Bab 81: Chapter 81
Spring, 2018
New York City
"I'd now like to introduce our guest speaker, Margaret Stark."
Maggie got to her feet and strode to the podium, subtly brushing down the front of her teal cocktail dress (she might have gotten a little too excited about the crumbly pastry entrees). When she took her place behind the podium and looked up, she was hit by a familiar bout of nerves – too many faces, too much attention on her. But after a few months of attending these kinds of events it was easy to brush away the fear.
She stood before a wide room full of neatly arranged tables, with about four dozen seated, well-dressed people waiting to hear her speak. Behind her, the large windows over the space overlooked the busy shopping district of 5th Avenue, where the bright sunshine shone down on the bustling New Yorkers and streamed into venue. Over the window hung a banner reading: Anti-Trafficking International: Quarterly Benefit Luncheon. Maggie had been working with the group for eight months now, and this was the first time they'd asked her to take such a public role. Another symptom of her HYDRA legacy slipping away.
She took a breath, and looked out over the people seated around the room. These were all philanthropists of some kind, with very deep pockets. At $1000 a plate, they had to have deep pockets indeed.
"Good afternoon everyone," she began. The sun felt warm on her back. "I want to thank you all for coming. I also want to thank Anti-Trafficking International for setting up today's luncheon, for all the incredible work they do, and for inviting me to speak today." Her hands curled around the edges of the podium. "I'm sure most of you know a thing or two about what happened to me, so I'm not going to tell you my story today. Instead, I'm going to tell you a different kind of story. The story of hundreds of girls. boys, men and women who go missing every year. The stories that don't have a happy ending." She paused. "At least not yet."
When the presentation and donation portion of the event was over, the deep-pocketed philanthropists stood up to mingle and network. Maggie didn't mind these kinds of crowds – mostly everyone was well-intentioned and motivated to make some kind of a change with their privilege, and mostly no one asked nosy questions.
It seemed today, however, she'd come across an exception.
The investment banker in question kept asking invasive questions about the Avengers and what they were looking into at the present moment. If Maggie had to guess she'd say the guy had assets potentially at risk of investigation, but she was too bored to check right now. She made a mental note to look into him later.
"Is it true Colonel Rhodes is going on disability leave?" the starched and pressed banker asked, gesturing for another glass of champagne. He adjusted his slicked hair.
Maggie didn't even bother looking at him. "Not in the slightest."
"What about the rumors that the remaining Avengers are going to be sanctioned by the Accords? That they're going to be forced into hiding like the rest of them?" There was a note of gleeful satisfaction in his voice.
Maggie forced herself not to react, not to let him see how the question made her teeth grind and her skin crawl. She just took a slow breath through her nose and finally deigned to look at the banker, who had probably shelled out the $1000 to attend just to get insider information about the Avengers' comings and goings.
"Rumors," she said tightly. "Are just that." She cocked her head. "I wonder, Mr Shore, if there are any rumors circling about your company?" His gleeful expression faltered, and Maggie swept away before he could ask a question that really got her angry.
She strode to the window and looked down at New York going about it's day. She chewed the inside of her lip.
For months she and her team had existed in a tense, tenuous peace. The Accords Committee told the Avengers where to go, and they went. Maggie had tried to put her unease out of her mind by focusing on living: she'd kept in constant contact with Bucky, and these days it felt as if he lived just beside her heart, in a black Kimoyo bead resting against her skin. She touched the dark bead with her fingertips, conscious that her most recent message would soon be arriving in Wakanda.
Things had been going well with Peter, though he'd been busy with school lately. Her tech advancements with Tony were always progressing, and they were in the middle of working on applications for nanotech. Maggie's checks from Stark Industries kept coming in and she could now pay her own way through the world (including $1000 plates at benefits). Tony and Pepper were wedding planning. She had plans to have coffee with them this afternoon to discuss her role in the ceremony.
Rhodey had been withdrawn and tense lately, but Maggie knew that he hadn't forgotten what they tried to achieve with the Accords months ago. She sensed he was waiting for another chance.
And Vision…
Maggie's hand fell away from the Kimoyo bead, and rose to pinch the bridge of her nose.
Two weeks earlier, Maggie and Vision had a fight. She still remembered how simultaneously hopeless and hopeful he had looked as he confided how much he missed Wanda. They'd been standing on the roof of the Avengers facility, breeze in their faces, trading secrets. But then Vision admitted that he'd been thinking about just going on the run with Wanda and not coming back.
