The Marvel Games {An Avengers/Hunger Games Crossover}

Chapter 24: Day 14 (part 1): Drones

Chapter 24: Day 14 (part 1): Drones:

After yesterday’s chaos, Tony was wary of me, always keeping me at an arm’s length –for which I couldn’t blame him. I could have easily slit his throat at any moment. But as we packed up, I slowly began to realise that two people had to die today, and one of them was going to be me.

Day fourteen marked the last day of the Marvel Games. Less than twenty four hours left of this hell.

On which hour would I die? I asked myself cruelly.
“Congratulations.” Tony smirked, picking up his backpack.
“For what?” I asked, dumbstruck.
“Making it this far.” He commented and saluted me respectively.
I frowned, “Is this your way of telling me you’re going to kill me now?”

Tony shook his head, put on the last piece of his armour and for the last time, we moved out of our frying pan and into the fire.

We didn’t bother searching for Bruce; we figured he’d be desperate enough to win that he’d hunt us down himself. The trick question was, when? In some ways, I thought our plan was like the German Schlieffen Plan in the First World War. We were expecting something to happen and leaving a lot to chance, when really, we needed to cover all fronts by splitting up and attacking. We’d have a better chance at winning that way.

“You know what I’m thinking about?” I asked dreamily, still in a daze.
“No, What are you thinking about?” Tony asked.
“’The element of surprise is hanging over our heads.’” I quoted.
“Isn’t that from All Quiet on the Western Front?” Tony asked curiously.
“Yeah.” I admitted. “I’ve been thinking a lot about war lately.”
“How long do you think its going to be until war breaks out on the outside?” The way Tony said the question was more like a statement. I’d been asking myself that exact question thousands of times over.

How long?

Uprisings had tried and failed, but how long until an actual war?

No doubt that when it happened, it would quite literally be the war to end all wars –the war to end everything.

“Here’s hoping soon.” I replied after awhile.

***

Three hours later there was a banging noise heading towards us, coming from behind. It wasn’t stealthy whatever it was.
It was the sound of metal on metal, and it struck fear into my heart because the Hulk was not made of metal.

“What is that?” I whispered, sticking close to Tony.
“My best guess would be Stane, but he’s dead.” Tony replied and continued to move quickly but the footsteps followed our every move.

“Maybe we should stay put? Let it attack us, we haven’t had any sign of Bruce all day.” I suggested.

Tony sighed, stopped walking and ran his hand through his hair. “Alright. It’s not like it can do anything worse to us.”

And so we waited, it only took a few minutes for the nature of the sounds to reveal itself but when it did, Tony swore under his breath and ran. Four Iron Man looking suits stomped up to us. I’d heard of these before. They were creations that Hammer Tech designed and Whiplash created long, long before the Invasion, but ever since then, they had become essential in keeping the ‘peace’ between the districts and the republics.
They were Hammer Drones. They didn’t require a human inside to work them, instead they were controlled from a computer half a world away.

“Tony,” I whispered, “What do we do?”

“Only thing we can do; run and find Bruce.” He told me gently and we turned around, and sprinted as we heard the distinct cocking of guns behind us and high pitched ‘zinging’ noise of a laser beam.

Oh my god, I screamed in my thoughts, I’m going to die. I always knew I was going to in the Games but... I’m going to die, I don’t want to die! I tried to hold myself together, keep running and find Bruce. I knew that if I was going to die, I wanted Bruce to do it –or Tony. Just not some wretched creation of the Council. I wanted a hero to do it.

“Bruce!” Tony called out desperately. There wasn’t an answer. “Bruce!” He tried again.
I let out a scream that I’d been holding in since I laid eyes on the Drones and shrieked; “BRUCE!”
Tony paused for a moment to turn and look at me like I was a dead person already. That pause cost him greatly, he got hit with a bullet, but only in the armour, but it still took out one of his guns.

“Bruce!” Tony yelled out once more and we heard the giant thumping of the Hulk running in front of us and we ducked, he stepped over us and tore one of the Drones apart, artificial limb from artificial limb. He threw the parts away and tried working on the others, but they had their guns blazing, hitting him with force that he couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Tony, do something!” I yelled, pulling out my gun but I didn’t know where to aim.
“Um,” He thought quick on his feet. “Duck!” He exclaimed and I flattened myself on the ground as the ‘zinging’ of lasers got louder. When I looked up, and the Drones were cut into pieces, completely destroyed and the Hulk had a deep cut on his arm and another matching one down his back. They were healing rapidly but I couldn’t block out his cries of anguish.

Suddenly, a beeping sound drew my attention away from Tony and the Hulk.
“What is that?” I looked around. There were multiple red lights flashing on the mangled metal bodies of the Drones.
“Shit.” Tony exclaimed, grabbing me and running. “They didn’t turn off the self-destruct!”
“You mean they’re rigged to blow?” I screamed in horror. “We have to save Bruce!”

But my last sentence was cut off by a deafening explosion. The sound rang in my ears. I couldn’t hear anything over it, everything moved in slow motion, the fiery ball and debris following us down the twisted hallways. Tony yelling something at me that I couldn’t decipher. All I knew was that Bruce would be dead, blown to pieces, we would soon hear a cannon fire and that Tony and I would have to fight until one of us died.

***

About an hour later, the sun was higher in the sky and Tony and I sat in the Cornucopia, away from the cameras. It was just about the only place that I’d figured out couldn’t be seen by the world.

I was shaking. I was in the final two –any minute now, Tony would aim a gun at my head and blow it sky high.

My ears were still ringing a little, but as far as I knew, I had no permanent hearing damage –yet.

But I wanted to know the answer to something before I died. I wanted to have that mystery note cleared.

“Tony. “ I spoke up for the first time in an hour. “What do you need to wipe out?” 

******

Author's Note: Hello! So, uh, yeah... Bruce is dead. And Tony's about to tell her EVERYTHING -but what exactly is 'everything?'
What do you think Tony needs to wipe out? There are a million and one possibilities -but what could Tony possibly owe Clint? Any ideas?

As always, if you've got questions for Estelle, comment them below!

Stay tuned for more; I've got another chapter up my sleeve that I'm going to post straight after this!

Next upload will be soon, and after chapter 25, the next upload will be this Friday -I promise!
Until then, comment, vote, like!
*huggles* arielleblack.