"You couldn't possibly build that in real life, the wind shear alone would-"
A loud shrieking and groaning of overtaxed architecture ripped through the air, followed by screams.
Jaya scrambled from her seat out the lounge, heading for the screams, Laura on her heels.
They rounded the corner to see one of the older dorm buildings collapsing in on itself.
Jaya threw her hands out and froze the entire building. "Get everyone out!" she yelled, locking her knees. If she tried to reverse it now, The Cask of Amontillado would be only a precursor to the horror. "Everyone has to be out!" she screamed at the shocked students as they gathered to gawp at her. "Stop filming and go!"
"How long can you hold that?" Laura asked, her dark gaze assessing.
"As long as I need to." Jaya took a measured breath and let it out slowly. "Emergency services? And we're gonna need thermal scanning to sweep the building."
"Ten minute ETA," Laura said.
"Okay. Go. I'm fine."
Laura grabbed the nearest student. "You! Keep an eye on her. If she starts shaking or looking pale you need to feed her. Understood?"
"Uh, okay. Cool."
Laura ran off to do Ex-Black-Ops stuff.
"So how are you doing that?" Jaya's new babysitter asked, after an awkward pause.
"I put the building into anentropy."
"Cool. I'm Tracy, by the way."
"Hi."
The police, firefighters, and the National Guard contingent showed up within a half hour. It was already dark.
"How are you doing?" Tracy asked, as they watched the rescue efforts.
"I'm surprisingly okay," Jaya replied. "It's actually a little freaky that it's this easy."
"Is that bad?"
"I'm not looking this gift horse in the mouth," Jaya said firmly.
Another hour passed. Jaya still felt fine, oddly detached from the chaos or the crowd of onlookers.
The rescue efforts stalled out on the bottom two floors. "There's some sort of weird effect going on," Laura reported back. "Maybe an invention gone wrong, they can't get through. We might need the Avengers."
"And that's my cue," a familiar voice announced as a red and gold figure dropped to the ground. He popped the faceplate and grinned. "You're having a party and I had to find out from the national news? A quick text would have been fine."
Jaya sighed in relief. "Tony."
"JARVIS, how's she doin?"
"Vitals are stable," JARVIS reported.
Jaya pointed with her chin. "Go help. I'm good."
He grinned. "You got it, boss." He winked at the starstruck Tracy and zoomed off to do something science-y and probably dangerous.
"Tony Stark winked at me," Tracy whispered to herself.
Tony reported through the comm a minute later. "Looks like a gravity well condensing down to eight g's. I can't even get close to the center without turning into a pancake. It's pulling the building like a black hole would - how are you not exhausted?"
"I don't know, but I'm trying not to focus on that," Jaya replied. "How do we stop it?"
"It doesn't look like it's artificially generated," Tony replied dubiously.
"So, what, a superdense gravity field just appeared?" Laura asked skeptically.
"I don't know, and I don't like it."
Something crunched in the depths of the dorm. "Wait," Tony said, voice tense. "The readings, J, back me up are they-"
"The gravity has returned to normal," JARVIS agreed.
"Let's wait a second," Tony murmured.
They waited, and nothing changed.
"Okay," Tony said, "I guess you can put everything back, Jaya. Easy does it."
Jaya focused on rewinding the dorm to its previous state. It was a long half hour. "Done," she said, and sat down on the pavement, suddenly tired.
Tracy shoved a protein shake into her hands. "Here."
Tony flew back to their position. "Kiddo? You all right?"
"Yeah, no, I'm fine," Jaya mumbled through the chocolate shake. "Weirdly not passing out."
"Hm. I wonder why. JARVIS?"
"Her vitals show no significant differences besides general tiredness."
"It felt really easy," Jaya said. "I didn't have to strain to control it, like I had to do with the water, or the other things I tried to freeze."
Tony frowned. "Jaya, I think you should come home for the weekend. JARVIS, call Bruce, tell him to be on the lookout for anomalies like this. Notify SHIELD, too. Who else is there?"
"Dr. Jane Foster is researching gravitational anomalies in relation to the Bifrost," JARVIS volunteered.
"Good, call her, too." He turned to Laura. "Let's go wrap this up and get out of here."
"Thanks, bye," Jaya called to Tracy as Laura helped her get up and walk towards the assembled authorities. "Tony, I want a cheeseburger. Two cheeseburgers."
He laughed. "We'll get you a burger, don't worry." His smile went from fond to charming as he faced the assembled police officers and reporters. "Gentlemen."
Within an hour, they were on their way to New York.
Jaya fell asleep halfway through her second cheeseburger and only woke up when Bruce touched her shoulder. "Huh?"
"Shh, just me," Bruce said, giving her a smile. "Hi. Welcome home."
She hugged him tightly. "Bruce."
"You okay to stand?" he asked, looking her over for injuries.
"I'm good," Jaya said, getting to her feet and stretching her arms. "Just tired."
"Okay. Can you stay awake for a debrief?"
"Yeah."
He walked her to the Avengers common room and installed her on the sofa with another protein shake.
"Okay," Steve said, giving her a bracing smile, "what happened?"
Jaya recounted her experience.
"Well, I'm never sleeping again," Clint said, once she was done.
"Like you sleep anyways," Natasha retorted in a devastating tone.
He gaped at her, betrayed.
Jaya snickered. She watched the conversation circle around as Tony and Bruce spitballed ideas, but the couch was soft and she was a uni student, you know, she was chronically sleep-deprived...she fell asleep.