

*Ouch,* Golem muttered in her earpiece. Tarot resisted the urge to wince.

“Well, it’s true that we’re a bit lacking in the Basic human department - but that’s part of why we want to invite you and your partner to join!” She shifted to better angle herself to address both crimefighters, Kestrel crouched on the edge of the rooftop whereas Goshawk stood with hands on hips in the very center. “The fact that you two have kept up your work for six years now, caused visible signs of improvement in your city, and haven’t suffered any major losses or defeats makes you more impressive than half the heroes I know. The Collab could really use expertise like yours, and you both being Basic is just the icing on top.”

Kestrel’s helmet tilted slightly to one side, and after a moment Goshawk’s did the same. Tarot glanced between them, but couldn’t get anything from metal plates or white lenses. Her fingers twitched, and a second later the woman flicked her hands, going through the motions of shuffling a deck, which summoned her cards from the astral pocket where they usually rested. After a further few moments of silence, Tarot plucked a random card, glanced at the design, and then tucked it back into the deck. Five of Swords, mind games, hostility.

Goshawk’s hands moved from his hips to fold in front of his chest.

Another card, and Tarot glanced towards Kestrel as he hopped off the roof’s guardrail to lean against it nonchalantly. Page of Wands, newly inspired, excited about life and work.

As the two crimefighters properly faced each other, clearly sharing a private conversation through some sort of connection between their helmets, Tarot checked one last card. The Hanged Man, surrender, new perspective, enlightenment.

Two helmets straightened upright. “We, might, be interested,” Goshawk stated, in a manner that sounded more defeated than anything else.

“Would it be possible to get a little better idea of what we’re signing on with, thought?” Kestrel asked, bouncing on his feet. “Take a tour, read the pamphlets, meet some faces?”

Tarot grinned, dropping her cards back into their astral pocket. “Sure thing. Would now suit?”

“No,” Goshawk said immediately. “We have work to do right now. Tomorrow.”

“Morning, afternoon or evening?”

“Mid-morning. We’ll meet here again by ten.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Folding one arm behind her back, opposite going over her heart with a flourish, Tarot dropped into a neat bow. “Goshawk, Kestrel, a pleasure to meet you both. Good night and good hunting!” With that, the hand behind her back twisted and pulled, activating a card she always kept up her sleeve: Four of Wands, celebration, safety, home.

Blazing light obscured the world, and when Tarot next blinked, she was standing in the workroom of her house. “Did you get that, Golem?”

*Loud and clear, we’ll have a Skip waiting for the three of you at oh ten hundred tomorrow.*

“Excellent. And, make sure none of the louder idiots are around HQ, will you? Rumor has it the Legend City Birds don’t much like brash arrogance. Or Goshawk doesn’t, at least.”

*Uhh, that might be a bit trickier - Duke is scheduled for AM monitor duty.*

Tarot groaned. “Just what we need. If he tries to pick a fight with either of them, I’m tossing that moron straight into the Trench.”

*Preeetty sure Musketeer would have a problem with that...*

“Too bad. The worst she can do is stick me on detainment duty for a year, and I’ll take that over losing these two potential recruits because of Duke’s stupidity anytime.”

As she went to change out of her uniform, Golem voiced a perplexed question. *Why are you so hung up on bringing these guys into the Collaboration anyway?*

“Have you seen their stats? A twenty year low for their city’s crime rate, eight major supervillains captured and turned over to Con-Tain, three bio-terrorist plots interrupted and four major corruption cases cracked wide open? And that’s just the headline items - Goshawk and Kestrel could be giving lessons on investigation and ambush tactics to half our ranks for crying out loud, they’re that good!”

*Yeah... but aren’t they also responsible for a bunch of cop injuries and medical retirements?*

Tarot snorted. “In a city with a ninety percent caucasian police force known for discrimination and racial profiling when they first started. I don’t know if it holds true across the board, but at least a dozen of those cases of police injury were from the Birds intervening in what would’ve been lethal force used on unarmed suspects.”

*Oh.*

“Mm-hm. I guarantee any cop they hurt was in self-defense or to prevent a death. And! One of their corruption cases a couple years ago involved the LPD Commissioner himself, which led to a lot of turnover in the precincts, bringing in a record high of minority and women officers. Reported injuries from Goshawk or Kestrel have gone into decline ever since.”

*Well, that’s good.* Golem paused. *So, can I join your tour tomorrow?*

“Sure thing.”

-Legacy-

“This is a bad idea.”

“This is a great idea! The Global Collaboration of Crimefighting and Anti-Terrorism, June! The biggest name in international superhero cooperation wants to recruit us!”

Setting down her Goshawk helmet, June leveled a glare at her sister. “They want to recruit our diversity points. There hasn’t been a Basic human member of the Collab in three decades, Janae. They’re full of Morphs, Magi, and Mythics with a few Cosmics thrown in - people who think having powers is an excuse to play dress up and pretend to be world saviors.”

Janae sighed dramatically, flopping dramatically onto their couch with one hand holding up her Kestrel helmet as if it were the skull in Hamlet’s soliloquy. “And as ev-rybody knows, you hate being invited to anything purely so people can gain ‘diversity points’.”

“Hmph.”

“But June, just think how much good we could do! The Collab hosts all kinds of seminars to make their members better, we could talk about all sorts of things! Investigating, documenting evidence, determining the best people to work with from inside the district attorney’s office-”

“Not every crimefighter has to deal with the same issues we did,” June cut in, removing her cape and folding it neatly.

“But a lot of them could benefit from our experience! Think of how many more crooks in uniform we could help put away just by sharing our tactics, now and in future!” Sitting upright, Janae leveled a finger at her big sister. “And just think of what we could get out of it, too.”

June arched an eyebrow, undoing the clasps of her padded chest armor. “A whole bunch more noses getting stuck into our business?”

“No, you paranoid loser. Resources, databases, heck, even back-up from time to time. Having even just one extra set of hands to go up against Razore would’ve been nice, y’know.”

Both women frowned at that particular set of memories, June’s hand unconsciously skimming over her side, where a set of four scars sliced their way across her ribcage beneath layers of reinforced armor. “We do fine as it is.”

“We really do not,” Janae huffed, settling back again. “You and me in the field with only four people to support us? And only three adults, at that. The Collab has entire sub-divisions of engineers, scientists, medics, you name it. Reinforcements like that would do us a lot of good.”

Tugging off her gloves, June frowned - a more thoughtful expression than grumpy, which Janae took to be a good sign. “...I’ll think about that. But tomorrow’s ‘tour’ will be the deciding factor - I don’t want us to join an organization that needs to be cleaned up worse than the LPD did.”

Her sister grimaced. “Yeah, alright, I can go along with that. Although-”

“We would not be in a position to clean house from the inside, Janae, not as the newbies being watched from all corners. And I wouldn’t want to risk them finding out our identities to hold over our heads as blackmail, not with Tasha and Aunt Jasmine on the line.”

“Fine.” A pause. “Where are those two, anyway?”

“Auntie left today for her old squad’s reunion, remember? And Tasha needed to head to bed early tonight for her class field trip tomorrow morning.”

“Ahh, that’s right,” Janae snickered. “And she begged us to not be at Lunar R&D at the same time.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Kyron’s working tomorrow though, isn’t he?”

“He is. And he’s promised to hold off on any embarrassing acts until the class is just about ready to leave.” A slight smirk tugged at the corners of June’s mouth.

“Oh good. I’ll have to borrow the security tapes to see what he comes up with.”

“You do that.”

#original fiction #superheroes #Legacy #Goshawk and Kestrel #the Lunelle Sisters #new project #here I go again...#tarot cards #magic

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writer-or-whatever · 6 years ago

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Irondad & Spiderson Fic Rec

So @keep-a-bucket-full-of-stars posted about wanting some Irondad fic recs and I, being the Irondad & Spiderson obsessed gremlin that I am, figured I would make a little rec. It’s fifteen wonderful fics of varying lengths and degrees of angst (I know 15 doesn’t seem like a little rec but uh...

...and that’s just Irondad fics)

So, yeah, fifteen fics (in no particular order):

Archetype by Bean_reads_fanfic

Tony knows something is up when the research of ex-Hydra agents gets recycled in an underground Oscorp lab… what he doesn’t expect is the boy in a hospital gown sticking to the ceiling; or, how said boy proceeds to imprint on him like a baby duckling (a poor decision on his part, really). Did he mention he wasn’t intending on bringing home a kid that day?

word count: 57k

tw: human experimentation (yeah it gets pretty dark towards the end)

All in a Title by StarkMan

“Nothing.” Clint said, innocently. “It suits you, domestic life.”

Mr Stark opened his mouth to retort but shut it after a moment, shaking his head.

“It’s lovely to see. Real sweet.” Clint continued, ignoring Bruce’s unsubtle nudges in his side. “Almost fatherly.”

Peter glanced to his right and watched Natasha frown slightly at Clint. Steve’s eyes shifted and met his own and Peter could feel his face heating up. No, no, no, why now? He cringed internally and forced his eyes back to the screen. That was definitely an inside joke. They’d picked up on Peter’s avoidance of calling Mr Stark anything.

word count: 2k

"The Duck Chat" is Both Literal and a Metaphor by the_one_a_m_writer

Peter and Tony's secret project is on everyone's minds. Steve starts to figure out more about the project as it goes on, but he also learns more about the team. This story is certainly classified as LGBT+ Fiction.

word count: 21k

note: this is Irondad & Spiderson but it’s also told from Steve’s perspective and there’s a little bit of an almost parental thing going on between Peter and Steve too, but it’s too good not to include

Filling the Gaps by ironfamjam

Tony looked at him, bold and true and utterly sincere, “Kid, I’m on your side, no matter what.”

Like most good things, it started with an accident.

Well, kinda.

This is a story about how a snarky, emotionally stunted genius became more than a mentor and how a just-trying-to-figure-it-out, doing his best superkid became the son he never had. No matter how empty our hearts are, love can always fill the gaps.

word count: 53k

these were my notes on my bookmark in case you weren’t sold: THIS IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE BEST FIC IVE EVER FUCKING READ. THE HUMOR, THE ANGST, THE FAMILY FEELS. ITS ALL SO GOOD. (Also there was a vine reference which is really and truly iconic).

Pranks for the memories, even though they weren't so good by Webtrinsic

A prank on Tony goes a little too far when they decide to involve his son.

word count: 2k

tw: kidnapping

It's About Time by shewritesall

Tony has always been overprotective of his son, Peter. After being exploited by his own dad, Howard, to bring good publicity to Stark Industries, Tony vowed never to let that happen to Peter. But now Peter's about to go into high school and Tony has to face reality: his little boy isn't going to be little much longer. Maybe he should let Peter out into the world a little more. Tony quickly regrets it.

word count: 25k

The Spider's Head by Allthemfanfics

Peter Parker is Spider-Man, he faces dangers everyday that would be enough to give anyone nightmares. But, Peter doesn't have nightmares. He never has, and sometimes, his parents worry. Their son isn't having nightmares, shouldn't that be a good thing? For Tony, it means that Peter isn't facing the demons he needs to face. For Steve, it means his son is holding back feelings and bottling them up.

But when Peter falls into a deep sleep and is unable to be woken up by anyone, the Avengers panic... and are forced to turn to a longtime foe for help.

word count: 14k

Only Human by giraffewrites

When Flash takes things too far - pushes Peter too far by mentioning his fathers and what happened, Peter can't take it anymore.

Or, an au where after civil war, Steve was put in prison, Tony has a hard time facing his feelings, and Peter just wants to see his pops.

word count: 11k

note: again, it’s not strictly Tony & Peter because Steve is his other parent but it’s too good not to include

a spider by any other name by scottmchungup

5 times the Avengers met Spider-Man on accident, and the one time it was on purpose.

