And it was then that Selvig finally got the portal working. A beam of bright, sea-blue light, sliced a path into the sky, spreading out at the end like spilled ink on a table,

to make way,

for them

to come.

And in

they moved.

Tony looks up.

"Right…

Army…"

XXXXX

"Okay. That's my cue," says Snow in the jet. Nat turns to look at her as she approached the hanger. She turns back and presses a button to open it for her as Cap eyes her warily.

Without warning, Snow jumps out. "Snow! Wait!" exclaims Steve.
"Did she just jump?!" asks Clint in disbelief.
"It's cool. She can fly," notes in Tony.

And on her way down, the White focuses her powers on one of her favorite, but scarcely used abilities. The magic inside her was as protective as it was lethal.

And it would protect its owner.

A light spread from the midst of Snow's chest, covering her, like a blanket, in a reinforced suit of golden-colored armor that shimmered in the sun, impenetrable by any weapon, assuming the weapon was non-magic.

Natasha keeps her eyes on the jet's windscreen, a smirk growing on her face when she catches sight of Snow, floating across them. "Boys," she calls, causing them to turn back. Their eyes go wide.

She flashed them a quick, reassuring smile,

like that of a guardian's,

promising safety.

"Now I'm optimistic," says Clint, watching her fly off.
"Me too," agrees Nat as Steve nods.

Snow looks up, where Tony was struggling to keep the alien-army, which still took her a moment to accept seeing, at bay, before she zoomed up like a speeding arrow to assist and defend her stupidly-brave teammate.

Loki walks out to Stark's suit-remover, watching the Mad Titan's plan unfold. He didn't see Snow.

But what he saw, flipped something inside his barely stable mind.

He switched back,

back to the man they'd made-No-the maniac. The one who craved power, and war, for no sane reason.

He stood helpless,

against the sinful excitement that washed through his soul.

Excitement too difficult to fight. He was only one man. He couldn't always fight back.

He would fall.

And he had fallen.

Even when his brother reappeared.

It changed nothing.

"Loki!" Thor calls. "Turn off the Tesseract, or I will destroy it!" he warns desperately.
"You can't!" Loki replies honestly. "There is no stopping it…

There is only

the war."

"So be it."

And as the distant siblings fought amongst themselves,

all hell broke loose from above.

Snow hurries up to Tony.

Shooting aliens back and forth, the Stark catches sight of her, confused for a second. "What the…"
"That would be Miss White, sir," tells Jarvis. At that, Tony lets out a laugh of excitement. Things were certainly looking up.

Assessing the situation, Snow deduced a dire fact. Force-fields wouldn't stop them. Wouldn't kill them. But she could.

It was then that Snow had decided to use the one ability she loathed most.

Using her force-fields, Snow aimed. Tony watched in the slightest of fear, as every target she hit,

was condemned to

nothing but dust in the wind.

She could only aim at a handful at once. It wasn't enough. So, Tony got over himself, and rushed to her side, using multiple mini-rockets at the ghastly creatures. "Nice suit," he yells over, smirking, causing her to smile at his impressment as she fought back earth's unwanted intruders.

Snow vigorously pushes some mercenaries into the ones behind them, causing them to collide, and fall, or just plain out explode. Tony flew about, throwing shots here and there, trying to take down as many as possible.

But they swarmed like bees.

It was beyond difficult for them to fight this many numbers, and fend for themselves and each other at the same time. Not to mention,

some got loose.

"Tony! This isn't working!" she tells.
"I can see that!" he retorts, shooting some more, and flailing about, attempting to evade getting fired at, as Snow held shield with one hand, and fought with the other.

Tony gets an idea. "Okay. If we split 'em up, this would be a lot easier," he suggests.
"Go!" she agrees, flying off in one direction, and him in the other, each being followed by a dozen or so.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed north-east," Nat talks through.
"What, did you stop for a drive-through?! Swing up park. I'm going to lay them out for you," he says.

Tony flies down past his tower, catching a glimpse of the brawling sibling. "FYI, Thor is here!" he exclaims. Snow's heart jumps at that slightly. The others are just grateful they'd earned a bigger fist.

Seeing them, Tony flies past the jet, allowing it to surprise-take down his persistent chasers as he went off to fight some more.

The duo shows no mercy, shooting everything in sight, and circling the tower. They stop when they too see the siblings, wanting to help Thor.

