New York, I absolutely hated it. There was stale air, cramped streets, and now aliens with energy guns. Great just great. I sighed as I darted down the street. Buildings were starting to crumble around me as I ran underneath them towards central park.
'Can't I just go home? To my quiet rainy island with trees and beaches.' I growled out my frustration as I slid into a building, dodging any oncoming aliens. I glanced around quickly, seeing no one or alien in the tiny shop with me.
"Could this day get any worse?" I growled softly as I returned to the streets. The whole trek took about 30 minutes. Along the way, I met with other people who were making their way towards the airport to get out of town. I would have gone with them, if it wasn't for the fact that my instincts were screaming at me to get to the park. I learned long ago to listen to my instincts if I wanted to live. So I moved quickly down the streets, finally arriving at central park.
And what a disaster zone it was. Alien bodies were littered everywhere as more trudged forward. Further down the street, there was four people. Three men and one woman to be exact. The woman was stunning in her black cat suit as her wavy red hair blew gently in the wind. The man next to her looked extremely tired but also pissed. His sandy brown hair was chopped short as he held his compact bow close, taking a shot at anything that moved. Then there was the red, white, and blue patriot with his sandy blonde hair and shiny shield. Its symbol reminded me of the war hero Captain America. The last man was another blond (seeing a theme here) whose hair was down to just his shoulders, a large red cape draped off his shoulders as he held a thick hammer in his hand. Altogether, they looked ridiculous but very serious as they watched the approaching aliens. They also appeared to be talking into their ears so I assumed another person was nearby.
Turns out that I was right, as a man in gold and red armor flew over my head with a huge whale thing following him. My jaw almost dropped from just the sheer size of the beast. But just I was about to scream, a man appeared from behind the group. He was wearing raggedy clothes and had salt and pepper hair. I took a few steps forward when I noticed that the man in armor was leading the beast to the poor man. But then something shocking happened, the man started to change. His skin turned green as he grew in size and muscle. Before I knew it, the man punched down the beast's nose and crushed its skull into the street. Its body curled over itself and started to fall towards the group.
"Move." I mumbled the word as I started to run towards the group in hopes of saving at least one of them. But before I got there, an explosion in the beast's tail saved the group. I stopped and felt my neck hairs stand up. I rolled to my left, just barely missing an energy shot and ran into a crumbling building beside me. An alien roared in anger at having missed me and charged into the building, searching for me. I took to the center stairs, leaping where I could and jumped for the railing. I pulled myself over, just barely missing another energy blast that destroyed the entire railing. I continued to run, feeling my heart pumping with extreme adreliane.
"What the Hell! What was that?!" I shouted as I grabbed onto a pillar beside me, swinging around and slamming my feet into the alien's head. I let go and follow its body, crushing its skull with my body weight. A group of aliens rounded the corner, raising their weapons at me. I leaped forwards towards the window in front of me, feeling the glass shatter around me. I curled up a little watching the scene around me for a second.
The group seemed to have split up, leaving the patriot, red head, and the green man. The next second, the green man leapt towards my building that I was falling from, grabbing onto the aliens crawling out of the window after me. I nodded my thanks as I adjusted myself to land on my ass after taking some of the weight out on my legs. I landed with a heavy thump and squealed for a second, rubbing my ass to alieve the pain before testing out my legs. I stood shakily, looking around for more aliens. But what I didn't notice was the patriot and red head staring at me blankly. I sighed when I didn't see any aliens for the second and worked on moving forward. I was wobbling like a newborn foal but managed to work out the wobbling. It was then that I noticed their stares and looked to meet their gaze.
"Oh! Sorry, I'm kind of slow. I didn't mean to ignore you." I mumbled before looking around again. A large group of the aliens started moving forwards, pulling a depressed groan from me. I sighed before tightening my dirty blond hair in its braid. I took a quick look over of my outfit; a black tank top, green cotton vest top, white short shorts, and skin thin black leggings; as I pulled out a set of throwing knives from my back pockets.
"Since we have company, let's meet each other later yes? I'll take the left." I quickly charged towards the oncoming aliens. They began a barge of energy blasts as I dodged and rolled around before throwing my six knives. They each hit their marks, killing the front line with shots in the throat. I tugged my fingers, revealing small threads attached to the knives, sending them onto the next set of aliens. This continued on and on for the next three hours. My energy was slowly leaving me as I continued to add to my growing collection of bruises, cuts, and Oh My God Seriously? Stories.
By the end of the battle, I was tired, sweaty, and so ready to just invade some random house and sleep for the next three months. I trudged my way back towards central park, avoiding the alien bodies and took a seat on a park bench. I let out a deep sigh as I sank into my seat, feeling a slight breeze ruffling my hair almost like a pat on the head. A smile curled up onto my lips as I closed my eyes, resting my worn body. A few moments later, a set of footsteps thumped towards me. I ignored them for a moment, thinking it was a cop or firefighter walking by looking for civilians. But when they stopped behind me, I opened my eyes in curiosity. There stood the man wearing captain America's symbol. I looked at him confused for a moment before sitting up and staring at the sidewalk in front of me. I paused, scratching my head for a moment before falling back and landing against the bench with a loud thump.
