//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Unwelcome // Story: Doomwar // by Boltstrike58 //------------------------------// Earth "Are you serious? Barney's alive?!" exclaimed Natasha, as she continued to bandage up Clint's arm. Once the team had finally arrived at the Barton family farm, they'd found Clint in a less than overjoyed position, considering the fight he'd just been in. After a quick check to make sure that Laura and the kids were okay, Clint, Hope, and Scott were all loaded onto the Wakandan airship, where Hope had been introduced to Princess Celestia, and the majority of the ponies she hadn't yet met. Clint had just finished recounting what had happened, while Natasha tended to the few injuries he'd sustained in his fight with Barney. "Believe me, I was just as surprised as you are," remarked the archer, hissing quietly as Natasha prodded his wound. "I'm honestly kinda shocked the scumbag had the nerve to show his face around me after all this time." "Are you sure you don't want me to look at that?" remarked Dr. Strange. "I am a doctor." "I thought you were a neurosurgeon," said Tony from his place by the window. "I know how to tend to basic injuries. You tend to pick those things up." "But...why would your own brother try to kill you?" asked Fluttershy, the thought incomprehensible to her. "What possible reason could he have to do something so horrible?" Clint sighed. "Barney and I grew up in the circus together. You know, the whole amazing archery thing, considering how good we were with bows. We brought a lot of revenue in for the circus. Our parents died when we were really young, so we had the ringmaster take us in. It was a pretty good life. "Until I figured out that the ringmaster was teaching Barney to steal stuff from customers, and worse. I abandoned the circus not long after that, and eventually, Shield found me. Barney ended up becoming a mercenary, and we fought pretty badly. I swear, I thought he'd died years ago. Apparently, he's just been biding his time, waiting for a chance to take me out and settle the score." "Well, that's just uncouth!" declared Rarity, with a huff and a toss of her mane. "Using such a noble art as archery so shamefully!" Clint rolled his eyes at the unicorn's strange set of priorities, but said nothing. "So they've got their own Hawkeye," Twilight summarized. "In addition to their own Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hulk. They clearly took their time preparing for this." "Yeah. They've even got that magic lady who's like Dr. Strange," said Spike. "And nobody even knew he was gonna come for this." "If they managed to get Blonsky out of the Raft, they must be resourceful," said Bruce. "Who do we know that has the backing to pull all of this off across two worlds?" "Well, nobody we know personally," said Tony. "I'm trying to narrow down who'd have the money to pay all these psychos, and the ability to contact people like that Amora chick, but you'd need something close to Wakanda levels of money to pull that off." He turned to T'Challa. "You sure you don't have anybody in your country that has a buttload of cash and despises us?" "Not that I know of," T'Challa insisted. "Are we certain that this isn't an Equestrian adversary?" "Most of Equestria's greatest enemies are either deceased or locked up," answered Princess Celestia. "Phobos, Deimos, and Tirek all remain inside Tartarus. Queen Chrysalis doesn't have the ability to pull something like this off. And we know Discord isn't behind it." She sighed, looking absently out the window. "I just wish I knew how they managed to sway Neighsay and Cinch to their side." "Sounds like a revolution to me," said Korg. "Not for the greater good, obviously, but still." "I just hope the others are okay on Equis," peeped Fluttershy, still nervous about the speed they were flying. "Well, we'll be able to see them soon," said Tony. "We're just about...uh-oh." "What 'uh-oh?'" asked Scott, coming up to the cockpit where the billionaire sat. "What's going on?" "I think...we might have a rather unpleasant welcome wagon waiting for us." Tony proved to be right. Standing in front of the Avengers compound was a large group of armed soldiers, decked out in black combat gear. Standing at the head of the procession was Tony's favorite person, Secretary of Defense Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, looking extremely annoyed. Rhodey stood off to the side, handcuffed, while two soldiers kept their guns trained on him. They knew he could mentally summon the War Machine suit, they weren't taking any chances. Pepper was handcuffed as well, but they weren't as concerned about her. The Wakandan airship nonetheless continued its descent towards the compound, landing on the front lawn. The landing gear descended to the ground with three thumps, and the exit ramp snapped out of its locks, revealing the inside of the ship. "So, how exactly are we gonna get out of this?" asked Natasha, simultaneously