Teal Rain (A Loki Fanfiction) ~ (The Avengers)

Chapter 16 ~ Close It. We're Not Finished Yet.

Neither Natasha or Selvig bothered to argue with Terra, and got to work. Selvig pulled out a needle and drew blood from her, but this time, she didn't even feel it. Selvig made the Teal Glow once more and dabbed it onto Loki's scepter. 

"Right at the crown!" Selvig shouted to Natasha.

Natasha inched closer and broke through the forcefield surrounding the Tesseract. The scepter was only a foot away from the Cube, when Natasha said through her earpiece, "I can close it! Does anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" shouted back Steve.

"No, Wait." said Tony.

"Stark, these things are still coming!"

"Yah, but I still have that nuke coming in, and it'll blow in less than a minute!... And I know just where to put it."

Iron Man rocketed bast the city and overhead a bridge, chasing after the missile that blasted speedily towards New York. He took no time and grabbed onto the bottom of it, pushing it upward towards the portal-opening above Stark Tower. 

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." replied Steve.

"Save the rest for the turn, J!" 

"Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?" asked Jarvis in a sad tone, as he called Pepper Potts. She wasn't going to answer.

"... Might as well." muttered Stark.

He continued to push it upward, more and more and more, until he was rocketing straight up towards the portal. Terra watched, wondering if this was the last time she would ever see that big man in a suit of armor.

Tony gritted his teeth and shot up with all force, until he disappeared behind the portal.  

Time seemed to slow. The space around him felt as thick and mucky darkness. Jarvis gave one last attempt to say something, but shut down instantly. Tony grunted as he lost strength and let go of the missile. It floated past him and struck into the mother ship of the Chitauri. The explosion started with a large yellow light that expanded and grew bigger and bigger. Tony closed his eyes and let himself fall. It was over. 

...

All of the Chitauri alien-soldiers fell down as if powered like robots. All the magic and power inside them seemed to leave after their mother-ship was destroyed, and they all fell to the ground, dead and motionless. A squadron 'powered-down' and fell, crashing onto a building from the sky where if once flew. 

Thor and Captian America stood there, looking around in awe as their enemy was defeated in a quite, loosened-edged way.

"Close it." said Steve.

Natasha took one last look above her, then thrust the scepter onto the Cube. It sparked and blocked the long, blue-green beam, closing the portal. 

"Come on, Stark!" muttered Terra. 

To everyone's glee, Tony fell out of the portal just in time before it closed back into the sky. 

Thor looked up, wearing a smile across his face, which soon switched to seriousness. "He's not slowing down!" he said, spinning his hammer round and round. He was just about to shoot up and catch the falling Stark, when there was a loud ROAR and something else caught him. 

The Hulk grabbed Tony and crashed into a building to stop his momentum. He skidded down the concrete wall and landed his back onto the street, crushing some cars. He grunted and looked up at the metal-man in his arms. Hulk got up, setting him down and stood over him. Thor and Steve came rushing over to his side, and stood over him as well. Thor ripped off the metal mask on Tony's helmet, revealing his face. Tony's eyes were closed and he wore a couple cuts here and there on his eyebrows and cheeks.

Then, there was a long hush that fell over everyone, except Hulk.    He broke the long silence by pounding his fist against his chest, with a  "RRRROOOOAAAAAHHHHHWWWWRRRR!!!!"

Tony gasped in shock and let out a little scream when he woke up suddenly. He panted and looked around. "What the he-..." he muttered. "What just happened!? Please tell me nobody kissed me!!"

Steve laughed and replied, "We won."

Stark sighed in relief, still laying there on the ground, and said tiredly, "Alright, yay! Hurray, good job, guys! Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Hey, have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it!" 

Steve just laughed again.

Thor gave a half-serious glance, not wanting to 'rain on the parade' and said, "We're not finished yet."

Steve gave Thor a look saying, 'Seriously?' 

But Tony just gave in. "... And then shawarma after."