Chapter Nine: The Monument in the Sky

After yet another fight between Tony and Steve, Tony realized where Loki was planning on setting up. . . and that happened to be Stark Tower. The Avengers gathered together to fight Loki and his army of Chitauri as a team, they were finally working together. Emma was using her anger and grief to channel the serum in her veins to fight, the more she used her powers the easier it was to fight.

Emma was getting ready to fight her grandfather, however, who just had to check on her every five minutes to make sure she was alright. It was a burden she was going to have to bear as he was originally going to let her join in on the fight. She had to roll her eyes at that, he said let as if he had any control over her actions. Did he not know her?

Bruce had been the first to fall and the last to arrive to the party. He arrived meekly on a motorbike which Emma thought was an odd look for him but she was grateful to see him.

"So, this all seems horrible," Bruce said.

"I've seen worse," Natasha said, recalling the interaction she had with the Hulk.

"Sorry," Bruce said wincing.

"No, we could use a little worse," the Black Widow replied.

Once Bruce had arrived, Tony decided to throw a party by giving a gift in the form of a Chitauri Leviathan. Emma's blue eyes widened in shock and she turned to Bruce.

"Brucie, now might be a really good time for you to get angry," Emma said to him.

"That's my secret, Emma, I'm always angry," Bruce told her as he proceeded to turn into a giant green monster.

Emma watched for a moment, in awe of him, before getting back into the fight. Once the leviathan was brought down by Iron Man, there was still the issue of the portal that needed to be closed.

"Alright, listen up. Until we close the portal up there, we're going to use 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 blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash," Steve ordered, Tony giving Clint a lift as they followed his orders. "Thor, you got to bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning. Light the bastards up. You, me, and Emma we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk. . . smash."

Emma couldn't help but smile at her grandfather, he was pretty good at the whole captain thing. She worked tirelessly with Natasha and Steve to fight off the Chitauri but it was going to be useless if they couldn't get that portal closed as more kept coming through. It was Natasha who agreed to shut it off while the two Rogers continued fighting on the ground. At one point, they ended up getting separated.

The captain went to fight off Chitauri in a bank full of civilians while Emma went to another one that was also full of Chitauri. Steve hated leaving her but they had a better chance at getting both buildings full of civilians to safety if they went separately. There had been a lot more Chitauri in Emma's building than she had thought and at one point several Chitauri had her pinned down. She thought for sure she was going to die, that she was going to fail.

She closed her eyes, pleading for help, and then suddenly she felt something heavy in her hands. Emma felt a surge of what she thought was lightning go through her and she felt stronger then ever before. She opened her eyes to see Thor's hammer in her hands. Before she has time to react another Chitauri attacked her and she slammed him in the face with the hammer. Emma jumped up and took down the rest of the Chitauri in the building, effectively saving the people in the building including herself. The people stared at her in awe, grateful that she saved their lives.

"Emma?" the voice of her grandfather spoke from the crumbling entrance way.

Emma turned around to see Steve standing behind her, staring at her with his wide blue eyes as she stood there gripping Thor's hammer tightly in her hands. It certainly was a sight to behold.

"Uh, I can explain, I think," she stuttered and then paused. "No, actually, I can't."

All of a sudden the hammer flew out of her hand, presumably on its way back to Thor. How the hell did she manage to wield it? Weren't you suppose to be worthy? She just hoped she didn't have to rule Asgard after this.

"It's okay," Steve muttered to her. "We'll deal with this afterwards. Right now, we fight."

Shortly after getting back into the fight, she realized that somewhere along the way her contacts had gotten knocked out and then she realized, with a jolt, that she didn't really need them anymore. Emma had wondered if that had been the lightning that had surged through her, maybe it had activated her powers in some way. She'd have to ask Bruce about it later.

They managed to successfully shut the portal off but not before a nuke was sent to destroy the portal which would have destroyed New York as well. It was Tony who had chosen to send the nuke through the closing portal to the Chitauri on the other side. He had barely managed to make it through as the portal closed and he began falling. It was a close call but the Hulk managed to catch him before he hit the ground.

They all watched him as they tried to get him to wake up. They thought for sure he was dead and they all held their breath. Emma had obviously misjudged him. Sure, he was very immature and a little selfish but he was also, apparently, a hero. Just as she finished her thought, the Hulk roared at Tony waking him up with a gasp.

"Did somebody kiss me?" Tony asked, blinking rapidly.

After that, Tony had decided that they needed to get a bite to eat to celebrate but first they still needed to deal with Loki. Stark Tower stood in the middle of the debris that was now New York, it stood shining but broken like a monument in the sky. It was a testament to what happened and who put a stop to it. The other letters of 'Stark' had fallen away but the 'A' remained. Emma couldn't help but smile.

She had forgotten about Mjolnir until Thor had broached the subject. They had been standing on the top floor of the tower, Loki now chained up with a mask covering his face.

"Something strange happened out there," Thor said seriously to the group. "Who summoned my hammer?"

"What are you talking about, Thor?" Natasha asked.

"Someone out there called my hammer to them and called upon the lightning. Someone here is worthy," the God continued seriously.

Everyone looked around at each other and even Loki looked surprised, not having any idea what was going on. Emma suddenly felt a lot nervous and a pit started to form in her stomach. It didn't help that she felt her grandfather's eyes staring down at her. She sighed and raised her hand, Thor's hammer flying into her open palm. Everyone looked at her in surprise and Thor moved closer to her, staring down at her.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out, holding his hammer towards him, and he let out a booming laugh.

"No worries, little one," Thor said, clapping a hand on her shoulder.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

"That you're worthy, of course," Thor said and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Do not worry, you do not have to rule Asgard, unless you want to. . ."

"Oh no, Asgard's all yours," she said grinning at him and held out the hammer towards him again which he took this time.

"It just means that Mjolnir likes you, little one, and I think I do too," Thor grinned.

"Awesome," Emma laughed and Loki rolled his eyes in disgust.