Author's Note:

A few things before starting this fic!

First and foremost, this is the third installment in my Paint it Black series, so if you have not read Paint it Black or Silent Night, this will make a lot of references that may confuse you, so I HIGHLY recommend reading those first! :D

Secondly, this takes place approximately four or five months after the events of Silent Night. As my previous readers already know, I am sort of creating my own canon (starting with after the events of Spiderman: Homecoming and altering a bit from Civil War) with Paint it Black and so on. In continuing this canon of mine (which I have fondly decided to call the CMFU- Crystal's Marvel Fanfiction Universe, yes I realize the end of it is FU and I get great delight in that) I would like to inform you, dear readers, that in this verse of mine, Thor: Ragnarok took place during Paint it Black and Silent Night, and is "canon" in compliance to my two stories. You'll see. ;)

Third, I dedicate this fanfiction and the entirety of my little series to PippinStrange, my beta, and the reason I wrote/am writing these in the first place! Send her lots of love because without her, they would not exist.

Lastly, (until the author's note at the end) I wanted to say that as usual and like its predecessors, this fic's title and the titles of all the chapters are titles of songs. This fic's theme is...drumroll please...JOHNNY CASH. So the title and all the chapters will be Johnny Cash songs.

Without further ado, I give you the third installment in my Paint it Black series: Riders in the Sky

CHAPTER ONE: Man in Black

...

Peter Parker

I blink. Once. Twice.

Frowning, brows furrowing together, I glance down at my plate and cautiously scoop up another mouthful with my fork. I take a second bite and chew.

"Well?" Aunt May raises her brows expectantly, hands on her hips. I don't think she notices the small smattering of breadcrumbs dusting her cheek.

I swallow.

"It's...actually…super good," I admit, unable to hide my astonishment. "Like, really good. Are you sure you didn't pay Mrs. Sheldon a few doors down to keep quiet about the fact that she made this?"

May smacks my shoulder, but she's beaming. "You're just saying that."

"I'm really not," I assure her as I stuff my mouth with a huge bite of meatloaf. Meatloaf. I had been pretty sure that the universe had declared meatloaf an implement of torture and Aunt May an incurably bad cook. And yet, here I am shoveling her homemade meatloaf into my mouth like my life depends on it.

"Is there more?" I ask hopefully, the last bite crammed against my cheek.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," May scolds sternly, but her lips are curving with satisfaction as she takes my plate back into the kitchen to get me a second serving. "More potatoes?"

"Eh...no thanks," I call after her. Her meatloaf may be the best thing she has ever made by a landslide, but I'm pretty sure those mashed potatoes were made with Elmer's glue.

The hairs on my arm suddenly stand straight up.

My skin begins to prickle, a chill that starts at the base of my neck and skitters down my spine, across my limbs.

My head snaps towards the open door to my bedroom, to the window beyond it, but I can see nothing out of the ordinary.

I stand, unable to remain seated, my senses are that on edge, and pull out my phone. My lock screen is suddenly blowing up with alerts: major news station headlines, government issued warnings, and, as I look at it with growing alarm, several all caps messages from Ned.

NYC NEWS CHNL 7: ALIEN ATTACK IN DWNTWN MANHATTAN

ALERT: Remain inside. Take shelter immediately and lock all your windows and doors. This is not a drill.

KQR CHNL 2: ALIENS OPEN FIRE, IRONMAN DEFENDS MANHATTAN

Ned: DUDE

Ned: R U THERE?

Ned: ?

And, the newest message that makes my chest tighten.

MJ: Be careful

I look up from my phone to Aunt May's pale face, her own phone in her hand, the meatloaf forgotten.

"I have to go," I say, steeling myself to argue with her on this. Mr. Stark needs my help, and I'm not going to sit by while aliens start shooting people down.

"I know," May croaks. She seizes me and pulls me into a fierce, almost painful hug that I return, squeezing her carefully back.

"Don't get hurt," she whispers. "Come back as soon as you can."

"I will," I promise with as much confidence as I can project. She doesn't seem to want to let go, so I gently pry her arms off and give her a grin that doesn't meet my eyes. "I got this, don't worry."

