History Has it's Eyes of You

1300

No matter how happy Bucky felt when Steve had stayed with him after the nightmare, he still confronted T’Challa who only watched with mild amusement as he ranted for a good twenty minutes about privacy.

“Are you saying that you would have been better off alone?” he finally asked. “What? No. I need Steve. That’s a known fact, I just- you can’t- stop being right!” he grumbled, making the king outright laugh.

“I did not wish to intrude on your private matters. I would not have told Captain Rogers anything had he not asked me.”

“He- wait, he asked you?" “Yes. He is worried about you, and he knew that I would know something from our time in the golden light. As he guessed, I did. Had I not told him, he would have only asked young Peter, and I saw no reason to bother him with it, so I told him myself,” T’Challa explained. Bucky tried to keep up his glare, he really did, but he just ended up smiling slightly.

“Well I suppose you were right. As usual.”

“Of course I was. Now I have a meeting with Okoye and M’Baku, and you have to go find Rogers and tell him that because of his questioning, I had to get an earful,” T’Challa said, exiting the room. Bucky grinned and headed off towards Steve’s room.

“Steve! The king’s mad at you!”“

"Are all systems online?” Ross asked, looking around at the computer screens that surrounded them. “Yes sir, everything is ready to go,” Reyna said. Was that hesitation in her voice? Ross couldn’t be sure. He liked Reyna. She was good at her job and never questioned his orders, but this whole sympathy thing she had going on wasn’t working for him. “Have you got something to say, Reyna?” he snapped, glaring at her from where he stood and making everyone else in the room look up. “N-no sir,” she whispered. Ross nodded once before turning his attention back to the screens.

1500

Peter webbed up the robotic training partner that he was practicing with, knocking it’s feet out from under it easily. Tony had been taking advantage of Shuri’s lab to upgrade everyone’s gear, and Peter was definitely reaping the benefits.

The iron spider suit now had even more web configurations, which the teen didn’t even know was possible, and extra web storage, which Peter was currently emptying on an assortment of training bots. The suit was also now designed to send out an alert to any nearby stark-designed suits whenever Peter’s vitals dropped, but that was more for Mr. Stark’s benefit than his.

Peter was also coming up with ways to make his webs stronger and more durable. Shuri’s lab had everything, and he was welcome to even more supplies than Mr. Stark was as Shuri liked him better. Wanda was often in the lab as well, watching as Shuri worked with the mind stone to try and recreate Vision. Scott Lang didn’t seem to be having to many problems getting the machine to them, but it would take time. Now that the new shields were up around Wakanda, Shuri could donate far more of her time to the ‘Vision Crisis’, as people were now calling it.

Peter wasn’t the only one training to try and pass time. He could see Natasha and Okoye locked in a sparring session, and Nebula destroying one of the training bots and then taking on another. Gamora was a little ways away training with Drax, who was losing horribly to the assassin. Palmarius and Loki were the only two in the room not engaged in some sort of combat. The two seemed to be in deep conversation, as Palmarius fingered the stones on her circlet.

“Hey Peter,” the voice of Bruce Banner said from the doorway to the training room. Peter immediately stopped webbing up the bots and shut them down with a clap.

“H-hey Dr. Banner,” he said nervously, still trying to accept the fact that he was speaking face to face with Bruce Banner.

“I finished running the DNA from the tests we did earlier, thought you might want to see what I found,” he said.

Since everyone was stuck inside the main building, Peter had had the idea to talk to Bruce about figuring out just how much of himself had been affected by the spider bite. Bruce had agreed to help him out and taken some blood samples for different tests to run, and to get a look at his DNA to see how different that was. Tony had agreed to let them do it, but only if Bruce promised to destroy everything he found so that Ross couldn’t get his hands on it. It was for this reason that all of his notes were handwritten as well.

“Oh cool!” Peter said. “So, how weird is it?”

