A/N: if anyone has ideas for Maddi's superhero name, please let me know!
May 4, 2012
The technology in what Tony gave me was far beyond anything I could understand. All I knew is that I was having a much easier time controlling the flight than I expected. However, that was definitely because I wasn't the one doing the work. "Maddi, I'm turning off my own controls on your suit and turning on yours," Tony's voice spoke in my earpiece as he flew in his own suit next to me.
"Wait, no no no, I don't think I can do this myself."
"Trust me, you'll be okay. And you won't be alone either," he replied. Soon the eyewear he gave me activated and began to analyze my surroundings. Before they were turned on completely, they were clear with red rims to still be able to see my eyes. Tony said he made them with the feature to go dark for easier use of the features he put in them, or remain clear so people could still see my eyes. He said it made me look less intimidating, but that he recommended the darker shades because I needed that intimidation factor for our fight.
"Hello Maddi, my name is ANASTASIA. Tony created me to help you navigate your time in your superhero clothes. I have current control of your flight and I can activate anything you need when you need it, just as JARVIS does for Tony." I heard a female voice in my ear and let out a laugh.
"Okay ANASTASIA, thank you. Now if I know Tony, and I do, I'm guessing that your name was chosen for a reason?"
"You would be correct. We both know Tony loves his nicknames and acronyms. My name stands for After Never Agreeing, She Took A Suit I Assembled!" I rolled my eyes at her answer and then spoke to Tony.
"Well Tony, I'm not sure how many creativity points you get for this one."
"Come on, it just goes to show that I knew you would one day be flying next to me in something I made," he responded.
"The only reason I've agreed is because we're flying to a potential army of aliens in New York." I just heard him laugh instead of answer and I shook my head. "ANASTASIA, can I call you ANA? I think a little defiance against Tony's smugness is called for in this case. Also, can you set my eyewear to transparent when talking directly with people and shaded when fighting? I think that'll make it easier to help any bystanders without scaring them more."
"Of course, I think that would be a perfect shortening of my name. And don't worry Maddi, it'll look like you're simply wearing glasses when interacting with the public." As we made it to the city, Tony and I stopped and turned towards each other.
"I'll fly over to the tower, you find the jet with the rest of the team. You need to practice a bit more over your controls so that you're ready for a fight if we need one." I nodded in agreement and we flew off in different directions. I eventually was able to find the jet with Steve on it and then flew next them as it made its way to Manhattan. I was able to get better acquainted with the range and limitations of the gloves, boots, and enhanced eyeglasses. Tony had done a good job making them easy to understand and use. By the time we arrived, there was already an open portal in the sky that was raining in a mass of alien ships. We informed Tony of our arrival and began to fight with what we could. I flew towards him to help with blasting at the aliens on his tail while our jet went towards the tower to find Loki.
Eventually I made my way back into the eyesight of the jet as I saw it falling to the ground and crash land on the road. I quickly redirected my flying straight down towards them to make sure they were alright while also dodging and taking down whatever I could on my way. The insane amount of chaos happening around me was so intense that my only method of preventing a complete breakdown was to ignore all of my feelings besides getting to Steve and making sure he was okay. I landed on the ground and ran up to find Steve running out of the jet and towards Stark tower to look up at the portal. "Steve!" I yelled at him to get his attention.
"Maddi," he said with slight relief in his tone as he grabbed onto my hand for a brief second. "We're matching." He gave me a smile as he finally saw the colors of my clothing.
"Indeed we are!" I let out a laugh. "Red gloves, red boots, blue suit." I waved my hands around as I spoke to point out our similarities.
"You look great," he said sincerely.
"I feel ridiculous," I told him honestly. I felt like I was taken right out of a cartoon. The look just wasn't what I ever imagined wearing, but I also never imagined being a superhero.
"Join the club," he chuckled. It brought me back to the very first time he ever wore his suit in 1943, and I smiled. "If Tony wanted your theme to be red, he really should have planned an entire suit for you so you wouldn't have had to use extra SHIELD attire."
"Tell me about it," I let out one final small smile before I turned my attention back to the current issue. "What do we do, Steve?" I asked as I looked around, truly taking in the destruction.
"We gotta get back up there," he replied. We ran with Natasha and who I assumed was the agent previously under Loki's control, Clint Barton, to get a bit closer to the portal and get a better look. As we looked up, we heard an actual roar before a giant monster emerged from the portal. With all the other smaller flying devices carrying the Chitauri, the monster almost floated as it soared through the sky and down past us. It all appeared to be metal and more creatures jumped from it as we all stood with our mouths open in fear and disbelief. "Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked.
