Chapter 1: We are the Avengers
Chapter Text
Tony Stark stood in the middle of the small abandoned warehouse building in a city he’d never heard of and in a universe that wasn’t his. His Iron Man suit had long since retracted itself, leaving him in a simple navy tee and black jeans that were scuffed a bit.
A small groan of pain came from the side of him, its source being Bruce Banner, his hands shaking slightly as he stood unsteadily onto his wobbly feet, Doctor Stephen Strange assisting him despite his one arm useless as it remained wrapped up in bloodied bandage. Natasha Romanoff favored her left leg only slightly as she paced the confines of the warehouse’s main floor, her eyes flickering to every corner in a restless and paranoid manner while Peter Parker laid on the floor and groaned tiredly behind her, not bothering to get up quite yet despite Scott Lang trying to offer to help him up.
Only some of the Avengers and other heroes were present in the alternate universe. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Peter Parker, Eddie Brock with the symbiote Venom, Scott Lang, Loki Odinson, and Bucky Barnes were amongst those present.
Vision, Deadpool (Wade Wilson), Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Thor Odinson, Wanda Maximoff, and all of the Guardians of the Galaxy plus Nebula were all still missing.
Doctor Strange could only bring so many of them straight into this universe, the others were each scattered into various hidden limbo realms within the multiverse until they could figure out a way to safely retrieve them.
“Mr. Stark?” Peter stood, his Iron Spider suit was dusty and bloodied, a sight that made the inventor wince internally, “What do we do now?”
Anthony Howard Stark straightened his back, his expression firm and confident despite feeling so very exhausted, and his tone was level and eerily calm, “We bring everyone back, and then we rebuild.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” Bruce somehow managed to keep his glasses intact minus a small crack in one of the lens during the dimensional hopping, “We have no place to live, no food to eat, no water to drink, and no money to get any supplies that we need to make the portal-jumpers,”
“If I may make a suggestion?” Loki stepped forward, his hair somehow still impeccable as always, “We are in an alternate universe, one with a few massive technology-developing companies and quite the reputation of being crime-ridden,”
Scott glanced at the god of mischief curiously, “Are you implying that we steal from a bunch of rich guys to get the supplies we need to build this portal thingy? ‘Cause if you are, I’m totally in,”
“I’m just putting the idea out there,” Loki shrugged, “Though we do already have two votes then for said idea…”
“Isn’t stealing kind of the opposite of what we do?” Peter Parker frowned, fiddling with some scrap metal in his hands and causing Tony’s lips twitching briefly upwards.
“We don’t have much of a choice,” Bucky grunted, his metal arm’s fingers curling into a fist, “We don’t have anything, and we’re missing people. Matt, Wade, Thor, Clint, Steve—”
The Winter Soldier’s voice cracked slightly. He had just gotten Steve back, he couldn’t—he wouldn’t—lose him again.
“The end justifies the means,” Natasha muttered, her eyes meeting Tony’s, “We take only what we need, no more and no less,”
Dr. Strange cleared his throat, “If it’s any comfort to you, Peter, this universe holds a business that I believe is called LexCorp here. It's a rather shady and corrupt organization under Lex Luthor, and stealing from them would likely prevent any further and actually dangerous crime from happening.”
Peter ran a hand through his messy hair, the brown coloring covered almost entirely by mud and dust, “That does make me feel a bit better, thanks Dr. Strange,”
“Stephen’s fine,”
“Thanks, Mr. Stephen,”
“That’s not what I meant—”
“He won’t call you anything else,” Eddie piped up, Venom’s inky black head having materialized on his shoulder and now everyone was watching the symbiote lean against the man’s neck in an almost domestic scene.
Well, domestic if he wasn’t, y’know, an eight feet tall black ink alien with cannibalistic tendencies. Although, one could argue on the last one saying he wasn’t human so it wasn’t really cannibalism.
“We have tried,” Venom added, “The spiderling is stubborn,”
“I have manners,” Peter grinned innocently and Venom patted his head with a black tendril.
It took all of Tony’s willpower not to grab the kid in a football style hold to make sure the anti-hero stayed far away from his underoos. It's not like he doesn’t like or trust Eddie, it was Venom he was hesitant about.
Once you see someone bite off Deadpool’s arm and then eat it, it can be rather hard to remain completely neutral around them. (Though Venom would insist that Deadpool deserved it, which Tony couldn’t exactly disagree with, but still).
“So,” Scott yawned as he found an old and broken down couch to drape himself across as he fiddled with some cards that he somehow managed to keep intact through dimensional traveling, “When do we start becoming master criminals, Sparky?”
He was staring at Tony, who snorted at the frankly pathetic attempt of a nickname.
Sam Wilson laughed, “Stark’s the evil mastermind of this operation? Can’t wait to see this play out,”
“Rude,” Tony huffed, “I’d be an amazing crime boss,”
Peter shook his head as he squeaked out, “Mr. Stark–”
“I’m joking, Pete, I’m not going to become a crime boss,”
“Well,” Loki grinned.
“Don’t you start, Slithers,” The inventor glared.
“I rebuke that title!”
“Too bad, the name stays,”
Slowly but surely the heroes started to begin their mission. Tony created their identities with the help of FRIDAY, Strange’s and Loki’s magic placed a protection barrier over their warehouse-slash-base of operations. Bruce, Peter, Sam, and Tony worked to create weapons and repair suits with some new enhancements and features, sometimes pulling in Scott (since he had no sense of self-preservation) for test drives and such.
Natasha and Bucky stalked the night and snuck into tech businesses to swipe some smaller scale stuff, Venom assisting at times—either as a failsafe if anyone saw them or using his inky form to slip through the cracks and take things.
The team of heroes was coming back, slowly but surely and having changed more than ever. They were still the heroes they always had been, they had simply adjusted. They wouldn’t fail this time, they’d bring everyone back and rebuild their lives. They’d dust themselves off as they rose from the ashes of their last battle.
They would avenge the lives they lost by creating new ones—after all, they were the Avengers.
Chapter 2: Civilians Pt. 1
Summary:
Comments are appreciated !!!!
Chapter Text
It had only taken three weeks for the abandoned warehouse they all had landed in to turn into somewhat of a decent home for the Avengers and co.
Loki had magicked a few pieces of furniture and such into existence saying he refused the idea of all their appliances being from Peter’s dumpster diving hauls.
Tony and Bruce had gotten the place up and running with electricity, running water, heat, and all the other things necessary for them to live. They also managed to turn one of the warehouse’s backrooms into a rather impressive lab thanks to Peter’s hauls and both his and Tony's ability to find scraps and fiddle with them anywhere they went.
The warehouse may not have been as large as the Avengers Tower had been, but it was still a relatively decent size. The base floor was where they kept their more ‘civilian’ look with a kitchen, living room, and a dining room. The floor above was really just the next level as they could still look down and see the Casual Floor (which is what Scott had dubbed the base level).
That level contained the small rooms that Nat and Bucky managed to turn into actual bedrooms, there were enough for everyone to have their own, but they’d all long since learned that sticking together is better than staying apart. Tony and Peter shared a room, Sam and Bruce, Stephen and Loki (he was on babysitting duty for the god until Thor would come and he could then share the room with his brother), Scott and Eddie (plus Venom), and then Bucky and Natasha were in the same room until Steve and Clint would come back, then they’d switch.
The floor below both the Sleeping Floor and the Casual Floor (both credits go to Scott with some assistance from Sam) was where the lab was, which was heavily guarded by both Tony’s security (welcome back FRIDAY) and Stephen’s ward magic.
It was there that the inter-dimensional retriever was being built, when finished it would be able to pull people from any dimension into the one they were in now. There were flaws in it, though. It could only pull one person at a time and since each of the limbo realms Strange had sent the remaining members in were different from one another, each dimensional pull required different parts needing to be incorporated.
Simply put, they needed a dimensional puller for each dimension they needed to bring someone back in—which meant creating the impossible over ten different times.
Tony had his work cut out for him, that was certain, but the impossible was his specialty, and everyone still carried hope of seeing those scattered away.
They would get everyone back, one pull at a time.
~~~
“Alright everybody,” Tony entered the kitchen area after spending four hours already down in the lab (it was only nine in the morning). “I’ve perfected our civilian identities!”
The mechanic passed out files with everyone's names on them, “Thanks to some of my amazing tech skills and Strange’s sparkly hocus pocus—”
Stephen stepped on his foot as he reached for a cup of coffee with a cartoon grumpy cat on it.
“—we now officially exist!” Tony finished.
Bucky was the first one to finish reading his file, “How come I have a job resume in mine?”
“So do I,” Sam held his file up with a raised eyebrow, “Gross,”
“I believe we all have one,” Loki’s nose crinkled disdainfully, “What is the meaning of this utter abomination, Stark?”
The inventor sat down at the head of the table, taking one of the waffles Bruce had made and putting it onto his paper plate, “We need to look normal, really play up the civilian aspect of our lives. Gotham has the Bats, and they’re damn good detectives. This will hopefully throw them off our track if they ever get on it,”
“So we have to get jobs?” Scott groaned, “Lame,”
Eddie shrugged, Venom’s inky head resting on his shoulder and devouring the entire plate of bacon—the actual plate as well, “I wouldn’t mind getting a job, it’d be nice to have some semblance of normality,”
Venom somehow managed to make a shrugging motion despite lacking shoulders, “If it makes Eddie happy, I will tolerate it,”
“Aw,” Scott snickered, “You two are so cute in a weird, kinda disturbing way.”
One of Venom’s inky tendrils threw an apple at the man.
“Hey!”
“What about me, Mr. Stark?” Peter finished his cup of orange juice, “What am I going to do?”
“You,” The man of iron ruffled his kid’s hair, “Are going to go to high school,”
Peter frowned, “But I can get a job like the rest of you—!”
“High school, Petey,” Tony interrupted, "You're only sixteen, that’s what normal sixteen-year-olds do, they go to school.”
The spider mutant huffed and pouted but didn’t protest any further.
“Well,” Bucky stood up, rolling his shoulders to stretch, “Guess we better get a move on, then,”
Slowly the heroes at the table grabbed their resumes as they left out the door, FRIDAY locking it securely after they all left.
“Do I have to go?” Peter whined as Tony handed the teen a red backpack.
“Yep,” The mechanic grinned, “C’mon, kiddo, you have an entrance exam to take,”
The spider themed hero groaned loudly as his mentor slash father figure laughed at him.
~~~
“Hello, we’re here for an entrance exam,” Tony told the secretary, a woman with a crooked nose and permanently disdainful look etched onto her face and expression.
“I need your name and the name of the examinee,” She stated sharply, peering with sharp eyes through square-rimmed, thin glasses at Peter, who was standing at his mentor’s side.
“Anthony Stark,” Tony then placed his hand comfortingly on the teen’s shoulder, “And this is my son, Peter Stark,”
Peter felt his heart clench at those words.
He’d always seen Tony as somewhat of a parental figure, even when he was angry or felt distant with the man. Though it was only recently that Peter outright saw the billionaire as a father figure in specifics, it made him beam with pride at the fact that Tony saw him as family, enough to take on the role of his ‘father’ in this universe.
“He’ll be taking the test in room two-oh-three,” The secretary glared at Peter, “Take nothing but a pencil, cheating is strictly prohibited,”
“He’s a good kid, he won’t cheat,” Tony gave his own glare to the woman as Peter dug around the backpack he’d been given and grabbed a pencil before setting the bag on the chair he’d been sitting in, "Besides, he won’t need to,”
“We’ll see,” The woman pointed down the hall before curtly saying: “Go,”
Peter left quickly, not because of the slightly scary woman, but because he didn’t want to be around when Tony tore into her.
If there was one thing that everyone back in their universe knew, and what this universe would learn rather soon, was that Anthony Edward Stark did not take kindly to those who looked down on him or those associated with him.
Especially not to his kid.
~~~
Once in a while, Brucie Wayne had to make an appearance at one (or more) of his kids’ schools to ‘see how things were going!’ before dropping a large sum of money on said school as a ‘donation’ to keep things going.
This time, Bruce was at the high school (specifically Tim, Steph, Cass, and Duke’s high school) being shown around by Dean Gary Hindsight.
“As you probably already know,” Gary went on, “Today is the entrance exam for anyone who wants to join the school, so you likely won’t see too many students out and about, but I can show you the room where they’re in.”
Gary had opened his office door to lead them to the larger, main office.
Bruce gave his best ‘Brucie Wayne smile’, “That would be lovely!”
“You the principal?” Someone suddenly spoke.
The two turned around to see a rather angry looking man glaring right at Principal Hindsight.
The man had tanned skin and a neatly trimmed black goatee. He was wearing a dark navy sweater with black fitted jeans and had an expression of pure anger.
“I’m the dean,” Gary raised an eyebrow, “And you are?”
“Tony Stark,” The man said, eyes sharp and glaring through red-tinted sunglasses, “And I have a question about what kind of school you're running here,”
“And what would that be?”
“I want you to explain why the hell you're running a school that’s blatantly prejudiced against kids of unfortunate circumstances or not children of billionaires, or both.”
The dean’s face flushed red, “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Mr. Stark glared, “I just came in here with my kid so he could take the entrance exam, and your secretary not only was cold and obviously glaring at my son, but decided to treat him like some delinquent. So, I’ll ask again, why are you running a school with an atmosphere that's dictated by pompous rich assholes?”
Dean Hindsight cleared his throat, “I’ll be happy to make an arrangement for you and I to…discuss your misjudgement of our school, but for now I’m rather busy with—”
“Busy kissing up to a rich guy, yeah, I have eyes,” The man snarked.
“If I may,” Bruce butt in, holding his hand out to Mr. Stark, “My name’s Bruce Wayne—”
“Don’t give a shit who you are,” Tony raised an eyebrow, not shaking his hand.
Bruce blinked.
He’d never had anyone react quite like that. Sure, people had been angry and envious of his wealth and status before, but he’d never seen someone simply…well, not care at all at who he was.
Except this man did, he didn’t even blink at the name ‘Wayne’ and looked at Bruce with a look that screamed of being unimpressed.
He was unimpressed. At Bruce Wayne.
