"Clint!"
Natasha yelled, her stoic and cold demeanour crumbling as she stared at the screen, the rest of the individuals in the room staring in disbelief.
The death of an Avenger seemed so…surreal.
And during all this…
"I…did it."
Ronan mumbled, the blood dripping from his nose swept away by the wind while circuit lines stretched up his neck, an arrow in his shoulder as he began his freefall through the sky.
Surprisingly, the pain didn't hurt much.
No, that wasn't right.
He'd probably be in unexplainable pain right now if his mind hadn't gotten better at simply ignoring it.
But he knew it would come soon, so he slowly shut his eyes as he let himself go, the wind…
-BANG!!!
-CRACK!!!
Blood flooded from Ronan's mouth as his body arched awkwardly after a familiar red and yellow metallic man shot into his side.
Ronan darted through the air, unable to control his body as it flailed uncontrollably.
The boy could feel all his ribs on that side were completely shattered and it was becoming harder to ignore the pain.
However, eventually, his body levelled horizontally with his back facing the ground in the distance.
'Shit.'
He cursed. He could see Iron Man stumbling through the air, most likely after coming so close to his Technobane.
But it failed to cause any lasting damage as the metal man regained his footing.
However, he seemed to care little for this anomaly as he glared down at the falling Ronan.
"You…do you realise what you've done?!" Tony yelled, his voice mixed with a hint of robotics roaring through the sky.
"I do."
'He has upgraded his suit. I can't find a way in.'
Ronan noted, sensing the suit. There was no easy access like the minimap from last time.
Ronan wasn't surprised he was one to learn from his mistakes.
"Why…this was about me and you…why did you have to involve innocent people?! And Clint…"
Tony's voice cracked as he mentioned what he'd seen on the SHIELD cameras on his way here.
"Me and you?"
Tony paused as he stared at the boy falling, the latter's hair fluttering over his face.
But as Ronan raised his head, he revealed wide and intense eyes…paired with a slight curl of his lips.
"Stark…you were never so important. You were simply a pawn for my plans."
Before Ronan even knew it, his lips were moving as he spoke words that came from somewhere even he didn't know.
"I hope you can see now. I was able to play you all, the world's greatest, for fools. You lost before and you lost now. Face it, Stark…"
But despite Ronan speaking without a thought, he didn't stop himself.
No, instead, his lips curled further upwards.
"I am better than you."
Tony grit his teeth so hard they almost cracked, countless emotions running through him.
"Sir!"
But before he could reply, Jarvis yelled as he snapped his head to the side, only to notice a jet shooting toward him until…
-BOOM!!!
The jet crashed into Tony with a BOOM, exploding as he was flung backwards, shooting out of the smoke and fire, quickly regaining himself as the metal debris of the jet rained down.
-BOOM!!!
But before he could do anything, another crashed into him, the scene repeating.
-BZZZ
In the next second, Tony was trapped in the middle of a frenzy of lasers and turrets shooting from the jets.
-BOOM!!!
Stark would shoot his propulsors from the palm of his hand, destroying a few, however, another would replace it instantly.
-BOOM!!!
Additionally, these lasers were nothing to scoff at. After all, they were constructed by SHIELD with the help of Tony's tech.
-BOOM!!!
He tried to brute force his way out, but Ronan could sense his movements before it even happened, waving his arm and sending a jet to fling him back into the middle of the chaos.
-BZZZ!!!
'Yes…'
Ronan continued falling, every one of his orifices bleeding as the circuit lines stretched dangerously high on his face, his scar glowing brighter than normal.
The grin never left his face, in fact, slowly grew wider as he witnessed the scene.
However, his grin disappeared as he shot his eyes to the side, noticing a familiar female with red hair appearing atop the Helicarrier, carrying a terrifying-looking sniper.
'Shit, I got carried away.'
He thought, seeing Natasha, her tears carried away by the wind, perched the sniper on the ground.
'I can't dodge a sniper bullet.'
Ronan admitted.
Additionally, his supply of Jets was running low. He still needed to escape.
Therefore, rather than focusing on the horrible position he was in, he took this chance to…double down.
'I didn't want to use it this early.'
