A/N: Time to see whats going on in the original universe with Loki and the others that weren't sent to the alternate universe. Plus the concert is this chapter. Thank you to SamariumAndAntiMatter, Now-You-Don't-Or-Do-You, ReginaRiverHill10396, Guest, and JinxedClarinet for the reviews. Also thanks to all that favorited or subscribed to the story, I would point you out by name but i'm feeling lazy after writing this chapter.
Loki's blue eyes stared out the window and he peered down at New York City in all it's glory. His current location was the top floor of the newly rebuilt Stark Tower where Loki had taken up residence in the tower since he had sent the Avengers to another universe. And why shouldn't he use it? It wasn't like anyone was going to stop him. The phrase "top of the world" had never felt more true for him until that moment.
New York was beautiful and was almost empty except for the soldiers patrolling the streets under Loki's command and the civilians building the tall wall that encompassed New York. The usual sounds of people yelling and cars honking were replaced by the loud noises of machines being used to build the wall around the city.
Plenty of people had escaped the city when him and his army charged in, guns blazing and bombs going off. But there had been plenty still there for him to control. The best part was he didn't have to waste his magic on the buffoons that called themselves mortal. They feared him. And that was all the motivation they needed to listen to his every word.
Many had tried to get into New York but with the technology and armies on his side, anyone who tried had died. Russia was a much better ally than he had ever hoped. They supplied him with men and he supplied them with a way to take over America.
It was a win-win situation. Russia would be the supreme country and Loki would be the king that controlled earth. Once they had America, the other countries would be theirs for the picking.
And to think, he didn't even need to make some useless alliance with an alien race just to worry about which one of them were going to back stab him first. Russia could try all they wished to go back on their deal but Loki was a god and if they so much as blinked out of turn, he would destroy the country, men, women, and children alike.
"Sir, we have have several witnesses claiming to have seen a man matching Loki's description heading towards Stark Tower"
Nick Fury nodded his head to show that heard the agent.
SHIELD had been taken over; infiltrated from the inside soon after the Avengers (sans Black Widow and Hawkeye) along with two of his best agents, Hill and Coulson, had disappeared. It hadn't been very hard to take SHIELD down, considering their main defense and deputy director had both disappeared.
After a week of the Avengers being gone, Loki had publicly killed the members of the council and the spots were filled by Russians who could hardly even speak English.
Fury was obviously in control of SHIELD, but the council was in charge of him and to directly disobey them would cause too many casualties for Fury's liking.
Fury was forced to make a decision as SHIELD was taken down from the inside and he made a plan. Him and the loyal SHIELD members started meeting underground. Loki had to be taken down and the new leaders of SHIELD were working with him and couldn't be trusted.
By day they pretended to act like they didn't know anything was different with the organization despite the fact that they were ordered to stay out of New York instead of being ordered to find a way in and help the prisoners, which was entirely too suspicious. The coucil's only explanation was that they didn't want to waste resources.
By night they met up in their new headquarters underground and attempted to figure out how to take SHIELD back. Black Widow and Hawkeye thankfully hadn't disappeared but spent most of their time looking for the other members.
They hadn't been able to find them yet, but while many people assumed Loki was keeping them close if they had been captured, there were also many rumors that they were in hiding some where out of the country and couldn't get back yet.
Because of this, Hawkeye and The Black Widow spent most of their time in other countries, following dead ends.
Fury was currently underground, monitors and weapons taking up much of the space in the large bunker. Despite the fact that the new leaders of SHIELD were less than concerned with helping New York, Fury certainly was.
They had gotten people to sneak in and work the inside, keeping an eye on Loki. It was too early for results, but they hoped to at least find out if Loki had anything to do with The Avenger's disappearance.
Taking New York back by force wasn't an option. If anyone got close to it, they were blown up. Their only option was to find the Avengers. They were the only ones that stood a chance against Loki.
Music was something that Maria had always loved. It was always there for her. Whenever her dad and step mother got into a fight she would turn up the volume on her radio and let the music drown out the yelling. The only that she could complain about in the army was the lack of music. Or at least, the lack of good music.
Apparently Coulson thought so too considering he had pulled several strings to get into the concert. And the fact that he was currently annoying Maria about her taking a picture of him with the stage in the background.
Maria quickly snapped a photo, not concerned about the quality. Coulson would like it no matter what anyways.
"Here you go sir"
Coulson took the phone and smiled at the picture, too happy to remind her about her use of sir while off duty. He grabbed two beers that were being passed around and handed one to Maria which she eagerly took and began to sip on while they waited for the concert to start.
-30 minutes later-
"Alright ladies and gentleman, I know you're all excited to see the Avengers but let's give it up for their opening act, the beautiful Pepper Potts!" The man speaking left the stage and a blonde haired woman with a guitar came on and the crowd started cheering.
She smiled and waved to the crowd.
"Hi I'm Pepper and I'm going to sing you the first song I wrote. It's little slower than what you're probably used to but it means something to me and I hope that after tonight it will mean something to you as well" She started strumming her guitar. "This is the only exception"
Maria had to admit, the girl wasn't terrible. And considering the stars in Coulson's eyes, he agreed. (He had taken the glasses off earlier) He was definitely thinking of the 'I love Pepper Pots' shirt he was going to make when he got home. Most of Pepper's stuff wasn't bad, a bit slow at times but some of it was fast paced and got the crowd going.
