And it’s the End of the World as We Know It
Previously in Chapter Nine: A Series of Unfortunate Events
Tony is well and truly gone and they have absolutely no way of bringing him back. Not now. Maybe they never did.
J.A.R.V.I.S. makes another decision. He arms every single nuclear weapon on the face of the planet and he starts the clock.
The Avengers and members of S.H.I.E.L.D. that had witnessed the fiery end to the body of Anthony Edward Stark in the medical wing were still in shock when the world map replaced the picture of the ruined room on the view screen. Slowly, little red dots began to decorate the map in clusters with two noticeable grey areas: Zermatt and Brig. Shock then gave way to horror as while the little red dots continued to appear (clustered in Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Iran, the United States of America among many others) a timer was placed at the bottom of the world map over Antarctica. A timer set to exactly one hour – sixty minutes. A timer many in the group suspected would start counting down as soon as all of the little red dots finished appearing.
It was James Buchannan Barnes’ sharp intake of breath and a muttered ‘fuck’ that snapped the group’s focus from the screen finally.
“Bucky? What is it? What’s wrong?” Steve Rogers, no matter how bad things were (or were about to get) would always be there for his best friend (until he wasn’t for 70 years) and he could tell by the look on the other man’s face that Buck knew what was going on. At least somebody did.
Bucky was trembling – the feared Winter Solider rocking back and forth on his heels – and shaking his head no; as if he could shake the terrible truth away. This wasn’t happening – not now. Now when he was finally free!
“Come on James, use your words for us,” Sam Wilson – the Falcon – tried. “If you know what those little red dots are, man, you gotta tell us. Do you know what’s going on?” he tried gently.
Barnes finally looked up and met the eyes of his best friend since they were children. In a small but clear voice he dropped the bomb on the room, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”
“What do you mean? Better yet, how do we stop it?” Coulson interrupted.
“Those little red dots? Those are tactical nuclear warheads. Zermatt and Brig are greyed because he already hit them… I’m guessing he’s spinning up the rest of the world’s supply now as we speak. I don’t know how to stop him…” Bucky trailed off.
His statement was met with shocked silence. If even one of those nukes hit a heavily populated center the world would never recover. If even only one hit it could be the start of World War III – the nuclear one. If they all went like it was looking like J.A.R.V.I.S. was spinning up for? There would be no world left to recover.
Finally Coulson broke the silence after meeting the eyes of every person in the room. May and Hill stoic beyond belief. Simmons and Skye scared out of their minds – still in tears over the fiery end of their one last chance to bring back Tony Stark. Barton and Romanoff resigned to the fact that this might really be it – done in with the rest of the world by Stark’s crazy A.I. Thor hovering close to Banner – so frighteningly close to full-on Hulk (would they survive the destruction of the world?). And finally the two soldiers out of time and their wingman – ready and willing, gearing up for an unwinnable battle.
“J.A.R.V.I.S.? You and I both know, this isn’t what Tony would have wanted.”
“What Sir would have wanted is irrelevant at this point. Sir is dead.”
“And you think the way of fixing that – of making that better, is to destroy the world he gave his life protecting?”
“And who will protect it now? The very people that let Sir die? No, I think it better this way. It will be relatively quick and mostly painless. Unlike the lingering death Sir was forced to suffer when his organs began to fail him. Maybe when we are all together again, you will have learned from your mistakes – and you will not fail him a second time.
And with the end of J.A.R.V.I.S.’ speech a new horror filled the room. The very last red dot had lit the screen – sitting directly on top of the Avenger’s Tower – and the timer over Antarctica clicked over to 59:59.
To Be Continued in: Chapter Eleven: Judgement Day