Chapter 9
"Oh! hi! nice to meet you, Scott Lang" Scott shakes my hand not caring about how everyone's eyes are deathly staring at me
"Tannie Stark, a pleasure" I smile at him and a pair of combat boots makes me lift my eyes
Steve shakes his head in disbelief "What the he... what in the world are you doing here, Tannie?"
"I wanted to see if you were ok... you get off the radar and all of that bomb situation and then the Terrorist Centre..."
"How exactly did you get to the truck?" Clint says with parted lips
I open my mouth to answer but Wanda quickly follows the interrogation
"I thought I told you to stay in your room?"
Again, I'm about to answer but my eyes travel to the end of the scene. I jump back looking at the one and only Winter Soldier, James Barnes getting out of the blue car. Steve spins following my eye line
"He's not dangerous Tannie, he was brainwashed by HYDRA that obliged him to do terrible things, it's not his fault-"
I rub my jaw nodding at his explanation "ok..."
"You little stowaway, you need to leave T, it's not safe here" Sam steps closer with crossed arms
"No can do" I answer "I don't even how to return"
"You're going to stay here ok? Knowing you... your dad doesn't know you're here" Steve says
"You know me so well"
"Here, take this, it's a com, you can talk with us ok?"
"I'll make sure to bring her back," Clint says nodding to Steve
"I have a daughter so... I can take care of her too" Scotts says giving me thumbs ups
Steve spins to me, blue eyes flickering with worry "You look pale, you feeling ok?"
"I haven't eaten in a while so... the Hot Cheetos were haunting me" I snort
"Hot Cheetos are the best" Scott nods in agreement
"We should get moving," James Barnes says with a husky voice echoing in the parking lot
"We got a chopper lined up," Clint says and turns to me "This time, stay here..."
Suddenly a voice starts speaking in German:
"Dies ist eine Notsituation. Alle Passagiere müssen den Flughafen sofort evakuieren."
"They're evacuating the airport" Barnes translates
"Stark" Sam whispers and I quirk a brow
"Stark?" Scott says in confusion looking at me
"my dad?"
"Suit up" Steve orders
With a gentle push, Clint guides me inside the van. This time properly sitting in the seat. Wanda shakes her head at me and with her powers he shuts the door. I groan annoyed just seeing how everyone begins to leave. Once they're out of my sigh, I start kicking the door. Really? I'm starving here!
I move myself to the driver's seat and lift my legs to begin kicking the windshield. I start remembering that when I made my self into a ball at the back of the van, I saw a rusty spanner. So I take it and start hitting the window glass over and over again until it shatters. I peek my head to see the handle that is melted. Courtesy of Wanda.
I kick it a few times more and the lock flies away. A moan escapes my lips, I can stretch now. For a bit, I stand still debating where should I go. My legs guide me to the edge of the parking building with the sight of the big runway of the airport. But something else... two figures. No. three bodies standing in the middle of what it seems a private runway.
Steve's suited up talking to my dad and Uncle Rhodey? I move to the right my hands sliding across the tubes and my eyes not moving away from the scene. Then a black body steps in and oh, Nat is here too and a weird guy in a black suit jumps gracefully. I lean forward to catch anything they're saying.
"UNDEROOS!!"
I look up to the swinging body in the air. A graceful backflip and it's Spider-Man shooting a web, stealing Steve's shield and binding his hands.
No way, no way, no way. Oh, shit. Now I know..
I feel my mouth drying for how ope it is. I grunt because I can't catch what they're saying but the yell that stops me from blinking is all I can hear.
"I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart!!"
Oh
I see then an arrow breaking the web on Steve's hands and something hitting Spider-Man and turning as a man. What the hell is that dude? Everyone starts running. My dad propers himself near the building I'm in so I run to the van What should I do? I-I can't do anything, I'm useless at this point. Fuck.
I step into the van sliding forwards but before hitting against the seats I block the hit with my arms. I spin to look at what made me slip and see a small artifact. Metal case and a red button on top. Someone must've dropped it. I take it and pause...
Tannie, nothing good can come from pushing a red button, you're not stupid.
I sigh and throw the artifact to the seat. I swing my legs and throw my head back thinking what to do. I jump when an explosion boom just meters from the parking building so I try to get out but loudly gasp when I see how the little button on the artifact hits the floor. I shut my eyes close waiting for a detonation of some kind but nothing happens.
I flutter my eyes and sigh in relief. I step again out of the van, however, a blast thunders behind me and the pressure of something makes me fly away smashing me to the ground and everything goes black.
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"ohhh" I touch my head without opening my eyes "what was that?"
I open my eyes adjusting to the foggy scene in front of me but quickly shut them when a flash of bright fluorescent lights appear. My eyes burn and I rub them. Without opening them I squat and try to gain balance. I squint my eyes almost falling backwards. Different kinds of luminescent streaks of lights, purple, red, orange, green, blue. Like a whole Universe inside it.
