Midtown, New York City
Steve had made a good call keeping Maggie in the jungle of streets and buildings. She zipped around corners and swept down low over the battlefields on the streets below, quick and agile. She led the Chitauri into tight spots that they couldn't navigate, and sprang upon them when they least expected it. She found herself twisting into gymnastics moves she hadn't tried since she was a kid as she flew, moving in an improvised routine through the air and over rooftops. She felt every metal twist of her wings, every buffet of wind and smoke against them as she moved.
She blasted the rear of a Chitauri chariot and then veered away as four more came after her. She weaved, drawing them in, then rocketed to full speed toward a sliver of a gap between two burning buildings. At the last second she retracted her wings into her wingpack and hurtled through the narrow space, wingless with her arms pulled tight to her chest. When she felt sunlight on her face again she snapped her wings back out again, catching herself before she plunged to the ground.
Her HUD pinged a mass of bodies in the laundromat at the base of a nearby building, and then she saw the Chitauri footsoldiers picking their way down the street toward them. Maggie rocketed down to the ground, landing on an abandoned yellow taxi - the metal roof caved slightly under the force of her landing.
"Go!" she shouted, waving at the civilians she could see peering out through the windows. The red sign hanging on the door read CLOSED.
But the people inside just shrank back at the sight of the red-eyed winged woman waving at them. Maggie glanced down the adjoining street - ten footsoldiers picked their way around rubble and held their weapons held aloft. They'd spot her any second.
Maggie jumped off the taxi, ducking her head as something exploded hundreds of feet up, ran to the laundromat door and yanked it open. There were thirty people crammed into the tight space, hiding behind the bulky laundry machines. They all stared up at her. A young boy clung to his father's shirt, wide eyed. The air stank of fear.
Maggie switched off her voice modulator to avoid scaring them further. "You need to leave now. Run straight down Lexington, you'll meet the police and they can get you beyond the perimeter." She stepped aside, holding the door open, and after a moment of hesitation the people inside stood and began running. They bolted past Maggie, following the direction of her pointing finger. They dodged upturned cars and slabs of concrete. When more than half had left Maggie let go of the door and jumped back into the air. She had precious seconds.
She veered up the road and around the corner of the building, directly over the oncoming footsoldiers. She fired a series of blasts down at them as she buzzed over their heads, turning them around. They shrieked and fired after her, unaware of the thirty civilians bolting down the street around the corner.
Maggie kept hurtling down the street and then turned south again, planning to circle around to the civilians and make sure they made it to the perimeter. But just as she turned another corner, a Chitauri chariot screeched down from above and fired a purple laser blast into her shoulder.
The blast crackled against her suit, singeing the material, and knocked her sideways into the thirtieth floor of the nearby building. Maggie plunged onto a teal carpet in a hailstorm of glass and rolled a good fifteen feet, absorbing the impact with her wings.
"Ow." She rolled to her feet, shaking off glass and patting her shoulder to make sure she was still in one piece, and then broke into a run. She'd ended up on an evacuated open plan office floor. Maggie barrelled across the floor, knocking aside partitions and pot plants as she ran, before throwing herself at the wall of windows on the opposite side of the building.
Her wings punched easily through the glass and then caught her in midair above Lexington Avenue. Right in the path of an oncoming squadron of Chitauri chariots. Maggie glanced down, but could not see the civilians. She peered backward and spotted the police perimeter on 39th: a line of NYPD cars and fire engines. She thought she could see a group of figures at the perimeter. Then a laser blast scorched past her and she turned.
The oncoming chariots were weaving in and out in that fish-like way. Maggie raised her arm, waited a heartbeat, then fired a missile just as their weaving brought them into a neat line. The missile collided with the first chariot and sent it up in a ball of flame - one by one, the other chariots collided with it, save for two. Maggie surged forwards and slashed her wing through the pilot of the first chariot, then flipped upside down and scored her heelspur along the underside of the second. Something caught and tore, and the ship pinwheeled down to explode on the street below.
She surged down 37th, and then the Hulk was there - he barrelled down Madison smashing and roaring and hurling things. Maggie grappled with a chariot for a moment, then dove to follow after the Hulk. He carved a trail of destruction and the Wyvern followed in his wake, picking off the outliers. The Hulk was surprisingly considerate of the civilians - he steered clear of them, and Maggie was able to drop down afterwards to point them toward the perimeter. A Chitauri chariot blasted at the Hulk, keeping cleverly out of his range. Maggie hurtled through it with a shrug of her wings, and the Hulk roared in what sounded like satisfaction.