It made Bruce curious, interested, and if he were to be completely honest, a bit attracted to the man that was Tony Stark.
“Mr. Wayne, I’m so sorry!” Principal Hindsight exclaimed, “I’ll have this man removed from the school immediately,”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Bruce held up his hand, “This is a parent of a potential student calling out an issue with the school, and as the one who donates and supports this school financially, I’d like to hear what he has to say about it.”
Tony let out a cough that suspiciously sounded like ‘guilt complex.’
Yeah, Bruce definitely was attracted curious about this man.
“In fact,” He turned to face Stark, “Perhaps we could discuss your concerns over some coffee?”
The principal and the secretary who was sitting behind the desk had their jaws fall open while Tony didn’t even blink.
“You’re paying,” he said, “And no longer than an hour and half, gotta pick up my kid from the exam room then,”
“Of course,” Bruce gave him his signature ‘Brucie Wayne’ smile, “I did offer, after all,”
“Yeah, yeah,” Stark walked past him, “Where we headin’? ‘Cause I could go for a good ol’ fashioned Americano,”
~~~
What people tend to forget or overlook about Doctor Stephen Strange, is that while he might be the Sorcerer Supreme and could do magic, he was also a doctor. He went to medical school, he got his PhD, he’d done brain surgery for Thor’s sake!
He may be a wizard, but he was a doctor, and that made finding a job for him to do become a relatively easy chore.
He’d found a small little clinic within Park Row, or Crime Alley as it was mostly known as, and had gone in for a meeting slash interview with one Doctor Leslie Thompson, saying she was the one who owned and ran the clinic he was applying to be a doctor at.
His interview with Dr. Thompson had gone, in his opinion, rather well and smoothly. However, Leslie had told him that before she could hire him, he had to get the approval of someone else—the local crime lord, The Red Hood.
Stephen didn’t know exactly what reaction the female doctor expected him to have, but he was relatively certain that it wasn’t a simple nod of the head and an ‘alright, how do I meet him?’
There was a reason he’d sent them all to this universe in the first place, besides the fact it was the closest universe that could handle the existence of them all for not just long term but permanently. The main reason Stephen was confident enough to say that this was the universe they needed to be in was for the bats in entirety. Though he couldn’t quite say why fully—he was a sorcerer, not a prophet—he could say that the multiverse would remain in a perfect balance for as long as the Avengers universes and the Bat brigade’s universes remained in close proximity. Or in this case, the same universe.
So no, he wasn’t worried at all by the prospect of meeting the Red Hood. In fact, he was a bit eager to see just how the vigilantes (or crime lords) of this universe worked.
After all, you couldn’t go to medical school for over eight years and not develop some level of love for learning.
Leslie had pointed him in the direction of an abandoned warehouse (which was something this universe seemed to have an abundance of), saying that the Red Hood would meet him there.
So Doctor Stephen Strange arrived ten minutes earlier than he was told to and sat on an old and rather suspicious smelling couch as he awaited the crime lord’s arrival.
“So your Doctor Strange," The Red Hood seemed to materialize out of the shadows.
“That I am,” The sorcerer nodded, “And I assume that you’re the Red Hood—or a rather dedicated follower of his,”
That got out a small snort from the crime lord, “What’s your intentions with the clinic?”
“Preferably to be a doctor within it, I’m not too fond of paperwork,”
“Hm,” The vigilante crossed his arms, “There’s a lot of people in Gotham who try to take advantage of free clinics, and not in the right way, how can I make sure you're not one of them?”
“Well,” Stephen raised an eyebrow, “You’d have to hire me and see what happens, wouldn't you?"
Hood was silent for a moment, “You try anything funny and I’ll break every bone in your body,”
“Seems a bit redundant, just a certain few bones and joints would result in a lack of full body movement, breaking all of them is just pointless.”
“Y’know what, doc?” Hood’s voice suddenly sounded a bit chipper, even with the modulator still in place, “I think you and I are going to get along great,”
Strange stood and dusted off his pants, “Let me get the paycheck in my hands first, then we’ll see just how good of friends we could possibly be,”
Hood barked out a laugh as Stephen walked out of the warehouse, a small grin on the sorcerer’s face as he called Tony.
“Got a job in a place that the Red Hood’s affiliated with,” Strange reported, “Near the docks as well,”
“Perfect,” Tony’s grin could be heard through the phone, “LexCorp’s having a big shipment tonight of all kinds of dangerous fun stuff I want to get my hands,”
Stephen raised an eyebrow, “How likely is this machinery to explode?”
Tony hummed, “It’s ‘bout a seventy out of a hundred,”
“Your specialty,”
“I’d say my specialty is closer to ninety, but love the fact you think I have better safety regulations, warms my heart in a way,”
The muffled sound of a person calling out a drink order came through Stark's side of the phone.
“Are you at a coffee shop?” Stephen raised an eyebrow, ‘I thought you were getting information on Wayne Industries,”
“I am,” Tony answered, "I'm on a date with Bruce Wayne,"
The sorcerer just sighed, “Of course you are,”
“Now just what is that supposed to mean—”
“Goodbye, Tony, try not to blow anything up until tonight,”
“I make no promises,”
Chapter 3: Civilians Pt. 2
Chapter Text
Bucky Barnes (aka The Winter Soldier), Sam Wilson (aka Falcon) and Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) were on Loki (enough said there) Babysitting Duty—well, so was Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man), but it might as well be Loki and Scott Babysitting Duty instead of him being the babysitter.
The man may not be a being of mischief, but he could definitely get into some trouble on his own—god or not.
Bucky tugged on his sweater’s sleeve again, specifically the sleeve that was hiding his metal arm. He was lucky enough that it was the point of Autumn where gloves weren’t uncommon to see in Gotham City, so hiding his metal fingers was easy and he looked normal while doing so as well.
There were a few reasons for keeping his arm hidden, each rather important. One would be that it was the kind of feature that drew attention to someone, and the last thing he wanted right now was attention on him. A second thing would be that there was a high potential that they’d run into the bats one of these days when they stole some of LexCorp’s, or similar, tech.
The Winter Soldier, with a muzzle-like mask in addition to a hood now being a part of his suit to keep his identity hidden more, didn’t hide his metal arm one bit. So it was crucial that Bucky Barnes did. Another thing was that, in full honesty, Bucky hated his arm when it was winter. The metal got cold and sometimes it would frost a bit and took too long to warm back up, so bundling it up wasn’t an action he hated to do.
Bucky was snapped out of his thoughts by Scott seemingly attempting to see if Loki could smite him by doing cliche card tricks to annoy the god, who was very much getting annoyed.
“Blerghhhhh,” Scott made the cards ‘fall’ out of his mouth.
Sam snickered as Loki began to adorned a look that was simply downright murderous in expression.
“I will kill you,” Loki whispered, “And it will look like an accident.”
“No murder,” Wilson wiggled his finger with a grin, “You’ll make Peter upset,”
The god’s nose wrinkled angrily before he settled down slightly. If there was anybody in the entire universe that Loki, or anyone really, didn’t want to see the sad puppy eye look on, it was Peter Benjamin Parker.
That said, Scott was starting to push the limits of what the god deemed worthy of the puppy eye look.
Loki had immediately hated the man since the exact moment Ant-Man had arrived for battle, and the man certainly wasn’t trying to get the god to hate him any less even afterwards. In fact, he seemed to be actively trying to see how far such hatred could go.
Since Loki wasn’t one to cover his face or wear a mask, whenever the Avengers would go out to steal something and he was involved, the god wore his traditional godly attire and horned helmet with no other coverage for his identity. Sure he used a kind of magical glamor to make sure that any who saw him on those missions would be unable to remember what he looked like or actually agree with themselves on what his appearance was, but calling himself ‘Loki’ both in and out of mask was a no-go. Too risky, Stark had insisted.
So Loki was Loki of the Avenger’s ‘gang’ but outside of that, his civilian identity was…different.
“Aw, c’mon,” Scott gave him an absolute shit eating grin, “You gotta chill out, Tom Hiddleston,”
Loki produced a knife in hand and went to lunge over the table of the small coffee shop the four of them were at—stopped only by Natasha’s quick reflexes.
“No knives,” She took the weapon out of the god’s hand and hid it somewhere on her person.
“Here,” Sam pushed Loki’s coffee towards him, “You’re not you when you're hungry—or thirsty, I guess,”
Bucky rolled his eyes at his friend’s Snickers commercial reference.
The god of mischief just sipped his caramel drizzle frappuccino angrily.
“So,” Scott leaned back in the booth, “Where are you guys thinking about getting jobs?”
“There’s a bar in Crime Alley that’s looking for a bartender,” Bucky shrugged, “Figured I’d give it a go,”
“I’m also doing something like that,” Sam added, “Except I’ll be more so restocking the bar and handling moving shipment containers, but it’s the same place,”
“They’re looking for a martial arts teacher at this gym near Robinson’s Park,” Natasha and Bucky had done a stakeout near that very park some weeks ago for some materials that Wayne Industries had that Tony needed to start working on nanobite technology.
“The park that Poison Ivy inhabits?” Loki asked.
The god had done some research involving the rogues of Gotham City—it was rather surprising when he had not just tolerated but actually befriended a certain Harley Quinn.
“Yeah, that’s the one,” Nat gave a dismissive wave of her hand, “But a job’s a job, and Pamela doesn’t seem to mind me,”
That was a major understatement. Bucky had witnessed firsthand how Poison Ivy and Black Widow became quick friends by knocking the daylights out of a would-be assaulter.
Pamela also didn’t seem to mind Bucky’s company after he made a comment about how his ‘boyfriend would love the art museum here’ which also meant that he’d have to explain to Steve why exactly they had a double date with Harley and Ivy at an art museum when he came through the portal, but that was a future Bucky problem, not a present Bucky problem).
Scott nodded, “I think I’ll go for a waiter or something like that, something simple,”
Sam nodded before he turned to Loki, “What about you, Mischief?”
“I shall tolerate such a title,” Loki huffed, “I’m unsure what job I’ll take, I do not have many midgardian skills,”
“Maybe you could go to school,” Natasha said as she tapped her finger against her cup of coffee, “You can shapeshift, can’t you? Make yourself look a bit younger, college or high school even, learn some things about this universe.”
“And if you go the high school route,” Bucky added, “You could go to school with Peter, keep the kid safe and stay on the look out,”
The god hummed as he considered the suggestion, “I do not hate that idea, perhaps I will try out some looks later tonight, see which one young Peter views as an average look for a midgardian of his age,”
“Might want to practice talking more like a teenager then,” Ant-Man grinned, “Y’know, instead of a posh pilgrim,”
Natasha was once again forced to confiscate one of Loki’s many hidden daggers for the sake of keeping Scott alive for just one more day.
~~~
“Excuse me?” A man asked kindly while tapping gently on Barbara’s desk.
Barbara Gordan glanced up to see the person in front of her. The man who’d tapped on her desk had brown hair with soft curls, kind deep chocolate colored eyes behind thin square rimmed glasses, a bit of scruff on his chin, and was wearing a pale green colored crochet sweater over a white t-shirt with some scuffed up jeans.
“Hello, how may I help you?” Barabara noted the New Yorker accent, a traveler or a vacationer wasn’t something Gotham City got often—or ever, really.
After all, it was Gotham.
“I noticed a flyer on a bulletin board in a cafe,” The man held up a worn flyer with the library’s name printed on top, “I was wondering if you’re still hiring people to sort and put away books?”
Babs smiled, “Of course! If you're interested, we could do an interview now,”
“That would be wonderful,” The man mirrored her smiled, “Thank you, miss,”
“Barbara,” She waved her hand dismissingly, “No ‘miss’ needed,”
It’d be awkward to have a man who looked to be around Bruce’s age call her ‘miss’ anyways.
“Bruce Banner,” The man introduced himself.
The interview took place in one of the library’s private study rooms with Babs running a background check (normal) and a Bat-Standard background check (not normal).
Something about Bruce Banner just felt weird to her, perhaps it was how kind he was, kindness did tend to make Gothamites a bit uncomfortable.
“You have several PhDs,” Barbara’s glasses slipped down her nose a bit, surprised at just how intelligent the man before her really was, “And you want to be a librarian?”
“As much as I enjoy my research,” Doctor Banner fiddled with his sleeves, “I’d like something…calmer, more relaxing. Radioactive materials don’t tend to allow such casualty, but I figured a library might.”
Babs felt like there was more to that story—in fact, she knew there was more to that story—but she didn’t ask anything further.
“Why the change? Especially since you moved to Gotham from New York,”
Bruce’s eyes flickered from gentle calmness to a deep sorrow, “Bad luck and bad memories, I suppose,”
Barbara didn’t push, instead she hired Doctor Bruce Banner and told him he started Monday at eight-thirty in the morning. The doctor just thanked her before he left, Barbara doing some light hacking to see him walk away from the library while he waved to a group of people who were sitting outside a cafe. Banner had sat down with the group, which consisted of a red head woman, a buff looking brunet dude, a man who was doing cheesy card tricks, and a posh looking man with absolutely flawless hair.
No she was not jealous at how soft and shiny it looked.
Barbara just sighed as she shut off her computer. There was nothing out of the ordinary about Doctor Bruce Banner, it seemed a different Bruce was spreading his paranoid tendencies onto her.
~~~
On the outside, Eddie Brock was just any other guy in a grey hoodie and baggy jeans walking down the streets of Metropolis (there was no way in hell that he would be getting a job in Gotham; he’d avoided three separate stabbing attempts just trying to buy a Pepsi from the nearest convenience store around the corner).
However, while Eddie looked normal on the outside, he was far from it. After all, how many people would just guess that this random man walking past them had an alien boyfriend who shared a body slash mind with him?
An alien boyfriend who was also currently trying to convince Eddie to let him eat a person. Or at the very least let him bite off a head or two.
Can we eat him? Venom asked for about the fifth time since they entered Metropolis.
Eddie answered the same way he’d been answering since Venom first asked; No.
Venom decided to try again. How about him?
No.
Her?
Still no.
How about that one?
You cannot eat anybody, Vee, Eddie mentally frowned at his boyfriend.
