Natasha dodged Clint's next strike easily. She grabbed his arm, the one that had the knife clenched tightly in its hand and threw it away.
Clint let out a small groan and threw the knife into his free hand.
Natasha managed to grab that hand too, but Clint lifted her up against the wall slamming her into it and knocking her breath out of her.
Clint grabbed Natasha's hair and pulled, trying to expose her neck to his knife.
Natasha gritted her teeth and sank them into Clint's arm.
He let go of her, trying to force her down onto the ground. Natasha spun before he could, throwing her friend into the railing next to them.
Clint's head slammed into it as he fell. He let out a small groan of pain and slowly looked up at her.
"Natasha?"
Natasha didn't wait for him to attack her again. She sent her fist flying towards his face knocking him to the ground.
That had gone. . . well.
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Percy glared at Loki as he came closer. The god just looked very amused as his gaze headed over to where Jason and Annabeth were standing nearby.
"Miss. Chase, Mr. Grace, how lovely to see you both again."
"You little. . ." Jason started.
"Jason," hissed Annabeth as she tugged him back, away from Loki.
Loki just laughed and turned to face Percy again. "Now then, Agent Jackson. . ."
"You're going to lose."
Percy's gaze darted towards Agent Coulson, whose injury he was still putting pressure on to prevent any more bleeding than there already was. "Agent Coulson. . ."
"Am I?" Loki interrupted him, casually, feeling very amused from what Percy could sense.
"It's in your nature." Agent Coulson responded quietly, hand slowly reaching up to clench around Percy's own where it was pressed against his chest. Percy then felt him reach for the weapons trigger in preparation.
Percy nodded to him and continued to put pressure on the injury.
"Your heroes are scattered," Loki mocked. "Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"
"You lack conviction."
"I don't think I –" Loki started just as Coulson pressed the trigger.
A blast, like the footage Percy had seen of the Destroyer sent Loki flying through a wall.
"So that's what it does." Coulson remarked to Percy faintly.
Percy just smiled tremulously and continued to hold the wound closed.
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Steve grimaced as he nearly lost a hold of the cord that he was using to pull himself back towards the helicarrier. That was nearly bad. He continued to tug himself forward, not letting himself look towards the ground.
Over the comms, Stark called out suddenly. "Cap hit the lever!"
"I need a minute here!" Steve called back in frustration.
"Lever! Now!" Stark squawked.
Steve finally managed to haul himself up onto the catwalk. The remaining gunman continued to fire at him, as he staggered towards the lever, dodging the bullets while he went.
He grabbed the lever and tugged it to down, barely avoiding the bullets from the gunman.
Steve grimaced as the gunman continued to fire, preparing to throw himself back towards him and continue the fight they had started.
At that moment, Stark flew in, slamming the gunman to the ground hard.
Steve got to his feet as Stark rolled over onto his back and laid on the deck for a moment.
"You good, Stark?"
". . . Give me a minute."
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Percy looked up grimly as Fury arrived with quite a few of the other agents. The Director looked about as grim and worried as Percy felt, hovering over Coulson, and desperately trying to keep the other man alive.
"Sir," Percy said, "it's not looking good."
Fury knelt by them and picked up the gun in Coulson's lap, moving it away and pressing his hands over top Percy's own. He looked worried and tense, his one eye flashing with worry.
"I'm sorry boss, they got rabbited," Coulson croaked out quietly.
"Just stay awake." Fury ordered, before he grabbed Coulson's chin, forcing the other man to look him in the eye. "Eyes on me."
"Oh, I'm clockin' out here." Coulson said distantly.
"No," Percy hissed angrily. He couldn't allow Coulson to die. The man had so much to live for. The cellist that Coulson had told him about on Tesseract detail. Tears clung to Percy's eyes in anger.
"Not an option." Fury snapped out.
"It's okay, boss." Coulson murmured. "This was never gonna work – if they didn't have something – to –"
His voice cut out along with his breathing. Percy recoiled as he felt the warmth that had been Coulson's mind suddenly disappear. Fury stepped back, tugging Percy with him as the medical team slipped past them heading for Coulson. Fury leaned against the railing, arm around Percy's shoulders tightly.
Fury raised a shaky hand to his ear as one of the medics turned to face them and shook his head. "Agent Coulson is down."
