SoA- Part 3
Chapter 4 - Loki's Rescue
Kara had needed a moment to calm down so she had walked a roundabout route back to the lab slowly. Thinking Loki had the Omegahedron had scared her like nothing had in a long time. She was now sure of one thing; Loki was in there, but not in complete control. She'd have to think of a way to save him, not only from the mind-control, but from taking the blame when he returned to Asgard. Calling him a clone had been a chance to see if the controller would still try to play games now that she 'wasn't convinced' by the act. She'd felt the menacing presence and hoped the cameras on the cell had captured something she could use later to help prove her theory.
Most mind-control spells required a level of awareness by the caster. When she had challenged Loki's identity the presence had manifested just enough for her senses to pick up. There was no way a human would feel it, and even if they did they would not understand what it was they were sensing.
Kara had just reached the lab and could hear Steve, Tony, Fury, Thor and Banner inside arguing with Natasha about pretty much everything. They were all talking over one another. One of the things that stood out most was Thor. His arrogant attitude and the loud carrying pitch of his voice were overly exaggerated, even for him. In a nutshell the group was a hot mess as she approached the doorway. She could feel the same foreign seiðr influencing the whole room and reaching out for her mind.
When the highly advanced arrow shot by Hawkeye from an approaching Quinjet exploded inside the engine on the starboard side Helicarrier engine, the force of the explosion and the unexpectedness of it, threw everyone, even Kara off-balance. She stumbled into Steve as he staggered about trying to keep on his feet. The force of the collision with the solid hero had her falling backwards. She instinctively reached out for Steve's shoulder. The force of the floor rocking and Kara pulling on his shoulder threw him off-balance. They both ended up falling into the hallway, rolling across the floor, and landed against the far wall, away from the lab.
"You're heavier than you look." He grunted as he pushed her up and off of his chest where she had ended up. Once he got to his feet he offered his hand to help her stand up.
Kara whipped her hair out of her face with an exasperated look on her face as she reached for his hand and actually used her powers to bring herself up to her feet so she wouldn't fall again. "Everyone always says that." She huffed making sure they were both on their feet before checking the room.
Fury was stumbling towards them out into the hall as Hulk roared and ran the other direction, with Thor in hot pursuit. Kara didn't see Widow. Tony was in the process of powering up his suit in the corner where he had left it, and likely talking to JARVIS.
"How likely are we to fall out of the sky?" She asked Fury seriously. As easily as she could deal with the infiltration of the huge ship, the lives of all the crewmembers onboard were more important.
Fury looked grim and determined. "Depends on how much damage Hulk does, or if they take out a second engine. This bird needs at least three to hover, two engines to fall slowly, but they have to be opposite engines. Barton knows that. If he takes out the other starboard engine we'll slip sideways from the air." Kara didn't know or care how he knew it was Barton who was leading the attack.
"Right," Kara muttered she zipped into the torn up lab and grabbed a comm from Tony's briefcase so she could be patched into his personal communications to JARVIS. He kept extras in a side compartment for her in case of situations like this. She placed it in her ear and she could hear Tony and JARVIS making a plan.
"JARVIS, can I hold up any area of the haul to level the ship until someone can clear the engine, or not?" She broke into their plans as she began to move to the closest exit to the outside. "I'll be underneath trying to keep this ship level." She told Fury as she ran by him and Steve.
"Of course," JARVIS answered, "You will need to find the strongest structural point under the ship near the damaged engine. There will be structural struts for lift there that hopefully survived the explosion."
Kara stopped as Tony grabbed her arm. "This is likely a prison break. Reindeer Games was expecting them." His voice sounded grim, but with his visor down and sealed she would have had to use her x-ray vision to see the concern in his eyes.
Kara growled her agreement. "Yeah, and I left him a loophole to escape, but only as long as Barton, or another official Avenger lets him out." She knew the battle might jar the cell's emergency release too. Still the lives of the crew were more important than Loki at the moment. If need be she'd help them hunt him down afterwards.
"Just keep us from crashing in a fiery mess." He ordered with a cheerful wave as he walked out of the thin hallway back towards the lab to follow the 'widened' hallway Hulk had made.
