Hi everyone! I'm back with a new chapter for you! Enjoy!


"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki said in that drawling manner of his. Kat's pulse quickened as she saw Tony had removed all of his armor, strolling towards them completely exposed and completely unarmed. What is that idiot thinking!

"Uh… actually," he said pointedly, "I'm going to threaten you."

"You should have left your armor on for that." Kat could hear the smirk in Loki's voice.

"Tony—" she hissed, but was quickly cut off by Loki's razor-sharp gaze.

"Quiet, you insolent wretch," he snapped. "You'll be dealt with shortly."

It took everything in Kat to bite her tongue, but she needed Loki to stay distracted. It was the only way the plan she was formulating had any hope of working. Slowly, the Asgardian turned back to where Tony stood, leaning casually up against his bar.

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage," Stark continued without missing a beat. "You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything," Loki hissed, steadily walking toward Tony. Kat began to work at the loose knot she had tied on her restraints; she had to hold back her anticipation as the bonds fell away easily.

"No, no, no!" Tony replied, holding up a hand. "Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one." Kat controlled the urge to roll her eyes, fighting to maintain composure. Now that she was free, she just needed Loki to get close.

"The Chitauri are coming," Loki continued, unfazed by Stark's nonchalant manner. "Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

Tony took a swig of the drink he'd just poured, eyes trained on the glass. Without an ounce of fear or apprehension, he said, "The Avengers." Kat couldn't help the smirk that came to her lips when she saw Loki balk at Tony's comment. "It's what we call ourselves," he continued on, "sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

Loki scoffed. "Yes, I've met them."

Tony gave him a wide, shit-eating grin that almost had Kat laughing. "Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one." He pushed up out of the chair he'd taken residence in. "But –" he shot Kat a furtive glance "—let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend—" Tony continued counting on his fingers and strolling in a wide circle to the back of the bar "—a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple master assassins, and you, big fella…you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"Well, that was the plan."

"Not a great plan." Tony shook his head in an admonishing gesture, as though he were speaking to a child. "When they come, and they will; they'll come for you." Tony set his drink down on the counter, and Kat thought she saw him bend over slightly… Did he have something up his sleeve too?

"I have an army," Loki said, voice cold as stone.

Tony gave a slight shrug. "We have a Hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point," Tony shot back. "There's no throne. There's 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. Because if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

Slowly, quietly, Kat began to inch her way across the floor, aiming to get closer to Loki without him noticing. She felt the weight of the scissors in her hand, adjusting slightly. But then Loki began to move, walking towards Tony at the bar.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" With a wicked grin, he placed the point of his scepter directly in the center of Tony's chest. Kat braced herself for some earth-shattering explosion, but nothing happened. Loki glanced at his scepter in silent rage. Again, he placed the tip of the scepter on Tony's chest with a slight ping! And again, nothing happened. "It should work!" the Asgardian seethed.

"Well, performance issues. Ya know?" Tony jibed. Loki's hand shot out, wrapping around Tony's throat and flinging him across the room. Kat knew that was her moment.

She vaulted forward, whipping the scissors out from behind her and jabbing them as far as they would go into Loki's leg. He howled in pain, glaring down at her and whipping her face with a vicious backhand. She cried out at the sudden pain, but was quickly back in a crouching position, ready to strike again when the opportunity presented itself. The scissors remained clenched in her hand, dripping fresh blood.

But Loki continued to where Tony was laying haphazardly on the floor. "Jarvis," Tony said quietly but insistently, "anytime now." Loki stooped down and grabbed him by the throat once more, gripping tightly and hauling him to his feet. Kat felt her stomach lurch as she realized how dangerously close to the window the two of them were.

"You will fall before me," he said with a sinister smile.

Kat couldn't help but notice how unfazed Tony looked as he was thrown out the window, plummeting more than a hundred stories to certain death. A scream escaped her throat, unbidden but raw all the same. She was on her feet in an instant, aiming a blow of the scissors right between the Asgardians shoulder blades.

She was almost upon him when the elevator doors slid open and a bright red pod shot between them, knocking her to her back. The pod sped out the window that Tony had just been thrown from, and Loki watched its descent with a hateful gaze. Mere moments later, Kat saw the Iron Man suit zoom up the building and into the sky. She scrambled to the window and saw him hovering there, palm raised to attack.

