There was something amazing, breathtaking really, about being able to fly under your own power. Your new flight pack hummed as you adjusted your trajectory to compensate for the wind. Well, mostly under your own power.
The view of the distant skyline was incredible (when you got past all the fire anyway). Why couldn't you look at this forever-
The thought was silenced when a ball of energy erupted from a cannon, then blew apart the spot of the skyscraper you were about to crash into if you were so great at flailing your arms.
Oh right, that's why.
You twisted around in a half-circle; palms already raised.
For a moment your palms blazed like the first rays of the dawn, as two beams of energy lanced through the Chitauri on your tail like a hot knife through butter.
You must have hit a fuel line or something because instead of uncontrollably spiralling towards the ground like normal, the chariots explode outright, quickly obscuring the rest of the street in a thick black smog.
But you don't let your guard down. If the last hour had taught you anything, it was that when it came to the Chitauri, there were always more.
You're quickly proven right as the familiar whine of the chariot engines come the smoke cloud. You catch sight of a dozen silhouettes before you turn back around and move to get the hell out of dodge. Two you could handle, ten was pushing it.
Frantically, you looked around, knowing that the moment they all clear the smoke they'll fly you down unless you can find some cover. Your eyes land on the whale you'd been following.
This is a terrible idea, pointed out the part of your mind that used to be your survival instinct.
Do you have a better one?
…well no.
Then shut up!
You sped towards the larger target, hopefully the Chitauri would be a little less trigger happy when it came to friendly fire.
It turns out they weren't.
Dodging a swarm of energy blasts – though admittedly more through luck then skill – you dived underneath the whale. The sudden rolling in your stomach as you made the turn letting you know that it was a good thing that you didn't eat lunch.
Stopping at one of the bottom fins, you stepped onto the small platform attached to it. Convenient. Though you wouldn't be thinking that if you were the one about to make that turn.
Wrapping an arm around the fin to keep yourself stable, you put your other hand up, and wait.
The chariots come quickly. And as they entered your field of vision you notice that each of them comes with an extra passenger holding a heavy rifle.
Wonderful.
Unleashing a quick blast, you manage to take out one before you relocate to the next fin.
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," you muttered as you land, unleashing another blast of energy before you duck back into cover. Seriously, how many Chitauri were there? It seemed like for every one you took down, a dozen more took its place.
"Shit!" you swore as an energy blast blew past your ear – close enough your mask to start to bubble. A brief smirk crossed your face as your return shot wiped the offending chariot off the face of the earth, but still – that was way too close for comfort. And there was still around twenty left.
Too many for you to face head on if you wanted to keep all your beautiful limbs. Instead, you spend the next few minutes playing the highest stakes game of hopscotch in history.
Jump, shoot, jump, was the mantra that you chanted over and over.
Hesitate and die.
It worked for a while, whatever reservations the Chitauri had about firing on one of their own made them hesitate just long enough for you to already be on your way to the next fin before they destroyed it. Though the heat marring your back and the remains of what used to be your hoodie showed that you didn't get out completely unscathed.
All too soon you land on the last platform. Heart pounding, you turn back and something heavy settles in your stomach. Out of the score of Chitauri that originally came after you, there were only five gaps in their formation.
Light danced between your twitching fingers as a burst of manic energy enveloped your mind before you pushed it back down, the heat of your power disappearing from your mind as soon as it came. As satisfying as overpowering your blasters would be, all it would do was burn too much of your dwindling reserves.
You needed to come up with a plan.
But there was no time to plan.
Hesitate and die.
The beginnings of an idea shot through your mind and you grasped onto it with both hands.
If you couldn't take then head on, then change the game.
Using the platform as a springboard, you leapt into the open air, just in time to watch an intense barrage blow it apart. Crossing your arms, flickering blue formed around your chest.
No, too weak.
Black spots entered your vision as you poured everything you could spare into your shield. Sparks encircled your arm as you overloaded the emitters far beyond what you designed them to do. Nonetheless you pushed. If you could make the shield wide enough, strong enough to cover yourself completely then you could tank the barrage and then fly away before the smoke cleared.
Not very heroic admittedly, but it was better then being dead.
Your amour began to press down on you, its comforting weight now a coffin trapping you in place as the power keeping it active was siphoned away for a greater purpose.
The charging took but a moment. In the time it took for the Chitauri to adjust their guns and prepare another salvo, you were enveloped in a sphere of solid azure. An invulnerable bulwark that screamed out that this opponent would stand tall until the end. At least that was how it was going to look.
Within, your body trembled as you struggled to maintain your expanded shield. Sweat travelled down the exposed parts of your face as you waited with baited breath.
Come on, you blood hungry bastards, take the bait.
