Chapter 10: Always, We Will Fight As One
Loki had just watched one of the Leviathans he had brought through the portal be smashed by that damned green monster. Still, he wouldn't be deterred. "Send the rest." he commanded.
Soon even more Chitauri, and several Leviathans poured from the gate. The Avengers stood firm however, unwilling to give up because of the sheer number. The World was depending on them.
"Call it Captain." Tony immediately said.
"Alright listen up! Until we get that portal closed our priority is containment." Steve began, "Barton, I want you on that rooftop. Eyes on everything call out patterns and strays. Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked looking to Tony.
"Right, better clench up Legolas." Tony responded grabbing onto Clint and flying him to the vantage point.
Steve continued, "Thor, you've got to try to bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up." Thor nodded, swinging his hammer and flying towards the portal. "Romanoff, Greyskull, you're on the ground with me. We keep the fighting here."
"Easy enough Captain. This is what I was born for..." Adora said, reloading.
"And Hulk?" Steve said, turning to face Hulk. "Smash."
Hulk smirked at this order and leapt up to face the Chitauri lining the buildings, going to town on them and smashing them left and right.
Thor meanwhile landed on the Empire State Building, and, using it as a gigantic Lightning Rod, began firing as much lightning into the portal as possible. Even Adora was able to see the damage it was doing. She ran headfirst into a group of Chitauri, firing her handgun at any within range, and using her Baton in her other hand, focusing on dropping as many of the aliens as possible. The more she killed the more of the chance people would have to escape. That's all she kept in her mind as she fought harder and harder.
Clint was picking off any Chitauri he could see, and noticed a swarm of them after Tony. "Stark you're picking up an awful lot of strays." he said.
"I see that, I'm trying to keep them off the streets." Tony replied.
"Well, they can't bank worth a damn." Clint replied, firing a shot without even looking and killing another pilot. "Find tight corner." He loaded in a heat arrow and took aim at the lead Chitauri pursuing Tony. As he fired, the arrow landed perfectly in the engine of the Skiff, melting it in half.
Tony began weaving through the buildings, shooting any who got in front of him. Taking Clint's advice he took sharp turns and flew through enclosed spaces. Though he had a few close calls that he just narrowly managed to avid, sure enough the Chitauri crashed and were completely destroyed following him. "Good call, what else you got?" he asked Clint.
"Thor's fighting a squad over on sixth." Clint replied, causing tony to grin.
"And he didn't invite me."
The Hulk had spotted a Leviathan headed straight for an office building, and sprinted clean through it leaping out and grabbing the Leviathan by the jaw, pulling it away and practically steering the beast as he repeatedly punched the Leviathan.
Down on the street, a Chitauri attempted to stab Natasha as she was knocked onto a car. Natasha managed to avoid the attack and tear some wires from itas neck, before taking its weapon and blowing away another Chitauri. Adora ran in as well and threw her combat knife into the face of another Chitauri. Super soldier or not, she was beginning to get winded.
Steve soon joined the two as Natasha caught her breath. "Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we can't close that portal."
Adora broke another Chitauri's neck. "I have to agree. They just don't stop coming!"
Steve looked up towards the portal. "None of our weapons can even damage that thing.." he said.
Natasha looked at him. "Maybe it's not about weapons." She said, motioning towards it.
Steve nodded. "You going to get up there you'll need a ride."
"I've got a ride. Could use a boost though." Natasha replied, motioning to the Skiffs and taking a few steps back.
Adora gulped, "You sure about this Nat?"
"Yeah it's gonna be fun." she deadpanned. Steve got into position and Nat jumped off of a car onto his Shield getting boosted up to grab a skiff. Steve and Adora gave each other a thumbs up as they stood to face the Chitauri coming after them.
Natasha carefully climbed aboard the skiff cutting the chain of one of its riders and throwing them off the machine. She leapt onto the back of the pilot and droves spikes through its back, letting her steel the ship how she wanted to. It did take a little work to get going in the direction she wanted it to, but she managed it.
