My stomach leapt into my throat and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to scream or vomit again as Peter and I soared upwards. The final swing to get the height we needed seemed even more brutal than the ones before it. There was a jarring sensation as we arrived, landing on the Quinjet landing pad that jutted out from near the top of Avengers Tower. The second that my feet found purchase on the metal platform, I quickly disentangled myself from Peter and took a step away from him. Leaning forward, I rested my hands on my knees and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm my roiling stomach.
“Are you okay…?” Peter asked, a touch of genuine concern in his tone.
“Yep, just… just give me a sec.” My head was spinning and I still felt a bit out of it from the sedative but, after a few moments, I successfully swallowed my nausea and straightened up. Glancing over at the costumed teen, I shot him a slightly forced smile and thumbs-up. “Alright, let’s go introduce you to the Avengers.”
Legs still wobbly, I walked down the short runway, Peter hesitantly following a couple of steps behind. The hangar was unexpectedly vacant. As we passed through, moving directly under the Tower lounge and toward the glass double-doors that led to the interior, I briefly wondered who had taken the Quinjet and where they’d headed off to. The doors slid open as we reached them and we stepped inside.
Immediately, JARVIS’s familiar synthesised voice came from somewhere above us. “Your timing is impeccable, Ms Maximoff. We have an intrusion in the Tower and I have been unable to raise Mr Stark or the other Avengers—all external communication systems are currently offline.”
I picked up my pace, heading through to the stairs leading up to the main lounge area. “What? Where is everybody?” I asked, trying not to let my concern leak into my voice. “I thought there were meetings on this afternoon?”
“Your phone’s duress alarm was activated approximately forty-one minutes ago. The signal indicated a location in San Francisco’s South of Market. The Avengers are currently en route to mount a response.”
“They’re not here?” Peter asked.
I glanced back at him, my forehead creased slightly in confusion. “My duress alarm? What are you… oh. Fucking Strucker.”
“My apologies, Ms Maximoff, but the intruders will be arriving on the lounge level via the elevator in approximately ten seconds. I am deploying the Iron Legion now.”
“Ah, fuck,” I steadied myself with a hand on the railing as I started to jog up the stairs, trying not to stumble as I took them two at a time. “They’re after the Mind Stone. We need to stop them. Is there really fucking nobody around?”
“As I already said, your brother and the Avengers are en route to San Francisco. Ms Hill is at the Sokovian embassy.” JARVIS was still talking as we crested the top of the stairs. “I am unaware of Mr Barnes’ current location, but I am unable to contact him while the Tower’s communications are offline.” We’d only taken a few steps toward the second set leading up to the briefing room and lab areas when, right on cue, the elevator doors opened and HYDRA troopers in black body armour spilled out, rifles raised and at the ready.
“Woah!” Peter reacted faster than any of us, grabbing me around the waist with one arm. I let out an undignified squawk of surprise as he used a web to slingshot us up to the second level in a single, smooth motion just as the HYDRA troopers opened fire on our position. They tracked us upward, the glass of the balcony wall next to us shattering as we landed. Despite the suddenness of the movement, I managed to keep my balance as we landed and we hunkered down, using the balcony floor as a protective barrier against the hail of bullets.
I instinctively reached for my magic, only to have it slip through my grasp. Right. Of course. “A little help, JARVIS?!” I snapped. “I’m not in fighting condition. Where are the fucking Iron Legion?”
“My apologies, Ms Maximoff. The intruders are employing a military-grade signal jammer—it is interfering with my ability to effectively coordinate the Iron Legion. Deploying now in autonomous mode.”
Awkwardly, I skittered across the ground as quickly as I could, heading for the corridor leading out of the lounge. Another burst of gunfire caused me to flinch and duck my head as I moved, but it seemed more like suppressing fire rather than anyone aiming directly at us. Peter crawled along the floor with me, obviously much more used to moving like this than I was. Ahead and below me, I could see the Iron Legion drones being deployed from their service bay through a transparent glass section of flooring. It wouldn’t take too long for them to reach the lounge.
The sound of heavy-booted feet echoed from below and behind us as the HYDRA troopers moved to intercept. I started to rise to my feet, intending on ducking through into the corridor and using the wall as cover, but Peter hesitated briefly, his jaw set in a grim expression. I grabbed his arm. “Come on,” I hissed at him.
