Avengers RBB fic!
Fic Title: if the world should break in two
Pairing(s): none, Gen fic
Rating: PG
Warnings: Slight crack, and liberal abuse of the character Grandmaster and his situation
Summary: Clint's a soccer legend, Doom's surprisingly dextrous with his feet, alien dads are restrictive too, Spider-Man's a fangirl, and there's a very intense game of musical chairs that gets interrupted by family drama. Well, not really...
Notes: I realize this is slightly late, but I offer the excuse that I had an exam today? Many apologies! And many, many thanks to my artist, who is amazing, and I hope you like the story?
The internet had to be Steve’s favorite thing about the 21st Century. The idea that with one click of a button you could connect with somebody halfway across the world or right next door, that a multitude of diverse people could share their talents and their lives with everyone else and not be judged for it. It was beautiful. Plus, there were plenty of fun activities to do on the internet, like the art history quizzes that Steve enjoyed taking. But Steve’s favorite part of the internet was undeniably twitter. He found the idea of using 140 characters to share your deepest feelings or mention the interesting trivialities of daily life fascinating. Steve liked to check @Inspired_Ones daily for nice quotes and @WeirdHorse always confused him but nonetheless remained strangely addicting.
He was sitting at the desk in his room, checking the list of trending topics on the tablet Tony had given him. Lady Gaga was trending, and she was truly a dame who embodied all that confused him about the future, inspiring and scaring him in equal parts. Some of her fans scared him more with the things they tweeted so Steve was quickly scrolling past that tag when his eyes caught on a new tag.
#avengerssoccer
Curious, he clicked on the tag.
U hav 2 c dis bb @in_deanial RT OMG how cute!!!! pic.twitter.com/dvtFSfRR
CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE THOR IN A SOCCER UNIFORM *SQUEALS* @terrrrificterry #avengerssoccer
OMG WHY IS THIS NOT IN OUR LIVES @darladarling #avengerssoccer
The top tweet, which seemed to be the one that was spawning all the other incoherent tweets, had a link for an image that Steve clicked on. It turned out to be a picture of Clint bouncing a soccer ball on his knee. Steve recalled the moment; it had been after a fight against some robot faeries that had damaged the city in an amount disproportionate to their size. They had been standing amongst the rubble post-battle and Clint had found a soccer ball which had narrowly missed being punctured by a large metal pole. He had bounced the ball on his knee a few times before kicking it over to a few kids nearby, who had looked ecstatic. It had happened yesterday. He was surprised at how fast it had spread around, though he realized he shouldn’t have been.
Just the other day Steve had seen someone asking a friend on twitter if Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo and Juliet was the original one, and someone’s tweet on The Starry Night had been about the literal starry night he could see outside his window.
As much as Steve loved the 21st Century, it was just so confusing. The things that caught the attention of the youths these days didn’t make a whit of sense to Steve. He could imagine the way Bucky would’ve laughed at the odd things people nowadays said, often not caring what other people would think.
Bucky would’ve loved this century so much.
*
It was a relatively quiet evening in the common area of Avengers tower. Tony was fiddling with some designs on his tablet, Capsicle-oh, don’t look at him that way, he says it with all the love in his heart-was sketching and Natasha was painting her nails on the floor near Cap. From what Tony could see, she seemed to be painting them gunmetal grey and she was painting different kinds of bullets on them. An episode of Grey’s Anatomy was playing but Tony wasn’t paying enough attention to know what was going on.
Of course, the word ‘relatively’ was used because Thor came bursting in right about then. Things are never quiet when Thor is there. Normally Tony appreciated that about the god but when nursing a hangover headache? Not so much.
“SHIELD BROTHERS. AND SISTER. I HAVE BEEN WITH MY FAIR JANE AND-“
“Right. We don’t need to hear what you’ve been up to, big guy.” Tony fired a quick grin at Thor before going back to his designs. “Also, inside voice please.”
“I KNOW-“ Thor paused before continuing, “I know what you are referring to, man of iron, but that is a tale for another day! I merely wanted to ask if you would consent to joining me in a round of the Midgardian game of soccer. IN THE REALM OF TWITTER, THE PEOPLE OF MIDGARD,” Tony clears his throat, “have expressed their desire for us to play the game and when I asked the mighty Google about it, his answer inspired much curiosity in me!”