“Actually, not that strange. I mean, I was preparing for some really crazy stuff, maybe an x-gene factor or something, but your DNA is mostly human. The main anomalies are spider related, but I think there are a few changes because of the weird limbo place as well,” he said. “I’m not entirely sure, but your DNA currently displays a similar energy signature to that of the soul stone, just far lesser. I’m going to see if I can get some DNA from Barnes or T’Challa to see if they are showing the same signs, but that’s my hypothesis,” Bruce explained. “I haven’t finished all the other tests because Shuri needed her equipment back, but I’ll be done soon.”

“Awesome! I’ll get down to Shuri’s lab later and check it out!” Peter said excitedly. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that this was the first time he knew anything about his changed DNA, or anything that had happened to him because of the spider bite.

“Alright Reyna, how we looking?” Ross asked. “All troops are in position and setting up camp. They attack on your signal,” she reported, staring straight forward at the screen in front of her and not allowing herself to show any emotion. “And has Wakanda surrendered?” “No, we have heard nothing from them, or the Avengers that they’re sheltering. They don’t know we’re there, and if all goes well, they won’t until the attack’s begun,” Reyna said. Ross nodded in approval. “Good,” Ross said.

1800

“Any word from Scott?” Dr. Strange asked Tony as the two watched Shuri continue studying the mind stone.

“No, nothing. Last I heard he was nearing the Wakanda border, but that was yesterday. He never called in today,” Stark said, sounding slightly worried.

“I’m sure he has a good reason. Maybe he accidently sent his phone subatomic,” Strange joked, getting a small smile out of Tony. “Have you guys gotten any new information on the mystery army coming our way?”

“No, the satellites aren’t picking anything up,” Tony replied in frustration. “For all we know, they’re already here.” They sat in silence as Shuri worked and talked to Wanda about Vision.

“What do you think will happen to the Avengers? I mean, will they get back together after all this?” Strange asked, saying exactly what Tony had been wondering himself ever since arriving in Wakanda. “I mean, if the accords go down with Ross will they come back to New York?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I’ve been updating their gear like I used to. I just made Sam some new wings and a better dive bomb feature. I like to think that we’re back to normal, but I know better than that,” Tony replied. “Do you think you’ll fight?” he asked, turning to face the other man.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if the American army comes, do you think you’ll stand against them?”

“Will you?”

“No idea.”

“Troops are standing by,” Jason reported to Ross. Reyna had taken a break, so Jason had taken over for her while she was getting some air.

“And the shields? Are they still hidden from satellites?”

“Yeah, no one will be able to see them coming,” Jason replied smugly. He had been part of the team that had helped develop the technology that his their soldiers from satellites. They both looked up when Reyna came back into the dark room. She looked around self consciously and quickly shuffled back to her spot besides Ross, head down.

“Glad you could join us Reyna,” Ross said, making her flinch. He looked around at the other faces who were watching the exchange with baited breath. “Back to work!” he barked, making everyone jump and return to their tasks.

2000

Bucky looked out a large window, T’Challa and Steve beside him. The moon was a shimmering mirage in the dark sky, thin, foggy clouds passing over it like ghosts. The city was empty, everyone still resigned to their homes.

“It’s silent out there,” Steve observed. Bucky nodded, not remembering a time when the city had looked so deserted.

“The shields are up, so that’s good,” Bucky said. Shuri had assured them that these shields would protect them from aerial attacks much better than the previous ones. T’Challa said nothing, only looking out at the city with a thoughtful gaze. “You see anything out there, T’Challa?” Bucky asked, noticing the way the king was staring so intensely at the burnt city bellow.

“I have received word from Carol Danvers. There will be an attack tonight. 2400. American,” he stated calmly, holding a hand up to silence Steve and Bucky’s horrified gasps. “I did not wish to tell you, but you have the right to know. As I told you previously, I will not ask you to fight against your own people, but if they attack Wakanda I will not hesitate to shoot them down.”

“Understood,” Steve replied gravely. “I’ve gotta tell Stark. Bucky, an you alert the others?” Bucky nodded and headed down to the main room where he know he’d find the other Avengers and Guardians.

Steve ran down to the mini lab that Shuri had reluctantly given Stark (only because Peter had begged her to) where Steve knew Peter and Tony would be working instead of sleeping or socializing.

“So I was thinking we add a bit more power to the taser webs and- CAPTAIN ROGERS AMERICA, SIR!” Peter exclaimed, interrupting himself upon seeing Steve’s arrival.

