FLIGHT ✔P.M. ₂

chapter twenty

"I AM GROOT," Groot agreed. The group had no time for this fighting, this arguing. The messing around. It wouldn't get them anywhere. They needed to get back on task, more than anything. Their friends were in danger. They couldn't have that.

"Right, that's a good idea," Thor mumbled, looking at the others for help. How could they track them down? While he didn't ask the question out loud, the others knew what he meant. For a moment, no one spoke.

Fed up with the silence, Robin huffed. "Well how do you suggest we even find them?" He asked the others, eyes on Rocket. "Follow the leader?" He asked sarcastically.

Rocket stayed silent, thinking. "It could work," He eventually mumbled.

Robin furrowed his eyebrows. "I was being sarcastic-"

"Can we get to it, please?" Loki asked, throwing his hands up in exasperation. They were getting nowhere, and their friends and teammates were getting further away by the second.

With a sigh at the terrible plan he unintentionally suggested, Robin agreed. He rushed outside (using a window, forgetting the others wouldn't be able to follow) and flew up, trying to spot someone. It didn't matter who. He just wanted to find someone who would eventually lead them to their friends.

He squinted his eyes. In the distance, between the crashed cars and vacant buildings, were tiny moving specs. People. They weren't moving quickly, but not slowly either. They looked like zombies. He went forward to follow them, when he heard a call.

"Robin!" Someone called, the faint sound coming from the ground below.

The demigod looked back, seeing Loki, Thor, Rocket and Groot waving him back down as they ran in the direction he was, trying not to run into anything as they did so. It was Loki who shouted up at him. With a sigh, he hovered down to the ground to join the others.

He didn't bother wait for them to get mad at him, they could do that any other time. They would, and he knew it. Instead, he just waved them along as he dashed in the direction everyone else was headed. He did not even glance behind him to see if the others were keeping up. He had his priorities. Right now, it was his friends. Getting them back to their normal selves.

As he dodged cars and mail boxes and various other obstacles, Robin wondered how he would explain not being under mind control to everyone. Loki, of course, knew he was a demigod, but the others didn't. He certainly was not going to tell them. But what else could he say? That he was Mary Poppins, and therefor, unaffected? Yeah, right. Like that would work. Maybe... he got an idea, but it wasn't fool proof. It could work, though. He just had to wait and see.

For now, he had to focus on getting the Avengers back to their regular selves. Superheroes, under mind control? If that didn't scream danger, he didn't know what did. Maybe the multiple wars he fought in, but maybe he was a little bias. He definitely was not salty at all.

With the others close behind him, Robin quickly caught up with the mind controlled people. The world really didn't get a break, did it? Less than a year ago, dirt monsters and a cyborg demigod hellbent on ridding the planet of humanity attacked. Now everyone's stuck getting mind controlled? It must not be fun. It definitely wasn't for Robin. Since when were aliens a thing he had to deal with? He had really hoped that day would never come. Yet there he was.

The cluster of people slowly came to a stop. Robin didn't. He kept looking out for his teammates. He pushed through the crowd, not uttering a word to them. It didn't matter - they weren't even in their right minds. Once he was a quarter through the crowd, he stopped and groaned. It would take forever by foot. He turned to his companions, and instructed for them to keep looking, ignoring Rocket's complaints about him not being allowed to boss him around. He kicked off the ground, using the winds once more to hover over the people. He narrowed his eyes, searching for the familiar people he lived with.

They wouldn't be together, he knew that. They were at different places when this happened. Wanda might be with the other Guardians, but he had no idea where the others had been.

As Robin and the others who weren't mind controlled searched through the crowd, the alien, who deemed himself "Lescy Oozix the Brilliant", started his big speech to the citizens of Earth. With the help of the kind people at HYDRA, he broadcasted a message. HYDRA, who had been spared from the mind control (due to it being their own technology that allowed it to happen in the first place, and the fact that they decided to collaborate with the alien), helped deliver the message. There were representatives in every town in the world. It was either that, or a live broadcast on a big screen. That was the case in New York.

"PEOPLE OF EARTH!" Lescy bellowed. His voice, despite being projected on a screen, came out clearly. "You are entirely under my control. Consider this a privilege. It is an honour to be able to do as you are told. To take orders from someone like me." He went on. "The first thing you have the benefit of doing, is build statues around for me, your new leader!"

Robin, who, while searching, listened in to that, scoffed. He couldn't wait to destroy those. Or, better yet, free humanity from enslavement. Then maybe beat the shit out of this alien.

He soon spotted Pietro, and flew down beside him. The problem was, he didn't know how to get him back to himself. So, being the sensible person he was, slapped him in the side of the head. When that didn't work, he settled for sending a shock of electricity through the taller boy's body. Nothing that would damage him, of course.