Five years after Thanos, an intergalactic warlord, disintegrates half of the universe, the Avengers must reunite and assemble again to reinvigorate their trounced allies and restore balance.
° Book Four, fourth installment from Game of Survival. Bas...
The brunette glared at the blonde woman before she noticed Tony emerging from the ship assisted by a blue-purple, mechanical woman. Without a second glance at her mother, she rushed forward to her friend.
"The wicked always survive." She said with a small smirk.
"I'm starting to think that I'm just really good at dodging death." Tony replied weakly as he tried to conjure up his signature playboy smirk.
"Hmm, looking a little grey to me there, T." She teased as she eyed his new grey streaks of hair. "So perhaps time has caught up." She continued as she helped him down the ramp of the spaceship.
"Azar.." A soft voice called but was only met with retaliation.
"Thank you for saving my friend, Carol." Azar replied, annoyance laced in her tone. "But as far as the mother-daughter chats go, you are about 20 years too late." She added with a bittersweet smile.
The words had cut the blonde like a knife as her face fell, the brunette simply turning away from her.
"That's your Mom?" The billionaire asked, looking from the blonde back to his brunette friend. "Damn, the gene pool was good." He commented with a smirk.
"You know, for a man who looks almost dead, you sure as hell do talk a lot." Azar shot back playfully.
"Sarcasm and wit, two things you can never turn off when it comes to me, Danvers." He replied quite proudly.
"Well, I could if I stitched your mouth shut, Stark." She commented with a smirk. " And it's Barnes." She corrected before a frown etched its way onto her face.
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"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey announced to the heroes, who all sat in the living room, each one staring at the holographic casualty report which listed the names and faces of those lost to the decimation.
Azar stared at the report of her husband and sister, Carol staring at her lost daughter and friend, Nick Fury.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census." Natasha continued. "And it looks like he did.. He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
"Where is he now?" Tony asked, looking towards Steve, who had leaned himself against a table.
"We don't know." The super soldier replied. "He just opened a portal and walked through."
The billionaire playboy sighed heavily before he noticed a sullen-looking Thor, sitting on a bench and staring at his hands. "What's wrong with him?" He asked, pointing towards the god.
"Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed." Rocket replied, causing Tony to look at the raccoon-oid in astonishment. "Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?"
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear." Tony said.
"Maybe I am." The raccoon responded.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing." Steve said before turning to the genius. "Tony, you fought him."
"Who told you that?" Tony asked with surprise, causing all eyes to turn to him. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight."
"Okay." Steve nodded.
"He's unbeatable." Tony added.
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" The blonde soldier asked.
"Pfft!" The billionaire scoffed.
"I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision." He continued. "I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."
Steve pushed himself away from the desk and took a step closer towards Tony. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." He said.
"And I needed you." Tony seethed. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. Its too late, buddy. Sorry." The blonde soldier sighed softly.
"You know what I need?" Tony asked as he stood up, pushing items off the table with a clatter causing everyone to wince. "I need a shave. And I remember telling all youse--"
He went for Steve but was stopped by Rhodey. "Alive and otherwise what we needed was a suit of armour around the world!" Tony proceeded to ignore his friend. "Remember that?" He looked around at his teammates. "Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not-that's what we needed!"
"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve replied, his blue eyes holding exhaustion.
"I said "We'd lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.'" Tony said which made the blonde soldier frown. "And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there." Steve's frown deepened.
"But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers. Right?" Tony continued to get himself worked up as Azar stepped forward to calm her friend down.
"Okay, T, you've made your point." The brunette said. "Just please sit down."
"Okay." Tony replied.
"Okay?" She questioned.
"Nah, here's my point. You know what?" Tony ranted as he moved forward, pointing towards Carol all while Azar and Rhodey protested. "She's great, by the way. We need you, and no offense to Azar, but we need new blood. Bunch of tired old mules!"
He then walked right up to Steve's face. "I got nothing for you, Cap!" He said with venom. "I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar."
The blonde male was truly affected by Tony's words as the two old friends gazed at each other. After a brief moment, Tony ripped his Arc Reactor from his chest and shoved it into Steve's hands. "Here, take this. You find him and you put that on." He said, pointing at him. "You hide."
All of sudden, the billionaire playboy collapsed to the floor, Steve and Azar immediately at his side.
"Tony!" Azar yelled in concern but was waved off by her friend.
"I'm fine. I.." Before he could finish, Tony fell into an unconscious heap on the floor.