"It's my job to worry," May sighs heavily. "It's your job to go save those people. Go on. Be safe."

I rush to my room, throwing on my suit and slipping on my mask in record time, and with a last wave at May, I throw myself out the window.

Natasha Romanov

The moment I attack the first alien, I know immediately we are in trouble.

Gray skin that is more like thick hide stretched over hard muscles. Sparse black armor, impenetrable to bullets, masks that cover the lower half of their faces. Eyes that are nearly entirely black, save for deep red irises that catch the light, mostly likely used to be able to see better in dark environments.

Eight to ten feet in height, and with lithe bodies I can tell were trained in both stealth and combat. Highly trained.

So trained, I think with narrowed eyes, that this one seems...bored. Distracted. Not fully engaged in this fight.

How rude of it.

I launch myself forward, leaping up to kick off a battered looking SUV, and then I slam the sparking end of my metal baton into the exposed flesh of its neck. My legs hook around its waist, the impact and my weight sending the alien staggering back a couple steps, but I realize instantly that its hide is too thick to be affected by the electricity emanating from my baton. Even though it is locked at the highest fatal setting.

Those red and black eyes lock onto mine.

And I know...somehow I know that it had let me get past its defences. It had let me get close.

Shit.

Faster than I expect, faster than it had shown that it could even move, it grips me by the throat, its vice so tight I don't even have time to gasp for air. Then I am flying back, the base of my spine slamming into a fire hydrant so hard, pain radiates through my entire body before I collapse to the asphalt.

I let out a choked sound, forcing my eyes to follow the alien as it stalks away, the red tipped spines running down its back glinting in the light. The fight had lasted less than thirty seconds.

I am already forgotten. Insignificant.

Gritting my teeth at the insult and the pain, I reach a hand up to my comm. "This is a test."

"What gives you that impression?" grunts Sam.

"These aliens are playing a game," I reply, letting out a near silent groan as I begin to push myself up. "And we are losing. They are just toying with us. Testing the waters."

"Alright, what do we got? Who are the aliens of the week?"

Rhodes has decided to join this party.

"Not the kind you want to bring home to your mother," quips Rogers in between heavy breaths.

I sit up gingerly, my eyes locked down at the corner where the alien I'd attacked had disappeared to.

"Is there an alien you would bring home to your mother?" asks Stark.

I catch a glimpse of him soaring above, palms aimed down as he releases twin repulsor beams down into the next street over.

"Thor," at least three voices reply instantly.

"Woooow," Tony draws out the word, and I wince as I finally make it to my feet. "I'm not even going to touch that. Barnes, on your six."

"I see it."

"Nat, what else you got?" Rogers' voice has lost any trace of amusement.

"A theory," I roll my shoulders once, pushing past the pain radiating from my lower back as I stalk after my opponent. "Has anyone been able to take one of these bastards down?"

A beat of silence.

Stark is unsurprisingly the first to reply. "Define down."

Rogers seems to follow my line of thought. "They're holding back."

"And still winning," Barnes finishes. "Like you said, testing us. But for what?"

I jog to the abandoned intersection, noting the bits of debris and broken glass strewn across the abandoned cars.

The aliens had come out of nowhere. No ship to be seen, in person, or with any of our pieces of technology, and no energy spike implying an interdimensional portal had been opened. One second it had been a sunny evening in downtown Manhattan, the next, these gargantuan warriors were opening fire into the after work traffic.

Once we'd arrived, they'd scattered, dropping all attacks on civilians to focus their attentions on us. I'd thought at the time that they were just attacking the larger threat. But now...now I wonder if this was all an elaborate scheme...drawing us out into the open, learning our weaknesses.

But for what purpose? Is this a tactical maneuver, a small scouting force to report the holes in our defences to a larger host waiting to strike?

The thought makes my blood run cold. Not another invasion.

"Guys? Does that make this a code green?" Bruce's hesitant voice finally speaks up over the comm. The sound of his voice is jarring, distracting me from the field. Over two years since I had heard Bruce Banner speak, since I had seen his face. And now that he's back...

Can't focus on that now.