Gradually, the others began talking over the comms. Clint calling out tips to Tony and warnings to Steve, and then Natasha and Steve discussing the portal. Maggie listened as she flew, unused to having a team.
"Wyvern, can you give me a lift?" Natasha called.
Maggie checked her HUD, then curled into a ball to dodge a veritable tidal wave of laser fire. "Sorry, I'm pinned down!" She unfurled herself and zipped away into a car park. Her wing shredded the boom gate.
"Never mind," Nat said. "I got a ride."
Minutes later, when Maggie had blasted a car into the path of a chariot to get away, she soared down a street thick with fliers. She raised her blasters, only to hesitate when she saw one of the leading chariots was piloted by a redhead.
"Nat?" They sped past eachother in midair, so Maggie only got a glimpse of the spy crouched on top of a dead Chitauri pilot, steering with her knives plunged into its back.
"Little backup?" Nat replied breathlessly.
Maggie raised her arms again and fired on the Chitauri chasing Nat's chariot, letting out a breath when Tony rocketed over her head to blast the ones she'd missed. Natasha zoomed away toward the Tower.
"Hey Tony, remember what we did the last time we flew in New York?" Maggie called.
"I sure do," he shot back with a note of glee. "5th and 44th? Give me a sec, I'm helping Cap with something."
Maggie checked her HUD. "I'll pick up some friends. See you there in forty seconds."
Instead of being smart about picking her battles, Maggie fired pot shots at every Chitauri chariot she passed, blasting her engines and pinwheeling so her wings caught the sunlight. By the time she'd veered up 44th street she had nine chariots on her tail, shooting lasers after her.
"Five seconds!" she called, straining her wings to their max.
She roared down the street over smashed cars and crumpled streetlights, angled in a straight line. Glowing projectiles burned past her but she didn't flinch. She rocketed out across 5th Avenue and just saw a glint of red and gold out of the corner of her eye-
She plunged down the adjoining street again and flipped onto her back to see Iron Man slam right through the pack of Chitauri chasing her - he struck through them like a comet, smashing chariots and sending their passengers flying.
"Strike!" Maggie crowed. She doubled back to pick off the Chitauri who'd survived the fall, and she saw Iron Man do a victory spin on his way up 5th. She heard an earth-shuddering judder as Hulk and Thor brought one of the massive flying creatures down to the ground at Grand Central.
Clint cried out, so Maggie blasted the last snarling creature and arced across the closest rooftop toward him. She spotted him a moment later - Clint was fighting hand to hand with a Chitauri who'd climbed up to his perch, and two chariots hovered nearby, firing at him. Maggie blasted the first and collided with the second, slamming her heelspur into the pilot's head and then grabbing at it with her claws. When the head tore off into her hands she cried out in shock and dropped it - she must have severed the spinal cord. The chariot dropped after it, landing on one of the chariots harassing Steve further down.
Maggie glanced at Clint just as he impaled his Chitauri with the butt of his bow. He flipped around, whipped up the bow and fired - the arrow sailed over Maggie's shoulder and hit another chariot that had been roaring up toward her. It exploded and went down in flames.
Maggie nodded in appreciation, her heart pounding against her ribcage, and dove. Steve now held Park Avenue alone against a pack of oncoming footsoldiers and three divebombing chariots. She flew to his aid in the air, attacking the chariots and redirecting their attention. Blasts of fire buffeted her wings, and glass rained down from above.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Steve toss his shield at a footsoldier - with deadly accuracy it sent the alien flying back and then bounced off a car door, but then another Chitauri blasted it with a rifle and the shield wobbled off course. Maggie swooped, caught the edge of the shield in her claws and hurled it back down to the road. It slammed into a Chitauri's face and rebounded back into Steve's hands.
A minute later the US Army arrived, rolling through the police perimeter with tanks and armored cars. They bunkered down on the battlestrewn streets and fired up at the passing chariots.
But they hadn't contained the Chitauri - not even close. "Captain, a bank on 42nd past Madison," Clint called, "they've cornered a lot of civilians in there!"
"On it," Maggie heard Steve pant over the comms. She swooped down to give one of the Army tanks cover.
Clint wasn't finished: "And I can't see it but the NYPD are reporting they've been blockaded on 42nd - they can't push the perimeter past the library."
Maggie was on 43rd. "I've got it," she called.
Engines burning and wings stretched wide, she banked around another sharp city corner in the direction of the library. She saw the problem instantly: the NYPD were stuck at the intersection north of the new York Public Library, protected by the meager cover of a retail store with its windows blown out. There were about fifteen officers, two cars parked as a blockade in the intersection, and one car smoking on its back. She glimpsed the officers popping up over their cover to fire at the Chitauri pinning them down.
