Chapter 10: Which Side To Pick
Ciara whistled as she wandered around the large, top floor apartment of Stark Tower. Resting her hands behind her back, she took in the expensive sights that decorated the newly built structure in New York City.
Walking around the open plan floor, Ciara admired the layout and glanced out the massive windows, taking in the expansive view outside. "Nothing but the best, huh?" she murmured. Ciara then rolled her eyes, unimpressed. "How spoiled," she approached the bar and examined the bottles lined up neatly, before selecting one from the top shelf.
'Excellent choice, Miss. Ellis,' the sudden, disembodied voice that echoed through the room made Ciara jump, almost dropping the bottle. 'Please be careful, that's a favourite of Mr. Stark's,' the voice requested politely.
"Oh...you're one of Stark's creations," the Speedster relaxed, unscrewing the lid of the bottle in her hand.
'And you're Ciara Ellis, formerly Eir Trask, wanted by multiple forms of authorities, not limited to the US; most recently by SHIELD, for assisting the Asgardian Loki in his destruction,' the voice replied, still keeping a pleasant tone. Ciara arched an eyebrow, before pressing the bottle to her lips. Tilting the bottle back, she took a gulp, letting her anger fade.
"So you've access to SHIELD's files," she commented lightly. "Bet Fury doesn't like that," Ciara muttered.
"Eir?" Loki's voice made her turn around. He was standing by the door, sceptre in hand as he watched her. She frowned back at him, and took another drink. She had to admit, Tony chose good whisky. "Interesting name," Loki approached her slowly, moving with a predator's grace that made Ciara want to bolt. "An Asgardian name," he continued as Ciara forced herself to stand tall.
"It's a Norse name," she bit back. Loki tilted his head slightly at the venom behind it. Clearly he'd struck a nerve.
"And how did you acquire this name?" he pressed softly, watching the uncontrolled anger in her eyes.
"How does anyone acquire their name?" Ciara snapped, frustrated and unwilling to talk to Loki, but she feared the sceptre in his hand more than she cared to admit. "My mother chose it. Before she left me with...him," she finished quietly, and Loki recalled the memory he'd pulled from the darkest parts of her mind. Of her father; her family, turning on her for nothing more than being different.
Ciara took another large drink of whisky, her cheeks red with the effort of repressing her memories. There was a long silence, before Loki turned to leave without a word. "Why did you bring me here?" he stopped at her question. "You had the perfect opportunity to be rid of me. Instead you brought me here and fixed my shoulder. Why?" Ciara demanded.
"You repelled the magic of the sceptre," Loki didn't turn. "A supposedly impossible feat. I want to know how," he answered, and Ciara rolled her eyes.
"That stupid sceptre. I've no idea why these things affect me like they do," she complained. "So good luck figuring it out," she told him. Loki suddenly angled his head to frown at her without turning. Ciara arched an eyebrow. "What?" she asked.
"'Like they do'?" he repeated, curious. Ciara stiffened. "Not it. They. So..." he turned fully as Ciara bit her lip. Her heart started to pound. "The Tesseract. Does that affect you also, girl?" Loki demanded quietly, his voice threatening.
"I don't-"
"Remember," Loki cut her off, his voice chiding and just as quiet. His eyes glittered with malice. "There is little reason in lying to the God of Lies," he smirked very slightly, and Ciara's desire to run returned full force.
"I-"
'Pardon the interruption,' they looked up as the voice returned. 'I must inform you that Mr. Stark is on his way, and will be here shortly,' it warned. Loki's eyes locked onto Ciara's for just a second, but it was long enough for Ciara to recognise that it meant he would address her slip later. He then turned and strode off.
"Shit," Ciara muttered, running a hand through her hair.
Tony Stark had returned to Stark Tower shortly after Ciara had left the building. At first he'd attempted to stop the Tesseract himself, but his attack had rebounded on his already damaged suit, so he'd disappeared inside to speak with Loki. She leaned against the wall of a nearby building, watching as people walked by. Some openly grimaced at her silver hair and lanky figure that betrayed her to be different to them, and while she was very aware of each look, she didn't bother to acknowledge them.