I open my mouth to reply, my brows furrowing, but Steve beats me to it.

"Negative. Not until we know for sure what they are after."

I burst onto the street, eyes widening at the battle unfolding before me.

Stark and Rhodes are both laying down fire onto a single entity, their combined repulsors and missiles doing nothing more than knocking it backwards. Sam soars above, tucking his wings in tight to barrel roll down from the sky straight into one of the aliens, whose spines bristle and shudder at the impact as it grapples with Sam's now spread metal wings.

Rogers and Barnes are back to back, two aliens wielding spears circling them, then darting forward in seemingly sporadic attacks. I recognize those moves, even in the strange, unearthly way they perform them. Learning the enemy, studying their reflexes.

Then I see the one I'd attacked, stalking forward to join its comrades. It casts a dismissive glance in my direction before moving towards Sam with purpose.

That's when a shiny silver corvette, framed with undulating crimson light, slams into it from its left. I whip my head to the side, my red curls swaying with the movement as I lock eyes on Wanda Maximoff, dressed in civilian clothing, her hands raised towards the alien.

"Sorry we're late," she says, curling her fingers back and jerking them forward again, a bus skidding across the ground, sparks flying to plow through the pair engaging Bucky and Steve, both of them rolling out of the way.

"We?" I ask.

A thin beam of golden light blasts into another alien's back as Vision phases up through the ground behind him.

The alien lets out a piercing, reptilian shriek, the first noise I've heard them make, its back arching at the impact.

Stark steps forward, gesturing, "That one was ours."

"Indeed?" Vision raises a brow. "My sensors indicated your attacks were causing no effect on the extra terrestrial's physical health."

He cuts off the beam of light emitting from the stone set into his forehead, and the alien goes down in a heap onto its front.

"Look at that. Easy as pie," Sam says, dusting his hands off and looking at the fallen aliens scattered around us.

"I don't like it," Barnes murmurs, eyeing one of them. "They're holding back and suddenly they're toast?"

"Maybe they were just waiting for a stronger opponent," Wanda strides forward, arching a delicate brow as her lips curve into a smirk.

"Yeah, or maybe-" Sam's voice cuts off abruptly as out of the shadows all around us step six more armor clad aliens, a myriad of weapons clasped in their hands. We all tense, shifting into defensive positions.

"What were you saying, Wilson?" asks Stark. "Easy as pie, was it?"

"Have you ever tried to make pie? That shit is nearly impossible," mutters Sam.

Then, as if they had simply laid down for the hell of it, all five of the aliens Wanda and Vision had downed get to their feet. The one nearest Wanda flips his staff with skillful ease, his dark eyes boring into her with savage focus.

I was right.

They had been taking it easy on us, pulling their punches, observing. And now they know who the big players are, and I can see it in each of their stances, the way they hold their weapons in their massive, clawed hands.

They won't be holding back anymore.

"Dr. Banner? It's time for that code green," Steve orders in a low voice, all of us tensing for the one move that will send everything lunging into chaos.

Peter Parker

Holy shit.

It isn't just Ironman fending off the aliens attacking New York, it's almost all of the Avengers, some of which I've never even seen in action before.

Landing in a low crouch on a neighboring rooftop, I take a second to scan the fierce, intensely cool, and, if I'm honest, totally terrifying battle in the streets below.

Scarlet Witch, who I've never gotten the chance to meet, is taking on two of the giant, badass looking aliens-whoa, those are some sick spines coming out of their backs, yeesh-her hands enveloped in a crimson aura as she draws one back and slams her open palm towards her attackers.

They go flying back, slamming into a third alien that had been aiming its gun right at Bucky's back, who is going hand to hand against one of the aliens, the sunlight glinting off of his metal arm.

God, this is so cool.

Ok, yeah, it's freaking terrible too. I mean, aliens crashing New York and attacking people sucks, like a lot, but seeing these guys in action like this, especially when it isn't fighting against a possessed...well, me, has got to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I see Cap take a running start, my lenses narrowing on him as he kicks off the wall of a building, propelling himself into the air and bringing his shield down to slam into the masked face of one of the aliens with a loud THWAM I can hear all the way from my perch. The alien drops like a rock, but out of the shadows across the street from Steve, another steps forward, a huge, high tech looking spear in its hands, aimed straight for him.

