Chapter 9: Something to Avenge
Adora groaned in pain, waking up next to Natasha and Bruce, with alarms blaring throughout the helicarrier. She noticed Natasha was stuck under debris and quickly tried to help lift it off her leg.
"Romanoff? Greyskull?" Fury's voice came through their comms.
"We're okay" she replied, wincing as Adora got her free and hugged her tight. That's when they both heard a growling sound behind him, and Adora noticed Bruce beginning to strain..she knew what was coming. "We're okay, right?"
"Doctor Banner. Bruce are you alright?" Adora nervously asked.
"This is just what Loki wants, you've got to fight it. We're gonna be okay!" Natrasha said, trying to calm Bruce down. Adora saw two workers coming over and motioned for them to run. They wisely agreed. "We're gonna be okay Alright? I swear on my life. I will get you out of this. You will walk away from this, you will never-"
"YOUR LIFE?!" Bruce yelled out, his voice already beginning to shift, and his skin beginning to turn Green. Adora ran over to him, only to be backhanded off the catwalk into a wall. Bruce then threw himself a bit away from the two, and briefly gave Natasha a frightened glance, before convulsing as the transformation completed.
The Hulk was loose.
"Nat, RUN!" Adora yelled as the Hulk locked eyes on Natasha and charged. Adora leapt on its back and put her stun rod around Hulk's neck as Natasha took off at a limping run. Hulk shook all over trying to throw Adora off, and eventually she tumbled down. As Hulk punched at her, Adora dodged and punched him in the face, hurting her hand.
"Adora get away from him, Hurry!" Nat yelled out, throwing a pipe to get Hulk's attention. This worked as Hulk began running after her. Adora knew Natasha wouldn't last long against Hulk, and began to move quickly to catch up with the two, grabbing the stun rod she'd dropped and shaking out the pain in her knuckles.
Natasha silently snuck through the maintenance halls, pistol at the ready. She knew it wouldn't do much against the Hulk, but it's the best she had. She could only hope Adora got away safely. She regretted her argument with her, and hoped Adora didn't hold any hard feelings. Damn Loki, that bastard had this all planned out! she thought in anger.
Suddenly, she could hear the Hulk's footsteps getting closer and was on her guard. As she checked around corners, there he was, roaring at her. Acting quick, she shot the pipe above his head spraying steam in his face. She then moved as fast as she could on her hurt ankle, running through a glass and metal corridor. Unfortunately the Hulk was hot on her heels and managed to land a solid hit, throwing her into a shipping crate.
As she looked up wincing in pain Adora suddenly leapt from above and landed on the Hulk's back. "Sorry about this Bruce..." she said jamming the Stun Rob into him and activating it, trying to shock him unconscious.. All this accomplished was getting her thrown into the container right next to Natasha. "Hey Nat..." she said softly getting to her feet and getting ready for a fight.
Before she had the chance Thor crashed into Hulk and moved him into another room.
Adora limped over to Natasha and hugged her, yet again. "You okay Natasha?"
"Not really.." Natasha admitted shaking a bit from her close call. "What about you? That looked rough..."
Adora let out a forced chuckle. "I've gotten hurt worse when I was training, as a kid." she replied. "Nat...I'm so sorry about the things I said...I didn't mean any of it.."
Natasha looked Adora in the eyes. "We both meant what we said... It was Loki. Somehow he made us say the harshest things that were in our minds." she said quietly. "Made our little grievances turn into full blown anger."
Adora shook her head. ""I blame myself more than you for losing Catra. I wasn't good enough to get her to come to SHIELD."
"And I've failed to find her like I promised. We both made mistakes." Natasha admitted holding Adora tightly. "I'm just happy you're safe… you shouldn't have fought the Hulk."
"I wasn't just gonna leave you to his mercy. I had to try and protect you Nat. You're like the mom I never had." Adora said, choking back tears.
The Helicarrier suddenly shifted and the PA system came online again. "Engine one offline. We are in an uncontrolled descent!"
Another voice came over, "Sir we've lost power in Engine one."
Fury's voiced came next, "It's Barton. He took down our systems. He's headed for the Detention level. Does anybody copy?"
Romanoff reached for her earpiece her and Adora exchanging a nod. "This is Agent Romanoff. I'm here with Agent Greyskull. We'll handle it." she took her hand off her earpiece.
Adora helped her stand, "Come on, Clint needs us." she said, and the two hurried to intercept Clint.
