Five
"It's a thing with me. Stark is- he's a sickness!"
Thor, Steve, my dad and I dropped down from the roof, and I glared at the two people beside Ultron, who had been dubbed the Witch Twins: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.
"Ah, Junior, you're gonna break your old man's heart."
"If I have to..." Ultron deadpanned, eyes flickering between Dad and I.
"We don't have to break anything," Thor said calmly, not taking his eyes off of Ultron.
"Clearly you've never made an omelette."
"Damn it!" I cursed, stamping my foot, and glaring at the seven foot robot in front of me. "He beat me by one second!"
"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" the boy (Pietro) said, staring intently.
"This was never my life..." Dad murmured, and I could imagine his eyes softening behind his metal face-plate.
"You two can still walk away from this," I urged, my eyes flickering first between the twins, then them and Ultron.
"Oh, we will." Ultron assured us, his bright red eyes now landing on me. I felt goose-bumps erupt down my arms, and my eyes narrowed, stance shifting subtly.
"I know you've suffered-"
"Uuughh!" Ultron groaned theatrically. "Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," Thor tried to persuade, stepping forward slightly.
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet..." the giant robot mused sarcastically. I was starting to really hate this A.I.
"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?"
"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" The Legion appeared out of nowhere, sending Steve, Thor and I flying. As I got to my feet, I saw Ultron and my dad blasting up through the ceiling, leaving us three alone.
Power immediately crackled in my hands, and I sent high energy pulses at each Legionnaire, their programs shorting out before Ultron zipped in remotely and rebooted them. After realising that my energy bolts weren't doing much but slowing the enemy down fractionally, I began to take more time and power, focusing intently on each robot, and telekinetically pulling them apart.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the Enhanced with the witchy voo-doo sneaking up behind Thor, and sending a cloud of red mist into his head. I took in the fact that Steve walked over to check on him, and satisfied that he was fine, I turned to carry on fighting.
Klaue's lackeys had joined in by this time, so I erected a few blue energy shields, so that I could protect myself and others from any gunfire. I saw Clint and Natasha fighting at opposite ends of the warehouse, and smiled to myself. These people were going down.
I was just about to move to higher ground, and pick off people from above, when a prickling appeared my mind. I whirled about, and made out the back of the Wanda girl disappearing. I was quickly filled with a sense of rage, and I reached out for her mentally, hooking onto her conscious with an iron grasp. I still felt the prickling which refused to let up, but while I was conscious of it, I knew I could fight the effects.
I sensed more than heard Wanda as she cried out, and collapsed to the floor as my hold on her mind tightened. I trawled through her memory and conscious, quickly ascertaining what exactly her powers consisted of. I saw faint images of Ultron's plans, and was just moving onto what she did to Thor and how to reverse it, when something flashed past me, yanking me along by the arm at such a speed that I was thrown clear across the warehouse, my shoulder popping clean out of its socket.
I crashed into the wall headfirst, and in the briefest moments of clarity I had, I knew I wouldn't be able to heal fast enough to stay conscious. I quickly built a glowing sphere of magic around me to protect myself, and then finally closed my eyes, succumbing to the blackness as the prickling increased, and invaded my head completely.
"Dad?" I call, as I walk into the briefing room. Odin steps out in front of me, his spear held tightly in his left hand, full golden armour gleaming brilliantly.
"Your time will come, mortal." he says gravely, just as he had when I went to Asgard to confront him. Then he suddenly diverges from the speech I remember. "Events were set in motion, and now the consequences will be known."
"What do you mean?!" I yell, but he just stares at me, before melting into the air. I run across the room, and dart down the corridor, yelling out for anyone; everyone. I reach the first body within a minute.
Agent Maria Hill lies slumped over a crate, blood trickling from her mouth, her glassy eyes staring unseeingly down the hall ahead of me. I gulp down deep breaths of air, and keep running, the hall stretching out in front of me forever, indefinitely curving to the left. I pass body after body, only stopping long enough to discern their identity, and how they died.
Nick Fury; Clint; Natasha; Steve; Bruce...
I finally come to a short, straight stretch of corridor, and I tear along it without hesitating, quickly emerging into a large, circular room. I recognise it all too well, and my breathing stops, heart rate picking up.
I look around the containment room, and as my eyes land on Phil Coulson, I relax. He hunches in the shadows, looking around cautiously for something, but I'm not worried about that right now. I take a step forwards, and call out,
"Phil!"
He whirls to face me, eyes wide, and mouth opening to say something. But he is interrupted by a silky voice.
"Found you..."
Phil gasps, and staggers a step forward, hands moving to his chest. I seem to move in slow motion: my eyes slowly travel to the front of his fresh white shirt, and my mouth slowly drops open as red blooms across the stark fabric. Phil coughs, and blood bursts from his lips, staining his chin, and splattering on the ground below us.
