A/N: Thanks to the people who reviewed my last chapter, it means a lot to hear back from you guys! Okay, so I'm having a sort of poll. I'm going to write another Avengers story, and I want your opinion. What pairing should I do? Anything with an OC, or even with characters already in the movie, I'll write. I'll write anything, so just request a story and I'll get to it!
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"What the hell did Stark just say?" Clint shouted, all traces of his previous happiness gone from his face. Instead, his face was a very bright red color, and a green vein was visible in his forehead. I scooted back from him, beyond terrified of the man in front of me. I shot a look over at Steve and Natasha, but they were conveniently busy getting the jet up into the air.
"Damn it Tony..." I muttered under my breath, horrified that he chose to bring this topic up right now. Of all times he could have brought it up, why now? I mean, we were about to go to battle, and he thinks it's a good time to bring up the fact that I was in love with the man we were going to fight?
"You know that you love me," I heard him say from the other line.
I sighed, and waited until the jet was moving to speak to Clint, who was still glaring at me.
"Over the past week, I noticed how... similar I am to Loki," I started, still not knowing how I should continue from this point.
"Similar? How the hell are you two similar?" He yelled, venom dripping from his words.
I winced, and sat down in a seat, with Clint sitting down across from me.
"Well, our situations are similar, I..."
"How the fuck are you like him, Samantha?"
I had had enough at the point. He didn't get to yell at me like this!
"Because we both have brothers who think that they so much fucking better than us!" I screamed, my temper getting the best of me.
"Everyone loves you Clint, you're Hawkeye for God's sake! How could I ever compare to that? I'll always be underneath you in everyone else's eyes! And how can I be angry at Loki for being in the same situation? We both know what it's like to never be good enough. No matter what we do, our brothers can always do better!" I shouted.
Clint's face softened, and he stood from his spot across from me.
"Sammie..." He started
I shot up out of my seat, and held up a hand.
"No! You don't get to 'Sammie' me, and make everything better! No!"
My voice was hoarse from screaming, and my head had started to pound. I sighed, and slumped back into my chair.
"You of all people know that we can't choose who we fall in love with." I shot a pointed look at the redhead who was piloting the jet, and Clint groaned when he realized what I was talking about. I had always known that he was in love with Natasha, but I had never brought it up before now.
"Samantha, there's a difference. Loki is an evil God who is trying to take over the world!" He said. I shook my head.
"Loki's not evil. Misguided, maybe." I clarified. Clint rolled his eyes at me.
"He's still trying to take over the world!"
I was silent for a long time, before I finally spoke up.
"I don't like that I'm in love with him. I hate it. And I would change it if I could, but I can't. I can't change it Clint. But I can go against it. Did you know that I could have gone with him? I could have gone with him instead of being here. But I didn't, and I'm here. So let's go kick his ass, alright?"
Clint stared at me for a long time, searching for something in my eyes, before finally nodding.
"I don't like it, but I understand. Just know that I'm going to punch him in the face the second I'm able to..." He said, before moving up and taking Steve's spot at the front of the plane. I sighed with relief, and leaned back in my chair.
I honestly thought that Clint wouldn't take it as well as he did. I don't know what I expected him to do, maybe throw stuff around, maybe put an arrow in someone's head, I don't know. But considering everything that he could have done, this was quite successful.
But now it was time to focus, to get ready for what was to come. And what was going to come? Was I really prepared to fight Loki? To hurt him? I didn't think I was, but I knew that I would most likely have no choice. We headed to Stark Tower, right on Tony's trail.
We were only a couple of minutes behind him, and I knew that we would be reaching the tower soon. Everything boiled down to this point. Would we even be able to stop Loki? Would he be successful in taking over the world?
I sighed, and shook my head of those types of thoughts. My fingers played with my gun on my thighs, and I quietly pondered over how I got here. Not too long ago, I was just an ordin- well, no. I was never ordinary. But never had I thought that I would become part of the Avengers Initiative. Never had I thought that I would play such an important part in saving our world. But hey, things happen, and we just have to go along with it.
I had my brother back, and that was all that mattered to me. Well, it wasn't all that mattered to me, but it was pretty damn close. And what was going to happen after this? If we are capable of bringing down Loki, what happens next? Would I continue being a part of the Avenger's Initiative? Would I still play an important part in future missions?