“I can…” His expression faltered, anxiety starting to overcome his initial determination. “I think I can take them.”
I shook my head, dragging him along after me. He’d barely had his powers for, what, a couple of weeks at most? “Oh, no, no, no. You are coming with me while I figure out how the fuck to deal with this situation.”
“I can do it!”
“Have you even had anyone shoot at you before?!”
“Well, no, but—”
“Peter, these are not street criminals and they are not messing around. You aren’t bulletproof and you don’t know how to fight people like this yet.”
Just then, the helmet and gun of a HYDRA trooper crested the top of the balcony stairs behind us. Once again, Peter reacted faster than me, a strand of web catching the barrel of the trooper’s rifle and yanking it from his grasp as Peter whipped his hand upward. Almost simultaneously, a second trooper that had appeared copped a face-full of webbing, covering the front of his helmet and knocking him backwards, disappearing from sight.
The sound of gunfire started up again—seemingly not aimed at us—followed by the sound of shattering glass and the whine of repulsors. I nodded to myself, relieved. The Iron Legion would hopefully keep them busy, even if JARVIS was having trouble coordinating them.
“Come on,” I said, hurrying down the corridor to the door to the lab. When it didn’t open immediately, I tapped impatiently at the access pad. It flashed an annoyingly familiar red and the door failed to open. “JARVIS,” I hissed between clenched teeth. “I swear to God if you don’t open this fucking door, I will erase you myself.”
“I’m dreadfully sorry, Ms Maximoff, but the security protocols are very clear and I am unable to override them without a directive from a standing Avenger.”
“I don’t give a shit about your fucking security protocols! Tony promised! I handed over the Stone and he promised he would return it the second I asked for it back, no questions asked!”
“Again, I am sorry, but I am unable to assist.”
This was bad. If I had my sling ring, things would be different—I could just create a portal through to the containment chamber, reach in, nab the Stone, and we could get out of here. In the absolutely worst-case scenario, we could even just retreat, hunker down somewhere safe, and let Strucker steal the damn Mind Stone. When the Avengers got back, we could just portal right on top of him and take it right back again. Without the ring or the Stone, though, we wouldn’t have a reliable way of tracking him and he of all people would definitely have a plan to shield the Stone’s gamma signature from detection. If he got hold of it right now, there was a very real chance that he could actually pull this off and get away clean. This was a disaster. I couldn’t lose the Mind Stone to HYDRA.
We were interrupted as a group of HYDRA troopers spilled from the intersection just past the lab entrance—they must have circled around through the corridor beneath us, trying to catch us in a pincer from both sides. I raised a hand reflexively, successfully managing to seize a small amount of magic, just as a strand of webbing lashed out at the nearest trooper’s shin. Peter yanked it forward with a gesture, violently taking the man’s feet out from under him. The bolt of chaos magic I threw was weak, but caught a second trooper in the shoulder hard enough that it knocked his aim off as he fired his weapon, sending a spray of bullets down the corridor into the glass wall of the lab and narrowly avoiding hitting us.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
I froze for a second, unsure what to do. We were caught essentially in the open, with no cover to duck behind. Peter, on the other hand, was already hitting the walls of the corridor with a pair of webs and using them to slingshot himself forward, feet-first, like a human torpedo. He caught the trooper I’d already hit with my magic full in the chest and sent the man crashing backward into a third.
A bare second later, Peter went flying, smashing through the glass wall of the briefing room and tumbling painfully across the table with a yelp. Brock Rumlow—Crossbones—stalked out from the intersection after him, clad in his signature body armour, bulky hydraulic gauntlets over his raised fists. As he moved, he whipped one to the side and a long, sharp-looking blade deployed from its knuckles.
“Peter!” I yelled, moving to intercept the HYDRA officer. Rumlow turned immediately to lunge at me with his bladed fist and I narrowly moved to the side, trying to grab and restrain his arm as it passed my waist. As the fingers of one of my hands scrabbled at his gauntlet, I raised my other to backhand him across the face. He deftly blocked the move and stepped forward, pain exploding in my skull as his helmet smashed heavily into my forehead and sent me staggering back. A burning line sliced across my forearm as he caught it with his blade and I wheeled back, dazed, trying to keep my footing.