All the Avengers know, and subsequently love Peter Parker Stark. Spider-Man however, is just a guy who they infrequently see at work. But when more of the team comes to town for the Stark-Rogers (possible) wedding Peter's secret alter ego gets more face time with the superheros than planned.

word count: 32k

tw: kidnapping

Wired Shut inside and out by Webtrinsic

He knows sometimes he talks too much. He knows it annoys people. What he didn't know was breaking your jaw was the best thing ever when learning not to speak.

word count: 2k

tw: self harm

A Silhouette Hallowed in Light by Webtrinsic

After the death of May Parker, Peter is adopted by his mentor who would do anything to keep the vigilante safe. Until Nick calls about a string of missing persons and leaves it up to the Bug team to go undercover and stop them.

(Not just a bug team fic, Tony has more parts with Peter I promise Iron Dad fans :3)

While Peter's excited to be of help, and get to go on an adventure with his beloved Bug team, Tony struggles and fears the worst. Sadly even with Natasha and Scott protecting the boy, Tony was right to do so.

word count: 44k

tw: torture, kidnapping, dehumanization, abuse

note: This is so good and I cried and I just. So much angst. And so much hurt. But also so much comfort. And just. Yes.

note pt.2: it’s the second in the series and the first is literally 1k words establishing the Bug Team as a thing (which, I love)

decidedly dad-like behaviour by RandomRuth

“Something came up,” Tony says. “I had to make a detour on my way to our lunch meeting. I’m sorry you’re gonna miss those bacon sandwiches you like but…” Tony trails off and jerks his thumb, indicating the back seat.

Rhodey twists around and jumps. “Holy shit,” he says, just shy of shouting it.

(In which Tony is late for lunch with Rhodey and there's a good reason for it.)

word count: 5k

Maybe take a sick day? by spiderboyneedsahug

Peter Parker. School kid. Teenager. Boy genius. Stark Intern. Spider-Man. Superhero. Son-figure.

The main cause of stress in Tony Stark's life.

Simply put, Peter's a smart kid who is too dumb to take care of himself. Enter Tony Stark, billionaire, genius, stressed pseudo-father, and a weekend trip to the New Avengers Compound.

word count: 14k

Meet and Greet by tamaranianprincess

Peter gets hurt and subsequently meets the Avengers... But the meeting isn’t all that fun.

word count: 3k

tw: canon typical violence

(Safe and) Warm by one_sad_oreo

Spiders can't thermoregulate.

Peter knows this, but he goes out as Spider-man on a bitter winter night and there are consequences.

word count: 2k

So, yeah, that’s that, I guess. Feel free to ask for more fic recs (for this or other things- my number of bookmarks in AO3 is nearly 900. I read sort-of a lot)

#irondad #spider son #irondad & spiderson #irondad & spiderson fic rec #irondad fic rec #mcu #mcu fic rec #rose recs fics #my fic rec #pals #aka mutuals #keep-a-bucket-full-of-stars

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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 6 years ago

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you look pretty, too.

first off: spider-man: far from home is a lot of fun. much like the end of homecoming, it left me feeling warm and happy and already making plans to watch it another time. it doesn’t hang together quite as well or quite as coherently as homecoming, but it takes more risks and displays more ambition, and honestly, how could i not appreciate that?

far from home is absolutely FANTASTIC as another chapter in the mcu saga, much more so than any other film in the series (bar homecoming). it gives a great ground-level perspective on all the mind-bending cosmic shit that goes on in the other movies and does a fair bit of world-building. because it’s so interlocked so organically with a larger narrative, it serves to both bolster that larger vision and provide snide commentary on it. there are so many wonderful moments in this film that deal with the extremely bloated and extremely complicated legacy of iron man, and one gets the feeling that, even by the end of the film, spider-man hasn’t completely shaken off the spectre of tony stark.

maybe because far from home functions so well as an episode of the mcu, spider-man doesn’t get to own even his most heroic moments. there’s still nothing here that i can brand as Iconic on the scale of some of the most memorable shit from other entries in the franchise. it also means that there are so many extra-textual pressures from so many directions on this movie, that the writing often comes off as sloppy.

anyway. i have a veritable fucking dissertation brewing in my head right now, so let’s get right on it.

SPOILERS ahead. if you’re on a device/app that doesn’t recognise the ‘read more’ cut i’m about to insert here and don’t want to be spoiled on basically every aspect of the film, please scroll past as fast as you can.

1. sorry to start off with a bummer, but the premise of this movie is bullshit. i see no reason why this whole shebang couldn’t have been set in new york. there could’ve been more time to deal with endgame-aftermath, we could’ve had more aunt may (criminally underused both here and in homecoming), and peter’s emotional arc could’ve had more set-up. the european locales contribute nothing beyond being pretty backdrops; all of the vital players in the story are american; a lot of the jokes revolving around them being tourists just. don’t. land.

1.25. i appreciate the impulse to be Different given how many Spidermen have appeared on screen just in the last couple of decades, but the european setting is wholly incidental to the plot and wastes valuable time, so.

1.5. apparently a fair bit of footage setting up the vacation was cut so that we could get into the action faster? but honestly, regardless of pacing, the vacation could’ve used some set-up; the jump straight to the holiday was jarring, and i can’t help but feel some vital foreshadowing regarding peter’s spidey sense was sacrificed as collateral. that wonderful moment in the climactic fight when peter realises he can trust his spidey sense to work around mysterio’s illusions feels like the end-point of an arc that never began in the first place.

2. honestly, what a genius way to work in somebody as goofy as mysterio, tho!

2.25. *flails* ok. a little digression here, because my love for this character needs actual build-up, and the build-up needs to start with how much i disliked captain america: civil war. there’s an intriguing ideological conflict that’s set up at the core of the movie that never gets followed-up in any meaningful sense and ends in a facile little brawl between two sets of superheroes who, in any case, are way, way too close to the situation to give us any interesting insights about it. what the two spider-man movies have ended up doing, however, is giving us actual glimpses of the legacy of having superheroes at all instead of just talking about it. the vulture swooped in on the carnage left behind every battle between the avengers and civil war, selling alien tech to anybody who would pay for it, from small-time weapons dealers to desperate people looking to arm themselves in a world that experiences cataclysms every other week to shady-ass governments and secret agencies. a lot of silent and potentially catastrophic damage has already been inflicted by the time spider-man takes him down. similarly, mysterio zooms in during a particularly vulnerable time, playing a world both ravaged and rebuilt by ineffable cosmic forces to build himself up through fancy smoke-and-mirrors work. as always, mcu’s spider-man delights me over and over again with just how organically it both manages to feed off and enrich this larger universe it belongs to.

2.5. mysterio talking about how people these days tend to believe flying people in capes more than technology used in more traditional ways--about how people would believe anything these days--is a bit of snide commentary on the state of the mcu itself and perhaps the world in general. there are now more and more ways to construct narratives and bend lies into almost-truths. social media, ‘deepfakes’, clever editing: you can build yourself into whatever you want the world to see you as if you just have access to the right tools. and it isn’t just mysterio that’s indulging in deception here--so are the ‘good guys’. nick fury getting skrulls to impersonate him and other shield agents to handle missions on earth is a quieter, more insidious kind of unsettling. it’s a mode of deception that is so much more complete and effective than mysterio could ever dream of achieving: you are being lied to by your enemy, but perhaps it is the lies that are being told in the name of your protection that you must be truly wary of.

2.65. quentin beck walking around in a cgi suit while orchestrating and editing big, fake spectacles where a cgi-ed mysterio fights a cgi-ed monster? fucking. brilliant. i thought i would crawl out of my own skin with how fucking meta that was.

2.75. mysterio’s motivations aren’t entirely clear and his ‘toast’ to his team midway through the movie is one of the cheesiest infodumps i’ve seen on film, but jake gyllenhaal makes it all fucking work. there’s a seething, manic energy just bubbling under the surface, and he puts it to brilliant use. he had me totally sold on both his intent to kill peter dead and his grudging affection for the kid. few actors could’ve pulled this off like jake gylly.

3. aah, tony stark. we see iron man’s face multiple times through the movie, to the point where it’s less a tribute to the man and more a depiction of a spectre that’s haunting peter parker wherever he goes. he looms so large that honestly it seems like peter’s biggest battle here is fighting his legacy as iron man’s protege.

while ensemble films like civil war and the avengers movies were content to let the tony/peter mentor/mentee relationship play out without bothering to interrogate it at all, having tony stark so integral to this universe’s peter parker’s origin story is something the solo spider-man movies have to grapple with. there was always going to be tension between tony’s sweeping, big-picture perspective and peter’s focus on being a friendly, neighbourhood hero; between tony as a symbol of the corporate elite and peter being relatable to the everyday, common man; between iron man in his ivory tower and peter painstakingly cutting holes in a sweatshirt in an apartment in Queens. both of spidey’s supervillains so far are born out of tony’s actions--and not even through a deliberate misstep, like creating ultron or trusting secretary ross. they are born out of callous indifference--people who fell to the wayside as tony stark’s corporate behemoth pushed on, oblivious. both toomes’ and beck’s anger is justified, even if what they choose to do with that anger is not.

even when it comes to peter, tony is spot-on in his judgment of peter’s potential, sure, but there’s something awfully... glib in the way he thinks about peter’s life outside of being spider-man. bequeathing him EDITH is a shockingly irresponsible thing to do--and the decision nearly kills both peter and his friends multiple times! i know the saying goes, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, but as mature as peter is, i don’t think anybody ought to be solely responsible for controlling a super-advanced AI that can summon drones and engage an entire planetary defence system. it’s bonkers, and something i absolutely believe tony stark would do.

so, yes--both homecoming and far from home have no choice but to deal with iron man’s legacy, but they also do a good job in showing how complicated that legacy is. another thing that the solo movies have to contend with from the ensemble films is the clear love and respect tony and peter have for each other--if in civil war peter was utterly starstruck, by infinity war and endgame he’d begun to see tony as a father-figure. their relationship struck among the most resonant emotional chords in both movies, and it would have been near-impossible to have peter interrogate his relationship with his just-deceased mentor in the light of all of that. so while the actual movies complicate and darken tony’s legacy, peter never gets to acknowledge any part of it, which is a pity.

(having iron man appear as an actual zombie in peter’s trippy mysterio-induced vision was a great touch, tho: the words ‘next iron man’ followed him through the movie not as a privilege but as a noose cinching closer and closer around his neck)

3.5. all of this aside, tho, i do feel like something vital about spider-man was lost forever when, lost and hurting and alone, peter could summon a private jet and build himself a new suit in tony’s fancy 3d printer. i realised when i was watching this that i’d been expecting peter to fashion a plan entirely out of his own ingenuity and determination, but this peter... has all of stark industries on call.

4. tom holland’s peter is as charming as ever and i hope he gets to play him for as long as possible--it really does feel like peter’s still in the beginning stages of a very long and fruitful arc. here he’s traumatised and exhausted, pulled by the allure of avengers-level fame and pushed away by the burden and trauma that being an avenger truly entails. he’s wide-eyed and wholly likeable when he’s chilling with his friends or pining after mj, but his bone-deep exhaustion and grief and guilt shine through the cracks in his veneer at exactly the right moments. peter’s put through the wringer here, both emotionally and physically--and holland plays it all perfectly.

given how much is going on in this film, a surprising amount of time is devoted to peter and mj’s budding romance? and almost every second of it absolutely works?? their sweet, tentative kiss on the bridge after the climactic fight feels absolutely 100% earned, and i’m HERE to see them grow as a couple.

