"You could be a hero,
Heroes do what's right,
You could be a hero,
You might save a life,
You could be a hero, you could join the fight,
For what's right, for what's right, for what's right..."

o0O0o

Pepper wished there was an instructional manual for being brave, perhaps a textbook, because she was surely failing that subject. The light ginger perched, clad in a white business blouse and a black pencil skirt, on a bench with a book in hand, when—crash! Time stood still as a chunk of a tree's trunk skidded at her, wreaking havoc on the park lawn. There was just enough time for a scream to escape her lips—surely the tree had not naturally split in two! Cracks of twigs and snaps of branches could hardly be heard over the thump of the tree as it slued and plunged toward her bench.

Pepper swore she could heard the leaves clatter against the soft earth below it, as they shook off the maple when it collided with the metal bench. Like an out of body experience, she SAW herself stumbling off the bench and crawling away with the grace of an elephant/platypus/T-Rex mix and the speed of a caffeinated cheetah.

Her breath picked up at the sounds of bones cracking, but she knew they could not be her own, because she only felt the pain of minor scratches and bruises. Gasps of pain and pants of exhaustion came from beyond the tree, but she could not see over it from her low position. Pepper's shins burned, skinned by a rock and blood blends with dirt. There were grass stains on her lower legs and clothes. Her palms stung. Pepper's viridescent and verdant green eyes widened.

"Max!" a shrill, young girl's alarmed voice rung out.

A child? Pepper thought. But... it seems like those people are fighting?

Pepper's mind was hazy—she'd been reading, on a bench, in a park, but why couldn't she form a picture of the cover of the book in her mind? Why did she have no clue as to what park she might be in, either, for that matter? Her only conclusion was that she'd been drugged, but for what reason?

"Max! There's too many!" cried the voice again. "Ouch!"

Too many what? Pepper tried to sit up, to see what was going down behind the large maple, but her palms were violently bruised and bloody, and that's when she knew she was missing more information than where she was or what book she had been studying for how long? Another thought swam through the confusion clouding her mind: What ever there was too many of was hurting a little girl! Indignation curled in her bones and outrage boiled in her veins. she used her knuckles to get up on her knees and was astounded by the sight in front of her.

Five angels, wings outstretched, seemed to be battling at least twenty dog men, and possibly losing horribly, because two were nearly dead looking. Hunched over, was a maybe thirteen-year-old African American in a frankly alarming shade of pink frills, with blood soaking into her pink camisole. Three older ones were sparring with a least three dog men (who hulked over them by several feet, with bloodthirsty carnivorous snarls and guns plastered to their backs, fur covering them from head to toe), and looked to be nineteenish. One was faster than the others and had a leader aura to her, thin but strong with golden brown highlighted hair and eyes like chocolate, with wings keeping her two feet up. Another, a tall dark boy clad in black with feathers to match (possibly emo punk) tried to keep a lanky-looking, tall, pasty boy with strawberry blonde hair away from the monsters.

A cry, from the youngest, directed Pepper to her. Platinum blonde hair sticking to the sides of her tear tracks, a six-year-old cried, choking on blood and sobbing over of a maybe nine-year-old boy with wings twisted at odd angles. Her wings extended from her back in a flutter. "Gazzy!"

The tall dark one spun around to take a look and his opponent took the opportunity to clutch the sides of his head and twist it backward. He crumpled. Pepper began to cry.

"Fang! Oh god..." called the older girl, and then yelled in rage for the little girl to: "U & A, Angel!"

The little girl stands, and tries to fly, but a dog man shoves her and she runs instead, like a bat out of hell, in Pepper's direction. The little angel crash lands onto Pepper's lap. The ginger tenses.

"Help me," the girl—Angel, pleads, "Please!"

Pepper Potts clenches her teeth and decides to save this girl's life. She wishes she were Tony for once. He would know what to do. But Pepper knows what to do, she just doesn't know how to do it. Her heart beats erratically, as she grips the girl's wrist, hauling her up and hot footing it in the opposite direction of the brawling monsters.

