Hello everyone! Here is the next to last chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Carrie White, the Avengers, or any other MCU character.

Chapter 11: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

It was the sound of shattering glass and something heavy flying over her head that woke Carrie up again.

"Close the portal Loki!"

There was a half-deranged laughter in response. "There's no stopping it now brother! Let's see if Mjölnir can stand against this!"

Angry buzzing punctured with the odd sound of a... bell? What was making that sound? It was lovely and clear – musical.

"Carrie? Kid! C'mon Sleeping Beauty, wake up."

Someone was undoing the straps keeping her tied down. Carrie opened her eyes – her vision was bleary, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep. Tony was staring down at her.

"Tony?" She muttered hoarsely, as the last strap was unbuckled. "Who ar-?"

"Don't make this worst by reminding me you can't even name one of the first Disney Princesses."

Disney princesses? Tony mentioned something about that on the Helicarrier. The older man was pulling at her arm, so she sat up, wincing at the ache in her head.

"Everything is foggy." She put her hands to her aching throat, speaking hurt a little. "Loki wouldn't let me stay awake. W-where are we?"

"Stark Tower." Tony scowled. "That diva wanted to use my tower for his opening night."

Despite the situation, Carrie couldn't help but smile a bit at his tone. He just sounded so offended that someone would dare try to upstage him with his own tower.

"Sir. Preparations are ready and the Chitauri are coming through."

"Excellent. Carrie, you stay here. Jarvis, look after her."

"Of course, Sir."

He suited up; the new armor launched as a pod that focused on the bracelets around his wrists. Once it wrapped itself around him, the billionaire was off.

"Ms. White, I suggest you step back from the windows. You are still disoriented."

Carrie obeyed, and leaned against the legs of a piano set to the back of the room. She breathed in and out, feeling the Tesseract's excess power whooshing down past her from the portal. Remembering how the Scepter had helped clear her mind, Carrie let herself shut everything else out and focused solely on the excess energy the portal emanated. It seemed to smooth away the mild throbbing of her head, clear her focus. It wasn't doing anything for her throat or the painful bruising on it and her collarbone, but Carrie could cope.

Then one of the windows shattered and her eyes flew open.

There was. . . someone (something?) standing in the pen house and looking right at her.

It was reptilian, but with a humanoid body that had mostly been replaced with machinery. She could see the little lights and glints of metal in how the armor connected.

"The first of the Chitauri got past Mr. Stark, I'm afraid." JARVIS said coolly. "Please be prepared to defend yourself Ms. White, I will assist. The remaining Avengers are in the city below."

She got to her feet, mind reaching for the Power as the Chitauri screeched and ran for her, hand outstretched with intent.

There was a familiar sound behind her and suddenly an Iron Man suit soared from the right and shot the Chitauri in the face, ruining half of it. She grimaced as the exposed eyeball swiveled around in its socket, grey liquid dribbling from the gaping hole with shredded brain matter.

The Iron Man suit grabbed the ruined head and an arm, before pulling violently and ripping the offender apart.

Carrie swallowed hard as the Iron Man suit that had stood behind her, stepped up. She didn't feel anyone in those suits.

"I am in control of these suits, Ms. White, there is nothing to fear." JARVIS reassured. "Please keep your attention on our uninvited guests."

Multiple Chitauri started coming into the penthouse, smashing the glass and upturning furniture. Carrie heard thunder boom outside, despite the day being sunny and clear.

Carrie grabbed a hold of her Power and twisted.

The two Chitauri coming at her crashed into her each other, as if someone had clapped their hands together and trapped them in between. Carrie didn't waste a moment and shoved both out the window. JAVRIS used the Iron Men to dismantle the attackers with precise lethalness.

This went on for a few minutes – many, many Chitauri invaded the penthouse, focus solely trained on her, and were ripped apart for their trouble. At one point, Carrie mentally scooped up a handful of them and smashed the aliens into the floor hard enough that multiple somethings audibly cracked. She had quickly decided against throwing them out the window again when she realized they could hit people below – but the bodies were starting to pile up. Carrie hoped she hadn't inadvertently hurt anyone earlier.