"I'm going insane. Hallucinations, alien attacks. The points just keep racking up." I mumble before closing my eyes to ignore the man behind me.
"Um…Miss?" I groaned and turned my head away from the man's voice, hoping that my hallucination would get the hint and leave me alone.
"Miss? Please stop ignoring me. I need to talk to you." I looked up at him again. A gentle smile accompanied with baby blue eyes and blonde hair, I was defeated with one look from this guy.
"Fine." I mumble, sitting straighter on my bench. Patting the spot next to me, I waited for him to sit next to me with tiredness.
"You need to come with me. My comrades want to talk to you." I pouted and shook my head furiously.
"I'm too tired to walk for the moment. Maybe in a few minutes? Till I get feeling in my legs. Fighting barefooted isn't the greatest move." I grin sheepishly, showing my tired feet. He sighed, looked at me for a moment, before joining me on the bench.
"My name is Steve Rogers. May I ask your name, ma'am?" I giggled at his politeness before pulling my wallet out of my back pocket.
"The name is Mara Leaf. I apologize for my selfishness. I'll kind of stalling because I'm still not used to people." I said sheepishly, scratching the back of my head. A light chuckle from the man next to me relaxed me far better than any sedative the doctors would give me.
"So, Steve Rogers, why on God's good earth were you fighting aliens this lovely afternoon?" I asked as I leaned back onto the bench. A series of intense cracks reverberated from my spine, drawing a loud sigh from me.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you ma'am. Its military information." I pouted before turning to the man next to me.
"Can't you leave out all the secret military stuff then? Seriously, this sounds like a great story and I live on an abandoned island with no people whatsoever. I'm only here because my two managers flew out there to drag me here for a party. That's it, just a party nothing freaking else. So how did this start for you?" He hesitated for a moment, before slowly spilling things. There were a lot of blanks but I understood the reason and found this story exciting.
"So basically an alien came from a vortex, stole a magic wand that could open vortexes and control people, screwed with your world saving military before deciding to be a big ass diva, take over stark tower and open a vortex to the army of other aliens that we just fought?" he nodded as a very loud and familiar obnoxious laughter filled the air around us. I turned to see Tony Stark standing with the help of the man who turned green. I scowled before buring my face into Steve's shoulder.
"Aw shit its Stark. I'm just gonna cry. His face is beginning to invade my mind!" I muffle shouted into Steve's shoulder. He chuckled before turning towards the group of people that began to form around us. Tony smiled at me before plopping a seat next to me.
"You know you can't run away from me, Leaf. I can find you anytime I want." I groaned and lifted my head from Steve's shoulder.
"Stark. You know full well that I could disappear from any radar you have and you would not be able to find me for months if I really wanted to. But then you would just send my managers to get me now wouldn't you? Ya flipping stalker." I growled out. I slowly stood up from the bench, feeling my knees pop and my shoulder shout in protest. I shook myself for a second before turning my attention to the other people of the group.
"Blondie, I hate to be rude but you need a seat, please sit before I throw you into it." He looked at me stunned before smirking and quietly chuckling.
"I would love to see you try dear." I chuckled along with him before sticking my hand out.
"Mara Leaf. Inventor, pleasure to meet ya." He took my hand and shook it, before letting go and taking my seat.
"Clint Barton. Agent. Nice to meet you as well." I nodded before turning to the red head before me. I stared at her for a moment before smiling and letting out a soft giggle.
"I believe we have met before, you were an assistant of Pepper Potts for a while were you not? Awful nice woman she is. But I'm afraid I don't remember names well." I extended a hand to her which she took, before nodding.
"Yes, though I am an agent as well. Stark needed a babysitter and I was picked for the Job. Name's Natasha." I smiled before patting her shoulder with a chuckle.
"My apologizes, that must have been a hard partnership. I can't stand to be his business partner for more than two days and that's with bribery." A loud 'Hey' sounded from Stark as both me and Natasha laughed for a moment. I turned to the next blond taking him in for a second. This man was built like an ox with flowing blond hair that rest at his shoulders. A heavy war hammer rested in his hands as he looked down at me with slight amusement and weariness.
"Hello there, what's your name?" I ask politely, placing a hand in front of him to shake.
"Thor, Son of Odin. And you miss?" He gripped my hand firmly, taking me by surprise before I smiled at him. I returned the grip and gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder.
"Mara Leaf, Huntsman. A pleasure to meet you, your highness." I released my grip and watched as he looked at me in slight shock before letting out a bellowing laugh.
"Such respect, you Midgardians are a strange people. So diverse." We chuckled for a few minutes. As we calmed down and the group began talking amongst themselves, I noticed the man who turned green was standing off to the side looking edgy. I made my way over to him and slowly placed a hand in front of him. He froze for a moment before looking at me with scared and tired eyes. He swiftly shook my hand before looking back at me.
"Hello, my name's Mara Leaf. What's yours?" he hesitated, looking fearful before calming himself down.
"Bruce, nice to meet you." I smiled at his timid answer before patting his shoulder swiftly.