"You know, Wanda, I still have some pull at MIT if you ever think about going there for college. Or let me know what school you decide on, and I'll write a recommendation."
Wanda smiled at what Stark said; while Pietro was stuffing his face with his sixth entree, she and Stark talked about other minor matters. Such as her education, she didn't mean to start talking about how she wanted to go back to school, but since it was what she was primarily focused on currently, it accidentally slipped out.
"Y-You don't have to do all that! I want to get into whatever school I choose with my own merits." Wanda smiled and looked down at her half-full glass of water. Looking back up at the billionaire, he smiled and nodded.
"Okay, okay, but I'll be handling your tuition. Everything, the full ride." Stark took a sip of his wine. "I won't be taking no for an answer."
Wanda's eyes widened, and she was about to respond when everyone's phones in the restaurant, herself included, started to beep repeatedly. Pietro stopped eating and looked around with a confused expression on his face. Pulling out her phone, Wanda's eyes widened at the notification in bold letters.
[ EMERGENCY ALERT
NUCLEAR EXPLOSION IMMINENT IN LOS ANGELES
EXPLOSION WITHIN 1 HOUR
SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER
THIS IS NOT A DRILL ]
Feeling her heart drop, Wanda stood up, looked at her brother, and showed him the screen. Pietro's eyes grew wide with fear; immediately, he stood up as well. Wanda turned to look at Stark as he held his phone out while a holographic screen hovered over it.
"Jarvis, show me what's going on." Stark said as he swiped through several windows and landed on a news feed showing a fight between a giant red monster and a man with a fiery skull.
"Harvey." Wanda whispered as Pietro turned to her.
"It appears that an unknown SHEILD agent in Los Angeles issued a nuclear explosion threat. While the widespread public warning was for an hour, the timeframe seems unknown." Wanda heard Jarvis say. Behind her, the sounds of panic and chaos erupted. Turning around, she watched as everyone in the restaurant started to leave and exit the building.
"Shit. Jarvis, patch me to Fury. Right now." Stark walked up to the large glass window and looked in the direction of where Los Angeles was.
"Very well, sir."
"Wanda." Pietro walked up to her and grabbed her hand. "Whatever is going on, I think Harvey is involved in it. And he needs help."
"G-Go! Go help! I-I'll be there as soon as I can." Wanda said shakily. "GO!"
Pietro nodded and vanished in a blur of silver and blues. Wanda released a deep sigh and felt her hands shake. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and calmed herself. Walking up to Stark, she saw him hang up his phone and turn to her.
"Follow me. Happy is getting the jet ready; we're heading to LA." Stark started walking quickly; Wanda followed closely behind him as they left the restaurant and reached a silver Aston Martin Vulcan. Once inside the vehicle, Stark began to drive at breakneck speeds toward where the jet was.
"Stark. What's going on?" Wanda asked quickly.
"Fury told me that whatever Miller is fighting is a walking-talking nuke." Stark drove around four cars quickly and accelerated. "There's about eleven minutes left before the energy within that creature builds up to the point it will detonate with enough energy similar to that of fifteen kilotons of TNT. Harvey is trying to get that thing as far away from the city as possible. Otherwise… there won't be a city anymore."
"But the alert said an hour? Why would they lie?" Wanda questioned as she felt herself grow numb. Stark sighed and shook her head.
"It's… to give the city's people some time to evacuate. If they knew the truth, then they would panic and give up hope." Stark said as if he swallowed something sour.
Looking forward at the fast-moving buildings and cars going by, Wanda felt her head hurt. Images of the Dunphys, Pritchetts, and Tuckers flashed through her mind. Memories of all the good times and enjoyable talks played before her. The city she was slowly starting to fall in love with was about to be destroyed… just like her home in Sokovia.
"It's… happening again." Wanda whispered as she grabbed the side of her head; despair swelled inside her.
"No, it's not. Once we're in the air, I'll suit up and help the kid get that thing as far from the city as possible. Nothing will happen." Stark spoke confidently, making Wanda believe what he said would come true.
"…Okay."
•••
"Everyone, please move calmly and quickly!"
Haley heard the male officer, John Nolan, say as he and three other officers directed her, Alex, and several others toward one of the city's bomb shelters. Haley turned to Alex; her little sister had a nervous expression as she kept looking back where the battle continued echoing throughout the city.
"Alex. He'll be fine." Haley smiled. "We just have to believe in him."
"I know… I know he is." Alex smiled back and nodded. "I know he'll defeat that thing and save the city. When he's done, we'll all have dinner, Just like always."
Haley nodded, grabbed Alex's hand, and continued walking behind the small group. Underneath her strong facade, she was a nervous wreck; who could blame her? Just a few minutes ago, Alex ran towards danger and could have gotten herself killed if Harvey didn't intervene. In addition, a nuclear bomb threat was issued, causing an already difficult situation to turn downright apocalyptic.
"Okay, everyone file in calmly." Nolan held open the extremely thick door as everyone quickly filed inside.
Haley and Alex turned to watch the door close, sealing everyone inside. Thoughts of her parents and Luke were at the forefront of her mind. Were they able to find shelter? Or perhaps they would try and get as far away as possible. Dismissing those thoughts, Haley closed her eyes and brought her hands together. There was no reason to worry about all that; after all, Harvey would succeed and stop that monster from succeeding. There would be no explosion.
Everything would be fine.
Right?
•••
"It's a war zone."
