"Stark! Sable! We're losing altitude and fast!"

"I know, Spangles!"

Tony immediately rushed to the rotor and began pushing, but I got to thinking. Until at least two other engines were back online, the Helicarrier was still going down. I glanced over at Steve. He was under attack by people dressed in S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms, so I could only assume that Agent Barton was behind this. Steve and Tony looked like they could handle themselves, but me... what could I do?

"Guy, I'm heading under!"

"Under!?" I heard Tony say in my head. "This thing is too heavy for you!"

"I can slow down its descent long enough for the guys inside to reboot the system,"I said, soaring away from both men.

I let myself fall down a few hundred feet and looked up at the underbelly of the ship. I gathered up all the energy I could muster and propelled myself upwards, hands outstretched to catch the Helicarrier. My hands collided with a loud bang and with the momentum that I'd gathered, the Helicarrier rose up a few dozen meters, but once that was gone, the ship returned on its descending course and I could finally feel the immense strain in my arms and torso.

"Sable, what the hell are you doing!?" I heard Fury say.

"You wanna know more about me, Fury - well, I can bench twenty tonnes," I said, voice straining. "I'm gonna keep this boat in the air as long as I can. Just get those damn engines online!"

I heard an annoyed grunt and the line cut off, bringing me back to the dire situation that I was in. I kept trying to push up the Helicarrier for what I estimated to be at least ten minutes, but by then my strength was beginning to wane. But I kept searching for any molecule of Nova Force in my body and from my helmet to keep pushing it up, trying my best to ignore the fact that if I let go, the boat was going to come crashing down on me. But then it suddenly got a little easier to hold it up, and she knew that Tony had succeeded in jumpstarting the rotor. I released the helicarrier and let myself fall a few hundred feet before soaring to the opposite side of the ship. I went beneath engine one and held it up, stabilizing the ship in its descent.

"Tony! Reboot engine one!"

"On it!"

By the time Tony had restarted engine one, Fury and his crew had reestablished the connection to their engines and the Helicarrier was flying normally again. With a loud sigh I released the Helicarrier for the final time and stretched my limbs, listening to the joints crack in numerous places. My body was still numb, and I had a strong feeling that I'd go through a small bit of hell once I took off this helmet. I hadn't used this much power... ever. Tony, Steve and I gathered back at engine three. My legs were so tired, they could barely hold me up.

"Agent Coulson is down," three of them heard Fury say.

The three of us looked at each other. He was Fury's right hand man. Don't tell me he was...

"A medical team is on it's way... They're here." There was a sigh. "They called it."

Tony, Steve and I hung our heads. Neither of us knew him much, Tony more than Steve and I, but it still hit hard. I looked up at the boys.

"Go to Fury. I need to find a bathroom."

"You're thinking of going to the bathroom at a time like this?" Steve asked, almost insulted.

"You weren't there when she told us. Sable uses too much power, it's like she's going through chemo," Tony stated. He placed a metal hand on my shoulder. "Come on, Spangles."

Tony and Steve left the area and I calmly wandered the halls of the Helicarrier. There were Agents everywhere already repairing the damage and assessing the condition of others laying on the ground, inert. I was lucky the helmet was still on my head, or I'd be flat to the ground as well. Looking around, I sighed. She'd entered a new kind of war, a war she'd never intend to lose. Not with Peter and May living on this planet, not after Coulson fell, not after Loki endangered her new home.

I found a bathroom not long after, and I filled a glass with water and downed it before removing my helmet. I didn't even have time to gently put it down. Waves of heat coursed through my blood, a cold sweat began to glisten on the gaunt features I could now see without my helmet. My skin was sallow, my eyes sunken, everything sagged. It was as if my muscles shut down all of a sudden, and I crashed to the ground, hitting my head on the way down. I crawled to the corner of the room, and with each movement my stomach tightened and ached all the more. I kept swallowing, and my throat kept clenching, but no matter what I couldn't stop the warm feeling rising through my chest. Then I could taste it at the back of my mouth. Then I buckled over the toilet, an acidic liquid spilled from my mouth. I clung to the toilet as if it were a life raft, my stomach a set of bagpipes being vigorously squeezed. It came back up again and again for what seemed like an eternity, until with a heaving lurch of my stomach, one last mouthful of bile dribbled from my quivering lips into the waiting pool of rancid vomit. I flushed away the vomit, and let myself fall backwards, back landing on the floor with a thump. I shivered violently. Now that I stopped lurching, I just felt bruised inside and hilariously weak.

