so hold me close (and I'll surrender to your heart)

2. Avengers Assemble, Part 2

People stare at me and Steve as we run through the hallways to get to the medical wing. I try to explain to him what Loki's plan is, but I'm not sure if I do it well enough in the rush that spews from my mouth. He seems to get the gist of it though, if his running faster is any indication. When we get to Clint's room, Romanov is the only one in the room, sitting on his bed. She looks to Steve in confusion. "Where's Barton?" Steve asks.

Before Romanov could even open her mouth, Clint came out of the bathroom, a towel in his hand. "Here, Captain." I walk over to Clint, throwing my arms around him. He returns the hug, hiding his face in my shoulder. We pull back a moment later, Clint straightening his shoulders to mimic a strength that he couldn't possibly have after finding out that the love of your life is (possibly) dead. "If you're here to know whether or not I'm myself again, I am."

I gave Clint a look. "No you're not. Not fully, anyway. But since I know I'd argue against that if I was in your place, so I'll let it go because I know you want to kick that bastard's ass all the way back to Asgard. But first I need you to fly Steve and Romanov to Manhattan. Loki's planning to use the Tower to open his portal bullshit." Clint nodded. "I need to go help Iron Man repair his suit. He'll be the first wave while you will be the calvary. I'm gonna go back to the labs to run some algorithms to track Bruce and Thor. Hopefully I'll be able to get them back into the game. Good luck." I give Clint a significant look before leaving, Steve and Romanov strategizing as the door closes behind me. I walk down the hall, making a sharp right, heading in the opposite direction of the lab. "JARVIS, how are the suit repairs coming along?"

"I'm sending the Mark V to you now, ma'am. It will take longer to repair the VI than originally thought"

I sigh in annoyance. "Ok, that means it won't be as efficient as the VI, but it'll have to do until I get to the Tower. ETA?"

"Five minutes, ma'am."

I don't bother responding, just walking toward the exit calmly. Fortunately there were no SHIELD agents around to spy on me, but one could never be too cautious. I calmly tapped my hip, my phone disabling the security cameras over here as I waited for my suit. By the fifth minute, I'm tapping my foot impatiently. If we're going to stop Loki, we need to get that staff away from him. If the staff affected him like it did me, it couldn't mean anything good for him. If there's a chance― My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of rocket boots landing on the platform. I walk outside without any hesitation, the thin air not really bothering me like it probably should have. My armor wraps around me like a comforting blanket, the monitor lighting up and showing me the statuses of the others. I also have JARVIS hack SHIELD again, trying to find any information about Phil that I could get my hand on. As I fly over New York, I feel my stomach clench in fear for the innocent people that were still in the city. "JARVIS, alert the National Guard. Tell them to double time it. Something tells me this is gonna be a full-blown world war if we can't keep it contained in the city." J does this immediately, and that's when I notice the machine on top of the Tower. "Turn off the arc reactor."

"Ma'am, I already have. The device is self-sufficient."

I look around, half-desperate for a solution. There has to be a way to stop Loki. I notice Selvig working on the machine. "Shut down the machine, Dr. Selvig," I command, my "masculine" voice sounding slightly tinny through the speakers.

Dr. Selvig jumped, turning around. He looks like he hasn't slept or taken care of his body in days, a thick five o'clock shadow covering most of his face. His eyes were bloodshot and a sickly shade of blue, glowing in the light of the Tesseract. "It's too late to stop her now! She wants to show us something; a new universe!"

"Okay then," I mumble, raising my hands and shooting at the machine. There was a blowback, causing me to fly backwards and Selvig to hit his body against the wall, knocking him unconscious. As I stabilize my flight, JARVIS lets me know that Selvig is stable. I nod, trying to figure out how to break the barrier, realizing with horror that the barrier was pure energy and therefore couldn't be broken. I look inside and notice Loki staring at me. "J, prepare to deploy," I tell him, flying over to the landing pad, the demigod's eyes following me.