That's my cue.

I throw myself over the edge of the building, firing off a web to the corner of the tallest roof across the street, the line going taut as I begin swinging instead of falling. With my free hand, I web up a huge chunk of concrete near a crater in the ground-what the hell happened there?-and hurl it with all my strength at the alien taking aim at Steve's back.

BAM!

It collides with it so hard, the huge alien disappears beneath the debris, its weapon clattering to the street as I reach the peak of my swing, release the line, and flip back to land on an overturned bus.

Cap's head had whipped toward me the moment the concrete had slammed into the alien, and I give him a little wave. "Cap'n," I salute. I can't help myself. Feels wrong not to salute the guy, at least whenever we are in combat together, which, granted, hasn't been often, so maybe the gesture isn't too annoying yet.

"Queens," he nods, glancing towards the pile of debris at my back. "Nice work."

I try not to preen at the praise. Be cool, be cool, be-

A massive, ear-shattering roar echoes down the street, and my eyes widen, my head whipping from side to side. "What the hell was that?"

Steve gives me a small smile as he adjusts his grip on the shield. "Have you met Dr. Banner?"

No. No way.

On my right, down the south end of the street, is the Hulk, his huge, green fists raised, bellowing his fury as not one, not two, but four of the alien attackers try to bring him down.

Holy shit.

My spider-senses give a massive jolt of warning, the feeling exploding at the base of my neck. "Oh god," I breathe, lenses wide. Without looking, I roll off the side of the bus and land on the ground, feeling the wind rush by me as the chunk of concrete I had thrown at the alien is thrown back at me. It crashes into the bus, sending it skidding towards Cap, who has to fling himself over a nearby truck to avoid it.

An armor clad fist is slamming towards my face.

I catch it without thinking, lenses narrowing as I take in the alien close up, from the gray, scaly skin, the advanced black armor, to its face, half covered by a metal plated mask, revealing only a pair of scary ass eyes and a broad, tattooed forehead.

Its other fist is surging towards me, and I release my grip to duck, then spring back, like way back as it spins to kick out at me.

For not the first time in my life, I curse my short stature. These aliens are nearly double my height, broad shouldered and covered in muscles, which would make me feel like they should be moving much, much slower than me, especially with my enhanced abilities.

But these aliens are fast.

So fast, I am forced to move backward in a series of flips and ducks and dodges as the alien lunges for me, eyes narrowed, fists flying. It surges forward, planting its feet into the ground to deliver a spinning kick that nearly takes off my head.

I see my opportunity, leaping forward to slam both feet into its chest before it can regain its balance, sending the alien stumbling back into a light post.

"Whoa!" My senses blast a warning, and I flatten myself to the ground as Sam goes flying overhead, one of his wings sparking, billows of smoke trailing after him. "I got you!"

Springing up, I press my middle and index fingers onto my palm, shooting a long thread of web that spreads into a burst at the end, clinging to Sam's broken wing. He's going fast, his momentum nearly taking me off of my feet, forcing me to grip the web with both hands. I yank back hard.

Sam's descent halts as I haul him backwards, the man tucking and rolling within his broken wings as I release the web. He looks up, visor glinting. "Thanks, squirt!" he calls. "I owe y-"

I bend backwards, my spine arching as a black, glistening knife flashes above me, but before I can straighten, before I can move, a second knife is plunging down toward my chest.

Red and gold burst in a flash above me, and suddenly I can see nothing but the sky. Straightening, eyes wide, I see Ironman hovering above the street, light blasting from his palms into the alien that had very nearly stabbed me.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Stark! I-uh-I had that."

"So you weren't about to be filleted like a Saturday Special?" Mr. Stark's voice is dry, and I can't tell if he's irritated with me or not for showing up to this fight.

"Filleted? I think the kid was about to be skewered like a kabob," Colonel Rhodes adds down his own fire.

