All the students wait by the bus lane for the school buses to arrive. Well, some of the students, Peter and Ned aren't here yet. I stand with MJ as we wait and she's telling me about a book she's reading. All of a sudden, she stops rambling and looks behind me. "Peter's coming," she informs with a smirk. I whip around and see him and Ned coming in our direction.
"Hey, guys," Ned energetically greets as they approach us. Peter stands in front of me and just smiles timidly.
"Hey," he breathes out.
"Hey," I return, grinning kindly. We just remain like this, staring at each other until MJ interjects.
"Hey," she says, alerting us of her presence. We snap out of our trance and the buses arrive.
"Okay, guys. Let's get on the buses!" Mr. Dell shouts at everyone. The four of us get in the line for the first bus.
When MJ and I finally get on, I ask, "where should we sit?"
"I'm gonna sit back there... you are going to sit there," she voices, pointing at a certain seat. I glance in the direction she's pointing in and see Peter sitting by himself, with Ned in the seat in front of him.
I chuckle. "Are you sure? I thought we were going to sit together," I mention. She nods her head.
"Go," she orders before going to the back of the bus. I do as she says and approach Peter.
"Mind if I sit here?"
He glances up at me in shock, but soon beams. "Y-yeah, yeah, go ahead," he answers, scooting closer to the window. "Okay," I utter and sit down next to him. The bus starts moving and Peter stays quiet, letting me know that he doesn't know what to say. Wow, this boy is awkward. I guess I'll be the one to address the elephant in the room.
"So I was thinking, for our next date we can go out to eat or something... maybe go see a movie," I pipe up. Peter turns to me with reddened cheeks.
"Second date?"
"Mhm."
His eyes sparkle as a gigantic smile makes its way onto his face. "Y-yeah, dinner and a movie sound awesome," his voice slightly cracks.
"Cool," I respond, smiling.
He pulls his phone out of his pocket and asks, "wanna watch 'The Office?"
"Yes!" I enthusiastically answer. He plugs in his earphones and hands me one of the earbuds before opening Netflix and clicking on 'The Office.' We sit close together as we watch. We laugh every so often at a joke, completely invested in the show. Suddenly, Peter raises his head and looks out the window.
"What are you looking at?" I question. He doesn't respond as he continues to stare out the window, making me lean over him to take a peek as well. My eyes widen when I see a giant ring-shaped spaceship in the air. Peter looks back at me and we both know what we have to do at that moment. He looks at the students behind us and reaches his arm toward Ned, tapping his shoulder and face.
"Ned, hey. I need you to cause a distraction."
Ned spots the aircraft when he turns around and shouts, "holy shit. We're all gonna die! There's a spaceship!" He instantly jumps out of his seat and moves to the back, making the other students follow suit. Wow, that was fast. While they're all distracted, Peter and I reach into our backpacks. I take out my mask while he pulls out a web shooter and slaps it on his wrist. He fires a web at a window, pulling it open. He climbs out and sticks to the side of the bus to pull on his mask.
"What's the matter with you kids? You've never seen a spaceship before?" the bus driver pipes up. I put my mask on and grab my backpack before flying out of the open window. As soon as I fly out, Peter starts swinging and we make our way toward the spaceship. We drop into an alleyway to change before nearing the spaceship again. When we get closer, Peter shouts, "I see Mr. Stark!" We rush toward him.
Iron Man is thrown to the ground and the alien's hammer is about to hit him until Peter blocks it. "Hey, man," he addresses the monster before turning to Tony and greeting him, "what's up, Mr. Stark?" I land beside Tony and casually say, "Hey, Tony."
"Kid? Y/n? Where'd you guys come from?"
"A field trip to MoMA!" Peter shouts as the alien grabs him and flings him into the air. I bring my arms up and telekinetically catch Peter before he hits the ground. Tony takes this opportunity to blast the creature.
"Uh, what is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?" Peter questions as he swings forward. Tony and I start fighting the creature.
"Uh, he's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard."
