Doomed

Chapter Sixteen

Tony flew up the square-shaped hole in the emergency stairs, the white light flashing from the basement brightening the hallway like daylight. "Jarvis," he said, "Hit the alarm, evacuate the tower. And drop the shielding from the basement, the arc reactor's about to go up!"

"Yes, sir!" Jarvis said, and instantly blinking red lights illuminated the stairs, the screaming sound of the alarm nearly drowning out the armor's repulsors. He kept going, hoping to reach the top floors and grab some of the Avengers who couldn't fly. His thoughts turned to his friends in the basement. God, Carol, I'm so sorry. If we'd had more time, maybe we could have thought of something less volatile…

He flew into the common room, bursting the doors from their hinges. Luke Cage and Danny Rand were standing at the entrance to the hall, ushering Clint, Natasha, Bobbi and Logan toward the balcony. "Tony!" Cage shouted. "What's going on?"

"Luke! Where are Jessica and Dani?" Tony asked.

"Not here, Jess took Dani to see her mom," Luke replied.

Tony grabbed Luke and Danny around the arms and started moving them down the hall. "Best news I've heard all day," he said. "Now let's get the hell out of here."
They flew down the hallway, landing next to the balcony doors, where they were met by Thor. "Iron Man!" Thor said. "What is the distress?"

"Grab a couple buddies and fly, Big Guy, we've got to get away from the tower," Tony replied, hefting Natasha onto his back.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked.

"The arc reactor in the basement is about to go kaboom," Tony said. He took off into the air, going slow so as not to lose anyone, and landed on a roof two blocks from the tower.

"Did I just hear you say," Logan said, dropping from Thor's back as he landed, "That the arc reactor is going up?"

Tony didn't answer, and instead kept staring at the tower.

"Aren't Peter and Carol down there?" Logan continued, his voice a low, rumbling growl.

The blue lights of Iron Man's eyes looked down at the rooftop.

"Stark!" Logan shouted, his claws extended and ready to rip Tony's armor off piece by piece. The only thing that kept him in place was Thor's hand on his shoulder. "What happened? What did you do?"

Tony never got a chance to respond, as white light flashed up from the basement, rising from the bottom as though it were a carnival game trying to ring a bell on the roof.

XXXXXX

Jessica rose as soon as the alarm started, rushing around the room and trying to find a wheelchair or something she could use to get Steve out of the building. Finding nothing immediately at hand, she elected to simply try to lift him off the ground and fly him out.

"Argh!" Steve groaned, grabbing his ribs.

"Sorry!" Jess said, laying him back down. "I guess that's not gonna work."

"Probably not," Steve replied.

She wiped the back of her hand across her brow. "I probably couldn't carry you and fly anyway," she said. "Dammit, this has to have something to do with Peter and Carol."

Steve eased himself back off the bed and onto his feet. "We can't worry about that right now," he said. "We need to get out."

Jessica nodded, and walked over to Steve, putting his arm over her shoulders. Tears were running unbidden down her cheeks, stinging hot as they reached her lips and salted her tongue. She knew something had gone wrong with Peter's cure, and that her best friend may very well be dead. But she also knew her responsibilities, and that she couldn't abandon Captain America to go rush into a situation where she'd most likely be in the way.