I am really bad with directions, so please forgive me if something's worded wrong.

Chapter 8
Attack on the Chitauri

Chloe flew erratically down toward their position. Steve was much bulkier and heavier than she had anticipated and was throwing her balance off. Their flight was more like a controlled fall. "Going…to have…to roll!" she grunted. Thankfully he understood what she meant and as they hit the ground, they let go of each other and he rolled, their momentum sending him a good four yards away. Chloe stumbled as she hit the ground and once she got her feet under her, bent over and caught her breath.

While Steve patiently waited for her to recover, he examined the ship that now stood before them. He hadn't seen one of these before, not even in the battle of New York. He was studying it so intently that he didn't hear Chloe come up behind him. "Fantom ship. It is the second largest ship type in the Chitauri fleet. It's not an extremely powerful war vessel, but is the kind of ship preferred by the Other." Steve slowly turned to look at her.

"How do you know that?" Chloe flinched, realizing that she had semi-betrayed her background.

"Yeah," Clint said over the coms. "How do you know that?"

"It's a long story that we don't have time for. I'll tell you all when we get back to the Tower."

"Chloe…" Steve started.

"I'll tell you when we get back home! Right now we have a mission!" she snapped.

"Touchy touchy," muttered Tony.

"Shut it Stark!" Chloe marched toward the large ramp that led up to the ship. As soon as she had taken five paces towards it, Chitauri streamed out of it, yelling in shrieks and metallic sounds. Steve ran towards Chloe but stopped when he saw that she was handling them easily. She had her pistol in one hand and the dagger in the other. Soon they were all dead except for one that Chloe held by the throat. The rest of the Avengers listened in interest as Chloe began to speak in the Chitauri language.

Steve came up to her just as she stabbed the Chitauri in the gut and turned to face him with her hand on her hip. "We go in by the ramp, turn right at the first intersection, and take the second tunnel straight. We'll come to some stairs; we go up them and come to a corridor with doors." She waved her knife around as she spoke.

"Leaders in the room that connects to the fifth door on the left. Whole place is going to be crawling with Chitauri and there are more reinforcements about a mile further down the canyon. We'll have to move fast and I suggest we bring out the Hulk." Steve hesitated.

"I don't think so. We'll keep him until we absolutely need him. How are the others going to get in?" Chloe smirked in mock condescension.

"The other entrance and stuff are exactly the same except they need to switch the left and rights."

"Oh."

"Yeah, can we go now? I need to stab something." Without another word she stomped up the ramp. Steve hastily gave the order to move and ran after her. As he entered the maze of the ship, something in front of him tapped his shoulder. He swiftly grasped whoever it was by their neck. There was a choking sound. "Steve!" Chloe gasped. "It's me!"

"Sorry," Steve muttered, gently putting her down. Chloe gently massaged her neck and took deep breaths of air, silently putting suffocation and drowning at the top of her 'Ways That I Would Not Like to Die List'. As soon as she had recovered, she tried to see what was ahead of them. "Could you light the way?" Steve asked in a whisper. Chloe shook her head.

"No," she answered. "I tried once to only light up my hand and I ended up having to shoot a fireball out of my windows." Her fingers explored the walls and she found something that felt like a light switch. She grinned and flipped it. Lights turned on and she found herself and Steve facing a large room that was filled with Chitauri. "Oh snap," she muttered. One of the Chitauri roared and fired an arrow that exploded and sent a wall of flames at them then turned back to his companions. Chloe thrust up her hand in a gesture of protection and waited for the wave of heat to engulf her body. After waiting several seconds, she cracked open her eyes and immediately they flew wide open.

The wall of flame had halted just before her and was stock still. Chloe cautiously lowered her arms. The flames didn't move. She moved her hand to the right. The flames moved aside. The Chitauri were staring at her in amazement. Chloe thrust her right hand out toward them and the flames obeyed her command, racing towards the stunned creatures. She redirected part of the flames using her left hand, spinning them into a kind of lasso with which she swung Chitauri against the wall. As cool and effective as the flames were though, Chloe felt herself getting tired and knew she would have to stop them soon. "Cap!" she yelled. "I can't keep them off forever! You gotta help me!"

Steve heard her and dashed into the middle of the Chitauri, swinging his shield and knocking Chitauri out of the way. Natasha's voice came over the coms. "Cap, Chloe, what's going on in there?"

"Natasha!" Steve cried. "Where are you and Clint?"

"At the second intersection part, why?"

"Because all of the Chitauri we're fighting are going straight towards you! Get out of there!" Chloe shrieked as she hurled walls of flames at the retreating Chitauri. As soon as the last bit of metal had disappeared, Chloe extinguished the flames and collapsed, shivering.

"Chloe!" Steve cried, kneeling over her. As he knelt, his back was to a lone Chitauri with a spear running straight at him. Suddenly a ball of un-extinguished flame knocked him over and melded his parts together. Steve spun at the clatter of metal and saw the flame ball advancing towards him. He backed up, pulling the unconscious Chloe with him. The ball pursued them until it trapped the two in a corner of the room. Chloe blinked her eyes open and saw the small flame ball. She forced herself into a sitting position and stared at it. The ball waited expectantly for something. Chloe slowly raised her hand and turned it into a large leopard that began purring loudly and pressing her head against Chloe's hand. As Steve watched this in amazement, he suddenly realized that he was having trouble breathing and that the air was stuffy and hot. He turned to Chloe who was playing with her cat. "Chloe…"

"Yeah?"

"Is it getting hard to breath?" She took a deep breath and shook her head.

"No, but I think you might be feeling the heat that Leopard is giving off. One sec." Chloe casually muttered a spell and the air instantly cleared. "Well, this has been a good rest, but we really should be going. Come Leopard." The flame cat leapt up and trotted after her. Steve followed. The rest of the way through the ship, Leopard kept the Chitauri away. Chloe directed their path and Steve communicated over the comlinks. Finally Chloe halted in front of a door, listened to some Chitauri and mouthed to Steve, Leaders not there. Should go back to Helicarrier and report to Fury. He nodded and they turned away. Surprisingly, they met no Chitauri in the ship but outside, it was a battleground and one fight not in favor of the Avengers.

Read and review please! And if you have any ideas for some in-between chapters, I'd be much obliged!