A Future Boy is the Pasts Problem

Head to Head Part 2

Some of my favorite chapters are ahead after this one! A number of things. Also fun fact, this arc of the story was only supposed to be 3 chapters long. That didn't happen as you'll soon see. I'm finishing it up in the chapter I'm working on now. Onward to the story!

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~
0=change focus to a different character
00=scene change (no matter how big or small)
000=timeskip
F000=this means that we move back to the next avengers time.
P000= No this is not poo. it's moving back to the past.
~

Chapter 14: Head to Head Part 2
"Something's not right..." Hulk said from Falcons body as he moved closer to his team. The Avengers were looking at their bodies as this sunk in slowly.
"Is this for real? Am I the only one totally freaking out right now?" Falcon asked as Cap. Francis shook his head.
"Nope! I'm in the wrong body too! Major problem!" Clint spoke from Thor's body as he looked at his hands and moved them.
"I'm short! I'm fucking short!" Francis said as he stood up, looking up at everyone. Aside from being able to see colors in a normal range, he hated this. Pym looked annoyed by this from Francis's body.
"That's what you're focusing on?" Pym said as he rubbed his eyes, looking around at everyone in confusion. "And why does everything look so...wrong?" Francis didn't even process this question.
"Of all the people to switch with why did it have to be Pym- whoa!" Suddenly he felt energy course throughout his body and he was much smaller and floating. He looking around quickly, but this caused him to start flying around in random directions. He let out a yell as he flailed a bit, trying to get that under control. A hand, thankfully, grabbed him from the air.
"Hawkeye stop! Your panicking is going to make it worse!" Pym said quickly as he opened his hand. Francis took some deep breaths as he stood on Pym's- his hand? This was so weird.
"We're all in the wrong bodies," Tony spoke from his younger fathers body. Yep, that's making things a thousand times weirder. "Looks like we just got a crash course in the power of the mind stone."
"Which MODOC escaped with," Cap said from Tony's body, pointing in the direction MODOC had been before the body swap. He was no where to be seen.
"Can we fix it? I don't want to shrink every time adrenaline floods my system!" Francis shouted so they could hear him. "And how the hell do I get back to Pym's normal size??"
"Focus. Panicking can make you shrink if you're not focused. Focus on growing," Pym told him as he set him on the ground. Francis shifted a moment and tried to do as Pym said. He really didn't like being small enough to be stepped on. "Try to think of something happy or normal. As normal as we can get anyway." Francis let out a dry laugh but did as he instructed since he didn't know how to control Pym's powers. He could hear the others beginning to complain about who's body they were in, but blocked them out to think. He thought of his dad, the one that raised him, and the Scavengers. The energy spread through him again and he felt himself growing. Soon he was back to normal, well... Pym's normal anyways. He let out a breath of relief.
"Thanks," he told his friend.
"No problem. As long as you're in my suit you won't go subatomic, but you will shrink and grow. Just don't get angry okay? You don't have enough room in here to go big," Pym said cautiously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Don't get angry... got it," Francis replied.
"And, why does everything look weird?" Pym asked Francis, looking specifically at Cap in Tony's body. Francis took a moment, debating whether to answer.
"Weird how?" Tony asked Pym, curious of the answer.
"Like... like your suit," he points at Cap. "Looks wrong... The colors are all messed up." Francis sighed.
"That's because I'm color blind, Pym," Francis mumbled. He hadn't told anyone about it. But Tony had noticed when he'd made some comments on some colors of things. Until then, he hadn't even known he was color blind. Then Tony gave him his fathers glasses after tinkering with them and he could finally see colors at the right intensity and distinguish between shades of the colors he had issues with. "My sunglasses correct it, but they won't do much the way they are right now." Pym stared at him.
"How come you never told us?" He asked, almost sounding hurt by the fact he'd never said anything. Francis shrugged.
"It's not important, just a part of my life. It doesn't keep me from being able to aim or shoot or do anything anyone else can do. Just makes things look off. Not to mention I didn't even know I was color blind until I started teaming with you guys. What you're seeing now is my normal," the young archer explained. Pym dawned a thinking face.... is that really what his face looks like when he's thinking? This was all still so weird. Speaking of weird, it looks like his dad, in Thors body, was attempting to pick up Thor's hammer that simply wasn't budging. It was kind of comical. Despite all the muscle of Thor's body he couldn't lift this simple hammer.
