What if Kate survived the apocalypse?
Things were not supposed to play out like this and Kate new it. When she and the avengers had managed to retrieve Hawkeye from a future where he had been sent to assist a future Monica and AIM in order to try and prevent the Kree invasion. His main job was to retrieve Nick Fury and the future Monica’s notes on the cosmic cube.
Yet for some reason that she wasn’t sure about, The Kree had launched their attack nearly a whole five years early. It caught the Avengers off guard as they had just returned from a mission to shut down an AIM exosuit factory. The group of heroes had only just arrived in the command deck when another ship had entered the atmosphere at almost incompressible speed.
“What the hell?!” Tony shouts as they all see the ship “You got to be kidding me? They’re here early!” Clint announced picking his bow back up as everyone scrambled to get into defensive positions. “I don’t get it, why are they here?” Kate yells looking out as a flurry of lasers began to approach. “Brace for impact!” Steve shouted grabbing onto a piece of the railing as the attacks shook the Chimera.
Once they had a second to recover it was cut short as the second wave of ranged attacks knocked out the supposedly impenetrable glass that the windows used. “Jesus!” Tony exclaimed before rushing to call over a suit of armour to use in the coming fight as the rest looked at the hangar of the ship and saw various soldiers of the Kree were starting to board.
The swarms of green, blue and grey made them easy to spot and Steve was quick to issue orders “Thor, Kate you’re with me. Nat, Tony and Clint assess the damage and secure the Chimera inside.” He said before the three of them swiftly jumped outside as various shield agents joined the fight.
Thor made a more than loud entrance as he smashed into the surface sending a shockwave of thunder at the nearby hijackers. Kate teleported down using stolen AIM tech and fire off a rapid quick shot of three arrows which each met their intended targets sending them reeling back or to death while Rogers landed on his shield which he quickly threw at the Kree before kicking it back as it returned.
The large warship itself kept firing but the Chimera wasn’t the only thing that seemed to shake as even the ground’s rumbling was almost audible. Kate continued to find target after target to take down and eventually had to resort to using her sword skills as the Kree managed to get closer and closer. She managed to warp behind a few and take two of them out with a clean sweep to their head before being knock to the side by another.
As they went in for the killing blow they were instead met with the business end of Mjolnir. When it collided with the invaders it let of a few bolts of lightning. “Careful, young one. These creatures are not messing about.” Thor said as he recalled the hammer to hit another that ran towards him “Yeah thanks, big guy.” Kate gave thumbs up as she stood back up with the sword in hand to attack anther one of the Kree that tried to hit her.
The fight kept going until Kamala, Jane and Bucky joined due the increase in the battle’s intensity. Yet even as they attempted to hold of the initial attack they were all taken aback as more ships appeared. “We can’t keep fighting here. We need to take them out at the source!” Bucky realised as he reloaded the modded rifle. Steve grabbed his weapon and shoved it into the chest of one of the Kree before looking up “And I’ll guess the source is that ship.” He said shaking his head .
“We’ll get on it.” Jane announced as her and Thor began to fly over before their comms cut out. It was in time with the sound of the ground miles below them giving way. It was like an earthquake as a familiar face emerged from the rubble and debris. “Oh no, not again!” Kamala cried out seeing the pale face of a Kree sentry rising up.
Except it wasn’t just one. Multiple rose from the earth and no doubt they would wreak havoc if left unchecked. Ms Marvel took initiative and ran to the edge of the Chimera “I won’t let them hurt innocent people!” She said before jumping off before reappearing as gigantic figure. She lands in a few moments and quickly grabs on the sentries before punching it back. As she did this two others made there way over and caught her off guard.
Kate wasn’t able to see any more as she heard the voice of her mentor over the comms. “Oh shit.” Clint said “They’re inside and heading to the reactor room. They’re trying to bring us down.” He said before the sound of various arrows flying were heard before crackling out. “We have to get back in there and do something to help them.” Kate said teleporting back to the command deck. “Wait if that thing goes critical again, we’ll have another A-day situation on our hands and at this height if we go down then thousands could die.” Steve assessed.
Hawkeye spoke again “We won’t be able to hold them off. Get over here before-“ he was cut off as a series of bright blue explosions went through the ship. “CLINT!!” Kate exclaimed running into the halls only to be caught under a piece of the collapsing Chimera as the world turned to black within the shattering Helicarrier. Unconscious and trapped, Kate was unknowing the chaos that had truly began after the ship had crashed to the ground.
The fight lasted only a few more minutes as the sentries and Kree made short work of the remaining avengers.
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It took a few hours for her to slowly start to once again wake up from the debris induced sleep. What caused to rapidly return to the land of the living was the sharp pain coming from her torso. “Jesus Christ.” She complained unable to see it past the silver rubble. With her unobstructed arm she grabbed a small disk from her belt and threw it over to the area of the room that was empty only to cry out at the pain of the sharp piece of metal that was stabbed into her.
“ARRGGHH!! SHIT!!” She cursed before hyperventilating trying to see the extent of the damage. “Ok yeah ok this is going to suck…a lot.” She says grabbing the shard after searching her equipment for the small pouch of emergency first aid. With a series of short breaths and a surge of determination she pulled the shard out with a blood curdling cry before not giving herself time to stop as Kate poured the cleaning agent over the wound and wrapping it in the small bundle of gauze.
With that wound covered Kate tried to stand. “Ok, Kate, you got this. Just gotta get up and-“ She managed to lean against a part of destroyed wall only to stop as the pain shot through her body. Controlling her breathing Kate pressed a button on her communication device “Guys? Is anybody there?” She asked but was only met with the sound of muffled distant chaos that told her that they needed her.
