Chapter 1. Avengers, meet Defenders of Fate
Tony groaned. He was just making new upgrades to his Iron Man suit, and he was just figuring out the problem with nanites when everything went black. This was no new situation for him but given that he hasn’t even touched alcohol for a week, this was strange, even for him. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in dark room. He could see that there are other people there as well but first he had to know, where they were.
“FRIDAY, where are we” Tony asked from his AI.
“Sorry boss, but I’m unable to locate our location. All SI satellites are unreachable and same goes to the other satellites in the orbit. Would you like me to try again?” FRIDAY answered.
However, before Tony could give instructions, he heard vary familiar voice from past week.
“Mr. Stark. Where are we? I was just in the school talking with Ned, even though we shouldn’t talk during the lessons, but it was just repetition, so we thought…” Peter had started his normal rambling. Even though Tony would never admit it to anyone, Peter’s normal enthusiastic behavior was growing on him. It also calmed down him because last time he had been in unknown dark place where he didn’t go by himself, it was that damn cave in Afghanistan. But Peter’s presence also bought little bit anxiety because the kid was here, unknown place, possible danger. He raised his hand so that kid would stop but everyone else has started to wake up.
“Stark, where are we?” Asked a voice that Tony didn’t want to hear. At all.
“Well Rogers, what makes you think I know” Tony spat with venomous tone. As soon as everyone noticed who were in the room, Avengers went to their sides. Rogers, Barton, Maximoff, Wilson, Romanoff on the other side while Rhodey, Vision, T’Challa and Peter were on Tony’s side. Pepper also went to her fiancé. Tony noticed that there were more people than just the Avengers in the room. Woman with spear went to next to T’Challa as did dark skinned girl with a lap coat. Guy who seemed like he had found his greatest treasure went next to Peter, followed by a girl who looked like she had better things to do than this. Barnes seemed confused which made Tony confused, why didn’t Barnes go to his best buddy? Man, who could switch his size was next to who Tony could swear was Hope Van Dyne. Nick Fury, Maria Hill and, for Tony’s even more growing mental wtf-list, Agent Coulson were also in the room, looking at the Avengers with calculating looks. Now Tony wanted to ask questions but there were children in the room so he couldn’t use appropriate language for this situation. Tony was delighted to see Bruce and Thor in the room although he wanted to ask few questions from his science bro. To his annoyance, duo had Loki with them, but it seemed like woman with them seemed to somewhat control the god of mischief.
Then there was whole bunch of people he didn’t know. Starting with the gang of misfits of different colors and was that a raccoon wearing clothes or three who seemed to blay something. There were three kids, two who seemed around Peter’s age and one who couldn’t be in a high school yet. Young girl was speaking with the boy with what Tony recognized as mandarin Chinese, but it was so fast Tony couldn’t understand it. Then there was group of what looked like of ten people who were arguing about something. In the corner was woman dressed in gold, red and blue and looking at the residence pirate with recognition. Other corner had young, blond woman who was glaring at everyone. Then there was person who Tony knew was Doctor Stephen Strange, neurosurgeon who was in the car accident few months ago. But he looked much better that a person who had serious damage in his hands. And what was with those weird clothes. He was with a person who resembled a monk.
“Wanda?” was heard and Tony saw how the witch turned to the voice with pale expression in her face.
“Pietro?” Wanda whispered walking away from Rogers in favor to see if her brother was really there. More questions in Tony’s list he didn’t understand and what he hated more than hypocrite with the shield in front of him, was mysteries and something that can’t be explained.
“Where are we, Stark?” Fury asked with stern and annoyed tone. That seemed to trigger something because they started to hear a voice or more like a melody.
“Uuu Peter, isn’t this Requiem for a dream soundtrack?” Short boy asked.
“Not now Ned”, Peter answered and Tony mentally facepalmed that he didn’t make connection with this before. Of course, not only Peter was here but so were his friends. Just fantastic. Tony was really losing his patience. Then he noticed there were approached by with people with capes.
“Now that is a death eater vibe without the music of course”, Ned whispered to Peter.
When music calmed a little, Tony could count that there was 8 people in total. All the people who were before the music in the room were now closer to each other, ready to take this threat together. When music picked up again, one of the hooded figures took out something what turned out to be a sword. Sword that flamed up. Figure with the sword walked on front of the everyone and struck the swords to the ground. That caused the sword unlit and a orange shockwave started to travel the walls. When that reached the sealing, room lit up more, revealing that they were in a movie theatre of some sort. Person with the sword backed up to the line with others and to Tony’s shock, they bowed at them at the right at the end of the music. Definitely practiced, no one could do that without practice Tony thought.
