Many thanks to all of my faithful reviewers- especially MoreThanMeetsTheEye96. You're a wonderful person and I put the Tasha and Tony scene in just for you! :)
In other news, I don't own the Avengers and Jazzy Pseudonym is an amazing person. Seriously, she is. She's written several of the scenes with Lori and Loki in them, so please check out her profile!
ENJOY!
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Lori clambered the final few feet onto the rooftop and just laid there for a moment, breathing heavily. She was tired from using so much magic to freeze Stephanie. It didn't help that Stephanie had been fighting her, forcing Lori to put much more power than anticipated into the spell.
"Lady Lori!" Dr. Selvig greeted her with a smile. "Come to see Loki's good work?"
"No," she said between pants. "Not at all. Just here... for the view."
It was a spectacular view, she realized. The entire city of New York was spread out before her very eyes. She took a deep breath and let it out again, slowing down her breathing rate.
She could see lots of explosions everywhere, from the Chitauri that Loki had let in. Somewhere down there, the Avengers and her friends were doing their best to keep the Chitauri from winning the battle.
And in that moment, she made her decision.
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Steve sprinted for the car that Nathan, Natasha, Claire, and Clint were hiding behind. "We've got civilans trapped-" Clint started to say, but was halted as another battalion of spacecraft whizzed by.
They all looked up and stared in shock. "Loki..." Steve murmured, staring at the demi-god.
He paused and turned to look over the railing, staring at the people down on the street. "They're fish in a barrel down there," he murmured, turning to Natasha, Nathan, Clint, and Claire.
"We got this," Nathan said smugly. Natasha glared at him silently and hit the back of his head. She turned to look at Steve. "It's good- go," she urged him.
Steve looked at the four carefully. "Think you can hold them off?"
Clint and Claire immediately pulled out arrows and put them to the strings of their bows. "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure," Clint said with a smirk. He stood up and shot a Chitauri straight in the face with an arrow. It made a death cry and fell as Claire joined him, shooting for exposed joints.
Natasha shot to her feet and began firing at the Chitauri. Nathan was right behind her as Steve nodded and leapt off the bridge onto a bus, sprinting towards the ground.
Nathan pointed towards a crammed bus, and Clint ran towards it, reaching through shattered windows to haul people out. He pointed them towards the nearest subway station as Natasha, Nathan, and Claire gave him covering fire.
He pried open the doors and let the people run out, sprinting back to join the other three. "Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha shouted over the din.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently," Clint said dryly.
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The Avengers continued to fight. Steve kept a lookout for Stephanie, but after a few minutes, he asked, "Has anyone seen Stephanie?"
"Uh... not for a while. Why do you ask?"
"She's been really quiet on the radio," he said, voice obviously worried.
"She was last seen at Stark Tower, right? I'll go check," Tasha said, and zoomed off for the building.
They continued to fight, but before long Tasha yelped and cut herself off quickly.
"What is it?" "What's wrong?" "Are you ok?" "Is Stephanie alright?" A chorus of voices echoed suddenly through the comm waves.
"Ah- well, I know why we haven't heard from her..." Tasha said uneasily.
"Why?"
"She's... a mini-Capsicle..."
The comm waves exploded.
"She is WHAT?!" Claire yelled.
"No, she can't be- she's gotta be fine!" Nathan said wildly.
"Who did this? Why did they do this?!" Tony said, anger in his voice.
"We're down a good fighter if we can't get her out," Natasha said, worry evident in her voice.
"I bet I know who did this..." Clint growled.
"Tony, I need you to get me up there to where she is," Steve ordered quickly. "And be prepared to power up your blasters to get her free."
"I'll do it," Tasha volunteered. "Tony needs to save his strength."
"Good. Get me up there," Steve said. She swooped down and picked him up, kicking into overdrive and landing carefully inside the lounge.
Stephanie was suspended inside a large block of ice. She looked surprisingly peaceful, hair floating around her head in a blonde halo, with her hands folded around her shield. Her head was bowed, and they couldn't see her eyes, but her comm was still in her ear.
"Stephanie? If you can hear me, we're going to get you out," Steve said calmly. "You need to be ready."
"Blasters fully powered," Tasha reported.
"Ready? Fire in three... two... one-"
Tasha fired her blasters at the block of ice, which promptly cracked clear down the middle. Steve used his super-soldier strength to pull the halves apart, and Stephanie folded like a rag doll among the rapidly melting ice.
