Tony burst through the Leviathan and slammed into a phone booth. He stood up, only to be fired on by more Chitauri.
Dark blue and silver cut the sky.
"Izzy!" he yelled into the helmet.
"Stark, you know all of us have to listen, right? That hurts," said Cap. "Miss Stark? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help. I can't just sit and watch, Tony, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."
"Get out of here!"
Izzy dropped down next to him. "I'm sorry, Tony. But I didn't fly all the way here just to leave." She fired her repulsors at a Chitauri.
She wasn't going to leave, no matter what he said or did. "You're so grounded after this."
Izzy didn't respond, but instead dodged a shot from an alien and blew backwards through a wall.
"Yes, well, if we don't win this, it won't really matter anyhow, will it?"
Such a pleasant reminder of what was at stake.
He fired at another Chitauri that had a weapon aimed at Capsicle.
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The battle had been well underway when she had arrived, and, with her appearance, the Chitauri had started thinning out. But Bella was already exhausted and in pain, and her armor, amazing as it was, couldn't fix broken ribs. And she wasn't in perfect shape, either. She had never been very strong – something she was working hard to fix, but it was slow going.
Bella fired at another Chitauri. The things just kept coming.
She normally liked having just repulsors. They were like a shield, rather than like a weapon. Less chance of anyone getting hurt.
Right now, though, she wanted some guns, too.
A Chitauri fired his weapon at her again. She dodged and sent him back through a wall.
So was what war was like. She'd spent her whole contributing to it, and now she was finally experiencing it.
It only made her regret it more.
They couldn't keep this up. Bella knew it. Everyone knew it, though no one admitted it out loud.
A car suddenly drove past, a Chitauri hanging onto the back, the occupants screaming.
Bella dove after it, grabbing onto the Chitauri and pulling it off. The car skidded to a halt in front of her as she grappled with the creature.
"Go!" she yelled. "Get out of here!"
Something stabbed into the front of her helmet and the alien got off her and ran for the car.
Bella reacted before she knew what she was doing. She jumped up, dropping between the car and the alien.
More of them surrounded the vehicle. Apparently, they had identified Bella as a threat. Well, so they're not completely dumb.
Guns couldn't take care of all the creatures, not fast enough, not before they could get to the people in the car.
"JARVIS, put everything I've got into the repulsors," she ordered. "I've got a plan," she added, and related the details.
"Yes, Miss Stark."
"Get down!" she yelled to the occupants of the car – a family, a mother and father and two boys about her age. She jumped onto the roof and activated the repulsors, spinning in a circle as she did so, moving so fast she created a shield – a silver shield, keeping away the Chitauri, sending them flying backwards in buildings and far, far away.
After a moment, she stopped, breathing heavily for a moment. Her broken ribs screamed in pain.
One of the boys got out of the car.
"Are you alright?" asked Bella.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You're Bella Stark."
"Yes," she replied, flipping up her visor. "That I am. Sir, you need to get out of here," she said, addressing his father.
"You're a superhero," said the boy.
No, I'm not. Despite Loki inadvertently helping her to deal with some of her issues, she still didn't consider herself a hero. A hero wouldn't do any of the things she had, given choice or not.
She brushed the thought aside. All that could wait until after the battle.
But while she was thinking about it, she'd have to pick out a name for herself before the media did it for her after the invasion. They'd given Tony his, though, granted, it was actually a pretty good one.
But that could wait. There were aliens to kill first.
That sounded like something from a science fiction movie or one of the video games she occasionally played with Tony. Not something she should say and actually mean. What went wrong?
"You should get off the streets, find somewhere to hide," advised Bella, and gave them directions to a spot she'd heard the captain send several people.
"What are you going to do?" asked the boy.
"I'm going to help. It's what I do." What she did now. Now she – along with the rest of the team, were like a shield, protecting people from Loki's army of aliens. She supposed that was what superheroes were. A shield, between humanity and threats like Loki and the Chitauri.
She took off again.
"Nice move with the repulsors there," said Agent Barton. "Was worried there for a minute, though."
"Yes, well, I seem to be hard to kill." She winced, realizing how that must sound when Loki had dropped her out of the helicarrier with Barton standing by, watching. She didn't know what or how much or how well he remembered his time working for Loki, and didn't want to remind him about it.
She flew past Stark Tower – only the "A" remained from the word "Stark" on the building –and past Hawkeye, who was positioned on a rooftop and waved as she streaked past him. She dropped down in between Agent Romanoff and Captain Rogers, firing.
"Anything to report?" asked the captain.
"No. Same as it's been for the last while. Something has to change for us to win this, and it had better be soon."