Just then, Captain America and Black Widow burst through the trees. The creature dove into the water and began swimming towards Anya, it's movements swift and polished. At this rate, it would reach her before she would have the chance to escape to the land on the other side.
"Hold on, Anya!" Steve shouted out to her. "I'm coming!"
Steve dove fiercely into the chilly water in pursuit of the creature while Natasha stood guard by the lake, preparing to fight off any more attackers. Something unexpected happened. As soon as Steve made contact with the water, his body went tense, throwing him back onto the rocky shore. Natasha ran to his side. She held Steve's head in her lap. He was still breathing but had somehow been knocked unconscious.
Then Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch were on the scene, ready to go into battle.
"Wait!" Natasha called out to Clint. "There's something wrong with the water!"
"Shit!" Clint cursed. "How the hell are we supposed to get her out of there!?"
"Can't you hit it?" Natasha asked both of them.
"It's underwater, I can't get a direct shot. I can barely see it!"
"It's too close to Anya," Wanda said.
Tony Stark came zooming out of the foliage, supporting his famous Iron Man suit.
"JARVIS, give me the rundown," he commanded his partner.
"Sir, Rogers has been electrocuted. It seems that the creature in the water is giving off some sort of electromagnetic wave."
"How is Anya still breathing?" Tony wondered.
"Anya appears to be generating a type of forcefield around her body."
Tony flattened himself and flew directly over the lake, heading for Anya who was barely keeping herself afloat, the water splashing against his metal-covered chest. Just as he reached the spot where she treaded, a gnarled hand grabbed her by the throat and she let out a yelp as it yanked her under.
"JARVIS, prepare to dive," Tony ordered.
"Dive ready, sir."
Since Tony's Iron Man suit was made from a gold titanium alloy, its conductivity rate was very small, making it more of a resistor. Therefore, he was able to dive beneath the surface without being electrocuted.
Tony used the light shining from his suit to located Anya, who was being pulled deeper and deeper into the depths of the lake. Anya exerted herself, thrashing and fighting, but she could not free herself from the creature's steely grasp.
Tony came close enough and took hold of her small hand, trying unsuccessfully to pry her free from the beast. Instead, Tony took a hopeful shot at where the creature's head should be. Anya was released and Tony took her into his arms, launching himself out of the water and onto dry land.
On the shore, his mask opened as he laid his daughter's limp body on the ground. She had swallowed too much water and like Steve, had fallen unconscious. Unlike Steve, Anya was not breathing.
"Help her!" Tony boomed at the others, "She's not breathing!"
Wanda fluttered over to his side and bent over Anya, administering CPR. After a few tries, a flood of murky lake water was expelled from Anya's lungs. She was coughing and crying. But she was alive.
"Incoming!" Clint shouted.
Tony turned back to the lake to see that the creature was making its way towards them, its eyes locked on Anya. As it reached the water's edge, Hawkeye delivered an arrow to its neck. The creature collapsed face-first into the mud.
Tony and Clint approached it, Tony aggressively kicking it, commanding it to roll over with his foot. Where the face of a bizarre, monstrous-looking creature once resided, was now the face of a man. His skin was still gray but the rest of his body was relatively normal. The man who had morphed into a terrifying creature that was capable of electrocution bled out but smiled up at Tony with an evil grin.
"Who sent you?" Tony demanded of this thing.
The man only cackled a hideous laugh,
Tony seized the man by the collar of his shirt, shaking him. "I said, who sent you?" he growled threateningly.
"Stark," the man spat at him, "you think we have lost." The man spoke with a heavy Russian accent. "We have not lost. You are a fool Tony Stark. Your brain does not live up to the genius of Hydra. You and your petty team will never be able to defeat us!"
"What do you want with her!?" Tony yelled, shaking the dying man violently.
"Heil Hydra!" The Hydra agent began to laugh uncontrollable, mad laughter.
A thunderous roar sounded from somewhere down the road, followed by a resounding BOOM! that shook the ground on which they stood and could have only been the result of the new facility being blown up.
"Pepper!" Tony cried, his face draining of color.
"Tony, we need to go!" Natasha shouted. "We need to go now!"
The manic laughter emitted from the man's open mouth continued to grow louder until the pitch was gargled by the blood filling up in his throat, spilling onto his clothes and spattering onto Tony's disbelieving face.
Without really realizing it, Tony released his hostile grip on the maniac and stood, charging back the way he had come. He did not know if the others followed after him or if they stayed where they were, he only knew that he had to get back to the facility.
Why didn't he fly? He did not know. He was too detached from the world to even be able to connect the fact that he was still wearing the suit.
He made his way to the facility in a dazed stupor, faced with chaos and rampant flames which he drove into head on. He was powered by his need to find Pepper.
He heard a distant roar of what could not have come from anything but the Hulk.
He sprinted through the fire and disheveled parts of melted building. He climbed over pieces of what was wall just minutes ago. He crawled underneath tilted steel beams that had the potential to fall over at any moment and crush him. He didn't care. He just needed to find her.
At last, a lock of golden hair caught his attention. He raced over to where her body was motionlessly bent. It seemed as if time were stopping and everything was happening in slow motion. He reached her after what felt like forever.
Pepper's eyes were shut and she whimpered in pain. She was covered in blood and her chest was slowly being crushed to death by a hefty metal support from the building that had blown up all around her.
It was only a matter of time before the beam-
No, he would not think about that. Tony needed to get the steel beam off of her.
He grunted as he pushed on the beam. He used the suit to help him. Still, it was impossible to lift well over three thousand pounds.
Pepper made no more movement and her breaths became shallow as the overbearing weight of the beam slowly slipped upon her.
Tony let out a desperate cry as he watched her lifeforce being driven out. He screamed as loud as he had ever yelled in his life and put all of the power he had left inside of him into lifting the beam from Pepper. He could feel the adrenaline coursing throughout his body as tears ran down his grimy, tormented face. Then, as if by a miracle, he raised the beam, his heels digging into the hard ground and an agonizing yell sounding from his lips. Tony had just enough force to push it away from Pepper before he collapsed beside her, in the midst of all the wreckage.
He had told Pepper that he would always be there to protect her. That he would never let anything bad happen to her. That he would make sure that she was always safe. He had let her down. He had failed.
Tony's ears buzzed and his vision was cloudy. His head swam, rocking him somewhere between consciousness and lifelessness. He could not move. No matter how hard he tried, he could not make a sound. He could not find it within himself to care anymore. He didn't even feel human. He let himself drift in and out of awareness as the flames threatened to engulf him into their masses. He could hear the frantic shouts of people but he could not process what they were saying. Their voices were far away and he was ceasing to exist. The last thing that he was aware of was a hand closing around his shoulder and someone shouting words that his brain was too exhausted to decipher, probably for help.
Then, he closed his eyes and was met only by blackness.