Chapter Eleven

There was sixteen days of nothing after Steve came back. Literally not a damn thing happened. Sam knew everyone was waiting. He was nowhere on anyone's speed dial, but Natasha did keep him updated and even Clint shot him the occasional text. Everyone was waiting for Barnes and Loki to show up somewhere.

Steve pretended to be patient, but Sam knew he reached the end of his rope since after the first week. He was not one for sitting around, it made him a bit twitchy. He ran way more than he usually did in the mornings. He frowned deeply every time there was nothing to distract him. And Sam had really nothing to tell him. He couldn't tell him not to worry, he couldn't tell him to relax and wait it out. He kept him company, helped him by being someone to talk to, but that was basically it. Sam even dragged him over to the VA Centre a few times, and while the people there were awfully happy to see Captain America, it did little to lift Steve's mood.

In the end, they found the demons first, or the demons found them. It was hard to tell, cause they showed up in New York. Yeah, demons, that was his life now, freakin' demons, plural. For the first time Steve regretted not taking up the offer of returning to Stark Tower, it was written all over his face. But they've arranged a pick up with Hill a long time ago, so they were in the city relatively quickly.

The police knew the drill by now, they focused on herding civilians away from the danger and staying out of the way of the Avengers. Sam and Steve were the last to arrive and they heard very little about what exactly was going on until they got hooked up to the comm-link.

'How do we look?' Steve asked the second he could hear the chatter of the rest of the team.

'Nice of you to join us,' Natasha said right away. 'We spotted at least six of them so far, Thor killed one already, but more could be on the way.'

'Any sign of Loki or Bucky?' Steve asked.

'No,' Natasha said.

The small quinjet put them down at Madison Square Park, the pilot bailing out of there as soon as possible. Sam saw the destruction the N'Garai left behind on the street in front of them.

'So what are they after?' he asked.

'When they appeared they were circling and clawing up a building,' Natasha said. 'But they left it alone when we got here. They've been roaming since.'

'They're searching for something,' Steve said.

'Someone,' they were interrupted by a different voice.

'Wanda? Where are you?' Steve demanded.

'37 West 26th Street,' she replied 'They just attacked some studio. Thor and Vision are holding them off. I think they want someone from inside. I can't... I can't really harm them dammit, unless I want to level the building.'

'Evacuate!' Steve said.

'We're on it,' Natasha confirmed.

'We'll be right there,' Steve replied then turned to Sam.

'Fly, it's quicker, I'll catch up with you.'

Sam nodded and took off right away. There was no time to waste. He knew Steve would be able to run over there pretty damn quickly, so he did not worry about him not getting there in time. He spotted a few of the N'Garai as soon as the twelve story building on the 26th appeared in his line of sight. They were trying to scale the building, sinking their claws into bricks and window sills.

As he flew closer he felt the wind pick up around him, and he knew immediately why when lightning struck down one of the things. He did not see Thor himself, but that mattered very little, he was there. Next he caught sight of Vision's yellow cape. Steve was right about him being a little... weird, but damn. Sam kept his distance as Vision grabbed hold of one of the things, dislodging their claws from the building. Then he plummeted to the ground, dropping down like lead, with the beast underneath him. That was definitely going to leave a big hole in the concrete down below.

'Hey people... we need a little help up here,' yelled Pietro through the comms. Sam flew up to the roof, because even if he could not help Thor and Vision against the demons, he sure as hell could do more than just stare at others as they did the heavy lifting.

As soon as he touched down Pietro appeared right in front of him, too fast to even know from which direction he exactly came from.

'You need to fly some people over to another rooftop,' he said quickly. 'The back entrance is screwed to hell.'

A moment later the door leading down into the building was pushed open and Barton marched out, some people followed him out as closely as possible. Most of them looked literally scared out of their minds.

'You got it,' Sam nodded and Pietro was gone in a blink, probably back into the building.

Natasha got out to the roof last, gripping the arm of a crying woman, who clearly hurt her leg.

'Okay, you first then lady,' he said as he rushed over to them.

'No,' Natasha shook her head. 'We don't know who they want, one of us needs to get over there first.'

'Right, Barton!'

But before he could take a step closer some of the people started shouting and even screaming. A N'Garai popped its ugly head up to the roof, red eyes scanning the small crowd.

