Affliction (P.P.)

Part 14

(Peter POV)

"What is that?!" I ask looking at the flash of light that whizzes past us to take out the rest of the ships. All of them are blown up into bits, and the light flies towards us. It comes into view, and then I recognize exactly who it is. "Woo!! It's Carol!!" I pump my fists in excitement. I spin in my chair and add a few extra fist pumps, then calm down and follow Captain Marvel herself back down to earth. We land at the Avengers Compound, where everyone, including Charlotte's mother, is waiting. "We did it! We made it!" I turn around to Loki and Thor. They both look as relieved as I do. I run out of the ship, and everybody greets us excitedly. May squished me in a hug. "Are you okay? Did everything go alright?" She asks. "It went great! And we made it back in one piece thanks to Miss Danvers." I say, grinning at the blonde woman. She smiles. "Kid, you are not leaving this planet again for a long time." Tony says, clapping an arm around my shoulders.

"Yeah, I could kiss the ground to be honest." I joke. Everyone chuckles. Charlotte's mom pushes through the crowd of Avengers. "Thank God you're okay." She says with a relieved laugh. Thor walks up as well and everyone jokes with him too. "Hey! We have to thank Loki too!" I turn around to face him, but he's no where to be seen. "Uhhh, where did he go?" Everyone looks at each other. The next minute, we're all running towards the containment room for the Tesseract. We get there, and there's three guards knocked out, and the door is open. "What? He wouldn't..." I trail off. I slowly slide open the vault door. I walk over to the box that's holding the Tesseract, and slowly unlock it. I flip the lid open, only to find.... the Tesseract still there? There's a note left with it.

Mortal,
Although stealing the Tesseract was very tempting, I have other business to tend to at the moment, but the thought of all of you panicking at the thought that I stole it made me laugh, so I thought I'd humor you. However I do hope your lover makes it out alright, considering we almost died, and I almost lost my hand (yes that was just a ruse) trying to get the blasted cure.

Farewell,
𝓛𝓸𝓴𝓲

P.S - thanks for the ship ;)

As I finish reading the note, Steve pokes his head through the door. "The ship you guys used is leaving!" He says. I rush out of the room to a window. I can see Loki in the drivers seat, and he waves at me with his now un-eaten hand, then the ship zooms off.

"Well, at least we won't have to worry about him doing anything with Tesseract, right?" I look to Tony. He facepalms. "Anyway, you made it back, that's what matters right?" May hugs me, and I get several pats on the back from everyone else. "Hey I hate to break up the reunion, but Charlotte is getting more unstable by the second!" Bruce calls from the doorway to enter the building. "Oh! Right right right." I run over to him and follow him inside quickly. We all run inside, following Bruce, only instead of taking us to Medbay, he takes us to a lower part of the building, and stops at a thick glass window, with a vault looking door next to it. Inside the window, is Charlotte, laying delicate and pale in a small bed they made for her. She's still hooked to monitors, but it's like they made a makeshift hospital room. "Why is she in there? She should be somewhere else, it's cold down here, won't that make her more sick?" I start spouting questions.

"Peter, Peter listen. We weren't sure if you'd make it back in time. We had to come up with a way to contain the curse of it expelled itself before you got here. This is what we came up with." Tony explains. I look at her through the glass. "Here." I hand Bruce the purple liquid that was the cure, and he takes it from me gently. He goes over to his machine, and starts typing things. "I'll have to send it in through the tubes we've set up. It's too dangerous to send someone directly inside, with how close we're cutting it." Bruce explains. There's a timer setting by on a table. "Three minutes." Natasha reads. "Hurry Bruce!" I say. He gets a confused look on his face, then presses buttons again. "It's not working." He says slowly. "Not working? What do you mean it's not working?!" I look over his shoulder. "Somethings not set up right. It keeps failing to work the suction within the tubes." He says, keeping a cool front as he rapidly types on the screen. "Bruce you have to do something!" May says, starting to look scared.

"I'm trying!" He stays concentrated. "Here, let me." Tony tries to take over. "No you can't! You don't know how the calibration works if you would just-"
Two minutes.
"Banner, I think I would know something about this." Tony insists.
Two minutes, thirty seconds.
"Tony, let him work on it, we don't have much time!" Steve cuts in.
One minute.
"Guys!!" I shout. No one listens.
Thirty seconds.
I use my strength to push between the three of them, grab the purple cure off of the table, and head towards the vault-type door. "Peter, no." Tony says. I whirl around. "Peter, yes!" I retort, then swing the door open. I hop inside, and slam the door shut. Fifteen seconds. I run over to Charlotte, and assess what I need to do. I gently remove an oxygen mask from her face. She's breathing gently. Ten seconds. I set down the mask, and pop open the vial. Five seconds.

"Peter now!" Lottie's mom shouts from the window. I pour the liquid down Charlotte's throat.
Three.
Two.
One...