JARVIS noticed the pile up too – one of the suits grabbed her and the three of them escaped out the broken windows before they could be trapped. Carrie watched in horror at the amount of destruction to the city. In this brief moment of calm, she could feel the minds of people fading, abruptly disappearing, and stuttering to a halt. In the brief moment of calm when she wasn't fighting for her life, Carrie could feel the deaths of thousands.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled, as JARVIS piloted the suit away from Stark Tower. Chiaturi were following them. How could she best help?

Carrie could see the everyone who was slanted for the Avengers Initiative – including Hawkeye(?) – were fighting off the Chitauri and keeping the army from advancing. The city's cops seemed to be helping as much as they could, focusing on people caught in the crossfire.

If she had kept the portal closed against Loki, she could do the same here. Director Fury had all but outright said it to her face that she was their ace in case the portal opened. Carrie was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep it closed though. The Tesseract, while amiable to her request, would need to be disconnected from the machine first. Even from where she and JARVIS were fighting off Chitauri, she could see the portal machine surrounding by a flickering dome. That wasn't even getting into the sheer amount of willpower and energy it would take to slam the door on an entire army.

What other option did they have though?

"Ms. White."

She looked up and saw the second Iron Man suit was holding something out to her. A commlink. Deputy Hill had taught her about them, and Carrie hurried to place it in her ear. She fumbled with actually opening the communications but managed in the end.

"Hey kid." Tony

"Tony? Where are -?"

"Currently, I'm trying to lose some stalkers. Just checking on you."

"Fine. I – uh, I'm going to head back to Stark Tower, try to close the portal." Carrie looked back to the Tower. There wasn't as many Chitauri lingering there. They seemed to want to spread out and cause as much destruction as possible. She and JARVIS could keep themselves safe from the ones that would go after them, she was sure. One of the other Avengers could step in, if need be.

"There's a force field around that machine kid."

"I can probably break through it."

". . . Okay, given your track record with these things you probably could. Stay sharp though. Bruce thinks that Loki's boss is interested in you – demanded you be delivered as part of the deal they made."

She just couldn't catch a break, could she?

"Thanks for the warning. . ." The teen then noticed something Very Bad.

Loki. He was on one of the Chitauri floating. . . transport . . . thing(?) and was heading right for them.

"Loki is heading this way. Got to go." Carrie gulped. As she took her hand off the button that would let them hear her, she caught Captain America's voice – something about providing cover.

"I am commencing evasive maneuvers, Ms. White." JARVIS sounded grim. "Please attempt to refrain from becoming ill and continue to engage."

The second suit fired several missiles at Loki – roughly half of them hit him and the others exploded before impact, creating a thick cloud of smoke. They flew.

Carrie did her best to keep the Chitauri off them as JARVIS spun, twisted, and turned in midair. At one point she was thrown to the other suit, so the first could have a turn at attacking Loki. Tony was saying something over the com, but the teen didn't want to spread her attention any more than it already was.

The Chitauri were relentless, and eventually swarmed the first Iron Man suit and ripped it apart. Loki used the Scepter to throw energy blasts at them, but Carrie managed to deflect them at the Chitauri. She risked a moment and pressed the commlink back on.

"Tony! Help, need help!" She yelled. "Someone!"

"I got you." A calm, familiar voice said. Agent Barton. Hawkeye.

They were getting closer to Stark Tower by this point. Carrie looked behind her and saw Loki take a moment to catch an arrow. He looked smug. . . until it started beeping and exploded in his face. The God of Mischief was flung back into the penthouse. Another arrow hit one of the Chitauri and an electrical charge took it out, including the ones unfortunate enough to be too close.

"JARVIS, get me to the portal please."

The Iron Man suit did as she requested. Carrie listened in and found that the Hulk was heading this way. She could see him getting closer and decided to let him do what he was going to do so she could focus on the portal.

Mr. Selvig was nearby, unconscious. The teen asked JARVIS to get him somewhere safe – there was blood on his forehead and right side of his face. He seemed to have hit himself hard and she was worried about a concussion.

"Ms. White, I was given explicit instructions from Mr. Stark not to leave you unattended." JARVIS said, which was more or less a 'no'. Carrie was about to protest but the AI continued before she could say anything. "Mr. Stark ensured that I am up to date on first aid. I can attend to him here and will provide necessary protection. Please proceed."