"Sounds very oversimplified but it works," I comment as I dodge the alien's weapon. Peter jumps at him and is caught by his weapon and flung around in a circle. Tony shoots lasers at him but he blocks them with a shield. He grasps a broken car from beside him and flings it up to hit Tony. It flies into the air and I lift my hands, purple swirls surrounding the half-car, and fling it down, making it crush the alien. Man, and I thought fighting the Demogorgon was weird.
We continue to fight and pause when a man flies by. "What the fuck?" I blurt out.
"Kids, that's the wizard, get on it," Tony orders.
"On it," Peter and I answer at the same time as we follow the wizard. Another alien is flying after the man and we're about to reach the alien until he swings his arm back, making a billboard hit us. Peter catches me before I could hit the ground and hangs onto a web string with his other hand. "Not cool," Peter voices, letting go of me and swinging off.
"I know. What a bitch," I scoff before taking flight again. I follow the wizard through the street light obstacle course the alien is creating until Peter catches him with his web.
"Gotcha!" he says. I lower back onto the ground and watch Peter swing the man around. A blue light unexpectedly appears and beams the wizard up. Peter fires a web at a lamppost and tries to pull the wizard down. "Uh, y/n? Mr. Stark? I'm being beamed up!"
"Hold on!" I yell, raising my hands to pull the two down. I strain myself and they start coming down. I'm suddenly hit by another billboard, sending me flying to the ground. That alien bitch is getting on my nerves. I look up to see Peter and the man beamed up onto the spaceship. "Uh, Tony?" I call out.
"Hang on, kiddo."
Iron Man flies by and into the air after the ship. I watch anxiously, waiting for them to come back but they never do. "Oh, God, Tony... Peter," I mumble to myself. I run through the streets and see Bruce Banner on the phone. He's an Avenger, maybe he'll know what to do.
"Dr. Banner! Dr. Banner, Tony's gone! He's on the ship with Peter and the magical guy," I ramble.
"Okay, calm down, calm down," he tells me, trying to comfort me. "I just called in help, okay? We'll get them back." I look at him baffled.
"Help? What help?"
"Steve Rogers," Bruce answers. My eyes widen. Steve is coming back.
•~•~•~•
The Avengers Facility
My foot taps on the floor as I anxiously wait for Steve, Wanda, and the other Avengers to show up. Pepper called to make sure I'm okay and not on the ship. Jonathan called next, and I am currently on the phone with him and Nancy. "I'm okay, just worried for Tony and my friend," I assure them.
"Do you know what's going on? Why are they here?" Nancy questions.
"I don't know but we're gonna figure that out. Just please stay inside, okay? I've got this, everything is going to be okay," I respond. I hear them sigh through the receiver.
"Be careful... we don't want to lose you again," Jonathan voices, making me smile.
"You won't... I'll call you guys when this is over, okay?"
"Okay," they both say before I hang up. I drop my head into my hands and sigh.
"You okay?" Banner asks. He was sitting on the couch, silently listening, while Rhodes is in the other room, talking to the Secretary of State.
"Yeah. Are you?"
He nods his head. "I'm good." We stay quiet as we listen to Rhodey's conversation with Secretary Ross.
"You have second thoughts?" I hear Ross question.
"Not anymore," Rhodey responds.
"Mr. Secretary," a new voice says. I straighten up. Is that Steve? I stay in place as I listen to the conversation, knowing that I shouldn't interrupt. After hearing Rhodey say, "it's great to see you, Cap," I run into the room. I stop and see Steve and Natasha Romanoff hug Rhodey.
"Steve!" I call out, making everyone look at me. He smiles upon seeing me and I speed-walk to him.
We give each other a big hug and he says, "it's good to see you again, y/n."
"You too, oh, my gosh. I missed you," I respond.
"Me too," he expresses before letting me go. I glance behind him to see Wanda smiling at me. I go up to her and she carefully untangles herself from Vision and embraces me.
"I missed you so much! I had no one to watch sitcoms with," I tell her.