“Yeah, no way, Fabio. You guys go have fun. Daddy’s gotta work now.”
“Do you not wish to test the dexterity of your feet? The people of twitter claim THAT A MATCH WE PLAYED WOULD BE EPIC BEYOND ALL LEVELS OF EPIC.”
“What’s this about ‘epic beyond all levels of epic’? Stark, what I have I said about talking about me behind my back?”
“Fuck you very much, Barton.”
“We were talking about an Avengers soccer game.” Cap sounded intrigued and Tony was surprised; he had figured Cap was a steadfast baseball junkie.
“Ah, so you were talking about me.” Tony opened his mouth to retort with something about Barton’s mother-it was a work in progress-when Thor interrupted.
“I WISH TO PLAY A MATCH OF SOCCER. WOULDST THOU DESIRE TO JOIN ME, CLINTON?”
“Mmhmm. Have fun without me, boys. Sports? Not so much my thing.”
“It would be a good team-bonding exercise…” Trust Cap to always be thinking about that sort of thing.
“Too delicate for a game, princess?” Barton’s gaze was half teasing and half challenging.
“Yeah? Well-“
“Don’t even think about it.” They all turned to look at Natasha. Well, Tony did and assumed the others did as well. When she used that kind of tone, he didn’t dare think about what would happen to someone who chose not to pay attention. “I want to play but I’m not going to ruin the pedicure I just got today. Save the game for next week.”
Barton shrugged, Cap went back to sketching and Thor looked like he was about to protest but was quickly quelled by Barton’s elbow into his side. Tony definitely didn’t have any objections. A glance at Cap showed slightly slumped shoulders and mild disappointment etched onto his face. Tony sighed. Team bonding didn’t have to involve sports.
“So… Anyone up for movie night?”
*
JARVIS had set up the movie, and just as everyone had settled down, Bruce having been dragged from his lab to join them, the six Avengers blinked out of existence. Bruce felt his body being yanked-close to the feeling he got when he was hulking out and his body was stretching-and within a blink of his eyes his surroundings had become a futuristic cream-colored antechamber. He tensed but he wasn’t feeling jarred or unsteady, even though he was standing when he had previously been sitting, just slightly disconcerted. He knew he should have stayed in his lab.
Bruce looked around; the antechamber had no visible exits. The walls looked sturdy but it was safe to assume the big guy would be able to break through if it became necessary. Upon closer examination though, the texture of the walls appeared strange. Slightly bumpy, like it was made of gravel, but nonetheless looking a bit like satin. He glanced around some more and his attention was drawn to the structure in the centre of the room. It resembled a complicated-looking podium, and clearly a designed to place the speaker in a position of authority and dominance over his audience. It was made of the same material as the walls, except it had shards of some glassy substance embedded in sections of it, creating an aesthetically pleasing design.
Bruce knew the exact moment everyone in that room knew of everyone else’s presence; it was a visceral, crawling feeling creeping along his arms. He could hear people shifting around behind him, definitely more than five people and his eyes narrowed as he warily turned around, tensing in preparation of hulking out if he needed to.
The Avengers stood together in a group, and next to Natasha was Spider-man. Past Spider-man there was... There was a clear demarcation between the people put together in the room, completely unconscious and completely expected.
The Avengers-and Spider-man-stood on one side of the room and stared at the other group of seven who stared back, equally hostile: Sin, Doctor Doom, Loki, Madame Hydra, Taskmaster, Super-Skrull, and Norman Osborn. Bruce noted with relief that when they had been transported, their weapons had come with them; Tony had his suit, Clint had his bow and Steve had his shield. Unfortunately, the villains all seemed to have their main weapons as well.
Bruce almost thought that a fight would start, he could see everyone tensing, wary of the other side. Instead, a figure stepped up to the podium. He was… Slightly disappointing. The figure was small, with pale blue-grey skin, wild white hair and unfamiliar robes, similar to a Buddhist monk’s robes in style. He appeared male and rather old. His eyes glowed red, with no visible pupils, and were difficult to read. He also didn’t look very threatening, but Bruce had intimate knowledge about unassuming men who turned out deceptively powerful.
