The only indication that she had been there was the smoking remains of the aliens. The Dragon made her way back towards the others when the flow of Chitauri slowed at the bridge. Thor and Rogers had joined them by now and she found them arguing about Loki.
"Save it," Steve said as she approached them. "Loki's going to keep the fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He's going to need us to…"
He turned and fell silent. The Dragon extinguished her flaming fists but her golden eyes remained. A signal that her mutation was active and ready to emerge at any moment. Natasha nodded in greeting to her partner and the Dragon smirked.
"It makes sense, y'know? Dragon. Fire," she explained lamely.
"How long have you…?" Rogers clamped his jaw shut and stared at her in confusion.
"As long as I've known. I've always had this power. It's a mutation. Blake, Murakami, and I are all mutants."
The low drone of a moped slowly increased as Banner drove up to join them. The Dragon welcomed his arrival because it meant the attention was no longer on her.
"So, this all looks horrible," Bruce announced.
"I've seen worse," Natasha retorted.
"Sorry."
"No, we could use a little worse."
"Stark, we got him," Steve reported over the comms.
"Banner?"
"Just like you said."
"Well tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Stark rounded a building with a massive alien-lizard-dragon hybrid behind him. The Dragon looked up at the monstrosity with an unimpressed look on her face.
"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha commented dryly.
As Iron Man and the beast came closer, Banner walked towards them. Steve stepped forward. "Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."
"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry."
The Hulk appeared before their eyes, colliding with the beast and sending it toppling head over heels. Stark fired rockets into its soft skin under its armor, bursting the beast into flames. The Dragon raised her hands and a wall of flames erupted from her skin, protecting her from the debris. She never burned. Never felt heat. She simply absorbed the fire from the explosion.
Chitauri shrieked and screamed from the windows of the buildings they were crawling up. The whole city had their eyes on the seven people standing on the ground. The Hulk met their screams with his own roar. Hawkeye notched an arrow in his bow. Thor adjusted his hammer to be ready to strike. Black Widow added a new clip to her pistol. Captain America tightened his shield straps. Iron Man readied his blasters.
The Dragon let fire emerge from her fingertips.
"Guys." Natasha drew their attention back towards the portal where more aliens and massive beasts were emerging.
"Call it, Captain," Stark declared.
"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three perimeters, you turn it back or you turn it to ash. Thor, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up. Widow, Dragon. You and me, we stay on the ground. We keep the fighting here. Dragon, burn the bastards to the ground. And Hulk? Smash."
Dragon grinned, spinning on her heel to face the Chitauri that slithered towards them. She flicked her wrists and tendrils of flames trailed across the stone bridge. The aliens slowed their assault and she took that as her chance to punch a massive ball of flames at them. She jumped onto an overturned car and pulled out her escrima sticks, flames wrapping around the metal poles.
She made a mental note to thank Christine later.
A Chitauri sliced its spear at her and she blocked it, landing a harsh kick right in its skull. The mutant stood up from her crouch on the car and grunted when a Chitauri grabbed her from behind. She grit her teeth and flipped him off of her, rolling off the car and onto the ground. Finding her footing, she hopped back up and used her sticks to beat two aliens back. They started pushing her back towards the other end of the bridge and she grunted, slashing her sticks back and forth and deflecting their hits while she tried to maintain her position.
"Need a little help?" Rogers called as he appeared beside her, ripping a Chitauri's head off and throwing its body over the bridge. "Widow is going to close the portal."
"Then I guess its just us, Captain."
They slipped into an easy routine, backs pressed against each other as they destroyed aliens left and right. She got knocked back and he caught her into his chest and steadied her, placing his shield between them and the Chitauri.
She twisted out of his arms and decked a Chitauri, hearing it collapse with a satisfying crunch. Stark flew by and blasted the Chitauri with his arc reactors off of Steve's shield and the Dragon got an idea. Without saying a word, she twisted around to face the soldier. He caught her drift and tilted his shield up. With a running start, she jumped up and planted her feet firmly on his shield. He pushed up, launching her into the middle of the oncoming Chitauri line. She crouched down, letting a blast of fire radiate from her body and destroy the whole mass of creatures.
When she turned back, Steve was on the ground with an alien inches away from stabbing him. The Dragon shot her hand out, a rope of flames wrapping around the Chitauri's neck. She pulled back, slicing its head straight off and leaving its corpse deposited neatly on the ground. The dark haired mutant extinguished her fists and held her hand out for Rogers to take.
"We're even now," he laughed breathlessly as he stood.
"Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison. They caught a lot of civilians there," Clint's voice cut across the comms.
"I'm on it," Steve reported back. "You'll be alright?"
She snapped her fingers, flames appearing over the tips of her fingers and he nodded with a grin before grabbing his shield and sprinting off.
