Hey all, I know it's been a while again so I let's get straight to the action. I appreciate all of you, and say a warm hello to all the new readers that have joined since the last update, and all you old-timers who are still sticking around despite my updating antics. Anon review responses at the end, and a promise this time that more will be coming soon, not least because I have already written part of it. Get ready for the Battle of New York Part 1.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters aside from my own OC. The rights of the other characters belong to Marvel and its affiliates.
Enjoy!
aAa
In hindsight, the porridge may not have been the smartest idea.
Cora's stomach churned as the jet pitched beneath her feet. God she hated flying.
Oh the irony.
Across from her Steve's face was a picture of determination. About ten minutes into the flight Cora had scrunched her eyes shut in an effort to quell the nausea in her gut, but with that idea falling through almost immediately she had settled instead for keeping her eyes fixed on the man across from her.
He looked calm. No, not calm. Prepared. Determined. As if he'd dealt with this before and knew how to do so again.
He has, her mind reminded her, and she felt instantly guilty. Here she was feeling sorry for herself over a little airsickness while the man out of time was already being thrown back into the fray.
The engines weren't deafening but they were loud enough that any comments had to be yelled rather than spoken. Cora was about to do just that, even if she hadn't worked out quite what to say, when the crackle of the radio and Natasha's clipped tones drew the focus of the jet's occupants to the front controls.
"Stark, we're heading north east."
"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up PARK, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."
Stark's response was tinny through the radio but the sarcasm translated however patchy the signal. Not that Cora could dwell on that as the next minute the jet was veering sideways as the two S.H.I.E.L.D agents navigated their way through the skyscraper streets.
Cora couldn't help the whine that escaped her clenched teeth. Any bravado was long gone, replaced by the feel of her stomach in her throat and a heart beating in overdrive. The originally smart idea of picking up the flight jacket had fallen through at the first sign of turbulence, and now Cora could feel the stickiness of her sweat at her back as her fear ramped into overdrive.
"Pull it together, pull it together, pull it together," she whispered as they descended quicker.
Something slammed into the plane's left side and Cora gave up her chanting to scream instead.
Eyes squeezed shut again, crouched in as close to the brace position as her safety harness allowed, Cora screamed until the fear cut off her voice.
She tasted blood as they landed.
It wasn't quiet, even once the grinding crunch of the nosedive petered off. The sound was still ringing in her head and it was all Cora could do to convince her eyes open and release her lip from her teeth.
Someone unclipped her safety harness and as Cora looked up she found herself meeting Natasha's gaze. The spy looked collected, even if her eyes betrayed the fact that she was far from calm.
"You with us?"
Cora swayed to her feet in reply.
Screams greeted her entrance into the light. The sound forced ice into her gut. Pure, human fear in multitudes. Cora had never experienced it, and so even as those that had drew their weapons and circled in preparation, the historian was left rooted to the spot, panting in terror.
A roar made them all look upwards. Cora's veins chilled further, but this wasn't fear now. No, this was more than fear. This was the sound of a predator on the prowl when you were still far from home. This was the sound of wolves on your tail and no way to get to a tavern in time. This was cave bears in the darkness and fight or flight, pure and simple.
But there was nowhere to run, and as the thing blocked out the light above, Cora felt – beyond the fear all consuming – the very beginning of a spark. The spark to fight.
Clearly the beast felt it too, or at least the things clinging to it did. The screams, momentarily silenced, started up again as the creatures rappelled from the monster's hide and smashed into office buildings.
Steve was the first one to act.
"Stark, are you seeing this?"
"I'm seeing, still working on believing."
Cora echoed Stark's sentiments as she craned her neck further. His next sentence though had had her whipped around, with an explanation of "Dr Banner?"
Steve looked as confused as she did, but Stark's insistence that he be kept posted forced a glimmer of hope into Cora's heart.
In the next moment though that hope was replaced as she returned to follow the trajectory of the thing flying above and saw the damage it was wreaking.