"And there's one other person you pissed off!" he exclaimed. "His name was Phil."

At the same moment Loki raised his scepter to aim at Tony, a beam of light shot from Tony's palm, knocking Loki square in the chest. He flew backwards across the room into a decorative wall, destroying it in a matter of moments. Kat looked back at Tony where he hovered in mid-air. He touched a gauntleted hand to his temple, and part of the mask parted so she could see his face.

"I suggest you make yourself like a tree, Agent. Things are about to get a little squirrely."

She moved closer to the shattered opening of the window and stopped just short of falling through herself. "Where's Steve?" she called over the open space between them.

"Don't worry, the cavalry is coming. You need to—"

The building shook beneath her feet, feeling as though it was swaying wildly, though she knew it was just her. Tony had replaced his mask and was staring at the sky. "Right. Army," she heard him say faintly. He angled his head back towards her. "Street level. Cap and the others will be here soon." Without another word, Tony shot into the sky, clearing the tops of the buildings in mere seconds. Kat gazed after him in wonder, and then her eyes found the sky beyond him.

It was a remarkably clear day—or rather, it would have been if not for the gaping hole in the sky. Beyond the clear, light blue, she could see the empty, endless expanse of space, dotted here and there with stars. Suddenly, a multitude of things began to pour from the vast opening. She could only assume these were the Chitauri Loki had mentioned earlier, and their day had just gotten a hell of a lot worse. A swell of energy signatures hit her, causing her to stagger and lose her balance.

A frantic wind whipped at her hair as she leaned out the window, threatening to pull her down and make her ascent to the street a lot faster. She drew back into the apartment and made her way to the elevator, noticing that Loki was nowhere to be seen.

It didn't matter; she had other things to worry about. Like the alien army currently reigning terror on the city. How were they supposed to combat that many soldiers? And alien solders at that… It seemed to her they were vastly outmatched, and a cold pit began to form in her stomach. The elevator jolted slightly in its descent, making her grip the sides tightly. It would be just her luck to come all this way and die in an elevator crash.

But she reached the bottom safely and exited into a lobby filled with chaos. There was debris all over the floor, and chunks of the ceiling were missing. A haze of dust filled the air, and there were people everywhere; running, screaming, nursing injuries to the best of their ability. It felt like she'd entered a warzone… she supposed she had.

There was a woman—dark hair in a frenzied mess and eyes wide with panic—who seemed to be attempting to maintain control. She was shouting something incoherent at a man attending to a woman whose head was bleeding profusely from a nasty gash. As Kat looked around the hectic lobby, she realized she couldn't just leave these people to fend for themselves.

She crossed the lobby carefully, dodging debris and people alike. When she finally reached the dark-haired woman, she stared at Kat like she was some kind of angel.

"What's happening?" the woman asked shakily, reaching for Kat's hand.

Kat felt she was way out of her depth here, but she took the woman's trembling hand all the same. "The city's under attack," she replied, as calmly as she could manage in the given situation. "This building is not safe. We need to get everyone out, and try to get them to safety."

"Where do we go?" she questioned, more franticly this time.

Kat chewed at her bottom lip nervously. The truth was, she didn't really know. With an army of alien combatants raining down on the city, was there anywhere in the world considered "safe"?

"Try to get out of the city," she finally said. "If you can't get out, get under. Subways, basements, whatever you can find. Just get as far away from the fighting as you can. Okay?" The woman nodded warily and looked around the room, drawing the attention of a couple men who Kat thought might be security guards. The woman relayed Kat's message and finally released her hand. Kat spoke to a few more people in the lobby and idled for a few minutes until most of the people had left, either under their own volition, or with help.

Outside, the world was even more chaotic. Everywhere there were fires and mini explosions set off by the Chitauri's weapons. People ran in a stampede to try and get away, but there was nowhere to run. Cars blocked off every route in Kat's vision, abandoned by their drivers as soon as the world began to end. She heard sirens coming from every direction, til it was all she could hear. A few police officers entered her field of vision, running towards the action in a valiant show of bravery. As they ran, beams of light shot down from above, catching two of them and dropping them immediately. Kat felt herself becoming queasy as the number of bodies around her became suddenly very apparent.

