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chapter two
S.O.S.
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LENA NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D be walking through a half-devastated Manhattan alongside Bruce Banner, a slight wind blowing the debris and dirt in their faces. Silently, she puts up a shield in front of them to prevent the dust from hitting its mark. Bruce slightly jolts when she does so; she hadn't brought attention to herself since Tony had disappeared. She's tucked inside of herself, body mostly on autopilot as it follows the scientist through the abandoned streets.

This portion of the city is a ruin. Cars are everywhere– parked on the sides of streets, smashed into telephone poles, crushed against each other, or merely left in the middle of the road. Dust and dirt are layered so thickly onto the sidewalk that Lena's boots leave footprints. The wind from the spaceship's arrival and departure had blown in trash from alleyways as well. Some garbage bags are torn, strewing rubbish along the pavement. Her nose twitches at the reek that wafts her way as they approach.

Again, without saying a word, Lena forms a ball around the trash and uses a gust of energy to carry the contents of the bag back into the nearest alley. It's not much, but maybe it'll make one person's job easier.

She finally speaks when she realizes she has no idea what's going on. "Where are we going, Dr. Banner?"

"Tony left something," Bruce replies vaguely, squinting his coffee-colored eyes against the bright hue of the force field in front of them. "Something important, so we need to find it. And, please, you can call me Bruce." He pauses. She doesn't return his gaze when he suddenly looks at her in bewilderment. "Speaking of which, who are you?"

"Lena Santos," she answers with a casual shrug. "Infamous vigilante native to New York and only on Mr. Stark's radar because of an accident. I can manipulate energy, but it also makes me really jittery." She conveniently forgets to mention that it's because her parents had exploded before they'd gotten the chance to stabilize their experiments on her. "It's a complicated story."

"Tell me about it," he agrees in a slight scoff, shaking his head. "I spent two years as the Hulk on an alien planet after I crash-landed there on a quinjet, then Thor rescued me after I tried to kill him and we fought his sister, the goddess of death, to keep Asgard from falling. We had to destroy it to stop her, then a giant purple alien named Thanos killed most of the citizens. And that's just within the past few months."

Lena is momentarily stunned. It takes her a few moments to process everything he'd just said, but she eventually nods with her lips pursed. "Yeah, okay, you win."

After wandering another block in silence, they turn a corner so the breeze is no longer blowing in their direction. Lena promptly drops the shield. Their surroundings become more clear, and as soon as they do, Bruce points to a tiny object on the ground a few yards ahead of them. "There."

"What?" Lena squints. "I don't see anything."

He leaves her side for the first time to hobble toward the thing— hobble, because he'd also gotten thrown around by that alien. He bends down and scoops it up. She realizes as he pokes at the device that he's holding a flip phone. Jogging toward him, she keeps a respectful distance of a foot between them as she watches him go to the contacts icon. There is only one name that pops up.

Steve Rogers.

"Holy shit," she gasps. "Are you calling Captain America? I thought he and Tony were... not buddies."

Peter had explained the gist of what happened when Tony had taken him to Germany. He hadn't told the younger boy much, but if he was ordered to fight Cap & Co, there must have been a valid reason...maybe one beyond half of the Avengers refusing to sign the Sokovian Accords. She shudders. Now isn't the time for such a harsh divide.

"They aren't," Bruce confirms with a frown, "and I still don't know why. I think this situation calls for Cap, don't you?"

He looks over his shoulder at her. Lena allows herself to be awestruck at the fact that Bruce Banner values her opinion before responding very maturely, "Uh, this is my first time being around more than one Avenger, so, uh, I don't know."

He turns back to the phone and sighs. "I'm calling him."

A lightbulb goes off in Lena's head, causing her to perk up and look at the buildings across the street like a dog. Their bags in the alleyway. She can't leave her clothes and phone behind, wherever she ends up going while in Bruce's care, and abandoning Peter's belongings is out of the question.

