Marvel One-Shots and Imagines [Reader-Inserts]

        "I bet it's gonna stop any minute. You know how it rains." Marc shrugged, hopping down the hole and turning to face the two of you. As Randall continued to doubt if they should play in their make-shift tomb, you happily toddled forward. Out of your two brothers, you tended to be closer to Marc simply because he was the eldest at the age of nine. This obviously made him the coolest in your baby head. It was ironic because he still messed with you the most. In reality, you were close to both of your brothers but would always look to Marc for an answer first before Randall. 

        His hands gripped under your armpits to lift you before helping you down, something he was used to doing. It was only recently that they had begun to allow you down here with them. You had been too young before and would just end up getting hurt. Mom would just end up getting mad and yelling at Marc, even if Randall was there as well. Marc didn't think that was fair...Why did he have to watch out for you alone? Randall was your older brother too...He never got yelled at. 

        The two boys bickered a little longer before Randall finally agreed and the adventure could begin. Off went your little party, Dr.Steven Grant and Rusher. Randall would always suggest you be the female character in the movies but you never agreed. Instead, you always said you wanted to be the animal companion, your favorite was a monkey. They at least got to go to the temples and pyramids. The ladies always just fell over a lot. That's what you thought anyway. Even if there wasn't an animal companion, you made one up. If they said no, you would just whine until they gave in. 

        "What are you gonna ask for your birthday, Marc?" Randall asked, hands clenching and unclenching next to his sides. He was getting anxious or still was from outside. Maybe it was the dark? You weren't sure, it didn't bother you as you lead the boys through. You still had the stupid kid armor in your head. 

        "Mom said she has a surprise for Marc." You chirped. 

        "Do you know what it is?" The eldest asked. 

        "Yup." 

        "Don't tell him what the surprise is." Randall hissed, pushing your shoulder gently causing you to whine. 

        "I wasn't gonna..."

        "Anyway," Marc interrupted, walking in between his two siblings, arms folded behind his head. He was staring up at the rock ceiling even though he couldn't see the details as he had handed Randall the flashlight to light the way forward. Sure, it wasn't smart to give the one in the back the flashlight but eh, who cares. Not Marc. The two of them knew the cave enough to walk it blind and to be honest, there was no way to get lost. You just kept going forward until you couldn't anymore. 

        "I was thinking about a grappling hook." 

        "I don't think mom is gonna get you one of those." Randall narrowed his eyes in thought as he moved the flashlight, allowing you to see the tunnel to crawl into the cave. You still thought this place was amazing and the two boys had convinced you Ancient Egyptians really had been here, even if you were living in Chicago.  They told you that Egyptian Gods had created this hidden cave with secret instructions and had drawn hieroglyphics on the rock with a permanent marker. Most of them they had made up but either way, you still bought it with your tiny brain. You believed that the three of you had been chosen by the Gods for a special mission and that you just had to figure out what these hieroglyphics (picture words as you called them) meant and then they would come to do. 

        By the time the three of you were into the cave, the water was enough to create a small puddle-like lining on the ground but even then, you didn't think anything of it. You were all too busy with your conversation about birthdays and gifts. It was always exciting when a birthday came around, your parents were great with them, especially your mother. She would make a whole deal about one of your birthdays and it was just lovely. 

        When you looked back at this time, it was fuzzy on how it got from point A to point B. You remember running your hands over the pictures on the walls, chatting about birthdays, and then you were standing in ankle-deep water with more rushing in with every passing second. It didn't seem like it should be possible for it to fill up as quickly as it was, the cave was so much bigger and the walk was so much longer, wasn't it? Children's minds can be a funny thing. Things can seem so much bigger than they truly are. 

        "Marc, I think we need to leave." Randall was the first to bring the present danger up to the eldest brother. In truth, Marc had been thinking it but wasn't sure how to bring it up without making you or Randall freak out. Plus, it was just a little water, you would be fine, right? That was what he kept telling himself. You just needed to leave now before it got worse. 