Clint was marching for the Detention block, his eyes glowing an eerie teal from Loki's power. Natasha came up behind him, and Clint swung around to fire an arrow. She caught his bow and struck him in the face, and Adora jumped onto the other side of the catwalk and put Clint in a headlock. This Allowed Nat to strike him in the face a few times. Clint elbowed Adora, knocking her off before swinging his bow at her head. She ducked underneath it and Natasha grabbed the bow string, in an attempt to keep Clint from using it. He managed to use the pull of the string to make it snap back into her face, but she still wrenched it out of his hands and threw it aside.
Clint then drew his combat knife and began slashing and stabbing at Natasha. Adora caught and twisted his arm, causing him to grunt in pain, but he just passed the knife to his other hand and struck at her, barely missing. Natasha caught Clint's head in a leg-scissor and flipped him to the ground. Before he got up, Adora leapt onto him and delivered two punches to the face intending to knock him out. Clint managed to recover and swing for her face with his knife so she backflipped off of him. Clint jumped to his feet and exchanged a few more blows with Natasha, getting into a grapple with the knife inches from her face. Adora delivered a swift strike to his spine to make him let go, and Nat redirected his momentum to slam his face into the railing.
Clint groaned, and looked up at the two weakly. "Natasha? Adora?" he said confused.
He seemed to be freed but they could both see his eyes still were glowing. To be safe, Adora slammed his head into the railing again knocking him out cold. "That mighta been a bit rough, Adora." Natasha said, catching her breath.
"I had to make sure he was really cured." Adora replied, before reaching for her own comm. "This is Agent Greyskull, need someone to come down and grab Agent Barton, we've subdued him."
As the two agents waited, they listened carefully to the news from elsewhere in the Helicarrier. Hulk had fallen from the carrier, Tony and Steve were working to get the engines running again, Thor was nowhere to be found. Eventually however, the word came through that the Helicarrier was saved, and no longer falling.
Sadly...that was not the only news.
"This is Director Fury...Agent Coulson is down."
"A Medical team is on the way."
"They're HERE. They called it..."
Adora slumped against the railing in shock at the news. She'd considered Phil a good friend, a partner. And now he was gone.
Adora Steve, Tony and Fury were on the bridge, gathered around the table in silence. Just by looking at her, Steve could tell Adora had been crying and moved his chair closer to her, rubbing her back to comfort her.
"These were in Coulson's jacket.." Fury said, throwing Coulson's Trading cards, stained with blood, across the table to Steve. "I guess he never did get you to sign them..." Steve reached over and picked one up, looking at the picture of his old costume and Shield on the front of it. Fury continued. "We're dead in the air up here. Our Communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor…. I've got nothing for you." Adora looked pver she'd never seen Fury so...broken. "I've lost my one good eye." Fury shook his head. "Maybe I had that coming.."
He began to walk around the table. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though," he admitted, walking behind a chair and leaning on it, "because I was playing something even riskier." Adora nodded, knowing exactly what Fury was talking about. "There was an idea, Stark and Greyskull know this, called the Avengers Initiative." He walked behind the three, stopping behind Adora. "The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together, when we needed them to. To fight the battles we never could." He looked over at Tony, who began to fidget, and was clearly having difficulty staying calm. "Phil Coulson died believing in that idea. In heroes." Tony suddenly stood up and left the room quickly. "Well….it's an old-fashioned notion."
Steve looked at Adora, "Did you know him well?" he asked, calmly.
"Phil? Y-yeah… apart from Agent Smith, Natasha and Clint, he was my main partner in SHIELD." she said. She smiled softly, "Never treated me like a kid. To him, I was a fellow Agent, nothing more, nothing less. I was an equal." She sighed heavily and hung her head. "I should have been there. I could have helped him..."
Steve shook his head, "If you were there Adora, we'd be burying you too. You can't blame yourself." he tried to explain.
Adora just stood up. "Excuse me, I need to go see how Clint's doing." She said, leaving the room in a hurry.
Adora made her way into the room where Natasha was watching over a restrained Clint.
"I've got no window. Have to flush him out." Clint said his eyes returning to normal.
"You've got to level out. It's gonna take time." Natasha replied, pouring some water as Adora walked in and sat down.
"You don't understand." Clint said, breathing heavy, "You ever have someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in. You know what it's like to be unmade?"
"You know that we both do." Natasha reminded him, pouring some water for Adora too.
Clint sat for a moment, just breathing slowly. "Why am I back? How'd you get him out." he asked.