"Not that I don't appreciate these references of me as these guys' dinner..." I leap up to perch in a crouch on top of a traffic light. "But could we not?"

"It's okay kid, we all need a little rescuing now and then."

"Hey! Did you not see me save Captain America's life?"

"Steve? I don't buy it."

"Cap! Back me up, here, man!" I call as I fire two webs in succession, the tiny bursts sticking with a thwack onto an alien's eyes just as it had raised its spear to throw at Black Widow. She sends me an approving nod.

Steve and Bucky are double teaming an alien that seems just as strong, just as fast as each of them. "Steve?" Bucky prompts, ducking under a blow to drive his metal fist into the alien's side. "Did you really get your ass saved by that scrawny pipsqueak?"

Cap drops into a crouch, raising his shield as the alien drives down a knife, a knife that had shot out of the skin of its wrist-yikes-and the edge of the blade slams into the vibranium with a loud clang. "I don't recall," he grunts as he straightens to drive his shield into the alien's gut while Bucky propels himself off of a car to slam his fist into the alien's throat.

"Not cool," I mutter as I swing off of the traffic light and into the fray.

Tony Stark

Great. Not only are we fighting an increasingly large alien force that our technology is having little to no effect on, that according to Romanov is testing us for weaknesses, but the kid has shown up.

"Isn't it a school night?" I ask, ripping out a lamp post and swinging it like a bat as one of the alien bastards surges for me.

The kid swings down from the building, his feet colliding with the alien's back as it stumbles from my blow. "What's your point?" he asks cheerfully.

"My point is," I draw out the words, firing up my thrusters to shoot up into the sky as the alien retaliates, claws lashing towards me. "Shouldn't you be home, I don't know, studying? Texting your nerd squad? Getting lectured by your attractive aunt?"

"And miss all this? You're kidding, ri-Mr. Stark, look out!"

I whirl midair, but the kid is already right there, swinging up and over the rooftop above me, slamming shoulder first into the midsection of an alien I hadn't noticed, its gun aimed straight for my head.

They go down out of sight, but before I can shoot up after them, a clawed hand seizes my ankle, dragging me down. "You're in my space," I inform it as I catch the other hand that is swiping for my chest, and use my free hand to deliver six rapid punches to the alien's face. On the sixth, it releases me, and I fire up my thrusters attached to my forearms, releasing the gauntlets at the same time. Both go surging forward in a flash of light and smoke, plowing into the alien and locking onto its armor, propelling it far into the sky in an instant.

One jerk of my arms has a second pair of gauntlets folding over my bare hands, and then my head is whipping up towards the roof, my eyes scanning for a red and blue clad teenager and a larger than life alien determined to kill him.

An alien body goes flying over my head to crash into the overturned bus and skid all the way to the street over. I look back up, and the kid is standing at the roof's edge, lenses wide with surprise, like he hadn't even meant to do that.

"Mr. Stark, did you see that?!" Peter's voice is high pitched and excited, and I have to roll my eyes.

"Great job, kid. I'll give you a cookie when this is done," I say dismissively, turning to glance down the street to see how the rest of Earth's Mightiest are faring.

"A cookie? I think that was worth at least-" the kid's voice suddenly chokes off in a ragged inhale that has me whirling.

His lenses are comically wide, and at first I expect to see an alien looming behind him or picking him up by his throat, but the kid is alone on the rooftop. Then my eyes see the unnaturally large, barbed hook protruding from his right shoulder.

A split second later, the kid is jerked off of his feet into the air with a pained grunt, shooting upwards on some invisible line.

"Kid!" I shift all remaining power to the thrusters at my feet, darting after him in a surge of heat. What the actual hell? Something is reeling him in, but I can see no ship, my sensors not even picking up a trace of activity. "Rhodes, I need backup up here."

"Kinda busy at the moment."

"Well get unbusy. Someone's decided to play go-fish with the kid."

CRUNCH.

I choke at the impact of something slamming into my back with enough force that I am jerked off course. Electricity radiates from whatever it is, purple sparks shooting down my limbs, across my chest, the sensors on my faceplate blinking in and out. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Some-inte-ering-my sens-can't-"

The data across my screen vanishes abruptly, and I am left with nothing but darkness and silence where a moment ago there had been the roaring of thrusters and lights dotting my vision. I get a glimpse of the kid's small body shooting up higher and higher, and then I am falling.