And it was so suddenly, that Loki held the upper hand over his heart-broken sibling. "Nat?" Clint warns.
"I see him," she replies warily. They take position, ready to shoot.

Loki notes this. Too caught up in the glory of defeating his be-damned brother, Loki shoots first, but only the wing, like his subconscious was still aware, and needed to insure the Avengers' survival.

However, all Thor could see, was his falling-from-the-sky friends,

and it enraged him.

He jumped his brother. They resumed their pointless squabble.

Meanwhile, Snow was tailed by at least twenty Chitauri warriors on pilot-able platforms, aiming to take her down, and hopelessly failing. They did prove difficult though. The numbers at least.

The White catches sight of the crashing jet. Her eyes go wide and heart races warily. "Tony! The jet's going down. I'm going after it. Cover me!" she tells.
"Roger that," he confirms, rounding a building and appearing directly in front of her.

He too was being followed by at least seven. And in a blink, both fighters dive down, causing most of the upper Chitauri to crash into one another. Tony assists the crashing with shots from below as Snow hurries off.

Clint and Natasha were struggling to keep a smooth landing, but crashing was still very immanent in the upfront building-block.

Shooting down like a star, Snow lands directly in front of the jet, causing the duo and Cap to widen their eyes in fear of driving her over.

Taking a deep breath, fairly anxious, Snow stands her ground, putting up both hands as she focused quite the amount of magic, on conducting a field bearing the height and width of the jet itself.

When they collided, the three inside jerked slightly, but nothing compared to crashing into a building. Snow, on the other hand, felt

every

muscle

ache,

like she was holding up an elephant. Close enough.

Fortunately, her strength was that of ten grown men, unnaturally of course. The ground beneath her anchored feet began to crack from pressure, and after one long minute, the jet halted to a stop.

Steve hurries out of the jet to her in concern. "Are you alright?" he asks, still a bit dazed with her new look, her panting heavily in exhaustion. She nods quickly.
"Yeah. Let's go."

Snow and Steve move forward, Nat and Clint following, stood on the bridge where Grand Central Station was in view.

The four Avengers' attention is suddenly caught by a horrifying sight.

It was indescribable.

A dinosaur-shark mutant barely resembled it.

The length of the Eiffel tower. The width of a whale. The height of a two-story house.

Floating down from the portal-made wormhole in the sky.

And it was armored!

Spacious armor, it seemed, as, from pods built in, more Chitauri soldiers appeared. From both sides.

Hundreds of them!

Foot soldiers this time though, the cavalry were still sky-high.

They spread like a virus, onto the streets, into the buildings. Shooting, attacking, blowing things up!

All of that, in a manner of three seconds, sending the Avengers into quite a state of denial.

"Stark, you seeing this?" Steve calls in.
"Seeing. Still working on believing," he replies, flying towards the seemingly unbeatable target.

One person compared in size though.

"Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" he asks, confusing them slightly.
"Banner?" Steve inquires, remembering, as were the others, that Bruce's location was unknown since he'd fallen from the Helicarrier.
"Just keep me posted."

XXXXX

Face to face, the siblings stood, weapons aimed high at each other's throat, held in place by seemingly equal strengths.

But Thor wasn't giving it all he had. This was his brother. Blood-bonded or not. He'd grown up with him. Grown to love him, despite the difference in their likes and dislikes. They were brothers. Oh, how he wished Snow's words were true. It was the only thing the God of Thunder held in hope for his lost sibling.

"Look at this!" Thor yells at Loki. "Look around you!"

And in a moment of struggle, Loki does. A fire starts in his chest. Burning, raging flam, tearing at his insides, and ripping his mind to shreds. Guilt combined with denial. Hatred combined with excitement.

"You think this madness will end with your rule?!" Thor exclaims, wanting to see any sense of remorse. Something!

And for a moment, Loki doesn't disappoint.

"It's too late…" utters the God of Mischief, eyes breaming with tears of pure pain for the unbreakable conflict within his soul. "It's too late to stop it."
"No," stresses Thor, face lightening up. Loki turns to him, honestly unable to comprehend a word. "We can. Together."

Together?

We?

Thor!

He thinks he could have it all!

But no.

A sharp pain drags into Thor's side. He looked down in shock, to see that his unreasonable sibling had stabbed him!

What sympathy Thor held in that moment was gone as his hammer slipped from his hand.

XXXXX

The four, Steve, Snow, Nat, and Clint, were stationed on the bridge reeking Chitauri.