She nodded stiffly before she flew as fast as she could through the narrow hallways until she got out on deck. Crew members who saw her coming quickly hit the deck or slammed themselves into the walls to get out of her way. She blew through a few doors, leaving twisted and pierced scrap metal behind.
She rapidly skimmed the surface of the ship to get underneath it. She hastily flew past Loki's cell and saw him with her fuzzy x-ray vision kneeling down on one knee watching the door, waiting for someone. She didn't have time to deal with that at the moment.
Scanning the area around the engine, she spent a few seconds trying with her x-ray vision to find the best spot to hold the ship up. Instead of a clear picture, the structure of the supports was a little hazy as there were several alloys with lead in them that made up parts of the outer and inner beams. She was able to find a good spot to lift the ship that wasn't likely to rip a hole in the haul. She laid herself flat and then lifted up using her whole body to spread out the load as much as possible so as to not put all the weight on a single point of the structural supports. She was only five foot eight without heels so that wasn't much, but even a little was better than a single point she'd learned over the years, if it was possible at least. Planes for example were delicate, but she often didn't have much choice in how she caught them in midair.
Ahead of her she could see the backend of the lower hanger. Through the walls she could see Hulk and Thor battling it out on the deck. As the ship rose and stabilized she saw and felt two fighter jets flyby as they skimmed the underside of the carrier. They turned and began to hover in front of the research decks at the front on the Helicarrier. Coincidentally the front hanger bay was located underneath the research decks. She watched helplessly as Hulk took out both jets. The first one by throwing something at it, knocking its wing off. The other he decided to attack up close and personally by jumping on its cockpit canopy. Even from back where she was the expression on the pilot's face was clear and terrified. He tried to shake Hulk off, but Hulk's grip was just too tight and was actually buckling the outer skin of the plane's nose cone.
She was about to drop the helicarrier to get the pilot when she saw two shoots, one from each plane. Hulk had made a grab for the pilot of the plane he'd been riding like a bull rider, but he missed as the ejection chair flashed past him too quickly for his reflexes to follow. Since both pilots were safe she let them go. From what she had seen of the Hulk, she was sure the fall wouldn't hurt him much. She guessed they had lost about ten thousand feet before she had stabilized the starboard side of the ship, leveling it out, making his drop to the ground close to twenty thousand feet. Hulk had let go of the plane and tried to use it as a platform to jump back aboard the Helicarrier, but he was too far away.
Thor began to run once Hulk fell away from the ship. She knew he'd be heading for Loki's cell, even if she could no longer see him due to her position facing forward. She didn't dare turn however. The structural integrity of the super-structure was still holding. She didn't want to test her luck with the lives of everyone onboard if she dropped the weight she was holding up to reposition herself needlessly. As if by thinking about it she'd caused a malfunction, the second starboard side second engine turned itself off. It was only the fact that Kara was holding up the Helicarrier that kept the ship from slipping sideways in a slow plummet towards the ground.
"Blue, we're trying to get the engines restarted. You got to hold on for another few minutes." Tony told her suddenly.
"I'm not straining at all Tony, but let's get this done quickly! I think Loki's about to make a break for it! I need to get back there! I can hold this for as long as you need, but I really want to get back there and try to stop him from getting away!" She called back, her words were being distorted by the wind, but JARVIS could easily account for it. "Hulk fell out of the carrier, but the two pilots are ok. Shoots opened, if you can relay that to Fury JARVIS."
"Done Ms. Zor El," JARVIS answered. "Director Fury thanks you for the information."
She tried to listen in to Tony and Steve while they fixed the engine behind her, but their conversation was scaring the hell out her. Steve's "I think it's run on a type of electricity" was nearly the last straw. The falling pieces of the engine, and Tony kick starting the first engine allowed her to let go, and she flew over to help Steve by pulling the switches for both the second engine. The second switch was of course near the second engine and she had needed to leave them him to battle the mind-controlled SHIELD agents for a few seconds to do it. As she flew back to him she knocked one of his attackers away from him, and stopped Steve from flying off the broken section into a freefall to Earth. She placed him firmly on the deck before she quickly finished the repairs.
