I'm feeling rather sad. Not one review for the last chapter? Not one? Am I really that terrible a writer? *Shameless guilt trip*

Well, if you liked this, please tell me why, and if you didn't like it, do the same. Flames will be used to... um, I don't know- destroy the Chitauri? Sounds good. ^_^

Please enjoy this chapter!

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Claire yelled, "WARE!" and shot a Chitauri that was sneaking up on Nathan from behind.

He turned and barely nodded. Clint captured her attention once again as he dodged a Chitauri, sweeping its legs out from under it with a powerful yank. He drew an arrow from his rapidly depleting quiver to stab through the monster's chest. He was off again before Claire could congratulate him on a job well done.

Natasha leapt off the top of a cab and onto the back of a Chitauri, using her Widow's Sting to electrocute the alien. It tried its best to buck her off, but Natasha won the battle and it fell to the ground.

Nathan shouted as a Chitauri tackled him around his middle and threw him into the ground. Claire ran forward and stabbed the alien with a normal arrow. He slumped, dead, over Nathan, and together they yanked the Chitauri off of him.

She held out a hand and helped him to his feet. He roughly pulled her close and before she could say anything, he kissed her.

She drew back after a moment and asked, a small smile playing along her lips, "Do I need to ask what that was for?"

"Nope. Just... stay alive, ok?" he ordered her.

"If you do the same," she retorted, and used all of her weight to force him down so she could shoot the Chitauri sneaking up on them.

Clint slid across the ground, underneath the extended arm of the Chitauri about to blast Natasha, and fired a bolt into its back. Natasha returned the favor by killing a monster that was about to shoot Clint. He sprinted back to her side as the younger two did.

They tried to fend off the Chitauri, but there were just too many of them. Right as two bore down on the four, twin inverted shields crashed into the monsters, shoving them back several yards.

Steve joined them quite suddenly, with Stephanie right behind. They joined in the fight, only to halt as lightning struck down many of their foes.

Thor, with Lena right beside him, landed on the street. He released her, and Lena turned to offer him a hand up.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve demanded as they met up, the incoming hordes temporarily halted.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor said roughly.

Evidently Tony picked up on what he had said, because he quickly said, "Thor's right, we gotta deal with these guys!"

"How do we do this?" Nathan asked as Lena ran to Stephanie and hugged her tightly, ignoring the slightly pale tint and shivering limbs she still had from her prolonged captivity.

"As a team," Stephanie said firmly.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor said.

"Yeah?" Clint said, as he unscrewed the tops of some retrieved arrows and gave a few shafts to Claire. She accepted them gratefully as they chorused, "Get in line."

"Save it!" Steve snapped. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without us here these things could run wild."

He turned around to face the seven others. "We got Stark up top. He's gonna need us to..." he trailed off and turned around as an old motorcycle engine rumbled from behind them.

They all watched as Bruce pulled up, with Brenda riding right behind him. He waited until she was off the bike before allowing it to fall over.

"So this all seems... horrible," Bruce remarked as Brenda ran to hug Stephanie. She drew back hurriedly in shock as she touched her friend's arm. "You're ice-cold! What happened?"

"Ah... Long story for a later date. How are you?" Stephanie asked quickly, taking in the stretched-out clothes she wore.

"Well, I've been better," she said wryly. Nathan, Claire, and Lena quickly joined the two girls.

"I've seen worse," Natasha said to Bruce.

"Sorry."

"No, we- we could use a little worse," she said.

"Stark. We got him," Steve said into the comm.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

"Well, then tell him to suit up," Tasha said grimly. Stephanie relayed the words to Brenda, who leaned close to hear what she was saying.

"I'm bringing the party to you," Tony said.

Instantly the younger set readied themselves.

They all watched as Tony shoved Tasha around the building in front of him, following close behind her. The Leviathan followed with an exceptionally loud roar as it cut partway through a building.

"I-I don't see how that's a party," Natasha muttered.

"Dr. Banner?" Steve said.

Banner was already undoing the buttons on his shirt. "Yes?"

"Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Cap," he said as he began walking forward. "I'm always angry."