Barton let an arrow fly and Sam had no idea what sort of arrow it was, but the thing let out a god-awful wail when it hit it in the neck. It started shaking its head frantically, before it reached up with a big clawed hand to tear it out. It bought them enough time, because the next moment Thor dropped down on the creature from above, grabbing hold of a horn and yanking them off of the roof.

Some guy from the small crowd let out a relieved shout of "Yes!", but the beasts were still growling, they were still coming. Sam grabbed hold of Clint and quickly leaped off the edge, smoothly gliding two buildings over to another rooftop.

'We need to find out who they want,' Clint said as soon as his feet were firmly down. 'Cause we can't protect them all.'

'We'll find out soon enough,' Sam told him, then he took flight again. Sam had to carry them over one-by-one and the demons were bound to react.

'I'm here!' Steve announced through the comms.

'Back entrance!' Pietro yelled in return. 'Now!'

'On my way!' Steve shouted back.

Sam landed right next to Natasha and the injured woman. He picked the lady up gingerly, trying not to hurt her leg more. He kept looking around, waiting for one of the demons to jump at him, but they were still just climbing up the side of the building, trying to get to the top. It was safe to fly.

He put the woman down on the other rooftop, helped her sit down.

'Sit tight, we're gonna get you out of here,' Sam reassured her. She nodded back, visibly gathering herself to not freak out even more. Sam leaped off the edge and flew back to the first building.

He made a few turns, keeping an eye on the N'Garai, listening to the others. Steve and Pietro managed to barricade the back entrance of the building, so the demons were not getting in from that direction, while Wanda somehow kept all windows intact. The glass surfaces were all shimmering with a faint red glow and did not break, not even when the N'Garai slammed into them with full force. Thor bashed open the head of another one of them, but he did not have much time to fight them one-on-one, because Vision just couldn't pick them all off the building by himself. And they really needed to keep them away form the roof.

Sam also saw that the police closed down both ends of the street, keeping everyone away. It would have been nice to keep the battle to this one location. There were way too many civilians out on the streets this time of the day. He also caught sight of two news helicopters circling above them and he was pretty damn sure they were not going to be the only ones.

'Okay, you next lady,' Sam said as he landed. There were only six people left on the roof. Sam deliberately left those who looked the most composed last. He wasn't sure whether it was a New Yorker thing, or they just felt safe with Avengers left and right, but the remaining people looked freakishly calm, considering the situation. The woman grabbed hold of his neck and Sam leaped off the building. Only to hear the demons start snarling with a lot more vigour than before.

'It's her,' Natasha declared through the comms. Well, shit.

'Fly higher,' Vision instructed. 'They're after you.'

Sam only glanced back for one second, but he already saw one of the things leaping off the side of the building in his direction. He aimed for the sky and flew until he was at least twenty stories high.

'What's going on?' the lady shouted at him.

'Where do I go?' Sam asked the others, not having time to answer her just yet. He couldn't just fly off in any direction, the demons would follow him through the streets. He also couldn't just stay up in the air indefinitely.

'Stark Tower,' Vision said. 'Keep flying high, let us worry about the rest.'

That was such a shitty plan, but Sam did not argue. He flew higher.

'Where are we going?' the lady asked him. Sam finally took a better look at her. She was in her thirties, brown skin and long black hair, most likely Native.

'They're after you,' Sam told her. 'We're gonna get you some place safe.'

'What?!' she exclaimed.

'Do you have any idea why?'

'No! I don't know!' she shouted back at him.

'What's your name?' he asked and he very pointedly did not look back, he didn't want to know how close the demons were.

'Sara.'

'Sara, hi, I'm Sam. They're not gonna get you, okay?' Sam told her. 'And once you're safe, we'll figure out why they're after you.'

'Okay,' she agreed, holding on a little more tightly.

Sam heard the sound of the fight behind them, heard the crack of lightning, felt the wind pick up, he even saw Vision from the corner of his eye. He saw that Pietro was down on the street, well, he saw a blue blur or motion a bit ahead of them. He was trying to clear the way, warn the pedestrians before the demons reached them. The things were not giving up, they were charging down the road, pushing cars out of the way, running up on buildings, and jumping from roof to roof in order to follow them. But at least as long as people got out of the way in time there would be no seriously casualties. At least he really hoped so.