“At ease, kid,” Steve said, to stressed to laugh at how adorable it all was.

“What’s up, Capsicle?” Tony asked, surprised to see Steve in the lab.

“We’re surrounded. Ross has soldiers poised to attack 2400,” Steve exclaimed.

“What! How?” Captain Marvel has a source on the inside, apparently they have some sort of tech that keeps them from being spotted by satellites,” Steve explained.

“So they’re here? Now!” Peter clarified, voicing rising in pitch. Steve nodded.

“Bucky’s alerting the others. We’re all to go to the meeting room, alert Pepper as well. She can prepare a statement.” Tony nodded and quickly guided Peter towards the door and practically dragged him down the hall to the meeting room where Okoye, M’Baku, T’Challa, the Avengers, Guardians, and various heros were waiting.

“They will attack at 2400. We have the advantage of our shields, and the fact that they don’t don’t know we’re coming,” T’Challa explained once everyone one settled.

“That and public image,” Tony added. “Wakanda has only fired back once, and it was basically just a warning shot.” T’Challa nodded, but didn’t look any less grave.

“We have alerted our first defenses, they are prepared and well hidden. We want Ross to believe that we are still ignorant,” Okoye reported.

“Wait, wait wait, where is this information from? I mean, how do we know this isn’t just a trap designed purely to make us paranoid?” Rhodey asked.

“Captain Marvel said she got it from someone close to the scene, and their information’s been good so far,” M’Baku explained.

“And they’re right again,” Loki said, striding back into the room. “I just checked it out, and there’s definitely someone out there,” the God of Mischief reported. The others stared at him and he sighed. “Look, I understand you do not trust me, but what benefit could I possibly reap from lying to you now? Had I wanted to destroy you, I would have begun already,” he said.

“Loki has a point,” Nebula said, stepping forward in defense of the surprised god. “Had he wanted to watch you burn, he would be destroying American cities in your name to cause more tension.” The others nodded in agreement and added Loki’s new information to the board.

“The city is being evacuated into the main building in small groups as not to raise suspicion,” Okoye reported. “They will not be permitted in the meeting room or labs, and I’ll make sure your rooms are off limits,” she added.

“Thank you Okoye,” Sam said.

“So, what exactly are we gonna do?” Peter asked nervously, looking around awkwardly when he realised everyone’s eyes were on him.

“For now? We wait,” Tony replied, squeezing his shoulder in reassurance. Peter nodded, but looked no less terrified than he had before.

“Alright, I doubt that there will be much sleeping getting done tonight, so are we cool to stay here?” Bruce asked.

“Of course, and you can head down to Shuri’s lab as well,” T’Challa replied, directing the last part mostly at Wanda who nodded in appreciation.

“Come on, kid,” Tony said, steering Peter towards the door. “As Bruce said tonight will not be a sleeping night, so tinkering with shit in the lab it is!” he said with false cheer that fell flat even to his own ears. Peter nodded in agreement, but said nothing.

Scott Lang snuck quietly through the trees, slipping under a fallen leaf and keeping a hand firmly on the case on his back with contained the newly tiny-a-fied Vision maker. The GPS on his suit told him that he was nearing the shields, but he had been given a passcode that would get him through them so that he wouldn’t be burned to ash upon entry. He looked around in confusion upon hearing the echoing of voices, and his eyes caught a glimpse of fire and the shape of tents.

“What the Hell?” he whispered. He quickly scampered closer until he could get a clear view of what seemed to be one of many campsites where soldiers were taking refuge for the night. They’re weapons glittered in the firelight and their voices were hushed. It was then that the tech took effect. Suddenly Scott was normal sized, and out in the open in front of at least ten heavily armed soldiers.

“The Ant-man!” One of them exclaimed, grabbing their gun. Scott jumped back and realised why his suit had failed. He was in a weird bubble of some kind that seemed to cancel the effects of any tech. The good news, only the front half of him was in. His back, and the Vision maker, were still tiny and safe. Scott jumped back out of the bubble and hit his shrink button, but found to his horror it didn’t work. The bubble had fried the whole suit.

