Faultlines

Picking Sites

Next thing Scott knew, everyone was running again. It was all a big blur of people and energy all around him. Almost impossible to track people, Scott saw Iron Man go up against Cap.

He was desperately trying to keep track of everyone while simultaneously fighting.

He was seeing them fight. Live. Close up. The Avengers. And he was smack down in the middle. Scott was fighting War Machine, when Hawkeye tackled him from behind.

"Wha...?!", he started, as a bright beam of light shot right past his head, followed by Vision. It looked like the... Vision... had been sent flying violently. What the hell could do that?!

Harry Stark, apparently.

"Sorry.", he told them offhandedly, as he followed behind Vision, jumping far higher and farther that should be possible, shooting a bright red beam to his left and catapulting War Machine backwards as well.

"I have an idea.", Hawkeye told him, just as there was a blinding light to their right. Scott was quite happy he wasn't part of that particular fight.

"I am game.", Scott replied, still trying to make sense of the whole thing.

"Yeah, shrink down. I'm gonna shoot you at Stark so you can try and sabotage his suit."

Scott instantly regretted his approval.

Scott was being catapulted from the Iron Man suit, when he heard the others discussing strategy over his headpiece.

"That guy's probably in Siberia by now.", Bucky was saying, his voice impatient.

"I'm gonna draw all the fliers. I'll take Vision. You get to the jet.", Steve was proposing.

"No, you get to the jet! Both of you! The rest of us aren't getting out of here.", Sam disagreed, but Scott wasn't so sure about that. They seemed pretty evenly matched, what with Harry Stark and Vision battling it out like magical streetfighters. As if on cue, both men(?) flew past him in a blaze of sparks. Scott threw himself to the floor again. Public manices, the both of them.

"We can win this.", Scott told the others, while getting up again.

"Yes, but probably not fast enough. We are running out of time.", Bucky grumbled.

"You guys get the hell out of here then.", Clint told them, "We'll be able to hold them off for a while. Good thing Harry showed up."

Scott was about to offer himself for another really stupid idea, when Harry Stark suddenly arrived right behind him, looking at him intendly.

"What are you discussing?", he asked, "I don't have an earpiece."

Scott stared at him blankly for a second, in the background he could see that Wanda had taken over the fight with Vision.

"We need a diversion. Steve and Bucky need to leave now.", he replied, admittingly sounding a bit dumb.

A big, almost creepy grin appeared on the younger Stark's face, sending shivers down Scott's spine.

"Tell them not to worry. They need to get moving. I've got this.", his hand vanished into his cloak.

"You guys heard that?", Scott asked.

There was a collected grumble of approval in his ear. Scott nodded to Harry, who stepped out of the cover they had both taken. He swung his wand out to the right and one of Iron Man's projectiles collided with an invisible wall. For their future relationship's sake, Scott really hoped that had been a stunner. Harry, on his part didn't even look at his brother, but continued his calm walk. Now the others seemed to notice something was happening, War Machine, who had obviously been going for Scott, turned towards Stark instead. Even all those meters away, Scott was sure he could feel the sudden nervousness around him.

On his left, he could see Steve, Bucky and Sam run towards the hangar. Distraction. right, he told himself and ran towards BlackPanther, who was following the others.

Suddenly he felt like he was in a World War 2 war movie.

Later Scott would be really ashamed to admit it, but when he heard a sound like multiple bombs going off behind him, he threw himself to the floor (again) on instinct, covering his head.

He turned around in shock. The battle continued behind his, Harry now battling his brother. But there was something moving on the floor. Multiple somethings. Running around and periodically making a horrid noise.

They had certainly been enough of a diversion, even if it didn't take the others too long to adjust. Behind him the quintjet soared high into the air. It looked like Iron Man and War Machine wanted to follow, but Harry flicked his wand again, pulling both back towards him like they were on invisible lassos.

Scott REALLY needed to find out what exactly that man was.

There was a scream that suspiciously sounded like Wanda and it seemed that Harry lost his concentration for a mere second, allowing War Machine to get out of his reach and follow behind the jet. Sam noticed immediately, following as well. Scott cursed loudly. He had been so sure that Harry had it all under control that he has severely neglected his job. It was just all so... fascinating. He jogged towards Harry, intend of asking him if there was anything he could do, when a bright beam shot upwards from the ground, missing Sam by mere millimeters and hitting War Machine. Harry, Scott realized, hadn't noticed that. He had just reached Vision, kneeling on the floor next to Wanda and send a blazing, red light towards him. Vision actually fell to the floor and remained unmoving, as Harry kneeled down next to Wanda, fury replaced by deep lines of worry. Scott turned around, expecting to see them all come down again, Jet out of sight, when he saw bot Sam and Iron Man race towards the ground.

"Holy Shit!", he cursed, when he saw why exactly they were diving down.

"Harry!", he yelled on instinct, pointing towards the falling War Machine, hoping that the weirdly powerful man could, would do something about it.

Harry's head whipped around, his eyes zoning in on his falling friend. With one practiced motion he drew his wand again and Scott could actually see War Machine slowing down, down, down... until he softly landed on the gras.

Harry and Clint pulled up Wanda and Scott reflexively joined them, as they walked towards the potentially injured man.

Both Iron Man and Sam had landed next to him and Iron Man had pulled of the other man's visor.

"Ouch.", was the only response he got.

Iron Man's helmet opened as well- "Rhodey?", he asked breathlessly.

"This pee recycling thing is not working, when the suit isn't functional."

Scott actually laughed, when he heard War Machines annoyed tone, but Iron Man didn't seem to relax. His furious eyes turned on his brother.

"Are you happy now?!"

"This wasn't me.", came the icy reply, "We have bigger battles to fight."

He let go of Wanda and held out his left arm. Wanda immediately grabbed onto it tightly, Clint put his hand onto Harry's shoulder, holding tight.

"Come on, Tic Tac, let's leave.", Sam told him, "You can have his arm."

"I can have what?", Scott didn't like this. At all.

"My arm.", Harry told him, "Hold on tight."

No one else was saying anything. No one dared. The fight was over. They all knew it. There was nothing left to say. Sam took Harry's other shoulder, simultaneously holding onto Clint. Scott finally grabbed Harry's arm, holding onto it for dear life.

"Goodbye.", Harry told no one in particular and before Scott knew what exactly was happening, he felt a bit like the first time he used the suit. Like his whole self was squashed together. Then everything went dark.