"Come on! Looks like Thor and flexes like Thor-" his father was cut off by the hammer deciding to fly up and out the window just to get away from him. Francis would be lying if he said he didn't laugh at that.
"Mjolnir knows you are an imposter. It returns to Asguard to await its true owner!" Thor/Widow said. Francis could tell he was smirking. Francis shared a laugh with Pym watching this scene.
"But... Thor without his hammer is like Tony without money!" Clint exclaimed incredulously. This made Francis laugh harder. It triggered the feeling again and he was soon the size of an ant again, tumbling in the air as he laughed. His dad-Tony- God this was confusing- grabbed him in mid air to keep him from flying out of sight like this. He kept laughing for a good minute before he finally calmed down enough to focus.
"Glad you find this so amusing," Falcon said. Francis let out a few more chuckles.
"Oh don't get me wrong, I'm freaked as hell about this, but you have to admit. My dad being unable to lift the hammer from the body of Thor and whining about it is hilarious," He replied with a grin. That did get a chuckle out of Tony. Clint let out a sigh.
"You got your sense of humor from me didn't you," Clint said, groaning a little. Francis motioned for Tony to set him down and focused on growing again, like Pym had told him moments before. He was soon back to normal size, though he didn't think he'd ever be used to that.
"According to my guardian, yeah he did," Pym said. He too had started laughing. A groan caught Francis' attention and he looked over at the SHIELD agent that had been shot seemed to be stirring... and now Rogue was gone. He must've slipped away in the chaos.
"I can't decide if that's a good thing-whoa!" Clint was interrupted by a laser being fired at him that he narrowly dodged. SHIELD was waking up. The agents began to fire at everyone.
"MODOC is still controlling Shield!" Cap yelled as Francis had to duck to avoid a blast.
"Avengers! Scramble!" Tony yelled, running for the exit. Francis was right behind him.
0
(~James~)
He felt wrong. His shoulder hurt. Everything felt so weird. He began hearing voices that sounded like they were under water and far away. Was that laughter too? What was going on? He let out a groan as he was starting to wake up. His shoulder hurt more and more. He blinked his eyes open, taking in the scene around him slowly. He was on his back. The floor felt like it was metal. He was clearly the one in the drivers seat right now. He looked around, feeling slightly dizzy and saw his shoulder. No wonder it hurt, he's bleeding from a hole in it. Did he get shot?
He sucked in a breath before rolling over and pushing himself up. His wound did not appreciate the movement and his body protested it. He was sitting on his knees he grabbed his shoulder to apply pressure. He heard gunfire and shouting. A familiar voice reached his ears.
"Avengers! Scramble!" Tony yelled but looking up it looked like Tony wasn't in the right direction of his voice. What was going on? He remembered MODOCs betrayal, which he clearly said 'I told you so' to Rogue when that happened. He remembered the pain of MODOC trying use the Mind Stone on him and Rogue shooting a SHIELD agent while aiming at MODOC.... He shot the agent in the shoulder. He has a shoulder wound. A quick look down at his uniform confirmed his thought process. This wasn't his body... He took a breath, trying to compartmentalize the panic that was rising. This was wrong. This was so wrong. Did the Mind Stone do this?
Wait... Not in his body... He could help. He could help the Avengers without Rogue trying to grab at the wheel. He could actually talk to his mom and dad. He smiled to himself, despite the pain, and looked around quickly. Where'd they go? They were gone. Most of the SHIELD agents were out of the room too. He got to his feet and realized that not only were they gone, but Rogue was too. That is not good. Rogue will use this chaos to his advantage. He had to find him. Him or the Avengers, whichever came first. Hopefully he'd find a first aid kit along the way.
Trying to be as unsuspicious as possible, he made his way out of the room and began walking the halls, listening for any gun fire as he did.
