Don't Tread Down the Wrong Path (Open)

The world began to change around them although it was a various group of holograms around them it surely felt real. Everything there seemed alive, or in this case deceased. It seemed to hit both of the Avengers hard as they took in the scenery that was there. And he at least hoped that this wouldn't become of their future that they worked so hard to preserve. He didn't seem to have the right words to say as he was stunned by it. The area was beaten by war and the smell of blood was in the air, there was destroyed debris from what looked like a fire that struck the area and burned until there was nothing left. This was what Hope must have felt like she was through in those times, and Tony couldn't relate now to that.

Tony noticed a change in Hope's happy and enthusiastic personality a bit as she seemed a bit sad. Maybe the idea of a war ravaged land wasn't the best one to be placed down as a scenario? It probably brought back bad memories that she didn't want to live through. In a way Tony could relate since he had witnessed war himself when he was first working on his Ironman suits as he was kept as a hostage. "You know Hope I can always turn it off if it's bothering you that much." Tony offered wondering if that'd help at all. However as the two stopped for a bit to look what was coming Tony was stunned at the sight. It looked like humans but as he zoomed on in his screen he realized they weren't quiet humans at all, they were Zombies. It was true they looked like they had seen better days as some of them had decaying skin or even organs that looked like they were half dead. "Zombies?!" Tony said in surprise as he began to hover in place as he flew up into the air a bit.

"Okay I think I'm canceling the late night movie event for awhile for the Avengers." He said partially joking and also telling the truth. From what he knew about the movies that he had seen Zombies couldn't be killed that easily since they were already dead. "And a question comes to mind, how do we kill something if they're already dead?" He asked wondering what their plan would be for now. But it looked like they were in for a rude awakening of defending themselves in this one.

"Alright." Tony added as he gave her as soft nod of understanding what she meant. Still he showed some concern for the girl as he did with the other Avengers when they were feeling down. As one of the team leaders it kind of came naturally to him since he had to worry about a lot of things. He was sure Cap felt the same way sometimes on how much he had to worry about things. Yet he always managed to keep a calm posture when some of the others might have panicked.

"Heay the supernatural world isn't my kind of realm. If you want to get interested in that, talk to Strange or Thor." Tony said knowing what she said that it was mostly a tease but still it hurt him a little a bit. Tony was probably going to get over it at some point, probably by the end of the mission As he saw the zombies coming one nearly tackled Tony as he was distracted with talking to Hope and he sent a shield out to try and deflect the monster from getting to him. "And Jarvis keep this as a note to self, I need to create an Ironman Armor suit that is good enough to handle Zombies in my spare time." As the zombie tried to barrel down on Tony while he was forced to the ground the shield held it back for awhile as he let his repulsor rays charge up, he knew it wasn't going to be enough to kill one but maybe enough to stun it while Hope could finish it off.

"Some how I have a feeling you're right with that one." Tony said as he blasted the zombie with a repulsor ray. He didn't exactly have much on him that could defeat a zombie and Hope already seemed to be ahead of him in this one as she beheaded two of them. "Also I may not have a sword or anything sharp like that in my armor but, how about a laser? They're pretty sharp if you consider it." Tony said as a piece of machinery came out of his front wrist and it started to glow a deep blue as he aimed it straight for the zombie hoping it'd work.

As Tony finished off the zombie that tackled him he looked back realizing that Hope had disappeared. But he thought about it for a second seeing that she had borrowed Pietro's power for super human speed without him even knowing it. But he noticed earlier that Hope had glanced back at him as he brought up his mask to reveal his face seeing that the threat had gone down and he didn't have to worry about protecting his face all that much, "Hope about that comment you made it's alright. It's just that on more than one occasion the older Avengers have teased me about my lack of knowledge about magic. And at one point I almost didn't believe in it all together. But after going around and fighting with the likes of Thor or Strange I've been more open than just being centered around technology."

Tony paused for a bit as he nodded back to what Hope had to say about finishing the rest of the zombies. The one thing he did know was if there was a small group of zombies like this, there had to be more elsewhere, they couldn't go hacking away at them all they'd have to go to the source of the problem. "I know one thing, if there was this many in the area there's probably more of them and they'll just keep coming back." Tony added.

"It's alright Hope." Tony assured her as he listened to what Hope had to say. He understood now that it had been meant for a joke and would try to not be as serious sometimes. He knew some of the students thought of him to be that way, but even Tony could joke very once in awhile. He watched as Hope nodded in agreement and the zombies that they destroyed disappeared from the simulation. He still had his weapon out on his wrist that held the laser in case anyone else decided to sneak up on them while they had their backs turned. And he also had Jarvis scanning the area as well, so it was unlikely that anyone would try to sneak up on them.