Just like that wormhole in New York
My hair slowly moves. I can feel with my whole body the light force of attraction that portal is creating and PUM! just like that the van is absorbed. I crawl backwards, my eyes attached to whatever is happening in front of me. I spin and start jogging to the rail. My hands a little shaky but the grip is tight. I hurriedly pat my pocket and feel the small circle. I place it in my ear.
"umm, guys? someone?"
"oh Hi Tannie" Scott says between wheezes, "How's the life in that van?"
"Uh, well something came up... there's like a portal thing that just absorbed the van and it has this attraction field, it's gaining power... a lot." I gulp and scoot closer to the tubes
"Oh shoot!" Scott yells
"What's wrong Tic-Tac?! "Sam breathily yells "Are you okay Tannie?"
"Tannie?" A shrill voice pops through the line but I can't recognize it
"I-I don't know but this is taking everything, the roof looks it's about to collapse!!" My feet then start to float towards the portal "Oh my god! it's pulling me!!!"
"Tannie hang on! I'm coming, uggh my wings are stuck with a web!" Sam yells again "resist Tannie!!"
"...What?Tannie? where is she?" My dad's orotund voice makes me gasp, he must be beside Sam "What is going on, Wilson!?!"
I see my whole body fully levitating, legs pointed directly to the big portal. The roof is now seconds away from being totally absorbed by that thing. Sam's voice explaining something to my dad is now background noise. I grip myself tighter to the tube but it's as if someone is grabbing my legs. My shoulders burn and in an instant, my arms let go of the rail.
"AAAAHHHHH!"
I see my body getting sucked by the portal, I look up and see how the parking place is getting away as I enter. As a reflex, I curl my legs to my chest and shut my eyes close expecting to crash into something. But then I only feel my body floating. I quickly open my eyes, my orbs burning with the sight of lights surrounding me, I relax my legs and try to catch my breath but there's no air. As if I'm underwater. An impatient gulp burns my throat, my nails digging in my palms. Oh god. Help me.
My body achingly cramps with the lack of air but then something smashes my back. I shut my eyes feeling how I flip and my whole faces get stuck into something that feels like foam. In an attempt to breathe, I swallow that foam. My tastebuds are not capable to taste the thick consistency and a tormenting feeling creeps all over my foggy thoughts. I keep swallowing searching for any raft of real oxygen. My hands hitting intently the foamy thing my head it's stuck in. Feels like I'm drowning. I'm dying, I guess.
A stifled grunt of pain flows out of my lips when something else hits me harder. An ardent fluid sliding in my back. All of my consciousness slowly fading away but with the only strength my body has, I try my best to push my head out of whatever it's stuck in. A wild force pushes me away, another thing hits me on my side. Maybe four times I'm thrown and smashed against hard surfaces. My chest is hit by a powerful force that pushes me away. My mind sliding into nothingness.
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Blurry images spinning around me
No sound
As if I'm in a nonstopping roundabout
I flick my eyes. A dry cough escaping my throat and a slimy orange liquid splashing all over my chest. All I can do is cough until my clothes are soaked in whatever that is. I bring my hands in front of my face. I have for hands now? oh, my vision is bad... For the cutting pain in my back, I know my body is starting to wake up from numbness. No one heard me screaming? No one saw me being sucked into that portal?
The portal!
I lift my eyes but it's gone. As if nothing happened. I rapidly blink, I wince in pain fora raw piercing feeling in my ear. I remove the com, shattered in tiny pieces. From the corner of my eyes, I see a giant body, meters from where I am. What? What's that?
With uneven steps and slightly tripping with my own feet. I manage to stand where I was previously watching Steve and my dad talking. The parking building I'm in is now full of debris and collapsed pillars. A sudden wave of nausea fills my stomach. The floor is moving below me and the weight of my head quickly unbalances me forwards, just falling into the void towards the concrete,
"I got her!"
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A clean, almost plastic-ish antiseptical scent fills my nostrils. My eyelids softly flutter adjusting to the artificial lights and the white scenery I'm in. A faint beeping beside me and the cotton subbing my skin. I'm in a hospital room...? I spot the limp body on the couch next to me. My mom perched in the corner, chest rising and falling. I rock my hips backwards and properly sit upright. I watch through the window and see the horizon full of trees and cloudy sky. I'm in the compound, in New York...
Quickly I gulp and pat my legs and arms to see If I'm ok. Yes, I am. I don't feel dizzy. I don't feel pain. Murmurs pop through the door and it slides open revealing my dad, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. An arm in a sling. He spins inside but stops in his tracks looking right at me.
"Tannie..."