"PHIL!" I scream, lurching forward. But it seems as though I am a spectator to what is going on here. I see my arm reach for him in slow motion, Phil drops slowly, revealing a maniacally grinning Loki behind him, eyes burning bright blue, crimson staining the blade of his sceptre.
He holds it up to point at me, and all motion I was achieving stops. My body is frozen, but I am still aware, still able to look around, feel my breathing and heart rate escalate. I watch, horrified, as Loki constructs an illusion in front of the doors to the cylindrical cell, watch as Thor barrels into the room, and right through the illusion, being locked in by the real Loki.
But instead of dropping the cell as he did last time, he walks up to the glass, and places his hand on it. I watch as blue rapidly creeps along his hand, the red of his eyes reflect off the glass. Frost begins to gather on the glass around his hand, slowly but surely encompassing the whole surface of the cell.
I see Thor's breath becoming visible, small icicles begin to form from the condensation that now coats the ceiling of the cell. Ice blankets the floor, and the glass becomes harder and harder to see through. For some reason, Mjolnir has disappeared, and so Thor is left to hammer empty handed on the glass, and beg for Loki to stop, for me to come to his aid.
But am I frozen, and Thor is starting to reach the same state. From what little I can make out, his skin is taking on a bluish tint, and he shivers violently. The glass now frosts over completely white, and all visual aid I have is eliminated. After a few more minutes of begging, roaring, and pounding, everything suddenly falls still. I don't need the use of my magic to know that Thor has perished: that he lies stiff and still inside that cell, dead at the hands of his brother.
Loki finally removes his hand, but his Frost Giant appearance doesn't fade.
Suddenly my dad comes charging into the room, contained in his Mark 42 Iron Man suit, his repulsors already shooting blasts at Loki. He doesn't even flinch: he lifts his hand, constructing a wall of ice to stop the blasts from reaching him, and flicks the same hand again, conjuring a giant icicle, and sending it hurtling for my dad's chest.
It slams through his chest with ease, and with so much force that he flies across the room, before being pegged to the wall, the icicle melting and warping as his blood gushes over it. This whole time I have been trying to scream, cry, move, do anything, but I am still frozen.
Loki now blinks, not having taken his eyes from me, and I am free. I drop to the floor, tears now leaking down my cheeks, as I scream, sob, and bang the floor with my fists. But I make no noise. The only noise in the whole room, the whole blasted Helicarrier is the sound of Loki's boots on the metal grating as he makes his way closer.
He crouches in front of me, and tilts my head up with one blue finger. I shriek, and try to jerk away as his icy skin sends a flash burn of cold across, and deep into, my skin. I seem to be frozen again though; my knees glued to the floor, arms stuck in place, chin joined to his fingertip. I can wriggle slightly, and do so to the best of my ability, suffering in silence while the frost races across my skin.
"Foolish mortal," he hisses, his eyes flaring a brighter red. "You thought you could influence me... change me... That I could be redeemed. I lied to you, and you believed me, you silly, ignorant chit! I am Loki of Jotunheim, God of Mischief and Lies! I will not be swayed!" His voice rises to a painful decibel, and tiny flecks of spit hit my face.
"Why..?!" I manage to choke out, my lips ripping as the effort of speaking separates the ice sealing my lips. Blood pours down my chin, and into my mouth, freezing into thick, crusty rivers almost instantly.
"You will know why..." he promises lowly, suddenly standing. He flips his sceptre in one hand, and places the tip of the blade on my forehead. I look up at him, my body now a numb, burning hunk of frozen flesh. His skin is back to normal, but something else is wrong with his eyes now. They are a bright lilac colour, a mad flame burning there.
"This is the end, mortal." His voice is deep, powerful, rolling around us. He gestures with his left hand, and my eyes flick side-to side, taking in the vast expanse of space around us. We are now on a small platform of rock floating through the cosmos. Planets and entire solar systems are disintegrating around us, all of the cosmic debris being funnelled down, and out of my sight line. I look back to Loki, to see a huge alien in his place, purple scaly skin, and golden armour, a golden gauntlet cloaking his left hand. He holds the sceptre in his bare right hand, still held at my head.
"And finally, the cosmos is mine..." he murmurs, the fire burning more brightly in his eyes as they take in the destruction. His gaze lands on me again, and he almost seems sorry. "It is almost sad, the lengths you humans go to protect what is not yours; to protect what you will inevitably lose. This is your end. Any last words?"
My mouth is completely covered now, and so I just glare at the creature in front of me. He chuckles fondly, while his hand slowly tightens on the sceptre.
"A shame: such a pretty mortal. Say hello to your little god for me when you wake."
And he plunges the blade into my head.