The reason he'd spent so long in the Helicarrier was exactly for this.
Simply to loot the opposition when given the chance to pass by their treasury. In this case, SHIELD's store room.
He took three items, all of which were important to his growth and the completion of his quest.
And he'd have to use one sooner than he thought.
Pulling a flat cylinder object from his back pocket, the see-through material appeared like glass but felt stronger, like a hard plastic.
Of course, it had to be tough. How else would it house the small black and red goo within it?
It was a viscous, fluid-like substance that changed shape and flowed effortlessly with a glossy, almost liquid texture.
'From what I know, I'll be driven to near insanity. That's at the very least.'
He was hoping to deal with this disadvantage before he went anywhere near it.
Despite this, Ronan put a lot of trust in the strength of his mind.
Though he wasn't able to grow his Psionics perk much over the past three days and he didn't know much of what it was capable of, it was all he had.
And so, as Natasha aimed the muzzle in Ronan's direction, her eye pressed against the scope, he flipped open the container as he watched the goo instantly leapt out.
Its tranquil nature disappeared as it grew long writhing tendrils as if it were trying to cling onto whatever neared it.
To which Ronan obliged willingly.
'Carnage…I will submit you as mine…but for now…'
-BANG!!!
The sound of an ear-piercing gunshot rang out through the sky as the bullet travelled faster than any human could even comprehend.
But for Tony who found a moment of respite with Ronan distracted, his suit picked up the shooting bullet.
-SPLAT!!!
As it travelled, it soon hit its target with a grotesque SPLAT as Natasha watched the bullet land on Ronan's forehead, the boy's head flinging backwards due to the strength of the projectile.
At least, that's what she thought she saw.
'Kill…kill…kill…'
All time seemed to have slowed as Ronan's head hung backwards, a voice that wasn't his echoing in his mind.
However, he slowly pulled it back, revealing a black and red goo tightly coiled around his forearm, pulsating with life, stretching upward as its tendrils adorned one half of his face.
And one could see these tendrils combine at the forehead, acting as a barrier of sorts as the bullet failed to even damage it.
Ronan, his eyes wide and wild, gleaming with a manic intensity as his mind flooded with dark thoughts, lost the ability to think straight, the only thought on his mind being…chaos.
As a crooked smile adorned his face, a word escaped his lips.
"Kill…"
"That's…"
Tony, his suit analyzing the symbiotic substance, widened his eyes.
Meanwhile, Natasha also removed her eye from the scope for a second in bewilderment.
For a second, a hint of his mission remaining in his mind, Ronan complied, giving in to the thoughts, raising his hand as he pointed it to the sniper.
"Die."
"Romanoff!"
However, Natasha didn't stand leisurely as she pulled something from her back pocket, tossing it on the ground.
As she did, the metallic circular disk started to expand, building upon itself as it soon constructed into a wall she could take cover behind…
-CRASH!!!
Natasha was flung back as the wall before her crashed and was destroyed by the brunt of a Kamikaze Jet.
Natasha groaned as she made it to her feet.
But it was too late.
Despite the distance, Ronan raised his arm as the goo retreated to the centre of his palm until…
"Tony…"
Natasha, left standing, knowing she'd just offered a small window of opportunity, turned to Tony as the latter shot toward her, her body moving too slowly in an attempt to dive away.
Because of what happened with Clint, she didn't have it in her to keep up her cold demeanour any longer.
Therefore, she stared at Tony with innocent eyes filled with helplessness and…desperation.
And as she tried to speak her last words while Stark reached out his arm…
"Tony…"
-SHING!!!
Tony watched a hard black and red spear piercing through Natasha's forehead, her eyes still glued to him as a single tear ran down her face.
Perhaps it was the shock or the fact his mind still couldn't accept it, but Tony kept shooting toward her, his expression frozen in the desperate state it was as he tried to save her.
He watched her single tear conjoin with the blood leaking from her forehead, the scene quickly becoming one of horror as the spear retracted back.
"W-Why…"
-CRASH!!!
-BOOM!!!
A Jet shot down from the air, so fast one couldn't even see it as it crashed on where Romanoff was standing, exploding as it engulfed her in flames.
With this, Tony finally halted midair, his expression unknown under the suit as he simply stared.