Maggie had tried to be understanding, but the words had sent a bolt of panic striking through her gut, and she'd hurriedly explained that the world needed Vision, that not counting her there were only three Avengers left.
He'd turned away. "I thought you, more than anyone, would understand what it's like to feel that you have no choice. To have violence demanded of you."
The words had cut deep then, and even now in the benefit room Maggie felt her breath come short. How could I have failed to see my friend suffering? She'd just assumed that the status quo would last forever; that she and Vision would get through being separated from their loved ones as they had for months. But she'd been operating under the hope that the separation was temporary. Vision knew better.
She'd said the only thing she could at the time: "I understand. I'm sorry." The words had sounded hollow, but not because she didn't mean them – because she knew that it was a moment that would change the fragile balance of their lives.
And so Vision had left. He'd smiled at her before he went, so Maggie didn't think they were fighting, but things were weird. They hadn't spoken since then. And Vision had turned off his transponder.
Maggie respected his choice to remain unfound, but she couldn't help but feel like some massive change was just on the horizon.
"Ms Stark!"
Her head jerked up at the sound of the benefit director's voice, and she turned around with a thin smile on her face. As she turned, she thought she spotted something like a streak of light in the sky above New York. But when she turned back to check, there was nothing in the sky but clouds.
Minutes later, a portal made of orange sparks opened up in Central Park.
"Tony Stark, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me."
Inside a Bleecker Street brownstone called the "New York Sanctum," where the interior decorator had had way too much fun with mahogany and oriental rugs, Tony kept up a running façade of snarky jokes and sarcasm as he desperately ran the numbers on keeping the 'Infinity Stones' out of the hands of some alien called Thanos.
Conclusion: it wasn't looking good. Especially if the people he had to work with comprised of an asshole wizard, the wizard's sidekick, and a seriously traumatized Bruce Banner.
And somehow they had ended up talking about Ben & Jerry's. So what if he'd brought it up?
Tony waved a hand. "Whatever, point is, things change." He rested a hand on the banister of the partly-destroyed stairs.
"Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change," the wizard replied, with a look on his face that made Tony want to smack him. "And this Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos."
"And so conversely be his best chance against us," Tony urged, still a little off-kilter that he was debating about fighting aliens with a magician.
"Well if we don't do our jobs-"
"What is your job, exactly, besides making balloon animals?"
The wizard laughed lowly, and then said with the smuggest look Tony had ever seen outside of a mirror: "Protecting your reality. Douchebag."
"Okay guys," Bruce interrupted, "Can we table this discussion right now? The fact is that we have this stone, we know where it is." He gestured at the amulet around the wizard's neck, looking at Tony with such desperation that Tony had to look away. He'd seen this coming years ago: the threat from beyond too strong to stop. Knowing that it had arrived set his gut churning. Not now, he wanted to say. Not when I just got everything I wanted.
Bruce gestured outward. "Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone and we have to find him, now."
Uh oh. Tony avoided Bruce's gaze again as he leaned against the wizard's dumb bronze cauldron, arms crossed. "Yeah, that's the thing…"
"What d'you mean?"
"Two weeks ago Vision turned off his transponder." He shrugged one shoulder. "He's offline."
Bruce stared at him incredulously for half a moment before exclaiming: "What?" Tony started pacing to avoid his friend's disappointed eyes. "Tony, you lost another superbot?"
"I didn't lose him, he's more than that – he's evolving!" He'd watched it happen over the past year; the omniscient, highly powered android had developed emotions. Distractions. Had befriended Tony's lonely, traumatized sister.
"Who could find Vision then?" asked Strange.
Tony grit his teeth. "I could ask Maggie, I get the feeling she knows more about it than she lets on–"
"Wait, Maggie?" Bruce cut in. "Your... your sister?"
Tony glanced over his shoulder at Bruce's bewilderment. "Oh yeah, she's around. Totally not in prison either. Man, we have got to have a catch up chat." He shook his head. "But I think she and Vision had a fight, not 100% sure what about, and Vision knows how to hide from her." He kept pacing.
"So who else?" Strange prompted.
Tony's thoughts raced for another moment before they came crashing together with a very inconvenient solution. "Shit," he muttered under his breath.
His thoughts turned to the weight in his jacket pocket.