And what of Loki?
I knew that we most likely wouldn't be able to kill him, what with him being a god and all, but surely there would be dire consequences. He would be taken back to wherever him and Thor are from, and the King (who I believe is called Odin) would deal with him however he wanted to.
All options didn't seem to look too good in his favor. Well, what did I expect? He was trying to take over the world, after all. That can't be taken too lightly, even among gods. But I'd get through it, as I had a new family to help me.
Family.
As strange as the word was, it sort of fit. I mean, yeah, these were a bunch of ragtag superheroes, but they were my bunch of ragtag superheroes. And I suppose that I was their obnoxious young trainee. We fit together, and despite all of the bickering, I didn't know what I'd do without Tony, Clint, Steve, Bruce, and even Natasha.
I may be an orphan, but this was my family. And there was no place else I'd rather be.
We were closing in on New York city, and from here I could see Stark Tower. I stood from my seat, and walked to the front of the plane. I could hear Tony on the communication channel, and he was talking to Dr. Selvig about turning off the Tesseract.
"…It wants to show us something! A new universe!" We could hear Dr. Selvig say, and I cast a glance over at Clint. Was this what he was like when his mind was taken over by Loki? Did he actually believe that the Tesseract was good, something to be worshipped?
"Yeah, okay…" Tony muttered, bringing his hands up and shooting at the machine. A barrier appeared, and the energy from the blast sent the jet flying back a little. When we were steady, I saw Tony recover.
"Time for Plan B…" He said, looking down at something. Following his gaze, my eyes landed on Loki, who was standing there with his staff in his hands. Tony brought himself down onto the platform, starting to take off his suit.
"What is that idiot doing?!" I gasped. He'd get himself killed!
"Open the hatch, Natasha." I said, heading towards the back of the jet. Natasha, Steve, and Clint all turned to me, their expressions telling me exactly what they thought about that idea.
"Come on guys! I need to do this! Tony's down there by himself, and I need to sort out my… issues with Loki," I finished, hoping that they got how much I needed to do this.
Clint stared at me for a long time, before nodding.
"I underestimated you before, and it led to almost losing you. I won't make the same mistake again," He said, nodding at me. He pressed a button, and the hatch opened up right above the platform.
I walked to the edge of the plane, and was about to jump out when Clint called out my name.
"Sammie! Just… be careful, alright? I love you."
And with that, I jumped.
Tony and Loki were already inside, but I walked into the room, listening in on their conversation.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity…" Loki drawled, and I could already picture his smirk.
"Ah, actually, I was going to threaten you." Tony responded.
"You should have left your armor on for that," Loki chuckled at him.
"Yeah…" I could see Tony walking down the steps, and I crouched down behind the bar area, where they couldn't see me.
"Would you like a drink?" He asked, and I nearly started laughing. Tony would be Tony, no matter what.
"Stalling me won't change anything," Loki said, a smile evident in his words. Tony shook his head at the god.
"No no no. Threatening," He clarified. "No drink? You sure?" He asked, grabbing a bottle from his collection.
"I'll have one." It was at this point that I jumped in, standing up from my crouching position. Upon seeing me, Tony never faltered. It was obvious that he knew that I was there all along.
Loki, however, snarled viciously upon seeing my face, and whipped away from me. He walked towards the giant window, looking out of it.
"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that," He spoke, shooting a quick glance in my direction.
"What have I to fear?" He asked. I didn't know if I was just making this up, but it almost sounded like he was asking himself that, as if he were trying to convince himself that he didn't have anything to fear.
"The Avengers." Tony said, grabbing two drink glasses. Loki turned around to face to two of us, frowning in his confusion. Tony shrugged, and poured an unknown liquor into the glasses.
"That's what we call ourselves. We're something of a team: earth's mightiest heroes, that type of thing." He said, sounding completely confident.
"I've met them," Loki said, a grin creeping over his handsome features. Tony laughed along with him, before turning semi-serious.
"Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one," He looked down at the counter, sliding my drink over to me. "But, let's do a headcount here: your brother, a demi-god. The super soldier, a living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger management issues. Throw in a couple of master assassins, and a vengeful, gun wielding teenager," He said.