A Pursuing Chitauri tried to take a shot at her, only to be blasted out of the air by Tony. After trading shots with another skiff, Tony flew down to Steve and Adora. Adora threw her empty pistol at a Chitauri, distracting it as she ran over and lifted it by its neck. She brought it down over her knee, breaking it's back, and throwing the body at another. Tony backed Steve up during the brawl, ricocheting a beam off Steve's shield, which swept through the Chitauri, and Tony took off again. He flew up the nearby building blasting and throwing aliens off it as he ascended past Clint. Clint killed a climbuing Chitauri with a point blank arrow and ducked under another shot. Setting an arrow in his bow he fired at the passing Skiff, nailing the pilot right in the back and causing it to spin out and crash into a passing leviathan. On the Leviathan's back Thor and Hulk were beating down any Chitauri that cam there way. Hulk smashed one into the Leviathan's back, raising part of its metal coating. He ripped this shard out and drove it directly into the beast's head, which Thor quickly drove deeper with Mjolnir. The Leviathan let out a pained cry and fell from the sky, crashing into Grand Central station.
And as the two were catching their breath Hulk punched Thor in the face as payback for their fight aboard the helicarrier giving a chuckle.
Adora pulled her knife out of another Chitauri's throat and looked over the distance. "Army's here Captain."
Steve threw a Chitauri off himself and finished it off, nodding. Then Clint's Voice came over his earpiece. "Captain, the bank 42nd past 've cornered a lot of civilians in there."
"I'm on it. Adora can you handle things here?" Steve asked just as Adora smashed two Chitauri's heads together.
"Captain...this is what I was literally born for." she said with an uneasy smile, dropping to prone and grabbing a Chitauri weapon, shooting at one that tried to sneak up at her. "Go! Get those people outta there!" She shouted, getting to her feet and twirling the pike-blaster in her hands. As Steve left, Adora smiled at the familiarity of the weapon and got into the stance she would use when training with Staffs.
"Come and get me..."
Steve charged into the bank just as a Chitauri was preparing some sort of explosive. He knocked the bomber down with his tackle, deflected a Chitauri shot into the chest of another, took cover behind a table, then kicked said Table into two of them. He dodged a Chitauri shot and grabbed it by its arm, twisting it around to use as a human...er...alien shield against another. As he finished the shooter off he yelled for everyone to clear the area. In the struggle his mask was ripped off. The last Chitauri grabbed the bomb and went to throw it but it detonated in the alien's hand. Steve thankfully was protected by his shield, but still was thrown out the window into a car by the blast.
Natasha on the other hand, was still flying. A shot whizzed past her head and she noticed Loki was in pursuit of her. "Oh...you." she deadpanned, maneuvering her skiff to avoid his shots. "Hawkeye!"
"Nat what are you doing?" Clint asked, seeing Natasha's predicament.
"Little help?" She nervously asked.
Clint was waiting for this chance. He switched the head on one of his arrows and notched it. With a cocky smirk, he said, "I got him." He let the arrow loose, and it flew right at it's mark. Loki did manage to catch it, but as he was arrogantly smiling, the arrow exploded, throwing Loki from his skiff and back onto Stark tower. Natasha had a decidedly more careful dismount onto the tower.
Loki barely had time to recover before the Hulk landed in front of him and punched him into the penthouse. It rushed after him, ready for smashing, until he angrily stood up.
"ENOUGH!" he yelled out, causing the Hulk pause. "You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a GOD you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by-"
Hulk very quickly got bored, grabbing Loki by his leg and repeatedly slamming him into the ground, leaving him in a crater. He just walked off disappointed by the so called "god", and growled. "Puny God."
Natasha made her way to the generator, not sure how to shut it off. "The Scepter…." a voice said weakly, catching her attention. She turned her head to see Selvig, at the edge of the building looking over. "Loki's Scepter. The Energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't defend against yourself." he told her.
Natasha, thinking he was going to jump, slowly moved over and tried to console him. "It wasn't your fault." She said, "You didn't know what you were doing."
