Choices

Chapter Four

Chapter Four: That Feeling

"Stay awake, get a grip and get out. You're safe from the weight of the world." All Time Low: Stay Awake.

-

 I am jolted awake when the unconscious me chokes on black clouds of carbon dioxide as Thanos's laugh echoes in the small room. I find myself gasping for clean breaths of air even though in reality I have plenty of it. I sigh, my breathing falls back to a normal pace. I sit up in my bed and pull my hair up away from where it sticks to my damp skin. I push my covers off and swing my legs over the side of my bed.

 I am still in a sleepy stupor as I slip out of my room. I walk down the ten steps and cross the dark living room towards the elevators. I press the 'up' arrow and wait a second for the doors to open. I step onto the elevator and allow it to take me four stories higher. When you first step off of the elevator to the third floor of ten floors of research and development, you find yourself in a glass box that overlooks the entire workshop. There is a flight of stairs that leads from the balcony down to the floor. I yawn tiresomely as I walk down these stairs.

 "Lucis, power on the lights," I rub my eyes sleepily.

 "Ma'am, do you realize what you just did?" Lucis inquires.

 "I asked you to turn on the lights," I begin to wake up, "Bring up Suit II please."

 "You-"

 "Lucis, I don't see Reinforcer here," I hurry him up as I'm not exactly the happiest when I am unable to sleep.

 "You walked down the stairs," Lucis says as the partly finished suit is unlocked.

 "Of course I did, how else was I to get down here?" I scoff.

 "By sliding down the rail."

 "By sliding down the r-" I stop as I finally realized what the big deal is, "I just walked down the stairs?"

 "Yes,  ma'am. Would you like me to play back the security footage to show you?"

 "No, that's not necessary," I respond in shock as I try to come to terms just how I managed such a feat.

 Since Tony's house has many steps, I have learned ways to cope. There  is only one actual staircase I encounter daily, the one required to get down to the lab. However, there are two or three steps down or up to almost every other section of the living quarters of the tower. Most of the steps have railing attached to the wall, so to get down I just slide down the rails with ease. The railing down the stairs to the workshop was the hardest to learn how to go down. There is nothing to lean back against and it is also the longest flight of stairs. When I have to go up, I can use the combination of the rail and my upper body strength to push myself up the steps. Sadly, there is no way to get up by myself from the laboratory. Most of the time Tony just bends down and I hop onto his back where he can give me a piggy-back ride up the staircase.

 I smile at my accomplishment as I pull out a few sheets nitinol. I place the sheets in the oven before I go to lock my suit in the stand, enabling me to work on it. I am reaching for the blowtorch when I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.

 "I thought I'd find you here," I turn around to see Alex.

 "What are you doing up? And why were you looking for me?" I ask, for I expected Tony to be the one coming into the laboratory.

 "I think I've developed a sixth sense to tell if there's something wrong with you," Alex chuckles before grinning a weary, lopsided smile, "So, what's wrong?"

 "Well, that sense will be tingling a lot because there's a lot of things wrong with me," I joke, trying to get him to drop the topic.

 "Shut up," Alex rolls his eyes, "But seriously, what's wrong?"