So, like many others, I've come to really love the characters in the Avengers and decided to try my hand at a fanfic. I hope you enjoy.
Pride & Empathy
Chapter 1
"Lizzy! Lizzy, where are you?"
The world was crumbling around her, and Alexa had managed to lose the one thing that mattered most in the world—her baby sister.
"Elizabeth!" she called, voice raw from the screaming and the pure panic pumping through her veins. "Elizabeth!"
Debris was everywhere. Clouds of dust created a haze through which she could see the twisted bodies of cars and buses, remnants of buildings and pavement, people running or lying still on the ground, and blood—there was so much blood. It was madness.
It was hell.
The day had started off so normal—so perfectly normal. The sun was shining, warming the sidewalks of New York City in a pleasant way that left Lizzy cheering, happy summer had finally arrived. Her first winter had been hard. But that day, nothing could go wrong.
Lizzy had just graduated from seventh grade that morning. Alexa had never been more proud of her little sister, the devil. An empty box of Kleenexes was testament to that. Her heart squeezed thinking of how wonderful everything had seemed.
They had walked down the happy streets to Lizzy's favorite restaurant, the one right at the base of Stark Tower. The place was pricey, but it was the restaurant their parents had taken them the first time they came to visit Alexa in New York. Lizzy didn't have to say it, but she knew that was why her little sister jumped at every chance she got to go there.
They had been sitting outside, waiting on their food, Lizzy practically bursting with excitement, though she tried to hide it because it wasn't 'cool', when the unthinkable happened, when all hell had broken lose.
Those—those things came. Buildings began exploding, and people began screaming. Somewhere between the restaurant windows shattering and pieces of the building falling, she had lost Lizzy.
"Elizabeth!" She cried, tears trickling unconsciously from her eyes. She scrambled over cars and rubble, desperate to find her sister and terrified of the possibilities of what state she could be in once she found her.
"Alexa!" The cry was faint, but had her spinning around and running blindly towards its direction.
"Elizabeth!"
"Alexa, over here!"
She had been running so fast she had almost missed her sister's cowering body behind an overturned bus. Her heart felt like it was going to burst with relief. She threw herself at her sister, hugging her tighter, as if she let go Lizzy would slip away again.
"Are you hurt? Is anything broken, bleeding—" Liz struggled in her hold. "If you keep squeezing me like that there's going to be."
Alexa rolled her eyes and dragged her sister back into her arms, half to make sure she wasn't dreaming and half to annoy Lizzy in case she wasn't.
"Okay, okay, I get it. You were worried."
"Damn straight, punk." An explosion nearby sent the sisters ducking their heads. It was then that Alexa noticed that her sister was not the only one taking cover behind the bus. A teenager, a woman with two children, an elderly woman, and a man that she assumed was once the bus driver were all there trembling along with them.
"Alexa," Liz whispered, voice shaking and arms clinging to her sister, "what are those things?"
Her eyes were drawn back to the events playing out beyond the bus. They watched, mesmerized as the large scaly bodies of the invaders hit the ground and began shooting everything in sight.
"I…I don't know."
Her sister trembled against her. "What are we going to do?"
Alexa moved to repeat the same answer, but one look at her sister's face made her change her mind. The girl was shaking in fear, but looked at her with hopeful blue eyes. Eyes that trusted her big sister would fix things—that she would know what to do.
She glanced up and noticed everyone else was staring at her with similar hope filled eyes. They were lost, dazed, and hurting, and they wanted—no, needed—someone to lead them out of this nightmare.
Alexa closed her eyes and tried to pull herself together, summoning every ounce of self-assurance and confidence she possessed. She smothered the fear and panic inside her, pushing it into some corner of herself where it couldn't muddy up her thoughts.
"We can't stay here," she declared firmly.
Flashes of panic danced across their faces. She knew what they were thinking. Leaving left them exposed. Leaving meant that they could be killed.