In an attempt to rein back some of her mutation, she lost concentration and was caught in a Chitauri blast. It launched her down the street and through a department store window, slamming her body into the tile ground. Her head ached and her muscles screamed in protest as she picked herself up. Blood dripped onto the tiles below and she raised a shaking hand to her face, feeling a laceration across her forehead. With a groan, she pushed herself up onto her knees and hunched over to spit some blood onto the ground. An alien screeched outside and she blindly grabbed her gun, firing three times and hearing it collapse.
"Come on," she coached herself. "Get up. Fight's not done yet."
A hand landed on her shoulder and the Dragon was too tired to react. She simply raised her head, seeing one of the department store workers crouched before her. The woman held her other hand out and she slowly reached out and grabbed it. Another employee helped her stand and brushed some dust and dirt off her shoulders.
"You should be taking cover," the Dragon grunted.
"You're not," the first woman said. "So why should we?"
"We're from New York, hon. Aliens can get fucked."
She choked back her laugh but glanced around at the debris around her. "Get to safety and hide somewhere. Wait until all of this is over before you come back out."
"Give 'em hell, kid. You're doing great."
The Dragon ran outside to face the carnage of New York. A flash of the stars and stripes down the street alerted her of Steve's location and she jogged towards him, ducking under the energy blast that came flying at her head. A shield followed the blast and collided with the alien that shot at her. She reached Steve's side just as the shield returned and he smoothly caught it before turning his attention onto her, his cowl gone as strands of his blonde hair fell across his forehead.
"You're bleeding," he noted.
"I've had worse," she muttered, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze.
The ground shook as something landed near them and the Dragon snapped to attention, gun raised and ready to shoot. Thor struggled to his feet and nodded at the two.
"Captain, Lady Dragon," he greeted.
"Well, fellas, looks like they're bringing the fight to us," she commented as Chitauri began to close in. "Ready to get to work?"
Steve adjusted his shield while Thor raised his hammer. Exhaustion and sweat clung to their bodies, but they were determined to fight to the death. The Dragon swiped the blood off her skin and sucked in a steady breath. The three Avengers launched into fighting, deflecting hits, throwing aliens sky high, and beating them into the dust. One Chitauri caught Steve off guard and he took a shot to the abdomen.
With Dragon's attention focused elsewhere, the Chitauri took that as their chance. One alien smacked her escrima sticks out of her hand and another grabbed her wrists, yanking the assassin's shoulders back, dislocating one, and throwing her to her knees. With a shout of pain, she buckled under their assault and furiously struggled against their hold, twisting her ankle in the process. These aliens weren't going to kill her swiftly, no. They wanted to make her suffer.
With a roar, she sent a shockwave of flames from her body and blasted the aliens back while Thor threw his hammer to finish them off. The Dragon groaned, slowly picking herself up as she grabbed onto her shoulder. Leaning up against a nearby wall, she swiftly shoved her shoulder up against it and felt it slide back into place. Breathing out sharply, the assassin waited for the pain to dull when Natasha came over comms.
"I can close it! Does anyone hear me? I can shut the portal down!"
"Do it!" Steve ordered but Tony denied the request. "Stark, these things are still coming."
"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."
"Fuck the Security Council," the Dragon grunted as she limped her way back to the men. "You know that's a one way trip?"
Tony's line went silent and the Dragon retrieved her sticks and slid them onto her back before turning her face to the sky to watch the wormhole above them. Her hand brushed over the lump in her pocket and she pulled the pocket knife out. Her fingers slid over the rusty metal as Iron Man flew overhead and up into the Chitauri stronghold.
"Please work," she murmured, heart racing. Steve shifted towards her, guarding her six as they waited for Tony to come back. The aliens around them dropped dead, a sign that it worked. All they needed now was for Tony to come back.
But there was no sign of the metal man.
"Close it," Steve choked out. The wormhole shut right as the Dragon locked eyes on Iron Man. She let out a breathless laugh of relief, peering back at Thor and Steve who were equally relieved. Thor's smile fell into a frown, however, and he started spinning his hammer.
"He's not slowing down!" But before the god could fly, Hulk grabbed Stark out of the sky and crash landed into the ground. The Dragon sprinted forward, the men following close behind, jumping over debris and bodies that littered the ground. She slid to a stop, falling on her knees beside Stark along with Steve as Thor flipped him over and ripped off his mask.
"Stark...Tony," she called but he was too pale. Too still.
Death is inevitable in war. Her hands shook as she gently tapped his cheek in an attempt to wake him up. She missed Tony Stark's big reveal in 2008 so she didn't know much about his arc reactor technology. Could she jump it awake? Was there an AED left standing? What could she do? The only thing she knew about Tony Stark was that she was ordered to kill him and she had refused.
The Hulk let out an ear shattering roar and Stark gasped as his eyes flew open. The Dragon let out the breath she was holding and slumped back into Steve. Stark's eyes darted around wildly as he took in the scene around him.
"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me," he exclaimed.
"We won," Steve realized. The Chitauri were gone. New York was in tatters but they did it. They won. The Dragon shut her eyes, hysterical laughter bubbling past her lips as the adrenaline started to drift away and the pain settled in.
" Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."
"We're not done yet."
"And then shawarma after?"