At long last, The Avengers went on. Phil nearly fainted several times, swearing that Captain America was looking right at him.
If Maria hadn't known on good authority that Coulson wasn't gay, she'd have thought Coulson had a crush on Captain America.
It was weird, seeing Coulson so carefree outside of work. She was used to seeing the hard-ball instructor that made her do two hundred push ups one day because she was falling behind in their mile hike.
The band really was amazing, they brought so much energy to the stage. While Pepper got everyone excited, the Avengers got almost everyone out of their seat.
Twenty one guns was probably the best song of the night, though American Idiot was a close second, since Maria and Coulson agreed with the song on nearly everything the song said.
Iron man was obnoxiously funny, Thor had the greatest facials, the Hulk didn't do much but stand there with his bass, and if Coulson wasn't mistaken, apparently he was making faces at Black Widow as she played the keyboards. Captain America looked like he wanted to dance but wasn't quite sure he could so just ended up making sure everyone else was in sync with their dancing.
"Thank you so much for coming out, ladies and gentleman" Maria heard Captain say as she made her ways towards the restrooms.
"You all mean so much to us, our fans got us to where we are. To show how appreciative we are, we dedicate this next song to-" She droned his voice out as she waited in line for the bathroom.
Coulson had been waiting to go to the bathroom for nearly half of the concert, but there was no way he was going to miss any of the show and Maria was about to do the same, the line discouraging her.
She turned around, deciding to at least watch the song being performed while she waited in line. It turned out the slight hill the bathroom was on top of made it an excellent place to scope out the entire area, top to bottom.
And above the stage was a platform that held up stage lights. And on that platform was a man in a couched position, looking into something that she couldn't see but years of training told her it wasn't a camera. He was too rigid and the hand placement and slight angle of the head made it abundently clear what he was holding.
Maria quickly scanned the surrounding area, looking for a ladder to the platform. There was a cylinder beam next to the bathrooms holding the platform up and a guard standing close by that she doubted was there to make sure no fights broke out by the bathroom.
She ran over, and waved her hand in his face, trying to get his attention. "Sir there's-" He held up a hand, cutting Maria off. "But sir that guy-" He once again held up a hand, quieting her, refusing to look up from his phone.
Making a rash decision, Maria got closer to him and punched him in the gut before putting her finger over a pressure point between his neck and shoulder and down he went, like a rock. She searched his pockets and found a taser, which she put in the waistband of her jeans.
She hastily started climbing the ladder. Why the hell didn't anyone notice a guy with a gun? He could have been mistaken as a guy with a camera but who needed a vantage point from that high up? Half way up, and she was getting really annoyed.
How high did this thing need to be? Why did she choose that day to wear skinny jeans? And while she was making a list of things that she regreted, she added not bringing her jacket because the air was freezing up there.
She finally made it up but wasn't close enough to the guy. "Hey you!" Maria shouted and instinctively reached for her gun which she remembered she didn't bring. Because she was at a concert. And who thinks to bring a gun to a concert?
The man turned around and the pale skin and reptilian like tattoos immediately gave him away as a Chitauri, a terrorist group that blew up several small buildings in New York. Why he was attempting to kill someone at a concert, she had no idea. What could he really accomplish by shooting someone whose only talent was probably playing an instrument?
Unless he was aiming for someone in the crowd. Her thoughts immediately went to Coulson and her chest flared with anger though the odds of him actually going after Coulson were slim, after all he wasn't the most important guy in the army, so he had to be going after someone in the band.
"Hold your hands up and walk towards me slowly" Maria said in a voice that was threatening and glared at him. She knew she could get to him before he could turn around and grab his sniper and apparently he knew it too because he started walking towards her.
Maria took out her phone with the intent to call the police, but the Chitaurian(?) took advantage of her distraction and knocked the phone out of her hand. She watched helplessly as the phone went over the edge and by the time she looked up again, a gun was pointed at her.
"You didn't think i'd only have one gun did you? Foolish girl. Now put your hands up" Maria slowly inched her hands up, trying not to make any sudden movements. A loud scream tore their gazes from each other, apparently the concert was coming to an end.
She used his distraction to her advantage this time, pulling the taser out of her waistband and tasered him in the arm. The Chitaurian(?) dropped the gun, and he hissed in pain. His arm probably stung like a bitch. He ran towards Maria and her military training kicked in, allowing her to easily duck under his arm and swipe at his legs, knocking him off balance.
He regained balance sooner than she expected and she couldn't avoid his fist which hit her in the face, causing her to stumble backwards. Maria went on the offensive and swung at him several times, catching him in the jaw once.
One swing was too slow and he grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. She groaned in pain and stomped on his foot, causing him to let go.
She landed a jab to his throat and he dropped onto his knees. Right next to his pistol. He picked it up and shot at her, getting Maria in the left shoulder. She gasped at the pain and rushed at him which he wasn't execting, allowing her to get close enough to punch him in the nose, a satisfying crack following.
One hand went to his nose which was gushing blood and Maria grabbed at the gun, trying to pry it from his hand. They fought for it and it went off twice. The Chitaurian(?) went stiff before leaning back, falling over the edge. The gun slipped from Maria's fingers, and before realized what was going on, hey vision went blurry and she lost consciousness.
A/N: What do ya think? Its actually pretty long compared to my other chapters. I felt like Pepper would play country music but that wouldn't make sense unless The Avengers were also a country group... Which would be weirder. So I made her a one person Paramore. And The Avengers are Green day.