Corvin snuck into the quinjet. She knew Tony would be pissed as shit about it later, but she needed to be there. Whether or not he agreed with that was on him.
The hard landing the plane took after Loki got a cheap shot rattled her bones and made her curse the man with every word she knew. She had to wait as the others moved out of the craft so she could sneak out and hopefully head to the tower. Creeping out into the open, she saw Stark tower.
In the distance.
The far, far distance.
Shiittttttttt
Tony roared as he blazed through the sky, pulsers firing off one after the other. Targets locked, he let loose a barrage of rockets, downing a large group of Chitauri.
"Loki is down." Thor yelled over the comline. "I hit him over the head hard as you said, he is unconscious."
"Good! Now get your ass back out here."
A loud roar made him look skyward to the portal, just in time to see a large monstrous creature exit it.
"What the absolute fuck is that?" he yelled, looking along the body of the armored monstrosity.
"Stark, are you seeing this?" he heard Rogers ask over the coms.
"Unfortunately, yes. Please someone tell me we accidentally busted into Shield's good drugs and are having a group hallucination?" he snarked.
"If only," he heard a new voice grumble over the line.
"Has Banner shown? Could use a big mean and green right about now."
"Banner?" Rogers asked.
"Just keep me posted." he said before closing his side of the coms. His heart stuttered in his chest as the beast roared, but he dove to it anyway, thinking of what would happen if he left it alone. Knowing he was one of the only things standing between him and thousands of people dying had his heart racing and hands shaking in his suit. He thanked his lucky stars that JARVIS was there to ease his shots, or he'd be hitting wide.
The fight was brutal. Corvin raced through the streets, her little paws scraping through the dust and carrying her over the fallen rubble. She was thankful for her small size, she could easily hide from the Chitauri when they got too close.
She noticed the moment Bruce joined the fight, the shake from the falling Leviathan shook the ground under her, and she was several streets away. Glass shards and concrete fell from the sky like rain, covering the street in a thin layer of debris and coating her red fur until it turned ashy. Dead bodies laid here and there, most were Chitauri, but many were human. Corvin couldn't help but stop at the ones she saw and listen closely for any sort of heartbeat.
She found none so far.
Forcing back tears, Corvin pried herself away from a too-small body and continued to make her way to the tower. She had to get there, needed to get there.
She finally made it to the steps of Stark Tower. A large group of Chitauri surrounded the front in a wide circle formation, their guns firing at the doors. A squadron of Legionar stood in front of the opening, behind barricades of overturned cards, returning fire and sheltering civilians as they ran into the tower.
Corvin was on the wrong side, and knew she'd have to find her way through the wall of Chitauri if she had any hope of reaching the penthouse in time.
Tony banked hard, catching his tails in tight corners and causing them to crash and burn. With every Chitauri death, Tony felt a small pang of satisfaction. These-these fuckers had come to his planet, to his city, to his tower, and planned to level it to the ground. To kill anyone who got in their way and lay claim to a planet that wasn't their own. His blood boiled under his skin and his fighting grew more vicious. But there were too many. He was being overrun.
Shots fired, missiles laughed and heads crushed, but they just kept coming. More and more pouring out of the portal like rain. Tony was trying to not lose hope. He was the last line of defense, he could not fall, could not flatter, they counted on him, needed him, he cannot fail, will not fail, please not fail-
His comms cracked to life.
"Ay Stark," came a thick, accented voice. "It lookz like you could use a hand, yes?"
"What the- JARVIS who is this?" he asked.
"Aye so quick to forget your friendz, eh Stark?. Ah, Americanz." the voice, a man's chuckled. Where had he heard that voice before?
An explosion burst above him and Tony looked up higher into the sky, near the portal where a suit very similar to his flew in, followed by dozens of large, bulky, humanoid drones.
"Motherfucker." Tony cursed.
Laugher roared over the com line as the suit drew closer and landed next to him on the ground where he had landed next to Rogers to lend a hand. The suit's helm raised up and exposed the pilot.
"Vanko?" He screeched in surprise, causing the Russian to laugh yet again.
"Yes, Stark. Thought I'd lend a hand, it lookz like you could use one." he smirked.
"How did you even-?"
"Let us just say, we have a mutual friend from an ah… interesting place, da?" Tony's mind short wired at the man's obvious implication. Licorice. He had left a note with her after she had been kidnapped. Fucking Vanko. She must have told him about being an alien, and the invasion. It rankled him something fierce to know that this murderous bastard knew before he did.
Tony growled but shoved his anger and jealousy aside, there was shit to be done. He jerked his head in the direction of the drones.
"Those piles of scrap of any use?" he snarked.
Vakno's teeth bared in a vicious grin, "Da, oni nayebutsya."
Tony gave a firm nod. "I'll take it. Get them to the portal, start shooting anything that gets through." he pointed to the giant portal above his tower, which was still spewing out Chitauri like a firehose. Vanko gave the affirmative, closing his mask and taking off, commanding the drones to follow and set up a close perimeter around the tower. Tony sent a look to Rogers, who quickly called into comms Vanko's appearance and help. Rocketing off, Tony continued picking off the aliens.
Corvin crept under cars, inching closer to the doors. The smell of plasma fire and spilled oil and gas filled her nose to the point of headache. But she ignored it.
She dashed out from under the car and onto the back of a Chitauri, her claws gouging into its sides before she attacked its neck, sinking her fangs into the putrid flesh. The thing screeched under her and flailed, taloned hands reaching up to try and grasp her and yank her free. It didn't get that far, as the humans she was aiming to protect regained their baring, and one had picked up a fallen piece of metal and used it as a bat to smash into the alien's head.