"We're dead in the air up here," I heard Fury say from my helmet. I groaned, neither in the mood or condition for a lecture. "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." I mustered enough energy to roll my eyes. "I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Sable knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

"I'm going to find, Ilaria."

After Tony spoke and presumably left, I let myself fall to my side and turned off the communications to my helmet. I wasn't going to listen to any more this. I already knew what this was. It made me angry. Not the plan, but the fact that Fury was using Coulson for this. I'm sure the man deserved better than to be used as a an object of manipulation.

It didn't take long for Tony to find me. The door opened all of a sudden, and the man just looked down at the near-corpse on the ground. I tiredly looked up at him and he sighed.

"Didn't think it'd be this bad."

"Yeah, well..." I began, voice hoarse. "You don't know the Nova Force. Powerful... but brutal."

"What do you need?"

"Sleep. And a shit ton of it."

"Let's get your ass up, then."

I tried to muster a chuckle, but I just ended up coughing, twisting my insides and causing more pain. Tony told me that I was a complete mess, and I tried to hit him, but he just grabbed my arm and pulled me up and dragged me to the infirmary. Natasha was there, pacing outside a door. Inside I noticed Agent Barton writhing on a table, presumably going through some sort of therapy to get Loki's out of his head. When Natasha saw me, her eyes grew wide.

"The hell happened!?"

"Held up the Helicarrier - used too much power, " Tony clarified. "Hey, can I get a nurse here!"

"Wait, so you use too much power-"

"The second I take off the helmet... My body shuts down."

"Does this happen to all the Nova?"

I shook my head.

"Only to Nova who have more power than their body can withstand. It affects your body's immune system and cellular structure," I added seeing Natasha's face. "How's Barton?"

"On his way back to us. He'll be fine."

I nodded and smiled a little. At least something good came out of this. A nurse then came over and helped Tony set me onto the small bed that was in the room. Natasha remained outside to watch over Barton, but Tony came in and stood in the corner of the room, supervising the nurse's work. I looked at him.

"You can leave, you know. I know what's wrong and what I need - it's happened before."

"You sure?"

"I'm good, Metal Man."

"All right, Sailor Moon."

Tony left as well, saying a few words to Natasha who was still outside Barton's room. The nurse gave me a once over before plugging me to a saline drip and a mix of liquefied nutrients. She placed a jug of water and a glass on my bedside, as well as a bucket. She gave me few instructions and then left, returning a while later with a few of my personal belongings. I pulled out my phone from the small pile of things and found it more or less intact, with a large crack dead center. I'd have to buy a new one, but it still worked for now. I decided to make a phone call.

"Hello?" a voice said on the other side.

"Hey, Pete. It's Ilaria."

"Ilaria! Are you coming back today as planned?"

"I can't Pete. Something came up," I said, and I think my heart broke a little.

"Aww, come on! I wanted some madeleines today after school!"

"Come on, Pete, don't you miss me at all and not just the pastries?"

I heard him scoff, and I smiled a little.

"I'm going to high school soon, I can't be missing you! That's not what cool kids do!"

"Guess I'll stay here as long as I can then..."

"No! Come home! Please, I miss you, sis!" Peter pleaded rapidly.

"I miss you too, kiddo. Don't worry, I'll come home as soon as I can, and I'll bring you a whole basket of pastries that'll make Aunt May go mad."

"Yes! You're the best!" The was a moment of silence. "I gotta go now, Aunt May is bringing me to school."

"All right. Don't get into trouble."

"I won't. Love you, sis!"

"I love you too, Peter."