CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – Wicked Game
Out of bullets, I shoved the empty Glock into its holster. A puff of breath exhaled my lips as I raised a leg, kicking a Chitauri soldier square in the chest. The alien creature appearing like something out of a film fell backwards from the violent kick, heavily denting the door of an abandoned car.
A smirk tugged at my lips as the Bowie knife whispered from its sheath. Years of training jolted my body automatically into gear. I moved towards the Chitauri, narrowing missing the intense blue beams of light shooting from their weapons to engage in the brutal manner taught to me by HYDRA long ago. No fear, no hesitation, just the promise of a gushing death.
Bodies tumbled to the ground, screams and explosions a mere distant distraction until heavy footsteps came from behind. I spun round, flicking blood off the Bowie as Steve studied the carnage with a raised eyebrow.
"This looks familiar," he remarked whilst Clint and Natasha banded together nearby, taking down their own group of Chitauri in flawless precision.
"It's almost like old times."
Steve's eyes grew suddenly wide. He sprinted towards me, raising his shield seconds before an explosion erupted at the end of the street. Bits of metal and rubble flew in various directions, bouncing off the protective strength of the shield.
"You okay, Gin?"
"Swell," I coughed out a mouthful of dust. "We're barely making a dent in their numbers, we need to come up with a better plan before they completely overrun us." I straightened up as the group came together.
Steve obtained the position of our leader, the rousing sight giving me the boost of adrenaline needed to survive whatever the day had left to reveal. "Alright listen up! Until we can close that portal our priority's containment, Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash!"
Clint turned to Tony. "Want to give me a lift?"
"Right, better clench up, Legolas." Tony grabbed Clint and they shot up into the sky while Steve continued to give the rest of us instructions.
"Thor," Steve went on "You gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up."
Thor smiled, the strength of his swinging hammer propelling him towards the tallest building. Steve rounded on Natasha and me, his determination flooding onto us.
"Us three, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk," the Hulk grunted in reply. "Smash."
The Hulk grinned and jumped away to continue his path of destruction.
I rubbed the back of hand across my forehead, brushing strands of hair away, only to catch Steve's vigilant stare. Whatever worries he possessed were dismissed by a curt shake of my head. I moved into a battle stance, Bowie knife posed and waiting to spill further Chitauri blood. However, movement to the left caught my attention. A flash of white lingered in the blown-out window of a building, more scared faces appearing.
"Steve! There are people trapped!" I called out to him, shoving my bowie knife into its sheath and sprinted towards the building, ignoring his shouts.
I jumped over broken concrete, like a hurdle athlete, maneuvering around abandoned cars and small fires to enter the building that turned out to be a café. Dishes and food lingered on tables, handbags and lost shoes littered the floor amongst broken glass.
"Gin! Answer me dammit!"
"Not now," I muttered carefully placing one combat boot in front of the other, scanning every inch of the place for the people I'd seen.
"You should've let Natasha go –"
"As usual, I think you're forgetting who you're talking to." I entered the kitchen, discovering it empty. "Besides, technically, I outrank you."
"That's comforting."
I smirked at his sarcasm, jogging up the narrow staircase to the second level. A small flat held ten people, most of them cowering in a corner while the battle raged outside. "Steve, I've got a group of ten civilians, I'm going to help them get out."
"Do you need help?"
"No, they look okay, apart from being terrified." I moved towards them, a middle-aged man rose from the group wearing chef whites – I'd seen him peering out the window. "My name is Gin, I'm here to help."
"Mario," the chef shook my hand. "What's going on out there?"
"Nothing good. Is there a back entrance?"
"There's a side entrance in the kitchen that leads into an alleyway, we park the delivery van there."
"Good, I want you to all follow me downstairs," I pulled the chef to one side whilst the people got up. "I need you to get everyone out of Manhattan in your van as quickly as possible."
"Who are you?" He asked.
"A friend." I motioned for the group to follow me back down the stairs. "Okay, everyone, stay close together and keep quiet."
Stepping off the staircase the café remained abandoned. The group and I headed into the kitchen, pausing only when the entire building rumbled. The cry of a child caught my attention, a young girl clinging to her whimpering mother as I hastily opened the back door into the alleyway. Mario moved pass me, sliding the van door open and climbing into the driver's seat while I ushered the group inside.
"Just stay down and together and you'll be okay."
"Thank you," the whimpering mother managed a feeble smile.
"I'm just doing my job." I slid the van door close, nodding to Mario. "Good luck."
He drove towards the end of the alleyway before cautiously pulling out into the opposite street. I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping they would find a safe way out of the city.