"Ms Stark? Something… something's happening."
Maggie turned away from her conversation with the benefit director to see a fellow philanthropist pointing to the window. His face was bone white. She frowned and glanced past him to the window, where a crowd was gathering. Soft gasps and exclamations echoed across the room.
Maggie strode toward the window and looked out.
For a second her brain couldn't quite register what she was seeing. Her first thought was: did Tony do that? Followed by: No, a project on that level and I'd know. Is it Wakandan? Then: No. No, it's not.
A giant metal spacecraft hovered over New York City. It was circular, with engines burning around its circumference and exhaust gusting down against the city streets below. It looked bizarre against the Manhattan skyline, on the one hand seeming as if it belonged amongst the gleaming glass and steel skyscrapers, and on the other hand… well, alien.
Maggie's heart lurched in her chest. She could feel everyone in the benefit room looking at her, but this time they weren't looking at Margaret Stark; philanthropist and humanitarian. They were looking at the Wyvern.
"I'll pay for the window," she said, her voice distant.
With two taps she activated the metal bracelets on each of her wrists. In the window's reflection she saw grey and red nanotech surge up her arms and across her body, her Wyvern suit materializing around her like magic. In three strides she reached the window and hurled herself through it in a cascade of glittering glass, and half a second later the dark webs of her wings unfurled and roared into life, lifting her into the air above the city.
She didn't take her eyes off the spacecraft for an instant, and as she gained height and brought up her HUD she noticed a plume of backdraft gust back up at the craft, propelled by some kind of orange… energy.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.," Maggie murmured, hoping her tone would be enough to prompt the A.I. to give her some kind of explanation. If there was any.
"Unknown spacecraft, appeared in Earth's atmosphere one minute and thirty three seconds ago. Evacuation underway for all civilians south of 43rd street."
As F.R.I.D.A.Y gave her the breakdown, Maggie eyed the readings her HUD could provide: size of the craft, heat readings, the chemical makeup of its emissions. None of those could tell her if this was a friendly or not. She rocketed toward the craft, her heart pounding as it grew bigger and bigger in her goggle sights. But F.R.I.D.A.Y. hadn't finished. "I'm sending you the Boss's coordinates now."
When a red light popped up on a street practically underneath the spacecraft, Maggie closed her eyes. Of course he's right in the middle of the trouble. Her wings tilted downward.
"I'm on my way."
Maggie arrived at a stand-off. She was descending so quickly she only got a quick read on the situation: Tony stood in the middle of a rubble strewn street in his running gear with three men (one of them wearing some kind of red cape) standing at his flanks. About a hundred yards away across the road from Tony stood two weird-looking figures (one of them giant and an odd shade of rock-brown, wielding a huge axe, the other slender and grey).
Maggie increased power to her engines, plunging headfirst toward the street with the wind in her ears and her eyes fixed on the unknowns below. When she was six hundred feet out, the red-caped man stepped forward and produced two glowing orange discs from his hands, making her eyebrows shoot up, and then the man on Tony's left did the same.
She didn't have time to process that or Tony's shouted words ("He means get lost, Squidward!") before she swooped below the line of the rooftops, flared her wings to slow down just enough to not break her legs, and landed with a clang on the road behind Tony. She didn't retract her wings, just straightened and lifted her head to take in the odd collection of people before her.
Yards ahead, beside a crumpled fire escape, the two obviously non-human entities took in her appearance. The shorter one cocked his head.
Closer to Maggie, Tony and his entourage looked over their shoulders at her. All of them had flinched except for Tony.
"Oh hi," he said, eyebrows raised. "You finally showed up."
She rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see it thanks to her goggles. She nodded at the road ahead of them. "Aliens, huh?"
"Seems that way."
"Who're these guys?" She jerked her head at the guy in the red cape and the guy in the dark tunic, both of whom still had the glowing orange discs hovering in front of their fists. She eyed the patterned ephemeral shields . "Are they aliens too?"
The corner of Tony's mouth ticked up. "Nah, earth wizards."
"Because those are a thing now," she sighed, and nodded a greeting to the wizards.
"Ms Stark," said the one in the red cape, inclining his head before turning back to the aliens. The larger alien shifted the weight of his axe and took a pace forward, his beady eyes intent on the collection of humans. Uh oh.
A voice to Maggie's left breathed: "Oh my god, this is your sister."