"The buildings," She said softly. Then, louder as realisation hit her:
"We have to evacuate the buildings."
"We can't evacuate till we know where to evacuate to," Natasha replied while eyeing the ever emptying streets. "The streets are empty now but they'll be carnage if Loki lets any more of those things through the hole."
"That's not…" Cora pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to put her words in order. "That isn't what I'm worried about. The buildings might be safe now but what happened last time New York was attacked?"
Steve looked up at this, alarm in his eyes and a reminder in his expression that Cora hadn't got to that conversation, or the new age of terror that had followed it.
Natasha remained silent. The new agent, Hawkeye he had said his call sign was, turned to face her too. Amidst the dust and rubble and screaming, Cora had the floor.
"Last time this happened, aircraft falling from the sky and fear descending with it, what happened?" She didn't give them time to interject, didn't have time to spare. "People panicked, couldn't access information because the cell towers were inundated with traffic. They assumed someone would come to help and they broke the protocol to evacuate. What did they do?"
"They went up," Natasha said quietly in realisation as Cora, more loudly, pointed to the sky.
"Up," She confirmed. "They went up and assumed someone would airlift them to safety."
"That was then," Hawkeye interjected grimly. "Surely they learnt, we all learnt, that going up was a mistake."
"A quinjet barrels past office windows at speed. Above an object beyond the human imagination smashes through buildings and drops off its soldiers to fire indiscriminately. Whatever lessons have been learnt are going up in smoke. They will go up, and again there will be no one there to save them."
There was silence for a minute.
"Go," Natasha said as she readied her weapon for the next wave of alien soldiers.
Cora nodded, already looking for the nearest building as she stepped away.
"Wait," Steve grabbed her arm, pulling her in close as a flash of energy ricocheted off his shield in front of them.
Cora peaked around the shield to see the approaching enemies and gulped even as the resolve settled like lead in her stomach.
"You can't promise you'll be safe," She looked up at Steve's desperate expression. "Don't expect me to promise it either."
Before he could reply she was pulling from his grasp, scrambling over debris as she set her sights on the nearest door. The sound of pulsating energy echoed in her wake.
aAa
The door had been barricaded from the inside. Making a shield with her hands, Cora could just about see a cowering figure behind the front desk as she squinted through the glass. Stepping back from the building, Cora could see flames above her, just as she could hear the faint sounds of screams from inside the skyscraper.
Cora had only needed to break down a door once before. An old lock mechanism and a warm day had caused a door in her flat to stick, and with her flatmate's diabetes medicine behind the closed door, Cora had given it her best shot at forcing her way through.
She had been bruised for days.
Now though, with the knowledge of metal bones in her mind, all it took was a quick sizing up of the weakest looking part and a clumsy but determined high kick.
The door burst inwards. Cora was quick to follow it, and was already re-barricading the entrance by the time the aliens had turned towards the sound.
The foyer was dim and dusty. Papers were strewn over the floor, coffee cups pooling still steaming liquid to create a slushy quagmire underfoot. Behind the front desk three employers huddled: a receptionist with tears in his suit shaking next to a security guard, who in turn had his arm around a bike courier. The latter looked up as Cora approached, her eyes wide and unblinking.
"Does this building have underground storage?" Cora asked quickly and what she hoped came off as calmly.
No one answered.
"Look, I know you're scared but I am here to help, and I need to know whether there is subterranean access from inside the building. Doesn't matter what kind. Basements, access tunnels, underground parking…?"
"Basements," The receptionist spoke up, his voice hoarse. "There are basements. The servers are down there, if they haven't been fried already."
"Good, basements we can work with," Cora processed as she scanned the room. "Which company is this?"
"DocuTec," The security guard spoke up this time. On seeing Cora's lack of recognition he continued. "We process data for mega-corporations. Stark Industries holds some of their employer data here."
Small world, Cora thought dryly.