"Yeah that's probably true Hope. We'd might not have much of a chance to find a surviving soul that is still human but it's worth the chance if we do find anyone. They'd be able to tell us a lot of what happened here. But...first thing first." Tony said as he heard the growls as well coming their way as Jarvis spoke up.

"Sir, it seems that more of those zombies are heading your way. It's a lot more than this time." Jarvis said as he spoke up to Tony and Hope. "Yeah we kind of figured that one out. If there's to many of them for us we might have to flee the area." Tony said as he put up his mask again in order to protect his face. His eyes glowed a familiar blue as he was in the armor and activated it. As Tony put on his mask he had the area on his monitor inside the armor as he got a clear view of the area.

Ooc: I was thinking of a minor plot that we could use with this apocalyptic world. I was thinking it could be a future of a future world of what might possibly happen if the heroic age ended? That might help us along.

"Well all we can do right now Hope...Well is do exactly that: hope for survivors. I have Jarvis scanning the area to see if he can pick up some alive beings, but so far I haven't gotten anything from him." tony said as he paused hearing the zombies as well as he was trying to cheer up Hope. The scenery certainly wasn't helping and neither was the alarming group of zombies coming their way. tony already started charging up his right hand to make sure that his repulsor rays were ready when they needed them. he knew it wouldn't kill a zombie that was for sure, but it was going to be enough to stun them temporarily.

"I'm on it Hope." Tony said as he flew down to help her and sent a large repulsor ray towards the zombies. it seemed to give them a bit of distance between them but they just kept coming. As Tony continued to help Hope out from the sky one managed to grab onto his leg and pulled him down. As Tony looked back he could see just how badly these zombies looked as he felt his stomach churn towards the direction of a nauseated feeling seeing how badly destroyed their face and other parts were just as bad. but he couldn't let that sickening feeling take over him now as he felt something painful touch his armor as it was continuing to be pulled by the zombie. The last thing he wanted was his leg to be ripped off for now he felt like his ankle had just been twisted in a really bad way.

"Heay I never said I was going to be your dinner tonight. Let go!" Tony said a bit in a panic as he used the laser on his wrist again to fired it in the direction of the zombie as well as the others that were blocking his path and it seemed to do the trick as they dropped down. But Tony's still leg stung with pain from where the zombie had grabbed onto him, none the less he'd live. "One of them got to my leg and the pulling didn't exactly help. If I walk, I'll be limping on it for awhile." Tony said as he got as status report on his armor from Jarvis. Only ninety five damage didn't seem too bad for now. He had felt way worse in the past. But Jarvis spoke up again as this one sounded much more alarming, "Mr Stark and Ms Summers, there appears to be several weapon projectiles being fired in your vicinity. I'd advise to take much caution.' Jarvis said as Tony looked up to see what was going on and sure enough he realized what it was. Arrows were being launched in to the air straight for the zombies that were in front of them. The zombies stepped back as the arrows landed in front of them and created what looked like a laser similar to Tony's style and helped estroy more of them.

'You're welcome. Also I suggest that if you want to get out of harms way you follow me." A voice said behind them as tony looked to see who had done that. it was someone that looked very familiar to him an older age of someone on the Avengers perhaps. As he scanned the figure, he got a better look at who he was. He was rather tall, blonde hair, and quiet the athletic build, but the muscles were more obvious in the arms. He wore sun glasses over his eyes to protect them from the large rays of sun, he could have probably been in his upper twenties, close to low thirties in age. but Tony noticed something different about this character. He had sharp scars that covered one eye looking like it was rather difficult to see out of it, the arrows were a dead give away on who the person was as he realized who it was. "Hope that's Hawkeye, more specifically, Francis Barton and what appears to be a future version of himself.' tony said sounding rather surprised. but he was released that they got any help at all.

Hope pulled Tony back up onto his feet and put an arm around her shoulder so she could help him stand, while Francis took the other to help even out the weight between him and her of the armor. He knew it added more weight if the suit was going to slow them down quiet a bit from getting away from the zombies as they kept coming. He wondered just how many there were and three avengers weren't going to help and battle them off for long. Tony was already wounded from it and they had to stop somewhere for rest at some point, he could tell that Hope was getting tired. "Hope I've started to figure it out. This is a futuristic world, otherwise how else would you explain an older Francis?" Tony asked as Francis merely glared at Tony for a bit.

