Mind Full of Roses // Peter Parker

4.10: As Worlds Collide

It happens too fast for me to properly take it all in. One second I'm stood next to Scott by the window, Stark beaming down at me for the first time ever. And the next, the ground is swept from under my feet and I'm being thrown through the air from the blast of a missile hitting the compound. I feel myself falling, grasping at air until my back slams into some rubble, winding me, and making my vision go spotty and dark.

I force my eyes to open and try to make the blurry scene around me make sense. Pipes stretch across over me and metal grating lines the floor. I think I'm in the basement. The force of the blast must have blown the compound apart and separated us by the chunks of rubble that I landed on.

Groaning and rubbing my back, I sit up and push my hair back from my face. "Stark?" I call out croakily. "Steve? Scott?"

The lack of a reply confirms my theory yet the small part of me that doesn't want to be alone makes me stay quiet for a couple more seconds, shallowing my breaths so they aren't as loud and straining my ears for any noise that could mean someone's close. It's futile. I try to return my breathing back to normal but now I've focused on it I can't seem to un-focus on it.

Stop it, I scold my brain, pull yourself to together.

Taking manual breaths, I careful slide down the rubble. My hands find small cracks so I can get a good hold before dropping down the small height that remains and landing in a crouch.

What the hell just happened?

As I pull my hair up into a ponytail with a bobble I found in one of the pockets of Lena's vest, I recount the last half hour in my head to try make sense of the situation.

Okay, so first things first: we got the Reality Stones back. Tick. Then, Bruce and Stark went all science-y on us and built a knock off gauntlet that I'm pretty sure Peter would be fangirling over if he saw it. Tick. Bruce put the Infinity Stones in the gauntlet, yada yada yada blah blah blah, and he clicked, and then we all got almost blown to smithereens. Cool. At least I know one thing for certain: I most definitely have either a concussion or whiplash. Super duper.

Bracing my hands on some rubble, I pull myself up into a sort of standing/hunching position. A sound echoes behind me, a screeching sound that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. Spinning around so fast I'm positive that if I didn't have whiplash I do now, I thrust my hands in front of me. A ball of energy flies forwards, lighting up the dark abyss with a red light whilst it solidifies into a cannonball looking thing. It connects with a dark shape at the end before disappearing completely, the light just blinking out as though it was never there.

But not before I saw the reflection of its eyes. The dark shape moves closer, still practically invisible but it's done with being silent. I can hear it gurgling and growling from over here. Whatever it is at the end of that tunnel must have heard me calling out. I was so stupid. But it's too late now to try and backtrack my actions so I do the next best thing: I run.

I don't need to look behind me to know it's there; I can feel its cold breath on the nape of my neck and the vibrations through the stone floor as it pounds towards me. I weave around sparking wires and jutting pipes, jump over fallen bricks and metal, but the thing doesn't seem to be slowing.

I throw a ball of energy behind me without slowing. It hits the thing but it gets up immediately, angrier than it was before. Shit. Feeling around my belt for one of my throwing daggers, I grasp the closest one and will my legs to go faster.

Once I've gotten a couple more metres in front, I turn around so I'm facing the thing, freezing for a second at the sight of it. It comes barrelling towards me on six legs, but as it gets closer it stands up on two of them so four of them act like arms. Teeth glint in the limited light as it opens its giant mouth so half of its face disappears, spit stringing between the two halves and a split tongue flickering. I unfreeze just as quick, regaining my senses and pulling back my arm, aiming for the back of its throat whilst it screeches at me.