Anywhere but here.

Pepper didn't know how long she pulled the young blonde and bolted—it could have been hours...hell, it could have been days with her breath like a hurricane plus the raining salty tears on both of their soft faces. Really, it was more like minutes. Pepper wanted, yearned even, to reassure that girl, that angel! that everything would be alright, but Pepper could not force herself to utter those words—to guarantee something she had no control over. Partly it was because she could not force a smile with bushes tangling with her hair as they ran aimlessly(everything was blurry due to hot tears), but with purpose. Pepper also had a theory that shrubs and greenery was just popping into their faces to make her life more miserable. But mostly she could not force herself to vow that everything would be alright, because probably nothing would ever be alright again for this girl.

PTSD—especially with someone so young...

And if she didn't have any caretakers—well, the foster system wasn't as kind as the government made it out to be. Pepper contributed to enough charities to know that some people didn't take foster children in for the right reasons. Pepper vows to raise the little angel by herself if she needed to (because it didn't look like she was able to get back to heaven with an injured stark white wing). And if that little girl got into the wrong hands, Pepper would never forgive herself.

At least she didn't judge.

Pepper's lungs burnt, her throat constricted in agony—and as she recognized a bench, she realize she was running in a loop. Note to Self: Don't follow the brick path.

She tugged at the girl's arm, changing their velocity, but it's useless! Fleeing with an exhausted, possibly starved, dehydrated, and from the looks of it, beaten six-year-old with F. R. E. A. K. I. N. G wings (But really she should not be surprised anymore, given that she'd met a green rage monster with a gamma ray scientist alter ego, two master assassins, two Norse gods—one wields and hammer and the other has severe daddy issues and a helmet with horns, a kid who got bit by a radioactive spider, a science fiction pirate, and her fiance fights crime in a tin can...) is like running a three-legged-race with a life-size rag doll.

Realistically, her tears should have run out a long time ago. The angel and she had run, trying to escape the sounds of the fight, but the cries of anguish rattle and echo in their eardrums.

Her heels click on stones until she flicks them off behind her. Tony Stark, I need you! Pepper thinks desperately fishing in her pockets for a phone. Where was her purse?

Bingo!

o0O0o

Summary: Pepper Potts helps Angel get away from some Erasers. The rest of the Flock dies except Max and Angel, but S.H.I.E.L.D gets a hold of them and they either have to break out of the facility or cooperate. Well, we all know Max is anti-cooperation...

Okay! Hey guys I'm Tori aka blackangelwings lallalaal Total Clintasha shipper so we may see some of that... Pepperony Thor/Jane And Max will be the love interest of... you'll see.

I'm normally a total Fax shipper, but Fang dies in this one so Max... yeah yeah

I love advice or requests,, all that jazz! maybe songs to base chapters on...

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Don't know what's going on

Don't know what went wrong
Feels like a hundred years
I still can't believe you're gone

So, I'll stay up all night
With these bloodshot eyes
While these walls surround me
With the story of our life

I feel so much better
Now, that you're gone forever
I tell myself that I don't
Miss you at all

I'm not lying, denying
That I feel so much better now
That you're gone forever

Now, things are coming clear
And I don't need you here
And in this world around me
I'm glad you disappeared

So, I'll stay out all night
Get drunk and fuckin fight
Until the morning comes
I'll forget about our life

I feel so much better
Now, that you're gone forever
I tell myself that I don't
Miss you at all

I'm not lying, denying
That I feel so much better now
That you're gone forever

First time you screamed at me
I should have made you leave
I should have known
It could be so much better

I hope you're missing me
I hope I've made you see
That I'm gone forever

And now, it's coming clear
That I don't need you here
And in this world around me
I'm glad you disappeared

I feel so much better
Now, that you're gone forever
I tell myself that I don't
Miss you at all

I'm not lying, denying
That I feel so much better now
That you're gone forever

And now, you're gone forever
And now, you're gone forever