00
(~Pym~)
Pym yelped as a laser blast went past his head. This was the weirdest thing to ever happen to him. In Francis' body, he didn't have his powers. He can do hand to hand combat but he's better at ranged attacks with his stingers. Worse is Francis has his powers and could accidentally crush them all and himself if he started going big on reflex. And none of the Avengers were in the right body, meaning when Cap fires Tony's repulser he missed horribly and was only lucky that it actually hit the ceiling and caused metal to fall and block the agents from chasing them. Widow almost gave herself a concussion using Hulks head to open a door and Tony had no idea how to lead when everyone was responding to the wrong name and he kept looking at the wrong person when speaking. It was chaos. He was grateful for a moment to rest when they entered an empty room and FalconCap closed the door with the keypad. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
"We're gonna die. We're so gonna die!" he said as he tried to keep himself from hyperventilating. The bad feeling in his gut didn't help him with this.
"We're not going to die," WidowHulk said matter of factly before the tricarrier began to shake. The vents above them moved up and down and chairs swiveled around. This, too, didn't help his panicking.
"When did the tricarrier become a haunted house?" FalconCap said. Francis came up to Pym and grabbed his shoulders, since he was still bending over, and forced Pym to look at him.
"We're not going to die. We've gotten through worse remember?" Francis said firmly. Pym took some deep breaths. He wasn't done freaking out by a long shot, but Francis gripping his shoulders provided an anchor for him. He was able to calm down some but was still freaked out. "Get through this now, panic after. Okay short stack?" Francis' grin looked really weird on his own face. Pym took another breath or two and nodded. Then he smiled a bit.
"Actually, you're the short stack right now," he said with a teasing tone. The joking helped lose the panics hold on him a little and the face Francis made made it even better.
"You're always the short stack," Francis retorted though that wasn't as good as his usual teasings. It was enough to get Pym in a better place to handle this though. He just chuckled at Francis and the two moved closer to the Avengers. He started tuning into what the Avengers were saying.
"When was the last time you brushed?" Widow asked Hulk.
"Uh... brushed?" Hulk said confused.
"Oh that's disgusting," Pym made a face. He couldn't say he was entirely surprised that Hulk didn't brush. After all, his Hulk lived in the desert for the whole of Ultron's reign and he doubted that he brushed his teeth out there. Francis just shrugged. It didn't seem to bother him as much. Tony wasn't paying attention.
"We won't be operating at 17 percent for long," He said, much to Pyms confusion on where he got that number. He felt like he'd missed something by not paying attention. "When I get the Mind Stone contained it should reverse the affects of the mind swap," TonyHawkeye made his way to the screen to the right of the door they had just come through and added "I hope. The problem is that MODOC still has it and he's missing. Falcon."
"Yeah," Both HulkFalcon and FalconCap said.
"The Falcon that's Cap. Can you log into SHIELD and trace the Mind Stones energy signature on board?"
"No problem!" Falcon said as he quickly joined Tony at the keypad, who stepped out of his way. This interested Pym. He was the tech head of his group. He could help with that. He joined them at screen as Falcon began typing, examining the system. It was old, but he knew it was state of the art for this time. Still, seemed user friendly and should be easy to navigate. Before Falcon got far into the system the ship felt like it was beginning to shake.
"That's can't be good," HawkeyeThor said.
"Those are footsteps," He heard Francis say. "Really big footsteps."
"Hulk Busters. We don't have much time," CapIronman said, raising his hands so the repulsers could be at the ready. Pym took a defensive stance, trying to ignore the small headache that was starting in his head. He really wished he had his powers for this. Falcon kept typing as the footsteps got closer.
"Got it! Cargo hold," Falcon announced. Just in time too. The Hulk Busters broke through the door.
"Eliminate Avengers," the robot said, firing at ThorWidow, WidowHulk and HawkeyeThor. Those were big robots. Pym threw up his hands to fire a stinger before remembering he was not in his body.
"Oh hey... mind giving us directions to the cargo hold?" TonyHawkeye said. Pym wished he hadn't as the robot closest to them zeroed in on them.
F000
(~Outside Infirmary~Tony~)
Tony waited patiently outside the infirmary with Torrun. Both had their respective armors on. Torunn particularly seemed solemn. Ever since she'd seen the document on Rogue that Jocasta had found, she's been more quiet but also more driven to find their missing family members than ever. The door to the infirmary opened and Azari walked out, smiling, with the doctor by his side. The doctor looked somewhat apprehensive.
