Chapter 5
Little Jean Grey stood at the foot of Tony’s bed, in the room that Erik gave him in the mansion as he stayed with them for now to calm down, after what had happened.
The room was where he and Steve stayed when they spent the night in the mansion, but Steve wasn’t there. He might not ever be there ever again.
Tony was sitting on the bed, hugging his knees to his chest, staring straight ahead, looking like he was in deep thought. Like he was rethinking everything that had happened, and trying to point out whatever he missed. Where things went so horribly wrong.
Jean always liked Tony and was very worried about him, so she was spending her time, watching him from the foot of the bed, waiting for him to notice her presence, but it was like he wasn’t even there.
A knock at the door, followed by the entrance of Erik and Raven, who walked over towards Tony with the former carrying a plate of food for him, as he eyed Tony, while Raven was watching him with worry.
The hit of what happened to Steve affected them all. Erik was enraged. The fact that it had happened, while they were relatively close to the mansion then, made it a personal insult to him. Close family members were attacked so close to his territory. That was an outrage to him.
Raven and Erik were trying their best to comfort Tony. Well, Raven was trying, while Erik just opted to try and force-feed the genius when he refused the food he made for him. If Erik made you food, you better eat it or he’ll force you to.
They approached Tony, who like always, didn’t seem to notice them at first, busy thinking and rethinking everything that had happened, again and again.
“Tony?” Raven called out gently, sitting on the bed in front of him, with Jean finally approaching to place her small hand on Tony’s leg, trying to give him any sort of comfort.
Tony looked up at them, he seemed dazed and unfocused at first, blinking dumbly at them, then looked up at Erik who remained standing, watching Tony with concealed concern.
“It was horrible.” Tony muttered, probably for the thousandth time since he came here, “He tried so hard to get away from it. So hard. But it got him anyway. It was horrible.”
Erik tried to hide the shiver every time he heard these words. The image of the Fireball slamming into Steve, he was surprised at how much imagining that image unsettled him. Filling him with rage at whoever was responsible. Steve didn’t deserve what happened. He was a good man. He was Erik’s friend. This wasn’t fair.
Who dared to attack the Avengers like that?
“Getting rid of us. They are trying to get rid of us.” Tony muttered frantically. His fists clenched as he glared at the far wall.
“Tony, calm down. We will figure this out, okay?” Raven tried to reassure him, even though she and Erik discussed the same thing after talking with Dean and Castiel earlier. Someone might be trying to get rid of them one by one, but they need to be sure before they take that into serious consideration. It might have been just Steve who was targeted not all of them. “It’ll be all right. I am sure Dean and Cas found something helpful and-“
“What is that?” Jean cut Raven off, as she pointed outside the large glass window behind Tony’s bed, looking curious and nervous.
Erik and Raven frowned as they followed with their eyes what she was pointing at, only to freeze and for their eyes to widen in slow panic.
Tony noticed their strange reaction and frowned impatiently as he turned around to see what they were looking at, ready to chew them out for getting distracted by anything else right now.
But he violently jumped when his eyes landed on what they were staring at that made them react like that.
There, about ten feet away from the window, a fireball was frozen, standing still in midair outside Tony’s window, glowing with blue fire, like it was watching them and assessing the situation.
“No!!” Tony shouted as he jumped out of the bed in panic, and gripped Erik’s arm frantically while pointing at the window. “It’s back! It’s back! This is what attacked Steve!”
Erik, without looking away from the Fireball, pulled at Raven’s arm to pull her to her feet. “Take Jean. Get out of here slowly. Don’t make any sudden moves. Evacuate the children. Get everyone out. Now!”
Raven knew better than to argue or protest. The children come first. So, she took Jean’s hand and started to slowly pull her out of the room without making any sudden move, until she managed to slip out completely.
“It came for one of us. Another one of us will be haunted by it.” Tony muttered frantically, his wide, panicked eyes staring at the frozen ball outside, still not making a move and watching them silently.
Erik raised his hand slowly, planning to attack it with every metallic thing in the room, hoping it would be enough to maybe keep it away from them.
Metal doesn’t really go well with fire. His powers were probably useless right now, and that was making him both pissed and extremely worried. Will he be able to protect his friends and family right now?
But before he could do anything, the ball suddenly changed color to green fire and attacked.
It crashed through the large glass window, shattering it into millions of pieces.
“Watch out!” Erik shouted, pushing Tony away fast, as they both landed on the floor, with him covering Tony to keep him away from the glass shrapnel and the heat of the fireball.
Which led to the ball crashing into the wall behind them, making a huge explosion and a very impressive hole in the wall, where they were just standing. The ball retreated towards the ceiling, changing from green to violet.
“Come on! It's getting ready for another attack! Come on!” Tony grabbed Erik’s arm and they both got to their feet fast, then together they ran out of the room, with Tony shutting the door behind them.
“You really think that will make it go slower?!” Erik yelled at him as he pulled Tony along, urging him to move and run faster. He really was hoping that Raven managed to get the children away from this corridor.
“I am trying anything here!” Tony yelled back, just as the ball crashed through the door and slammed into the wall of the corridor, torching it, then changed course straight towards them to chase them down. Starting to change into bloody red flames.
The ball was fast. Very fast. It was impossible for them to outrun it on their feet like that. It managed to reach a speeding car before. They had no chance of escaping it.
As they reached the end of the corridor, the ball zoomed right behind them, fast-forwarding towards them at an alarming speed, crashing into the wall above them, sending the both of them flying harshly towards the door of Charles’ office, crushing through and destroying it.
Erik was disoriented on the floor when the ball crashed in behind them, ready to finish its attack.
“No! You are not taking anyone else!” Tony yelled as he jumped between the ball and Erik, willing to take the hit himself, over watching another person who matters to him fall in front of him again.
“Tony! What the hell are you doing?! Get away!” Erik yelled at him in rage, also not wanting to see him fall, as he pushed Tony to get away.
The ball was fast forwarding towards them, and surely ready to hit Tony's face first and he watched it nervously but did not move away.
But at the last possible second, the ball swerved at a sharp right angle, completely ignoring Tony and going straight towards its target.
Towards Erik.
“No!” Tony screamed, eyes widening in horror.
Erik cursed loudly as he moved fast, to try and get away, but no use.
The flaming red fireball slammed into Erik. The explosion was so loud and violent, that it threw Tony back, slamming him into the wall. He heard the sound of something crashing into the large glass windows, he didn’t know what, the glow of the explosion was so sharp and violent he covered his face with his arm, trying to block the sharp light as he screamed Erik’s name.
When the glow subsided and disappeared finally with a very loud hissing sound, Tony shot to his feet and ran towards the broken glass windows.
Only to see Erik’s body, which was thrown out of the windows from the force of the explosion, lying there in the garden outside, surrounded by broken glass and torched grass. His clothes burned with many burns covering his entire body. He wasn’t moving. In a way that made him seem like a dead body.
The Fireball was nowhere to be seen.
And Tony’s loneliness and helplessness almost made him crash down and scream.