The soldiers were surrounding him and Scott saw only one option. He ripped the still tiny Vision maker off of his back and chucked it into the forest beyond. He saw the tiny speck sail through the trees before a shot rang out, and Scott Lang knew no more.

2400

Dr. Strange stared at the clock with baited breath, eyes watching as the second hand hit the twelve at the top, where the minute and hour hands were resting as well.

“I guess this is it, then,” Quill said from where he sat with the other guardians.

“I guess it is,” Strange replied.

“How will they get through the shields?” Gamora asked.

“I’m guessing they have a plan for that. They wouldn’t be pulling this operation if they didn’t,” Strange replied.

The last few hours had been torturous for everyone in the building. Steve and Bucky hadn’t been seen since the meeting, obviously unable to cope with the idea of fighting american soldiers. Rhodes and Sam were struggling as well, but they were still trying to help if they could. Natasha had been working with Okoye and Loki had been using whatever powers he could to try and keep an eye on the soldiers outside the shields. It was because of him that they had seen Scott’s body lying on the ground with a bullet hole in his chest.

The Guardians were antsy, but as they had no real ties to America, they didn’t feel the same sentimental loss or betrayal as the others. Bruce and Wanda had been in Shuri’s lab, Wanda working with Shuri to try and find the machine which Scott had so valiantly saved, and Bruce running DNA tests to try and distract himself. Using a sample of T’Challa and Bucky’s blood, he had determined that the golden light had had an effect on DNA, but the spider seemed to have had a hand in it for Peter as well.

Tony had been trying to distract Peter ever since the news of the oncoming battle had come to light, but it didn't’ seem to be working for either one of them. Finally he had decided to get Pepper and May on a hologram and tell them what was going on so that Peter could speak with his aunt. They talked for a while while Tony filled Pepper in as to what was going on.

“Tony, this has got to end,” Pepper said after he’d finished. “And it’s got to end with him,” she said, pointing at where Peter was crying into his holographic aunt’s arms.

“I don’t follow.”

“If the Avenger’s fight their own country then Ross will have his proof that you’re evil. If you don’t than Wakanda gets unnecessarily damaged, and America even more so. If we want to settle this peacefully we’re gonna need something to bring everyone together, and nothing does that like a child torn away from his family,” Pepper explained.

“What do you want him to do?”

“I want him on camera, talking. I want him to talk about what it’s like, talk from the Avenger’s point of view, and demand Ross steps down,” she said fiercely.

“And how exactly am I supposed to explain his presence here?” Tony asked. “The world is not knowing he’s Spiderman. I’m not putting him through that.”

“The world won’t. Everyone already thinks he’s your super genius intern, right? Just say he came with you on business as a ‘learning experience’ or something, and then got stuck ‘cause of the travel ban,” Pepper said. She was about to say more when a loud bang rang out through the night, shaking the building to it’s core. “Tony, what was that!” she asked as the hologram flickered.

“I do believe it’s the home of the free and the brave coming for a visit. Gotta go,” Tony replied, closing down the hologram and rushing into the lab Peter was in. He looked terrified. The hologram of Aunt May seemed to have been disconnected during the blast, and Peter seemed to be having another panic attack. “Peter, I need you to breath,” Tony instructed, “Just breath. That’s all you gotta do. There you go, nice and easy,” he continued. Eventually Peter’s breathing was back under control and he looked around.

“It hurts,” he whimpered, clutching his head. It was then that Tony remembered his enhanced senses. Shit. The blast must have been ten times louder to Peter, and it was already borderline painful for normal, human, hearing.

Tony quickly rushed them to Shuri’s lab, Peter flinching with ever noise from the battle going on below. They were passing a window when Tony almost froze. He could see the shapes of American and Wakandan soldiers fighting below, but a blast of electricity alerted him to someone he hadn’t been expecting to be fighting. Natasha. Another whimper from Peter brought him back to the situation at hand though, and he quickly ran the rest of the way to Shuri’s lab. He threw the door open to reveal a very startled Shuri, Bruce, and Wanda.

“Stark! What is going on!” Shuri yelled and Tony have carried Peter into the lab and lay him down on a table.