"Seeing, still working on believing," he replied to us and I felt the same way. "Where's Banner, has he shown up yet?"
"Banner?" Steve questioned.
"Just keep me posted," Tony said.
We began to fight with the aliens that had made its way to the ground, but Steve noticed that the lower street level had a lot of civilians that were in danger. "They're fish in a barrel down there," he said with worry.
"We got this. It's good, go," Natasha told him as her and Clint continued to shoot at the surrounding aliens that got close to our cover.
"Do you think you can hold them off?" Steve asked.
"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure," Clint replied. The two of us nodded and as I flew up over to get an analysis of all the pedestrians in trouble.
"ANA, give me the most efficient route to getting these people to a safer place, please." I told her and she began to show me the best way to gather the people I could through my lenses and I followed the instructions.
As I got the people in the nearby street into areas leading underground, I hoped they would remain safer by evacuating that way. I soon went back into fighting the creatures as it became impossible to help the people around without doing so. I soon ended up back with Steve and the others as Thor also ended up fighting down with us. Soon we were able to wipe out the ones near us to buy enough time to make a plan. Thor told us the cube was impossible to shut down, and we knew that the fighting wasn't going to be as easy as closing the portal. Soon we heard a motorcycle approach and we turned to see Bruce pull up. He greeted us and I smiled.
"It's good to see you," I told him.
"Looks like we'll be fighting together in this," he told me and I nodded. A fight was not what either of us ever wanted.
"Stark, we got him," Steve said.
"Banner?" Tony asked. "Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Soon after his statement, he came flying around the corner with the giant monster behind him and many other aliens on his tail.
"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha commented.
"Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry," Steve told him.
"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." He turned towards the monster and just in time for it to come close enough, Bruce turned into the Hulk and smashed it with its own momentum. Its armor began to fall apart and Tony was able to send a blast at his angle in the air at its actual flesh. The rest of us on the ground ducked and took cover to try and stay protected from the flying debris. The monster exploded and fell beneath the bridge we stood on. With the largest threat out of the way, we were able to get a better look at what was still left over. Tony lowered himself to the ground next to me and we stood facing outward in all directions to see that our fight wasn't even close to being done.
"Guys," we heard Natasha warn and we all looked at her and then towards her line of vision. We saw the portal begin to let through many more creatures, including multiple of the enormous monsters that we had a hard time taking down just one before.
"Call it, Captain," Tony told Steve to set a plan of action.
"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority's containment," Steve began to take charge and quickly decide the best way to approach the problem. His strong leadership abilities were able to shine. "Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark and Maddi, you two got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash." I nodded quickly and took off up to the sky after Clint got a ride from Tony.
"Alright ANA, keep an eye on the edge of Manhattan in case I miss anything," I said as I began to lock in on the aliens in the outer buildings of the fight.
"I'll be sure to let you know if anything goes too far out," she responded. I began to use the features in my eyewear to zone in on the different Chitauri close enough to attack. I got better at following my aim when using the blasts from the palms of my hands. The flying also became easier to control as I weaved my way through the streets of New York.
"Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there," I heard Clint say through my ear-com after some time of fighting what I could on my own.
"I'm on it," Steve replied.
"I'll meet you there Steve," I said to them as I figured he could use some help there.
When I met him there, we discovered three of the Chitauri pointing their guns on the people below them. One held a device that started to signal almost a countdown and we both knew that was something we needed to get a hold of and away from the civilians. Steve hit that alien in the face with his shield and the device went flying. The other two turned towards us to start shooting and I sent a blast their way from both of my palms. Steve and I managed to take down one of them after the block of their attack.
"Everyone, clear out!" Steve shouted at the people on the lower level of the bank. He immediately was grabbed from behind by another of the aliens as I searched the ground for the device that was still beeping. Just before being able to pick it up, I was hit hard by the alien I had first lost track of. I went flying down where the people in the bank stood and I was able to use the energy in my hands facing down to soften the fall as I landed on my back. Before I could get up, the blast from the device went off as it hit Steve's shield and a blinding light went off in the bank. I put my arms up to protect my face as everyone else in the bank ducked from the explosion. I soon stood up after and began to direct the people as safely as possible out of the building. When I made it out myself, I found Steve without his mask standing in the street. He was looking around in slight horror as he had blood and dirt covering him. I approached him as he watched the civilians make their way out of the bank.
