"Strange! Doctor Strange! Please…tell me you're still there! We need help!"
My eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and my heart hammered fearfully in my chest. My back was wet with either sweat or blood from the damage I'm sure the stone wall of the tunnel had done to me. I found that I couldn't move, and that did even more to curb my growing terror.
When I got no answer to my mental shout for help, I hesitantly opened my eyes to see that I was surrounded by golden light in the pitch blackness. I blinked in confusion to see that two other figures crouched beside me.
"D-Dr. Banner? Are you okay?" I asked breathlessly. In the light of the golden glow, I could see that the man shifted just a tiny bit to look in my direction.
"I…I don't know…" He muttered uncertainly. I looked past him and spotted two large, distinct spheres hovering over Dr. Banner's right side. Dan crouched beneath them, his arms held shakily over his head.
"Dan…how did you react that fast?!" I choked out, feeling crushed. Dan looked over and nodded towards me.
"I don't know…how did you react that fast?" Dan managed to reply, his voice strained. I glanced up and found that my arms were raised in the same shielding way that Dan's was, two large golden mandala's preventing the fallen tunnel wall from crumbling in on the three of us from the left. Dan's shields protected us on the right, with Dr. Banner cradling the Time Stone in his sleeves between us.
"…Are you kids okay?" Bruce asked after a few seconds, breaking the awed silence in the cramped space. I looked down from my glowing shields to throw a glance at Dan who seemed like he was definitely not okay.
"I don't know how much longer we can…hold this…" I said for the both of us. My forearms were shaking as if I was physically holding the caved-in rock with my bare hands. Which, in a way, I guess we were.
"What do we do?" Dan choked out as he shifted uncomfortably on his knees. I shook my head, trying to push my shields against the rock above me. The weight on top of us didn't budge.
"Hang on, guys…you're doing an awesome job right now…" Bruce muttered in what I assumed he thought would be encouraging to us. I strained against the heavy rock, sweat beading up almost immediately on my forehead.
"Dr. Banner…just make sure you don't let go of that Stone…no matter what happens!" I grunted as I tried once more to push upward to get some more of the pressure to loosen up.
"I've…I've got it, don't worry…" The scientist to my right said, opening his sleeve-covered hands to reveal the dim green glow that shone from the inside of the bronze pendant. I clenched my jaw under the strain of the pile of rock above me, feeling like it was getting heavier and heavier.
"What…what do you think they'll do if we can't hold this up anymore? They'll dig us out, right?" Dan asked hopefully after another few seconds. I looked over to see his defeated expression.
"I mean…they'll want the Stone back so…" I offered lightly. Dan looked over at me and managed a small smile. "But we're not going to let go…we can hold this up for a little while longer, don't you think?"
Bruce looked up from the glowing green Stone and met my eyes as Dan looked away. My hopeful smile faltered and I tried to stand to relieve the pressure on my knees and ankles. As I slowly attempted to unbend my legs, I was startled to find that the rock seemed to actually give way this time. I stopped moving and looked up in awe, seeing as Bruce and Dan both followed my gaze.
The huge ton of rock suddenly rose up from our shoulders, slowly at first and then more steadily and seemed to stop and float in the air a few feet above us. Still afraid to make a move, the three of us crouched on the ground, our shields still glowing strongly overhead. From the corner of my eye I spotted a figure across the tunnel, one arm raised above his head shielded by a large golden mandala and the other gesturing toward the rock above us.
"Wong!" I called thankfully. He offered a forced smirk and then nodded to the three of us impatiently. Finally getting his silent message, I quickly climbed to my feet and dissolved my shields, pulling Bruce along with me.
"Look out!" Dan shouted to the man. Wong tore his gaze away from us and set his jaw in anticipation.
Proxima Midnight had apparently recovered her dangerous spear from the rubble and she hurriedly smashed it down towards the preoccupied sorcerer. The rock overhead shook and crumbled around us as we hurried to retreat from underneath it. Wong quickly regained his composure after throwing another flurry of explosive spells at the woman and held onto the cave-in before it could fall back on top of us. Seconds later, the three of us were clear and he let the massive weight of rock slam back to the tunnel floor. We kept running, once again out of the blue alien woman's eyesight. Her scream of rage echoed deafeningly down the tunnel after us and seemed to build in volume until it sounded like she was right behind us.