You said we could eat bad guys!
Yeah, well, I didn’t anticipate everyone in this universe to be a bad guy, so I’m putting my foot down.
That was not our deal!
Boo hoo, deal with it. Now shut up, I gotta focus here for my interview.
Pussy.
Parasite.
Eddie thanked the man who opened the door for him as he entered the headquarters of The Daily Planet newspaper.
The man at the front desk pointed him in the direction of a woman named Lois Lane, one of their best reporters who would be conducting his interview.
Eddie tried his best (though it was pretty much hopeless at this point to do so) to smooth out the wrinkles in his hoodie before he opened Miss Lane’s office door.
“Hello,” Lois Lane held out her hand and gave him a welcoming smile, a far cry from the usual looks Gothamites tended to shoot his way when he’d walk down the streets of the city, “You must be Mr. Brock,”
“Just Eddie’s fine,” He shook her hand before sitting down in the chair across from hers, “Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice,”
“Then you must call me Lois,” Miss Lane told him, “And it’s really no problem! We’ve been short on reporters for quite some time now, so any opportunity to meet or interview with potential employees is a blessing, truly!”
Lois then gave him an odd look from out of the corner of her eyes, “That said, you still need to be relatively good at your job—we don’t just hire anyone,”
She’s insulting you, Venom hissed out.
No, Eddie clarified, she’s just making sure I know that they’re not as desperate to hire off just anybody from off the streets. It’s a good thing to do.
It’s unnecessary! You are the best!
Aw, thanks Vee.
“—Eddie? Mr. Brock?” Lois snapped her fingers in front of his face, “You with me here?”
“Yes, sorry about that,” Eddie cleared his throat a bit nervously, “I had a bit of an…accident some years ago,”
Accident, meeting a body-sharing alien called a symbiote; it was the same thing, really.
“One of the side effects I suppose is that it makes me get a bit lost in my head at times,” He continued, “But I won’t let it affect my job, I can assure you of that,”
That was true, Venom had his skills, but reporting wasn’t one of them.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” The reporter hummed, “I am sorry to hear about your accident though, I hope you recovered well,”
Well, we’re in a relationship, so one could say it all ended well. “I did for the most part,”
Decapitated heads were still an issue, but he’d become pretty desensitized to them as of recently. However, whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen—Spider-Man said it wasn’t, Deadpool said it was. Not that Eddie ever took what Wade had to say to heart. Ever.
Even Vee knew better than that, which was definitely saying something.
“Well,” Lois smiled, “Your resume is impressive, and your articles are perfect,”
Remind me to thank Tony and Stephen when we get back to the complex.
First tater tots, then gratitude to the wizard and mechanic.
Done, and I think he’s a sorcerer, not a wizard.
What’s the difference between the two?
…remind me to ask him that later, too.
“So,” Lois’ voice once again snapped Eddie out of his mental conversation with Vee, “Welcome to the Daily Planet, Mr. Brock,”
“Thank you, Miss Lane,” Eddie shook her hand, “I won’t let you down,”
She laughed, “I’m sure you won’t—you start tomorrow at eight, you’ll be partnered up with Clark Kent at first, sound good?”
“Sounds perfect, thank you again for this opportunity,"
After filling out some paperwork (plus listening to Vee’s complaints about such paperwork) Eddie hopped on the bus and sat down next to a man who smelled suspiciously of heavy alcohol.
Vee let out a small tendril to grab a piece of the hot dog the man had in his hand, said man’s eyes widening as he caught sight of Venom’s ‘hand’ at the last minute.
He stared at Eddie.
“Uh,” The reporter blinked, “...I’m from Gotham?”
The man just sighed, muttered, “Of course you are,” and got up to sit in another spot.
Don’t do that again, Eddie admonished Vee in his head.
But it was funny.
No it wasn’t.
Yes it was, the symbiote argued.
Fine, it was funny; but you still can’t do it again!
Pussy.
Parasite.
Chapter 4: Hello Gotham: Pt. 1
Summary:
Hello Gotham will have 4 parts Btws !!!
Comments are appreciated and motivate me to right more!!!!! 🙏🥰
Chapter Text
Tony had been in the lab ever since he’d picked up Peter from the high school after he’d finished the entrance exam test.
They had only been in Gotham for a few weeks now, but Tony had already made significant progress in the first multiversal puller portal. Though he and Peter had taken to calling it the AMOR Project, the short version of the Across the Multiversal Orbit Retriever.
Which was basically just the machine that would, hopefully, pull their dimensionally displaced friends into this Gotham’s dimension.
While Tony typically didn’t love working with magic, too unknown and too unpredictable, he wasn’t as prideful as to dismiss the notion that Stephen’s magical honing abilities were incredibly useful when building the portal.
With Strange’s help, Tony was able to get a multiversal location on all the dimensions people were lost in and what he needed for each portal so they could bring them here. It was a unanimous decision that they’d try to retrieve Steve Rogers from Dimension number 9828 dash 774, section 3G.
Tony decided he was just going to call it D-9828 for short, it was much easier that way.
There were a few different reasons that everyone decided to get Steve into Gotham first. One of those reasons being that it was the closest dimension to this one according to Strange, which made the chances for failure decrease greatly.
Along with that, Steve had an (annoying) habit of bringing hope and light into bad situations, so it wasn’t a horrible idea to have that kind of optimism brought into Gotham City. For the last reason, though it wasn’t explicitly mentioned, it was pretty widely accepted as the most important reason.
Bucky was going nuts without Steve by his side.
The guy would just watch Tony work, pacing or staring or just standing in the corner menacingly.
It was incredibly distracting, and rather disturbing.
As much as everyone tried to help Bucky cheer up, there were only so many times Peter’s puppy eye look and endless energy would manage to work on the ex-assassin. As ridiculous as that sounded.
So it was definitely a good idea to have Steve be one of the first to arrive as a top priority for them.
“Tony?” Bruce came down into the lab, two plastic plates with spaghetti scooped onto them in his hands, “When was the last time you ate something?”
“Breakfast,” The mechanic answered, “So only about—”
“Ten hours ago,” The man gave him an unimpressed look before he set down one of the plates on one of Tony’s work benches, “Eat, or I’ll tell Peter your neglecting your body’s needs and you’ll have to deal with his sad kicked puppy look for the rest of the night,”
Tony sighed dramatically before he sat down on his bench, wiping off his hands with a rag despite Bruce’s pointed look and grabbed a plastic fork to start eating with.
“How far long is the portal?” Banner sat across from him, opening a can of pepsi from the mini fridge that was tucked in the corner of the lab, “You’ve been working on it nonstop,”
“Almost there,” Tony rubbed the temples of his head, “Just missing a few key parts to get it up and running fully,”
“I’m guessing these few key components are rather difficult to come by?” Bruce pushed up his glasses a bit.
“You’d guess correctly,” The inventor sighed, “Probably the most difficult out of anything we’ve managed to get so far,”
“Boss,” Friday’s voice echoed through the lab, “Four out of the five remaining materials needed for Project AMOR dash Capsicle—”
Banner raised an eyebrow, “Seriously?”
Tony just shrugged unapologetically at his fellow scientist, “I’m a creature of habit,”
“—have been located near the docks as a LexCorp shipment. Would you like me to send you the details?”
The mechanic stood, “Yes, Friday, that would be lovely.”
A small dinging sound then emitted from everyone's phone, even Peter’s (because Tony Stark had long since learned that trying to keep the kid out of danger was practically an invitation for Peter Parker to find danger on his own).
Unsurprisingly, it was Bucky who came down the stairs and into the lab first.
“Does this mean what I think it means?” The super soldier asked, barely contained eagerness in his voice.
“Yep,” Tony couldn’t help but let a small grin come onto his face, “It’s time for the Avengers to make their debut,”
“Time to say hello to Gotham City,” Banner muttered, “How thrilling,”
The sarcasm was clear.
“At least if you hulk out here, there’s a sixty percent chance it was going to be or already is destroyed anyways,” Bucky deadpanned as Tony snorted.
The scientist just gave him a sharp glare before the three men made their way up the stairs and into the main floor in order to get everyone together in one place.
It was time to suit up and finally make themselves known. To let the city know that the Avengers, the Gotham Version, were here and ready to rumble.
Because they were here to stay, and they wouldn’t be kicked out of the home they made theirs again. This was their home now, and they were going to fight tooth and nail for it.
And this time, no one would get in their way.
~~~
It was all hands on deck for this mission, this would be the night that the name ‘Avengers’ would be made known for the very first time. They would no longer operate quietly in the dark, like they had previously, but loud and out in the open; where all could see what they were capable of.
Too many times in the past were the Avengers taken advantage of, too many times were they challenged and underestimated.
Not anymore, no, they would be what they’re namesake described them as. An avenger of the lost, that was why they were here, and if they had to be a little morally gray in order to do so, well, they could live with that.
Tony had long since worked with everyone to upgrade their gear and suits, especially so they would actually hide their identities in this world; something they never had to worry about in their own universe.
It was actually rather easy to do, actually. Widow received a hood and a fabric mask she could pull over her face with a black domino mask that had the black widow red marking on it.
Peter, Scott, Bucky, and Tony were already all set, only making voice modifiers a bit stronger to help.
Eddie and Bruce were fine, the Hulk and Venom were pretty unidentifiable to their civilian looks.
Loki had his glamor, obviously, and Strange just made the Cloak of Levitation produce a hood over his head with the addition of a spell that if you looked into the hood, the only thing you’d see was darkness and two red, beady glowing eyes.
Sam received fully tinted goggles and a mask similar in the way Bucky’s was to cover his nose and mouth.
With their identities now fully covered and hidden, the Avengers were ready to make themselves known.
And it would all start at Gotham City’s docks.
The ship carrying the materials the Avengers needed had just docked at the pier roughly three minutes ago according to Falcon, Sam having flown just high enough to get intel while still staying out of sight. They were lucky to have landed in a city that was always cloudy and dark.
Once Friday relayed Falcon’s message to the rest of them, they were ready to roll.
“Phase One has begun,” Iron Man echoed to the rest, all having either a built-in comm in their helmets or something to place in their ears, “Time to set the stage, Avengers,”
Thanks to Peter's sticky hands, Spider-Man was able to get onto the ship in record speed and Loki followed, having taken the form of dock worker before seemingly melting into the shadows of the ship’s deck.
The plan was simple in theory; Peter would web up any workers as Loki took on another form, this time the captain so he could pass the eye scanner to get down below the ship and retrieve the cases filled with materials.
Tony’s job was to get into the cameras of the warehouse, the docks, and the ship itself and erase any trace of potential compromising footage, anything they didn’t yet want revealed.
Along with that, he was hacking into the bats’ system, working right under Oracle’s nose and messing with their communications in a subtle way. That way they wouldn’t get an entire ambush when they did show up. In fact, they planned on it.
Eddie, or rather Venom, would serve as the distraction when the entire brigade of bats showed up. Keep them focused on one thing so Peter and Loki could get what they needed. From the footage Tony had gotten of each bats’ fighting style, he’d matched them up with the Avenger they’d fight.
Red Hood was brutal and efficient, so Bucky would take care of him. Nightwing was made to be airborne and light on his feet, Peter and Falcon would be perfect for that mixture.
Red Robin’s bo staff skills were legendary and was quick to make backup plans for backup plans, Loki and Doctor Strange’s magical abilities would confuse his mind, something he couldn’t control or use logic to battle against.
Robin’s and Orphan’s fighting techniques would be well placed against Black Widow, Spoiler’s unpredictableness matched Ant-Man perfectly, and the Hulk could always add in to that.
For the Big Bat himself, though?
Well, if Iron Man was the ‘crime lord’ in this situation, it just made sense for him to go hand-to-hand with Batman, didn’t it?
Although that was just the plan in theory, seeing it actually play out would be a completely different story. A story that every single Avenger was rather eager to begin.
~~~
Eddie remained crouched behind one of the massive vent systems on the roof he was on had on top of them. He had his back against it, turned away from the first two bats to show up, Nightwing and Red Hood, according to Sam.
The two vigilantes were talking, discussing how they planned to get onto the ship undetected as the journalist grinned.
He let one thought echo audibly into the dark, Gotham night sky, “Call,”
Vee’s inky form covered him as he responded, “Copy,”
Venom now stood in all of his glory, managing to creep up behind the vigilantes with a surprising amount of stealth for a creature like him to possess.
“—in and out,” Nightwing finished saying something, “No one knows we’re even there, we don’t want a fight,”
Red Hood’s response was swallowed by Venom’s own input.
“We do,” The symbiote hissed, rising to full height as he stood behind the two vigilantes, his unnaturally long tongue flicking out to taste the air.
The two birds whipped around, Nightwing with his escrima sticks and Red Hood with a gun.
“What the fuck…” Hood breathed as he caught sight of Venom, “What are you?”
“We are Venom,” The alien grinned, rows of sharp teeth glinting in the dull moonlight, “And you are not welcome here,”
“Why’s that?” Nightwing asked, hands gripping his weapons tightly, “What are you planning?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Bird-Boy?”
Venom threw a punch, extending his arm into an inky blade like shape as he attacked, the two birds fighting back with their all.
The Red Hood put as many bullets as he could into Venom before he realized it didn’t actually do anything, and all Nightwing’s escrima rods did was give the symbiote a bit of a barbequed aftertaste in his mouth.
Pull back a little bit, Vee, Eddie’s voice suddenly came into Venom’s mind, don’t want to hurt them too bad, just a distraction remember?
Venom huffed but did listen to his lover.
The fight went on for some moments longer, Venom now pulling back slightly as the vigilantes tried to take him down. It was when the symbiote caught sight of a green serpent forged out of light magic appearing in the air briefly that the battle ended.
That was the signal, Phase Two was ready to go.
Venom turned to Nightwing and the Red Hood, both vigilantes panting a bit yet still holding strong. It was impressive, and a bit admirable too.
“No more fighting,” Venom told them.
Nightwing raised an eyebrow, “You surrender?”
“No,” His arm formed a tendril which shot onto a rooftop too far for the bats to grapple towards, “My turn’s over,”
“Turn?” Hood questioned, gun aimed straight at the symbiote's head.
