Between Entrance and Exit: An Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 10: Blackbird

"Hey, Siri, open your eyes."

I blinked into the light of the arc reactor of the Iron Man suit. I scrambled, my hands searching the ground around for the scepter. Iron Man put a finger firmly on my forehead. 

"Hold up, Flash, you could be injured. I just pulled a mountain off of you."

"Mr. Stark?" I looked around but everything was still dark. I could just see his face in the light from his chest.

"You can call me Tony now. I think we've reached that point. What year it is?"

"What?"

"The year. You hit your head and your pupils are dilated."

"2012," I said squinting into his light. That would explain the pounding headache.  I closed my eyes against the pain.

"Hey. Keep your eyes open. Don't even think about blinking unless I say so. Got it?"

"My mother..." I tried to sit up again, but he kept a hand on my shoulder.

"Insane alien kidnapping enchantresses do these types of things. Don't feel special. What hurts? Can you move your toes? Anything broken?"

"Where's the scepter?" I used his arm to pull my way up. I had get out of here, and use it to control her before she hurt anyone else.

"Okay," Tony said. "You'll live. Listen I have some bad news and some good news."

The blue glow caught my eye. There it was, still the same size as I left it, mostly buried.

"How are you with holding your breath?" Tony asked, helping me unearth the rest of it.

"Uh..." I stood up, feeling a deep ache in my back, but strong and capable again with the scepter in hand.

"Cause the bad news is that the only way out of here is filled with water."

I looked towards where I thought that black pool of water stood. "And the good news?"

"Yeah, I don't actually have any good news. You're stuck with me. I can get us out of here in under a minute, but it's going to be cold, and it's going to be scary."

I stared at him then nodded. What choice did I have? I considered holding the staff for this, but if I dropped it I would never forgive myself. I shrunk it and zipped it into my pocket again.

"There we go. We'll be eating steak and drinking champagne before you know it. Oh wait, you like breakfast food, don't you? That reminds me, don't you owe me, what was it, like two eggs and a teaspoon of butter?"

The IOU from the battle. I had forgotten to pay him back for the food I stole.

"I'll buy you two dozen eggs if you can get me out of here alive."

"That's it? That's all I get for all of this? Fine. But I'm gonna need it by Friday." He bent to wind an arm around me.

"What, you have book club coming up? Planning to make quiche?"

"Oh yeah, Earth's mightiest heroes sitting around discussing point of view. Oprah wishes her club was half as cool. We just finished The Fault in our Stars. Real tear-jerker. Pretty sure Steve used spark notes."

I laughed, then stopped short as I saw we were already hovering over the hole, ready for the plunge. I felt a spike of fear in my gut.

"Thirty seconds. You can time me."

I nodded holding tight around his very uncomfortably stiff neck. With his mask in place, he waited for me to close my eyes and take my last breath.