"I'm not THAT old." Francis added. "I'm almost 31. Anyways you are right about this being a futuristic world. I was out on a patrol when I detected the zombies what even surprised me more was a signal had shown up and I tracked it. It seems that Tony sent it off since he was searching for other people that were alive. You guys look like you're starting to get pretty beat up from the fight, there's a shelter that is at least a mile or so away here." Francis said. As Tony did the math, he knew that the time from their real world was certainly different as he figured it out. In his and Hope's time, Francis was eighteen years old and almost a young adult, but here he was pretty much an adult. It was thirteen years in the future.

"A mile? We won't be able to go that far the way I'm going." Tony said sounding a bit surprised at what Francis had to say as he sighed.

"I came on a hovercraft. Why are you being so skeptical of me? You don't trust me or something? The way I see it you two are the ones that need more help than anything. I could just walk away right now and leave you two to fend off the rest of the zombies by yourself. I've fought them more times than you can imagine. How do you think I got my scars? They coasted me a good chunk of my vision because of them." Francis said as he began to leave the two behind. As Tony saw this he began to realize what the mistake he had made was. And knew that the older Francis was probably the only hope they had in order to get out of this mess as he looked down at the ground. He could tell by a lot of things that Francis was the very spitting image of his father. He had similar personality traits and even looked at him despite the hair being a bit brighter from his mom's side. He knew he was making a horrible mistake in letting Francis go. In this dark time they'd have to settle their differences and make sure that their team work worked. It was just like when they were on the Avengers it seemed. With so many personality differences it was difficult sometimes to make the entire team cooperate but some how it worked.

"Francis, I'm sorry. You're right. We don't know much about what happened to this world and you can probably give us a lot of information. It'd be a mistake to let you go and leave us behind to try and find a place for shelter on our own." Tony said as Francis nodded as he looked back at the two.

"The hovercraft isn't far from here. Follow me." He assured Hope and Tony as he began to take the lead for the two. But he could tell just by looking at Tony that he seemed to have a lot of questions for him as he would probably explain it on the way back to the hideout.

Ooc: Hopefully this plot idea works for the simulation. I tried to tie the zombies into it some how.

Bic: Tony put himself in a more comfortable position on the hover craft as Francis took the front of it. Tony knew that he'd have to hang on at Francis in order to stay on the machine since it looked like he could fall off if he didn't hang on the correct way. It was just like a motorcycle from the looks of things only it could fly and had much better tech than their time did. "Hope, I just come back in one piece. That's all that I ask you to do for us. I still am your team leader, remember that." Tony said with a serious tone like before.

"We'll be seeing you soon Hope, and yes I understand that you’re not trying to push me around. I’d rather have my skin than look like those guys." Francis said as he looked back at her as well as he started up the hovercraft. As Tony heard the hovercraft starting to come to life he held onto Francis but was careful not to injure him with his armor since he was still wearing it. He figured it was a good idea to keep it on incase they had another surprise coming from the zombies. It wouldn’t have been such a good idea if he was unprepared for another attack. “And Hope the base is south from here. I know it’s not much of a useful tool to help you get there but I can’t exactly point out anything you guys would be familiar with in your time. You will spot it; it’s pretty obvious that I assure you.” Francis said as he heard the zombies starting to come as Francis knew that time was of the essence to get out of there before the zombies tried to surround all three of them and they’d be in trouble. Once the hovercraft was working he started to go up into the air and began to fly away from the area leaving Hope behind.

Tony looked back as he had his helmet up still concerned for Hope knowing she might have trouble facing all the zombies but he knew she was one great fighter and had years of experience. For now he turned back to Francis as he felt his leg was still bothering him, once they got to the base he’d probably get out of his armor to inspect his injured leg, he was lucky that it wasn’t crushed by those horrible things. “So where did all this begin?” He asked Francis as he sighed. For so many years he tried to get over the thoughts and leave them behind. They were nothing pleasant and all they caused were problems and so many deaths had been involved in ones that he loved. The zombies were only a fraction of the problem that was at hand.

“In your time, it would have happened ten years ago we had a visit by someone you’re probably familiar with. His name is Thanos.” Tony nodded remembering that name several times in the past. Thanos was a conqueror, he loved to control worlds but he had never once come close to try earth. “Thanos came to travel through space in time to search through the world to look for specific items called the infinity gems. There are six gems in total that he was after. The reality gem, mind gem, strength gem, space gem, power gem, and soul gem. All of which had been hidden on earth under protection of the heroes. But that didn’t stop Thanos from trying to take them all. Once he received the mind gem, he used that to transform just about everyone in a very familiar fear that we all have and that was what you just saw, zombies.” Francis said. “And in the chaos…He used that opportunity to take the gems.”

“And with that in mind, there aren’t many heroes left?” Tony said as Francis shook his head. “Slim to none. We do know one thing; he’s sparing the protector’s lives. And you’re not going to believe this Tony but in our time, you’re the protector of the Space Gem.”