Venom just grinned, “We are distractions,”
The sound of a small yet powerful explosion came from the pier, the two vigilantes turning their attention towards that as Venom took his chance to leap away, hearing the Red Hood’s rather colorful language as he did so.
Over on the rooftop the alien landed on, Vee sunk into Eddie’s body and let the human take back control.
Eddie yawned slightly before grabbing the bag of popcorn he’d asked Scott to leave on this particular rooftop before the plan had begun to be set into motion.
He opened the bag and took a handful, Vee’s head materializing on his shoulder to take some for himself.
“Ready to watch the show, love?” Eddie grinned.
Venom mirrored his boyfriend’s expression, “Let the chaos begin!”
~~~
Loki watched as the vigilante known as ‘Red Robin’ creeped through the backrooms of the warehouse as silently as humanly possible, his bo staff drawn and held in a tight grip. The god was hidden in the shadows just some feet away, watching the bird curiously while noting that Strange was holding an invisibility spell over himself nearby.
A flicker of golden orangish magic sparked just to the side, taking the form of a serpent wrapped in a red cape. Their signal, the one that meant it was time for Loki and the Sorcerer (saying Doctor Strange was just too obvious) to make themselves known.
Loki stepped forward first, the shadows melting off of him as Red Robin whipped around to face the god of chaos.
“Who are you?” The vigilante demanded, “What are you doing here?”
Loki grinned, “I am Loki, and you are in our way,”
A flick of his hand threw the bird backwards, slamming him into a wall (not enough to kill, midgardians were so very fragile).
Red Robin grunted as he made contact with the warehouse wall but recovered quickly, charging at Loki with his staff. The god dodged his attacks elegantly, either shifting his form into animals, slipping into shadows, or doing some rather fancy footwork to avoid the vigilante’s numerous attacks.
Red Robin tapped the comm link in his ear, “I need some backup here, magic user,”
Not even a moment later the comm sparked and fell to the floor, orange magic shorting it out and rendering it useless.
Red Robin blinked, “What the fu—!”
Strange decided to make himself known right then. The sorcerer appeared in front of the vigilante, disguised by his magic so that beneath the Cloak of Levitation’s hood was only darkness and two glowing red eyes. When Stephen spoke his voice was distorted due to some Stark tech.
“Two magic users,” Strange raised his arms, levitating Red Robin in the air as strands of golden orange rope circled the vigilante and tied him up, his bo staff falling to the floor and rendered useless.
“For the infamous Bats of Gotham,” Loki held out his hand for the staff to fly into his palm, “I expected…more,”
“Who are you people?” Red Robin demanded once more, “Why are you here? What are your plans?”
Strange tilted his head slightly, “I am The Sorcerer, this is Loki, and we are of the Avengers,”
“Avengers?” The vigilante questioned.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” The god answered, “After all, this is just the beginning.”
“Begining of what?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, bird-boy?” The god replied.
Stephen sighed, “You’re no longer allowed to watch memes with Spider-Man,”
“They are vines, Sorcerer," Loki crossed his arms, “Educate yourself, midgardian,”
“Watch it or I’ll have Iron Man change your contact name in the group chat to Prince Slithers,”
The god of chaos narrowed his eyes, “You wouldn't dare,”
Strange turned around, the two magic users leaving the warehouse with the vigilante still mid air; “Watch me,”
~~~
Bucky had seen a lot in his many years of life (though one could argue that being trapped in ice for most of it didn’t really count as a ‘life’).
He’d seen aliens, sentient AIs, spaceships, magic—hell, he’d even been to space himself.
The point was that he’s seen a lot, seen a lot of weird and outlandish things in his time; but Gotham?
Gotham was a whole ‘nother breed of weird.
His source? The vigilante who was currently a red helmet on his head (despite being called the Red Hood) and was prowling around the edges of numerous rooftops like a caged predator.
The Red Hood had his gun in his one hand (rubber bullets, non-lethal but hurt like something fierce) as he jumped and grappled from rooftop to rooftop, his head turning every now and then to look for any danger.
Guess he found some, Bucky thought as he made sure his Winter Soldier mask was sitting right before he leaped from the rooftop he was currently on and landed silently behind Hood.
“Boo,” He hissed, the more violent one of the bat brigade spinning around to level a gun to his forehead.
Bucky was quick to disarm him of the first few guns he tried to fire and after that it was just a dance of harsh blows and precise punches.
“You’re a bastard, y’know that?” The bat hissed as he threw a brutal right hook, Bucky dodging it and then using that momentum to take control of Hood’s body weight and flip him over his shoulder and onto the ground.
“So I’ve been told,” The ex-assassin shrugged as he swept Hood’s leg, “I’ll admit you are a good fighter,”
Bucky threw him into a wall (just enough to stun, he didn’t want to hurt the guy too much, but he wanted Steve back more than he wanted to pull his punches).
“I’ve had some good teachers,” Hood huffed as he landed a decent kick to his abdomen.
“I’ve had better,”
“From who?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Bucky answered, “No one will ever have heard of the Winter Soldier before now,”
“Winter Soldier?” The vigilante questioned, “It’s fall, buddy,”
“And that’s a helmet, not a hood,”
They fought for some moments more until the familiar sound of an Iron Man blast went off in the distance.
The Winter Soldier’s head snapped up as he landed his last punch, the crime lord grunting beneath it.
“Who the hell are you people?” The Red Hood’s distorted voice growled out.
Bucky’s own slightly distorted voice answered, “We are the Avengers, and you are in our way,”
Gotta hand it to you, Tony. Bucky thought as he took a swinging kick to the side of the (other) crime lord’s head, denting the helmet slightly before disappearing into the night. It does sound pretty badass to say out loud.
Chapter 5: Hello Gotham: Pt. 2
Chapter Text
They had all heard mumbled whispers of some new players in town. Rumors of tech mysteriously going missing with glitched out cameras, of shadows who moved when no one was looking, of spotting eerie glowing light that spoke of technology, yet no one was there, or flashes of golden red-brown symbols that disappeared when you tried to look closer.
There were more, of course, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary for Gotham City. That’s not to say that the proclaimed bat family didn’t look into these peculiar sightings. They did, they investigated every missing object, every glitched out camera, anywhere that people spoke of unnatural lighting or too humanoid shadows.
Nothing was there. Tim found nothing on the symbols people described finding, Cass confirmed that there definitely was something hidden in the shadows, but where exactly or who was unknown even to her.
Barbara’s cameras were all down, glitching out the harder she tried to dig. Jason didn’t say much on the matter, but they could tell he was getting irritated by his gear and tech being stolen near one of his Crime Alley safehouses.
Even Dick was getting frustrated; hunting down shadows with no form, and Damian was visibly furious at having no idea who his opponent really was.
Though he didn’t voice his concerns, he rarely tended to do that, Bruce would admit inside his own mind that he was worried.
Whatever or whoever this was, they were good. No, not good, they were more than that. Whoever this was had managed to out-tech Tim and Babs, managed to outrun Dick and Jason, to out-hide Cass, and to outsmart Bruce—the Batman—himself.
And that, just that itself, was the most terrifying out of all of them.
Because if Batman was being outsmarted, Bruce could be swimming with sharks and not even realizing it.
It had to end, they had to find out who or what was behind all this and what exactly they wanted. They needed to cut down this sapling before it grew into a fully rooted tree, they needed to nip this in the bud.
Because if this was just the beginning? Well…
…then even Batman would be afraid of what might be in store next.
The latest rumor consisted of some kind of theft going on at the pier on one of LexCorp’s shipments. Knowing that they needed to figure out who was behind these rumors and knowing just how dangerous LexCorp tech could be, Batman had all hands on deck for this mission slash stakeout.
He’d mostly sent them out in pairs of twos, only one being a group of threes. Dick and Jason, Steph and Cass, and then him, Tim, and Damian for the group of three. Barbara in all of their ears at all times.
No room for mistakes, they were getting to the bottom of this.
Batman lightly tapped his comm, “Check in. Spoiler, Orphan?”
“Copy,” Steph answered, “We’re all good here, nothing out of the ordinary near the docks,”
“Nightwing, Hood?”
“Roof’s clear,” Jason answered, “Everything looks normal from up here,”
“Stay on the lookout everyone, don’t engage if it’s not necessary.”
It would be necessary.
~~~
“So, why exactly are we watching Lex’s business shipments?” Jason crouched against the roof’s ledge, “I know the guy’s shady, I get that, but no more shady than he was yesterday.”
“B’s apparently worried about new rogues,” Dick answered, twirling one of his escrima sticks in hand, “There’s some rumors going around, and with some of your gear missing he’s pretty sure that there’s going to be some big new players or something like that.”
Even with the helmet, Dick was pretty sure he could tell that his Little Wing was giving him an unimpressed look.
“So he’s just being paranoid,” Jason snorted, “Got it. Also, my gear being missing isn’t a big concern. I’m still convinced it was just Tim being all pissy because I swapped his coffee for decaf,”
“Watch it, Hood,” Tim’s voice came through the comms, “Your gear wasn’t me, but if you keep messing with my caffeine I might just swap out your flash grenades for glitter bombs,”
“You wouldn’t dare,”
“I very much would, and you should definitely know that by now,”
“Whatever, baby bird,”
As Nightwing and Red Hood settled on the rooftop, Dick found it to be the right time to inform Jason of what he missed during the earlier briefing in the Bat Cave before they all had headed out for the night.
After all, Jason had been nearly twenty minutes late due to him doing a late night check on all his warehouses to make sure his gear was still in place before leaving for the manor (totally not because he liked to see Bruce exasperated every time he arrived late and revving his motorcycle obnoxiously loud as he entered the cave).
“Bruce is really worried about these guys,” Dick finished his summary of the debrief, “He thinks they’ll be Gotham’s next biggest rogues or something like that,”
Jason scoffed, “And? What's that got to do with me?”
His big brother just gave him a particular look, “It means he doesn’t want anyone taking any unnecessary risks or doing potentially dangerous moves. Batman wants us in and out, no one to know we’re even there, we don’t want a fight,”
The crime lord opened his mouth; only to be interrupted by a deep, rumbling, and horrifyingly paranormal slash supernatural sounding voice growling out:
“We do,”
The two vigilantes turned around, coming face to face with a monster straight from children's nightmares (at least in their opinion).
The….thing? Creature? Whatever it was, it was nearly eight foot tall with a body appearing to be made out of ink black slime with slight white vein-looking patterns poking out just a bit here and there.
The creature’s head consisted of the same inky substance, eyes pure white and wide, somehow managing to still give off the impression of staring at them with chilling accuracy.
When it opened its large mouth, sharp needle-like teeth were visible along with a long, forked tongue that dripped a bit of saliva on the concrete ground below them.
Hood, impressively, managed to keep his voice even as he spoke, “What the fuck. What are you?”
The creature just grinned too widely, “We are Venom, and you are not welcome here,”
Nightwing charged up his escrima sticks, tightening his grip on them as he did so, “Why’s that? What are you planning?”
It just cocked its head slightly to the side, “Wouldn’t you like to know, Bird-Boy?”
Then the fight began.
The creature, Venom as he had said his name was, moved surprisingly fast for having such a large and bulky frame.
Not only could he also shift and manipulate his form (his one arm having shifted to a half circle, blade-like shape confirming that particular theory of both Nightwing and Red Hood’s) but he also seemed immune to most, if not all of their attacks.
The best their kicks and punches did was make Venom swivel his head back and forth before charging back at them. Dick’s escrima sticks had no effect whatsoever, all the electricity did was make the scent of slightly burnt slime (which smelled just as gross as it sounded) fill the air and make the beast’s tongue flick out curiously.
Red Hood had tried with rubber bullets at first (per the big bat’s request) but when the situation became clear that it only ever bounced or ricocheted off Venom instead of doing any damage, he switched to real bullets.
However, all the metal ones did was become absorbed in Venom’s slime-like body and then were spit out (yes, actually spit out) on the ground. It was very gross in Dick’s honest opinion.
It was only when both Jason and Dick were a bit too close to the edge of the roof for either of their likings and breathing heavily that Venom suddenly stopped his onslaught of attacks. Instead, the creature straightened his body with his eyes focusing on something beyond the two vigilantes.
Venom turned his head as well as aimed it downwards slightly to face the two of them.
“No more fighting,” He suddenly hissed out.
That made both birds pause for a moment.
Hood raised his eyebrow under his hood, and Nightwing did so as well (though his was actually visible due to the domino mask), “You surrender?”
“No,” Venom then morphed his arm into a grapple-hook like tendril and latched it onto a rooftop nearly a block away, “My turn’s over,”
Jason didn’t take any chances with that statement and leveled his gun even with the creature’s large head (even if he knew it didn’t do anything), “Turn?”
Venom just gave them a wide, sharp grin, “We are distractions,”
The sound of an explosion erupted from behind Nightwing and Red Hood, both of them jumping and turning around quickly to spot the oddly green flames that had begun to burn the outside of the dock’s warehouse slightly.
By the time the two of them turned around again to face Venom, the creature was gone without a trace.
“Hood, Nightwing,” Oracle’s voice came through the comms, “Something’s wrong, we need you on your way to the dock’s main warehouse now,”
Jason tapped his earpiece, “Did you seriously not hear or see any of what just happened to me and Dickie?”
Bab’s voice was confused and slightly concerned, “No? Camera and audio were off the whole time, system said you two turned them off manually,”
“We didn’t,” Dick frowned, “That’s…concerning,”
“We’ll look into it later,” Barbara shook her head, even if they couldn’t see it, “Right now you two need to get to the docks,”
Nightwing and the Red Hood vanished into the night, both of them having a very bad feeling about what else the night was going to bring them.
~~~
Tim slipped into the backrooms of the warehouse, keeping his bo staff in his hands as he cautiously took in the docks’ base.
Despite the seemingly empty warehouse, Tim had a very bad feeling that he was being watched—and that wasn’t just bat-induced paranoia talking.
Ever since Jason and Dick had reported about the creature that had attacked them—Venom—Tim had felt like someone was following him and watching his every move.
He didn’t like that feeling at all, and he planned on making it stop as quickly as possible.
