Free Fall [PETER PARKER]

PROLOGUE

prologue

The whole building was crumbling on them quickly. Anastasia's Mother was screaming for her to get out of the collapsing apartment, and to just leave the cat, while her Father was flying people out of the property and to safety using his abilities. It was complete mayhem all around the teenage girl as she searched wildly for the grey and black striped cat in the home. It was just supposed to be summer getaway from the hustle and bustle of New York, to the quiet country of Sokovia, but things seemed to take an horrible turn for the worst.

The city seemed to be flying, because the ground was suddenly crumbling underneath them, and from the tenth floor of the rented apartment Ana and her family had, she could see the change in depth as they were suddenly at a higher altitude. There were robot beings attacking, that looked an awful lot like the work of Tony Stark; Ana knew this because the millionaire's very own Stark Tower was located in the same city as her home was. But it seemed that his robots were on the wrong side as they shot beams of destruction at innocent bystanders in their path.

"Ana leave him!" Her Mother cried, with blue mist originating from her hands stretching outward, her telekinesis allowing her to prevent the whole ceiling from falling on top of them. There were about four floors above them, threatening to cave in.

The girl took one last look and searched through the open closet door, where she found Echo, hiding in the hamper, shaking with fear. "I found him!" She yelled, and took the animal into her arms, rushing over to her Mother, who waved over to her with one hand, the other holding the ceiling with strain.

Thea Michael had sweat coating her face heavily as she pushed the top of the falling building back as much as she could. Ana watched helplessly, tears streaming down her face as she clutched the cat in her arms tightly against her chest. "Ana, you have to go now, get out of here as fast as you can."

"I can't leave you here!" Ana exclaimed. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know how to help. Her powers were useless in the situation.

"Find your Dad, get out of here as fast as you can!" Thea screamed, the building was slowly coming closer and closer to falling, and crushing them to death. Ana sobbed, conflicted with what to do and what not to do. Suddenly, her Father came running in, covered in plaster, sweat, and blood; he had evacuated everyone out of the building as far as he knew. "Take Ana and Echo and get out of here, Nathan!" She told him, crying but keeping the building up nonetheless.

Nathan Michael grabbed Ana, who held tightly onto Echo, and shook his head. "No, you're coming with us." He grabbed his wife and daughter by the waists and took them out the window with him in record speed. He flew them out into the sky, a cloud of dust blowing out towards them from the collapsing building as it finally came crashing down.

Ana looked at the building in horror as it broke down from top to bottom, she glanced down at Sokovia and saw massive chaos all around. She could faintly see blurs of blue and wisps of red from down below, similar to the ones Ana and her Mother had when they used their powers. The mechanic bots were flying all over the place in the sky and taking over establishments causing mass killings as they shot laser beams and destroyed everything they hit. From down below she could see people crying in the arms of their loved ones or rushing to safety, a few looked up at the sky, and spotted the family, watching with wide eyes as Ana's Father slowly descended towards the ground with his wife and daughter, wondering how on earth they were floating in the air just like their city was with no suspension device of any sort.

The Michael's stood close together as they stared back at the small group of people, some whispered to each other and others were still in bewilderment from the destruction of their homes. Ana swallowed thickly as the girl who was the same age as her and lived two doors down, looked her up and down and backed away as though being near Ana would infect her with a deadly virus. After living in that apartment building for a little over a month, as normally as they could with no one else knowing their secret, the family was finally exposed. The neighbors they had done absolutely nothing to, and always waved to with a smile in the hallways while passing even though they were complete strangers, were now looking at them with disgust and fear, now that they knew how far from normal the family was.