"Are we under attack?" The receptionist's voice raised an octave.
"Uh…yes," Cora conciliated. "But…but not by a foreign power or militant threat."
"So they aren't coming for our servers," The security guard caught on.
"No more than they're coming for any other civilian in the city," Cora said grimly.
"Oh God," The courier squeaked from beneath the security guard's arm. "We're all going to die."
"No," Cora said firmly as she gestured for the employees to get up. "What you are going to do is march down to the basements and make it a safe space for everyone else in this office to hole up. You," She turned to the receptionist, "You are going to give me the fire marshalling equipment as well as a map of each floor. Security Guy, "She turned to him with an apologetic look for having to forego names, "You are going to set off the fire alarms and stand at the bottom of the stairwell to lead people to the basement, where Courier Girl will wait and keep everyone calm."
Cora looked at the three people in front of her and tried not to memorise their faces. Just in case something goes wrong, she told herself selfishly, don't remember a face to haunt your dreams and hold you accountable.
"What you are not going to do, what we are not going to do, is die today. Do you understand?"
Three shaky nods. Three faces committed to memory however hard she tried to prevent it.
"OK," Cora accepted the fluorescent tabard and hard hat from the receptionist while trying not to laugh at the stupidity of it all. The tabard added another layer of bulk on top of the flight jacket, while the helmet brim slid down over her eyes every time she moved her head. Still, it would have to do. Consulting the clipboard floor plan handed to her once the helmet was positioned; Cora bit her lip before heading for the stairs.
"Wait," The courier called out as the historian pushed open the bottom fire door. "Who are you?"
"I'm nobody," Cora turned one last time to the foyer, meeting the eyes of each person in turn. "You, on the other hand, are the ones that are going to save DocuTec."
The fire alarm started to ring. With a nod to the security guard, Cora adjusted her hard hat and started to climb.
aAa
Steve followed the sound of shots to the police officers.
The déjà vu was almost too much to fully process. He had thought the sound of real gunfire would feel familiar given his experience, but the high pitched blasts of the Chitauri weapons sounded familiar too - echoing through his mind to a mountain under a snow and too many rushed goodbyes.
All this though was but a fleeting thought in the back of his mind. His preoccupation lay in falling into the familiar rhythms his enhanced body allowed in order to dodge death and keep on running.
"We need to hold out!" A young police officer was yelling up ahead. "It's going to be an hour before they can scramble the National Guard!"
"National Guard?" Steve heard the police sergeant's response as he got closer to the scene. "Does the army know what's happening here?"
"Do we?" The panicked response marked Steve's entrance.
"I need men in these buildings," He ordered. "There are people inside that can run into the line of fire" Not to mention Cora's insistence that they would run even closer to the danger by going to the rooves.
"You take them through the basements or the subway," He continued," Keep them off the streets"
He had no idea if what he was saying was being received, but the sound of approaching enemy fire had him continuing on regardless.
"I need a perimeter as far back as 39th. We're working to contain the fighting to as small an area as possible, minimise the casualties as best we can."
"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" The sergeant challenged, but Steve was only half listening as an explosion forced a rush of hot air and debris around him.
The movements that followed weren't calculated or strategized. The two Chitauri had the surprise of an ambush on their side for a moment, but soon they were falling under Steve's ingrained training and a few well-placed punches. After it was over he stood, Chitauri weapon in one hand, shield in the other.
"I need men in these buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as the 39th…" The sergeant's commands faded out as he regrouped with his officers.
Yeah, Steve thought as he caught his breath, that's what I thought.
aAa
Cora was thankful for the cool air, however much the view from DocuTec's roof chilled her in other ways as well.
The building's damage had been minimal. The workers were scared, some angry, and some hysterical enough that she had had to force them downwards and into the arms of more cooperative employees. But the hard hat and her own determined demeanour had worked, and barring the four people crushed by a damaged support beam, everyone seemed to be accounted for.