Off to the side of him, the shadows seemed to ripple and a wisp of bright green smoke sparkled within them. As Tim turned to face the shadows, he instead came face to face with a person who’d seemingly been forged out of the darkened corner.
The person had pale skin and black hair, but any other defining facial features became impossible to describe to Tim.
It was as though that no matter how hard he looked at the man’s face, he couldn’t remember or seem to place just what exactly he looked like. Despite that, the rest of him was easy to describe.
He wore fancy garments made of the colors green, black, and a bit of gold and on his head he wore a crown-like helmet that had two golden horns sprouting out from it.
Tim kept his voice even and calm, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The man just gave him a mischievous grin, “I am Loki, and you are in our way,”
He then flicked his hand, wisps of green magic shooting off from his finger tops and flinging Tim backwards, slamming him into a warehouse wall.
Grunting as his back made contact with the concrete, and noting that his back was definitely going to be bruised after that, Tim gripped his bo staff tightly and bit down the groan of pain that threatened to leave his throat before shooting forwards to attack his opponent.
Any doubt that Loki was magic had immediately vanished the moment he and Red Robin engaged in battle.
The man shifted into numerous animal forms—a snake, a hawk, a cat, and even a panther at one point.
Along with that, he melted in and out of shadows, warping and manipulating them to bend at his will. Every now and then he’d throw a glowing orb of green magic, which would either do nothing but disorient Tim for a moment or could pack a blast powerful enough to knock him back into the wall he’d previously been thrown into.
The worst part about it all, though? There was no pattern, no style, no logic to Loki’s techniques. In fact, one could hardly even call them a technique, they were random and used whenever he seemingly felt like it.
Magic was unpredictable, Tim knew that—but Loki?
Loki was just downright chaotic.
About ten minutes into the seemingly unending battle, Red Robin decided that calling for backup was probably the best course of action at this point.
He tapped his comm, “I need some backup here, magic user,”
Loki just raised an eyebrow, then raised both of them when Tim's comm began to spark and flame slightly.
Falling out of his ear, the comm practically disintegrated into nothing.
The vigilante blinked, “What the fu—”
Out of quote literally nowhere, a new person emerged, speaking with a distorted voice: “Two magic users,”
This person wore blue monk-like clothing, hinting at ancient magic. Over his shoulders and over his head was a red cloak that seemed to defy gravity itself. Anything beneath his hood, however, was nothing more than a void of black and two pinprick, glowing red eyes.
That’s not horrifying at all, Tim thought to himself as he prepared again for another onslaught of attacks—this time from the cloaked man.
The man raised his hands, both emitting an orangeish gold glow and Tim felt himself be lifted up by an invisible force and then have golden ropes wrap around him—effectively rendering him fightless and even weaponless as his bo staff fell to the floor.
Loki made his staff fly into his opened and outstretched palm, “For the infamous Bats of Gotham, I expected…more,”
Tim just gritted his teeth, “Who are you people? Why are you here? What are your plans?”
“I am The Sorcerer, this is Loki, and we are of the Avengers,” The cloaked man answered.
“Avengers?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Loki interrupted, “After all, this is just the beginning.”
“Begining of what?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, bird-boy?”
Tim just stared...was that a vine reference?
The Sorcerer gave a rather exasperated sounding sigh, “You’re no longer allowed to watch memes with Spider-Man,”
The two ‘Avengers’ then left the warehouse, still bickering as Tim struggled to free himself mid-air.
“This—,” He panted after somehow managing to turn himself upside down, but still no closer to the ground than before, “—really sucks!”
~~~
Jason’s job was to keep to the rooftops, be on the lookout for any more of these so called ‘Avengers’ after his and Dick’s encounter with Venom.
It was an easy job, and important one too, but it was driving Jason crazy to just prowl around the rooftops like a mad man, unable to actually fight.
He wanted to shoot someone damn it!
“Boo,” Someone suddenly hissed out from behind him, his wish having been granted as he whirled around to fix a gun at the stranger's head.
Before he even had a chance to shoot, the man had twisted his arm and made him flex his hand, the gun falling and being crushed beneath the stranger's booted foot.
Meta, Jason thought, just what I needed. As if the big ink monster wasn’t enough.
Every gun he pulled the man was able to disarm and destroy, repeatedly proving himself to be an enhanced individual. But besides that, Jason knew nothing else of him.
The person was wearing leather and armored tactical gear along with a mask that covered his entire face, nose, and even had built in goggles over his eyes. While his one arm was covered fully, the other had nothing on it and revealed an arm forged entirely of metal.
That would be so cool if he wasn’t attacking me right now, Jason thought as the man flipped him over his shoulder after he’d called him a bastard.
The metal armed man swept his leg the moment he’d gotten back up, “So I’ve been told. I’ll admit you are a good fighter,”
He then proceeded to throw Jason into a wall.
“I’ve had some good teachers,” Jason bit back a groan.
The man responded, “I’ve had better,”
That was interesting. “From who?”
“Don’t worry about it. No one will ever have heard of the Winter Soldier before now,”
Bingo, The vigilante grinned internally, got a name now.
“Winter Soldier?” He teased, “It’s fall, buddy,”
The Winter Soldier cocked his head to the side, “And that’s a helmet, not a hood,”
Ouch.
It was some short minutes later when the sound of a small, powered up blast shot into the sky and echoed through the warehouse docks. The soldier’s head perked up.
“Who the hell are you people?” Jason tried to ask before the man would disappear.
The Winter Soldier somehow managed to give him a cold (heh) glare, “We are the Avengers, and you are in our way,”
Chapter 6: Hello Gotham: Pt. 3
Chapter Text
Peter stuck to the side of the warehouse, hands and heels of his feet placed against the wall to stick while he kept his body facing outwards with Sam circling the building overhead as they waited for Tony’s voice to come through their own Stark designed comms.
They had heard Eddie and Venom call in, telling everyone that they had done their part; therefore finishing Phase One, Symbiotic Distraction.
(Tony had allowed Peter to name their phases, even making sub-phases and their names—no one could resist the ultimate super weapon that was Peter Parker’s Puppy Dog Eyes™).
With the help of Scott and Sam, Peter had successfully titled their mission. Phase One was Symbiotic Distraction, Phase Two was Magic and the Soldier (a nod to ‘Beauty and the Beast’), Phase Three—which should be happening any minute now—was Animals and The Hulk (Black Widow, Falcon, Spider-Man, Ant-Man). Then the last phase, Phase Four, was titled Bat V. Iron for obvious reasons.
Peter was rather proud of his naming skills, and Dr. Banner had forbidden Tony from saying anything on the matter because of his deep love of acronyms.
Tony’s voice came through both Peter’s and Falcon’s comms; “Phase Three has started, be on the lookout for birds everyone, I’m going to go hunting for a bat,”
They all responded individually.
“Oh, Sam,” Tony called out once more, “If anything bad happens to Peter while he’s on your watch, I’ll throw out every single one of your hot pockets, got it?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sam snorted, “I got it, Papa Bear,”
“Mr. Stark!” Peter whined, “I can take care of myself!”
“Names kid. And I know you can, I’m just looking out for you,”
“This is all very sweet,” Eddie’s com clicked on as he suddenly interrupted, “But two things to note—one, Venom says he’ll bite your head off if you throw out any pizza pockets, Iron. And two, Nightwing’s heading your way Falcon, Spider,”
Bucky’s voice came through, “I see Black Bat and Robin coming in hot, Friday’s sending the coordinates,”
“On route,” Natasha replied.
“Starting to feel a little unincluded guys,” Scott complained through his com.
“Aren’t you and Banner supposed to be finding Spoiler?” Strange deadpanned.
“In my defense, Hulk had to use the bathroom so we had to deal with that first,”
Venom overtook Eddie’s com temporarily, “He is lying, we saw him order pizza. He only gave a fifty cent tip,”
“Fifty cents?” Bucky tsked, “Uncool, Lang. Pizza men deserve more respect than that,”
“It was all I had on me! I don’t exactly carry my wallet in my Ant-Man suit!”
“Sounds like a skill issue to me,”
“You all are incorrigible,” Loki scoffed.
“Even me, Mr. Loki?”
“Not you, Peter, you are lovely and perfect in every possible way,”
“Favoritism,” Sam faked a cough.
“Shut up!” Hulk roared (still quiet enough to maintain some aspect of the element of surprise), “Birds are here!”
“The big guy’s right,” Tony said, “Sign off everyone, we have a job to do,”
Everyone signed off quickly after that.
“Hey, Spider,” Sam landed on top of the warehouse roof that Peter was sticking to, “Nightwing’s coming in hot, you want to make introductions first or me?”
The white lenses of the Spider-Man mask squinted slightly as Peter looked off into the distance, a flicker of blue and black running and leaping across rooftops just a few tens of feet away.
“I’ll talk to him first,” Peter told Sam, “I go low, you go high?”
“Like we’d do it any other way,” the mechanical Falcon wings sprouted from the back of his suit before taking to the air once more, Peter shooting a web and slinging off not too far behind.
They had a bird to meet.
It was fairly easy to see why Tony had assigned Falcon and Spider-Man to Nightwing; the lack of use for gravity and lightness on the feet made them match up perfectly.
(He also wasn’t going to pin his kid up against any other of the bats. Red Hood and his guns? No way. Tiny Robin and his sword? In Tony’s nightmares only—and everyone else matched with other people better, so Nightwing it was).
Sam stared airborne as he and Peter quietly followed Nightwing until he landed inside the particular warehouse storage facility that Phase Three was to begin at.
“Showtime!” Peter chirped happily as he climbed across the ceiling of the storage facility, then calling out loudly for Nightwing to hear: “Hey, Birdie!”
Nightwing had his escrima sticks in hand in monumental records of speed as he tilted his head up to stare wide-eyed at the spider mutant climbing across the ceiling like a scene from a horror movie.
“Let me guess,” The blue bird said, “You’re another one of these ‘Avengers’ that keep tormenting us?”
“Yep! Spider-Man, at your service, and you must be Nightwing!” Peter grinned from underneath his mask before huffing slightly, “Tormenting is such a mean word, I’d say we’re just testing the waters, paying with you, even!”
“Could you maybe, oh I don’t know,” Nightwing spun his escrima sticks around in his hands, “Stop playing with us?”
“Hmmm, let me think,” Spider-Man, tapping his mask-covered chin dramatically, “I don’t think so,”
The bird themed vigilante just sighed, “Probably should’ve expected that to be honest. Anyways, come down here and we’ll fight like birds!”
The spider mutant hummed at the bird themed vigilante, “I’d rather we fight like spiders, but if you insist!”
Nightwing charged up his escrima sticks so they sparked with electricity.
“I’m guessing that means you agree,” Spider-Man replied, “But before we start fighting, I got to introduce you to my friend—Falcon! Say hi, Falcon!”
The first Robin raised an eyebrow, “Who’s Falcon—ack!”
Sam came flying into the warehouse from an (already) damaged window, grabbing Nightwing while still in the air and then flying through another window (this time damage was on their part, sorry Gotham) before dropping the vigilante into a dumpster. Peter swung after them to web up the dumpster’s lid to keep it closed.
“Should dissolve in about an hour,” He called out for the vigilante to hear.
“Shouldn’t have gotten in our way, Big Blue,” Sam added, “And for the record, Falcons are way cooler than robins,”
“Way cooler,” Peter agreed.
The two Avengers flew (well, swung for one of them) away, ignoring the bangs of one angry blue bird themed vigilante against the walls of a dumpster.
~~~
Natasha kept to the shadows, trailing just some feet away from Black Bat and Robin. She had watched the footage that Tony had acquired and had pretty much memorized the two vigilantes’ fighting style.
Robin was abrasive, he fought brutally and forthright. He was like a honing missile, once he found a target, he fought and fought and fought until victory was his. It was an admirable spirit for such a young fighter, but also very deadly, and not just for Natasha.
The boy could get angry very easily, if Stark’s security footage could be believed (and it could). That was a risk to him, anger made one sloppy and clouded judgement. Robin didn’t believe in retreat, and while it seemed like a good thing on paper, it could be a very deadly attribute.
Part of being a good fighter was knowing when a fight was above you.
Black Bat, however, was somewhat the opposite of Robin. At least in her approach. She used the environment to her benefit, the shadows and the moonlight her friend. She moved silently, as though she herself were part shadow. She was also a brutal fighter, but she went about it faster and much quieter than Robin did. She didn’t speak, just fought fluidly and aggressively.
Nat could see her becoming an even greater fighter one day, perhaps even surpassing herself; but as of now Black Widow was trained more, battled more, and knew more about the art of a fight.
Not to say that the fight between Black Bat and Black Widow wouldn’t be interesting, in fact, Natasha herself was rather curious to see how it would all play out.
The universe (this one, at least) seemed to sate her curiosity as Robin and Black Bat stopped moving, remaining still in an empty alleyway as Robin looked to be messing with his com. (Not that he’d manage to get through anything truly important, Tony was an expert of covering the Avengers’ tracks at this point).
Natasha dropped silently on the ground below, still allowing herself to be covered by the shadows as she crouched on the lid of a closed dumpster. She double checked her disguise quickly, the Black Widow outfit now adorning a domino mask, hood, and a fabric mask that was pulled over her mouth and nose.
After making sure that her identity was securely covered, it was time to make herself known to the two birds.
“Hello Robin, Black Bat,” Black Widow spoke, a slight voice distorter activating courtesy of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, “Care to dance?”
With that said, the fight began.
The two bird vigilantes fell in line to Natasha’s predictions fairly easily. Robin’s attacks were brutal and precise, but without a weapon he lost much of his danger factor.
How did she know this? Easy. She disarmed him with a kick to the wrist and then grabbing and throwing the katana he wielded too far away for him to even think about going to retrieve it as they fought.
Black Bat proved to be a good fighter. If the circumstances were different, she wouldn’t mind making a sparring partner out of the young woman. Black Bat’s fighting style was incredibly similar to Black Widow’s, which was actually what gave Natasha the advantage.
The vigilante had only fought people who didn’t match her style before then, now she was faced with someone who not only matches it but surpasses it in skill level. It was jarring and difficult to figure out just how to win the fight.