"Well, he's good enough to walk. As long as he doesn't over exert himself he should be fine. I'm still not a fan of this little escapade you have planned," Henry told them.
"We wouldn't be going if it wasn't safe, Henry. Especially with Azari," Tony assured him and he meant it too. He's been monitoring the lab every chance he got. No signs of life or robots around it since they'd woken up surrounded by the robot parts a week ago. He'd wanted to go sooner but Azari had to have the okay from the doctors first. He wasn't about to leave him alone after everything he's been through.
"I'll be fine," Azari added, clearly wanting to go and tired of being confined to the infirmary by Doctor Henry's orders. Henry sighed.
"Alright, but you're coming in for a check up as soon as you get back," the doctor reluctantly agreed. Azari nodded quickly. Satisfied, Henry left them to return to the floor he lived on. Azari let out a breath.
"Finally. I thought he'd never let me do anything," the young panther said, relieved. Tony let out a chuckle.
"It will be good to have you with us on this one. I have missed you greatly Azari," Torunn said with a soft smile. Azari returned the smile.
"I missed you guys too," he replied. He wasn't healed completely by a long shot, but he was enough to go with them on this. That was good enough for Tony. He was just glad to have his panther cub back home. Azari looked at the both of them. "Speaking of you guys, where's Pym?" Tony and Torunn turned even more solemn.
"We'll tell you on our way there," Tony answered. He could see the worry spike on Azari's face. It was going to be an interesting ride to the lab.
P000
(~SHIELD TriCarrier~James)
James walked through the halls carefully, one hand on his injured shoulder. He needed to find a first aid kit soon. The tricarrier began to shake, nearly knocking James off balance. He stumbled into a room near him with all the shaking before he managed to steady himself using a chair. The shaking didn't last long.
"I hope that doesn't mean an engine went out or something," he mumbled to himself and scanned the room. It was an office. Empty with few personal items and several desk drawers. On the wall was just was James was looking for. A first aid kit. He grabbed it and sat at the desk.
It took him a few minutes to field dress the wound, something he learned how to do in the last two years, and he let out a breath when he was finished. He looked at the desk, a lump forming in his throat. What if's flooded his mind.
What if the Avengers react poorly to him? What if Rogue finds him first? What if he never gets to say anything in the chaos? What if he doesn't find them in time? His eyes stared at some paper a moment and an idea came to him. He grabbed a pen and paused, briefly debating whether this was worth it. To write something down? Would this even work?
He shook his head. It may be his only shot. He started writing quickly, not wanting for this to take up too much of his time.
00
(~Rogue~)
This was wrong. Someone else was in here. Not his host. Someone else was in James' body and he hated it. He was relying on James' to get himself out of this mess and now he was stuck with some SHIELD grunt. Great. Not to mention the fact that Hawk has been with the Avengers this whole time. God only knows why. Even worse is his eyes weren't red. It was Barton driving the boat, he could tell. What happened?
More importantly, where is his host? With the possibility of James being somewhere else on this ship and not under his influence... it wasn't good for his mission. Life just threw him the one wildcard he couldn't account for.
"Damn it. I hate it that Rogers was right," he grumbled. He punched the wall. This was not his day.
00
(~Francis~)
Francis had ducked behind a desk when the shooting started. He heard HulkFalcon attempt to smash, which clearly didn't go well. This was a mess. Peaking out from behind the desk briefly he saw CapIronman shielding HulkFalcon from the robots fire.
"We know each other's moves, this shouldn't slow us down," Cap said.
'Knowing each other's moves and being able to perform them are two completely different things' Francis thought as he ducked back down and scanned the area around him.
"Avengers Assemble!" Cap called as he fired repulsers at the hulk busters so Hulk could take over. As Francis grabbed a chair, he saw Tony attempt to shoot an arrow with terrible form and get smacked in the face by the fletching for it. He shook his head and went to stand up, pulling the chair out as he did. Suddenly, he got forcefully pulled down by ThorWidow.