Pietro skidded to a stop as he raised his goggles over his hair and looked at the sheer amount of destruction. Finally arriving in West Hollywood from San Francisco, Pietro changed into his vigilante outfit. This was so he could run around without worrying about being recognized in broad daylight.
BAM
A loud crash erupted from within the wrecked shopping center. Harvey's battle was still ongoing; Pietro placed his goggles on and decided to see if other civilians were in the building. In a flash, he ran into the building at blinding speeds, entirely surrounded by passing officers and SHIELD agents.
Seeing a few people hiding in the corner of the frozen food aisle within the Target, Pietro quickly snatched two of them up and ran outside a safe distance away from the building. Before, Pietro couldn't correctly run at such speeds while carrying two people, but thanks to all his training with Amy. It was now possible without having to worry about accidentally hurting his passengers.
"You're safe here." Pietro quickly said to the two young women who looked severely disoriented after he placed them down.
Not waiting for a response, Pietro ran back inside, picked up the remaining four people, and brought them to where he left the two women. "Okay, who's next."
From that point, it was a mad dash through all the stores and all the corners of the building. Pietro found fourteen more people before confidently saying the building was free of civilians. He dropped them all off in the same location as the first group he found. Turning to the right, he saw two police officers looking over all the people he had extracted.
"Officer! This was everyone left inside! You don't have to worry about going in to get them out!" Pietro quickly said as he walked over to the female officer, looking down at his name tag. Pietro saw that the officer's name was Chen. "Get them to a shelter quickly, Officer Chen!"
"What? Wait!"
Pietro heard the officer yell as he once again ran towards the building. "Now, with everyone inside out, I have to ensure no people are outside the building."
With his new mission in mind, Pietro zoomed around outside. Not seeing anyone after running around the whole perimeter, he was about to run to Harvey to lend a hand. But he saw slight movement under some rubble and dirt before he could.
Running to it, Pietro saw a man covered in dirt and debris. No wonder he missed him; the man was practically camouflaged. Bending down, Pietro helped get the small pieces of concrete and rubble off. After tossing aside a piece of wood, Pietro noticed the man wearing a police vest over his clothes. "Officer, are you alright? What's your name?"
Pietro waited for the dark-skinned man to focus and get his bearings. With a shake of his head, he turned to look at him. "I-I'm fine… my name is Kevin… Kevin Atwater. Whe-where's the rest of my team?"
Pietro's eyes widened, and they started looking around. Kevin's teammates might have been also under the debris and dirt. "Don't worry about them, Kevin. I'll find them. But first, I need to get you far away from here and to a doctor."
"N-No, I have to find m-my team." Kevin tried to sit up but started coughing; blood then dripped down his head.
"Sorry, Officer. I can't let you do that. But don't worry. Ill find them."
Before Kevin could reply, Pietro picked the much larger man up and ran towards the furthest ambulance he saw when he first arrived in Los Angeles—dropping the disoriented man down in front of a surprised paramedic. Pietro smiled and started running back, looking for the man's teammates everywhere in the area he found Kevin.
"Hang on a while longer, Harvey." Pietro said as he found another unconscious officer. "Help is on the way."
•••
"Stay down, Simon!"
Ghost Rider heard Eric yell from several dozen feet away as he looked down at Simon, who was slowly getting up after he punched him with a Hellfire-infused punch. Simon stood up and growled at him as he crouched slightly.
With a mighty leap, Simon flew across the air and tried to punch the spirit of vengeance. Not willing to let Simon follow through with the attack, Ghost Rider powered up his left leg with Hellfire and jumped up. Kicking Simon across the face with the kick, an explosion of Hellfire erupted behind his foot. This dramatically increased the impact of the attack, sending Simon flying and crashing across the street and into a police car. Their fight was now moving out towards the open streets.
Landing on the ground, Ghost Rider sprinted after Simon and summoned several chains that wrapped around the red-muscled body of the out-of-control boy. Skidding to a stop in front of the kneeling boy, Ghost Rider jumped up behind Simon and held him in a headlock.
"Now's your chance!"
Ghost Rider yelled out to Eric, who ran up to them both. Eric suggested that he should try to talk to Simon to bring him out of his daze and gain control of his actions. Ghost Rider didn't like the plan; too many things could go wrong, but ultimately, he agreed to try it. After all, if it could have a chance of working.
"SIMON! Please snap out of it! You have to try and wake up; This isn't you! You would never do anything to hurt anyone!" Eric yelled with a look of desperation. Ghost Rider grunted as he held the now struggling Simon in place. "You're stronger than the power that's controlling your mind! Simon!"
"RAGH!"
Simon flexed his muscles and unleashed a blast of energy. Destroying the chains and knocking back the spirit of vengeance several feet away. Simon looked over to Eric and roared once more; with a dash forward, Simon cocked back his right arm. Fully intent on splattering his brother across the ground.
"Simon, NO!" Eric yelled as he held an arm out in front of him.
WHAM
A green truck slammed into Simon, throwing him back several feet. Simon slid to a stop and raised the truck above his head; with a mighty yank, he tore the vehicle in half.
Down the road, Ghost Rider looked straight at the boy and noticed his red skin begin to crack. White, glowing energy could be seen underneath. Ghost Rider started walking towards the boy; uncertainty grew within him.
"Come on, kid. Wake up! We don't have time for this." Ghost Rider said as he conjured a new chain in his hands. "...Don't make me kill you."