//------------------------------// // Chapter 165 – Losing Time // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// 165 Upstate New York Beneath the Ruins 5:53 p.m. The Avengers within the rubble were desperately losing time. Every second wasted was another inch of air being slowly taken from them. The likes of the Incredible Hulk and the Punisher—the only two Avengers still somehow standing after the surprise attack—did their damnedest to keep the ceiling from collapsing right on top of them. As well as those who lay before them. Despite the Hulk’s unfathomable strength, he couldn’t stop the flow of water from slipping right past him and start filling their immediate area with frigid and rising liquid. The remaining Avengers made their growing worry known as they all quickly began to come to in tandem. Rocket groaned from beneath the pillar of cement he was trapped under, gasping for air as streams of water dripped from the collapsed ceiling and onto his face. “I can’t breathe!” Rocket gasped, more water splashing in his face. He twisted his narrowed and blinded gaze to his left, where he could hardly make out the blurred images of the others. He repeated himself as loud as he could, each gasp taking the air he needed and the pillar further crushing him. “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!” James Rhodes gritted his teeth against the flashing emergency lights blaring in his War Machine’s HUD. He had lost all motor control and the suit had turned into dead weight upon impact. With the water already beginning to flood his damaged suit and submerge his useless legs, James looked about and knew he had no other choice but to abandon ship. “Canopy, canopy, canopy!” he gasped, watching as his final command went through and his suit broke open. The emergency lights of the facility’s lower levels suddenly overwhelmed his senses, the streams and droplets of water falling from the ceiling striking him. Free from his suit, Rhodes crawled out and away towards where Rocket was trapped, grabbing a piece of rebar and jamming it under the concrete. He crawled on top of the concrete, straining against pushing his own weight downwards. He managed in the end, the concrete rising a few inches and just being enough for Rocket to crawl out of. The raccoon took a much-needed breath of air once free from his entrapment, the concrete crashing beside him once Rhodes let off the weight. The two couldn’t rest for long. Hearing the strained cries of the Hulk, both turned to see Banner slowly succumbing to the weight of the world placed on his shoulders. “Guys!” Banner cried out, falling to his knee and screaming because of that. Because a fresh wave of water flushed inwards and added several inches of water in mere seconds. Rhodes and Rocket were drenched in it, forced back from the wave and crashing back into the growing pool in the center of the room. They joined the clustered bodies of the remaining Avengers, those still desperately fighting for one more breath of air. Robbie Reyes was trapped beneath a chunk of the ceiling, the man containing the Spirit growling and crying out as the increased pressure pushed against his sternum and drove him deeper into the floor. The water was closing in around him, quickly filling up and covering his chest. Reyes jammed his neck upwards, breathing rapidly to catch that last breath before the water took it away. Nearby and finally coming to, Nebula and Groot rose from the water gasping and reaching out for nothing. They heard Reyes’ desperate cries and quickly turned to them, still blinded by the water in their eyes. His voice guided them, eventually bringing the two Guardians to the slab of ceiling Robbie was trapped under. They dug their hands underneath the rubble and pulled. While they worked to get the rubble off, time was working against them. The water was filling the basement faster and faster, Banner’s failing strength slowly succumbing to the weight of the facility on top of him. He couldn’t hold it forever, nor could he stop the inflow of water from drowning his friends. All he could do was hold it, forced to watch their last efforts in vain. Matthew Murdock and Elektra Natchios were stuck together, Daredevil lying on his chest with Elektra on her back. They were trapped under the same slab of concrete and rubble, twisting and turning about in response to the water rising around them. The pool reached Murdock and began to cloud around his face, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen retracting back and catching his breath. He pressed his gloved-fists into the floor beneath him, groaning as he tried to push himself up to avoid the growing pool. The rubble weighed too much, pushing Murdock back onto the ground. “Matthew!” Elektra cried. She reached out with her hand to him, the water already starting to cover her ears. Turning to her, Matt could see the flaming enigma that was Elektra’s person slowly being succumbed to the flood water. With one palm placed to the earth, his other reached for her. Their fingers