Dante gazed longingly out the window in the penthouse of Stark tower, she had a wonderful view of the city. The view made her long for her home back in Hungry and her beautiful view of Budapest.
"Quite a lovely view, yes?" Loki casually strode over to stand next to her. For the last hour he had been seeing to preparations for the Tesseract and the arrival of the Avengers.
She nodded, "Despite being an over privileged asshole Stark does know how to pick a view. It reminds me of my home in Budapest, perhaps I'll show it to you one day."
"Once all this is finished I would like that very much." He placed his hand on her lower back, "Is the armor to your liking?"
Loki had taken the liberty of preparing her armor similar to his that fit over her preferred battle wear. "Yes, besides being beautiful it is very durable and so light. The knives are also very well made. Thank you."
"Only the best for my future queen." He kissed the top of her hand, "Stark will be arriving shortly. Shall we?"
"Of course, my King."
Dante watched from her seat across the room as Stark entered the room after landing and removing his Iron Man suit.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki chuckled.
Stark smirked, "Uh, actually I'm planning to threaten you."
"You should have left your armor on for that."
"Yeah. It's seen a bit of 'mileage" and you got the "glow-stick of destiny". Would you like a drink?"
"Can I have a gin and tonic?" Dante called out.
"Traitors don't get drinks."
Loki cleared his throat, "Stalling me won't change anything."
"No, no, no, threatening! No drink?" Stark put on his bracelets behind the counter. "You sure? I'm having one."
"What do I have to fear?"
"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" type thing."
"Yes. I've met them." Loki replied unimpressed.
"Yeah," Tony chuckled to himself. "Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: your brother the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan."
"Not a great plan. When they come, and they WILL, they'll come for you."
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk."
"I thought the beast has wandered off…"
"You're missing the point! There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it!"
Slowly Dante started clapping, "What a wonderful speech Tony Stark, so insightful especially coming from you."
Finally Tony gave Dante his attention, "Don't even get me started on you my dear little miss traitorous ray of sunshine."
She walked over to stand next to Loki, "I do what I want."
"Including him?" Tony pointed to Loki.
"Business before pleasure Tony," Dante laughed, "Now allow me to show you how to threaten someone properly." In an instant she had him up by his throat and dangling over the edge of the building through the window she just shattered. "Let's see if your new suit can make it to you before you become a blood stain on the pavement." She winked causing Stark to smirk a little, "Good luck."
Loki placed a hand on her shoulder, "That won't be necessary my dear." He grabbed Stark from Dante's grasp and shoved him back into the middle of the room. "I have a much better plan for him." Loki taps his staff against Stark's chest (arc reactor) with no effect. "What?" He tries two more times, "This usually works…"
Stark shrugged, "Yeah, well, performance issues..."
Loki picked him up by the neck and tossed him out of the already broken window.
"How is that any different from what I was going to do?" Dante walked over to the window and peered out. Behind her the wall opened as Jarvis launched Stark's suit. "Fuck all kinds of duck." She grimaced as the suit hit her and carried her out the window.
The suit rushed passed her falling form to assemble around Stark before he turned around and flew towards her. He scooped her up in his arms. "You are a sneaky little shit."
Dante grinned, "I know. Now drop me off near Nat."
"You are my favorite fake turncoat!" Tony laughed, "Alright lets grab that big boy that's coming through the portal and get this party started." Out of the portal emerged a giant armored monstrosity.
"What the blood soaked protestant hell is that?" Dante shrieked, "A fucking space whale?!"
"Umm…yes?" Tony replied unsure.
Dante smiled manically, "I wanna ride it."
"Are you crazy?"
"Yep."
"Well let's go ride the space whale." Tony headed straight towards it and fired some rockets catching its attention.
"Stark? We got him." Captain America's voice came over the intercom.
"Banner?" Stark replied.
"Just like you said."
"Then tell him to suit up... I'm bringing the party to you." Stark, with Dante on his back, leads the monstrous Leviathan into view, heading toward the rest of the Avengers.
Natasha looks at the beast as Stark heads towards them, "I - I don't see how that's a party."
"It's always a party when I'm here!" Dante shouted so Natasha could hear her through Tony's headset.
"Is that Danny?"
"I'm piggy backing her in with me. Apparently she's not a traitor and wants to kick some Chitauri ass too."
"No, I want to ride the space whale!" She slapped the back of his head.
"And she wants to ride the space whale."
"If you three are done Banner's hulked out and heading straight for the monster. Get out of the way!" Rogers shouted over the intercom.
"Oh shit!" Stark dodged a raging Hulk. "That was close!"
Dante peered over stark's shoulder, "I'm heading down give me an earpiece." Tony pulled one out of somewhere and handed it back to her. "Thanks. Com check, can everyone hear me?" A chorus of affirmatives and I'm busy answered her. "Good now listen up, Loki has taken over Stark tower and Jarvis is not happy about it one bit. Anywho, he is using it and the Tesseract to keep the portal open. We…"
"Ok, so we destroy the portal device then boom no more aliens."
