Loving The Hawk

Chapter 16

As I climbed up to the front of the flyer, I severed the chains holding one of them onto it and kicked him off. Then I took two small knives that I had in my boots and stabbed them into the shoulders of the driver, hoping to use this as a means of steering. It didn't work great but I was able to maneuver well enough. 

"Come on turn damnit, don't be an asshole," I muttered under my breath. I managed to get it to turn only after narrowly avoiding a building.  

"Aurora Jeanette Stark, what the hell are you doing?" dad called to me over comms, as he flew passed me, shooting a flyer that was trying to knock me out of the sky.

"Yeah, I would assume that's kind of obvious dad," I snapped. "Thanks for the assist though. I can take it from here."

"Dear god where did I go wrong?" I heard him mumble to himself.

"Perhaps too much AC/DC and letting her stay up late sir?" Jarvis suggested. I laughed and dad just sighed. I kept flying for another minute still dodging random Chitauri and somehow getting farther and farther away from the tower. I sighed in frustration as yet another energy blast narrowly missed my head. I looked back to see Loki on it firing at me again.

"Oh goody, it's you," I mumbled to myself. "Hey Hawkeye? I could use a little help here please."

"Babe what the hell are you doing?" he asked, clearly pissed off at my mode of transportation.

"Yeah, I know, stupid, can I get an arrow in Loki's face now and a lecture later?" I snapped, getting very irritated as Loki tried to blast my head off again.

"We are going to talk about this later," he sighed as he shot an arrow at Loki. Loki caught it, but a second later it exploded and he fell over onto the balcony of the tower.

"Thanks hon," I called happily.

"I mean it, Rory. We are talking about this later," he replied, still clearly upset.

"Yeah, yeah, apparently there are a lot of conversations that need to happen when this is over," I replied, cutting off my comms. I finally was able to make it over the tower so I flew low and flipped off of the flyer and landed on the roof near the portal device. I walked over to it trying to figure out what to do and how to close it. 

"The scepter," groaned a voice to my right. I looked over and saw Dr. Selvig laying against a wall. I rushed over to help him up. He had a gash on his head, which I guessed had contributed to the fact that he was no longer under Loki's control. "The scepter can close the portal. The tesseract can't fight the energy."

"It's ok Erik, it wasn't your fault, you didn't know what you were doing," I said, calmly bending down to check his head.

"Well actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source. Loki's scepter may be able to close the portal. And I'm looking right at it," he said as he looked over the side of the building. I crawled over to where he was and looked over the side. I could see Loki's scepter laying on the balcony, only a few floors below me. I took out my bow and chose a grappling hook arrow. I notched it and shot it at a railing at the other end of the building. It wrapped itself around and I pulled it tight.

"Alright Erik, I'm going down there to get it. When I call up to you, pull on the rope. My arrow will do most of the work but I might still need your help a little ok?" I asked him. He nodded slightly looking a little worried but a put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. I wrapped the rope around my waist and repelled down to the balcony. Grabbing Loki's scepter, I called up to Erik to begin pulling. I pressed a button on the end of the arrow and it began to reel in the rope and with Erik's help I was soon back on the roof. 

"Ok, what do I need to do?" I asked holding the scepter out towards the forcefield of power.

"Push it through the field and point the tip at the crown to be able to shut it down and close the portal," Erik called over the noise of the machine. I reached up to touch my earpiece. 

"This is Agent Stark. I can close the portal! Does anyone copy?" I called.

"Do it!" Steve called.

"No wait," dad's voice ordered, just as I was about to start.

"Stark these things are still coming," Steve said. 

"I've got a nuke coming that's going to blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it," dad replied sounding confident. My heart dropped as I realized what he was saying.

"Stark, you realize that's a one way trip," Steve stated quietly. My eyes welled up with tears as I realized this might be the last time I ever saw my father.

"Dad, please, don't do this," I cried, a sob escaping me.

"It'll be ok kiddo. Barton, if I don't come back, you marry my daughter and keep her safe and happy, you hear me?" dad asked firmly.

"I copy that Tony," Clint replied sadly. I dropped the scepter slightly as tears began to fall down my face. As I watched, dad flew up the side of Stark Tower with the nuke on his back and a second later, he disappeared. Seconds later, all of the Chitauri, fell over and ceased to move. 

"Close it," Steve's voice said sadly. I used all of my strength and pushed the scepter into the forcefield and touched the tip of it to the place that Erik showed me. The machine sparked and shut down, the portal beginning to close immediately. I sobbed as it closed and right before It closed completely, dad fell through the hole. I sobbed in relief and expected him to fly off in his regular cocky way. He didn't slow down though and I ran to the side of the building fearfully. Thankfully, the Hulk caught him and landed not far from the tower.

"Clint? Steve? Is he ok?" I called through comms. There was nothing for a minute and I heard the Hulk roar and then a relieved chuckle.

"He's all good babe," Clint said through comms, still chuckling. I sobbed in relief as I lost all strength in my legs and Erik came over and held me while I cried.

"You miss me kiddo?" dad's voice said.

"Dad, you ever do that to me again, and I will kill you myself," I sobbed into my comm piece.

"We are headed to you kiddo," dad said. "Can you meet us in the main room?"

"Yeah. Thor would you mind coming and giving Erik and I a lift?" I asked through comms.

"Of course, Lady Aurora, I will be there momentarily," he replied and after a few minutes he was there. He helped Erik get down to the street and then came back and carried me down to the balcony, where I met everyone else. I ran into my dad's arms. After hugging him, I smacked him in the back of the head.

"Ow," he complained.

"Seriously, don't do that again," I growled at him. He held up his hands defensively and smiled weakly at me. I rolled my eyes and ran into Clint's arms.

"Oh I was so worried when I saw you being chased by Loki," he sighed in my ear, holding me tightly.

"I'm ok. Just a few scrapes and bruises to match my face. Hell at this point, you probably can't even tell where the old one was," I laughed, kissing him passionately.

"Oh ew, still going to take some getting used to," dad said covering his eyes. Steve rolled his eyes and Clint laughed.

"Let's go get Loki," Steve said and we all looked into the main room where Loki was starting to stir after what looked like a hellacious beating I could only assume was given to him courtesy of the Hulk. We walked in and surrounded him, Clint pointing an arrow in his face and me still holding the scepter. 

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now," he groaned, looking up at us.