AN: I don't own the Avengers. Please review or favorite/follow.
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO SupernaturalBaby4Life! Thank you so much for that idea, I was seriously stuck. Without your help it would've been forever until I updated this story. ALSO: thanks to I-am-a-Ice-cream-lover for your idea, because I will use that idea in part two of this chapter. Thanks to the other people who left ideas in the reviews, I really appreciate it. You're all great. I'm not sure how well this chapter turned out, but I hope you like it.
~Jean Rogers~
The plan was set. Everything was going to go perfectly. Or it would have if it weren't for Marina. We had everything we needed, had explained things to JARVIS, made sure Max would be in the right place at the right time, and even bribed several cops to look the other way.
And then Marina decided to borrow Falcon's goddam wings.
Sam had stopped by that morning to talk to Dad, and when he had gone home he had left his wings for Tony to repair for him. Even in our time, Marina had always envied those wings. She loved her Irongirl suit, of course, but it was different to fly with wings instead of rocket boosters.
So when she saw them lying partially disassembled in Tony's lab, I guess she just couldn't resist.
I think things might still have worked out, if Marina hadn't reassembled the wings incorrectly. There was one small part that had fallen off the table without her noticing, so the wings wouldn't work. But Marina didn't notice. Of course not.'
We figured out what was happening when Marina plummeted past the kitchen windows, one wing on fire, desperately trying to fix them while falling.
Everyone had burst into action. We scrambled for our weapons, yelling for someone to find Bruce or Thor. But Tony hadn't panicked like the rest of us (except for Natasha, but I'm not sure she's even capable of panicking). He ran forward, missing his helmet but not seeming to care, and threw himself through the window.
We all rushed forward, staring after him in horror. He might already be too late.
~Marina Stark~
The problem with realizing that borrowing wings and jumping off the top of Stark Tower is a bad idea? If you're already plummeting to your death from thirty stories up, it's too late.
I was pretty sure I was going to die. The chances of someone seeing me fall and getting one of the flying Avengers in time to catch me weren't good, and now it was only twenty-five stories.
One of the wings was on fire, and I was frantically trying to put it out, which only made me spin as I fell, which was terrible.
Twenty stories. Fifteen. Ten.
I wondered if it would hurt to be pancaked, and what my friends would put on my tombstone; Hero. Friend. Genius. Fell to her death after trying to build herself wings. We take back the statement about being a genius. Yeah, I couldn't wait for that.
Then there was the sound of shattering glass high above me, and I looked back up. Dad was rocketing down towards me, but I was only five stories up now and I didn't think he would reach me in time.
I screamed, a full-out monster-movie holy-shit-I'm-gonna-die scream.
He slammed into me, but there was no time to pull up. Instead he twisted so he was underneath me, and we hit the ground hard.
There was an explosion of metal and glass, screaming and swearing and sobbing, and for a moment I thought I really was dead.
Then I realized that the person screaming was me, and I opened my eyes.
I was on top of a partially crushed car, but something had cushioned my fall. I struggled to remember-Dad. Where was dad.
There was a groan from underneath me, and I staggered off him. He didn't look good-he had hit the ground hard, if not as hard as I had. He had managed to use the rocket boosters in the suit to slow our fall just enough for us to still be alive.
But I wasn't sure he was going to make it. I stumbled back to him, shaking his shoulder. He wasn't moving, but he groaned and his eyelids fluttered. He was alive.
"Marina!" Someone behind me shouted. The other Avengers were running toward us.
"Call an ambulance!" I sobbed. "He's dying!" Something hot and sticky was in my eye, and when I wiped it away my hand came back red. I stared at it, surprised, but dad was worse off.
I refused to leave his side. Max and Jean held me back as the paramedics took my Dad away in the ambulance. If he died, it would be my fault. I knew it would be my fault.
What have I done?
They took me back into the tower, and Jean helped me change into pajamas. A woman in a doctors uniform that I didn't recognize… Dr. Cho? Something like that. She checked over my injures, wrapping them in bandages. I was fighting the tears that I knew would escape at some point, but I didn't want anyone to see me cry.
She finally announced that I would be okay, but I had a few fractured bones and a lot of bruises. She told me it was a miracle that I was alive, and led me into the hallway.
Max, Jean, Thomas, Lily, Thor, Natasha, Clint, Steve, and Bruce were all waiting there. They told me that Dad was only allowed one visitor at a time, and Pepper was with him now. They kind of used that as their excuse for hovering outside the door, but they were worried about me. And angry. I could tell.
Max wouldn't say anything, but he was furious with me. For pulling such a stupid stunt.
Then suddenly, just as everyone started crowding around me, smiling, I felt a sharp pain in my gut, like someone had stabbed me. I doubled over with a scream of pain, and staring at my shoes I saw something that nearly made me puke.
I was flickering, in and out of existence. One second there I was, the next all I could see below me was the floor and I felt numb. I looked up at the others, who were looking at me in horror. I held up my hand, watching myself flicker, like I was about to go out.
Then, for one terrifying moment, I flickered out of existence and didn't come back. Then someone called my name, and I snapped back. Lily was holding my arm, keeping me steady.
"Gods of Asgard, what was that?" She asked. I had never seen Lily worry about me before.
"I don't-that wasn't medical. She was okay." Dr. Cho said, looking shocked.
"I think I know what it was." Bruce said, and he looked grim. "This isn't good. I had hoped we would avoid this happening, but…"
"Isn't there anything we can do to prevent it?" Max demanded. Still noticeably not talking to me. "The time stream can be altered without changed the rest of history, right? A preventative paradox?"
Bruce shook his head. "I don't think so."
"What are you talking about?" Clint asked, looking just as confused as I felt.
"Yeah, stop with the nerd talk and explain this like normal human beings." Thomas said, sounding annoyed.
"Not until we check a hunch." Max said, he and Bruce already halfway out of the room. "Then we'll be sure. We have to make a phone call."
The rest of us looked at each other, confused. "I don't understand." I croaked. "What's happening to me?"
"They'll figure this out." Steve assured me.
"Until then, what were you thinking?" Lily demanded, letting go of my arm to glare at me. "You could've gotten yourself killed! Or Tony." I winced.
"I know… the wings malfunctioned. I don't know what-"
"Hey guys," Sam walked into the room. "My wings repaired yet?"
I cracked up.
AN: again, thanks to SupernaturalBaby2Life and I-am-a-Ice-cream-lover for your ideas. I used SupernaturalBaby4Life's idea in this chapter, and I-am-a-Ice-cream-lover's idea will be mentioned in the next chapter when I continue with the first idea. Thanks guys, without you I would've had no idea what to write about. Thanks for reading this story, and if you haven't yet please leave a review or follow/favorite. If you have an idea, send it, and I might use it the way I used theirs.