"Alex, get behind Bruce!" Dan called from ahead of me. I whirled around and could see that Proxima Midnight had hurled herself over the rubble that had trapped us moments before. I stopped right behind Bruce and conjured up my shield just as she slammed her spear down for a death blow to the scientist.
"You are not going to get this from us…I don't care who you think you are…" I said through gritted teeth as she leaned her weight further into the spear and against my shield. Her dark eyes gleamed in fury and her teeth were bared into a menacing snarl as she continued to return my glare. "Dan, you and Bruce get out of here!"
"How about we get her out of here." Wong's corrective voice said from behind me. I choked out a surprised gasp as a golden circle of light appeared over my shield, the interior of the Sanctum upstairs materializing around Proxima Midnight. The tall woman blinked in confusion for a millisecond before angrily trying to hurl herself against my shield again. Before she could, Wong quickly closed the portal and the tunnel was thrown into dead silence.
"Wong – I…" I stammered uncontrollably, my mind going seven hundred miles an hour. Wong ignored me for the moment and turned to Bruce who offered the sorcerer a dumbfounded glance before he opened his sleeve-covered hands and showed him that the Time Stone still remained in our possession.
"Alexander, take the Stone and keep it on your person. Strange entrusted it to you." Wong ordered, breathless from the battle he had just postponed. I hurriedly grabbed the necklace from Bruce, the intense burning dulled to a minimum for the moment. I was about to slide the chain on over my head but I remembered the gaping burn hole in my t-shirt and thought better of it. Instead I slipped the necklace into my jeans pocket, taking care to stuff all of the chain in there as well so the alien woman wouldn't be able to see where I hid it right away.
"Why didn't you teleport her to Greenland or somewhere else that isn't here?" Dan asked, having noticed the destination of Wong's portal just as I had. Wong squeezed his eyes closed for a moment and heaved a great irritated sigh as he swiped his hands across his chest, conjuring up a weird-looking coil of what looked like glowing red barbed wire.
"It was the quickest place I could think of." Wong admitted gruffly.
"What do you want us to do, Wong? I can hear her coming back…" I said slowly as I listened to the distant thundering footsteps far above us. Though we were far below ground, it would take her less than a minute to find her way back down to us.
"I want you to conjure up illusions, just like we practiced this morning." He said steadily. "The phony necklace you conjured before did well to attract her attention the first time so let's try something like that again. She can sense the Stone's presence but if she can't physically see exactly where it is…"
"It'll confuse her and we might be able to sneak the real one away…" I finished for him thoughtfully. I looked around the stone tunnel and swept my hands through the air in front of me. It took a few seconds but, through some of the mental calming techniques I had read about in the marked pages of the books I had read in the library, I was able to conjure up the illusion that the floor was covered in hundreds of bronze necklaces. As Proxima Midnight's angry cries and footsteps grew closer and closer, the necklace in my pocket grew to a steady burn.
"Wow…" Dan's voice sounded from behind me, clearly mystified. I didn't look back at him knowing that if I did, he might think I was trying to be smug about the illusion I had been able to cast.
"Great. Now, we'll need some extra assistance…" Wong said thoughtfully as he continued his pause, clearly trying to build up to be dramatic. I frowned thoughtfully, and then suddenly grew worried as I heard what sounded like Proxima Midnight crashing down through the hole in the ground she had originally made to get down to the catacombs beneath the Sanctum.
"Shouldn't we run or something?" Bruce finally piped up worriedly. Wong held up his right hand to silence us as if telling us we should wait. I shifted on my feet uncomfortably and double-checked the illusion surrounding us and reached out to the torches on the surrounding walls. There were four of them in complete view of us before the tunnel curved to the right. I imagined the flames could almost as easily be controlled as the water from the bathroom faucet had been just a little while earlier. I relaxed only slightly as the flames flickered in my direction, knowing that in just a few seconds Proxima Midnight would be running our way, even more furious than she was a few moments ago.