Not for Natasha, no, Black Widow had long since figured out what she needed to do to win this battle. She was just…having fun at this point. ‘Messing with them’ as Clint may have said.
And didn’t that send an ache to her heart? Clint. Clint Barton, her brother from another mother (his words, not hers). Who was missing in some random alternate dimension that they couldn’t yet reach.
She needed her brother back.
“This ends now,” Black Widow hissed out, sweeping Black Bat’s leg and then using her momentum to throw her at Robin, slamming the both of them against the alleyway’s wall.
“Who do you work for?!” Robin shouted, “I demand you tell us right now!”
Natasha barely spared them a glance as she remembered the silly catchphrase Stark had drilled into their heads (mostly because Peter had come up with it and the inventor was a big sucker for his spider kid).
“I am Black Widow,” She answered, “And I am one of the Avengers,”
“Villian?” Black Bat asked, her voice slightly hoarse with exhaustion dripping from it.
“No,” Natasha answered honestly, her thoughts drifting back to a certain blonde hero who loved bow and arrows, “Just lost souls making the best of what we have,”
With that said, Black Widow left them in the alleyway, vanishing into the night as she tapped the comm connected to an earpiece.
“Iron Man?” She called out, knowing how they had to be careful with their names now, “Robin and Black Bat are taken care of,”
“Perfect,” Tony answered, “Hulk and Ant-Man are finishing up with Spoiler last time I checked so—”
“Aunt Widow!” Peter interrupted, somehow still managing to be polite even with their hero identities, “I took care of Nightwing! Falcon and I threw him into a dumpster!”
The ex assassin felt herself laugh, “Really? Way to go, Spider-Man!”
“Hey, what about me!” Sam whined, “I did stuff too!”
“Don’t interrupt my kid’s moment, you flying rat,” Tony huffed, “You’re a grown man, what do you want? A sticker?”
“Yes!” Falcon shouted, “I want a sticker! I want a damn pumpkin sticker!”
“Can I have a sticker too?” Peter asked, “Can it be a spider sticker?”
Natasha had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as she heard Tony give an exasperated sigh, “Of course, kiddo, I’ll get you a spider sticker,”
“Thanks, Dad!” Peter signed off after that, not even realizing what he said.
“Iron Man?” Loki’s voice came through, “Are you still breathing over there? Shall we call someone for you?”
Tony’s choked up voice came whispered through the comms, “He called me Dad,”
“Yeah, we heard,” Bucky snorted, “He called you that right after you promised to get him a spider sticker,”
“Sucker,” Venom snickered.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up! FRIDAY, did you save that to my files?”
“Of course, Boss. I saved it to the ‘Put it on the Fridge’ protocol you had installed a year ago,”
“FRIDAY!”
The sound of laughing Avengers warmed Natasha’s heart, letting her temporarily ignore the feeling of missing a friend—and brother—that lingered by her side.
~~~
“Share,” Hulk huffed as Ant-Man opened the pizza box, a meat lovers to be exact.
“One slice or two?” Scott asked the green giant.
“One for now,”
“Good idea,” He handed him the pizza slice, “Never know when Spoiler might show up,”
“I do,” Hulk grunted.
Scott furrowed his brows as he turned to face him, “What do you mean?”
“She’s behind us,”
Ant-Man whirled around to, sure enough, become face to face with the purple vigilante of Spoiler.
“Heya, Purple,” Scott grinned, “Want a slice of pizza? It’s a meat lovers,”
Surprisingly enough, Spoiler just shrugged as she sat down to join the two Avengers on the rooftop.
“So I’m guessing you two are part of this Avengers group we’ve heard so much about,” Spoiler reached for a slice of Pizza, Hulk doing her a small favor and nudging the box a bit closer.
“Yep,” Scott spoke through a mouth full of pizza before Hulk (gently) smacked him upon the head for that.
“Swallow first,” The giant green man huffed.
“Okay, Mom,”
“So,” Spoiler went on, “Who are you two exactly?”
“Hulk,” Hulk pointed to himself.
“Ant-Man,” Scott added, “And you’re Spoiler,”
“Yep!” The vigilante swung her legs back and forth as she dangled them off the rooftop.
“Why so much purple?” Scott felt himself asking.
“I like purple,” She shrugged.
Hulk hummed, “I like green,”
Scott snorted, “Really? I would've never guessed!”
Hulk pushed him off the rooftop, ignoring the man’s shout of alarm before offering the pizza box towards Spoiler.
“More?” He questioned.
“Sure!” Spoiler beamed; the two of them enjoyed the night sky and the sounds of their friends and family fighting each other as they ate pizza together.
“Is Ant-Man going to be alright?”
“He’s fine. Hard to kill. Like a cockroach.”
“I heard that!”
~~~
Tony watched the multi holographic screens that were emitting from his suit’s wrist. The white eyes of the Iron Man suit scanned through data and took in everything he was seeing through the holographs, which was mostly just the live footage of his teammates along with recently recorded files of Batman’s fighting style.
That said, the largest holograph screen was of Peter sitting on the edge of a rooftop and talking with Nat and Bucky. Even though Tony knew the bambino could keep himself safe, he liked to check in for his own peace of mind.
(It was not being overprotective—no matter what Sam said!)
Eventually he was pulled out of his thoughts when FRIDAY spoke, “Boss, Batman has entered the main loading dock and is in place, shall I activate the thrusters?”
Tony grinned, holographs disappearing as he got ready to fly, “Go ahead and activate, Fri; we have a bat to stump the hell out of,”
“Eloquently put as always, Boss,”
“You’re not allowed to learn from Rhodey’s sarcasm anymore,”
“We’ll see,”
Taking to the air brought a sense of comfort that Tony didn’t even know he was missing until then. The feeling of being back in the suit was incredible, of being Iron Man, was incredible.
Not to mention he was finally going to fight again as Iron Man, and that was something he was definitely looking forward to.
Batman was sneaking around the deck of one of LexCorp’s ships—specifically the one the Avengers had just robbed blind. The caped crusader was lurking in the shadows, one of his batarang weapons in hand and ultimately unaware of Tony’s hidden presence overhead.
Tony sent out a message to all the comms; “Phase four has begun, get ready everyone,”
With confirmation from his team echoing in his ear, Iron Man decided to make his grand entrance.
Iron Man landed on the ground in a (rather dramatic) pose, head lifting up to see Batman whirl around with a batarang still in hand.
“Who are you?” The vigilante growled out.
“Iron Man,” Tony stood, “And I’m the leader of the Avengers, the team that you keep getting in the way of, which isn’t going to work out well for you.”
He raised a hand with his palm facing outwards, charging up a repulser blast and shooting it at the giant bat (not energized enough to kill or harm too badly, but it would definitely leave a good burn).
Batman dodged quickly, shooting out the batarang and watching as it dinged uselessly against the armor of Tony’s suit.
The inventor cocked his head to the side slightly, “That’s the best you got?”
The vigilante somehow managed to scowl even harder as he charged at Tony.
The fight consisted of Batman delivering blows and Tony dodging or letting them bounce harmlessly off his armor. Every now and then he’d get in a punch or a blast or two, but he really didn’t want to actually hurt the guy.
(Plus Peter would be so sad if he did, and a sad Peter is something no one wants).
“Boss,” FRIDAY suddenly alerted him, “The rest of the bat vigilantes are here as well as the Avengers, shall we finish this?”
Tony grinned beneath the metal helmet, “Yeah, let’s finish this,”
Giving out the final signal, which was a repulser blast into the air, the final part of his plan game together.
Red Hood, Nightwing, Red Robin, Robin, Spoiler, and Black Bat all came to Batman’s side, weapons drawn and in fighting position.
Along with that, the rest of the Avengers came to Iron Man’s side, Spider-Man even sticking onto his armored shoulder and perching there like a bird more so than his namesake.
“So you are the Avengers,” Red Hood spoke first, “Though you didn’t explain why exactly your here in Gotham,”
“That’s because it’s none of your business, Batma—Ant-man is that a pizza?” Sam stared at Scott, who was enjoying a slice of meat lovers pizza.
“Don’t worry about it,” Scott finished his slice.
Venom huffed, “Glutton,”
“Says the alien who likes to eat humans’ heads,”
“It’s very good,”
“Gross,”
“Guys, can we focus here for a second?” Bucky interrupted, the symbiote and the size-shifting superhero finally growing quiet.
“Lost souls,” Black Bat suddenly said, “Widow said you are lost souls making the best of what you have,”
Tony nodded, “I suppose so. We’re in Gotham, Batsy, because it’s about time the Avengers found a place of their own. We have a job to do here, and we have some friends we need to bring home,”
“You’re criminals,” Batman growled out, “You’ve stolen,”
Iron Man just shrugged, “We get bored easily. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I’m craving pizza,”
Thrusters activated and the rest of his team making their own escape routes ready, the Avengers left, leaving the bat family in their wake to decipher the mystery of who they were and what they really wanted.
“Can we actually get pizza?” Peter asked, having taken to just sticking on the back of his suit as he flew.
“Of course we can,” Tony answered.
Venom’s voice came through the comms, “Sucker,”
“I will throw away those damn hot pockets!”
“…I like hot pockets,” Peter whispered and the slight snickers of the Avengers could be heard over the comms as Tony sighed.
“We’ll keep the hot pockets, Underoos,”
The laughs and teases of the rest of the Avengers echoed in Tony’s ear as they left to head to their new home. As odd a situation like this was, he couldn’t help but feel glad he got to be in it with at least half of his family.
Chapter 7: Hello Gotham: Pt. 4
Summary:
TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY LETS GOOOO
This chapter was so hard to write for some reason but all the comments and kudos I got made me push through 🥹 so thank you!!!! 🥰🥰🥰❤️🥰❤️❤️
Chapter Text
Dick Grayson leapt over rooftops, his eyes scanning the ground below him while still moving fluidly through the air.
It was a feeling he’d never grow tired of; the act of flying with no wings, the illusion of gravity being only optional to those who knew how to use it to their benefit, and the freedom of soaring through the air despite all logic saying you couldn’t.
Though as much as he wished he could just flip through the air without a care in the world, he had a job to do right now.
He dropped soundlessly against the floor of the warehouse’s main storage facility, escrima sticks still in hand, though not yet lighted up.
It was only because he had been listening even more closely than he would usually on missions (mostly due to a certain Avenger named Venom getting the drop on him) that he was able to hear the slightly pitter patter of footsteps.
Except footsteps weren’t typically on the ceiling…
“Hey, Birdie!” A voice he didn't recognize called out. (and what was that? The third time he’d thought that tonight?)
Staring upwards, Nightwing came face to face with what he could only describe as a living horror movie scene.
It was a person, male based on the voice, dressed in a red and black suit with a webbing pattern on it and a black spider visible on his chest. The mask he wore covered his face completely and somehow allowed the white lenses of the mask’s eyes to be fairly expressive as they widened and squinted.
The spider person was crawling across the ceiling, sticking onto it like gravity didn’t affect him and bending in ways that even Dick Grayson, infamous acrobat, gagged slightly.
The spider didn’t seem to care or notice Dick’s discomfort, which allowed the vigilante to gather himself slightly before calling out, “Let me guess, you’re another one of these ‘Avengers’ that keep tormenting us?”
“Yep! Spider-Man, at your service, and you must be Nightwing!” Spider-Man’s voice was oddly chipper, “Tormenting is such a mean word, I’d say we’re just testing the waters, paying with you, even!”
Dick found himself raising his eyebrow slightly, “Could you maybe, oh I don’t know, stop playing with us?”
“Hmmm, let me think,” Spider-Man made a show of tapping his mask-covered chin dramatically, “I don’t think so,”
Cheeky little brat, “Probably should’ve expected that to be honest. Anyways, come down here and we’ll fight like birds!”
“I’d rather we fight like spiders,” Spider-Man let go of the walls, still sticking as he stood straight up (or upside down, more like it) and shrugged, “but if you insist!”
Dick let his charisma sticks turn on, the familiar heat of electricity flickering over his hands and palm.
“I’m guessing that means you agree, but before we start fighting, I got to introduce you to my friend—Falcon! Say hi, Falcon!”
Dick scanned the rest of the ceiling quickly, making sure no other spider people were coming to get him before he bit the bullet and asked who Falcon was.
Which earned him a person wearing mechanic wings flying at him through a window and tackling him before picking him up and dumping him in a dumpster of all places.
“Hey!” He shouted as he banged at the dumpster’s locked lid.
“Don’t worry!” Spider-Man called out, what he could guess to be Falcon failing to hold back laughs behind him, “It should dissolve in about an hour!”
Nightwing just sighed before slumping down angrily in the dumpster—he was not looking forward to calling someone to come get him.
He was never going to hear the end of this.
~~~
Cass and Damian kept to the rooftops, as they typically did on missions. Cass stuck closer to the shadows where Damian didn’t, but always kept his katana in a tight grip.
They were a rather brutal and precise duo, if they did say so themselves.
It was probably why Bruce kept them apart most of the time, in full honesty.
The two of them dropped down from the rooftops per Damian’s request; it seemed that the comms were once again giving everyone trouble.
“–ider-Man, he could stick to—and mechanical wings—around average height—younger side and an adult—”
Numerous conversations came in and out through the static of the comms, though it was mostly Dick’s reports of two new people he encountered as well as Barbara’s frustrated cursing.
Cass just shrugged at the chatter as Damian huffed in frustration.
“This is pointless,” The youngest Robin declared, “We will defeat these ‘Avengers’ ourselves if we cannot rely on backup,”
Cass went to say something only to be interrupted by a voice that definitely wasn’t hers.
“Hello Robin, Black Bat,” A woman in full black gear, a hood over her head, a domino mask that had a black widow’s pattern designed on it, and a fabric mask that pulled over her nose and mouth landed behind them, and an air of elegance and danger around her. “Care to dance?”
Quickly getting into battle stances, Cass and Damian charged at the masked woman.
It was a quick and precise fight; never before had Cass seen someone able to not only match her fighting style, but be better at it.
“Trained?” She asked after getting in a decent punch only for the woman to return with a brutal roundhouse kick.