Tony pulled out and was able to move on to fighting other combatants on the deck without too much damaged to his suit. She was about to go help them when Loki's prison suddenly fell away. She was about to chase it when she heard Coulson's voice in the bay along with Loki's where the prison had been. Kara quickly changed directions and raced in, not realizing Thor had been in the cell as it fell.
Coulson was facing towards her when she flew up into the room through the hole left by the cell. He was holding a gun that was glowing with power similar to the Destroyer. Loki had teleported and was appearing behind him with a crazed look on his face. Kara only had a split second to react. Hoping she didn't kill Coulson herself getting him out of the way, she pulled him towards her, faster than a speeding bullet. Unable to keep his feet he hit the ground hard, knocking him out cold. Her momentum put her armored body where Phil's unprotected back had been a moment before. The strange gun he'd been holding skittered across the floor coming to rest near the giant hole in the floor. Coulson laid still, blood oozing from his forehead immediately from where his head had bounced off the floor.
Loki's expression only flickered as the magical spear slid with a sickening scraping sound as the tip slid down the leather covered, heavy metal chest plate, scorning a thin line of damage along it. Where the armor plates became only hardened leather that allowed her more freedom of movement in battle, the scepter's blade penetrated her body, and it suddenly plunged forward into her abdomen. It's curved tip plunging up just under her ribcage. The curved blade stopped as it rested against her lowest rib, collapsing the lung immediately.
There was no breath to say anything. She just hung there on his blade as they both stared at the blade deeply embedded inside her body. Her vision narrowed down to only the person in front of her. The edges of her vision black and slowly closing inward. His was more pain than she could ever remember feeling in her short lifetime. It radiated outward, making her sluggish and dazed.
Loki's eyes flashed a dark blue. His face had a puzzled look as he slowly pulled the scepter backward. The dark red blood dripped ominously down the drenched blade. "This was not expected, and such a waste. You were the last of your kind, where you not?" The eyes seemed disappointed, before they hardened and looked towards the human that had been standing against him. Seeing the man down and out cold, he looked away scanning the room for any other threats.
Kara's powers began to fade and she fell to her knees beside Coulson. Her hands holding the wound as dark, thick blood began to dribble from her mouth and ooze out of her wound. The pain was beyond anything she had felt before. She fell on her side before being pushed on her back by Loki's foot. Her eyes began to close. Her vison was dimming, but she sensed his movements as Loki knelt beside her. He placed something on her chest and near the wound before she saw his shadow as he walked towards a bulkhead near her and blasted a hole in it, and then walking out the door and meeting with two men outside.
Sunlight fell on her face from the hole in the wall. Her healing powers began to kick in, but not fast enough to save her life. Coulson was beside her, he was breathing evenly as the blood continued to pool under his face. She wasn't worried about his injury, head wounds always bleed easily, and she didn't see any major injuries that the humans wouldn't be able to fix. She moved her left hand sluggishly to feel what Loki had left behind. She felt the hard smoothness of a healing stone by her hand on her chest but didn't have the presence of mind to do anything but try to turn her head to spit out as much blood as she could before it could drown her.
Tony found her first only minutes later. He flew into the room and found her and Coulson down. Calling it in and rushing to her. Kara could tell he was trying to see how bad the damage was. Finding the healing stone he spoke words she couldn't hear because of the roaring of blood and wind in her ears. The pain was so consuming. And then suddenly it wasn't. Tony knew and had understood what the stone was. He'd crushed it using the strength of the suit, and spread the dust into her wound to heal her.
She could feel the rush of healing seiðr flowing through her from the healing stone Tony had placed in the laceration. The magic closed it and managed to heal most of the damage, enough that she could finally take a deep breath and cough out the blood gathered in her airways. She spat it out on the deck as she rolled on her side. Harsh coughs hurt but they helped to clear even more of her airway. The effort left her gasping for air.
"Blue, I am so glad you're alright." Tony told her gratefully as he cuddled her to his chest, and pulling her closer to the sunlight so more of it fell on her torso. She rested her head on his armored shoulder for a moment as she tried to catch her breath. It hurt so much to breathe, but it hurt to hold her breath too. The pain was still so consuming, she was shocked by how much the wound hurt.
