In both worlds, the avengers had disassembled, either dead or too few of them to keep it going. Doctor Strange stood in his Sanctum Sanctorum, Nico Minoru of the runaways was with him; The heroes were vanishing and they had to make sure the ones remaining could at least stand up to the villains left behind. While the previous wave took Apocalypse and Ultron and even a few of the less good mutants, the hero population was being halved; Luckily the X-men had been relatively unscathed and were doing what they could to pick up the slack.
He kept using the time stone, over and over, trying to find anything he could do to fix the world’s increasing issues; however an unforeseeable issue kept appearing, even in the past, the vanished heroes stayed gone, as if they never existed. Nico was awkwardly standing nearby him, waiting for him to finish so he could begin her tutoring. The runaways were left in the hands of Chase Stein while she was here and all she was able to think of was if they were doing ok. As she watched Strange snap out of his time search with a swear, she sighed and stared out the large, circular window. Whatever they were doing, it was probably funner than this.
The playground was in mild chaos. Apocalypse had awoken in Egypt and began preparing his army to destroy the remaining heroes. Spidey and his amazing friends were working overtime. Miles had to find safe shelter for his mother, Rio, who had turned up in the previous wave. Gwen and Peter were trying to clear up the mess the devastated Avengers left behind. Iron man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Fist, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow and Hawkeye had all died. Vision had risen from the ashes and was currently deep within his mind stone to try and sort out the mess they’d found themselves in. The only relief in all of this was that Ultron was destroyed, seemingly for good.
On a rooftop, Pietro watched the cleanup crews work their magic. The radio crackled to life; offering him a chance to bring his sister back. The radio barked instructions. Find the tower, outside New York, where he’d never think to look. Pietro stared at his restored arms and began his run out of New York.
In the real world, Falcon and the Winter Soldier were casing out a HYDRA base. Word on the street was that a shard had found its way into their hands. Steve was gone, though the true extent of how “gone” he was still remained unknown to Bucky and Sam. For now, they were going to fulfil the role of Captain America together.
Bucky clocked a HYDRA scientist in the face with his metal arm, not hard enough to kill, but definitely hard enough to get him to talk about what they were up to. The scientist spluttered through broken teeth that Helmut Zemo was making a Shard Grenade, something that contains the waves to a small area, sending whoever it hits to wherever it was sending them. Falcon’s chest felt like it had dropped a million feet, they had to prevent these being completed.
Baron Zemo, standing across from the Red Skull, proudly held a completed Wave Grenade. The pair discussed how they were going to utilise the finished tech when a battered Hydra agent stumbled into the room, shouting that they’d been breached. The two looked at each other in shock, then the Baron ran into the hallways to deal with it.
The Falcon and Winter soldier paced the base, trying to find where this wave grenade was, as a HYDRA soldier appeared, the two readied to dispatch him when a shield knocked him unconscious. Both held their breath, Steve? John Walker landed next to his shield, picked it up and stomped the unconscious HYDRA agent for effect. The pair looked at eachother. Not Steve.
The US agent walked towards them, the shadows parting to reveal that in lieu of his black outfit, he was wearing Steve’s colours. Bucky instantly got on the offensive. The US agent admonished the pair for acting without orders from SHIELD. Falcon retorted that most people who could run it had disappeared, he wasn’t going to beg Maria to act on HYDRA.
The US agent readied his shield and told them they were under arrest.
Falcon and Winter Soldier looked at eachother. How many times were they gonna fight someone in a secret base over these damn shards?
Zemo was watching the heroes from a balcony above them, if they could kill each other, that would be excellent. His finger kept moving the pin for the Wave Grenade. Whoever survived would be perfect for testing.
The Falcon flew up to catch Agent’s shield as Bucky charged him, Agent met Bucky’s metal arm with his own as the Shield collided with Falcon. The Soldier and Fake captain traded blows until Agent flipped over him to regain his shield. Falcon grabbed the faker’s shield and threw it at him right back, distracting him as he activated his wings again to lift the copy-cap into the air. Agent headbutted Falcon in the nose, making him drop him right into a metal uppercut that would make Department X proud and Walker’s dentist weep.
The US agent stumbled to his feet, spitting out blood. He blocked a second metal punch that disarmed him of his shield from Barnes as Falcon approached from behind again; enraged, he boosted himself off the Soldier’s chest and struck Falcon hard in the head, pinning him to a barrel. Zemo watched from the balcony, hardly containing his smug grin at the “heroes” fighting each other. He readied the Wave grenade.
Barnes grabbed the dropped shield and bounced it off the walls until it struck The US agent in the stomach, with a grunt; he finally fell. Zemo finally made his presence known with the grenade. Before Falcon could do anything, Barnes threw a normal grenade at Zemo to try stopping him. The US Agent, still conscious, fired at him and hit the grenade, blowing Zemo’s leg off and activating the Wave grenade.
The wave grenade exploded. The area was cleared.
Two more heroes had vanished.
Pietro had been running for quite some time, the radio began crackling again. He put it to his ear as he ground to a halt. The radio told him to look harder, he squinted and tried to focus. Then he saw it.
A large, black tower.