using her body to shield the ponies. "We'll figure it out," Tony responded, keeping his voice down. He walked down the ship's ramp, the others following him, as several dozen guns were trained on them. Twilight flinched nervously at the sight, knowing there was no way she could stop that many bullets, even with magic. "Tony Stark," announced Ross. "You've been found aiding and abetting several known fugitives from justice. You and the other Avengers. For this, you'll be taken into custody, and be tried and jailed for your crimes." He noticed the ponies, Spike, and Autumn Blaze. "Illegal animal experimentation too? We'll add that to the charges." "Hey!" protested Spike. "We're not experiments, you creep! I oughta—" T'Challa calmed Spike down with a hand on his shoulder. "This is not the place to pick a fight, Spike," he insisted. The dragon grumbled a little, but acquiesced. Ross locked eyes with Bruce Banner. "Doctor. I'm sure you're aware of the charges we've got on you. The binder's pretty big, let me tell ya." Bruce said nothing, merely glaring at the man who'd done nothing but ruin his life in the years they'd known each other. Ross addressed T'Challa next. "Your Highness. Unfortunately, your diplomatic immunity won't do you any good here." "Look, sir," interrupted Princess Celestia, "you don't understand the situation here. There are many lives in danger and we need to—" "Be quiet, whatever you are," said Ross, not even bothering to look at the alicorn. "We'll figure out what to do with you in good time." "You really don't waste time with the bull, do you, Ross?" Tony quipped. "Regardless, we really don't have time for this crap. Now, if you could just let go of my friends and get off my lawn, we'll be on our way." "Here here!" cheered Rhodey, raising his arms. "Are you threatening me?" demanded Ross. "We are promising that if you don't get out of our way," Wanda chimed in, her eyes glowing red, as light swirled around her hands. "We will remove you." "We will?" asked Scott. Hope stepped on his foot. "I mean, we will! Yeah, we will." "Well. Captain Rogers seems to have rubbed off on you, Stark," Ross scoffed. "However, I wouldn't bet the farm on getting out of here. We've got—" "Uh, guys?" Spike interrupted, pointing behind Ross, "We've got a problem." The young dragon was right, as a swirl of orange sparks began to appear behind Ross' group. The Avengers immediately tensed, knowing exactly what was coming. Out of the portal came the massive form of Emil Blonsky, the Abomination, followed closely by Barney Barton, Yelena Belova, Titanium Man, Chancellor Neighsay, Abacus Cinch, and the Sphinx. "General," growled Abomination, staring down at Ross, who froze where he stood. "Good to see ya again." "B-Blonsky," Ross stuttered, trying to keep his composure, but clearly failing, as all of his soldiers trained their guns on the Abomination. "You're under arrest." Abomination actually threw his head back and laughed. "You're actually trying it!' he cackled, clapping his massive hands together. "Gotta give you credit, Ross, you've got a pair. But I'm not in the mood to play with you." He gestured to Titanium Man. "Bullski, get rid of 'em." "Do not give me orders," snarled Titanium Man, but he obeyed nonetheless, pressing a few buttons on his gauntlet, and activating his impulse ray. Twilight and Dr. Strange barely had time to throw up a shield around their group, along with Rhodey and Pepper, before a wave of pure force lashed out, sending Ross and his men flying backwards, where they would've slammed into the ground and felt their bones shatter, had not Princess Celestia used her magic to snag them and gently lower them onto the grass. Abomination turned his attention to Bruce. "Nice to see ya again, Banner. But I'm not here for you." "What do you say, buddy? You up for a rematch?" asked Tony, looking at his friend, his armor materializing around him as he spoke. "Not particularly," replied the physicist. "But since when do I get what I want?" With that, Bruce tensed himself, and green veins started to creep up his face. But just as quickly as it came, the discoloration disappeared. Bruce blinked a couple of times, noticing all eyes were on him, before he clenched his teeth, dug his nails into his palms, and tried again. As before, the green advanced up his skin, before abruptly falling away once again. "Uh, anytime now," said Tony, morphing both hands into repulsor cannons. "We kinda need backup." "I don't get it," Bruce muttered, more to himself than to anyone currently present. "This hasn't happened before. It's like...it's like he's refusing to come out." "Fantastic," replied Tony, who followed it by turning and blasting the Abomination with both cannons, knocking the behemoth onto his back and sending him skidding across the grass. "Kill them!" hissed the Sphinx. At her command, the Masters of Evil leapt into action. Barney and Yelena immediately tackled their counterparts, the Sphinx chose to dive bomb