She wasn't changing his mind. Carrie turned her attention to the machine – she could see the flickering lights of the force field and cautiously pressed her hands to it. The vibration against her palms reminded her of the Scepter, which was now a calm humming in the back of her mind.

Wait. The Scepter was humming. Did that mean. . .

Carrie walked away from the machine and followed her mental compass – there, on the balcony leading into the penthouse, was the Scepter. Loki must have lost his grip on it. The drop wasn't that far so Carrie floated down to grab the Scepter, guilty ignoring JARVIS' protest, and grabbed ahold of it. The Hulk happened to arrive at that exact moment.

She looked up at him, wide eyed in awe and he looked down at her. Carrie offered a smile and a wave after a moment of awkward silence.

"Little girl." The Hulk rumbled. "Where is puny god?"

Carrie blinked.

"Uh. If you mean Loki, I think he's still in the penthouse."

The Hulk seemed pleased. "Hulk pay him back. Little girl take glowing stick and stop puny invaders."

Carrie nodded and floated back up to the roof.

"Ms. White." JARVIS admonished when she arrived. "You must be –"

The roof shook and they both heard the Hulk roaring. It sounded like he was slamming something against something else in the penthouse. Carrie almost felt bad for Loki but was relieved that she didn't have to worry about him too.

JARVIS didn't question it – he could probably see what was happening anyway. Carrie lifted the Scepter in her hands and thought about how to approach this.

She remembered the energy boast it had given her back when stalling the Hulk. If she could bring out the Song again, it could be enough to break the barrier. It could even be enough to fully close the portal instead of holding it shut for a short time.

"Everyone. I'm going to try closing the portal." Carrie warned into the comms as the Hulk jumped onto the roof. It shook a little.

"Copy that. Go ahead Carrie, we need to cut them off." Captain America said.

The teen took a deep breath and opened her mind to the Scepter again, mentally calling out to the Song.

It responded almost eagerly, and Carrie offered up her thoughts and feelings as lyrics; the desire and plea, and prayer to please, please, close this door. Slam it shut on the Chitauri. Save the people that could still be saved.

The Song rose in pitch and it was beautiful and devastating and she channeled all of that into herself and then out again, into the shield and it crumbled into blue ash. Carrie didn't stop and grabbed a hold of the Cube with her bare hand, let herself become a conduit for the Song.

The Cube reacted and Carrie could see, behind her eyelids a vast blackness with distant stars the only natural light. A huge ship floated in the vastness, birthing Chitauri after Chitauri into the emptiness to get through the open door.

She felt it – all of the invaders' minds were linked to something at that ship. It was the heart of a predator's web and if that central pillar collapsed everything else would follow.

Carrie almost absently shut the door and the machine groaned as it cracked and snapped under the Tesseract abruptly refusing to comply. The psychic backlash made it collapse, but the Cube itself rested safely in the palm of her hand. Carrie brought it close to her heart, still watching the Chiaturi she shut off fluttering around like confused bees at an entrance that no longer existed.

The ship needed to go; it would end everything quicker. Without the portal, the distance between the Chitauri stuck on Earth were too distant to maintain a proper connection. Their movements became jerky, their mental state more aggressive. More people would die if they tried to end this the slow way.

"Shit." Tony said into her ear. It didn't break her tranquil calm and Carrie listened with detached interest.

"What is it Stark?" Agent Romanoff.

"The WSC got trigger happy and sent a nuke. Its heading straight for Manhattan. Those bastards couldn't have waited five more minutes, could they?"

There was much cursing. Carrie regarded the dilemma and smiled to herself. This was perfect, like killing two birds with one stone. She would need to time this carefully though. Carrie could have opened a portal right in front of the nuke but it was too far away, if she did so now she'd have to loosen her grip on the Song and she needed it to influence the Cube the way required. Her range while juggling both power sources just wasn't enough.

So, said she the only thing she could. Offered the only solution she could think of with minimal risks.

"Send it to me. I'll take care of it."

Hope you all enjoyed this! Final chapter of the first book is tomorrow!

Sincerely,

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