Can Beauty Come Out of Ashes?
As the sun rose, people slowly began to creep out of the buildings they’d taken shelter in and started taking in the damage done by the missiles from the previous night. They had burned through good portions of the the shields and destroyed any buildings beneath the damaged areas.
T’Challa had ordered repairs to begin immediately, and air patrols were being doubled. Shuri had even been forced to give up her satellite so that they may be able to use it to spot incoming missiles quicker than before. Shuri hadn’t been too pleased to lose her satellite, but had not argued to much given the gravity of the situation.
“I can’t believe they actually did this,” Peter whispered, staring around with large eyes.
“I can,” Tony said bitterly. “It’s Ross, he does whatever he needs in order to get what he wants.” They watched as engineers made inspection after inspection of the damaged areas and took notes, sending messages to people in labs who would analyse the data and design new shields.
“You think there’s going to be more missiles?” Steve asked, walking over with Bucky and Natasha.
“Not sure,” Tony replied. “T’Challa doesn’t seem to think so, but he didn’t expect this either so I’m not so sure if I believe him or not.”
“They won’t,” Natasha said. “They don’t have the money or support to launch another attack of this size right away. I mean, practically the whole country is against this. It’s only a matter of time before Ross is told no,” she reasoned.
“That makes sense,” Bucky agreed. “Any word from back home?”
“Yeah, Aunt May called to check up and make sure we were, you know, alive,” Peter said. “Apparently the media battle is going well. #WakandaForever is trending according to MJ.”
“Hopefully it’s enough,” Bucky replied. They lapsed into silence, all watching the people of Wakanda try to get their lives back into some sort of order before Tony decided to head in.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I got no sleep last night. Missiles make a terrible lullaby,” he said, heading in. Tony had a point. Nobody had slept at all the previous night, as everyone was too nervous.
“I think Tony's right,” Steve agreed with a yawn. “You should head in too, kid,” he said to Peter. “You look awful.”
“Rude, Steve,” Bucky chastised. “He has a point though, we should all get some sleep.” The others nodded in agreement, no one even trying to stay awake much longer.
“If they call lunch and I’m still asleep, no one wake me,” Peter called as he headed in.
“Got it,” Dr. Strange said, passing him as he headed out to check up on the shields. “Hey, Natasha, have you seen Dr. Banner?”
“Yeah, I think he’s in a meeting with Okoye and Palmarius at the moment, why?”
“I just wanted to talk to him a bit,” he said. “I read some of his research a while back and thought it was interesting.”
“Ah, it was very well done,” Tony said, coming back outside to grab his sweatshirt, which he’d left on a bench. “He should be out pretty soon.”
“Thanks Tony,” the doctor replied. “Enjoy your nap!”
“Oh, I will. If any of you wake me up, you are going to be blasted through that shield!”
T’Challa messaged his temples as he read through another report concerning the attack from the previous night. He had not seen it coming, had not expected America to launch a full scale missile attack so soon. When he thought back to the fateful night, all he could remember was his conversation with Peter. He’d been assuring the kid as much as himself that there would be no missiles that night. He had been very wrong indeed.
“Brother, we have finished our inspections of the shields,” Shuri’s voice said, cutting through T’Challa’s thoughts like a boat through water.
“And?” the king asked.
“And we are now making better shields?” Shuri said uncertainly, not sure what T’Challa wanted to hear.
“How were the American’s missiles able to penetrate them?”
“We are not sure. I suppose we have never really tested them with the technologies of the rest of the world before. America used something we were not expecting. We will not make the same mistake again, brother,” Shuri assured him.
“What of Vision?” he asked, remembering how excited Wanda had been when Shuri had begun to remake him. “Are you still recreating him?”
“I’m doing as much as I can, but I will need the original machine that was used to create him. With the travel ban, there’s no way to get it here.”
“I see,” T’Challa said, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “What about Scott Lang?” he asked suddenly.
“The Ant Man?” Shuri asked, brow furrowed. “What about him? He is currently in America with Pepper and May Parker-”
“Exactly. How did he get there?”
“He snuck across the border in his shrinking suit…The suit! He can smuggle us the machine by shrinking it down!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Exactly!” T’Challa said. “Have Stark get in contact with him once he has gotten his rest. According to Dr. Strange, we are not to wake him under any circumstance,” he said with a slight smirk.
“I am busy brother! You can tell Stark yourself!” she said, heading to her lab. T’Challa shook his head before returning to the report he was reading. Sisters.
The wind brushed through the canopy of leaves above him, and Bucky looked around, his metal arm clenching and unclenching as he tightened his other hand around his gun.