She looked over her shoulder at the man she'd previously assumed was a terrified civilian bystander. He certainly looked the part – tattered clothes, anxious expression, hair filled with dust as he stared at Maggie. Then she looked into his eyes and it clicked.
"Tony, is that Bruce Banner?"
Tony had turned back to the aliens. "Yep."
"Awesome. Nice to meet you, Dr Banner!" She waved one clawed hand.
Dr Banner scratched the back of his neck, his jaw working as if he was working out what to say. "Uhh… you too."
"Not really the time," the red-caped wizard said in an urgent voice.
Right. Aliens. Maggie rolled her shoulders back and set her sights on the slowly approaching alien. His massive axe clanked against the ground as he walked, carving a gouge in the asphalt. Maggie's eyes narrowed, analyzing the alien's potential weaknesses. Her wings whirred.
Tony tilted his head. "Banner, you want a piece?"
"N… no, not really, but when do I ever get what I want?" the scientist murmured, and rolled up his sleeves. Maggie didn't take her eyes off the aliens, but a thrill went through her as she recalled videos she'd seen of the Hulk in action. She itched to move Tony further out of danger.
"Been a while," Tony said. "Be good to have you buddy."
"Hey, shh… I just, I need to concentrate here for a second-"
Maggie turned to stare at Banner, her eyebrows rising when she saw him screwing up his face and clenching his fists as he groaned, a tint of green teasing at his neck. Up ahead, the giant alien knocked aside an abandoned car.
"Where's your guy?" asked Tony, staring incredulously at Banner.
Banner spread his hands and let out a breath. "I dunno, we've sort of been having a thing."
"There's no time for a thing," Tony urged, hitting his friend on the shoulder and pointing up the road. "That's a thing right there, let's go!"
Maggie shifted her weight. "I'm guessing this isn't how it normally goes," she said to no-one in particular. To her surprise the man in the dark tunic met her eye, still holding up his glowing shields, and they shared a mutual expression of I did not think this was how today was going to end up.
Banner clenched up again, every muscle in his body tense as he leaned back and let out a roar – or more of a groan. Maggie felt vaguely concerned that he would pop a blood vessel.
Dr Strange looked pointedly at Tony, and Tony turned from him to mutter: "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards."
Banner began apologizing, his face anguished, and Tony walked him back toward the dark tunic guy with assurances it was okay. As Banner moved backwards, Maggie reached out and patted his shoulder. She knew how it felt to struggle with bringing out the worst parts of yourself. Tony met her eye.
"You're wearing that?" she asked, gaze flicking down to his running gear.
Tony followed her gaze. "Oh. Right." He turned just as the massive alien roared and began to run down the street toward them, feet pounding on the tarmac.
Maggie always loved watching nanotech in action, sliding out from a central hub and forming plating, wires, and intricate machinery with a brush of a thought. It felt particularly satisfying to watch it today, as Tony tapped his arc reactor and strode forward to meet the charging alien while red and gold metal flowed across his body. Almost a living artwork. She smirked, and sensed the wizards on either side of her react in surprise. Iron Man had arrived.
Then she remembered that she hadn't shown up here just to stand around watching.
She kicked off the ground and beat her wings, bringing herself in line with the third story of the building beside her. At the same moment, Tony formed a nanotech shield to block the alien's first swing and landed a solid metallic-sounding uppercut to its face. The giant reeled back.
Maggie lifted her energy blasters to cover Tony, but it turned out she didn't need to. Tony's armor reformed, producing four arc-shaped repulsor cannons that hovered in mid-air, and she got a perfect view of the cannons firing their brilliant electric blue energy in a surge towards the huge alien, catching him in the face and sending him flying down the street.
Maggie took a breath. Okay, so maybe we can handle aliens.
The shorter, grey alien waved a hand and the big one flew to the side as if he'd been swiped by a giant invisible hand. Maggie's eyes narrowed. Telekinesis. Tricky.
Banner – who had crept forward and was staring at Tony's armor with wide eyes – exclaimed: "Where'd that come from?"
Tony turned around. "It's nanotech, you like it? A little something I've-"
The grey alien's finger flicked up, and suddenly the ground beneath Tony erupted and launched him into the air on a pillar of rock.