While Steve, Nat, and Clint fought below, Snow took the high ground, floating directly above them to get a better eye.

A few seconds later, they glimpse Loki flying past them on one of the Chitauri platforms, followed by several others, a mad grin on his face as he rained fire on the streets below the bridge, wreaking havoc in a manner of seconds.

"Still think he's on our side, Snow?" asks Steve through the coms. But she'd barely heard him, worrying now more than ever that there was a high chance Loki had officially lost it.

What did that mean for them?

Without waiting, Snow zooms after the God of Mischief. However, the White stops when the raging fire hit a bus filled with people. Children! A school bus!

The bus flipped vertically, a second from crashing onto its face when she'd anchored to the ground and held it up.

"Wow!" a child utters.
"Oh my god!"
"She's beautiful!"
"AHHH!"

After halting its fall with a field, the bus began to fall back. She stormed behind, floating up and grabbing its tip, groaning as she held it up and began to descend it slowly, the kids watching from the back window in amazement.

Just before it stood the ground, Snow heard more Chitauri approaching from behind her. She places the bus down with a sigh, and turns.

Snow puts both hands up, shooting fields at two, three targets at once, turning them to dust, doing her best at keeping them at bay from the bus.

Five more approach her. And suddenly, two of them fall from behind, where Cap stood, glaring threateningly at the rest.

To the children, it was like watching pages out of a comic book come to life.

Steve throws his shield at the third. Snow hurries towards him. She throws a hefty punch at the one in front of her, then a knee to the stomach as she hastily held a field up against the second one attempting shots at her, pushing him aside with force as Steve fought two more, a few feet from her position.

Alas done, the two stand side to side as six more make their way towards them.

Crossing tides, Steve throws his shield at two stood against Snow, and she transformed one of those stood against him to dust.

They switched back, taking their own sides.

As they fought vigorously, the two take note of a screeching, as loud as a siren going off. They look to see the big one headed towards them.

"Stark. The big one's coming at us," Steve calls through.
"There're too many people down here, Tony," Snow tells.
"I'm on it," he retorts.

Tony flies into sight from the adjacent building. Aiming directly at the creature's face, he shoots about a dozen mini-rockets.

The creature screeches louder and turns to him wrathfully. "Well, we got its attention…

What the hell was step two?!"

he asks himself, rocket-boosting in the opposite direction as it followed away from the crowd.

Snow and Steve then turn to the bus full of children. Steve rips open the door, and Snow helps the children out.

"You guys were awesome!"
"You saved us!"
"Yeah! Superheroes!"

The teammates smirk at one another. They hear struggles from high up, and look to see that their other partners were getting far too out numbered.

XXXXX

Natasha held one of the Chitauri's own weapons against them, combing several sets of skills as she fought. Agility. Fencing. Aiming. Evading.

While, a few feet from her, Clint jumped from place to place, shooting arrows here and there, bullseyes in most cases.

But more appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. It was getting harder to fend back.

But when Snow and Steve jumped in, things looked up again as Steve blocked a shoot to Nat with his shield, and Snow to Clint.

Readying for battle, the four find it unnecessary when those stood against them fall from sudden lightning, and Thor lands from the sky, looking more worn out than themselves.

"What's the story upstairs?" asks Steve as Nat and Clint check their equipment, and Snow listens.
"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," says Thor.
"Is it? Really? Huh? Snow. Key. Remember?" Tony offers.

Her eyes widen as the others turn to her. "What's he talking about?" asks Nat.
"What key?" inquires Clint.
"The scepter," utters Snow in a daze.
"Loki's scepter?" questions Thor.
"Well, I don't see any other glowy sticks," says Tony. Steve is reluctant.
"Look. We don't know for sure," he says.
"What else have we got, Steve?" Snow asks irritably.

Their conversation is cut short when Snow's eyes catch sight of…

Was that Bruce?

On a motorcycle?

The others turn as well, slightly in shock.

They hurry towards him. He climbs off the bike and approaches them, smiling slightly at the sight of them united, and amused at how messy they looked. "So," he starts sarcastically, "this all seems…horrible."
"I've seen worse," smirks Nat, half-serious about the incident on the ship where she was Hulk's first target.
"Sorry," Bruce says sincerely to her. Clint furrows his eyebrows.
"No. We could use a little worse," she smiles. Barton would definitely ask her about this later.