Four people dead and you just shrug it off, her mind reprimanded. When had witnessing four deaths first-hand become so blasé? And will it ever not be again, Cora daren't let herself add.
No, instead focus on the practical things that can make this somewhat better. Number 1: the flight jacket.
Peeling it off, Cora hissed in discomfort as the slits in her suit met the open air. Another reminder of the world turned upside down. Looking around her as if the roof would have a clothing rack handy, Cora remembered the fluorescent tabard and shrugged it back on over her suit. It wasn't much, and fluorescent orange was hardly an inconspicuous colour, but it was better than the heat of the bulky yellow coat and in the grand scheme of things it seemed trivial to be complaining.
With that out of the way, Cora made for the internal stairs again. Time to bid DocuTec behind and repeat the process all over again next door.
So many buildings, she thought as she looked at the skyline. So many lives.
A guttural shriek pushed the historian from her thoughts. The thing, the monstrous Leviathan of horror film proportions, bellowed as Stark sent small missiles into its hide. Its scales rippled like a well-oiled machine as slowly, slowly, it turned to follow the super-suited man now hightailing it in the opposite direction.
Cora winced as she saw and heard the crushing of glass and concrete as the beast clipped a building as it turned.
No sooner had she turned her attention to the leviathan's trajectory- already reprioritising the next building to evacuate based on where it seemed to be heading next – then lightening suddenly lit up the sky with a deafening crack as something plummeted past her rooftop.
All apprehension about the heights forgotten, Cora rushed to the building's edge and leant over the roof's railing. If she craned her neck she could just about make out Steve, Natasha and Hawkeye in a huddle – strewn alien bodies around them. As she watched, the lightening thing touched down beside them and with a start she realised it was the man from the Helicarrier, complete with cape and a hammer that crackled with energy.
Just another thing to process later, Cora told herself with a sigh.
The group on the ground were talking, but Cora was none the wiser as clearly the cape-guy hadn't got an earpiece. Stark however inadvertently looped her back into the discussion as he crackled over the comm:
"Thor is right. We gotta deal with these guys."
Well that didn't clear much up.
Natasha's voice was next in Cora's ear:
"How do we do this?"
Followed by Steve's voice, which Cora would be kidding herself if she didn't admit made her feel just a little bit safer as he stated: " As a team."
That still didn't give Cora much of an indication of the plan going forward, but any thoughts about that were again cut off by the faint sound of a motor. As Steve continued to crackle in her ear, Cora followed the sound and then gasped.
It was dusty and she was a long way up, but the man riding the motorbike was unmistakable even from a distance.
Dr Banner…how?
"Stark, we've got him," Steve affirmed Cora's disbelief.
"Banner?"
"Just like you said."
"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."
Cora looked up in alarm. It was like the air pressure had changed, like when a ship breaks a wake on water but in the air. Something big must have turned, or stopped or-
The leviathan exploded through the building opposite. The force of it sent small fragments of brick and cement cascading onto Coraline's slightly lower roof, forcing the historian to a crouch as she shielded her face.
From below her there was a roar, primal as the screams that echoed around it when the leviathan returned in kind.
Cora shielded her eyes as heat and fire billowed upwards. There isn't time to consider what just happened, only enough to scramble for the edge of the building and peer down, frantic gaze settling in relief when she can account for all members of their motely crew.
"That better have looked as epic as it sounded," Cora quipped in tired relief.
From her perch she watched as those on the ground looked up, each spinning till they spied her position.
"Care to join us, Quinn," Stark waved comically.
"Uhhh…" Cora looked to the entrance to the stairs and then back to the streets below. "It's ok. Read me into the plan and I'll catch you guys up."
Another bellow from above them drew their combined attention skyward, and Cora felt the pit grow heavier in her stomach as she watched more monsters descend on the city.
"Call it Cap," Stark said grimly.
