Later the four of us were flying with the Quinjet. The city was already pretty close.
Natasha and Clint were driving, the Cap and I were sitting on the bench. I was totally zoned out, trying to process what happened.
"Hey, Lily" Steve wanted to communicate with me, but I didn't received the message. "Lily!" He called me again, and I finally looked at him. "Are you alright?" He asked me concerned.
"Yeah, yeah." I nodded being a little distracted. "Of course." I nodded again, but mostly for myself. I was ok, I had to be ok. We have a job to do.
He wanted to tell me something, but he couldn't since we got a hit.
One of the engine broke down and the whole plane started to shake. We stood up, and tried to hold ourself in one place. Nat and Clint were great pilots, but it was still hard to put the jet down.
We smashed against a wall, then I lost my balance and almost fell. The Cap caught me, and held me tight.
"Thanks." I smiled at him while we locked eyes. It felt like his deep blue eyes could see through me easily.
"Lily…" He lowered his voice, but again, we got interrupted as the jet landed, and the door opened.
He let me loose and we all headed out. The city was a mess, and chaos stared to spread all around.
"We got to get back up there." The Captain told us, as we were running towards the Tower.
When we arrived, we realized how bad the situation is. The huge portal were open over Tony's home and a lot of chitauris were flowing out from there.
And then a vast monster appeared…
"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked via our line.
"Seeing. Still working on believing." We all heard him. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"
"Banner?" I sounded a little surprised.
"Just keep me posted." He asked us as we started to fight the aliens. They were good, especially considering that we – except Steve – weren't exactly this type of soldiers. Sure it didn't mean a thing to liquidate a few targets, but this… is a whole different story.
We were hiding behind a cab, as we reloaded our weapons.
"We've got civilians still trapped up here." I told them as I noticed a bus full of people.
"They are fish in a barrel down there." The captain looked down concerned to a bunch of other people.
"We got this." I said. "It's good. Go." I ensured him confidentially.
"Do you think you can hold them off?" He asked.
"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." Clint answered instead of me while he finished loading his arrows. Steve glanced me again hesitating for a moment. I slightly nodded then he left. I ran to the bus and helped out a kid and his mother through the window while Nat and Clint were covering my back.
"Go down to the subway." I said as I freed them from the bus. "That way. Get off of the streets and you will be fine." I informed the people. When I finished with the last person I turned around to see how the others were handling themselves. Clint was fighting with a creature, while another one wanted to shoot him. I acted immediately and shoot it right in the head. Clint looked at me then muttered a "Thanks, Princess."
"Just like Budapest all over again." Nat commented as she shoot one chitauri.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently" Clint added struggling with a stuck arrow.
I just released a quick smile when a chitauri appeared in front of me. I grabbed his weapon trying to take it then the Captain arrived back hitting the alien I was fighting with. It flew away leaving his spear in my hand.
Soon Thor showed up. He seemed tired and in pain. He got injured I was pretty sure, but who didn't?
"What's the story upstairs?" Asked the Captain for a brief summarize.
"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable." He answered.
"He's right." We all heard Tony's voice in our ear. "We have to deal with these."
"How do we do this?" Nat asked a little disappointed. It sure looked almost impossible to handle them.
I glanced at the Cap then I understood.
"As a team" I stated confidently.
"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor added.
"Yeah?" I asked sarcastically. "Well, get in line." I told him off a little, but I immediately regretted it. He lowered his head and he probably felt as guilty as he shouldn't have.
"Save it now." Warned me the Captain carefully. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need." He explained. "Without him these thing could go wild."
"Right. I'm sorry." I shook my head backing off.
"We got Stark up top. He's going to need us to…" He started to give orders but he got interrupted, when Banner showed up on a little motorcycle. We all were standing surprised.
"So, this all seems horrible." He noted getting off of the vehicle.
"I've seen worse." I told him referring our little incident.
"Sorry." He nodded apologizing.
"No, we could use a little worse." I gave him a half-smile
"Stark, we got him." The Captain informed Tony.
"Banner?"
"Just like you told."
"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing a party to you." Told Tony then we soon saw them coming. He, in the front chased by the enormous chitauri monster.
"I-I don't see how that's a party." I gabbled as I unintentionally took a step back.
"Dr. Banner." Steve called him, as he started to walk toward the monster. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
"That's my secret, Captain." He said turning back to us "I'm always angry." He stated then immediately transformed into the Hulk. Just in time to grab the monster's head and pin it down on the ground. It slowed a little, but because it's high speed, it started to turn over threatening to fall on us.
I crouched and tried to curl up as little as I could, when I noticed Steve kneeling close behind me, his shield held high up protecting the both of us. Then I heard a huge crush – Hulk was done with his work.