5. the fucking mid-credits scene, man. the entire theatre gasped as one, followed by excited chatter and scattered ‘oh my god’s as the end-credits rolled--i’ve never seen anything like it. this is an incredibly bold new direction for spider-man, and it hit me absolutely out of left-field. i can’t wait to see what happens next.

6. honestly, i could go on for longer, but i’m super-tired rn and need to re-organise my thoughts. ultimately far from home is a fascinating consequence of the burden of both extra and intra-textual legacies--funny, wild, and imaginative, but always aware that it can’t run too far away from all of its responsibilities.

#mcu #spiderman #spiderman far from home #far from home spoilers #SPOILERS #peter parker #quentin beck #mysterio #tony stark #this kid is So Important #meta

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marvelousbirthdays · 6 years ago

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Happy Birthday, lj-todd

June 27-Peter Parker/Eddie Brock, something that is angsty but a happy ending with “Let me keep that promise.” for @lj-todd

Written by @celiaequus

Peter knew he was dying. He tried to raise his arm to ensure his mask was in place, but he couldn’t move. The pain was completely debilitating. If he puked, he wouldn’t even be able to turn his head. Imagine the headlines: Spider-Man Chokes to Death on Vomit.

At least it happened because of a battle, and not some underage drinking spree.

He could hear the others shouting into his earpiece, asking him to make contact, but he didn’t have the energy to respond. Everything was becoming grey at the edges. Then black, and all he could think of was that he hoped someone would take care of Aunt May.

He felt something slithering over his body. Is this what it was like to die? Feeling like you’re being encased in jelly? Or was this a secret function of his suit, trying to cryogenically freeze him until he could be transported to Wakanda?

Well, it sure felt warm, instead of cool, but it was numbing the pain.

Peter’s eyes shot open as his whole body seemed to become someone else’s. It was like another brain was squished in beside his, like his skin wasn’t his own, and the pain… of broken limbs straightening, bones knitting together, skin and muscles stitching back into place.

Oh God, that’s weird, he thought.

I am not God, a voice said. In his brain. It was gruff and growly. I am Venom.

Oh shit. There’d been reports about Venom on the news for months. He went after the bad guys, they said, but he still killed them, and Peter was against killing. And now… was Venom killing him? Did he think Spider-Man was one of the bad guys?

You think too much. I am healing you.

Oh, Peter thought. Thanks.

He did feel better. When his mind felt lonely again, he blinked and looked around. Everything was in colour again, and his team-mates were still yelling at him, saying they were on their way.

“It’s okay, guys,” he said. “Just got some… assist. I’m good now.” He looked down at his badly torn uniform and lack of injuries. Mr. Stark would be pissed about the repairs, but relieved.

“Hey, you alright? Kind of a nasty fall you took there.”

“I was thrown, actually, but thanks for asking,” Peter said, looking up at a scruffy man… with Venom attached to his shoulder. What? Double what? “Wait. You said my soul words.”

“Shit,” the man muttered. “Right. Uh, I’m Eddie Brock. Venom shares my body. We saw you were hurt and figured we should help out. He healed you.”

You were nearing death, Venom said, voice still otherworldly, even spoken out loud.

“I’m, um… can I tell you my name? Can I trust you?” Peter asked, standing up. “Even if you’re my soulmate, I have to be careful. If the press got to hear about it, my… my family and friends would be in danger.”

“I’m press, but I wouldn’t betray your trust,” Eddie said. “You can just tell me your first name, if that makes you feel better.”

Peter pulled off his mask and ruffled his hair out of place.

“I’m Peter,” he said, as Eddie’s eyes bulged.

“How old are you?” he squawked.

“...Nearly eighteen. In this universe.”

“Oh my God,” Eddie said, covering his face.

Was is the matter? Venom asked.

“He’s underage. He’s a freaking teenager!”

“I’m a superhero,” Peter said. Sure, usually he’d be creeped out by an adult being interested in him. But this was his soulmate, who was clearly not turned on by Peter being, to quote Clint, ‘a genius twink in spandex’. It was both reassuring and disappointing.

“I… I’m not a good person,” Eddie said. “We’re not, Venom and I. We know a lot about you, Spider-Man, including the fact that you never kill. You don’t condone it.”

“No, I don’t, but I know not everyone feels the same way,” Peter said. “I usually only take on small-time bad guys - or girls - so killing isn’t necessary. But I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t like it when I was young, either.”

“You’re not old,” Peter said. “Look, I realise you’re not interested right now, and I’m trying to focus on my education while I can.”

But you belong to us, Venom hissed, stretching towards him. Peter nervously stepped back.

“I’ll turn eighteen in a few months,” he said. “If you’re a good enough journalist, or whatever you are, you’ll track me down. Come find me when you think I’m old enough, and we can get to know each other then. I’m not gonna push you. I’d hate it if someone did that to me.”

“The age difference isn’t gonna change, kid,” Eddie said, trying to pull Venom’s head back.

“No,” Peter agreed. “But maybe your perspective will change. Promise you’ll at least send me a birthday card or something?”

We can bring you the head of your worst enemy, Venom offered. The head is the best part.

“W-what?”

“We’re not beheading anyone for our soulmate,” Eddie said firmly. “Look, Peter, I’ll see what I can do, but please don’t hold out any hope. We’re not good for anyone, least of all you.”

He disappeared back into the shadows. Peter tried to follow, but the last he saw was a man speeding away on a motorbike, and it wasn’t bulky enough to be Captain America.

So… Peter’s soulmate was the vessel for an alien symbiote that ate humans.

Not promising, as partners went, but he sure was intrigued.

The months went by. Peter would’ve felt slighted if it wasn’t for the arrival of someone named Carnage. He was laid up with a broken leg at the time, and Barnes was babysitting him to make sure he didn’t try to join in the battle.

Then again, his birthday had been weeks ago, so unless Venom and Eddie had known about Carnage way in advance and had been fighting him all that time, they definitely could’ve at least gotten a message to Peter to wish him a happy birthday.

So he still felt slighted when, yet more months after Carnage was defeated, his soulmate/s still hadn’t visited.

He sat up with a yelp when something was lobbed through his window with a crash and rolled to his feet. It… it was a head. Some guy with longish red hair. There was a clear moisture all over it.

Peter wanted to heave. If it wasn’t for the voices outside his window, he would have.

“Look, you brought him that stupid gift, now let me keep my own damn promise and leave!”

How will you leave without me, Eddie? You do not like heights.

Peter gingerly picked up the head by the hair, cringing at the slimy substance coating it, and went to the broken window. He peeked out and saw Eddie and Venom almost fused together, but not quite.

“If the police find this here, I’ll be arrested,” he said. “Thanks for the thought, though.”

Venom quickly slurped the head down. Peter winced.

“Uh… happy birthday,” Eddie said sheepishly. “For a while ago. We’ve been kinda busy.”

“No kidding,” Peter said. “Do you… wanna come inside?”

“You’re still too young,” Eddie said, even as Venom forced him to crawl up the wall. “It feels weird to me.”

“Oh, so I’m the weird one,” Peter said.

“Um… no? No, you’re not, of course not.”

“I wasn’t inviting you in for anything, except maybe a talk. I don’t know you… either of you. If we’re soulmates, we need to change that. But please.” He grimaced as he looked down at his saliva-covered hand and the shattered window glass on the floor. “Don’t give me any more body parts for my birthday. Or Christmas, or Easter, or any other time.”

More for me, Venom said, sounding happy.

“I think that’s a promise that we can both keep,” Eddie said. “Hi. I’m Eddie. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi. I’m Peter Parker, and it’s nice to meet you too.”

They smiled at one another while Venom hid away, and Peter felt hope stirring inside him.

This could be okay. This could even be good.

#Peter Parker/Eddie Brock #Peter Parker #Eddie Brock #angst

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crimefightingspiderguy · 7 years ago

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division

Summary: “I would like to request a Captain America CW imagine where Y/n is Tony Stark’s daughter and she is best friends with Steve and she has to choose to sign or not sign the accords and she signs the accords because it’s what Tony wants so she fights alongside him and instead of Rhodes getting shot of the sky by the Falcon it’s Y/n and Tony is hurt because his daughter is paralyzed from the waist down and Steve feels guilty. Just a lot of fluff and angst.” (REQUESTED)

Warnings: Maybe spoilers for Captain America: Civil War, but it came out in 2016 so if you haven’t seen it by now…. what are you doing with yourself? Also, mild swearing

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader

Word count: 13,423

A/N: I really hope that whoever requested this enjoys it because holy shit it took forever 😂 Also just as a precaution, I did not proofread this because its almost 4 a.m. here and I’ve been working on this since 9 p.m. so yeah I’m really not having it. Anyway, hope you all enjoy!

(Y/N) was sitting on the couch binge-watching Brooklyn 99 on Hulu when the team came home. She was always excited to hear what they had done when they returned. You see, she was Tony Stark’s daughter and while she was just a talented as he was, if not a little more, he wouldn’t allow her anywhere near any of their superhero business. That is the action part of it. She was actually behind the design of most of the equipment the team used today, but that still wasn’t enough for her. She wanted a piece of the action, so bad that she even created many prototypes of a suit for herself but every time it was brought up to her dad, he refused to allow her to further work on the project. That’s why she loved when the team came home from a mission, it gave her the chance to feel like she was apart of the action. Usually, when they came home they would be excited due to another mission’s success, but this time was not the same. They all came in, looking worn down and depressed. (Y/N) thought about going up to them and asking what happened, but she thought it best to let them settle in first.

After about an hour or so, (Y/N) couldn’t take it anymore and went to talk to someone about the mission. She approached his door and slowly knocked on it, but she was met with silence. She cracked the door open, just wide enough to poke her head through and she was met with Steve laying on his bed just staring at the ceiling, still in his uniform. She let herself in, shut the door behind her, walked over to his bed and sat down. “Hey” (Y/N) said softly pushing some of his hair out of his face, he didn’t say anything or look at her, he just remained silent. “I take it the mission didn’t go as planned.” (Y/N) said, trying to get some sort of reaction from him, but was met with nothing. “Alright, come here.” (Y/N) said getting up, walking in front of him and pulling his arms, forcing him to sit up. She pulled his head into her chest and wrapped her arms around him. He just leaned into her, completely limp, not wanting to put in the effort to hug her back. She played with his hair and whispered “You know, whatever happened out there, probably wasn’t your fault. You’re most likely beating yourself up for nothing.” “But it was my fault, I got distracted. A lot of people got hurt today because I couldn’t keep my focus.” Steve mumbled. (Y/N) pulled away from their embrace and put a hand under his chin to make him look up at her, “What distracted you?” she asked him. “Bucky,” Steve said, almost ashamed that that’s what distracted him. “He was there?” She asked, confused. “No, the guy we were fighting mentioned him, and I just lost my focus after that,” Steve admitted, feeling like shit.

(Y/N) knew how much Bucky had meant to Steve, she was Steve’s best friend after all. She knew all of Steve’s past, whether she found out through stories or nightmares he had and confided in her with. She understood why he got distracted and she knew just how much he was going to hate himself for it. “Well, no matter what happened out there, it’s in the past, and we can’t change what’s in the past. We can only hope to grow and learn from our mistakes so that we can do better in the future.” (Y/N) said “Now, let's get you cleaned up, because you reek.” she laughed, making him laugh. She went into his bathroom and ran him a bath, filling it with bubbles, and surrounding it with candles that she had stored under his sink, for such an occasion. She then went back into his room and said, “Now you’re gonna get in that bath, clean up, and relax. Don’t worry about all the bullshit that just happened, it’s no longer your concern. Your only concern is taking care of yourself.” and with that, she left him alone. When she left his room she ran into her father in the hallway. “Hey sweetie,” Tony said, pulling her into a hug. “Hey, dad, what’s up.” “Actually I’m trying to round everyone up because Secretary Ross is here and he has something very important to tell us. Is Steve in there?” Tony said pointing to Steve’s bedroom door. “Yeah, but I told him to get cleaned up and relax a little, he’s very upset right now.” Tony just nodded his head, understanding. “Well, when he’s done, let him know to join us in the conference room,” Tony said, leaving to go find the others. ‘I wonder what it could be about.’ (Y/N) thought to herself.

