Life At A Stand-Still

Chapter 12

"Hey! You!" Lily yelled when she saw Aaron around the corner of the building. Aaron turned to her, before his lips moved in a blur that Lily couldn't understand.

"What? I can't hear you!" She shouted. Aaron just ditched trying to talk and instead ran full speed at Lily, moving so fast she almost didn't realize him until it was too late.

"Woah!" Lily rolled out of the way at the last second, hopping back up to her feet once Aaron passed. As she turned to find him, she felt a whiff of air by her cheek, like someone had missed a punch.

"Wow, Caleb. You're loosing your touch!" Lily teased.

"Shut up!" Lily managed to make out. She had obviously ticked the boy off.

"Make me!" She retaliated, spotting Kyle sneaking around the back of the building. She stuck her tongue out and ran away to draw attention from him.

It worked as she had hoped, and she soon had two boys chasing her.

"Noklar! A little help?" She asked frantically, as she tired. The next second, a small portal opened a few feet in front of her. She saw it in time and jumped over with ease, but the two behind her did not and fell in. They appeared on the other side of the street, in front of one eliotrope smiling evilly.

"My turn." Noklar then started teleporting around the very quickly, causing them to become disoriented. Noklar took this opportunity and punched both of them.

Lily walked over to the blue boy. "Good job." She complimented and gave him a high-five.

Meanwhile, inside of the building, Kyle was busy following his senses to the trapped heroes. Apparently they were being kept on the top floor of the fifty story building. And the elevator was out of service.

"Why do they have so many stairs?" Kyle mumbled to himself as he trudged past floor forty-five. After a few more minutes, he finally reached the door of floor fifty.

"Finally." He breathed when he pushed the door open. What he saw surprised him.

The heroes were tied up and left in one of the corners of the room, a few like Logan, Steve, and Thor still knocked out.

The sound of the door opening caused the heroes that were awake to look up, and it was then that Kyle saw the duct tape on their mouths. Their eyes widened and they fought against the bonds.

"Why would they just keep you up here with nobody guarding you?" Kyle asked as he advanced towards them.

"They didn't." All of a sudden, Kyle felt warm breath on the back of his neck. He whipped around and was greeted with the sight of cold steel in front of his face.

"John?!? Why couldn't I sense you?" Kyle held his hands up. Then he got a good look at his best friend and realized that he was wearing a fur coat. John noticed him looking and smiled.

"Not my first choice," he started, "but if it gets the job done, I'll wear it."

Kyle hit the wall.

"John, please, snap out of it!" He pleaded.

"I did. A while ago." John walked steadily forward, knife held at his side. Once he reached Kyle, he seemed to hesitate for a moment, something flashing across his eyes that Kyle wasn't able to recognize.

Kyle's eyes widened.

The knife left John's side.

It buried itself in soft flesh.

Kyle slumped to the floor.

John leaned down. "I'm enjoying this." He whispered in Kyle's ear as the last of the life drained from his eyes.

Kyle's last thought before slipping into the dark embrace that was death was a message to Death herself.

I'm coming.

John stood up, an evil grin on his face. Suddenly, he paused. It seemed like a battle was going on in his mind. After a minute, the battle stopped and he looked down at his best friend in horror.

"Oh no. Oh, no no no. Oh shit." John whispered and backed up. He then turned to the tied-up heroes and hurried towards them, pulling out another knife. The heroes squirmed and desperately screamed against the tape over their mouths.

John reached them and dropped to his knees.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." He repeated over and over again as he cut through the ropes. As soon as he finished, they all jumped up- except the ones who were knocked out of course- and ripped the tape off. John stood up a little slower.

"We need to go outside and help Lily and Noklar." John said, his voice completely void of any emotion.

"Are you ok?" Bruce asked in a soft voice. John scoffed.

"Yeah. Unless you including the fact that I was just hypnotized to kill my best friend." He answered sarcastically. Clint's face turned sympathetic.

"I know how you feel." He said, setting a hand on the boy's shoulder. John looked up at him, confused.

"You've heard about Loki, right?" John nodded, and Clint continued. "Well, I was hypnotized by him as well. I killed so many innocent agents..." Clint trailed off, his face distant.

"Anyways, we should probably go help the others now." Clint patted John's shoulder again and started off to the door.

"Wait!" John called after him, He turned around and John started up again. "What about Logan, Steve, Thor, and..."

"Oh. Right." Clint shot a sad glance at Kyle's lifeless body. "I guess we should wake them up."

"On it!" Tony yelled. He glanced over at his wrist, looking to activate his suit, when he realized that his watch was gone.

"Uh, guys?" Everyone turned around to face Natasha, who's pockets were turned inside out. "I have no weapons."

Once the words left her mouth, everyone checked their pockets, exclaiming when everything, even pens, were gone.

"What are we going to do now?" Clint asked.

It was after a few minutes of trying to come up with a plan when John realized what a dumb doofus he was.

"Wow. I can teleport you all back." John stated, face palming.

"Oh yeah. Why don't you teleport Nat, Tony and I back to the tower, and Bruce, would you mind staying here to watch the guys?" Clint asked.

"Sure." Bruce replied.

Abd with that, John grabbed their arms and teleported to the tower.

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A/N

Hey guys! Sorry about this messed up chapter (Wattpad can be so difficult when it comes to publishing).

But, to make up for it, I added an extra 200 words!

Next chapter should be coming soon!

Thanks, my agents!

Abby