Selvig looked at her then back over the ledge. "Actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut their power source." he explained.
"Loki's Scepter!" Natasha realized.
Selvig nodded. "It might be able to breach the barrier. And I'm looking right at it..."
As the battle raged on, Thor was taken out when a Skiff he was fighting on crashed into a Leviathan. Tony flew alongside it and tried to break its shell with a wrist laser. "Sir we will lose power before we breach the shell." JARVIS noted.
Tony had an idea though….a bad one but it was still an idea. He got in front of the Leviathan and flew right towards it. "JARVIS, ever hear the tale of Jonah?"
"I wouldn't consider him a role model sir." JARVIS replied.
Tony flew right into the Leviathan's mouth, firing off explosives everywhere and blowing it apart. He couldn't regain control afterwards and crashe dinto the street below, he couldn't even stand as he immediately was shot again.
Clint ran out of arrows mid fight and noticed more aliens coming his way, so he quickly recovered an arrow and switched its head to his last grapple arrow, leaping over the side of the uilding and using the grapple to stop his fall. The momentum swung him through a window into an office bukilding leaving him in pain.
The Hulk continued to smash, but soon a whole fleet of Skiffas came overhead and fired everything they had to just keep him pinned in place.
Adora was standing over the pile of corpses left behind from her battle with a Chitauri force. She was so exhausted she was forced to lean on the weapon she had recovered. Not helping matters was a few cuts she'd earned from their pikes.
Thor and Steve fought desperately back to back. Steve ended up taking a shot to the gut, flooring him instantly while Thor kept desperately fighting. He used Mjolnir to launch a car at the approaching squad of aliens, flattening them, and threw it at another Chitauri. Quickly, he stepped over to help Steve to his feet. "You ready for another bout?" he asked.
"What, are you getting sleepy?" Steve quipped, but even he was winded.
Adora was down to one Chitauri for the time being. She tackled it to the ground and repeatedly smashed its head into the ground. Then, for once good news came.
"I can close it! Can anyone copy!" Came Natasha's voice on an open channel.
"Do it!" Steve yelled.
"No wait!" Tony suddenly interrupted.
"Stark these things are still coming!"
"I've got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. I know exactly where to put it." Tony replied.
Adora looked up toward the portal just in time to see Tony guiding the missle directly to the portal. "Stark… you know thats a one way trip." Steve said worried about him. Adora knew he was right.
She ran, with a limp, over to reunite with Tony and Thor, arriving just in time to see Tony steer the missile right inside the portal. Seconds later all of the Chitauri dropped dead. Adora looked around in shock. "He must have hit their command ship, maybe it was powering their cybernetics?" she wondered out loud.
Everyone watched the portal silently, hoping that Tony would soon exit. Minutes passed with no sign of him however, and Steve made the call.
"Close it..."
Natasha did as ordered and cut the power to the portal, causing it to slowly collapse.
And before it did, Tony fell out, much to everyone's relief.
Then Thor noticed he was still in free-fall. "He's not slowing down!"
Adora was terrifiyed for him, as Thor began spinning his hammer. "He won't survive if someone doesn't catch him!" she yelled. As if on cue, Hulk came flying through the air, catching tony and using a building to slow his fall, before making sure to cushion Tony's landing with his own body as he slammed into a car near the other three. Thor, Adora and Steve quickly ran over to check on Tony, Thor ripping his mask off in case he wasn't breathing. Tony was completely unconscious, barely breathing, and Adora had no idea if she should even attempt CPR on him in the suit, considering what she'd heard about the shrapnel in his heart.
And then Hulk roared. And Startled Tony awake.
Tony gasped for breaths looking around. "What the hell?" he said, as Hulk gave a victorious roar. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."
Steve looked up, letting out a sigh of relief. "We won." he said calmly.
Tony also sighed in relief. And then began to ramble. "Alright yay. Hurray. Good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow, let's just take a day off. You ever tried Shwarma?" Steve and Adora couldn't help but laugh. "There's a Shwarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I wanna try it."