She needed to get out of here, and fast.

As she ran, the ground shook beneath her feet, tripping her up periodically and making her progress slow. Not to mention the hundreds upon thousands of other people sprinting right alongside her. But when the bullets began flying, they all dropped to the ground.

The sound of two .50 caliber rifles was much louder than Kat might have imagined. Especially considering they were right above her head; rather, the aircraft containing them was right above her head. A SHILED quinjet hovered in the middle of Park Avenue, blasting the Chitauri soldiers as they blindly followed Tony in his suit. When the aliens were taken care of, Tony rocketed into the sky, once more heading for the portal, and the quinjet angled itself towards Stark Tower.

She didn't know how, but Kat was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that Steve was on that jet. As it moved away, a pang went through her chest.

"Stay safe," she whispered, watching it hover near the balcony where she'd just been.

It was so high, but she thought she could just glimpse two figures grappling with one another perilously close to the edge. A beam of light hurtled towards the quinjet from Loki's scepter, and struck the right side of the aircraft. Kat sucked in a heavy breath when she saw flames spouting from the engines. They were obviously in capable hands; the pilot angled the wing of the jet toward the street.

But the destruction had spread too quickly. The jet began to spiral out of control, smashing into the street and sliding a few hundred feet before coming to a halt. Kat ran to the jet, against her better judgment. The thing could blow at any minute, but she didn't care.

Suddenly, the ramp opened and slammed to the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air. She stopped short and coughed roughly as the dust entered her lungs and clouded her vision. But when the dust cleared... Steve stood before her, dressed in his suit with shield in hand. When he saw her, his mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Kat," he said breathlessly, striding towards her. She ran to meet him and threw her arms around his neck. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and pressed his cheek to hers. "When we realized you were gone... I feared the worst."

"Well, the worst happened," she said quietly into his neck, eyes squeezed shut to hold back her tears. He jerked away suddenly to look her in the eye, concern masking his face. "I'm fine, Steve," she continued quickly. "He didn't do anything that can't be fixed."

"Why did he take you in the first place?" Steve questioned.

"Can we finish this little reunion some other time?" Natasha's irritated voice snapped at them. "Like maybe when there isn't an alien invasion going on?"

Kat and Steve shared a look they both knew, and then she pulled away from him completely. "Get to safety," he said. "If Loki wanted you before, he'll come after you even harder now that you've gotten away from him."

"I need to get to Nana," Kat said breathlessly, feeling her hands shake. The prospect of getting from Manhattan to Brooklyn when the world was coming to an end was not a pleasant one. "I don't know what else to do."

Steve stared at her long and hard, as if he thought this might be the last time they saw one another. "Help as many as you can," he said quietly. There was so much more between them that had gone unspoken, but there was no time. Steve jogged after Natasha and the other man Kat didn't recognize, heading towards where all the fighting seemed to be focused. Her heart ached as she watched him leave, but she was completely helpless.

No... she thought firmly, not completely. What good is this power if I don't learn to use it effectively? I have to do something.

She was running before she realized it, feet carrying her through the destroyed streets as fast as they possibly could. A tremendous roar sounded from above, and she glanced skyward for a moment, glimpsing the tail of some thing that was flying through the air. If the Chitauri had air support, they really were in trouble.

As she rounded the corner onto another street, she saw a mass of people doing their best to take cover, be it under awnings or inside buildings. A group of police officers were attempting to offer cover fire as citizens fled past them, but they were sorely outnumbered.

Ducking and covering her head, she crossed the intersection to where the police were barricaded behind their patrol cars. One of them noticed her coming and motioned for her to join the other civilians hiding underneath the awning of a bakery.

But Katherine Jean Winters was not a civilian.

She stopped next to the officer and got his attention. "Hey!" she yelled in his ear over the din of engines and weapons firing.

"Are you crazy lady?! Get over there with everyone else!" the officer said over his shoulder, not even looking at her.

"Hey!" she repeated, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at her. "We need to get these people to safety. Now."