"Cognitive Recalibration." Natasha replied.
Adora smirked, as best as she could, "We hit you really hard on the head." she translated.
"Thanks.." Clint said, as Natasha and Adora began unstrapping him. "Natasha….how many agents did I-"
"Don't." Natasha cut him off. "Don't do that to yourself Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, nothing any of us have trained for..."
"Loki, did he get away?" Clint asked. Adora silently nodded.
"He did...took out Phil in the process. I don't suppose you know where?" she asked him, keeping composed to the best of her ability.
"No. I didn't need to know. Didn't ask..." Clint admitted, sitting up as Natasha looked out the window. "He's going to make his play soon though. Today." He took a drink of water.
"Then we've got to stop him." Natasha replied.
"Who's we? Who's even left." Clint asked.
Adora shrugged. "Not many, but we can't just let that monster get away with this."
"Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket I'll feel better I suppose." Clint remarked.
"Now you sound like you." Nat said, smiling as she sat next to him.
"But you don't." Clint pointedly said, "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"
"He didn't, I just-"
Adora interrupted her, "Nat, please. He said something to you. Something more than making us fight."
Natasha sighed, "I've been compromised." She said. "I've got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out. Also.." She looked up at Adora. "He threatened you."
Steve found Tony in the Detention center looking at where Loki's cell once was. "Was he Married?" he asked.
"No. There was a Cellist. I think." Tony replied.
"I'm sorry...he seemed like a good man." Steve said quietly.
Tony composed himself. "He was an idiot."
"Why, for believing?" Steve asked, shocked at Tony.
"For taking on Loki alone." Tony explained, beginning to walk around the cell and approach Steve.
"He was doing his job." Steve retorted.
"He was way out of his league. He should have waited. He should've..." Tony tried to find an answer, but just couldn't.
"Sometimes there isn't another way Tony." Steve said as Tony walked past him.
"Right, yeah I've heard that before." Tony remarked.
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"
"We are NOT soldiers!" Tony snapped. Steve gave him a look and Tony composed himself. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."
"Neither am I." Steve replied, "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we've got to put that behind us. Loki need a power Source, if we can put together a list of-"
"He made it personal.." Tony interrupted, looking at the blood stain on the wall.
"That's not the point."
"That IS the point." Tony said, starting to piece it all together. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live? Why?"
"To tear us apart." Steve responded.
"Yeah to divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants." Tony explained. "He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Tony thought out loud walking past Steve.
"I caught his act in Stuttgart" Steve commented.
"Right, that was just previews. This is opening night." Tony walked up the steps. "Loki, he's a full-tilt Diva. He wants Flowers, he wants parades. He wants, a monument built to the sky with his name plastered..." Tony stopped, his eyes widening. Steve made a head motion. They both thought the same thing.
"Son of a bitch."
Steve walked into the room Natasha, Adora and Clint were in, fully suited up. "We're going?"
"Where?" Adora asked.
"I'll tel you on the way, can either of you fly one of those jets?" he asked.
"I can." Clint announced, walking in. Adora and Nat both motioned that Clint was fine to trust.
"You got a suit?" Steve asked. Clint nodded and grabbed his equipment. "Alright, suit up."
Within moments, the three were headed for a Quinjet, Tony flying in his suit ahead of them.
As they entered the jet, a technician tried to stop them. Steve put his hand up and just said, in an exasperated voice, "Son, just don't."
Tony made it to Stark tower first, and saw the Tesseract beginning to boot up. "Sir I've shut off the arc reactor, but the device is already self-sustaining." JARVIS informed Tony.
He flew up behind Dr. Selvig. "Shut it Down, Doctor Selvig." he ordered.
"It's too late. She can't be stopped now!" Selvig yelled, seeming almost proud, despite his trance. "She wants to show us something. A New universe!"
Tony just deadpanned, "Okay..." and shot at the device. The shot deflected back at him and knocked Selvig into a power box.
"The barrier is pure energy." Jarvis observed. "It's unreachable."
"Yeah I got that." tony said, noticing Loki and landing. "Plan B." He walked into his tower as his landing pad removed each piece of his armor.
"Sir," JARVIS warned, "The Mark VII is not ready for deployment."
"Then skip the spinning rims JARVIS, we're on the clock." Tony quietly said as he walked into the Penthouse headed towards the bar.
"Please, Tell me you're here to appeal to my humanity…" Loki smugly asked, walking in as well.
Tony crossed his arms behind his back. "Actually, I'm planning to threaten you."