The Chitauri, it seemed, had taken the library - footsoldiers were barricaded around the marble building and balustrades, wielding glowing purple blades and rifles. The 42nd street entrance had crumbled in on itself, leaving a pile of rubble and blackened scorch marks. The building offered a good defensive position, and a quick scan from her HUD showed Maggie that there was a mass of civilians trapped inside - people must have fled into the building for shelter, and were now being boxed in by the invading aliens. She scanned the Chitauri's positions. She knew they were acting at least partially under Loki's orders, so she dreaded to think what they had planned for the civilians.
At the sight of the Wyvern turning down 5th Avenue, three Chitauri chariots in the vicinity veered off course and headed for her. Maggie switched to defensive maneuvers, swooping over the heads of the NYPD in the intersection and then up the length of a nearby skyscraper, flinching when cannonfire shattered all the windows over her head.
A moment later she was nearly deafened by an ear-splitting roar and a crunch, and when she looked back, the Hulk was tearing down 5th Avenue with the remains of a Chitauri chariot gripped in his fists. The other two chariots turned to chase after the green monster.
Maggie wheeled about and attacked the library. She peppered down a thick rain of fire; dropping a handful of Tony's scatter bombs, firing her energy blasters and a rifle at the same time. The park around the library shuddered and trees caught aflame. The Chitauri footsoldiers that weren't caught up in the bombing raid shrieked and retreated under cover in the eaves of the marble building.
Maggie struck. While the Chitauri took cover she dropped out of the sky and hurtled through one of the windows to the right of the main entrance.
She plunged into a wide hall to the sounds of screams and shattering glass. She righted herself and hit the ground in a low crouch, and her boots skidded over the shiny marble floor. Her wings curved around herself defensively. People had darted out of her path, and she could feel their stares as she pushed herself to her feet.
She took a moment to acknowledge to herself that yes, she had just barrel rolled into the New York Public Library. One more part of what was undoubtedly the weirdest day of her life - and she only hoped it wouldn't be her last. She glanced up and took in her surroundings.
She'd dived into the front hall, a grand multi-level space packed with people covered in soot and ash. There had to be more than a hundred of them, and she could see more further in the library, around the corners and in the adjoining hall. But then an alien shriek echoed through the marble space, and she realized that the civilians were being guarded by half a dozen Chitauri footsoldiers.
Everyone in the hall screamed and ducked for cover as the Chitauri swung up their weapons. Maggie raised her wings and leaped up to the balustrade on the second level, slamming her feet into the snarling armored footsoldier aiming its glowing bladed staff at her. She followed up with a shot from a handgun on her hip, then ran lightly along the marble balustrade, firing at the three other Chitauri on this level. Their laser blasts ricocheted off her wings before they fell back under her own gunfire.
She ducked a volley of laserfire from the level below, then flared her wings and tipped sideways, gliding across the narrow space of the hall to bodily tackle a Chitauri who was holding his laser rifle to a knot of civilians. It swung its rifle at her and Maggie had to duck to avoid the blow. She rose, only for the alien to throw an armored punch at her. She let the punch impact her shoulder - it hurt, but she used the time it gave her to twist into the Chitauri's reach, slam her hand down on its right elbow and slide its rifle off its arm. The weapon fell to the ground with a clatter. Laserfire scorched over their heads.
The Chitauri she'd disarmed roared and scrabbled at her, slamming its fists and knees into her body and its teeth gnashing at her face like a rabid animal. The people pressed against the wall of the foyer gasped. Automatically Maggie moved into her hand-to-hand techniques, honed by Natasha and Clint's training. The Chitauri had no skill, only aggression and brute force, so she ducked and weaved, looking for an opening even as the other Chitauri fired on her. A few slashes from her claws and the talons of her wings had it screaming in rage, and then it dove at her - Maggie spun in a high kick, and the Chitauri impaled its snarling mouth on her gleaming heel spur.
Maggie pulled her foot free and twisted into a low crouch as the Chitauri collapsed with a thud. The people in the front foyer were screaming, trying to push deeper into the marble halls to avoid the line of fire from the Chitauri by the door. A woman clutching her leg shivered helplessly against a marble column.
Maggie slid across the floor to seize the Chitauri's fallen rifle, swung it up and fired three shots: the purple blasts scorched across the library hall and impacted with the remaining aliens. Another footsoldier burst through the front entrance, growling, and Maggie blasted it right back out onto the street.