(Y/N) waited on Steve’s bed for him to come out of the bathroom. After about 30 minutes, Steve came out, a towel wrapped around his waist. He spotted (Y/N) and immediately froze, blushing when he remembered he was only in a towel. “(Y/N),” Steve cleared his throat, making her smirk. “Don’t worry Steve, I’m not looking at anything other than your eyes, like a true lady.” She winked playfully at him. “Secretary Ross is here and he wants to speak to everyone, so when you’re dressed, head to the conference room,” (Y/N) got up and patted him on the shoulder “Alright big guy?” Steve just nodded his head, and (Y/N) left, so that he could get ready and join them at the meeting.

Steve walked in to see (Y/N), Wanda, Vision, Rhodey, Tony, and Nat already sitting down and Ross standing at the head of the table. When he sat down, Ross began speaking “5 years ago, I had a heart attack, dropped, right in the middle of my ninth swing. Turns out it was the best round of my life because, after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something, 40 years in the army never taught me, perspective. The world owes the Avengers an un-payable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives, but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some, who would prefer the word, vigilantes.” (Y/N) turned to look at Steve’s reaction, he appeared calm, but (Y/N) could see the worry in his eyes. She then reached under the table and grabbed one of his hands, letting him play with her fingers. This was something that he would do now out of habit when he was anxious, and (Y/N) loved to help him out with this simple gesture. Steve sent (Y/N) a kind and thankful smile. “What word would you use, Mr. Secretary?” Nat asked. “How about dangerous? What would you call a group of U.S. based, enhanced individuals, who routinely ignore sovereign borders, and inflict their will wherever they choose, and whom frankly don’t seem concerned by what they leave behind.” He then stepped to the side so everyone could see the screen behind him. A map then popped up showing New York, a video then played of the Battle of New York. (Y/N)’s breath hitched a little, thinking back to that awful day, knowing how much damage it caused to her dad made her heartache. The screen then switched to show Washington D.C., then Sakovia, and then the most recent, Lagos. (Y/N) gasped a little at the sight, not knowing that this is what made Steve so distraught. (Y/N) squeezed his hand a little, making sure he knew that she was there for him, no matter what that video showed. “The past 4 years, you’ve operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That’s something the governments of the world can no longer tolerate, but I think we have a solution.” Ross then turned to the man standing next to him and grabbed a book from him. Ross then set it down on the table in front of Wanda and said “The Sakovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries. It states the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they will operate under the supervision of the United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary.” “The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place, I feel we’ve done that,” Steve says. “Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?” Ross said asking Steve, “If I miss-placed a couple 30 ton-mega nukes you can bet there’d be consequences. Compromise, reassurance, that’s how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground.” “So there are contingencies,” Rhodey asked “3 days from now the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords. Talk it over.” “And if we come to a decision you don’t like?” Nat asked before Ross left the room. “Then you retire,” He said as he walked out.

They all eventually made their way to the living room, where Rhodey and Sam began having a debate about whether or not the accords were a good idea. Steve sat, reading the accords, with (Y/N) standing over his shoulder, reading with him. Tony sat on the other couch, looking like he would easily kill everyone in this room without a second thought, simply because of how annoyed he was. Nat, Wanda, and Vision sat elsewhere and simply listened to Rhodey and Sam’s argument. Suddenly, Vision blurts ��I have an equation”, making everyone stop what they were doing, so they could look at him. “Oh, this will clear it up.” Sam says sarcastically, making (Y/N) turn around and playfully smack his arm. “In the 8 years since Mr. Stark has announced himself as Iron Man, a number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. During the same period, the number of world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate.” “Are you saying it’s our fault?” Steve interrupted him. “I’m saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And Conflict… breeds catastrophe. Oversight… Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.” Vision ended “Boom” Rhodey said, smirking at Sam. “Tony…” Nat said “You’re being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal” (Y/N) smirked at Nat “You’re right, usually we can’t get him to shut up.” “It’s cause he’s already made up his mind.” Steve said, looking up at (Y/N). “Boy, you guys know me so well,” Tony said, rolling his eyes as he got up. “Actually, I’m nursing an electromagnetic headache.” Tony corrected them. “Are you alright dad?” (Y/N) said, concerned and walking over to him. “Yeah, but that’s what going on. Just pain. It’s discomfort.” Tony leaned over the sink a little “Who’s putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?” He then casually pulled up an image of a kid. “Dad, who’s that?” (Y/N) asked, not quite sure what he was trying to do. “Oh, that’s Charles Spencer. He’s a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA… had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul… before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn’t want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn’t go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where. Sokovia.” The room filled with a heavy tension, the silence wasn’t awkward, but numbing. “He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won’t know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass.” Tony took a drink of his coffee before he continued “There’s no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I’m game. If we can’t accept limitations if we’re boundary-less… we’re no better than the bad guys. Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don’t give up.” Steve pointed out. “Steve, no one said anything about giving up” (Y/N) interjected. “We are if we’re not taking responsibility for our actions.” Steve shot back. This document just shifts the blame.” “Who does it shift the blame to Steve? The United Nations? No matter where they send us, no matter what fight we fight after we sign this, the blood will still be on OUR hands, no one will be to blame but us.” (Y/N) said, she understood where he was coming from, but he needed to realize that the blame was still on them, they were still the ones fighting the battle, no one else. “I’m sorry, Steve, (Y/N)’s right. That mindset is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we’re talking about. It’s not the World Security Council, it’s not S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s not HYDRA.” “No, but it’s run by people with agendas, and agendas change.” “That’s good. That’s why I’m here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands… I shut it down and stopped manufacturing.” Tony said “Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don’t let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.” Steve said “What if our own hands can’t be trusted, Steve? We are also people, people with agendas and like you said, agendas change.” (Y/N) said, not wanting to argue with him, but she simply didn’t understand what was so hard for him to see about this being the right thing to do. “If we don’t do this now, it’s gonna be done to us later. That’s the fact. That won’t be pretty.” Tony said. “You’re saying they’ll come for me.” Wanda said, worry in her voice. “We would protect you.” Vision said, making sure to let Wanda know, that no matter what the outcome of this, we would still be a team, a family. At least that’s what (Y/N) hoped of the outcome. “Maybe Tony’s right. If we have one hand on the wheel we can still steer. If we take it off…” Nat began saying before she was interrupted by Sam “Aren’t you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?” “I’m just reading the terrain.” Nat defended, “We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back.” “Focus up. I’m sorry. Did I just mishear you… or did you agree with me?” Tony said “Oh, I wanna take it back now” Nat laughed a little. “No, you can’t retract it.” Tony wagged his finger, “Okay, case closed. I win.” (Y/N) looked over at Steve when he didn’t make a snarky comment on Tony saying he won, but his attention was elsewhere now. He was looking down at his phone with a deep frown. He suddenly got up, mumbling an “I’ve gotta go”, as he rushed out of the room. Everyone shared a confused look, but brushed it off, except for (Y/N) and Sam. (Y/N) got up and walked over to Sam “What was that about?” she asked, but he just shrugged his shoulders “I’m gonna go check on him” (Y/N) said as she began towards where Steve left.

She found him out in the stairwell, silently staring at his phone. “Steve?” (Y/N) gently said, placing a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her with tear-filled eyes. “Oh, honey.” (Y/N) said, coming down the rest of the stairs to meet him and pulling him in for a hug. “What’s the matter?” (Y/N) asked, rubbing his back. Steve pulled his head out of the crook of her neck so he could talk, “Peggy’s…gone” he let out in between sniffles. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry” (Y/N) said, knowing just how much Peggy meant to him. After holding Steve for a few more minutes, (Y/N) pulled away and looked at him. “Listen, sweetie, if you want me or even need me to go to the funeral with you, I will. If you need anything at all, I’m here for you, I promise,” she said, wiping the last tear from his cheek. She then stood on her toes so she could press a kiss on his cheek. “Do you understand?” (Y/N) asked, knowing that he might not be fully comprehending what she’s saying, but he nodded his head in response, showing that he did.

A couple of days had gone by when Steve, Sam, and (Y/N) made their way to London to attend Peggy’s funeral. Steve was in the actual funeral, carrying the casket, but (Y/N) and Sam were just there for emotional support. (Y/N) hated funerals, they reminded her that her time here was limited. She hated thinking about her time crunch. She had so much that she wanted to do in life, but she knew she only had so much time. (Y/N) hated that this was her biggest fear, is not getting to live a fulfilling life, but it was. Every time (Y/N) attends a funeral she thinks about this fear of hers, it then turns into her picking one thing, from quite a large list, of things that she has always wanted to do, but either doesn’t have the time or always chickens out in the end. This time she picked her number one on her list, and oh boy did she regret it as soon as she did. Her number one on this list was finally getting around to admitting her true feelings towards Steve. She realized that it was probably ill-advised to do so now, due to him mourning a woman he loved. That’s why she regretted picking it, but she knew it had to be done. She didn’t want something to happen one day, especially with the line of work Steve was in, and have their relationship end similar to Peggy and Steve’s back in the 20’s, where they were so close, but never got to the next step. She had her mindset, looking over at her best friend sitting next to her with red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she wanted nothing more than to kiss him, and hold him tight until every sad thought escaped his mind, but she settled for reaching over and grabbing his hand, squeezing it for good measure. Steve looked down at their hands, then up at (Y/N) with a grateful smile.

After the service was over, Steve and (Y/N) hung around in the church, Sam insisting on going back to the room to set up some room service comfort food, in an attempt to make Steve feel better. They sat side by side in the pews, looking up at the detailed stain glass windows. “What do you think happens after we die?” Steve asks, but quiet enough that (Y/N) almost didn’t hear him. “Well, I think that we have three options. Go to Hell, for those who have committed unforgivable sins. Go to Heaven, for those who have lived a peaceful life, filled with forgivable sins. Or, stay on Earth, but reincarnated, for those who have not fulfilled their purpose in life.” (Y/N) said, looking over at Steve, knowing what he needed to hear “I definitely believe that Peggy went to Heaven, while she did sin throughout her life, as we all do, she did it for the greater good of humanity, and not in the ‘greater good of humanity’ that psychopaths think we will get to through genocide. She also lived a pretty full life, but maybe she’ll be reincarnated because she never got to have that dance with you.” This last part made Steve smile, “You always know what to say (Y/N).” Steve said, squeezing her hand “Thank you” he then leaned over and kissed the top of her head, making the both of them close their eyes and sigh at the feeling of peace it brought them. But this peaceful moment was broken, when Nat came up to them, in order to give her condolences to Steve. (Y/N) remained sitting in the pews, thinking about when the right time would be to talk to Steve about how she felt. However, she was ripped out of these thoughts when Nat said: “(Y/N), your father wants you to attend the signing of the accords tomorrow.” (Y/N) looked up at the two of them, not knowing what to say. She hadn’t really given the accords enough thought to know if she really approved of them or not, but she didn’t want to fight her dad, especially since she’s all that he has right now, with her mom and him not seeing eye to eye at the moment. Instead of arguing with Nat, knowing that she was just the messenger, she just nodded her head, stood up, hugged Steve goodbye and left with Nat.

