Do You Have Heart (Avengers/Loki fan-fiction)

Prologue - Angel

They thought they'd discovered an angel.

She fell from the sky; a tangled mass of human and bird, merged together; huge wings spanning eight feet extending from her back, covered in jet black feathers that were soaked through from the storm.

Agent Phil Coulson was driving, to investigate this angel, and figure out whether it really was an angel. He'd received the call earlier, from some other agents in the area, who had seen the commotion in the small town outside the city of Manhattan, and they had informed him of the situation: a recent storm had seen a girl fall from the sky; around sixteen or so, with one strange feature that made her different from other kids her age: she had wings.

As he reached the town limits, he was confronted by one of the agents who had found the girl. He pulled up beside the man in the navy blue suit, and rolled down the window of his car. "Agent Ford. Which way?"

In answer, Ford opened the back door of the car and got in, simply pointing straight ahead. Coulson sighed, and reluctantly followed Ford's directions.

Within a few metres, Coulson noticed the strange behaviour of the town's inhabitants: they seemed scared, parents rushing kids into shops as the cars passed through, as if the agents were going to investigate each teenage girl until they found the right one. It wasn't as if the girl was going to be difficult to find: she had wings, for God's sake!

A couple of blocks onwards, Ford held up his hand, signalling Coulson to stop the car, which he did. Ford got out and opened the front door for Coulson, who, for the first time, saw where they had arrived: it was a small diner, with a flickering neon sign above it that read 'Macy's', next to an outline of an ice cream sundae. It didn't exactly look like the best food joint in town, but this was where Ford had led him to, so he had no choice.

Coulson followed the other man through the front doors and into the diner, which was in a retro style, with fruit machines in the corner and big red booth benches that had kids packed into them. Each and every girl and boy looked up when they entered, terrified expressions plaguing each and every face. But Coulson walked straight past all of them, sitting at the bar beside Ford, who removed his sunglasses and ordered a beer.

They only had to wait half an hour, before she practically fell through the door. She wore a black sweater with the hood up, and black jeans, with a pair of big boots, like she'd trawled through an army surplus store. Her hands were buried in the front pocket of her hoodie, and she strolled up to the bar with her dark eyes glued to the floor, ignoring the stares of the other kids, who pointed and whispered to their friends. When she finally gathered the courage to look up, her eyes fell on Coulson.

Her eyes went wide, and within seconds she was back at the door, feet slamming the linoleum flooring. Coulson shot up from his seat and began to run, following her out the door, but she had already been surrounded.

Her hood had fallen from her head, exposing a spill of wavy hair, the colour of the darkest ebony. She looked around frantically, huge eyes wide and panicked as the other agents closed in around her. "Excuse me." said Coulson, approaching her "I'm agent Coulson of SHIELD. I'm here because the people of this town ar-" but he didn't get to finish his sentence, because the girl had pulled a gun out of her pocket, and had it aimed straight at Coulson's head. "You take one more step, and I shoot!" she screamed, her accent distinctly British, and menacing, for a sixteen year old.

"I'm pretty sure she won't be able to shoot," muttered the agent beside him "get her quick, before she takes off and disappears on another stor-" but he didn't get to finish either, because the girl had raised the gun to the sign above the diner, and shot a hole straight through the centre of the 'a' in 'Macy's'. "Woah, Barton I wouldn't carry on with that sentence if I were you!" shouted another agent, who stared back at the girl with an almost frightened look. She now had the gun pointed at the guy who said she couldn't shoot; agent Barton.

He wasn't much older than the girl herself, only 19, but he was already a great asset to SHIELD. "Oh yeah, well how about a challenge then, angel." he said, pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back and loading it into the bow in his hand. With the two of them aiming at each other, the agents were stuck, and so was she.

Without even thinking, her eyes raked over the infrastructure above the archer, and she took her chance. She shot the facade above him, and dived sideways, rolling through the space between two agents and taking off down the road at a sprint. She didn't even look back to see if the guy was okay: she'd deal with that when it came to it.

Clint Barton only just managed to avoid the falling debris, crashing to the pavement as the girl disappeared into the dark street. He cursed under his breath, pulling himself to his feet, and tried to find her in the dark. And there she was, running away from them, gun still held in her hand like the crown jewels. Despite agent Coulson's protests, he sprinted after her, through the rain and down the street.

She ran as fast as her feet would carry her, trying to find the perfect house to fly from. Spotting one with metal stairs curving up the side, allowing her a straight path to the roof, she ducked sideways and hurtled over a fence, sprinting up the stairs and grabbing on to the edge of the roof.

Barton noticed her, and did the same, nothing stopping him from reaching her. He followed her up the stairs and just about managed to pull himself up onto the roof, where the girl was about to jump, and he loaded another arrow. Just as he let it loose, her wings unfurled, and the arrow shot past her, and her hand closed around it, stopping it in its tracks.

He was astounded: nobody had ever been able to stop one of his arrows before, especially not like that.

Slowly, she turned around, a smile on her face, and then she fell from the roof.

Not flying but falling, straight towards the agents.

She landed amidst them, like something from a movie: huge wings towering above her as she crouched to the floor, gun in hand, one leg outstretched behind her, smirk curling her lips. She rose to her feet, and stepped towards Coulson, holding out her hand. "Good evening, Agent Coulson of SHIELD, I'm Alina Thornwell."

NOTE:

Hey everyone, I hope you like this first bit :) DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Avengers characters, apart from Alina, who is my own invention :')