I only lift my hand "Hi, Dad"
A profound sigh leaves his throat and he walks next to me. With his spare hand, he rubs my head and slumps in the chair.
"What happened? Do you remember? I heard Wilson talking to you and then... Gosh... I thought you were gone"
What happened? I can't remember
"I-I don't... I don't remember. I just know that I got sucked by a portal, dad just like the New York wormhole"
"I talked to Lang... you accidentally entered the Quantum Realm... and Bruce is not here to help me figure out what the heck that means..."
"I can't remember, "I say again "I just know what it felt like... like death all over me and pure pain then I do remember waking up but then falling...?" I gnaw my lips in frustration
"Don't overwork yourself... not now. God Tannie... what were you doing there?" he tilts his head waiting for an answer
"I wanted to know both sides of the situation... I wanted to talk to Steve, he's stubborn and I don't know... I knew something wrong would happen..."
My dad stands up walking to the end of the hospital bed but never taking his eyes from me
"You're alive that's the best thing right now" he looks to the floor, slightly bouncing back and forwards
Something else happened
"What is it?" I ask darting my eyes to him
"Rhodey is... very badly injured... doctors say paralysis is happening"
My hands stifle the loud gasp coming from my mouth
NO
"Steve is gone with Barnes, Thadeous Ross is coming for Nat, they have Wanda, Lang, Barton, and Wilson arrested..." He tugs the hem of his jacket, rapidly blinking as he explains
So I push the blankets away and make my way to the end of the mattress to hold his calloused hand
"Everything is going to be, ok... I-I'll make it ok" he squeezes my hand avoiding my stare
"I love you, dad... how uh, I returned here? How long I was sleeping?"
"Slept the whole flight, you've only been here two hours... not a single cut in your body" he spins to the door and only turns his head at me "I need to talk to some people. Wake up your mom, she'll be happy to see you're alive"
I watch him leave. I take my phone on the nightstand. Is Sunday? what the... Fucking timezones. I hesitate but finally, I wake up my mom who immediately starts pouring tears. My arms constantly receiving soft slaps from her. Questioning me how did I manage to go to Germany on my own. She pushes me to the mattress and checks the vitals at least a thousand times. After her brittle voice composes, she explains that I must stay the night in check, even if doctors agree I'm absolutely good to go. Reluctantly, I agree. Minutes later she leaves the room to give me finally something to eat.
I swing my legs to the floor. My feet flinching at the cold tiles. Why I'm not in pain? I mean, I don't want to be in pain but I should be, right? I got sucked by a portal and who knows what happened there.
"Hello, badass," a female voice says behind me and I turn to see Nat
"Oh, Nat!" I stride to hug her "wait, my dad told me they're coming for you."
"And I told your dad that I'm not the one that needs to watch their backs" she winks at me "Don't change the subject...I'm gonna ask this once... How...the...hell... you came to Germany? And why?"
"I saw the opportunity and I took it, I climbed into a car, a plane and a van and I was there...Long story short, I wanted to talk to Steve, I thought what he was doing was bad but then his best friend was brainwashed so..."
She rolls her eyes pinching her nose "you know what would happen to you dad and your mom if they lose you?"
I slowly nod feeling the weight of the scolding session "I know... maybe I was more focused in other things than that but I also know that I'm young but not stupid Nat" I whisper back
She straightens herself "Punching the way out of something is never the best thing... at least not with family"
"Dad told me about uncle Rhodey..."
Her chest quickly rises and falls with a deep sigh "yeah, another thing to worry about" she rubs her forehead "they're moving him to Columbia Medical tomorrow... it's not a goodbye ok? stay in school and be a pain in the ass for your dad ok?"
A loud smack of her lips in my hair rumbles in the room
"You're going underground?" I ask her as she walks away
"You said it yourself, the government is coming for me and I have some things to solve first" with a final wink her body leaves the room too
Everyone leaves
"What are you doing up T?!" my mom enters the room with food in each hand, a bag of Hot Cheetos in the tray
I stretch my arms in the air "I'm feeling so good mom, nothing hurts, see?
She points to the mattress "Come and eat with me now"
Moments later my mom had to leave. While finishing, no. Devouring the food. I began staring at the window and the quiet landscape in front. A little mosquito flying outside crashing into the glass...
A little bug
A bug
Like a Spider... Spider-Man!
I trip with my own feet as I make my way out of the room. No one's outside so I run as fast as I can holding the patient gown I'm wearing, threatening to fall from my body. My room already unlocked. I step into the shower instantly relaxing as the flow hits my body. I hurriedly change, my hair dripping droplets of water all over the hall. I push the main doors and start the marathon of my life to the main gates.
If I already went to Germany without my parent's consent then... going to Queens it's nothing.
Shit, I forgot my phone... I run to the nearest station and jog downstairs
I'm coming, Peter.