"Okay Alex…whatever happens, keep up the illusion. And retreat when I tell you to…" Wong ordered as he threw a hand over his shoulder and swirled another portal into existence. I nodded in acknowledgement of his instructions and moved into my battle-ready stance as I heard the giant blue alien woman was nearly around the corner. To my right about a yard or so away, I could see that Dan's golden shields materialized readily. I swallowed hard past the nervous lump in my throat and quickly tried to summon up something that could be used as a weapon. Maybe something that could be a conduit to the flames the torches held on the walls around us…
"Here she comes…" Bruce murmured worriedly from behind me. I suddenly felt a quick warm burst of heat slice through my hand and hurriedly glanced down. In my right hand I held a strange sort of golden-glowing staff, definitely not as long as the fiendish weapon Proxima Midnight wielded, but surprisingly comfortable to handle as I flipped it once over my arm. I caught it with a thoughtful glance and quickly noted the apparent end of the weapon. There were five claw-shaped points curved inward toward the staff part of the thing, and I frowned as I studied it. Before I could do much more to think about it, I spotted quick movement around the nearest corner of the tunnel.
The monstrous blue woman ran towards us and then hastily stopped to take in the sight of the illusion of phony Eyes littering the tunnel floor. She angrily looked up at us, not knowing if it was truly a trick or if the real Stone was actually hidden amongst them.
"You must think this is some kind of game…allowing such children to possess something so powerful…and then thinking they will actually be able to protect it." She said tauntingly, her voice harsh from the running she had just done. She stood facing us down with her spear resting casually on her shoulder.
"I assure you….we know this is no game." Wong said as he threw the red loop of glowing barbed wire in a powerful pitch straight towards the woman. She sidestepped where he had aimed the throw at her face, but the glow of red speedily and effectively coiled around her fist where she gripped the spear. With one firm yank, Wong pulled the spear out of her hand, which seemed to not only surprise her, but also succeed in flipping on her anger switch again. She lunged forward to grab her spear back up and fight but Wong quickly gestured with his other hand towards the portal over his shoulder.
"Our extra assistance had arrived." The man said calmly. As if on cue, a human shaped metal figure flew through it with its weapons aimed right at the alien woman. She let out a furious growl of protest as the iron-clad figure shot out several mini missiles at her, and the explosions blasted her violently back around the bend of the tunnel.
"Don't think you can just swat War Machine aside like a bug and get away with it, Lady Blue!" The silver suited figure called, his voice sounding almost robotic from inside his suit.
"War Machine?" Dan repeated the name. He ducked hurriedly as the silver Iron Man suit swung back around the tunnel to rush back at the already hotheaded alien.
"That's Colonel James Rhodes, one of Tony's good friends. He's the one I was talking about earlier…he's been alerting people about the upcoming threat." Bruce quickly explained, watching in relief as the weaponized man flew towards the woman again, firing the large machine gun on his shoulder repeatedly at her.
"Oh." I replied, watching the fight in front of us worriedly. Wong took just a brief moment to make sure that the War Machine had Proxima Midnight preoccupied before turning and shooing us away. He swirled his hand past us and yet another portal appeared.
"You three go back into the upper levels of the Sanctum. I'll aid Colonel Rhodes if needed to drive her off. Do not leave the mansion under any circumstances…if the other members of the Black Order get wind that the Time Stone has been removed from its protection here, more will come." He warned steadily. I shook my head and pointed at the large blue alien woman still busy fighting Rhodey in front of us.
"She's here though….what does that mean about how protective your spells are?" I contradicted him nervously. In my jeans pocket the Time Stone continued to burn in warning.
"There are several others who would wish to possess the Time Stone. Why do you think just one of them decided to attack?" Wong explained cryptically. I stared at him unblinkingly for a millisecond before Dan answered him.
"They want to test out our defenses?" He guessed. Wong turned to my sandy-haired friend and nodded in confirmation.