"Hey," I said gently as I put my hand on his face to get his attention. "Steve look at me, are you alright?" He made eye contact with me and I saw sadness all over his face. He nodded slightly and I rubbed my thumb slightly on his cheek to give him some sort of comfort.
He put his hand on top of my own and asked "And you? Are you okay to go back and fight with me?"
"If you are, of course. I'd follow you anywhere Steve, don't forget: where you go, I go." He gave me a genuine smile at my words. No matter our issues and no matter how long it had been, I wasn't going to leave his side. After all, I would have never joined SHIELD to help fight if Steve hadn't been the one I was following into battle. After this check on each other's well being, we went right back to fighting the Chitauri on the nearby streets. I trusted Tony had the perimeter covered because I felt it was best to stay with Steve. We were soon joined by Thor and had a good rhythm of using the shield, hammer, and blasts from my palms to attack the surrounding aliens.
At one point, Steve was hit hard on his abdomen, and Thor and I had to wipe out the aliens nearby before helping him. He was slowly getting himself up when we were able to make it to him.
"Are you ready for another bout?" Thor asked as he helped Steve up.
"What, you getting sleepy?" Steve asked. He had his hand over his left side and there was blood around the torn suit. Thor called his hammer back ready to fight again. I worried for Steve, he healed faster than normal, but still not anywhere near as fast as myself. He could easily hit his limit of injury and not be able to come back from it.
"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down," Natasha said suddenly through our ear-coms.
"Do it!" Steve replied as I looked up at the portal from where we stood.
"No wait!" We heard Tony exclaim.
"Stark, these things are still coming," Steve told him.
"I got a nuke coming in. It's going to blow in less than a minute, and I know just where to put it," he responded and I froze in fear. Steve looked at me with worried eyes as well.
"Stark, you know that's a one way trip?" Steve warned him with concern.
"Tony don't you dare," I tried to say but he cut me off.
"Maddi I have to and you know it," he said. I looked around the sky of the city and tried to locate him. Just before I had him in my sight, he spoke once more. "Steve, keep her down there and keep her safe. I'm sorry Maddi, I love you." His feed cut off as I assumed he had JARVIS turn off communication to the rest of us. I immediately pointed my palms to the ground as I tried to lift off and follow him, but Steve caught my arm before I could fly up.
"No!" I shouted as I saw Tony get closer to the portal and I was pulled back towards Steve. "No, Steve. I have to go up there, I have to help him. I'll survive the trip, he won't!" Steve wrapped his arms around me in an attempt to comfort me.
"You don't know that Maddi, there's no time, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I gave into his embrace as I knew there was nothing I could do. I just had to hope he would somehow come back to us. I kept my eyes on him all the way until he went through the portal. Within seconds, the Chitauri around us fell to the ground, their life must have been controlled by their main ship. Tony had done it, the nuclear bomb went off. We waited for him to come back down, but nothing happened. It was clear that the blast from the bomb was getting too close to the portal, we couldn't keep it open any longer without its effects reaching Earth.
"Close it," Steve said defeat and I sobbed into his shoulder. The only thing I could feel was pain all over my body. I couldn't lose Tony, I just couldn't do it. Steve's arms tightened around me. I didn't watch as the portal closed, and a few seconds later, Steve spoke up again. "Son of a gun," he said. "Maddi look." He let go of me so I could look up at the sky. There was Tony flying down after the portal had closed. I smiled wide and felt more tears but that of happiness this time.
"He's not slowing down," Thor said as he began to swing his hammer. I frowned as I realized he was right. I stepped away from Steve so I could lift off into the air as well to help. I got only a few feet up when I saw the Hulk caught him in the air and came crashing down with him protected in his arms. I changed direction and went towards them. Thor got to Tony first and turned facing up.
"Is he breathing?" Steve asked as we got closer. Thor took off Tony's helmet and we saw him lying still with his eyes closed. Steve put his ear up to his nose to feel for a breath and then leaned back without a word. I looked frantically between Tony and Steve.
"Well?" I asked impatiently. He had to be okay, I got on my knees to check him myself when Hulk roared at Tony. That caused him to wake with a jump as his eyes darted around trying to figure out where he was and what had happened.
"What the hell?" He exclaimed and I sighed with a smile. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." I lunged myself at him and embraced him in a hug.
