And the Snap Echoes

Binary

Weeks passed. Things did not get any better. The world was in a mess. With half the population gone, it could be expected to be so. The crime rate had grown exponentially. Most of the governments were arguing over whether the Sokovia Accords should be lifted or not. Ever since Steve Rogers had announced in the UN General Assembly that the Avengers would be resuming operations, there had been constant unrest around the world. Be it protests against the Avengers or rallies against how authorities had failed to keep their loved ones safe, the world had indeed changed.

In New York, Avengers Headquarters were no different. No one was the same. Tony always had a broken look in his eyes and had anxiety attacks several times a day. Steve would lock himself in his room most of the times, and even when he was outside, no one who didn't know him would be able to guess that he had once been Captain America. Rocket would spend most of his time staring at the horizon as if hoping that the rest of his crew would turn up. Clint, who had returned to Headquarters with Natasha, would spend all of his time in the training room as if he was taking all of his anger out on the punching bags. The only one who seemed unchanged was Thor, whose vow had him scouring the universe for Thanos. But all was in vain. The moral of the entire team was down, and they seriously needed some kind of booster.

Bruce was attempting to put back Vision, or whatever was left of him. Without Shuri or Tony's expertise, it was proving to be a difficult task, but he was not going to give up so easily. He had taken Vision's body from Wakanda, as he believed that Vision was somehow the key to understanding the Infinity Stones, probably because had been living off the Mind Stone for three years. He had the body in front of him in his laboratory, but he had no clue what to do. He had reprogrammed the synapses to work collectively as Shuri had suggested, but to no effect. It seemed that some kind of power source was necessary for him to turn on.

"How's it going?"

Tony was standing behind him. In his zest, Bruce hadn't even heard him enter the lab.

"How are you?"

"Do I really need to answer that?"

"Sorry..."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Tony's eyes widened.

"INCOMING OBJECT DETECTED. ARRIVAL IN APPROXIMATELY T-MINUS 14 MINUTES!" F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice rang out throughout the entire compound.

In no time, everyone had gathered in the lab. Thor in full battle glory with Stormbreaker, Rhodey ready with the nanotech suit which Tony had given to him, Rocket with a huge gun which Tony wondered where he'd obtained from, Steve with his old Vibranium shield, Clint in his new badass suit. Tony himself got out his suit which he had repaired long since coming back from Titan.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., tell me about the incoming projectile."

"It appears to be some form of energy, except that it appears to be directed towards the earth. I know this because it veered around one of Jupiter's moon as if it had a brain of its own. Our satellites near Saturn were unable to get a clear picture of this object because it's moving too fast. I just managed to catch a glimpse of yellow light before it was gone. Should I activate the Mars Defense Systems?"

"Activate Earth's as well. We can never be sure these days"

"Okay, boss. Activating the Ma- "

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Mars Defense systems have been turned offline. Initiating Earth Defense Systems."

While Tony went about checking the systems, Steve addressed the group.

"We need to get out there. We need to find out what this thing is, and we need to ensure that it does not reach earth. God knows how Earth's gonna handle another threat right now. We need to neutralize it. As I've said before, I know that the timing's not right, for any of us in fact. But we're Avengers. If we don't do it, there is no one else left between this object and earth."

"That's the Captain America I know," Natasha smiled to herself.

"AVENG- "

BOOM!!

Steve was interrupted by a figure crashing in through the roof. The figure had a godly aura surrounding it, almost as if it had dropped down straight from the heavens. Bathed in a slightly simmering yellow light, it enlightened the dust around it. It gave off huge amounts of power, almost as if it were an atom bomb waiting to explode.

"Defense Mechanisms kick- "

WHOOSH!!

Before F.R.I.D.A.Y. could even complete the sentence, the laser beams, anti-invader guns, and blast sirens were knocked out.

When the dust cleared, there was a lone woman standing in the center of the newly-created crater, staring up at all of them.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Tony fired a repulsor beam at the figure, but she somehow managed to dodge it; the same with Rhodey. Rocket brought out his gun, but even the rain of bullets was dodged. Okoye's spear and Clint's arrows were disintegrated into dust before they could find their impact.

Thor began charging up with lightning when-

"WAIT! STOP!"

Too late to listen to Natasha, Thor directed the lightning towards the woman. It hit her in the chest, and she was flung against the wall.

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP!"

"Well, your warning came a little bit late," Thor said sheepishly. "Who is she anyway?"

"I think I know who she is. Fury told me about her once, back before New York. She is this supposedly super-strong entity who is friends with him way back from the '90s. Fury must think the situation's really bad if she's called her. They really weren't on the best of terms."

"So, what?! She just comes in and we're supposed to trust her?

"I don't think that you guys have any other choice, you know..."

Everyone whirled around. Standing in front of the wall was the woman, who had been knocked flat by Thor's lightning just mere minutes ago.

"How did you...?"

"How did I heal so fast? I can absorb energy and give it out whenever I want, maybe even storing energy to be used later. It's one of my powers."

"Wait, wait, wait. Start from the beginning. Who are you again? And what do you mean by one of your powers?" Tony piped up.

"My name is Carol Danvers, and for the past 24 earth years, I have been Captain Marvel."