“Welcome all to the realm of the Grandmaster and welcome to the games.”
Nobody made a sound until Tony said, wry and grinning, “I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”
Bruce sighed. He only hoped his experiments would be salvageable by the time they returned.
*
The villains were first to react, Sin stalking forward.
“Now, look here, dumbfuck, as much as I love games if you don’t send me back now, I’ll rip you to fucking shreds.” She pulled out a gun and aimed it at the man on the podium. Steve tried not to react and was grateful that Thor had the sense to stay quiet. He had to examine the situation thoroughly before attempting anything or it might get all of them killed. He was glad for his control when the man shot Sin back with an energy blast. She slammed into a wall so hard that he heard a crack as her neck broke from the impact. There was an intimidating silence as he watched the man warily. He glanced around the room, looking for possible exit routes, and found none. Thor was gripping his hammer tight, but more of his focus was on Loki than the man. Natasha was unmoving, like she always got when unsure, and Clint looked slightly twitchy, itching to move somewhere with a higher viewpoint. Bruce was steadily watching the blue stranger and Tony... Tony looked like he was trying really hard not to make a smart remark. The villains were harder to read but Doom and Loki in particular seemed uncaring of the display of power.
A couple more loud cracks caught his attention and he lifted his shield as he turned to see that Sin's neck and spine had shifted back into place. Madame Hydra was gripping her gun and Taskmaster muttered a stunned "What the fuck?”. Natasha had her knives out and Clint had an arrow nocked. An abrupt gasp came from Sin, who was standing back up, shocked and disbelieving. “What did you DO to me?!”
“I killed you. And then I brought you back.” He stated this very matter-of-factly, face impassive, red eyes cool, and continued before anyone could say anything else. “I am Grandmaster. I have gathered you here today to battle against each other. Two teams, which I believed have already been formed.” He looked almost bemused as he glanced pointedly at the separation between the heroes and the villains.
“Amusing, but I am nobody’s pawn.” It was Loki who spoke out this time, his smooth baritone carrying across the entire room. Blue light flashed, as it did every time Loki teleported himself or casted a spell, but nothing happened. The light dissipated and Loki was standing there in the exact same position as before. The look on his face could only be described as shocked and furious. Steve had the odd urge to sketch the fierce furrow of Loki’s brow, a study in anger and fury, but quickly dismissed it. Not the time.
“Currently, all of you are my pawns. You will compete in five separate games and the first group to win three out of those five is the winner.”
Silence proved too much for Thor, and he bellowed, “AND WHAT IS TO HAPPEN TO THE WINNERS OF SUCH A BATTLE?”
Steve found himself speaking out, “Or to the losing team?”
Grandmaster’s lips curved up, but his face might as well have not changed for all that was revealed in his eyes. “Well, I will not kill anyone as long as you comply. I think that can be considered enough of a reward. And yes, even so-called gods can die.”
There was anger thrumming in the air, connecting everyone in the room against Grandmaster. They needed a plan, possibly including the villains, but Steve did not yet know which could be trusted at this point in time.
"Ah... And do not think of attempting to kill me. I am one of the Elders of the Universe, and I am immortal. It might be a bit too much of a challenge for you." The condescension was stark in his expression and his tone of voice this time.
Steve's lips thinned. It seemed they would have to play along, at least for a while.
*
“Soccer?” The disdain in Doom’s voice was almost tangible. He made no effort to hide it. Natasha kept careful watch; Sin was fidgeting but obviously still affected by supposedly being killed and brought back; Super-Skrull was looking for an aerial escape route; Taskmaster looked nervous, attempting to hide slightly behind the others; Loki was frustrated but outwardly cool; Madame Hydra was tense with fear; and Osborn’s stance was insolent, but Natasha could see the cautiousness in his movement.
“How do you even know of it? Was it some ancient ritual from your planet that somehow passed to Earth or something and you’re now reviving it?” Spider-man followed his pattern of falling back on meaningless attempts at humor to disarm and distract, likely from his fear.
