EEK! thank you so much for the reviews! We are going to have quite a trip over the next couple weeks as i get chapters back from the amazing editor!
I Can Hear the Drums
By: Ezra Cross
Chapter 26
Trapped. Natasha Romanov did not tolerate that concept. She was never trapped. Never endured a mission that she couldn't get out. There was always something she could do or figure out. Right now was not like those times.
She worked with Pepper to stuff all of the contents of Tony's sock drawer against the door jamb to create a seal. JARVIS was down, the Tower must have taken a direct hit along the way. Pepper sailed across the room near the elevator shaft but it was still little more than a tower of flames and debris. They were not getting out that way. Three windows lined the wall across from them. Natasha went there first. She checked outside, looking to see if that poisonous cloud of yellow dust had settled completely over the city. What she found was a complete war.
Alfheimr's fighters hunted down the Kree ships and shot them out of the sky. With each explosion, the yellow mist spread. The Kree didn't care about winnng this fight, saving their men, or fighting another day. They only wanted utter decimation however it must come. Like Kamikazees they dropped out of the air and sailed toward the ground in entire squadrons. Manhattan was being destroyed, piece by piece, by that raining onslaught.
"Natasha." Pepper whispered, terrified.
They couldn't see the Voiya Rose or the jump ship that Rinon commanded to bring them to the Tower initially. There was nothing but the Alfheimr fighters and dying Kree.
"What are we going to do?" Pepper asked.
They had to get out. Bust the glass open and try to climb up to the landing strip. Rinon, Linnor, someone might see them there. Tony would never leave the planet without them, or at least without Pepper. This was Natasha's fault. She shouldn't have stopped to worry about something that could never happen. She'd let Rinon's ideas get into her head and look where that lead. If Pepper died here, Tony would never forgive her for it. He might even drop out of this war effort. What left would he have to fight for? Friendship? That was a thin line to walk when it came to him. How many times did his falling out with Steve affect the entire team? How many times had he abandoned them when they needed him most? Natasha wanted to focus on the task at hand, but it was difficult when she knew it to be a fruitless one. They were going to die at Stark Tower.
The elevator shaft cackled and crashed again as something overhead dislodged. The entire upper propulsion system went rocketing down to the wreckage below in a tangle of gears, wires, and concrete. Natasha was standing by the window with a chair in her hand ready to break right through it when Tony Stark appeared in his Iron Man suit. He hovered in the flames of the elevator shaft.
"What were you two doing? Painting your nails?!" he shouted through his audio system. "Don't you know there's a war going on?"
"Tony!" Pepper exclaimed.
"I can honestly say I've never been happier to see you." Natasha admitted, relaxing a little.
"Well that's a first. I should have recorded that." Tony said. He lifted his right hand, pointed his index finger and leveled it at Pepper. From the hole he made in the air shaft above, a second suit of armor came tumbling down one piece at a time. They adhered to Pepper's body in steady succession until lastly the faceplate dropped into place and her three dimensional display blinked to life. "Now you aren't allowed to say my Christmas gifts suck anymore."
Pepper glided over and threw her metal arms around his neck. "When I get out of this suit, I am going to kiss you!"
"Less talky, more move-y!" Stark glided to the side and sent her up the elevator shaft to the waiting ship hovering above them. He turned his attention downward, brought his hands together, and fired a repulsor blast into the shaft below. The concrete slab and remnants of the flaming elevator car dropped another few hundred feet, making it safe to bring Natasha out.
The assassin protected her hands from the heat on the outside of his suit by tucking them into her sleeves. She hopped onto his back and held on for dear life. They sailed upward to join Pepper in the cargo hold of the jump ship. Lirrie waited until they were settled inside before he accessed the door panel and slammed the hold shut. The hiss of an air tight seal made sure that whatever neurotoxin was wiping out human life did not penetrate the ship.
"Bruce!" Pepper exclaimed.
Natasha looked over and sure enough, Bruce Banner came sailing out of the cockpit to meet them. He accepted Pepper's embrace and reached a hand over to pat Natasha on the shoulder. He was smiling like a man released from a jail sentence. Tony detached his helmet and tucked it beneath his arm.
"Found him tearing up a pyramid ten minutes ago. I ran off to pick him up before the place went up in smoke. We thought you might show up here on one of the Kree ships." Tony explained. Lirrie tapped his shoulder and indicated the helmet. Tony smiled a little and handed it over. The elf was Rinon's armor bearer in war. He couldn't help himself.
"Has the love of my life survived the jaws of a Kree trap?" Linnor asked, stepped out behind Bruce. He flashed his saucy grin in Natasha's direction and winked.
It was times like these Natasha wished she had let Clint buy her a ring if only to see its indent on the faces of the men she punched. Linnor was a harmless womanizer, though. "You know, one of these days you are going to woo the wrong woman and some husband's going to knock you down with a baseball bat."
"Do not encourage him. He loves the chance to fight over a woman." Lirrie said with a smile.