Somewhere above them, Lori's head snapped up as her spell was broken. "Stephanie..." she breathed quietly.
Steve quickly picked Stephanie up out of the water and moved her into a patch of sunlight as she began shaking violently. "I've got her- she's ok," he reported.
There was a collective sigh of relief.
"Miss Stark, I have taken the liberty of providing you with some blankets for Miss Rogers. Her internal temperature is currently at 87.9 degrees Farenheit. I suggest she warm up quickly before she internally freezes to death," the smooth mechanical voice of Jarvis said into all their headsets.
"How is she still alive?" Clint muttered.
"She's part super-soldier," Tasha explained as she brought the blankets over and tucked them around Stephanie. "I can only guess that's the reason she isn't frozen to death."
Stephanie woke up with a start, eyes snapping open. "Wha- what's going on?" she asked, voice terrified.
The general consensus of words was "Thank God."
She laughed shakily as Steve tucked the blanket around her shoulders more securely.
"What happened?" Natasha asked.
"Lori- she wanted me safely out of the fight. She was worried I would get killed. So to keep me safe she froze me..." Stephanie shook even worse as she spoke.
"It's scary, isn't it," Steve murmured, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Feeling the cold start to consume you."
"The worst part is-"
"-knowing there is nothing you can do about it," they chorused.
"I tried to fight it but- DUCK!" Stephanie shouted and pushed Steve to the ground as hard as her cold-weakened arms could.
The Chitauri craft that was pinwheeling through the air missed them by a yard. Tasha exploded it from her hovering position.
Stephanie took a deep breath and stood up, releasing the blanket from her shoulders. "Ok. I'm ready to go," she said firmly.
"Are you sure?" Steve asked.
"Very. Are you ready?" she shot back.
"Of course. Tasha, can you give us a lift?" he asked.
"Sure. One sec... ok, clear," she said after taking down another few spacecraft.
She dropped them off next to Clint, Claire, Natasha, and Nathan. Claire looked left and right, then sprinted over to give Stephanie a hug. She hugged back quickly and looked at Steve. "Where to?"
He nodded and pointed towards the squad cars.
Stephanie grinned and started sprinting down the street, hopping over cars, with Steve right behind her. He overtook her and landed hard on the top of the car, immediately beginning to talk to the policemen.
"You need men in these buildings. There're people inside, they're gonna be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basement or the subway, you keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th," Steve ordered, as Stephanie sat down next to him, shield on her lap, feet dangling off the top of the car.
"Why the he** should I take orders from you?" one of the policemen snapped. Stephanie rolled her eyes and shoved herself to her feet, whispering, "Dad, they're coming."
Steve looked over at her with a slight frown at her choice of words, but quickly returned his attention to the threat at hand. A car exploded behind the two Rogers, and everyone jumped a little bit. The Chitauri shot several blasts of... whatever at the two, and Stephanie shielded herself quickly.
Steve used his shield to throw an alien back ten feet and twisted to hurl one using the edge of his shield. Stephanie copied his motions and redirected a blast of energy to hit another Chitauri, who was trying to sneak up on Steve from his blind spot. He nodded to her and returned the favor, shooting one who was trying to catch her back and taking its weapon.
The policeman nodded, turned around, and began walking into the crowd of police officers, calling, "I need men in those building, lead the people down and away from the streets." He grabbed his mike and said clearly, "We're gonna set up a perimeter all the way down to 39th..." His voice trailed off as he got farther away.
Steve turned to look at Stephanie. "'Dad'?" he asked incredulously.
"Do you really want me shouting your name for the world to hear? And anyways, you're more of a dad than my biological dad is," Stephanie said, shrugging and looking down at her feet.
Steve gently patted her shoulder. "Good work. Let's get back to it," he ordered, leaving the issue for another day.
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Tony shot around the corner, Tasha once again on his tail, and didn't even hesitate as he came face to face with a roaring Leviathan. Tasha, on the other hand, 'eeped' a bit, before setting herself with determination.
Tony fired about twenty small missiles at the Leviathan and slowed to allow Tasha to overtake him. She did so as the beast roared in anger and turned to follow the two iron-clad warriors.
"Well, we got his attention," Tony said.
"Now what the heck was Step Two?" Tasha asked.
They both turned and blasted away.