The Immortality War || The Avengers

Chapter Seventeen: Bad Ideas

Music is "Meet Me On The Battlefield" by Zella Day.

Picture is Tatiana Maslany as Emma Barnes.

·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·•·

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Bad Ideas

"I gotta say, in the history of bad ideas, this takes the cake," Clint mumbles under his breath, pulling another arrow from his quiver. "And this is comin' from me."

Natasha shuffles uncomfortably next to me as we watch dozens more monstrous beings pour through the hole above Manhattan. "Guys."

The team turns their eyes upwards. "Call it, Captain," Tony obliges.

Steve nods and begins to give orders. "All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Clint turns to Iron-Man. "Can you give me a lift?"

Tony replies, "Right." He walks over behind Hawkeye, grabbing him tightly. "Better clench up, Legolas." They blast off, headed for the sky above.

Steve turns to the god of thunder. "Thor, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow 'em down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor nods and swings his hammer upwards, flying off to do his job. Steve turns to Natasha and I. "You and I, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here."

I nod back towards the big green fellow. "And him?"

"Hulk?" Steve points at him sternly. "Smash."

The green giant grins mischievously and bounds away, doing just as he was told. He takes Cap at his word and smashes every alien in sight, destroying bricks from multiple buildings in the process. We hear a ferocious growl as he heads out of sight.

Suddenly, the sky gets dark overhead. I spot lighting coming down from the darkest clouds above the Empire State Building where Thor is perched. He collects the electricity and redirects it towards the portal and destroys dozens of the aliens and the creatures that followed them.

"He's pushing them back through," I observe aloud, grinning.

Before anyone can reply, I hear Barton over the com link saying, "Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail."

"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets."

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn. So find a tight corner."

"I will roger that." Moments later, he says, "Nice call. What else you got?"

"Well, Thor's taking on a squadron down on Sixth."

We hear Tony heave a heavy sigh. "And he didn't invite me."

My attention shifts away from the com as the three of us are ambushed on the ground. Multiple aliens move towards us. Steve turns to fight on his side, and Natasha is taken by surprise. She's thrown over the edge of the bridge. I jump after her.

On the ground below where we stood before, the alien lunges at Natasha with his spear. Before I can turn to help, another alien wraps his arm around my neck, pulling me backwards and off my feet. I use my own body weight against him, throwing my legs up and then under. He flies over my back, crashing onto the ground in front of me. I land on my knees, desperately grasping my bowstaff and electrocuting him before he can get back up.