"Hey!" He said in annoyance seconds before Caps shield flew over his head and lodged itself into the wall by WidowHulk. Widow grabbed the shield and used it to smash the hulk buster she was against before throwing it back. Now Francis stood up and tossed the chair at an agent, knocking one over. Out of the corner of his eye he saw himself...Pym running at a hulk buster with an arrow in his hand.
"Pym if I get a new scar from this I swear..." he said quietly into the comms.
"I know what I'm doing," Pym replied as he jumped and stabbed the arrow into a spot at the back of one of the hulk busters. The robot tried to pry him off but he held tight long enough to use the arrow to pry open the slot and rip out the wires behind it. As the robot began sparking he took another arrow and stabbed it into the open area before jumping off. The hulk buster was definitely struggling but not quite down yet. Pym dove behind another desk for cover. He had to admit that was impressive. Hulk-Widow- the one in Hulks body smashed the head of the other hulk buster and used its body to smash open a hole in the wall.
"Go!" She yelled. Francis made a mad dash for the hole along with the rest of the Avengers. He had no idea how they were getting out of this.
"Francis, you're shrinking again!" He heard Pym's voice on the coms. Awe shit....
F000
(~Transporter~Tony~)
"Pym's in the past?" Azari said slowly, clearly trying to wrap his mind around this. Tony knew it'd be hard to grasp. These kids had never tangled with time travel before.
"Yes. And we believe Francis and James are too," Tony said. Azari rubbed his head.
"And how do we know that's where they are?" Azari asked. Tony and Torunn shared a look.
"What do you remember of the day we found you?" Torunn inquired gently. Azari frowned at the thought. Tony watched him carefully. He knew that Azari was unconscious by the time he'd found him and Pym on that rooftop during the chaos. He didn't know how much he could remember with the state he had been in... the state he is still in.
"Not much. That days a big blur to me. I kind of remember you guys finding me and having to run when I couldn't... I remember feeling really sick at one part and everything gets even blurrier from there. Why? What happened then?" Azari relayed. Tony winced at the tone he used. It was shaky, dark, and reminded Tony they still had a long road of healing ahead.
"A powerful object known as the time stone drew us to the year 2014. We were all separated. It took a while, but I found Torunn. She had found Hawkeye there," Tony paused to allow for her to take over. She nodded.
"Aye. He had managed to anger the Hulk of that time. I was helping him run. We had to stop. Hawkeye could barely walk on his own at one point. His head seemed to be the epicenter of his pain," Torunn disclosed what happened, her eyes showing that she was seeing the memory as she told it. "Tony pretended to be his younger self, using his armor as a cover to be able to do so. He got Hulk to be able to do so, but, right afterwards, Hawkeye ran from us. Something was wrong. I tried to keep up with him but I lost him...again." The sadness and guilt in her voice almost made it crack. Tony felt his heart break a little from hearing it.
"While Torunn looked for Hawkeye, I looked for you and Pym. When I found you, you were unconscious, but Pym told me that Hawkeye had saved your life before running from the Hulk," Tony said as he checked how far away they were from the lab. Azari remained quiet taking this in.
"I... I think I remember some of that. After feeling sick I thought I had sen Hawkeye but I thought I had been dreaming..." he trailed off, struggling to bring more of the memory to the surface.
"Don't focus to hard. You were...are still recovering. I don't expect you to remember everything that happened then," Tony said, turning his attention back to Azari. "For the passed several months, I've been having memory flashed. One of these memory flashes happened while we were in the past. James was in Avengers tower, what the citadel used to be called. I wanted to monitor your vitals and ensure your safety, so I sent Pym to find him. That was the last place I saw him. He didn't return to the future with us and these flashes have started to include Pym in them. That's how we know he's there." Azari went quiet, digesting the information.
"So how do we get them back?" The young panther asked.
"We think James and Hawkeye were in the past before what happened to us. Which means wherever they went after you last saw them is where there's a way to get back there and find them," Torunn explained as Tony took the controls off autopilot. They were beginning to land. Azari looked out the window.
0
(~Azari~)
Azari stared out the window, watching the land get closer and closer but not really paying attention to it. This was a lot to take in. It lined up with what little he knew, their disappearing, but that's it. It seemed crazy, even for what they've all been through.
