AN: A whole chapter full of fights.
A SHIELD van stopped near the Sanctum and Steve Rogers, in his dark uniform, and Clint Barton in his civilian outfit but with his original bow and arrows, jumped out of it while Jane stayed inside as she kept monitoring the bifrost signature.
Steve watched the battle and wore his communicator, "Director? We're here. Everything seems to be under control, sir."
Back at the Avengers Facility, Fury stood in for Stark in front of the hundreds of WSC representatives and Ross. Hope was also in the room but her thoughts were more focused on the arrival of the others.
"What can I say, Ross? I'm un- killable." Fury smirked at the Secretary.
Returning back to the Sanctum, Jane fiddled at her computer, "This is insane, it's as powerful as five Einstein-Rosen bridges mashed up together!" She gleefully exclaimed to herself and then she realized that if humans would use it, they'll get ripped apart from the force.
"Welcome back, Captain." T'challa greeted at the approaching form of Steve and Clint behind him.
"So I'd take the accords has been abolished?" Sam asked once he glided near them and then flipped down to land and fight.
Clint scoffed at him, "Temporarily suspended, they were desperate, if it weren't for this aliens I'd go to Ross' house and smash all his windows with a golf ball and no one would even think it was me."
There were ten Outriders left and to each their own the heroes fought near the Sanctum. Until a blinding flash of light zoomed down the Sanctum's roof. The bifrost landing looked different than in the documents or the one they saw at the Avenger's facility. This one was wide, covering half of the building and its front.
Strange and War Machine flew near the roof, Wong prepared on the ground while the others finished the rest of the Outriders.
Cull Obsidian stood at the edge of the building, the bifrost's lights faded and the City colored his vision. He saw all the Outriders dead and a bunch of tiny creatures on the ground, probably the one who killed them. His attention moved towards the wriggling form of one tiny god on the end of his arm. He raised him towards the edge, his form hanging with nothing below him but the deep cold pavement of the Sanctum.
"Look at your failure. Father was deeply disappointed, we lost two stones and it had delayed as from saving the universe." He squeezed tighter than but not as tight as to kill him. He just wanted him to suffer from the pain of losing air not knowing if he could take in to breathe again. He lessened the grip and enjoyed the sudden gasp for air the god took in.
Loki tried to claw his self once Maw's binds disappeared but Cull's skin was too thick and too strong. It was like trying to pinch Korg but you end up tickling him instead. He tried to summon his blades but once Cull noticed it, the grip tightened making him lose breath and light-headed, and he let go of the daggers.
The blades fell down towards a reverting Hulk on the ground and Valkyrie stood to help her friend, her fast reflexes stopped the blades coming towards her and she looked up.
Wong saw the Hulk and a beautiful woman clad in armor. As he approaches the two he noticed a pair of knives falling towards them, he tried to cast a shield but the warrior pulled her sword and deflected the blades to side.
War Machine was the first to attack Cull, the suit's guns formed out from the shoulders and from each of the metal gloves and started shooting, but the blasts didn't affect him. Cull raised his hammer and swung a direct hit to Rhodey flicking him away to crash near the SHIELD van. Jane jumped out to check on him and assured everyone that he was alive and just concussed.
Strange casted patterned circles on Cull's arms making him immobile, the AI robots that flew with Rhodey surrounded Cull and blasted him at the same time.
"Take that!" Rhodey panted while commanding the robots on the ground.
The attacks on Cull made his hand grip tighter on Loki and he could feel the air cut out of his lungs and his vision starting to fade out.
"Hang in there god of mischief, don't really want Thor to lose you or any asgardian again." Was the last words he heard from the sorcerer when his vision blacked out, Strange flew in towards Cull's arm on Loki, and casted strings on each of the alien's fingers and pulled them away from Loki's neck.
The fingers moved, the grip on Loki's neck weakened and he fell out of Cull's hand, towards solid ground.
Bruce massaged off the headache he got from the bifrost, the force was powerful enough to daze the Hulk and revert back. He noticed Val stood up abruptly and focused her gaze up. He looked up too and saw Cull and Loki. But Loki was falling down towards them.