Nat and (Y/N) arrived at the accord signing and were asked to sign a couple of things before the meeting began. Shortly after they signed some paperwork, a man came up to them and said “I suppose neither of us are used to the spotlight.”, (Y/N) knew he wasn’t speaking to her, she grew up with Tony freaking Stark as her father, of course, she was used to the spotlight, no matter how much she hated it. Nat let out a small laugh and replied: “Well, it’s not always so flattering”. “You seem to be doing alright so far” he reassured her “Considering your last trip to Capitol Hill… I wouldn’t think you’d be particularly comfortable in this company.” “Well, I’m not.” Nat admitted, “And that alone makes me glad you are here, Ms. Romanoff.” “Why? You don’t approve of all this?” “The Accords, yes. The politics, not really. Two people in a room can get more done than a hundred.”, just then another man, resembling the first walked up and joined them saying, “Unless you need to move a piano.”. Once he was in front of her, (Y/N) recognized him as the king of Wakanda, and she bowed her head a little as a sign of respect for him. He greeted (Y/N) back as well, “Ms. Stark, what a pleasure.” he holds out his hand to shake hers, and she gladly takes it “I’m so looking forward to the speech you’re making today.” he smiles at her. “What speech?” (Y/N) asks, looking at Nat in confusion. “Oh, shit.” Nat mumbles “I completely forgot to tell you that Tony sent you here to speak on his behalf.” “Wait, what?” (Y/N) said, but before anyone could say anything back, a voice came over a speaker and said: “If everyone could please be seated, this assembly is now in session.” “That is the future calling,” The prince said, sending (Y/N) into a panic.

The session began slowly, with an introduction of the accords, and then a speech from the King of Wakanda, telling his point of view of the accords, and why it was so important, especially after what happened when the Avengers where in the area. After his speech ended, he stepped to the side and remained there. Then, the same person who introduced the session then got up to the podium and said: “We will now hear a few words from Ms. (Y/N) Stark, who is not only speaking on behalf of Mr. Anthony Stark himself but the Avengers.” (Y/N) slowly got up, hands shaking, not really sure what she was going to pull out of her ass. “Hello, I’d like to thank you all in advance for hearing me, here today.” She took in a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, and find the words to say, without making a fool of herself. “Let me start out by saying, as my introducer said: on behalf of my father, Mr. Stark, and the Avengers, how deeply sorry we are for all the damage and loss we have ever caused, it was not by any means intentional, and it did not go over our heads. The Avengers are a group of remarkable people, with remarkable powers, and they were gathered together for a reason. They were gathered to help save the world, and protect the innocent. However, it has come to the attention of the United Nations, that sometimes, if not every time, our actions have greater consequences than we realize, and that is why I am here speaking to you all today. It is possible for the Avengers to continue Avenging this Earth while being in check. It is possible to make sure that the innocent we fight to protect, are actually protected. It is all possible, and we are going to make it possible, today.” (Y/N) took a pause, thinking about whether or not she should go on, but before she did, she heard something outside. She heard a yelling, making her turn around, only to see cops yelling “Get down!”, (Y/N) quickly hit the side button on her watch and yelled: “GET DOWN!”. Everything after that was slow motion. The button she pressed summoned an iron man suit that she had designed to fit her, to come to her. It slowly covered her, similar to how her dads did. Everyone ducked under the tables and not even a minute later, a large explosion occurred. (Y/N) attempted to jump in front of the King of Wakanda who was still standing beside the podium, but the explosion blew her back, and it was too late.

(Y/N) flew out to where the explosion had occurred and searched the area, through the smoke, for any survivors she could pull. She was able to pull two people out of the smoke and fly them a good distance away, at a time. Flying back and forth, trying to get as many as she could, in case the building collapsed, hurting anyone near it. The smoke finally cleared, after what felt like an eternity, and a bunch of ambulances and police cars pulled up, able to finally see where they were driving in the area. (Y/N) tried getting out of the suit, not wanting anyone to see her, but it was too late. A bunch of television vans pulled up and quickly captured pictures and videos of her running around trying to remove people from the scene. After the police arrived and took over, the press began shouting “Mr. Stark!” thinking that she was her father, wanting her to come and speak with them about what happened. She didn’t want anyone to see her, because her father had no idea she had gone through with actually building one of the prototypes she made for herself, but it was too late. She still didn’t want to make the situation worse by talking to the press, so she chose to ignore their calls, and flew up to where the Accords were being signed to help people out of the building. She rushed to Nat, seeing her still laying on the ground, unmoving. She put her hand up to her neck and told the AI in her suit to read the vitals, “She’s still breathing, and at a steady rate, she’s just unconscious” the AI reported back. (Y/N) sighed in relief, but moved on to try and find anyone who looked on the brink of death, but was still holding on and needed medical help ASAP. She ended up rushing 20 people down to the ambulances, who needed immediate medical attention, everyone else was either alright, or already dead.

Eventually, everything calmed down and all that was left was the FBI, investigating the scene. (Y/N) remained in her suit, walking around the conference room, lifting up desks and chairs, trying to find any last stragglers. Suddenly the AI in her suit said: “Ms. Stark, you’re receiving a call from Steve Rogers.” “Put him through” (Y/N) said, not sure if he had seen the news yet. “Where are you?” He immediately asked. “Well hello to you too.” (Y/N) laughed a little at his rushed tone. “This isn’t funny (Y/N), I need to know where you are and if you’re okay.” (Y/N)’s heart raced a little, knowing he was worried about her specifically “Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’m still in the building, but I’m fine.” “Are you hurt? Why are you still in the building? What if it collapses?” “I’m not hurt, I’m looking for people, and I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” “(Y/N), they’re saying it was Bucky who did it.” “What? No, that’s not possible.” “That’s what I think, I’m going to go after him, before they find him and wrongfully harm him, do you wanna come and help me?” “I won’t be of much help, it’s not like I’m a superhero or anything.” (Y/N) laughed a little, remembering she was in an Iron Man suit. “No, but you are really good at talking to people, maybe you’ll be able to convince Bucky to come with us, you know if he doesn’t remember me…” “I think you just wanna make sure I don’t get hurt. You can’t see me right now, but I’m winking at you.” This made Steve laugh “Shut up and come find me already.” “Ugh, fine, you’re so needy.” (Y/N) said, hanging up.

(Y/N), Steve and Sam arrived at the apartment that Steve’s FBI friend told him Bucky was supposedly living at, and they came up with a plan. (Y/N) would go in first, with Steve shortly behind her, and Sam staying outside, letting them know if any cops arrived. (Y/N) walked up to Bucky’s door and knocked, only to get no answer, so she let herself in. “Bucky?” (Y/N) gently called out. “Heads up guys, German Special Forces is arriving right now,” Sam said. “Understood” Steve whispered. (Y/N) never got a response, but when her and Steve got distracted looking at a journal of Bucky’s, Bucky snuck up behind them. (Y/N) felt someone looking at her and she turned around, “Bucky…It’s okay, we’re not here to hurt you.” (Y/N) said, not really sure if Bucky even knew who they were. “Do you know me?” Steve asked him. “You’re Steve.” Bucky said, “I read about you in a museum.” (Y/N) knew that comment probably broke Steve’s heart, it broke her’s and she doesn’t even know Bucky. “They’ve set the perimeter,” Sam said. “I know that you’re nervous, we understand, but you don’t have to lie to us.” (Y/N) said, trying to make sure that Bucky knew they meant him no harm. “I wasn’t in Vienna. I don’t do that anymore.” Bucky said. “We know you weren’t.” (Y/N) said, “I know you weren’t. I watched the explosion happen, I know it wasn’t you. So you need to trust us when we say, you need to come with us.” “They’re entering the building” Sam warned. “The people who think you were are coming here now, and they’re not planning on taking you alive,” Steve said. “That’s smart. Good strategy.” Bucky said. “But it doesn’t have to be that way Bucky if you just come with us.” (Y/N) offered. “They’re on the roof, I’m compromised,” Sam said. “It always ends in a fight anyway, so what’s it matter.” Bucky said “Five seconds” Sam warns. “You pulled me from the river,” Steve said, trying to hurry the situation, “Why?” “I don’t know,” Bucky says. “Three seconds” Sam warns again. “Yes, you do.” Steve insists. “Breach! Breach! Breach!” Sam begins to yell.

Two things get thrown in through the window, one just to break the window, Steve deflected it with his shield, the other a bomb. It landed in front of Bucky, making him kick it towards Steve so he could cover it with his shield. They then began beating down the front door, as another bomb was thrown in. Bucky lifted up his mattress to block it. He then dropped the mattress and flipped the table next to him into the doorway so it would be harder to get in. Just then, a soldier busts through the window and begin fighting Steve and Bucky. (Y/N) wasn’t really sure what to do, not knowing if she should suit up and fight with them, or run and find Sam. “Buck, stop.” Steve yells and grabs him when he attacks one of the soldiers “You’re gonna kill someone.” but Bucky just grabs Steve’s hand and flips him onto the ground. He then punches a hole in the ground next to Steve’s head, “I’m not going to kill anyone” he says. He grabs a backpack out of the floor, throws it out the door onto the building next to his and is ready to run after it, but another soldier busts in and begins shooting. Bucky blocks himself with his metal arm, and Steve pulls (Y/N) to the ground so he could protect her, but Bucky picked him up and threw him at one of the soldiers, then ran at the other one. Steve fought the soldier he was thrown at, but when he was done, he realized that Bucky had left the room and was now out in the hallway fighting everyone. “Go” (Y/N) motioned with her head, Steve did as she said and chased after Bucky. (Y/N) decided it was probably in her best interest to suit up, so she pushed the button on her watch, summoning her iron suit to her. She then walked out in the hallway herself and blasted anyone who came at her. Steve and Bucky eventually made their way down far enough where they could jump out the window, onto the next building. (Y/N) saw them jump and laughed a little to herself “Idiots”, she shook her head as she ran to the same ledge they jumped from and she flew over to where they were fighting with someone dressed in an all black suit. She stayed in the air, knowing they probably weren’t going to stay on the roof for very long, and she was right, they soon jumped off and began running through the streets. (Y/N) decided to fly ahead of all of them, knowing that she would be able to stop Bucky. She watched from above, making sure she went to the right spot. She then landed right at the end of the tunnel, and right in front of Bucky’s path. He tried to drive around her but she grabbed his handlebars and it flung him off the bike and onto the road ahead. But (Y/N) didn’t realize that Bucky had thrown a bomb at the roof of the tunnel, seems as her main goal was to grab his bike. It blew up and was about to land on her, but Steve stopped his car just in time to jump out and push her out of the way. When (Y/N) and Steve got up, they went running at Bucky and the guy in the black suit, but they had stopped fighting, seeing that they were now completely surrounded by cop cars.

They all had to take off their suits, this was the cops way of making sure it was harder for them to fight back. They also had to hand them over to the police, once they were off. None of them had realized that it was (Y/N) in the Iron suit, they thought Tony had shown up and was trying to help the police. (Y/N) didn’t want to take off her suit, knowing that as soon as she handed it over, she would never see it again. She knew she had to do it though, no matter how much she didn’t want to, so she took her mask off, handing it over to the office. “(Y/N)?” Steve asked confused “Surprise….” (Y/N) said in a sing-song voice. “Since when do you have a suit?” Sam asked “Um since like… 5 years ago when I made one without dad knowing…” (Y/N) admitted as she took off her armor section by section. “So that isn’t Tony’s?” Sam asked, and (Y/N) shook her head “No, I made this myself, just like I make a lot of things for you guys.” “Well shit,” Sam said, laughing a little, impressed by everything you were telling him.