“Is Peter okay?” Wanda asked, helping Tony set the boy up in a more comfortable position.

“His hearing, it’s enhanced because of the spider bite,” Tony said. “His ears, they’re gonna be damaged beyond repair if we don’t do something!” he whispered urgently, not wanting to make too much unnecessary noise. Bruce’s eyes widened at the news and he quickly began checking Peter over.

“His ears are definitely not going to hold up under this much stress for long,” he warned.

“Shuri, do you have anything? Anything at all?” Tony asked desperately.

“Um… I have really powerful headphones,” she offered, holding up a pair that seemed to be made of solid vibranium.

“Works for now,” Tony said, getting a nod of affirmation from Bruce. They had to put the headphones on Peter for him as he had already passed out, but his body got a little less tense after a little while of wearing the headphones.

“We’ll have to monitor him for however long it takes us to get a better solution, but this should hold for now. Vibranium is powerful stuff,” Bruce said. Tony nodded and all but collapsed into a chair.

“Natasha’s on the field,” Tony finally said, making everyone look up.

“Who else?”

“I’m not sure, I was passing really fast. I just saw the electricity.

“You sure it’s not Thor?” Wanda offered.

“Yeah, his lightling his more, well, lightning. Nat’s has a bit more of a blue tint to it,” Tony explained.“If she’s out there, I’m guessing more are as well.

“You should go check in with the meeting room, see what’s up,” Shuri said. “You should too, Wanda. Me and Bruce and watch Peter for now.” Wanda and Tony nodded and, with one last glance at the unconscious form of Peter, left the lab and ran towards the meeting room.

The battle field was horrifying. Natasha had gone out with the mission of not killing anyone. No soldier would die because of her, or any Avenger. The problem with that was that they were still trying to kill her, which made it very difficult not to snap their necks. She resisted though, and only electrocuted them and then bound their hands and feet with vibranium wires that Shuri had made her.

“Hey, Nat! They’re on your tail!” The voice of Sam said, as he dropped non lethal mini grenades down. They had been designed solely for this purpose, and the worst they could do was knock someone unconscious.

Natasha whirled around and through an electric dart at the gunmen aiming their gun at her, successfully knocking them to the ground. She quickly throughout wires which wrapped themselves around the mans feet and wrists before darting off into the crazed mass, catching sight of Gamora and Nebula fighting back to back nearby.

All the Guardians of the Galaxy had agreed to fight and, much to Rocket’s disappointment, not kill, along with Clint, Sam, and, much to everyone’s surprisingly, Rhodey. War Machine had loaded his suit with knockout gas, and other such non lethal creations of Tony’s. The Americans, though, did not seem to share the Avenger’s no killing ideas. They were firing rounds of bullets, and making deadly attacks. The thing that struck Natasha as odd though wasn’t the lack of diplomacy as much as the soldiers themselves. They had no military garb that she had seen before, but wore all black bulletproof vests with a symbol right over their chests that looked like a hexagon with a skeletal lioness head inside it.

"Hey, anyone figured out what this symbol is?" Natasha asked over the com system.

"No clue," Clint replied. "They're not regular military, that's for sure."

"You're right, their fighting system is standard for American military, it's more like something I was taught in my... training," Natasha said, not wanting to bring up bad memories.

"I'm sending in a picture now, seeing if anyone inside can find anything," Rhodey said, flying over their heads. Natasha sent her thanks and rejoined the fight. Something was off about the soldiers, and she didn't like it.

The meeting room was busy. All high ranking people in Wakanda's military force were in there, along with the various groups of heroes. Wanda longed to be out helping on the field, but they didn't need to give Ross anymore reason to hate her.

The picture of the symbol was causing quite a stir. It had been confirmed that the symbol wasn't for any known military group under Ross's control, and they had yet to find any sort of possibility for what it meant. That is until Bucky came in and saw a print out of it in Steve's hand. Then everything went to Hell.

"Bucky?" Steve asked as Bucky's eyes zeroed in on the symbol and every limb stopped moving. He slowly looked up at Steve and let his hands rest at his sides.

"Ready to comply."