Cheshire

Chapter Twenty Four

Third POV

Natasha slams the rooftop door open, her gun at the ready. Her muscles relax a miniscule amount at the sight of the slumped over Selvig who looks at the redhead desperately. The Tesseract's energy is firing towards the portal, gaining in strength, at the surge of energy moving through the sky.

"Doctor." She nods. Selvig looks down towards the crumbling city in defeat.

"Loki's scepter, the energy...the Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect against yourself."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing." Natasha replies, cautiously observing the machine.

"Well, actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source." A small amount of triumph flashes across the doctor's face.

"Loki's scepter."

"It might be able to close the portal." Looking through the glass floor, Selvig snorts. "And I'm looking right at it.

Further down the destroyed streets, Thor smashes into a Chitauri Chariot, smacking several riders with his hammer. As he finally is able to take the reins, the Leviathan crashes through a building next to the god, knocking him towards the Earth next to Steve.

"Tony!" Steve yells over the Com links as he fights off two soldiers.

"I'm on it." Overhead, Tony flies right next to the Leviathan and aims his boosters at it. Nothing. Within the suit, Jarvis cuts in.

"Sir, we will lose power before you cut through that shell." Tony flies up ahead and turns around to face the oncoming creature.

"Jarvis. You ever hear the tale of Jonah?" Tony asks with a smirk.

"I wouldn't consider him a role model sir." Tony soars towards the Leviathan, unleashing every on the suit into its awaiting jaws. He grimaces as he flies into the beast, and bursts out the other end hitting the ground with a loud crash. He looks up with an overwhelming

sigh as a small band of Chitauri soldiers rush towards him, holding out their rifles.

"Any idea where Chesh is?" Tony asks over the link.

"Awe, who knew you cared about little old me Stark." Cheshire grins as she slits the throat of the soldier. It didn't take a genius to tell that the woman was tired. Her movements had slowed a considerable amount, but not enough for her to become a detriment to the team. To her right, Hulk slams multiple Chitauri soldiers down. "Heads up big guy, we've got more friends." Cheshire warns. Looking up the two of them watch as hundreds of riders hover overhead. "Shit." Hulk reacts quickly, grabbing his comrade by the waist and covering her body with his own as he is hit with energy blasts. "It can't get worse than his, huh buddy?"

Squinting, Cheshire spots Thor and Steve fighting side by side, throwing their respected weapons.

"You ready for another bout?" Thor grins as he wipes the blood from his face.

"What? You gettin' sleepy?" Steve smirks as he catches his breath.

"Look at you two lovebirds getting along, go easy on him Thor, Capsicle is an old man." Cheshire snorts over her link as the Super Soldier sees her and the Hulk atop a bridge. With her unnerving grin, Cheshire salutes the two of them from the arms of her companion.

"That's funny coming from you Ember, Banners doing all the work for you." Steve replies, ignoring the pang in his chest at the sight of the disheveled woman. All he wanted to do was pull her into his arms. He wanted to be her support, to be something she could lean on. Except he knew the truth of the situation. Cheshire had distanced herself from him with the hopes of locking herself up again as not to get hurt. Unknown to her was that Steve had no intention of giving up on this woman, he would break through the walls surrounding her heard if it killed him.