“He’s here.” The wind remained the only sound, the sudden lack of battlefield noise unsettling. They fired at Thanos. Bruce was frozen in stone, and Natasha was trapped on the ground. Then Steve grabbed his hand, trying to buy Wanda more time. Bucky felt a scream ripped from his throat as Steve was thrown away like a dog toy.
He could feel his body begin to tingle and then burn. A howling filled his ears along with desperate screaming from voices he couldn’t quite place.
“Steve?” he was falling, no disappearing. He was gone. The pain built and roared through his veins and his vision was turning gold. A silhouette was running towards him, pointed shield in hand.
“Bucky!”
His sight was filled with harsh light. “Help!” he was alone, no one was going to find him. The light was pulsing around him as he slowly fading from existence.
“BUCKY!” his eyes snapped open and he lashed out at the figure above him only to feel his metal arm grabbed and held fast. “Bucky! It’s me!” a familiar voice said.
“Steve?” he asked hoarsely.
“Yeah, yeah it’s me,” Steve said, releasing his arm.
“W-what are you doing in here?” Bucky asked.
“You were screaming. I thought you were hurt or something so I kind of destroyed the keypad,” Steve admit, blushing slightly as Bucky took in the demolished lock.
“I was just-”
“Having a nightmare,” Steve finished for him. “T’Challa told me.”
“Of course he did,” Bucky grumbled, reminding himself to confront the king later. “Look, it’s really not that big a deal, you can go do whatever you were doing,” Bucky said quickly, embarrassed to be caught in such a vulnerable state.
“I’m not leaving you like this,” Steve said seriously.
“You don’t have to-” Before Bucky could finish though, he found himself wrapped in a hug.
“I’m with you,” Steve stated. “‘Till the end of the line.”
“You sentinemtal little shit,” Bucky grumbled playfully.
“Language!”
Gamora glared at Quill, who seemed to be somehow growing smaller under her sharp gaze. “You did WHAT!” she yelled, making the Starlord flinch. “Do you mean to tell me that you almost had the gauntlet off Thanos, and you PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!”
“Gamora-”
“Oh no! We are far from finished. What made you think that was a good idea? He had almost all the infinity stones, would be able to crush you like a bug even without them, and was being restrained by a thread!”
“He’d thrown you over a cliff! He’d thrown you over a cliff for a fancy rock!”
“That doesn’t mean ruin the entire operation!” Gamora argued, successfully shutting Quill up. She sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and opening them once more. “Next time we do a job, I’m in charge she said before stalking back to her room. Quill stood in silence for a second before Drax’s load laugh made him jump.
“HA! She just kicked you out of command! You must be so humiliated!” he laughed, making Mantis laugh as well.
“Well it doesn’t matter much anyway,” Rocket said with a smirk. “I am the captain after all!”
“I am Groot!”
“Um, not to interrupt this, but I’ve got a message from Okoye,” Palmarius said, walking a little ways into the room where the group was relaxing.
“You are anxious,” Mantis noted with concern. “What is the message?”
“America, they still hasn’t surrendered, and we have reason to believe that another team may be coming,” she said.
“What do you mean ‘a team?’ Quill asked.
“American soldiers. An invasion!” Palmarius said impatiently.
“Where did you hear that?” Rocket asked. “I mean, after all the missiles you’d think they’d take a little break or something.”
“That’s exactly why they’re doing it. Ross knows he can’t keep this up much longer, so he’s getting out all the attacks he has. He wants to hurt us, and so far it’s working. As for the information, just because Captain Marvel is hiding out back in America doesn’t mean she isn’t helping us behind the scenes. She has good reason to believe that we should expect an attack, and soon.” Rocket’s ears drooped. Shit.
“So, you’re sure about this?” Tony asked Dr. Strange, who had been the one to deliver the message to him and Peter.
“Positive. We don’t have an exact time frame yet, but we know they’re coming,” Strange repeated. Peter looked between the two mean with wide eyes.
“So, Ross is throwing us everything he’s got,” Tony muttered to himself. “It’s a good sign if you think about it. Really, it is. I mean, even he seems to know he’s gonna be shut down soon.”
“Yes, well we can celebrate after we have working shields and know the threat that’s marching towards us,” Strange said.
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but what exactly is going on?” Peter asked. “I mean, can’t we just do a giant satellite scan and see what’s coming? Why’s everyone freaking out?”
“Because, nothing's coming. A satellite scan was the first thing Shuri did and she picked up nothing. We’ve got one set to go every hour.”
“So, we know nothing?” Peter asked.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Tony agreed. “Alright, doc, what else do ya need?”
“T’Challa wanted me to tell you that you need to get in contact with Scott Lang. Something about smuggling a tiny robot maker across the border…?”
“Oh My God, that’s genius!” Tony exclaimed.