It took several minutes before she could feel her strength returning. "Damn scepter is extremely magical in nature." She gasped quietly to him, "Too powerful." She tried to warn him of the power in the weapon. She'd handled magical weapons before, but the level of power in this one was easily twice as strong as Gungnir, or even Mjölnir. Both those weapons were semi-sentient; judging those worthy of the right to weld them. She didn't even want to think of the level of intelligence and sentience the scepter needed to be that powerful. Was the presence the scepter itself, or was someone possessing it? Whatever it was, it had felt evil. It was almost as if it had its own soul. Her body shook with abundant pain and revulsion.
Tony shushed her as he pulled her even closer to the opening to allow more sunlight to fall on her body. "Save your strength, we are going to need to go after Loki once we have regrouped. We lost Thor and Hulk during the battle. Everyone else is still regrouping but they've checked in."
"He didn't do it." She gasped as more healing inside her body shifted her organs and her lung began to re-inflate.
"He stabbed you." Tony growled protectively. "If he can try and kill you, then there is nothing he won't do Blue."
"Wasn't trying to stab me," She told him as sternly as she could, but she was still a breathless with agonizing pain. "Left the stone to heal me… and blow the hole… to cause the sunlight… to heal me." She gasped out between pain filled breaths. "It stopped me… from dying… until you could heal me… with the stone."
Tony looked at her in pain and wanted to destroy something. Agents were arriving now, medics were going to Coulson first. Tony stayed with Kara near the hole in the wall as they moved Phil onto a stretcher and took him to the med bay.
"Did you need us to help you Supergirl?" One of the medics asked hesitantly, his eyes were wide with concern and fear. Every SHIELD operative knew she couldn't be hurt, yet here she was, looking like she was on death's door. There was blood on the floor that showed Ironman had dragged her away from Coulson. There was more blood was still pooled on her abdomen, and looked like more was dripping from her fingers onto his suit. The medic was almost in a full panic. That color of the blood in a human would be considered a fatal wound; deep dark, almost black blood from the organ damage, and bright red on her lips from the oxygen rich blood coughed up from the lungs. As she was alien he was uncertain how to treat her, but if her systems were anything like a human's she was badly hurt. He didn't even know if her organs were in the same place, as a human.
Kara shook her head slowly. "I have already seen to her." Tony told them sternly. "We will leave shortly. She's just catching her breath." The other agents began to gather the scattered garbage from the medic's efforts to patch Coulson for transporting him to the med bay, but a few headed for the puddle of blood left by Kara on the floor. Kara used what little power she had regained and fired her heat vision at the puddle, vaporizing it.
"No samples." She snarled viciously at the agents who had approached it. The agents wisely backed away quickly, two looking ashamed while one looked quite angry at being thwarted by the alien.
She turned her head to Tony. "I need to fly… Can you destroy those panels… and make sure they get none of my blood?" She would have begged but she knew she could count on him to be as protective of her DNA as she was.
"Yeah, no samples for Fury and his dickhead techies," Tony promised as he helped her to her feet. "Are you sure you'll be alright Blue? I've never seen you get hurt like this." His concern was written all over his face and his protective stance, crowding close to her since he wasn't tall enough to loom over her.
Kara gave him a guilty look but nodded. She knew he would worry the whole time she was out of his sight. "I'll be back in about fifteen minutes." Kara faded her Supergirl armor off and she stood in black boy shorts and sports bra. "I just need a sunbath." She whispered to him. Without the armor the wound was fresh and looked like a thick, puffy, purple looking scar that was barely closed. Even the healing stones had limits, a half hour in the sun and she would be nearly back to full power, though her abdomen would still be tender until she could get under the healing rays of a Soul Forge.
