Riley was in complete and utter shock as she saw what she thought was the last of her dad as his camera has been disconnected and the screen went black. She held back a sob covered her mouth. She couldn't cry. Not here in front of everyone. The people around her frantically trying to fix the issue, but nothing seemed to be working.
Riley had to do something. She didn't want to feel helpless any longer. She raced towards the car and drove to the city. She got to the building and rushed inside. Even though it probably wasn't safe, she took the elevator to the top floor, trying to hold back her tears, then climbed up the ladder to get to the roof. When she got up there, everyone looked over in shock.
She looked like some sort of hero who had come to save the day. With her hair was blowing in the wind and a determined look in her eyes, Riley spoke. "What did you do to him?" she asked, her voice shaking.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Electra started. "He did that to himself. He's trying to save the world. Who are you anyway?"
"Riley, you need to leave immediately," Steve said, walking over to her. "It's too dangerous up here." Now, Electra was starting to get an inkling of who she was.
"Wait a second," Electra said, a devilish smile appearing on her face. "You're his daughter, his precious little miracle. If something happened to you, he would be devastated. I could have some fun with you."
Riley was now beginning to feel uncomfortable. Any power she had felt had now vanished, now feeling very vulnerable. Compared to all of these heroes, she seemed like nothing. "Don't touch her," Steve said, stepping in front of her. "She has nothing to deal with this."
"Oh, but she does," Electra said. "She has everything to deal with this." She took a few steps closer, Steve bringing up his shield. Electra came over and looked into her eyes. "I could recognize those eyes anywhere, especially since when you were wearing all black that's all I could see."
"What are you talking about?" Steve asked her, not letting his position falter for a second.
"On the night I successfully used a distraction on you guys, your little friend here successfully attacked me," Electra said, matter-of-factly. "Now, it's my turn to hurt you."
***
It took a moment for Peter to process what he was hearing. Riley? Successfully attacked her? The night of the distraction?
Now, he realized that the girl he had seen and mysteriously vanished near the tree had a very familiar identity. Now, she was going to be the one attacked.
"No," Steve said, standing in front of Riley.
"What are you going to do to stop me, Cap?" Electra said, looking up at him, taunting him. She shot a spark at him, which he quickly blocked with his shield, it absorbs the shock rather than reflecting off of it.
Riley knew she could end this with one thought, but she needed Electra to help get her dad back. She turned her attention to Peter, who was looking at her in wonder, awe, and horror. All in one expression so powerful she could see it through his mask. Riley closed her eyes and focused on the being of Electra. As she was about to shoot another spark, she fell to the ground, writhing in pain.
Riley had never used her powers in large proximity before, so when she stopped she began to feel light headed and felt a trickle of blood come out of her nose. Natasha and Steve took this moment to put a protective cuff around Electra's hands to prevent her from making more sparks and chained her to the hatch, leading back to the building.
Electra began to cry. It wasn't a cry of defeat, it was a cry someone used when they were in so much pain, they just wanted it to be over. "Y-you're a monster!" Electra managed to choke out, pointing a cuffed hand towards her.
Riley hated that. That happened to be one of her biggest fears. Her loved ones who found out about her abilities and called her names such as monster or evil. Riley let out a breath she had been holding and fell to her knees, choking in a sob. She needed comfort most right now. She needed her dad. She had to get him back to her. But she didn't know how. There's always a way to solve a problem, but Riley couldn't think. Hell, she couldn't even breathe right now. Steve, who was basically her second dad, came over to her and embraced her. Even though her dad and Steve weren't really on good terms at the moment, she was always fond of Steve, in a fatherly way, of course. She cried into his shoulder for a while.
Minutes, maybe hours passed and Riley had finally gathered the courage to stand up. Steve left for a few minutes deal with the authorities. A helicopter was arriving to take Electra away for good, but the portal remained open. Since nothing had come through or gone into it for a while, it started to flicker. One thing Riley kept imagining is it flickering and then never opening again.
Peter walked up to her; it was strange to see him in the suit since she normally just sees him, Peter. "Hey, can we talk?" he asks, softly.
"Okay," Riley said, looking at him, waiting for him to say something. But, he didn't. "About?"
"Um, I just wanted to say that what you did was really brave and I don't think you are a monster. You're smart, brave, and-and beautiful," Peter said to her, making her smile for the first time in a few hours. But, it was barely a smile. A very, very, weak smile.
Riley gave him a hug. "Thank you, I really needed to hear that," she said looking up at him through the mask. "Also, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my...abilities. You trusted me with your secret and I didn't trust you with mine. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Peter said. God, he wanted to kiss her so bad right now, but with her dad's friends staring at them? No thanks. Also, let's not forget how awkward it would be to lift up his mask.
"We need to find a way to get my dad out," Riley said, walking over to the portal, trying to find something, some kind of clue. She scanned the perimeter around her, but couldn't find anything.
"Maybe he will come out," Thor said. "Whatever is meant to close the portal is probably inside, maybe he's making his way back out."
"But, we don't know that. What if he's in there stuck or something. Maybe one of us should go in and check," Steve said, stepping near the portal.
"I'll go," Riley said, without even thinking.
"Absolutely not," Natasha said. "Your dad wouldn't allow it and neither would any of us. What if you go in there, he comes out and sees you aren't around, he would be shattered. Do you want that for him?"
"No, but I know him better than all of you, and I think it would be best if I-" Riley started.
"No, you aren't going and that's final," Steve said, crossing his arms.
"I'll go, I have experience with alternate dimensions and portals, so this should be a piece of cake," Thor said, mentioning Asgard.
"He has a point, you know," Natasha said."He'd probably be our best bet."