Then he caught sight of something else. Someone else. Great.

'Loki's here,' he announced through the comm. 'Up on the roofs, on my nine.'

He had no idea how Loki was keeping up with them on foot, but he was. Every time Sam thought he was falling behind he just popped up again.

'Watch out for Barnes then,' Natasha warned him. 'He can't be far.'

'I'm not really worried about him, to be honest,' Sam replied, because he had demons on his tail. Barnes was maybe a big question mark, but the N'Garai were definitely out for blood.

But still, Loki was not following the demons, he was following them.

'Okay, shit, I'm pretty sure they're here for her too.'

'Who's here for me?' Sara asked, only hearing Sam's side of the conversation. Sam didn't really know how to explain, so he just shook his head.

'Later, let's get you to the Tower.'

He tried to stay away from the buildings, but some of the streets were really narrow and he did not want to fly that high. He was above most buildings, but not the biggest skyscrapers.

'Thor killed another one,' Vision reported.

Sam tried to keep an eye on Loki, but he was still mostly worried about the demons. So he didn't notice when exactly he vanished from his nine. He caught the sound of something strange just a second before one of his wings got pierced at a corner and he was yanked to the side. Sara gripped him tight and bit back a panicky shout as they almost crashed into a building. There was a grappling hook in his wing, a really familiar one. He managed to avoid the corner of the building, but they hit the rooftop of the building next to it. Sam took the fall, making sure Sara landed on him. It was not a big fall, but damn, it still hurt.

Sara's weight was gone from top of him almost immediately.

'What the shit, let go of me!' she yelled. Sam shook his head and opened his eyes. Freakin' Barnes, what the hell?

'You serious with this bullshit?' Sam shouted at him as he got to his feet. 'We've got demons on our assess.'

Barnes definitely did not feel like giving him an answer, he backed away from the edge of the roof, keeping a firm arm around Sara's waist. He must've said something to her, because she was not yelling or trying to get away from him. Not that Sam blamed here, Barnes was one scary bastard when he had that mission face on.

And sure enough, Sam could already hear the rumbling of a demon. He couldn't get the hook out of his wing easily. He first had to cut the cable with the knife he kept strapped to his shin. The wing was still damaged, but it would have to do for now. At least Barnes was kind enough not to rip his damn wing completely off this time. Not that he felt good about his chances of flying safely like this. He folded them back into place, not being sure if he could use them again today. And that was just perfect.

Loki dropped down from a nearby building just as a N'Garai's claws appeared at the edge of the rooftop. Loki was slowly getting closer to Barnes, keeping his red eyes locked on the demon climbing up. Sam was tense from head-to-toe, and he had no idea what exactly the right course of action was here.

'I really could use some help here,' he told the others through the comm, because it was the truth, he really-really needed some help.

'We're on our way,' Vision replied, but Sam heard the sound of the fight around him, so he knew it could take some time.

The demon tried to charge at Sara and Barnes, but Loki got in its way, kicking it in the head and sinking a long knife into the back of its neck. At the same time Sam heard repulsor thrusters and he expected Vision, but got Iron Man instead. Just out of nowhere. Stark dropped down next to Barnes, or almost on top of him really. Barnes let go of Sara, who ran to get out of the way. Sam ran to her immediately. Only the N'Garai noticed her being alone too, and charged.

Sam got to Sara just a second sooner than the demon, and he wrapped both his arms around her, trying to shield her as much as possible. He knew he could do nothing against the claws, still he had to try. He expected pain, he expected blood, or just instant death really, but the thing was just snarling real close and fuck... Loki stood in its way, basically wrestling with the thing. They needed to get out of here.

He and Sara backed away from Loki and the demon. Sam didn't want to risk flying. Maybe the damaged wing could take his weight, but not both of theirs.

'What's going on up there?' Steve yelled through the comms.

'I need someone to get Sara the hell out of here!' Sam shouted back. 'Loki's got the demon, but shit, we are so not safe here!'

Stark was not connected to their channel, because he did not answer. He stood firmly in front of Barnes, while the other was circling him. Sam finally spotted a service ladder, but of course it was on the other side of the roof from where Sam and Sara were. They had to get to it though.