"Shit," Maggie hissed, sparing half a second to check that Tony's readings on her HUD before she flared her wings and launched forward. She'd barely covered three yards before the scowling grey alien uprooted the trees on either side of the road with just a flick of his hands and hurled them. She pivoted in midair, wings snapping vertically, and watched the closest tree hurtle along her body a finger's width away. Behind her, the wizards broadened their orange shields and the trees splintered to pieces against the glowing runes.
Maggie jerked her chin up to set her sights on the grey alien, and flung up her hands to fire a series of energy blasts at him. His hand flicked again, forming some kind of shimmering shield that deflected the blasts, and then he levitated a car off the ground and threw it at her. With a straining wing beat Maggie pulled out of her head-long surge and spiraled upwards, gasping at the near miss. She flipped around just as Iron Man flew back to ground level and blasted the car back in the alien's direction. Smirking, the tall grey humanoid sliced the car in half.
"Tony?" Maggie called breathlessly.
"Maggie, the wizard has a stone the aliens are after, they can't have it," he shouted.
She heaved a breath. "Protect the wizard, got it. Though he seems pretty capable," she added, watching him and the other one conjure glowing shapes in the air.
Tony shouted at the wizard to get the hell out of dodge, and Maggie dove on the grey alien. She didn't bother with trying to reach him this time though, just formed two shoulder-mounted energy cannons and let loose as she plunged downward. Her scarlet energy beams scorched toward the alien, earsplitting in their power. The alien didn't even look at her as he flicked up a shroud of concrete to block the blast, and then sent another car flying in her direction. She jerked away again, skimming against a rooftop and biting back a curse.
Tony fired up his repulsors and blasted down the street, dodging the pillars of concrete and rebar that the grey alien launched toward him. He formed a nanotech sword and Maggie's heart leaped into her mouth – only to fall again when the giant alien got back to his feet and hurled his axe right at Tony, knocking him back the way he came, through a building, and out of sight.
"Tony!" Maggie dove again, using the distraction of the giant alien thundering away after Tony to get close enough to the grey one to start firing again. He started hurling concrete projectiles at her again, but she was ready for him this time. She twisted and flipped as she angled down toward him, beating aside the smaller projectiles with her wings and avoiding the larger ones with agility or by curling herself as small as she could to slip through the gaps. The wind whistled in her ears and she kept her eyes on the alien's unpleasant grey face, watching his scowls and snarls for a hint of what he'd do next. His mind was slippery and almost as fast as hers, nearly impossible to predict. On the street below, the wizards held their defenses firm.
She slipped past another hurled car and fired a shock grenade at the alien, and what little patience he had left for her vanished. His lip curled and so did his fingers, shattering every single remaining window on the street. He flicked his fingers at her, in a gesture that reminded her of flinging water, and thousands upon thousands of glass shards shot toward her like deadly rain.
"Oh hell," Maggie yelped, diverting all power to her engines as she frantically pulled out of her dive and retreated. The hail of glass followed, arcing up into the sky like a flock of angry translucent birds, and back on the street the alien pulverized a pile of bricks and fired the shrapnel at the wizards. They each formed some kind of portal bordered by glowing energy and… redirected the shrapnel right back at the wizard. Huh. The alien blocked the projectiles with another car, but a single sharp piece smashed through and sliced his forehead open.
Sick of fleeing from a sentient swarm of glass shards, Maggie held her breath, shored up her suit's defenses and then flipped back toward the glass, feeling the sharp slivers break against her nanotech. When the last shard had shattered and crumbled to glittering dust on the street below, she let out the breath.
"Hey, wizard guy!" she shouted when she swooped back down to the street.
"My name is Doctor Strange!" the guy in the red cape called back, sounding irritated even in the midst of battle. He made a circular movement with his hand and his glowing shield doubled in size.
"Great, think you can give me an edge here?" She dodged a hurled post box and had to zoom back up the street away from the alien when he started launching concrete around. "I don't know about magic, but that guy's not watching his back!"
Half a moment's pause followed. The wizard in the dark tunic went flying after being hit with a jet of pressurized water from a burst fire hydrant.
Then: "Alright."
Maggie had been rocketing away from the alien, dodging sentient concrete, but suddenly an orange-glowing portal opened in front of her and swallowed her whole. She shot out on the other end of the street behind the alien's back, with nothing but a chill down her spine as a sign that she'd teleported. For half a second she faltered, her eyes wide, but then her gaze fixed on the alien's exposed back. She fixed her aim and surged forward.