She slowly shuffled across the railing until arriving back at where she had come from. Everything was in ruins and the only sign of life she had were the bodies of SHIELD agents on the floor that she had to keep moving past them until arriving in the room that held the war table. The bodies were here too but she forced herself to not look at them as she clutched her stomach and walked over to the window to try and find the others.
Looking outside she saw something that made her feel sick. Everything was in ruins as smoke and fires turned the sky from the blue they earlier to horrid and ugly orange and grey. “This can’t be real.” She said in disbelief staring at the fallen sentries and the dead bodies that littered what remained of the Chimera. Kate couldn’t believe it.
The Avengers had lost.
And now the world was nothing but what looked like an apocalyptic nightmare and it had only been a few hours. Kate was speechless as she tried to process what was going on but a part of her didn’t want to accept it. There was no way the Avengers had lost. They didn’t lose. They were the heroes so they were meant to win.
No some of them had to have made it. Tony, Steve any of them could have made it. It was impossible to think that she was the only survivor. Kate knew that if any one could make then it would be Nick Fury. They mad had backup plans for what his already existing back up plans failed.
Now…where to start looking?
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Since the day of the invasion nearly seven years had passed as she was still no closer to finding where Nick Fury or any of the other Avengers were. The wasteland was nothing but a bitter and constant fight for survival where a single mistake was the difference between life and death. Over the years Kate had to adapt to the new world where even after most of humanity had been wiped out AIM robots still tried to kill her like some twisted versions of zombies but that wasn’t important as she arrived at the key destination in her recent investigation.
The Supreme leader was some wannabe dictator and tyrant as far as Kate could tell but if she wanted to find someone in this wasteland then she would need to stoop low enough to ask for help from even the most corrupt people. When the large gate eventually opened she was taken aback by the sight of a large green figure with a silver beard and hair.
The large figure spoke in an uncharacteristically calm tone “So the young Avenger finally arrives.” He says “Bruce?!” she asks in disbelief before dropping the hood of her faded purple poncho to make sure that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. “Puny Banner died a long time ago.” Hulk said tossing the head of a derelict robot aside “Well that’s morbid.” She comments “Look I need to find where Nick Fury is and if you’re the boss of this place then you might know.” She explains keeping a keen eye on if the large figure would do something.
“Do you think of me as that same brute? That I don’t know why you are really here?” He asks know standing up and as he did so Kate’s line of sight was drawn to the pile of items beside the makeshift throne. There she saw a few things aptly the faded red and blue shield beside Iron Man’s helmet and two hammers.
Suddenly it made sense why she hadn’t seen hulk during the fight against the Kree on that fateful day. “You killed them…Didn’t you?” Kate asked moving a hand behind her back to grab at the folded compact bow she still possessed “They were weak. Banner was weak. Hulk is the strongest and you will not take my throne!” He exclaims before slamming his fist down as Kate disappears in a blur of purple and yellow.
She draws the bow and arrow “I don’t want your throne! I just want to make things right!” She argues but the Hulk doesn’t listen and charges at her as the fight begins. She shoots a set of five arrows that do little the Hulk as he continues to slam his fists into the floor. Ducking to the side Kate grabs her last few explosive arrows before shooting them to the floor and setting them up in the floor before beckoning Hulk to charge like a bull.
She taunts him with her signature attitude “C’mon big guy, you can’t be serious. If this is the supreme leader then they really must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel.” She says flipping an arrow in her hand with the other on her hip and it got the desired result as he ran towards her only to have a series of small explosions blind him as she launched the arrow that had been in heck which turned out to be on she classified as a warp arrow to where the throne was.
Something she had only seen midbattle was the black and purple quiver. While her own set of tricks arrows was limited Clint seemed to have one for every situation and true to what she expected Kate was able to pull one out with a bright green tip that she knew was designed to bring down the Hulk. Speaking of the green giant had thrown a rock at her.
Kate vaulted over the throne and into the air before preparing the arrow by channelling the quantum energy through it. Letting go of the string with a quiet breath she watched as it flew through the air and as it pierced straight through Hulk’s shoulder and out but that wasn’t the end of her plan.
She caught the arrow as it flew through the air and spun around before firing it again as it went through Hulk’s chest again. The green man caught on his blood “Did you ever venture beyond the storms?” He asks as Kate walks over in silence “I thought not, coward.” He spits out blood onto the floor “Go there and you find the answers that you desire.” He reveals before bowing his head knowing what was to come next “Do it then…Avenger.” He forfeited.
“I’m not an Avenger. I never was.” Kate finally speaks before Releasing another arrow and finally putting an end to Hulk.
moving to the exit to the room Kate eventually ended up outside but instead of the orange that she was used to it was instead a bright blue. “What the hell?” She asked seeing a giant Kree sentry stood that was stuck in stasis. Within the blue bubble she also saw various people that had been reported missing. Maria Hill, Monica and various agents of SHIELD and AIM but what stood out to her were two things Nick fury and the Cosmic Cube that seemed to have trapped everyone in stasis.
She slammed a fist against the barrier “Damnit. You were here the entire time.” She said in an exasperated manner before looking up and seeing a reflection in the blue glow. She turned with the bow drawn.
The being pointed at her “Katherine Bishop, or the Hawkeye, You have been chosen.” The figure said and Kate wasn’t sure why but she trusted this strangers “I’ve got nothing better to do so let’s do this.” She agreed before being transported to a new place and honestly she was beyond happy to see something other than rubble and the smell of smoke. Yet what stood out was the fact that some of the avengers were back aptly being Bucky but he looked different than before.
“So what’s the job?” She asked with a smirk.
-End of Chapter 5-