𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬
Everything was falling to pieces in front of Ava's eyes. And she didn't think she was over exaggerating, either. This was a family — her family and it was collapsing.
She wasn't wrong, either.
Tony would never hear Steve out, not until he got passed his anger. And Steve would never be willing to explain everything to Tony — to take the time and stop the fight before it even began.
Yes, the man was grieving... but he was destroying a family in the process. And Ava knew it wasn't just Steve, they all had a part in this — including her.
But this was for the right reason... wasn't it?
"We gotta go," Bucky told Steve, the rest of the team hearing it through the comms. "That guy's probably in Siberia now." He explained, eyes flickering in worry — Bucky had experienced the winter soldiers first hand.
"We gotta draw out the flyers," Steve replied, "I'll take Vision, you get to the jet." He told Bucky, the man about to protest — he was interrupted by Sam.
"No, you get to the jet! Both of you!" Sam protested, flying away from the airport, closely followed by War Machine.
"The rest of us aren't getting out of here." Sam acknowledged, making Ava nervous.
Pietro was quick to protest to this, "No! Ava is a child, she must get out."
"As much as I hate to admit it..." Clint spoke, feeling bad for his words, "If we're gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it."
"This isn't the real fight, Steve." Sam spoke, and everybody that could hear him knew he was right. This wasn't about the Avengers, this was about that crazy man trying to wake the winter soldiers.
Steve debated in his head, before sighing quietly. "Alright, Sam, what's the play?" He asked.
"We need a diversion. Something big." Sam told the team, his breathing a bit choppy as he soared through the sky.
"I got something kind of big, but I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself apart..." he trailed off, for dramatic effect — Ava guessed. "Don't come back for me."
"He's gonna tear himself in half?" Bucky asked incredulously, and confused. Why would he do that?
"You're sure about this, Scott?" Steve asked, and Scott nodded, although it wasn't really visible to the majority of the team.
"I do it all the time. I mean, once. In a lab. Then I passed out." He spoke, before psyching himself up. "I'm the boss! I'm the boss. I'm the boss. I'm the boss... I'm the BOSS!" He yelled, before jumping from the mobile stairs and landing on War Machine's suit.
Scott fiddled with the device on his wrist, before he clicked the remote, squeezing his eyes shut.
When he opened them again, he was high in the sky, with all the other teammates looking like ants below him. Ironic. He quickly grasped War Machine in his giant hand, the man tiny compared to him, and he was easily stronger now.
"Holy shit!" Peter Parker yelled at seeing the giant man in the airport.
"Okay, tiny dude is big now! He's big now." Rhodey spoke hurriedly, looking over at the man.
"I guess that's the signal."
"Way to go, Tic Tac!" Sam cheered on Scott, making Ava grin at his nickname for the so-called-AntMan!
"Give me back my Rhodey." Tony said, getting angry, because that was his best friend. He'd been with Tony through thick and thin... he'd be damned if something happened to the man.
Before Tony could get closer, Sam flew feet-first into him, knocking him off-course.
Scott reeled back and threw Rhodey harshly, sending the man flying so fast that he couldn't even steady himself. Peter swung towards him, shooting a web in his direction and watching it catch the man's suit.
"I got him!" Peter shouted loudly, to let Tony know that his best friend was okay.
Scott's giant foot crashed into a bus, watching quickly as it hurtled towards T'Challa, but before it could cause any damage... Vision descended.
He braved himself, before he split the bus into two, leaving the king of Wakanda unharmed. But the king quickly noticed Steve and Bucky running across the airport — his eyes narrowed angrily.
Sam was being chased by Iron Man, in a close race... but Ava didn't watch for long as she evaded her eyes to Scott, who swung the wing of a plane at Tony.
"Okay, anybody on our side hiding any shocking and fantastic abilities they'd like to disclose? I'm open to suggestion!" Tony spoke up, annoyed at Ant-Man's sudden power-up.
Ava jumped onto the hand that Scott had outstretched for her, and climbed up onto his shoulder, gripping onto the side of his helmet.
Sam aimed at Tony, before firing Red Wing at him — he watched in victory as the machine cracked into Tony's helmet.
Scott swung around, seeing T'Challa stood on a bunch of crates, eyeing Steve and Bucky.
"You wanna get to them... you gotta go through me!" Scott claimed, his loud voice filling the area as he swung his foot into the crates, smashing them to pieces.
Before he could do anything else, he was engulfed by smoke and explosions, quickly using his hand to shield Ava from them. She patted his giant finger with her hand, watching as he moved it with confusion.