Before Tony could object more Kara dived out the hole left by Loki and circled under the Helicarrier and then rocketed up above the clouds. She was so high up that the Helicarrier was only a speck against the water of the Atlantic Ocean. The cold was nearly overwhelming even for her. She needed as much direct sunlight as possible so she was near the edge of the mesosphere, the highest she could go for any length of time and still breathe. She laid herself out so she could absorb as much sunlight as possible. With that much skin exposed to the mostly unfiltered sunlight, her healing factor kicked into overdrive. This was something she had only done after regaining her powers of flight after burning out her powers twice in the past year. Both times satellites had caught pictures of her laid out absorbing sunlight. No one had any idea what she had been doing then, but SHIELD would have an idea now. Not that they had planes that could operate at this height. Anything they had to reach this high was passing through on its way to space.
By the time she touched back down on the Helicarrier forty-five minutes later, her powers had fully returned, and she was in her full battle armor. The hole in her abdomen was scarred over as if it was an old wound too. It would take a bit of time in the Soul Forge to remove the magical scar, but looking at it now, a human would have thought it was a year old, not less than an hour.
"Where are you, Tony?" Kara asked into her comm as she approached the Helicarrier deck with a determined stride.
"We're all in the conference room Blue. Welcome back." He answered morosely. His tone startled her. When she left she knew things had not been good, but she hadn't thought anything worse than Loki escaping had occurred.
"What's happened?" She asked with a touch a fear as she stopped on the Carrier deck, the door to the lower levels was only twenty feet away.
"Coulson's dead."
Kara's legs dropped her. The clash of her armor hitting the deck sent a minor tremor through the plating and the ring of metal on metal clang loudly like a church bell. All over the deck personnel began to run towards the fallen hero as she made no effort to stand. Chatter filled the comms of everyone around her. Several people ran forward to try to help her to stand but she wasn't moved. They tried to pick her up again and still didn't do more than shift her.
"Blue, you still there?" Tony's voice sounded far away but Kara nodded slowly, not that he could see her. The shock of hearing about Coulson filled her with a cold numbness that the atmosphere hadn't been able to create.
"I killed an innocent." She whispered as a purely cold emptiness began to spread out from her. SHIELD agents around her began to drop to the desk in despair, falling into depressed puddles, unable to pick themselves off the ground. "I'm an Oathbreaker." She breathed in anguish. Death of innocent, the words rushed into her mind as the cold she was still feeling feed memories of her fear, helplessness and grief she felt in the pod as the wave of destruction had passed over her. The death of thousands of innocents, the shockwave as it hit the pods. The souls of those thousands of innocents rushing to Rao's light. The image of that moment swept through her.
Her eyes blew wide open as she took what that meant to her. Inside she felt an emptiness that she had not felt in a long time. It was like the cold of space that had surrounded her in that vast empty, absolutely silent pod in the darkness. A full flashback was blooming behind her eyes. All around her more agents and crew members of the helicarrier fell to their knees as her hopelessness rolled off her skin, invisible but debilitating.
"Blue! Blue!" Tony called out suddenly. "It was an accident, Blue! You didn't mean to."
Brainiac's voice came across the comm. "Agent Coulson's death was not you're doing, Zor El." Kara looked up with tears of grief drying quickly by the wind on the deck. The flashback of her journey in the pod was broken by Tony's voice in her ear, and backed by Brainiac's assertive voice. The salt crusted quickly in her eyes blurring her vision.
"How did he die?" She whispered as she frantically grabbed onto the situation in the present, rather than falling back into the past again. Brainiac was programed to not lie to her. She knew that he could color the truth, or choose not to answer her, but he could not openly lie to her. He was like talking to Thor most of the time, open and honest. Every so often she would ask a restricted question and he would either shut her down, or start playing with the truth the way Loki would. She could usually see it easily when he did since like Thor he was a bad liar, which was a great thing in an AI as far and Kara and Tony were concerned. She had finally seen the movie with HAL that Tony had mentioned to Barry Allen and she was serious about making sure her Brainiac never had that much innovative intelligence.
"He was treated by drugs that did not react well with his system." Brainiac informed her. "SHIELD treated his injuries incorrectly." His voice was scornful and was more than a little put out sounding, JARVIS's influence. "It was not your fault."
