Captain's Hart

Chapter 8 The Avengers

As they closed in on New York, their mouths fell open a huge beam of light had shot up into the sky and now, high above Stark Tower, a portal had opened. And from the portal came the Chitauri army, pouring out of the hole in space and raining down on New York.

They could see a tiny dot that was probably Tony flying up to try stop the army, and he managed to blow up quite a few but there were still a lot more and they began to fire down on New York. From their distance, they couldn't see exactly but their scanners were picking up the life-forms spreading around Stark Tower and they could see smoke rising from various parts of the city as fires broke out.

Arianna's grip on the quinjet's gunner tightened as they drew in closer and she called to Tony: "Tony, we're heading North East." "What, did you stop for drive-thru?" Tony quipped sarcastically. He added as he refocused: "Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

"Clint?" Arianna called and he replied shortly: "Got it." They flew down the street as Tony had told them, and Arianna activated the guns just as Tony flew around the corner. She fired, hitting all targets, but they were nowhere near finished.

"Sir, we have more incoming." Jarvis's voice said through the comms and Tony replied: "Fine. Let's keep them occupied." He peeled away, heading back towards the portal as Clint flew the quinjet towards the Stark Tower. They could see Thor and Loki battling it out on the top floor.

"Yeah?" Clint asked and Arianna replied shortly: "See them." Clint swung them around and Arianna opened fire at the golden-armored Loki. The God swung Thor away and lifted his scepter. "Clint, watch-!" Nat shouted just as Loki fired.

Clint swerved, but the blast hit their wing and the whole jet jerked. Arianna stopped firing as the jet shuddered and began to go into free-fall. "Hang on!" Clint shouted, and Nat and Steve did just that as Arianna gripped her seat. Clint steered them through the many skyscrapers, trying to avoid hitting one as he tried to land them as best he could.

They finally crashed into an empty street, and Clint heaved a sigh of relief as the agents unbuckled themselves quickly while Steve lowered the ramp and ran out ahead. They followed quickly, heading into the chaos of the streets as police sirens wailed and people ran away screaming.

"We've got to get back up there." Steve said firmly as he looked up at Stark Tower a few blocks away, and they began to run towards the building, moving against the crowd when there was a deep growl from the portal. They paused, staring up at the sky and Arianna's eyes widened in terror as a giant worm-like creature flew out.

It flew above them, heading down the street and it released more Chitauri warriors from its sides as it went. This must be what Thor had warned them about- the Chitauri Leviathan, an almost motherhouse of its soldiers. Arianna took a deep, shaky breath as they watched the released Chitauri soldiers cling to the sides of buildings and begin to fire at and attack innocent people.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve demanded through their ear comms, and Tony replied shakily: "Seeing. Still working on... believing." He added urgently: "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" "Banner?" Steve repeated in confusion, while Arianna's brows furrowed.

"Just keep me posted." Tony told them, before he began to fly after the Leviathan. Steve motioned to them to take cover, and they all ran to duck behind some abandoned yellow cabs, just as a group of Chitauri flew by on their chariots, led by-

"Loki." Steve muttered as they watched the group fire explosives down the street as they went. "Those people need assistance down there." Steve muttered, and then flinched away as a Chitauri blaster hit the cab window, just missing his face.

Arianna whirled around as Nat began to fire her pistols back at their attackers. Clint ran, still crouched over, closer towards the Chitauri as they landed on the streets nearby the four and Nat ducked back down to say to Steve firmly: "We got this. It's good. Go."