Christie had wrongly assumed that she was mentally prepared for the final fight. After changing into her signature tight white leather catsuit and tying her moonlit hair back so that it swayed behind her, she had very briefly liaised with the girls and Fury about what the plan was. The girls had agreed to stay on a line with her from where they were safely situated in the Helicarrier helping S.H.I.E.L.D. from safe in the air, whilst Christie went onto the ground to help get civilians to safety once receiving the signal.
As she stepped out onto the streets of Manhattan, waiting for any cue to begin moving people out, she quickly realised that she actually wasn't ready for this at all at all. She still wasn't sure what to do once the team had actually tracked Loki down, but she was hoping that Thor could give her advice once the time came. So she leant against the large window of a coffee shop which was full of city workers on their lunch break, the cool glass soothing to her hot prickly skin.
"Whitey?" came the sudden crackling of someone over the line, startling her considerably.
"Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise, placing a finger on her ear to hear him better. "Clint? You're okay?! Or…are you still-"
"No, I'm back. Nat somehow beat it out me," Clint explained with a large sigh of relief, making Christie sigh too. "Whitey, I'm so sorry about Coulson. I know the guy meant a lot to you…well us too, obviously…h-he was a good man, you know?" Christie grimaced uncomfortably as she thought of all the energy the team were about to waste on grieving a man that had actually been saved. She was so tempted to tell them all the truth, just to prevent them from any further pain - but deep down she knew that Fury had a good reason to be lying. Plus, Ashley seemed deadly serious about not telling anyone.
So she just went with it.
"Cheers, Clint. I know you worked closely with him as well, so I'm sorry too," she hummed humbly. "Um, serious question - I've been sent onto the street but I don't get what I'm waiting for?"
"Well I'm pretty sure we're gonna go beat the sh*t outta your boyfriend," Clint answered back cheekily. Christie could literally hear the smirk in his voice. "He's bringing some sorta army down. Stark's kinda got an idea about where the portal is located as well. He thinks it'll be on his roof."
"On his roof," Christie drawled back. "Yes, because everything has to circle around Stark, of course."
"Hey, it's not that crazy! Loki seems just as in love with himself as Stark is," Clint scoffed. "You sure know how to pick em."
"F*ck off. So I take it there's still no sign of Thor? Y'know, the one guy that could take Loki down the easiest? I saw him fall out the sky," Christie mentioned miserably.
"No sign of him at all," Clint confirmed with a sigh. "But we can only hope he'll show up. It would make our job a whole lot easier. Are you still by the coffee shop?"
"Yup. Are you nearby too?" she frowned, glancing around to try and source him. Then, as her eyes darted about, she happened to glance up at Stark Tower - and saw that he was right all along. There stood Loki's slender figure, staring down at the streets below him. "Ohhh god," she murmured in horror. "Barton? Yeah, Tony was right this time. He's up there." She couldn't even keep her eyes on him for too long.
"WHITEY! I'm signalling! This is the signal! You gotta start evacuating the streets NOW!" Clint shouted down the line. Christie glanced into the sky again, just to see the deep purple wormhole starting to gather itself in a disturbing, extraterrestrial way. Something started to make its way out of it, something humongous, something roaring and something metal.
Then, to Christie's horror, she noticed that there was more than one - in fact, there appeared to be hundreds.
Great.
"I copy," she muttered down the line. Then she took a deep breath before bursting through the coffee shop doors, her pistols drawn to show she meant business. "EVERYBODY OUT NOW! KEEP AWAY FROM THE GLASS BUILDINGS, EVACUATE THE AREA!" she shouted as a sudden roar of commotion began to flood through the streets. People were already running and shouting for help without knowing what was happening, some citizens attempting to drive their way out of the crowded streets but to no avail. Every single person in the coffee shop, workers and customers alike, immediately began to scream and panic. Mothers grabbed their babies and abandoned their buggies as they rushed out with them, businessmen still collected all their laptops and papers in a hurry, some even taking their takeaway cups of coffee with them (because…priorities).
Just like that, within 30 seconds of her initial announcement, the entire shop was empty with Christie being the last one standing there. She took a calming breath in through her mouth and out through her nose before hearing Renesme's abrupt voice in her earpiece, making her wince.
"Christie, have you evacuated the shop of coffee?"
