Blood of a Goddess (Storm of the X-Men)

Chapter 4 - Broken, but not Beaten

The side of my chest hurts. It's not a pain I would attribute to a flesh wound. Perhaps a burn of sorts. Nothing on my actual skin, but deep inside.

I think I've broken a rib.

My black cape is draped over my body as I lay here, on the metal floor of the Avengers Hanger. My long white hair splayed out in front of me, obscuring my vision. The golden bangles on my wrist, jut out at odd angles, held tight against the fabric of my cape at where it meets. My black tiara feels especially sharp on the bony parts of my head.

I did not enter the Avengers' Tower wearing the uniform I am known for. I was wearing a simple black leotard when I began my mission. But as my vision comes back, I see the metal pip – a ingenious device that holds unstable molecules – that allows me to summon my uniform out of thin air, laying in my hand. It was somehow activated.

Then it all comes back to me.

"Tony!" Bruce Banner calls out from his hide out above the battle. "Is she alive?"

"Yeah! Still some biometric feedback." Tony Stark replies, his steps soft. No sounds of boosters on him.

He is not in his armor. Thank the Goddess, there is still a chance.

I turn up slightly to look at the bay door in front of me. I am exhausted. I cannot keep this up. I have a well of untapped energy. But it comes with a price. I must give into the rage that is there. A rage I cannot always control. And given the present company, uncontrolled rage is not an option that leads to success.

So I wait.

"She took out the whole damn building." Tony continues as I hear him walk to me. "Blew out my armory, couldn't even suit up."

I hear a jingle of metal. He must have a blaster his arms. He was the one who took me down. Thankfully it wasn't a direct hit, or I might be nursing a hole in my chest. I have to give it to Tony, he knows how to take the cheap shots when someone's back is turned.

Must be the white business man in him.

"Where is the clean up crew?" Tony asks.

"I'm not sure. Can't get a location on Thor, or the other Avengers. They must had to have gotten the distress call." Bruce Banner calls out.

"Cancel it." Tony adds. "She isn't getting up."

"Cancel it? How? There is no equipment."

"Well, once it's up and running." Tony calls back. "Anyone in here dead?" He shouts into the hanger.

I hear the moans of many injured. None seem to have passed. I do not feel the chill that causes the hairs on my neck to stand on end... when Death is near.

"Good!" Tony says to himself. "So just clean up. And get the injured back to the sick bay. And get the X-men on the line. They have some explaining to do."

I feel him reach down to touch me. Now is my chance.

Before his hand reaches me, my eyes pop open. White and glowing. And a thick blanket of pure white fog pours into the hanger in a surge through the open bay door.

The tell-tale whine of Iron Man's Blasters reach my ears, but even injured I am quick. I roll off my side, and into the vast hanger. My footsteps barely a whisper on the metal floor, as I sprint like the wind.

As predicted. Iron Man shoots at where I was, and then at the direction of the open bay doors. He lets out beam after beam of energy, in a hopes to catch me in my escape. But I knew he would do that, and so I slink further back into the hanger.