Natasha, Captain and Hawkeye all got into a small aircraft while Tony and I put on our suits. After my suit booted up, I looked at Tony's suit. It looked like it got attacked by one of those car crusher things.
"You sure it'll make it to New York?" I asked him.
"It's gonna have to." Tony answered as we walked to an exit door. "I have another in the tower."
"Tony, we haven't tested that yet. You sure you want to take the risk and have a chance of it not working?"
"I have to. How's your power?" I looked to the side of my screen.
"I'm good. You?" There was an uncomfortable hesitation.
"I'm good." He lied. I knew he was lying. The way he exhaled on good and the hesitation. I was about to say something but then decided not to. I knew he'll be fine once we get the other suit. We exit the main ship and started flying to New York with Hawkeye flying the small aircraft behind us. It took us about two hours to get there with Tony's jets going in and out. I stayed close to him just in case his jets went out for good. We approached Stark Tower and saw a reactor on the rooftop. Eric was by a computer typing something to power the reactor while Loki was on the other side of the roof watching us, making no movement.
"Sir, I've shut down the arc reactor but the device is already self sustaining." Jarvis said.
"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig."
"It's too late!" Eric yelled up at us. "She can't be stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe."
"OK." Tony blasted the device which protected itself with a barrier, knocking Eric into a wall and Tony and me back a couple of yards. We gained control of ourselves again.
"The barrier is pure energy." Jarvis said. "It's unbreachable."
"Yeah, I got that—plan B."
"Sir, the mark seven is not ready for deployment."
"Then skip the spinning rims! We're on the clock!" We landed on the platform and began to take off our suits. Loki watched us and followed us inside.
"Please tell me that you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki said once we were inside. I walked down the couple of steps to the main floor and stood still, my arms crossed behind my back. Tony was behind the bar, grabbing the whiskey.
"Uh, actually I'm planning on threatening you."
"You should have left your armor on for that."
"Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage and you got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"
"Stalling me won't change anything."
"No, no, no, threatening! No drink? You sure? I'm having one. You want one, Am?" I ignored him. I kept my eyes locked on Loki. I had my remote in my hand, ready to push the button at the moment Loki makes the wrong move.
"The army is coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"
"The avengers." Loki looked at us confusingly.
"It's what we call ourselves." I explained "Sort of like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes type thing."
"Yes, I've met them." Loki said.
"Yes, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one." Tony said. "But let's do a head count here. You brother, the demi god." Thor.
"A super soldier." I added. Steve Rogers/Captain America.
"A living legend who kind of lives up to the legend." Tony Stark/Iron Man.
"A chemistry genius who graduated from high school at age thirteen." Amber Pricing/Iron Boy.
"A man with breath taking anger management issues." Bruce Banner/The Hulk.
"A couple of master assassins." Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.
"And you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan." Loki said.
"Not a great plan." I said.
"When they come and they will come, they'll come for you." Tony said.
"I have an army."
"We have a hulk." I said.
"I thought that beast had wandered off—"
"That's not the point!" Tony insisted. "There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned well sure that we will avenge it!" Tony walked down the steps and stood by my side. Loki walked up to us.
"How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki tapped Tony's reactor with his scepter and nothing happened. Loki then tapped mine and nothing happened. "This usually works…"
"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five…" Loki back handed me across the cheek and I fell the ground, my remote leaving my hand. I felt my cheek swell as the blood rushed to it, trying to ease the pain. I looked to see Loki having Tony by under the chin and dragging him to the window.
"You will all fall before me."
"Deploy." Loki lifted Tony off the ground and threw him out the window. "Deploy!"
"Tony!"I yelled. A suit came out of the closet and followed after Tony out the window. I leapt for my remote and pushed the button. My suit came out of the floor and I ran to it as Loki shot at me. The suit snapped around me and I shot back at Loki which he dodged easily away from. I flew out the window just in time to see the suit engulf Tony and he flew up just before he hit the ground. He hovered in the window opening and faced Loki.
"There's one other person you managed to piss off. His name was Phil." Tony shot Loki and he fell to the ground. A large blue beam of light came out of the reactor behind us and lifted into the sky causing a dark blue spot in the clouds. Little tiny things came out of the sky. They got bigger as they got closer to the city. They were sliver and metal with electric blue eyes. Tony flew away firing at as many as he could. I went to the ground as the machines fired at people on the streets, making cars blow, uprooting the concrete. The machines just kept coming and coming and coming and coming and coming. And I kept, firing and shooting and killing and firing and killing. Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, a loud roar came from the portal. I looked up to see a long, large, machine come out. It had a face of a turtle and flippers like a dolphin. It was about a mile long and half mile wide.
"Oh, my god." I whispered. It came down onto the street and flew over it as more machines came out of it.
"Stark, Pricing, are you seeing this?" Captain asked us.
"Seeing, still working on believing." Tony said. "Where's Banner has he shown up yet?"
"Banner?"
"Just keep me posted. Jarvis, find me a soft spot."
"Don't be stupid and go after that thing alone, Tony." I said as I got back into the fight.
"Relax, Love." My ears were pounding with blood as I listened to the machines screech as they surrounded and fired at me. My nose burned with the smell of my own sweat as I fired at one after another. I too off into the air and found Natasha, Captain and Hawkeye and I landed beside them as Thor came out of the sky.
"What's the story upstairs?" Captain asked Thor.
"We can't get pass the barrier that surrounds the cube." Thor said.
"Thor's right." Tony said. "You got to deal with these guys."
"How do we do this?" I asked.
"As a team." Captain said.
"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor declared.
"Yeah?" Hawkeye questioned him as he fixed his arrows. "Well, get in line."