"One of them will find us back here and kill us. We need somewhere safe…off the streets." As she spoke her eyes darted around, straining through the haze. They needed somewhere easily blockaded and sturdy enough to not collapse around them. She tilted her head back and squinted up at the glowing blue hole in the sky. Centered right above Stark Tower, those things were pouring out of it by the hundreds.
"There!" Alexa cried.
Liz tried and failed to spot the place. "Where?"
"There." She pointed. "The lobby of Stark Tower. These things are coming from above it and branching out. The last thing they're going to do is loop back and attack it. I think," she murmured the last part under her breath.
"But…it's so far," came a shaky voice from down the bus. The mother with the two crying, shaking children looked at her with wide, frightened eyes.
Alexa tried to school her face to express the confidence she hardly felt.
"We don't have a choice. We're not going to die here."
She wasn't going to give them an option. They needed to come. Staying was a death sentence.
"Okay, we're going to have to go in teams." She scanned over the group. "You, kid." She gestured at the teenager.
"Me?" he replied, startled he'd been addressed.
"Yes, you. What's your name?"
"Uh—Adrian."
She nodded, satisfied. "Okay, Adrian, I need you to help Mrs..." She trailed off, looking at the elderly woman.
"Abigail. Abigail Woods. But just Abigail dearie." The woman gave her a sweet smile, one that was far too cheerful for their settings. She spoke as if they were meeting at a tea party and not in the middle of a war zone.
"Right—I need you, Adrian, to help Mrs. Abigail to the lobby. Can you do that for me?" she implored.
Adrian's eyes darted about, and she could see fear begin to take over.
"Adrian!" she yelled. His eyes flashed to her. Her stare left no room for refusal. "You need to help Mrs. Abigail to the lobby," she spoke slowly, enunciating and emphasizing each word. "Do you understand?"
He nodded shakily, lips pressed hard together.
"Okay, good."
"Now Mr...," she paused to read the name tag on his uniform, "Dave." His head lifted in acknowledgement, but he did not speak. "I need you to help the nice lady over there with the kids. You will carry one and she'll carry the other. Understand?"
He shook his head mutely.
"I need a yes or no, Dave."
"Yes—I can do that" came the hoarse whisper. He sounded as if he was suffocating, but she had more important things to deal with. Once they were safe everyone could have all the mental breakdowns they liked.
"Okay, my sister and I are going to run over there first. Once I give the signal, Dave, your group will follow. And then after that, Mrs. Abigail and Adrian will head over. Everyone understand?"
Heads nodded.
"Good."
Alexa took a deep breath and grabbed her sister's hand. "You ready, Lizzy?" she asked, glancing down at her. Lizzy gulped and shook her head.
"Right. Don't let go of my hand—no matter what happens."
Her eyes darted around, taking in the surroundings. None of those things were between them and the lobby, but she was worried once they left the shelter of the bus they would see movement and come to investigate—something they couldn't afford.
"When you cross over stay as low to the ground as possible," she called down the line before turning back to her sister.
"Deep breath," she told Lizzy. "On the count of three."
"One…"
"Two..."
"Three!"
The two sisters darted from behind the bus to the nearest large object, an overturned car. A moment passed while Alexa checked to see that none of the aliens had noticed them. When none had, she tugged on her sister's arm, and they took off again.
A blur of dirt and heavy breathing, the pattern continued until they made it to the steps of Stark Tower.
There, she pushed her sister towards the damaged doorway. "Go, I have to give the signal." Her sister gave her hand one last squeeze before disappearing into the dark lobby.
Alexa turned and squinted at the faraway aliens. Not seeing any focused this direction, she motioned for the next group.
In ten minutes, all seven of them lay safely in the lobby, hearts pounding and bodies covered in dirt and scratches, but alive.
"What now?" Alexa was surprised to find it was Adrian who spoke.
