"I will not order a nuclear strike on a civilian population!"

"Director Fury is no longer in control..."

Steve:

I can still remember seeing that missile fly overhead. Still recall trying to make a move towards it when we were being evacuated.. The Hulk had tried too. There was no denying that. Absorb gamma radiation once makes you confident you can do it again.

Loki is the king now, they tell me so as I dig around in the black ash and mud for my shield. "Not my king." I mutter, every syllable holding back the urge to punch something.

We were clear of the blast zone when the nuke was first launched. Three minutes to save as many as we could, or live to fight another day. Begrudgingly I listened to the rest of the team, and live to fight another day. We know Hulk.. Or maybe Bruce by now? He's out there somewhere in the midst of the Chutari fleets. We don't know if he's safe, or even if he's alive. Tony reassures me that he can hear the fellow avenger roar in the night, but I've never heard him when it's been my turn to keep watch. We sleep in shifts, and it's like the war I never saw won.

Natasha:

Date: unknown.

Days since fallout: Estimated 5 weeks.

Team status: Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor Odinson. Accounted for. Bruce Banner, Nick Fury, Clint Barton... Status unknown.

Current safe-house: Manhattan. Underground Subway maintenance shaft 15. Distance to next safe-house: Two hour walk from most recent safe-house. Tracks no longer safe. Scouts are not yet looking for us, but they are aware there are rebels down here. It is not just the avengers who took to the underground.

Stark and I have no ammo left. Heavily reliant on Steve and Thor. Both tire quicker than usual now. My training never covered this. I have taught Tony close quarters combat, it's all I can do to keep him sharp and focused. None here will admit it, but we lost this battle the moment we lost the tower. Stark insists we continue towards his lab, but I fear I may peel away from this group, and try to find another way. There is little in terms of options. The next food run will be my turn. I will not abandon this group, but the chance to run is there.

Tony:

Don't get me started. The point is we still have JARVIS. He's the lifeline, the heartbeat, and the soul of this suit. I refuse to power down, in case I lose the connection. I refuse to lose Jarvis. I've been told... Too many times now, that I should conserve my energy, and they're right. Today I had to hook my personal arc to the suit, I'm on emergency power, and time. There's other reactors, and I'm going to get them one way or the other. Loki is the type to bargain, so long as he's gambling entertainment. As king he must be bored, and I want to abuse that. Steve holds me down at times, tells me not to be a hero right now. I'm not interested any more. I don't want to hear it. We've been moving constantly, and I'm surprised we even have the strength left to fight the occasional baddie. I did manage to get in contact with someone today... But I don't think the rest of the team will be happy about it. Hope Steve likes the colour red. He's going to be seeing a lot of it.

Bruce/Hulk:

I thought I was paranoid before, but this is keeping me on edge constantly. I no longer care about the will I so painfully instilled into myself. Right now the less I stay me, the better. Hulk only lets me back when it's safe, or when there's really no other choice. I've been running around the outskirts for a while, and the acid flashbacks of my time inside the Hulk are... Disturbing, to put it nicely. When I'm me, I help anyone I can get away from the patrolling Chutari, and it seems Hulk has a penchant for riding around on the squadrons. I'd find it amusing if this wasn't the end of the life we all once knew. I don't know why they haven't sent in more nukes, why they haven't obliterated everything to dust. I speculate it could be that Loki has the Tesseract, and is using it to keep the city as his. I've never wanted to mutate to have eyes in the back of my head, but when I come around again, I'm ten miles in the opposite direction I'd been running.

Puny man tells Hulk that Puny God is to blame.

Pain from all direction. Hulk cries out for help. Nobody comes to help Hulk.

Running on the roof is easier way. Flying is good too.

Metal man not here to have fun with Hulk, he smash good like Hulk too.

Hulk find Bird man. Bird man not move. Hulk not sure how to help little man.

Opening my eyes to find Clint face down in the mud, drove me to fear and need to run away. Did I do this? Wasn't it bad enough that there was hell around me, that I too had to cause hell? My hands tentatively hold him, turn his face to wipe it clean of the sludge and radioactive waste. If he hadn't died by my hand, nor by bullet, then his mouth full of hazardous waste was sure to do it. Perhaps he couldn't go another step? Poor Barton... Poor Natasha.

For once I thank that there's calm, that there's peace so I can mourn him. There's nowhere to bury him, nowhere with grass, nowhere with flowers. I pull him out of the mud, it's the least I can do. How did Hulk find him? Was there an affinity to the team that I couldn't tell, and the monster could? I drag Clint from the street, and hole up in a broken down warehouse, the very same I'd fallen into the first day of the attack. I leave Clint there, and concentrate every last thought before I change. 'Find Tony. Find Natasha. Find Steve. Find Thor. Find them please... Please. Hulk...'

'Please find them.'