The Beginning of the End (Elanor)

Chapter 12

Captain Marvel mid-credits sequence spoiler warning!! I know the movie's still kinda recent (still in theaters, even), so I thought I'd put that out there. The ending dialogue is subject to change because I'm going off of memory here. Also, some details on people's exact locations aren't 100% confirmed yet, so that might be subject to change, too

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My father told me when we arrived back in New York, they'd immediately rushed me to the hospital. The staff had been panicked, trying to scramble together because some of them had disappeared as well. They'd managed to find someone to treat me and close up my wounds, and I'd pulled through and managed to live, though I'd have two giant scars on my back for likely the rest of my life.

We'd all returned back to the facility Upstate the moment we could, and all we did was watch the numbers climb. Different faces flashed across the screen, but thankfully, none we recognized so far. Unfortunately, we had no way of knowing if Peter and Tony made it out of this. All we could do is hope.

I tried to sit in my room, collect myself and pull my thoughts together, but I couldn't stay still, so I grabbed my jacket and left without saying a word to the others, knowing they were still trying to come to terms as well. I hopped onto my bike and made my way out to the city, hoping to find at least some people I knew alive and well.

The streets were a tableau of chaos, filled with crashed vehicles that had yet to be cleaned up. The eerie silence made my stomach churn, causing me to quicken my pace through the unconventional graveyard. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, to the point where I nearly tripped on something laying out on the road. My foot hit against it and caused me to lose my balance for a second. Curious, I kneeled down and picked up the small, grey object flashing red and blue on its screen. I recognized it as a pager, but... I'd never seen one do this before.

My eyes floated up to the vehicle it was in front of, and I immediately sprinted back to my bike and headed home. Still carrying the device, I burst through the front door and ran up the stairs, running out of breath. Everyone looked at me, concerned, especially when I held up the ancient, flashing device. Immediately, I pointed to Bruce.

"I need you to trace the signal on this," I panted.

"Ela, sweetie, take a deep breath." I made my way over to my father and he placed his hands on my shoulders. "What's going on."

"I-I found that outside Fury's van." I gulped and started to calm down. "I think... he's..." I shook my head, not wanting to finish that thought. "I think he sent out some sort of message before it happened, but I don't know where."

Bruce's eyes widened, and he ran back to his lab and began plugging things in, setting the device into a machine that whirred to life. We'd have to wait to find out, but I didn't care. We'd know eventually, that's what mattered.

My energy faded away again, and I followed my father back to the console as he watched the numbers climb again. I gently reached out and rested my hand on his, offering it a squeeze like he always did for me.

"It's like a nightmare," he muttered. Nat came closer to us and sighed.

"I've had better nightmares."

"Hey?" I turned around to see Rhodey standing in the doorway to the lab. "So that thing just... stopped doing whatever the hell it did."

I sighed and followed Rhodey back into the lab, finding Bruce staring at the machine and attempting to fix it.

"What've we got?"

"Whatever signal was sent finally crapped out."

"I thought we bypassed the battery," my father sighed.

"Well, we did." I raised an eyebrow. "It's still plugged in, it just... just stopped." I looked up at the machine for a moment.

"Reboot and send the signal again," I ordered.

"Okay, we don't even know what this is."

"Fury did," Nat interjected.

"Just do it, please," I sighed, "and tell me the second you get a signal. I want to know who's on the other end of that thing."

I turned around to head to my room and take a nap, still not quite back to my normal self, but my path was blocked, by a strange, blonde woman I'd never seen before. She stared down at me, and I took a moment to look at her suit.

It perfectly matched the image that had been on the screen. My eyes widened as I looked up at her face again.

"Where's Fury?" she asked.