forty-three

6.8K 265 233
                                    

Nathan Porter let out a sigh, signing off on the stack of papers before him as he walked through the halls of the hospital

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Nathan Porter let out a sigh, signing off on the stack of papers before him as he walked through the halls of the hospital. Nurses and doctors walked past, nodding their heads in hello. Some rushed past with patients on gurneys, ready to go into surgery.

"Strange!" Nate called out as he saw the doctor standing up ahead. He walked toward him as he watched Stephen Strange fiddle with his watch. "You getting ready for something?"

"Patient was coming in with moyamoya disease, we plan on doing some scans and everything. Probably going to have to go in for extracranial to intracranial arterial bypass,"

"That's a pretty complicated procedure,"

"Those are what I do best," Strange sent Nathan a wink. "I'm sure you could've done it in your prime."

Nathan let out a sigh, shaking his head as he looked back at the man, unimpressed.

"I honestly don't know who is more insufferable: you or Stark. Hopefully you two never meet and I never have to find out,"

"Stark is a douche-bag, I'd put him in his place," Strange sent his friend a wink before walking off down the hallway.

Now alone in the waiting room at the front of the hospital, except for the few nurses that walked past every few moments, Nathan took the moment to bring out his phone, smiling at the sight of his little Aurora as his background. His smile dropped into a frown when he saw there was no missed text or call from Audelia yet.

They hadn't spoken since she was in the lab, looking for the cube, and that worried him. She said she'd keep him up to date on what was happening, and there's was no way they hadn't found the cube yet. It was nerve-wracking, knowing something could've happened and he had no idea.

The front doors of the hospital busted open as Nathan turned around at the gust of wind and the familiar sound of Audelia's armor behind him. She landed on the ground, her mask lifting up as nurses, doctors, and patients alike stopped in their tracks in shock.

"I'm going to take it that this," Nathan gestured to her suit. "Isn't a very good sign."

"Phil is dead," the statement made Nathan pause for a moment as Audelia swallowed the lump in her throat, determination clouding her eyes. "Loki killed him, and now he has the scepter and the cube."

"Where's he at, then?"

"On top of Stark Tower, Tony's heading there now," Audelia explained. "He means to open a portal to space. He has an army waiting on the other side."

Audelia paused to watch Nathan, letting the information sink in as he straightened out, his face turning serious.

"Any idea on how many?"

"We're going to try and stop it before it starts, but it's unlikely. We don't know how many Loki has,"

Nathan quickly turned around to face two of the doctors behind him and the security guards standing around.

IMPERIAL ◼TONY STARK◼Where stories live. Discover now