were mere centimeters apart, but neither gave in. Neither stopped. They pushed and pushed and the world continued to rip them apart. By the time the water reached Elektra’s cheeks, she gave her last breath and the water overcame her face. That last breath was to him, the voice that cried, “Matthew!” She was submerged. Desperation and panic began to set in, a flushing wave of adrenaline filling Murdock’s veins and giving him the strength to give one last push against the concrete. Nothing came of it. The rubble grumbled against his efforts, and few rocks may have turned over, but one man was nothing to the immense weight of the building. “Murdock!” Matt turned rapidly to the familiar and gruff tone of the voice, seeing the Punisher Armor managing to hold an entire section of the ceiling in its hands. The suit of armor slowly bent lower and lower against the crumbling weight, but the red eyes shimmered through the dark and latched solely onto Daredevil. Matt stared onto him, hearing and feeling his desperate cry. “Don’t worry; I’m coming for you both!” Frank Castle shouted, his suit’s wiring straining against the cement ceiling. He tried to move, tried to push it off, but he knew with just one wrong step, the entirety of the ceiling could collapse and entrap them under mountains of rubble. Frank shook his head at that, his rising growls turning into screams of rage as he tried to lift the ceiling from him. His eyes were only to Matt and Elektra, pupils shrinking beneath his mask to see Elektra’s hands above the water begin to weaken. Her fingers began to fall and her hand slowly sank into the depths. Throughout the entire ordeal, Matt could hear her heartbeat. Slowly fading. Slowing down with every faint beat. Matt felt his own beginning to freeze in that piercing cold of terror, reaching once more to her palm and screeching, “Elektra!” Just before his fingers could grasp hers, Elektra’s hand slipped beneath the pitch-black waves. A flash of light filled Murdock’s senses, bringing the Devil’s eyes forward and spotting the flaming body of Sunset Shimmer standing before him. Her horn was on fire, shimmering as bright as the sun as a second flash was felt in the limited air. As the seconds passed, Murdock’s shock only continued to rise when he felt a sudden jump in Elektra’s pulse. He turned to see her hand shoot out of the water and finally grasp his in an unbreakable hold. Beneath the waves, a magical air bubble had saved Elektra Natchios’ life. She continued to fight against the rubble that kept her and Matthew trapped while submerged, never letting go of his hand. While they fought, a second flash of light filled the air and Starlight Glimmer appeared beside Sunset. The unicorn absorbed the ceiling above Frank’s head within her magical aura, giving Frank the space needed to leap out of the way. With Starlight now straining against the weight, she slowly eased the crumbling ceiling down into the water. The rest of it managed to hold, but only momentarily. They needed to work fast. Frank rose up from the water, streams of it flowing down his armor like black rivers. He turned his flaming red eyes to the two mares, seeing Sunset and Starlight nod to one another. Starlight, soaked from the water, held a bloody gash against the side of her head, the blood leaking down and dripping into the water. She didn’t seem to mind, several similar scrapes on Sunset’s own face and body. They then turned to Castle, watching him nod back. While Sunset and Starlight searched the ruins and called out to the various names in the room, Frank scanned the flooded floor and managed to spot the flailing bodies of both Rhodes and Rocket. Castle fought through the water to reach them, bending down and grasping James’ arm. He hoisted the man up to his feet, Rhodey gasping and coughing as the water was spat from his agape jaws. Sunset pulled Rocket from the waves, giving him and James a couple of air bubbles just in case. “Help us!” Nebula screamed, earning the attention of the unicorn. Sunset spun rapidly to the desperate cry, seeing Reyes take in his last breath and the water consume him. Nebula and Groot still could not pull the rubble off of their fellow Avenger. With Starlight giving Murdock a similar air bubble, Sunset swam her way through the water now reaching her neck and towards them. Once James managed to catch his breath, he lifted his eyes to Castle and saw him nod down to him. Looking about the room, Rhodes finally noticed the crumbled remains of the room they were in: the firing range. Meaning the storage room was just next door. Meaning he wasn’t out of the fight just yet. “Frank, get me to that armored door!” James called out, pointing in the direction Castle turned to. “We can free the others if I can get to the suit!” “What suit?!” Frank shouted, eyes peering back to the damaged remains of the War Machine Mark VI slowly being submerged under the water. “Your only suit’s a goner!” Frank wrapped Rhodes’ arm over his shoulder, turning to James and seeing that slight sense of determination