"Alright, listen up," Steve sounded so different, Cora thought as she listened to the plan. So certain, so determined. In his element.
"Until we can close that portal up there, all we need is containment. Cora, there are still civilians in these buildings, do you think you can keep evacuating them?"
"Of course," Cora picked up the hard hat as she backed away from the edge. "Try not to destroy them before I can get people out."
"Copy that," Steve said before continuing, "Barton, I want you on that roof…"
Cora let him fade out as she reached the stairwell door. Behind her she could hear the sound of crumbling masonry. So much for keeping the buildings intact.
aAa
15 breathless minutes later and she was on a different rooftop, hard hat long since discarded and dread getting closer to spill over from its stomach pit as she saw how much still had to be done.
Something had bulldozed past her as she evacuated the 19th floor. Part of her, the human, fear driven part of her still reeling in disbelief at every scream and grunt, had wanted to stop and stare at the mass of green rage tunnelling through the office cubicles. One look at the monsters clambering through the windows though and Cora had put it aside, shielding the last of the office workers with her clipboard as they ran for the stairwell.
Use the wings; a nagging voice in her head reminded her at every scratch of masonry on her skin.
The spike of fear that radiated through her at the thought of becoming the other she was meant to be was response enough.
Evacuating was getting easier now that the emergency services were assisting the effort. A glance at the building opposite confirmed Cora's suspicions that it had already been cleared. Or at the very least there are so few people left inside that it merits skipping over them and hoping for the best.
Around her the air was alive with the crackle of lightening and the sounds of the alien crafts circling overhead. There hadn't been one of their space whales in a while which Cora was thankful for. The small window of relative quiet gave her enough time to take the stairs more slowly in the next building.
Two steps toward the stairwell and the quiet was broken not by the sound of explosions beneath her, but by the thud of footsteps in her shadow and the prick of a blade at her back.
She was surrounded. Two aliens in front of her and by the sounds of it another two behind. And between them all a Trickster God with the sceptre still firmly pressed between her shoulder blades.
Cora waited for the panic, the same cold fear that had consumed her back when facing her death on the Helicarrier. It didn't come. She braced herself for the adrenalin of the Eyrie tech and its supposed protective mechanisms. She remained numb.
No plans. No quick thinking ideas. No way her usual blend of sarcasm and snark could get her out of trouble a second time in as many days.
"Just do it," She whispered in defeat.
There was a pause. Cora shut her eyes.
Then…movement. Leather's tell-tale creek as someone moved in front of her. The feel of a hand, tilting up her chin and a voice, soft in its curiosity:
"What have they done to you?"
Cora opened her eyes and did anything she could to avoid Loki's gaze.
"Ah, ah, ah," He tightened his grasp on her face and leant inwards. "Your eyes are so beautifully defeated. It would be such a waste to destroy all that now when the sport's gone out of it.
Cora winced as his grip tightened, but her expression quickly shifted to wide eyed horror as she watched from behind Loki's shoulder as one of the behemoth beasts forced its way through the middle stories of an office block. An office block she hadn't evacuated yet.
"All those people," She choked out as her knees went weak.
"Sentiment," Loki adjusted his grip so that he was holding Cora with a fist clenched into her uniform front. His tone was scolding, but lacked the barb the historian had been stung with at their last encounter.
"And they have left you all alone," Loki continued as he regarded the woman wilting in front of him. "Alone and defenceless with a burden you could never hope to lift. All those lives. All on your conscience. Dying because of you."
He pushed her then, and Cora fell, hating her weakness as she did.
Loki raised the sceptre to her heart as he towered over her. Cora watched as it glowed above her and followed the wispy blue light up the staff to Loki's hardening gaze.
"It would be a mercy to kill a Midguardian so weak," Was this to be her death sentence, Cora mused as she heard the damaged office building collapse downwards.
"But you mocked my wrath aboard your flying warship," Loki continued with a sneer. "So I shall be as merciless as your petty dictators, and let my 'borrowed' army deliver my clemency instead."