"What the hell does this look like?" the officer demanded hotly.

"It looks like a bunch of sitting ducks. These people need to get underground, and quickly." The officer looked at her like she had three heads. "Fine," she growled, turning away from the group of police and hurrying over to the terrified-looking people all huddled together.

"Listen!" she said forcefully, eyeing them sternly. "I know you all don't know me, but you're not safe here. We need to get underground!"

"Why should we listen to you?" one man asked gruffly.

A wave of energy rolled over her, causing her to stagger slightly. It was red hot and burning intensely, hurtling towards them through the air with unstoppable power.

"Because," she snapped, "there is an ancient, alien-leviathan headed straight for us, and I am the only one who can guide you safely through this city." That certainly shut them up. They stared at her with wide eyes, but she continued on, heedless of their scrutiny. "The library is half a block away. Follow me, and I will get you there unharmed. Got it?"

A few of them nodded; others looked at each other skeptically. But the look she gave them all left no room for argument. She made her way to the corner of 42nd and Madison as they followed behind, glancing both ways and feeling for any energy signatures she could identify as the Chitauri. There were hundreds of them flying overhead, but they were all focused further north, where she recognized Steve's comforting and familiar energy.

She waved the group of people following her across the street, making sure the coast remained clear as they scurried onward. They picked up more civilians as they went along, until their group was nearly a hundred strong. Kat wasn't sure when she'd become so bold, but she guessed anyone could do anything in the face of adversity.

They turned left at 5th avenue, and Kat saw the grand façade of the New York Public Library rise up in front of them. People were flooding the steps, where numerous officers and other official-looking people were directing them where to go. Kat ushered everyone in front of her, making sure there weren't any stragglers being left behind.

As she watched them sprint up the steps, everything seemed to go quiet, and an intense buzzing filled her head. Hundreds of energy signatures were headed this way; headed straight for them.

Kat screamed for one of the officers, but it was too late. A battalion of Chitauri on flying chariots suddenly appeared over 5th avenue, aiming their weapons and firing at the innocent people down below. Screams filled the air as people dove for whatever cover they could find. A blast from one of their weapons struck a vehicle near Kat, hitting the gas tank in a fiery explosion. She braced herself for the blast, but it still sent her flying across the street. Her back scraped across the asphalt painfully, and she could feel it begin to sting almost immediately.

Her head was spinning and all she could hear was a high whining, disorienting her and making it hard to get to her feet. There were people laying on the ground all around her, some of them moving... some of them not. She struggled painfully to be able to stand, and stumbled towards the library. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.

As she staggered over the bodies and debris littering the road, she glanced down and saw a cellphone lying at her feet. She stooped down and picked it up, holding back tears of relief when the cracked screen lit up. She pressed the button for an emergency call, and dialed her grandmother's phone number from memory, lifting it to her ear and sending up a silent prayer.

It rang a few times, each time sending a spike of panic through her chest. Finally, on the fourth ring, the line picked up.

"Hello?" a shaky voice asked.

"Mom!" Kat exclaimed, letting the tears flow freely now. She didn't know it was possible to be so happy. "Thank god; I'm so happy to hear your voice."

"Katherine... Katherine where have you been! Where are you? Are you okay?" her mother started to ramble frantically.

"Mom, I'm okay, I'm... I'm in the city, but I'm fine."

"You're in the city?!" her mother screeched, and she could hear the shuffling of window blinds. "Katherine Jean!"

"It's okay. I'm coming home right now. You and Nana get to the laundry room, and stay there. Understand?" She knew she was speaking to her mother like a child right now, but she didn't really care. If anything happened to them, she'd never forgive herself.

"Yeah, okay. Mom!" her mother called away from the receiver. "Kat... hurry, please. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom. Tell Nana I love her. I'll be there soon." It felt too much like a goodbye, and she hated it. But she couldn't bear the thought of their last words to one another being anything besides 'I love you'.

She hung up the cellphone and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans, in case she needed it later, and started to make her way down the street. Above everything else, she had to make sure her family was safe. And even though it hurt to know she was leaving people behind to fend for themselves, Kat began to make her way towards Brooklyn.


That's all for now everyone! Let me know what you think! :D