"Shit," I curse, trying anything and everything to bring the suit online, but whatever technology the alien had hit me with had wiped out all my systems. My body flips and spins as I fall, faster and faster and faster until I can't tell what is up and what is down.

This is going to hurt like a bitch.

SLAM!

For a moment, I think I crashed into the ground, but then my body is surging back up, and I register a pair of arms hooked under my shoulders. "See, Tony? This is what catching someone looks like," comes Rhodey's shout over the wind and roar of his own thrusters. "Try it some time."

"That's low, even for you," I yell back, even though I know he doesn't really mean it.

The moment the boots of my suit hit the rooftop, I'm jerking my helmet off of my head. Rhodey's faceplate retracts, and I'm spinning, eyes to the sky.

"Rally the others," I start, my gaze trying to pinpoint the kid. "We have to go up after them."

"Tony-"

I follow the line of trajectory from where the kid had last been perched on the roof to where he was dragged up into the sky. "There," I point. "If you go now, you should be able to catch him."

"Tony."

My teeth clench, and I whirl back at him, eyes narrowed. "What?"

Rhodey's mouth is set in a grim line, his stance rigid, but unhurried. The exact opposite of what I need him to be right now. "They're gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, 'gone'? Who's gone?"

I turn from him towards the battleworn street below, scanning for the others. There's Sam, shrugging off his highly damaged, still smoking wings, and Natasha, clutching her side and looking around her, bewildered. The fallen bodies of the aliens are nowhere to be seen, and I step closer to the edge, my gauntleted hands gripping the railing lining the rooftop.

Silence.

The Hulk has vanished, or Banner is unconscious somewhere, nursing a bad headache. That alone would be suspicious, but there's no rallying call from Cap, no Barnes brooding beside him. No Wanda. No Vision.

No Peter.

"What the hell happened?" I jerk back to Rhodey, but his eyes are fixed on the sky.

He nods, face awed and set with resignation. "That happened."

I turn, and the sight makes my stomach drop. A massive, dark ship in the distorted shape of a triangular prism hovers high above us, its hull made of the same black metal covering the alien attackers, with rust colored symbols painted on its hull in a language I can't even begin to decipher.

A ship with cloaking technology so advanced, there had been no telltale shimmer or distortion separating it from the blue sky and clouds. So advanced, none of our sensors, none of my technology had picked up on even the slightest trace of it there above us.

Wind whips around us, carrying with it the smell of burning chemicals, the faint heat emanating from the ship above as it tilts skyward. White hot energy bursts from the thrusters on either side, scorching the rooftops beneath it as it cuts through the sky like nothing more than a streak of shadow.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the ship is gone.

Carrying with it the rest of the Avengers.

a/n: This is going to be one exciting ride, people. I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter of Silent Night, even long after I finished posting it! I will be replying to all the reviews at the end of the chapter as per usual, so make sure you let me know what you think down below!

Also, a HUGE thank you to PippinStrange, who is my loyal and phenomenal beta. This is for you, FIFFER! If you guys are struggling with PTSD from Infinity War (MY HEART, OMG), go read her in progress fic Where They Go. It is a balm to my wounds that Infinity War gave me, and it is so freaking good. Has EVERYTHING you could want. For reals.

I am beyond excited about this fic, and hope to be posting at least once a week. It's going to be an intense one! (When are my fics ever NOT intense?) and will include characters I haven't had in my fics yet, as well as perspectives I have not written from before. This is bigger and badder than Paint it Black or Silent Night, and I think will be a worthy inclusion in the series, though it is not featuring Venom or Hydra as the big bad this time. I also have another few fics planned for after Riders in the Sky is over, so stay tuned guys! Can't wait to hear all of your thoughts!

Coming Up:

Chapter Two: Hurt

The captured Avengers wake up to unfortunate circumstances, while Tony Stark and the others receive unexpected aid in their attempts to rescue their comrades