Steve smirks. "Stark. We got him," he says.
"Banner?" Tony asks.
"Just like you said."
"Then tell him to suit up.

I'm bringing the party to you."

Tony comes into view from a far off building,

and behind him,

the big one.

"I-I don't see how that's a party," says Nat.

Tony flies low, and it follows. The others hurriedly get into position, uncertain of their next moves.

Bruce however, starts walking directly towards the incoming beast, so casually.

"Dr. Banner!" calls Steve. He doesn't stop. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry," he says.
"That's my secret, Captain," he smiles, turning back momentarily.

"I'm always angry."

And it was then, that the six watch their seventh partner take form, to their eighth.

The Hulk.

In a manner of seconds, his body shifted, growing in length, width, height, and color all at once, granting him the strength

of a thousand,

and the rage of hell.

And, in that same second, the creature almost flattened him, when he put a fist up, and gave a punch directly into its face with such force! So much, the beast flipped over.

Tony took chance and shoot one big rocket into the beast's showing skin, blowing it to bits as Snow shielded her friends from the falling pieces.

All around, from the skies and buildings, the Chitauri watch in panic as one of their strongest falls. How?!

The Avengers.

That's how.

They rounded up, each stood side to side, forming a circle of hope for the hopeless,

a source of strength for the weak.

The enemy's defeat.

The Chitauri screech in rage, and Loki watches in annoyance. "Send the rest," he utters.

And just when they thought they'd moved a step forward, the next event took them two steps back.

Two more big one's appeared from the portal. Two more!

"Guys!" alerts Nat worriedly.
"Call it, Cap," Tony says, agreeing with the rest that Steve was most experienced in army divisions. And they were their own army.

Also.

They had a Hulk.

"We have to close that portal," Steve starts, he turns to Snow. "Snow. If the scepter is the only way to close it-"
"I can get it," she nods quickly. He nods back, as she flies off, turning to the others.
"Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton. I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark. You got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back, or you turn it to ash," Steve tells.
"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asks Tony.
"Right. Better clench up, Legolas," Stark retorts, headed towards him.

He grabs Clint and flies off as well. Steve turns to Thor.

"Thor. You gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor nods, spinning his hammer and storming away. He turns to Nat. "You and me. We stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here.

And Hulk…

Smash."

The Hulk grins in raging excitement, hopping off like a frog, jumping eighty feet into the sky, and onto a building, squashing and crashing all aliens in sight.

From far off, on the tip of the Empire State building, Thor calls upon storm-clouds, charging up with an unbelievable amount of electricity, then, using his hammer, directing it towards the portal, killing off at least twenty Chitauri warriors, and literally blowing up a big one.

One down. One to go.

XXXXX

On her way high up, Snow takes down as many Chitauri as she could, till she'd spotted him, spreading destruction about.

She gets angry, and, maybe guilty? Maybe she felt bad for possibly trusting him. Maybe she still did.

Maybe she was angry with herself.

Either way, Snow charges forward. Using her force, it is too late for Loki to retaliate when she pushes him off the platform and hard onto the roof of a semi-tall building nearby.

His few followers aim to take her down. She dusts them off quickly and mercilessly.

Loki gets to his feet in time to see her land in front of him, and he felt another rush of excitement surge through with the thought of battling her.

"Love the new look, darling," he smirks. Snow eyes as if in disappointment.
"Give me the scepter, Loki," she demands, semi-calmly. He grins in retort.
"Come get it," he tells slyly. She clenches her jaw irritably, having not wanted to do this. No choice now.

Snow charges forward with just a shield. Her main target was the scepter. If she had that, she would leave. This was not a battle she wished to win.

Loki found her challenge enthralling. Let's see how powerful she really was.

Using the scepter, Loki throws shots at her, that she blocks with struggle, seeing as how, somehow, every shoot actually disintegrated her force-fields.

Magic wouldn't cut it. If they would fight, it would be hand to hand, otherwise, they'd stay at it forever.

Snow runs forward. He swings the scepter at her head. She ducks, giving a punch to his gut as she rose back. He leans forward in slight pain. She tries a punch to the face. He catches her fist swiftly. She throws the other one. He grabs it too. She attempts a kick to his knee. He side steps her, using her other foot to flip her off hers.

