Chapter Text
All Yelena wants is one normal day. One day where she doesn’t have to deal with Valentina’s bullshit or press junkets or world ending th beats. Or even worse, threats that aren’t world ending.
She wishes she could just retire in some remote location where no one would bother her or expect anything from her. Instead, she’s ambushed by a maniac with blue braids going down to her feet with high tech weapons, bombs with childish drawings, and a grating cackle that is far beyond getting on her nerves.
“That all you got?” the young woman taunts. She shoots another round of blue beamed blasts that Yelena narrowly dodges.
“What do you want?” Yelena grits out.
“What does anyone want? Really what is there to want? White picket Piltie life was never for me. I much prefer a life with some thrill.”
”You want a thrill?” Yelena says, readying herself for the inevitable fight. “Fine. But you asked for it.”
.-~*~-.
Bucky’s groceries are shot out of his metal hand. His hand would’ve ben shot through if it not being made of vibranium.
Immediately, he cases his surroundings. A man in a red helmet with a red bat on the his chest stalks towards him.
Bucky grabs the gun he keeps in his belt and aims but the man swiftly dodges, matching his shot with a precisely aimed shot. But Bucky is fast and he manages to leap out of the way.
The man nearly shoots the gun out of his hand like his groceries but it misses.
Bucky wonders briefly if this guy is a red skull fanatic, come to dole out misguided vengeance on the last standing Howling Commando.
“The name’s Red Hood,” he says. “You’ve taken something very important of mine.”
“I don’t even know who you are,” Bucky says, attempting another shot.
“You may not know me now, but I’ll make sure you’ll never forget me.” The man stills, muttering a quiet, “seriously?” to himself, before shaking off the thought and turning back to Bucky. “Now, are you going to give me what I want or am I going to have to take it myself?”
Bucky is so damn confused.
.-~*~-.
Walker storms out of yet another disastrous blind date. He doesn’t know why he’s let himself be subject to Yelena and Ava’s meddling. At least the women Alexei chooses are fun enough that they stay for dessert. The women the girls pair him up with end up pouring their drinks on his head before storming out before they’ve even paid the check.
Which is exactly what happened today.
At least he got to finish his entree.
The last thing he needs is whatever the fuck this Void wannabe is.
It towers high above Walker, a shadowy eldritch nightmare with antlers and glowing eyes.
“When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephant slumber after safety.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?” Walker wheezes out.
The creature’s long limb swipes toward Walker which he jumps over just barely.
“When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear.”
Walker tries to punch at the thing but its poofs away, dissapearing into the shadowing and reappearing behind him.
“Great souls die and our reality, bound tot hem, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.”
“Is that a threat?”
“We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.”
Its limbs extend like a cage of branches and all Walker sees is darkness.
.-~*~-.
Ava admittedly isn’t used to facing opponents with abilities that can match her in a fight. But this boy with youthful face but eyes hardened by death and dark, pops around untouchable just like Ava, though not impenetrable.
He pulls electricity from the power lines and it rains down sparks over her and the cars parked beneath them.
“It’s my birthday. Now it’s time to light my candles.”
She barely becomes intangible in time before a streak of pure electricity is thrown at her.
“I am vengeance. I am the night,” he sneers as all of the lights get popped, blanketing the the street into darkness.
“Sure you are,” Ava says. “What is it that you want revenge for?”
“Madness as you know is like gravity. All it takes is a little push.” She’s thrown back and her back hits the wall.
“And was I the push?” she groans out.
He grins manically. “Why so serious?”
“Because you’re going to kill someone if you keep—“
Electricity hits water and an explosion of light flares, momentarily blinding her.
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Ava doesn’t want to know what turned him into a villain, but she has an inkling he blames her.
.-~*~-.
Alexei is pulled from his thoughts at the sound of a luring call. A melody so entrancing that he can’t help but follow it.
He doesn’t realize until he’s hit head on by a semi-truck that the beautiful song had lured him straight into traffic.
Alexei gets up with a groan and plugs his ears with his fingers, ringing blocking out the rest of the noise he can’t block out with his fingers.
Now alert about the dangerous foe that lurks unseen, Alexei scans the street for the source of the tempting voice. In the far corner staring right at him is a man marked with glowing purple markings, shrouded in black.
Alexei tries to go after him, but he disappears before he can get close.
.-~*~-.
“Where the hell were you guys. I set off my emergency beacon like an hour ago,” Walker says as he enters the tower, thoroughly beaten and covered in twigs.
“I was a little busy,” Yelena says, icing her wounds.
“Please don’t tell me the cryptid bastard doesn’t have friends.”
“If that cryptid bastard you’re talking about had glowing blue guns then yes,” Alexei says.
“My guy just had normal guns,” Bucky says.
“What the hell are you all talking about?” Ava says. “The guy controlled electricity itself.”
“No, he was a siren. Like a merman luring me to drown in the sea,” Alexei says.
“So let me get this straight,” Yelena says. “We all fought different wannabe villains today? Completely different and unrelated?”
“Maybe not as unrelated as we thought,” Bucky says, looking out the window.
Together, the five they fought gather together down at the door to the tower.
“Great,” Walker says. “Just what we need. A teamup of the bad guys of the week.”