"I'm always down for tryinfg new food." Adora giggled out, wincing a bit from her injuries.
Thor then looked at Stark tower. "We're not finished yet..."
"And then Shwarma after."
Loki crawled towards the bar in the penthouse. The day had not gone as planned. He had been humiliated, beaten broken. And as he turned around he saw the Avengers all standing over him, Clint leveling an arrow at his eye and Adora giving a mocking wave. He knew he was finished.
"If it's ail the same to you...I'll have that drink now."
Clean-up was a long ways away from being even close to finished, but Adora honestly was just happy everything was over. She had to admit the group made a damn good team. And she made sure to say as much when writing her report.
The team did get together to enjoy some Shwarma afterwards. Adora axctually rather enjoyed it, and would check that shop out again on her downtime.
Loki and Thor had used the Tesseract to return to Asgard, and honestly Adora was just glad to see that damn thing go.
Steve Rogers drove off to collect his thoughts, possibly learn a bit more about the modern day he'd been thrust into. But he expressed interest in working with Adoras again and getting to know her as a fellow soldier.
Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had gone onto another project. Tony had actually offered her a place in his new building. He was upgrading Stark tower into a base of Operations for the Avengers. She wasn't about to turn his offer of a rather spacious apartment in the tower down. Natasha and Clint were even helping her move her stuff in.
A Knock on her door drew her out of her thoughts as she went and answered it. To her surprise, it was Agent Smith! "Well," he said calmly, "sounds like you all had one hell of a weekend."
"You can say that again, come in Agent Smith." adorra replied letting him in.
"Adora, for crying out loud, we've worked together for two years. You know you can just call me Kyle right?" he responded.
"Alright, Kyle. Come to help me move?" she asked.
"Well yeah, and also that Fury wanted me to give you some intel from the labs. We've also passed this on to Captain Rogers." he explained pulling out a file. "Said that you were right, enough Secrets." He handed it over to her.
Natasha and Clint looked in confusion at the file, which Adora calmly opened and read through. Then she froze, her hands shaking a bit. "I'm… I'm cloned from Captain Rogers…? I'm Steve's DAUGHTER!?" she declared in absolute shock, having to sit down before she collapsed.
Natasha looked over the file with her, and gave her a comforting hug. "You know, I can already see the resemblance." she said. "Next time you see Steve, you talk to him about this. Maybe he won't feel so alone anymore."
Adora just smiled up at Nat, tears forming in her eyes. And then she hugged her back. She had a real family, at long last.
"Despite the devastation from what has now been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers has been to many a cause of not only great comfort, but also Celebration."
The News played on a TV in a small bar where a few people were watching in awe. All but the hooded figure sitting at the bar itself, sipping their drink.
And interview was soon shown, of the young girl Adora had saved. "I was separated from my mom in a scary alley as those monsters were looking for me. Then this super tall girl with a blond ponytail ran in and saved me. She was super cool, she's my hero." the girl cheered. The footage then changed to show recorded footage of Adora in the midst of the battle, the headline saying 'Who Are The Avengers?'
The hooded figure picked up on the description and looked at the screen. She then smirked widely, recognizing the woman.
"Hey Adora~"
To Be Continued….
WHEW finally! After so much typing and having to watch and re-watch the movie a dozen times, the Avengers arc is over! And with it, Phase 1 of the story.
We will very soon be moving into Phase 2. And along with it, new characters, new stories, and whole bunch of fluff.
For those of you who were worried about Catra's fate at the end of her last chapter. I haven't forgotten her. No I have SO many plans for Catra's story in this.
Betcha none of you guessed who Agent Smith was~
I do not own She-Ra or the MCU, and related characters are the property of their respective owners.
I know I say this a lot but Reviews are HIGHLY encouraged. Please review if you enjoyed, I really want to know if people like this story and where I can improve. It's a bit disheartening when I hardly ever receive feedback despite the effort I put into every chapter.
I still have not watched past Season 1 of She-Ra. NO spoilers please.
Next Time: Settling into the Tower.