Time travel? If... if Ultron really was back and he had that capability, that was terrifying. He hoped to god those robots he overheard were just relaying really old orders. He glanced at his hand and, for a brief moment, attempted to call forth a spark or anything from his powers. Nothing. He still couldn't access them. Without the electricity going through him in a steady flow, he felt exposed. Like all his siblings, he could fight, but his condition wouldn't make that easy. Was it a good idea to come? Was Dr. Henry right? He felt a metallic hand fall on his shoulder, making him involuntarily wince.
"We're here. You sure you're up for this?" Tony asked him. Azari nodded and stood up. He looked around at the area around him. Grass was overgrown, trees were surrounding the building before them. They didn't look incredibly healthy, but they were there. The building and a few surrounding ones looked neglected. It seemed Ultron hadn't focused too much on innovating this area. Maybe he did that on purpose?
The building itself looked abandoned, but so did any building not innovated and not lived in by people. But he knew the building. He'd woken up when he and James had been brought there and gotten a look at the building. He took in a breath and forced himself to move forward with his team. He was shaking slightly and it was hard to keep back the memories.
Torunns hand fell on her shoulder and he looked at her. She nodded to him and he nodded back, silently affirming that he could do this. They moved forward together and Tony got the door open. Entering, Azari half expected robots to flood into the halls and rush them, but was only met with the parts scattered around the floor.
This was weird. Seeing the place so empty.
"What happened?" He wondered out loud.
"We did. The Avengers of the past dealt with a lot of the robots while we were there. When we came back they were nothing but parts," Tony said, using his repulsers as a light. No robots. Good. That makes it better. Not great, but better. They entered the main room, where the robots checked the database and intook prisoners.
"Azari, when I say so, get ready to shock and run." James' voice reaches his ears. He sounded tired. Azari didn't blame him. He'd only just woken up after being knocked out by the robots that ambushed them. He wasn't 100%.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? There's a lot of robots here man," he whispered back. "Not to mention you don't look great."
"I don't like the odds either, but if they get us wherever they're bringing us to, I think it'll get a thousand times harder to get out," James replied. Azari nodded.
Azari shook his head, clearing away the memory. That was behind him. He had to focus.
"You got all the people out?" He asked. Tony nodded.
"Did you know any of them?" He asked. Azari shrugged.
"We weren't really allowed to socialize much... but I got a know a few," the Wakandan boy answered.
"We're going to get out of here," James said, sounding so sure. He banged his hand on the wall of the cell they were in. Azari rubbed his the bruise on his face. Needless to say, their first escape attempt didn't go well.
"Yeah, but how? Even after I short circuited the robots in the room, so many more flooded in. We didn't even make it to the front door," Azari responded. He didn't want to be the pessimist here. If anyone could come up with a way out of this, James could, but he also knew he made a valid point.
"I'm working on that. How long do you think we were out after that fight?" James asked.
"40 minutes maybe?" Azari guessed. James shook his head.
"I meant the fight that got us here. After I stormed out and we were attacked, how long were we out?" James clarified. Azari paused.
"That's hard to say. I think it might've been a few hours, but I don't really know," he shrugged. That bothered him. Who knows how far they traveled in that amount of time. They could be anywhere now..
"The Team has to of noticed we haven't come back by now..." The red head said, putting a hand to his chin.
"You think they know what happened? With the robots and everything?" The Wakandan boy mused himself.
"Probably. They're smart," James said. "So are we. We'll get out of here by either escaping or them finding us."
"Who are your friends that you can have such faith in them?" a raspy voice said from the wall next to them. Looking up, Azari saw a vent up high, way to small to fit through but it seemed to be where the voice was coming from. He and James shared a look briefly.
"We're Avengers," James responded cautiously. The person on the other side let out a laugh that was clearly very painful to do.
"The Avengers died out before your time kid. There are none left," They responded. The silence that followed was palpable. That cut both of them deep.
"Ah shut up you old hag. Let the kids have faith. They're going to need it," another voice came from the side wall, where another vent resided. The 'Old Hag' grumbled something incoherent. "What're your names?"
"James," Said redhead introduced himself hesitantly.
"Azari," The Wakandan followed up. There was a silence on the other side of the wall that made the two uneasy. It got a little awkward.
