meet me at our spot | n.r x oc | ✓

10 - girl power!

[natasha's pov]

I'm not sure how long I was out for, but when I wake up, I'm laying in a dark ditch. My mind is racing a million miles a minute, but only one thing is clear. Stefaniya.

I cough out the dust in my lungs.
"Stefaniya?"

I pull myself up, tripping over a chunk of debris.

"Mayday, mayday, does anyone copy?"
Rhodey's voice speaks into my earpiece. I press a finger to it.

"I copy. Where are you?"

"We're on the lower level, it's flooding! Does anyone copy? We are drowning!"

"Rhodey, I copy. I'm right here."

I realize that he can't hear me. As much as I'm worried about Stefaniya, the best thing I can do right now is to help the others around me. I walk a little further down the path, finding Clint.

"Clint, I got you,"
I pull him up. He groans, a little disoriented.

"You okay? Where's Stefaniya?"

"I don't know. I'm hoping she's with someone. We need to get out of here."

Clint shines his flashlight around, the beam of light flashing when it passes over the Iron Man glove. I stumble over to dig it out of the rubble when I hear a quiet growl from where Clint was. I look over to see him raising his bow and arrow in the direction of the sound, shooting the lit-up arrow down the path.

"Run, Tasha,"
he pats my shoulder. I hug the glove to my body like you would a football and Clint and I sprint to the best of our abilities across the uneven ground. The creatures snarl, running after us.

"Where to?"
I shout to Clint.

"Anywhere but here! Anywhere but here!"

Clint stabs one of his explosive arrows to a pipe, engulfing the tunnel and the creatures behind us. I leap out, rolling on the ground with Clint following behind.

"Grab onto me!"
he yells, shooting a grappling hook to the ceiling when the creatures get back up. I hug him, the glove sitting squished between our bodies as we're being pulled up.

As this couldn't get more exciting, the creatures can climb walls. I pull Clint's katana out of the sheath on his back, stabbing them wherever I can get in a hit. We reach the floor above the tunnel and jump to the side, the creatures falling back into the hole in the floor.

I catch my breath, staring down at the gauntlet in my arms to make sure the stones were still there.
"I thought we were done with those aliens,"
I tell Clint, thinking of the ones we saw in Wakanda five years ago.

"I thought we were done with Thanos."

"Touché."

Nebula stands over us.

"Oh, hey. We know you."
I pass off the gauntlet to her, hoping she will get it to Tony. Instead, she touches her earpiece and says the most chilling words I've heard today.

"Father, I have the stones."

I fucking knew her offer to help was too good to be true.