1st POV Vader (Stark Tower)
As I entered Stark's living quarters through one of many shattered windows littering his building I idly noticed that the apartment - ignoring the multitude of damages - is gaudy in exactly the style Stark embodied. Not something noticeable on the surface but something that would be pointed out in a casual remark as you went about your business.
It spoke well of Stark's real personality compared to the pompous showboy he liked to masquerade as. I chose to linger in the common room for a moment to give Stark's AI a chance to notice my presence before I started towards the workshop most intact. It's unfortunate Stark's facility doesn't seem to have much medical equipment, with my new powers and without Sidious's influence I want to try and rid myself of these accursed mechanical limbs and return to flesh once more.
I suppose it's probably for the best, having access to lightside abilities of the force again doesn't mean I've regained my previous proficiency with them. It will take at least a few months of practice before I'll feel confident enough to attempt regrowing my lost limbs and undoing these hideous scars. My lungs will take even longer.
Deciding I've given enough notice to the AI I begin to make my way to the elevator, in my current condition it's best to not do any activity that will strain my breathing apparatus and besides that, chafing's a bitch. Entering the elevator I'm struck by something that in hindsight should have been obvious, I don't recognize the writing of this planet. It was a blessing that we could communicate at all.
Thankfully it shouldn't be much of an issue, I'm currently on the highest floor and assuming the buttons go in a bottom to top format then I should only need to hit the button furthest right on the top row to reach my destination. Seconds later my hypothesis proved correct. I'd need to rectify my inability to read after my repairs are finished. Just the thought of having to rely on someone else for such a basic task is revolting.
The doors opened and I canvassed the room as I walked forward. This room was lucky. Besides a shattered window which I easily sealed off with the force, everything else is still in working condition. Moving over to an operating table I take a seat and begin to levitate the tools I'll need to make some repairs.
Hmmm. I'm still missing a few of the more delicate instruments I need but this should do for now. First things first I need to run a manual diagnostic in case my suits sensors were compromised during the invasion. Taking a deep breath to steady myself I count down from 5 in my head and at 2 remove the outer plates on my limbs.
I do a cursory glance with my eyes and am glad that at least nothing important is broken or sticking out of place. Standing I begin to move my limbs in complicated patterns akin to Twi'lek dances testing my full range of manoeuvrability. Thankfully, besides my inability to raise my arm past my shoulder everything else seems to be in place.
Sitting back down I grab one of the nearby tools and start to make adjustments to my arms. The force lets me operate by myself and I've done all of my own work since the day I was put into this suit learning everything I could so that if need be I could rebuild it out of spare parts - which I ended up doing - I don't want to sub anything out right now since all I have on hand is Stark's inferior alloys.
Well besides his core anyway, I don't recognize the material but it clearly has some type of energy absorbent quality that would be useful for my suit. Moving downwards to my legs I make a few small adjustments and inject small amounts of the force to enhance parts that are starting to wear down. A stopgap measure but it will work till I can begin making my own parts.
Finished I levitate my outer armour back into the air before grabbing some leftover alloy Stark had and fusing them together. The result was horribly mismatched and comically disproportionate but condensing it down using telekinesis and changing the colour using a tricky application of the force called Metamorphosis which Sidious stole from the Night Sisters allowing the user to shapeshift. WIth Sidious's upgrades it could also be used on small bits of technology.
He'd spent weeks experimenting with the technique all so he could remove the ruffles in his clothing needed to hide his lightsaber holders. Apparently such clothing fitted a democratic senator fine but were uncouth for a galactic dictator. Reapplying my outer armour after careful inspection I moved onto my head piece. Lifting off the outer helm I squinted my eyes slightly as I observed the world without its red hue for the first time since my 'death'.
I couldn't appreciate anything besides Luke's face the first time but now that I could properly observe all the colours I felt myself starting to get nauseous. This world of colour was lost to me when Anakin Skywalker died and even though I'm now trying to become what's left of him I'm not sure I deserve this bright world.