Brenda joined him after a brief hug to Stephanie and together they began growing. Stephanie smirked and raised an eyebrow after seeing that Brenda was only a head taller than her. The Hulk, however- the Hulk was about five feet taller than Steve, and as he smashed his fist into the Leviathan's nose, that height was put to good use.

Stephanie grabbed Claire and Nathan, pulling them behind a flipped car as Tony readied his lasers. She stepped back out into the open street and watched fearlessly as Tony shouted, "Hold on!" and fired into the flesh of the flying beast.

They all readied themselves, and at the last moment, Stephanie yanked Lena to her and shielded them both with her shield. The Leviathan exploded spectacularly, and they could all hear the enraged screams of the Chitauri as their monster went up in smoke.

Then the Avengers were circling up, and the Young Avengers followed their lead. Stephanie slipped between Steve and Natasha, readying her shield as the last vestiges of the cold wore off and she was back to peak condition. He glanced down and rested a hand on her shoulder as she smiled up at him for a brief second.

Nathan stood to Natasha's right, next to Thor. He followed her lead and grabbed a fresh clip off his belt to replace his empty one. Lena cracked her knuckles, refraining from summoning Mjolnir, but causing lightning to dance along her hands next to Thor, who was swinging Mjolnir to cause a slight breeze. Claire put an arrow to the string of her bow, in perfect sync with Hawkeye as Brenda growled softly next to the Hulk. Tony and Tasha descended from the sky to complete the circle.

"Guys," Natasha said, drawing their attention.

They turned to the portal, just in time to see two more Leviathans and several battalions of Chitauri come through the portal.

"Steve? Can you give us a battle plan?" Stephanie asked.

"Alright, listen up. Until we can close the portal, our priority is containment. Bartons, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Starks, you got the perimeter. Anything gets three blocks past, you turn it back or you turn it to ash," Steve ordered.

"Give me a lift?" Clint asked.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas," Tony said. Clint nodded and Tony shot upward, with Tasha and Claire right behind the two.

"Thor, Lena, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. You got the lightning- light the b******s up." Thor nodded, swung his hammer faster, and wrapped an arm around Lena as he took to the sky.

He turned to Natasha and Nathan and said, "You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here." She nodded and Nathan drew his second handgun.

"And Hulk?"

Hulk started and turned to look at him. Brenda was already cracking her neck, readying herself for a fight.

"Smash."

The two grinned and were off onto the buildings, crashing into anything in the way.

Lena kept herself tucked in tight as Thor flew them up to the Empire State Building. He made sure she had a tight grip on the side of the tip of the tower and raised his hammer, causing dark clouds to gather in the sky above. Lena grinned and waited as he electrified the entire building around them, summoning a bit of lightning to pool in her hands. Thor immediately lit the portal up, making it slightly smaller in size- small enough that a Leviathan couldn't fit through it.

Claire landed heavily next to Clint on the roof as Tasha dropped her and sped off. She grumbled under her breath, saying a few uncomplimentary words about Tasha and her parentage. Clint laughed and pointed out an approaching battalion for her to shoot.

"Stark, gotta lot of strays on your tail," Clint said tightly as he shot a few more Chitauri craft out of the sky.

"Just tryin' to keep them off the streets," Tony said tightly, zooming down the street, Tasha just ahead of him.

"Well, they can't bank worth a d***," Clint remarked casually as he shot a spacebike without looking.

"Showoff," Claire muttered.

"Find a tight corner," he continued.

Tony was quiet for a moment, before saying, "I will roger that." He sent a map of the upcoming streets to Tasha, who said quickly "I copy" and banked left hard, Tony right on her tail.

Clint watched a spacebike shoot by and tracked just ahead of it, firing at just the right moment. Claire grinned as the arrow impacted and split the thing in half.

Tasha grinned, though no one could see her, and quite suddenly went from horizontal to vertical in a split second. The small squad that had been following her wasn't prepared for the change in direction and slammed directly into a solid brick wall. She flew over the building and met Tony on the other side, after his brief joint through a very small tunnel.

"Nice call," Tony said. "What else ya got?"

"Thor and Lena're taking on a squadron down on 6th," Claire said quickly.

"And they didn't invite us?" Tasha said incredulously.