Wong casted a portal below Loki's falling form and he reappeared next to Valkyrie and Bruce. Then a loud sound of metal hitting wood rumbled and the Sanctum crumbled, surprising everyone with the sudden destruction. Dust and debris flooded the entirety of the Sanctum and the surrounding, blinding everyone on the ground.
"Sam, we need visuals." Steve called in the communicator and Sam flew up, the dust around him swirled and revealed the part where he took off. Steve saw the SHIELD van, Jane and Rhodey, T'challa beside him and then a portal shrinking way back behind him where Wong came out of it stood with Bruce in a huge thick fabric and a woman dragging an unconscious Loki. 'Loki!?'
Jane gasped loudly when he saw Loki and then her face transitioned from shock to confusion and then anger.
The ground shook hard causing Rhodey to outbalance in his suit, he then leaned to the Van for support since Jane ran towards Bruce and the others.
Then threads of light appeared around the dust, then suddenly T'challa and Steve got hit hard and it threw them far away into a nearby building, destroying it in the process.
"The dust is slowly clearing guys. The monster is fighting off Strange's strings and ooooh ouch, Cap? Your highness? Are you guys alright?" Sam spoke from the air.
Sam and the others heard the painful groans from the two and they all felt relieved to know they're not dead.
Blasts exploded on Cull's head from Clint's exploding arrows took their attention. "What is this thing made of?! Hulk flesh!?" Bruce glared at him. "Oh, hey Bruce, welcome back to Earth." Clint grinned back.
Then Cull noticed he couldn't pull his weapon and saw both sorcerers tying down his arms still with the glowing threads. Then he felt a sword slashing it's way on his left leg, then claws on his chest. He tried to pull his other arm but a tiny creature was pulling it down, and by his self too.
"His skin is too thick to cut through!" Valkyrie shouted in anger then she decided to stab it instead but the skin just deflected it and slid the blade to the side. She looked up and tried to hit his eyes instead. Cull saw this and jerked back, Strange and Wong tumbled back from the pull, they lost their focus on the threads and it untangled the arm.
Cull immediately swung his weapon horizontally towards his attackers, Valkyrie rolled back, T'challa jumped up and rode Cull on the shoulders while he dug his claws on Cull's face, and Steve dodged the incoming hammer. Cull searched the ground and found his target lying there ready to be dragged back to his father as a substitute for failing to bring the space stone back.
Loki's eyes flew open and he gasped for a large amount of air, startling Bruce and Jane around him. He then struggled to sit up and normalize his breathing.
"I-I thought you died!" Jane shouted at him.
"Now's not the—time." He said between breaths, his voice still hoarse from choking.
"Are you alright?" Bruce took his attention from the sudden question, he heard it clearly, there was concern in there, moments ago in Vanaheim, when Thor demanded and took the Tesseract from him, everyone was glaring daggers of distrust at him, then the golden son strictly requested everyone to stay alert, to protect their selves, and then surprised everyone when he instructed Valkyrie, Korg and Heimdall to 'protect' him. A smile crept on his lips at that thought but faded when Cull landed just steps away from Bruce, Jane and him.
Jane cowered in fear, her lips shivering to speak something. "Only a brute could beat a brute." Loki nudged Bruce, "Well? What are you waiting for? Call the other guy."
Bruce looked at him in worry and then gaped, "The bifrost had stunned him, he needs to cool down, his confused and if I let him out now he'll rage and smash everyone!"
"Look out!" Simultaneous shouts told them of the Hammer pulling back to swing between Bruce, Jane and Loki.
Steve and T'challa were thrown far back, Valkyrie was the nearest and she swung her sword from below, Clint had released one of his exploding arrow, Sam flew towards the three to lunge at the hammer and thought to redirect the hit, then Loki was already casting a spell, green seidr coiled around his fingers forming into a shield.
But they were too late, the Hammer swung down and Clint's arrow hit Valkyrie's sword, it exploded forming a huge black smoke, then Sam who was aiming to lunge at Cull flew into the smoke and crashed at Valkyrie, their heads bashed at each other. And then Loki's shield waiting for the impact, glowing green in the fading smoke.