Thankfully, it's a mute point right now and looking back down at my mask I quickly set to work fixing the intricate wiring that gives my mask such a wide range of abilities. Using the force to enhance my eyesight and my reflexes, my eyes shut before I could even begin working. Panic briefly consumed me before being drenched by a wave of embarrassment.
I had forgotten to properly account for my new level of power, My eyes put under that kind of strain likely would have destroyed my optic nerve rendering me blind for the foreseeable future. My enhanced reflexes saved them by shutting my eyelids the instant the enhancement applied but even then as I toned down the enhancement I could feel a slight burn behind my eye.
Soothing it quickly with the force I opened my left eye slowly preparing for it to shut again but as everything came into microscopic clarity with no further side effects I realised a sigh at my foolishness before continuing to work. Really I've been acting completely out of character since my meeting with the Father or at least the God that took his appearance.
Whatever it is it clearly doesn't know me very well if it thinks I'll just lay down and obey its edict unquestioningly.
Putting my mask to the side so that it wouldn't limit my flexibility I lowered my gaze to my severely damaged chest port and sighed. The life support system's main power system got fried, thankfully it has an emergency battery that should last another 5 or so hours if I breathe sparingly. There's a big gash from my left hip to my right armpit leaving most of my chest exposed to the air.
Removing the outer armoured piece on my chest and back was more difficult than the ones on my limbs. Since all my limbs are mechanical the amount of insulants on them is far greater than the rest of my body mainly so Sidious could satisfy his sadistic desires while not leaving me a useless hunk of metal. To think I admired a man with so little control over his urges.
Parts started to break and crumble as the armour was slowly peeled away from the delicate machinery underneath. Sigh this is going to take awhile; lowering the damaged pieces of armour to the side I started the slow process of fixing and replacing all of the damaged parts with whatever I could scavenge from Stark's damaged lab.
3rd POV (Shawarma Shop)
"I don't like this" Reed's voice echoed throughout the abandoned Shawarma shop save for one long table in the centre Where the Avengers and Fantastic Four sat eatting Shawarma being brought out to them by the owner and his wife. The only two that didn't abandon the store during the invasion.
"We know Reed will you give it a rest already." The Thing spoke up from next to him enjoying his meal while idly batting away the small flames Johnny (Human Torch) was trying to sneak into his food.
"How can you all just sit here and eat peacefully knowing that Thing is loose in New York city to do whatever it wants?!" Reed's voice carried throughout the shop and spook the owner who dropped a tray of food in surprise at his outburst.
"For Fuck's sake Reed that was mine. And he isn't unsupervised, Jarvis is watching him. Here look." Speaking with his mouth full of food Tony carelessly tossed a smooth disk onto the table which unfolded into a small stand that lit up with energy before projecting an image of Vader in Stark Tower.
"Oh" Behind Reed the Owner's wife fainted onto a chair that Susan Storm had moved behind her. The rest of the table quickly lost their appetite upon looking at Vader's form in Stark's lab. His helmet lay on a table beside him along with most of his central armour giving them all unobstructed views to the hideous burns that littered Vaders to pale skin along with gleams of metal sticking out of his spine eerily similar to the Chatarui's bodies.
"And there goes my appetite, thanks Reed; first time trying Shawarma ruined cause you were worried about the guy with an inhaler who saved My life!" Stark's displeasure showed on his face as he glowered at Reed but his words were completely ignored as Reed stared at the camera in an awed horror different from the disgust most of his allies were showing.
"Unbelievable." Reed's mutter didn't escape anyone at the table and as they briefly looked away from Vader's operations to Reed he quickly collected himself before speaking with renewed conviction.
"Look at those injuries a normal person would hardly be sane after something like that but this guy could have fought this whole invasion single handedly even with these injuries. If we leave him alone and he recover's then what then. What are we supposed to do when we can't even stop this guy when he's on LIFE SUPPORT!" Reed knocked over his chair as he finished speaking on his feet to emphasise the point he was trying to make.
Unfortunately it seemed he was alone in his stance as everyone else at the table shifted uncomfortably at the thought of facing Vader. Whether that be because they feared his power, felt indebted to him, or even that they felt pity once they saw his injuries no one seemed to share Reed's enthusiasm to try and find a way to subdue Vader.