        "Yeah, mom will be wanting us home anyway." He tried to keep his voice calm as he walked to the hole that you had to crawl through to get into the cave. What he hadn't expected was the force at which the water was coming through said hole. It was like the rapid rides at an amusement park. There was still a bit of it that wasn't underwater but it wouldn't be like that for long. 

        "I'm cold..." You whined, crossing your arms over your chest, trying to lift your feet out of the water but no matter what you did, you couldn't escape the rising tides. That was what it felt like. Randall stood next to you, resting a hand on your shoulder in an attempt to keep you calm but you think now that it was just as much to keep him calm. You didn't judge him. You wished you had hugged him one more time...

        "I can't do anything about that." Marc kicked at the hole, trying to test how harsh the water flow was. Would he be able to get through? He could and Randall, but what about you? Maybe the two of them could get to the other side and go get help. He was the fastest of the three of you but he also was the strongest. His mind was torn. 

        "The water is getting in here too fast," Another whine from the tiny sister. You weren't necessarily afraid of the situation yet but annoyed. It was hard for your brain to comprehend what was happening. You hadn't thought anything bad could ever happen to you. You were just a kid. 

        "It's okay." Randall ran a hand through your hair, eyes watching Marc with nervousness. 

        "I want Mommy...!" 

        "Shut it, I'm trying to think, okay?!" 

        This was enough to silence you, hands gripping at the denim overalls you had on. It wasn't normal for Marc to yell at you. Sometimes he would raise his voice but he never yelled. That was enough to bring tears to your eyes and the fear of the situation just added to it. It obviously was the stress of the situation but that didn't make it any better. You couldn't help but let them fall and run down your puffy cheeks.

        Marc was having a hard time thinking with all of the noise. The water, both of you talking, his own heart beating in his ears, it was all too much! He felt like he couldn't breathe and that air was already beginning to deplete even though he knew that couldn't be true, could it? He didn't know, he wasn't good at science! 

        "Marc, I can't swim!" You were panicking at this point, crying as any five-year-old would. You were tiny, having been born early and it made you a bit underdeveloped for your age. The doctors said you would catch up by your teen years but as you stood with the water rising, already reaching your small hips, it was becoming increasingly clear that you were in a dangerous situation you couldn't save yourself from. This time your squeal didn't annoy him and instead brought him out of his thoughts. How long had he been thinking? How much time had he wasted? 

        "Right, don't worry, it's gonna be okay. I promise." Marc felt his chest tightening in panic. Even as the oldest of the group, he still was only a nine-year-old in such a traumatic situation. He had never been taught what to do in a situation like this. His parents told him what to do if a fire started or if a tornado happened but not if he was trapped in a cave when it was flooding! Heck, he even knew what to do with quicksand before flooding! Thanks, Dr.Steven Grant! 

        He had to calm down, he was your older brother and he promised he would keep you safe when you were born. He promised he would keep both you and Randall safe. He had to keep you safe. He had to keep Randall safe. He had to keep you safe. His younger brother seemed to have the same determined look in his eyes in saving his little sister but Marc was able to see past that into the fear. It was obvious. He was terrified. 

        "Randall, point the flashlight down at the hole, I need to go through first, and then when I go through, your gonna come through next, okay?" He pointed in your direction, "I'm gonna help pull you through from the other side. This way, you don't have you swim at all, got it?" 

        Both of you nodded at this plan. It wasn't like either of you had a better one. You were wailing like any normal child and Randall was only keeping it together for you. Marc kept telling himself that he was the older brother and he had to act like it. That was the only thing pushing him forward like this. Maybe he was crying and he just couldn't tell. All he knew was that he couldn't stop moving. The water sure wouldn't.

        Getting back through the small opening between the tunnels was much harder now that water was pouring in, pushing in the direction he was coming from. It was trying to keep him from moving forward and he had a hard time not swallowing any of the water with how hard it was coming down. This wasn't going to be good for when you had to come through. Either way, there was no choice, you had to. This was the only way out, that cave was a dead end. It had candy wrappers and other little pieces of junk from the three of you as you had claimed it as almost a clubhouse. You had never been there before when it had rained that hard...You should have listened to Randall in the first place. 

