In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

The World Behind

I left the memory of Titan with a new mission. I knew who had survived on Titan: Tony and Nebula. Wakanda left us Steve, Rhodey, Natasha, Thor, Rocket, Okoye, and Bruce. I knew nothing of where Scott Lang resided, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, or Clint were. They were all the contacts I could conjure in my mind of old allies we could unite in this upcoming fight.

I hadn't seen Scott since we had imprisoned together in the Raft. I had remembered his apartment, because I had kept him in the rotation of people to keep an eye on in my searching for Avengers recruits. I popped into his apartment in California. Immediately, my hands slapped over my ears. I whipped around until I found the source of the monotonous, obnoxious beeping: the television.

THIS IS NOT A TEST.

THIS IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY. PLEASE STAND BY FOR ASSISTANCE.

THIS IS NOT A TEST.

I couldn't interfere with the environment, so with my hands still over my ears, I hurriedly shuffled through his apartment, searching for, if anything, a pile of dust. I found nothing-- barely even a sign that someone had been here in over a week.

I left his apartment for, this time, a person. I had no clue where to begin to look for Nick Fury or Maria Hill, but I assumed they had stuck together since we last saw each other. I had hopped once into Steve's life without my presence, so I tried it with Fury. I closed my eyes and thought of him, letting my soul search the universe and time simultaneously to be where he was at the time of the Decimation.

The Emergency Alert from the television at Scott's house turned into the warbled sound of traffic. I opened my eyes. I was sitting in the back of an SUV, Nick Fury driving and Maria Hill sitting passenger.

"Still no word from Stark?" asked Fury.

"No, not yet. We're watching every satellite on both hemispheres but still nothing," said Maria. A small beeping from the device in her hands prompted Fury to ask her what caused the alert. "Multiple bogeys over Wakanda."

"Same energy signatures as New York?" guessed Fury.

"Ten times bigger," said Maria.

Fury opened his mouth to respond, but was quickly cut off by Maria screaming, "Nick! Nick!" at a truck that was swerving into their lane. Their bodies jerked forward as Fury slammed on the breaks.

I fell through the car as the two of them exited. As Maria walked towards the car that almost crashed into them, I looked around. The street was in panic. It was as if, all at once, the world descended into chaos. People began to dust with no warning, ejecting them from cars, ripping them from partners, leaving nothing except dust.

"They okay?" asked Fury.

Maria looked back. "There's no one here."

From the sky, there was the unmistakable sound of a craft crashing. A helicopter in the sky was spinning wildly out of control. It crashed into a high-rise barely a mile away. Distant crashes began to reach our ears-- planes, cars, trains losing their controllers. Havoc persisted.

"Call Control," said Fury, staring at the burning building. "Code Red."

"Nick," said Maria, watching her hand begin to crumble.

Fury turned around. As soon as she was gone with the wind, he took slow steps backwards, until he fully turned and ran back to the car. He retrieved a device from the top of his bag. He started to mess with it, until his fingers began to crumble.

"Aw, nah," he whispered, raising his hand. "Motherf--"

The device in his hand clattered against the gravel as he dusted. I approached it. "A pager?" I muttered, crouching near it. I hadn't seen one of those in years. They were outdated, I had thought, until I took a closer look. It had been clearly upgraded with unfamiliar technology, and it proudly presented a picture on its front: two lines, yellow and blue, formed into a five cornered star.

A distress signal, I assumed. But to who?