Finally, an explosion erupted across your vision, followed by another, and then another, until a hail of blasts constantly broke against your barrier. Each explosion sent a tremor up your arms, but the azure shield held. It would take much more then that to piece its shell. Soon; smoke covered the entire area. You couldn't see anything past your hand, but neither could the Chitauri.
In what felt like an eternity but couldn't have been more then a minute the blasts tapered off, which was immediately followed by a deafening explosion before everything went silent.
Now!
The shield cracked and shattered, glittering fragments of energy evaporated into a blue mist, most dissipating before you could reach out, but not all of it. Your chest heaved and burned as you
pulled the remains of your shield back into yourself, the power spent coming with it. Not much, but enough for you to do this.
As the smoke began to clear you directed what you could into your thrusters, you turned, ready to take off and lay low to catch your breath until something entered your range and stopped you in your tracks.
"Wow."
Power. Raw, surging power. Beyond anything you have ever felt.
"Not bad. Not bad at all."
The smoke cleared away. Red and gold armour shone like the sun.
"Your plan was… questionable."
You retort died in your throat. The masks silent stare kept you silent through presence alone.
"But that shield, not bad at all."
It was him.
"So, tell me stranger, what should I call you?"
Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist. Holder of
the most watched video on YouTube.
"Because that mask – don't get me wrong, it's flattering – but I don't think Pepper's going to like it if I call you Iron Man Jr."
The man himself. Iron Man. Tony fucking Stark.
"It's Traveller," you answered, tearing your gaze away from the Arc Reactor, before your eyes widened, "Shit! We need to move, there's like twenty on my tail- "
"Relax," he magnanimously waves his arm in the direction of the giant space whale. "I took care of it."
A quick glance confirms all that remains of the Chitauri squad is smoke and scraps.
"Ah," you scratch the back of your head, suppressing the urge to wince as the burns across your back scream in protest. "Thanks, I guess owe you one."
Stark shook his head. "Don't worry about it. The Chitauri will give you plenty of chances to make us even I'm sure."
"You know their name…" You didn't find out their name until you melded and dominated a chunk of their tech. "Do you know what the fuck is going on here?"
Stark didn't respond, instead he glanced over his shoulder, "Jarvis, you found a soft spot yet?"
You didn't hear the response but it obviously wasn't what he wanted to hear as a hissed out a curse. "Damnit! Look I'd love to give you an explanation but we don't have time. I can't pick up a power source for that suit of yours but that shield must have burnt a lot of it. How long until you're out of juice?"
A quick check of your internals doesn't paint a pretty picture. After your little cat-and-mouse game with the Chitauri your suits shields were blown and about a third of your gauntlets was baked into your clothes. At this point the only thing working without issue was the flight pack and that would end the moment the crystals you'd liberated to power it ran out.
Time to go back to the source.
As you closed your eyes and travelled down familiar paths, some instinct warned that you had already taken all that you could without consequence but you ignored it. You didn't really have much of a choice.
You felt yourself shiver. The wellspring of power that you had become familiar with over the last hour was as endless as ever. Slowly, carefully, you tried to absorb a fraction more of it into yourself.
Your muscles locked as liquid fire poured into your veins.
"Hey, you alright?" Stark asked you started to fall.
"Yeah, I'm fine." you said, cutting the connection. Resolving to never ignore your instincts again you continued, "I'm afraid that I'm at my limit. I'm guessing I've got ten minutes left before I'm grounded and another twenty after that before I run out of power entirely."
"Any way that you can extend that limit?"
Reflectively you open your mouth to answer in the negative but then pause, considering. The Chitauri crystals had taken the brunt of the load when it came to powering the flight pack, without them you doubted you would've been able to outmanoeuvre the Chitauri for so long, and that's not even getting started on your little last stand gambit you had just pulled.
"Maybe," you finally said hesitantly, "If I can find an energy source, something powerful enough to run my entire suit. Then maybe."
Stark nodded. "Good. I have an idea that might work on that front, but first I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to listen, okay?"
You nodded.
"Listen Traveller – you need to work on that name by the way, maybe put a 'The' in front of it or something – you're in over your head."
You frowned but didn't argue. As much as it burned, he wasn't exactly wrong.
"But we all are." We? "I don't have time to play twenty questions, so I'm going to ask you something and I want you to really think before you answer." He waited for you to nod again before he continued. "Are you really ready for this? To stick out until the end? To fight off an alien invasion? I've seen some of what you've done out there, you've done plenty already, you can still walk away."
You couldn't lie, it was temping. By any metric you'd done more than enough. You had saved dozens of lives, slayed Chitauri by the hundreds, and your warped armour bore the scars of both. At this point all that was keeping you going was a cocktail of your power and adrenaline.
Yes, it would be so easy to walk away.
But then your mind flashed back to Stark Tower, to the wreckage left behind.
Your fists clenched and the metal that covered your hands shrieked.
