A/N A shout out to Julen for being the first to review this story! You've followed me from one fanfiction to another and I thank you dearly for your loyalty :D Keep bein' awesome, you awesome person you!

As to why this update has taken so long: Years ago I named my computer Loki as it was always glitching and tricking me into believing there was actually something wrong with it when there was nothing. Well, not Loki truly lives up to his name because he decided to contract a virus. I just barely saved the start of this chapter before running him off to the doctor. Now, I am borrowing a friend's laptop for a few moments in the hopes to complete this chapter and upload it for all my countless fans ^_^

Chapter Seven: The War

And so it began.

With the Avengers scattered about the battlefield that was Manhattan they began to take on and take down the Chitauri menace. They knew they'd be hard-pressed. Who wouldn't? It was seven against the countless hordes. They had to try, though, and try they did! Each person fought with a ferocity that demanded attention. To them, losing this war was not an option. They had to do this. They were doing it for SHIELD. They were doing it for Earth. They were doing it for Phil Coulson.

Agent Little tore down the street, rampaging towards a squadron of Chitauri as a very angry rhinoceros. It wasn't her favorite animal to become as she loathed the poor eyesight, but she was deadly and thick skinned which was a good combination at a time like this. She tossed her head and leaned her massive body against the enemies, bring them to the ground. From there she trampled their helpless forms, crushing the life out of them. Each time she finished squashing a group on the ground she'd take flight. Her bird of choice? The harpy eagle. Large and strong, she flew talons first at the Chitauri zooming through the air on their hover sleds. She'd throw the passenger to the ground below and cause the driver to crash. Part of her tried her best to make sure the creatures crashed to the ground instead of plowing into a building. Enough damage was already being done as it was. When she'd had enough of those in the air, she'd dive-bomb back to the streets to take on another squadron. As she fought, Little noticed one valuable piece of intel. The Chitauri warriors simply fought. Their strategy was only to attack anything that moved. They had no formation and no special tactics. It was just brute force.

"Hey, Fauna!"

Barton's voice rang in her right ear as she busied herself with bringing down a warrior with a crushing chomp to the leg. Her body was now long, green-black, and scaly with a powerful tail and monstrous jaws. She gripped hard and began to roll around, rending the limb from the Chitauri's body. Once done, she scrambled away from a spear that, though narrowly missing her hind leg, caught the edge of her tail. She hissed in response to the stinging pain. Turning from alligator to human, she made a quick dash to get away from the enemy before responding to Barton's hail. "Yeah?"

"If you happen to see any of these fuckers with an arrow in them, could you bring shaft to me? Running out might not be a good idea."

A Chitauri discovered Little's hiding spot and readied himself for the attack.

She grimaced. Instead of changing, she simply attacked this enemy in human form. Her hand-to-hand combat was advanced, though it paled in comparison to Romanoff's, and sufficed to bring this one enemy down. She heaved a breath. "You got it, Hawkeye. If I see any arrows, I'll bring them to you. No promises!"

"Move forward! Now!"

She quickly hopped forward and heard the thud! of something crashing to the ground behind her. Turning, there was a Chitauri with an arrow sticking out of its head. She grinned. "Thanks for that."

"No problem."

Little looked around. Down the street she could see another group of Chitauri harassing a group of civilians. She frowned. Not today! Her legs pumped liked pistons as she charged towards the group. When she was just yards away it was like she exploded from human and into a polar bear. She barreled into the group, bowling many over as she then reared back and began to swat at them with heavy paws. A thunderous roar erupted from her throat as she fought her way into the middle of the group and back out the other side before wheeling around and going in for more. She was harder pressed than before, this being a larger group of the hostiles, but she continued to fight, ripping and tearing at anything that came close to her paws or mouth. She wouldn't lie that it felt good being given so much freedom with her shape-shifting abilities. There had always been rules on what she could and could not become around civilians. Everything had to be explainable. However…a large polar bear in the middle of Manhattan would raise eyebrows and questions, but it was necessary. Little walked away from the freshly made pile of Chitauri warriors and gave a loud grunt of victory. She had never had so much freedom and it felt amazing! It had never been doubted that she much preferred an animal form over a human one. She'd mentioned it to others before. Humans were so weak and fragile in comparison. True, there were people like Captain America and the Hulk, but they were lab rats.