The alien was still flinging projectiles at the wizard – Dr Strange – and for a moment hope blossomed in Maggie's gut. She could hear Tony and a younger voice (Peter, dammit) fighting with the larger alien over the comms. She was sure they could take the big one down, and as she hurtled through the air toward the lone figure of the grey alien she could practically feel her claws ripping into his throat. Her blood sang in her ears.
But then his ear twitched. A second later all the cars on the road between she and the alien leaped to life, lurching into the air and surging drunkenly at her. She zipped past the first two and had to throw her shoulders back to avoid the third, ending up shooting forward feet-first. She flicked out her heel spurs as the alien's head grew large in her goggles and – and felt the tips of her nanotech-laced Adamantium whisper through his silvery hair as he dodged to the side and she sailed over his shoulder.
The fourth car smashed into her back and knocked her upwards, sending her sailing over the nearby building and crashing down into a block of apartments the next street over.
Tangled in the crumpled brick and steel of the roof, Maggie blinked up at the blue sky. At this angle she couldn't see the spacecraft. The only signs of the recent alien invasion were the distant sounds of clashing in the park, and the taste of blood and metal in her mouth. She groaned, and the groan deepened when her body began to register its complaints with her inter-species battle. Her whole back felt like a bruise.
Get up, Wyvern.
She got up. She staggered to her feet on top of the mangled rooftop of the apartment block, and swung her head to get her bearings. From here she could see the wide green park of Greenwich village, where Spider-Man snagged what looked like half a taxi in mid-air and flung it down at the giant alien from before. She spotted Iron Man, and her HUD pinged Dr Banner under a fallen branch. She took half a step toward them, then remembered the mission: protect the wizard.
Two against one seemed like good odds for Tony and Peter anyway, no matter how big the opponent.
With a small sigh, Maggie turned and leaped off the roof. She rocketed over the next line of apartments to see Dr Strange kneeling in the middle of the road below, metal cables snaking around his wrists and legs as the grey alien hovered in midair before him. The cables pulled Strange upright and wound around his neck, squeezing tight. She heard the grunt of the air leaving his chest just as she dropped in behind him and fired two energy bolts from her wrist-mounted blasters. If she were Tony she might have said something pithy and biting. But she was the Wyvern, and the Wyvern struck in silence.
The red pulse of light exploding in his face distracted the alien just long enough to let Strange get a breath of air, but then the grey being snarled and flicked his hands. Maggie prepared to dodge another onslaught of cement, which meant she wasn't ready for the concentrated jet of water that erupted out of a nearby water main and slammed into her back. It knocked the breath out of her lungs and sent her flying down the street.
When she tumbled to the ground (again – she was getting seriously pissed with this magic alien), she flipped around, heart pounding, certain she was about to see Strange's suffocated corpse. But instead he was… flying away?
"No!" the alien cried, clenching his fist as Strange's fluttering scarlet cape vanished down the street, and then hastened after him.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., track Strange!" Maggie cried, rearing her wings back and launching back into the air. A red dot appeared in her HUD, vanishing rapidly. She shuffled the structure of her wings to achieve maximum speed and maneuverability as she rocketed down the street, and then swerved around a line of buildings. The red dot zipped through the park ("Kid, that's the wizard, get on it," called Tony, and Peter answered "On it!"), and down another residential street.
Maggie roared over the small battle in the park, shouting "so am I!" as she went. She hadn't flown like this through a built up residential area in a long time; swerving between city blocks, over and under light posts and buzzing over cars. She'd certainly never done so in New York, and it was odd to suddenly see her home as a war zone. She narrowed her eyes at the gouge left in the road by the grey alien's form of levitation – she needed to get him the hell out of her city.
She veered around a corner and finally caught up with them. Strange was suspended in a beam of blue light emitting from the spacecraft, connected to the earth only by a single line of webbing. At the other end of the web was Spider-Man, clinging desperately to a light post. The grey alien sped toward him, hands clasped behind his back.
"I'm coming Peter!" Maggie shouted as she barreled down the street. She angled to knock Strange directly out of the blue beam of light, estimating that the beam had to have finite pulling power if Peter was keeping the wizard suspended. She opened the throttle to her engines, feeling the air shriek around her ears.
Just before she reached the lifeless wizard Maggie heard a strange, resounding groan. She turned her head just in time to see the ten-story brick and glass building on the corner of the intersection shudder and topple. She didn't have time to slow down or turn, and she'd already reached her max speed. She only had time to divert all her suit's resources to defense mode before the looming building lurched, gave way, and landed right on top of her.