“I am old and I see all. I believe this game has become wildly popular as of late? As one of Earth’s most popular competitive sports, I thought I would ease you in with this as the first challenge. We will play this first game,” Natasha didn’t need to hear Grandmaster to see the mockery in his face, evident in the tiniest curve of his mouth and the twitch of his right eye, “without the aid of weapons. Feel free to use your powers though. Oh, and do not bother trying to escape.”
“But in this outfit? I dread to think of the chafing. My girlfriend’s going to be suspicious of my sore unmentionables.” Natasha wished she could reach out and strangle Parker.
“And our uniforms could have our little Avengers logo on the chest area, it’d be lovely.” Then again, Parker was young, he could learn. Stark was the one she really wanted to strangle, no matter if he was only being sarcastic.
“Very well. You shall all wear soccer uniforms then.” Natasha lips almost-almost-twitched up in amusement as every single person in the room, apart from Grandmaster, glared at Parker. She was too busy glaring. “I shall procure them for you.” His red eyes seemed to intensify and Natasha felt the telltale stretching before she appeared in a futuristic-looking locker-room along with the other Avengers and Parker.
“Report.” Natasha turned to Steve and immediately reported all her observations of the Grandmaster and their seven enemies. When she finished, Clint started up on things she had missed, and gave more detail about the antechamber though Natasha was unsure if they would return to that same place. Stark noted the data his suit had scanned and produced. Thor was pacing unhappily. Parker was uncharacteristically silent and, judging from his stance, watching Steve in awe. “Alright. From what we know, we may have no choice but to play along with what he wants, so let’s bide our time. He cannot hold all of us, plus the other seven, under his thumb and following his whims, indefinitely. The moment he lets his guard down, Avengers, he will regret bringing us to him.”
A few moments later a stack of soccer uniforms appeared on a bench, with a card reading '15 minutes’ placed delicately on top.
Natasha changed quickly and efficiently. The uniforms were navy blue, with thin pale blue lines striping the sleeves and the sides of the shorts. Like Stark had so nicely requested, the Avengers logo was printed in the same light blue on the left side of the chest area. They were comfortable though, and she felt confident she would be able to move swift and stretch as she’d like. She looked at the others in their uniforms. Parker had left his mask on. Thor really did look good in a soccer uniform. As the stretching feeling returned, Natasha let a casual smile cross her face. Soccer, hm? She was Russian, and this was going to be easy.
*
They appeared in the middle of a soccer field this time. Peter was torn between screaming in delight at the fact that he was STANDING BESIDE THE ACTUAL AVENGERS and screaming and running away from the fact that there were SEVEN major villains beside him as well, plus that blue dude, Grandmaster, who had kidnapped the lot of them.
They hadn’t really discussed much strategy, other than Hulk being the goalkeeper. The villains seemed to have a similar strategy, with Super-Skrull as the goalkeeper.
Then the game started.
Avengers had the ball first. Captain America kicked the ball to Black Widow, who attempted to pass it to Hawkeye but Loki iced ground and she missed. Peter webbed the ground in front of Loki’s feet so he wouldn’t get the ball but Taskmaster intercepted it before any of the Avengers could. Madame Hydra received the ball from him, and with a bit of shoving, Sin caught the ball next. Peter was just surprised that everyone was cooperating. Then again, he supposed that the villains, none of whom were stupid or easy, figured that temporarily playing along would be in their best interests. Iron Man tried to intercept the ball but Doom intercepted Iron Man and there was a brief scuffle before Osborn got away with the ball, kicking it towards the goal. Peter used his webs to swing off Osborn-Ha! That’ll piss him off!-and kicked the ball to Thor. Thor ran a good distance with the ball, too far away for Peter to help so he busied himself distracting Osborn. Iron Man got the ball next, kicking it over to Black Widow. Loki attempted to intercept again, eyes flashing blue with his magic, but Captain America blocked him from Iron Man and Black Widow managed to get the ball. She proceeded to do some painful-looking acrobatics and kicked the ball at the top right corner of the goal, but Super-Skrull easily blocked… Nothing? Peter looked at the ball inside the goal on the left side and glanced at Hawkeye, standing smugly by Black Widow’s side. Peter only wished he could carry out such sneaky spy acrobatics. Goal 1 to the Avengers.
