I ran outside the building only to be met with violence and destruction. The streets were filled with rubble and abandoned cars. A quick look around showed that people were hiding inside away from the Chitauri. Good. I turned in the direction the weird helicopter/plane had gone. They'd been after Loki, so they were probably with SHIELD.

Aliens on hovercrafts sped above me, firing indiscriminately at the buildings. I lifted my hand and reached out for them. Heat! The vehicle pitched downwards, smashing into the ground. I sprinted towards it, freezing the monsters solid to finish the job. I only left them once I was sure I'd stopped their hearts.

The heli-jet or whatever it's called was empty by the time I reached its crash site, and I decided to follow the aliens to the source of the most excitement, destroying whichever creatures I could catch with my magic. Hopefully, Tony's Avengers would be there. Maybe Pendragon was there. My heart ached with the futility of my hope, but I tried to be positive, despite the doubt in my mind and the cracked, bleeding skin on my hands.

I rounded a corner, only to hear a massive groaning, like a cross between metal settling and the deep song of a whale. I watched in awe as a massive monster the size of a blue whale, covered in metal armor. Chitauri were ejecting from its side onto and into the buildings on either side of the street. I ran forward, only to watch it fly off. I turned around. Loki was fighting someone on the balcony, and on the ground were 3 people. One of them was wearing red, white, and blue, and carrying a shield. Steve.

With him were two other people in skintight armor, a man with short brown hair, and a woman with curly red hair. They ducked behind a taxi when several Chitauri flew low, I ducked too, listening to the explosions of abandoned cars. I heard people screaming. Then gunshots. Steve and his friends were fighting back. I turned and ran for them, sliding into view behind another car.

"JACQUELINE!?" Steve balked in alarm. I smiled weakly.

"You know her?" The man asked, readying a bow and arrow.

"My god, Jackie, your hands-" He started when I cut him off.

"I'm fine Steve," I saw the redhead and the archer exchange looks at the first-name-basis, "Pen's out there somewhere. He got chased out when Loki showed up. I burned the guy pretty badly, but he got me back." I lifted my hands for emphasis. "I'm here to help, and it looks like you guys could use it."

"I'm sorry," The woman interrupted, "Who are you?"

"I'm Jacqueline Thompson, I'm a mermaid, I have magic. Before you give me that look, I have already killed a few Chitauri trying to find Steve, and I'm not useless." To emphasize my point, I lifted my bloody and burnt hand and grabbed onto the water content of the nearest alien and ripped him off the wall. It screamed as it boiled alive before it hit the ground dead, its body steaming. The group looked horrified. "I'm looking for Pendragon Marbend, formly with SHIELD, now a merman with the same powers I have." They all looked at me solemnly.

"Go, we got this," The redhead told Steve, "You two go do what you can."

"Will you be able to hold them back?" He asked. The archer smirked.

"Captain," He grinned as he drew an arrow, "It would be my genuine pleasure." Steve motioned me to follow him and we took off sprinting. I followed him as he leapt from the bridge onto a bus, to a car, to the street. An incredibly loud explosion behind me told me just how close we'd been to getting blasted.

We raced down the street, past people running for their lives and exploding cars. He lept onto a police car and started barking orders at the cops, with instructions for crowd control. The police looked doubtful, looking him up and down.

"Steve, incoming!" I called, before throwing an alien his way. He responded by bashing it down with his shield. He took out several Chitauri in quick succession, finishing up showing off by smashing an alien that I had frozen solid. It shattered in pieces onto the hood of the car.

The cops stood awestruck for a heartbeat, before shouting Steve's orders to the others. Steve motioned for me to follow and I did, back around the block to the two people he'd left behind. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton he told me, both SHIELD agents.

We arrived just in time to prevent the two from getting overwhelmed, and I threw my hand out, freezing several monsters at once. Barton fired an explosive arrow into one, which sent ice shards into the nearby aliens. I was about to boil another 3 when they were hit by surprisingly quiet lightning. A man in a red cape with long blond hair and a beard carrying a hammer landed on the ground where the aliens had stood. He wobbled to his feet, blood on his face, looking incredibly pissed off.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked, then I realized that this was the man that Loki had been fighting.

"The barrier surrounding the cube is impenetrable." His voice was deep, and accent vaguely similar to Loki's. This must be the brother that Tony mentioned, funny, they don't look alike at all, except for their hard blue eyes. They were silent for a moment, looking up as though listening. Ear pieces, of course.

"How are we going to do that?" Romanoff asked aloud.

"As a team," Steve answered. Loki's brother looked at him approvingly.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," He started, catching Barton's attention.

"Yeah? Jacqueline and I were in line first." The god looked at me and I waved with a burnt and bloody hand and forearm. He frowned, obviously upset by my apparent youth and extreme injury.

"Save it," Steve snapped at the archer, annoyed, "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us and that's exactly what we need. Without him these things could run wild." He started to pace angrily, "We got Stark up top, he's going to need us…" He trailed off as we heard the rumble of a small motorbike approaching. We turned to see a man with curly hair and tanned skin riding up to us, looking tired and determined. He turned the bike off as we approached him. I guess these guys, and Tony, are the Avengers?

"So…" He started, "This all seems… Horrible." He lifted his hands and gestured at the nearby fire.

"I've seen worse," Romanoff said, looking the newcomer up and down.

"I'm sorry," the man started before she interrupted him.

"No, we could use a little worse." He nodded, looking uncertain but apologetic.

"Stark," Steve started, a finger on his ear, "We got him, just like you said." Everyone was silent, listening to Tony's response. The man and I stood there looking at them, awkwardly out of the loop.

We turned just in time to see Iron Man swing around the corner, followed closely by one of those enemy space whales. Several of us, myself included, took a step back.

"I don't see how that's a party," Romanoff said sarcastically. The beast swooped low, it's belly crushing trees and cars. No Chitauri jumped off, so I guess it was riderless. Tony flew over us as the monster slid closer, heralded by explosions. The newcomer started to walk towards it.

"Doctor Banner," Steve started, the man kept walking so Steve took a few steps forward, "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Cap," Banner stopped to look at us, "I'm always angry." Turning back to the whale, his body swelled. His shirt ripped as his skin turned dark green. It's the Hulk!

My mouth gaped as he caught the monster by the face, his feet breaking asphalt as the force pushed him back. Momentum carried the beast's body up, bending in unnatural ways and snapping metal armor. Tony's suit fired several small missiles into a split in the skin, which tore it open the rest of the way. We ducked from the explosion, Romanoff behind Steve's shield, Barton and I behind a taxi, and the blond god stayed where he was. It broke in half like a twig, corpse collapsing harmlessly onto either side of the raised street.

Several Chitauri screeched from their posts on building walls, furious at our apparent success. The Hulk roared back, much louder than the crowd as we collected ourselves in a ring, all facing out into the streets and protecting each other's backs. The aliens' hooting echoed through the streets as Romanoff clicked a new clip into her gun. We looked upwards at the portal in the sky as hundreds more started to spill from it, several more whales included.

The first wave was over. The second wave had begun.