She noticed Peter clinging to War Machine's back via a web, before she used her powers to create a barrier, large enough to cover half of Scott's torso and his face — as well as her.
The smoke pressed against the glowing barrier, unable to pass through it or damage it.
Ava gritted her teeth, before she let the protection fall away as the explosions stopped.
Peter fired webs, wrapping them around Scott's gigantic arms and pulling.
Clint pulled back his arrows, letting them fly towards T'Challa — who quickly caught the arrows right in front of his face. Before he could do anything else, the arrowheads exploded in a small cloud of deep oranges and blacks.
Clint could almost feel the man's scowl.
T'Challa dropped the remaining arrow, flicking his sharp claws out, the silver-looking material glinting menacingly in the sun.
"We haven't met yet," Clint spoke as he flattened his bow, "I'm Clint." He wielded the bow as if it was a staff, in an offensive stance ahead of T'Challa.
"I don't care." The King of Wakanda replied honestly, angered by the man's interference. Clint attacked the enhanced man, but T'Challa was able to easily manoeuvre out of the way — before he countered Clint's attack with a high kick in his direction.
"Get Ava off of him," Tony commanded the members of his team — they wanted to take down Scott, but they didn't want to hurt ( or worse... kill )
Ava in the process.
"You got it!" Peter replied, shooting a web towards the girl and waiting until it had gripped onto her to move. He yanked the web, making her lose her balance and begin tumbling from the giant man's shoulder.
"Ava!" Pietro called, seeing the ginger fall from the air. His eyes narrowed into a glare as he searched for the culprit — he quickly found the red and blue clad insect.
Before Pietro was going to go and intervene, Spider-Man had swung forwards and caught the girl as she was falling through the air.
Ava instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, gripping onto the boy's shoulder tightly. When she felt the ground below, she practically leapt away from the superhero, a near-glare on her face.
"What—!" She was interrupted as Spider-Man swung away, using Rhodey's distraction to begin the journey back to Scott.
"Ava, are you okay?" Wanda asked through the comms as she used her powers to throw cars towards War Machine.
"Yeah," Ava replied breathlessly, scared from her fall. "Yeah, I'm good."
Scott was quickly distracted as Peter came to him, saying, "Get off." He didn't notice as Vision curled up into a ball, ramming straight into him. Scott stumbled slightly, not prepared for the strike.
As he wavered, Vision saw Bucky and Steve running, and simply glided through Scott to get to the two.
"Something just flew in me!" Scott yelled, completely freaked out — and grossed out — by the event. He made a noise of protest the more he thought about it.
Ava ran towards where Vision was heading, seeing the man-robot ready for destruction. She watched as he fired a beam from the stone in his head, making the control tower collapse towards the entrance.
Wanda held up her hands, a red glow pulsating around them as she struggled to hold up the debris from the entrance. Ava finally arrived, standing a few feet away from Wanda and directing her hand in the direction of the entrance.
A large white shard seemingly erupted from the debris, curving around the rubble and holding it away from the entrance. Bucky looked back to see the little girl sweat and struggle to continue.
He ran faster.
War Machine landed on the ground behind Ava and Wanda, firing a sonic disruptor at them. Wanda immediately crumpled, her hands clutching at her head as she cried out.
Ava let out a yell of pain, but kept her arms held out as steady as she could manage. She gritted her teeth, reminded of her time at the HYDRA base.
Her blue eyes watered as they morphed into a glowing white, the pain beginning to be unbearable.
"Ava, let go! You have to let go!" Pietro called through the comms, ready to run over and stop her himself. Jackson landed in front of him with a tilted head and raised eyebrows.
Ava shook her head, eyes fluttering as she screamed out.
"Ava, it's okay! Let go, now!" Steve shouted into the comms, turning back to see her nod her head hesitantly. She held on for a second more as she saw them about to cross into the entrance, but soon let go.
She immediately fell to the ground, hitting her head on the harsh concrete. Turning onto her back, she felt a small bit of relief as the sonic disruptor stopped firing.
Her eyes slipped shut against her will, and she felt Wanda move over to her and gently shake her. Her eyelids fluttered, but she allowed herself to rest.
author's note!—
hi everybody, i hope you're all doing okay.
here's a new chapter for you! :) thought i'd give you a little insight to how powerful ava is, and realised later on in the chapter that i hadn't really included jackson— but it's okay, because as much as i love him, ava is my bby.
hope you enjoyed the chapter today!