The gunfire and explosions grow louder until they come upon a clearing half-natural, and half-formed by the massive destruction of part of the forest. Smoldering fire and brilliant flashes make the night vision glasses useless, and they all quickly pull them off. Trees have been uprooted, blasted apart so all that’s left are stumps, even burnt to cinders. Bucky barely notices. In and above the clearing rages a massive battle.

“Shit,” Clint says.

There’s no better way to put it. All the superhuman Avengers Clint described to him are going toe-to-toe with Adaptoid and they’re losing. No longer in a Captain America look-alike suit, Adaptoid is four times his usual size (Bruce), has a rectangle for eyes now that match the silver and black suits flying around, a strange glowing symbol in his chest that matches the black suit (Stark), is flying (like the gold caped hero), and is throwing lightning (Thor). He also still has Bucky’s arm and Steve’s stripes. Steve’s shield he’s happy to see, is with Captain America himself.

“He’s got to be kidding,” Bucky growls because there’s a bandage around Steve’s stomach that’s spotty with blood.

Natasha nods while giving a single shoulder shrug, “He’s Steve.”

“You weren’t there to stop him,” says Clint.

“Why is that still my job?” Bucky laments to no one in particular.

“Nat, I don’t think we’re cut out for this one,” Clint says even as he nocks an arrow to his bow.

The look Natasha wears says she agrees, but she pulls two guns from behind her back and takes off towards the fight. Bucky is still trying to wrap his head around what he’s seeing and, well, he’s not really a close-up fighter.

“Why are there two flying suits?” he asks as Clint’s arrow flies true and embeds in Adaptoid’s head.

“The silver one’s War Machine,” Clint says, glaring because Adaptoid doesn’t even stop to pull the projectile free.

“And you didn’t mention him, because…?”

“You guys kind of hate each other,” Clint says, lowering the bow. “Come on, let’s get you a weapon.”

Clint takes off towards the plane Bucky saw earlier, skirting the still-intact tree line, and he follows. They’re halfway there when Adaptoid notices them. He’s too far away to catch up, so he grabs Falcon out of the sky and throws him like a projectile.