"We thought you were gone," I said with more tears surfacing.
"You should know by now that getting rid of me isn't that easy." I laughed as I sat back up and looked at him again.
"We won," Steve told him as he glanced around at the way New York ended up.
Tony sighed and closed his eyes in response. "Alright, yay!" he said. "Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma?" Steve and I smiled at him and then at each other. "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."
"We're not finished yet," Thor reminded him that we still had Loki to collect at the tower.
"And then shawarma after," Tony conceded.
After we found Loki in the tower, and SHIELD collected the scepter, we indulged Tony in his desire to eat shawarma for lunch. Before sending Thor and Loki off to Asgard with the cube, we decided to get cleaned up and to reconvene at Central Park for the send off. Steve's apartment and my apartment were just barely outside of the worst damage in New York, so our stuff was left unharmed. I met Steve at his place before we were going to head to Central Park together.
"Wanna take the bike?" Steve asked me with a mischievous smile. He had started to receive his back pay from the military a month before and used part of it to buy himself a new motorcycle. I had yet to ride with him on it because I was honestly a little scared of it. But considering I just spent the entire morning fighting aliens while flying through the streets of New York, I realized I didn't have much of the bike to be scared of anymore.
"Alright, why not," I told him and he smiled wider. We arrived soon after and eventually the rest of the team made its way to the park location as well. We watched as Eric Selvig, Bruce, and Thor got the Tesseract in place for them to use as a portal back to their home. We said our goodbyes to Thor and they were soon off our planet in the blink of an eye. The magic behind their world still blew my mind. We then began to say our goodbyes to each other.
"So you'll come by the tower now that you know I'm here?" Tony asked and I nodded.
"Of course, once you have it fixed up, we can have a dinner with you, Pepper, Steve and I?" I asked him.
"Eh, a whole dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Greatest Generation? I might have to pass," he responded.
"Really Tony?" I asked him with an eye roll and a smile.
"I'm kidding! I promise, I'm kidding! A dinner with us four sounds lovely." I nodded with a smug look knowing he was joking. Our common ground fighting had some positive outcomes of bringing us together.
"Greatest Generation?" Steve questioned with a confused look.
"Don't take it as a complement, he's mocking us by using the term dubbed to people born in our time. I'll explain it better later," I gave him a rub on his arm as I replied. Steve just chuckled and agreed, there was always something that needed explaining when it came to references he missed. Him and Tony shook hands as a final goodbye, I had high hopes that their relationship could grow into something nice in the future. They were easily the two most important people in my life and I wanted them to be friends. After our final goodbyes, we got back on Steve's motorcycle and began to drive away. I had my hands wrapped around his torso and my head resting on his back as I smiled to myself. We had managed to all come out of this fight, and I was incredibly grateful for it. I looked forward to spending time with Steve and pushed aside any fears I had of how these events made me into an even more public figure than my persona of Jennifer O'Neill. Tony had told me he would help me deal with the press when it became necessary. In the meantime, I tried not to think about how much my life was going to change from all of this and just enjoyed how safe I felt holding on to Steve.
A/N: So I made a tumblr for this story! I actually did it specifically for the intent of showing you guys what I imagined Maddi's suit would look like, but I was able to add some other things too. I'll keep using it and telling you when I add cool things there for you to see. For now, I would really like you to go look at the suit I designed. It's a mediocre design, I'm not a fashion or super suit designer, but it's a good depiction of what I had in mind. The link is in my bio!
If for some reason the link doesn't work, please search for me! You can find me under creationcitystreet-em and the blog is for His Southern Belle, it's my only blog. It's really important to me that you all get to see the suit design! Follow me there because I plan to keep using it for this story until the end!
I just also want to say that having the exact dates is super hard to keep track of. I'm sorry if I mess any of that up. To me, it doesn't make much sense for Thor and Loki to wait a day to leave Earth, but they were all cleaned up and had new clothes. So this is just how it'll be, I didn't know how to write it any other way. I'm going to pretend that the montage of news clips comes after their goodbye scene, because I do have plans of how that will incorporate into Maddi's story, but I want wrap up this specific movie first.
Anyway, please comment and let me know your thoughts, I really miss reading and interacting with you guys! I would love to know what you think about the suit or other posts I've made on the tumblr blog, you can just leave a note there if you'd like or send me a comment/message here! Thanks for still reading and following my story!