"Uh…" she began, taking in the surroundings, "we need to secure the doors and block off the windows." The doorway was glass along with most of the front of the lobby. She nodded to herself. "Right—so everyone grab anything they can and shove it in front of the doors or windows. We're going to make sure that nothing knows we're in here."
The damaged furniture of the lobby was slowly shifted around and, in what felt like forever, the doors were barricaded and roughly five feet of all the windows had been covered.
Everyone else began relaxing, but Alexa wouldn't allow herself to. This attack wasn't over yet and just because the fight was now out of sight, didn't mean they weren't still in danger.
They need to keep an eye on what was going on and to do that they needed a vantage point.
"I'm going to go up."
The group eyed her nervously.
"Go where?" Liz spoke up.
"Upstairs. I'm going to go as far up as I can to try to see what's going on. If things begin taking a turn for the worse, we'll need to get out of here."
Alexa watched their faces drained of color.
"What? You mean we might not win?" the mother asked shakily.
She gave her a grim smile and shrugged. "Nothing's guaranteed."
"I should be back soon. Make for the stairwell if anything goes wrong." She gave them one last look over before heading over to the stairs herself.
Her sister trailed after her. "What are you looking for?"
"I'm not really sure…" she said, making sure to keep her voice low so as to not let the others hear. "I just…can't sit around and not know what's going on."
Lizzy nodded. "Yeah, me too."
Alexa paused and turned to look down at her sister. "Oh, no—you are not coming with me Elizabeth Marie. You are staying right here with the others."
Lizzy crossed her arms defiantly. "That's not fair!"
Alexa rolled her eyes. "Stop being a brat and stay put. It's too dangerous. We don't know how damaged the building is. "
Lizzy made a face. "But you're going!"
"Yeah, and I'm twenty five and you're thirteen. This trip is rated M for eighteen and older, which means you stay put."
Her sister huffed and stomped off.
Letting out an irritated sigh, Alexa began climbing the stairs. Only her temperamental sister could go from terrified to obnoxious while the world crumbled around them. She blamed the hormones. Puberty was making her sister retarded.
After about the tenth flight, Alexa lost track of what floor she was on. The lights were off or flickering, and sometimes she could barely make out the next step. Her arms clung to the handrail as if it was the only thing holding her to the earth.
The progress was slow, but she eventually made it to a height she decided was far enough. Hands held in front of her like those mummies from those horrible black and white horror movies, she searched for a door on the landing.
Three stubbed fingers later, she found it. The door wouldn't open though. She pushed and pulled and it wouldn't budge.
She let out an irritated huff. She did not climb fifty million stairs only to be stopped by a freaking door.
Her feet shuffled backwards; her muscles tensed in preparation. With a cry she launched herself at the door, shoulder first. She didn't plan enough though, for as the door slammed open, she found herself sprawled face first on the ground.
"Oww…" she groaned, rubbing her head. "That's going to leave a bruise."
Alexa laid on the floor for a moment, wishing she could just close her eyes and go to sleep and let someone else deal with this problem—let someone else scope out the battle—let someone else lead the people downstairs—let someone else take care of her little sister.
With a grunt, she pulled herself up and shook her head, as if to shake the thoughts from her mind. There was no point in thinking about things like that. She was that person whether she liked it or not and there was nothing she could do about it. It just was.
Her eyes darted around the room she ended up in and had to wonder who it belonged to. That was before she smacked herself on the forehead.
Duh—Tony Stark.
She took a moment to take it in. The place was gorgeous with marble floor, a granite bar, and floor to ceiling windows that went on forever. She could see the whole city from here. It was perfect.
She stepped carefully, noticing the giant hole in the window and the glass sprinkled across the floor. Whatever had made that hole had been person sized. She glanced around nervously in case the hole was from something coming in instead of being thrown out.
However, her inspection was cut short when she got closer to the window and saw New York City unfold at her feet, like a red carpet—if the red carpet was infested by alien bugs and on fire.