Loki took a step backwards and Cora willed her body back into action as the alien sentries readied their weapons.
That was when she felt the stirring. She had felt it when she'd jumped from the Helicarrier's edge, and remembered it from one of the first training sessions she had been forced to forget – a day when the silent instructor had thrown her from the sky and watched from the plane as her wings kicked into motion.
"No," Cora gasped as she felt her shoulder blades start to itch. She wanted to survive of course, but as Coraline, as a civilian. Not like this, not because of what they made me. "No, no, no, no, no."
Loki paused from his departure, his eyes clouding for a second as he watched the woman scrunch smaller beneath the scrutiny of his troops.
That was all the distraction Tony needed.
Cora heard the blast and tracked its trajectory even as Loki turned to face it.
The next thing she knew her hair was on end, her muscles taut with electrical charge as the beam came into contact and then ricocheted along the wings.
Her breathing was ragged as she attempted to swallow the pained scream and failed. The force of the blast sent static through her mind. This is what it feels like to short circuit, she thought grimly.
Loki stared at her with unbridled shock. He had seen the blast coming too, and was preparing to send the alien soldiers between him and it when the woman took their place. That was a shock in itself. The way wings had sprung from her shoulders and in a screech of metal deflected the shot only further served to silence the God.
Tony swore over the Comms.
"Loki got to Quinn."
"With the sceptre?" Hawkeye's reply was clipped.
"Unless you know of another reason she'd suddenly be protecting the megalomaniac?"
"No more," Cora panted as she met Loki's gaze. "No more deaths. I can't…"
She was cut off by another shot, another hiss as the metal deflected and sent stars behind her eyes.
"Repulsors are doing nothing. She keeps blocking them. What are the wings made of?"
"Your own side turning against you," Loki quipped as he watched the man cased in iron prepare for another shot. "What next, Midguardian?"
Cora tackled him.
Tony watched as the historian bundled into the God, grabbing him by the lapels as they struggled towards the edge of the roof. He waited with baited breath for them to go over the edge, and for the chance it would give him to sweep in and drag Cora away from the evil sonofabitch if necessary.
But that moment didn't come. Cora edged closer and closer, Loki giving it all he got but meeting a resistance he clearly hadn't been expecting. And then they were at the edge, but they weren't tipping over. Instead Cora was straightening, the wings folding close to her body as if she was going into a dive.
Cora didn't dive. Instead she shook Loki into submission, tightened her grip on his armour and backed up a few steps. Then she flashed back to a P.E. class from long ago and the feel of sand in her shoes as she stumbled her way through an athletics she never thought would come in handy.
Hop. One bounce forward, dragging the God with her.
Skip. Mount the too thin precipice border, swinging forward with the weight of the man clutched tightly to her.
Jump. Bring the boots together a la Dorothy and wish for –
"Aaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
aAa
When Cora was 16 she had gone on a school trip to a theme park. She wasn't one for rollercoasters but the spirit of the day and good old peer pressure had put her on one of the most iconic rides with all her classmates. Cora hadn't been fazed. She'd checked in advance and the MPH of the coaster didn't sound like much, slower than the speed the coach had gone to get them to the park. Child's play.
It wasn't.
Cora hadn't got better at judging speed, which she probably should have considered before she'd activated the boots. She'd read the average speed the goggle screen had provided and dismissed it like the fool she was.
She didn't know how far up they had gone. The minute the boots were activated it was all she could do to hang onto Loki and focus on staying vertical.
Now though, as the boots tapered out and the both of them fell several lurching feet before the wings kicked in, now she was very aware that they had gone a lot higher than she had planned.
Her ears rang. Her feet throbbed with the heat of the reactors under her heels. Loki, in front of her, dug his fingers tighter into her arms and bellowed:
"What in all the Nine Realms was that?"
"Call off your army!" Cora yelled in return.