"Where's Rinon?" she asked.
Linnor pointed up. "Sending the Midgardians through the portal to Xandar. He wishes for us to join him at once. There has been a transmission from Rellya of great importance, enough so he could not share. Reylano's voice shook when he told me of it, not an easy feat. Faraday pilots us there at once."
"Maybe Clint finally found the Infinity Gauntlet." Tony wondered hopefully.
"That I am not sure of."
Bruce looked between them all with no small amount of confusion. "Well, I guess this is the part where you all start filling me in on what just happened, how I got back to earth, and why there's no body left on it."
:(:):(:):
Clint stepped through the back door of Denali's house, sending a gentle nod toward the cross dresser's wife, who sat perched on a kitchen chair with one of their youngest girls in her arms. She smiled at him but made no other move. Peter Quill was sprawled on the granite-topped island a few feet away. Denali's oldest girl and one of his sons were working to stitch the man back together. It was an arduous battle, apparently, if the sweat on their brows held any indication.
"Geez, Barton, what the hell is going on out there? The whole city's freaking out! I've had five men pounding down my door looking for you!" Denali ushered the three men inside, stuck his head out into the daylight to check for followers, and sunk back in. He threw the door shut, flicking various lock bolts into place
"I found it," Clint said. He tapped the blood-stained jacket he wore.
Denali's eyes flicked down at the hidden treasure in Clint's jacket, then back up to the man's face. The progression repeated a few times while he came to grips with the precise nature of what was now under his roof. He started to shake his head.
"No, no, no, Clint, you can't stay here! Not with that! Every cut throat on this moon is searching for Terran blood. The only reason I got away with having Quill here was he's only half Terran. You've gotta get out of here!"
"Don't worry, I plan too. Loki?"
"Tied to my arm chair with the raccoon watching him. He made that portal, the one you asked for, but what's this all about?" Denali followed Clint into the next room where Rocket sat across from the dark prince himself. A considerable sized weapon rested comfortably in the lab experiment's hands. He had no qualms about pointing it at Loki's face.
"Denali, it's better you not know. Trust me," Clint replied.
"Trust you? I can't help but trust you. What are you going to do with that thing? Why are you covered in blood?"
Clint ignored the barrage of questions and leaned down to remove the gag someone, most likely Rocket, had tied to Loki's mouth. Loki made a big show of flexing his jaw to prove his discomfort. He also indicated the overkill of chains strapping him down.
"Is all of this—"
"It really is necessary," Clint cut him off. "You knew that Southling girl because you worked with her. She was an agent of Thanos like you were. She's dead now. Her bodies in my ship, and I'm taking her home. I'm going to stop Thanos anyway I can. Pym called the others. There is no way for Rinon and their armada to even reach Alfheimr before Thanos does. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm stopping him somehow. You, though, are staying right here. Pete lives, you live. He'll drop you off on Vanaheim where Asgard will take you into custody again. Pete dies," Clint roughly yanked the gag back up and through Loki's protests tied it back into place. The archer leaned forward a little, his lips a hairsbreadth from Loki's ear as he whispered for only the Frost Giant to hear. "If Pete dies, then I will tell Drax how to get you, how to torture you, how to strip away all those feelings you think you don't have. He wont kill you. I will. Any time I want."
Clint pulled away, a darkness falling into his gaze as he let the words pass between them. He hit Loki's shoulder with his hand where once Barton's arrow had pierced the Frost Giant through. A reminder of all that he was still capable of.
His attention turned to Gamora. "Watch him. He moves? Shoot him. No one is following us. Stay here with Quill. Once he can be moved, get out of this system. Rendezvous on Vanaheim."
"That doesn't make sense, you can't just go out there against Thanos alone! What are you going to do?" Rocket demanded, standing in his chair.
"You aren't coming," Clint told him flatly. "None of you are. The Milano's gone, I don't have time for you to tinker a bomb together, and Rocket, I need you watching Loki. Until Quill's on his feet, I'm leaving you in charge of the team."
Loki muffled a protest. Gamora looked up but said nothing against Barton's decision making. Clint turned from them and stalked out of the room. He cast a final glance toward Pete. He told himself the guardian would be all right, but he had no real way of knowing for sure. Denali's kids had talent in their crafts. He was in no better hands.
"Pym," Clint quipped.
"You can't take him!" Rocket exclaimed.
"He's got no choice. If a Terran stays here, those scoundrels out there combing the city are going to sniff him out and hang him for information." Denali spoke up. "If he stays, he's dead. He has to go."
Hank moved away from the hall and fell into step with Barton. Together they reached the front door. Denali jogged past them and stopped them. He placed a hand of Clint's arm.
"Look, Barton, I've known you a while. Be careful out there."
Clint scoffed. "Careful? Why? I've got Pym, the gauntlet of death, and an entire empire waiting to kill me. Worry about Pym. I don't die for another five and a half years." He tugged Pym's shirt and together, they slipped into the whirling winds of the desert moon.