Loki scoffed, "You should have left your armor on for that."
"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. And you've got the Glow stick of destiny." Tony quipped stepping behind the bar. "Want a drink?"
"Stalling me won't change anything."
"No, no, Threatening." Tony replied, grabbing a bottle of whiskey. "No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one."
"The Chitauri are coming," Loki responded, looking out the window." What have I to fear?"
"The Avengers." Tony replied, pouring himself a drink. Loki gave a confused look, so he elaborated. "That's what we call ourselves. We're like a team, 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' sort of thing."
Loki just chuckled. "I've met them."
"Yeah, it takes us a while to get any traction I'll give you that." Tony deadpanned, grabbing his glass, "But, let's do a headcount here?" He walked around the bar. "We've got your brother, the demigod; The enhanced child soldier who gave him a run for his money; The super soldier; A Living legend you kind of lives up to the legend;" Tony began slipping bracelets linked to the Mark 7 on his wrists. "A man with BREATHTAKING Anger management issues; A Couple of master assassins, and YOU big fella, you managed to piss off every single one of them."
Loki chuckled, "That was the plan."
"Not a good plan." Tony remarked, sipping his drink. "When they come, and they will. They'll come for you."
"I have an army." Loki boasted.
"We have a Hulk." Tony boasted right back, shaking Loki's composure.
"I...thought the beast had wandered off-"
"You're missing the point! There's no throne, there's no version of this where you come out on top." Tony replied, never looking away from Loki. "Maybe your army comes, and maybe it's too much for us. But its all on you. Because if we can't save the Earth you can be damn sure we'll avenge it." Tony boasted, finishing his drink.
Loki was thoroughly annoyed, and approached Tony menacingly. "How can they stand against me, when they're too busy fighting you." he declared, touching his staff to Tony's chest...with an audible clank. Confused at nothing happening, he tried again. "This...usually works."
Tony couldn't help himself, he just HAD to make the joke. "Well performance issues. Not Uncommon, 1 out of 5-"
Loki grabbed him by the neck in anger."You will all bow before me!" He yelled as Tony quickly yeleld for JARVIS to deploy the Mark VII. Then Loki threw him through the window.
The Mark VII deployed as asked, slamming into Loki. It quickly caught up to Tony and formed around his body, allowing him to rocket back up to Loki. "Oh and there's one more guy you pissed off. His name was Phil."he coldly stated shooting Loki with a repulser.
His brief victory was short lived as te Tesseract fully powered up firing a beam into the sky and opening a massive portal. Out of this portal came The Chitauri, in full force. "Right….Army."
By the time the three agents and Steve arrived the Chitauri were attacking in force. "Aliens...literal aliens.." Adora said in stunned disbelief.
"Stark, we're on your 3. We're almost there." Natasha said overs comms.
"What's you stop for drive thru? Swing around park, I'm gonna line em up for you." Tony replied. Leading the Chitauri right into the line of fire for the Quinjet's cannons. He then flew off to distract other Chitauri forces.
Barton flew the Quinjet up to the top of the Stark Tower, where Thor and Loki were fighting. Clint pointed him out and Nat opened fire, but Loki managed to blow out one of their engines. The Jet crashed into the street, but thanks to Clint's calm handling they managed to walk away from the crash safely and rush out. Adora loaded her handgun as the four looked around at the insanity around them. Then they heard a low mechanical through and a titanic Leviathan of a creature cae from the Portal and flew overhead dropping off even MORE Chitauri.
"Holy shit..." Adora said in horror.
"Stark you seeing this?" Steve called out.
"Seeing, still working on believing." Tony replied over their comms. "Where's Banner, has he shown up yet?"
"Banner?" Steve asked in surprise.
Tony cut him off, "Just keep me posted!"
The SHIELD agents and Steve ran along the bridge and took cover behind a vehicle, seeing the Chitauri breaking into buildings and attacking people on the street.
Clint pointed upwards, "We've still got civilians trapped up there!"
Adora looked over the railing. "Down there too." As they started planning, several skiffs flew overhead and Adora caught glimpse of a horned helmet. "There's Loki."
Steve grit his teeth. "They're fish in a barrel down there..." he said as more Chitauri landed near them.
Adora saw some other people being chased down an Alley. "Dammit, there too." she pointed out.
Natasha fired her pistols. "You two work on protecting people. We'll cover you." she yelled.
Steve looked worried. "Can you hold them off?"
