One of the several ships that had landed on Wakanda moved behind the trees. A door must have opened, because out suddenly poured hundreds - no, thousands of these weirdly bent, snarling, hissing, dripping creatures.
They all came sprinting to the dome, running over one another as they raced to get their prey.
Your breath hitched. Bruce said, "You don't have to do this."
You clenched your jaw. "You've been gone for a long time now. I'm not a kid anymore, Bruce. I'm an Avenger." Tendrils of blue wrapped up your arms and your eyes began to glow.
The rest of the ships opened. Out poured thousands upon thousands more, so desperate to get inside that they were trampling one another to attempt it.
"Are they killing themselves?" you asked.
Nat said, "Certainly seems like it."
A few of the aliens broke in, but not many. It was easy for Bucky, you, and Bruce to handle them on your own, even. Plus T'Challas first line of defense had shields you'd never seen before, creating another barrier.
Rhodes dropped explosives on them, Sam at his side. The aliens ran around to avoid it.
"They're circling the perimeter," you informed Bruce. He relayed the information to Cap, who looked at T'Challa.
And T'Challa ordered his sister to open up one section of the dome.
"Here we go," you muttered, taking a stance of defense.
Can't think about Dad, can't think about Peter. Not now.
They poured in.
"Wakanda forever!" King T'Challa shouted. Everyone shouted and, following the King's lead, headed straight towards the aliens.
You took out three in half a second. They weren't difficult to kill with your power. The difficulty came from the amount of them that littered the field, ripping and tearing apart guards and soldiers of Wakanda and their neighbors.
You saved a female soldier, scooping her up with one arm as she was nearly attacked from behind. Lifted into the air, she gave a motion of respect.
One of the creatures leaped into the air, eyes fixated on her. You dropped her, and she fell towards him, spear pointed down. The weapon went into its mouth, pinning it to the dry grass and killing it instantly.
You landed on the ground and began to punch aliens. You must've taken out a dozen just in that alone, but it didn't matter. They were all over the place. Your team couldn't keep up.
"Bruce!" you shouted, noticing you hadn't seen him in a while. You whirled around. He was being knocked on the ground, the aliens ripping apart the Hulkbuster in order to kill the man inside. "Bruce-!"
Something knocked you down. You knew that it was one of the creatures. You struggled to turn onto your back. Your arms and hands were surrounded in blue as you blasted it off of you, but three more piled on, ripping into your legs.
You threw your head back and cried out.
At the same time, the ground cracked and crunched. A beam of temperature-less light fell from the sky. You could barely see it from where you were laying, but then something was swung from it.
And then the creatures on top of you were killed.
You were able to sit up. You did so quickly, standing on weak, hurting legs-
And seeing Thor only a few feet away, standing with a thing made of vines and a literal raccoon with a gun in hand.
"You're all screwed now!" Bruce shouted.
You beamed and hurried towards him, running where he was suddenly running to. You launched into the air and, as he approached a thick crowd of creatures, you landed in front of him and pushed your power outward, knocking them to the ground.
Thor finished the job with his hammer and looked at you, beaming. "Well, look at you," he said. "A proper Avenger now."
"Well, after you left, they needed someone as good as you to defend the city," you said, joking like how you did when you were younger and Thor was around. "I just happen to be a little bit better." You lifted off the ground and took off.
He laughed and continued to fight.
You shot beams of blue down below. You noticed the small figure of the raccoon that Thor had brought was getting cornered, backed near a large stone. You dipped downward.
"Come and get me, you little-"
Ignoring the fact that he was talking, you shot them away and took place next to him. He fired his gun relentlessly, blowing up more dirt than anything.
But when he blew up the ground, you were able to blast the things in the chest or head, and they would explode.
"My name's ___," you said.
"Didn't come here to make friends, princess," he said mockingly.
You didn't respond. Instead, you grabbed the giant slab of rock the raccoon was standing in front of and threw it towards the things, then threw both of your fists outward, blasting a strong beam of blue light. It exploded into sharp shards, impaling at least twenty of them.
"Eh," the raccoon said, "what's the harm in making one more friend." He approached you. "You care?"
You stooped down and he scrambled up your back. Sitting on your shoulder, he fired his gun while you shot with everything you had, screaming with the effort you were giving.
There was a ring of burned grass and broken dirt around you when they were all dead.
"Not bad," praised the raccoon. "Name's Rocket. And I got a job offer for ya, kid. How'd you like to be a Guardian of the Galaxy? Then we'd have two human-type... things that shoot blue stuff out of their hands and we don't even got to work."
"Let's focus on this now," you suggested.
"Suit yourself," he said. He stayed on your shoulder as you ran ahead. He fired as you moved. "Come and get some, space dogs!"
He hopped down off of you and watched your back as you stood beside Bucky, who needed assistance. After they were all taken care of, Bucky looked at you and nodded.
"How much for the gun?" Rocket asked.
"Not for sale," he replied.
"Okay. The arm?"
Bucky walked off. Rocket lifted his gun and laughed. "Oh, I'll get that arm."
You shook your head and looked around. Even with Thor present, there were still tons of the aliens spilling out of the trees.
"You sticking with me?" you asked Rocket.
He shrugged one shoulder, firing one shot. "I don't see why not."
"Then come on," you said, letting him climb back onto your shoulder. You jumped off the ground, taking to soaring through the air instead.
Suddenly, something was lifting the ground up. You gasped and stopped abruptly, the heels of your boots skidding into the dirt. It raised out of the ground; a huge thing of some sort of metal.
You raised your hands and shot at it, but it was a red power that lifted it up and tossed it at a swarm of creatures. You beamed at Wanda, who didn't notice. You finished running towards the woods.
But one of the chain-like whips that the bigger aliens (an alien exactly like the one that you ran into with your dad this morning) were carrying smacked your legs, sending you toppling backwards.
You cried out. Your legs were already in pretty bad shape; now they were stinging.
Rocket had jumped off of your shoulders. He ran off and went after another group of aliens. The big one picked you up by the legs and threw you into a swarm of aliens. You cried out as they climbed on top of you, clawing and snapping their teeth.
Rocket saw, but tried to look away. But your screams of pain made him think of Gamora, of all people.
He cursed under his breath and turned around.
"Alright, space dogs," he said, "come on, time to move on." He opened fire on them, taking them all out in five seconds.
You pushed their bodies off of you, hissing.
"You good?"
"Great," you said, but when you stood up on your left leg, you cried out. There was a gash across your knee.
"Oh," Rocket said.
"Great," you said, tone changed.
You heard in your ear, "Guys! Vision needs backup now!"
"Crap," you said, "they need me in the forest. Vision..."
Rocket glanced at your knee. "Uh..."
You fell forward, hand clamping down on it. "Gah! Are you coming with me?"
"Considering if I don't, you may die due to your inability to realize that you are bleeding out, yes. Yes, I am coming."
"Okay. Then let's go."