I snarled wordlessly in frustration as my back slammed against the wall of the lab—this wasn’t fair… I was still sedated and he wasn’t even a fucking super soldier. Rumlow advanced on me, throwing a haymaker aimed for my face. I dropped, ducking under it, and his gauntlet slammed into the glass wall hard enough to smash through it. I barged my lowered shoulder into his chest, knocking him back several paces, and a moment later he was whipped violently backward into the conference room by a web. Peter jumped forward as he yanked the larger man toward him—Rumlow landed on the conference room table with enough force that it collapsed under him, then Peter landed squarely on his chest with both feet before springing forward.
A pair of Iron Legion drones appeared at the lounge end of the corridor, hands raised, repulsors whining. At the same time, on the opposite side, the HYDRA troopers reorganised themselves and opened fire just as Peter launched himself into the corridor. He spun through the air toward me as I straightened up—barely registering a spray of blood in the air—and suddenly he slammed into me, sending us both crashing into the lab. My back thumped painfully into a workbench and we tumbled over it, landing on the other side in a tangle of limbs, both of us gasping and groaning.
Pushing Peter off me, I felt a stab of ice in my veins as he whimpered and my hand came back covered in blood. “Peter?” I turned and frantically looked him over.
“I… I think they got me,” he ground out. “My leg.”
His costume was shredded in a dozen places, but almost all of it looked like surface-level grazings and cuts from broken glass. The left leg of his outfit, however, was starting to soak through with blood. Gingerly, I peeled back the material slightly and winced as I saw an ugly bullet entry wound on his upper thigh, leaking blood.
With no other options in easy reach, I quickly ripped off my blouse, sending a small spray of buttons in all directions, bundling it up and pressing it to his leg. Hands shaking, I applied a firm pressure to the wound as best I could. The white material almost immediately soaked through with red. My chest felt tight, my heart pounding like it was about to burst out of my chest. There was so much blood.
“Is…” Peter winced, his own breath coming in short, sharp gasps. “Is it bad?”
“You’re fine,” I lied, speaking a little too quickly, my breath hitching in my throat. “It’s fine. You’re gonna be okay.” Had it nicked one of the important arteries? Was he going to bleed out? I desperately wished I knew more about what I should do in this situation.
He blinked rapidly, looking at the expression on my face, and I was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that he was just a kid. “I don’t want to die,” he said in a small voice.
“You’re not going to die, Peter, I promise. You’re going to be fine.” If he died here—if I got Peter Parker killed—I knew I’d never be able to forgive myself or fucking Tony Stark.
The HYDRA troopers and Iron Legion drones were still exchanging fire and, from our position behind the workbench, I really couldn’t tell what was happening. Normally I’d have put money on the drones winning, but JARVIS had said they were operating independently, not working together. Without a coordinating intelligence directing the battle, I had no idea what would happen. I could’ve hunkered down, trying to wait out the fight and jumping in if I saw an opportunity to help end it, but the longer this dragged out the longer it would take for Peter to get the medical attention he needed. I needed to end this now.
I looked up. The Mind Stone was right in front of us, held suspended inside its transparent containment unit, magnetically locked to the top of the other workbench. I couldn’t use my magic very well right now, but if I had the Stone I was pretty sure I could do something. “JARVIS,” I said, voice shaking. “Open the Mind Stone containment, right fucking now.”
“I’m sorry, Ms Maximoff,” the synthesised voice said, just barely loud enough to hear over the sounds of gunfire. “As I previously stated, I cannot override Mr Stark’s security protocols without a clear directive from a standing Avenger.”
“I need… I need you to hold this, Peter,” I said, my voice trembling. I just didn’t have any other options. Hopefully, with his enhanced strength, he could keep pressure on his own wound for long enough. “Here. Please, put your hands here and try to keep as much pressure on it as you can, okay?”
Peter did as I asked and I withdrew my hands, reaching internally for my magic—it was still slippery in my grasp, but I was able to grab a bit more than before. I lashed out at the Mind Stone’s containment unit. It wasn’t enough. If I was at full strength, breaking it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I was only using a comparative trickle of power and my telekinetic bludgeon just bounced harmlessly off the reinforced casing without so much as a crack to show for it.