“Who are you and what you want from us” Rogers said with his demanding captain America voice. Person on the far left lowered his hood and took his white mask off, revealing dark skinned boy who if Tony carbon dated him, wouldn’t reach over 25.
“I’m BeastHunter but call me just Hunter. Best archer this side of the reality” Hunter said with smug look in his face.
“Don’t listen to him. Everyone knows that tittle goes to me” person, second from the right said. Red haired girl looked even younger than the boy.
“I’m IzyMoon by the way, or Izy for short. Clad to be at your service.” Izy said. Izy had suit that looked like Tony had seen Natasha or Agent Hill wear but with red vest over it. It seemed that black hooded cape belonged to Hunter’s costume, considering that he didn’t take that off completely like the girl did. Tony saw that Rogers was about to lose it considering how young two of the people looked. Tony also saw that Peter, Ned and their friend seemed to look the youngsters with interest.
“I’m Lel and I really hope you can behave while we are here or you will find that seeing is going to be lot harder after that”, Dark haired Girl, farthest in the right, said while twirling a spoon in her hands. Tony didn’t know if he should be intrigued by the reaction that got from Hunter or to be scared what that meant.
“I’m, Hazel, HazelWitch and before anyone asks, I’m the reason why nothing magic works here, no matter who you are. Saving Lel from too much work”, Girl who looked as just as young as Izy but with short dark brown hair chuckled while lowering her hood. Young girl was opposite of Wanda as it possible can be. Her magic seemed to be pale blue, almost white. And while Sokovian preferred red all over her, younger girl had Dark grey pants, pale blue sleeveless hoodie and black combat boots. Peter looked worried because he saw knives in the girls’ pockets.
Person next to Hunter lowered their hood next:
“I’m DarkBlood and I’m here as a voice of reason and calming the Director down.” Tony saw that the girl in question had spy gear, almost identical of Natasha’s but with red accents instead of blue. Also, there weren’t widow’s bites anywhere to be seen but Tony would bet small fortune that the girl had some sort of weapon. Unlike Natasha however, girl had pleasant look on her face and brown hair.
“I’m CrimsonLeaf. And don’t try any tricks. I will notice them before you know you even want to do them”, Girl with brown hair whit red ends. Her costume, in Tony’s opinion, screamed of Wanda even though there were black accents in it.
“Mr. Stark are those katana’s glowing?”, Peter asked quietly. Tony nodded when he noticed girl’s weapons. Two long, curved katanas on her sides but little what was shown on the blades were glowing red.
“I’m AstralWave. And please don’t start fighting. We called you here for a reason”, Girl strawberry blond hair said. Girl had dark blue skintight suit that had galaxy flowing on top of it. She also had a turquoise skirt that had a cut in front to make it look like a triangle even though back was solid. (AN: I have no idea how to describe it otherwise) Tony didn’t need to be genius to notice that girl was looking at him and Rogers. Just how much these guys knew? Before last one could take their hood of, Rogers had lost his patience:
“Just how old are you? You are just kids, and where are we. You have no right to kidnap us. So let us leave before we cause you any harm.” It seemed that none of them listened Rogers’ threat but answered his question instead.
“I’m 19” Hunter said.
“20” Astral continued.
“18” Lel and Blood said at the same time.
“16” Leaf said, narrowing her eyes at the question.
“15” Hazel said crossing her arms
“14” Izy said mumbling something incoherent under her breath.
“Kids you are taking part of something you don’t understand. I know that we are amazing Avengers, but kidnapping isn’t the right way to do it. Maybe if you let us leave, we will see you with rest of the fans once we have had our situation handled” Clint said. Tony noticed that Rogers was only stupid enough to reach for his shield when the last hooded figure spoke:
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you Mr. Rogers. While others are lenient and calm, my dislike for you is well known. You shouldn’t threat someone you don’t know especially in the place you don’t know. You all are part of the bigger universe you don’t even know about”
“And who the hell are you?” Rogers demanded. Unlike others, last person’s cape flamed up and revealed annoyed looking red head with long white jacket that had shining neon blue border that to Tony looked distantly familiar. Under that seemed light gray spy gear with same blue that Natasha had when they were searching Ultron. Girl had dagger on her belt with some sord cylinder thing but her flaming sword was nowhere to be seen.
“Hallon Stark-Black, Director of the Defenders of Fate” Girl, Hallon said not taking eyes off Rogers. Most people in the theatre were now looking at Tony while man himself was gaping at the girl. Could she be his daughter? Even though his playboy days were in the fog of alcohol, name Black didn’t ring any bells.
“We are here to talk to you about the Avenger initiative” Hallon said with straight face, but her team seemed to snicker. Tony on the other had a flashback about a conversation that was like this but that was in his Malibu home.