She paused for a second. The air stank of ozone and ash, but she heard no more shrieks or rifles powering up, save for the one humming in her arms. Her shoulders rose and fell with each heaving breath. The battle outside was loud with engines and explosions and gunfire, but the library had fallen silent. The screams of the trapped civilians turned to murmurs, and a few hesitantly stepped back into the foyer.
Maggie caught sight of a man in a dark outfit with a staff lanyard. She strode toward him, relieved that he did not run - though he looked like he wanted to. "Are there any others inside the building?" she asked, pointing at one of the Chitauri she'd shot. It lay with a smoking hole in its chest.
The man shook his head.
Maggie nodded, then hoisted the Chitauri rifle on her arm and shouted to the rest of them: "Get ready to move! Help the injured" - she nodded pointedly at the woman still shaking at the foot of a marble column, and the staff member rushed to help her up - "and hold here until I say!"
People had slowly been creeping back into the main foyer, staring at her, but Maggie did not wait for agreement. She could already hear the other Chitauri amassing outside.
Maggie burst out through the front entrance, and instantly had to whirl behind one of the massive stone columns for cover. The Chitauri surrounding the library had obviously heard the commotion and were concentrated outside, their weapons raised. Laserfire erupted, making the whole facade of the library glow purple as explosions impacted against the steps, pillars, and doors. The blastwave rattled Maggie's teeth in her skull, but she held steady. When she sensed a gap in the fire she whipped out from behind cover, fired two shots at the mass of armored footsoldiers, and then ducked behind cover again. She hadn't wasted those precious seconds - she'd catalogued the position of each footsoldier, and counted their numbers. As a new wave of blasterfire impacted against the column she hid behind, she sensed them drawing closer. A window over her head shattered and sprayed glass down on her. She tightened her fingers on her stolen Chitauri rifle.
Maggie held her cover, occasionally popping out to fire potshots at the footsoldiers. She drew them in, closer and closer, until they were practically gathered at the foot of the steps like a firing squad. One of the pillars at her back shuddered and then collapsed, sending stone crumbling down the stairs.
Now.
Maggie lunged out from behind cover, but instead of springing for the mass of footsoldiers she leaped up, an impossible jump fueled by her engines, until she alighted on top of the marble facade over the front of the grand library entrance. Carved stone figures stood to either side of her and the sun beat down at her back, momentarily blinding the Chitauri footsoldiers. Her wings blazed in the sunlight.
Maggie unleashed everything she had. She blasted bolt after bolt from the stolen Chitauri rifle, and with her left arm she switched to a weapon she'd only installed in the last few months: a flamethrower. A jet of scorching golden fire roared down onto the Chitauri below, catching their grey alien flesh and setting them screaming. Maggie swathed the line of fire over them, still shooting purple bolts from the rifle on her right arm. Flame glowed against the surfaces of her outstretched wings, and her red slitted eyes glared down at the shrieking Chitauri.
When the flamethrower petered out, Maggie switched to one of her last remaining missiles and fired it at a knot of Chitauri trying to flee around the side of the building. They went up in a blast and the remaining Chitauri retreated, roaring, into the line of fire of the NYPD bunkered down at the intersection.
Maggie dropped, landing atop the stone lion to the left of the stairs, her eyes flicking over the battle. Chariots screamed overhead and more footsoldiers were running up the street from the south, but for a moment she had cleared the way down 42nd street. She whirled to the entrance of the library.
"Go!" she shouted, waving at the wide-eyed faces she could see inside. Instantly they obeyed, a stream of people pushing out through the shattered doors and staring at the carnage of the battle, and the burned, savaged Chitauri at the foot of the library stairs. Maggie pointed toward the NYPD blockade. "Head down 42nd to the subway and keep moving!"
They went. Tourists and students and staff and workers from the nearby buildings flooded out of the library, down the steps, and along the broken road to where the police directed them west toward the perimeter. Maggie spotted the woman with the injured leg, her arms slung over the shoulders of two library employees.
Maggie didn't stop to watch them go. At the sight of the stream of civilians onto the street, the Chitauri approaching from the south screamed and broke into a run. More chariots buzzed over the skyscraper across the road and down into the action. Maggie leaped into the air.
She held the library, defending it from the Chitauri fliers and the infantry at once: she sent chariots spiralling down into the footsoldiers, dodging glowing blasts when she could and letting them impact painfully against her wings and back when she couldn't - her armored uniform held, but each blow knocked her closer to the ground and fractured her focus. Thor raged past once, lighting up a squadron of chariots with a bolt of lightning, but when Maggie opened her mouth to ask him to help cover the civilians still sprinting down the street he was knocked away again by a chariot.