No. God how you wanted to, but you couldn't back out now. Blood had been paid to bring you into this and until that debt was matched by the Chitauri a thousand times over you would see this through to the end.
"Sorry Stark, but I've come too far to walk away from this now."
He sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that. This isn't your fight, but we need all the help we can get."
"Trust me Stark, I've got as much of a stake in this as you have."
The noise that escaped Stark's throat was to bitter to be mistaken for a laugh. "No, you really don't. But after everything you've done today you deserve to hear the full story, from all of us."
"You keep saying 'we' and 'us' Stark, is there some backup you've got in reserve that I don't know about?" From what that officer said the National Guard was still at least an hour out at this point. And while Stark was a lot of things, you were pretty sure manipulating time was a beyond even him.
"Oh, I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. You'll find out soon enough. But first, here."
In a smooth motion Stark tapped an armour panel on his leg, revealing a hidden compartment. He then grabbed whatever was inside and tossed it over to you.
Light spilled from the device your hand, disbelieving, you cradled it close like the most precious of treasures, which for you it was. How could you not, when you had just been obsessing over another just like it a few minutes ago.
"This is an Arc Reactor," waves of energy rippled from the device, wiping away your fatigue through sheer proximity. "You're giving me an Arc Reactor? Wait… you carry an extra Arc Reactor around in your pocket… why?" You didn't know whether to be amazed or dumbfounded, probably both.
He shrugged. "It's always handy to have a spare heart lying around. It may be a little outdated, but it should work just fine."
"You want me to absorb this?"
"Yes. Though don't go too crazy, it's only a loan. I expect it back after all this is over."
"Are you crazy?!"
"You said you needed something powerful."
"This is too powerful. I try to absorb all this power and I could explode."
He shrugged again – way too flippantly in your unbiased opinion. "Then absorb as much as you can and stick it in your chest."
"Weren't you the one who bitched about Iron Man Jr a minute ago?"
Stark chuckled, "just don't match my colour scheme and it'll be fine."
"Alright. I'm going to find some cover and I'll meet up with you later."
Stark shook his head. "I have a better idea. Go down Park, towards Grand Central, you'll have all the cover you need over there."
"Really?" outside Grand Central didn't have much in the way of cover, there were better places you could hunker down in until you recharged. The only reason you could think off that Stark wanted you there specially was… oh. "This mysterious backup you won't tell me about?"
Stark merely nodded.
"Who will I be meeting?"
"Trust me, you'll know when you see them."
"Fine," you rolled your eyes, if Stark wanted to be cryptic you'd play along. "And what are going to be doing?"
"Getting its attention," he said pointing to the whale currently smashing its fin through a skyscraper. "Unless you want to swap?"
"No, I'm good," you swallowed, you had tried that already thank you very much. I'll see you on the other side Stark."
"You too Traveller."
As you began to speed up, Stark called out to you, his voice serious.
"Traveller?"
You turned back.
"Good luck."
"Luck?" you smiled; your voice giddy. Waves of Arc Reactor induced energy surged through your body, giving you new strength.
"Who needs luck when you have an Arc Reactor."
**
From up in the air you looked down and blinked. Because looking up at you was Captain America, a redhead in leather, and a dude with a bow of all things.
Stark was right. He also apparently had a gift for understatement, which coming from him sounded like an oxymoron.
"So, you're Traveller?" asked the man himself, clad in a modernized version of his old red-white and blues.
Yet here you are.
You swore you've heard a joke that started like this before, all that's missing is the punchline.
"I am. And you're c-Captain America," you pointed out, trying not to stutter. Damn you Stark. However far behind he is, you know he's getting a good laugh out of this.
"Steve Rogers, nice to meet you," the captain replied in a tone more amused then aggravated. Probably got that reaction a lot.
"You're Stark's backup?" you ask as your feet touch the ground.
"Stark's backup, that's a new one," the archer muttered as he pulled an arrow out of a Chitauri. "Not a fan of it either." Seemingly satisfied with its condition, he put the arrow back in his quiver and walked over towards you. "It's nice to meet you Traveller, I'm Clint, but call me Hawkeye over the comms."
"Nice to meet you too," you said. "but I don't have any comms."
"I can fix that," spoke up a feminine voice from behind you, right behind you.
"Shit!" Pivoting on your heel, you swung around, palm already raised and glowing-
And she batted your hand away with a smile.
"A little trigger-happy there," she noted with amusement. You lowered your arm when you recognised that the was the woman behind the Captain before, she didn't make a fucking sound. "Here's a piece of advice, never get so distracted that you lose your situational awareness, especially in an active combat zone."
"I'll keep that in mind," you said, the light in your free hand dimming.
You should've sensed her, or at least the current running through those gloves of hers but the Arc Reactor clutched in your hand was taking most of your focus.