Tony and Steve both came crashing out the deck door and ran over to her. "Blue! What the hell is going on!" He'd heard Brainiac and couldn't understand why Fury had made it sound as if Loki had killed the Agent. His little pep talk about Coulson believing in the Avengers had been a masterful speech. Tony had been falling for it, until Kara had fallen, and SHIELD agents all over the deck had started freaking out.
"Supergirl?" Steve called out trying to figure out what was happening to the agents around her. The wave of cold, and an unnatural despair had penetrated even his level of energy. As quickly as he began to feel weakened by the invisible cloud of hopelessness, it disappeared. The agents around them seemed to be able to move once more. Strength returned to his limbs and he took another step closer to her.
"What the hell just happened here? Who released the dementors?" Tony called out as he stood straight in his armor. Unlike everyone else he was the only one on his feet, but that was only because he couldn't drop to his knees in his armor due to things like muscle fatigue. The cloud of despair seemed to mimic that effect, and the suit had refused to drop him, keeping him on his feet by locking the joints.
Between Rogers and Tony they both helped Kara back to her feet. She looked around at the agents around her who were backing away carefully, looking somewhat frightened or wary of her.
"I don't know." Kara answered, her voice wavered with uncertainly. "That's never happened before." The wave of despair had come from her, she knew that for certain. She had no idea how it had affected everyone around her though. She hadn't had a flashback like that since she has fourteen.
Tony grabbed her arms and gave her a good shake. "You are not an Oathbreaker." He told her sternly as he stared firmly into her eyes, his anger with the situation leaking into his voice, "Even if you had accidently killed him… that does not make you an Oathbreaker." He reminded her. "You were defending him."
"I vowed never to kill an innocent." She argued shaking her head to dispel the image of cold darkness that was trying to return. Once more she was focusing heavily on the oath rather than the endless darkness of the Void. BY focusing on Coulson's death rather than the Void she could function. She'd explain to Tony later that the he was right about the Oath being intent based. If she had thrown Coulson to the ground, not caring if he was hurt then she would have broken her Oath.
Tony shook her again, forcing her to look at him. "You vowed never to kill an innocent intentionally. It's not the same thing. You tried to save him and got stabbed yourself. It's not like you could have helped him once you were hurt." He argued back.
Kara had explained the importance of honor and oaths among the Asgardians. Becoming an Oathbreaker was one of the highest crimes as a warrior could commit. Technicalities were usually enough of an excuse for breaking an oath. Only death or disability excused not upholding an oath intentionally. Once Kara had been stabbed she could no longer be held accountable if Coulson had died by her intentional actions. Arguably the wording of her oath likely allowed for death as long as it wasn't her intent. Tony would be willing to argue the point until he was dead that intent was the spirit of the oath. Right now Kara was willing to let him because right now his voice was pushing it all away, leaving her chest warm and full, rather than cold and empty.
The point of the oath was to say she was Midgard's protector, as such she protected innocents. In battle however there was always collateral damage. She had taught him that for God's sake. He wasn't about to let her forget that, not now especially when they were about to go into a battle where collateral damage was likely a guarantee.
He was guessing she was reacting to the death being a result of her actually trying and failing to save Coulson, rather than her truly believing she had broken her oath. Kara was such a contradiction sometimes. She was a warrior, but she was a girl. She was a warm, loving person, who had killed people in cold-blood on a battlefield. She hadn't had to deal with much failure and Tony knew that he'd have to help her deal with that part the same way she had helped him learn about being a real warrior.
Kara finally let the words he was saying penetrate into her mind and nodded to his logic as the image of cold space finally began to fade back into her memories. She'd have to explain to Tony what was really happening later. Panic attacks such as this one had not happened in quite some time.
As much as it emotionally hurt to have had a hand in Coulson's death, she wasn't the cause and that soothed that concern almost instantly. The being controlling Loki had stabbed her, and had caused her to have to move Coulson in the manner she had. Knowing that SHIELD was directly responsible for the actual cause of death did help her to regain her equilibrium on that score.
The cold despair had started with the thought she had broken that oath, but then something else had overcome it and then the flashback had taken hold; floating alone in the cold, silent, darkness of space. It had been a mistake to go so high, and so close to the mesosphere. She'd managed to get too cold, and too close to the darkness of space. She'd been there long enough for it to trigger that memory. The shock of Coulson's death had been the final straw that sent her towards that memory, the one she had thought she'd locked away for good.
