E I G H T E E N
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Steve seemed to be the only one that registered her word, and it stopped him dead in his tracks.
Iris starred past the trio of arguing Avengers and right at 2012 June. Steve followed her gaze and almost immediately, his shoulders sagged.
Taking a few steps forward, Iris stood even with the captain as they watched June tap at her phone a few times. She could've sworn she heard, "Come one, pick up pick up."
It struck Iris suddenly who June was trying to call: Herself. June was trying to call 2012 Iris after she'd fled the city on a bus. It seemed like the battle had burned out, and so, June had come looking for her only sister.
2012 June looked younger than her former self (duh) but she looked almost exactly the same. Her hair was a bit shorter, and she didn't have as much stress on her shoulders. There was less muscle on her body too. This June also wore makeup, granted it wasn't a full face, but enough for Iris to see. June from 2019 had abandoned makeup a while ago for reasons unknown to Iris, but this younger version of her clearly hadn't yet.
Tony and Scott seemed to notice the shell-shocked Avengers standing still as a rock. The later stepped to the side and looked awfully confused. "You two alright?"
Tony put the pieces together much quicker and whirled around, watching with Iris and Steve as June paused in front of a building across the street to redial past Iris.
He spun back to Iris, shaking his head. "Uh uh, no. You can't interfere, this is the past remember? Don't you dare do anything stupid, you too Rogers." He pointed to Steve. "I know that's your girlfriend out there and you miss her like hell but you can't do anything, let's go."
It seemed, however, like the universe had different plans.
A part of the building June was standing under, waiting for past Iris to pick up her phone, began to crumble.
At first, it was just specks of dust and pebbles, but then the crack began to form, and with a loud snap, boulders of brick and concrete began hurtling toward June.
Iris and Steve saw it at the same time, and she lowered her mask. "Steve."
"Right behind you."
They pushed past Tony, who called out several warnings after them and sprinted across the street.
Well, Steve sprinted, Iris flew, outstretching her hands to stop the falling debris in case Steve didn't get to June in time.
June by now, had noticed something was up. She saw Steve sprinting in her direction, yelling for her to run, and a masked flyer in the air, and then she looked up.
Iris saw her expression turn from confusion to terror in a split second before Steve dove toward her, catching her around her middle, turning in midair so when they hit the sidewalk, it was him who cushioned her fall. He rotated again, so he was on top of her and held his shield over their heads.
Iris clenched her fingers and so close, too close, to Steve's back, the boulders quivered to a stop. Accompanied by the rising of her arms, the boulders rose in turn, lifting slowly away from June. She titled her wrists and the wreckage floated away from them, to the left, where Iris set it down gently.
Iris herself brought herself down on solid ground as Steve lifted himself off of a shaken, but unscathed June. With shaky breathing and brushing some dust off the front of her shirt, June thanked him.
Steve looked down at her (He was taller by at least five inches) and nodded. "Of course ma'am, stay safe." His voice was hoarse, choaked even, and Iris could've sworn he stared at her for several seconds too long, until he turned away. As soon as he did, Iris caught a glimpse of his heartbroken expression.
June then turned to her. "Thank you too."
Iris stood there frozen. June was here, June was here. Standing three feet in front of her, thanking her for saving her life. Iris didn't know what to say or do until Tony's voice crackled through her commlink.
"Supergirl, your suits got a voice changer, say something and get out of there."
Iris cleared her throat. "No problem." Sure enough, when she spoke, the suite gave her an accent and a deeper voice. She looked at June, really looked at her, scratching this image of her in her mind, before slowly lifting herself into the air and turning away.
"Wait," June called, and Iris froze. She knows. "You can fly?"
Iris, a little confused, turned toward her again. "Yeah, I suppose I can."
Past June gave her a tiny smile. "My sister always wanted to fly, what's it like?"
Iris' jaw went slack, and her eyes widened. June was talking about her. Past her, really, but close enough. If she remembered right, she herself wouldn't learn to fly until a few years later, and June was asking on a supposed stranger on her behalf.