They were eventually handcuffed and put into trucks, on their way to a highly secure Berlin prison. T’Challa sat in the seat closest to the front, Steve and (Y/N) sat in the middle and Sam sat in the back. It was a silent ride, up to the point where Sam asked: “So, you like cats?” “Sam,” Steve said, in a scolding tone. “What? Dude shows up dressed like a cat, you don’t wanna know more?” Sam asked, making (Y/N) laugh a little. “You’re suit…it’s vibranium?” Steve asked. “The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle passed from warrior to warrior. And now, because your friend murdered my father… I also wear the mantle of King. So, I ask you… as both warrior and king… how long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?” “T’Challa, I know you’re hurting right now, I understand, but Bucky didn’t do it.” (Y/N) tried reasoning with him. “And you…” T’Challa said, turning to the best of his ability to face (Y/N), “You were right next to him, why did you not save my father?” “I…tried, I really did, I-I just wasn’t quick enough. He was too close to the explosion. I’m sorry.” This made (Y/N) stop talking, all together.

When they arrived at the prison they were being brought to, they were allowed out of the van that was transporting them and as soon as they get out, they’re unhandcuffed and they see Bucky locked up in a big glass containment unit. “What are you going to do to him?” Steve asked the group of people waiting for them. “Same thing that ought to happen to you.” The agent replied, “Psychological evaluation and extradition”. The woman next to him introduced him “this is Everett Ross, Deputy Task Force Commander.” “What about a lawyer?” Steve asked. “Lawyer. That’s funny.” Ross laughed a little, “See their weapons are placed in lockup. We’ll write you a receipt.” “A receipt?!” (Y/N) said, frustrated “I made that suit myself!” “Well now it’s government property,” Ross said, shrugging. (Y/N) almost ran at the man, but Steve was wise enough to place an arm in front of her, blocking her. “I better not look out the window and see anybody flying around in that,” Sam said as they passed them with their uniforms. Ross began walking away, making them follow him. “You’ll be provided with an office instead of a cell. Do me a favor, stay in it.” “I don’t intend on going anywhere,” T’Challa said.

Up ahead they heard an oh-so-familiar voice saying “No. Romania was not Accords-sanctioned. Colonel Rhodes is supervising cleanup. Consequences? You bet there’ll be consequences.” Tony said, looking directly at (Y/N) when he said the last part. He continued his phone conversation as everyone joined him in the room “Obviously you can quote me on that, because I just said it, Anything else? Thank you, sir.”, he then hung up. “Consequences?” Steve asked. “Secretary Ross wants all of you prosecuted. Had to give him something. As for you young lady.” Tony said pointing at (Y/N), “What the HELL were you thinking? You could’ve gotten killed!” “Dad, I knew what I was doing. I kept a safe distance, only got involved when necessary, and when I did, I had a suit on.” “Oh yeah! Speaking of the suit. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING WITH A SUIT? I specifically told you NOT to make yourself one, and what do you do? Go behind my back and make one.” “Dad, listen to me… Both times I used it, it saved my life.” “Is that supposed to make me feel better that you went behind my back?” “I mean kind of” (Y/N) shrugged, making Tony roll his eyes, and walked away to go deal with some other business.

One by one, they got called out of the cell to be questioned. The only ones left were (Y/N) and Steve. “How did we get in this mess” (Y/N) said sighing, leaning her head on Steve’s shoulder. He put his arm around her and rubbed her arm “I’m just glad he’s alive.” Steve said “I know sweetie, but was it worth all of this.” she motioned around. Steve looked down at her, “(Y/N), you know the answer to that… I would’ve done the same if it was you.” “Why?” (Y/N) asked, probably knowing the answer, but wanting to hear it anyway. Steve scoffed “Because (Y/N), you’re my best friend and I would do anything for you.” “No one goes through all of this, for a best friend.” (Y/N) said, hoping he would admit that she was more to him, so she wouldn’t have to. “I did it for Bucky…” “Bucky isn’t your best friend, he’s your family.” (Y/N) corrected him, “Blood or not, he’s your family and you can’t say otherwise.” Steve nodded his head, agreeing with her. “You’re my best friend, and I would go through all this for you.” (Y/N)’s heart began to beat a little faster, as she thought about how she wanted to be more. “How can you go through all this for someone who you just love as a friend?” “Would you not go through all this for me?” Steve asked, “I would, and that’s my point.” (Y/N) said, making Steve look at her confused, but before he could ask her what she meant, she was called out of the room.

“Hey (Y/N),” Ross said, entering the questioning room. “Hello.” (Y/N) said shortly. “Now, just as a precaution, we need to hook you up to a lie detector, is that okay?” Ross asked. “Yeah, it’s not like I have much of a choice.” (Y/N) rolled her eyes. Ross came over and hooked her up to the machine, then he sat in front of her with a notebook and pen, ready to ask away. “To make sure it’s working, I’m going to ask you some pretty obvious questions. What color are your eyes?” “(Y/E/C)” “What is your father’s name?” “Anthony Stark.” “What is your mother’s name?” “Pepper Potts” “Are your mom and dad married?” “No.” “Alright, now I’m going to ask you the real questions.” (Y/N) just nodded. “Why were you in Bucky Barnes’ apartment?” “Who the hell is Bucky?” (Y/N) asked, laughing. “What do you mean?” “It’s what Bucky said to Steve when… you know what… never mind. I was in the apartment because Steve wanted me to help him.” “Help him what?” “Find Bucky” “Why did you need to find Bucky?” “Because you guys were planning on killing him.” “Don’t you think he deserves it, after all he is an assassin.” “No, he didn’t know what he was doing.” “Why did you help Steve, knowing that it would lead to your arrest.” “I didn’t know it would lead to my arrest.” (Y/N) said, making the machine speak against her “Stop lying, Why did you willingly go with Steve?” Ross pressed on “Because he’s my friend.” her heart rate was increasing, as it did every time she thought about how she felt about Steve, but the detector took it as she was lying. “Stop lying, did he bribe you?” “No.” “Then why did you go with him?” “Because he’s my friend and he asked me to help him.” “I know you’re not lying, but I also know you’re keeping something from me because your heart rate is still increasing, what aren’t you telling me.” Ross pressed on. “I… went with him because… I love him and I wanted to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid like getting himself killed.” (Y/N)’s heart felt like it was going to pound right through her chest, and it was making the machine go crazy. Ross just nodded his head, knowing why the machine was going haywire now. Before Ross could continue on, sirens began going off, throughout the entire building. Both Ross and (Y/N) shot up and ran out of the room to see what was going on.

They ran out to where everyone was watching the security cameras, they showed Bucky had gotten loose. He was currently running through the building, trying to escape. “Evacuate all civilians. Get me a perimeter around the building, and gunships in the air.” Ross said over a loudspeaker. “No! Don’t shoot at him!” (Y/N) said, “We might have no choice,” Ross said. Just then Tony and Nat walk past them and (Y/N) ran up to join them. “Please tell me you brought a suit.” Nat said to Tony. “Sure did. It’s a lovely Tom Ford, three-piece, two-button. I’m an active-duty non-combatant.” “I have a suit, but someone took it away.” (Y/N) said, looking at Tony, making him roll his eyes. Just then Sharron Carter ran past them and said “Follow me!” and she leads them right to the room where Bucky was currently fighting off security. Tony and Nat got into their attack positions. “Stay here.” Tony said to (Y/N), making her roll her eyes this time. After Tony moved onto the next spot that he was hiding from Bucky in, (Y/N) pressed the button on her watch, hoping that wherever they had put her suit, it was somewhere where it would be able to reach her. Tony soon got out of hiding, pulled out an Iron Man hand and blasted Bucky with sound waves, making him stop in his tracks. He then blinded him with a bright flash and began running at him. “Come-on, come-on” (Y/N) said, hoping her suit would come soon so that she could help her dad. Bucky began fighting Tony, and Tony was doing pretty okay at defending himself, but (Y/N) saw Bucky reach for the gun on the floor and (Y/N) ran out in front of Tony “Look out!” she yelled as she ran out, and at the same time the suit began arriving on her body. By the time it all had gotten to her, she was in front of her dad, blocking Bucky’s shot at him. It all had happened so quickly, Bucky looked momentarily confused, (Y/N) took this opportunity to blast him backward and away from Tony. After she had done this, both Nat and Sharron came out and began fighting him together. Bucky quickly got the upper hand on Nat and pinned her down, choking her. He was quickly stopped when T’Challa came in and pushed him away from Nat. They continued fighting, while (Y/N) rushed to the nearest exit to try and make sure he didn’t escape. Unfortunately, Bucky found another door that leads up to the roof instead of outside. (Y/N) rushed out the doors she was standing guard at and flew up to the roof. She got up there just in time to see Steve running at the helicopter Bucky was taking off in. Steve jumped up on one of the landing bars and tried pulling it down, but Bucky kept dragging Steve to the edge of the building. Steve then grabbed onto the side of the landing pad with his other hand, pulling the helicopter back towards the roof. “Steve! Stop you’re going to get hurt!” (Y/N) yelled, landing next to him. Then, almost as if on cue, Bucky turned the helicopter making it crash into where Steve was. (Y/N) reached down and yanked Steve up, getting him out of the way. “Are you okay?” (Y/N) asked Steve, but before he could answer her, Bucky bust through the glass and grabbed Steve’s neck. “Bucky stop!” (Y/N) yelled trying to pry his metal arm off of Steve’s throat, but he wouldn’t budge. Steve began pushing on the helicopter, trying to get Bucky off of him as well, but instead, the helicopter itself began falling off of the roof, taking Steve with it. “STEVE!” (Y/N) yelled, quickly jumping after him. Thankfully they were right above a huge fountain, making a safe landing for all of them. (Y/N) dived in and quickly grabbed Steve, but he tried pushing her off, motioning to Bucky who was still in the helicopter, buckled in and unconscious. (Y/N) pointed at Steve then held up her finger, telling him you first, Steve nodded, grabbing onto (Y/N) so she could blast them out of the water. (Y/N) set Steve down on the ground right next to the pool of water, “I’m going to go get Bucky. Catch your breath, but as soon as I bring him up, be ready to take him and run.” Steve nodded as he tried to catch his breath. (Y/N) dived back in and swam right to the helicopter. Thankfully this water was not too deep, so Bucky hit the bottom pretty quickly with the weight of the helicopter, this made it easier for (Y/N) to get to him. She got to the front window that Bucky had broken not too long ago, and reached in trying to unbuckle him, but not having any luck. She knew Bucky was probably out of air at this point so she took a deep gasp of air and removed her helmet, putting it on Bucky. The AI quickly noticed the water seeping in, so it closed off the area around Bucky’s neck, making it so no more water could get in, and it drained what was in it. (Y/N) quickly went back to work on the seat belt, eventually able to rip it off. She, herself, slowly running out of air and tried to hurry it up. She yanked Bucky out of the helicopter and began swimming up, but before she could get too far, she began feeling light-headed. She was too weak to continue holding Bucky so she let go of him and let him float to the top. All she felt was numbness as she slowly went unconscious. The last thing (Y/N) saw before she passed out from lack of air was someone jumping in the water and them swimming towards her.