She repeated to herself several times. I didn't kill him. I didn't kill him. I didn't kill him. It took her a few deep breaths before she could open her eyes. That mantra helped to push the memory back into its box. She mentally locked it down and calmed herself with a few deep cleansing breaths. When she finished and opened her eyes Tony still had her shoulders, but Steve was there with a sincere concerned look on his face, looking over Tony's shoulder.
"Ma'am, for what it's worth, Coulson wouldn't want you to feel responsible for his death." Steve told her with a sad, but kind voice as they guided her forward and entered the flight deck hatch to the inside of the Carrier. "He cared a great deal about you. He wouldn't want you to feel responsible for what happened. You tried to save him. Believe me I know there is no worse feeling than trying and failing to save those who matter to you. It doesn't make the pain less I know. Just know that none of us hold you responsible, and I don't think he would want you to hold yourself accountable either." Steve's expression clouded over with remembered pain and loss.
Kara gave Rogers a small nod of her head with an empathetic smile. "Who did you lose?" She whispered, Tony looked sharply over at Cap and Kara, he was listening but not commenting since Rogers was getting through to her better than he was. His face twisted a little with jealousy, but he pushed it down, knowing that Kara loved him as much as he loved her. She was his partner in the hero business, not Cap's. Roger's wouldn't ever take her away from him, unlike his old man, who always put him above his own son.
Steve looked sad as he remembered his friend. "His name was Bucky, he was my brother in every way but blood. We always used to say we were brothers from different mothers." He told her with a small lift of his mouth. "Bravest and most honorable guy I ever knew." Kara remembered the story now. It had been in Peggy Carter's journals. Steve had been there, reaching out for him, and he had seen Bucky Barnes fall to his death.
Kara looked down to hide any trace of pity she might be feeling for the lonely soldier. "I liked Coulson. He was the most honorable man I've met in SHIELD."
"I hope I was a close second," a voice from the other side of the small room they were standing in called out, drawing her attention to him.
Kara looked up and saw Hawkeye standing there. He looked a little worse for wear, but his eyes were clear and light blue once more instead of the deep intense blue of the mind-control spell. He was giving her a concerned but blank look. Kara's face lit up and around her the room seemed to brighten just a little. Steve who had been in direct physical contact with her felt a wave of relief and hope surge through him as she launched herself across the room to hug the SHIELD archer. It left him a little unbalanced but he suddenly felt better about their chances.
"Hawkeye!" She hugged him as tight as she dared to. "You're safe! Thank Rao! I was so worried about you. Are you ok now? No side-effects or anything? You aren't dizzy, or anything are you?" she asked him in quick succession.
He gave her a small chuckle as he hugged her back. "I am fine now. I promise." His face relaxed just a little more. Each time he saw her, he felt more and more fatherly towards the young woman. Only Natasha knew of his family, and so only she could understand why his thoughts and feelings often went out to Supergirl in a fatherly way. Her blonde hair was the same shade as his daughter's, and her blue shining eyes often called to mind his young son.
She pulled back just a little so she could look him over before she hugged him again. "I just can't believe it. How did you break the spell?" She asked as she released him again and took a small step back but didn't remove her hands from his shoulders.
"Cognitive Recalibration," Replied Black Widow from behind Hawkeye. She moved into Kara's personal space, forcing her to step away from Hawkeye. Steve and Tony shared an amused smile at the possessiveness of the two girls over the man who was arguably the First Avenger. While Cap might have been the first superhero, Clint was the first member of the team chosen.
When Fury had first started to design the team they hadn't found Steve Rogers body yet, nor had Tony made his first suit. Barton's name was always first on the list of possible Avengers, even before Black Widow. She was actually only on the team because she didn't work well with many people so they were a package deal. There had been others that were looked into. Pym had been researched and it was decided to not even approach the older man. He was still on the outs with almost everyone whom he had ever worked with. It was a shame because the work between Pym and Stark would have been amazing to see if they could avoid their egos crashing into each other. Fury didn't think it was likely so Pym was quietly considered, and discarded.