Maggie swooped low to loose another stream of fire over the footsoldiers who'd gotten close to the library stairs, then surged up to tackle another chariot out of the sky. She cut through the pilot with a slash of her wings, but then one of the snarling passengers seized the edge of her wing in a sharp grip and they all went tumbling to the road below, knocking over a streetlight in a shower of sparks.
Maggie snatched her wing back and tried to roll away, but both Chitauri on the chariot had survived - they surged for her, slashing at her with glowing bladed staffs and firing at her. She rolled under a blow and blasted the first one in the chest, then turned to face the other - but she was a second too late. It slashed its blade at her and the glowing edge sliced across her face, opening up a line of fire along her cheek and ear.
Maggie cried out and dropped, head spinning. But then the Chitauri moved to step past her, its aim swinging up towards the fleeing civilians. With barely a thought Maggie snared its legs with hers and grounded it with a spinning twist Natasha had taught her. She rolled on top of the snarling alien and slammed her claws into its neck, ripping until it stopped moving. She paused for a moment, breathing harshly. Her own blood dripped onto the Chitauri's helmet. Her gloves were sticky with alien blood.
She stood, staggering slightly, and saw the last trickle of civilians disappearing down 42nd street, heading for the army perimeter and the subway station beyond it. She checked her HUD to confirm that the library had been evacuated. The NYPD at the intersection had a clear run down to the perimeter now, and were slowly backing down the street, weapons aimed at the Chitauri chariots buzzing down 5th to fire at them.
Maggie stole the Chitauri staff that had cut through her face and fired a few blasts into the sky to give the police cover. Her face felt slick and hot, and when she snapped out her wings and leaped into the air her cowl flapped into her eyes - it had been cut through at the side. Maggie flicked her head to clear her vision and then flew down the street to the police.
She dropped, still firing with the stolen staff to give them cover, then shouted: "Keep the perimeter back at 6th, and get the civilians down to the metro!"
The officer nearest her, a burly man who'd lost his hat somewhere, nodded even as he stared in alarm at her bloody face. One of the others lifted their radio to relay the instructions.
Maggie flared her wings, eyes on the Chitauri chariots weaving above, but a booming roar announced the return of the Hulk: he smashed through the chariots before jumping up to another rooftop, beating his fists in rage.
Maggie allowed herself a moment to catch her breath. She looked over her shoulder to check that the officers still had a clear shot back to the perimeter, made sure she wasn't about to keel over from bloodloss or exhaustion, and then sent a surge of power to her wings.
She jetted into the sky in a blast of wind and ash. As she angled further into town the dark material of her cowl flapped and batted over her goggles like a flag in the breeze, so she reached up and tore it off distractedly. The windshear made the cut on her face burn, but at least she could see.
SHIELD Helicarrier
"The Council has made a decision."
"I recognize the Council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I have elected to ignore it." Fury glared at the video conference.
"Director… you're closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet-"
"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I'm certain my team cannot hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population!"
"If we don't hold it here, we lose everything!" the Councilman argued.
Fury could feel Hill's eyes on him. "I send that bird out, we already have." He hung up.
As she arced up over Midtown, Maggie's heart fell. The battle had gotten so much worse. Chitauri ran rampant in the streets, smashing and burning and firing at civilians. They were barely contained within the perimeter. And still that blue light streaked up from Stark Tower, keeping the black window into space open - yet more Chitauri spilled out, fresh for the battle. She heard a whine of repulsors to her left and looked over just as Tony rocketed up and deflected a laserblast from a chariot that had been aimed at her. Maggie rolled over his back in the air to kick the chariot pilot right out of its mount.
"Thanks," she panted.
"You don't look like you can take many more hits," Tony said. His tone was light, but she could feel his eyes on her as they scorched down a street together, firing on Chitauri. Maggie opened her mouth to retort, but then they both caught a glimpse of the last massive flying creature as it exploded through an entire building, sending the structure crashing to the ground.
Tony peeled off after the creature, but Maggie went low: she plunged into the cloud of smoke and glass below the falling building and tackled three firefighters out of the drop zone. She felt one of them cry out in pain - she'd broken a rib or two - but when the building slammed to the ground behind them they were all still alive. Maggie skidded across the ground, blind in the haze of smoke and dust. She felt around for the three firefighters, managing to pull and push them in the direction of the perimeter until they got moving under their own steam.