It was horrible. Flashes of light burst in every direction, followed by the immediate sound of destruction. It was like watching a thunderstorm. Booming thunder trailed after every streak of lightning. Except these things were wielding the lightning, and the thunder was the combination of buildings crumbling and people screaming. Her heart clenched thinking of the pain below.
"Oh god…" she breathed.
"You called?"
She whipped around so fast her neck burned. Her heart lunged into her throat, pounding at such a furious rate she was sure she was about to have a heart attack, if not for the fact that the sight before her seemed to freeze the very blood in her veins.
The man standing in the middle of the room was like none other she had seen. He rose up tall and dark, weighed down with what must have been pounds of leather and armor, but moved as if the burden was but a feather on his back. A crown or helmet of sorts sat on his head, horns protruding from his forehead and curling up, making him even taller and menacing.
He belonged on the set of Game of Thrones, not in the crumbling Stark Tower in the middle of some sort of alien invasion.
"Speechless?" he asked, condescendingly, voice silky but cold. His smile was just as icy, and a shiver ran down her back at the sight of it.
"I tend to have that effect on your kind."
Her instincts were screaming at her to run—that this man was evil and unpredictable. He was an armed grenade, on the verge of exploding. His cold eyes and frosty smile meant her nothing but harm, and if she didn't get away fast enough she was going to end up hurt, or worse, dead.
Alexa was too afraid to move, but found her mouth opening anyway.
"Who—" she began, but paused.
Another part of her was telling her something else. This man wasn't human.
"What," she corrected, "are you?"
"Oh, you are more clever than I expected from a simple creature such as yourself," he stated mockingly, laughing a little to himself.
"I am your future—the future of your entire pathetic race." He lifted his arms. "I am all there will be, and I shall set you free—from yourselves." His teeth flashed at her. He was bubbling with excitement and self-assurance.
"I am Loki."
Alexa felt as though she was going to be sick. Thoughts whirled around her head at a dizzying speed. The way he said your race—the freedom he promised—it was all wrong—horribly, horribly wrong. Something deep inside her seemed to snap, and rage began to boil beneath her skin. She noticeably began to shake.
His smile widened, delighting in what he interpreted as fear so all-consuming and terrible, it required a physical manifestation.
"This—" she had to pause to stop her voice from shaking. His amusement grew.
"This destruction—this invasion—this pain—this madness—you did this?"
He clapped his hands in delight. "Quite shrewd for a pretty thing, aren't you? But you are correct." He made a sweeping gesture towards the city. "This is my glorious war and conquest of the human race."
She saw red.
"Do you—do you have any idea how many people your petty act of revenge has killed? Do you know how many lives your resentment and bitterness have swallowed? All because you couldn't move past your pride and jealousy! All because second best wasn't good enough!"
She slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide as saucers. She had no idea what had come over her or what the hell she had just said. One moment she had been trapped in his hard emerald stare and next something clicked. Then she began screaming all those things—
"Shit—"
An icy hand squeezed around her throat and lifted her up off the ground.
"SHIELD must be quite desperate to send a mouse like you to provoke me," he sneered.
Alexa tried to shake her head, while desperately clawing at his arms. Her throat felt as if it was going to collapse under the pressure, and her lungs screamed for air.
"I don't—I've never—never heard of—SHIELD—never," she gasped.
"Oh?" he said, bringing her close to his face. She froze in terror as his eyes stared into her soul. "Then how, my little mouse, do you know so much?"
"I don't know! I swear!" she cried, tears trickling down her cheeks in panic.
His eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I don't believe you."
With a flick of his wrist he sent her flying into the nearest wall with the effort and nonchalance one uses to brush aside crumbs.
Pain exploded through every inch of her body as it slammed into shelves lining the walls. Glass rained down on her, leaving burning cuts in its wake. The pain was indescribable and like nothing she had ever felt before. She felt like she was dying, and for a moment she wished she was—anything to end the pain.
Her sister's face flashed before her eyes, and she winced guiltily.
