𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐨

thirtyseven.

He's not here. Seriously? Peter and I are the most easily accessible Avengers in New York and when we get a call of danger it's our duty to be here. And he's not fucking here. I can't possibly save an entire burning building alone. Can you imagine now many potential civilian fatalities there could be with just me here? Selfish little asshole is probably flirting with his ex-girlfriend and not saving the city.

The inferno around me is hot even through my suit which Tony had luckily patched with a heat-resistant material but it didn't stop the fact that I wasn't fire-proof. My webs didn't last long in the fire before burning to a crisp and I couldn't just walk through fire like Iron-Man would be able to do.

Several people are hanging from a lamp-post on the other side of the street with my webs because I haven't had enough time to get them to the street otherwise. This apartment building had been attacked by arsonists on the ground level after a robbery and there were multiple people stuck in their homes on higher levels.

I feel bad having these people swinging in the air in makeshift diaper looking webs but I needed to get them as far away from the fire as possible. And for me, that was to swing them out of nearby windows. I know, it looks ridiculous, but I didn't want to risk swinging them out of the building myself if it cost another persons life. Every second counts when you're running out of oxygen.

The last apartment I got to was particularly struggling to get into. For most of the doors I was able to kick them down and enter the unit, but this particular family must have had extra locks behind a full metal sliding door. I seriously, cannot open this thing without burning myself.

A large fist slammed into the door right next to my head, making me jump up to the roof to protect myself from the imminent villain behind me.

But it was Bucky.

"Oh thank god you're here, I can't get this thing open!" I yelled over the loud crashes of falling wood and the roaring fire around us.

He simply nodded at me, punched a hole through the door and unlocked it, sliding the metal to the side and entering the apartment with me. He had some type of black mask on which allowed him to breathe in here, similar to the purifier in my suit.

There were two screaming children huddled in the corner of the room, with tears streaming down their faces as they were wrapped up with a towel protecting them from falling ash. I told Bucky to get them out whilst I scanned the apartment for any other survivors.

The buildings framework was crumbling around us, it wasn't long until the roof started to collapse alongside the flooring. The walls were already cracking and falling. I watched Bucky pick up the children in the corner of my eye before I saw a woman laying face down on her bed, presumably deceased.

She must be the mother of the kids in the living room. It's a tragic scene to witness, truly. I turned her body over to try and see if there was any chance of resuscitation, shocked to see multiple stab wounds in her abdomen and chest.

Why would a woman happen to have been murdered on the top floor of a burning building?

I felt the trembling building start to crack around me and managed to run back into the living room to leave. The fire had crept into the apartment by this stage and I couldn't get out the way I came in; it was a death wish.

I looked around the apartment to see if I could piece together anything about this woman before it was all burnt up, but I had to get out whilst I could. I swung out of the window and around the burning block to see Bucky cutting down the webbed survivors from various telegraph poles and street lamps.

"W-where are those kids?" I yellow to Bucky to pointed around the other side of him.

I ran over to the two kids who were still gripping the towel I found them in, this time revealing that they were protecting a small baby wrapped inside the towel.