As Little continued to charge into squadrons of warriors, the other Avengers went about their own work. Stark traveled the perimeter, turning sled after sled away or to ash. He would land occasionally to lend aid to the others around him. After giving a short burst of assistance he would always take to the air once again to ward off more of the invading force. The Captain kept to the ground, taking aide from anyone who'd give him updates via communications. He cleared out a bank of hostages being held by three Chitauri. There, a waitress saw him and felt the awe of being in the same vicinity of a true hero. Meanwhile, the Hulk and Thor were battling it out on the back of a leviathan. Hulk ripped up a sheet of the creature's thick shell and buried it into its back. The God of Thunder called upon the lightening and smashed the large splinter deep into the beast, electrocuting it along the way. Romanoff kept to the ground, battling hand-to-hand with the monsters or using her guns to take them out. She moved gracefully from victim to victim using every skill she knew to bring them down. All the while Barton stayed on his rooftop, watching over everyone and raining deadly arrows down upon the enemy. It wasn't easy work, none of them would ever admit to that, but it was their work.

Little had just crashed a group of sleds and was flying low, clawing at anything that wasn't part of this world. As she flew she noticed a pile of dead Chitauri, all with arrows protruding from one spot or another. Deciding a few moments here wouldn't be a waste of time she shifted back into her two-legged form and gathered as many as she could hold before setting them aside. She quickly changed back into the harpy eagle and clutched the arrows in her clawed feet and took to the skies.

Barton saw the large bird heading his way and was, at first, unsure of what to do until a voice in the back of his head called him an idiot and told him it was obviously Little.

She landed on the roof, depositing her clutch of arrows, and hopped onto the railing in front of him. The one thing about Agent Little that never changed no matter how often she turned into something new was her eyes. They always stayed the pale, yet vivid color of lavender-blue. Those eyes were locked onto the archer's at the moment

Barton gave her a nod of appreciation as he loosed an arrow in a random direction that still took out a Chitauri sled.

Little bobbed her feathered head up and down and gave her wings a light flap, returning the nod in her own way. Leaning forward, she gentle nibbled on one of his fingers that wrapped about the handle of his bow. Hey, if you're going to flirt, be creative about it! Little let herself believe that the few moments she spent taking a bit of a breather atop the high building with Barton wouldn't change the course of the war in anyway. She hoped she was right as made quiet warbling sounds while she nibbled his finger.

Barton felt a smirk grow on his face. With his left hand he carefully stroked the top of her head, making sure not to ruffle the feathers there.

She nuzzled into his hand and was half tempted to become a far cuter animal and really enjoy his petting, but now wasn't the time for such frivolous behavior. Enough time had already been wasted on the petting as it was. Shaking out her feathers, she gave a screeching cry before diving off the railing and onto a sled zooming beneath them.

Barton watched her fly off with a grin on his face as he loosed another arrow. She was indeed an interesting creature…

The battle continued. Warrior after warrior fell to the endless onslaught brought forth by the seven-member team. One would not think such a small group could hold off such a large force, but it was happening. They may not have been beating the Chitauri back, but they were certainly holding them at bay.

Natasha stood against an overturned car, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. She had one of the Chitauri's staff and was using it as a leaning post. Looking through a curtain of red locks she saw the captain joining her and she shook her head. "Captain, none of this is gunna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

His own chest heaved as he looked up to the skies at the whole piercing their universe. "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it."

A thought suddenly occurred in Natasha's mind. Perhaps…What if… "Well, maybe it's not about guns."