"Exactly. And it seems she's put up quite a fight to just get in here past the wards. She's definitely not fighting her hardest now." Wong said, gesturing to the pivotal ducking and swiping that the alien woman was doing.
Proxima Midnight was literally attempting to swat at the flying War Machine like he was a pesky fly. As if she could hear us across the cave and over the sounds of machine gun fire and mini bombs striking the ground around her, she turned our way and threw me a look of absolute hatred. She took one look around at the necklace-covered tunnel floor before she flipped her spear around to distract Rhodey and then did an imitation of a cartwheel, kicking her long, muscular legs up towards the unsuspecting man.
"Hurry!" Wong ushered us toward the waiting portal. I shook my head and ducked as the woman grabbed a handful of the phony necklaces on the ground and I struggled to hold onto the illusion before it could falter. She glared at the bronze clutter of chains and pendants in her grasp before she threw them at the four of us. They easily phased through us but I still somehow kept up the illusion of the ground covered in at least a foot of necklaces.
That's when I remembered the strange glowing staff in my right hand that I had been able to conjure into existence. I reflexively raised it up and stared at the four torches, two on either side of the tunnel. It took only a fraction of a minute, but the few seconds of confusion that crossed over Proxima Midnight's angry expression was all I needed. The flames licked my way for a brief moment before I looked warily at the top of my staff. My eyes widened as I noticed the five claws slowly unclench and open into what looked like an outstretched hand. The flames immediately were pulled towards the staff and I cringed as the streaks of fire collected in the middle of the curved claws. The fire swirled into a mini globe floating in the top of my staff and I felt the heat spread all the way down to where my hand gripped was gripped around the shimmering golden rod. It was certainly not as hot as the Time Stone still scorching in my jeans pocket, but it was still a little unsettling.
The only light in the dark tunnel now emanated only from my magically conjured staff and Dan's golden mandala shields. Rhodey landed somewhere to the left of me, signified by the distinct metallic thud of his suit hitting the ground. I watched the mesmerizing swirl of the fire in the claws at the end of my staff before I noticed Proxima Midnight's thoughtful and furious face in the dancing light. When she made a sudden move to rush at me, I pulled the staff back reflexively. Feeling the warmth of the staff build in intensity, I then directed whatever energy it had and was in awe as a stream of flame shot out of the swirling globe of fire. The woman screamed in surprise and dove away from me.
"How are you doing that?!" Dan shouted excitedly, watching me over his golden shields. As the blue woman hesitated I fixed her with what I hoped looked like a challenging expression. When she moved just a fraction of a step closer, I hit her with another burst of flame.
"You…you mean this isn't normal wizard-in-training magic tricks?" The man called Rhodes commented. Wong made a noise of either approval or disbelief and I scooped up a handful of the illusioned necklaces just as Proxima Midnight had done a moment ago. This time when she stood back to level me with her threatening death glare, I tossed the handful of fake necklaces into the air like one would do to a baseball and then swung my magical staff forward to shoot out yet another small explosion of flames.
"Absolutely not…Alex did you read only the marked pages I left for you?" Wong asked over the sound of my fireblasts and Proxima Midnight's attack attempts.
"Um…" I said genuinely not sure. I shrugged over my shoulder as I ran forward toward the woman in a sudden rebellious move. "I can't remember, honestly! I mean, I could have read a little extra around what you sticky-noted for me…"
"Wong, teach me something so I can help!" I heard Dan's voice plead behind me. I ignored that and continued to rush at the alien lady, who was stuck down in a battle-ready crouch, waiting to spring when I got close enough.
"You stupid boy…" She growled as she leapt forward and collided with me. Thankfully I had pulled the magically-conjured staff across my middle before she knocked me to the ground. I lay sprawled on my back, pushing with all of my strength against the woman's own spear, blocking it with the staff. Her murderous gaze tore into me and I shook with the strain of her super-powerful muscles bearing down on my own human strength.
