HERO [ TONY STARK ]

8- ONE WORD

"ALL RIGHT, LISTEN UP," Steve says, beginning his instructions. "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, Quill, you two got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or turn it to ash."

Raleigh doesn't argue. She wouldn't even if she wanted to since she took a vow twenty years ago never to speak again.

If she is going to be paired with anyone, she would rather it be Tony anyways. Working with him feels easy. The two have a kind of chemistry, they work together smoothly.

"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asks Tony.

"Right," Tony says, walking over to Clint. "Better clench up, Legolas." Raleigh smiles beneath her helmet/mask despite the day.

Raleigh follows Tony up in the air. He leaves Clint on the roof and then flies off with her in tow.

"Stark, you got a lot a strays sniffing your tail," Clint says some time later. Raleigh and Tony split up, despite how much Raleigh hated the idea, but they need to cover more area. She doesn't mind right now; she is on a Chitauri-killing high at the moment.

"I'm just trying to keep them off the streets," comes Tony's reply. Raleigh drives her fist through a Chitauri robot's chest, ripping it apart easily before turning around and repeating the action to a different robot.

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn," Clint says over the com. Raleigh feels a little better fighting when she's hearing voices of the people she loves, because it lets her know that they are okay. "So find a tight corner."

"I will roger that," Tony responds.

Raleigh's Chitauri-killing high lasts a few moments, with the sounds of the world mute to Raleigh's ears as she takes down tons of Chitauri robots. When the area is clear, her hearing seems to come back.

"Thor is taking down a squadron on sixth," Clint is saying over the com.

"And he didn't invite me," Tony says disappointingly. Raleigh smiles. She checks the area again, killing the last few Chitauri that are lurking around and races to sixth street.

There are lots of Chitauri there to take down too, so Raleigh resumes her killing-high. It's amazing how easily she can slip into that mode, and then go back to normal in seconds.

"Sir, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell," J.A.R.V.I.S. says to Tony as he scans the giant Chitauri for a weak spot, but fails to find one. Raleigh flies along the other side of it.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., you ever hear the tale of Jonah?" Tony asks.

"I wouldn't consider him a role model," the A.I. responds. Raleigh's eyes widen as Tony flies directly into the thing's mouth, ripping right through it.

Well, that's one way to do it.

Tony lands sloppily in the empty street. As soon as he gets to his feet, a few of the Chitauri robots start firing at him. Raleigh narrows her eyes and lands immediately, taking them down by firing her little blasters at some, and tearing her legs and arms into the things to pull them apart.

"Stark, do you hear me?" Raleigh gasps as she hears Director Fury's voice over the intercom. "You have a missile heading right for the city."

"How long?" Tony asks as he gets back to his feet after getting knocked over again before.

"Three minutes, max," Fury replies. "The payload will wipe out Midtown."

After telling his intelligence system to put everything he has into the thrusters, Tony flies off, telling Raleigh to stay out on the ground.