THE DEATH SEASON ▹ final avengers ✓

32 | portals

chapter xxxii of the death season :
" ON YOUR LEFT . "

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" In times of crisis, we must find
a way to look after one another,
as if we are one... single... tribe. "
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january 28th, 2023
destroyed avengers compound,
new york

THE WORLD IS ON FIRE.

Lisa pushes her hands into shards of broken glass, relishing in the pain of the sting, the release of blood from her palms. Her chest heaves and smoke takes up the space of oxygen in her lungs. Long hair falls around her shoulders and torn skin, her eyes burst open with a violent bright blue, and her lips part to reveal bloodied teeth.

She's alive.

It's not over yet.

Two hands suddenly grasp onto her arms and roughly yank her upright, making the woman shriek and raise a hand to fire when a pair of familiar eyes filled with lightning meets her own.

"Thor?"

"Stop, wait." The thunder god draws back, eyeing her almost threateningly, "Is it you?"

"What?" Head dizzy and feet stumbling, her body is still fizzing and crackling with energy, skin slowly stitching itself together, "Thor, what're you-,"

"Wait! Is it you?!" The god grips her arms almost painfully, crouching down to look her straight in the eyes, "Are you Lisa? Daughter of Stark?"

"Yes, Thor, yes!" Lisa coughs in the rising smoke and ash, "I'm me. I'm not... I'm not Thanos'."

"Thank the Norns." Thor heaves a sigh, leaning forward to press his forehead with hers, "Come..."

"Wait, wait-," Lisa pulls him back, eyes turning wide and breathing cutting short, "Have you seen my dad? How about Rhodey? Steve? Anybody?"

"No. It's just you, me, and him."

Her glowing eyes drift over his shoulder.

Her jaw sets.

The stitches in her skin grow aflame once more.

She doesn't need to ask who 'him' is.

LAURIE WAKES UNDER RUBBLE.

Water is rising all around her, blue hair floating around her face, the spray of broken pipes cool on her burned skin. Still trying to make sense of her surroundings, Laurie softly moans through the violently spinning sensation in her head, vision blurry in the darkness and flashing red lights. And all at once, the enormity of what's happened crashes down upon her. Laurie jolts up with a strangled gasp, soaked to the bone and looking up to see the entirety of the destroyed Avengers Compound above her.

Panic shoots up her spine like an icy spike.

"Well, well, well." Laurie heaves for oxygen, her hands grasping her quivering kneecaps, "If it isn't the consequences of our own actions."

"I can't breathe!" A gasping voice wheezes in the darkness nearby, "I can't breathe!"

Laurie whips around to see Rocket a few feet away, trapped beneath a metal beam pressing into his chest. Her eyes widen and she tries to run to him, tripping and falling into the rising water until she can reach him.