Liberty Is Mine |2| The Liberty Saga

Chapter Fifteen: The Missile

Far away from the battle in New York, one pilot was sat in a fighter jet on the surface of the helicarrier, listening to his orders on the comms system. The calm, authoritative British accent of Councilwoman Hawley was in his ears. "Director Fury is no longer in command," she explained. "Override order seven alpha eleven."

"Seven alpha eleven confirmed," the pilot agreed, turning on his engine. "Prepare to take off."

***

On the bridge, Hill frowned, reading her screen. "Sir, we have a bird in motion! Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird! We need to shut it down! Repeat, take off is not authorised!"

***

Fury ran out onto the deck with a missile launcher over his shoulder. He took careful aim and hit the tail end of the jet, sending it skidding off the edge. The pilot ejected, activating his parachute. Before they had even a moment to celebrate that victory, another jet flew off, taking flight. Fury set his jaw, running back inside. "Stark, you hearing me? We have a missile headed straight for the city."

"How long?" Tony asked.

"Three minutes, at best," Fury estimated. "Stay low and wipe out the missile."

***

Down on the streets of Manhattan, Tony was struggling to fend off the Chitauri long enough to get off the ground. "JARVIS, put everything we got into the thrusters!"

"I just did."

His boosters boots ignited and the Iron Man suit shot up into the sky.

***

In the serene blue skyline of New York City, the pilot flipped a switch, releasing the missile. "Destination is in two minutes, thirty seconds." He peeled away from the path of the missile, heading back to the helicarrier and to safety.

Below, the people of Manhattan had no such choice.

***

At the centre of the three-block perimeter, Thor and Elke had been joined by Steve as they battled side by side in the streets, surrounded on all sides by the Chitauri. Steve threw his shield, Thor threw his hammer, and in between them, Elke sent out a shockwave through the earth, knocking swathes of the soldiers off their feet. As Thor caught Mjölnir again, a blast from an energy rifle caught Steve in the gut and he hit the ground hard. Elke was at his side immediately, guarding him against the horde, and Thor used Mjölnir to bat a half-crushed car at the rest, slamming them away.

"You ready for another bout?" Thor asked, helping Steve to his feet.

Steve sighed, breathless as he raised his shield back up. "Why? You gettin' sleepy?"

Elke watched in exasperation as the horde regrouped. "Don't these guys ever quit?"

***

On the roof of the Stark Tower, Selvig was typing away on a laptop, adjusting the device. He looked across to Natasha, who had Loki's sceptre in hand, and nodded. She stabbed it through the energy barrier, pausing just before she hit the Tesseract. "I can close it! Can anybody copy me? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve ordered.

But Tony was quick to cut in. "No, wait!"

Elke grunted with effort, using a fallen street light as a baseball bat to send some Chitauri flying. "Tony, these bastards are still coming!"

"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute," he explained. Overhead, he caught up to the missile, grabbing it from behind. "And I know just where to put it."

"Stark," Steve said, his voice softer. "You know that's a one-way trip."

"Save the rest for return, J," Tony ordered, forcing the missile up the side of the Stark Tower towards the portal.

"Sir. Shall I call Miss Potts?"

"You might as well." He shot up through the portal into the depths of space, releasing the missile. Up ahead, huge and hulking in the darkness, was a Chitauri Armada, bigger than anything he'd seen before. The ship imploded as the missile hit home, and as ice began to form on the Iron Man suit, Tony's eyes slipped closed.

***

Elke and Thor looked around in surprise as the Chitauri suddenly collapsed all around them, keeling over. They turned to see Steve looking just as shocked, even as a Leviathan crashed to the ground in the next block, shuddering the very earth beneath their feet.

***

Up on the roof, Natasha shifted nervously, watching the portal for any sign of life. "Come on, Stark..."

After a long, terrible moment, the order came through from Steve. "Close it."

Natasha stabbed the Tesseract with the sceptre and the energy beam reaching up to the portal cut off. The portal shrivelled and closed—but not before a tiny figure slipped through, falling to the Earth.

***

Steve smiled, shading his eyes. "Son of a bitch!"

Thor narrowed his eyes. "He's not slowing down." He began to swing Mjölnir, preparing to take off, but he was beaten to it by a roaring Hulk, who snatched Tony out of the air and slid down a building to crash down into a crater a few feet away from them. As the others ran over, the Hulk shoved Tony off him, onto the ground. Thor removed the Iron Man suit's faceplate, revealing Tony's impassive, motionless face. His eyes were closed.

Elke hesitated, crouching in the rubble beside him. "Don't do this to me, Tony. Don't you dare." She held her palm a few millimetres from his mouth and nose, hoping, praying to feel even the slightest of breaths stirring against her skin.

There was nothing.

As the reality of it sank in, she sat back on her heels, hand resting on the arc reactor in his chest in stunned silence. He was dead. Another friend she had failed to save, yes, but this was worse. He wasn't just a friend. He was Howard Stark's little boy, who she had first met only six months back in her mind when he had been a beautiful, babbling baby in his mother's arms.

She hadn't been at his parents' funerals. It tasted bitter in her mouth that the first funeral she would go to would be his.

Suddenly, the city filled with the Hulk's furious roar, echoing off the buildings all around, and Tony startled awake, his eyes wide. "What the hell? What just happened?" His frantic eyes scanned the faces surrounding him. "Oh, God... Please tell me nobody kissed me."

All the breath left Elke as she shared an exhausted look of relief with Steve—who, she could tell, had been thinking along much the same lines as she. "We won," he said eventually, clapping Tony on the shoulder. "We did it."

"Alright," Tony said, bone-tired. "Hey, alright, good job, guys... Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day... Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

Thor looked up at Stark Tower, where he knew Loki was still hiding. "We're not finished yet," he reminded them.

Tony was silent for a moment, trying to summon the strength to sit up. '... And then shawarma after, right?"

***

In the glass-strewn penthouse of the Stark Tower, a very beaten-up Loki crawled across the floor, heaving himself up the steps towards the bar. He stopped, pausing in place to catch his breath, then froze as he sensed other presences. With effort, he turned to see Clint with an arrow notched and aimed right at him, Natasha holding his sceptre, Thor with Mjölnir, Steve with his shield, Tony with his repulsors, the Hulk with his enormous fists, and Elke with a Kubrick stare that almost seemed comparable. He was, just a little bit, outnumbered.

"If it's all the same to you," he said, wincing. "I'll have that drink now."

~~~