Peter had initially thought Black Widow was impassive to the game, but as the match went on, he realized that she was quite nearly the most enthusiastic. She executed moves with deadly accuracy, playing the game like her life depended on it, which it sort of did. He first realized it when Iron Man, who in contrast didn’t seem to be taking the game seriously at all, attempted to intercept the ball from Loki, laughing as he did so. Black Widow swooped in and kicked the ball away from Loki in that moment when he was distracted. The intensity on her face as she passed the ball to Thor before Taskmaster could take it from her was scary.
He probably should have been paying more attention to the game but Black Widow seemed to be winning it for them anyway. Peter couldn’t help it! Doom was wearing his metal armor with the soccer uniform on top and the overall effect was frankly rather hilarious. Even looking as he did, Doom was surprisingly good at soccer. He did some complicated footwork and stole the ball from Thor, and passed it to Sin, who kicked it to Osborn, who kicked the ball fast enough that it slipped past Hulk’s fingers. Goal 2 to the Scary Seven-okay, not his best work, but they were scary!
Goals 3 and 4 were to the Avengers. The villains had cottoned on to the fact that Black Widow seemed to be the reason the Avengers were doing so well and stuck to her. As a result, the others were freer to score, which meant it was a win-win situation for their side. Goal 5 was a lucky shot, but it was a shot nonetheless, which left the score at 3:2 to the Avengers.
Peter’s powers unfortunately lent him more towards jumping around, so soccer wasn’t the ideal sport for his skill set. He was happy to say that he contributed importantly to goals made by the others though. At least, he hoped he had helped and wasn’t deluding himself about his significance, and it wasn’t really the moment to be questioning himself when he had the ball. Peter feinted a kick to Thor and passed the ball to Iron Man, who passed the ball to Captain America, scoring them their fourth goal. Peter tried to remember how the winner was decided and recalled Grandmaster announcing that the first side to score five goals would be the winner. One more to win. Peter refocused on the game just in time to see Doom intercepting the ball from Hawkeye. The villain was really shockingly good at soccer. He probably shouldn’t be fixating on something like that but was soccer the national sport of Latveria or something?
Hulk was insanely good at goalkeeping, which frankly wasn’t much of a surprise. His bulk was able to block most of the attempted goals, and Hulk could move fast enough to block what he didn’t cover. Of course, a few slipped by, but Peter doubted that Hulk had ever played soccer before. It was cute how he kept roaring “Hulk catch!” every time he caught a goal.
The villains seemed to up their defensive level but, after many blocks and interceptions, Hawkeye head butted the ball for the winning goal. Peter wanted to left his shirt up and run around with it on his head but no one else was doing it and as much as Peter was a social retard he wasn’t going to be obvious about it in front of six of the world’s most prominent heroes and seven just-as-prominent villains.
A few moments after Hawkeye’s goal, they were tugged away, back to the changing room.
*
They had been given about 12 hours to rest and recuperate. The second game involved lots of empty breathable space and floating rock platforms. At least they all had their weapons and equipment back. Clint missed his bow so much. That’s right. Who’s a good baby? Who’s my favwit bow? Who-uh, yeah.
Basically, they were doing battle on these platforms, jumping from platform to platform whenever they wished and attempting to get the others to fall off, whereby they would rematerialize back in the changing room that seemed to be their headquarters and be allowed to watch the rest of the match. However, there was something else; there also happened to be asteroids flying around the area, smashing into the platforms, and into people. The trick was avoiding getting hit by the asteroids and using them to knock the other team’s members off the platform.
As Spider-kid aptly put it, “I thought I left dodge ball behind in high school.”-although if Clint remembered correctly, which he did, the kid was still in high school.
The less said about the game the better. This round had been too chaotic for anyone to attempt anything against Grandmaster. Clint had perched atop a nice platform, above most of the others, and had been happily distracting and annoying the villains, making them vulnerable. He got chased off his platform eventually, and was ninth to get sent back. The last two remaining were Loki and, surprisingly, Spider-boy.
