Havoc | Peter Parker ¹ ✓

2 | s.o.s.

After wandering another block in silence, they turn a corner so the breeze is no longer blowing in their direction. Lena promptly drops the shield. Their surroundings become more clear, and as soon as they do, Bruce points to a tiny object on the ground a few yards ahead of them. "There."

"What?" Lena squints. "I don't see anything."

He leaves her side for the first time to hobble toward the thing— hobble, because he'd also gotten thrown around by that alien. He bends down and scoops it up. She realizes as he pokes at the device that he's holding a flip phone. Jogging toward him, she keeps a respectful distance of a foot between them as she watches him go to the contacts icon. There is only one name that pops up.

Steve Rogers.

"Holy shit," she gasps. "Are you calling Captain America? I thought he and Tony were... not buddies."

Peter had explained the gist of what happened when Tony had taken him to Germany. He hadn't told the younger boy much, but if he was ordered to fight Cap & Co, there must have been a valid reason...maybe one beyond half of the Avengers refusing to sign the Sokovian Accords. She shudders. Now isn't the time for such a harsh divide.

"They aren't," Bruce confirms with a frown, "and I still don't know why. I think this situation calls for Cap, don't you?"

He looks over his shoulder at her. Lena allows herself to be awestruck at the fact that Bruce Banner values her opinion before responding very maturely, "Uh, this is my first time being around more than one Avenger, so, uh, I don't know."

He turns back to the phone and sighs. "I'm calling him."

A lightbulb goes off in Lena's head, causing her to perk up and look at the buildings across the street like a dog. Their bags in the alleyway. She can't leave her clothes and phone behind, wherever she ends up going while in Bruce's care, and abandoning Peter's belongings is out of the question.

"While you do that, Dr. Banner—"

"Bruce."

"Right, Dr. Banner." She's not comfortable with calling adults by their first names— especially ones like him. "While you do that, I'm going to grab the stuff I left in an alleyway where I came from. I'll be right back, I promise."

She faces her hands downward and blasts off before he can protest. As soon as she's in the air, she feels slightly guilty. What if he doesn't believe her and thinks she's going to fly straight up to that spaceship? Since she doesn't have a proper mask, she'd likely pass out from the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere alone, and he should know that, but desperation is a funny thing. She'd seen that firsthand when Tony had shot himself into space for Peter without hesitation.

Lena doesn't allow herself to dwell on it and hopes he's making the phone call as she rockets in the direction she'd come from. She looks down as she soars between skyscrapers, surveying the utter destruction that continues for several miles. Someone had evacuated the premises. It makes the streets hauntingly empty, a city with millions of citizens looking like a ghost town.

A chill goes down her spine. She makes quick work of finding their bags and using her energy to detach them from Peter's webs. Her stomach churns, making her feel nauseous as she turns her back toward the discarded webs. Why does it make her feel so terrible? She's clutching both of their backpacks to her chest like lifelines, and yet she feels like she's abandoning a tiny piece of him.

Lena takes to the sky again before she can go insane and stuff the broken webs into her bag or something. When she returns, she discovers Bruce waiting anxiously for her arrival, scanning the area for her. His shoulders slump in relief when she appears around the corner and swiftly lowers herself to the sidewalk. She uses the remainder of her momentum to walk toward him before stopping and staring at the flip phone in his hand.