"I have," Christie replied quietly as she watched the street ahead of her go into a complete frenzy. "What's the next plan of action?"
"You get Loki!" came Jennie's sudden yelp down the mic.
"I'm sorry?"
"Oh, she means you get Loki, OVER!" Renesme corrected her.
"Oh! I see, so you want me to take Stark's elevator and just casually make my way up there?" Christie scoffed back sarcastically. "Fab plan-"
"Well you must! Right now he's not doing anything so this would be the time," Jennie told her, repeating what Fury had transmitted over to her. "Do you…do you er…." Christie overheard the irritated hiss of 'copy! Do you copy!' from Delilah in the background. "Oh! Right - do you copy?"
"Mhm. I copy," Christie muttered. She chewed her bottom lip and counted to four in her head, before swinging the coffee shop door open again and begin her sprint through the panicked streets. She could see that The Avengers had pretty much taken action now, fighting whatever they could however they saw necessary. They worked well together, but Christie couldn't even stop and join in - she just had to get to the Stark Tower as soon as possible before anyone else did.
Because if they got there before her, she knew they'd be less than forgiving towards Loki.
She dodged and ducked the cars that were being flipped over through the streets and instead ran directly to a deserted street corner, a rather quiet spot in comparison to the rest of the catastrophic city. Before she could register where she was going next, Natasha had suddenly and rather violently shoved her out of the way before tackling an alien soldier to the ground and smashing its head into the pavement. Christie let out a sharp gasp, taking a few moments to pant the shock away with her heart racing.
"N-Natasha…" she tried to explain herself, but found it far too difficult to get the words out properly.
"Aww, you're welcome Christie," Natasha smirked before reloading her pistol and sprinting off again. Christie rolled her eyes and swore under her breath as she ran after her, catching up to her in no time. They were always in competition with each other - and the last thing she wanted was Natasha thinking that she had beat her at something.
"Natasha, I need to get Loki-" Christie began as they continued to sprint down the road together.
"Loki? Ew," Natasha interrupted her flatly. "I know you love the dude but he's a power-thirsty slime ball."
"Yeah okay, I get that - but the sooner I can get to that power-thirsty slime ball the sooner this whole thing can end. So could you please hold the bitchiness and give me hand?" Christie practically begged through heavy breaths as they both skidded to a halt.
"Wasn't he just up in Stark Tower?" Natasha panted reluctantly. She shot a distracted glance into the sky, catching sight of the tall building - where Loki had now disappeared from. "Okay well…he was." Christie groaned and stood there helplessly, now torn on what to do.
"Great - now I've lost him," she muttered irritably, assuming that he was therefore on the ground. "I guess I'll just sit here and wait then." But Natasha had already disappeared to assist Clint who was busy helping scared little kids out of a battered overturned school bus a few feet away.
The commotion was getting worse and worse by the second and it was all Loki's fault.
"It's just like Budapest all over again!" Christie overheard Natasha shout to her friend as they fired away, side by side.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently!" Clint yelled back. Christie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms irritably as she whipped out her own pistol and started shooting the ugly soldiers too.
"You got that right!" she called out to them both furiously.
"Whitey! There you are!" Clint shot her a wave as Natasha rolled her eyes back. "Hey Budapest was good times, huh?"
"You're serious? It was hell," Christie snapped back at him without so much as looking in his direction. The Budapest mission was what had changed their relationship forever. Before that, Clint, Christie and Natasha were inseparable. It took place during an era of Christie and Clint being rather close and Natasha was somewhat new to S.H.I.E.L.D, so she was a bit like the third wheel for most of the mission – until both Christie and Natasha were imprisoned in two different holding cells across the city and Clint decided to save Natasha first. Technically, he had a very rational reason to do so; he was literally closer to Natasha in proximity and was planning to get Christie straight after - but Christie never let him live it down till this day.
It was totally irrational of her, but what else was new?
Suddenly, Banner pulled up to them on a sweet little French motorbike in the middle of the road. Christie couldn't help but roll her eyes at the sight of him on it and found herself biting her lip to prevent any giggles from slipping out.
"Nice of you to stop by, Princess Peach!" she shouted at him as he slowly parked up a few meters away from where she was standing.