“In ways you’ll never know,” was the curt answer.
It wasn’t until a few moments later (and numerous more blows being delivered) when the woman’s stance shifted.
“This ends now,” Black Widow then said before she swept Cass’ leg and then threw her at Damian, making the both of them slam against the wall
“Who do you work for?! I demand you tell us right now!” Damian shouted, anger seeping into his voice.
The woman answered, “I am Black Widow, and I am one of the Avengers,”
Cass studied Black Widow for a moment before asking, “Villain?”
“No,” Black Widow’s demeanor shifted slightly Just lost souls making the best of what we have,”
As the Avenger disappeared into the night, Cass had just one thought on her mind.
Black Widow had been telling the truth, so who really were the Avengers?
~~~
“Spoiler,” Barbara finally fixed the comms (again), “What’s your condition?”
“All good!” Steph chirped, “Ant-Man, Hulk, and I shared a pizza!”
“...what?”
“It was a meat lovers,” She added unhelpfully.
Babs just sighed, “I am not telling Bruce that,”
~~~
Batman crept through the darkened front room of the warehouse. He moved swiftly yet quietly, eyes scanning every possible entry and exit point. His gaze lingered on shadows that could potentially come alive, on the unassuming ready to become dangerous.
He was waiting for when the warehouse would become a battlefield and the fight to begin.
He’d heard all of his children's reports when their comms would work again, memorized the description and notes they all provided for each one of these ‘Avengers’ they met.
Venom: a creature, potential alien, made of black ink, stood easily at eight feet tall, strong and seemingly indestructible. (Also liked to refer to himself as ‘we’ which angered Jason, ignited a few ‘grammar patrol’ comments from a few of his other children).
Loki: Magic user who must’ve used a spell to cover up his true appearance. Only things known for certain as black hair, pale skin, and dressed regally. His magic was colored a bright green, he could shapeshift into a multitude of things, and at times referred to himself as a god.
The Sorcerer: Another magic user, blue monk-like clothing, a red cloak with a hood that magically covered his entire face in darkness minus two glowing beady red eyes. His magic was colored a golden orange and seemed to need to use his hands to cast spells more than Loki needed to.
The Winter Soldier: Meta with a completely metal arm. Incredibly strong, trained but claimed no one would ever know by who. He was brutal, but pulled back just enough not to kill. Dangerous and with a skill level beyond what had ever seen before.
Spider-Man: Name suited him. He stuck to walls and moved in ways that made Dick feel a bit sick at times. He swung from webbing (organic or synthetic is unknown) and possessed strength that rivaled The Winter Soldier’s. Despite the voice modulated, he sounded on the younger side. No older than twenty, no younger than fourteen.
Falcon: His name also suited him. He had mechanical wings that allowed him to fly, also contained a voice modulator like the rest of them, and remained airborne most of the time.
Black Widow: Trained and precise. Fighting style similar to Cass’ but much more matured and practiced. Assassin-like skills but refrained from killing. Whether she has enhanced strength or just brutal raw skills was yet to be seen.
Hulk: A giant man, taller than Venom, with green skin. Spoke in broken sentences typically and ‘was a fan of meat lovers pizza’ according to Steph. Enhanced strength was a definite, also a potential alien.
Ant-Man: Seemingly ordinary besides for the fact he could shrink in size and grow (which he used to mess with Hulk most of the time, also according to Steph). He used jokes often and enjoyed pizza.
With those analysis in his head, Bruce lurked around the docks, batarang in his hand and ready for a fight.
Which he was given when a figure came from the sky, flying down and landing in a pose that had his fist on the ground, his body hunched as he kneeled down. The oddest thing, besides the fact that the stranger had just come from the sky, was the suit of armor they wore.
Made of gold and red colors, it was a battle armor made of sleek machinery and what Bruce could only begin to describe as complicated technology.
Not only was that kind of machinery light years away from anything Wayne Enterprises could come up with, it was perfected and whoever was controlling it was comfortable, used to it.
Someone had made this years ago, by his best estimate, which posed a rather dangerous question to be asked: Why now? Why now make yourself known?
Bruce was rather positive he wouldn’t like the answer very much.
“Who are you?” He growled out, using his best Batman voice for this interaction.
“Iron Man,” the man made of metal rose, “And I’m the leader of the Avengers, the team that you keep getting in the way of, which isn’t going to work out well for you.”
Then the fight began.
The person, or Iron Man, was blasting blue tinted energy blasts at him—and if Bruce wasn’t so busy dodging them, he’d be rather curious to figure out what exactly they were and how they worked.
But now definitely wasn’t the time to engage in a technological engineering conversation.
Eventually Batman tried to fling a batarang—aiming for the blasters located on the inner palm of the armor, only for it to hit the chest of it after Iron Man dodged.
It made a slight dinging noise as it fell to the ground.
The helmet-head of Iron Man cocked to the side condescendingly, “That’s the best you got?”
Batman didn’t like Iron Man very much.
Eventually he heard his children come from behind, coming to his aid. He let out a silent breath of relief—and then one of exasperation when each one of the manyAvengers his children had recorded encountering also came to Iron Man’s aid. Leading to a stand off in the middle of the docks.
“So you are the Avengers,” Jason said, “Though you didn’t explain why exactly you're here in Gotham,”
The one Bruce noted as Falcon answered,“That’s because it’s none of your business, Batma—Ant-Man is that a pizza?”
There really was a slice of pizza in Ant-Man’s grasp; “Don’t worry about it,”
The unknown creature that was Venom made an odd huffing noise, “Glutton,”
Ant-Man somehow managed to glare through the goggles that were a part of his mask, “Says the alien who likes to eat humans’ heads,”
“The what who likes the what?” Bruce heard Tim whisper exasperatedly and he thought back the urge to pat his back in empathy.
“Guys, can we focus here for a second?” The Winter Soldier got the two Avengers to finally grow quiet.
Cass took that as her cue to begin talking, “Lost souls, Widow said you are lost souls making the best of what you have,”
The helmet-head of Iron Man nodded, “I suppose so. We’re in Gotham, Batsy, because it’s about time the Avengers found a place of their own. We have a job to do here, and we have some friends we need to bring home,”
“You’re criminals,” Bruce growled out, “You’ve stolen,”
Iron Man had the audacity to just shrug, the nonchalance giving Bruce an odd sense of deja vu for some reason, “We get bored easily. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I’m craving pizza,”
The Avengers then escaped into the night quicker than any of them could react—Iron Man even managing to give a salute to Batman before flying off with Spider-Man stuck to him.
Left as just the vigilantes, Bruce let him sigh audibly for the first time that night; “Debrief in the cave,”
These Avengers were new players in their city, it was time to figure out just who they were and what they wanted.
Chapter 8: New Players
Chapter Text
Police Commissioner James Gordon had been with the Gotham Police Force for years now, too many to count at this point. (One could also say that he had been commissioner for far too long now to be truly sane, and he’d be inclined to agree with them on that).
He had seen a lot in this one city alone; killer clowns, aliens, demigods, demons, the supernatural, the paranormal, human scarecrow who practically fed on fear, a green woman who loved the ecosystem a dangerous amount, a man with two faces on one, and then a group of vigilantes who just really liked bats and birds a lot.
Mostly birds though.
He thought nothing could surprise him at this point in his career and life, anyone who knew James Gordon would assume such a thing. Or rather, anyone who knew Gotham City would assume such a thing.
But then the Avengers showed up. A large group of frankly terrifyingly skilled people (or whatever else they were, as Venom and Hulk were clearly not human), both enhanced and not, who matched the skill set and abilities of the Bats of Gotham just a bit too perfectly.
He remembered receiving the half-hearted and rather useless reports from the officers on duty at the time the Avengers showed, and then he remembered Batman showing up shortly after to get a much more thorough and useful report of the new group of rogues.
“They’re good,” Gordon had muttered, “Real good,”
“Too good,” Batman had grunted, “Too good not to have been noticed before. To have remained hidden for so long. It leaves the questions of who they are and who they were remain unanswered,”
“Y’know, I have a bad feeling about what could be both of those answers,”
The vigilante just ‘hmed’ at Gordon. Just as he always did.
“So,” The commissioner sighed, pinching the sides of his nose, “what exactly is the game plan here, Batsy?”
Batman didn’t answer, just vanished into the night like he always did, leaving Gordon with multiple questions and a desperate need for a drink.
“New players in Gotham,” The commissioner muttered as he walked out of the office, “Can’t wait to see how this’ll play out,”
Gordon lit a cigar, he would definitely need it to get through the day, as one thought entered his head.
Wonder how the bats are really handling the appearance of the Avengers.
The answer was actually rather simple: not very well.
~~~
Alfred had kicked Bruce out of the Bat Cave after the sixth hour of his investigation had passed. The butler had practically thrown his phone at him and demanded he go spend time with Clark or someone to get his mind off the Avengers and to also get him out of the manor.
Knowing it was a losing battle to even try and argue against his butler slash father figure, Bruce conceded and made a call, just not to Clark.
The phone clicked as the line connected.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Tony Stark’s voice came through the phone.
Bruce blinked, “Uh, it’s Bruce? Bruce Wayne? We went out for coffee a few days ago? Do you not remember?”
The sounds of what sounded like something metal hitting a hard surface echoed through the phone, “Nah, I remember, just didn’t know whose number this was—I saved your contact as ‘That Rich Dumbass’ in my phone,”
Bruce felt his lips twitch upwards slightly; Tony sure had a way of making his thoughts shut up.
“Well,” The billionaire cleared his throat, “I was hoping that you’d might be interested in going for dinner tonight, you and me?”
“Is this another date?”
“Would you like it to be?”
“You could call it a charity case and I wouldn’t care as long as I get some good Italian food out of it,”
“I take it you want Italian?”
“I’ll send you my address, pick me up at six,”
The call ended with a click.
Bruce found a grin taking over his face as he stood up and got ready for a date.
~~~
“Tony’s got a date!” Sam and Bucky sang obnoxiously as Tony hung up the phone.
The inventor threw a wrench at them, their laughter echoing in his lab.
“You all suck,” He huffed.
“Bruce and Tony,” Sam started, “Sitting in a tree!”
Bucky picked it up, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
“This is the man who killed JFK everybody,”
Bucky shrugged, “Maybe his head just did that, did you ever think of that?”
Tony threw a screwdriver at him.
~~~
Barbara was a good hacker, one of the best if not the best in the world. Maybe only Tim could par with her skills but he enjoyed staking out (stalking) much more than hacking.
She often thought of herself to be a rather humble person, maybe bragged here and there but nothing undeserved. So when she called herself the greatest hacker, she believed it full heartedly.
Which was probably why she hated Iron Man so badly right now.
Not just because the man proved to be a better hacker than her, that was a given as he coveted his tracks like there were none to be uncovered in the first place and the fact she couldn’t figured out just what exactly he did or how, but she hated Iron Man because the traces he did leave behind were purposeful.
He was messing with them. Mocking them. How did she know this?
The little animated Iron Man figure on her computer that was giving her the middle finger with large golden block letters reading “Try Harder Next Time!” In flashing bold was a pretty good clue. Oracle was going to strangle Iron Man the next time he showed his metal face.
Besides the mockery he had made, he did leave some actual things behind that Oracle could look through and provided some actual information on the Avengers. Nothing that helped them, but it gave them more knowledge on the group of rogues. Which Barbara thought was better than nothing at all.
Left behind were a few files on some of the members of the Avengers, nothing that could be used against them, but still some information.
Most of it was accomplishments—which was clearly Iron Man trying to send a message to the bats.
“We’re not new, we know what we’re doing. Back off before you get hurt.”
She could practically hear Iron Man’s technological voice saying that already.
Iron Man’s folder highlighted the man’s ingenious abilities, his intelligence and skill. He even proved the multiverse theory and then typed underneath his proof of his theory: “bet you all are furries in every universe,” with a winky face emoji.
It was tolerated by Barbara only because Bruce’s look of absolute bafflement was a beautiful sight.
The Winter Soldier’s file was concerning, greatly concerning.
He’d been a victim of brainwashing until some years ago, snapped out of it by a someone only addressed as ‘The Capsicle’ and then went on to note that the Soldier was actually trapped in ice for decades from an unnamed organization that they dismantled, his actual age being over one hundred and fought in World War Two against the nazis.
He also was apparently the one who shot JFK under the organization’s brainwashing—which made Tim’s jaw fall open upon reading immediately.
Venom was apparently an alien known as a symbiote which survived by bonding with a host, the file obviously did not reveal the identity of Venom’s own host, and survived by eating human heads or chocolate, as they both contained the specific nutrient symbiotes needed to live.
Iron Man had made a note underneath that as well: chocolate or cannibalism, how about a salad instead? Venom had then written in scratchy black letters underneath Iron Man’s typed writing: when hell freezes over, tin man!
Barbara sighed and exited out of the tab containing the three Avengers' files, instead deciding to focus on her actual job as a librarian before Iron Man gave her a headache even worse than the one she already had.
“Are you alright?” Doctor Banner tapped on the front desk, making Barbara’s eyes jump to him.
The man was dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, his name tag reading BRUCE pinned slightly crookedly on the shirt’s breast pocket. On his face was his square rimmed glasses and a concerned look.
“Yes,” Barbara gave him a smile, “I wasn’t able to sleep very well last night, that’s all,”
Doctor Banner nodded—Babs found herself unable to call him Bruce in her head without a different Bruce popping in her head.
Specifically an image of a disgruntled Batman muttering angrily at an animated Iron Man figure doing a fortnite dance on the bat computer.
“If I may offer a suggestion,” Doctor Banner said, “I find chamomile or lavender tea to be help right before bed, it had originally been a suggestion from a friend of mine who swears on it, and I’d say it helps decently.”
“I’ll have to give that a try, thank you, Doctor Banner,”
“Oh, none of that,” The man shook his head, “just Bruce is fine,”
Barbara shrugged her shoulders, “I have a friend whose name is Bruce, so it might be a bit easier if you don’t mind, or I could call you by a nickname if you want,”
Doctor Banner’s lips twitched upwards slightly, “I’m afraid the only nickname I’ve ever gotten was ‘Green’ from a friend of mine,”
“Green?”