She falls to the floor with a thud, him still on top, pinning both hands above her head firmly. Snow's wondering why he was so hard to beat. "Shame. I expected more from such a pretty face," he said.
"That makes two of us," she retorts, letting quite the amount of irritancy at her weakness take over.

Loki witnessed her eyes glow gold. His face falls, accepting his fate as he was pushed back with an impeccable force.

He jumps back up, grinning at the sight of her wrath, fists clenched at both her sides, glowing as bright as her frustrated eyes. "Now that's more like it," he grins.

She charged up, aiming for a big hit, from a distance. He held up the staff. But, this time, it was pointless. She'd used up so much energy, it sent him flying off the roof, and into the adjacent office-building.

She followed after, flying to the broken window he'd landed in. She eyes around, and doesn't find him.

So, she stepped up her game, he would step up his.

She hears something to her left, glimpses his figure, and immediately shoots a push. But he wasn't really on her left.

It was too late for her to turn when she'd sensed a presence on her right, having him shoot her into the front pillar, causing it to crack from strength. He sprints to her face, gripping her throat.

Instead of pushing him away, one thought came to mind. Snow shoved Loki's own dagger, the one he'd stabbed her with, into his side. His eyes go wide in slight shock. He looks down. Sees it. And laughs, impressed as she stepped in and punched him dead in the face.

He stumbles to his knees, pulling out the dagger, and keeping it, as he used the scepter for support. She approaches him slowly, taking hold of the scepter's upper neck. Unexpectedly, she takes a quick punch to the gut, letting out a huff of pained air.

In the same second, Snow shoots out force, as Loki triggers the scepter. The two shots of consequent power only succeeded in pushing both adversaries to opposite directions, Loki to the floor, and Snow out the window.

She managed to fly off directly before hitting the abandoned street's crumbled road, letting herself drop semi-gracefully. This amount of effort would leave her down for weeks to come.

Having no time to catch her breath, Snow hurriedly put up a shield as Loki came crashing down onto her. He pushes further, and she almost succumbs.

But a rush of adrenaline saves her back, pushing up till he was thrown off.

The scepter drops from his hand. He reaches to get it, but she pushes him far, running towards it herself.

Finally in hand, Snow flies off. Out of panic, Loki shoots another dagger into the sky, burying it deep into her stomach.

Snow lets out a cry of pain.

…And it was then,

that his heart screamed.

Screamed at him, to see.

To come back!

Before it was too late.

She fell, and the scepter fell with her,

but,

as if on instinct,

Loki went after her.

She'd thought she'd hit the pavement, but her landing was less of a pain for some reason, and it was only when she'd opened her eyes to his, did her confusion arouse, and heart start to race.

On the ground and in his arms, Loki turned to the dagger, pulling it out furiously, causing her to scream out again as he threw it away, and the wound slowly healed.

He turned to her, a million words behind his lonesome eyes.

But she could sense them.

All of them.

The fear.

The pain.

But mostly, guilt. So much guilt, she could almost hear the desperate apology on the tip of his tongue.

...He was back.

But

when Thor

came crashing in, having been informed by Clint that Snow could use a hand, the White witnessed a change in the God of Mischief expression.

And she felt the frustration.

"LOKI! Let her go!" the God of Thunder shouts, blinded to the reality of the situation.

No.

She could feel him slipping away again!

She panicked. Her thoughts were so distressed,

so

her heart took lead.

Catching them both off guard, Snow pulled Loki by the collar of his armor,

crashing her lips

into his

with such force,

chasing the air out of his lungs,

and all thoughts out of his mind as his heart raced madly, and hers did too.

Getting back to her senses, Snow focused her powers as Thor watched the scene unfold in disbelief, baffled.

Slowly, Loki felt himself fading, his mind growing weightless. His head fell back, breaking the kiss, and he eyed her in as much shock as his brother did, till his eyes shut, and he went away.

XXXXX

With the sound of singing birds,

he awakens.

Loki's eyes flutter-open

to a clear sky.

His senses return, and it felt as though he was laying on grass.

He was.

His mind found no sense to make. Slowly, Loki got up into a sitting position, eyeing around mysteriously. The first thing he caught sight of, was a one great oak tree, up a small slope.

And, all else around him, was grass, for miles, till he could see no more.

To his far west, the sun was slowly setting, leaving behind shades of blue and purple in the floating, quiet clouds.

Where in the world was he?