"Thanks." I looked at Steve. "Again" I smiled a little, remembering when he held me tight on the Quinjet. Our face was only a few inch away that I could realize he has a barely visible scar on his left cheek.
"Uhm… Guys." I heard Nat looking above, as we got up too. I followed her eyes, and saw the hundreds of aliens coming.
"Call it, Cap." I told him.
"All right, listen up. Until we close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays." He ordered and Clint nodded. "Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than 3 block out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked Tony.
"Right. Better clench up Legolas." He answered, and grabbed him already flying away.
"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck the portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up." He turned this time to the God of Thunder.
"Romanoff, you and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here." He told me and I nodded too preparing for the fight. "And Hulk, smash." He added, but Hulk just groaned agreeing, then he run away smashing.
We've been fighting for hours now, but there were still plenty of them.
I've got distracted for a moment then one of the chitauris pushed me hard. I lost my balance, and fell on the cab's hood but before he could shoot me, I managed to take away his weapon, and shot him. I got up from the car, and noticed someone's approaching. I immediately pointed the gun at him. It was the Cap. I lowered my weapon breathing heavily.
"Cap, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." I told him still trying to catch my breath.
"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." He answered.
"Oh well, maybe it's not about guns." Nat commented meeting us.
"If you want to get up there, you're gonna need a ride." Steve suggested to her understanding what she wanted to do.
"I got a ride." She looked up to the chitauris. "I could use a boost though."
"Are you sure about this?" I asked her concerning.
"Yeah, it's gonna be fun." She winked at me, then run up to the Captain's shield, and he pushed her up, so she could grab a chitauri minijet.
"Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison. They cornered a lot of civilians in there." Tony reported to Steve, who looked at me, and I just nodded.
"We're on it."
We run to the place and sneak in through the window. Steve noticed a chitauri with a bomb. He threw his shield to that, and hit the detonator out of its hand, but the others started to shoot us. We jumped behind a table as a cover, but it couldn't hold long, so I kicked it to hit them. It worked, they got stuck between the table and the railing. We jumped up and attacked them.
"Everyone, clear out!" Steve yelled to the civilians, but he got interrupted as an alien tried to choke him from behind.
They were struggling and the chitauri tear off the Cap's mask. I helped him to get free, and the next thing I realized was that the last alien threw the bomb at us. Steve fend us with his shield but we still flew out through the window. We landed on a cab. At least I was, he rather fell on top of me.
He just stopped there for a moment, gazing my eyes.
"Well, I'm not saying it's unpleasant, but I don't think it's the best time…" I started teasingly, bringing him back to the present.
"Oh, right. I'm so sorry!" He apologized turning slightly red, while he got off of me instantly.
"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." We all heard Nat's voice via a radio.
"Do it!" Steve called.
"No, wait." Tony interrupted.
"Stark, these thing are still coming." I told him.
"I got a nuke coming 's gonna blow in less than a minute." He informed us. "And I know just where t put it."
"Stark, you know, that's a one way trip." Steve warned him a little surprised, then Tony flew away above us right to the portal.
He disappeared.
Time was dragging. It felt like years, and he still haven't showed up. Then suddenly all the chitauis collapsed. They just simply fell on the ground. It meant he did succeed. Now he just had to come back.
"Come on, Stark." I muttered.
"Close it." Steve ordered and I bit my lips. The last thing I said to Tony was essentially go to hell.
Tasha probably started to close it, because the portal shrunk.
Then there was he. Falling from the sky. I gasped in surprised.
"Son of a gun." Steve added next to me.
"He's not slowing down." I noted concerning, but Hulk appeared and caught him. They landed in front of us.
We run to them, and both Steve and I knelt next to Tony. The Cap picked off Stark's mask and I leaned in.
"He's not breathing." I informed them desperately. This just can't happen. I can't loose anyone else. Not now!
Hulk roared at him angrily. Then there was a pause. I wanted to start to CPR somehow, but finally he woke up.
"What the hell?" He asked obviously in a shock "What just happened?" He looked around and saw Steve kneeling beside him. "Please, tell me, nobody kissed me." He begged, and I couldn't help myself, I giggled in relief. Then he noticed me too, and looked at me seriously. "Except you. You can kiss me anytime." He added just in case as rolled my eyes smiling then leaned in, kissing his forehead.
"We won." Steve declared and it hit me. We won, but on what price?
"All right, yay!" Tony said still laying on the ground. "Hurray, good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Heve you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." He gabbled.
"We're not finished yet." Thor said looking up to the Tower.
"And then shawarma after?" Tony asked hopefully.
"Come'n Stark" I offered my hand to him helping him up.