glowing in his eyes. “Who said that was my only suit?” Rhodey muttered. With that settling in, Frank quickly made his way to the door and, in turn, the room next door. His stomps splashed torrents of water ahead of him, but the Punisher was unstoppable and relentless in his pursuit. They just about neared the armored door when the wall to their right burst open and shards of rubble rained over the Punisher Armor and James Rhodes. Frank shielded Rhodes, both of them turning to the source of the disturbance. Standing atop the mound of rubble they created, Maud Pie and Derpy Hooves stood together amongst the blaring lights and screaming chaos. Maud slowly lowered her Asteroid Glove that had destroyed the wall, Derpy flying over and reaching Frank and James. “Where are the others?!” she asked rapidly. Maud hopped into the water and drenched herself into the freezing flood, but she didn’t even flinch to it. She merely watched alongside Derpy as James pointed behind them to the two teams still struggling to free their trapped allies. Directly ahead, they saw Banner continuously struggling to keep the facility from crashing on top of them. “Come on, Maud, we need to hurry!” Derpy cried, seeing Maud nod from below and swim her way over to Murdock and Elektra. With that out of the way, Derpy turned back to Banner still struggling. She saw Frank dragging James over to the other end of the room. She heard the cries and pleas from the others still fighting for their last breath of air, still trying to escape. Closing her eyes, Derpy slowly raised her hoof to her ear. “Please work, please work, please work…” She pressed onto her comms and declared, “This is Derpy! If anypony can hear me, trace my location and find us! Hurry, the water’s rising and there are still some of us trapped!” Her call went out and it was not consumed with static. It went out and it awakened a certain Ant-Man from his delusional state of unrest. The stars in his eyes began to fade and the darkness finally fell away, revealing to Scott Lang a decimated, burning corpse of the facility he used to know. Emerging from the rubble, Scott was minimized to the point where he had miraculously survived the bombardment. His size protected him, his last act to shrink himself being the right call in the end. Yet it wasn’t the end. Not yet. He heard Derpy’s voice in his ear, her pleading tone just being enough to wake him from his daze and bring him back into the land of the living. “Guys, what happened? Where are you?” Scott mumbled, a hand to his helmet’s forehead as he tried to shake away the stars that blotted his vision. Before Derpy could respond, he suddenly recalled what she said and raised his left forearm. He tapped away at his suit’s wrist computer and analyzed the shared comms link, tracing the location of Derpy’s location, and in turn, the rest of the team’s location. A couple floors below him, several meters ahead and not going any farther than that. He had them. Their cries echoed in his comms. Scott quickly rose up from the pebbles of concrete and glass around him, spinning about and stating aloud, “Don’t worry! I’m coming for ya! Just hold on!” Ant-Man took off at a dead sprint, yet his size offered both positives and negatives to their current dilemma. Since he was so small, he was very slow. Since he was so small, however, he managed to slip, hop, and sneak through various cracks and demolished remains that a normal-sized man would have never been able to achieve. He went as fast as he could, only their cries to push him harder. “Where are you?!” “You need to hurry!” “Help us!” “I’m going as fast as I can!” Scott shouted back through the comms. He leaped over the rushing river of flood water and landed on the eraser of a pencil. The added push sent the pencil arching skyward and impacting a coffee mug. Ant-Man jumped from the eraser and dove down into the water with a soft plop. He was thrashed, thrown about, and utterly lost within the water. But through it all, the distance between him and his fellow Avengers was slowly becoming smaller and smaller. Help never came for them. Daisy Johnson’s call was never answered. Only the sickening and terrifying sound of static filled her ear. Regardless, she kept the comms online, just in case someone responded. Just in case someone was alive. She and Mack limped together as they made their escape from the living room and were seemingly lost from that point on. Mack weakly gripped his Shotgun-Axe as Daisy was forced to carry his arm slung over her shoulder. The two Avengers, two agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. having fought through hell and high water over the years, now fighting together once more. For quite possibly the last time. In all their years serving together in S.H.I.E.L.D., they faced plenty of sticky situations, some that almost seemed unwinnable. But they pulled through. They won countless times because they were together. Their team was scattered, lost, and probably dead. They were wounded, lost themselves, and utterly shell-shocked