"Steve, the civilians got away." Receiving no reply, I raised a finger to my earpiece. "Steve? Are you there?" ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach I jogged out of the alleyway, discovering the street bare of human life. "Barton? Natasha? It's Renard, does anyone copy?"
"Go for Barton."
"Where is everyone?"
"Last I knew, Stark and Thor were taking down a squadron, and Nat was riding one of those alien crafts."
"That's my girl."
I headed into the middle of the street, looking up and down. I needed to see a flash of Steve's uniform, to have the relief flood me in knowing he was safe, yet all I saw were Chitauri soldiers scaling down the buildings. Glass and debris falling superficially from the heavens as their colossal monsters weaved through the metropolitan skyline. Rapidly the time for worrying about my friends passed as the Chitauri circled like snarks smelling blood. I noticed an alien weapon lying nearby, some sort of spear with a power source, I didn't hesitate to pick it up, walking towards the Chitauri, determined in my defiance.
-x-
"Gin!"
Looking up from the grisly remains scattered around me, Steve stood nearby, working alongside Thor as they finished fighting their own assortment of Chitauri. The bulky alien weapon slipped from my grasp as I ran towards him as the last monster fell.
"Steve!" I threw myself at him, his strong arms circling my waist to keep us grounded. "When you didn't answer…" I trailed off blinking through salty tears.
"I'm okay." He forced us to break apart, raising a hand to wipe away the damp blood tickling down the side of my face. "You've torn your stitches."
"You've torn your new suit!" I smiled.
"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." Natasha's voice came through our comms. We automatically turned towards Stark Tower standing high in the distance, the blinding neon light blistering into the portal.
Steve pressed a finger to his ear. "Do it!"
"No wait!" Tony's voice came through in a rapid breath.
"Stark, these things are still coming!"
"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute and I know just where to put it."
"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." As Steve spoke his gaze found mine, somber and honest to the point I couldn't bear it and hastily looked away.
I'd seen my fair share of death and experienced a soul crushing grief that never truly healed, but to be confronted with the prospect of losing the man I considered a son, was beyond comprehension. I lightly shook my head, stomach painfully churning as I stared hopelessly at Stark Tower.
"Tony," I pressed a finger to my earpiece, stepping away from Steve. "It's Gin, listen to me, you don't have to do this, we'll find another way."
"I gotta try."
"No, you don't! I promised your parents I would protect you…I almost lost you once before, I can't go through that again!" My vision blurred the longer Chitauri soldiers and their crafts sail through the portal, seemingly never-ending and unbeatable against our small group of specialized individuals. "You can't sacrifice yourself –"
"You've done it all my life, old girl. Let me take care of you for once."
A breath caught in my throat as Iron Man flew up the side of Stark Tower and sped up into the portal, disappearing into the darkness. "TONY!" The terrified scream ripped from my lips.
Steve came up beside me, eyes staring at the sky as one by one the Chitauri monsters unexpectedly plummeted like useless pieces of scrap metal.
"Close it." Steve ordered.
"NO!" I yelled shoving him away.
Thor reached for my hand as it rose in violent gesture, effortlessly holding me back against his chest when a violent explosion, bright as the sun erupted through the closing portal.
"No…" I vainly fought within Thor's grasp, the grief gnawing at my deteriorating resolve.
"Sonofagun."
My head instantly snapped up, Thor's grasp of my arm releasing as we watched something shiny and small fall from the portal seconds before it closed. "It's Tony! Someone do something!"
"He's not slowing down." Thor swung Mjolnir as Tony descended at an alarming speed.
Panicked, I reached for Steve's arm, clinging tightly when a blur of green leaped into view, catching Tony in an almighty protective swoop. High-rise buildings assisted the Hulk in slowing down enough to land atop of an abandoned cab, Tony's lifeless body thrown like a rag doll at my feet.
"TONY!" I dropped to my knees beside him, Thor ripping off the scratched metal mask exposing my godsons face.
"Is he breathing?" Steve asked crouching beside me.
I leaned over him, listening to a belated breath pass his lips. "Yes, it's faint but he's alive." I smiled down at Tony's calm features. "Come on, kid, wake up for me."
Gently shaking Tony's shoulders, I jumped at the Hulk's abrupt roar. Tony's eyes snapped open, wildly staring around as I kept him safely pinned to the ground.
"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?"
"We won." Steve sighed gratefully, a small smile forming.
"Alright! Hey, alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I wanna try it."
I laughed despite the tears rolling down my face, the stress of the battle, all the fear and anger fading away as I helped Tony sit up, throwing my arms around him to hold him snugly against me. Despite the odds being against us, we'd somehow pulled together as team and won.