I'm Iron Man, And I'm Agent Coulson

Chapter 39 Compromised

An alarm sounded just seconds after Maria requested my presence, and I began running down the long hall, wading through the stench of panic engulfing the ship.

"Be advis...." Hill started, but an explosion, coming from the right side, interrupted her voice and reverberated throughout the rest of the ship.
The shockwave tossed me into the metal wall, and my head slammed against the glass, dropping me to the ground. My body slid along the floor, as the ship begin to tilt and drop while all alarms began to sound overhead.
I struggled to focus, and grab a hold of the wall, as blurry bodies began to disappear past mine. Time slowed down, and the pain from my headache grew, but I tried to reach for anything or anyone, finally coming to a stop once my feet hit the edge of one of the doorways.

"Loki," I groaned, and turned over onto my stomach, before stumbling to get up. My head was splitting in two, and my vision blurred while I noticed little streaks of my blood on the floor, but all that could wait. My mind and body twitched with adrenaline, and shifted focus on finding Phil and keeping Loki in his cage.

"Engine one is down, and we have a breach, fifteen unauthorized personnel have entered the ship," Hill's voice stated quickly, "I repeat we have a breach."

I looked around at the agents and workers who were running around me, but everything was moving in slow-motion as shouts and bullet fire echoed down the halls.

"Does anyone have eyes on the prisoner?" I asked unsteadily, making my choice and slowly headed towards Loki's glass prison, but no one answered through the static, "NAT! Phil, do you copy! Tony!?" I yelled, only to lean against the wall, and clutch at my aching head, "I'm..I'm on my way..." I added through clenched teeth, and bile souring the back of my throat.

A loud roar shook the floor I was standing on, unleashing my slow moving body forward, ignoring my pain and dizziness, while I tried to jog towards the detention area.
"Natasha, do you copy?!" I yelled again, jumping over the bodies of dead agents and other personnel, running towards the detention cell. Stress and malcontent slid over my skin, but I pushed it aside, fixating on keeping people safe, and Loki locked up.
My mind and vision finally tunneled, leading me to the only mission I deemed important, and that was to keep Loki in his glass prison, at all costs, but bullet fire lay right ahead of me as I rounded the corner, and six former SHIELD agents were trying to shoot their way onto the bridge.

"We have a Code Green!" Nat screamed in my earpiece, "get a bird in the air now!"

"This is Agent (l/n), we have a code green, I need a bird in the air NOW! Lay down heavy fire, target Hulk, but don't get to close, do it now!" I yelled, pulling out both my guns and firing at the agents in front of me.
Three went down while the others raised their weapons my way, but I slid across the floor, slicing their hamstrings and using my knife to penetrate their sides, dealing fatal blows to each of them.
"Be advised I have eyes on the detention door, we have six former agents bleeding to death near the bridge," I huffed shakily, and looked down at the dead agents and the blood dripping from my hands.
I knew some of these men, and a deep seeded sadness infected my being, at the loss of life, all for the prisoner locked up behind the metal doors. People were running, as the carrier tilted forward, but I hung onto the pillar and momentarily closed my eyes.
The metal doors which led to Loki were only ten feet away, but for one split second I paused, too scared to walk over and open those doors. Shades of black rippled on my periphery, and I began to burn.
"If..if you want me to believe..now would be the time to show me," I whispered, and inched closer to the panel, as my skin prickled with the evil sitting behind those metal doors, but there was no else, only me standing between Loki and the commandeered men trying to kill everyone just to get to their master. If I was meant for something, anything this was it.