James stands staring at the dying world around him.
Ten minutes ago he and his friends were fighitng Ultron's robots in Ultra City, they were even winning, when matter itself began to crumble.
Pym had tried running away from it. The buildings had just faded, along with every android nearby, but Pym just wasn't fast enough. Even after shrinking and flying, whatever it was caught him.
All James could do was hold Azari back and stare in horror as Pym disappeared… Along with his panicked screams.
The world continued to flicker like a bad hologram and then fade. The androids never seemed to notice. They just kept firing at the heroes, who ran as fast as they could from the disappearing buildings.
Azari was the next to go. He had been faster than everyone else, but he turned a corner and ran directly into it.
One after another they all disappeared. After Azari, it was Hawkeye and then Torunn. Tony had acted like he didn't know what they were running from.
"James, where are you going? The fight's back this way!" He had said before vanishing, himself.
Now James stands alone on a circle of the metal ground, the Nothing edging closer.
So, this is how I'm going to die, He thought. By something I can't even see. Alone
It wasn't the dying that scared him, but the dying alone. He had always been prepared to die, but he'd always thought his brother and sisters would be beside him.
James drops his father's shield and sinks to his knees, eyes closed. He looks up to where the sky used to be and he can hear the shrieks of his friends. I couldn't help them…
And now no one can help him.
He closes his eyes and feels a surge of electricity in his brain as the Nothing engulfs him.
For a moment he feels nothing. It could've been only a second or an eternity, he doesn't really know, but James begins to hear something…
"Let me go, you freak." Voices.
"How dare you handle the daughter of Thor this way!" Torunn.
James's eyes jolt open at the sound of his "sister's" voice, bringing with them the sting of light and a strange liquid surrounding him.
His senses run wild, as if they've never been used.
James realizes he's in some sort of vial-like container with a mask feeding him oxygen.
"Take your mitts off of me." Hawkeye growls.
James can see through the glass, these people in white lab coats taking his friends and chaining them to tables.
He pulls at his own restraints in the tube and snaps them like strings.
Hearing someone yell "turn on the gas", he yanks off his mask.
He hangs onto the chains and kicks with all his might at the glass, cracks spider-webbing everywhere.
After two more well-placed kicks, James comes crashing out, along with the semi-clear liquid.
He lunges for the closest lab-coat, picks him up and throws him at the others, knocking them over and out like bowling pins.
"You guys okay?" James asks, breaking the restraints around Torunn with his bare hands.
He continues to do the same to everyone before he realizes they're all staring at him. "What? We gotta go right now, before anyone else comes." But Azari just points at James.
He frowns. "What?" He says again.
"T-turn around." Is all Azari says.
James turns around to find a reflective wall paneling, and in it he sees himself, or he assumes it's himself.
What he sees is a tall, muscly young man in nothing but slim-fitting, white shorts and leather-like straps around his torso.
Behind him, he can see his friends, all eyes on his back.
He turns enough to see what they're staring at and he gasps.
Neatly folded and held securely in place by the straps are two pure white, feathery wings.
By now, Torunn has gotten past the shock and is stripping the scientists.
"Here," she says, throwing everyone a set of clothes. "Put these on."
Only now does James realize that he and his friends are all wearing the same shorts. (Torunn also wearing a sports bra made from the same material as the shorts)
James dons the clothes given to him, struggling a few times with his wings.
After all are dressed, they carefully stow the now half-naked scientists into a nearby cupboard before nonchalantly walking into the empty hall.
James readjusts his labcoat. His shirt's untucked in th back, making room for his wings, but the lab coat is chafing the tops.
"Where are we going?" Pym asks. At 15, he's the youngest of all of them.
"Shhh." is all he gets from Azari, who is attempting to keep his pants, which are way too big for him, from slipping to the floor.
They hardly pass anyone, but when they do, they keep Pym and Azari nearest the wall, so as not to be noticed.
James sees a sign on the wall ahead.
Shuttle Bay
Torunn sees it as well and motions for everyone to go in.
The team slips in behind some crates by the wall. Hawkeye puts his finger to his mouth and points to a shuttle not far away.
There, a mechanic is putting his tools in his kit.
Torunn mouths the words "stay here" and makes her way closer.
Coming up behind the man, she silently picks up a crowbar and readies herself to swing when red lights start flashing and an alarm goes off.
The man turns and, seeing her, tries to pull the crowbar from her hands, but Hawkeye, who found a rubber band, shoots a stray bolt between the man's eyes.
No sooner does the man hit the floor than they're all clambering into the shuttle.
James settles himself into the pilot's chair, as best he can with his new wings, and straps himself in.
Azari seals the door and leaps into a seat in the back.
Torunn slips into the co-pilot's seat while James scans the controls.
"Can you fly this thing?" she asks, clicking her restraints into place.
James shrugs. Truthfully, ever since he had first flown in the Quin-Jet, he'd poured over every flight manual he could find (easily done with every manual known to man being in the Quin-Jet's database) but he'd never seen a set-up like this.
"We;; that's reassuring." Hawkeye quipped, as he and Pym buckled themselves in.
James found the power switch and fiddled around with switches.
As he steered towards the hanger doors, he flipped a red switch clearly marked "Weapons."
Azari's chair began to rise and he found himself in a gun turret inside a glass dome on top of the shuttle.
"Azari," James called up to him. "Blow the doors." and he started forward, right as a whole armada of soldiers burst through the bay doors.
Their guns started blazing.
Azari aimed the gun and fired, a red beam blasting the bay doors apart and knocking the soldiers on their rears.