"Ms Stark, you have been unconscious for ten seconds."
Unconscious. Maggie's eyes opened to nothing but the red glow of her goggles. Unconsciousness was expected after having over 500,000 pounds of brick and metal dropped on top of her.
"Vitals," Maggie rasped out.
"Surprisingly, you're all in one piece," F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied.
That'll be the nanotech. Maggie checked her readings and noticed that her comms were still active, no doubt thanks to Tony's reinforcements after he got trapped under that building in Iran, so she hurriedly updated herself on the ten seconds she'd missed as she tried to move under the bricks and rubble that covered her. Peter's signature was… oh god, it was hundreds of feet in the air and rapidly climbing. Maggie jerked her torso and was rewarded by the sound of sliding mortar.
She heard Tony say "Wong, you're invited to my wedding," followed by the sound of repulsors. Then: "Maggie, you good?"
She managed to move her right leg, and felt more concrete shift. "I'm fine!" she called, wincing as her left leg ached when she tried to move it. "Get Peter and Strange!"
"That's the idea."
Maggie groaned as she strained her shoulders, pushing up against the tons of building. The press of concrete and rebar around her was starting to ramp up her heartrate, spurred on by Peter's rapidly climbing suit signature.
Seconds later she heard Tony call for F.R.I.D.A.Y. to unlock 17-A, and her gut lurched. Tony designed that failsafe for if Peter ever ended up in an oxygen free environment. What is he… she checked Peter's readings again, and the rate at which he was ascending out of earth's atmosphere made her feel ill. This fight wasn't in New York any more.
The rubble shifted around her, and she caught a crack of sunlight. Get up, Wyvern, get up.
She listened to the comms with increasing anxiety as Tony called for Peter to let go, followed by Peter's breathless, gasping voice, but she stopped listening to the words themselves to focus on her muscles straining and her joints crying out in protest as she pushed against the weight above her. The concrete blocks around her shuddered – or maybe that was her – and groaned against the strain. Her lungs burned, her muscles trembled under her skin, and she was half a breath from giving up when she heard the beautiful sound of bricks tumbling away, and she surged up into the light.
She instantly launched herself into the air, bricks and dust falling away beneath her feet. She'd rocketed above the buildings around her in half a second. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., launch boosters!"
But the expected kick of power coursing through her wings didn't arrive. Instead, F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s soft voice echoed in her ears: "You're not going to make it, Ms Stark."
Looking up at the hazy shape of the spaceship receding into the blue sky, Maggie's heart squeezed painfully in her chest. No.
"Tony…" she breathed into the comms. She still soared upwards, as if she could make it just by wanting it enough.
"It's okay Maggie," her brother called back, his voice grim and determined. "The kid's on his way back down, and I'll go get Strange. You stay with Bruce, you guys need to get Vision and the stone in his head safe. Bruce will explain it all, but… you got this, Maggie. I'll see you on the other side."
"Tony, please…" she wanted to say 'don't go' and 'let me come with you', but both were impossible. So she only said: "Stay safe."
"Always," he replied in that offhand way of his. "You too." She could hear the sound of him laser cutting something. The shape of the spaceship started to blur into the clouds.
Maggie swallowed thickly and croaked out: "Please don't make me tell Pepper."
"She's calling me now. Gotta go, Maggot."
"Love you," she whispered.
His comms cut out, and Maggie slumped. She was still climbing through the air, unconsciously pushing herself toward that receding blip despite its impossibility, but she finally stopped and just hovered in mid-air. Her head fell between her shoulders. Without the sounds of battle and her engines roaring, the silence in the empty sky suddenly seemed deafening.
I dream about space sometimes, Tony had confided to her in a pre-dawn silence in the workshop. The massive… nothingness of it. I think the dreams might be nightmares.
Her breath shuddered in her lungs.
Get up, Wyvern.
She had a mission.
She swallowed down a sob. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., Peter?"
"He cut his parachute cords, Ms Stark. His signature vanished at the same time as the Boss's."
He wouldn't. Maggie's head jerked up and she stared up at the sky, which was now nothing but blank blue and drifting white clouds again. Her heart clenched. Of course he would. She clenched her fists, furious and terrified, but forced herself to turn and fly back down to earth.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone