Dawn of New Change

PREVIOUSLY ON: Dawn of New Change

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' really tried their hardest to make Strucker a weasel of a villain and I kind of allowed it but I really liked him in the comics so you know, this book is going to be a whirlwind. Anyway! We get to see Strucker ordering the HYDRA soldiers around, what the Sokovians think of the Avengers (spoiler alert: no one other than America likes them) and just as Strucker decides to surrender, the Twins go ahead and take charge.

Introducing to you, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. 

"There's a bunker just ahead of you, Hawkeye," Taeyong said into his earpiece. "You're ten yards away."

"Got it," came Clint's easy reply. Taeyong sat back in his chair, giving himself a brief nod whilst he turned back to monitor his dad's screen. Jarvis was usually the one that made sure Tony wasn't steering off mission but Taeyong liked to check up on his dad every now and then. Instead of an easy distraction, Taeyong furrowed his brows, noticing a spike in Clint's heart monitor.

He leant forward on his chair and started to pull up his vitals so he could see properly. Their technology didn't usually spike in weird ways but it was also technology and Taeyong knew not to believe it on a first hand account. Plus, Clint hadn't said anything yet. "Hawkeye, you good?" he asked. "Your heart rate went up for a sec there... It seems good now though."

"Yeah," Clint wheezed out. "There's an Enhanced over here."

Taeyong's eyes widened. There was always the risk that HYDRA worked on enhancing people the same way they did Steve's friend Bucky. But Taeyong had only ever heard stories of them from his dad and the other Avengers when they came back from really big missions. Arguably, trying to get Strucker was a big mission, but Taeyong was excited. This was the first time he'd get to see an Enhanced.

"What are they like?"

"A kid... probably older than you by a little. Snarky little shit," Clint scoffed.

Taeyong snorted, ready to reply with a quick retort when Clint's live feed cut off. He scrambled to get the system rebooted but his vitals started to flash a blaring red over the screen and Taeyong felt his own heart beat pick up. Clint was hurt, probably hit in the side which was why Taeyong couldn't see him. The comms on his end were still up and running but all Taeyong could hear were grunts and groans.

"Hawkeye? Hawkeye, can you hear me?" he asked, pulling his mic closer to his mouth.

"Hawkeye's been hit," Natasha responded, her voice was quick but calm and Taeyong sat back in his chair.

"How bad is it?"

"We need to get him to the jet quickly."

Taeyong nodded, already pulling up their distance. "Thor can you-"

"Indeed," came his reply before the tracker on the God showed him flying over to the two agents.

"Can someone do something about that bunker," Natasha said, the sound of bullets probably whizzing past her crackled through the comms. Taeyong winced, before taking off his head piece and wheeling himself out of his chair to go sit at the head of the quinjet. He flicked over the nearest hologram and let the screen still play what was going on from a bird's eye-view. The Hulk had smashed his way through the bunker that most likely got Clint in his moment of distraction and Taeyong started up the quinjet.

He pressed his palm against the console, already opening up the main doors. Immediately the quinjet's interior was hit with the harsh cold winds of the winter air in Sokovia.

"Stark, we're really gonna need a way in," Steve said.

Taeyong watched through his dad's receiver as Tony flew just above the outside of the base. "Yeah, give me a sec." Tony's feedback was clear as day and Taeyong spared a moment's glance to watch over his dad, getting rid of HYDRA agents. Taeyong went back to the quinjet, already setting up their medical bay.

"Jarvis, find a power source for that shield," Taeyong said, pulling out a lab coat and wearing it over his own uniform. He brought out medical apparatus and winced, thinking about how little he knew. "It'd be great if we had Bruce's expertise."

"Ahh what now kid?" Clint teased over the comms. "Can't patch me up."

Taeyong smirked, "come up here and we'll see if I have a plaster big enough for yer."

"There is a particle wave below the North Tower." Jarvis said.

"Great, I wanna poke it with something." Taeyong stopped his start-up to look back at his dad's screen. Tony had flown through the out layers of the castle before shooting a small scale missile in the direction of where HYDRA's main power source came from. Taeyong skidded his way over to his chair, typing over the satellite coordinates to watch as their shield, a pulsing blue simply shattered in seconds.

"Nice..." he commented, before turning back to the medical bay. "Drawbridge is down Cap, you have your way in."

"Thanks."

Taeyong squinted when he felt the wind flowing freely into the quinjet. He held his hand out, shielding his eyes from the flurry of snowflakes that picked up and swirled in the air. Thor descended just on the outskirts of their rendezvous point and Taeyong ran outside, motioning Thor over towards the medical bay he set up.

"How are you doing Clint?" Taeyong said, hands already forming the ASL he had spent the better part of two years learning.

"Just peachy," he whispered, grimacing as Thor set him down.

Taeyong winced, looking at the large wound that had struck his side. "Give me a diagnosis, Jarvis, I'm borrowing you."

Clint at least had the energy to grin teasingly, retelling Taeyong what happened. His left side, just above his hip, was completely punctured. But it wasn't a bullet hole, there were muscle tears and Taeyong quickly started to staunch the bleeding.

"I'm not going to lie... I think I might actually need Doctor Banner," he said seriously, lightly tapping Clint's cheek to keep him awake.

"Shall I retrieve the Doctor?" Thor asked.

Taeyong and Clint both winced, Thor and Doctor Banner got on well enough. But Hulk and Thor kind of fooled around like actual kids whenever there was any Avengers training. Taeyong and Clint made eye contact and the Avenger simply gave a nod.

"My dad'll kill you," Taeyong said, already shredding his lab coat to tap and activate his own Iron Man suit. One simply made for flying and giving off little repulsor ray blasts.

"If this doesn't happen first," Clint muttered, closing his eyes.

Taeyong furrowed his brow, "Thor... keep him entertained." His mask fell over his eyes and Taeyong raced out of the quinjet, hands and fingers flexing before he shot off into the sky. His location already set on the Hulk.

***

Tony was going to kill his son when he got to him, but for now—

CRASH! SMASH! KA-BOOM!

He smashed his way into the nearest window and floated just above the room, overlooking the leftover HYDRA agents and soldiers that seemed shocked at his appearance. Tony rolled his eyes, watching them scramble for their weapons and then shoot at him, not taking the time to wonder why their bullets did nothing with his impenetrable armour.

"Guys, guys, stop. We gotta talk this through," he said, middle finger already bending forward and activating his tiny missiles. Jarvis ran a targeted lock on each HYDRA soldier that was shooting at him and with a simple incline of his head. He shot them all.

Each HYDRA soldier tumbled down like a game of dominos, clutching at their arms or their legs, having been shot in a non life-threatening area. "S'was a good talk," he said.

"Urgh, no it wasn't," one of the soldier's groaned before passing out.

Tony pursed his lips and eventually flew to the ground before another soldier stood up from where they were hiding. "Uh..." Tony tilted his head, mask opening up.

"I- I will leave, so-sorry," the soldier said, before they threw their gun onto the floor and immediately ran out of the room.

Tony scoffed silently, before he stepped out of his suit and moved to the nearest computer. "Sentry mode," he said, leaving his suit to protect him as he started to type and gather all the information that HYDRA had been working on. He almost laughed, whoever was trying to wipe out their database was taking a very slow time in doing so.

Setting his phone down, he started to download everything he could. "You already know what I want Jarvis. Everything. It all. Oh and copy whatever you can for Hill at HQ."

"Tony," Steve's leader-voice said.

Tony pouted, "we're still linked? Unfair. But yes, make sure to send everything to our friends at the new S.H.I.E.L.D."

Taeyong, from wherever he was flying (and mind you, Tony would be having words, several of them) snorted. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is so much cooler than S.W.O.R.D. or whatever it is they've named it."

"You're just saying that because you named it," Tony said, furrowing his brows when his suit moved. "Jarvis? Give me an IR Scan of the place real quick."

"Dad?"

"They're probably hiding more."

"Secret entrance?"

"I hope so."

"Christmas is coming early."

Tony smirked, sometimes Taeyong really did sound like him.

"The wall to your left," came Jarvis' reply. "I'm reading steel reinforcement." Tony nodded, walking over and grinning when, with a soft push, the wall easily slid open to reveal a secret entrance. He sighed happily, sometimes being an Avenger was the easiest thing in the world. Tony took a small step into an underground cave.

There were no lights except the one right by the entrance. He motioned for his suit to follow him and with that acting as his guiding light, he walked further into the cave. There was a long tunnel, with steel pipes that lined horizontally across the tunnel. It was built like a train tunnel, with steel lines on the ground that seemed to carry something in the far end.

Tony took his time walking to the end of the room. His comms was still linked to the main Avengers channel and he got to hear Taeyong finding the Hulk and how Steve and Natasha were entering the HYDRA base together. Apparently they had found Strucker, Tony smirked listening over Cap's drawl.

"HYDRA's number one thug... Well then, technically you're unemployed. Where's Loki's sceptre?"

Tony continued to walk into a large room with overhanging blue fluorescent lights and stilled. His eyes widened at the giant skeletal structure of the "leviathan..."

"What? Dad? Did you just say-"

"Yep. They've got the Leviathan armour... underground, secret door."

"Huh... okay then. Bigger Christmas then we were expecting... found the Hulk. I'll see you in a bit."

"Yeah..." Tony breathed, walking further into the room. He bared a quick glance to the Iron Man suit stationed just at the head of the doorway, its eyes scanning over the entire room. A faint red light from the scan overpassed Tony and he breathed a little easier... well, as easier as one could get with a giant hole in their chest. Tony rubbed it subconsciously, walking down into the centre of the room.

"We've got a second Enhanced," Natasha's voice crackled through the comms. Tony furrowed his brows, tapping on his earpiece. He was probably too far into the ground for their connection to pass through easily. The Iron Man suit started to reboot his comms whilst Tony's eyes scanned over the papers strewn around the workbenches.

"She's a tough one by the way," Natasha grunted.

"And she's gone," Steve finished.

Tony shrugged, "well I still think I found the jackpot. The sceptre's underground. I'll get it to the quinjet."

"Affirmative, we'll head back to the Quinjet after the careteam have arrived," Steve replied.

Tony was about to make another quippy retort about Steve's formal, agent language when he felt a breeze come from behind him. When he turned around the Leviathan skeleton armour roared to life and he froze, feeling his hands come in front of him to shield—

It flew past time. Over him and when Tony turned to see where it went his breathing hitched and he felt himself shaking slightly. The portal, the 2012 portal over New York. What he saw just before he almost died was there. A giant, gaping hole and he was standing on rubble. When Tony's eyes finally snapped away from the chitauri army he gasped.

Laying on the rubble were the Avengers. His friends, all strewn around the mounting pile of New York debris with scars and dirt littering their bodies. He pushed forward, collapsing on his knees. Thor had a large slash over one of his eyes, his hand was stretched out to Mjolnir, face still ready for battle but body completely still. Clint had blood coming out from his ears and his eyes were a swirling electric blue, the same eyes of Loki and when he was first brainwashed.

Tony choked when he finally recognised Natasha's body, crumpled like paper. Her legs broke at odd angles and the Hulk. The big green rage monster looked like he was mid-morphing into Doctor Banner, one of Tony's closest friends. His skin was green and tan, mangled and pulsing. Captain America lay beside Rhodey. Tony's hands rubbed at his chest, fingers rubbing over the dip where his arc reactor used to be.

Rhodey's War Machine suit had become crumpled around his legs. His face was set into a shocked expression and beside him was Steve. Steve, who had one half of his shield still attached to his arm, but the other half seemed almost ripped away. It was lying just a few yards away from him, no longer the symbol of Captain America, but a piece of scrap metal, like the ones he tossed around in his lab.

Then he heard it, the sputtering and coughing. A high pitched whine, like a scared animal. Tony rushed forward, looking around and he felt cold. Colder than that night in Tennessee and he felt like he couldn't breathe, as if his body was just working on auto-pilot because he knew that noise. Any father would and Tony had to stop himself from crying in failure because he couldn't fucking find him.

"Dad- dad- please—" Taeyong squeaked, hand flapping from under what looked like a ceiling piece.

Tony pushed forward, with an inhuman amount of strength it almost felt like he tore his arm tissue just to get to him and Taeyong? Taeyong was in his suit, the red and gold Iron Man armour was basically crushed and Tony felt sick to his stomach thinking about what his baby's body looked like on the inside.

"Taeyong? Taeyong, hey buddy can you hear me?"

"Dad-" Taeyong cried, arms coming up and flapping at Tony. He wrapped his arms around Taeyong's body, holding him still. "Dad- you- you could've saved us. You- you were supposed to protect me..." he cried.

"No Taeyong. No- No. I—"

"Baba, baba," Taeyong cried desperately before he stilled. He hitched at his last breath and Tony stared at his little boy's horrific face.

*

"Taeyong? Taeyong!"

"Yo," Taeyong's cheerful voice crackled through the comms. "What's up?" he asked. "By the way- just saw one of the Enhanced and he didn't do anything! Don't worry! But I don't know how to say this... but he radiated big asshole energy."

"Taeyong?!"

"What Captain? You didn't see his face, he was like... rolled his eyes at me? What the heck is that about? I'm just trying to help my fellow, mutual, and this guy has the audacity to roll... his eyes... at me?"

"I'm with Taeyong on this one," Clint grunted over the comms. "Guy's an assehole."

Tony cleared his throat, blinking slowly in the dark of the room. He looked around again, trying to determine what he was seeing before his eyes set on the sceptre. Tony breathed in slowly and then called for his Iron Man glove. It flew over and wrapped itself around his hand and Tony stepped forward, taking the sceptre and holding it tightly in his grasp.

***

Taeyong found the Hulk punching a bunch of trees and generally being a little bit of a nuisance now that he didn't have any actual HYDRA bases and soldiers to attack... or kill. Taeyong flew down to the ground and quickly opened up his mask. The Hulk's Lullaby protocol was a new thing that Taeyong and Tony had been working on very closely.

Bruce didn't like it but Taeyong didn't care too much because he wasn't the voice of reason for the Hulk. Besides, Taeyong and the Hulk were tight. At least, he'd like to think so because everytime Taeyong got to do some training with the Hulk, the big guy didn't hurt him.

"Hey Hulk," he said, grinning. Taeyong calmly got out of his suit and walked over. He stood a few paces away from the Avenger, still watching over him as the Hulk barely acknowledged his presence. "What's good?" he asked, eventually sitting down on the ground and watching the Hulk huff and lightly knock over a few branches. "Yeah... it's kinda cold don't you think?"

Taeyong gave a pout, "I'm really sorry to ask this Big Guy, but can you give the reigns back to Bruce for me?" Taeyong watched on as the Hulk huffed out angrily. "I know man. Must suck to just be in there all day but Clint's hurt and we need a Doctor. I'd hang out and blast some trees with you... but?"

He gave a small smile when the Hulk made eye contact for a split second and then started to walk off. Taeyong could see the outline of his body slowly shrink, watching as the familiar green of the Hulk turned back into the tan and human coloured skin of Doctor Banner. He got up, wincing at the wet clinging feeling of his pants against his legs but walked forward.

"Bruce?" Taeyong called, walking over to the doctor who simply lay on the cold ground and panted. Taeyong would never understand how draining it was to turn from the Hulk to Banner every time, but tried his best. So motioned for his suit to come forward and gently started to expand the inner lining of it.

He knelt down on the ground and started to apply his suit around Bruce's body, already activating the suit's inner heater. He smiled softly at the way Bruce seemed to stop panting and slowly calm back into his regular mindset. "There we go," he whispered.

Then he felt a stir in the air, like something flinging itself into the area. He looked up, eye locking with a boy. Someone with silvery hair and dark eyes. He looked malnourished and sickly, with sunken cheeks and the skin under his left eye twitched as he stared back at Taeyong. Taeyong furrowed his brow, "hello?"

The boy scoffed, before turning and running; almost at the speed of light. Taeyong blinked, but he was gone. "Huh... okay then."

NEXT TIME ON: Dawn of New Change

TEST - 77 RUNNING

INTEGRATION SUCCESS

ULTRON: What... is this? What is this, please?

Jarvis: Hello, I am Jarvis.