"Okay, then. I guess I'll be going, let's pray I get back or Jane will kill me," Thor said, with a nervous laugh. Apparently, he wasn't kidding. The Avengers watched Thor step into the portal perhaps never to be seen again.
***
Tony did not expect what was behind the portal. It took him to a room where many people were lined up, probably drugged. There were a few people in what seemed to be the control room so he snuck up to them, before bursting through the door, interrupting their work schedule.
"How do you close the portal?" he demanded, threatening them with his hand.
The people looked at him with a scared expression. For a moment he saw a flicker of who they used to be outside of their trance. They grabbed their guns from their belts and fired at Tony, who was expecting it. He dodged most of their strikes towards him, and then he demanded, "Who runs this room?"
"I do," said the man with the black hair, who was apparently dumb. Who would give away their status that way?
Tony quickly removed the other two's guns before he pinned the man to the wall. "I'm going to ask you again. How do you close the portal?" The bad thing about this is that Tony couldn't knock the gun out of the man's hand until he got the information.
The man just gave him a smile, before shooting the gun straight into Tony's abdomen, throwing him through the glass window, into the chamber they used to put the people in a trance. "Caution: Scopolamine area. Now initiating emergency oxygen. You have 30 minutes," F.R.I.D.A.Y., said inside the suit.
"What is that?" Tony asked.
"Zombie drug," F.R.I.D.A.Y. answered.
He decided that it wasn't worth it to get information from this guy so he knocked the gun out of his hand. Now, he was left alone, in the now harmful room, with just his mind and thirty minutes to spare.
Another 10 minutes passed and Tony now knew what most of the buttons did, the majority being the ones needed to change the people into minions. Then, there was a flash of light from the portal. He looked over and saw his friend walk in immediately coughing from the poisonous gas that was spread throughout the area. Tony threw him a gas mask and summoned him over.
"What the hell were you thinking? Everyone is worried, especially Riley," Thor asked him, walking over to the console.
"Riley is there? Is she okay? What happened?" Tony said, immediately forgetting about the situation at hand for a moment.
"She's okay, Electra is in custody and it's because of her, Tony. She can do some pretty amazing things. Also, Peter knows now," Thor said, explaining.
"Jesus Christ, I told her not to go up there. Now, I guess there's nothing to be held back anymore, so that's sort of a relief. I'll just deal with her later. We gotta focus now. So, I know pretty much what the buttons do. The left-hand side of the console is mostly for the gas chambers, and the right-hand side is for the mechanisms of the portal. I haven't touched most of it yet because I don't want to further cause damage," Tony said.
"I see," Thor said, leaning over the console looking for any familiar keys. There were dozens of switches some with a red light, which was symboled on. "What if we just shut all of the switches off?"
"Well, I was thinking about that, but then only one of us would make it out alive," Tony said. "Or we could just blow up the console. You could go through, and then I could shoot my fist and jump through at the last second, even though that's pretty dangerous."
Thor nodded thinking for a moment. "Well, first things first, I say we get all of these people out of here. There were about 500 people in the place, all knocked out and it would take hours to remove them all. Hours for a normal person, hopefully, minutes for the Avengers. Carrying 5 people every time, they cleared the place out in 50 minutes, luckily Tony's emergency oxygen had a second backup which was good for a little while. The scopolamine wouldn't get into his bloodstream until about 20 minutes, so he would be fine. Thor left and Tony stood in front of the portal. He got one shot at this, and he didn't even know if it would work. Having a target through the lenses on his mask was certainly helpful as Tony aimed for the console. He took one step in the portal and as it was sucking him in, he shot. He couldn't tell whether he made it or not.
******
Thor came back and told the team what the plan was. They were all hoping that this would go smoothly when there was a pretty large explosion and the hole began to get smaller and smaller, each inch giving less hope that her dad would make it back.
Riley was holding her breath as the portal shut completely, and just when they all thought it was over, there was an explosion in the sky, not too far above them, probably from the blast wave when the portal shut, still containing a lot of energy.
It was harmful in such a way that it caused the roof of the building to explode throwing the Avengers off the building. The wave that hit her was harder than any wave she had been hit by. There was a loud ringing in her ear as she began to fall off the roof. She was frantically looking around for something to hold on to. She had no idea what to do. Her training should help her with this type of stuff, but there is no way of her landing on her legs without breaking them. She was running out of time. Maybe someone would save her, her dad, Peter, anyone. She needed someone.
She looked to her side quickly to see the tops of some of the smaller buildings knowing she was near the ground. She lifted her neck up, trying to avoid impact on her head since that would be the worst injury. Riley looked up and saw the faint silhouette about a hundred feet above her. Before she could get a closer look, her body slammed into the ground with an impact that seemed to shake the world.
***
Peter was thrown off the building in the same harsh manner Riley was. He was luckier, however. He got slammed through a glass window in the building next door, landing on his back, searing pain from the glass in his back. He got up carefully and groaned. He rushed towards the broken window looking around for Riley. His vision was blurry and it was hard to concentrate. He was standing next to her when it happened so she couldn't be that far away. Peter kept looking and then he saw her. She was falling towards the ground, a look of fear in her eyes, one he had not seen before. He jumped out of the window, shooting a web towards one of the windows that wasn't broken, latching onto it. His other hand immediately shot a web towards her, grasping for any part of her.
He was too late. When Riley hit the ground, he could practically hear the smack of her body on the ground and his heart broke. He lightly hit the back of the building, the glass pressing into his back, but he couldn't even feel the pain. It was nothing compared to the pain he was about to feel. Then, he let go of the web, heading to the ground.