Into the Fray {Marvel} ||4||

16. You Get Killed, Walk It Off

I could see it from a mile away, the tiny jet. It was growing bigger and bigger in the sky, coming towards us.

At first, I thought its target was me, but then I looked down. Clint and the little boy had just found each other. No...

The roar of the plane was growing louder in my ears. But which target is he going to strike first? My bet wasn't on me.

I sprang into action, taking long strides and jumping from crumbling rooftop to the next, bouncing off of other buildings to reach roofs. I needed to buy Clint time to get himself and the kid out of there. This was a better plan than running for the pair and risking their lives.

As the plane edged closer, I made a beeline and picked my last rooftop, the one that I would push a lot of energy into to get myself the air I needed to distract him. I was doing a mental countdown, feeling the numbers rapidly shrink as I got closer to my launch.

I felt the energy explode in my legs once I reached the end of the last rooftop. My Asgardian blood showed in my airtime. If you don't see me now, you will soon enough. I used my suspended air time to my advantage. Fire grew from my palms and I quickly molded it into a massive fireball. With a battle grunt, I launched the ball at the jet. As it sped closer, I peeked through the window to find that Ultron was the pilot.

I quickly built up another ball once I realized the first one missed. But by that time, Ultron had caught on and began firing.

I had underestimated the strength of the ammunition, and I had clearly forgotten that I was not the immune Asgardian I once was.

It hit me as though I was hitting impenetrable concrete. The first one struck my right shoulder, and the others varied: my left hip; my right thigh; center of my abdomen; the right part of my collarbone. I could hear my hair sizzle—one just missed my head.

I almost felt as though I was floating, but then I began to fall forward, back towards the floating city. My body screamed alarms, and the pain spread quickly through my veins. I was suddenly falling back first, and hit the hard ground with a ground-shaking thump. I kicked up ground and dust around me.

Kiara! Kia! Kiara! Kiara! Kiara! my teammates' thoughts shouted in my mind.

My breathing became shallow, and dust was beginning to settle. I watched helplessly from the ground as I saw the jet zoom over my head and fire more bullets. No! No! No! Clint!

I rolled my head to the side, but I couldn't angle myself properly to see if Clint and the little kid had been shot. Wouldn't I have heard the other Avengers' thoughts if something had? My pulse pounded thunderously in my ears, blocking out everything.

I could do small things, like move my body (but it would hurt). Crying out, I forced myself onto my stomach, feeling the holes in my body burn and sting. The dust wasn't settled in my line of vision, everything was cloudy at ground level.

As I bled, my life seemed to spill along with it. I closed my eyes. I'm going to die here. The ground felt oddly comfortable for me to lay my face against it.

Numbness swept over me. The pain was dulling, and my mind felt blank. All I can wait for now is the end. Whether I go before the city is dropped or not, I have to wait.

No, no, no, no. Not her. A tear fell from my eye as I heard him. Not her. Not now. Not her. She can't...I can't...she...

I almost believed it didn't happen, me being rolled over onto my back. My eyes were open enough to see the familiar spangly-suited man I loved. I could barely feel him pulling me off the ground.