"What's your name, sir?" James broke the silence after a moment.
"..." they heard him take a breath. "You can call me Ronin."
Azari blinked and was in front of the cell that he'd been in for a year. Torunn was beside him, a worried look on her face. Tony wasn't with them. He didn't know how long he'd just checked out for.
"Where's Tony?" he asked.
"He's at the main terminal. What just happened? You walked over here and just didn't say anything, just stood here," she asked. He shook his head.
"I don't know. I don't think it was a good idea I came here," Azari replied, looking away from the cell. He didn't see Torunns response to this as he closed his eyes, giving himself a moment. "Let's get back to Tony." Opening his eyes, he saw her nod and took his hand. She gave his hand a quick, reassuring squeeze before leading him through a set of doors Azari hadn't been through before. Tony stood at a large monitor on the other side of the room. He looked around the room. It vaguely reminded him of a training room minus the monitor.
"How's the search going, Tony?" Torunn spoke up. Tony turned to look at them, his eyes lingering on Azari a moment, clearly very concerned.
"I already have most of what's here, but there has to be something," He informed them as he turned his attention back to the screen. A few minutes after, he accessed a video file that began to play automatically on the screen. A boy, looking to be a teenager, and a girl younger than him were on screen. They looked alike and were likely siblings. Both had black hair and fair skin. The boy had bright blue eyes that seemed almost unnatural. The girl had brown eyes. They both looked worn out and dirty, clearly having been there a while. Azari didn't recognize them though. He didn't recognize the place they were at either.
The video was hard to watch.
"Let her go!!!" The boy yelled, struggling against the robots holding him.
Negative. The test will proceed. Cease your resistance subject N-277
"My name is Jason you jackasses! Let go of my sister!!!" He did not cease struggling. The girl being held by the other robots was frozen and shaking. She seemed to be crying silently. "You don't even know where she'll wind up! You can't do this to her!"
The tracking nanites will allow us to track subject N-276 through the time portal. We will know exactly where. That is the objective. Stand down.
A robot shocked Jason, making him spaz before going limp a moment, breathing heavily. The girl let out a cry at the sight but the robots ignored her. They forced her towards a large device implanted in the wall. It powered up, light pouring out of it. She unfroze and started fighting against the robots, screaming in fear. Jason's fist balled up. A familiar band on his wrist was sparking. Frost spread across the floor.
"KINA RUN!" Jason yelled as a blue explosion emanated from him, temporarily blocking out anything else on the tape. A moment later the scene returned. Jason is hugging Kina close as she cried in his arms. There was patches of blue on his skin that were slowly receding. The room was covered in ice and snow, ice-sickles hung from the ceiling, robots were frozen in place. Amazingly, the portal was still on and functioning.
"I know sis, I know. It's hard. But we have to run while we have the chance. We have to get back to mom-" Jason was interrupted by a whirring sound. Some of the robots were breaking out of their frozen prisons. A good amount more entered the room, having been alerted to the disturbance. Jason held tightly to Kina as they backed away. He looked around the room and seemed to realize they were trapped. He whispered something to his sister. She glanced back and nodded hesitantly. Jason glared at the robots, before picking up his sister and jumping into the portal.
The robots stood still a moment. One carefully approached the computer, attempting to avoid slipping in the still melting ice.
Nanites malfunctions in N-277, unable you track. Nanites in N-276 still functional. Tracking....
The video ended. The three stared at the screen.
"So... I guess we're looking for that?" Torunn spoke after a moment. Tony nodded.
"Yeah, that would be it. Azari did you recognize anything in that video?" Tony asked. Azari shook his head.
"Just the robots and the bracelet on the guy. I've never been to that room. Then again I've never been to this one either," the Wakandan boy answered. Tony plugged his suit into the computer and downloaded the video.
"We'll search this place together, see if there is anything else we can find. Hopefully it's here, if it's not I may be able to run a backtrace on where the video came from," Tony told them.
