The Mimic

178

It all happened so fast.

One moment y/n had been racing through the compound to call Bucky, and the next moment the whole building crumbled under the constant explosions and airstrikes from Thanos.

The entire building had been destroyed. Walls, furniture, doors, and lights all mashed together. Plumbing pipes had been punctured, exposed wires stuck out between cracks, and shattered glass littered almost every surface. The foundations of the building had completely crumbled, leading everything to collapse in and down - almost like a sinkhole, which of course was made even worse by the fact that the compound had a pretty deep basement.

Y/n had been knocked out by the sudden blast, meaning that she had no time to protect herself or teleport away from the wreckage. She had simply been a ragdoll in the entire explosion. Knocked around by debris and forced further and further down into the 'sinkhole' of where the compound had once been.

Once y/n's body was finally able to catch up and come around to the chaos, the first thing that caught her attention was the horrible ringing in her ears. It was a mixture of the ear-splittingly loud blast, the blaring alarm system that was somehow still working, and the barely-functioning earpiece that had been jammed into her ear. The familiar sensation of blood trickling down the back of her neck caused her to grimace, but she wasn't shocked. Hell, she was actually surprised that she wasn't even more injured. A blast like that would usually mean some sort of broken bone, or even a fatal injury.

"Can anyone hear me? Is everyone okay?" Y/n asked through her earpiece, praying that it was still working. Her voice was hoarse and shaky, the smoke and soot from the explosion plaguing her lungs. "Can anyone hear me?" Y/n repeated, lifting her hand up to her ear to press on her earpiece a few times. However, just as she did that, a high-pitched, robotic sound screeched into her ear, causing her to flinch and almost yank the whole earpiece out. She cursed under her breath, rubbing her ear as if it would make the sound any better. "I think I'll take that as a no..."

The next plan of action was figuring out where she was. She obviously wasn't out in the open air, so she could only assume that she was buried deep underground in the wreckage. Y/n had to find a way to get out, and a way to find the others. It was a very hard task, especially because she couldn't see a thing. Luckily she hadn't been blinded again, but being in the dark was a dangerous thing when it came to a wreckage. All it took was one wrong move, and she could end up with concrete falling on top of her.

Y/n took a sharp breath as she leant back on one of her forearms, trying to pull herself up and onto her feet. Glass and debris pierced the already-bruised skin, just causing y/n to let out a nice string of curse words under her breath. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness, so she decided to do the next best thing. Y/n held her spare arm up in the air, forming an orb of fire in her palm.

The orb of fire lit up the area in seconds. It was a small pocket, almost like a tiny cave underground, but instead of rocks, the pocket had been formed by chunks of the wreckage. Concrete, furniture, glass, dirt, anything and everything was there, all packed tightly together. Tight enough to form the pocket, but one wrong move could send the whole structure crumbling. There didn't seem to be any form of exit, but that wasn't the only thing keeping y/n trapped.

From the knee all the way down to the foot, her right leg had been completely trapped by debris and parts of the marble kitchen counter. It wasn't broken, thank god, but it was definitely stuck.

Y/n's first plan of action was to yank her leg out, ignoring all the glass that dug into her forearms as she pulled and pulled. But, just as y/n was finally able to gain some movement, the debris on the ceiling begun to crumble, causing her to completely freeze. She couldn't yank her leg out. She couldn't move anything. The pocket she was in was extremely unstable. Y/n was trapped. Completely trapped.

Heavy panic begun to spread throughout her body like a wildfire, tears beginning to form in her eyes. She was stuck. There was nobody nearby, her earpiece wasn't working, and if she even moved a muscle the whole thing could collapse on her. Y/n's breathing begun to pick up as her claustrophobia settled in, her mind begging for her to scream out for help. But she didn't. She didn't say a word. She couldn't, she was far too scared.

Y/n was going to be stuck there. Stuck in that tiny pocket until the air ran out. Completely stuck whilst the rest of the team were oblivious to her even being alive. One tiny move could send concrete tumbling down and crushing her in a slow, painful death. It was horrifying.

But, in that moment of terror, there was one final idea that appeared in y/n's mind.

Teleporting.

It was extremely risky, especially because y/n had no clear idea of where to teleport. She didn't know where the surface was, she didn't know where anything was. She could end up teleporting herself into an even worse situation if she wasn't careful, but it was a risk that y/n was willing to take - well, that and the fact that she had no other choice.

*****

"Come on, buddy. Wake up."

Steve suddenly jolted awake, loudly gasping for air. He glanced around at the wreckage in confusion and shock, taking Tony's hand as he hoisted himself up and onto his feet. "What-" He paused, grimacing in pain as his body caught up with him. That explosion was heavy, and nobody had been expecting it. "What happened?" Steve asked, taking his shield back from Tony.

However, before Tony could respond, y/n suddenly appeared right in front of them.

She was soaking wet. Water dripped from her hair and suit onto the debris-covered ground, the droplets on her face just seeming to accentuate all the soot that caked her skin. It was obvious that y/n had teleported far more than once before she ended up stood in front of the pair.

Steve's eyes widened at the sight of y/n, allowing Tony to walk off to find Thor. "What happened to you?" He asked in surprise, but quickly shut his mouth when he realised that what he said sounded rude. He didn't mean to come off as rude, he was just so, so overwhelmed. So much was happening all at once, he didn't know how to process it all. "I'm sorry, y/n. Are you okay?" He asked in a concerned tone.

Y/n nodded with a shaky breath. Her eyes were wide and full of adrenaline as she scanned her surroundings, trying her hardest to get her bearings back. Teleporting several times in a row was never fun, and the fact that she'd been dunked into ice-cold water several times during the teleporting was just the icing on the cake. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She hummed, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "What even happened?"

"Come see for yourself." Tony sighed, standing next to Thor as they stared off at something in the distance.