The villains won, but narrowly. In terms of overall fabulousness though, the Avengers definitely won, although there was one moment when Madame Hydra had executed a flip that nicely showed off her butt (Clint’s was still the best.).
*
They were allowed another 12 hours to recover and Steve made sure the team drank plenty of water and slept. This time when they were transported, they arrived on a large, smooth stone platform, surrounded by lava. There were 13 dips, about the size of his shield, in various places on the platform.
“The ground will fall away at random periods of time and if you’re not standing in one of the marked areas, you fall and materialize in your separate bases-“
“Are you kidding me?!” Steve winced as Tony interrupted. “First soccer, then space dodge ball, and now lava musical chairs?!” Steve internally grimaced as he realized the unfortunate truth of Tony’s complaint. Grandmaster merely smiled mysteriously and didn’t say anything else.
The match started and Steve headed to Doom. He had already discussed this with the team during their break and each was assigned a villain to talk to.
“Captain.”
“Doom.” Steve’s greeting is punctuated by the sound of Doom blasting against his shield. “We need to cooperate, if we want to get out of here.” Doom didn’t say anything but Steve could tell he was listening. “Look, the other Avengers are talking to your teammates and we have a plan. Thor’s going to distract Grandmaster and when that happens, we-“ What Steve was going to say got cut off as the ground began to shake and fall apart. Steve exhaled sharply and looked around for a dip. He ran towards the one Tony was on and just as the ground completely fell away Tony caught him and pulled him onto the dip.
“Tsk tsk, Captain. What are you doing? I think that’s considered cheating….”
“He’s in a marked area! You didn’t say it had to be one person per area!”
“Tony…” Steve tried to warn Tony, to get him to stop talking instead of egging on Grandmaster, who seemed to grow steadily colder.
“Fine. Starting now, one person per marked area. And if you fall, I will no longer transport you. You shall fall into the lava, and die.” Steve’s eyes widened. Their plan had to be pushed forward right away.
The rest of the platform returned and the game began again. He nodded at Thor, and he summoned lightning to strike Grandmaster, who seemed unaffected. When Grandmaster turned to deal with Thor, the rest of the Avengers attacked and, after a moment’s pause, the villains joined in as well.
However, their plan seemed doomed to fail because no matter what the fourteen of them threw at Grandmaster, nothing hurt him or fazed him, nothing kept him down. Clint’s various arrows had the same effect as mosquitoes, and the hand-to-hand combatants like Taskmaster and Natasha had a hard time getting close enough to make a difference. Even the potent combination of Mjolnir and Loki’s magic knocked Grandmaster down but was brushed away within seconds and Grandmaster got back up unmarked. Grandmaster seemed to be getting increasingly more annoyed though and after Steve’s shield hit his temple, he exploded, shouting, “I am immortal, you fools! Does that mean nothing to you?”
Steve caught his shield and stared straight at Grandmaster, “Absolutely nothing. We won’t ever give up.”
Then the ground began to shake. This time Steve made it to a dip, and he looked around to see who else had made it, and all but one had made it to the dips. Madame Hydra was left stranded and she grasped desperately at the air as she fell, but just before she touched the lava, a force field formed a small platform just beneath her, lifting her away and placing her on the same dip as Taskmaster.
Confused, Steve looked around to see who had done it and saw a woman, blond, pretty and slightly ethereal in appearance float down and land beside Grandmaster.
“You can’t do this, En Dwi Gast! You’ll automatically forfeit if you harm any one of them! I’m sick of this game.” It was obvious the woman was angry; her face had a twist of betrayal to it, and her fists were clenched by her sides.
“I don’t understand why you are so desperate to win, Carina. All I want to do is protect you!” Grandmaster seemed alarmed and desperate. He was showing a surprising amount of emotion and vulnerability, seeming to almost plead with Carina, who stared angrily back at him.
“And I want my own life!”
“I want to give you a life, a great life, but you have to let me.” Steve began to wonder if Carina was in a relationship with Grandmaster. The age difference appeared astronomical, and their conversation didn’t seem to have romantic undertones but…
“You’re not my father!” Ah… Steve was forming a clearer picture of the situation. “Let them return home or I’m going to disappear and never come back.”