(Y/N) woke up coughing, reaching up to her neck, trying to get as much air as she could. She sat up, confused as to where she was, but Tony quickly put a hand on her shoulder and made her lay back down “It’s okay sweetie, lay back down.” “What happened.” (Y/N) asked, still gasping a little. “We’re not sure, all that we know is you were laying on the side of the fountain, unconscious.” “Where’s Steve?” (Y/N) asked, remembering why she was in the fountain “We don’t know, him, Bucky, and Sam are all missing.” Tony said, not looking too thrilled about it, “(Y/N), listen to me, please. I know that Steve is your best friend, but I need you. I’m asking you as your father to help me out, I need to find Steve, Sam, and Bucky within the next 36 hours, or the government will and they will kill them.” “And if we find them and bring them in, what makes you think they still won’t kill them?” “We agreed that if I bring them in, they will just go to prison, if they bring them in, they cannot guarantee they will make it to the prison.” (Y/N) nodded, understanding. “I’ll help you bring them in, I’m not sure where they’re going to be, but I can help you once you find them.” (Y/N) said. “Thank you, sweetie.” Tony said leaning down and kissing her forehead. “Before we get started, I need you to get someone for me.” Tony said. “Who?” (Y/N) asked, expecting it to be Rhodey or some other Avenger. “His name is Peter, he lives in Queens.”

(Y/N) went to Queens as soon as the medic cleared her, saying she was okay and luckily didn’t have any more water in her lungs. Tony went back to the Avengers tower to gather who he could, while (Y/N) went to try and convince this new kid to come with them. (Y/N) knew nothing about him, other than 1. his name was Peter 2. he lived in Queens 3. he was supposedly Spider-Man (whoever that was). (Y/N) had her AI search for videos of the Spider-Man and play them for her while she flew over to Queens. When she arrived at the apartment complex that Tony sent her to, she sent her suit away and walked up to Peter’s apartment. She knocked on the door, expecting a guy to come and answer, but she was instead greeted with a young female. “Hello.” (Y/N) said sticking out her hand to introduce herself. “My name is (Y/N) Stark and I was wondering if Peter was home.” “No, he’s not at the moment, is there some way I could help you?” She asked, not yet taking her hand, but quickly realizing (Y/N) still had it stuck out for her to shake. She grabbed (Y/N)’s hand, shaking it and saying “Sorry, my name is May, I’m Peter’s aunt.” “Nice to meet you May.” (Y/N) smiled, “And no, there’s not really much you can do for me, I just need to speak with Peter. Would I possibly be able to come in and wait for him?” Aunt May reluctantly moved out of the doorway and motioned for her to come in. “Can I ask why you need to speak with Peter? Has he done something wrong?” “No, not at all, he actually um…” (Y/N)’s mind raced to try to think of a reason to be there. “May I sit?” (Y/N) broke her sentence and pointed at the couch, Aunt May nodded, still waiting for her answer “He applied for an internship at Stark Industries, and I’ve come here to congratulate him because he got accepted!” (Y/N) said, trying to act really excited. “Oh my gosh! That’s fantastic! Here I was thinking that you were going to tell me he was caught vandalizing your property or something like that.” she said with a laugh. Just then the oven dinged and she ran over to it, “Oh, my cookies are done!”. She took them out and let them cool as they made small talk. Once they were cool enough, May brought them over to (Y/N), offering her some. (Y/N) gladly took one as May sat down next to her. “So, what does this internship entail?” she said with a big grin, very proud of Peter. “Well, I work in Stark Industries myself as a mechanic slash scientist, so Peter would be following me around every time he’s there. Helping me with whatever project I was working on that day.” (Y/N) said, even convincing herself with this lie.

Before Aunt May could ask any more questions, Peter came in but didn’t really notice (Y/N) at first because of the headphones he had on. “Hey May” Peter greeted “Hey!” she said back, “How was school today?” she asked as he set down his stuff and began walking over to her. “It was okay. Took a math test…today…” Peter began but became distracted by the guest, who he didn’t really recognize. “Who’s this?” Peter asked May as he stood in his place, a little confused. (Y/N) smiled at him and said, “I’m (Y/N) Stark, from Stark Industries.” “Oh…H-h-hey, I’m Pe-Peter” Peter stuttered as he walked over to shake her hand. “Wh-Wha-What’re you doing here?” Peter asked, still confused as to why the Tony Stark’s daughter would be sitting in her living room, eating cookies and casually talking to his aunt. “It’s about time we met, you’ve been getting my emails right?” (Y/N) said, winking at him. “Yeah,” Peter said, not sounding too sure of himself. “Oh, shoot, did I not sign them from me? You probably weren’t expecting me, but someone else.” “Yeah, that’s why…they were regarding the…” “You didn’t tell me about the internship” Aunt May interjected, too excited to keep quiet anymore. “About the internship, right.” Peter agreed. “Remember when you applied?” (Y/N) encouraged. “Yeah,” Peter said, “Well Tony, my father, and I approved, so now we’re in business.” (Y/N) smiled, giving him a small look, trying to get him to play along. “But you didn’t tell me anything. What’s up with that? You keep secrets from me know?” Aunt May said. “Well… I just know how much you love surprises so I thought I would let you know…” Peter tried saving his ass. “Anyway, what did I apply for exactly?” Peter asked (Y/N). “That’s what I’m here to hash out!” (Y/N) said smiling at both Peter and Aunt May. “Okay. Hash it out, okay.” Peter said. “By the way, these cookies are phenomenal.” (Y/N) said, turning to May. “Thank you!” “Let me just stop you there.” Peter interrupted. “Is this internship like paid or whatever? No?” “Yeah, it’s pretty well funded.” Peter’s face lit up a little “I mean, look who you’re talking to kid.” “Wow,” Peter said, “Can I have 5 minutes with him?” (Y/N) asked May. “Sure!” she agreed. (Y/N) got up and Peter led (Y/N) to his room.

(Y/N) followed Peter’s lead and once they were in the room, she locked the door behind them. “Alright Peter, you and I both know, you never applied for an internship, because there is no internship.” (Y/N) said, cutting to the chase. Before she continued she walked over to his desk and said, “This is some awesome retro-tech you’ve got here. Where’d you get it from?” (Y/N) said leaning over and looking closer at it. “Th-the garbage” (Y/N) stood up straight, giving him an impressed nod. “Too bad you aren’t actually interning with us, by the looks of it, these are all restored, by you I’m assuming.” Peter nodded, confirming her assumption. “So um… why are you here then?” Peter asked. “My dad seems to believe that you are this hero called “Spider-Man”, ever heard of him?” (Y/N) asked, pulling out her phone to show him a video. “Um… no… never heard of him.” “Yeah, I think you have. Look at you go.” (Y/N) said, watching the video with him. “That’s all on Youtube, clearly edited.” Peter said, getting a little flustered. “It’s like that video…” “Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh you mean like those UFO’s over Phoenix?” (Y/N) said as she grabbed the broom leaning up against the wall, taking it to poke the little door in the ceiling, opening it up. Out came a red and blue costume, “What have we here?” (Y/N) asked as it fell. “Nope.” Peter said as he ran to snatch it. “So, are you going to tell me the truth?” (Y/N) asked, looking at Peter, she took his silence as a yes, “You’re the Spider-Man that my father believes you are, are you not?” “Yeah…” Peter said a little ashamed. “Don’t be upset that I found out.” (Y/N) said, trying to make him feel better. “I can’t believe this, I was actually having a really good day today. Didn’t miss my train. This perfectly good DVD player was just sitting there. Algebra test nailed it.” “Who else knows? Anybody?” “Nobody” Peter shook his head. “Not even your aunt?” (Y/N) asked “No, no, no. If she knew, she would freak out. When she freaks out, I freak out.” (Y/N) nodded her head. “I understand,” “How could you?” Peter said, “Your dad is freaking Iron Man, how could you understand.” “Because, while my dad is Iron Man, he’s still my dad. He worries too much about me. Up until yesterday he never would’ve even considered letting me anywhere near anything superhero related, unless it was behind the scenes.” Peter stayed quiet, thinking about what (Y/N) was saying. “You know what I think is cool, this webbing.” (Y/N) said, changing the subject and tossing it at Peter. He caught it, without even looking. “The strength is off charts. Who manufactured it?” “I did.” Peter said, throwing it into his hamper. (Y/N) nodded, impressed yet again “It really is a shame that I’m not actually here for an internship.” “Then why are you here?” Peter asked, sitting on his bed. “Why are you doing this?” (Y/N) asked, before she answered his question. Peter looked a little confused, “What’s your M.O.? What gets you out of that bed in the morning?” (Y/N) asked. “Because I’ve been me my whole life and I’ve had these powers for 6 months, I read books, I build computers and yeah I would love to play football, but I couldn’t then, so I shouldn’t now.” “Because you’re different” “Exactly, but I can’t tell anybody that, so I’m not. When you can do the things that I can but you don’t, and then the bad things happen. They happen because of you.” Peter admitted. (Y/N) nodded her head, understanding. That’s why she went with Steve. If something bad were to have happened to him, and there was something she could’ve done, she would’ve blamed herself. “So you wanna look out for the little guy, do your part to make the world a better place…” (Y/N) said “Yeah, yeah, just looking out for the little guy. That’s what it is.” Peter agreed. (Y/N) thought for a moment, “Got a passport?” Peter just laughed a little “No, I don’t even have a drivers license.” “Ever been to Germany?” (Y/N) asked. “Oh, you’ll love it. Great food, great people…” “I can’t go to Germany.” Peter said. “Why?” (Y/N) asked. “I got…homework.” “I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say that.” (Y/N) said, rolling her eyes. “I’m being serious, I can’t drop out of school.” “I realize that Peter, it’s just for the next 36 hours, then I’ll bring you right back home, safe and sound.” (Y/N) said, “Sound like a plan?” Peter thought about it for a moment and nodded his head. “Beautiful, now let's go tell Aunt May that I’m taking you for the next day to tour the tower.” (Y/N) smiled as she unlocked the door and went out to speak to May while Peter packed a couple things.

“Bye May, love you,” Peter said as he hugged her, shutting the door behind him. “Alright so why are we going to Germany exactly?” “Give me a second.” (Y/N) lifted her watch to her mouth and spoke “Hey, Jess, send car 231 my way, will you?” she asked of her AI. “Will do, Ms. Stark.”. They exited the building and waited outside for the car to arrive. “Listen, kid, a lot of stuff with the Avengers has gone down lately. Currently, Captain America, The Falcon, and the Winter Soldier are on the run, and we need to bring them in before someone else does.” “Why do we need to before someone else?” Peter asked. “Because, if we bring them in, they have the chance of survival. If we don’t bring them in, whoever does will be allowed to kill them if they put up a fight.” Just then the car rolled up to them. “Woah, how’d it get here so fast? Isn’t Stark Tower in New York?” “Yeah, let’s just say it knows it’s way around traffic.” (Y/N) winked at him. “Get in.” (Y/N) hoped in the driver's seat and Peter the front. “Now, since you’ve got zero experience with these people, let me tell you…” “I’m sure I can take them,” Peter said, a little cocky. (Y/N) rolled her eyes “Kid, if I wanted to I could lay you out right here, right now, and I’m not even trained in combat.” Peter began saying “What makes you think…” in a defensive tone, but (Y/N) cut him off. “Just listen to me, okay? I’m going to tell you about some of their weaknesses. If you come into contact with Bucky, watch out for his metal arm, it’s his main line of defense. He’s also a trained assassin so it won’t be easy to sneak up on him. Your best move would be to attack from where he can’t reach you.” Peter nodded his head. “Sam, he has a wing pack, if you can, web it up, clogging it, making it impossible for him to fly. He also has a watch that controls little bots that he has, if at all possible, web that up to so he can’t use it.” “What about Cap?” Peter asked. “I’m going to try and deal with him as much as possible, so don’t worry too much about him. But if it comes down to it, go for his legs.”

