Steel Hearts

- 41 -

I landed roughly onto a slab of concrete before sliding off and falling into a patch of soft dirt. Before I could even stand up, that same concrete wall was toppling down straight in my direction.

Throwing up a force field around myself, I keep it from crushing me. Although, it wedges me against the ground and I can't move as the pressure pushes down onto my lower body. The only thing keeping me safe right now was the force field holding thousands of pounds of rubble only mere centimeters away from my body.

Dust, debris, and mud fly everywhere as electrical wires snap and crackle. A fire had started but thankfully was contained away from where I was. As the rubble settled, I cough and strain my neck to look around me in every direction.

"Steve! Tony!" My throat is painful and scratchy as I yell as loudly as possible, "Thor! Can anyone hear me?!"

Hot tears prick at the corners of my eyes as I continue using all of my strength to keep the rubble from overtaking me. Panic began to set in as I continued to yell until my voice turned hoarse. The light of the electrical fire glinted off of a piece of metal several feet away from me and I crane my neck just far enough to see the gauntlet.

If this were Thanos, I needed to keep those stones as far away from him as possible and get them back where we got them.

The dim red light of an exit sign was all that was left as the electrical fire fizzled out due to a burst pipe. An ominous growl rumbled through the tunnel to my left.

"Hey! Somebody!"

"Ella?"

"Barton?"

Footsteps pound into the dirt before I can see him approaching and a sigh of relief escapes the both of us. The two of us were grateful to see at least one other person from our team was alive. Another growl echos and he draws an arrow, aiming toward where the sound came from.

"Help me!" I exclaim eyes widening with panic, "Pull me out!"

He loops his arms underneath mine and pulls. I didn't care about anything other than getting out from underneath that rubble. Slamming my eyes close, I use what little strength I had left to push my force fields upward just the slightest bit and the two of us go flying backward.

"Sweet Jesus," he breathes heavily, standing up and brushing himself off before offering a hand to me.

Taking it, I'm hauled onto my feet and I sigh, "Thanks."

He turns around slowly, drawing another arrow before letting it fly down the tunnel, lighting it up to reveal several aliens crawling the walls on four legs. "Not the time!"Grabbing the gauntlet from the ground by our feet, he grabs my arm and the two of us start sprinting in the opposite direction.

Neither of us bother looking behind us, we could hear the aliens chasing us as we ran. We followed the dimly lit tunnels, water splashing as we ran through puddles. While throwing energy balls and force disks behind me, Barton threw out several explosive arrows. Thankfully, I had been able to hold a force field up to soften the blow from the detonation. We still were thrown down onto a metal grate. The fire from the explosion did little to stop the aliens from chasing us further.

"Barton," I warn, eyes and hands glowing purple as I threw more energy blast their way.

"Hang on!"

With that, he shot up a grappling hook into the ceiling and connected it to his belt. He shoves the gauntlet into my hands and grabs a hold of me, the two of us were pulled into the air, narrowly avoiding our legs being bitten. Pulling out his katana, he swipes at several of the aliens. Once close enough to the end of the vertical tunnel, I'm able to use a force field for both of us to run up and out.