Before Reed could continue Ranting he got headed off by a new voice coming from the entrance of the Shawarma shop. "As much as I value your opinion as a scientist Dr. Richards I'll take my data on Vader from trained field operatives if you don't mind." Casually strolling into the store followed closely by his Lieutenant Marie Hill; Nick Fury walked to the head of the table next to Stark before giving the table a quick once over.
Satisfied to see his pet project standing strong minus one uncooperative Asgardian, Nick turned his eyes to his two agents who both looked the other way pretending he didn't exist. Internally sighing but choosing not to reprimand them after the service they just did the world Nick called their attention to him. "Barton, Romanoff report on Vader power level, risk assessment, personality I want everything you could scrounge up."
"Sir, Vader possesses power on a level undocumented. Capable of a wide variety of abilities ranging from telepathy to space warping. He is also in possession of numerous technologies and materials centuries ahead of what even Stark and Richard's have cooked up in their labs. Vader has so far shown himself to be a rather quiet person but when he does speak it's almost always in the form of giving out orders or making threats." Barton's report was quick and concise; he was an observative person by nature but Natasha is the expert on human psychology so he'd leave it to her to expand on Vader's personality.
"Good. I want every power you saw or think he can use included in your report. Romanoff?" Dismissing Barton, Nick turned his eye to Natasha who had silently sat through Clint's report.
"He isn't used to asking for things or having his words not immediately followed. Wherever he came from it's likely he held a high position. Based on the number of deadly abilities he did showcase likely a high-ranking military official. He doesn't seem to have much control over his emotions, anger especially seems to be a very easy trigger for him. His powers might affect his emotions in some way but it's also clear he's lived through a lot and one of his injuries could be impairing his brain."
"Good and what are the chances he becomes a threat to the planet?" Nick nodded his head in acknowledgement before getting to the point of the matter.
"Low. He doesn't hold much interest in our planet beyond the great power some of its occupants hold. Even that is idle curiosity at best. He has a drive to leave our universe… or at least he did." Here Natasha bit her lip chewing over her words carefully before continuing.
"When Vader arrived I offered him a connection with Thor and therefore Asgard so he may travel back to his own universe using their technology in exchange for his help. Yet Vader killed Loki even though Thor vehemently protested. Something caused him to change plans and I haven't found a good theory as to why he'd risk making Asgard his enemy."
"Beyond that he seems to dislike being in debt. When we arrived at the rooftop I had several large gashes and multiple fractured injuries. Once he finished healing Stark Vader took care of my own injuries. Seeing as the others are still injured Vader was most likely repaying some perceived debt to me for helping him upon arrival. It's possible he doesn't want to leave himself open to any kind of attachments while he looks for a way back home or that he's had bad experiences in the past that have made him subconsciously try and avoid such contact."
Everyone sitting around the table found themselves shell shocked at the amount of information Natasha could get so easily just from Vader's limited interactions with them since his arrival. Sure most of it is conjecture with no real backing but it still provided a solid basis to use in all future interactions with Vader.
"Excellent work Romanoff. Now then if you'll excuse me gentlemen I have to get started cleaning up the mess you've made of the city." Exiting the shop with a smirk on his lips Nick's features quickly turned into a scowl as he turned to Hill.
"Call off the teams surrounding the Tower. If he can bend space then it's impossible for us to contain him right now."
"Sir? Are you sure we have already brought in ample amounts of Mutant suppressing technology?" Hill questioned as they made their way up the runway of a Quinjet.
"Not worth it. We don't even know if they'll work on him. Better to keep the positive image he has of us for as long as possible. Have we retrieved the Tesseract and the Scepter?"
"Negative. We suspect Vader has put some kind of barrier around the roof, our men can't gain access."
"Contact Romanoff once they're done relaxing and have them all return to the tower to collect them. No matter what, we can't give up the sceptre to unknown forces."
"Roger." Arriving in the cockpit Hill took a seat in the co-pilot seat while Nick stood at the entrance pondering on how to best deal with the newest threat to the planet.