Universal Chaos

Chapter 18

 Sutton jogged with the Doctor at her heels through what was quickly becoming a demolished DC. It wasn't quite at the New York Invasion levels. Not yet. But there was still a twisted, horrified feeling curling in her gut as she tried to catch up. She didn't even know exactly what she was planning on doing once she got to the fight. She'd already seen that gunfire didn't really bother either of the villains, but she still felt she had to try something.

She wasn't going to sit back and wait.

She wasn't going to let her friends face this alone.

It was easy to track where the fight was going. A series of broken buildings and ripped up roads served as a breadcrumb trail.

"Sutton," the Doctor called behind her. "Sutton, may I ask what exactly you suppose you're going to do?"

She paused, panting. Sharp pains shot through the meat of her left leg where the muscle still wasn't healed. The destruction split off in two different directions. She eyed the shattered windows and chunks of concrete, then chose the more broken looking path.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But you usually don't either when you rush into things, right?"

"Well usually I'm not the link that can crumble every universe who's running towards the very beings that want to use me for that express purpose."

"Fair." Sutton shrugged, freezing when she saw a beam of light take out the side of a building. "Crap!"

She ducked down as chunks of concrete flew overhead. Clouds of debris filled dust had her coughing as she rose back up to her feet. The gun was growing heavy as she continued on, but she flexed her fingers, readjusted her grip, and kept running. Bless Steve for making her jog.

"Watch out! On your six!"
"Can these things even die?"

Voices echoing through the streets let Sutton know she was close. She took an unsteady breath and kept her eyes up. The city hadn't been fully evacuated, if at all. There were more civilians out now. People screaming and running. In some places bricks and walls had been knocked away exposing frightened families huddled inside their homes.

Sutton had known the feeling of her insides being shred to pieces, had hopped universe after universe, survived torture, and fought against figures she'd never thought she'd meet. But she'd never actually seen war. Not a full on assault on a city. Never been a part of it while it was actually happening.

Flashing red and gold blazed by. There was a rhythmic popping as Rhodey hovered overhead, unloading small missiles at their enemies.

It was all so loud. It was all so frantic.

"Standing out in the open isn't actually the wisest choice," the Doctor reminded her. Sutton shook out of her stupor and nodded, backing away until she was pressed up against the wall of some still standing building. She watched the fighting with unblinking eyes and tried to track where Corvus and Proxima were going.

"They have to have a weakness," she said. "Some unprotected spot or something that affects them. There's always something."

"It's just finding it that's the problem."

"If the universes weren't falling apart, your TARDIS would really come in handy right about now."

"The TARDIS cannot be used except for when we're repairing those tears," the Doctor said, his tone firm. "Otherwise she'll do some pretty decent tearing of her own. All the way open."

Sutton rolled her eyes. Caught sight of the one called Proxima.

"You can't do anything without wrecking , I can't do anything without destroying. How the heck did the Avengers ever get to me in the first place?"