That's the last chapter! Thanks for reading along and reviewing!
Steve had to put a little more effort into his hits with the makeshift shield, but his team was doing pretty good covering him and Bruce still had to get to the highest point so they could reset the MEB.
He could feel Bucky following him and his already messed up lungs beginning to strain, but kept going, scrambling up to a stable point on the pile so he could bat Chitauri away from Banner.
He tossed pieces of debris, ducking the rocks Bucky shot with pinpoint accuracy at the aliens, making their armor spark and screech unpleasantly.
Bruce pulled himself over a particularly tricky piece of debris, dust raining down, and finally struggled up to the very top.
"Bruce, you have to do it now!"
Steve said.
The scientist stared down at him with wide eyes.
"That's an order!"
He barked out, then whacked a Chitauri away and turned to Bucky.
Steve moved his mouth to say something, then shrugged and went in for an extremely tight hug, burying his face in his friend's shoulder.
Bruce made a victorious sound from up above, and there was a brilliant, purple flash of light.
When it faded, every last one of the time travellers were gone, as were the aliens. All that remained was Steve, still in Bucky's arms. He blinked dazedly up at his friend.
"Buck? What happened?"
Bucky looked around at the pile of rubble, and the slingshot in his hand, and the slightly purple tinge to the air left over from the MEB.
"Honestly, pal, I have no idea."
Steve coughed, waving the smoke out of his face. When it cleared, he saw they were back in the lab, all sprawled basically next to each other or on top of each other.
A couple of shocked scientists stared back at them, their mouths agape. Steve noticed with no small measure of relief that he was back to regular size again, and the Chitauri hadn't been transported with them. They must have been sent to their own dimension, a problem for another day.
Tony coughed from the floor, then sneezed.
"You can all go."
He dismissed, waving a hand.
The scientists stared, then scurried away as the hand began to flap more insistently.
Clint groaned, disentangling himself from Natasha's legs and Bruce's torso.
"Who wants to visit some dinosaurs?"
He asked, grinning.