1| Silver & Gold [Pietro M.] ✔

15. Falling

Within the blink of an eye, Pietro and I were at the edge of the city. In the distance, a single remaining Helicarrier hovers. But here on the floating rock, flying lifeboats are being filled with the stranded people of the city. Pietro comes to a stop by one of lifeboat's ramp. He turns and faces the city, with me still in his arms, to make sure there are no remaining citizens that may need our help. "Hey, you know you can put me down now, we're here." I remark, smiling up at the platinum-locked Maximoff.

"Yeah, well maybe I like holding you?" He tears his gaze away from the city for a moment to look down at me.

"You can't hold me forever you know." I say and lift a brow at him with a smirk on my face.

"I could try." Pietro challenges.

"Then how would you eat your dinner when we go out?" I question sarcastically.

"I'd have you feed it to me." The Maximoff twin states confidently. I can't help but laugh. Maybe he's not as bad as I originally thought. Then again, I did have preconceived notions about him.

"Okay, that's enough, put me down." I laugh and the Sokovian obliges, gently setting me on my feet. Still, he doesn't completely release me. He drapes an arm over my shoulders to keep me close. It's a comforting gesture, so I don't shrug him off.

"You know, maybe just you and I should go to dinner." Pietro says casually.

"Pietro Maximoff, are you asking me out on a date? On a flying city?" I inquire.

"I believe I am." There's a cocky smile following his words.

"Or we could make it a double date." Pietro lifts a brow in confusion. "You know, you and I and your sister and Vision." My lips curl upward into a smirk when I see Pietro's face grow red. He's going to respond until our heads snap around when we hear gunfire. "How the hell did Ultron get in our jet!" I shout before pulling away from Pietro, intent on marching into the street. I stop dead in my tracks when I see that the gunfire starts behind Steve and Thor before moving on to where Clint is out in the open with a small child in his arms. I can't see what happened to Thor or Steve, as a cloud of dust is left in the wake of the fired turret. All I can do is turn my attention to Hawkeye. "Oh crap. Clint!" Despite my shouting, Barton turns on his heel, with the child still in his arms, to act as a living shield for the kid. Before I even have to start thinking, I begin to work up an energy shield when I feel a whip of air blow past me, sending strands of my hair into my face. I jerk my head to get the hair from my face to see my energy shield is up and glowing. It sends some of the fired bullets back at Ultron but the shield doesn't seem to cover everybody. I begin running forward as I hear the Quin roar overhead, being piloted away from the area now.

"Pietro! Clint!" Clint is doubled over the boy he's holding as he slowly opens his eyes, beginning to straighten. Pietro is standing beside him, his torso littered with maybe ten or so bullet wounds. His arms are held out, his eyes wide, and mouth gaping as he stares at Clint and the child. "Oh, crap..." I gasp with wide eyes. Clint looks at the male Maximoff twin with horror as he continues to hold onto the boy. I push my legs harder and am just barely able to hear Pietro ask his famous question.

"You didn't see that coming?"

"Pietro! You dumb sock!" I shout and catch him under his arms before he can hit the ground. But being that he is much heavier than I am, I sink to my knees while pulling him close to my chest since I'm unable to hold him up. "You're so stupid, Pietro. You are so stupid." I push the hair back from his face and stare down at him with wide eyes. He's still breathing but it's ragged and rough. Most of the bullets hit him in the back, his arms, and shoulders, with maybe two in his abdomen. None of them seem to be too serious of wounds, but that won't be what'll kill him. The blood loss, on the other hand, would.

"Iris..." The speedster groans quietly.

"Hey, save your energy, don't speak." I forcefully command, trying to keep calm.

"I think I'm gonna need a rain check on that date." Pietro ignores my requests and speaks anyways. My eyebrows scrunch together as I feel a growing pit developing in my stomach. Chills run across my arms as I tightly hold onto the speedster. I've never dealt with death on a personal level, and I'm not sure how I feel in the possible face of it. 

"Okay, that's fine. Hey. Hey! You're gonna be fine, okay? You hear me?" I tell him assuringly, my voice stronger than I feel inside. I watch Pietro smile as his eyes began to close. "You're gonna be fine..." I look up as Steve trots over, thankfully unharmed from Ultron's surprise assault. Hawkeye sets the child down against a car before sliding over to Pietro's side. Clint presses a finger to his neck, looking for a pulse, before looking up at me suddenly.

"He's still alive." I nod and then pleadingly look up at Steve.

"Steve we gotta get him on a boat and to the Helicarrier. There must be doctors up there that can save him." He looks between the two of us with uncertainty before nodding. I move from under Pietro as Steve lifts him into his arms, running with his limp body to the nearest lifeboat. Clint turns and picks the boy back up before jogging after Steve. On my feet again, I turn and begin running into the city. If Pietro is down someone needs to get his sister. It's also at that moment that I hear the Hulk roar and I turn my head just in time to see him jump into the Quinjet and throw Ultron out of it, back into the city. "Hulk's thrown Ultron back into the city." I say aloud, hoping maybe my comm would work while I continue to the church. I am, however, unaware that Wanda hears it and leaves the church to take down Ultron in revenge for her brother.

I run, jumping over debris and dodging cars along with many other obstacles that are in my path as I continue to the church. Then, in an instant, I'm weightless in the middle of the street. Something must've gone wrong. "Joseph, Mary, and Jesus!" I attempt to right myself in the air, unused to the unusual sensation of floating. I manage to get close enough to a column holding the structure of a building up and grab hold of it. From a distance, I can see the core starting to glow a bright blue before firing up like a jet engine, sending us hurtling toward the Earth at a much faster pace. "This is not how I expected to die!" I scream over the wind and noise even if there is nobody here to hear me. I can only hope that Wanda escaped or was on a lifeboat and I just simply missed her. I cling tighter to the column when I see Thor land inside the church and use Mjolnir to summon lightning. He then brings it down on the core, which sends a shockwave through the town. The energy from the blast begins to make buildings crumble, including the one I'm holding onto. It also shakes the city to its core, causing the floating town to crumble and break apart in a brilliant flash of blue light. That's when I start free-falling back down to the Earth. I plummet through the sky and clouds toward a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. I manage to keep loose pieces of falling debris away from me with small, short bursts of energy. I know all of this will be in vain unless I can slow down before crashing into the water. I know I'm moving so fast that if I came into contact with the water right now I'd be dead instantly. So, I steady myself and aim my hands downward. Using whatever residual energy I have left, I release it from my hands in a steady stream that slows me down considerably until I'm yards away from hitting the water. If I wasn't so tired, or running out of energy, I probably could have used this ability to 'fly.' But alas, I've run out of stored energy and am too tired to even try and scrape up some more. Instead, I decide to just fall the rest of the way. That's when I hit the water and everything distorts before fading to black, the sound of various debris crashing into the water around me fading to silence.

It's the end of the line.