He looked over her with a knowing look. "You wanna get up there, you're gunna need a ride."

A squadron of hover sleds zoomed over their heads.

A smirk came to Natasha's face. "I've gotta ride." She took a few steps backwards, assessing the angle that she was going to need to accomplish this feat. "I could use a lift, though."

Captain America looked around and settled himself into a reasonable position he thought would be the most advantageous to her idea. "You sure about this?"

Though there was no hesitation in her voice, it could easily be seen on her face. "Yeah…It's gunna be fun." She set her feet before bursting whatever energy she had into the miniscule sprint. First she leapt at an overturned car, using it as the first boost of leverage necessary. From there she jumped onto the captain's shield. He shot her into the air like a bullet.

The captain watched as she spun into the air and grabbed hold of the sled flying above them. He grinned after her. He remembered to back in his day when strong women were few and far apart and quite frowned upon…but now? Women like the Black Widow…or perhaps it was just the Black Widow…definitely piqued his interest. What a woman…

Aboard the sled, Natasha quickly dispatched the warrior on the back half of the sled before leaping onto the back of the driver. She dug two blades into its shoulder blades and twisted and wrenched, figuring out just how to maneuver the sled. Turning was a bitch, but she eventually got the hang of it all. Her mind was dead set on getting to the top of Stark Tower. That was, until, she saw the man tailing her. Her brow knitted together as a new idea came to her. Now, instead of getting to the top of Stark Tower, she was going to get Loki not to just tail her, but to follow her. Where? She left that thought with only a smirk. She led the villain through the skies and right towards… "Hawkeye!"

The man standing atop the high building stared in utter amazement. "Nat! What are you doing!" Then he saw who was trailing her. A smirk came to his lips as he raised an arrow to his bow. Drawing back he sighted and grinned. "I got 'im."

THWANG!

Barton watched with pride as his arrow flew through the sky, cutting a hissing path. It was the perfect shot. Loki was going do—

WHAT!

Loki caught the explosive arrow! Never before had anyone ever evaded his shot! This wasn't…This wasn't possible!

There was a devilish smirk on Loki's face as the arrow prepared to explode in his hands. He could almost chuckle as the arrowhead blew up in his face, sending him crashing to the deck of the higher levels of the Stark Tower.

From where he had been standing, the Hulk had seen Loki's not so graceful fall onto the deck high above. He charged up the side of the tower, doing more damage than necessary, to be brutally honest. As he reached the top of the tower he grasped Loki and threw him through the already cracked windows. He followed the man in and gave a thunderous roar before beating at the floor beneath him with mighty hands.

Loki took to his feet swiftly and glared at the massive beast. "Enough!"

The Hulk stopped for just a moment to listen to his tirade.

"You are—All of you—Are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature! And I will not be bullied by—"

And that was enough of that!

The Hulk snatched the so-called god by his ankle and slung him about the room, smashing him into the floor multiple times. He had little tolerance for being berated by something so much…smaller…than him. With a grunt of satisfaction he looked down at a quite stunned Loki and huffed a bit. "Puny god."

Loki laid there unmoving and vocalizing a choked whine. He laid there and just thought for a few moments. Perhaps this war wasn't such a good idea. The Avengers seemed to be holding his army at bay. He had just had just been thrown around like a ragdoll by a supposedly mindless beast. The humans were more willing to fight for their freedom than he had expected. He had been certain they would take to their knees before him and worship him as the God King that he thought he was. Apparently he had been wrong…

If Loki knew just how hopeless his endeavor was soon to become he would never rise from the whole in the floor shaped like him. There was currently a nuke heading through the air and right towards them. If it struck any part of Manhattan all would be lost. In less than three minutes it would all be over. Nothing would surive.

Unless…

A/N Again, so sorry for the delay! Once my computer is back from the doctor I'm sure I'll be busting out chapter after chapter ^_^