from what had just transpired. Of all the conflicts they faced in the past, their current one was, by far, the least winnable. But they pushed on. Mack used his remaining strength to keep himself standing, moving, limping alongside Daisy. And as for Quake, her remaining strength was used in hopes to keep the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and her friend alive. She had lost nearly all hope of escaping the winding labyrinth of the facility’s remains and had just about decided to rest somewhere in the ruins. However, the rising whispers just outside the wall they walked beside caught her interests. She held her breath, heard more voices, and acted. Jamming her free fist to her left, Daisy sent a wave of quaking energy into the wall and burst it outwards. Standing, kneeling, and lying on the other side were Shuri, Friday, and Melinda May all in that respective order. Beyond them lied the outside world and the devastated remains of the attack. Thanos’ warship glared down upon her, but Daisy didn’t pay it any further heed. Her only action was directed to the three Avengers she couldn’t have been happier to see. That joy was overcome with terror when they finally noticed why it was that May was lying down. Daisy let Mack lean against some rubble to support himself, allowing Johnson to fall to one knee beside Friday. Friday and Shuri cast their eyes to Daisy and Mack before slowly returning to the source of Daisy’s distress. Lying before her, May was still trapped by the rebar stabbed through her right shoulder. She was still alive, still hissing in writhing agony. Daisy had no time to question what had happened. All she could do was turn to Friday and tell her, “Help me get May off this thing.” The AI responded with a firm nod, bending forward with Daisy and latching her robotic hands upon May’s opposite shoulder. Daisy kept her own attached to the wounded shoulder, wincing to see Melinda open her mouth in a silent scream. Blood seeped down from the wound, painting Daisy’s hands. Johnson sent a pleading and sorrowful look into May’s tear-filled eyes, turning to Friday begrudgingly. “On three… we pull,” Daisy said with a fierce nod. Friday nodded back. Turning back down and meeting Melinda’s eyes, Daisy pursed her lips. “Sorry, May. This is gonna hurt…” Agent May merely tightened her expression, her right hand rising up and clutching Daisy’s arm. She nodded to her, silently affirming to Daisy to go through with it. Daisy gulped, looking to Friday and seeing the suit of armor ready. Quake shook her shivers away and faced the wounded shoulder, planting her palms on the sides of it. “One… two… three!” Daisy screamed and yanked back. Friday pulled, as well. Melinda bellowed in agony as she was yanked free. The rebar tore at her flesh and muscles before finally releasing her into Daisy and Friday’s arms. The flowing of blood and throbbing of pain could be both seen and experienced. May laid down with Friday lacing her wound with a helping of coolant spray, a medical mixture that sealed up the wound and proceeded to reconstruct the flesh. With the threat of infection dealt with, May groaned as Friday and Shuri tended to her. Daisy, on the other hand, was slowly brought back from her friend and onto the rising tide beyond them. She spun around and witnessed the beginnings of an invasion. Various dropships impacted the earth several miles in the distance, all of which fell from Thanos’ Sanctuary II. From them spilled a horde of thrashing and screeching Outriders, the familiar and wretched alien hounds released upon the devastated wasteland and towards them in an invasive wave. The swarm was large—not as large as the armies during the Battle of Wakanda—but fairly big nonetheless. And they were all coming for the facility. For them. For the Stones. “We need to hold them here,” Alphonso Mackenzie grumbled, several eyes twisting back to gaze to him. He limped forward, but held his Shotgun-Axe and cocked it appropriately. He glared to the approaching horde. “Can’t let them get their hands on the Stones.” May, too injured to fight, groaned and stared at the wave of Outriders nearing them. Friday turned from May and onto Daisy, nodding to the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. “I’ll protect her,” the AI assured. Daisy nodded to that assurance and faced away. Mack stumbled forth from the wreckage and stood beside her, not even seeing as Daisy raised her fists and the silver gauntlets trembled over her forearms. He felt, however, the earth shivering beside him, the power of Quake rising with untold ferocity. Together, they glared down the Outriders stampeding over the hill of rubble and narrowing the distance between them. Neither of them saw Shuri stand on their left. The Queen of Wakanda tapped once over her vibranium necklace, a flushing wave of purple energy overcoming her entire body. From head to toe, Shuri’s Black Panther armor was activated, her eyes illuminating bright purple as she and her Avengers charged together. As one team. As one tribe.