She surged back into the air, rising out of the ash cloud and pinwheeling after a squadron of fighters. She heard a scream and rolled over just in time to see a woman in a business suit falling through empty air. Maggie arced up and caught the woman around the middle, halting her mid-scream. For a moment they were face-to-face, the blonde woman wide eyed and staring, her mascara running, and Maggie with her red goggles and open gash across her cheek. Maggie flew the woman back up to the level she had fallen out of. It was another office level, and Chitauri were swinging inside on tethers; they must have knocked the woman out of the window. Maggie flew through the already-smashed window, set down the wind-swept woman, and then tore after the Chitauri terrorizing the officeworkers. They battled over desks and around partitions, wood and plaster exploding in laserfire.
When the Chitauri were down to one, Maggie rocketed across the last few feet and tackled it out of the window, then dropped it to the ground. It crunched to its death on the pavement. But then she found herself hounded by a whole squadron of fliers, moving too quickly and erratically for her to pin down. She weaved to avoid them while trying to clear the avenue below of emergency services.
She heard Tony shout a wordless battlecry, and looked in the direction of the flying monster just as Iron Man flew straight into its open mouth. She was too shocked to cry out, and when the creature exploded from the inside and Iron Man was ejected from the tail she wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or furious.
But then a purple blast hit her left wing. It juddered and she spun out of control for a moment, wind shrieking in her ears before she managed to right herself. The squadron converged on her, not giving her an inch. Maggie leveled out, sighing, but then another laserblast hit her in the small of her back. She heard a crack and felt her wings shudder, then falter in midair. She felt that one of the welded rips had torn open, wind howling through the space like ice on a bare nerve. Before she could adjust her course a Chitauri leaped from one of the chariots and directly onto her back, tackling her out of the air.
Maggie came crashing down on Park Avenue, her right wing curled around her body to protect her from the shredding concrete and metal on the ground. She didn't have a second to get her bearings since the Chitauri on her back began tearing at her, shrieking in her ear. It was all the more frightening now she didn't have her cowl on, since she could feel the thing's breath on her bare skin. She slammed her elbow up at it and twisted, slashing with wings and claws until she finally kicked the alien off her. An explosion boomed a few feet away and she looked up to see four golden chariots hovering above her, aiming down. She flung up her arms to shield herself, but then -
A silver blur hurtled through the chariots in midair, smashing them apart and sending their debris raining around her. The blur slowed, halted, and then zipped back in the direction it had come. Maggie followed its path and rolled over to see Steve and Thor a hundred yards down the street. Thor caught the silver blur - Mjolnir. He and Steve looked filthy and tired, and Steve clutched a bloody wound at his abdomen. His shield was streaked with oil and blood.
Maggie nodded to Thor, unable to form words, and struggled up to her feet. She was surprised at how hard it was to stand - every part of her seemed to ache, and her knees shook under her as they took her weight. She checked her wings, eyeing them and gauging their readouts on her HUD. They were damaged, but still operational. She wouldn't be hitting any top speeds. She was breathless and tired, and her whole face felt like it was covered in a sticky mass of warm blood. She looked up and spotted Chitauri chariots racing across the city, overrunning the perimeter. She rolled her shoulders back and lifted her wings. The left one trembled slightly.
Natasha's voice broke over the comms: "I can close it!" she called. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."
Maggie saw Steve's eyes snap wide. "Do it!" he called.
"No, wait," Tony cut in. Maggie frowned, then checked her HUD. What is he doing out there?
"Stark, these things are still coming!"
"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute."
Maggie whirled, and her HUD zoomed in to pick up the distant blip of an oncoming missile, way out over the ocean. "Shit."
Before Steve or Thor could speak she snapped out her wings and dove back into the air, one wing shaking before it held steady. She rocketed toward the missile, not exactly sure what she was going to do, but then-
Tony's small glowing readout on her HUD raced after the missile, then caught up to it. "And I know just where to put it," he said.
The two glowing dots came together on her HUD, and Maggie realized that she could see Tony: he had caught the missile, gripping its sides with his hands as his thrusters burned to keep pace with it. Her throat constricted. "Tony."
"Stark, you know that's a one way trip," Steve warned.
"Save the rest for the return, J," Tony instructed. Then: "Stay safe, Maggot. Keep giving 'em hell."
A few of the Chitauri fliers took notice of Tony burning back toward the city. Maggie veered after them with a vengeance, blasters burning. They spiralled out of the sky in smoke before they knew what hit them.