She giggles and replies, "I missed you too, little sis." We pull away and smile at each other.
"Wow, you guys... really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple years," Rhodey suddenly pipes up.
"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five-star," Sam replies. I'm so glad I researched who these people are, or else I'd be so lost right now.
"Uh, I think you look great," Banner chimes in, emerging from the next room. We all whip our heads toward him. "Uh... heh... yeah, I'm back."
"Hi, Bruce," Natasha greets him.
Banner stays silent, awkwardly fidgeting before saying, "Nat." They just continue to stare at each other. The room feels so tense all of a sudden. I'm guessing something happened between these two.
"This is awkward," Sam whispers, making Wanda, Vision, and I eye him. I agree, someone else better speak before the air becomes even thicker.
"Uh, anyway... guys, this is y/n Sinclair. I'm sure you've heard a lot about her," Rhodes speaks up. Everyone turns to me and I wave. Natasha walks up to me and shakes my hand.
"Natasha Romanoff," she introduces herself. Oh, my gosh, I'm touching Black Widow.
"I know, it's such an honor," I reply. She smiles kindly and lets go of my hand.
"I'm Sam Wilson," Sam pipes up from beside me, extending his arm. I firmly shake his hand. He's even cuter in person.
"The Falcon, I know. Big fan," I respond, smiling giddily. He chuckles.
"You know, Steve wouldn't stop talking about you," he remarks, making me slightly giggle.
Vision sticks his hand out and introduces himself. "Hello, I'm Vision. Wanda's told me a lot about you." I take his hand and shake it.
"Ah, and she's told me a lot about you," I return, smirking. He and Wanda chuckle.
•~•~•~•
I stand next to Wanda as we all discuss the matter at hand. "So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodey asks.
"And they can clearly find us," Wanda adds.
"We need all hands on deck, where's Clint?" Banner questions.
"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families, they're on house arrest," Natasha explains.
"Who's Scott?"
"Ant-Man," Steve replies.
"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?" Banner asks shocked. "Okay, look. Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. He recently took the energy stone from H.S. Tech and he's not gonna-"
"Woah, Woah, Woah. I'm sorry... did you say H.S. Tech?" I interject. Banner nods.
"My brother never told me he had an Infinity Stone," I remark in disbelief.
Banner shrugs. "I don't think they knew either, it was inside this orb called the Stella Alba," he answers, making my jaw drop. I got my powers from an Infinity Stone?
"I have to make sure Lucas and Dustin are okay," I ramble, about to exit the room. Steve holds me back.
"Hey, it's okay. Relax," he speaks.
"The CEOs weren't there when it happened. They're okay," Banner informs me. I sigh in relief and go back to stand next to Wanda. "Anyway, he's not gonna stop until he... he gets... Vision's stone," he concludes.
"Well, then we have to protect it," Natasha states.
"No, we have to destroy it."
We all turn to face Vision. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something very similar to its own signature, perhaps..." he speaks, walking up to Wanda. "Its molecular integrity could fail."
"Yeah, and you with it... We're not having this conversation," Wanda responds. I frown, not liking this idea.
"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it."
"That's too high a price," Wanda argues. Vision shakes his head and sets his hands on either side of her head, looking into her eyes.
"Only you have the power to pay it."
Wanda frowns and walks away from him. I look at her concerned, knowing how much this must hurt to hear.
"Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him," he continues.
"But it should... We don't trade lives, Vision," Cap chimes in.
"Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people? Tell me, why is this any different?" Vision and Steve stand face-to-face and Steve sighs, giving him a look.
"Because you might have a choice... Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another," Banner describes.
"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" I ask.
"I'm saying that if we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts," he answers. I hope this is a real option. No one should have to die to defeat Thanos. Wanda shouldn't have to lose the love of her life.
"Can we do that?" Natasha inquires.
"Not me. Not here," Banner replies.
"Well, you better find someone and somewhere fast. Ross isn't just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back," Rhodey remarks.
All of a sudden, Steve speaks up. "I know somewhere."
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