'See the ladder over there?' he asked her. Sara looked around, then nodded. 'When I tell you to run, you run. I'm gonna cover you, you just run to it, and start climbing down. Understand?'

'Yes, I got it,' she nodded, her eyes firmly locked on the other side of the roof. Sam had to give it to her, she was holding it together quite admirably.

Loki and the N'Garai kept each other busy, so Sam waited for the moment Barnes was distracted enough. Stark was the first one to make a move, Barnes dodged him, keeping his distance. It was good enough for Sam.

'Now, run!' he yelled. Sara got to her feet and started running immediately. She was fast and ran without a moment of hesitation. Sam was right behind her.

Stark managed to grab hold of Barnes the next time he attacked, because the edge of the roof was right there and Barnes could not back away from him. But the second he was trapped he pulled a knife from somewhere and sank it to the hilt right into Stark's right shoulder. It went through the armour at least a little, because Stark let go of him.

Sara was at the ladder, but she stopped abruptly.

'I can't go down there!' she yelled at him. Sam looked down and saw that half of the damn thing was missing, fucking hell. They were sixteen or eighteen stories high and there was no point going down and getting trapped on a ladder if they could not reach the ground.

'Help is on its way,' Sam reassured her. 'Stay behind me.'

Sam could hear the sound of Barnes' arm recalibrating even from where he stood, then he watched as he turned and swung at Stark's head. He had no idea whether the arm was sturdier or the helmet, but the sound of metal slamming into metal rang quite loudly. Then Barnes' metal fingers went for the helmet's eye socket, piercing right through it before Stark could push him away or dodge in any way. Barnes was wicked fast.

Barnes' knife was still sticking out from Stark's shoulder, and only one of the eyes was glowing in the helmet, and then Barnes pulled his gun. This was so not good.

The N'Garai let out a painful shriek, so Sam turned and saw that Loki finally finished the thing off. The creature's head looked like it was steaming, covered in ice and frost, its grey skin was blackened in several places. Loki's skin was more blue than grey for a few seconds, but it shifted quickly back to grey as he approached.

Stark stood right between Loki and Barnes. Not the smartest place to be, in Sam's opinion.

The sky thundered above them, and they all heard another demon's snarl. Thor and Vision had to be close now, but unfortunately the rest of the demons were too.

'Go!' Barnes yelled, he did not take his eyes off of Stark. Loki was opening his mouth, but Barnes cut him off. 'Just fucking go!'

Loki ran right at Sam and Sara and seriously, hopefully nobody expected him to be able to stop him. Loki tossed him aside like he was a rag doll, and picked Sara up by the waist just as easily, then jumped off the roof. Sara let out a startled scream as they vanished over the edge. Sam got up again, he was going to be so damn bruised.

Stark went for Barnes again, caught the flesh arm that had the gun in it, forcing it down. Barnes' metal fist smashed into his helmet again, Sam was pretty sure the face plate got dented. Stark head-butted him in answer. Barnes stumbled back for a second, a little dazed from the blow, then slammed his whole body forward, twisting both of them around as they went down to get his trapped arm out of Stark's grasp.

Sam ran to the edge, but by the time he got there he only caught a glimpse of Sara and Loki as they vanished in a portal. Goddammit!

Barnes seemed to want to make a run for it, but Stark grabbed hold of his leg. Barnes twisted around and raised his gun. Sam had no idea whether he could actually harm Stark with it, but he did not get a chance to pull the trigger, because Stark burst forward and punched him right in the face, hard. And Barnes was tough, real tough, but he went down from the force of it.

'The N'Garai are running,' he heard Natasha say in his earpiece 'Sam?'

Vision finally arrived, landing on the roof. He was practically covered in the dark blood of the demons, his cape was torn to shreds, so Sam knew what kept him. Probably Thor did not look any better.

'Loki's got Sara,' Sam told them all. 'They're gone.'

Stark straightened up, still keeping a very close eye on Barnes, but he was out cold for sure.

'And we got Barnes,' Sam added. There was a moment of silence from the other side. They probably all waited for the same thing.

'You what?' Steve demanded. And oh boy, he did not sound happy.

x-x-x

To be continued...