P000
(~Rogue~)
The ship shook for the umpteenth time as Rogue dropped an unconscious shield agent on the ground. MODOC clearly had them looking for him. It was the third agent he'd come across that tried too 'bring him in'. The agent's mind has proved useful enough in evading them, but he still didn't like how this was playing out. The only good thing that could come of this is that if Rogue is having a more difficult time, then the Avengers must be running around like chickens with their heads cut off. If he can find them and confirm this, then he has more of an advantage. He can use that.
00
(~James~)
James slipped the paper into his pocket as he checked the hall. No one was there. Good, he had to move now. The ship shook and he grabbed the wall for balance. He really didn't like how often that was happening. He moved down the hall cautiously, but quickly. He had to find the Avengers. Now!
00
(~Pym~)
"I don't like how often the ship is shaking," Pym said cautiously. His stomach felt queasy from it and his headache wasn't helping.
"Me either. Does this thing always shake like this?" Francis asked quietly from his place next to Pym. They were sneaking through the halls of the carrier, trying to avoid the SHIELD agents looking for them. TonyHawkeye shook his head as he glanced back at them.
"The ship is built for a large number of people to live on and work on, the amount of shaking is definitely not normal," he told them. Pym felt his stomach drop. Great.
"You think MODOC damaged the tricarrier?" FalconCap theorized.
"MODOC is crazy but not that crazy," HakweyeThor said.
"Hawkeyes right, MODOC would do a lot of things but he doesn't do them at the cost of his own life. Something else is going on with the tricarrier. So stay sharp," CapTony said. The group was approaching a hallway that split off three ways.
"Trying too," Pym said quietly. He ignored the worried look he got from himself...Francis... the confusion of their situation was not helping. At the three way fork they paused. There were no SHIELD agents here, it was eerily quiet.
"Which hall do we take?" ThorWidow questioned, looking at each hall.
"This one," Falcon, Widow and Hawkeye said at the same time, each looking at a different hall. Then they looked at each other. Francis groaned and Pym recognized the incoming argument. James and Francis had had a similar one before during a mission.
"What are you talking about? It's this way," WidowHulk said. FalconCap shook his head.
"I always went this way," HawkeyeThor said, pointing at the right hall.
"I just go straight, it's easier," FalconCap said.
"The quicker way is left," WidowHulk retorted.
"Alright, enough. If you've all gotten to the cargo hold from these halls then any of them would work. Just pick -" before TonyHawkeye could finish his sentence, a bullet flew past his head followed by a SHIELD agent yelling;
"There they are!" The agents opened fire again. Everyone acted on instinct and moved, scattering in several directions for cover. Pym stuck with Francis, going to the hallways closest to them with HawkeyeThor. He looked back at Tony and then down at Francis, who thankfully hadn't begun shrinking again.
"How did they find us so quickly?" ThorWidow wondered out loud.
"They must be tracking us somehow," CapTony said.
"Fight now figure out that later-" TonyHawkeye was cut off by more shaking that made several of the Avengers nearly lose their balance, stumbling into one of the forked halls or another. Pym fell back and caught himself on the wall. The shaking stopped once they were sufficiently separated and curiously so did the firing.
"They stopped," FalconCap said cautiously. "Maybe the shaking knocked them over?"
"Maybe....I don't like it. Let's take your path Falcon. We need to get moving while we can." TonyHawkeye finished speaking. Francis offered Pym a hand to pull him off the wall. Pym was dazed a bit by the fall, but was alright and accepted the hand. HawkeyeThor moves to cross the hall to reach Tony. He froze when a creaking sounded.
"I don't like the sound of that," Francis said and, as if on cue, doors closed on them all. HawkeyeThor had to jump back to keep the door from hitting him. Pym felt the panic rise.
"What was that? What closed it? How...." he trailed off as the realization that they'd just been cut off from the others settled in.
"This isn't a good sign is it?" Francis stated as he looked at the door.
"No, no it's not," HawkeyeThor said as he banged a fist on the door separating them. Pym shook his head, backing up a bit from them on instinct.
"What do we do now...?"
~
It never sat right with me that MODOC hardly did anything when he was the tricarrier. Given what little we saw of what he could do, I felt this was a good way to go. Especially with some of the next Avengers here. But now that James is in his own, and the Avengers are separated, what do y'all think will happen? I'd love to hear your theories in the discord and in the comments! I'll update again tomorrow!
~May 23, 2021~