The Chitauri fell and Corvin leapt from its back, watching in surprise as the group of humans laid into the fallen alien with a viciousness, kicking and beating it until it was a mangled, misshapen blob of flesh upon the ground.
Corvin gave the group an appreciative look before continuing, creeping around the side of the Tower where the fire fight was less intense until she reached the doors. Thankfully, she was able to creep behind the Legionar and avoid being shot at for the most part. She ran to her human's private elevator and pawed at the door until JARVIS let her in.
"Do you think this is wise?" JARVIS's voice rang from the speakers as she began her ascent. Corvin let out a cuff, her head shaking. No, she didn't think this was a good idea at all. But she had to try. The sooner they had Loki on their side, the better.
Going inside the Leviathan was probably not his best idea, but Tony was fresh out of ideas and fucks to give at this point. His armor screamed warnings at him, red flashing across the screen and highlighting the weakening points along his torso and back. He was taking damage badly, his suit was ready to fall apart around him but the battle was still going strong.
Tony groaned loudly as he sat up from where he crashed, looking up at the sky.
Vanko's drones were concentrating their fire on the portal, stemming the tide by a considerable amount. But the amount of Chitauri that continued to come out of the portal made his efforts almost negligible. Vanko himself was in the sky, targeting another leviathan and cursing a healthy amount in Russian as he did. His electric whips trailed after him like tailfeathers, a hazard to the Chitauri tailing him.
Tony hissed and tried to stand as more Chitauri came upon him, firing their weapons.
"Stark! Can you hear me?" Fury's voice yelled over the coms as Tony tried to get up. "You have a missile headed straight for the city."
"How long?" Tony called back, feeling his armor get knocked into and battered around. He felt like a bean in a maraca for how much he was getting shaken in this damn tin can.
"Three minutes, max. Payload can wipe out midtown."
"Shit. JARVIS lets go!"
Corvin moved on silent, cautious feet into the penthouse. Her eyes darted back and forth, looking for Loki. She spotted him on the floor, sprawled out, still unconscious.
She focused her eyes on him, concentrating hard like Goose had taught her. The flowing ropes of power faded into view, their tendrils weak but holding steady onto Loki's mind. She moved closer to him, observing them intently and trying to gain any form of knowledge she could.
A thump was heard to her side and Corvin's fur puffed up in alarm. Her eyes darted over to the balcony to see Romanov, who apparently just jumped from the roof, picking up Loki's scepter.
Corvin followed her back up to the top of the tower, wanting to see and experience this monumental moment in this universe's history for herself. Loki could wait, he wasn't going anywhere.
The light of the tesseract glowed like the sun to her still-sensitive eyes. It was beautiful and wondrous to behold. Looking up, she saw the portal looming over her like a gaping maw into an abyss of stars. It was terrifying.
The energy around the area crackled and fizzled against her fur, static charging along the ends and zapping her toes as she came in contact with the metal roofing. She stared with wide, awed eyes at the scene before her, the carnage of the city and the flying aliens and suits. It was chaos and carnage and beautiful in a way only pure destruction could achieve. Like watching a star die. Her heart pumped in her ears and fell into the din of the battle around her, the rough booms of explosions and the ripping shrieks of metal tearing.
It was truly something to witness.
He pushed himself hard, his thrusters at maximum power as he raced to the missile before it could impact.
"I can close it! Can anybody copy?" Romanoff's voice called, sounding desperate but relieved. "I can shut the portal down!"
"Do it!"
"NO WAIT!" Tony shouted, eyeing his targeting system as he came onto the missile.
"Stark, these things are still coming." Rogers said, sounding winded.
"We got a nuke coming in in less than a minute. If it blows it takes New York with it." he grabbed onto the bottom of the missile and stabilized. "And I know just where to put it."
"Stark, you know that's a one way trip."
Tony ignored him and kept going.
"Sir, should I call Miss Potts?" JARVIS asked and Tony accepted, listening as the phone dial rang. A click was heard as the call was accepted.
"Tony?" Pepper's voice was broken and scared, but it was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.
"Hey Pep, just thought I'd give you a call. I might be out of town for a while. Think you can hold down the fort?" He said, trying for casual but failing utterly short. His eyes danced over the screens at breakneck pace as he used his eyes to type out a few quick things to JARVIS and send them off.
"Tony. Tony, oh my God." her voice shook and Tony grit his teeth as the thrusters turned on, his body banking hard and shooting him upwards.
"You and Rhodey will be good until I get back, you hear? And take care of Happy, and Licorice and the bots while you're at it. JARVIS is a big boy, but he needs some company too." He grunted at the force of his turn on his already hurt body. "I know calling to babysit this short of notice is kind of a douchey thing, but I promise to make you a killer pasta when I get back."
"Tony-"
"It's going to be ok. You're going to be ok." he whispered, his voice breaking. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes as the portal grew closer and closer.
"I love you, Tony." she sobbed, he could hear the force of it from over the phone.
"I love you, too, Pepper."
He went through.
Corvin watched Tony approach the portal, her heart in her throat. She watched and waited, spotting the explosion amongst the stars. She was vaguely aware as Chitauri fell from the sky and there was movement around her. She was more aware of when Romanoff pushed the scepter forward, breaking the power from the tesseract and turning off the machine.
The portal closed.
And the sky was empty.