Seconds later Tony and the missile streaked over her head. Maggie glanced up, turned, and chased after him. She funelled every ounce of power she had to her wings, kicking up her speed as she streaked down Park Avenue after the glowing beacon of Tony and the missile. Tony shot over Grand Central Station and then boosted his repulsors to bend the missile off course. They arced upward and clipped the tip of Stark Tower on their way into the sky.
Maggie rocketed down Park Avenue over Steve and Thor's heads, angling her own wings upward. She watched Tony soar up parallel to the blue beam of light. She hit her maximum speed and surpassed it, hurtling through the air with her engines screaming. Tony disappeared into the black void of the portal. Maggie did not notice as those watching the city let out a breath of relief. Her whole body was shuddering now, her wings trembling and the webbing slowly tearing back. Hold, she told her wings. Her eyes were fixed on that dark swirl of space in the sky, seeing nothing else.
"Maggie," she heard Nat call when she shot past Stark Tower, but she ignored it.
Maggie did not notice the Chitauri drop across the city, and did not hear the airships and monsters falling out of the sky. She blazed upward parallel to the glowing blue portal beam, a black streak in the sky. A piercing light bloomed within the blackness of the portal like an imploding sun.
"Tony!" she called into the comms, unable to tear her eyes away from that light. "Tony, come in!"
There was no reply.
"Come on, Stark," Natasha murmured.
Maggie was an arrow, her wings pulled in tight and her engines burning. The light seared her eyes as it stretched toward the open portal. There was nothing but that light - no shapes in the darkness. No sign of Tony. Maggie's left engine was shrieking with the power she coaxed from it. The light unfurled toward the portal.
Then:
"Close it," Steve murmured.
"No!" she screamed.
"I'm sorry," Natasha said lowly.
A supersonic boom echoed from below as Natasha speared Loki's staff into the heart of the portal generator, and the streak of blue light cut out, vanishing upwards into the clouds and overtaking Maggie.
"No!"
Lightning rippled across the clouds and the edges of the portal shivered, then began to close. The blackness crumpled inward, shrinking in on itself. Maggie strained upward, knowing that even if she couldn't get back she would not let Tony go to that other world alone-
The void grew smaller, smaller, and then swallowed itself up into clear blue sky. Maggie's breath stopped in her chest and she felt colder than she ever had in her life.
But there was still a shape there in the sky, now growing bigger-
Tony.
In the second before he collided with her, Maggie could see that Iron Man was in freefall. He slammed into her open arms and she wrapped herself around him, even though he had knocked the breath out of her. The weight of him pulled her down. She snapped out her wings and fired her engines to slow them down, sobbing with relief. "Tony, Tony I've got you-"
"Son of a gun," she heard Steve mutter.
But then Maggie's left wing, already damaged by Loki and the Chitauri, juddered, shrieked, and failed. She felt the electric snap as it died and the loss of sensation hit her like pins and needles.
They fell. Maggie and Tony swooped sickeningly through the clouds and into thin air, too fast, and Maggie's heart lodged in her throat but she did not let go of her brother's limp metal limbs. Her single remaining wing might have been able to hold her alone, but she would not let him go. She flung out her right wing to try to get some drag to slow them down, but it just sent them into a sickening spiral. I already used my chute. They began to spin, and the sky blurred with the ground.
"They're not slowing down!" Thor shouted.
Maggie saw the blur of a skyscraper falling past and she said: "We've lost engines-"
But then the world slammed sideways. Maggie thought for a moment that they must have hit the ground, but they were still falling, slower, and there was something wrapped around her: warm, and… and green. Concrete and glass showered around her and she could feel Tony's limp armor pressed uncomfortably against her.
They lurched again, backwards, and they finally hit the ground with a thud. The green arm around her middle slipped and Maggie went tumbling head over heels along a road of crushed rubble. When the world finally fell still Maggie was lying sprawled on her front, blinking and trying to process what had just happened. Everything hurt, and her heart pounded like it was trying to escape her chest.
A hand landed on her shoulder. Maggie flinched and rolled over to strike, but her fist was caught by Steve.
"You're okay, you're safe," he said, sweaty and soot-streaked. He let go of her hand. His eyes were blown wide. "The Hulk caught you."
She let out a breath, then lifted her head to see Thor and the Hulk crouching over the dented Iron Man armor. Thor ripped off the faceplate and tossed it away - it came to a halt near Maggie and Steve.
"Tony?" Maggie scrambled to her feet, shaking off Steve's helping hand, and ran to her brother. She shoved her goggles up her forehead.
Tony lay perfectly still on the ground, his face blank and his eyes closed.