Not yet, she told herself. Not yet.
Gritting her teeth she tried to pull herself up and out of the rubble. Glass tinkled as it fell to the floor. She needed to run. This wasn't her fight. She was appallingly out of her league.
But in a flash of green, the man—Loki —plucked her from the debris and held her by the throat again. Her entire body screamed in protest. Black began to seep into her vision.
"Such a weak thing, you are—determined, but weak. I admire that. Despite your frailty you would still get up to fight."
Alexa shook her head.
"No?" he seemed to purr.
"No—not fight—run," she breathed.
Loki let out a loud laugh, amusement lighting up his features. "Such honesty…it's refreshing." His eyes roamed her face.
"I cannot imagine Fury to be so cruel as to send a thing such as yourself to confront me," he thought aloud. "Perhaps he sent you to appeal to my humanity? My morals? Or perhaps my desire?" He stared deep into her eyes again.
"No—I don't know—what you're talking—I don't know—anything."
She squirmed furiously, black spots invading her vision further. She couldn't pass out. If she did, she was never going to wake up. He would kill her the second she would stop being amusing.
"Oh, but dear you do know something. Quite a lot, in fact." He tightened his grip around her throat. "Now, I would simply like to know how. A humble request, I must say. And then I shall let you go on your merry way."
"You—you don't understand. I don't know—how I knew. Something clicked—and then I just knew."
"Knew what exactly?"
She stared at him with such pity it turned his stomach.
"That you are a child who did not get the toy he thought he deserved."
He backhanded her clear across the room.
Pain exploded in her head, and her vision went black. But she did not pass out. No, she was still painfully aware of her surroundings. She could feel the sting of glass digging into her skin and the tickle of blood running down her face. But she could not see. For a panicked moment she thought she had gone blind. But then she heard the crunch of glass as footsteps slowly approached her, and everything was forgotten except the need to escape
She screamed at her arms and legs to move, to run, to do anything, but they didn't respond. She felt like a ragdoll waiting to be thrown away.
The footsteps stopped right next to her. She lay there wondering what was taking so long for the final blow.
"Get away from her!"
Her blood ran cold.
"Like chicken to the slaughter," he said with silky venom. "Now, just who might you be?"
No—no, this couldn't be happening. Not her—not her baby sister—not Lizzy.
"Her sister!" she declared, heatedly.
"Oh!" he proclaimed. "What a delightful reunion!"
"Lizzy—" she breathed, trying to raise her voice and tell her to run—to get away—, but her body rebelled against her.
"Get away from her!"
"What a bossy little one you are," he gave her a twisted smirk. "What, pray tell, are you going to do if I don't?"
A silence filled the room.
"Run—Lizzy—run." By some miracle her voice carried.
The sound of it made Loki's blood boil in remembrance of her previous words.
"Silence!"
He delivered a strong kick to her side, sending her body flying into the same wall she had just crashed into.
"NO!"
A scream tore through the room, and it took Alexa a moment to realize it wasn't hers, but her sister's. Her heart stopped fearing the worst, but it wasn't one of terror—it was one of anger.
Suddenly the air in the room seemed to come to life, sparking with energy.
"What-?" he began, shock evident in his voice.
Alexa felt her hair stand on end, as if someone had taken a balloon and rubbed it against her head. A bright flash of light filled the room, followed by the sound of glass shattering and objects being thrown.
But, through the noise, she made out a loud grunt and felt a whoosh of air touch her face, as if something had been thrown by her.
The screaming finally stopped, and Alexa heard a thud in direction her sister was standing.
Fear gripped her heart—fear not for herself but for her sister. Her mind raced with the images of what Loki could have done to her.
With pure determination fueling her, she rolled onto her stomach and attempted to crawl in the direction she heard the thud.
"Lizzy?" Her voice shook. "Lizzy—"
She had only managed to crawl a foot or two before her body stopped and her head hit the floor.