“An old joke from back in my science days,”
“Ah,” The vigilante gave the man a grin, “I think I’ll go with Doc,”
“Sounds good to me,”
Doctor Banner, now dubbed as Doc in Babs’ head, walked away, taking a pile of books with him to go shelf as he did so.
Once he was out of sight, Barbara re-opened the tab with the Avengers' files on it.
It now had an animated Spider-Man and Iron Man dabbing on it.
Barbara slammed her head against her desk, “I hate that damn hunk of metal,”
~~~
Natasha placed her hands on the polished wooden bar of the dance studio at Grayson’s Gymnasium and let her eyes fall shut.
It had been so long since she had last danced; last felt the motion and grace of it take over her body and let her simply be.
She let her body take control, her mind slipping into a state of peace and thoughtlessness as the memory and motion of dancing took over.
She let herself dance with no distinct pattern, simply letting the freedom of movement lead her wherever it pleased.
“You’ve never seen Mean Girls, Nat-Nat? Oh, we gotta watch it! It’s a classic!”
“You’re my sister from another mister!”
“—and this is Black Widow, she’s best friend,”
“—this is Natasha! She’s my sister!”
“Hawkeye and Widow! Clint and Nat! We’re the dream team, sis!”
Natasha’s eyes fluttered open, a tear she hadn’t noticed before running down her face as well as a young woman with short black hair going unnoticed standing just some feet away in ballet shoes.
The girl tilted her head to the side, saying nothing but managing to convey her message; Are you alright?
“Memories,” Natasha whispered, “…would you like to dance with me?”
The girl smiled, small but genuine, “Cass,” she introduced herself.
“Natasha, but you may call me Nat if you’d like,”
Cass stood beside her, both of them dancing together fluidly; like it had been practiced and planned.
Time seemed to be nonexistent, neither of them knowing just how much of it had passed until they stopped.
“Nat?” Cass called out quietly as she slipped off her ballet shoes and put on a pair of worn down sneakers.
“Hm?” Natasha hummed in response as she grabbed her bag with all her gear in it.
“This was fun,” The young woman smiled, “Again? Sometime?”
For a moment, Cass turned into a young Natasha Romanoff. Passionate, quiet, graceful, and full of potential, of hope.
The Black Widow smiled warmly, “I’d love to have you as my dance partner,”
As Natasha walked out of the gym, her body relaxed and her mind light, Clint’s voice was again echoed in her head.
You’re just one big teddy bear, aren't you, Nat-Nat?
She snorted slightly, the grin never leaving her face.
Whatever you say, bird brain, whatever you say.
Chapter 9: Aliens in Metropolis & Super Soldiers in Bars
Summary:
Sry this took so long, I kept rewriting the first half bcs it just wouldn’t work right lmao
Anyway a little bonus fact: Eddie’s thoughts are always italicized, Venom talking in Eddie’s head are just bolded, but when they are ‘merged’ it’s both italicized and bolded words to symbolize they’re together. Just wanted to share!!!
Comments give me motivation!!! ❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰
Chapter Text
Clark Kent didn’t know what to think about the new guy, Eddie Brock.
There wasn’t anything wrong with him per se, but there was just something about Eddie that made Clark feel…off, for lack of a better word.
Which didn’t make much sense; Eddie had been nothing but polite and cordial with him.
But he just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with him.
Maybe Batman’s paranoia is rubbing off on me, Clark thought as his eyes flickered over to Eddie, who seemed to be taking in the environment of Metropolis’ central park.
Almost immediately the new reporter’s head turned to meet his partner’s eyes; his stare level and calculating and unsettling at best.
“So,” Clark cleared his throat, “Uh, what made you choose the Daily Planet?”
Eddie blinked before answering, “The reputation,”
“Reputation?”
“Yeah,” He shrugged, “Most newspapers nowadays are all gossip columns and conspiracy theories. Or are easily bought with a big check from a big name, the Daily Planet isn’t like that. Genuine journalism is hard to find in the modern day, so finding it here is what drew me towards it,”
Clark felt his lips twitch up into a smile, it was a noble reason and it made the weirdness around Eddie feel less threatening in a way.
“It’s good to hear that, to be honest,” Clark pushed up his classes slightly, “There’s not many reporters like that,”
“Guess I’m one of the good ones, huh?” Eddie chuckled.
“Guess so,”
After a bit of an awkward walk to LexCorp, the two reporters settled into Lex Luthor’s main office, notepads in hand and ready to start the interview.
“So, Mr. Luthor,” Clark suppressed a groan at seeing the bald CEO, “LexCorp has once again been caught experimenting with kryptonite despite mass public outrage.”
“Yes, yes,” Luthor waved dismissively, “The public is, as always, not seeing the bigger picture here. Superman is an unknown and knowing his weaknesses is a necessity—“
“And it has nothing to do with the increasing evidence surrounding the rumors of you having a psychosexual obsession with the hero Superman?” Eddie butt in.
It was silent in the office.
“Excuse me?” Luthor sputtered.
Eddie continued, “The obsessive desire of control, the fixation on strengths and weaknesses, even the continuous insisting of Superman being someone who needs to be contained or controlled, they’re all rather obvious symptoms of a psychosexual obsession,”
Clark had to bite his lip from trying not to laugh (and also from trying not to throw up, because gross, just gross).
Lex’s right eye began to twitch, “I do not—!”
“Denial is another symptom,” Eddie added.
“You insufferable little—!” The CEO took a breath suddenly and the Kryptonian managed to catch him press a button inside his cufflink out of the corner of his eye.
An explosion went off in the distance.
Darn it, Luthor! Just one day where you’re not trying to level Metropolis would be appreciated. Clark inwardly cursed.
“I suppose that’s our cue to take cover,” Lex stood up and brushed invisible dirt off from his suit, “Good day, Mr. Kent,”
The CEO then gave an almost impressively hostile glare to Eddie, “Mr. Brock,”
Eddie just gave the man a half-hearted shrug as Lex Luthor exited the main office.
“You think I made him mad with my Superman comment?” The reporter asked mockingly.
Clark couldn’t help the small snort that escaped him, “I definitely think you made him mad,”
The loud sound of an explosion in the distance echoed in the office, snapping Clark back to the reality of the situation.
“I’m going to go—” fight whatever thing Lex came up with now “—call Lois to let her know the interview got cut short,”
Eddie nodded, “I should probably find a good place to stay while Superman takes care of whatever is out there,”
With that said, the two men left each other to go do their individual tasks, though neither of those being what they had said they were.
Lois would not get a call but Superman would arrive to fight the robot Lex had released onto Metropolis. Eddie would not find a safe spot to hide but Venom would be right front and center to mess with a certain Kryptonian.
Superman landed on top of a building, looking out to see the killer robot he just knew Lex Luthor had built to prove whatever psycho point he wanted to prove.
“Okay, another robot,” Superman muttered, “Heat vision to the chest to short out control panel…bend the legs so it can’t move and cause more trouble…and maybe—”
“Rip off its head so we can then eat it for our lunch!” A deep, rumbled voice startled Clark out from his audible planning.
Turning around, Superman came face-to-face (though not really, Venom was much taller than Kal-El) with the strangest and most terrifying looking alien he’d ever seen.
And he’d seen quite a few.
The inky looking alien grinned, all sharp teeth and too long tongue, “Hello,”
Ma Kent didn’t raise a hero with no manners, “Uh. Hi. Who are you?”
“Venom,” The alien introduced himself, “We are going to help you fight the robot,”
“Oh!” Superman blinked, “That’s–That’s very kind of you,”
“Yes, we are very kind.” Venom nodded, “And hungry. We call dibs on the head.”
“...it’s metal?”
“That has never stopped Venom in the past,”
“Ah, well…okay then,”
He wasn’t really sure what else he could say to that.
Venom was a brutal fighter; constantly shifting his slime-like limbs into blade or sharpened shapes to cut off parts of the robot’s body.
Not only that, but Clark found himself more often than not looking the other way at the disturbing sight of the other alien chopping down on it as well.
(Robot or not, Venom still managed to make it a somewhat gruesome sight).
Soon enough the robot had been thoroughly dismantled (plus semi-ingested) and Superman turned to face Venom.
“Thank you,” Clark grinned, “Will you be a new hero as of now?”
Though ‘hero’ might be a bit generous in most peoples’ eyes.
“No. Ew.” Venom’s face managed to scrunch up in a disgusted looking expression, “We were just hungry; heroes are lame. We just like to eat. Food is yummy, heroics are not.”
A disturbing thought entered Kal-El’s head, “Do you eat non-robot things…?”
Venom gave him a terrifying grin, “Only the very bad people. They taste bitter, but good enough,”
Superman paled.
“And chocolate. We like chocolate. Chocolate and brains, they are very good for symbiotes.”
With that final statement, Venom seemingly melted into the sewer grate he stood on and vanished from sight.
Later, after Clark had reunited with Eddie and they’d finished their day of reporting and checked back in at the Daily Planet, Superman would make a certain call to a particular bat themed vigilante.
“What do you know about an alien named Venom?” Bruce asked before Clark could even get a word out.
“I was just about to ask you that, actually,” The Kryptonian admitted, “Were you aware that he ate people?”
Silence.
“Bruce?”
“...we’re dealing with it.”
“That’s not very comforting, B,”
“I’ll send you the file we have on Venom,” the call disconnected and Clark just sighed.
What have you gotten yourself into now, Batman?
~~~
So Clark Kent is Superman, Eddie thought to himself as he waved down a taxi, how did you even figure that out, V?
They smell the same, Venom explained, Clark Kent and Superman both have the smell of Kryptonian on them.
And what exactly does Kryptonian smell like?
Ranch 2.0.
…what.
You heard me.
Sometimes I wish I didn’t
You love me, Venom teased.
Unfortunately, Eddie admitted.
~~~
“Holy shit; that guy’s jacked,” Jason muttered the moment he and Dick entered the bar.
“Who?” Dick asked curiously, head turning to scan the area.
Jason nudged his head towards the bar discreetly. “The bartender, look,”
Eventually the acrobat managed to find who his little wing was talking about.
“Oh wow,” Dick’s eyes widened, “His bicep is the size of my head,”
Jason then shook his head, “Whatever, we can’t get distracted. James ‘Bucky’ Barnes. No previous employment besides the military. He was given an honorable discharge due to an injury in his left arm. He just moved to Gotham from Brooklyn, New York a few weeks ago.”
“And he got a job at this bar three days ago,” Dick added, “And you want to make sure he’s not some creep or whatever because of that,”
“Yep,” Jason popped the ‘p’ at the end of the word, “C’mon, let’s get a drink from Mr. James Barnes here,”
The two vigilantes sat at the bar in slightly rickety stools, waiting for Bucky to finish handing a lady her cocktail before he turned to them.
“What can I get you two?” Barnes asked, resting his arms on the counter, the red long sleeved top he was wearing accenting just how “jacked” he was.
“Two beers,” Jason told him, the bartender nodding before grabbing the two bottles and handing it to them.
“You’re the newest hire, right?” Dick said after taking a sip of his drink, “We haven’t seen you around before,”
“Relatively new, yeah,” Barnes shrugged, “Started about a week ago. It’s a good gig, decent pay and isn’t a front for some drug ring,”
Dick snorted, “Expectations for Gotham are just a bit different, huh?”
“That’s one way to say it,” James grinned.
Eventually Barnes had to go serve someone else and the two brothers were left to their own devices for the most part. Conversation flowed easily, a nice difference from the awkward silence that would’ve been just a year ago.
Though it flowed a bit too easily, in Jason’s eyes, since his big brother had somehow managed to turn the topic to his love life.
“Why don’t you just ask Roy to move in with you already?” Dick gave his Little Wing a knowing look, “You two practically spend every other day at your apartment and he already knows about our night life, so why not?”
“It’s not that easy,” Jason muttered, cheeks slightly tinted pink, “I just don’t wanna rush things, that’s all,”
“Are you worried he’ll say no?” Dick’s voice lowered slightly.
The undead vigilante didn’t say anything.
“Jay, he’s practically attached to your hip,” Dick rested his hand on Jason’s shoulder, “There is no way in hell he’d say no to you,”
“I’m just worried he’ll think I’m moving too fast,” Jason sighed, “I’m worried that I’m moving too fast. What if we move in together and it changes everything? I don’t want to lose him,”
It was at that moment that Barnes made his return.
“Didn’t mean to overhear,” The man said, “but I think I might have some advice for you, kid,”
“Not a kid,” Jason frowned, “but go ahead and shoot,”
“If you really like this guy,” James began to make a cocktail as he talked, “Then go for it. Moving in together is a big step, but it’s also a good step to take. You’re worried it’ll change everything? ‘Course it will, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be a bad change. And if you two do decide it’s too much or too fast, then you sit down and talk about what you want everything to look like moving forward.”
He passed the drink to a blonde woman before turning to face Jason, “The worst thing you can do is never take the risk for him. It took me over thirty years to ask out my boyfriend, and I’d been in love with him since I was fourteen.”
Dick raised an eyebrow, “...how old are you?”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it—point is, take your chances.” He patted Jason’s shoulder, “Besides, I can see the way you look when you talk about it—that’s exactly what I look like when I talk about my Stevie,”
Jason’s lips twitched upwards in a small smile, “Thanks,”
“Bucky,” The bartender held out his head, “Call me Bucky,”
“Jason, and this is my brother, Dick,”
Bucky’s raised an eyebrow, “...Dick..?”
“I’ve heard it all before,” The acrobat snorted, “Don’t even try it,”
Bucky’s brows furrowed in thought, “So if you had an impersonator, would that make them a dildo?”
Jason burst out laughing, his brother unable to do anything but just blink.
“Alright,” Dick admitted, “That’s a new one,”
“You and I,” Jason wiped away a tear from his eye before slapping a hand against Bucky’s back, “Are going to get along great,”
“I look forward to it, Skunk Stripe,”
Now it was Dick’s turn to laugh as Jason’s nose wrinkled in distaste; “I take it back, I hate you,”
“I can live with that,”
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