        "Randall, help her through," Marc shouted, unable to see his siblings. His instinct was to keep going until he was out himself but he ignored it, staying with his feet planted. He tried to block as much water as possible as you basically were passed through from Randall to Marc. It was hard to not scrap your arms and knees when getting you through but there were bigger issues to deal with at the moment. A little few cuts bleeding didn't matter right now. You didn't even seem to notice them as your entire body was now covered in water, head to toe. 

        "Okay, just wait here for a second." He picked you up fully, turning to set you behind him. The water was at your chest now, meaning it was at Marc's waist. He knew that they didn't have a lot of time to waste. 

        "Randall, come on through now, I can help you." 

        Nothing but splashing from the other side. It was obvious Randall was doing something but the two of you couldn't tell what it was. Either way, it wasn't enough to get through. You think he slipped and was pushed back by the force of the water. 

        "Randall!" Marc was shouting at the top of his lungs now, the type of scream you should never have to hear. It would haunt your nightmares to this day. It was the guttural type that was filled with raw emotion and emotional damage. His dark eyes were wide as he desperately went back down, attempting to open his eyes under the water to find his younger brother. He could see the light beam but with how quickly the water was pouring in at this point, it was impossible to see Randall. If he wasn't careful, he would get pulled back through himself.  

        "Just grab my hands and I'll pull!" With one more shout, Marc went back down and with his eyes shut, blindly reached forward through the opening. When he felt his younger brother grab ahold of him, he tried to pull him through, even pushing with his foot against the cave wall. Still, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get him any closer to safety. 

        "Marc!" As he came back up for air, he found you flailing to keep yourself above the water with how rough it was. It was rising quickly and it was far too fast for your tiny body to fight against. If he didn't help soon, you would get sucked under and wouldn't come back up again. His heart was racing a mile a minute and he didn't know what to do. It hurt and he just wanted an adult to decide for him. He didn't want to do this anymore. He wanted help. 

        "Go Marc, I'll get out on my own! You have to help Monkey first!" Randall yelled from the other side using their nickname for you. His voice was muffled from the rock between the siblings and the water rushing down like an impromptu river but you still could hear him clear enough. The two of you never expected those to be the last words you would ever hear from your brother. Deep down, you think Marc was afraid they were but was in denial. 

        With a nod to nobody in particular, Marc lifted up your now-soaked body and helped you cling to him like a koala. He might be bigger than you but it was going to be hard for him to get out by himself, nonetheless with your weight added to his. He didn't have a choice, he had to, or else you wouldn't make it. Still, why of all days did you have to wear denim today? 

        "I'll be back!" 

        To this day, you regret not saying anything. Instead, the last thing your brother heard of you was your frightened cries as you were carried away by your shared older brother. You were the reason that he couldn't be helped. If you hadn't been there, Marc could have saved Randall. That's what you told yourself twice every year. 

        With that final promise to his younger brother, Marc began to trudge back up to the entrance and back out into the daylight.  The water was pushing against him with each step but he refused to be toppled over. He had to get to the top, he had to get you out. The rain was an entire storm by the time the two of you were out of the cave and he couldn't help but wonder what your parents were thinking.

        As soon as the grass was surrounding the two of you again, he dropped you down to your feet. It was at this moment you realized that at some moment in the cave, you must have lost one of your sandals. Stupid weak straps! You could feel the wet grass beneath your toes and while that may have felt nice in any other circumstance, you could only focus on how cold you felt even in the heat of the day. How had today started off so nice and now...?         

        "You need to go get mom and dad now," Marc grabbed your shoulders, shaking them enough to break you out of your terrified trance. You hadn't stopped crying but were able to pay enough attention to look up at your brother, the rain mixing with your tears. "Okay?" 

        All you could do was nod as an answer. Turning around, you began to run back in the way of your home with one less sandal and one less brother than when you had started with. The fear was pulsing through your veins so hard that you didn't even feel the broken bird bones that sliced through your bare foot as you ran as fast as your little legs could carry you. To this day, you have a scar on the bottom of your foot where it was cut open. 

        By the time they got to the cave, all they could see was Marc staring at the water and your sunflower sandal floating where the entrance of the cave used to be.