Celestia, Titanium Man immediately opened fire (which was blocked by Wanda), and Cinch and Neighsay fired their magic at Twilight, forcing her to take off. Rhodey, not to be a time-waster, activated his neural implant, summoning his War Machine suit, which came rocketing out of the compound. With one hand, the suit snapped his handcuffs, and Rhodey stepped into the armor once more. "Dr. Banner, if your green friend won't be joining us," said Dr. Strange, before he created a portal underneath Bruce, which warped him to the other side of the compound, well away from the danger. The doctor thought for a minute, before creating a similar portal under Pepper, sending her to the same location. "Hey, wait a minute—!" the woman barely had time to protest, before she was unceremoniously dropped onto her rear. "Okay, guys," Tony spoke into his com, returning Titanium Man's fire. "We're gonna need to coordinate here. Fluttershy, you and Rhodey need to get Ross and his goons to safety. Take 'em to the building in the northeast sector, they should be safe there." "O-okay," replied the pegasus, taking off towards the fallen humans, Rhodey in close pursuit. "Everybody else, we need to worry about taking out the heavy hitters. Namely Blonsky, that giant Sphinx thing, and my ripoff." Tony's nanites formed a large missile launcher on his back, sending several rockets directly towards Titanium Man, but they didn't dent his armor. "Let the people without powers worry about the little guys," Natasha added, grappling with Yelena. She gave her fellow spy a kick in the stomach, forcing her off, before advancing with her electric batons drawn. "Yeah, what she said," replied Tony. "Onwards!" Natasha thrust her baton towards Yelena, aiming for her opponent's midsection. However, the other Black Widow was her virtual equal, and she managed to duck under the attack. Yelena made a swipe with her own baton, but she underestimated her enemy, giving Natasha an opening to kick it out of her hand. With Yelena half disarmed, Natasha primed her widow's bite, firing a single electric charge into Yelena's leg. The electricity coursed up her body, shocking her and sending her tumbling to the ground. However, as Natasha prepared to continue her attack, Yelena managed to snag a pistol from her belt, and aim it directly at Natasha's heart. Years of training kicked in, and Natasha flung herself to the side, only for the bullet to graze her arm. Natasha shouted in pain, pausing to take a look at her new wound. It looked very shallow, more like a flesh wound than anything, for which she breathed a sigh of relief. Her moment of peace didn't last long, of course, as Yelena took the opportunity to tackle her again, pinning Natasha beneath her legs. Yelena then seized Natasha's wrists, pinning them down, and preventing her retaliation. "Is this—urk!—what you want, Yelena?" demanded the Black Widow. "To kill me?! You get nothing for it, you hear me?!" "Oh, I get what I want!" snarled the opposing assassin. "True, nothing will bring back our glorious nation, but I will claim the mantle of the Black Widow, and all will know that I am superior!" She leaned down by Natasha's head. "You could still be a part of it, you know. I'd be willing to forgive you. You could leave this nonsense life you were forced into behind, return to being the weapon you were born to be. All you need to do is acknowledge that I am the true Black Widow. Wouldn't that make you happy?" "Are you nuts?" Natasha retorted. With a sudden burst of strength, she managed to free one wrist, jabbing Yelena in the stomach with her electric baton. The other woman screamed, releasing Natasha from her grip. Natasha shoved her away. "You're asking me to betray my friends. To throw away everything I've worked so hard for over the past few years, and just kill people again. That's something I'll never do." She raised her baton, ready to fight Yelena even with an injured arm, but it turned out to be unnecessary. This was because of the blue beam that slammed into Yelena's hip, launching her across the battlefield. Rarity came running up, her horn still glowing with the same blue aura. "Natasha, darling!" exclaimed the ivory unicorn. "I saw what happened and I—" She froze where she stood, staring at the Black Widow. "It's okay, Rarity," Natasha insisted, assuming she was looking at the arm wound. "It's nothing, really. Just a scrape." "No, Natasha..." Rarity breathed, pointing. "You're glowing." Natasha looked down at her hands, discovering to her shock that Rarity was correct. A bright red aura surrounded her body, hovering just above the top of her skin. Natasha couldn't see it, of course, but her normally bright green eyes were glowing red as well. It wasn't the same type of aura that surrounded an object being levitated by unicorn magic, this was...different. Natasha couldn't describe the reason why, but she somehow knew this wasn't something dangerous. Indeed, the glow faded just as quickly as it came. "It doesn't