Instead she finished the third hotdog that she'd stolen, and licked mustard from her fingers. Her eyes remained fixed on the top of Stark Tower, where Selvig was adding the finishing touches to the portal. Ciara huffed with impatience, knowing that the storm was looming, but hadn't yet broken. Her body was buzzing with adrenaline, begging to run, but she waited. An army was coming, and she had yet to decide which side to fight.
Ciara then smirked. Who said she had to pick?
The sound of shattering glass caught her attention, and her blue eyes went to the window that Tony had been thrown through.
"Discussions went about as well as expected," she considered as she watched the man plummet towards the ground. His suit suddenly shot through the window and towards Tony, enveloping him before he collided with the ground, and allowed him to save himself, flying back up. A moment later, blue light exploded upwards in a pillar of energy, seeming to break open the sky. Without any hesitation, a massive amount of creatures flew from the portal.
Ciara watched as Tony attempted to take them on alone, but there were too many, and chaos erupted around the city as the Chitauri began to destroy everything in sight. As they flew by where she stood, she ran, disappearing back into the tower.
"Loki!" she heard Thor's voice as she reached the top floor. "Turn off the Tesseract, or I'll destroy it," the golden haired God warned.
"You can't!" Loki shouted back. "There's no stopping it. There is only...the war," he smirked maniacally. Thor sighed.
"So be it," he nodded, and the two began to fight. Ciara rolled her eyes.
"He's as damaged as me," she muttered as the two brothers fought to kill.
"This way!" Penelope shouted, guiding people to safety as Marcus and Bianchi fired their guns at the Chitauri that got too close. Using her abilities, she quietened down the area around the people running to minimise their panic, while elevating her own voice to be heard over the fighting.
"This is insane! How the hell did we get roped into an all out alien attack?" Collins shouted as he too helped lead civilians to a safe place.
"Get down!" Marcus roared, and they looked up in time for a blast to blow everyone off their feet. Penelope twisted in the air, managing to land on her feet. Unsteady, she stumbled backwards, before drawing her gun on the aliens leaping down from their vehicles.
"How the hell did you do that?" Bianchi demanded as she got to her feet. Penelope fired a shot, hitting one of the Chitauri in the centre of what she assumed was its face. It crumpled to the ground.
"Gymnast," Penelope answered simply. "With one hell of a training routine, thanks to my dad," she smiled wryly.
"Then how the hell-" Bianchi stopped to shoot another alien shooting at them. "Did you end up with us?" she shouted over the noise. Penelope lifted a hand, twisting to lower the volume around them, and amplify it around the Chitauri. They stumbled, leaving themselves open to attack from the agents.
"Professional competitions began to test for mutants," she spoke softly, and Bianchi sighed, shaking her head. She swallowed the apology on her lips as more Chitauri began to swarm the area, and Marcus began to bark orders again.
"Get these people to safety!" he roared as he grabbed another clip from his belt. "Now!" the others nodded and rushed to help the scattered civilians, who were all now sporting injuries from the attack. Seeing the blood running down the side of his head, Penelope left the people she was helping with another agent, and rejoined him. "You deaf now too Tournes?" he snapped.
"No Sir, I just feel that two of us will be a stronger defence for these people," she answered confidently. Marcus snorted.
"When did you get a spine?" he muttered, thinking his words were too quiet for her to hear. Penelope hid her smile at the comment, taking it for the praise she knew he meant it as.
"Then maybe three will provide a good enough defence," Collins declared as he stood on Marcus' other side, earning a glare from the man. He just grinned, unapologetic, and started shooting.
An explosion above caught their attention, and they saw another SHIELD jet spiralling towards the ground, one wing on fire. It landed nearby, but Penelope and Marcus were swarmed again, with no chance to check if the people inside were alright. "These eejits are relentless!" Marcus complained as he planted his boot in the stomach of one, before slamming it to the ground.
"They're an alien army sir, I think it's what they're supposed to be like," Collins called back to him, before a massive shadow was cast over their heads. Looking up, they saw a huge snake-like monster flying through the sky. "Um..." he hesitated, before flinching as a blast of blue energy narrowly missed his face.
"Pay attention!" Marcus snapped, continuing the fight.
"R-right," Collins nodded.
"Oi!" Marcus shouted into the earpiece he was somehow still wearing. "We could use some backup!" he snapped.
