Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 93: Battle Royal Part 1

Chapter Ninety-Three

Battle Royal Part I

Svatea-Acram Nebula

They barely set foot in the dark abandoned city that towered over the land to know that this was not going to be easy. The Other's ship was hovering in the distance, only visible because of the golden shield protecting it. If not for that, it would have been completely obscured by the dirty fog that seemed to be everywhere.

Stark really could have warned them about it, but maybe he just didn't notice, he was in his suit after all, the fog didn't cling to him like a second skin, an itchy, sticky second skin. Not much of his skin was exposed, but it was enough to drive him crazy. Bucky was so-so very glad that Steve convinced him to wear a mask. They did not need it technically, because the atmosphere was good enough for humans, but JARVIS mentioned heavy pollution in the city and Steve was immediately adamant about opening up their care packages.

Care packages, Steve hated it when he called them that. Fury sent them some nice high-tech equipment in big heavy SHIELD crates, delivered by Natasha herself. It didn't happen often, but once in a while before they went on a mission, SHIELD showed up with useful stuff. Steve was not sure where to put the gesture this time and neither was Bucky. Fury was either trying to play nice again to smooth things over between SHIELD and the Avengers, or it was his way of approving of this journey without actually approving of it. It didn't actually matter at this moment. Also, free stuff.

So yeah, high-tech masks and goggles. The weight of them on his face was all-too familiar, both comforting him and making him a little sick to the stomach, but that was nothing new. He felt like that every time he used a weapon that reminded him a little too much of the past. He kept glancing at Steve's back to remind himself who he was following.

SHIELD may have given them some extra stuff, but they still decided to go old-school. No jumping out of the flying spaceship like all the others. No, they waited until they landed and stayed away from the main battle zone, where Thor was decimating the attacking robot tanks and War Machine was blowing up turret after turret. They were doing more than well. The Hulk was not even needed yet. Bruce was sitting on the ship, not wanting to deprive Stark of any help he might need taking down the Other's barrier. They had enough muscle power to face what was around them so far.

This was why Bucky had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Call him pessimistic, but he just knew that this was not going to go so smoothly for long. It never did.

So when they finally arrived to the abandoned city he didn't even have it in him to curse as things started to light up around them, like light-switches being flipped on one after another. It was not a sudden meteorite shower. They were not street lights or windows that lit up, not even big neon advertisements. No, lights shone down on them from every direction like thousands of golden eyes.

He had his gun in his hand even before Steve shouted for them to take cover.

x-x-x

The automatic guns shooting at them were a problem, the random canons that activated via motion sensors were a bigger problem, the fucking flying robots, swarming around them like mosquitos that did not have a good sip of blood in centuries, were the biggest problem.

The little beasts were not even as big as a human head, but damn they were dangerous. Whoever invented them was hopefully rotting in hell... or whatever the alien equivalent of it was around here.

'Aim for the belly,' Steve suggested via radio. Bucky shot down a few of the things from his hiding spot then watched how the smaller Skrull girl, Bee, smashed one to pieces on the pavement, her arm shaped like a hammer. Not like Thor's, but similar enough.