"Sorry about almost shooting you," you said sheepishly, your hand rubbing the back of your head. "It's just been one of those days, miss?"
"Natasha Romanov," she answered, her lips in an amused quirk. "Its fine, it's not the first time I've been shot at today." She then held out her hand with what you recognised as an earpiece in her palm. "Take this and I'll walk you through the controls."
"I've got it," you replied. A small application of your power disassembled the small communicator and attached it to helmet, synching it to the rest of your suit. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," Natasha had no physical reaction beyond tilting her head at your small display of your power, but you caught the small gleam of interest in her eyes. "So that's how you made that-"
The words stalled in her throat and her expression briefly twisted in surprise before she pushed you away and then dived to the side, the space you were both occupying hit by a Chitauri bombardment right after.
"Incoming!"
You turned around, the formally clear street now occupied by half a dozen Chituari landing on cars and the road.
You raised your hand, a bright glow poured out before it flickered and died. Really?! Now of all times…
Thankfully, before they could do more than move a couple of steps, a bolt of lightning – an actual bolt of lightning, came down from the sky.
The cause landed soon after.
"Thor, What's the story upstairs?" Rogers asked, fastening his shield to his arm.
"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable."
"Thor's right," you raised your hand towards your ear as Stark's voice came through. Alright, you're synched up.
"We gotta deal with these guys."
"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.
"As a team," Rogers answered.
"I have unfinished business with Loki."
"Yeah, get in line."
"Save it," Rogers cuts them off. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us so that's what we need, without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top-"
He trailed off as a motorcycle rolled up. The man who got off looked exactly like you felt before Stark's little gift.
Everyone else walked forward to meet him. Since they clearly knew who he was, you followed but stayed back. There wasn't any time to ask another person (who clearly knew more about what was going on then you did) questions about what was going on.
"So," he began, looking over the scene of a devastated New York with something approaching weary resignation. "This all seems… horrible."
"I've seen worse," Natasha said.
"I'm sorry."
"No, we could use… a little worse."
"Stark we got them."
"Banner and Traveller?"
"Just like you said."
"Well tell them both to suit up, I'm bringing the party to you." Party? Wait, he doesn't mean?
It was a second later that you saw Stark again. Though this time he had clearly done his job.
"I-I don't see how that's a party."
"Stark, you crazy motherfucker," you whispered as the whale tore out a chunk of another skyscraper as it came around the corner. "Well, I hope one of you are holding back some secret of fantastic abilities that they'd like to share with the class because I've got nothing."
In response, motorcycle guy – Banner, Stark had said – started to move towards the approaching whale.
"Dr Banner," Rogers said. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
"That's my secret captain," Banner briefly looked back. "I'm always angry."
And from one moment to the next, the small, unassuming man turned into a giant green monster.
And then he punched.
The next few seconds was a frantic blur of ducking into cover and powering your shield. A twisted combination of alien guts and machinery fell from the sky.
Coming out of cover, you looked up and saw Chitauri crawling all over the nearby buildings, one of them taking of its mask and
roaring at you.
Said roar was drowned out by the Hulk next to you.
"Guys," Natasha called out, eyes to the sky.
Looking up, you see another wave of Chitauri coming from the portal.
"Alright listen up, until we close that portal our priority is containment…"
While you listen as the Captain calls out rolls, you focus and the armour around your chest began to shift, the outer casing peeling away, soon matching the dimensions of the Arc Reactor in your hand down to the last tiny detail.
Without any fanfare you pressed it into your chest.
It fit perfectly.
White energy shrouded you as you used your newly acquired energy to repair all the damage done to your armour thus far.
Might flooded you.
With the Arc Reactor now directly joined to the rest of your suit you could feel the entirety of the energy now available to you, nearly double your total reserves – even after your repairs.
With this much power your can keep your armour running for hours.
And you have a feeling you'd be needing every minute of it.
"Traveller," Rogers said as all but he and Natasha headed off. "You know what you can do, I don't need to tell you. Go where you'll work best, but stick with one of us."
"Roger that, Captain," you said and prepared to move.
Now then…
Who do you follow?
[] Barton – Keep an eye out for groups and pounce on strays
[] Stark – Guard the perimeter and take out targets of opportunity
[] Thor – Fight the big fish (You lack the firepower/durability to stand alongside the God of Thunder just yet)
[] Rogers and Romanov – Draw attention and protect civilians.
[] Hulk – Watch him smash (You're currently to puny to survive this)
The Arc Reactor has let your power to stabilize, allowing you to fight in this battle. One skill point has become available, though choose carefully, this will be the last one available in this arc. (You can only pick skills coloured green, and skills are on the character sheet informational)
[] Skill
Lastly, as always. There will be a
2-hour MORATORIUM on Votes. DO NOT VOTE FOR 2 HOURS!
I'll be checking the thread. Feel free to discuss!