Steve and T'challa approached them, "What happened? Where'd he go? "
Loki noticed the place where Cull stood and mirrors reflected that spot, reality slowly replacing the invisible portal. "The mirror dimension." He whispered.
"Ah, so you know that too?" Strange appeared beside them, "I'm curious, besides summoning butter knives and shields and invading Earth, what else can you do?"
Wong appeared at the other side and readied his self, casting a shield on both arms, aiming at Loki. Loki raised a brow at them and casually held his arms up in surrender, "Oh by the Norns, do I look like I could kill all of you singlehandedly? I mean I can if I could rest a bit-"
Bruce groaned and looked annoyed at everyone and then to Loki, "Don't pick a fight please, you're going to make things difficult, Loki." And Loki actually left his words hanging, then the Valkyrie's sword shimmered and was aiming towards Wong.
"Our majesty ordered me to protect him, by the nine realms I know not why, meaning you can't kill him. -" She hated that order, she's free to disobey, especially when this man had attempted to kill them, but the look on Thor's eyes told her he saw death and reminded it of herself after fighting Hela. She lowered her sword but Wong didn't remove the shields. "- Yet."
Strange gave Bruce a hand and pulled him up to stand, no one bothered to help Loki so he struggled to get up but Jane surprised him when she reached out to help him. Humans never failed to surprise him still.
"There. I've repaid you for protecting me." Jane told him, and felt her pang of guilt lessen, she sometimes blamed herself for Loki's death, and it broke her heart to see Thor devastated, mourning for his brother.
"Really? My death in exchange for helping me up? How wonderful of you for comparing such attempt with my passing, Jane."
"Hey! You're alive, it didn't count as death anymore!"
"Since no one's asking, IM ALRIGHT, TOTALLY FINE JUST A BUMP IN THE HEAD!" Sam shouted while rubbing his head from earlier. Steve just patted Sam's shoulder as his response.
"So can anyone explain where that alien went?" Steve asked everyone. Wong filled him in and explained that they sent him to the mirror dimension.
"He's not dead yet, he's just trapped there. Once we have Hulk up, or anyone who can match up with his strength, then we can fight him again." Wong finished telling them.
"I'm not going to fight him again." Said Sam and then Rhodey followed with a, "Same here."
And they lightly laughed at that, minus Val and Loki, but the laughter broke when a clash of blades echoed in the air. Clint was already aiming an arrow towards where Loki was. T'challa was the only one to run to him and knock out the person attacking the god.
The attacker wore a cloaked hood hiding his face, only the sword, his arms and feet were exposed, the hooded person stepped back, the sword swung to stop a claw aiming towards him. Loki joined to fight and the battle was passed to him. But T'challa noticed something from the attacker and jumped in the middle of the fight, he then gripped both blades on each of his arms. The edges of their weapons grinded at the impact with the Vibranium. Loki still had his other arm free but refrained from attacking anymore, the others can't tell but his almost out of magic and energy.
Then Valkyrie appeared behind the person and placed her sword near his neck. The person noticed the pattern forged on the weapon and gasped. Loki hid his daggers back when he saw Valkyrie apprehend the attacker.
"A Valkyrie…?" A woman's voice came out of the person.
Valkyrie looked surprised when the woman knew what she was, "Are you an Asgardian then?" The attacker nodded and she released her, knowing that there are still other Asgardians out in the universe and survived.
Loki knew that voice crystal clear. He knew her, he casted her out and was banished to Midgard. "Ah, Lady Sif."
The person heard her name and it struck a nerve, she then ran towards him, evading T'challa and made it through, the immediate stride flipped her hood off and revealed another beautiful woman but with pure hatred in her eyes, her sword fixated at the his target.
Loki couldn't summon another pair of daggers and when he tried to dodge her, Sif kicked his feet and fell down on the ground. 'Ah the ground, again' Sif kneeled him, immobilizing his movements and then drew her sword to his chest.
AN: Ooooh, yey, I put Sif in the story. And, truly, it's pretty hard to write many characters in one scene. I can't keep track whose point of view I should write, I nearly forgot Rhodey too near the end lol. And thank you so much Arwen347 for your wonderful comment, I'm so glad you enjoy this fic. :D
Oh and no one died….yet… *evil laugh