Meanwhile…
'Kill…kill…kill.'
'You've done enough, Parasite.'
A vein bulged on Ronan's head as he tore the sample of Carnage off his skin, watching it desperately try and cling back to him as he did.
But he jammed the goo back into its container as he breathed heavily, ignoring the piercing headache that crept up on him.
'I was able to fend off its mental attack. It wasn't easy either after I'd partially succumbed to it. But I've got bigger problems now…'
Ronan meant what he said to Tony earlier, but even he didn't want to hang around now.
Not after seeing his barrage of attacks barely scratched Tony's suit and the dark aura currently surrounding him as he loomed before Natasha's charred corpse.
Despite falling for close to a minute, he still didn't think he was far enough to dodge one of those beams.
Therefore…
'I have three Jets left.'
-PEW
Tony, his expression dark, looked to the side, seeing three jets darting away side by side.
"Coward…"
Tony mumbled, slowly turning away from Natasha as he faced the jets.
He puffed out his chest, tightening his arms as one could see energy gathering around the repulser on his centre.
"Sir…Sir!"
Jarvis called out a couple of times but his voice fell onto deaf ears until he yelled, finally snapping Tony out of his trance as he turned.
As he did, he was quick to widen his eyes as the Helicarrier that had suddenly steered off course, plummeted straight toward him.
'No, that isn't right.'
Tony deduced. He could see two of the engines in his direction suddenly halted, causing it to descend like a meteor toward him.
'He…'
"Choose, Stark…"
Ronan, sitting in an uncomfortable position within one of the three jets, spoke as Circuit lines ran up his neck and blood dripped from his nose.
"Revenge or Justice."
Tony slightly turned his head, seeing the three jets scatter in different directions, not knowing which the boy was in.
Grinding his teeth, Tony let out a feral, "Damnit!" as he swung his head back, meeting the Helicarrier head-on.
-CLANG!!!
An ear-piercing CLANG rang out as the force of Tony's suit and the metal of the Helicarrier made contact.
The repulsors on Tony's feet visibly increased in power as small projectiles detached from the spine of his suit, clasping onto the aircraft as they shot their own beams, pushing back.
However, as this all happened, Tony's heart stopped as he witnessed Natasha, half her body charred beyond recognition, slide off the Helicarrier, free-falling to the ground.
"No!" Tony yelled, but what could he do? Let go and let hundreds of others within the Helicarrier die?
Tony stared, his lower lip quivering despite the obvious rage in his eyes.
His former emotions finally got the better of him as his eyes watered, causing him to look away as he muttered once more.
"I'm sorry."
***
In a grassy plain, a red and yellow metal man sat on his knees, his peculiar nature adding an unnatural feel to the nature around him.
However, the dismembered figure he held in his arm, half their body burnt and the other half disfigured as though they'd been hit with the weight of the earth, looked like nothing more than a horrible mistake on the beautiful canvas that was the surrounding nature.
The metal man, his helmet lying beside him only to reveal Tony staring with dead eyes, sat unmoving.
The bruising around his eyes indicated he was crying, but perhaps it was because he had no more tears left that his eyes appeared like dark, empty wells.
Behind him, a figure in a trenchcoat and an eyepatch trodden toward him, soon coming to a stop a small distance away from them.
"Tony Stark, you will have the full force of S.H.I.E.L.D., the United States, every hero and quite frankly, the entire world stands beside you in…"
"Is Clint…"
Tony interrupted Fury, causing the latter to pause as he closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"Deceased."
"Tony, we'll get this ki-…criminal. We won't stop till we attain justice." Nick spoke his tone softer this time as if he were consoling a friend.
"No. Clint had a family. Natasha had friends. They deserve to know and have a proper burial. I owe them that much."
Tony mumbled the last sentence, turning to meet Nick's eye as the reason the latter was staying so far back became evident upon his expression breaking down.
"Romanoff…"
Fury mumbled, his face darkening.
Tony rose to his feet, carrying what was left of his partner as he walked away.
"First we mourn…"
At this moment, Fury raised his head, his teeth clenched and pupils dilated in rage while Tony wore a bone-chilling expression.
"Then we go to war."