She cleared her throat, recalling to mind all the times she'd flown and described it to June. "It's the best feeling, you feel free, otherworldly almost."
June nodded, still smiling. "Thank you."
Iris nodded and gave her sister a mock salute before flying to the alley, making sure to fly out of sight of her sister.
After being absolutely certain June was gone, Iris returned to the alleyway and landed next to Steve, letting her helmet fall. "She's fine." Her voice was monotone.
He nodded, staring off into space, and Iris could've sworn her eyes were watering. "Thank you."
Tony marched over. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"She would've died Tony, besides, we already screwed up." Iris walked over to the wall and slid down it.
Tony seemed to realize she was still in shock. He walked over and sat down next to her. "Hey, my bad." He paused. "What's she like?"
Iris breathed out a laugh through her nose. "Younger, less angsty I think." Iris took a turn to pause. "She asked me how flying felt."
He didn't say anything for a minute. "It feels pretty good, doesn't it? Terrifying sometimes, 'cause what if you lose control and can't stop yourself from hitting the ground, but damn, there's nothing like it."
Iris nodded. "Couldn't have said it better."
It was both gratifying and painful seeing June again. On the one hand, Iris blamed herself for her death and too see her alive again was like a jolt to the heart. On the other, seeing and talking to her past sister brought up an unhealthy amount of pain that it nearly brought Iris to her knees.
It was nearly impossible to explain through words what she felt. June was her sister, she'd been there since day one. Having an older sibling had its perks, and they didn't see eye to eye more than half of the time, but Iris knew she meant well, and realized, that all June had ever wanted was to see her safe.
With all that had happened over the years, alien invasions, robot invasions, another alien invasion, Iris had wanted in on the action. Of how she got her powers, neither of them knew, and frankly, didn't want to find out. But what she did know is that she wanted to use them. People always talked about making a change, but with such little resources to do it, nothing changed (unless you were Tony, but he didn't count.) With the ability to save people from fires or stop a crashing car, the ability to save a life had hit her like a ton of bricks, and suddenly she'd needed to do something.
June had always been her rock, a solid thing she could count on no matter the time of day. Sometimes she wondered if it took more of a toll on June than she'd let on, but she never pushed it. It was something she wanted to do, and it was hard to push away an older sister who only wanted to help.
June had known the Iris had wanted to do something with her powers but in a world filled with aliens (damnit, at it again), literal gods, super soldiers, and famous assassins, she was more than hesitant on letting her out of the safe shadow of a middle-class family.
But as though she'd picked up her sister's least favorite trait, Iris, as stubborn as she was now, had told June there was nothing she could do to stop her. That she was going to change something, that she was going to be remembered whether she liked it or not. And June had only nodded and told her that she'd loved her, and she'd be there if she ever changed her mind.
Iris never did, but now she was having second thoughts.
She felt a tear trickle down her cheek and hastily wiped it away. No, it was not time to cry, she had to put on her big girl pants and man up. The world needed her, June needed her, and Stephen needed her. If she failed to save them, again, Iris didn't quite know what she'd do with herself.
Pushing herself off the dirty cement, she turned to Steve. "What's the plan Cap?"
Tony followed her actions, still giving her a concerned look. "Take Scott back, Steve and I need to take care of something." He noted her questionable gaze. "We'll be fine, I'll see you in a minute." Iris smiled at the wink he gave her.
"Whatever you say Tin Can."
A/N: wow wow wow it's literally been a whole like, 6 months since I've updated this entire comment line is reserved for yelling at me lol
So much has changed in the past few months, if you all would like to know in detail or just know what's been happening feel free to message me I might post something on here but that honestly depends.
This update is dedicated to sad-sadie and Eloplyn their comments on the last chapter of this book was like a slap in the face but like a good slap and so I immediately got off my ass and started writing again lol
I got accepted into college lol scholarships are a pain in the tush I want to sleep for 3 thousand years
I was gonna wait until Friday or Saturday to publish this but ya'll have waited long enough lol
Thank you all so much for reading, you all have got me back into writing and you all are amazing I'd adopt all of you on the spot lol
Stay not dead,
~Kelly~
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