BOLT ✔ P.M. ₃

four

ROBIN RUSHED OUTSIDE WITH Sam hot on his tail. For someone who wanted to avoid trouble, he sure ran towards it often. This time was no exception. Outside, where the wind almost knocked him off his feet, was a singular ship from space. The colour of rusting metal and the height of Avengers tower, it cast a threatening shadow.

Robin held up a hand, hoping to shield his eyes from the wind. Pietro and Loki had joined him and Sam outside at this point.

"This is not good," Loki said.

"Yeah, you don't say!" Robin responded sharply. "We are totally fucked this time."

Pietro rolled his eyes. ""You know, you could pretend to be optimistic every once and awhile. It wouldn't kill you," the blonde said, glaring at him half-heartedly.

"I'll pass. We're going to die by an alien's hands... this is the second time!" Robin exclaimed, gesturing at the two aliens exiting the ship. One was white as snow and the other looked to be twice the first one's size with a weapon in hand the size of Robin.

"Hand us the stone," ordered the white alien. Ebony Maw.

"What stone?" Robin asked, playing dumb. He could almost hear Loki roll their eyes at that.

Ebony Maw was unimpressed. With a simple wave of his hand, Robin went flying back into the compound, his back hitting the wall with a loud clang. Robin groaned. He was fine, no bones broken, but the wall behind him did have a slight dent Tony would be mad about later.

None of the others out there with him were very amused. In fact, they were mad. And no one messes with Robin on their watch. Pietro was too quick to be hit, running around and landing punches. Sam took to the sky and shot at the bigger alien, careful not to shoot Pietro in the process. Loki used their illusions to make copies of themself around the aliens to distract them while the real Loki went to help Robin to his feet.

Within those moments, Natasha came out with a gun in hand and Blake at her side. "Well, this doesn't look good," Natasha noted. Bucky came out as well, ready for a fight.

Robin, leaning against Loki for support as he tried to ignore the burning pain in his back, glared. "Wow, we had no idea," he snapped sarcastically. He pointed to the aliens who were focused on the Loki-clones, Pietro and Sam. "Go fight."

Blake mockingly saluted. "Yes, sir," they said, way too cheerful for someone who might die at the hands of an alien or two at any second. Canadians, I guess. They disappeared in the blink of an eye, reappearing with one of Loki's knives behind the white alien and stabbing him in the back of the neck. They quickly teleported back to Natasha's side before anything could happen to them. "Oh, sorry," they said to Loki, handing them their knife back, blood staining it and all.

Loki looked impressed. Robin straightened himself out, raising a hand and sending a powerful bolt of lightning down on the big alien. Cull Obsidian stood no chance and soon went down, fried. Robin raised an eyebrow. "Huh, I didn't think that would work," he commented, impressed with himself.

Loki looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "Were you hoping to piss him off?"

Robin shrugged. "Something like that."

With both aliens now dead on the ground, Sam landed back beside the group. Pietro rejoined them as well. "That was... anticlimactic," Pietro said, a bit uneasily.

Robin nodded in agreement. "Definitely. We're so fucked if this Thanos guy comes."

"Way to be optimistic," Blake murmured, leaning against their girlfriend.

Robin shrugged. "What? It's the truth."

The group returned inside, going to find Tony and Stephen, who were trying to destroy the stone. It did not seem to be going very well. The lab was a mess, things were in their original parts or rusted like they had been there hundreds of years.

"Thanks for the help out there," Robin said sarcastically.

"You had it covered," Tony said carelessly, not even looking towards the door. His eyes were focussed on the stone in front of him, his machines trying to destroy it.

Robin just raised an eyebrow, unamused.

"What's the status on the stone?" Bucky inquired.

Strange gestured with a deadpanned look around the room, to the chaos around them, then to the scratchless green stone. "Take a guess."

"What if we just... got all the stones and killed Thanos with them before he can kill us with them?" Blake suggested.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "How the hell would we do that?" he asked.

Tony pointed a pen at them. "I don't know if you noticed, but this Thanos guy already has most of them."

Blake rolled their eyes. "You do know I can travel between dimensions, right?"

"It would kill you," Strange stated. "Using all the stones."

"So, what?" Robin cut in, arms crossed over his chest. "We just sit here, waiting for him to come to us while you idiots play scientist with a cosmic stone?"

"Better than getting ourselves killed," Loki said from the corner of the room, away from the madness (but in a distance where they could observe all the chaos happen.)

"It won't matter if Thanos gets here," Tony said. "Then we're all done for. And to be honest, I don't feel like dying today."

"Then you better hope he gets here tomorrow," Natasha drawled.

"I'm not just going to sit here and wait for my death," Pietro said firmly.

"What are you gonna do, run to him?" Robin asked sarcastically.

"He won't have to," Strange said ominously.