"Save it." Captain ordered. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we want. Without him these things can run wild. We got Stark up top. He's gonna need us—" Captain was cut off by the stuttering sound of a motorcycle. We looked behind us to see Bruce riding up to us. He turned off the engine, got off and walked over to us.
"This looks horrible." Bruce said.
"I've seen worse." Natasha said.
"Sorry."
"No, we could use a little worse right now."
"Tony, we've got him." I said.
"Banner?" Tony asked.
"Just like you said."
"Well, tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." A roar sounded out and Tony rounded a corner of a building down the street with one of those big huge machines behind him. Tony flew right over us and the machine flew its way towards us.
"I don't see how that's a party." Natasha said.
"Dr. Banner, I think now would be a good time to get angry." Captain said.
"That's my secret." Bruce said. "I'm always angry." Bruce turned to the machine and hulked out. He slammed his fist into the machine's head and the machine flipped over, dying. More roars sounded and I looked back up at the portal to see more large machine come out. Tony landed beside us as we looked at the machines climbing on the walls of the buildings, destroying cars and chasing after people.
"Call it, Cap." Tony said.
"All right, listen up." Captain said. "Until we can close that portal our priority's containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark and Pricing, you got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back around or you turn it to ash."
"Want to give me a lift?" Hawkeye asked Tony.
"Right." Tony sighed. "Better clench up, Legolas." Tony grabbed Hawkeye took straight off it the air and dropped him off on the rooftop before we headed out to the border of the city. "Amber, head east and I'll head west. We'll meet up and then we'll see what we've got." I nodded and flew off into the opposite direction.
"Pricing, you got a lot of strays on your tail."
"Just trying to keep them off the streets." I said.
"Find a tight corner." I rounded a corner then curved around another then dove to the ground to let Hawkeye do his thing. I turned on my back and fire at the strays behind me that Hawkeye didn't get. The adrenaline raced through my veins as my eyes flicked everywhere, energy taking over me. I flew up the side of a building knocking the machines off as I went. I then dove back down to the ground shooting at a group that was attacking Captain. I raced down another street and fired at a taxi causing it to blow up along with another group of these nasty critters. I went right past Tony who was heading in the opposite direction.
"How are we doing, Love?" Tony asked.
"Well, I don't know about you but I am on fire." I said. I landed and tore a machine in half that had Natasha pinned to the ground. I took off again and turned a corner and went to one side as Tony shot from the end of one of the big ones and crashed to the grounds. The big one crashed too and died as a bunch of little machines surrounded Tony who was still on the ground. I landed in front of Tony and fired at the group, killing them all. I turned to Tony and helped him up. "Dammit, Tony, what did I tell you about going after one of the big ones alone?"
"Sorry, Love." Tony took off and I flew away from him and I headed to help Bruce.
"I can close it." Natasha said. "Can anyone read me? I can close it."
"Do it!" Captain ordered.
"No." Tony said.
"Tony." I said as I fired at a machine.
"I got a nuke coming in less than a minute. I know just where to put it." Where? He puts it anywhere in these things are still going to come.
"Stark, you know that that's a one way trip." Captain said.
"Yep." What? What was a one way trip? I stopped fighting and looked around. I was so confused. What were Captain and Tony talking about? Tony flew right over me with the missile on his back. I followed him and predicted the path in front of him. It led straight to the portal. Then, it hit. It hit me like the Hulk's fist without my suit on.
"No." I breathed. "Tony, no."
"Keep her on the ground, Banner." I made a move to take off but Bruce grabbed me and held me to him. I kicked in my jets and tried to get out of his grip but I couldn't. Fear suffocated me. I couldn't breath. My stomach tossed and turned.
"Tony! No! Please!" Tears clouded my vision as I kept trying and trying to get out of Bruce's grip. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare go into the portal, Tony!"
"Sorry, Love." He flew up the tower and shot straight into the portal.
"No! Tony!" Tears streamed down from my eyes, tearing and cutting and ripping up my face and my heart. "No! Tony! Come back! Please! Come back!"
"Amber, I lo—"
"Communication lost, Ma'am." Jarvis said.
"No!" The fear and sorrow tore me apart. I broke free from Bruce and took flight but Thor grabbed me and pulled me back. "No! I got to save him! I have to save him! I have to! Please! Let go of me!"
"Close it." Captain said.
"No!" I screamed louder. "Don't! Please!" The portal grew smaller and smaller until it was no more. Thor let go of me and I flew to the ground, sorrow engulfing me as I screamed and screamed.
"Son of a gun." I looked up and through my tears I saw something falling from the gun. I blinked my eyes rapidly to clear them and I saw that it was Tony.
"He's not slowing down." Thor said. Before I could take flight, Bruce leapt forward and caught Tony out of midair and they fell to the ground. I raced down the street from them. I took Tony from Bruce and Thor ripped off his mask. I flipped my mask opened and laid Tony's head in my lap. Tony's eyes were closed and his reactor was out. He wasn't breathing.
"No." I sobbed. "Come on, Tony. Wake up. Come on, Tony, wake up. Come on, please. Don't you dare die on me. You hear me? Don't you dare." No movement. "Come on, Tony. I love you. I love you, Tony. You're the best thing in my life too. I don't think I'll be able to live without you. Please, wake up. Please." I sobbed even harder as Tony didn't move. Bruce let out a roar of vengeance and Tony jerked awake. His reactor glowed again and his brown eyes filled with life again. I laughed as more tears came out. This time tears of joy.
"What the hell?" Tony breathed. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."
"We won." Captain said. Tony sighed.
"All right. Hey. All right. 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 what it is, but I wanna try it."
"Hey, Tony?" I said.
"Yeah, Love?"
"Just shut the hell up." I laughed again and leaned down and pressed my lips to his.