Next Avengers: The Flight of the Hawk

Chicago

I have to say, life's been pretty weird around here lately. A gay couple, a normal couple, a half velociraptor, Loki's son, four villain clones, and a human Transformer. Wonderful.

Kier and Jason are pretty chill about their relationship, stealing a kiss here and there, but they don't make it too obvious. On the other hand, Penny and I interact any chance we get. We hug, we kiss, even just working side by side is heaven. Let's face it-I am hopelessly in love with her and she's madly in love with me. I just hope it lasts. 

Bee found a plant today. It was small, but it was alive and growing. It was so beautiful, with its neon stem and perfectly shapes minuscule leaves. Bee, Penny and I just sort of stared at it for a while, as if it would sprout into a tree in front of our eyes. Of course it didn't, but it gave us hope that the world was recovering.

Aisling and Colton have been working on something. They haven't let anyone but Kai see it. We don't know what the hell it is.

"Hey, Barton!" Kai yells, running up to me. He insists on calling everyone by their last name, and it sucks.
"What?" I growl, annoyed that he interrupted my target practice which I probably don't need but enjoy anyways.
"I can't find Kier anywhere," he says. "He was supposed to help me scavenge."
"He disappears sometimes," I reply, going back to firing arrows. "Just give him a couple hours and he'll be back."
"I'll just scavenge on my own," Kai sighs, turning and walking away, his metal arm reflecting some sunlight into my eyes and making me miss dramatically. I scoff at myself and jog after my arrow, looking around for it. I can hear it beeping, echoey, down in an old subway tunnel. I carefully jump in, landing lightly as I was taught and looking around. Graffiti has been scrawled everywhere on the walls, most of it intelligible. The subway has been derailed and leans at an odd angle against the wall. Inside, I can see couches and computers, all black and dead. Someone must've lived down here. I look more closely at the graffiti and discover that there's red words scrawled across the top. ALL DEAD, POPULATION: 1, I AM ALONE. Whoever lived here must've thought they were the last person on earth. Then I look under the words and notice symbols. Some I recognize, some I don't. I see the Avengers symbol, scrawled in silver way up at the top near the roof. I see the X-Men symbol. The Fantastic family. The red symbol on Bee's shoulder and a purple one next to it. Autobots and Decepticons...? There are  other symbols I don't recognize, like three red circles interlocking with each other, a star-like symbol like the one on Sam's helmet, and various others. This wasn't just our universe involved in this war, and I know that, but I didn't know how many people had been sacrificed to a losing battle. I wander a little more, then find a name that has been almost completely covered up by red graffiti. I can barely read the black text. I see something moving in the distance and slowly walk towards it, a sick feeling in my gut about what it is. I look up at it and my stomach squirms. It's a body, hung by the neck on a thick cord. It isn't decomposed all the way, either. There's still some hair on it and little bits of flesh. I back up, sickened. I have just found the remains of the late Amadeus Cho.

I grab my arrow and get out as soon as possible.

"What's wrong?" Kier asks, walking up to my perch on top of the dinosaur's head. I think her name was Sue.
"Nothing," I mumble back, brushing my arrow's feathers with my fingers, my legs crossed and my hair brushing my nose. I haven't cut it in months.
"Something's up," Kier said. "I've known you for long enough to know when you're troubled."
"I just thinking," I reply. Oh, did I mention that my brain randomly deletes letters?
"About what?" Kier asks. "I can read your mind. I'm going to find out anyways." I sigh, putting the arrow down.
"I found a subway tunnel today," I say. "And some stuff in it."
"What stuff?" Kier pushes.
"I found various symbols with names under them," I continue. "I recognized the Autobots and the Avengers and the X-Men and a couple others, and a ton I didn't recognize." Kier nods.
"Odd graffiti for a subway station."
"Yeah," I say with a curt nod. "It was."
"Well, we need you back at base," Kier says, setting his hand on my shoulder. "We lost Aisling again."
"Did she break down?" I ask, looking over at him.
"I don't know, I never see the girl," he says defensively, getting up. "She bloody disappears all the time."
"I'll help you find her," I say, hating myself for doing so since I know I'm useless in this field.
"Thanks," Kier says, jumping off and birding, flying away. "Meet you back there!" I climb down the ancient beast, dropping off of her and walking after Kier, keeping an eye on him so I don't fall too far behind. I fiddle with the Avengers member card in my pocket and suppress the sickness in my stomach, making my battle against myself a quick victory. Stay strong. Stay silent. Stay safe.