Once everyone was in Germany, and Tony figured out the location of Steve, they headed to the airport where he was. Tony, Rhodey, and (Y/N) flew in just as Steve was running up to a helicopter. Tony sent a little gadget to the wings of it and sent an electric shock through it, making it impossible to use. Then landed, cutting off Steve’s path. “Wow, it’s so weird how you run into people at the airport, don’t you think it’s weird?” Tony asked Rhodey. “Defiantly weird.” Rhodey agreed. “Hear me out guys, that doctor, the psychiatrist, is behind all of this.” Just then, the Black Panther came out, joining the party “Captain” he said. “Your Highness” Steve said, bowing his head just a little. “Anyway, Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?” Tony asked. “You have the wrong guy,” Steve said. “Your judgment is askew” Tony retorted, “Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday.” “And there are 5 more super soldiers just like him. I can’t let the doctor find them first Tony. I can’t.” “Steve, you know what’s about to happen… do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?” (Y/N) asked. “(Y/N), I thought you…” “I do, but it’s either we bring you in and you safely are brought to prison or Ross brings you in and cannot guarantee that he brings you in alive. I’d rather take my chances with the first option.” Steve nodded, understanding. “Alright, I’ve run out of patience.” Tony said “Under-Roos!”. Spider-Man came swinging in, snatching Cap’s shield, and webbing up his hands. “Nice job kid!” (Y/N) said “Thanks, well I could’ve stuck the landing a bit better, but you know new suit and all… wait, it’s nothing, Mr. Stark, it’s perfect. Thank you.” “Yeah, we really don’t need to start a conversation.” Tony cut him off. “Okay. Captain.” Peter saluted, “Big fan, Spider-Man.” “Yeah, we’ll talk about this later,” Tony said. “Hey everyone” Peter waved. “Good job,” Tony said. “You’ve been busy,” Steve said. “And you’ve been a complete idiot.” Tony replied, “Dragging in Clint, rescuing Wanda from a place she doesn’t even wanna leave, a SAFE place. I’M TRYNNA KEEP… I’m trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart.” Tony said, sighing. “You did that when you signed,” Steve said. “Alright, you’re gonna turn Barnes over, and you’re gonna come with us NOW! BECAUSE IT’S US. A squad of JSOC guys with no compunction about being impolite. Come on.” Tony said, whispering the last part. But instead of responding, Steve raised his hands, and an arrow shot through them, breaking the webbing. “Alright Lang,” Steve said. Just then a man appeared next to Spider-Man, kicking him and taking Cap’s shield.

(Y/N) flew at Cap, fighting him with T’Challa. “Steve, stop this, please. We don’t want to hurt you.” “Sure seems like it,” Steve said sarcastically as he blocked a punch from T’Challa. They continued fighting until the man who turned up out of nowhere came up and said “Cap, heads up.” handing him something, that (Y/N) couldn’t see. She went to go blast the guy, but he threw something at her, making her stop, Steve threw the thing he was giving and out popped a big truck and it was coming right for her “Oh come on!” (Y/N) said, trying to fly out of the way. It ended up knocking over Black Panther, Rhodey, Nat and (Y/N). (Y/N) picked herself up and went over to help Nat up. Nat looked over at Tony who had flown over to make sure everyone was good and said: “Is this part of the plan?” “Well my plan was to go easy on them, but you wanna switch it up?”

Everyone that was helping Steve out began running towards one of the planes, but before they could get there, Vision came in and beamed a laser down, breaking the cement in front of them. “Captain Rogers,” Vision began saying as everyone else began joining them. “I know that you believe what you’re doing is right. But for the collective good, you must stop.”. But instead of taking Vision’s advice, Steve began running at them, everyone following his lead. “This is gonna end well.” Nat said sarcastically. “They’re not stopping” Peter pointed out. “Neither are we.” Tony said. They also began running, meeting in the middle, they all broke out fighting. (Y/N) wanted to fight Steve, knowing that he wouldn’t hurt her, but she would still be able to hold him back. But her dad had beat her to it, so she decided to follow the kid around, making sure he wasn’t getting hurt. She did make a promise to return him safe and sound after all. She found him trying to deflect things Wanda was throwing at him, so (Y/N) ran over and blasted Wanda when she wasn’t looking, knocking her back. “Be more careful, will you?” (Y/N) asked Peter, but as he was swinging, his web was cut by Cap’s shield, making him fall. (Y/N) sighed, shaking her head, jogging over to where Peter landed. “That thing does not obey the laws of physics at all,” Peter said. (Y/N) decided to take this opportunity to sneak up on Steve. “Look, kid, there’s a lot going on here that you don’t understand.” “Mr. Stark said you’d say that.” “Did he tell you anything else?” “That you’re wrong, you think you’re right, and that makes you dangerous.” “I guess he’s got a point.” Steve was about to make a move. Peter saw you sneaking up behind Steve, and realized you needed help, so he continued talking, trying to get Steve to stop whatever he was about to do. “He didn’t tell me anything else, but Ms. Stark did.” This caught Steve’s attention. “Oh yeah, like what?” Steve asked. But instead of answering Peter shot a web at his face, he blocked it with his shield, leaving his legs wide open. Peter shot at his legs, pulled him forward and kicked him back, knocking his shield out of his hands. Peter landed next to (Y/N) and said “She told me to go for the legs” as he laughed a little. (Y/N) took Steve being on the ground as an opportunity and ran towards him. She grabbed his shield and threw it towards Peter. “Run!” (Y/N) yelled, and Peter did as he was told once he had the shield. Steve began to get up, but (Y/N) did a quick move to push him back down and she landed on top of him, straddling him, pinning his hands above his head.

(Y/N) pulled off her helmet, letting go of Steve briefly. “Listen, sweetie,” (Y/N) said, putting her hands back on his, leaning down to his ear. “I don’t wanna hurt you, none of us do, but in order to make sure that’s the case, you’ve gotta come with us.” “(Y/N), I’ve gotta do this. This is bigger than the Accords, it’s bigger than Bucky, it’s bigger than all of us. I need to go.” (Y/N) pulled away from him so she could look him in the eye. She was still so close to him that she could feel his heavy breathing fan across her face. She looked his face over for a second, then went back to his eyes. (Y/N) nodded, knowing that he wasn’t lying and that he really needed to do whatever it is they were trying to do. “I don’t know what it is you’re about to do, just don’t die doing okay?” (Y/N) asked of him. Steve smiled, “I won’t, and if I do… I promise my ghost will come and haunt you because you can’t get rid of me that easily.” “Are you saying you have unfinished business?” (Y/N) said, smirking at him. Steve then picked his head up a little bit, closing the distance between them, and connecting their lips. (Y/N)’s breath caught in her throat, but she quickly melted into him. She wanted to stay here for eternity but knew that couldn’t happen. When Steve pulled away, they both were grinning and he said: “Not anymore.”. (Y/N) then leaned down, pecking his lips and saying “Go get ‘em.”.

(Y/N) continued fighting everyone else, pretending like she didn’t even notice Cap stealing his shield back from Peter and then him eventually finding Bucky and running past them. Instead, she focused on having to fight the guy who changed sizes, but this time as a huge, tall as a building, sized man. They were eventually able to knock him off of his balance, thanks to Peter making a movie reference to Empire Strikes Back. When he fell over he knocked Peter with his hand, sending him flying. (Y/N) chased after him, to make sure he was okay. “Are you good Peter?” (Y/N) asked, kneeling down to him. “Ye-yeah… I’m good.” Peter said while he held his side and groaned. “You did good, but I want you to stay down.” “What! No, I can…” “Stay down!” (Y/N) said getting up and flying away. “Alright, I’m done. I’m done.” Peter said, not arguing because he was in too much pain to get up. “(Y/N), come on!” Tony yelled. Tony, Rhodey, and (Y/N) began flying after the plane that Steve and Bucky were on. (Y/N) flew a little bit slower, really not wanting to stop them. Tony and Rhodey were hot on their tail, however. Falcon came up behind the three of them and flew past (Y/N) to get to Tony and Rhodey, knowing that (Y/N) wasn’t really trying. “Vision, I’ve got a bandit on my 6,” Rhodey said. Falcon then began shooting at Rhodey and Tony. “Vision, do you copy?” Rhodey said, “Hit his thruster, turn him into a glider.” (Y/N) wasn’t really paying attention to where she was flying, so she didn’t realize that she was right in Vision’s path to Falcon. Vision didn’t seem to notice, he just was looking at Falcon when he aimed, but the shot he took, ended up hitting (Y/N) before it even came close to Falcon. (Y/N) ended up losing control of her suit, and she began to fall. “Dad?” (Y/N) said, not really sure what was happening, but her connection with him had cut out when her suit got damaged. No one had realized that Vision had even shot yet, “Vision do you copy?” Rhodey said, looking back and seeing (Y/N) falling. “Oh shit, Tony!” Tony looked to where Rhodey had turned to fly to. “(Y/N)!” Tony yelled, but she wasn’t able to hear him. Tony and Rhodey began racing towards her, and as soon as Sam realized what was happening, he too chased her. But by the time they even came close to her, it was too late. She had hit the ground with a thud, creating a crater in the ground from the impact. They all landed and Tony ran up to her, ripping off her mask. She had passed out from the force and her nose was now bleeding. “Read vitals,” Tony asked Friday. “Heartbeat detected. Emergency medical is on its way.”. Rhodey slowly came up to her, “Is she okay?” he asked. All Tony could do is nod. Sam then came up so he could apologize, but before he could get out too much, Tony blasted him back not wanting to hear it right now. Vision then showed up, after he realized that he hit the wrong person. Tony didn’t say a word to any of them. He just sat there holding his baby girl, hoping that she would be okay.

A couple of weeks later, (Y/N) was able to leave the hospital. She was declared paralyzed from the waist down. Tony quickly built her a device to help steady her legs, making it possible for her to eventually build the strength to walk again. When they got back to the compound, Tony offered to help her start the rehab right away, but she wanted another day to rest, not feeling up to it mentally. He agreed and left her alone in her room. (Y/N) laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering how this had happened. Before she could come up with an answer someone cleared their throat, making her jump a little. It was Steve. He slowly made his way over to her bed and sat beside her, moving a strand of hair off of her face, “Hey” he said. (Y/N) didn’t know what to say to him really, she wasn’t quite sure if she should blame him or not. “I take it the mission didn’t go as planned?” Steve said, making (Y/N) smile. Usually, it was (Y/N) who said that the Steve every time he was bummed out after he got home from a mission. “Not exactly” (Y/N) said, finally looking at him. “I heard what had happened from Sam. What did the doctors say?” Steve said, resting his hand on her cheek, rubbing his thumb over her skin. “I’m paralyzed from the waist down.” Steve winced, guilt washing over him “(Y/N), I’m so…” (Y/N) put a finger over his mouth to shut him up. “It’s not your fault, it’s technically Vision’s” she laughed a little. “Don’t worry too much about me, they said with psychical therapy, I should eventually be able to build my strength back up, and dad promised to work with me every day.” Steve nodded, a little relieved that she didn’t hate him completely. “Is there anything I can do for you?” Steve asked. “Stay,” (Y/N) pleaded. Steve frowned a little, “I can’t. I’m a wanted criminal now…” “You know… I’ve always sort of been into bad boys.” (Y/N) said winking at Steve. “Is that so?” Steve asked smirking, “I feel like we should test this theory out.”. Steve then leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on her lips. When he pulled away, just a little, they both we smiling “Yeah, no, I think the theory is now scientific fact. But you know, a good scientist never just does one test.” she then grabbed the back of Steve’s head and pulled him in for another kiss, this one lasting as long and (Y/N) wanted.

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