“Don’t be childish, Carina...”
“Well, if you won’t listen to reason, I have no choice but to be childish!” Steve started to feel awkward, like he was intruding on something private. Glancing around, he saw that the others looked varying shades of bored or uncomfortable. Except for Tony, who looked gleefully interested in the commotion happening.
“Carina, I said I would let them return after we see who wins.”
“Yes, and it’s not enough anymore. I won’t play along with your games.” She stalked away from him and faced the Avengers and villains. “I’m sorry for this. En Dwi Gast was my father’s best friend, and when my father died, he promised to take care of me. But,” Eyes blazing, she turned back to Grandmaster, “that doesn’t mean he can restrict me and prevent me from living my own life! He loves his games, so he bet me that if the Avengers’ side won I would have to listen to him and stay in the gilded cage he has prepared for me.”
“Carina, I have not made a cage for y-“
“It is pretty and it is spacious, but it is still a cage.”
“Carina-“
“Goodbye, En Dwi Gast. Since you insist on being stubborn, I will leave. Thank you for caring for me all these years, but enough is enough.” As those last words left her lips, Carina teleported away. Steve felt slightly sympathetic to Grandmaster. He was overbearing but he was just trying to be a good dad. It didn’t excuse his actions though and Steve put his guard back up, watching Grandmaster warily. With Carina gone, he didn’t know what Grandmaster would do. The moment stretched on, tense and painful, until Sin demanded for Grandmaster to send them all back.
Grandmaster turned to look at them, eyes dim. He didn’t respond beyond that movement for a moment and then whispered, his voice carrying over to them anyway, “Do you know the only thing that can kill an immortal?” He paused as if he expected an answer but when none came forth he continued, “The lack of will to live, when you have nobody, nobody left in the world.”
Steve felt like he a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. He knew exactly how Grandmaster was feeling, because when he had first woken up from the ice, he had nobody. His friends and family were all dead or had moved on to somewhere he couldn’t reach, and he could no longer be part of their lives. Then he had met the Avengers, and found his place in life.
Steve watched wide-eyed as their surroundings flickered and they were tugged back to the antechamber they had first arrived in. Grandmaster took three forlorn steps forward and collapsed on the floor, sitting against the podium, not looking at anybody.
His position formed a neat line between the heroes and villains. Each side stared at the other in silence before the familiar flash of light and accompanying tug of their bodies pulled them away.
*
Tony blinked around him, at the kitchen in Avengers HQ where he and the rest had been transported. He checked with Jarvis and apparently no time whatsoever had passed.
“I’m not sure if that was a drunken hallucination or if it really happened. If it did I don’t know whether to be offended that he considered those earth’s most competitive games or glad he didn’t make us have a competitive fashion show or something.”
A snort from Spider-Man alerted the Avengers to his presence. “This entire ordeal was almost worth seeing Doom in that soccer uniform though.”
He abruptly realized he had their attention and looked like he wanted to run away. Steve patted his shoulder encouragingly and said, “You did a good job out there with us. It was an honor working with you.”
And now Spider-Man looked like he wanted to kiss Steve. “Oh God, I am never washing my shoulder again.” Tony rolled his eyes. The kid’s got potential but ugh, fanboys. Although… He would be a cute addition to the family. He could be adopted as their little pet spider or something. Natasha could teach him the ways of the spider, Clint would teach him how to hang from walls and ceilings and crawl through vents, Thor could carry him on his shoulders and stuff, being that weird uncle. Steve could mother him. Tony and Bruce though! They could teach him how to science with style. Kid had some talent, if Tony had guessed right and those web-shooters were self-made. It would be so fun!
Tony looked around at the other Avengers (plus baby spider). They had all faded into their everyday routines. Natasha and Clint were bickering, Bruce was toasting poptarts for Thor, and Steve was watching them all fondly then turned and smiled warmly at Tony. An overwhelming sense of family flooded Tony and he thought of Pepper and Rhodey.
He shrugged and lifted his faceplate. All these feelings were going to give him hives.
“So… Back to movie night?”