XXXXX

Snow held his unconscious head in her hands. "Thor!" she calls. He runs towards her, unbelievably confused. "He won't be out for long," she explains as he kneels opposite her. "I need you to take him to the tower," she says, handing him his brother. "I'll get the scepter."

Thor nods slowly, still a bit daze. He scooped his sibling up and, with a swing of his hammer, he flew off.

Snow eyed around for the scepter, catching sight of it, she picks it up, feeling an odd surge of power wash through her. She shakes it off, and floats away, setting course for the portal.

On her she spots the one of the big ones, with Hulk rampaging more Chitauri on its back. She dives down into some of them, taking side next to the big guy as he squashed and smashed some ore, acknowledging her presence.

Snow combines both fields and scepter in her attempts to take as many of them down. And when the Hulk grabs a piece of the beast's armor, and shoves it into its back, she flies, charging up, then pushing the piece so deep in, it luckily hit a vital organ, sending the beast,

and them,

crashing into Grand Central station.

The two teammates, stand for a minute, catching their breath. "That…was…awesome," utters Snow, smiling at Hulk. He grins back excitedly.
"Hulk and princess make good team," he says, causing her to laugh out.
"Yeah…Okay, I gotta get this up there," she waves the scepter. "I'll see you around." She flies off once more.

Sky-high, Snow makes her way to Stark's tower, shooting a few more off of Clint's back.

She sees Tony being smothered by aliens, and shoots most of them down for him.

Finally there, Snow makes her landing where Natasha was talking to Erik Selvig. They turn to her. "You were right. The scepter is the key to stopping it. Selvig said Loki insured that he'd build it accordingly…

I don't get it," Natasha says. Snow shakes her head dismissively, honestly glad Loki hadn't lied.
"It doesn't matter. We can close it."
"You should help the others. Doc and I will handle this," Nat tells. Snow nods, handing Nat the scepter and heading off.

XXXXX

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I shut the portal down," Nat calls in, holding the scepter to the middle of the device as Selvig worked the numbers.
"Do it!" yells Steve from beside Thor and Snow, who had just landed next to them with Clint.
"No! Wait," Tony yells.
"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve tells.
"I gotta a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow up in less than a minute," he tells.
"Oh god…" utters Snow fearfully.
"I know just where to put it."
"Stark

…you know that's a one-way trip,"

says Steve.

He does not reply as he flies over them, directing the nuke from below towards the wormhole.

A tense, heavy moment passes, as the Stark shoots up with all his might,

and

into

the portal

just before it blew them to oblivion.

The world breathes relief,

and the teammates breathe fear.

Pure fear for their friend.

The Chitauri around them fall. He had done it.

And, up in space, he floats, witnessing as the enormous, alien space-ship was blown to bits.

Scared,

and alone,

Tony wondered if he'd make it back,

if it was worth it,

as he slowly faded away.

His friends await his return anxiously. They could see the explosion spread, and would soon reach them. Tears slide down Snow's cheeks as Steve tells Nat to close the portal,

and she does.

But he made it anyways.

They laugh out in relief.

"Uhh. He's not slowing down," states Clint. Thor readies his hammer, and Snow floats up just before their friend was caught by non-other than the Hulk himself, who'd leaped up and caught him, trailing down a building, and jumping towards them, falling onto his back, and holding the Stark to his chest.

The others hurry after, where Hulk had pushed Tony onto the ground. Snow knelt beside him, pushing him onto his back and tearing off his mask. His face was at peace, and his eyes closed.

They couldn't tell if he was breathing because of the armor.

"Tony!" Snow calls. "Come on, damn it," she utters furiously.

Furious indeed, the Hulk roars wrathfully at him, shocking him awake. They sigh in relief as Tony eyes around warily. "What the hell?" he asks. The others just smile at him. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me…Well, except you," he tells to Snow. She rolls her eyes at him. Yeah. He was fine.
"…We won," says Steve.

Upon hearing this, Tony throws his head back in relief, closing his eyes momentarily. "Alright! Yay! Hurray! Good job, guys! Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day off," he throws jokes around semi-nervously. "Have you ever tried shawarma?" he asks Hulk, causing them to smile in amusement. "There's a shawarma joint, about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it," he says, quite serious.
"We're not finished yet," says Clint.

Thor and Snow share a quick, awkward glance.

"And then shawarma after?" pleas Tony.
"Oh, yeah. I'm starving," Clint retorts, causing the Stark to grin as Cap and Snow help him up.

XXXXXXXXXX