"Almost there sir," a voice he didn't recognise answered, confident, and he frowned, but didn't answer, dodging a creature that got too close and punching it hard in the face. He felt the pain through his glove, but ignored it and kicked it to the ground.
At the top of Stark Tower, Loki and Thor were still fighting furiously, and Ciara sighed, shaking her head.
"Okay, I'm officially bored," she declared, earning their attention. "You're both just...boring," Ciara rolled her eyes as she pulled her goggles from her pocket and pulled them on over her eyes. She then smirked as they frowned, breathing heavily. "But the Chitauri, now they look fun," she told them.
"Ciara-" Thor started, but with a strong gust of wind, she was gone, and Loki took advantage of Thor's distraction to attack again.
A woman screamed as the Chitauri advanced on the small group cornered, raising their weapons to finish them off. However, when one suddenly slammed to the ground, its weapon gone, the others glanced around in confusion, only to be blasted by one of their own weapons.
"Huh," Ciara examined it in her hands. "This thing is pretty strong," she commented, before looking up at the people staring at her. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get moving! I ain't here to save your asses!" she snapped, and they scattered. "Idiots," she muttered, dropping the weapon and moving on.
The Chitauri barely even realised Ciara was there, before she was taking them down with punches that were so fast they dented their armour. She dodged the blasts that were fired relentlessly, either at her or the civilians that she pushed out of the way.
"Who is that?" one man asked as he stared at the silver and black blur that easily took down the monsters.
"Are they with the others? Iron Man and the others?" another wondered. Ciara stopped, feeling her fist as it sang with pain.
"Don't insult me," she spat at them, and took a step backwards to avoid the blue blast of energy that flew past and exploded against a building. The people screamed fearfully. "Move it if you don't want to die," Ciara then turned back and started running again, slamming her shoulder against one of the Chitauri and grabbing its weapon.
The Chitauri shrieked at her, aiming their own weapons, but she was much faster and by the time they were locked onto her, they were being swallowed up by the blue light fired from the weapon in her hand. She twirled it, turning, and swung hard, slamming the weapon into the head of the creature approaching her from behind. It crumpled, and Ciara tossed away the weapon before starting to run again.
She skidded to a stop when a roar echoed through the city, so loud it vibrated through her chest. Looking up, Ciara saw the massive snake like-monster curve through the air, before exploding. A lot of the Chitauri seemed to move away from the area Ciara was in, moving back towards where the larger monster had been killed, Ciara noted, and rolled her eyes. "Guess the Avengers finally got moving," she considered.
Ciara watched, as more of the large monsters came through the portal, along with even more of the Chitauri, but before she could start running again, the ground started to shake beneath her feet, throwing her off balance. Ciara stumbled, thinking it was the effects of the attack, before the ground burst up around her. Reacting, she grabbed hold of it and swung over what was almost a prison for her, and whirled around.
"Well Mercury, I think we can all agree that this is by far the biggest mess you've gotten yourself involved in," Lance cracked his gloved knuckles, and Ciara's eyes narrowed.
"Damn, SHIELD were that desperate?" she asked with a mocking smirk. "They realise they're supposed to be saving the city, right? All you can do is tear it up more," Ciara taunted.
"Man, you've still got a mouth," Ciara didn't move as fire billowed around her. "I'm glad you chose not to join us. I'd have barbecued you long ago," another man walked over, wearing an orange, red and yellow hooded body suit with black gloves. His brow then furrowed and he lost his smirk as the wind picked up, snuffing out the flames. Ciara stopped spinning, and the whirlwind she'd created died down.
"Pyro," she greeted, still smirking. "They called in all you morons, huh? Can I expect any of those other goody-goodys to show?" Ciara asked, turning her head as a massive young man stomped towards her, causing the ground to shake even more. On his shoulder, a scrawny, short young man was perched like a frog, his skin a sickly, almost green colour with dark purple lining his eyes even more than Ciara's.
"The Avengers have got this fight covered," Lance glanced to the aliens attacking the group not that far from them. He then smirked at Ciara, who didn't lose her cocky smile. "So the Freedom Force is here to take your cocky ass down, Mercury," he pointed at her.
"Now this," Ciara's smirk only grew as she looked to the four surrounding her. She fixed her goggles so they sat comfortably over her eyes, and flicked out her cloak. "Will be fun," she declared.
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