"While you do that, Dr. Banner—"

"Bruce."

"Right, Dr. Banner." She's not comfortable with calling adults by their first names— especially ones like him. "While you do that, I'm going to grab the stuff I left in an alleyway where I came from. I'll be right back, I promise."

She faces her hands downward and blasts off before he can protest. As soon as she's in the air, she feels slightly guilty. What if he doesn't believe her and thinks she's going to fly straight up to that spaceship? Since she doesn't have a proper mask, she'd likely pass out from the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere alone, and he should know that, but desperation is a funny thing. She'd seen that firsthand when Tony had shot himself into space for Peter without hesitation.

Lena doesn't allow herself to dwell on it and hopes he's making the phone call as she rockets in the direction she'd come from. She looks down as she soars between skyscrapers, surveying the utter destruction that continues for several miles. Someone had evacuated the premises. It makes the streets hauntingly empty, a city with millions of citizens looking like a ghost town.

A chill goes down her spine. She makes quick work of finding their bags and using her energy to detach them from Peter's webs. Her stomach churns, making her feel nauseous as she turns her back toward the discarded webs. Why does it make her feel so terrible? She's clutching both of their backpacks to her chest like lifelines, and yet she feels like she's abandoning a tiny piece of him.

Lena takes to the sky again before she can go insane and stuff the broken webs into her bag or something. When she returns, she discovers Bruce waiting anxiously for her arrival, scanning the area for her. His shoulders slump in relief when she appears around the corner and swiftly lowers herself to the sidewalk. She uses the remainder of her momentum to walk toward him before stopping and staring at the flip phone in his hand.

As if reading the question in her gaze, Bruce confirms, "He's coming. They all are."

Holy shit. She understands what he means without explanation. It's not just Steve who will be joining them. Rather, it's all of the remaining Avengers that had become fugitives by law after they'd violated the Accords. Falcon? Scarlet Witch? Her body trembles even more than usual at the mere thought of meeting them.

"I guess I can take you back home," Bruce muses, causing her heart to jolt in her chest. Disappointment floods her body instantly and her face contorts in desperation.

"Please, Dr. Banner," she begs, clutching the two backpacks to her chest even tighter. "My parents are in the Philippines. I can't stay home alone— not while this is going on."

Not while Tony, Peter, and that mysterious wizard are taking a possible one-way ticket into space. Not while an alien hand is chilling in the park. Not while all of the Avengers are rounding up for the first time in three years.

"Wait," she says, eyes widening in realization. "Is Thor coming?"

Bruce hesitates before admitting, "I have no idea. I got carried here before I found out what happened to him. The last thing I remember..." He grits his teeth as if a part of him is trying to repress the memory, a bit of green trailing up the veins of his neck. It takes all of Lena's willpower not to take a step back in apprehension. The scientist shakes his head and his skin turns back to its normal peachy tone, the green hue disappearing down the collar of his shirt. "Look, we need to get to the compound. The only problem is, there won't be any taxis for miles, and we can't walk all the way to upstate New York. If I gave you directions..."

Lena slides her backpack onto her shoulders and secures Peter's over her front side. "Yeah. But I'm warning you, I haven't carried people very far yet."

With Graham's shadow-travel increasing in length and Peter's webs, she hasn't had a need to fly with them for long distances. If she drops Bruce Banner from the sky...

"Don't worry," he says comfortingly as he tenses himself in preparation. "I'm more resilient than you'd think."

-♕-

Lena has to hold her breath to keep from screaming in excitement as she and Bruce enter through the front doors of the Avengers Compound. The complex of buildings is much more awe-inspiring than it had seemed in Peter's shaky picture he had taken when he'd come here. The exterior of every building is painted a dazzling white, shining in the mid-afternoon sun. They form a circle that houses a long stretch of field in the middle. The main entrance is the tallest building, made official by the trademark 'A' logo printed on the side in black.