matter," she dismissed. "We've got work to do." With that, she rushed off to continue her fight with Yelena. Rarity considered protesting, but ultimately discarded the idea. She decided it wasn't worth discussing that strange glow in the middle of a fight. She put it in the vault of her mind, promising to tell Twilight if they made it out of this alive, and rushed off to help Natasha. Tony's frustration was growing as he continued to battle Titanium Man. The suit was clearly a knockoff, nothing he'd ever make himself, but damn if the thing wasn't durable. No matter how many missiles he threw at it, it seemed like he wasn't even making the tiniest of dents. It was ludicrous. Tony made a personal promise to hunt down whoever created this armor, and teach them to respect Stark tech. None of the others were making much progress on him, either. Twilight, Spike, and Tempest had all joined Tony, blasting Titanium Man with magic, lightning, and blasts of fire. However, whoever had designed the suit seemed to have planned for Equestrian magic, as the suit seemed to absorb Twilight and Tempest's assaults like they were nothing. The metal giant was only too happy to return the attack, launching energy beams from its eyes that tore open the earth beneath the ponies, who only managed to survive thanks to Twilight's quick teleport. "Tony!" Twilight shouted, flying above as Titanium Man launched yet more blasts at her and Spike. "We need a new plan of attack!" "I have a plan," replied the billionaire, too angry to see reason at this point. "Attack!" Nanites congregated around Tony's armored fists, forming two large jackhammers. Tony dived, his foot boosters firing at full power, aiming himself directly at Titanium Man. He jabbed with both arms, stabbing into the green armor. But the jackhammers only managed to make small dents before the tips snapped off entirely. Inside his armor, Bullski cackled like a madman, snapping his hands up and seizing Tony by the waist. "Is that the best you can do, Stark?!" he laughed, as he activated an electrical current in his gauntlets, zapping Tony even through the Mark L's insulation. Tony screeched inside his armor, writhing in Bullski's grip. "Let him go!" yelled Spike, flying down by Titanium Man's head. He inhaled, before releasing the biggest, hottest batch of flame he could possibly come out with. Bullski's helmet was bathed in emerald flames, heating him up inside the suit. Bullski screamed as the heat forced him to release Tony, arms jumping to his helmet and slapping at it, as though he could drive off the heat himself. "Way to go, Spike!" yelled Twilight. Meanwhile, Princess Celestia had gone to confront Neighsay and Cinch. It wasn't hard for her to find the two unicorns, considering they were currently assaulting Autumn Blaze, firing beams of energy at her. The kirin, obviously still distressed over the events of the Friendship Conference, was unwilling or unable to allow her anger to come to the surface and transform into a nirik, and was instead fleeing as the two unicorns fired bolts of magic at her. Celestia snorted with anger, spreading her wings and flying down towards them, landing in between Autumn Blaze and the ponies. "How dare you..." she snarled at Neighsay and Cinch. "How DARE you!" "Princess!" exclaimed Neighsay, falling onto his rear. "I-I...I'm sorry, but we were merely trying to subdue this creature—" "She has a name!" screamed Celestia, stomping her hoof, her horn sparking with extra magic. "As did all of the creatures you froze at the conference! Yet you act like their lives were of no concern! They may not be my little ponies, but they are living creatures! They are friends of Equestria!" Behind her, Autumn Blaze took several deep breaths. She'd have been lying if she said this entire situation wasn't scaring the daylights out of her. Of course she felt grateful to Celestia for protecting her from these other ponies, but it was still traumatizing. "B-but we don't k-know if we can trust them!" Cinch tried to defend herself, though she was doing a rather feeble job of it. "They might steal Equestrian secrets, and use them against us—" "Oh, give it a rest!" Celestia screamed again. "This is the same kind of nonsense Neighsay brought up when Twilight opened the School of Friendship. You hate other creatures for the sole reason that they aren't ponies. And you've ruined the lives of good ponies in this idiotic cause, breaking your own rules, just out of hate. It disgusts me! "And you have the gall to claim that Twilight Sparkle and her friends are brainwashing Luna and I, as though they have some sinister plot to betray Equestria! I've never felt so disappointed in ponies in my entire existence! If you had one ounce of decency between the two of you, you'd be ashamed of yourselves!" Cinch and Neighsay just froze, eyes wide with fear, as their princess continued to rant at them. Neither unicorn seemed capable of mounting a defense, either physical or verbal. It was as