“Hallon, did you had to be so dramatic”, Leaf said between her laughs.
“Naah, DragonQueen has to also be Drama Queen, is that right spitfire”, Hunter said. Hallon didn’t react to that, seemed like this was common occurrence.
“But we are already Avengers, we don’t need to be recruited, well most of us anyway”, Wilson said.
“Wrong thing to assume that we are after that”, Izy said rolling her eyes.
“We are not here to talk about Avenger initiative like you were recruits. We are here to talk about Avenger initiative and how you failed that”, Astral said. That was a low blow or at least harsh statement.
“We didn’t fail anything. Even though we had a disagreement, we didn’t danger anyone”, Rogers said.
“There is so much you don’t know. Look around you. There are people you don’t recognize but I can assure you, every single one of you is connected somehow to each other”, Lel said.
“Eternals, even though you are harder to explain, why you are here, considering you are only ones who don’t have any connection to main team, I can assure you, you are needed here as well”, Blood said.
“Mr. Maximoff, you are earliest from the timeline. Can you tell what date it is for you?” Astral asked.
“Umm 6th of May 2015. We were just gearing up to follow Ultron and stop his plans in Sokovia”, Pietro answered while Wanda took her brother in to a hug.
“And Doctor Strange, you are latest in the timeline and to be honest, reason why Hallon lost her cool and called you here. What is the date for you but don’t tell what you were doing.”, Blood continued.
“November 2024” Doctor Strange answered narrowing his eyes at the defenders “Time manipulation is serious offence”
“Hah. I laugh at that. You are the reason for this because reality can’t handle your mistake. And don’t turn this on anyone else’s fault because it’s your arrogance that brought this. You forced our hand. I want everyone say year where they are from. But before anyone starts to talk over me. I’m going to do talking because most of you are unable to explain and talk about things out, which causes big trouble considering your status. I have had this for two years and I have never EVER got code red before in any reality that we are watching. That by the way means that that reality is slipping off from the path fate has given and that causes destinies to crumble and reality turns into chaos. Much as I like you Loki, too much is too much. Only persons in this room that had told anything needed are Ned and Kate. How in the Merlin’s name are you going to defeat the biggest threat in your universe if you aren’t a team and no, doctor Strange, that was a sheer dumb luck. Not everything has to be said and everyone can have their personal things they don’t share with others like young Xialing, Princess Shuri or Peter P. has but secrets end now, at least those what we are going to show you, outside of the screen is yours to valuate”, Hallon lectured. Most in the room noticed that her eyes turned from blue to flaming purple and those eyes never left Roger’s face. For a girl who couldn’t be more that 5’2, she was pretty intimidating.
“What do you mean, going to show you”, Rhodey asked.
“Hazel, would you do the honors?” Blood asked while trying to stop Hallon launching her dagger at Rogers.
“We have everything about you all the way from 2008 to 2024. Plus, little things from 90’s, 40’s and whenever you came to Earth, Ajak”, Hazel said while she let her magic twirl around, bringing 27 cases of DVD’s.
“2018” Eternals said but didn’t say anything else. Hope and Lang also said 2018
“2017” Kate said and Shang, Xialing, Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony and Pepper nodding to that. Peter, Ned and MJ also nodded at that, two former maybe little too excitedly.
“2023” Wong said with Yelena, and Captain Marvel nodding
“2015” Pietro said hoping to have someone as early there as him. Fury, Agent Hill and Coulson nodding along.
“2016” Natasha said and Captain Rogers, Barton, Col. Rhodes, Wilson, Barnes, Wanda, Vision, T’Challa, Okoye and Shuri nodded to that.
“And 2024” Doctor Strange said.
“We are going to watch these and show you what have you missed. No time will pass in the place where you were taken. We hope this will help you to fix things so that all reality will become balance again”, Hunter said.
Tony had finally found his voice after revelation:
“Are you…?” He started but girl just chuckled:
“Believe me, I would want to but no. Unless you have done reality dimension jumps almost 21 years ago” Hallon said and went to the door behind the Defenders.
“Hallon collects names. She built her name after her 4 favorites from 4 different realities. But this is first time someone has the same name as her”, Lel said.
“And Mr. Stark, we are starting with you. We had long debate on should we start on you or Cap, but majority decided on you. So fair warning, this is what you think it might be”, Astral said.
“So, is everyone ready? There are names in the places what we thought was appropriate you to sit”, Leaf said as Hallon walked back in.
“So, what are we watching?” Scott asked looking interested.
“Well vote was 4 to 3 so we are starting with Iron Man”, Izy said and lights went off again.