Bruce punches in another form of identification before they can completely enter the building. Lena had switched the backpacks to one strap on either shoulder in an attempt to appear casual. It's not working very well, considering how badly her hands are trembling. She uses them to hold each strap in order to make the movement less obvious.

"This way," Bruce says, guiding her to the sound of a muffled series of voices. She barely gets a chance to look around. The interior design is nothing less than what she'd expect from Tony, the theme leaning toward the industrial modern side of the spectrum. The floors are a sleek gray and so shiny she can almost see her reflection as she follows him through a series of turns. All of the seating is either bright red, a soft beige, or black. There's so much glass everywhere; she doesn't want to touch anything in fear she'll break or smudge it.

Lena is led to some type of living room with several plush couches and chairs (all red leather) and a large flat-screen television covering most of the opposite wall. The area is blocked off from the rest of the first floor by a white wall with a series of horizontal windows cutting it in half. She doesn't notice the door hidden in another floor-to-ceiling glass wall until Bruce pulls on it, gaining the immediate attention of the singular person inside.

Lieutenant James Rhodes, also known as War Machine and Tony Stark's best friend, looks their way. He appears much older than the last time she'd seen him on television. His dark skin is marked with lines of age, appearing even more prominent since his face is pinched in worry. The short-cut hair on his head is slightly more gray than black. As he pushes himself to his feet, she notices the leg braces that make him mobile. Peter had told her what had happened to him at the airport. Being shot from the sky by Vision had paralyzed him from the waist down, but Tony had created those devices to help him regain his movement.

"Bruce," James says with an air of astonishment in his voice. The doctor gives a sad half-wave as the former lieutenant slightly limps forward and engulfs him in a hug. It's been nearly three years since they'd last seen each other, and the relief in James' dark eyes causes Lena's heart to clench. He pulls away with a pat on his shoulder. "How you been, man?"

"Oh, you know..." Bruce trails off with a wince. Before he can elaborate, James' gaze snags onto Lena and he tilts his head in confusion.

"Hi," she greets as she adjusts one of the bags on her shoulders and gives him what she hopes is a nice-looking grin. It's hard to tell when her heart is pounding like mad. "I'm Lena. Santos. Lena Santos."

"She's—"

"I know who she is," James cuts Bruce off as he gradually backs up until he's in the middle of the living room. Wordlessly, he points to the television. "And, now, so does the entire world."

Lena is confused as she timidly steps into the room and turns to peer at the screen. Her mouth drops open. A newscast is playing the events of the past hour, showing pictures of Tony, Spider-Man, and Havoc in tiny squares on the bottom of the screen as a poorly-shot video of them fighting the alien plays. But this isn't the local news she's gotten used to seeing herself on. This is an international broadcast.

"Tony Stark, also known as the infamous Iron Man, has been reported missing this afternoon," the female reporter says as the picture of him takes up half of the screen. Lena's heart gives a clench at her words. "No further deta—"

The screen abruptly goes black. Lena turns her head to see James holding the remote with a troubled frown on his face. "Bruce, what's happening?"

The shorter man sighs. "Thanos... he's coming. He wants all of these things called Infinity Stones. They're scattered across the cosmos, hidden almost in plain sight. If he gets them all, he'll be the most powerful being in existence. He could obliterate nations without thought. Even when he only had two, the Hulk couldn't put a dent in him."

Lena feels sick to her stomach again. She'd figured this was important, but Thanos... "You didn't tell me that."

Bruce winces. "Technicalities."

"Why is he coming here?" James questions, getting straight to the point.

"Because we have an Infinity Stone," the man replies. "And it's in Vision's head."

______

this is way shorter than i planned on it being but i didn't want this movie to consist of only three chapters, so i'm gonna space them out a bit and provide more detail on characterization and lena's feelings. she's going to be meeting lots of new people and i don't want you guys to get whiplash or something from all that's going on!

i'm v v v excited for lena to meet the five fugitives because she's gonna flip out and it's going to be so entertaining for me to write

—kristyn