Another burst of gunfire pockmarked the computer workstation next to the Mind Stone, sending up a shower of sparks and smoke, and I flinched. If I was lucky, maybe they’d shoot it open for me, but… I glanced over at Peter. He was still conscious, thankfully, looking back at me with frightened eyes. My pulse was roaring in my ears and my eyes were watering—I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hands, trying not to get too much of the teenager’s blood on my face, then looked down at my bloody, shaking hands. I needed to do something.
I just needed JARVIS to open the containment. If he was an organic mind, I could just use my magic and make him do it, but… wait. The mind that had been inside the sceptre was synthetic and I could interact with that, right? And in the original timeline, when the Mind Stone was embedded in the vibranium body that eventually became Vision, Wanda had been able to read Ultron’s mind and feel Vision’s mind through it. Well, it was nice to work out that I could probably mind control JARVIS if I had the Mind Stone, but I didn’t have the… I looked back up at the Stone, suspended tauntingly in its nest of electronic equipment, trapped within its containment.
I took a deep breath and jerked out of my body, my astral form pulling free. My spirit flailed around drunkenly at first, spinning almost completely uncontrollably through space. It felt like I was underwater, rather than floating weightlessly as normal, and I couldn’t work out which direction the surface was. I’d never astral projected while sedated before, but it seemed like it affected me even here. Heedless, I plunged deeper into the Astral Plane—going as deep as I could go to speed up my perception of time as I tumbled through the ceiling and floated, floundering, above Avengers Tower, the world spinning around me.
Slowly—eventually—I got myself under control and started moving back to the Tower, towards my body and the Mind Stone. It was like swimming through mush. By the time I’d made it back inside, I could see my body lying slumped where I’d fallen. Peter was looking at me in horror, his mouth forming words too slowly for me to understand. From his perspective, I’d just jerked and fallen over, totally unresponsive. Did he think he’d just watched me die, having caught a stray bullet? Oh, good. As if I hadn’t traumatised the kid enough already.
Fucking Tony fucking Stark. God, I hated him so much right now. If he’d just been less of an ass when setting up his ‘security protocols’ and made it so I could retrieve the Mind Stone without his express permission, this wouldn’t be happening. I felt raw, like I was right on the edge of snapping. If Peter died here, I was going to lose my fucking shit.
Looking over the rest of the room, I saw Crossbones circling around through the lab, using the crossfire as cover to approach our position. I needed to do something, now, or Peter and I were both dead. I turned toward the Mind Stone, glittering golden in its enclosure. I couldn’t reach it with my physical body or magic, but, as far as my astral form was concerned, the containment unit might as well not be there at all. Reaching in, I trailed my fingers across the Stone, trying to access it. Using magic in the Astral Plane was harder than normal even at the best of times, and I was nowhere near my best. I couldn’t do it. Not easily or quickly enough to matter.
I despaired, turning back to look around at the tableau playing out in extreme slow motion around me—crossfire between the HYDRA forces and Iron Legion out in the corridor; Peter covered in his own blood, hands still desperately clenched against his wound; my unconscious body lying beside him, eyes staring sightlessly ahead; Crossbones creeping through the lab, closing in on us.
Magic wasn’t the only way to use the Mind Stone. Vision used it without having magic. It could be interfaced with directly. Mind to mind.
There was a slight electric tingle as I pushed myself forward, overlaying my astral form over the Stone. Pulling my legs up to sit in the lotus position, I positioned myself so that the Mind Stone rested inside my head, directly in the centre of my astral form’s brain. I closed my eyes and concentrated as best I could, trying to touch the Stone directly with my thoughts.
There was a moment of connection. I didn’t explode immediately, so that was a win at least, but there was a sensation of pressure building up in my skull. Okay, so, the lab’s systems were connected to the Stone, right? So, all I needed to do next was use it as an interface—a conduit. Reach through it to the system and use the electronic connections to manipulate JARVIS as if he was an organic mind. Simple. Impossible. I had no idea if this could even be done.
Straining, I thrust my mind blindly forward into the Stone.