"I thought you were certain they didn't belong to me!"
"I will drop you, you goat hat wearing oaf."
Loki raised an eyebrow at the historian. Coraline dropped him.
After a couple of seconds she swooped after him; catching him roughly before yanking him further upwards. The God was making a good show of being nonchalant but Cora could feel his heart through his armour.
"Call them off!" She leant in close before yelling in his ear.
"Arrgh," Loki winced away from the noise. Cora flexed her fingers so he dropped a few feet. He hissed in response while he clung ever tighter to her.
"Third time's the charm."
"If you think I would ever yield to such a monstrous, weak willed, creature as you then you are-"
Cora didn't let him finish. Instead she twisted one knee up between Loki's legs and kneed him, hard. If it worked on Chad the biophysicist….
Loki mewled. Coraline held in a smirk and clicked her heels.
"Do you see that," She hissed in his ear as they climbed higher and higher. "Look up now little Godling. If you do not call your army off I will fly as far as I far as I can out of this planet's atmosphere and let space take you. I'm betting you won't die, but you will drift, alone, in the silence, until your lifespan is up or something retched from another sun comes to sweep you away."
Loki gulped, audibly.
"So what will it be?" Cora figured she was about reaching the edge of her reach so hoped her bluff would work. Thankfully the oxygen of the suit would keep her stable at this high and altitude but she was relying on fear to give her lie weight before she had to go further.
"I…" Loki looked up, and then at her. His eyes were wide, his colour pale. "I can't."
"They're not yours," Cora wheezed. Wait…
"I can influence them but I can't … I can't call them off. There will be war, I cannot stop it," Loki babbled.
Cora processed, then processed some more, then blinked slowly. They were still a long way from space. Her goggles should tell her the altitude, but they weren't working. No, wait…
She felt her stomach drop just as her vision went spotty.
She wasn't wearing the goggles. Or the mask. Both were around her neck. How could she have been so stupid? How could she not have noticed?
Cora let go of Loki with one hand. Wildly she reached for her neck, trying to locate her mask while her head swam.
"Are you mad?" Loki grabbed her free arm, bringing it around his back in an embrace as he clung to her. "I've admitted my sins; now get us down to the ground before you kill us both above the cloud line."
The feel of wind on Cora's face made her realise they were still climbing. Hazily she clicked her heels to silence the boots. In the quietening air she could here herself panting. Again she twisted, fumbled for her mask. Again Loki tightened his grip. HIs voice was laced with fear, even as he snarled:
"Midguardian."
"Mask," Cora choked, willing him to understand. Her words were lost to the wind. Uh oh, she thought.
As her world went dim she vaguely remembered the yells of one of her forgotten instructors for what to do in the case of the worst of what ifs.
This will hurt; her thoughts floated around her as she willed her wings to a halt and tucked them tight to her back.
For a moment there was silence, as if the whole world had been put on pause. Then the weight of Loki overpowered the barely conscious historian and they tipped backwards into a freefall.
aAa
Cliff-hanger as per usual, but again a sincere promise that more is coming soon. I hope my slight tweaking of the Battle of New York timeline won't ruffle too many feathers, nor my depictions of what I imagine the grass roots experience of the events would be. Come back next time for Loki and Cora's uncharitable skydive, 101 reasons to trust your teammates and a long walk up Park Avenue.
Nixdragon: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing – I tried PMing you but as that didn't work you get special anon treatment for your review. I'm really glad you liked the chapter, and your review made me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoyed this one too!
Miraluc: Yaaaas. Thank you for your review!
Anonymouscsifan: Tony will definitely have design ideas, you know him well! Also I was wondering if anyone would pick up on the Peggy front. I deliberately left it ambiguous because of timelines but I like to think it was her, even if the MCU doesn't quite fit it date wise. Thank you as always for your review!
As always, let me know any thoughts, comments, questions, screams of frustration, theories, unintelligible yelling. I cherish every comment.