"A medical team is on its way to your location," someone responded.
Fury shook his head and squeezed Percy's shoulder once before stepped away from him, walking away. Percy stared after him distantly before he walked over to where Annabeth and Jason had stood in the shadow of the doorway the entire time.
"They're here," Fury responded to the other agent. "They called it."
Percy lowered his head to Jason's shoulder, allowing his former friend to lay a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, Percy," Annabeth whispered to him.
Percy shook his head and pulled himself together. He raised a shaky hand to his comm. "Nat?"
"I'm here," Natasha responded. "Medical room #6. I'll meet you there."
"Okay," Percy croaked out, gesturing Jason and Annabeth to follow him with shaky hands.
This was the first death that Percy had personally witnessed with his new abilities. He didn't think he would ever get over it.
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Steve sat numbly at the conference table on the bridge with Stark. Banner and Thor were both gone. Agent Jackson and Agent Romanoff were down in medical with another agent they had managed to rescue from Loki's control. And Loki had escaped.
And Agent Coulson was dead.
Fury was standing in front of the conference table, hands reaching into his pocket and pulling out. . . cards.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury explained quietly, before he tossed them onto the table. Steve stared down at the Captain America trading cards blankly. "Guess he never did get you to sign them."
Steve lowered his head in mourning.
"We're dead in the air up here," Fury continued. "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming."
Fury began to make his way closer to both Steve and Stark. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative."
Steve's eyes darted towards Stark at those words. Howard's son shifted slightly in seat, still not looking at either of them. Fury reached the chair in between them.
"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."
Stark jumped to his feet and stalked out at that word. Steve watched him go, blankly.
"Well," Fury added, "it's an old-fashioned notion."
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Percy sat against the side of Clint's hospital bed. The other agent was strapped tightly to it. Natasha sat on his other side. Clint was straining against his bonds, breathing hard and shaking his head. Percy ignored how tense Annabeth and Jason were near the door as they stared directly at Clint nervously.
"Clint, you're gonna be alright." Natasha murmured softly.
"You know that?" Clint said, leaning back against the bed shakily. "Is that what you know? I gotta go in though. I have to flush him out."
"You gotta level out, it's gonna take time," Natasha added, looking at Percy from over Clint's bed.
"You don't understand," Clint gritted out in frustration. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? You know what it's like to be unmade?"
"You know that I do." Natasha breathed out.
"Why am I back?" Clint asked, glancing in between them. "How did you get him out?"
"Cognitive recalibration." Natasha smiled faintly as she crossed over to the sink to get him a glass of water as Percy undid the restraints tying Clint to the bed. "I hit you really hard in the head."
"Although, to be fair," Percy added. "I probably could have kicked him out sooner if I had gotten close to you. Loki's many things, but even he couldn't keep me out of his mind."
"Thanks," Clint said, excepting the glass. He glanced in between the two of them. "How many agents?"
"Don't." Natasha snapped as Percy shot him a look. "Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing the three of us were ever trained for."
Percy smiled silently at that in amusement. He had originally been trained to fight monsters and magic after all.
"Loki," Clint realized. "He got away?"
"Yeah," Percy said, standing up and stalking over to the door, crossing his arms angrily. "I don't suppose you know where?"
"Didn't need to know, kid." Clint admitted. "Didn't ask. He's gonna make his play soon though. Today."
Natasha grimaced and crossed over to Percy, setting her hand on his shoulder. "We gotta stop him."
"Yeah?" Clint asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who's we?"
"I don't know," Natasha admitted. "Whoever is left."
"Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better I suppose." Clint admitted.
"So would I," Percy grumbled.
"Now you sound like you," Natasha smiled faintly as she tugged Percy back to the bed and pushed him to sit down next to Clint.
"But you don't, Nat." Clint responded, wrapping an arm around Percy's shoulder. "You're a spy, Nat, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"
"He didn't, I just –" Natasha started, before she turned away from them.
"Natasha," breathed Clint softly, reaching a hand out to grab hers.
"I've been compromised." Natasha admitted. "I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out."
Percy blinked at that before nodding in agreement. "Ditto. Loki tried to get me to join him, tried to get me to kill. I won't let him get away with it."
He barely noticed Annabeth and Jason's alarmed looks.