"Tony!" she skidded to his side at the same time as Thor leaned down to listen for his breathing. Thor sat back with a solemn look.
Maggie dropped to her knees, grabbed the sides of Tony's helmet, then touched his face. "Tony, wake up!" Steve dropped down beside her, his hands hovering helplessly.
Maggie put a hand on Tony's chest, but the Arc Reactor light had gone out. She started pulling at the armor with her claws, trying to get to the man inside. "J.A.R.V.I.S., vitals," she choked out. No calming voice spoke to reassure her. "Tony!" she gripped his head and tried to shake it, but was met with nothing but blankness.
She felt a hollowing darkness open up in her chest.
The others were pulling away. Steve sat back on his haunches with a heavy breath, and Thor stood over them, grim faced. Even the Hulk took a step away.
Maggie just kept calling Tony's name through her tears, holding his head in her hands.
And then there was a roar louder than a jet engine, right behind her, and-
Tony's eyes flew open. He gasped in a breath, suddenly wide awake and wild-eyed, and Maggie fell back with the shock of it, choking on her breath.
The Hulk roared again, and Tony glanced around at them all.
"What the hell," he said shakily. His eyes flicked from Hulk, to her, to Thor, to Steve. "What just happened?"
Maggie gripped her hair in her hands and tried to calm her breathing. She felt like she was the one whose heart had just stopped.
"Please tell me nobody kissed me," Tony said.
Maggie thumped her fist into Tony's chest, not caring how much it hurt him. He glanced up at her and finally saw her tears. "Never," she said angrily, "ever do that again."
Tony just kept looking up at her, prone in his broken suit, and slowly their breathing evened out. Maggie reached down to take his metal hand, though he likely couldn't tell since he was immobilized in the armor. She looked up and met eyes with the Hulk. Thank you, she mouthed. He huffed and growled, but she knew he had heard her.
Steve sat back, catching his breath. "We won."
Tony's head dropped back to the ground, and Maggie reached up to wipe tears away from her sooty, bloody face. Smoke rose from the city around them, and fires still burned along the road.
"Alright, yay," Tony said lightly. "Alright, good job guys." A smile crossed Maggie's face as he spoke. He's here. He's okay. "Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just - take a day." He looked over at the Hulk. "You ever tried Shawarma?"
Steve laughed, catching Maggie's eye, and she just shook her head at him as if to say this is what he's like.
"There's a Shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."
Thor's gaze lifted. "We're not finished yet."
As one, they all looked up at the Tower.
Tony waited a beat. "And then Shawarma after."
Stark Tower
Loki sensed, rather than heard, the presences in the penthouse. Groaning, he rolled over to face them.
There were seven: Barton front and centre, his bow drawn and aimed right at Loki's face. Mr Stark on the left, his armor dented but that light in his chest glowing. The Hulk stood tall and glaring behind him, with the Captain to his left. Thor wielded Mjolnir and a stormy expression beside the Widow, who held his glowing staff. By the Widow's side stood the Wyvern, her goggles pushed up onto her forehead so Loki could see her glaring dark eyes.
Loki eyed them all. "If it's all the same to you… I'll have that drink now."
Maggie didn't remember much of the Shawarma place.
After the chaos at the Tower, what with Loki and the SHIELD STRIKE Team and securing the Tesseract and the staff, coordinating with every authority under the sun, they got field-treatments for their wounds and trudged through the mess of Midtown to the Shawarma place.
Maggie remembered sitting down with an icepack and a white dressing on the side of her face, draining a cup of Sprite and being served a giant's portion of fries and meat. She was also pretty sure she'd asked Nat out on a date again, mostly just to see Nat smile when she said no.
After that, Tony told her, she'd passed out open-mouthed on Thor's shoulder. He had apparently happily gone on eating while she snored on his fine Asgardian armor. Maggie wasn't sure if she believed Tony about the snoring, but when she checked her face in the mirror before falling exhausted into bed that night, she had red marks in her skin in the shape of chainmail.
And now, how will the world react?
I am so depressed that TFATWS is over but it was so great to see that last episode! I am soft. No spoilers in the reviews because I know some readers read the reviews and they might not have seen it yet!
Reviews
The1975Love: Ahhh I'm sure you must have loved the last TFATWS episode - so many smiles! Found family! Just gorgeous.
Guest: Thank you so much! Hopefully you found this chapter exciting too ;)
DBZFAN45: Maggie did indeed save herself! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you enjoyed the end of TFATWS! The shield is in good hands now ;)
Satya: I am planning to stray from the main plotline a bit further down the line ;)