though Celestia had broken their spirits, the culmination of everything they were, and left them with utterly nothing. They barely managed to dive to the side as Celestia fired upon them once again. Fluttershy and Rhodey had moved Ross and his men away from the chaos, and rejoined the battle. Abomination, currently battling Dr. Strange, and being the largest threat, was Rhodey's first target, while Fluttershy rushed off to help Clint out with Barney. The others were gathered around the sphinx, attempting to take down the massive behemoth, with varying degrees of success. Korg dodged the creature's gigantic paw swipe, as Hope flew around her head, peppering the sphinx with stinger shots. Wanda was trying to seize the sphinx in her telekinetic grip, but the sphinx had a natural resistance to Equestrian magic, and that resistance seemed to apply to Wanda's powers as well. She couldn't do more than toss it around slightly. "We don't appear to be making a great deal of progress here!" shouted the Sokovian woman, launching herself into the air to avoid another attack. "Does anybody have a better idea?" "Maybe if she were smaller!" Scott yelled back, grabbing a red core disk from his belt. He reeled back and chucked it at the sphinx, only for bolts of yellow energy to lance out of her eyes, zapping the disk in midair, and dropping it like a rock. "Okay, that didn't work out." "Fools," cackled the sphinx, swinging her tail and batting Hope away. "Do you truly believe you can overcome my power? Power that has endured in Equestria for centuries?" "I'm beginning to think talking isn't the best way to get through to psychotic maniacs," Korg joked, firing a few blasts from his rifle. The bolts impacted the sphinx's hide, and she screeched with anger, rounding on the rocky alien. But before she could do anything, Wanda hurled a nearby car at the back of her head, which impacted with a sickening crunch. "Well, we'd better come up with some sort of plan!" yelled Scott again. "Otherwise, I think they'll make us turn in our superhero licenses!" "Scott, I love you, but cool it with the jokes," snapped Hope, her wings buzzing as she fired more at the Sphinx. Meanwhile, on the grassy area clear across the compound, Pepper was rubbing her backside and groaning in protest at the way she'd been ejected from the battle. "At least Tony never dropped me on my butt!" she complained, managing to climb to her feet once more. "He would've at least carried me out!" Her only companion at the moment, Bruce Banner, wasn't listening. This wasn't because he was particularly rude or anything, he just had more important things to focus on. Namely, he was busy slapping at his own face. "Hulk, come on!" he shouted, grabbing his own skin and pinching it, trying to raise his pulse rate. "Come out! Come out! Come out, dammit!" Suddenly, his face turned green and expanded outwards, taking the Hulk's appearance. However , this transformation only lasted one second, which the Hulk used to scream a single word out. "NO!" Bruce's face then shifted back to normal, and he unceremoniously dropped onto his back from the shock. "No?! What do you mean no?!" he demanded, looking down at his own hands. "He still won't come out?" asked Pepper, taking an interest in her companion for the first time since they'd gotten there. "I don't get it!" Bruce complained. "He's never done this before! Figures that the one time I want him to come out, he doesn't!" Pepper gritted her teeth. "Well, we can't just stand here and do nothing." She took a quick look around, noticing that the closest building to them was the armory. "I have an idea. Come on." Bruce, having nothing better to do, followed the redhead inside, where she approached a particular compartment. Placing her eye near the retinal scanner, Pepper let the security device do its work, before the compartment clicked and opened. Inside was one of Tony's suits, or rather, something close. It was blue and gold, and a great deal slimmer than the usual Iron Man suit, but it was a suit all the same. Pepper touched her thumb to the arc reactor on its chest, which scanned it, and the suit opened up, allowing the woman to step inside. Bruce could only stare, wide-eyed at Pepper's actions. "Uh...we were saving that for your birthday," he managed to get out. "Or as a wedding present." Pepper shrugged. "Ever since that fiasco when Tony was dying, I've been better at figuring out when he's keeping secrets." The face shield clanged shut over Pepper's face, as the Rescue armor booted up. "Welcome, Miss Potts," said Friday. "I am at your disposal." "Thanks, Friday," replied Pepper. "Now unlock compartment 20B." "20B?" asked Bruce. "Well, we've gotta get something for you, don't we?" Bruce turned towards the much larger container, as metal bars started to slide out of the way, and heavy locks clicked open. Two massive doors slid outwards, revealing the towering Hulkbuster Mark II Iron Man suit, ready for deployment. "Suit up, Dr. Banner."