Clint simply smirked, clicking his bow to attack the heads to his arrows. "Captain it would be my genuine pleasure. Good luck to you too Kiddo" he said, firing a trick arrow at the Chitauri as Steve leapt to the street below and Adora run after the chased citizens not far from there. She ran full speed after the Chitauri and leapt over one of them, breaking its neck mid vault. Tucking and rolling, she whipped out her pistol and shot at two more, scoring headshots.
This was what she had been bred for. This was War. And Adora was in her element.
She put herself between the fleeing civilians and the Chitauri and kept them covered motioning for them to run. One of them was a middle aged British woman panicked and desperately shouting for her daughter. Adora caught sight of the terrified young tan skinned girl, dressed in a pink dress with purple shorts on the other side of the Chitauri so she charged forward. Wielding her gun and Stun baton in tandem, she dispatched the various Chitauri with ruthless efficiency, and scooped the poor girl up, running her back to her mother.
"Oh my dear little bright moon. You're safe." she said hugging the scared child. "Thank you miss. Thank you so much."
Adora nodded, "Take the subways. Stay underground it'll be safer there." She replied, turning to leave.
"Be Careful super girl." the child yelled back. Adora smiled and gave her a nod before rushing back to meet with the others.
Clint and Natasha were fighting off wave after wave of Chitauri to the best of their ability. Adora soon joined them, throwing a grenade into a crowd of Chitauri and kicking another back. Steve also soon returned, using his shield and fists to fight as they kept coming in. Before they were overwhelmed however, Thor struck down a squad with his lightning, landing a bit shakily. Adora noted his was holding his side, he must have been wounded.
"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked him.
"The force-field around the Tesseract is impenetrable." Thor replied.
"Thor's right. We've gotta deal with these guys" Tony commented over the radio.
"How are we gonna do this." Natasha asked.
Steve looked at the chaos around him and calmly stated, matter of factly, "As a team."
"I have unfinished business with Loki..." Thor replied with a growl.
"Yeah? Get in line." Clint deadpanned as he attached a head to one of his arrows.
"Save it, Loki's going to keep the fight on us, and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild." Steve explained. He turned to the other four, "We've got Stark up top he's gonna need us to-"
Adora motioned with her eyes behind Steve as the sound of a motorcycle was heard. Steve turned around to see, to his surprise, Bruce Banner riding over.
"So...this all seems Horrible." Bruce quipped as he dismounted the bike.
Natasha nodded, "Adora and I have seen worse." Bruce apologized to them, but Adora spoke up next.
"No but...we could use 'worse' right about now."
"Stark, he's arrived. Just like you said" Steve reported.
"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you" Tony responded, flying around a corner. With a Leviathan in tow.
"I-I don't see how that's a party." Natasha responded as calmly as she could.
Tony lured the Leviathan so low to the ground it crashed and uncontrollably slid towards the group. Bruce started walking towards it. "Doctor Banner..." Steve said. "Now might be a good time for you to get really angry."
Bruce turned back to smile at the group. "That is my secret Captain. I'm always angry." In a single fluid motion, Bruce shifted into the Hulk and punched the Leviathan's head into the ground wioth such force, the entire thing was lifted into the air, and its plating began to break off in the process.
"HOLD ON!" Tny yelled out, firing a missile into the exposed flesh and blowing the Leviathan apart before it managed to fall on the gathered heroes. The Chitauri were stunned at the sight of one of their Leviathans being destroyed so easily and began to screech in rage.
Hulk roared in defiance.
Tony hovered down to the group.
Clint readied his next arrow.
Adora cracked her neck, twirling her baton.
Thor spun his hammer and gritted his teeth.
Natasha reloaded her pistols.
Steve straightened his Shield on his arm.
The Avengers had Assembled.
To Be Continued…..
AVENGERS! ASSEMBLE!
I have to admit, this is the chapter I have most been looking forward to writing. The Team is together, Adora is ready to put her training to the ultimate test.
And I wonder if anyone caught the cameos I snuck in~?
And for those who are wondering. Catra will be reappearing soon~ I have plans for her between Avengers 2012 and Age of Ultron.
Really nothing much else to say! Please leave a Review if you enjoyed! I really want to know my work is being appreciated.
I do not own She-Ra or the MCU, all characters belong to their respective owners.
I HAVE NOT SEEN FURTHER THAN SHE-RA SEASON 1. I apologize for adding this to every chapter but I really want to avoid as many spoilers as possible.
NEXT TIME: Forever Fight As One!