Universal Chaos

Chapter 14

The only things keeping Sutton from falling apart were the fact that no one else was audibly shrieking and that she was fiercely trying to believe they could pull through this as a team.

Her eyes darted to the helicopter window, peering up to search the sky for any signs of disturbance. Nothing but dusty blue greeted her.

"Jarvis," said Tony, "start contacting who you can. We're going to need everyone on board for this."

[Of course, sir.]

Would everyone be enough? Just the Avengers against what was supposed to be the biggest baddie in this universe?

While, initially, after seeing Thanos in the Avengers after scene, she'd assumed he was part of the next movie. But when that didn't prove true, she'd realized that it was supposed to be a build up. It was supposed to create hype and tension for the future. And in between the first Avengers and that moment, there was sure to be more movies. More time. More development. And, if she could guess at all, more superheroes showing up.

But now they didn't have that.

She didn't want it. Didn't want to have to deal with this, didn't want to bring this on other people. Didn't want to have to live through what may come. There was still fear blazing erratically through her. She just wanted the problem to go away. She wished she could have imagined it out of existence and been done with it.

And the only thing popping in her head at the moment was that stupid quote from Gandalf about no one wanting to have to live through troubled times; and even though she'd never met him she just wanted to tell him to take his unhelpful advice and stuff it.

Then she realized just how dumb her fictional ramblings were and forcibly cleared her head. Maybe Tony hadn't been so wrong to make the suit.

The helicopter continued on without pause; an odd sort of churning silence engulfed the space. Sutton knew they were all out of their depth. She grimaced in a half amused smile as some of her mother's words came back to her.

"They say worrying only makes you suffer twice, but I can usually fit at least one more suffer-session in there."

Sutton mentally thanked her mother for such helpful life lessons.

"Well if we're not going back to New York City, where are we going," she asked. Her voice broke the quiet and shook everyone from their own thoughts. She ducked her head and directed her gaze more towards Tony as everyone looked at her.

Tony shifted in his seat. He didn't seem to like sharing anything in front of Khan.

"I purchased some property upstate recently," he said. "It's fairly secluded and not really renovated yet. If anything goes down up there, the damages will at least be kept to a minimum. And, you know, we won't be taking out crowds of innocent bystanders. Usually ideal."

"Usually," Steve deadpanned.

Sutton figured that was the best that she could hope for at the moment. Anything she suggested at this point was going to be dismissed or get her more disbelieving looks. She could only handle so many disappointed eyebrows in one day.

"Cool," said Sutton. She moved her leg and winced at the sharp pain that ran through it. "Awesome. At least that's settled."

"Hey, I don't want to hear any sass from you." Tony tried to give her a stern look and she scrunched her face at him rebelliously.

Momentarily some tension eased.

They flew onward over dying grass and busy highways. Eventually Sutton could see landing strips stretching out over the horizon.