"I'm coming Alex!" I heard Dan call out. I shook my head up at Proxima Midnight's dark and triumphant gaze, and aimed a kick at her midsection. Distracting her only slightly, I twisted the staff around in my grip and managed to fire another burst of flames straight into her snarling face. As she leapt back in a furious screech of pain, she collided with Dan who held what looked like a golden mandala pulled back and pulsing with energy. As soon as the woman met with the surface of the conjured thing in Dan's possession, she was blasted backward into the tunnel wall several yards away from us.
"Nice one, Dan!" Bruce's voice called from behind me as I scrambled to my feet. My back still burned with the damage it had accumulated over the course of the battle and I winced as I straightened myself on my feet and held my fire staff at the ready. I could see that Proxima Midnight angrily peeled herself from the wall and crumbled rock around her, her mouth twisted into that default scowl once more.
"Alexander, keep up the illusion!" Wong reminded me as the necklaces littering the ground winked in the dim light of the tunnel. I directed my attention back to them, even kicking a good lot of them in the alien woman's direction just to anger her even further.
"You want the Stone?" I called to her as she limped menacingly toward us. I glanced quickly back to Wong, who still stood impatiently at the open portal that led up into the upper part of the Sanctum. I looked back to Proxima Midnight who was twirling her spear again angrily. "Come and get it, then."
I backtracked, not taking my eyes off of her rapidly approaching figure in the darkness. I grabbed Dan's arm and pushed him back towards where Wong, Bruce and War Machine waited. Bruce stepped through the golden glowing portal first, followed by Dan. I moved to fire another burst of flame at the alien woman, but was nearly knocked off my feet as her spear slammed into my arm. The first thing I noticed as I stumbled through the portal was that I had lost my awesome magic fire staff. The second thing was that Proxima Midnight's weapon was stuck and had fallen through the portal into the mansion along with me. Through the swirling golden portal I could see that an explosion of sorts lit up the darkness in the tunnel, and then War Machine stepped heroically through, entering the Sanctum. Wong leapt back through the portal and closed it, leaving the alien woman down underground in the pitch blackness.
"Alex! Alex, oh my God!" Dan was screaming in my ear. I winced and shoved his face away from where I was sprawled on my back on the polished wooden floors of the mansion.
"Alex, hold still, she really got you…" Bruce said, as he crouched over me too. I shook my head and then chanced a glance to my right arm where I could still see the spear. I tried to focus my gaze on the sharp points and felt my stomach roll at the sight I witnessed. Two of the three blades had cleared my forearm but the third had embedded itself through my bicep. Blood soaked through the sleeve of what was left of my ruined green t-shirt and my other hand shook as I tried to put some pressure on the wound.
"We don't have much time…" Wong warned as if he was listening for the alien woman's whereabouts as she made her way back up to us. I looked up to Bruce's expression as he examined my wound and impaled arm. He met my fearful gaze for a second.
"We have to get him some medical attention." He called over his shoulder to Wong. Dan stood behind Bruce, his eyes wide in disbelief and horror as he stared fixedly at the blood flowing from where the blade struck me.
"He must not leave the Sanctum. Strange forbids it." Wong repeated for probably the third time.
"Well, we don't have to leave, but we need to get him to a place where I can remove this thing from his arm." Bruce said. Where his voice and stature was tentative and fearful before, he now seemed to be the complete opposite. Our situation seemed to have reached his apparent level of expertise as he carefully touched the end of the spear jutting out of my arm. I flinched and pressed my other hand tighter against the surrounding flesh of my bicep, gritting my teeth against the pain I was starting to feel.
"Take him upstairs." Wong finally ordered. I looked up at him worriedly, and nodded towards the large scepter- like weapon.
"How?!" I exclaimed, my voice choked with emotion. Wong ignored me.
"Where?" Bruce asked thoughtfully. Wong had already spun another portal that opened up into a large open room with a tiled floor. Bruce glanced back down at me and then gestured over his shoulder to Dan who stood with his hands wringing nervously. "Okay, Dan we'll need to move him through the portal. Help me, please?"
"No…no I can stand…this is fine…" I said quickly, imagining the pain that would spark to life when they tried and most likely failed to lift me. I scrambled to try and roll over, but the weight of the heavy spear left me unbalanced.