I bristled a little bit at him calling me a teenager, but overall stayed silent. I did manage to send Loki a glare, however, just to let him know how I felt about him taking my brother. Judging from his wince, I think I got the point across.
"And you, big fella, have managed to piss them all off. Every single one of them." Tony said, smirking. Loki shot me a look before he answered, and I couldn't quite tell what it meant. I took a long sip of my drink, and was glad that it was something strong.
"That was the plan." Loki smiled.
Tony scoffed.
"Not a great plan," He moved down another set of steps, moving closer to Loki. I followed quickly behind him, and moving to his side.
"When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." Tony pointed to Loki with a finger, his hand still holding his drink.
"I have an army," Loki quickly cut in, still (I think) trying to convince himself.
"We have a hulk!" I scoffed, and shook my head. A hulk can beat an army, anytime.
"I thought the beast had wandered off." Loki smirked, motioning with his staff.
"You're missing the point," Tony started. "There's no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes, and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you," Tony said.
"Because if we can't protect the earth you can be damn sure we'll avenge it." He finished, taking a large gulp of his drink.
Loki stalked forward, like a cat about to pounce its prey. Afraid that his prey would be Tony, I moved in between them, trying to prevent violence. I knew that it would come, but I was hoping to delay it for as long as possible.
"And how will they have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" He asked, venom dripping from his words. My eyes widened, and I tried to block Loki, but he tossed me to the floor. I watched in horror as Loki lifted his staff to Tony's chest, grinning madly.
There were tears in my eyes as I waited for Tony to become a monster like Clint had been, but the staff's blue glue disappeared when it hit his chest. Loki's smile immediately turned into a frown. He lifted the staff to his chest again, but the same thing happened.
"This usually works…" He said, frowning. Tony couldn't help but to take the opening Loki gave him, and spoke up.
"Well, performance issues are not uncommon: one out of five-" He was cut off by Loki grabbing him by his throat, nearly lifting him off of the floor and moving him towards the window.
"No!" I screamed, and threw myself at them. I tried to pry his hands off of Tony, but damn it, he was strong. Loki threw Tony to the floor, and he slid a couple of feet before coming to a stop.
"Tony!" I yelled, and rushed to his side. I gently touched his face, making sure there was no permanent damage. Tony just shook me off, pushing me to the side to make sure I was safe from Loki.
"JARVIS, anytime now…" He muttered. Loki came around to him again, and lifted him up by his throat once again.
"Mortal fool!" He spit at him.
"Deploy, deploy!" Tony shouted at JARVIS as he was promptly thrown out of the window. I screamed, and was about to look out of the window, when I turned and saw something being shot out. It was going to hit me, and probably knock me out of the window, but something heavy slammed into me, bringing me down to the floor and out of the item's way.
"Oof!" The wind was temporarily knocked out of me, and I saw stars. When my eyes became focused, they landed on Loki, who was on top of me and staring down at me with a strange look in his eyes.
We were silent for a long time, before the situation finally sunk in, and I put my hands on his chest and pushed him off of me. I stood, and raced to the window, trying to see Tony. I looked and looked, but he was too far down for me to see anything.
I cried out and stepped back as Tony suddenly shot up past me, aiming his hands at Loki.
"And there's one other person you pissed off," He said.
"His name is Phil."
Loki raised his staff to shoot at Tony, but Tony got his hand up first, and shot at him. Loki flew backwards, his staff flying out of his hands as he hit the floor. At the same time, there was a loud sound, and I could tell that the portal had opened. Damn it!
Tony looked over at me, then at Loki, then back at me.
"He's all yours, Sammie darling…" He said before flying off to fight the Chitauri that were now pouring out of the portal in the sky. I looked over at Loki, who was just now getting up, and groaned.
This ought to be fun…
! #$%^
A/N: So I'm having a sort of poll. I'm going to keep writing this story, but I want to try something else. Something different, but still in the Avengers category. Tell me what type of pairing you want to see done, whether it be something with an OC, or with characters already established. I'll write almost anything, so just let me know (in either a review or a PM) what you want me to write. Thanks guys! It would mean a lot to me.
Sara