"Sure Clint you do that and tell me how well that goes when you hit the unbreakable energy shield protecting it." Dante chided, "Stupid human men….Anyways as I was saying, Loki's scepter is the only other thing that can breach the field."
"The only other thing?" Natasha questioned, "What else can?"
"I can but I would need to take on my original form and that would drain the city and its people of energy." Dante let go of Stark and plummeted to the ground. "Fire in the hole!" As she landed she released a burst of energy killing a group of Chitauri. "Hi guys!" She waved enthusiastically.
Natasha appraised Dante's new look, "Nice outfit."
"Don't be jealous that a psycho god doesn't want you to be his queen." Dante chuckled as she made a whip out of her energy and wrapped it around one of the alien's neck then pulled ripping its head off.
The Black Widow unloaded a clip into a group of Chitauri, "I'm so jealous I can barely stand it." She reloaded then finished them off.
"If you two are done chatting I could use some help." Clint shouted from his position leaning against a burnt out cab.
Natasha rushed in to join him against the cab, taking down a few aliens along the way. "This is just like Budapest all over again."
"You and I remember Budapest very differently." Replied as he peeked over the cab to see a group of Chitauri heading straight for them.
Dante landed on top of the cab, "Stop being a pussy Budapest was a blast!" She quickly charged an energy ball and threw it at the approaching enemy incinerating them.
"You would like Budapest."
"Clint shut up and give me an arrow." Dante deadpanned and pointed to the leviathan flying overhead. "I want to ride that space whale."
Clint just stared at her for a minute before shaking his head, "Why, am I not surprised by what comes out of your mouth anymore?"
"Because you have a decent learning curve for a man."
"Just go ride your space whale." Clint shot an arrow into the whale's body then tossed her the cord attached to said arrow.
"You're my favorite archer!" Dante cheered as she leapt onto the cord and climbed up.
"Why do I attract all the crazy women?" Clint asked Nat.
"Really?"
"I mean it in the best way Nat."
"Sure you do."
On the top side, Dante reached the leviathan and began climbing up its neck or at least what she thought was its neck. Finally, she reached the top of the great beast's head.
"Man you are one ugly space whale!" Dante laughed as she made a large rope out of energy and basically saddled the beast like a horse. "Alrighty let's get those annoying fleas off your back!" She forced the leviathan to scrap its side against a building crushing the Chitauri on that side, she repeated the movement until her space whale was alien free. "Onward to Stark Tower my mighty steed!"
"Oh my god…" Tony stated flabbergasted, "She's actually riding that damn leviathan like a horse." He watched her and her mount fly by, "Where are you….don't you dare hit my tower!"
"Aw, please? I want to throw it at Loki…..I promise to pay for the damages…." Dante begged over the com line.
"Damn right you'll pay for the damages!"
"Don't get your metal undies in a bunch Tony I was just kidding. I'm going to put it down in a minute." She sighed, "It's not as fun as I thought it'd be."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, it smells really bad and feels like I'm sitting in a pile of mushy crap."
"Ewe."
"I know right."
"Are you two done? Some of us need to use the line for more important things like getting civilians out of harm's way!" Captain hollered over the com.
"Whoa pull the spandex out of your ass Captain." Dante laughed as she tightened her hold on the reins, "Incoming!" She pulled straight up, the energy reins sharpened and cut through the creatures neck effectively beheading the beast.
"Director Fury, the council has made a decision."
"I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it." Fury replied.
"It's a nuclear missile to take out the portal!"
Outraged Fury yelled, "Situated at the island of MANHATTAN!"
Dante had made her way to Stark tower and was currently in the elevator heading up to the penthouse where Loki was watching the war unfold when she heard Fury voice come over the line.
"…I repeat you have a nuke inbound, get the hell out of there!"
"Are you fucking...?"
She was cut off by Nat's voice now, "I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."
"Do it!" Steve shouted.
"No wait!" Stark demanded.
"Stark, these things are still coming!"
"I got a nuke coming in. It's going to blow in less than a minute, and I know just where to put it."
"Tony don't, let me get outside I can deactivate it!" Dante tried to explain but the metal in the elevator was affecting the com's reception. "Damn it!"
"Stark, you know that's a one way trip?"
The rest was garbled out in static and Dante's screams of fury. When the elevator arrived at the penthouse Dante ran out and over to the nearest window. She couldn't see Stark at all, angry she shattered the remaining windows with a quick surge of power.
Behind her Loki laughed, "Seems like I was right, the man of iron has chosen to be the hero after all."
Dante whirled around to see Loki leaning against the steps just feet away from a Loki-sized crater in the marble floor. "Well my king don't you look like shit." She chuckled as she waltzed over to him, "It seems your grand plan has failed and once again you have hurt someone I liked. Now what to do with you."
"Should I bother asking for mercy?" Loki asked sarcastically.
"That's not for me to decide." She stepped aside reveling the Avengers.
"If it's all the same to you, I think I'll have that drink now."