"Alex, relax!" Bruce ordered, moving behind me to grasp my good shoulder. Dan grabbed my legs and I clutched my injured arm around the blade automatically as they attempted to lift me.
"I've got you, kid…" Another voice said to my right. I looked up to see that the man who called himself War Machine had his armor-encased hands placed under my back, far enough away from the gushing wound, but still close enough to cause another shooting pain up through to my shoulder and bicep. I squeezed my eyes shut once more as I felt them carry me carefully through the portal.
"Th-thank you Colonel Rhodes, sir…" I managed to utter as the three people set me gently down on a cold medical table. The man's face was exposed from his iron mask and I caught his teasing smirk before he patted my good shoulder supportively.
"Call me Rhodey." He said. He looked up to Bruce who thanked him quickly as well. "You good?"
"I think so…we're safe up here, right?" Bruce asked, looking around at Strange's home medical room amazedly as he rolled up his sleeves.
"He apparently thinks so." Rhodey said, thumbing over his shoulder to where Wong stood on the other side of the portal guarding it in case Proxima Midnight showed up earlier than he expected. He pointed down at me. "Now, you're still hanging on to that Infinity Stone thing, aren't you?"
I patted my pocket in acknowledgement, leaving a bloody handprint on my jeans. The man nodded seriously and then turned to retreat back to the portal. Dan still stood behind Dr. Banner, looking between me and Bruce and to where Rhodey had once more donned his metal mask.
"Wait! Can…Can I help in anyway?" He called to the War Machine. The man turned and seemed to say something to Wong through the other side of the portal. He turned back and shook his head.
"This'll be an easy finish. She'll be almost defenseless without her spear. Wong and I can handle it." He said quickly before he stepped through the portal. The golden glow swirled out of existence and left the three of us in the brightly lit medical room.
"Alright Alex, we're going to need to work fast, so just bear with me, okay?" Bruce said as he fumbled through a few of the surrounding cabinets and drawers searchingly.
"Um…okay…" I managed to say uncertainly. Dan fumbled with the items that the scientist handed him, and then set them on a small side table that he wheeled to my right side where I lay. I blinked against the bright lights above me, my eyelids suddenly growing very heavy. I chanced another look to my right arm and could see that the table underneath me was already pooled with blood from the wound. My head swam at the sight and I shut my eyes against it, turning my head back up towards the ceiling lights before I could puke.
"Dan, I want you to talk to Alex and keep him preoccupied for me." Bruce called from the corner of the room where he quickly washed his hands in the small sink.
"Hey man…" Dan's voice said in my left ear. I swiveled my head in his direction and looked at his nervous expression. He kept flicking his gaze over to the spear sticking straight up from the table and I waited expectantly for him to say something else and fail at distracting me from the pain and fearfulness going through my head.
"Okay, Alex I'm starting now." Bruce commented lightly from my right side. I immediately stiffened in anticipation.
"Have you ever done something like this before, Dr. Banner?" I asked hurriedly, forcing myself to not look in his direction.
"Not exactly…" Bruce admitted slowly. I felt him lightly dabbing something around my forearm and then up toward my elbow and around where the spear was embedded in my bicep.
"Great…" I whispered nervously to myself. I looked up at Dan's paling face as he watched over me while Bruce worked. After several seconds of feeling the same gentle motion up and down my arm I frowned up at my friend.
"He's cleaning the…the blood up right now…" Dan quietly explained when he caught my confused glance.
"Dan, get him talking please…" Bruce said gently from my right. I took a deep breath, thinking that meant he was ready to move on with his playing doctor process.
"So…So Alex, what was with the fire action down there just now, huh?" Dan asked hurriedly, his gaze still trained halfheartedly on my impaled right arm.
"Yes, that was pretty neat. How did you figure out how to do that so quickly?" Bruce commented lightly.
"I honestly don't know…" I said slowly, cringing as I felt Bruce apply a little pressure to the weapon in my arm. "I think it was kind of like how I was messing around with that water earlier…"
"It was really cool…" Dan offered. I smiled wearily at him and then held in a stream of curse words as Bruce tried to tug the spear out of my bicep.