"So what's our next move?" Steve asked them now that they were all together. With Bruce and Thor MIA, they were all that was left. That left Supergirl as the only 'heavy hitter' they had. Tony's suit wasn't designed to take on an all-out alien invasion, though it wouldn't surprise anyone he had one waiting at Stark Tower that could. Hawkeye, Widow and Cap were all ground and infiltration forces, with some 'superhuman' capabilities. They were certainly not the greatest front line defense against an alien army. The Avengers had originally been a human defense force to work for SHIELD and do things regular SHIELD agents couldn't. It was only with learning about Kara and Thor that they had added Alien Invasion Protection to the Avengers mandate.
"Brainiac do you have anything for us?" Kara asked through her comm.
"Yes actually." Brainaic's voice came through the room's PA system so the whole group could hear the results. "Just before the engine was shot out we had located the Tesseract." Brainiac told them. "It is located on Stark Tower. They have tapped into the Arc Reactor to run the device."
"Son of a Bitch!" Tony growled. "That god damn diva stole my Tower! If they do this they'll drain the Arc Reactor! It was supposed to run for a whole year!"
"Better your Arc Reactor than my Omegahedron." Kara reminded him sadly.
Tony glared at her. "You do realize my Tower is Ground Zero for an Alien Invasion right now? Pepper is going to be pissed. We just finished that, it was our baby!" He growled with annoyance.
"She'll get over it when she gets more than twelve percent credit for the new one." Kara sassed back. Tony gasped and sputtered while the others got ready, as they tried to hide their smirks at their banter.
Rogers cleared his throat, "We're going to need a pilot and a ship to get us to New York." he reminded them seriously, "And a plan, more than just 'attack'." He added, looking sternly at Stark.
"I got the flying part covered." Hawkeye told him. He liked Steve, his take charge attitude was what they needed right then. "Between Natasha and me we can fly, and man the guns of any of the Quinjets on deck, plus they are always fully armed and fueled so we don't need to worry about armaments. That's the best gunship SHUELD has on the Helicarrier, and it can also carry extra passengers."
Steve flushed as he remembered that Natasha had piloted to and from Stuttgart. He was still getting used to the fact that women were in all combat roles now, instead of only a rare woman being in the corps at all. Strictly speaking Peggy wasn't actually a member of the Army combat forces during WWII. She had thrown herself into the fight as often as possible. In reality her position had officially been a secretary for Col. Phillips, and that was a cover for her British Secret Agent status.
"Alright we'll need to suit up if we are going to go to New York and fight these things." Steve told them. "Meet back here in five."
"I'm ready now." Tony told them. "I want to switch out suits anyway. My Mark VII is more heavily armed and armored than this one. Plus this one is a little on the worn out side. I'll see if I can delay the Invasion while I do it." He turned to Kara. "It might be best if you stayed with the others so he doesn't see you back on your feet before we go head-to-head. We don't want him using his glow stick of destiny on you."
Kara sighed but agreed as her wound twitched at the thought of facing Loki alone again while he was still under the control of the menacing supervisor in the scepter. "I could use a few more minutes on deck. I'll be waiting just outside the door for the rest of you."
She walked away and added her full array of battle weapons to her armor making it possible for her to grab her sword from her back, and she attach the magical buckler to her gauntlet. In battle she could activate it and it would expand and cover her arm if she needed it. She tended to keep it closed since it did create drag when she flew. The battle armor was made of heavier metal than her everyday armor, and had additional plates that covered her back. It also had a golden gorget to protect her neck, and shoulder armor with a deflection plate over her shield arm.
Steve nodded as he took in all the needs of the others. "Sounds like a plan, just be careful Stark." His tone was one of concern so Tony didn't take the words personally. "I'll just get my shield and uniform." He told the rest of them.
"We'll be back in a few with our weapons." Hawkeye agreed, Widow nodded and left out the same door without a word.
Tony took off with one last wave to Kara before he flew off to switch out his armor at his Tower.
"Good luck Tony." She whispered into the wind as she watched him fly off.