"The pleasure's all mine, Agent Darmer," Banner smirked back, switching the engine off. Suddenly, there were a few crackling noises and then a screeching sound of feedback through Christie's earpieces, which nearly straight up deafened her.
"Ouch! You motherf-" she swore, stopping herself from almost ripping it out of her ear.
"Christie?! We've located Loki!" came Delilah's urgent voice through the receiver. "He's still up in Stark Tower, he just keeps coming in and out of sight…he's literally just watching the city fall apart!" Christie breathed a shaky sigh of relief.
"I copy - I'll make my way up now," she confirmed, starting to sprint across the rubbled pavements in the direction of the tower. A few seconds later, she paused halfway with a frown. "Yeah again, that's a long freaking way away on foot."
"Then hitch a ride somehow," came Renesme's simple answer.
"Just get yourself up on one of the Chitauri ships and go! You're the spy, use your brain!" Jennie snapped in addition. And, as if God himself was listening in on the conversation, a Chitauri ship came zooming past her - but instead of the Chitauri soldier steering it, it was Natasha.
"Me saving your ass again? I am on fire today!" she shouted, hovering the chariot near Christie so that she could easily jump on. But Christie didn't look so sure. Something was preventing her from wanting to get to that destination - it didn't take a genius to figure out why.
Natasha was less than understanding, though.
"Dude, we really don't have that kinda time! Last chance before I leave your ass behind and you jog your way down like you were planning to!" Christie pulled herself together with a groan and heaved herself up, holding onto Natasha for dear life as the alien chariot sped off into the air at an undeniable speed.
"Bloody hell!" Christie spluttered in shock as the air sliced past them.
"Hey, while you're there, feel free to shoot anything that tries to…ohhhh I don't know, kill us?" Natasha hollered over the whirling gush of wind.
"On it," Christie grumbled moodily, whipping her pistol from her holster and accurately shooting the disturbingly evil things lunging at them as they flew. Within around thirty or so seconds, Natasha had parked the chariot at the top of Stark Tower where Selvig was busying himself guarding portal entrance, still under Loki's spell.
"This is my stop - the one below is yours," Natasha told Christie over her shoulder before suddenly hurling herself off the chariot and landing feet first on the building's rooftop. "Good luck!" Christie grabbed the handles of the chariot herself and tried her hardest to lower it down to the lower balcony. She was slightly shaky and the controls felt extremely jerky under her touch because, of course, it wasn't of this planet.
"Noooo, stay still!" Christie hissed, desperately swerving the chariot to the left to try and avoid the only remaining 'A' of Stark Tower. "I'm not getting done for criminal damage!" Once she successfully got the vehicle a little lower so that it was levelled with the highest balcony; she got up, steadied herself and, taking a deep breath, also hurled herself off the chariot. She landed on the hard stone pavement of the balcony, right on her feet just as Natasha had.
"Not bad," she hummed to herself as she stood up straight and casually dusting the rubble from her leather white pantsuit. The Stark Tower looked empty enough through the wide glass window - and to her irritation, there was absolutely no sign of Loki.
Her stomach began to do those dreaded nervous backflips again.
Then, all of a sudden, Christie overheard the unmistakable roar of the Hulk from behind her and immediately knew to move out of the way. To her complete and utter surprise, Hulk had noisily smashed through that expensive window with Loki himself clutched in one of his huge hands. He must have been creeping up behind Christie for her not to see him, meaning that technically, Hulk had saved her life at the last minute.
Saved her life from the man she loved. She never thought she'd see the day.
Hulk was now stood inside the expansive living room with Christie whilst Loki lay there panting on the floor, totally stunned to silence by what had just happened to him. Hulk began to give his thunderous roar again, making his way over to Loki with slow monstrous steps, intending to finish the job.
For once, Christie started to lose her cool.
She didn't know what to do – if Hulk crushed Loki under his fists then he would definitely die with NO hope of being revived, as he certainly wasn't a loved one. Alternatively, she wasn't really up for arguing with whatever the big green monster had running through his mind at the moment - so she just stayed where she was, completely frozen and rooted to the spot.
"ENOUGH!" Loki suddenly yelled as he leapt to his feet again, causing Hulk to stop abruptly and for Christie gulp. "YOU ARE…ALL OF YOU ARE BENEATH ME! I AM A GOD, YOU DULL CREATURE, AND I WILL NOT BE-"