"What the hell?!" I protested, trying to jerk my arm back away from the scientist-playing-medical-doctor.
"Sorry." Dr. Banner muttered under his breath. I continued to stare at his thoughtful expression until he finally removed his hands from the spear and returned my look equally as challenging.
"I can't do this, I really can't…" I said quickly, as I shifted on the medical table uncomfortably. Bruce grabbed my forearm, careful not to get too close to the part that was currently still impaled by the alien weapon.
"You were down there fighting off that giant seven-foot alien lady just a minute ago and now you can't handle a little pain to get this out of you?" Bruce coaxed, his face showing a little too much amusement for my taste. I shook my head in a panic and continued to pull my arm away from him.
"I'm probably going to die from the alien bugs and bacteria on this thing anyway, so why don't you just wait until that happens to get rid of it?" I rambled. Dan grabbed my other shoulder and helped Bruce to push me back down to a semi-flat state on the medical table.
"Alex, man…you're not going to die. We have to keep that Time Stone thing protected from these monsters, remember? Doctor Strange told you that you could do it, so you can." He tried to reassure me. I hesitated and then finally allowed myself to sit still once more, my right hand covering my jeans pocket where the Stone was still hidden.
"Alright I'm going to try one more time to remove this…" Bruce said gently and I made myself turn away from my right shoulder before he could move back into position.
"Please don't say remove…." I muttered, feeling my stomach roll sickeningly. I looked back at Dan who offered me a worried smirk.
"We've got more magical stuff to learn too, you can't die now." My best friend said. I scoffed and rolled my eyes lightly.
"And we've also gotta get back to those girls again, don't we? Jillian and…Wendy?" I said, trying to move my mind away from whatever Bruce was doing by my right shoulder.
"Yeah. You know, I've been thinking maybe she looked like a Michelle or a Brittany…" Dan laughed lightly.
"Stephanie?" I added with a smirk that ended in a grimace as I felt a shooting pain run through my entire right arm and shoulder.
"Almost…got it…" Bruce said. Suddenly he stopped as a loud rumble shook through the building. The cabinets and chairs around the room trembled, adding to the cacophony of noise that took place. I raised my head off of the table and looked at the ceiling and walls worriedly.
"What's going on?!" I shouted over the racket, trying to decide whether I need to move or not.
"Is it an earthquake?!" Dan exclaimed, running over toward one of the windows in the wall to the right.
"Stay calm, guys!" Bruce tried to say. He was interrupted by the sound of splitting wood and a greater rumble that shook the room so badly that an assortment of metal medical utensils on the nearby counter was thrown to the tiled floor. I jumped at the noise and cried out as the spear in my shoulder seemed to be yanked upward. I pressed my hand around the wound and could see that the spear was slowly inching itself out of my bicep on its own.
"Oh my God…what is it doing?!" I shouted and I caught myself kicking against the table as the white hot agony shot through my whole body. Before either Dan or Bruce could react, the spear shot upward, ripping a hole through the ceiling as it disappeared up into the air.
"Jesus!" Dan shouted, running back to my side as I choked out another anguished cry. My vision was streaked with black and I looked around frantically, my gaze finally resting on the hole in the roof where I could distantly see the afternoon sky. I spotted a spaceship much like the one we had seen the day before and when I blinked it had vanished in a flash of what I assumed signified that it had gone into warp-speed.
"Alex? Alex listen to me, okay…" Dr. Banner's voice said to my right. I could faintly feel a tight pressure on my right arm but the pain had dulled to a slight minimum. My eyes were glued to the hole in the ceiling and my gaze wobbled as I felt someone shaking my shoulders. I blinked heavily and spotted Dan's worried blue eyes staring down at me. His mouth moved but I couldn't understand anything that he was trying to say to me. I tried to focus what was left of my mental energy on my right pocket where I still felt the Time Stone. The burn had all but disappeared and I took that to mean that Proxima Midnight and the threat had also gone…for now.